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Staff Review: Carry Yourself Back to Me by Deborah Reed

Alt-country singer-songwriter Annie Walsh needs relief. Under pressure from her record label to write a new album, recently abandoned by Owen, the man she loves, and still stinging from a betrayal by her brother, Calder, she retreats to her Florida tangelo grove with her dog. When Calder is accused of murder, Annie can no longer avoid the two men she’s struggling to forgive.

There is a specter of ruin throughout Carry Yourself Back to Me; so many of the characters are teetering on the edge and you’re not sure which way they’ll land. Most of the story takes place in Florida around Christmas, and the weather is full of fog and ice storms, adding another level of the unexpected and uncertain to the story. Annie spends time trying to save a tangelo crop from the ice storm, and there’s a parallel between her somewhat futile and dangerous efforts to salvage the crop and the ways she does and doesn’t attempt to salvage her own life and the lives of those she loves.

In the novel, Annie’s last album is described as “… filled with vivid tales of love and loss without the slightest hint of sentimentality.” Her songs are “… painful, clear-eyed, storied songs …” and her voice is “… reminiscent of the great Patsy Cline, Lucinda Williams, and Aimee Mann, all spun into one.” Those descriptions can be turned around and rightly used to describe this novel. I listen to a lot of alt-country, and Reed’s lyrical prose reminds me of that genre’s songs of heartache and redemption. This is a very strong novel that layers mystery, drama, family and love, and the story is like a beautiful song that breaks and lifts your heart all at the same time.

~Aisha, Adult Services

Read the 2015 Oscar Nominees

Several of the films nominated for a 2015 Academy Award (or 12) found their origins in books. Books which you can check out from Carnegie-Stout Public Library!

Room by Emma Donoghue

A fast-paced and suspenseful novel told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, who has lived his entire life in one small room with his mother, held captive by the whims of her kidnapper. Though this novel is somewhat disturbing, it might appeal to some older teens.

The Revenant by Michael Punke
A story of survival and vengeance in the Dakota wilderness of 1820. Andrew Henry's adventurous life prepared him well for the day he was abandoned to die by the men tasked to care for him after a vicious bear attack.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Eilis Lacey left Ireland for a chance of a better life in America, but discovers much more when she meets the handsome Tony. A lyrical and richly detailed look at life in 1950s Brooklyn, and the growing pains of a young woman torn between home and new opportunity.

The Martian by Andy Weir
A suspenseful story of survival in extreme conditions that has appeal for readers who might normally avoid science fiction. No one expected astronaut Mark Watney to be abandoned on Mars, least of all Mark or he would've packed an MP3 player.
This title is also available as an eBook.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
This romantic 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith was originally published under a pseudonym due to the scandal and controversy of a story about two women falling in love. The 2015 film was released as Carol.

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
This thoughtful story of love and change is based on the lives of a historical couple, Einar and Greta Wegener, and the challenges they faced as Einar transitions to life as Lili.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

(330.973 LEW) A thought-provoking, yet accessible look at the complicated economics and plain old greed that led to the housing market bubble and resulting recession. Author Michael Lewis is also responsible for two other notable movies based on nonfiction titles: Moneyball and The Blind Side.

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Staff Review: The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

I've admitted that I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, so it came as quite a surprise to me that I was captivated (and spooked!) by Jennifer McMahon's The Winter People, an out-and-out ghost story complete with shadowy figures, scuttling creatures in closets, and a bona fide portal through which to call forth the dead (an inadvisable practice).

The Winter People weaves two time-frames together: the very early 1900s and the present day, both narratives unfolding in the same place: the village of West Fall, Vermont, which should be idyllic but is actually totally creepy. In 1908, West Fall farm wife Sara Harrison Shea, in deep mourning over her small daughter's recent death, is brutally murdered and then skinned, a horrific crime that has never been solved.

Fortunately, Sara left behind a journal, which not only chronicles life's (mostly tragic) events but also describes in detail the phenomenon of "the sleepers," dead people allegedly brought back to life, who may haunt the wooded crags near West Fall, particularly the area of outcroppings known as the Devil's Hand. Sara's journal was so sensational that it was published after her death, under the title Visitors from the Other Side.

One hundred years later, the present-day occupants of Sara's old farmhouse, the Washburn family, find themselves swept up in the mystery of Sara's death and the sleepers. This is no coincidence, because the parents had learned of Sara and her journal before moving to Vermont and, in fact, purchased the Shea farmhouse in an attempt to locate missing journal pages that set out the exact steps involved in raising the dead. The Washburns' hope is to cash in on that secret knowledge, for who that has experienced traumatic loss would not pay good money to resurrect a beloved partner or child? This book is populated with people possessed of this desire.

I won't say much more because The Winter People is such a fun, compelling read because of its building suspense: what is real, what is the product of overwrought imagination, what is only a dream? The truth is ever-so-slowly revealed as the narratives move back and forth between the unfolding revelations of Sara's diary and the present-day search by the two Washburn daughters for their mother, who has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. A constant presence in both stories, the Devil's Hand looms dark and terrifying, its rocks, caves, and deep-forest trees shrouding all manner of things that go bump -- or scuttle-scuttle -- in the night. 

~Ann, Adult Services