April Bring Your Own Book Recommendations

We love the variety of books that end up getting discussed at Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Cafe. Will you find your next read?

We discussed 10 titles in April. See what others have recommended. Check them out -- click on the titles to place your hold at the library. 

Corrie -- Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer

From bestselling author Jon Krakauer, a stark, powerful, meticulously reported narrative about a series of sexual assaults at the University of Montana ­— stories that illuminate the human drama behind the national plague of campus rape

Missoula, Montana, is a typical college town, with a highly regarded state university, bucolic surroundings, a lively social scene, and an excellent football team — the Grizzlies — with a rabid fan base.

The Department of Justice investigated 350 sexual assaults reported to the Missoula police between January 2008 and May 2012. Few of these assaults were properly handled by either the university or local authorities. In this, Missoula is also typical.

A DOJ report released in December of 2014 estimates 110,000 women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four are raped each year. Krakauer’s devastating narrative of what happened in Missoula makes clear why rape is so prevalent on American campuses, and why rape victims are so reluctant to report assault.

...Continue reading here https://www.jonkrakauer.com/missoula

Dorothy -- Small Sacrifices : A True Story of Passion and Murder by Ann Rule

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me comes a shocking true crime account of the destructive forces that drove a beautiful young mother to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

“Somebody just shot my kids!” Diane Downs brought her car to a halt in front of a Springfield, Oregon, hospital, her three gravely wounded children beside her. Thus begins the tale of a truly unthinkable crime that shattered the tranquility of a tight-knit community. As police searched for the “shaggy-haired stranger” Diane accused of shooting 8-year-old Christie, 7-year-old Cheryl, and 3-year-old Danny, a suspicion grew that was even more horrifying than the crime itself: Did Diane shoot her own children? Haunted by this question, a dedicated district attorney searched for the answer and uncovered a chronology of incest, psychological wounding, desperate affairs, and surrogate motherhood.

Ann Rule’s gripping, powerful, and ultimately terrifying true story of passion and murder will hold you in thrall as it plumbs the unimagined depths of darkness concealed within a human being.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/325351/small-sacrifices-by-ann-rule/

Lorraine -- Verses for the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Preston & Child return with their #1 bestselling series, confronting FBI Special Agent Pendergast with the one challenge he never expected: a partner.

After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI's New York field office, A. X. L. Pendergast is abruptly forced to accept an unthinkable condition of continued employment: the famously rogue agent must now work with a partner.

Pendergast and his new teammate, junior agent Coldmoon, are assigned to Miami Beach, where a rash of killings by a bloodthirsty psychopath are distinguished by a confounding M.O.: cutting out the hearts of his victims and leaving them--along with cryptic handwritten letters--at local gravestones, unconnected save in one bizarre way: all belonged to women who committed suicide.

But the seeming lack of connection between the old suicides and the new murders is soon the least of Pendergast's worries. Because as he digs deeper, he realizes the brutal new crimes may be just the tip of the iceberg: a conspiracy of death that reaches back decades.

https://www.prestonchild.com/books/verses/Verses-for-the-Dead;art571,616

Shirley -- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core. 
 
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him. 
 
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
 
A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692735/sea-of-tranquility-by-emily-st-john-mandel/

Terry -- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt’s sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case.

It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city has become a modern classic.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/11740/midnight-in-the-garden-of-good-and-evil-by-john-berendt/

Nina -- Lucky by Marissa Stapley

A thrilling roller-coaster ride about a heist gone terribly wrong, with a plucky protagonist who will win readers’ hearts.

What if you had the winning ticket that would change your life forever, but you couldn’t cash it in?

Lucky Armstrong is a tough, talented grifter who has just pulled off a million-dollar heist with her boyfriend, Cary. She’s ready to start a brand-new life, with a new identity—when things go sideways. Lucky finds herself alone for the first time, navigating the world without the help of either her father or her boyfriend, the two figures from whom she’s learned the art of the scam.

When she discovers that a lottery ticket she bought on a whim is worth millions, her elation is tempered by one big problem: cashing in the winning ticket means she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She’ll go to prison, with no chance to redeem her fortune.

As Lucky tries to avoid capture and make a future for herself, she must confront her past by reconciling with her father; finding her mother, who abandoned her when she was just a baby; and coming to terms with the man she thought she loved—whose dark past is catching up with her, too.

