Before You Knew My Name

If You Could See the Sun

All the Living and the Dead

The Scioto County Public Library would like to recommend these book titles. Each title is available to borrow with your library card! For more book recommendations or information on applying for a library card go to www.yourppl.org or call 740-354-5688.

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz – When she arrived in New York on her eighteenth birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe. She may be dead but that doesn’t mean her story is over. After traveling halfway around the world, Ruby Jones is lonelier than ever in the Big Apple. Until she stumbles upon a woman’s body by the Hudson River, and suddenly finds herself unbreakably tied to the unknown dead woman. Alice is sure Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her short life and tragic death. Ruby just wants to forget what she saw…but she can’t seem to stop thinking about the young woman she found. If she keeps looking, can she give this unidentified Jane Doe the ending and closure she deserves? Readers might also enjoy Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen or Call Me Evie by J. P. Pomare.

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell – From a young age, we are exposed to death. It’s in the news, on television, and even in story books. Yet, we are taught to fear death. How are we supposed to know what we’re scared of unless we get a closer look? Journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. She speaks with mass fatality investigators, embalmers, and a former executioner who is responsible for ending sixty-two lives, and that’s just the beginning. Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: Why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden? All the Living and the Dead weaves together memoir, history, and psychology into one fascinating book. Readers might also enjoy American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower or From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty.

If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang – Alice Sun comes from a less than well off family, which means her time at her elite Beijing academy is always in jeopardy of being cut short. She learns that she has the ability to turn completely invisible, and uses it to steal secrets from her classmates for money, but can she keep up with all this while keeping her grades up? Readers might also enjoy Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne or Blood Like Magic by Liselle Samb