Tag: death

QCL Book Club June Wrap-up and July Pick!

- Brittany Leave a comment

In June, Morgan and I read The Celebrants by Steven Rowley to celebrate Best Friends Day on June 8th. Below is a short synopsis of the book and what I thought of it! 

After the tragic death of their friend, 5 recent college grads make a pact to gather during tumultuous events in their lives. The goal of the gatherings is to hold a funeral for the living person to ensure that they know how important they are. Over several years, each friend takes their turn until they are down to two. Now, they are gathered in Big Sur and recount the past few decades as they plan another funeral. 

This book was beautiful and sad! The characters were so complex and lovable in their own ways. I loved it very much and can’t wait to read more by Steven Rowley! – Brittany

Morgan and I have a very exciting lineup of book options for July, below are our four options including our winning title! Feel free to check them out from Davenport Public Library! 

*** QCL Book Club July Pick!  

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis (In Honor of Cheer Up the Lonely Day on July 11th) 

Rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer’s affinity for books extends beyond the intoxicating scent of old paper, ink, and leather. She can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners–an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance. With no trace of how these mysterious books came into the world, Ashlyn is caught up in a decades-old literary mystery, beckoned by two hearts in ruins, whoever they were, wherever they are. Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers’ tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story–and to the unfinished chapters of her own life — adapted from back cover   

  

Everything Must Go by Camille Pagán (In Honor of Give Something Away Day on July 15th) 

Laine Francis believes there’s a place for everything-and New York, where her family lives, isn’t her place. But no sooner does the professional organizer’s marriage begin to unravel than her sisters drop another bomb on her: their mother, Sally, may have dementia, and they need Laine to come home. Laine agrees to briefly return to Brooklyn. After all, bringing order to chaos is what she does best. To Laine’s relief, Sally seems no more absentminded than usual. So, Laine vows to help her mother maintain her independence, then hightail it back to Michigan. Except, Laine’s plans go awry when she runs into her former best friend, Ben, and realizes she finally has a chance to repair their fractured relationship. Then she discovers that memory loss isn’t the only thing Sally’s been hiding, forcing Laine to decide whether to reveal a devastating truth to her sisters-and whether to follow her heart when it means breaking her mother’s — adapted from back cover 

 

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes (In Honor of Aunts and Uncles Day on July 26th) 

A woman returns to her small Maine hometown, uncovering family secrets that take her on a journey of self-discovery and new love, in this warm and charming novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over. Smarting from her recently cancelled wedding and about to turn forty, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be ninety. Along with boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie’s curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line, “And anyway, if you’re ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling.” Laurie is told that the duck has no financial value. But after it disappears under suspicious circumstances, she feels compelled to figure out why anyone would steal a wooden duck-and why Dot kept it hidden away in the first place. Suddenly Laurie finds herself swept up in a righteous caper that has her negotiating with antiques dealers and con artists, going on after-hours dates at the local library, and reconnecting with her oldest friend and first love. Desperate to uncover her great-aunt’s secrets, Laurie must reckon with her past, her future, and ultimately embrace her own vision of flying solo — adapted from back cover 

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (In Honor of Day of Friendship on July 30th)  

Frances is a cool-headed and darkly observant young woman, vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. Her best friend and comrade-in-arms is the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi. At a local poetry performance one night, Frances and Bobbi catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer, and as the girls are then gradually drawn into Melissa’s world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman’s sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances’s friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally, terribly, with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances’s intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment. Written with gem-like precision and marked by a sly sense of humor, Conversations with Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth, and the messy edges of female friendship. — provided by Amazon  

If you are interested in any of these titles, or have read them, we want to talk about them! Please consider leaving a comment! Want to converse with other QCL Book Club followers? Consider joining our Goodreads Group! You can also access our recorded interviews by visiting the QCL Book Club Page! 

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

- Stephanie Leave a comment

I’m a sucker for an intriguing cover and offbeat book description. When I saw the cover of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy on the new shelves at the library, it was like it called to me. Add in one of the review quotes and I was done for: “A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl’s Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK.” —Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient. Whimsy AND macabre?! Done. Let’s talk about this utter delight of a book.

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy is the first book in the Hart and Mercy series by Megan Bannen. Hart is a marshal who patrols alone in Tanria, on the lookout for bodies gone astray. It’s a lonely job that leaves him with ample time to think. Mercy has been keeping her family’s business, Birdsall & Son Undertakers, alive by herself for years, waiting for the day her younger brother comes home from school to help out.

From the very first time Mercy and Hart met, it was like mixing oil and water. When he drops off bodies, it always seems to be when Mercy is at the end of her rope. The two push each others’ annoyance buttons just right, leaving them both cranky and exasperated after every encounter. After his last drop-off, Hart is so frustrated that he writes an anonymous letter and sends it out in the universe addressed to “A Friend”. Not expecting a reply, he’s surprised when he actually gets a response. The two begin writing back and forth, finding comfort in being able to share their secrets to each other.

The secret? Hart is sharing his secrets with Mercy, the person he hates the most. The two grow closer the longer they write to each other. This tentative friendship can only last for so long. As chaos starts to erupt in Tanria and their small town, their relationship deepens. How will the two react when their identities are revealed?

The only reason why I give this book four stars instead of five is that I wanted more world building. The explanations of the world were there, but they took place in large chunks that were difficult to follow (this might also be due to the fact that I listened to an audiobook version and had to rewind multiple times to make sure I understood). Regardless, I still loved this book. The characters were adorable and cranky, the family dynamics were realistic, and the twists were devastating. It’s full of magic and demigods and culinary masterpieces and small-town drama. I remain hopeful that the next book in the series will be just as good.

Hart and Mercy series

  1. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (2022)
  2. The Undermining of Twyla and Frank (2024)

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Grief, I’d come to realize was like dust. When you’re in the thick of a dust storm, you’re completely disoriented by the onslaught, struggling to see or breathe. But as the force recedes, and you slowly find your bearing and see a path forward, the dust begins to settle into the crevices. And it will never disappear completely- as the years pass, you’ll find it in unexpected places at unexpected moments.”
― Mikki Brammer, The Collected Regrets of Clover

Clover Brooks has always felt a stronger connection to the dying than she ever has to the living. It all started when her kindergarten teacher died during a story time in class. After that, Clover’s parents were killed in an accident while traveling. She then moved to New York City to live with her grandfather. Her connection to death informed her studies: she traveled the world studying different cultures’ relationships with death. On one of her travels, the grandfather who raised her dies alone back in New York City. Clover returns home and becomes a death doula. She cares for people at the end of their lives, working to give them a beautiful death. Clover has dedicated her life to peacefully helping people through their end-of-life process.

Outside of her work, Clover also frequents death cafes throughout New York City. Death cafes are meetings where people gather to discuss anything and everything to do with death. One of her trips to a death cafe leads her to an encounter that will change her life. She meets a young man with a dying grandma. This old woman is feisty and knows what she wants. Her secrets and final wishes send Clover on a cross country trip looking for a happy  ending. The more time Clover spends with her, the more she realizes that she doesn’t have a life of her own and no real possibility of her own happy ending. Clover’s trip to help this woman turns into a trip to turn her own life around. Her wants and needs are just as valid of those who are dying.

Are you interested in attending a Death Cafe? You’re in luck! The Davenport Public Library | Eastern Avenue Branch hosts a Death Cafe on the third Wednesday of every month. The next four dates are: August 16, September 20, October 18, and November 15.  Each Death Cafe runs from 5:30p – 7:30p.

At a Death Cafe, people, often strangers, gather to eat treats, drink coffee, and discuss death. Our objective is ‘to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives’.

A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives, or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session. All are welcome to attend any/all sessions and can participate as much as they are comfortable.

For more information, visit the Death Cafe website at https://deathcafe.com/.

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Family is not whose blood runs in your veins, it’s who you’d spill it for.”
― Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson tells the story of the Cunningham family seen through the eyes of one of the members, Ernest Cunningham – call him Ern or Ernie. Ern is a mystery writer; well to be more specific, he writes ‘how to’ guides for crime and mystery novels. His family has decided to have a family reunion at a remote Australian ski resort. Ern is extremely reluctant to attend, given his family’s history, but he has been told that it’s not optional.

Ern is our narrator. After outlining ten rules to follow, he frequently interjects into the story to tell us necessary back story or to alert the reader to something he just discovered. The most important fact he wants readers to know and remember: everyone in his family has killed someone. With them gathering all together for a family reunion, Ern is obviously concerned not least of all because this will be the first time that he has seen his family in a long time. Ern admits early on that yes, he has killed someone, but he’s not going to tell readers, at least not yet. That’s for us to figure out as the story progresses. After all, everyone in his family has killed someone. Each family member has their own reasons for why they killed someone, but they aren’t for Ern to just blurt out to non-family members.

This book was something I had never read before. It’s not your typical murder mystery. The narrator, Ernest, frequently broke the third wall to have a personal conversation with readers throughout the book. Even while he was doing that, Ernest also weaved an intricate web connecting all the members of his family together. He also acknowledged that we were listening to an audiobook, which I had never had happen to me in an audiobook before. If you decide to listen to this audiobook, this is one where you need to pay close attention! Lots of clues/hints are dropped throughout the novel that will help you solve the many mysteries. I hope the author writes something as original and clever again!

This title is also available in the following formats:

Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards

- Callen Leave a comment

I live for the drama of a teen psychological thriller, and Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards is no exception.

One year ago, Cleo’s boyfriend Declan drowned during a river rafting trip with their friends. Even though she has a new boyfriend now and is waiting for a scholarship to Michigan State to become a forensic scientist, she’s never really been able to leave Declan in the past. This makes it all the more chilling when on her eighteenth birthday, she starts to receive a cryptic and vaguely threatening clues leading her on a scavenger hunt, one that’s increasingly all about her rocky relationship with Declan. All her friends deny their involvement, even her brother Connor, so it’s up to Cleo and her best friend Hope to chase down the clues, racing the clock to keep their secrets from getting out, and hopefully to find out just who’s behind this – friend, foe, or Declan himself.

This is a vividly drawn and fast-paced story, full of twists, flashbacks, and revelations of all kinds. It engages with issues of race, domestic violence, blame, poverty, and trust, but is also full of loving, supportive friendships and family relationships.

If you loved All Your Twisted Secrets, One of Us is Lying, or Five Total Strangers, you’ll love Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards.

This title is also available on Overdrive.

When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“This happens all the time. Anyone who has lost somebody they love has experienced it—the head in the crowd on a busy street, the person at the grocery store who moves just like her. The rush to catch up, so relieved that she is actually still alive . . . Only to be crushed when the imposter turns around and the face is wrong. The eyes. The lips.”
― Barbara O’Neal, When We Believed in Mermaids

When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal is the story of a family ripped apart by tragedy and how the ones left behind try to pick up the shattered pieces.

The Bianci women are the only ones left. Josie, the older sister, was killed fifteen years ago during a terrorist attack while on a train overseas. Her younger sister Kit works as an ER doctor in Santa Cruz. She was left to help their mother as the two worked through their grief. Kit’s steady life comes to a crashing halt when she sees Josie on the TV news during a broadcast from New Zealand. Her mother saw Josie too. Doubt comes creeping in. In the background of television news coverage of a club fire in Auckland, the two saw a woman walking through smoke who bears an uncanny resemblance to Josie. It has to be her.

Kit is slammed by a flood of emotions: anger, grief, and loss. How could Josie lie to them for the past fifteen years? How could she abandon them? She let them believe she was dead. Kit has to find Josie and get answers. She has to go to Auckland.

After landing in New Zealand, Kit is unsure where to start. Once she is in the country where she thinks Josie is, she isn’t even sure if she really wants to search for her. As she begins the physical process of looking for Josie, Kit allows herself to fall into past memories. Josie and Kit’s childhood was far from idyllic, but there were some good parts: days (and nights) spent on the beach and a lost teenage boy who showed up one day and then never left. Among the good lie the bad: multiple tragedies and traumas that scarred the girls and left their family in ruins. Each family member carries their own baggage, their own secrets from long ago that they have carried for years.

Dava Shastri’s Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Domestic fiction is one of my favorite subgenres, especially novels that are set in situations that are different than my normal life. Domestic fiction is usually written by, for, and about women. It is also usually told through multiple viewpoints. My latest read fits all the above criteria!

