The mention of Mafia often brings to people’s minds memories of The Godfather or The Sopranos. In fact, Naomi Krupitsky the author of The Family: a Novel claims both of these sources, plus Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: the Market for Lemons were inspirations for her writing. This reader picked up Krupitsky’s novel because of the storyline involving the…
Erica’s Pick of the Week is about a messy murder, and the unconventional sleuth determined to clear it up.
Spy thriller fans, take note: Box 88 should be on your reading list! Lachlan Kite is part of Box 88, a spy organization so secret that not even MI6 and the CIA know it exists. (Why the odd name for a spy agency? That gets explained in the book.) When Kite is abducted and interrogated…
In Juhea Kim’s sweeping new novel Beasts of a Little Land, a courtesan’s apprentice, an orphaned hustler, and a high-ranking Japanese officer weave in and out of each other’s lives during the tumultuous decades of the Japanese occupation of Korea. Loyalties, friendships, familial bonds, and first loves are tested amidst the backdrop of Korea’s fight for independence.
Believe it or not 2021 is wrapping up and Readers’ Advisor Jo is back for our annual episode recounting Cook Library’s favorite books of the year! Make sure you visit either Cook Park or Aspen Drive library to pick up your very own copies of our Fiction and Nonfiction Favorites booklets. Or take a look…
Peppered with flavorful tidbits of Celtic mythology, paragraphs from traditional Selkie tales published from 1849 – 1903 which help set the mood, The Hidden by Melanie Golding is a psychological thriller that starts out intensely with an abandoned child and a bloody body in a bathtub. The chapters are short and switch perspectives, timeframes and characters. They keep the reader…
Yesterday I examined fiction that received the most love in 2021 from book reviewers. Today I will look at nonfiction. I compiled 27 notable lists with more than 500 books, including our own favorites from the Cook Memorial Public Library District staffers. Thirty-four books, from social commentary and history to climate change and humor, rose…
While the Covid-19 pandemic raged throughout the world in 2020 and we were forced to stay inside and bake bread or binge-watch shows, writers were busy creating stories. What resulted was a bounty of amazing fiction in 2021. In my search for the top-reviewed books of the year, I once again compiled an overall tally,…
Erica’s Pick of the Week is a scifi thriller about what happens AFTER we fix the climate.
This lush, lyrical book tells of forbidden love against a backdrop of ethnic conflict and a changing climate.
Shelf Life 