September Bring Your Own Book Club Discussion

Are you not sure what to read this coming month? At Bring Your Own Book Club we had some great selections from September's discussion. 

Click on the titles to place your request from the library. 

Lorriane - A Short History of the World in 50 Places by Dr. Jacob Field

Discover the most impactful and incredible episodes from human history, from the prehistoric era to the early twenty-first century, through fifty of the most surprising and often less well-known places in the world.

From the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where remains of some of our earliest tool-using ancestors were found, to the CERN laboratory, where revolutionary technologies such as the World Wide Web were developed, each entry shows its influence on not just politics, but on the economy, culture, religion and society, as well as their links to great historical figures such as Alexander the Great, Buddha and Nelson Mandela. The size of the places ranges from small geographical features like a cave in Saudi Arabia where Islam began, to larger areas or regions, like Hollywood. Many entries are cities, such Jerusalem, Amritsar, and Rome, some others are buildings, like Anne Frank’s House in the Netherlands or the Confucius Temple in China, and there are even some that are rooms, such as the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles Palace. No place is too big or too small to be included, as long as it has had a significant impact on history.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45992745-a-short-history-of-the-world-in-50-places

Dorothy - Ashes and Wax by Desi Valentine

PART ONE, THE LODGE: Lena and Geri are small town outcasts. In the summer of 1987 they build an underground fort that begins as a safe place for their secrets, but becomes a prison, a pyre and a grave.

PART TWO, THE DIGGER GARDEN: In the fall of 1995, Hazel Leighton and her daughter Constance are evicted from their home. They go to live on the only property left to them, a mausoleum Hazel commissioned to house her late husband's ashes. In this community of the dead, Hazel and Stannie find lasting friendship, and Brady Steward finds a terrible outlet for the traumas that rose from The Lodge.

PART THREE: THE HUNTING: It's spring of 2013. Selena has been hiding since 1990. Brady has been hiding from her. But the death of Inspector Gloria Madsen catalyzes a series of events that draws Selena and Brady into a fight for Malcolm's life. In the aftermath, Lena and Mally must turn to the friendship and family they have refused since childhood, and Brady must confront himself.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35671205-ashes-wax

Meghan - The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different even though they were identical twins. They loved the same things and shared a deep understanding, but Rosemary—awake to every emotion, easily moved to joy or tears—seemed to need more protection from the world.

Six years after Rosemary’s death from pneumonia, Sage, now sixteen, still misses her deeply. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing.

Sage knows little about Willowbrook. It’s always been a place shrouded by rumor and mystery. A place local parents threaten to send misbehaving kids. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could imagined . . .

https://ellenmariewiseman.com/books/the-lost-girls-of-willowbrook/

Corrie - Conscience and Unconsciousness (Based on the movie 'While You Were Sleeping') by pontmercy44

“Who are you?” The man carrying the newspaper asked her, scrunching up his brow. He looked her up and down, completely befuddled. One by one, the other man, the doctor, and the stormy woman turned to look at her. They wore almost identical expressions of confusion. Rey blinked, speechlessly. The appropriate answer was "a waitress", or "a stranger," or even "a crazy, perpetually single woman who’s been hopelessly, inexplicably in love with your comatose son for weeks."

Behind her, the nurse huffed, cocking her hip. As if it was obvious, she said, “She’s his fiancée.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10212815/chapters/22665005

Nina - I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and a puritanical administration at Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny. 

But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes.

On a furious hunt for answers, Chloe discovers she’s not the only one Shara kissed. There’s also Smith, Shara’s longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara’s bad boy neighbor with a crush. The three have nothing in common except Shara and the annoyingly cryptic notes she left behind, but together they must untangle Shara’s trail of clues and find her. It’ll be worth it, if Chloe can drag Shara back before graduation to beat her fair-and-square.

Thrown into an unlikely alliance, chasing a ghost through parties, break-ins, puzzles, and secrets revealed on monogrammed stationery, Chloe starts to suspect there might be more to this small town than she thought. And maybe―probably not, but maybe―more to Shara, too.

Fierce, funny, and frank, Casey McQuiston’s I Kissed Shara Wheeler is about breaking the rules, getting messy, and finding love in unexpected places.

https://www.caseymcquiston.com/i-kissed-shara-wheeler

Shirley - The Break by Katherena Vermette

When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house — she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime.