Dava Shastri’s Last Day tells the story of Dava Shastri and her family. Dava Shastri is one of the world’s wealthiest women. Devastated by a brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, Dava is determined to approach her death like she approaches everything else in her life – with planning and determination.

Dava’s reputation has always been important to her. She wants her name to live on for generations. Both her public and private legacies are of utmost importance, but her family members don’t feel quite as strong about keeping the Shastri name alive.

Dava summons her four adult children, their spouses, and children to her private island where she tells them her news. In addition to having a terminal illness, Dava has also arranged for the news of her death to be released early, so that she can read the obituaries and articles written about her before she dies. Since she spent her life dedicated to the arts and to the empowerment of women, Dava expected that the articles written after her death would focus on those topics. Instead she finds the articles to be significantly more scandalous, focusing on two secrets that have the power to destroy her life, secrets she hoped would stay buried forever.

Now that her secrets are published, her children know and the fallout is not great. Dava must use what little time she has left to come to terms with the life she has lived and the various decisions that have led her to this point.  Most importantly she must use that time to talk it out with her family and make peace with their past, present, and future.

This book is also available in the following format:

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“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:

Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Coping with grief is hard and never-ending. As a librarian, I am constantly on the lookout for books that discuss the topic of grief in a new way. Enter author and illustrator Tyler Feder. She has written Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir, what Feder describes as ‘sad but also silly and weird, just like loss’. Feder’s illustrations are soft, gentle, and simple which serve as the perfect accompaniment to her heartbreaking subject matter. This book is part cancer memoir telling the story of Feder’s mom’s death and part reflection on her motherless life. Feder gives readers a glimpse into a devastating time into her life, while also being humorous. She makes note several times throughout that this memoir is for the people who are struggling with loss who just want someone to understand and get what they are going through.

Tyler Feder loves her mom Rhonda. That has never been in doubt.  As the oldest daughter, Tyler made Rhonda a mom and shared a special bond with her. No one loved more in Tyler’s life than her mom, all be it a bit blunt but full of joy. It’s hard to distill such a large personality to a single memoir, but Tyler pays devoted homage to her by weaving poignant yet piercing details throughout.

When Tyler was 19 years old, her mom died of cancer. This memoir covers everything from her first oncology appointment to the different stages of cancer to the funeral. Feder then goes a step further to show her family sitting shiva and how they adjust to the new afterward without their mother and wife in the ten years after. The art in this book is gorgeous and seeing Tyler show her love and heartbreak through her work tore at my heart as I read this book. This graphic memoir also felt like a self-help book as reading Tyler’s journey somewhat mirrored my own travels through grief. You see Feder’s grief fresh after her mother’s death as well as how she is working through it ten years later. Highly recommend this graphic memoir to anyone who is looking for a new read.

This book is also available in the following format:

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Elizabeth Acevedo has written a new young adult novel detailing the stories of two sisters grieving the loss of their father. Clap When You Land  weaves together their two separate stories into a tight tale of sorrow, loss, and finding a bright spot amidst immense grief.

Camino Rios only sees her father in the summer. Every June, he flies to visit her and her aunt in the Dominican Republic. Papi lights up her tiny community and his presence is everywhere she looks. Even when he’s not there, he protects her. This time when Camino goes to the airport to pick him up, she arrives to see groups of people crying and watching the news. Not her papi…

Yahaira Rios lives in New York City with her father and mother. Papi is her hero. He taught her to play chess and nurtured her talents. He has left every summer to go to the Dominican Republic on business for as long as she can remember. It’s almost the end of the school year and papi has just taken off. Yahaira is called to the principal’s office and notices teachers clustered in corners, crying, and stealing glances at her. A disheveled mami is in the office with devastating news. Her father has died in a plane crash. Her hero is gone.

Grieving their father’s death, Yahaira and Camino struggle to find a new way through life. Without money, Camino doesn’t know how she will keep going to high school and college seems to be now firmly out of the picture. Without her father, Yahaira and her mother are unmoored. Her mami and other relatives spend hours whispering and stop talking as soon as she walks in the room.

Separated by distance, both girls have to figure out a new reality without their father. He’s gone and nothing they do can bring him back. The deeper their grief, the more they struggle to find a new purpose. Just when it feels like they have reached their breaking point, they each learn the other exists. Papi had many secrets.

This book is available in the following formats: