Verdict: Good Books
There's at least one good thing about being picked for jury duty: you can get a lot of reading done. Here are some current books I recommend:
The False Friend by Myla Goldberg
This was a great book to read while contemplating how faulty the human memory (read: crime scene witnesses) may or may not be. Celia's best friend died years ago, years in which Celia could not remember what happened that day. When she has a sudden flashback of letting her friend die, Celia rushes back to her hometown to tell the truth. But she finds that everyone else remembers the situation differently. The subplot of Celia's wavering relationship with her longtime boyfriend rings true.
Half Life by Roopa Farkooki
Aruna flees her life in Singapore after learning a shocking secret about her fiancee. After resettling in London, she quickly marries a handsome British doctor, but she can't figure out how to make that relationship work, either. Aruna makes a sudden decision to go back to Singapore to make peace with her life. Will she stay there or ultimately go back to London? A little dramatic in parts, but I suppose that's justified by the intense subject matter.
Nemesis by Philip Roth
This book presents an interesting slice of history I didn't really know anything about: polio epidemics. The fear of polio, pre-vaccine, must have been pervasive for parents and children alike. In this book, the nemesis strikes a Jewish community in New Jersey with particularly devastating results. I enjoyed the sense of time and place, but the cumulative tragedies really weighed on me by the end of the book.
-Miss Heather, Adult and Teen Services Librarian