Historical fiction / Romans historiques

 

The Queen's Lover / Francine du Plessix Gray

The Second Empress : a novel of Napoleon's court / Michelle Moran

The Kingmaker's Daughter / Philippa Gregory

The American Heiress / Daisy Goodwin

The Dream of the Celt / Mario Vargas Llosa

Helvétie / Maurice Denuzière

Les sœurs Deblois / Louise Tremblay-d’Essiambre

Napoléon / Max Gallo

Ramsès / Christian Jacq
Les enfants de la terre / Jean M. Auel

Lectures pour la Saint-Valentin / Valentine's Day Goodreads

Quelques lectures sur livrel ou audio books

Romance Reads on eBooks or audio books

http://emedia.lib.overdrive.com/

Good Reads - April 2010

“It’s not easy being GREEN” as a famous puppet once said, but here are some resources from our library to help you on your way. Check them out!




Feeding Baby Green by Alan Greene.
The earth friendly program for healthy, safe nutrition during pregnancy, childhood, and beyond.




Sleeping Naked is Green: how an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car, and found love in 366 days by Vanessa Farquharson.
A fresh and funny account of this Canadian journalist’s attempt at becoming an ecowarrior.



Green for Life: 200 simple eco-ideas for everyday by Gillian Deacon
This is written by a Montreal journalist so it contains lots of local info.






Stuart Robertson's Tips on Organic Gardening
Also written by a Montrealer and Gazette columnist.







David Suzuki’s Green Guide by David Suzuki and David R. Boyd
“How to find fresher, tastier, healthier food, create an eco-friendly home, make sustainable transportation choices, reduce consumption, and be a green citizen.”

Good Reads - January 2010

THIS MONTH WE HAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM OUR STAFF.



Isabelle is reading Dexter by Design by Jeffry Lindsay. This is the fourth thriller to feature Dexter Morgan. The narrator is a homicidal forensics investigator and the reader follows him through his days at work, as well as when he picks his next victim and finally kills them. The series inspired a TV show on HBO called Dexter.



Margo, owner of puppy Bella, suggests the new book by Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), How to Raise the Perfect Dog – more of the same advice that is in previous books but starting with a puppy instead of a problem dog. The book follows four puppies of different breeds chosen and raised by Cesar.




Bev’s suggestion is A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. This novel is set in London, England during the week before Christmas in 2008. A despicable hedge-fund manager, his neglected, pot-smoking teenage son, a book-loving subway car driver, an Islamic youth who gets recruited into a suicide-bombing cell, and a spiteful literary critic are just a few of the diverse cast of characters whose lives are all related in some way. A thriller and satire of our times.

Good Reads - December 2009

This month we are featuring biographies of the rich and/or famous.



Agassi, Andre
Open: an autobiography

From one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.





Spoto, Donald
High Society: the Life of Grace Kelly

In just seven years–from 1950 through 1956–Grace Kelly embarked on a whirlwind career that included roles in eleven movies and established her as one of Hollywood’s most talented actresses and iconic beauties. Her astonishing career lasted until her retirement at age twenty-six, when she withdrew from stage and screen to marry a European monarch and became a modern, working princess and mother.




Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen
This Child Will be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
In January 2006, after 14 years of brutal civil conflict, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's "Iron Lady," was sworn in as president of the Republic of Liberia. In this memoir, Sirleaf shares the story of her rise to power, from her early childhood to her studies in the US, her work as an international bank executive, her imprisonment and exile, and her fight for democracy and social justice.




Stiles, T.J.
The First Tycoon: the Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
A portrait of an iconic entrepreneur, who started his career as an uneducated ferryman and rose to commander of a huge fleet of steamships and a railroad empire. A portrait of a complex man and a sweeping view of 19th century America.

Good Reads - September 2009

Our selections this month all fall under the category “biographical fiction” which are novels based on the lives of real people.

Archer, Jeffrey
Paths of Glory



For fans of classic adventure fiction, this is the story of George Mallory, the mountain climber who disappeared in 1924 while attempting to climb Mount Everest.


Easter Smith, Anne
The King's Grace


Takes an overlooked woman, Grace Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of Edward IV, and places her in the midst of one of English history's greatest mysteries: What happened to the two princes imprisoned in the Tower in 1485?


Obomsawin, Diane
Kaspar


This graphic novel by a Quebec author and cartoonist is based on the life of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who appeared mysteriously in the streets of Nuremberg on May 28, 1828, and died of knife wounds five years later under equally mysterious circumstances. Allegedly raised in a dark cellar and deprived of human contact until the age of sixteen, he became the proof of a concept for theories about natural man, original sin, and the civilizing mission of culture. Rightful heir to the throne of Baden or a fraud? Redeemer of man’s sins or “ambulatory automatist”? The curious circumstances and significance of his life have been disputed ever since.


