It’s getting to be that time of year again, dear readers, when we all begin looking around for books to take with us on our summer getaways, our beach days, or our ‘staycation’ days. And, once again, your friendly neighborhood library staff are here to help you find that perfect book to take with you on your adventures, be they far-flung expeditions, or cozy retreats. We’ll be adding to this list over the course of the summer, so feel free to check back frequently for more updates.
One very general recommendation that we would like to make is that library books are very much like sandwiches: it’s much harder to enjoy them if they are sandy, or dunked in water (or carried off by a seagull, but that’s another story for another day). So take care of your books the same way you would your lunch, as both are usually imperative to enjoying your vacation thoroughly. This also ensures that the books have a long and healthy life, and get to go on lots of adventures with lots of patrons, so everyone wins!
And now, without further ado, here are just a few of the books that have been recommended for you from the staff of the Peabody Library!
From the Children’s Room:
The Book of Speculation: Erika Sawyer’s debut novel is a wonderfully inventive historical mystery that brings together circus freaks, mermaids, old love letters, with an intrepid librarian (we love books with intrepid librarians, for obvious reasons). Simon Watson, the librarian in question, receives a strange old book from an antique bookseller that tells the story of Amos and Evangeline, doomed lovers who lived and worked in a traveling circus more than two hundred years ago…a story that has startling implications for Simon, and, particularly, for the women in his family. Realizing that he has only weeks left to rescue his sister from their bizarre family’s fate, Simon begins trying to decode the story, and understand how a two-hundred-year-old love story has the power to reach across time and touch his own life so profoundly. This is a book that even the most time-strapped amongst us devoured, so it’s a perfect choice for your own summertime adventures!
From Technical Services:
I Let You Go: Our friends upstairs in Tech Services get their hands on all the new books first (I’m not jealous. Not at all.), so we often here about the greatest new thing from them first. This week, it’s Clare Mackintosh’s twisty, and consistently surprising thriller. Jenna Gray’s life is forever changed by the moment her young son’s hand slipped out of hers, and by the car accident that followed. Desperate to escape her memories, and find some kind of future, she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the Welsh coast, but no where seems far enough to escape the past. Meanwhile, two Bristol detectives are still trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run, putting their professional and personal lives on the line to get to the bottom of an increasingly complicated case. Mackintosh’s book is one that is sure to keep you guessing to the very end, with a surprise ending that will blow your socks off.
From the Circulation Desk:
The Weirdness: Summer is a perfect time for adventure and for trying new things, and it seems pretty fair to say that you have never read a book in any way like Jeremy Bushnell’s perfectly-titled debut. Billy Ridgeway is a not-terribly-remarkable young wanna-be novelist living a not-terribly-remarkable life in New York…he has his friends. He has a girlfriend (sort of). He makes poor life choices. And then, one day, he wakes up to find the Devil in his apartment, using his coffee-maker. Lucifer explains (via a Powerpoint presentation) that the most powerful warlock on the eastern seaboard has stolen a small cat figurine that has the power to destroy the universe. And that Billy is the only person who can help rescue it. And, though I know it’s difficult, please believe me when I tell you it just gets stranger from here. Despite the absolute outlandishness of this plot, and the utterly bizarre twists and turns of this undefinable story, there is something really touching about Billy’s journey, that makes it a perfect choice for someone looking for something totally off-the-wall different.
Whatever your summer brings, beloved patrons, may it be fun and memorable, and full of good stories! Check back for more recommendations soon!