Weekend Reads

The Bullet Catch: Murder by Misadventure by Amy Axelrod and David Axelrod

Set in New York City in 1917, The Bullet Catch follows 14-year-old Leo as he fights to survive despite being an orphan. When Leo's orphanage burns down, he and his friends turn to a life of crime - they are very successful pickpockets, and Leo is the most talented of them all. Leo and his gang use Henry Houdini as their inspiration and their mentor. When life on the streets is no longer an option, Leo becomes an apprentice to the magician Franco Barzini. While Leo thinks that he's escaped his life of crime, he realizes that even people who seem to be on the right side of the law may be just as dangerous as the gang he left behind on the streets.

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Atlantia by Ally Condy

A new novel from the author of the Matched series, Atlantia is set at the bottom of the ocean in a walled city of the same name. Atlantia is inhabited by humans who require the protection of the walls and the oxygen that is circulated around them to survive. The story is told from the perspective of Rio, a recently orphaned daughter of the Minister of Atlantia and twin sister to Bay. Rio had dreamed of leaving Atlantia for the Above. The Above is a ruined place, with pollution and pain and a short life dedicated wholly to maintaining the Below, where people have a long life and happiness and time for leisure. Rio only decides to stay because her sister, Bay, had asked her to since this would separate the girls forever. So when Bay chooses the Above, Rio feels betrayed by her sister and trapped by her city. Rio struggles to understand her sister's decision, find her way in a city that she doesn't love and that doesn't understand her and to find answers to the mysteries that surround her city in order to save the lives of everyone who lives Below.

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Vango by Timothée de Fombelle

Vango integrates lots of characters, locations across all of Europe and takes place from 1918 through 1934 (and not in chronological order). While it's not always an easy read, it is a very rewarding one. The novel begins in 1934, when Vango is just about to take his vows as a preist. When a gunshot interrupts the service, Vango finds himself a wanted man for a crime he did not commit. From there, de Fombelle takes us between locations and times to help us to get to know Vango and see how his life arrived at the point of impending preisthood and criminal suspicion. 

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