Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
The Festival is almost here!
The four-day festival will take place October 11-14, 2018, in and around Madison Public Library’s Central Library in downtown Madison, Wisconsin.
We all have grumpy days, and sometimes we don't even know why we are grumpy! This short book shares some good calming ways to get through a grumpy spell, and the grumpy underpants page is sure to be a hilarious hit. Practice counting and breathing and snuggling up to help you feel better, and pair with Hooray for hat! for a great discussion about grumpiness.
Fall is almost here and there is a new batch of mysteries that I am "dying" to read. I have some old characters that I want to reconnect with and some new that I want to meet.
Cold Bayou by Barbara Hambly [9/1]
character: freedman Benjamin January
setting: 1839 New Orleans
The world's #1 bestselling author James Patterson will be appearing at the Wisconsin Book Festival in conversation with Steve Paulson from WPR's To The Best of Our Knowledge. Patterson will discuss the motivation behind writing Max Einstein, his life in books, his love of reading, his method of writing, and what makes a good story. Free copies of Max Einstein will be distributed to the first 500 young readers. Attendees will get exclusive pre-release access to buy Patterson's latest Detective Michael Bennett Thriller, Ambush.
Explore history with a touch of magic this October with Overdrive’s newest Big Library Read! Katherine Locke’s novel The Girl With the Red Balloon ebook will be available without holds to all Overdrive users October 1 through October 15.
There are so many compelling stories exploring Hispanic heritage in its many forms, but this is one that I've read more than once and learned a lot each time.
I used to be a big Julia Quinn fan, gobbled up her Bridgerton books as quickly as they came out. But then, hmmm, I'm not sure what happened. Somehow they weren't feeling as fresh for me perhaps? Seemed like the last few books I read by the author were just okay and so I fell away. But I was curious, with the second season of the Netflix series (which I love) now available, whether I could recapture that sparky feeling those early books provided if I dropped back in. The answer? A resounding yes.
If you thought Amy from Gone Girl, was devious, wait until you meet Jane. On the outside, Jane appears to be a mild mannered office assistant beginning a new job in Minneapolis.
Imagine your grandmother was as big as J. K. Rowling and had written the number one fantasy series of all time - with all the fandom that that entails. Now imagine the first book in that series is being made into a movie, which has pushed the fandom into an even more frenzied state. And though you've tried your hardest to distance yourself from everything to do with the books, you're now being forced to join the set of the movie being made. That's just where Iris Thorne finds herself. Her grandmother, M. E.
What are the hardest things to say? Or the things that would help us all if we said them more? Phrases like, "I don't know," "I was wrong," "Tell me more," "I love you," and "You can go." Phrases that enrich lives with active listening and help us through the pain and discomfort of human interactions.
Readers will full to-read lists might do well this month to clear out some space in preparation for this October, as those lists are sure to be refilled with all the offerings coming this fall. Most of the big titles this year have been squarely in the political realm, but the buzz this October is centered on big fiction releases from names consistently associated with prizes and book discussion favorites across genres. On to the specifics:
Sayaka Murata’s slim novel Convenience Store Woman is the Tokyo-set tale of self-described “foreign object” Keiko Furukura, a loner in her mid-30s who does not quite fit in with or understand the society around her, yet excels in her role as a konbini employee.
Murata’s themes and her oddball protagonist are similar to Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Even so, Murata’s is a wholly original story, with its own thought-provoking musings on what normal behavior and happiness can look like, despite the expectations of family and peers.
Hail Bristol is back. If you follow my MADreads reviews (and really, you should <g>) you'll know that I loved K. B. Wagers Indranan War trilogy. In that trilogy Hail was introduced as the last remaining heir to an empire she wasn't sure she wanted. Events conspired to force her to take on the responsibility, and once taken there was no going back. Hail is the Empress of the Indranan Empire and she's hoping that now that the civil war is over, she and her people can take some time to regroup and rebuild.
There are a few tropes that will always hook me when it comes to historical romance. One of those tropes, the marriage of convenience, is the underpinning for Burrowes' latest in her Windham Brides series. What starts out as an attempt by the heroine, Charlotte Windham, to have a brush with scandal so that she can avoid further London seasons, turns into a marriage to Lucas Sherbourne, her unwitting accomplice.
Thanks to the popularity of Netflix’s series The Crown (and the constant drumbeat of stories about Meghan and Harry vs. Kate and William) there has been a resurgence of interest in one of the Windsor family's most fascinating characters, Princess Margaret. Younger sister of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret has to be arguably the most polarizing royal figure of her era.
In her latest novel Nicola Moriarty delves into the perils of social media and how easily small things can become big things and go horribly awry.
In this first of a series Sonnier offers a vibrant and fast-moving tale that melds steampunk and magic to great effect. Arabella is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter of England's most powerful family of witches. As such she was expected to do great things. But Arabella has aged past the point where her powers should have been revealed with nary a spark of talent showing, much to the dismay of her mother and delight of some of her more competitive sisters.
The Wisconsin Book Festival released its 2018 festival schedule on August 21. The four-day festival will take place October 11-14, 2018, in and around Madison Public Library’s Central Library in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. The festival will feature more than 60 events over four days with plenty of opportunities to meet authors, discover new books or favorite writers, and have books signed. See the full festival lineup at wisconsinbookfestival.org.
