royal romance

Unstinting luxury? Having your every wish be someone else's command? Wearing a tiara to breakfast? Check, check check! Whatever the reason, royal romances (real and fictional) always capture the imagination!

American Royalty by Tracey Livesay

In this dangerously sexy rom-com that evokes the real-life romance between Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, a prince who wants to live out of the spotlight falls for a daring American rapper who turns his life, and the palace, upside down.

Playing the Palace by Paul Rudnick

Their love story captivated the world…the crown prince and that guy from New York…When a lonely American event planner starts dating the gay Prince of Wales, a royal uproar ensues: is it true love or the ultimate meme? Find out in this hilarious romantic comedy.

The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle

An ordinary summer goes royally awry for elementary school teacher (and anonymous podcaster!) Piper Evans when a prince and princess move next door, bringing their handsome bodyguard with them.

Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can’t refuse. Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour—until now. Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day...or are they?

The Royal Runaway by Lindsay Emory

A fun and daring novel about a modern-day princess who teams up with a spy to find out what happened to the fiancé who left her at the altar—and who just might get her own fairytale in the process.

To Win a Prince by Toni Shiloh

As a fashion aficionado and best friend of the queen of the African island country Ọlọrọ Ilé, Iris Blakely dreams of using her talent to start a sustainable clothing line to help citizens in impoverished areas and honor the country's resources. But when she discovers that Ekon Diallo--the man who betrayed her best friend--will be her business consultant, the battle between her desires and reality begins. Though they come from vastly different worlds, Iris and Ekon are both determined to reach their goals, and the only way to do that is to work together--if they can just keep their hearts from getting in the way . . .

The Royal We by Heather Cocks

An American girl finds her prince in this "fun and dishy" (People) royal romance inspired by Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales? When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. 

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant e-mails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right. Delete! Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown.

A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday

From USA Today bestselling author Jenny Holiday comes a modern fairy tale about a tough New Yorker from the other side of the tracks who falls for a princess from the other side of the world.

The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne

The Princess Diaries meets Runaway Bride in this wonderful novel about a London career girl who embarks on a whirlwind romance with a mysterious man—only to discover that he’s a prince.

Once Upon a Royal Summer by Teri Wilson

Lacey found her dream job: playing a princess character at a popular fairytale theme park in sunny southern Florida. Henry, the crown prince of Bella-Moritz, is trying to fulfill his young daughter’s birthday wish: to be a normal girl with a normal life. That’s why they’re pretending to be ordinary tourists at an American amusement park. Henry lost his wife four years ago, and he’s been going through the motions ever since. But could a meeting with a make-believe princess lead to real love?

Digital copies only

Lush Money by Angelina Lopez (ebook & eaudiobook on Hoopla and ebook onLibby)

A marriage of convenience and three nights a month. That’s all the sultry, self-made billionaire wants from the impoverished prince. And at the end of the year, she’ll grant him his divorce…with a settlement large enough to save his beloved kingdom. Pr’ncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos is one of the top winegrowers in the world, and he’s not marrying and having a baby with a stranger. Even if the millions she’s offering could save his once-legendary wine-producing principality. But the successful, single-minded beauty uses a weapon Prince Mateo hadn’t counted on: his own desire.

The Royal Treatment by Melanie Summers (eaudiobook onHoopla)

Enough laughs to satisfy fans of Bridget Jones. Enough sparkly shoes and breathtaking ball gowns for fans of Cinderella... Twenty-eight-year-old Tessa Sharpe, a.k.a. The Royal Watchdog, hates everything about Prince Arthur. As far as she's concerned, he's an arrogant, lazy leech on the kingdom of Avonia. When he shocks the nation by giving her the keys to the castle in an attempt to boost his family's dismal public approval ratings, Tessa has no choice but to accept and move in for two months. It's lust at first sight, but there's no way she can give in to her feelings-not if she wants to have a career or a shred of pride left when her time at the palace ends. Can two natural enemies find their forever in each other's arms, or will they ruin each other to save themselves?

A Nordic King by Karina Halle (eaudiobook on Hoopla)

The widowed King of Denmark, father of two little girls. The beautiful nanny he's hired to raise them. A forbidden romance unlike any other.  

Royally Matched by Emma Chase (eaudiobook on Libby)

Welcome to Matched: Royal Edition, a reality TV dating game show featuring twenty of the world's most beautiful blue bloods gathered in the same castle. Only one will win the diamond tiara, only one will capture the handsome prince’s heart. While Henry revels in the sexy, raunchy antics of the contestants as they fight, literally, for his affection, it’s the quiet, bespectacled girl in the corner—with the voice of an angel and a body that would tempt a saint—who catches his eye. The more Henry gets to know Sarah Mirabelle Zinnia Von Titebottum, the more enamored he becomes of her simple beauty, her strength, her kind spirit... and her naughty sense of humor.

Suddenly Royal by Nichole Chase (ebook & eaudiobook on Hoopla and ebook on Libby)

Samantha Rousseau is used to getting her hands dirty. Working on a master's degree in wildlife biology while helping take care of her sick father, she has no time for celebrity gossip, designer clothes, or lazy vacations. So when a duchess from the small country of Lilaria invites her to dinner, Samantha assumes it's to discuss a donation for the program. The truth will change the course of her life in ways she never dreamed . . . As crown prince of Lilaria, Alex D'Lynsal has had his share of scandalous headlines, but the latest pictures in the press have sent him packing to America and forced him to swear off women. That is, until he meets Samantha Rousseau. She's stubborn, feisty, and incredibly sexy. Not to mention heiress to an estate in his country.  

 

translated fiction

 

The next Books & Beyond meeting is on Tuesday, September 27th at 6:30pm in the library’s Conference Room and the topic up for discussion is banned/challenged books.  If you’d prefer to attend online, register here: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/5494764

We are having a coloring contest upstairs on the 2nd floor during the entire month of September!  Complete one of our fall coloring pages and your name will be entered into the random drawing for a prize basket!

The World Does Not Belong To Us by Natalia Garcia Freire (translated by Victor Meadowcroft)
The story, told from Lucas’s perspective, takes the form of a monologue directed at his departed father, who not only sold Lucas into slavery, but sent his mother to a sanatorium. Using the cudgels of religiosity and respectability, the entire community conspired to rob Lucas and his mother of all that they loved, and all that made them unique and human. Making matters worse were the two strange men whom Lucas’s father invited to stay with them and soon lost control of, leaving the family at their mercy, with deadly consequences. All of this sets Lucas on a path which no one in his household will be able to turn back from. Visceral prose captures Lucas’s obsession with death, bugs, and other unpleasant aspects of life. Even as a child, these subjects held a grim fascination, even comfort, for him. Now, as an adult, Lucas again turns to his beloved insects for consolation and insight as he grapples with his traumatic past and uncertain future. There is a strange, unconventional beauty to his morbid world—a beauty that helps him endure pain and humiliation and achieve an unnerving final calm.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, who also narrates the audiobook)
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . .

Now You’re One of Us by Asa Nonami (translated by Michael Volek and Mitsuko Volek)
In the tradition of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, here is a new classic about the bride who's no longer sure what to think. All families have their own rituals, secrets, and credos, like a miniature religious cult; these quirks may elicit the mirth or mild alarm of guests, but the matter is rather more serious if you're marrying into a household. If its's a Japanese one with a history, the brace yourself: some surprising truths lurk around the corner.

I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Philip Roughton)
In an isolated village in the Icelandic Westfjords, three friends set to work renovating a rundown house. But soon, they realize they are not as alone as they thought. Something wants them to leave, and it's making its presence felt. Meanwhile, in a town across the fjord, a young doctor investigating the suicide of an elderly woman discovers that she was obsessed with his vanished son. When the two stories collide, the terrifying truth is uncovered.

An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten (translated by Marlaine Delargy)
Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and... no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.  The sequel, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed, is also hilarious.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten (translated by Alexandra Fleming)
Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left―a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn―have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened. But there will be no turning back. Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice: They are not alone.

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King
Karen L. King tells the story of the recovery of this remarkable gospel and offers a new translation. This brief narrative presents a radical interpretation of Jesus' teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge. It rejects his suffering and death as a path to eternal life and exposes the view that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute for what it is - a piece of theological fiction. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala offers a fascinating glimpse into the conflicts and controversies that shaped earliest Christianity.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (translated by Stephen Snyder)
On an unnamed island, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses. . . . Most of the inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those few able to recall the lost objects live in fear of the draconian Memory Police, who are committed to ensuring that what has disappeared remains forgotten. When a young writer discovers that her editor is in danger, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards, and together they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past. Powerful and provocative, The Memory Police is a stunning novel about the trauma of loss.

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada (translated by Margaret Mitsutani)
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as “the land of sushi.” Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian). With its intrepid band of companions, Scattered All Over the Earth (the first novel of a trilogy) may bring to mind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or a surreal Wind in the Willows, but really is just another sui generis Yoko Tawada masterwork.

Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini, a bold, revelatory novel about one of the great untold stories of World War I—the women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, who broke down gender barriers in the military, smashed the workplace glass ceiling, and battled a pandemic as they helped lead the Allies to victory. 

The Interpreter (2005)
Interpreter Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) is at the United Nations when she overhears what she believes is a plan to assassinate the president of Matobo, Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron). When she alerts the authorities, Secret Service agents Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener) are assigned to the case. It's not long before they decide that Silvia herself is a suspect, having formerly been involved with both a guerrilla group in Matobo and the president's chief opponent.

Lost in Translation (2003)
A lonely, aging movie star named Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a conflicted newlywed, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), meet in Tokyo. Bob is there to film a Japanese whiskey commercial; Charlotte is accompanying her celebrity-photographer husband. Strangers in a foreign land, the two find escape, distraction and understanding amidst the bright Tokyo lights after a chance meeting in the quiet lull of the hotel bar. They form a bond that is as unlikely as it is heartfelt and meaningful.

The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (translated by Lola Rogers)
From the author of the Finlandia Award-winning novel Troll: A Love Story, The Core of the Sun further cements Johanna Sinisalo’s reputation as a master of literary speculative fiction and of her country’s unique take on it, dubbed “Finnish weird.” Set in an alternative historical present, in a “eusistocracy”—an extreme welfare state—that holds public health and social stability above all else, it follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is "a love letter to alphabetarians and logomaniacs everywhere" (Myla Goldberg, bestselling author of Bee Season).

