In June I had the privilege of attending the American Library Association Annual Conference. Over 16,000 librarians all in one place! I loved it. One of the fantastic speakers I heard was Gene Luen Yang, award-winning graphic novelist, MacArthur Fellow, and the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Yang has created the…
Susan Ryeland is a London book editor who has just received the latest manuscript from one of her most irascible authors, Alan Conway. Much as she dislikes him, he’s the best seller at her publishing house, so there’s no question that she will give the book her full attention. But the manuscript’s ending appears to…
This is a beautiful story of an Irish Catholic family over two generations; of love, secrets, and reconciliation; of what it means to be a family, and what it takes to remain one. Its plot is deceptively simple: Nora Rafferty’s son Patrick has died in a drunk-driving accident. In her grief, Nora calls her long-estranged…
First off, let me just warn you: there are no lovable curmudgeons in this book. If you’re looking for another Man Called Ove or My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, you won’t find it here. However, you will find a moving, sensitive portrayal of a small town obsessed with hockey, and what…
Ah, spring. The frogs are croaking, the birds are chirping, and our thoughts turn to romance. There’s nothing like young love in the springtime, whether you’re experiencing it for the first time or remembering it fondly. Recently the library’s Teen Lit for Grownups book club read a terrific book called The Sun Is Also a Star by…
I’m always looking for new mystery authors to read, so after noticing positive reviews for this book in trade journals, I picked it up. It had everything I look for in a mystery: a unique setting (a chateau in Switzerland), a compelling sleuth, and a good puzzle. Agnes Luthi is a Swiss-American police inspector who…
Nickolas Butler has done it again. He’s written a pitch-perfect novel of several generations of men (and one woman) in northern Wisconsin. I didn't grow up in Wisconsin, or in a small town, but there is a universality to his characters and settings that makes his writing so accessible. I loved Butler’s first book, Shotgun Lovesongs,…
We all know someone elderly and fascinating, with a lifetime of accumulated wisdom and fabulous stories to share. We love to spend time with them because they have so much to teach us, and we say to ourselves, “when I get older, I want to be like that.” Lillian Boxfish is just such a character.…
In a small medieval village on the edge of a Russian forest, the family of Pyotr Vladimirovich waits out the brutal winter. The children crowd around the massive oven, listening to their old nurse tell wonderful stories of Morozko, the Russian Jack Frost. (Little do they know that Morozko is real.) Shortly afterward, their mother…
Every year, I read “holiday fluff” in December. It’s my equivalent of watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel (which, by the way, I also do). With all the stuff going on in our world right now, sometimes you just need to live in the land of happy-ever-after. So here are my recommendations for you.…
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