Diana's Staff Picks

A mesmerizing historical novel, well-researched and carefully written, this is one of those books where you want to sit down and read it straight through, not stopping for anything.

A young woman has been captured by the Gestapo after she lands in Occupied France.  She’s been tortured and starved in an attempt to gain knowledge of British defenses.  Her captor Hauptsturmführer von Linden makes a deal—she will be given paper and two weeks for her to write down everything she knows about the British war effort and he will let her live, at least for a while.  She begins writing…

The slow unfolding of the story gives you a feeling of what it would have been like—tremendous sacrifices, sadness and despair but also humor and love.  There is great characterization and strong female characters who make things happen. 

Those of you who read and liked Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games should read this book; though it is set in the past rather than a possible future, it has the same gritty desperation and determination to keep going no matter what the odds.  It is a book I definitely recommend.

Jacob Portman loves his grandfather, who tells him fabulous stories about his childhood adventures and kids he once knew.  As Jacob gets older, and his grandfather disappears on mysterious hunting trips, they start to grow apart.  Jacob begins to doubt the truth of his grandfather’s stories, and asks him  whether they really happened.    His grandfather pulls out some faded photos of childhood friends, and they are very peculiar.  After this Jacob begans to doubt the truth of the stories.

When Jacob is 16, the mysterious and sudden death of his grandfather causes him to imagine things—or are they real?  He finally decides to follow the clues his grandfather spoke with his dying breath.  His quest to discover the truth takes him on a journey he could never have imagined.

This atmospheric debut novel features good writing, well-drawn characters and a twisting and turning plot.  The haunting photographs add depth to the story.  This book should be especially attractive to middle school and older students who have already read books such as the Lemony Snicket series.  There are mild horror aspects, as the story does have monsters and descriptions of violence.  Adults and older teens will enjoy the imaginative story and unique photos.

Captain Ivan Xav Vorpatril is a dedicated and loyal officer of the Barrayaran military.  He is tall and handsome and rarely lacks female company.  While his relatives may address him as “That idiot Ivan” at times, he is not stupid.  He avoids controversy whenever possible and keeps a low, almost slacker, profile while efficiently analyzing top secret information.  Though he appears in the previous books mostly as a sidekick to his cousin Miles (whose manic life has plenty of forward momentum, with explosions and chases--despite being crippled in utero by an poison gas attack on his parents) Ivan is an endearing character, and readers of this series have often lamented that IVAN NEEDS HIS OWN BOOK!  Well here it is, in its own gently humorous way. 

Ivan is staff officer to Admiral Desplains on the planet Komarr.  With Miles and his mother (who has been pressuring him to marry) far away on other planets, what trouble could he get into?  Plenty, as it turns out--when Byerly Vorrutyer, an undercover agent in the Imperial Security corps, shows up at his door with a little favor to ask involving a beautiful woman.

The 14^th book in the New York Times best-selling, award-winning Vorkosigan saga is a treat for space opera fans.   For those new to the series, it could work as the first book read, as the other main character is introduced to people with an explanation of how they fit into Ivan’s life. This new viewpoint is interesting to the seasoned Vorkosigan Saga reader since we are seeing characters from Ivan’s perspective rather than that of his cousin.

For those who would like to read about the dynamic Miles, I would start with The Warrior’s Apprentice.  Then backtrack to the stories of his parents in the volumes Shards of Honor and Barrayar.  After that, proceed along the chronological list with The Vor Game, Cetaganda, and so on.

Dodger is a tosher, a cheeky, enterprising young man who knows the sewers of London like the back of his hand.  He searches in tunnels below ground to find lost treasures like coins or rings, always hoping to find the mystical Tosharoon—a  conglomeration of treasures wrapped up in mud, and worse.

