What do you think when you think of American’s who remain loyal to England during the American Revolution – aka Tories or Loyalists? If you are like me some common images come to mind: white, wealthy, church of England, maybe arrogant.That is the image we get of Tories before and during the revolution from movies,…
Richardson’s The Damned, first book in the Darkest Hour Trilogy, (it sometimes appears as the Darkest Hand Trilogy) is a fascinating combination of alternate history, church murder mystery, and horror thriller all wrapped up in a nice dark fiction package. The book opens in the trenches east of Arras in the opening days of an…
A couple weeks ago a historian friend of mine recommended Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome saying “she tells a great story while also showing how hard it is to know anything about Roman history.” I have a pile of books by my bed that threatens to topple over and kill me in…
I don’t know how A Darker Shade of Magic got on my radar or really what I was expecting, but it honestly was amazing and had me, like, whipping through chapters.* Schwab – better known for her young adult fiction written under her given name Victoria – weaves early nineteenth-century England with (hard? high?) fantasy into an engaging…
No sooner did the credits finish rolling on the latest adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None that I wanted to watch it again. And then again after that. In point of fact, I didn’t want to stop watching it, ever, if possible. (Which made purchasing a digital copy a must for me,…
If you read enough history sooner or later someone asks you: “What would happen if a Roman army were to go up against [insert anachronistic warrior culture here]?” I’ve gotten Romans vs Vikings, Romans vs Samurais, and Romans vs Incas. I always hate these because it’s always comparing apples and oranges, but that is exactly…
Bakewell’s new book on Sartre, Beauvoir, and Company blinked onto my radar several months ago and stayed there, but it wasn’t until I read The Bookseller’s interview with the author, and then a Beauvoir-centric excerpt, that the book went from under consideration to Must Read. While I might have read The Second Sex and Being…
Brodsky’s Immortals is the first book in her Olympus Bound series, a fantasy of Greek gods and goddesses in present day New York City. It’s a great concept. As people gradually stopped believing in the gods of Olympus they started to weaken. Finally, hundreds of years ago, Zeus decided to throw in the towel. The…
Here is a small sample of the books you will find on display here at the library. All of these are done by members of our staff who put a lot of time and thought into them. The Pyramid Charlotte has given the Pyramid display inside the main entrance a Red Sox theme to go…
To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’ve put together a reading list based on the works and lives of New England poets. It’s by no means an exhaustive list; the majority of the poets included here are practically household names (I’m looking at you, Robert Frost. You too, Emily Dickinson). You’ll find below: biographies, letters, fictionalized…
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…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and try to give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to those events. 598 Avars Lift the Siege of Tomis Part of the larger Balkan Campaign of Byzantine emperor Maurice. The Avars,…
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged…
Trinity Six is a modern spy novel that hangs on the search for the fabled Sixth Man. In the 1930s, the NKVD (the predecessor to the KGB) recruited five spies at Trinity College, Cambridge. Now known as the Cambridge Five, these individuals– Kim Philby, Donald MacLean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross– went on…
City on Fire is a behemoth of a novel – clocking in at over 900 pages – but it feels overwrought and excessive, as if author Garth Risk Hallberg simply wanted the world to know that he was capable of writing such an opus. The core action – which spans about seven months in 1977…
Over the past year or so I’ve noticed an uptick in books being published about Irish history. It only occurred to me last week that the reason for this uptick was probably the up coming hundredth anniversary of the Easter Rising (April 24-29). Given the holiday I thought it appropriate to give you a list…
You’re on the hunt for a lighthearted or uplifting book to read while winter wanes; your eager eye has wandered here, to this title by National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson, but I must tell you: Symphony for the City of the Dead is neither lighthearted, nor uplifting. This book, after all, concerns the Soviet…
The History Book Group will be discussing Basilica by R. A. Scotti on March 16 at 7:00. Join us every third Wednesday of the month for great history discussions. Scotti’s Basilica is the story of a brilliant piece of architecture and the trials and tribulations of its creation. The second Saint Peters Basilica was the…
There was a bit of a line in Jennifer Senior’s New York Times review of The Man With the Golden Typewriter that drew my eye back to read it again, because, I suppose, I was trying to imagine what a giant stalk of catnip might look like, if it would be Jack-worthy giant or stop…
