JANUARY 2019 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

JANUARY 2019 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Check out one of our book club picks at the Adult Services Desk @Harnish and join the January discussion! Winter Reading sign-up begins on Saturday, January 5th!

COZY CORNER (NEW!)

A Clue for the Puzzle Lady

By: Parnell Hall

Date: Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

FOR ADULTS & TEENS (Ages 14+)

Miss Cora Felton is an eccentric old lady with a syndicated puzzle column, an irresistible urge to poke into unsettling events, and a niece who’s determined to keep her out of trouble.

When the body of an unknown teenage girl turns up in the cemetery in the quiet town of Bakerhaven, Police Chief Dale Harper finds himself investigating his first homicide. A baffling clue leads him to consult Bakerhaven’s resident puzzle expert—his first big mistake. Soon Cora’s meddling, mischief-making behavior drives Chief Harper to distraction and inspires manycross words from her long-suffering niece, Sherry. But when another body turns up in a murder that hits much closer to home, Cora must find a killer—before she winds up in a wooden box three feet across…and six down.

BOOK CLUBBERS

Girl Waits With Gun

By: Amy Stewart

Date: Thursday, January 3rd, 2019 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.

SPINECRACKERS

Young Jane Young

Author: Gabrielle Zevin

Date: Friday, January 4th, 2019 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT IN EBOOK OR EAUDIO FORMAT ON HOOPLA

 

Aviva Grossman, an ambitious congressional intern in Florida, makes the mistake of having an affair with her (married) boss. When the affair comes to light, the popular congressman doesn’t take the fall. But Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins: slut-shamed, she becomes a late-night talk show punch line, anathema to politics. She sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine. This time, she tries to be smarter about her life and strives to raise her daughter, Ruby, to be strong and confident. But when, at the urging of others, Aviva decides to run for public office, that long-ago mistake trails her via the Internet and catches up—an inescapable scarlet A. In the digital age, the past is never, ever, truly past. And it’s only a matter of time until Ruby finds out who her mother was and is forced to reconcile that person with the one she knows.

BOOKALICIOUS

\"\"Daughter of Smoke & Bone

By: Laini Taylor

Date: Monday, January 14th, 2019 @Woods Creek Tavern

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious \"errands\", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

GREAT BOOKS

The Three Musketeers

By: Alexandre Dumas

Date: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT IN EBOOK OR EAUDIO FORMAT ON HOOPLA

 

This swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, set in France during the 1620s, is richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense. Dumas transforms minor historical figures into larger- than-life characters: the Comte d’Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the beguilingly evil seductress “Milady”; the powerful and devious Cardinal Richelieu; the weak King Louis XIII and his unhappy queen—and, of course, the three musketeers themselves, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, whose motto “all for one, one for all” has come to epitomize devoted friendship. With a plot that delivers stolen diamonds, masked balls, purloined letters, and, of course, great bouts of swordplay, The Three Musketeers is eternally entertaining.

NITE READERS

Enchantress of Numbers

By: Jennifer Chiaverini

Date: Thursday, January 17th, 2019 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. But her mathematician mother, estranged from Ada's infamous and destructively passionate father, is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes.

When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize how her exciting new friendship with Charles Babbage—the brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly inventor of an extraordinary machine, the Difference Engine—will define her destiny.

DECEMBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

DECEMBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Do you love reading but don't have anybody to discuss your book with?? Check out a book club pick at the Adult Services Desk @Harnish and join the December discussion! And don't forget that Winter Reading sign-up begins on Saturday, January 5th!

BOOK CLUBBERS

\"\"Beartown

By: Fredrik Backman

Date: Thursday, December 6th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

SPINECRACKERS

Date: Friday, December 7th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

No book selection: Everyone read a favorite book and we'll share lunch on-site!

BOOKALICIOUS

\"\"I\'ll Meet You There

By: Heather Demetrios

Date: Monday, December 10th, 2018 @Woods Creek Tavern

Start Time: 7:00 pm

If Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing separating Skylar from art school is three months of summer…until Skylar’s mother loses her job, and Skylar realizes her dreams may be slipping out of reach.

Josh had a different escape route: the Marines. But after losing his leg in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be.

What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and, soon, something deeper.

