My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Title: My Dark Vanessa
Author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
Genre: Fiction, Coming-of-Age, Social Movements, Trauma

While away at a prestigious boarding school, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye is drawn into a sexual relationship with her forty-two-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane. As a teenager, Vanessa sees the relationship as powerful, special, a true love story that no one else could possibly understand. Seventeen years later and now thirty-two years old, Vanessa is forced to look at Strane through a different lens as allegations from other students come out against him, and as she faces the truth of the manipulation that has defined over half of her life. 

This novel is heavy. While the author takes great care with the sensitive subject material, some parts are not easy to read. But for those affected by abuse, those holding a piece of the weight of the #metoo movement, and especially for anyone who's ever questioned #metoo's importance, this story feels so, so vital.

- Ashley

Check out My Dark Vanessa @ the library!

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Title: The Dinner List
Author: Rebecca Serle

Genre: Romance, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Audrey Hepburn

When you begin reading and Audrey Hepburn is one of the characters, you know you are in for a treat. When Sabrina and her best friend are in college, they craft the classic list of the five people, dead or alive, who they would like to have at their thirtieth dinner parties. The lists get forgotten as lives get lived and love is won and tragically lost. Enter Sabrina's thirtieth birthday and Audrey Hepburn, among others, is seated at a table in a fancy restaurant and having dinner with her. How would you live out a few hours of borrowed time as you savor a meal with your ideal dinner companions?

- Elizabeth

Check out The Dinner List @ the library.

Summer Hours by Amy Mason Doan

Title: Summer Hours
Author: Amy Mason Doan

Genre: Fiction

Summer Hours by Amy Mason Doan is an excellent summer read. It's set against the backdrop of Southern California/Pacific Coast and skips between the 1990s and 2008. The story revolves around main character Becc as she comes of age in college, the aftermath of her decisions during that time, and how they play out in the 2008 time period. Becc's two storylines contain the same characters, so it's really interesting to see how they all grow. 
What really hooked me in to this story was the setting. It has several settings which draw you into the warmth of the west coast, keeping things varied with sailing to Catalina Island,  the cool of dark movie theaters, and to the world of early internet reporting offices. I'd recommend this read for anyone looking for a read with not only a great setting, but romance, friendship, and forgiveness.

- Jamie

Check out Summer Hours @ the library.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

Title: Ordinary Grace

Author: William Kent Krueger

Genre: Fiction, Coming of Age, Mystery

"It was a summer in which death, in visitation, assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder." The words of narrator 13-year-old Frank Drum, growing up in small town MN in 1961, captured me from its outset. This is a quiet yet powerful book full of mystery, secrets and adversity.  Frank's father is the town Minister, whose unshakable faith and hope holds his family and town together even in the midst of unspeakable tragedy and sorrow. For all its "heaviness," the story is ultimately uplifting and hopeful and leaves you touched by "not-so-ordinary" grace.

- Karen

Check out Ordinary Grace @ the library.