Book Recommendations Spring-Summer

Studies show reading makes people happy even if the plot of what you are reading is sad, let's take a look at some books we might be reading this spring-NCReview

Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

In a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, James Witherspoon has two families --- the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters.

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

Strength in What Remains is an inspiring account of one man’s remarkable American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him. Deo arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. Having survived a civil war and genocide, plagued by horrific dreams, he lands at JFK airport with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts. He seeks out a precarious existence delivering groceries, living in Central Park, and learning English by reading dictionaries in bookstores. Then Deo begins to meet the strangers who will change his life, pointing him eventually in the direction of Columbia University, medical school, and a life devoted to healing.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled.

Blue Print for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell

Elissa Schappell is not for the fainthearted. In this collection of eight revelatory, risky stories, we meet the girls that all mothers fear their daughter might become—or, to varying degrees, the girls we might have become ourselves. One turns to hate to cover her vulnerability, while another suffers from an eating disorder, in some part due to her mother's all-consuming embrace. The most shocking story follows a college coed through her days of binge drinking and blacking out during a relentless parade of frat house parties. Surprisingly, it's also the most moving. Schappell has the ability—and the guts—to cut straight through the "girls gone wild" images that inevitably throb to mind and show us the tender and often hopeful human beings that live inside these women-to-be.

Rules for Virgins by Amy Tan
On the surface, Amy Tan's Rules for Virgins is a relatively simple list of instructions that a practiced courtesan, Magic Gourd, gives her young protégée, Violet. And yet there is tragedy, heartbreak, and an uncertainty of self woven between the lines: Magic Gourd sings tragedies so well because of her own personal demons; Violet's life won't be her own until she can make enough money to pay off her debts to madam. Magic Gourd's straightforward lecture becomes more and more tender, revealing things that she probably doesn't even realize herself--that she's fond of her protégée, and that her greatest wish is that Violet will learn from Magic Gourd's own mistakes, so that Violet might rise higher.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. ..there is also movie

It's every parent's worst nightmare to hear that there has been a shooting at their child's school. But what would you do if it was your son that committed the atrocity? Shriver's horror story is told through letters that Eva writes to her estranged husband, Franklin. It's years after their son, Kevin, murdered seven of his classmates and a teacher, and Eva painstakingly analyzes their life up to that point to try and see what went wrong: was she a bad mother? Was Kevin just an evil person? What could they have done differently? We Need to Talk About Kevin is a suspenseful read, even when you know the ending and Shriver's story will stick with you long after you put it down.

Let me in by John Ajvide Lindgvist…there is also a movie

Set in 1983, Let Me In is the horrific tale of Oskar and Eli. It begins with the grizzly discovery of the body of a teenage boy, emptied of blood. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for all the bad things the bullies at school do to him, day after day. While Oskar is fascinated by the murder, it is not the most important thing in his life. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s cube before, but who can solve it at once. They become friends. Then something more. But there is something wrong with her, something odd. And she only comes out at night.

As always let me know if you have already read any of them and I will remove them from the options.