New Books for June!

June

Abbot, Megan  El Dorado Drive

Armstrong, Kelley  Writing Mr. Wrong

Battles, Brett  Stuart Woods’ Finders Keepers

Brennan, Allison  Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

Burke, James Lee  Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie

Carr, Jack  Cry Havoc

Castle, Jayne  It Takes a Psychic

Coble, Colleen  Where Secrets Lie

Constantine, Liv  Don’t Open Your Eyes

Cosby, S.A.  King of Ashes

Freeman, Dianne  A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder

Harmel, Kristin  The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau

Housewright, David  Them Bones

Jackson, Lisa  It Happened on the Lake

Jewell, Lisa  Don’t Let Him In

Johansen, Iris  Death Mask (Eve Duncan)

Khavari, Kate  A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge

King, Laurie   Knave of Diamonds (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes)

Lamb, Wally  The River is Waiting

Lippman, Laura  Murder Takes a Vacation

Novak, Brenda  The Summer That Changed Everything

Patterson, James & Clinton, Bill The First Gentleman

Preston & Child  Badlands (Nora Kelly)

Reid, Taylor Jenkins Atmosphere:  A Love Story

Rosnay, Tatiana De  Blonde Dust

Sager, Riley  With a Vengeance

Schellman, Katharine  Last Dance Before Dawn

Shalvis, Jill  The Love Fix

Smith, Martin Cruz  Hotel Ukraine (Renko)

Steel, Danielle  A Mother’s Love

Stiefvater, Maggie The Listeners

Swanson, Peter  Kill Your Darlings

Thayne, RaeAnne  The Lost Book of First Loves

Weaver, Ashley  One Final Turn  (Electra McDonnell)

White, Randy Wayne  Tomlinson’s Wake  (Doc Ford)

Christmas Reading Beyond A Christmas Carol and A Visit From St. Nicholas

 

Appalachian Christmas

Nora Bonesteel’s Christmas Past by Sharyn McCrumb blends two plotlines of Christmas in the region.  In one, Sheriff Spencer Arrowood has to serve an arrest warrant in one of the “hollers,” while in the other Nora Bonesteel is called on to investigate a haunting. As usual, McCrumb does a wonderful job of capturing the people and places of Northeast Tennessee.

Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree:  A Contemporary Fantasy by local author Jeanne G’Fellers has Centenary Rhodes returning home to try to make peace with her mother.  It may take magic to make that happen.     

Christmas Stories by North Carolina Writers and Twelve Poems, Too edited by Ruth Moose is a wonderful collection of stories, remembrances, and poems including contributions from Lee Smith, Sue Ellen Bridgers, and Kaye Gibbons.  The selections are perfect for that little break in between holiday chores. 

Lee Smith’s Christmas Letters tells the story of a family over three generations through the annual Christmas letter. The story begins in 1944 with Birdie, who is both a new bride and a new mother. She’s living with her in-laws while her husband is overseas fighting the war.  The letters follow Birdie, then her daughter, and finally her granddaughter. Besides getting to know the characters, and then seeing them from a different perspective, the reader also is aware of how times change while some traditions -- like the Christmas letter-- remain the same.

Christmas Fiction

Christmas at the Cat Café by Melissa Daley is a heartwarming tale told through the eyes of Molly, a former stray cat who has found a home with Debbie and her daughter.  Then Debbie’s sister moves in and tensions rise in the family. Not only that, but two of Molly’s kittens go missing. It’s going to take a miracle to make things right again. Even though I am a sucker for cat books, I still was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one.  Part was the setting (UK) and part was having the book told from the cat's viewpoint as she worries about her kittens and about what is happening with her human family as well.

Irish author Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s The Mistletoe Matchmaker celebrates the season with a tale set in the Finfarran Peninsula.  Canadian Cassie decides to visit her grandparents and to see where her father grew up in Ireland. She is soon immersed in the lives of the villagers in this warm and cozy tale of families, friendships, and secrets, filled with memorable characters. It’s the third in a series but can be read as a standalone. 

Luther Krank has decided to skip Christmas. No presents, no tree, nor cards or festive parties.  Instead they’ll go on a cruise and get away from all the madness. Obviously, thing are not going to go as planned. . . John Grisham’s take on the holiday is memorable fun, but don’t take our word for it. Just read Skipping Christmas for yourself. There is also a movie entitled Christmas with the Kranks.  The library has a copy of the DVD.

