A Few of Our Favorite Things 2015

2015 A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS reading

wake county public libraries www.wakegov.com/libraries

INTRODUCTION Wake County Public Libraries wishes you a joyous holiday season. Adult Services Librarians have created our annual gift for you, a booklet featuring our favorite books. From novels to nonfiction you are sure to find books you will love among these librarian favorites!

READING TOOLS, SERVICES, & PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS! Please take a look at WCPL’s great tools for finding books on our Reading page: www.wakegov.com/libraries/reading Also, follow us on twitter (@wcplonline #wcplreads) for staff reading suggestions.

Our librarians now offer individualized professional services such as, starting a book club, accessing the Book Club Kit collection, downloading eBooks/ eAudio books, and creating custom book lists.

For information and registration see www.wakegov.com/libraries/services/adults WCPL offers a variety of adult programs and book discussions at the regional libraries. From live music to monthly crafts, from small business expertise to author visits – we have programs to suit your interests! For information and registration see www.wakegov.com/libraries/events

HAPPY HOLIDAYS & HAPPY READING!

1

Fall With Me

by Jennifer Armentrout

Romance ARMENTRO

Jennifer Armentrout creates a perfect combination of emotion, suspense, romance and friendship. Roxy has sworn off Officer Reece Anders after he broke her heart but when the past comes back to haunt her, escalating threats require Reece’s protection. As the threats grow more violent and closer to home, Roxy and Reece must find the person responsible before it is too late. Fall With Me will leaves readers guessing until the very last page.

~ Jen B. Crooked Heart

by Lissa Evans

Fiction EVANS

Once the Germans began bombing in WWII London, all children were evacuated including incredibly bright 10-year-old orphan Noel. Noel ends up living with Mrs Vera Sedge (Vee), a scam artist who initially took on a young evacuee as a possible ploy to gain money. Throughout the ups and downs, the bond between Vee and Noel grows, and even though their life together is one of crooked earnings, they – and we – question what is morally right.

~ Joy J. A Murder of Magpies

by Judith Flanders

Mystery FLANDERS

London gossip writer Kit’s anticipated new book will scandalize the fashion industry. Then he vanishes.

When handsome Inspector Field shows up and starts asking questions, book editor Samantha Harris is drawn into the investigation. It seems that many people want Kit, and especially his manuscript, to disappear. Witty, wicked, and delightfully snarky, this entertaining mystery is the first in a new series.

~ Cat hy P.

2

The Peripheral

by William Gibson

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror GIBSON

Somewhere in time, Flynne Fisher is an accomplished, semi-professional gamer in a poor, rural county where jobs outside the illegal drug business are few. Her brother Burton has his veteran’s benefits and he also makes some money betatesting games. One night, when Burton has other matters to attend, he asks his sister to take on his task. She does so. Only, it isn’t a game – Flynne is being quantum tunneled 70 years into a future. But not Flynne’s future.

~ Emil S. The Signature of All Things

by Elizabeth Gilbert

Fiction GILBERT

In a well-researched fictional book, the author posits that Darwin is not the first person to study natural selection - Alma Whittaker is. A plain and private girl, Alma studies Latin, Greek, and the natural world.

She inherits her father’s talent in botany and his global pharmaceutical empire. Later in life, Anna becomes a moss expert, while at the same time, she learns the true nature of the people she loves. These events lead her to the concept of natural selection.

~ Celia G. Crooked

by Austin Grossman

Fiction GROSSMAN

How do you explain the rise and fall of Richard Milhous Nixon, who could have been one of the greatest presidents ever if he hadn’t been such a disgrace? Austin Grossman’s fun, frightening and surpisingly thoughtful alternate history imagines an explanation- what if Nixon’s entire career was defined by a secret cold war, with Nixon standing between the living and an endless array of nightmarish Lovecraftian horrors unknown to the rest of the world?

~ Rob C.

3

The Book of Unknown Americans

by Christina Henríquez

Fiction HENRIQUE

Immigration and becoming “American” is the focus of this powerful novel told in alternate chapters by multiple narrators, all of whom are recent immigrants from Latin America living in a Delaware apartment building. The main story is that of Maribel and Mayor, two teens whose forbidden love has intense consequences for all involved. BookPage’s “Best Book of the Year” is only one of many awards garnered by this masterful novel.

~ Heidi R. Natchez Burning

by Greg Iles

Fiction ILES

Natchez Mayor Penn Cage must find out the real killer of his father’s former nurse. His father, a wellliked doctor in the community for generations, is accused of her murder. As Cage works with a local reporter to exonerate his father, he uncovers shocking secrets and exposes those responsible for unsolved crimes from the tumultuous civil rights era.

This suspenseful fourth book in the Penn Cage series is full of plot twists, tension and conspiracy theories.

~ Lisa L. Descent

by Tim Johnston

Fiction JOHNSTON

During the summer before Caitlin will head off to college, she and her brother Sean go for a morning run/bike ride while vacationing in the Rockies with their parents. At the top of the mountain, a horrendous accident leaves Sean severely injured and Caitlin missing. With Sean having almost no memory of what happened, he and his parents search for Caitlin while trying to piece together their broken family.

~ Ashlyn B.

4

The Festival of Insignificance

by Milan Kundera

Fiction KUNDERA

Four friends in Paris attend parties, drink wine, and meet each other in parks, all the while engaging in unbearably light and digressive intellectual banter about humanity and history and the meaning of it all. They make up fake languages, they commune with spirits, a man pretends to be terminally ill for no good reason, a little feather floats beneath the ceiling, Stalin makes a cameo appearance, and it may all just be an imaginary marionette show.

~ Gordon J. Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

by Robert Kurson Nonfiction 910.916 KURSO The hunt for the lost pirate ship, The Golden Fleece, takes you to the Dominican Republic with expert wreck divers John Chatterton (of the History Channel’s Deep Sea Detectives) and John Mattera.

To advance the search, they must get into the mind of Joseph Bannister, the well-respected merchant captain who abruptly turned pirate. With many near hits and glitches along the way, I found myself racing to the end of the book to find out if the ship would be discovered.

~ P.J. G. The Wedding Bees

by Sarah-Kate Lynch

Fiction LYNCH

When quirky southern girl Sugar Wallace arrives in NYC, something magical begins to happen. The misfits of her apartment building all begin to feel happy and neighborly, and most importantly Sugar’s honey bees, carried across the country, begin to buzz with anticipation. Is this finally the place where independent Sugar will meet her forever love and settle down?

~ Sandy A.

5

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror MANDEL

The world collapses slowly in this captivating story, beginning when a famous actor dies unexpectedly of a heart attack in the middle of King Lear. The reader wonders if he got lucky, dying before civilization was forced to redefine itself without ready food, electricity, communication and comfort. Turns out, losing everything familiar is not the end, but the beginning. This post-apocalyptic story highlights the connections between people and the strength of the spirit, exploring what it means to be human.

~ Amy F. Hot Lead, Cold Iron

by Ari Marmell

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror MARMELL

Ari Marmell’s first novel in the Mick Oberon fantasy/ detective series is about a P.I. who is also Fae. He uses a magic wand as much as he does a gun. In 1932 Chicago, Oberon is hired to find the daughter of a mobster who was switched with a changling at birth. He has to slip into Chicago’s dangerous “Otherworld.” Similar to Harry Dresden, Oberon is more hard-bitten and sarcastic. This book is pure detective noir with a twist.

~ Edward W. Primates of Park Avenue

by Wednesday Martin

Biography MARTIN

When Wednesday Martin and her husband decided to move from downtown NYC to the Upper East Side, Wednesday thought it would be a piece of cake.

I mean, how different can a new neighborhood be? However, after a series of rude awakenings, Wednesday decided the best way to fit in was to study her new neighbors using her background in anthropology. Over time, Wednesday begins to understand the rituals of her new tribe and finds bonds where she least expects.

~ Rita B.

6

The Winter People

by Jennifer McMahon

Fiction MCMAHON

The bond between mother and daughter is sometimes unbreakable, even through death. In West Hall, Vermont there are old secrets that haunt the town and an old farmhouse that tests the limits of a love a mother has for her daughter. From the past to the present, the story of two mother daughter relationships are told. They must each ask themselves, what woud you do for one more day?

