Kylie recommends:Next of Kin by Hannah Bonam-Young
Genre: Contemporary romance
Reading level: Adult
Summary: An easy, flowing read that shows the struggles of adoption and the foster system and how important family is.
Kylie says: You really connect with these hard worn characters as they slowly unfurl and become familiar. The diverse representation of the deaf younger brother and adoptive father, along with normal household ASL communication was great to see. This book is perfect for readers who enjoy found family and forced proximity.
Summary: A true biography of a library cat and those who loved him.
Cathy says: This book would appeal to anyone who is familiar with small towns, dealing with coworkers, family and personal challenges, libraries, and especially anyone who loves cats. It is written in first person by the director of a small town library who saves the life of an extraordinary kitten and Dewey Readmore Book’s affect on the director, staff, townspeople, and eventually individuals around the world. A truly fascinating book.
Summary: Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world.
Olivia says: The author did a fantastic job of describing all her hardships in order to do what she felt was right to better her future.
Kylie recommends:Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Genre: Historical romance
Reading Level: Adult
Summary: This is a spicy regency historical romance from the Bridgerton series following Penelope and Colin as they start to become something more than friends.
Kylie says: Penelope is a wallflower who is plus-size spinster who is often overlooked, while Colin is the third Bridgerton brother who loves to travel and has a reputation. Their romance is enthralling and charming you will get sucked right into their world and will root for them until the very end. If you love the show, you’ll love this one, and make sure you read this book before Season 3, Colin & Penelope’s season, comes out in May 2024.
Audrey recommends:It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood
Genre: Graphic novel memoir
Reading level: YA to adult
Summary: Zoe, in the throes of a quarter-life crisis, uses cartoons and storytelling to reframe how she views her life.
Audrey says: This short volume obliterates the limits of what a graphic novel can do and what art is for. Comics are how Zoe makes sense of the world around her: adding structure, finding narrative, changing perspective, and starting over from the beginning. Zoe draws herself in many different forms: a teenage loser, a cutesy cartoon, a barely-sketched outline, sometimes even a worm. She exists as both character and author on the page, arguing against her own narration. If you also stumble across questions like “what am I doing?” and “what’s the point?”, you won’t necessarily find answers here, but you will find someone who knows the journey it takes to answer them.
Summary: Based on a true story, “Horse” weaves together the people and events surrounding a racehorse through more than a century and a half.
Hilary says: This book is beautifully written, and each portion of the story, from slavery on southern plantations and the Civil War, through the New York art world of the 1950’s and the scientists and conservators working at the modern day Smithsonian, is both informative and at times heartbreaking.
Audrey recommends:The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Genre: Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Summary: The eccentric Mad Duke of Tremontaine decides to teach his niece, Katherine, how to become a swordmaster rather than marry her off to an eligible nobleman.
Audrey says: Ellen Kushner describes her Riverside series as “a melodrama of manners”: Jane-Austen-style social commentary in a bloody, high-stakes action-adventure. The ladies in town gossip about the latest slaughter as if it were a fashionable dress. Literary opinions are settled by a duel to first blood. “Melodrama of manners” is now my new favorite genre of all time.
Leaving aside the environment, this novel is, at its core, about breaking boundaries. Marriage or death seem to be the only option for a young lady, but the Mad Duke encourages her to take a third option: true independence.
At first, Katherine resists: if she walks around in boy’s clothes, folks will think she’s clinically insane, or worse, an actress. Katherine herself has no issue wearing breeches; she limits herself purely on the perceptions of others. The pressure to marry young, to appear chaste, to rely on men, to avoid making a scene… The societal norms of class and gender completely unravel once she realizes that they’re all illusions.
This brief summary can’t do justice to the detail of Kushner’s world nor the rich interiority of her characters. I’m surprised this cult classic isn’t more well-known; I recommend you read the book for yourself, not least so I have someone to talk to about it.
Olivia recommends: The Marriage Game by Alison Weir
Genre: Historical fiction
Reading Level: Teen and up
Summary: Another masterpiece by Alison Weir telling the story of Elizabeth I and the mounting pressure she was under to take a husband during her rein.
Olivia says: This author does an amazing job of bringing Tudor history to life. It was so interesting to read about Elizabeth I’s life as Queen and the constant pressure she was under to marry. Before reading this book, I knew a bit about the history between the late Queen and Robert Dudley, but the author brings more information to light, which was interesting to read about as well.
Audrey recommends:Enter the Body by Joy McCullough
Genre: Novel in verse
Reading Level: Adult
Summary: All the women who die in Shakespeare tragedies meet under the stage trapdoor to discuss the parallels between their lives, and how they might choose to rewrite their stories.
Audrey says: The story focuses on Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia, three extremely different women who all died for the love of the men in their lives. Fiery Juliet is angry that people interpreted her hope for peace as youthful stupidity. Quiet, passive Ophelia mourns the mother that was never even mentioned in her play. Stoic Cordelia is resigned to her fate and derides anyone who believes otherwise.
I can’t resist a hybrid form, so the half-script, half-poetry format appealed to me. I immediately clocked their distinct poetic styles; for instance, Cordelia almost always writes in carefully measured iambic pentameter, afraid to deviate from the norm, while Juliet speaks in impulsive fragments.
I don’t consider this a remix or adaptation of Shakespeare’s work, but rather a commentary. It reads like a compelling essay, using the voices of the Bard’s doomed heroines to express how they have been used as plot devices and objects whose inner lives remain unknown to the reader. By staging this novel as a conversation rather than a manifesto, it’s clear that many different interpretations can exist at the same time, and all are correct.
