Shunning Sarah
by Julie Kramer

Kramer’s Riley Spartz mysteries are one of my favorite series! I just started this one, which begins with 10-year old Josh falling into a sinkhole too deep to climb out of and discovering he’s not alone—there’s a corpse in the hole. The sinkhole is located in Amish country outside Minneapolis. I’m anxious to see where Kramer takes the reader in this tale!

Brand New Ancients
by Kate Tempest

This long poem is the tale of two brothers, unknown to each other until their paths cross. It has the feel of a Shakespeare plot with modern language. It also reminds me of The Conference of the Birds (a favorite long poem) in that despite a long existence of humanity and the seeming opportunity to master life well-lived, the human condition endures. This book has one of my favorite covers—take a close look.

Bettyville
by George Hodgman

I’m loving this memoir! Hodgman leaves his city life in Manhattan to care for his mother, Betty, in Missouri at the end of her life. Betty is stoic where her son is loving, big-hearted, and funny. There has been a lot of heartache in the Hodgman family history, but Betty ignores it all—including the fact that her son is gay and while he loves his home, there really is no permanent place for him there.

Who Could That Be at This Hour?
by Daniel Handler

After reading We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler last month, I felt a longing for Lemony Snicket books. (Handler writes children’s books under the name Lemony Snicket.) I realized I had never read his All the Wrong Questions series and promptly dove into book one, Who Could That Be At This Hour? I loved it! In the Series of Unfortunate Events books, Snicket is the narrator of the fictional lives of three orphans. In the All The Wrong Questions books, the narrator is again Snicket, telling us his own story! As a teen, Snicket is apprenticed to a not-so-masterful detective. Most of the story takes place in a fictional town called Stain’d-by-the-Sea. The characters are quirky—one of my favorites is the town’s sub-librarian (the town is too small to have a librarian). The time period is vague, but gives the sense of “long ago.” I can’t wait to dive into book two, When Did You See Her Last?

Bible Women: All Their Words and Why they Matter
by Lindsey Hardin Freeman

Recently, I read a feature article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about this book and its author. I was intrigued, and Jen helped me track down the publisher and secure a copy. Freeman, who is an Episcopalian priest, worked with a small group of women to locate all the passages in the Bible which contain words spoken by women. The book begins with a discussion of why women’s words in the Bible are important, information about the selection process (words attributed to women are included, women quoted by someone else are not,) a chart of who spoke in which Biblical book and how much they said, and the themes which emerged. Then the book moves through the Bible, dealing with the words of each women who spoke. The format is designed for discussion and/or Bible study. Each chapter contains a Bible reference, information about the woman and her story, and questions or statements to help reflect on why this story is important and why we can learn from it. The book is a remarkable achievement and will be an important tool for Bible study. We have it in the store, and I’d be interested to talk to you about it.

The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I’m a huge fan of Goodwin. I like the way she explores the personal and the political and the ways in which they are linked. Her books are exhaustively researched yet accessible. In this one, she examines the friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Both men and the world in which they live are brought to life through an examination of them, their families, other influences on them, and the era in which they lived. I learned a great deal in an enjoyable fashion while reading the book.

The Sun and Other Stars
by Brigid Pasulka

While reading this book, I fell in love with the small Italian town of San Benedetto and its inhabitants! Etto is 22 and adrift in many ways. As he mourns the death of his twin, he’s pulled away from his father and friends. Their town is obsessed with soccer, which further separates Etto from everyone—until he discovers a soccer super-star (and his very interesting sister) staying in a local villa. It’s a coming of age story, a story about family and belonging, and a great read. I’m hoping one of the Sister Wolf groups will pick it for discussion this summer!

Swan Gondola
by Timothy Schaffert

The Swan Gondola is a historical novel which has it all—a love story set at the (fictional) Omaha World’s Fair in 1898, lots of references to The Wizard of Oz, and fidelity to the Victorian Era in which it is set. Ferrit Skerritt a ventriloquist who grew up in an Omaha orphanage, is curious to see how the Fair will change his hometown, and anxious to take advantage of opportunities to make a make a buck there. Ferrit becomes enchanted with Cecily, the beautiful member of a ragtag troupe of actors presenting a gallery of horrors at the Fair. She plays Marie Antoinette, and each hour is beheaded on a guillotine. Ferrit follows Cecily as she rushes away from the Fair each evening with a mysterious carpetbag, accompanied by an automaton called Mrs. Margaret. Before long, Ferrit is courting Cecily, spending romantic late nights on the swan gondola in the lagoon at the Fair. He learns that the carpetbag contains Cecily’s baby, Doxie (Dorothy), and dreams of the three of them becoming a family. Soon, the young couple becomes acquainted with William Wakefield, the patron and organizing force behind the Fair. Wakefield, a widower whose young son has died, convinces Ferrit to sell him Oscar, Ferrit’s dummy, for a ridiculously large sum of money. Once he has Oscar, (and Ferrit has lost the means for his livelihood) Wakefield begins to pursue Cecily.

And that’s just the beginning! The plot of this novel is complicated: in addition to star-crossed love, it has séances and spiritualism, a plot to assassinate President McKinley at the World’s Fair, a murder and a kidnapping. The story is touching, funny, melodramatic, romantic, and magical. A large number of eccentric and colorful characters populate the book. After Ferrit crashes into their farmhouse in a runaway hot air balloon, the engaging Old Sisters Egan take him in. August Sweetbriar, Ferrit’s loyal friend, poses as a woman to break Ferrit out of jail. Another friend is Rosie, an anarchist who sells pornographic post cards at the Fair. Oscar, the ventriloquist’s dummy, is somewhat of a son to Ferrit, as well as helping Wakefield recapture the sound of his dead son’s voice. Themes recalling the Victorian era are found throughout the book: wealthy eccentrics, concern for orphaned children, an appreciation of tinkerers and inventors, moral ambiguity, and its romantic story. Swans, seen in Victorian time as well as other periods as symbols of grace, beauty, and fidelity, are found throughout the book.

Readers of Sara’s Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus will want to put this book on their must read list.

Reprinted from the Park Rapids Enterprise.

Painted Horses
by Malcolm Brooks

The setting of the novel is Montana in the mid-1950s. Catherine is a young female archaeologist hired by a dam construction company. She has one summer to prove that nothing of historical value will be lost due to the flooding of the land. While exploring, she meets a local mustanger and a beautiful love story develops. This novel presents the struggle civilization faces when the beauty and security of tradition come face to face with the convenience of progress.

Gray Mountain
by John Grisham

Grisham’s most recent novel is the best of his past several books. It has a cast of easy-to-like characters, including Samantha Kofer, a young female lawyer who moves from New York City to the heart of Appalachia and Jeff Gray, a handsome, local vigilante with whom she becomes involved. This novel is a fascinating look into a situation most Americans know little of—strip coal mining in Virginia. It’s a dangerous world with broken laws, ignored rules and regulations, divided communities and destroyed environment.

How We Got to Now
by Steven Johnson

This book is the companion to the recent PBS series by the same name. In it, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated events. For example, he explores how pendulum clocks helped begin the industrial revolution and why clean water led to the manufacture of computer chips. The book is both interesting and accessible.