Grades 9-12
This has become one of my favorite books! Jam, Griffin, Marc, Casey and Sierra are five friends who meet in a boarding school called the Wooden Barn for “emotionally fragile, highly intelligent teenagers.” They each have a story to tell, and they express themselves in journals given to them by their Special Topics in English teacher known as Mrs. Q. The friends in this tight knit group lean on each other to come to terms with and learn to let go of their pasts.
Ages 18+
Professor Amelia Emmet was shot by a student she never even met. And he shot himself too. Now Amelia is back at work, and has a new assistant. His name is Nathaniel, or Nath, as he come to be known. Read The Black Hour to find out how Amelia deals with her life, forever changed by the actions of one person.
Ages 10+
Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot is the book on which the Broadway musical “Cats” is based. Having not seen “Cats” since I was a little girl, I hadn’t realized this until I read the jacket cover. Even so, the poems are a lot of fun to read and to read while listening to the “Cats” soundtrack, although the words aren’t exactly the same. It was quite entertaining to read the stories of the cats that Eliot supposedly based on lives of those he knew. I would recommend this book of poems for readers of all ages!
Grades 9-12
A winner of the RITA Award, The Haunting of Maddy Clare is a novel about a young woman, Sarah Piper, who is placed by her temp agency to work along side a ghost hunter, Alistair Gellis. The ghost? A nineteen-year-old young maid who was thought to have committed suicide. Read this intriguing novel to find out what became of Maddy Clare.
Ages 18+
The main character of this intense novel is a detective named Matt Longo who works in a small town, responding to various calls in his jurisdiction. Matt has recently been shot on the job, and is home recuperating. He has many vivid dreams of what his life was like when he first became a police officer, his days in the academy, and his new partner, Donny Mello, who quickly becomes his best friend. This book is packed with action and drama from beginning to end. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, Back In Town!
Ages 16+
After reading through all the short stories in The Best American Short Stories (2002) by Sue Miller, the one that stuck out to me the most was “Nobody’s Business” by Jhumpa Lahiri, taken from The New Yorker. It is the story of twenty-something year-old friends, Sang, Paul and Heather, who live together to cut rent costs. Sang constantly has men calling her who want to meet up, and ultimately marry her. Sang starts dating Farouk, and all is well until things get sticky between Farouk and Sang’s housemates. Read this enthralling story to find out what happens in “Nobody’s Business,” and check out the whole The Best American Short Stories series!
Ages 18+
From Marjane Satrapi comes the sequel to Persepolis, which, in my opinion, is better than the first. This graphic memoir is about the author’s adolescence. She spends some time in Austria and she is exploring new things like interesting haircuts, drugs and sex for the first time. She goes back to Iran after having experienced life as a “Westerner” and has to deal with life back home. This book is very entertaining and educational as well.
Ages 18+
Stephanie Plum is a cool chick. She has a hamster named Rex. A cop boyfriend named Moretti. And a cousin named Vinnie. She normally works for said cousin as a bail bondsman, but this time she’s moonlighting for her friend Carlos Manoso, AKA Ranger. The FTA (failure to appear) is Jimmy Poletti, a used car salesman who sells cars full of contraband. Will Stephanie catch him before it’s too late? This book is Janet Evanovich’s twenty-first installment of the Stephanie Plum series. It’s not your average mystery because it’s funny and not always about gruesome murders…it’s about the chase. Evanovich never disappoints!
Ages 18+
This graphic memoir was gripping from start to finish. Told in first person through the eyes of a child, Satrapi explained what it was like to grow up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This book is great for those who want a quick read, however, it’s packed with history and real emotion.
Ages 18+
Cecilia was a normal, happy wife…until she read the letter. The one she wasn’t supposed to read until after her husband had died. But she had gotten her hands on it, and now she had to read it. She wished she hadn’t, because now she knew his secret; and it was a big one. One she now had to carry with her, possibly until her own death. Follow Cecilia as she struggles to keep her husband’s secret from her friends, her family and her community. Will the secret ultimately destroy her? Or will she be able to put her husband’s past behind her?
