The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart

An ad appears in the newspaper: "Are you a gifted child looking for SPECIAL opportunities?" Many children enroll to take the test but only 4 are chosen by Mr. Benedict, a kindly but mysterious man. They call themselves The Mysterious Benedict Society and have to use all of their brains and brawn to complete a secret mission at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. These 4 children, all orphans, find that they have to depend upon each other for friendship and support. I won't give away the secret mission but this is a fast-paced, exciting story for older elementary up through adult readers.

- Linda

Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl
(DVD)

This is by far the best movie I've seen in a very long time and I'm not going to tell you one thing about it. Any description I could offer would not do justice to the film. Get the DVD and put it in your player - don't even read the blurb on the back. It'll knock your socks off!

- Linda

July and August: A Novel

July and August: A Novel
by Nancy Clark

This humorous and delightful family saga takes place at Great-aunt Lily's wonderful old house in Towne, Massachusetts. This is the gathering place for aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who are all in town for July and August. With their arrival comes a summer filled with comedy and drama. The pace of this story evokes the pace of a lazy summer vacation, and is the third in the Hill family series by Nancy Clark, though it easily stands by itself.

- Lynn

Duma Key

Duma Key
by Stephen King

Call me weird, but I have always liked Stephen King as a writer. Yes, his subject matter is sometimes unbelievable, but he knows how to tell a story from the beginning to the end. It is no different with this book. Edgar Freemantle has a career ending and life altering accident. To begin “his new life”, he moves from Minnesota to the secluded Duma Key in Florida. During his healing process, he meets a few new friends and also begins to dabble in an old hobby . . . painting.

He finds that he is pretty good, but the subject matter is another story. You can only imagine!

If you like Stephen King, this is a good read.

- Patti

Lady of the Snakes

Lady of the Snakes
by Rachel Pastan

Jane Levitsky is a brilliant scholar of nineteenth-century Russian literature, but she is also a mother and a wife. Juggling it all becomes difficult as Jane becomes enmeshed in the diaries of Masha Karkov, the long suffering wife of Grigory Karkov. Then Jane makes a brilliant discovery.

This book combines the literary detective story with the problems of being a working mother. Just as Jane is on the brink of having it all, everything begins to unravel.

Rachel Pastan is refreshingly honest in her depictions of academic politics as well as domestic demands. I adored this book.
-Holly

The Whole Truth

The Whole Truth
by James Scott Bell

Lawyer Steve Conroy is haunted by his past. At 5 years old he witnesses the abduction of his 7-year-old brother. This haunts him for 25 years and it nearly destroys him.

Steve’s new client comes with a lot of money and dark secrets. Steve needs the job and the money so he starts searching for the truth. He finds ties to his long-lost brother but with deadly consequences. Can he finally find out what happened to his brother so long ago?

- Dixie

Earthly Joys & Virgin Earth

Earthly Joys (1998) & Virgin Earth (1999)
By Philippa Gregory

‘Tis the gardening season and these two fiction books tell the story of the Tradescant family, gardeners to royalty during the 1600s in England. Earthly Joys takes place during the reign of James I and is a story of the times as well as the story of how plants and trees were discovered, acquired, and propagated. Tulips were a hot commodity to be traded and killed for. John Tradescant is a gardening pioneer who travels the world in search of the unusual. This is also the story of the beginning of Cabinets of Curiosities. John would also acquire other unusual items which were then displayed in cabinets in his employer’s drawing room.

In Virgin Earth, John Tradescant the Younger continues his father’s quest for the new and unusual. As gardener to Charles I, his travels take him to the Royalist colony of Virginia where he encounters the native people and learns about Native American plants. The gardens he creates back in England are the outstanding gardens of the age.

I enjoyed these books and wanted to share them with our patrons. They inspired me to do some research of my own. First, I wanted to find out more about the Tradescant family and found a book called The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen by Prudence Leith-Ross. Second was my interest in the history of the tulip and I found the following book, The Tulip.

- Pat

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower that Has Made Men Mad

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower that Has Made Men Mad (1999)
By Anna Pavord

Tulip is the story of the development of a wild flower from the Asian steppes into a world-wide phenomenon. Fortunes were made and lost in the desire to acquire and trade this beautiful flower. The author spent six years doing research for this book.

- Pat

John Adams

John Adams
DVD - HBO Miniseries

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough, this film portrays the life of John Adams and his role in the first 50 years of the United States. Stunning – this is John Adams like you’ve never seen him; ornery, brilliant and passionate in his loyalty to his newly founded country.

Paul Giametti and Laura Linney are both outstanding in their performances as John and Abigail Adams. This is a beautifully done, inspiring drama. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

- Kathy S.

Absurdistan

Absurdistan
by Gary Shteyngart

I'm crazy about Russian immigrant novels and this is truly the most entertaining of the genre. Rap music loving Misha Vainberg, who only knows excess, is the quirky hero/anti-hero in Absurdistan. Banished from his beloved New York City, Misha pines for his South Bronx Latina sweetheart while living in Russia. His last hope is through obtaining a fake Belgian passport in the oil rich nation of Absurdistan. After civil war breaks out in Absurdistan, anything goes in this hilarious mad adventure.

The great-great-grandson of Nikolai Gogol, Shteyngart is a brilliant humorist as well as a talented novelist. After reading this, I devoured his first novel "The Russian Debutante's Handbook". I just couldn't get enough of his Jewish, Russian humor.
-Holly