#Dystopian

New Books Tuesday @ RRPL

semanurLeave a comment

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.

Meet Me at the Lake

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

Book Review: Lark Ascending by Silas House

carolLeave a comment

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

New Books Tuesday @RRPL

semanurLeave a comment

Here some of the new exciting releases for you to take a look at this week!

Poster Girl by Veronica Roth, Veronica – After the collapse of the Delegation, an oppressive dystopian regime, Sonya, a poster girl imprisoned for her involvement, is offered a chance at freedom if she finds a missing girl stolen from her parents by the old regime, forcing her to confront a past rife with lies and dark secrets.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – The son of an Appalachian teenager uses his good looks, wit and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses in the new novel from the best-selling author of Unsheltered.

The Favor by Nicci French – When she agrees to pick up an ex-boyfriend at the train station, Jude is shocked when the police show up instead of him and, realizing she knows nothing about the man he’s become, becomes entangled in his life as she tries to uncover the truth.

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham – The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer examines life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln and how he navigated the crises of slavery, secession and war by both marshaling the power of the presidency while recognizing its limitations.

A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin – Fresh off of helping his daughter Samantha find her missing husband, Inspector John Rebus investigates another surprising crime in the latest addition to the long-running thriller series following A Song for the Dark Times.

 The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man by Paul Newman – Culled from thousands of pages of transcripts, this raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of the greatest movie star of the past 75 years, told with searing honesty, covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward and his innermost fears and passions and joys.

Robert Ludlum’s The Blackbriar Genesis by Simon Gervais – When an undercover Treadstone agent is murdered in Prague, but none of his superiors know what he was doing there, Blackbriar operatives Helen Jouvert and Donovan Wade are sent to investigate, drawing them into a world of conspiracy and fake news.

The Last Chairlift by John Irving – Growing up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past, Adam goes to Aspen, where he was conceived, to learn the truth about his mother, a former slalom skier and ski instructor, and meets some ghosts, which aren’t the first or the last ones he sees.

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro – When the Shenkmans arrive on Division Street, their brilliant, lonely son Waldo, who has a native ability to find connections in everything, befriends Dr. Wilf, who is harboring a dark secret, setting in motion a chain of events that cause the past to come back with a vengeance.

The Christmas Spirit by Debbie Macomber – When Pete, a local pastor, and his best friend, Hank, a bartender, decide to switch jobs until Christmas Eve, they begin to see each other’s lives in a new light as they each discover a new love to cherish, forever changing their lives.

Liberation Day by George Saunders – This brilliant collection of stories, written with the author’s trademark prose – wickedly funny, unsentimental and perfectly tuned, encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham – The #1 New York Times best-selling author sets the stage for his most gripping thriller yet as he returns to Mississippi where his page-turning twists and turns lead to a stunning conclusion.

~Semanur

New Books Tuesday @ RRPL

semanurLeave a comment

Here we have some new exciting releases for you to take a look at this week!

It All Comes Down to This by Therese Anne Fowler – Three sisters—Beck, a freelance journalist; Claire, a pediatric cardiologist; and Sophie, an Instagram influencer—come together to sell the family’s summer cottage in Maine, which becomes complicated by an enigmatic ex-con with his own hidden past. By a New York Times best-selling author.

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley – When a drunken altercation with a stranger turns into a job she desperately needs, Kiara, who supports her brother and an abandoned 9-year-old boy, starts nightcrawling until her name surfaces in an investigation exposing her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.

Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley – An advice columnist breaks her rule for never talking to other commuters on the train when she witnesses a nurse save another man choking on a grape.

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley – From a New York Times best-selling author and Thurber Prize finalist comes a twisted mystery on the metaphysics of modern love, memory and mind control.

James Patterson by James Patterson: The Stories of My Life by James Patterson – A #1 best-selling author shows how a boy from small-town New York made it to literary stardom.

These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany – Each navigating love, sex and the one night that changes it all, three Muslim best friends, Malak, Kees and Jenna, as their lives begin to take different paths, must find a way back to each other as they reconcile faith, family and tradition.

Aurora by David Koepp – When a solar storm knocks out the power across the globe, Aubrey Wheeler, in Aurora, Illinois, becomes the fierce protector of her suburban neighborhood, while across the country, her brother, a Silicon Valley CEO, hunkers own in his gilded desert bunker, leading to a long-overdue reckoning between siblings.

Counterfeit by Kristin Chen – Follows the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise.

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro – Introduces readers to the dark, labyrinthine world of The Talents.

Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta – Tracy Flick, the iconic protagonist of Election, is back in full force as the hardworking assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey where she, energized by the prospect of a long-overdue promotion, sets out to prove her worth and get what she deserves.

