Just a few of the titles Library Staff enjoyed over the summer:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
In Sepetys’ debut novel, 15 year-old Lina (an artist whose work is her salvation) narrates the experiences of her family forced from their home in Lithuania and sent to a Siberian prison camp. A frightening tale that uncovers the persecution of Stalin’s victims in the Baltic States, but also a beautifully written one with memorable, resilient characters. YA
Just Kids by Patti Smith 781.66 SMI
In Patti Smith’s memoir to her friend/lover, Robert Mapplethorpe, the poet, singer-songwriter shares her stories of New York City, Hotel Chelsea, Brentano’s and Scribner’s (bookstores) during the glory days of the sixties and seventies for artists and writers.
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
A heart-warming novel about two women who gossip about office co-workers and personal traumas via email. Lincoln (the security officer) is supposed to report them but can’t quite bring himself to do so, because he is amused by their stories and also falling in love with Beth. Read Rowell’s funny, sweet tale to find out what it’s like to love someone who doesn’t know you personally!
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B by Sandra Gulland
This first of Gulland’s Josephine trilogy is a magical saga revealing facets of her life most readers know little about: an old woman’s prophecy foretelling her future role as queen, her marriage to the love of her life, her public betrayal and widowhood… all events before she becomes Napoleon’s queen. The story is revealed in diary entries.
Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones
Another fiction debut, this one takes place in Atlanta during the summer of 1979. What makes this tale unique is its narrative revealed through the eyes of three children. The disappearance of black children forms the backdrop while the reader witnesses three 5th-graders enduring everyday battles of adolescence: Tasha is coping with her parents’ separation and the sweet pain of a first love: Rodney struggles to make friends and please an abusive father: Octavia confronts popular kids at school and treads an uneasy line between protected and protective daughter. Ultimately, these individual stories reveal the loss of innocence that accompanies the passage from childhood to adulthood most of us experience.
The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma 028.9 OZM
The STREAK is a read-aloud session between a father (an elementary school librarian) and his daughter every night for 3,128 nights. No matter what happens in their personal lives…divorce, illness, separation, job loss…Alice and her father read! This is a funny, poignant, inspirational book about the rewards of reading. Parents and all book lovers should not miss! (A great reading list is included)
Mary
