Ghosts

Your Library Staff at Home – A Book and Two Cats

carolLeave a comment

This week I’ve not only made my way through a whole novel, I loved it! Oh, and I am currently reading and enjoying a second. I don’t want to jinx it, but maybe my “cold” stretch of picking duds of books to read (and/or not having enough staying-with-it-ness to, well, you know) is over…but I sure hope so!

The book I loved was Tuesday Mooney Talks To Ghosts by Kate Racculia. Tuesday is 33-year-old researcher who lives in Boston. To the outside world, Tuesday is an antisocial weirdo who got stuck in her goth chick days, but in her head she has ongoing conversations with the ghost of her best friend Abby, who disappeared when they were 16-year-olds in Salem. Tuesday breaks out from her solitude when a dead eccentric billionaire’s will is made public, inviting the citizens of Boston to participate in a macabre search around the city to compete for his hidden treasure.  She can’t resist going in and neither will you. This book has it all: mystery,  madcap adventure, Oujia board-wielding teenagers, mistaken identities, witty banter, intelligent writing–not to mention some heart-rending examinations of grief, guilt, friendships and romance.

tuesday

Are you convinced?  Place a hold in our catalog here

The book I’m reading now, All Adults Here by Emma Straub is brand new. I’ll keep you posted, but so far I can’t put down this novel about the flawed family of Astrid Strick and her adult children.

All this book reading has me sitting a bit more recently, much to the delight of our two cats, who I’ve decided are indeed the best of coworkers (no disrespect to my husband who is pretty good at sharing a workspace too). The cats, though, are excellent lap warmers and are the perfect partners in crime for when I’m looking for an excuse to stay seated and read just one more chapter. Thanks furballs!

Have a good week and if you’ve got one, give your own  furry coworker a head scratch for me.

Your Library Staff at Home – When things seem dark, seek out the light!

carolLeave a comment

I’ve had a tough time this past week finding joy in my recent book and TV choices. I only have myself to blame for watching Hunters–an Amazon series that actually landed on my radar because it is controversial. Al Pacino stars as a Holocaust survivor with many secrets–among them is that he heads up a group of New Yorkers in the 1970s, who run around murdering Nazis, Tarantino-style. Though slick, violent and action-packed, the usual recipe for a winning hit, I found that this show, which is in hot water after being accused of revising history and exploitation, was just not for me. Have you seen it? Agree? Disagree?

I read The Regrets by Amy Bonnaffons, a first novel that is touted as a “love affair between the living and the dead,” and I wanted to love it. The premise: Thomas is a recently dead man who is sent back to live for an extra three months because of an angel’s clerical error. He begins a relationship with Rachel, a living woman who feels unable to make fulfilling connections with others. It was quirky, sexy and original and I rushed to the end, but I ultimately found the star-crossed lovers’ relationship to be codependent and toxic. I’ll try Bonnaffons again, but no, for me, this one wasn’t true love. the regrets

Maybe these bold and unusual choices would have dazzled me in different circumstances, but right now I’m craving light. This morning I looked for new visitors at our bird feeder, noticing a smaller woodpecker I’ve never seen before, the mallard duck couple who visit here early in the mornings, and the many new flowers springing up around the yard. I am restored.

Take care of yourself, wash hands, read and repeat.

Her Fearful Symmetry

AnnLeave a comment

her fearful

Last summer, when I heard that Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife author) had a new book coming out, I put it on hold at our library. My name came up at the perfect time. I’m reading it now during the Halloween season, which is timely, since the new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, is really a ghost story. When Elspeth Noblin dies in London, she leaves her London apartment and her estate to her two young twin nieces whom she had never met. Elspeth herself was a twin, and her nieces, Valentina and Julia, are her sister Edie’s children. Now, the 21-year-old twins have moved to London from Chicago, but find that Elspeth’s ghost is haunting the apartment. Filled with the lore of cemeteries (Highgate Cemetery in London), spirits, ghosts, and family secrets, Niffenegger’s latest book is the perfect choice to read on a chilly October/November night (read with a spot of tea on the side of course!)

~Ann