As was noted in our Saturday post, the library is a place where you can come and select whatever you’d like, without judgement or critique–and we love hearing about books or films or music that you utterly adored.  But today, we thought we’d offer a few suggestions from the Library staff about books that they have loved from our shelves (because we are library patrons, too!).  So here is the first part of our ongoing series of staff selections for your reading pleasure.  We hope you find something to savor!

From the Reference Desk…..

I first read Shadow of the Wind in high school and fell in love, but I didn’t even realize until years later that there were two companion books, too! They all correlate and share characters, but can be read in any order. Initially drawn to Shadow because of my love for the country of Spain and Zafon’s intriguing descriptions of Barcelona, the characters and the mysterious plot kept me reading. Any book lover who reads the Shadow of the Wind books will want to visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and take from something special.

Note: The other two books in this series are The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven.

From the Children’s Department….

The Seas by Samantha Hunt: Described as “weird, creepy, and beautiful”, this is a modern retelling of the Germany fairy tale Undine, about a sea creature who falls in love with a human knight; except this version is set is a cruel, unhappy fishing village where a nameless 19-year-old girl, who believes herself to be a mermaid, falls for a Jude, a fisherman who is unable to speak about his service in Iraq.  This is definitely one of those books that toys with reality, with the best of results…

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: On their own, both of these authors are simply irresistible, but when they combine their considerable powers, the results are hysterical, and surprisingly insightful.  You see, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.  But someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…..

From the South Branch….

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire: Maguire is great at giving well-known characters an intriguing background and this take on Cinderella is no exception. Wonderfully written with a look at historical Amsterdam during the tulip boom, his story gives great depth to the tale we think we know.

 

All in the timing : fourteen plays by David Ives. A collection of funny, irreverent, one-act plays. Want to know what *really* happens when chimps are locked in a room with typewriters or when people invent their own language? Yeah, he’s got that.  There are also some hauntingly sad, and creepily odd moments in these plays that makes the humor even funnier by contrast.