Have you ever been reading a book (for example: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), and you get really into the topic and want to learn more about it? Well, look no further than our Teen book display in the lobby full of teen fiction and nonfiction books paired together just for you!
Here are a few you’ll see on the display, but make sure to come check it out for more!
These books provided a great escape during all the happenings in the world. They either kept me sucked in wanting to read more, took me to another world, inspired me, or all of the above!
The Lovely War
by Julie Berry
This is one that will stick with me for a long time. A great historical fiction/love story that goes back in time between WWI and WWII. I loved how this story had a bit of a fantastical element in it. The story is told by the goddess, Aphrodite, who must defend herself after being caught by her husband, Hephaestus, in a tryst with Ares. The story she tells is of four humans who became connected during WWI.
The Forgotten Garden
by Kate Morton
I absolutely loved this book! At 650 pages I read it in just three days. I had such a hard time putting it down! The story starts with a young girl, Nell, who was abandoned on a ship to Australia in 1913. Nell is raised by the dock master and his wife who decide not to tell her until her 21st birthday that they are not her birth parents. The rest of the book includes all things that make a great story and mystery: dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family with many secrets, and a love denied.
Part of Your World
by Liz Braswell
This is the first book of The Twisted Tales series that I’ve read. All of the covers in this series are beautiful! As with all books in this series, there is a twist from the classic Disney tale. The twist in this tale is “what if Ariel never defeated Ursula?” Five years have passed since the end of The Little Mermaid, and Ariel is the voiceless queen of Atlantica while Ursula rules Prince Eric’s kingdom on land. After discovering her father, King Triton, might still be alive Ariel returns to a world she never thought she would see again.
The House in the Cerulean
by Sarah Mackenzie
This is such a happy book and provided a wonderful escape from reality. The book was heartwarming and filled with humor. The author of the book describes the story better than I can: “The House in the Cerulean Sea is a love letter to those who should be allowed to feel small and cared for when the world seems dark. Today, March 17, is a scary time. And it might get a little worse before it gets better. But I promise you it will. This book—this funny little book—is my way of helping you see sunlight through all the dark clouds. I hope you’re ready, because you’re about to go on an adventure you won’t expect.”
Sunrise at Normandy series
by Sarah Sundin
This Christian historical fiction series was very inspiring. All three books are set around the time of the Normandy invasion and focus on three brothers who have been at odds with each other for several years and how their faith brings them back together. I loved the romance in all three books and the female characters were fantastic. This series had a great blend of the details of being a soldier, life as a woman during the war, and the romance between the brothers and their girlfriends.
An American Marriage
by Marisa De Los Santos
4 stars
Celestial and Roy, a young, successful couple from Atlanta, have been married for just over a year when Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years in jail for a crime he did not commit while visiting his parents in Louisiana. The author lets the reader know he is innocent because he was with his wife at the time. With both of their lives upturned, Celestial remains loyal to her husband, but after a few years, she finds herself adrift and turns to her childhood friend Andre for comfort. Then suddenly, after five years, Roy’s conviction is overturned and he returns to face Celestial and Andre while trying to figure out where he belongs. Roy, Celestial and Andre are each given a voice in alternating chapters, which pulls the reader back and forth weaving a complex of emotions for the reader on who to side while tugging at our emotions. I really thought this book was going to be about our broken judicial system in regards to racial inequality and mass incarceration, and while those topics were explored some, the story is really about the quiet devastation of a marriage that maybe wasn’t as solid as we all thought. I thought the story was beautifully written and I found myself rereading different passages because I was moved by the strength and flow of her words. Recommend.
Read alikes:
The Mars Room: a novel by Rachel Kushner
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Time at home with nothing much to do is sort of a booklover’s dream. I had high reading hopes for my time social distancing – so much time, so many books brought home from the library and filling my personal bookshelves. Did I read as much as I thought I would? Not really, no. But there were a few books that I did read that quickly made it to my top reads of 2020 (and maybe all-time) reading list.
Emily’s Top 5 Quarantine Reads
#5: A Stroke of Malice (A Lady Darby Mystery #8)
by Anna Lee Huber
This is one of my favorite ongoing series. Set in England and Scotland, it follows the escapades of Lady Kiera Darby, an artist and former wife of a renowned anatomist, who now spends her time solving murders with the dashing Sebastian Gage. Bucking cultural norms and standing firm in her beliefs, Kiera is a force to be reckoned with and the last person you would want to stumble upon a dead body at a holiday party.
