Reviews by Miriam Stone

Short on time, but want to know what some of the new books available to borrow are about? Check out these rapid reviews. They give you a super quick overview of each book, and you’ll find each available to borrow from the Oley Library.

AUDIOBOOKS

Pretty Birds by Scott Simon (unabridged)
Simon creates an intense, startling, and tragicomic portrait of a classic character–a young woman in the besieged city of Sarajevo in the early 1990s.

Her Mother’s Hope: Marta’s Legacy Series Book 1 by Francine Rivers
This is a rich, moving epic about faith and dreams, heartache and disappointment, and the legacy of love passed down through four generations in one family.

The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty
Bindy Mackenzie is the smartest girl at Ashbury High. At the first session of the Friendship and Development Project, Bindy’s worst suspicions are confirmed. Nobody likes her. But who would hate her enough to kill her?

Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
Brilliantly drawn characters in a richly detailed work that poses hard questions about the value
of precious things in a time when life itself has no value. Takes place in the time of the second
World War.

Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk
Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony
needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. With hilarity, horror, and blazing insight,
Rant is a mind-bending vision of the future.

BOOKS

Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity by Peggy Orenstein
Teaching your kids about positive relationships has never been more challenging and Peggy Orenstein
does a great job of anchoring positive feelings to the experiences. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for these
kids but with this sage advice for the parents, we’re better equipped to face it.

Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape by Peggy Orenstein
This book covers everything it says and more. Really fascinating and written in an engaging, digestible
way. It is a way to open up the discussion table with our daughters.

The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani
A lush, immersive novel about three generations of Tuscan artisans with one remarkable secret. Epic in
scope and resplendent with the glorious themes of identity and belonging, The Good Left Undone unfolds in breathtaking turns.

Faculty of Murder: Mother Paul Investigates by June Wright
No sooner has Judith Mornane arrived on campus than she startles her fellow residents by announcing
her intention to discover the murderer of her sister, who disappeared from the same dorm a year
earlier. The ever-curious Mother Paul is drawn to investigate what happened to Judith’s sister.

All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiva Miles
A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black
women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” testament to people who are left out of the archives.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
The protagonist of Fairy Tale, Charlie Reade, is a high school jock. Charlie becomes a caregiver to Mr.
Bowditch who lives in “Psycho House” with his dog. Thus begins King’s version of a fairy tale.

The Cursed Carnival and Other Calamities: New Stories About Mythic Heroes (part of Rick Riordan Presents) by Rick Riordan
Thirteen-year-old Sikander Aziz has to team up with the hero Gilgamesh in order to stop Nergal, the
ancient god of plagues, from wiping out the population of Manhattan in this adventure based on
Mesopotamian mythology.

The Book of Chaos (Starfell book 1) by Jessica Renwick
A FANTASTIC middle-grade adventure that will keep your kids and even adults hooked from page one.

On Borrowed Time by David Rosenfeldt
What if it were possible that your most cherished memories were lies… and that finding out the truth could cost you your life?

The Prophet’s Wife: A Novel of American Faith by Libbie Grant
A must-read for anyone who wrestles with what American Faith (in all its plurality) has wrought! The remarkable story of the Mormon faith seen through the eyes of the woman who saw it all, Emma, the first wife of Joseph Smith.

Anti-Bullying Book for Girls by Jessica Woody
Girl-on-girl bullying is a unique challenge. This book empowers our girls to find their voices and put a stop to them. (ages 8-12)

The Bully Blocker Club by Teresa Bateman
Lotty and her friends form the Bully Blocker’s Club and stand together so they won’t be bullied anymore. (ages 4-8)

What You can do about Bullying: By Max and Zoey by Ari Magnusson
This comic-style guide, for elementary and middle school students, teaches kids how to prevent and stop bullying on their own or with adult help.

Victimproof: The Student’s Guide to End Bullying by Tom Thelen
You can’t control whether or not you get bullied, but you can control whether or not you become a victim. Learn how to “ be the change.”

Taking the Bully by the Horns by Hunter Dan
An educational tool for parents of young children, pre-school to 3 rd grade to teach them what
bullying is, how to identify it and the right way to put an end to it.

DVD’s

Interstellar
Ex-pilot Cooper must leave his family and earth behind to lead an expedition to find out if mankind has a future in the stars.

The Beach
The desire to find something real drives Richard when he finds a strange map to a mystical paradise. But, there is real trouble in this paradise.