Booklovers: A podcast for readers

This episode, Andrea and I talk about romance books. We also share what’s making us happy – coffee and The Alienist for those of you who can’t wait to listen to find out. What’s making you happy?

Questions? More suggestions? Topics you’d like to hear us cover in the future? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter – @ClermontLibrary or on Facebook.

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Romance Book Recommendations

 

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Andrea, Amy, and I share our picks for some of our favorite nonfiction of 2017. We run the spectrum from language to food and wine to death rites.

Questions? More suggestions? Topics you’d like to hear us cover in the future? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter – @ClermontLibrary or on Facebook.

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Best Nonfiction

 

Speaking American by Josh Katz.

Eats Shoots Leaves by Lynne Truss.

How the States Got Their Shapes (DVD)

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker.

Eight Flavors by Sarah Lohman.

From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty.

 

Wild Things by Bruce Handy.

Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs.

During this episode of Booklovers, Andrea, Amy, and I talk about some of our book favorites from 2017.

Questions? More suggestions? Topics you’d like to hear us cover in the future? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter – @ClermontLibrary or on Facebook.

Favorites

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty is a sf/murder mystery that examines social issues as it answers whodunit. The book starts with a woman waking up in a cloning vat on a spaceship. When she stumbles out of the vat she sees her other crew members also getting out of vats which is odd enough. But what’s horrifying are the bodies. Their bodies. Murdered. The six crew members are the only ones who could’ve committed the murders but none of them have their memories from the past 20 years. How do you solve a crime when you might well be the murderer.

Ultimate locked room mystery which is fun but then you get flashbacks from all of the crew, exploring who they were before getting on the ship and the secrets they’re hiding. Super skillful writing, keeping all six story lines with the out of sequence storytelling in perfect balance.

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Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. Lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully’s prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him.

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According to a Source by Abby Stern. Ella Warren works for celebrity news website, The Life, as a club reporter. She’s assigned to stake out Hollywood’s hottest clubs and spy on the celebrities inside. When Ella is pressured by her Devil Wears Prada-type boss to find an exclusive story to keep her job, she has to decide if being in Hollywood’s elite inner circle is worth jeopardizing her friendship with actress Holiday Hall, her budding romance with Holiday’s agent, and her family.

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An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard. For fans of The Magicians by Lev Grossman, the Shades of Magic series by VE Schwab or American Gods by Neil Gaiman. There’s a dark secret hiding in the heart of New York City. It’s a society of magicians – powerful houses with names like Merlin, Prospero and Dee who vie for power by having champions fight magical duels. Winner takes control of the magical world. The stakes are even higher this time because the champion who’s got the best chance of winning is the one with a secret agenda. To destroy the hierarchy and power hoarding from the inside. Skillfully written.

Books 2 movies: This episode Amy, Andrea and I talk about books that have been adapted into movies. We suggest a bit of everything, young adult, adult, mystery, science fiction, non-fiction.

Questions? More suggestions? Topics you’d like to hear us cover in the future? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter – @ClermontLibrary or on Facebook.

Books 2 Movies

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. The story of a teenage girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.

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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. Aza Holmes, a high school student with obsessive-compulsive disorder, becomes focused on searching for a fugitive billionaire.

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Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle. In three intertwining short stories, several high school couples experience the trials and tribulations along with the joys of romance during a Christmas Eve snowstorm in a small town.

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Wonder by RJ Palacio. Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.

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Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Detective Hercule Poirot has a wealth of suspects to choose from when a wealthy American is stabbed to death en route to Paris on the Orient...

Amy, Andrea and I talk about books that you can read in a weekend. Or even a weekend! These are perfect if you have some unexpected free time or you’re trying to read more books. Did you set a reading goal for yourself and you need just another book or two to reach that goal? If so, these are books for you!

Check out all of the great digital items available for free via Hoopla. You can read books and magazines, watch movies and tv shows, and listen to music. Right now! For free! Find out more here.

