BYOBC - books we liked
These are books shared because people enjoyed them.
Before the coffee gets cold : a novel
Kawaguchi, Toshikazu, 1971-, author
2020
If you could go back, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee--the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn't so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.
Book lovers
Henry, Emily, author
2022
When her little sister, Libby, begs for a sisters' trip, Nora Stephens agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August. Instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor. If Nora knows she's not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he's nobody's hero, but as they are thrown together again and again, what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they've written about themselves.
Bunny
Awad, Mona, author
2019
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other "Bunny," and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, a caustic art school dropout, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunny cult and starts to take part in their ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they magically conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.
The day the world stops shopping : how ending consumerism saves the environment and ourselves
MacKinnon, J. B. (James Bernard), 1970-, author
2021
The economy says we must always consume more, because, as we've seen in the pandemic, even the slightest drop in spending leads to widespread unemployment, bankruptcy and home foreclosures. Addressing this paradox head-on, J.B. MacKinnon asks, What would really happen if we simply stop shopping? Drawing on experts ranging from economists to climate scientists to corporate CEOs, MacKinnon investigates how living with less would change our planet, our society and ourselves. Along the way, he reveals just how much we stand to gain.
Everyone in my family has killed someone
Stevenson, Benjamin, author
2023
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let's get started.
Everyone on this train is a suspect : a novel
Stevenson, Benjamin, author
2023
When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out. The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller writer, the literary writer, the psychological suspense writer. But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives.
The ghost woods
Cooke, C. J., 1978- author
2022
"In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore - old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds - and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew - and risk what she holds most dear."--Publisher.
A good girl's guide to murder
Jackson, Holly, 1992- author
2020
The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. But having grown up in the small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final-year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?
A grandmother begins the story
Porter, Michelle 1975-, author
2023
"Five generations of Métis women argue, dance, struggle, laugh, love, and tell the stories that will sing their family, and perhaps the land itself, into healing in this brilliantly original debut novel. Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a quest to find out what the heritage she only learned of in her teens means. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born, and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she's never met to help her join her ancestors in the Afterlife. Genevieve is determined to conquer her demons before the fire inside burns her up, with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. Mame, in the Afterlife, knows that all these stories began with her, and that she must hold on to the tellings until all her daughters and their daughters find the paths they need to be on. This extraordinary novel, told by a chorus of distinctive, sharp, funny, confused, wise characters that include the descendants of the bison that once freely roamed the land, heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction."--Provided by publisher.
The Huntress
Quinn, Kate, author
2019
Stranded behind enemy lines, brave bomber pilot Nina Markova becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress and joins forces with a Nazi hunter and British war correspondent to find her before she finds them.
The invisible life of Addie LaRue
Schwab, Victoria, author
2020
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
A killer in King's Cove
Whishaw, Iona, 1948- author
2016
It is 1946, and war-weary young ex-intelligence officer Lane Winslow leaves London to look for a fresh start. When she finds herself happily settled in King's Cove, a sleepy hamlet nestled in the idyllic interior of British Columbia surrounded by a suitably eclectic cast of small-town characters she feels like she may finally be able to put her past to rest. But then a body is discovered, the victim of murder, and although she works alongside the town's inspectors Darling and Ames to discover who might have possibly have motivation to kill, she casts doubt on herself.
Last week
Richardson, Bill, 1955- author
2022
""In this last week, there are seven days." That's one hundred and sixty-eight hours. Or ten thousand and eighty minutes. Or six hundred four thousand and eight hundred seconds. A child counts every second because this is their grandmother's last week of life. As friends and family come to call on Flippa--as Gran is fondly known--the child observes the strange mix of grief, humor, awkwardness, anger and nostalgia that attends these farewell visits. Especially precious are the times they have alone, just the two of them. Flippa, the child sees, has made up her mind. Like time, she is unstoppable. So as Sunday approaches, the child must find a way to come to terms with Flippa's decision. What is the best way to say goodbye? Beautifully illustrated in black and white--with one unexpectedly joyful splash of color--Last Week is a nuanced look at what death with dignity can mean to a whole family, with an afterword and additional resources by MAiD expert Dr. Stefanie Green."-- Publisher's website.
Meet me at the lake : a novel
Fortune, Carley, author
2023
Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn't. At thirty-two, Fern's life doesn't look at all how she once imagined it would. Fern's back home, running her mother's Muskoka lakeside resort. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend's the manager, and Fern doesn't know where to begin. To her surprise, Will arrives nine years too late, an offer to help on his lips.
The midnight library
Haig, Matt, 1975- author
2020
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
The only one left : a novel
Sager, Riley, author
2023
The Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume 17-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. It's now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives to care for Lenora. In her seventies, Lenora can only communicate via an old typewriter. One night, Lenora types out "I want to tell you everything." As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
Raft of stars : a novel
Graff, Andrew J., author
2021
It's the summer of 1994 in Claypot, Wisconsin, and the lives of ten-year-old Fischer "Fish" Branson and Dale "Bread" Breadwin are shaped by the two fathers they don't talk about. One night, tired of seeing his best friend bruised and terrorized by his no-good dad, Fish takes action. A gunshot rings out and the two boys flee the scene, believing themselves murderers. The adults who track the boys toward the novel's heart-pounding climax on the edge of the gorge and a conclusion that beautifully makes manifest the grace these characters find in the wilderness and one another.
Son of the shadows
Marillier, Juliet, author.
2020
Son of the Shadows is the sequel to Juliet Marillier's evocative first novel Daughter of the Forest. It continues the saga of beautiful Sorcha, the courageous young woman who risked all to save her family from a wicked curse and whose love shattered generations of hate and bridged two cultures.
Until the streetlights come on : how a return to play brightens our present and prepares kids for an uncertain future
Yurich, Ginny, author.
2023
In a tech-saturated world, a return to outdoor play is exactly what our children need. Founder of 1000 Hours Outside shows parents how to help their kids discover the fun--not to mention the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual benefits--that awaits them beyond the four walls of their home.