|
Downtown Book Club Options 2019
|
|
|
The house we grew up in : a novel by Lisa JewellWhen their picture-perfect Cotswold village family life with a perpetually young father and hippy mother is shattered by a tragic Easter weekend, four siblings pursue separate adult lives before a reunion reveals astonishing truths. By the author of Before I Met You. Fiction - Family Secrets - Brothers and Sisters - Domestic Violence
|
|
How to stop timeby Matt HaigA man with a secret rare condition that has enabled him to survive for centuries moves to London to become a high-school history teacher and considers defying his protective guardians' rule against falling in love when he becomes entranced by a captivating colleague. By the best-selling author of Reasons to Stay Alive. Fiction - Immortality - Love stories - Fantasy Fiction
|
|
|
|
The measure of a man : a spiritual autobiography by Sidney PoitierThe acclaimed actor reveals the passion, spirituality, and intellectual fervor that have driven his life and career, citing the elements of his childhood that gave him his sense of worth and ethics. Biography - Actors - Oprah's Book Club
|
|
The hate u giveby Angie Thomas"Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. Itcould also endanger her life" Young Adult Fiction - Race relations - Police shootings
|
|
|
|
Truly madly guilty by Liane MoriartyA busy couple formerly on the brink of realizing their dreams reflects on a fortuitous gathering with their best friends and another couple in a tale that explores the role of guilt in relationships and the power of everyday moments in family life. By the best-selling author of Big Little Lies. Fiction - Friendship - Married people - Interpersonal relationships - Guilt
|
|
The underground girls of Kabul : in search of a hidden resistance in Afghanistanby Jenny NordbergAn award-winning foreign correspondent who contributed to a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times series reveals the secret Afghan custom of disguising girls as boys to improve their prospects, discussing its political and social significance as well as the experiences of its practitioners. 30,000 first printing. Nonfiction - Women - Sex role - Social conditions
|
|
|
|
Red sparrow by Jason MatthewsDrafted against her will to serve Vladimir Putin's regime as an intelligence seductress, Dominika Egorova engages in a charged effort of deception and tradecraft with CIA officer Nathaniel Nash before forbidden attraction threatens their careers. Fiction - Movie - Women Spies - Russia
|
|
Educated : a memoirby Tara WestoverTraces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family's paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond. Biography - Survivalism - Homeschooling - Victims of family violence
|
|
|
|
November 9 by Colleen HooverWhen Fallon and aspiring novelist Ben meet and fall in love the day before Fallon's cross-country move, they vow to meet on the same date every year, until Fallon suspects Ben is fabricating their relationship to create the perfect plot twist. Fiction - Romance - Authors - Love stories
|
|
Black boy : (American hunger) : a record of childhood and youthby Richard Wright Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot. Biography - Classic - African Americans - Social life and customs
|
|
|
|
Half broke horses : a true-life novel by Jeannette WallsThe author offers a novel based on the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who learned to break horses in childhood, journeyed 500 miles on a pony as a teen to become a teacher, and ran a vast ranch in Arizona with her husband while raising two children, including Rosemary Smith Walls, portrayed in the author's acclaimed The Glass Castle. Includes reading-group guide. Reprint. A New York Times Best Book of the Year. Autobiographical fiction - Families - Married women - Western stories
|
|
Biography - Foster children - Orphans - New England - New Bedford
|
|
|
|
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France.
Historical Fiction - Sisters - World War II
|
|
Americanized : rebel without a green cardby Sara SaediLearning as a teenager that her Iranian family is undocumented, 13-year-old, straight-A student Sara Saedi juggles the challenges of trying to obtain a green card with the stressful realities of being an everyday American teen. Young Adult Fiction - Immigrants - Illegal aliens
|
|
|
|
The last castle : the epic story of love, loss, and American royalty in the nation's largest home by Denise Kiernan Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy. History - Biltmore Estate - Vanderbilt
|
|
Children of blood and boneby Tomi AdeyemiComing of age in a land where her magi mother was killed by the zealous king's guards along with other former wielders of magic, Zélie embarks on a journey alongside her brother and a fugitive princess to restore her people's magical abilities. A first novel. Simultaneous. Young Adult Fiction - Fantasy - Brothers and sisters - Magic - Prejudices
|
|
|
|
The Lost City of the Monkey God : a true story by Douglas J PrestonSince the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location.
Three quarters of a century later, Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, Doug found tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Nonfiction - Extinct cities - Description and travel - Antiquities
|
|
Leaving time : a novelby Jodi PicoultAbandoned by a grief-stricken father and scientist mother who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, thirteen-year-old Jenna Metcalf approaches a disgraced psychic and a jaded detective in the hopes of finding answers. Mystery fiction - Suspense - Missing persons - Mothers and daughters
|
|
|
|
Behind the beautiful forevers : Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine BooA first book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist profiles everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother of a prospective female college student and a young scrap metal thief, in an account that illuminates how their efforts to build better lives are challenged by regional religious, caste and economic tensions. Nonfiction - Urban poor - Bombay - Economic conditions
|
|
Dark placesby Gillian FlynnFor a price Libby Day will reconnect with the players that murdered her mother and two sisters in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas." Having testified that her brother Ben was the murderer on that fateful night twenty-five years ago, now she is not so sure as, piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started--on the run from a killer. Fiction - Children of murder victims - Family - Juvenile homicide
|
|
|
|
Don't let go by Harlan CobenSuburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks—and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions—about the woman he loved, about the childhood friends he thought he knew, about the abandoned military base near where he grew up, and mostly about Leo and Diana—whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.
|
|
The lost city of Z : a tale of deadly obsession in the Amazonby David GrannIn 1925, the legendary British explorer Percy Fawcett ventured into the Amazon jungle, in search of a fabled civilization. He never returned. Over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of his party and the place he called “The Lost City of Z.” In this masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, journalist David Grann interweaves the spellbinding stories of Fawcett’s quest for “Z” and his own journey into the deadly jungle, as he unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century.
|
|
|
|
Call the midwife : a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times by Jennifer WorthReflects on the experiences of Jennifer Worth as a midwife in London's postwar East End, including the nuns from whom she learned her craft and the interesting and challenging births she aided during her career. Biography - Midwives - London (England) - Social Issues
|
|
|
Voting!
Once you have chosen your top 12 titles, click on the button below to make your selections, then press "Submit" Ta-Da!
|
|
New Bedford Free Public Library 613 Pleasant St. New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740 (508) 991-6275 newbedfordlibrary.org |
|
|
|