LICENSE TO PAWN ~ A Nonfiction Review from Suzanne

License to Pawn Deals Steals and My Life at the Gold Silver
Author: Rick Harrison

I really enjoyed this look into the life of Pawn Stars Harrison family. There is so much more to this family then what you see on television. 
          ~ Suzanne

In Las Vegas, there's a family-owned business called the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, run by three generations of the Harrison family: Rick; his son, Big Hoss; and Rick's dad, the Old Man. Now License to Pawn takes readers behind the scenes of the hit History show Pawn Stars and shares the fascinating life story of its star, Rick Harrison, and the equally intriguing story behind the shop, the customers, and the items for sale.

Rick hasn't had it easy. He was a math whiz at an early age, but developed a similarly uncanny ability to find ever-deepening trouble that nearly ruined his life. With the birth of his son, he sobered up, reconnected with his dad, and they started their booming business together.

License to Pawn also offers an entertaining walk through the pawn shop's history. It's a captivating look into how the Gold & Silver works, with incredible stories about the crazy customers and the one-of-a-kind items that the shop sells. Rick isn't only a businessman; he's also a historian and keen observer of human nature. For instance, did you know that pimps wear lots of jewelry for a reason? It's because if they're arrested, jewelry doesn't get confiscated like cash does, and ready money will be available for bail. Or that WWII bomber jackets and Zippo lighters can sell for a freakishly high price in Japan? Have you ever heard that the makers of Ormolu clocks, which Rick sells for as much as $15,000 apiece, frequently died before forty thanks to the mercury in the paint?

Rick also reveals the items he loves so much he'll never sell. The shop has three Olympic bronze medals, a Patriots Super Bowl ring, a Samurai sword from 1490, and an original Iwo Jima battle plan. Each object has an incredible story behind it, of course. Rick shares them all, and so much more--there's an irresistible treasure trove of history behind both the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop and the life of Rick Harrison

Book Discussions Tonight and Beyond

If you haven't joined a book discussion, or if you've been thinking about coming back, try one of our upcoming events.  We love new members!  Copies of books are available at the checkout desk for readers signing up for the discussion, or by request.

Tonight, at 6:30, there will be a discussion of
The Memory Palace ,  a nonfiction  book by Mira Bartok.  When piano prodigy Norma Herr was healthy, she was the most vibrant personality in the room. But as her schizophrenic episodes became more frequent and more dangerous, she withdrew into a world that neither of her daughters could make any sense of. Next month's nonfiction book will be Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave  by Adam Alter, on Tuesday, October 8, at 6:30 p.m. Why are people named Kim, Kelly, and Ken more likely to donate to Hurricane Katrina victims than to Hurricane Rita victims? Are you really more likely to solve puzzles if you watch a light bulb illuminate? How did installing blue lights along a Japanese railway line halt rising crime and suicide rates? Drunk Tank Pink is the first detailed exploration of how our environment shapes what we think, how we feel, and the ways we behave.

Next week, our fiction group will meet and talk about the bestselling novel, The Kitchen House  by Kathleen Grissom, on Monday, September 16, at 1 p.m.  When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family.The Kitchen House  is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.  In October, we'll travel to the world of Henry VIII and discuss Bring Up the Bodies  by Hilary Mantel on Monday, October 21, at 1 p.m.  Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.  Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?  

Love reading mysteries and thrillers? Join Book 'Em!  Our next book is The Poacher’s Son  by Paul Doiron, to be discussed on Monday, September 23, at 12:30 p.m. Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive--his own father. This is the first in Doiron's award winning series featuring game warden Mike Bowditch.  Next month we'll travel back in time and discuss Maisie Dobbs  by Jacqueline Winspear, on Monday, October 28, at 12:30 p.m.  Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence and the patronage of her benevolent employers, she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ AMY FALLS DOWN ~ Week Ending September 9, 2013

