Good Reads & Views

A Shot in the Dark by Lynn Truss
Fiction

Not your typical mystery: This comic whodunnit is actually solved about half way through. The rest of the book is about young hero Constable Twitten's hilarious attempts to get his superior to believe him. Twitten believes theatre critic A.S. Crystal was killed because he remembered a crucial fact about an unsolved bank robbery years before, but Inspector Steine believes there is no crime in the seaside village of Brighton, and just wants to eat his ice cream in peace. Only the charwoman takes any notice of what Twitten says. Get ready for a wryly hilarious read.

Reviewers say:  "Truss successfully combines wry humor with a fair-play mystery” (Publisher’s Weekly); “Truss piles up ingenious plot twists, preposterous coincidences, snarky asides, and characters out of P.G. Wodehouse” (Kirkus Reviews).

Visit Kristin’s My Librarian Page

The Secret Wisdom of Nature by Peter Wohlleben
Nonfiction 

What it’s about: The final title in German Forester Wohlleben’s Nature Trilogy (The Hidden Life of Trees; The Inner Life of Animals) looks at the connections between all living things and suggests that human intervention has unintended consequences.

Reviewers say: The author “thoughtfully and lucidly illuminates scientific facts, and his quiet leaps of brilliance are thrilling… Wohlleben conveys his findings in passages of pure poetry; he truly is an author to treasure” (Booklist).

An excerpt: “But nature is much more complex than a clock, isn’t it? In nature, not only does one cog connect with another; everything is also connected by a network so intricate that we will probably never grasp it in its entirety. And that is a good thing, because it means that plants and animals will always amaze us. It’s important for us to realize that even small interventions can have huge consequences, and we’d do better to keep our hands off everything in nature that we do not absolutely have to touch.”

Visit Astrid’s My Librarian Page

The Power of Noticing by Max Bazerman
Nonfiction

What it’s about: Bazerman's book reads like a novel and examines how mistakes are made when we fail to investigate the details, notice trends, identify our blind spots, and more.

Why you might like it: He examines in detail several business disasters that could have been averted and offers counsel so we can learn how to examine our own work, actions, the significance of delegation, and how to reduce error margins.

You might also like: Dare to Lead by Brene Brown.

Visit Misty’s My Librarian Page

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
Fiction

Read this if you like:  Vengeful teenage girls, genre blending, and long-buried secrets.

What happens? This combination thriller, western, and literary coming-of-age story begins at the end, thirty years after Walk, a small-town chief of police, turned in his childhood best friend Vincent for causing the death of a child. Time hasn’t healed Walk’s pain, or that of Star Radley, the child’s dazzling but troubled older sister, now the single mother of two—Duchess and Robin. Duchess, a fierce13-year-old who introduces herself as “the outlaw Duchess Day Radley,” considers herself the protector of both her little brother and her mother, whose addictions and penchant for tough men have often gotten her into trouble. Soon after Vincent returns home from prison, there is another murder and Walk and Duchess each set out to unmask the killer and avenge the death. A dark and moving page-turner.

Want more like this? Try True Grit by Charles Portis, for another suspenseful western about a feisty teen girl pairing up with a lawman to exact revenge. Duchess’s unusual cadence of speech is reminiscent of that of Mattie, the True Grit heroine. The Round House by Louise Erdrich is also about a young teen seeking justice for a crime against their mother and is equally heartbreaking.

Visit Laura’s My Librarian Page

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
Fiction

Book Buz: #1 New York Times Bestseller & Amazon Best Book of September 2021

Reviewers say: “Liane Moriarty devotees, rejoice!” (CNN).

You might also like: Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney or All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

Visit Roseanne’s My Librarian Page

The Cleaner by Paul Cleave
Fiction

The main characters: There is Joe, janitor for the police department by day (The Cleaner), serial killer (The Christchurch Carver) by night. Then there is Sally, Joe's maintenance co-worker, who thinks of him as a stand-in for her dead brother. Last but not least there’s Joe’s wacky mother who keeps making him meatloaf (which he hates), Pickles and Jehova, Joe's beloved goldfish, and a rescued cat (you'll see).

