“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.” – Albert Einstein
FICTION
The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan
As he did in the award-winning One Part Woman, in his newest novel, The Story of a Goat, Perumal Murugan explores a side of India that is rarely considered in the West: the rural lives of the country’s farming community. He paints a bucolic yet sometimes menacing portrait, showing movingly how danger and deception can threaten the lives of the weakest through the story of a helpless young animal lost in a world it naively misunderstands.
As the novel opens, a farmer in Tamil Nadu is watching the sun set over his village one quiet evening when a mysterious stranger, a giant man who seems more than human, appears on the horizon. He offers the farmer a black goat kid who is the runt of the litter, surely too frail to survive. The farmer and his wife take care of the young she-goat, whom they name Poonachi, and soon the little goat is bounding with joy and growing at a rate they think miraculous for such a small animal. Intoxicating passages from the goat’s perspective offer a bawdy and earthy view of what it means to be an animal and a refreshing portrayal of the natural world. But Poonachi’s life is not destined to be a rural idyll—dangers can lurk around every corner, and may sometimes come from surprising places, including a government that is supposed to protect the weak and needy. Is this little goat too humble a creature to survive such a hostile world?
With allegorical resonance for contemporary society and examining hierarchies of caste and color, The Story of a Goat is a provocative but heartwarming fable from a world-class storyteller who is finally achieving recognition outside his home country.
Description from Goodreads.
“Perumal Murugan said his career as a novelist was dead. Lucky for us, he was wrong… The Story of a Goat, translated from Tamil by N. Kalyan Raman, jumps nimbly from fantasy to realism to parable… The effect is not so much escapist fantasy as existential reflection… The elegance of Murugan’s simple tone will lull you deeper into his story… The early scenes of tiny Poonachi wandering in the field and cavorting with other goats are as soft as cashmere… Woven through this slim novel is an acidic satire… As The Story of a Goat demonstrates, just because we’ve put away childish things doesn’t mean we have to deny ourselves the strange pleasure of fiction in which animals articulate their own curious perspectives on their lives―and ours.” – Washington Post
“This slyly fabulist story inhabits the point of view of a sickly goat taken in by a poor Indian family. Murugan, whose novel One Part Woman was longlisted for a National Book Award for translation, fashions the goat’s travails and victories into social commentary and a testament to nature’s power.” – New York Times Book Review
“A goat’s life serves as an allegory for the human condition in this novel from an acclaimed Indian author… In anthropomorphizing Poonachi, Murugan finds a path to describe the essence of humans’ struggle to survive while grasping for fleeting moments of joy and grace… In the tradition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm… An affecting modern fable reflecting Murugan’s enchanting capacity to make a simple story resonate on many levels.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
SUSPENSE
The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters
Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face…
In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real–and she could prove it.
That belief got Becca killed.
It’s been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night–that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She’s done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn’t seen since the night Becca died.
The night Heather killed her.
Now, someone else knows what she did… and they’re determined to make Heather pay.
Description from Goodreads.
“The Dead Girls Club effortlessly combines [Damien’s] artistic, literary flair with a supernatural story that’s equally familiar and unexpected.” – Grit Daily
“Psychological and disturbing… In the frightening world of The Dead Girls Club, women’s lives are shaped by violence, but there may be a haunting way out.” – Foreword Reviews
“Especially appealing to readers who grew up with R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series, Walters’ first novel will find fans among a wide range of horror readers.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book
MYSTERY
Shatter the Night by Emily Littlejohn
It’s Halloween night in Cedar Valley. During the town’s annual festival, Detective Gemma Monroe takes a break from trick or treating with her family to visit an old family friend, retired Judge Caleb Montgomery, at his law office. To Gemma’s surprise, Caleb seems worried–haunted, even–and confides in her that he’s been receiving anonymous threats. Shortly after, as Gemma strolls back to her car, an explosion at Caleb’s office shatters the night.
Reeling from the shock, Gemma and her team begin eliminating suspects and motives, but more keep appearing in their place, and soon another man is killed. Her investigation takes her from a chilling encounter with a convicted murderer at the Belle Vista Penitentiary, to the gilded rooms of the renovated Shotgun Playhouse, where Shakespeare’s cursed play Macbeth is set to open in a few weeks.
Yet most disturbing of all is when Gemma realizes that similar murders have happened before. There is a copycat killer at play, and if Gemma can’t stop him, he’ll carry out his final, deadly act.
