Bookshelf

FICTION

Peck & Peck, by Bonnie Garmus

It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, a recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants — an “ear” for poetry — is worried about his future. While all of his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two editors-in-chief, the famous Peck brothers — twins and enemies — as well as being privy to the private affairs of their 39 editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate.

Odette Rising, by Julianne Edwards

It’s 1896 in Sèvres, France, and from her bedroom window, Odette Huré watches a funeral procession carry her father’s coffin away. She is 21 and has not left the house for 10 years. Odette looks on as her life passes, reading and soothing herself with food. But with the sudden death of her father, the walls she has built around herself begin to crumble. Forced into the world, she discovers that she’s responsible for her father’s considerable fortune and his celebrated stockings factory — renowned for its exquisite designs that adorn the slender ankles of Parisian femmes célèbres. Now Odette must try and navigate the world she has hidden from for so long. In doing so, she unearths secrets left behind by her father and the shocking truth of her own identity.

Luna, Phoenix, Queen, by Julie Orringer

Dava and Barr Pennington, professors at a Midwestern university, both harbor potent secrets. Fiction writing is his specialty; English literature is hers. But Dava is unhappy in their marriage, and secretly in love with a colleague, Svetlana White, who teaches in the Russian Studies department. Spurred by their complicated liaison, she spends her nights working on a novel about two women who run a domestic violence shelter in coastal Maine. Though she loves the work and the refuge it provides, the writing becomes increasingly difficult as her memory begins to fail; tests reveal that she’s suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. After a precipitous decline, she moves to a memory care facility in a neighboring town. Soon afterward, her husband, alone in the house at night, discovers her hidden manuscript, which he reads with envy, and then with anger. Over the next two years he rewrites the novel and publishes it as his own, to wide acclaim. But persistent feelings of guilt lead him to confess his theft to an unlikely party, who leads others to the truth. Luna, Phoenix, Queen tells its tale of artistic and marital betrayal in a chorus of voices.

NONFICTION

Simply Ina: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, by Ina Garten

Through her years of experience as a home cook, Garten has learned that the best food is often the simplest. With just a little thought and a few good ingredients, you can make truly impressive dishes without spending hours in the kitchen. Simply Ina, a new collection of 85 easy yet impressive recipes for every meal of the day, celebrates the delicious results of streamlined cooking, sharing expert tips and tricks for achieving the best flavor with the least amount of effort. Each recipe has a secret that makes preparing it easier than you thought. Whether you’re feeding unexpected guests, pulling together a Tuesday night dinner after work, or hosting a dinner party and don’t want to miss all the fun cooped up in the kitchen, you’ll be happy to have these simple, satisfying and completely doable recipes. Because simple food shouldn’t just save you time, it should let you enjoy the people you love.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

This Is How to Spot Animals!
by Aline Portman

Shhh! Don’t move! Bear is spotting animals. One day he hopes to find a red-breasted goose. A beautiful animal! And very rare. But today he has no luck. There is nothing to see. Spotting animals is not easy. But he’s good at it and will tell you how it should be done. Dramatic irony ensues as Bear leads readers through a day of wildlife watching. He insists there’s nothing to see, but readers will be delighted as animal after animal appears — a snail, a bird, a fox, even the rare red-breasted goose.  (Ages 3 – 7.)

An Octopus Named Houdini, by Zana Fraillion

Houdini the octopus lives in an aquarium, but she misses her home in the wild sea.

All day long we can hear
that Sea howl prowling wild
inside our brains and every part of us is straining
to feel it taste it twirl it whirl it swirl it
inside our body
again.

In this novel in verse, Houdini doesn’t like the visitors who bang on her tank. Or the way she can’t feel the sun on her skin or the wind rippling the water. It’s a dull existence for a creature with nine brains. Then one day she meets someone who is different from the others. Juno’s busy brain buzzes with so many questions and thoughts that Houdini’s skin tingles with wonder. But the singing of the sea is growing stronger and harder to resist. Can Houdini make Juno understand what she needs before it’s too late? (Ages 8 – 12.)

Duel, by Shawn Harris 

Mirror images tell the story of two queens, two knights, and a duel over one shared hill in this astonishingly symmetrical picture book. Two castles sit on a hill, home to two queens. But the queens would rather not share, and each sends a knight to joust for the land. There’s just one problem — when the winner stands up in the middle of the field, no one is sure which side he came from. Maybe neighborly sharing is back in vogue! After all, they have so much in common. The illustrations in Duel follow one simple rule: Each pair of facing pages is perfectly symmetrical, mirrored over the gutter of the book, resulting in a visually arresting and effortlessly funny picture book that kids are sure to ask for over and over again. (Ages 4 – 8.)

Compiled by Kimberly Daniels Taws, manager of The Country Bookshop