SSCL Book Club for Adults March Gathering Reminder & February 2023 Book Club Notes

February 28, 2023March 1, 2023 by Linda Reimer ♥ 2 Comments

Hi everyone, just kicking things off with a reminder, our March book club gathering will be on Friday, March 10, 2023 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

And our March Read is:

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

(Copies of the March Read are available at the Circulation Desk)

And here is the plot: A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

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SSCL Book Club for Adults: February 2023

First Off: Great Reads Recommended by Members:

Barker and Llewelyn Mystery Series by Will Thomas (Books in series, to-date, 13 with a 14^th title, Heart of the Nile coming out in April 2023)

Book One:

Some Danger Involved: An atmospheric debut novel set on the gritty streets of Victorian London, Some Danger Involved introduces detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant, Thomas Llewelyn, as they work to solve the gruesome murder of a young scholar in London’s Jewish ghetto.

When the eccentric and enigmatic Cyrus Barker takes on the recent murder case of a young scholar in London’s Jewish ghetto, he realizes that he must hire an assistant, and out of all who answer an ad for a position with “some danger involved,” he chooses downtrodden Llewelyn, a gutsy young man with a murky past.

As they inch ever closer to the shocking truth behind the murder, Llewelyn is drawn deeper and deeper into Barker’s peculiar world of vigilante detective work, as well as the heart of London’s teeming underworld. Brimming with wit and unforgettable characters and steeped in authentic period detail, Some Danger Involved is a captivating page-turner that introduces an equally captivating duo.

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Bryant & May Mystery Series by Christopher Fowler (Books in series, to-date, 18.5; most recent full book in series London Bridge is Falling Down (2021).

Book One: Full Dark House: Edgy, suspenseful, and darkly comic, here is the first novel in a riveting mystery series starring two cranky but brilliant old detectives whose lifelong friendship was forged solving crimes for the London Police Department’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. In Full Dark House, Christopher Fowler tells the story of both their first and last case—and how along the way the unlikely pair of crime fighters changed the face of detection.

A present-day bombing rips through London and claims the life of eighty-year-old detective Arthur Bryant. For his partner John May, it means the end of a partnership that lasted over half-a-century and an eerie echo back to the Blitz of World War II when they first met. Desperately searching for clues to the killer’s identity, May finds his old friend’s notes of their very first case and becomes convinced that the past has returned . . . with a killing vengeance.

It begins when a dancer in a risque new production of Orpheus in Hell is found without her feet. Suddenly, the young detectives are plunged in a bizarre gothic mystery that will push them to their limits—and beyond. For in a city shaken by war, a faceless killer is stalking London’s theaters, creating his own kind of sinister drama. And it will take Arthur Bryant’s unorthodox techniques and John May’s dogged police work to catch a criminal whose ability to escape detection seems almost supernatural—a murderer who even decades later seems to have claimed the life of one of them . . . and is ready to claim the other.

Filled with startling twists, unforgettable characters, and a mystery that will keep you guessing, Full Dark House is a witty, heartbreaking, and all-too-human thriller about the hunt for an inhuman killer.

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Duncan Kincaid & Gemma James Mystery Series by Deborah Crombie (18 books, with a 19^th scheduled for publication in 2023; the most recent book in the series is A Bitter Feast (2019).

Book One: A Share in Death: In this “thoroughly entertaining mystery with a cleverly conceived and well-executed plot” (Booklist), Edgar Award-nominated author Deborah Crombie introduces us to Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard and his partner, Gemma James.

A week’s holiday in a luxurious Yorkshire time-share is just what Scotland Yard’s Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But the discovery of a body floating in the whirlpool bath ends Kincaid’s vacation before it’s begun. One of his new acquaintances at Followdale House is dead; another is a killer. Despite a distinct lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid’s keen sense of duty won’t allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised dramatically when a second murder occurs, and Kincaid and James find themselves in a determined hunt for a fiendish felon who enjoys homicide a bit too much.

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The Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.

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Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America by Dahlia Lithwick:

When it comes to legal challenges to human rights in general and women’s rights in particular, it is sobering to note that threats against them are coming from inside the house. From the lowest rung of the judicial ladder to the Supreme Court, legal decisions that protect fundamental freedoms are under assault in existential ways. Since the mid–twentieth-century, more and more women have been attracted to law as a career, and a stellar cadre of social-justice-focused lawyers has recognized the courts as the linchpin in protecting fragile rights. The battles have been arduous, the defeats aggravating, and the victories often disconcertingly ephemeral. Lawyer and legal journalist Lithwick, a self-described “professional court-watcher,” profiles the best-of-the-best women lawyers whose dedication, drive, and determination have led to monumental changes. Some are household names, such as Sally Yates, Stacey Abrams, and Anita Hill. Others are less well-known, although their advocacy is equally pioneering, including Latinx vote strategist Nina Perales and ACLU reproductive rights attorney Brigitte Amiri. Whip-smart and wickedly acerbic, Lithwick shines a reassuring light on the essential interconnectivity between women and the law and champions the vital role women lawyers must continue to play if American democracy is to persevere. – Booklist Review

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The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner

From the author of the sensational bestseller The Lost Apothecary comes a spellbinding tale about two daring women who hunt for truth and justice in the perilous art of conjuring the dead.

1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike.

Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But as the women team up with the powerful men of London’s exclusive Séance Society to solve the mystery, they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves…

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Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (and the corresponding move was good too: A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks)

Here is an overview of the plot: Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

Fredrik Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others. “If there was an award for ‘Most Charming Book of the Year,’ this first novel by a Swedish blogger-turned-overnight-sensation would win hands down” (Booklist, starred review).

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The Winners by Fredrik Backman

Billed as the conclusion of the Beartown series, the new novel by the award-winning Swedish author Backman (A Man Called Ove, 2014) is set two-and-a-half years after the town of Bjornstad was torn apart by the rape of a teenage girl by a junior hockey player. Readers unfamiliar with Beartown (2016) and its sequel Us against You (2017) need to know one thing: Bjornstad and the nearby Hed are, above all, hockey towns. After the tragic events recounted in the first book, Bjornstad’s hockey team faltered, allowing Hed’s to rise to prominence. Now, as the town still struggles to put itself back together, things happen that will force each resident to confront his or her darkest thoughts. This is a dramatic and highly satisfying novel, building on themes introduced in the first two books and brilliantly drawing the reader deeply into the story. The translation by Neil Smith (who has also translated novels by Lars Kepler and Liza Marklund) is nimble and idiomatic, perfectly conveying Backman’s love of language and his wonderful sense of humor. If this really is the last Beartown novel, it’s a hell of a conclusion to an outstanding series. – Booklist Review

The Winners is third book in the Beartown trilogy, preceded by Beartown (2017) & Us Against You (2018)

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Secondly, here is the February Read Overview:

The SSCL Book Club for Adults met on Friday, February 10 and discussed our February Read:

The Matrix by Lauren Groff.

The book, despite the modern science fiction connotations of the title, is set in the 12 Century, the protagonist a fictionalized version of a real historical person, the poetry writing nun Marie de France.

The protagonist Marie was born in France, the illegitimate daughter of a French noblewoman and a member of the French Royal Family. She spent her early years surrounded by her widowed maternal grandmother, mother and aunts who lived together on the family estate. In that era, women were usually treated as property so the freedom Marie and her female relatives enjoyed in those years was not typical.

After Marie’s mother died, she spent several years managing the family estate before it was discovered a young woman was managing the estate, which wasn’t allowed; and then the French, and future English Queen, Eleanor called her to court and told her she was too awkward, tall and uncouth to be an acceptable bride and instead, she was being sent to an English convent.

Marie, who as the novel opens was not especially religious, was intelligent, hardworking and industrious. When she arrived at the convent she found a small number of nuns at the abbey; and those nuns were starving for a lack of gathering resources.

Over time Marie worked her way up in the ranks at the abbey, implementing more efficient ways of doing things and the abbey prospered. Marie also had religious visions that she used to get her own way when implementing changes and improvements at the abbey. And she created a female-centric place at the abbey where women were able to prosper. Marie was eventually promoted to the top position at the abbey, becoming the abbess, a position she held until her death.

The Matrix was a detailed historical fiction novel but without any mysteries or major league surprises in the plot. The novel was liked by some members of the book club, while others thought it was too detailed and contained too many descriptions that needed to be looked up to comfortably carry on reading the in-depth historical plot.

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Have a great day!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

SSC Library February Book Club For Adults & December & January Notes

February 2, 2023 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, I don’t know how time flies as a fast as it does – but it certainly does!

January has flown, February has arrived and our next book club gathering is in just over a week, on Friday, February 10, 2023.

We’ll be meeting in the Conference Room at the library from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. and copies of the February Read: Matrix by Lauren Groff, may be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time.

And as the word “Matrix” sounds like science fiction – I’ll just note briefly, that the novel is historical fiction with a large dose of female empowerment. Set during the twelve century the novel relays the story of Marie de France; a young noble woman who was deemed by Queen Eleanor to be unsuitable for married or court life, and was thus sent away to an abbey, where she rose through the ranks and thrived.

I hope to see everyone next Friday!

Linda

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Pasted below are the notes from our December 2022 and January 2023 gatherings where we read and discussed, respectively, Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout and The Secret Life of Bees by Eileen Garvin.

The book club attendees liked our December Read Oh William!

And the response to our January Read: The Secret Life of Bees was mixed. Some readers liked the lighter, feel good, intelligent-but-with-a-Hallmark-vibe to it novel and others felt it was more of a cozy read, with less in-depth character development than they desired.

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Our December 2023 Book Club for Adults Read was held on December 9, 2022

And our December Read was: Oh, William! By Elizabeth Strout

Oh, William! Is the third book in Strout’s Amgash series and relays the story of two main characters: the protagonist of the series: 64-year-old Lucy Barton and her philandering, semi-retired scientist ex-husband William. The novel features scenes both in the present and the past; basically, relaying basic information on the couple, including what their childhoods were like, how they met, married and divorce and are still connected in the present even though they both remarried after their divorce.

It transpires that Lucy had a very difficult, poverty-stricken childhood. Her parents were dysfunctional. Her father had PTSD and her mother was abusive. Lucy grew up with a limited view of the world and found that simply trying to get through each day in the emotional minefield that was her home was a difficult, cringe worthy challenge.

As a youth, Lucy was a good student and worked hard at her studies. She was awarded a scholarship at “that college right outside of Chicago.” Lucy was petrified of going to college because she couldn’t imagine a world other than the small one, she grew up in. She was greatly assisted in getting ready for college by her school counselor Mrs. Nash, who took her shopping for clothes and luggage to replace the few threadbare changes of clothes she took with her from home and carried in a paper bag. Mrs. Nash also drove her to college where Lucy did well as a student. And in her sophomore year she met a fellow student named William Gerhardt.

Turning to William, he too had a difficult childhood. His mother was a bit distant, and his father was a World War II era German soldier who was captured by the allies and wound up a prisoner of war working in the U.S. during the war.

After college, Lucy went on to become a writer and William a scientist in the field of parasitology. They married and had two daughters Becca and Chrissy. And when their daughters were in college, Lucy discovered William was having an affair with a family friend, and she first left him and then divorced him, though they remained in touch.