Read it in a weekend

Red Madness by Gail Jarrow. Traces the pellagra epidemic that spread throughout the American South a century ago, drawing on real-life cases to describe its physical and cultural impact as well as related medical reports, news articles, and scientific investigations.

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman. A short yet powerfully creepy book. It won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

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Holiday Wishes by Jill Shalvis. It’s Christmastime again in Heartbreaker Bay! When Sean O’Riley shows up at the Hartford Bed & Breakfast for his older brother’s bachelor weekend, he’s just hoping to make it through the weekend. What he’s not expecting is to come face to face with the woman he lost his virginity to a decade ago–a woman he’s never really forgotten. The last time Lotti Hartford saw Sean, she told him she loved him while he said nothing. Now, ten years later, she’s just looking for a good time. For once, she wants to be the wild and free one, and Sean – the good time guy – is the perfect candidate. But as the weekend continues, Sean realizes that after a lifetime of being the hook-up king, he’s ready to find happily-ever-after, and he wants it with Lotti. But will she open her heart to him again? As Christmas sweeps through the little B&B, he can only hope love and magic are in the air.

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Christmas with my Cowboy by Diana Palmer, Lindsay McKenna, and Margaret Way. The Snow Man: Meadow Dawson needs Santa to deliver a solution to her management of the Colorado ranch she’s inherited. Cattleman Dal Blake just wants his pretty neighbor’s dog to quit digging under ...

This episode of the Booklovers Podcast, we’re discussing books with a wintery theme. Stories that make you glad to be inside with the warm drink of your choice. So join us as Andrea, Amy and I chat about our snowy suggestions.

Snowy Mysteries

Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theater, Ari, a young policeman on his first assignment,  is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness–blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose. Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a debut mystery.

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Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka. When fifteen-year-old Lucinda Hayes is found dead in her sleepy Colorado suburb, the secret lives of three people connected to her are revealed: the social outcast who loved her from afar, the jaded girl who despised her, and the policeman investigatingher death.

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Snowy Books for Kids

Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day.

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Winter Woes by Marty Kelley. Rhyming lament of a young worrywart who wants to go outside and play in the snow but fears what could happen if he does, from slipping on steps to freezing his brain.

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Snowy Book for Teens

Girls made of snow and glass by Melissa Bashardoust. When I read a description that called this book Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, I knew I had to read it. Because – fairytales! Obvious callouts to Snow White but also some lesser known fairytales like Donkeyskin.

16 year old Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious. He cut out her heart and replaced it with one made of glass. Mina has a plan. Win the king’s heart, become queen and finally learn how to love. The catch in this plan is that she’ll have to be a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother because her father ordered a magician to create her out of snow i...

Welcome to the latest episode of the Booklovers Podcast. This time, Andrea, Meghann, Mary and I talk about Sherlock Holmes inspired mysteries. What’s your favorite Sherlock Holmes inspired book?

Sherlock Suggestions

 

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim their inheritance.

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The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss. Mary Jekyll, alone and penniless following her parents’ death, is curious about the secrets of her father’s mysterious past. One clue in particular hints that Edward Hyde, her father’s former friend and a murderer, may be nearby, and there is a reward for information leading to his capturea reward that would solve all of her immediate financial woes. But her hunt leads her to Hyde’s daughter, Diana, a feral child left to be raised by nuns. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Mary continues her search for the elusive Hyde, and soon befriends more women, all of whom have been created through terrifying experimentation: Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau, and Justine Frankenstein. When their investigations lead them to the discovery of a secret society of immoral and power-crazed scientists, the horrors of their past return. Now it is up to the monsters to finally triumph over the monstrous.

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is murdered on the grounds of her family’s decaying English mansion and Flavia’s father becomes the main suspect.

