New Books from the Junior Library Guild
9/2014
Pills and Starships - Lydia Millet
In this richly imagined dystopic future brought by global warming,
seventeen-year-old Nat and her hacker brother Sam have come by ship to
the Big Island of Hawaii for their parents' Final Week. The few Americans
who still live well also live long—so long that older adults bow out not by
natural means but by buying death contracts from the corporates who
now run the disintegrating society by keeping the people happy through a
constant diet of "pharma." Nat's family is spending their pharma-guided
last week at a luxury resort complex called the Twilight Island Acropolis.
Deeply conflicted about her parents' decision, Nat spends her time keeping
a record of everything her family does in the company-supplied diary that
came in the hotel's care package. While Nat attempts to come to terms
with her impending parentless future, Sam begins to discover cracks in the
corporates' agenda and eventually rebels against the company his parents
have hired to handle their last days. Nat has to choose a side. Does she let
her parents go gently into that good night, or does she turn against the system and try to break them out?
But the deck is stacked against Nat and Sam: in this oppressive environment, water and food are scarce, mass
human migrations are constant, and new babies are illegal. As the week nears its end, Nat rushes to protect
herself and her younger brother from the corporates while also forging a path toward a future that offers the
hope of redemption for humanity. This page-turning first YA novel by critically acclaimed author Lydia Millet
is stylish and dark and yet deeply hopeful, bringing Millet's characteristic humor and style to a new
generation of young readers.
Blind - Rachel DeWoskin
When Emma Sasha Silver loses her eyesight in a nightmare accident, she must
relearn everything from walking across the street to recognizing her own sisters
to imagining colors. One of seven children, Emma used to be the invisible kid, but
now it seems everyone is watching her. And just as she’s about to start high
school and try to recover her friendships and former life, one of her classmates is
found dead in an apparent suicide. Fifteen and blind, Emma has to untangle what
happened and why—in order to see for herself what makes life worth living.
Unflinching in its portrayal of Emma’s darkest days, yet full of hope and humor,
Rachel DeWoskin’s brilliant Blind is one of those rare books that utterly absorbs
the reader into the life and experience of another.
1
New Books from the Junior Library Guild
9/2014
Althea and Oliver - Cristina Moracho
What if you live for the moment when life goes off the rails—and then one
day there’s no one left to help you get it back on track? Althea Carter and
Oliver McKinley have been best friends since they were six; she’s the fistfighting instigator to his peacemaker, the artist whose vision balances his
scientific bent. Now, as their junior year of high school comes to a close,
Althea has begun to want something more than just best-friendship. Oliver,
for his part, simply wants life to go back to normal, but when he wakes up one
morning with no memory of the past three weeks, he can’t deny any longer
that something is seriously wrong with him. And then Althea makes the worst
bad decision ever, and her relationship with Oliver is shattered. He leaves
town for a clinical study in New York, resolving to repair whatever is broken in
his brain, while she gets into her battered Camry and drives up the coast after
him, determined to make up for what she’s done. Their journey will take them
from the rooftops, keg parties, and all-ages shows of their North Carolina
hometown to the pool halls, punk houses, and hospitals of New York City before they once more stand
together and face their chances. Set in the DIY, mix tape, and zine culture of the mid-1990s, Cristina
Moracho’s whip-smart debut is an achingly real story about identity, illness, and love—and why bad decisions
sometimes feel so good.
Half Life of Molly Pierce - Katrina Leno
A gorgeous and visceral page-turner reminiscent of the film Memento, The Half Life of
Molly Pierce is perfect for fans of Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere and Lauren Oliver's Before I
Fall. For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she's missed bits and pieces of her life.
Now she's figuring out why. Now she's remembering her own secrets. And in doing so,
Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led . . . and the love that she can't let
go.
Infinite Sea - Rick Yancey
How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their
humanity. Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie
Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that
binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie,
Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the
extermination of the human race. Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths
to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which
humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and
despair, love and hate.
2
New Books from the Junior Library Guild
9/2014
Warren Commission Report - Dan Mishkin
Within days of the murder of President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson appointed
a seven-member commission to investigate the assassination. In its report, the Warren
Commission determined that there was “no credible evidence” conflicting with its
conclusion of a lone gunman. Artist Ernie Colón, bestselling illustrator of The 9/11
Report: A Graphic Adaptation, teams up with author Dan Mishkin to provide a unique
means of testing the commission’s findings, unraveling conflicting narratives side by
side through graphic-novel techniques. The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic
Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination breaks down how decisions in the days
that followed the assassination not only shaped how the commission reconstructed
events but also helped foster the conspiracy theories that play a part in American
politics to this day.
Love is the Drug - Alaya Dawn Johnson
From the author of THE SUMMER PRINCE, a novel that's John Grisham's THE
PELICAN BRIEF meets Michael Crichton's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN set at an elite
Washington D.C. prep school. Emily Bird was raised not to ask questions. She has
perfect hair, the perfect boyfriend, and a perfect Ivy-League future. But a chance
meeting with Roosevelt David, a homeland security agent, at a party for
Washington DC's elite leads to Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no
memory of the end of the night. Meanwhile, the world has fallen apart: A deadly
flu virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial law.
And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something about the virus-something about her parents' top secret scientific work--something she shouldn't know. The only one Bird
can trust is Coffee, a quiet, outsider genius who deals drugs to their classmates and is a firm believer in
conspiracy theories. And he believes in Bird. But as Bird and Coffee dig deeper into what really happened that
night, Bird finds that she might know more than she remembers. And what she knows could unleash the
biggest government scandal in US history.
Family Romanov - Candace Fleming
“How did this rich, splendidly privileged . . . family related by blood or marriage to
almost every royal house in Europe end up” murdered in a Siberian cellar? Note on
Russian names and dates. Romanov family tree. Bibliography with notes on research
and primary sources. List of online resources. Notes on quotations. Index. Black-andwhite photographs, reproductions, graph, and map.
3
New Books from the Junior Library Guild
9/2014
Dolls - Kiki Sullivan
Pretty Little Liars meets Beautiful Creatures in this steamy southern suspense novel
about a group of powerful teen voodoo queens who will do anything to get what they
want. Eveny Cheval has just moved back to Carrefour, Louisiana—a town she left
fourteen years ago in the wake of her mother's suicide. An outsider at first, Eveny
quickly finds herself embroiled in a web of intrigue, betrayal, and lies. Enter Peregrine
Marceau, Chloe St. Pierre, and their group of rich, sexy friends collectively known as
the Dolls. They want to bring Eveny into their circle and share their darkest truths with
her. Eveny is wary of these girls, but after murder strikes and she discovers that
everything she believes about herself, her family, and her life is a lie, she's forced to
turn to the Dolls for answers. Something's wrong in paradise, and it's up to Eveny,
Chloe, and Peregrine to save Carrefour and make it right.
Ruin and Rising - Leigh Bardugo
The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. Now
the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and
the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. Deep in an ancient
network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the
dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint.
Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope
that an outlaw prince still survives. Alina will have to forge new alliances and
put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's
amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a
past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the
power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and
destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Ruin and Rising is the thrilling final installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha
Trilogy.
4