New Fiction in September!

 

September

Aoyama, Michiko  The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park

Archer, Jeffrey  End Game (William Warwick)

Armentrout, Jennifer L.  The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood and Ash)

Barrett, Lorna  A Perilous Plot

Bentley, Don Denied Access (Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp)

Black, Holly  Thief of Night

Brennan, Allison  Don’t Say a Word

Brown, Dan Secret of Secrets

Cleeton, Chanel  The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes

Cleeves, Ann  The Killing Stones (Jimmy Perez)

Dailey, Janet  Calder Strong

Deaver, Jeffery The Grave Artist (Sanchez & Heron)

Feehan, Christine  Deadly Storms

Follett, Ken Circle of Days

Francis, Felix Dark Horse

Galbraith, Robert  The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike)

George, Elizabeth  A Slowly Dying Cause (Lynley)

Gilmore, Laurie  The Gingerbread Bakery

Grace, Hannah  Holiday Ever After

Herron, Mick  Clown Town

Hilderbrand, Elin  The Academy

Ishida, Syou We’ll Prescribe You Another Cat

Jance, J.A.  The Girl From Devil’s Lake (Brady)

Jonasson, Ragnar The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer (Hulda)

Kelly, Julia  A Dark and Deadly Journey (Evelyne Redfern)

Klassen, Julie  A Sea View Christmas

Krueger, William Kent Apostle’s Cove

Lewis, Beverly  The Christmas House

Mackintosh, Clare Other People’s Houses

Martin, Kat The Unseen

McCall Smith, Alexander In the Time of Five Pumpkins (No. 1 Ladies)

McEwan, Ian  What We Can Know

Mosley, Walter Gray Dawn (Easy Rawlings)

Novik, Naomi  The Summer War

Osman, Richard The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club)

Patterson, James  Billion-Dollar Ransom

Robb, J.D.  Framed in Death

Ryan, Hank Phillippi  All This Could Be Yours

Scalzi, John  The Shattering Peace (Old Man’s War)

Smirnoff, Karin The Girl with Ice in Her Veins (Lisbeth Salander)

Steel, Danielle  The Portrait

Thorogood, Robert Murder on the Marlow Bell

Woodward, M.P.  Tom Clancy Terminal Velocity (Jack Ryan, Jr.)

Nevermore: Private Life of Spies, City of Beasts, Under the Cover of Mercy

 Reported by Rita

The Private Life of Spies: and, The Exquisite Art of Getting Even by Alexander McCall Smith
Half spy stories, half tales of revenge, this new collection from the author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels illustrates that transparency is paramount and forgiveness is restorative, reminding us that, in the end, the high road is often the better one for all involved.

A really nice mix of fiction and non-fiction short stories. – DC

    

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende
Joining his fearless nature journalist grandmother on a dangerous expedition in the Amazon to track a Yeti-like creature known as the Beast, 15-year-old Alexander draws on the strength of a totemic spirit guide on a remarkable journey of self-discovery. 

This is a good book filled with fantasy, adventure, and an unexpected ending. - MH    

Under the cover of mercy : a novel by Rebecca Connolly
Ordered by a ranking German officer to stand guard over wounded Allied POWs, Edith Cavell, Head Nurse at Berkendael Medical Institute, secretly establishes her hospital as a safe house for the resistance, risking charges of treason—and her life—to bring hope to her small corner of a war-torn world. 

Our reader was not a big fan of this title and does not recommend. – WJ

 

 

Also Mentioned:

The Comfort of Crows: a Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen

Under the Cover of Mercy by Rebecca Connolly

Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address by Stephen Birmingham

Kaufman field guide to insects of North America by Eric R. Eaton

Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Unnatural Death by Patricia Cornwell

A Feast of Eggshells by Florence Stevenson

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan

 

New Books:

 

UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life by Garrett M. Graff

Teddy and Booker T. by Brian Kilmeade

Blood Memory by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns

The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa

Nevermore: Elephant, Dewey, Mother Tree, Return from Siberia, Hiding Place

 

 

Reported by Garry

 

We had quite a full house this week, with 13 participants! We had our usual mix of fiction, non-fiction, light and fluffy, and deadly serious.

 

How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith is a light-hearted book which is the 21^st in the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series. Our reader thought that this charming book set in Botswana and following the story of Precious Ramotswe was a great way to spend a sultry summer afternoon reading.

 

Another sweet, light read was Dewey, the Library Cat by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. Our reader says that this version, a middle grades adaptation of the original adult non-fiction tale, is as fluffy and adorable as the cat on the front cover. She read this book with her grandchild and said that it is a perfect book for a young reader to share with a beloved adult.

