Drop by for the next Books & Beyond (BAB) bookclub
meeting on Tuesday, July 23rd at 6:30pm in the library’s conference room. July’s topic is adventure! Read/listen to a thrilling novel or nonfiction
or watch a film or documentary…you get to pick!
If you’d rather attend online, be sure to register at the online
calendar to receive a Zoom link: https://www.oneallibrary.org/event/8810341
Last night, BAB met for one of our biannual reader’s choice
discussions. There was no assigned topic,
so we just shared anything we we’ve been enjoying lately. What a variety!!
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute
teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants
is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his
long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with
island volcano lair) to Charlie.
But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have
been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing:
rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture
capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league
of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy
cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look
pretty good. In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.
Oath & Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald
Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican
officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored
the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and
provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.
Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a
stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped
lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened.
In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our
history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose
actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.
The Plinko Bounce by Martin Clark (digital only)
For seventeen years, small-town public defender Andy Hughes
has been underpaid to look after the poor, the addicted, and the unfortunate
souls who constantly cycle through the courts, charged with petty crimes. Then,
in the summer of 2020, he’s assigned to a grotesque murder case that brings
national media focus to rural Patrick County, Virginia—Alicia Benson, the wife
of a wealthy businessman, is murdered in her home. The accused killer, Damian
Bullins, is a cunning felon with a long history of violence, and he confesses
to the police. He even admits his guilt to Andy.
But a simple typographical error and a shocking discovery
begin to complicate the state’s case, making it possible Bullins might escape
punishment. Duty-bound to give his client a thorough defense, Andy—despite his
misgivings—agrees to fight for a not-guilty verdict, a decision that will
ultimately force him to make profound, life-and-death choices, both inside
and outside the courtroom.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad,
Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had
intended to leave him to die.
Night Watching by Tracy Sierra
Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a
mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a
noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is
disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow,
coming up the stairs.
She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows.
Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part
of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as
the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and
scare the mother into surrender.
In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan.
Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another
glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is
even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is—and what
he wants.
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Born
with red pupils, he was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates;
“God’s will” is what his mother called his ocular albinism. Her words were of
little comfort, but Sam persevered, buoyed by his mother’s devout faith, his
father’s practical wisdom, and his two other misfit friends.
Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only
African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed.
And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy
like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.
Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no
longer certain anything was by design―especially not the tragedy that caused
him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always
known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he
looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway
around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open―bringing into clear view
what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see
what truly matters.
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a
doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure
people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a
detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover
the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox
gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.
Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments
but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before
their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow
enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?
Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking
vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail
from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the
myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old
friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of
murdering five of his family members, but with the help of a savvy lawyer, he
escaped justice for years until a relative assassinated him at the funeral of
his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was
acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend
himself. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee,
who spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many more trying to
finish the book she called The Reverend.
Cep brings this remarkable story to life, from the horrifying murders to the
courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South, while offering a
deeply moving portrait of one of our most revered writers.
Brainforest Café podcast with Dr. Dennis McKenna
Dennis McKenna is an American ethnopharmacologist,
research pharmacognosist, lecturer and author. He is the brother of
well-known psychedelics proponent Terence McKenna and is a
founding board member and the director of ethnopharmacology at the Heffter
Research Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with the investigation
of the potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic medicines.
The Chosen tv series
This dramatic series is about the life of Jesus Christ. It
introduces Jesus and the calling of his initial disciples, with a discussion
after each episode.
Interview with the Vampire tv series (2023)
In the year 2022, the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac lives
in Dubai and seeks to tell the story of his life or afterlife to renowned
journalist Daniel Molloy. Beginning in early 20th-century New Orleans, Louis'
story follows his relationship with the vampire Lestat du Lioncourt and their
formed family, including teen fledgling Claudia. Together, the vampire family
endures immortality in New Orleans and beyond. As the interview continues in
Dubai, Molloy discovers the truths beneath Louis' story.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of
Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual
tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy
babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty
thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is
home.
With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted
family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her
helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and
nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.
The Handmaiden film
A Korean film adaptation of Sarah Waters' Fingersmith. With help from an orphaned pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri), a Korean con man (Ha Jung-woo) devises an elaborate plot to seduce and bilk a Japanese woman (Kim Min-hee) out of her inheritance.
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse
until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a
brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives
word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but
something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to
Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers
about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift
of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to
something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself
trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the
name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in
clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing
fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man
who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s
and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether
their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
The following titles are not available in the Jefferson County Library Cooperative. Interlibrary Loan services may be available.
Two series by Alice Winters, the Vexing Villains duology and the Demon Magic series
True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author’s Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil’s Paradise by Terrence McKenna
This mesmerizing, surreal account of the bizarre adventures of Terence McKenna, his brother Dennis, and a small band of their friends, is a wild ride of exotic experience and scientific inquiry. Exploring the Amazon Basin in search of mythical shamanic hallucinogens, they encounter a host of unusual characters -- including a mushroom, a flying saucer, pirate Mantids from outer space, an appearance by James and Nora Joyce in the guise of poultry, and translinguistic matter -- and discover the missing link in the development of human consciousness and language.
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