Meg's Picks: December 2014

I have to say, I love my job. And days like today, I am completely delighted with it. Why? Because I get to share these titles with you, titles which, in some cases, I've been keeping to myself for months, saving them for just this moment. Sharing books I enjoy or books that I think others will enjoy (these often overlap, but not always) is truly one of the greatest joys of being a public librarian. Shall we see what's got me all aflutter? Let's.

The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant. Diamant is perhaps best known for her 1997 breakout novel, The Red Tent. She's been a favorite author of mine every since, so it it with particular relish that I anticipate her newest novel, The Boston Girl. Addie Baum is the Boston girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effects on their three daughters. At 85, Addie is asked about her life by her granddaughter, and the narrative covers Addie's recollections from her childhood, through a disastrous first love affair, and onward, all with Addie's wicked humor and Diamant's poignant attention to historical detail. This will be a must for readers of all stripes. Book clubs in particular will undoubtedly be reading this in the coming years.

The Rosie Effect, by Graeme Simsion. Simsion's bestselling debut novel, 2013's The Rosie Project, has been a runaway hit with readers everywhere, and a particular favorite of many members of The Trumbull Library's staff, myself included. We recommend it constantly, as it is the quirkiest, most unlikely romantic fiction we've seen in years--funny, sweet without being saccharine, with unique, beautifully rendered characters. This sequel finds the unlikely couple living in New York, and anticipating the arrival of their first child. Don sets about researching fatherhood and child-rearing with his usual methods, and his usual hilariously disastrous results. If it's half as funny and charming as the first book, readers will be in for a treat.

Moriarty, by Anthony Horowitz. Horowitz is an international bestseller, best known for his Alex Rider adventure series. He was sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate in 2011 to write The House of Silk, much to the delight of Holmes fans everywhere. He returns here to explore what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls. With this sudden vacuum in the criminal underworld, there is no shortage of candidates to take his place, one particularly fiendish villain in particular catching the attention of Pinkerton detective Chase and Scotland Yard inspector Jones in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. Horowitz has breathed new life into the long-popular series, gaining a whole new generation of Holmes enthusiasts.

Meg's Picks: September 2014

I've been hard at work these last few months, keeping my ear to the ground and taking note of what new releases have been generating the most in-house buzz, just so that I can share them with you! If you want to know ahead of time what people will be reading and talking about in the next few months, this is a great place to start!

The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. Mitchell, best known for his ambitious novel Cloud Atlas, has returned with what critics are calling this new book a "genre-warping, time-tripping, metaphysical thriller" and "a stunning work of invention, incident and character." When fifteen-year-old Holly Skye leaves her home in North Kent after a fight with her mother, it is to fall into a life she'd never expected. Mitchell then takes readers through Holly's life through a series of interconnected stories, each told by someone in Holly's new life. This has already been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, so readers, take note.

Neverhome, by Laird Hunt. Ash Thompson doesn't really exist. It's a name she uses now that she is disguised as a Union soldier in the Civil War, having left her husband and their farm behind. Part historical fiction, part mystery, Hunt's novel explores what war might have been like for the adventurous women who chose to go and fight instead of staying behind. I am hugely intrigued, and if the advance praise is any indication, I don't think I'll be remotely disappointed.

The Monogram Murders: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery, by Sophie Hannah. Agatha Christie's first novel was published in 1920, and in the last 94 years, over two billion copies of her books have been sold world-wide. So it's no surprise that the guardians of her legacy made absolutely sure they had the right author for the job of carrying on her work--by all accounts, Hannah does great credit to Christie's legacy with this new Poirot mystery, set in 1920s London. Fans and critics alike have given rave reviews, calling it "charming", "ingenious", "utterly engaging", and full of "excruciatingly precise clues".

