The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende - I like books that recommend other books. I recently read
The Book Jumper by Mechthild Glaser, and while I didn't love it, she recommended several books throughout the story. One of those was
Momo by Michael Ende.
Momo was a little hard to find, but I was able to get a copy of another of Ende's books,
The Never Ending Story. Bastian Balthazar Bux is a lonely kid. His mother has died, his father is grieving and doesn't seem to notice him, and he is constantly being picked on at school. His only refuge is books. One rainy day he ventures into a new bookshop and steals a book that the cantankerous shop keeper is reading. Bastian takes the book to his school, but rather than attend class, he breaks into the attic and spends the entire day reading. As the day wears on he finds himself more and more engrossed in the story, until he actually becomes a part of the story. At first, he is the hero of the story, but his role changes, until he must figure out who he really is in order to return home. There are 26 chapters in
The Never Ending Story and each chapter begins with the next consecutive letter of the alphabet. The letters are beautifully decorated and made it easy to keep track of my progress through the book. As the book was translated from German, I am impressed that the English version kept this feature. I did finally find a copy of the book I originally wanted,
Momo, and I'll be reading it soon. *Unfortunately,
The Never Ending Story is not currently available at FCL or at Overdrive. I had to buy a used copy from Amazon.
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough - One of our library patrons recommended that I read this book. She thought I would like it, and I did find it very interesting. I don't really know how to describe
Behind Her Eyes because it is a book with lots of twists and turns and I don't want to give anything away. The story centers around Louise, a single mother in London, who works as a secretary in a psychiatrist's office. She meets a man in a bar and shares a somewhat drunken kiss with him, only to find that he is her new (married) boss, David. David is married to Adele, a stunningly beautiful woman who Louise meets by accident and becomes friends with. Adele asks Louise not to mention their friendship to David, and while Louise thinks this is strange, she agrees. I've been describing
Behind Her Eyes as a psychological thriller, and it is, but there is more to it. I thought I knew where it was going, but the ending was a complete shock.
Behind Her Eyes is available at FCL as a book or audiobook. *This book is definitely for adults only.
Hunted by Meagan Spooner - I am a sucker for a good retelling of a fairy tale.
Hunted is a lovely retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty by Robin McKinley was one of the first fairy tale retellings I ever read, and I loved it, so I always like revisiting Beauty and the Beast stories. Yeva is the youngest of three sisters. They are the daughters of one of the greatest hunters of the forest. Their father gave up the hunt for the love of their mother and became a merchant in the city. When their fortunes are reversed, the family retreats to their hunting cabin where their father attempts to return to hunting to support the family. However, he is driven to madness because he believes there is something more in the forest than the usual animals. When one of his dogs returns home without him, Yeva sets out in search of him and becomes a prisoner of the Beast. While all the familiar elements of the story are present, Beauty's (Yeva's) character is much more fleshed out than we are familiar with. I thought
Hunted was very well done.
Hunted is available at FCL in our Science Fiction/Fantasy section.
