Gabrielle's Staff Picks
See what Doylestown bookseller Gabrielle is reading...
Lisa Jewell's Invisible Girl is a gripping mystery exploring the disappearance of Sapphyre Maddox and a string of sexual assaults in a UK neigborhood. Its alternating viewpoints and short chapters keep the story moving and always intriguing, but Jewell truly shines in her character development and tackling of contemporary issues like the incel movement. The Invisible Girl is everything a mystery should be.
Later adapted into an award-winning film starring Angelina Jolie and Winona Ryder, Girl, Interrupted is an intimate look into the life of a woman living in a mental institution in the 1960s. Susanna Kaysen's autobiography is both a journal from and recollection of her time in McLean Hospital, and through both her own experiences and the stories of fellow patients Kaysen examines what it is to be sane, or, conversely, insane. Girl, Interrupted is definitely a book to read before watching the (also excellent) movie.
A frequent bestseller, Madeleine Miller's newest novel Circe transports readers to a lonesome, ancient island inhabited by the fascinating sorceress of myth. The lush prose of this epic displays Miller's mastery of words and story, and while recent, it is an instant classic. Circe is a tale of love and loss and healing spanning thousands of years-- but above all, it is the story of a woman and her strength.
Carmen Maria Machado, a Philadelphia-based author born in nearby Allentown, dazzles with her eccentric anthology Her Body and Other Parties. Both a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award in fiction, and winner of the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award John Leonard Prize, Her Body and Other Parties is both horror and seduction-- a feminist masterpiece.
Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give made its explosive debut in the YA world in 2017, and has since won the Coretta Scott King award, been a long-running bestseller, and was even adapted into a film. The story follows Starr Carter, a young black woman whose friend Khalil was killed in an act of police brutality; it explores racism in both its macroaggressions and microaggressions from the personal lens of Starr. The Hate U Give is an essential and timely story of our century, and watches a young woman find her voice and take a stand against oppression.
The Female Gaze is a guide to all of the seminal women involved in the film industry behind the scenes, and is an inspiring celebration of their work. Women are sorely underrepresented off-camera in the entertainment industry, but despite male domination of the field there is a history of brave and brilliant female artists whose stories must be shared. Ever the more important in our #MeToo era, The Female Gaze is a significant work of female empowerment and creativity.
The Bird King is a perfect hidden gem written by G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen. A gorgeous, folktale-like story in the vein of works like The Alchemist, The Bird King is magical realism gold that follows two friends, Fatima and Hassan, from the court of Granada to an island all of their own. The Bird King is an adventure of freedom and choice; a treasure of a novel.
Perhaps one of the best-written YA books to come out yet, Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun is a story of a family and its loss, and the art running through it all in its two main characters, twins Noah and Jude. Deeply inventive, and told in before and after segments from alternating perspectives, I'll Give You the Sun is meditative and moving. Reading this novel is like biting into a fresh summer peach.
