Tag Archives: Genres

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The 2019 Shirley Jackson Award Nominees!

Last week, the nominees for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards were announced in Boston, and we are over the moon to add so many sensational titles to our “To Be Read” lists!

As we’ve noted here in the past,  the Shirley Jackson Awards were established in 2007, and named after the beloved and revered author of such seminal works as “The Lottery” (among a phenomenal collection of short stories), We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Haunting of Hill House.  In recognition of the legacy of Shirley Jackson’s writing, and with permission of the author’s estate, the Shirley Jackson Awards recognize outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.  The final winners are determined by a jury of professional writers, editors, critics and academics, with input from a Board of Advisors, who are charged with selecting the best work published in the preceding calendar year in the following categories:  Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Single-Author Collection and Edited Anthology.  The final announcement of the winners will be made at Readercon, right nearby in Burlington, MA!  You can click on this link here for more information on Readercon itself.

So here is a selection from the categories of winners and nominees for the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards, with links to the titles in our catalogs.  We hope you find some new books to add to your list here, and would love to help you find even more dark fiction to add to your summer reading!

NOVEL

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

Be sure to check out the Shirley Jackson Awards website for a full list of nominees and more information about the awards!  And, as ever, a hearty Free-For-All congratulations to all the nominated authors.  We can’t wait to see who is crowned the winner at Readercon in July!

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Resolve to Read in 2019!

 

via dreamstime.com

We’re not terribly big fans of New Year’s Resolutions in general, beloved patrons, as I think we’ve mentioned here previously.  If you want to make a change in your life, there is no better time to start than right now(ish), regardless of the date or time.  And there is no reason to feel pressured to make changes if you don’t feel the need or desire to do so, no matter what anyone tells you.  We think you’re terrific.

That being said, there’s no time like the present to indulge in some good habits, right?  And in that spirit, we wanted to let you know about some of the phenomenal reading challenges and book lists for 2019 that will help you expand your reading horizons, walk a mile in some new shoes, and find some new kinds of storytelling the the new year.

A good place to start is right inside the Main Library, where we have some book displays to get you started.  Check out our “Resolve to Read” Card Catalog Display, which features some of the titles listed below, as well as the “Broaden Your Horizons in 2019” Display, which has books to help you become a better human; we have books to help you learn how to cook, how to fix things, about understanding your rights in the workplace, and about our brains and bodies, how they work, and what they can do, all of which have been organized to help you find some new skills or new facts to store in your brain for the perfect upcoming occasion.

via BookRiot.com

In addition to our curated lists, we also encourage you to check out Book Riot’s 2019 Read Harder Challenge, an enormously popular reading resolution list that provides (according to BookRiot) “24 tasks designed to help you break out of your reading bubble and expand your worldview through books. With new genres, new authors, and new points of view, the challenge will (hopefully) help you discover amazing books you wouldn’t have otherwise picked up.”  We had great fun following this list in 2018, and are looking forward to doing the same this year, as well!  For those of you interested, here is a discussion of the challenge, and the list as assembled by our friends over at BookRiot:

“We encourage you to push yourself, to take advantage of this challenge as a way to explore topics or formats or genres that you otherwise wouldn’t try. But this isn’t a test. No one is keeping score and there are no points to post. We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help to even know which perspectives to try out. That’s what this is—a perspective shift—but one for which you’ll only be accountable to yourself.”

The BookRiot 2019 Read Harder Challenge:

  1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters
  2. An alternate history novel
  3. A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018
  4. A humor book
  5. A book by a journalist or about journalism
  6. A book by an AOC set in or about space
  7. An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America
  8. An #ownvoices book set in Oceania
  9. A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads
  10. A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman
  11. A book of manga
  12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character
  13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse
  14. A cozy mystery
  15. A book of mythology or folklore
  16. An historical romance by an AOC
  17. A business book
  18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author
  19. A book of nonviolent true crime
  20. A book written in prison
  21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator
  22. A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009
  23. A self-published book
  24. A collection of poetry published since 2014

Let’s see what we can accomplish together with this list, beloved patrons!

