Staff Picks Format: Book

The Summer I Met Jack by Michelle Gable [Book]

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Gable (The Book of Summer, 2017) offers an unvarnished fictional view of a maid’s affair with a young Jack Kennedy and its repercussions throughout her life, and possibly for US history. In 1950, Alicia Darr is a Polish displaced person (DP) working at a movie theater in Hyannis when she is taken on as a temporary maid at the crowded and chaotic Kennedy summer house. She’s just 21 years old and has already reinvented herself more than once since living in prewar affluence. Her beauty catches the eye of Jack, then a young congressman, and they are soon involved in a passionate affair. Alicia is an excellent match for Jack intellectually, sexually, and socially, until a secret from her past causes him to call off their engagement. Alicia leaves Hyannis for Hollywood, and begins to make her own way, maintaining intermittent contact with Jack until he becomes president.

Gable brings her flair for multigenerational stories rooted in New England summers to this inspired-by-a-true-story tale that will appeal to Kennedy watchers, seasonal romantics, and fans of old Hollywood.

Wildwood by Elinor Florence [Book]

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Accountant and single mom Molly Bannister is out of money and luck in Phoenix when she unexpectedly inherits her great aunt’s homestead in northern Alberta. The only catch: she must live there for one year to claim the inheritance. Molly promptly packs up her four-year-old daughter Bridget and heads north, expending the last of her meager resources to get there and intending to live off the farm’s rents from month to month until she can sell the farm and return, financially secure. Molly and Bridget gain numerous skills over the course of the year, as well as a puppy, a kitten, and friends including some nearby farmers and Wynona, a girl from the adjacent First Nations reserve. Molly even begins to develop feelings for the idealistic farmer renting her land. They survive run-ins with nature: getting lost in the woods, bumping into a grizzly bear mother and her cub, and being stuck in a surprise blizzard. Molly and Bridget’s story is interspersed with charming entries from the great-aunt’s 1924 diary of her first year in the house, as Molly counts down the days remaining in the required year of residence. A great pick for city slickers dreaming of a simpler life and readers interested in unspoiled natural beauty.

The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos [Book]

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Author of The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary, NoNeiqa Ramos’ second book, The Truth Is, explores LGBTQ+ identities, teenage homelessness, grief and trauma through the eyes of Verdad, a fifteen-year-old Puerto Rican queer kid who is just trying to get by.

After losing her best friend to gun violence, Verdad is not okay. And by the end of the book, she is still not okay. That’s what is so amazing about this novel. There are no easy outs or tidy endings. It demonstrates how messy (and joyful) life can be, especially for those with underrepresented and marginalized identities. Verdad’s friends have diverse races, genders and sexualities, and they are all fully developed characters with charms and flaws just like the next person. Their identities are pieces of who they are, but they aren’t all of who they are. Even as an adult I felt so much joy and recognition in these pages. If you’re looking for a YA book to read this spring, pick this up! You won’t regret it.

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood [Book]

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The Slow Waltz of Turtles by Katherine Pancol [Book]

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An improbably melodramatic follow up to The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles, this French best seller continues the saga of Josephine Cortes and the lives of those around her as she pursues her quest for self-discovery. Josephine has moved into a large Paris apartment with her younger daughter, while her older daughter studies fashion in London. Her mother employs a psychic to curse her stepfather’s new wife. Her intermittent boyfriend grows distant. Her sister Iris leaves the mental health facility she had entered. She thinks she sees her dead husband on the Metro. A neighborhood serial killer fails to kill her in a late night attack. Her flirtation with her brother-in-law deepens. She adopts an apparently stray dog. Her new neighbors are a mix of standoffish and interfering. Familiar characters from the first novel appear in virtual cameos and new ones populate Josephine’s new milieu. Less compulsively readable than the first novel, but enjoyable in itself. For fans of women’s stories, midlife crises, melodrama, and murder.

The Paris Secret by Karen Swan [Book]

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Fine arts agent Flora Sykes is called from London to Paris on an intriguing assignment: evaluate the contents of an apartment untouched for decades and filled with priceless works of art. Apparently shut up during World War II by absentee owners, the apartment was discovered by an intruder who alerted the family’s solicitors. The Vermeil family has the means to maintain an apartment without noticing the expense, and their solicitors concealed the information for over seventy years. Now that the secret is out, Flora is asked to establish provenance and value for each item in the collection. Her research uncovers more than just the chain of ownership, and draws her into Vermeil family drama. Moving in glamorous social circles and high stakes auctions, Flora negotiates the needs of everyone involved, from her flighty boss to their wealthy clients, while coping with her own family crisis.

