Need to take a break? As the new academic year begins and we dive in to a new semester of study, it’s important to take some time to relax and recharge.

Our Relaxed Reads collection consists of primarily fiction books, but also includes other leisure reading materials such as poetry, memoirs, and gardening books (My own plants may appreciate it if I check out “Please Don’t Die: a guide for neglectful houseplant owners”).

In our York library, the Relaxed Reads collection can be found on the ground floor. In London, all fiction titles can be found on the shelves in the 800s.

We’re always updating and expanding our collections. Here’s some of the new additions, available both in York and London, which have caught our eye recently:

The Emperor of Gladness — Ocean Vuong

One summer evening in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond. The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which our lives are changed by the most unexpected of people. When Hai takes a job at a diner to support himself and Grazina, his fellow workers become the family he didn’t expect to find. United by desperation and circumstance, and existing on the fringes of society, together they bear witness to each other’s survival. This is an unforgettable story of unexpected friendship and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.

Find it in the catalogue: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Wandering Stars — Tommy Orange

Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by an evangelical prison guard, who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial school, dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture and identity. Years later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to this school, where he is brutalised by the same man. Together with fellow student Opal Viola, Charles envisions a future far away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines. Full of poetry, music, rage and love, Wandering Stars, looks to the past and future across the generations of the Bear Shield and Red Feather family, finding their way through displacement and pain, towards home and hope.

Find it in the catalogue: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

James — Percival Everett

Find The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all . . .

Find it in the catalogue: James by Percival Everett

Creation Lake — Rachel Kushner

Seductive and cunning American spy-for-hire Sadie Smith has been sent by her mysterious but powerful employers to a remote corner of France. Her mission: to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists influenced by the beliefs of an enigmatic elder, Bruno Lacombe, who has rejected civilisation, lives in a Neanderthal cave, and believes the path to enlightenment is a return to primitivism. Sadie casts her cynical eye over this region of ancient farms and sleepy villages, and finds Bruno’s idealism laughable, but just as she is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story. Beneath this taut, dazzling story of espionage and intrigue lies one of a woman caught in the crossfire between the past and the future, and a profound treatise on human history.

Find it in the catalogue: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

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Share your thoughts with us and the wider YSJ community here: Relaxed Reads Reviews

by Emily, Library and Learning Adviser