February 2020: Staff Reading Suggestions

FEBRUARY 2020 - STAFF READING SUGGESTIONS

THE FALCON THIEF: A TRUE TALE OF ADVENTURE, TREACHERY AND THE HUNT FOR THE PERFECT BIRD

by Joshua Hammer

This story is almost unbelievable. In 2010 Jeffrey Lendrum was apprehended at a British airport with a parcel wrapped around his stomach. Inside were 14 rare peregrine falcon eggs grabbed from a nest on a cliffside in Wales. The book follows Detective Andy McWilliam of the United Kingdom's National Wildlife Crime Unit as he follows Lendrum, who continues to capture and smuggle the eggs (that are worth millions of dollars as race champions) throughout the world. This book was so engrossing that I could not put it down. I had no idea about wildlife crime and how far reaching and devastating these crimes can be. Nor did I know much about the magnificent falcons and their hunting and racing abilities. This is one of the best nonfiction books I have read in quite some time.

-Ann Patterson

AMNESTY

by Aravind Adiga

The author of The White Tiger and Selection Day tells the story of Danny, an undocumented immigrant in Sydney who is denied refugee status after fleeing Sri Lanka. Working as a cleaner and living out of a grocery storeroom he's been trying for three years to create a new identity for himself. When a client is murdered Danny must decide whether to come forward with his knowledge of the murderer and risk being deported. Full of Adiga's signature wit, this book grapples with conscience and whether a person without rights still has responsibilities. Loved it.
-Kathy Petray

THE OTHER MRS.

by Mary Kubika

Sadie and Will Foust have just moved their family to a small island town in Maine when their neighbor, Morgan Baines, is murdered. Shaken by the events, an uneasy Sadie starts to feel that things are amiss in her new town. Who can be trusted? The reader can't help but feel the dread, confusion and anxiety in trying to determine exactly what happened to Morgan Baines, while past mysteries seep into the present. I really enjoyed this suspenseful thriller!

-Morley Vahey

*Join us on Wed, March 5th at 6pm for an in-store author event featuring Mary Kubika, Lori Rader-Day and Samantha Downing. Call to register: 847-234-4420

APEIROGON

by Colum McCann

(Releases February 25, 2020)

Absolutely stunning! Two men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, united in the grief and loss suffered from the deaths of their daughters due to the on-going unrest in their countries move towards peace. Elements of fiction and non-fiction are combined to develop a well rounded scope of the past and present.

-Maxwell Gregory

EVERYWHERE YOU DON'T BELONG

by Gabriel Bump

Debut author Gabriel Bump has given us a glimpse into growing up on the south-side of Chicago. The protagonist, Claude McKay Love, struggles to find his path in life while surrounded by a lot of bad influences. He attempts to leave it all behind and start anew but finds he can never escape everything he's ever known. Funny and heartbreaking, an excellent debut.

-Laura Capstick

*Join us for an author dinner featuring Gabriel Bump on 2/19/2020 at 6pm at Froggys. Call to register! 847-234-4420

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A SAGA OF CHURCHILL, FAMILY, AND DEFIANCE DURING THE BLITZ

by Eric Larson

(Releases February 25, 2020)

For WWII history fans, Eric Larson has written a detailed portrait of Britain's entry into WWII under Winston Churchill's leadership. Through diary entries and war documents, we feel Churchill's impending sense of doom as the German attack nears, yet he's unable to enlist the help of FDR and the United States. Churchill pleads with FDR as he prepares Britain for the inevitable. While the main focus is on the War, Churchill's eccentricities create a colorful backdrop to the seriousness of the time. Clementine and two of his children play a large role, not always positive, but usually entertaining. A fact filled depiction of Churchill and the first year of WWII.

-Beth Mynhier

OONA OUT OF ORDER

by Margarita Montimore

(Releases February 25, 2020)

Oona is 19 at the end of 1982 and at a crossroads in her young, promising life. As midnight approaches on New Year's Eve, she feels more than the champagne bubbles cursing though her, and is transported to 2015 to live out her 51st year! Living her life out of order year by year brings challenges that only her letters to herself and her relationship with her mother and her son can assuage. Reading Oona Out of Order was a fun reminder of real life events through the decades, a manual on how to manage life's interruptions as gracefully as possible, and testament to the powerful love of family.

-Beth Mynhier

MINOR DRAMAS & OTHER CATASTROPHE

by Kathleen West

It is Big Littles Lies meets Where'd You Go Bernadette in West's debut novel where helicopter parenting and privileged high school students navigate social media and school pressure. Julia Abbott is an overbearing stage Mom who pushes the limits and moral code to get her children exactly what SHE thinks they need. Isobel is an English teacher who delivers a more controversial curriculum than her colleagues, gaining student's respect, but also major parent criticism. This is a humorous book with very familiar sounding scenarios to this day and age. A look into how entitlement and competition can lead to interesting choices... Are Julia and Isobel truly so very different?

-Morley Vahey

AGENT RUNNING IN THE FIELD

by John Le Carré

Big fan of John Le Carré and have read virtually all his books! Agent Running in the Field takes me back to his earliest and probably his best known success entitled Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Returning veteran field agent, destined to be pensioned off is given one last in-country post as temporary agent-in-charge/babysitter of a derelict intelligence network of has-been informers and blown operatives. However, all is not as it seems. It seldom is with John Le Carré

-Ninos Joseph

A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA

by Isabel Allende

A sweeping piece of historical fiction from one of our favorite authors. Beginning in 1938 with the Spanish Civil War, Allende takes readers on an odyssey as we follow Victor Dalmau for decades; from the bloody battlefields in Spain, to his exile in Chile, through the military coup and the brutal regime of General Pinochet. Allende brings Chilean history to life with a vivid cast of characters, including Pablo Neruda, whose poetry is used throughout the novel. A poignant examination of refugees, the human spirit and the quest to find home and family. Issues that resonate powerfully today.

-Laura Skinner

THE QUEEN'S FORTUNE: A NOVEL OF DESIREE, NAPOLEON, AND THE DYNASTY THAT OUTLASTED THE EMPIRE

by Allison Pataky

Desiree Cleary is a young, beautiful French aristocrat who catches the eye of an also young, quirky and still unknown Napoleon Bonaparte. The two begin a secret romance that quickly escalates as France is amid Revolution. As fiery passion so often does, their romance turns to heartbreak and Desiree begins another romantic relationship with a handsome friend of Napoleon, while cultivating an unlikely friendship with Josephine Bonaparte. Quickly surrounded by dangerous friendships and alliances, Desiree navigates treacherous waters during a period of rise and fall in French history. I enjoyed reading about the lesser-known Desiree who is eclipsed in the history books by the Bonapartes, yet is an important figure in French history.

-Morley Vahey

THE GREAT BLUE HILLS OF GOD

by Kreis Beall

Kreis Beall has written a beautiful, sad, uplifting memoir detailing her journey through an extraordinary life. Kreiss met her love and business partner Sandy and together they created the award winning, farm-to-table resort in Tennessee called Blackberry Farm. Kreiss spent most of her career entertaining and designing multiple homes. Just as she seemed to have it all, a series of incidents sent her spirling. Kreis eventually moved into an unassuming, 300-square-foot shed with peeling paint on the exterior walls, "where I met myself for the first time." A moving journey you do not want to miss!

-Laura Capstick