Looking for you next great read? See what the Newfields librarians are reading and loving this month…
The Diamond Eye, by Kate Quinn
An unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story. -Goodreads
I was riveted by this book from the first paragraph to the last. It was written with such an understanding touch that one can forgive the violence of Mila Pavlichenko’s situation (learning how to be a sniper against Hitler) and relate to her goal of getting through this war to save her son’s and all the children’s future.
After being wounded again, she wants to go back to the front but instead she is sent to Washington DC where she feels like a fish out of water. A quiet person, she has to deal with reporters who don’t believe she has ever handled a rifle, let alone earned the title Lady Death with over 300 documented kills to her credit. In the end she becomes good friends with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, her husband and finds herself once again defending herself against an old enemy and a new one on American soil.
This historical fiction is based on a true story.
This book is available in our collection and in ebook and audiobook formats through the Libby app.
-Cori C.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.
White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.
Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.
Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.
-Goodreads
Wowowow. I knew the premise of the book going in but this book still surprised me. I didn’t expect it to be so suspensful and agonizing. I was hooked the whole way but it was like watching a slow moving train wreck—I kept wanting to hide behind my hands and peak through my fingers.
As the protagonist/narrator walks us through her self-aggrandizing and delusional behavior, I wanted to shake her. I think what made this a particullarly effective satirical commentary is that Kuang really nails the white liberal woman (“I can’t be racist, I voted for Obama!” etc.) without creating a one-dimensional wholly unsympathetic character. Both June and Athena are flawed human beings and we are really left to grapple with these nuances and how the racial and social dynamics play out in the publishing industry as a whole and in online and social media spaces.
I wouldn’t say this book was subtle but it wasn’t so heavy-handed as to be ineffectual.
Ultimately, this book read much like a thriller—especially as June devolved further into her guilt and paranoia, a la tell-tale heart—and it propelled me through the story.
Tl;dr: Great ride. Excited to read Kuang’s other work.
This book is available in our collection as well as through the Libby app with your library card.
-Brittney T.
Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
First book of the Realm Breaker series
Save the world or end it.
A strange darkness is growing in the Ward. Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea. Fate knocks on her door, in the form of a mythical immortal and a lethal assassin, who tell Corayne that she is the last of an ancient lineage—with the power to save the world from destruction.
Because a man who would burn kingdoms to the ground is raising an army unlike any seen before, bent on uprooting the foundations of the world. With poison in his heart and a stolen sword in his hand, he’ll break the realm itself to claim it. And only Corayne can stop him.
Alongside an unlikely group of reluctant allies, Corayne finds herself on a desperate journey to complete an impossible task, with untold magic singing in her blood and the fate of the world on her shoulders. -Goodreads
I loved this YA fantasy book! You can see that Aveyard took her inspriation from The Lord of the Rings, but included some of her personal writing style that is seen in her other series, Red Queen. Like in Red Queen, Aveyard is incredible at writing complex villians that the readers can’t help but love, while some of the ‘good guys’ you may not like as much. Aveyard is most known for writting sneaky betrayals that had me throwing books accross the room.
This classic “B-Team has to save the day” book has an amazing found family made up of unlikley characters.
- A squire, forced to choose between home and honor
- An immortal, avenging a broken promise
- An assassin, exiled and bloodthirsty
- An anchient sorceress, whose riddles hide an eerie foresight
- A forger with a secret past
- A bounty hunter with a score to settle
I personally love Sorasa, the assassin with loose morals and a killer attitude (literally), but Aveyard is great at writing complex characters.
As readers, we are thrown into action from page 1 with an bloody battle that sets the plot for the whole series. This book has some of my favorite epic journey moments: hushed conversations by the fire while the team is asleep, the “wake up and teach some one weaponry” moments, and slow (I mean slooooow) romantic tension between an unlikely pairing.
I highly recomend this book! Realm Breaker is the first in a trilogy, with the last book being published late February 2024.
This book is available to check out from our collection.
-Marie S.