Perhaps you’ve seen Hamilton: An American Musical? Or read Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, the biographical seed of inspiration that grew into the musical? Or perhaps the buzz has simply piqued your interest? From biographies of people like Burr, Lafayette, Jefferson and Hamilton himself to stories of the creation of the United States of America, we’ve got…
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to that day’s events. 1704 The Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts. Early in the morning of February 29th, a force of French and Native Americans…
Thanks to Lumberjanes and Ms. Marvel NOW! – which I tore through in hours – my love of graphic novels has exploded tenfold. Below are some of the current releases (and also some classics) that I’ve added to my TBR* pile within the last year. – Rachel Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan…
I met Franz Kafka over the body of a giant insect. It was, years upon years ago, an inauspicious introduction. And first impressions being what they are–misleading, mostly–I veered away from a second encounter, slipping quickly past the K’s (or the PT 2620’s, here) with downcast eyes. Then, well, then my epistolary leanings pitched me…
You know how it is, you are finishing up reading a book and it hits you: “What am I going to read next?!” And it’s not that you don’t have other things to read, it’s that you have too much to read. Maybe you have piles of books on the floor, by your bed, basically…
If you have seen any of the flyers, you know the library has a new History Book Group that meets every third Wednesday of the month at 7:00pm. Massie’s Catherine the Great is this month’s book (which we will be discussing this evening; all are welcome). It’s a long one, clocking in at 929 pages.…
After many years spent traveling and reporting on the considerable number of life-altering events of her era, Martha Gellhorn, war correspondent, passed away on this day in 1998, at the age of 89. Gellhorn began as a novelist before turning to journalism, had the dubious honor of being Ernest Hemingway’s third wife, and considered Eleanor…
H.A. and Marget Rey’s contribution to children’s literature is unarguably huge, with the appeal of Curious George showing no signs of diminishing, well, ever. The insatiably curious monkey, along with the Man With the Yellow Hat, Pretzel, and other familiar faces have won a lasting place in the minds of little ones and young-at-heart adults,…
Like all libraries we do a ton of book displays so we thought we would give all of you a taste of what you’ll find on our displays this month. All of these are done by members of our staff who put a lot of time and thought into them. The Pyramid If you’ve walked…
In The Fortune Hunter Daisy Goodwin has crafted a tale that weaves together fiction with historical fact. At the core of this novel is a love triangle between the handsome and dashing British Captain Bay Middleton, a young heiress by the name of Charlotte Baird, and Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary, known as Sisi to her…
Book Riot does this great feature called “Buy, Borrow, Bypass” and I like it, so I’m going to do that here. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) Don’t recognize the name Felicia Day? Don’t worry – you’re not alone. You might be familiar with her face from such Joss Whedon-helmed projects like Buffy, Dr.…
Vincent “The Wolf” Marelli is the head of an international crime syndicate. He has it all, but in a flash loses the most important thing in his life. This is a tragedy for him, but it is also a tragedy for the people who did it since he is now coming for them. The death…
Who invented the flapper? Was it one of the equally infamous Fitzgerald’s? F. Scott so often gets the credit, whereas Zelda had her fingers on the pulse of what it was to be a flapper more intimately than her husband ever could. But, all right, if not one of the expat members of the Lost…
PBS has a new drama for lovers of history in general and Civil War buffs specifically. Start Here I’ll admit I’m not that into the Civil War when it comes to history but I’m intrigued by this not often seen side of the war. “This is not your typical Civil War epic. There are no…
Those who have read Downing’s Jack of Spies (check out a review of that one here) will be happy to hear that the next book in the series One Man’s Flag is just as good. It is now 1915, and as Europe goes up in flames in the second year of World War I, Jack…
This particular reading intersections topic is near and dear to my heart. You see, a few months ago I fell down this very rabbit hole, amassing a towering pile of non-fiction espionage titles, mostly those pinned to the heart of the Cold War. I have yet to see the light of day, quite happy to…
When Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Judy Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, Blume imagines and weaves together…
Jen’s comments: Just read this and loved it. Fascinating read for anyone who’s ever scoffed at the price of music CDs. Like the reviewer suggests, I’m really hoping for a movie. BookPage review by Edward Morris “The story of how the Internet brought the imperious music business to its knees has never been told more…
If you are like me you haven’t heard much about the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Which as I found out is kind of a shame because it really sets the stage for a lot of the wars of the 20th century. Pleshakov’s Tsar’s Last Armada, takes you through the final drama of that war: Czar Nicholas…