The Drop, by Dennis Lehane. Based on Lehane's screenplay for the new film The Drop (starring Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini and Noomi Rapace), The Drop returns to the streets of Lehane's bestselling Mystic River and follows a former criminal whose attempts to build a new life for himself fall apart when he becomes mixed up in a robbery gone wrong. Lehane is a great suspense writer--genre fans should make it a point to pick this one up, along with Mystic River if they've missed it.


I can't believe it's almost September, and that I'll be back on Thursday sharing what I've been reading this month. In the meantime, happy reading!

Top 10 on Tuesday: March is Women's History Month!

I realize I'm a little late to the party on this one, as March is rounding the bend and heading for April, but since March is Women's History Month, I thought this would be a great opportunity to share a few of my favorite historical novels featuring female protagonists.  I love reading about history, but I also really enjoy reading fiction, so well-researched historical fiction is one of my go-to genres and I have lots of favorites to choose from.  Here are my top 10 (subject to change as I read new ones!). 




1. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.  It's 1996 when Australian book conservator Hanna Heath is called upon to analyze the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a 600-year-old Jewish prayerbook that has been salvaged from a destroyed Bosnian library.  As Hanna works to conserve this piece of history, she also uncovers mysteries hidden within its bindings, unwittingly involving herself in an intrigue of fine art forgers and international coverups.  Based on a true story, a beautiful read.  Bonus: the audiobook is a true delight. 

2. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield.  Vida Winter, reclusive author famous for a collection of twelve enchanting stories, has made a habit of never telling the same story twice, a habit which has held true in interviews and in the telling of her own history.  Storyteller meets biographer when Ms. Winter chooses young, unworldly bookseller Margaret Lea to transcribe her true, tragic history.  A gothic tale of two women facing pasts they'd prefer to forget, with pitch-perfect details.

3. Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood.  Based on the true story of one of the most notorious women of the nineteenth century, Alias Grace follows the story of Grace Marks, who has been convicted for her involvement in the murders of her employer and his housekeeper/mistress.  She is now serving a life sentence, though she claims no memory of the murders.  Dr. Simon Jordan, a specialist in the burgeoning field of mental illness, has been engaged by reformers and spiritualists who hope for a pardon for Grace.  The story follows Dr. Jordan's sessions with Grace as he draws her closer and closer to the days she cannot remember, seeking to discover what happened, and what kind of woman Grace really is.  Fascinating and brilliantly told.

4. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  1962 Mississippi.  Three very different women, three extraordinary voices.  Skeeter, a recent graduate from Ole Miss, has aspirations of writing for a living, but her mother won't be happy until Skeeter is married off.  Aibileen, a black maid, wise and regal, raising her seventeenth white child even as she mourns the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way.  And Aibileen's best friend Minny, whose sass and lip have cost her job after job, until she finds herself working for a woman who has secrets of her own.  Their lives are drawn together by the need to share their stories.  The audiobook is phenomenal.  The movie is also very well-done.

5. The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani.  In 17th century Persia, a father dies and leaves his young daughter with no dowry.  She lives by her skill in designing and weaving intricate carpets, and hopes this will be enough to maintain her dignity.  The story is as complex and the details as fine as one of the protagonists carpets. 

6. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.  Told in the voice of Dinah, whose existence is only hinted at in the Bible, but whose father, Jacob, and twelve brothers are chronicled in the Book of Genesis.  Diamant pieces together the turmoil and traditions of the world of women in such a society, their existence surrounding the red tent.  Intimate and affecting.

7. Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier. Mary Anning, poor and uneducated, lives near the English coast and is in possession of a rare gift--she can spot fossils that others cannot see.  When she discovers an unusual fossilized skeleton near her home, it throws her community into chaos even as it sets the scientific world alight.  As cruel as the elements and her neighbors can be, Mary finds hope and friendship with two very unlikely people.

8. The Lady Elizabeth, by Alison Weir.  Before turning her writing prowess to novels, Weir first made a name for herself as a historian and biographer.  Here she uses her deep knowledge of Tudor England, its politics, culture, society, and people to reconstruct the youth of one of England's most famous monarchs, Elizabeth I.  The result is a richly detailed illustration, set within the confines of known history and embellished only where facts are absent, but in Weir's beautiful style, this is anything but dull history.

