Staff Picks
Monthly Staff Recommendations
September Staff Picks
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
Fiction
Recommended by Hope
Opportunity knocks for an Iranian immigrant in California when the county offers for sale a seized house at a bargain price. It will serve as a launching pad for his real-estate business. When the county discovers it made an error, the drug-addicted woman who owned the house demands its return, but the Iranian refuses. Unfortunately for him, the woman’s lover is a policeman who takes the law into his hands.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, and e-book.
Also available on *Hoopla as an e-book, and e-audio. You can also stream the movie, and soundtrack.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Fiction
Recommended by Kris
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from … or why … His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers. Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.
Available as a book, large print, e-book and e-audio.
Catch the Devil by Pamela Colloff
Non-Fiction / True Crime
Recommended by Sam
For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises he married nine women–some at the same time. When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors. In Pinellas County, Florida, he became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of exaggerating men’s wrongdoing or implicating the innocent to help prosecutors win convictions. In return, the state rewarded him with his freedom, fueling his growing sense of invincibility. Soon he was not just committing fraud; he was preying on girls in their teens or barely into adolescence. In 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik’s account of his “confession” helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused. By then, Skalnik had caused untold damage: to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.
Available as a book, and large print.
The Reservation by Rebecca Kauffman
Fiction
Recommended by Rebecca
On the morning of the most important booking in the long history of the celebrated restaurant, Aunt Orsa’s erupts into chaos with the discovery that twenty-two rib eye steaks have been stolen. Hers is the most august of fine-dining establishments in this Midwestern college town, and tonight Orsa is set to host a large party honoring a very special guest–a bestselling author of national renown. And what’s up with the recent spate of online reviews, from insulting to frankly terrible? Is Orsa, who wants only to be loved, being sabotaged on several fronts? No one is above suspicion, not the Mennonite baker nor the tattooed hard-ass chef de cuisine. Could the culprit be among the servers, or even the inexperienced undergrad working as hostess?
Available as a book, large print, e-book, and e-audio.
Also available on *Hoopla as an e-audio.
Without a Trace by Danielle Steel
Fiction
Recommended by Marion
Charles Vincent seems to have it all a beautiful wife, two successful children, and a well-paying career. Yet happiness remains out of reach. He is trapped in a loveless marriage and his job is simply a paycheck. But his life changes forever one night as he drives along the Normandy coast, heading to their lavish château for the weekend. In one terrifying moment, Charles falls asleep at the wheel and veers off the road, plunging thirty feet down the face of a rocky cliff. Miraculously, Charles survives. After gathering the courage to climb to safety, he starts to walk bruised, bloody, and desperate for help. In the dark of night, he happens upon a cabin where he meets the kind and beautiful Aude Saint-Martin. They have an instant connection, and as she nurses him back to health, Charles begins to discover the passion he s been missing for so many years. In the aftermath of the crash, Charles has a startling realization: He doesn’t have to go back. He could simply choose to disappear, to walk away from his old life. When his car is discovered, he’ll be presumed dead, washed away at sea. If he stays with Aude, he has a chance at a fuller, happier life that he didn’t know was possible. It all seems too good to resist. But Aude has secrets of her own, and before long their pasts catch up to them, threatening everything they have fought to build.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, and e-audio.
Also available on *Hoopla as an e-audio.
* With your Monson Library Card, you have access to Hoopla and you can borrow 10 items per month!
You must have a Monson Library card and be a Monson resident to use Hoopla through the Monson Free Library.
August Staff Picks
Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes
Children’s Historical Fiction
Recommended by Denise
A classic of children’s historical fiction—now with a freshly designed cover! Johnny Tremain is a thrilling Newbery Medal–winning novel about the Revolutionary War.
Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain, an apprentice silversmith with a bright future ahead of him, injures his hand in a tragic accident, forcing him to look for other work. In his new job as a horse-boy, riding for the patriotic newspaper the Boston Observer and as a messenger for the Sons of Liberty, he encounters John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren.
Soon Johnny is involved in the pivotal events of the American Revolution, from the Boston Tea Party to the first shots fired at Lexington.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, and e-audio.
Also available on *Hoopla as an e-book, and e-audio.
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
Fiction
Recommended by Kris
In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked. Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, e-book, and e-audio.
The Wedding by Danielle Steel
Fiction
Recommended by Marion
Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
Simon Steinberg and Blaire Scott are among the most respected couples in Hollywood. Simon, a major movie producer, and Blaire, an award-winning television writer, have defied the Hollywood cliches, keeping their marriage together for decades. Their three children—aspiring teenage model Samantha, pre-med student Scott, and entertainment lawyer Allegra—are successful and happy but must face the challenges we fear for our own children as well. As an attorney for the stars, twenty-nine-year-old Allegra Steinberg is used to handholding her celebrity clients through their tangled lives and loves, negotiating major movie deals, and fielding phone calls at all hours of the day and night. But with a career that consumes so much of her time, Allegra has little time for a private life.
