Check out what we’re reading and borrowing from the library.

• Todd: Todd is reading The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen and the graphic novel, Locke & Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.
• Kate: Kate has read Straw Bale Gardens : The Breakthrough Method for Growing Vegetables Anywhere, Earlier, and with No Weeding by Joel Karsten/ “I’m excited about trying it out next year, when I can get a running start.”
• Louise:
  • Etched In Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived An Unbearable Childhood On Long Island by Regina Calcaterra. This is a very moving story about a very difficult childhood. This is a great pick for people who enjoyed The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. The love that the siblings have for each other is their saving grace. Ms. Calcaterra went on to become a very successful professional who advocates for children in foster care.
  • A great pick for lovers of chick lit such as Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sex and The City, In Her Shoes: Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham. Many people will recall, Lauren Graham played Lorelai Gilmore in the much loved WB series, The Gilmore Girls. This novel about a struggling young actress in NYC does not disappoint. We watch her struggle to make it that is narrated with much wit and eloquence.
  • Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Oh, my gawd, this is such delicious, delectable fun. Great pick for lovers of novels about the ultra rich such as Dominic Dunne, Jane Stanton Hitchcock and Julian Fellowes. Honey, this is the Shanghai version of Downton Abbey. Read this book!”
• Mary R.: “I recently read Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent and Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. Both Great Reads!! Happy Reading!”
• Laura: “I recently read Afternoons with Emily by Rose MacMurray, a novel about a fictional woman and her friendship with the poet, Emily Dickinson. The story behind the writing and publication of the book is as interesting as the life of Emily Dickinson. MacMurray was a poetry teacher with a large appreciation for Emily Dickinson. She left a manuscript that her daughter and husband published after her death. As an English major, I studied a lot of Emily Dickinson in college, and it was interesting to read a fictional (yet most likely accurate) account of her life. I’m currently reading Ann Patchett’s latest memoir, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett. Patchett is one of my favorite writers and I greatly enjoyed her previous memoir, Truth and Beauty. As with all of her books, I have been taken into her world right from the first sentence. I’ll be sad when I’m finished.”
• Nancy D.: Nancy recently read The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman.
• Virginia:
  • “Warlord by Angus Donald. This is the fourth of a continuing chronicle of the life of Robin Hood and King Richard the Lion-heart as told by Robin’s protege Alan Dale. These books are a delight for fans of medieval England adventures and historical fiction.
  • The End Times in Chronological Order by Ron Rhodes. For fans of biblical prophecy here is an easy to understand Pretribulational countdown to future things from rapture to tribulation to the millennial kingdom.
  • Redefining Realness by Janet Mock. The fascinating memoir of a young transgender woman of color who grows into womanhood despite the odds against her survival & success.
  • Spiritual Misfit by Michelle DeRusha. A humorous memoir of a staid New England woman who is transplanted to Nebraska’s bible belt and her discomfort and eventual journey of faith in a ‘foreign’ culture.”
• Marialice: “I am reading Face the Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley of Kiss.” Marialice just finished There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll by Lisa Robinson
• Maureen: Maureen is currently reading One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (memoir) by Jenny Lawson. She is currently listening to the downloadable audiobook, All That Is by James Salter. She just finished reading The Last letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes, and just finished listening to the digital audiobooks Songs for the Missing by Stewart O’Nan and This Charming Man by Marian Keyes.
• Jeanette:
  • “I’m reading The Second Mayflower Adventure by Warwick Charlton. As the back (of the book) states: “It was Warwick Charlton’s dream. Against all odds, and at a time when England was still recovering from World War II, Charlton dreamed of sailing a new Mayflower to America. In 1957, a reconstruction of the ship that symbolized the Pilgrims’ voyage would be a gift to show “gratitude and appreciation for what the Americans had done to help England both during and after the war.” I got interested in the book when I found out a teen from Waltham, Joe Meany was a cabin boy on the voyage!
  • I’m listening to a book on CD Rage against the Dying by Becky Masterman. A quote from Lisa Gardner on the back of the case says. “…a masterful debut featuring a 59 year old retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn still tough, still determined, and still smarting to catch the one killer who got away.” – So far I agree.
  • We are watching the series Prime Suspect: a female police detective investigates a series of serial murders while dealing with sexist hostility from her male comrades.” We love Helen Mirren!
  • Just finished watching The Lost Room:
    ‘A detective investigates a mysterious motel room, which acts as a portal to an alternate universe.’ Peter Jacobson from the TV series House was great, I was twitching and jumping right along with him!”
• Anne: Anne is reading Pat and Dick: The Nixons, an Intimate Portrait of a Marriage by Will Swift and The Funeral Dress by Susan Gregg Gilmore. “Past read I highly recommend: What She Left Behind by Ellen Wiseman.”
• Janice: “I just finished The Great Pearl Heist by Molly Caldwell Crosby. It’s got something for everyone who likes crime stories- Edwardian England, Scotland Yard, a great parade of criminals of varying skill, and VERY expensive jewelry.”
• Gerry C.: Gerry is listening to A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connolly and The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty. She is reading The Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy. She is watching the BBC series, Call the Midwife.
• Pat A.: ” I am currently reading One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern and am also starting I Don’t Know What You Know Me From…Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer.”
• Paula: “I recently read Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini: historical fiction about the friendship between Mary Todd Lincoln and her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley.”