Arts & Entertainment

Patch Reads: Family Saga, Funny Novel, Spy Story

Strongsville librarians offer up choices for every taste

Got the winter doldrums?  Why not stop in to your local library to pick-up one of these and many more new books?  We cannot wait to see you. Happy reading!

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty By Joshilyn Jackson, January 2012, 352 pages

This new novel is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past -- and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.   Fans of Jackson’s previous novels will be anxiously awaiting her new novel. If you haven’t read Jackson before she does a wonderful job with southern fiction.

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Lunatics By Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, January 2012, 309 pages.  

Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist. Zweibel is one of the original Saturday Night Live writers, and a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Together, they form a writing team of pure comic genius, and they will have you laughing like idiots. An uproarious tale told in alternating voices follows the stories of a pet shop owner and a curmudgeon who find themselves on the run from police, terrorists and a pizza chain mascot. A must-read for those that enjoy humorous novels.

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Pineapple Grenade By Tim Dorsey, January 2012, 288 pages.

Miami gets even crazier after a gutless corpse called “Hollow Man” is found on the beach and giant shark carcasses stuffed with human limbs clog up busy intersections. One-man vigilante Serge Storms, determined to be a spy, decides to investigate. Author Tim Dorsey does not disappoint with yet another hilarious page-turning spy book set in beautiful sunny Florida.

Reviews brought to you each week by ibrarians Jennifer Niederhausen, Dona Stein and Heather Timko, Adult Services Division, 


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