Dear reader, lately I have discovered a trend in my reading. Books that I have read recently seem to have the similar theme of sisters being separated but finding closure or reigniting their relationship. This is not a theme that I set out planning to explore, the books I have chosen to partake in were pure serendipity. A bit about me: I do not have a biological sister. I have two stepsisters that I love and enjoy spending time with, but we did not become close until adulthood as we did not grow up together. Do I wish that I had a sister? I do not know. I have close female friends I consider akin to sisters. I think that is enough for me. I did enjoy reading these books (mostly thriller) that explore sister relationships. I hope you also enjoy traveling down the dark twisty roads of the bonds of sisterhood in the following novels!
If you read my last month’s blog post you will remember that I was awaiting The Clinic to come in. After much anticipation and excitement my hold finally arrived! Was it worth the wait! Oh yes, very much so. The Clinic was so good I read it in a week.
“To solve your sister’s murder, you might need to solve yourself.”
Meg and Hailey did not have an easy childhood growing up with an abusive famous mother. As an adult Hailey became a famous country singer. Meg took a security job at a casino. Both became addicted to drugs and alcohol. Hailey wanted to change and get clean so she enrolled herself in a new treatment center: The Clinic. The Clinic is a specialized place that the rich and famous can come to get clean. It is incredibly fancy and costs a fortune to attend in-patient treatment. That picture perfect image is shattered when Hailey is reported dead from an apparent overdose.
Meg knows her sister. Hailey would not overdose or risk her life like that. Facts about the case just do not add up. Suspicious, Meg decides to go in undercover to get to the truth about the goings on inside of The Clinic. Meg quickly realizes that in order to solve her sister’s murder she must get clean and solve her own childhood trauma first. The Clinic kept me guessing at every turn. I had no idea who could possibly be the killer. Usually I have an inkling. This one is full of unexpected plot twists. The setting is also chef’s kiss. The Clinic is no ordinary addiction treatment center.
I feel it is worth noting the author’s note in the beginning of this book. Cate Quinn confesses that this is her first novel written completely sober. Many of the ideas she got for this novel come from her own treatment for the conditions of alcohol abuse. She says that this is the novel she is most proud of. After reading it, I must say she has a right to be proud.
The Wild West period in American history only ranged from about 1850 to the early 20th century, depending on who’s measuring. Despite its brief timespan, we have remained collectively enthralled as a people to the American Frontier. In fact, one of the earliest silent film commercial successes was The Great Train Robbery (1903), which titillated audiences with footage of Justus D. Barnes aiming and firing a gun directly at the audience (proto inspiration for James Bond 50 years later? I believe so). The western is baked into the culture now, and has even left the confines of the planet (looking at you, Mandalorian). Below, I listed a few broad categories and some examples of film that would fit into each category. All listed titles are available on DVD or BluRay in the Monarch system.
Hollywood’s Golden Age The “Golden Age” as I refer to it here is loosely referring to the years between 1940 and 1960. The good guy wore white, the bad guy wore black. The quest was for justice, or to conquer an unruly wilderness. We had gunslingers, and manifest destiny. Films were still subject to the Hays Code Authority at this time, so filmmakers had to be subversive or trust the audience to pick up on subtext like domestic violence, pregnancy, queerness, and so on.
High Noon (1954) dir. Fred Zinneman; starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly
Johnny Guitar (1954) dir. Nicholas Ray; starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden
Shane (1953) dir. George Stevens; starring Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur
Westward the Women (1951) dir. William A. Wellman; starring Robert Taylor and Denise Darcel
John Ford and John Wayne The Duke and Ford made almost 20 pictures together, most of them westerns. Along with Humphrey Bogart, Marylin Monroe, and Elvis, few other famous 20th century Americans have the same international recognition factor as John Wayne, just like the Universal movie monsters. And much like the movie monsters, John Wayne may not have had much range as an actor, but he sure was fun to watch.
The Quiet Man (1952) with Maureen O’Hara and Barry Fitzgerald
The Searchers (1956) with Vera Miles and Natalie Wood
Stagecoach (1939) with Claire Trevor and Andy Devine
1960s Some of the greatest films in history were being produced in the 1960s. The Hays Code had dissolved, and directors started flexing their muscles in earnest without the shackles of absolute studio control. While plenty of unusual and boundary-pushing American westerns were being produced at this time, the genre was making its rounds through other cultural lenses, most famously in Japan and Italy.
