What better way to spend a chilly, blustery day than with a good read (and maybe a warm drink)? Andrea stops by to share five titles that she recommends for this fall. Titles mentioned: Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg November Road by Lou Berney (read Jo's review here) Washington Black by…
Lou Berney’s new novel, November Road, is going to be one of my favorite books of 2018. The Oklahoma native weaves a spine-tingling story set in the weeks after the John F. Kennedy assassination that is both thriller and love story. His two main characters, Frank and Charlotte, are wonderfully complex, likeable and courageous. Both…
It is almost impossible to write a proper review of Kate Atkinson’s Transcription without spoiling it. (Yes, it’s one of THOSE books.) (I’m sorry.) But it’s also impossible NOT to talk about it, because Transcription is, deservedly, one of the Big Books of Fall. Also, I want people to read it and then visit me…
Mr. & Mrs. American Pie is "riotously funny with a surprising amount of heart" according to Erica who interviews McDaniel about her debut novel already in the works to be adapted for television. Their conversation touches on a wide variety of topics including 80's beauty pageants, the challenges and tricks to writing good child characters, and…
"Greenstone was full of people who could make you sad just by strolling into view." Virgil Wander, Leif Enger’s eponymous new novel, is set in the hard-luck town of Greenstone, Minnesota along the stormy northern shores of Lake Superior. Although the town and its people have seen better days, together they muddle through by supporting…
“They meant well, all of them. How could she explain that this city was a graveyard? That they were walking every day through streets where there had been a holocaust, a mass murder of neglect and antipathy, that when they stepped through a pocket of cold air, didn’t they understand it was a ghost, it…
Aspen Drive Library Manager Brooke Bahnsen talks about reading Jason Reynolds' award-winning youth fiction novel Ghost as part of PBS's The Great American Read. We talk about why this contemporary book series written for junior high readers deserves to be recognized, the enjoyment of reading youth literature as an adult, and the benefits of reading diverse perspectives…
Sometimes, I need to let a book marinate before passing judgment on it. A clever twisty thriller might, after a few days' consideration, sprout countless plotholes. Far more rare -- and more enjoyable -- are the times that a "it was pretty good, I guess," book transforms into “I can't stop thinking about this story!" Happily,…
Jo with one of her favorite authors, Reed Farrel Coleman. “What’s scarier than your family?’’ –Author Lisa Unger’s tongue-and-cheek remark on the 2018 Bouchercon panel, The Fear Factor: Threatening Family in Thrillers I was fortunate to attend my fourth Bouchercon mystery convention this month in St. Petersburg, Fla., where hundreds of authors talked about…
Popular Services Librarian Jo Hansen shares her thoughts on John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, a novel she read for the first time as part of PBS's The Great American Read. We talk about why she selected this novel out of the 100 finalists, her favorite Owen Meany quotes, and why it should be…
