Book Review: 'That Part Was True' by Deborah McKinlay

In Deborah McKinlay's charming novel, That Part Was True, Eve Petorth, a long divorced and lonely British woman strikes up a friendship through letters and emails with a successful American author. Jackson Cooper, who is approaching his 50th birthday and has recently divorced for the second time, likes that Eve is straightforward and a foodie. The pen pals offer each other help and support with their relationship dramas before agreeing to finally meet up in Paris.

"A charming and quick read, That Part Was True introduces two innocuous, somewhat lonely, characters who forge an unlikely friendship through mailed letters. The pair's platonic relationship is comforting and reliably innocent, yet their discussion of food and love is wonderfully sensory. The ending is hardly unexpected, but provides a nice wrap-up to this quiet, slice-of-life tale." - Romantic Times Book Reviews

First female author wins Man Asian Literary Prize

Please Look After Mom has won the Man Asian Literary Prize, making its author Kyung-Sook Shin the first woman to win this prestigious award for works by Asian authors that are available in English.  The book follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.  The book has sold nearly 2 million copies in its native South Korea alone, a country with a population of only 50 million people.  For full details on this award, click here.

Famous Authors' Summer Reading Picks

Ever wonder what your favorite authors read? In this article from The Daily Beast, authors name their personal summer reading selections. Rising young literary star Tea Obreht (author of The Tiger's Wife) recommends The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova; Elizabeth Kostova in turn recommends the all-ages classic Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Kathryn Stockett (author of The Help, the bestselling book which has just been released in movie theaters) recommends A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Alexandra Fuller (author of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness) recommends Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, while Chris Adrian (author of The Great Night) recommends Dune by Frank Herbert. Check one out from your Community Library today!

Good-bye, William Sleator

William Sleator, a much-loved author of children's and young adult novels, passed away this Tuesday at the age of 66 in Thailand, according to this article in Shelf Awareness.  Best known for slightly creepy stories that thrilled and delighted while raising important philosophical questions, William Sleator will be greatly missed.  His 1974 classic House of Stairs, which is about orphans who are forced to live in a huge labyrinth of stairs as part of a large-scale psychological experiment, is still so popular that your Community Library owns three copies, all of which have circulated multiple times in the previous year alone.  Other titles of his available at your Community Library include: The Boy Who Couldn't Die, The Boy Who Reversed Himself, The Duplicate, Hell Phone, Others See Us, Singularity, The Spirit House, and Test.

Man Booker International Prize Shortlist Announced

Thirteen authors are on the shortlist for this year's prestigious Man Booker Prize, awarded to "one writer for his or her achievement in fiction." The thirteen finalists include three Americans: Philip Roth, Anne Tyler, and Marilynne Robinson. Read all about these three and the ten others in this recent article from the Guardian.

December Book Display: Legal Thrillers

On the hunt for some exciting legal thrillers? Go beyond John Grisham with the books featured in the library's December Readers' Advisory display, at the foot of the stairs in the fiction section. Selections include works by established favorites like Steve Martini and William Bernhardt to relative newcomers like Joshua Ferris and David Hosp (click here for a complete list). And if you've read all these already, try searching the subject term "legal stories" to browse 800+ similar books in the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library's catalog. What are your recommendations?

Author Spotlight: Elin Hilderbrand

Although Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library owns multiple copies of Elin Hilderbrand's books, you probably won't find them on the shelf; enthusiastic readers have made sure her books are constantly checked out. Here's what the library's readers' advisory database Novelist has to say about this rising star:

"While Elin Hilderbrand's characters change from novel to novel, her setting remains consistent - the historic island of Nantucket. Using the island as a jumping off point, Hilderbrand's works offer the hallmarks of an ideal summer vacation read: romance, friendship, a beautiful setting, conflict and characters facing personal challenges. While rife with tales of people living privileged lifestyle, Hilderbrand grounds her stories in topics that will feel familiar to all women: love, illness, friendship, and family relationships."

Because each book is a stand-alone story, newcomers can start with any of Hilderbrand's books. Her most recent book, The Island, is also available to Mastics-Moriches-Shirley patrons in large print and on CD.