Cat Ballou (1965) dir. Elliot Silverstein; starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin
The Wild Bunch (1969) dir. Sam Peckinpah; starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine
Yojimbo (1961) dir. Akira Kurasawa; starring Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai
Sci-fi westerns One of the coolest elements of the western genre is how well it blends into other genres. Below, I listed some western sci-fi highlights that saw us through the end of the 20th century and helped usher in the 21st.
Firefly (2002-2003) dir. Joss Whedon; starring Nathon Fillion and Gina Torres
Westworld (1973) dir. Michael Crichton; starring Yul Brynner and Richard Benjamin
The films I listed barely scratch the surface. Like, I hardly left a smudge on the glass here. Look for a list of western films online and you will be overwhelmed. Something like 20 westerns a year were being cranked out of Hollywood in the 1930s alone. We have access to a pretty great DVD collection in the Monarch system, so it would take a while to work through all the westerns if that’s the plan. Please send requests my way if there’s something missing. In the meantime, consider using Mead’s Your Next Five Movies tool. Fill out the form and we respond with a list of five movies you might love based on the information provided to us. And Mead Library cardholders, DO NOT SLEEP ON KANOPY. If you don’t already have an account activated, I do not know what you’re waiting for. Which movie genre should I take a shallow fly-by at next?
With the way the weather has been this week, it’s a perfect time to get out of the heat and do some summer reading. Along with the heat, July has brought a new LibraryReads list full of book recommendations from library staff across the country! Below you’ll find some of the books from this month’s list along with a review from one of America’s numerous library workers.
In this compelling gothic novel set in Australia, recently divorced 50-something Fiona buys her uncle’s decaying country estate with plans to refurbish it. But the locals fear the place is haunted. When Fiona discovers a novel that appears to be set in the house, it becomes a dual-timeline story, with chapters from the book woven into the narrative. – Robin Beerbower, LibraryReads Ambassador, AZ
Dear reader, this last month was quite an interesting reading month for me. I dabbled in the Dark Romance genre that is highly popular right now. I finally, after all these years, read all The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books for the first time. I also read a thriller novel with a very unique premise that I was not sure I would like (spoiler alert: I was smitten by it!). I enjoy giving books a try that I may not normally pick up. Dear reader, please enjoy my offerings of books that may be a bit out of the ordinary. Perhaps you will also like to give one a try that is not on your usual reading menu.
Have you looked at the book selections at Walmart and Target lately? If you have you will see that dark romance is all the rage right now. As a librarian, I am seeing these books coming through on a daily basis. Of course I am curious! I myself am attracted to the dark and spicy side of the bookshelves. The thing is, I just do not read romance often. The genre attracts me, but usually other books (thrillers, nonfiction, or The Dragonriders of Pern) get my attention first. Well, I told my usual To Read list to take a break and made a point to read Hooked.
I chose Hooked as I am a Disney nerd. I have also always rooted for Hook over Peter in the Peter Pan story so I was sold with Hook being the hero/love interest. Honestly, I did not expect much. I thought this would be a poorly written bit of fluff. To my surprise and delight it was really well written and good! I fell in love with the characters! James Hook was a complex character that ended up exploring issues of what childhood trauma does to a person. Wendy was loveable and quite relatable. I was emotionally invested! Hooked is very very loosely based off the Peter Pan story. It is not a fantasy. It takes place in the real world. Peter is an adult rich businessman who owns an airline company and is trying to get into the drug (Pixie Dust) trade. Wendy is his adult daughter who he ignores and treats like crap. Wendy was instantly likeable. She was unaware of her father’s illegal activities. She is trying to make a life for herself outside of the shadow of her rich and famous father. In trying to make that life, she ends up going with some friends to a nightclub called The Jolly Roger. . . .
