msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

A brilliant, beguiling and beautiful book set in Depression-era Seattle in the 1930s, TGOLAD tells the at once heartbreaking and hopeful love story of African American chanteuse Flora Saudade and adopted wealthy white boy Henry Bishop. Forever foes Love and Death are playing a game: Flora and Henry are their unknowing pawns. A pitch-perfect Seattle setting, an indelible ensemble cast of characters, and a hefty dose of high-stakes legerdemain all come together in a mesmerizing cacophony that will keep you turning the pages well into the night. I had the distinct pleasure of listening to Ms. Brockenbrough read at the Washington State Book Awards; the notes of her voice floating through the air were every bit as gorgeous as her words on the page. Not to be missed! Click here for a trailer and here for a full review . Grade 8+

A deliciously bleak story written in intricate poetic prose about one man's impact on the lives of the three people who think they love him: Ryan, a college student at Northwestern who has never met his father, Jay (and is exited to redefine himself by getting involved with him), Lucy, an intensely bored high school student who falls in love with her history teacher, George, and Miles, whose life is a series of unsuccessful searches for his schizophrenic brother, Hayden. AYR is about waking up and finding out that everything you thought you knew about your future, past, and present is incorrect, as when Lucy uncovers George's deception, "...the life she had been traveling toward - imagining herself into -- the ideas and expectations... this life had been erased. Like she stopped at a rest area on the way and the attendant said, you must be mistaken... a sense of sundering. It was the feeling you got when you woke up and everyone you loved was dead." You'll crin...