Libby Fiction Recommendations: April 01, 2020
With the library doors closed to the public, we wanted to recommend some fiction titles that are available to read on the Libby App. Libby is the app that allows you to borrow eBooks and audiobooks, free with your library card. If you haven’t set up your Libby account yet, you can find the how-to instructions on our Libby App page.
All of the titles listed below are available now, or within a few days, as of the publication date of this post.
“THE MASKED TRUTH” by Kelley Armstrong
GENRE: Thriller, Suspense
THE SYNOPSIS:
Riley Vasquez is haunted by the brutal murder of the couple she was babysitting for.
Max Cross is suffering under the shadow of a life-altering diagnosis he doesn’t dare reveal.
The last thing either of them wants is to spend a weekend away at a therapy camp alongside five other teens with “issues.” But that’s exactly where they are when three masked men burst in to take the group hostage.
The building has no windows. The exits are sealed shut. Their phones are gone. And their captors are on a killing spree.
Riley and Max know that if they can’t get out, they’ll be next—but they’re about to find out that even escape doesn’t equal freedom.
“DARKEST FEAR” by Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar, #7)
GENRE: Mystery, Thriller
THE SYNOPSIS: It all begins when Myron’s ex tells him he’s a father . . . of a dying thirteen-year-old boy.
A surprise visit from an ex-girlfriend is unsettling enough. But Emily Downing’s news brings Myron to his knees. Her son Jeremy is dying and needs a bone marrow transplant from a donor who has vanished without a trace. Then comes the real shocker: Jeremy is Myron’s son, conceived the night before Emily’s wedding to another man. Myron is determined to help him. But finding the missing donor means cracking open a dark mystery that involves a broken family, a brutal kidnapping spree, and the FBI. And as doubts emerge about Jeremy’s true paternity, a child vanishes, igniting a chain reaction of heartbreaking truth and chilling revelation.
CLICK HERE TO BORROW “Darkest Fear” by Harlan Coben on Libby
“THE GRACE YEAR” by Kim Liggett
GENRE: Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS:
In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.
Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.
“MISERY” by Stephen King
GENRE: Horror, Psychological Thriller
THE SYNOPSIS:
Bestselling novelist Paul Sheldon thinks he’s finally free of Misery Chastain. In a controversial career move, he’s just killed off the popular protagonist of his beloved romance series in favor of expanding his creative horizons. But such change doesn’t come without consequences.
After a near-fatal car accident in rural Colorado leaves his body broken, Paul finds himself at the mercy of the terrifying rescuer who’s nursing him back to health—his self-proclaimed number one fan, Annie Wilkes. Annie is very upset over what Paul did to Misery, and demands that he find a way to bring her back by writing a new novel—his best yet, and one that’s all for her. After all, Paul has all the time in the world to do so as a prisoner in her isolated house…and Annie has some very persuasive and violent methods to get what she wants…
“I LET YOU GO” by Clare Mackintosh
GENRE: Psychological Thriller, Mystery
THE SYNOPSIS: On a rainy afternoon, a mother’s life is shattered as her son slips from her grip and runs into the street…
”I Let You Go” follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind, desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past.
At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them.
“THE CLAY GIRL” by Heather Tucker
GENRE: Coming-of-Age Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS: Vincent Appleton smiles at his daughters, raises a gun, and blows off his head.
For the Appleton sisters, life had unravelled many times before. This time it explodes.
Eight-year-old Hariet, known to all as Ari, is dispatched to Cape Breton and her Aunt Mary, who is purported to eat little girls. But Mary and her partner, Nia, offer an unexpected refuge to Ari and her steadfast companion, Jasper, an imaginary seahorse.
Yet the respite does not last, and Ari is torn from her aunts and forced back to her twisted mother and fractured sisters. Her new stepfather, Len, and his family offer hope, but as Ari grows to adore them, she's severed violently from them too, when her mother moves in with the brutal Dick Irwin.
Through the sexual revolution and drug culture of the 1960s, Ari struggles with her father's legacy and her mother's addictions, testing limits with substances that numb and men who show her kindness. Ari spins through a chaotic decade of loss and love, the devilish and divine, with wit, tenacity, and the astonishing balance unique to seahorses.
“HARD-BOILED WONDERLAND AND THE END OF THE WORLD” by Haruki Murakami
GENRE: Science Fiction, Fantasy Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS:
Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws readers into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is a novel that is at once hilariously funny and a deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
“MAUD” by Melanie J. Fishbane
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS: Fourteen-year-old Lucy Maud Montgomery — Maud to her friends — has a dream: to go to college and become a writer, just like her idol, Louisa May Alcott.
Living with her grandparents on Prince Edward Island, she worries that this dream will never come true. Her grandfather has strong opinions about a woman’s place in the world, and they do not include spending good money on college. Luckily, she has a teacher to believe in her and good friends to support her, including Nate, the Baptist minister’s stepson and the smartest boy in the class. If only he weren’t a Baptist; her Presbyterian grandparents would never approve. Then again, Maud isn’t sure she wants to settle down with a boy — her dreams of being a writer are much more important.
But life changes for Maud when she goes out West to live with her father and his new wife and daughter. Her new home offers her another chance at love, as well as attending school, but tensions increase as Maud discovers her stepmother’s plans for her, which threaten Maud’s future — and her happiness forever.
“THE LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ” by Antonio Iturbe
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Biographical Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS: 'It wasn’t an extensive library. In fact, it consisted of eight books and some of them were in poor condition. But they were books. In this incredibly dark place, they were a reminder of less sombre times, when words rang out more loudly than machine guns…’
Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious books the prisoners have managed to smuggle past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the secret librarian of Auschwitz, responsible for the safekeeping of the small collection of titles, as well as the ‘living books’ - prisoners of Auschwitz who know certain books so well, they too can be ‘borrowed’ to educate the children in the camp.
But books are extremely dangerous. They make people think. And nowhere are they more dangerous than in Block 31 of Auschwitz, the children’s block, where the slightest transgression can result in execution, no matter how young the transgressor…
CLICK TO BORROW “The Librarian of Auschwitz” by Antonio Iturbe on Libby
“THE GUNNERS” by Rebecca Kaufmann
GENRE: Literary Fiction
THE SYNOPSIS:
Mikey Callahan, a thirty-year-old who is suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration, struggles to establish human connections—even his emotional life is a blur. As the novel begins, he is reuniting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of them has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about herself and her friends. In this quietly startling, beautiful book, Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness.
I hope you found something new in the links above. My goal is to try to continue these Libby recommendations once a week for the time the library is closed. If there is a genre you’d like me to look into adding, please comment below or email me at ffpl-info@shaw.ca.
What are you reading right now? Are you utilizing Libby to get some new books in your hands while the library is closed? Let us know in the comments below.
-Lisa S.
Library Clerk/Evening Supervisor
