Month: February 2022

Online Reading Challenge – February Wrap-Up

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello Challenge Readers!

How did your February reading go? Did you enjoy your book of choice? Or did you pass on this month’s Book Flight?

Our main title for February was A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. This is one of my favorite books – I read it a few months ago and can’t say enough good things about it. The writing, the plot, the building of tension, the twist at the end, the characters, all work together to create something beautiful and intricate, heartbreaking yet hopeful.

In A Gentleman in Moscow,  Count Alexander Rostov is accused of writing subversive essays against the Bolshevik government and is sentenced to house arrest in 1922. Striped of his wealth and all but a few possessions, Rostov now lives in an attic room of the luxurious Metropol, a grand hotel situated across from the Kremlin. It is from here that Rostov witnesses some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history.

This brief overview makes the book seem dark and depressing but in fact, it is filled with humor, fascinating characters and people enjoying life no matter the challenges. I found that this was an optimistic and uplifting book and enjoyed it immensely.

Since I had already read the main selection, I read one of the alternatives, The Martian by Andy Weir. Set in the future, a group of astronauts are exploring the surface of Mars. An unexpected, violent storm forces the astronauts race to their ship.  In the midst of the chaos the crew believes that one of the astronauts, Mark Watney, has died. Barely escaping, they leave the planet and begin their return trip to Earth. However, Mark is very much alive. He now faces nearly impossible odds and must use ingenuity, skill and grim determination to keep himself fed, sheltered and safe while somehow figuring out how to let everyone back on Earth that he is here and he is alive.

I really enjoyed this book. Watching Mark figure out how to grow his own food, survive the harsh Martian climate and communicate with Earth was fascinating. I have read some comments that the science in this book isn’t always accurate, but I think that misses the point. What I saw was someone that didn’t give up, that was constantly thinking outside the box and making the best of a terrible situation. There’s quite a bit of humor too, and lots of tension that makes it difficult to put the book down! An excellent read.

February’s theme was of isolation and resilience. In all four of the books from the “flight”, the protagonist becomes isolated, either voluntarily or forced by circumstance. How did they react to their isolation? Each had to find new depths within themselves to survive – did they simply survive or were they able to thrive and grow? What, if any, pieces of their past do they have to confront? How are they different from the person at the beginning of each book, to the person they’ve become by the end of the book?

I was struck by the resilience and optimism of the main character in each of these books, how difficulties were turned into opportunities and how each learns both practical lessons and about themselves when problems arise, how isolation forces them to rely on themselves and creates clarity and empowerment.

How did you feel about this month’s reading? Let us know in the comments!

Oprah’s Latest Book Club Pick

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Join our Best Sellers Club to have certain celebrity book club picks automatically put on hold for you: Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager, and Oprah Winfrey. While Reese and Jenna generally announce a new title each month, Oprah’s selections are more sporadic. She has just announced hew newest selection! Reminder that if you join our Best Sellers Club, these titles will automatically be put on hold for you.

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Oprah Winfrey has selected  The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self by Martha Beck for her latest pick.

Curious what The Way of Integrity is about? Check out the following description provided by the author.

Bestselling author, life coach, and sociologist Martha Beck explains why “integrity”—being in harmony with ourselves—is the key to a meaningful and joyful life.

As Martha Beck says in her book, “Integrity is the cure for psychological suffering. Period.”

In The Way of Integrity, Martha presents a four-stage process that anyone can use to find integrity, and with it, a sense of purpose, emotional healing, and a life free of mental suffering. Much of what plagues us—people pleasing, worry and anxiety, negative habits—all point to what happens when we are out of touch with what truly makes us feel whole.

Inspired by The Divine Comedy, Martha uses Dante’s classic hero’s journey as a framework to break down the process of attaining personal integrity into small, manageable steps. She shows how to read our internal signals that lead us towards our true path, and to recognize what we actually yearn for versus what our culture sells us.

With techniques tested on hundreds of her clients, Martha brings her expertise as a social scientist, life coach and human being to help readers to discover what integrity looks like in their own lives. She takes us on a spiritual adventure that will change the direction of our lives, and bring us to a place of genuine happiness.

This book is also available in the following format:

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Join our Best Sellers Club to have Oprah’s adult selections automatically put on hold for you!

A Phở Love Story by Loan Le

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Loan Le’s debut novel, A Phở Love Story, reads a bit like a happy ending Romeo & Juliet (in fact that story is mentioned many times by the characters throughout this book).

Bảo Nguyen and Linh Mai are high school seniors who work at their families’ Vietnamese restaurants. Sounds perfect, right? Oh so wrong. It turns out that their familes are in a years’ long feud even though their restaurants are across the street from each other.

Bảo is average and not that interesting – his words. He goes to school and isn’t particularly amazing at anything in general. He is reliable, his grades average, and he isn’t quite sure what he wants to do with his future.

Linh loves art. She desperately wants to have a career in it. For as long as she can remember, Linh has been an artist. The only issue is that her parents do not believe that art is a stable enough career choice. Her parents rely on her to help them with their restaurant almost every day, so on top of her school work and her art projects, Linh spends hours at the restaurant.

Even though the Mai and Nguyen’s restaurants are across the street from each other, the two families do not interact. In fact they are incredibly competitive. When one does a contest, so does the other. Rumors swirl about each respective restaurant. The feud between the two families seems very complicated to Bảo and Linh, but their parents won’t discuss why it exists.

One day, a chance encounter between Linh and Bảo results in sparks. They find themselves working close together and despite their family history and their initial desire to steer clear of each other, there is an undenable attraction. The more they get to know each other, the more they wonder why it took so long for them to meet and become friends. The tensions between their parents has the power to destroy their budding relationship. Bảo and Linh will have to decide what they want and how far they are willing to go for love and answers.

This book is also available in the following format:

Young Adult Mystery Reads: Jane Austen Murder Mysteries by Tirzah Price

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Tirzah Price grew up on a farm in Michigan, where she read every book she could get her hands on and never outgrew her love for YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a former bookseller and librarian. Now, she’s a senior contributing editor at Book Riot, and co-host of the Hey YA podcast. When she’s not writing, reading, or thinking about YA books, she splits her time between experimenting in the kitchen and knitting enough socks to last through winter. She lives in Iowa.

Tirzah is pronounced TEER-zuh. Pronouns are she/her.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a brilliant idea, conceived and executed by a clever young woman, must be claimed by a man.’ – Tirzah Price, Pride and Premeditation

I was introduced to Tirzah Price through her Jane Austen Murder Mysteries. The first book in the series is Pride and Premeditation. What first drew me to this book was honestly the cover – the cover looked cross-stitched (there’s a knife and pistols hidden within the illustrations)! As soon as I started reading, I knew I would enjoy this title (this book reminded me strongly of the Lady Janies series by Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand – check those out if you haven’t yet!).

Ok! Let’s talk about Pride and Premeditation. This is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, but with additional murder mystery elements. Lizzie Bennett is an aspiring lawyer who hopes to one day work at her father’s firm. When a murder happens amongst London’s high society, Lizzie believes that solving this case will prove to her father that she should be hired to work with him. After she meets the accused, Lizzie’s hopes are dashed when she makes the acquaintance of Mr. Fitzwillian Darcy, the heir to the prestigious law firm Pemberley Associates. Despite Darcy’s protestations and because of her lack of belief in his defense strategy, Lizzie decides to solve the murder on her own. The more she digs into the case, the more complicated it becomes. The more time she spends with Darcy, the more confused she finds her feelings. Lizzie isn’t sure what to do with either of those things, but she knows that she must find answers for the accused man. She knows he is innocent, but finding the truth may result in her injury or even death.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Jane Austen Murder Mysteries

  1. Pride and Premeditation (2021)
  2. Sense and Second-Degree Murder (2022)
  3. Manslaughter Park (2023)

The City of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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 “And tell him he did, for the wine of storytelling ran through his veins… it was his practice to firstly tell himself the things of the world in order to understand them and then tell them to others, draped in the music and light of literature, because he sensed that if life was not a dream it was at least a pantomime where the cruel absurdity of the narrative always ran behind the scenery…”

Back in July of 2020, the world lost a remarkable storyteller with the passing of Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Renowned for his “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” series, Zafón was known for writing gorgeous, atmospheric stories with complex characters and haunted Gothic settings. As one of my favorite authors, I can personally attest to losing myself in his works. Needless to say, when I heard a posthumous collection of short stories was to be published, I anxiously awaited its release!

