Shelf Life

Category: Fiction

  • Article: The 3 Best Thrillers Reese’s Book Club Has Ever Recommended

    The 3 Best Thrillers Reese’s Book Club Has Ever Recommended https://flip.it/LDOAwy

  • Nancy Chadwick-Burke, Michelle Cox, and Patti Eddington: Three Authors Discuss Their New Work at The Book Stall

    Nancy Chadwick-Burke, Michelle Cox, and Patti Eddington: Three Authors Discuss Their New Work at The Book Stall

    The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) will be welcoming authors Nancy Chadwick, Michelle Cox and Patti Eddington on Thursday, July 11th at 6:30 PM. In a discussion moderated by Michelle Cox, each author will talk about her writing process, and the origins of her book. Our guest authors work with similar themes, and they will be exploring these connections in their new works of historical fiction, connections with the natural world, and memoir. Whether you are a fan of writing by and about women or a writer looking for guidance on completing and publishing a book, this is the program for you!  We’ll leave plenty of time for audience Q&A. 

    This event is free with registration! Visit their website or CLICK HERE.

    Nancy Chadwick is the author of Under the Birch Tree: A Memoir of Discovering Connections and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in The Magic of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writing Journey, Adelaide Literary Magazine, and Turning Points – The Art of Friction, as well as in blogs by Off Campus Writers’ Workshop, the Chicago Writers Association Write City, and Brevity. Her debut novel, The Wisdom of The Willow, has been included in the “Most Anticipated Books of 2024” by the Chicago Review of Books. She finds writing inspiration from her many meanderings through any forest.

    Michelle Cox is the award-winning author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series, a mystery/romance saga set in 1930s Chicago. She also pens the wildly popular, “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog chronicling the lives of Chicago’s forgotten residents. Her debut novel, The Fallen Woman’s Daughter, is her first foray into women’s historical fiction and is based on a story she heard working in a nursing home. She has spent years crafting it into a novel and is delighted to finally share it with the world.  

    Patti Eddington is a newspaper and magazine journalist whose favorite job ever was interviewing the famous authors who came through town on book tours. She never dreamed of writing about her life because she was too busy helping build her husband’s veterinary practice, caring for her animal obsessed daughter—whose favorite childhood toy was an inflatable tick—and learning to tap dance. Then fate, (and a DNA test) led her to a story she felt compelled to tell. Today, the mid-century modern design enthusiast and former dance teacher enjoys being dragged on walks by her ridiculous three-legged dog, David, and watching egrets and bald eagles from her deck on a beautiful bayou in Spring Lake, Michigan.

    The Book Stall is an independent bookstore and cultural institution on Chicago’s North Shore. We are known for our great selection of books, cards, and gifts, as well as our long-running author event series. Learn more at www.thebookstall.com.

  • The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

    The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

    When my friend David Brown asked me to read “The Year of the Locust” and give him my opinion, I was less than excited. Written by Terry Hayes, a former journalist, and Emmy-nominated screenwriter who wrote the screenplays for, amongst others, Mad Max 2 – Road Warrior, Dead Calm, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Payback, From Hell, and Vertical Limit, it definitely didn’t sound like my kind of book. I hadn’t seen any of the movies he’s written nor read his previous bestselling novel, “I Am Pilgrim,” published ten years ago to rave reviews.

    But friendship is friendship and if David, a book publicist that I’ve known for years, wanted my input, I’d give it a go. Downloading the book on my Kindle, I sat down with a cup of coffee and started reading.

    Two hours later my coffee was cold, but I was too entranced by Hayes’s book to make another cup as I followed CIA agent Ridley Kane, a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA meaning he can go wherever and do whatever needs to be done.

    Kane is sent to the baddest of the badlands, the remote and geographically hostile 1600-mile border where Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan meet. Known as one of the most dangerous spots in the world, it’s a lawless place, the perfect place for robbers, murderers, and terrorists to hide in its many caves.

    Kane’s job is to extricate an informant who has information about an upcoming Armageddon-like terrorist attack. He’s too late. The informant has been captured by The New Islamic Army of the Pure, and his family—a wife and two daughters staked out and left to die in the terrorist’s camp.