It is said that most librarians have a secret desire to be a writer.  Not me--I'm happy just being a reader.  But I've had a lot of fun reading two of Jincy Willet's books, The Writing Class  and the just published sequel, Amy Falls Down, a witty satire of authors, wannabe authors, and the literary and publishing world. I just want to know how much of Amy Gallup is Jincy Willett?  Her website says, "Who the #@%? is Jincy? An aging, bitter, unpleasant woman living in Escondido, California, who spends her days parsing the sentences of total strangers and her nights teaching and writing. Sometimes, late at night, in the dark, she laughs inappropriately.."  I 
 thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audio book, read by Amy McFadden. 
                                                                ~ Katherine                

AMY FALLS DOWN by Jincy Willett.

"Willett's hilarious follow-up to The Writing Class pulls no punches when it comes to current literary trends. Amy Gallup was once heralded as a fresh voice in fiction, but with her novels now long out of print, she's content with a quiet, anonymous life of leading workshops, keeping lists of great-sounding titles for stories she'll never write, and maintaining her sporadically updated blog. One afternoon, however, while working in her garden, Amy trips and cold-cocks herself on a birdbath. Still reeling from the head injury hours later, she gives a loopy interview to a reporter working on a series of local author profiles. The result goes viral, and suddenly Amy is a hot commodity on the literary pundit trail. She couldn't care less about being relevant or famous, which lends a refreshingly brutal honesty to her commentary on the radio, television, and lecture circuit. But her newfound notoriety also pushes Amy out of her comfort zone, forcing her to confront years of neuroses and an unexamined postwriting life. Willett uses her charmingly filterless heroine as a mouthpiece to slam a parade of thinly veiled literati and media personalities with riotous accuracy, but she balances the snark with moments of poignancy." 

 ~ From a review in Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2013.

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ THE VIEW FROM PENTHOUSE B ~ Week Ending September 2, 2013

Elinor Lipman is always a pleasure to read. The author always delivers witty writing and great narrative, and her characters are lovable but usually a bit down trodden and uncomfortable with life changes that have come their way--but they generally manage to adjust and thrive. While THE VIEW FROM PENTHOUSE B might not be my favorite Lipman book, it still was an entertaining read.  ~ Katherine

"Unexpectedly widowed Gwen-Laura Schmidt is still mourning her husband, Edwin, when her older sister Margot invites her to join forces as roommates in Margot's luxurious Village apartment. For Margot, divorced amid scandal (hint: her husband was a fertility doctor) and then made Ponzi-poor, it's a chance to shake Gwen out of her grief and help make ends meet. To further this effort she enlists a third boarder, the handsome, cupcake-baking Anthony.

As the three swap money-making schemes and timid Gwen ventures back out into the dating world, the arrival of Margot's paroled ex in the efficiency apartment downstairs creates not just complications but the chance for all sorts of unexpected forgiveness. A sister story about love, loneliness, and new life in middle age, this is a cracklingly witty, deeply sweet novel from one of our finest comic writers." ~ from the Publisher

How many opening book lines do you know?

 Check it out here:  How many opening lines do you know?
 
Thanks to Tabatha Leggett of Buzz Feed UK for this quiz....And the comments sparked questions regarding some of these books as "literature"--a never ending discourse.

How many did you guess?
 

52 Weeks 52 Books - THE HUSBAND'S SECRET - Week Ending August 26, 2013

The Husband's Secret totally drew me in, asking the reader to think about how well we know our spouses, and ultimately ourselves.  It asks how a person can live with a deep and dark secret, and how a spouse can learn and keep a devastating secret that threatens to destroy their lives.  It leaves the reader wondering.......what would I do in this case? The Husband's Secret reads like a light read, but asks some serious questions. 
       ~ Katherine

"At the heart of The Husband's Secret is a letter that's not meant to be read......."My darling Cecilia, if you're reading this, then I've died..."  Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret-something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive...Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all-she's an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia-or each other-but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's secret. 

