Tag Archives: 2015 Releases

Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

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Title: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

Author: Katarina Bivald

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark, June 2015

Summary/Review: If you are looking for a heartwarming, charming and cozy read, that involves a small town bookstore, this is the book for you! Amy from Broken Wheel, Iowa and Sara from Sweden develop a wonderful correspondence about the books they have read and they mail books back and forth that they want to share with each other. They form a wonderful long distance friendship and Amy asks Sara to visit her old farming town so they can meet and talk books in person. The only problem is the day Sara arrives happens to be the day of Amy’s funeral.

The town adopts Sara immediately and insists that she stay for her two month visit. Broken Wheel is an old farming town that has seen better days and many people have left. The main street is filled with abandoned storefronts and is only one block long! Sara decides to take Amy’s books and open a bookshop and then the magic ensues.

You will laugh out loud, you will recognize the characters and you will shed a tear or two but mostly you will be sad that this book has to end.

Who will like this book:  Anyone looking for a charming quirky read who loves books.

If you like this, try this:  “The Little Paris Bookshop” by Nina George, “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin, and “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café” by Fannie Flagg

Recommended by: Claudia, Technical Services

If this looks like a book you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

Did You Ever Have a Family?

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Title: Did You Ever Have a Family?

Author: Bill Clegg

Publisher:  Gallery/Scout, September 2015

Summary/Review: Bill Clegg’s devastatingly beautiful fiction debut is portrait of a community in the aftermath of an unspeakable tragedy.  June Reid, the broken woman at the epicenter of the novel, is struggling with a loss so profound she is unable to see beyond her grief, unaware that it has touched many people, uniting them in a web of sorrow, guilt, anger, love, and healing.

Clegg tells their stories with heartbreaking sensitivity and insight; it is an important and timely work as so many communities find themselves facing real-life tragedies today.  I absolutely loved this book.

Who will like this book?: Someone looking for a somber and heartbreaking book which is focused more on the after-effects of a tragedy than the mystery surrounding it.

If you liked this, try this: Bill Clegg has written memoirs before, but this is his debut novel.  If you like his writing style (and want to know more about him) then they might be worth a try.

Recommended By: Mary C, Reference Librarian

If this looks like a book you’d like to try, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

 

Pretty Girls

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Title: Pretty Girls

Author: Karin Slaughter

Publisher: William Morrow, September 2015

*This book contains graphic descriptions of violence, particularly sexual violence against women, so be warned.*

Summary/Review: I found this novel a somewhat interesting read because it describes good, bad, and even horrible relationships, from a woman’s perspective.

Two decades ago the older sister of the two women involved in this mystery was abducted. Her body was never found. This destroys her parents’ marriage and emotionally cripples, to some extent, the remaining two girls’ development. One sister self-medicates with alcohol, drugs and sex. The other buries her misery and eventually marries a successful architect. Together they create a fairy-tale perfect, suburban marriage.

The story takes a terrible twist when the “good daughter” discovers (or does she?) horrible secrets about her architect husband after he is murdered in a mugging gone terribly wrong.

But what are we to believe? Are all his awful secrets actually true? Can he really be involved in a series of abductions and tortures of young women over the years? Is their perfect lifestyle financed by online snuff porn videos? If so, how did this behavior start and how could he have kept this twisted side of his life a secret for so long?

The sisters become almost action heroes as they uncover more and more, and worse and worse facts about their family, the dead husband and the fate of many young women over the years.

There are several dramatic plot twists which will probably blind-side the reader. You don’t want to know what they are in advance. This is a somewhat trashy page-turner so it won’t take long to read if you want to know all the details.

Who will like this book? Someone who’s a fan of criminal procedurals who won’t shy away from graphic violence.

If you like this, try this: Karin Slaughter has a huge repertoire of works, so if you like her writing you’ll have plenty to choose from.  If you’re looking for other crime procedurals written by women, try Lisa Gardner or Kathy Reichs.
Recommended by: Mark Z, Guest Reviewer

If this looks like something you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

Girl in the Dark

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Title:  Girl in the Dark

Author:   Anna Lindsey

Publisher: Doubleday, 2015

Summary/review: This is the story of a young woman who finds herself becoming sensitive to the glow of her computer screen at work.  Her condition worsens to the point where she cannot tolerate any kind of light at all without an extreme reaction through her entire body.  She ends up staying in complete darkness in a room in her apartment all day.  Thankfully she has a fiancé who takes care of her needs and when he comes home and prepares dinner she emerges to another room lit with a dim nightlight.  She sometimes is able to go out for a walk on very dark nights but when the town sends a letter to all citizens that they are upgrading the streetlights to new brighter ones it is near tragedy for her. She eventually has several partial remissions, but it is fascinating to read about the implications of her condition.  It is almost like a self- imposed blindness, a horrible condition to think about.  We do not realize many of the things we take for granted, including friendships.   Her emotional ups and downs, even to the point of near suicide really took me in and I thought a lot and am still thinking about this book.

