The River Road by Karen Osborn

The River Road is a story about a tragic love triangle.  Brothers David and Michael have been in love with Kay, the next door neighbor with which they both grew up.  When the three of them get to college, their relationships become much more complex.  The book opens with David’s death, the three of them together for a night on the town.  The author then reconstructs the events leading up to the tragedy.  Was David’s death an accident or murder?  The trial and its aftermath follows, and the tale is told in one of my favorite styles, which is by imparting the action as seen by different characters in the story.  I appreciated the variety of hearing from three points of view: 

        Kay – young woman involved in an obsessive love affair with David

        Michael – David’s brother

        Kevin – David’s father

If you like suspense, murder investigation and courtroom battle in the books you read, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

 

Jennifer L. – York                                    ISBN 0688158994

Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman

Skeleton Creek is the first book in a unique series by Patrick Carman.  This is more than a story; it is an interactive reading adventure, and kids will love it.  I must warn you that this it is not for the faint-hearted.  I will admit to jumping and hiding behind my hands while watching Sarah’s videos.

 

Sarah and Ryan live in a small Oregon town called Skeleton Creek.  When their investigation about the town’s strange name results in Ryan’s accident, Sarah and Ryan are forbidden to see or talk to each other.  However, that does not stop them from investigating the death of Old Joe Bush, The Crossbones, and exactly who The Alchemist is. 

 

While Ryan keeps a written journal about his fears and what all the clues mean; Sarah videotapes her explorations of the abandoned dredge deep in the woods outside of town. She links up to Ryan’s computer, and now the reader becomes a part of the investigation in an interactive experience. By following the links given in Ryan’s journal and entering the passwords, we are introduced to an even more terrifying world seen through Sarah’s video cam.

 

What happens to Sarah and Ryan in the end will leave you shivering with disbelief.

 

Jennifer S. – York              ISBN  9780545075664

 

Maiden Rock by Mary Logue

Sheriff’s deputy Claire Watkins spends a frantic night when her 15 year-old daughter doesn’t come home from a halloween party she attended with her best friend.   Luckily for Claire, Meg is found safe early the next morning but the best friend wasn’t so lucky.   Her body is found at the bottom of Maiden Rock.  Is it a suicide? murder? an accident?  And what about the drugs in Krista’s system?  Where did they come from and how long had she been using?   Claire does what she does best and looks for answers but her daughter Meg feels compelled to look also and comes across some dangerous people she never knew existed in her quiet little town. 

This not a long book, nor a complicated one but Mary Logue is very good at letting you know what her characters are feeling and sweeping you along with her story.

Karen – Fort Mill                                            ISBN 9781932557602

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

When one sees David Sedaris’ title, Me Talk Pretty One Day, one might envision another Jodi Foster movie, complete with a backward, disadvantaged youth awaiting liberation through the likes of Anne Sullivan. 

Pas du tout.

            Instead, the author provides quick chapters, each treating an event, experience, piece of travel or childhood episode with a humorous slant which appeals to everyman/woman, documented by the many translations in which his books have been published.

            Leave your travails at the door and step into Mr. Sedaris’ skewed world where his Greek father’s eccentricities include eating foodstuff not only out of date, but beyond recognition.

            Meet the author in his direst humility as he explains he achieves his self-worth through the ability to complete the Monday NY Times crossword in no more than three days.

Meet a chastened American who can begin to understand why the French would laugh at a culture wherein one must be warned that hot coffee is “hot”.

            Take a tour of New York City through the author, an actual resident, who considers a visitor’s sightseeing needs met by taking her to movies.

            The same goes for Paris, where he now lives. He has yet to visit the Louvre.  Movie theaters in Paris, unlike American ones, offer a darker dark and serious quiet.

            The book is great fun, and pure escape.  It’s great to visit with this guy, who is not afraid to expose his vulnerabilities, making us feel better about our own misgivings.

 

Rita – York                              ISBN 0316777722

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl wih the Dragon Tattoo was a book that I found hard to put down!  This debut thriller is a serious page turner.  It was written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, who died of a massive heart attack immediately after he turned in the manuscripts for this novel and two subsequent novels.  A York patron recommended this book to me and boy, was he on to something!

The book is about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist who recently lost a libel suit and is facing 3 months in jail.  His future appears bleak until an unexpected and somewhat unsettling offer comes to him: an old-school titan of Swedish industry, Henrik Vanger, wants Blomkvist to write a history of the Vanger family.  The catch is that Blomkvist must spend an entire year onthe project while secretley trying to solve the forty year mystery of Henrik’s neice, Hariet Vanger’s, disappearance.  Blomkvist soon enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius with lots of authority issues.  Little is as it seems in this novel and one thing is for sure: you don’t want to mess with the girl with the dragon tattoo!!

The Washington Post says this is “an intelligent, ingeniouly plotted, utterly engrossing thriller that is variously a serial-killer saga, a search for a missing person and an informed glimpse into the worlds of journalism and business…Lisbeth is a punk Watson to Mikael’s dapper Holmes, and she’s the coolest crime-fighting sidekick to come along in many years.”  I am definitely looking forward to reading the next two books by this author!

Mary Beth – York                              ISBN  9780307269751

The Bone House by Betsy Tobin

The Bone House takes place in 17th century rural England and the story centers around the mysterious death of Dora, a Flemish woman from “across the water.”  A large but voluptuous prostitute, Dora was well known and popular in the village as a provider of pleasure and friendship.  The unnamed narrator of this haunting tale is a 19-year-old maid to an elderly mistress in the village.  Other key characters are the maid’s mother, a local midwife, and Dora’s misfit son Long Boy.
    I don’t want to spoil it by giving too much detail in case you read this book, but be prepared for a surprise when a visit is paid to Dora’s grave toward the end of the story.
 The mystery of Dora’s death and why it happened will keep you guessing until the very end.  Betsy Tobin brings alive the difficulties of the Elizabethan era and combines these details with an riveting murder mystery. 

This book was recommended to me by one of our York patrons who is in the midst of her own personal reading project that involves starting with the Z’s in adult fiction.  She’s working her way backward, slowly and methodically, toward the A’s as she enjoys browsings our Fiction shelves for hidden gems.  
 I really appreciate her feedback and recommendations, which have yielded more hours of reading books I enjoy…what a great job I have!

Jennifer L – York                            ISBN  9780743201964