~Semanur

Review of You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson

ShannonLeave a comment
You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Janina Matthewson and Jeffrey Cranor book cover and RRPL catalog link

Miriam grows up during the Great Reckoning, an apocalyptic war that destroys nations, displaces thousands of people, and kills millions more. Later, when civilization slowly begins to function again, the nascent New Society government concludes that tribal loyalties, including familial bonds, are to blame for the Great Reckoning. As an adult, Miriam perfects a technique that helps children to forget traumatic memories, and the New Society uses it in ways she never intended to create the Age Ten Protocols. The government takes babies from their families and raises them in child care centers, then erases those memories when they turn ten years old, destroying those dangerous family ties. Now an elderly woman, Miriam writes a memoir of her extraordinary life in the new novel You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Janina Matthewson and Jeffrey Cranor.

This book is a companion novel to Within the Wires, an audio drama podcast written by one of the writers of Welcome to Night Vale, Jeffrey Cranor, and writer and voice actor Janina Matthewson. Longtime listeners of Within the Wires will certainly find breadcrumbs of new information to chew over, as this novel provides much backstory to the world of the podcast. As a standalone novel, it is a stark dystopia that may confuse readers not aware of its extensive audio drama roots. I have listened to Within the Wires since its first episode, and as I read, I found myself preferring the podcast and the intimacy with which we get to know the characters. In this novel, the narrator is carefully writing her own memoirs in a New Society that will not publish anything too radical, so there is a substantial distance between Miriam and the reader that means we never really get to know her as a person.

However, the authors explore intriguing philosophical questions throughout the course of the novel: in a post-apocalyptic society, what lengths are too far to go in trying to prevent another worldwide war? Are family ties and tribalism truly the root of all war and conflict? Is it ethical – and if not ethical, then necessary – to erase memories and destroy families in the pursuit of peace? With Miriam as our unreliable narrator versus the New Society’s narrative, who is telling the truth? Fans of Within the Wires and new readers who are intrigued by this unique concept for a dystopian novel should check this one out. If you like the book, make sure to listen to the podcast in your favorite podcast app!

Release date: December 7, 2021

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader Copy!

New Books Tuesday @ RRPL

semanurLeave a comment

These are the books we are adding to our collection this week. Click on the blue text to go to our catalog and place a hold today!

Body of Stars by Laura Maylene Walter – A debut novel by an award-winning short-story writer imagines a dangerously psychic alternate-reality world where the birthmarks, freckles and moles on a woman’s body determine her future role and security.

The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry – Returning to her Southern hometown in the wake of a tragedy, Lila and her brother uncover details surrounding their domineering mother’s suspicious death, who had been in the care of their third sibling.

Meant to Be by Jude Deveraux – The award-winning author of A Knight in Shining Armor presents a latest historical family saga chronicling the lives and loves of three generations of women in a small Kansas community.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex – A debut non-pseudonymous novel of psychological suspense, based on true events, follows the experiences of three wives on a remote Cornish Coast tower when their lighthouse-keeper husbands go mysteriously missing.

Win by Harlan Coben – A high-suspense follow-up to the best-selling The Boy from the Woods is presented from the viewpoint of Myron Bolitar’s fan-favorite sidekick, Windsor Horne Lockwood III. TV tie-in.

Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs – Tapped by the FBI to investigate the disappearance of an entire small community, mated werewolves Charles Cornick and Anna Latham become dangerously compelled by a mysterious force in the nearby California mountains.

Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson – Investigating the murder of a property developer in Yorkshire, Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his team begin scanning the victim’s security tapes only to discover that a brutal second crime was also captured.

The Energy Paradox: What to Do When Your Get-Up-and-Go Has Got Up and Gone by Steven R. Gundry – The best selling author of The Longevity Paradox expands upon previous discussions about gut, microbiome and mitochondrial health, linking immune malfunctions to the physical and mental symptoms of fatigue while outlining recommendations for bolstering energy and brain stamina.

No Pain, No Gaines: The Good Stuff Doesn’t Come Easy  by Chip Gaines – The star of HGTV’s Fixer Upper shares anecdotal insights into the value of a strong network, explaining how a team of family members, friends and neighbors can become an essential component of personal success.

The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson – Serial Crimes Unit DI Anjelica Henley races to stop a copycat killer and prevent her own death before the ruthless murderer who is being imitated takes matters into his own hands.

Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig – A magisterial portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, and a major reevaluation of the profound yet underappreciated impact the First Lady’s political instincts had on LBJ’s presidency.

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America by Kate Washington – Despite feeling profoundly alone while providing care to her sick husband, a writer discusses how she discovered she was one of millions of exhausted and stressed unpaid caregivers in America and argues that more should be done to support them.

The Performance by Claire Thomas – An unbending professor on the cusp of retirement, a philanthropist with a traumatic past and a theater usher worried for her girlfriend become unexpected companions during a play that is interrupted by a suddenly out of control wildfire.

~Semanur