In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim — police, family, and friends — tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Through their various perspectives a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed.

A powerful intergenerational family saga, The Break showcases Vermette’s abundant writing talent and positions her as an exciting new voice in Canadian literature.

https://katherenavermette.com/the-break/

Nina - Just Another Love Song by Kerry Winfrey

Once upon a time, Sandy Macintosh thought she would have her happily ever after with her high school sweetheart, Hank Tillman. Sandy wanted to be an artist, Hank was the only boy in town who seemed destined for bigger things, and they both had dreams to escape town together. But when Sandy’s plans fell through, she stayed in their small town in Ohio while Hank went off to Boston to follow his dreams to be a musician, with the promise to stay together. Only that plan fell through, too.
 
Fifteen years later, Sandy runs a successful greenhouse while helping her parents with their bed and breakfast. Everything is perfect…until Hank rolls back into town, now a famous alt-country singer with a son in tow. She’s happy with the life she’s built by herself, but seeing Hank makes her think about what might have been. There aren’t enough cliché love songs in the world to convince Sandy to give Hank another chance, but when the two of them get thrown together to help organize the town’s annual street fair, she wonders if there could be a new beginning for them or if what they had is just a tired old song of the past.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669038/just-another-love-song-by-kerry-winfrey/

Shirley - The Strangers  by Katherena Vermette

Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten what freedom feels like. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly.

After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she’s hoping for a new chapter in her life, only to find herself once again in a strange house surrounded by strangers. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she’ll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she’s caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. Between flickering moments of warmth and support, the women diverge and reconnect, fighting to survive in a fractured system that pretends to offer success but expects them to fail. Facing the distinct blade of racism from those they trusted most, they urge one another to move through the darkness, all the while wondering if they’ll ever emerge safely on the other side.

A breathtaking companion to her bestselling debut The Break, Vermette’s The Strangers brings readers into the dynamic world of the Stranger family, the strength of their bond, the shared pain in their past, and the light that beckons from the horizon. This is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that—despite everything—refuse to be broken.

https://katherenavermette.com/the-strangers/

Join us for October's Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Cafe on October 19th.

August's Bring Your Own Book Club Discussion

In August we had a great discussion at Lakeshore Cafe for Bring Your Own Book Club. We discussed 8 different titles. 

Click on the titles to take to you to request a copy from the library.  

Shirley - Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand

A young man is drawn into the dark side of paradise in this haunting and atmospheric mystery about the eerie secrets of one Hawai’ian island—and the lengths some will go to keep them.

On a whim, Grady Kendall applies to work as a live-in caretaker for a luxury property in Hawaiʻi, as far from his small-town Maine life as he can imagine. Within days he's flying out to an estate on remote Hokuloa Road, where he quickly uncovers a dark side to the island’s idyllic reputation: it has long been a place where people vanish without a trace.

When a young woman from his flight becomes the next to disappear, Grady is determined—and soon desperate—to figure out what's happened to Jessie, and to all those staring out of the island’s “missing" posters. But working with Raina, Jessie’s fiercely protective best friend, to uncover the truth is anything but easy, and with an inexplicable and sinister presence stalking his every step, Grady can only hope he'll find the answer before it's too late.

From award-winning writer Elizabeth Hand, a master of crime fiction known for her magnetic characters, seductive prose, and fearless excavations into the darkest corners of our world, comes a chilling and illuminating new novel about a place unlike any other—and the deadly cost of keeping it so.

https://www.elizabethhand.com/books-list/hokuloa-road

Kim - Educated by Tara Westover

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/550168/educated-by-tara-westover/

Nina - Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

 

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of spending glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she stays in a stylish city apartment keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant, Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made, they’ll never know whether their love is bigger than their biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six summers in the past and one weekend in the present, Every Summer After is a gorgeously nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

https://www.carleyfortune.com/every-summer-after

Kaliegh - Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

https://christinalaurenbooks.com/books/autoboyography/

Terry - Headless George and other Tales Told in Canada by Steven Freygood

Erudite, witty, highly entertaining and just faintly alarming, the introduction to this book is probably as clear an explanation of myth as you will find. The stories themselves are a glorious mishmash of ancient myths connected by outrageous comments on Canada and Canadians.

