New February Fiction!

 

Adams, Taylor  Her Last Breath

Armstrong, Kelley  First Sign of Danger (Haven’s Rock)

Beaton, M.C.  Death of a Groom (Hamish)

Berry, Steve  The Devil’s Bible (Cotton Malone)

Box, C.J.  The Crossroads (Joe Pickett)

Burke, James Lee The Hadacol Boogie (Dave Robicheaux)

Coulter, Catherine The Heir of Whitestone

Farnsworth, Christopher Robert B. Parker’s Big Shot (Jesse Stone)

Fawcett, Heather  Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

French, Nicci  What Happened That Night (Maud O’Connor)

Greaney, Mark  The Hard Line  (Gray Man)

Goodman, Allegra  This Is Not About Us

Hurwitz, Gregg Antihero (Orphan X)

Johnson, Sadeqa  Keeper of Lost Children

Kellerman, Jonathan  Jigsaw (Alex Delaware)

Kubica, Mary  It’s Not Her

Lawson, Mike The Asset (Joe DeMarco)

Marshall, Kate Alice The Girls Before

McAllister, Gillian  Caller Unknown

Nesbo, Jo  Wolf Hour

O’Connor, Carlene  Murder at an Irish Session (Irish Village Mystery)

Page, Libby  This Book Made Me Think of You

Paris, B.A.  When I Kill You

Parks, Brad  The Flack

Patterson, James  Cross and Sampson

Phillips, Susan Elizabeth  And the Crowd Went Wild (Chicago Stars)

Quindlen, Anna  More Than Enough

Quinn, Kate  The Astral Library

Robb, J.D.  Stolen in Death

Rollins, James  Trust No One

Sanderson, Brandon  Isles of the Emberdark (Cosmere)

Shimeno, Nagi  Messenger Cat Café

Sundin, Sarah  Mists Over the Channel Islands: A Novel of World War II

Thor, Brad  Cold Zero

Ward, J.R.  Crown of War and Shadow

Woods, Evie  The Violin Maker’s Secret

Zhang, Jenny Tinghui  Superfan

New Fiction in October

 

Adams, Ellery  The Tattered Cover (Secret, Book, and Scone)

Albom, Mitch Twice

Andrews, Donna  Five Golden Wings (Meg Lanslow)

Armstrong, Kelley  The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow

Banville, John  Venetian Vespers

Beaton, M. C. Sugar and Spite (Agatha Raisin)

Brett, Simon Mrs. Pargeter’s Past

Briggs, Patricia  Blind Date with a Werewolf

Brunstetter, Richelle  The Amish Ballerina

Carr, Jack Cry Havoc (Tom Reece)

Child, Lee  Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories

Coben, Harlan & Reese Witherspoon  Gone Before Goodbye

Colgan, Jenny  The Secret Christmas Library

Connelly, Michael  The Proving Ground (Lincoln Lawyer)

Cornwell, Patricia  Sharp Force (Scarpetta)

DeMille, Nelson The Tin Men (Scott Brodie & Maggie Taylor)

Freeman, Brian  Photograph

Gish, Jen Bad Bad Girl

Graham, Heather The Sword of Light

Gregory, Philippa The Boleyn Traitor

Grisham, John  The Widow

Hannah, Sophie  The Last Death of the Year (Hercule Poirot)

Hannon, Irene  Out of Time

Hazelwood, Ali  Mate

Hill, Joe  King Sorrow

Hunter, Stephen  The Gun Man Jackson Swagger:  A Western

Karon, Jan  My Beloved (Mitford)

Kashiwai, Hisasi  Menu of Happiness (Kamogawa Food Detectives)

Kellerman, Jonathan & Jesse Coyote Hills (Clay Edison)

Klavan, Andrew  After That, the Dark (Cameron Winter)

Lee, Harper  The Land of Sweet Forever: Stories and Essays

Macomber, Debbie A Ferry Merry Christmas

Mackesy, Charlie  Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse, and the Storm

McFadden, Freida The Intruder

Mizushima, Margaret  Dying Cry (Timber Creek K-9)

Newman, Catherine  Wreck

Patterson, James  The Picasso Heist

Penny, Louise  The Black Wolf

Peterson, Tracie  A Moment to Love

Reich, Christopher  The Tourists

Rose, Jeneva  Dating After the End of the World

Sparks, Nicholas  Remain: A Supernatural Love Story

Stevens, Chevy The Hitchhikers

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.)

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)

New in September!

 Here are some of the fiction titles we're looking forward to September!