Even though it's a considered a children's book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson is beloved by adults as well.  Who can forget the Herdmans? Laugh out loud funny, it still gets to the meaning of Christmas in a way few stories do.

Christmas Memories

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor is a short but lovely memoir of a rural Irish Christmas in the 1940s. Alice was one of six children who grew up on a farm.  Her account covers the traditional twelve days of Christmas as her family celebrated, and includes details of rural life. (Don't get too attached to the goslings.  Just sayin'.) 

A Gift from Bob is James Bowen’s account of a difficult Christmas. Bowen was an addict struggling to get clean with the help of his friends and a stray orange tabby cat. It's a sequel to the best-selling book A Street Cat Named Bob.  Two movies were made from the books, A Street Cat Named Bob and A Gift from Bob.  Both books and movies are recommended for being sweet but not saccharine, and for being uplifting.  The library holds both books and movies.

A Foxfire Christmas collects stories of Appalachian holiday traditions, including how to make toys like corn husk dolls, recipes, and party games.  These were collected by students in Georgia and are a charming window into the past.

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd is a semi-autobiographical collection of essays about a little boy and his burning desire for a Red Ryder air rifle.  Sound familiar?  It should, because Shepherd’s tales became the basis for the beloved movie.  Originally published in two other collections, the stories were pulled together for this special edition.

 

Christmas Series

A number of authors have regularly turned out Christmas tales which have proven very popular.  The list includes Anne Perry, Richard Paul Evans, Debbie Macomber, Donna VanLiere, Susan Mallory, Janet Dailey, Nancy Thayer, Elin Hilderbrand, “Cape Light” series by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, and Donna Andrews.

1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List by James Mustich

Note:  Since the New Year is traditionally the time to make resolutions, we offer our favorite, the one we'd put at the top of all our lists:  to read more books.  Here is a review of a book that might just get you started.

Reviewed by Kristin

A hefty volume to challenge you, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die:  A Life-Changing List by James Mustich suggests a wide variety of literature with inherent cultural value.  The book is much more than a checklist; each recommended title is described in about one page.  Other well-known works by the author are also mentioned, as well as supplemental photographs and supporting images.

In other words, it’s a beautifully illustrated menu for the book-hungry reader.

I paged through the book just to see how many of the 1,000 books I had already read.  I’m not sure whether my total is below or above average, but it was about 100.  I was pleased to see the breadth of works included.  Children’s literature is well-represented as well as classical works by Homer and Euripides.  Modern works such as Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates take their place in history alongside The Secret of the Old Clock, the first Nancy Drew mystery by Carolyn Keene.  I was delighted to see Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, one of the bedrocks of modern romantic suspense.

I find myself inspired to read some of the recommended titles.  Yesterday I picked up Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, but I will admit that I found the multiple ghostly characters difficult to follow.  That’s okay—I think it’s important to acknowledge that not every book is for every reader, and sometimes it’s okay to put the book down in favor of another.  Next I plan to seek out The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.  I never realized that McCullers was a woman, and that she wrote her most well-known novel at only age twenty-three.

The authors are arranged alphabetically, with certain multi-author works listed by title.  This ordering makes the mixing of genres interesting.  Science fiction, classical works, poetry, mysteries, history, art—this book has something for everyone.  Pick it up and you may find some of your dearest memories, or you may find your new favorite book.  As Mustich claims, this could be a life-changing list.

Based on a True Crime Story: Bury Me Deep and See What I Have Done

 Reviews by Christy

Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott

            In 1931, two suspicious trunks were reported at a Los Angeles train station. When police opened them they were surprised and horrified to find that they contained two dead women – later identified as Agnes LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson. It didn’t take long to trace the trunks back to the woman who had been traveling with them: Winnie Ruth Judd. Winnie had been friends with the women but she claimed the murders were committed in self-defense (though police believed it was over the affections of a man). Judd’s story changed throughout the years so there has never been a definite answer as to what happened that night.

            Megan Abbott fictionalizes a version of events in her book Bury Me Deep. Abbott tells the story of Marion who has been left in Phoenix by her doctor husband while he goes to work in Mexico (after repeatedly losing his license in the U.S. because of his morphine addiction). After finding work at a medical office, she quickly becomes friends with her co-worker Louise and Louise’s roommate Ginny. Louise and Ginny are wild and fun and quiet Marion takes to them immediately. At one of their many parties, Marion meets Joe, a successful businessman and supposed upstanding family man. She falls for him quickly, and everything goes downhill from there.

