Toronto Reference Library Blog

We get new books in at the Toronto Reference Library Browsery all the time. I don't have time to read them all (how I wish I did!) but I do like to dip into them whenever I can. Sometimes it's enough for me to glance through a few pages, or even just a few lines; other times I will find myself hooked and either add the book to my (impossibly long) reading list or borrow it and dive in right away.

Here is a sample of some of the latest fiction books at the Browsery, for you to dip, or dive, into:

The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen (audiobook | eaudiobook | ebook | talking book for print disabled patrons)

Publisher's description: Two British pilots during World War II are shot down during a raid over Germany. They survive the crash, but are faced with a German dog patrol. They manage to save themselves by jumping aboard a hospital train and hiding among the patients. But when they reach their destination, it occurs to them that it is a mental hospital. Now they can either try to simulate insanity or try to escape.

Opening lines: "It wasn't the best weather in the world. Cold and windy, with poor visibility. An exceptionally bleak January day, even for England."

Read an excerpt here.

Watch the book trailer below.

 *

Circle of Stones by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew

Publisher's description: Nik is an eccentric art student obsessed with painting his dancer girlfriend, Jennifer. When one day she inexplicably disappears, Nik’s world is shattered. Determined to find her, he embarks on a cross-country journey following a scant trail of clues. He doesn’t anticipate how far he’ll have to travel, what he’ll do when he runs out of money, or the fact that an intimidating stranger is looking for Jennifer, too. Nik and Jennifer fade into the background of their own tale, surfacing now and again like ghosts as the rest of their mysterious story unfolds through a series of chance encounters with intricately linked strangers.

Opening lines: "He reaches up to turn on the lamp. Hand on his arm, pulling him back down onto the futon mattress. The hand is soft, cool, and he will do anything to feel it on his skin. He leaves the light off."

Listen to an excerpt here.

Watch the book trailer below.

 *

The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (ebook)

Publisher's description: Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa's newest novel, The Discreet Hero, follows two fascinating characters whose lives are destined to intersect: neat, endearing Felícito Yanaqué, a small businessman in Piura, Peru, who finds himself the victim of blackmail; and Ismael Carrera, a successful owner of an insurance company in Lima, who cooks up a plan to avenge himself against the two lazy sons who want him dead.

Opening lines: "Felícito Yanaqué, the owner of the Narihualá Transport Company, left his house that morning, as he did every morning Monday to Saturday, at exactly seven thirty, after doing half an hour of qigong, taking a cold shower, and preparing his usual breakfast: coffee with goat's milk and toast with butter and a few drops of raw chancaca honey."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Disgruntled by Asali Solomon

Publisher's description: Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not because she's black–most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are too. Maybe it's because she celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she's forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe it's because she calls her father–a housepainter-slash-philosopher–"Baba" instead of "Daddy," or because her paren'ts' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community."

Opening lines: "In the first grade at Henry Charles Lea School in West Philadelphia, when Kenya told kids that she celebrated Kwanzaa, no one knew what she was talking about. By the third grade, led by the tiny tyrant L'Tisha Simmons, the kids were calling her an African bootyscratcher and chanting to a conga line rhythm:

You don't get no pre-sents! You don't get no pre-sents!

In fact, she did get presents on the last morning of Kwanzaa, seven days after Christmas. By the fourth grade Kenya was down to one friend."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Find Me by Laura Van den Berg (eaudiobook | ebook)

Publisher's description: Joy has no one. She spends her days working the graveyard shift at a grocery store on the outskirts of Boston and nursing an addiction to cough syrup, an attempt to suppress her troubled past. When a sickness that begins with memory loss and ends with death sweeps the country, Joy, for the first time in her life, has an advantage: she is immune. After her immunity gains her admittance to a hospital in rural Kansas, she submits to peculiar treatments and forms cautious bonds with other patients—including her roommate, whom she turns to in the night for comfort, and twin boys who are digging a secret tunnel.

Opening lines: "Things I will never forget: my name, my made-up birthday, the rattle of a train in a tunnel. The sweet grit of toothpaste. The bitterness of coffee and blood. The dark of the Hospital at night. My mother's face, when she was young.

* * *

Things other people will forget: where they come from, how old they are, the faces of the people they love. The right words for bowl and sunshine and sidewalk. What is a beginning and what is an end."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby (audiobook | eaudiobook | ebook |  talking book for print disabled patrons

Publisher's description: Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

Opening lines: "She didn't want to be a beauty queen, but as luck would have it, she was about to become one."

Read an excerpt here.

