FDL Reads: The Party Crasher
The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella
Reviewed By: Dawn Dickey, library volunteer
Genre: Romance
Suggested Age: Adult
What Is The Book About?: In the two years since Effie’s parents unexpectedly divorced, Effie’s father has acquired a new girlfriend. To Effie’s horror, Dad and the detested girlfriend Krista now plan to sell Effie’s beloved family home, Greenoaks, before moving overseas to start a new life. Krista plans a lavish party for friends and family to say goodbye to the beloved home – and she doesn’t invite Effie, since she detests Effie as much as Effie dislikes Krista. Despite her siblings’ pleas, Effie pledges she will not just turn up at the party uninvited – she will boycott it. But that changes when Effie realizes that her beloved Russian dolls are still in the house, and she must rescue them before it is too late. She decides that the night of the party is the perfect time to sneak into the house – until ex-boyfriend Joe sees her sneaking about the house, trying to find a way in. Then the fun really begins!
My Review: Written with a sympathetic but comic appreciation for the feelings and madcap antics of her characters, this book is a gleeful and poignant ride through the changes that can happen in a person’s life and coming to terms with those changes. Kinsella deftly draws her characters: stalwart older sister Bean and older brother Gus, ex-boyfriend Joe who ghosted Effie, starry-eyed Dad who has fallen for a younger woman, and outrageous Effie, whose daring knows no bounds. The tale is both touching and laugh-out-loud funny. Give this tale a go – you’ll be glad you did!
Three Words That Describe This Book: zany, moving, charming
Give This a Try if You Like… chick lit
Rating: 5/5
#FDL Romance Reads
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items? Enjoy a drunken night out. Ride a motorcycle. Go camping. Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. And… do something bad. But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
Red, White & Royal Blue By Casey McQuiston
Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy (gag) and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests (double gag). Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.
Olive braces herself to get through 24 hours of wedding hell before she can return to her comfortable, unlucky life. But when the entire wedding party gets food poisoning from eating bad shellfish, the only people who aren’t affected are Olive and Ethan. And now there’s an all-expenses-paid honeymoon in Hawaii up for grabs.
Putting their mutual hatred aside for the sake of a free vacation, Olive and Ethan head for paradise, determined to avoid each other at all costs. But when Olive runs into her future boss, the little white lie she tells him is suddenly at risk to become a whole lot bigger. She and Ethan now have to pretend to be loving newlyweds, and her luck seems worse than ever. But the weird thing is that she doesn’t mind playing pretend. In fact, she feels kind of… lucky.
*Annotations from the publishers
Posted by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
#FDL: Books for Black History Month
Written by Black authors, these classics and newer publications – fiction and nonfiction – shed light onto the African American experience during various times in history. By no means comprehensive, this list is a good start to honoring Black voices during Black History month. Click on one of the links to find a copy in our online catalog and explore more of the great Black authors in our collection.
Another Country by James Baldwin
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America by Ibram X. Kendi
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery by Clint Smith
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
This is My America by Kim Johnson
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northop
Posted by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
Digital Collections at FDL
Have you explored our digital collections lately? Even if you don’t like eBooks, you’re not maxing out your FDL card unless you’re listening to best sellers while you drive, flipping through magazines on your phone, or streaming music, movies, and shows to your TV! There’s something for everyone to enjoy – no matter which format is your favorite – with thousands of titles from 7 collections, and three free apps that make getting your content to your devices easier than ever! Our digital titles are available 24/7 – just use your library card to log in, browse the collections, place holds, and borrow the media you want (or stream instantly) to your phone, tablet, computer, or TV. And if you need help figuring out how to access our amazing eBooks and audiobooks (and more), just watch a video tutorial from Niche Academy or ask a librarian for help any time! We even host Appy Hour at 2 p.m. the last Tuesday of every month so you can stop by for one on one tech assistance with a librarian! Check out our new Digital Collections page and get started today!
International Day of Women & Girls in Science
February 11th is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This day was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, as a way to recognize the accomplishments and achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (or STEM).
Here are some books from our nonfiction collection about some of these amazing women in science or other STEM fields. These books highlight women specifically, but they are great role models for anyone with an interest in science and the world around them!
