New Books - Fun Reads!

Historical/Political Fiction


The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society / Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
As England is recovering from WW II, Juliet Ashton discovers her next writing project in a book club on Guernsey Island – “a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew.” (from WorldCat ; 8/24/10) Relayed in a series of letters are intrigue, romance, and stories of life and relationships in the shadow of Nazi occupation. [Good book! Don’t miss this one. – The Librarian]

Half of a yellow sun / Chimamanda Adichie
Nigerian novelist Adichie presents the fictional story of Olanna and Kinene, wealthy and well-connected sisters facing personal and professional crises in the midst of a bloody civil war. (Loosely based on events in 1960’s Nigeria.) “The characters and landscape are vividly painted, and details are often used to heartbreaking effect: soldiers, waiting to be armed, clutch sticks carved into the shape of rifles; an Igbo mother, in flight from a massacre, carries her daughter's severed head, the hair lovingly braided.” (from Amazon, 8/23/10)

Fantasy / Gothic Fiction

Phantom island / Krissi Dallas
“One fateful summer night ...when one rule is broken ... five teenagers will discover an unexpected adventure full of magic, romance, and true friendship." (from Amazon, 8/23/10)

The road / Cormac McCarthy
In this postapocalyptic novel, “a father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.” (from WorldCat; 8/24/10)

Shadowed summer / Saundra Mitchell
Iris and her friends fill their empty, hot summer days by casting spells in the town cemetery. Then a male voice whispers in Iris’ ear, demanding that the disappearance of a teenage boy be solved.

A spell of winter / Helen Dunmore
In the years prior to WWI, siblings Cathy and Rob grow up on their grandfather’s crumbling estate sharing a world of dark secrets: their mother’s abandoning her family; their father’s mental illness and death in an asylum; and a bond so fierce it threatens to smother them. A novel in gothic style.

Mystery

Reality check / Peter Abrahams
Cody, a 16 year old football player, is benched by a knee injury and drops out of high school. When Clea, Cody’s well-to-do girlfriend disappears from her boarding school, he drives from Colorado to Vermont to find her. An exciting, page-turning mystery.

Romance

The book of Luke / Jenny O’Connell
“Nice girl” Emily Abbott is tired of finishing last! When her family moves from Chicago to Boston during her senior year and her boyfriend, Sean, dumps her, Emily and her friends write a guys’ guide to girls. The girls decide Emily should try out their theories on Luke, but the tables are turned when the experiment gets serious.

The last song / Nicolas Sparks
Ronnie and her younger brother have been sent to Wrightsville Beach, NC, to spend the summer with their father. Angry and resentful over her parents’ divorce, Ronnie doesn’t know that her father is dying. And she doesn’t plan on falling in love.

Plan b / Jenny O’Connell
Vanessa has her life planned : “coast through senior year; graduate; travel around Europe; join boyfriend out East for college. Then the phone rings.” A new half-brother wasn’t part of the plan. (from the book cover.)

Rules of Attraction / Simone Elkeles [romance]
In this sequel to Perfect Chemistry, Alex’s younger brother, Carlos, works to escape the clutches of a Mexican gang and a conniving drug lord while winning the heart of the lovely Kiara. [Some Spanish dialogue, clarified by context.]

Two-way street / Lauren Barnholdt
Jordan and Courtney are high school sweethearts. They’re attending the same college, even driving the long trip to orientation together. Then Jordan dumps Courtney for a girl he met on the Internet. Secrets are not good for a relationship.

Family Relationships

A blue so dark / Holly Schindler
Fifteen year old Aura is frightened as her artist - mother, Grace, sinks further and further in schizophrenia and refuses medication. Aura associates the disease with creativity, and fearing that she might be genetically predisposed, she stops exploring her own her own creative abilities. A sober but hopeful novel.

Girl in translation / Jean Kwok
Ah-Kim Chang (Kimberly) and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn from Hong Kong. Despite poverty and deplorable living conditions, Kimberly excels at school and paves the way for a better future for herself and her mother.