Back to School Days

I know, I know, I can't believe it either, but the fact remains that Trumbull schools are back in session next Monday.  Where did the summer go?  Hope you all made the most of it, and got some great reading done, too.  I know I have!  And of course I'm looking forward to all the new titles that are coming this fall.  In the spirit of that back-to-school rush and all the learning that comes with it, here are a few sneak peeks at a few of the big titles coming up in the next few months...

A Dangerous Inheritance, by Alison Weir, coming in October.  A tale of two Kates, Lady Katherine Grey (sister to the Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Grey) in 1554 and Kate Plantagenet (bastard daughter to Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings) in 1483 share many things, despite the gap of history.  Forbidden love, brushes with treason, and strong connections to the looming bulk that is the Tower of London.  If you're a fan of British history, Weir is an absolute master, and you should make sure to add this, as well as her other work, to your list. 

Astray: Stories, by Emma Donoghue, coming in October.  Your eyes do not deceive you.  Best-selling author of last year's break-away hit, Room, (and by the way, if you haven't read it, please do yourself a favor and remedy that, okay?) Emma Donoghue is back with a collection of stories scattered throughout place and time, all centered upon the wayward soul.  Those who cross boundaries both real and imagined, those who do so for love or in fear or for gain.  I, for one, am very much looking forward to this one.

Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, coming in November.  Best-selling Kingsolver has gone back to her roots in her latest work, set in her native Appalachia.  A restless farm wife, resigned to a life of disappointment brought on by a mistake in her youth, finds herself traveling toward a brief diversion.  Before she can arrive at her illicit destination, she happens upon an unexplainable phenomenon, a lake of fire in the valley near her home.  What she takes to be a warning against her actions then draws media, scientists, and religious leaders with theories of their own.  The influx of strangers makes a stark contrast to the norm for the small rural community, and then things really get interesting.  I'm really intrigued by the reviews, and can't wait to read it for myself!

Happy back-to-school, and as ever, happy reading!

School Days

New notebooks, pens and pencils.  Ah, the first weeks of school, there’s nothing else quite like them.  And while grownups don’t necessarily get the same experience in the fall that we did when we were kids, memories of school years past are no further away than a shelf here at the library.  For little taste of those days gone by, here are a few titles to take you back.

Miss Timmins’ School for Girls, by Nayana Currimbhoy.  Set in the 1970s, in the hills of western India, this story of youth and murder at a British boarding school follows Charu, shy and sheltered teacher of Shakespeare, as she grows up and is introduced to a world outside of her family.  When a body is found in a monsoon one night, Charu is implicated in the crime, and her real education begins.  Atmospheric and surprisingly funny, this is a school story you won’t soon forget.

Daughters of the Revolution, by Carolyn Cooke.  It’s 1968, and  the prestigious Goode School in the town of Cape Wilde has fallen on hard times.  It is run by its aging, philandering headmaster, Goddard Byrd, known to both his friends and his enemies as God.  God has confidently promised coeducation “over my dead body.” And then, through a clerical error, the Goode School admits its first female student: Carole Faust, a brilliant, intractable fifteen-year-old black girl.  What does it mean to be the First Girl?  For a slim book, this packs an enormous punch.

Big Girl Small, by Rachel DeWoskin.  In a voice as raw and darkly funny as any I’ve ever come across, narrator Judy Lohden comes to tell readers just how, in a world that values the creative and simultaneously shuns the different, she came to be hiding in a seedy motel room instead of singing onstage at her local performing arts high school.  For everyone who ever felt like an outsider in high school; FYI, DeWoskin has even been compared to John Hughes. 

See you next week, with tasty mysteries you can really sink your teeth into!