Begin Again

Directed by John Carney

I would never have picked up this movie had it not been recommended to me by a stranger standing next to me by the DVD shelf.  Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo play the main characters, and Adam Levine is in a few scenes.  It’s not a blockbuster action movie, and not quite bizarre enough to be independent.  It’s a story about a woman’s life in New York City whose circumstances lead her to meet another “lost soul.” Through collaboration, these two manage to stumble upon a way to begin their lives again.  The music industry is the main background story, and Mark Ruffalo magnificently pulls off the genuine but slimy recording company executive. Knightley and Levine perform a few really great songs. There’s not a lot of romance, but it tells a really good story of people who are able to start their lives over.  Such a nice surprise to get a great movie!

~Becky

The Dinner

By Henry Koch, translated into English by Sam Garrett

The story begins at a posh restaurant in Amsterdam. One brother and his wife are dreading the prospect of having dinner with the older, more handsome, future politician brother and his wife. The conversation is empty between the couples and the courses are small and overly-pretentious, but we start to learn more about the couples as they progress through the courses.

Each couple has a 15 year old son. These two boys have committed a brutal act which was caught on camera and broadcast on the news. The footage is too grainy to identify the youth, but those closest to them know the truth. 

As the dinner finally comes to a close, the couples realize that they are in disagreement over how to handle the situation. 

This story has been compared to Gone Girl in other reviews - while there are no sexual acts or disappearances involved, I will say that the lengths to which these people go to accomplish what they need will leave you with the same sick feeling as Gone Girl. It is a disturbing but highly original tale.

~ Paula

Endangered

By C.J. Box

This is the latest Joe Pickett Novel, recommended to me by my husband, an avid C.J. Box reader. Joe’s adopted daughter April leaves home to go on the rodeo circuit with Dallas Cates. All the sons in the Cates family are trouble. Dallas is the youngest and not as bad as his brothers but bad enough; he took Joe’s daughter off to places unknown. Joe couldn’t make April stay, she is an adult. The entire family was upset by her leaving. Months later a girl’s body is found in a ditch, barely alive - it’s April. Joe feels that Dallas is responsible and does everything he can to prove it. This adventure will keep you at the edge of your seat.

~ Beckie

The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6)

By Richelle Mead

This is one author I will read anything she writes; her stories draw me in every time.

In this conclusion to the Bloodlines series Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

~ Crystal

The Cinderella Murder

By Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

Laurie Moran knows the benefits of closure for those affected by the murder of a loved one. She is the producer of a television drama Under Suspicion, a cold case series featuring unsolved crimes by re-creating them with the people affected by the crime. Her pilot was a great success and she thinks her next show about the well known Cinderella Murder will also be a success.

Susan Dempsey was a beautiful and talented UCLA student who was found dead miles from her parked car and missing one shoe. The suspects at the time are now Hollywood’s elite and tech billionaires. It has all the makings of another hit show. As Laurie and her co-workers start interviewing the people involved, there is another mysterious death, a beating and more complications than they ever expected. ​

~ Dixie

The Wake of the Lorelei: Being an Account of the Adventures of Jacky Faber, on Her Way to Botany Bay

By L.A. Meyer (Bloody Jack #8)

Jacky Faber has purchased the Lorelei Lee to carry passengers across the Atlantic. Believing she has been absolved of past sins against the Crown, Jacky docks in London to take on her crew, but is instead arrested and sentenced to life in the newly formed penal colony in Australia. In a cruel twist of fate, the Lorelei Lee is now confiscated to carry Jacky and other female convicts to populate New South Wales. Not one to give in to self pity, Jacky rallies her sisters to "better" their position - resulting in wild escapades, brushes with danger, and much hilarity. Will Jacky find herself a founding mother of New South Wales, Australia? Not if she has anything to do about it!

~ Crystal

The Space Between Us

By Thrity Umrigar
eBook format available through CLEVNET

An intimate look into the lives of two modern-day Indian women: Sera, a wealthy Parsi woman and her poor servant of 20 years, Bhima. The class differences and separation are what intrigued me, and troubled me, the most. Bhima's class is treated as subhuman in many respects; they live in squalor and are cheated by more educated people from higher classes on a regular basis. Although the two women and their families have great respect and love for each other, they can never truly connect in a meaningful way because of the division of classes.

This story was so moving that it brought me to tears. I will definitely read more books by Thrity Umrigar.

AUTHOR VISIT: Ms. Umrigar will be visiting the Burton Public Library on Friday, September 11, at 6:30 pm. Please join us!

Click for event details: http://www.burtonlibrary.org/content/evening-thrity-umrigar

~ Paula

A Fireproof Home for the Bride

By Amy Scheibe 

This story revolves around Emmaline Nelson (Emmy) a young woman coming of age in the 1950s in rural Minnesota. Emmy’s life has always been strictly controlled by her parents, especially her mother. She knows what is expected of her including who she is to marry and where she will live. She doesn’t question it until she is approaching her 18th birthday and graduation from high school. One night she goes out with some friends and the freedom she feels starts a change in her. She tries to ignore it until she realizes what her “fiancé” is really like. Emmy then finds the courage to break her engagement, move out of the house, get a job and make her own decisions.