Freygood makes full use of a storyteller's licence to present a delightful feast. Instead of leaving us to puzzle over details of past ages, he moves to a modern idiom. The devastating impact is hilarious; for example, the Queen of Winter "keeps me in a noisome dungeon and makes me clean all the cat-litter trays and feeds me junk food all the time that makes my face break out." Good, solid scholarship provides material for his wry ingenuity. My delight was crowned when I discovered Angus of the Bright Birds, rny favourite among the overlooked gods, even if he is described as "a real creampuff." The black-and-white drawings are completely appropriate�bold, contemporary and humorous.

The title is slightly misleading: these tales may be told in Canada, but only some of them are Canadian in origin. However, Freygood argues, Canadian myths are "a significant and continuous link with man's great mythic traditions." Myths, he says, are descriptions of the human universe, but Canadian myths describe Canadians, and Freygood has got us down pat. A brief bibliography directs further reading in mythology, but you will have to look far for another collection as penetrating as this one. All ages will enjoy it.  

https://www.cmreviews.ca/cm/cmarchive/vol13no1/revheadlessgeorge.html

Dorothy - My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

In 1959, Jean Craighead George published My Side of the Mountain. This coming-of-age story about a boy and his falcon went on to win a Newbery Honor, and for the past forty years has enthralled and entertained generations of would-be Sam Gribleys. The two books that followed--On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful's Mountain--were equally extraordinary. Now all three books are available in one deluxe yet affordable volume for veteran devotees and brand-new fans alike.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/332824/my-side-of-the-mountain-trilogy-by-jean-craighead-george/9780525462699

Corrie - All Thirteen : The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat

A unique account of the amazing Thai cave rescue told in a heart-racing, you-are-there style that blends suspense, science, and cultural insight.

On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon’s adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. As the world sits vigil, people begin to wonder: how long can a group of ordinary kids survive in complete darkness, with no food or clean water? Luckily, the Wild Boars are a very extraordinary "ordinary" group. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region's culture and religion, author Christina Soontornvat—who was visiting family in Northern Thailand when the Wild Boars went missing—masterfully shows how both the complex engineering operation above ground and the mental struggles of the thirteen young people below proved critical in the life-or-death mission. Meticulously researched and generously illustrated with photographs, this page-turner includes an author’s note describing her experience meeting the team, detailed source notes, and a bibliography to fully immerse readers in the most ambitious cave rescue in history.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/653727/all-thirteen-the-incredible-cave-rescue-of-the-thai-boys-soccer-team-by-christina-soontornvat/9781536209457

Meghan - The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson

Twelve-year-old Marinka dreams of a normal life, where her house stays in one place long enough for her to make friends. But her house has chicken legs and moves on without warning. The only people Marinka meets are dead, and they disappear when her grandmother, Baba Yaga, guides them through The Gate. Marinka wants to change her destiny, but her house has other ideas…

https://sophieandersonauthor.com/books/thehousewithchickenlegs/ 

Don't miss out on September's Bring Your Own Book Club discussion on the 21st.

July's Bring Your Own Book Club Discussion

We discussed some great reads at July's Bring Your Own Book Club. Which one would you like to read?

Our discussion included 6 books and a FanFiction. Click on the titles to request your copy through the library.

Corrie - Mitan, Midi by Animal (FanFiction)

 

"After a French notary contacts Rey to inform her she's inherited a house in the Drôme (France), she decides from one day to the next to quit her job and move there.

The house is pretty secluded, there's no service, no internet, no way to reach other people aside from the landline in the living-room.

Ideal conditions, by her standards, as those theoretically should allow her to be perfectly alone.

Theoretically."  

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16602782/chapters/38911493?view_adult=true

Dorothy - Orr My Story by Bobby Orr

"One of the greatest sports figures of all time at last breaks his silence in a memoir as unique as the man himself. 

Number 4. It is just about the most common number in hockey, but invoke that number and you can only be talking about one player -- the man often referred to as the greatest ever to play the game: Bobby Orr.  From 1966 through the mid-70s he could change a game just by stepping on the ice. Orr could do things that others simply couldn’t, and while teammates and opponents alike scrambled to keep up, at times they could do little more than stop and watch. Many of his records still stand today and he remains the gold standard by which all other players are judged.  Mention his name to any hockey fan – or to anyone in New England – and a look of awe will appear. But skill on the ice is only a part of his story. All of the trophies, records, and press clippings leave unsaid as much about the man as they reveal. They tell us what Orr did, but don’t tell us what inspired him, who taught him, or what he learned along the way. They don’t tell what it was like for a shy small-town kid to become one of the most celebrated athletes in the history of the game, all the while in the full glare of the media. They don’t tell us what it was like when the agent he regarded as his brother betrayed him and left him in financial ruin, at the same time his battered knee left him unable to play the game he himself had redefined only a few seasons earlier. They don’t tell about the players and people he learned to most admire along the way. They don’t tell what he thinks of the game of hockey today. 

Orr himself has never put all this into words, until now. After decades of refusing to speak of his past in articles or “authorized” biographies, he finally tells his story, because he has something to share: “I am a parent and a grandparent and I believe that I have lessons worth passing along.”  In the end, this is not just a book about hockey. The most meaningful biographies and memoirs rise above the careers out of which they grew. Bobby Orr’s life goes far deeper than Stanley Cup rings, trophies and recognitions. His story is not only about the game, but also the age in which it was played. It’s the story of a small-town kid who came to define its highs and lows, and inevitably it is a story of the lessons he learned along the way."

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17159989-orr

Terry - The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer

"In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door.

“Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey…Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise” (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist “has all the elements of a classic adventure novel” (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it."

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Bad-Ass-Librarians-of-Timbuktu/Joshua-Hammer/9781476777412

Lorraine- The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

"In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

Told by multiple voices across time, THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker’s daughter."

https://www.katemorton.com/the-clockmakers-daughter/

Alice - The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

"In the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC—until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

**Ukrainian place names are listed in-text in THE DIAMOND EYE with the Russian spelling, since that is the terminology Lyudmila Pavlichenko would have known and used in her lifetime.**"

https://www.katequinnauthor.com/books/the-diamond-eye/

Betty - Bluebird by Genevieve Grahm

"Present day

Cassie Simmons, a museum curator, is enthusiastic about solving mysteries from the past, and she has a personal interest in the history of the rumrunners who ferried illegal booze across the Detroit River during Prohibition. So when a cache of whisky labeled Bailey Brothers’ Best is unearthed during a local home renovation, Cassie hopes to find the answers she’s been searching for about the legendary family of bootleggers...

1918

Corporal Jeremiah Bailey of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company is tasked with planting mines in the tunnels beneath enemy trenches. After Jerry is badly wounded in an explosion, he finds himself in a Belgium field hospital under the care of Adele Savard, one of Canada’s nursing sisters, nicknamed “Bluebirds” for their blue gowns and white caps. As Jerry recovers, he forms a strong connection with Adele, who is from a place near his hometown of Windsor, along the Detroit River. In the midst of war, she’s a welcome reminder of home, and when Jerry is sent back to the front, he can only hope that he’ll see his bluebird again.

By war’s end, both Jerry and Adele return home to Windsor, scarred by the horrors of what they endured overseas. When they cross paths one day, they have a chance to start over. But the city is in the grip of Prohibition, which brings exciting opportunities as well as new dangerous conflicts that threaten to destroy everything they have fought for.

Pulled from the pages of history, Bluebird is a compelling, luminous novel about the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to call us home."

https://www.simonandschuster.ca/books/Bluebird/Genevieve-Graham/9781982156657

Meghan - The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

"Magic, adventure, mystery, and romance combine in this epic debut in which a young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler—and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.

On her nineteenth birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey back to the castle of her birth to ascend her rightful throne. Plain and serious, a girl who loves books and learning, Kelsea bears little resemblance to her mother, the vain and frivolous Queen Elyssa. But though she may be inexperienced and sheltered, Kelsea is not defenseless: Around her neck hangs the Tearling sapphire, a jewel of immense magical power; and accompanying her is the Queen’s Guard, a cadre of brave knights led by the enigmatic and dedicated Lazarus. Kelsea will need them all to survive a cabal of enemies who will use every weapon—from crimson-caped assassins to the darkest blood magic—to prevent her from wearing the crown.

