Women Who Eat Reading List

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
A fictional account of a mental handicap caused by a trauma sustained during a car accident.
Novelist gives it 4 stars.
Left Neglected

Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Locals gather in a piano repair shop to discuss music, love and life.
NoveList gives it four stars.
Piano Shop on the Left Bank

Tulipomania: the story of the world's most covet flower and the extraordinary passions it aroused
by Mike Dash
Non-fiction account of the plant's history and its journey from East to West.
NoveList gives it 3 stars.
Tulipomania: the story of the world's most coveted flower and the extraordinary passions it aroused 

Hotel on Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
This book is about what happens when Japanese artifacts are found during the renovation of a Seattle hotel.
Historical fiction, character driven. Good Reads gives it 4 stars.


Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Three generations of Chinese women experience the modern world.
Non-fiction. Novelist gives it 5 stars.


  Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
A history of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London.
Non-fiction. both Novelist and GoodReads give it 4 stars. Suggested by Susannah.


Good Evening Mrs.Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes by Mollie Panter-Downes.
English short stories printed in in the New Yorker between 1939 and 1944.
GoodReads gives it 4 stars. Suggested by Ellie.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Annotation for Adult Fiction: Psychological fiction, urban fantasy

Adapted from Saricks, Joyce G. and Nancy Brown. Readers Advisory Service in the Public Library 2nd.  Chicago: ALA, 1997.

Author: Graham Joyce

Title: Some Kind of Fairy Tale

Publication Date: 2012    Number of Pages: 310   Part of a Series: No

Subject Headings:

• Urban fantasy
• Missing persons
• Fairy tales
• English small towns
• Memory
• Ancient woods

Geographical Setting/Time Period: Suburban/small town Great Britain, current time

Main Character(s):

• Tara - a sixteen year old girl who goes missing for 20 years and then returns home.
• Richie - Tara's boyfriend at the time of the disappearance. He is a musician who never seemed to make it in the search for fame and fortune.
• Peter - Tara's brother and friends with Richie. They haven't spoken since Tara went missing

Plot Summary: A conflicted teenager acting on impulse loses herself in a local forest. Although a search is made, the girl has disappeared. Twenty years pass before she turns up on her parents' doorstep. No one believes her tale of abduction or description of the place that she has been.

Characterization: The story is melancholic and reflective.

Storyline: Character-driven and leisurely paced with lots of description and character development

Writing style: The author is engaging and readable.

Brief quote: "Oh yes, the bluebells were out in May. Do you remember how they were? Their perfume stole the sense right out of your head." p.38

Prizes or Awards: Library Journal Top 10, 2012

Similar Works: Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan. This is another story about a teenager who goes missing and the people who search for her.

Reviewer’s Name: Nancy Rimassa