Christmas in October!

It seems the holidays come faster and faster these days.  This year I saw Halloween items out after the Fourth of July; by Labor Day there were aisles of fall goods.As of September 12,  I saw the Christmas items being stocked on shelves.

The book world isn't immune to the phenomenon either. There are a number of Christmas themed books coming out in October, including some by favorite authors which should be showing up on our reserve list.  Here are some you many want to add to your list:


Duck the Halls by Donna Andrews begins with Meg Langslow after some holiday pranksters who put skunks in a church, but then a murder enters the picture as well.

Silent Night is a Spenser story begun by Robert B. Parker and completed by Helen Brann.  Spenser and Hawk are on the case when a teenage boy tells them his mentor is being threatened.

Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson is a holiday themed Longmire story in which a young woman brings back memories of Walt’s first year as a sheriff and raises questions about Walt’s predecessor.

Anne Perry, best known her Thomas & Charlotte Pitt and Monk mysteries, has written a Christmas themed book each year for the last decade or so.  This year’s title is A Christmas Hope.

Starry Night by Debbie Macomber has the joys and comforts of Christmas, as might be expected from this best-selling author.

Thomas Kinkade’s Cape Light:  Songs of Christmas by Katherine Spencer will be out in early November.  Spencer was often credited as co-author of the Kinkade books, both the Cape Light and Angel Island series. 

August Big Books

Summary by Jeanne

The summer book season is still going strong!  Here are some August highlights:

•    Debbie Macomber new series continues with Rose Harbor in Bloom, a spin-off from her popular Cedar Cove books

•    Kelley Armstrong, best known for her Otherworld novels, starts a new fantasy series with Omens. Olivia Taylor Jones has lived a papered life as the only child of wealthy parents, not knowing that she was adopted and her birth parents are serving life sentences for serial murders.  Now she’s out to uncover the truth about her family, which may include some supernatural connections.

•    J.A. Jance has Second Watch, a J.P. Beaumont mystery

•    Thomas Keneally, best known for Schindler’s List, returns with an engrossing story set in World War I.  Sisters Sally and Naomi are serving as nurses and facing horribly injured soldiers even as they struggle with personal traumas.  Reviewers say that once again Keneally has humanized a sweeping and complex historical event in The Daughters of Mars.

•    Readers who enjoyed Gap Creek by Robert Morgan will be glad to know that there’s a sequel, Road from Gap Creek, which continues the story of the Richards family as told by their youngest daughter, Annie.

•    James Patterson and David Ellis (Guilty Wives) re-team in Mistress, a standalone novel about a man with obsessive tendencies determined to find out who murdered the love of his life.  (Note that Ellis has a new book of his own out this month.)

•    And while it may not be a “Big Book,” I’m looking forward to Love Potion #10 by Betsy Woodman, which is the second in the Jana Bibi series. Jana is a Scotswoman by heritage who has lived in India for years.  I found it to be utterly charming.  My review of the first book is here.

More highly anticipated books:

Bowen, Rhys  Heirs and Graces  (Her Royal Spyness series)
Box, C. J.  The Highway (Cody Hoyt)
Cain, Chelsea Let Me Go (Archie and Gretchen)
Cook, Thomas Sandrine’s Case
Doiron, Paul  Massacre Pond (Mike Bowditch mystery)
Ellis, David  Last Alibi (Jason Kolarich)
Fairstein, Linda Death’s Angel (Alex Cooper)
Fisher, Suzanne Woods The Letters
Garwood, Julie  Hotshot (Buchanan-Renard)
Gregory, Philippa White Princess (The Cousins’ War series)
Hurwitz, Gregg  Tell No Lies
Jance, J.A.  Second Watch (Beaumont)
Kellerman, Faye  Beast (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus)
Penny, Louise  How the Light Gets In (Inspector Gamache)
Reichs, Kathy  Bones of the Past (Temperance Brennan)
Robards, Karen  Last Kiss Goodbye (Charlotte Stone)

Next August will have another long awaited book: Anne Rivers Siddons returns with Girls of August, the story of a group of friends who get together at the beach each August, starting when they are in their twenties and ending after one of the group dies.  Now they’ve reunited and are about to make some startling discoveries about each other—and themselves. (

Christmas Books

Most of the Christmas books we remember fondly tend to be children’s books or else short stories like “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.  Some authors have started doing a book at Christmas, and fans look forward to these every year.  Here are some popular Christmas selections:

The late Thomas Kinkade lent his name to the “Cape Light” books with author Katherine Spencer. All the books are set in a fictional New England town, and are inspirational and uplifting. You don’t have to read them in order to enjoy them.