GREAT BOOKS

Death of a Salesman (play)

By: Arthur Miller

Date: Wednesday, December 19th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

CliffsNotes AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA

Since it was first performed in 1949, Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about the tragic shortcomings of an American dreamer has been recognized as a milestone of the theater. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, has spent his life following the American way, living out his belief in salesmanship as a way to reinvent himself. But somehow the riches and respect he covets have eluded him. At age 63, he searches for the moment his life took a wrong turn, the moment of betrayal that undermined his relationship with his wife and destroyed his relationship with Biff, the son in whom he invested his faith. Willy lives in a fragile world of elaborate excuses and daydreams, conflating past and present in a desperate attempt to make sense of himself and of a world that once promised so much.

NITE READERS

\"\"A Wrinkle in Time

By: Madeleine L\'Engle

Date: Thursday, December 13th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

\"Wild nights are my glory,\" the unearthly stranger told them. \"I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract\".

Meg\'s father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

NEW Cozy Corner Book Club COMING JANUARY 2019

 

 

NOVEMBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

NOVEMBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Looking for something new and interesting to read? Stop by the Adult Services Desk @Harnish for a book club pick and join the November discussion!

BOOK CLUBBERS

News of the World

By: Paulette Jiles

Date: Thursday, November 1st, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

It is 1870 and Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.

In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.

Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forging a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.

SPINECRACKERS

\"\"Hiddensee

By: Gregory Maguire

Date: Friday, November 2nd, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

Gregory Maguire returns with an inventive novel inspired by a timeless holiday legend, intertwining the story of the famous Nutcracker with the life of the mysterious toy maker named Drosselmeier who carves him.

Hiddensee imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann\'s mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier-- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky\'s fairy tale ballet-- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.

But Hiddensee is not just a retelling of a classic story. Maguire discovers in the flowering of German Romanticism ties to Hellenic mystery-cults-- a fascination with death and the afterlife-- and ponders a profound question: How can a person who is abused by life, shortchanged and challenged, nevertheless access secrets that benefit the disadvantaged and powerless?

BOOKALICIOUS

\"\"Rot & Ruin

By: Jonathan Maberry

Date: Monday, November 12th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn\'t want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

GREAT BOOKS

The Confidence-Man

By: Herman Melville

Date: Wednesday, November 28th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN EBOOK FORMAT!

 

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN AUDIO FORMAT!

 

Onboard the Fidèle, a steamboat floating down the Mississippi to New Orleans, a confidence man sets out to defraud his fellow passengers. In quick succession he assumes numerous guises - from a legless beggar and a worldly businessman to a collector for charitable causes and a 'cosmopolitan' gentleman, who simply swindles a barber out of the price of a shave. Making very little from his hoaxes, the pleasure of trickery seems an end in itself for this slippery conman. Is he the Devil? Is his chicanery merely intended to expose the mercenary concerns of those around him? Set on April Fool's Day, The Confidence-Man (1857) is an engaging comedy of masquerades, digressions and shifting identity, and a devastating satire on the American dream.

NITE READERS

\"\"The Afterlife of Stars

By: Joseph Kertes

Date: Thursday, November 15th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

In the waning months of 1956, while Russian tanks roll into the public squares of Budapest to crush the Hungarian Revolution, brothers Robert and Attila Beck flee with their family to the Paris townhouse of their great-aunt Hermina. As they travel through minefields both real and imagined, Robert and Attila grapple with sibling rivalry, family secrets, and incalculable loss to arrive at a place they thought they’d lost forever: home.

NEW Cozy Corner Book Club COMING JANUARY 2019

 

 

September 2018 Library Reads Picks

September 2018 Library Reads Picks

\"\"

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
by Stuart Turton

“Imagine the movie Groundhog Day, except this time Aiden Bishop wakes up each day in a deteriorating manor house, as a different person, and must work out who he is and how he relates to everyone else at the party commemorating the long ago death of a child. If he can’t solve the murder that occurs at the party, he is doomed to continue the loop every eight days. A riveting page turner.”

Becky Bowen, Kenton County Public Library, Erlanger, KY

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating
by Christina Lauren

“Hazel is the eccentric, exuberant friend who’ll make you fall in love with her, and she’s not interested in being ‘dateable.’ Josh is busy being a workaholic, trying to make a long distance relationship work, and not pursuing romance with anyone else. But when his sister’s best friend Hazel blows back into his life, he is powerless to resist her genuine joie de vivre. If you’re looking for your next perfect read after The Kiss Quotient, look no further! A lovely slow burn.”

Elizabeth Gabriel, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, WI

\"\"

Lies
by T.M. Logan

“When Joe unwittingly discovers that his wife has been having an affair with her friend’s husband, his life starts to unravel. It seems that her lover now wants Joe out of the picture. Follow the cat-and-mouse plot as it explodes with a shocking finish! Great fun for those readers who love a good psychological thriller.”

Paulette Brooks, Elm Grove Public Library, Elm Grove, WI

Night and Silence
by Seanan McGuire

“Toby is back in this latest installment of the October Daye series. Still reeling and recovering from the events of the last book, Toby and company are laying low. When her human daughter goes missing (again), Toby embarks on a twisty-turny race against time to find her. A solid entry and good choice for libraries with a strong demand for fantasy and urban fantasy.”

Mei-Ling Thomas, Rochester Hills Public Library, Rochester, MI

Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen
by Sarah Bird

“A fascinating work of historical fiction about Cathay/Cathy Williams, a former slave turned Buffalo Soldier in post-Civil War America. Her raw and powerful story is sure to be popular with book clubs.”

Sarah Fetterman, Upper St. Clair Township Library, Upper St. Clair, PA

Lake Success: A Novel
by Gary Shteyngart

“Shteyngart delivers another painfully funny novel about ambition, disappointment, and the darker side of the American dream. For fans of witty, offbeat, satirical humor.”

Jennifer Alexander, St. Louis County Public Library, St. Louis, MO

The Dinner List: A Novel
by Rebecca Serle

“If you could have dinner with any five people, living or dead, who would they be? On her thirtieth birthday, Sabrina finds herself at dinner with her best friend, her ex-fiance, her long lost father, her college mentor and Audrey Hepburn, all with something to say to her. A charming combination of magical realism and romance.”

Tracy Babiasz, Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill, NC

Transcription: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson

“In WWII era London, Juliet Armstrong is working as an espionage monitor for MI5. Ten years later she suddenly finds herself targeted by dangerous individuals from her past. For fans of smart, witty, suspenseful, historical or spy fiction and authors like Tana French, Laurie R. King, and John Le Carre.”

Janet Lockhart, Wake County Public Libraries, Cary, NC

When the Lights Go Out
by Mary Kubica

“After her mother’s death, Jessie is trying is trying to rebuild her life. In her way is her debilitating insomnia and a secret that shakes the core of her identity. Psychological suspense with an unreliable narrator. This one’s for you Gone Girl fans.”

Diane Gring, Chester County Library & District Center, Exton, PA

Hitting the Books
by Jenn McKinlay

“McKinlay’s Lindsay Norris is back for another adventure in Briar Creek. As a fellow librarian, I appreciate her spot on observations of the library world. An upbeat cozy mystery with great characters and strong sense of place. For fans of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries and the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries.”

Carly Budzynski, Salem Public Library, Salem, VA

OCTOBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

OCTOBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Looking for a new read this fall? Stop by the Adult Services Desk @Harnish for a book club pick and join the October discussion!

BOOK CLUBBERS

Stay With Me

By: Ayobami Adebayo

Date: Thursday, October 4th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she does--but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

SPINECRACKERS

Magpie Murders

By: Anthony Horowitz

Date: Friday, October 5th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN AUDIO FORMAT!

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job.

Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder.

BOOKALICIOUS

Shutter

By: Courtney Alameda

Date: Monday, October 8th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN AUDIO FORMAT!

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat-a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

GREAT BOOKS

\"\"Our Man in Havana

By: Graham Greene

Date: Wednesday, October 17th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

\"\"ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN EBOOK FORMAT!

James Wormold, a cash-strapped vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana, finds the answer to his prayers when British Intelligence offers him a lucrative job as an undercover agent. To keep the checks coming, Wormold must at least pretend to know what he\'s doing. Soon, he\'s apparently deciphering incomprehensible codes, passing along sketches of secret weapons that look suspiciously like vacuum parts, and claiming to recruit fellow operatives from his country club, all to create the perfect picture of intrigue. But when MI6 dispatches a secretary to oversee his endeavors, Wormold fears his carelessly fabricated world will come undone. Instead, it all comes true. Somehow, he\'s become the target of an assassin, and it\'s going to take more than a fib to get out of Cuba alive. Her Majesty\'s man in Havana may have to resort to spying.

