LATAH COUNTY LIBRARY
“Chilean Poet” by Alejandro Zambr
A beautifully written work detailing with tender humor the small moments that compose our personal and familial histories. The novel follows two lovers and their time together and apart, and explores how we choose and betray our families.
“Groundskeeping” by Lee Cole
A book of human relationships and reciprocity, “Groundskeeping” explores how class and identity can impact our ability to connect with one another. Absorbing and detailed, this love story will take the reader on an adventure while remaining firmly rooted in current events.
“The Family Chao” by Lan Samanthya
A gripping family mystery exploring betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American dream. Situated in a small American town, “The Family Chao” follows a Chinese-American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of their seemingly pleasant community.
WHITMAN COUNTY LIBRARY
“The Irish Cottage” by Juliet Gauvin
Elizabeth Lara built a perfect life as San Francisco’s top divorce attorney, but when she loses her great-aunt Mags, the woman who raised her, she boards a plane and leaves it all behind. The Irish shores welcome her as she learns a shocking truth, kept secret for 35 years. Beth tries to find peace in a beautiful cottage by Lough Rhiannon, but almost as soon as she arrives, Beth’s solitary retreat into the magic wilds of Ireland is interrupted by Connor Bannon. He’s gorgeous, grieving and completely unexpected. With the help of Mags’ letters, the colorful townspeople of Dingle and Connor, Elizabeth might just find a way back to the girl she lost long ago and become the woman she always wanted to be.
“The Guest List” by Lucy Foley
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But as the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?
“A Week in Winter” by Maeve Binchy
Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House. Sharing a week with this unlikely cast of characters is pure joy. This is the last book that Maeve Binchy wrote before her sudden death, and as are all her stories, it is her trademark warmth, humor and the kind of characters that will make her books live on.
NEILL PUBLIC LIBRARY
“Black Leopard, Red Wolf” and “Moon Witch, Spider King” by Marlon James
Marlon James’ second book in The Dark Star Trilogy is out now and Esquire Magazine states it best in that he “masterfully flips the first installment on its head … makes the mythic tantalizingly real.” For fans of “Game of Thrones,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Tolkien, this is an epic complex and surreal adventure tale that uses unique narrative devices and perspectives. Issues of power, lineage, and identity play out across a mythical African landscape where the battle over the empire continues as eight mercenaries search for a missing boy in this epic Black Futurism genre of fantasy.
“Caramel Pecan Roll Murder” by Joanne Fluke
The Hannah Swenson Mystery books are a playful food-themed cozy mystery series set in Minnesota. Hannah runs the local bakery called The Cookie Jar, where she is known for her divine baked sweets and her side hustle of being an amateur sleuth solving crimes in her community. The Caramel Pecan Roll Murder unfolds while Hannah is baking for a local fishing competition. Things get sticky but never too squeamish in this light-hearted, page-turning read.
