Exciting Books to look for in 2015

A Kim John-II Production by Paul Fischer
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Ghettoside by Jill Leovy
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Disgruntled by Asali Solomon
A Kim Jong-II Production by Paul Fischer
Documents the former North Korean dictator's 1978 kidnapping of South Korean actress Madam Choi and her filmmaker ex-husband Shin Sang-Ok, describing how they were imprisoned, forced to remarry and compelled to make films for their captor before their daring escape. "A meticulously detailed feat of rare footage inside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's propaganda machinery." ~KIRKUS

Funny Girl by Nick HornbySet in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingenue to television starlet amid a constellation of eccentric characters. "Hornby makes the reader care for his characters as much as he does and retains a light touch with the deeper social implications, as women, gays, popular entertainment and the culture in general experience social upheaval."~KIRKUS

Ghettoside by Jill LeovyOn a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man is shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of the thousands of black Americans murdered that year. Ghettoside discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle. "In her debut, the author journeys where most fear to tread: the perennially mean streets of South Central LA, where she uses the senseless murder of a policeman's progeny as a jumping-off point to investigate broader issues of why...that urban area sees so many of its people dying by tragically violent means." ~KIRKUS

Embarking on a more than 3,000-kilometer walking journey from rural Canada to the East coast so that she can see the ocean for the first time in her life, an octogenarian woman has experiences that blur her perspectives between illusion, memory and reality. "Hooper's debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied. A masterful near homage to Pilgrim's Progress: souls redeemed through struggle."~KIRKUS


Disgruntled by Asali Solomon
A coming-of-age tale that also doubles as a portrait of Philadelphia in the late 80s and early 90s, Kenya Curtis, who knows that she is different, but can't put her finger on why, grows increasingly disgruntled by her inability to find any place, thing or person that feels like home. "In this witty take on 1980s Philadelphia, a young girl comes of age and learns to navigate love, loss, school and family. Blackness, feminism and the loss of virginity have never been analyzed by a more astute and witty main character." ~KIRKUS

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