The Box Car Baby introduces the character of AB’Gale Steel who was born in a boxcar on a train bound for Georgia, according to what her papa told her. Bishop Steel, a mechanical engineer for the Southern Railroad, found his adopted daughter snuggled in a basket of cotton on an otherwise empty boxcar in the…
Category: First Read
I Will Never Leave You by S.M. Thayer
Banking heiress Trish and her husband, James, seem to have it all, from a lavish lifestyle to a historic mansion in the nation’s capital. The only thing that’s missing to make their family complete is a baby, so when Trish holds Anne Elise in her arms for the first time, it’s no surprise that she…
The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri
Four old school friends have a pact: to meet up every year in the small town in Puglia they grew up in. Art, the charismatic leader of the group and creator of the pact, insists that the agreement must remain unshakable and enduring. But this year, he never shows up. A visit to his house…
The Oddling Prince by Nancy Springer
In the ancient moors of Scotland, the king of Calidon lies on his deathbed, cursed by a ring that cannot be removed from his finger. When a mysterious fey stranger appears to save the king, he also carries a secret that could tear the royal family apart. The kingdom’s only hope will lie with two…
The Sea-Migrations Tahriib by Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf (Translated by Clare Pollard)
Although Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf has lived in exile in the UK for 20 years, she is fast emerging as one of the most outstanding Somali poets, as well as a powerful woman poet in a literary tradition still largely dominated by men. She is a master of the major Somali poetic forms, including the…
The Long Deception by Mary McCluskey
The sudden death of a childhood friend forces a woman to rethink her own life—and make an impossible decision. Alison Eastlake has come a long way from the wild days of her youth in England. Now, instead of streaking her hair purple, dreaming of becoming an artist, and sneaking cigarettes in her friend Sophie’s basement,…
Dark. Sweet: New & Selected Poems by Linda Hogan
Clear-eyed, soaring poems capture our intimacy with the natural world and represent best of the Pulitzer and NBCC finalist’s career. *** [I’m dreaming the old turtle back (TURTLE)] *** (Coffee House Press, 16 June 2014, ebook, 416 pages, borrowed from the National Poetry Library) *** GET A COPY *** This is my first time reading…
Glimmerglass Girl by Holly Walrath
Glimmerglass Girl is a collection of poetry and images about womanhood and femininity. This debut collection from author Holly Lyn Walrath explores life, love, marriage, abuse, self-harm, the body, death, and alcoholism through the lens of a woman’s heart. It takes readers through a speculative and fantastical world of fairy tales and unicorns where femininity…
Primrose Street by Marina L Reed
Welcome to Primrose Street, where neighbours share close interactions but know very little of each other. Only the maple trees that have lined the road for decades know their decisions, indiscretions, secrets, joys, and pains. From fifty-year residents Charlie and Cora and their grandson Ronald, to newcomer Sofia and her son Nicolas, to best friends…
Beautiful Exiles by Meg Waite Clayton
Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets dishevelled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship—forged over writing, talk, and family dinners—flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War. Martha reveres him. The very married…
