Cheshire Library

On Our Shelves: New Fiction & Non-Fiction

/ Linda / Leave a comment

New Fiction

 Snow Hunters by Paul Yoon – This is the story of the extraordinary journey of Yohan, who defects from his country at the end of the Korean War, leaving his friends and family behind to seek a new life on the coast of Brazil.

The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman – A family lake house, two sisters, and a young painter living next door – the decisions they make one summer will have lasting effects for all of them.

The Rathbones by Janice Clark – A gothic, literary adventure set in New England, Janice Clark’s haunting debut chronicles one hundred years of a once prosperous and now crumbling whaling family, told by its last surviving member.

The Queens Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle – A tale inspired by the life of Henry VIII’s sixth wife follows her reluctant marriage to the egotistical and powerful king in spite of her love for Thomas Seymour, a situation that compels her to make careful choices in a treacherous court.

Little Black Book of Murder by Nancy Martin – Nora Blackbird may have been to the manor borne, but these days money is so tight, she can’t afford to lose her job as a society columnist. So when her new boss at the Philadelphia Intelligencer—Australian tabloid editor Gus Hardwicke—tells her to work the celebrity gossip beat or start checking the want ads, the choice is easy.

New Non-Fiction

 Boy 30529 by Felix Weinberg – Born into a respectable Czech family, Felix’s early years were idyllic. But when Nazi persecution threatened in 1938, his father traveled to England, hoping to arrange for his family to emigrate there. His efforts came too late, and his wife and children fell into the hands of the Fascist occupiers.

Nine Years Under by Sheri Booker – “Six Feet Under” meets The Wire in a dazzling and darkly comic memoir about coming-of-age in a black funeral home in Baltimore.

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli – This book by world-class thinker and entrepreneur Rolf Dobelli is an eye-opening look at human psychology and reasoning — essential reading for anyone who wants to avoid “cognitive errors” and make better choices in all aspects of their lives.

Serving Victoria by Kate Hubbard – Serving Victoria follows the lives of six members of her household, from the governess to the royal children, from her maid of honor to her chaplain and her personal physician.

Stonehenge – A New Understanding by Mike Pearson – Despite its being one of prehistory’s most alluring landmarks, before the Stonehenge Riverside Project led by noted archeologist Mike Parker Pearson, only half of Stonehenge itself—and far less of its surroundings—had ever been investigated, and many records from previous digs are inaccurate or incomplete.

New Romance

 Castaway Cove by JoAnn Ross – Single dad Mac Culhane has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous war zones, but now he and his young daughter have settled in Shelter Bay, where he’s become the late-night DJ for the local radio station. The last thing he expects is to connect over the airwaves with a caller….

Behind His Blue Eyes by Kaki Warner – The first in a brand-new Western trilogy set in Heartbreak, Colorado, starring an advance man for the railroad—and the woman whose trust (and heart) he longs to win.

Midnight Games by Elle Kennedy – A master of disguise, Isabel Roma spends her life pretending to be other women.  Normally, her emotions are reined in tight—but sexy mercenary Trevor Callaghan has a knack for getting under her skin. The elite operative’s quiet strength and raw magnetism are a distraction that can quickly turn deadly in their dangerous line of work…

Surrender to Sultry by Mary Beckett – How do you stay under the sheriff’s radar in a town that prides itself on knowing everyone’s business? Leah’s not sure it’s possible, but she’s determined to avoid Colton Bea for as long as she can. Seeing him again would be too heartbreaking-and she knows from experience his bone-melting kisses are way too tempting.

Cowboy Seeks Bride by Carolyn Brown – Rancher Dewar O’Donnell is just an old-fashioned cowboy at heart, and he can’t wait to reenact the historic Chisholm Trail ride with his buddies. The trial-run cattle drive for a reality TV show sounds like a great time—until H.B. McKay pulls up in her slick red sports car…

Remembering Barbara Mertz

/ Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment
Image of Elizabeth Peters

Barbara Mertz

Barbara Mertz might not be a name that you immediately recognize, but you just might recognize her pen names. She was the best-selling mystery writer who wrote dozens of novels under the pen names of Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels. Sadly, she passed away in her home on the morning of August 8, 2013.  Mertz is survived by her children, Elizabeth and Peter, and six grandchildren.

Barbara Mertz earned a PhD from the University of Chicago in Egyptology at the age of 23. She first became a published writer in 1964 and authored two books on ancient Egypt, (Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs (1964 with a revised edition in 2007) and Red Land, Black Land (1978 with a revised edition in 2008) Both books have been continuously in print since their first publication.

Mertz used the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters to pen more than 3 dozen mysteries. Several are stand-alone novels, including Summer of the Dragon (1979), and The Copenhagen Connection (1982), but she is perhaps best know for her series mysteries.

One series dear to my heart is about Jacqueline Kirby; who just happens to be a librarian with a very large purse and a knack for solving mysteries. Jacqueline makes her first appearance as an unwilling detective in The Seventh Sinner (1972).

Another Elizabeth Peters series is the Vicky Bliss Mysteries,  which follows the adventures of an American art history professor who keeps getting involved in international crime and her love interest, a charming art thief known as Sir John Smythe.  The first book in this series is Borrower of the Night (1973).

As Elizabeth Peters, Mertz may be best known for the 19 book Amelia Peabody series, the last of which was published in April of 2010. The heroine is an Egyptologist and the stories all relate to the “Golden Age” of Egyptology, spanning the 1880s to 1922. The first book in the series is Crocodile on the Sandbank, first published in 1976. There is also a companion book, Amelia Peabody’s Egypt: A Compendium, published in 2003.