Description from Goodreads.
“Fans of Littlejohn’s mysteries (including Lost Lake, 2018) will settle into this familiar blend of smart sleuthing and realistic portrayals of Monroe’s home life. Recommend Littlejohn to those who enjoy Lisa Gardner’s novels.” – Booklist
“Littlejohn continues methodically building her heroine’s world, shifting from an almost supernatural-inflected focus to small-town secrets.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Enjoyable. Gemma remains a strong lead readers will want to see more of.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
Hoopla eAudiobook
HISTORICAL FICTION
Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin
Structured as a triptych, Africaville chronicles the lives of three generations of the Sebolt family—Kath Ella, her son Omar/Etienne, and her grandson Warner—whose lives unfold against the tumultuous events of the twentieth century from the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the social protests of the 1960s to the economic upheavals in the 1980s.
A century earlier, Kath Ella’s ancestors established a new home in Nova Scotia. Like her ancestors, Kath Ella’s life is shaped by hardship—she struggles to conceive and to provide for her family during the long, bitter Canadian winters. She must also contend with the locals’ lingering suspicions about the dark-skinned “outsiders” who live in their midst.
Kath Ella’s fierce love for her son, Omar, cannot help her overcome the racial prejudices that linger in this remote, tight-knit place. As he grows up, the rebellious Omar refutes the past and decides to break from the family, threatening to upend all that Kath Ella and her people have tried to build. Over the decades, each successive generation drifts further from Africaville, yet they take a piece of this indelible place with them as they make their way to Montreal, Vermont, and beyond, to the deep South of America.
As it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place, and the meaning of home, Africaville tells the larger story of the black experience in parts of Canada and the United States. Vibrant and lyrical, filled with colorful details, and told in a powerful, haunting voice, this extraordinary novel—as atmospheric and steeped in history as The Known World, Barracoon, The Underground Railroad, and The Twelve Tribes of Hattie—is a landmark work from a sure-to-be major literary talent.
Description from Goodreads.
“A promising debut.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Colvin’s intriguing and memorable debut shines a light on a little-known black experience: the freed slaves from the Caribbean and U.S. who established a community in Canada in the 1800s. [He] expertly weaves in the subject of owning one’s heritage… this is a penetrating, fresh look at the indomitable spirit of black pioneers and their descendants.” – Publishers Weekly
“Colvin depicts the heartbreaking neglect and ultimate destruction of Africaville by white Canadian governments while also dramatizing the resilience that enabled its residents to survive.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook | Hoopla eAudiobook
The Wicked Redhead by Beatriz Williams
New York City, 1998: When Ella Gilbert discovers her banker husband is cheating on her, she loses both her marriage and the life she knew. In her new apartment in an old Greenwich Village building, she’s found unexpected second love with Hector, a musician who lives upstairs. And she’s discovered something else, just as surprising—a connection to the mesmerizing woman scandalously posed in a vintage photograph titled Redhead Beside Herself.
Florida, 1924: Geneva “Gin” Kelly, a smart-mouthed flapper from Appalachia, barely survived a run-in with her notorious bootlegger stepfather. She and Oliver Anson, a Prohibition agent she has inconveniently fallen in love with, take shelter in Cocoa Beach, a rum-running haven. But the turmoil she tried to leave behind won’t be so easily outrun. Anson’s mother, the formidable Mrs. Marshall, descends on Florida with a proposition that propels Gin back to the family’s opulent New York home, and into a reluctant alliance. Then Anson disappears during an investigation, and Gin must use all her guile and courage to find him.
Two very different women, separated by decades. Yet as Ella tries to free herself from her ex, she is also hunting down the truth about the captivating, wicked Redhead in her photograph—a woman who loved and lived fearlessly. And as their link grows, she feels Gin urging her on, daring her to forge her own path, wherever it leads.
Description from Goodreads.
“Beatriz Williams writes with the elegant breeziness of a practiced hand; the ease with which she endears her characters to readers alone makes the book praise-worthy.” – Open Letters Review
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
ROMANCE
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
Description from Goodreads.
“There is plenty of trademark Hoover emotion and surprises in this engrossing read…This twisting novel will instigate excellent book discussions about regrets and second chances.” – Booklist
“Betrayals, secrets, and shifting family loyalties keep the pages turning in this excellent contemporary from Hoover… This is Hoover at her very best.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.” – Kirkus Reviews