Literary Fiction
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
In this week’s special picks there are new exciting detective, mystery, suspense, and many more genres for you to choose from! Enjoy!
The 23rd Midnight
When an obsessed maniac turns serial killer Evan Burke’s true-crime story into a playbook, adding some of his own gruesome touches, Detective Lindsay Boxer, who put Burke in jail, tracks this elusive suspect, who is determined to put an end to the Murder Club permanently.
The Wedding Planner
Signing up for several lavish affairs, in addition to her mother’s next marriage and her twin sister’s modest ceremony, wildly successful wedding planner Faith Ferguson grapples with private quarrels, unplanned pregnancies, family scandals, dark secrets and almost cancelled ceremonies, proving that there is more than one path to happily ever after.
The Bride Wore White
When she is kidnapped, drugged and wakes up in a bloodstained wedding dress next to a dead man, psychic Prudence Ryland, framed for murder, knows who the real killer is and finds an unexpected ally in Jack Wingate, a crime boss’s associate, who is the only one who believes her.
All the Days of Summer
A divorced empty-nester moves into a cottage on Nantucket and is irritated when her adult son arrives with his serious girlfriend and the two women must learn to overcome their differences to achieve the future they want.
The Half Moon
Longtime bartender Malcolm Gephardt realizes his dream of owning a bar, while his wife Jess, a lawyer struggling with fertility issues, wonders how to reshape her life, in a novel told over the course of one tumultuous week, laying bare the complexities of marriage, family, longing and desire.
In desperate need of a lifeline, 32-year-old Fern Brookbanks finds it in the form of Will Baxter, who rescued her nine years ago, and, believing he is hiding something, but knowing he’s the only one who understands what she’s going through, wonders if she can do the same for him.
The Ferryman
A ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process and, when necessary, enforcing it Proctor Bennet, of the Department of Social Contracts, receives a disturbing and cryptic message from his father, while The Support Staff, who keep Prospera running, organize a revolution that causes Proctor to question everything he once believed.
~Semanur
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
There are tons of new releases that come to our shelves every week. Here are some books we picked out for you!
Things I Wish I Told My Mother
When Laurie, a nomadic artist, surprises her mother, an elegant perfectionist, with a dream vacation to Paris, which brings an unexpected sparkle to her eyes, mother and daughter unpack a lifetime of secrets and hopes in the City of Light.
Dark Angel
Letty Davenport and her reluctant partner from the NSA infiltrate a hacker group called Ordinary People and discover someone within their circle has betrayed them and put them in danger, in the second novel of the series following The Investigator.
My Heart Will Find You
While caring for an elderly man during the pandemic, Etta Wilmont, every time she falls asleep, passes through the past and the present, discovering she has the power to make the lives of others better – and the chance to find a love to last a lifetime.
The Only Survivors
When a group of classmates reunite to mark the tenth anniversary of a terrible accident, one of the survivors disappears, casting fear and suspicion on the remaining individuals, and on the original tragedy itself.
The Trackers
Commissioned to create a mural representing Dawes, Wyoming, for their new Post Office, Val Welch, a painter in Depression-era America, stays with a wealthy art lover, his wife and a mysterious elder cowboy where he turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.
The Fourth Enemy
While trying to prove Malcolm Vayne, a beloved philanthropist, is guilty of fraud, prosecutor Daniel Pitt must rescue his wife, a forensic scientist who has been kidnapped by one of Vayne’s crazed supporters, putting their lives and the case in danger.
The Seaside Library
Returning to touristy beach town where they grew up together, Ivy and Ariana, when a woman goes missing, find the circumstances similar to a crime from their childhood, placing them in a terrible situation since the person that may be responsible is the same one they lied for years ago.
Standing in the Shadows
In 1980, Nick Hartley, the prime suspect in the murder of his ex-girlfriend, sets out to find the truth, leading him down a dangerous path, while in 2019, Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in to investigate skeletal remains and must hunt down a killer.
~Semanur
What We’re Reading Now
Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George’s Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong. Linnea
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
A strange, twisting novel that resists being pigeonholed into one genre. At its simplest, this is the tale of a girl and her adopted siblings trying to find their missing father. A little bit of horror, fantasy, and science fiction are mixed with metaphysical, philosophical ponderings for a truly excellent, one-of-a-kind reading experience. Shannon
Looking for the Hidden Folk by Nancy Brown
Part memoir, part travelog, part call for conservation, part investigation into the study of belief on a material, spiritual, and conceptual level, Looking for the Hidden Folk is a book that defies sitting in a single genre. Author Nancy Marie Brown share her decades long love of Iceland by giving a historical and literal background along with her own travels and multiple visits. All of this is centered around the belief in elves. Brown takes multiple approaches to this topic but doesn’t offer a solid answer to emerge. This becomes a strength for the book, allowing readers to make their own decision or to maintain a solid position of ambiguity. A great read for someone who has visited/will visit Iceland. Greg
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
Vera Crowder always loved the house her father built. But the Crowder house was created to hide the secret life of a serial killer. Vera just happened to call him Dad. When her estranged mother Daphne calls to tell her she’s dying, Vera ends up back at the house where it all began. Now a twisted tourist attraction, the house has two occupants: Daphne and Duvall, an artist capitalizing on the family’s dark history. As Daphne packs up the place she once called home, she revisits the haunting moments shared inside the walls. This twisty horror novel gives new meaning to the phrase “home is where the heart is.” Melinda
The Golden Spoon by Jessica Maxwell
It’s the 10th season of Bake Week and six new amateur bakers have been selected to compete for The Golden Spoon. As before, they’ll gather under a big white tent in the mountains of Vermont on the grounds of Grafton Manor, family estate of legendary baker and host of the competition, Betsy Martin. Surprised by the addition of a co-host, supposedly to bring in younger viewers, Betsy is unhappy with how the season is going long before murder is committed. Quirky characters, fun pop culture references, and a few surprising plot twists, keep the pages turning. Readers who enjoy The Great British Bake Off and classic closed room mysteries should pick this one up asap! Stacey
The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
I loved Sarah Penner’s book The Lost Apothecary so I am eager to crack open her latest The London Séance Society. It opens in 1873, where the unlikely pair of Vaudeline D’Allaire, a renowned spiritualist, and Lenna Wickes, a woman investigating her sister’s death, team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve a high-profile murder. It’s sure to be a spooky and suspenseful read. Carol
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The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels: In 1986, Brian, a gay man who has spent the last six years in NYC, comes home to Ohio. The story is about reconciliation, grief, acceptance, and home.
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A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark: In 1912, Agent Fatma of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, along with her girlfriend, Siti, must solve the murders of a secret brotherhood. The suspected murderer is Al-Jahiz, who opened the veil between the mystical and earthly realms 50 years ago and is now vowing to destroy the world because of it’s social oppressions.
Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy: Saint Sebastian’s School is targeted by a serial arson and it’s up to Sister Holiday, of the Sisters of the Sublime Blood, to solve the case. This punk rocker nun must do all of this while confronting her checkered past and not get caught smoking…. Christine
Emily, a jaded Instagram astrologer, becomes obsessed with a client after reading his “perfect” birth chart. She pursues him romantically, with terrible consequences. In a parallel narrative, Dawn’s decades of unhinged dating behavior turn into a reputation that increasingly precedes her. Nobody is who they want you to think they are in this dark satire about image, excuses, and taking all the bad advice we can get. Annelise
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
A psychological thriller about a desperate mother, Isabelle Drake, who’s son Mason has been missing for a year, taken from his crib while he was sleeping, and the case has never been solved. She hasn’t slept for more than minutes at a time since her son went missing, and she is beginning to lose her grip on reality and to wonder what really happened that night. Her marriage has fallen apart and a true-crime podcaster has come to town offering to interview her and help bring publicity to the case. However, Isabelle has secrets in her past that may not stand up to the scrutiny of a podcast. Isabelle is desperate to know what happened to Mason, but will her deepest fears be true? Sara
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
There are many exciting new book releases coming and you don’t want to miss it…
ON THE LINE by Fern Michaels
Undergoing a series of genetic tests to learn the cause of his sudden illness, rising star chef Mateo Castillo discovers his results threatening to uncover a dark secret that will expose his family to dangers in the past, while clouding the investigation into who is trying to hurt him in the present.
