We here at the Independent love every piece we run. There are no winners or losers. Seriously, though, here are December’s winners.
- K.L. Romo’s review of The One That Got Away: A Novel by Melissa Pimentel (St. Martin’s Press). “In this lighthearted reimagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Melissa Pimentel tells the story of a passionate romance that dwindles into lost love. Back from college one summer, Ruby Atlas meets a handsome bartender at a local pub in her small Massachusetts hometown and is swept off her feet. Ethan Bailey is good-looking, charming, and compassionate. What more could a girl want?”
- “The Best Book I Read All Year Was…” Members of the Independent team share some of their favorites.
- Kitty Kelley’s review of The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians by David M. Rubenstein (Simon & Schuster). “The American Story shows almost every president to have had a flaw that scarred his legacy: FDR turned away Jewish refugees, sending them back to sure death under Hitler; JFK misfired on the Bay of Pigs; Richard Nixon resigned over Watergate; Vietnam doomed Lyndon Johnson; and, with the exception of John Adams, all the Founding Fathers owned slaves. Yet, as Walter Isaacson put it so well, ‘The Founders were the best team ever fielded.’”
- “No, Dash, Santa Didn’t Die” by Art Taylor. “No, there is no fat man in a red suit traveling the world, sack on back, popping down chimneys (and not because he died). But, yes, Santa is real. Santa is a spirit of sorts, I told him — a spirit of love and generosity and happiness — and when his mom and I play Santa, it’s really us inspired by all those emotions and desires, by the spirit of goodness in the world, or the faith and hope in that goodness. At least, I think that’s what I said.”
- Tyler Cymet’s review of Who Says You’re Dead?: Medical & Ethical Dilemmas for the Curious & Concerned by Jacob M. Appel (Algonquin Books). “The book covers the core curriculum of medical ethics in a way that doesn’t scream ‘medical textbook.’ Instead, it reveals the deft hand of a storyteller sharing how society has agreed to tackle those complex problems that have no clear or obvious answers.”
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