After her divorce from William, Lucy remarried a much different man a kind, faithful cellist named David. When the book opens readers discover David has died and Lucy is still grieving for him two years after his death.

Early in the book readers discover that William has married twice since his divorce from Lucy. First, he married Lucy’s former friend, Joanne, the woman he had an affair with which caused the breakup of his marriage to Lucy. And then he married a younger woman, Estelle, and had a daughter with her named Sophia. One night he came home from work and discovered Estelle had moved out, taking their daughter and much of their home furnishings with her and leaving him a note announcing the breakup of their marriage.

Readers additionally discover that Lucy has a nervous disposition. In fact, her counselor describes Lucy’s anxieties as being a part of post-traumatic stress disorder she obtained while growing up in a very dysfunctional household. Lucy’s PTSD may be one of the reasons why she stays connected to William as his presence offers her a feeling of safety since she knows what expect from him, most of the time, due to their many years of marriage.

Despite Lucy’s nervousness, it is William who is going through a mid-life crisis in the book. While Lucy is dealing with the death of her second husband David, William winds up dealing both with the breakup of his third marriage to Estelle and the discovery, ironically via a search inspired by the results of a DNA Ancestry kit Estelle gave him for Christmas and that he ignored for months, that his mother, Catherine, left her first husband, Clyde Trask, a Maine potato farmer and their toddler Lois to marry William’s father. William’s father, Wilhelm as a German World War II era POW was sent to Maine, to work on the same potato farm owned by Catherine’s first husband Clyde Trask.

Thus Lucy and William are dealing with the after effects of how they were raised. Lucy with an abusive mother and a father with PTSD; and William with a mother who kept her previous family a secret, and a father who had a haunted past due to things that happened during his service in the German Army. William’s father even admitted to him that the German Army did terrible, unconscionable things during the war and those things haunted him ever afterwards, and he inevitably, inadvertently passed that history and some of those haunted feelings on to William.

And it should also be noted that despite having been divorced for many years that Lucy and William are still connected to each other and still factor into each other’s lives; this is true to such a degree that when William wants to take a trip to Maine to track down his newly discovered half-sister Lois, he takes Lucy with him.

Perhaps needless to say, Oh William! Offers a character study of the two main characters – Lucy and William.

Oh William! Ends with Lucy preparing to take a vacation to the Cayman Islands with William.

Oh William! Is the third book in Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy Baron series; and the story of Lucy and William continues in the fourth book of the series, 2022’s Lucy By The Sea which follows Lucy and William as they take refuge from the COVID-19 pandemic in a secluded house by the sea.

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Books Recommended by Book Club Members: December 2022:

Brighter By The Day: Waking Up To New Hopes and Dreams by Robin Roberts

From the beloved host of Good Morning America and New York Times bestselling author Robin Roberts, a guide to instilling hope and optimism into readers’ lives, infusing their days with positivity and encouragement.

Over the last 16 years as the esteemed anchor of Good Morning America, Robin Roberts has helped millions of people across the country greet each new morning, gracing our screens with heart and humility. She has sought to bring a bit of positivity into each day, even in the most trying of times. Now, she shares with readers the guidance she’s received, her own hard-won wisdom, and eye-opening experiences that have helped her find the good in the world and usher in light—even on the darkest days.

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The Burgess Boys by Lucy Barton

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is perhaps Elizabeth Strout’s most astonishing work of literary art.

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Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

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Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life by Haley Stewart

Stewart draws fascinating connections between Austen’s novels and real life and introduces Austen as a capable life coach by how she guides her readers to understand virtue and vice through friendship, love, community, and God’s grace. Austen’s characters reveal how virtuous habits transform us and help us become who we were meant to be.

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Light To The Hills by Bonnie Blaylock: A richly rewarding novel about family bonds, the power of words, and the resilience of mothers and daughters in 1930s Appalachia.

The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie. Along the way, Amanda takes a shine to the MacInteer family, especially to the gentle Rai; her quick-study daughter, Sass; and Finn, the eldest son who’s easy to warm to. They remind Amanda of her childhood and her parents with whom she longs to be reconciled.

Her connection with the MacInteers deepens, and Amanda shares with them a dangerous secret from her past. When that secret catches up with Amanda in the present, she, Rai, Sass, and Finn find their lives intersecting—and threatened—in the most unexpected ways. Now they must come together as the truth lights a path toward survival, mountain justice, forgiveness, and hope.

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Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It by Richard Reeves: A positive vision for masculinity in a more equal world. Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened.

Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.

The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood.

Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.

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January 2023 Book Club for Adults:

The January Book Club for Adults gathering took place on Friday, January 8, 2023.

Our January Read was: The Secret Life of Bees by Eileen Garvin

There are four main characters in this intelligent general fiction cozy: Alice Holtzman a middle aged widow and part-time beekeeper, Jake a paraplegic teenager and recent high school graduate, twenty five year old Harry Stokes who has a criminal record for going along with “friends” as a driver while they attempted and failed to steal electronics; and, of course, the bees.

Each chapter of the book begins with a short quote about the life of bees from written works by a man considered the father of modern bee keeping L. L. Langstroth.

And the bees are a counterpoint to the three human characters, who despite the differences in their ages and background are all trying to find themselves; in large part by trial and error while simultaneously trying to manage their emotional responses to difficulties they have experienced in their lives, and initially, by trying to remain unconnected to other people. The bees, on the other hand, each have very specific roles and they all work together for the sustainability and health of their hive.

The trio of main characters Alice, Jake and Harry do eventually find themselves and wind up with their feet solidly on new and better paths in their lives. The trio learns something that the bees know instinctively, that if humans connect with others and help each other, as needed, then their lives are richer and run more smoothly than if they try and live their lives all by themselves.

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Books Recommended by Book Club Members (and the Eileen Garvin) : January 2023:

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamont

An unforgettable novel about a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century, told “with humor and optimism…through the eyes of an irresistible heroine” (People)—from the acclaimed author of The Red Tent.

Anita Diamant’s “vivid, affectionate portrait of American womanhood” (Los Angeles Times), follows the life of one woman, Addie Baum, through a period of dramatic change. Addie is The Boston Girl, the spirited daughter of an immigrant Jewish family, born in 1900 to parents who were unprepared for America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End of Boston, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie’s intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can’t imagine—a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture, and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, to finding the love of her life, eighty-five-year-old Addie recounts her adventures with humor and compassion for the naïve girl she once was.

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Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee, A Bee Keeper’s Manual by L. L. Langstroth

(This is the book that author Eileen Garvin quotes from at the beginning of each chapter of The Music of Bees)

This influential guide by the Reverend L. L. Langstroth, “the father of modern beekeeping,” revolutionized the practice of beekeeping. Originally published in 1853, his work constitutes the first descriptive treatise of modern bee management — its innovations allowed people to engage in actual beekeeping, rather than simply handling bee domiciles and extracting the honey. This book explains and illustrates techniques still employed 150 years later — including the author’s patented invention, a movable frame hive that quickly spread into common use around the world.

In his reader-friendly, nontechnical style, Langstroth addresses every aspect of beekeeping: bee physiology; diseases and enemies of bees; the life-cycles of the queen, drone, and worker; bee-hives; and the handling of bees. An infectious sense of wonder and enthusiasm suffuses Langstroth’s accounts of natural and artificial swarming, the production of honey and wax, and the best methods of feeding bees and maintaining an apiary. The manual abounds in practical and intriguing insights attained through the years of observation and experience, including “the kindness of bees to one another,” “their infatuation for liquid sweets,” and “the warning given by bees before stinging.”

This version of Langstroth’s ever-popular manual is the fourth and final edition; it incorporates the author’s own revisions and remains an unsurpassed resource for beekeepers.

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The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet’s body swinging from a rope. The next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has removed the dead man’s heart.

Augustus Landor—who acquired some renown in his years as a New York City police detective—is called in to discreetly investigate. It’s a baffling case Landor must pursue in secret, for the scandal could do irreparable damage to the fledgling institution. But he finds help from an unexpected ally—a moody, young cadet with a penchant for drink, two volumes of poetry to his name, and a murky past that changes from telling to telling.

The strange and haunted Southern poet, for whom Landor develops a fatherly affection, is named Edgar Allan Poe.

The basis of the new Netflix series of the same name.

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Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule

Ty Seidule grew up revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now, as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American history demands a reckoning.

In a unique blend of history and reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy?that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation and enslavement of Black Americans?and directly challenges the idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through the arc of Seidule’s own life, as well as the culture that formed him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright lies, and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions of Americans to this day.

Part history lecture, part meditation on the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the Confederacy, and provides a surprising interpretation of essential truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and accepting.

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Podcasts: For The Ages, a variety of popular historians and historical figures are interviewed, published by the New York Historical Society; accessible online: https://www.nyhistory.org/for-the-ages-podcast

Southeast Steuben County Library Book Club for Adults January 2023 Gathering – This Friday!

January 11, 2023 by Linda Reimer ♥ 2 Comments

Hi everyone, the January 2023 book club gathering for adults is this Friday, January 13, 2023.

We’ll be meeting from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Conference Room and discussing the book The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin.

Looking ahead, our February gathering will be on Friday, February 10, 2023, when we will again be meeting in the Conference Room from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Our February read, copies of which will be available at the Circulation Desk on Friday, is:

Matrix by Lauren Groff (272 pages): A National Book Award nominated title which tells the fictional tale of a real-life character – a 12th Century Abbess named Marie de France.

Hope to see everyone on Friday!

Have a great day,

Linda

SSCL Book Club For Adults Notes: October & November

November 17, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, here are our book club notes for October & November 2022!

Our October Read was: Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Our November Read was: The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

Looking forward, before we look back – as time flies, our December book club gathering will be held on Friday, December 9, 2022, from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the library.

Our December Read is: Oh, William! by Elizabeth Strout (256 pages), the third book in the author’s series of books set Amgash, Illinois! featuring Lucy Barton, a new York City based writer, who in middle life returns to her hometown of Amgash.

Copies of Oh, William! may be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time through Tuesday, December 6; after which time we’ll have copies of the January Read available — The Music of Bees: A Novel by Eileen Garvin (336 pages).

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And on a beginning note, I’ve discovered, that writing the more in-depth plot summaries for each months’ book club read simply takes too much time, and I think I’m just a repeating what was discussed at each months’ meeting.

So, I’m going to try, and I say “try” as I’ve never found it easy to write short, concise pieces, to briefly offer a summary of the plot of each monthly read & list the recommended reads shared by book club members in each month’s notes – we will see how I do – I suspect at first my overviews may be too short, but we will see…

So here goes!

Our October Read was Bewilderment by Richard Powers: The book tells the tale of Theo Byrne an astrobiologist & widower who is raising his nine-year-old son Robin alone. Robin has had behavioral issues since his mother, and Theo’s wife, Ally’s died in a car accident. Theo doesn’t like the medial diagnosis of Robin’s condition, including ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome, and the related pressure he faces from Robin’s doctors and school officials to put Robin on medication in an attempt to alleviate his persistent inappropriate behavior.

