Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Emma has just finished with a wretched business meeting in Scotland, and now she must fly back to London and explain all to her bosses. The thing is, she absolutely hates flying. During the flight, the plane faces some severe turbulence, and Emma believes that they are going to crash. So she starts confessing all her secrets to the stranger sitting next to her. Fortunately, the plane lands safely, and she arrives back at work in time to be introduced to the head of the company Jack, who has been taking a sabbatical from the corporation for the past year to work through the loss of his business partner and friend. There’s just one problem, Jack is the man who was sitting next to her on the plane. What follows is a humorous story about the consequences and repercussions of keeping and telling secrets. If you are looking for something light and quick, this is the perfect beach read book.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

After her maiden aunt dies, Veronica Speedwell is finally free from familial duty and excited to set off on a new butterfly hunting expedition somewhere exotic. Unfortunately, she returns home from the funeral to find her cottage in shambles and is almost abducted, when a mysterious baron intervenes. Throwing caution to the wind, Veronica accepts this stranger's offer of a ride to London. After all, she was heading there anyway, and she figures she can take the elderly gentleman if it comes down to a fight. Shortly after their arrival in London, the baron is murdered, and Veronica is stranded with his friend, Stoker. Both are left wondering who killed the baron and why she's still in danger.

Veronica is a modern woman caught living in a Victorian age. Not one to let the men have all the fun, she refuses to be cast aside for the sake of propriety or safety, preferring to live life on the edge. Her quick wit and know-it-all attitude will engender a love her or hate her response from readers. But for most, Veronica's droll humor, unabashed honesty, and sprightly demeanor are a breath of fresh air, and her defiant refusal to be ashamed when flouting the conventions of Victorian society is exhilarating and downright funny. A Curious Beginning is a riotous and lively 19th century caper for those who don't take themselves, or Veronica, too seriously. If you enjoy Veronica, give Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series a try.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This year Banned Book Week was scheduled for September 27th through October 3rd.  I needed but a day to read a book for young adults, one that has been frequently pulled from school library shelves over the past several years.  The book is titled The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  It was the first work of young adult fiction by poet and essayist Sherman Alexie.  And it's readily apparent why it has had such a broad appeal to young readers.

Sherman Alexie grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation where this story is set. It's semi-autobiographical. He knows where from he writes. Physically challenged from hydrocephalus, debilitating fluid in the brain, Alexie excelled academically. He lived on the reservation but attended a white school twenty miles away where he was the only Indian. He was, in his own words, "a part-time Indian." And there-in is the story of the book. We spend an academic year with our fictional fourteen-year-old hero, Arnold Spirit, known as Junior.

They call the reservation "the rez." The inhabitants come and go freely, but it is rare that any of them live elsewhere. And in that isolation there is senseless violence, alcohol addiction, and frequent death. There is also a strong appreciation of community, heritage, and belonging. That any author could sympathetically convey such a sense of environment to young readers is a remarkable achievement.  But there is more. Alexie creates a rich vein of humor combined with a generous sense of inclusion for all his characters. Much of this humor can be found in the cartoons spread throughout the book. The hero, Junior, is an aspiring cartoonist. Sixty-five comic illustrations by Ellen Forney highlight Junior's experiences and feelings. For all the challenges he faces, he responds, in words and pictures, with spunk and hope. "I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods," Junior tells us, "and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats."

The New York Times may have best summed up this acclaimed book as "listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home." Sherman Alexie received the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen &In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides

The Age of Discovery did not begin and end with Columbus; there were numerous naval expeditions under that moniker continuing well into the 19th century. One of the earliest and most remarkable was Magellan's search for a westward route to the Spice Islands. His journey (1519-1522) resulted in the first, unexpected circumnavigation of the globe and proved the earth was not flat. Magellan's voyage began with a crew of 270 and 5 ships. Relatively few survived.  Laurence Bergreen tells this story in Over the Edge of the World. He fills in the background of the mission and the details of the journey. It's a story of mutinies, starvation, orgies, and an epic adventure in navigational skills. Magellan's expedition changed how Europe thought of the world and how it conceived of new lands and people to conquer.

