Bookseller Jo had some time on her hands and recommends these great reads!
TRUE BIZ, Sara Novic, fiction, hardcover, $28.00
The title is an American Sign Language expression meaning “seriously” or “real talk.” Three characters, 1 deaf teenager, 1 deaf teenager with a faulty cochlear implant and one hearing adult child of a deaf parent, intersect at a school for the deaf. Fast paced, vivid characters and situations, interspersed with illustrations of sign language create empathy and awareness. A heartfelt and immersive story.
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES, Shelby Van Pelt, fiction, hardcover, $27.99
A delightful summer read! A lovely and original story about confused humans and a curmudgeonly giant Pacific octopus who lives in captivity at a northwest aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone imagines, but he wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms to help humans until he forms a friendship with Tova, the night time cleaner. The gradually developing bonds between the human characters and the soliloquies by Marcellus intertwine and fascinate.
THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE, Richard Osman, mystery, paperback, $17.00
A thoroughly entertaining followup to the smash hit, “The Thursday Murder Club.” The elderly residents of a posh English retirement village are once again dragged into a caper involving missing diamonds, unsavory neighbors and a ruthless murderer. The septuagenarian sleuths are clever and witty, just like this book.
CITY ON FIRE, Don Winslow, thriller, hardcover, $35.99
Winslow loosely models the narrative structure of this gangland epic on the fall of Troy, with rival gangs on the Rhode Island coast in the late 1980s. The Irish and Italian criminal empires rise and fall after a modern day Helen of Troy causes rifts in their previously peaceful and lucrative coexistence. Hilarious and violent, Winslow’s pitch perfect dialogue zooms the reader along, at an unstoppable pace. This is the first of a planned trilogy, and Winslow’s multitudes of fans will dive in recklessly and happily.