    If Kane followed protocol, he would fade back into the desert but he can’t leave the mother and daughters to die and shoots their captors, setting them free. A noble act but one that makes it personal with Abu Muslim al-Tundra, known as the locust and formerly a chief with al-Qaeda and ISIS and an extremely deadly adversary. It’s al-Tundra’s brother that Kane has killed.

    “The Year of the Locust” took Hayes ten years to write and it was when he was stuck in Portugal because of the COVID quarantine, away from his wife and three children, that he finally finished the 250,000 word novel.

    “I couldn’t go anywhere for two years,” he says.

    But Kane definitely goes places and among the many fascinating aspects of his book are his descriptions of locations I didn’t know existed.

    I mean who knew about Baku, which is where one of the climactic scenes from the book occurs? A city on the Caspian Sea in what is now Azerbaijan, the Rothschilds, and the Nobels (of the Swedish family, founders of the Nobel prize) established a thriving oil industry there in the 1870s, building mansions as they sucked the oil out of the ground.

    So why did it take ten years to write this novel which was due out in 2017?

    “I don’t care how long it takes, or how hard it is, I just want it to be good,” says Hayes, who threw out the entire first manuscript for “The Year of the Locust” and began again.

    Hayes says he always wanted to be the J.R.R. Tolkien of the spy genre and Locust has some aspects of Tolkien in its storyline. I found the spy technology of what the CIA can accomplish fascinating but was able to segue easily when it became more science fiction-like with its time-bending take. There is also a bit of romance between Kane and his wife Rebecca, a feisty emergency room doctor and the mother of his children.

    Loquacious and full of anecdotes, my conversation with Hayes lasted for three hours and ended only because I had another appointment. We chatted about his life in Hollywood when a movie writer (he spent a long time talking to a couple who looked familiar and only later learned they were Ringo Starr and his wife, actress Barbara Bach), his children (“I wish I could get them to listen to me”), and his wife (“she’s rolling her eyes now at what I just said”).

    I obviously owe David a big thanks.

  • Think Twice by Harlan Coben

    Think Twice by Harlan Coben

    “Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy . . . churn at the heart of Harlan Coben’s blistering new novel.”

    Harlan Coben may be a New York Times bestselling author, his award-winning books translated into 46 different languages and many such as Fool Me Once, The Stranger, and Gone for Good, made into such Netflix series but even now, he doesn’t call it in when it comes to suspense novels. Think Twice is an absorbing, intricately plotted thriller about a man who is presumed
    dead and then suddenly wanted for murder. It’s the 12 th mystery featuring Myron Bolitar, the sardonic and witty sports agent who time and time again somehow finds himself in the middle of a crime.
     
    How can a man who is already dead be wanted for murder?
     
    Myron is on the phone with his 80-year-old father who is talking about how he and Myron’s mother have discovered the wonders of gummies laced with marijuana when two FBI agents arrive in his office with new information regarding the murders of Cecilia Callister, a 1990s semi-supermodel and her 30-year-old son Clay. At the time, it was assumed the two were murdered by Callister’s fourth husband after she agreed to testify against him on fraud charges after discovering he was having an affair.
     
    New evidence indicates that Greg Downing might be involved in the deaths. But Downing is dead.
     
    Or is he?
     
    Coben is a master of twists and turns, and Myron lives in a world where nothing is as it appears. And that includes Windsor Horne Lockwood III, known as Win, his best friend who often helps him solve crimes. A prep school trust funder with a pedigree stretching back generations, Win might be mistaken for a man who lives for nothing more than fine meals, sexual dalliances, and golfing (his handicap is a three) all part of the privileges extreme wealth confers upon him.
     
    But, despite his efforts to show just such a persona, Win is more than that. A sixth-degree black belt holder in Tae Kwon Do—the highest ranking in the United States—he dispenses his own brand of justice on miscreants the law has been unable to touch. He’s completely loyal to Myron despite their background and social status differences. And, it turns out, he had been
    romantically involved with the murdered woman.

     A complicated case, it quickly turns deadly.
     
    “Myron was tied to a chair in the center of the room,” writes Coben in a descriptive scene that
    takes place after Myro n is knocked cold.
     
    “His left shoe and sock were off.
     
    “Next to his barefoot was a set of pruning shears. There was also a protective sheet under the foot.
     
    “Oh this wasn’t good.
     
