Books

Summer Love: 11 Great New Romances to Read This Summer

/ Louise / Leave a comment

From debut authors making a splash to new books by favorite authors,  here are some romances to fall in love with this summer!

Beach Read by Emily Henry. A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Dance Away With Me by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Seeking refuge in a Tennessee mountain town to recover from heartbreak, a young widow and midwife bonds with an enigmatic artist, a helpless infant and a passel of curious teens in a small and suspicious community.

Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas. Determined to marry for love, Lady Cassandra Ravenel resists the advances of compelling railroad magnate Tom Severin, who takes advantage of a situation that nearly destroys Cassandra’s reputation.

Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory. Going against her better judgement, LA lawyer Olivia Monroe secretly starts dating a hotshot junior senator until their romance is made public and her life falls under intense media scrutiny, jeopardizing everything.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. With his rock-star dad making a comeback, Luc’s back in the public eye. To clean up his image, he needs to be seen in a nice, normal “relationship”…and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating…

Daring and the Duke by Sarah Maclean. When she is reconciled with the man who betrayed her, who will go to any lengths to win her back, fiercely independent Grace Condry, who has spent a lifetime running from her past, vows to take revenge on this man she once loved.

Hideaway by Nora Roberts. Years after escaping a kidnapper with the help of a young man, a Hollywood hopeful pursues healing in Ireland before she is compelled to return to Los Angeles, where she encounters unexpected opportunities in love and vengeance.

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner. When her career is threatened by a red-carpet photo that appears to have romantic undertones, a Hollywood showrunner and her female assistant are targeted by paparazzi before realizing their actual feelings for each other.

Someone to Romance by Mary Balogh. Forced to consider an arranged marriage in spite of her disdain for the ton, Lady Jessica is brazenly courted by the heir to a mysterious fortune who declares his intentions to marry her upon their first encounter.

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams.  A sequel to The Bromance Book Club finds restaurant employee Liv Papandreas fired for reporting sexual harassment before teaming up with Bromance Book Club member Braden Mack to turn the tables on an abusive celebrity chef.

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon. When a live tweet of a horrific date reveals the unscrupulous dealings of an internet catfisher, three duped women make a pact to invest in themselves for six months, prompting one to pursue a dream career.

 

 

Have you read a great romance this summer? Share it in the comments!

 

 

Baseball’s Back (sort of)! Books and Movies about America’s Pastime

/ Louise / 1 Comment

It may have been delayed by a pandemic, but you can’t keep baseball down forever. The season officially kicked off at the end of July this year, with a few crucial changes. Most significantly, there will be no fans in the stands, and the season will be shortened to a mere 60 games. But in a time when any sense of normalcy is something to cling to, baseball is back!

While attending a game in person is not an option this season, you can recreate the feeling a bit with a number of books and movies that take you out to the ball game.  Glove, ball, and giant foam finger –  optional.

FICTION

NON-FICTION

MOVIES

British Mysteries from Book to Screen

/ cheshirelib / Leave a comment

Today’s post comes to us from our Deputy Director Deb, who loves a good mystery!

Many devoted mystery readers began with Agatha Christie’s classic golden age mysteries featuring Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. I certainly did! These distinctly British offerings are a perfect gateway into the world of mysteries. And like so many other British mysteries, they have been made into marvelous television series, which you can watch using the library’s new streaming video service, Acorn TV. Or you can download the books in e-book or e-audio from the library’s website.

Here are some suggestions to get you started.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are both well represented on Acorn TV and in our e-book and e-audiobook collections. Consider reading or listening to Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders or The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Check out Acorn TV and watch Marple, Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime, The Agatha Christie Hour and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Also try Christie’s classic locked-room mystery, And Then There Were None, considered to be the world’s best-selling mystery, available in e-book and e-audio and on Acorn.

The Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton features a middle-aged woman who sells her London PR firm and moves to the country (the Cotswolds, to be precise), where, in true amateur detective fashion, she encounters—and solves– murders galore! Try the first book in the series, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, available in both audio and ebook. Or read any of the others—like so many long-running mystery series, it isn’t necessary to read them in order. Then watch Agatha Raisin on Acorn, a top pick for fans of cozy British mysteries.

