Fiction
Shadows Reel, A Joe Pickett Novel by C.J. Box
Joe Pickett is a Wyoming game warden and a family man. When a close neighbor is murdered, Joe and his wife, Marybeth, enter into a dangerous journey to find both the killer and the meaning of a photo album dating back to Nazi days in Germany. What is the connection between this photo album delivered to Marybeth and local Wyoming residents?
State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hillary Clinton
Combine the experience of a former Secretary of State with the mystery writing skill of Louise Penny and you come up with an intense story of world-wide danger and intrigue. There is a classic race against time to foil international terrorists and for Penny readers, some wonderful cross-references to Three Pines and the world of Armand Gamache.
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
Krueger returns with book eighteen in his Cork O’Connor series; however this book is a prequel to all the other mysteries set in the Boundary Waters area of Northern Minnesota. Krueger deals with basic issues of being human, right and wrong, and how loss shapes each person. The story revolves around Cork’s relationship with his father and with a mysterious death in their small town.
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
This book tackles the difficult topic of abuse in relationships and deals with what we wish were true placed alongside what is true. It is a heartbreaking story told in compelling prose. This is a powerful book filled with emotion, honesty and agony, but leaves the reader with a sense of hope.
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
This is a story of two desperate women looking for new lives. The prose is beautiful, the suspense, chilling. The characters are both vulnerable and bold and the surprising twists and turns of the plot make this an excellent read.
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
This legal thriller written by Georgia governor, Stacey Abrams, is set in the halls of the US Supreme Court. Avery Keene is a young law clerk when she discovers the Justice she serves is in a coma and has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian. Conspiracies abound.
Non-fiction
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl, former drummer of the rock group Nirvana and organizer of the group Foo Fighters will soon be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This autobiography tells his life story and includes much music history for Rock and Roll buffs.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of plants, is a powerful testimony to the importance of nurturing ecological awareness. Kimmerer is a botanist as well as an indigenous woman who believes that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. She shows us how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons that are important to life in our technological world.
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the book Outliers, examines our interactions with strangers and why they often don’t work. He uses real-life stories to show us how we make assumptions about the motivations and reasoning of those we don’t know personally, and how that affects our modern-day lives.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones shows readers how to reach their goals every day. He explains how to form new good habits and break bad ones. It all depends on creating a system and then working within that system. One reviewer states: Beware! This book can change your life.
Another Kind of Madness by Stephen P. Hinshaw
Stephen Hinshaw is a professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley. He talks about the stigma of growing up in a home where his father was mentally ill and the ways in which that stigma tends to silence family members. It relegates the illness to a family secret which creates a burden for each family member. This book is a call to arms to bring mental health conditions out of the darkness and into a place of healthier diagnosis and treatment.
