Thrill Me this Summer

We haven’t done a thriller in a long time and summer seems like as good a time as any to be carried along by a story of suspense. Ivy Pochoda’s 2020 literary thriller, “These Women,” is available on hoopla as an ebook and an audiobook.

“In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.” These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won’t stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved … In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.”

Intrigued? Join us via Zoom on Tuesday July 28 at 7:30 pm. Be sure to register here so we can send you the Zoom access link. Happy readin!

Introvert’s Paradise?

Greetings from Week 6 of staying at home in the age of social distancing! Even for the most hardcore introverts, this is all getting to be a bit much. Let’s explore that on Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30 pm when we discuss “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come: One Introvert’s Year of Saying Yes” by Jessica Pan. Ebook and audiobook copies can be found for instant download on hoopla. The audiobook is read by the author.

We’ll be meeting over Zoom. Please email Liz at lreed@minlib.net to get access details. A phone number will be provided to call in to join for those who aren’t able to join us by video.

I hope you’re all keeping yourselves well, see you 4/28!

ToT in the time of corona

Hi everyone, as you know the Norwood Library is closed until further notice, and barring a miracle we won’t be meeting in person on Tuesday 3/31. (yes, that falls outside of our usual fourth Tuesday schedule…it’s a long story and we can all laugh about it later.)

However, we’d like to get together for a virtual book group instead, using a platform like Zoom to have our meeting over video chat. If you’re interested in joining us please email Liz at lreed@minlib.net.

So, what will we be discussing on 3/31? “Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts.” If you didn’t get a chance to grab a copy before the library closed, it is available in ebook and audiobook format through Overdrive/Libby. If I see more holds being placed on those I can purchase additional copies, so go for it.

A New Weird

Finally, at long last, our group is discussing a China Mieville book (!!!!!!). Join us Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 pm in Napper Tandy’s back patio (or indoors in the left-hand-side bar, if the weather is crummy) to talk about The City & The City.

From Nonfiction to Hard SF

Hello all, and happy summer! It looks like we might get rained out on June 25 so we probably won’t be sitting on the deck, but will instead meet in the left-hand-side bar at Napper Tandy’s to discuss “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers. This award-winning nonfiction book chronicles one family’s experience during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Can’t join us 6/25 at 7:30 pm? Next month we’ll be tackling our first-ever space opera by a master of modern sci-fi: “The Collapsing Empire” by John Scalzi, winner of the Locus Award for SF Novel. Copies of the book and audiobook will be available to pick up at the Reference Desk, and the ebook is available through Overdrive.

Also, Summer Reading for Adults is in full swing and our BINGO sheet is ready to go! I’ll have some copies at our meeting on 6/25, and you can find all the details here.

See you at book group!

Would you want to know?

If a mysterious woman rumored to be a psychic could tell you your future, including the date you were going to die, would you want to know? The Gold children did, and what they heard shaped the lives of all four from that day forward. Were they fulfilling the prophecy, or can you beat destiny?

Pick up a copy of The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin and join us on Tuesday May 28 at 7:30 pm to discuss! We have copies of the book and book on CD at the MML Reference Desk, and the ebook and audiobook versions are available through Overdrive (psst! If these look like they’re all checked out, go ahead and place a hold. I bought extra copies for us so you’ll skip the line and get it much sooner. You’re welcome!).

Fingers crossed super-duper hard that we can sit on the back deck at Napper Tandy’s! If the weather refuses to cooperate however, we’ll be in the left-hand-side bar at Napper Tandy’s. Cheers!

Less is more

In case you haven’t heard, our next title to read is “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017 as well as a list of accolades as long as your arm. The description of the book reads like a rom-com, complete with high jinks, daring-do, misadventure, and impulsive decisions.

“You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years now engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes–it would all be too awkward–and you can’t say no–it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of half-baked literary invitations you’ve received from around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

If you are Arthur Less.

Thus begins an around-the-world-in-eighty-days fantasia that will take Arthur Less to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and put thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face. What could possibly go wrong?

A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.”

I’m excited – are you excited?? Good. Meet us at Napper Tandy’s on Tuesday April 23 at 7:30 pm to discuss “Less.” We’re usually in the left-hand-side bar, but by a fluke of the weather we may be able to sit on the back deck. Copies of the book and book on CD are available to pick up at the second floor Reference Desk at MML, and the ebook and audiobook versions are available digitally through Overdrive. See you then!

(Tip: go ahead and put yourself on hold for the ebook and audiobook. I bought extra copies for us and they’ll go to Norwood patrons first, so you’ll skip the big scary line!)

And you thought your family had issues

Meet the Telemachases. They’re a family of gifted people – mind readers, psychics, magicians, you name it – but between run-ins with the CIA and with the local mob, they can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Their exploits and misadventures are the subject of Dary’s Gregory’s new novel, Spoonbenders. A Nebula Award Finalist and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2017, this book should be a fun read.

We’ll be meeting in Napper Tandy’s left-hand-side bar (still too chill for the back deck I think!) on Tuesday March 26 at 7:30 pm to discuss Spoonbenders. Copies of the book and book on CD are available to pick up at the Reference Desk, and ebook and audiobook copies are available to borrow digitally through Overdrive. Abra cadabra!

You Are Cordially Invited

We’ll be meeting on Tuesday February 26 at 7:30 pm to discuss one of the run-away hit books of 2018, “The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton. Welcome to Blackheath House…

“The Rules of Blackheath

Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.

There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let’s begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . . The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.”

Reminiscent of Twin Peaks and books by the great Agatha Christie, this debut novel is already winning awards. Join us in the left-hand-side bar of Napper Tandy’s in Norwood on Tuesday 2/26 at 7:30 pm to eat, drink, be merry, and discuss. Copies of the book are available to pick up at the Reference Desk, and BOTH the ebook and e-audiobook are available instantly through hoopla!!

Okaaaaaaayyyyyy………

…..so I let the blog go for a bit. We’ve been meeting right along on schedule but updating the blog fell by the wayside, because things have been very busy at the library and:

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a quick recap of what we read in 2018, starting in May:

All Our Wrong Tomorrows by Elan Mastai

 

The Vanishing Year by Kate Moretti

 

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

 

Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

 

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

 

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyazi

 

In January 2019 we met to discuss the first book in N.K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series, “The Fifth Season.”