Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne

Cynthia Fiske lives a comfortable single life in San Francisco writing young-adult historical books. Her older sister, Frances, is an interior designer who lives and works in Concord, Massachusetts. Frances convinces Cynthia to come to Concord to spend the Thanksgiving holiday. Since Cynthia is writing a book about the daughters of Mark Twain and a visit to his home in Hartford would be helpful, she agrees to share her holiday with her sister.

For Frances, this holiday would be their last chance to make amends with their 82-year-old father who recently suffered a stroke. His much younger wife is divorcing him and he is not able to cope on his own. Cynthia has not had any contact with her father for years because she is convinced he is responsible for the poisoning death of their invalid mother decades before. The holiday starts on a sour note and the rest of the festivities go downhill from there. The sisters battle with painful memories, each convinced of the correctness of their recollections.

In an interesting twist, Berne parallels the Fiske sisters with the daughters of Mark Twain. As the story unfolds, the reader is forced to take sides in this tale of a modern dysfunctional family.


**Images on this blog are taken from Amazon.com or Fantasticfiction.co.uk.

Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya

Yuki and Shigure Sohma take Tohru Honda, a girl they find camping on their land, into their home. Tohru, whose mother died recently and who has been recently forced to leave the shelter of her grandfather's house, objects based on her fear of becoming a burden to the Sohma family. She finally relents and agrees to stay in return for becoming their cook and house keeper (which they desperately need!).


Tohru discovers that the family is cursed almost right away when a boy named Kyo smashes through the roof of the house.
The curse? When members of the family are embraced by the opposite sex, they turn into animals from the Chinese Zodiac. Eventually, Tohu meets every member of the family that carries the curse.
What follows is a complex story as character pasts are revealed and wounded spirits are healed. Can Tohru manage to break the curse in time for the one who suffers most: the cat, Kyo?


This manga is a work in progress. Volume 19 was just released in March and Volume 20 is not due until early July. The story line of volume 19 seems to indicate that the climax and ending of the story are just above the horizon.
The story itself is great for ages 13 to adult, but does have some particularly cruel characters.


Give it a try! Please email us to request this title. Include your name, library card number and the title. Clevnet requests only please. email to: info@ritter.lib.oh.us