What's Hot for April!

 It's time to see what books top the reserve list at Bristol Public Library:

16. Miss Julia to the Rescue by Ann B. Ross is the thirteenth in the series and will be welcomed by fans of the feisty widow. 

15. Loving by Karen Kingsbury is the fourth and final book in the Bailey Flanigan series, about a young woman who leaves home to find a career and adventure.  The earlier titles are Leaving, Learning and Longing. 

14. The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark uses Biblical archaeology and lore in her newest mystery.  Biblical scholar Jonathan Lyons believes he’s found a letter written by Jesus, but before his discovery is confirmed Lyons is found murdered.  The police believe he was shot by his wife, an Alzheimer’s sufferer who knew he was having an affair.  It’s up to the couple’s daughter Mariah to uncover the truth.

13. The Innocent by David Baldacci is the Virginia author’s latest thriller.  Government hit man Will Robie has never refused an assignment—until now.  Soon he finds himself on the run with a young girl who may hold the key to a vast conspiracy.  The book will be published April 17.

12.  Home Front by Kristin Hannah is back on the list after dropping off for a month. This contemporary family story deals with a family’s struggle when the wife is deployed to Iraq. Hannah practiced law before becoming a full time writer and has won numerous romance writer awards.

11. Force of Nature by C.J. Box is the new mystery thriller with Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.  This series is picking up fans very quickly! The first book in the series, Open Season, was a major award-winner, and Box has maintained a high standard.  He has also written several standalone novels.

10. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James is the new digital phenomenon.  Originally available only as an ebook, it will be published as a traditional book in April with two sequels to follow.  The steamy plot concerns a young naïve college student who becomes attracted to an older, very wealthy and very worldly businessman.

9.What Doesn’t Kill You by Iris Johansen focuses on Catherine Ling, a character introduced in Chasing the Night, who embarks on a globe-trotting chase to find the creator of a very powerful and undetectable poison.

8. Unwritten Laws by Greg Iles has been delayed but should be published in 2012.  This is the long-awaited first part of his newest thriller, delayed when Iles was severely injured in a car wreck.

7. Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas is the book in a trilogy by this increasingly popular contemporary romance writer.  Betrayed by her fiancé, glass artist Lucy finds herself being romanced by a new man—but is it love or a set-up?

6.  Unnatural Acts by Stuart Woods is the latest entry in his very popular and long running Stone Barrington series.   What appears at first to be an easy assignment— to show a billionaire’s son the error of his ways—becomes very complicated when an old case intervenes.

5.  The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani is not only a love story of two people, but a love story for two countries as well.  It’s also a very personal story for Trigiani: she based part of the book on her grandparents’ courtship.

4. Eleventh Hour by James Patterson is the new entry in the Women’s Murder Club series.  It will be published May 7, 2012.

3. Stay Close by Harlan Coben begins seventeen years earlier, when a husband and father failed to return home and hasn’t been heard from since. Old cases never go away; and soon a detective, a soccer mom and a down on his luck photographer will find the past can sometimes destroy the present.

2.  Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult examines the question of end of life issues as a divided family tries to decide what to do after a terrible accident leaves the father in a coma.  Picoult is wonderful at humanizing difficult moral questions, leaving readers both thoughtful and haunted.

And the number one reserve book is:

1.  Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris, the penultimate “Southern Vampires” novel. Fans are eager to see what’s in store for our favorite psychic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse.  Harris has said that she intends to end the series with book 13, so there should be only one more after this one.  If you want to start at the beginning, read Dead Until Dark.

See a book you'd like?  You can add your name to reserve list by logging into your library account or by calling the library to do it for you.

What's Hot for March!

Once again, we're going to highlight the most requested books at the Bristol Public Library.  These are the ones with the most reserves for Main and Avoca, not for the system as a whole so that we're listing what local folk really want.  As usual, there are some repeats from last month's listing, but most are new-- with at least one surprise entry. Here's the countdown:
 
11. Unnatural Acts:  A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods has Stone being hired to help steer a billionaire's son toward a better path.  Naturally, things don't go quite as planned.  This book will be released in April.

