Lorna
I loved this clever picture book about a girl sharing art and letters with a pen pal as part of a school project. I never had a pen pal for school, but if I did, I would have wanted a unicorn. Josh Funk continues to amaze me with his fun, creative picture books. The art by Charles Santoso is perfect.
Two award-winning authors, one fabulous book!
Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (authors of the middle grade novel BOB) have joined forces again to create a fun, sweet mystery full of great characters (of the human, animal and ghost varieties) that revolves around a new little library that pops up in a small town full of secrets. It's a story about school, family, friendship and, most of all, the power of a good book.
Susan Casey's new book is my favorite kind of nonfiction: one where the author reads all the books, interviews all the key players and immerses themselves (pun intended) so deeply (pun also intended) in their subject--in this case, the deepest depths of the ocean--that they pull you into it with them, all the while informing, thrilling and entertaining the reader. It's full of first-hand descriptions of the creatures that live on the ocean floor and the history of the lives and works of the scientists and adventurers that have and are working to explore, explain and save our oceans and its creatures.
Another fun, interesting middle grade novel from our friend and local author Jacqueline Davies. Alice lives with her parents in campus housing at the college where her mom is a professor. Because of her dad's ability to fix anything--a talent Alice has inherited--they have been moved from one dilapidated house to the next. Determined not to move again, her mother forbids them to fix anything. Alice investigates the abandoned house next door, and after deciding to fix it up instead, she discovers that the house, and the ghosts that live in it, can use all the help Alice can give them.
Urrea's new novel is a fictionalized account of his mother's service in World War II as a volunteer "Donut Dollie" in the Clubmobile Corps for the Red Cross, behind the front lines. Good Night, Irene is a moving and deeply emotional tribute to the women who so valiantly served the troops while facing the dangers and horrors of war themselves.
Elizabeth Berg (along with Phaedra Patrick and Alexander McCall Smith) is one of the authors that I turn to when I want to read a book that will make me feel good. This is the prequel to her novel The Story of Arthur Truluv, but you can read it as a stand-alone. A simple tale of a young man growing up in the 1950s.
Susanna Hoffs (of girl band The Bangles fame) has written a debut novel that has all the elements of a great pop song. Clever writing about love and loss, with great characters and a story with enough ups and downs that has you rooting for a happy ending. Let this easy-to-read romantic comedy be your first beach read of the season, or, dare I say it, take it on your next plane ride. You'll understand once you read it and you will thank me.
As a fan of Seed to Dust, I gladly reentered the world, life and inner workings of Marc Hamer again with his new book Spring Rain. There are two stories being told--one about his difficult childhood, when he escaped to the world in his small backyard, and one about his current life as the older, retired gardener, planting one last garden, slowing down and reflecting on the past. His memoirs work as meditations on life and nature and are wonderful to read and relax into. Spring is the perfect time to read this book.
Art, food, family, NYC, twins and home confinement--leave it to Elinor Lipman to create another fun novel that you will dive into, shutting off the world until you finish the last entertaining and satisfying page!
This collection of essays about food and family have been gathered from nearly seventy writers throughout New England. Once I started reading them I could not stop. They are everything--funny, charming, appealing, entertaining, heart-wrenching and powerful. Each author has shared something unique from their lives and yet you will surley find something like your own story here, just as you will glimpse inside families and communities much different from your own.Profits from this collection will benefit Blue Angel, a nonprofit in Maine combating food insecurity by delivering healthy food from local farmers to those in need created by one of the editors, Debra Spark.
Geraldine Brooks has done it again. Horse is a wonderful read based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking Thoroughbred Lexington. The novel switches between time periods and characters to tell the story. It is a marvel from start to finish!
If you have not yet discovered the wonder and magic of a Sarah Addison Allen novel, I advise you to read Other Birds. Each resident of the Dellawisp Condos on Mallow Island comes with a history and a ghost from the past. The story begins when the newest tenant, a young woman moving in for the summer before she starts college, arrives and attempts to bring them all together through her sheer force of good will and determined friendliness. All this plus a cozy island setting, a reclusive author and a flock of extremely curious birds; I flew through it.
A Sunlit Weapon is a stellar addition to the Maisie Dobbs series. This is the 17th book and I admit to being a fan since the very first. This book begins in the fall of 1942; Maisie is asked to investigate the possible shooting-down of a plane being ferried to an airbase by a young female pilot. These historical mysteries follow Maisie, her friends and family along with her clients and are all the more interesting for their details of British life during wartime. I, for one, can imagine they would make a terrific series for Masterpiece PBS. The big question: who would play Maisie?
A professional wedding planner and her congressman brother appear to have it all. They are both intelligent and ambitious, Brooklyn-born and proud of their Puerto Rican heritage, but as their lives are revealed we learn how much more complicated they are. This debut novel from Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Xochitl Gonzalez was a joy from start to finish.