HANG THE MOON by Jeannette Walls
After encouraging her younger step-brother to participate in daredevil activities leads to an accident, Sallie Kincaid is cast out of her family, in the new novel from the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Glass Castle.
HER DEADLY GAME by Robert Dugoni
After a failed romance with a coworker, a Seattle prosecutor must return home to her family’s failing law firm to work for her father until she accepts a high profile case in which the prosecutor is her ex.
HISS & TELL by Rita Mae Brown
Harry, Susan and Fair investigate the suspicious deaths of three people found in Crozet with a deadly drug in their systems with the help of their feline sidekicks in the latest addition to the long-running series following Claws for Alarm.
THE PERFUMIST OF PARIS by Alka Joshi
In 1974, Paris perfumer Radha, on the cusp of a breakthrough, travels to India where she enlists the help of her sister and the courtesans of Agra, who use the power of fragrance to seduce, while finally confronting a past secret, which threatens her already vulnerable marriage.
LOYALTY by Lisa Scottoline
Set during the rise of the Mafia in 19th-century Sicily, this epic story of good vs evil follows four individuals a desperate lemon grower; an idealistic lawyer with a secret life; a new mother; and a reclusive goatherd under constant threat of being discovered as a Jews as their lives collide.
LOVE, HONOR, BETRAY by Mary Monroe
With their sham of a marriage in danger, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins, desperately trying to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing, must decide whether or not to reveal the person who might be behind the serial murders plaguing their town, which would risk their own web of lies being exposed.
~Semanur
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
Take a look at some of the exciting new releases coming to our shelves in this week…
In this deeply personal memoir, the ultimate It Girl shares, for the first time, the hidden history that traumatized and defined her and how she rose above a series of heart-wrenching challenges to find healing, lasting love, and a life of meaning and purpose.
I Will Find You
Receiving evidence that his son might still be alive, an innocent father convicted of murdering his own child breaks out of prison to uncover the truth, in the new novel by the best-selling author of The Stranger.
Collateral Damage
After her husband is involved in a suspicious accident, Ali Reynolds must take his place at a ransomware conference in London and finds herself in a race against time as she uncovers mysterious vendettas that endanger the people she loves.
Hello Beautiful
Awarded a college basketball scholarship away from his childhood home silenced by tragedy, a young man befriends a spirited young woman who welcomes him into her loving, loud, chaotic household, in the new novel by the author of Dear Edward.
Good Dog, Bad Cop
Paterson Police Department’s Corey Douglas and his K Team investigate a suspicious crime near the Long Island sound that resulted in two deaths and a cold case, in the fourth novel of the series following Citizen K-9.
All That Is Hidden
Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is shocked when her husband tells her they are moving to Fifth Avenue and that he’s running for sheriff, in the latest addition to the long-running series following Wild Irish Rose.
So Shall You Reap
Assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant, Commissario Guido Brunetti must rely on gossip and the memories of people who knew the victim, and as parts of the puzzle come together, a connection to his own youthful past turns out to be the final piece.
Dust Child
The abandoned son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman during the war dreams of finding his family and a better life in the new novel, from the internationally best-selling author of The Mountains Sing.
Our Best Intentions
Caught in the middle of a criminal investigation after finding her classmate stabbed and bleeding, Angie, an introverted teenager, must navigate conflicting narratives while her father attempts to shield her and protect his hard-earned efforts to assimilate, which overshadows his ability to see right from wrong.
