FDL Reads: By Any Other Name
By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
Reviewed by: Dawn Dickey
Genre: Romance
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the book about?: Editorial assistant Lanie Bloom’s world changes when she is promoted to be the youngest editor ever at Peony Press. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, but the job is hers only “provisionally.” Retaining her new job depends on getting Peony’s megastar romance writer, Noa Callaway, to deliver Noa’s latest manuscript, which is already four months late. And Noa, it seems, has writer’s block. As for her personal life, Lanie is juggling a long-distance relationship with her fiancé, Ryan, an up-and-coming politician who meets every criteria on Lanie’s 99-point list of qualities for the perfect husband.
My Review: I loved this book! It’s sad at times but funny at other times. The characters are relatable: Lanie, for example, struggles to balance her satisfying work life with the demands of her long-distance romance with Ryan. The characters are also people that you would like to have as friends; you understand their faults and but love them despite their failings. The creative plot has some interesting twists and poses questions about well-known authors and privacy. This is a tale that you will want to read all in one weekend! I hope you will check it out soon!
Three Words That Describe This Book: funny, romantic, warm-hearted
Give This a Try if You Like… Feel-good romances like People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry or Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: Mary Jane
Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
Reviewer: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is this book about? The year is 1975 and fourteen year old Mary Jane lives in a conservative home in an exclusive neighborhood of Baltimore. Her mother Betsy is a stereotypical Stepford wife who teaches Mary Jane how to cook and keep house and how to behave like a proper young lady. Gerald, her racist and anti-Semitic father, is a lawyer who believes in hard work, family, and patriotism. When Mrs. Cone, the wife of a local doctor, asks Mary Jane to be a nanny for her five year old daughter, Izzy, her parents agree as they feel it is a respectable summer job for their daughter. Or is it? The Cone’s lifestyle is nothing like Mary Jane’s. Their home is cluttered with books, clothes, and toys that are strewn all over the place. Bonnie Cone does not cook for her family. They mostly eat take out. And she doesn’t wash or dress Izzy or put her to bed. Mary Jane is naturally shocked by the lack of structure so she decides to help the Cone family get organized. She bathes and dresses Izzy, prepares breakfast and supper for the family, and helps straighten up whenever she can. But caring for the Cone family soon becomes even more challenging when a drug addicted rock star named Jimmy and his movie star wife named Sheba move into the house so that Dr. Cone can help Jimmy get sober. Jimmy and Sheba are entertaining and affectionate characters, but they are also dysfunctional. Jimmy is addicted to heroin and Sheba is addicted to fame. Though Mary Jane has never met people like them, she soon becomes attached. They literally introduce her to sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, and by the end of the summer, she questions the sheltered and elitist way in which she is being raised.
My Review: Mary Jane is a fun, coming of age novel that transports the reader back to 1975 when young people lived for sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Even the photographic cover of the novel cleverly depicts the absurdly nostalgic story that waits inside. I think that just about anyone who grew up in the 1970’s would enjoy reading this book as much as I did.
Rating: 5/5
Three Words that Describe this Book: nostalgic, far out, coming of age
Give This A Try If You Like: The Trouble with Lexie by, Jessica Anya Blau, The Wonder Bread Summer by, Jessica Anya Blau, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by, Jessica Anya Blau
FDL Reads: Choose Me
Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver
Reviewed by: Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant
Genre: Mystery; Thriller
What is this book about? Taryn Moore, a young, beautiful and brilliant college student appears to have committed suicide in a plunge from her fifth-floor apartment. Detectives Frankie Loomis and “Mac” MacClellan uncover evidence that may indicate that it was in fact a homicide. As they revisit the circumstances of Taryn’s life and death the details lead to a surprising discovery. Is it the reason for her suicide or a motive for a homicide?
My review: I enjoyed this book very much. Not only are Gerritsen and Braver excellent storytellers, but the use of comparison of Taryn Moore’s life with the subject matter of her literature seminar on star-crossed lovers from Greek mythology (Queen Dido/Aeneas, Heloise/Abelard, Medea/Jason) and Shakespearian literature (Romeo and Juliet) was entertaining and fascinating to me. (Ok, disclaimer, I was an English major myself!) All the evidence seems to point the detectives to a simple conclusion, Taryn committed suicide after a failed romance with a fellow student, but detective Frankie Loomis is certain that the absence of a cell phone in Taryn’s apartment or on her body indicates that there is more involved here. As Frankie and her partner Mac search deeper into her life, Taryn’s personality is revealed to be rather over-reactive and obsessive and her love life a bit more complex. This was definitely not a formula mystery story and the ending was a surprise.
Three words that describe this book: Complex, Fast-Paced, Absorbing
Give this a try if you liked: mysteries by Karin Slaughter, David Baldacci or Lisa Unger
Rating: 5/5
Family Fun for August
With summer winding down and kids gearing up return to school, families might be looking for some quiet fun. What’s better than a night in with board games or card games? Besides being a fun way to bring your family to the table, playing games together helps children develop important skills like problem solving, communication, and socialization. The library has board games for all ages to check out and play at home. You can check out two games per library card, and each game has a loan period of one week. 
FDL has lots of board games for children, including classics like Candyland, Trouble, Checkers, Chutes and Ladders, and Battleship. We also have a variety of family-favorite card games, including Uno, Skip-Bo Junior, Monopoly Deal, Old Maid, and Memory. We have lots of new games, too, with new titles added regularly. Try a few out and let us know which ones are your family favorites!
Some of our most popular games include:
Ticket to Ride: First Journey
Players collect cards of various types of train cars and use them to lay claim to railway routes throughout North America. The first person to claim 6 routes is the winner.
Catan Junior
Thos game takes place on a ring of tropical isles, including the mysterious Spooky Island, home of the Ghost Captain. Each island generates a specific resource: wood, goats, molasses, gold or cutlasses. Players use resources to build and expand their network of pirate lairs. The first player to control seven pirate lairs wins the game.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game!
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game helps preschoolers master matching skills, develop fine motor skills including pre-handwriting skills, social skills like taking turns, and strategic thinking skills.
Munchkin Treasure Hunt
Explore the dungeon! Roll the die, move, fight the monster, get the most gold, and win!
Professor Noggin’s Extraordinary Women Card Game
Professor Noggin’s series of educational games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects. Each of the thirty game cards combines trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions. A special three numbered die is included which creates interaction and promotes communication between players. Easy and hard levels keep kids interested and challenged – while of course having fun!
Monopoly Deal
The purpose is to assemble property sets, charge rent, swap cards, demand birthday money, and debt collection by drawing cards from the deal pile. Action cards are played into the center only on players’ turns; payment demands can be paid from other players’ banks, their properties, or cancelled by a “just say no card.” The first player to collect three complete card sets of different colors wins the game.
Annotations from the FDL Library Catalog
– Kris, Youth Services Specialist
FDL Reads: We
We: A Novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist
Genre: Dystopian Science Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is the book about? Hundreds of years into the future, after war and turmoil, humans live regimented lives “safe” from the outside world surrounded by a green glass wall. People don’t have names, they have numerical designations. D503 is the lead builder of an ambitious project to send a flying craft, the Integral, to other worlds to spread the peace and happiness of this society where individual freedom is quashed and imagination is threat. D503 is writing a log to be included in the items sent on the Integral. Initially, he extols the magnificence of his life, but after an encounter with a mysterious woman, D503 descends into a dizzying world of self-doubt, paranoia, and frenetic rationalizations…all because she awakened his imagination. Is this a turning point for him? Will he find true happiness by rejecting all that he has ever known and embracing individual freedom?
My Review: This book was written in 1920 by a Russian author who didn’t live to see his work published in his native language, which didn’t happen until 1988. I listened to the audiobook of a new translation of this book, with a forward by Margaret Atwood and contributions from George Orwell and Ursula K. Le Guin. I liked the format of a log being written by the main character. It was clear that D503 was coming unhinged after being confronted with ideas that went against how he was taught to think. This is a cautionary tale about the dangers of suppressed individuality and a totalitarian society. It was an intriguing read that deserves a wider audience. George Orwell wrote his well-known dystopian novel 1984 after reading a French translation of We in the 1940s. His review of this book from 1946, included after the story, compares it to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World from 1932.
Three Words That Describe This Book: Provocative, Unsettling, Cautionary
Give This a Try if You Like…1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: Unmasked
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
Reviewed by: Beth Weimer, Communications Specialist
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Suggested Age: Adults
What is the Book About?: Retired criminalist investigator Paul Holes recounts his remarkable career solving cases and catching criminals in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay area in this true crime memoir. Holes started out as a forensic toxicologist and worked his way up through the next 27 years, specializing in cold cases and serial predators. Some of his notable cases include Laci Peterson, Jaycee Dugard, and Philip Joseph Hughes, but he dedicated just as much effort to the unnamed or overlooked victims. Holes is most famous for ingeniously using genetic genealogy to identify Joseph DeAngelo as the brutal Golden State Killer 2018, and this story reveals the science and the obsession behind the relentless pursuit that began when he opened a forgotten East Area Rapist file on his first day as a deputy.
My Review: If you’re interested in true crime, you’re probably aware of Paul Holes because of the GSK case, his podcast, or his investigative shows on Oxygen. Aside from his Contra Costa career and media presence, Holes’ idea to utilize DNA and genealogy technology to solve cold cases has truly revolutionized the investigative field, and will continue to have an evolving impact. As a bit of a fan and someone already familiar with his private, straight-shooting tendencies, I was surprised at how much personal info and case details he includes in the book. I assume everyone who regularly encounters violence through their work takes on trauma, but I was staggered by how just deeply that trauma has impacted him (maybe because he conducts himself so professionally and ethically). He’s especially frank about how his obsessiveness and ability to detach emotionally have ruined his relationships with his family, but those qualities – and his devotion the science and empathetic connection to victims and their families – make him so singularly effective at solving these cold cases. It’s heartbreaking how much he’s sacrificed, and yet he still can’t stop, continuing to work as investigator and consultant to help victim’s families find closure. (I also appreciated the chapter about his relationship with Michelle McNamara, who tragically died before they could catch GSK together.)
Three Words That Describe This Book: Driven, Unflinching, Fascinating
Give This a Try if You Like… I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen, Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Rating: 4/5