This second volume of the adventures of Skunk and Badger confirm for me that they are a new modern classic. Skunk and Badger are so appealing they will be loved by children and adults alike. The camping trip plotline in this story had me reading parts aloud to anyone around me. The illustrations by Jon Klassen are perfect (of course).
Helen Ellis is a southerner who lives in NYC; her frank, open and funny essays are about friendship, family and the wide cast of interesting characters she considers "her kind of people." You will laugh and cry along with her, and maybe, like me, you will think of her as your new best friend.
We can all agree SPACE is amazing. Paul M. Sutter makes it funny, interesting and amazing. If you would like astrophysics explained in the most entertaining and understandable way, this is the book for you.
Badger is happy living in his Aunt's brownstone doing important work with rocks, until Skunk appears on his doorstep. The fact that Skunk is moving in as his new roommate astonishes him. I loved this funny and clever story (that comes with charming illustrations from Jon Klassen), and it will become a favorite family read-aloud.
In this sequel to the bestselling mystery Magpie Murders, Susan Ryeland is no longer editor of The Atticus Pund crime series but she is again drawn into solving a real murder that is committed because of it. The mystery book within another mystery book is still a winning plot twist.
Like all the Chet and Bernie books, Of Mutts and Men is full of tiny moments of joy and humor. I have loved this series since it began. Spencer Quinn (pen name for Cape Cod writer Peter Abrahams) captures the spirit of all dogs in his narrator Chet. You don't have to take my word for it; he has been lauded by Stephen King: "Spencer Quinn speaks two languages--suspense and dog--fluently." The Boston Globe calls Chet "the most lovable narrator in all of crime fiction." If you want to feel good, pick up this book.
A Week at the Shore is the story of three sisters, a demanding, judgmental father, and a beautiful family home set high on a bluff above the Rhode Island coast. Twenty years have passed and the middle sister Mallory is taking her daughter Joy home to visit the house that she grew up in. She is immediately reminded why she fled to New York; there are family secrets, scandals, resentments and small town gossip.If you are looking for a summer escape, this is the book for you. I was immediately caught up in the Aldiss family story and dove in eagerly, letting the waves of the story wash up over me.
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Based on a true story, The Imperfects gives us a little history, a little mystery and a lot of family drama. The Millers are brought together when the youngest granddaughter discovers a 137-carat yellow diamond in a brooch that belonged to their recently deceased grandmother Helen, revealing a hidden life they knew nothing about. The news of the secret diamond gets out and the family has to work together to find the provenance that will allow them to keep it--or sell it--for the money they all so desperately need. This is the perfect story to get caught up in that will take your mind off everything, including your own family.
Antonia, a recently retired college English professor, is still mourning the loss of her husband Sam, a kind, socially progressive doctor. Living in Vermont, she is surrounded by farmers and immigrants (she is one herself, in fact) but without her husband she can no longer deal with the simple problems around her house, let alone the complicated issues of the local immigrant population--and then there are her sisters. Alvarez writes about life and relationships beautifully with truth and compassion. I was completely caught up in Antonia's story from the moment the book began.
Three crimes, decades apart, each involving a young woman in a party dress found dead on a deserted road, are at the heart of this new mystery from Julia Spencer-Fleming. This is book nine in the Reverend Clare Fergusson/Chief Russ Van Alstyne mystery series. As with Louise Penny--who is also a fan, by the way--each book can be read as a stand-alone with the crime resolved by the end, but characters and relationships grow as the series develops. If you are new to Julia Spencer-Fleming, congratulations, you have a wonderful journey in front of you, starting with In The Bleak Midwinter. If, like me, you have been waiting seven long years for this next installment in the Clare/Russ story, sit down, relax and enjoy the ride. It is a good one.
On the surface, Beheld is a historical novel based on a real murder committed in Plymouth, ten years after the Pilgrims settled there, yet there are many layers here beyond the facts. The story is told in alternating narratives, mostly by Alice Bradford, wife of Governor William Bradford, and Eleanor Billington, wife of the murderer John Billington. It is certainly not the Pilgrim history I remember and the novel is all the more interesting for that. Beheld reminded me of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter with its richness of history and my discomfort at the raw human emotion and conflict it portrays.
Life isn't easy on the South Side of Chicago for Claude McKay Love. His Grandma and her friend Paul are all he has left to guide him through. I read this wonderful debut novel in one sitting. Just read the first two pages and you will be hooked, too. The characters, the voice, the action are all new, fresh and appealing. I loved entering this other world, this other life that Gabriel Bump has created.
