Along for the Ride

Auden hasn’t been able to sleep at night for some time, ever since her parents began fighting. After a few years, her nocturnal habits haven’t changed. She decides the summer before she heads to college to visit her dad and step mom on the beach, away from the stresses of academia and her demanding mother. Here she finds herself immersed in the world of girls, friends, and fun. When she meets Eli, a fellow loner and night owl, she realizes that maybe it isn’t too late to live out her childhood. Together these two people help each other with individual quests, and embark on a summer neither one will ever forget…

With Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen once again gives us a book full of characters to love. It is difficult not to get entranced by the colorful personalities written among the pages.

Three Seconds

Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström, authors of Box 21 which I previously reviewed, return with another suspenseful crime novel featuring veteran detective Ewert Grens. Grens is investigating an execution style murder that he suspects involves drugs and the Polish mafia.  Piet Hoffman is a former criminal  turned devoted husband, father, Polish mafia rising star, and undercover informant for the Swedish police. His current mission is to get himself arrested and sent to a maximum security prison where he is to help the Poles take control of the drug supply in Swedish prisons and gather enough information for the police to take them down.  When Grens's and Hoffman's paths threaten to cross, things go bad and a thrilling fight for the truth, and survival, ensues.

While I read Box 21 I decided to listen to Three Seconds on my commute and was not disappointed. It was a little slow for me to get into, but once I did I hated to get out of the car! This is another translation from Sweden that fans of Steig Larsson are sure to enjoy.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

In The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, the second novel in the Flavia de Luce series, author Alan Bradley again brings us the bright, precocious heroine. It s rural England in 1950 and Flavia is lying in the graveyard of St. Tancred's church thinking how sorry her family would be were she to die! While she is contemplating this she hears a woman crying. The tears are coming from Nialla, an assistant to Rupert Porson, a well-known puppeteer.

Since Porson's van has broken down, the local vicar suggests the pair give a performance while the vehicle is being repaired. However before the second show can begin someone is murdered with most of the village watching. Once again Flavia must put her sleuthing skills to use. As in book one, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Flavia performs experiments at her home laboratory at Buckshaw, the crumbling family mansion.  With a visit from her Aunt Felicity and a new character, Dieter, a former German POW working on a farm, and Mad Mag the local crone spouting cryptic remarks, there is plenty for Flavia to investigate. 

Flavia jumps on her trusty bicycle, Gladys, and begins asking pointed questions all over the county. If you like old fashioned mysteries the Flavia de Luce series brings 1950s England to life. The language is clean and amusing. This would be a good series to suggest to younger readers. 

**Book three in the series, A Red Herring Without Mustard, was released last month.

Hunger Games

Hunger Games is the first book in the popular trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Panem is a country divided into 12 districts. Located in what was once the United States, the people of Panem must fight to survive—in more ways than one. Each year, two teen representatives are picked from each district to compete in a grueling survival game for the Capitol’s (the government’s) entertainment. When Katniss’ 12-year-old sister is chosen to represent District 12, Katniss, without a second thought, volunteers to take her place. For some, being chosen is an honor, while others see it as a miserable end. In the dangerous arena, Katniss’ peers and the Capitol’s watchful eyes, await her. Can she make it out alive? Can she bring glory to her district, which they gravely need?

Collins writes a gripping, intense and dramatic trilogy full of uncertainty, trust, and yet, a believable future.

The Distant Hours

“The ancient walls sing the distant hours.” The quote is meant to refer to the secrets of the Blythe family. Raymond Blythe, the castle’s owner, has three daughters. Persephone and Serafina are twins in their thirties. Their younger sister, Juniper, is just seventeen. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, which alternates between 1942 and 1992, is set mostly at a rundown castle in the county of Kent in England. In the 1940s Raymond Blythe is known worldwide for writing a classic children’s book called The True History of the Mud Man.

In 1992 London Edie Burchill is a thirty-year-old book publisher. She is at her parents’ home when her mother Meredith receives a letter fifty years late in arriving. Her mother gasps and cries out when she opens the letter but says there is nothing wrong. Over a period of time and by questioning her Aunt Louise, Edie learns her mother was evacuated from London during the “Blitz”. She stayed at the Blythe's castle, Milderhurst, for eighteen months.

Back in 1992 Edie decides to tour the castle and meet the now elderly trio of sisters. Juniper, the youngest, is not in her right mind and keeps looking for her fiancé of 1942 to show up.

So what was in the letter Meredith got fifty years late? Why is the parlor door of the castle always locked? And most of all, what was the real inspiration of the Mud Man? As secret after secret comes to light will Edie finally learn what happened in 1942?

Before I Fall

If you could relive the day you died, what would you do different? What would you say? Who would you spend it with? How far would you go to save yourself? In Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver  Sam Kingston has that chance. With the greatest friends, cutest boyfriend, and heightened popularity, Sam has it all… Or so she thought. As Sam gets the chance to relive her last day on earth, her intricately woven world begins to fall apart. Every new step she takes reveals secrets and people she hardly knew existed.

With colorful characters and raw emotion built into every page, Lauren Oliver’s debut novel will take you into a believable, loveable, and yet heartbreaking story. Recommended by authors such as Jay Asher, this book explores the power of one person’s actions and asks the enticing question--“What if?”

Miss Dimple Disappears

It’s 1942 in a cold November in Elderberry, Georgia. It’s almost a year since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America entered the war. In this first entry in a new cozy mystery series by Mignon F. Ballard, Miss Dimple Kilpatrick, who has been a first grade teacher for almost 40 years, is taking her usual morning walk. But why is a car with its headlights off following her?

Soon after, the body of the school janitor shows up in a storage closet at the grade school. Did the janitor die of a heart attack or something more sinister? When someone abducts Miss Dimple, grade schooler Willie Elrod tells his mother he saw Miss Dimple kidnapped by spies! No one believes him because he’s known
for his wild imagination. Third grade teacher Charlie Carr is worried because she knows Miss Dimple would never vanish in the middle of the school year. Charlie convinces her best friend, fourth grade teacher Annie Gardner, to help her investigate.

Miss Dimple Disappears is a look at small town Georgia during the war with spirited townfolk working together to solve the mystery.

Mystery Book Club

Our Mystery Book Club will meet next Thursday (March 10) at 6:45 p.m. to discuss mysteries by Lee Child.
Child writes fast-paced suspense novels featuring Jack Reacher, a former Military Police Major turned drifter out to find justice for those who need it. The Killing Floor is the first book in the series, but they can be read in any order. Copies are on display in the library and new members are always welcome!

The Highly Sensitive Person

Our book of the month for March, selected by Barb,  is The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron. If you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams, people tell you you are "too shy" or "too sensitive" and time alone each day is essential to you, you may be a Highly Sensitive Person. For the HSP, feeling over-stimulated is a way of life, and in this book Dr. Aron shows you how to identify this trait in yourself, and understand it to make the most of it and lead and richer life. Copies of this book will be on display in the library for the month of March. Stop by to check one out today!