Library Collections
Librarian Reads: Fall Fiction 2009
Ever wonder what your Adult Services Librarians are recommending for the summer? Check out some of our favorite books!
Fiction Worth Reading
| Boy In the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) - FIC BOYNE: Bruno, living in 1942 Berlin, is shocked to find that his family is moving to a new place, a camp in the wilderness called Out-With, where his father is going to be the commander of the German troops. There are no other kids, no school, and none of his friends, but Bruno makes friends with one young man who lives across the fence, in striped pajamas. This book is heartbreaking. Called a "modern fable" it will make you laugh, think, and ultimately, cry. Check Availability | |
| The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - YA FIC COLLINS: A young adult "hit" set in a future North America controlled by the ruling government in the Capitol. An annual competition among the country's 12 districts strikes dread into all. Part suspense, part sci-fi, part drama, this first book in the series is the page-turner of the year! Check Availability | |
| The Plague of Doves (Louise Erdrich) - FIC ERDRICH: This novel was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitizer prize for fiction. It is both a complex treatise on racial discord with white settlers and the Ojibwe people of North Dakota. She knows her subject well from being the daughter of a Native American mother and a white reservation teacher. Her writings are not to be missed. Check Availability | |
| Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson (Lyndsey Faye) - MYSTERY FAYE: Dr. Watson tells a new Sherlock Holmes tale having to do with the Jack the Ripper murders. Very satisfying for fans of the original Sherlock Holmes. Check Availability | |
| The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) - YA FIC GAIMAN: While it hasn't been as popular as Twilight, this is probably one of the best fantasy books of the year, in fact, so many librarians agreed about that fact, that it won the 2009 Newberry Award, as well as the Hugo award (best science fiction and fantasy) for best novel. It's the story of Bod, who escapes a vicious crime as a toddler that takes his whole family, leaving him to be raised in a graveyard. It's full of adventure, wit, and suspense. Check Availability | |
| The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson) - FIC LARSSON: The Girl is Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year old pierced and tattooed genius computer hacker who is ruthless and violent with a shocking past that is explored in these two novels (See also The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Salander is paired with journalist Mikael Blomkvist on the trail of a sinister criminal enterprise and a crime involving dark family secrets. Salander is under five feet tall, but no one takes care of business like Lisbeth whether it’s physically or intellectually! Tense thrillers you can’t put down. Note: Larsson died soon after delivering the manuscript for these two and a third novel. Check Availability | |
| Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) - FIC LARSSON: The Girl is Lisbeth Salander, a 24-year old pierced and tattooed genius computer hacker who is ruthless and violent with a shocking past that is explored in these two novels (See also The Girl Who Played With Fire). Salander is paired with journalist Mikael Blomkvist on the trail of a sinister criminal enterprise and a crime involving dark family secrets. Salander is under five feet tall, but no one takes care of business like Lisbeth whether it’s physically or intellectually! Tense thrillers you can’t put down. Note: Larsson died soon after delivering the manuscript for these two and a third novel. Check Availability | |
| The Piano Teacher (Janice Lee) - FIC LEE: This is Lee’s outstanding debut and she layers intriguing personal relationships with consequences of marital infidelities against the backdrop of Japanese occupation of 1952 Hong Kong. It is as much about class as passion. Claire Pendleton, the wife of a British civil servant finds work teaching piano to the daughter of a wealthy Chinese couple. She quickly becomes involved romantically with the family’s unsuitable expatriate driver. Great historical fiction!! Check Availability | |
| Shutter Island (Dennis Lehane) - FIC LEHANE: U.S. Marshals, Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck, arrive at the isolated Shutter Island, home to Ashcliffe Hospital, a federal institution for the criminally insane. A violent, female patient has escaped and they must find her. No one on the staff seems to be especially helpful or concerned. When the island is hit by gale-force winds and Chuck disappears, Daniels must go it alone. Lehane throws in one mind-bending plot twist after another in a psychological thriller that will leave readers in suspense right up to the end. Movie will be released October 2009. Check Availability | |