What seems like the most unbelievable part (brother and sister spontaneously combust when emotional, yet are unharmed) becomes totally believable in the hands of Kevin Wilson, known for his humorous and intelligent novels The Family Fang and Perfect Little World. So enjoyable to read, with a fascinating cast of characters!
Yes, it's about making beer, but it is also a book about family ties, what binds them together and what splits them apart. Two sisters, growing up on a family farm take two completely different paths. Edith gets married and starts a family, beer-obsessed Helen sells the family farm out from under Edith, without much regret, and builds a beer empire. I love Edith, by the way, and I love the way J. Ryan Stradal tells the stories of these two sisters.
Fierce and wonderful, moving and truthful, I love the story and characters in this amazing debut novel from Cara Wall. It reminds me of the best of Laurie Colwin and Elizabeth Strout. I fell into it completely, felt connected to it and did not want to leave it at the end.
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I have always enjoyed Chelsea Handler's books for their smart humor and honesty; you get that and even more here. Chelsea needed to figure some things out and finally turned to a therapist. What follows is an honest reflection of her life, career and family that I found both moving and fascinating.
Roar is what happens when a woman is confronted with an obstacle or a situation again and again. Bestselling author Cecelia Ahern knows what it is like to be a woman in a man's world, so she started writing little stories when something would happen, and used the stories she heard from her women friends too. I would call it a little book of modern feminist fables but that may not make them sound as entertaining, or funny, or twistedly wonderful as they are. These stories will make you think, and make you laugh, and want to share them with your friends.
On the surface this is a novel about an inner-city girl who wants to be a rapper and has the skills and lineage to get her there--but it is much more than that. Angie Thomas brings us back to the world she created in her first powerful bestseller The Hate U Give. Both novels go way beyond just the social issues they portray because Angie Thomas is a crazy-talented writer. I can't wait to see what she will share with us next.
A famous artist is found standing by the dead body of her equally famous photographer husband one night and she won't say a word, for years, even after she is found guilty of his murder. Enter a criminal psychologist who is obsessed with getting her to talk.
I loved Lucille Howard when I met her in Berg's last novel The Story of Arthur Truluv so I was thrilled to find out that she was the central character in Night of Miracles. Lucille is old and won't put up with any nonsense but she is also wise, funny and kind. She offers comfort beyond the wonderful baked goods that she shares in her cooking classes. You don't have to read Arthur Truluv first but I hope you will enjoy both visits to Mason, Missouri as much as I did.
The LaCruz family has come together for two momentous occasions, a funeral and a birthday party. I loved every bit of this wonderful family saga. This is a must-read for lovers of John Irving.
A fascinating novel set during New York City's Gilded Age, centering on the life of Alva Vanderbilt, wife of William K. Vanderbilt, and her part in the building up of that family's reputation and place in society. It was so interesting and so well-done.
File Anne Youngson's debut novel (at the age of 70) under 'good things that come in small packages'. An English farm wife and a Danish museum curator begin a correspondence. Their lives couldn't be more different; the curator even needs an English dictionary at his side to be sure of the meanings of some words, but they manage, through all that, to tell each other the stories of their lives and give voice to their feelings through the intimacy of letter writing.
This novel is all about family, friendship, and community. Set in the same fictional Vermont town that appeared in her first novel, Miller presents a story of a mysterious will, a lost dog, and a big-box store that is threatning to change life in Guthrie forever. The people who inhabit Guthrie have known each other for a long time, are always willing to lend a hand, and are known for doing what is right. I loved Louise Miller's first book and I was even more moved and charmed by this one.
Funny as always, but poignant too, David Sedaris is back with a new collection of essays. His family looms larger in this book. As his father ages, Sedaris gathers his family for vacations at the house he has bought near the Carolina coast. Along with his usual sharp observations about store clerks, his fitbit, and life with Hugh, he opens up about the loss of his mother and his sister Tiffany. Whether you chose to read it yourself or listen to him read it to you (on CD or Libro.fm download), you will find yourself making time to stay with it just a little longer.
Every time I sit down to read Sloane Crosley's brilliant, funny essays I realize how much I enjoy how she thinks, what she pays attention to, and what she remembers. Sharp witted, laugh out loud funny, Sedaris-esque -- my words fail me but my feelings are very strong. Wherever she goes and whatever she has to say about it, I want to be there.
(This book cannot be returned.)
The unexpected gift of a crock full of sourdough starter leads software engineer Lois Clary on a journey of self discovery as she gains new skills and new friendships in the halls of San Francisco food markets. This fun novel will have you craving a nice, crusty loaf of bread.
