The Groundhogs Have Spoken

And by an overwhelming majority, it looks like an early spring...but there's still plenty of winter to read one of these great books...

More than Words by Jill Santopolo

Nina Gregory was raised by her single father, the owner of New York City’s luxury Gregory Hotels; Nina knew one day she would need to take the helm of the hotels that her grandfather started, and that reputation and family were paramount.  Dating her childhood best friend Tim, Nina feels secure in her future, until her father dies, leaving her unprepared to take over the hotels, currently working on the mayoral campaign of Rafael O’Connor-Ruiz, with the election only a few weeks away, and with a growing attraction between Nina and her boss obvious.  When secrets are revealed about her father, one personal, one professional, Nina finds herself reeling and questions her choices and the life she is leading.  Nina quickly, almost too quickly, realigns herself, and finds the inner strength to make the choices she knows are right, and to ultimately live her life the way she wants to without having to compromise the values on which she was raised.  Fans of women fiction and book groups will find a lot to enjoy in Santopolo’s follow up novel to The Light We Lost.

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

Anna, a ballerina, and her husband Mathias have moved from Paris to St. Louis for Mathias’s job.  Anna has slowly been losing weight, but the move, and no longer dancing, has progressed her disease and Mathias admits her to an inpatient care program designed to help her regain weight, her health, and work through the anguish that is the underlying contributor to the disease.  At the house at 17 Swann Street, Anna meets others like her, and yet, unlike her.  A vegan, she has difficulty adjusting to having to adjust to eating what she is told, including cream cheese and cottage cheese, but three refusals of food result in a feeding tube inserted.  Anna has Mathias’s full support: he visits every evening during the house’s visiting time and talks about a time when Anna will be able to return home, return to the life they imagined.  As Anna watches those around her, her own struggle and pain are palpable; Anna’s past is an amalgamation of incidents that have contributed to her disease, but it never feels as if they come together to form a complete picture of Anna.  Painful and heartening at the same time, this novel shows promise for the debut author.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Harper’s third novel, a non-series, is set in the remote Western Australian outback where three brothers’ cattle ranches all border one another.  When Nathan and his youngest brother Bub meet at the fence line one day, hours from either’s home, they find their middle brother Cameron dead under the sun near the tombstone of the fabled Stockman, fodder for local lore and legend.  Nathan and Bub return to Cam’s ranch to their mother, Cam’s wife and two daughters, to grieve, comfort, and heal.  Something about the circumstances of Cam’s death begins to gnaw at Nathan: it doesn’t feel like suicide, but in the outback, there are very few murder suspects.  As Nathan examines his brother’s life, he finds things he’d rather not see, and make him take a look at his own history, and relationships, and how all might begin to heal and be mending like the cattle ranch fences in this novel with characters that reflect the landscape: lonely and remote, but not without value and hope.

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson had it all: she was a successful, London-based artist married to Gabriel, a highly regarded fashion photographer.  So why did she shoot Gabriele five times in the face upon his return from home one evening, and why hasn’t she said a word since?  What story does the painting she painted after the murder, Alcestis, tell, and why is psychotherapist Theo Faber so anxious and insistent on working with Alicia to unravel all of her secrets?  This debut psychological thriller is fresh and unlike no other with a twist impossible to see coming.  A #1 LibraryReads Pick for February.

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

Conklin’s sophomore novel (after 2013’s The House Girl) begins when, in 2079, 102-year-old-poet Fiona Skinner is giving a reading at a university, in a world that has been decimated by floods, global warming, and other disasters brought about by the climate.  After reading “The Love Poem”, written 75 years earlier, inspired by a woman named Luna, a young woman in the audience, also named Luna, after Fiona’s poem, rises and asks Fiona the story of the original Luna.  From here, Fiona is transported to when she was four years old and her father died, sending her mother into a deep depression that became known among Fiona and her siblings, Renee, 11, Caroline, 8, and Joe, Fiona’s protector and confident, 7, refer to as “the Pause”.  As the siblings fend for themselves, with Renee in charge, they create a world of their own and bonds that can never be undone, until their mother, Noni, emerges from her depression, announcing that women must be strong and self-sufficient.  Renee becomes a sought-after doctor, married, but avoids the idea of having children; Caroline marries her high school sweetheart, creating what appears to be the perfect domestic scene for the family, in spite of the fact they move often as her husband chases first his PhD and then a tenured track positon.  Fiona, who has been the most protected and the most unsure of adulthood, takes a job of no importance with a nonprofit, while blogging about her sexual encounters numerically.  Joe is the sibling who has been damaged most by what occurred in his childhood, and after a series of missteps, carefully hidden by his older sisters from his mother and younger sister, has an accident causing them all to reevaluate their relationships, where they are in life, and where they go from here.  

