Finley Public Library

  Book Reviews   | |

September 4, 2015

While at the library I see/think of many things I want to add to the coming week's article, but I have to admit those thoughts don't always make it home with me!  I really do need to make more lists!  Here's a couple things I do remember, though.  Thanks to those of you that recently donated books.  We are always grateful for CLEAN, GENTLY USED NEWER BOOKS.  Most were paperbacks so they have either been added to the PB shelves in the PB room or if the library has never had the title, they have been added to the New Paperback shelves in the "office".  Here's a couple I remember:  Shades of Grace (PB) (1996) by Barbara Delinsky--a book about Alzheimer's Disease and what it can do to the patient and the family, (but in a non-clinical way) which I will be reviewing in the next couple weeks;  The Boys in the Boat (PB) (2013) (NF) by Daniel James Brown--about the Washington State Huskies bid for a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in a "coxed eight"--eight rowers or crew and the coxswain.  (I am in the process of reading it now.);  The Night Trilogy (PB) (2008) by Elie Wiesel--Night (1958) is his memoir of life in Auschwitz with his father during WWII, whereas Dawn (1960) and Day (1961)are novels depicting life after release; and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn--which was very recently released as a movie starring Charlize Theron--the story of an seven-year-old girl who survived the massacre murder of her family and later testified that her fifteen-year-old brother was the killer.  The book takes place twenty-five years later when Libby Day (the girl) is grown up and looking for a life which she thinks she finds in the Kill Club, a group obsessed with notorious crimes and the killers thereof.  Another movie just coming out this weekend starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte is A Walk in the Woods.  The library has that non-fiction book as well, written by Bill Bryson in 1998.  After living in England for twenty years, he decides to walk the Appalachian Trail, some 2,000 miles long running from Georgia to Maine, rediscovering America, the trail and the American people in his own delightfully humorous way.   Lastly, for those interested, we have a shelf of newly arrived PBs that are all about vampires, werewolves, fantasy and the like.  Come in and check us out!

Here's a couple reviews:

Merciless by Lori Armstrong.  (HC/RP) (Mercy Gunderson series #3) (2013)  In this seemingly last installation in this series, Mercy is a now a trained FBI agent and openly living with Sheriff Duncan.  When a murder of a Native American woman takes place and another a month later, Mercy thinks that there  is some sort of pattern and the murderer has been doing away with a large number of Native American women over the last few years.  She has no proof, of course, so the FBI chief doesn't really think much of her theory and neither does her FBI partner.  She begins research in the Native American archives and finds her theory to be  viable.  Meanwhile, drugs are being  piped into the Reservation like water and the FBI/DEA are tracking that.  Then Sheriff Dawson's eleven-year-old son moves in with Dawson and Mercy.  Mercy's mind seems to be reverting back into PTSD mode, but she fights it by talking about it and thinking about it, knowing that she is almost through it.  The FBI suits Mercy--following orders and doing her job just like when she was in the military and that helps with the PTSD issues, too.  Dawson wants married life to suit her as well, but Mercy is not so sure...  Another good read from author Armstrong on Mercy Gunderson.  This has been a good series!

Three-Day Town by Margaret Maron.  (HC/RP) (Deborah Knott series #17)  (2011)  Some nice person recently donated some books in this series and the library already had another, so we readers who like this series are lucky!  Author Maron writes an interesting "down-home' type of book/series that allows the reader a glimpse of life in the hillier western region of North Carolina.  Having also lived in the Brooklyn area of New York City for many years, the author--in this book--gives us a look at what living in NYC can be like as well--apartments with with porters, doormen, elevator operators, co-ops (as compared to condominiums), etc.  Deborah Knott and her husband (Dwight Byrant, Sheriff's Deputy) of eighteen months are in NYC as a guest in the apartment of Dwight's cousin.  The plan is to stay a week and while there see cousins and friends besides sightseeing.  One distant relative, Sigrid Harald, a lieutenant in the NYCPD, is to be the recipient of a gift from her grandmother whom Deborah has known for years.  When they arrive everyone is so nice and they are invited to a party on their floor.  While at the party, however, someone is killed in their apartment and the gift that LT. Harald has come to pick up is stolen. (You may want to reread the first chapter of the book after you finish the book--I did.  I found it confusing as I read it being somewhat familiar with the series.  On the other hand, another reader may not agree.)  This is another "clean" mystery with little bloodshed, but many possible perpetrators.  I enjoy this series--Deborah is calm and intelligent and her husband adds to the picture.

 
 
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