Brent Bishop only wants to be cool and popular, but when a drunk driving accident kills an innocent girl, his priorities shift in an instant. The girl's mother asks for one thing: "That you make four whirligigs of a girl that looks like Lea. Put her name on them. Then set them up in Washington, California, Florida, and Maine-the corners of the United States." Brent takes off cross-country in a Greyhound bus to accomplish this bizarre rite of passage. The reader follows Brent's experiences, but also sees how the whirligigs affect people in each location. The book teaches how what we do can drastically affect each other's lives. It's a wonderful story told with a funky and creative writing style.

Reviewed by Beth G., North County Regional

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The year is 1919 and Alena`s once perfect life begins to crumble. No longer sheltered by her parents, Alena learns the true horrors of her native segregated Mississippi. After seeking refuge in Chicago, she is unfortunately confronted with more racism. Foster`s successful telling of the story from the points of view of multiple characters, enables the reader to experience the confusion, despair and turbulent life of these characters. The interspersal of Negro spirituals throughout the novel help deliver a strong spiritual and inspirational message. Great read for those who like stories filled with determination, courage, love, temptation, forgiveness and honor.

Reviewed by Michelle G., Scaleybark Branch

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This small but powerful novel reads like a memoir. We follow Emma Garnet Tate Lowell’s reflections back on her childhood in 1840s Virginia under the rule of an oppressive and self-centered father. The Civil War years find her in Raleigh, NC as she and her husband, a physician, attempt to raise kind and bright children while also toiling day and night to stem the flow of blood, lost limbs and agonizing deaths of each new battle’s wounded soldiers. The language, setting, characters and historical detail are so authentic that one cannot help but gain a fresh, unique perspective on a fascinating chapter in our country’s history.

Reviewed by Neily T., Mint Hill Branch

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Shange sets this classic tale in racially charged 1957 St. Louis. The reader experiences romance, integration and the adult world through the eyes of thirteen year old Betsey Brown. Shange vividly and accurately shows how both her class struck African American community and the surrounding hostile white community pressures Betsey. Nevertheless, Betsey learns how to use the wit and wisdom she gains from some unlikely sources to conquer obstacles. This book is especially recommended for those who like reading historical fiction written with a colloquial flavor.

Reviewed by Michelle G., Scaleybark Branch

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One of America's most promising authors, Paul Watkins gives us a look at the troubled history of Ireland. When Ben Sheridan learns that the father he grew up with is not his true father, he goes looking for the one who might still be alive in Ireland. He goes in search of his roots and his identity. Believing that his father is fighting with the rebels, Ben gets caught up in the Irish rebellion. This engrossing exploration of one man's identity and vulnerabilities also gives us a vivid glimpse of the Irish struggle for independence in the 1920's.

Reviewed by Mark B., Main Library

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McCarthy tells the tale of John Grady Cole, a young Texan who grew up on his grandfather's ranch in the 1940s. After his grandfather dies, John Grady's mother sells the ranch, separating him from the only life he's ever known. Feeling dispossessed, John Grady and his pal Lacey head for the last bastion of the old West - Mexico, where they secure jobs on a huge ranch. The rancher takes a liking to the young man with an uncanny ability with horses. Meanwhile, John Grady takes a liking to the rancher's daughter, which spells trouble in paradise. It is a beautiful tale portraying rites of passage, a vanishing way of life, and the loss of innocence; as usual with a McCarthy novel, however, the real star is the writing.

Reviewed by Bryon C., North County Regional

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Shay Cecil has spent all fifteen years of his life in and around Boone's Lick, Missouri. His father, however, isn't one to stay put for long. Shay's mother, Mary Margaret, has had enough. She packs up the family and heads out across the prairie to find her wayward husband. Shay narrates this grand adventure with bountiful humor and humanity. Just after America's Civil War the lands between Missouri and Wyoming were beginning to be explored by whites, but the Native Americans were not willing to give up their traditional homelands and culture. It is through this world that the Cecil family travels as Mary Margaret takes control of her life. This is a Western in the best tradition - full of adventure, humor, and flesh-and-blood characters.

Reviewed by Mark B., Main Library

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He is just called the boy. But this boy has no ordinary sixteenth summer. Feeling forced from his home, he runs away to make a new life for himself. Gary Paulsen's young character--based heavily on his own youth--struggles to keep food in his stomach and look for a place where he feels safe. Paulsen's clear and firm writing will have you feeling the heat of open fields, tasting the stale bread of a mid-day meal, witnessing the hardships of being alone, and longing for a new life--one where a boy steps into being a man.

Reviewed by Tony T., Main Library

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I will give this book 3 stars because it was a very intriguing story until Paulsen brings in the sex factor which ruined it for me because it`s not my thing and took away from the book.
-Jack, Albany, NY

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Ned Kelly was a 19th century Australian outlaw whose family was exiled from Ireland and sent to Australia. His father died when he was 12. His mother relied on graft and crime to support the family. Kelly, a killer, thief, and gang leader, was hanged when he was 25. The fictional account is written as a letter to Kelly’s daughter. He is a folk hero to Australians because he rebelled against the corrupt English landlords and used injustice to create his own brand of justice. The novel reads like an old-fashioned American western with one showdown after another. Carey has you cheering Ned on to victory, even though you know his fate. He does an impeccable job of capturing the voice of an Australian legend.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

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Ten-year old Maggie Davidson possesses a newly discovered, very extraordinary gift: She sees God. Not only that, but God is a woman. And, to add fuel to that non-traditional vision of God, Maggie can now heal people! Maggie, her mother and amazing grandmother live in extremely rural eastern North Carolina. As Maggie grows into adulthood, sporadically and miraculously encountering God, she is forced to wrestle with both the good and evil that reside within her beloved community. Family, love and religion gel seamlessly in a book that snares the reader into caring deeply about these three strong, close-knit women. A story that will stay with you a long, long time.

Reviewed by Nancy D., Davidson Branch

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When her mom, the world famous fitness guru, flies to Europe on a TV shoot, 15-year-old Colie gets dumped for the summer on her eccentric aunt. Colie is no prize package herself, with a lip-ring and an in-your-face attitude to match. But new friends and a new job lead Colie to look at herself with new eyes. To her own amazement, Colie discovers that she is not a hopeless misfit after all. Sarah Dessen has given us a funny, poignant, up-beat novel of self-discovery.

Reviewed by Sue G., Davidson Branch

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Alice Walker addresses a controversial issue in her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy. That being the cultural tradition practiced in areas throughout Africa that calls for genital mutilation of young female girls. Oliva and Adam, children of American missionaries, meet Tashi in her African village when they are merely children. Years later Adam and Tashi marry. But Tashi battles with her decision not to assimilate to the age old customs of her tribe, which includes face scarring and genital mutilation. Using flashbacks and the alternate voices of Tashi, Adam and Olivia, Walker offers a rich fictitious account of an age old tradition that despite its medical and social repercussions is still being practiced in the year 2002.

Reviewed by Vickie C., West Boulevard Branch

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“I was born in southern China in 1962 in the tiny town of Yellow Stone. They called it the Year of the Great Starvation.” Thus begins Da Chen’s memoir, Colors of the Mountain, in which he tells his extraordinary account of growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution under Mao’s Communist rule. Since the Chens were descendants of landlords, they were punished for being capitalists and denied an education. His father performed acupuncture treatments in exchange for Da’s English tutoring. In 1976, Mao died and a passion for education swept the country. Da was determined to go to college. Chen relates heart-warming humorous anecdotes and writes lyrically of the sights and sounds of rural China. Chen’s coming of age story is about making dreams come true.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

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“ I learned early that the most important thing in life is a good story.” Reichl, former New York Times food critic and current editor of Gourmet Magazine, relates lots of humorous vignettes filled with characters in her coming of age memoir. She writes about growing up in New York, attending boarding school in Montreal and most of all, surviving her mother’s creative cooking including a dish called “‘everything stew’.” She learned as a child that “food could be a way of making sense of the world. If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.” Each chapter ends with recipes. It is fascinating to go along on Reichl’s journey which is continued in Comfort Me with Apples.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

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I absolutely fell in love with this book! It's supposed to be a 'kinda' cookbook, but the author's writing is pure gourmet dining. Each page is a feast. Her newest one is Comfort Me With Apples. I am starting that one today.
-Barbara, Cornelius, NC

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Beverly Donofrio has taken her life and made it into a book that is by turns, happy, despondent, and triumphant. Her growing up, her relationship with her parents, her teenage pregnancy and subsequent marriage are all brought forth for our inspection. Donofrio doesn’t gloss over the rough patches in her life. She writes frankly about her husband’s addiction and their divorce as well as her own drug use and promiscuity. Her uncertainty as a parent is apparent in her stories of benign neglect and in the faint resentment of her son, whom she raised while still such a child herself. Her effort to continue learning and eventually going on to college is inspiring. Her writing is honest and touching and gives the reader a real sense of what it was like to be a teenage mother with very little hope of changing the situation she found herself in.

Reviewed by Karen K., Morrison Regional

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Most people are familiar with John Wilkes Booth and his contribution to American history but not many know about his niece, Edwina Booth. Thanks to her uncle, she feels smothered by critical stares yet she must also endure admiration from her father, Edwin Booth’s admirers. He is an internationally known actor. She wants desperately to carve out a life of her own and she always assumed she’d marry an artist like her father. But when her fiancé suffers a nervous breakdown, Edwina must make some tough choices. How can Edwina avoid the horrible consequences her uncle, her stepmother and even her aunt have made? Should she listen to her heart? How will her father cope if she makes the wrong choice?

Reviewed by Julie S., South County Regional

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Jonell McLain, a California real estate agent, spied a 15-carat diamond necklace in a display case of a locally-owned, prestigious jewelry store. Trying it on instilled in her a vision of a group of women owning the necklace and enjoying the perks of sharing the precious commodity. And so the experiment began: 12 of Jonell's friends and associates bought into the vision and found their lives enhanced by "Jewelia", the name bestowed on the bodacious bauble. Along the way, there were bouts of sniping about who should be allowed to borrow it and how much media attention should be allowed. Ultimately, many charitable causes benefited from Jewelia's appearances and the 13 women themselves learned invaluable lessons about sharing, friendship, self-esteem, and legacy. Inspirational!

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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Colum McCann based his novel on the life of Polish poet, Papusza. We meet Zoli Novotna at age six as she and her grandfather flee the fascist troops who killed her parents and siblings. They join a caravan of gypsy harpists and her grandfather defies tradition by teaching her to read and write. As she matures, Zoli becomes a celebrated poet/singer whose writings are sought by Western publishers who want to tap into her popularity. Unfortunately, the communist regime tries to harness her fame for their own purposes. Zoli is banished by her Romani family. Betrayed by a forbidden love and exiled, Zoli embarks on a dangerous journey toward the West - seeking a place to call home. A fascinating story of loss and redemption!

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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Philomena “Pip” Ash is a lonely girl in a dysfunctional family in Kansas. She copes with the help of school chum Lilly and a new passion, swimming. The home front deteriorates as sister Bron succumbs to cancer and father Leonard’s enthusiasm for piloting small planes leads to his death. Mom becomes agoraphobic and sister Roxanne does drugs. What’s a girl to do? Swim: more and faster. So she does, breaking records as well. Olympian Pip wins silver at Seoul and gold at Barcelona. Then, an injury sidelines her. How will Pip deal with this setback? Try Swimming. Explicit language.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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In a post-apocalyptic future, an island nation builds a seawall and defenses. Isolated for centuries, a society loosely based on Plato’s Republic evolves. A girl, Anaximander, begins the examination required to join the Academy, the ruling thinker class. Her subject choice is Adam Forde, a rebel/hero from the past. The examiners question her interpretation of Adam’s life. They probe ever deeper into her interpretation of his interaction with the android, Art, and the nature of society and consciousness. Fraught with tension, Genesis, is a short, fascinating read with a surprising twist!

Reviewed by Vera B., North County Regional

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Fifty-year-old Alice Howland is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard University. While serving as guest speaker for a psychology colloquium series, she has a memory lapse about a subject that she has spoken about countless times. This will be the first of many cognition failures that the reader will experience through Alice’s eyes. Once the diagnosis is made – early onset Alzheimer’s disease – her professional and personal life begins to unravel. Family relationships are affected – but surprisingly, a relationship long at risk becomes stronger at book’s end. Genova, a neuroscientist herself, provides an informative look at a disease that erases so much of what makes us who we are. Heartbreaking, yet, remarkably uplifting.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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Wisconsinite Matt Bishop is a man on a mission. Pregnant wife, Marissa, has requested that he retrieve an antique cradle that her mother snatched when she deserted the family years ago. Matt’s pilgrimage, peppered with his own mental battles with memories of a haunting childhood, takes him to Minnesota and then south to Indiana, where a child named Joe joins him on the trip back to Wisconsin. Author Somerville juxtaposes the story of Renee Owen, a troubled children’s author, who also encounters a child named Joe some ten years after Matt’s journey. Joe becomes the link between the two stories, both of which are testaments to the meaning of family and the sense of belonging. The empty antique cradle is metaphorical. Stunning tale.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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Betty Weissmann, mid-seventyish and living well in Central Park West, gets the boot from her husband of 48 years, Joseph, who has gotten a new lease on life in the arms of a younger woman. As the divorce proceedings start and the mistress moves in, Betty accepts lodging from wealthy Cousin Lou, who has a Westport cottage needing tenants. Her daughters, Miranda and Annie, who are both weathering their own periods of adjustment, join her. The novel is propelled by the highs and lows that the 3 W’s experience as the story unfolds. Though the book is a nod to Austen, literati may detect a few Elizabethan humors here and there. Regardless, it is a light, satisfying read with a number of surprises.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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Septuagenarian Percy Darling - widower, retired librarian, and curmudgeon – isolates himself – reading, jogging, and skinny dipping in and around his Boston-area farmhouse. Then, he allows a pre-school to move into his barn. This fateful action punctures Percy’s unconnected world, opening the floodgates to changes leading to self-discovery and reconnection. His aimless adult daughter moves onto his property, a woman 20 years his junior recharges his libido, and a preservationist neighbor convinces him to spruce up his old farmhouse for tours. Author Glass embellishes Percy’s journey with sub-plots involving various issues, such as: eco-terrorism and immigration. There is something for everyone in this thought-provoking novel.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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When we first meet retired Major Ernest Pettigrew, he is about to answer his doorbell wearing a crimson housecoat decorated with clematis flowers. Aside from that embarrassing moment, he is quite the proper English gentleman rooted in duty, honor, and tradition. He is contemplating the news of the recent death of his brother, and answering the doorbell will bring him a step closer to a relationship with the caller - Mrs. Ali, a Pakistani widow - that will cause village tongues to wag. Simonson has created a satisfying read about Pettigrew’s return to love against a backdrop of issues including: aging, multiculturalism, inheritance, and generational friction. Dry, British witticisms only make the novel more endearing.

Reviewed by Susanne W., South County Regional

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A humorous, yet poignantly moving story of a young woman, Esther Kohler, who has recently graduated from college only to find herself moving back to her childhood home. Forced by her mother, Esther accepts a job as a babysitter to a couple who is grieving the loss of a child. It’s through this unexpected detour that the protagonist experiences an education steeped in the complexities of life. This contemporary novel illustrates the dichotomy found within most interpersonal relationships by taking an honest and hilarious look at the beauty, the desperation, and the twisted, unpredictable nature present in us all.

Reviewed by Cynthia M., ImaginOn

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Young Millie Reynolds is surrounded by unspeakable acts of violence. Each year a colorful troupe of gypsies camp on the outskirts of town allowing Millie to dream of escape. Her only refuge is high into the branches of her best friend, Sweetie, a beloved sweet gum tree. Sheltered and concealed by those leafy limbs, she watches as her mother slowly diminishes at the hands of Millie’s abusive father. “Take me away”, she whispers, as the wind blows gently through the leaves. “Take me into the free.” This is a beautiful heart-wrenching novel about one little girl who lives through the shame and secrecy of domestic abuse.

Reviewed by Cynthia M., ImaginOn

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Akash is twelve and obsessed with math. He dearly wants to continue his schooling. However, his family is poor, and after his father’s death, he is forced to work in a quarry to pay off the family`s debt. But Akash won`t stay. He sees the ledger with the amount they are paid, the amount they owe and the interest rates. He`s good enough with numbers to know the debt will never be paid off. He runs away and lives on the street in Delhi. This book follows his life on the street and how he tries to get more schooling so that he may continue to learn math. The plight of many street children in Delhi is presented with delicacy and honesty. Great multicultural story!

Reviewed by Kristi M., Mountain Island Branch

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Kristin Cashore returns to the Seven Kingdoms in her third novel. Eight years after the events in Graceling, Bitterblue is trying to rule a kingdom deeply damaged by her father, King Leck. She grows restless behind the mounds of paper her advisors push in front of her and she sneaks out to see her kingdom for her own eyes. This first rebellion leads to others as Bitterblue discovers that secrets are kept by many people, some of them kept by her most trusted friends. To help heal her kingdom, Bitterblue must discover exactly how deep the wound is that Leck created. She will need new friends and allies when she no longer knows who to trust. And whether she trusts him or not, she will also find love.

Reviewed by Kristi M., Mountain Island Branch

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Amish culture evokes idyllic scenes of simple rural life. In such closed cultures, however, free thinking and debate is not encouraged, only toil and duty. For intellectually-curious youths, the constraints of Amish culture can be stifling and irrational. In his memoir, Ira Wagler takes the reader on his personal journey, struggling with his unquenchable desire to move beyond his ancestral community. Ira left home numerous occasions between the ages of 17 and 26. His underlying fear of eternal damnation pulled him back, albeit reluctantly, again and again. When he finally reached out in prayer, establishing a personal relationship with the Divine, his darkness and depression were lifted, and he was able to begin his own life.

Reviewed by Lydia T., Main Library

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