August Young Adult Picks

Young Adult picks? We’ve got them:

A New Darkness
by Joseph Delaney
YA DEL

Entertaining follow-up to the Spook’s Apprentice series, featuring a new twist on the original with a female apprentice!
-Sara

The House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
YA FAR

Matt lives as the prized clone of drug lord Matteo Alacran, but is hated by most everyone else. As he begins to suspect his fate, Matt realizes escape from the opium farm may be his only chance for survival.
-Mike

The Winner’s Curse
by Marie Rutkoski
YA RUT

An aristocratic girl who is a member of a warmongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart.
-Serena

I Am The Messenger
by Markus Zusak
YA ZUS
By the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Book Thief, this is a cryptic journey filled with laughter, fists, and love.

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He’s pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That’s when the first ace arrives in the mail. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

-Lynae

August Kids Picks

Animal Facts to Make You Smile
by Grace Hansen
E 590 HAN

First book in a fantastic series about animals and facts that most of us don’t know. Simple text and real life photos of animals in their habitat. Guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face!
-Crystal

The Gruffalo
by Julia Donaldson; illustrated by Axel Scheffler
E DON

Silly tale of a mouse who escapes being eaten by a fox, an owl, and a snake by inventing a lunch date with a strange monster: the gruffalo. Then, to his surprise, the mouse encounters the gruffalo himself–only some quick thinking will get him out of this mess!
-Mike

Spy Guy
by Jessica Young
E YOU

Spy Guy is a spy—but not a very good one. He’s too loud, too squeaky, and in need of a good disguise. All Spy Guy wants is to figure out the secret to spying. But as the Chief says, that he must discover for himself. With a lot of trial and even more error, can Spy Guy figure out the secret to spying?
-Crystal

The Last Train: A Holocaust Story
by Rona Arato
J 940.531 ARA

The Last Train is the harrowing true story about young brothers Paul and Oscar Arato and their mother, Lenke, surviving the Nazi occupation during the final years of World War II.

The Nazi occupation forces the family into situations of growing panic and fear: first into a ghetto in their hometown; then a labor camp in Austria; and, finally, to the deadly Bergen Belsen camp deep in the heart of Germany. Separated from their father, 6-year-old Paul and 11-year-old Oscar must care for their increasingly sick mother, all while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy amid the horrors of the camp.
-Lynae

Unwanteds
by Lisa McMann
J MCM

Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their deaths . Thirteen-year-old Alex tries his hardest to be stoic when his fate is announced as Unwanted, even while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted. Upon arrival at the destination where he expected to be eliminated, however, Alex discovers a stunning secret–behind the mirage of the ‘death farm’ there is instead a place called Artime.
-Serena

August Adult Picks

Beach Town
by Mary Kay Andrews
F AND

A movie is being filmed in an old Florida town and the location manager has her hands full dealing with a long, lost father, the townspeople and the movie’s director. Perfect beach read.
-Debbie

The Breaking Point
by Jefferson Bass
F BAS

The latest book in the Body Farm series–mysteries that are solved by following the forensics.
-Kathy

Tail Gait
by Rita Mae Brown
F BRO

Our Virginian farmer and part-time historian Harry Harristein unravels a tale of historical fiction which brings us through the difficult choices of colonists and loyalists during the Revolutionary war. Their actions have consequences for the people of today. Harry must unearth all of the story to solve a murder and save others from the same fate.
-Sandra

Disgrace
by J.M. Coetzee
F COE

Set in post-apartheid South Africa, this author showcases brutal honesty. All of us are capable of dark needs, not always doing the right thing and being complacent. We have been both victims and oppressors at some point in our lives. This novel reminds us that Africa is rife with problems, but no more than any other place where people have been oppressed. No matter where we turn, if a human is involved, we will face sorrow. If we can embrace it, and our ugly selves, then we can emerge to greet the sunrise without guilt or shame or disgrace.

Readers might also enjoy: Tsotsi by Athol Fugard; Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton; The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer

-Jenneffer

The Silent Wife
by A. S. A. Harrison
F HAR

Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept. Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Things Hidden, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.
-Lynae

A Sun for the Dying
by Jean-Claude Izzo
F IZZ

A tender and compassionate look at homeless life, and how any one of us is susceptible to becoming a needy person. Set in Paris and Southern France, readers will enjoy the protagonists’ journey; both internal and physical.

Readers might also enjoy: A Rhino Ranch by Larry McMurtry; Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers

-Jenneffer

First Grave on the Right
by Darynda Jones
F JON

Using her ability to see ghosts in her work as a private investigator, Charley Davidson begins experiencing intense sensual dreams about a mysterious entity that has been following her throughout her life.
-Serena

The Bullet
by Mary Louise Kelly
F KEL

The main character discovers she has a bullet in her head which opens up secrets from her past.
-Kathy

Finders Keepers
by Stephen King
F KIN

The second book of a trilogy, Finders Keepers is suspenseful and fast paced. You always know who did it and why but the fun is trying to figure out how it will all come together.
-Debbie

Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
F LEE

Harper Lee’s first novel, written before “To Kill a Mockingbird”, is Southern Literature at its finest. This time the hero of the story is Scout (Jean Louise), not Atticus, as an adult woman home from New York for her yearly visit with family. Set at the beginning of the civil rights movement, Jean Louise finds that change has come to Maycomb, Alabama, and her father is no longer the saint from her childhood. Atticus is portrayed as a more rounded, more human man just trying to fit into his world. There is a real sense of the real-life struggle that must have taken place in the minds and hearts of both whites and blacks in the South of the 1950s. Lee’s characters are priceless, with humorous stories from her childhood and adolescence sprinkled throughout. “Go Set a Watchman” is a rich piece of fiction in its own right. Readers that take a chance will not be disappointed.
-Robin

Where They Found Her
by Kimberly McCreight
F MCC

At the end of a long winter in well-to-do Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town’s prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions. When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridgedale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults going back twenty years.
-Serena

Bull Mountain
by Brian Panowich
F PAN

Best book I have read this year! The Burroughs clan has ruled their northern Georgia mountain home for generations, destroying anyone who gets in their way. From moonshine during Prohibition to drugs once Prohibition was rescinded they have managed to stay in business. This book is about three generations of ruthless, violent criminals and is told from the perspective of the one brother who decided not to follow in his family’s footsteps.
-Debbie

The Garden of Evening Mists
by Twan Eng Tan
F TAN

This novel is subtle and powerful at the same time. It takes place inside a Japanese tea garden tucked on a mountainside jungle in Malaysia. WWII has riddled the countryside, and each character seems to be one thing on the surface, but later revealed to carry deep scars and layers of hidden secrets. The reader is swept away by the gurgling sound of water, the mist on her face, while she waits in the garden, impatiently, to see what happens.

Readers might also enjoy: Days of Infamy by Harry Turtledove; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer; Resistance by Owen Sheers

-Jenneffer

Dead Wake
by Eric Larson
940.451 LAR

With renewed interest in all things World War I in Great Britain, Larson’s new book breathes humanity into the story of the sinking of the Lusitania. Larson paints vivid portraits of a number of the passengers and crew on that last voyage, as well as the crew of the U-boat that fired the fateful torpedo, sinking the ocean liner in a matter of minutes. The story jumps back and forth between the stories of the two captains, Schwieger on the U-boat and Turner on the ship. The reader feels like they are there, walking the decks with the passengers, dining in style, deciding what to do as the Lusitania sinks. A good read for lovers of history.
-Robin