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses-and, ultimately, ourselves. 

~ From the Publisher

Misadventures in Arabia from Suzanne

Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
Author: Tony Horwitz

With razor-sharp wit and insight, intrepid journalist Tony Horwitz gets beyond solemn newspaper headlines and romantic myths of Arabia to offer startling close-ups of a volatile region few Westerners understand. His quest for hot stories takes him from the tribal wilds of Yemen to the shell-pocked shores of Lebanon; from the malarial sands of the Sudan to the eerie souks of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a land so secretive that even street maps and weather reports are banned.

At an oasis in the Empty Quarter, a veiled woman offers tea and a mysterious declaration of love. In Cairo, "politeness police" patrol seedy nightclubs to ensure that belly dancers don't show any belly. And at the Ayatollah's funeral in Tehran a mourner chants, "Death to America," then confesses to the author his secret dream -- to visit Disneyland.

Careening through thirteen Muslim countries and Israel, Horwitz travels light, packing a keen eye, a wicked sense of humor, and chutzpah in almost suicidal measure. This wild and comic tale of Middle East misadventure reveals a fascinating world in which the ancient and the modern collide.  
           ~ From Suzanne

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ SISTERLAND by Curtis Sittenfeld ~ Week Ending August 19, 2013

I'm a big fan of Curtis Sittenfeld, but Sisterland  didn't quite deliver for me.  The premise is fascinating: twin sisters who are psychic--one sister embraces her ability to see into the future, and the other tucks it far, far away. I found myself skimming much of the book as it's filled with boring daily details that didn't seem to add anything.  On the other hand it is a fascinating study of sisterhood, and she writes well of St. Louis and the surrounding areas.  See what you think--it's on many a list of books not to be missed this summer!  ~ Katherine

 SISTERLAND by Curtis Sittenfeld

"From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar senses--innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them.

Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that another, more devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. Equally troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister and to face truths about herself she’s long tried to deny."  ~ From the Publisher

Jackrabbit Junction Jitters: Jackrabbit Junction (Bk 2) by Ann Charles

Another fun mystery series from Ann Charles. The characters are fun and quirky.

Claire is back, raining trouble throughout Jackrabbit Junction in another fast-paced, fun, sexy suspense. A burglar is on the loose! Claire wastes no time forming suspicions, but she's sidetracked by a treasure hunt. Even with help from her boyfriend, Claire is swirling in a whirlpool of chaos. Throw her crazy sister into the torrent, along with an angst-ridden teen, a jittery bride, and some randy old men, and Claire struggles just to keep a toehold in the current. Then her mother arrives......

~ Suzanne

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ WHERE'D YOU GO BERNADETTE ~ Week Ending August 12, 2013

"Witty, smart, and funny, sweet and tender, and even serious, WHERE'D YOU GO BERNADETTE makes fun of Seattle and Microsoft and private school moms, and is filled with family drama, neighbor drama and career drama.  Her characters are ultra intelligent and at once both unlikeable and loveable.  It's told in a refreshing style made up of emails, school reports, newspaper articles and and notes, and  I loved the humor and even the characters by the end of the novel. Easy to see why it's never on the library shelf!"  ~ Katherine

"Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world." ~ from the Publisher

Upcoming Books

One of the perks that librarians often enjoy are getting an advance copy of a book that will be in bookstores or on library shelves in the upcoming months.  A new website has launched with reviews by librarians of upcoming books, Library Reads!  Check out the site to see ten very different books that are recommended and will be out at the end of August or in September.  All ten books are being purchased and will be on our "New Books" shelf as soon as they arrive.  You may even see some reviews from Brookfield librarians in the upcoming months!  

~ Katherine
 
~

52 Weeks 52+ Books - THE HIGHWAY and MAYA'S NOTEBOOK - Week Ending August 5, 2012

Both of the books I read this week had evil long distance truckers--is this a popular trend these days?