While looking for an alternate way of treating Robin, one that does not require medication, Theo takes Robin out of public school and teaches him at home instead. He then connections with his late wife’s associate Martin Currier, who is working on a way to train the brains of people using technology. The process he has developed allows program participants to be trained using someone else’s brain scan; and Martin offers Robin a place in his program; and trains him using his late mother’s brain scan. Robin makes terrific progress under this program and is new boy; one who is exceptionally smart, who behaves normally and has a growing interest in and concern on matters of climate change.

Unfortunately, Martin’s whose project is funded by public funds, has his funding cut and has to close down the program. And Robin, without the benefit of regular training with his mother’s brain scan, regresses.

The story of Theo and Robin, beings and ends with trips to the great Smoky Mountains; where the duo connects with nature and Robin seems to feel better simply be being there.

Spoiler alert, if you haven’t read the book, and wish to be surprised by the ending, stop reading now!

While on their second trip to the Smoky Mountains, more than a year after their first trip ,and after Robin’s treatments with Martin have ended, Theo & Robin notice cairns near the river, located near their campsite. And Theo mentions that the cairns are not good for the environment. That night while sleeping at their campsite, Theo hears Robin moving about but goes back to sleep only to wake up hours later and find Robin is not in the tent.

Theo goes to find Robin, who he discovers has contracted hypothermia by trying to dismantle the cairns, in frigid river water, by himself. Theo manages to haul Robin back to shore and tries to increase his body temperature, but Robin dies.

At the very end of the book, after Robin’s funeral, Martin asks Theo if he wishes to try the same treatment Robin did, but with Robin’s brain scan instead of Robin’s mother’s brain scan; and Theo agrees.

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The majority of the book club members liked this book, which featured a bit of future politics and dystopian elements but was mostly the story of a father and his son.

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November Read: The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

Good Housekeeping article by the author from 2021 titled:

When I Was Struggling, Libraries Gave Me a Place to Belong

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/author/230070/Freya-Sampson/

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And here is the overview of the plot:

The Last Chance Library is set in the fictional English village of Chalot.

The main character is June, the shy daughter of a librarian and an aspiring writer, who left college to come home and care for her terminally ill mother, and has worked at the library in the eight years since her mother’s Beverly’s death.

Supporting characters include June’s next door neighbor Linda, a friend of her mother’s, Linda’s grandson Jackson, Stanley Phelps, a senior patron who frequents the library daily, Marjorie Spencer, the Director of the Chalot Public Library; her husband Brian and their daughter Gayle who was a childhood friend of June, Mrs. Bransworth, aka Mrs. B, a library patron and local activist, Chantal a teenager from a low income family and daily library patron; George Chen who runs the local Chinese take-out restaurant, George’s son Alex who returns to town from London to assist his father while he recovers from hip surgery; and June’s house companion, her mother’s grouchy cat, Alan Bennet.

Shortly after the story opens it transpires that the county council, of which Brian Spencer is a member, has voted to close several county libraries include the Chalot Library, because the council doesn’t see the full value of libraries, which to put it briefly, are community connections centers not just book depositories.

Just after the news breaks that library is to be closed, two things happen in quick succession; some local residents including Stanley, Mrs. B. and Chantel form an activist group whose goal is to save the library; and Marjorie calls June into her office and forbids her to join the activist group or to tell them the truth about why she can’t join them.

The activist group schedules a mild protest at the library, and June, who is clandestinely assisting the group by sending them inside information through a pseudonymous Twitter account under the name Matilda, arraigns for the stripper who was supposed to attend the female bachelor party of Marjorie’s daughter Gayle, to the library to strip instead – which lands the group’s protest in the news much more so than the mild activist event the group was planning.

Subsequently, while in a restaurant June see’s Brian with staff from the Cuppa a coffee chain and realizes, from what she overhears him say, that he is looking to profit from the sale of the library building, once the library is closed, to the chain.

Subsequently, the activist plan a sit-in, in the library itself, and at that time June comes clean and lets Stanley, Mrs. B. and the other activists know that she is Matilda. The group then goes forward with the sit in, with local residents backing them up and filling out the numbers. And then the police, lead by Marjorie’s husband Brian, appear and demand that they vacate the premises but can’t force the group to leave . Brian and the police get a court order, ordering the activist to leave the building and present it to the activist. The activists then start to vacate the building, with Stanley, slowly walking at the back of the crowd. Once everyone but Stanley is outside the library; he closes the door and refuses to leave.

In the aftermath, Brian tells June she is fired and Stanley is arrested. June’s then hurriedly calls her friend Alex, who is lawyer in London when not helping out at his father’s restaurant, and asks him to come to the police station and get Stanley released, which he does.

The crux of the conflict is reached when June then attends Marjorie’s daughter’s wedding, with a previously issued invitation; and calls Brian out his unethical plan to profit from selling the library building to the Cuppa company. Marjorie, who as is turns out didn’t have a clue what her husband was up to, blows a fuse as she loves the library and has put thirty years of her life into working there.

After the wedding reception, it is found that Stanley, who had grown close to June by simply being in the library every day and connecting with her, had died. Stanley left June the property his trailer was housed on; and that property turned out to be worth more than anyone thought due to an apartment building being built adjacent to it. So, June, buys the library building, the library becomes a community library, not one funded by the government; June accepts a job at a larger library nearby, and, at the end of the novel is planning to go back to college, pursue a writing career and just maybe hook up with her friend Alex Chen.

The book is light reader’s read, featuring many references to popular books and characters that appear in popular books and the book club members concurred it was a light, fun, library-based read.

Recommended Reads & Views (by Book Club Members!)

Finlay Donovan Series; book one is:

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It: Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.

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How To Cook A Wolf (1942) by M.F.K. Fisher: Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table.

M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

The official M. F. K. Fisher website can be found here:

https://mfkfisher.com/

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The Library by Bella Osborne

Two lonely bookworms. An unexpected friendship. A library that needs their help ‘A touching story of a friendship between a troubled teenager, a yoga-practising farming woman in her seventies and a local library. A delight!’ – Sunday Times bestselling author Katie FfordeTeenager Tom has always blended into the background of life. After a row with his dad and facing an unhappy future at the dog food factory, he escapes to the library. Pensioner Maggie has been happily alone with her beloved novels for ten years – at least, that’s what she tells herself. When they meet, they recognize something in each other that will change both their lives for ever.Then the library comes under threat of closure, and they must join forces to prove that it’s not just about books – it’s the heart of their community. They are determined to save it – because some things are worth fighting for.

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Magpie Murders (PBS Mystery): Lesley Manville and Tim McMullan star in the TV adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling novel about a dead mystery author, an incomplete manuscript and suspects galore. Based upon the book the book club previous read – Magpie Murders.

Magpie Murder can be found on your local PBS station, or streamed through the WSKG website to a smart TV, computer or mobile device:

To view through a web browser click the following link and the episode of your choice:

https://www.pbs.org/show/magpie-murders/

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The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Character growth and development is a strength of this World War II-set novel, although the middle plods during some sections. Sisters Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are driven apart by unhealed childhood wounds and clashing personalities. When Isabelle is kicked out of boarding school for the umpteenth time for “rebellious” behavior, her embittered veteran father, in the midst of drowning his own battle scars in bourbon, sends the adolescent to her elder sister’s house. Meanwhile, Vianne attempts to find salvation from her past by marrying her teenage sweetheart and relocating to the French countryside where she delights in her garden and her school-age daughter. As Hitler’s forces invade, both sisters face challenging choices that will show where their loyalties lie.

VERDICT Hannah (Summer Island; Firefly Lane) has long been a staple of women’s fiction. Readers who enjoy stories with ethical dilemmas and character-driven narratives will enjoy this novel full of emotion and heart. -Library Journal Review

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The Palace Papers by Tina Brown

Picking up where Tina Brown’s masterful The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.

Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen’s stoic resolve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles’s determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on “different paths,” the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan’s stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy’s best efforts, “never again” seems fast approaching.

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The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

It is a perfect August morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”—the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

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Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman

Sacred Bridge is the seventh book in Anne Hillerman’s Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito series, which itself is a continuation of her father, Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series which features 18 titles starting with The Blessing Way.

Also of note, the books are the basis for the critically acclaimed TV series Dark Winds staring Zach McClarnon.

Here’s the plot overview for Sacred Bridge:

Sergeant Jim Chee’s vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He’s on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier.

Chee’s journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon’s ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

Back in Shiprock, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is driving home when she witnesses an expensive sedan purposely kill a hitchhiker. The search to find the killer leads her to uncover a dangerous chain of interconnected revelations involving a Navajo Nation cannabis enterprise.

But the evil that is unleashed jeopardizes her mother and sister Darleen, and puts Bernie in the deadliest situation of her law enforcement career.

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Sag Harbor: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys: a hilarious and supremely original novel set in the Hamptons in the 1980s, “a tenderhearted coming-of-age story fused with a sharp look at the intersections of race and class” (The New York Times).

Benji Cooper is one of the few Black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of Black professionals have built a world of their own.

The summer of ’85 won’t be without its usual trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through and state-of-the-art profanity to master. Benji will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, just maybe, this summer might be one for the ages.

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Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich

The new book in the series, #29 is Going Rogue (2022)

Here’s the plot: Stephanie Plum breaks the rules, flirts with disaster, and shows who’s boss in this “fast and fun” (Publishers Weekly) thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Janet Evanovich.

Monday mornings aren’t supposed to be fun, but they should be predictable. However, on this particular Monday, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli, who is as reliable as the tides in Atlantic City, hasn’t shown up.

Stephanie’s worst fears are confirmed when she gets a call from Connie’s abductor. He says he will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin that a recently murdered man left as collateral for his bail. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office—just like Connie—is nowhere to be found.

The quest to discover the coin, learn its value, and save Connie will require the help of Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur, her best pal Lula, her boyfriend Morelli, and hunky security expert Ranger. As they get closer to unraveling the reasons behind Connie’s kidnapping, Connie’s captor grows more threatening and soon Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue.

Reader’s Note: If you like to start reading the Stephanie Plum series from the beginning check out One For The Money.

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Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree has lived her entire life at Swamplandia!, her family’s island home and gator-wrestling theme park in the Florida Everglades. But when illness fells Ava’s mother, the park’s indomitable headliner, the family is plunged into chaos; her father withdraws, her sister falls in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, defects to a rival park called The World of Darkness.

As Ava sets out on a mission through the magical swamps to save them all, we are drawn into a lush and bravely imagined debut that takes us to the shimmering edge of reality.

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Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison

The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world’s most powerful companies—and, miraculously, they won.

As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America’s farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight.

There is Elsie Herring, the most outspoken of the neighbors, who has endured racial slurs and the threat of a restraining order to tell the story of the waste raining down on her rooftop from the hog operation next door. There is Don Webb, a larger-than-life hog farmer turned grassroots crusader, and Rick Dove, a riverkeeper and erstwhile military judge who has pioneered the use of aerial photography to document the scale of the pollution. There is Woodell McGowan, a quiet man whose quest to redeem his family’s ancestral land encourages him to become a better neighbor, and Dr. Steve Wing, a groundbreaking epidemiologist whose work on the health effects of hog waste exposure translates the neighbors’ stories into the argot of science. And there is Tom Butler, an environmental savant and hog industry insider whose whistleblowing testimony electrifies the jury.

Fighting alongside them in the courtroom is Mona Lisa Wallace, who broke the gender barrier in her small southern town and built a storied legal career out of vanquishing corporate giants, and Mike Kaeske, whose trial skills are second to none.

With journalistic rigor and a novelist’s instinct for story, Corban Addison’s Wastelands captures the inspiring struggle to bring a modern-day monopoly to its knees, to force a once-invincible corporation to change, and to preserve the rights—and restore the heritage—of a long-suffering community.

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Windsor Knot Series by SJ Bennett: Queen Elizabeth II solves crimes!

1. The Windsor Knot (2020)

2. A Three Dog Problem (2021)

3. Murder Most Royal (2022)

4. A Death in Diamonds (2024)

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The Author’s Reading Lists:

Richard Powers Reading List:

Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance (1985)

Prisoner’s Dilemma (1988)

The Gold Bug Variations (1991)

Operation Wandering Soul (1993)

Galatea 2.2 (1995)

Gain (1998)

Plowing the Dark (2000)

The Time of Our Singing (2002)

The Echo Maker (2006)

Generosity (2009)

Orfeo (2014)

The Overstory (2018)

Bewilderment (2021)

For plot details, click the following link to Powers’s Fantastic Fiction page (and then just click on the title of the book you want to know more about, to find out more!) :

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/richard-powers/

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Freya Sampson Reading List:

The Last Chance Library (2021) aka The Last Library

The Girl on the 88 Bus (2022)

The Lost Ticket (2022)

To find out more about the plot of each Freya Sampson book, just click on this link to her page on the Fantastic Fiction website: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/freya-sampson/

Have a great day,

Linda Reimer, SSCL

Reminder Next SSC Library Adult Book Club Gathering Is Next Week (9/16)

September 8, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, just a reminder that our September Book Club meeting will be a week later than usual this month; the third Friday of September, instead of the second.

Our meeting date is next Friday, September 16, and we will be meeting in the Conference Room as usual from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Our September read is The National Book Award winning title Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott.

And the change in date is due to a staff training day being held on our usual meeting time, the second Friday of the month.

Hope to see everyone next Friday, September 16,

Linda

SSCL Adult Book Club August Notes & September Meeting Reminder

August 25, 2022August 25, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

August 2022 Book Club Notes

Hi everyone, first off our September reminder!

Our September gathering will be the third Friday in September, instead of the second, due to a library staff training day occurring on the second Friday.

So to reiterate, we’ll be meeting on Friday, September 16 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Conference Room.

Our September Read is: Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott, print copies can be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time.

Now, on to the August Read overview and club members reading recommendations!

August Read: A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

A Slow Fire Burning is a thriller featuring a cast of characters that all live in the same area of London, near the Themes River. The novel has several subplots.

The characters can be split into five groups:

1. Daniel Sutherland, a man in his mid-twenties the son of a single mother, Angela Sutherland, who died several weeks before the story opens. Daniel is a poor graphic artist, who lives on a rundown riverboat next to a middle aged “Mrs. Kravitz” type figure, a woman names Miriam Lewis.

2. Carla & Theo Myerson, Carla is the sister of Daniel’s mother Angela making Carla and Theo Daniel’s aunt and uncle. During the novel readers learn that Theo is a published author who has received several threatening messages regarding his breakthrough novel, which was based in part on Miriam Lewis’s memoir; that Carla and Theo had a son named Benjamin, who died when he was a toddler, fifteen years before; and that Benjamin died falling from a second floor doorway was staying with his Aunt Angela and Cousin Daniel.

3. Miriam Lewis, a middle-age woman, who can be socially awkward, was abducted as a youth back in the 1980s, which is the focus of one of the novels’ subplots, and who lives on a riverboat moored next to Daniel’s riverboat.

4. Laura Kilbridge, a socially awkward young woman who has a history of socially unacceptable behavior, who works at a local laundromat, had a brief relationship with Daniel, suffered a traumatic brain injury as a child and has two unsupportive parents. Laura has been assisting Irene Barnes, an eighty-year-old widow and book lover, who has recently had some mobility issues, in getting her groceries. And Irene, in turn, has offers some small support to Laura who has had insufficient support from her family in her challenged life.

5. Irene Barnes, a lonely widow and a big reader, a friend of Daniel’s late mother Angela, a friend of Laura and the one who figures out who really murdered Daniel and why; and who also tapes the killer’s confession.

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The book paints an accessible portrait of its colorful cast characters, and their backstories, however, for the sake of brevity, I’m just going to hit the high points.

As the book opens, it is early morning on the Thames, and Miriam has noticed that the door to Daniel’s riverboat is still ajar, as it was the previous evening and goes to investigate. She finds that Daniel has been murdered and calls the police.

The police investigate Daniel’s murder interviewing Miriam, Laura, Carla and Theo. They arrest Laura, the most obvious suspect, release her, and later in the novel after interrogating her again, they arrest her when they discover she wasn’t completely truthful during her initial interview.

The author goes on to relay the story of Laura and Carla in more depth. Readers learn that Laura was hit by a car when she was a child; that the man driving the car was having an affair with her mother and that her mother choose to take care of the needs of herself and her lover, before her child. Laura’s parents divorced after her accident. Her mother married her lover and her father remarried to a woman who already had children and favored her children over Laura. Laura’s parents were not supportive, to say the least. And Laura has struggled to keep a job and simply get through her life, day by day.

Readers further learn that sisters Carla and Angel were close when they were much younger and that both sisters had children. Angela had Daniel and Carla and Theo had a son named Ben. There was an age difference between the boys, and when Daniel was in his early teens and Ben was toddler Carla and Theo left Ben with Angela and Daniel and went on a trip. Much later in the book readers discover, through the description of Daniel’s drawings, that while the couple was gone Daniel discovered his mother in bed with her lover and became very angry; he turned his anger on his toddler cousin Benjamin and purposely opened the door on the second floor luring his cousin out of it with a toy; the toddler fell to his death.

Readers additionally learn Miriam Lewis backstory; how she and her friend were abducted as a teenagers, in the 1980s. She was able to escape but her friend died and the man who abducted the girls, Jeremy O’Brien was never found, although the police did find a part a foot that they believed belong to him.

In the end, it is revealed that Daniel was murdered by his Aunt Carla, who looked at his private drawings, which showed a angry teenage Daniel luring his toddler cousin out the second-floor door with a toy; and watching as he fell to his death. The story, as shown by the drawings, makes it appear Daniel murdered Benjamin. The other big reveal is that Jeremy O’Brien, the man who abducted Miriam Lewis when she was a teenager, not only survived his frantic dash away from the area and the police in the aftermath of the abduction, but he also read Theo’s novel, plagiarized from Miriam’s unpublished memoir and that he was the one sending the threatening messages to Theo. And at the end of the book a newspaper article indicates that Mr. O’Brien’s body was found submerged on a riverboat on the Thames which implies that Miriam, perhaps with the help of Theo, murdered Jeremy.

So that in a nutshell is an overview of A Slow Fire Burning; which was liked by book club members as a light summer thriller, featuring multiple points of view.

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What Book Club Members Are Reading (and recommending!)

The Finlay Donovan Series by Elle Cosimano (So far there are two books in the series)

1. Is Killing It (2021): Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

2. Knocks ‘Em Dead (2022): Finlay Donovan is—once again—struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she’s dealt with lately is that of her daughter’s pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he’s a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she’d like.

Meanwhile, Vero’s keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay’s first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes… and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book’s deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn’t a noose at the end of it…

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How To Cook A Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher: Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table.

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Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Mystery Series;

Book one is: One For The Money: Meet Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. In Stephanie’s opinion, toxic waste, rabid drivers, armed schizophrenics, and August heat, humidity, and hydrocarbons are all part of the great adventure of living in Jersey.

She’s a product of the “burg,” a blue-collar pocket of Trenton where houses are attached and narrow, cars are American, windows are clean, and (God forbid you should be late) dinner is served at six.

Out of work and out of money, Stephanie blackmails her bail-bondsman cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as an apprehension agent. Stephanie knows zilch about the job requirements, but she figures her new pal, el-primo bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her what it takes to catch a crook. Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a charge of murder one. Morelli’s the inamorato who charmed Stephanie out of her virginity at age sixteen. There’s still powerful chemistry between them, so the chase should be interesting…and could also be extremely dangerous.

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The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarden

Winner of the Julia Child Book Award

A James Beard Book Award Finalist

When Jeffrey Steingarten was appointed food critic for Vogue, he systematically set out to overcome his distaste for such things as kimchi, lard, Greek cuisine, and blue food. He succeeded at all but the last: Steingarten is “fairly sure that God meant the color blue mainly for food that has gone bad.” In this impassioned, mouth-watering, and outrageously funny book, Steingarten devotes the same Zen-like discipline and gluttonous curiosity to practically everything that anyone anywhere has ever called “dinner.”

Follow Steingarten as he jets off to sample choucroute in Alsace, hand-massaged beef in Japan, and the mother of all ice creams in Sicily. Sweat with him as he tries to re-create the perfect sourdough, bottle his own mineral water, and drop excess poundage at a luxury spa. Join him as he mounts a heroic–and hilarious–defense of salt, sugar, and fat (though he has some nice things to say about Olestra). Stuffed with offbeat erudition and recipes so good they ought to be illegal, The Man Who Ate Everything is a gift for anyone who loves food.

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Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

A #1 New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and soon to be a major motion picture, this unforgettable novel of love and strength in the face of war has enthralled a generation.

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

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The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor–the Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown

“Never again” became Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra shortly after Princess Diana’s tragic death. More specifically, there could never be “another Diana”—a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy.

Picking up where Tina Brown’s masterful The Diana Chronicles left off, The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet.

Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey through the scandals, love affairs, power plays, and betrayals that have buffeted the monarchy over the last twenty-five years. We see the Queen’s stoic resolve after the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and Prince Philip, her partner for seven decades, and how she triumphs in her Jubilee years even as family troubles rage around her. Brown explores Prince Charles’s determination to make Camilla Parker Bowles his wife, the tension between William and Harry on “different paths,” the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the downfall of Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan’s stunning decision to step back as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy’s best efforts, “never again” seems fast approaching.

Tina Brown has been observing and chronicling the British monarchy for three decades, and her sweeping account is full of powerful revelations, newly reported details, and searing insight gleaned from remarkable access to royal insiders. Stylish, witty, and erudite, The Palace Papers will irrevocably change how the world perceives and understands the royal family.

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Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman:

The seventh book in the Leephorn, Chee & Manuelito series.

But the evil that is unleashed jeopardizes her mother and sister Darleen, and puts Bernie in the deadliest situation of her law enforcement career.

Readers’ Note: Anne is the daughter of Tony Hillerman, who wrote eighteen novel featuring Leephorn and Chee. Anne added a new character, Bernadette Manuelito and is continuing the series.

Also of note, for TV fans, AMC+ has debut a critically acclaimed TV series, Dark Winds (2022-) based on the books, starring Zahn McClarnon as Joe Leaphorn, Kiowa Gordon as Jim Chee and Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuletio.

The first book in the original, Tony Hillerman series, is The Blessing Way (1971).

And first book in Anne’s continuation series is The Spider Woman’s Daughter (2008).

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Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes

The beloved memoir of self-discovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture starring Diane Lane—now in a twentieth-anniversary edition featuring a new afterword

“This beautifully written memoir about taking chances, living in Italy, loving a house and, always, the pleasures of food, would make a perfect gift for a loved one. But it’s so delicious, read it first yourself.”—USA Today

For more Frances Mayes, including a tour of her now iconic Cortona home, Bramasole, watch PBS’s Dream of Italy: Tuscan Sun Special!

More than twenty years ago, Frances Mayes—widely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writer—introduced readers to a wondrous new world when she bought and restored an abandoned Tuscan villa called Bramasole. Under the Tuscan Sun inspired generations to embark on their own journeys—whether that be flying to a foreign country in search of themselves, savoring one of the book’s dozens of delicious seasonal recipes, or simply being transported by Mayes’s signature evocative, sensory language. Now with a new afterword from Frances Mayes, the twentieth-anniversary edition of Under the Tuscan Sun revisits the book’s most popular characters.

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Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison: The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world’s most powerful companies—and, miraculously, they won.

As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America’s farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight.

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Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle: It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

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Have a great day everyone,

Linda

SSCL Adult Book Club August Meeting Next Friday August 12 & July Book Club Notes

August 3, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, just a reminder the next Southeast Steuben County Library Adult Book Club gathering is next Friday, August 12, 2022 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

As usual, we’ll be meeting in the Conference Room at the library.

Print copies of the August read, the thriller A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins, can be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time.

And looking forward to September; our September read is the National Book Award Winner for 2021, Hell of a Book: A Novel by Jason Mott.

Also of note, our September book club meeting will be on Friday, September 9 and we will be meeting in the Conference Room as usual. However, just a heads up – the rest of the library will be closed as the staff has CPR training in the morning – so I will meet you at the door and let you in – but rest assured we will still be meeting!

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And here is the info on the July book club gathering; an overview of the July Read, followed by other reads recommended by book club members.

Have a great day,

Linda

Overview of our July Read: The Ballad of Laurel Springs by Janet Beard

The story begins in 2019 with young Grace then moves back to 1907–1908 with Pearl, Grace’s four times great grandmother and the first Polly’s sister. The first Polly having died mysteriously in the 1890s.

Beard breaks the story down into nine sections that follow women living in the same region, and who are connected to each other by kinship or marriage. The author inserts portions of folk ballads into each story to complement the stories and tie the book together.

Introduction: Present Day (2019): In the introduction readers meet middle school student Grace, her stepmother, stepfather and stepmother’s sister, the first two of whom are unnamed in the narrative. The author sets the stage of the book by introducing Grace who is working on a family tree as a school project, and then readers are whisked back to the past to meet her 5th great grandmother Pearl Whaley.

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The Wife of Usher’s Well (1907-1908)

In The Wife of Usher’s Well we are introduced to Pearl, her husband Abel a blacksmith, Pearl and Abel’s children including Timmy & Esta, and Violet a friend of Pearl’s late sister Polly, who is thought strange because she isn’t pretty and is book educated. Additional characters include Miss Elizabeth Munroe & Miss Margaret Ames, missionaries, who have come to town to set up a regional school.

In Pearl’s story we learn that the first Polly’s boyfriend Will was suspected of murdering her when her body was found in Mitchell’s Creek, that Will Reid subsequently left town, joined the navy and was later convicted and hung after murdering his wife. His young son Charlie was sent back to Tate Valley for his parents to raise. Pearl notes that Violet’s parents died when she was young, she moved to the valley with a trunk full of books to read and that her book learning lead her to became the local school teacher. Violet was a bit different than the typical valley girl of the time and was thus suspect, some residents even said they believed she practiced witchcraft. Munroe and Ames are revealed to be supporters of temperance; and Munroe isn’t pleased to see the booze running when she attends a local shindig with Violet. One day Pearl sees Violet and Elizabeth in a compromising situation and she isn’t pleased – and wants nothing to do with either women – but they are called in for Elizabeth’s expertise when a new pregnancy gone wrong impacts Pearl. After that Elizabeth leaves town, Miss Ames finishes setting up the school; and subsequently, Violet too leaves town. Years later Pearl is shopping in town with her grown daughter and finds Violet working in a clothing shop. Note: Elizabeth was collecting murder ballads and other rare songs which compliments the insertion of folk song lyrics into each chapter of the book.

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The Wayfaring Stranger (1925):

Our next story follows Miriam, Pearl’s daughter-in-law, who is married to Pearl’s son Jake and living in Douglasville. Jake, previously a carefree youth and recently married husband who seemed to love his wife, went off to fight in World War I in the era 1917-1919 and didn’t return for 8 years even though the war ended in 1919. Out of the blue, Jake returns home in 1925; when Miriam’s and her friend Evelyn Lacy; are enjoying companionship after a shared dinner; and Jake simply appears at the door and walks right in to resume his role as husband and head of the household. This despite the fact that while Jake was gone Miriam, who had been living with her father in the family home, inherited her family’s home and took in sewing to make ends meet, thus becoming the head of the household herself.

Jake decides to move back up into the mountain valley and open a filling station with his brother Tim. And he simply tells Miriam they are going to do this – Jake feels the service station will be lucrative because there is talk of a national park being built in the area. Despite the poor way she was treated, Miriam stays with Jake and decides, as her mother-in-law Pearl advises her, to start a family so she’ll have something of her own to focus on.

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Careless Love Blues (1937)

In this story, readers follow Frieda, Miriam’s Stepdaughter as it is revealed that Miriam’s husband Jake had three children with another woman, a black women which was a big deal in the 1930s, who lived in nearby Benton’s Cove. The three children are Ramona, Mickey and Frieda lived with their mother on her family’s farm until her unexpected death at a young age.

Frieda had a carefree youth playing in the woods and on the farm, but at a certain age began to be aware that she was a “bastard” since her parent’s hadn’t married and she didn’t know who her father was. After her mother’s death, local property including the family’s farm was being bought up by the government for the national park under development, via Eminent domain; when one day Frieda was at home with her brother, and Jake came to the house inquiring if there is anything he can do to help them out in the aftermath of their mother’s death. Jake even offered Mickey a job. Mickey wants nothing to do with Jake, but does tell Frieda that he thinks Jake is their father. Frieda’s boyfriend/fiancé, a young man named Eugene Raymond is introduced. Frieda then goes to see Jake and has, to say the least an interesting and one-sided conversation with him – but after their conversation she decides her fiancé Raymond can work for Jake at the filling station, in place of her brother Raymond, and that should bring a steady income into Frieda and Raymond’s household; and that does indeed turn out to be the case.

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Devil’s Dream (1942-1962)

Devil’s Dream follows Polly, Frieda’s half-sister and Miriam and Jake’s daughter, offering the strange love story of the second Polly and Jeremiah Carter who were briefly lovers when they were young; and who became lovers again when Jeremiah came home for his father’s funeral. Readers learn that as a youth Polly loved nature and went out to Laurel Spring all the time which is where she encountered Jeremiah. After their brief youthful encounter, Jeremiah moved away and Polly married Zach. Many years later, Zach returns to town to bury his father and he and Frieda have a brief unplanned and unexpected affair. Subsequently, in fear of being found out by her husband, Frieda confesses the encounter to her husband, but turns the truth on its head, stammering out that instead of the encounter being consensual, that Jeremiah took advantage of her. Zach and his friend Mac then hunt Jeremiah down and kill him. And Polly tells her half grown daughters Sarah and Abby, while putting them to bed, to stay away from the evil place that is Laurel Springs.

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Little Sparrow (1974–1975):

The story Little Sparrow focuses on the second Polly & Zach’s daughter Sarah. We find that the second Polly and Zach had four children Elijah a solider, Davy a truck driver, Abby who was already married with children of her own when the story opens, and Sarah who is at home for the summer, taking a break, before heading to Chicago to complete a graduate degree. Her father Zach died young, only age 53, of cancer. And the second Polly didn’t know what to do with herself after Zach died. During the story, we also follow Sarah and her boyfriend Bob, who discover that they will soon be parents.

Polly is struggling to both find a new way to live, in the aftermath of Zach’s death, and to figure out whether or not to sell the farm; land being a hot property in the area at the time. She dismissed most of the offers but did listen respectfully to her late husband’s friend Mac who told her she should make sure she gets a good price for the farm, and he would buy it from her and farm it if he had the money, which he doesn’t.

Meanwhile at nearby Blackberry Acers, Hippies are establishing a commune that includes Marie, Joy, Sunshine and Freddy. Freddy takes a shine to Polly, pays plenty of attention to her and almost convinces her to sell her farm to him; when Sarah lets her mother and Bob know she is pregnant. Bob proposes and they discuss changing their plans to move to Chicago and instead attending college and getting jobs closer to home. Then second Polly says she has decided to let Mac have the farm as he can farm it, bringing in some income, and the family can stay in the house while Bob & Sarah work on their schooling/careers. Polly also promises to help take care of the new baby, a girl named Carrie.

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The Knoxville Girl (1985–1993)

In the Knoxville Girl, Carrie, Sarah & Bob’s daughter and second Polly and Zach’s granddaughter, gives us her take how she has been formed as a person based upon where she was raised; and she is revealed to be the most introspective woman in the book. She is a thinker who notes of her personal story: “I want to say that the accident to where I was born in not important to me in any fundamental way, but I know that isn’t true. I was as formed by the place where I grew up as by my parents, my genetic predispositions, or anything else, most certainly in the way I saw the world and what I knew to be my place in it. Is it like that for everyone? Probably not. Some places are more resonant than others. Or more distinctive. Or more escapable.”

Carrie also notes: “You can take the girl out of the hollow, but you can’t take the hollow out of the girl.”

Additionally of note, Carrie was a big fan of the murder ballads her grandmother, the second Polly, sang to her as a youth. In this story we discover that Polly, like Zach before her, died young; she was only in her fifties when she died; when Carrie was 8. But nevertheless the folk songs she sang made an impression on her granddaughter. In this story we discover that Carrie’s mother Sarah got her degree at a local college, instead of going to Chicago to attend university; that Bob left her and moved to Chicago to pursue his career on his own; and that she wound up teaching at the local school, never leaving valley to live elsewhere. Also of note is that when Carrie’s grandmother, the second Polly died, the farm was sold – her mother never got any money from the sale even though it was supposed to be split between her and her siblings, and Sarah and Carrie moved into a two story apartment building in town.

Carrie was singing the song The Knoxville Girl when she was 10 and was overheard by Devon, another girl who lived in the building and they became friends. Both girls get involved, to varying degrees, with a young man named James; who it transpires is possibly the father of Devon’s first/second child and who tried to date Carrie, but who wasn’t reliable enough to pull it off – which was good for Carrie.

The story ends with a pregnant Devon dying in a car crash after going to see James about her second baby, Devon’s mother joining AA, finding God and raising Lydia who it seems got off to a good start. And an unmarried Carrie pursing a successful career in New York City.

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Power in the Blood (2011–2013):

With Power in the Blood, we follow Lydia, Carrie’s goddaughter and Devon’s daughter. She grew up, married Finn and had a daughter name Grace. Lydia was just starting her teaching career and had, to say the least unwisely, engaged in an affair with an 18-year-old just graduated student named Alex. After Lydia and Alex’s affair is revealed to her husband Finn, readers learn that Alex came to the family home and was shot to death by an enraged Finn. Finn subsequently, got a slap on the wrist prison sentence, was out of prison in short order and got custody of their daughter Grace. Lydia, despite not being the one who committed the murder was ostracized; which repeats a theme woven throughout the book, of women in American society, traditionally a patriarchal society, being subservient to men and having fewer rights than men.

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Original Polly’s Story (1891):

And at the very end of the book the author finally reveals the original Polly’s story. Polly being Lydia’s great, great, great, great aunt. In a nutshell, Polly was unmarried and pregnant; and when she told her boyfriend the news, instead of proposing to her, he murder her.

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General Consensus: Most of our book club members liked the book; although it was noted that all the stories, save Carrie’s and Frieda’s stories, are quite dark. The women did not have easy lives and most of them were taken advantage of by men and had little recourse, other than to simply keep living and dealing with the cards life dealt them.

It was felt that the lyrics to the Murder Ballads inserted into each chapter did not greatly enhance the book; but that perhaps if an audio recording was included with the book, so readers could hear the ballads and not simply read the lyrics than that might have made the songs have a deeper impact.

It was also agreed that the character development was quite good and that the song lyrics weren’t needed to advance the plot.

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Southeast Steuben County Library June Book Club Read Overview & July Meeting Reminder – Next Friday, July 8!

July 1, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone, the next Southeast Steuben County Library Adult Book Club gathering is early in July, since the 1^st is a Friday, and our book club gathering is the second Friday of the month; meaning July 8 is our date!

We’ll be meeting in the Conference Room at the library from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. on Friday, July 8 and discussing our July Read The Ballad of Laurel Springs by Janet Beard.

Here is a bit about the book The Ballad of Laurel Springs: Beard follows The Atomic City Girls with an intriguing multigenerational saga of a family steeped in the old-time songs and stories of southern Appalachia. The novel, which traces the lives of nine female relatives over generations in the mountains of Tennessee, unfolds through linked chapters titled after ballads that touch on their lives, among them “Little Sparrow” and “The Wayfaring Stranger.” It starts with Grace Caton, age 10 in 2019, who writes a school project about an ancestor who killed somebody long ago at Laurel Springs, made infamous, says her family, by the murder ballad “Pretty Polly.” Then the story moves back to 1907 with her ancestor Pearl Whaley, a mountain woman who believes her long-dead sister Polly haunts the spot in the mountains where she was murdered. Pearl is visited in the remote village by a songcatcher, who records the ballads and folk songs she sings. Subsequent decades follow with more ghost stories from Pearl’s relatives, tinged with regret and loss, informed by the timeless lyricism of the songs, and culminating with a poignant revelation about Grace’s immediate family. This inspired story of Appalachian folklore will move readers. – Publishers Weekly Review

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June Book Club – Book Summary

The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Magpie Murders features a murder mystery within a murder mystery.

The book is set England in two time lines; the 1950s and 2017.

The story opens with the 2017 storyline and readers are introduced to Susan Ryeland, a book editor for Cloverleaf Books. Horowitz describes Ryeland as being middle aged, happy with where she lives, happy with her job as an editor and with her relationship with her boyfriend Andres. It is additionally noted that Ryeland discovered the most successful author her publishing company has, mystery writer Alan Conway; and that Ryeland has just gotten ready, sitting in a comfortable spot with reading munchies and a glass wine at the ready, to read his latest book draft, when the storyline switches from following Ryeland in 2017 to the relaying the bulk of Conway’s mystery, set in the 1950s.

Conway’s mystery is a classic Christie-esque tale that opens in the village of Saxby-on-Avon; where it transpires Mary Blakiston, the housekeeper at the local most-notable family’s home, Pye Manor, has been found dead at the bottom of the main staircase in the house. Mrs. Bakiston appears to have tripped over the cord of the vacuum cleaner she was using when she met her demise.

Readers learn that Mary Blankiston, who was a major league busy body and knew the personal business of many village residents, had had a very loud argument with her son Robert outside of the local pub, just days before she died. During the argument Robert shouted at her, for the whole village to hear, that he wished she was dead. And thus the sentiment of local residents is that just perhaps Robert might have murdered his mother; this sends his fiancé Joy Sanderling to the office of private investigator Atticus Pund who she hopes will help her clear the suspicion attached to Robert’s name in the aftermath of his mother’s death.

Pund is introduced as a Jew who survived a concentration camp during World War II and subsequently immigrated to England. Pund has just received a terminal diagnosis, has taken refuge in his office, and instructed his side-kick, assistant and driver James Fraser that he doesn’t want to be disturbed; however, upon hearing Ms. Sanderling in his assistant’s office, he changes his mind and speaks to her telling her that although he sympathizes with her concerns there is nothing in the story of Mrs. Blakiston’s death that indicates her demise was anything other than an accident.

And then there is a second suspicious death in the village of Saxby-on-Avon, and the second death is definitely murder, since the Lord of the Manor, Mangus Pye, has been found decapitated in his home.

Readers then follow Pund’s murder investigation. Pund is assisted by his personal assistance James and the official detective assigned to the case, Detective Inspector Raymond Chubb.

Pund interviews the residents that live in the village that had a small or large connection to Magnus Pie or his wife Frances; they include Jack Dartford a “friend” of Pie’s wife Clarissa, The Reverend Robin Osborn and his wife Henrietta who live in the vicarage that is adjacent to the Pye estate, Clarissa Pie who lives modestly in the village and is the late Magnus Pie’s twin sister, Neville Brent, the recently fired Pye estate groundman, Mary’s son Robert Blakiston and his fiancé Joy Sanderling, Dr. Emilia Redwing the village doctor, and Johnny and Gemma Whitehead the owners of the local antique shop.

As is the case in classic mysteries the village residents who are murder suspects, until they are eliminated from Pund’s inquiry, are unveiled as a colorful cast of characters. As the story unfolds readers discover that Jack Dartford was having an affair Magnus’s wife Frances, that Magnus’s sister Clarissa grew up at Pye Manor, was gradually pushed out of the family losing the status & privilege that went with being a member of the family as Magnus was understood to be the first born child; and as a result, of being the first born child he was legally heir to the estate; until it is revealed by Dr. Redwing’s father, also Dr. Redwing and the man who delivered the Pye twins, that in fact the elder doctor lied about the birth order at the request of the twin’s father – and Clarissa is the first born child.

Readers further discover that Johnny Whitehead is a convicted thief, that Mary Brackiston had two sons and one drowned as a child, and after her younger son’s death Mary’s husband Matthew left her and moved away; that the villagers find Neville Brent, the recently fired groundman for Pye Manor a suspicious presence as the man is sadly lacking in social skills, and that the Reverend and Mrs. Osborne are nudists.

And after all of his investigating Pun is just about to reveal the answer to the duo mysteries, who murdered Mary Blakiston and who murdered Magnus Pie? When the storyline switched back to Susan Ryeland in 2017; who is as dismayed as readers to find that Conway’s mystery is missing the last two chapters and thus, she doesn’t know “who done it?” any more than readers do!

As Susan investigates the 2017 mystery of the two missing chapters; it transpires that like Pund, Conway was recently given a terminal diagnosis, that Conway apparently jumped off the roof of his home to his death; and that Susan’s boss, Charles Clover, the owner of Clover Books, who is married with two grown children and is about to become a grandfather – insists he doesn’t know where the last two chapters of Conway’s book are or if he even fished it before his death.

And spoiler alert here, if you haven’t read/finished the book and want to be surprised – stop reading now!

And as a precursor note, I am not generally a mystery reader. I follow only two mystery series, Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series, and William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series; and I like those series more for the well-drawn characters and character development then for the mysteries. And I mention this as I think Anthony Horowitz Magpie Murders, and its follow up mystery, are really mystery readers mysteries, in the same way that the saying used to go someone was an “artists artist” or a “musician’s musician” – meaning of course, that mystery readers have expertise in reading mysteries and figuring out not only who the murderer is but all the reasons why suspects might have murdered the murder victim and what those suspects are really up to, and are thus more likely to find many of the fine between the lines explanations that go with reading the genre than those of us who don’t usually read mysteries – translated into English – what I mean is that if you love mysteries and read them frequently you will get more out of this novel than I did!

And now onto the revelations, in the 2017 storyline Susan Ryeland discovers that her boss and publishing company owner Charles Clover, not only received all the chapters in Conway’s draft, but that he murdered Conway as well. Acting on a hunch, Susan is going through Charles’s desk and finds the missing chapters of Conway’s book, just as Charles arrives to catch her out. And Charles then reveals that Conway wanted to be taken seriously as a writer and was exasperated by the success of his mystery series, since he felt mysteries didn’t qualify as serious literature. And further that Conway was both going to kill off his popular character Pund, and let readers know what he really thought of the readers who love to read mysteries; which is to say he didn’t think much of them at all!

So, Charles murdered Conway to keep him quiet and hopefully keep money coming into his publishing company from both the books already published, the new book that would need to have a different ending written for it, and a forthcoming television series based on the books. And having told Susan the entire story, Charles is just about to do her in, when Susan’s boyfriend Andres arrives to save the day. The police are called and then…readers are transported back to Pund in the 1950s storyline and find out that Mary Blakiston’s death really was an accident and that Robert Blakiston murdered both Mangus Pie and his younger brother. The village is saved and so is Joy Sanderling having discovered Robert’s true nature before their marriage. And Pund takes poison, he obtained from the stash of the local doctor’s office, to quickly and painlessly exit the stage.

Susan Ryeland however, will be back in the second book of the series Moonflower Murders.

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Recommended Video Book Review:

How The World Is Passed by Clint Smith book review, part of the 2022 BSI series; reviewed by Deborah and Michael Joseph

Recommended Reads:

Anne Perry and the Murder of the Centuryby Peter Graham: Non-fiction; set in New Zealand in 1954, the book offers the true story of two teenagers Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker who murdered the latter’s mother while out on a walk. The girls were convicted of murder and released after serving five year sentences. Juliet changed her name and became the mystery writer Anne Perry.

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Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson: Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free

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Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson: The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome’s got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.

Cussy’s not only a book woman, however, she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.

Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman’s belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home.

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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown and Hampton Side:

The landmark, bestselling account of the crimes against American Indians during the 19th century, now on its 50th Anniversary.

First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown’s eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes, revealing in heartwrenching detail the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of freedom. A forceful narrative still discussed today as revelatory and controversial, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee permanently altered our understanding of how the American West came to be defined.

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Dickens and the Workhouse: Oliver Twist and the London Poor by Ruth Richardson: The recent discovery that, as a young man, Charles Dickens lived only a few doors from a major London workhouse made headlines worldwide. This book, by the historian who did the sleuthing behind this exciting discovery, presents the story for the first time, and shows that the two periods during which Dickens lived in that part of London were profoundly important to his subsequent writing career.

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Flight Behaviorby Barbara Kingsolver: The extraordinary New York Times bestselling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work. Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver’s riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions—religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians—trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world. Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver’s must thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest.

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Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson, mystery solver midwife Sarah Brandt, book 1 is Murder On Astor Place.

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A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter: First published in 1909, “A Girl of the Limberlost” is American author and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter’s sequel to her 1904 novel “Freckles” and continues the stories of many of the same characters. Also set in Indiana near the Limberlost Swamp at the beginning of the 20th century, it tells the tale of Elnora Comstock, a young girl who is just entering high school at the outset of the novel. The story is one of Elnora’s emerging adulthood and her struggles: to overcome her poverty; to win the love of her mother, who blames Elnora for her husband’s death; to afford an education and a more secure future; and to find a romantic love of her own. Elnora is an admirable heroine, hard-working and diligent, respectful and resourceful. She collects moths and artifacts from the Limberlost to sell and uses the money to better herself and save for college. Like the rare moths she finds, Elnora too undergoes a transformation from a shy and reticent young girl into an intelligent and charming young lady, who earns the admiration of all she meets and eventually the love and acceptance she so desires. A classic and romantic coming of age story, “A Girl of the Limberlost” will delight readers of all ages.

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James Patterson’s new memoir, simply titled James Patterson and also recommended the NPR interview with Patterson found here: https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-06-09/author-james-patterson-tells-his-own-story-in-new-memoir

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Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries by C. S. Harris: Set in regency era England, mystery solver Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, book 1 is What Angels Fear.

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A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear: The seventeenth book in the Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series that opens in 1929. Book 1 is Maisie Dobbs.

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Three Debts Paid by Anne Perry: The fifth book in the Daniel Pitt series; book 1 is Twenty-One Days (2017); and there is an entire series that precedes this one and follows Daniel’s parents Charlotte and Thomas Pitt.

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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith: From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life—from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience. Here is an American classic that “cuts right to the heart of life,” hails the New York Times. “If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you will deny yourself a rich experience.

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Wrexford & Sloane Mystery series by Andrea Penrose: The series is set in regency era England, mystery solver Earl of Wrexford, book 1 is Murder on Black Swan Lane.

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Stay cool & have a great weekend.

I hope to see everyone on July 8!

Linda

Southeast Steuben County Library May Adult Book Club Read

May 27, 2022May 27, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The May 2022 Southeast Steuben County Library read was The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

And here is an overview of the plot:

May Read: The Lost Apothecary: A Novel by Sarah Penner: the cliff notes overview of the plot:

The Lost Apothecary is a novel with three narrators that live in two different time periods.
Frequently, books with multiple narrators can be challenging to read; however, Penner pulls off the trick and smoothly blends the stories of her three female protagonists together. And make no bones about it, this book is, despite the difficulties encountered by the women who appear in its pages; in dealing with patriarchal societies in both the past and present, a feminist tale – the three women readers follow all find ways to be empowered while living in societies, both past and present, that over-empower males and under-empower females in both legal and societal ways.

The book opens in London in 1791 and introduces readers to Nella Clavinger, who readers know from the get-go is the apothecary referred to in the title. Nella runs a hidden apothecary shop located near the crossing of two alleys in London. Nella, who was born illegitimate, inherited the shop from her mother who mixed and sold curative potions for women, to women. When Nella first inherited the shop, she too mixed curative potions for women. And then, while she was working through her grief at her mother’s death, she encountered a sweet talking and attentive man named Frederick, who said he was looking for a potion for his sister Rissa to alleviate her menstrual pain. Frederick was very attentive to Nella and frequently visited her becoming a great comfort to her. The two became lovers, Nella became pregnant and when she broke the news to Frederick he seemed overjoyed, saying he wanted to marry her. He preceded to fix a celebratory dinner for her, and mixed in a potion so she would lose their child. Nella discovered this crime after the fact, and also found her uterus was permanently damaged making her sterile. Nella then encountered Rissa, the lady Frederick said was his sister; and discovered that instead, Rissa is his wife. Nella and Rissa subsequently conspire to poison Frederick and ride themselves of this dangerous, serial philanderer.

And after those events, Nella, working to become as empowered in the times she lives in, changes the purpose of her shop, from mixing potions for women to help women, to mixing potions to poison abusive men, thus helping women get rid of the dangerous men in their lives, something the law in the patriarchal society they were living in, in the 18th century, would not do. Nella had two rules 1. The potions she mixed, which were picked up by women at her secret shop located behind a wall holding shelves of rotted goods, had to say who the potions were intended for so Nella could write the information in her ledger and the women, whose lives would otherwise pass unrecorded, would have their names recorded for posterity and 2. The poisons must never be used on another woman.

The second protagonist in the book, who also lives in London in 1791, is Eliza Fanning, a twelve year old girl whose mother assisted her in getting a servant position so she could provide for herself. Eliza works on the Amwell estate as a housemaid reporting to Mrs. Amwell. Mrs. Amwell has a condition that makes her hands shake and she taught Eliza to read and write so she could assist her with her correspondence. Mr. Amwell, the husband of the lady of the estate, is a middle-aged man who has a history of sexually abusing female servants who work at on the estate. A maid, Johanna, who precede Eliza in working for the Amwells, was raped and impregnated by Mr. Amwell and died in childbirth. Mr. Amwell also tried to rape Eliza but was unsuccessful; and her mistress, who is aware of her husband’s activities, sent Eliza to Nella’s shop to get a poison so that she, Eliza and the women her husband might mistreat in the future can be saved from his abusive actions.

Eliza and Nella make a connection upon meeting. Eliza sees Nella as an empowered woman and Nella sees in Eliza, a young woman who reminders her of the daughter might have had if the treacherous Frederick had not caused her to miscarriage. Nella gives Eliza a potion for Mr. Amwell. And the next morning Eliza mixes the potion in with her master’s eggs, and by the end of the day Mr. Amwell is dead.
Eliza then returns to Nella’s shop to tell how she poisoned Mr. Amwell and to learn more about potion making. While Eliza is at the shop, Lady Clarence visits the shop demanding a potion to poison the young lover of her husband, Lord Clarence. At first Nella refuses to give Lady Clarence a poison because harming another woman goes against her two ethical rules. However, Lady Clarence threatens to expose Nella’s business; proclaiming for all the world to hear that she helps women eliminate the dangerous men in their lives via poison; and Nella agrees to give her the poisoned potion she demands. Eliza wants to assist in mixing the potion and pulls an apothecary bottle from the very back of the cupboard, not noticing that this bottle, unlike the ones at the front of the cupboard, that simply show an engraved bear, also features an engraved street address.

Eliza’s accident provides the momentum that pushes the 1791 storyline to its eventual conclusion. Lady Clarence takes the potion, which is mixed in a drink, intending to murder her husband’s young lover; and that plan misfires and instead Lord Clarence himself drinks the poison and dies. In the aftermath of the murder, Nella’s shop is discovered by the police and Nella and Eliza flee from the shop running toward Blackfriar Bridge. Nella, who has had some health issues due to years of mixing positions, intends to jump off the bridge to distract the police from Eliza; however, Eliza has another plan, she tells Nella not to worry and jumps off the bridge a lucky potion she brewed in an apothecary bottle clutched in her hand. The police arrive and discount Nella as the second woman seen fleeing with “lost apothecary” who jumped off the bridge due to her fragile health.

The third protagonist is Caroline Parecwell, whose story is set in contemporary times. Caroline is an American on holiday in London, taking what was intended to be a trip celebrating her tenth wedding anniversary. She is alone, because just before the trip, she discovered her husband, James, was having an affair with a co-worker.

As Caroline has limited the choice she has made in her life, due to the patriarchal leaning society still in place in the western world in the early twenty first century. As her story unfolds, readers discover she has a master’s degree in history and was planning on continuing her education by studying at Cambridge but instead, was persuaded by her new boyfriend, and later husband James, to return Ohio and take an unfulfilling job help managing her family’s farm, while James advanced in his career. Caroline had also wanted to have children, but James favored waiting until he was solidly established in his career.

So Caroline is in London and stops by The Old Fleet Tavern, located near the Themes, where she meets a man known as Bachelor Alf, who asks her if she’d like to join his mudlarking group. He explains that mudlarking means walking the banks of the Themes and picking up historical items that have risen to the surface. At first Caroline refuses his offer, and goes into the pub for a drink, but then she decides to join the group. And while mudlarking she finds a blue apothecary bottle featuring an engraved bear and a partial address, the same bottle Eliza had on her person when she jumped off Blackfriar Bridge in 1791. The historian in Caroline comes alive and she immediately wants to know more about the apothecary bottle. Bachelor Alf suggests Caroline go to the map room at the British Library and ask Gaynor for assistance in researching where the bottle came from.

James then arrives in London and tries to win Caroline back. James shows he wants and expects things to go his way with a lack of regard for Caroline, by ingesting eucalyptus oil that Caroline suggests he use, topically, and as mentioned to him previously, as a cold remedy. James winds up in the hospital and Caroline realizes he intentionally poisoned himself to get her to forgive him for his adultery. She then continues to research the apothecary bottle with Gaynor’s help; the duo discover a story in an old newspaper from 1791 that relays the tale of an unnamed female apothecary, suspected of selling a poisoned potion, who jumped off the Blackfrair’s Bridge in London to escape the police. A second vintage newspaper article is discovered which features an interview conducted several years later with Eliza Fanning Pepper, a young window with two children, who recently inherited her husband’s successful book shop; and was quoted as saying that she has gotten through the hard times in her life with assistance from an old friend who “still encourages and counsels me to this very day” ; readers infer the old friend is Nella although whether Nella was still living at that time, or had simply passed on experience to Liza before dying, is left ambiguous.

Caroline does some addition research and finds the location of Nella’s old shop which seems to have been untouched since Nella and Eliza fled from the shop in 1791. The shop is small and very dark and Caroline’s phone battery is almost dead, but she is able to take photos of the shop and several pages of Nella’s apothecary journal.

Subsequently, Caroline puts the historical puzzle pieces together and figures out that Eliza jumped from the bridge and not the unknown, by her (Caroline), apothecary; Nella, and that both women survived the events of that tumultuous day in 1791. Although Caroline has solved the mystery of the lost apothecary, she feels protective of her, even though she doesn’t know her name, and she decides to keep the truth – that the lost apothecary wasn’t caught by police in 1791, to herself.

In the aftermath of solving the mystery of the lost apothecary, Caroline too empowers herself by deciding to divorce James and move to the U.K. to attend the University of Cambridge, where she intends study the history of the eighteen century and the romantic period. And although Caroline does not reveal the details she discovered about the lost apothecary; she does use some of Nella’s recipes, the ones she took photos of in Nella’s long deserted shop in London, in her dissertation, as readers discover while reading through to the end of the book.

The book club members agreed The Lost Apothecary was a good read. Although it was noted that the plot was very reminiscent of the book Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen; and the book club member that noted that – also said that book was better, just FYI for reader’s advisory purposes!

It was also noted by several book club members that they preferred the 18th century storyline to the 21st century story line – but all in all, book club members enjoyed reading The Lost Apothecary and would recommend it.

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The June Southeast Steuben County Library Book Club gathering will be held at the library, in the Conference Room on Friday, June 10, 2022 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

The June Read is The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, copies of which are available at the Circulation Desk – you can pick up a copy anytime between now and June 10.

Have a great day,

Linda

June 2022 Adult Book Club & May Recommended Reads

May 20, 2022 by Linda Reimer ♥ 1 Comment

Hi everyone, our June Read is Magpie is Murders by Anthony Horowitz

And just a reading note on our June title!

StarCat lists the book as containing 236 pages; however, this book has a book within the book – the protagonist, a book editor, reads a submitted mystery within the book; and we the readers get to read the additional mystery as well as the mystery the book editor is involved with – so the page count for the entire book is 512 pages!

And I mention this in case there are others out there, like myself, who like to read the monthly book in the week before the book club meeting – with that 512 pages in mind – we might want to start reading a bit earlier!

Print copies of the book can be picked up at the Circulation Desk at any time; and currently, at 3:32 p.m. on Friday, May 20, there are eBook and downloadable audiobook versions available in the Digital Catalog/Libby.

Our June Meeting will be held at the library on Friday, June 10, 2022 | Time: 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Location: Conference Room at the library

And I haven’t quite finished writing my overview of the The Lost Apothecary; that will follow soon; and in the meantime, here is the list of recommended reads from book club members, discussed at our May gathering:

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

Joy Davidman is an unhappily married woman in the early 1950s. Her rocky marriage leads her to rely on her faith to get through the days. She begins a correspondence with author C.S. “Jack” Lewis, which they both find uplifting and captures more than their minds. Through all the poverty, death, and hard times, the love between Jack and Joy grows until there is no room for anyone else in their world but each other. Callahan (Where the River Runs) crafts a masterpiece that details the friendship and ultimate romance between the real Davidman (1915-60) and Lewis (1898-1963). Readers may be familiar with Lewis’s “Narnia” books, but this historical novel of a love based on friendship and faith will not disappoint. The story cocoons readers in the world of the 1950s where women had almost no voice, but Davidman found hers, and romance besides. VERDICT Fans of Karen White and Mary Alice Monroe will enjoy this book. Callahan’s writing is riveting and her characters spring to life to create a magical and literary experience that won’t be soon forgotten. -Library Journal Review

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Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia’s New Nationalism by Charles Clover

A fascinating study of the root motivations behind the political activities and philosophies of Putin’s government in Russia

Charles Clover, award-winning journalist and former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, here analyses the idea of “Eurasianism,” a theory of Russian national identity based on ethnicity and geography. Clover traces Eurasianism’s origins in the writings of White Russian exiles in 1920s Europe, through Siberia’s Gulag archipelago in the 1950s, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and up to its steady infiltration of the governing elite around Vladimir Putin. This eye-opening analysis pieces together the evidence for Eurasianism’s place at the heart of Kremlin thinking today and explores its impact on recent events, the annexation of Crimea, the rise in Russia of anti-Western paranoia and imperialist rhetoric, as well as Putin’s sometimes perplexing political actions and ambitions.

Based on extensive research and dozens of interviews with Putin’s close advisers, this quietly explosive story will be essential reading for anyone concerned with Russia’s past century, and its future. – From the publisher

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Cokie: A Life Well Lived by Steven V. Roberts

Roberts (My Fathers’ Houses) offers a moving testimony of the remarkable life and legacy of his wife, trailblazing journalist Cokie (1943–2019). Through depictions of her faith, family, work, writing, and friendships, Roberts shares engrossing anecdotes about his partner from their over 50 years together, as she “crash through glass ceilings… with her impressive mind, impish wit, and infectious laugh.” As the daughter of powerful Louisiana politicians—her mother, Lindy Boggs, succeeded her husband, Hale, in Congress in 1973 after his death in a plane crash—politics and current events were a second language for Cokie. She later parlayed that fluency into a career as a highly respected journalist who covered Washington, D.C., for NPR and ABC and was unafraid to speak truth to power and ask tough questions. In addition to the early challenges he and Cokie encountered dating as an interfaith couple—in the face of resistance from their Jewish and Catholic parents, respectively—Roberts describes with admiration how, notwithstanding the constant demands and stresses of work, Cokie managed to be a devoted friend in times of need, as well as an attentive wife and mother, and bestselling author of histories that restored significant women to their merited prominence in the U.S.’s founding. This loving tribute is likely to gain the celebrated journalist a whole new crop of fans. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

Shetterly, founder of the Human Computer Project, passionately brings to light the important and little-known story of the black women mathematicians hired to work as computers at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Va., part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA’s precursor). The first women NACA brought on took advantage of a WWII opportunity to work in a segregated section of Langley, doing the calculations necessary to support the projects of white male engineers. Shetterly writes of these women as core contributors to American success in the midst of a cultural “collision between race, gender, science, and war,” teasing out how the personal and professional are intimately related. She celebrates the skills of mathematicians such as Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Hoover, whose brilliant work eventually earned them slow advancement but never equal footing. Shetterly collects much of her material directly from those who were there, using personal anecdotes to illuminate the larger forces at play. Exploring the intimate relationships among blackness, womanhood, and 20th-century American technological development, Shetterly crafts a narrative that is crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights. – Publishers Weekly Review

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How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

Everyone knows that African Americans were once enslaved in the U.S., but how well do we understand what that means? Atlantic staff writer and poet Smith explores this question by visiting sites emblematic of American slavery, including Jefferson’s Monticello, the Whitney plantation, which rejects Old South nostalgia to focus on the enslaved, a Confederate cemetery, Juneteenth’s birthplace of Galveston, and Goree Island in Senegal, embarkation point for thousands of Africans headed to slave markets in the Americas. Along the way, Smith engages with conflicted tour guides and historians, ambivalent Senegalese students, Confederate reenactors, and descendants of the enslaved and enslavers, including his own grandparents. Smith probes the contradictions of our collective memory and how deliberate miseducation, nostalgia, and denial fuel a belief in Black inferiority and white innocence. Jefferson’s cosmopolitan image, for example, depended on “the people he allowed to be threatened, manipulated, flogged, assaulted, deceived, and terrorized,” while Confederate apologists insist their ancestors weren’t reliant on slavery, despite copious evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, Smith concludes that “in order for our country to collectively move forward,”” we need “”a collective endeavor to learn, confront, and reckon with the story of slavery and how it has shaped the world we live in today.”

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Anticipation is running high for Smith’s powerful and diligent exploration of the realities and ongoing consequences of slavery in America. – Booklist Review

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The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed believes her life is made up of wrong choices. She didn’t become an Olympic swimmer; she quit her brother’s band; she left her fiancé two days before the wedding. Living with crippling disappointment and situational depression, Nora decides that the only right choice for her is to end her existence. But between life and death there is a midnight library, a library that contains multiple volumes of the lives she could have had if she had made different choices. With the help of the friendly librarian Mrs. Elm, Nora tries on these lives in hopes of finding one where she will truly be happy. In the process, Nora finds that life is made of choices of both little and big consequence, and sometimes the choice to believe in oneself is both the biggest and smallest decision a person can make. Haig’s latest (after the nonfiction collection Notes on a Nervous Planet, 2019) is a stunning contemporary story that explores the choices that make up a life, and the regrets that can stifle it. A compelling novel that will resonate with readers. – Booklist Review

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My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir by Katherine Johnson

In the 1940s, Johnson began working in mathematical research at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). As a “human computer,” she, along with many other men and women, performed complicated calculations that assisted engineers in aeronautical safety. After NACA transformed into NASA in 1958, her work came to include calculating space trajectories, flight ascension, shuttle reentry, and shuttle safety. Johnson’s work at NASA is only one part of her extraordinary life, as recounted in this lovely posthumous memoir, co-written with her daughters. The memoir chronicles Johnson’s childhood in the mountains of West Virginia, her love of learning, her prodigious talent for math and music, and her career as a mathematician. Especially touching are Johnson’s recollections of historical events, such as World War II and the civil rights movement, and her relationships with her family, coworkers, and educators. VERDICT Readers will enjoy Johnson’s personal accounts of the space race and the roles of Black women in STEM. This wonderful, insightful memoir is the perfect companion piece to Margot Lee Shetterly’s best-selling Hidden Figures, which recounted the lives of Johnson and her colleagues Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. – Library Journal Review

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The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

Quinn (The Huntress) returns to WWII and the secretive world of Bletchley Park in this immersive saga. Debutant Osla Kendall meets fellow Bletchley Park recruit and London East End resident Mab Churt on the train in 1940. While working at Bletchley, they share a room at the home of Beth Finch, a young woman beaten down by her demanding mother. After discovering Beth’s talent for solving crosswords, Osla helps Beth get a job interview at Bletchley Park. Though Beth is shy and reclusive, she shines in her work on breaking codes. But when she discovers someone at Bletchley is likely a traitor, no one believes her. Soon, she winds up the suspected traitor and is committed at Clockwell Sanitarium after having a mental breakdown. In 1947, almost four years later, Beth contacts Osla and Mab, who help Beth escape from Clockwell. Together, the women work to crack a code that will help them find the traitor. Quinn’s page-turning narrative is enhanced by her richly drawn characters, who unite under the common purpose of Britain’s war effort, and by the fascinating code-breaking techniques, which come alive via Quinn’s extensive historical detail. This does not disappoint. – Publishers Weekly Review

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Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen

A clever prologue referring to Romeo and Juliet sets the stage for Bowen’s (“Royal Spyness” and “Molly Murphy” series) diverting romantic adventure in Venice, complete with intrigue, mystery, and, woe. On her first trip to Venice in 1928, 18-year-old Juliet “Lettie” Browning falls in love with both the city and Leo, the handsome heir of Conte Da Rossi. The trip sets in motion events that result in Lettie’s unexpected life in World War II Venice. In 2001, Caroline, Juliet’s grand-niece, retreats to the family home when her marriage disintegrates. Aunt Lettie dies during Caroline’s visit and leaves her a box containing two sketchbooks, three keys, a diamond ring, and glass beads. Caroline travels to Venice to scatter Lettie’s ashes, where she unravels the mystery of the items in the box and learns that Aunt Lettie was far from the proper English art teacher she seemed. What fun it is to follow the clues with Caroline as the significance of each object is revealed in Juliet’s diary, leading Caroline to a surprise inheritance.

VERDICT This novel’s engaging entertainment is enhanced by its dual time line that uncovers Juliet’s secrets, and a plot enlivened by coincidences and romance. A must-read for Bowen fans and historical fiction enthusiasts – Library Journal Review

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Have a great weekend everyone (it sounds like it will be a good weekend to stay near the A/C and read!),

Linda

SSCL Book Club for Adults

The Southeast Steuben County Library book club for adults!

Author: Linda Reimer

SSCL Book Club for Adults March Gathering Reminder & February 2023 Book Club Notes

SSC Library February Book Club For Adults & December & January Notes

Southeast Steuben County Library Book Club for Adults January 2023 Gathering – This Friday!

SSCL Book Club For Adults Notes: October & November

Reminder Next SSC Library Adult Book Club Gathering Is Next Week (9/16)

SSCL Adult Book Club August Notes & September Meeting Reminder

SSCL Adult Book Club August Meeting Next Friday August 12 & July Book Club Notes

Southeast Steuben County Library June Book Club Read Overview & July Meeting Reminder – Next Friday, July 8!

Southeast Steuben County Library May Adult Book Club Read

June 2022 Adult Book Club & May Recommended Reads