This is a novel about truth, personal redemption, and the complexity of being good. It introduces a singularly gifted, multilayered character who must learn what it means to be independent and honest...before her luck runs out.

https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Lucky/Marissa-Stapley/9781982157500

Kaleigh -- China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

On the eve of her wedding to Nicholas Young, heir to one of the greatest fortunes in Asia, Rachel should be over the moon. She has a flawless Asscher cut diamond from JAR, a wedding dress she loves more than anything found in the salons of Paris, and a fiancé willing to sacrifice his entire inheritance in order to marry her. But Rachel still mourns the fact that her birthfather, a man she has never known, won't be able to walk her down the aisle.
     Until: a shocking revelation draws Rachel in to a world of Shanghai splendor beyond anything she has ever imagined. Here we meet Carlton, a Ferrari-crashing bad boy known for Prince Harry-like antics; Colette, a celebrity girlfriend chased by fevered paparazzi; and the man Rachel has spent her entire life waiting to meet: her father. Meanwhile, Singapore's It Girl, Astrid Leong, is shocked to discover that there is a downside to having a newly-minted tech billionaire husband.
     A romp through Asia's most exclusive clubs, auction houses, and estates, China Rich Girlfriend brings us into the elite circles of Mainland China, introducing a captivating cast of characters, and offering an inside glimpse at what it's like to be gloriously, crazily China-rich.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/237705/china-rich-girlfriend-by-kevin-kwan/9780385682244

Kim -- Lost Soul by Adam J. Wright

Alec Harbinger, Preternatural Investigator

I’m the guy you come to when your spouse gets bitten by a werewolf, or your honey is kidnapped by a demon. I’m the guy who knows how to save your ass when an evil sorcerer casts a curse on it.

At least, I was that guy until the Society of Shadows sent me to Dearmont, Maine, a sleepy town that had a zero rating on the supernatural occurrences scale.

My plan was to spend my days sitting in the office with nothing to do except drink coffee and eat apple bakes made by Felicity, my new assistant.

But when a woman hires me to find out if her son has been possessed by a demon at a rich kids’ party, and a young man comes to the office insisting he’s been bitten by a werewolf, Dearmont goes from zero to hero.

Oh, and did I mention that someone in the Society wants me dead?

Time to sharpen the swords and go to work…

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29231887-lost-soul

Meghan -- The Black Witch by Laurie Forest

Powerful magic. A deadly legacy. A world at the edge of war. Prepare to be spellbound by The Black Witch.

Elloren Gardner is the spitting image of her grandmother, who drove back the enemy forces in the last Realm War. But while her perople believe she will follow in her grandmother's footsteps and become the next Black Witch of prophecy, Elloren is devoid of power in a society that prizes magical ability above all else.

When she is granted the opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming an apothecary, Elloren joins her brothers at Verpax University. But she soon realizes that the university may be the most treacherous place of all for the granddaughter of the Black Witch.

As evil looms and the pressure to live up to her heritage builds, Elloren's best hope of survival may be among a secret band of rebels…if only she can find the courage to trust those she’s been taught to fear.

https://laurieannforest.com/books/the-black-witch/

Corrie -- You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

If I Stay meets Your Name in Dustin Thao's You've Reached Sam, a heartfelt novel about love and loss and what it means to say goodbye.

Seventeen-year-old Julie Clarke has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city; spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.

Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his belongings, and tries everything to forget him. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces memories to return. Desperate to hear him one more time, Julie calls Sam's cell phone just to listen to his voice mail recording. And Sam picks up the phone.

The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam's voice makes Julie fall for him all over again and with each call, it becomes harder to let him go.

What would you do if you had a second chance at goodbye?

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250762030/youve-reached-sam

That's it for April's discussion. Check out May's next month or come to Lakeshore Cafe on May 18th and see what others have read. 

Ember and the Ice Dragons by Heather Fawcett

Do you open a book without reading the synopsis? This happened to Meghan when she went to read a recent pick for Junior Book Club, Ember and the Ice Dragons by Heather Fawcett. The excitement and hilarity that came from learning while reading the book that Ember was indeed a fire dragon in human form, could be seared into one's memory and leave a book as being memorable.

"Ember St. George is a dragon. At least she was before her adoptive father—a powerful but accident-prone Magician—turned her into a human girl to save her life.

Unfortunately, Ember’s growing tendency to burst into flames at certain temperatures—not to mention her invisible wings—is making it too dangerous for her to stay in London. The solution: ship Ember off to her aunt’s research station in frigid Antarctica.

