Rain or shine, readers win

One of the greatest things about being a librarian is that I can actually call all my reading “professional development” instead of leisure time. This summer, I got to spend lots of time on my deck, soaking up the sun, doing “professional development” and thus avoiding pesky tasks like laundry and cleaning. Now that the rain has set in, and cooler, darker days approach, the time is right to curl up on the couch with a good book (we readers win either way: rain or shine!). I have several recommendations for you, regardless of your age.

Probably my favorite recent read is And the Mountains Echoed, released this spring. If you liked Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s newest will be an enjoyable read. I like recommending Hosseini’s novels to students and adults because his stories remind us that while the events of the past often affect us in the long term, redemption and forgiveness are always attainable. His third novel is framed by the recounting of a Pakistani legend of a father who must sacrifice his son and then goes to inhuman lengths to retrieve him. The legend resonated throughout the novel; the stories of each of the characters come back to the themes of the myth.

Mountains is driven by the story of Pari, who at a very young age is separated from her fiercely attached and protective older brother, Abdullah, and adopted by a wealthy couple from Kabul. The novel covers most of Pari’s life, weaving in the stories of her uncle, who arranged the adoption, and the couple who adopted her, who separate when she is still young and her adoptive father suffers a stroke. Her mother moves her to Paris, and she grows up far from the Afghanistan of her youth. The question of whether or not Pari and Abdullah will be reunited dominates the novel and raises the theme of parenting, which is carried through to the stories of all the other characters. While keeping hope and strong relationships at the center of the story, Hosseini tackles a more complicated narrative in this novel, twining together multiple storylines with varying degrees of success. As in his other books, he includes the effects of politics, war, and poverty while maintaining a focus on individual characters; like all good authors, he knows that as readers we want to learn while not feeling that we have been taught. Despite the novel’s few loose ends, it comes together in a satisfying way, leaving us both sad at the devastation of wasted time and happy in the strength of love and relationships. Many AP English teachers recommend Hosseini’s books to their students, and this one is a good addition to that collection.

One of this year’s high school Battle of the Books selections is Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker. I first read this novel when it was released in 2010, and I have recommended it to countless students since then. Ship Breaker won the Printz award for best young adult novel, and Bacigalupi has been nominated for and won a host of other awards for his writing in science fiction and fantasy. He’s published three novels thus far, and has several more in the works. Ship Breaker and his other two novels, The Windup Girl and The Drowned Cities, all take place in an indeterminate future where human greed created such a frenzy for fossil fuels that the earth has rebelled in the form of super storms, called “city killers” that have ravaged the coasts, destroying cities such as New Orleans multiple times until eventually people gave up rebuilding them and moved inland.

In this future, those fossil fuels are no longer available, and aside from a very few incredibly wealthy people who control the new fuel resources, almost everyone is mired in poverty, struggling to eke out a meager existence by scavenging wrecked ships and the half-submerged remains of the old cities. Ship Breaker tells the story of Nailer, who works “light crew,” the name for people who crawl through tiny spaces in wrecked cargo ships, stripping copper wire and other potentially usable items. Crew members are controlled by bosses, and Nailer yearns for a way out of his life: away from his abusive father and the backbreaking work of a scavenger. Escape seems impossible until Nailer discovers a recently wrecked clipper ship with only one survivor: Nita, the heiress of one of the world’s wealthiest men, on the run herself from her father’s enemies. Nailer decides that any life, even a risky one, is better than the one he currently has, and he agrees to aid Nita in her quest to get to the Orleans, the remains of the once-powerful city. Their adventures make for a fast-moving, exciting story, and readers of any age will devour the novel and make a run for Bacigalupi’s newest, The Drowned Cities, released last spring.

A third great novel is Elizabeth George’s The Edge of Nowhere. Many adult readers know Elizabeth George for her excellent mystery series about detective Thomas Lynley, and if you’re looking for a good mystery, you can’t beat George’s intricately plotted, character-driven, gripping stories. Her newest is a foray into young adult literature; it’s a mystery of sorts, set on Washington’s Whidbey Island. There Becca King is a recent arrival, left on her own, trying to fit in at a new school and figure out what’s happening in her life and the lives of the island’s residents. This novel is the first of a series of four, and I already have quite a few students eager for the ensuing installments.

Whatever your favorite genre, there’s a good book awaiting you at your school or public library, so pick one up and read today! And if you’re looking for me, I’ll be on the couch doing more “professional development.”

Prudence Plunkett has been reading and recommending books to Valley students for more than 20 years.