Despite her royal blood, Kelsea feels like nothing so much as an insecure girl, a child called upon to lead a people and a kingdom about which she knows almost nothing. But what she discovers in the capital will change everything, confronting her with horrors she never imagined. An act of singular daring will throw Kelsea’s kingdom into tumult, unleashing the vengeance of the tyrannical ruler of neighboring Mortmesne: the Red Queen, a sorceress possessed of the darkest magic. Now Kelsea will begin to discover whom among the servants, aristocracy, and her own guard she can trust.

But the quest to save her kingdom and meet her destiny has only just begun—a wondrous journey of self-discovery and a trial by fire that will make her a legend... if she can survive.

This book will be a beautifully designed package with illustrated endpapers, a map of the Tearling, and a ribbon marker."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22864842-the-queen-of-the-tearling

We're looking forward to August's discussion on August 17th at Lakeshore Cafe. What will we discuss next?

June Bring Your Own Book Club Discussion

It was great to see everyone for Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Cafe in June during our renovations at the library. It was a great discussion, and we even had a young person joining in with their own selection. 

Do you have a favourite contributor?

 

Click on the titles to request your copy through the library today!

Meghan - It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. Combining a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters, It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
https://www.colleenhoover.com/product/it-ends-with-us/

Betty - The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michelle Richardson

Bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson is back with the perfect book club read following Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, who must fight for her own independence with the help of the women who guide her and the books that set her free.

In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned, Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.

Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive, but the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way. If Honey wants to bring the freedom that books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/58803339

Lorraine - The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked-room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense. (This title also goes by The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36337550-the-7-deaths-of-evelyn-hardcastle

Terry -The Very Best of the Daily Telegraph Books of Obituaries

This is a compilation of the very best of the five best-selling volumes of Daily Telegraph obituaries. The foibles and eccentricities of the dead are evoked as a labour of love, while the reader is introduced to alluring strangers and and a world of elegance and romance.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1326796.The_Very_Best_of_the_Daily_Telegraph_Books_of_Obituaries

Dorothy - Always Looking Up by Micheal J Fox

There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. Husband. Father. Activist. But readers of Always Looking Up will soon add another to the list: Optimist. 

 

Michael writes about the hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities. Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual, and spiritual outlook that has served him throughout his struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Michael’s exit from a very demanding, very public arena offered him the time-and the inspiration-to open up new doors leading to unexpected places. 

 

One door even led him to the center of his own family, the greatest destination of all.The last ten years, which is really the stuff of this book, began with such a loss: my retirement from Spin City. I found myself struggling with a strange new dynamic: the shifting of public and private personas. I had been Mike the actor, then Mike the actor with PD. Now was I just Mike with PD Parkinson’s had consumed my career and, in a sense, had become my career. But where did all of this leave Me? I had to build a new life when I was already pretty happy with the old one… 

 

Always Looking Up is a memoir of this last decade, told through the critical themes of Michael’s life: work, politics, faith, and family. The book is a journey of self-discovery and reinvention, and a testament to the consolations that protect him from the ravages of Parkinson’s. With the humor and wit that captivated fans of his first book, Lucky Man, Michael describes how he became a happier, more satisfied person by recognizing the gifts of everyday life.

https://www.hachettebooks.com/titles/michael-j-fox/always-looking-up/9781401395254/

Corrie - People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins

People kill people. Guns just make it easier.

A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?

One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/People-Kill-People/Ellen-Hopkins/9781481442947

Emily - Dragon Girl: Naomi the Rainbow Glitter Dragon by Maddy Mara

We are Dragon Girls, hear us roar!Naomi loves being a Glitter Dragon Girl. She can fly above treetops and roar glittery bursts of magic. Best of all, she and the other Glitter Dragons are keeping their beloved Magic Forest safe from the Shadow Sprites.But all is not as it seems in this special place. The Shadow Sprites' power is growing. . . and they may not be alone. Naomi must harness all the dragon magic she's learned to lead the Glitter Dragon Girls against this new threat.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54776564-naomi-the-rainbow-glitter-dragon

Beth - Stealing Home by Sherryl Woods

Maddie Townsend might live in a town called Serenity and have the best friends a woman could ask for, but her life is overturned when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. With her three children heartbroken from the change, Maddie has a lot to contend with. On top of it all, after years outside the workforce, she must dust off her business skills to take charge of her best friends’ newest project—planning the town’s only fitness spa for women.

