Friday, October 27, 2017

New Halloween Reads!



With Halloween falling on a Tuesday this year, this weekend is sure to be filled with pre-Halloween fun. Whether you are heading out to a fall-fest, getting ready for the trick-or-treaters, or just planning on staying at home with the porch lights out, here are some new Halloween books:

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty:  Author and mortician Caitlin Doughty travels around the world to research different culture's death customs. For the reader wondering what happens after death, here on Earth.

All I Want for Halloween by Marie Hart: Here's a romance novel about a spin the bottle game at a masquerade ball, and the hunt for the man she kissed. For the reader who likes holiday driven romance.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King: In a world where women are encased as they sleep, and become violent if the casing is disturbed, one woman is immune to this. Fans of Stephen King, and horror area probably already of the wait list, so why not join them!

The Apparitionists by Peter Manseau: I think the sub-title tells you what you need to know about this book, "a tale of phantoms, fraud, photography, and the man who captured Lincoln's ghost". For the historian or paranormal fan.

Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena: Looking for a self-empowering read, that might make mention of magic and spells? More of a self help book than actual witchcraft, this is for the reader looking to be a better more confident person.

If there isn't something on this list for you, check out this list of New Creepy Books for Halloween from the Book Bub blog!

Friday, October 20, 2017

Shrill by Lindy West


Quick, name a few role models you had growing up that you could both relate to, and see your self growing into their role. Now think about those role models, are they people you want to emulate? Are they people you can emulate? Are they reasonable? If not, can you (again quickly) think of more people closer to your self that look and have lives similar to yours? If not, welcome to Lindy West's world.

Shrill, Notes From a Loud Woman is a collection of essays that tell the story of journalist Lindy West's upbringing as a "big boned" kid who chose the worlds of fantasy over the real. Who did a presentation about her love for TV, specifically comedy, to the disappointment of a favorite teacher, who stood up for herself by claiming who she was, and who starting speaking up for those who might not be ready to stand up for themselves.

Funny and powerful, reading Shrill will both make you laugh and think. West is a writer and without knowing it you may have read her work for other sites. Recommended for readers who miss The Toast, check out Jezebel on occasion, and just want to read about someone who has stopped apologizing for who she is. 

Check out Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman @ the library!

Friday, October 13, 2017

Mister Hockey by Lia Riley


Jed West never knows what to expect with sports reporter Neve Angel, however this one interview ends up with him reading at a library as a favor to her sister, Breezy. What he doesn't expect is the vibrant "Super Reader" to have a bit of a wardrobe malfunction, that leads him straight to her home, and further into her arms. While he makes is a rule to never date fans, how can this quiet book worm even know who he is, other than what her sister tells her?

Of course, Breezy is Jed's biggest fan. Not only is he the star of her favorite hockey team, he's the star of her wildest fantasies. So when she has to face him more than once in one day, each interaction more embarrassing than the last, she hopes her half lie about being a fan won't cause her too much trouble. Of course, neither expected to find more than a fling in each other.

Mister Hockey is a fun fast read, that throws you into the whirl-wind romance between a star hockey player and a librarian. There's no lack of heat between the two characters, and even they know it's more than just a fling. In the tradition of Susan Elizabeth Phillips Stars series, readers can only hope to see more of the Angel family and the sports starts they love!

Check out Mister Hockey by Lia Riley @ the library!

Friday, October 6, 2017

The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder



Family weddings tend to be perfect memories, preserved in photographs where we all put on our best smiles, for family and friends. Anyone involved in a wedding will tell you there is much more going on beneath the surface of those perfect family photos.

It starts with an invitation, and a guess at how much the invitations cost. Siblings Alice and Paul have always been a pretty united front against their half sister Eloise, a woman who lived a life of privilege and ease that made their middle-class American life seem so ordinary. Now Eloise is getting married, insisting that they come to England for the event, and showing them the life they could never achieve.

Paul is happily partnered with Mark, living in Philadelphia doing kind of controversial work, that most psychologists would kill to do. Alice is on the West Coast, sleeping with her boss, and a still bit lost after Mexico. Being forced to face their mother, and their half sister is enough to push them to breaking points they didn't know they had.

Written in the same dysfunctional vein as Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Cynthia D'Aprix-Sweeney's The Nest, you won't be able to look away from the train wreck of a family in The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder.