JUST 8 DAYS LEFT TO READ!

Winter reading is winding down, but of course we encourage all of you to continue reading throughout the year, even without prizes!  ;)

Two unrated books were submitted today, both available at Windsor Locks Public Library:

Ladies Night (Mary Kay Andrews)
Frindle  (Andrew Clement)

FINAL DAYS OF GET COZY

Well, we are approaching the end of our 4th annual Winter Reading program.  On Saturday I will be contacting the winner of our final weekly prize and the person who submitted the most titles in February.  Our grand prize drawing will be held on March 7, then we can get on to enjoying spring (if it ever comes!) and looking forward to summer reading.  Here are today's new submissions:

Rated GREAT this week:

Ghost Gone Wild (Carolyn Hart)  *
Stones from the River (Ursula Hegi)  *
The Sound of Waves  (Yukio Mishima)

Rated GOOD:

American Slavery: 1619-1877  (Peter Kolchin)
Allegiant (Veronica Roth)  *
Insurgent (Veronica Roth)  *

Rated JUST OK:

Lifetime (Liza Marklund)  *

*  Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

LOTS OF "GOODS" AND A COUPLE OF "GREATS!"

A lot of cozy mysteries (great reading for winter!) are on our list today.

Rated GREAT:

Dragongirl (Todd McCaffrey) *
The Blue Bottle Club (Penelope Stokes)  *  (This is one of my favorite books of all time!)

Rated GOOD:

Bookmarked to Death (Lorna Barret)  *
Bookplate Special (Lorna Barrett)  *
Chapter & Hearse (Lorna Barrett)  *
Murder on the Half Shelf (Lorna Barrett)  *
Sentenced to Death (Lorna Barrett)  *
Death of Yesterday (M.C. Beaton)  *
Let it Sew (Elizabeth Lynn Casey)  *
The Second Time We Met (Leila Cobo)
Divergent (Virginia Roth)  *

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

TITLES ARE POURING IN NOW THAT IT'S WARMED UP!

I had 17 submissions to review today!  If the cold weather holds off we might have a lot more before the end of February!  Keep reading!

The following were rated GREAT:

Dust (Patricia Cornwell)  *
Raising Fences (Michael Datchek)
On Mystic Lake (Kristin Hannah)  *
Silencing Eve (Iris Johansen)  *

These were rated GOOD:

Never Come Back (David Bell)  *
The Enemy (Lee Child)  *
Persuader (Lee Child)  *
All Around the Town (Mary Higgins Clark)  *
The Hours (Michael Cunningham)  *
NYPD Puzzle (Parnell Hall)  *
Code Sixty One (Donald Harstad)
Roommates Wanted (Lisa Jewell)  *
No Man's Nightingale (Ruth Rendell)  *
Summer of Roses (Luanne Rice)  *

Some books rated JUST OK:

Seduction of Emily (Rachel Brimble)
All I Did Was Shoot My Man (Walter Mosley)  *
Dream Country (Luanne Rice) *

*  Available at Windsor Locks Public Library.

MORE GOOD BOOKS

The Reason I Jump, a one-of-a-kind memoir Naoki Higashida, a thirteen-year-old by with autism, was rated GREAT by one of our readers.

Knit Two, a novel by Kate Jacobs was rated GOOD.

Both of these books are available at Windsor Locks Public Library.

SNOWBOUND BOOKS

Despite the horrible winter weather, including closings, ice and snow, and bitter cold, our dedicated readers soldier on, still submitting books!

The Big Thaw (Donald Harstad)
The Husband's Secret (Liane Moriarty) *


*Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

LAST BOOKS SUBMITTED FOR THIS WEEK

These were all rated GREAT by one reader:

Only You (Deborah Bedford) *
The Rose Garden (Susanna Kearsley) *
12th of Never (James Patterson) *

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

SOME SNOWY READING...

We have had a lot of submissions over the past day or so.  Here are what our readers have been checking out lately.

