Recommended by Cheryle for people who like nonfiction that reads like fiction. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sempty%20mansions%20dedman__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Recommended by Cheryle, who says "The Secret Rooms'' is a great, well-researched story with an exciting mystery. It is a non-fiction book that reads like fiction.

Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Ssecret%20rooms%20bailey__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

"How to Barter for Paradise'' is an amusing travel log of a young man who successfully makes 40+ barter exchanges throughout the world. He starts his barter exchange with a partially eaten apple and ends-up with a house in Hawaii (which was his goal).
--Recommended by Laura H.

Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Show%20to%20barter%20for%20paradise__Orightresult__U;jsessionid=BF3792E1020BD892F10947CC7F7D2736?lang=eng

Told in a series of flashbacks, this book tells the story of the Marina who was a tour guide at the Hermitage when the Germans surrounded and attacked the city for over three years. Her job then was to remove and memorize where she stored the invaluable Madonna paintings in the lower level of the museum for safekeeping, a dangerous job as bombs fell all around them and food supplies dwindled to nothing. When I visited St. Petersburg, we toured Piskaryov Memorial Cemetery, now a memorial to the 470,000 civilian and 100,000 soldiers, where the victims of the Siege are buried in mass graves. The Madonnas of Leningrad helped me begin to understand what life was like during the three-year long Siege for those who lived through it and made me think about the strength and courage of the Russian people who survived.

--Reviewed by Ellen J.

Recommended by Ellen J., who writes, This past winter as the Olympics were being held in Sochi, I revisited Russia in my reading. John Boyne’s novel, The House of Special Purpose, caught my attention because it featured the czar’s Winter Palace, now the world class art museum known as The Hermitage which we visited in 1989. In The House of Special Purpose, the reader experiences the contrast between the poverty-stricken lives of the Russian peasants and their powerful czars through the eyes of the main character, Georgy Daniilovich Jachmenev, who is randomly plucked from his poor village to live and work for the czar’s family. As Georgy grows to manhood in the service of the Czar’s family, he and the reader get to know Rasputin and the family of Nicolas and Alexandra. This is also a heart-breaking love story spanning several decades, told in a series of flashbacks by Georgy as he contemplates a return visit to the Russia he and his beloved wife escaped during the Russian Revolution. This is a lovely book for those interested a sweeping love story set in revolutionary Russia, as long as they aren’t bothered by some serious artistic license taken by the author.

Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Shouse%20of%20special%20purpose%20boyne__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

A 2013 staff fiction favorite. Recommended by Connie (5 stars) and Becky K. (4 stars. Read Connie's review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/831040002?book_show_action=false&page=1

Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Swe%20are%20all%20completely%20beside%20ourselves__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Recommended by Ellen J. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Smonkeewrench%20tracy__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Recommended by Ellen J. and Andrea. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Speople%20of%20the%20book%20brooks__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Recommended by Haley. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Spacking%20for%20mars%20roach__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl

Recommended by Thomas. Check our catalog: http://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Szealot%20aslan__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=pearl