Staff Picks

I absolutely LOVED These Violent Delights and it's sequel, Our Violent Ends. Based off of Romeo and Juliet (but with gangs), it's a great historical enemies-to-lovers romance set in 1920's Shanghai. I loved the strong female main character and engaging plot, as well as the political elements that are sprinkled throughout. It was incredibly well written, and still managed to have surprising plot twists, despite it being a retelling. I'll definitely be reading it again sometime soon.

 

Publisher's description:

In 1926 Shanghai, eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, heir of the Scarlet Gang, and her first love-turned-rival Roma Montagov, leader of the White Flowers, must work together when mysterious deaths threaten their city.

 

Beautiful book, but most definitely not for the faint of heart, it describes the struggles of the Jewish children living in Vienna in 1936 when Nazi influence was on the rise. When the World was Ours is a great way to get an in depth perspective on each child’s experience. Absolutely love this book, it was my favorite for quite a while, but I wouldn’t recommend it to younger people, or anyone with sensitivities towards violence and child abuse. This book is pretty dark and has some heavy subjects like death and Nazis, but I do feel it’s important that youths read it.

 

Publisher's description:

Vienna. 1936. Three young friends—Leo, Elsa, and Max—spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness and that they will soon be cruelly ripped apart from one another. With their lives taking them across Europe—to Germany, England, Prague, and Poland—will they ever find their way back to one another? Will they want to?

 

A pitch-black story about a girl born in the slums of 18th century London, cursed with the desire for more. Mary Saunders should be content with her lot in life, but fine fabrics and ribbons always tempt her. As she wends her way through life on the streets of St. Giles, her eternal desire leads her to darker and darker places. This book has stuck with me for twenty years since I first read it, and it absolutely holds up to the scrutiny of a second read. Not for the faint of heart.

 

Publisher description:

Born to rough cloth in Hogarth's London, but longing for silk, Mary Saunders's eye for a shiny red ribbon leads her to prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth, and the position of household seamstress, the ordinary life of an ordinary girl with no expectations. But Mary has known freedom, and having never known love, it is freedom that motivates her. Mary asks herself if the prostitute who hires out her body is more or less free than the "honest woman" locked into marriage, or the servant who runs a household not her own? And is either as free as a man? Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told.

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This pitch-black satire originally written in German imagines the consequences of Adolf Hitler inexplicably arriving alive and well in the twenty-first century--and finding it not so different from the century he just left. With its nuanced take on our global media ecosystem, by turns hilarious and bleak, this is a book that will stick with readers long after closing the cover.

 

Publisher's description: 
He's back. Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognizes his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman. And he's notorious. People certainly recognize him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a Youtube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the Fuhrer has another programme with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.

 

The Bletchley Riddle is a historical fiction book about Bletchley Park, a code breaking operation in England. The story follows Jakob and Lizzie. Jakob is a mathematician who was recruited to join the code breaking team at Bletchley Park to help break the enigma machines, a code making device used by the Germans in World War II. Lizzie is determined to find out what happened to their mother; she doesn't believe that she's really dead. This book is amazing and might be my favorite piece of historical fiction I've read. It has facts about World War II and even has some characters who actually existed. I've read other books by one of the authors, Ruta Sepetys, and they were also really amazing. So, if you're looking for a historical fiction book to read, I highly recommend The Bletchley Riddle.

- Kyra, ninth-grade volunteer

 

Publisher's description:

Follows siblings Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie as they find themselves at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers working to decrypt the Nazi's Enigma cipher, where the two struggle to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain and Hitler's feared invasion.

 

When We Flew Away is a touching historical fiction about Anne Frank's life before going into hiding. As someone who's read The Diary of a Young Girl, I found this book beautifully captures Anne's courage and wisdom beyond her years. Though aimed at young adults, it resonates with all ages.

Publisher's description:
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family's life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence. In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious and creative and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With a wisdom far beyond her years, she will become a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it.

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This short novella caught my eye at #52 on the New York Times Book Review: Best 100 Books--and I read it in one gulp, captivated by the flawed but lovely and unforgettable protagonist. The wildfire he endures will be familiar to most Westerners. So will his paradoxical yearning for both remoteness and connection.

 

Publisher description:

Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West--its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders--this extraordinary novella poignantly captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life. It tells the story of Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century--an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.

 

The bond between Alessandra and her mother is delightfully threatened by a piano student. Alessandra gives "her side of the story," detailing the broad and lasting effects their encounter has on her life and her community at large in fascist Italy. For fans of (and with an afterword by) Elena Ferrante.

 

Publisher’s description:

"Alessandra witnesses her mother, an aspiring concert pianist, suffer from the inability to escape her oppressive marriage. Later, she is sent away to live with her father's relatives in the country, in the hope she’ll finally learn to submit herself to the patriarchal system and authority. But at the farm, Alessandra grows increasingly rebellious, conscious of the unjust treatment of generations of hardworking women in her family. In Rome, Alessandra meets Francesco, a charismatic anti-fascist professor, who ostensibly admires and supports her sense of independence and justice. But she soon comes to recognize that even as she respects Francesco and is keen to participate in his struggle to reclaim their country from fascism, this respect is unrequited, and that her own beloved husband is ensnared by patriarchal conventions when it comes to their relationship."--adapted from jacket.

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After being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned, Edmond Dantès escapes and re-emerges disguised as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo in this epic story of betrayal and intricately plotted revenge.

 

Publisher's description:

Falsely accused of treason, the young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on his wedding day and imprisoned in the island fortress of the Chateau d'If. Having endured years of incarceration, he stages a daring and dramatic escape and sets out to discover the fabulous treasure of Monte Cristo, and to catch up with his enemies.