May 15, 2019
Five New Titles to Jump-Start Your Discussions
Looking for your book club's next great read? Look no further than the five titles below, which range from historical fiction to near-future, from true crime to what reviewers are calling the "next Bridget Jones." Call or email us today to make your reservations!
The Farm by Joanne Ramos
Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity--and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money, more than you ever dreamed of, to spend a few seasons at this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored as you dedicate yourself to the all-consuming task of producing the perfect baby for your überwealthy clients. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines and a struggling single mother, is thrilled to make it through the highly competitive Host selection process at the Farm. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own daughter, Jane begins to grow desperate to reconnect with her life outside.


The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore--Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.


The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem , she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time. It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once lived and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings--fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe, and watchful Fiona--emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love.


Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy break-up with her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seizes comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, as so many other young women must, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the IRA was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. This mesmerizing book uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a guerilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.

Haverford Township Free Library | 610-446-3082 Ext. 503 | reference@haverfordlibrary.org