One night while toshing Dodger hears the screams of a young lady in distress from the street above and rushes to her rescue, rising up from the tunnel and defeating the thugs who were beating her.  As he ministers to this well-dressed girl with a mysterious accent he meets the reformer Henry Mayhew and a writer named Charlie Dickens.   The new hero’s decision to investigate the mystery of the girl’s background so he can keep her safe leads him to become involved in the world of aristocrats, Fleet Street journalism, and the Peelers.

Terry Pratchett includes his usual satire of government, news reporting, and life at various levels of society, as well as his typical humor.  The parallels between Ankh-Morpork and Queen Victoria’s London become clearer as the story progresses.  While the characters are not as fully developed as those in the series (difficult to do in one book) it’s easy to see a connection between Sir Robert Peel (head of the Metropolitan Police) and Sam Vimes, for example. 

Fans of Charles Dickens or Terry Pratchett will enjoy this alternate history, as will those interested in English literature and Victorian London.   While listed as a teen book, adults will definitely enjoy it as well.

I listened to the audio, where Stephen Briggs did his usual outstanding job narrating the story.

A delightful tale of life within the walls of the Tower of London including nuggets of Tower history.

 Balthazar Jones is a Beefeater, and as such he must live in one of the dusty, musty buildings within the Tower walls.  He and his Greek wife Hebe live in the Salt Tower with Mrs. Cook, a one-hundred-eighty-one-year-old tortoise.  Each day Hebe heads off to work at the London Underground Lost Property Office.  Using an archaic and secret code known only to her and her co-worker Valerie, she reunites lost items with their owners (among them a glass eye, an urn full of ashes, Dustin Hoffman’s Academy Award, and racks of false teeth).  Balthazar spends his day answering the same tourist questions.

One day he dresses in his finest uniform and goes to Buckingham Palace.  The Queen has decided to re-establish the Royal Menagerie at the Tower, and Balthazar has been chosen as the keeper of animal gifts from around the world. The chaos which ensues is both touching and hilarious, as the penguins escape, the love birds attack each other with intense hatred, and the Komodo dragon attempts to eat any animal within reach. 

In 1923 two sisters set off on a mission to Kashgar, located on the Silk Road, though they speak little or none of the languages in the region.  Lizzie is on fire with religious conviction instilled by Millicent, who is in charge of the mission.  Evangeline is not convinced of the value of their work, but is coming along to protect her sister as well as to travel and experience the world, riding her green bicycle for hundreds of miles as they travel through deathly heat in the desert, and extreme cold in the passes of the Celestial Mountains. 

In present-day London Frieda returns from one of her frequent and lengthy absences for her job to find a homeless man sleeping outside her door.  Tayeb is an artist who often draws birds and feathers, as he grew up working with birds in his homeland of Yemen.  He assists her when she inherits a flat and its contents, including an owl, from a woman she does not know. 

Beautifully written, the two stories wind around each other, linking the challenges and traditions in the lives of the two women. 

Two strong young women are traveling through the dangerous Wild West of the late 1800s. Jett came from a wealthy New Orleans family, whose wealth and home were destroyed during the Civil War, so she hates Yankees.  She doesn’t believe her twin brother Philip is dead, and is traveling the West by horseback to find him.  In order to be safe she dresses like a male gunslinger, and earns her way by gambling, though she longs to return to her old life.

Honoria Verity Providentia Gibbons is a genius, raised by a father who never seemed to notice she was a girl.  She believes everything can be explained by science, and travels in an Auto-Tachypode (steam-powered horseless carriage with powerful defenses) to research mysterious disappearances in the area.  White Fox, an Army Scout who was raised by Indians after his family’s wagon train was attacked, is on his way to discover what happened in the small town of Glory Rest when he comes across her camp.

Jett is caught in a zombie attack on the small town of Alsop and barely escapes with her life.  Riding quickly through the night she stumbles into their camp.  Though Gibbons and White Fox don’t believe her story of zombies decimating the town, they decide to go with her the next day to discover the truth.

Where are the zombies coming from, and why?