The Ocean at the End of the Lane
By Neil Gaiman
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed – within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duck pond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
A dark and lovely fairy tale for adults.
Recommended by Lina
West Dade Regional
Book! Book! Book!
By Deborah Bruss
When the children go back to school, the animals on the farm have nothing to do. That is… until they discover the library. But when Cow, Pig, Horse, and Goat try to check out a book, they are met with a very puzzled librarian. Why can't she understand? It is only when Hen gives it a try – "Book! Book! Book!" – that the animals finally get what they want!
Recommended by Ana
West Kendall Regional
Legend
By Marie Lu
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
For all Divergent lovers who need an action-packed dystopia with a happy ending.
Recommended by Ricci
Main Library
eBookAvailable
Biutiful
Uxbal is a man on the wrong side of the law who struggles to provide for his children on the dangerous streets of Barcelona. As fate encircles him, Uxbal learns to accept the realities of life, whether bright, bad, or biutiful.
A gut‑wrenching examination of unglamorous, gritty Europe from life to death and back.
Recommended by Jessica
Main Library
Washington: A Life
By Ron Chernow
In Washington: a Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation, dashing forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man, and revealing an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people.
Chernow brilliantly weaves together Washington's private and public lives in this fascinating Pulitzer Prize‑winning biography. The stiff dour face on the one dollar bill comes to life as a son, lover, husband, soldier, tough businessman, slave‑owner, politician, statesman, and even interior decorator. A long, but immensely rewarding book.
Recommended by Susan
West Dade Regional
Mrs. Kormel is Not Normal!
By Dan Gutman
Something weird is going on! First the school bus gets a flat tire, and then Mrs. Kormel is totally lost in the middle of nowhere. Mrs. Kormel is the weirdest bus driver in the history of the world, and she's driving everyone crazy!
You will remember lines from this book in the middle of the night and wake up laughing! Yes, it’s that funny!
Recommended by Eleanor
Main Library
eBookAvailable
The Art of Racing in the Rain
By Garth Stein
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tries to bring together the family pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
Recommended by Rose
South Miami Branch
Book of a Thousand Days
By Shannon Hale
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors–one welcome, and the other decidedly less so–brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.
Recommended by Nancy
Miami Lakes Branch