Staff Picks
Monthly Staff Recommendations
October Staff Picks
Country People by Daniel Mason
Fiction
Recommended by Sam
Miles Krzelewski is a devoted husband, a doting father beloved for his outlandish bedtime stories, and the proud owner of a truffle-hunting dog in a land with no truffles. He is also a bit lost, twelve years late with his PhD on Russian folktales and increasingly haunted by a sense that he’s become a disappointment to his family. So when his wife, Kate, accepts a visiting professorship at a prestigious college in the faraway forests of Vermont, he decides that this will be the year to finally move forward with his life. But Miles is a man of many enthusiasms, one who possesses, in Kate’s words, a great capacity “to fall in with anyone, anywhere.” And no sooner does he arrive than he finds himself entangled with a cast of characters as colorful as those of any of his folktales, from a ghostly tree surgeon to a scythe-mad biochemist, from a Shakespearean temptress to a photographer of snowflakes obsessed with chronicling, on thousands of index cards, the world’s delusions in an Inventory of Wrong Ideas. The new friends, the enchanted woods, the histories: sure, no PhD, but all good fun. Until Miles stumbles upon a bizarre–perhaps ridiculous–local legend, which, he soon suspects, might not be just a legend after all.
Available as a book, large print, audio book, e-book and e-audio.
On My Watch by Virginia Buckingham
Memoir
Recommended by Hope
As the nation came together to mourn, to support, and to rebuild in the aftermath of 9/11, Virginia Buckingham was singled out for blame. As the head of Boston’s Logan International Airport, the launching pad for the hijacked planes that destroyed the Twin Towers, she was scapegoated by the media and political leaders for supposed airport security lapses and forced to resign. She was also sued for wrongful death by the family of a 9/11 victim, holding her personally responsible for the terrorist attack. A rising star at thirty-five–she had served as chief of staff to two consecutive Massachusetts governors before becoming the first woman to head the state’s Port Authority–Buckingham’s life and career was suddenly derailed. Grappling with issues of trauma, faith, leadership, and resilience, this unique memoir shares her struggle to rebuild her life and come to terms with being blamed for the unimaginable tragedy that occurred on her watch.
She Didn’t See It Coming by Shari Lapena
Mystery
Recommended by Rebecca
When a beloved wife and mother disappears, a luxurious condo building transforms into a potential crime scene, and the investigation begins: can the detectives find her before it’s too late?
Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple. Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day – has failed to collect their daughter from daycare. Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall. Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out. How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all? With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their condominium less safe, their friends, neighbors and relatives no longer quite so reliable…
Available as a book, large print, audio book, e-book, and e-audio.
The Correspondent
Fiction
Recommended by Kris
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters–to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has – a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. Filled with knowledge that comes only from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be ‘a very small thing,’ but in Virginia Evan’s gifted hands we see that ‘small things’ can be subtly masterful and unforgettable.
Available as a book, large print, e-book and e-audio.
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.
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.