Compiled by Zafón himself before his untimely death, The City of Mist comprises of eleven stories, all of which are imbued with captivating characters and unique narratives set in Barcelona. These tales range from a young boy who is inspired to invent and tell stories after befriending a very special young girl, to a young woman who undergoes a harrowing experience while with child, to a gentleman who attempts to prolong the life of his lover through the written word, to a haunted architect who struggles to complete his life’s work and legacy. Not only do these stories pull at your heartstrings, they are also woven with timeless and compelling threads of human experience you won’t soon forget. Additionally, I was able to find hints and allusions to characters and landmarks within Zafón’s “Cemetery of Forgotten Books”  throughout these stories, which was an absolute treat. Another unique aspect of this collection is that many of these stories had never been published in English before. One of the most incredible things about Zafón’s writing is his beautiful crafting of words, and I tend to forget that his works were not originally written in English, but in Spanish.

All in all, reading this book has inspired me to reread Zafón’s entire series over again. It is a gorgeous work of literary fiction we are lucky to have, especially in light of his passing. Zafón is an author that will never be forgotten by his millions of readers, as he was truly a gem who created masterpieces every time he took pen to paper.

“Soon afterwards, like figures made of mist, father and son disappear into the crowd of the Ramblas, their steps lost forever in the shadow of the wind.”

You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus

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My favorite author Karen McManus continues her winning streak with this Ferris Bueller-inspired mystery starring three estranged friends racing against time to discover why one of their classmates has been murdered. Quick-paced with relatable characters, You’ll Be The Death of Me is perfect for fans of mysteries, YA books, and of course McManus’ earlier work.

Ivy, Cal, and Mateo haven’t been close since eighth grade when they suddenly grew apart, but the day after the senior student council election they each find themselves desperate to recapture the spirit of their former friendship and adventures. Ivy just lost the election – badly – to the class slacker “Boney” Mahoney; Cal is trapped in a conflicted relationship that’s making him long for simpler days, and Mateo is exhausted from working multiple jobs to help his family. In an impulsive moment, they skip school together, awkward though it is with all that’s been left unsaid. But then they see the class slacker (and new president) also out of school, and decide to follow him. It may be the worst – and last – decision they ever make. Before they know what’s happened, Boney’s been murdered, Ivy’s a suspect, and if they don’t figure out what happened they’ll lose more than just their friendship.

If we’re being honest there’s too much tension right off the bat to really strike a Ferris Bueller vibe, but the echoes are there in the ways Mateo, Ivy, and Cal relate to each other – Ivy and Mateo’s unspoken attraction contrasts with Cal’s loneliness as an outsider, and they consistently drag each other into variously flawed decisions. Along the way some pretty serious conversations are had, and no one person or relationship will leave the day unchanged. There’s also a sibling/rival figure, a rogue teacher, and a race to beat the parents home (and keep them from finding out what’s really going on). In a way it’s Ferris Bueller if the story had been told from his sister Jeannie’s perspective, complete with a darker tinge and lots of unresolved feelings and secrets to resolve.

I loved how distinct the characters were, and how realistic their different problems were; and as usual McManus expertly shifts between their voices to round out all perspectives. The action is both propulsive and realistic for the characters’ age, and the bit of romance isn’t gratuitous but is entwined with the plot and character development. I also really appreciated the representation of positive, supportive, and involved parenting in several different styles.

If you like Karen McManus as much as I do, or just YA mysteries in general, this is definitely a book you won’t want to miss.

Best Seller’s Club February Authors: Kristin Hannah and Stephen King

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Want the hottest new release from your favorite author? Want to stay current with a celebrity book club? Love nonfiction? You should join the Best Sellers Club. Choose any author, celebrity pick, and/or nonfiction pick and the Davenport Public Library will put the latest title on hold for you automatically. Select as many as you want! If you still have questions, please check out our list of FAQs.

New month means new highlighted authors from the Best Sellers Club! February’s authors are Kristin Hannah for fiction and Stephen King for horror.

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Our February fiction author is Kristin Hannah. She primarily writes general fiction, historical fiction, and romance. Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels. Several of her novels have been optioned for movies and series – The Nightingale, The Great Alone, Home Front, and Firefly Lane. In her previous life, Hannah worked as a lawyer. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.