#4: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1)
by Jay Kristoff and Amie KaufmanThis was a re-read to prep for the recently released Aurora Burning. Kristoff and Kaufman are masters of writing science fiction with dynamic character, thrilling suspense, snappy dialogue. The Aurora Cycle follows Squad 312, recent graduates of the Aurora Academy, as they discover a force that is threatening the entire galaxy…and they may just be everyone’s last hope.
#3: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
by H.G. ParryNext to space fiction (see above) books about books may just be my favorite literary trope. H.G. Parry creates a world in which the fictional world is closer than we think. Charley Sutherland has a unique gift – the ability to read fictional characters into existence. When he reads Uriah Heep, from Charles Dickens’s classic David Copperfield into our world, he finds himself in the center of a growing war between the fiction and reality.
#2: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix
I don’t normally gravitate toward books with a lot of buzz, but the premise of this one just screamed “read me!” Set in the 90s, the story follows a group of women who find solace from their lives and husbands in their true-crime book club. When a mysterious man moves in just down the street, the club quickly becomes entangled in conspiracy theories and are convinced he is not quite what he seems. A bit gory and graphic, Hendrix weaves a story of friendship, loyalty, and resilience.
#1: The House in the Cerulean Sea
by T.J. KluneSo good I read it all in a day. Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth – an organization that monitors establishments that care for children with magical abilities. Baker is tasked with evaluating a particular orphanage run by Arthur Parnassus who is raising the antichrist (Lucifer, known as Lucy) and an entourage of other special kids. Linus discovers that the life he was living wasn’t really life at all, not everyone is as they seem, and sometimes we can choose our family. This one is filled with heart and humor with special detail given to creating well-rounded, empathetic, complicated characters you fall in love with immediately.
What did you read during quarantine?
Oona Out of Order
by Margarita Montimore
5 stars
As a cataloger at GPL I don’t have a lot of patron interaction, but I do have a lot of one-on-one time with the books. In fact, the best part of my job is opening all of the boxes that come into the library and seeing every new title that will be added to the collection. I get to see the books again, at least everything in the teen and adult collection, when I enter all of the information into the computer to make finding what you are looking for easier. Many books come across my desk but only a few catch my interest. Here I must confess that I judge books based on covers and titles all the time. One of the books that recently caught my attention was Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore. This one had a fun cover plus the title had me asking “Why and how is this lady out of order?’
Have you ever thought “What if I could fast forward to a few years from now?” Or conversely, have you ever wanted to go back to a time when you were younger to relive past mistakes or choose to live a more daring life? For some reason this is what life is like for Oona Lockhart. At the New Yea’rs Eve party celebrating the end of 1982, and the last day Oona is 18, she passes out at midnight and ends up ringing in a new year, just not the one she thought she would. Oona is now celebrating her 19th birthday in 2015 in a 51 year old body. No longer is she at a party in a basement adorned with fairy lights and loud music but rather in a quiet, posh Brooklyn residence that the stranger sitting next to her explains belongs to her. The stranger is her personal assistant, Kenzie. He has known her for years, though she is meeting him for the first time. Kenzie hands Oona a letter that her future past self (this gets less confusing the further you are immersed within the books) wrote her explaining her unique condition and hands her a binder of key stock market tips that Oona gave to herself that make it possible for her never to have to worry about money again. Her mother, Madeleine, knows that since the age of 19, Oona has been an unwilling time traveler. Madeleine helps Oona learn to navigate her new life because as the ball drops in Times Square at the end of the year it will all happen again.
Montimore wrote such an inventive and unique book that plays so deliciously with the time continuum that once I started it did not take long to be immersed fully into Oona’s life and her crazy order of living it. I loved every second of the book after I stopped trying to wrap my head around the logistics of the time travel. The book makes you look at family and relationships, even temporary ones, as something not to be taken for granted. Montimore also explores the idea of time and relishing moments that most would consider insignificant. She also helps the reader see that happiness and heartache are two sides of the same coin. It has been a while since I read a five star book, and while I know tastes vary drastically, Oona Out of Order was the book that propelled me out of my reading slump.
Read-alikes
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
