Showing posts with label Library finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Library finds. Show all posts

Aug 19, 2023

Sunday Salon: Library Finds and a Review

Library Books 

The Poet's House by Jean Thompson, July 12, 2022; Algonquin

Genre: poetry, contemporary fiction, literary fiction, adult fiction

Setting: Northern California 

I dabble in poetry on occasion, usually early in the morning or late at night. I have books and tablets with my scribbles, not many poems longer than a handwritten page.  So, I was interested in the title of this book, and I was not disappointed in reading it.

A young woman in her early twenties, Carla has a reading disability, as she describes it, but doesn't give us a medical term for it. She works as a landscaper but is pushed by her mother to find something more stable.

She does yard work for a well known poet, Viridian, an elderly woman who takes to Carla and encourages her to attend her dinners and mingle with her poet and publisher friends. She reads her poems to Carla, who slowly begins to understand the words and the concepts, and finds herself drawn to the power of words, their meaning and power to enlighten.

The book is about Carla coming out of her shy shell, but is mostly about the artists and writers she comes in contact with. Their eccentricities in dress, manners, ways of communicating, and their love of gatherings with unusual, to her, food and drink and of course, poetry, pulls her slowly in.

She helps them, especially the charismatic Viridian, as much as they help her.  I enjoyed the book, found it refreshing and hopeful, but full of the vivacity and the trauma of life as well.



Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson, March 7, 2023; Pamela Dorman Books

The book description grabbed me: 

"Shot through with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is an addictive, escapist novel that sparkles with wit." 



The Mistress of Bhatia House  by Sujata Massey, July 11, 2023: Soho Press

Genre: mystery, historical fiction, India

The first books in the series that I've read, I've found very interesting historically and culturally. 

In this latest book, Bombay’s only female solicitor, Perveen Mistry, grapples with class divisions, sexism, and complex family dynamics as she seeks justice for a mistreated young woman in the fourth installment of the award–winning series. (publisher)



Zero Days by Ruth Ware, June 20, 2023; Scout Press

Genre: mystery, thriller, suspense

The library now has copies of this book, as British author, Ruth Ware, is a popular mystery writer. I hope the book is as good as it's reputed to be. 

About: Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her. She is suddenly on the run....(publisher)


Library magazines:

The poems and the short stories and an occasional essay in the New Yorker magazine are still my go to reading. Borrowed three June editions from  the library. But the chilling short story in the most recent edition, August 21, really got to me. 

Fiction

“The End Is Only a Beginning” 

"The End Is Only a Beginning" by T. Coraghessan Boyle is about the very early days of the pandemic, when the virus appeared early in France. Riley goes off to Paris on business, without his wife, Caroline, who had to stay with her dying mother. 

Riley remains faithful to his wife but is reckless in what he does, where he goes, who he associates with. But on returning home, he gives the virus to his younger, healthier wife Caroline, while he remains asymptomatic. 

What's on your reading schedule this week and/or the rest of the month?injuly202

3Memes: The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated BookreviewerAlso,  It's Monday: What Are You Readingand Sunday SalonStacking the ShelvesMailbox Monday

Mar 12, 2019

Library Finds: March 2019

My new library books

Our new library has bright indoor lights and windows from floor to ceiling. It's wide, long, and spacious, and there are comfortable sofas and chairs with a living room setting in this corner and that. When I go there to just browse, or so I think, I often come away with not one or two, but three and four books I never intended to borrow. 

But a favorite author's new book grabbed my attention, then another, then a book that I saw on social media being touted by the publisher, then a book suggested by a friend I met in the stacks. Here are three of the books I got.  

The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Flavia de Luce #10)
The Golden Tresses of the Dead is the latest in the Flavia de Luce mystery series


The Sun Is Also a Star


The Sun is Also a Star is a teen romance that will be released as a movie this May. I am enjoying its dissection of love into the scientific and romantic.

I have also borrowed:
The Plotters by Un-Su Kim is described as a crime novel set in an alternate Seoul, Korea. I am not normally a fantasy or sci-fi fan, but we'll see....

Did you find anything you liked at the library recently?

Mar 2, 2017

Another Great Library Find: Big Breasts and Wide Hips by Mo Yan

I found an intriguing library book: a novel and an historical one at that.
Big Breasts and Wide Hips, a novel by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, author of Red Sorghum, published 2014.
Book description: This is a book about women but it's also a book about China, from the fall of the Qing dynasty up through the Japanese invasion in the 1930s, the civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and the post-Mao years. In sum, this stunning novel is Mo Yan's searing vision of 20th-century China.

In a country where men dominate, and as the title implies, the female body serves as the book's most important image and metaphor. The protagonist, Mother, is born in 1900. Married at 17 into the Shangguan family, she has nine children, only one of whom is a boy, the narrator of the book, a spoiled and ineffectual child who stands in stark contrast to his eight strong and forceful female siblings.

Mother, a survivor, is the quintessential strong woman, who risks her life to save the lives of several of her children and grandchildren. The writing is full of life-picturesque, bawdy, shocking, imaginative. (publisher)

The title and topics and history are inviting an exploration of Mo Yan's unique vision!

Mo Yan is a modern Chinese author, known for his novel Red Sorghum (which was turned into a movie by the same title). Often described as the Chinese Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller.

Aug 31, 2016

Library Find: The Grand Tour by Adam O'Fallon Price

A road novel with two unlikely characters on a book tour by car....My lucky library find.....

The Grand Tour by Adam O'Fallon Price, published August 9, 2016 by Doubleday
A bitingly funny, smart and moving road novel about two hapless lost souls—an alcoholic Vietnam veteran turned bestselling author, and his awkward, shy college student superfan—who form an unlikely connection on the world's most disastrous book tour. (publisher)

Richard Lazar is advancing in years but regressing in life. After a career as a literary novelist that has ground to a halt and landed him in a trailer in Phoenix, Richard is surprised to find sudden success publishing a gritty memoir about his service in Vietnam. Sent on a book tour by his publishing house, Richard encounters his biggest (and really only) fan: an awkward, despondent student named Vance with issues of his own (an absentee father, a depressive mother, his own acute shyness). Soon Vance has volunteered to chauffeur Richard for the rest of the book tour, and the two embark on a disastrous but often hilarious cross-country trip. . (publisher)

I am half way through the book, a psychological study as much as a road trip that is only slightly predictable, about two people who help each other along the way.  I recommend it already though I don't know what the ending will be....

Jan 29, 2016

Library Finds: Contemporary Fiction

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

I returned two books to the library yesterday and borrowed three more. I do hope to read them among the others I've downloaded from NetGalley and from amazon. Cross my fingers! 



How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz, published May 2015.
Genre: women's fiction, contemporary fiction
Book beginning:"Are you lost?" the man asked."No," she said."Where are you headed?"Don't know.""Seat taken?" he asked."As you can see, it's empty," she said.       
Re Jane by Patricia Park, published May 5, 2015.
Book beginning: Home was this northeastern knot of Queens, in the town (if you could call it a town) of Flushing....They say the neighborhood once contained a hearty swath of the American population, but when I landed here as an infant, Flushing was starting to give way to the Koreans.... This was my America: all Korean, all the time. 
Page 56:
The air was filled with excited chatter. Devon and I were the only ones not speaking Chinese. 

The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida, published June 2, 2015

Book beginning: When you find your seat you glance at the businessman sitting next to you and decide he's almost handsome. This is the second leg of your trip from Miami to Casablanca, and the distance traveled already muted the horror of the last two months. 

I have started to read The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty and find it intriguing and well written. A young woman takes off on her own to a foreign country and has to survive after her passport and wallet are stolen. 

What intriguing books have you discovered this week? 

Sep 27, 2015

Sunday Salon: Back to the Library

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. 

I spent most of last week watching the Pope's visit on TV and feeling smug that I also have a Fiat 500L Hatchback!! One of the few if not the only one in town! It is much roomier inside than it looks from the outside. There is a lot of space between my head and the roof, for instance, and lots of leg room in the back seats. Not much of trunk space, tho.

