Remember when you first learned to ride a bike? It’s all about balance, isn’t it? You’ll appreciate that same skill in A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar, a story that weaves between female missionaries in 1923 Asia and a woman in modern-day London who shows kindness to a Yemeni refugee. British citizens Eva, Lizzie, and Millicent have their strength and ideals tested when they find themselves unexpectedly caring for an infant while under house arrest in Turkestan. Then we shift to Frieda, a present-day Middle Eastern scholar who returns home after a long absence to discover she has inherited an apartment from a woman she has never met. Explore exotic lands and intriguing connections in Suzanne Joinson’s debut novel.

Young Jim is tired of living in his father’s shadow. His father, Jim Hawkins, cavorted with the infamous swashbuckler, Long John Silver. You can read the elder Hawkins’ story in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate tale, Treasure Island. Then there’s Natty, the androgynous daughter of Long John Silver. She, too, wants adventures of her own. Natty proposes to young Jim that they journey back to Treasure Island to retrieve all the silver that their fathers didn’t have room to carry home almost forty years before. Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (1999 – 2000), writes of buccaneers, bullion, long held grudges, and Natty and Jim’s unexpected exploits in Silver: Return to Treasure Island.

Cora Carlisle, a woman of 36, is in need of change. Her two sons are going off to college, and her husband has a busy law practice. When a chaperone is needed to guide 15-year-old Louise Brooks through New York City as she studies dance at the Denishawn School, Cora leaps at the chance. Louise is already a force of nature, extremely beautiful, and about to become a famous silent film star. Cora battles herself on how much to corral Louise and how much to take after her. The Chaperone, by Laura Moriarty, is an intriguing look at the 1920s, detailing not only the fun and flappers, but the poverty, race issues, and gender politics of the day.