Category: For Readers

New Narrative Nonfiction Book Club Books!

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Spring – Summer 2024 Book Picks

Check out the Falmouth Public Library’s new Narrative Nonfiction Book Club picks for the Spring and Summer ’24 session!  Come pick up a copy and join us to share your thoughts as we read across the genres of nonfiction, from history to adventure, memoir/biography, and beyond with books that read like a novel.

We meet on the 1st Thursday of every month from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The group will meet in the Hermann meeting room and for those who wish to join us from home, you can join us via Zoom.  Registration is required and the Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

To register, click on the date you wish to attend and fill out the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Adult Services department at 508-457-2555 x 7 or info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org.

May 2, 2024
The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger

“This extraordinary, never-before-told story of WWII follows two U.S. Marine Corps regiments, comprised of some of the greatest football talent, as they played each other in a football game in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal known as “The Mosquito Bowl” before they faced the darkest and deadliest days at Okinawa.”

 

 

June 6, 2024
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

“Drawing on history, research and original reporting, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted  reimagines the debate on poverty, revealing there is so much poverty in America not in spite of our wealth but because of it, and builds a startingly original case for eliminating poverty in our country.”

 

 

 

July 11, 2024
The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach by Sarah Stodola

“Weaving together firsthand travel notes with her exacting journalism in an enthralling report on the past, present and future of coastal culture, which has become central to our globalized world, while at the same time grappling with the darker realities of resort culture.”

 

 

 

August 1, 2024
Fly Girl: A Memoir by Ann Hood

“The best-selling novelist shares funny, moving and sometimes shocking stories of life as a TWA flight attendant during the 1970s and 1980s as the airline industry underwent a huge transformation.”

 

 

 

September 5, 2024
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

“In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on His Majesty’s Ship The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth.”

 

 

Manga and Anime Club

Posted on by Clint Johnson

Manga and Anime club are back in business! Please come join on us in the Young Adult Room for our meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 (4/16/2024) from 2 PM – 4 PM.
We will be watching anime, introducing the manga series that we love the most, learning to draw anime, and making buttons of our favorite anime characters!
We may even play some Pokémon cards! The skies the limit. We can’t wait to see you there!

Please register here:

Register!

Dungeons and Dragons: Introduction and Character Creation

Posted on by Clint Johnson

Curious about Dungeons and Dragons? Haven’t played in a while or want to hone your skills? Come up to the Young Adult room and let your imagination take off! Goblins, knights, wizards, and anything else you can think of! Players of all skill levels are more than welcome! Register here! Registration Page

Place: Falmouth Public Library Young Adult Room

Date: Friday, March 29th (3/29/2024)

Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

The Lioness of Boston – Virtual Author Talk with Emily Franklin

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Join the Falmouth Public Library for a virtual event via Zoom with author Emily Franklin on Tuesday, October 24th at 7pm, as we dive into her novel, The Lioness of Boston. A deeply evocative portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, a daring visionary who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself. The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman’s life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and determined to live on her own terms.

This program will include a passage reading and Q+A with Emily, so share your questions and comments! Registration is required and please submit your questions for the author on the registration form. REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.  THIS VIRTUAL EVENT IS FULL.

Emily Franklin is the author of more than twenty books including The Lioness of Boston. Her work has been published in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Guernica among other places as well as long-listed for the London Sunday Times Short Story Award, featured on National Public Radio, and named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

This event is partnered with Falmouth Public Library, Chillmark Free Public Library, Brewster Ladies’ Library, Hyannis Public Library, Yarmouth Port Library, and Centerville Public Library. Sponsored by the Falmouth Public Library Board of Trustees.

New Narrative Nonfiction Book Club Books!

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Fall 2023 – Winter 2024 Book Picks

Check out the Falmouth Public Library’s new Narrative Nonfiction Book Club picks for the Fall ’23 and Winter ’24 session!  Come pick up a copy and join us to share your thoughts as we read across the genres of nonfiction, from history to adventure, memoir/biography, and beyond with books that read like a novel.

We meet on the 1st Thursday of every month from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The group will meet in the Hermann meeting room and for those who wish to join us from home, you can join us via Zoom.  Registration is required and the Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

To register, click on the date you wish to attend and fill out the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Adult Services department at 508-457-2555 x 7 or info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org.

October 5, 2023:
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (PAGES 1-219) by Patrick Radden Keefe 

“Presents a portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, who built their fortune on the sale of Valium and later sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis.”

 


November 2, 2023:
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (PAGES 220-434) by Patrick Radden Keefe 

“Presents a portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, who built their fortune on the sale of Valium and later sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis.”

 

 

 

December 7, 2023:
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black

“Walks readers through what happened in the days, years, centuries and million years after an asteroid led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and half of known species, and how this worst single day in the history of life on Earth allowed for evolutionary opportunities.”

 

 

January 4, 2024:
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom by Ilyon Woo

“Recounts the extraordinary and harrowing true story of a young, enslaved couple who, achieving one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history, embarked on three epic journeys in one monumental bid for freedom, challenging the nation’s core precepts of life, liberty and justice for all.”

 

 

February 1, 2024:
The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

“In this incredible work of narrative nonfiction, filled with romance and high seas adventure, a historian and journalist charts the life of Sarah Kidd, who secretly aided and abetted her infamous husband, pirate Captain Kidd, from within the strictures of polite society in 17th- and 18th-century New York.”

 

 

March 7, 2024:
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder

“This masterful work of reporting and nonfiction storytelling takes us deep into the world of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a Harvard Medical School graduate, who, following his life’s calling, serves Boston’s homeless community, facing one of American society’s most shameful problems, instead of looking away.”

 

Mystery Book Group Fall 2023: Political Murder!

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

I am happy to announce that the Virtual Mystery Book Club will be spending our fall sessions reading books on the theme of Political Murders. Also starting this fall, the book group will be available as a hybrid – if you love Zooming in with us, that continues, but people may also join us in the Bay Room if they prefer to be present in person for the discussion.

Mark your calendars and start reading! Murder on K Street already has print copies waiting at the Reference Desk.

Murder on K Street, by Margaret Truman, on Wednesday September 13, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.

Margaret Truman (1924-2008) was the only child of President Harry Truman, so she came by her understanding of the machinations of Washington, D.C. honestly. She began her long-running Capitol Crimes series in 1981 with Death in the White House. Murder on K Street (2007) is the 23rd in the series, and taken as a whole they demonstrate that whatever we think of today’s political environment, the past wasn’t any better either.

Description: Arriving home from a fund-raising dinner, senior Illinois senator Lyle Simmons discovers his wife’s brutally bludgeoned body. And like any savvy politician with presidential aspirations, his first move is to phone his attorney. In this case, it’s his old friend and college roommate, former DA Philip Rotondi, who gamely agrees to step out of quiet retirement and into the thick of a D.C.-style political, criminal, and public relations maelstrom from which no one will escape unscathed.

The Death of a Red Heroine, by Qiu Xiaolong, on Wednesday October 11, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.

Qiu Xiaolong (1953-  ) was born in Shanghai and his family was considered counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution. He studied English literature in China and was a professor at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences before a job took him to St. Louis, where he stayed out of concern for his future following the Tiananmen Square protests. He has written poetry, translated English-language poetry into Chinese, and written scholarly works. He began his series of detective novels featuring Chen Cao and set in his native county in 2001, with Death of a Red Heroine.

Description: A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.

When Gods Die, by C. S. Harris, Wednesday November 8, 4:30-5:30pm. Register. In CLAMS.

Candice Proctor (1954- ) received a B.A. in Classics and an M.A. and Ph.D in European history. She taught history at the college level, worked as an archaeologist, and spent many years as a partner in an international business consulting firm. She has written the Sebastian St. Cyr series of mystery novels set in the British Regency period under the name C. S. Harris since 2005; When Gods Die is the second book of the series.

Description: The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered in the arms of the Prince Regent. Around her neck lies a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses – that is, until it was lost at sea with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyr’s mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchioness’s death – and his mother’s uncertain fate. As he edges closer to the truth – and one murder follows another – he confronts a conspiracy that imperils those nearest him and threatens to bring down the monarchy.

Coming Soon: Peter Abrahams aka Spencer Quinn!

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Local Author Talk & Book Signing

The Falmouth Public Library and Eight Cousins are excited to welcome Cape resident Peter Abrahams, also known as Spencer Quinn, author of the popular Chet and Bernie mysteries for a reading, talk, and book signing for his newest book Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge!  This event will take place at the Falmouth Public Library on Tuesday, August 22nd at 6:30pm in the Hermann room.   

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge is the first novel in a new series since the meteoric launch of Chet and Bernie–introducing the irresistible and unforgettable Mrs. Plansky, in a story perfect for book clubs and commercial fiction readers.

“I absolutely adored this book. Really fun but with a few teeth, as well. Mrs. Plansky is a terrific character. The story ticks along like a good watch.” –Stephen King

“Mrs. Plansky is a wonderfully memorable heroine, full of wit and equally plausible as an ace tennis player and a motorcycle-driving detective with Romanian gangsters hot on her tail. Readers will be eager to see what Mrs. Plansky gets up to next.” — Publishers Weekly

Peter Abrahams is the Edgar-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling Bowser and Birdie series for middle-grade readers. He lives on the Cape with his wife Diana and dog Pearl.

Come and join us for this exciting author event that is free to the public.  Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge will be available for purchase and signing from Eight Cousins after the author talk and reading.  Registration to attend is required.  Please register by clicking here or visit/call the reference desk at 508-457-2555 x7.

New Narrative Nonfiction Book Club Picks!

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Spring – Summer 2023 Book Picks

Check out the Falmouth Public Library’s new Narrative Nonfiction Book Club picks for the Spring and Summer ’23 session!  Come pick up a copy and join us to share your thoughts as we read across the genres of nonfiction, from history to adventure, memoir/biography, and beyond with books that read like a novel.

We meet on the 1st Thursday of every month from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The group will meet in the Hermann meeting room and for those who wish to join us from home, you can join us via Zoom.  Registration is required and the Zoom link will be provided upon registration.

To register, click on the date you wish to attend and fill out the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Adult Services department at 508-457-2555 x 7, info@falmouthpubliclibrary.org or text 833-209-9922.

April 6, 2023:
The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry that Built America’s First Subway by Doug Most.

“When the great blizzard of 1888 crippled the entire northeast … Two brothers from one of the nation’s great families – Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York – pursued the dream of his city digging America’s first subway, and the great race was on.  The competition between Boston and New York played our in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.”

 

May 4, 2023:
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb

“One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice.  The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down.  Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands.  With starling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.”

 

June 1, 2023:
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

“In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt.  At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe.  Set against the backdrop of the race to exploit Africa by the colonial powers, a story of courage and adventure brings to life the rivalry between two enemies – a decorated soldier and a young aristocrat/Army officer – as they set out to find the mysterious headwaters of the Nile River.”

 

July 6, 2023:
Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis

“Agent Josephine, uncovers this little-know history of the famous singer’s life.  During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers — a cover for her spying work — Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy.  Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, explaining why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Pantheon.”

 

August 3, 2023:
18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb

“Frances Glessner Lee, born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family in the 1870s, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity.  Best known for creating the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, Lee developed a system that used the Nutshells dioramas to train law enforcement officers to investigate violent crimes, and her methods are still used today.”

 

September 7, 2023:
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong 

“The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields.  But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world.  In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.”

Virtual Mystery Book Group Winter 2023: Classics

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

The Virtual Mystery Book Group is taking a hiatus for December but it’s already time to start reading the books for our winter theme. To start off 2023, we’ll delve into some classics of the genre. In January, we’ll read three short stories from the early days of mysteries, by the pioneering authors Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc, and G.K. Chesterton. In February, we’ll learn about bell-ringing in Kent, England as well as solving two distinct crimes when we read The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers. In March, we’ll explore the historical mystery of Richard III with hospitalized Alan Grant as we read Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time.

Join us to read and discuss one of the books below, or all three!

Register to receive the Zoom link and discussion questions before each session. We have print copies of each title waiting at the Reference Desk about a month before each meeting, or you are welcome to find your own copy – digital or even audio! – in CLAMS using the links below.

Wednesday January 11, 2023, 4:30pm: Three Short Stories. Register.

All of these stories are out of copyright and thus available online, directly linked above. They are also collected in various anthologies; please let us know if we can help you find a print copy!

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) wrote the first Sherlock Homes novel in 1886, and is given almost single credit for the wild popularity of crime fiction which persists to this day. In addition to writing fiction he was a physician and spiritualist and wrote widely on a variety of topics. Leblanc (1864-1941), Doyle’s contemporary, began his career as a journalist and novelist but found true success writing the adventures of the thief, Arsene Lupin, who was his main character. Chesterton (1874-1936) also wrote widely, but is best known for his Christian apologetics, so it is fitting that his detective is a Roman Catholic priest.

Descriptions: Is there any need to describe Sherlock Holmes? “A Scandal in Bohemia” was the first short story featuring Holmes, and one of the author’s favorites. It also includes his most notable female character, Irene Adler. “The Arrest of Arsene Lupin” introduces the ‘gentleman thief’ whose exploits, while illegal, are perhaps not of entirely dubious morality. “The Hammer of God” is classic Chesterton, with a cryptic Father Brown turning the mystery upon its head and quietly walking away after determining the true story.

 

Wednesday February 8, 2023, 4:30pm: The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy Sayers. Register.

Available in CLAMS.

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was ranked with Christie (and Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh) as top mystery authors of the Golden Age, although she also had a career as an essayist and published an English translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Nine Tailors (1934) is the ninth of her novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, a British aristocrat who solves crimes as a hobby.

Description: The nine tellerstrokes from the belfry of an ancient country church toll out the death of an unknown man and call the famous Lord Peter Wimsey to investigate the good and evil that lurks in every person. Steeped in the atmosphere of a quiet parish in the strange, flat fen-country of East Anglia, this is a tale of suspense, character, and mood by an author critics and readers rate as one of the great masters of the mystery novel.

 

Wednesday March 8, 2023, 4:30pm: The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Register.

Available in CLAMS.

Josephine Tey was the pseudonym of the Scottish author Elizabeth MacKintosh (1896-1952), who wrote plays as well as eight mystery novels. Six of them featured police detective Alan Grant, but The Daughter of Time (1951) is unusual in that the detective is flat on his back in a hospital bed, the crime took place five hundred years earlier, and the sources are historical documents.

Description: In The Daughter of Time, Tey focuses on the legend of Richard III, the evil hunchback of British history accused of murdering his young nephews. While at a London hospital recuperating from a fall, Inspector Alan Grant becomes fascinated by a portrait of King Richard. A student of human faces, Grant cannot believe that the man in the picture would kill his own nephews. With an American researcher’s help, Grant delves into his country’s history to discover just what kind of man Richard Plantagenet was and who really killed the little princes.

 

Lethal Tides with Catherine Musemeche

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Join us on Wednesday, November 9th at 6:30pm in the Hermann meeting room as we welcome author Catherine Musemeche.  She will be speaking about her latest book Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II.  To register for this author talk and book signing, click here. 

“Weaving together science, biography, and military history, Lethal Tides is a powerful, revelatory history essential to our understanding of oceanography and naval strategy, and – more importantly – chronicles the gripping story of an unsung woman who was pivotal to the U.S.’s success against Japan in WWII.”  

Catherine Musemeche is a graduate of the University of Texas McGovern Medical School in Houston, Texas and the University of Texas School of Law.  She has been a pediatric surgeon for more than three decades.  Catherine’s first book, Small, was longlisted for the E.O. Wilson/Pen American Literary Science Award and was awarded the Texas Writer’s League Discovery Prize for Nonfiction in 2015.  Her second book, Hurt, was named one of the top ten EMS books of the decade.  She has also contributed to Smithsonian Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times’ “Motherlode” blog, KevinMD.com, Creative Nonfiction magazine and EMS World.

This event is free to the public and copies of her book will be available from Eight Cousins for purchase at the event.