Recommended by Trish McPherson, Reference Librarian
Why wouldn’t a librarian love this book? It’s set in a bookshop, the characters have close ties to the publishing industry, and the heroine is a quiet academic – a member of the first class of female degree recipients at Cambridge University. Sexism and cronyism stalled her academic career, but her passion for cataloging rare books and her breadth of knowledge of overlooked female writers enables her to make a startling literary discovery. The book takes place in post-World War II London and characters including Daphne du Maurier and Samuel Beckett play supporting roles. I loved this book so much, I had to go back and read Jenner’s The Jane Austen Society. That book was also excellent.
Recommended by Trish McPherson, Reference Librarian.
This novel, set in Scotland and Salem, MA, tells the story of poor seamstress Isobel Gamble. Forced to leave for Salem due to her debtor husband’s crimes, she arrives in Salem, where she makes a meager living crafting elaborate embroidered creations. Each of her works has a deep meaning and message owing to Isobel’s synesthesia – a condition when you experience one sense through another such as hearing someone speak and seeing the words in color. She meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne in Salem and we come to see her as the muse who inspired The Scarlet Letter and Hester Prynne’s red “A” as conjuring of Isobel’s needle. I listened to an audiobook of this novel on my way to and from work. Each day, I was sorry for my drive to come to an end because I wanted to keep listening.
Recommended by Trish McPherson, Reference Librarian
This novel tells the story of Lucy Barton and her ex-husband’s flight from Manhattan at the start of the pandemic. Fearful for their safety and worried that their age makes them particularly vulnerable, Lucy’s ex, William, suggests they head to Maine to wait out Covid in a friend’s coastal cottage. The story captures how confusing, frightening, and incredibly boring those early days of the pandemic were. The author, a Pulitzer Prize winner for Olive Kitteridge, also describes some lovely, unexpected gifts from that time – such as reconnecting with family members and acquaintances in new ways and having the time to appreciate the beauty of one’s surroundings. Available at Boston Public Library
Recommended by Jennifer Macaulay, Director of the Library
This thriller pits 4 retired, female assassins against their former employers and colleagues. When a former coworker tries to blow up the cruise ship on which they are celebrating their retirement, they realize they have been marked for death. In order to eliminate the threat and enjoy the rest of their retirement years, the 4 work together to find those responsible for their termination order. The story is interspersed with flashbacks and vignettes from their years of working as assassins. There are twists and turns as the women prove that it is deadly to underestimate them.
Available at Boston Public Library and the Ames Free Library
Recommended by Jennifer Macaulay, Director of the Library
Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell Mystery series is set in London in the late 1800s and features the aforementioned Veronica as its lead character. Veronica is a lepidopterist who is finally free to pursue her scientific passions since the death of her aunt. After a thwarted kidnapping attempt, Veronica teams up with Stoker, a surly natural historian who has a keen interest in taxidermy. Together, Veronica and Stoker work to uncover the plot against her. This series continues as Veronica and Stoker solve additional mysteries, learn shocking truths about their own pasts and find an unexpected companionship.
Available at Boston Public Library and the Ames Free Library
Recommended by Heather O’Leary, Collection Development Librarian
Rivers of London is a modern-day fantasy police procedural series that is fast-paced, gritty, funny, and steeped in nerd-culture. The main character of the series is Peter Grant, a just-okay London police officer who unexpectedly discovers his true calling as a practitioner of magic. The revelation that the ancient city of London is full of magic, river goddesses, and evil spirits, understandably upends Peter’s worldview, career, and personal life.
I started reading the first book, also called Rivers of London, back in January 2021 and quickly ran through the rest of the series and had to wait, not very patiently, for the publication of the ninth book, which I am on hold for in Overdrive.
Recommended by Heather O’Leary, Collection Development Librarian
One of my new favorites is Mia P. Manansala’s Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series. Set in a suburb of Chicago, this cozy mystery series follows aspiring baker Lila Macapagal, who has recently returned home to work for her aunt’s Filipino restaurant. I’ve listened to the first two books, Arsenic and Adobo and Homicide and Halo-Halo and I have the third, Blackmail and Bibingka on hold through Overdrive. I recommend listening to the audiobook versions of the mysteries to hear the pronunciations of Filipino words and phrases. The Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series is full of humor and descriptions of delicious-sounding Filipino food.
Recommended by Michelle Sheehan, Library Assistant
A con woman thriller about two women out for revenge – or is it justice? The Lies I Tell is a twisted thriller the dives deep into the psyches and motivations of two women and their quest to seek justice for the past and rewrite the future. Five stars. Julie Clark has thoroughly impressed me with her writing.
Recommended by Amy Francis, Access Services Department
Journalists Laura and Lisa Ling describe the events of Laura’s capture in North Korea while she was on assignment investigating the difficulties of North Korean refugees. Laura briefly crossed the border from China into North Korea and is captured by North Korean guards, placed in isolation and interrogated, then finally put on trial and sentenced to 12 years at a North Korean labor camp. I appreciated the alternating chapters of the two sisters’ perspectives; one from Laura’s viewpoint of her imprisonment and relationship with her interrogators, and then of Lisa’s account of how she and her family contributed to Laura’s freedom. The political influences Lisa had, and her connections to the State Department, led to an interesting look into the workings of U.S. negotiations with a country as secretive and isolating as North Korea.
Recommended by Trish McPherson, Reference Librarian
A hiking companion gifted me this book recently. It’s not a cover-to-cover sort of read but makes for great browsing and provides some neat tips, like how to figure out direction of travel based upon where ivy is growing on a tree, or how to predict bad weather coming by standing with your back to the wind and observing the clouds. In all honesty, I’ll probably still put my faith in a map, compass, and navigation app, but Gooley’s work will hopefully have me paying closer attention to the land and sky when I’m out in nature.