Rated GREAT:

Mercy Snow (Tiffany Baker) *
A Grave Mistake (Stella Cameron) *
The Cuckoo's Calling (Robert Galbraith) *
Good Omens (Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett) *

Rated GOOD:

Cypress Nights (Stella Cameron) * (large print)
Brown Dog: Novellas (Jim Harrison) *
Eleven Days (Donald Harsted)
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's  (John Elder Robison) *
Girls of a Tender Age (Mary-Ann Tyrone Smith) *

Rated JUST OK:

The Black Girl Next Door (Jennifer Baszile) *
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman) *
       (The reader says, "Unfortunately, not what I expected")
The Promise Kept (Robin Lee Hatcher) *
Summer Heat (Mons Kallentoft)

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

ALL THINGS GREAT AND GOOD

Today's readers were very happy with their selections!

Rated GREAT:

Island of Hope, Island of Tears (David Brownstone)
Firefly Lane (Kristin Hannah) *
The Great War - in Photos (M. Holborn & H. Roberts)
Mariana (Susanna Kearsley) *  (An absolute favorite of several people on the library staff!)
Mandela's Way (Richard Stengal) *

Rated GOOD:

Murder is Binding (Lorna Barrett) *
Kitchen House (Kathleen Grissom) *  (I LOVED this novel!)
A Village of Outcasts (Kenneth L. Feder)
The Curiosity (Stephen P. Kiernan) *
The Tapping Solution *(Nick Ortner)

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

THREE BOOKS WITH MIXED REVIEWS

Here are some of our latest submissions:

Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949 (Siegfried Knappe) was rated OK
At Leeds Castle (Anthony Russell) was rated GOOD *
Priscilla (Nicholas Shakespeare)  was rated BAD *

Have you read any of these?  What did you think?

*Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

SNOW DAY CATCH UP!

We've had a "flurry" of book submissions during this week and this the first chance I've had since Monday to let you know what people are reading!  By the way, our weekly drawing will be held first thing Saturday this week instead of Friday because I'll be working then.

Let's work our way up from the not-so-enjoyed books (remember, one person's trash is another's treasure, so a bad rating doesn't necessarily mean a "bad" book!

Rated NOT GOOD:

At Night We Walk In Circles (Daniel Alarcon) *

Rated OK:

Out to Lunch (Stacey Ballis) *
The Apartment (Greg Baxter) *
The Priority List (David Menasche) *  I LOVED this book and would have rated it GREAT!

Rated GOOD:

Mercy Snow (Tiffany Baker) *
Wednesday Daughters (Meg Waite Clayton) *
Sweet Salt Air (Barbara Delinsky) *
Sweet Return (Anna Jeffrey)
Pagan Spring (G.M. Malliet) *

Rated GREAT:

Telegraph Avenue (Michael Chabon) *
True Sisters (Sandra Dallas) *
Redemption Mountain (Gerry Fitzgerald) (ON ORDER)
Mandarin Gate (Eliot Pattison) *
The Beautiful Mystery (Louise Penny) *
In the Shadow of the Banyan (Vaddey Ratner) *
Dark Witch (Nora Roberts) * LARGE PRINT
Run with the Horseman (Ferrol Sams) *
A Star for Mrs. Blake (April Smith) *

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library

SOME REALLY GREAT BOOKS (AND SOME NOT-SO-GREAT, BUT STILL WORTH READING)

Here are some of the books being submitted this week:

Rated GREAT:

Hissy Fit (Mary Kay Andrews) *
Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile (Giles Brandreth) *
Fearless Fourteen (Janet Evanovich) *
The Winter Sea (Susanna Kearsley) rated GREAT++ (I agree!) *
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (Alexander McCall Smith) *
Lost Wife (Alyson Richman) *

Rated GOOD:

Children of the 5th World (P.M.H. Atwater)
Flush (Carl Hiasson) *

Rated OK or not rated:

The Price of Murder (Bruce Alexander)
Traveling with Pomegranates (Sue Monk Kidd) *
Sincerely, Michael (Olivia Owens)

* Available at Windsor Locks Public Library