Lewis & Clark Library Blog

As the children return to school and Labor Day weekend approaches, a lot of us are asking, "Where did the summer go?!"  Did you find the time to sit outside and turn the sun-drenched pages of a good book? I hope you did!  As for me, I find myself humming the tune "Summer Nights" from the movie Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John--the only difference, I change up the lyrics a bit,

              Summer readin' had me a bla-ast,

                    Summer readin' happened so fa-ast ...

                              Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh!

As we say good-bye to Summer 2023 and get ready for the approaching fall, take a moment to consider the time you spent reading this summer.  What was the best and most memorable book you read? Stop by the Public Service Desk and tell us about it.  Here are some of LCL Staff's favorite reads of the summer:

 

Holly recommends . . .

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

"This is just a beautifully written sweeping saga set in southern India. It reminds me of Love in the Time of Cholera  or One Hundred Years of Solitude." 

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India's Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning--and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl--and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi--will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants. A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the difficulties undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.
Find The Covenant of Water  in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout:
Montana Library2Go/Libby app eBook and audiobook
Read more about the author Here

 

Lisa recommends . . .

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman

"Funny and smart, I ate this book up like it was candy. You can never go wrong with an Elinor Lipman book."

From one of America's most beloved contemporary novelists, a delicious and witty story about love under house arrest. Jane Morgan is a valued member of her law firm--or was, until a prudish neighbor, binoculars poised, observes her having sex on the roof of her NYC apartment building.  Police are summoned, and a punishing judge sentences her to six months of home confinement. With Jane now jobless and rootless, trapped at home, life looks bleak. Yes, her twin sister provides support and advice, but mostly of the unwelcome kind. When a doorman lets slip that Jane isn't the only resident wearing an ankle monitor, she strikes up a friendship with fellow white-collar felon Perry Salisbury. As she tries to adapt to life within her apartment walls, she discovers she hasn't heard the end of that tattletale neighbor--whose past isn't as decorous as her 9-1-1 snitching would suggest. Why are police knocking on Jane's door again? Can her house arrest have a silver lining? Can two wrongs make a right? 
Find Ms. Demeanor in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout: 
Axis 360 eBook
Hoopla eBook and audiobook 
Read more about the author Here

 

 

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

"A bittersweet but ultimately hopeful book about mothers, daughters, love and loss. Serle paints such a beautiful picture of the Amalfi Coast - I was ready to book a ticket!"

 

When Katy's mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn't just Katy's mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy's father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother's spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life. And then Carol appears--in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn't understand what is happening, or how--all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
Find One Italian Summer in the library catalog Here 
Also available for digital checkout:
Montana Library2Go/Libby app eBook and audiobook
Read more about the author Here

 

Eric recommends . . .

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

"My favorite read of the year."

Violet Sorrengail spent her entire life preparing to live the quiet life of a scribe at Basgiath, but when her mother, who just so happens to be the commanding general, demands she enter the war college and become a rider, or die trying. Violet is beset by challenges from all sides, with her failing body and murderous classmates battling to prove themselves worthy of becoming elite Navarre: dragon riders. Element of high fantasy, action, romance abound in the excellent title. 

Find Fourth Wing in the library catalog Here 
Also available for digital checkout:
Montana Library2Go/Libby app eBook and audiobook 
Read more about the author Here
If you enjoy this title, its sequel Iron Flame (The Empyrean, Book Two) comes out November 7th!

 

 

 

McKinzie recommends . . .

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy)

"It is a tale of the division between financial classes, and how the challenge of good vs evil isn't always as simple as it looks. In my opinion it is better than the original trilogy."

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price. It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
Find The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout:
Montana Library2Go/Libby app eBook and audiobook
Axis 360 audiobook
Hoopla eBook and audiobook
Read more about the author Here
Bonus Info! Read the book prior to the movie release date November 17, 2023!

 

 Kadie recommends . . .

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

"Read the book many are calling their favorite fiction title of the summer."

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with--of all things--her mind. True chemistry results.  But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show "Supper at Six." Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ("combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride") proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.   Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.
Find Lessons in Chemistry in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout:
Montana Library2Go/Libby app eBook and audiobook
Axis 360 audiobook
Read more about the author Here
 

 

Larissa recommends . . .

Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch

"An enjoyable book from beginning to end."

As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing her with the salacious details of every party and premiere. When an up-and-coming starlet hands her a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party with Edie and the rest of the industry's biggest names in attendance, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved.  Now on a new side of the entertainment business, Edie's second act career grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But Edie quickly learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice with the potential to ruin more than one life. Full of sharp observation and crackling wit, debut novelist Lindsay Lynch maps the intricate networks of power that manufacture the magic of the movies and interrogates who actually gets to tell women's stories. 
Find Do Tell in the library catalog Here
Read more about the author Here

Rachel recommends . . .

