Reading List

Fantasy Reads for Young Adults: Romance
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare Edwardian London, a time of electric lights and long shadows-- with demons waiting in the dark. For years there has been peace in the Shadowhunter world. James and Lucie Herondale have listened to stories of good defeating evil and love conquering all. But everything changes when the Blackthorn and Carstairs families come to London-- along with a remorseless and inescapable plague. James believes he has found love in the mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Cordelia Carstairs is desperate to become a hero, save her family from ruin, and keep her secret love for James hidden. When disaster strikes, dark and incredible powers are revealed-- as well as the true cruel price of being a hero.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Feel Good Fiction
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: Series Starters
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror! It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake—a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father. So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic. Just for a little while. But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work—children who—one by one—must be destroyed.... 'Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent struggling to stay alive....'
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: Contemporary
Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales by Melissa Marr , Tim Pratt, Neil Gaiman , Carrie Ryan , Gene Wolfe , Kelley Armstrong , Rick Yancey , Kami Garcia , Charles Vess , Holly Black , Garth Nix , Margaret Stohl , & Saladin Ahmed
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: Horror
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: Romance
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Emily Brontë's only novel, a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence, the Penguin Classics edition of Wuthering Heights is the definitive edition of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: Southern Gothic
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt interweaves a first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Gothic Novels: The Female Gothic
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Hallmark-esque Novels: Christmas
The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown Sybil has always taken comfort in her passion for knitting, creating beautiful knits stitch by stitch. But her world suddenly unravels when her fiance ditches her for her identical twin sister at her Star Wars-themed wedding, leaving her sporting a Princess Leia do. Then things go from bad to worse when an incident at work jeopardizes her job. Hoping to escape her woes and forget that she'll be alone for Christmas this year, she visits her friend in Tindledale - a winter wonderland of quaint shops and snowy rooftops. When she arrives in the idyllic town, she can't help feeling like she's in a Hallmark greeting card. She's embraced by welcoming, if eccentric, locals wearing handmade knits that remind Sybil of her own creations as well as her unrealized ambitions of selling them. So when the vintage boutique asks her to make an assortment of knits for their display window, she's thrilled. The hot town doctor has even taken an interest in Sybil, hoping to heal her broken heart. But just when Sybil thinks she's going to have her fairytale Christmas after all, an unexpected turn of events threatens to unspool her happily ever after.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Hallmark-esque Novels: Drama
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow. The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby's new life. Wow, No Thank You is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Hallmark-esque Novels: Mystery
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto Knives Out meets Kim's Convenience in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties. Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady-ah, lady of a certain age-who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing-a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub
Hallmark-esque Novels: Romance
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes In a small town in Maine, recently widowed Eveleth "Evvie" Drake rarely leaves her house. Everyone in town, including her best friend, Andy, thinks grief keeps her locked inside, and she doesn't correct them. In New York, Dean Tenney, former major-league pitcher and Andy's childhood friend, is struggling with a case of the "yips": he can't throw straight anymore, and he can't figure out why. An invitation from Andy to stay in Maine for a few months seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button. When Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house, the two make a deal: Dean won't ask about Evvie's late husband, and Evvie won't ask about Dean's baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken--and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. But before they can find out what might lie ahead, they'll have to wrestle a few demons: the bonds they've broken, the plans they've changed, and the secrets they've kept. They'll need a lot of help, but in life, as in baseball, there's always a chance--right up until the last out.
By Kristen Barenthaler8 months ago in BookClub