Quick Picks
Nov. 16-20
“SUPER SIDES”: FULL-TEXT BOOKS SERVED WITH AN AUDIO VERSION,GRAPHIC NOVEL VERSION, AND MOVIE TIE-IN
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Description:
In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right Schlafly/Falwell-type ideals have been carried to extremes in the monotheocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids , who turn their offspring over to the ``morally fit'' Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: ``of Fred''), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.
Genre: dystopian fiction; science fiction; literary fiction
Length: 311 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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An allegorical fantasy in which a group of young people are guided through the universe by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. What -- women who possess supernatural powers. They traverse fictitious regions, meet and face evil and demonstrate courage at the right moment. Religious allusions are secondary to the philosophical struggle designed to yield the meaning of life and one's place on earth. Readers who relish symbolic reference may find this trip through time and space an exhilarating experience the rest will be forced to ponder the double entendres.
Genre: science fiction
Length: 211 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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The main character, Melinda, begins on her first day as a high school freshman. No one will sit with Melinda on the bus. At school, students call her names and harass her; her best friends abandon her. A girl at a school pep rally confronts Melinda about calling the police at a summer party, resulting in several arrests. But readers do not learn why Melinda made the call until much later: a popular senior raped her that night and, because of her trauma, she barely speaks at all. Only through her work in art class, and with the support of a compassionate teacher there, does she begin to reach out to others and eventually find her voice.
Genre: realistic fiction
Length: 197 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Scout Finch, daughter of the town lawyer, likes to spend her summers building treehouses, swimming, and catching lightning bugs with her big brother Jem. But one summer, when a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Scout's carefree days come to an end. In the county courtroom, she will join her father in a desperate battle against ignorance and prejudice.
Genre: realistic fiction -- coming-of-age; literary fiction
Length: 296 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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A story set in a dystopian society that isrun by a Committee of Elders. Twelve-year-old Jonas's confidence in his comfortable "normal" existence as a member of this well-ordered community is shaken when he is assigned his life's work as the Receiver -- the holder for all the community’s memories. The first part of plot focuses on the tensions leading up to the Ceremony, in which Jonas and other children are assigned not to another grade but to their life’s work. The second part of the plot focuses on Jonas’ fight against this frightening Ceremony and the aftermath that it inevitable. for survival. This tightly plotted story and its believable characters will resonate with readers for a long time.
Genre: Dystopian fiction
Length: 180 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Fourteen-year-old Max (full name Maximum Ride ) and her "flock" have escaped from a horrific School that kept them in cages and tortured them in the name of scientific research. Max and her flock are genetic experiments: 98% human with 2% avian genes grafted on, they're super-powerful—and can fly. "Erasers" (violent genetic combinations of men and wolves) pursue them at every turn. Crossing the country first to save their youngest from the School's scientific sadists and then track down their histories (were they born from parents or test tubes?), they wind up in New York City's sewers. Max develops shattering headaches and a Voice in her head that crashes nearby computers and tells her to save the world. Is it a friend or the flock's betrayer? Find out by checking out the book!
Genre: science fiction
Length: 432 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Description:
Sixteen-year-old Jacob, traumatized by his grandfather's sudden, violent death, travels with his father to a remote island off the coast of Wales to find the orphanage where his grandfather was sent to live to escape Nazi persecution in Poland. When he arrives, he finds much more than he bargained for : the children from his grandfather's stories are still at the orphanage, living in a time loop in 1940. The monsters that killed Jacob's grandfather are hunting for "peculiar " children , those with special talents, and the group at the orphanage is in danger. Jacob must face the possibility that he, too, has certain traits that the monsters are after and that he is being stalked by adults he trusted. This complex and suspenseful story incorporates eerie photographs of children with seemingly impossible attributes and abilities, many of whom appear as characters in the story. The mysterious photographs add to the bizarre and slightly creepy tone of the book .
Genre: fantasy fiction -- time loop
Length: 352 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Ever since the fundamentalist group Taliban secured power in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Parvana and her family have suffered. The group's relentless oppression makes it impossible for the women of the family to leave the house without their father. When Parvana's elderly father is arrested on the grounds that he is a scholar, the women are trapped in their cramped apartment. Eventually, running out of food and hope, Parvana dresses as a boy and becomes the family's breadwinner , doing whatever is necessary to keep the family alive--from reading letters for the illiterate to digging up and selling the bones of her ancestors. A potent portrait of life in contemporary Afghanistan, showing that powerful heroines can survive even in the most oppressive and sexist social conditions.
Genre: realistic fiction
Length: 170 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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This novel relates the demise of friendship and the decline of Afghanistan at the end of the 20th century. Amir, a Pashtun, and his Hazara servant, Hassan, have grown up not only as master and servant but also as inseparable friends. Yet Amir is jealous of his father's affection for Hassan, who, though poor and illiterate, has many talents. Amir abandons Hassan at a time of extreme need and then, motivated by guilt, brutally betrays him. After he and his father escape to the United States following the Russian invasion, Amir continues to suffer from regret and guilt. In the latter half of the novel, Amir returns to Afghanistan and begins to atone for his childhood mistakes. The novel provides a vivid glimpse of life in Afghanistan over the past quarter century and develop character relationships carefully and convincingly.
Genre: literary fiction; realistic fiction - coming-of-age
Length: 368 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Genre: fantasy fiction - epic fantasy
Length: 306 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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A timeless story that stands without peer, this definitive edition brings to life the world of a brilliant young girl who, for a time, survived the worst horrors the modern world has ever seen--and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal.
Genre: non-fiction: history; biography
Length: 283 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database
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Description:
Obsessed by creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life by electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear.
Genre: science fiction; horror fiction; gothic fiction; literacy fiction
Length: 273 pages
Source: Novelist Plus database