The Jolly Roger is owned by the notorious James Hook. The town bad boy and heartthrob. Every girl wants him, but he will give none of them the time of day. (Yes, he just smolders. The accent does not hurt either.) Seeing Wendy on the security feed gives him a plan, a dark plan steeped in revenge. See, Peter killed James Hook’s parents and destroyed his life. Peter drove Hook into a life of darkness and crime. If he can get close to Wendy, Peter’s daughter, he can use her against Peter. What James Hook does not expect is to find that he may have a heart after all and he is falling for Wendy.
Dear reader, I start this blog post with yet another confession, which is thus: Although I will be talking today about three different variations on Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, I have yet to read the actual novel. Has that ever happened to you? I now have a fear that when I do get to reading the actual novel, my reading of it will be tainted by these three adaptations I’ve read before it. But I suppose, even if I hadn’t read them, I would still be bringing my own ideas, perspectives, and the like to the original anyway, so really is there a way for me to read Pride and Prejudice objectively?
Ironically, I have a hard time reading classics, but yet I have read three adaptation of it. My main problem with classic is I find the archaic language quite distracting, to the point where it almost gets in the way of my physical reading of the story, if that makes sense. But, never fear dear reader, I will read Pride and Prejudice at some point!
The first book I’ll be talking about is an Amish retelling by Sarah Price. The setting being Amish, I felt like this retelling was the closest to the original, what with the getting around by horse and buggy and there being no electricity. This book was actually my first foray into Amish fiction. It was something I found myself avoiding for a long time because I assumed I wouldn’t like it. What a silly thing, our assumptions! Much like regency romance, I have now fallen headlong down the rabbit hole of Amish fiction. Not only have I read other retellings of classic novels by Sarah Price, but I’ve also listened to several Amish fiction audiobooks. What worlds of reading we keep ourselves from simply by assuming we couldn’t enjoy them!
With five daughters and no sons, Daed and Maem Blank are anxious to find their girls suitors who might eventually take over their family farm. When news arrives that Charles Beachey, the son of a prominent Amish farmer, will be returning from Ohio with his cousin Frederick, they are hopeful that the young men might be good matches for their daughters.
The oldest daughter, Jane, starts courting Charles, a well-mannered and very respectful young man, but her younger sister Lizzie is not interested in either courtship or Frederick. In fact, she wants nothing to do with him, finding him full of pride and disdain for her family’s way of life. But in a community and culture where pride is scorned, Lizzie must learn that first impressions can be dangerous and people are not always who they seem to be.
This Amish retelling of the popular Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice is a beautiful take on the power of love to overcome class boundaries and prejudices that will win your heart.
Dear reader, I must fully admit to being more than a little bored while reading this retelling, which worries me in my endeavor to read the original text. While I was reading it, it made me think of that most infamous review of the original Pride and Prejudice, wherein the person claimed it to be “just a book about people going over to one another’s houses”. There is much more to it than that, I’m sure! Just as there was more to Sarah Price’s retelling. But taken at surface level, I could see how one would think that.
Not only was it my first glimpse into Amish life, but it was also an important lesson of the dangers of acting on first impressions, and, you guessed it, prejudices. One of the things I find most maddening in books is when one character won’t let another one fully explain a situation, instead interjecting with their own ideas and frustrations, and then leaving. It simply makes my blood boil! And then those misunderstandings get carried through multiple chapters with those characters avoiding one another, and nothing gets resolved.
I felt like Sarah Price’s retelling of Emma suffered from a lot of the same issues, with the main character – yes, you guessed it, Emma! – interfering in others lives where she shouldn’t have, and then having to face the consequences of that. Characters that think they know a certain situation and what is best, but in the end it turns out they had everything wrong and a bigger muddle is made than if they had just let things take their natural course. But isn’t that the human way?
Dear reader, can you imagine writing a book so many hundreds of years ago that is still being talked about and reimagined today? What staying power! I truly wonder what people thought of Pride and Prejudice when it was first released. How magical that must have been for readers.
The next retelling is something completely different, and is one I came across thanks to an Instagram video.
