Janetta's Top 5 for Friday

Janetta is just one of the fantastic volunteers who help us keep Rodney Libraries running smoothly. Her literary claim to fame is that she once went on a date with Wilbur Smith but that is part of her history from a previous life in South Africa. She has helped me out on with the Top 5 on Friday today and as you will see truly reads around the world.

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A "gripping" tale of America's south and the search for black equality in the 1960's. Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.

2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Fantastic read. "One of those books that stick in your mind". A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

3. Eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet by Bill McKibben. This non-fiction book is described by Janetta as "quite terrifying and thought provoking". McKibben's earliest warnings about global warming went largely unheeded. In this book, he argues that we can meet the challenges of a new "Eaarth"--still recognizable but suddenly and violently out of balance

4. The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Janetta travels to Europe with this 2008 Orange Book award winner. Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter but he finds himself struggling with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene.

5. Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. A different way of looking at food. "Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this book (released May 2007) tells the story of how our family was changed by one year of deliberately eating food produced in the place where we live..."

Thanks Janetta. Your selection shows that the world comes home when you read a book.