I mentioned the role of literature in giving glimpses of other cultures, perspectives, etc through the idea of books as mirrors or windows but I couldn’t remember the 3rd perspective, which is glasses!  Here’s the article I was trying to remember: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/90101-windows-mirrors-and-glasses-grace-lin-on-seeing-the-world-through-diverse-books.html

One of the group members asked me for recommendations of gothic, atmospheric translated fiction.  Here are the titles I suggested to the participant:

The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf (translated by Susan Bernofsky)
It is a sunny summer Sunday in a remote Swiss village, and a christening is being celebrated at a lovely old farmhouse. One of the guests notes an anomaly in the fabric of the venerable edifice: a blackened post that has been carefully built into a trim new window frame. Thereby hangs a tale, one that, as the wise old grandfather who has lived all his life in the house proceeds to tell it, takes one chilling turn after another, while his audience listens in appalled silence. Featuring a cruelly overbearing lord of the manor and the oppressed villagers who must render him service, an irreverent young woman who will stop at nothing, a mysterious stranger with a red beard and a green hat, and, last but not least, the black spider, the tale is as riveting and appalling today as when Jeremias Gotthelf set it down more than a hundred years ago.

This World Does Not Belong to Us by Natalia Garcia Freire (translated by Victor Meadowcroft)
This title was discussed in the meeting, see that description.

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval (translated by Marjam Idriss)
Jo is in a strange new country for university, and having a more peculiar time than most. A house with no walls, a roommate with no boundaries, and a home that seems ever more alive. Jo's sensitivity, and all her senses, become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, and dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh. This debut novel from critically acclaimed artist and musician Jenny Hval, presents a heady and hyper-sensual portrayal of sexual awakening and queer desire. A complex, poetic and strange novel about bodies, sexuality and the female gender.

Now You’re One of Us by Asa Nonami (translated by Michael Volek and Mitsuko Volek)
This title was discussed in the meeting, see that description.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (translated by Megan McDowell)
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She's not his mother. He's not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. Fever Dream is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale. One of the freshest new voices to come out of the Spanish language and translated into English for the first time, Samanta Schweblin creates an aura of strange psychological menace and otherworldly reality in this absorbing, unsettling, taut novel.

I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Philip Roughton)
This title was discussed in the meeting, see that description.

I’ve enjoyed every single book by these two authors:

Jenny Hval

-Paradise Rot (mentioned above)
-Girls Against God
Welcome to 1990s Norway. White picket fences run in neat rows and Christian conservatism runs deep. But as the Artist considers her work, things start stirring themselves up. In a corner of Oslo a coven of witches begin cooking up some curses. A time-travelling Edvard Munch arrives in town to join a death metal band, closely pursued by the teenaged subject of his painting Puberty, who has murder on her mind. Meanwhile, out deep in the forest, a group of school girls get very lost and things get very strange. And awful things happen in aspic. Jenny Hval's latest novel is a radical fusion of queer feminist theory and experimental horror, and a unique treatise on magic, writing and art.

Maylis de Kerangal:

-The Heart
Just before dawn on a Sunday morning, three teenage boys go surfing. While driving home exhausted, the boys are involved in a fatal car accident on a deserted road. Two of the boys are wearing seat belts; one goes through the windshield. The doctors declare him brain-dead shortly after arriving at the hospital, but his heart is still beating. The Heart takes place over the twenty-four hours surrounding the resulting heart transplant, as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death. In gorgeous, ruminative prose, it examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death.

-The Cook
More like a poetic biographical essay on a fictional person than a novel, The Cook is a coming-of-age journey centered on Mauro, a young self-taught cook. The story is told by an unnamed female narrator, Mauro’s friend and disciple who we also suspect might be in love with him. Set not only in Paris but in Berlin, Thailand, Burma, and other far-flung places over the course of fifteen years, the book is hyperrealistic―to the point of feeling, at times, like a documentary. It transcends this simplistic form, however, through the lyricism and intensely vivid evocative nature of Maylis de Kerangal’s prose, which conjures moods, sensations, and flavors, as well as the exhausting rigor and sometimes violent abuses of kitchen work.

-Painting Time
In Maylis de Kerangal’s Painting Time, we are introduced to the burgeoning young artist Paula Karst, who is enrolled at the famous Institut de Peinture in Brussels. Unlike the friends she makes at school, Paula strives to understand the specifics of what she’s painting―replicating a wood’s essence or a marble’s wear requires method, technique, and talent, she finds, but also something else: craftsmanship. She resolutely chooses the painstaking demands of craft over the abstraction of high art. With the attention of a documentary filmmaker, de Kerangal follows Paula’s apprenticeship, punctuated by brushstrokes, hard work, sleepless nights, sore muscles, and long, festive evenings. After completing her studies at the Institute, Paula continues to practice her art in Paris, in Moscow, then in Italy on the sets of great films, all as if rehearsing for a grand finale: a job working on Lascaux IV, a facsimile reproduction of the world’s most famous paleolithic cave art and the apotheosis of human cultural expression.

PBS NOVA: A to Z (A Kanopy streaming video instantly available for Birmingham, Homewood, Hoover, Irondale, Pinson, Mountain Brook, and Trussville residents only.)
Ep1: The First Alphabet, Ep2: How Writing Changed the World
Writing and printing are perhaps the greatest inventions of all time, changing the course of human history through the spread of ideas. In this two-part series, NOVA explores how writing began and reveals the astonishing origins of our own alphabet. Then, researchers investigate the origins of the printing press, which kicked off the Industrial Revolution and led to swift technological advancement and the expansion of cultures.

 

 

they blinded me with science!

 Who is YOUR favorite scientist in fiction, real or imaginged?  

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics, who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. And so, in the orderly, evidence-based manner with which Don approaches all things, he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, scientifically valid survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers. Rosie Jarman is all these things. She also is strangely beguiling, fiery, and intelligent. And while Don quickly disqualifies her as a candidate for the Wife Project, as a DNA expert Don is particularly suited to help Rosie on her own quest: identifying her biological father. When an unlikely relationship develops as they collaborate on the Father Project, Don is forced to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that, despite your best scientific efforts, you don’t find love, it finds you.