| The Long Fall (Walter Mosley) - MYSTERY MOSLEY: Mosley introduces us to a new character, Leonid McGill, a New York City private detective, who promises to be as complex and rewarding a character as Mosley's ever produced. McGill, a 53-year-old former boxer, shows us some violent moves that are not for the faint of heart. However, this book convinces me that only a genius could develop the character so well of this engaging new hero. Very good writing!! Check Availability | |
| Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirovsky) - FIC NEMIROVSKY: Two stories of the Nazi invasion of France in 1940: one urban tale of the occupation of Paris as residents flee the city. The other, a rural tale of a German occupied village and how the peasant farmers cope with Nazi soldiers living among them. Magnificent writing and exceptional translation. Check Availability | |
| Exit Music (Ian Rankin) - MYSTERY RANKIN: Scottish detective John Rebus ends his long and somewhat checkered career in Ian Rankin’s outstanding series about a rather rogue cop who solves crimes his own way in Edinburough, Scotland. Rankin’s mystery writing is award winning and never disappoints the reader. Check Availability | |
| Sarah's Key (Tatiana de Rosnay) - FIC ROSNAY: This emotional novel alternates between the past and present, moving between July 1942, after the Vel' d’Hiv' round-up of Jews by the French police, and present day France. Based upon a little-known piece of French history, de Rosnay has crafted a well-written novel centering around ten year-old Sarah Strazynski who is forced to go with her parents to the Velodrome d’Hiver and then ultimately to a concentration camp. Before being rounded up, Sarah innocently locks her four year-old brother in a closet thinking she is protecting him. The present is seen through the eyes of American journalist, Julia Jarmond, who is married to a Frenchman whose family has dark secrets relating to the Starzynski family. As Julia researches the Vel d’Hiv incident, she uncovers the horrifying truth that the family has tried to keep secret. Check Availability | |
| Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling) - YA FIC ROWLING: The 6th installment of the Harry Potter series is, in fact, my favorite. Harry returns to school, leaving in a nobler, though more tense fashion. Voldemort has returned out into the open, and Harry needs to learn all he can to defeat him. The back stories give the characters an added richness that both amuses the reader and informs their opinions. If you saw the movie, the book is much better. Check Availability | |
| Dissolution (C.J. Sansom) - MYSTERY SANSOM: It is 1537 and the reformation is underway in England. Lord Thomas Cromwell is carrying out the wishes of King Henry VIII and closing Catholic institutions. There is a murder in a remote monastery and Lord Cromwell sends Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer, to investigate. Shardlake believes in reform, but more trouble follows, and he finds he does not always trust his fellow reformers. And that he must be very careful of the power Cromwell holds from King Henry VIII. If this mystery suits your taste there are more to this series. Check Availability | |
| American Wife (Curtis Sittenfeld) - FIC SITTENFELD: Is Laura Bush an enigma to you? She is to the New York Time best-selling author of “Prep” who has written a novel from the point of view of the wife of an American President. Names are changed, but can you separate fact from fiction in this imagined memoir? Check Availability | |
| The Help (Kathryn Stockett) - FIC STOCKETT: Eugenia Skeeter Phelan, just home from college in 1962 Mississippi, has been advised to practice writing about what disturbs her if she really wants to become a writer. She begins by collecting the stories of the black maids who “help” the country club ladies with their homes and children. Skeeter meets in secret with the women to hear their true feelings and stories and writes a book that is scathing and shocking. This debut novel is a hit! Check Availability | |
| My Father’s Tears and Other Stories (John Updike) - FIC UPDIKE: Sadly, John Updike passed away in January, 2009 at the age of 76. His prolific writings include the not to be missed Rabbit Novels. He was a brilliant writer who won Pulitizer Prizes for Rabbit is Rich (1982) and Rabbit at Rest (1991). Published posthumously, this book is a testament to what he did best. Updike showed us how personal relationships entwined with familial relations, sentiments and celebrations made small town America, from New England suburbia to his native Pennsylvania, work for people. Check Availability | |
| Cutting For Stone (Abraham Verghese) - FIC VERGHESE: This book will undoubtedly be my favorite book of 2009. A family saga that has it all, mystery, coming-of-age, unrequited love, and lots of medical terminology. In the first 50 pages, a dying nun gives birth to twins and the attending surgeon thinks he might be the father. From there we follow the divergent lives of the twins from Ethiopia to Manhattan. Check Availability |
Also try our Fall 2009 Nonfiction Librarian Picks.
For other good reads, check out our Suggested Reads Page.