Alicia recommends "Her Royal Spyness" series

Fans of Phryne Fisher, Maisie Dobbs, and Bess Crawford will enjoy this series of cozy, historical mysteries.  Set between the wars, Lady Georgiana Rannoch is 34th in line for the throne of England.  While she is educated in etiquette and how to curtsey, she has no skills to make money as she is flat broke.  Georgie becomes involved solving a murder when a man is found floating in her bathtub.  The books are filled with famous people such as Noel Coward, Queen Mary, the future Duke of Windsor and more.  To help her along with the mysteries are a set of characters such as her famous actress mother, her beau Darcy, her best friend Belinda, and a goofy lady's maid name Queenie. Written by Agatha award- winning author Rhys Bowen, enjoy this series about a member of the extended royal family set in 1930s London.  

 

Meghan recommends Librarian Picks for Living Well

Maintaining one’s health is a concern for people of all ages, but as we get older, taking care of our physical and mental wellbeing is paramount to ensure a good quality of life. Of course, what it means to “Live Well” can vary from person to person – but we hope you invite the library to be part of your “best life”! On Wednesday, September 23, the library will host its third annual 55+ Living Well at CMPL, all online this year. Visit http://cmpl.libnet.info/events to register for one of our Zoom events:

1pm: Mental Health During COVID 19

3pm: Yoga for Stress Relief

6:30pm: Essential Oils for Health

In addition, visit the library’s Facebook page throughout the day for book recommendations, handpicked by our librarians, to help you live well! Don’t have Facebook? Click here for the full list of librarian picks for health-related titles. Whether you want to be “10% Happier”, learn to cook vegetarian, or improve your strength with Pilates, we’ve got an item for you!

Natalie recommends "Labyrinth: the Novelization"

​

This is the novelization of Jim Henson's Labyrinth movie (staring the likes of  Jennifer Connelly and the late David Bowie). The movie is one of my all time favorite movies, so finding out that there was a novelization of it was definitely something I found interesting. The book follows the movie pretty closely, just without all of the musical numbers. So even if you haven't seen the movie, which I would definitely recommend, you don't need to have any prior knowledge of what the book is based on.  

Jim Henson's Labyrinth tells the story of Sarah, a young girl who finds herself pulled into an adventure to save her brother. After making a wish out of frustration, her baby brother Toby is taken by Jareth, the Goblin King. She is given thirteen hours to solve the labyrinth or else Toby will become a goblin himself and stay there forever.  

Along the way she meets Hoggle, a grumpy Dwarf like creature, who's initially unsure if he wants to help Sarah or not, but slowly becomes a friend, even questioning and going against Jareth. There's Ludo, a big red haired beast that Sarah saves from some goblins. Then there's Sir Didymus, a fox terrier knight and his noble canine steed Ambrosius.  

This is a whimsical tale of growing up, learning from mistakes, and changes. It does have the rare swear here and there. I would recommend it for Teens and Adults 

Uma recommends "The bird way: a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think""

 

 

The Bird Way: A New Look At How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, And Think by Jennifer Ackerman makes you think about the life of birds.

We typically enjoy a cup of coffee sitting in the backyards of our homes during summer.  We listen to these birds chirp and flutter around the bird feed. However, do we ever consider that these birds can also think and act like humans? Jennifer Ackerman meticulously explains  bird behaviors and how it relates to humans as in early birds, lovebirds, jailbirds, odd birds, sitting ducks, stool pigeons, hawks, vultures and so on.

"There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors and dismissed many anomalies or mysteries reversing the traditional views of how birds conduct their lives, communicate, forage, court, breed and survive.

Jennifer Ackerman delivers this in her unique soft writing style that catches the imagination and makes it easy to read. This is a great read for nature and bird lovers!

 

Adult

 

Natalie Recommends Nightwing: The Gray Son Legacy

​

I have read through the issues included in this volume and thought they were really interesting.  If you are familiar with the Court of Owls (introduced in DC's New 52 run) and enjoyed it, this would be a great read for you.   

