listed by call number

Fundamental by Bonnie Raitt
CD RC RAITT, TC RC RAITT
She keeps getting better all the time!

War of Jenkin's Ear by Michael Morpungo
YA F MORP
Guaranteed to make you think.

The Dower House by Annabel Davis-Goff
F DAVI
Depicts Protestant Ireland in the 1960's where traditions are in decline. Molly Hassard is a teenager at the start whose family lives in the dower house -- the house where widows move to make room in the manor for firstborn sons. Her parents die and as Molly comes of age she learns how to make a life between the old traditions and the new ways.

Seventh Heaven by Alice Hoffman
F HOFF
What can be said about the main character, Nora Silk? Certainly, she was well ahead of her 1950s suburbian neighborhood. She's the type of woman many of us even today strive to be like. She's courageous, follows her heart and is a risk taker. She holds a secret about life that many of us have yet to discover -- happiness and even unhappiness is a better existence than trying to make yourself fit into the "American Dream" when it's just not you! All in all, a fast read that discusses a heavy issue.

The Kingmaking; Pendragon's Banner; Shadow of the King
all by Helen Hollick
F HOLL
Historical Fiction -- If you like to read the legends of King Arthur, this is the series for you.
The first book, The Kingmaking, begins as Arthur is about to ascend the throne of Britain. He meets his future wife Gwenhwyfar, and is forced to choose between the kingship and the woman he loves.
Pendragon's Banner, the second in the trilogy, follows Arthur in his attempts to keep the kingdom he captured.
The final installment, Shadow of the King, finds Arthur restless with the peaceful times in Britain. He sails to France to fight barbarians on the continent, leaving Gwenhwyfar to defend the throne at home.

Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin
F LEVI
Guess who's been in a coma for 27 years? Guess what her son is like now? No -- don't guess. Read this book. This sequel will delight fans of Rosemary's Baby. Levin perfectly reclaims the tone of his 1967 classic, using a light, ironic touch with a very dark topic. He seems to be sitting by a bonfire, saying with a gentle, wry smile, "Indulge me. I'm going to tell you a story." There are shocking, ugly scenes, but you'd see more gore and cruelty in the daily paper than you will in this book.
Levin ingeniously weaves turn-of-the-millennium frenzy and religious symbolism into his plot. He uses cultural references deftly and casually -- the book is unmistakably contemporary without screaming, "Hey, it's the nineties now!" The ending was so incredibly cliché I shouted, "Oh, puh-leeze!" -- then realized it was more complex than it had first seemed.
The author loves wordplay as a plot device. He'll not only tell you an entertaining tale, but also place you under a diabolical word-puzzle curse. Get out your Scrabble board.

Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
F QUIN, TC F QUIN
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen has written a beautiful, heart-stopping story that explores the inexplicable feelings between people who are passionately connected in ways they don't understand.
After years of beatings from her abusive husband, Fran Benedetto finally leaves with her son to begin a new life in a new place far from home. They are given new identities which they struggle to accept without giving up who they really are. A new job, a new school, new friends, and new paint and posters on the dingy walls of their tiny new apartment help to ease the transition, but Fran (now Beth) is ever fearful that her husband will someday find them and destroy the new life they are trying to build. How far will she go to protect herself and her son, and how long can she hide her past from those she grows to love?

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
F SCHL
A 15-year-old German boy, Michael Berg, born during WWII, is befriended by Hanna, a 36-year-old street car conductor. They have an affair and then she disappears. Years later when Michael is a law student he sees her again when he is studying the trial of some WWII concentration camp guards -- all of them women and one of them Hanna.
All the philosophical post-Holocaust questions of guilt, responsibility, and punishment are posed. One important question for me would be: what would I have done in the same situation?
The power of reading aloud really appealed to me because I read aloud to someone every day.
It's a very easy read, but also one of those stories that sticks with you for a long time and one you want to discuss with others.

Lost Lake by Mark Slouka
F SLOU
A treasure of a novel, actually a series of short stories, that revolves around the people, mostly Czech, who settle around a lake in upstate New York.

Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
F WELL
Little Altars Everywhere is a first novel that won the Western States Book Award for Fiction. Set in small-town Louisiana, the story is told in turns by Siddalee Walker and the members of her dysfunctional Southern family. I haven't found such wonderful, quirky characters since Mark Childress' Crazy in Alabama.

The Good Children by Kate Wilhelm
F WILH, LARGE TYPE F WILH
Psychological Fiction -- The Good Children is a masterpiece of lies, love, insanity, and possibly murder. Four "good" children lose first their father in an industrial accident and then their mother in an accident (??) at home. The lengths these children go to in order to stay together as a family are both admirable and frightening. And the deceit they agree to threatens the very family they want so desperately to keep together.

Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
(and One for the Money; Two for the Dough; Three to Get Deadly)
M EVAN
Series of mysteries starring hilarious bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

The Bootlegger: A Story of Small-Town America by John Hallwas
364.133 HA
This is the story of Kelly Wagle, a small-time bootlegger whose mysterious career had a profound and lasting impact on his community which, for over 20 years, was also MY community.
Although I had for years heard from my father and other older family members accounts of Wagle's gangland-style murder, the author's work combines biography, community history, and true crime narrative in a compelling story that took me beyond that singular event. It provided a picture of the hard-working, conflict-ridden, ghost-haunted, coal-mining town of Colchester, the small west-central Illinois town in which I grew up. The mention of familiar names (including my grandfather and several great-uncles), places, and events were, of course, of special interest to me, but Hallwas' factual account that speaks with documentary authority and his complex literary work that is masterfully constructed will appeal to anyone who likes a good "whodunit," this one written with objective historical reportage and thought-provoking analysis.

Five Equations That Changed the World: The Power and the Poetry of Mathematics by Michael Guillen
530.15 GU
Harvard mathematician-physicist Guillen profiles 5 pioneers whose mathematical equations had far-reaching impacts: Isaac Newton (gravity), Daniel Bernoulli (pressure), Michael Faraday (electricity), Rudolf Clausius (heat), and Albert Einstein (relativity). What tickled me most about this book was that I enjoyed it so much and mathematics is not something I normally read about for pleasure. The linking of dramatic biography with mathematical documentary, or the personal with the scientific, was well-done -- and, yes, both poetic and powerful.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
614.57 PR
A true story about the Ebola virus. I liked the book because it was real and knowing that made it so exciting. The book is a drama/thriller.

From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East by William Dalrymple
915.6045 DA
Travel/History -- Author duplicates a journey taken by a monk in 587 A.D. from Mount Athos, Greece, through the Middle East to Egypt. On the way, we learn fascinating political, religious, and social history.

A Town Like Alice [videorecording]
VC F TOWN

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
YA F HESS, NEWBERY J HESS

Davita's Harp by Chaim Potok
F POTO
Lovely book!


For more recommendations, go to:
Staff, Board, & Volunteer Favorites 2002
Staff, Board, & Volunteer Favorites 2001
Staff & Board Favorites 2000 * Staff Favorites 1999
Staff Favorites 1997 * Reader's Favorites
"If You Like..." (recommends similar authors)
Hot Picks (recommends new books)
About Books (WVIK radio show) -- program schedule & book recommendations from hosts, guests, & listeners
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