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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors

Too Good To Miss - November 2024

Too Good to Miss photo
New Titles

Every month there are new titles purchased for the Too Good to Miss collections at our libraries. If you're not familiar with TGTM (as we call it here in library-world), it's a special collection of popular books that are truly too good to miss. Some are new and popular titles, others are older titles that might not have had as much media attention as a bestseller or celebrity book club selection but are still great reads that deserve another look.

Nov 12, 2024

Welcome to the dungeon

Cover of Dungeon Crawler Carl
A review of Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

In this very darkly funny adventure (think way amped up Deadpool humor), Carl is saved from annihilation by aliens because his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's prizewinning cat, Princess Donut, has escaped their apartment. While he's freezing outside in the wee hours of the morning, barefoot in his boxer shorts and a jacket, trying to re-capture Princess Donut, Carl sees every physical structure flattened, literally. Anyone who was in those buildings? Gone. He knows that because an alien announcer tells him so.

Nov 11, 2024

The danger of being an unreliable narrator

Cover of I Do Not Eat Children
A review of I Do Not Eat Children by Marcus Cutler

"I would never eat a child. What do you think I am...a monster?" proclaims the main character of this book who, admittedly, looks an awful lot like a monster. 

The orange creature stands in a line with a bunch of kids. Ten kids, to be exact - this is important, so pay attention. Each kid has some sort of accessory - a kite, a soccer ball, knitting needles, etc. 

Nov 8, 2024

Crime and the city

Cover of Historical Mysteries
A review of Historical Mysteries by Chris Nickson

Chris Nickson really, really loves his hometown of Leeds, England. The music journalist and mystery novelist has written, by this point, four detective series spanning two hundred years set in Yorkshire’s largest city. While each series could loosely be considered police procedurals, what makes Nickson’s series stand out is the portrait of the city itself—a place largely off the beaten path for many crime readers—as it progresses from a regional center of the wool and agricultural trade to sprawling industrial boom town bursting with late Victorian optimism.

Nov 7, 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Oct 23, 2024

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