fiction – Page 3 – Avon Free Public Library

Staff Picks, September 27th

Posted on September 27, 2017October 10, 2017 by Jessica Noble

Circulation Assistant Karen’s Pick:

Invisible Emmie / Terri Libenson (2017 children’s graphic novel, J Graphic Libenson)
The lives of two middle school girls, one a quiet artist, the other a popular overachiever, intersect on a day shaped by a misdelivered note, crushes, humiliations, boredom and drama.

Sunday Reference Librarian Liz’s Pick:

Spies of revolutionary Connecticut : from Benedict Arnold to Nathan Hale / Mark Allen Baker (2014 non-fiction, 327.12 Baker)
Covert intelligence played a critical role in the American Revolution. Connecticut produced an extraordinary number of spies on both sides of the conflict, from the infamous traitor and Norwich-born Benedict Arnold to Patriot Nathan Hale, executed by the British for espionage. Spying during the Revolution entailed coded messages, early submarines with the first exploding torpedoes and the penalty of death for those caught in the act. Despite the risk, some spies even played both sides as double agents, such as Edward Bancroft, who was never caught.

Reference Librarian Barbara’s Pick:

As close to us as breathing : a novel / Elizabeth Poliner (2016 fiction book call# F Poliner)
In 1948, a small stretch of the Woodmont, Connecticut shoreline, affectionately named “Bagel Beach,” has long been a summer destination for Jewish families. Here sisters Ada, Vivie, and Bec assemble at their beloved family cottage, with children in tow and weekend-only husbands who arrive each Friday in time for the Sabbath meal.

Staff Picks, September 14, 2017

Posted on September 14, 2017October 10, 2017 by Avon Adult Reference

Technical Service Librarian Jessica’s Pick:

Not my father’s son : a memoir / Alan Cumming (2014 biography, 92 Cumming)
In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.

Circulation Assistant Holly’s Pick:

The peach keeper : A Novel / Sarah Addison Allen (2011 downloadable fiction, Overdrive downloadable)
Willa Jackson of Walls of Water, North Carolina, has lately learned that an old classmate–socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood–of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored her family’s Blue Ridge Madam home to its former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton, found buried beneath the lone peach tree on the property is found, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families.

Reference Librarian Cyndi’s Pick:

The playdate : a novel/ Louise Millar(2012 fiction book call# F Millar)
When Callie moved into her new neighborhood, she thought it would be easy to fit in. The other parents have been strangely hostile, though, and her frail daughter Rae is finding it impossible to make friends. Suzy, with her rich husband and her three energetic children, has been the only one to reach out, although their friendship has recently felt inexplicably strained. Now the police have suggested that someone dangerous may be living in their neighborhood, and the atmosphere feels even more toxic. Then there’s the matter of Callie’s ex-husband, and the shocking truth behind their divorce . . . a truth that she would do anything to hide.

Staff Picks, Sept. 6th, 2017

Posted on September 7, 2017October 10, 2017 by Avon Adult Reference

Sunday Reference Librarian Sara’s Pick:

The Devil wears Prada / Lauren Weisberger (2003 fiction book, F Weisberger)

A small-town girl fresh out of an Ivy League college, Andrea Sachs is delighted when she is hired for her dream job as assistant to Miranda Priestly, the successful, high-profile editor of Runway magazine, one of the world’s premier fashion publications, until she discovers that she has been hired by the boss from hell.

Administrative Assistant Leona Mae’s Pick:

The sweetness at the bottom of the pie : a Flavia de Luce mystery / Alan Bradley (2010 mystery, call# M Bradley)

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is murdered on the grounds of her family’s decaying English mansion and Flavia’s father becomes the main suspect.

Anonymous Reference Librarian’s Pick:

The art forger / a novel by B.A. Shapiro (2012 fiction book call# F Shapiro)

Boston painter Claire Roth has survived financially by painting reproductions, so when influential gallery owner Aiden Markel arrives with a bizarre proposal–her own show if she will forge a copy of a Degas, one of the pictures stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum–she says yes. As she works, Claire and Aiden become lovers, but she doesn’t tell him about her discovery that the stolen Degas is itself a copy. This knowledge is Claire’s lifeline when the finished forgery is discovered, Aiden and then Claire are both arrested, and only she can save them.

Staff Picks, August 23, 2017

Posted on August 23, 2017October 10, 2017 by Jessica Noble

Substitute Reference Librarian Liz’s Pick

Middlesex / Jeffrey Eugenides (2002 fiction book, call# F Eugenides )

Calliope’s friendship with a classmate and her sense of identity are compromised by the adolescent discovery that she is a hermaphrodite, a situation with roots in her grandparent’s desperate struggle for survival in the 1920s.

Circulation Assistant Gayle’s Pick

Off the grid : a Joe Pickett novel / C.J. Box (2016 mystery, call# M Box)

Nate is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and trying to deal with past crimes, when he is suddenly surrounded by a small team of elite professional special operators. They’re not there to threaten him, but to make a deal. They need help destroying a domestic terror cell in Wyoming’s Red Desert, and in return they’ll make Nate’s criminal record disappear.

But they are not what they seem, as Nate’s friend Joe Pickett discovers. They have a much different plan in mind, and it just might be something that takes them all down-including Nate and Joe.

Circulation Assistant Becky’s Pick

Nothing to envy : ordinary lives in North Korea/ Barbara Demick (2010 non-fiction, call# 306.0951 Demick)

Follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years, a chaotic period that saw the rise to power of Kim Jong Il and the devastation of a famine that killed one-fifth of the population, illustrating what it means to live under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.