September   Staff Pick Reads

Linda Frenzel, MSLS

Camden Library Director

Linda's Picks:

A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan’s Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival. Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.  Amazon

Maddie Baxter West is shaken to the core when she finds out everything she believed about her life was a lie. Her parents had always planned to tell her the truth about her past: that she was adopted as an embryo. But somehow the right moment never happened. Then a total stranger confronts Maddie with the truth and tells her something else that rocks her world—Maddie had a sister she never knew about. Betrayed, angry, and confused, Maddie leaves her new job and fiancé, rejects her family’s requests for forgiveness, and moves to Portland to find out who she really is.   Amazon

The #1 New York Times–bestselling story about the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany—from the author of Facing the Mountain.

For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.   Amazon

A little bit of folklore, a little bit of a ghost story; but a whole lot of motive for murder.

One of my favorite qualities of the author is their ability to write such an addictive novel without the typical climactic events that get your heart racing. The questions will keep you reading all day. Who is the child Pierre claims is his? What is Laures real motive? And who really is Joseph? You won't know the truth until the very last few pages.

I will forewarn readers that this book has some very sensitive moments in it that are hard to process. (I compare it to Room by Emma Donaghue) But do not let that sway you away from reading this uniquely narrated novel. The journey dear Lucy goes on (And eventually Jennifer too) will keep you teary eyed and hoping for the best. 

The 1st in a series of a Female Bounty Hunter. This will make you laugh out loud!

Another 1st in a series. It is very suspenseful and a must read. 

This new novel by a great author is about lawyers who fight to get their client justice.