NITE READERS

\"\"Fools and Mortals

By: Bernard Cornwell

Date: Thursday, October 18th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. But he is a penniless actor, making ends meet through a combination of a beautiful face, petty theft and a silver tongue. As William’s star rises, Richard’s onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty.

So when a priceless manuscript goes missing, suspicion falls upon Richard, forcing him onto a perilous path through a bawdy and frequently brutal London. Entangled in a high-stakes game of duplicity and betrayal which threatens not only his career and potential fortune, but also the lives of his fellow players, Richard has to call on all he has now learned from the brightest stages and the darkest alleyways of the city. To avoid the gallows, he must play the part of a lifetime . . . .

SEPTEMBER 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Check out a book club pick at the Adult Services Desk @Harnish and join the September discussion today!

BOOK CLUBBERS

\"\"Title: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

By: Gail Honeyman

Date: Thursday, September 6th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

SPINECRACKERS

Artemis

By: Andy Weir

Date: Friday, September 7th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

Jazz Bashara is a criminal....well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first. 

BOOKALICIOUS

\"\"Daughter of Deep Silence

By: Carrie Ryan

Date: Monday, September 10th, 2018 @Village Vintner

Start Time: 7:00 pm

I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.          

 

In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.

GREAT BOOKS

\"\"Ship of Fools

By: Katherine Anne Porter

Date: Wednesday, September 19th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

\"\"

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA IN EBOOK FORMAT!

The story takes place in the summer of 1931, on board a cruise ship bound for Germany. Passengers include a Spanish noblewoman, a drunken German lawyer, an American divorcee, a pair of Mexican Catholic priests. This ship of fools is a crucible of intense experience, out of which everyone emerges forever changed. Rich in incident, passion, and treachery, the novel explores themes of nationalism, cultural and ethnic pride, and basic human frailty that are as relevant today as they were when the book was first published in 1962.

NITE READERS

\"\"The River Wife

By: Jonis Agee

Date: Thursday, September 20th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

When the earthquake brings Annie Lark’s Missouri house down on top of her, she finds herself pinned under the massive roof beam, facing certain death. Rescued by French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme, Annie learns to love the strong, brooding man and resolves to live out her days as his “River Wife.” 

More than a century later, in 1930, Hedie Rails comes to Jacques’ Landing to marry Clement Ducharme, a direct descendant of the fur trapper and river pirate, and the young couple begin their life together in the very house Jacques built for Annie so long ago. When, night after late night, mysterious phone calls take Clement from their home, a pregnant Hedie finds comfort in Annie’s leather-bound journals. But as she reads of the sinister dealings and horrendous misunderstandings that spelled out tragedy for the rescued bride, Hedie fears that her own life is paralleling Annie’s, and that history is repeating itself with Jacques’ kin.

August 2018 Library Reads Picks

August 2018 Library Reads Picks

\"\"

Vox

by Christina Dalcher

“In the future world depicted in Vox, women are limited to speaking 100 words per day. Readers will want to shout every word in their heads, hoard every book in their libraries, and second guess the words of every person in their lives. A captivating, timely book that explores women’s rights in a fast-paced, compelling story.”
                                                                                                                          Jennifer Gaenzle, Fort Fairfield Public Library, Fort Fairfield, ME

Our House

by Louise Candlish

“Full of secrets and surprises, Our House poses the question, “How well do you know the person you live with?” An attempt to co-habitate for the sake of the children leaves divorced mom Fiona alone and out in the cold. Readers will have a hard time putting down this twisty domestic suspense novel. Even after the last page is turned, the characters will linger.”

Annette Herbst, Columbia County Rural Library, Dayton, WA

\"\"

Bellewether

by Susanna Kearsley

“A character-driven story with a nice surprise twist, this gothic-style fiction, set in 1759 Long Island, will not disappoint Kearsley’s many fans. Readers who enjoy good doses of romance, history, and magic will be pleased.”

Julie Raynor, High Point Public Library, High Point, NC

Good Luck with That

by Kristan Higgins

“Emerson, Georgia, and Marley met as teens at a “fat camp.” When one of them dies young, the others are forced to confront their own struggles with self-esteem and acceptance. With equal measures of humor and heartbreak, this book sparks questions about society’s idea of the perfect size and explores how body image can have far-reaching effects.”