Who will like this book?: Someone looking for a unique memoir

If you like this, try this: If you’re looking for memoirs with unique twists, check out our extensive biography and memoir collections!

Recommended by: Jan, Admin

If this looks like a book you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold

Reunion of Ghosts

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Title: A Reunion of Ghosts

Author:  Judith Claire Mitchell

Publisher:  Harper, March 2015

Summary/Review:  This book is an absolute perfect balance of humor and sadness, hope and despair, blessing and curse, past and present, reason and insanity.  The story of the Alter sisters and their relatives, living and dead, will not soon leave me.  It’s a family history filled with tragedy (loosely based on the story of the German chemist who invented the poisonous gas used in both world wars).   Lady, Vee and Delph Alter decide they can no longer live with this legacy of guilt, and decide to end it all on the same day in December of 1999. In an interview, the author Judith Claire Mitchell says that when writing “A Reunion of Ghosts” she felt like she was “alone in a bunker with this family.”  It’s that engrossing.  This expertly-written and unique family saga is not to be missed!

Who will like this?   Someone looking for a historical family saga that will cover a huge range of emotion for the reader

If you like this, try this:  Mitchell has written another book, “Last Day of the War” which covers Paris and World War I.  If you’re looking for female-centric family sagas, try Kate Morton or Isabel Allende.

Recommended by:  Mary, Reference

If this looks like a book you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

Murder House

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Title:   THE MURDER HOUSE

Author: James Patterson

Publisher: Little Brown and Company, 2015

Summary/Review: I know what you’re thinking: not another James Patterson book, he writes one every other month! I felt the same way until I read Murder House – it draws you in from the first page. Usually you find out right in the beginning who the killer is… boring, right? Not this time. There are several different characters. Even the Murder House – 7 Ocean Drive – is a character

There is a beautiful beachfront estate in the Hamptons which was the scene for some gruesome killings that have never been solved. Detective Jenna Murphy, who is from the Hamptons but hasn’t been back since she was a girl, returns after being forced to quit the NYPD. She is given a job by her uncle, the Chief of the South Hampton Police Department.

When a double murder occurs at 7 Ocean Drive and local resident Noah Walker is charged, Jenna takes an interest in the case. She starts to snoop around and that’s when it gets really interesting. There are a lot of questions and more suspects – even her partner Isaac Marks. Then her uncle is killed and another body is found, and there seems to be a pattern with this killer. He likes to cause pain with a sharp object into vital organs.

Jenna requests the help of a rookie, Ricketts, to find out about the owners of 7 Ocean Drive. Without giving too much away this opens up a whole new investigation that will keep you guessing right till the end. The twists and turns are perhaps the best made by James Patterson in a long time. Enjoy the ride. The ending was terrific too.

Who would like this book: A James Patterson lover like me, or anyone who enjoys a thrill ride right to the end!

If you like this, try this: Obviously James Patterson has a number of books out – you’re sure to like at least some of them!

Recommended by: Virginia, Circulation

Is this something you think you’d like?  Visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

Pirate Hunters

 

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Title: Pirate Hunters

Author: Robert Kurson

Publisher: Random House, 2015

Summary/Review: This is the second book written by Robert Kurson about underwater treasure-hunting and salvage. His first, “Shadow Divers” was about the discovery of a World War II German submarine off the coast of New Jersey. It brought the reader into the dangerous and dramatic world of deep water scuba diving and the strange group of characters who made this exploration an important part of their lives.

“Pirate Hunters”, while an interesting read, is not nearly as tense or dramatic. It deals with the author and some of his treasure-obsessed associates locating a pirate ship from the Golden Age of Caribbean piracy in the 18th century. Apparently pirate ships are the Holy Grail of treasure hunters since so few have ever been salvaged. We read about the false information and myths surrounding the wrecks and the emotional roller coaster of locating artifacts that might lead to a major discovery, only to actually lead to dead ends.

Since these salvage excursions are strictly self-financed, it is seems strange that we are asked to go along with the author’s assertion that the divers are not interested in treasure this time out, but rather in making history by locating a sunken piece of that history, simply because the history of this time period is so important.

Some of the most interesting chapters deal with the background of his crew. They have varied and very colorful backgrounds, such as being involved with the Gambino crime family in New York, then becoming a police detective and then becoming an international private security expert. Each individual attacks the research surrounding underwater wrecks in his own, sometimes very peculiar way.

I enjoyed the book, but it was not the fast-paced, danger-around-every-underwater-corner that I came to expect from “Shadow Divers”.

Who will like this book?: Someone looking for a suspenseful non-fiction book about a topic that hasn’t been written about very often.

If you like this, try this: “Shadow Divers” by Robert Kurson.  Or try “Dead Wake” by Erik Larson, which has a similar feel about the Lusitania.