THE HIGHWAY by C.J. Box

I usually enjoy this author's books, especially the Joe Pickett series, but there was too much darkness and little surprise in The Highway. 

"When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls—and their car—simply vanish.  Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and has fallen off the wagon after a long stretch of sobriety.  Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, he begins the drive south to the girls’ last known location.  As Cody makes his way to the lonely stretch of Montana highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren’t the first girls who have disappeared in this area.  This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer whose viciousness is outmatched only by his intelligence.  And he might not be working alone....." ~ From the Publisher 

MAYA'S NOTEBOOK by Isabel Allende

It's hard for me to believe that this is the first book by Allende that I've read, but it won't be the last.  She's a masterful storyteller and lyrical writer, and the tale she weaves is filled with family drama, teenage angst, and the possibility for redemption.  
 
"This contemporary coming-of-age story centers upon Maya Vidal, a remarkable teenager abandoned by her parents. Maya grew up in a rambling old house in Berkeley with her grandmother Nini, whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after emigrating from Chile in 1973 with a young son, and her grandfather Popo, a gentle African-American astronomer.

When Popo dies, Maya goes off the rails. Along with a circle of girlfriends known as "the vampires," she turns to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime--a downward spiral that eventually leads to Las Vegas and a dangerous underworld, with Maya caught between warring forces: a gang of assassins, the police, the FBI, and Interpol.

Her one chance for survival is Nini, who helps her escape to a remote island off the coast of Chile. In the care of her grandmother’s old friend, Manuel Arias, and surrounded by strange new acquaintances, Maya begins to record her story in her notebook, as she tries to make sense of her past and unravel the mysteries of her family and her own life." ~ From the Publisher

Paranormal Romance from Suzanne

Succubus on Top
(Georgina Kincaid, Bk 2)
Author: Richelle Mead

"I'm enjoying this fantasy series about a succubus and her life working in a bookstore and falling in love with an author. The series brings fantasy, history, mystery and moral situations together in an interesting read." ~ From Suzanne
  
Georgina Kincaid's job sucks. Literally. Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses her new boyfriend, she'll drain his life force. Georgina is a succubus - a demon who draws her power from other men's pleasure. Admittedly, the shape shifting and immortality perks are terrific, and yes, Georgina did choose to join the ranks of hell centuries ago. But it seems completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can't get hot and heavy with the one mortal who knows and accepts her for who she is. It's not just her personal life that's in chaos. Doug, Georgina's co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, and Georgina suspects that something far more demonic than double espressos is at work. She could use help finding out, but Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, is preoccupied in the suburbs with corrupting an ultra-conservative talk radio star - and giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one - and fast because soon, Doug's life won't be the only one on the line...

Food from Fiction

“The cupcakes were full of butter and frosted with a butter frosting. After he’d washed his hands and opened a bottle of Chardonnay he ate four of them and put the uncooked fish in the refrigerator.…He lowered the blinds and drank the wine and ate two more cupcakes, detecting peppermint in them, a faint buttery peppermint, before he slept.”  - Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

 “On Saturday, he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon. That night he had a stomach ache.” – Roald Dahl, Matilda

"But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh! Sweet friends, hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuits and salted pork cut up into little flakes! The whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt ... we dispatched it with great expedition."  - Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past: Swann's Way

"But the peach ... ah, yes ... the peach was a soft, stealthy traveller, making no noise at all as it floated along.” - Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

 “A big pot of coffee for me,” panted Simmons, smiling. “And a pan of cinnamon buns, by God . . . Simmons yanked the door wide. “Hey!” he yelled. “Bring on the coffee and the buns!” “He stood for a few moments, looking about. Behind him the rain whirled at the door. Ahead of him on a low table, stood a silver pot of hot chocolate, steaming, and a cup, full, with a marshmallow in it. And beside that, on another tray, stood thick sandwiches of rich chicken meat and fresh cut tomatoes and green onions.” – Ray Bradbury,  The Illustrated Man

