Best Beach Reads of 2014

This summer is already shaping up to be a great one for book lovers - six of your favorite bestselling authors are back with new books that are sure to be smash hits. Curl up with one these in a beach chair and you'll be on your way to an awesome summer!

Bestselling author James Patterson is back with his newest novel Invisible, in which FBI researcher Emmy Dockery must convince her colleagues that a flood of unsolved crimes are all being committed by the same person.


In Elin Hilderbrand's newest summer read, The Matchmaker, Dabney has an unbroken record of 42 matches made. But when an old flame returns, Dabney must reveal her own dark secrets.

It's another Stephanie Plum novel - need I say more? Fans of Janet Evanovich's wisecracking bounty hunter can expect her newest entry in the series on June 17 - Top Secret Twenty-One.

Stephen King makes his first foray into hard-boiled detective stories with Mr. Mercedes, about a serial killer who runs over innocents with a stolen Mercedes and a retired cop who is determined to take him down before he kills again.

Everyone's favorite professional wizard is back in Skin Game by Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden's services have been traded to a group of supernatural villains, so he must help them break into a vault. Their target? The Holy Grail.

Fresh from her smash success last year with The Cuckoo's Calling, J. K. Rowling's newest effort is The Silkworm (again writing under pseudonym Robert Galbraith), in which private detective Cormoran Strike returns to catch another killer.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Last meeting of Coffee by the Book!

It's almost summer, readers, so you know what that means: the season for library book clubs is coming to a close. But don't worry - you have one more chance to discuss excellent literature with a friendly, enthusiastic group of readers! The last meeting before summer of Coffee by the Book at Bailiwick's will be this Thursday, May 15, from 6-7 p.m.* We will be discussing The Lowland by Nobel prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri while drinking delicious coffee from our friends at Bailiwick's.

As children in India, Subhash and his brother Udayan do everything together -- play, learn, and cause mischief. But when they enter college, Udayan begins to change. He is drawn to the Communist revolutionary movement, leaving Subhash to be the dutiful son to their parents. While Subhash is in the United States finishing his degree, Udayan is killed by the police for terrorism against the government. His world thrown into chaos, Subhash must learn to live without the other half of himself.

The author evokes the terrible isolation of her characters with obvious skill, and her dialogue is practically the dictionary example of the writing tenet of showing, not telling. Her spare, elegant prose outlines believable, dynamic characters who practically leap off the page. Anyone who enjoys literary fiction will enjoy this entry from the author of Interpreter of Maladies.

Please join us to discuss this thought-provoking novel. We'd love to see you there! (and who doesn't love some yummy Bailiwick's coffee?)

*Can't get enough of T-SPL book clubs? Coffee by the Book meets on the third Thursday of the month at Bailiwick's in spring, winter, and fall. Our morning book club, Let's Talk About It, meets on the first Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the library in every season except summer. The clubs will start up again in September, and new titles will be announced mid-summer.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian