Library Staff and Board

Get to Know

The Library Staff & Board

Our dedicated staff and board are here to serve you! Get to know them a bit better so you’ll be able to greet them personally when you visit the library.

Library Staff

Savannah Gilbert

Library Director

library@chestercountylibrary.net

Savannah's Book Recommendations

Eryn Tolley

Technical Services

eryn@chestercountylibrary.net

Eryn's Book Recommendations

Joyce Morris

Overdue Specialist

joyce@chestercountylibrary.net

Joyce's Book Recommendations

Paige Jordan

Cataloguer

paige@chestercountylibrary.net

Paige's Book Recommendations

Emma Brown

Library Clerk

Janice Haithcoat

Library Clerk

Janice's Book Recommendations

Jennifer Elder

Library Clerk

Jennifer's Book Recommendations

Our Board Members

The members of our board help us make decisions that affect the citizens of Chester County.

Melinda Carroll, Chairman

Dr. Larry Bloomingburg, Vice Chairman

Jean Smith, Secretary/Treasurer

Dr. Sara Knoell

Rosemary McKnight

Darrell Bird

Harvette Croom

Mike Alexander, County Commission Representative

Donna Butler, City Representative

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Service Expansion

New programs, resource collection development, additional populations, etc.

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Library Policies

Checkout guidelines, library expansions, grants, library access, etc.

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Library Events

Ideas, statistics of past events, how the library is being utilized, etc.

Attend a Board Meeting

The Chester County Library Board meets every other month on the third Thursday of that month at 5:00 pm at the library. Meetings are open for public attendance. The kinds of topics we discuss are displayed to the left. If you feel that you need to be added to the agenda, please contact the library director at 731-989-4673 or library@chestercountylibrary.net.

See the Calendar

Our Next Board Meeting is Scheduled For:

Thursday, May 19, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Location: Chester County Public Library

Past Board Meeting Minutes

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March 17, 2022 Minutes

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January 20, 2022 Minutes

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November 18, 2021 Minutes

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October 28, 2021 Minutes

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Sept 16, 2021 Minutes

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July 15, 2021 Minutes

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May 20, 2021 Minutes

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March 18, 2021 Minutes

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November 19, 2020 Minutes

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September 24, 2020 Minutes

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July 16, 2020 Minutes

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May 27, 2020 Minutes

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January 16, 2020 Minutes

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October 24, 2019 Minutes

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July 17, 2019 Minutes

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July 2, 2019 Minutes

Past Board Meeting Agendas

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May 2022 Agenda

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March 2022 Agenda

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January 2022 Agenda

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November 2021 Agenda

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October 2021 Agenda

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September 2021 Agenda

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July 2021 Agenda

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May 2021 Agenda

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March 2021 Agenda

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July 2020 Agenda

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May 2020 Agenda

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January 2020 Agenda

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October 2019 Agenda

County Commission Reports

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May 2022 County Update

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March 2022 County Update

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January 2022 County Update

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November 2021 County Update

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September 2021 County Update

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July 2021 County Update

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May 2021 County Update

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March 2021 County Update

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November 2020 County Update

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September 2020 County Update

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January 2020 County Update

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November 2019 County Update

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September 2019 County Update

Additional Documents

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Report for Committee Meeting 3-22-2022

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Letter to Commissioners- For the Public- PLEASE HAVE RETURNED BY APRIL 9TH

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January 2022 Request for Funds

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Library Grant Proposal for ARPA funds- Expansion or Move

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Pros and Cons of Expansion vs Regions Building

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Circulation Turnover & Areas Out of Room

FY22 Quarterly Reports

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1st Quarter

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2nd Quarter

FY21 Quarterly Reports

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1st Quarter

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2nd Quarter

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3rd Quarter

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4th Quarter

Yearly Budgets

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2021-2022

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2020-2021

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2019-2020

Savannah's Book Recommendations

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

1426, Joseon (Korea). Hwani's family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest near a gruesome crime scene.

Years later, Detective Min―Hwani's father―learns that thirteen girls have recently disappeared from the same forest that nearly stole his daughters. He travels to their hometown on the island of Jeju to investigate… only to vanish as well.

Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. As she digs into the secrets of the small village―and collides with her now estranged sister, Maewol―Hwani comes to realize that the answer could lie within her own buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago.

Photo and description credit to: https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Stolen-Girls-June-Hur/dp/1250229588

Undertakers by Nicole Glover

Nothing bothers Hetty and Benjy Rhodes more than a case where the answers, motives, and the murder itself feel a bit too neat. Raimond Duval, a victim of one of the many fires that have erupted recently in Philadelphia, is officially declared dead after the accident, but Hetty and Benjy’s investigation points to a powerful Fire Company known to let homes in the Black community burn to the ground. Before long, another death breathes new life into the Duval investigation: Raimond’s son, Valentine, is also found dead.

Finding themselves with the dubious honor of taking on Valentine Duval as their first major funeral, it becomes clear that his passing was intentional. Valentine and his father’s deaths are connected, and the recent fires plaguing the city might be more linked to recent community events than Hetty and Benji originally thought.