Picture Book Biographies (PreK-3rd Grade)![](https://fondulaclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/women-science.png)
Dinosaur Lady: The Daring Discoveries of Mary Anning, the First Paleontologist by Linda Skeers (OverDrive)
The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca
Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson
Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: the Woman Who Loved Reptiles by Patricia Valdez
Hidden Figures: the True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly (OverDrive)
Life in the Ocean: the Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle by Claire Nivola
Easy Chapter Biographies (1st-4th Grade)
Virginia Apgar by Sayantani DasGupta (Axis 360)
Sally Ride by Atia Abawi ages (Axis 360)
Jane Goodall by Libby Romero
Secrets of the Sea: The Story of Jeanne Power, Revolutionary Marine Scientist by Evan Griffith
Space Engineer and Scientist: Margaret Hamilton by Domenica Di Piazza
NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson by Heather E. Schwartz
Chapter Book Biographies (5th-8th Grade)
Wonder Women of Science: Twelve Women Who Are Currently Rocking Science, Technology, and the World by Tiera Fletcher (Axis 360)
Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM by Tonya Bolden (OverDrive)
Blast Off into Space like Mae Jemison by Caroline Moss
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science by Joyce Sidman
The Tornado Scientist: Seeing Inside Severe Storms by Mary Kay Carson
Path to the Stars: My Journey From Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist by Sylvia Acevedo
– Alyssa Young, Youth Services Assistant
FDL Reads: Anne of Manhattan
Anne of Manhattan by Brina Statler
Reviewer: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Fan Fiction/Romance
Suggested Age: Adults
What is this book about? Anne of Manhattan by Brina Statler is an adaptation of L. M. Montgomery’s classic children’s novel Anne of Green Gables. If you have read Montgomery’s story, then you will more than likely recognize the characters, and even some of the plot in Statler’s story. Though locations share similar names like Avonlea and Green Gables, Montgomery’s story takes place on Prince Edward Island in Canada and Statler’s story takes place on Long Island, New York. The stories also take place at different times. The original story was set in the late nineteenth century and the adaptation takes place during modern times. Statler opens her novel with excerpts from the main character’s childhood journal. These excerpts lay the foundation for the Anne of Manhattan’s story.
Anne Shirley is a feisty red-headed orphan girl who was adopted by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, a brother and sister who own Green Gables Winery at Avonlea on Long Island, NY. Anne lives with her friends Diana and Phillipa in an apartment in New York City, and she is enrolled at Redmond College where she is studying for her Masters in Education. One night while at a bar she unexpectedly runs into her childhood nemesis, the handsome Gilbert Blythe. Gilbert had been going to school in CA, but his dad became ill with cancer so he came home and transferred to Redmond. To Anne’s frustration, he enrolled in the same Masters Program as her. Just like in Montgomery’s story, Anne and Gil are surly and competitive. But in Statler’s story, Anne and Gil are young adults who eventually discover that despite their contentious past, they are now wildly attracted to each another. Their relationship develops further when their professor asks them to work on their thesis together. By this point, Gil is in love. He can’t resist Anne’s wavy red hair, big grey eyes, and pail soft skin. Anne is falling in love too, but she is a little more hesitant than Gil. She is crushed near the end when she discovers that Gil may have betrayed her. They fight and break up and Anne returns home to Avonlea not knowing the fate of their relationship or the direction of her future.
My Review: I really enjoyed reading Statler’s adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. I imagine that other fans would enjoy it too. Statler’s portrayal of Anne and Gil are right on! However, they are much less innocent and more sexually mature in the adaptation than they are in the original story. Anne of Manhattan is not a book for young readers. Some characters abuse alcohol, there are steamy sex scenes, and the author uses very explicit language. Some readers may be offended by this, but I was not. I was able to overlook the characters’ loss of innocence in order to enjoy a clever, modern day retelling of a classic coming of age story. If you like to listen, Anne of Manhattan is available in audio format.
Rating: 4/5
Words that Describe this Book: Surprising, Romantic, Fun & Explicit
Give this try if you like: The Avonlea Series by L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by Mariah Marsden, Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy, or the Netflix TV show Anne with an E.
About FDL Reads
FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.