 

Our next reader discussed the biological study/memoir Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. This book describes not only Simard’s childhood in British Columbia, but her journey and studies showing how exquisitely interconnected a forest is – far more so than is obvious above ground. Simard’s research shed light on the hidden communication networks between trees and the other plants in the forest, which she describes in this impressive book in direct, accessible language. Our reader was amazed by the information in this book, and says that it has changed the way she looks at the world.

 

Return from Siberia by John Shallman was our next book reviewed. This intriguing historical novel is narrated by John Simon, the grandson of the main character Joseph. Joseph is a young Russian activist during the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. Exiled to Siberia by the Russian Czar, Joseph writes of his political ideals and struggles. One hundred years later John finds and translates his grandfather’s manuscript. In doing so, John discovers extraordinary echoes of the past in the present and comes to realize how the actions of past generations affect the current. Our reader found this to be a fascinating read with the caveat that the writing is “a bit first-draft.”

 

We had a chilly murder mystery as our next book, The Hiding Place by Paula Munier is the third book in her Mercy Carr mystery series, following the adventures of the titular Mercy Carr and her Belgian Malinois dog, Elvis. This time, they are facing trouble on two fronts at once: The man who killed Mercy’s grandfather has escaped prison and may have taken her grandmother hostage, and an Army vet shows up on the scene to claim Elvis is his dog, not Mercy’s. This book is a masterful blend of action, suspense, romance, intrigue, and danger set in the Vermont countryside. Our reader thoroughly enjoyed this well-plotted thriller and recommends it to anyone looking for a tightly written, exciting mystery.

 

Also mentioned:

 

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian by Robert Kaplan

The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

Saint Patrick’s Battalion by James Alexander Thom

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

The Buses are A Comin’: Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person and Richard Rooker

Why We Garden: Cultivating a Sense of Place by Jim Nollman

You Might Be a Redneck If… by Jeff Foxworthy

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman

Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light by Hellen Ellis

It’s Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything by Kate Biberdorf

The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

One Two Three by Laurie Frankel

Nevermore: Appalachia, Catte, Cooper, Copenhagen, Malerman, Noah, McCall Smith

 

Small but mighty, our first book this week was What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte.  This book dissects the stereotypes of the “forgotten Appalachian” communities and examines the historical reasons why this area has been “othered” in the media.  A powerful rebuke to the bigotry that has been used to portray Appalachia throughout the years, our reader definitely recommended this book.

 

Next up was Anderson Cooper’s memoir, Dispatches from The Edge.  In this unblinking look at his life Cooper talks about the traumas that he has been through and how they have driven him both personally and professionally – and how the two are intertwined.  The son of designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, Cooper learned early that tragedy can strike even the most fortunate:  his father died when Cooper was 10 and a decade later his older brother committed suicide.  These events lead Cooper to journalism, so that he can tell the stories of how people around the world deal with trauma when the order of their lives is turned upside down.  Our reader found this memoir to be both moving and informative and recommends it.

Our next book is a historical drama based on a mysterious meeting. Copenhagen by Michael Frayn tells a somewhat fictionalized story of the actual meeting between two giants of physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, friends who were on opposite sides during World War II.   Heisenberg, a German physicist, made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen in December of 1941 to visit his friend and mentor Niels Bohr.  This play examines intersection between physics, metaphysics and the human condition, set against the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.  Our reader said this was very well written,  and the critics agreed--it won the Tony Award in 2001 for Best Play.

 

The next book was lighter fare: Pianos and Flowers by Alexander McCall Smith.  This fun book was a collaboration between Smith and the Sunday Times Newspaper.  The Times gave Smith pictures from old issues which Smith used to create the 14 short stories in this book.  The stories are purely fiction, but are about the common everyday Scottish people captured in time by the photos. Our reader thought this book was delightful and highly recommends it.

 

Next up was A House at the Bottom of the Lake by Josh Malerman.  This fairy-tale like novella tells the story of young lovers James and Amelia who discover a house, completely intact, sitting at the bottom of a hidden lake.  Why is it there and what does it mean to and about James and Amelia?  Our reader found this short book to be page turning worthy, and recommends it.  

 

Our next reader reviewed Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah.   This autobiography details Noah’s growing up in South Africa during the apartheid era when he literally was a crime – his father was white and his mother black and therefore he was considered “mixed race.”  Noah writes in detail about his mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo and how her stubbornness, fierceness and extraordinary teaching skills helped him navigate growing up in a country that was in constant turmoil and awash in poverty and violence.  This New York Times Bestseller was highly recommended by our reader.