|
|||||||||||||
Past Featured Titles of the Week
August 7, 2008 Good summer books you may have missed: nonfiction
Last week we had suggested fiction for summer reading, this week we look at nonfiction. This is a highly idiosyncratic list compiled by Ramsey County Library staff to enhance your summer reading enjoyment, just in time for hot weather and summer vacations. Biography and memoir
From the cover: "On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan. This is the story of what happened next…" Amazing memoir, unbelievably riveting and wonderfully written, and impossible to put down.
Laugh-out-loud tales of growing up with big hair in a wacky family in New Jersey and Dunn's adventures interviewing celebrities for Rolling Stone.
Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating.
In this profoundly affecting memoir, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
When the U.S. Marines -- or "jarheads" -- were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the first Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. And as engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.
This critically acclaimed memoir tells the story of the woman who piloted The Washington Post through the stormy times related to the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and a pressmen's strike, managing to raise that newspaper to even greater heights. Written by one of the true insiders in Washington, Graham’s memoir is a fascinating look at the real lives of the wealthy and powerful.
After a 12-year absence, a real-life prodigal seeks to serve his hometown -- New Auburn, Wisconsin, population: 485 -- by joining the volunteer fire and rescue department. Perry's storytelling ability makes his account of his life as a small-town EMT come alive.
At the height of their fame, Alexander Liberman and Tatiana du Plessix Gray were the grandest power couple in the New York City fashion world, gifted Russian émigrés who consorted with Dali and Dietrich and told American women how to look, where to travel, and what to read. Their adulation for success was as obsessive as their fierce, neurotic love for each other, and they treated everyone else with ruthless opportunism. Long, detailed, and fascinating.
Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans 20 years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest to surgical wards to book parties in New York. It is about loyalty and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.
The Sterns talk about how they got started reviewing restaurants across the country, and their experiences doing so. Unpretentious and hilarious.
History
Based on a century's worth of diaries and letters, Tillyard tells a story of love and elopement, birth and death, revolution and treason, joy and tragedy. The Lennox sisters were great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians. Here are their shared experiences on private matters--food, clothes, books, houses, gardens, and children.
In 1944, a massive fire broke out at a circus in Hartford, Connecticut. Simply written and incredibly evocative, this book is a fascinating portrait of wartime America as well as of humanity.
When we hear the word "Victorian," we think of the usual stereotypes: stuffiness, corsets, tightly controlled emotions, and general uptightness. But what if everything we think we know about the Victorians is wrong? Matthew Sweet says we should look beyond the stereotypes and see the Victorians as pleasure lovers, not to mention the inventors of modern-day enjoyments such as movies, roller coasters, the shopping mall, and the lurid crime novel. This is a funny and fascinating look at a most important era of our history.
Wonderfully written, researched and documented and deeply personal book on the Hinckley fires, which killed more than 400 people and destroyed the town and much of the surrounding forest.
The author tells the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. The perpetrator was Gilbert Joseph Bland, Jr., an enigmatic antiques dealer from South Florida, whose cross-country slash-and-dash operation had gone virtually undetected until he was caught in 1995-and was unmasked as the most prolific American map thief in history.
This creative Non-Fiction is an horrifying and gripping true story. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships; three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.
Humor
In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations, and the book showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.
From the winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary comes a new collection of Dave Barry's greatest hits. From coed softball to airline flights, no subject is sacred!
Anyone who ever sampled a thirst-quenching bacon milkshake or fondly recalls those days when meat loaf arrived at the dinner table molded into the shapes of farm animals will cherish this hilarious and gut-wrenching book. Kitchen cutup James Lileks has mined scores of Eisenhower-era cookbooks to retrieve pictures and recipes best left forgotten.
A collection of "how to" essays that the funny and very dry Browning wrote for the Guardian, filled with comic gems. Perfect for the beach.
With notepad and camera in hand, Eric scouted the highways and byways, lakes, streams, and rivers of Minnesota in search of the odd and the offbeat. He tracked down impossible-to-believe tales, only to discover odd grains of truth that will astonish-and sometimes creep out-even the most knowledgeable Minnesotan.
