All posts by Jessica FitzHanso

Friday Fiction: Read around the world!

February 8, 2019Book Groups, Book Reviews, Books, Friday Fiction, Library Information, Library Information Featured, Programs, Reading Room, Reading Room Featured, Staff PicksJessica FitzHanso

At this point in Winter, we all need a break. If you’re like most people, it’s not feasible to hop on a plane. Instead, try immersing yourself in a new book from a far off place, and travel without leaving your favorite reading nook! Our January Friday Fiction presentation took us around the world with titles that are sure to provide you with plenty of new “destinations” and thought-provoking experiences to carry through until Spring.

We started in the US with Asymmetry,a debut by Lisa Halliday, which examined New York and America through the eyes of two very different and seemingly unconnected individuals. The connection is there, and finding it is the true reward of this novel. Then, Essayist Pam Houston took us to the great American Rockies of Colorado for an exploration of humanity’s relationship to the earth in Deep Creek. David Kipen paints a vivid picture of three centuries in Los Angeles through the writings of its famous denizens and visitors, and The Paragon Hotel fictionalizes the often overlooked history of Portland, Oregon.

From there we moved abroad to the mountain villages of China for a horrific satire in famed Chinese writer Yan Liang’s latest The Day the Sun Died, and then to the brutal realities of the Philipine-American War through the lens of a filmmaker in the experimental and ambitious Insurrecto. Then west to Madhuri Vijay’s tale of family secrets, political turmoil, and difficult choices in the Kashmiri region of India in her moving, atmospheric novel, The Far Field.

Next we visited West Africa and two very different novels from Nigeria: In the first, prize winning author Chigozie Obioma weaves Nigerian folklore and Greek legend into an intricate, heart wrenching tale of modern Nigeria. In the second, first time novelist Oyinkan Braithwaite treats us to a darkly humorous story about a young woman that has a bad habit of killing her boyfriends and the sister who has a bad habit of covering for her – that is until the latter’s new crush becomes the former’s new target.

Up on the European continent, we made many stops: First in Israel, for Amanda Sthers’ Holy Lands which contemplates modern technologies through the struggles of an estranged family. Then to Greece for a contemplative conversational novel that seeks the ultimate answers to difficult questions about acclaim, identity and sacrifice with Rachel Cusk’s Kudos. In Norway, North of Dawn describes the struggles of assimilation for a Somali family, and The Red Address Book describes the long, eventful and heartwarming life of a 96-six year old woman as she pages through her address book.

Finally, in England, we get two thrilling tales from very different corners. The first is a small but powerful novelization of a real and terrifying event that took place in the council estates in London, told through the eyes of several witnesses called In Our Mad and Furious City. The second is a true to form thriller-mystery set on the summer coast in Norfolk, England, where a long lost Au Pair must be tracked down years later to uncover long kept family secrets, a novel appropriately titled The Au Pair.

And finally, we are back in New York, with a gem of a novel called the Museum of Modern Love. This inspired story is framed by the moving performance art of the real Marina Abramovic, specifically an exhibition from 2010 called The Artist is Present, around which the heart broken fictional characters revolve. It’s a lovely book.

Our next live Friday Fiction presentation at the library is April 19, at 10:30AM. We will also be adding a second, evening event for readers, called Book Tastings, on April 24 at 7PM, which will feature many of the books from the April Friday Fiction. More details on that soon. Need more recommendations now? Contact Us!

Chelmsford Library’s Best Reads of 2018!

December 17, 2018Books, Reading Room, Reading Room Featured, Staff Picks, UncategorizedJessica FitzHanso

If you’re still thinking about what to give the book-lover in your life, or if you just need something new to read, our expert librarians have put together a great list of their favorite reads of 2018. So, whether you’re a fantasy fan, a kitchen savant, a graphic guru, or a master/ mistress of suspense, this list has something for you. And better still – many on this list are from previous years, so they’re a great option for people waiting in long hold queues for the latest bestsellers.

Need more ideas for what to read? Contact our Bookwise team!

Fiction

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Nonfiction:

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Picture Books:

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Graphic Novels and Manga:

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Mystery and Suspense:

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Historical fiction:

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Memoir and Biography:

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R.E.A.C.T.: Read Engage And Come Together with the Chelmsford Library

October 4, 2018Book Groups, Books, Current News, Events, Library Information, Library Information Featured, Programs, Reference, Resources, Town of Chelmsford, UncategorizedJessica FitzHanso

Thanks to a $7,500 federal IMLS grant awarded by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to the Chelmsford Library, we are embarking on a year-long project to promote civic participation and education called REACT Grant: Read, Engage, And Come Together.

Join us as we explore six key issues that impact our community, through engaging programming, in depth, moderated discussions, films, readings, and quality resources. The schedule of these six areas are:

October 2018: Promote the project and Voter Engagement
November/December 2018: Poverty and Food Insecurity
January/February 2019: Racial Justice and One Book
March/April 2019: Environment and Climate Change
May/June 2019: LGBTQ Equality
July/August 2019: Immigration and Refugees
September/October 2019: Public Education

You won’t want to miss what we have in store. Find out about upcoming events in the series and links to resources here.

