Book Lovers Recommendations September 2019

 

All the Flowers in Paris
by Sarah Jio

Caroline wakes up in a Paris hospital in 2009 with no memory of her past.  She discovers a cache of letters in her home which start to jog her memory.  The letters belong to Celine, a widow of Jewish ancestry who lived in Caroline’s house during the Nazi occupation of Paris.  Past and present merge into a story about love and war, death and intrigue.

 

The Art of Mindful Reading: Embracing the Wisdom of Words
by Ella Berthoud

Berthoud is a bibliotherapist and this book is filled with hints on how to read more mindfully. It is filled with lots of ideas that can help improve and expand your reading experience. A great gift for a reader.

 

Gravity is the Thing
by Jaclyn Moriarty

Abigail Sorenson’s brother disappeared 20 years ago and at the same time, she started receiving chapters in the mail of a self-help manual. Now, she has been invited to a retreat where she hopes to find out the truth about the guidebook-and hopefully, solve the mystery of her brother’s disappearance.

 

Kingdomtide
by Rye Curtis

A debut novel.  A park ranger refuses to stop looking for the 72 year old survivor of a plane crash in the mountainous wilderness of Montana.  The story beautifully develops the background of the characters while it follows an exciting search and rescue effort.
Will be published January 2020.

 

Maybe You Should Talk  to Someone: A Therapist, her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed
by Lori Gottlieb

Lori Gottlieb is a therapist with a back story.  When the boyfriend she expected to marry breaks up with her, she seeks out a therapist for her own issues.  Meanwhile, she documents the journeys she takes her own patients on. It’s non-fiction that reads like a novel.

 

The Me I Used to Be
by Jennifer Ryan

This is  fast-paced plot.  Evangeline is released from prison after serving time for a crime she did not commit.  Her arresting officer helps arrange for her release so she can help him find the person who really committed the crime.  Evangeline has to make peace with her family, catch the real criminal, stay alive and just possibly find love with the arresting officer.

 

Mother Knows Best
by Kira Peikoff

This story is based on scientific news torn from the headlines.  Claire Abrams contacts a maverick fertility doctor who is willing to combine her genes and those of another woman so that Claire can  have a biological child that will not contain the genetic mutation which killed her firstborn.  Although it is illegal and possibly immoral, the doctor sets in motion the series of events that fill this novel with twists and turns.

 

A Nearly Normal Family
by M.T. Edvardsson

A murder mystery with psychological overtones.  A normal Scandinavian family finds themselves rocked to the core when their daughter is arrested on a murder charge.  Each character tells their story and the author reveals the difficult choices each family member must make.

 

The Need
by Helen Phillips

Molly is the exhausted working mother of two very young children.  Strange things start happening in her day job as a paleobotanist, where she excavates plant fossils from a dig.  Suddenly, things start showing up in the dig that don’t make sense.  Combine that with her exhaustion, and you have a recipe for a psychological thriller/science fiction combination that seems all too real.

 

Shamed
by Linda Castillo

Kate Burkholder is the Chief of Police in Ohio who was once a member of the Amish community, making her the first person called when there is crime affecting the Amish.  This time she is called to duty to find who murdered an Amish grandmother and abducted her 7 year old grand-daughter.  Some tough moral questions emerge.