Sometimes the world is a big, scary, heavy place. And this week has seems to have been filled with Days Like That for a lot of you, beloved patrons. So we’re going to get right down to Five Things to Make You Smile before we get to The Books.
- The earliest known iteration of “Facebook”, which seems a lot less stressful than today’s iteration (from The Western Times, 1902)
2. This cheerful plush teacup
3. A cartoon from the delightfully literary humorist Tom Gauld:
4. This video of a baby owl getting his pets. Note: I still want a Library Owl, please.
5. New books! Thank all that is good and right in this world, there are new books:
Far From Home: Riptide Publishing is one of the very few publishing companies to promote LGBT romances–and their books are generally of the highest caliber. Not only that, but their books aren’t afraid to deal with the tough stuff. In this work, Rachel is dealing with an eating disorder, and the anxiety and insecurity that so often comes along with it. Drowning in debt and in need of a little kindness, Rachel agrees to marry Pavi, her calm, quiet friend who is in desperate need of a green card. But as their friendship begins to evolve into something much more intense, Rachel begins to realize that she can’t fully love Pavi until she learns how to trust herself. Author Lorelei Brown has built her career on crafting smart, insightful romances, and this book promises to be another success, offering an inclusive, honest, and heartrending story, which Publisher’s Weekly gave a starred review, saying, “The oddest of odd couples finds unexpected joy in Brown’s warm, sweet contemporary romance…drawing readers deep into the women’s tender romance.”
I Am No One: Patrick Flanery’s high-tech thriller shows the very personal aspects of a world of increasing, and increasingly impersonal, surveillance, and uses one man’s search for answers to ask some very trenchant questions about the state of that world. Jeremy O’Keefe has returned form a decade in England to work as a professor of German literature, living a life that is fulfilling, if a bit lonely. But when a box full of records of his online activity appears on his doorstep, he begins to wonder if he has not indeed left a trace of some kind. As the silent attacks begin to escalate, Jeremy is forced to question whether he has unwittingly committed a crime so heinous that it will destroy him–and what it could possible be? The Associated Press wrote a brilliant review of this book, saying that it “reads like a collaboration between spy novelist John le Carre and Franz Kafka. . . . It’s at once a beautifully written slow-motion thriller, an unnerving story of fear and paranoia, and a cautionary tale about the perils of spy satellites, security cameras and electronic surveillance by faceless government bureaucrats.”
Pond: Not only does Irish author Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut feature a stunningly colorful cover, but the book itself is being hailed as a remarkable triumph. Rather than telling a single, linear narrative, we as readers have the chance to see the world through the eyes of Bennett’s unnamed narrator. As she looks around, as she moves through her day, we learn the secrets of her past, her dreams for the future, and the content of her small cottage. Bennett’s heroine is as much an Everywoman as she is her own unique presence, and this remarkable, unexpected book is touching and connecting readers around the globe, including the London based Literary Review, which called this slim novel “A beautiful, lasting book that privileges modes of human experience that are so often undervalued, if they are acknowledged at all: neither formative encounters nor outward achievement, but rather the workings of a roving, inquisitive mind, open and receptive to all.”
The Big Sheep: I love literary puns, and I think sheep are great, so naturally, I had to stop and take a look at Robert Kroese’s book, and saw critics drawing comparisons to both Philip K. Dick and Terry Pratchett…and I was sold. This book opens in Los Angeles in 2039, where P.I. Erasmus Keane is asked to investigate the disappearance of some genetically-modified sheep. But as Keane begins chasing lost sheep, his partner finds himself entangled in the case of a mysterious, stunning client–who doesn’t remember hiring them. As the two cases become impossibly, inextricably linked, Keane realizes that the secrets he is seeking may be the darkest of his memorable career. NPR had plenty of good things to say about this book, including this: “Kroese’s story is intricate, and his pace is refreshingly relentless, but what really carries The Big Sheep is the laughs. Clever, wry, and not above a little groan-inducing wordplay of the very best kind, the book’s humor not only keeps the mood light, it cements Keane and Fowler’s characters.”
The Accidental Agent: Readers who have eagerly awaited the close of Andrew Rosenheim’s Special Agent Jimmy Nessheim trilogy can rejoice, and those who have waited to binge-read this taut, historical thriller, get ready to enjoy. This story opens in 1942, with Nessheim requesting a long-term leave from the FBI to pursue a law degree at the University of Chicago. But another man is also heading to the University of Chicago with big dreams–Enrico Fermi has begun work on what will soon become the Manhattan Project, and Nessheim soon finds himself re-enlisted to guard the work that Fermi is doing against a suspected Nazi infiltrator–and confronted with his ex-girlfriend, whose reappearance may not be as coincidental as it seems. Publisher’s Weekly loved this book, too, giving it a starred review, and cheering, “Rosenheim’s outstanding third Jimmy Nessheim novel (following 2013’s The Little Tokyo Informant) combines a crackerjack plot and multiple nuanced characters with a convincing portrayal of WWII America…The dramatic twists work to propel the plot to a powerful and moving conclusion. Fans of Joseph Kanon’s thrillers of the same period will find a lot to like.”
Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!