    “There were four men. One was Sal. Two were the men who jumped in from the sides. And there was a new one. Clearly the leader, who stood in front of him.

     “Saw the pin drop to your friend,” the leader said. “Sal stuck your phone in the back of a truck heading west. Your friend is probably tracking you to the California border by now.”
     
    “The leader’s appearance screamed old-school bad guy. He had the greasy two-day growth on his face. His hair was slicked back, and his shirt was unbuttoned. He had gold chains snared in his chest hairs and a toothpick clenched in his teeth.

    “I guess you were some hot shot basketball player back in the day,” the leader said. “But I never heard of you.”
     
    “Wow, Myron said. “Now you’ve hurt my feelings.”
     
    Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on—until now, when two federal agents walked into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is.

    According to the agents, Greg is still alive—and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.
    Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.

    Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes. Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy that stretches back into the past churn at the heart of Harlan Coben’s blistering new novel.

    About the Author

    With over 80 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times author of thirty five novels including WIN, THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, RUN AWAY, FOOL ME ONCE, TELL NO ONE and the renowned Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in 46 languages around the globe.

    Harlan is the creator and executive producer of several Netflix television dramas including STAY CLOSE, THE STRANGER, SAFE, THE FIVE, THE INNOCENT and THE WOODS. He is also the creator and executive producer of the Prime Video series Harlan Coben’s SHELTER, based on his young adult books featuring Mickey Bolitar. Harlan was the showrunner and executive producer for two French TV mini-series, UNE CHANCE DE TROP (NO SECOND CHANCE) and JUST UN REGARD (JUST ONE LOOK). KEINE ZWEIT CHANCE, also based on Harlan’s novel, aired in Germany on Sat1.

    This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly

    The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly

    “Moxie Castlin was easy to underestimate, but only on first impression. He was overweight by the equivalent of a small child, didn’t use one word in public when five others were loitering nearby with nothing better to do, and had a taste for the reminiscent of the markings of poisonous insects or the nightmares of LSD survivors. He subsisted largely on fried food, coffee, and the Maine soda that had given him a nickname, now long since passed into common usage: since he had been christened Oleg. Moxie sounded better to him. He lost cases, but not many, and his friends far outnumbered his enemies.”

    And so, in the first chapter of The Instruments of Darkness (Atria/Emily Bestler Books), the 21st book in the Charlie Parker series by international and New York Times bestselling author, John Connolly, we meet Moxie who is defending Colleen Clark, a mother accused of abducting and possibly murdering her two-year-old son Henry. It’s a heinous case and everyone, the police and general public, and especially the politicians who have an election coming up, think Colleen is guilty. After all, she was home, supposedly asleep when Henry disappeared. Her husband, Henry’s father, had been away on a business trip.

    But it doesn’t matter if the world is against you when you have Moxie and Charlie Parker, a private investigator

    Everyone does seem to be against Colleen, including Henry’s father, Stephen Clark, who stirs the pot. Because of his outspoken concerns, the police search Colleen’s car and discover a blanket soaked in Henry’s blood in the wheel well of her car. Rumors about Colleen begin to circulate and as Parker, who narrates the story, wryly says they were unfounded, but that is no obstacle as unfounded rumors are the best kind.

    The book lives up to its title, there is definitely darkness surrounding the case and the community. Others have disappeared without a trace. And there’s a touch of the supernatural to give the readers a few shivers as Parker tries to help Moxie take on a case where even before the trial a guilty verdict has been decided.

    Connolly, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, has written more than 30 books, is the author of several series including the Samuel Johnson trilogy, the Lost Things stories, and (with @JennieRidyard), the Chronicles of the Invaders. He writes long, weaving  a complex mystery-thriller full of twists and turns, and peopled with intriguing characters, some benign and eccentric, others scary including a gang of fascists who are readying for war; and a psychic who says that the dead, including a woman named Verona Walter, frequently appeal to help from Walter, who, it seems, is dead and buried but still in contact with the living.

    But there’s more to deal with than fascists and a psychic that talks to the dead, there’s the house, seemingly in ruins, deep in the dark Maine woods and exerting an unnatural and dangerous force.

    As Connolly describes an interaction between two people as they approach the isolated home.