            Abbott’s version of events is interesting and quite plausible. Marion is written as a good girl in over her head, taken in by the dastardly Joe. The hold Joe has over Marion is described repeatedly though I never quite felt that reading it. She can barely control herself with her overwhelming desire for him but aside from their secret rendezvous we don’t really see them interact that much. It’s hard to see what attracted her to Joe in the first place. Perhaps she’s excited by his overt advances because despite his addiction, her husband is kind and overly proper.

            Though I wasn’t particularly blown away by this novel, it did keep me turning the pages, and I did feel a little sorry for Marion despite her poor choices. A lot of Abbott’s earlier works are in this noir-style, and I look forward to checking them out.

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

            In 1892, Mr. and Mrs. Borden were murdered in their Massachusetts home by an unknown assailant with an ax. Suspicion quickly fell on their daughter Lizzie Borden; investigators found her behavior afterwards strange and her answers contradictory. Though she was eventually acquitted in her subsequent trial, the reality of Borden’s guilt or innocence was never definite, and interest in the murder case continues to this day – over 125 years later.

            Schmidt recounts these events in her novel, and imagines what really happened that fateful day. I loved the idea of a fictional account of the Borden murders, and I was excited to read it. But I really did not like this novel. Schmidt’s style of writing is overwrought and tedious. The chapters are told in alternating viewpoints (Lizzie, older sister Emma, maid Bridget, and stranger Benjamin), and Lizzie’s chapters are the most tiresome. Especially in the beginning when she is given a sedative after finding her father dead. Her thoughts are meandering, unfocused, and I’m not sure why the author felt readers needed to spend multiple chapters in her sedated mind.  I did enjoy Bridget’s chapters and to a lesser extent Emma’s as well but I think just reading a nonfiction telling would’ve sufficed.

Wintry YA Mysteries: Cooney & Windsor

Reviews by Christy H.

Freeze Tag by Caroline B. Cooney

            Meghan Moore loves her neighbors, the Trevor family. She’s best friends with their daughter Tuesday and as a crush on their oldest son West. She enjoys nothing more than bursting into their welcoming home just to say hi or playing yard games with Tuesday, West, and their younger brother Brown. But there is another kid who wants to join in on the fun. Her name is Lannie, and no one really likes her. So to make them like her she suggests a game of freeze tag. And one by one she freezes everyone – literally. They can see and hear but they cannot move. She spares West only to have him promise that he will always like her best. When he does, she unfreezes everyone, and they don’t talk about this strange occurrence for years, pretending it never happened.

But now they’re in high school, and West and Meghan are dating. They’re wild about each other, and it upsets Lannie to see West breaking his promise. So once again she threatens to freeze those close to West, specifically Meghan, to get what she wants. That is essentially the novel. West breaks off from Meghan to spend all his time with Lannie just to appease her. Lannie threatens to freeze someone if she doesn’t get her way. It’s a short book but this scenario plays out over and over and over. Then it abruptly ends. There are a couple of times where Meghan considers the loneliness Lannie must feel as she has always been neglected – by classmates or by parents – and I felt as though the rest of the narrative would be her befriending Lannie or trying to be kind to her. Although it does hint at that in the end the novel never fully develops it. While I liked reading it just fine, and I enjoyed the writing, it felt quickly and haphazardly thrown together.

The Christmas Killer by Patricia Windsor

            The town of Bethboro, Connecticut is preparing for the holiday season but every citizen is on edge. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving fourteen year old Nancy went missing. After her body turns up, another young girl goes missing. Later on human remains are found in a junk yard but they’re from years ago. Has a serial killer started preying on this town? Or has he been around for years already? Either way, everyone’s spooked. Including Rose’s mom who just wants to protect her fifteen year old daughter. Rose brushes her concerns off as much as she can. But then she starts having dreams about Nancy – someone she only met once in passing. Dreams that show her where Nancy’s body can be found or where the older remains are buried. Rose doesn’t know how to process these dreams. After she goes to the police several times, pretty soon they’re pressuring her for more information, and grieving family members are berating her in public. It’s almost too much for her to handle.

            I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. The killer was fairly easy to guess but I appreciated Windsor laying the groundwork so the reveal didn’t feel unearned. Rose, as a character, is a little prickly which felt tedious at times however, I loved her final showdown with the killer where her bold attitude really shines.

            While I favored The Christmas Killer, I enjoyed both of these young adult books. Both were light, fun mysteries perfect for chilly Christmas reading.