“The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very center and Edmond and never tasted anything more delicious.”-  C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
  

"Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were ‘Special Effects’ sweets: Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps (‘breathe fire for your friends!’), Ice Mice (‘hear your teeth chatter and squeak!’), peppermint creams shaped like toads (‘hop realistically in the stomach!’) , fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons." Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

“Popcorn for breakfast! Why not? It's a grain. It's like, like, grits, but with high self-esteem.” - James Patterson, The Angel Experiment

 No image for this one!:

 “Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods’ roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine.” - James Joyce, Ulysses

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline ~ Week Ending July 29, 2013

ORPHAN TRAIN by Christina Baker Kline

Orphan Train is a tale of a friendship between an elderly woman and a troubled teenage girl, both orphans, but with very different pasts. 

Molly Ayer finds herself, in 2011, just months from aging out of foster care, and struggling to get along in her latest foster home, and as the result of the theft of a library book, she is assigned a community service position helping an elderly woman.
 
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life, but hidden in trunks in her attic are mementos of a tragic past. Vivian, who, as a young girl, was orphaned in New York City, and put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children to find new homes.

Molly and Vivian forge an unusual friendship, and discover many things that they have in common, most importantly, that they spent their youth being raised by strangers, often finding themselves in terrible situations, and on the outskirts of society.  This is a book about resilience and second chances, and the historical background about the orphan trains shows the reader the many tragedies, as well as the positive outcomes from those years.  ~ Katherine

August is Here......More Beach Reads

Even though our days--and nights--have felt like August, we still have August in front of us, and hopefully more trips to the beach.  Some of our staff members have some suggestions for summer reading:

Anita recommends:  THE IRRESISTIBLE BLUEBERRY BAKE SHOP & CAFE by Mary Simses

"A high-powered Manhattan attorney finds love, purpose, and the promise of a simpler life in her grandmother's hometown. 

Ellen Branford is going to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish--to find the hometown boy she once loved, and give him her last letter. Ellen leaves Manhattan and her Kennedy-esque fiance for Beacon, Maine. What should be a one-day trip is quickly complicated when she almost drowns in the chilly bay and is saved by a local carpenter. The rescue turns Ellen into something of a local celebrity, which may or may not help her unravel the past her grandmother labored to keep hidden. As she learns about her grandmother and herself, it becomes clear that a 24-hour visit to Beacon may never be enough. THE IRRESISTIBLE BLUEBERRY BAKESHOP & CAFE is a warm and delicious debut about the power of a simpler life."  ~ from the Publisher

Jenn recommends:  UNSEEN by Karin Slaughter 

"Bill Black is a scary guy: a tall ex-con who rides to work on a Harley and trails an air of violence wherever he goes. In Macon, Georgia, Bill has caught the eye of a wiry little drug dealer and his cunning girlfriend. They think Bill might be a useful ally. They don’t know that Bill is actually a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent named Will Trent. Or that he is fighting his own demons, undercover and cut off from the support of Sara Linton—the woman he loves, who cannot be told of the risk Will is taking.

Sara herself has come to Macon because of a cop shooting: Her stepson, Jared, has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife, responsible: Lena, a detective, has been a magnet for trouble all her life, and Jared’s death is not the first time someone Sara loved got caught in the crossfire. Furious, Sara finds herself involved in the same case that Will is working without even knowing it, and soon danger is swirling around both of them." ~ from the Publisher

Mary recommends:  THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

"The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness." ~ from the Publisher

And if you want more suggestions, take a look at six of Oprah's picks.  If we don't already have these titles, they are on order and will be in soon.

Brookfield Reader Reviews

THE ART OF HEARING HEARTBEATS by Jan Philipp Sendker

"A panacea to our hectic lives. Slow down and listen. Enjoy what you have. the compelling story made me want to read faster to see what happened next, but, I also wanted to slow down and savormy time with the characters and their story.  When I finished the book, I closed my eyes, listened to the rain and "tried" to hear my heartbeat.  I knew the spell was broken when I started to worry what the dust bunnies under my bed sounded like.  A wonderful, gentle read."  ~ Diane S.  
(5 stars)

THE DINNER by Herman Koch

"Two couples meet for dinner--and so begins a truly disturbing story.  This is a book that one may not "like" but is compelled to finish reading.  What factors in our lives make us the people we turn out to be? How far would we go to protect the ones we hold dear?  How do we sometimes rationalize our actions?  This book will spark some interesting discussions for any book club.  I can guarantee you will want to discuss it with someone when you finish!"  ~ Patricia M.  (4 stars)


 THE TALK FUNNY GIRL 
by Roland Merullo
 
A different, quirky novel of growth, love, and trust.  The setting is rural New Hampshire, and the main character draws you into her story." ~ Marie D.  (5 stars)

"Raised by parents so intentionally isolated that they speak their own hybrid dialect, abused youth Marjorie witnesses her parents' submission to a sadistic cult leader before she is rescued by another abuse survivor who teaches her stone working skills."  Merullo is the author of the popular novel, BREAKFAST WITH BUDDHA.

Sookie Stackhouse from Suzanne

Dead Ever After 
Sookie Stackhouse, Bk 13
Author: Charlaine Harris

I started reading this series well before it became True Blood on HBO. I really like the take on the vampire/supernatural genre. This is the final book in the series and I found it ok. Ms. Harris brought in some of the previous characters but they didn't flow well into the story. I would give this book 3 out of 5. It didn't end with the "I'm going to miss the characters" feeling I've had with other series. 

 ~ Suzanne

52 Weeks 52 Books ~ ME BEFORE YOU ~ Week Ending July 22, 2013

ME BEFORE YOU by Jojo Moyes

Life and circumstances put together Louisa, a small town, middle class, English girl with a flair for vintage clothing, who has found herself in a series of dead-end jobs, and Will, a wealthy and successful man who was into extreme sports until an accident rendered him a quadriplegic. Will has decided that he has the right to end his  life--it's painful and joyless--and then his parents talk him into giving it at least six months, and hire Louisa to be his new caretaker. Worlds apart, they get off to a difficult start, but when Louisa discovers his plans to die, she becomes determined to prove to Will that life is worth living.  Louisa plans a series of adventures, and life, and their friendship changes them, and their families.

While this is partly a romance book, it's not fluffy, and the author is skillful at drawing quirky and flawed characters that you fall in love with.  It's funny, and heartbreaking, and a book that keeps you up all hours to finish. Don't miss this one--you'll be thinking about the story and characters long after you turn the last page--a definite, must read.  ~ Katherine

More Summer Reads from Melanie

The Caster Chronicles Series 
by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl:
Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Darkness
Beautiful Chaos
Beautiful Redemption

Rather than review all four books in this series, I'm just going to lump them all together. This was an absolutely fantastic series, very well written and page-turning. I'd recommend this to teens or adults that like supernatural type reads, but have standards higher than the Twilight crowd.


 

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

by Jessica Sorensen

I loved this book. It's about two college freshman with histories of abuse, and how they come together and get each other past it. Its told in alternating viewpoints, which I love. It's written pretty simply, but that worked well I this case. I recommend it.















The Secret of Ella and Micha / The Forever of Ella and Micha
by Jessica Sorensen

These were ok.  I read the second hoping it would be better than the first. The story is about two rather damaged college freshman and their complicated friendship/romance. Its also told in alternating viewpoints. The characters are kind of lovable but kind of annoying, and the book was very poorly edited. There's typos and misspellings galore, which makes it at times hard to read. If I had to make a recommendation, I'd say read 'Callie and Kayden.' Skip these.

Thanks for sharing more of your summer books, Melanie!