Claudia Silk, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield, CT

The Masterpiece: A Novel

by Fiona Davis

“Disparate decades of New York City are capably brought to life through two strong and resourceful female characters in Davis’s latest work. At the center is the Grand Central Terminal, which served as an art school in the 1920s, is threatened with demolition in the 1970s, and connects the threads of Clara Darden’s and Virginia Clay’s lives. Well researched and captivating.”

Kelly Baroletti, Wantagh Public Library, Wantagh, NY

The Other Woman: A Novel

by Sandie Jones

“Emily thinks she’s found the man of her dreams in Adam. But when she meets Pammie, the woman she hopes will be her future mother-in-law, things take a sinister turn. Fast-paced, gripping, and ultimately satisfying.”

Jenny Moore, Hillsboro Public Library, Hillsboro, OR

Rust & Stardust: A Novel

by T. Greenwood

“Disturbing crime fiction based on real events that inspired Nabokov’s Lolita. In 1948, fifth grade Sally Horner is kidnapped by a man pretending to be a police officer.”

Ninoshka Aviles, Osceola Library, Osceola, FL

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding

by Rhys Bowen

“The 12th book in the Royal Spyness mystery series finds our heroine, Georgie, juggling all manner of details as she prepares for her upcoming marriage to Darcy. A fun, breezy mystery.”

Cori Dodds, Derby Public Library, Derby, KS

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Meet Me at the Museum: A Novel

by Ann Youngson

“A touching epistolary novel about an English farmer’s wife and a museum curator who may be in for an unexpected second act.”

Marilyn Sieb, L.D. Fargo Public Library, Lake Mills, WI

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A River of Stars: A Novel

by Vanessa Hua

“A Chinese woman makes her way to America with her unborn daughter determined to make a life for them both. For readers who enjoy modern immigration stories like Behold the Dreamers and Little Fires Everywhere.”

Abby Johnson, New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, New Albany, IN

AUGUST 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Looking for a new summer read? Check out a book club pick at the Adult Services Desk @Harnish and join the August discussion!

BOOK CLUBBERS

Title: ?

Date: Thursday, August 2nd, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Read a book of your choice to discuss with the group!

SPINECRACKERS

Sourdough

By: Robin Sloan

Date: Friday, August 3rd, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her―feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?

BOOKALICIOUS

\"\"The Sin Eater\'s Daughter

By: Melinda Salisbury

Date: Monday, August 13th, 2018 @Village Vintner

Start Time: 7:00 pm

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ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA in audio format!

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she\'s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn\'t exactly a member of the court. She\'s the executioner. As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month, she\'s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla\'s fatal touch, avoids her company.But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he\'s able to look past Twylla\'s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla\'s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen. However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla\'s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

GREAT BOOKS

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Light in August

By: William Faulkner

Date: Wednesday, August 15th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, enigmatic drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry.

NITE READERS

\"\"Fahrenheit 451

By: Ray Bradbury

Date: Thursday, August 16th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

\"\"ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA in audio format!

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

July 2018 Library Reads

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Spinning Silver
by Naomi Novik

“A wonderful reimagining of the Rumpelstiltskin story. A tale of love, family, magic, and destiny, told from the perspective of three strong female characters.”

Melanie Liechty, Logan Library, Logan, UT

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Clock Dance: A Novel
by Anne Tyler

“Willa Drake gets a second act when she steps in to care for a nine-year-old in a complicated situation. Character driven fiction and a sweeping storyline.”

Mary Anne Quinn, Warwick Public Library, Warwick, RI

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Dear Mrs. Bird: A Novel
by AJ Pearce

“In 1940s London, Emmy takes a job as a typist that evolves into answering rejected letters sent to an advice columnist.”

Judy Hartman, Mechanicsville Public Library, Mechanicsville, IA

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Baby Teeth: A Novel
by Zoje Stage

“A fragile woman struggles against her mute daughter’s schemes for her father’s undivided attention. Dark, creepy, and downright scary.”

Kathryn Neal, Skiatook Library, Skiatook, OK

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Give Me Your Hand
by Megan Abbott

“Kit competes for her dream job with a rival who was once her closest friend. Gripping psychological suspense.”

