Linda Frenzel, MSLS

Camden Library Director

Linda's Picks:

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

  Amazon

A forbidden romance, a fractured family, and one woman's journey to piece it all together

Hometown hero Ana Leigh Watkins ventures to Bitter End, Tennessee, to help her great-aunt prepare for retirement. A town called Bitter End seems an ironic place for Ana to refresh her weary spirit, but she's desperate for respite from the attention and unwarranted admiration of her community. While on a hike in Roan Mountain, a ragtag group of amateur bird-watchers takes her under their wing--a little against her will. However, she quickly warms to these genuine souls seeking solace in the great outdoors.

But when Ana's adventures in Bitter End lead her to a severed branch of her family tree--one that involves the forbidden love between a moonshiner's daughter and a preacher's son--what began as a getaway to help her great-aunt becomes a transformative journey that binds together two women who, though they live on the same street, have been estranged for sixty years.

An immersive faith-based novel of finding belonging, reconciliation, and new beginnings for fans of southern fiction. This narrative of friendship and community makes for a perfect book club selection.       Amazon

Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.

Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

©2007 Deanna Raybourn (P)2007 Audible, Inc.

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Amazon

On my way through Riley Sager's books and this was my most recent. While it starts off a bit bland, it quickly picks up pace. A slow burning thriller that gets the adrenaline running just a bit. But overall another great book by this author!

What do roses, vultures and a ghost of a grandmother have in common? A lot more than you would think actually. I just recently discovered this author and this book was great! Some dry and tongue in cheek humor, exquisite detailing and what an ending! 

A Pop star meets a secret identity, and they both meet a yogi with a menacing reason for wanting to befriend the two others. Margot, Anna and Liv live in a well-to-do cul-de-sac, but all isn't perfect behind the curtains.