Adult Fiction Staff Picks: Life Hacks for A Little Alien by Alice Franklin - Adult Ficton

 Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin

In an effort to make sense of her world, an inquisitive young British girl compiles additional reading assignments to explain what qualifies as friendship and why her mother is so fearful of the police. When a late-night television special about the Voynich Manuscript sparks her curiosity, she becomes determined to learn as much as she can about the strange artifact which she hopes will shed some light on her own sense of alienation.

Life Hacks for a Little Alien is a thoughtful look at childhood on the autism spectrum. The story reveals the challenges of families coping with parental absence and mental illness. Language lovers and bibliophiles will appreciate the footnotes and subtext in this unique coming-of-age story.

Staff Picks: Small Town Stories

I grew up in a midwestern suburb but spent each summer visiting my grandparent's rural home in Southern New Jersey.  Small towns are great for biking on country roads past picturesque farms and woodlands, exploring nature, buying farm-fresh corn at roadside vegetable stands, and spending long lazy days swimming or just enjoying the sunshine. When you aren't the one stacking hay and shucking corn, the relaxed pace of small town living offers extra time for my favorite pastime of all - reading. I still enjoy reading stories about the lives of people living in small towns. 

Stories set in small towns are on display this month at Sharon Forks Library but they don't all focus on the idyllic side. Check out Delilah S. Dawson's Bloom, a dark fantasy about a woman whose life takes a very strange turn when she makes a new friend at a local farmer's market, Jane Harper's Exiles, a mystery set in South Australia's wine country, Olga Tokarczuk's award-winning Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, or the Ray Bradbuy classic, Dandelion Wine. 

What are your favorite books set in small towns? 

Staff Picks: Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

 

Almond by Won-pyung Sohn

Books took me to places I could never go otherwise. They shared the confessions of people I'd never witnessed. The emotions I could never feel, and the events I hadn't experienced could all be found in those volumes.

Won-pyung Sohn, Almond

In Almond by Won-pyung Sohn, a young man living with a condition called Alexithymia narrates his daily life in Korea. People who have the condition have difficulty expressing themselves or recognizing emotions, including their own. In the novel, Yunjae's emotional responses are subdued and he can't sense or express fear. Though Yunjae’s mother and grandmother provide daily reminders on how to act in school, he's regularly teased and taunted by classmates. 

When Yunjae’s family becomes the victim of random violence on his 16th birthday, he's ill prepared to manage life on his own or tend to his family's bookstore in his mother's absence. Meeting new people, including a troubled young man fueled by resentment, and stepping outside of his comfort zone have mixed results and unexpected consequences in this thoughtful novel about growing up without a roadmap.