9. One Thousand White Women: The Journal of May Dodd, by Jim Fergus.  One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime.  It has been years since I read this, and the story still continues to resonate with me.

10. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, by Elizabeth George Speare.   I realize that this Newberry Award Winner is a children's book, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the historical novel that first caused me to fall in love with the genre as a young reader many years ago.  Kit Tyler is sixteen, alone and desperate when she sails from her beloved home of Barbados in 1687 for the unfamiliar shores of Connecticut to live with family she has never met.  Kit struggles to fit in with her new surroundings, but there are so many rules and restrictions compared to her cheerful, colorful upbringing in the islands.  When she finally finds a kindred spirit in Hannah Tupper, the friendship with a woman who the colonists believe to be a witch proves taboo and forces Kit to choose between her heart and the duty she owes to family.  I'm actually reading this one again--it's just as good now as I remembered. 


I'll be back on Thursday to share what else I've been reading this month.  In the meantime, happy reading!

Ten on Tuesday: What Trumbull is Reading, Fall 2013 edition

Ever wonder what your friends and neighbors are reading, but didn't feel comfortable asking?  Well, I'm not going to name names, but I can tell you what we at the Trumbull Library are seeing patrons requesting and checking out the most.  Want to take a peek at the top ten? 



10. What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty.  If you skimmed to the bottom of the list already (I know you did, it's okay.  It'll be our little secret.), you'll see that this is one of two entries from Australian phenom Moriarty.  Given the huge popularity of her new novel, The Husband's Secret, it's no wonder some of her previous work is getting some much-deserved love (I also have to recommend The Hypnotist's Love Story, reviewed here).  Alice is 29, in love with her husband and pregnant with their first child.  At least, that's what she remembers when she wakes up on the floor of a gym, only to find out she's missing the last ten years of her memory.  In this new, awful reality, she's the 39-year-old mother of three, in the process of getting divorced.  Now all she wants is to figure out how she got here!


9. The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida. A memoir by a very smart, charming, and self-aware thirteen-year-old boy with autism, which gives an unprecedented glimpse into the perceptions and responses of an autistic mind.  Naoki's story is utterly remarkable, and will stick with readers for years to come.


8. Sycamore Row, by John Grisham. A sequel to Grisham's first novel, 1989's A Time To Kill.  Ford County is once again forced to face its long and tortured history.
 
7. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, by Malala Yousafzai.  When the Taliban took over the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced.  The fifteen-year-old girl continued to attend school, which had been forbidden to girls, and was shot in the head while riding home on the school bus.  From her courage, to her fight to recover when few thought she would survive, Malala has now become an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

6. Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes.  Moyes's bestseller is still going strong.  You can read my review here.  Already read this and yearning for more Moyes?  Her new book, The Girl You Left Behind, has just come out and is also extremely popular.  Check it out!

5. Identical, by Scott Turow.  I'm so glad to see Scott Turow on this list--I have to say I find him to be one of the suspense authors who rarely gets anywhere near the praise he deserves.  In his latest outing, a mayoral candidate's identical twin brother is released from prison 25 years after pleading guilty to the murder of his girlfriend.  However, the case is being reopened by a PI and an ex-FBI agent, and it seems as though perhaps the man who served time was innocent all along. 

4. October List, by Jeffery Deaver. Trying something new can go one of two ways.  Try Deaver's latest thriller, told in reverse over a three day period.  It's being called both clever and demanding, as readers must backtrack and reevaluate the case based on shifting information.  This is a love-or-hate book, but I think the concept is brilliant.

3. Killing Jesus: a history, by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard. In the tradition of the duo's previous two titles, Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, they return with Killing Jesus, detailing the events leading up to his death.

2. Cuckoo's Calling, by J.K. Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith).  This continues to be extremely popular among your neighboring readers.  You can read what I thought about it here. 

