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Book reviews by library staff and guest contributors
Intrepid readers! After a fiery and furious January, this February offers plenty of reading bonbons for all tastes, so much so that everything couldn’t fit on the list (apologies to the James Grippando and Lisa Gardner readers). To the highlights:
Though the BIG event for the Wisconsin Book Festival happens in the fall, the Fest goes on all year and there are some great events coming up on the next few weeks. Two of which are next week.
Jessica Fellowes, niece of that other guy who wrote Downton Abbey, is best known for her nonfiction books about that show. Here in her debut novel, she blends fact and fiction to great effect.
A famous chef and restaurateur in failing health decides to pit his children against one another in order for one of them to achieve the rights to his successful empire. All of the children (12 boys!) and one daughter, Brianna Jakobsson, must start a new restaurant. The child with the most successful restaurant wins the inheritance. Each restaurant must be in a different town and all of the children must open their restaurant without any assistance from their father. Brianna is at a major disadvantage because she is the youngest in the family and has only recently graduated from culinar
Last week I posted about the lighter reading I did over the holiday vacation, but that was only half the picture. Here's the darker side.
Teenage girls across the world begin to develop the ability to shoot electricity out of their hands.
I often read a fair amount of reading (understatement) over holidays and vacations but for this most recent bout of holiday days off I topped myself. Mostly because it's just been so darn cold! What else is there to do other then huddle under a blanket and read? All this is to say, I may have several posts of vacation reads. I'll start today with a couple of the more romance-y titles.
Peter Diamond may wince at being called the ‘veteran superintendent’ of the Bath, England police force, but it will prove impossible to escape historical comparisons with the city’s newest crime scene. Or maybe it’s the oldest crime scene? The recent demolition of eighteenth century row houses reveals a literal skeleton in the attic of one of the condemned buildings—and this one happens to be unmistakably dressed as Beau Nash, one of Bath’s most famous denizens, in authentic 1760s-era clothing.
Well, readers, it’s time to bid 2017 adieu. The year saw its share of notable titles although no one blockbuster dominated the scene as in previous years. Instead, it was a year for rediscovering old classics such as The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984, word-of-mouth hits (A Gentleman in Moscow and Before We Were Yours being prime examples) and of course, a new political book or memoir appearing on shelves seemingly every week. But that was the old year, and new titles of 2018 beckon. Forward, readers!
