The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell

I was just given this great recommendation from one of our volunteers and wanted to share it with you.  If anyone has read a good book lately, please let me know.  I love to share your favorite reads as much as ours.

~Jan 

Recommendation from Christine:

Swedish author Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series has ended with the final book the Troubled Man.  Detective Wallander is a character who is troubled with self-doubt, worry and bouts of dark moods, but always gets results.  Mankell is an award winning mystery novelist who has been translated into 40 languages.

Request The Troubled Man from the Bangor Public Library 

Still Life by Louise Penny

Recommendation from Valerie Osborne, Consultant
Northeastern Maine Library District:

I  suspect that one of the reasons I have enjoyed the Inspector Gamache mysteries by Louise Penny is because the setting is so close to our own in Maine.  My parents were both Franco-Americans.  I see parts of my own clan in some of the characters.  It is this richness of the character development, the proximity to our own border, and a finely constructed plot that keeps me reading each book in the series.  If you are looking for a fast paced read, you won’t find it here.  If you are looking to immerse yourself in the life of a village, with characters you will either love or hate, this might be just what you are looking for!

Request Still Life from the Bangor Public Library

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Recommendation from a blog follower:

I just read "Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter" by Seth Grahame-Smith.  I got it on a whim because I had seen the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" book that he had written and thought the cover and idea of it was humorous.  I enjoy reading supernatural fiction (which includes vampires among other creatures) and thought I'd give it a whirl.  The first few pages and book jacket seemed intriguing enough.  Well needless to say it was a great read.  The historical fiction basis of it was mixed nicely with actual dates and events from Mr. Lincoln's life.  The aspect of vampires being integrated into the story was done seamlessly as if they really existed in real life.  The story left you wondering "what if it were really true?" at the end because it was done so well.  I enjoyed it's creativity and engaging story and I recommend it.  For those of you who aren't supernatural fans, this book has enough of a historical fiction flair and a journey that will satisfy your needs otherwise.

Request Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter from the Bangor Public Library

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Picard

Recommendation from a library patron:
I truly enjoyed this book.  It is a murder mystery, but the mystery unfolds slowly, and the characters are so well crafted I found myself drawn to their story.  The best story I've read in a while.

Book review:
A decades-old mystery is solved and a woman’s haunting questions put to rest in Pickard’s latest thriller. When she was just three years old, Jody Linder lost both parents in one night, when her father, Hugh Jay—eldest son of the wealthiest rancher in the small town of Rose, Kansas—was killed and her mother, Laurie, vanished. Raised by grandparents, Hugh Senior and Annabelle Linder, and with loving support from three uncles, Jody spends years collecting human detritus around the area’s towering Testament Rocks, where authorities once searched for clues to Laurie’s disappearance. Jody’s world is rocked 23 years later when Billy Crosby, the vicious drunk convicted of her father’s murder on circumstantial evidence, is released for a new trial; his return to town brings events to a head. In her second stand-alone (after The Virgin of Small Plains, 2006), Pickard shows her storytelling skills, weaving elements of deception, revenge, and romance into a novel with full-bodied characters who deal with tragedy as best they can; Annabelle Linder’s encounter with Crosby’s wife is particularly moving. From an award-winning author, this is engrossing fiction with an eminently satisfying denouement.
~Starred Review from Booklist

Request The Scent of Rain and Lightning at the Bangor Public Library

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Patron recommendation:
This book features strong women, each voice is pitch perfect.

Book review:
What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it.
~Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

Note from Jan:
I'm sorry to say that I haven't read this book yet but it's on my list.  This recommendation was given to me by a patron who took the time to write out a note and place it in my box at the library.  For me, that's pretty special, and it tells me that this is a wonderful book.  If you've read it, I would love to hear your comments and reviews, either via email (my email link is in the right column of this blog) or with a comment at the end of this post.

Hope to see you in the library someday soon,
Jan     

Request The Help from the Bangor Public Library

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

A patron recommendation:
This is the first of a series of an unlikely hero with an unlikely life.  The book jacket gives a good intro.

Book description:
“The dead don't talk. I don't know why.”  But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant.  Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.  Maybe he has a gift, maybe it’s a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd’s otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different.

A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd’s deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.

Today is August 14.

In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.

Request Odd Thomas from the Bangor Public Library

A Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield

Suggested by a Not Your Ordinary Book Group member:
"First mystery book in a new award winning series.  Strong female protagonist unlike any other I've seen.  She is endearing but with her own brand of justice.  She goes after male abusers with a vengeance all her own.  Great characters, funny and tough."

Book description: 
Littlefield's amusing, sassy debut introduces Stella Hardesty, a widow and survivor of domestic violence, who owns a sewing shop in a sleepy Missouri town. On the side, Stella solves problems and metes out justice on behalf of battered women, like Chrissy Shaw, whose abusive bully of an ex-husband, Roy Dean Shaw, Stella keeps tabs on. After Roy Dean absconds with Chrissy's baby, Stella learns he's involved with local mobsters in a stolen auto parts ring. Chrissy sheds her victim hood to team up with Stella and do battle. After girding up their weaponry, the unlikely crime-fighting duo trick their way into the home of Roy Dean's mob boss, who they suspect has Chrissy's son. Stella discovers that no amount of preparation and righteous anger can prevail over pure evil, at least not without loads of trouble. Spunky, unapologetic middle-aged and a tad cantankerous, Stella barges bravely and often unwisely into danger.
--Review from Amazon

Request A Bad Day For Sorry from the Bangor Public Library

Body Copy by Michael Craven

A patron recommendation:
"I recently read "Body Copy" by Michael Craven and was very pleased.  It's a nice shorter read but the story is engaging from start to finish.  As a fan of film noir, tortured loner detective novels I instantly could picture the main character as well as bond with him.  The story doesn't really lag at all and there's no overabundance of focus on any one topic.  It moves along nicely but I personally didn't see the ending until I was reading it.  I have a busy schedule and try to fit in reading while I'm at the gym doing cardio and this one fit the bill.  Not to lengthy, very imaginable and enjoyable."

Book description:

Introducing Donald Tremaine, P.I.

Once the world's number one surfer, Donald Tremaine quit at the top of his game, moved into a trailer in Malibu, and became a detective. Beautiful women don't ask for his autograph anymore. Now they ask for his help—like the stunning Nina Aldeen, who wants Tremaine to solve the murder of her uncle, advertising mogul Roger Gale, brutally slayed in his L.A. office a year earlier. The police investigation went nowhere. The suspects are many, and the victim had more secrets than anyone ever knew. But the closer Tremaine gets to the truth, the closer he comes to a killer who just might make his most complicated case his last.
A novel that both honors and invigorates the classic private eye novel, Body Copy loudly heralds the arrival—with a bullet—of a major contender on the noir scene.
~Description from Amazon

Request Body Copy from The Bangor Public Library