1. The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty.  Moriarty is, as I've mentioned, extremely popular right now, and her latest book is a runaway hit.  It is currently the single most requested book at the library right now, and we've bought more copies to keep up with demand!  Get your name on the list today!

Can't Keep It to Myself: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

I have been pretty vocal about my love for Neil Gaiman, author of novels like American Gods, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys and whose novels have been turned into movies like Coraline and Stardust.  So it shouldn't surprise my blog readers that I am head-over-heels in love with his latest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. 

Our unnamed narrator, now middle-aged, goes back to the lane where he grew up, in the wake of heartache.  His old home is gone, but there at the end of the lane is the farm where a childhood friend lived.  He stops in for a visit, and is swamped with memories of a time decades earlier, when his carefree boyhood ended with the entrance of a lodger his family took in, and the dark events that were set in motion upon the man's demise.

This is the ultimate tale of good and evil, full of bittersweet triumph, innocence and friendship, betrayal and guilt.  It is one of the most deeply moving stories I've had the pleasure to enjoy, and as an added bonus, the audiobook is read by the author himself.  Some authors are terrible readers, but Gaiman is about as close to perfection as I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

I absolutely cannot keep this one to myself.  Go listen to it, or read it, or both.

Three on Thursday: Summer Reading Standouts

Want to know what "everyone" is reading this summer?  Of course you do!  Here at the library, we keep close track of the grapevine, chatting with patrons and other staff members as well as readers we meet out in the community, and the most common question is "What's popular?  What's new that everyone wants to read?"  Here are the top three titles that are super popular right this very minute.


The English Girl, by Daniel Silva.  Mr. Silva is no stranger to the best-seller's list, and this latest in his series featuring art-restorer and Israeli spy Gabriel Allon is being hailed as his best to date.  It's even gotten Amazon's Best Book of the Month rating for the month of July and reviewers are calling it a masterwork and a thriller written at the highest level.  When a beautiful woman goes missing in Corsica, an unfaithful prime minister's career is threatened. Enter Allon, who immediately finds that the only thing more dangerous than his predicament is the truth.  If you're new to Silva and his Gabriel Allon series, you might consider catching up, starting with 2000's The Kill Artist.  


The Silver Star, by Jeannette Walls.  Walls made a huge impact on readers with her 2005 memoir, The Glass Castle, about growing up as the child of nomadic, alcoholic parents.  Then in 2009, she rocked readers again with her "true-life novel" Half Broke Horses, which was based on the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith.  So here it should be no surprise that her second novel, The Silver Star, has drawn readers in once again.  "Bean" Holladay and older sister Liz have moved around with their mother since they can remember, but when their mother takes off and leaves them for a few months "to find herself", the girls wind up heading to their uncle in Virginia, finding themselves learning more about their mother, themselves, and the world in general in the process. 


The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling).  Yes, you read that right.  This crime fiction novel, published in April of this year to little notice, has recently been claimed by the very famous J.K. Rowling.  Rowling reportedly used the pseudonym to see what sort of reviews her work would receive without readers attaching expectations based on her Harry Potter series.  When initial reviews of both critics and readers were favorable, Rowling owned up to her authorship.  In this novel, Cormoran Strike is down on his luck.  He lost a leg in Afghanistan, has lost his girlfriend, and is just scraping by as a private investigator even as he both lives in and works from his tiny office.  Then a huge case falls into his lap--a famous supermodel's death from a fall was ruled a suicide, but the model's brother doesn't believe it.  As Strike investigates, he's plunged into a world very different from his own--a world of rockstars and millionaires.  A classic mystery that's anything but ordinary.


I'll be back next week to share what I've been reading this month.  In the meantime, happy reading!

Top 10 on Tuesday: Aussie reads

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Since the last week of May is Australian Library and Information Week, I thought I'd show my Aussie colleagues, authors, and readers some love.  Some of my favorite books just so happen to have been written by Australian authors, so I thought I'd share the wealth!