Not too long ago, I dove into the world of genre fusions by sharing some of my favorite works of historical fantasy. If you’re curious, you can read that post here. Today, I’m going to take a look at another fantasy genre fusion, this time between fantasy and mystery. As far as I’m aware, this genre fusion doesn’t have an official name, but I’m fascinated by it, particularly because the genres it pulls from are so different. While a fantasy novel usually has to follow a certain set of rules in order to be believable, those rules can be just about anything the author wants, and many fantasy authors revel in breaking established conventions of the genre. Mysteries, on the other hand, are bound by a strict set of genre expectations. The very best fusions between fantasy and mystery, in my opinion, are capable of reinvigorating both of the genres they pull inspiration from. Let’s get started!
When poison expert Anja is summoned by the King to uncover the cause of his daughter Snow’s mysterious illness, she knows the stakes couldn’t be higher. When she arrives at the royal palace, Anja finds both her young patient and the court surrounding her haunted by secrets and scarred by tragedy. Soon, Anja discovers that the cause of Snow’s illness is not medical, but magical, devised by a ruthless adversary who lurks within the castle’s mirrors. To save Snow and stop the magic of the mirrors from falling into the wrong hands, Anja’s courage and smarts will be put to the test. My favorite element of this loose retelling of Snow White was the surreal, creepy mirror-realm. T. Kingfisher’s horror chops were certainly evident in some of the scenes featuring it, and while the mirror magic was a little confusing at first, this actually turned out to be to the story’s benefit. The reader discovers how the mirrors work side-by-side with Anja, thereby getting a good sense of how this mystery’s detective thinks well before the main climax. If you’re looking for a new twist on an old story, told with T. Kingfisher’s signature humor and heart, Hemlock & Silver will chill, intrigue, and enchant you.
It has been a few months since we’ve had a blog post that covered the monthly LibraryReads list. Library staff around the country vote on what their favorite new books are. You’ll see this month’s picks below, along with a book similar to its corresponding pick for the month. Remember, Mead’s librarians are always willing to recommend your next read if none of this month’s picks match your tastes.
A breathtakingly beautiful story of one Irish family and the fates of its members as they navigate the world in the years just after the Great Famine. O’Farrell’s rich writing vividly captures both the characters and the wild beauty of the Irish landscape, creating an unforgettable and emotionally riveting narrative that will have readers rapt. – Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign Public Library, IL NoveList read-alike: Clear by Carys Davies
This year I have been keeping a reading journal. It is just a blank journal, but I keep track of what I read each month and write my thoughts down on the books that I finish. This allows me to be blunt, honest, and able to scream and gush about my interests in a controlled fashion. I rank the book that I read between 1 and 5 stars depending on what I thought of it. It will be thrilling to go back through it at the end of the year and relive my adventures.
Anyway, while reviewing my reads for April I noticed that I had a trend going. Usually I read a variety of genres. In April I seem to have stuck to only one in particular, with one exception. I wish to share my reads with you, Dear Reader, and perhaps you can guess which one is not like the others!
I am a sucker for a good Gothic thriller and Lock Every Door provided what I sought. I will admit outright that the main character in this one is not the brightest bulb in the shack. She is the epitome of a stereotypical horror movie character that never spots the red flags and makes all of the wrong choices. But if she made the correct choices would we actually have a good thrilling tale? Probably not. Sometimes the characters need to make the wrong choices so that we, the readers, can be entertained.
Jules is down on her luck. She lost her job, her boyfriend cheated on her, she lost her apartment, and now she is sleeping on her best friend’s couch with barely a penny to her name. When Jules reads an ad in the paper for an apartment sitting job at the prestigious Bartholomew she believes it to be too good to be true. The Bartholomew is one of the oldest apartment buildings in New York, home to the rich and famous and impossible to access. Jules applies and gets the job. She finds herself living in luxury on the top floor of the building, getting a very nice paycheck, a gorgeous view of Central Park, and she even has her very own gargoyle statue outside of her bedroom window. An added perk is the very attractive doctor living in the apartment next door. The Bartholomew, however, may not be all it seems. Jules soon finds out about its dark past and that previous apartment sitters have been disappearing. Can Jules uncover the truth of The Bartholomew before she becomes the next victim?
I want to say I obsessed over this one for a while and I very highly recommend it. Just the setting had me. I could imagine myself living there. (I have a thing for Gothic settings, no matter how creepy). The mystery was very consuming and the threat had me almost biting my nails and wanting to scream at the main character to not do certain things that were sure to result in something bad happening. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I hope you will as well, Dear Reader.
