Here are this month’s great recommendations from staff member Christopher Jennings Penders! Click on a title to place a hold. To find previous Chris Picks, click on the “What to read” link at the bottom of this page or type “Chris Picks” into the search bar on our homepage.
August will feature local and SOME independent authors:
Dana Buckmir
I discovered Dana two months ago when someone mentioned that Dana had been writing for some time. Her book Everything Will Be Okay is a tough book to read, but only because of the subject. Dana is a deft storyteller, and that shines through in her writing. Despite the topic of domestic abuse, I still found myself turning the pages, wanting to discover the outcome.
Christine Falcone
I’ve known Christine Falcone since September 1990 when we both started out in the same writing class in Madison. Ex’d Out is her first novel, and it looks to be a series with the same character, Melanie Bass, a visiting nurse who in this first book helps solve a murder.
Jason Marchi
Jason Marchi is a writer of many genres. His two books that are available are both children’s picture books. The legend of Hobbomock, the Sleeping Giant tells the story through a young Native American boy of how the Sleeping Giant in Hamden, Connecticut came to be.
The Growing Sweater is a humorous look at a sweater that grows with each cycle through the wash. For those of us who grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there is an ode to a beloved television series.
Juliana Gribbins
Juliana Gribbins is a columnist for Shore Publishing; a news company producing several newspapers throughout Connecticut. Date Expectations is a collection of sixty essays Ms. Gribbins wrote detailing her return to the dating scene after her divorce. As you may be able to tell from the title of the book, all the essays in the collection of wildly hilarious.
Lynn Sheft
The Deadly Game may be a case of mistaken identity. While Lauren and Michael Casey bike through Miami’s Coconut Grove, Michael races ahead with his wife preoccupied with changing gears. When she gets up to speed, Michael is out of sight. She anticipates he will surprise her by coming up from behind and tapping her on the shoulder. It doesn’t happen. After a fruitless search, she reports him missing. Later that evening, she is shocked to learn he was murdered.
Paige Classey
Everything You Left Me is a young adult book written in verse. Marybeth is alarmed when police knock at her door, wondering what they are there to inquire about. Told in poems, the story becomes clear that the police are not there to arrest anyone, but simply to ask about Marybeth’s father. This was compelling as a story in verse.