July 16, 2021
Library Corner
July 16, 2021
What a Dog Knows by Susan Wilson – Ruby Heartwood has spent her life running away. Away from the orphanage where she was left as a newborn, away from those who exploited her, and away from the man who assaulted her. She ran from child welfare authorities as a runaway and teenage mother. She’s never stayed put. She’s never felt connected. Until now. Ruby is a psychic, a fortune teller. She has spent most of her life working at street fairs, carnivals, and the odd Renaissance Faire. Of late, her abilities to tell a person’s fortune have been declining. One night she pulls off the road during a violent thunderstorm, sheltering in her Volkswagen Westfalia. At the storm’s height, a bold of lightening leaves Ruby shaken – and changed her life. As the storm clears, Ruby finds a visitor sitting outside her van door: a little dog who says, quite distinctly, Let me in. Ruby has woken up able to hear the thoughts of animals, so she adds that to her list of psychic offerings and signs up for the Harmony Farms Farmers’ Market and Makers Faire. As the little Hitchhiker becomes her fast friend and her familiar, Ruby finds herself lingering in harmony Farms. At the same time, she is haunted by dreams that lead her to wonder if she hasn’t been running away all this time, but running toward something – or someone.
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan – When Savannah history professor Everly Winthrop is asked to guest curate a new museum collection focusing on artifacts recovered from the steamship Pulaski, she’s shocked. The ship sank after a boiled explosion in 1838, and the wreckage was just discovered, 180 years later. Everly can’t resist the opportunity to try to solve some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the devastating night of its sinking. Everly’s research leads her to the astounding stories of two women from this family: a known survivor, Augusta Longstreet, and her niece Lilly Forsyth, who, along with her child, was never found. These aristocratic women were part of Savannah’s society, but when the ship exploded, each was faced with difficult and heartbreaking decisions.
Innocence Lost by Sherilyn Decter – Philadelphia, 1924. Maggie Barnes doesn’t have much left. After the death of her husband, she finds herself all alone to care for her young son and look after their rundown house. As if that weren’t bad enough, Prohibition has turned her neighbourhood into a bootlegger’s playground. To keep the shoddy roof over their heads, she has no choice but to take on boarders with questionable ties… When her son’s friend disappears, Maggie suspects the worst. And local politicians and police don’t seem to have any interest in an investigation. With a child’s life on the line, Maggie takes the case and risks angering the enemy living right under her nose… Maggie’s one advantage may be her new found friend: the ghost of a Victorian-era cop. With his help, can she find justice in a lawless city?
Marilla before Anne by Louise Michalos – Marilla Cuthbert was fifty-two years old when the plucky red-headed Anne Shirley came to live with her and her brother, Matthew, at Green Gables farm on Prince Edward Island. A seemingly cold and dour spinster, her heart eventually softens to the loveable orphan girl. But for over a century readers have wondered, who was Marilla before Anne? In Louise Michalos's remarkable debut novel, readers are introduced to a spirited eighteen-year-old Marilla Cuthbert—a girl not unlike Anne herself—who is desperately in love, and whose whole life is spread before her. But when a moment of defiance brings life-changing consequences, a new Marilla begins to take shape, one who would learn to bear tragedy like a birthright, and loss as an inevitability, and who would hold steadfast to the secrets that could shatter the lives of everyone around her.