Staff picks

Karin says:  I couldn't put down this powerful coming-of-age story that follows Rwandan Jean Patrick. Jean Patrick is both a scholar and a gifted middle-distance runner - a likeable and real character.  His dreams of achieving Olympic glory seem assured, but he is Tutsi, and Rwanda's Hutu-Tutsi tensions are steadily increasing.  In the violent explosion of 1994 what happens to Jean Patrick and his family reflect the collective experience of Rwanda's 800,000-plus genocide victims.  Naomi Benaron renders friendships and families with tenderness and sincerity, and lingers on the goodwill of humankind even when they turn against each other.  This is Benaron's first novel, and she won the 2010 Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction for this unfinching and beautifully crafted account of a nation and the survival of hope in unimaginable events.

Read this if you like The Kite Runner or What is the What.

Evie Rosen-Budd says: "I’d Know You Anywhere" is so powerful that I found it impossible to stop reading. It’s a psychological thriller, a story similar to those that often appear in the newspapers and on TV. And whether or not we knew the victims of kidnapping and death at the hands of a psychopath, we are always shocked and saddened. (In her own words, the author says this book was inspired by a true crime, but she doesn’t tell us more about the crime.) 
The book is about the sole living victim of a serial killer. It’s not just a story about terror, but also a study of how one incident can alter the lives of many. It is a tremendous novel about fear, manipulation and survival. Get ready for an intense emotional journey that delves into issues any one of us can face at any time. Laura Lippman addresses these issues with perception and understanding.