Pets, animals and nature
The monarch butterfly is our best-known and best-loved insect, and its annual migration over thousands of miles is an extraordinary natural phenomenon. The author set out late one summer to follow the monarchs south from their northernmost breeding ground in British Columbia. Chasing Monarchs tells the engrossing story of his adventurous journey with these graceful wanderers -- down the Columbia, Snake, Bear, and Colorado rivers, across the Bonneville Salt Flats, and through the Chiricahua Mountains to Mexico, returning north along the California coast.
Philip Gonzalez had lost all interest in living after an industrial accident left him disabled. A friend suggested he adopt a dog.Reluctantly he went to the shelter, where Ginny, a badly abused one-year-old pup,quickly won him over. Philip realized immediately that Ginny was no ordinary dog--she had an amazing sixth sense that enabled her to find and rescue stray and ailing cats.
While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote met a dog-a Labrador mix-who was living on his own in the wild. They became attached to each other, and Kerasote decided to name the dog Merle and bring him home. There, he realized that Merle’s native intelligence would be diminished by living exclusively in the human world. He put a dog door in his house so Merle could live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle’s Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine.
Natural history and fiction writer Quammen explores the psychological, mythic, and spiritual dimensions of the relationship between one flesh-eating animal and one human victim. He believes that relationship has played a crucial role in shaping the way people construe their place in the natural world. His sojourn ranges from old literature such as Beowulf and Gilgamesh, to the movie Alien Resurrection.
Set in New York's Central Park, in the spring of 1992, Red-tails in Love recounts the five-year story of a pair of red-tail hawks who built a nest on a high ledge of a building on Fifth Avenue. Marie Winn acts as a delightful guide, chronicling the exploits --hunting, fighting, courting, and mating--of the hawks and the awe of those who observed them.
Veteran journalist Lynn Sherr has been an avid giraffophile since she visited the African wilderness nearly 25 years ago Tall Blondes traces the cultural history of the giraffe from its first appearance in Europe in 46 B.C. through medieval bestiaries and up to the modern giraffe star of a TV movie, and much more.
Travel For those of us sticking closer to home this summer, here's an alternative to high gas prices!
Perfect if you are longing to escape the hot weather… This is an unforgettable study of the Far North, the marvelous and mysterious land of stunted forests and frozen seas, of muskox and narwhal, where sunrise and dusk are seasonal rather than daily phenomena.
In this highly acclaimed, bestselling memoir, a 38-year-old laid-off college professor of Sioux and white blood drives around the U.S. on the "blue highways, " the rural back made that are colored blue on old maps. The places he discovers during his 13,000-mile journey are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and often full of simply the wonder of the ordinary.
After the success of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, author John Berendt searched for another city, another subject. He chose the island city of Venice. When he arrived in 1996, the city was almost smoldering in controversy; just three days before, La Fenice, its historic opera house, had gone up in flames, and this city of canals was awash in rumors and accusations about the fire's cause. As Berendt immersed himself in Venetian culture, he learned that secrets and quarrels were seldom far beneath the surface.
Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.
Any of Theroux’s books would make a terrific summer read, but this one is a classic for good reason. Asia's fabled trains -- the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express -- are the stars of a journey that takes him on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux's signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.
Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China's foremost martial arts teacher. Salzman is a terrific writer, and this is a compelling portrait of China.
These travel diaries capture the essence and exuberance of the young legend, Che Guevara. In January 1952, Che set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America on an ancient Norton motorcycle. He encounters an extraordinary range of people-from native Indians to copper miners, lepers and tourists-experiencing hardships and adventures that informed much of his later life.
The author realizes a lifelong dream as he navigates the waters of the Mississippi River in a spartan sixteen-foot motorboat, producing a masterpiece of contemporary American travel writing. In the course of his voyage, Raban records the mercurial caprices of the river and the astonishingly varied lives of the people who live along its banks. Witty, elegaic, and magnificently erudite, Old Glory is as filled with strong currents as the Mississippi itself.
