Love Stories for Every Romantic Mood

Today may be the last day of February and a whole year away from Valentine's Day, however, its always a good time of year to read a moving love story! The editors over at Amazon have selected 150 love stories to suit all kinds of amorous moods and then broke down the books into 12 different categories --Love Overseas -- Love on the Big Screen -- Historical Romance-- Modern Love -- First Love -- Star-Crossed Love -- Paranormal Love -- Dangerous Love -- True Love -- Unlikely Love -- Dystopian Love and Sizzling Series



Shown below are just a small selection of Amazon's picks that you can find at the Community Library, however, we have a lot more! Please ask a librarian if you can't find what you are looking for...we love to help!  

Click here to view the full article on Amazon and see the complete list of books in each category.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes The Secret History by Donna Tartt The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin Love Life and Elephants by Daphne Jenkins Sheldrick I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell Once In A Lifetime by Jill Shalvis That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker Just Kids by Patti Smith

The Daring Ladies of Lowell

The Daring Ladies of Lowell by Kate Alcott
From Kate Alcott, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker, comes The Daring Ladies of Lowell. Eager for an independent life and a chance to escape from her family's farm, young Alice Barrow moves to the mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1832. Alice takes a job at a cotton mill and although the work is hard and dangerous, she forms strong friendships with her co-workers, especially with Lovey Cornell, a sassy, strong-willed girl who shows Alice the ropes of the mill. Alice finds herself representing the mill workers as their work conditions become increasingly dangerous at the same time she finds herself falling in love with her boss' soon. After Lovey is found strangled to death, a sensational trial follows and Alice must choose between her mill friends and her new love.

"As she did with her debut, The Dressmaker, Alcott draws from dramatic events indelibly etched in history and offers a fresh perspective. The resulting tale is reminiscent of the British television drama series North & South, in that it also explores issues of class and gender and is set primarily on a cotton mill during the same general time period. And like the series, Alcott's work will attract historical romance fans who will be entertained by the antics of the daring ladies who leave everything they know and embrace less-than-ideal conditions to gain their freedom." -Library Journal Reviews

A Life Gone Awry

Inspired by a personal loss, author Thomas Christopher Greene explores the way that tragedy and time assail one man’s memories of his life and loves in his latest book The Headmaster's Wife

The Headmaster's Wife by Thomas Christopher GreeneLike his father before him, Arthur Winthrop is the Headmaster of Vermont’s elite Lancaster School. It is the place he feels has given him his life, but is also the site of his undoing as events spiral out of his control. Found wandering naked in Central Park, he begins to tell his story to the police, but his memories collide into one another, and the true nature of things, a narrative of love, of marriage, of family and of a tragedy Arthur does not know how to address emerges. Luminous and atmospheric, bringing to life the tight-knit enclave of a quintessential New England boarding school, the novel is part mystery, part love story and an exploration of the ties of place and family.

"Greene’s genre-bending novel of madness and despair evokes both the predatory lasciviousness of Nabokov’s classic, Lolita, and the anxious ambiguity of Gillian Flynn’s contemporary thriller, Gone Girl (2012)." --Booklist


Books on the Silver Screen

2014 is turning out to be the kind of year that sees many novels being turned into screenplays. Columnist Gina Vaynshteyn (of Hello Giggles) compiled a list of 17 books that will hit theaters this year. Here are just several of the books that appear on her list (click here to access the full article):

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Serena by Ron Rash This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper


Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
In Gone Girl, Amy Dunne goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion resulting from incriminating passages written in Amy's diary, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred.

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike
Release date: Oct. 3, 2014

Serena by Ron Rash
Newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel to the North Carolina mountains in 1929 where they plan to create a timber empire. The work conditions are harsh, but Serena holds her own and runs a tight ship alongside her husband, ruthlessly killing anyone who falls out of favor. Things start to quickly unravel when George fathers an illegitimate child and Serena finds out that she is unable to bear her own children.

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper
Release date: 2014

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
In This Is Where I Leave You Judd Foxman's father dies and its the first time in years that he and his dysfunctional family spend any time together. Complicating matters even further, Judd is also dealing with his wife's infidelity and the end of this marriage.

