School holiday fun at the library School holidays run from Monday 18 April, and school is back for Term 2 on Monday 2 May.
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| Carry me: A novel by Peter BehrensTwo families, two world wars, one unforgettable love story. Billy Lange's parents are the caretakers of Sanssouci, the country estate of German-Jewish industrialist Baron von Weinbrenner, whose daughter Karin befriends Billy during summers on the Isle of Wight. As children in late Edwardian England, they bond over Westerns while dreaming of life in America; as adults in 1930s Frankfurt, they become lovers who enjoy the city's vibrant nightlife. But the couple -- neither English nor German, but with complicated loyalties to both nations -- find themselves caught in the middle of a global conflict when World War II begins. |
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| News of the world: A novel by Paulette JilesItinerant veteran Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd earns his living by giving public readings from newspapers to rural audiences with an interest in current events. After one such performance, he's offered a $50 gold piece to escort ten-year-old Johanna from Wichita Falls to San Antonio. Rescued by the U.S. Army, which has decided to send her to relatives in Texas, Johanna has spent the past four years in captivity since Kiowa raiders killed her family. She has forgotten her English, but demonstrates her unwillingness to accompany Kidd by escaping at every turn. It's not the most promising beginning to a friendship, yet a strong bond develops between Kidd and Johanna as they endure many trials on their journey. |
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| Scarpia: A novel by Piers Paul ReadInspired by Puccini's opera Tosca, this novel -- set against the backdrop of Napoleon's invasion of Italy -- introduces Sicilian nobleman-turned-soldier Vitellio Scarpia and describes the events leading up to his fateful encounter with singer Floria Tosca, as well as the tragic consequences of that meeting. If you're inclined to sympathise with the villain of a story (or just think they've gotten a bad rap), check out Nicole Galland's I, Iago. |
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| Behave: A novel by Andromeda Romano-LaxUpon graduating from Vassar with a degree in psychology, Rosalie Rayner accepts a job at John Hopkins in the lab of behaviourism pioneer John B. Watson. Their professional collaboration results in the controversial "Little Albert" experiments, in which they expose an infant to distressing stimuli, while their personal connection leads to an affair. Watson, fired by the university for misconduct, becomes an advertising executive; Rosalie marries him and raises their two children in accordance with their research findings. But the realities of motherhood force Rosalie to reconsider her perspective on parenting and causes her to question the foundations of her marriage. |
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| The autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A novel by Melanie BenjaminAlthough she stands just two feet, eight inches tall, Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump's personality is larger-than-life. Wishing to expand her horizons, she abandons her schoolteacher job and joins an unsavoury talent promoter's riverboat show. This gig ends abruptly with the start of the Civil War, but her subsequent association with impresario P.T. Barnum proves more enduring. Although Vinnie makes headlines with her marriage to fellow small-statured celebrity Charles Stratton (aka "General Tom Thumb"), she finds her intellectual soul mate in Barnum. |
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The trapeze artist : A novel
by Will Davis
Appearing to his family and teachers as a dutiful youth but secretly hating his drab and ordered world, Edward all but destroys his home to build a trapeze and tortures his muscles with training before getting in his car at the age of 40 to follow and join the circus. By the award-winning author of My Side of the Story.
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Hang wire
by Adam Christopher
Ted Hall worries when his sleepwalking seems to coincide with murders by the Hang Wire Killer, a very strange circus comes to town, and some immortals searching for an ancient power arrive in the city.
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| The museum of extraordinary things: A novel by Alice HoffmanThe daughter of Coney Island impresario Professor Sardie, web-fingered Coralie grows up in The Museum of Extraordinary Things, which exhibits the "living wonders" that her father collects. Eventually (and reluctantly), she joins their ranks as a "mermaid," performing dangerous aquatic feats for crowds of novelty-seekers. Meanwhile, Russian immigrant Ezekiel "Eddie" Cohen flees his strict Orthodox Jewish community on the Lower East Side to pursue his dream of becoming a photographer. Coralie and Eddie's chance meeting on the banks of the Hudson river leads to romance and rebellion as the lovers decide to forge their own paths in life. |
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| Church of marvels by Leslie ParryAfter a fire consumes their mother's Coney Island sideshow, the Church of Marvels, teen sword-swallower Belle Church disappears, prompting her twin sister, Odile, to search for her. Meanwhile, an abandoned infant sends cleaner Sylvan Threadgill on a quest to reunite the child with its mother, and Alphie, confined to a lunatic asylum on Blackwell Island, concocts increasingly desperate escape plans. These individual narrative strands converge to make this richly detailed novel, set in a gritty 1895 New York City, an unforgettable experience. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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