The library has been a good place to visit for books. Here are two I borrowed last week:


The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian Nobel prize winner, published March 10, 2015. 
The Discreet Hero, follows two characters whose lives are destined to intersect: neat, endearing Felícito Yanaqué, a small businessman in Piura, Peru, who finds himself the victim of blackmail; and Ismael Carrera, a successful owner of an insurance company in Lima, who cooks up a plan to avenge himself against the two lazy sons who want him dead.
(publisher)
I gave it four stars and hope to return to the library for more of his books!


An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy, published April 5, 2015. 
On the outskirts of a small town in Bengal, a family lives in solitude in their vast new house. Here, lives intertwine and unravel. A widower struggles with his love for an unmarried cousin. Bakul, a motherless daughter, runs wild with Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste adopted by the family. Confined in a room at the top of the house, a matriarch goes slowly mad; her husband searches for its cause as he shapes and reshapes his garden.
As Mukunda and Bakul grow, Mukunda is banished to Calcutta. He prospers in the turbulent years after Partition, but his thoughts stay with his home, with Bakul, with all that he has lost—and he knows that he must return. (publisher)
Currently reading: 
Murder Plainly Read: An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery by Isabella Alan, to be released October 6, 2015; by NAL
An Amish man checks out permanently, but quilt shop owner Angie Braddock’s got this mystery covered… Angie is able to help organize the Rolling Brook library's annual book sale working alongside brash librarian Austina Shaker, a lady who isn’t afraid to make waves to get books to her patrons—even the Amish. Unfortunately, this draws the ire of cranky Bartholomew Belier, an Old Order Amish bishop, who publicly vows to ruin Austina.
After Belier is found dead in her bookmobile, Angie must employ the help of her loyal quilting circle—as well as her beloved French bulldog, Oliver— to prove Austina’s innocence. (publisher)
What books are on your reading shelf this week? 

Jan 11, 2015

Sunday Salon: Library Reads

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey.

It's  way too cold for the mailman to lug packages here, I guess, LOL, so I had no books arriving last week! But I have some library books I'm getting through and some on hold too.

I'm reading about teens involved in a murder at a posh boarding school in Ireland. The Secret Place by Tana French is intriguing and a very good read, as were her other books. 


The Secret Place

The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan deals with war, with more themes of life and love. Did you know that the Japanese poet Basho's poems are collected in a book also titled The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches ? Basho is one of my favorite haiku writers.

There are two books on hold at the library for me that I hope to pick up today. A Cat Sitter cozy, the latest in the series, and one other book. Libraries rule!

What are you reading this frigid January? We are envious of those of you living in warm Florida and California!

Sep 24, 2013

Library Finds: Three Mysteries and a Romance

Went to the library twice in the past few days and borrowed three mystery novels and a humorous romance.


Am I lucky or what? I found the new Agatha Raisin mystery at the library, just waiting for me, it seems. As usual, M.C. Beaton has another clever title for her books in the series. Her main character, a 50-plus-year-old English woman Agatha, lives in the Cotswolds in England and is a PI with a personality that is amusing and unconventional.


I do like mystery novels set in exotic (to me) places too, and this is a new series I discovered, one set in Istanbul. The main character is a 40-ish German woman named Kati Hirschel who owns a crime bookstore and becomes an amateur sleuth because of her love of mysteries. I've started with the first in the series, Hotel Bosphorus, published in 2011.



This new romance sitting on the library's New Books shelf,  Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella, was irresistible, as I enjoy her storytelling and her humor. Disappointed when her boyfriend doesn't propose, her main character Lottie and a former boyfriend Ben suddenly decide to get married on the Greek island of Ikonos.  Lottie's sister and a friend of Ben's, however, have other plans for the couple and follow them to Ikonos to stop the hasty wedding.  I anticipate lots of humorous situations...

Found anything at your library lately?

Jul 8, 2013

It's Monday/Mailbox Monday/July 8

This post lists new books and links up to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey; to Mailbox Monday hosted by Book Obsessed; and to Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews.


