Category Archives: Fiction

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

16 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

This beautifully written novel is centered around a seventeenth-century Dutch painting. It follows the story of its creator, the man who inherits it, and the woman hired to create a forgery. While the book spans a few countries and time periods, its focus always remains on its engaging characters.

Highly evocative of time and place, this stunning novel explores a triumvirate of fate, choice, and consequence and is worthy of comparison to Tracy Chevalier’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring “and Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch “.” . . “Just as a painter may utilize thousands of fine brushstrokes, Smith slowly creates a masterly, multilayered story that will dazzle readers of fine historical fiction. Library Journal (starred review)

Gliding gracefully from grungy 1950s Brooklyn to the lucent interiors of Golden Age Holland and the sun-splashed streets of contemporary Sydney, the novel links the lives of two troubled, enigmatic, and hugely talented young women, one of them an artist, the other, her forger. A page-turning book with much to say about the pain and exhilaration of art and life. Geraldine Brooks, author of “The Secret Chord”

Find this book              large print              audio cd’s

The Nix by Nathan Hill

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Samuel, a college professor and failed novelist, has not seen his mother in over twenty years since she left him and his father. When she is arrested for a political protest, he decides to see her again and learn more about her past, particularly her time as a young woman in 1960s Chicago. An engrossing, funny book with many characters and time periods.

“A fantastic novel about love, betrayal, politics and pop culture—as good as the best Michael Chabon or Jonathan Franzen.” —People 

“It broke my heart, this book. Time after time. It made me laugh just as often. I loved it on the first page as powerfully as I did on the last.” —Jason Sheehan, NPR.org

Find this book                   large print                   audio cd’s

Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky

24 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Two childhood friends reunite at a summer retreat, each harboring a horrible secret that would test the bounds of their longtime relationship if revealed.

“Set on the fictional Maine island of Quinnipeague, Delinksy’s novel centers on two childhood friends, Charlotte and Nicole, who reunite to coauthor a cookbook about the local cuisine. (Warning: there are tantalizing food descriptions in this book. Don’t listen to it while hungry.)”  – Publishers Weekly

“With grace and dignity Sweet Salt Air reveals the fragility of human nature while intimating at the healing powers of forgiveness.” ―New York Journal of Books

Find this book          large print             playaway               audio cd’s 

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye

10 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Fiction, Historical Fiction, mystery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers of the Year
One of Kirkus Reviews’ Ten Best Crime Novels of the Year
Edgar(R) Award Nominee for Best Novel
ALA Reading List Award for Best Mystery
Enjoyed by the Weston Tuesday Mystery Book Group!

1845: New York City forms its first police force. The great potato famine hits Ireland.    These two events will change New York City forever…

“The launch of a brilliant new mystery series, set in 1845 New York City: Irish Potato Famine, the birth of the police force, brothels and bedlam.”– Gillian Flynn

“It’s been almost twenty years since Caleb Carr’s bestselling Olde New York crime novel, The Alienist, was published, and I cant count the number of times since then that someone has asked me if I can recommend a suspense story anything ‘like it.’ Well, New York has inspired lots of terrific thrillers, but I’ve just stumbled on one of the worthiest successors yet. Lyndsay Faye’s novel, The Gods of Gotham.“—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

Find this book               audio cd’s

The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth Church

03 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I really enjoyed this story about a woman who gave up her dream of becoming an ornithologist in the 1940’s to marry the man she fell in love with and all that she sacrificed and discovered as a result of this decision.

“Church’s debut novel explores the relationship between sacrifice and love . . . Each sentence drives the plot further, exploring love’s limits and its spoils. But it’s Church’s exploration of Meridian’s role in her relationships that is the most gracefully executed feat of the novel. Meridian’s voice is poignant, a mixture of poetry and observation . . . An elegant glimpse into the evolution of love and womanhood.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Church hits the mark in this emotionally driven debut that spans the chapters of a long life . . . What does love require of us? How does one strike a balance between compromise and self‑fulfillment? In her debut novel, Church writes to these issues in a style that is thoughtful and elegant.” —Library Journal

Find this book           large print

Blood from a Stone: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon

19 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Fiction, mystery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Another Tuesday Mystery Book Club choice.  When an illegal alien from Africa, who’s selling fake designer handbags, is killed execution-style in a crowded Venice market, the case creates personal crises for Leon’s endearing police Commissario Guido Brunetti as well as international ramifications.

Check out Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries series on dvd.

“One of the best of the international crime writers is Donna Leon, and her Commissario Guido Brunetti tales set in Venice are at the apex of continental thrillers.”

In this stunning novel, the 14th to feature the dogged, intuitive Venetian police detective Guido Brunetti (after 2004’s Doctored Evidence), Leon combines an engrossing, complex plot with an indictment of the corruption endemic to Italian society. The murder of an anonymous African street vendor, an inoffensive, possibly illegal Senegalese immigrant, explodes into a many-layered conundrum. – starred review, Publisher’s Weekly

Find this book             large print          audio cd’s

A Separation by Katie Kitamura

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Fiction, mystery, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

This is a mesmerizing examination of a marriage gone wrong.  They had agreed to separate but he makes her promise to tell no one quite yet.  Then he disappears and his mother convinces her to find him…somewhere in Greece…..I couldn’t relax until I knew the outcome!

“Accomplished… a coolly unsettling work.” —New York Times Book Review

“A spare and stunning portrait of a marital estrangement… [B]uilds into a hypnotic meditation on infidelity and the unknowability of one’s spouse. In precise and muted prose, the entire story unspools in the coolly observant mind of a young woman… A minutely observed novel of infidelity unsettles its characters and readers.” —Kirkus [starred review]

Find this book

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

31 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Biographical fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The Big Library Read (BLR) @ OverDrive announces the winning title!  The Other Einstein will be available for unlimited access on the OverDrive-powered website between June 12-26, 2017. And, of course, you can pick up a copy at your library:

“Mileva “Mitza” Marić has always been a little different from other girls. Rather than thinking about marriage, she’s studying physics with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.”

“In her compelling novel… Benedict makes a strong case that the brilliant woman behind [Albert Einstein] was integral to his success, and creates a rich historical portrait in the process.” – Publishers Weekly

“Benedict’s debut novel carefully traces Mileva’s life-from studious schoolgirl to bereaved mother-with attention paid to the conflicts between personal goals and social conventions. An intriguing… re-imagining of one of the strongest intellectual partnerships of the 19th century.” – Kirkus

Find this book                     large print                     audio cd’s

The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne

15 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Fiction, Humor, mystery

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

9781501124747_p0_v2_s118x184

When Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Twenty Best Places to Live in America, falls under the scrutiny of sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins to study the elements of “good quality of life”, someone begins poisoning the town’s dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park—the subject of much town debate—or the sign of a far deeper disorder?

“Berne (Missing Lucile, 2010, etc.), who won the Orange Prize for her first novel, A Crime in the Neighborhood (1997), is a sure hand at the dinner parties, school concerts, teacup tempests, and true moments of suspense that make a suburban comedy of manners par excellence. It’s too bad about the dogs, but they died for a good cause.”—Kirkus (Starred Review)

“A look at suburban life that manages to be both scathing and sympathetic, Berne’s latest is a smart,amusing satire.”—Booklist

Find this book              large print                audio cd’s              playaway

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

A young man and woman fall in love in their unnamed home country before a civil war forces them to flee to the west. Hamid writes powerfully of their joys, tragedies, and experiences as refugees in a poetic style.

“It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the world, and gave us a road map to our future… At once terrifying and … oddly hopeful.” –Ayelet Waldman, The New York Times Book Review

“This is the best writing of Hamid’s career… Readers will find themselves going back and savoring each paragraph several times before moving on. He’s that good. … Breathtaking.” —NPR.org

“In spare, crystalline prose, Hamid conveys the experience of living in a city under siege with sharp, stabbing immediacy. He shows just how swiftly ordinary life — with all its banal rituals and routines — can morph into the defensive crouch of life in a war zone. … [and] how insidiously violence alters the calculus of daily life. … By mixing the real and the surreal, and using old fairy-tale magic, Hamid has created a fictional universe that captures the global perils percolating beneath today’s headlines.” ––Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 

Find this book               large print