Anne Perry is best known for her two mystery series, but for several years she’s produced a book with a Christmas theme set in Victorian England.  These are shorter mysteries, just right to squeeze in while trying to get ready for the holidays.  This year’s book is A Christmas Garland, set in 1857 India where a young and inexperienced British lieutenant is supposed to defend a fellow soldier against a charge of being an accomplice to a murder and the escape of a prisoner.

Debbie Macomber has several Christmas themed books, including Christmas at Cedar Cove.  While her books set in Cedar Cove are probably her most famous, she’s also known for her Christmas books featuring the angels Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy. The most recent one in that series is Angels At the Table.

Donna VanLiere has a number of fiction books to her credit, but the ones most often requested are her Christmas books.  Christmas Shoes,  Christmas Blessing, and Christmas Hope have been made into TV movies; Christmas Secret is tentatively scheduled for 2013.

Richard Paul Evans self published The Christmas Box back in 1993.  It became a local hit, and was then brought out by a major publisher, becoming the first of several best-selling books from Evans. Most have a Christmas theme, and several have been filmed.

A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber

Reviewed by Doris

Debbie Macomber is one of our most requested authors. Her  Blossom Street and Cedar Cove series along with her Christmas books are snapped up as soon as we get them from the publisher. The newest book in the Blossom Street series, A Turn in the Road, and it is very much one of Macomber’s signature novels. It showcases three women who have reached a point in their lives where they look at change and must decide which path they will follow. 

Bethanne Hamlin is in the middle years of her life like most of Macomber’s main characters. She was married for twenty years to Grant who one day walks out of their marriage to be with a much younger woman named Tiffany. Devastated by his desertion and the pain it brings to her and her two children, Bethanne must find a new way to live her life. Using skills she learned as the perfect corporate wife to Grant, she sets up her own company specializing in party planning. In five years she has five stores and is thinking about franchising across the country. In achieving her business success Bethanne has found a new confidence and sense of self that makes her much different than the woman Grant deserted.  When Grant and Tiffany divorce, Grant wants to reunite with Bethanne but she isn’t sure that’s what she needs to do.  She is still dealing with some anger and resentment from the way Grant destroyed her family. Her daughter Annie who always was a “Daddy’s girl” is pushing hard for the reconciliation, as is Grant’s mother Ruth. Her son Andrew has not forgiven his father and is in the middle of finishing law school and planning his wedding. He cautions his mother to remember how badly Grant behaved and to be very sure before she agrees to reconcile. That is just Bethanne’s problem: she is not sure she can really trust Grant again even though he is trying hard to win her back and he acknowledges his mistakes.

Ruth, Grant’s mother, has always been close to Bethanne. When Grant destroyed his family, she took him to task harshly. Now she is really hoping Bethanne will let Grant come home since he has taken responsibility for his mistakes and because he sincerely seems to love Bethanne and wants to rebuild their life together. Ruth too is facing a decision about her life. Her 50^th high school class reunion in Florida is coming up in a few short weeks. Ruth makes plans to drive from Seattle to Vero Beach, Florida, on her own because she wants to see Royce, her high school sweetheart. Ruth hurt Royce very badly so she feels a great need to see him and make amends. Knowing her son and daughter will be fiercely opposed to her taking off cross-country by herself, Ruth tells Bethanne about the trip. Hoping the trip will give her some distance and time to make a decision about Grant, Bethanne tells Ruth she will go with her.