Books for review:

A Once Crowded Sky by Tom King, fantasy (Touchstone)
The Other Room by Kim Triedman, fiction (Owl Canyon Press)
Mystery Girl by David Gordon, thriller (New Harvest)
Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann, thriller (Soho Crime)
TheTilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly,  historical fiction ARC (William Morrow)


Uncorrected proofs for review:

Here Comes Mrs. Kugelman by Minka Pradelski, fiction (Macmillan)
Goat Mountain by David Vann, fiction (Harper)
Slow Getting Up: A Story of NFL Survival by Nate Jackson, memoir (Harper)
Lineup by Liad Shohan, Israeli crime fiction (Harper)

I borrowed these from the library:

Snapper by Brian Kimberling, fiction (Pantheon). Enjoying the bird watching aspects of this novel set in rural Indiana
The Third Son by Julie Wu, historical fiction (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill). The history Taiwan is something I'd like to know more about.

What are you reading this week?

Apr 28, 2013

Sunday Salon: Yoga Gripes, a book I should write

The Sunday Salon.com Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also submitted to It's Monday; What Are You Reading? at Book Journey, and Mailbox Monday at MariReads.

We are having scattered showers after a perfect sunny day yesterday, when we sat and read in the backyard and pulled a few weeds. This morning I saw a northern red cardinal feed its mate (or was it a juvenile?) some bird seeds it gathered up from the ground. How sweet!

I also went to gym yoga and have to decide whether or not to keep going or just stick to the studio yoga that I started last week. At gym yoga, the instructor focuses on yoga postures mainly for the exercise value. At the studio, the instructor combines yoga poses with deep breathing exercises and meditative relaxation - the complete package that is quite relaxing.

At the gym class, one guy scoffed when I repeated the traditional yoga "namaste" after the teacher at the end of the class. "Namaste" is a sign of respect to the teacher and from teacher to student.  I don't feel I am performing a religious ritual when I do yoga, repeat it's phrases, or do meditation. Many people want the yoga exercises only and then wonder why it's not that much fun, not at all relaxing, but just a lot of hard work. They then skip a lot of their classes.

 I do feel grumpy today :) The good stuff? New books and ARCs for review.

ARCs:
The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau, a comic novel

Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine by Paul A. Offit, M.D. An "expose" about vitamins, supplements, herbs, oils, saunas, and more. He does say that some nontraditional methods for healing do work!

The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines by Shohreh Aghdashloo, a memoir by the Iranian American actress and Oscar nominee who left her home country and husband after the 1978 Iran revolution.

The Abomination by Jonathan Holt, a thriller set in Venice and written by an English literature grad from Oxford. The first in the Carnivia Trilogy.

Historical Novels:







The GI Bride, by British writer Iris Jones Simantel






Motherland by British writer William Nicholson, set in post-war England, France, India, and Jamaica.







Mysteries:



A Case of Redemption by Adam Mitzner, a legal thriller set in New York City. A high-profile attorney agrees to represent a popular rap artist accused of murdering his pop star girlfriend.



Rese's Leap: An Island Mystery by Darcy Scott, set in Maine, the second in the series.


Matinicus: An Island Mystery by Darcy Scott, the first in the Maine series, honorable mention in the New England Book Festival contest.




Book tours coming up:
Tiger Babies Strike Back, a memoir by Kim Wong Keltner
Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I, historical novel by Sandra Byrd

Library books:




The Dance of the Seagull, an Inspector Montalbano mystery by Andrea Camilleri

The Sound of Broken Glass by Deborah Crombie, the 15th in the detective series set in England

This should last me a while....What have you been reading?


Feb 2, 2013

Sunday Salon: No Shadows on the Snowiest Day

The Sunday Salon.com Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today in Pennsylvania and so predicted an early spring! That was nice to hear, considering today we had one of our snowiest days in Ohio, with several inches of white on the ground and more snow dusting down.

And never mind that our local groundhog, HuckyToo, saw his shadow and predicted the opposite - six more weeks of winter! We hope that Hucky is wrong and Punxy is right!

I finished a library book, one that I grabbed minutes after it hit the shelves for the first time in our library - Speaking From Among the Bones, the fifth in the Flavia de Luce mystery series by Alan Bradley.I finished it pronto and promptly wrote a review. (Click on the title to see it).

I am more than half way through the stirring and emotional novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh,  The Aviator's Wife written by Melanie Benjamin. I hope to write a review soon.