When You Read This by Mary Adkins

When 33-year-old Iris Massey dies of cancer, she leaves behind grieving friends and family, but also a request to publish her blog postings from DyingtoBlog.  Her former boss Smith, who was a bit in love with Iris is devastated:  his business is floundering, his gambling addiction rampant, and he misses his friend.  Smith reaches out to Iris’s sister Jade to get her to agree to publish the entries, but is met with resistance and even some hostility:  Jade is suffering from her own grief and doesn’t want her sister’s secrets published for all the world to see, even though they were originally part of a blog.  Little by little, through e-mails, journal entries, and Iris’s postings, those Iris left behind learn what was in her heart and how much everyone meant to her, as they heal their own relationships and create new ones.

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Every winter, nine friends from college gather for a New Year’s Eve celebration.  This year, after several days at a remote Scottish hunting lodge, only eight will return, one of them possibly a murderer.  Miranda and Katie have been chums for most of their lives, becoming close with Julien, Mark, Samira, Giles, Nick, and Bo at Oxford, adding Emma to the crowd when she married Mark, though this year, Emma has gone all out planning the trip, down to the foie gras, Dom Perignon, and all other sorts of delicacies.  When they arrive at Lock Corrin, they learn there is an unexpected set of guests, Icelandic backpackers, and find the game warden, Doug, a little more than off putting, and Heather, the manager, a big of an enigma.  Early on, a guest goes missing, and Doug tells Heather he has found the body, but the identity is not immediately revealed, adding to the tension, as flashbacks, from various points of view, rehash how the reunion came to be, and explain some of the dynamics between different participants.  As secrets are revealed, as roles change, the scene shifts, and old grudges are brought to light, offering several viable suspects.  The atmosphere and the plotting are the strengths of this novel, the character development a little too pat, but everything still comes together to make for a suspenseful take on a locked room mystery.

The Winter Sister by Megan Collins

One night, sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s older sister Persephone snuck out to meet her boyfriend Ben as usual, but this time, she did not return.  Persephone’s body was found several days later and her murder remains unsolved, though Sylvie is certain that Ben is responsible.  Sylvie and her mother Annie, once close, are now estranged, but Sylvie must return home to care for her mother through her cancer treatments, her own guilt about the evening Persephone disappeared smacking her in the face, especially when she learns that Ben is a nurse in the cancer center.  As Sylvie and Annie navigate their new relationship, Sylvie still cannot let go of the past and as an adult living in her childhood home begins to uncover secrets of the past, secrets that may lead to the truth about Persephone’s death.  Atmospheric and compelling, this debut’s strength lies in the complex relationships of its characters. 

I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney

Aimee Sinclair, rising movie star, comes home one day and finds her husband missing.  Though she is an actress, Aimee isn’t sure what to do and the police think she knows more about her husband’s disappearance than she is letting on.  When Aimee learns her bank account has been emptied and that she supposedly is the one who emptied it, she becomes convinced that her past, the one she has so carefully kept hidden, has come back to haunt her and she fights to maintain a sense of normalcy while trying to unravel what has happened to Jack and who has learned of her past and is pulling the strings.  The plot is complex, complicated by the fact that Aimee is an actress, making it even harder to know if she is to be believed or not.  Twists and turns will keep some guessing until the final page.

First Books of 2019

 

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Make-up artist Jessica Farris is barely eking out her living in Manhattan when she hears about an ethics study involving women 18-32 years old that pays several hundred dollars for a few hours of answering anonymous questions.  Dr. Shields, who is conducting the test, finds Jess, known as Subject 52, especially fascinating and asks her back for further questions, and eventually to the office where Jess is asked to perform all sorts of morality “tests” including trying to pick up men in hotel bars.  Deeper and deeper, Jess is unwittingly drawn into a dangerous, jealous, cat and mouse game, and finds herself doing things she could never imagine doing, even for money, and finds herself unsure who to trust.  Fans of psychological thrillers will finds many familiar elements, but will still enjoy the unfolding plot line and the complicated characters. 