~Semanur
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
There are many exciting new book releases coming and you don’t want to miss it…
The Last Kingdom
When his protégé infiltrates a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany, with everything hinging on a lost 19th-century deed that is the legal title to lands that Germany, China and US want, Cotton Malone battles an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all intent on finding the last kingdom.
I Have Some Questions for You
A successful film professor returns to teach at her alma mater and becomes determined to investigate a closed murder case, in the new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers.
Burner
Court Gentry and his lover, Zoya Zakharova, discover they both want to capture Alex Velesky, who stole records from his Swiss bank employer, but for very different reasons, in the 12th novel of the series following Sierra Six.
A Calder at Heart
After losing his whole family to Spanish Flu, a former US Army Major heads to Blue Moon where the Calders welcome him and offer him a piece of ranching property in the third novel of the series following Calder Grit.
Every Man a King
NYPD investigator Joe King Oliver is tested when asked by his billionaire friend to defend a White nationalist who has been accused of murder, in the sequel to the Edgar Award-winning Down the River Unto the Sea.
A successful interior designer who keeps failing in her quest to conceive is shocked when she learns that a suspect in a recent murder investigation is her husband’s son from a long-ago donation to a sperm bank.
The Librarian of Burned Books
Set against the backdrop of World War II, this unforgettable novel, inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime, follows three women whose fates become intertwined by their belief in the power and goodness in the written word to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
~Semanur
New Books Tuesday @ RRPL
Here are some of the new books coming to our shelves this week for you to add to your book list!
Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson – A heartrending, intimate memoir from the iconic pin-up and former star of Baywatch.
Maame by Jessica George – A young British Ghanaian woman navigates her 20s and finds her place in the world.
Exiles by Jane Harper – A federal investigator, Aaron Falk, investigates the disappearance of young mother who left her baby alone in a festival crowd and vanished in the latest novel from the New York Times best-selling author of The Dry.
The Drift by C. J. Tudor – Hannah, trapped with a handful of survivors after an accident; Meg, stranded in a cable car high above snowy mountains with five strangers; and Carter, plunged into darkness at an isolated ski chalet, are all faced with something that threatens to consume all of humanity.
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano – Owing a favor to the Russian mob for buying a luxury car she accidentally destroyed, Finlay agrees to help identify a contract killer in the latest novel of the series following Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead.
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer – A redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery.
8 Rules of Love by Jay Shetty – The author of the #1 New York Times best-seller Think Like a Monk offers a revelatory guide to every stage of romance, drawing on ancient wisdom and new science.
Book Review: Lark Ascending by Silas House
In a future where fires ravage a North America that is run by extreme right-wing fundamentalists, 20-year-old Lark and his family have hidden away in the mountains of Maine for several years undisturbed. When ecological disasters begin to threaten their safety, their group secures passage on a boat headed to Ireland. After a terrible voyage they land, but only Lark has survived. Alone, he begins a harrowing journey by foot in search of Glendalough, a camp rumored to provide asylum. Along the way, Lark gains two companions – a dog named Seamus and Helen, a local woman who is familiar with the roads and the dangers of traveling them.
Lark Ascending by Silas House is a post-apocalyptic novel that is gorgeously written. Told by Lark at age 90, this novel about climate change, human behavior, resilience, survival and love will break your heart a few times on the way to its ultimately hopeful conclusion. Fans of Station Eleven and The Road should put this at the top of their to-read lists.
-Carol
Top Reads of 2022
We were supposed to choose our top ten, but some I read were in a series, so I grouped them together – cheating? nah, just a way to promote more books! Changes from previous years – I read a lot more nonfiction that I usually do – and not as much literary fiction, though there were a lot of enticing releases. Here’s the list, in no particular order.
Nonfiction:
One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank
Between the Woods and the Water and A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Beata Heuman: Every Room Should Sing by Beata Heuman
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Fantasy/SciFi:
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott
Graphic Novel:
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
Mystery:
Missing Presumed and Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner
The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
Vera Kelly Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht
Fiction:
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Lee
Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra
~ Dori
Read it or Weep 