Good Reads - June 2009

A selection of staff-picks, fiction and non-fiction. Click on the title to check availability or place a request.



Verghese, Abraham
Cutting for Stone
Intriguing and unforgettable, this story of identical twins, born to Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Dr. Thomas Stone but raised by doctors Hema and Ghosh, is a true delight. The twin boys, Marion and Shiva, grow up at Mission Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They share everything, including a passion for medicine and an attraction to childhood playmate Genet. How this plays out over time, with devastating results that tear them apart, is central to this absorbing and thrilling family saga. Through circumstances that shatter his life, Marion, who lives in the United States, will be forced to reach out to the two men who betrayed him – his father and his brother. One learns a great deal about disease, the medical profession, and the heartbreaking lack of medical intervention in Ethiopia, in this absorbing and rewarding story. This is one book that will definitely keep you up at night turning the pages.



Fitzek, Sebastian
Therapy
This is a tale of obsession and self-delusion. Shattered by the mysterious disappearance of his ill twelve-year-old daughter, well-known, wealthy psychiatrist Viktor Larenz is unable to accept the fact that his daughter is dead. Four years later, having lost both his wife and his career, he retreats to a remote holiday island in the North Sea where he encounters a schizophrenic novelist who claims that the characters she creates come alive and that she has been having visions of Larenz's daughter. This was a huge bestseller in Germany where it toppled The Da Vinci Code from the No. 1 position.


Gillies, Isabel
Happens Every Day: an all-too-true story
Isabel Gillies had a wonderful life -- a handsome, intelligent, loving husband, two toddlers, a beautiful house; suddenly, that life was over. Her husband announced that he was leaving her and their two young sons. Far from self-pity,this memoir is so raw you feel like it is your best friend telling you her story. It is about love, marriage, family, heartbreak, and the unexpected turns of a life. A wonderful read.


Atkinson, Kate
When Will There be Good News?
If you have never read anything by this excellent Scottish writer, you are in for a treat if you pick up this one. Beginning with a shocking murder scene in which the lone survivor is a little 6 year old girl, the story continues thirty years later where this young girl has become Dr. Joanna Hunter, a successful GP in Edinburgh with a baby of her own. She hires 16 year old Reggie, who is a truly delightful character, as a nanny. Police Inspector Jackson Brodie , by a quirk of fate, ends up in a hospital in Edinburgh where his former romantic interest, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, has been sent to warn Dr. Hunter that the man who killed her family, Andrew Decker, is being released from prison. When Dr. Hunter goes missing, Reggie urges the Chief Inspector to step up the search, as Dr. Hunter’s husband is behaving in a suspicious manner. A thrilling mystery with a convoluted plot, this book is a great summer read!