The Undertakers continues the adventures of murder and magic, where even the most powerful enchantments can’t always protect you from the ghosts of the past . . .

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive.

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.

Photo and description credit to: https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Apothecary-Novel-Sarah-Penner/dp/077831197X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2KYTMRHI1HHJH&keywords=the+lost+apothecary&qid=1652983448&s=books&sprefix=t%2Cstripbooks%2C2191&sr=1-1

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives.

Sepetys (writer of 'Between Shades of Gray') crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks.

description and photo credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614492-salt-to-the-sea

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.”

But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

description and photo credit: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Called-Ove-Novel/dp/1476738025

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life—a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls in order to make a fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

description and photo credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43263520-the-grace-year

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find – her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

I loved this book! The author takes readers on a journey using your senses. As I read, the smells she described were jumping off the pages and reminding me of smells from my own memories. Overall, I would say the book is about finding and staying true to yourself and I loved the feeling that was evoked while reading this book. Bauermeister will take you on a journey as she goes from only living on an island with her father and his jars of scents to going to a city for the first time, falling in love, running away, and meeting her mother for the first time!

Eryn's Book Recommendations

Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

A troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.

After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58341222-reminders-of-him?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=8kHyk7HJiq&rank=1

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10964.Outlander?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=2c6ZMWrm2E&rank=1

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38359036-the-tattooist-of-auschwitz?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=7KVnkh3QDl&rank=1

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45047384-the-house-in-the-cerulean-sea?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=39Q9VUu4BE&rank=1

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52578297-the-midnight-library?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=EMPMHvdlI8&rank=1

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can - will she?

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790842-life-after-life?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BtsdAal9vq&rank=1

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

Photo and Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17899948-rebecca?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=kBp0wuaOiN&rank=1

Joyce's Book Recommendations

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40097951-the-silent-patient?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=jZzRL2Yunz&rank=1

Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand

Four siblings experience the drama, intrigue, and upheaval of the '60s summer when everything changed in Elin Hilderbrand's #1 New York Times bestselling historical novel.

Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same: Blair, the oldest sister, is marooned in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling vortex of civil rights protests and determined to be independent, takes a summer job on Martha's Vineyard. Only-son Tiger is an infantry soldier, recently deployed to Vietnam. And thirteen-year-old Jessie suddenly feels like an only child, marooned in the house with her out-of-touch grandmother and her worried mother, while each of them hides a troubling secret.

As the summer heats up, Ted Kennedy sinks a car in Chappaquiddick, man flies to the moon, and Jessie and her family experience their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country. In her first historical novel, rich with the details of an era that shaped both a nation and an island thirty miles out to sea, Elin Hilderbrand once again earns her title as queen of the summer novel.

Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42283286-summer-of-69?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=TNskZRj03d&rank=1

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up
— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Description credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27362503-it-ends-with-us?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=mEfsQQJLOs&rank=1

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves.

Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17802724-the-husband-s-secret?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=JrWwzHZGsT&rank=1

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day's journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby's cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom's judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

M. L. Stedman's mesmerizing, beautifully written debut novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel's decision to keep this "gift from God." And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another's tragic loss.

Description Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13158800-the-light-between-oceans?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=BVghQj1PZe&rank=1

Paige's Book Recommendations

Veronica Speedwell Mysteries by Deanna Raybourn

A Victorian mystery series about "a natural historian with a specialty in lepidoptery which makes her a butterfly hunter and world traveler who is always up for adventure."

Photo credit to Amazon. Description credit to Goodreads

Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman

When her life falls apart on the eve of her 40th birthday, Kate Parker finds herself volunteering at the Lauderdale House for Exceptional Ladies. There she meets 97-year-old Cecily Finn. Cecily's tongue is as sharp as her mind, but she's fed up with pretty much everything.

Having no patience for Kate's choices in life or love, Cecily prescribes her a self-help book…of sorts.

Thought for Food

: an unintentionally funny 1950s cookbook high on enthusiasm, featuring menus for anything life can throw at the "easily dismayed," such as:

Breakfast with a Hangover
Tea for a Crotchety Aunt
Dinner for a Charming Stranger

As she and Cecily break out of their ruts, Kate will learn far more than recipes.

Photo and description credit to Amazon.

The Good Lie by A.R. Torre

Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers. She’s spent a decade treating California’s most depraved predators and unlocking their motives―predators much like the notorious Bloody Heart serial killer, whose latest teenage victim escaped and then identified local high school teacher Randall Thompson as his captor. The case against Thompson as the Bloody Heart Killer is damning―and closed, as far as Gwen and the media are concerned. If not for one new development…

Defense attorney Robert Kavin is a still-traumatized father whose own son fell prey to the BH Killer. Convinced of Thompson’s innocence, he steps in to represent him. Now Robert wants Gwen to interview the accused, create a psych profile of the killer and his victims, and help clear his client’s name.

As Gwen and Robert grow closer and she dives deeper into the investigation, grave questions arise. So does Gwen’s suspicion that Robert is hiding something―and that he might not be the only one with a secret.

Photo and description credit to Amazon.

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter--as well as a gift of saffron--to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she’s never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

Food and a good life—they can’t be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen’s decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen’s friendship—a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.

A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

Photo and description credit to Amazon.

Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon

In this epic and haunting love story set on the Oregon Trail, a family and their unlikely protector find their way through peril, uncertainty, and loss.

The Overland Trail, 1853: Naomi May never expected to be widowed at twenty. Eager to leave her grief behind, she sets off with her family for a life out West. On the trail, she forms an instant connection with John Lowry, a half-Pawnee man straddling two worlds and a stranger in both.

But life in a wagon train is fraught with hardship, fear, and death. Even as John and Naomi are drawn to each other, the trials of the journey and their disparate pasts work to keep them apart. John’s heritage gains them safe passage through hostile territory only to come between them as they seek to build a life together.

When a horrific tragedy strikes, decimating Naomi’s family and separating her from John, the promises they made are all they have left. Ripped apart, they can’t turn back, they can’t go on, and they can’t let go. Both will have to make terrible sacrifices to find each other, save each other, and eventually…make peace with who they are.

Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship.

Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It's a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why. Tomorrow.

Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle's guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.
Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son's irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her.

Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and the black son of her family's housekeeper - in a town where blacks weren't allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle's first and greatest love just might help Dorrie find her own way.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Book Cover

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 his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling 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.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

Jennifer's Book Recommendations

Favorite Children's Book

Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman - I love this book because my adopted grandparents bought it for me when I was very little. Apparently I would never let Sarah Kathryn read the “goodbye” pages. I used to love just staring at the illustrations and imagining what it would be like to be in their world!

Favorite Juvenile Novel

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls - Oh my goodness. My nine-year-old self read this in 4th grade and was never the same again. It was the first time literature made me sob. Long live Old Dan and Little Ann, the greatest coon dogs to ever live in my heart.

Favorite Childhood Authors

My love for Beverly Clearly and all things Ramona Quimby should never be underestimated, along with my ridiculous obsession with the Berenstain Bears. However, as much as I adore Ramona, my deepest love will always be for Janette Oke and Hilda Stahl. These authors shaped my entire childhood and love for reading. I still own my complete childhood sets of the Love Comes Softly and When Calls the Heart series. They are tattered and worn, battle scars from multiple readings throughout a lifetime. If anyone personally knows a Canadian Mountie, you are now obliged to introduce me. Should I have been blessed with a daughter, I always wanted to name her Sadie after Hilda Stahl’s heroine, Sadie Rose. But perhaps the reason I love these so much to this day is that my father read each of these books with me, discussing them with me, loving the characters with me, and joining me in the adventures that I loved so much. Priceless.

Favorite Authors as a Parent

Hands down Mo Willems. No contest. Go on an adventure with Pigeon, Elephant and Piggie, Knufflebunny, or Edwina right now! As my boys have gotten older, we have thoroughly enjoyed reading through some Gordon Korman novels. Don’t tell anyone, but The Unteachables and Ungifted actually made my fourteen-year-old laugh out loud. While not my personal cup of tea, Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey have earned my ultimate respect. My boys love Greg Heffley and Dogman the way I love Ramona and Garfield. Kudos to those authors for encouraging my boys to read!

Family Favorite

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - Wait! Let me explain! For fifteen years I could have cared less about dear Harry, but when our oldest son participated in the CCYT production of Sally Cotter, we figured we should at least read the first novel so we would get the puns in the play. My husband was the first to succumb. This is only significant if you understand that he does NOT read fiction….ever. He is strictly a non-fiction, trivia, newspaper kind of reader. He read the ENTIRE SERIES…..ON HIS PHONE (don’t even get me started)....IN A MONTH! Well, there was no way I was going to let him out-read me. I did not read them on my phone, it took me many months, and it wasn’t until the end of book 3 that I was completely hooked, but hooked I was! My youngest listened to the entire series on audiobooks and has just recently completed reading the final novel. He has always been an avid reader, so he and I were easily conquered. Now, the final domino. I never thought I would see the day when my oldest would voluntarily read something other than the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series (shout-out for you trivia lovers). He is now completely engrossed in book 5, steeped in appreciation for how much deeper and richer the characters and plots are in literature than in the movies. Well done, Harry, well done.

Current Favorite Authors

Apologetics has been a fascinating topic for me the past few years. I would highly recommend J. Warner Wallace as an easy step into this area. Cold Case Christianity, God’s Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith also have a kid’s version that I enjoyed as much as the adult version! I LOVE Mama Bear Apologetics by Hillary Morgan Ferrer. “Chew and Spit” all of you fellow Mama Bears out there! I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. I have never cared for his Chronicles of Narnia series, so I was hesitant to try anything else he has written. Shame on me! Up next for me will be Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ and Michael Guillen’s Believing is Seeing. If you have authors in this area you enjoy, let me know!