This is a reading list for those who need a little Star Wars fix leading up to seeing the The Force Awakens, or after having seen it. This is not an exhaustive list that includes, in no particular order, books from both Canon (books published after April 2014) and Legends (books from the original Star…
If it weren’t for the big-budget movie starring Matt Damon that just came out*, I don’t think Andy Weir’s The Martian would be flying off the shelves as much as it has – but that’s kind of a shame, really, because it’s super (ridiculously) good. And not just good in a hard sci-fi kind of…
If only letters – written, sent with a stamp cornered at a crooked angle – were still a thing. As they are sadly not, instead of out of mailboxes, I’ve been pulling off of shelves piles of books crammed with page after page of posthumously published letters, the latest being Anne Sexton’s, as compiled and…
You’ve already read Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex, you’re this-close to making plans to see the film (starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy and Ben Whishaw), and the whole thing has provoked a deeper curiosity about the whaling industry, perhaps, or maybe you’d like to read…
People have been writing books about the Battle of Guadalcanal basically from the moment the island was secured. As the first US land offensive of World War II, this battle has attained almost mythical statues. Hornfischer in Neptune’s Inferno tries to edit some of those myths while at the same time highlighting to often forgotten…
The Hunter Killers: The Extraordinary Story of the First Wild Weasels, the Band of Maverick Aviators Who Flew the Most Dangerous Missions of the Vietnam War – Dan Hampton The Hunter Killers‘ prologue reads a bit like a combined manufacturer’s manual for a plethora of fighter aircraft, radar equipment and surface-to-air missiles. This pages-long deluge…
Ok, small confession: although I am a huge fan of all things Star Wars – books, movies, tv shows, comics etc etc etc – I don’t really like Jedi. Hold it! Before you throw rocks at me for this blasphemy, let me explain. Yes, people who can do double back-flips, batting away blaster bolts with…
One Soldier’s War is the memoir of Babchenko’s service as an infantryman in the Russian army during the First and Second Chechen Wars in the 1990s. Both these wars grew out of attempts by Chechnya to break away from the Russian Federation. Fresh out of college, Babchenko was drafted into the army and sent to…
A selection of these and other titles on France can be found on display just beyond the New Book Room. Fiction: Murder in the Marais (An Aimee Leduc Investigation) by Cara Black “Private investigator Aimée Leduc must decrypt a digitized photo from the 1940s. But when Aimée visits the historic Jewish quarter of Paris to…
One of our patrons had glowing things to say about The Water Diviner starring Russell Crowe. He highly recommends checking it out. About this film: “In 1919, an Australian farmer travels to Turkey after the Battle of Gallipoli to try and locate his three missing sons. With insurmountable obstacles he must travel across the battle-scarred Turkish…
Rachel reviews two graphic novels: Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Eillis; and Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Mark Waid.
Charlotte recommends: Waking Up White by Debby Irving; and Under the Same Sky by Joseph Kim and Stephan Talty.
I admit I picked up this book because of the cover. I first saw it in the new book display by the circ desk (if you haven’t checked that one out you really should there are a lot of gems there). And everything on the cover of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street has a connection to the story which makes it even cooler. Plus it has really great endpapers. This is Natasha Pulley’s first book and it is a mixture of historical fiction and fantasy.
Every once in a while we come across a book that we think our patrons will just love. We buy it for the library and then it sets on the shelf and sets on the shelf. This series is a way for use to promote under appreciated books we think you might love.
Quieter Than Sleep by Joanne Dobson “Karen Pelletier abandoned her life in New York for a professorship at Massachusetts’s elite Enfield College. But she quickly learns that New England is not the peaceful enclave she had imagined–and that not even the privileged world of academia is immune to murder….Professor Karen Pelletier’s prime literary passion is…
Mezrich’s Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs is a hard book to categorize which in my mind says it’ll will appeal to a wide variety of people. This is a book that could be read as a history of Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s It could be read as true crime literature. It also has the machinations of big business, the intrigues of government and the shadowy feel of espionage. All of this is set against the background of Russia after the collapse of Communism.
One of the best parts of doing interlibrary loan (besides having the god like power of summoning books from all corners of the globe 😃 ) is all the books, music, movies and tv shows you encounter because other people have asked for them. Andrew MacLean’s ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End of Times…
I think Vanity Fair sums up the book pretty well: “It’s an unexpectedly serious work about the challenges and pitfalls of looking for love in the Digital Age via Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook — the whole techno shebang…”
Jen recommends Benjamin Johncock’s The Last Pilot.
