PATRON PICKS -- SOME KIND OF PEACE

Corrie's pick is Some Kind of Peace, by Camilla Grebe & Asa Traff

About the book:
34-year-old psychotherapist Siri Bergman is terrified of the dark.  Living alone in a picturesque, but isolated area east of Stockholm, she has tried hard to convince herself that she has moved on since her husband Stefan, died in a diving accident several years ago.  But when she goes to bed, Siri leaves all the lights on, unable to shake the feeling that someone is watching her at night.

So when one night she wakes up to find that the house is pitch black, and the flashlight she keeps by her bed for back-up is not where she thought she'd left it, it seems that Siri's worst fears have been realized.

And when the lifeless body of Sara Matteus, one of her patients, is found floating in the water near Siri's house, events quickly spiral.  It is clear that Siri is in great danger, and she is thrown headlong into the center of a murder investigation which will put each of her closest friends under the spotlight.  With suspense building toward a dramatic conclusion, Siri is forced to relive her troubled past, and finally achieve some kind of peace.

Corrie says:  Very well-written storyline that I couldn't wait to read every night!

STAFF PICKS -- Ru, by Kim Thuy

Valerie's pick is Ru, by Kim Thuy...

This autobiographical first novel is the story of a young Vietnamese refugee who flees with her family to Canada when she was a child.  Though told only in short vignettes, Thuy conveys a strong sense of time and place, with memorable characters and unsentimental emotional resonance.  Lyrical, mesmerizing, unique.

PATRON PICKS -- SAFE HAVEN

Clare's pick is Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks.

About the book...
When a mysterious young woman, Katie, turns up in Southport, NC, her presence in the small town and determination to keep to herself raises questions.  But when events beyond her control force Katie to open up--and she begins to fall in love--she must come to grips with a dark secret from her past. (Publishers Weekly)

Clare says:  It was such a great book with strong characters and had an interesting, compelling storyline.  It's being made into a movie, but you should read the book first!

***The movie starts on Thursday, February 14th!

STAFF PICKS--VIXEN

Gina's Staff Pick is Vixen (The Flappers #1), by Jillian Larkin.  A Young Adult book.

About the book:
Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they??

Gina says:  Cute fluff that's fun and sexy!

PATRON PICKS: Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (DVD)

Jason's pick is Batman:  The Dark Knight Rises (DVD)

 

Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

 

Check out the movie trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8evyE9TuYk

 

Jason says:  I like it because I think Batman is a cool super hero!  Christian Bale did a good job in the role for Batman.

PATRON PICKS -- A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill's Youngest Child

Mary's pick is A Daughter's Tale:   The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill's Youngest Child, by Mary Soames

About the book:
In this charming and intimate memoir, Winston Churchill's youngest daughter shares stories from her remarkable life--and tells of the unbreakable bond she forged with her father through some of the most tumultuous years in British history. 

Now approaching her ninetieth birthday, Mary Soames is the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. Through a combination of personal reminiscences and never-before-published diary entries, she describes what it was like growing up as the scion of one of the lions of twentieth-century statecraft. Warm memories of a childhood spent roaming the grounds of the family's country estate, tending to a small menagerie of pets, evoke the idyllic mood of England between the wars. As she matures into one of her father's most trusted companions, we are given rare glimpses inside the glittering social milieu through which the Churchills moved--as well as the rough-and-tumble world of British politics...

Mary says:  Excellent story, fast-paced!

PATRON PICKS -- On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

Kassie's pick is On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, by Kaye Gibbons

Synopsis:  In the year 1900--on the afternoon she suspects might be the last of her long, eventful life--Emma Garnet Tate Lowell sets down on paper what came before, determined to make an honest account of it. Born to privilege on a James River plantation, she grew up determined to escape the domination of her bullying, self-made father, Samuel P. Tate, and ultimately seceded from his control to marry Quincy Lowell, a surgeon and member of the distinguished Boston family. But then came the Civil War. Working alongside Quincy, assisting him in the treatment of wounded soldiers, she witnessed scenes that would be engraved forever in her memory. And, before beginning the long journey of her own reconstruction, she must face the shame of her relationship to her "servants" and learn the terrible secret that shaped her father's life.

Kassie says:  Pre-Civil War South, death, slavery, violence, passion--but this book is an elegy for all that.  The beauty of the writing and unexpected forms of love and redemption make it flow to the end.