Recommended by: Mark Z, Guest Reviewer

If this looks like something you’d like to try, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

My Sunshine Away

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Title: My Sunshine Away

Author: M.O Walsh

Publisher: Penguin, 2015

Summary/Review: I really enjoyed this book for a lot of reasons, I have to say the first is because it starts off with the act which is the foundation for the book. There is a rape of a young beautiful girl named Lindy in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There are 4 suspects, all who live in the same neighborhood just a few houses apart. Bo Kern – a troubled boy, Jason – the adopted son of  psychiatrist, Jacques Landry – who is also a suspect, and the narrator of the book – who is my favorite character, and you never find out his name.

The story spans over 20 years, from the late 80’s until 2007. The author does a great job of sharing with us how each of the characters evolved over those years – the choices they made, some good and some bad. For some who read this it will feel like a walk down memory lane, from middle school all the way through college, and settling down and starting a family of their own.

There is a lot of sadness in this book, but the twist at the end really ties it all together. If you like coming of age stories, with good times and bad you will enjoy this book. There are some chapters that are hard to get through, but you must endure them to get the real feel for these kids and what they went through in their very young lives, and how it changed them forever.

Who will like this book?:  Someone who is interested in a mystery which focuses more on character development than clues and who-dunnit. Someone who won’t shy away from a disturbing topic which has a sweeping effect on an entire community.

If you like this, try this: If you’re looking for mysteries heavy on character development, try Paula Hawkin’s “Girl on the Train” or Garth Stein’s “A Sudden Light”.  If the location of Baton Rouge draws you in, try the mystery series by James Lee Burke.  This is M.O. Walsh’s debut novel, but keep an eye out for more in the works!

Recommended by: Virginia, Circulation

If this looks like something you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold.

Night Sister

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Title: The Night Sister

Author: Jennifer McMahon

Publisher: Doubleday, August 2015

Summary/Review: “Do you believe in monsters?” You might after reading the creepy new novel by Jennifer McMahon. And by creepy I mean awesome.

Growing up in and around the decrepit Tower Motel in London, Vermont wasn’t all bad for friends Amy, Piper and Margot, at least not until they found the suitcase hidden in the tower. Why was the suitcase, hidden for two decades, not taken by Amy’s aunt Sylvie when she left town in 1955? The discovery only leads to more questions and eventually the dissolution of the friendship between Amy, Piper and Margot.

Fast forward to present day and the discovery of an unspeakable crime, allegedly committed by Amy at the Tower Motel. Sisters Piper and Margot struggle to find answers but everything leads back to the discovery of the suitcase so many years ago. Don’t bother asking Piper and Margot if they believe in monsters. I can tell you, the answer will be “yes”.

Who will like this book?: Someone looking for a VERY creepy read.  Someone who’s interested in a thriller/mystery that will leave you feeling haunted.

If you like this, try this: Jennifer McMahon has written other novels, including the well-received “Winter People” and “Promise Not to Tell”.  This book is reminiscent of “Help for the Haunted” by John Searles, although darker.  Tana French is also brought to mind.

Recommended by:  Sue B, Circulation Coordinator

If this looks like something you’d like to read, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold!

Delicious Foods

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Title: Delicious Foods

Author: James Hannaham

Publisher: Little Brown & Company, March 2015

Summary/Review: The story begins with Eddie, who has recently escaped a mysterious company called Delicious Foods. His mother, Darlene, is still working there. Eddie has no hands, he’s estranged from his relatives, he’s poor and distraught about his mother, but he is ultimately good-natured and ready to emerge with a new life. The real struggle is with Darlene, Eddie’s mother. In her past life she would be described as a grieving widow whose husband was murdered, a hard-working, educated, beautiful, and caring mother. In her new life Darlene is addicted to crack cocaine, prostituting herself, neglecting Eddie, abusing herself and others and, ultimately, losing her mind – until she is saved by Delicious Foods, who offer a wonderful new dream filled with hope, redemption, hard work, and a rampantly dark underbelly.

Reading reviews you might think this story is focused on drugs – after all, the drugs have their own chapters, told from their point of view. You might think it’s about a mysterious company, Delicious Foods, and all the horrible things that go on in a place where you keep people addicted to drugs and brainwashed. You might even think that it’s about Eddie, and his struggle to regain a new life. But the truth is that the book is about all of these things yet none of these things. It’s a beautifully written book. It’s the type of book you have to read slowly because it takes a long time to convince yourself you’re not there, experiencing these things. You could probably call it a mystery thriller, but that wouldn’t accurately describe its deep literary roots. The truth is that “Delicious Foods” is indescribable – you just need to read it. It’s wonderful, magnetic, heart-breaking, scary, thrilling, hilarious, and poetic.

Who will like this book?: Someone that doesn’t shy away from dark topics such as race, addiction, and hopelessness. Someone looking for a read that’s thrilling but deep and literary.

If you like this, try this: James Hannaham has written one other book, “God Says No”, which is probably worth a try. I honestly can’t think of a book similar to this one, so you’ll need to try it yourself!

Recommended by: Lauren O

If you think this is a book you’d like to try, visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to see if it’s available and/or to place a hold.