I came across this book in the Children’s room and had seen it is really popular among patrons so I thought I would read it. The story follows a girl Emily, her brother, and mother as they process the sudden loss of their father and must move into their great-grandfather’s home to start over. Emily discovers…
Fran’s comment: This eerily prescient novel about a global virus is a well written but troubling read. The saving grace is the relationship and input of the doctor friends that give it a much needed human perspective. The healing power of their friendship is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. About the…
I just finished Louise Penny’s latest – but it’s not a Three Pines/Gamache book. She wrote a political thriller with Hillary Clinton. I don’t usually read thrillers, but decided to try State of Terror because I love Louise’s writing. And it was great! Once I started reading it I couldn’t stop. Highly recommend. I am…
“Clementine is a seventy-two year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in…
The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult literature published by current Commonwealth residents. As a judge for the 21st Annual Awards, I’ve been tasked with reading all fourteen fiction nominees. Read more reviews here. Set in a (post-apocalyptic?) future, The Bear follows an unnamed father and daughter through…
The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult literature published by current Commonwealth residents. As a judge for the 21st Annual Awards, I’ve been tasked with reading all fourteen fiction nominees. Looking for an eccentric short story collection? Try Julian K. Jarboe’s Everyone on the Moon Is Essential Personnel.…
In her September newsletter Deanna Raybourn*, author of the Veronica Speedwell series and the Lady Julia Grey series, shared an intriguing list of books, several of which I plan to read. This, in particular, sounded really interesting: The Woman Before Wallis: Prince Edward, the Parisian Courtesan, and the Perfect Murder – Andrew Rose “Prince Edward…
Steeped in Stories – Mitali Perkins “The stories we read as children shape us for the rest of our lives. But it is never too late to discover that transformative spark of hope that children’s classics can ignite within us. Award-winning children’s author Mitali Perkins grew up steeped in stories–escaping into her books on the…
The Sweetness of Water – Nathan Harris “In the waning days of the Civil War, brothers Prentiss and Landry—freed by the Emancipation Proclamation—seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. The Walkers, wracked by the loss of their only son to the war, hire the brothers to work their farm, hoping…
The Forest of Vanishing Stars – Kristin Harmel “After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror.…
Churchill & Son – Josh Ireland “We think we know Winston Churchill: the bulldog grimace, the ever-present cigar, the wit and wisdom that led Great Britain through the Second World War. Yet away from the House of Commons and the Cabinet War Rooms, Churchill was a loving family man who doted on his children, none…
Midnight in Chernobyl – Adam Higginbotham “Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of…
My current TBR stack is a little unusual for me – two non-fiction and only one fiction. I love mysteries, and I have Donna Leon’s latest, Transient Desires, right at the top of my stack. About the book: “In his many years as a commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known…
1774 The Long Year of Revolution – Mary Beth Norton “In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period…
Fifty Words for Rain – Asha Lemmie Sue’s comment: I really liked this! “Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.” Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic…
The Yellow Wife – Sedeqa Johnson Lorraine’s thoughts: I liked it but was wishing for a little more historical information. Perhaps I didn’t care for the author’s writing style? I would like to try another of her books. “Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life.…
Next up on Chris’ to be read list: Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders “February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies…
Abe : Abraham Lincoln in His Times – David Reynolds “From one of the great historians of nineteenth-century America, a revelatory and enthralling new biography of Lincoln, many years in the making, that brings him to life within his turbulent age. David S. Reynolds, author of the Bancroft Prize-winning cultural biography of Walt Whitman and…
Just finished: The Midnight Library – Matt Haig (Loved it!) “Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you…
“IN A TIME OF RASPUTIN’S MAGIC AND ROMANOV MYSTERY, A YOUNG GIRL FINDS HERSELF AT THE HEART OF THE ROYAL FAMILY She was an orphan, ushered into the royal palace on the prayers of her majestry. Yet, decades later, her time spent in the embrace of the Romanovs haunts her still. Is she responsible for…
The Mitford Scandal – Jessica Fellowes (Also available in Large Print) “In the third book in the Mitford Murders series, lady’s maid Louisa Cannon accompanies Diana Mitford into a turbulent late 1920s Europe. The year is 1928, and after the death of a maid at a glamorous society party, fortune heir Bryan Guinness seizes life…
The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication – Alexander Larman (ebook) “On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not…
The Best of Me – David Sedaris (ebook | eaudio) “For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and…
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (a local author; she also wrote The Good Thief) “Samuel Hawley isn’t like the other fathers in Olympus, Massachusetts. A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter, Loo, on the road, moving from motel to motel, always watching his back.…
Very rarely do I place library holds on new releases – either because I can’t predict when a book will find its way to me (when I’m in the middle of something else??) or because there just isn’t anything I absolutely have to read right away. And then there are these titles: The City of…
We all have in mind a sense of fairy tale: that story type and what it’s composed of, along with favorite examples. Certain names no doubt spring immediately to mind: Grimm, Anderson, Disney. You’ll encounter those familiar stories, names, and more in Warner’s short history. In the prologue, Warner offers an at-a-glance definition of fairy…
Spiders and Conjurers and Hypnotists, oh my.
Two weeks ago I was also discussing What I’m Reading Now, with that list capped off by Meg Wolitzer’s Belzhar, a young adult novel that tangentially relies on the life and works of Sylvia Plath to support a small handful of the story’s themes. I’ve read Plath’s The Bell Jar, Ariel, and assorted brief articles…
Michelle here, former Book Monogamist. See, these days I have any number of fairly wildly different* books in progress at roundabout the same time. Here are early thoughts on the three books I’m Reading Now.
Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age – W. Bernard Carlson | Here’s the thing: I may never again want to hear the words commutator, stator or rotor, but I will very probably never get enough of Nikola Tesla. Most everyone has heard the name, but aside from his innovative work with AC and polyphase systems, how…
Books in Hand: What the library’s staff is reading or has just finished. The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro Synopsis: “The story of Robert Moses, who shaped the politics, the physical structure and even the problems of urban decline in New York.” Here it is in the catalog More about the book: The New…