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Reader's Advisory
Staff Picks
So, you've just closed the back cover on that juicy romance you were dying to read and are wondering what you'd like to read next. Thinking about trying that hot murder mystery you've heard so much about? Or maybe delving into a psychological thriller by that great new author whose name you can't remember? Your Library can help you decide what to read next.Curious about what staff members at your Library might be reading? Here's what we currently have on the go:
Nobody's Mother: life without kids, edited by Lynne van Luven
Nobody's Mother is a collection of stories by women who made the choice not to have children. From introspective to humorous to rabble-rousing, these are personal stories that are well and honestly told. The writers range in age from early 30s to mid-70s and come from diverse backgrounds. All have thought long and hard about the role of motherhood, their own destinies, what mothering means in our society and what their choice means to them as individuals and as members of their ethnic communities or social groups. Contributors include: Lorna Crozier, well-known poet and the author of a dozen books, as well as the recipient of a Governor General's award and numerous other writing prizes; Maggie De Vries, children's-book editor and author of Missing Sarah, a memoir about her sister, one of the murdered women from Vancouver's downtown east side; and Kate Braid, a creative-writing instructor whose books include Inward to the Bones: Georgia O'Keeffe's Journey with Emily Carr, To This Cedar Fountain, Red Bait! Struggle of a Mine Mill Local, with Al King, and Covering Rough Ground, which won the Pat Lowther Award.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer
Published as a series of letters written just after the Second World War, this book focuses on a female author and a literary group formed during the German Occupation of the island of Guernsey. This novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.
U is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton
Mystery A-Z series
Somewhat of a different style than the previous novels; the author shifts back and forth between the present and twenty years earlier. An old case of a child abduction and disappearance is revisited when a client shows up unannounced in Kinsey Milhone’s office, Kinsey has her own family issues to deal with simultaneously.
The heart specialist, by Claire Holden Rothman
Inspired by the life of Doctor Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott, The Heart Specialist is the story of an ambitious woman pursuing her dream at the dawn of the 20th century. Agnes is stripped of a regular childhood when her father is accused of a horrific crime and abandons the family. Never considered ladylike, she is drawn to the "wrong" things, such as microscopes, anatomy and dissection, that lead to her finding her calling as a doctor. Yet despite a rapid rise to stardom in the medical community, she soon finds herself up against the same glass ceiling faced by women in her field. Set against the backdrop of conflict and upheaval permeating the early 1900s, The Heart Specialist is a testament to one woman's triumph in the face of adversity.-
Dreamers of the day, by Mary Doria Russell
Agnes Shanklin, a forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference convenes, she is freed for the first time from her mother's withering influence and finds herself being wooed by a handsome, mysterious German. At the same time, Agnes - with her plainspoken American opinions - is drawn into the company of Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell, who will, in the space of a few days, redraw the world map to create the modern Middle East. As they change history, Agnes too will find her own life transformed forever.
Her fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical "mirror" twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin … but they have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls - her own twin - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat...
Have a Little Faith: a true story, by Mitch Albom
Albom takes readers on a stirring mission to honour a last request and send a beloved rabbi off to heaven. Albom who walked away from a deeply religious background as a young man - rekindles his own faith by sitting with and caring for the wise, and funny Rabbi.
Handle with Care, by Jodi Picoult
Things break all the time. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Promises break. Hearts break. Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life? Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love.
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