What Happened to Goodbye

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

After her parents’ shocking and very public divorce McIean has avoided her mother at all costs, leaving her to travel with her dad as he consults restaurants. With the tally of four schools in two years, McIean has learned how to be minimalistic. The key is to never get too attached to anyone or anything. As an easy solution to this task, McIean gives herself a new persona in each new town. However, when she and her dad move to Lakeview, McIean accidently introduces herself as… well, herself. With a simple introduction, her carefully constructed world begins to dissolve. This sudden change brings unplanned friends and unwanted confrontations. Without these barriers, can McIean learn how to let go of the past, adapt to the present, and place hope in the future?

In her tenth novel, Dessen charms us again with quirky, relatable characters in the most beloved fictional town of Lakeview. As you read watch for familiar faces from other Dessen novels lurking around every page.

eBooks for Kindles!

Kindle compatibility is now available for almost all eBooks in the WPLC Digital Download Center (Overdrive), a library database that lets you download FREE eBooks and audiobooks for use on your personal devices, including iPods, MP3 players, Nooks, iPads, and now Kindles. There are also apps that will allow you to use Overdrive with your iPhone, Android or Blackberry! Find out if your device is compatible with Overdrive. If you would like help getting started with Overdrive, please contact the library.

Red Herring

In Red Herring, the twenty-first Joe Gunther mystery by Archer Mayor, Vermont Bureau of Investigation head Gunther has to link three murders connected by one drop of blood. Gunther and his team are called to investigate a murdered rape victim who wasn't raped, an elderly suicide who didn't commit suicide and a nineteen-year-old accident victim who didn't have an accident.  The police are faced with more questions than answers. They must look closely into each murder victim's life and background. As each new murder occurs Gunther and his people utilize the Brookhaven National laboratory, a real facility utilizing cutting edge forensic technology. Red Herring is a complex mystery. The characters are well written and there's even a shocking twist at the end.

Matched

In Matched by Ally Condie, Cassia has always believed what the Society told her. They give her a long, healthy life (not like in the destructive world before), a caring family, and a bright looking future complete with her statistically perfect husband and career. Using her parents’ relationship as an example, Cassia trusts that her Match with her best friend Xander is meant to be. However, when Ky’s face appears on her microcard instead of Xander’s, her mind is filled with doubts. Although the Officials say it was some cruel joke—since Ky’s status prevents him from being Matched—she can’t seem to stop her mind from wandering. Is Xander really her Match? Why? Who is in charge? Why are they so blindly followed? Is her future really for them to decide?

This dystopian novel resembles the world found in The Giver by Lois Lowry and focuses on one girl’s journey to a freedom she never knew existed. Watch for book #2 -Crossed- this winter!

Blood, Bones & Butter

Selected by Amazon as one of the best books of the year so far, Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef is more than just a food memoir by New York City restaurant owner/chef Gabrielle Hamilton. At the start, Hamilton shares her idyllic childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania with a creative father and French mother who threw lavish parties for family, friends, and neighbors. However, her parents divorce left Hamilton to fend for herself just as she entered her teenage years. She takes various odd jobs, waitresses, spends time abroad, cooks for a summer camp and spends years freelance catering before becoming the owner of her restaurant, Prune, which is something she seemed to fall into unexpectedly.

Also unexpectedly, she finds herself married to an Italian man she met while working at Prune and with whom she has two sons and a yearly month-long visit to his family in Italy. Far from a conventional relationship, Hamilton does not discuss much about her marriage, and I found myself wondering more about the situation. Overall I enjoyed the passion, and frankness with which Hamilton writes, especially when she writes about her vision for Prune. It was especially enjoyable because I listened to this book (downloaded for free from Overdrive!), and Hamilton reads it herself.

A Trick of the Light

In A Trick of the Light, the seventh book in the Three Pines series by author Louise Penny, local artist Clara Morrow is about to have her portraits shown at a prestigious art museum in Montreal, Quebec. Clara is very nervous but gets through the experience and returns home to her Three Pines friends, artists and gallery owners.

The next morning Clara is sitting in her garden waiting for her husband Peter to arrive with newspapers reviewing her art show. As Peter approaches the garden he sees something that was hidden from Clara’s view. A dead body! The body is identified as Lillian Dyson, a childhood friend of Clara’s who betrayed her while they were in art college. Clara says she hasn’t seen or heard from Lillian in twenty years.

The dead body in Clara’s garden overshadows everything she’s worked toward for twenty years. It begins an investigation by friend Chief Inspector Gamache and his second in command Beauvoir. Louise Penny creates a mix of murder, mystery and literary novel. She has written a world we can enter into and live in. Highly recommended.

Terrier

Our September book of the month, selected by Mollie, is Terrier by Tamora Pierce. Set in author Pierce's Tortall, Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost's Guard, and she's been assigned to the Lower City. It's a tough beat that's about to get tougher, as Beka's limited ability to communicate with the dead clues her in to an underworld conspiracy. Someone close to Beka is using dark magic to profit from the Lower City's criminal enterprises—and the result is a crime wave the likes of which the Provost's Guard has never seen before. --summary from bn.com

Terrier is the first book in the Beka Cooper trilogy. If you enjoy it, read Bloodhound next, followed by Mastiff, which will be released October 25.

September Mystery Book Club

The Prairie du Sac Library's Mystery Book Club will meet Thursday, September 8 at 6:45 p.m. to discuss mysteries by Michael Connelly. Known for his characters Police Detective Harry Bosch and lawyer Mickey Haller, Connelly writes gritty and suspenseful novels with intricate plots and a fast pace. Copies of Connelly's books are available on display in the library. New members are always welcome!

Meet Author Ellen Baker

Join the Prairie du Sac Library at the Blue Spoon Tuesday, September 6 at 7:00 p.m. as we host author Ellen Baker. Her newest book, I Gave My Heart to Know This, was released August 2. Set in Wisconsin during WWII, the novel mixes past and present through the story of three women who join the war effort in 1944 and the great-granddaughter who uncovers the secrets that shattered the family. Beautifully written and profoundly moving, I Gave My Heart to Know This is a riveting story of love, loss, and the lingering effects of war. Copies will be available for purchase and autograph.

Ellen Baker was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and grew up in Wisconsin, Illinois, and South Dakota. She has worked as a costumed living history interpreter, a curator of a World War II museum, and as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. She is also the author of Keeping the House, copies of which are available for checkout at the Prairie du Sac Library.

This event will be held in the Blue Spoon River Room. Contact the library at 643-8318 to reserve your spot. Special thanks to the Blue Spoon for providing space and to Nancy Maschman for arranging this event. Those interested are encouraged to show up early and have dinner on their own before the event.