1) Geraldine Brooks.  Her 2005 novel, March, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  I'm also a huge fan of two of her other novels, A Year of Wonders and People of the Book.  Read her work--she is amazing.

2) The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman.  Australian native Stedman may be rather reluctant when it comes to the limelight, but her first novel is a staff darling here at the Trumbull Library.  On a remote Australian island, a childless couple live a quiet life running a lighthouse, until a boat with a baby washes ashore. 

3) Kate Morton.  I fell in love with her style and story-telling when I first read The Forgotten Garden.  She's a favorite among staff and book clubs here at the library.

4) The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.  This is a title that shows up a lot this time of the year, as it is on many a summer reading list.  Accessible to adults and teens, Zusak's novel finds Death trying to make sense of WWII, relating the story of the story-telling book-stealing Liesel, a young German girl helping her family, the Jewish family they are hiding, and her neighbors. 

5) Peter Carey.  Two time Booker Prize winner.  Finalist for the U.S. National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize.  The man is a legend in his native country, and deserves more recognition here in the states, too.


6) The Hypnotist's Love Story, by Liane Moriarty.  All about the crazy things we do for love, with some really nice plot twists.  You can read my full review here.  Fun, funny, and surprising.



7) If fantasy is your genre of choice, you need to be reading Sara Douglass.  Though she sadly passed in 2011, her series live on and are magnificent. 

8) I think I'd be remiss if I was talking about Australian authors and neglected to mention Colleen McCullough.  Really, The Thorn Birds is timeless.  She writes in other genres, too, including thrillers and historical novels, so try them all!

9) Kate Grenville.  I loved The Lieutenant, and her 2005 novel The Secret River was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She, like Peter Carey, is hugely popular in Australia and well deserving of a wider readership in the U.S.

10) For teens and adults, John Marsden is definitely one to check out.  My personal favorite would be Letters from the Inside, about two girls who connect through writing letters.


I'm back Thursday with an update on what I've been reading.  In the meantime, enjoy!



*no koalas were harmed in the writing of this post.

NYT's Top 10 Books of 2012

If you haven't seen it, the list has been posted.

Glad to see Zadie Smith's NW on the list (I thought it was brilliant).  And I've got Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies on my list of books to read, too, as I really enjoyed 2009's Wolf Hall.  Anything on there strike your fancy?

Ok, now I'll really see you after the first of the year.  Happy holidays, and happy reading!

Three on Thursday: The Jazz Age

I touched on Langston Hughes' work in my last post about poetry; did you know that April is also Jazz Appreciation Month?  While I do love some modern jazz (Zero 7, Norah Jones), I also love books about jazz, and thought I'd take the opportunity to share a few of those titles with you.  If you're not familiar with jazz music, I would recommend doing a bit of reading about the subject, too.  Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux's 2009 history, Jazz, is a great place to start.  Of course, if you prefer a more condensed version, you could always wiki it, or there's a great Ken Burns documentary series made for PBS called Jazz: the story of America's music. 

The Jazz Age was a movement of the 1920s, when jazz music and dance became popular with the introduction of mainstream radio at the end of WWI.  To me, there are three writers who are icons of the era: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Jazz Age fiction is typified by writers who fought the pre-war societal norms, bucked the censors, and sought to write with realism and freedom.  Here are a few of my personal favorites:

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you may have noticed I have a bit of a soft spot for F. Scott Fitzgerald (who also coined the term Jazz Age), in particular, The Great Gatsby.  Narrator Nick Carraway, back from WWI and restless, moves to New York to learn the bond business.  The home Nick rents is in the shadow of a mansion owned by Jay Gatsby, mysteriously wealthy and host of elaborate, extravagant parties.  Gatsby is also haunted by his first love, Daisy Buchanan, who lives across the water with husband Tom in fashionable East Egg.  This love triangle among the upper class, bored with what they have and finding the exotic in the ordinary, is a fast read whose narrative holds up well for the modern reader.

