Summer Reading Recommendations
from the Staff of the Appleton Public Library

Popular authors with new books out for summer reading include:

• Stephen King  The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
• Janet Evanovich  Ten Big Ones
• Donald Trump  How to Get Rich: Big Deals From the Star of the Apprentice
• John Feinstein  Caddy For Life: The Bruce Edwards Story
• Tim Russert  Big Russ and Me
• Ron Chernow  Alexander Hamilton
• Catherine Coulter Blowout

Personal recommendations from the library staff

Terry Dawson, Library Director

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
A page-turner young adult novel translated from the original German.  Funke, who wrote the award-winning and popular Thief Lord, has created another realistic modern day fantasy that will appeal to adults as well as teens.  Twelve-year-old Meggie has her life disrupted by the arrival of a peculiar stranger, the fire eating juggler Dustfinger.  Torn from her home and on the run from the mysterious and menacing Capricorn, Meggie has a lot to understand.  Why does her bookbinding father hide one special book from her?  What really happened to her mother?  Why does her father never read aloud, but is known as "Silvertongue" to Dustfinger and Capricorn?  The answers are found in a book within a book, in this exciting exploration of the power of stories to become real.

Adolf by Osamu Tezuka
"This is the story of three men named Adolf": Japanese manga author Tezuka uses these three to tell the story of World War II seen from a humanist Japanese viewpoint.  The approach is novel to American eyes, but the story is told as a suspenseful tragic thriller.  The main protagonist is a Japanese journalist whose story begins at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and concludes years later in a very different world, transformed by cataclysms of war and genocide.  Examining a horrific period in the history, Tezuka creates characters we care about, characters who find courage and reasons to hope amid despair.  Although this graphic novel is in five volumes, and Tezuka's drawing style at first seems unfamiliar and unsophisticated, it's a quick and engrossing read.  Due to adult themes and subjects, this is not a book for children, though it may look like a comic.  Adolf demonstrates why Tezuka grew to be a strong influence in Japanese popular culture.

Colleen Rortvedt, Young Adult Librarian

Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
This book will make you laugh until you can’t stand it anymore.  Self-absorbed Georgia Nicholson’s hilarious diary has been called the teen version of Bridget Jones’s Diary.  It’s definitely not deep reading but it is perfect for summer and will keep you busy if you decide to continue and read all the sequels.  The British slang might be confusing at first, but the glossaries at the end of each book are just as entertaining as the books themselves.  A great summer read for teen girls and older. 

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science, John Fleischman
This true story is a great book for teens that have a fascination with the hit television show CSI.  Warning – it’s a little bit gruesome!  In 1848 Phineas Gage was impaled through the skull with a 13-pound iron rod and amazingly survived for years.  After the accident, his previously likeable personality changed to obstinate and rude while his intelligence level remained the same.  Much of our current knowledge of brain science can be attributed to what has been learned from studying Phineas Gage.  This is a good choice not only for those interested in the science of the brain, but for those that just want a fascinating true story.

Stuck in Neutral, Terry Trueman
Told from the perspective of fourteen-year-old Shawn who has cerebral palsy.  He cannot communicate with the outside world and unbeknownst to everyone, he is a genius.  Unfortunately, Shawn’s father thinks his son is suffering and Shawn thinks his father is going to kill him to put him out of his misery. This book is great for anyone in middle school and up.  It provides a truly unique experience by allowing readers to get inside the head of a person who cannot communicate.  Trueman created this book from a poem he wrote while raising his own son that was born with cerebral palsy.  A companion book called Cruise Control told from Shawn’s older brother’s perspective is coming out this fall and a feature film based on Stuck in Neutral is in the works.

A Northern Light, Jennifer Donnelly
Based on a true murder mystery, A Northern Light tells the story of 16-year-old Mattie who works at an inn over the summer of 1906 to earn money to go to writing school against her father’s wishes.  When a young female guest gives a packet of letters to Mattie for safekeeping and later drowns, Mattie reads the letters to uncover the mystery of this young woman’s death. This book is a great choice for teen fans of historical fiction.  Mattie is a strong young woman who faces not only her own personal challenges, but also those of the young woman whose life ended tragically.

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
It’s her freshman year in high school and Melinda has become an outcast.  Her friends from middle school have abandoned her, her grades are dropping and the whole school hates her for calling the police at an end of summer party.  Melinda can’t tell anyone why she called the police – she has withdrawn so much that she has stopped speaking almost altogether.  Her parents are so busy with their own lives that they haven’t even noticed.  Melinda eventually must face the reality that she was raped at that party by a boy in school that she has to face nearly every day.  She must decide if she can overcome the silence that has been suffocating her all year in time to save herself and perhaps future victims of her rapist.  In addition to a sensitive and realistic portrayal of a rape victim, Speak does an amazing job at depicting high school life.  Teens and adults should read this book.  It is a good choice for a book discussion and perhaps a way to open a dialog between adults and teens about sexual assault.

Vicki Lenz, Circulation Supervisor and Fiction Collection Coordinator

The Dive From Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer
One of my favorite fiction titles is The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer.  Much of the book takes place in Madison, which is fun.  Madison has its own personality, and it comes through in the book.  This is one of those books where, if you describe what happens, it sounds too grave and awful.  As in real life, the awful is accompanied by light-heartedness, smiles, and the fine art of maturing.  It's a book you can't put down!

Elizabeth Eisen, Community Services Librarian

Theodore Drieser, An American Tragedy
This powerful novel features Midwesterner Clyde Griffiths as the main character. Griffiths, son of a Kansas City preacher and religious mother, is led astray by his desire for pleasure and success. This 1925 American classic was the inspiration behind the 1951 film A Place in the Sun starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters. This novel appeared on the Radcliffe List of the 100 Best English-language Novels of the 20^th Century. A few years back I decided to choose titles off of this list. An American Tragedy is a real gem.  Dreiser is truly a master at drawing the reader into the story.

Ruth Gruber, Raquela: A Woman of Israel
Raquela is a biography of Raquela Prywes, a ninth-generation Jerusalemite who lived Israel’s history from the very beginning in the 1940s. Raquela was a brave and rare woman who found her calling as a hospital and battlefield nurse. She helped to found the first hospital in Beersheba, she delivered babies of the Jewish immigrants, fell in love, and faced tragedy. This book won the National Jewish Book Award in 1978. Raquela’s story is compelling and poignant. I couldn’t put it down.

Noah Gordon, The Physician
Rob Cole realized at the tender of age of nine that he possessed a special gift as he felt the life force slipping from his mother’s hand. As a young orphan he travels across 11^th century disease-ridden England peddling cures for the sick as an apprentice to an itinerant barber surgeon. As an adult he longs to be trained by the legendary Persian Avicenna’s school. There is a ban on Christian students and Rob must disguise himself as a Jew to gain admission. His dream of becoming a physician is full of triumph and tragedy.  This 1986 novel is a must read for historical fiction buffs. The characters are engaging and realistic. The story was obviously well researched.

Meg Shriver, Reference and Information Services Supervisor

Mitch Albom    The Five People You Meet In Heaven
This book begins at the end of the life of a seemingly ordinary man who has worked most of his life as head of maintenance at an amusement park.  Upon his death he learns that heaven is a place to make sense of his life on earth.   The main character, Eddie "Maintenance" meets five people whose lives intersected profoundly with his own.  Each of the five people shares with Eddie their story and their connection with his life.    I enjoyed this book because it is a life-affirming story without being too sugary.  It is a short book that reads easily and keeps you turning the pages to discover the relationships and connections in Eddie's life.