Library workers are often asked about their favorite books. My go-to answers are distributed between The Westing Game (1978) by Ellen Raskin, True Grit (1968) by Charles Portis, and The Hobbit, which is what I am most likely to answer. Between the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien has essentially ruined all other high fantasy for me, specifically, forever. Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, I respect your achievements, but dang those sure are a lot of words you wrote down, huh?
In 2022, Travis Bladree’s Legends & Lattes went mega best-seller to the surprise and delight of many. This was my gateway to cozy fantasy. There are orcs and swords and magic and whatnot, but there is also a bakery. A bookshop. An interspecies queer romance. Sometimes a mystery element. It was a balm to the soul in these trying times. I enjoyed the book so much I started looking for other books and series that might fit in the cozy fantasy realm. Below, I listed some of my favorite, and least-favorite, cozy fantasy books. All books are available in the Monarch catalog, often in a variety of formats.
Legends & Lattes (2022) by Travis Baldree This is the gold standard for cozy fantasy. It’s well-written and filled with appealing and complex characters we come to care about. Viv is an orc. She is battle hardened and weary. She is ready to settle down, and make her living slinging coffee instead of broadswords. As an audience, we know Viv won’t fail, but it sure is satisfying watching it play out. There is a prequel, and a sequel in this series. The stories relate, but don’t necessarily need to be read in order. I’m a series purist, and if I don’t read a series in order I am likely to perish. The Legends & Lattes series is now up to three books.
Cursed Cocktails (2023) by S.L Rowland Several imitators cropped up not long after Baldree’s massive success with Legends & Lattes, including this series by S.L. Rowland. While the prose is not as crisp and sparkly like Baldree’s, I still found myself drawn into these fantasy landscapes. The protagonist in book one of this series is an elf, not an orc. And he wants to sell cocktails, not coffee. Formulaic? Yes. But if it ain’t broke, why fix it? I read a lot of cozy mysteries for this reason, as well. The Tales of Aedrea series is now up to four books.
The House Witch (2022) by Delemhach Finlay Ashowen is a house witch IN SECRET. In the kingdom of Daxaria, magic is reserved for the rich and powerful, so Fin would like to keep his head down and focus on cooking the uncanny and delicious meals for his royal charges. The House Witch leans more into political intrigue and the machinations of power than the aforementioned series, so they are narratively more complex. I also enjoyed the system of magic portrayed in this series. The House Witch series is now up to four books.
Assistant to the Villain (2023) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer While a sinister castle filled with blood and pain doesn’t scream “cozy”, one might be surprised at how sweet this story is. Evie Sage, our protagonist, stumbles into gainful employment when she needs it the most, but her new boss seems to be the big bad villain of her realm. Evie is a fish out of water who spends the next three books proving how adept she is at villain assistance. I adore the wide cast of characters we get to meet, including a sentient frog who communicates with signs, Wile E. Coyote-style. This book is occasionally very sweet and often incredibly funny. The romance element is of the slow burn variety and it is frickin infuriating. The fourth book in this series is expected to publish sometime this year.
How to Become the Dark Lord of Die Trying (2024) by Django Wexler This was a great variation on the theme. Davi, our protagonist, is trapped in a time loop akin to Groundhog Day, but this time loop takes place in a massive live-action RPG. Resets happen when Davi gets killed. Davi has died over and over in her attempts to defeat the dark lord in the realm she is trapped in. Things don’t really start going her way until she decides to become the dark lord instead of defeating him. These books are much more violent than everything else on the list, and Davi does love to say the Eff-You-See-Kay word, so if that is unappealing maybe pass on this series. The Dark Lord Davi series is up to two books.
Swordheart (2018) by T. Kingfisher Yes, this book predates Legends & Lattes, but it does fit within the definition of cozy, and fantasy, and I love T. Kingfisher more than any other author, so I am going to shoehorn her books into every blog post I possibly can. Kingfisher often writes fantasy stories starring middle-aged women, which places me squarely in her demographic audience. The fact that she writes the best, scariest, weirdest stories is all a bonus. Swordheart stars Halla, and when we meet her, she is under the control of some ill-intended relatives. When she accidentally releases the berserker warrior inhabiting an enchanted sword, her world changes irrevocably, and for the better. Swordheart is one of several books set in the World of the White Rat. Characters from other books pop up here and there, which is always deeply enjoyable to me. Those who enjoy this book should run, not walk, to The Saint of Steel series. Each book has fantasy, romance, and horror elements. It works. There are two books in the Swordheart series, and four books in the Saint of Steel series.
