The Midwest Booksellers Association has selected its Midwest Connections Picks for May. Under this marketing program, the association and member stores promote booksellers' handselling favorites that have a strong Midwest regional appeal.
In the Night of Memory by Linda LeGarde Grover (University of Minnesota Press, $22.95, 9781517906504). "Some ruptures simply cannot be repaired; they can only be lived through, or lived with. Linda LeGarde Grover returns to the fictional Mozhay Point Reservation in this nuanced, moving, often humorous picture of two Ojibwe girls becoming women in the long, sharply etched shadow of Native American history."
Of Fathers and Fire by Steven Wingate (University of Nebraska Press, $19.95, 9781496211866). "Living in the High Plains town of Suborney, Colorado in the summer of 1980, main character Tommy Sandor is wrestling with the forces shaping America and himself: the Iran hostage crisis, the incoming tide of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and the political rise of the Christian Right."
The Line Tender by Kate Allen (Dutton, $17.99, 9780735231603). "Heartbreaking but also filled with wit and hope, The Line Tender is the story of Lucy, the daughter of a marine biologist and a rescue diver, and the summer that changes her life. If she ever wants to lift the cloud of grief over her family and community, she must complete the research her late mother began. She must follow the sharks."
When You Are Brave by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler (Little, Brown, $17.99, 9780316392525). "Saying goodbye to neighbors. Worrying about new friends. Passing through a big city. Seeing a dark road ahead. In these moments, a young girl feels small and quiet and alone. But when she breathes deeply and looks inside herself, a hidden spark of courage appears, one she can nurture and grow until she glows inside and out."
