When Sherrod Brown and Connie Schultz got married in 2004, their’s wasn’t exactly a typical union. Both had been married and divorced; both had grown children. Brown had served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993; Schultz was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and columnist for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. To make matters more complicated, less than two years into their marriage, Brown announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Upon the conclusion of the campaign (Brown was victorious), Connie Schultz released a memoir of her time as a candidate’s wife, …and His Lovely Wife (2007), a truly delightful book.

…and His Lovely Wife traces Brown’s campaign from its earliest days, all from the point of view of Schultz, a political neophyte. Schultz experiences the dirty work of opposition research (her trash is searched), the complicated matter of the news media (she’s a columnist at a newspaper with a very politically-vocal editorial page), and family challenges (Schultz lost her parents during the campaign).

Ultimately, though, the book is not a political diatribe. It’s mostly the story of a young relationship between two old hands at marriage, in the most unusual of honeymoon periods. It’s a love story, and a joy to read.

For the politically interested, …and His Lovely Wife features cameos from numerous figures whose statures have only grown in the years since: Brown’s Republican opponent is current Ohio governor Mike DeWine; also running for Senate in 2005-06 were future presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar.

Schultz has also published a compilation of her Plain Dealer columns, the also-enjoyable Life Happens (2006). She will be releasing her first novel, The Daughters of Erietown, in June. My son Andrew was granted an advance reader copy of the book, and I will be sharing my thoughts on it next week! Check back then!

–Emma

     

Pandemic or no, it’s time to see what your library staff is reading now!

The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by James McKelvie

Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead.” This is the hook for Gillen’s and McKelvie’s graphic novel series The Wicked + The Divine. Set in a world where the deities manifest every 90 years and change the course of the world. In the current manifestation these gods are treated like pop and rock celebrities. They give “concerts” to their adoring fans, radiating divinity. There are believers but there are also skeptics who believe this all to be a long running hoax. A great series to get into, and all 4 collected volumes are currently available through RRPL’s Hoopla account. Greg

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

This is the story of two sisters on very different paths. Mickey is a Philadelphia cop whose beat is a neighborhood devastated by the opioid crisis. Kacey, her younger sister, is the victim of addiction and haunts the same streets, until she goes missing. Mickey is terrified that her estranged sister is the victim of a serial killer who is preying on the city’s most vulnerable women. For most of the book I forgot it was about a serial killer. Because really, it’s about sisters and family and motherhood and addiction. It’s about complicated relationships. It’s about the opioid epidemic. And yes, there is a killer preying on women living on the fringe of society. Loved it! Megan

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

Since discovering Steph Cha last July, I have torn through her three wonderful Juniper Song PI novels, and she has quickly become a favorite new author of mine. Your House Will Pay is Cha’s first standalone novel and a departure from her previous traditional detective novels. Here a police shooting of a young black teenager causes two families, one Korean-American the other African-American, to grapple with the lasting effects of a decades-old shooting that occurred during the 1992 LA race riots. L.A. Times announced Your House Will Pay as the winner of their annual Best Mystery/Thriller on April 17, 2020. Trent

The Turret House by Jenny Breeden

Peggy Mitchell thinks she has purchased her dream house to raise her growing family in Jenny Breeden’s Turret House. It’s when she goes to sleep that she learns the history of the house and its former occupants as history plays out in her dreams. Her experience further strains her already rocky young marriage. The cozy mystery is perhaps a bit too conversational but approachable for someone like, a scaredy-cat. Beth

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

I read and thoroughly enjoyed Doughty’s intriguing and humorous nonfiction title Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? last year, I opted to pick up her 2014 memoir, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. In this book she shares how her morbid curiosity and a job at a crematory eventually led her to a passionate career as a mortician and funeral director. Readers also learn about the often gruesome history of caring for corpses and many behind the scenes facts from working in funeral homes. Doughty’s refreshing honesty and amazing sense of humor luckily endows this dark topic with hilarious and uplifting moments, making for a surprisingly fun read. Nicole

I’ve been reading a lot on my Kindle, going between bestsellers I need to catch up on (Big Little Lies, Crazy Rich Asians), YA fantasy (A Court of Thorns and Roses, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels), new stuff (Book Woman of Troublesome Creek) and comfort reads (anything by Terry Pratchett). And obviously I’ve had a lot of time for reading! Shannon

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

I’m a big fan of Lisa Jewell’s “ordinary family with creepy secrets” style, and she does not disappoint with this one! Twenty-five-year-old Libby Jones receives a mysterious letter on her birthday, finally learning the identity of her birth parents, and that she has inherited their old mansion in Chelsea. She discovers that she was the abandoned baby found in that mansion with 3 dead bodies, and that four other young residents had gone missing. She does not know what to expect when she makes the journey to investigate her new inheritance and has no idea that four other people have been waiting for this day too–and that their paths will soon collide. A great quick and suspenseful read. Sara