That One Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (2021) by Kimberly Lemming This book is so much fun. It is irreverent, funny, and really spicy. I cannot overstate this facet. If you do not enjoy erotic content, this is not the series for you. If you want a light-hearted spicy romance to delight you on your commute to and from work, this is the one (I am assuming you are listening to an audio copy here). This is called the Mead Mishap series, which is cool because that is the name of the library I work for. There are currently three books in the Mead Mishaps series.
Heretical Fishing (2022) by Haylock Jobson This series popped up as a recommended read-alike to Dungeon Crawler Carl. There really isn’t anything else like DCC out there, so I was intrigued and excited. The only thing the books really have in common is that the protagonist is large, strong, and male. Here are some things I really loathed about this book: There are no conflicts, and any problems encountered are solved by the end of the chapter. I want smart people solving problems as a group and I want there to be high stakes. All the characters we meet are meant to be flimsy like NPCs, but it comes off as lazy writing. Plus, the plot was deeply predictable. This book was TOO LONG. I usually listen to audiobooks on 1.5 speed, but I had this one cranked up to double speed just to get it over with. The protagonist is Australian and if he calls one more person MATE I will die. Read this series if you want some background noise and aren’t really worried about catching all the plot points. Also, there is very little heresy in this book. The Heretical Fishing series is now up to five books.
Maybe things could have been different for me and my relationship with high fantasy if I had gotten my hands on a copy of A Song of Fire and Ice twenty years ago. My work bestie at the time, Aaron, told me about this book he loved and that he recommends it to all his friends and I just have to read it. I had never heard of George RR Martin at that point. So, I went to the public library and searched the catalog for what I believed to be the book my bestie told me about. I am still unsure how I took such a wrong turn, but I ended up checking out book one of Erin Hunter’s massively popular juvenile Warriors series. The series is about war between feral cat colonies and is aimed at a middle-grade audience. I could not figure out why Aaron was so pumped about these books. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so I never told him how underwhelmed I was. Once the HBO series debuted, my attentions were already diverted elsewhere.
Anyone casting around for what to read next might consider using Mead’s Your Next Five Books reader’s advisory tool. You can fill out the form by clicking HERE, and within days you will receive an email containing a book list tailored to the input you shared on the form. We also have one for movies HERE. Visit us on Mead’s second floor for in-person book finding help. As always, happy reading.
Being a horror fan is weird sometimes. Every so often, I’ll finish a book or a movie that was well-crafted and thematically compelling, but for all that, just wasn’t scary – and there’s just no replacement for those shivers up your spine, that urge to look over your shoulder, that sinking feeling in your stomach. The books I’m going to talk about today don’t have that problem. Though they represent many different subgenres and settings, every single one of these books gave me the genuine creeps, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Let’s get started!
I’m fascinated by the thematic depths that can be found in the very best works of body horror. These stories delve into how unfair it is that our bodies and those of the people we love are fragile and finite, and into what might lead a person to embrace a metamorphosis that others perceive as “horrifying”. Naben Ruthnum’s Helpmeet unites all of these threads of body horror into a novella made of emotional dynamite. Set amidst the restrictive backdrop of the 19th century, Helpmeet is told from the perspective of Louise Wilk, a former hospital worker who caused a scandal by marrying a man of a higher social station. Since then, Louise has endured the infidelity of her husband Edward and the scorn of society at large. When her husband contracts mysterious disease that eats away at his body bit by bit, Louise becomes his primary caretaker. Louise believes she is about to watch her husband die, until she discovers that what is taking place may not be a disease at all, but rather a metamorphosis for both of them. The characterization in Helpmeet is just as masterful as the body horror, inviting the reader at every turn to sympathize with these deeply flawed characters. This is a book that stayed with me long after the final page was turned.
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