Though eccentric Aunt Myra takes getting used to, Ember quickly feels at home in a land of ice storms, mischievous penguins, and twenty-four-hour nights. She even finds herself making friends with a girl genius called Nisha and a mysterious orphan named Moss.

Then she discovers that Antarctica is home to the Winterglass Hunt, a yearly tradition in which rare ice dragons are hunted for their jeweled scales. Furious, Ember decides to join the hunt to sabotage it from the inside.

But being an undercover dragon isn’t easy—especially among dragon hunters. Can a twelve-year-old fire dragon survive the dangers that come her way in the Antarctic wilderness and protect the ice dragons from extinction?" https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062854513/ember-and-the-ice-dragons/

The story lands more towards being ageless. As an adult reading this book, there were no indications that the story was made for an audience younger. The relationships between Ember and Lionel, Lionel and his sister, Aunt Myra, and the friendships that Ember builds with Moss and Neisha, are ones that anyone can identify with. This book exhibits the essence of friendship and found family.

It may be a story that is strongly cemented in fantasy but it felt more like reading something that was believable. Fawcett does an amazing job of wrapping the readers into the story. It's just one of those books where you need to know what happens at the end. 

 

Does Ember save the dragons? Request the book and find out!

March Recommendations from Bring Your Own Book Club

Are you looking for that next read? Our monthly meetings of Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Café are a great way to find that next read. 

In March, we discussed 10 different titles. Check them out below - click on the cover photos to request a copy from the library!

When You Know What I Know by Sonia K. Solter

This harrowing, and ultimately hopeful novel in verse sensitively depicts a girl's journey through the aftermath of abuse.

One day after school, on the couch in the basement, Tori's uncle did something bad. Afterward, Tori tells her mom. Even though telling was a brave thing to do, her mom still doesn't believe her at first. Her grandma still takes his side. And Tori doesn't want anyone else—even her best friend—to know what happened.
​

Now Tori finds herself battling mixed emotions—anger, shame, and sadness—as she deals with the trauma. But with the help of her mom, her little sister, her best friend, and others, can Tori find a way to have the last word?

From debut author Sonja K. Solter comes a heartbreaking yet powerful novel that will strike a chord with readers of Jacqueline Woodson and Tony Abbott.

https://www.lbyr.com/titles/sonja-k-solter/when-you-know-what-i-know/9780316535410/

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marriage can be a real killer. 

One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.   https://www.gillian-flynn.com/books/gone-girl-tr/gone-girl-mm

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the hardcover special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon, and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book—gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred—and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants. 

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass

The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli

From the acclaimed author of The Night Portrait comes a stunning historical novel about two women, separated by five hundred years, who each hide Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa—with unintended consequences.

France, 1939

At the dawn of World War II, Anne Guichard, a young archivist employed at the Louvre, arrives home to find her brother missing. While she works to discover his whereabouts, refugees begin flooding into Paris and German artillery fire rattles the city. Once they reach the city, the Nazis will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Louvre's art collection. Anne is quickly sent to the Castle of Chambord, where the Louvre's most precious artworks—including the Mona Lisa—are being transferred to ensure their safety. With the Germans hard on their heels, Anne frantically moves the Mona Lisa and other treasures again and again in an elaborate game of hide and seek. As the threat to the masterpieces and her life grows closer, Anne also begins to learn the truth about her brother and the role he plays in this dangerous game.

Florence, 1479

House servant Bellina Sardi's future seems fixed when she accompanies her newly married mistress, Lisa Gherardini, to her home across the Arno. Lisa's husband, a prosperous silk merchant, is aligned with the powerful Medici, his home filled with luxuries and treasures. But soon, Bellina finds herself bewitched by a charismatic monk who has urged Florentines to rise up against the Medici and to empty their homes of the riches and jewels her new employer prizes. When Master Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a portrait of Lisa, Bellina finds herself tasked with hiding an impossible secret.

When art and war collide, Leonardo da Vinci, his beautiful subject Lisa, and the portrait find themselves in the cross-hairs of history. 

https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780062993595/the-stolen-lady/

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?
 
Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak. 

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/196150/bridge-of-clay-by-markus-zusak/

Batavia by Peter FitzSimons

Batavia is the greatest story in Australia’s history and history comes to life with Peter Fitzsimons.