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

 

"A fast paced WWII story of two British intelligence agents whose lives are forever altered by the presence of a double agent in their midst.  Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn or Pam Jenoff."

 

Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory--in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war. Moved by her father's frustration, Noah's daughter Charlotte begins a search for answers that resurrects the stories of Chloe and Fleur, the code names for two otherwise ordinary women whose lives intersect in 1943 when they're called up by the SOE for deployment in France. Taking enormous risks to support the allied troops with very little information or resources, the women have no idea they're at the mercy of a double agent among them who's causing chaos within the French circuits, whose efforts will affect the outcome of their lives...and the war. But as Charlotte's search for answers bears fruit, overlooked clues come to light about the identity of the double agent--with unsettling hints pointing close to home--and more shocking events are unearthed from the dangerous, dramatic last days of the war that lead to Chloe and Fleur's eventual fates. 
Find The Paris Agent in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout:
Hoopla audiobook
Read more about the author Here

Kristy recommends . . .

Have you used your digital Hoopla account this month? As you probably already know, you are allotted five checkouts per month using Hoopla. If you still have borrows left on your account for August--good on you! However, if you've used up your month's total borrowing allotment, there are over 100 Bonus Borrows available to you through the end of this month. Bonus Borrows do not count toward your monthly Hoopla Instant Borrows, so go ahead and check the links below for bonus audiobooks, videos, comics, and more. Read on for two suggested documentaries which are part of the Bonus Borrows collection for August.

Bonus Borrows - August 2023 - All titles
Bonus Borrows - August 2023 - audiobooks
Bonus Borrows - August 2023 - videos
Bonus Borrows - August 2023 - comics

Beth suggests . . .

 A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power

"I enjoyed the personal glimpses into Margaret Atwood's life as a writer."

Starring Margret Atwood herself and directed by Peter Raymont and Nancy Lang, this film explores Atwood's "backstory," her early days in the Canadian wilderness, and as a poet. Atwood's novels are explored, including her latest, The Testaments, the highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. Personal stories are shared by friends, family and, of course, directly by Atwood herself.
Find A Word After a Word After a Word Is Power Here

The Accountant of Auschwitz

"This documentary explores the limits of culpability decades after crimes have gone unpunished."

In 2015, 94-year-old former German SS officer Oskar Gröning, nicknamed "The Accountant of Auschwitz", went on trial in his home country, charged with complicity in the murder of 300,000 Jews at Auschwitz in 1944. Gröning's trial made headlines around the world as a frail old man took the stand to face his former victims.

Find The Accountant of Auschwitz Here

Are you enjoying borrowing from Hoopla? Tell us about your favorite Hoopla finds.

Recently an exuberant and satisfied library patron came up to the front desk and declared, "I found my new favorite book!" She checked it out on a Sunday and was back  to the library on Monday morning having devoured the book the previous evening. (see below for the book) It's so satisfying as a library employee to hear stories like this. Finding the right book at the right time is serendipity at its best. 

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center
Helen Carpenter can't quite seem to bounce back. Newly divorced at thirty-two, her life has fallen apart beyond her ability to put it together again. So when her annoying younger brother, Duncan, convinces her to sign up for a hardcore wilderness survival course in the backwoods of Wyoming--she hopes it'll be exactly what she needs. Instead, it's a disaster. It's nothing like she wants, or expects, or anticipates. She doesn't anticipate the surprise summer blizzard, for example--or the blisters, or the rutting elk, or the mean pack of sorority girls. And she especially doesn't anticipate that her annoying brother's even-more-annoying best friend, Jake, will show up for the exact same course--and distract her, derail her, and . . . kiss her. But it turns out sometimes disaster can teach you exactly the things you need to learn. Like how to keep going, even when you think you can't. How being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes getting really, really lost is your only hope of getting found. Happiness for Beginners is Katherine Center at her most heart-warming, captivating best--a nourishing, page-turning, up-all-night read about how to get back up. It's a story that looks at how our struggles lead us to our strengths. How love is always worth it. And how the more good things we look for, the more we find.

Find Happiness for Beginners in the library catalog Here
Also available for digital checkout: 
Montana Library2Go /Libby app audiobook
More Katherine Center books are available on Hoopla audiobooks
Read more about the author Here

 

And speaking of Happiness for Beginners, if you're a Netflix subscriber, the title may sound familiar.  Just last month Netflix released a movie adaptation based on the book. Starring Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes, it's described as "charming, heartfelt and feel-good," but read the book first!

 

If you're already a fan of Katherine Center's books and are looking for similar authors, check out the literature map below.  The closer two writers' names are, the more likely someone will like both of them. So if you are a fan of Katherine Center, you might do well to try books by Sally Hepworth, Elin Hilderbrand, and Laura Dave.

 

Hope to see you soon at the library! Don't hesitate to stop by the front desk and tell us about your favorite new book!