Electric Literature
via electricliterature.com

For those interested in diversifying their reading lists, the good people at ElectricLit have published a stupendous list of “48 Books By Women and Nonbinary Authors of Color to Read in 2019“.  As noted in the list, this compilation is limited to prose.  Perhaps we, in the weeks and months to come, could expand this list with some poetry?  But the terrific part about this list is that it is organized by month, giving you titles to mark down in your new calendars, or request at your Local Library on a regular basis.  Having had the supreme privilege of reading some of these books already, I can tell you that this is a list worth savoring as the year unfolds.

Most Anticipated 2019 LGBTQ Reads | bookriot.com
via BookRiot.com

Back to BookRiot for a moment, those lovely people have also put together a list of the “Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2019“.   There are a fair number of YA/Teen-oriented books on this list, because that’s largely the state of the publishing industry.  But there are a few adult-oriented and non-fiction titles that look quite interesting, as well.  And, frankly, now’s as good a time as any of all of us to read outside our comfort zone, and try books intended for all audiences, right?  For those of you interested in talking more about these books, our good friends over at the Beverly Library have an LGBTQ Book Group that is held on the 3rd Monday of the month from 7-8:30 PM.  Take a look at their reading lists, and think about signing up!

via Bustle.com

And for those looking to learn more about the world around us and its history, the website Bustlehas published their selections for the “29 Nonfiction Books Coming Out In 2019 To Start Getting Excited About“.   This is another list organized chronologically, providing both the month and the week of a book’s release, and features true crime, history, memoirs, and essays–you’ll even find a few overlaps in this list from some of the ones listed above.

 

We hope these lists and challenges have provided you a good place to begin on your reading resolutions for 2019, beloved patrons!  We’ll be offering some reviews and suggestions as the year goes on from these lists, and, of course, sharing with you some of the titles that have made our 2019 “Best Of” lists.  So stayed tuned, stay well, and keep on reading in the New Year!

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Celebrating the Best of 2018 (Part 3)!

It’s been a good year to be a reader, beloved patrons.  And a good year for music and movies, and all the other beautiful things that libraries provide!  And here, we are celebrating the year in books, music, and movies with as many people as possible!  In addition to having a Peabody Library Staff “Best of 2018” List, we will also be featuring some selections from our friends at other NOBLE libraries, as well!

And we’re eager for your input, too!  The NOBLE  Collection Management Working Group is assembling nominations for a “NOBLE Book Awards”, and NOBLE staff have been asked for their input.  So please let us know what books you’ve loved this year, and we’ll be sure to pass them on to the NOBLE Book Awards committee, but also to feature them here on the blog so that other readers can benefit from your recommendations!  Nominations will be accepted until December 16, so get yours to us today!  You can tell us in person, or via email (click the word “email” for our address).

And so, without further ado, let’s get to our first round of “Best of 2018” selections, courtesy of our marvelous staff!   In our request for nominations, we stipulated that books, movies, or albums could be from any year, but they had to have been enjoyed in 2018.  So you’ll see plenty of oldies-but-goodies on this list to savor, along with some new titles!

From the Teen Room: 

 I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara: For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.  Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was. This book, edited with fascinating afterwards and appendices after McNamara’s death, offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle’s dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.

From our Staff: The author passed away before she could finish the book, but her family and friends lovingly compiled, completed and published the book this February. On a related, exciting note, the Golden State Killer was identified and arrested in April this year. Myself and other fans of her work only wish that Ms. McNamara had lived to see this man brought to justice. But her book was stellar and I’d recommend it to any true crime fans!

From the Children’s Room:

Meaty: Essays by Samantha Irby: Smart, edgy, hilarious, and unflinchingly honest, Samantha Irby explodes onto the printed page in her uproarious first collection of essays.   In these works, Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease and more. Updated with her favorite Instagramable, couch-friendly recipes, this much-beloved romp is treat for anyone in dire need of Irby’s infamous, scathing wit and poignant candor.

From our staff: Re-released this year after the popularity of her last essay collection, this is every bit as funny, irreverent and brutally honest as her other work. Irby is blunt but her bluntness often translates into hilarity as she’s doesn’t shy away from the messier parts of life.

From the Public Service Desk:

The Shining by Stephen King: An oldie, but a goodie, this is one of King’s novels that just seems to get better with time.  Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.  It seems that Danny is the only person able to see what the hotel is doing to Jack–and perhaps the only person who can stop it.

From our staff: I had read this book years ago, but it was only this time around that I really appreciate how King used Jack Torrance’s story to address the agony of addiction, the lure, allure, and threat of toxic masculinity, and the long-lasting legacy of abuse.  This is a haunted house novel, obviously, but it’s also a book about the damage we as humans do to each other, and the effects that has, making this a powerful and heart-wrenching human study, as well.

 

Until next week, beloved patrons!

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All Hallows Read: Some Spooky Suggestions

Happy All Hallows Read!

It’s that time of year, beloved patrons, as the nights get longer and the winds a little louder, and there seems nothing finer in the world than curling up with a story.  If, like me, your taste runs to the kind of stories that cause the hair on your arms to rise, or that will leave you jumping at shadows, then journey on with us for a few stellar reading suggestions.  And don’t forget to check out our display of All Hallows Read books here at the Main Library!

We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories: If you’ve read C. Robert Cargill’s other works, like Dreams and Shadows and Queen of the Dark Things will know that his imagination is limitless, and tends to flourish best in the twilight shadows between fantasy and horror.  These stories work so well because they blend the utterly real, the overwhelmingly banal details of everyday life with a twist of real terror–a voice in the static of a bad connection; a whispered phrase that grows increasingly menacing with each repetition–and then launch off into the fantastic, ensuring that readers will be hooked from the first sentence to the last.  There is plenty of fun here, as well, and fans of Colby Stevens (from Dreams and Shadows) will be thrilled to see he makes a reappearance in these pages, as well. The story from which this book takes its name, “We Are Where the Nightmares Go” is horror at its most insightful, prescient, and shudder-inducing best.

Little Heaven: Hey there, if you’re looking for an opening scene that will haunt your nightmares, then look no further than Nick Cutter’s novel about cults and powers beyond human conception….A trio of mismatched mercenaries—Micah Shughrue, Minerva Atwater, and Ebenzer Elkins–are hired by young Ellen Bellhaven for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven, where a clandestine religious cult holds sway.  The task should be an easy one for these professionals.  But nothing around Black Rock is what it seems, and there is something stirring in the woods and the soil and the wind around Little Heaven that breeds madness.  And no matter how willing our trio might be to stand and fight, their combined skills are no match for whatever is coming at them.  Cutter is a writer who revels in giving readers the screaming heebie-jeebies, as fans of this other work can surely attest.  But the atmosphere of this novel is so well-crafted and the characters are so quirky and believable that it’s hard to look away, even if you want to try.

The Grip of It: A brilliant, modern spin on the haunted house trope, Jac Jemc’s slim little novel is packed with chills and shocks.  While touring their prospective suburban home, Julie and James are stopped by a noise. Deep and vibrating, like throat singing. Ancient, husky, and rasping, but underwater. “That’s just the house settling,” the real estate agent assures them with a smile. He is wrong.  Although the couple moved to this idyllic place to escape James’ gambling problem and rebuild their relationship, it would seem their house had different plans.  It seems to be both growing and decaying around them, carving itself into Julie’s skin with each day that passes.  The result is a mind-bending book that will have you second-guessing every stray noise around you, every change in the light, and have you considering the very walls around you differently.  And what more could you ask from a haunted house novel?

Until next time, dear readers, Happy All Hallows Read!

 

 

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The Romance Garden!

Did you know that August is “Read A Romance Month”?  Neither did we!  But it is, so we are more than happy to celebrate anything and everything book related.

RARM 2016 square
Via http://www.readaromancemonth.com/about-read-a-romance-month-2/

“Read A Romance Month” was conceived and launched in 2013 by freelance writer and romance advocate Bobbi Dumas, after she realized there was no one place where the community celebrated romance all together, at one time, in a concentrated way.  So why not enjoy these sweltering, sizzling summer days with a few good, steamy romance?  Check out the display in the Main Library for some titles, and be sure to check out our genre experts monthly selections below!

Bridget: The Bride Who Got Lucky by Janna McGregor

This is one of those rare books that are almost betrayed by their descriptions, because, while the plot of this book is interesting, the real joy comes from the interactions between the protagonists between the action.  Their chemistry is tangible, and I adored the way their connection helped them evolve and redeem themselves, and each other.

Lady Emma Cavensham is on a mission, determined to prove that her beloved friend’s death came at the hands of her ruthless husband.  Naturally, because this is a romance, her quest is foiled by a compromising moment with a long-time acquaintance…who may just be the perfect partner for all her live’s adventures.  Nicholas St. Mauer learned the hard way not to put faith in any relationship.  Having been raised by a genuinely unloving and unlovable father, Nick doesn’t know how to be lovable, or how to properly show love to others, even though Emma once tried.  Now that their names and reputations have been linked inextricably together, Nick realizes that he has no choice but to make Emma his bride.  But can he ever make her happy?  And how on earth can he keep her safe in the bargain?

As I mentioned, McGregor is a master of the little details, and this book is proof.  Emma’s relationship with Nick grows through small shared moments of laughter and honest that make the bond between them something unique and wonderfully powerful.  I loved how she and Nick found healing and acceptance together, and gave each other hope that their future together would be better than their pasts alone.  I was also generally impressed with the way Emma’s quest turned out.  This isn’t a simple comparison where the hero and villain are identical foils to each other, and the result is a thought-provoking plot line that adds, rather than distracts from the romance between Emma and Nick.  While this is the second book in the Cavensham Heiress series, new readers won’t have any trouble jumping into this series from here.

Gladiolus is one of August’s birthday flower. Image Credit: Eden Brothers

Kelley: Born to be Wilde by Eloisa James

When I’m looking for a romance that I know without question will be a good one, Eloisa James is one of my go-to authors. Her story lines are unique, her characters both main and secondary are people worth getting to know, and she always manages to slip in some Shakespeare references for good measure. Born to be Wilde is the third in James’ “The WIldes of Lindow Castle” series, and it’s every bit as good as the first two books.

The eccentric Wilde family is as much a force of nature as the bog that abuts their castle. Alaric is a world adventurer and writer who inspired the prints that made the family into reluctant celebrities; North is a former dandy turned rakish war veteran; and Parth Sterling, the hero of this book, is the honorary Wilde, the brother adopted when his parents died in India and the one who is now the most successful and wealthy bachelor in England. The brothers are lovingly guided by their stubborn and big-hearted Aunt Knowe who helped their father raise them after their mother died, and Lindow Castle is also full of energetic younger Wildes from the dukes second marriage.

As a cousin to North’s fiance, Diana, and close friend of Alaric’s wife, WIlla, Lavinia Gray finds herself a part of the boisterous Wilde clan frequently. Lavinia is smart, fashionable, and gets along well with everyone. With the exception of Parth. When Parth and Lavinia come together, every conversation turns to needling and ends in an argument, but when Lavinia finds that her mother has entirely lost her dowry and their fortune, she is forced to propose marriage to the man she has called “Appalling Parth” for years. More mortifying still, he says no. Protective by nature and a top-notch problem solver, although Parth refuses to marry Lavinia, he does agree to help her find a husband. But once he does, can he live with the idea of Lavinia marrying another man? It could just turn out that the sparks that fly between them might be something more.

Lavinia’s character is one of the greatest strengths of this book. Watching her come to respect and love the things that she once condemned about herself, and then to settle for no less than a man who will do the same, will have readers cheering for her. Eloisa James has done it again. Happy reading, romance lovers!

 

Until next month, beloved patrons–we hope you find plenty of romances to enjoy for “Read a Romance Month”!

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Resolve to Read 2018: A Mystery By a Person of Color or LGBTQ+ Author

As we mentioned here previously, we here at the Library are Resolving to Read (more…different….) in 2018, and tackling both Book Riot’s and Scholastic’s 2018 Reading Challenges.  In the hopes of encouraging you to broader your literary horizons along with us, here are some suggestions for books that fall within the categories of the various challenges.

Today’s Challenge: Book Riot 2018 Read Harder Challenge
Category: A Mystery By a Person of Color of LGBTQ+ Author 

This is one of those great aspects of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge that actually makes you think…we all love and respect the #WeNeedDiverseBooks, which helps us recognize and celebrate diversity in children’s literature–but how diverse are the grown-up books I am reading?  Whose books are getting promoted in ads and book displays?  What can I do to change that?

You can start here, by trying out some of the sensational mysteries in this category of the Book Riot challenge.

The neat thing about these mysteries is the way they challenge their genres, by rethinking commonly-held assumptions, perceiving of characters and their relationships in new ways, and presenting a different view on the world than you might otherwise find in books that are more “mainstream” (“mainstream” in this case meaning “books that are readily advertised and often indistinguishable from their fellows based on premise and cover design alone).  So this is one of those challenges that helps you expand your literary and personal horizons by doing that which we all know you already love to do–read!  Here are just a few titles to get you started on your quest, but we’re always here to help you find more!

Wife of the Gods by Kwei J. Quartey:Detective Inspector Darko Dawson is a dedicated family man, a rebel in the office and an ace in the field.  When we first meet Dawson, he’s been ordered by his cantankerous boss to leave behind his loving wife and young son in Ghana’s capital city to lead a murder investigation: In a shady grove outside the small town of Ketanu, a young woman—a promising medical student—has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. Dawson is fluent in Ketanu’s indigenous language, so he’s the right man for the job, but the local police are less than thrilled with an outsider’s interference.  But Dawson’s past is also waiting for him in Ketanu in the form of the family he left behind twenty-five years earlier after his mother’s mysterious disappearance.  And in Delving deeper into the student’s haunting death, Dawson will uncover long-buried secrets that, to his surprise, hit much too close to home.  Quartey’s books are funny, insightful, and expertly-crafted, and offer the chance for armchair travelers everywhere to visit places in Africa that are not featured on any prime time specials.  Readers who enjoy this book will be delighted to hear that there is a whole series feature D.I. Dawson for you to enjoy!

Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon: With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottage’s murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace. Gethsemane’s reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger. As Gethsemane races to prevent a deadly encore, will she uncover the truth or star in her own farewell performance?   This is a terrific book about fishes-out-of-water, cultural clashes, music, and ghosts that, thankfully, is also the beginning of a winning series that continues Gethsemane’s adventures (misadventures?) in Ireland.

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan: This is a book that delves deeply into real-world atrocities, even as it spins a moving tale about trust, belonging, and truth-telling that makes for a hard-to-forget read.  Despite their many differences, Detective Rachel Getty trusts her boss, Esa Khattak, implicitly. But she’s still uneasy at Khattak’s tight-lipped secrecy when he asks her to look into Christopher Drayton’s death. Drayton’s apparently accidental fall from a cliff doesn’t seem to warrant a police investigation, particularly not from Rachel and Khattak’s team, which handles minority-sensitive cases. But when she learns that Drayton may have been living under an assumed name, Rachel begins to understand why Khattak is tip-toeing around this case. It soon comes to light that Drayton may have been a war criminal with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.  Khan holds a Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law, and uses actual eyewitness testimony to the massacre at Srebrenica  throughout the book, making for difficult, but vitally necessary reading.  This is also the first book in a series, so readers who find this hybrid kind of mystery will have plenty of fodder for further reading.

The Arnifour Affair by Gregory Harris: Those of you looking for a historical mystery, have no fear–Colin Pendragon’s adventures are sure to keep you enthralled.  When a carriage bearing the Arnifour family crest–a vulture devouring a slaughtered lamb–arrives at the Kensington home of Colin Pendragon, it is an ominous beginning to a perplexing new case. Lady Arnifour’s husband has been beaten to death and her niece, Elsbeth, left in a coma. Is the motive passion, revenge, or something even more sinister? Police suspicions have fallen on the groundskeeper and his son, yet the Earl’s widow is convinced of their innocence. Even as Colin and his partner Ethan Pruitt delve into the muddy history of the Arnifour family, a young street urchin begs their help in finding his missing sister. Ethan, regrettably familiar with London’s underbelly, urges caution, yet Colin’s interest is piqued.  The links between the two cases seems extraordinary, and yet, as Colin and Ethan journey across Regency London, from the slums to the highest echelons of society, they begin to unravel a secret larger and more complex than they ever imagined.  There is an air of Sherlock Holmes to these mysteries, but Harris revels in the complexities of his characters and their relationships far more than Doyle ever did, making this book (also, no surprise, the beginning of a series) a layered, complex, and wholly engaging one.

Until next time, dear readers, keep on keeping on, and enjoy your Resolution to Read!

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The Romance Garden!

Romance is everywhere, dear readers.  Love stories can be found everywhere–not only in romance novels.  We’re not just talking about “some of the characters are married or getting married” plot lines.  We’re talking about the kind of slow-burning, evolving, enriching love stories that romance readers know and love.  They just take place on the pages of a book that is shelved in mystery, perhaps.  Or science fiction.  Or thriller.   Indeed, there are a number of established romance authors who work across genres, and bring their skills in crafting relationships to any number of different books, stories, and genres.

So, perhaps you are a reader who would like more romance in your life, but aren’t really in the mood for a full-on romance?  Or perhaps the romances are your favorite part of other genre installments?  Here are a few suggestions for you from our genre experts for “Romance in non-romance genres”.  We hope you find some inspiration for your next romantic read!

Murder on Black Swan Lane: The author of this intriguing series, Andrea Penrose, also writes historical romance novels under the name of Cara Elliott, and she brings the same nuanced character development, insight, and chemistry to this tale of murder, international intrigue and…well…chemistry.  The Earl of   (fans of Elliott’s work will remember this name!) has been plagued by the satirical cartoons of A.J. Quill, an artist as brilliant as he in ruthless in skewering the hypocrisy and debauchery of the aristocracy.  But then the clergyman is found slain in a church—his face burned by chemicals, his throat slashed ear to ear—and Wrexford finds himself the chief suspect.  Charlotte Sloan has been using her deceased husband’s pseudonym, A.J. Quill, drawing cartoons in order to keep poverty from the door.  Having anyone discover her secret would be disastrous–until Wrexford discovers her.  Instead of revealing her, however, he offers her a deal—use her sources to unveil the clergyman’s clandestine involvement in questionable scientific practices, and unmask the real murderer.  This is a pair unlike in temperament, class, and outlook, but they work together beautifully, and Penrose expertly crafts the bond between them that will keep readers spellbound even as the mystery they investigate grows ever deadlier.  If you enjoy this book, be sure to check out the second–Murder at Half Moon Gate.  It’s even better, believe me!

What Angels Fear: If historical mysteries are your cup of tea, I cannot recommend C.S. Harris’ series featuring Sebastian St. Cyr more highly.  These mysteries are expertly crafted, the danger is real, and the history is delightful.  But at the heart of this series is a hero who has had his heart broken too many times, and has a huge amount of emotional growing-up to do.  And Harris makes him do it.  As a result, the long plot arcs in this series, featuring St. Cyr’s family drama, clandestine romances, and finally finding a real true love, are unpredictable, daring, and wonderfully fulfilling.  These stories have a bit more mystery in them than Penrose’s, but the romance, the angst, and the true love, are critically important, too!  In this first book in the series, St. Cyr is the prime suspect in a the brutal rape and murder of a young woman whose body is left in an ancient church.  Desperate to save his own skin, and ever-ready to settle old debts, St. Cyr sets out to find the true culprit–and nearly upends the reign of the Prince Regent in the process.

 

Security: Gina Wohlsdorf’s debut was by far and away one of the most unexpected, unpredictable, and strangely moving books I’ve read in a long time.  On the surface, this is a book about a hotel–the most secure, technologically-advanced, luxurious hotel ever built.  Security cameras, sound-recording devices, and a wealth of other high-tech devices have been installed to ensure that guests enjoy the ultimate in comfort, privacy, and security.  But when the security system is hacked, allowing a band of unknown, vicious killers into the building, the Manderly Resort becomes a slaughter-house.  Beneath the surface, however, this is a story about human relationships–specifically, the relationship between hotel manager Tessa and the man who has come to visit her.  And the security guard who watches it all.  To tell you anymore would be to ruin the surprise of this book, but if you are in the mood for something that will, quite seriously, provide you with All The Feelings, from fear to passion, from creeping terror to jubilation, this is the book for you!

 

We: A classic science-fiction/dystopian novel, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1921 novel (inspired by his own experiences during the Russian Revolution and Civil War) predates George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, and does it will chilling insight and stunning imagery.  But even as this book tells the story of a “world at harmony” in a totalitarian state where no one has names or individual identities, it’s also a love story.  Like all other citizens of One State, D-503 lives in a glass apartment building and is carefully watched by the secret police, or Bureau of Guardians. D-503’s lover, O-90, has been assigned by One State to visit him on certain nights.  But then, D-503 meets I-330, and his whole life is turned upside down.  And not only his life–1-330 is the leader of a revolutionary group determined to bring humanity and bird song back to the city in which she lives.  Though the results of this book aren’t specifically happy, this is a book that validates and celebrates the power of love in all its forms over and over again.  And in that way, it’s a truly powerful love story.

 

Until next month, beloved patrons–may you love all that you read!