Golden Prague seemed mostly gray when Patricia Hampl first went there in quest of her Czech heritage. In that bleak time, no one could have predicted the political upheaval awaiting Communist Europe and the city of Kafka and Rilke. Hampl's subsequent memoir, a brilliant evocation of Czech life under socialism, attained the stature of living history and has become a classic travel memoir.
At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world.
With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity.
Just plain good A spicy stew of excellent nonfiction on a wide variety of topics...
It all began with a letter inquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84, Charing Cross Road, a relationship blossoms into a warm, charming, feisty love affair. Absolutely wonderful.
In August 1914, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition-one of history's greatest epics of survival. This book is absolutely riveting, and the photographs are amazing.
This riveting book is about the investigation of the ghost stories-the instances of supernatural phenomena that could not be explained away-and itis about the courage and conviction of William James and his colleagues to study science with an open mind. At the heart of the story is the ongoing tension between empiricism and spiritualism-between a way of explaining the world that is grounded in the purely tangible and a way that is grounded in a mixture of the evident and the hidden.
And for a somewhat different take on this subject...
The author explores how science has attempted to study our post-mortem fate. Roach traces early psychical research to current US investigations of near-death experiences and case studies by the International Centre for Survival and Reincarnation Researches. The title belies her desire to get scientific validation for free-floating consciousness.
At the center of Kidder's exciting moral adventure is Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-trained physician who decided to take his expertise and kindness on the road. In his bright-eyed quest to cure the world, Farmer has battled AIDS and other infectious diseases in Haiti, Cuba, Russia, and Peru. Kidder's powerful narrative about a hero who believes that "God loves everyone but especially the poor" will inspire and challenge every reader.
Pollan turns modern food production and agricultural history into fascinating and thought provoking subject-matter.
This is a warm, funny and mostly true account of the first year that the author spent as a schools' inspector in North Yorkshire. His brilliantly portrayed cast ranges from endearing to eccentric, but it is the children themselves who steal the show. He has a delightful voice, and his anecdotes about children and teachers are amusing, wry, and perceptive. Think of him as the James Herriot of education. Other titles include Over Hill and Dale, Head Over Heels in the Dales, Up and Down in the Dales.
Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today. This is a terrific book, as are all of Petroski’s other books on the history of technology.
Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of salt") without appreciating their deeper meaning. However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his world- encompassing new book, salt-the only rock we eat-has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind.
This classic book is the moving account of two remarkable boys, brothers Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.
July 21, 2008
Good summer books you may have missed
In honor of the arrival of real summer weather, here are some suggestions compiled by Ramsey County Library staff for good beach/vacation/cabin reading. This week, fiction: next week, nonfiction. Adventure
Allnut and Rose, a disreputable Cockney and an English spinster missionary, wend their way down a river in Central Africa in a rickety, asthmatic steam launch, and are gradually joined together in a mission of retaliation against the Germans.
This sprawling series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, follows the adventures of Royal Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and his close friend Stephen Maturin, a physician, naturalist, and spy who accompanies him on his voyages around the globe. The entire series is like a huge novel in many parts, with plenty of action and wonderful characters; O’Brian beautifully recreates the Age of Sail in this long and very satisfying adventure series.
Famous British agent Charlie Muffin goes undercover in the Russian Mafia to unravel a major smuggling operation involving nuclear weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. This author has also written a number of other exciting adventure titles.
A story of murder, deceit and diamonds set in Russia's far north.
Two Englishmen, a woman missionary, and an American fleeing the consequences of shady financial deals are traveling companions.
The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are the days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes -- fire, flood, and landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kong -- the heart of Asia -- rich in every trade... money, flesh, opium, power.
When the U.S. Army breaks through the doors of an Incan temple to remove an idol carved out of a strange stone--a stone that could be used in a terrifying new weapon--they discover they have broken a golden rule.
Classics
Floating down the Mississippi on their raft, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, find life filled with excitement and the spirit of adventure. Join Huck and Jim and their old friend Tom Sawyer as they come up against low-down thieves and murderers, whilst being chased by Huck's evil, drunken father who is after Huck's treasure. The classic American novel, and a terrific summer read.