Starring: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Rose Byrne, Adam Driver
Release date: Sept. 12, 2014


***Don't get caught wishing you had read the book before you saw the movie!***



Book to Movie Alert - 'Odd Thomas'


Odd Thomas
Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz's #1 New York Times Best-Selling Novel, has been made into a motion picture starring Anton Yelchin, Addison Timlin and William Defoe. The movie will be releasing this Friday (February 28, 2014). 

Odd Thomas seems like a normal guy, but he's harboring a paranormal secret: he sees dead people. Over a period of two days, Odd Thomas and a group of allies, including his soulmate, Stormy Llewellyn, fight an epic battle of good versus evil in a dark, terrifying world. 

"This is Koontz working at his pinnacle, providing terrific entertainment that deals seriously with some of the deepest themes of human existence: the nature of evil, the grip of fate and the power of love." - Publishers Weekly Reviews

Dancing Fish and Ammonites

Dancing Fish and Ammonites
Penelope Lively, the beloved, bestselling and award-winning author of Moon Tiger reflects on the influences that have shaped her literary life in Dancing Fish and Ammonites.  Lively traces the arc of her life, from her early childhood in Cairo and boarding-school education in England to her love for archaeology and the sweeping changes in 20th-century Great Britain.

"An insightful book of self-reflection from the acclaimed novelist--"not quite a memoir," she writes, but "the view from old age."" - Kirkus Reviews

"Overall, these reflective essays offer a wealth of riches for further study, and help to dispel many of the stereotypes about the aged, from the "smiling old dear to the grumbling curmudgeon," which she abashedly admits are frequently ossified in fiction."- Publishers Weekly Reviews

Killer's Island by Anna Jansson

Killer's Island
On the Swedish Island of Gotland, police detective Maria Wren, and her colleagues are assigned to investigate the murder of a woman who has been decapitated and dressed as a bride. After the murder, an old legend resurfaces that tells the story of a young bride (the White Sea-Lady) who drowned on her wedding night and returns as a ghost to lure men into the watery depths. As the investigation heats up, it becomes clear that the police are also under observation by a seemingly pervasive killer.

Killer's Island by Anna Jansson is the second novel in the Maria Wern series. The first novel, Strange Bird, was released in September 2013.

The Good Luck of Right Now

From Matthew Quick, the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, comes The Good Luck of Right Now, a humorous and entertaining story about 38 year old Bartholomew Neil who is struggling to be on his own after his mother dies. This is a story about family, friendship, grief and acceptance that will leave you marveling at the power of kindness and love.

The Good Luck of Right Now


"Quick (aka "Q"), author of The Silver Linings Playbook, on which the highly acclaimed movie was based, has film rights optioned for several books, including this one. He has a rare skill in portraying characters with mental illness, which, when coupled with his deft hand at humor, produces compelling and important prose. Interest should be high; fans of Wally Lamb, Mark Haddon, or Winston Groom will appreciate." -Library Journal Reviews

Just Finished Reading a Library Book?

Let us know! We would like to encourage all of our adult patrons to submit online book reviews by clicking here. All reviews that we receive may be featured on our Reader's Advisory blog.  

Happy Reading!



New Alice Hoffman

Museum of Extraordinary Things
Captivating and illuminating, Alice Hoffman's Museum of Extraordinary Things is a fairy tale and historical fiction mash-up about an impassioned love affair between Coralie Sardie and Eddie Cohen, two vastly different people living in New York. Coralie works as a mermaid at her father's beloved Coney Island boardwalk freak show and Eddie is a Russian immigrant who has run away from his family and job as a tailor's apprentice. Eddie, an aspiring photographer, captures Coralie's heart as he tries to solve the mystery of a woman's disappearance in the wake of the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things received a Starred Review from Booklist: "Hoffman unveils both horror and magic in this transfixing tale of liberation and love in a metropolis of lies, yearning, and metamorphosis."