Natural History by Andrea Barrett (not yet released, publishing September 13, 2022)

In these stories, “Barrett transforms deep knowledge of history, science, and human nature into gorgeously vital and insightful stories in which every element is richly brewed, mulled, and redolent.”

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Widowed astrobiologist Theo enrolls his sensitive young son, Robin, in an experimental therapy, involving decoded neurofeedback, leading to fresh insights into the living world, science, popular culture, and politics.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.  

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

Dr. Valery Kolkhanov, a biochemist and radiation expert carefully concealing his queerness while incarcerated in a Siberian prison labor camp, is abruptly taken to Kyshtym, a top-secret Soviet plutonium-producing site where a 1957 nuclear waster explosion released more radiation than the Chernobyl disaster.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she's forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

Man-eating tigers, river dolphins, mangrove forest, and the great cosmic metronome of sweeping tides all shape Sundarbans in the Bay of Bengal, Where cetologist Piya Roy conducts arduous research.

Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Genius physics professor Dr. Jane Darlington desperately wants a baby. But finding a father won't be easy. Jane's super-intelligence made her feel like a freak when she was growing up, and she's determined to spare her own child that suffering. Which means she must find someone very special to father her child. Someone very . . . well . . .not intelligent. Cal Bonner, the Chicago Stars legendary quarterback, seems like the perfect choice. But his champion good looks and down-home ways are deceiving. Dr. Jane learns too late that this good ol' boy is a lot smarter than he lets on—and he's not about to be used and abandoned by a brainy schemer.

The Intangible by C. J. Washington

Amanda’s rare condition, pseudocyesis, is the perfect case study for Patrick, a renowned scientist specializing in the little-understood psychological disorders.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

A fig tree brought from Cyprus to England is the heart of Shafak’s politically and psychologically complex novel about the troubled marriage between Kostas, a prominent Greek botanist and ecologist, and Defne, a Turkish forensic archaeologist.

Little Gods by Meng Jin

Kiya’s birth during the Tiananmen Square Massacre marks her father’s disappearance and the reversal of her mother Su Lan’s promising trajectory as a gifted physicist.

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

In the tradition of Beatriz Williams and Paula McClain, Marie Benedict's The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. This novel resurrects Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated. Was she simply Einstein's sounding board, an assistant performing complex mathematical equations? Or did she contribute something more?

The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata

Orphaned Maxwell Moreau, whose mother was a brilliant Dominican writer, becomes a famous theoretical physicist who receives a mysterious old manuscript in Zapata’s keenly enchanting blend of history, science, and fairy tale.

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Inti Flynn, who has mirror-touch synesthesia, is a wolf biologist in charge of a controversial effort to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands.

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth by Daniel Mason

The Characters in Mason’s mind-stretching historical short stories include a mother seeking a remedy for sickness caused by London’s poisonous fogs; a cruel, scientifically inclined Egyptian pharaoh; and the brilliant, long-suffering naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace.

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

In the present, unemployed editor Willa Knox inherits a wreck of a house with a history tied to Thatcher Greenwood, a nineteenth-century high school science teacher whose job is imperiled by his teaching Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and his neighbor, Mary Treat, a renowned naturalist and popular-science writer who corresponds with Darwin.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Young George Washington (“Wash”) Black is enslaved on a sugar plantation in Barbados when he is chosen to assist with scientific experiments, leading to a journey to the Arctic and Nova Scotia, where he meets the daughter of an eminent zoologist.

The World to Come by Jim Shepard

Shepard writes remarkably intimate historical short stories with a scientific bent, here dramatizing the doomed Arctic Franklin Expedition and telling stories of hot-air balloonists and  a submarine crew.

(some titles gathered from an article on the topic in Booklist magazine, August 2022, pg 32)

 

waiting on Inspector Gamache

 

All out of Louise Penny novels? Here are series openers you may enjoy reading while waiting for the next installment in the Inspector Gamache series.

Case Histories (Jackson Brodie Book 1) by Kate Atkinson

The first book in the Jackson Brodie mystery series kicks off with private investigator Brodie following three seemingly disparate cases in Edinburgh. What do a missing little girl, an attacked office worker, and a new mother who snapped have in common? Jackson Brodie follows the threads back over the past 30 years as surprising connections emerge.

A Duty to the Dead (Bess Crawford Mysteries Book 1) by Charles Todd

This series features an atmospheric, post-WWI England setting and a wartime nurse turned investigator; with the Bess Crawford series, the authors explicitly wanted to show readers the women's side of The Great War. In this first installment, Bess is determined to fulfill a promise she made to a dying officer, even though she's been sent away from the front with a broken arm. But when she meets the man's family, something feels off—and she soon realizes she's plunged straight into the middle of a web of long-buried secrets.

In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad Book 1) by Tana French

This is the first of French's popular Dublin Murder Squad, although unlike Louise Penny, this series need not be read in order. The story has two primary threads: one revolves around a psychopath, the other around a supernatural disturbance, and you'll be sucked right into both. The murder is seriously grizzly, the book unputdownable—although be warned: the ending is highly controversial.

From Doon with Death (Inspector Wexford Mysteries Book 1) by Ruth Rendell

Inspector Wexford cannot figure out why anyone would murder a timid housewife, until he happens upon her secret collection of rare books, all signed by someone named Doon. But who is Doon and what do they have to do with the victim? Rendell deftly combines police procedural with small town mystery.

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries Series Book 1) by Jacqueline Winspear

At age 13, Maisie became a maid in London, but when her employer notices Maisie keeps sneaking into the library at night to read philosophy, her employer puts her on the path to Cambridge. When WWI begins, she becomes a nurse, and then a private investigator. This first novel is a strong start to a strong series: read them in order.

A Share in Death (Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James Book 1) by Deborah Crombie

Detective Duncan Kincaid happens to be vacationing at his posh cousin's time share when a body is found in the resort pool. The local detective rules suicide, but Kincaid is certain there's more to the story.

Death at La Fenice (Commissario Brunetti Book 1) by Donna Leon

In this first installment, a renowned opera conductor is found dead in his dressing room, a victim of cyanide poisoning. As the investigation unfolds, it's clear the man had a dark past and many enemies, and that the perpetrator wanted to make his victim suffer. But why? Death at La Fenice is an excellent place to begin, but no need to read this lengthy series in order.

The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry Book 1) by Sujata Massey

Perveen Mistry is Bombay’s first female solicitor, employed by her father’s respected firm. When her father’s Muslim client dies, he is tasked with executing the will, but the three devout widows "stay behind the veil," and must not be seen by men. When the duo discover irregularities in the estate documents, Perveen resolves to speak with the widows, because—as a woman—she's the only one who can.

The Kill Artist (Gabriel Allon Series Book 1) by Daniel Silva

Meet Gabriel Allon, a master art restorer and sometime Israeli intelligence operative. He’s pulled back into the fray when his former boss needs his help shutting down a planned terrorist attack—and the man behind this plot is also responsible for the murder of his wife and son. An international manhunt ensues, making for a page-turning read.

A Great Deliverance (Inspector Lynley Book 1) by Elizabeth George

This award-winning series features Scotland Yard members Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers. These mysteries feature well-developed characters, intricate plots, psychological depth, and a strong sense of place, with much of the action unfolding in the gorgeous English countryside.

Iron Lake (Cork O’Connor Book 1) by William Kent Krueger

After losing his job and separating from his family in a marital dispute, Cork O’Connor can barely crawl out from under his guilt. Cork is eager to win back his family—winter in Minnesota lake country is hard enough without bitterness and loss. But when a local judge is murdered, and a friend asks Cork to find her missing son, he takes on the investigation. Town officials try to stop him at every turn, but Cork is determined to find the truth, even if that means exposing a dark secret. Part Irish, part Anishinaabe, Cork straddles two worlds and calls on friends who owe him favors in order to solve the case.

The Unquiet Dead (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak Book 1) by Ausma Zehanat Khan

This Canadian procedural series centers the investigative team of detective Esa Khattak and his assistant Rachel Getty, who are often called upon to investigate crimes in the Muslim community of Toronto, navigating cultural and political divides to do so. The pair is called in to investigate the seemingly accidental death of a wealthy local man, and it slowly becomes apparent that this crime's roots go deeper than the detectives could have dreamed.

Bluebird, Bluebird (Highway 59 Book 1) by Attica Locke

In this modern noir, Darren Matthews, a Black Texas Ranger, has an intricate understanding of racial tensions in East Texas. He’s proud of his roots and his family, but when his loyalty lands him in trouble, he agrees to get out of town and investigate a crime for a friend. He drives up Highway 59 to the town of Lark, where a recent murder has stirred up hatred and history.

The Thursday Murder Club (The Thursday Murder Club Book 1) by Richard Osman

This fun mystery is set in a retirement community, where four friends meet in the Jigsaw Room every week to chat about unsolved crimes. This group of 70-somethings call themselves "The Thursday Murder Club." When bodies start piling up in a live and local case, they set out to catch a killer.

The Crossing Places (Ruth Galloway Series Book 1) by Elly Griffiths

Dr. Ruth Galloway is dedicated to her career as a forensic archaeologist and her two cats in Norfolk. When a child’s bones are discovered on a beach, the detective calls her in for help, suspecting they may be the remains of a girl who went missing a decade prior. Instead, the bones are revealed to be from the Iron Age, drawing Ruth further into the mystery. Then a second girl goes missing and the detective receives a sinister letter. They’ll have to work fast to determine if a copycat is on the rise.

In the Bleak Midwinter (Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries Book 1) by Julia Spencer-Fleming

When a newborn infant is left at her church door, Clare Fergusson, the new Episcopalian priest in town, strikes up a friendship with Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne. They’re both ex-Army and find they have a lot in common…but he’s married and so friendship is all that they can be. As they search for the baby’s mother, they discover troubling secrets hiding in their small Upstate New York town.

Bruno, Chief of Police (Bruno Chief of Police Series Book 1) by Martin Walker

The eponymous Captain Bruno Courrèges is in charge of a modest force in the town of St Debis in the Périgord region of France, and Bruno is not your typical hard-hitting copper: he never carries the gun he owns, and barely needs to arrest people. But suddenly all is turmoil in the town as inspectors from Brussels swoop on the rural market, making many enemies. Bruno is worried by the fact that this phenomenon is invoking memories of the town's ignoble Vichy France past. Then an old man from a North African immigrant family is murdered…

What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr Series Book 1) by C.S. Harris

It’s 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III’s England. Then the body of a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an officer during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. 

https://modernmrsdarcy.com/what-to-read-next-louise-penny-readalikes/

truth or fiction?

That's a trick question, it's both!

Who doesn't love a good historical mystery? Unsolved cases, theories on top of theories, and unreliable narrators abound in the genre--especially when it comes to historical fiction based on actual mysteries from the past. These fictional takes on real stories are exactly the sort of high-stakes, unputdownable reading perfect for summer.

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex

This novel is inspired by a mystery from 1900 in which three lighthouse keepers at Eilean Mor disappeared, leaving behind only a series of mysterious clues: the door locked from the inside, a stopped clock, and a strange series of final entries about a terrifying storm. It's a tense, atmospheric read.

The Red Palace by June Hur

Not so much based on a mystery as a mysterious figure from Korean history, this book follows a young nurse working in the royal palace when a string of murders seem to implicate the dangerous Crown Prince. Hur wrote an incredibly interesting newsletter going into the background of Crown Prince Jangheon.

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Grace Marks was convicted for her involvement in the murder of her employer and his housekeeper in the nineteenth century. But did she really do it? Some believe she's guilty and rightfully imprisoned. Others say she's an innocent victim. Whatever might be true, a group of reformers looking to see Grace pardoned call in an expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness in Alias Grace to examine her and plead her case.

See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt

This novel imagines the 1892 Borden axe murders from four different perspectives, including that of the real-life primary suspect, Lizzie Borden; her older sister, Emma; their housemaid, Bridget; and a stranger named Benjamin. Although Lizzie was acquitted in real life, the story of these gruesome murders has remained a much-speculated piece of American lore.

The Girls by Emma Cline

If you’ve ever even heard the name Manson, it shouldn’t take much for you to figure out what this one’s based on: it’s summer in the late 1960s, and 14-year-old Evie becomes infatuated with Suzanne, an enigmatic personality she encounters in a Los Angeles park. Soon, she follows Suzanne into a cult, whose sprawling but run-down ranch is hidden in the hills. Edie must decide if she’s willing to go through with what the cult and their charismatic leader ask of her.

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

In December of 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley’s scheduled performance at the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions, seven gunmen stormed the singer’s house in an attack that wounded Marley, his wife, manager, and several others. This Booker prize–winning novel explores this tumultuous period in Jamaica’s history and the rumors about the unnamed would-be-assassins’ fates.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani

In 2012, Yoselyn Ortega allegedly murdered two children under her care in New York City. It’s that gruesome real-life tale that inspired Ortega to write this award-winning best seller, in which the setting is moved to Paris, and focus is directed to the relationship between the grieving mother and the “perfect nanny” she trusted with her young children.

The Good People by Hannah Kent

In mid–19th century Ireland a woman called Anne Roche was tried for the murder of Michael Leahy, a young boy. Roche claimed that Leahy was a changeling and was eventually acquitted.

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

Constance Kopp was one of the first women to become a deputy sheriff in the USA. After becoming the victim of a crime herself Constance joined forces with her sisters to bring the perpetrator to justice, and ended up with a job on the New Jersey police force.

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes

1903 was the year of the ‘Great Wyrley Outrages’, when a number of cows, horses and sheep were “slashed”. Suspicion feel on George Edalji, a local man of Parsi-heritage who did three years hard labour for the crime before he was proved innocent by Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, the Sherlock Holmes guy.

Red Joan by Jennie Rooney

For most of her life, Melita Norwood got away with treason. The British civil servant provided Russian intelligence with private information before retiring and going into hiding. But in 1999, at age 87, Norwood (alias: Red Joan) was found. A film adaptation based the novel has Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson playing the titular Red Joan through different eras of her life.

My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates

The mystery of what happened to JonBenet Ramsey has endured, largely because of its sensationalistic aspects, but also because it's been a cold case for several decades now. In 2008, the prolific Joyce Carol Oates utilized details of the unthinkable crime as plot points this novel.

 

 

readers' choice

I’m pleased to report that last month, the Books & Beyond discussion group celebrated its 14th anniversary here at O’Neal!  Thanks for keeping the conversation alive!

The next BAB meeting is Tuesday, August 30th. Since August is Women in Translation month, that is our topic!  This will include books WRITTEN by women that are translated into English and books translated into English BY women.  If you’re looking for inspiration, there is a display at the 2nd floor service desk and the BAB column (7th row down) on the library’s Shelf Care webpage has a great selection too. 

BAB met last night for one of our biannual Salon Discussions, where there is no assigned topic and we share anything we’ve been enjoying lately!

Enthralled by Katie MacAlister (not available in the JCLC system, find in WorldCat) 

Keeley Moore was happy when he found his Beloved, the one woman fated to be the love of his immortal life. And then she left him at the altar without so much as a single word of explanation. One hundred and thirty years later, he’s still trying NOT to think about her. Jenna Boyle has no idea who this tortured, tormented, and sexy-as-sin man is who claims she betrayed him a century ago, but she’s not overly worried about their past. It’s the present that concerns her, mostly in getting Keeley free from the monsters who have turned him from a peaceful vampire into a Thrall, the dreaded ancestor of all Dark Ones…one who is about to go into a murderous, unstoppable killing spree. One Thrall and his Beloved, a bestie with a male harem, and a group of intrepid tourists tackling an international organization bent on the destruction of the mortal world…it’s just another day in the world of Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones.

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer. But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

It's 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl's display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they've been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

You’d think being abducted by aliens would be the worst thing that could happen to me. And you’d be wrong. Because now the aliens are having ship trouble, and they’ve left their cargo of human women—including me—on an ice planet. Fall in love with the out-of-this-world romance between Georgie Carruthers, a human woman, and Vektal, an alien from another planet.

Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams (not available in the JCLC system, find in WorldCat) 

In its seven years on television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer earned critical acclaim and a massive cult following among teen viewers. One of the most distinguishing features of the show is the innovative way its writers play with language--fabricating new words, morphing existing ones, and throwing usage on its head. The result has been a strikingly resonant lexicon that reflects the power of both youth culture and television in the evolution of American slang. Using the show to illustrate how new slang is formed, transformed, and transmitted, Slayer Slang is one of those rare books that combines a serious explanation of a pop culture phenomenon with an engrossing read for Buffy fans, language mavens, and pop culture critics.

One for All by Lillie Lainoff

Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father―a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for new Musketeers: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a sword fight.

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett

From the enchantments of Kate DiCamillo’s children’s books (author of The Beatryce Prophecy) to youthful memories of Paris; the cherished life gifts given by her three fathers to the unexpected influence of Charles Schultz’s Snoopy; the expansive vision of Eudora Welty to the importance of knitting, Patchett connects life and art as she illuminates what matters most. Infused with the author’s grace, wit, and warmth, the pieces in These Precious Days resonate deep in the soul, leaving an indelible mark—and demonstrate why Ann Patchett is one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

Ken Russell’s Gothic (not available in the JCLC system, find streaming)

Lord Byron promises his guests a night of horror only a mad poet can deliver and after partaking in hallucinogens, the guests tell ghost stories while exploring the dark corridors of his home - and of their minds.

Impromptu (available via Hoopla at select libraries)

French novelist George Sand flirts with composer Frederic Chopin and the poet Alfred de Musset.

The Vanishing by Tim Krabbe

When Saskia Ehlvest, a young Dutch girl, disappears from a rest stop along a highway in rural France, her lover, Rex Hofmann, cannot accept her disappearance and embarks on an obsessive search for her that spans years.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.

The Latinist by Mark Prins

A contemporary reimagining of the Daphne and Apollo myth, The Latinist is a page-turning exploration of power, ambition, and the intertwining of love and obsession.

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

Forty-eight hours after leaving her husband’s body at the base of the stairs, Tanya Dubois cashes in her credit cards, dyes her hair brown, demands a new name from a shadowy voice over the phone, and flees town. It’s not the first time. It’s almost impossible to live off the grid in the twenty-first century, but Amelia-now-Debra has the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret. From heart-stopping escapes and devious deceptions, we are left to wonder…can she possibly outrun her past?

The River by Peter Heller

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since college orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant while Jack is more rugged. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey.From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.

The Guide by Peter Heller

Safe from viruses that have plagued America for years, Kingfisher Lodge offers a respite for wealthy clients. Now it also promises a second chance for Jack, a return to normalcy after a young life filled with loss. When he is assigned to guide a well-known singer, his only job is to rig her line, carry her gear, and steer her to the best trout he can find. But then a human scream pierces the night, and Jack soon realizes that this idyllic fishing lodge may be merely a cover for a far more sinister operation. A novel as gripping as it is lyrical, as frightening as it is moving, The Guide is another masterpiece from Peter Heller.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan

Using new technology, recently discovered documents and sophisticated investigative techniques, an international team—led by an obsessed retired FBI agent—has finally solved the mystery that has haunted generations since World War II: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?

Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History by Richard Thompson Ford

In Dress Codes, law professor and cultural critic Richard Thompson Ford presents a “deeply informative and entertaining” (The New York Times Book Review) history of the laws of fashion from the middle ages to the present day, a walk down history’s red carpet to uncover and examine the canons, mores, and customs of clothing—rules that we often take for granted. After reading Dress Codes, you’ll never think of fashion as superficial again—and getting dressed will never be the same.

Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung by Min Kym

In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Kym reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes her past as a child prodigy, with its isolation and crushing expectations; her combustible relationships with teachers and with a domineering boyfriend; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her traditional Korean family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.

Seven Steeples by Sara Baume

It is the winter following the summer they met. A couple, Bell and Sigh, move into a remote house in the Irish countryside with their dogs. Both solitary with misanthropic tendencies, they leave the conventional lives stretched out before them to build another—one embedded in ritual, and away from the friends and family from whom they’ve drifted. Seven Steeples is a beautiful and profound meditation on the nature of love and the resilience of nature. Through Bell and Sigh, and the life they create for themselves, Sara Baume explores what it means to escape the traditional paths laid out before us—and what it means to evolve in devotion to another person, and to the landscape.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson
Truly Devious
The Vanishing Stair
The Hand on the Wall
Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born: How Buffy Staked OurHearts by Evan Ross Katz

Over the course of its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer cultivated a loyal fandom and featured a strong, complex female lead, at a time when such a character was a rarity. Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later.

The Vanishing (Dutch film)

Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor.

The Vanishing (American film)

A vacationing Seattle couple stops at a highway rest area where the woman disappears without a trace in this gut-wrenching remake.

Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series

Gabriel Allon is a master art restorer and sometime officer of Israeli intelligence.

The Revenant by Michael Punke (film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio)

The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. 

Anne Frank The Whole Story miniseries (2001) Available on Youtube

The life of Anne Frank and her family from 1939 to 1945: pre-war fears, invasion of Netherlands by German troops, hiding in Amsterdam, deportation to the camps, return of Anne's father.

My Best Friend Anne Frank (Netflix)

Based on the real-life friendship between Anne Frank and Hannah Goslar, from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to their harrowing reunion in a concentration camp.

