Shea's Bookshelf

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl was one of my favorite books as a kid, and though I'm not one to reread books, I've read this one dozens of times. First, you've got an author who is the master of craft. He feels like just another kid and so you want to listen to what he's got to say. He uses language that is familiar to us, doesn't demean us, but rather like he's inviting us in on his adventures. Second…

We all know the story of Achilles. But who was Achilles before he became the savior of the Greeks? How did his parents love him? What were his favorite pastimes as a child? Whom did he love? In The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller gives us the love story we didn’t know we were craving. With her incredible knowledge of both The Illiad and Greek mythology…

In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is handing you a white package with a red bow. She has the kind of voice that makes you want to let down your guard and listen. She explains things in a way that opens up your eyes to see…Let her guide you towards understanding that the stories we’re brought up with, the stories we’re told at bedtime, the stories that get told around the dinner table are not the only stories that exist…

Poet X is a work of fiction told entirely through verse. The poet is Xiomara, or “X” as her friends call her, and her voice rises from the story like she’s speaking directly to you. She’s got something to say, and regardless if you are a twenty-something white girl or a fifty-something black man or another fifteen-year-old Dominican, you will understand…

And Justice There is None by Deborah Crombie is the 8^th book in an 18-book series (with more on the way) in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery series. If you’re more of a traditionalist, you can start with the first book in the series, A Share in Death. Otherwise, Crombie drops you into the story and you’re none the wiser. Regardless, you will get that intriguing mystery you’re craving…

Guesthouse for Ganesha by Judith Teitelman is a story of Judaism, Hinduism, survivalism, and love. It is Mary Poppin’s spoonful of sugar, and it is the pinprick of fear that burrows into the marrow of your bones, starting at the tips of your toes and spreading, rushing, encapsulating your very essence until you are left wondering what room is left to feel anything else…

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes this novel to his son. In this letter, he explores how to live free from dreams that were never meant for him, how to live in a world created by breaking black bodies and whose systems continue to do so, how to give his son a world in which he may live and be free…

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, will be a story that stays with you long after the cover is closed. You’ll have Elizabeth’s banter in your head the next time you’re at work and want to say something witty. You’ll remember Mrs. Bennet the next time you’re watching the news. When the chaos of the world is getting to you, you’ll want to be like Mr. Bennet and tuck yourself away in your study with this book.…

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King, is a novel whose main character is the kind of person who plows through a line of people waiting at a job fair and gets away with it. Told in semi-alternating chapters between the killer and the retired detective trying to hunt him down, you will cringe through Mr. Mercedes' sexualized reminiscing of his murdering spree, and you will barely breathe as you follow the detective’s clues to catch the killer…It’s like a demon that has sunk its claws into your arm and is sliding you slowly down into hell. I tried to think about reading something else, but my mind kept slipping back…

Almost Like Being in Love is the punch-drunk love story that reminds you what it last felt like to be wholly, totally, stupidly, naively, I-know-this-isn’t-going-to-last-but-I-still-believe-it-with-all-my-might in love. In this book, his name is Travis, but for you it might have been Leslie or Maribel or Abdiel or Jacqueline or Sydney. And you’ll be back there in that time where fights were over which kind of Oreo you bought or who had to turn off the light, and love was the only real thing in the world…

The Hypnotist’s Love Story is the book I started with and is the one that got me hooked on Liane Moriarty. Perhaps it’s the last name. Any fan of the show “Sherlock” with Benedict Cumberbatch should be instantly intrigued. Then you have the title. The main character is a hypnotist? Oo la la..

How do I even begin to tell you about The Book Thief by Markus Zusak? Do I start by gushing about the title? If you were perusing the aisles of your favorite book store, don’t tell me this one wouldn’t catch your eye, make you pause, have you drag your fingertips down the spine, whisper the name on your lips. Do I tell you the flash synopsis, that the story is about a little German girl caught in the middle of WWII who steals books like her life depends on it? But that tells you nothing…