The Final Novel from a Great American Storyteller

Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Doig’s beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an eleven-year-old’s imagination. But when Gram has to have surgery for “female trouble” in the summer of 1951, all she can think to do is to ship Donal off to her sister in faraway Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There Donal is in for a rude surprise: Aunt Kate–bossy, opinionated, argumentative, and tyrannical—is nothing like her sister. She henpecks her good-natured husband, Herman the German (as Donal discovers him to be), and Donal can’t seem to get on her good side either. After one contretemps too many, Kate decides to pack him back to the authorities in Montana on the next Greyhound.

But to Donal’s surprise, he’s not traveling solo: Herman the German has decided to fly the coop with him. In the immortal American tradition, the pair light out for the territory together, meeting a classic Doigian ensemble of characters and having rollicking misadventures along the way. Charming, wise, and slyly funny, Last Bus to Wisdom is another treasure of a novel from the best storyteller of the West. (Publisher Summary)

Late Summer Beach Read

Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she couldshe ran. Stunned, Del left Fool's Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.

Now ten years later, Maya's been hired to promote her hometown's new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!

Although Del's not the type to hold a grudge, he's determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He's a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya's kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all.

Thrill Me just landed on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Click here to place your hold today!

Room: Official Teaser Trailer

Check out the teaser trailer for Room, based on Emma Donoghue’s best selling book, below! You have plenty of time to read the book before the movie hits the theaters in October - click here to place your hold today!

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another. (Publisher Summary)

Among the Ten Thousand Things

Jack Shanley is a well-known New York artist, charming and vain, who doesn’t mean to plunge his family into crisis. His wife, Deb, gladly left behind a difficult career as a dancer to raise the two children she adores. In the ensuing years, she has mostly avoided coming face-to-face with the weaknesses of the man she married. But then an anonymously sent package arrives in the mail: a cardboard box containing sheaves of printed emails chronicling Jack’s secret life. The package is addressed to Deb, but it’s delivered into the wrong hands: her children’s.

"Pierpont is a strong, confident writer, and her well-observed characters feel deeply human. Among the Ten Thousand Things is an impressive debut—a family drama alternately bright and bleak from a gifted young author." BookPage Reviews

Cultured Beach Read

Set against dramatic Mediterranean Sea views and lush olive groves, The Rocks opens with a confrontation and a secret: What was the mysterious, catastrophic event that drove two honeymooners apart so suddenly and absolutely in 1948 that they never spoke again despite living on the same island for sixty more years? And how did their history shape the Romeo and Juliet–like romance of their (unrelated) children decades later? 

Centered around a popular seaside resort club and its community, The Rocks is a double love story that begins with a mystery, then moves backward in time, era by era, to unravel what really happened decades earlier. (Publisher Summary)

"With its large cast of eccentrics and their ever-shifting relationships, The Rocks feels a bit like the literary equivalent of a good Netflix binge: a guilty pleasure well-crafted enough that you don’t actually have to feel guilty about it." BookPage Reviews

Paper Towns: Official Movie Trailer!

Paper Towns, another novel of esteemed YA author John Green, will be released on the silver screen this July! There's still plenty of time to read the book before seeing the movie and make sure you check out the official movie trailer below!

One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. (Publisher Summary)

New Series Alert!

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Grace Burrowes, is writing a brand new romance series! The first book, A Single Kiss, has been released and is now available at the Community Library!

To support her daughter and pay off her law school loans, attorney Hannah Stark, who grew up in foster care, accepts a temp position in a small firm's family-law department where she just might get her own happy ending in the arms of her new boss, Trent Peckham. (Publisher Summary)

"A guarded heroine with a haunted past, a single dad savvy enough to win her trust, and a supporting cast you'll want to meet again come together in an insightful, delightful romance that is Burrowes's first novel-length foray into the contemporary arena and the beginning of a promising back-to-back trilogy." Library Journal Reviews

New Series Starter for Catherine Anderson

After years of living in fear of her husband, Amanda Banning has left him and moved to Mystic Creek, Oregon, for a fresh start in Catherine Anderson's newest novel Silver Thaw, the first in her new Mystic Creek series.

Amanda is having a tough time providing for herself and her six-year-old daughter. Writing her secret yearnings on slips of paper and sending them into the wind helps her cling to the hope that things will get better and that she can find happiness again.

When Jeb Sterling comes to her rescue after a cold snap leaves her and her daughter temporary homeless, Amanda has no idea just how much this kind and compassionate man will change her life.