10.  Stay Close by Harlan Coben is a standalone thriller by one of the best writers in the genre.  A seventeen year old murder comes back to haunt the cop who failed to solve the case, and a woman who thought she'd left her past in the past. 

9.  Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas is the first in a trilogy by this up and coming contemporary romance writer. Lucy was doubly betrayed:  not only did her fiance dump her, but his new lover is Lucy's own sister.  Sam, a local vineyard owner, strikes up a friendship with her but just as Lucy begins to believe she has feelings for Sam, she makes a devastating discovery.

8.  Unwritten Laws by Greg Iles is now slated to be published in December, 2012.  This sequel to The Devil's Punchbowl was delayed when Iles was injured in an accident.

7.  Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James continues the story of Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy.  Austen fans and James fans are lined up for this one!

6.  The Adventures of Tintin is a collection of three of the comic books by Belgian artist Georges Remi who wrote under the name Herge.  Tintin has been a European star for decades--the stories began in the late 1920s and continued until Remi's death in 1986-- but many Americans weren't aware of his existence until the recent Spielberg film. Tintin is a young reporter who travels the world with his dog, Snowy, and becomes involved in numerous exotic adventures.

5.  11th Hour by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is the newest title in the Women's Murder Club series. It's due out in May.

4.  Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult is the latest best selling book from an author who takes contemporary issues and frames them as unforgettable family dramas.

3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the third and final volume in the enormously popular "Hunger Games" series.  You do need to read these in order, so start with Hunger Games and then Mockingjay before reading this one.

2.  Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris is the newest book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  It will be out in May.

And the number one book on reserve is:

1.  Guilty Wives by James Patterson and David Ellis is a non-series thriller.  Patterson's winning streak continues unabated!

Charlaine Harris: More than just vampires!

Some people really enjoy reading books in series. We're going to be including a list of some popular authors and series on the blog occasionally so that folks can find a list of the series books in order.

Charlaine Harris is a bestselling mystery author who likes to add a dollop of the supernatural to some of her books. While she's best known for her Sookie Stackhouse series, she already had several books to her credit.

Southern Vampire Series:

Sookie Stackhouse is a barmaid in Louisiana. Vampires, shape-shifters and other supernatural beings have come out of the shadows and been granted citizenship, so the bar has quite the varied clientele. Sookie herself is telepathic, a gift—or curse—that has made relationships with humans rather difficult, but she feels quite at home with the “others.” These books are the basis for the “True Blood” TV series. You can read them as standalones, but are somewhat more enjoyable read in order:

• Dead Until Dark
• Living Dead in Dallas
• Club Dead
• Dead to the World
• Dead as a Doornail
• Definitely Dead
• All Together Dead
• From Dead to Worse
• Dead and Gone
• Dead in the Family
• Dead Reckoning (2011)

A Touch of Dead is a collection of the Sookie short stories, many of which have appeared in other story collections.
Note: The library also holds DVD copies of the “True Blood” series.

Harper Connelly Series:

After being struck by lightning, Harper finds she can locate bodies and know how people died. Together with her step-brother/manager Tolliver, Harper travels the country to help solve murders and missing person cases.
• Grave Sight
• Grave Surprise
• An Ice Cold Grave
• Grave Secret

Harris also did two very well regarded non-supernatural mystery series. Aurora “Roe” Teagarden is a librarian and true crime enthusiast in Georgia who meets with a group to rehash murders such as Jack the Ripper or Lizzie Borden. When real murders occur, Roe uses her talents to solve those as well. These books tend to be a bit more lighthearted and don’t necessarily have to be read in order.
• Real Murders
• A Bone to Pick
• Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
• The Julius House
• Dead Over Heels
• A Fool And His Honey
• Last Scene Alive
• Poppy Done to Death

The second series featured Lily Bard, a martial arts expert in Shakespeare, Arkansas is trying to escape her past. These stories were darker and more serious, and should be read in order because of the way Lily’s characters changes. Harris has said that she is finished with the Lily Bard series and doesn’t plan to write any more. In order, the books are:
• Shakespeare's Landlord
• Shakespeare's Champion
• Shakespeare's Christmas
• Shakespeare's Trollop
• Shakespeare's Counselor

Happy reading!