Looker by Laura Sims

An unnamed woman becomes obsessed with one of her block neighbors, a famous actress who lives with her husband and three beautiful children.  The unnamed narrator is estranged from her husband after multiple failed attempts to become pregnant, left with his cat, named only Cat, to whom she is allergic, and in whom she professes no interest, yet with whom she forges a begrudging bond.  Teaching poetry at a nearby college provides much less personal satisfaction than she would have thought, and becomes drudgery, even as she senses an older student making advances towards her.  Her reality begins to spiral out of control; a dissent into madness begins, culminating at a neighborhood block party that turns disastrous, and ultimately deadly.    This slim, sparse debut novel, elegantly framed and keenly observed, has the control and pacing of a much more seasoned fiction author; a character study with chilling implications for all involved.

As Long as We Both Shall Live by Joann Chaney

Matt Evans comes racing off a mountain in Estes Park, Colorado, frantically telling rangers his wife Marie fell off a sheer drop cliff into the roaring river below while the couple was hiking.  While rescuers search, for presumably Marie’s body, police begin to investigate the couple to learn what might have happened, and find out that Matt’s first wife Janice also died under suspicious circumstances.  A body retrieved from the rifer proves to raise more questions than provide answers, making police dig through Matt and Marie’s lives revealing the delicious, dark and deadly secrets the couple has kept for over twenty years in this fresh take on domestic thrillers.

Freefall by Jessica Barry

In Owl Creek, Maine, a mother, Maggie Carpenter, is stunned to hear that her 31-year-old daughter Allison was in a single-engine plane crash in the Rocky Mountains and is presumed dead.  The plane was owned by Allison’s fiancé, pharmaceutical CEO Ben Gardner, another surprise for Maggie who has been estranged from Allison for two years since the death of Maggie’s husband, Allison’s father.  Maggie, a retired librarian feels the need to look into Allison’s life and the crash and quickly comes to the conclusion that Allison is still alive.  And Maggie is right.  Allison has survived the crass and is hiking out of the wilderness, trying to out run “The Man” who is pursuing her.  The plot effectively unfolds, alternating chapters between Allison and Maggie, each not only revealing present day events, but relating the past, providing a fuller picture of the complex relationships, as well as Allison’s life during the past two years, culminating in a dramatic conclusion.

Sugar Run by Mesha Maren

At 35, Jodi McCarty has just been released from prison after serving 18 years for the murder of her girlfriend.  Before returning to her West Virginia hometown, Jodi heads to Georgia where she plans to rescue the brother of her girlfriend from the abusive home he grew up in.  Along the way, she meets Miranda, a young woman who needs help getting her sons away from her husband, but has the car Jodi needs.  As the disparate group makes their way to Wes Virginia, Miranda and Jodi begin to fall in love, a relationship that feels doomed from the beginning.  Lush prose celebrates the Southern atmosphere while at the same time magnifying the bigotry, hate, abject poverty, and destruction of the environment due to fracking, the group encounters in this debut novel.

Crewel and Unusual by Molly MacRae

Blue Plum, Tennessee is ablaze in fall colors, just in time to celebrate the opening of the Blue Plum Vault, an arts and crafts co-op in a former bank.  Fiber shop owner Kath Rutledge, textile expert, is disturbed to hear some of the rumors that center on two of the new shop owners.  Nervie Bales, who teaches embroidery at Kath’s shot the Weaver’s Cat, is accused of selling other people’s patterns as her own, and Nervie in turn accuses newcomer Belinda Moyer of selling fake and stolen linens.  Kath gets a peek at Belinda’s linens and they appear to be the real deal, though Belinda is very defensive and more than a little prickly.  Just before the grand opening, Belinda’s best tablecloth is cut to shreds, and Nervie, who has the alibi of teaching at Kath’s shop, stands accused.  Just after the opening, Belinda is found dead, stabbed in the back with a pair of scissors from Kath’s shop.  Kath’s shop ghost, Geneva, claims to have seen the murderer, but cannot identify the person, and isn’t a reliable witness since only Kath and her manager Ardis can see Geneva.  Kath finds herself back on the trail of a murderer, and also wondering if Belinda’s killer might also be the person who killed Garland Brown, a banker, and member of the Arts Council who was killed a few weeks earlier.  With the help of Geneva, Ardis, and handyman boyfriend Joe, Kath sets out to unravel another murder, uncovering family secrets along the way, all the while keeping Weaver’s Cat spinning along, needles clacking.  Characters who feel like family populate this series full of warmth, charm, and plenty of fiber crafts and textile history.  