Literature Around the Globe

This month our main floor display features foreign books that have been translated into English. Listed below are several of the many titles we have displayed:

Anna Karenina by Leo TolstoyLove in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
"A famous legend surrounding the creation of Anna Karenina tells us that Tolstoy began writing a cautionary tale about adultery and ended up falling in love with his magnificent heroine. It is rare to find a reader of the book who doesn't experience the same kind of emotional upheaval. Anna Karenina is filled with major and minor characters who exist in their own right and fully embody their mid-nineteenth-century Russian milieu, but it still belongs entirely to the woman whose name it bears, whose portrait is one of the truest ever made by a writer." (Publisher's Summary)

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again." (Publisher's Summary)

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler
"In the frigid clime of Tumba, Sweden, a gruesome triple homicide attracts the interest of Detective Inspector Joona Linna, who demands to investigate the murders. The killer is still at large, and there’s only one surviving witness—the boy whose family was killed before his eyes. Whoever committed the crimes wanted this boy to die: he’s suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and lapsed into a state of shock. Desperate for information, Linna sees only one option: hypnotism. He enlists Dr. Erik Maria Bark to mesmerize the boy, hoping to discover the killer through his eyes. It’s the sort of work that Bark has sworn he would never do again—ethically dubious and psychically scarring. When he breaks his promise and hypnotizes the victim, a long and terrifying chain of events begins to unfurl." (Publisher's Summary)

Snow Reads

Only 30 more days until March 20th - the first day of spring! With any luck the days will grow warmer and all the snow will melt way before then, but just in case, here is a list of books that are perfect for getting lost in when all you want to do is stay curled up near the fire with a good read and a warm blanket:

Fall of Giants
The first novel in the Century trilogy, The Fall of Giants follows the fates of five interrelated families - American, German, Russian, English and Welsh - as they move through the earth-shattering dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. Winter of the World is a phenomenal sequel and don't forget to look for the final book in the trilogy, Edge of Eternity, releasing on September 14th. 

The Invisible Bridge
The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer's first novel, is an unforgettable historic novel set in 1937 Europe that tells the story of three Hungarian Jewish brothers that bound by history and love, of a marriage tested by catastrophe, of a Jewish family's struggle against eradication by the Nazis and of the dangerous power of art in the time of war.


The Swan Thieves
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe lives a lonely, but ordered life; he is completely devoted to his patients and the painting hobby he loves.  When renowned artist Robert Oliver becomes his patient, Marlow finds his life in chaos as he becomes desperate to understand what is tormenting Oliver. Kostova's masterful and beautifully written novel, The Swan Thieves, is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.



East of Eden
Known as the masterpiece of Steinbeck’s later years, East of Edenis a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence (Publisher's Summary).




The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is a brilliant story of a gifted architect, Howard Roark who possesses a strong sense of individualism and constantly struggles to maintain his personal vision rather than give in to conventional standards. The novel was published in 1943 and was Rand's first major literary success.



Little Women
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters,  Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as they grow into young women in nineteenth-century New England. Praised by Madeleine Stern as "a book on the American home, and hence universal in its appeal," Little Women has been enjoyed by many generations and is a true classic. 

Snuggle Up This Weekend With A Moving Love Story

Still Life With Bread Crumbs
From Anna Quindlen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, Blessings, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life, comes Still Life with Bread Crumbs, a brilliantly written, powerfully observed and deeply moving love story. 

Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a journey into the life of Rebecca WInter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women at a very young age. When Rebecca reaches the age of sixty her career is on a serious downslide and she no longer has a seemingly endless stream of royalties, she decides to sublet her well appointed apartment in bustling Manhattan and relocate to desolate upstate New York. In her unfamiliar rural surroundings she discovers inspirations for new work, often in the company of an unlikely companion, a roofer named Jim Bates, and that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.

This Valentine's Day Fall in Love with The Forever Girl

The Forever Girl
"McCall Smith's generous writing and dry humor, his gentleness and humanity and his ability to evoke a place and a set of characters without caricature or condescension have endeared his books to readers." - The New York Times

As two childhood friends, Thursday and James, grow into adulthood, their lives become a star-crossed love affair as Thursday follows James around the world, from city to city, hoping that he will one day love her as much as she loves him. Back at home, Thursday's mother (who has fallen out of love with her husband) realizes that James' father is attracted to her. In The Forever Girlthe reader is taken on a moving, and sometimes heartbreaking, journey about the strange places that love can take us and how love, even if unrequited, can shape a life forever.  

Amour et Chocolat

The Chocolate Heart
Dig into the Amour et Chocolat love series this Valentine's Day.

In the latest addition to the series, The Chocolate Heart, main character Summer Corey takes ownership of the Parisian chocolatier where sexy heartthrob Luc Leroi works...it doesn't take long before their workplace scrabbles turn into private passions.    


"The book's theme of submitting to sweets and other seductions makes it racier than Florand's previous novels. But all the elements of her successful recipe for reading pleasure—headstrong heroine, dashing hero, sinful desserts, and sultry situations—come together in another deliciously entertaining offering." (Booklist Reviews)

Listed below are the first three books in the Amour et Chocolat series:

The Chocolate Thief (Book #1)
The Chocolate Kiss (Book #2)

Jouir!

Sweet Treats

Looking for a sweet romance novel to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day? Look no further than our "Sweet Treats" book display located on the bottom floor of the library for your next love story!

Sugar Rush
Sugar Rush (the first book in the Cupcake Club series) is a love story about baker Lellani Trusdale and her move from bustling New York City to sleepy Sugarberry Island in Georgia. When Lellaini moves she's expecting new beginnings, however the story really heats up when Lellani's former boss (aka Chef Hot Cakes) decides to follow her south to film his hit cooking show in her cupcake shop.


Lizzie Bea Carpenter knows better than to wish for a knight in shining armor. She's a single mom who waitresses at the local diner to make ends meet and has a circle of friends who pride themselves on being independent..but then Lizzie does meet a man who seems to opening her heart up to the possibility of love.  Read How Sweet It Is to see if Lizzie lets herself fall into sweet love.



Sweet Revenge
 Sweet Revenge brings the reader to gritty London in 1886. Jack Dalton has  escaped from prison with the intention to avenge his sister's murder by hunting  down her killer, Lord Rockley, but when he arrives at his target's hiding place  he encounters members of Nemesis, Unlimited, a vigilante justice organization  who want Jack to work with them to bring down Rockley. Jack complies, but  has no intentions of staying with the organization until he becomes entranced  with member Eva Warrick, who is as fierce as she is stunningly beautiful.

Sweet Salt Air
Charlotte and Nicole were the best of friends when they were children. After many years the old friends meet up for a final summer together where they grew up, not realizing that they are both harboring secrets that could change each other's lives forever.  Sweet Salt Air promises a tale full of friendship and romance.  


Cold Case Full of Secrets and Lies

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman
Twenty-six years after a convicted felon's mistress went missing, Roberto “Sandy” Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder in Laura Lippman's newest title After I'm Gone. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealousy, and greed stretching over three decades that connects five intriguing women. And at the center is the missing man Felix Brewer.

Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy will find the truth. And when he does, no one will ever be the same.

"In this stand-alone (adroitly linked to the Tess Monaghan series), Lippman focuses on the inner lives of the women left behind. Despite the murder at its center, this is less a suspenseful whodunit than a masterly novel of character, with secrets skillfully and gradually revealed. Revel in the pace and pleasures of this book (including section headings that riff on the song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me") that should add to Lippman's literary luster." (Library Journal Reviews)

Debut Novel by Donal Ryan: The Spinning Heart

The Spinning Heart
Set in Tipperary, a rural county of contemporary Ireland, The Spinning Heart tells the story of how the working class residents dealt with the devastating aftermath of the financial collapse of the Irish economy.  Each chapter of the book is narrated by a different voice, but the heart of the story revolves around Bobby Mahon, a building foreman who is known to be a hardworking husband and father.  Bobby's story and current family dramas are revealed throughout this dark, yet witty, debut novel.  

"Altogether 21 different characters narrate 21 chapters to relate Bobby Mahon's fall from grace, with Ryan showing himself to be a virtuoso stylist as he credibly conveys the viewpoints of men and women of all ages in language distinct from one section to the next. Winner of Ireland's Newcomer of the Year and Book of the Year, this startling debut reads like a modern Irish twist on William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." - Library Journal Reviews

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan releases on February 25th.  Click here to place your hold today!

An Unnecessary Woman

An Unnecessary Woman
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine is a rich tale of an aging woman who is battling many internal struggles as she goes through a late-life crisis. Aaliya Saleh (who describes herself as "my family's appendix, its unnecessary appendage") is an obsessive recluse and the novel paints a stunning portrait of her lonely life in Beirut through her memories and observations of her chaotic past, including living through the Lebanese Civil War.  Aaliya has a strong passion for literature and fills her time by translating her favorite novels into Arabic.  Like Aaliya, the translated books are tucked away in her apartment, away from all.  They have never been read by another person.  

An Unnecessary Woman received a starred review from Booklist: "the richness here is in Aaliya's first-person narration, which veers from moments in her life to literature to the wars that have wracked her beloved native city during her lifetime. Studded with quotations and succinct observations, this remarkable novel by Alameddine (The Hakawati, 2008) is a paean to fiction, poetry, and female friendship. Dip into it, make a reading list from it, or simply bask in its sharp, smart prose." 

New Sci-Fi Trilogy

From the author of the Magister trilogy comes Dreamwalker, the first book in a new science fiction series by C.S. Friedman.

Dreamwalker


Jessica Drake has dreamed of other worlds throughout her entire life. Some of these worlds are strikingly similar to her own, others are disturbingly foreign. She only shares the details of her dreams with her younger brother, Tommy, but now a stranger has been asking about Jessica and her dreams, and an unknown woman has been keeping watching over her house. 

As Jessica begins to search for answers it becomes clear that whoever is watching her does not want her to learn the truth. When her brother is kidnapped she knows she must get to the bottom of what is going on, and quickly, if she and her family are to be safe.

If You Like 'Gone Girl' You May Also Like...

In Gone Girl, Amy Dunne goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion resulting from incriminating passages written in Amy's diary, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred. This smash hit, written by Gillian Flynn (one of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time), has been wildly popular and has already spent 73 weeks on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller List. 

Are you a fan? If so, you may like these read-alike titles recommended by NoveList, our book database dedicated to reader's advisory:


The Dinner
Two couples out to dinner discuss their shared challenge of protecting their teenage sons' from an act of violence that has triggered a police investigation. The Dinner by Herman Koch is sure to delight fans of books that feature unlikeable narrators who reveal details of their crimes throughout the course of the story.
The Burning Air
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly is a chilling thriller about the wealthy MacBride family and their unfortunate discovery of a stranger who has been exacting vengeance on the family for years, without them ever knowing about it.





The Breaker
The Breaker by Minette Walters is a psychological suspense story that follows the investigation into a brutal rape and murder of a young mother.  Why was the woman's three year old daughter, a witness to the murder, allowed to survive? Is her husband really as devoted as he seems to be?






Looking for more? Stop by the Information Desk on the main floor of the Community Library. We'll help you find your perfect next read! 


SEXPLOSION

From Andy Warhol to a Clockwork Orange - How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos

Sexplosion

Between 1968 and 1973, more sexual taboos were challenged than ever before in history.  Barriers were broken in film, literature, theater and television that were previously unthinkable, and the country's concept of sexual liberation was shaken to it's core. Sexplosion explores both the chain of events and the forces involved in influencing the public, both for and against the new ways of sexual expression.

Sexplosion by Robert Hofler received a starred review from Booklist: "Hofler describes in often strong language and with considerable wit what was unmistakably a new cultural realty and moral perspective in America and Britain. Although his epilogue seems superfluous, he otherwise makes his case compellingly. This is readable and enjoyable popular history for younger adult readers and deeply resonant nostalgia for the boomers who came of age during this heady half decade."

Final Book in the MacGregor Series Releasing Today!

MacGregor's Lady
In this final installment of Burrowes' MacGregor Series, Bostonian Hannah Cooper is adamant that she will not marry, however, she dutifully travels abroad to endure a London season to pacify her wicked stepfather. Her plans are to get her inheritance and return home to save her siblings. Equally reluctantly, Asher MacGregor, Earl of Balfour, agrees to escort Hannah around the London social season, although the last thing he wants is a society wife. Before long, the pair realize that they are a match made in heaven and work together to find a way to take care of their familial responsibilities and be together, so Hannah can truly be MacGregor's Lady.

"Burrowes has a knack for giving fresh twists to genre tropes and developing them in unexpected and delightful directions.  This novel is a perfect example of her consistently excellent writing, deep and layered stories, and intelligent and compassionate characters." - Publishers Weekly Reviews  

In case you missed the first two books in the series, here they are:


The Bridegroom Wore Plaid
The Bridegroom Wore Plaid (2012) is the first book in the MacGregor series trilogy.  The Earl of Balfour must choose between marrying someone for money to save the family estate and marrying for love.




Once Upon a Tartan
Once Upon a Tartan (2013) follows the battle between Tiberius Flynn, English Lord, and stubborn beauty, Hester Daniels about the best place to raise the little girl under their protection.