The Library of Legends by Janie Chang

From the author of Three Souls and Dragon Springs Road comes a captivating historical novel in which a convoy of student refugees travel across China, fleeing the hostilities of a brutal war with Japan

 “Myths are the darkest and brightest incarnations of who we are . . .”

China, 1937. When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, nineteen-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of students, faculty and staff must walk 1,000 miles to the safety of China’s western provinces, a journey marred by the constant threat of aerial attack. And it is not just the refugees who are at risk; Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure: a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.

The students’ common duty to safeguard the Library of Legends creates unexpected bonds. Lian becomes friends and forms a cautious romance with the handsome and wealthy Liu Shaoming. But after one classmate is arrested and another one is murdered, Lian realizes she must escape before a family secret puts her in danger too. Accompanied by Shao and his enigmatic maidservant, Sparrow, Lian makes her way to Shanghai in the hopes of reuniting with her mother.

During the journey, Lian learns of the connection between her two companions and a tale from the Library of Legends, The Willow Star and the Prince. This revelation comes with profound consequences, for as the ancient books travel across China, they awaken immortals and guardian spirits who embark on an exodus of their own, one that will change the country’s fate forever.

400 pages (May 2020)

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Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book from Book Riot

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Library of Legends at goodreads

 

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Author Website

New novel mixes Chinese folklore and historical fiction | CTV Your Morning:

Janie Chang on the process of writing The Library of Legends |Toronto International Festival of Authors 2020:

This title is available for download as an eBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

 

Title Read-alikes: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow; Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; I Give It to You by Valerie Martin; The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner; The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker; The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden; Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim; The Immoratalists by Chloe Benamin; White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway; Tree of Heaven of R.C. Binstock; The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li; and Riding the Tiger by Milena Banks.

Circe by Madeline Miller

The daring, dazzling, and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song of Achilles.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child - not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power - the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

393 pages (April 2018)

 

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

Circe at goodreads

 

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Author Website

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This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood; Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin; House of Names by Colm Toibin; The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec; Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman; Ariadne by Jennifer Saint; The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes; Matrix by Lauren Groff; The Silence of Girls by Pat Barker; The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab; and The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

In the early 1900s, a young woman embarks on a fantastical journey of self-discovery after finding a mysterious book in this captivating and lyrical debut.

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

Lush and richly imagined, a tale of impossible journeys, unforgettable love, and the enduring power of stories awaits in Alix E. Harrow's spellbinding debut--step inside and discover its magic.

399 pages (September 2019)

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Book Page at BookBrowse.

Lit Guide from LitLovers.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book from Book Riot 

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Ten Thousand Doors of January at goodreads

 

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Author Website

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Jamie’s 60-Second-ish Book Review from the Curtis Memorial Library

This title is available for download as an eBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes:

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky; The Binding by Bridget Collins; Or What You Will by Jo Walton; Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan; The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman; The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams; The Bone Houses by Emily LLoyd-Jones; The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune; Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire; The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon; and Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik's Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman's myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind - she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles nearer, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed - this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.

322 pages (January 2017)

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Book Page at BookBrowse.

Lit Guide from LitLovers.

Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Bear and the Nightingale at goodreads

 

Review from BookPage

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Review from Kirkus Reviews

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Review from Publishers Weekly

 

Author Website

Book Trailer:

This title is available for download as an eAudioBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: The Girl with Ghost Eyes by M. H. Boroson; The Bone Mother by David Demchuk; The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow; Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente; A Discovery of Witches by Deborah E. Harkness; The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern; The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst; Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo; Lady of the Horses by Judith Tarr; Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik; The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty; The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab; and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.