One of the things I’m always on the look out for is historical fiction set in an under represented time period and location. Elsa Hart’s Jade Dragon Mountain fits both of those categories. This is Hart’s first novel and it is set in 1708 in Yunnan province the border region between China and Tibet.
In our Today In History Reading List feature, we take the events of a particular day in history and give you a work of fiction and a work of non-fiction relating to that day’s events…
Ok I’ll admit that I picked up Ed Greenwood’s Iron Assassin because of the cover. A scull wearing a tattered top hat and high collar coat with clockworks behind one eye is hard to say no to. It turned out to be a really great story.
When we first conceived of the Reading Intersections feature, one of the first books that came to mind to use as a springboard was Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, but I didn’t want to use the too-broad theme of private schools…And then I had it: The only way to go theme-wise was with Bad Decisions.
Where Station Eleven cornered speculative fiction with a flu virus turned pandemic, Broken Monsters turned its spotlight on a probable schizophrenic serial killer roaming around the city of Detroit in real time.
And, yes, both hooked me with narratives, and kept me reading past bedtime, and fed me answers just as quickly as they kept me asking questions…
Immerse yourself in the world of letters–real and imagined.
Fall down the rabbit hole with us! In our Reading Intersections series, we’ll give you a place to start and where to go next, piling titles on until you’re neck-deep in books, graphic novels and movies on a similar theme. | Perhaps the title is a bit misleading, perhaps you thought this was going to be about the city, but no…No, this is going to be about the poet Robert Lowell and the many, many letters he wrote during his lifetime.
By Jim War at the Edge of the World is the first book in a series by Ian James Ross. Aurelius Castus is a newly arrived centurion to a Roman Legion stationed in 4th century AD northern Britain. Britain is a pretty quiet billet for Castus, who had come from service in the middle east…
If you love English Georgian drama (or are just an Aidan Turner fan) then you are probably neck deep in the BBC’s Poldark. Well we’ve got plenty more where that came from.
“At the high-end designer consignment shop Snapdragon, Helen Hawthorne must cater to the whims of snobby-yet-frugal customers like Chrissy, who comes in to sell a purse and ends up causing a scene. But when Chrissy is found dead in a dressing room with a hand-painted scarf around her neck, Helen goes from being low on…
Recommended by Jen |
“Two decades after the end of the Cold War, an average American guy in his twenties helped to bring down a top Russian spy…
Staff review by Rachel | First, though, I have to give props to Ransom Riggs: he created a seriously inventive atmosphere with Miss Peregrine’s setting, characters, and plot. With that said, however, something always felt lacking, like maybe a plot point could have been explored further or maybe a character’s motivation felt weak…
Abulafia’s The Great Sea been on my bedside table for what seems like years. Actually it has been years. It is just exactly what it says it is a history of the Mediterranean from prehistory to 2010. The thing that has been stopping me is that minus end notes and index its still 648 pages long.
Staff review by Rachel | Here’s the thing: I really loved Station Eleven (to the point where my review notes included such helpful phrases as “ZOMG” and “more, please”). After being completely underwhelmed by another post-apocalyptic foray (which was a complete dud), Station Eleven felt like a breath of fresh air…
Staff review by Rachel | I don’t remember when “feminist” became such a buzz word in the pop culture strata during the last 3-5 years, but I do know that I started noticing it in my vocabulary a lot just last year…
Reviewed by Jen “A charming restaurant A book and its mysterious author A little secret A romantic meeting Paris and all its magic . . . Cyrano de Bergerac meets Chocolat and Amélie in this intelligent, charming, and entertaining publishing sensation from Europe. While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful…
Fall down the rabbit hole with us! In our Reading Intersections series, we’ll give you a place to start and where to go next, piling titles on until you’re neck-deep in books, and movies on a similar theme. Start Here Testament of Youth 2015 This is the movie adaptation of Vera Brittain’s classic World War…
Reviewed by Linda | Joey Rubin, a single woman working as an architect in Manhattan is given a chance to prove her skills by overseeing the restoration of the Stanway House in the Cotswold’s of England.
Staff review by Rachel Amy Poehler is a funny lady (and if you don’t think so, maybe this review isn’t for you). She’s smart and talented and unafraid to speak her mind or stand up for herself. And, boy, I did not know that I admired her until I started reading this book. I mean,…
If Marilyn Johnson’s name looks familiar you may, like me, remember her from her first book This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. In fact Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble basically follows the same premiss
Fall down the rabbit hole with us! In our Reading Intersections series, we’ll give you a place to start and where to go next, piling titles on until you’re neck-deep in books, graphic novels and movies on a similar theme. Hold onto your hats and holsters, folks, you’re about to meet several headstrong, gun-slinging women…
Reviewed by Rachel I find it annoying (and unfortunate) that I had no idea who Kristin Newman was before reading her memoir – ’cause she is one funny broad. What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding is pretty much exactly what you think it is – a travelogue detailing exactly what (and whom) Newman…
Jen reviewes a debut novel about the life of a housewife.
Reviewed by Rachel Let’s just get this over with: The Royal We is pretty much real person fic about Prince William and Princess Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Like them, our two protagonists (Nick and Bex) meet at college (a prestigious English university vs. the royal couple’s alma mater, University of St Andrews);…
By Jim I first read Beryl Markham’s West with the Night when I was 15 or 16. I had an obsession with bush pilots and read anything I could find about them. West with the Night caught my attention because it was the autobiography of a bush pilot in Africa. Picking it up again after…
Reviewed by Rachel If you’re not a huge fan of either pop culture or history, microhistories can be a tough sell on their own; reading at length about the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors that both contributed to – and also occurred because of – a huge film series like Star Wars is really…
Reviewed by Jen: Former foster child, now a stay-at-home mom of three, Allison Darling desperately wants to fit in with the stylish moms that run Monrovia, her charming seaside town based on Newburyport…
June 24 is a surprisingly contentious day in history. Here is a sampling of the battles and conflicts that happened, started or finished on this day. As usual we give you a nonfiction work and a fictional work related to these events.
Reviewed by Jen: The Vintner’s Daughter transports us back to the 1800’s and into vineyard life offering a bit of romance, tragedy and an interesting look into the wine-making process during this time so long ago.
Chris reviews “a tight sci-fi thriller that’s hard to put down.”
Our patron, who loved this title, recommends the book to readers who like historical fiction/WWII era books, and mentioned that it would be a great choice for book groups.
By Jim When I first saw Michael Pye’s The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe I though “huh I don’t really know anything about life around the medieval North Sea.” And that’s kind of Pye’s point. You ask “what is the historical significance of the…
The following unabridged titles are now available at the library in CD audiobook format. Come in and check them out!
The great thing about Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora (Book 1 of the Gentlemen Bastards series. Followed by Red Seas Under Red Skies and Republic of Thieves) is that it incorporates great character development, world building and lots of plot twists.
There’s no lie in that subtitle: the birth of the comic book (the storytelling, the art, the characters, the industry, all those egos) is the axis on which Men of Tomorrow turns. The thing is, a whole, beaming-bright universe of American history glommed on for the ride. There be decades in these pages, long years that hosted war and prohibition and depression and hope that ebbed and flowed like the tide. And I loved every minute spent on delving into the details.
By Jim Now that we are through the first year of the hundred year anniversary of World War 1 I thought it would be interesting to read a history of that first year of the war. So I picked up Peter Hart’s Fire and Movement: The British Expeditionary Force and the Campaign of 1914. Hart’s…
An audiobook-loving patron recently recommended the following two titles, both of which, she noted, have good narrators: First up, a work of “inspiring” non-fiction: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba. “In this memoir adapted for young readers, William Kamkwamba describes the drought that struck his tiny village in Malawi, his subsequent interest…
“Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning a letter arrives, addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl, from a woman he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. Queenie…
The obvious hook of Georg Rauch’s memoir Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army is how did a Jew end up in the German army in World War II? Until I read this book I would have thought it was impossible but apparently it was a thing (see Bryan Mark Rigg’s Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers). In Rauch’s case he grew up in a intellectual Austrian family in Vienna. He himself was christian but his Grandmother was Jewish so by Nazi doctrine he and his family were, although not destined for a concentration camp, considered 2nd class citizens.
Two titles recommended by Julie: The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag and The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez.
Recommended by Linda: The Secret Prince is a story of magic, adventure, surprise, fairytale and deception.
Reviewed by Carol: This is a story of 85 year-old Addie Baum, telling her life’s journey to her youngest granddaughters.
On the surface Perez-Reverte’s The Siege is a historical fiction mystery set in Cadiz, Spain during the siege of that city by a Napoleonic army. However the story has much more depth and complexity than a straight up murder mystery.