After a long period of not borrowing library books, I came away with three other books - two novels and a mystery. Click on the covers for the details.

 


This should help keep me occupied for the next six weeks of winter! What are you reading?

Sep 23, 2012

Sunday Salon: Library Finds and Giveaway Winner

The Sunday Salon.com Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

Congratulations to Beverly S., who was chosen by a random number generator as the winner of:The Twelve Rooms of the Nile.

Another giveaway courtesy of the publisher is open until Sept. 28 for The Shoemaker's Wife.

Yesterday, I returned a book to the library and came away with four books I didn't intend to borrow.

1. The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspian Kang is about twentysomethings being bored and self pitying as they go between real life and the Internet. I like this one so far.

2. Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais is about an elderly priest who moves from a serene village in Japan to bustling Brooklyn, New York.


3. The Incense Game: A Novel of Feudal Japan by Laura Joh Rowland is the latest in the Sano Ichiro mystery series set in early 18th century Japan.

4. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura is an award winning novel that follows the events in the life of a Tokyo pickpocket.

Sometimes it's a nice feeling to choose books from the library, as opposed to picking up the ones already on my shelves.

Mar 9, 2012

Library Finds: Two New Releases

I found two books in the New Releases section of the library today! There was no plan to borrow books, just to browse, but I couldn't resist these.


Murder at the Lanterne Rouge: An Aimee Leduc Investigation set in Paris by Cara Black

Book Description:
Private investigator Aimée Leduc is happy her business partner René has found a girlfriend. Aimée’s instincts tell her Meizi, the supposed love of René’s life, isn’t trustworthy. Meizi disappears during a Chinatown dinner to take a phone call and never returns to the restaurant. Minutes later, the body of a young man, a science prodigy and volunteer at the Musée, is found shrink-wrapped in an alleyway—with Meizi’s photo in his wallet.


I've Got Your Number: A Novel by Sophie Kinsella

Book description:
Poppy Wyatt is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. She lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill and her phone is stolen. She spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Perfect! Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

*
Find any good books at your library recently?

Jan 12, 2012

Unplanned Library Finds: Jan. 11

I wasn't planning to go the library but to find a laundromat to finish washing wet rugs that had been sitting in my washer when it suddenly went kaput! Maybe it was my fault, I overloaded the machine with rugs and then didn't get to it fast enough when it went bonkers in the spin cycle. So what if the almost 19-year-old washer was going to go out soon anyway; I may have shortened its lifespan by six months or so, I figure.

In any case, I missed the turnoff into the plaza with the laundromat (I haven't been there in two years), and then decided it would be easier to just continue cruising in the traffic toward the library instead of trying to turn around. I went into the library and came out with a DVD and six books I didn't need. Then, I returned to the laundromat, which was time consuming and an all round pain.
Good thing I had a book.....

Here are my library finds:


Tuya's Marriage, a DVD, is described thusly:
"Tuya, hardworking and hardheaded, is a Mongolian desert herder who refuses to be settled in a town in accordance with the new industrialization policy. She is kept busy with two kids, a disabled husband and one hundred sheep to care for, but one day she hurts her back. The only way for the family to survive is for her to divorce her husband on paper and look for a new spouse who can take care of the whole family. A series of suitors lines up, but it s not easy to find a man who fits the bill. This warm, endearing tale, featuring stunning cinematography, won the top prize at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival."  (How did I find this DVD? By looking in the "just returned" stack.)

I also borrowed two books on the short list for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize:
YAN LIANKE, China - Dream of Ding Village (Grove Atlantic)
 JAMIL AHMAD, Pakistan - The Wandering Falcon (Penguin India/Hamish Hamilton
and hope to get to the others that I haven't read as yet, sometime this year.

Then I went to the mystery section and grabbed some cozies, the opiate of (some of) the masses, like myself:

Death of a Greedy Woman by M. C.Beaton, a new Hamish Macbeth mystery set in Scottush highlands. ( I hoped she was greedy for money, or food, or diamonds, but not for reading!)
A Grave in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope (Any mystery with the word "Cotswolds" in it always gets my attention. )
Death in a Difficult Position: A Mantra for Murder Mystery by Diana Killian (I'm due for yoga class tomorrow but will try not to over do it.)

and one more book that is lost somewhere in the house. I will hopefully find it before it's due.


