Posts

Post Type
Tags
Staff Member

People We Meet on Vacation (Henry)

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Serendipity and Secrets Series (Vetsch)

If you are a fan of the Regency era (think Jane Austen), these books will be sure to delight! I loved all three of the books in the series and the companion novella.  Vetsch has written stories that are engaging and make you really care about the characters. She touches on some subjects that aren't often dealt with in Christian fiction and throws in a little bit of mystery with the romance to make for a very enjoyable read.

An Ivy Hill Christmas (Klassen)

Readers who have enjoyed Klassen's Tales from Ivy Hill series will enjoy visiting with these friends again.  This novella focuses on Sir Timothy's younger brother Richard and was a great Christmas read.

American Wonders Series (Regina Scott)

I have listened to the first two books in this series, and enjoyed them both a great deal. I was a little more than disappointed when I realized that the final book in the series is not yet available as an audiobook on Hoopla ... I hope it becomes available soon as I'd like to finish out the series.

Although these books are part of a series, they really are stand-alone novels that can be read individually. Each book takes place in a different National Park and each book has totally different characters.

Once Upon a Broken Heart - Once Upon a Broken Heart #1 (Garber)

How far would you go for happily ever after? For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings...until she learns that the love of her life will marry another. Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy….

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (Rubenhold )

Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from some of London's wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods, from the factory towns of middle England, and from Wales and Sweden. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses, lived on country estates; they breathed ink dust from printing presses and escaped human traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. Now, in this gripping narrative of five lives, Hallie Rubenhold finally sets the record straight and gives these women back their stories.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (Grann)

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Visit the new StoryWalk

Book-loving families in Central Michigan will have the chance to step into a good story and enjoy an interactive experience in Isabella County.

Chippewa River District Library is launching a StoryWalk location at Isabella Township Park (Locust Street, Rosebush).

Families can walk the trail and travel around the park to view each page and take part in activities. The path is both easily visible and walkable for young readers.

The Babysitter (Rodman)

Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitter--the kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother worked--took her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his "secret garden" in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind, understanding, and safe adults in her life. But there was one thing she didn't know; their babysitter was a serial killer. Though Tony Costa's gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later. Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she learned, Liza became obsessed with the case. Now, she and cowriter Jennifer Jordan reveal "a suspenseful portrayal of murderous madness in tandem with a child's growing loneliness, neglect, and despair, a narrative collision that will haunt" (Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita) you long after you finish it.

Forever Young (Mills)

Hayley Mills will forever be remembered as Pollyanna, and as twin sisters Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers in the 1961 Disney classic "The Parent Trap", but those successes were actually very early in her career which continued on for many more years.  In this memoir Mills looks back at her life growing up in an acting family, her relationship with Walt Disney and the various roles she played and productions she was a part of.

2021 Christy Awards

The Christy Awards are given each year to Christian fiction novels to honor "novels of excellence, imagination, and creativity." The award has been given since 1999, and is named for Catherine Marshall’s novel, "Christy". This year's finalists were announced on October 28 during the Christy Award Online Gala.

A Picture of Hope (Tolsma)

Journalist Nellie Wilkerson has spent the bulk of the war in London, photographing mothers standing in milk lines—and she’s bored. She jumps at the chance to go to France, where the Allied forces recently landed. There she enlists Jean-Paul Breslau of the French underground to take her to the frontlines. On the journey, they stumble upon a great tragedy, leaving a girl with special needs being orphaned. Can Nellie and Jean-Paul see the child to a safe haven while being pursued by the Nazis, who are pressed by the advancing Allies and determined to destroy all they can before they flee?