    “Pinnette tried to tear his gaze away from the house but found he could not. While it might have looked abandoned, he was not convinced it was quite empty. Certain structures, while appearing uninhabited, retained about them a sense of occupation, as though a latent presence had infused the very boards. As he and Unger observed the house, Pinette could not help but feel that the house was observing them in turn: not someone in the house but the house itself.”

    It will take all of Parker’s detective skills to overcome the obstacles he faces to help Moxie with his client, all the while trying to stay safe.

    This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein: In-Conversation with Lauren Margolin

    Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein: In-Conversation with Lauren Margolin

    The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is so pleased to host authors Tracey Garvis Graves and Rochelle Weinstein on Wednesday, April 24th at 6:30 PM. They will be in conversation with Lauren Margolin, a.k.a. The Good Book Fairy.  Tracey Garvis Graves’ new book is The Trail of Lost Hearts, which Colleen Hoover calls, “Breathtaking and endlessly romantic.” Rochelle Weinstein’s latest title is What You Do to Me.  Lisa Barr, the bestselling author of Woman on Fire, says, “The nostalgic new page-turner What You Do to Me hits all the high notes.”

    This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required, as space is limited. Click here or visit their website to reserve your spot!

    More About The Trail of Lost Hearts: Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming, and all she wants to do is put the whole heartbreaking mess behind her. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life. Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know. Now all she can do is hope that the universe gets it right this time.

    Tracey Garvis Graves is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film. She is also the author of Heard It in a Love Song, The Girl He Used to Know, Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, and White Hot Hack. 

    More About What You Do to Me:  While writing an article for Rolling Stone, Cecilia works to reveal the mystery that has intrigued fans and discovers a classic tale of two soulmates separated by fate and circumstance. Rock star Eddie Vee once sang with his soul, dedicating love songs to Sara Friedman, his inspiration and first love. Now, Eddie takes refuge in anonymity, closed off to the past. Sara, too, has distanced herself from their love, moving thousands of miles away to live the life she once railed against. As Eddie and Sara tentatively open up to Cecilia about broken dreams, she struggles to give them a happy ending. In the process, she learns that broken hearts can be healed–even her own.

    Rochelle B. Weinstein is the USA Today bestselling author of seven novels, including When We Let Go, This Is Not How It Ends, and Somebody’s Daughter. As Miami’s NBC 6 in the Mix monthly book contributor, Rochelle is on the hunt for the next great read while she teaches publishing workshops at Nova Southeastern University. She is currently working on her eighth novel. Please visit her at www.rochelleweinstein.com.

    Moderator Lauren Margolin, “The Good Book Fairy,” is an avid reader who gets great joy in recommending books and sharing her love for the written word with other readers. Lauren leads book discussion groups, interviews authors, moderates author panels and speaks about all things bookish for libraries, charities, civic groups and more. You can find out more about her HERE.

  • Poisoned Passover: Book 2 Torah Mystery Series

    Poisoned Passover: Book 2 Torah Mystery Series

    he Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is delighted to host mystery author Susan Van Dusen on Wednesday, April 17 at 6:30 pm for an in-store discussion featuring her new book, Poisoned Passover, the second book in the Torah Mystery Series. With no experience except watching TV detective shows, Julia Donnelly, the wife of the mayor, and her Torah group leader, Rabbi Avrum Fine, have been pressed into service to solve the town’s mysteries. 

    This event is free with registration. To register, please visit their website or CLICK HERE.

    More About the Book: Who’s poisoning Passover guests in Crestfall, Illinois? When Julia Donnelly brings chopped liver to her Torah group friend Devorah’s seder, she has no idea it will result in mass poisoning, murder, and a connection to past arson. Julia, wife of Crestfall’s mayor, and Rabbi Fine, Torah study group leader, become involved in a mystery surrounding Sophie’s Kosher Deli. Someone is trying to put her out of business. Is it Lester Pintner, a developer who wants to put up a building, her good-for-nothing son Milton who wants to transform the store into a pool parlor, Sweet Cheeks, a mysterious woman who has attached herself to Milton, or perhaps Nate, another deli owner who wants to buy Sophie’s store. 

    Meanwhile, Julia must also deal with challenges on the home front when her son Sammy refuses to go to school. She has a full plate! How does she cope with everything? By teaming up with the Rabbi, using powers of observation, and logic from Jewish tradition to solve a confusing puzzle of danger and greed!