Atkinson, Kate Death at the Sign of the Rook  (Jackson Brodie)

Bentley, Don  Capture or Kill (Mitch Rapp)

Bradley, Alan  What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce)

Child, Lee  Safe Enough (Stories)

Dave, Laura  The Night We Lost Him

Deaver, Jeffery & Isabella Maldonado Fatal Intrusion (Sanchez & Heron)

Freeman, Brian Break Every Rule

Gilbert, Victoria  A Killer Clue (Hunter & Clewe)

Goldberg, Lee  Ashes Never Lie (Sharpe and Walker)

Haig, Matt  The Life Impossible

Jance, J.A.  Den of Iniquity (J.P. Beaumont)

Johansen, Iris On the Hunt (Kira Drake)

Jonasson, Ragnar   Death at the Sanatorium

Klune, T.J. Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles)

Koontz, Dean  The Forest of Lost Souls

Locke, Attica  Guide Me Home (Highway 59)

Madden, Mike  Clive Cussler Ghost Soldier (Oregon Files)

Michaels, Fern  Santa’s Secret

Novak, Brenda The Banned Books Club

Novik, Naomi  Buried Deep and Other Stories

Osman, Richard  We Solve Murders

Patterson, James and Ellis, David  Lies He Told Me

Powers, Richard  Playground

Robb, J.D.  Passions in Death

Rooney, Sally  Intermezzo

Strout, Elizabeth  Tell Me Everything

Sutanto, Jesse Q.  You Will Never Be Me

Walker, Martin  A Grave in the Woods (Bruno, Chief of Police)

Happy National Library Week!

In celebration of National Library Week, here are some books about libraries and librarians!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig imagines is a library with books for an individual. One book tells the story of the person’s life as it is, while an infinite number of others tell the person’s life if other choices had been made.  Nora Seed has found the library and now she has the chance to experience her other lives—and to decide which life is worth living.

The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander: Librarian Jess Metcalf moves to the English countryside after the death of her beloved grandmother.  She discovers she’s the owner of an old red phone box, which turns into the littlest library in England with heart-warming results.

The Last Chance Library by Freya Samson follows June Jones as she emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu: Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghost talker, and she now speaks to Edinburgh's dead - carrying messages to the living - but when she learns someone is bewitching children she investigates and discovers an occult library, a taste for hidden magic, and a wealth of Edinburgh's dark secrets.

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick is the story of a shy librarian whose kind heart is often exploited receives a mysterious book of fairy tales from the beloved grandmother she believed dead and embarks on a perspective-changing journey of astonishing family secrets.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman is a fantasy adventure series about librarian agents who must collect books from various realities.  Readers have praised it for its humor, imagination, and wordplay.

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan:  Nina, a "literary matchmaker" who takes joy in pairing readers with perfect books moves from the city to a sleepy village where she becomes a bookmobile driver and rediscovers her sense of adventure while searching for a happy ending of her own.

Nevermore: Christmas at the Cat Cafe, The Other Mrs., That Night

 

Reported by Garry

Christmas at the Cat Café by Melissa Daley is a follow-up to Molly and the Cat Café, and picks up a few months after Debbie has settled into her café and into a cozy relationship with her boyfriend. Molly, Debbie’s cat and the narrator of the series, has a new litter of rambunctious kittens to deal with, and into this idyllic setting comes the whirlwind of Linda, Debbie’s heartbroken, shopaholic sister who is dealing with an out-of-the-blue divorce. Unfortunately for Molly, Linda comes with Beau – a yippy little dog who hates cats. Our reader was all smiles reviewing this delightful, lightweight book that is as cozy as a cat purring on your lap.  MS

                                                           

The Other Mrs. is a mystery thriller by best-selling author Mary Kubica. Sadie and Will Foust are a couple of Chicago professionals who are in need of a reset, and when they inherit Will’s sister’s home (and her creepy, violent, 16-year-old daughter), they encamp to a seemingly sleepy village on an island off the coast of Maine. Things quickly go downhill when Morgan, their next-door neighbor, is murdered, and Sadie becomes the prime suspect. Kubica brings her trademark twists and turns to this nail-biter that kept our reader’s enthusiastic attention.  AH

 

That Night by Alice McDermott. “What a magnificent piece of literature!” was the summary from our reader. This novel was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Set on Long Island in the 1950s, the story surrounds Sheryl and Rick, a teenaged couple deeply in love, and also expecting a baby. Sheryl’s mother forbids her from seeing Rick, which sets off a chain of violent events that echoes down through the lives of not only the three main characters, but their entire community.  DC

 

Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy is the candid, in-depth biography of one of the biggest pop stars of the last century: Whitney Houston. Too black for some, not black enough for others, too pop for some, not pop enough for others, Houston was always trying to live a life that was not her own and be the embodiment of an image that was projected onto her by those around her both personally and professionally. Kennedy peels back the layers of the forces that ultimately drove Houston to addiction and death, and argues that if she had existed in today’s society, her life-trajectory would have been considerably different. Our reader remarked not only on the meticulous research by the author, but also on his sensitive handling of the tragic life and legacy of Whitney.  KM

 

Also mentioned: 

 

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

On The Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott

How It Went by Wendell Berry

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

The Shining by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

The American Women’s Almanac by Deborah Felder

The Churchill Sisters by Rachel Trethewey

Remainders of the Day: A Bookshop Diary by Shaun Bythell

The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

Mulch Ado About Nothing by Jill Churchill

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

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.