~ Marsha B. Who Asked You?

by Terry McMillan

Fiction MCMILLAN

This colorful tale is centered on Betty Jean’s (BJ) family. BJ works full time and is caring for her ailing husband and young grandsons. BJ has a full plate but can’t depend on her children or siblings for help. BJ’s saving grace is her friend, Tammy, who’s dealing with her own family issues. Terry McMillan easily draws you into BJ’s world;you will laugh, cry and rejoice as she conquers her trials.

~ Carla P. Bull Mountain

by Brian Panowich

Mystery PANOWICH

This debut novel is packed with family secrets, moonshine, drugs, guns, double crosses and buckets of blood. Added in are whipcrack dialogue and a brooding sense of place. This is perfect for fans of Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Breaking Bad and Quentin Tarantino.

~ Janet L.

7

Yes Please

by Amy Poehler

Nonfiction 792.702 POEHL

Funny and more honest than most, this is better than your average celebrity memoir. You may know Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live or from her sitcom, Parks and Recreation. Her book is a compilation of stories from her life, down to earth advice and clever musings on a variety of topics. The writing is entertaining and full of heart and is sure to be a hit with readers.

Festive in Death

by J. D. Robb

~ Emma M. Mystery ROBB

Personal trainer Trey Ziegler was in peak physical condition, except for the the knife in his chest.

Lieutenant Dallas soon discovers a lineup of women who’d been loved and left by the narcissistic gym rat. While Dallas sorts through the list of Ziegler’s enemies, she’s also dealing with her Christmas shopping list and the upcoming holiday bash.

Feeling less than festive, Dallas tries to put aside her distaste for the victim and solve the mystery of his death.

~ Tess A. The Liar

by Nora Roberts

Fiction ROBERTS

Shelby marries her dream husband and settles to a blissful married life. Her world crumbled when her husband, Richard, disappeared and is presumed dead in a boating accident. She is left to take care of their mansion, his mountain of credit card debts and their daughter. Shelby returns with her daughter, Callie, to her roots to start a new life.

She is devastated to learn her once blissful marriage is fake and Richard’s secret life is now coming out to haunt her.

~ Mary A.

8

The Miracle Girl

by Andrew Roe

Fiction ROE

Edgy, uplifting, secular. That’s what is unusual and refreshing about Roe’s, The Miracle Girl. People who visit eight year old Anabelle on her sick bed seem to have miracles happen in their lives. Is it grace from a Higher Power, coincidence, wishful thinking?

Roe leaves room for many interpretations of the miracles, like one visitor’s remission of a rare blood disease, “an aberration that defies medical explanation” which draw hundreds of people to visit Anabelle. Think Nicholas Sparks crossed with Anne Rice.

~ Melissa K. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

by Jon Ronson

Nonfiction 152.44 RONSO

This thought-provoking book examines the relatively new phenomenon of Internet public shaming, which is often enabled by social media and the sense of anonymity afforded to its users. Ronson manages to inject bits of humor, though his topic is largely unfunny. Ronson tells the stories of people whose lives have been nearly destroyed by public shaming, while questioning whether their punishment fit their crimes, and asking the reader to reflect on what our propensity to shame others says about us.

~ Carrie L. Lock In

by John Scalzi

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror SCALZI

In the near future, humanity undergoes a flu pandemic called Haden’s Syndrome. While many just result in flu like symptoms, nearly one percent are “locked in” their bodies meaning they cannot move but still maintain their consciousness. One such person, known as a Haden, is rookie FBI agent Chris Shane, who occupies a robotic body and maintains his human mind. Shane and another agent, Leslie Vann, investigate a Haden related murder which leads beyond anything they imagined.

~ Thad M.

9

Dear Committee Members

by Julie Schumacher

Fiction SCHUMACH

Jay Fitger is an English professor at the aptly named Payne University. Jay is 55 years old, divorced twice, the kind of guy who is just too honest and too smart for his own good. The book is composed of funny, angry letters written by a man who has been around too long and seen too much, but who can’t stop caring about his job and the people it touches. ~ Sue S.

