Library Collections
Librarian Reads - Summer 2010
Ever wonder what your Adult Services Librarians are recommending for the summer? Check out some of our favorite books!
Fiction Worth Reading
| The Girl Who Chased the Moon (Sarah Addison Allen) - FICTION ALLEN: This is the story of a young woman who moves to a small town to live with her grandfather after her mother's death. It is a small southern town with many unusual residents. If you know what quirky, fey, & whimsical mean, or maybe bizarre, grotesque, & phantasmagoric --- in a literary way. Grandfather, and his house with magical wallpaper, is just the beginning. A southern gothic kind of thing… perhaps. What are the family secrets? (If you liked her earlier title, Garden Spells, you will like this one.) Check Availability | |
| Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) - FICTION BRONTE: This is my favorite book, and if you haven't read it since high school you should read it again. It has everything that those-of-us-who-yawn-through-the-romance-novels-of-Jane-Austen could need: emotional abuse, typhus, arson, cross-dressing, suicide, and, of course, the crazy wife locked in the attic. It is essentially the Desperate Housewives of 19th century literature. Everytime I read this book, I find something else to love about it. Check Availability | |
| Pirate Latitudes (Michael Crichton) - FICTION CRICHTON: Are you looking for an entertaining, rollicking good pirate adventure? Here it is! Fun read for the summer! Check Availability | |
| The Pioneer Woman Cooks (Ree Drummond) - 641.5976 DRUMMOND: Step-by-step photography and an interesting story of a city girl turned country gal, make this book more than just a cookbook. Cooks will love the new approach to traditional comfort food...Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf, Spicy Pulled Pork and Chocolate Sheet Cake are a few of my favorites. Check Availability | |
| The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) - YA FIC GAIMAN: I don’t usually like scary stories, but the ghosts and other out-of-this-world creatures in this book are only slightly scary and they’re actually the good guys. The story is about a boy named “Bod” short for “Nobody” because nobody knows his real name, not even “Bod.” As a baby he escaped his family’s murderer by entering a nearby cemetery where he was adopted and raised by a family of ghosts. The story follows “Bod” as he uncovers his past and makes his way into the world of the living. This book is both suspenseful and touching…I highly recommend it! Check Availability | |
| Game Change (John Heilemann) - 973.932 HEILEMANN: Heilman takes the reader behind the scenes of the 2008 presidential election and reveals the players when they weren’t on camera. Some surprises here. Check Availability | |
| The Art of Choosing (Sheena Iyengar) - 153.83 IYENGAR: Do you want to have choices, or be told what to do? Can you have too many choices? Is something different about the way Americans and Asians make choices? When it is shopping for groceries or when it is life or death? Check Availability | |
| Nothing Was The Same (Kay Redfield Jamison) - BIOGRAPHY JAMISON: This is the story of her husband’s death from cancer. She is best known for her book An Unquiet Mind about her life with bi-polar disease. Her musing on the difference between depression and grief was particularly interesting. Check Availability | |
| The Pursuit of Other Interests (Jim Kokoris) - FICTION KOKORIS: Humorous and poignant story of a neurotic CEO who is "let go" from his job. Unable to tell his wife and family that he has been fired, he spends his days in an outplacement firm with an amusing case of characters. Check Availability | |
| Ghosts of Belfast (Stuart Neville) - FICTION NEVILLE: A “wow” of a first novel! Long after “The Troubles” in Ireland seem to have subsided, those who were involved can’t put it to rest. A thriller to the very end. Check Availability | |
| The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood (Kien Nguyen) - BIOGRAPHY NGUYEN: This compelling memoir details the suffering and torture an eight-year old boy endured when he and his family were left behind after Saigon fell to the Vietcong. Check Availability | |
| A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True (Brigid Pasulka) - FICTION PASULKA: Two intertwining love stories that take place in old and new Poland, told by a Polish Immigrant. Check Availability | |
| Nation (Terri Pratchett) - YA FICTION PRATCHETT: This book is both suspenseful and thought provoking. The story begins with a native boy named Mau and a British girl named Daphne, who are left to fend for themselves on an island after a huge tidal wave destroys Mau’s village and Daphne’s ship. As more survivors find the island and a new tribe is formed, Mau struggles to understand his purpose in the world while Daphne learns to function in a society that follows a completely different set of norms from those in England. Overall, this is a great book that you won’t want to put down! Check Availability | |
| Making Toast (Roger Rosenblatt) - 306.8745 ROSENBLATT: Making Toast is a memoir about the death of his 37 year old daughter. When his daughter suddenly died Roger and his wife Ginny moved in with their son-in-law and their 3 small grandchildren to try and keep life as normal as possible for the children. Check Availability | |
| Why My Third Husband Will be a Dog (Lisa Scottoline) - 814.54 SCOTTOLINE: This is a collection of columns from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Scottoline talks about all kinds of things: Her mom, house, dog, chickens...all very funny. Charming short pieces guaranteed to make you smile.Check Availability | |
| Unwind (Neal Shusterman) - YA FICTION SHUSTERMAN: Unwind is by far the most engaging and creepiest book that I've read all year. Set in a dystopian future where abortion is illegal, but parents can "unwind" (kill them and use them for donor parts) a child between the ages of 13 and 18. This story follows three potential "unwinds". See their journey as they try to cope with their fate. Both thrilling and profoundly philosophical (about the nature of life and life beyond death), this is definitely an excellent read. Check Availability | |
| Child 44 (Tom Rob Smith) - FICTION SMITH: Child 44 is an original, chilling thriller set in 1953 Soviet Union. War hero, Leo Demidov, realizes there may be a serial killer on the loose, but the Communists refuse to accept that even one child has been murdered. Will Demidov solve the mystery in time and at what cost to him? Check Availability | |
| Stargirl (Jerry Spinelli) - YA FICTION SPINELLI: This book is about a girl who calls herself “Stargirl.” As her name suggests, she is very different from the other students at her school. For example, she sings songs to the other students with her ukulele, cheers for both teams at sporting events, and has a pet rat she carries with her everywhere. Her classmates don’t know what to make of her odd antics. Their reaction to her changes throughout the book from shock, to love, to hate, and to love again. I loved the character “Stargirl” and the book, too! Check Availability | |
| A Homemade Life (Molly Wizenberg) - 641.5092 WIZENBERG: This is a "sunny" memoir. Wizenberg is the author of the popular blog Orangette. She is a wonderful writer and an intrepid cook. I’ve made 2 of her recipes and they’ve both been interesting and, more importantly, delicious. Check Availability | |
| Except the Queen (Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder) - FICTION YOLEN: Two sister from the high court of the Queen of Fairy are banished to mortal earth without their powers. There is magic, both good and evil, in present day New York. Very interesting use of language and characters in this intriguing story, best described as urban fantasy. Check Availability | |
| I am the Messenger (Markus Zusak) - YA FICTION ZUSAK: Ed leads a boring life - the definition of average, until one day he foils an inept bank robbery, and soon after finds himself charged with improving the lives of random strangers around him. I preferred this book to Zusak's other acclaimed novel The Book Thief. Ed is both an engaging and enjoyable character and the ending is entirely unexpected and a little bit witty. Check Availability |
Other librarian Reads:
- Librarian Reads: Summer (2012)
- Librarian Reads: Fall Fiction (2009)
- Librarian Reads: Fall Nonfiction (2009)
- Librarian Reads: Summer (2009)
For other good reads, check out our Suggested Reads Page.