New Adult Fiction

Check out these exciting new titles in adult fiction available at Peter White Public Library.

The Photographer’s Boy by Stephen Bates

Stephen Bates’ astonishing first novel is an absorbing juxtaposition of times and places, linking three eras in US history through storytelling. The Photographer’s Boy is a piece of historical fiction but at its heart it is a story of war, love, and journalism. Bates does a compelling job of creating the atmosphere of civil war battlefields in 1938 and providing a glimpse of early photojournalism, which is both unexpectedly exciting and fascinating. This is an entertaining tale of adventure which connects the generations of the 1860s, 1938 and present day.

Goodnight June by Sarah Jio

In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio provides an interesting explanation of how a beloved children’s classic might have come to be. The story follows June Andersen, a banker who left her family in Seattle to make a new life in New York City. Though June is professionally successful and thinks that her life is great, her health is suffering and personal life is filled with unhappiness. After her Aunt Ruby dies and leaves her children's bookstore 'Bluebird Books' to June, she decides to take a quick trip to Seattle and sell the store and return to her life in New York City. Once June gets to Seattle and starts going through papers, she finds out that her Aunt Ruby was very good friends with Margaret Wise Brown, the author of many children's books including Goodnight Moon. This novel is the story of how June re-discovered her aunt, and most importantly, herself and personal happiness.

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

This is an emotionally commanding story of loneliness, loss, guilt, and ultimately forgiveness. Jake Whyte is a loner, a sheep farmer on a small, wet and windswept island off the coast of England. She shuns contact with the locals and her sole companion is her dog named Dog. She's been living there for three years when suddenly something changed and her sheep are being killed off by an unknown predator. While this mystery is taking place in Jake’s present life, there is also her past, which is thousands of miles away and years ago, but is forcing itself into the present.

This is a complex and incredibly atmospheric novel that forces the reader to remain patient as the storyline divides into two timelines. Gradually the two timelines unfold, one going forwards in time and one going backwards, until the reader starts to piece together the story of Jake's background and what is happening in her life currently.

Further Out Than You Thought by Michaela Carter

Michaela Carter’s novel Further Out Than You Thought is a seductive novel about a young woman named Gwen who, upon finding out she’s pregnant, faces the decision of a lifetime – what to do next? Gwen, who is a 25 year old poet, has worked as a stripper in Los Angeles to put herself through graduate school. Will she stay with her charming but perpetually stoned boyfriend, Leo, and raise their child together? Will she rid herself of the fetus? Or will is there a compromise? This novel is tightly written, wasting no moment, no metaphor, and the reader feels the claustrophobia of Gwen’s life almost immediately.

Point of Direction by Rachel Weaver

Rachel Weaver’s novel perfectly captures the folly of youth and the ignorance that propels individuals into situations they're unprepared for. Anna, a young woman hitchhiking through Alaska, it picked up by Kyle, a fisherman, and the two almost immediately fall in love. Anna and Kyle decide to live at an isolated lighthouse north of Juneau, Alaska and it soon takes a toll on both of them, but in different ways. They've kept secrets from one another--painful wounds each is trying to heal on their own but it's in this messiness that the inward journey unfolds. The surrounding water and wild beauty of Alaska create a sustained feeling of uncertain danger. The sense of mystery and tension set against the uncertainty of the Alaskan landscape makes for a captivating read.

--Dominic Davis, Administrative Assistant