LOOKING FOR A GOOD READ?

You’re looking for a good read, but what? 

I asked for recommendations from Mary-lou Boucouvalas (director of Kennebunkport’s Graves Library), Stefanie Claydon (adult services librarian at the Wells Public Library) and Sophie Smith (assistant director of the York Public Library). And then I asked a few friends for their favorites. Here’s the list. Some are hot off the presses, others published a decade or more ago, but one might be a book you’ll cherish.

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FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS: A Novel  by Valerie Perrin

(Violette Toussaint is the caretaker at a cemetery in a small town in Bourgogne. Casual mourners, regular visitors and sundry colleagues including gravediggers, groundskeepers and a priest visit her to warm themselves in her lodge, where laughter, companionship, and occasional tears mix with the coffee she offers them. And the plot thickens…..)

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

(A remarkable novel about J.P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Green, a Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation….)

THE MAID by Nita Prose

(Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself….)

BECOMING MRS. LEWIS: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis by Patti Callahan

(Meet the brilliant writer, fiercely independent mother, and passionate woman who captured the heart of C.S. Lewis and inspired the books that still enchant and change us today ….)

OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart

(Eight friends, one country house, four romances, and six months in isolation -- this is a powerful, emotionally rich novel about love, friendship, and betrayal, a book that reads like a great Russian novel, or Chekhov on the Hudson, by a novelist The New York Times calls "one of his generation's most original and exhilarating writers”….)

BLOOD, BONES & BUTTER: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

(A memoir describing Gabrielle’s personal and professional journey from childhood to chef/owner of the award-winning New York City restaurant Prune….)

GREAT CIRCLE by Maggie Shipstead

(After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian begins her lifelong love affair with flight. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica.….)

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS by Ursula K. Le Guin

(Wells librarian Stefanie Claydon says, “Published in 1969, this book is a little out there, but personally one of my favorites.  Much more than simply Sci-Fi, this novel is a look at politics and identity from an outsider's perspective…..”)

THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS: A Novel  by Ruth Ozeki

(One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house – a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. The is a brilliantly inventive new novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things…..) 

TO PARADISE by Hanya Yanagihara

(A novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens—and the pain that ensues when we cannot.….)

LIGHTNING STRIKE: A Novel by William Kent Kreuger

(A prequel to Kreuger’s long-running mystery series about Minnesota sheriff Cork O’Connor.  Described as an “edge-of-your-seat thriller and an evocative coming of age story”….)

A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara

(Published in 2015 and set in the present, this relates the story of four young men — friends from the same college — who move to NYC to chase big careers. They’re improbably successful: JB in the art world, Malcom as a “starchitect,” Willem as an actor and Jude as a litigator….)

HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE by Souvankham Thammavongsa

(A collection of short stories that explore the inner lives of Laos immigrants and their children. One in which a daughter becomes an unwilling accomplice in her mother’s growing infatuation with country singer Randy Travis. Another, a boxer loses his dream of becoming a championship fighter and finds an unexpected chance at redemption while working at his sister’s nail salon…..and more)

THE LITTLE OLD LADY WHO BROKE ALL THE RULES by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

(Mary-lou Boucouvalas pronounces this a “fun read”:  “The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules” is an incredibly quirky, humorous and warm-hearted story about growing old disgracefully – and breaking all the rules along the way! 79-year-old Martha Andersson dreams of escaping her care home and robbing a bank….)

THE SUNDAY LUNCH CLUB by Juliet Ashton

(Every few Sundays, Anna and her extended family and friends get together for lunch. They talk, they laugh, they bicker, they eat too much. Sometimes the important stuff is left unsaid. Other times it's said in the wrong way….)

THE PEOPLE WE KEEP by Allison Larkin

(A reviewer asks, “What does it mean to feel at home in the world? To find our true family? In Larkin’s luminous new novel, a young songwriter steals a car, hits the road, and struggles against all odds to try to find the answer. About the people we choose—and even more importantly the people who choose us—The People We Keep is both a profound love letter to creative resilience and a reminder that sometimes even tragedy can be a kind of blessing.”)

THE RIDE OF HER LIFE by Elizabeth Letts

(In 1954, 63-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins set off on an incredible journey, riding her horse Tarzan across country. She had no money, no family, and had just lost her farm. Her doctor had given her two years to live but first she had to see the Pacific Ocean….)

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All are available on Amazon but ALSO at your local library and independent book store. Happy reading!