The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Monsters don’t really exist, do they? But what if they do…

The Winter People goes back and forth between present day and the early 20^th century. West Hall, Vermont is a place where strange things have happened for many years. Sara Harrison Shea lost her young daughter, Gertie, in a horrible accident. She is overcome with grief, and when she discovers a way to bring Gertie back, she can’t resist. Sara quickly discovers that sometimes the dead are better left alone.

Ruthie’s mother Alice has gone missing. While looking for clues, Ruthie stumbles across Sara’s secret diary. Ruthie realizes that maybe her mother wasn’t wrong to insist that she stay out of the woods.

The Winter People is the perfect Halloween read. If you liked this book, you might also enjoy The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian. 

Carrie

The Melody Lingers On: a Novel by Mary Higgins Clark

I have been reading Mary Higgins Clark for a long, long, long time. And for the most part, I have enjoyed her novels. When you pick up one of hers, you pretty much know what you're getting, right? Well, sadly, not this time. My gut tells me that this was one of her earlier novels that perhaps did not get published, or one that was left in a drawer. The Melody Lingers On obviously is not one of her best.

Wealthy financier Parker Bennett has been missing for two years. So has five billion dollars of his client's money. His wife and son are convinced of his innocence. Everyone else, including the FBI and some of his former investors, strongly disagree.

Lane is an assistant to one of New York's hottest interior designers. When they are asked to redo the new townhouse of Parker Bennett's wife and son, Lauren is curious. After all, everyone has heard of the scandal. But when Lauren meets Eric Bennett, her world is turned upside down. A widow for four years, Lane has not had feelings for a man in a very long time. Eric seems to be everything she could possibly want. However, many believe Eric is somehow involved with his father's disappearance. If this is true, what is Lane getting into?

True Mary Higgins Clark fans will figure this out quickly, but out of respect for the "Queen of Suspense" I will say no more.

Karen

Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt

Patton Oswalt is probably best known for playing the role of Doug Heffernan’s friend Spence on the sitcom The King of Queens. Besides acting, Oswalt has also done stand-up comedy for years and recently released Silver Screen Fiend, his second memoir.

This light but enjoyable book mostly focuses on a number of years where Oswalt claims he turned into a movie junkie. Oswalt continually makes the point that he was addicted to movies during these years and that he hoped watching huge numbers of films each week would teach him how to be a great film director. I found that his delusions of being a great director rarely presented themselves. He’s compulsive about his movie viewing but he doesn’t come off as someone dreaming about being the next Martin Scorcese. More often, he comes off as a rudderless man hiding from life in dark movie theaters. But just because he rarely follows his supposed theme doesn’t mean that Silver Screen Fiend isn’t entertaining. Oswalt is a good story teller with lots of good stories to tell. These include crossing paths with Jerry Lewis and wondering if Lewis’ ultra-secret film The Day the Clown Cried is in the briefcase on Lewis’ desk. There are also great tales of being on the road doing stand-up comedy and of what he had to learn in order to be a successful stand-up comedian. Oswalt also dishes out entertaining takes on the many films he watches during his time as a “sprocket fiend,” a name for movie junkies that he frequently drops in the book. These range from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace to the very arty Last Year at Marienbad and everything in between. If you like movies, if you like stand-up comedy, or if you just like being entertained, Silver Screen Fiend is just the ticket.

John

Cookbook Club - Barefoot Contessa at Home

Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten is the third book our Cookbook Club has tried out (previous books were Smitten Kitchen by Deb Perelman and The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond). While some members of the group preferred the everyday feeling of the meals Drummond offered in her book, others found Barefoot Contessa at Home to be their favorite one so far. A few members described the recipes as very Hamptons (where Garten owns a home), but all the dishes brought were delicious and very few adjustments had to be made, most of the dishes even looked like the pictures (which were excellent). Recipes sampled (and enjoyed) included:

Tomato Feta Salad
Heirloom Tomatoes with Blue Cheese Dressing
Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread
Roasted Shrimp and Orzo
Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup
Cranberry and Orange Scones
Easy Cheese Danish
Lemon Yogurt Cake

