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Under Currents by Nora Roberts

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Zane Bigelow grew up in a beautiful, perfectly kept house in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Strangers and even Zane’s own aunt across the lake see his parents as a successful surgeon and his stylish wife, making appearances at their children’s ballet recitals and baseball games. Only Zane and his sister  know the truth, until one brutal night finally reveals cracks in their facade, and Zane escapes for college without a thought of looking back…

Years later, Zane returns to his hometown determined to reconnect with the place and people that mean so much to him, despite the painful memories. As he resumes life in the colorful town, he meets a gifted landscape artist named Darby, who is on the run from ghosts of her own.

Zane and Darby’s relationship becomes more serious, and as they both become more involved in the community.   Threats from the past come back to haunt them and their newfound happiness. Together they will have to teach each other what it means to face the past, and stand up for the ones they love.

This story is full of powerful, magnetic characters who have overcome terrible situations. Suspense and romance are expertly combined in this riveting story, where Roberts obviously blends the past into the present as abuse survivors discover the healing power of love.

Find it in the catalog!

 

The Bitterroots

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The Bitterroots by C.J. Box
Read by Christina Delaine
Published: August 13, 2019
Audiobook
Adult

 

This is the 4th in the “Cassie Dewell” book series by C.J. Box.  The first three “The Highway”, “Badlands” and “Paradise Valley” proved to be exciting and suspenseful reads.

In this new book, expected out on August 13th, we find former sheriff’s investigator Cassie Dewell trying to start over with her own private investigation firm.  Even though she isn’t happy about the idea, she has agreed to help an old friend, who is a defense attorney, and who is calling in a favor.  She wants Cassie to help her exonerate a man from an influential family, who is accused of assaulting his 15 year old niece.  Out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there’s always something more to the story.

Even though it is 4th book in the series, it appears that it is not necessary to have read the previous titles.

I can’t wait to see how C. J. Box spins this one!  Sounds like there will be some suspenseful twists to try and figure out!

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A Way to Garden: a Hands-on Primer for Every Season

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A Way to Garden: a Hands-on Primer for Every Season by Margaret Roach
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Margaret Roach is a well-known and respected expert who has been gardening for decades.  This book is an update of the 1998 edition, and contains excellent instructions for the home gardener, with emphasis on the importance of native plants and the dangers of invasive ones.  Breathtaking photos of her gardens add to the beauty and appeal of this book.

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Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide

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Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz
Format: Book, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted (future architect of Central Park and many other landscapes and parks) set out on a journey through the American South as a correspondent for the New York Times, writing about his travels under the pseudonym “Yeoman.” Olmsted wrote about the people, places, and cultures he encountered, and later turned his dispatches into three books.

Over 150 years later, Tony Horwitz set out on an Amtrak train to follow Olmsted’s path and document what he found. He traveled through western Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, meeting locals at bars and restaurants, convenience stores, and shops. Horowitz (who passed away in May, just after the publication of Spying on the South) was an easy conversationalist who made most people he met feel at ease in speaking openly about their political, social, religious, and economic thoughts and beliefs. He boarded a coal barge and rode down the Ohio River, visited former plantations now housing museums or wedding venues, rode a mule through part of Texas with a guide seemingly immune to Horwitz’s charm, and spent time in a Texas border town. 

Horwitz observed an American South much changed from the one Olmsted saw. Once bustling towns are now characterized by deserted storefronts and an area of Texas once populated with free-thinking, anti-slavery Germans is now home to their more commercially minded descendants, but parallels remain. Throughout his journey, Horwitz encountered divisions similar to those recorded by Olmsted in the antebellum South – “extreme polarization, racial strife, demonizing of the other side, embrace of enflamed opinion over dialogue and debate.” Horwitz didn’t disparage or belittle the people he met on his journey, even if he ultimately disagreed with them. Every interaction was characterized by his desire to understand what’s going on in the hearts and minds of the people of a town or city.

Horwitz ultimately felt optimistic about the future. Spying on the South ends with a discussion of his two days spent wandering Central Park, Olmsted’s first urban landscaped park. Olmsted intended his parks to be gathering places that could overcome the barriers thrown up in society. In the park, Horwitz observed people of all races, languages, and socioeconomic statuses enjoying themselves outside of the hustle of New York City. 

Horwitz’s work in general is recommended for those who enjoy travelogues and history. In addition to Spying on the South, he is the author of Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, A Voyage Long and Strange, and Midnight Rising.

Find Spying on the South in the catalog.

Fighting with My Family

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Fighting with My Family
Format: DVD
Rating: PG-13

If you love to watch WWE, you are going to love this movie! “Fighting with My Family” revolves around Paige growing up in a tight-knit wrestling family. Paige and her brother Zak are given one ultimate shot to try out for WWE. Paige is the only one who earns a spot in the WWE training program. This movie is based on the true story of determination that leads Paige down the path that makes her a star.  This movie also stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and cameos many other WWE stars. You don’t have to be familiar with WWE wrestling to be able to understand this movie. Anyone who has fought hard for something will definitely relate to “Fighting with My Family” .

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Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

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Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Furious Hours is many things: a historical account of the actions of the “voodoo priest” Reverend Willie J. Maxwell of Coosa County, Alabama; a gripping retelling of the trial of Maxwell’s vigilante murderer Robert Burns; an ode to the lawyer that defended them both, Thomas “Big Tom” Radney; and the novel that Harper Lee never finished.

Cep takes readers back to 1970s Alabama to explore a story that made headlines and captivated news audiences across the country. In a span of a few short years, several of Reverend Maxwell’s family members and acquaintances died under suspicious circumstances, and Maxwell was left to collect the life insurance payments. Lacking sufficient evidence to explain the deaths, the town suspected Reverend Maxwell was using voodoo to kill his victims. Fed up with living in fear and frustrated by the inability of law enforcement to stop the carnage, Burns shoots Maxwell at the funeral of one of his victims.

After reading about these peculiar events, Harper Lee traveled back to her home state on a quest to write a best-selling, true-crime novel that was rooted in old-fashioned journalism and that steered clear of the “fact-bending” that was popular in non-fiction at the time. But, this novel never made it to press.

In Furious Hours, Cep pieces together the facts that still remain and offers an inside look at Lee during the years following the success of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Cep’s novel is informative and well-researched, and she gracefully recaptures the drama of the courtroom. Furious Hours is the debut novel of the Maryland native. Find it in the catalog.