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What an absolutely beautiful book! I Liked My Life was so well written - I loved the way the characters developed and their alternating perspectives. Plus the book supplied wonderful closure at the end of the story, which is a huge bonus for me. Read more

Every month, staff at our Downtown Library read books in a specific fiction genre or nonfiction subject, to familiarize themselves with titles they might not have discovered otherwise. Recently they read military fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. Here's what staff members read and what they had to say about it. Read more

When Detective Antoinette Conway is called to a murder scene, she assumes it’s an ordinary domestic - a boyfriend and girlfriend have a fight and he gets violent. But things aren’t adding up. The victim’s house has been wiped clean of prints, there are reports of a trespasser lurking around her back yard, and her best friend drops a hint that the victim might have been seeing another man. Conway and her partner start speculating - who is this secret boyfriend whose identity was kept a mystery? A gangster? A dirty cop? Or is something even more complicated going on? Read more

In 1770’s England, young, wealthy and eccentric Thomas Day is looking for a wife. Rejected by three women because of his tendency to lecture and his unkempt appearance, the discouraged Day hatches a plan to raise up the perfect wife based on his very idealistic expectations. How to Create the Perfect Wife is the true story of Day’s project. Read more

Reading Sophie Kinsella’s latest, My Not So Perfect Life, is like meeting with an old friend for decadent coffee drink and delicate pastry. It is something that feels so good, but you might not want to do it every day. Read more

Briddey’s got the perfect relationship - or so everyone says. Trent is rich and handsome, he’s working on a big project at her telecommunications company, and he has just asked her to get an EED - a new technology implanted into the brain to help couples get closer to each other. But Briddey’s got her hands full... Read more

Peter Swanson, author of one of my favorite psychological thrillers, The Kind Worth Killing (reviewed on our blog previously), brings another well-written story of an emotionally frail and anxiety ridden English woman who has had a life-threatening experience. She heads to her cousins’ Boston apartment in hopes of clearing her mind and getting a better outlook on life. Little does she know that she has more fear, anxiety, and horror waiting for her. Read more

It has been noted that many readers attempt to find spy novels that, while fiction, give the reader a realistic view of what happens in the chaotic world of International Relations. So when I came across a novel written by a twenty-five year veteran of the United States Foreign Service - with stints on the National Security Council, fluent in Serbo-Croatian, and an expert on the firebrand history of the Balkans - "The Wolf of Sarajevo" was a sure pick. Read more

Set in Cambridge and centered on DS Manon Bradshaw and her colleagues, Missing, Presumed starts off with a report of a missing Cambridge student, Edith Hind. As Manon and the rest of her team rush to find clues, frustration takes over as they find nothing to really lead them to locating Edith. Read more

John Elder Robison grew up feeling left out. Lacking social skills and alienated from his peers because of his inability to relate to their emotions, he took refuge in his competence with machines, working as a music technician and ultimately building a successful auto repair business. It wasn't until he was in his forties that he was diagnosed with autism - and some years later, he enrolled in a medical study that explored a potential treatment for the condition, especially autism's most socially alienating feature: difficulty recognizing emotions in others. Read more