Artemis is part heist caper on the moon and part space travelogue, with plenty of science, laughs, and excitement along the way. Andy Weir (The Martian) makes life on the moon very real, and his lunar city, Artemis, is full of memorable and cutthroat characters. There are plenty of rules to keep everyone safe, but that doesn't stop Jazz Bashara -- moon kid, porter, and hustler -- from bending them to get ahead. Smart and quick on her feet, she is willing to do just about anything to make a slug.
t turns out that Tom Hanks the writer is just as appealing and engaging as Tom Hanks, the Oscar-winning actor. His seventeen short stories will take you to unexpected places, and they are at times funny, moving, and charming. For his legions of fans, this is a must-read book.
This wonderful debut novel follows a graduate student in chemistry as she tries to cope with the growing pressures from three different relationships in her life -- with her parents, her boyfriend, and her advisor. At turns funny and heart-beaking, I loved the writing, never certain where this woman and her clever mind would take me.
Pachinko begins simply with this beautiful line "History has failed us, but no matter." This sweeping historical saga tells the story of a poor Korean family, their immigration to Japan, and their attempts to prosper despite the difficulties and prejudices each generation must confront there. Min Jin Lee writes with grace, and the history that comes alive in the pages of this book will take root in your mind and in your heart.
A fallen theater director takes the opportunity to stage Shakespeare in a local prison, using inventive ways to entice the inmates to participate. I was enthralled from start to finish. Atwood has made a wonderful contribution to the Hogarth-Shakespeare series with her take on The Tempest.
This romantic-comedy debut novel has family, friendship, baking, and a dog named Salty. After I finished it I found myself wanting to drive to Vermont to find The Sugar Maple Inn. This is a sweet read for all New England romantics.
With each book she writes Jacqueline Woodson continues to exceed my expectations. Another Brooklyn moved me with it's beautiful language and it's stirring simplicity. Like Toni Morrison, Woodson captures the very essence of the time, place, and lives of her characters. Strong, simple, and pure, her writing is easy enough to devour in a sitting and satisfying enough to make me reflect, reread, and dwell upon it for days after. I am thrilled that Jacqueline Woodson has written another adult novel so that more readers have a chance to see what they have been missing.
Jonathan has an incredibly boring advertising job, a fiance who is a little out of his league, and a NYC apartment on a tenuous perhaps illegal month to month lease. His life changes dramatically when he takes over the care of his Dubai-bound brother's dogs Dante and Sissy. He laughs, he cries, he makes no sense. My affection for Meg Rosoff's new novel knows no bounds, it is pure fun, and a perfect summer read. "Ali Baba trout!"
How far should a wife go to protect her husband when he has been accused of a crime? What happens when she becomes his widow and the press and the police are still at her door? Already a bestseller in England, I enjoyed this debut thriller from journalist Fiona Barton and I will be waiting to read her next.
The world begins again after a flu pandemic wipes out life as we know it. A group of actors and musicians travel in a rusted out truck caravan pulled by horses and perform where they can. It is a strange life, and Emily St. John Mandel makes it beautiful and interesting. I can't believe I just read another dystopian novel and liked it!
Andy Weir's debut novel will remind you of Michael Crichton in his prime. Weir gives you great science, clever likeable characters and a believably taut story of a botanist/engineer, disco hating astronaut left for dead on Mars. Needless to say his character Mark Watney is now My Favorite Martian.
One of the books in our Young Adult section that we think more people should read. Time Magazine named it "The Best Novel of 2012" (ahead of Hilary Mantel and J.K. Rowling) calling it "damn near genius". I agree.
In this, her 10th Maisie Dobbs novel, Winspear gives us all that we have come to expect and more. More time with our favorite characters, more insight into British society post-World War I, and more of Maisie as shestruggles to make her way in the world and do what is right by those whom she loves.
Kristin Hannah tackles the tough issues that surround a family when the Mom, a National Guard member, is sent to Iraq. It begins with a marriage in trouble, then got very interesting when the wife was called up for a tour of duty in Iraq. The details of the deployment and what each family member goes through were fascinating. This is when the book finally captured me. I felt it was very realistic and found it quite moving.
I am a big fan of British society dramas and have really enjoyed watching Downton Abbey (which sadly, is an original screenplay by Julian Fellowes and NOT based on a book) so I finally picked up Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. A modern British comedy of manners where the widowed Major Pettigrew loves his little village, but isn't sure he approves of the changes that are in the works. He has developed a friendship with the local shopkeeper, and they share their appreciation for Kipling and good tea. This warm, funny book will keep you reading and is even better with a good cup of tea by your side.
I love this book, set in Montana in 1919, it's full of wonderful characters and beautiful writingEvery book lover should read it for the library scenes alone!
I can't say enough about this exciting read, Susan Casey weaves the research she did into the science of waves with the companionship and thrills she found following around big wave surfer Laird Hamilton and his gang who live in Hawaii but surf wherever the waves are. Like fellow non-fiction writer Bill Bryson, Casey knows how to keep the narrative going and will have you on the edge of you seat till the end of the ride.