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Fiction A to Z November 2017
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The Dying Game : A Novel
by Asa Avdic
The year is 2037. The Soviet Union never fell, and much of Europe has been consolidated under the totalitarian Union of Friendship. On the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a forty-eight-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? But then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins.
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The Misfortune of Marion Palm : A Novel
by Emily Culliton
Marion Palm prefers not to think of herself as a thief but rather "a woman who embezzles." Over the years she has managed to steal $180,000 from her daughters' private school, money that has paid for European vacations, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and perpetually unused state-of-the-art exercise equipment. But, now, when the school faces an audit, Marion pulls piles of rubber-banded cash from their basement hiding places and flees, leaving her family to grapple with the baffled detectives, the irate school board, and the mother-shaped hole in their house. Told from the points of view of Nathan, Marion's husband, heir to a long-diminished family fortune; Ginny, Marion's teenage daughter who falls helplessly in love at the slightest provocation; Jane, Marion's youngest who is obsessed with a missing person of her own; and Marion herself, on the lam--and hiding in plain sight.
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| Smile: A Novel by Roddy DoyleUnemployed, recently separated, and at loose ends, Victor Forde is having a pint in his Dublin neighborhood pub when he's approached by a man who claims that they attended school together. Though Victor does not remember him, the association nevertheless forces Victor to recall brutal memories from the past, including those five years at school, where bullies and teachers alike made life miserable. In revealing Victor's past, Irish writer Roddy Doyle creates "a performance few writers could carry off" (The Washington Post). |
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The Gypsy Moth Summer
by Julia Fierro
It is the summer of 1992 and a gypsy moth invasion blankets Avalon Island. Ravenous caterpillars disrupt early summer serenity on Avalon, an islet off the coast of Long Island--dropping onto novels left open on picnic blankets, crawling across the T-shirts of children playing in the island's leafy woods. It is also the summer Leslie Day Marshall—only daughter of Avalon’s most prominent family—returns with her husband and their children to live in the island's grandest estate. Leslie’s husband Jules is African-American, and their children bi-racial, and islanders from both sides of the tracks form fast and dangerous opinions about the new arrivals. Maddie Pencott LaRosa straddles those tracks: a teen queen with roots in the tony precincts of East Avalon and the crowded working class corner of West Avalon. Maddie falls in love with Brooks, Leslie’s and Jules’ son, and that love feels as urgent to Maddie as the questions about the new and deadly cancers showing up across the island. As the gypsy moths burst from cocoons in flocks that seem to eclipse the sun, Maddie’s and Brooks’ passion for each other grows and she begins planning a life for them off Avalon Island.
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| Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom HanksYou already know Tom Hanks as a two-time Oscar-winning actor; now get to know him as a short story writer obsessed with typewriters. Well, let's be honest -- while it's true that a typewriter features in each tale (and there are 14 photos of the typewriters in question), the focus is actually on the all-too-human characters and the situations they find themselves in. From a tale of four friends building a rocket to visit the moon ("Alan Bean Plus Four") to an ultimately doomed romantic relationship ("Three Exhausting Weeks"), Hanks "writes like a writer, not a movie star" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Lost Boy : The True Story of Captain Hook
by Christina Henry
There is one version of my story that everyone knows. And then there is the truth. This is how it happened. How I went from being Peter Pan’s first—and favorite—lost boy to his greatest enemy. Peter brought me to his island because there were no rules and no grownups to make us mind. He brought boys from the Other Place to join in the fun, but Peter's idea of fun is sharper than a pirate’s sword. Because it’s never been all fun and games on the island. Our neighbors are pirates and monsters. Our toys are knife and stick and rock—the kinds of playthings that bite. Peter promised we would all be young and happy forever. Peter lies.