* 

Related Reading:

A Visit to the Browsery at Toronto Reference Library

Our Newest Titles: Titles Added to the Library Collection Within the Last 30 days

We get new books in at the Toronto Reference Library Browsery all the time. I don't have time to read them all (how I wish I did!) but I do like to dip into them whenever I can. Sometimes it's enough for me to glance through a few pages, or even just a few lines; other times I will find myself hooked and either add the book to my (impossibly long) reading list or borrow it and dive in right away.

Here is a sample of some of the latest fiction books at the Browsery, for you to dip, or dive, into:

The Alphabet House by Jussi Adler-Olsen (audiobook | eaudiobook | ebook | talking book for print disabled patrons)

Publisher's description: Two British pilots during World War II are shot down during a raid over Germany. They survive the crash, but are faced with a German dog patrol. They manage to save themselves by jumping aboard a hospital train and hiding among the patients. But when they reach their destination, it occurs to them that it is a mental hospital. Now they can either try to simulate insanity or try to escape.

Opening lines: "It wasn't the best weather in the world. Cold and windy, with poor visibility. An exceptionally bleak January day, even for England."

Read an excerpt here.

Watch the book trailer below.

 *

Circle of Stones by Suzanne Alyssa Andrew

Publisher's description: Nik is an eccentric art student obsessed with painting his dancer girlfriend, Jennifer. When one day she inexplicably disappears, Nik’s world is shattered. Determined to find her, he embarks on a cross-country journey following a scant trail of clues. He doesn’t anticipate how far he’ll have to travel, what he’ll do when he runs out of money, or the fact that an intimidating stranger is looking for Jennifer, too. Nik and Jennifer fade into the background of their own tale, surfacing now and again like ghosts as the rest of their mysterious story unfolds through a series of chance encounters with intricately linked strangers.

Opening lines: "He reaches up to turn on the lamp. Hand on his arm, pulling him back down onto the futon mattress. The hand is soft, cool, and he will do anything to feel it on his skin. He leaves the light off."

Listen to an excerpt here.

Watch the book trailer below.

 *

The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa (ebook)

Publisher's description: Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa's newest novel, The Discreet Hero, follows two fascinating characters whose lives are destined to intersect: neat, endearing Felícito Yanaqué, a small businessman in Piura, Peru, who finds himself the victim of blackmail; and Ismael Carrera, a successful owner of an insurance company in Lima, who cooks up a plan to avenge himself against the two lazy sons who want him dead.

Opening lines: "Felícito Yanaqué, the owner of the Narihualá Transport Company, left his house that morning, as he did every morning Monday to Saturday, at exactly seven thirty, after doing half an hour of qigong, taking a cold shower, and preparing his usual breakfast: coffee with goat's milk and toast with butter and a few drops of raw chancaca honey."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Disgruntled by Asali Solomon

Publisher's description: Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not because she's black–most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are too. Maybe it's because she celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she's forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Maybe it's because she calls her father–a housepainter-slash-philosopher–"Baba" instead of "Daddy," or because her paren'ts' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community."

Opening lines: "In the first grade at Henry Charles Lea School in West Philadelphia, when Kenya told kids that she celebrated Kwanzaa, no one knew what she was talking about. By the third grade, led by the tiny tyrant L'Tisha Simmons, the kids were calling her an African bootyscratcher and chanting to a conga line rhythm:

You don't get no pre-sents! You don't get no pre-sents!

In fact, she did get presents on the last morning of Kwanzaa, seven days after Christmas. By the fourth grade Kenya was down to one friend."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Find Me by Laura Van den Berg (eaudiobook | ebook)

Publisher's description: Joy has no one. She spends her days working the graveyard shift at a grocery store on the outskirts of Boston and nursing an addiction to cough syrup, an attempt to suppress her troubled past. When a sickness that begins with memory loss and ends with death sweeps the country, Joy, for the first time in her life, has an advantage: she is immune. After her immunity gains her admittance to a hospital in rural Kansas, she submits to peculiar treatments and forms cautious bonds with other patients—including her roommate, whom she turns to in the night for comfort, and twin boys who are digging a secret tunnel.

Opening lines: "Things I will never forget: my name, my made-up birthday, the rattle of a train in a tunnel. The sweet grit of toothpaste. The bitterness of coffee and blood. The dark of the Hospital at night. My mother's face, when she was young.

* * *

Things other people will forget: where they come from, how old they are, the faces of the people they love. The right words for bowl and sunshine and sidewalk. What is a beginning and what is an end."

Read an excerpt here.

 *

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby (audiobook | eaudiobook | ebook |  talking book for print disabled patrons

Publisher's description: Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

Opening lines: "She didn't want to be a beauty queen, but as luck would have it, she was about to become one."

Read an excerpt here.

* 

Related Reading:

A Visit to the Browsery at Toronto Reference Library

Our Newest Titles: Titles Added to the Library Collection Within the Last 30 days