Boyle, T. Coraghessan
The Women


The life story of the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, is told through the experiences of the four women who loved him - the Montenegrin beauty Olgivanna Milanoff; the passionate Southern belle Maud Miriam Noel; the spirited Mamah Cheney who was tragically killed; and his young first wife, Kitty Tobin.

Also available in LARGE PRINT The Women

SUMMER HEAT - GREAT READS FOR TEENS

Han, Jenny
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Lauren Myracle, a popular teen author, sums up this book more eloquently than I can:
‘’If I could live inside this amazing book, I would. I would inhale the ocean air and soak up the sun, and I would hang out all day with kind-wonderful-funny-awkward Belly and her two known-‘em-forever buds, Jeremiah and Conrad. I’d watch the three of them stop being kids and start being more…and I’d hope hope hope that when Belly falls in love – ‘cause you know she will – she’d give her heart to the exact right boy.’’ (ROMANCE)

Grant, Michael
Hunger: A Gone Novel.
It’s been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the Fayz. Three months since all the adults disappeared. GONE. The food ran out weeks ago, everyone is starving, but no one wants to find a solution. More and more kids are evolving, developing supernatural abilities that set them apart from the ‘’normal’’ kids. Each kid is out for himself and even the goods turn murderous. And just to add to the mix, a sinister creature, The Darkness, that has been buried deep in the hills, has awakened….and it’s hungry!!! Sequel to Gone (SCI-FI)

Ibbitson, John
The Landing

Will Ben ever escape the Landing? The hardscrabble farm on the shores of Lake Muskoka can't generate a living, so Ben's Uncle Henry sells goods and gas to cottagers from the dock known as Cooks Landing. It had never been much of a living and since the Depression hit, it's even less. Ben's thinking a lot these days, and it's making him miserable. He's thinking about how unfair it is that his uncle only cares about work. He's thinking about what he really wants to do: play the violin. These days, he's lucky to snatch the odd bit of practice between chores, playing to the chickens in the henhouse. A new job fixing up the grand old cottage on nearby Pine Island seems at first to be just one more thing to keep Ben away from his violin. After he meets the island's owner, Ben changes his mind. Ruth Chapman is a cultured and wealthy woman from New York who introduces Ben to an unfamiliar, liberating world. After Ben plays violin for Ruth and her admiring friends, it only makes him more desperate to flee. Then, during a stormy night on Lake Muskoka, everything changes. Won the Governor General's Award for 2008 (HISTORICAL FICTION)

Smith, Roland
I.Q., book one: Independence Hall

Step-siblings Q (Quest) and Angela are thrust into the work of the U.S. Secret Service and the Israeli Mossad when Angela realizes she’s being followed, and Q learns the secret about Angela’s real mother – a former Secret Service agent who was supposedly killed by a terrorist group. But who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? I.Q. readers are immersed in current issues affecting the world in this edge-of-your-seat, modern-day mystery adventure. And did I mention the ‘rents are a pop group and their new hit is # 1 on the charts? Book two, the White House is to be published soon. (ADVENTURE)

Good Reads - July 2009

Summertime and the livin' (and reading) is easy....
Click on the title to check availability or place a request.


Keefer, Janice Kulyk
The Ladies' Lending Library
A group of Ukrainian Canadian women forges bonds during a summer at Kalyna Beach as they share gossip, dreams and the "racy" books that they trade back and forth. This is a bittersweet tale about mothers, daughters, friends and lovers in 1960s cottage country.



Prose, Francine
Goldengrove
Over one haunted summer, Nico must face that life-changing moment when children realize their parents can no longer help them. She learns about the power of art, of time and place, the mystery of loss and recovery. But for all the darkness at the novel's heart, the narrative itself is radiant with the lightness of summer and charged by the restless sexual tension of teenage life.



Patterson, James
Sail
A widow and her three troubled children encounter a catastrophe while on a sailing vacation.
Also available in large print and on compact disc




Camilleri, Andrea
August Heat
When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano’s long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend—husband and young son in tow—to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family’s beach rental, Montalbano, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister.

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!

Good Reads - May 2009

Steinhauer, Olen
The Tourist
Milo Weaver, a former undercover agent for the CIA, must go back undercover when the arrest of an assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo's oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases.

Taylor, Jill Bolte
My stroke of insight
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Taylor, a brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. She observed her own mind completely deteriorate. Now she shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery.


Michaels, Anne
The Winter Vault
In 1964, Jean and Avery Escher, a newly married Canadian couple, settle into a houseboat on the Nile while Avery oversees the building of the Aswam dam. When they suffer a tragedy, they return to Toronto and separate only to try to find their way back to each other.

Lamb, Wally
The Hour I First Believed
Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, high school teacher Caelum and his school nurse wife Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events.