Stuck in a reading rut? Want to expand your reading horizons in 2026? You’re in luck! Every month this year, we will be delving deep into popular genres at the library. If you’re already a fan, find readalike suggestions for popular authors and ideas for similar genres to explore. If you’re brand new to the genre in question, you will find a helpful explanation of the hallmarks of the genre, a breakdown of its most common subgenres, and explanations of what readers find so appealing about the most popular authors writing those types of books. Let’s explore fantasy for March!
Continue reading “Exploring Genres: Fantasy”Category: Book Review
Book Buzz: Sweet Rom-Coms, New Mysteries, Classic Thrillers, Horse Diving, Mountain Men, Dragon Horror, and Nonfiction for Everyone
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For March, we’re looking at funny Christian romances, an eerie new mystery about family secrets, a series about a young Ojibwe woman who finds herself in the middle of crime cases in the 1970s Midwest, a classic thriller that may be new to you, historical fiction about 1920s carnivals, a Western series that follows a mountain man and his adventures, dragon fantasy horror, and nonfiction that ranges from celebrity memoir to true crime to constitutional history to self-help.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Sweet Rom-Coms, New Mysteries, Classic Thrillers, Horse Diving, Mountain Men, Dragon Horror, and Nonfiction for Everyone”Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter
This is a powerful and quietly devastating historical novel that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize late last year. I was immediately intrigued when I read the description so requested it be added to our system. Thanks so much to Julie for purchasing it! I am so glad that she added it and that I had (and others will have) the chance to read it.
Continue reading “Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter”Exploring Genres: Romance
Stuck in a reading rut? Want to expand your reading horizons in 2026? You’re in luck! Every month this year, we will be delving deep into popular genres at the library. If you’re already a fan, find readalike suggestions for popular authors and ideas for similar genres to explore. If you’re brand new to the genre in question, you will find a helpful explanation of the hallmarks of the genre, a breakdown of its most common subgenres, and explanations of what readers find so appealing about the most popular authors writing those types of books. A little late for Valentine’s Day but let’s explore romance for February!
Continue reading “Exploring Genres: Romance”Book Buzz: Romance in Time for Valentine’s Day, Family Drama in Italy, Funny Spy Thrillers, Western Action, Atmospheric Mysteries, 18th Century Silver Mines, Stonehenge, Food Nonfiction, and Butler Memoirs
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For February, we’re looking at a summery closed-door romance, a romantasy, a literary novel about a family unraveling family secrets, a comedic spy thriller, a Western based on an amazing true story, two newer mysteries with a strong sense of place, new historical fiction, and nonfiction centering on food and/or royal service.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Romance in Time for Valentine’s Day, Family Drama in Italy, Funny Spy Thrillers, Western Action, Atmospheric Mysteries, 18th Century Silver Mines, Stonehenge, Food Nonfiction, and Butler Memoirs”Exploring Genres: Suspense
Stuck in a reading rut? Want to expand your reading horizons in 2026? You’re in luck! Every month this year, we will be delving deep into popular genres at the library. If you’re already a fan, find readalike suggestions for popular authors and ideas for similar genres to explore. If you’re brand new to the genre in question, you will find a helpful explanation of the hallmarks of the genre, a breakdown of its most common subgenres, and explanations of what readers find so appealing about the most popular authors writing those types of books. First up, suspense!
Continue reading “Exploring Genres: Suspense”Book Buzz: Contentious Divorces, Tribal Elections, Obituary Writers, Science Fiction Espionage Thrillers, Tiger Castles, Gangsters, the Cherokee, and Rogers
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”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, Experimental Suspense, 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 suspense novel 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, Experimental Suspense, The Prairie, Hawaii, Spinach, and a Safari Gone Wrong”
Berryville Book Buzz 