A Darker Shade of Magic

by V.E. Schwab Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror SCHWAB Opening lines of books can often pull readers right into the story: “Kell wore a very peculiar coat. It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.” Magic and intrigue combine as Kell travels between worlds as ambassador carrying messages among the royal families of the different Londons. Soon after he meets Delilah the cutpurse, the two are on the run trying to save all the worlds.

~ Dan B. God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine

by Victoria Sweet

Nonfiction 610.92 SWEET

Dr. Victoria Sweet chose to work in a hospital of last resort, a “God’s Hotel,” San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital. She discovers a different way to provide humane care for her patients. She tells the patients’ stories, as well as her own, and while doing historical research Dr. Sweet discovers that using medieval care might heal or at least help her patients. Her philosophy is to look at a patient as “a garden to be tended, not just to be fixed.”

~ Susan N.

10

The Book of Speculation

by Erika Swyler

Fiction SWYLER

Simon Watson is living in the crumbling old house where he was raised on the Long Island Sound, and working at the local library, when he receives a rare book from a collector he has never met. The book is water damaged and fragile, but includes a puzzling reference to his grandmother. Simon begins to research the book and his family, and what he learns might help to explain his mother’s untimely death by drowning… and possibly prevent another.

~ Lisa W. It Ain’t Over... Till It’s Over: Reinventing Your Life and Realizing Your Dreams - Anytime and at Any Age

by Marlo Thomas Nonfiction 650.1 THOMA It’s never too late! Proof: these 60 women who made unexpectedly big changes, when it was “too late” to carve out a new life. The brief descriptions are genuinely inspirational. One suburban housewife became a stand-up comedian in New York. A North Carolina sailor now manufactures premium sailing bags. Another woman started a distillery in Asheville.

Dream again – and go for it!

~ Kat he R. The Ice Twins

by S.K. Tremayne

Fiction TREMAYNE

A family struggles to recover from the accidental death of a daughter, Lydia, a twin. Attempting to deal with their grief, they move to a remote Scottish island where Kirstie, the surviving twin, insists that there has been a mistake: she is actually Lydia.

Ghostly overtones, family secrets, and unreliable characters in an isolated, dangerous setting all combine to make this one of my favorite psychological thrillers of this year!

~ Janet M.

11

Dietland

by Sarai Walker

Fiction WALKER

Plum Kettle is fat. Weight reduction surgery is scheduled, thin clothes purchased and she is ready to make a change in her life! Until she notices she is being followed and as a result discovers Calliope House, a collective of women who are fed up with the status quo and want to shake up the world while living life on their own terms. They do need Plum, but first Plum needs to find out who she wants to be: thin Plum, fat Plum or just Plum. This book was darkly funny and gutwrenching and heartbreaking, proving the only way to live is large.

~Amy W. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

by Lawrence Wright Nonfiction 299.936 WRIGH A compulsively readable book that adds criminal subterfuge and shocking abuses of power to the sci-fi improbability and Hollywood glamour of Scientology. Going Clear uncovers a dark side to Scientology that goes far beyond Tom Cruise’s love life, while remaining profoundly sympathetic to the thousands who have sought solace in L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings. Recently made into an acclaimed HBO documentary.

~ Daniel S.

12

REGIONAL LIBR ARY LOCATIONS AND OPER ATING HOURS

Monday – Thursday Friday – Saturday Sunday

9 a.m. – 9 p.m.

10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Cameron Village Regional Library 919-856-6710 1930 Clark Ave., Raleigh, NC 27605 East Regional Library 946 Steeple Square Ct., Knightdale, NC 27545

919-217-5300

Eva Perry Regional Library 2100 Shepherd’s Vineyard Dr., Apex, NC 27502

919-387-2100

North Regional Library 7009 Harps Mill Rd., Raleigh, NC 27615

919-870-4000

Southeast Regional Library 919-662-2250 908 7th Ave., Garner, NC 27529 West Regional Library 4000 Louis Stephens Dr., Cary, NC 27519

919-463-8500

CUSTOM LOOKING FOR MORE GOOD BOOKS? We can suggest some for you!

Fill out our short form online and our librarians will create a customized book list of eight to ten titles for you to try. www.wakegov.com/libraries/services/adults