New Fiction in November!

 

November

Afshar, Tessa  The Royal Artisan

Andrews & Wilson Tom Clancy Executive Power (Jack Ryan)

Armstrong, Jess The Devil in Oxford (Ruby Vaughn)

Baldacci, David  Nash Falls

Baldree, Travis  Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes)

Bowen, Rhys  From Cradle to Grave (Royal Spyness)

Braithwaite, Oyinkan Cursed Daughters

Child, Lee  Exit Strategy

Coble, Colleen  Prowl

Constantine, Liv My Sister’s Daughter and Silent Echo: Two Thrillers

Elliott, Kate  The Nameless Land (Witch Roads)

Evanovich, Janet  The King’s Ransom (Recovery Agents)

Evans, Richard Paul  The Christmas Stranger

Forsyth, Frederick  Revenge of Odessa

Griffin, Laura  Innocence Road

Harrow, Alix E.  The Everlasting

Irving, John  Queen Esther

Islington, James The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy)

Karp, Marshall  NYPD Red 8: The 11:59 Bomber

Lupica, Mike Robert B Parker’s Showdown (Spenser)

Mallery, Susan  Otherwise Engaged

Maden, Mike  Clive Cussler Quantum Tempest

Margolin, Phillip  False Witness

O’Connor, Carlene  Come Through Your Door

O’Nan, Stewart  Evensong

Patterson, James  Return of the Spider (Alex Cross)

Pearson, Mary E.  The Last Wish of Bristol Keats

Reichs, Kathy Evil Bones (Temperance Brennan)

Roberts, Nora  The Seven Rings (Lost Bride Trilogy)

Rushdie, Salman The Eleventh Hour:  A Quintet of Stories

Scalzi, John  Constituent Service

Spencer-Fleming, Julia  At Midnight Comes the Cry (Clare Fergusson)

Steel, Danielle  The Color of Hope

Yagisawa, Satoshi  Days at the Torunka Café

Nevermore Tibetan Peach Pie, No Plan B, Killers of a Certain Age

 

Reported by Rita

Tibetan Peach Pie: a True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins

Inviting readers into his private world, an internationally best-selling author and American icon shares stories from his unconventional life, from his Appalachian childhood to his adventures around the world, that is as unlikely, magical and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.

 Robbins was a fantastic writer and he lived an interesting life.  – MH   5 stars

 

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Sent on an all-expense paid vacation to mark their retirement, four assassins discover they've been marked for death, forcing them to turn against their own organization and teach them what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

Fun and likable.      – WJ      5 stars      

 No Plan B: a Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

Witnessing a woman pushed to her death in front of a bus, Jack Reacher, following the killer on foot, is unaware that this is part of a secret conspiracy with many moving parts with no room for error and any threats will be permanently removed, including Reacher.

An excellent book, full of intrigue and mayhem.       – FE       5 stars

 

Other Books Mentioned

Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore

Anne of Green Gables  adapted by Katherine Woodfine

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Stupid American History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions by Leland Gregory

Dead Center: Behind the Scenes at the World's Largest Medical Examiner's Office by Shiya Ribowsky

Living in the Light: Yoga for Self-Realization by Deepak Chopra

Trader of Secrets by Steve Martini

Saints and Villains: a Novel by Denise  Giardina

Blameless by Gail Carriger

The Screwtape Letters: with, Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C. S. Lewis

A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage: a Novel by Asia Mackay

New Books

The Life of Herod the Great: a Novel by Zora Neale Hurston

Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian

Go As a River by Shelley Read

We Do Not Part: a Novel by Kang Han

The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin

New in October!

 

October 2023 New Books

It's October, so it must be time for the new Christmas books to come out-- or so it seems from the list.  It's certainly time to get into the spirit! (pun may have been intended....) Some big name authors also have non-seasonal titles coming out this month: you may want to put a reserve on some of the more popular ones. 

Andrews, Donna Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow!

Cabot, Amanda  Against the Wind

Child, Lee  The Secret

Colgan, Jenny  Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop

DeMille, Nelson  Blood Lines

Evanovich, Janet Dirty Thirty (Stephanie Plum)

Grisham, John  The Exchange:  After the Firm

Hannah, Sophie  Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night

Herbert, Brian  Princess of Dune

Martin, Charles  The Last Exchange

McCall Smith, Alexander  From a Far and Lovely Country (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency)

McCloskey, David  Moscow X

McDermott, Alice  Absolution

McEntire, Reba  Not That Fancy:  Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots

McMahon, Jennifer  My Darling Girl

Miller, Linda Lael  Christmas in Painted Pony Creek

Morris, Heather Sisters Under the Rising Sun

Nesbo, Jo  The Night House

O’Connor, Carlene  Some of Us Are Looking

Parton, Dolly  Behind the Seams:  My Life in Rhinestones

Rosenfelt, David  ‘Twas the Bite Before Christmas

Sandford, John  Judgment Prey

Steel, Danielle  Second Act

Thayne, RaeAnne  Christmas at the Shelter Inn

Unger, Lisa  Christmas Presents

Ward, Jesmyn  Let Us Descend

Woods, Stuart & Brett Battles Obsession  (Teddy Fay)

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Alice Taylor was one of six children growing up on a farm in County Cork in the 1940s. At the time of this story, she was nine years old, an age when Christmas is still magical and filled with wonder. In this book she relates all the activity surrounding the twelve days of Christmas in a tight-knit community.

The book opens with a local merchant receiving his orders of dried fruit, knowing almost exactly how much each household will want for the Christmas baking. There’s a lot to be done to get ready, and Taylor describes it in vivid and loving detail, from going out to gather the holly to cleaning the chimneys.  There are letters to Santa to be written.  Cards arrive, even some from America. The one from Aunt Kate in New York is a glittery wonder this year, arriving far too early for Mr. Taylor’s taste, but the cheerful Santa gives the children hope that Christmas will indeed come—eventually.  The last to arrive is always the one from Uncle Dan, who left when he was 18 to become a sheep farmer in Oregon.

While Taylor beautifully captures all the excitement and anticipation of Christmas, she doesn’t shy away from the realities.  Those darling little goslings, raised so tenderly by Mr. and Mrs. Goose are destined for holiday tables and their wings will be used as dusters. The children all have to help with the farm chores, and lend a hand to neighbors when needed.

Some of these customs will seem familiar but others are relics of their time, or are family specific. The Taylors always bought new records, for example.  After Christmas Eve dinner, the gramophone is brought out so everyone can hear the new records. This year the favorite tune was “Come Back, Paddy Reilly, to Balljamesduff.” Taylor writes that the song was played constantly “until my father began to regret that his mother had not drowned Paddy Reilly in his baby bathwater….”

I was particularly intrigued by the “Hunting of the Wrens” which took place on December 26.  Thankfully, by this time real wrens weren’t hunted.  Instead, people wear disguises and go from house to house to sing for a reward.

I was charmed by the writing, especially the loving descriptions of cooking and chores.  There’s a bit of low key humor, too.  Their jennet is notorious for biting any unwary human who gets too close—Alice thinks it’s a good thing the jennet was not at the stable or baby Jesus would have been at risk, and the heifers don’t care for being rounded up.  Unpleasant things can happen around unhappy heifers. 

There’s no particular plot to this book, just a warm and wonderfully detailed account of Christmas celebrations of times past. I will admit that there were some things I wish had been explained a bit better (Women’s Christmas, for example, which is mentioned in passing as another name for Little Christmas which is January 6) but overall I just went with the flow.   It’s the perfect book to relax with during a hectic season.

Cleo: The Small Black Cat Who Helped Heal a Family by Helen Brown

Reviewed by Jeanne

I have reviewed Cleo before; I love all of Helen Brown’s books but this one holds a special place in my heart.  I’ve read it a couple of times at least, and checked specific passages more times than that.  However, it has finally come out on audio, read by the author herself, so I have a good excuse to bring it up again.

For the uninitiated, Cleo is the story of how a family ends up with a small black kitten after a tragedy.  Helen was a young mother with two sons and a somewhat rocky marriage when Sam, her older son, decides he wants a kitten as a gift for his ninth birthday. He picks Cleo out but has to wait until she’s ready to leave her mother. Before that happens, Sam is hit by a car and killed. 

Numbed and in shock in the weeks that follow, Helen is taken aback when the kitten is delivered after Sam’s death.  Her first impulse is tell the woman to take the kitten away, but her younger son, Rob, is insistent that they take “Sam’s kitten.” The kitten turns out to be a handful, but her antics prove a distraction from the pain the family is experiencing. 

I always say that this book is a bit of a hard sell because not many people want to read a book about the death of a child.  I picked it up because of the feline on the cover (of course!) but I admit to having reservations at first. What I found was a wonderful, warm meditation on life, love, family, forgiveness, healing, and cats, told with honesty, pain, and more than a bit of humor. She challenges her own assumptions, admits her failings, and shows her readers how she not only survived but thrived.  Her family and friends emerge from the pages as vividly as if I knew them personally, and Cleo—Egyptian goddess Cleo!—could be one of my own cats, had she condescended to live the Appalachian region with a clowder of misfit felines. 