Teenager Adam Cooper gets caught up in one of the pivotal events of American history, the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.
John Steinbeck draws on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, and interweaves their stories in this world where only the fittest survive-creating what is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works.
One of Dickens's best-loved and most personal novels, David Copperfield is the embodiment of Dickens's own boyhood experience recalling his employment as a child in a London warehouse.
In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself in love with her employer who has a terrible secret. Jane Eyre is the classic gothic romance.
Kimball O’Hara grows up an orphan in the walled city of Lahore, India. Deeply devoted to an old Tibetan lama but involved in a secret mission for the British, Kim struggles to weave the strands of his life into a single pattern. Charged with action and suspense, yet profoundly spiritual, Kim vividly expresses the sounds and smells, colors and characters, opulence and squalor of complex, contradictory India under British rule.
Afflicted with a club foot, Philip Carey suffers through his life, struggling to free himself from a destructive love affair and finally finding contentment as a country doctor.
Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother.
Chick Lit you may have missed (or want to read again)
Columnist chick has romantic troubles and hilarity ensues. Told completely through emails sent by and to gossip columnist Mel Fuller, this laugh-out-loud funny novel is an absolutely delightful read.
The ultimate chick lit book, the one that started it all… if you haven’t read this yet, you must do so immediately, it’s vvg.
An enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.
Stella Gibbons' novel is a wickedly funny portrait of British rural life in the 1930s. Flora, a recently orphaned socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm.
A discrete advertisement in The Times, addressed to "those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine," is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women.
Seamlessly blending fantasy and chick lit, this novel is about Texas girl who moves to NYC and gets a job with a company that creates magic spells. Endearing characters, hilarious situations, and despite the presence of magic and talking gargoyles and kissing frogs in Central Park, far more believable than most chick lit.
The story of 17-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in an English castle, I Capture the Castle is as brightly witty and adventuresome today as it was when it was first published 50 years ago.
This delightful comedy of manners and morals, money, marriage, and murder follows smart, sexy, and impeccably dressed American Isabel Walker as she lands in Paris to visit her stepsister Roxy, a poet whose marriage to an aristocratic French painter has assured her a coveted place in Parisian society...until her husband leaves her for the wife of an American lawyer. Could "le divorce" be far behind?
A dishy, trashy and thoroughly fun novel about a young girl who becomes a model in the 1980s, and balances her college life at Columbia University along with trying to succeed in the modeling world. Spot-on 80s references, thoroughly drawn characters and the soapy world of modeling make this a frothy treat, written by an actual ex-model.
An utterly delightful novel about Lyn, Gemma and Cat--triplets in various stages of matrimonial and romantic drama, as well as drama in their relationships with each other and their parents. Fabulously endearing characters, fabulous quotes about being a sister make this a must read.
Bringing the funny back
44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales, Love Over Scotland). Follows the adventures of the somewhat eccentric denizens of an Edinburgh apartment building; these collections of short vignettes are really hilarious.
Tom Perrotta’s literary debut takes readers to New Jersey in the 1970s as a boy named Buddy struggles with the timeless mysteries of sex, death, parents-and of course, bad haircuts.
There are way too many individual titles in this hilarious fantasy series to list here (last time we checked there were 36 titles in the series), but if you are new to Pratchett’s wacky universe, you can start with The Colour of Magic and go on from there. The author makes fun of everything from Lord of the Rings to Wicca to clueless tourists, and just about anything else you can think of.
Hugh Laurie concocts an uproarious cocktail of comic zingers and over-the-top action in this irresistible tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune who also happens to be one heck of a nice guy.
A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the world ever.
The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to find out what's wrong.
This story about the 30-year friendship of two vaudeville comedians who make it big in the early days of Hollywood and television is touching, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Although as different offstage as on, straight man Mose Sharp and funny man Rocky Carter both struggle to overcome their demons and discover the essential value of male friendship.