    More About the Author: Susan Van Dusen is an international award-winning writer of books, editorials, magazine and newspaper articles. She was the Communications Director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and Associate Director of Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. Susan created “The Read In” project at the University of Illinois in Chicago and “Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township,” acknowledging the diversity of those communities. In Israel and in Chicago’s Uptown area, while teaching English to non-English speakers, she wrote songs and plays to stimulate interest in language. Susan was the editor of a neighborhood weekly newspaper, then became the award-winning editorial director of WBBM-AM Newsradio as well as writing for newspapers and magazines. While studying with a Torah group for ten years, she realized it was the perfect vehicle for a series of books, with the first book in the series being The Missing Hand. Currently she is retired, a normal human being, a mayor’s wife, a mother and grandmother, and participant in several civic and writing groups.  

  • I Cheerfully Refuse: Author Discussion & Book Signing

    I Cheerfully Refuse: Author Discussion & Book Signing

    The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) is thrilled to welcome award-winning author Leif Enger to the store on Sunday, April 7 at 2:00 pm for a discussion featuring his new book, I Cheerfully Refuse (Grove Atlantic). A career defining tour-de-force from the New York Times bestselling author of Peace Like a River, Enger’s latest novel is set in a not-too-distant America and epitomizes the “musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling” (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished.  A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, I Cheerfully Refuse is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.

    This event is free with registration. To register, please visit The Book Stall’s website or CLICK HERE.

    More About the Book: I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, a bereaved and pursued musician, embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, Rainy seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society.

    Amidst the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake.

    More About the Author: Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year’s Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel, Virgil Wander, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was named a best book of the year by Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.

  • NYTimes: 22 of the Funniest Novels Since ‘Catch-22’

    22 of the Funniest Novels Since ‘Catch-22’ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/books/funny-novels-humor.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

  • Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

    Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

    Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom, a high school teacher dealing with the mysterious vanishing of her sister, Angie, ten years ago, is dealt another blow when her father drives his car off of a bridge on the anniversary of her disappearance.

    She is, at this point, the last in a long line of the socially elite Angstrom family, only now irreparably tarnished by her father’s affair and desertion of his family to marry Teddy’s mother, a loss of money, and cratering social status.

    This is how dire it is.

    “I discover in my digging that Dad gave up around Christmas,” says Teddy in Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody (Soho Crime). “The bills have been past due for months. The cable company gives me a hard time clearing the balance because my name is not on the account. Mom’s name is not even on the account. They finally let up when I explain that the account holder can’t come to the phone because he launched himself to the bottom of a river. I use my own savings to take care of the remainder.”

    . “The bills have been past due for months. The cable company gives me a hard time clearing the balance because my name is not on the account. Mom’s name is not even on the account. They finally let up when I explain that the account holder can’t come to the phone because he launched himself to the bottom of a river. I use my own savings to take care of the remainder.”

    Teddy is left to take care of her mother, a spendthrift who refuses to deal with the fact they have no money except for her teacher’s salary and to unwind exactly what her father was up to before he died.

    Besides that, she’s embarked on a love affair with the family’s former gardener, has to teach her students while she’s becoming emotionally undone, and finds herself being drawn into the Reddit discussions about what happened to her sister. She is, indeed, descending into a rabbit hole, one that has her chasing phantoms, making friends with people who are just as unstable as she is, and attempting to determine if her father was a bad guy or just someone so overcome with grief he couldn’t go on.

    As if that isn’t enough to manage, Teddy’s dog, the one the family got as a puppy before Angie suddenly disappeared one night, is pitifully dying. It’s enough to drive anyone into a downward spiral, and that’s where Teddy finds herself as she learns that she can’t trust anyone to tell her the truth. And so, it’s left for Teddy to be strong enough to determine what happened to both her father and sister—and to live with the truth.

    • Amazon Editors’ Pick
    • Indie Next Pick
    • Aardvark Book Club Selection
    • Powell’s Pick

    About the author:

    Kate Brody lives in Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Lit Hub, CrimeReads, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, and The Literary Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA from NYU. Rabbit Hole is her debut.

    This review initially appeared in the New York Journal of Books.