The Power of Inner Strength in This Year's Most Popular Books.

Its been a while since I had the time to share what is being read and enjoyed in the Duxbury Library, as well as, in my own reading experiences. I have made notes of a number of interesting genres, books, and topics that have passed through circulation and look forward to sharing them over the coming months.

This year Educated by Tara Westover Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens are still our most popular reads, especially with Duxbury's over 24 book clubs who have registered with the circulation desk. Both the memoir, Educated, and the fiction story, Where the Crawdads Sing, are stories of self discovery. Common to both stories are strong girls being raised in a environment of fear and isolation. They both push caring relationships away due to a distrust built from abusive family relationships, yet both women grab onto the instinct to persevere. They find hope and confidence through self-education and apprehensive explorations of the outside world. Questioning their current situations are common to both young women as they struggle to balance their known environment with their intuition that there is something to be gained through educating themselves.
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Each of us will take away something different from reading these books. Both authors are wonderful Where the Crawdads Sing is a lighter more melodic read due to its fiction content versus the Tara Westover's Educated. However, through Tara's great storytelling abilities, you will quickly be immersed in her journey.
storytellers.

I was privileged to hear Tara Westover give the commencement speech titled "The Un-Instagrammable Self"  at the Northeastern graduation ceremony last week. Her message is a summary of lessons found in both books and so relevant in today's culture. Any summary I would attempt would not do it justice so I recommend you take just 15 minutes and listen to her message. At the end she gives a special gift to the audience.

Happy reading and take time to celebrate your inner self and quiet achievements you've made during your journey of life.