Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Some Ideas for Your Next Read

Sometimes when patrons return books they comment on how much they liked them.  Here are some authors and titles that have had good feedback.

Simon Mawer is the author of the 2009 New York Times historical fiction bestseller The Glass Room, a story of a couple and their beautiful home before and during World War II.  One Amazon review says "a near perfect novel of architecture, art and love". 

Trapeze, Mawer's latest book, a blend of fact and fiction, is an espionage tale set in Europe again during World War II.  An English girl fluent in French is recruited by the British Special Operations Executive which trained agents to operate behind enemy lines. She is parachuted into France to join the resistance network. The New York Journal of Books said it has "many of the finest elements of spy thrillers and even romance novels" and "is a fascinating tale and homage to the resistance fighters and members of the SOE".


  Trapeze

  the glass house

 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is still creating great comments.  Reese Witherspoon has been set to produce the movie. 

Gillian Flynn


Flynn
Soon to be a movie












 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail is Cheryl Strayed's memoir of her summer, 1995 eleven hundred mile hike.  She had no experience, "just an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise".  This is an Oprah Book Club selection.  It brings Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods to mind but that book is much lighter.  It does bear some resemblance to Elizabeth Gilbert's blockbuster Eat, Pray Love. The publisher says Wild is "told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor".  "It captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her".  

Cheryl Strayed, ten days into the Pacific Crest Trail in June 1995. / SF
Cheryl Strayed on the hike
Cover art for WILD 






 All these books have good "buzz".  Why not stop at the library and check one out.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Wallander is Back!

Just a reminder that our favorite Swedish inspector, Kurt Wallander, returns Sunday with "three chilling new cases with devastating effects".  Season 3 of PBS Masterpiece Mystery starring Kenneth Branagh is here just in time to open the new fall season.  PBS says Wallander returns in An Event in Autumn "with a new home and relationship, a new sense of possibility".  

Wallander starts this Sunday, September 9, 2012 at 9 p.m. and continues for the two Sundays after that, September 16 (The Dogs of Riga)  and September 23 (Before The Frost).  

Fans of author Henning Mankell will remember the two books, The Dogs of Riga and Before The Frost.  The first PBS installment is based on a Mankell short story.  If you love Swedish noir, Henning Mankell is the master and PBS captures the brooding sense of doom in Wallander perfectly.