Margaret’s November Recommendation

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

“Tom returns to Australia healthy but haunted from WWI to become a lighthouse keeper on an isolated island.  Tom is content to live this solitary life but by chance on a shore visit meets and falls in love with lively, spirited Isabel.  Somewhat remarkably, the two create a happy life together alone on Janus Rock, and Tom realizes he may be able to have a full life despite the guilt and horrors that he has carried since the war.  But, after Isabel suffers two miscarriages and a stillbirth, a heavy sadness descends on the cottage by the lighthouse.  Then, one day a boat washes up on the island with a dead man and a crying infant.  What follows is a heartbreakingly desperate story about right and wrong, family and love.  This is a well-written and affecting novel set in an interesting time and place. Stedman does a good job of catching hold of his readers’ emotions without veering too close to melodrama. Pick it up if you like historical fiction, family stories, or just good literary fiction.”

Read about or request The Light Between Oceans from the library catalog today!

3 Similar Reads (Fiction)

1) The Sea by John Banville

2) Latitudes of Melt by Joan Clark

3) Slow Man by J.M. Coetzee

3 Similar Reads (Nonfiction)

1) In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

2) The Keeper of Lime Rock by Lenore Skomal

3) To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild

Mary Ann’s November Recommendation

The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick

“I was excited to hear that Martin Scorsese made a movie based on this book.  I always read the book before seeing the film.  It’s an extraordinary book. There are 284 lush pencil illustrations that work with the text like a duet.  It’s a mystery and an adventure, with a bit of history added.  When you see the illustrations and see the plot develop, you’ll see why Scorsese was intrigued by adapting it to film.  In 2008, Selznick won the  Caldecott medal for this book, which is awarded ‘to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.'”

Read about it or request it from the library catalog

Sue’s May Recommendation

Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

“Rachel Kalama is a 7 year-old (living in Honolulu in 1891) when she contracts leprosy and is removed from her family’s home and sent to live in the Kaluapapa Leprosy Settlement on the island of Moloka’i.  Rachel is a feisty and adventurous child who brings much-needed vitality and joy to the orphanage, founded years earlier by Father Damien and now supervised by American nuns.  Despite her forced isolation on the island (and the lack of contact with her family), Rachel lives a very full and complete life as she grows into a young, and then mature woman, during the 60+ years she is held on the island.  I enjoyed the historical background the book gives about this infamous leper colony and the medical treatments employed over the years to cure this cruel, disfiguring disease.  However, its’ real appeal is in the humor, determination, strength, and wisdom of it’s protagonist.

Read about it or request it from the library catalog.

Parry’s October Recommendation

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

“I devoured this book.  Dark, atmospheric, and written in rich, vivid prose; this story has it all – mystery, romance, and a detailed historical setting of Victorian England.”

Review from Library Journal:  “Raised by a loving family of thieves, orphan Sue Trinder is sheltered from the worst of the seamy Victorian underworld until it becomes her turn to make her clan’s fortune. She must help a professional rogue named Gentleman marry an heiress and then steal the poor girl’s inheritance by declaring her insane. Sue wants to please her adoptive mother and friends and persuades herself that she can do the job, but once she’s confronted with the seemingly hapless victim, Maud, she begins to have doubts. Sue and Maud’s connection is just one reason the scam quickly falls apart. Each clearly drawn character is ensnared by secrets and lies that force his or her actions, and everyone is both a predator and a victim. As in her earlier works (e.g., Affinity), Waters slowly and inexorably builds the tension in this hard-to-put-down novel, which is full of atmospheric details about grand houses, petty slums, and Victorian madhouses. Readers will turn the pages with delighted dread.”

You can find this title in the library under FICTION WATERS.  Find this title in the library catalog.