Hannah’s newest book is The Four Winds. This book was published in February 2021.

Curious what this book is about? Check out the following description provided by the publisher:

From the number-one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes a powerful American epic about love and heroism and hope, set during the Great Depression, a time when the country was in crisis and at war with itself, when millions were out of work and even the land seemed to have turned against them.

“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”

Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.

By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.

In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.

The Four Winds is a rich, sweeping novel that stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it—the harsh realities that divided us as a nation and the enduring battle between the haves and the have-nots. A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

This book is also available in the following formats:

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Our February horror author is Stephen King. King writes primarily horror, but his novels also contain elements of fantasy, mystery, science fiction, thriller, and literary fiction. He also writes young adult fiction. King is a very prolific writer having written over 50 books. In addition to those books, many of his stories have been turned into movies and tv series. He sold his first professional short story in 1967. King began teaching high school in 1971. In 1973, his novel Carrie was accepted for publication which allowed him to stop teaching and pursue writing full-time. He lives with his wife in Maine.

King’s latest book is Gwendy’s Final Task, which he cowrote with Richard Chizmar. This book is the third book in the Gwendy’s Button Box Trilogy and will be published in February 2022.

Curious what this book is about? Below is a description provided by the publisher.

When Gwendy Peterson was twelve, a mysterious stranger named Richard Farris gave her a mysterious box for safekeeping. It offered treats and vintage coins, but it was dangerous. Pushing any of its seven colored buttons promised death and destruction.

Years later, the button box entered Gwendy’s life again. A successful novelist and a rising political star, she was once again forced to deal with the temptation that box represented.

Now, evil forces seek to possess the button box and it is up to Senator Gwendy Peterson to keep it from them. At all costs. But where can you hide something from such powerful entities?

In Gwendy’s Final Task, “horror giants” (Publishers Weekly) Stephen King and Richard Chizmar take us on a journey from Castle Rock to another famous cursed Maine city to the MF-1 space station, where Gwendy must execute a secret mission to save the world. And, maybe, all worlds.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

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“Everyone loses their way at some point, and it’s not just because of their mistakes or the decisions they make. It’s because they’re horribly, wonderfully human. And the one thing I’ve learned about being human is that we can’t do this alone. When we’re lost, we need help to try to find our way again.” – T.J. Klune, Under the Whispering Door

Under the Whispering Door was an incredibly powerful read that had me feeling a wide variety of emotions. (If you haven’t read The House in the Cerulean Sea by Klune, you should do that too – check out Anna’s blog to learn more about it). Klune sprinkled so many profound nuggets of wisdoms throughout this book that I still find myself thinking about it days after finishing.

Wallace Price is troubled. He spends his entire life at the office trying to understand why people behave the way they do. As a lawyer, Wallace craves order. His life changes when he wakes up at his own funeral. When a woman approaches him and says that she is a reaper come to collect him, he is confused and outraged. First of all, he can’t be dead. Secondly, there is only a handful of people at his funeral. Utterly ridiculous.

The reaper takes him to Charon’s Crossing, a slightly irregular tea shop. It sits on the outskirts of a small village off the beaten path that runs through the mountainous woods. Hugo, the owner, is there to help Wallace in any way he can. He works as a ferryman who helps souls cross over.

The more time Wallace spends time at the tea shop talking with Hugo and the others, the more Wallace thinks he might actually be dead. He isn’t ready to abandon his life just yet though. He didn’t actually live his life to the fullest. Wallace spent his time alive at work, but he spends his time dead really living: joking with the others at the tea shop, manifesting new clothing, and noticing the stars with Hugo. Just as Wallace settles into a comfortable rhythm however, the all-powerful Manager descends upon Charon’s Crossing with a deadline that will change them all forever.

This book is available in the following formats:

Cozy Mystery Reads: Library Lover’s Mystery series by Jenn McKinlay

- Stephanie 2 Comments

Jenn McKinlay has found her niche in cozy mysteries. She has a number of cozy mystery series, but the only one I have read so far is the Library Lover’s Mystery series and it is a joy to read. Usually I am hesitant to read anything about librarians for fear that they are portrayed stereotypically with no clue as to what being a librarian actually means, but the author’s background clearly helped her write this series. McKinlay studied English Literature and Library Science at Southern Connecticut State University and then worked as a librarian in Cromwell, Connecticut. She then left that job and moved to Arizona and began writing romances. After writing romances for a couple years(and deciding she needed a break), she started writing mysteries. McKinlay wrote mysteries for years and then began writing women’s fiction as well. The bulk of what she writes now consists of mysteries and romantic comedies. Three of her series have ended up on the New York Time’s best seller’s list so far.

