Fall into a Good Book

EmmaLeave a comment

Three Sisters

In 1942, Cibi and Livi Mueller are rounded up with other young Jewish people and taken to Auschwitz. (Their sister Magda is in the hospital, safe for a while.) For two years Cibi and Livi face near starvation, abuse and manual labor. Eventually they spend time sorting through the belongings of those killed in the gas chambers. They also spend time at the camp’s post office going through packages meant for the deceased. Anything of value including food is taken by the Nazis.

In 1944, Magda along with the girls’ mother and grandfather are brought to Auschwitz. Miraculously, Magda is reunited with her sisters but the others are marched to their deaths.

As little girls the sisters promised their father to always take care of each other. The girls stand firm with that promise even after they emigrate to Israel. There each creates a new life but stands steadfast in the promise made to their father.

The final book in the “Tattooist of Auschwitz” trilogy is a difficult read about a real family. You won’t want to miss it. The series includes:

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Cilka’s Journey

Three Sisters.

~Emma

Kanopy Fright Fest Favorites to Watch Now

NicoleLeave a comment

My favorite time of year has arrived- Halloween season! We’ve got 10 days left until Halloween is here so you’ve got plenty of time to fit in some spooky movie nights with friends and family. Kanopy has shared their “Fright Fest” film selections and there are some really great options for you to stream at home. Don’t forget, Kanopy is an amazing media streaming service that gives you free access to top quality indie films, classics, and documentaries with your Rocky River Public Library card!

I’ve selected my top five terrifying recommendations for you to watch. Take a look below- if you dare.

Audition (1999)

Midsommar (2019)

It Comes At Night (2017)

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

The Lodge (2020)

What are your favorite films to watch this season? Share in the comments!

Fall into an Otherworldly Read

carolLeave a comment

Sixteen years after the publication of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, her 2004 award-winning, magical and mysterious alternative history debut novel, Susanna Clarke is back with another dazzling tale.

Piranesi, Clarke’s second novel, is a slim tome compared to her first, but similarly, it is another literary page-turner set an alternate reality. This time, her protagonist is not an 19th-century magician, but just a man, with a strange name, who lives in a strange place that seems unlike any reality humans have encountered before. This man, Piranesi, lives in a grand labyrinth he calls the “House,” which is filled with statues he speaks to. Though he can remember living nowhere else, Piranesi obsessively keeps track of the House, including its many halls and rooms, the human remains that he finds within them, and the tidewaters that flood the House and threaten to drown him.

Piranesi’s only human interactions are with a man he refers to as “The Other.” The Other is often away, but when he regularly meets with Piranesi, he asks for assistance in his constant search for “A Great and Secret Knowledge” that he believes is hidden within the House.

As Piranesi records his daily life and activities in his detailed journal entries, he begins to notice inconsistencies in The Other’s behavior, as well as inconsistencies in his own journals, prompting Piranesi to question what he really knows about his world and the possible existence of living other people.

If you love to solve puzzles, love literary fiction, or if you are just looking for something off the beaten path, pick up Piranesi, suspend your disbelief for a short while, and be prepared to be a-mazed!

Fall into a Good Book

EmmaLeave a comment
The Right Sort of Man
by Allison Montclair

The first entry in the “Sparks & Bainbridge” mystery series takes place in 1946 London. Two very different women from very different circumstances decide to embark on a new business enterprise they’ve named the Right Sort Marriage Bureau. Their goal is to help men and women find each other. Iris Sparks had job with British Intelligence and is unable to share much. War widow Gwen Bainbridge is at the mercy of her wealthy dead husband’s family who have legal custody of her young son. Their first client, Tillie La Salle, is murdered. The police assume the murderer is Dickie Trower, Tillie’s initial match from the Right Sort Marriage Bureau, and no further investigation is necessary. Iris and Gwen disagree. The two begin their own investigation to find the real killer and in that process to save the reputation of their business.

This is a clever story that fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Maisie Dobbs will enjoy.

~Emma

Fall into a Great Series

carolLeave a comment

I have mixed emotions after finishing Richard Osman’s second book in his “Thursday Murder Club” series. Yes, I loved every minute I spent turning the pages in The Man Who Died Twice, but now I am dismayed and left waiting for the next installment. It was that good!

Set in a quaint English town, this sequel to The Thursday Murder Club follows the adventures of octogenarians Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim, and it picks up where that book left off. The foursome, who lost some people dear to them and made some new friends (in the form of two local detectives), have grown even closer and still live in the same retirement community. Most importantly, however, they are all still obsessed with solving crimes and meet weekly to try and solve them.

In The Man Who Died Twice, readers learn all about Elizabeth’s past life as a spy with MI5 and all about her ex-husband Douglas. Elizabeth thought Douglas was gone forever, but now he has re-materialized. Douglas has stolen some diamonds from a dangerous bad guy, he asks the smartest woman he knows, Elizabeth, to help keep him alive.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim has been badly beaten in a mugging and now just wants to hide in his apartment from the world. The Thursday Murder Club set out to find whoever hurt their friend and when they do, be certain that the mugger will never underestimate a senior citizen again.

But will Ibrahim’s crisis distract Elizabeth from keeping both of her eyes on Douglas? She’ll have to ask her friends for help. As ever, they are up for the task.

You’ll want to read The Man Who Died Twice to the very end to find out if the club saves their man. Be prepared for laughs, red herrings, murders, and more in this truly entertaining read that is even better than its predecessor. Come for the crime solving and stay for the highly entertaining hi-jinx of a lovable slew of characters. And then just try to wait patiently for the series’ third book.

