Orphan Train by Christina Baker Klein
This was one of the eight books I intended to read this summer. In reality, I read one, but I’ve been getting in a better groove since school started.Orphan Train was a wonderful pick for my first read of the new (school) year. Orphan Train switched in POV between an abandoned teen on the brink of aging out of the foster system and an orphaned child of the 1920s who has been sent west on a train in the hopes of finding a kind family to adopt her. Each individual story was compelling, but the heartbreak of the orphan train (a real thing) and its after effects was especially heart wrenching. A community service sentence ultimately brings the two together in what felt like a really solid read. Is it in my top five? No, but Orphan Train is a book I would recommend for teens and adults.
First Comes Love by Emily Giffin
Whenever I’m in a reading slump, Emily Giffin is bound to bust me out of it. Coming off a summer of far less reading than I expected, Orphan Train helped me pick up steam, and First Comes Love followed it up strong. Everyday relationships are always at the heart of Giffin’s novels, but this time she focused more acutely on the dynamic of a family broken by the loss of their “golden son” at the young age of 25. The book begins with an omniscient look at what all of the characters were feeling the night he perished, and then shifts back and forth between the perspectives of his two sisters. This was by no means a life changing read, but I felt totally satisfied with it from beginning to end, which doesn’t always happen for me lately. I’d recommend this book wholeheartedly, and I can’t wait to dive into my next one--a young adult novel.
We’re All Made of Molecules by Susan Nielsen
At one of last year’s faculty meetings, my coworker raved about this book. She had been having trouble getting into any story since her mother died a few months earlier, and she credited We’re All Made of Molecules with rejuvenating her love of reading. This novel swaps points of view between Stewart, a child prodigy who recently lost his mother to cancer, and Ashley, a self-centered popular girl whose mother is dating Stewart’s dad. Not only are Ashley and Stewart both coping with the end of their biological parents’ relationships, but they are also moving in together. This is an awesome book from start to finish. It deals with some tough topics (homophobia, divorce, death, sexual assault) in a completely appropriate manner that somehow still manages to be realistic and honest. Albeit young adult, I’d recommend this book to anyone.
