The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue

Title: The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits

Author: Emma Donoghue                        

Call #: DON

This is a completely different side of Emma Donoghue than you might have experienced if you read Room. These are 17 stories, all based on reality, set in Great Britain or Ireland over a 700 year period. Donoghue weaves snippets of the lives of real people into beautifully written fiction. She captures the sights and sounds and smells of each era perfectly. If you like historical fiction but don’t want to take on a whole book, these stories are for you.

Recommended by: Betty

Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman

Title: Binocular vision: New and Selected Stories

Author: Edith Pearlman                         

Call #:  PEA

I had never heard of Edith Pearlman, and read this collection based on its introduction by Ann Patchett, herself a writer of beautiful and lyrical prose, and I agree with her – Edith Pearlman is a gift: treat yourself.           

Recommended by: Bobbie

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Title: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Author: Katherine Howe

Call #: HOW

Its 1991 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Connie Goodwin finds a hidden key along with a piece of paper with the words ‘Deliverance Dane’ among her grandmothers possessions in her old abandon house in Salem. Working on her doctorate as a historian, Connie does some academic detective work researching the local archives and finds that Deliverance Dane was a local herbalist and wise woman who became a victim in the dark days of the Salem witch trials. This novel is slow-paced but engaging.

Recommended by: Connie

The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

Title: The Leftovers

Author: Tom Perrotta                  

Call #: PER

Set in the suburbs of a world much like our own, only here it is 3 years after some sort of rapture like event where a significant percentage of the population disappeared into thin air. This is a thought provoking literary novel disguised as a genre departure.

Recommended by: Becky