The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor

Inspired by true events, The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic tells the story of Maggie Murphy, a seventeen year old Irish girl. Maggie, along with thirteen other members of her small Irish town, set sail on the maiden voyage of the unsinkable R.M.S. Titanic, in search of a better life in America. For Maggie, the trip is bittersweet as she leaves behind the man she loves.

Although the group of fourteen who set sail on Titanic from a small town in Ireland are third class passengers aboard the ship, Gaynor still paints a lovely picture of just how beautiful everything aboard the Titanic must have been. From the beautiful china with the White Star Line logo, to the description of the first class passengers, and the impeccable food served aboard the glorious ship, Gaynor makes the reader feel as if they're sailing on board with Maggie.

On that fateful night in April, when Titanic hit the iceberg, Maggie is the only one from her group of fourteen to make it aboard the Carpathia, and eventually to safety at a New York City hospital. With a bit of recovery ahead of her and no family with her, Maggie is unsure what to do next.

Fast forward to 1982, where Grace, a young journalism college student begins to drift after the unexpected death of her beloved father. That is until Great-grandmother Maggie tells the story of what happened aboard the Titanic the horrible night of April 15th, 1912. After hearing Maggie's story, Grace once again feels the fire to write. After having Maggie's story published, Grace's life slowly begins to rebuild itself. When the offer presents itself Grace and Maggie find themselves in Ireland. It's proof that you're never too old to go home.

With Gaynor's attention to detail and her ability to tell a story, this book will suit the reading interests of Titanic and historical fiction enthusiasts alike.

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptil Manning

World War II was a war that united the American population like no other. Young men enlisted to serve in the Armed Forces and civilians pitched in by making whatever sacrifices they could make: planting Victory Gardens, living with food and gasoline rationing, turning possessions into scrap (metal, paper, cloth), and donating books for the troops. Unfortunately, the book donation program was not entirely successful. Many titles donated were not of interest to young American men (knitting, theology, and foreign policy, just to name a few of the not terribly enticing subjects.) But an even bigger problem was the size of the books. Before the 1950’s, very few books were published in paperback. The hardcover books were simply too big and bulky for an infantryman to add to his already heavy load of over 60 pounds. A solution was proposed and accepted—small, lightweight books printed especially for the men in the Armed Services. ASEs (Armed Service Editions) were designed. Titles were chosen, printed and distributed to the far corners of the earth. And they were greatly appreciated by men in foxholes, in jungles, in deserts, on ships and in hospitals. Surprisingly perhaps, the most popular title was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Many soldiers and sailors wrote to her, describing the comfort they found in her story of a Brooklyn family, living an American life much like theirs. Second in popularity was Chicken Every Sunday by Rosemary Taylor, a memoir of life in her mother’s boarding house with many mouth-watering descriptions of good old American food. There were many other popular authors like Ernest Hemingway, Marjorie Rawlings, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, as well as histories, biographies, poetry and numerous other subjects. Many of the service men were readers who took solace in books. Others were introduced to reading for pleasure by the ASEs and returned home with a new interest in literature. Librarians and publishers fought shortages of funds, shortages of paper and, eventually, even censorship to keep the program running and, in the end, they were as victorious as the American Armed Forces.  Anyone reading a blog like this one can appreciate the contribution the ASEs made in the quality of life of the American G.I. When Books Went to War lists all the titles published by the program, year by year. Some of the titles are out of print, but, for the information of the omnivorous and curious reader, many are available in our library system.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simson

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant genetics professor at an Australian university. Within the first few pages, the reader realizes that Don isn't your ordinary person. He's a bit socially inept--he has few friends beside Gene (a fellow professor studying attraction to women of different decent, by, of course, sleeping with women from different countries) and Claudia, plans his daily schedule down to the minute, and calculates people's BMIs upon their first meeting. As the reader learns a bit more about Don, they realize that Don's social inadequacies have clearly hindered him from falling in love. Realizing that the perfect girl is the part missing from his life, Don takes it upon himself to create a questionnaire with crazy, detailed questions to find the most suitable female partner.

Enter Rosie, who is nothing like Don. She's constantly late, disorganized, and is in no way a suitable match for Don. When Don thinks that Rosie is a woman who filled out his questionnaire, he garners up enough courage to ask her to dinner. The first night Don and Rosie meet turns into a fiasco, in true Don fashion. As the two begin to talk about their lives, Rosie tells Don that she doesn't know who her father is. This piques the ear of Don, the genetics professor. It's then that the Father Project develops. Don agrees to use his love of academia and the study of genetics to help Rosie find her dad.

As the two of them work to find out who Rosie's dad is, it seems as if a chemistry is built. 

The Rosie Project will have you laughing until the very end, while constantly rooting for the socially awkward protagonist to find the love that he so desperately deserves.

Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty

Big Little Lies follows three women, all at a crossroads in life. Meet Madeline, a forty-something, divorced and remarried mom of a teenager and two elementary school age children. To put it lightly, Madeline is never afraid to speak her mind. Her oldest, Abigail would much rather live with Madeline's ex-husband and his new wife, Bonnie, much to Madeline's chagrin. As if that wasn't bad enough, Madeline's youngest has just started kindergarten with her ex-husband and Bonnie's daughter. Awkward.

Enter Celeste. Seen as the gorgeous, wealthy mom of two twin, kindergarten-aged boys Celeste has all that she could ever need...on the outside. Although money has never been an issue and she's tall and beautiful and her life appears otherwise perfect, that couldn't be farther from the truth. Though pretending to have a perfect marriage on the outside, Celeste tries desperately to hide the fact that she's the victim of domestic abuse. There's a constant inner struggle for Celeste...should she leave Perry? What about the boys?

Then there's new to town, young, single mother Jane. Jane is plain. reserved and often appears sad, worrying about her five year old son, Ziggy. While Jane's mom is so enamored with the fact that Ziggy is his grandfather reincarnated, Jane is concerned that Ziggy has inherited some questionable behavior from his father, Jane is constantly on edge trying to protect the little life she's created, but will it be enough to protect them?

When all of these women meet at kindergarten orientation, they realize that though their stories may be different, they completely understand one another. This whodunit  type story revolving around murder, bullying, and domestic abuse, will definitely keep you reading, laughing, and guessing who exactly did what.

The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan

Two men who have very little in common are thrown together by crime and punishment in the Montana penal system. Valentine Milimaki is a young Copper County sheriff assigned to guard psychopathic serial killer, John Gload, an old man finally caught after years of criminal activity.  They are able to make a connection despite their very great differences. Both grew up essentially motherless on hardscrabble Montana farms. Both love their wives but have trouble with their relationships. And neither one can sleep. Gload was a ruthless killer who robbed and mutilated his victims to cover up his crimes. He had been a careful killer, so although he began his life of crime as a young teen, he was not caught until he reached his seventies. After Gload’s arrest, Milimaki must sit guard outside of Gload’s cell, listening to him chain smoke and talk about his past, all the while worrying about his wife, who seems about to leave him. Other deputies try to interfere with their odd relationship, believing the deputy to be too soft to handle a killer. They don’t realize that Gload can still be just as dangerous in prison as he was out of it.   In The Ploughmen, Kim Zupan has written, in a spare style, a thriller and an evocative description of Montana’s landscape as well as its rural inhabitants.

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Jess Thomas is a single mom, raising not only her math whiz daughter Tanzie, but her makeup wearing, bullied stepson Nicky. Oh, not to mention there's also the family's beloved, slobbery, often lazy dog Norman that Jess has to worry about. Life hasn't been easy for Jess since her husband Marty left two years ago. Since then, she's been working like crazy cleaning houses and bartending just to make ends meet. With money being tight and Jess needing to find a way to get Tanzie to the math Olympiad in the hopes of getting her into a great school, Jess winds up doing something she never thought she'd see herself doing.

Ed Nicholls is the head of a software development firm. Money has never been scarce for Ed, so much so that he owns a beachfront home in England (where Jess just so happens to be his cleaner), a flat in London, and far too many cars to count. Things are going well for Ed until he's investigated for insider trading. With his family constantly on his case to visit his dying father, Ed can't begin to bare letting them down with the news of the insider trading scandal.

In One Plus One, as only Jojo Moyes can do, Jess and Ed's stories end up being wound together with wit, charm, and romance. After a strange occurrence on the side of the road, Jess, Ed, Tanzie, Nicky, and even, slobbering Norman wind up spending lots of time together in the car in an attempt to get Tanzie to the math Olympiad on time. Disagreeing on eating out, renting hotel rooms, and pretty much anything else money related, Jess and Ed realize that although they come from completely different worlds, there's a spark that just can't be quelled. When things go awry, will Jess and Ed's love last?

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

Lula Ann Bridewell’s problems began at birth when her blue-black skin shocked and horrified her light-skinned parents. Ultimately her father deserted the family and her mother, while providing basic care, could hardly bear to touch or even look at her. Lula Ann survived her tough childhood and grew into a strikingly beautiful woman whose black skin and eyes were her most admired features. Renaming herself Bride, she became a successful business woman. However, personal happiness still eluded her. She remained estranged from her mother. Her efforts to make amends for a childhood offense ended in pain and violence. Her closest friend was after her job. And most painfully, her true love, Booker, disappeared from her life, giving her only the mysterious explanation of, “You not the woman I want.” However, Bride does not give up so easily. Using the slightest of clues, she traces the whereabouts of someone, Q. Olive, who might know where Booker is. On a road trip to find Q. Olive (and perhaps Booker), Bride runs into some trouble and, consequently, meets some salt-of-the-earth people who assist her on her journey. God Help the Child by Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison, pits violence and the wide-spread damage of child abuse against the resilience and decency of human beings.