Witch, Please podcast

A fortnightly podcast about the Harry Potter world hosted by Hannah McGregor and Marcelle Kosman. “Those who have never read a Potter book can certainly listen to the Witch, Please podcast. Frankly, by just walking the earth with your eyes and ears open you have likely ingested enough Potter information to enjoy this funny and thought-provoking podcast.” - Vancouver Sun, 2020

Victoria Finlay

Victoria studied Social Anthropology at St Andrews University, Scotland and William & Mary College, Virginia, after spending time in Himalayan India, teaching in a Tibetan refugee camp and realizing how amazing it was to learn about different cultures.  A lifelong interest in color led to her first book, Color: A Natural History of the Palette, before branching out into other interests with Jewels: A Secret History and her most recent (June, 2022), Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World.

Game of Thrones: The Costumes by Michele Clapton (not available in the JCLC system, find in WorldCat)

The official guide to the complete costumes of HBO’s landmark television series Game of Thrones. Discover how BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning costume designer Michele Clapton dressed the heroes and villains of Westeros and beyond, including Daenerys Targaryen, Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, and Arya Stark.

(image: A reading of Molière, Jean François de Troy, about 1728)

Booker Prize novels

 

The next Books & Beyond (BAB) meeting will be on Tuesday, July 19 at 6:30pm.  You’ll notice we’re meeting a week early to avoid conflict with the Children’s Department summer reading block party.  The meeting will be one of our biannual Salon Discussions, so there is no assigned topic.  Come to the meeting and tell us about something good you’ve read, watched, or listened to recently!

This week, BAB met to chat about Booker Prize-shortlisted and winning novels.  If you are not familiar with the Booker Prize, it is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.

Winners

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

The elderly Claudia Hampton, a best-selling author of popular history; lies alone in a London hospital bed. Memories of her life still glow in her fading consciousness, but she imagines writing a history of the world. Instead, Moon Tiger is her own history, the life of a strong, independent woman, with its often contentious relations with family and friends. At its center — forever frozen in time, the still point of her turning world — is the cruelly truncated affair with Tom, a British tank commander whom Claudia knew as a reporter in Egypt during World War II.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

Shortlisted

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.  

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

One postwar summer, in his home in rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline. Its owners--mother, son, and daughter--are struggling to keep pace with a changing society. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precocious young son finally gain their freedom, and the boy experiences the outside world for the first time. Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating — a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond-hard bond between a mother and her child.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Once one of the most beguiling women in Sligo, Roseanne McNulty is now a resident of Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital and nearing her hundredth year. Set against an Ireland besieged by conflict, The Secret Scripture is an engrossing tale of one woman's life, and a poignant story of the cruelties of civil war and corrupted power. The Secret Scripture is now a film starring Rooney Mara, Eric Bana, and Vanessa Redgrave.

Several of these titles have a film or TV adaptation:

Wolf Hall

The Little Stranger

Room

Secret Scripture

literary fathers

 

BookBub polled readers about their favorite literary dads and these were among the top votes!

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Goh Wye Mun from Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Gomez Addams from The Addams Family by Charles Addams

Ta-Nehisi Coates from Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Hans Hubermann from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Bob Cratchit from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

James Fraser from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon  

Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Stu Redman from The Stand by Stephen King

William from The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Ned Stark from the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin

Michael Carpenter from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher

Jess Birdwell from The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West

Barack Obama's Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama and Loren Long

Daniel Howitt from Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright

If you’re looking for more reading inspiration, put some of these new and forthcoming books on your holds list!

The Beach Trap by Ali Brady
“An enchanting, heartwarming story about the families we’re born into—and the families we choose for ourselves. The Beach Trap is full of beauty, and hope, and reminders that it’s never too late to roll up our sleeves and rise above the mistakes we made . . . Take this book on vacation with you, and let its heart and humor sweep you off your feet!”—Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, andCrooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
“Patrick Radden Keefe is a brilliant writer . . . Rogues is a marvel, showcasing the work of a reporter at the absolute top of his game.”—Daniel Alarcón, author of The King is Always Above the People

The Catch by Alison Fairbrother
“In this wonderful, wholly absorbing family drama with a mystery at its beating heart, Alison Fairbrother asks, What are we owed by the people we love? The answers she provides are funny, sad, complex, and always surprising. I loved this book and you will too.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion

The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn
“This book is fun as hell. Hilarious, addictive, moving, and sexy. I lost track of time reading it, and I couldn’t get enough!” —Jasmine Guillory, bestselling author of While We Were Dating

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
“I don’t know how to put into words the awe I felt while reading this book—for the incredible sensory diversity of our planet, and for Ed Yong’s talents.”—Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Kaleidoscope by Cecily Wong
“Sparkling with sharp observations and deeply wise in its insights . . . Cecily Wong’s dazzling second novel deftly explores the complex push-pull of family and ambition, and the ways we learn to define ourselves in—and out of—our loved ones’ orbits.”—Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare
“In Lena Aldridge, Hare has created a heroine who practically leaps off the page with her sharp wit and incandescence. Throw in a Jazz Age ocean crossing on the Queen Mary and series of diabolical murders that would make Agatha Christie proud, and I was done for, turning the pages late into the night. Irresistible and smart.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue

Dele Weds Destiny by Tomi Obaro
“The bonds between women—as friends, and across the generations—are the jewels that make this story shine.” —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet.

As Cooked on TikTok
This cookbook features both viral and brand-new recipes from many of the community’s most beloved TikTok food creators.

Gilt by Jamie Brenner
“Gilt is a dazzling page-turner. Family intrigue, sparkling gems, long-buried secrets, juicy twists and turns . . . what more could you ask for in a novel? Jamie Brenner is my go-to author for my beach bag!” –Elyssa Friedland, author of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel

How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder
A talented Hollywood starlet and a reclusive A-lister enter into a fake relationship . . . and discover that their feelings might be more than a PR stunt in this sexy debut.