When her son’s developing anger issues begin to affect his passion for baseball, Maddie knows she must step in to help. She didn’t expect to develop feelings for her son’s coach, the handsome Cal Maddox, and to learn he has feelings for her, too. But gossip travels quickly in a small town, and Maddie and Cal’s relationship may threaten both their reputations and careers.

Then again, he could be the one man in all of South Carolina who can help her find serenity after all.

https://sherrylwoods.com/book/stealing-home/

Some of the other books discussed were:

Lorraine - The World's Greatest Speeches edited by Lewis Copeland

This outstanding compendium of 292 great speeches contains addresses from nearly every historical era and nation, from the formal orations of ancient Greece and the speeches of Julius Caesar, to modern-day addresses by Nelson Mandela, Ronald Regan and Václav Havel.

Among the memorable speeches included here are Pericles' funeral oration, St. Bernard's advocacy of the Second Crusade, William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, Winston Churchill's "Blood, Sweat and Tears" address, Richard Nixon's speech to the astronauts on the moon, Malcolm X's address on the Black Revolution, and many more. Readers will also find time-honored declamations by St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Leon Trotzky, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dylan Thomas, Fulton J. Sheen, Adlai Stevenson, Walter Reuther, and many others−over 240 speakers in all.

For this newly updated edition, Stephen J. McKenna, Assistant Professor of English at The Catholic University of America, has added 14 important speeches delivered between 1974 and 1997. These new selections include Barbara Jordan's Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee for the Nixon Impeachment Proceedings (1974); Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Commencement Address (1978); Ronald Regan's First Inaugural Address (1981): Nelson Mandela's Address to a Rally in Cape Town on His Release from Prison (1990); Václav Havel's Address to a Joint Session of Congress (1990); the Earl of Spencer's Tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales (1997); and more.

Rich with drama of history, the speeches in this volume will serve you time and time again by suggesting provocative themes and historical parallels, and by providing apt quotations, important reference passages, and a wide range of other valuable material.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168638.The_World_s_Great_Speeches

Betty - The Last Green Valley by Mark T. Sullivan

In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves—murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans?

The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin’s horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.

Caught between two warring forces and overcoming horrific trials to pursue their hope of emigrating to the West, the Martels’ story is a brutal, complex, and ultimately triumphant tale that illuminates the extraordinary power of love, faith, and one family’s incredible will to survive and see their dreams realized.

https://marksullivanbooks.com/the-last-green-valley/

Meghan - The Paris Apartment by Kelly Bowen

London, 2017: When Aurelia Leclaire inherits an opulent Paris apartment, she is shocked to discover her grandmother’s hidden secrets—including a treasure trove of famous art and couture gowns. One obscure painting leads her to Gabriel Seymour, a highly respected art restorer with his own mysterious past. Together they attempt to uncover the truths concealed within the apartment’s walls.

Paris, 1942: The Germans may occupy the City of Lights, but glamorous Estelle Allard flourishes in a world separate from the hardships of war. Yet when the Nazis come for her dearest friends, Estelle doesn’t hesitate to help them, no matter the cost. As she works against the forces intent on destroying those she holds dear, she can’t know that her actions will have ramifications for generations to come. 

Set seventy-five years apart, against a perilous and a prosperous Paris, both Estelle and Lia must unearth hidden courage as they navigate the dangers of a changing world, altering history—and their family’s futures—forever.  

https://kellybowen.net/the-paris-apartment

Check out July's discussion of Bring Your Own Book Club - coming soon!

May's Bring Your Own Book Club Recommendations

Are you looking for your next read? Check out May's discussion from Bring Your Own Book Club at Lakeshore Cafe. 

We discussed 9 different books in May. Check out the selection below -- click on the titles to place  your request through the library. 

Kim - Empath's Survival Guide : Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff

The Empath’s Survival Guide begins with self-assessment exercises to help you understand your sensitivity, then offers potent strategies for protecting yourself from overwhelm and replenishing your vital energy. For any sensitive person who’s been told to “grow a thick skin,” here is your lifelong guide for staying fully open while building resilience, exploring your gifts, raising empathic children, and feeling welcomed and valued by a world that desperately needs what you have to offer. It’s also about embracing the empath in all of us.

As a physician and empath herself, Dr Orloff is passionate about this topic as she sees how sensitive people too often get misdiagnosed in the mainstream health care system with depression, agoraphobia, panic disorder, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. In this book, she offers empaths and all sensitive people a range of “survival guide” strategies to positively manage their sensitivities and avoid sensory and intuitive overload. She covers topics including health, work, love, sex, parenting, narcissists and other energy vampires, and developing intuition. Then, with these strategies in place, they can enjoy their gifts of depth, creativity, intuition, love of nature, capacity to deeply love, and fulfill their desire to help others and better the world. 

To read more visit https://drjudithorloff.com/empath-survival-guide-description/

Betty - Madame Tussaud : a Novel of the French Revolution by Michelle Moran

The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire . . . but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life as only Michelle Moran can tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin.
 
Smart and ambitious, Marie Tussaud has learned the secrets of wax sculpting by working alongside her uncle in their celebrated wax museum, the Salon de Cire. From her popular model of the American ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, to her tableau of the royal family at dinner, Marie’s museum provides Parisians with the very latest news on fashion, gossip, and even politics.

To read more visit https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/197888/madame-tussaud-by-michelle-moran/9780307588661

Lorraine - Cultish : the Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere. 

amandamontell.com/cultish/

Terry - Genesis by Eduardo Galeano

A unique and epic history, Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy is an outstanding Latin American eye view of the making of the New World. From its first English language publication in 1985 it has been recognized as a classic of political engagement, original research, and literary form.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264891.Genesis

Shanna - Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.

Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fueled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.

There are rumors of martial law, of Congress confining pregnant women. Of a registry, and rewards for those who turn these wanted women in. Flickering through the chaos are signs of increasing repression: a shaken Cedar witnesses a family wrenched apart when police violently drag a mother from her husband and child in a parking lot. The streets of her neighborhood have been renamed with Bible verses. A stranger answers the phone when she calls her adoptive parents, who have vanished without a trace. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.  

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/future-home-of-the-living-god-louise-erdrich?variant=32131867115554

Beth - Taste : My Life Through Food  by Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in The Tucci Cookbook and The Tucci Table, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them.​

Taste is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes, is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

Written with Stanley’s signature wry humor, Taste is for fans of Bill Buford, Gabrielle Hamilton, and Ruth Reichl—and anyone who knows the power of a home-cooked meal.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Taste/Stanley-Tucci/9781982168018

Nina - The No-Show by Beth O'Leary

Siobhan is a quick-tempered life coach with way too much on her plate. Miranda is a tree surgeon used to being treated as just one of the guys on the job. Jane is a soft-spoken volunteer for the local charity shop with zero sense of self-worth.
 
These three women are strangers who have only one thing in common: they’ve all been stood up on the same day, the very worst day to be stood up—Valentine’s Day. And, unbeknownst to them, they’ve all been stood up by the same man.
 
Once they’ve each forgiven him for standing them up, they are all in serious danger of falling in love with a man who may have not just one or two but three women on the go….
 
Is there more to him than meets the eye? Where was he on Valentine’s Day? And will they each untangle the truth before they all get their hearts broken?

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/692675/the-no-show-by-beth-oleary/

Kaleigh - Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez

After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who’s ten years younger than her and as casual as they come—the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.

While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn’t need glory or fame. She’s fine with being a “mere” ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she’s discovering just what’s really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.

Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can’t just give up the joy she’s found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?

https://www.authorabbyjimenez.com/

Meghan - The Queen's Spy by Clare Marchant

A perilous mission. An unforgivable betrayal. A secret lost in time…

1584: Elizabeth I rules England. But a dangerous plot is brewing in court, and Mary Queen of Scots will stop at nothing to take her cousin’s throne.

There’s only one thing standing in her way: Tom, the queen’s trusted apothecary, who makes the perfect silent spy…

2021: Travelling the globe in her campervan, Mathilde has never belonged anywhere. So when she receives news of an inheritance, she is shocked to discover she has a family in England.

Just like Mathilde, the medieval hall she inherits conceals secrets, and she quickly makes a haunting discovery. Can she unravel the truth about what happened there all those years ago? And will she finally find a place to call home?

https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780008454357/the-queens-spy/

That's all for May's discussion. Want to be part of the discussion? Come out to Lakeshore Cafe on Wednesday, June 15th at 6:30 pm and bring a book you want to discuss.