Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For November, we’re looking at rich people behaving badly, a heated tribal election on a Anishinaabe reservation, the humorous tale of an obituary writer falsely declared deceased, new science fiction and fantasy releases, a novel on audiobook about the infamous Virginia Hill, a history of the Cherokee Nation, and nonfiction about Rogers, Arkansas, just the next county over.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Contentious Divorces, Tribal Elections, Obituary Writers, Science Fiction Espionage Thrillers, Tiger Castles, Gangsters, the Cherokee, and Rogers”Category: Book Review
Kay Chronister’s The Bog Wife
Love gothic horror? Don’t love horror but want to read something suitably spooky for Halloween? You have come to the right place! Kay Chronister’s haunting, atmospheric The Bog Wife is most definitely horror but not of the blood-and-guts slasher variety.
Thanks so much to Kelli for suggesting the book to me! I enjoyed it very much!
Continue reading “Kay Chronister’s The Bog Wife”Jo Harkin’s The Pretender
Thanks so much to Julie for kindly adding this book to the collection at my request! It is an unusual and compelling novel that I highly recommend for fans of historical fiction, particularly the early Tudor period! If you know your history, you probably see the word Tudor and think of Queen Elizabeth I or her father Henry VIII and his six wives. And you’d be right, but if you really know your history, you may also think of Henry’s father, Henry VII. This novel is set during Henry VII’s reign and the late War of the Roses and focuses on Lambeth Simnel, a little-known claimant to the throne.
Continue reading “Jo Harkin’s The Pretender”Book Buzz: Horror, Historical Fiction, Eleanor Roosevelt, Picasso, Montana, An Experimental Thriller, The Prairie, Hawaii, Spinach, and a Safari Gone Wrong
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For October, we’re looking at vampire horror, historical fiction spanning the 1800s and 1900s, literary fiction, a twisty new thriller with an unusual premise, ecologically themed nonfiction, a story of a spinach empire, and an audiobook about a safari that takes a murderous turn.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Horror, Historical Fiction, Eleanor Roosevelt, Picasso, Montana, An Experimental Thriller, The Prairie, Hawaii, Spinach, and a Safari Gone Wrong”Book Buzz: Espionage, Curses, Romance, Surreal Historical Mystery Sequels, Contemporary Mystery Debuts, Audiobooks, and Healthy Nonfiction Reads
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For September, we’re looking at a new-ish contemporary espionage thriller series, this year’s If All Arkansas Read the Same Book pick, romances and mysteries–both historical and contemporary, audiobooks in a range of genres, and nonfiction on healthy living.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Espionage, Curses, Romance, Surreal Historical Mystery Sequels, Contemporary Mystery Debuts, Audiobooks, and Healthy Nonfiction Reads”Community Book Read: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby is the book for the CAMALS Foundation’s second annual Community Book Read. The novel was first released on April 10, 1925, so it is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Read more to find out how you can get a free copy and participate in the fun.
Continue reading “Community Book Read: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby”Book Buzz: Local True Crime
Usually the Book Buzz posts are a round-up of new-ish books in the library, but today we’re doing something a little different!
A couple of weeks ago, Jason Harmon reached out to our library system to let us know he would be appearing on the new Ozarks-themed podcast Ozarkian Folk Chronicles.
Back in 2003, he worked with David McElyea on his memoir When Money Grew on Trees: The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas. Written under the pen name of David Mac, the book recounts how McElyea grew an illegal marijuana farm in Madison County in the 1980s and 1990s under the protection of the then-sheriff Ralph Baker. It recounts both McElyea’s and Baker’s rise and fall, and it is a perennial favorite with patrons in our library system.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Local True Crime”Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime
In the early 1930s, Dorothy Sayers is a well-known mystery novelist, but she has deep secrets of her own. She is also a leader in the newly formed Detection Club, which wants to make mystery writing more prestigious. However, even within the ranks of the Detection Club, where everyone is ruffled by the press’s tendency to dismiss their work as genre fiction, there is dissension and tension over who to admit. Some of the more traditional members believe Dorothy and Agatha Christie are the only women authors worthy of admission. Dorothy and Agatha then team up with three other talented women mystery writers–Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham–to solve a real-life mystery to prove their credibility.
Continue reading “Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime”Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting (2005)
Usually, I try to review newer releases on here, but every now and then, I read something so good that I just have to write about it, like this book that’s been out for 20 years. It may not be new, but it’s new to me!
The Lost Painting is nonfiction about the quest to locate a famous Caravaggio painting, centuries after it was lost. The premise may not sound like a page-turner, but the result is as gripping as any detective novel as the book takes you through archives and museums across Europe.
Continue reading “Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting (2005)”Book Buzz: Summer 2025 Book Tasting Edition
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at the book menus used for yesterday’s book tasting, and filling in the gaps of what hasn’t already been covered on the blog.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Summer 2025 Book Tasting Edition”
Berryville Book Buzz 