|
Fiction A to ZAugust 2015
|
"This is a story about the choices that we each make every day, and how those choices make us who we are." ~ from Hilary Liftin's Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper
|
|
| Bradstreet Gate: A Novel by Robin KirmanFans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History will find similar elements in this brooding debut novel: an academic setting, secret relationships, a suspicious death, and betrayal. Here, a student is found murdered, and a favorite teacher is suspected of the crime. Though he is never charged, it costs him his academic career; over the next ten years, three of his students also deal with the fallout of the murder. Complex and sophisticated, Bradstreet Gate is more character study than murder mystery. |
|
| Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper: A Novel by Hilary LiftinStyled as the memoir of girl-next-door actress Lizzie Pepper, this debut novel will have celebrity-watchers wondering if any of it could be real (author Hilary Liftin is a ghostwriter for show biz memoirs). Married to a much more famous older actor who introduces her to a mysterious philosophy known as One Cell, Lizzie has lost even the illusion of privacy by the time the marriage ends. Her memoir reveals the manipulative nature of her husband and of One Cell, as well as the ugly side of fame -- along with the jet-set vacations and fancy clothes came bugged cell phones and broken friendships. With echoes of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, this dishy read is "Hollywood fiction at its finest" (Kirkus Reviews). |
|
| Pretty Is: A Novel by Maggie MitchellBack in the 1990s, two 12-year-old girls were kidnapped and held captive in the Adirondacks. Twenty years later, they are still trying to process that experience -- one has written a novel about it, while the other is set to star in the film adaptation. The girls were not physically harmed; instead, the novel delves deeply into the dynamics of their relationships with each other and with the man who took them, making for a complex story that combines a bit of suspense with a lot of psychological nuance. Told from their two different perspectives, the process of their memories turning into a Hollywood spectacle also offers its own unique twist. |
|
| Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel by Julia PierpontAmong the Ten Thousand Things gets off to a dramatic start when 11-year-old Kay opens a box of her father's explicit emails to his jilted mistress (which she and her 15-year-old brother Simon read before they end up all over the courtyard of their Manhattan apartment building). The revelation of his affair just about destroys the family. The dissolution of the marriage -- and the destructive activities the kids get involved in -- take place during one slow, hot Manhattan summer. While the story may seem familiar, this debut novel offers extremely well depicted characters and careful, thoughtful writing. |
|
| The Small Backs of Children by Lidia YuknavitchIn an Eastern European war zone, a photojournalist takes a photo of a small girl fleeing her home just as it explodes. The shot becomes famous, and a grieving writer in the U.S. becomes obsessed with it. Her friend, a poet, believes that bringing the girl to the U.S. may help the writer's depression, but such a goal is not easily achieved. Meditating on art, violence, sex, gender, and grief, this emotional novel can be brutal: sensitive readers should be aware that both sex and violence are graphically depicted, and there is plenty of strong language. The lack of names for the characters (they go by descriptions like those used above) may also frustrate some readers. |
|
| Running the Rift: A Novel by Naomi BenaronIn 1984, Jean Patrick Nkuba is a student who dreams of representing Rwanda in the Olympics -- and he's got the skill to do it. But over the next ten years, as he runs better and faster, tensions between his tribe, the Tutsis, and the Hutus increase. As a star athlete he receives some protection, but eventually civil war lands right at his door, as it does for so many others. The winner of the 2010 Bellwether Prize, this breathtaking novel manages to be both heartbreaking and uplifting as it shows, through one man's experience, a country's progress from tribal tension to genocidal slaughter. |
|
| Calico Joe by John GrishamIn 1973, minor league baseball player Joe Castle from Calico Rock, Arkansas, started heating up the diamond after being picked up by the Chicago Cubs. But his sure-to-be-stellar career was cut short by a pitch to the head, which left him partially paralyzed. Decades on, the estranged son of the pitcher who hit him decides to confront his father and bring the two men together before his father's death. Inspired by the real-life story of Yankee pitcher Carl Mays, whose fastball killed Cleveland shortstop Roy Chapman in 1920, this engaging father-and-son novel is quite the departure for author John Grisham, who's famous for his legal thrillers. |
|
| The Art of Fielding: A Novel by Chad HarbachAs in John Grisham's Calico Joe, a disastrous throw changes everything for a handful of characters in The Art of Fielding, which focuses on the wider repercussions of that throw, not on a difficult father/son relationship. Set on a college campus, the errant ball affects not only the two players involved but the school president (who falls in love with the injured gay baseball player), his daughter, and the team captain. A "hell of a baseball story" (Booklist), this debut will also appeal to fans of Jonathan Franzen. |
|
| Flat Water Tuesday by Ron IrwinRob Carrey is from a working class part of New York State, but he's given the chance of a lifetime when a prestigious boarding school recruits him for their four-man crew team. Success in their annual competition is essentially a ticket to Harvard. Told in chapters that alternate between Rob's senior year and 15 years later, when he's a documentary filmmaker, it's clear that some impending disaster looms. If you were fascinated by the nonfiction bestseller The Boys in the Boat, you'll enjoy the athletics seen here; others will appreciate the depictions of both Rob's difficulties as an outsider and the complex relationships between teammates. |
|
| Tumbleweeds: A Novel by Leila MeachamHigh school football is front and center in this juicy, soapy Texas tale, which stars two best friends (and star football players) and the girl they both love. Starting when they're all sixth graders and continuing on through the disastrous events of their senior year, Tumbleweeds develops the characters over a period of about 30 years. Without giving too much of the plot away, things don't work out the way the three had planned, and it's not until they're 40 that they come together again. Readers looking for football-infused novels that read a bit like Barbara Taylor Bradford will enjoy this sweeping story. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
If you are having trouble unsubscribing to this newsletter, please contact the Round Rock Public Library at
512-218-5400, 221 E. Main Street Round Rock, Texas 78664
|
|
|