The Shipwreck of the Batavia combines in just the one tale the birth of the world's first corporation, the brutality of colonisation, the battle of good vs evil, the derring-do of sea-faring adventure, mutiny, ship-wreck, love, lust, blood-lust, petty fascist dictatorship, criminality, a reign of terror, murders most foul, sexual slavery, natural nobility, survival, retribution, rescue, first contact with native peoples and so much more.

Described by author Peter FitzSimons as "a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street," the story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. The magnificent ship is already boiling over with a mutinous plot that is just about to break into the open when, just off the coast of Western Australia, it strikes an unseen reef in the middle of the night.

While Commandeur Francisco Pelsaert decides to take the long-boat across 2000 miles of open sea for help, his second-in-command Jeronimus Cornelisz takes over, quickly deciding that 250 people on a small island is unwieldy for the small number of supplies they have. Quietly, he puts forward a plan to 40 odd mutineers how they could save themselves, kill most of the rest and spare only a half-dozen or so women, including his personal fancy, Lucretia Jansz - one of the noted beauties of Holland - to service their sexual needs. A reign of terror begins, countered only by a previously anonymous soldier Wiebbe Hayes, who begins to gather to him those are prepared to do what it takes to survive . . . hoping against hope that the Commandeur will soon be coming back to them with the rescue yacht.

It all happened, long ago, and it is for a very good reason that Peter FitzSimons has long maintained that this is "far and away the greatest story in Australia's history, if not the world's." FitzSimons unique writing style has made him the country's best-selling non-fiction writer over the last ten years, and he is perfect man to make this bloody, chilling, stunning tale come alive.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/batavia-9781864711349

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

A TV meteorologist and a sports reporter scheme to reunite their divorced bosses with unforecasted results in this charming romantic comedy from the author of The Ex Talk.

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?

http://www.rachelsolomonbooks.com/weather-girl

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605904/such-a-fun-age-by-kiley-reid/

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

https://publishing.tor.com/allsystemsred-marthawells/9780765397522/

This is All I Ask by Lynn Kurland

Set near the Scottish border at a rugged castle on the edge of the sea, this is the story of a courageous lord who lost everything he held dear, of a strong young woman willing to sacrifice everything for happiness, of two lost souls who find in each other a reason to live again, to laugh again, and to love for the first time…

Gillian of Warewick knows no other treatment than the terrible physical and mental abuse issued by her father. So when he arranges a match for Gillian with Christopher of Blackmour, she is fearful.

Blackmour is rumored to be an evil sorcerer but when Gillian meets him, she finds him to be far more of a man than her father is. It is his unwillingness to be a lover to Gillian, though, that leads her to discover what they have in common…

That Blackmour has as many psychological scars to heal as she has physical.

https://www.lynnkurland.com/books/the-de-piaget-family-series/this-is-all-i-ask/

That's all for the month of March. Check back next month for April's selection. Or come out to Lakeshore Café on April 20th to here the recent book and contribute to the conversation.

February Bring Your Own Book Club

We love to see and hear what other people are reading. We get the opportunity monthly at Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Café to get some amazing recommendations from some of our local readers. 

In February, we discussed 8 different titles. Check them out below - click on the cover photos to request a copy from the library!

Permanent Astonishment: a Memoir by Tomson Highway

Capricious, big-hearted, joyful: an epic memoir from one of Canada’s most acclaimed Indigenous writers and performers

Tomson Highway was born in a snowbank on an island in the sub-Arctic, the eleventh of twelve children in a nomadic, caribou-hunting Cree family. Growing up in a land of ten thousand lakes and islands, Tomson relished being pulled by dogsled beneath a night sky alive with stars, sucking the juices from roasted muskrat tails, and singing country music songs with his impossibly beautiful older sister and her teenage friends. Surrounded by the love of his family and the vast, mesmerizing landscape they called home, his was in many ways an idyllic far-north childhood. But five of Tomson's siblings died in childhood, and Balazee and Joe Highway, who loved their surviving children profoundly, wanted their two youngest sons, Tomson and Rene, to enjoy opportunities as big as the world. And so when Tomson was six, he was flown south by float plane to attend a residential school. A year later Rene joined him to begin the rest of their education. In 1990 Rene Highway, a world-renowned dancer, died of an AIDS-related illness. Permanent Astonishment: Growing Up in the Land of Snow and Sky is Tomson's extravagant embrace of his younger brother's final words: "Don't mourn me, be joyful." His memoir offers insights, both hilarious and profound, into the Cree experience of culture, conquest, and survival. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/658338/permanent-astonishment-by-tomson-highway/9780385696203 

A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong

Detective Casey Butler has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions are being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. It seems like something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, they find themselves fighting to save the life of an innocent tourist while protecting the privacy of their town. What – or who – attacked this woman, and why? 

