The View From Circulation - What's Trending, Unique, & Informational

Most of the Historical Fiction books we have seen repeatedly checked out in circulation are authors that have previously published favorites.  Kate Quinn , Pam Jenoff , Kristin Harmel , Marie Benedict , Kristin Hannah , Amor Towles , and Patti Callahan . If you are looking for a variety of Historical Fiction consistently good reads check out the backlist of these authors if their current release isn't available. Here are their newest releases that have been proven "winners".  The Rose Code by Kate Quinn  begins in 1940 but carrying on in post-war Britain and centers on three women cryptanalysts. The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff is set in Poland during in WWII and inspired by a true story.  The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi is  set in India in the 1960s this story continues from the very popular book : The Henna Artist    The Forest of the Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel is set in WWII a young woman uses her knowledge o...

Tis the season for many of us to enjoy comfort holiday season reads and movies.   Duxbury Free Library pulls out many of the holiday books, movies, and music  in a display for easy browsing and selection. Some of these just take place during the holidays and some are filled with Christmas spirit. You will find many fiction favorites to enjoy, such as, S kipping Christmas by John Grisham,  classics by Richard Paul Evans and Charles Dickens, and romantic favorites by authors Jenny Colgan , Debbie MacComber and  Elin Hildebrand . You'll also find a wide variety of cozy mysteries with holiday themes. Authors Anne Perry , Joanne Fluke, and Donna Andrews have a number of selections that are favorites with our patrons.  Looking for the newest in contemporary romance for the holidays? Always in December by Emily Stone , Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer and A Season for Second Chances by Jenny Bayliss have received a lot of press. In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren ,...

If you have visited our library lately you have seen that we have moved our Staff Picks, Patron Picks, and Lucky Stars to where the Hot Summer Reads are located in the summer. We are calling it our Hot Reads Corner.  A new featured area that contains selections popular with our patrons is our Popular Books of 2021 Display located in the alcove in our Fiction area. These books are no longer considered "new releases" , but have proven to be continually checked out or they continue to be "talked about" in the book reviews, publishing magazines, and selected by book clubs. The selection is diverse and most genres are represented.  Here are some of my favorites from 2021. Many of these are debut authors. I enjoy a book with a great sense of place, interesting imperfect characters with inherently good qualities, and a redemptive plot. One of my most memorable reads of the year is The Reading List   by Sara Nisha Adams. This novel, set in London England, was a surprising d...

The staff welcomes many of you back to the library as we fall into a new rhythm. Spring has brought an abundance of great reading choices and we can't wait to share our favorites with you. When the "ready for release book" cart comes up from technical services we are hoping, along with some of you, that our name comes up when we check it in. Anticipated reads are "talked about" months before they are released, therefore, often we have forgotten to place a hold on them and have to wait until many of you have read and pressed them into our hands. Here are a couple off the good reads off of recent carts that our staff we are eager to press into your hands: Brood by Jackie Polzin   This is a sweet read as the narrator leads us through a year of change and reflection along with the interesting challenges and joys raising and caring for her chickens. Although the premise sounds a bit strange, the Goodread's description captures this novel:   " Brood  is a da...

Our book clubs have been active throughout the pandemic. Most are meeting via zoom.  The book clubs are reading a variety of selections, although, most are historical or literary fiction. Most popular selections include general patron favorites such as,  The Dutch House , Where the Crawdads Sing,  Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  , Beneath the Scarlet Sky, and The Silent Patient . But what really makes a good book club book? A lot of book clubs choose books they think everyone is going to enjoy. We find some book club leaders struggle with selecting options that might not appeal to everyone. However, if everyone likes the book, does that make for good discussion? As a member of a book club for over 20 years some of our best discussions are based on books where opinions were divided. Also, books where the character's experiences are foreign to us stimulate interesting discussion. What about size of the book? This is definitely something to consider so that al...

Enjoying these cozy reading days of winter?  The mini-library is open for browsing and if you are wondering what to read next we have staff pick and popular books from 2020 selection carts, as well as, our newest releases ready for check-out.  This months reading recommendations include : The Chicken Sisters by K.J. Dell'Antonia  : A delightful story that entertains with old family feuds, a reality tv food competition, friendships, love, and the messiness of family. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz: If you haven't read Magpie Murders I recommend starting with that book and then enjoying continuing with this inventive mystery that uses another author's (fictional)  mystery book to solve a crime.  Filled with twists and suspense and especially recommended for anyone who enjoys good British crime fiction or clever cozy mysteries. Can't Even: How Millenials Became the Burnout Generation   by Anne Helen Peterson: This book resonated with two of our...

