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Sick Girl

Sick Girl by Rachel Hargrove

This debut novel is a dark and twisted psychological thriller. Sick Girl will appeal to fans of Gone Girl and The Woman in Cabin 10. Aubrey is sick with cancer, and frankly, sick in the head.  She’s having an affair with Tom, whose wife, Melissa, is also dying of cancer.  Tired of Tom’s constant cancelling of their plans to be with his wife, Aubrey decides to take her out of the picture in order to have Tom to herself and live out her last days in the only happy place she knows.  She begins stalking Melissa in an attempt to get close eno...

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Robin

Robin by Dave Itzkoff

On screen, Robin Williams was larger than life. He showed off his wide-ranging talents in roles ranging from the madcap Mork, to the menacing clerk in One Hour Photo. Along the way, he won Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes, and a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. But there was a quiet side to the famously zany actor. Many of the colleagues Dave Itzkoff interviewed for this biography said, off-camera, Williams was really an introvert who rarely let others know what he was thinking or feeling. Itzkoff does a good job of balancing these two halves of his subject....

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The Favorite Sister

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll

The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll is a smart, audacious, and surprisingly funny “who done it” murder mystery.  The story centers around two sisters involved in the fast paced and cutthroat world of reality television.  One of the sisters is murdered but the who, what, where, when, and why are cleverly pealed back in layers told from different perspectives of the colorful cast of characters. Personas are crafted for the cameras and the reader is never really sure if they can truly believe what they see and read.  Ther...

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Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon

First, you take Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Add in the flavor of Victoria and The Rogue by Meg Cabot with a heavy dose of Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. Sprinkle in a little of Will and Elizabeth from The Pirates of the Caribbean and voila! Olivia Twist by Lorie Langdon is formed!

To survive her harsh childhood in London's underworld, Olivia is raised as Oliver and finds friendship in a group of street urchins, led by Jack, the Artful Dodger. Tragedy separates the childhood friends, but fate brings them back together as Olivia and Jack reunite in the realm of polite London soc...

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The Other Side of the Sky by Farah Ahmedi and Tamim Ansary

The Other Side of the Sky (originally published as The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky) is the true story of a young girl's life, starting in war torn Kabul and ending up as a refugee in the United States. Farah Ahmedi loses a leg stepping on a land mine and half of her family when a bomb hits her home. Ahmedi travels to Germany for rehabilitation and returns to Afghanistan seeing her childhood home through different eyes. When the opportunity comes to relocate to the United States as a refugee, she is excited to go. With the help of a few who reached...

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The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

One lazy afternoon in summer, Jude answered the door and in walked a strange man. Within a few hours, her parents were both dead and she and her sisters were on the way to the world of Faerie. The man was Madoc, her mother’s first husband and her sister Vivi’s father. He raised all three girls as his own, although everyone could easily see that Jude and Taryn were mortal. They attended classes with other Faerie children and were both teased and bullied by them. Taryn tried to keep her head low and go unnoticed. Jude eventually grew angry and s...

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Semiosis by Sue Burke

Fleeing a ruined Earth, a small group of colonists land on a planet they name Pax. There they strive to create a perfect society free of the tyrannical systems which doomed their home world. There are many obstacles they must overcome, both human and extraterrestrial. The most fascinating challenge they face is learning to live in balance with the ecosystem of Pax and a massive, sentient plant.

Each chapter jumps ahead a generation making the seemingly immortal plant, which they name Stevland, the main character of Burke’s wildly imaginative novel. Parts of th...

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We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg

Noah Isenberg’s We’ll Always Have Casablanca is an engaging read for Casablanca devotees and casual fans alike. Brimming with fresh insight, Isenberg walks his readers through the life of this classic film from its inception as a 1940s stage play through its current status as a legendary cultural icon. Highlights of the book include enjoyable anecdotes about the writing and casting of the movie, as well as relevant insights into the world of refugees in the 1940s and today. Isenberg’s intelligent and entertaining study of the genius, mystery, and timeless relevancy of this...

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Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, had three daughters who lived to adulthood: two by his wife, and a third who was born to an enslaved woman. Each of them found her own way to assert her individuality during her lifetime and historian Catherine Kerrison does an excellent job of bringing all three women out of the shadows of their famous father in this work.

Jefferson’s elder daughters were brought up to secure good marriages, which he saw as the end-all of a woman’s education. Although Martha and Maria lived largely conventional lives, they defi...

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The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

How would you live your life if you knew the exact date of your death?  Would your choices take you to that fateful day or lead you away?  And most importantly, are they even choices anymore?  Benjamin cleverly explores this dilemma in The Immortalists. This imaginative and gripping family drama follows the scatter shot lives of the four Gold siblings.  As young teens they visit a Roma Gypsy fortune teller who foretells the exact date of their deaths.  Armed with this information they make choices regarding their futures and how they live their lives.  These ch...

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African American History Month Teen Reads

Roots by Alex Haley

When I was in 10th grade, we were asked to study the works of a great American author and defend its inclusion in the school’s curriculum. I studied Alex Haley and subsequently read Roots. 10 years later, I still advocate for its inclusion in every teen reader’s library of must-reads. Roots is a book that I have read only once and still remember vividly. To this day, passages of text and detailed descriptions have remained ever present in my mind. This absorbing, intense, emotional, moving, sometimes graphic and always memorable saga of Alex Haley&rsqu...

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Young Adult Programming Survey

Attention 6th-12thgraders! If you print and fill out this survey between February 1-28, you will be entered into a raffle to win a brand new copy of X: A Novel (Ilyasah Shabazz)! Return the completed form to the Zauel Reference Desk. Winners will be notified March 1.

Name:                                                     &nb...

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Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

I have a confession. I do not normally read graphic novels. I have a second confession to make. I read a graphic novel… and it’s seriously great! For fans of beautiful art, coming of age stories and female empowerment, read Pashmina! History students, first and second generation Americans, travelers, dreamers, read Pashmina! If you don’t fit any of the above categories… read Pashmina! Nidhi Chanani’s debut novel is a sweet story of a teenager named Priyanka who finds a magical pashmina scarf that connects her to her Indian heritage in fantastic ways. As Priya...

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Miss E by Brian Herberger

Fans of Across the Universe and The Mixed-Up Files of Basil E Frankweiler are encouraged to read the story of Bets and her mysterious friend “Miss E”. History, mystery, conspiracy and fun are woven together into this delicious tale that, I must admit, I consumed in one sitting! Elizabeth aka “Bets” is a teenage girl in 1967. She is a new girl, an army brat and a young adult about to embark on a series of changes in her life. When given an assignment to identify important figures of American history, Bets notices an incredible likeness between a defiant spunky aviatri...

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Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman

Vincent and Theois a well-researched presentation of the special bond shared by the Van Gogh brothers. Inspired by their letters, Heiligman recreates Vincent and Theo’s lives from birth to death by using their very own words and sentiments. At just about 400 pages, this book is a bit slow to start. The shorter, almost fragment- like sentences scattering the early pages make for an interesting read that builds anticipation, but borders on driving the reader crazy by wishing that something would happen! However, if the reader hangs on, they are in for quite a treat. Vincent and Theo&rsq...

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