Summary: The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani is a coming-of-age novel that revolves around the life of a 12-year-old girl named Nisha, set in India during the 1970s. Nisha, who is of Indian and American descent, navigates her way through cultural identity and family struggles after her mother's tragic death.
Based on the true events of a trial in Hungary in 1882, a girl named Julie learns that her friend has gone missing. She watches as the Jews in her town are falsely accused of murdering the servant girl Esther. Julie tries to help make things right by learning the truth despite the odds being against her.
Shane is a short and fast-paced story set in the days of American colonization. It starts with a boy named Bob who sees a mysterious man near his house. His name was Shane, and he was friendly with Bob’s family and bonded with them. They let him stay with them, and although he was only going to stay with them for a few days, it ended up becoming months.
Fleeing away from chaos and leaving his family behind, the 11-year-old finds himself in Cuba, hoping and dreaming for the day he can finally make music in New York City with his parents. Along the way, a kind girl named Paloma befriends Daniel. However, even in this country, the two realize that there is not only greed and sadness in Germany, but also here in Cuba. In the end, will the two ever find peace and happiness or will they find themselves reaching for something unreachable?
Beloved, by Toni Morrison, is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning magical-realistic novel that centers around a former slave, her life, and the lives of those around her. Inspired by a true story, Beloved is the story of a woman - Sethe - as she navigates her present life and past memories in addition to the supernatural world that dips into her reality.
Briony Tallis, only thirteen years old, misunderstands a series of events between her older sister Cecilia and Robbie Turner, the son of the Tallis household's caretaker. Combined with Briony's extensive imagination and skill of filling in unknown elements, these factors bring about a crime that will haunt Cecilia, Robbie, and Briony for the rest of their lives.
Charlotte is a senior who really likes to write and admires the famous writer, Luca Bruni. She is also the descendant of Isabella di Angelo, a poet who her family believes actually wrote the famous poem “In Guerra” by Antonio Tasso. She applies for a summer program with her idol, Luca Bruni, in Venice and gets in. Charlotte decides to uncover Isabella’s past and rightfully give her credit for the poem. But when Luca Bruni tries to kiss her as he does the other girls in the program, she goes back to her home and her journey to discover her past comes to a stop.
Francesca Bridgerton, the Countess of Kilmartin has finally reached a kind of peace in her life. She is ready to shed the colors of half-mourning, she has found purpose in life through managing the Kilmartin estate, and she has returned to London to find a husband. But this visit unfortunately coincides with the return of her estranged best friend and late husband’s cousin, Michael. They find themselves increasingly drawn together, but a sense of guilt and duty towards the late Earl of Kilmartin keeps them apart…until it can’t.
Eloise Bridgerton has always been incredibly independent and content to become a spinster with her best friend Penelope - in fact she has pretty much already achieved this goal, having recently reached the age of twenty-eight and with no husband in sight. But when Penelope all of a sudden gets married, Eloise makes the rash decision to head out to the countryside to meet with her correspondent of a year, the recently widowed Sir Phillip, a dedicated botanist and father to two unruly children. But when she reaches his remote home, she soon regrets this decision.
Penelope Featherington has always been the ugly duckling, the butt of the joke, and the wallflower. But despite these factors enforcing the improbability of their match, she has always been hopelessly in love with her best friend’s brother, the notorious rogue and charmer Colin Bridgerton. When Colin returns from a trip abroad, they seem to find themselves interacting more and more - first through coincidences and then through intention as they find that despite a lack of previous romance, something has changed.