Annie, Bethanne and Grant’s daughter, was fifteen when her adored daddy walked out on his family. She began a cycle of acting out and doing everything she could to sabotage Grant’s new wife. Now she is Grant’s strongest advocate and she is pushing Bethanne as hard as she can to reunite with Grant. Annie has been in a long relationship with Vance, and she believes he is going to ask her to marry him one special night. Instead Vance delivers some news that sends Annie in a tailspin. When she hears about her mom’s and grandmother’s trip, Annie invites herself along. She too is facing a crossroads in her relationship, and she hopes she can push her mom right back into dear Daddy’s arms. Will this trip give Annie a better understanding of her mother’s fears and choices?

With two weeks to get to Vero Beach the travelers choose to add a few stops here and there (Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans). On one of these little side jaunts, they run into some car trouble. At an isolated lake where they stopped to cool off, the three women are rescued by, of all things, four bikers.  Bethanne goes with the biker named Max to find a tow truck. Annie calls her father. Ruth decides she will hide the clothes of three bikers swimming nude in the lake. Much to her embarrassment the bikers are not the least shy about coming out of the water to discuss the situation with her!

Bethanne and Max connect in a very visceral way. Bethanne realizes almost immediately that he is not what he seems, and she finds herself deeply drawn to him. Max seems to feel the same way about her, and that sets in motion new choices and concerns for Bethanne. With Annie and Ruth giving her a hard time about Max every minute of every day, Bethanne pushes Max away and then pulls him closer. Grant who receives a phone call from Annie every ten minutes tattling on her mother decides he needs to join the party in Florida. Ruth grows more nervous the closer they get to Royce. Annie meets a couple of new guys who give her a little different perspective on her relationship with Vance.

Macomber is quite good at dealing with crossroads and women whose lives are in a state of flux. Her Blossom Street series is all about women finding new paths for themselves. A Turn in the Road is much like her other books in the series—easily readable, funny at times, poignant at other times, and a surprise or two thrown in for good measure. In this book you know how the trip (and the plot) is going to end, but you can enjoy the ride to get there.  (Just a personal note here: I found Bethanne to be way more patient with Annie and Ruth than I would have been. I would have put both of them out on the side of the road and taken off with Max!)

New Book News!

Some favorite authors have new books out in October!  Here are some of the ones we think you might like:

Back in 1977, there weren’t many female detectives outside of Nancy Drew or  nosy little old ladies in English villages.  That was the year Marcia Muller debuted her detective Sharon McCone, a hard-boiled private eye in San Francisco. In  City of Whispers, a search for her half-brother leads her to two murders and a race against time.  This series just keeps going strong!

If you love English historical fiction, you’re in for a treat!  Philippa Gregory has a new book out, The Lady of the Rivers.  It’s set just before the War of the Roses, and the main character is Jaquetta, who will be the mother of Elizabeth Woodville.  Passion, power, and the fate of a nation—what more could you ask for?

 

For years, Eve Duncan has tried to discover what happened to her seven year old daughter.  Now at last, Iris Johansen gives fans the answers in a three book arc:the first book is  Eve, followed by Quinn and now at last comes Bonnie. Yes, we do get the answers we've waited for; and no, it is not the end of the series.  

Lethal is the new book by Sandra Brown and it's another thrilling page-turner!  Honor Gillette finds her world turned upside down when an accused mass murderer shows up in her yard, claiming that he was framed and that Honor's late husband's death was no accident.  There are twists and turns aplenty, just as we've come to expect from Ms. Brown!

You can tell the holidays are fast approaching when the publishers start putting out the Christmas books!  Debbie Macomber fans are already on reserve for 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, the latest in her popular series set in Cedar Cove.   Glenn Beck has followed The Christmas Sweater with another holiday tale, Snow Angel.  The publisher describes it as a tale about family, forgiveness and "a future free of the past."  Donna VanLiere's 2011 book is The Christmas Noe, which tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two women as one searches for a family she didn't know she had. Christmas Treasures is the title of the new Cape Light book Thomas Kinkade.  It's due out in November. Last but certainly not least, there's The Christmas Wedding which sounds as if it should be the new Nora Roberts or Danielle Steel.  Surprise!  It's the new book by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo.  As the title suggests, it's a family drams about a widow who announces that she is going to remarry at Christmas-- but she won't tell her children the identity of the groom.



You can reserve these books online, in person at the library or by calling 276-645-8780.