Publisher’s weekly sent out the bestselling print books of 2020. The report indicates that print books still outsell ebooks, but ebooks have definitely gained popularity in 2020. Interestingly, Amazon (the largest seller of ebooks) does not report its ebook sales to any major industry sources. The top 25 include: 1. Barack Obama, A Promised Land (2,574,531 copies sold) - Memoir / Political 2. Stephenie Meyer, Midnight Sun (1,311,147 copies sold) - Fiction YA Series 3. Dav Pilkey, Dog Man (1,240,277 copies sold) - Children’s book; 2019 top selling series 4. Mary L. Trump, Too Much and Never Enough (1,235,924 copies sold) - Biographical / Political 5. Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (1,235,099 copies sold) - Fiction YA series  6. Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing (1,132,973 copies sold) - Fiction published in 2018; #1 in 2019 7. Glennon Doyle, Untamed (1,018,536 copies sold) - Memoir/ Personal Development 8. Jeff Kinney, The Deep End (920,709 copies s...

How are you choosing your books? Based on reviews, word of mouth, going back to an old series or favorite authors? I placed holds on a number of books recommended through two podcasts I listen to,  "From the Front Porch" and "Currently Reading" , and was pleased to find a number of them lived up to their recommendations. Christina Baker Kline, author of patron favorites The Orphan Train and A Piece of This World , has written a wonderful novel set in nineteenth century Australia. The Exiles is based on the stories of the indigenous people being torn from their land, European women imprisoned and sent to Australia for their sentences, and English who are set on forcing their culture on native people. Weaving these disparate people and cultures through the lives of three women, The Exiles ,  entertained and enlightened my knowledge of Australian culture and history. To get a better understanding of the indigenous names and places mentioned at the beginning of the b...

Now that we have moved indoors into the Merry Room we are able to bring down many more selections for browsing. As technical services process new books , our "TBR" (To Be Read) lists are growing steadily. What does yours look like? Are you excited about books coming out in the fall or busily reading backlists of favorite series or authors?  I recently enjoyed a backlist mystery by William Kent Krueger titled "Iron Lake" . It is the first of a large series set in upper Minnesota with the main character Cork O'Connor . If you have read and enjoyed William Kent Krueger's recent best-selling novels "This Tender Land" or "Ordinary Grace" you will enjoy diving into this series.  Browsing what is available in the Merry Room I found two of my favorites from this year:  "The Water Keeper" by Charles Martin and "Dearly Beloved" by Cara Walls .  I was very surprised to see the availabilty of the audiobooks   "The Exiles...

The Circulation staff is back to work and busy checking in your reads and fulfilling your requests. We are happy to be helping those of you who are placing your requests online or via phone. We definitely enjoy seeing your smiling faces visiting the browsing tent and the  Merry Room which we have recently moved to on the lower floor of the library for browsing and checking out books, dvds, music, and audiobooks. When you visit we are happy to retrieve items inside based on your requests. As always, we enjoy helping with reading recommendations.   I asked our staff  for some recent reading recommendations.  One said she "was brought right back into the Hunger Games" while reading the prequel to the series by Suzanne Collins'  Ballad of Songbirds and Sna kes , Another recommendation is  Peace Talks  by Jim Butcher, a contemporary science fantasy/mystery . It is the latest in the Dresden Files series.  Foul is Fair is a new young  adult novel ...

What have you been reading? It seems like a lot of us are having trouble reading during covid-19. "Distracted" seems to be the key phrase.     Perhaps Earth Day inspired you ( Bookmark's Earth Day Inspirations ). Have you wanted to read more about pandemics? New York Times Essential Pandemic Books or fiction   Books to Read During a Pandemic .   Note: my husband enjoyed and recommends "Pale Horse, Pale Rider".  He read it the first week of  "stay-at-home" and periodically shared interesting facts about the Spanish Flu pandemic.  Needed to escaped into Science Fiction or Fantasy? Bookmark's Five Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Ease Your "April" (now May) Isolation I have had trouble reading. In the beginning of this stay-at-home time I focused my attention on my "family history" hobby and wrote a family history book to give to my aunt for her birthday.  After four weeks, that was finished, and now I had a lot of...