Readers’ Advisory Committee
STAFF PICKS A P R I L 2 0 1 8
Libraries To find on the web go to www.nccde.org/libraries and click on “What Do I Read Next”
FICTION
ONLY CHILD BY RHIANNON NAVIN (PICKED BY SM) Squeezed into a coat closet with his classmates and teacher, first grader Zach Taylor can hear gunshots ringing through the halls of his school. A gunman has entered the building, taking nineteen lives and irrevocably changing the very fabric of this close-knit community. While Zach's mother pursues a quest for justice against the shooter's parents, holding them responsible for their son's actions, Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art. Armed with his newfound understanding, and with the optimism and stubbornness only a child could have, Zach sets out on a captivating journey towards healing and forgiveness, determined to help the adults in his life rediscover the universal truths of love and compassion needed to pull them through their darkest hours. (304 pages)
WINTER SISTERS BY ROBIN OLIVEIRA (PICKED BY SLH & SH) New York, 1879: After an epic snow storm ravages the city of Albany, Dr. Mary Sutter, a former Civil War surgeon, begins a search for two little girls, the daughters of close friends killed by the storm who have vanished without a trace. Mary's mother and niece Elizabeth, who has been studying violin in Paris, return to Albany upon learning of the girls' disappearance--but Elizabeth has another reason for wanting to come home, one she is not willing to reveal. Despite resistance from the community, who believe the girls to be dead, the family persists in their efforts to find the two sisters. When what happened to them is revealed, the uproar that ensues tears apart families, reputations, and even the social fabric of the city, exposing dark secrets about some of the most powerful of its citizens, and putting fragile loves and lives at great risk. (416 pages) THE PHILOSOPHER’S FLIGHT BY TOM MILLER (PICKED BY SM) Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy— a female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals. When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women. Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers. (432 pages) THE QUANTUM SPY BY DAVID IGNATIUS (PICKED BY KS) A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb: whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption in existence, effectively owning the digital world. The question is: who will build it first, the United States or China? The latest of David Ignatius's timely, sharp-eyed espionage novels follows CIA agent Harris Chang into a quantum research lab compromised by a suspected Chinese informant. The breach provokes a mole hunt that is obsessive, destructive, and--above all--uncertain: Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? Chang soon finds that there is a thin line between loyalty and betrayal, as the investigation leads him down a rabbit hole as dangerous as it is deep. (320 pages)
New Castle County Libraries | Department of Community Services | Matthew Meyer , County Executive STAFF PICKS FICTION
HAPPINESS BY AMINATTA FORNA (PICKED BY SLS) London. A fox makes its way across Waterloo Bridge. The distraction causes two pedestrians to collide--Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes, and Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist there to deliver a keynote speech. From this chance encounter, Aminatta Forna's unerring powers of observation show how in the midst of the rush of a great city lie numerous moments of connection. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, and to contact the daughter of friends. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing. When, by chance, Attila runs into Jean again, she mobilizes the network of rubbish men she uses as volunteer fox spotters -- mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London--come together to help. As the search for Tano continues, a deepening friendship between Attila and Jean unfolds. Meanwhile a consulting case causes Attila to question the impact of his own ideas on trauma, the values of the society he finds himself in, and a grief of his own. (368 pages) IN THE MIDST OF WINTER BY ISABEL ALLENDE (PICKED BY KT) In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident—which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster—a 60-year-old human rights scholar—hits the car of Evelyn Ortega—a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala—in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor’s house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz—a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile—for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a mesmerizing story that moves from present -day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia. (352 pages) SURPRISE ME BY SOPHIE KINSELLA (PICKED BY KT) After being together for ten years, Sylvie and Dan have all the trimmings of a happy life and marriage; they have a comfortable home, fulfilling jobs, beautiful twin girls, and communicate so seamlessly, they finish each other's sentences. However, a trip to the doctor projects they will live another 68 years together and panic sets in. They never expected "until death do us part" to mean seven decades. In the name of marriage survival, they quickly concoct a plan to keep their relationship fresh and exciting: they will create little surprises for each other so that their (extended) years together will never become boring. But in their pursuit to execute Project Surprise Me, mishaps arise and secrets are uncovered that start to threaten the very base of their unshakable bond. When a scandal from the past is revealed that questions some important untold truths, they begin to wonder if they ever really knew each other after all.(432pgs)
SOMETIMES I LIE BY ALICE FEENEY (PICKED BY BS) My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: I’m in a coma, my husband doesn’t love me anymore, and sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move, speak, or open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth? (387 pages)
FRESHWATER BY AKWAEKE EMEZI (PICKED BY SLS) Ada begins her life in Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction. (240 pages)
New Castle County Libraries | Department of Community Services | Matthew Meyer, County Executive STAFF PICKS
A P R I L 2 0 1 8 Libraries
NON-FICTION
ALL THE PIECES MATTER BY JONATHAN ABRAMS (PICKED BY SLS) Since its final episode aired in 2008, HBO's acclaimed crime drama The Wire has only become more popular and influential. The issues it tackled, from the failures of the drug war and criminal justice system to systemic bias in law enforcement and other social institutions, have become more urgent and central to the national conversation. Universities use the show to teach everything from film theory to criminal justice to sociology. Politicians and activists reference it when discussing policy. When critics compile lists of the Greatest TV Shows of All Time, The Wire routinely takes the top spot. But while there has been a great deal of critical analysis of the show and its themes, until now there has never been a definitive, behind-the- scenes take on how it came to be made. Jonathan Abrams gives the complete account of The Wire, from its inception and creation through its end and powerful legacy. (352 pages) DIVING FOR STARFISH BY CHERIE BURNS (PICKED BY SLH) In the early 1930s, a young jewelry designer named Juliette Moutard created one of the most coveted pieces of jewelry in the world—the famous starfish pin—still sought after today by aficionados of fine jewelry. The starfish, created out of gold and encrusted with 71 cabochon rubies and 241 small amethysts, was distinctive because its five rays were articulated, meaning that they could curl and conform to the shoulder of the women who wore it. The House of Boivin made three of them. Obsessed with the pin after she saw it in the private showroom of a Manhattan jewelry merchant, Cherie Burns set off on a journey to find out all she could about the elusive pins and the women who owned them. Her search took her around the world to Paris, London, New York, and Hollywood. Diving for Starfish is the story of these marvelous pieces of jewelry and the equally dazzling women who loved them. (240 pages)
EDUCATED BY TARA WESTOVER (PICKED BY SH) Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by sleeping with her “head-for- the-hills bag.” She helped her mother, a midwife and healer, and she salvaged in her father’s junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough math and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust . Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her to Harvard and to Cambridge. Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty, and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. (352 pages) IN THE ENEMY’S HOUSE BY HOWARD BLUM (PICKED BY SMC) In 1946, linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and FBI supervisor Bob Lampshere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the atomic bomb. They relentlessly followed a trail of clues that helped them identify and take down these spies one by one, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But at the center of this spy ring was the mysterious master spy who pulled the strings of the KGB’s extensive campaign, dubbed Operation Enormoz by Russian Intelligence headquarters. Lampshere and Gardner began to suspect that a mole buried deep in the American intelligence community was feeding Moscow Center information on Venona. This twisting thriller begins at the end of World War II and leads all the way to the execution of the Rosenbergs. (336 pages) New Castle County Libraries | Department of Community Services | Matthew Meyer, County Executive STAFF PICKS NON-FICTION HIPPIE FOOD BY JONATHAN KAUFFMAN (PICKED BY SM) Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon’s America and turned to a more idealistic and wholesome communal way of life and food. From the mystical rock-and-roll cult known as the Source Family and its legendary vegetarian restaurant in Hollywood to the Diggers’ brown bread in the Summer of Love to the rise of the co-op and the origins of the organic food craze, Kauffman reveals how today’s quotidian whole-foods staples—including sprouts, tofu, yogurt, brown rice, and whole-grain bread—were introduced and eventually became part of our diets. From coast to coast, through Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Vermont, Kauffman tracks hippie food’s journey from niche oddity to a cuisine that hits every corner of this country. (352 pages)
TRUTH MACHINE BY MICHAEL CASEY & PAUL VIGNA (PICKED BY SMC) Big banks have grown bigger and more entrenched. Privacy exists only until the next hack. Credit card fraud is a fact of life. Many of the "legacy systems" once designed to make our lives easier and our economy more efficient are no longer up to the task. Yet there is a way past all this--a new kind of operating system with the potential to revolutionize vast swaths of our economy: the blockchain. In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society's faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping. (320 pages) BROTOPIA BY EMILY CHANG (PICKED BY SMC) For women in tech, Silicon Valley is not a fantasyland of virtual reality rainbows, and 3D-printed lollipops, where millions of dollars grow on trees. It's a "Brotopia," where men hold all the cards and make all the rules. Vastly outnumbered, women face toxic workplaces rife with discrimination and sexual harassment, where investors take meetings in hot tubs and network at sex parties. In this powerful exposé, Bloomberg TV journalist Emily Chang reveals how Silicon Valley got so sexist despite its utopian ideals, why bro culture endures despite decades of companies claiming the moral high ground and how women are finally starting to speak out and fight back. Interviews with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer--who got their start at Google, where just one in five engineers is a woman--reveal just how hard it is to crack the Silicon Ceiling. And Chang shows how women such as former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, entrepreneur Niniane Wang, and game developer Brianna Wu, have risked their careers and sometimes their lives to pave a way for other women. (317 pages) PHILADELPHIA: FINDING THE HIDDEN CITY BY JOSEPH ELLIOT ( PICKED BY SMC) Philadelphia possesses an exceptionally large number of places that have almost disappeared— from workshops and factories to sporting clubs and societies, synagogues, churches, theaters, and railroad lines. In Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City, urban observers Nathaniel Popkin and Peter Woodall uncover the contemporary essence of one of America’s oldest cities. Working with accomplished architectural photographer Joseph Elliott, they explore secret places in familiar locations, such as the Metropolitan Opera House on North Broad Street, the Divine Lorraine Hotel, Reading Railroad, Disston Saw Works in Tacony, and mysterious parts of City Hall. Much of the real Philadelphia is concealed behind facades. Philadelphia artfully reveals its urban secrets. (200 pages) HAVE DOG WILL TRAVEL BY STEPHEN KUUSISTO (PICKED BY SLS) At the age of thirty-eight, Stephen Kuusisto—who has managed his whole life without one—gets his first guide dog, a beautiful yellow labrador named Corky. Have Dog, Will Travel is the inside story of how a person establishes trust with a dog, how a guide dog is trained. Corky absolutely transforms Steve’s life and his way of being in the world. Profound and deeply moving, theirs is a spiritual journey, during which Steve discovers that joy with a guide dog is both a method and a state of mind. Guaranteed to make you laugh—and cry—this beautiful reflection on the highs, lows, and everyday details that make up life with a guide dog provides a profound exploration of Stephen’s lifelong struggle with disability, identity, and the midlife events that lead to self-acceptance. (288 pages)
Reviews excerpted from amazon.com and goodreads.com