Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia and
Valentina Poole are twenty-year-old sisters with an intense attachment to each
other. One morning the mailman delivers a thick envelope to their house in the
suburbs of Chicago. Their English aunt Elspeth Noblin has died of cancer and
left them her London apartment. There are two conditions for this inheritance:
that they live in the flat for a year before they sell it and that their
parents not enter it. Julia and Valentina are twins. So were the girls’ aunt
Elspeth and their mother, Edie.
The girls
move to Elspeth’s flat, which borders the vast Highgate Cemetery, where
Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons, and other luminaries are
buried. Julia and Valentina become involved with their living neighbors:
Martin, a composer of crossword puzzles who suffers from crippling OCD, and
Robert, Elspeth’s elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. They also discover
that much is still alive in Highgate, including—perhaps—their aunt.
Gone
Girl by Gillian Flynn
On a warm
summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth
wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made
when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on
the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors
with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but
passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put
anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police
and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy
parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is
oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
As
the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know
the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands
by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful
wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom
closet?
With
her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn
delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that
confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.
Is Everyone Hanging out without me? by Mindy Kaling
Mindy Kaling
has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid
chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway
performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to
starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just
say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”
Perhaps you
want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill
your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one
who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly),
or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of
murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find
that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
What makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at
any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so
famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to
maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If
so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
On a
winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his
own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is
born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a
need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will
alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an
institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot
leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child
herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a
century in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by
David Henry's fateful decision that long-ago winter night.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
At
times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad
denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her
little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always
recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past
romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult
child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband,
Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems,
mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her
life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge
offers profound insights into the human condition–its conflicts, its tragedies
and joys, and the endurance it requires.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Humbled,
orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream
of becoming a gentleman — and one day he finds himself in possession of
"great expectations." One of Dickens' finest novels, this is a
gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward.
Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer
Born
with the physical appearance of an elderly man, Max grows older mentally like
any child, but his body appears to age backwards, growing younger every year.
And yet, his physical curse proves to be a blessing, allowing him to try to win
the heart of the same woman three times as at each successive encounter she
fails to recognize him, taking him for a stranger, so giving Max another chance
at love.
Set against the historical backdrop of San
Francisco at the turn of the twentieth century, The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a beautiful and daring feat of the imagination,
questioning the very nature of love, time, and what it means to be human.
Feather in the Storm by Emily Wu
Emily
Wu’s account of her childhood under Mao opens on her third birthday, as she
meets her father for the first time in a concentration camp. A well-known academic,
her father had been designated an “ultra-rightist” and class enemy. As a
result, Wu’s family would be torn apart and subjected to unending humiliation
and abuse. Wu recounts this hidden holocaust in which millions of children and
their families died. Feather in the Storm is an unforgettable story of the
courage of one child in a quicksand world of endless terror.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The
beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the
century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklynis a poignant and
moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded
with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and
idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of
Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty
years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily
experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly
threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that
brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments
of universal experience.
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
On
July 5, 1906, scandal breaks in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, when the
proprietor of the general store, E. Rucker Blakeslee, elopes with Miss Love
Simpson. He is barely three weeks a widower, and she is only half his age and a
Yankee to boot. As their marriage inspires a whirlwind of local gossip,
fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a family
scandal, and that’s where his adventures begin.
Cold Sassy Tree is the undeniably entertaining and
extraordinarily moving account of small-town Southern life in a bygone era.
Brimming with characters who are wise and loony, unimpeachably pious and
deliciously irreverent, Olive Ann Burns’s classic bestseller is a timeless,
funny, and resplendent treasure.
Did I Expect Angels? By Kathryn Maughan
Jennifer
Huffaker knows that grief is normal, but she thought she’d get over it—that’s
what people do. But it’s been eighteen months since her husband Jack died, and
she still can’t focus on her young daughter Kaitlin, can’t accept support from
her family, and can’t allow herself to live without the love of her life.
Jennifer is angry at everything and everyone—including herself for being so
unprepared. But what did she expect? Angels?
On
the day after Christmas her anguish finally becomes too much, and Jennifer’s
pain culminates in a shattering decision. But this is also the night she runs
into Henry, an elderly friend from Costa Rica who has seen more of life’s
trials than anyone could know. Henry realizes the devastating depths to which
Jennifer has sunk, and he decides that tonight is the night to tell her his
story.
Touching
and incisive, poignant, and sometimes bitingly funny, both Jennifer’s and
Henry’s stories intermingle into a tale of love, despair, faith and,
ultimately, hope, as Jennifer realizes she has been blessed with the most
unexpected angel of all …
