Category Archives: Uncategorized

2023 Adult Reading Challenge! March

DISCOVER DIFFERENT GENRES!    FIND NEW AUTHORS!    WIN PRIZES!    JOIN OUR EXPLORING GENRES BOOK CLUB!

Join us for a fun book challenge throughout 2023! Sign up and keep track via Beanstack. If you’ve participated in any of our recent summer or winter reading challenges, you’re all set to go and don’t need to create a new account.  Visit Beanstack here.

March’s theme is: Back to Nature. Read any book about nature, gardening, animals – your choice on how to explore nature that you haven’t yet read. Here are a few titles to get you started:

For an extended recommended list, please click here.

2022 Adult Reading Challenge! December

DISCOVER DIFFERENT GENRES!    FIND NEW AUTHORS!    WIN PRIZES!

Join us for a fun book challenge throughout 2022! Sign up and keep track via Beanstack. If you’ve participated in any of our recent summer or winter reading challenges, you’re all set to go and don’t need to create a new account.

Visit Beanstack here.

Our theme for December is: DYSFUNCTION JUNCTION. Read any family drama or personal memoir that you haven’t yet read. Here are a few titles to get you started:

SEVEN DAYS OF US
By Francesca Hornak

“Hornak lets each member of the dysfunctional Birch ensemble narrate in turn, so the reader gains a full picture of the family dynamics. Alternately tender and razor-sharp, Seven Days of Us will resonate with anyone who regresses the minute they step inside their childhood home.” ~Booklist

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE LESS PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT US
By Axton Betz-Hamilton

” A poignant and fascinating exploration of identity theft. This book will appeal to those with an interest in family-centered memoirs and crime.” ~LJ

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE FAMILY PLOT
By Megan Collins

“This is an entertaining as well as chilling tale of family secrets, lies, and primordial fears.” ~PW

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

 

2022 Adult Reading Challenge! November

DISCOVER DIFFERENT GENRES!    FIND NEW AUTHORS!    WIN PRIZES!

Join us for a fun book challenge throughout 2022! Sign up and keep track via Beanstack. If you’ve participated in any of our recent summer or winter reading challenges, you’re all set to go and don’t need to create a new account.

Visit Beanstack here.

Our theme for November is: GOOD EATS. Read any cookbook, chef memoir, food history, or basically anything yum, that you haven’t yet read. Here are a few titles to get you started:

GROUNDS FOR MURDER
By Tara Lush

“Lana’s voyage of self-discovery, along with her new-agey father, quirky hire Erica, and feisty puppy Stanley, portend future fun for readers.” ~ PW

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

RODNEY SCOTT’S WORLD OF BBQ: EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY: A COOKBOOK
By Rodney Scott

“Scott’s intensely flavorful recipes and masterful grill techniques are exceptional. This fired-up collection does not disappoint.” ~PW

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

 

Staff Picks for May

FICTION:

The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne
This was such an engrossing thriller, I read it in one day. Mayne’s writing is humorous and thrilling at the same time. A truly fantastic read. I can’t wait to read the next in the series.      ~Sue B. Circulation

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
This is a funny, honest and at times heartbreaking coming of age story. Mike Munoz is on a quest to find himself: his sexual identity, his artistic self and his life’s calling. ~Linda, Reference

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos
A well-written romance with a little bit of a mystery. Told in two stories, one present day and one in the 1950’s. Suspend belief and just enjoy the magic! ~Claudia, Technical Services

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Self-Portrait with Boy: A Novel by Rachel Lyon
A struggling photographer embarks on a new project hoping for big returns. During her self-portrait session she mistakenly photographs an image both horrific and tragically beautiful, setting in motion a cathartic journey of trying to balance the scales of morality and fame.       ~KC, Circulation

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

AUDIOBOOKS:

I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi
Trying to find the reason for Maddy’s suicide, her husband and daughter discover that things are not always as they seem. ~Sharyn, Circulation

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Force of Nature

Title: Force of Nature
Author: Jane Harper
Publisher: Flatiron Books, February 2018

Summary/Review:  Aaron Falk first appeared in Jane Harper’s THE DRY which was a staff and patron favorite. He’s back again in her new novel THE FORCE OF NATURE. We welcome him back with open arms.

Federal Police agent Aaron Falk and his partner Carmen Cooper are called in when one of their informants goes missing in the Australian bushland. Alice Russell, along with four other women from the accountancy firm Bailey Tennants are on a team building retreat. After getting lost in the bush, all come back except Alice. Alice had been, coincidentally, secretly collecting information to aid in the financial investigation of her employer. The four returning women come out of the bush exhausted, bruised and battered. So what happened to Alice? Why did she try to walk out alone? It seems this particular team building exercise turned out to be more like Lord of the Flies than a way to strengthen bonds and promote cooperation. Repressed animosity and jealousy amongst the women bubbles up and is unleashed and lives will be changed forever.