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge

One hot July night, 1983, 14-year-old Aurora Jackson was camping with her older sister and their friends in Brinken Woods and disappeared.  Now, thirty years later, Aurora’s remains have been found near the campsite, along with the remains of drugs, in a place that only someone who hid her would have known of.  Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens is on the case again: he was one of the original investigating officers, very green at the time, having been a few years ahead in school of the suspects.  Now he returns to them with Detective Constable Juliette Hanson to try and uncover what happened that night, and who has been keeping secrets all these years.  The plot alternates between the present and Aurora’s narrative in the past, effectively revealing clues one at a time, until the entire picture is revealed and justice is finally served.  Jonah Sheens is a complex character with many more secrets to troll, in this first of a planned series.

The Nowhere Child by Christian White

Kimberly Leamy, a photography teacher in Australia could not be more surprised when an American shows up claiming she is Sammy Went, a girl from Manson, Kentucky who, twenty-six years ago, at the age of two, went missing.  Kim is shocked and can’t imagine her kind and loving mother, who has recently died from cancer, kidnapping her, and sets off to America to try and make some sense of this claim.  What she finds is a birth mother who is involved in The Church of the Light Within, a snake-handling Pentecostal fundamentalist church.  As the truth is slowly revealed, Kim’s world is shaken even further, and she finds her life in peril once more, not knowing who to trust and what the truth is.

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurden

Reading aloud is something that is often something that is only thought of as done with children at bedtime, and this should not be so.  Reading aloud promotes more than just good language skills: it can also lead to an all-around healthier and happier life, and should continue into our adult lives.  References and a list of suggested Read-Alouds are sure to inspire family reads and maybe even reading aloud to oneself.

The Suspect by Fiona Barton

British reporter Kate Waters has helped her most reliable source Detective Inspector Bob Sparkes solve more than one case in recent years, but this time, as Kate becomes part of the story, she must step back and play the role of a desperate mother: one who has excellent reporter instincts and great connections.  Kate’s son Jake left university where he was studying law and has been in Thailand for the past two years, during which time he has become more and more incommunicado with his family.  Now, 18-year-old Alexandra O’Connor and her friend Rosie Shaw have gone missing in Thailand while traveling.  At first Sparkes appeals to Kate who befriends Alexandra’s mother trying to help locate the two young women, but as the story takes an unexpected twist, Kate finds herself on the opposite end of the pen in this complicated, compelling thriller hat tests familial bonds on so many levels.

The Current by Tim Johnston

Audrey Sutter, at college in a Southern school, decides to return home to Minnesota where her father, the former sheriff, is dying from cancer.  Her best friend Caroline decides to make the fateful 700 mile trip with Audrey, and the pair plunge into the Black Root River, bordering Iowa and Minnesota, killing Caroline, but sparing Audrey.  The case eerily echoes a case from ten-years ago when Holly Burke was found drowned in the same river; her father Gordon still holds a grudge against Sheriff Sutter, claiming he didn’t do enough to prove who killed his daughter, and even on his deathbed, Tom regrets never closing the case.  Audrey, grieving from her accident, the loss of her friend, and the loss of her father, sets out to learn how their accident occurred, and at the same time uncover the truth about Holly Burke’s death.  Gothic and haunting, this book is hard to define as a thriller, or as a literary mystery, as it is so much more: deceptively simple at first, this novel is nuanced and multi-layered, even the death of a rescued dog echoes the larger plot; each complex character plays many roles: survivor, unwitting witness, suspect, all leading to a stunning conclusion. 

The Woman Inside by E. G. Scott

After twenty years of marriage, Rebecca and Paul have all but come apart at the seams, individually and as a couple.  Rebecca, whose dependency on opiates and other pharmaceuticals, has lost her job as a pharma rep; Paul has been struggling in the building industry since the economy took a downturn.  Both have been having affairs, but now Paul’s mistress is stalking them and Rebecca learns that Paul has been keeping even more secrets and has plans to start a new life, presumably without her, forcing her to come up with her own plan, one that could destroy everything in this dangerous he said she said game of cat and mouse that surprises at every turn.

                          And check out Library Reads for more great January reads!

To place a hold for one of these new titles go to ipac.hclibrary.us

Coming in December

Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash

Anton Winter returns to his home in the famed Dakota apartment building in Manhattan in the fall of 1979 after his time in the Peace Corps left him with a near fatal bout of malaria.  His father, famed late night television host Buddy Winter is recovering from a breakdown he has on live television and son Anton is drawn into trying to revive Buddy’s career, networking with anyone who might be able to put Buddy back on TV, even that newfangled cable TV, taking John Lennon sailing to Bermuda, and hobnobbing at the Lake Placid Olympics, and hanging out with the Kennedy’s as Ted makes a run for the White House, all the while questioning his future with the gritty city streets a perfect nostalgic backdrop.

Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Live, and Food by Ann Hood

Writer Ann Hood grew up in an Italian American home where food played a central role in her life.  As a young bride and mother, and later as a single mother, food, cooking for her family, and the memories the food evokes becomes central in her life.  Each essay focuses on one of Hood’s favorite recipes, and or the memories of the recipe (including Gigo’s tomato gravy and meatballs), and become a frame for events, both happy sad, demonstrates that cooking is a lot like living: taking nothing, often disparate parts, and turning them into something full of love, warmth, and memories.

Not of this Fold by Mette Ivie Harrison   

In this fourth mystery, Linda Wallheim, wife of a Utah Mormon bishop, faces not only the daily responsibilities being a bishop’s wife entails, and the struggles of members of their ward, but social issues such as immigration and gay rights.  Linda’s friend Gwen has become very active in a nearby Spanish ward, and has become particular friends with a young mother of three, Gabriela, whose husband has just been deported to Mexico.  After Gwen receives a phone message from Gabriela, Gabriela’s strangled body is found at a local gas station.  In spite of her husband’s preference that Linda doesn’t get involved, Linda has a very strong sense of justice and plunges in to find Gabriela’s killer and to keep her friend Gwen safe.  At the same time, Linda worries about her youngest son, Samuel who is openly gay and on his mission in Boston where Linda knows he is being met with prejudice and homophobia.  Harrison, though Linda, tackles the tough social issues, and asks the hard questions of not on Linda’s faith, but the police, and society as a whole.  Even with her devotion to the church and family, Linda is unwilling to follow blindly, making her a strong, and admirable protagonist.  

Coming in November

Nine Perfect Strangers Liane Moriarty

Nine guests, including struggling romance writer Frances Welty, descend on a wellness retreat Tranquilliam House, in rural Australia, for some rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation of their minds, bodies, and in some cases, their relationships.  The retreat is none like any other, with the hostess and owner Masha, a little too militant as she insists she knows best what each guest needs.  When things take an odd and most unsettling turn, the guests must turn to each other and find their own inner strength if they hope to survive. Complex characters and relationships with a touch of mystery, are staples of Moriarty’s are abundant here.

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny

Still suspended and under investigation for a drug sting that brought down major drug cartels, but allowed untold quantities of opioids on to the street, Armand Gamache is startled when he is summoned to a farm house along with Three Pines bookstore owner Myrna, and a third young man, a stranger to both of them, to be the executors of an estate of a woman none of them knew.  In the dead of winter, the three meet with a solicitor as they try and understand the seemingly odd choices the old woman made.  When a body is found in the same farmhouse, the woman’s choices seem prudent, but Gamache can never take things at face value and tries to reframe the events with new eyes.  As he does, her realizes he may need to also reframe his own story with the new eyes in order for things to reach their natural conclusion and for his, and his team’s, redemption.

Why Religion? By Elaine Pagels

This deeply personal book takes a look at what role, if any, religion and beliefs, play in modern life.  After the death of her young son, and loss of her husband a year later, Pagels, who has written numerous books on religion, turns her questions inward to try and understand, even make sense, of her grief, in this achingly bittersweet, heartbreaking, yet hopeful, memoir.

Check out LibraryReads for more great titles! 

Place your hold today: http://ipac.hclibrary.us/polaris/default.aspx 

Coming in October

Just because the summer is over doesn't meant there aren't still plenty of new books coming out...

Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony

Each year, Violet Baumgartner sits down to write her annual Christmas letter, reflecting fondly on the triumphs of her family, husband “dear Ed”, a noted scientist and researcher, and daughter Cerise, who overachieves on all levels.  Violet’s carefully constructed world falls apart when, at her husband’s lavish retirement party, one of the guests announces that Cerise, a lesbian, is pregnant, unbeknownst to Violet.  Violet suffers an accident, and during her recovery, her Midwest town of St. Paul, Minnesota, and her family, rally around her while Violet is able to use the time to readjust her lens and see the reality of her world as it really is, not as she is trying to present it to the world.  Laugh aloud funny, tender, and vaguely familiar at times, these characters will stay in readers’ hearts long after the last page has been turned.

