BEACH READS

Books in the Ottawa Library Collection:

City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin (Fiction) – a mystery takes place in 1922 Berlin, during the rise of Hitler, involving a woman who claims to be Anastasia, successor to the Russian royal family
Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott (Nonfiction) – notes on the author’s struggles and communions with faith
Death in Vienna by Daniel Silva (F) – an art restorer/spy is sent to Vienna to investigate a crime that leads back to the Holocaust
Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfield (F) – Freud visits turn of the century New York and becomes involved in a murder case
Suite Francais by Irene Nemirovsky – a novel of the WWII German occupation of France, written just before the author was sent to Auschwitz, where she died
Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (F) – a novel about Marie Antoinette
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes (F) – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s life intersects that of a man accused of a crime, and he sets out to prove the man’s innocence
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (F) – a story of a brother and sister who moved to Montana in the early 1900s
My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman (F) – Fredericka, 15, has grown up in the dorm of a small woman’s college in this satire on college, family and society
Manhunt: the 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson (NF - 364.1524 SWANSON) – what happened after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln
Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present by Peter Hessler (NF- 951 HESSLER) – a current resident of China brings an informed eye and sense of humor to his second work on his “conflicted affair” with China
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – the two wives of Rasheed come together as they deal with his violence in patriarchical, war torn Afghanistan (some say this book is even better than “The Kite Runner.”)
Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott (F) – an intelligent thriller that links a present-day drowning to the past and involves alchemy and Sir Isaac Newton
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley (F) – satire about economic disaster caused by retiring baby boomers, and the solution raised by a 29-year-old blogger and her followers
No, I Don’t Want to Join a Bookclub by Virginia Ironside (F) – Marie has her own ideas of what to do with retirement in this witty, poignant book

Books on order for the Ottawa Library collection:

Lady’s Maid by Margaret Forester (F), - a novel about the socially and economically ambivalent relationship of lady’s maid Elizabeth Wilson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Afternoons with Emily by Rose MacMurray (F), a young teenager spends time with the unusual Emily Dickenson and must navigate difficult times with her mentor as she grows up and away from the poet
The Perfect Man by Naeem Murr (F), a young abandoned Indian boy, Rajiv, goes to live in a small Missouri town in the 1950s, in this vivid coming of age novel
Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi (F), 16 years after three British school friends set off in different directions, the daughter of one of them, who was abandoned at birth, seeks out her mother
Second Objective by Mark Frost (F) – a thriller in which a green U.S. army troop must face the brigade of crack soldiers Hitler has sent into battle disguised as American soldiers
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields (NF) – a look into the reclusive life of the author of To Kill a Mockingbird
King of Lies by John Hart (F) – Lawyer Work Pickens is under suspicion for his abusive father’s murder, in this well-crafted foray into Scott Turow territory
The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman (F) – In the years after Natalie’s family is rejected by the anti-Semitic Inn owners, she finds satisfaction in the end in this satirical, funny novel
The Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble (F) – a young man tries to convince his best friend that after a year of weekends spent doing activities in alphabetical order, she will fall in love with him
The Girls by Lori Lansen (F) – the lives of Siamese twins, captured in their alternating diaries
Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington (F) – Stephanie Plum meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding, when Sofie goes to work for her uncle’s detective agency

Suggested Summer Reads
Compiled from a June 2007 KCLMIN Readers Advisory Workshop