Anna and the Swallow Man / Gavriel Savit / 230 pages / 6 discs

There are many books out there about World War II. Some are written for children while others are for adults. It is rare to have one crossover to where both audiences find gratification.
 The story begins in Krakow, Poland during 1939. The war has affected Anna and her father's lives and they have adjusted. He is still teaching his classes but then is taken. Anna is utterly alone. While waiting in the street for her father to come, a man stops in front of her and asks in several different languages "who are you?"
  This is the Swallow Man - as in the bird - and instinctively Anna trusts him. That is not to say he doesn't scare her but there is a quality to him that gives her hope. The Swallow Man begins his walk out of the city and Anna follows him. There are no words exchanged, no gestures but Anna has decided this man gives her a chance at living.
  What follows are their adventures wandering the countyside of Poland and into the Soviet Union tracking the invading German soldiers. Not all is fun and games. The Swallow Man teaches Anna the rules of staying alive and he also tries to teaches her about life. The plot becomes less important at this time and the journey seems to turn allegorical. The birds, the "Road", the conversations all help Anna toward an ending. What kind of ending? You must read the novel.

6 Degrees of Reading: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse, The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos.

The Girl Before / JP Delaney / 320 pgs

Obviously, this book is being put into the same category as Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, and for good reason. I have every reason to believe that this will become a big bestseller in the coming weeks, and it has already been optioned to be made into a movie with Ron Howard directing. I've already read the books I mentioned above, and I think it was FAR BETTER than Girl on the Train, and I might even like it more than Gone Girl, which I think was an amazing book, because the big reveal at the end of The Girl Before is such a gut punch - completely unexpected and VERY satisfying! I gave the book five stars. Very high praise from me indeed!

The story alternates between two women, Emma and Jane. Jane is in present time. She rents a very austere, modern, smart house in London that is very cheap, but requires a lot of rules to be followed. These rules were put into place by the apartment's architect. Meanwhile, a couple of years before, a woman named Emma moved into that same apartment. Both women are dealing with recent trauma. Emma's old apartment was burglarized and Jane recently suffered a stillbirth. Both become mesmerized by their new house's enigmatic architect. Saying anymore would definitely spoil the book. Check it out as soon as you can!

Dark Matter / Blake Crouch / 342 pgs

I can't even begin to describe how much I adored this book. Blake Crouch's Dark Matter is a nail-biting, science fiction, thriller unlike any other I have ever read. I cannot go into much detail because the fun of the book is trying to figure out what is going on and how it could all be happening. Jason Dessen, a family man with a wife and son, an undergraduate physics professor is kidnapped and wakes up in a world in which he has no wife, no son, but does have a prestigious physics award and a group of people who hail him as a hero. Which world is real? Does it matter? And how can Jason get back to the world he knows?

The suspense is off the charts and I found myself thinking that the audio book was just too slow, so I bought the book. I never buy books anymore, but I bought the Kindle edition of this one because I know that I'll be wanting to read it again sometime in the near future. Highly recommend for fans of science fiction, thrillers, suspense, and mysteries.

Before the Fall / Noah Hawley / 400 pgs

This is supposed to be the big book of Summer 2016, and I can totally see why.  As of right now, there are 106 reserves on 26 copies. This doesn't include large print, audiobook, or e-book copies. I'm only factoring in the regular print edition.

I loved it. The book does a great job of focusing on the sole adult survivor of a horrendous private plane crash into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard, but it also goes back in alternating chapters to give the reader a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of the other passengers on the plane. My only complaint is that I figured out how the plane crashed (the main mystery of the book) after only 1/2 to 2/3 of the book had been read. That said, I loved how the book ended. I thought it very fitting. I highly recommend it. This book lived up to the hype, in my opinion.

Book of Life / Deborah Harkness / 561

"Impossible n'est pas français"...

In the Book of Life, Deborah Harkness continues to weave a spellbinding story about historian/witch Diana Bishop, her professor/vampire husband Matthew de Clermont and their supernatural extended family.

In this third and final book of the All Souls Trilogy, Diana and Matthew continue their search for the missing pages of Ashmole 782 (a bewitched alchemical manuscript more commonly referred to as the Book of Life) to answer their questions about how witches, vampires and daemons came to be.

When Diana finally lets go of the fear of her own magical powers she discovers that nothing is impossible.

Readers who enjoy fantasy, suspense or mystery with some added romance and historical details will thoroughly enjoy this book (and series).  This was a great read, however, it is not a standalone book and the series should be read in order (Book 1: A Discovery of Witches and Book 2: Shadow of Night).


