Some recent reads recommended by our Libraries team with links to our catalogue so you can place your hold immediately.
by Matt Haig
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
From our Ghost: Of course I had to read it, it’s about a library! An imaginative tale about life, death and all the infinite possibilities that life may hold. Filled with philosophical quotes and moments that may make you stop and pause. Whilst the themes in this book touch on some heavy topics, I found the writing style of this book to be light and easy to read.
Request a copy via our catalogue
by Brit Bennett
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' story lines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
From Caitlin: I am 95% through. I nearly gave up because I felt like the story took a long time to get going but now I can’t stop thinking about it. Themes of race, family, belonging, creating your own village. Has me asking, does it matter if you don’t know who you really are? Funnily enough, I just started listening to this week’s Everybody Has A Secret podcast and it’s on a very similar theme!
I give the book 4 stars.
by Meg Mason
This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn't know what it is. Her husband Patrick thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going. By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing -- if you can find something else to want.
From Darcy: I loved this book! The writing is so excellent, the author has given the character such a dry sense of humour that comes across exceptionally, especially evident in her relationship with her sister. It has an interesting way of dealing with mental illness, a disease that the main character has battled her whole life – yet it isn’t a run of the mill story of a woman with depression, but a depiction that talks about the internal and external struggles in a dark and sometimes humorous way. 4 Stars.
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