Author: enelson

9 Fall Books to Read for Autumn Vibes

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As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life. The oldest, strongest and wisest of them all, she sees Alexa, her vulnerable granddaughter, find love for the first time, while the decision to send her little grandson away to school is driving parents Edmund and Virginia even further apart. Far from them all is Pandora, the glamorous, exciting girl who ran away twenty years before.

Two women. A history of witchcraft. And a deep-rooted female power that sings across the centuries. Augusta Podos takes a dream job at Harlowe House, the historic home of a wealthy New England family that has been turned into a small museum in Tynemouth, Massachusetts. When Augusta stumbles across an oblique reference to a daughter of the Harlowes who has nearly been expunged from the historical record, the mystery is too intriguing to ignore.

If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings. The Delaneys are fixtures in their community. The parents, Stan and Joy, are the envy of all of their friends. But after fifty years of marriage, they’ve finally sold their famed tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. So why are Stan and Joy so miserable?

Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, The Gifted School observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide with long-held secrets and lies. Seen through the lens of four families who’ve been a part of one another’s lives since their kids were born, the story reveals not only the lengths that some adults are willing to go to get ahead, but the effect on the group’s children, sibling relationships, marriages, and careers, as simmering resentments come to a boil.

Patience Sparrow is the town healer and when a new doctor settles into Granite Point he brings with him a mystery so compelling that Patience is drawn to love him. But when her herbs and tinctures are believed to be implicated in a local tragedy, Granite Point is consumed by a long-buried fear and a modern day witch-hunt threatens. The plants and flowers begin to wither and die, and the entire town begins to fail. The Sparrow Sisters is a beautiful, haunting, and thoroughly mesmerizing novel that will capture your imagination.

Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock would rather spend Halloween serving pumpkin goodies than wearing costumes with Pine Hills’ wealthiest at Yarborough mansion, especially when the soiree shapes up to be more trick than treat. As if a run-in with an old flame and a failed marriage proposal weren’t enough to horrify Krissy for one night, a woman is found strangled to death in a room filled with ominous jack-o’-lanterns. All signs suggest a crime of passion–but when the hostess’s jewelry disappears, malevolent intentions seem way more likely.

A group of strangers bound by terrifying synchronicity becomes humankind’s hope of survival in an exhilarating, twist-filled novel by Dean Koontz. As a girl, Joanna Chase thrived on Rustling Willows Ranch in Montana until tragedy upended her life. Now thirty-four and living in Santa Fe with only misty memories of the past, she begins to receive pleas–by phone, through her TV, and in her dreams. Heeding the disturbing appeals, Joanna is compelled to return to Montana, and to a strange childhood companion she had long forgotten.

Fifth generation cider-maker Sanna Lund has one desire: to live a simple, quiet life on her family’s apple orchard in Door County, Wisconsin. Although her business is struggling, Sanna remains fiercely devoted to the orchard. Single dad Isaac Banks has spent years trying to shield his son Sebastian from his troubled mother. Fleeing heartbreak at home, Isaac packed up their lives and the two headed out on an adventure. Chance-or fate-led them straight to Sanna’s orchard. As Sanna’s life becomes increasingly complicated, she finds solace in unexpected places-friendship with young Sebastian.

Embracing a sweet escape from her usual routine at The Cookie Jar, Hannah gets asked for her help in baking pastries at the local inn for a flashy fishing competition with big prizes and even bigger names. But the fun stops when she spots a runway boat on the water and, on board, the lifeless body of the event’s renowned celebrity spokesperson. With goodies to bake and a mess of fresh challenges mixed into her personal life, it’s either sink or swim as Hannah joins forces with her sister, Andrea, to catch a clever culprit before another unsuspecting victim goes belly up.

Nine Humorous Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Keep You Laughing Out Loud

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There’s no right way to keep a diary, but if there’s an entertaining way, David Sedaris seems to have mastered it. The entries here reflect an ever-changing background: new administrations, new restrictions on speech and conduct. What you can say at the start of the book, you can’t by the end. At its best, A Carnival of Snackery is a sort of sampler: the bitter and the sweet.

In July 2019, Nick took a hiking trip to Glacier National Park with his friends Jeff Tweedy and George Saunders. The trip, and the conversations between the three men, began a study and exploration of both the American West and its National Parks that addresses so many of the important issues that affect America today. This book is a humorous and rousing tour of America’s nature spots as well as a mission statement about loving, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors.

Tracy Flick is a hardworking assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey. Still ambitious but feeling a little stuck and underappreciated in midlife, Tracy gets a jolt of good news when the longtime principal, Jack Weede, abruptly announces his retirement, creating a rare opportunity for Tracy. Energized by the prospect of her long-overdue promotion, Tracy throws herself into her work with renewed zeal. But nothing ever comes easily to Tracy Flick, no matter how diligent or qualified she happens to be.

Peggy Rowe has been writing all of her adult life. In fact, she doesn’t know how not to write—even through those years of constant rejection from publishing houses. But between her tenacity and the encouragement of her family, Peggy’s breakthrough finally came—at the age of eighty! Vacuuming in the Nude is most likely her funniest prose to date as she shares her journey and honing her ability to see humor in everyday situations.

Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can’t believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, bestselling author Essie Starling, a mysterious and intimidating recluse. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship.

 Most people think of themselves as “good,” but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad”–especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it’s too late?

The Nineties is a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history. Cult author Chuck Klosterman makes a home in every element of 90s culture: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, and changes regarding race and class. 

Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.

9 New Nonfiction Books to Read This September

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David Sowers and Laura Gillice are seriously injured in a head-on collision while vacationing in Yellowstone National Park with their dogs. When they are ambulanced away, David’s fifteen-month-old Australian shepherd, Jade, disappears. The young dog faces the threats of starvation, predators, and the hostile landscape of Yellowstone. Bring Jade Home is a gripping true tale of loss, the bond between people and animals, and the power of redeeming love.

In 1948, in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south, society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home. Her daughter, Ruth Dickins, was the only other person in the house. She told authorities a Black man she didn’t recognize had fled the scene, but no evidence of the man’s presence was uncovered. Beverly Lowry–who was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons’ home–tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today.

An injured, young dog trudges the city streets, trembling from cold, from fear, from lack of food. Battered by the howling wind, he searches desperately for his lost family, yet day after day, week after week, all he ever finds is heartbreaking loneliness. But then, one magical spring morning, the dog and the girl meet. In a tale as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, As The Stars Fall explores how compassion can make us whole again and friendship can heal even the most broken of hearts.

From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, Unmasked is a memoir of investigating America’s toughest cold cases and the rewards–and toll–of a life solving crime. Having experience in both forensic and investigative assignments, Paul throughout his 27-year career specialized in cold case and serial predator crimes, developing and applying investigative, behavioral, and forensic expertise in notable cases such as Zodiac, Golden State Killer, and Jaycee Dugard.  

The British Royal Family believed that the dizzy success of the Sussex wedding, watched and celebrated around the world, was the beginning of a new era for the Windsors. Yet, within one tumultuous year, the dream became a nightmare. In the aftermath of the infamous Megxit split and the Oprah Winfrey interview, the Royal Family’s fate seems persistently threatened.

 Zibby Owens has become a well-known personality in the publishing world. Her infectious energy, tasteful authenticity, and smart, steadfast support of authors started in childhood, a precedent set by the profound effect books and libraries had on her own family. But after losing her closest friend on 9/11 and later becoming utterly stressed out and overwhelmed by motherhood, Zibby was forgetting what made her whole. She turned to books and writing for help.

The Earth is All That Lasts is a magisterial dual biography of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull , the two most legendary and consequential Native American leaders.  An essential new addition to the canon of Indigenous American history and literature of the West, The Earth Is All That Lasts is a grand saga, both triumphant and tragic, of two fascinating and heroic leaders struggling to maintain the freedom of their people against impossible odds.

An immigrant mother’s long-held secrets upend her daughter’s understanding of her family, her identity, and her place in the world in this powerful and dramatic memoir. A former national television host, advice columnist, and professor, Carmen searches to understand who she really is as she discovers her mother’s hidden history, facing the revelations that seep out.

A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster—a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman’s relentless battle for environmental justice.

9 New Books To Read on the Libby App

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Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

New York City, 1921: Here four extraordinary women form a bridge group that grows into a firm friendship. Dorothy Parker: renowned wit, member of the Algonquin Round Table. Jane Grant: first female reporter for the New York Times. Winifred Lenihan: beautiful and talented Broadway actress. Peggy Leach: magazine assistant by day, novelist by night. Their romances flourish and falter while their goals sometimes seem impossible to reach and their friendship deepens against the backdrop of turbulent New York City.

Special Agent Garrett Kohl has just taken down a dangerous and deadly cartel boss when he finds trouble brewing back on his family’s homestead. A powerful energy consortium, Talon Corporation, has started an aggressive mining operation that threatens to destroy Garrett’s land, his family’s way of life, and everything they hold dear. To achieve its goals, Talon is flouting the law, bribing public officials, and meeting anyone who challenges it with physical violence.

Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood ever. They live on a 78-acre farm in the South West of England, with sisters and brothers, other kids, chickens, goats, three dogs, and even a calf, called Gabriella Christmas. Free and unsupervised, Amy and Lan play with axes and climb on haystacks, but there is grownup danger at Frith they don’t see. It’s Gail, Lan’s mother, and Adam, Amy’s father who should be more careful. They should learn what kids know: never to play with fire.

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned .The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. Then, one morning everything changes. Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

A killer walking free. A life hanging in the balance. The ultimate choice Zach Bridger, former NFL star, has been divorced from Rebecca for five years, but he’s still named as Agent of her Medical Power of Attorney – and his ex-wife is in a persistent vegetative state on life support. The man responsible for her condition is currently walking free. To pursue him for a murder case, Zach must turn off Rebecca’s life support.

Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn’t exactly conducive to modern dating—and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she’s used to suspecting the worst. PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. It doesn’t help that she’s low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer. It’s not long before Phoebe realizes that Sam might be something much scarier.

Newly minted professional matchmaker Sophie Go has returned to Toronto, her hometown, after spending three years in Shanghai. Her job is made quite difficult, however, when she is revealed as a fraud—she never actually graduated from matchmaking school. In a competitive market like Toronto, no one wants to take a chance on an inexperienced and unaccredited matchmaker, and soon Sophie becomes an outcast.

When the pandemic hits, Kristofer is forced to shutter his successful restaurant in Reykjavik, sending him into a spiral of uncertainty, even as his memory seems to be failing. But an uncanny bolt from the blue–a message from Miko Nakamura, a woman whom he’d known in the sixties when they were students in London–both inspires and rattles him, as he is drawn inexorably back into a love story that has marked him for life.