One of my favorite village cozy series, also by M.C. Beaton, features the unambitious and charming policeman Hamish Macbeth who patrols the village of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands. I have listened to all of them on audio. The reader, Graeme Malcolm, imbues the audiobooks with such charm and personality that I’m betting you, too, will be hooked! We have more than a dozen titles available on e-audio, including Death of an Honest Man and  Death of a Gossip. Then check out Hamish Macbeth on Acorn.

The Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood, featuring a glamorous private detective in 1920s Melbourne, is actually Australian, but close enough to fit in with our British theme. The supremely independent Miss Fisher has class, sass and the means to pull it all off! Try Cocaine Blues, the first in the series, or The Spotted Dog. The clothes alone make the series worth watching Miss Fisher on Acorn!

Ann Cleeves’ series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is considerably darker than the other series in this post. DCI Stanhope is a solitary, obsessed, caustic, brilliant investigator near the end of her career working in northern England. Try listening to the first in the series, The Crow Trap, or read The Seagull. And be sure to watch Vera on Acorn TV.

Set in Ireland, the long-running Jack Taylor series by Ken Bruen has been thrilling readers (and now TV fans) for years. Taylor is a classic ex-cop turned seedy private eye prowling the underbelly of Galway. Try e-book or e-audio  Galway Girl or e-audio Purgatory and check out Jack Taylor on Acorn.

Groovin’ with Pete the Cat

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

Children’s books are notoriously hard to get published. Everyone has an idea for a children’s book, and almost all of them will never see a contract. More than 21,000 children’s titles are published every year in the US, by a number of publishers, which is only a dent in the number of actual submissions. Scholastic, the one who haunts school kids with that monthly flier, publishes just 600 books a year, from board books through High School. So when a children’s book is self-published, sells 7,000 copies in its first ten months and is then signed on by major publisher Harper Collins, you know there’s something really good there. And in this case, the really good is Pete the Cat .

If you haven’t read him, Pete the Cat is a groovy large-eyed, laid-back blue/black cat who lives with his mom and dad and his tuxedo-patterned brother Bob. He has a host of friends (Grumpy Toad, Gus the Platypus, Callie, Squirrel, etc) and he loves bananas and surfing. His stories are mostly easy-readers that play to the 2-7 year old crowd, but he is infinitely more interesting than that. Pete is the kind of story you want your child to like, because you want to read more of his stories.

Pete is the creation of James Dean, whose early illustrations wound up as musically or rhythmically-oriented stories by storyteller/musician Eric Litwin. Litwin wrote four of Pete’s adventures (Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons, Rockin in my School Shoes, I Love My White Shoes, and Pete the Cat Saves Christmas). I have to admit, these early volumes are my favorites, and I cannot help but read Pete stories as if he’s a surfer dude. Groovy, man. While Litwin and Dean split in 2011, Dean and his wife Kimberly have written more than 60 Pete adventures, with more on the way. Pete’s adventures range from curing hiccups (Mom knows best!) to sleepover friends who won’t sleep, to shopping in the grocery store and scuba diving.

The actual Pete the Cat

Being an artist was not Dean’s plan. His father was an artist, and he didn’t relish  reliving the struggle. While being an electrical engineer paid bills, art crept into his life more and more, until he began to pursue art full-time. When he adopted a tiny black kitten he named Pete, Pete’s antics crept into his artwork , and a legend was born.

Dean’s success is an author’s dream – self-published, picked up by a real publisher just two years later, a runaway success (more than 7 million copies sold), merchandise deals, and now a TV series on Amazon Prime, with voices by no one less than jazz singers Jason Mraz and Diana Krall (which totally fits, because Pete gives off that groovy chill of a cool jazz cat). They say self-publishing doesn’t pay, but Dean is one of those handful of lucky authors who won that lottery.