The first title in the Library Lover’s Mystery series is Books Can Be Deceiving. In this book, readers are introduced to the life of Lindsey Norris, the new director of the Briar Creek Public Library located in Connecticut.

Lindsey is just getting settled into her new job as director of the local public library in Briar Creek. She has made friends within the community and has an established rhythm with her staff and library patrons. Lindsey’s friend, and children’s librarian, Beth always makes work more interesting. Outside of work, Beth has a goal of becoming a published children’s author. Beth’s boyfriend is already a famous children’s author and lives on one of the islands local to Briar Creek.

When a New York editor comes to town, Beth wants to meet with her to pitch her the children’s book she has been working on. When their meeting goes awry and Beth’s boyfriend gets in the way, Beth and Lindsey are flabbergasted. They decide to go to his island home to confront him. When Beth goes into his house, they find that he has been murdered. Since Beth found his body and was known to be upset with him, the police see her as the prime suspect. Lindsey knows that Beth could never kill anyone, but her opinion seems to be in the minority where the authorities are concerned. Lindsey must find out who really killed Beth’s boyfriend before she is arrested.

This book also contains a readers guide, knitting pattern, and recipes for food made throughout the book. A different Briar Creek Guide to Crafternoons can be found at the end of each book in the series.

A list of the books in the Library Lover’s Mystery series can be found at the end of this blog post. Certain titles can also be found in large print, CD audiobook, and on OverDrive.

Library Lover’s Mystery series

  1. Books Can Be Deceiving (2011)
  2. Due or Die (2012)
  3. Book, Line and Sinker (2012)
  4. Read It and Weep (2013)
  5. On Borrowed Time (2014)
  6. A Likely Story (2015)
  7. Better Late Than Never (2016)
  8. Death in the Stacks (2017)
  9. Hitting the Books (2018)
  10. Word to the Wise (2019)
  11. One for the Books (2020)
  12. Killer Research (2021)

Love and Other Disasters by Anita Kelly

- Callen Leave a comment

An inclusive romance for fans of reality cooking shows, Love and Other Disasters follows recent divorcée Dahlia and non-binary London as they compete on a show called Chef’s Special, and find themselves falling in love along the way. Delicious, steamy, thoughtful, and trailblazing, it’s vital reading for romance lovers.

London Parker is nervous enough about being out as non-binary on national TV, and about which competitors refuse to respect their pronouns, without their unexpected attraction to the messy woman at the station in front of them. Dahlia Woodson, meanwhile, is struggling to figure out who she is after getting divorced from her high school sweetheart and quitting her unfulfilling job. She was hoping to win the prize money and maybe make a few friends, but is caught completely by surprise when her very cute competitor becomes something more. Now it’s down to both of them to figure out what they can be to each other, especially when the competition brings glaring scrutiny to their budding relationship.

I cherished this book for its accurate and heartwarming portrayal of living life as a non-binary person, as well as the nods to famous cooking competitions like the Great British Baking Show. All the characters are distinct and unique, as are their respective journeys. This is a book that knows there are no easy happily-ever-afters, especially because everyone has a different path to walk. The emphasis of the story is on the importance of doing the work of introspection and communication to create the life you want for yourself. I think many people will relate to Dahlia’s predicament of feeling like a disappointment or that she’s not where she ought to be in life, while also enjoying watching the romantic comedy unfold.

There’s also thoughtful message of how unpleasant or unfair it can be to be in the spotlight and have very personal issues be treated as entertainment. In an important narrative choice, the book itself never explicitly misgenders London or gives voice to the ignorant or hateful comments they receive on social media, while acknowledging that those things do happen; in this way it stays both accurate and respectful, and offers an example of how to use language to avoid doing harm. And of course, there’s lots of descriptions of delicious food, which both soothes the soul and whets the appetite!

If you’re looking for a book about love, cooking, fame, and the joys and frustrations of being different, this is the perfect cozy read for you.