-Carol

Fall into a Good Book

EmmaLeave a comment
The War Nurse by Tracey Enerson Wood

In 1917 Julia Stimson, a gifted nurse, teacher, and administrator from St. Louis is offered the opportunity to recruit and train 64 nurses to serve near the front lines in France during WWI.  She is up to the challenge. On arrival, the nurses encountered primitive conditions and an ineffective system for dealing with life-threatening battle wounds. Julia worked hard to convince doctors that her nurses were capable of so much more that would greatly benefit the wounded soldiers. Slowly the doctors accepted the additional help leaving the severely wounded for them deal with.

The novel draws on the life of Julia Stimson (1881-1948). Julia wanted to become a doctor but was discouraged from entering the male-dominated world of medicine by her family. Among her various positions of leadership, Colonel Julia Catherine Stimson was head of Nursing Service of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.

The novel is a story of courage, sacrifice, friendship, bravery, compassion and a little romance.

~Emma

New Books Tuesday @ RRPL

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Here are some of the new books coming to our shelves this week for you to add to your book list!

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl – The legendary American musician, singer, songwriter and documentary filmmaker offers a collection of stories, written by his own hand, that focus on the memories of his life, from his childhood to today.

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen – As Christmas 1971 approaches, the Hildebrand family of New Prospect, Illinois deals increasing points of crisis including a stale marriage, the draft and their son’s sexual orientation in the first novel in a new trilogy from the author of Purity.

Fight Night by Miriam Toews – From the best-selling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows comes a novel about three generations of women.

The Survivors by Alex Schulman – To finally face what really happened that summer day long ago, three estranged brothers return to the lakeside cottage where an unspeakable accident forever altered their family and find a dangerous new current vibrating between them, testing their loyalty.

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza – The lifelong bond between two women, one Black and one white, is severely tested when one woman’s husband, a police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager, while the other woman, a reporter, covers this career-making story.

A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003-2020 by David Sedaris – In this follow-up to his previous volume of diaries, Theft by Finding, the award-winning humorist chronicles the years 2003-2020, charting the years of his rise to fame with his trademark misanthropic charm and wry wit.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles – In June of 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson, released after serving 15 months for involuntary manslaughter, discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car and have hatched a different plan for Emmett’s future.

Three Sisters by Heather Morris – After surviving years of imprisonment in Auschwitz, three Slovakian sisters travel to Israel where the battle for freedom takes on new forms as they face the ghosts of their past and secrets they have kept from each other to find true peace and happiness.

2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson & Candice Fox – After discovering that her estranged father became a private eye, attorney Rhonda Bird teams up with her half sister to run the agency, in the new novel from the world’s best-selling author of the Alex Cross novels.

Twisted Tea Christmas by Laura Childs – While catering a Victorian Christmas party for Drucilla Heyward, one of the wealthiest women in town who is about to make a huge announcement, tea maven Theodosia Browning finds herself steeped in murder when she stumbles upon Drucilla’s dead body.

The Butler by Danielle Steel – Taking a job working for Olivia, a woman who is trying to get her life together, butler Joachim, as his life falls apart, unexpectedly reaches a place with Olivia where the past doesn’t matter and only what they are living now is true.

The Jealousy Man and Other Stories by Jo Nesbo – The New York Times best-selling master of suspense presents this unique and unnerving collection of stories rife with insatiable greed, devious lovers and heartrending fate.

Foul Play by Stuart Woods – Stone Barrington uncovers a complicated scheme when he learns that a new client is in danger and putting his business and the safety of New York in jeopardy, in the latest novel of the series following Class Act.

Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger – Believing she had found true love on a dating app, a young woman is shocked when her lover intentionally disappears and she discovers many other girls who also thought they were in love with the same man.

~Semanur

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

EmmaLeave a comment

A sample of titles available from the library –

The Breast Cancer Book : A Trusted Guide for You and Your Loved Ones

by Kenneth D. Miller

The breast cancer cookbook : over 100 easy recipes to nourish and boost health during and after treatment

by M.R.S. Keshtgar

Breast cancer smoothies : 100 delicious, research-based recipes for prevention and recovery

by Daniella Chace

The breast test book : a woman’s guide to mammography and beyond

by Connie Jones

The cancer journals

by Audre Lorde

Pretty sick : the beauty guide for women with cancer

by Caitlin M. Kiernan

Radical : The Science, Culture, and History of Breast Cancer in America

by Kate Pickert

The silver lining : a supportive and insightful guide to breast cancer

by Hollye Jackobs

~Emma

Fall into a Good Book

carolLeave a comment

Sometimes I read a book and immediately want to re-read it. This is the case with Agatha of Little Neon, a debut novel by Claire Luchette.

Agatha is a nun, who, along with her three fellow sisters in a diocese in Buffalo, New York, has been diligently serving the lord. Agatha has felt safe, anonymous and lucky to have become part of a close-knit group of women. For years, Frances, Mary Lucille, and Therese have been her constant companions and they have fulfilled Agatha’s need for connection. When their diocese goes bankrupt, the four sisters are sent to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to oversee and become caretakers for a half-way house where they encounter addiction and real-world problems that are often out of their control.

It is there that Agatha, who is reeling from the loss of their convent and from being separated from Mother Roberta, their beloved Mother Superior, is forced further from her comfort zones into learning and teaching geometry at a local girl’s school because of shortages. There, too, is where Agatha begins to become disenfranchised with the Catholic Church and to question her limited role in it.

Not only are Agatha’s story and journey compelling, the language alone in this novel kept me turning the pages with its short, vignette-like chapters, filled with Agatha’s poignant and thoughtful ruminations. Agatha of Little Neon is a charming and smart, quiet novel of self discovery. Read it, and then maybe read it again.

-Carol