While I find some of the titles to be uneven and lacking the lyrical qualities of the bigger titles such as Groovy Buttons, Pete remains one of my current favorite preschool titles, stories you don’t mind reading over and over again, with subtle morals (family, keeping your cool, how to be a friend, sharing, learning, etc) that won’t make you roll your eyes with saccharine. Rock on, Pete!

Cheshire Library has more than thirty Pete titles!  Here are some of them:

Pete the Cat: Rockin in My School Shoes
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons 
Pete at the Beach
Pete’s Big Lunch
Pete the Cat: Scuba Cat
Pete the Cat: Snow Daze
A Pet for Pete
Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses
Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes
Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues
Pete the Cat Goes Camping
Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party
Pete the Cat and the New Guy

Pride Month Books for Kids

/ emclaughlinz / Leave a comment

June is here and so is Pride month! The library has a great selection of kid’s books featuring all different kinds of families, relationships, and love! Here’s a list of picture books and chapter books available at the library for you and your family to enjoy during Pride Month, and beyond!

First up, let’s talk about picture books. Here are some great titles available at CPL: 

When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff; illustrated by Kaylani Juanita –  This new publication is a beautifully illustrated and touching story about Aidan, who, after realizing he was a trans boy, with the help of his parents fixed the parts of life that didn’t fit anymore. When Aiden becomes a big brother, he wants to make sure everything is perfect, and panics when it isn’t. With his parents help, Aidan comes to understand that mistakes can be fixed with honesty and communication and that he already knows the most important thing about being a big brother: how to love with his whole self. This book is perfect for kids who are becoming older siblings, and for those struggling with trying to be “perfect”. It has great characters and an even greater heart.

Stonewall : a building, an uprising, a revolution by Rob Sanders;  illustrated by Jamey Christoph – Take a look into the history of the Stonewall Uprising in this picture books, which was released on the 50th anniversary of this movement, which led to important changes in LGBTQ+ rights and representation. This can be an important history lesson for you, and your child to learn the true reason we celebrate Pride, and why we have the right to celebrate it safely today.

And Tango Makes Three  by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell; illustrated by Henry Cole – This picture book tells the true story of two male penguins raising a baby at the Central Park Zoo. While the other boy and girl penguins at the zoo find each other and become couples when the time is right, Roy and Silo (two boys) do everything together. They even build a nest together like the other penguin couples. When another penguin lays two eggs and can’t care for both, a zookeeper decides to let Roy and Silo care for the egg. They take turns lovingly keeping the egg warm, until one day little Tango is born. This book shows that family is family, no matter what. 

Next, how about some great middle-grade titles? These are all available in our juvenile fiction section at CPL: 

Hurricane Child  by Kheryn Callender  – Being born during a hurricane is unlucky, and twelve-year-old Caroline has had her share of bad luck lately. But when a new student named Kalinda arrives, Caroline’s luck begins to turn around. Kalinda, a solemn girl from Barbados with a special smile for everyone, becomes Caroline’s first and only friend — and the person for whom Caroline has begun to develop a crush. Together, Caroline and Kalinda must set out in a hurricane to find Caroline’s missing mother — before Caroline loses her forever. This story is packed with adventure, as well as things that every kid has to deal with, including bullies, new schools, and new friends.

To Night Owl from Dogfish  by Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer – A laugh-out-loud tale of friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters, follows the experiences of two 12-year-old girls–one bookish and fearful, the other fearless and adventuresome–who are sent to a camp to bond when their fathers fall in love. This is a great summer reading book and showcases how different friendships can thrive and develop. 

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O’Neill; edited by Ari Yarwood; designed by Fred Chao – When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, neither expects to find a true friend in the bargain. Yet as they adventure across the kingdom, they discover that they bring out the very best in the other person. They’ll need to join forces and use all the know-how, kindness, and bravery they have in order to defeat their greatest foe yet: a jealous sorceress, who wants to get rid of Sadie once and for all. Join Sadie and Amira, two very different princesses with very different strengths, on their journey to figure out what “happily ever after” really means—and how they can find it with each other.

These titles and more are available from the library for you to celebrate pride with you and your children.

More titles…