Good Books for the New Year

Ever wonder what the Library staff reads?  Here are some “staff picks” from 2011. All are available at the Watertown Free Public Library, in a variety of formats — hardcover, soft cover, e-book, and audio book.

Fiction

Author John Flanagan has started another fantasy series, "Brotherband Chronicles." In the first book, "The Outcasts," a band of boys on the verge of manhood, learn warrior skills. Their leader is a fatherless boy, growing up with the help of a damaged warrior. 

"Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs is popular with teen readers. It moves between fantasy and reality, prose and photography, to create an enchanting and at times positively terrifying story. The children of an orphanage are inspired by actual vintage photographs that occur throughout the book.

"Before I Go to Sleep" by S.J. Watson is described on Amazon this way. “Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love — all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life."

"Chime" by Franny Billingsley is a story of guilt and secrets. Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Briony fears her secret of talking to the Old Ones will be found out. Then Eldric of the golden lion eyes and tawny hair appears and treats her as if she's extraordinary. Fantasy literature for teens.

"The Paris Wife," by Paula McLain, tells the story of Ernest Hemingway’s five year marriage to Hadley Richardson, his first wife and the mother of their son. Hadley understood Hemingway’s genius and was a valuable literary critic. She supported and encouraged Hemingway in his initial efforts as a writer when they re-located  to Paris. But it is also a story of betrayal when Hemingway meets Pauline. 

In "The Death of an Ambitious Woman" by Barbara Ross, acting Police Chief Ruth Murphy of New Derby, a suburb of Boston, investigates the death of prominent businesswoman Tracey Kendall. She finds not only a multitude of suspects but a danger to her chance at becoming Chief. The author lives in Somerville, and New Derby is based on Newton. 

Non-fiction

"The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900" by David McCullough once again displays this popular historian’ s masterful synthesis of facts, cultural and political movements and geography in American history.  It describes the influence of Paris on many artists, writers, and philosophers –the American intelligentsia of the nineteenth century. This group — Samuel FB Morse, James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, etc. — presages the great relocation to France of American ex-patriots and artists between the World Wars. 

"The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" Stephen Greenblatt looks at how the discovery of an ancient Roman manuscript 600 years ago radically changed the course of human development by fundamentally altering our modes of inquiry and interaction with our world. Because of the discovery of Lucretius' "On the Nature of Things," human development literally swerved to follow a very different path. A fast paced and fascinating story.

"The Warmth of Other Suns" by Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life.

"The Devil in the White City: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America" by Erik Larson describes the creation of the Chicago’s World Fair, the White City. It is the true crime story of a doctor’s secret life of murder. Dr. Henry H. Holmes, who was finally caught in Boston, and architect Hudson Burnham, who designed much of the Fair, connect in a fascinating story of beauty and murder.