While Fitzgerald tended to write about the rich, William Faulkner's writings were set in fictitious and somewhat rural Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi where he spent much of his childhood.  I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite, so I'll let this be the reader's choice.  I'm fond of both The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying.  The first is about the dissolution of a family of former Southern aristocracy, and the second is the story of a family's motivations to honor the dying family matriarch's wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson.  Both employ stream-of-consciousness narratives, at least partially, and multiple narrators in an effort to show varying motivations and perceptions surrounding common events.

Finally, Ernest Hemingway's economical prose tended to center on Americans abroad, such as A Farewell to Arms's Frederic Henry, an American serving in the Italian ambulance corps during WWI, and American expat and journalist Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises who travels from Paris to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls.  For their time, both novels were edgy, with plenty of alcohol and affairs peppered along their plotlines. 

Not what you were expecting during Jazz Appreciation Month?  What jazz-related books would you recommend?

Early Spring Fever

If you haven't been outside in the last few weeks, you've been missing out on one of the warmest Marches on record.  And not just warm.  The afternoons, in particular, have been gorgeous.  Sunny, cloudless, just breezy enough to keep things comfortable. 

It has been giving everyone I come into contact with a wild case of spring fever.  From early gardening to kids playing outside to some brave souls even going to the beach to walk, people are taking advantage of this early warm streak.  Personally?  I like to go out on the deck in the evenings after work and enjoy the light as long as it'll stick around, book in hand.  So, if you're feeling the need for some spring reads, here are my picks.

If you like family sagas, try The Bird Sisters, by Rebecca Rasmussen.  Elderly sisters Twiss and Milly live alone in the house in which they grew up, tending injured birds and losing themselves in memories.  For Milly, in particular, the memories turn to dreaming of what might have been, before an accident change the course of the sisters' lives.  Poignant and brimming the love and sacrifice that comes with sisterhood, this novel is full of surprises. 

If you're more in the mood for a suspense novel, I have an unusual one for you.  The Book of Lost Fragrances, by M.J. Rose.  When the heiress to a faltering French perfume company with a long history inherits the company, she is plunged back into a world she left behind nearly fifteen years ago.  Her brother, also an inheritor, hints that he has an earth-shattering discovery that will fix the company's financial woes, and then disappears.  It's up to Jac L'Etoile, reluctant heiress and unlikely sleuth, to uncover both what has happened to her brother, and what secret he was keeping.  Full of history and intrigue, this is a beautifully detailed and haunting work of suspense.  Note, if you enjoy Rose's writing, I highly recommend her other work, too!

So, what are you reading these days?

Best books of 2011?

On Tuesday, Amazon.com released its top picks for the best 100 books of 2011.  Does anyone else think that early November might be a wee bit early for releasing a list like this?  I mean, we've got nearly two months before the end of the year--so many books are slated for release between now and then!  Ah well, what can you do? 

What did I do?  I took a browse through the titles, of course!  I had to see what made their list, and of those, what I'd read or is on my "to read" list.  Color me delighted to see some of my recent favorites on their roster, including Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson; Bossypants by Tina Fey; Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton (I was inspired to pick this up upon seeing Anthony Bourdain's endorsement of it).  I was also happy to see Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks made the list--I loved it, and am an avid reader of Brooks' work.  And it was no surprise at all to see Ann Patchett's State of Wonder make the list.

And on my list of things to read?  Recent release Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie has generated some great buzz and is currently sitting on the corner of my desk (waiting for me to power my way through the new Stephen King, 11/22/63, which is no hardship--I want to drop everything else in my life and just read this to completion.  It is also on the list!).  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is becoming a favorite among the library staff, and has been pressed on me by several of them--I'll read it if I know what's good for me!  Alice Hoffman's newest, The Dovekeepers, is also on my radar--these are the days that I want to either add more hours, or quit sleeping, as there is so much to read and never enough hours to read it all (even with the help of audiobooks in the car!). 

What have you read from the list?  And what's there that you're hoping to read soon?