September 24, 2021
New Fiction
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce – Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty are doing their bit for the war effort and trying to stay cheerful despite the German planes making their nightly raids. Emmy dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent and when she spots a job advertisement she seizes her chance, but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding she finds herself typing letters for the formidable advice columnist Henrietta Bird. Mrs. Bird is very clear: letters containing any Unpleasantness must go straight to the bin. But as Emmy reads the desperate pleas, she begins to write back to the women who have poured out their troubles.
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P Manansala – When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case. With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted dachshund, Longgansia, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block.
The Moonlight School by Suzanne Woods Fisher - Haunted by personal tragedy, Lucy Wilson arrives in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1911 to assist her cousin, Cora Wilson Stewart, superintendent of schools. A fish out of water, Lucy is appalled by the primitive conditions and intellectual poverty she encounters. Born in those very hills, Cora knows the twin plagues of illiteracy and poverty. So does Brother Wyatt, a singing school master who travels through the hills. Involving Lucy and Wyatt, Cora hatches a plan to open the schoolhouses to adults on moonlit nights. The best way to combat poverty, she believes, is to eliminate illiteracy. But will the people come? As Lucy emerges from a life in the shadows, she finds purpose, along with something else she hadn’t expected: love.
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney – Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family or even his own wife. And Amelia is sick of feeling unseen. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.