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Posts by Jane J
Overdrive has a new Big Library Read title, The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason, and you can find a copy to borrow August 3-17th. The Darwin Affair is an historical mystery set in 1860 London with a mystery that has assassination attempts, murder, and a conspiracy centered on the publication of Charles Darwin's controversial On the Origin of the Species. Sounds like the perfect escape for these the doldrums of our summer.
Evie Dunmore's debut novel Bringing Down the Duke made a splash last year both because of it's feminist love story and it's general sparkliness (is that a word?) both inside and outside. Inside was a sharp, funny, lovely story of opposites attracting and on the outside was a colorful, illustrated design that was part of a major trend in the publishing world.
Pirio Kasparov is a medical and biological anomaly. She survived for more than four hours in 40 degree water in the North Atlantic when the small fishing boat she was on was hit by a larger ship. Her survival in waters that would generally kill others within a short period of time is newsworthy, but for Pirio the much bigger issue is the fact that her friend Ned didn't survive the crash and she's beginning to suspect that his death was not an accident. The authorities conclude that the collision was an accident, but Ned's young son Noah is relying on Pirio to figure things out.
The pandemic has put the kibosh on the library being able to offer in person events - something we've been missing in a major way - and this is true for the Wisconsin Book Festival as well. Though they hold events all year long, they've had to come up with a new way of doing things. So if getting to the Central library, finding and paying for parking, and then finding a seat for a popular event were often just too much or just not feasible, here's your chance.
Honor Holland thinks she's about to have the best night of her life. She's decided to propose to her lover, Brogan, and finally make their relationship official. Problem is, Brogan has always considered Honor to be a 'friend with benefits' rather then a true romantic partner. And to add serious insult to injury, after crying on her best friend's shoulder, Honor finds out that that same best friend is who Brogan plans to marry. Honor is not only devastated, she's also a little desperate. She's 35 years old and truly wants a family.
Recently someone asked me for recommendations for "intelligent" mysteries. Her description for these was "a combination of a dense, resonant setting with character and plot development that grab you but that are new and thought provoking; characters, attitudes, thoughts, insights you haven't read before but which strike a chord and reveal something about the world." That description helped me to help her find some books, but it also fits a science fiction title I read. Ancillary Justice is very well-written and complex.
In 1917 fourteen-year-old Jessie Carr disappeared from her Pacific Northwest home near Portland. She's the heir to the vast Carr fortune and if she is not found before her twenty-first birthday, now only months away, the fortune will be dispersed to other relatives. Now her uncle, Oliver Beckett, thinks he's found Jessie when he sees her performing on a vaudeville stage. The problem is the young woman insists her name is Leah and though she is the spitting image of Jessie, Oliver soon realizes his error. Though she is not Jessie, Oliver has a back-up plan.
At the beginning of every month LINKcat publishes the Don't Miss Lists of new books and materials that have been added to the catalog. And those lists are super fun to browse and give me books to add to my 'to be read' lists. But what's not fun is realizing as you're perusing is how long you might have to wait for an item to come in for you just when you want something new to read. So here's a tip.
During the last few months while we've been social distancing and keeping close to home there have been times when I just want something new to read right now. And at those times I turn to the wonderful Lucky Day section of Wisconsin's Overdrive collection. On any given day when you click into the collection you'll see a lot of familiar authors like James Patterson and Jodi Picoult and Lee Child, to name a few.
Sharon Bolton is one of those writers who is always coming up with new ways to thrill. Her characters are always sharp and complicated and she doesn't ever seem to tell the same story twice. Thus we come to her newest, The Split, a thriller set at the remote Antarctic island of South Georgia where glaciologist Felicity Lloyd is too late to catch the last boat off the island before winter locks them in. And even worse, she's convinced her ex-husband (and stalker) has made it onto the island from that last ship and now she's trapped with him for possibly months to come.