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| Seven Days of Us by Francesca HornakFor the first time in years, the Birch family will be spending the holidays together in their drafty old home in the English countryside. While the plan is to quarantine themselves (following eldest daughter Olivia's time treating highly contagious patients in Liberia), nothing is simple in this semi-dysfunctional family. Each of the four is hiding a secret -- and their blinkered understanding of each other leads to constant bickering. Quarantine is going to be hard enough, but when youngest daughter Phoebe's fiancé crashes the party (as does a visiting American), all bets are off. Warmly funny, with shifting perspectives and believably flawed characters, Seven Days of Us is a quick, enjoyable read for the pre-holiday run-up. |
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The Quantum Spy : A Thriller
by David Ignatius
A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The winner of the race to build the world’s first quantum machine will attain global dominance for generations to come. The question is, who will cross the finish line first: the U.S. or China?In this gripping cyber thriller, the United States’ top-secret quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from the towering cityscape of Singapore to the lush hills of the Pacific Northwest, the mountains of Mexico, and beyond. The investigation is obsessive, destructive, and—above all—uncertain. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality, and the primacy of truth.Grounded in the real-world technological arms race, The Quantum Spy presents a sophisticated game of cat and mouse cloaked in an exhilarating and visionary thriller.
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| Hanna Who Fell from the Sky by Christopher MeadesIn her isolated town of Clearhaven, polygamy is the norm, so 17-year-old Hanna has never questioned the tradition that dictates that on her 18th birthday she'll become the fifth wife to a man three times her age. But a chance meeting with a stranger -- and a revelation from her mother -- has her thinking about other options. With a touch of the fantastical and plenty of menace, Canadian author Christopher Meades has created an unusual coming-of-age novel. |
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The Walworth Beauty
by Michèle Roberts
2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her London flat for the swelling city's outskirts, moving to the quiet Walworth cul-de-sac of Apricot Place. Immersing herself in local history, she reads the work of Henry Mayhew, who documented Victorian working class life, and she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the London poor. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. They resent his scientific distance, and he strains to keep it, not immune to their temptations. Roaming the Southwark streets for answers that will let him keep his job, he finds Apricot Place, where the elegant and enigmatic Mrs. Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush against each other--a breath at Madeleine's neck, a voice in her head-ghostly murmurs echoing through time.
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| New Boy by Tracy ChevalierThis retelling of Shakespeare's Othello is set in a Washington, D.C., suburb in the 1970s, a place where even the elementary school is beset by racism, betrayal, and jealousy. Osei Kokote, the son of a Ghanaian diplomat, is starting his fourth school in six years; though he's immediately ostracized (he's the first black kid in the all-white school), a friendship blossoms between him and the most popular girl in school, setting off bullies who feel the need to police -- and destroy -- this burgeoning relationship. The resulting tragedy unfolds over a single day. |
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| Nutshell: A Novel by Ian McEwanIn a nutshell, here's the plot of Ian McEwan's Nutshell, according to The Washington Post: "a crime of passion based on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” narrated by a fetus." Yup, you read that right -- Whitbread Award-winning McEwan has written an interpretation of the classic tragedy with a wholly unique narrator. Though there are certainly moments of wit (our narrator has paid attention as his mother listens to her educational podcasts), disaster looms -- for how can an unborn baby prevent the murder of his father at the hands of his mother and her lover, his uncle? |
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| The Serpent of Venice by Christopher MooreTwo parts Shakespeare -- maybe three -- and one part Edgar Allan Poe, this fast-paced, farcical tale skewers sacred cows; this is no story for Shakespeare purists. Starring royal Fool Pocket (first seen in author Christopher Moore's eponymous Fool), the novel's events include a fabricated Venetian war, imprisonment, and a longed-for elopement. Characters include a very horny sea creature, a solicitous ghost, and Pocket's companions: his friend Drool and the monkey Jeff. Puns, R-rated humor, and narrative quirks pepper a surprisingly complex plot that Shakespeare would never have attempted. |
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| Eligible by Curtis SittenfeldJane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has formed the basis for a number of re-tellings and adaptations, Bridget Jones' Diary possibly being the best known. And like that novel, this one features plucky, flawed characters, complex family dynamics, and the perils of modern life. It's all there -- the impending loss of a family home, embarrassing younger sisters, a haughty suitor, and a cousin's unwanted attentions. Just add some yoga, a former reality TV star, paleo diets, and an Ohio setting, and you have another enjoyable contemporary retelling of a beloved classic. |
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| Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold by Anne TylerAuthor Anne Tyler is on record for disliking Shakespeare's plays; the one she dislikes the most is The Taming of the Shrew, which is why she chose to rewrite it. Setting the story in the modern day, it follows the opinionated and none-too-diplomatic Kate Battista as she becomes a tool in her father's eccentric ploy to save his assistant from deportation. A quick, lighthearted read, Vinegar Girl offers witty dialogue, slightly kooky characters, and Tyler's beloved Baltimore setting. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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