Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at magical realistic literary fiction set in the Dominican Republic, YA and adult chick lit and romance reads, comic mysteries that take on corporate America and the cozy genre, a how-to guide for making your own sushi, and a range of both fiction and nonfiction audiobooks.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Magical Realism, Summer Romances and Chick Lit, Comedic Mysteries, Sushi, and Audiobook Adventures”Category: Book Review
Local Roots: June
Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year. Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For June, we’re looking at true crime.
Continue reading “Local Roots: June”Book Buzz: Summer Reads
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For June, we’re looking at this year’s If All Arkansas Read the Same Book selection, historical fiction about the Gilded Age, an anthology of Western mysteries, a family saga set in 1970s Mississippi, a vampire fantasy romance, a guide to eating around the United States, true crime about gator poaching, encouragement for writers, and audiobook memoirs, romances, chick lit, and mysteries.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Summer Reads”James J. Johnston’s Mountain Feds: Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Society
If you’re a Civil War buff like me, you probably already know that the war itself in Arkansas is largely overlooked in the conflict’s historiography. The Trans-Mississippi Theater is usually overshadowed by what was going on in the east, and even within that realm, Missouri has always gotten far more attention than Arkansas. In this book, Arkansas historian and Searcy County native James J. Johnston covers a facet of Ozarks Arkansas Civil War history that’s typically ignored even more than the state already is–Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Societies they established. I’ve been meaning to read this book since it was first released in 2019. Thanks so much to Julie for ordering it and adding it to our Arkansas collection!
Continue reading “James J. Johnston’s Mountain Feds: Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Society”Book Buzz: Contemporary Gothic Suspense, Historical Fiction, Northwoods Fiction, Nature Reads, Canning, and Audiobook Office Suspense
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For May, we’re looking at a gothic tale complete with atmospheric mansion and family secrets, historical fiction with settings that range from the construction of the Panama Canal to WWII, contemporary fiction set in rural Wisconsin, nonfiction about trees and the animal kingdom, a guide to canning, and an audiobook about an office cleaner.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Contemporary Gothic Suspense, Historical Fiction, Northwoods Fiction, Nature Reads, Canning, and Audiobook Office Suspense”Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made
In Malaysia in 1945, near the end of World War II, the Alcantara family is barely hanging on. Matriarch Cecily’s husband Gordon is a shell of his former self, while their beloved teen-aged son Abel has disappeared. Their daughter Jujube tries to maintain some semblance of normality as she works serving occupying Japanese soldiers in a teahouse, while the baby of the family, Jasmin, spends her days hiding in the basement. Cecily herself harbors a secret she desperately hopes her family never discovers–she helped usher in this invasion by working as a spy for Japanese General Fujiwara a decade earlier. Cecily had been lulled in by his pan-Asian message and the hope of overthrowing the colonizing British, but that’s not quite how things panned out.
Continue reading “Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made”Book Buzz: Literary Classics Reimagined, Historical Legal Wrangling, Collaborative Fiction, Space Operas, Van Living, and Audiobook Suspense
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For April, we’re looking at an acclaimed new take on the story of Huckleberry Finn, historical fiction about a famous 19th century British trial, a collaborative effort between some of today’s most famous writers, a new series that melds the genres of science fiction and espionage thriller, a guide to living the van life, and two very different suspense novels on audiobook, one with a historical setting while the other is extremely contemporary.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Literary Classics Reimagined, Historical Legal Wrangling, Collaborative Fiction, Space Operas, Van Living, and Audiobook Suspense”Book Buzz: Literary Puzzles, Westerns, Espionage Thrillers, Morbid Memoirs, and Suspenseful Audiobooks
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For March, we’re looking at a fiendishly difficult book puzzle, two Westerns based on real-life events, a spy novel, a memoir about being a death investigator for Manhattan’s Medical Examiner office, and a literary suspense audiobook.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Literary Puzzles, Westerns, Espionage Thrillers, Morbid Memoirs, and Suspenseful Audiobooks”Book Buzz: Literary Historical Fiction, Magical Realism Family Sagas, Montana Romance, Cozy Mysteries, French Cuisine, and Naval Adventure
Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For February, we’re looking at historical fiction set in World War I, two very different magical realism stories about cross-generational family sagas, a new romance series set in Montana, a new cozy series starring an amateur detective maid at a hotel, a classic cookbook, and an audiobook that blends contemporary naval action and romance.
Continue reading “Book Buzz: Literary Historical Fiction, Magical Realism Family Sagas, Montana Romance, Cozy Mysteries, French Cuisine, and Naval Adventure”Paulette Jiles’s Chenneville
When John Chenneville comes to in a hospital bed in Virginia a few months after the end of the Civil War, his memories are shadowy and half-formed. Everything from his service in the Union Army to his happy childhood in an old French family outside of St. Louis comes back to him in pieces. Upon returning home to Missouri, he learns that his beloved younger sister and her family were murdered, which triggers a quest for vengeance that takes him from St. Louis to modern-day Oklahoma and then Texas in this excellent, haunting historical novel/literary Western.
I’ve been an avid Paulette Jiles reader ever since a stranger came up to me at Books in Bloom and highly recommended Enemy Women to me. I’ve been hooked on Jiles’s work ever since and keep an eye out for her newer releases. (A special thank you to Julie for ordering this book and adding it to the collection!) A Missouri Ozarks native who spent years in Canada and now lives in Texas and was an accomplished poet and memoirist before becoming a novelist, Jiles has a keen ear for language and an equally astute eye for observation. She excels at writing complex but likable and engaging characters, evocative historical settings, and elegantly lyrical but readable prose.
Continue reading “Paulette Jiles’s Chenneville”
Berryville Book Buzz 