As Barbara Michaels, Mertz wrote primarily Gothic and supernatural thrillers, including twenty four stand-alone novels including  Be Buried in the Rain (1985), Search the Shadows (1987), Smoke and Mirrors (1989), Into the Darkness (1990), Vanish with the Rose (1992), Houses of Stone (1993), The Dancing Floor (1997), and Other Worlds (1999).

You can find more information about Barbara Mertz and her books on her website http://www.mpmbooks.com/, which sadly does not seem to have been updated since last fall, but still has the most comprehensive information about her body of work.

Susan Reads: Retribution Falls

/ Susan O. / Leave a comment

WoW!  That’s all I can say.

Who doesn’t love the TV series Firefly?  Who doesn’t want to see Firefly come back?

Retribution Falls is about as close to a Firefly clone as you can get.  Better yet, Firefly crossed with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in a rough-and-ready blend of space faring steam punk. From almost the first chapter, the parallels, whether planned or endemic to the genre, are uncanny at times.

Have I got your attention yet?

Darian Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, a second-rate ship he won on a bet, but it’s the only home he’s got. Frey is a minor-stakes air space pirate, picking up small legal jobs here and other illegal ones there, hoping to make enough to keep his ship running and his crew fed, with a few coins of profit left over (sound familiar yet?).  His crew is made up of a rag-tag group of misfits, each one on the run with secrets they’d prefer to keep hidden, from the secretive but aristocratic Crake (my mind cast Paul Bettany in the role) to the quirky navigator Jez, who can manage to fake death a little too easily (I can picture Angelina Jolie here), and more.

When Frey and his crew are framed for blowing up a ship during a petty robbery, he finds himself on the run for his life – but are the Century Knights after him, or one of his crew? Frey’s attempts to unravel the mysteries lead him down a trail of old flames and bad memories, while the secrets of his crew slowly come to light. The path of salvation appears to lie in a pirates’ haven called Retribution Falls, a place of myth no ship has ever returned from. Frey must make hard choices – entrust his beloved ship to someone else in case of emergency, or run the risk of execution if captured. In the end, Frey and crew find that being an oddball among a group of oddballs makes you nothing but normal, and that to get trust you also have to give a little.

I read one review of the book that nit-picked every line of dialogue and every motivation of every character until there was nothing left. That really irked me. Even as a writer, I don’t read a fiction book to beat the story to death. I want a good story that holds my attention, characters that I can relate to whether through abhorrence or camaraderie, and a thread of believability – I’ll believe your unicorns can fly, but don’t tell me they have dainty little shoulders. Beyond that – I don’t care that females or mermaids or talking parrots are underrepresented. I don’t care if air pirates are passé. I don’t care if you think mechanical golems are cliché. This is the way this story goes. The characters and situations read like the first of a series, and in a good series, it takes time to fully develop all the characters – otherwise, what’s the point of a series?  If you put all the food out at a banquet at once, who cares about the next course? 

If any book deserves to be made into a film – or better yet, TV series – this is the one.Read it. Enjoy it. It’s worth every page.

Non-Fiction Summer Reading

/ Linda / Leave a comment

There’s no reading quite as wonderful as summer reading.  Here are some terrific non-fiction books that are perfect for a relaxing summer day.

I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman –  Mr. Klosterman questions the modern understanding of villainy and delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the anti-hero in a very humorous way.  He blends cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals.

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel – This is the true story of the young American wives whose husbands were sent into space as part of the Mercury Seven program.

Difficult Men by Brett Martin – An entertaining and insightful look at the creators of some highly rated recent television series such as Breaking Bad, The Shield, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos and Deadwood.

The Good Life Lab – Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living by Jehanara Tremayne.  An inspirational story of how one couple ditched their careers and life in New York City to move to rural New Mexico to live self-sufficiently.

Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mayes, the Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Age by Allen Barra.  The combined biographies of two baseball greats.

 

Sharon Reads: Dean Koontz’s Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages

/ Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages

Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages by Dean Koontz is a book that readers from elementary school ages through adults can understand and enjoy, with beautiful illustrations and a story that feels very real. Isaac Bodkins was a magical toy-maker who creates toys that can come to life in order to help children trough difficult times. He calls his creations Oddkins. However, Isaac has passed away sooner than expected, and before he could train the next toy-maker. The race is now on to see whether a good or evil magic toy-maker will wield the power. A team of Isaac’s Oddkins are on the move to find the toy shop of Isaac’s chosen heir, while evil toys from the hidden sub-basement try to stop them from reaching their goal before the evil toy-maker can purchased Isaac’s toy shop.

Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages might be Koontz’s first book intended for more than just adult readers, but you would never know it from the read. Living toys are a new idea, but Koontz instilled a new life to the idea, with strong personalities for each of the living toys. I loved the idea that the toys are intended to help children facing special difficulties, although I wished all children could have one rather than just the ones with the ‘potential for greatness’, since I think everyone has that potential. However, that would make for one busy magic toy-maker! The Oddkins that face the action, both good and bad, have quirks and personalities that often made me smile or shudder, depending. The good Oddkin’s quest for Colleen Shannon’s shop, Isaac’s nephew’s search for the truth, and an ex-con in search for more ways to inflict pain intersect with the evil Oddkins intent on securing their future and the success of the dark toy-maker. There are epic battles, internal debates, and characters that will take hold of your heart. What else do you need?

I recommend Oddkins: A Fable for All Ages for adults that are fans of Koontz works as well as adults, teens, and the middle grade set. On a scale of one to five, I would give Oddkins a full five stars. There is a combination of fast passed action with enough introspection and personal discovery to keep readers of all ages and all genre preferences entertained and turning the pages.

(This review was originally published on Sharon the Librarian.)