Kristy Gates, Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library, Jonesboro, AR

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Believe Me: A Novel
by JP Delaney

“An unemployed actress works for a divorce lawyer entrapping unsuspecting husbands until she finds herself ensnared in a murder investigation. This roller-coaster ride of a book will keep you guessing with an unreliable narrator and and a twisty plot.”

Linda Quinn, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield, CT

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Caught In Time: A Novel
by Julie McElwain

“The third book in the Kendra Donovan series finds our protagonist investigating the murder of a mill owner against the the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution.”

Melissa Barber, Lubbock Public Library, Lubbock, TX

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Somebody’s Daughter
by David Bell

“Michael Frazier is searching for the missing daughter he never knew he had. A multi-layered plot with so many compelling, complex characters, this book grabbed me from the first sentences.”

Evelyn Cunningham, Norwalk Public Library, Norwalk, CT

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The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna by C. W. Gortner

“A look at Maria, Empress of Russia, and her trials before and after becoming the Russian Empress. Well written historical fiction.”

Janette McMahon, Fremont County Library System, WY

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Fruit of the Drunken Tree: A Novel
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

“Set against the violence of 1990s Columbia, a young girl and a maid form an unlikely and dangerous relationship. Equal parts heartwrenching and beautiful.”

Alejandra Rodriguez, Osceola County Library, FL

JULY 2018 BOOK DISCUSSIONS

Looking for your next summer reading book? Check out a book club pick at the Adult Services Desk @Harnish and join the July discussion!

BOOK CLUBBERS

Elizabeth is Missing

By: Emma Healey

Date: Thursday, July 5th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA in audio format!

Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory—and her grip on everyday life. Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, who she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.

But no one will listen to Maud—not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth's mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.

This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud's rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.

As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more than fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey's disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth? 

SPINECRACKERS

Dragon Teeth

By: Michael Crichton

Date: Friday, July 6th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 10:00 am

The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.

Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition.  But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions.  With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William’s newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters.

BOOKALICIOUS

The Naturals

By: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Date: Monday, July 9th, 2018 @Village Vintner

Start Time: 7:00 pm

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA in ebook format!

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it's not a skill that she's ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they've begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie. 

What Cassie doesn't realize is that there's more at risk than a few unsolved homicides-especially when she's sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive. 

GREAT BOOKS

Shane

By: Jack Schaefer

Date: Wednesday, July 18th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD VIA HOOPLA in audio format!

A stranger rode out of the heart of the great glowing West, into the small Wyoming valley in the summer of 1889.
It was Shane, who appeared on the horizon and became a friend and guardian to the Starrett family at a time when homesteaders and cattle rangers battled for territory and survival. Jack Schaefer’s classic novel illuminates the spirit of the West through the eyes of a young boy and a hero who changes the lives of everyone around him. Renowned artist Wendell Minor provides stunning images and a moving introduction to this new edition of Shane, the ultimate tale of the Western landscape.

NITE READERS

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

By: Matthew Sullivan

Date: Thursday, July 19th, 2018 @Harnish

Start Time: 7:00 pm

Lydia Smith loves her job at the Bright Ideas bookstore in Denver, puttering among the shelves and hovering over her gentle BookFrogs, the wanderers and dreamers who spend their days among the stacks. When one of her BookFrogs, Joey Molina, hangs himself in the store, she’s devastated and then shocked when she learns he’s bequeathed his meager possessions to her. When she discovers that he’s left messages to her in the pages of his books, she’s puzzled and begins trying to piece together his last days with the help of his friend Lyle. The reappearance of her childhood friend Raj Patel soon puts Joey on the back burner, however, as questions about her estranged father come to light. It all points back to the Hammerman, who, while Lydia was on a sleepover as a child, brutally killed her friend and her friend’s family with a hammer, leaving Lydia alive, hiding under the sink. The Hammerman was never caught, and Lydia seeks answers from the now-retired detective who handled the case, but she may not want to hear what he has to say. Turns out he always suspected her father was the killer but was stopped from pursuing that path, even in the face of some compelling evidence, and he’s never let go of his suspicion. After all, why did the killer let Lydia live after killing a 10-year-old girl and her parents, and could Joey somehow be connected?