In short, I adored the book and have given it to many people. It resonates.

When the audio became available recently, I thought it would be fun to check it out and listen to a little bit of it to hear Helen’s voice. (Her writing style is so intimate and warm that I feel we’re old friends so I can call her by her first name without feeling presumptuous.)  I wouldn’t need to listen to it all, since as indicated above, I had already read it; and besides, I am not much of an audio book person. I like reading. 

Well, audio fan or not, I was sucked in immediately all over again. I loved hearing the story in Helen’s New Zealand/Australian accent and I picked up on things I had forgotten from my reading.  I admit I had been slightly concerned before I started listening because I had listened to another book “Read by Author!” and felt that they really really should have employed a professional; words that had sparkled on the page died in monotone.  In this case, however, no voice actor could have read this book any better.  I had always loved Helen’s writing voice—the lush descriptions, the delightful choice of words, her use of metaphor—and now I could hear her physical voice, just as warm and friendly as her writing. She tells her story with impeccable comedic timing as well as with glimmers of emotion under the words.  

Print and audio versions come highly recommended!

(Note:  Cleo has been published in numerous countries with several variations in subtitle; our print version is Cleo: The Cat Who Mended a Family. This is true of most of Helen’s work.  My personal favorite title is Cats and Daughters:  They Don’t Always Come When Called because it reflects the content so well.  Please do not tell Helen’s current cat, Jonah, this since the same book carries his name in most editions. I would not hurt Jonah’s feelings for the world. At present, he joins Helen for weekly Facebook readings of the above book, known also After Cleo Came Jonah. See https://www.facebook.com/Helen.Brown.International.Author for videos and more information.

Also, followers of the Bristol Public Library's Facebook page may have noticed that Helen's books pop up frequently in the Flora Loves the Library videos.  You can see Cats and Daughters in the bingo video, Bono in the bookdrop video, and the audio book of Cleo in the the video about audio books.  Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/bristolpubliclibrary. 

I haven't worked Tumbledown Manor into a video yet, but stay tuned!)

Nevermore: Tattooist, Mars, Bone Clocks, Mosquito, Big Sky, Past Tense, Everything I Never Told You

Reported by Laura

           The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is a beautiful love story set in the most horrific circumstances you can possibly imagine. Lale Sokolov arrives in Auschwitz and is given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival. It’s love at first sight when Gita comes through his line and he resolves to save them both. The reviewer thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommends it.

            Packing for Mars by Mary Roach is a fascinating look at what astronauts go through to get ready to go back to space. Written in her usual humorous style, from the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s space capsule with cadaver filling in for astronaut, this book doesn’t disappoint. The reviewer found it interesting and funny.

            Set in small town Ohio during the 70’s, Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng explores the struggles within families as well as between cultures. The father is a respected professor and the mother endeavors to live her unfulfilled dreams through her children. Each child is facing struggles of their own, but when the “favorite” daughter commits suicide, the entire family is torn apart. Our reviewer enjoyed this book.

            The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell focuses on Holly Sykes, a 15 year-old in a relationship with an older man. She leaves home after arguing with her mother and finding her boyfriend with her best friend, then begins work as a picker on a strawberry farm to survive. Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena having heard voices she knew as “the radio people” while still a child. The farther she travels into the English countryside, the more intensive her visions become. The reviewer says that the book tends to jump from one character to another, but then ties them all together at the end. She recommends the book and this awesome author, who also wrote Cloud Atlas.

            The nonfiction book, The Mosquito by Timothy C. Winegard, explains how the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humankind’s fate. From the Civil War to today, the resiliency and dangers of the mosquito have changed the course of history. There is no really effective treatment against mosquitos, even DTT was ineffective while still being used. The reviewer found this book to be really fascinating and wished she could read it again and again!

            Big Sky by Kate Atkinson is the latest in the Jackson Brodie mystery series. This offering covers the difficult topic of human trafficking. A group of men in London advertise for well-paying jobs. When young women answer the ads, they are chained and used. The reviewer enjoyed the book and felt it had enough compassionate characters to outweigh the bad so that the subject matter wasn’t too overwhelming.

            The last book discussed was Past Tense by Lee Child which is part of the Jack Reacher series. Reacher decides to explore the small town in New Hampshire where his father grew up, but when he arrives, no one has ever heard of any family by that name ever living there. As he investigates, he befriends a Canadian couple who have broken down in the same area and become mired in lethal dangers. As usual, Reacher comes to the rescue in his own indomitable style . The reviewer found this book intriguing and didn’t want to stop reading it.