Historical Fiction
The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault (Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, Funeral Games) traces the life of Alexander the Great from boyhood through the building of the Macedonian Empire, and the years after his death when squabbling over his successor caused the empire to degenerate into chaos. A sublime recreation of the ancient world.
Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the magnificent story of four generations in the life of an American family. A wheelchair-bound retired historian embarks on a monumental quest: to come to know his grandparents, now long dead. The unfolding drama of the story of the American West sets the tone for Stegner's masterpiece.
From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.
In addition to the beautiful language, this novel does a superb job of evoking time, place and the culture of our Midwestern immigrant heritage.
An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.
Historian Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation's identity, but before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a passionate romance within the pages of the secret history that almost threw off the course of world events. How did the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly find a hero of her own? Chick lit and historical fiction are seamlessly blended in this fun novel.
On a spring day in 1865 Gawain Harper trudges toward his home in Cumberland, Mississippi, where three years earlier he had boarded a train carrying the latest enlistees in the Mississippi Infantry. Unmoved by the cause that motivated so many others, he had joined up only when Morgan Rhea's father told Gawain that he would never wed his beloved Morgan unless he did his part in the war effort. Upon his return, he discovers post-war life is far from what he expected.
Kids books for adults
Book one of Bartimaeus Trilogy - Great dialogue by one of the cheekiest djinni in literature. Serious and amusing at the same time.
With his best friend on life-support after taking drugs at a party, seventeen-year-old Clay, a medical technician, recalls their long friendship, future plans, and recent disagreement, and tries to figure out who is responsible for the accidental overdose.
This is a rollicking adventure story. While disguised as a boy, Jacky Faber experiences adventure and romance on the high seas in this exciting page turner.
Ten-year-old Comfort Snowberger learns about life's surprises in this funny, poignant, and very Southern coming-of-age story. This is a story that will stick with you long after you have read it.
Book one of Gemma Doyle Trilogy - a nice antedote to Jane Austen, shows the down side of a girl growing up in the rigid English upper class of the 19th century. Fantasy and magic, mistakes and terror abound!
Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby. He is going to save the world…
One of those books that you can read over and over again at any stage in life and find more enjoyable each time you revisit it.
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent in this fast-paced and often very funny novel.
For Jane Austen lovers, a great novel about what it would be like to have magic in 19th century Enland. Amusing!
Just plain good
On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence. Each will make a disastrous moral decision and their friendship will be tested to its limits in a novel brimming with surprises.
At once a moving evocation of life’s inexplicable calamities and a magical celebration of childhood and familial love,
An intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. For the five Novak children, the forties are a decade of tragedy, excitement and stunning change. Baker Towers is both a family saga and a love letter to our industrial past, to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation.
In this extraordinary fiction debut, two remarkable narratives converge on Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. In 1913, Elsa Pendleton travels from England to Easter Island with her husband, an anthropologist sent by the Royal Geographical Society to study the colossal moai statues. Sixty years later, Dr. Greer Farraday, an American botanist, travels to Easter Island to research the island’s ancient pollen and to put back the pieces of her life after the death of her husband. A series of brilliant revelations brings to life the parallel quests of these two intrepid young women as they delve into the centuries-old mysteries of Easter Island.
Set in Kerala, India, in 1969, The God Of Small Things is the story of seven-year-old twins Rahel and Estha, born of a wealthy family and literally joined at the soul. Winner of the 1997 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
Hedge-fund manager, wife, and mother of two, Kate Reddy manages to juggle nine currencies in five time zones and keep in step with the Teletubbies. But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter’s school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. Hilarious and moving, this book is so true to life it will keep you riveted until the very last word.
Don’t be put off by the title, which is an acronym for “Failed In London, Try Hong Kong.” Sir Edward Feathers has progressed from struggling young barrister to wealthy expatriate lawyer to distinguished retired judge, living out his last days in comfortable seclusion in Dorset. The engrossing and moving account of his life, from birth in colonial Malaya, to Wales, where he is sent as a "Raj orphan," to Oxford, his career and marriage, parallels much of the 20th century's torrid and twisted history.
|