Who it’s NOT for: People who can’t handle serial killers who are not pc; people who are squeamish; people who love goldfish.

An aside: This is definitely to be enjoyed on audio (available from hoopla), the narration is great and I kept laughing. (I know, I know!) And the scene where Joe goes after the cat he rescued is priceless on audio (The cat lives!). Fans of the TV show Dexter should appreciate this.

Visit Astrid’s My Librarian Page

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Nonfiction

What it's about: Ona “Oney” Judge was born a slave at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate. One of the chosen few to accompany Martha Washington to the new nation’s capital, Judge discovered that any slave kept in Pennsylvania for more than 6 months was legally emancipated. To circumvent this, Washington sent his slaves back to Mount Vernon every 6 months. When Mrs. Washington decided to give Judge to her granddaughter, Judge had had enough. She used her contacts in the free Black community to escape to New Hampshire. This history shows a different side of the Father of our Country.

Reviewers say: “This work adds new insights into the little-known story of Ona Judge and provides an important look at America's first president from the perspective of a woman he enslaved” (Library Journal); “A startling, well-researched slave narrative that seriously questions the intentions of our first president” (Kirkus).

Visit Kristin’s My Librarian Page

The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory
Fiction

What it’s about: This is a very engaging novel focusing on Hannah Verde/Green. She is a young (secretly) Jewish girl who had just escaped the Spanish inquisition to England with her father, who is a bookseller. In an unusual twist, her father, to protect her, disguises her as a boy. The author makes it clear how difficult it was to be Jewish in Tudor England.

Why you might like it: It's a view from someone who must hide in full view; completely unfamiliar to the courtly lifestyle, who must figure out which alliances to cling to, and which secrets to keep all to save her life as she becomes increasingly part of this new world.

You might also like: The next book in this series, The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory.

Visit Misty’s My Librarian Page

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Fiction

Read it for: The unexpectedly plucky and resilient characters you’ll care deeply about, the swashbuckling adventure and deadpan humor, and the uplifting tale of female solidarity and friendship.

What it’s about: It’s 1950, and domestic science teacher Margery Benson has had enough of being underappreciated and made fun of, so she sets off on an expedition to find the mythical golden beetle of New Caledonia. She is an unlikely adventurer, a mid-forties spinster with no experience of the world. She is joined by an even less likely assistant (not her first choice), the loud and brassy blonde bombshell Enid Petty, who is hiding some secrets about her past. But Enid is surprisingly capable and kind when Margery falls very ill with seasickness, and they begin to develop a respectful friendship that may help them weather the many obstacles they face—language barriers, passport fraud, their inexperience with jungle conditions, and the obsessed man who is stealthily following them.

What critics say: “If you’ve been longing for a book about fully realized women helping one another grow through kindness and acceptance, this 'happy' book with a lot of depth is exactly what you need” (Bookreporter); “There are delightful flashes of humor in this novel... they fight, they bicker, they betray each other. Secrets and hurt from their past threaten to jeopardize their present. Joyce is excellent at depicting their pain and revealing their failings, and she has no qualms about repeatedly placing her characters in harm’s way“ (The Star Tribune).

Visit Laura’s My Librarian Page

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner  
Fiction

What it’s about:  Jennifer Weiner’s new book is considered a beach read but it is not light and fluffy. Daisy Shoemaker, wife, mother, and cook, starts receiving emails intended for a stranger named Diana. After Daisy contacts her, they quickly hit it off and decide to meet. A friendship forms between them, but Diana has a secret that involves Daisy’s husband Hal. The book is about the #metoo movement, friendship and family. 

Reviewers say: "Weiner's storytelling skill is such that she paints an uncompromising, complicated portrait of the insidious dangers of the patriarchy that is also a lot of fun to read. Weiner's latest is a summer banger with a ripped-from-the headlines plot, which is sure to garner lots of attention" (Booklist).

You might also like:  First Comes Love by Emily Giffin or Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand.

Visit Roseanne’s My Librarian Page