It's Summer, Dive Into a Good Book

If you've got a vacation coming up, or if you're just looking to pass a summer day reading a good book, here are Patch's Picks courtesy of local librarians and library staff:

Bliss Remembered by Frank Deford
(for adults) Bliss Remembered has fascinating historical perspective and totally unexpected twists and turns that keep you hooked.

Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
(for children) When I read this book aloud to my children we had a great time with the story and recognizing all the references to this story that pop up everyday.

Vicki Berry, Children's Librarian Levi E. Coe Library

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Outlander (the series) by Diana Gabaldon

I love this series because it's a wonderful mixture of history, romance, and time travel. Outlander, the first book, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes, the sixth book, are my favorite ones of the series.

Patti Holden, Assistant Librarian Durham Public Library

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Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf 

The founding fathers were avid gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. Their passion for the land and it's bounty shaped the ideology of the American Revolution and our nation.

Cyndi Shirshac, Asst. Director Durham Public Library

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Single with Breast Cancer by Bruna Verna

An informative peek into one woman's awakening to a new, more holistic approach to life after a lonely struggle with breast cancer.

Carol Herzig, Assistant Librarian Durham Public Library

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Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I can't survive summer without a healthy dose of swashbuckling, and Stevenson's classic delivers it up in spades, with colorful characters, breathtaking action, and even some humor!

Tammy Eustis, Head Librarian Killingworth Library

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The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

This book is about Jeannette Walls' childhood. She had eccentric parents whose actions bordered on abuse, but yet she still loved them. It is a story of sadness to think that she and her siblings lived the way they did, and of hope, because the children pulled themselves out of poverty. It has an interesting ending, almost unbelievable.

Diana StPierre, Assistant Librarian Durham Public Library

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Rash by Pete Hautman

It's the late 2200's and Bo, a teenager living in the United Safer States of America, ends up in a pizza producing prison after his temper gets out of control.

Karyn Gardiner, Young Adult Librarian Durham Public Library

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The Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

Set in Moscow, this is the gripping story of an abandoned four-year-old who survives when he is adopted into a feral dog clan. The plot hinges on survival, of the boy and the dogs, who are stalked by other dogs, by the poor and brutal people among whom they live. A unique, lyrical book, whose story will stay with long after you finish reading.

Valerie Kilmartin, Director Durham Public Library

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Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

This is a great book about friendships, families, life and work, and of course, delicious bread! It will take you through a range of emotions, and you will definitely want to share this book with others. 

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews

A charming and witty book about a young woman with too many things going on in her life at once, and an old house in need of lots of attention! 

Loren Webber, Director Levi E. Coe Library

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Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

Steampunk adventure set in the beginning years of World War 1. Awesome illustrations, fabricated airships created using animal and machines... fun ride. 

Kimberly Pronovost, Assistant Director Levi E. Coe Library

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Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Join a group of teenagers as they jet-set around the world. Who doesn't like a good heist caper?

Susan Brown, Adult Services Librarian Levi E. Coe Library

Other picks include:

Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

Bloom's latest collection looks at love in many forms through a keenly perceptive lens. Two sets of stories that read much like novellas form the book's soul; each explores the complicated nature of love, compromise and acceptance, which often comes too late.

The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee

Lee’s novel documents the ravages and indelible effects of war, through the story of June Han, a starving 11-year-old refugee fleeing military combat during the Korean War. Powerful, deeply felt, compulsively readable.

Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Rachman deftly applies his experience as foreign correspondent and editor to chart the goings-on at a scrappy English-language newspaper in Rome. Chapters read like exquisite short stories, turning out the intersecting lives of the men and women who produce the paper—and one woman who reads it religiously, if belatedly.

Gardens of Kyoto by Kate Walbert

"I had a cousin, Randall, killed on Iwo Jima. Have I told you?" So begins this ethereal debut novel, a romantic, bittersweet tale set in the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War. This is a haunting, thoughtful work that depicts the sad realities of love and war.

Blind Hope: An Unwanted Dog and the Woman She Rescued   by Kim Meeder

Meeder tells the story of an unwanted dog whose forlorn and broken heart and body called out to her, and how, in their subsequent relationship, the dog became the agent of spiritual rescue to her owner. Inspiring.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The story travels from modern Paris to the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations of Jews. Julia, an American married to a haughty Frenchman, is drawn to the story of Sarah, the only member of one particular family to survive. It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

The Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga

Sunny, just released from prison  for shooting (but not killing) her husband after he forced her to put her hand in a box of rattlesnakes,  grew up in a snake-handling church in Illinois’ Little Egypt area. This is a melancholy story, but it is also immensely satisfying and even uplifting in that unique way that only deeply felt life can provide. 

Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier

Siberia is a swampy, often-frozen, and strikingly empty backyard. Frazier made five trips there over a dozen or so years. He follows his own curiosity through time as well as space, telling stories of the Mongols and the Decembrist. His curiosity quickly becomes yours, as does his affection for this immense and grudgingly hospitable land. You will feel  as if you are on the journey with him.

The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World by Ted Conover

Conover reveals the highway as common social territory, particularly as the meeting place between men and women. His travels take him from Peru's illegal jungle logging camps, to the Himalayan frontier of Kashmir and through Israeli checkpoints in Palestine's West Bank. His writing is so evocative that the reader definitely has  a “you are there experience.”  

To a Mountain in Tibet by Colin Thubron

Thubron sets off to Mount Kailas in Tibet, a peak sacred to one-fifth of the world’s population and the source of four of India’s great rivers. Though Kailas has never been climbed, Thubron embarks on a pilgrimage that begins in Nepal and crosses into Tibet. This is an engrossing and affecting travel memoir that transcends the mere physical journey, an utterly moving read.