Archive | May, 2022

Two Delightful Digital Audiobook Mysteries narrated by Johanna Parker: Brownies & Broomsticks and Beaches, Bungalows, & Burglaries

11 May

Recently I enjoyed two fun mysteries narrated by the always enjoyable Johanna Parker who has a soothing voice with just a little twang and spunkiness added to it for her Southern protagonists.  Johanna Parker has won both an AudioFile Earphones Award and an Audie Award for her narrations.  Her most notable narration has been Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries.

Brownies & Broomsticks
by Bailey Cates
Brownie & Broomsticks is the first of the Magical Bakery Mystery series.  Katie Lightfoot leaves her job in Ohio to open a new bakery in Savannah with her aunt and uncle.  If you love baking too, there are instructions at the beginning of the digital audiobook for how to get recipes from the story for Lightfoot’s Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies and Cheddar Sage Scones. But more than just recipes are brewing, Katie learns in the novel not only is her aunt a witch, but she is too!  Add in some potential love interests and if that wasn’t enough drama a customer is murdered and her uncle is the main suspect.  Parker only narrated the first in the series, with the also charming Amy Rubinate narrating the subsequent nine installments. The book is also available in print from BCCLS libraries. 

Beaches, Bungalows, & Burglaries
by Tonya Kappes
Part one of Tonya Kappes’s Camper and Criminals Cozy Mystery series, Beaches Bungalows, & Burglaries is another enjoyable mystery narrated by Johanna Parker.  Mae West (no, not the Hollywood actress, but the wife of Paul West who was arrested for a Ponzi scheme) has been forced to downsize considerably from her big city NY lifestyle to living in a camper and trying to make a go running a tourist campground in Kentucky.  Things are tough enough with residents blaming her for her husband’s thievery, but then he escapes from jail and turns up dead.  Parker’s fans will be pleased that she narrates all 20 books in the series including the most recent Blossoms, Barbeque, & Blackmail.

Do you love mysteries? Consider joining us for the Hoboken Public Library Mystery Book Club!

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

4 May

Check out a variety of terrific adult fiction and nonfiction books for AAPI Heritage Month available as ebooks from eLibraryNJ, eBCCLS, and Hoopla. Also available in print from BCCLS libraries.

Adult Fiction
Interior Chinatown
Charles Yu
A deeply personal story about race, pop culture, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play. Willis Wu discovers the secret history of Chinatown & the buried legacy of his own family.

You can also read a previous post about Yu’s How to Live Safely in A Science Fictional Universe.

Win Me Something
Kyle Lucia Wu
A nuanced coming-of age debut story about a biracial Chinese American woman in NJ who asks what it really means to belong and how she might begin to define her own life.

The Verifiers
Jane Pek
A young Chinese American woman is hired by a detective agency to verify people’s online dating personas. But when a client turns up dead, she investigates.

My Year Abroad
Chang-Rae Lee
An entertaining story of a young American whose life is transformed when a Chinese American businessman suddenly takes him under his wing on an adventure across Asia.

A Song Everlasting
Ha Jin
A timely story that follows a famous Chinese singer severed from his country as he tries to find his way in the U.S. and reclaim his ethnic identity and maintain his art.

Homeland Elegies
Ayad Akhtar
A Muslim-American family struggles to survive in the U.S. following the tragedy of 9/11. The compelling story takes us from palatial suites in Europe to guerilla lookouts in the Afghan mountains.

Pachinko
Min Jin Lee
A saga that follows a Korean family from the 1900s through 8 decades & 4 generations. A Korean girl’s unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame her family so she leaves Korea starting a chain of events.

Searching for Sylvie Lee
Jean Kwok
A drama untangling the complicated ties that bind two Chinese sisters and their mother as the eldest daughter disappears and family secrets emerge.

Adult Non-Fiction
Rise: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now
Jeff Yang
A mass media and pop culture tribute to Asian Americans. This vivid scrapbook focuses on voices, emotions and memories from an era in which Asian culture was transformed.

On Monday, May 23 at 6:00 pm, join us for a special AAPI Book Club discussing “Rise” led by Jennie Pu, Hoboken Public Library Director in the Small Programming Room (lower level, 500 Park Ave, Main Branch). See the HPL calendar for other great AAPI Heritage Month events!

Crying in the H Mart
Michelle Zauner
A powerful memoir from the indie rock star of Japanese Breakfast fame about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother & finding herself.

The Groom Will Keep His Name
Matt Ortile
A collection of tender essays on sex, dating, and identity from a gay Filipino immigrant learning to navigate race, resistance, and romance in America.

This is What America Looks Like
Ilhman Omar
An intimate memoir by the first African refugee, first Somali-American, & one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

Facing the Mountain
Daniel James Brown
A true story of the Japanese-American heroes in WWII. Interviews with the families of 4 soldiers who were part of the Japanese-American Army unit that overcame brutal odds in Europe.

Flying Free
Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon
The compelling story of how Filipino Cecilia Aragon broke barriers and became the first female Latino pilot on the U.S. Aerobatic Team.

Book List Adapted from 2022 AAPI Heritage Month Brochure created by:
Ethan Galvin
Information and Digital Services Librarian

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