The inaugural LibraryReads list is here! Wait...what is LibraryReads? A list of new or soon-to-be published titles selected and recommended by librarians and library staff from across the country. We've included descriptions* below and you can head to the LibraryReads website to see brief reviews submitted by librarians.
Fangirl by Rainbow RowellPublished: September 10, 2013
The top pick for September has a huge following among librarians. Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. But now that they're going to college, things are changing. Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words. And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone. Will Cath make it through her first year of college?
How the Light Gets In: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny
Published: August 27, 2013
In Three Pines, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache investigates the disappearance of a woman who was once one of the most famous people in the world, but who now goes unrecognized by virtually everyone except the mad, brilliant poet Ruth Zardo.
Published: August 20, 2013
When the daughter of a cult horror film director is found dead in an abandoned Manhattan warehouse, investigative journalist Scott McGrath, disbelieving the official suicide ruling, probes into the strange circumstances of the young woman's death. (There's an app for this title -- use it to download exclusive multimedia content.)
Help for the Haunted by John Searles
Published: September 17, 2013
It begins with a call one snowy February night. Lying in her bed, young Sylvie Mason overhears her parents on the phone across the hall. This is not the first late-night call they have received, since her mother and father have an uncommon occupation: helping "haunted souls" find peace. And yet something in Sylvie senses that this call is different from the others, especially when they are lured to the old church on the outskirts of town. Once there, her parents disappear, one after the other, behind the church's red door, leaving Sylvie alone in the car. Not long after, she drifts off to sleep, only to wake to the sound of gunfire.
The Returned by Jason Mott
Published: August 27, 2013
Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were. Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time ... Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep - flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Published: September 10, 2013
Inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland's stark landscape, the novel brings to life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.
Margot by Jillian Cantor
Published: September 3, 2013
A what-if novel about Anne Frank's sister. In the spring of 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank has just come to the silver screen to great acclaim, and a young woman named Margie Franklin is working in Philadelphia as a secretary at a Jewish law firm. On the surface she lives a quiet life, but Margie has a secret: a life she once lived, a past and a religion she has denied, and a family and a country she left behind.
Songs of Willow Frost by Jaime Ford
Published: September 10, 2013
Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday, William is taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song. Determined to find Willow and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart to confront the mysteries of his past and his connection to the exotic film star.
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
Published: September 10, 2013
In the tradition of the best investigative journalism, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days after Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos.
A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett
Published: September 10, 2013
The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity - an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace.
If you'd like more book recommendations, stay tuned to our Facebook page for our next "Book Recs" session or browse our Book Lists page.
*Book descriptions from the publisher.
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