More than 350 years later, explorations were funded not by kings but by the press to give them a story. Such was the case with the voyage of the USS Jeannette, financed in large part by the New York Herald. In 1879, Captain George Washington DeLong set sail with a crew of 32 and headed toward the uncharted Arctic. At the time, there was a common belief that once a ship was past the ice, it could sail through the Bering Strait and reach navigable waters in the Arctic. Merchants would be able to sail across the North Pole. The theory proved faulty, and the Jeannette was crushed and sank. The crew took to the ice, hence the book's title, In the Kingdom of Ice.  From a time of incredible, death-defying adventures, Hampton Sides vividly recreates this largely forgotten tale.

Both books promise spellbinding adventure!

The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis

Leda, a virgin bride, leaves her small, rural community in Italy to join her husband, Dante, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he migrated almost two years prior to find a more prosperous life. Unfortunately, by the time Leda arrives Dante is dead from an anarchist uprising. Refusing to return to Italy which holds tragic memories of her dead cousin, Leda decides to stay in the bustling and brutal city thousands of miles away. It's 1913 and proper women can only get low paying menial, domestic jobs, while all other jobs have been taken by the large influx of male immigrants from all over Europe. Leda knows she cannot survive on her paltry pay and refuses to become an unprotected, fallen women in one of the many brothels of Buenos Aires. Instead, she dons her husband's clothes, takes up her father's violin, and joins one of the many bands playing tango. At all times, Leda must hide her true gender for fear of retaliation and violence. Over the years, Leda yearns to have a real relationship with a woman rather than having to keep her distance. If she is ever found out, Leda will not just be a vulnerable women in a violent city but will have committed the heinous crime of stealing a man's place, work, and earnings as well as betraying the men around her.

De Robertis is impossibly good at placing readers within the city of Buenos Aires, making you feel like you can smell, see, and feel the grittiness and the chaotic overcrowding of a city overwhelmed by its dramatic population increase. She does equally well describing the importance and origins of the tango and how it evolved due to popular taste and demand. There is a slight lag in the book midway through, where the repetition of Leda's life becomes somewhat tedious, but readers will be well rewarded by following through to the end as the tension quickly escalates when a new venue and new band mates enter the picture.

We That Are Left by Clare Clark

As a smart but socially inept ten-year-old boy, Oskar Grunewald prefers to hide in the library when visiting his mother's friends, the aristocratic Melvilles, at the grand Ellinghurst estate. The younger Melville daughter, Jessica, finds enjoyment in teasing and torturing him, while the elder daughter, Phyllis, who is a quiet, introspective sort, mainly keeps to herself. The years pass and World War I has a devastating effect on the Melville family. Phyllis moves to London and becomes a nurse, while Jessica feels isolated and ignored by her parents at Ellinghurst. After the war, Phyllis heads off on an archaeological dig, and Jessica schemes her way into a London flat and women's magazine job. Meanwhile, Sir Aubrey Melville is trying to complete an exhaustive history of Ellinghurst as the estate falls further into debt and disrepair. Oskar is off studying physics at Cambridge when tragedy strikes at home, bringing Oskar and the Melville daughters back together once again. Both the Melville daughters have had a profound effect on Oskar in his youth and later as a young man. Secrets in both Oskar's family and the Melvilles change the fates of all involved.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Jessica and Oskar, readers will enjoy watching both of them grow up, their triumphs and mistakes. Jessica is self-absorbed and spoiled, which may turn off some readers, but her vivacity and tenaciousness should still earn her the reader's respect considering her absentee parents. Oskar, a sweet, kind and shy boy, remains so as a much more self-assured, mature man. For fans of historical fiction set during the Great War and for fans of fiction set on sprawling British estates like Downton Abbey.