Until a chance encounter with a New York writer turns Allegra’s life upside down. And suddenly, she finds herself planning a wedding at her parents’ Bel Air home. As preparations begin for a September ceremony, the chaos of last-minute arrangements, surprise announcements, and ever-increasing anxiety brings out both the best and the worst in everyone. But as couples in each generation of the Steinberg family struggle with broken vows and new hopes, the real meaning of Allegra’s wedding emerges. For the bride, the ceremony is a bridge between her past and her future. For her parents, it is a reminder of the bond that holds them all together. And for both families, it is an opportunity for reconciliation, forgiveness, and new hope for the future, as weddings often are for us all. In a compelling portrait of real people in an unreal world, Danielle Steel uses Hollywood as a backdrop to reveal the dreams, the fears, and the expectations of a ceremony that unites us all—from movie stars to long-married couples to nervous teenagers—and changes the lives of real men, women, and families forever.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, and e-book.
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell
Non-Fiction
Recommended by Sam
A prize-winning historian’s fascinating and unfamiliar recasting of America’s war of independence as a transformative international event.
In this revelatory and enthralling book, award-winning historian Richard Bell reveals the full breadth and depth of America’s founding event. The American Revolution was not only the colonies’ triumphant liberation from the rule of an overbearing England; it was also a cataclysm that pulled in participants from around the globe and threw the entire world order into chaos. Repositioning the Revolution at the center of an international web, Bell’s narrative ranges as far afield as India, Africa, Central America, and Australia. As his lens widens, the “War of Independence” manifests itself as a sprawling struggle that upended the lives of millions of people on every continent and fundamentally transformed the way the world works, disrupting trade, restructuring penal systems, stirring famine, and creating the first global refugee crisis. Bell conveys the impact of these developments at home and abroad by grounding the narrative in the gripping stories of individuals–including women, minorities, and other disenfranchised people. The result is an unforgettable and unexpected work of American history that shifts everything we thought we knew about our creation story.
The Someday Garden by
Contemporary Fantasy
Recommended by Hope
The new head gardener at the enchanting Lilymoor House stumbles upon a secret garden … with a mysterious man trapped inside.
When Sophie Drear plans her escape to coastal Maine for the summer–for a temporary job revitalizing the storied grounds at Lilymoor House–she doesn’t expect to fall in love. But she does: with the beguiling land, the fragrant flowers, and the towering hedge maze. With the quirky staff and the enigmatic woman who owns the place. And then, the door appears. Never in the same place twice, it leads her to a secret, and unfinished, garden with a frustrated thundercloud of a man trapped inside. This mysterious garden is not the only sign that the future of Lilymoor is unstable: the foliage resists Sophie’s careful nurturing, vines threaten to strangle the hedges, and the manor’s owner has wild ideas about who will take over when she retires–including her inconveniently attractive nephew who is also there just for the summer. Despite herself, Sophie has come to care for the residents of Lilymoor just as much as she cares for its grounds. With the help of one man on the outside of the secret garden, and one man on the inside, she might be the only person who can figure out exactly what Lilymoor needs to bloom once more.
Whidbey by T. Kira Madden
Fiction
Recommended by Rebecca
Birdie Chang didn’t know anything about Whidbey Island when she chose it, only that it was about as far away as she could get from her own life. She’s a woman on the run, desperate for an escape from the headlines back home and the look of concern in her girlfriend’s eyes—and from Calvin Boyer, the man who abused her as a child and who’s now resurfaced. On her way, she has an unnerving encounter with a stranger on the ferry who offers her a proposition, a sinister solution and plan for revenge. But Birdie isn’t the only girl Calvin harmed back then. There’s also Linzie King, a former reality TV star who recently wrote all about it in her bestselling memoir. Though the two women have never met, their stories intertwine. Once Birdie arrives on Whidbey, she finally cracks the book’s spine, only to find too much she recognizes in its pages. Soon after, on the other side of the country, Calvin’s loving mother, Mary-Beth, receives a shocking phone call from the police: her only son has been murdered. Calvin’s death sets into motion a series of events that sends each woman on a desperate search for answers. A complex whodunit told from alternating points of view, Whidbey is searingly perceptive and astonishingly original. Exploring the long reach of violence and our flawed systems of incarceration and rehabilitation, this is a tense and provocative debut that’s sure to incite crucial questions about the pursuit of justice and who has real power over a story: the one who lives it, or the one who tells it?
Available as a book, audio book, e-book, and e-audio.
* With your Monson Library Card, you have access to Hoopla and you can borrow 10 items per month!
You must have a Monson Library card and be a Monson resident to use Hoopla through the Monson Free Library.