With an unconscious victim and no leads, Casey and Eric barely know where to start investigating, and having a stranger in their midst makes the residents deeply uneasy. Everyone in Rockton wants this mystery solved – and fast. https://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/book/a-stranger-in-town/

Good Enough by Jen Petro-Roy

Before she had an eating disorder, twelve-year-old Riley was many things: an aspiring artist, a runner, a sister, and a friend.

But now, from inside the inpatient treatment center where she's receiving treatment for anorexia, it's easy to forget all of that. Especially since under the influence of her eating disorder, Riley alienated her friends, abandoned her art, turned running into something harmful, and destroyed her family's trust.

If Riley wants her life back, she has to recover. Part of her wants to get better. As she goes to therapy, makes friends in the hospital, and starts to draw again, things begin to look up.

But when her roommate starts to break the rules, triggering Riley's old behaviors and blackmailing her into silence, Riley realizes that recovery will be even harder than she thought. She starts to think that even if she does "recover," there's no way she'll stay recovered once she leaves the hospital and is faced with her dieting mom, the school bully, and her gymnastics-star sister.

Written by an eating disorder survivor and activist, Good Enough is a realistic depiction of inpatient eating disorder treatment, and a moving story about a girl who has to fight herself to survive. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250123503/goodenoughanovel

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.

But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.

Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.

Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250244499/onelaststop

Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind. https://taylorjenkinsreid.com/books/malibu-rising/

Splintered Silence by Susan Furlong

It’s hard to bury the past when bodies keep turning up …
 
After an abrupt end to her tour of duty, former Marine MP Brynn Callahan and her canine partner, Wilco, arrive stateside—both bearing the scars of battle. With a mix of affection and misgivings, Brynn heads back to Bone Gap, Tennessee, and the insular culture she’d escaped when she enlisted.
 
The Irish Travellers keep to themselves in the mountains, maintaining an uneasy coexistence with the “settled” townspeople of McCreary. But when Wilco’s training as a cadaver dog leads Brynn to a body in the woods, long-simmering tensions threaten to boil over. Forming a reluctant alliance with local sheriff Frank Pusser, Brynn must dig up secrets that not only will rattle her close-knit clan to its core, but may forever changer her perception of who she is... and put her back in the line of fire. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/555431/splintered-silence-by-susan-furlong/9781496711670

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl...

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love—and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele's dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250191908/littlethieves

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut 

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut - wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184341/player-piano-by-kurt-vonnegut/

That's all for now! Stay tuned for March's recommended reads from Bring Your Own Book Club!

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

In May of 2021 the public awareness of Canadian history changed. The secrets came forward when remnants of those who never made it home were found at the former Indian Residential Schools. The stark reality of what Residential schools were and the people who suffered through them - and the churches, government, and the colonizers who ran them - became news into the world. In doing so our reading habits have changed; more people are picking books with a more direct purpose. We make sure the stories are not just about Indigenous People but also written by them. 

Author Cherie Dimaline brings the discussion forward with the book The Marrow Thieves, a dystopian Young Adult novel addressing the subject of residential schools in a different kind of format. This dystopian novel brings the idealism that if the world had no clean drinking water and vegetation was dying, people ended up losing their ability to dream. Readers follow the story of Frenchie as he ends up alone, to finding his group of people and then to finding his family, all while running from the recruiters. Frenchie is on the run and in hiding, much like the group of people that he travels with because they are indigenous. Indigenous people are the people who still dream, and the treatment for everyone else, can be found in their marrow. It's because of this that they are hunted, and put into new residential schools to be harvested for their marrow. 

The group of people that Frenchie travels with act much like a family. They also all have their own stories to share. They have a weekly time together where the character Miigwans shares Story, a time to educate about Indigenous history such as colonialism, treaties, the abuses administered at residential schools, their language and culture, all with the intention that it would not be forgotten. Moments of this book can leave you heartbroken, through their stories, through the abuses they experience within the timeline, and when members of their found family leave. 

As much as this book is set in a time that has yet to be, it reverberates into today's world. Our society has yet to learn from the horrors that Indigenous People have experienced or break generational cycles that are seen in their communities. This award winning novel is a worthwhile read for teens and adults. 

Cherie Dimaline released a sequel to The Marrow Thieves on October 19th Hunting by Stars.

Christian Reads September Because You're Mine by Colleen Coble

For the first installment of Christian Reads, we read Colleen Coble’s Because You’re Mine. This story follows Alanna, a singer and violinist in an Irish Celtic band, as she navigates her new life.

Early in the book we find out that Alanna and her husband Liam, the drummer of the Celtic band, are expecting their first child together. While on tour with the band in the United States, misfortune finds them. When Liam goes for a drive with his friend Jesse, a bomb goes off in the car killing Liam and seriously injuring Jesse. When Alanna goes home to have Liam’s funeral, she sees his parents to tell them the news that she is expecting their child. Liam’s parents unapproved of his marriage to Alanna from the beginning. Liam’s parents were rich, his father Thomas is a member of the upper house of the Irish Legislature, an Oireachtas Senator. On learning that Alanna was pregnant with Liam’s only child they wished to raise it as their own, threatening to gain custody if Alanna didn’t move into their residence. Barry, a lawyer from Charleston, acts as their manager while the band tours in the United States, offers to marry Alanna. Their marriage being one of convenience in order to help stop Thomas from coming after the baby. We soon find out that Barry isn’t all that he seems to be. The family home isn’t ready nor is it entirely livable. The studio Barry promised the band, wasn’t ready or even started. A shock comes to Alanna as there is a portrait of a lady in the family home who looks an awful lot like her.

As the band needs a new drummer, Jesse seems to have taken an interest to doing the drumming for them. Meanwhile, the detectives are wondering if Jesse was the one to set off the car bomb. Jesse has no real memory of his life before the accident. Alanna becomes worried as Jesse exhibits mannerisms of Liam. Tensions rise between Alanna, Berry, the band, and Jesse, making the story all the more interesting. Wrapping the story in a shroud of mystery.

There were some parts of the book that landed on the “I saw that coming” part of the book but the book was mostly something I did not see coming, especially the ending. The book has a very under toned Christian feel to it. Alanna struggles with her faith after the death of Liam, although because Liam relied heavily on his faith, she uses it as a reason to keep trying. As she finds herself restless in her faith, Alanna leans on Psalm 139 to help her through the time when she finds she is in the thick of the confusion of her new surroundings. Because You’re Mine was thoroughly enjoyable and a surprise of a read. The hints of the social differences between the Travelers, Alanna’s background, and the more well-off families such as Liam’s family or Barry’s, made for a story that is relevant regardless of the time frame. As socioeconomic backgrounds and conditions are still relevant in today’s world It’s how we handle those differences that make us really who we are. That idealism is echoed in the voices of the other band members when they find out that Alanna comes from a family of Travelers.

For myself, I would read another Colleen Coble book. I enjoyed the writing style and how she presented her story. It may be an author that we visit down the line for another Christian Reads selection.

What Colleen Coble books have you read lately? If you have any other Christian books that you would like to read with a book club, come to the next meeting on November 20^th. There we will be discussing Karen Kingsbury’s A Distant Shore.

Inspiring New Stories by Meghan Bowman

Story telling is a timeless tradition handed down through the ages. It is the biggest way we can honour our ancestors. Reading becomes a special time between a child and the reader. Through story telling our children learn many things, such as life lessons, and compassion.

For my childhood, reading was filled with Robert Munsch books, The Paperbag Princess, Murmel, Murmel, Murmel, and Love You Forever. Love You Forever is a generational story of the love a mother has for their child that has no limitations as the child grows. The mother holds her child in her arms singing him a song of promise. A promise which the child carries into adulthood, with his aging mother and newborn child. It is a book that brings fond memories to generations of adults. A book that we end up reading to our own children. 

As we enter into a more enlightened age where we wish to show representation and diversity, in what we read to our children, books are reflecting these needs. I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillet-Sumner (Illustrated by Michaela Goade) invoked similar feelings. In this book, we see a mother preparing for her child to enter into the world. Her preparations to welcome her child into her life. From the first moments she knew, she wrapped her child into the traditions of her ancestors, shrouding it in love. Instead of a song, the illustrations carry the song, the promise, to the child from page to page. It's a story of love, tradition, and a promise.

Both of these books tell stories of love, and tradition. For readers some of the stories we tell are part of our traditions. What stories and books are part of your traditions?