With Emmy’s growing independence, is her growing knowledge of what is going on around her; racism, alcoholism, politics, murder and abuse just to name a few. This book has danger, mystery and a lovable heroine. I really enjoyed it. 

~ Dixie

The Bookseller

By Cynthia Swanson

Have you ever wondered what your life might have been if you had made different choices at pivotal moments?

It is 1962 in Denver, Colorado, and 30 year old Kitty Miller is part owner of a small bookshop with her friend Freida. She loves her life but the shop is struggling to continue as shopping malls and housing developments are drawing the customers out past the bus lines to the rapidly growing suburbs.

Then the dreams begin.

Katharyn Anderrson is married to young architect Lars and lives with him in a picture-perfect home in the Denver suburbs. This is the life that Kitty once longed for, but it apparently exists only in her dreams. What is real? What is dream?

I loved this book. The author has reflected on the flavor of the early 1960s by drawing in world events, music, and the bestsellers of the time throughout this story. It held me right up to the last page! ​

~ Sally

Wild

By Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl is in her mid twenties and trying to come to terms with some life changing events. After the death of her mother and a divorce from her husband that she is still in love with, Cheryl decides to hike the Pacific Coast Trail, a trail that parallels the west coast from Mexico to Canada. She hopes to discover how to move beyond her past and into a better future. I thought it was pretty amazing what Cheryl accomplished both physically and mentally.


~Nancy

Books Make a Home

By Damian Thompson

I plan on having books be prominent in decorating my future home, so this was a good book to look at first. It shows different ways to display books in almost every room in your home. The kitchen, living/family room, bedrooms, bathroom, the staircase, your  own libraries or studies. Not sure I would do the bathroom ones, but they all looked good and gave me ideas on what to do.

~Crystal

Delicious!

By Ruth Reichl

eBook format; also available in print and audio

This is the first novel written by former restaurant critic and non-fiction writer, Ruth Reichl. It details the life of Billie Breslin, a 20-something girl just out of college hired to write for a famous food magazine named Delicious!. Billie, a bit timid and disheveled, has trouble with relationships as she must learn to overcome some of the past traumas in her life in order to move forward. Living her life in her sister's shadow has left Billie with little confidence in her own special abilities. 

The language is rich with the tastes and smells of Billie's experiences in New York with her new sophisticated friends.

My favorite part of the story is the discovery of the secret room located in the library on the top floor of the Delicious! building where the magazine's former librarian had shelved dozens of World War II letters from a young girl named Lulu to legendary chef James Beard. Lulu and Mr. Beard developed a special friendship as they shared recipes (and advice) that helped them both get through wartime.

I think this book will appeal to fans of NYC culture, foodies and librarians. The reviews by NPR and the New York Post are not complimentary, but I really enjoyed Delicious! and I hope that you will give it a chance, too.

~ Paula

Raise

What 4-H Teaches 7 Million Kids & How Its Lessons Could Change Food & Farming Forever

By Kiera Butler

Originally I grabbed this book because I was curious how others viewed the world of 4-H. What I found was someone who, through her own research, came to her own conclusion that 4-H was beneficial to kids in ways that schools couldn’t provide. Someone who might be considering 4-H as an extra-curricular activity for either themselves or their kids could get a pretty good idea from this book of what goes into a 4-H livestock project. The author started out completely uninformed, interviewed and visited 4-H meetings, daily feedings of the animals, and the county fair finale. Her findings are very typical of most 4-H’ers, as I’ve been a former 4-H member/advisor and have seen all this for myself. What did surprise me was how the competitiveness has evolved in the last 25 years, and how some care practices have changed. All in all, a very interesting book for both those who know all about 4-H and those who have only ever heard of its name.

~Becky

The Cinderella Pact

by Sarah Strohmeyer

Nola Devlin, an overweight woman who dreams of finding her Prince Charming and losing weight, is an editor at Sass magazine for Belinda Apple. A thin, British, and popular columnist. The only problem is that Belina doesn't exist. Nola created her when she didn't get the columnist job because she was overweight. And for a while her plan works, until her friends decide to take Belindas advice on how to lose weight and they make "The Cinderella Pact", that's when things begin to spiral out of control.

~Crystal

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

By Karen Joy Fowler
Audiobook format

As a child, Rosemary was an extreme talker so her father, to get her to move the story along, asked her on a regular basis to “start in the middle”. So, this story starts off a little differently. Rosemary tells the listener that she is going to start her story in the middle.

There is a little twist to this story that can be discovered if you read the back cover of the audiobook case; I would have preferred NOT to know this information so I will not tell you at this time. Parts of this story are quite sad. Rosemary is separated from her sister Fern when she is only six years old. She really cannot understand why Fern is gone, but this becomes very clear by the end of the book. I really enjoyed this book (even though some hard facts are put out there) give it a try, you may enjoy it, too.

~ Beckie