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

This heartwarming imagining of Marilla Cuthbert’s early years, set on Prince Edward Island during the 19^th century, will endear her even more to Anne fans.  At thirteen Marilla is determined and anxious to get the most out of life: she meets her mother’s twin sister, an outspoken spinster who has her own business and her mother dies; she meets her best, lifelong friend Rachel, and the young man who wins her heart, John Blythe, known to Anne fans as Gilbert’s father.  All of this set against American pre-Civil War politics and social sensibilities, including the Underground Railroad.  Anne fans will adore this well-written tale of the woman who takes Anne in, though the novel can stand well on its own as Marilla grows into a young woman with strength of character, and strong convictions, yet a heart big enough to take in a young orphan girl named Anne. 

Check out Library Reads for more great reads! 

Place your hold today: http://ipac.hclibrary.us/polaris/default.aspx 

Leopard at the Door

Author: J. McVeigh    
Stars: 4
Review by: Irene S.
Gripping novel of Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya in 1950s as they attempt to gain independence from British imperial rule.

Magical Dogs: Love and Lessons from Our Canine Companions

Author: Patti Kerr    
Stars: 5
Review by: Miss Lucy
Stay away from dog shelters after reading this book, or you may end up with a houseful of dogs! Written by fellow Adult Summer Reading Club member Patti Kerr, this book will melt your heart. After reading the first few of the true stories that Patti has brought to life, I couldn't put this book down! I'm looking forward to reading her new book: Magical Dogs 2.

Almost Adulting: All You Need to Know to Get It Together (Sort Of)

Author: Arden Rose
Stars: 3
Review by: Miss Lucy
If you feel like it's time to become an adult, but still don't feel like one (which apparently includes most of us), read along with YouTuber Arden Rose as she shares her own experience in the matter.

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home For Famous Writers

Author: Terri-Lynne DeFino    
Stars: 1
Review by: Lizzytish
It was hard to rate this book. The author writes so beautifully. The premise is a great idea. I loved the setting of Bar Harbor. I adored Fin. It’s a story within the story with each chapter being developed by a different author. It was not about love, but lust and bed hopping. It could have been so much more. And the ending. What? Fell rather flat for me in regards to the story within the story.

Toucan Keep A Secret

Author: Donna Andrews
Stars: 3
Review by: Lizzytish
It’s always fun hooking back up with Meg and family. Of course there’s a body along with jewels, crypts, a toucan, swans and more. Great escapism reading. 

Carnegie's Maid

Author: Marie Benedict    
Stars: 5
Review by: libraryaimee
Historical Fiction which speculates that a Lady's Maid for the mother of Andrew Carnegie was the inspiration for his philanthropy. Excellent!

The False Hearted Teddy

Author: John J. Lamb    
Stars: 4
Review by: BookWorm2
Another in Lamb's Teddy Bear Mysteries. Easy, enjoyable read.

Next Year in Havana

Author: Chanel Cleeton    
Stars: 5
Review by: BookWorm2
EXCELLENT new book. Also one of Reese Witherspoon's book club picks. Perfectly descriptive narrative of life in Cube pre and post Castro. A Must read.

The Kite Runner

Author: Khaled Hosseini    
Stars: 5
Review by: BKF
An amazing, powerful book and his first novel! I'd recommend it to everyone.

The Points of My Compass

Author: E.B. White
Stars: 5
Review by: KM
I was delighted. A collection of letters he sent to the New Yorker; each one is a gem, filled with, as the book jacket states, "impeccable prose." The content includes a wide range of topics such as commentary about buying a car, (in the late 1950's and early 1960's), pigeon and raccoon observations, the state of the U.N., and his high adventure on a steamer ship en route to Alaska and Siberia as a youth. If you like excellent writing and intelligent wit and humor, give it a try!     

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

Author: Elena Ferrante
Stars: 5
Review by: Mitchie L
Book Three of The Neapolitan Novels. It is a beautifully written continuation of a friendship of two women spanning their lifetime. I could not put it down. Can't wait to read the final book four.

The Cemetary Keeper’s Wife

Author: Maryann McFadden    
Stars: 5
Review by: Judy E
Hackettstown, NJ friends will find this Tillie Smith’s murder tale a page turner to the very end!

The Last Black Unicorn

Author: Tiffany Haddish
Stars: 3
Review by: Irene S.
Interesting memoir of young black comedienne, but it had a lot of foul language.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Author: Bill Bryson    
Stars: 4
Review by: Irene S.
Very funny memoir, though with some serious observations, of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.

A Reporter's Life

Author: Walter Cronkite
Stars: 4
Review by: Irene S.
Very interesting memoir by one of the first TV news anchormen who led a very varied life.