Library Loot ~ May 4-10

Ninth Ward ~ by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 2010, YA fiction (Louisiana)

• A 2011 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

New Orleans after Katrina is still hard to think about, but this book sounds (and looks) magical.  I was totally drawn by this fantastic cover, but I also want to see how the author presents the aftermath of Katrina to 10-to-12-year-old children.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon ~ by Sarah Addison Allen, 2010, fiction (North Carolina)

"It took a moment for Emily to realize the car had come to a stop.  She looked up from her charm bracelet, which she'd been worrying in slow circles around her wrist, and stared out the window.  The two giant oaks in the front yard looked like flustered ladies caught mid-curtsy, their starched green leaf-dresses swaying in the wind."

After Bookfool's review and this opening how could I resist?

Moon Over Manifest ~ by Clare Vanderpool, 2010, YA fiction (Kansas)

• Winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal

From the dust jacket:  "Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was."

Cutting for Stone ~ by Abraham Verghese, 2009, fiction (Ethiopia and New York)

The opening lines draw me in:  "After eight months spent in the obscurity of our mother's womb, my brother, Shiva,and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954.  We took our first breaths at an elevation of eight thousand feet in the thin air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia."

The Warmth of Other Suns ~ by Isabel Wilkerson, 2010, history (USA)

• Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
• Winner of 2011 Mark Lynton History Prize
• One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2010

This book chronicles the migration of almost six million Southern black citizens from the South to cities in the north and west.  It's the choice for a summer read-along (click to read what I posted yesterday).

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.  Marg has the Mister Linky this week, if you'd like to share a list of the loot you brought home.