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Origin by Dan Brown. Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever”. The evening’s host is his friend and former student, Edmond Kirsch. This evening is to be no exception: he claims he will reveal an astonishing scientific breakthrough to challenge the fundamentals of human existence. But Langdon and several hundred other guests are left reeling when the meticulously orchestrated evening is blown apart before Kirsch’s precious discovery can be revealed. With his life under threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape,

Welcome to another episode of the Booklovers Podcast. Join us as Andrea, Amy and I talk about holiday books. Along with some shout outs to old favorites, we cover a variety of holiday books from essays to picture books.

What’s your favorite holiday book?

Holiday Books

 

Holidays on Ice. This is a collection of essays written by longtime NPR contributor David Sedaris. As a former bookstore owner, I know how brutal the holidays can be in the retail world. So I totally fell in love with this collection when I read about his time spent being Krumpet the Elf at the New York City Macy’s. Let me share just one quote –

“But instead I am applying for a job as an elf. Even worse than applying is the very real possibility that I will not be hired, that I couldn’t even find work as an elf. That’s when you know you’re a failure.”

Reading the book is fun but it’s even better if you listen to the audio. These pieces come alive. Like the holiday letter gone wrong. You know the letter you get in a Christmas card about a family’s achievements? This starts off as that and then goes terribly awry but in an achingly funny fashion.

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Seven Days of Us by Frances Hornak. A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays… It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter–who is usually off saving the world–will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity–and even decent Wi-FI–and forced into each other’s orbits.

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Start Without Me: A Novel by Joshua Max Feldman. Two strangers  meet by chance in this mesmerizing tale that unfolds over one Thanksgiving Day. Adam is a former musician and recovering alcoholic who is home for Thanksgiving for the first time in many years. Surrounded by his parents and siblings, nieces and nephews–all who have seen him at his worst–he can’t shake the feeling that no matter how hard he tries,

Listen in as Mary and Andrea join me to talk about some tasty reads this episode. We prove that books are delicious as we cover fiction and nonfiction treats. Mysteries, memoirs and cupcakes – we discuss it all.

If you’d like to use one of the library’s meeting rooms, check out the guidelines.

Our Picks

A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli. This book is an introduction to making cakes that look weird, ugly and even grotesque, but taste divine. There are amazing materials for making edible sculptures and hundreds of things you can do with natural ingredients.

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Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen. This book has a gorgeous cover! A successful caterer in Bascomb, North Carolina, Claire has always remained tied to the legacy of the Waverly family, until her peaceful life is transformed by Tyler Hughes, an art teacher and new next-door neighbor, and by the return of her prodigal sister, Sydney.

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Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Follows the author’s family’s efforts to live on locally- and home-grown foods, an endeavor through which they learned lighthearted truths about food production and the connection between health and diet.

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Murder on the Rocks by Allyson K. Abbott. Mack’s Bar is one of those nice, friendly places where everybody knows your name. That’s great when someone’s buying you a round, but not so hot when you find yourself atop a list of murder suspects–with your fingerprints on the bloody knife! Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton is a Milwaukee bar owner with a nose for trouble–literally. A neurological glitch has left her with extra perceptive senses. So when she stumbles upon a dead body in the alley behind the bar–the same spot where her own father was shot eight months earlier–she can tell right away there’s something fishy in the air. The lead detective thinks there’s a link between the two deaths, and he’ll need Mack’s help to sniff out the murderer amid the crowd of eccentric regulars. But when all the evidence points to her as the most likely culprit,

Welcome to a special episode of the Booklovers Podcast! This time I’m interviewing two of our branch staffers, Mary and Cristy about Librari*Con. This is the library’s annual free event celebrating all sorts of fandoms including Doctor Who, Stranger Things, Harry Potter, Star Wars and more.

In addition to the podcast, check out the Librari*Con page for details about:

* Entering the fan art contest

* Entering the cosplay contest

* Meeting the staff

* All of the activities at Librari*Con

You might also enjoy

* Booklovers Podcast: Stranger Things Readalikes

* Level Up With Books For Gamers

* Books for Stranger Things Fans

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