Market Selects for July 19th

On the third Tuesday of each month, library staff set up shop at the FRESHFARM CityCenterDC Market to sign up new library customers, check out and return materials, and dish about upcoming events and everything the library has to offer.

Farmers market season is upon us and just as local farmers labor their fields with tender, loving, care, I have harvested some seasonally appropriate titles for your reading pleasure. Whether you're looking for new releases and bestsellers* or beach read standbys, here's a sample of our June CityCenterDC Market Selects sure to satisfy your appetite.
 

New Releases and Bestsellers

Before the Fall  When a corporate jet carrying 11 crashes into the ocean just 16 minutes into a nighttime flight from Martha's Vineyard to New York in August 2015, only two people survive-Scott Burroughs, a middle-aged former drunk and minor artist, and a four-year-old boy. (Publisher's Weekly)

Modern Lovers  An engaging story of shifting relationships, Straub's third novel focuses on Elizabeth, Andrew, and Zoe, who have been friends since their college days. They now live close to one another in a gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood. But it's been years since college, and they are all facing midlife reassessments. (Library Journal)

Marrow Island  Lucie's father died on Marrow Island. So when a childhood friend writes to her from a colony that has been established on that remote island off the coast of Washington, it is with a potent mixture of emotions that the freelance journalist goes for a visit. Lucie's short visit to the island takes on an ominous tone as her suspicions grow that more is going on at the colony than its residents are willing to share. (Booklist Review)

Homegoing  An unforgettable, page-turning look at the histories of Ghana and America, as the author traces a single bloodline across seven generations, beginning with Ghanaian half-sisters Effia, who is married off to a British colonizer in the 1760s, and Esi, who is captured into the British slave-trading system around the same time. These women never meet, never know of each other's existence, yet in alternating narratives we see their respective families swell through the eyes of slaves, wanderers, union leaders, teachers, heroin addicts, and more-these often feel like linked short stories, with each descendant receiving his or her own chapter. (Publisher's Weekly)

*Pro Tip: If you find yourself on a lengthy hold's list for a new release, skip the line and pick up a copy at the market!

 

Beach Reads

I Take You  Lily Wilder is getting married in six days to a man who really lights her fire, but she still has one big decision to make: does she actually want to get married? Lily is a lawyer who loves her job, enough to be excited about working a huge environmental case the week of her wedding in Key West. But prepping a witness is only one of many distractions keeping Lily from figuring out her true feelings. (Kirkus)

The Nightingale  The bestselling author hits her stride in this page-turning tale about two sisters, one in the French countryside, the other in Paris, who show remarkable courage in the German occupation during WWII. (Publisher's Weekly)

Foreign Agent  Terrorism in Europe has spun out of control. The United States has decided on a dramatic response. Now, the CIA needs a very special kind of operative. Scot Harvath has exactly the skills the CIA is looking for. He's a former U.S. Navy SEAL with extensive experience in espionage. Working for a private intelligence company, he will provide the CIA, and more important, the President, with absolute deniability. (Booklist)

The Interestings  Wolitzer's latest novel follows a group of creative types from the beginning of their friendship as teenagers through middle age. Hipsters before their time, they dub themselves The Interestings, in an effort at pretentious irony, with only group member Julie Jacobson truly believing that they are quite interesting. (Library Journal)
 

Questions? Email Kimberly White at kimberly.white@dc.gov.