"NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS" by Keisha Bush
The author's four years of living and working in Dakar, Senegal prompted this heart-wrenching saga of six-year-old Ibrahimah and his somewhat older cousin, Etienne. Sent by their trusting parents to the city to study the Koran, the boys are forced to beg in the streets by their sadistic "teacher." Their very survival depends on the strength of the boys' love for each other and their memories of home. You won't forget this book.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"DUSK, NIGHT, DAWN" by Anne Lamott
If you are familiar with Anne Lamott's books, you know that her slim volumes need time to be digested - not devoured in one sitting. In this new tiny handful of pages, she reveals her current situation, which includes her recent marriage and a new kitten. Lamott's thoughts flow readily from past to present, insight to insight, all in her signature conversational style. Savor her stories one at a time, leaving time for reflection between.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"THE SUMMER QUEEN" by Elizabeth Chadwick
Experience life in the 12th century with this historical novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine - the first in a trilogy of her amazing life. At the age of 13, Eleanor leaves her home in southern France to be married to King Louis VII. Before the age of 30, she has experienced childbirth, a grueling three-year-long Crusade from France to Jerusalem, divorce, and a second marriage to the yet-to-be-crowned King Henry II of England. There are two succeeding books for you to read that complete her long history. Stay tuned. . .
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"YELLOW BIRD" by Sierra Crane Murdoch
This is a complex story - a painfully true and contemporary murder mystery - researched and written by a young female reporter and centering on the recent oil boom in North Dakota's Native American territory. It's a story of greed and indifference, money and power. And a story of one native woman's quest to preserve the culture that continues to be upended by contemporary American life. Not for the faint-hearted or the lazy-summer-beach aficionado. "Yellow Bird" tells it like it is.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"THE GIRL FROM THE CHANNEL ISLANDS" by Jenny Lecoat
Based on a true story, this book centers on life on the English Channel Island of Jersey during World War II. An Austrian Jew, Hedy Bercu has fled Vienna to these out-of-the-way islands and hides her Jewish background while working as a translator for the occupying German army. Despite her heritage, she falls in love with a German officer who is questioning the legitimacy of Hitler's quest for power. A different sort of war story.
"A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA" by Isabel Allende
This novel takes us on a 50-year journey with two Spanish citizens fleeing over the mountains into France during the Spanish Civil War and, from there, across the Atlantic Ocean as refugees to Chile. Victor, a doctor, and Roser, the widow of Victor's brother, forge an unlikely life together and, in the process, find a deep love that carries them through more than enough trials. This is a novel, but well-based in history, making me realize how much history I have lived through and did not understand at the time.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"NEW BOY" by Tracy Chevalier
This small book is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project - the re-telling of some of Shakespeare's famous works into modern-day versions by contemporary authors. In "New Boy," Tracy Chevalier (famous for her "Girl With a Pearl Earring") helps us experience one day in a Washington D.C. schoolyard where the arrival of a new student (who happens to be the only black student at the school) interrupts the usual dynamic. It is Shakespeare's "Othello" alive once more, in modern-day language and style.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
"LAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI" by Helen Zia
If you're looking for little light reading, this tome is not for you. This amazing chronicle follows the lives of four Chinese citizens as they live through, and eventually escape from, their mother country as it goes through the long years of war with Japan, with rationing and spying, families split apart, followed by a new Communist China and Chairman Mao. The author has done amazing research to tell this true story of death and hardship, deception and disappointments, but also bravery and love. It makes you even more grateful for what we take for granted every day.
CLICK HERE TO FIND THIS BOOK ON THE LIBRARY'S ONLINE CATALOG.