This volume continues the Ric arc, where after being shot in the head, Dick Grayson a.k.a. Nightwing lost all of his memories from when he was adopted by Bruce Wayne as well as his time as Robin and Nightwing.  Over the course of the eight issues (including the second annual) in The Gray Son Legacy, we see the return of Talon, William Cobb (who also happens to be Dick's great grandfather), as he tries to bring him into the fold.   To become the Talon he was originally supposed to be before Dick was taken in by Bruce Wayne.  We get more details about why Dick's not remembering his past and not making any attempt to.  This does have it's fair share of action and a pretty interesting story.

This is a graphic novel that is intended for adult audiences.

Natalie recommends "Moon Sister"

​​

In this book, we follow Taygete (Tiggy) D'Apliese, a wildlife consult who finds herself in the Scottish Highlands assisting a man named Charlie Kinnard.  Along the way, she meets new people and is introduced an old Romani man named Chilly.  In PA Salts letter to her, he discusses how he found her and how her case was a bit different from the others.  How he was able to adopt her with the promise that one day, she may reunited with her people (the Romani and her family).  As she gets more familiar with Chilly, he believes he too has a part in it.  After some issues arise after she is shot while attempting to protect a rare white stag (a male deer), Tiggy finds herself traveling to Granada, Spain to continue on her self discovery.  She also reunites with the second eldest of the sisters (Ally) and eventually finds love.  



Starting from her birth in 1912, we get to learn about Lucia Amaya-Albaycin, a young Romani girl who is a gifted flamenco dancer making her way in the world.  Even though she is born in a poorer Romani community just outside of Granada, in an area known as Sacromonte, she's destined to go far.  Along the way we find out about the troubles between her parents, he lose of a sibling, and the struggles she faces.  With World War 2 acting as a backdrop for a portion of this segment in Lucia's adult years.



How these two are connected is interesting.  Lucia is a determined dancer and Tiggy an intuitive and generally kind character.



This is the fifth installment in Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series, and a book more geared towards Adult audiences.  It can be found in both regular and large print.

Natalie recommends "The Pearl Sister"

​​​​​

​The fourth installment of Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series.  This time, we get to witness the story of the fourth sister, Celaeno, or Cece for short. 



Picking up from her departure in Shadow Sister (the third book), we see Cece traveling to Bangkok for a few days before flying off to Australia to look into the clue Pa Salt gave her about her past.  While in Thailand, she goes from a hotel where an old friends works to a brief stay with a man named Ace after the receptionist kicks her out before Christmas.   There, they get to know each other and a bit of a romance begins to blossom.  Ace decides to do some looking into Kitty McBride, the name Pa Salt gave her to look into when she goes to Australia.  As Cece travels to Australia, she learns more about Kitty McBride while dealing with the discovery that Ace was actually a wanted man and discovering that she had been photographed with him in the newspapers.  She keeps tabs on that for a while, while also looking into Kitty McBride with some help from a woman named Chrissie.  Along the way she will also meet an older gentleman tied to Camira and makes a visit to Ace after Cece's birthday party back at Atlantis (Pa Salt and the girls' home) before returning to Australia in the end.



For this books journey in the past, that's the character we get to follow.  Kitty McBride is the daughter of a clergyman from Scotland.  She is sent to live with an associate of her father, Mrs. McCrombie, not too long after finding out a secret about her father when she witnesses her father in town.  This arrangement brings her to Australia where she meets Mrs McCrombie's nephews, Andrew and Drummond.  Along the way, she is given the opportunity to wed one of them.  After marrying Andrew, she finds herself applaud by the treatment of the Aboriginal people there.  She later brings home a woman named Camira, who like her is pregnant.  We get to see their lives over the course of a few years along with a reappearance of Drummond and the tragedy and turmoil that follows Kitty.  The love and loss her son Charlie goes through and what happens to Camira's daughter.



This story is one about connections, and it was interesting to see the connections both Cece and Kitty made.  As well as how Cece is connected to Kitty and Camira.



This book is meant for an Adult audience and can be found in both regular and large print.