Are you anxiously awaiting Taylor’s new album drop?  Looking for something to do pass the time until you can listen?  Check out our “Tortured Poets Department” display featuring dark academia titles and books about poets and writers!

What exactly IS dark academia?  There are varying definitions, but generally speaking, it refers to a book that features an academic setting AND a dark undertone or dark twist.  It’s not necessarily linked to a specific genre of books: Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth falls into the horror category, Portrait of a Thief by Grace Li is a crime heist, and Babel by R. F. Kuang is considered an “alternative fantasy history.”  The creation of the dark academia subgenre is attributed to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, the 1992 novel that tells the story of a murder that takes place among a group of Classics students.  Dark academia has also seen a rise in popularity thanks to Internet culture and aesthetic—and new album releases.

If you’re looking for some recommendations from the display, check out Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.  This is the first book in the Alex Sterns series set at a Yale University in a world that looks similar to our own–except that magic exists, and that magic is controlled by secret societies.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern features a graduate student named Zachary who discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his Vermont school—which includes a story from his own childhood.  This magical tale is filled with secret societies (notice the theme), ancient libraries, and book guardians.

If you like books in the newly minted “romantasy” genre–a combination of romance and fantasy–check out the first book in The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik.  A Deadly Education follows El, a young sorceress who fights monsters and is repeatedly saved by another student named Orion.  Surviving until graduation is the goal…

You’ll find all these books and more in our “Tortured Poets Department” display.  Click on the images below for some additional suggestions!

Blind Date with a Book is back–for a limited time only!  Stop by our display area to check out the blind dates we’ve arranged.  Read the description on a book to see if you’re interested in dating it–no peeking!  Once you’ve selected your “date,” grab a “Rate Your Date” bookmark and bring your date to the desk.  Check out your date, take it home, and unwrap it!

Not interested in this particular date?  No problem–no commitment necessary.  Circle “No chemistry” on your Rate Your Date sheet and bring it and the book back.  Ready to date your book?  Start reading!  Once you’re done, fill out your Rate Your Date sheet and bring both back to the library.  There is a box for the completed “Rate Your Date” sheets at the Reader Services desk.

You can check out as many Blind Dates as you’d like.  Just remember to Rate Your Dates once you’ve finished with them.  We want to hear how your date went!

If book dating isn’t your thing, you can still show us some love.  Stop by the Reader Services desk, grab a paper heart, and let us know what you love about your library.  We also have some “punny” Valentines for you to take home and give out to your friends.  There’s a lot to love about the Chelmsford Library every day, but make sure you celebrate with us this month!

Winter is coming!  Well, actually–it’s already here.  And with our first snowstorm of the season approaching, this is a great time to come in and check out a pile of books.  Why not embrace the season and take a look at our “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” display.  You’ll find lots of books that feature a cold climate or are set in winter.

If you like mysteries and thrillers, there are plenty to choose.  Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express” is a classic with a snowy setting.  “Crossed Skis” by Carol Carnac is a British mystery with an alpine setting.  “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Hoeg, “Snowblind” by Ragnar Jonasson, and “The Ice Princess” by Camilla Lackberg will scratch that Nordic noir itch.

If you’re a sci fi fan, check out “The City in the Middle of the Night” by Charlie Jane Anders.  Naomi Novik’s “Spinning Silver” is another possibility.  You can also try “The Snow Queen” by Joan Vinge.

If you’re looking for something in general fiction, “Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson and “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier are popular titles.  “The Bellweather Rhapsody” by Kate Racculia is excellent.  If you’re looking for historic fiction, Jennifer Laam’s “The Lost Season of Love and Snow” or Greer Macallister’s “The Arctic Fury” are great choices.

Visit our display area to find these titles and lots more.  Lists of featured titles are also below.

I don’t know about you, but this is the time of year when I start to feel ready to pack it all in, pack it all up, and head off on a vacation.  In the winter, I always want to head off to a tropical vacation or a European market, but I know loads of other folks love a good ski chalet or mountain cabin.  Can’t actually pick up and go anywhere?  How about you enjoy a book where the characters take the trip for you?  Check out our “Vacation, All I Ever Wanted” Display for some great titles that feature characters who get away from it all.

Looking to mix a beach villa vacation with a little murder?  Try Rachel Hawkins’ “The Villa.”  I also think that Liane Moriarty’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” fits this bill, and bonus–you could watch the TV series after you read it.  If you’re looking for a girls’ weekend read, try “Beach House Reunion” by Mary Alice Monroe.  If you want a darker take on the weekend getaway theme, try “Summer House With Swimming Pool” by Herman Koch or “Device Free Weekend” by Sean Doolittle.  One of my personal favorites is “Killers of a Certain Age” by Deanna Raybourn.  Four female assassins take a cruise to celebrate their reluctant retirement and quickly realize that the cruise is intended to be their final farewell.  So they set out to save their own lives and figure out who is trying to end them.  It’s wickedly funny and a great exploration of women and society’s ideas about aging.

If you’re looking for a little more romance in our reading, try Emily Henry’s “The People We Meet on Vacation” or “Book Lovers.”  “One Italian Summer” by Rebecca Serle will take you off on an Italian trip, and “Eight Weeks in Paris” by S.R. Lane will whisk you off to France.  There are also some great thrillers that feature a vacation.  Check out “An Honest Lie” by Tarryn Fisher or “Her Dark Lies” by J.T. Ellison.

Visit our display area to find these titles and lots more.  If you can’t stop by, here are the titles featured – in cover format as well as a list.

Loads of people like to read mysteries, crime novels, and thrillers, but do you know the differences between them?  Mysteries follow clues to reveal the person who committed a crime.  They can be standalone or part of a series.  Dorothy Sayers is a classic example of a mystery writer with a long-running series in her Lord Peter Wimsey books.  Within the mystery genre, there are several subgenres, including cozy mysteries like Jennifer Chow’s “Death By Bubble Tea,” hardboiled mysteries like those by author Walter Mosley, police procedurals such as “Wife of the Gods” by Kwei Quartey, and speculative mysteries that are set in a science fiction or fantasy setting.  Mystery novel themes include “proving one’s innocence,” “solving the puzzle,” featuring famous characters, and “rookie on the beat.”  “The Woman in the Library” by Sulari Gentill is a great example of a “solve the puzzle” mystery, while Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries will appeal to Austen lovers out there.  You may like one of these mystery subgenres more than another, so don’t give up after just reading one mystery novel–you might not have found your subgenre yet!

Thriller subgenres include legal thrillers such as Robyn Gigl’s “Remain Silent,” psychological thrillers written by authors like Alyssa Cole, supernatural thrillers, and spy fiction.  “Shutter” by Ramona Emerson is a great example of a supernatural thriller, while “Prophet” by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blanche falls into the spy fiction subgenre.  Thrillers might feature unreliable narrators, like in Mara Dong’s “Liar, Dreamer, Thief.”  They might have a plot that seems “too good to be true,” like in Riley Sager’s “The House Across the Lake.”  Thrillers are often set “behind the Iron Curtain” or in a similar setting.  “The Apollo Murders” by Chris Hadfield is a great example of this theme.  Thrillers might also feature missing memories, as found in Brian Freeman’s “I Remember You.”  Again, one of these themes may appeal to you more than another, so you may need to try reading a few thrillers to really get a feel for what you like.

Crime fiction subgenres include rural noir, capers, organized crime, and “inspired by read events.”  S.A. Cosby’s “Razorblade Tears” is a great example of rural noir, while “Dr. No” by Percival Everett is a classic caper novel.  A recent example of organized crime is “The Plotters” by Un-Su Kim.  “Northern Heist” by Richard O’Rawe is inspired by real events.  Within the crime novel genre, popular themes include “on the run,” “criminal masterpieces,” “rural noir,” and “vengeance is mine.”  If you’re looking for a new “on the run” title, try “Burn It All Down” by Nicholas DiDomizio.  Another great rural noir title is “Barbed Wire Heart” by Tess Sharpe.  If you like the “vengeance is mine” theme, try “How to Kill Your Family” by Bella Mackie.

Never read a mystery and are looking to try one?  I recommend Jessa Maxwell’s “The Golden Spoon.”  Think Great British Bakeoff but with a murder to solve.  If you think a thriller might be what you need, “What Never Happened” by Rachel Howzell Hall fits the bill.  If you’re looking for a classic crime novel, try “Confidence” by Rafael Frumkin.  These are all great “first books to try” within these genres.

There are also lots of movies, TV, and podcasts tied to these genres as well.  In fact, thriller novels are often made into movies or TV shows.  Since these genres are some of my favorites, I’m also keeping an eye on what S.A. Cosby, Mia P. Manansala, Erin E. Adams, and Eli Cranor are writing.  These are some authors to watch when it comes to your mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.

Visit our display area to find these titles and lots more.  Lists of featured titles are also below.

This is the time of year when food is a big part of our conversations and preparations–we’re talking about big meals we’re planning, we’re preparing what we’ll serve, we dream about our favorite holiday dishes.  What better way to celebrate our love of food then with some food-themed reading that AREN’T cookbooks.  These titles feature protagonists who work in the food industry, a specific dish that provides the overall theme of the book, or characters who love things savory or sweet.  You’ll find titles like “The Kitchen Front” by Jennifer Ryan.  Set in Britain during World War II, it features four women who are vying for a spot hosting a BBC wartime cookery program.  All set with World War II fiction?  Try “The Coincident of Coconut Cake” by Amy Reichert.  Chef Lou Johnson struggles to keep her beloved restaurant afloat and is visited by a food critic Al on the worst possible day.  When his review comes out, Lou is wallowing at a pub when Al walks in.  Lou accepts the Englishman’s challenge to show him the best of Milwaukee cuisine–before she knows who he is and what he wrote about her restaurant.  Can they overcome the past and “savor a future together?”  Grab the book and find out.    Looking for a book that features recipes?  Try “Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson and try your hand at baking a Jamaican rum cake at home.

Visit our display area to find these titles and lots more food-themed fiction.  Lists of featured titles are also linked below.

Sometimes you read a book that wrecks you emotionally and it’s all you can talk about for weeks.  I finished Audrey Niffenegger’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife” on a commuter rail train and cried throughout the entire ride.  Who hasn’t read “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold and sobbed?  And let’s face it–sometimes you just need a good cry.  That’s the intention behind our latest display, “Read With a Box of Tissues.”  These are books you’ll want to read with those tissues close by.  Some of them, like “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and JoJo Moyes’s “Me Before You” feature an overall theme that is heartbreaking.  Some have unexpected moments of laughter, like Trish Doller’s “Off the Map: A Novel.”  Many of them have movie or television adaptations that you could watch after reading: “The Green Mile” by Stephen King, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, and “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker.  Grab one of these titles, a favorite beverage, a box of tissues, and settle in for an emotional afternoon of reading.  Let the feelings catharsis begin!

You can find these titles and many more in our display area.  Lists of featured titles are also linked below.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the “first celebration using the term Veterans Day occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1947.  Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized “National Veterans Day,” which included a parade and other festivities, to honor all veterans.”  Originally called “Armistice Day,” it began as a celebration of the allied forces’ victory during World War I.  It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.  Did you know that there is no apostrophe in “Veterans Day”?  This is to suggest that the day doesn’t belong to veterans, but honors their service.  While Memorial Day specifically recognizes military servicepeople who died while serving, Veterans Day is dedicated to veterans of all wars.

During World War II, the military faced a shortage of available men, and the services began accepting women who served in all branches of the military except the Air Force.  In June 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act allowing women to serve in all branches of the service.  Prior to and during World War II, women also provided medical care to soldiers.

If you’re looking for a great story about these veterans, soldiers, and war nurses, check out our newest display.  You’ll find a huge range of options, from female centered books like “The Librarian Spy” by Madeline Martin and “Sisters In Arms” by Kaia Alderson.  There are classics like “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller and “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway.  One of my modern favorites is “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes.  Don’t let the length of this book intimidate you: the plot will draw you in and keep you reading until you’ve finished.  “Matterhorn” tells the story of Waino Mellas, a young Marine lieutenant, and his fellow Marines in Bravo Company who are dropped into the mountains of Vietnam.  They are fighting both the North Vietnamese and the horrors of the jungle: monsoon rain, mud, animals, disease, lack of food, and the tension within the group itself.  The book culminates in a battle that changes the Marines forever.  I read the book when it was released in 2010 and remember both the epic combat scenes and the havoc that mud creates for these men as they traverse the country.  “Matterhorn” is an excellent choice for a historical fiction novel set in the Vietnam War.

You’ll find these books and many others in our Veterans Day display area.  You can also find links to the books featured here: