Category: Book Baristas

  Ree Drummond.  I met her through her Thanksgiving turkey techniques and have never once doubted the benefits of her influence on my cooking. One of the things I love about the library happens around 11:00 – 11:30 each day.  The desk staff stomachs start grumbling and we look forward to what we are making for dinner.  Between patrons (and

Love, love, loved this book!!! In 1959, Paul and his young family are transferred to Idaho Falls. We meet them on their two week plus hot car ride across the country.  You will feel hot and sweaty and grubby until they stop for a swim.  Then, you will feel refreshed, and be glad for the swim. When they arrive in

Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, has recently published a new novel:  My Name is Lucy Barton.  Just before starting My Name is Lucy Barton, I read a Facebook post by another favorite author, Kelly Corrigan (The Middle Place, Glitter and Glue), about her interview with Elizabeth Strout. I had an interesting conversation last night with

Jason Gurley began writing Eleanor in the fall of 2001, and self published it in 2014.  Crown published it this year.  Eleanor is literary fiction with a fantasy element.  It is a moving exploration of parenting, siblings, grief and forgiveness.  So, for a person who steers clear of self published books, rarely reads fantasy and mid winter, doesn’t voluntarily pick up a

In my January stack of new books is a delicious little volume of short stories with an intriguing cover entitled American Housewife:  Stories by Helen Ellis.  Love the cover, and while I can’t say I curl my hair or file my nails wearing my readers, this book found its way to the top of the pile and into my hands.

Hello fans of The Art Forger…B.A. Shapiro has just come out with another fabulous art related novel.  Alizee Benoit is a young artist in the 1940s.  Interesting to me was that part of The New Deal and the WPA (Works Progress Administration) was the Federal Art Project.  They employed artists (over 10,000) to create art both as a relief effort

  The third in Robert Galbrith’s Cormoran Strike mystery series opens with the grisly delivery of a woman’s severed leg to Robin Ellacott, Strike’s assistant.  Tucked under the leg are the lyrics to the Blue Oyster Cult song “Mistress of the Salt” , a song that Strike’s mother, Leda Strike, had tattooed on her body. The threat to Strike and Robin

It is 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Winston Churchill makes a visit to the United States, accompanied by Maggie Hope, a secret agent posing as his typist.  While they are in Washington, staying at the White House and the Mayflower Hotel, one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s aides purportedly commits suicide.  Or is it murder?  Maggie is quickly drawn

I really loved this book! Black-Eyed Susans is one of those books that takes place in the the past and in the present and I couldn’t wait to see what happened in each time period.  Usually there’s one story-line that I’m more interested in,  but Julia Heaberlin  makes the each time period section in this novel as compelling as the other.

Beatriz Williams’ books-they are, in a word, riveting!  I love the time period, the elegant settings, the well-crafted story.   It was truly a good day when Along the Infinite Sea arrived in the new books box at the Library! I met the Schuyler sisters in The Secret Life of Violet Grant, and then got to know them better in Tiny