|
|
| Census by Jesse BallWhat it's about: The widowed father of young man with Down syndrome is dying -- and must figure out how to provide for his son after his death.
Why you might like it: Consider this a non-traditional road novel; the unnamed narrator takes a long-postponed cross-country trip with his son, paid for by his role as census-taker for a mysterious governmental agency.
What reviewers say: "strange and wonderful" (LitHub); "an understated feat" (The Washington Post). |
|
|
Bachelor girl
by Kim van Alkemade
A tale inspired by the true story of Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and his mysterious 1939 bequest traces how a Jazz Age millionaire takes his personal secretary and a young actress under his wing and oversees their growing love for each other before triggering dark rumors with his decision to leave the young woman the bulk of his fortune. By the best-selling author of Orphan #8.
|
|
|
Some Hell
by Patrick Nathan
A wrenching and layered debut about a gay teen's coming-of-age in the aftermath of his father's suicide traces the efforts of a middle-school youth who searches for a confidante and solace while reading his late father's bizarre personal notebooks and enduring painful family dynamics. Original.
|
|
|
The taster
by V. S. Alexander
Amid the turbulence of World War II, a young German woman finds a precarious haven closer to the source of danger than she ever imagined—one that will propel her through the extremes of privilege and terror under Hitler’s dictatorship. Original.
|
|
|
Self-portrait with boy : a novel
by Rachel Lyon
A struggling young photographer who works three jobs to pay for her crumbling warehouse home and care for her aging father accidentally captures on film a boy falling past her window to his death, an unexpectedly evocative image with the potential to launch her career and complicate or heal a community in mourning. A first novel.
|
|
|
A good day for seppuku : stories
by Kate Braverman
In a short-story collection, manic and often humorous tableaus of American life are explored, from a 13-year-old girl forced to choose between her Grammy Award-winning mother in Beverly Hills or her pot-growing father in the Allegheny Mountains to a high school teacher who spends her summers searching for her prostitute daughter in Los Angeles. Original.
|
|
| Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue HalpernWhat it's about: A trio of oddballs finds a home of sorts in the Carnegie library of a declining industrial town in New Hampshire.
Why you might like it: Authentic characters, unexpected and evolving relationships, and multiple narrators keep the story moving forward.
For fans of: other book-oriented novels with quirky characters, like Felicity Hayes-McCoy's The Library at the Edge of the World or Rebecca Makkai's The Borrower. |
|
| Speak No Evil by Uzodinma IwealaWhat it's about: Star athlete Niru is bound for the Ivy League...until his loving but traditional Nigerian parents discover that he's gay. The repercussions are violent and far-reaching.
Why you should read it: Cross-generational misunderstandings, as well as cross-cultural complications, are sensitively portrayed. Niru is a complex young man trying to come to terms with being a young gay black man.
Is it for you? Readers who prefer happy endings will want to look elsewhere. |
|
| Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha RaoStarring: motherless Poornima and penniless Savitha, whose deep friendship sustains them in their rural Indian town.
What it's about: Separated by acts of cruelty and abuse, the two young women must navigate the world alone, each searching for the other.
Why you might like it: Narrated in the girls' alternating voices, this debut novel offers a vivid portrayal of contemporary India, as well as a devastating exploration of gender inequalities and human trafficking. |
|
The Arctic & the Antarctic
|
|
| Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-DaltonStarring: astronomer Augustine, seemingly stranded at the top of the world, and astronaut Sully, whose voyage to Jupiter is coming to an end.
What happens: Both unable to contact anyone else on Earth (are they all dead? Have radio transmitters been silenced?), the two scientists must come to terms with their future in a dark and silent world.
Why you might like it: This leisurely paced, unusual take on a post-apocalyptic novel is quietly moving. |
|
|
The Comet Seekers
by Helen Sedgwick
In this complex, multi-layered novel, two peripatetic individuals meet at a remote research base in Antarctica, both driven by loss and drawn by a comet. As their stories unfold, it becomes clear that they have a centuries-old connection, thanks in part to their ancestors, some of whom make appearances throughout this debut, which spans nearly a thousand years. Though it is French chef François and Irish astronomer Róisín who connect, his mother and her cousin play important roles too, as do the ghosts -- and comets -- that surround them. Check this debut out if you enjoy introspective stories (or want to learn more about comets).
|
|
|
Forty days without shadow : an Arctic thriller
by Olivier Truc
"The international award-winning, bestselling phenomenon, now available in English for the first time. Tomorrow, the sun will rise for the first time in 40 days. Thirty minutes of daylight will herald the end of the polar night in Kautokeino, a small village in northern Norway, home to the indigenous Sami people. But in the last hours of darkness, a precious artifact is stolen: an ancient Sami drum. The most important piece in the museum's collection, it was due to go on tour with a UN exhibition in a few short weeks. Hours later, a man is murdered. Mattis, one of the last Sami reindeer herders, is found dead in his gumpy. Are the two crimes connected? In a town fraught with tension--between the indigenous Samis fighting to keep their culture alive, theultra-Lutheran Scandinavian colonists concerned with propagating their own religion, and the greedy geologists eager to mine the region's ore deposits--it falls to two local police officers to solve the crimes. Klemet Nango, an experienced Sami officer, and Nina Nansen, his much younger partner from the south of Norway, must find the perpetrators before it's too late... THIS EDITION INCLUDES A READING GROUP GUIDE"
|
|
| I Am Radar by Reif LarsenWhat it is: a sprawling novel that involves a black boy named Radar born inexplicably to white parents and a secretive group of physicist puppeteers who stage experimental performances in the world's war zones.
You might also like: Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang, another character-centered tale with performance artists in starring roles.
Where does the Arctic come in? Radar meets the puppeteers in northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. |
|
| Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria SempleWhat it's about: Eighth-grader Bee Branch has been promised a trip to Antarctica by her parents, tech guru Elgin Branch and architect Bernadette Fox. Until Bernadette -- whose creative genius is outstripped only by her social anxiety and agoraphobia -- disappears.
Why you might like it: A compilation of emails, faxes, official documents, and letters forms the basis of this delightful, charming, witty novel. |
|
| Sun at Midnight by Rosie ThomasWhat it is: a story of self-discovery in a beautiful but unforgiving environment.
Starring: geologist Alice Peel, who seeks change after ending a relationship. And James Rooker, a man trying to outrun his past.
Read it for: the claustrophobic nature of a small research station, the developing relationship between Alice and James, and above all, the descriptions of Antarctica.
|
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|
Harrison Memorial Library Ocean and Lincoln Carmel, California 93921 831-624-4629www.hm-lib.org/ |
|
|
|