Kick Start Your Autumn Break With These New Fiction Titles at JCPL!

Remember the story problems that we did as kids in school? Here is a story problem: If today is November 9 and there are 30 days in November and thirty one days in December and Christmas falls on December 25, how many days are left until Christmas? I never was a whiz at math, but if I cheat and look at the calendar, I can tell you that there are 46 days until Christmas, and if I divide the 46 days into weeks, it’s still OVER 6 weeks until Santa makes his appearance. Department stores and TV ads are already playing Jingle Bells and “decking the halls.” Halloween is barely out of the woods and Christmas is already making an appearance. Have I slept through the fall months? Have I already missed my most favorite of all holidays; Thanksgiving?! Gee whiz, is it fair to shortchange Turkey Day and the fall season and jump straight into winter? Time to take a break and kick back and enjoy these cool, blustery days and snuggle into the nest that will soon enough be hard to find time for, and read, read, read! Here are a few new fiction titles from your friends at JCPL that will kick start your autumn break!

Dewey Andreas is searching for peace, and hopes to find it in rural Australia. Unfortunately, the powers that he once fought against are out for revenge, and now they’ve found him, forcing him to fight for his life. On the other side of the globe in Pakistan, a radical cleric has gained power, starting an all out war with India that quickly escalates out of control. With the threat of nuclear response a high probability, the need for a cease fire is more important than ever, and there is only one man who can lead a team that can pull off the impossible task; Dewey Andreas. But can he get out of Australia alive? Find out in “Coup d’Etat” by Ben Coes.

Amelia Wilkes and Anthony Winter are high school seniors, desperately in love. Amelia’s father, Harlan, however, will not allow his daughter to date. Her mother, Kim, though, is more open minded and keeps the couple’s secret. When Harlan discovers the couple’s passion for one another via intimate pictures on Amelia’s computer, his fury turns to a lust for revenge against the young man, and Harlan turns him into local law enforcement, creating a public case that takes disturbing twists and turns in “Exposure” by Therese Fowler.

When a hostage situation arises in a television studio, former investigative journalist, Tom Pegg finds himself embroiled in the mess when the kidnapper chooses him as a go-between. Events turn chaotic and the drama reaches a fever pitch when two very different people are thrown together by the crisis, resulting in gripping and page-turning suspense in “The Blue Light Project” by Timothy Taylor.

With streets named Nutcracker Court and Sugar Plum Lane, Fairbrook is the perfect town for Christmas glitz. But the holiday season isn’t what it’s cracked up to be for all of Fairbrook’s residents, including single mom, Carly Westbrook, who is struggling to make ends meet and still provide a nice Christmas for her boys, and Grant Barrows, a formerly wealthy businessman struggling to come to grips with his shrinking bank account. Still, the local ladies group holds out hope that a Christmas miracle may come to pass in “Christmas on Nutcracker Court” by Judy Duarte.

If there are 24 hours in a day and 46 days until Christmas, that adds up to 1,104 hours. Taking time out to relax and escape into the characters and plot of a good book checked out from the Jasper County Public Library might just fit into that schedule. If you do the math, you’ll discover that I’m 100% correct!

"Teachable Moments" Are Within Each and Every Book You Read!

Life is full of “teachable moments.” “You learn something new every day” is my mantra. If you’re an avid reader, you know this phrase to be true. Even if what you normally read is fiction, there’s always a grain of truth and a lesson or two in each story. In a previous article, I had described a book written by Lisa Genova entitled, “Left Neglected,” using the blurb from the front of the book to explain the story. After writing it up, I decided to check the book out from the Jasper County Public Library and read it myself, and found it to be one “teachable moment” after another. The story revolves around Sarah Nickerson, a “yuppie” who has it all; a high powered job as the vice president of a human resources firm, three children, involved in sports and other recreational activities, a wonderful, supportive husband, who is also an overachiever in his chosen career, and a beautiful home in a well-to-do Boston suburb, as well as a house in Vermont. Having it all, however, comes at a price, and Sarah finds that out one rainy day while multitasking on her way to a meeting, texting and driving at 70 miles per hour straight into a line of traffic that has come to a complete stop. Totaling her car and waking up in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury, Sarah is shocked to find that the left side of everything, including her body, has literally disappeared off of her radar. She is suffering from “Left Neglect,” a syndrome that entails much physical therapy to restore the left half of everything, including things we take for granted every day; the food on the left half of her plate, anyone seated to the left of her, even the left half of her own face is devoid of makeup after she’s sure she’s covered all ground during her usual makeup routine. During her therapy and recovery, her husband, Bob, needs help with their three children and calls in Sarah’s mother. Sarah has unresolved issues with her mother, feeling neglected herself during her childhood after her only brother, Nate, drowned in a friend’s pool at a young age, leaving her mother so depressed and guilt ridden that she couldn’t bring herself to care for her remaining child and husband. Sarah’s recovery is slow, and the author does a fabulously hilarious job of describing in detail one comical misadventure after another as Sarah accepts her Left Neglect, along with the help of her mother, healing both her body and psyche as she comes to fully understand her mother’s longstanding depression and her own shortcomings as well.

After reading the book, I looked up “Left Neglect” and discovered that it is a real medical condition, brought on by stroke, or other injury to the brain. Want to learn more? Check out these other new fiction titles from JCPL.

John and Laura Foster are aboard a steamship headed straight for a hurricane on the Atlantic coast, and are faced with the terrifying possibility of being separated when the women and children on the ship are evacuated to another ship. “Deepest Waters” by Dan Walsh is set in a pre-Civil war era, and is based on the true-life sinking of the SS Central America, carrying a payload of gold. This character-driven novel is full of historical events as well as drama and adventure, containing subplots along with the main storyline.

Professional home stager, Sandy Sullivan, is quite an expert at taking a cluttered space in a home and turning it into a cozy and attractive living area, ripe for selling. Sandy’s career as a home stager is the easy part of her life; one she can change with a dash of paint and proper placement of furniture. Her personal life, however, is sorely lacking the same pizzazz as her work life. Living in a suburb of Boston along with a “back burner” husband and a grown son who has turned their basement into a “bat cave,” Sandy takes a job in Atlanta staging a boutique recently acquired by her best friend’s boyfriend. In “Best Staged Plans” by Claire Cook, you’ll recognize the characters to be believable enough to be your own next door neighbors, and the storyline full of not only fun twists and turns, but great tips and tricks for fixing up any humble abode.

Maybe you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but by reading these or any other of the new, fiction titles on the shelves of your local Jasper County Public Library, you’ll be sure to experience a “Confucius” moment; “You cannot open a book without learning something.”