Staff Picks: January/February 2012
Try a book recommended by one of our staff members!
For previous months' staff picks, click here.
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The First Stone by Don Aker Book review (from Books in Canada): "The First Stone is a page-turner of a morality tale set in a fictionalized Halifax. It follows Reef and Leeza, two very different sixteen-year-olds, through their roles in a highway “accident”, and its attendant frustrations and despair. Reef’s past catches up with him when he angrily pitches a rock off an overpass and it shatters the windshield of a motorist below. The motorist is, of course, the innocent Leeza, and Reef’s act winds up not only changing the two teenagers’ fates, but binding them in significant ways. Reef, thanks to the decision of a compassionate judge, finds himself in a group home with a motley crew of delinquents on the rocky road to reform (and separated from his old buddies and their common history of abuse and neglect). Leeza, whose injuries from the accident have left her in excruciating pain and understandably depressed, ends up in a physical rehab centre with the spunky, wheelchair-bound Brett as roommate. As part of his re-integration into society, Reef is required to volunteer at a physical rehab centre, where it is hoped he will build his powers of empathy and recognize the consequences of his actions. In a coincidence, Reef is paired with Leeza, and the two become fast friends, finding commonality and closeness despite their very dissimilar backgrounds.
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Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpen Book description: "Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees, in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda . . . This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa."
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by Mary Higgins Clark Book description: "Liza
Barclay, aged 10, shot her mother while trying to protect her from
her violent stepfather, ex-FBI agent Charley Foster. Despite her
stepfather's claim that it was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court
ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with
Foster and tabloids compared Liza to the infamous murderess, Lizzie
Borden, pointing even to the similarity in name. Growing up with
adoptive parents who tried to erase every trace of her past, her
name is changed to Celia. Always, though, the fear hung over her and
the family - that someday, her vengeful stepfather would reappear to
harm her . . . Years later, Celia is shocked when her husband
presents her with a gift -- the house where she killed her mother.
When the real estate agent who has made the sale recognizes her and,
soon after, is murdered, Celia is accused of the crime. Once again,
she is home -- the place where she is stamped as a murderess.
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by Kathleen Grissom Book description: "Lavinia,
a seven-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, arrives on
a tobacco plantation where she is put to work as an indentured
servant. Placed with the slaves in the kitchen house under the care
of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply
bonded to her new adopted family, even though she is forever set
apart from them by her white skin. As Lavinia is slowly accepted
into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the
mistress battles an opium addiction, she finds herself perilously
straddling two very different worlds. When Lavinia marries the
master's troubled son and takes on the role of mistress, loyalties
are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives
are put at risk. The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning
suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty
prevail.
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by Steven Harper
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The Various Haunts of Men: a Simon Serrailler Mystery
by
Susan Hill Book description: "As the story begins, a lonely woman vanishes while out on her morning run. Then a 22-year-old girl never returns from a walk. An old man disappears too. When fresh-faced policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to the case, she runs the risk of getting too invested--too involved--in the action. Alongside the enigmatic detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrallier, she must unravel the mystery before events turn too gruesome. Written with intelligence, compassion, and a knowing eye--in the tradition of the fabulous mysteries of Ruth Rendell and P.D. James--The Various Haunts of Men is an enthralling journey into the heart of a wonderfully developed town, and into the very mind of a killer."
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The
Reading Promise: My Father and the
Books We Shared
Book description: "When Alice was nine years old, she and her father - a beloved school librarian - made a promise to read aloud together for 100 consecutive nights. Upon reaching their goal, they celebrated over pancakes, but it was clear that neither wanted to let go of what had become their reading ritual. They decided to continue what became known as The Streak for as long as they possibly could. From L. Frank Baum to Dickens to J.K. Rowling to Shakespeare, Alice's father read to her every night without fail until the day she entered college, a remarkable eight years later. In this deeply affecting memoir, Alice tells the story of her relationship with the extraordinary man who raised her - from his steadying hand on the back of her wobbly bike to his one-man crusade to keep reading in schools - the words they shared and the spaces in between. Alice poignantly illustrates the unbreakable parent-child bond, the books they treasured, and the life lessons learned along the way." |
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By Jose Saramago Book description: "In
1551, King João III of Portugal gave Archduke Maximilian an unusual
wedding present: an elephant named Solomon. In José Saramago's
remarkable and imaginative retelling, Solomon and his keeper, Subhro,
begin in dismal conditions, forgotten in a corner of the palace
grounds. When it occurs to the king and queen that an elephant would
be an appropriate wedding gift, everyone rushes to get them ready:
Subhro is given two new suits of clothes and Solomon a long overdue
scrub. Accompanied by the Archduke, his new wife, and the royal
guard, these unlikely heroes traverse a continent riven by the
Reformation and civil wars, witnessed along the way by scholars,
historians, and wide-eyed ordinary people as they make their way
through the storied cities of northern Italy; they brave the Alps
and the terrifying Isarco and Brenner Passes; across the
Mediterranean Sea and up the Inn River; and at last, toward their
grand entry into the imperial city." |
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by Curtis Sittenfeld Book description: "Hannah
Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she
reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life,
her parents' marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these
two extremes - just maybe - lie the answers to love's most
bewildering questions. But over the next decade and a half, as she
moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, Hannah finds that
the questions become more rather than less complicated: At what
point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up
childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soul mate an act
of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another
state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky-or
just pathetic? None of the relationships in Hannah's life are
without complications. There's her father, whose stubbornness Hannah
realizes she's unfortunately inherited; her gorgeous cousin, Fig,
whose misbehavior alternately intrigues and irritates Hannah; Henry,
whom Hannah first falls for in college, while he's dating Fig; and
the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who
adore her or break her heart. By the time she's in her late
twenties, Hannah has finally figured out what she wants most-but she
doesn't yet know whether she'll find the courage to go after it.
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by Carolyn Turgeon Book description: "Princess Margrethe has been hidden away while her kingdom is at war. One gloomy, windswept morning as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea. As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that not only is he a prince, he is also the son of her father's greatest rival. Sure that the mermaid brought this man to her for a reason, Margrethe devises a plan to bring peace to her kingdom. Meanwhile, the mermaid princess Lenia longs to return to the human man she carried to safety. She is willing to trade her home, her voice, and even her health for legs and the chance to win his heart. A surprising take on the classic tale, Mermaid is the story of two women with everything to lose. Beautifully written and compulsively readable, it will make you think twice about the fairytale you heard as a child, keeping you in suspense until the very last page." |
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