Mantra for Murder Mystery
And what books, fellow bloggers, have you found lately at the library or the bookstore?

© Harvee Lau of Book Dilettante. Please do not reprint without permission

Dec 30, 2011

Library Finds: New Reads for the New Year

It's been a while since I've borrowed books from the library, so on a visit yesterday to pick up a book on hold, I found a few others to read over the holidays. Here are two memoirs and two mystery novels, with brief descriptions from the publishers...


Title: Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses by Claire Dederer

"Ten years ago, Claire Dederer put her back out while breastfeeding her baby daughter. Told to try yoga by everyone from the woman behind the counter at the co-op to the homeless guy on the corner, she signed up for her first class. She fell madly in love....Dederer found that the deeper she went into the poses, the more they tested her most basic ideas of what makes a good mother, daughter, friend, wife—and the more they made her want something a little less tidy, a little more improvisational. Less goodness, more joy." Published December 21st 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Title: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (A Flavia de Luce Novel) by Alan Bradley

"It’s Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce—an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick. But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern. Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: a body found, past midnight, strangled to death with a length of film.... As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must use every ounce of sly wit at her disposal to ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight." Published November 1st 2011 by Delacorte Press

Title: A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

"Starting with charred fried rice and ending with flaky pineapple tarts, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan takes us along on a personal journey that most can only fantasize about--an exploration of family history and culture through a mastery of home-cooked dishes. Tan's delectable education through the landscape of Singaporean cuisine teaches us that food is the tie that binds."  Published February 8th 2011 by Voice



Title: A Florentine Death (Michele Ferrara) by Michele Giuttari

"Meet Michele Ferrara. Lover of a good bottle of local Rossi di Montalcino, smoker of Antico Toscano cigars - and head of Florence's elite police force, the Squadra Mobile. With a rising murder rate and high levels of Mafia activity, Ferrara has an unenviable job....It seems a deadly serial killer is at work...Ferrara doesn't understand what links the victims - but, with sick, teasing notes arriving for him from the killer, he needs to solve the crime before he becomes the next victim."  Published July 31st 2007 by Abacus (first published 2004)

These are not all newly published books, but their covers caught my eye on the library stands. I had read about all of them before, except for the Michele Ferrara mystery novel.

What are you planning to read over the New Year's holidays? Anything special?

Dec 3, 2011

Library Finds: Mystery Novels and Historical Fiction


My tour of my local library turned up four mysteries and an historical romance.

Title: The Real Macaw: A Meg Lanslow Mystery by Donna Andrews
Meg juggles twins, murder, and a back-talking bird in the next side-splittingly funny installment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling series. (book description)



Title: Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn
Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog On It, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private eye. Chet may have flunked out of police school but he's a detective through and through. (book description)



Title: Thereby Hangs a Tail: A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn
In the second Chet and Bernie mystery, Chet gets a glimpse of the show dog world turned deadly.What first seems like a walk in the park to canine narrator Chet and his human companion Bernie turns serious when pampered show dog Princess and her owner are abducted. (Goodreads)



Title: Mr. Monk Is Cleaned Out by Lee Goldberg
Monk's been swindled out of his savings-but now it's payback time, in the original mystery featuring the famous detective with OCD.




Title: Beside a Burning Sea by John Shors
A man and a woman from different worlds, whose love is put to the ultimate test as they struggle to survive an extraordinary set of circumstances. A small band of survivors from the sinking of a hospital ship during WWII, including an injured Japanese soldier and a young American nurse whom he saves from drowning, makes it to the deserted shore of a nearby island.

I enjoy mysteries with animals and my husband is a fan of Monk. He has just finished Shors' latest book and so I got Beside the Burning Sea for him, hoping he'll like this one too.

Any library books you want to share with us?

Sunday Salon: Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson

  Books reviewed Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson, July 31, 2024; BooksGoSocial Genre: thriller , family drama Themes: reflectiv...