Check out this book in our Catalog.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky / Nancy Horan / 496 pages / 14 discs

   How much do you really know about Robert Louis Stevenson? You probably can say he published Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but how about who or what he really was? This wonderful and engrossing novel is just the ticket. Fanny van de Grift has left her husband and taken her children to Europe. She is tired of her husband's philandering and has decided to study art in Belgium. After settling in Paris due to a misunderstanding, her life takes an abrupt turn as tragedy engulfs her family. Fanny takes her children to a quiet art community to recover where she meets a young brash Scot named Stevenson. It is this meeting that will change the course of two families and will impact the publishing world with wild adventurous tales.
   I will admit to not knowing a lot about Stevenson but this book by Horan changed a lot of my thinking. For those of you remembering how in depth her research was for Loving Frank you will not be disappointed. Fanny and Robert are good and yet bad for each other. Robert finds his muse and proves his talent for adventure tales all the while battling his fragile health. Fanny struggles to find her place besides being "Mrs. Stevenson" and fights some dark demons herself. The narrator chosen for the audio was brilliant. Kirsten Potter has a voice that just brought Fanny to life and we lived her anger, frustration and absolute joy in life. I think this would be a great book club selection but I will warn you several sections just needed a stronger editor or maybe just skip those years altogether. I can't imagine all the work Horan must have done to even get a grip on what this couple did in their life time. This is a tremendous work that will reward you and make you curious to read those adventure stories once again.

Six Degrees of Reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.

Bossypants / Tina Fey / 272 pages

Bossypants by Tina Fey, on the New York Times Bestseller List for five weeks upon its 2011 release with over 1 million copies sold is an autobiographical romp through Tina Fey’s life.

 

Tina Fey’s humorous autobiography runs the gamut from motherhood and marriage to her Eastwoodesque father, her gay best friends, work and Christmas in series of funny vignettes just insane enough to make you wonder how much of it is true, while simultaneously teaching work and life lessons in management.

Bossypants will appeal to those who like humor by strong women and a similar work is I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris.

Gone Girl / Gillian Flynn / 416 pages

 
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide since its release in June 2012, is a disturbingly, dark account of sociopathy set in small-town Middle America.

When his wife Amy disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick, the prime suspect in what appears to be her murder, uncovers disturbing evidence of her manipulative past and the lie that was their marriage as he desperately tries to prove his own innocence.

Gone Girl will appeal to those who like dark, character-driven, psychological fiction, as well as those who like mysteries and suspense. Similar works include: Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson and Keeper of the Keys by Perri O'Shaughnessy.

Explosive Eighteen/Janet Evanovich/341 pages

Janet Evanovich has does it again.  Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie who runs a bails bonds company.  While trying to track down bail jumpers ineptly, she also is trying to juggle two men in her life.  Add to that a sidekick, Lulu an ex-hooker and her grandma Mazur and nothing in Stephanie's life is simple.  Filled with humor and exploding cars, this was a great read.  All of Evanovich's books are good, but this one is one of my favorites so far.

The Confession by John Grisham/418 pages

A young black man has been charged with murdering a white classmate and is currently serving time on death row in a prison in Texas.  The execution is scheduled and lawyers are down to their last appeal.  Five days before the execution, and several hundred miles away, a man claiming to be the murderer shows up in a Lutheran minister's office confessing to the horrible crime.  I really enjoyed the first half of this book, the details of the case, the rush to save a wrongly accused man, the anguish that all the families go through but then the second half of the book gets bogged down with all the legal injustices. Grisham is a great storyteller, but when he gets on his soapbox and stops telling the story, I get bored. The portrayal of crooked politicians and lawmakers is probably not too far from the truth and the tensions between the black and white communities in a small town in the south are heartbreaking.  The book really makes you think about our legal system and the death penalty.

Water for Elephants/ Sara Gruen/335p

Elephants, big tops, traveling circus performers; not a book I would normally choose. After reading the book a few years ago, I just finished listening to the audio version for book club and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. The author has written a beautiful, but sometimes harsh, story about living during the depression era  through the eyes of a young man that has lost everything as he is getting ready to take his tests for veterinary medicine and go to work with his father's practice. The main character and narrator is Dr. Jacob Jankowski, and we fall in love with the cantankerous old fellow in the nursing home who can't decide what to have for lunch. We can't wait to hear his story about joining the circus, as a frightened young man,  falling in love with the animal trainer's wife and then falling in love with Rosie, the elephant. The author does such a good job with the characters and describing the setting and the feelings you feel like you're sitting in the big top watching the show. There are some terribly cruel scenes but also some selfless acts of kindness shown by her characters. Great book, would highly recommend.