Great Reads: From Time to Time
Great Reads is a series of posts featuring recent books that are highly recommended by Toronto Public Library staff.
Time is a factor in each of these novels. Some of the books are set in other eras; others play with time in creative new ways. Whether time travel, alternative history or historical fiction, these absorbing reads will take you away from the present day for a little while.
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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr The stories of a blind French girl with an uncle in the Resistance and a young German soldier tracking illegal radio transmissions converge in Saint-Malo during World War II. Regular Print |
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All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu The lives of Mengestu’s characters and the politics of their times converge in unexpected ways when a young Ethiopian student involved in a bloody revolution escapes to 1970s Illinois and falls for his social worker. Regular Print |
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Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole One day in 1940, Elspeth Dunn mysteriously disappears. As her daughter Margaret sets out to find her, she comes across letters her mother has hidden which reveal a secret from her mother’s past. Regular Print |
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Life After Life by Kate Atkinson What if you had the chance to live your life over and over again until you finally got it right? Ursula Todd gets this chance, reliving the events of the 20th century, each time a bit different than the last. Regular Print |
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My Real Children by Jo Walton An elderly woman looks back on her life, but she remembers two lives with different careers, partners and world events. A lovely book about how a simple decision can change the entire world. |
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The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell In 1923, Rose Barker works as a typist for the NYC Police Department documenting criminal confessions. Her drab, ordinary life changes when a mysterious new typist introduces her to a world of glamour, speakeasies and crime. Regular Print |
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The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent Lucinda escapes from a prison-like Texas brothel to join her lover, who has dreams of finding a pirate’s buried treasure that will make them rich. Meanwhile Nate, a young Texas police officer, is on the hunt for a ruthless killer named McGill who has claimed the lives of men, women and children. Who will survive when their paths finally cross? |
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The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters In 1920s London, a once well-to-do woman and her daughter are forced to accept lodgers into their home to make ends meet. The arrival of a young married couple changes everyone’s lives forever. A study of class that also happens to be a taut crime thriller. Regular Print |
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Perfect by Rachel Joyce Two seconds change the lives of two school friends when an accident occurs from which one of their families never really recovers. Regular Print |
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