June 3, 2022
New Fiction
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner – Bloomsbury Books is a quiet, dusty, tradition-bound London bookstore that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager’s unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, it’s a new world, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans. Evie Stone, Vivien Lowry, and Grace Perkins are determined to build new lives for themselves and for their beloved store, in a world filled with dazzling characters, from Daphne de Maurier to Peggy Guggenheim to Samuel Beckett. The only way forward for the women of Bloomsbury Books is to contend with the domineering male staff, band together, and take over the bookshop.
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian – Tanzania, 1964. When Katie Barstow, A-list actress, and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision giraffes gently eating leaves from the tall acacia trees, great swarms of wildebeest crossing the Mara River, and herds of zebras storming the sandy plains. Their glamorous guests- including Katie’s best friend, Carmen Tedesco, and Terrance Dutton, the celebrated Black actor who stars alongside Katie in the highly controversial film Tender Madness – will spend their days taking photos and their evenings drinking chilled gin and tonics back at camp, as the local Tanzania guides heat water for their baths. The wealthy Americans expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinner of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive. What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding them into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts, and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time.
Summer Love by Nancy Thayer – When four strangers rent bargain-basement rooms in an old Nantucket hotel near the beach, they embark on the summer of their lives. First there’s Ariel Spencer, who has big dreams of becoming a writer and is looking for inspiration in the local high society. Her new friend Sheila Murphy is a good Catholic girl from Ohio whose desire for adventure is often shadowed by her apprehension. Then there’s small-town Missourian Wyatt Smith, who’s immediately taken with Ariel. The last of the four, Nick Volkov, is looking to make a name for himself and have a blast along the way. Despite their differences, the four bond over trips to the beach, Wednesday-night dinners, and everything that Nantucket has to offer. But venturing out on their own for the first time, with all its adventure and risks, could change the course of their lives. Twenty-six years after that amazing summer, Ariel, Sheila, Wyatt, and Nick reunite at the hotel where they first met. Now it’s call The Lighthouse and Nick owns the entire operation with his wife and daughter. Ariel and Wyatt, married for decades, arrive with their son and Sheila’s back too, with her daughter by her side. Life hasn’t exactly worked out the way they all had hoped. Ariel’s dreams have since faded and been pushed aside, but she’s determined to rediscover the passion she once had. Nick has the money and reputation of a successful businessman, but is it everything he had hoped for? And Sheila has never been able to shake the secret she’s kept since that summer. Being back together again will mean confronting the past and finding themselves. Meanwhile, the next generation discovers Nantucket: Their children explore the island together, experiencing love and heartbreak and forging lifelong bonds, just as their parents did all those year ago. It’s sure to be one unforgettable reunion.
New Non-Fiction
Kiss the Red Stairs by Marsha Lederman – Marsha was five when a simple question led to a horrifying answer. Sitting in her kitchen, she asked her mother why she didn’t have any grandparents. Her mother told her the truth: the Holocaust. Decades later, her parents dead and herself now a mother to a young son, Marsha begins to wonder how much intergenerational trauma has shaped her own life. Reeling in the wake of a divorce, she craves her parent’s help. But in their absence, she is gripped by a need to understand what they suffered, and she begins her own journey into the past to tell her family’s stories of loss and miraculous survival.