Looking for you next great read? See what the Newfields librarians are reading and loving this month…
Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
This is an authorized prequel to L.M. Montgomery’s classic Anne of Green Gables series about the irrepressible red-haired orphan.
As a Anne of Green Gables fan I was concerned about another author reinterpreting my redheaded heroine. Luckily, I shouldn’t have worried. This book is wonderful, handled with a subtle touch as baby Anne develops into the amazing plucky wild child that she is in LM Montgomery’s books. Budge Wilson takes elements of Anne’s personality from the Montgomery’s books and delicately illustrates how Anne Shirley with two loving parents who died in an epidemic became the sensitive yet strong willed Anne of Green Gables.
This story is aimed more for young adults to grown ups.
Young Anne becomes a scullery maid/ baby sitter for many people who give her a home and expect her to be grateful for the opportunity. Anne’s imagination and passion for school work helps her learn to see the best side of alcoholics, curmudgeons, disappointed women and spoiled mean spirited children. Luckily there is always a kind adult or young friend to help Anne along the way.
Anne lives in a world with no available cars, no cell phones, no Google to help herself out of these situations. She is dependent on luck and the goodness of others to help her find where she belongs. Throughout the book, her friends tell her she will find her place in the world.
Whether you should read this book before the LM Montgomery series or after is up to you. I believe it will blend easily if you read it first but I found it interesting to read it after.
This book is available in our collection and via audiobook on Libby and hoopla apps.
-Cori C.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
New Zealand isn’t just the place where Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies were made, it’s also the home to an author who has written an interesting Sci-Fi and Fantasy story! Imagine a gothic horror novel with quippy dialogue and with space and spaceships as the backdrop for the setting; that is pretty much this novel.
The novel takes place in a star system called Dominicus, in which there are 9 planets. Each planet is ruled by necromancers that specialize in a specific school of necromancy. All of these houses are ruled by the Emperor who also doubles as a diety. The emperor has called a representative of all houses to endure trials to become immortal and all powerful necromancers, called Lyctors, but each of these necromancers must have a bodyguard called a cavalier to be eligible.
So enters our protagonist, Gideon, who is an undead teenage girl in an eternal rebellious phase. She has to work with her childhood rival, the necromancer Harrow, as they compete in the trials of the Emperor.
I can’t tell you how enthralled and interesting this novel is. While there is a large cast of characters, the plot has many twists and turns, and the tonal shifts between what happens in the story and how characters interact or process things is extremely entertaining! This is the first book in a multiple part series. Reading just this novel alone, I can’t wait to see what happens in later installments!
This book is available on the Libby app.
-Lauren B.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help us start anew. -Goodreads
This book drew me in from the start. We set the scene with our main character Phoebe checking in to the grand Cornwall Inn in ritzy Newport, RI. She has wanted to come to the Cornwall with her husband for years and now she is finally here…but without her husband and without any luggage.
Everyone else in the lobby is here for a week-long wedding celebration featuring the young heiress Lila and her older widowed groom. The entire hotel has been booked out for the wedding party–all except for Phoebe, who is immediately mistaken by staff and guests for another member of the wedding party.
As Phoebe heads into the elevator to go to her room, she is joined by the frazzled bride-to-be. Phoebe shares that she is in fact not a wedding guest and when Lila presses, she confesses she is actually here to kill herself.
Well, a suicide will not do for Lila’s perfect wedding week. It will not do at all. What ensues is a charming, heartfelt, and often funny story of an unlikely friendship, chance encounters and new beginnings.
I inhaled this book. The tone was a perfect balance of dark comedy and sincerity that makes you appreciate what it means to be human. None of the characters are perfect–but even the “unlikable” people have their redeeming qualities and charm.
One of my favorite books of the season.
This book is available to check out in our collection and via audiobook on the Libby app.
-Brittney T.
