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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Stuck between generations and making sandwiches for all ages

Cover of Sandwich: A Novel
A review of Sandwich: A Novel by Catherine Newman

Rocky's family spends one week a year vacationing in a cottage on the Cape. Rocky, her husband, their two college-age or slightly older children, their son's girlfriend, and Rocky's elderly parents make the small, quaint cottage with a sensitive septic system their home away from home. There are not enough beds or chairs, and privacy is limited. There is plenty of swimming, relaxing on the beach, and enough penny candy to make lasting memories.

Posted by Molly W on Nov 6, 2024

Many stories to share

Cover of What's in a Bead?
A review of What's in a Bead? by Kelsey Borgford
Tessa Pizzale

Tessa, a young Cree girl, wants to learn beading from her grandmother, or Kohkom. But her mother informs her that first, she must learn why beads and beading are important to them. The two of them visit Kohkom, and she proceeds to lovingly teach Tessa all about the stories behind the beads. Written by a Nbisiing Nishnaabe author, What's in a Bead? shares indigenous words and customs alongside clear, bold illustrations.

Posted by Janelle C on Nov 4, 2024

Crossing the Rubicon

Cover of A Fatal Thing Happened on
A review of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

I'm a fan of true crime tv and podcasts and will listen to a wide variety of them, but when it comes to books, I'm a bit more particular. I think this choosiness has to do with being able to distance myself a bit from the content and for me, when I'm reading, it can feel so much more immediate. So for nonfiction crime books I gravitate to historical crime with the natural distancing of time making it more enjoyable. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum really fit that bill.

Posted by Jane J on Oct 31, 2024

Annual Best of the Year Lists begin

Cover of Best Books
Best Books

It's that time of year again where the best of the year lists start appearing. Have you started your lists? Publishers Weekly has just released their best books of 2024. The categories include: Top 10, Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Poetry, Romance, SF/Fantasy/Horror, Comics, Nonfiction, Religion, Lifestyle, Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult. There is something for everybody.

Posted by Kathy K on Oct 28, 2024

Game over?

Cover of Lady Eve's Last Con
A review of Lady Eve's Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow

It seems like a perfect meet cute: wide-eyed debutante Eve Ojukwu, fresh from the hinterlands of Kepler, bumps into wealthy bachelor Esteban Mendez-Yuki of megacorp MYCorps on a half-gravity dancefloor on the ritzy satellite of New Monte. Except this is all part of a carefully orchestrated con game, hatched by Ruthi Johnson—our innocent Eve—in revenge for Mendez-Yuki’s jilting of her sister Jules, now expecting Esteban’s child back on Kepler.

Posted by Katie H on Oct 23, 2024

What price mercy?

Cover of Small Mercies
A review of Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

At a recent book discussion of the Mystery Book Group at Lakeview we talked about Dennis Lehane's powerful (though incredibly tough to read) novel, Small Mercies. One description of the books says "this novel dives into the dark heart of American racism, weaving a complex tale of family, power, and revenge set against the backdrop of Boston's tumultuous history.

Posted by Jane J on Oct 21, 2024

Holding on to what matters most

Cover of Tree. Table. Book
A review of Tree. Table. Book by Lois Lowry

This is a touching story that starts with a day that is not like the others. Eleven-year-old Sophie Winslow is best friends with her neighbor, eighty-eight-year-old Sophie Gershowitz. Eleven-year-old Sophie is an unusual child - she's an old soul and hypochondriac. She loves using traditional library reference tools such as looking up medical ailments in the Merck Manual and memorizing quotes from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

Posted by Molly W on Oct 18, 2024

Sweet Anticipation for November/December 2024

Sweet Anticipation graphic
New Titles

Is it November yet? While the air might be filled with anticipation about a major event on November 5, there is the anticipation that comes of finding something new to read.  With October offering an abundance of big titles and notable debuts, November and December might be a bit thin by comparison, but there’s still plenty look forward to.  The highlights:

Posted by Katie H on Oct 16, 2024

Old favorite, rediscovered

Cover of Troubled Waters
A review of Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

I used to love to wander through a bookstore and feed my reading need (this on top of checking many stacks of books out of the library). But at some point I stopped buying all those print copies, partially for space reasons, partially because of the changing bookstore landscape and partially because I was reading more and more digitally. So what's my version of strolling through the bookstore aisles? Late in the evening I look for ebook deals online to see if there's anything that catches my fancy (this on top of the library books I check out electronically and read on Libby!).

Posted by Jane J on Oct 15, 2024

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