Jane Harper delivers again in this suspenseful novel set in the unforgiving bushland. Alternating between the women’s ordeal and its aftermath, this is an exceptional novel that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Who will like this book: For readers of mysteries, thrillers and suspense.

Recommended by: Sue B., Circulation

If you would like to check our catalog or place a hold on this book, please click here.

Beautiful Animals

Title: Beautiful Animals
Author: Lawrence Osborne
Publisher: Hogarth, July 2017

Summary/Review: The novel, Beautiful Animals, takes place on the Greek island of Hydra, where two young women strike up a friendship while vacationing with their families for the summer. Naomi Codrington is the daughter of a wealthy British art dealer. Sam Haldane is a few years younger, and also rich, but to a lesser degree.  Both girls are bored.

Both girls are bored. Then they discover a Syrian refugee, Faoud, washed up on a deserted beach and  Naomi is determined to make the young man their summer project and help him find a new life in Italy.  To raise money for Faoud, Naomi proposes to facilitate his burglary of her own family’s villa.

For the reader, the scheme is suspect and we wonder instead if this is Naomi’s attempt to strike back at her father and step mother. (Several observations throughout the book suggest that Naomi is a cold calculator-pulling strings for her own amusement.) The plan goes horribly wrong. And the dread of what will happen next begins to build.

As one reviewer said, “the novel exerts a sickening pull.”  Its’ climax and resolution may not surprise you, but it may have you wishing for more justice.

Who will like this book: For those who enjoy their fiction a little on the dark and sinister side.

If you would like more information, or would like to place a hold, please click here.

Recommended by: Susan Z., Reference

See What I Have Done

Title: See What I Have Done
Author: Sarah Schmidt
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, August 2017

Summary/Review:  On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. Andrew had been killed while sleeping on the sofa, Abby in an upstairs bedroom. Daughter Lizzie and the maid, Bridget, were the only ones known to be in the home at the time of the murders. Lizzie was later tried and acquitted, but was never fully exonerated by her neighbors or the public at large.

This is a great reimagining of the infamous Lizzie Borden case, with so many motives and icky suspects to choose from. Even for those who think they know what happened, this will still be a suspenseful, engrossing novel. Alternating between the perspectives of several characters, the reader begins to realize there were some very disturbed people milling around the Borden household that fateful day. The writing is very descriptive, from the intense heat to the sticky pears to the gory wounds. Be prepared for a spine tingling read.

Who will like this book: For readers of historic fiction who are not squeamish.

Recommended by: Sue B., Circulation

If you would like to check our catalog or place a hold on this book, please click here.

 

The Salt House

Title: The Salt House
Author: Lisa Duffy
Publisher: Touchstone, June 2017

Summary/Review: This debut novel, set during a Maine summer, follows one family in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy.

A year after the tragedy, each member of the Kelly family navigates the world in their own private grief as they all try to deal and move on with their lives.

Told in alternating voices, The Salt House is a layered, emotional portrait of marriage, family, friendship, and the complex intersections of love, grief, and hope.

I absolutely loved The Salt House; if I could have gotten away with reading it all in one sitting and to hell with chores, I would have. It’s a beautiful rendering of the strength and resiliency of family, of the importance of honesty and the necessity of being able to forgive.

Who will like this book: For readers of Jodi Picoult, Lisa Genova and Anita Shreve.

Recommended by: Linda, Reference

If you would like to check our catalog or place a hold on this book, please click here.

A Study in Charlotte

Title: A Study in Charlotte
Author: Brittany Cavallaro
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; March 1, 2016

Summary/Review: Watson and Holmes…in action again! Except in this version, they are teenage descendants of their great-great-great grandfathers. When Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes are accused of murdering their fellow classmate, they are then pulled into a puzzling mystery and come to a realization. Someone was setting them up. But who?

Readers will be astonished once they discover who the real murderer is. Brittany Cavallaro does a superb job in this murder mystery. Readers will be on the edge of their seats.

Who would like this book: Teens and adults that like a good whodunnit.

Recommended by: Josephine K., guest reviewer

If you would like to check our catalog or place a hold on this book, please click here.

Blackout

Title: Blackout
Author: Marc Elsberg
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark, June 2017

Summary/Review:  One night the lights go out across Europe as the electrical grid collapses. An Italian hacker quickly realizes this is no accident, thus beginning a race to solve the attack before more lives are lost due to lack of fuel, food and heat. This was a great, fast read and one of those thrillers that is scariest because the reader can imagine it actually happening.  We’ve all been inconvenienced by power outages; imagine if the lights didn’t come back on.

Who will like this book:  For patrons who liked I Am Pilgrim and anything with a post-apocalyptic feel.

Recommended by: Linda, Reference

If you would like to check our catalog or place a hold on this book, please click here.