Fiction
Ghost wall
Sarah Moss
FICTION Moss Sarah
Fiction
The light blinds you; there's a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside. In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age. For two weeks, the length of her father's vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie's father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs--particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind. The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?
People of the book
Geraldine Brooks
FICTION Brooks, Geraldine
Fiction
The fictionalized history of the Sarajevo Haggadahof. Dr. Hanna Heath, an Australian book conservator who comes to Sarajevo to restore the Haggadah. Her work on the book leaves her with questions: why is the book illustrated, unlike other Haggadot? Why was the last restoration job, a hundred years earlier, done so poorly? What happened to the metal clasps that once held the parchment pages pressed together? How did the Haggadah come from fifteenth-century Spain to the Balkans? In the course of the restoration she takes microscopic samples: fragments of a butterfly's wing caught in the spine, a long white cat hair tangled in the binding, traces of salt crystals, a wine stain mixed with blood. The story alternates between showing Hanna researching the Haggadah in the present, searching archives and taking her samples to forensic labs, and following the history of the Haggadah across five hundred years, in reverse chronological order, revealing the (fictional) explanations for all of Hanna's discoveries
Added by Beth
Feldy's girl : a novel
Joseph Dobrian
FICTION Dobrian, Joseph
Fiction, Literary Fiction
Set in the university town of State City, Iowa, Feldy’s Girl is about a coming-of-age woman named Teresa who is the daughter of a local football legend. Teresa is a serious, motivated young woman attending State University during the Sixties Revolution—and must reconcile societal changes with her own upbringing and identity. She’s dating the star quarterback of the State University Rivercats, and making friends with leaders of the New Left movement. In this coming-of-age, literary masterpiece, join Teresa as she finds herself navigating a world of political, social, and spiritual conflict and strife—and striving to stay true to herself and her principles--
Added by Beth
The rogue is back in town
Anna (Romance novelist) Bennett
FICTION Bennett Anna
Fiction
"Equal parts scoundrel and seducer, he's returned to London determined to mend the rift with his older brother. All Sam must do is take possession of a tumbledown town house. A seemingly simple task, except the house is occupied--by an infuriating, whip-smart beauty who refuses to do his bidding."--Back cover.
Added by Beth
Warlight
Michael Ondaatje
FICTION Ondaatje Michael
Fiction
In 1945 at the end of the war, Nathaniel's father and mother decide to leave London for a year to go to Singapore, where Nathaniel's father is being stationed. The parents decide to leave their children, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister Rachel, in the care of their lodger, Walter, known as The Moth. The children both have the impression that The Moth is a thief. Nathaniel's mother claims to know The Moth because they were both in charge of fire watching at the Grosvenor House Hotel during the war but their stories about the war imply that they had other, secretive war jobs.
Added by Beth
The Mermaid Chair
Sue Monk Kidd
FICTION Kidd, Sue Monk
Fiction
The Mermaid Chair tells the story of Jessie Sullivan, who goes to Egret Island to tend to her mentally unstable mother, Nelle. While there, she becomes introspective and begins to think about things she needs to confront in her life. Having been estranged from her mother, Jessie struggles to examine and come to terms with their relationship. Nelle, however, is not the only one whom Jessie must consider. Now middle-aged, her marriage to her husband Hugh is decades-long. Hugh is a conventional husband, for the most part, and Jessie begins to feel that she might be looking for a type of independence that she has never experienced in life. While at Egret Island, Jessie meets Brother Thomas, an attractive monk who is nearing, but has not yet taken, his final vows. Jessie faces an inner conflict which pits passion against comfort and raises a question in her mind as to whether or not the two can exist together. Adding to her confusion is the growing need to face the circumstances of her father's death, which has haunted her and her mother for thirty years.
Added by Beth
The catcher in the rye
J. D. (Jerome David) Salinger
FICTION Salinger, J. D.
Fiction
Published in 1951, Catcher In The Rye is the story of two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, recounted by Holden after the fact. Knowing that he will soon be expelled from another prep school, Holden decides to leave early for the winter break and go to New York City on his own so he is not at home when his parents learn he has been expelled again. He spends three days on his own in New York City. Disillusioned and incensed with his life, he searches for truth while railing against the “phoniness” of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally unstable, but reconnects with his younger sister.
Added by Beth
My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry : a novel
Fredrik Backman
FICTION Backman Fredrik
Fiction
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother's letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.
Added by Beth
To kill a mockingbird
Harper Lee
FICTION Lee, Harper
Literary Fiction, Fiction
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee. Although it was written in 1960 it is set in the mid-1930s in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. It is narrated by Scout Finch, a six-year-old tomboy who lives with her lawyer father Atticus and her ten-year-old brother Jem. During the novel Scout, Jem and their friend Dill try to make their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley leave his house. Boo has not been seen in Maycomb since he was a teenager. Many residents of Maycomb are racists and during the novel Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes on the case even though everyone knows he has little hope of winning. The reader sees the trial develop through the childlike eyes of Scout, as gradually both she and her brother learn some valuable life lessons from their father about tolerance, empathy and understanding.
Added by Beth
The sun is also a star
Nicola Yoon
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Yoon Nicola
Fiction, Young Adult
Natasha, whose family is hours away from being deported, and Daniel, a first generation Korean American who strives to live up to his parents' expectations, unexpectedly fall in love and must determine which path they will choose in order to be together.
Added by Beth
Added by Beth