Fiction

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with books for all ages

/ Louise / Leave a comment

Each year, Americans observe Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans  whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a month long period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.

Check out these books from Cheshire Library that celebrate Hispanic culture and authors!

For  Adults:

For Teens:

For Kids:

Rules for Living a Bookish Life

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Bookworm tips from our Teen Librarian (and voracious reader), Kelley:

Book lover, bookworm, bookhound, bibliophile, reader, no matter how you phrase it, that’s me. I read every spare moment I can scrounge, and I’ll read pretty much anything –  the back of cereal boxes will do if there’s nothing else available. It makes me happy to spread a love of reading- I drop breadcrumbs connecting books and readers everywhere I go. I do this for my job as a librarian, of course, but it goes further than that for me- my whole life is enriched by books and reading. I live a bookish life, and I highly recommend it. Interested? Here’s how I do it:

RULES FOR LIVING A BOOKISH LIFE

1. Read, read, read – and read widely. Carry a book or eReader everywhere with you. Don’t ever be ashamed of what interests you. Just read!

2. Don’t continue reading books you don’t enjoy.  Life is too short, and there are too many other books out there. Quit books with reckless abandon.

3. Give yourself permission to read non-linearly, and don’t read every word of a book just to say you did. Skip chapters, jump around- you decide if what you get out of a book is sufficient or enjoyable.

4. Read just one book or multiple books at a time, and don’t feel obligated to “speed read”. Feel free to linger on passages that strike you as interesting or mean something to you.

5. Reconsider books you didn’t enjoy in the past. Time never stands still, and your attitude and life experiences are always changing and evolving.

6. Don’t worry about having more unread books than read ones. They remind us that we still have much to learn. That in life, there is always the next thing to discover.

7. Make use of your local library, and collect book recommendations everywhere. Ask people for their favorite books. Check bibliographies, look for references to books in other books.

8. Give yourself permission to re-read books you enjoyed in the past. You’ll probably remember things you had forgotten or notice things you never did before.

9. Don’t treat books as sacred (unless they are borrowed). Fold the corners, write and sketch in the margins. It’s the story that is sacred, not the container.

10. Break these rules! Don’t let me, or anyone else, tell you how to read. Find what’s right for you, stick to it- and enjoy.

After waxing all philosophical about books and reading, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least take the time to offer up some suggestions for a selection of interesting new(ish) books from a variety of genres- click on the titles to learn more and hopefully you’ll discover a new literary love. And remember- there’s no wrong way to read. As long as we’re learning, enjoying, and expanding our minds, we can only get better and better.

 

 

Summer Love: 11 Great New Romances to Read This Summer

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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

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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.