Silver Thaw received a *Starred Review* from Booklist Reviews: "Master storyteller Anderson (Walking on Air, 2014) has skillfully penned the heart-wrenching story of domestic abuse and its aftermath, taking readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride and making the terror, dread, distrust, and, eventually, tenuous hope of a battered woman palpable. This compelling first book in the Mystic Creek series will make an excellent book-discussion group selection."

Click here to place a hold on a copy today.

Looking for a New Book Club Selection? Try This One....

Anita Diamant's The Boston Girl centers around family ties, values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young woman growing up in the early 1900s.

“How did you get to be the woman you are today?”  

Eighty-five-year-old Addie is asked this by her 22-year-old granddaughter and so begins her story starting in 1915, the year she made friends who helped shape the course of her life taking her to a world her parents can’t imagine - one of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture, and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school, go to college, have a career and find love. 

Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Diamant’s previous novels, The Red Tent and Day After Night, bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.

New HBO Series Based on Book

Olive Kitteridge, the new HBO mini-series starring Frances Mcdormand and Richard Jenkins is based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same name by Elizabeth Strout.

The larger-than-life world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher and unofficial town crier in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in a series of luminous stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, a young man grieving over his lost mother, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son.

"A perfectly balanced portrait of the human condition, encompassing plenty of anger, cruelty and loss without ever losing sight of the equally powerful presences of tenderness, shared pursuits and lifelong loyalty." (Kirkus Reviews)

Here is one of the HBO mini-series trailers for Olive Kitteridge:

Thinking of making this one of your book club picks? Author Elizabeth Strout offers Olive Kitteridge readers a list of "Questions for Discussion" on her website (www.elizabethstrout.com) and LitLovers.com offers their own Olive Kitteridge book club discussion questions here.

Join the Book Discussion

The Community Library will be holding a book discussion of the The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid on November 13th between 2PM and 4PM.

A young Muslim American, Changez is living the American dream, with an education at an Ivy League college, high-paying job, and romance with Erica, a member of the elite New York social circles, until the events of September 11th turn his life upside down and force him to confront his personal allegiances. (Publisher Summary)

Click here to reserve your seat today! 

New York, New York

The big city is calling! This month's display on the main floor of the library is featuring books all about, or set in, New York City including the following novels:

Dreamland by Kevin Baker: (Historical/Mystery/Love story)

Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park becomes the setting for a sweeping historical novel that follows a young Eastern European stowaway from his 1909 arrival in New York City through his rise to power in a Manhattan underworld organization to the birth of the labor union movement.

Trauma by Patrick McGrath: (Psychological Fiction)

Growing up in a severely dysfunctional family, Charlie Weir builds a career as a psychiatrist in New York City, working with victims of trauma including veterans returning from Vietnam, but the suicide of a patient, the breakup of his marriage, the growing turmoil of the city around him, and a volatile other woman lead Charlie to question everything, even his own sanity.

Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye: (Mystery/Historical)

Joining the newly formed NYPD at the height of Ireland's 19th-century potato famine, Timothy reluctantly assumes his duties in a notorious slum district, where in the middle of the night he hears a little girl's claim that dozens of bodies have been buried in a local forest.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer: (Bildungsromans/Humorous)

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

New Beach Read by Mary Kay Andrews

Cara Kryzik is a divorced florist who doesn't believe in love, although she is trying to make a living as a florist for society weddings in her new hometown of Savannah, Georgia. Just as Cara is about to score the wedding of a lifetime, one that will solidify her career, the bride goes missing and the wedding is in jeopardy. Cara becomes determined to find the bride and figure out if she really does believe in love after all. 

"Andrews (Ladies' Night) has written the perfect beach read with plenty of humor, romance, and a little mystery. Don't let the size of the book turn you away; it's a very quick and entertaining novel." (Library Journal Reviews) 

Looking for Mary Kay Andrew's earlier work? Check out her novels below!



and the three books in the Savannah series:

Need Another Beach Read?

Looking for another beach read? Stop by our display on the lower level of the library for some quick picks including:

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume: Two women from very different families become inseparable companions during summers on Martha's Vineyard during their coming-of-age years, forging the bonds of a lifelong friendship that weathers growing up, marriage, children, careers, and betrayal.

Something Borrowed by Emily Griffen: Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when, after too many drinks, she ends up in bed with her best friend's fiancé. Although determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel realizes she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. As the wedding nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.

Ruby by Anne Hood: Following the tragic death of her husband, Olivia, a grieving New York City milliner, desperately struggles to rebuild her life, until she meets Ruby, a young, pregnant delinquent abandoned by her family, who takes up residence in Olivia's Rhode Island beach house. An unlikely friendship is forged as Olivia nurtures Ruby and her unborn child and experiences the daily challenges presented by a wayward teen, who may or may not teach Olivia how to live again.

Author Spotlight on Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern, the daughter of an Irish Prime Minister, received a journalism degree but published her first novel, P.S. I Love You, at age 21. P.S. I Love You went on to become an international bestseller and was adapted into a motion picture of the same name starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.  Ahern also was the writer and producer of the TV series Samantha Who? and another one of her novels (Where Rainbows End (aka Rosie Dunne)) was recently adapted into the upcoming movie Love, Rosie.

Ahern's books feature sassy humor, Irish settings, strong young female characters, and a sense of whimsy. While her first two novels were Chick Lit, her more recent books have a fairy-tale, magical quality about them. (NoveList)

Interested in reading a few? Here are her novels listed in publication order:

P.S., I Love You (Feb 2004): Devoted to her husband, Gerry, Holly has always depended on him to keep her going and is lost when she loses him to brain cancer, until a package arrives containing ten envelopes filled with practical and impractical advice for carrying on her life.

Rosie Dunne (Feb 2005): Best friends since childhood, Rosie and Alex's relationship gets closer by the day, until Alex gets the news that his family is leaving Dublin and moving to Boston. Devastated, the two make plans for Rosie to apply to colleges in the U.S. Everything falls into place until Rosie gets news that will change their lives and cause them to go their separate ways. But destiny is a funny thing, and in this novel, structured as a series of clever e-mails, letters, notes, and a trail of missed opportunities, Alex and Rosie find out that fate isn't done with them yet.

If You Could See Me Now (Jan 2006): Elizabeth's life is an organized mess. The organized part is all due to her own efforts. The mess is entirely due to her sister, Saoirse, whose personal problems leave Elizabeth scrambling to pick up the pieces. One of these pieces is Saoirse's six-year-old son, Luke. Luke is quiet and contemplative, until the arrival of a new friend, Ivan, turns him into an outgoing, lively kid. And Elizabeth's life is about to change in wonderful ways she has only dreamed of.

There's No Place Like Here (Jan 2007): Sometimes it takes losing everything to truly find yourself... Tracking down missing persons as a way of purging lingering demons about a childhood friend who went missing, Sandy Shortt finds herself increasingly consumed by a growing obsession with understanding how and why people disappear.

Thanks for the Memories (Jan 2008): How can you know someone you've never met? That's the question haunting Joyce Conway these days. Recovering from a terrible accident and with her marriage in pieces, Joyce is suddenly plagued by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu that makes her feel as if the life she's living is not her own. During the day she has vivid memories of things she's never seen and at night she dreams of a little girl she's sure she's never met. Joyce is convinced she's lost her mind . . . until a series of coincidences leads her on a journey to meet the one person who may hold the answer she needs.

Mrs. Whippy (Nov 2009): Emelda is 46 years old. Her husband, Charlie, has left her for a 23-year-old dancer. Her five difficult sons worship their father and blame Emelda for his leaving. On top of everything else, she has to struggle with a new job at the local supermarket. For comfort she turns to her only true friend - ice-cream. But lately there's a handsome man driving the ice-cream van. Could romance be about to blossom?

The Gift (Jan 2011): Despite job stress and a crumbling home life, workaholic businessman Lou Suffern gives Gabe, a homeless man, a job in his company's mail room; but the mysterious Gabe seems to be in two places at once and he's meddling in Lou's private affairs, in a story where Gabe eventually teaches Lou a valuable lesson.

The Book of Tomorrow (Jan 2011): Forced into a humbler life with relatives in Ireland after the sudden death of her father, spoiled sixteen-year-old Tamara Goodwin discovers a diary of future entries written in her handwriting that she hopes will reveal the truth about her mother's troubling health.

The Time of My Life (Apr 2013): A woman who has devoted herself to her friends, her cat, her family and a job she doesn't love is forced to examine the choices she has made when Life literally shows up on her doorstep demanding that she makes changes.

One Hundred Names (May 2014): After her dying mentor leaves her a mysterious list of 100 names, journalist Kitty Logan tries to locate the people and uncover their connections in a story of secrets, second chances, and the hidden connections that unite our lives—a universal tale that will grip you with its emotional power and mesmerize you with its magic.

Book Review: The Fever by Megan Abbott

A small, isolated northeastern town comes unraveled after Lise, a young teen, has a frightening, unexplained seizure in her high school class. Before long, another girl suffers the same symptoms and rumors of a hazardous illness quickly move through the school and the community, spreading hysteria and destroying friendships and families.

The Fever received a starred review from Booklist: "once again, Abbott makes an unforgettable inquiry into the emotional lives of young people, this time balanced with parents' own fears and failings. It's also a powerful portrait of community, with interesting echoes of The Crucible: it's the twenty-first century, and, in many ways, we're still frightened villagers, terrified of the unknown. Abbott may be on her way to becoming a major writer."

Beach Read

From the author of Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures (2012), comes The Vacationers, an irresistible novel that captures the secrets, joys and jealousies that arise during a family vacation to the Spanish Island of Mallorca.

Traveling to Spain with family and friends to celebrate their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary and their daughter's high school graduation sounds like a grand idea to Franny and Jim Post, however, all doesn't go according to plan, especially as the vacationers arrive on the island bearing secrets that cannot possibly be contained.

The Vacationers received a starred review from Booklist: "Straub masters a constantly changing flow of perspectives as readers wonder who will forgive and be forgiven in this sun-soaked, remote paradise. Spongy and dear, sharply observed and funny, Straub's domestic-drama-goes-abroad is a delightful study of the complexities of family and love, and the many distractions from both." 

YA Crossover Books

More and more titles written for the Young Adult crowd appeal to adults too. Check out these titles that are on this week's New York Times Young Adult Best Seller List (some have been on the list for over a year):

• Looking for Alaska by John Green: Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
• Paper Towns by John Green: One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. (Breaking News: Last week it was announced that Paper Towns is being developed into a movie starring Nat Wolff!)
• Hollow City: the Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: A follow-up to the best-selling Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children begins in 1940 with Jacob and his new friends escaping from Miss Peregrine's island and traveling to London, where they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals and other unexpected surprises.
• This Star Won't Go Out: the Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl by Esther Earl with Lori and Wayne Earl : In full color and illustrated with art and photographs, this is a collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Essays by family and friends help to tell Esther’s story. 
• The Selection by Kiera Cass: Preferring a relationship with her secret boyfriend, Aspen, but unwittingly selected to compete for the hand of the gorgeous Prince Maxon against dozens of hopefuls, 17-year-old America Singer grudgingly participates and clearly voices her distaste for the kingdom's caste system until she unexpectedly develops feelings for the prince.

What is Bildungsroman?

A popular label for our blog posts is bildungsromans. What is it you ask? Per the Oxford English Dictionary, bildungsroman is "a novel that has as its main theme the formative years or spiritual education of one person" Origin of the word bildungsroman is German, "bildung" for education and "roman" for novel. Simply put, it is a coming-of-age tale.

Interested in reading one? Check out one of these titles:

• One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker: Livie faces a new set of challenges as she navigates freshman year at Princeton, a time involving wild parties and Ashton, the gorgeous rowing team captain. Facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, Livie’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father, and, with it, the only identity she’s ever known. 
• Etched on Me by Jenn Crowell: Faced with an unexpected pregnancy in her 20s, Lesley, who has overcome sexual abuse and a troubled adolescence to become a social services success story, must fight for her unborn daughter when the same team that saved her as a teenager questions whether she is fit to be a mother. 
• Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall: Fleeing her strict grandmother's home in 1963 Mississippi, 9-year-old Starla Claudelle becomes an unlikely companion to an African-American woman at whose side she learns harsh lessons about period segregation and family. 
• Rules for Becoming a Legend by Timothy S. Lane: Destined for a legendary future in the NBA, a young basketball prodigy begins suffering the tragedies that have cursed his family for generations and destroyed his father's sports dreams, a situation that compels him to find a way to break the cycle.
• Pelican Point by Donna Kauffman: Hoping to reconnect with herself after suffering a personal tragedy, Alex McFarland agrees to renovate the Pelican Cove lighthouse and finds herself falling in love instead.

Looking for more bildungsromans? Click the label below or stop by the reference desk on the main floor of the library to speak with a reference librarian.