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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
What are you reading this summer? For the past couple of years I've been sharing a list of new mysteries that I am looking forward to - and here is the latest batch. I've already started checking off some on my summer mysteries list. I've met some new and some old familiar characters and am looking forward to meeting and catching up with some more. To get your started, if you like historical mysteries then check the The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason. I enjoyed It.
Dragon Pearl by Korean-American author, Yoon Ha Lee stars a plucky 13-year old fox spirit named Min. She usually appears as a human girl, but she can transform herself into pretty much anything and has the ability to throw Charm at others to nudge them and their moods in the direction she's hoping for. She also happens to be a master mechanic willing to go to the ends of the universe to find out what happened to her beloved older brother who disappeared during his Space Forces training tour.
I can't imagine any book topping this one for me in 2019. The snappy and shocking title is one of the reasons I love it so much. It's funny, smart, and helpful in a cuddly way, despite the whopper of a title. The authors Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark are the true crime comedy podcast stars of My Favorite Murder and their podcast provides background for the book. True crime is what brought Karen and Georgia together and how and why they have a fabulous book deal.
Gosh, I loved this book. I really, really loved it. I am so happy that it exists. A sincere thank you for the ARC, @KokilaBooks!
It’s almost August! School is a mere month away, but there’s still some time to squeeze in the last of summer’s big titles. On to the top offerings for this month:
The news of the recent passing of Italian novelist Andrea Camilleri means a great loss to the mystery readers, as Camilleri was particularly known for his Inspector Montalbano series set in contemporary Sicily. Yet the late-blooming Camilleri (he wrote his first novel in his sixties) was remarkably prolific, writing close to a hundred novels in a variety of genres, notably historical fiction. Born in Sicily, Camilleri had a knack for mining the island’s rich history and culture.
This is recommended reading in tandem with A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson.
Ask anyone about a notorious shipwreck, and they will more than likely respond with the Titanic disaster of 1912. Yet a mere three years later, another grand ocean liner met an equally disastrous fate, the repercussions of which would be felt far beyond those immediately involved. The Lusitania was the giant Cunard liner that many felt could not, would not fall victim to Germany’s submarine warfare against British shipping. It’s an intriguing story, and when told by Erik Larson in Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, it becomes an intensely personal, vivid tale.
It's 1946 and a young widow named Grace Healey stumbles upon a suitcase left under a bench in Grand Central Terminal in New York City. At the same moment, a former British special agent named Eleanor Trigg is hit by a car outside the station and killed instantly. What follows next is a tangled web of intrigue, espionage, heartbreak and heroism.
I grew up loving the work of Janet and Allan Ahlberg, so I was thrilled when I discovered Fairy Tales for Mr. Barker – a picture book written and illustrated by their daughter, Jessica Ahlberg. This cumulative story follows Lucy and her dog, Mr. Barker, through a series of fairy tales.