BINGO Summer Reading Challenge results

September 11, 2018Book Reviews, Books, Library Information, Reading Room, Reading Room Featured, UncategorizedJessica FitzHanso

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Summer Reading Bingo challenge this year! If you are looking for something new to try this Fall, check out what your neighbors suggest:

	How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill: “This book is an excellent scholarly history book that is told in a clear fun style. Great Irish biographies and stories form the background of Ireland’s role in saving the literary legacy of the classical world.”
	Let Me Call You Sweetheart, by Mary Higgins Clark: “A young woman who is a prosecuting attorney and who has a young daughter finds information that a man convicted for murder may be innocent. As she pursues different avenues her daughter is threatened with possible harm. Many twists and turns to the plot. Not til about 10-12 pages to the end of the book do you finally figure out what’s going on.”
	Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, by Dan Harris: “This book is a follow-up to his book 10% Happier. It’s a humorous but practical guide to meditation for those of us who want to meditate but just haven’t made the commitment for some reason. It offers common-sense guidance which inspired me to try again.”
	A Psalm for Lost Girls, by K. Bayerd: “So good – I couldn’t put it down! Well-drawn characters and teenagers that act like teenagers not like adults in teen clothing. Heavy subjects – grief, death, religion, identity – are handled both realistically and with sensitivity. I will miss the universe of this book.”
	The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros: “This book has become one of my all-time favorites. Cisneros used short literary vignettes, or snapshots, of Esperanza’s inner thoughts to build her coming of age story following a young Latina growing up in Chicago. Published in 1984, this book is still a must-read. With fluid and poetic writing, this is a quick read with a lot of depth.”
	Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries: “I love all Louise Penny books – they are all good, Glass Houses was a particular favorite however I would recommend reading them in order. It isn’t absolutely necessary but helps in understanding the development of the characters. Her detective Armand Gamache has become a favorite along with the other recurring (and somewhat eccentric) characters of Three Pines. L. P. is a remarkable writer – hard to put her books down prior to finish.”
	The Bridge, by Peter Tomasi: Very interesting. “I had no idea how hard it was to build the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. The trials and all the engineering. But the politics were another dimension. Recommended to my son to read.”
	The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon: “A well-respected sci-fi writer who initially entered the field by co-writing two books with Anne McCaffrey. Though this book takes place sometime (not specified) in the future, it’s about an autistic male who works for a large company that employs a group of people with autism that can make incredibly fast calculations. Should our hero have an operation that will correct his autism or will the operation essentially impair his brilliance? Moon has an autistic son herself so she knows what she is talking about though the book is fiction.”
	A Column of Fire, by Ken Follett: “This book is historical fiction starting in England in the 16th century and branching out to other locations in the world. The world is torn by religious conflict. Exploring the conflicts and historical characters of the time through the fictional characters in the story helps to provide better understanding of the period.”
	The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah: “This is a great story of courage and resilience set in the Alaskan wilderness. All of the characters face hardships that can only be overcome by working together.”
	The Outsider by Stephen King: “What starts out as a murder to be solved turns into a book about people in two places at once. Actually the murderer is a shape-shifter – includes Holly from Mr. Mercedes.”

Friday Fiction May book list

May 22, 2018Book Groups, Book Reviews, Books, Friday Fiction, Reading Room, Reading Room Featured, Resources, Staff Picks, UncategorizedJessica FitzHanso

It’s outdoor reading season again and we have a great list of books for you this round. No royal romances, but I am certain we have had enough of that for a while anyway. Instead, we have a great list of fiction and nonfiction covering a diverse list of topics: novels as pleas for environmental conservation from Richard Powers and Johanna Drucker; the-Odyssey-you-thought-you-knew in Madeleine Miller’s magical novel Circe; another take on the Anastasia Romanov mystery in I was Anastasia; a story of love and money set in post-war New England from Beatriz Williams; and World War II – because we will never finish being fascinated by that era – in Michael Ondaatje’s new novel Warlight. For when you only have a brief chance to chill, we have some great new short story collections from Lauren Groff (Fates and Furies) and Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep, Eligible).

But overall, my favorite on this list is The Mars Room from Rachel Kushner (The Flamethrowers.) Kushner pens a dark and poignant novel about an unjustly imprisoned young woman, who must use the limited resources she has to fight a system seemingly bent on keeping her from her home and son. Kushner’s heavy research into the world of women behind bars in California creates an atmosphere that cuts through any hesitation on the part of the reader. It’s a thrilling book.

There are many more on the list, so read through below. As always, if you need any more recommendations, please don’t hesitate to contact our librarians through the BookWise service, or just stop in to chat sometime.

Stay tuned for CPL’s annual Adult Summer Reading Challenge starting in June, and happy reading!

Jess’s Picks:

	Circe, by Madeline Miller: A highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning The Song of Achilles follows the banished witch daughter of Titans as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
	Florida, by Lauren Groff: A collection of short stories by the bestselling author of Fates and Furies and Arcadia.
	The Girl Who Smiled Beads, by Clemantine Wamariya: Traces the author’s harrowing experiences as a young child during the Rwanda massacres and displacements, which separated her from her parents and forced the author and her older sister to endure six years as refugees in seven countries, foraging for survival and encountering unexpected acts of cruelty and kindness before she was granted asylum in a profoundly different America.
	I Was Anastasia, by Ariel Lawhon: An evocative retelling of the Anastasia survival myth follows the appearance of a traumatized, badly scarred young woman who claims to be the youngest Romanov daughter, launching a half-century of questions, accusations and changing perspectives on identity as conveyed by her supporters and detractors. By the author of Flight of Dreams
	The Mars Room, by Rachel Kushner: It’s 2003 and Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: the San Francisco of her youth and her young son, Jackson. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner evokes with great humor and precision.
	Motherhood, by Sheila Heti: “Sheila Heti has a way of tapping into the throes of consciousness and coming out with a precisely articulated version of how we think. Her new book, Motherhood, delves deep into the decision of whether or not to have children, while simultaneously exploring femininity, identity, and self purpose. Even if motherhood is not pertinent to your life, this book will shed light on our culture and the expectations that are bound to affect everyone at some point.” — Courtney Flynn, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Boston, MA
	The Only Story, by Julian Barnes: A man who ran away as a teen university student with a married woman more than twice his age reflects on how they fell in love, how he freed her from a sterile marriage and how their relationship fell apart as she succumbed to depression. By the award-winning author of The Sense of an Ending
	The Overstory, by Richard Powers: A National Book Award-winning author presents an impassioned novel of activism and natural-world power that is comprised of interlocking fables about nine remarkable strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate, brutal stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.
	The Summer Wives, by Beatriz Williams: Secrets and lies hold the island together. But this summer, everything will fall apart…It’s 1951 and Miranda’s mother has just married in to one of the wealthiest families on Winthrop Island, a glamorous haven set off the New England coast.But beneath the surface, the island is a delicate balance of tension between the wealthy summer families who holiday there and the Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who keep the island going.As Miranda begins to fall for Joseph, the lighthouse keeper’s handsome son, the tension rises inexorably to the surface and an explosive end to the summer will change everyone, forever…
	Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje: In a narrative as beguiling and mysterious as memory itself – shadowed and luminous at once – we read the story of fourteen-year-old Nathaniel, and his older sister, Rachel. In 1945, just after World War II, they stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends: men and women joined by a shared history of unspecified service during the war, all of whom seem, in some way, determined now to protect, and educate (in rather unusual ways) Rachel and Nathaniel. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings’ mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn’t know and understand in that time, and it is this journey -through facts, recollection, and imagination – that he narrates in this masterwork from one of the great writers of our time.
	You Think it, I’ll Say It, by Curtis Sittenfeld: The best-selling author of Eligible presents a collection of 10 short stories that features both original pieces and two previously published in the New Yorker, including “The World Has Many Butterflies,” in which married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game, with devastating consequences
Lisa’s Picks:
	Beautiful Music, by Michael Zadoorian: A funny, poignant, thoughtfully rendered novel about love, fear, death, race, music, and the intense passions of youth. Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio-loving loner balancing a dysfunctional homelife with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence.
	Big Guns, by Steve Israel: In response to efforts to ban handguns in America’s cities, the CEO of an arms company, worried about his bottom line, introduces federal legislation that would require every American own a gun.
	The Death of Mrs. Westaway: After erroneously receiving a mysterious letter about a large inheritance, Hal attends the deceased’s funeral and realizes that something is very, very wrong.
	Down Drift: An eco-fiction, by Johanna Drucker: Slowly at first, then with increasing speed, animals worldwide develop and surpass human skills in every field, from manual labor to theoretical thinking, with earth-shattering consequences for the future of humanity.
	My Ex-Life, by Stephen McCauley: With My Ex-Life, a heartwarming comedy of manners about second chances and starting afresh, he has pretty much outdone himself…McCauley fires off witticisms like a tennis ace practicing serves…In the vein of inveterate beguilers like Laurie Colwin, Elinor Lipman, and Maria Semple, McCauley is warm but snappy, light but smart—and just plain enjoyable.
	My Mother’s Son, by David Hirshberg: My Mother’s Son is a riveting coming-of-age story that plays out against the backdrop of the Korean War, the aftermath of the Holocaust, the polio epidemic, the relocation of a baseball team, and the shenanigans of politicians and businessmen.
	No Ashes in the Fire, by Darnell L. Moore: The editor-at-large of CASSIUS and original Black Lives Matter organizer describes his own direct experiences with prejudice, violence and repression; his search for intimacy in the gay neighborhoods of his youth and his participation in key civil movements where he found his calling as an advocate on behalf of society’s marginalized people.
	No One Ever Asked, by Katie Ganshert: The absorbtion of an impoverished school district by the affluent community of Crystal Ridge brings three women together as tensions rise, leading to an unforeseen event that impacts them all.
	On Brassard’s Farm, by Daniel Hecht: In a radical departure from her urban life, Ann Turner buys a piece of remote Vermont land and sets up a tent home in deep forest. She’s trying to escape an unending string of personal disasters in Boston; more, she desperately wants to leave behind a world she sees as increasingly defined by consumerism, hypocrisy, and division.As she writes in her journal, “There’s got to be a more honest, less divided way to live.”She soon learns she was mistaken in thinking a kindly Mother Earth would grant her wisdom and serenity in her new home
	The Optimistic Decade, by Heather Abel: This novel about a utopian camp and its charismatic leader takes us into the lives of five unforgettable characters, and is a sweeping saga of idealism, love, class, and a piece of land that changes everyone who lives on it.
	The Oracle Year, by Charles Soule: Awakening from a dream with 108 predictions about the future in his head, an unassuming Manhattan bassist catapults to one of the world’s most powerful men and hides his identity behind an online persona that is targeted by greedy corporations and dangerous enemies who would change the playing field by recruiting or eliminating him.
	Our Story: A memoir of love and life in China, by Rao Pingru: An elderly Chinese man recounts his life and marriage in text and art, from meeting the woman his father had arranged for him to wed, through their time together and the twenty-two years they were kept apart while he was a prisoner, to her death.
	The Storm, by Anif Anwar: From an immensely talented new voice in international fiction, a sweeping tour de force that seamlessly interweaves five love stories that, together, chronicle sixty years of Bangladeshi history.
	That Kind of Mother, by Rumaan Alam: Overwhelmed by new motherhood in spite of her love for her infant son, Rebecca, a white woman, asks a kind black woman, Priscilla, to become her family’s nanny, only to have her perspectives changed about her own life of privilege, a situation that compels her to take on unanticipated challenges in the aftermath of a tragedy.
	Tin Man, by Sarah Winman: Shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award, a heartbreaking celebration of love in all its forms gradually reveals a fallout between two longtime friends and Oxford students over the course of a decade marked by the marriage of one and the disappearance of the other.

Great new books for Spring!

March 20, 2018Book Reviews, Books, Friday Fiction, Programs, Reading Room, Reading Room FeaturedJessica FitzHanso

If all these snow days have left your TBR list a little short, never fear – we’re here with a great new list of books to build it back up again!

One of my favorites, Peter Swanson (The Girl with a Clock for a Heart), returns with his latest Highsmith-infused suspense thriller, All the Beautiful Lies. For fans of quirky puzzle mysteries a la Mr. Penumbra or Haruki Murakami there’s Nova Jacobs’ The Last Equation of Isaac Severy. For historicals this round we have All the Beautiful Girls, a glamorous drama set in 1960’s Vegas, although fans of the The Light Between Oceans (M. L. Stedman) should pick up As Bright As Heaven, set in post-WWI Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu epidemic. Years ago, I laughed and cried over Jonathan Miles’ brilliant little novel Dear American Airlines, so I’m really excited to read his latest, Anatomy of a Miracle, an hilarious and heartbreaking story of an Afghanistan War-veteran that spontaneously regains the ability to walk. And of course, we have included the latest from perennial favorites, Melanie Benjamin (The Aviator’s Wife) Chris Bohjalian (The Sandcastle Girls) Peter Carey (Crimson Petal and the White) and Amy Bloom (Away), as well as many great debuts, such as Chelsey Johnson’s Stray City, a different, sweet, engaging sort of coming of age story that is really well-written.

Don’t forget to join Lisa and I for our next live Friday Fiction presentation on April 20 at 10:30 AM. We’ll have lots of great new titles to get you through to summer! In the meantime, let us know if we can suggest anything else, and keep us posted about what you’re reading!

Jess’s Picks:

	All the Beautiful Lies, by Peter Swanson: Devastated when his father commits suicide days before his college graduation, Harry returns to his home in Maine, where he is baffled by the increasingly sensual attentions of a mysterious woman and his own alluring stepmother, who he comes to realize are hiding dangerous secrets.
	All the Beautiful Girls, by Elizabeth Church: A spirited young woman fights the demons of her past by becoming a dancer in 1960s Las Vegas, where her sensual beauty leads to her work in glamorous productions and a consuming affair with a fiery photographer.
	Anatomy of a Miracle, by Jonathan Miles: Confined to a wheelchair after a paralyzing injury, an Afghanistan War veteran endures a hardscrabble existence in his sister’s ramshackle Mississippi home before spontaneously regaining his ability to walk, an apparent miracle that subjects him to scientific and religious debates and exposes his most private secrets.
	Census, by Jesse Ball: Learning that he does not have long to live and will need to figure out how to provide for his developmentally disabled adult son, a widower signs up as a census taker for a mysterious government bureau and leaves town with his son on a cross-country journey of memories and revelations.
	Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi: Traces the experiences of a deeply troubled young woman who alarms her devout Nigerian family as she succumbs to multiple personality disorder and begins to display increasingly dark and dangerous traits in accordance with her fractured personalities.
	The Girls in the Picture, by Melanie Benjamin: An intimate reimagining of the powerful creative partnership between Hollywood superstars Frances Marion and Mary Pickford traces their friendship and boundary-breaking achievements against a backdrop of pre-World War I Hollywood.
	In Every Moment We are Still Alive, by Tom Malmquist: Tom tries to raise his newborn baby daughter by himself after the sudden death of his wife from acute Leukemia right after she gave birth.
	The Last Equation of Isaac Severy, by Nova Jacobs: Receiving a cryptic letter from her famous mathematician grandfather just before his suicide, adopted granddaughter Hazel, the owner of a struggling bookstore in Seattle, is charged with tracking down and protecting a dangerous equation before dangerous enemies can exploit it.
	A Long Way From Home, by Peter Carey: The award-winning author of Amnesia finds a speed-loving woman, her car salesman husband and a thrill-seeking quiz-show champion entering a dangerous race that circumnavigates the natural obstacles of 1954 Australia.
	My Lady’s Crossing, by Kitty Curran: A choose-your-own-adventure romance with Jane Austen flair. You are a spirited but penniless heroine in eighteenth-century society and courtship season has begun. Go!
	Stray City, by Chelsea Johnson: Building a home for herself in the thriving but insular lesbian underground of Portland away from her Midwestern Catholic childhood, a young artist becomes unexpectedly pregnant after a reckless night and is forced to come to terms with her past a decade later when her precocious daughter asks about her father.
Lisa’s Picks:
	As Bright as Heaven, by Susan Meissner: The award-winning author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and A Bridge Across the Ocean presents a tale set in 1918 Philadelphia during the Spanish flu epidemic and traces the experiences of a family reeling from the losses of loved ones and changes in their adopted city, a situation that is further shaped by their decision to take in an orphaned infant.
	The Flight Attendant, by Chris Bohjalian: A binge-drinking flight attendant wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room beside a dead body and sneaks back to her work, telling a series of lies that complicate her ability to figure out what really happened. By the best-selling author of Midwives.
	Girls Burn Brighter, by Shobha Rao: Forging a deep friendship with impoverished but passionate fellow weaver Savitha, motherless Poornima begins to reconnect with the beauty of the world before a devastating act of cruelty drives her friend away, compelling her to leave behind everything she knows to search for her friend in the darkest corners of India’s underworld and beyond.
	The Gone World, by Tom Sweterlisch: Time-travel secret agent Shannon Moss visits future time periods for clues about a Navy SEAL astronaut’s murdered family and the disappearance of his teenage daughter, a case that is complicated by the SEAL’s and Shannon’s own impact on the timeline.
	Happiness, by Aminatta Forna: An American scientist and a Ghanaian psychologist become unlikely partners and friends during a search for a missing child that challenges their perspectives on their careers and happiness.
	How to Stop Time, by Matt Haig: A man with a secret rare condition that has enabled him to survive for centuries moves to London to become a high-school history teacher and considers defying his protective guardians’ rule against falling in love when he becomes entranced by a captivating colleague. By the best-selling author of Reasons to Stay Alive.
	The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers: The best-selling author of The Circle traces his upbringing as a Yemeni-American in San Francisco and his dream of resurrecting the ancient art of cultivating, roasting and importing Yemeni coffee, an endeavor that is challenged by the brutal realities of Yemen’s 2015 civil war.
	Need to Know, by Karen Cleveland: A dedicated CIA counterintelligence analyst assigned to uncover the leaders of Russian sleeper cells in the United States stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents before facing an impossible choice that tests her loyalties to the agency and her own family.
	The Queen of Hearts, by Kimmery Martin: Two doctors who have been best friends since early adulthood find their bond tested by the return of a former colleague who unearths a secret one of them has been harboring for years.
	The Which Way Tree, by Elizabeth Crook: Surviving a panther attack that kills her mother and leaves her with scars, a tenacious young woman resolves to find and kill the unusually aggressive cat with the assistance of a charismatic Mexican American, a haunted preacher, her traumatized half-brother and an old hunting dog. By the award-winning author of The Night Journal.
	White Houses, by Amy Bloom: A New York Times best-selling author presents a novel inspired by the life of Lorena Hickok, and by her love affair and enduring friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
	The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey: A debut entry in a new series by the Agatha Award-winning author of The Sleeping Dictionary introduces Bombay’s first female lawyer, Oxford graduate Perveen Mistry, as she investigates a suspicious will on behalf of three Muslim widows living in strict purdah seclusion who become subject to a murderous guardian’s schemes for their inheritances.

	*Bad Stories* is an effort to make sense of our historical moment. The book argues that bad outcomes arise directly from the bad stories we tell ourselves. Using literature as a lens, Bad Stories explores entertainment, sports, and political parody, the degeneration of our free press into a for-profit industry, and our enduring pathologies of race, class, immigration, and tribalism. Critics are calling it “the feel bad read of the season!”
	The Darkest Time of Night: Investigative journalist for WSMV-TV in Nashville, Jeremy Finley’s debut thriller explores what happens to people’s lives when our world intersects with the unexplainable.
	Dear Mrs. Bird: London, 1940. Emmeline Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort as a volunteer telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When a job is advertised at the London Evening Chronicle, Emmy’s sees her dream of being a Lady War Correspondent coming true. But she winds up as typist for the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Disappointed, she gamely bucks up and buckles down. Prepare to fall head over heels for Emmy and her best friend Bunty in Pearce’s irresistible debut.
	Eagle and Crane: Louis Thorn and Haruto “Harry” Yamada the Eagle and the Crane, are the star attractions of a daredevil aerial stunt team that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanks to the Thorn family’s belief that the Yamadas, Japanese immigrants, stole land from the Thorn family. This tension is inflamed when Louis and Harry are both drawn to the same woman, Ava. After the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor there are changes and harsh realities to face. And when one of the stunt planes crashes with two charred bodies inside, the ensuing investigation struggles when the details don’t add up and no one seems willing to tell the truth.
	The Ensemble: I really got into this one. It’s my favorite kind of character driven, coming of age story, about a group of friends, a family really, that go from their graduation through their early adult lives, changing in multitudes along the way. A Cellist herself, her narrative follows four bright young musicians: Jana, Brit, Daniel, and Henry. Each has their own stories but all come together over the projects of the Van Ness String Quartet.. My heart broke over the individual trials of each player, but rejoiced over the companionship they forged through their musicianship. It’s a wonderful coming of age story, like Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings. – Jessica
	French Exit: The characters are not necessarily relatable at first, but they grow on you. Suddenly you find yourself looking through their eye, a sort of distorted and disoriented viewpoint. Forced to give up luxury on the upper east side in NYC for a borrowed apartment in Paris because of overspending in the wake of the patriarch’s death and financial scandal Frances and her son Malcolm must begin a new life. Neither Mother nor son is able to sustain normal society, so their disorientation and required humility provides great comedy to the narrative, and DeWitt is a master at this. Will they come to terms with their new situation in life, or will they continue on their slow but definite road to ruin? You may be reminded of the shenanigans that populate Wodehouse’s Jeeves series.
	From the Corner of the Oval: Against the backdrop of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman making unlikely friendships, getting her heart broken, learning what truly matters, and, in the process, discovering her voice
	The Last Cruise: Christine, a former journalist turned farmer, Mick, a Hungarian cruise ship chef, and Miriam, an Israeli quartet violinist find themselves thrown together in turmoil as what was supposed to be pleasant retro-cruise turns into a nightmare at sea.
	The Late Bloomers Club: A delightful novel about two headstrong sisters, a small town’s efforts to do right by the community, and the power of a lost dog to summon true love.
	The Lido: Another one related to civic engagement, but much more tame, The Lido is the story of two women coming together over an unexpected cause. Kate is a young, anxiety ridden reporter in Brixton, outside London, charged with covering the closing of a local community pool, which will be torn down to accommodate more housing development. This is just the latest in a pattern of gentrification for the community. In investigating the history of the pool for the local newspaper she meets the community that greatly values the pool, most especially an 86 year old woman named Rosemary whose relationship with the pool goes back decades. Her life forms the second track of the novel as we learn about how the pool served as a respite for her at different points in her life. Under Rosemary’s influence, Kate changes from a depressed and friendless woman to a person with purpose (to save the pool) and relationships. Similar in storyline to A Man Called Ove, this is a sweet story for an afternoon by the pool.
	The Lost Vintage: Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turner about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy to study for her Master of Wine test, and uncovers a lost diary, a forgotten relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since WWII.
	The Masterpiece: Fiona Davis returns with her third historical in 3 years, after 2016’s The Dollhouse and last year’s The Address. In The Masterpiece, Davis once again pairs women across generations in New York City to present the story of famous landmarks and historical periods. The Masterpiece‘s focus is Grand Central Terminal. In 1928, we meet Clara Darden, illustrator and teacher at the art school once housed in the terminal building. In 1974, we meet Virginia Clay, a divorced mother whose lack of skills but ample resourcefulness bring her to an unusual position in the now crumbling train station. Both women exude great strength as their respective cultures aim to push them aside for being women. Davis does a good job with the characters, but an even better job of highlighting some of NYC’s most intriguing stories.
	Not Our Kind (Coming in September): It’s post war Manhattan, and Eleanor Moskowitz is late for a prestigious teaching interview, so she decides to take a cab. When her cab is rear ended and she finds herself simultaneously bloody, desperate for a phone, and ashamed of her appearance, when the perfectly tailored and coiffed Patrica Bellamy, comes to her aid, though second guessing her decision upon learning her passenger’s last name. At Patricia’s Park Avenue Apartment, Eleanor surprisingly befriends Patricia’s polio-stricken and surly daughter Margeaux. As a result, Eleanor is hired as Margeaux’s tutor, allowing Eleanor access to the world of New York’s 1%. They will simultaneously accept and reject her as a result of the prejudices brewing while America was at war. On the surface, it’s a simple romance, but the defeat of prejudice and the developing relationship between ethnic groups and classes is the real focus of this novel. It’s an important and often overlooked story. – Jessica
	The Poisoned City: Through a series of disastrous decisions, the state government had switched the city’s water supply to a source that corroded Flint’s aging lead pipes. Complaints about the foul-smelling water were dismissed: the residents of Flint, mostly poor and African American, were not seen as credible, even in matters of their own lives. It took eighteen months of activism by city residents and a band of dogged outsiders to force the state to admit that the water was poisonous. By that time, twelve people had died and Flint’s children had suffered irreparable harm. The long battle for accountability and a humane response to this man-made disaster has only just begun. In the first full account of this American tragedy, The Poisoned City recounts the gripping story of Flint’s poisoned water through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town, but could also be about any American city, all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure and the erosion of democratic decision making. Places like Flint are set up to fail-and for the people who live and work in them, the consequences can be fatal.
	Providence: Providence is known for a few things, but perhaps most notable of all is that it was the final home of the writer H. P. Lovecraft. In her third novel, Caroline Kepnes inserts Lovecraft into a modern day teenage love story to present a captivating and genre-bending page turner. Jon is a quirky kid, loved by no one except Chloe. Their relationship is close, they understand each other in ways others can’t comprehend, and just as Jon is about to suggest a new intensity to their relationship he is kidnapped. Chloe is devastated about his disappearance, but equally about the lack of interest others have for his disappearance. She unravels, but then, as time goes by, picks herself up and assumes the role of a normal teenage girl. Then, 4 years later, Jon reappears, taller, stronger and with a strange intense new power that inadvertently harms and sometimes kills those around him, mysteriously imparted to him by his kidnapper. He must learn to simultaneously keep his physical distance from Chloe and find a way to keep her close. He travels from New Hampshire to Providence, where perfectly healthy people suddenly begin to drop dead and a quirky detective is trying to figure out the pattern. It’s fast-paced, fiercely original and great for adults and young adults, fans of Stranger Things or anyone that loves a good suspenseful mystery. – Jessica
	Rough Animals: Breaking Bad meets No Country for Old Men… Ever since their father’s untimely death five years before, Wyatt Smith and his inseparably close twin sister, Lucy, have scraped by alone on their family’s isolated ranch in Box Elder County, Utah. That is until one morning when, just after spotting one of their steers lying dead in the field, Wyatt is hit in the arm by a hail of gunfire that takes four more cattle with it. The shooter: a fever-eyed, fearsome girl-child with a TEC-9 in her left hand and a worn shotgun in her right. They hold the girl captive, but she breaks loose overnight and heads south into the desert. With the dawning realization that the loss of cattle will mean the certain loss of the ranch, Wyatt feels he has no choice but to go after her and somehow find restitution for what’s been lost. Wyatt’s decision sets him on an epic twelve-day odyssey through a nightmarish underworld he only half understands; a world that pitches him not only against the primordial ways of men and the beautiful yet brutally unforgiving landscape, but also against himself. As he winds his way down from the mountains of Box Elder to the mesas of Monument Valley and back, Wyatt is forced to look for the first time at who he is and what he’s capable of, and how those hard truths set him irrevocably apart from the one person he’s ever really known and loved. Steeped in a mythic, wildly alive language of its own, and gripping from the first gunshot to the last, *Rough Animals* is a tour de force from a powerful new voice.
	Spinning Silver: Miryem was brought up in a snowbound village, on the edge of a charmed forest. She comes from a family of moneylenders, but her kind father shirks his work. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, his family faces poverty – until Miryem intercedes. Hardening her heart, she sets out to retrieve what’s owed, and her neighbors soon whisper that she can turn silver into gold. Then an ill-advised boast attracts the cold creatures that haunt the wood. Nothing will be the same again, for words have power. And the challenge she’s issued will change the fate of a kingdom. Channeling the spirit of the original Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale, Naomi Novik has written a rich, multi-layered fantasy about sacrifice, power and love that is a joy to read.
	Still Lives: A riveting page-turner and feminist proclamation all in one. Maggie Richter is a copy-editor for the revered, but struggling, modern art museum Rocque in Los Angeles. In an effort to revitalize the museum’s coffers and place back in the center of the LA art scene, they commission the controversial Kim Lord to produce an exhibition of her latest work Still Lives. Lord’s paintings depict the bodies of famous female victims of violent crimes in LA, including The Black Dahlia, Kitty Genovese and Nicole Brown Simpson. Maggie can’t stand them for the way they seem to be exploiting the lives and deaths of these women for publicity. Then, the artist herself fails to appear for her own exhibit’s opening gala, and the artist’s boyfriend, also Maggie’s ex, is the prime suspect. Maggie, and the reader, are then drawn into an investigation that will take them through LA’s glamorous and not-so-glamorous sides. I loved the layers to this book. You have a well-written page turner, a socially conscious set of characters, and a great tour of LA’s history and seedy underworlds. – Jessica
	The Suicide Club: A compelling look at a near future world obsessed with the possibility of immortality. Suicide Club specifically addresses our culture’s health obsession by drawing a world in which music and art are discouraged as cortisol inducing behaviors and trading in human organs is the best way to maintain wealth. Lea, at 100 years old, is such a prime product of this culture that she and her well-toned fiance are positioned to be included in the so called 3rd wave, which would extend Lea’s life-expectancy of 300 years to infinity. But someone from her past has resurfaced and is involved in a counter cultural movement. Lea’s connection to this figure and the cause of the underground movement place her under scrutiny from the Ministry and cause her to question her life’s direction. – Jessica
	A Terrible Country: When Andrei Kaplan’s older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. Andrei learns to navigate Putin’s Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible County asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.
	Unsheltered: Barbara Kingsolver has been writing since her debut in 1988 with the Bean Trees. Since then she has had numerous best-sellers, including The Poisonwood bible, a perennial book club favorite about the travails of a baptist missionary and his family in an unstable African Congo in 1959. In her latest novel, she presents a story of a New Jersey neighborhood and the people residing there, joined over time. The first strain tells the story of Willa Knox, a middle aged freelance journalist living in the dawn of Trump, despairing over her crumbling New Jersey house and her growing caretaker responsibilities, which include her ailing and right-wing father in law, her two fledgling adult children and her son’s newborn baby.The second strain tells the story of a teacher in the 1880s, residing in the same but younger neighborhood of Willa. The teacher, Thatcher Greenwood, struggles to teach the new evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin to a local school body, but is met with great resistance from the community and within his own household. Through beautiful writing and expertly drawn characters, Kingsolver tells the story of two characters, joined in their relative struggles at the edge of cultural upheaval.
	What We Were Promised: Set in modern Shanghai, a debut by a Chinese-American writer about a prodigal son whose unexpected return forces his newly wealthy family to confront painful secrets and unfulfilled promises.
	Witchmark: In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use their unique magical gifts to control the fates of nations, while one young man seeks only to live a life of his own. Magic marked Miles Singer for suffering the day he was born, doomed either to be enslaved to his family’s interest or to be committed to a witches’ asylum. He went to war to escape his destiny and came home a different man, but he couldn’t leave his past behind. The war between Aeland and Laneer leaves men changed, strangers to their friends and family, but even after faking his own death and reinventing himself as a doctor at a cash-strapped veterans’ hospital, Miles can’t hide what he truly is. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes Miles’ healing gift and his witchmark, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder. To find the truth he’ll need to rely on the family he despises, and on the kindness of the most gorgeous man he’s ever seen.

	All We Ever Wanted, by Emily Giffin: Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. Her husband’s tech business is booming, and her son, Finch, is bound for Princeton. Thomas Talone is a single dad working multiple jobs. His daughter, Lila, was recently accepted to Nashville’s most prestigious private high school on a scholarship. Then one devastating photo changes everything. Lila passes out at a party, drunk and half-naked. Finch snaps a picture, types out a caption, and sends it out to a few friends. The photo spreads quickly, and before long, an already divided community takes sides, throws blame, and implodes. And in the midst of it all, Nina and Tom are forced to question all their assumptions about love and loyalty.
	Believe Me, by J. P. Delaney: “An unemployed actress works for a divorce lawyer entrapping unsuspecting husbands until she finds herself ensnared in a murder investigation. This roller-coaster ride of a book will keep you guessing with an unreliable narrator and and a twisty plot.” Linda Quinn, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield, CT
	Black Klansman, by Ron Stallworth: A decorated African-American law enforcement veteran traces his remarkable undercover infiltration of the KKK and how his white partner and he posed as one person, rose in the ranks and sabotaged Klan activities before the investigation’s tragic end.
	The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd: In a dangerous near-future world, a group of ordinary people are caught in an extraordinary catastrophe and risk everything to save the ones they love. A first novel which is being compared to The Passage and Station Eleven.
	Calypso, by David Sedaris: This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris’s darkest and warmest book yet–and it just might be his very best.
	The Collector’s Apprentice, by B. A. Shapiro: The latest novel from the bestselling author of the Art Forger and The Muralist, Shapiro transports readers to Paris in the 1920s, populated with all the great figures, and weaves an unputdownable story of scandal intrigue and, of course, art.
	The Death of Mrs. Westaway, by Ruth Ware: Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is an excellent thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
	Fight No More, by Lydia Millet: In her first story collection since Love in Infant Monkeys, which became a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet explores what it means to be home. With wit and intellect, Millet offers profound insight into human behavior from the ordinary to the bizarre: strong-minded girls are beset by the helpless, myopic executives are tormented by their employees, and beastly men do beastly things. Fresh off the critical triumph of Sweet Lamb of Heaven (long-listed for the National Book Award), Millet is pioneering a new kind of satire―compassionate toward its victims and hilariously brutal in its depiction of modern American life.
	Good Trouble, by Joseph O’Neill: On the surface, these men and women may be in only mild trouble, but in these perfectly made, fiercely modern stories O’Neill reminds us of the real, secretly political consequences of our internal monologues. No writer is more incisive about the strange world we live in now; the laugh-out-loud vulnerability of his people is also fodder for tears.
	The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai: A novel set in 1980s Chicago and contemporary Paris follows the director of a Chicago art gallery and a woman looking for her estranged daughter in Paris who both struggle to come to terms with the ways AIDS has affected their lives.
	Harry’s Trees, by Jon Cohen: A 38-year old traumatized widower fortuitously meets an 11-year old girl who sets him on a feverish road to redemption.
	The High Season, by Judy Blundell: “The ultimate summer read–featuring indelible characters, crackling wit, and sophisticated storytelling–about one season when everything in a woman’s life goes wrong. This is a novel about the dreams and ambitions of youth coming to terms with the realities of middle-age; about the way desperation can make us astonish ourselves; and about how the most disruptive events in our lives can sometimes twist endings into new beginnings”
	The Kiss Quotient, by Helen Hoang: A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick. Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases–a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice–with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic.
	Little Big Love, by Katy Regan: “A portrait of a family and a boy’s search for the father who left them, told from multiple perspectives with authentic, likeable characters.” Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis County Library, Austin, TX
	The Madonna of the Mountains, by Elise Valmorbida: This epic novel follows the life of a woman in the hardscrabble Italian countryside, from her girlhood through marriage and motherhood through two World Wars and during the Fascist party rule. A sweeping saga about womanhood, religion, loyalty, war, family, motherhood, and marriage, The Madonna of the Mountains is set in Italy during the 1920s to the 1950s, and follows its heroine, Maria Vittoria, from her girlhood through her marriage and motherhood, through the National Fascist Party Rule and ending with her decision to emigrate with her family to Australia.
	Mr. Flood’s Last Resort, by Jess Kidd: Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic – is the latest in a long line of dogsbodies for the ancient, belligerent and hoarding Cathal Flood. But Maud is this insolent old man’s last chance: if she can help him get his house in order, he might be able to fend off being removed to an old age home. So the unlikely pair begin to cooperate, connecting over their shared love of folk tales and their suspicion of Gabriel, Cathal’s overbearing son. Still, shadows are growing in the cluttered corners of the mansion, hinting at buried family secrets, and reminding Maud that she doesn’t really know this man at all. When she starts poking around, the forgotten case of a missing local schoolgirl comes to light, and a full-steam search for answers begins.
	Never Anyone But You, by Rupert Thompson: Fictionalizes the true story of a love affair between two extraordinary women and recreates the surrealist movement in Paris and the horrors of the two world wars.
	The Number One Chinese Restaurant, by Lillian Li: The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go-to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations; it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades. When disaster strikes, this working family’s controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay
	Robin, by Dave Itzkoff: The New York Times culture reporter and author of Mad as Hell presents a compelling portrait of Robin Williams that illuminates his comic brilliance, conflicting emotions and often misunderstood character, sharing insights into the gift for improvisation that shaped his wide range of characters, his struggles with addiction and depression and his relationships with friends and family members.
	The Secrets Between Us, by Thrity Umrigar: After being fired from her job as a servant, Bhima forms a partnership with Parvati to sell produce at the local market and makes her first true friend, in a follow up to The Space Between Us.
	Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, by Michelle Dean: The ten brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work.
	Southernmost, by Silas House: When an evangelical preacher in Tennessee offers shelter to two gay men after a catastrophic flood, he’s met with resistance by his wife and congregation, and eventually loses custody of his son. He decides to kidnap his son and flee to Key West, where he suspects his estranged gay brother is living.
	There There, by Tommy Orange: There There is a relentlessly paced multigenerational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. It tells the story of twelve characters, each of whom have private reasons for traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle’s memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and unspeakable loss.
	The Word is Murder, by Anthony Horowitz: A playful commentary on the mystery genre itself and the first in a promising new series. The author, Horowitz, plays the part of the narrator, and gets caught up in solving a murder with Daniel Hawthorne, an out-of-work detective.

Chelmsford Public Library

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Chelmsford Library’s Best Reads of 2018!

R.E.A.C.T.: Read Engage And Come Together with the Chelmsford Library

BINGO Summer Reading Challenge results

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Variety is the spice of summer!

Your summer holiday reading list!

Adult Summer Reading Challenge 2018

Our non-traditional collection is growing!

Friday Fiction May book list

Great new books for Spring!