West Liberty

For October we will be discussing the Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It was first published in the 1950's and provides a classic example of horror without gore. The haunting is subtle, but by the middle of the book, I was starting to feel really creeped out. Books are available at the front desk for check out.

This month we will be discussing The Faraway Brothers by Lauren Markham. Markham will be a guest speaker at the 2019 Iowa City Book Festival and is the 2019 Iowa City One Community, One Book selection.

In El Salvador, “hermanos lejanos,” aka “the far away brothers,” are the children who have left the country of their birth behind and sought to start new lives in the United States.

When twins Ernesto and Raul Flores became far away brothers, leaving their parents and other siblings behind, it was out of desperation. They were fleeing gang violence and threats on their lives. After a treacherous journey through Mexico to the United States, author Lauren Markham met the twins while she was working as a school administrator. She tried to help them navigate life as undocumented teens in California.

After the twins turned 18, she turned their story into her debut book, “The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life,” a narrative non-fiction account that places the Flores family into the wider context of the migrant crisis in the United States.