Monday, August 29, 2011

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

The mysterious process of admitting certain students to Ivy League schools and rejecting others is revealed in this interesting novel.  Portia, an admissions officer for Princeton, is so involved in her job that she doesn’t see that her life is on pause.  Soon her past catches up to her and changes her life forever.  If you’ve ever wanted an inside look at the college admissions game pick up Admission - it’s a long one but it’s a fast read!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch

Once a Camellia, always a Camellia.  Both funny and heartbreaking, this coming of age novel follows sharp, witty Southern debutante Sarah Walters from Charleston's Wednesday night Cotillion Traning School to her escape to college in the North, through love, heartache, disillusionment, and her eventual return home in response to the siren song of the South. Readers of Pat Conroy, Anne Rivers Siddons and Dorothea Benton Frank's novels will want to check out Girls in Trucks!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

If you enjoy stories in which children and animals are serendipitously rescued from abusive homes and circumstances, Started Early, Took My Dog (and others by Kate Atkinson) is for you. Tracy Waterhouse, a recently retired policewoman, impulsively buys a very young child from a drug-abusing prostitute and tries to disappear. Jackson Brodie, a private detective, hired by an adopted orphan to trace her roots, impulsively rescues a small dog from an abusive master. These two stories, seemingly unconnected, finally cross near the end of the book, and most, but not all, of the mysteries are solved.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

Golden Richards is a man who has four wives and twenty eight children. The size of this family and financial worries due to a failing construction business leave him and other members of his family feeling lonely, alienated and misunderstood.  The Lonely Polygamist is a sympathetic and funny look at the lives of individual members of a polygamist family. 

Friday, August 12, 2011

To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg



Casey and Steven met while studying abroad in Morocco during their junior year in college, and fell in love. Their life back in the states is spent on opposite coasts, and after college that the two decide to travel together. Their adventure starts off in China teaching English as a second language. After six months, they travel a bit, before settling in Mali, where they spend a year doing research and painting. Casey uses words to tell their story, while Steven illustrates it, giving two distinctive points of view, and making it an appealing read. Not just for young adults, To Timbuktu is for anyone who is wondering what to do next in their life, as well of those who like to travel off the beaten path.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This remarkable debut novel tells the tale of gifted magicians Celia and Marco, opponents since childhood in a game whose rules are unknown, all set on the stage of a circus that appears as mysteriously as it vanishes, always at night.   The catch is that Celia and Marco's roles as opponents are kept from them - and when they finally encounter one another in the black and silver world of the Night Circus, they fall deeply in love, each without knowing the other's darkest secret.  If you loved the films The Prestige and The Illusionist and devoured the circus-y bits of Water for Elephants, this extraordinary, magical read will delight and surprise you. The Night Circus is coming to a library near you on September 13th!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Midsummer, 1924.  A young poet and haunted veteran of the Great War commits suicide on the eve of a glittering society party, the only witnesses two wealthy sisters, Hannah and Emmeline, and their ladies' maid, Grace.  More than seven decades later, 99-year-old Grace recalls a childhood spent below stairs at the grand country estate of Riverton serving Hannah, Emmeline, and their brother David - and the truth behind the events leading up to what really happened by the lake on that fateful night.  Beautifully written, gorgeous and haunting, fans of Ian McEwan's Atonement will love The House at Riverton.  Also check out Kate Morton's other two novels, The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours!