Ghost Stories & More Mysteries
Ghosts from the Library edited by Tony Medawar
Featuring short stories from Daphne du Maurier, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and more, this collection revives never-beforepublished traditional ghost stories. Traverse paranormal twists and turns via tales of otherworldly cottages that stay mysteriously clean, children who disappear chasing red balloons, a brooding husband under the spell of his witchy ex, and the ghosts that emerge from the closet in the dead of night…Written between 1912 and 1975, these sixteen stories will haunt your Halloween! (RR)
Obelists at Sea by C. Daly King
The smoking room of a luxury transatlantic cruise ship erupts in chaos when Victor Timothy Smith is fatally shot during a sudden power failure. Remarkably, an autopsy reveals that Smith died of poisoning at the same instant he was being shot. Before very long, the man whom virtually everybody saw fire the gun is also found dead. The deaths are investigated by four psychiatrists, each of whom is gently spoofed in this artfully plotted, occasionally zany, mystery-satire from the 1930s. Equal parts comedy and thriller, Obelists at Sea will appeal to fans of both. (BH)
Exiles by Jane Harper
Australian author Jane Harper excels in atmospheric, character-driven thrillers, and this latest mystery is as absorbing as they get! Investigator Aaron Falk travels to Southern Australian wine country for a christening. It's also the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance: Last year, after securing her baby into her stroller, Kim vanished into the crowd at the town's annual wine festival. As her family pleads for information, Falk can’t help but get involved—and it turns out an outsider's take on the close-knit community might be exactly what the case needs. Settle in for a quick, engrossing read! (AG)
Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian
Tempest Raj, a twenty-something magician, ends her stage show after an accident that she blames on a curse afflicting her family. But when the body of her former stunt double is discovered inside the wall of a house, she begins to suspect that more than bad luck may be at play. How did the body get into the wall? Did the murderer intend to kill Tempest? Why is the ghost of her mother hanging about, playing the fiddle? Gigi Pandian piles on the invention—a bookish best friend, a father who runs a construction company specializing in secret passages and hidden rooms—to create a thoroughly charming confection. The allusions to classic mysteries—the locked-room puzzles of John Dickson Carr especially—will delight the hearts of book-lovers. (BH)
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
After four decades working as elite assassins for a clandestine international organization, sixty-somethings Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie are sent on a cruise to mark their retirement. But when Billie recognizes a fellow agent on the ship, they realize they're being targeted by their former employer. The foursome will have to use all their experience and wiles to survive, and the invisibility of women of a certain age might just be their greatest advantage. Thrilling, witty, and tons of fun, Killers of a Certain Age is a wild ride you won't want to miss! (AG)
Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings
Pragmatic, even-tempered Violet Manville is obliged to take over her aunt’s advice column when Adelia reveals that she’s secretly Miss Hermione, “the most celebrated agony aunt in the Empire,” and is going on holiday. Responding to a letter from a woman named Ivy who fears that she’s in mortal danger, Violet visits Ivy’s village and finds that she's too late—Ivy recently took a fatal tumble off a bridge. Suspecting foul play, Violet is drawn into a mystery involving her flighty sister Sephora and a devilishly alluring American who may not be what he appears. Nimbly balancing coziness and suspense, this Dear Miss Hermione mystery is a delight. (BH)
Biographies & Nonfiction
Mala’s Cat by Mala Kacenberg
Mala Kacenberg was a young teenager when she narrowly escaped the Nazi decimation of her small Polish village's Jewish population, including her entire family. For six harrowing years, Mala persevered— first hiding in the forest, then taking on new identities in Poland and eventually Germany—accompanied throughout by her guardian angel, a cat named Malach. Miracles abound in this true story of sorrow and survival…but Mala's courage, faith, quick thinking, and emotional resilience are the most miraculous of all. (CH)
The Search by John Henry Phillips
As a teenager, Patrick Thomas was onboard the landing craft LCH 185 off the coast of Normandy when it struck a mine and sank, along with half its crew. Now in his nineties, Thomas meets archeologist John Henry Phillips, who is mesmerized by the account of his near-drowning and the impossible choice he was forced to make between saving the life of a best friend or a stranger. Phillips attempts to locate the last resting place of the sunken vessel, whilst grappling with the enormity of the sacrifices made by those young men in an era that is rapidly fading from memory. Suffused with reverence for the dead and fascination with the astonishing scale of the conflict, Phillips’ book never loses sight of the achingly human stories at its heart. (BH)
Muppets in Moscow by Natasha Lance Rogoff
When the Soviet regime fell in the early 1990s, Congress committed financial support to introduce the youth of postcommunist Russia to modern democratic values via the beloved children's show Sesame Street. Sounds delightful, right? In this captivating memoir, producer Natasha Lance Rogoff shares the “unexpected crazy true story” of creating the Russian version of Ulitsa Sezam—including not only fascinating culture clashes, but military intervention and assassinations! The extraordinary creativity and perseverance shown by Rogoff and her international team of filmmakers, writers, artists, musicians, and puppeteers make Muppets in Moscow an inspirational thrill of a read. (CH)
Solito by Javier Zamora
At the age of nine, Javier Zamora left his extended family in El Salvador to be reunited with his parents who had already migrated to America. The resulting journey—by boat and truck and on foot, through immense stretches of desert and across several borders— proved grueling and formative. Yet Zamora’s account is poetic and hopeful, delighting in the details of the places he visits—the green mangoes, the sugarcane fields, the joy of eating tacos for the first time in Mexico. Zamora convincingly renders the world from a child’s perspective; the warmth he displays as a boy amid dangerous circumstances makes him irresistibly sympathetic. More than a memoir, this is a genuine literary achievement. (BH)
Wilderness Readers Collection
by John Muir, Mark Twain, & Henry David Thoreau
These literary naturalists put the blossoming American frontiers—and the desire to protect them—on the map. Read about the early explorations of the West and the “forest reservations” that would become our national parks and John Muir’s legacy. Follow Mark Twain’s semiautobiographical stagecoach through the Wild West. And deepen your understanding of the transcendent connection between humans and nature with Thoreau. Packaged in a sturdy, illustrated slipcase, the set includes John Muir’s Wilderness Essays and Our National Parks, Mark Twain’s Roughing It, and Henry David Thoreau’s Natural History Essays. (RR)
Making it Home by Teresa Strasser
Shaken by the loss of her mother and brother—and still sifting through the rubble of a childhood marred by a tyrannical stepmother— Teresa Strasser seeks refuge in her son's little league games. Throughout the season, she finds a surprising ally in her father, a curmudgeonly retiree with grease-stained hands and a fondness for Leonard Cohen. The games they attend together become a window into the mind of a writer grappling with the biggest possible questions—faith, fraught family relationships, the yearning to live our lives over, and the mystery of what follows death. By turns sobering and funny, searing and warm-hearted, Strasser's memoir wrings fodder for contemplation from an unlikely premise. (BH)
Fresh Fiction
The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson
With the war against Hitler raging and bombs falling on London nightly, a young woman named Clara Button brings her library deep underground into the partially constructed Bethnal Green Tube station. Working long hours and battling local creeps and civil servants who don’t see the benefit of reading for pleasure, Clara and her close friend Ruby turn the library into a shelter for children, book-lovers, and assorted misfits. When Clara is forced from her position, the community rallies to protect one of its most beloved landmarks. Thompson’s novel is both an engaging story and an impassioned polemic speaking directly to issues confronting readers and librarians today. (BH)
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
A moving and elegant tribute to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Hello Beautiful tells the story of William Waters, who, as a young man emerging from a lonely and tragic childhood, falls in love with Julia Padavano. The Padavano family, four spirited sisters and their parents, enfold William in their chaotic and loving embrace, until darkness from his past surfaces, threatening to jeopardize not only his relationship with Julia, but also the sisters’ ineffable bonds. Ultimately uplifting—and profoundly insightful—this is one of those books you'll want to share with everyone you know. (AG)
Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby
In 1804, Anne Sharp accepted a governess position at Godmersham Park, where she tutored a young woman named Fanny Austen. Based on real letters written by Fanny's famous aunt Jane, Gill Hornby’s novel depicts Anne’s struggles to adjust to her new position and her growing friendship with the lively novelist. Anne's ill treatment at the hands of the family is vividly rendered, but the affection that develops between the two women and Anne’s burgeoning confidence suffuse the book with comforting warmth. Rich with period details, Godmersham Park deserves to become a classic. (BH)
Go As a River by Shelley Read
Victoria's life is forever changed after she meets vagabond Wilson Moon in her small Colorado town in 1948. Fear and heartbreak soon drive the seventeen-year-old to the mountainous woods to make a single sorrowful choice that will haunt her into adulthood. This achingly beautiful story reminds us that “Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl's life erase who she was before.” (RR)
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
Saoirse Aylward is raised by her mother and grandmother following her father's untimely death. By turns tender and stern, the Aylward women help Saoirse navigate an adolescence that is punctuated with strange turns of fortune and shocking acts of violence. Ryan's unsentimental portrayal of female relationships in a dreary Irish village keeps the novel's majestic flights of lyricism from becoming saccharine. Told in a series of vignettes that span more than twenty years in the life of a single family, this is a book that bristles with empathy and ambition, finding moments of grace in the mundane and positing love and storytelling as two answers to the riddle of human suffering. (BH)
The Horsewoman by James Patterson & Mike Lupica
Becky McCabe hails from a long line of female show-jumpers. When her steely mother, Maggie, who had been training for the Olympics, falls and injures her pelvis, Becky agrees to enter the competitions that will determine the U.S. Olympics team in her stead. This proves too much for Maggie, who quickly rallies and seeks to compete against her own daughter. Bestselling thriller author James Patterson teams up with prominent sport writer Mike Lupica to conjure a rarefied world of ribbons and champagne, yet the novel's greatest achievement is the incorrigible mother-daughter pair at its center. (BH)