Next months book will be: The Chew: Food, Life, Fun

Copies can be picked up at the reference desk!
Next Meeting: Sunday, October 11th at 1:00pm

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

On a day too hot to go outside and with no urgent chores waiting, what could be better than a tall iced coffee and a lush, fat historical novel? Kearsley’s The Winter Sea turned out to be the right book on the right day. Carrie McClelland goes to Scotland to research her latest book about the exiled Jacobites in the early 18^th century and their attempts to regain the English crown for James Stewart. While there, her writer’s block not only dissolves, but the words start flowing as if a dam has broken. While pleased with how well her writing is going, she discovers she’s writing about real people and events she has no recollection of researching. She had named the narrator of the story Sophia, after an ancestor from her own family, but now it seems it’s Sophia’s real life story she’s telling.

Moving between the present and the early 1700’s, The Winter Sea sweeps the reader along both Carrie’s and Sophia’s paths as each navigates her life and the world around her.

Rich in the history of a period and a quest often overlooked, this book was a satisfying, entertaining, and magnetic reading experience. Suspend your skepticism about “ancestral memory,” put your feet up, and let the dust bunnies live another day – this book is worth it. 

CAS

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

Margaret (Maggie) Hope was born in England, orphaned as an infant and raised by her aunt outside Boston. A brilliant mathematician, Maggie delays her entry to graduate school to go to London, intending to close and sell the house her grandmother willed to her. The housing market is down and then World War II begins. Churchill has been elected Prime Minister and Maggie has decided to stay. Although her math skills are formidable, women aren’t given upper-level positions, and she becomes part of Churchill’s clerical staff. This still affords her access to highly restricted information and activities and soon her abilities are acknowledged. As she tries to adjust to life in wartime London, budding relationships, insane working hours and pressure, she becomes aware of a plot against the prime minister himself.

Mr.Churchill’s Secretary is a well written, fast paced novel that gives an exciting picture of wartime England and the machinations of a government under siege.

CAS

Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon

Sonic Youth may not be as well known as U2, but, like that much-better-known band, they started releasing music in the early eighties and went through major changes in their sound all the way up to their break up in 2011. Kim Gordon was Sonic Youth’ bass player and, along with guitarists Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, was one of the band’s founding members. (They went through a number of drummers before settling on Steve Shelley.)

Girl in a Band is about Sonic Youth’s history, the band’s eventual break up, and Gordon’s marriage to and eventual divorce from band mate Thurston Moore. As someone who has been a fan of Sonic Youth since the late eighties, I enjoyed Gordon’s succinct history of the band and dissection of a number of their songs. But what surprised me about Girl in a Band was everything else that was in the book. Gordon writes quite a bit about Keller, her older brother. She felt Keller was especially cruel to her when they were little, but she eventually realized he suffered from schizophrenia—even before her parents picked up on the fact that Keller was troubled. Not surprisingly, she also explores what it was like to be a girl in a band in both the more experimental New York music of the early eighties and then in the nineties male-dominated grunge scene. If anything, Gordon comes off as rather humble about her achievements and emphasizes several times that she often thinks of herself more as an artist than a musician. Girl in a Band is definitely a must read for fans of Sonic Youth but might also appeal to those with a more general interest in music and modern art.

John

The Secrets of Lake Road by Karen Katchur

Secrets, secrets and more secrets. Karen Katchur's debut novel, The Secrets of Lake Road, is full of secrets. New secrets, old secrets, boring secrets, deadly secrets. If it sounds like a bit much, well, it isn't. This author makes it all work.

The main voice in this novel is 12-year-old Caroline who is at her grandmother's lake house for the summer, just like she is every year. Her mother and brother are with her, but her mother only plans to stay for a day or so. She cannot stand to be there for very long. Why? It's one of the secrets.

Caroline's father isn't there at all. He is a long-distance truck driver who is used to being away from his family. He really doesn't mind at all. Why? Another secret.

And then there's Caroline's brother. He doesn't miss his dad at all. Why? You guessed it!

One of the best qualities of this novel is in the fact that the author does not dwell on anything for too long. She sets up the scene (secret), gives you just a enough information to tease you, and then moves on.

It worked for me.

Karen

Read alike author: Susan Wiggs