A former fashion editor, author Karen Swan brings an eye for detail to her descriptive prose. Fans of Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic looking for more sophistication will enjoy this.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey [Book]

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Virtually Perfect by Paige Roberts [Book]

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Following her fifteen minutes of fame as a celebrity chef (complete with TV show, cookbook deal, magazine column, and adoring fans), Lizzie Glass is reduced to working as a food truck shill and still can’t make her rent. She gives up her apartment and moves home to New Jersey where she takes a job as private chef to a wealthy family, literally catering to their comically extreme individual dietary restrictions and those of their frequent guests. Among the guests are the daughter of the house Zoe, who runs a popular website and app dedicated to clean living, and their black sheep son Nate, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C. When Lizzie discovers Zoe has been posting her recipes and photographs of her work without permission, she has to decide between compromising her values and unemployment.

Roberts’ debut is a sound entry in the young-women-finding-themselves genre, and is a good pick for fans of Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella, cooking shows, and reality television.

Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand [Book]

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In this somber coda to the Winter Street trilogy–Winter Street (2014), Winter Stroll (2015), and Winter Storms (2016)–Hilderbrand revisits the lives, loves, and challenges of the Quinn family at the Winter Street Inn. Set during the last three months of the year and peppered with cameo appearances from earlier books in the series, Winter Solstice gives equal weight to threads of hope and despair. Patriarch Kelley is ailing, and his wife Mitzi is trying to keep everything together. Kelley’s grown children Kevin, Patrick, and Ava are living their own lives while maintaining their connection to the Inn, and Kelley and Mitzi’s son, returned prisoner of war Bart, struggles with PTSD. Gathering for a party on Halloween, celebrating the traditional family Thanksgiving, and returning once more on the titular winter solstice, the Quinns come together to support each other in grief and envision a hopeful future.

Fans of Elin Hilderbrand will enjoy the return to Nantucket and Winter Street, newcomers will feel right at home, and readers who appreciate a strong sense of place and interesting characters will be well satisfied.

The Café by the Sea by Jenny Colgan [Book]

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Flora MacKenzie abandoned her father and brothers to the farm where she was raised immediately following her mother’s funeral, escaping to an appealingly anonymous city life where she works, drinks wine, and nurses a crush on her boss. She reluctantly returns to the remote Scottish island when required by a work assignment from her fancy London law firm. Left to her own devices by scheduling delays, she cleans up her childhood home, finds her mother’s handwritten recipe book, and begins to cook meals and treats that bring her mother’s memory back and her family together. She even finds herself attracted to a lovely man from a neighboring island. Without expecting or wanting it, she finds home, love, work, and herself, all while coordinating the successful community integration of a wealthy developer and his hotel project. Multiple fully developed gay characters break up the relentless heteronormativity often found in the genre.

A great pick for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes, and Louise Miller’s The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living.

The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack [Book]

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Sent to Switzerland to catalog a manuscript collection for her auction house employer, Semele Padnow nearly overlooks its greatest treasure, a volume written by Ionna, the daughter of a librarian at the Library of Alexandria. Womack (The Memory Painter) weaves the stories of these two women together as Semele translates the ancient text. Upon her return to Manhattan, Semele’s employer inexplicably removes her from the project, but by then she’s already become attached and continues to work from her unauthorized digital copy. What began as memoir becomes prophecy, and Semele is amazed to realize that Ionna accurately foresaw events occurring generations after her death. When the original client reaches out, Semele begins to piece together the events that connect past to present.

Beginning as a clever mystery based on an ancient manuscript and evolving into a family epic spanning centuries, international thrills, and predestined romance, The Fortune Teller has something for everyone, particularly fans of A.S.Byatt’s Possession and Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series.

Stand up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim [Book]

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Eleven-year-old Yumi Chung has been scribbling in her super-secret comedy notebook, practicing her jokes daily, and studying the best stand-up on YouTube, all in the hopes of one day getting her own Netflix comedy special. Shy and awkward, she’s mostly performed for an audience of one – herself. But then a case of mistaken identity leads to an unexpected opportunity to join a comedy camp taught by her favorite YouTube comedian. Only problem? No one knows who she really is. As she gains confidence in herself, she’ll have to own up to her lies and stand up for her dreams. Amidst all the laugh-out-loud moments, Stand Up, Yumi Chung! is a heartwarming and genuinely charming story about the sacrifices we make for our families, facing the consequences of your mistakes, and becoming enough for yourself.