The Good Stuff
From Driftwood Public Library
August 2021
 
COVID-19 Services:
The library has reopened for browsing! We are also continuing to provide curbside takeout services, reference services via phone and email, and a host of digital offerings! For up to the minute information on changes in library services, follow us on Facebook or contact us at librarian@lincolncity.org.
 
August is Read a Romance Month!
 
This month's virtual display will feature romances of all types. Even if you're not into romances, we bet there's something in here for you.
 
Romance Month Reads
Twice shy
by Sarah Hogle

Inheriting half of a Tennessee estate in considerable need of repairs, a hopeless romantic clashes with her fellow heir, an alluring but stoic groundskeeper whose visions for the property differ from her own. Original.
Incense and Sensibility
by Sonali Dev

After his friend is injured in a hate-fueled incident at a campaign rally, California’s first Indian gubernatorial candidate turns to a stress management coach/yogi in the new novel from the author of Recipe for Persuasion. Original. 100,000 first printing.
While we were dating
by Jasmine Guillory

Featuring Ben Stephens, Theo’s brother from The Wedding Party, this charming and hilarious newRomance finds Ben and a famous actress struggling to keep their working relationship strictly professional. Original.
Borrowed & blue : Something Borrowed, Something Blue
by Emily Giffin

Something borrowed: After a night of indiscriminate partying, Rachel sleeps with a close friend's fiancé and is consumed with guilt, until the intensity of her feelings forces her to make a difficult choice. Something blue: Her belief in the power of beauty shattered when her fiancé dumps her for a plain woman, a pregnant Darcy flees to London and struggles to rebuild her glamorous life before realizing that her past methods no longer work
Tiny tales : Stories of Romance, Ambition, Kindness, and Happiness
by Alexander McCall Smith

The beloved author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency offers a collection of very short fiction and comics that celebrate the joy and absurdity of the human experience
A book about our relationship with nature.
Rooted : life at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit
by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

"Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt's highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness--and wildness--that sustains humans and all of life"
The assassination of the archduke : Sarajevo 1914 and the romance that changed the world
by Greg King

Draws on unpublished letters and rare primary sources to trace the story behind the tragic romance and brutal assassination attributed to the instigation of World War I, exploring rumors of Serbian complicity, conspiracy and official negligence that doomed the Archduke and his family. By the author of The Fate of the Romanovs
Enemies in love : a German POW, a black nurse, and an unlikely romance
by Alexis Clark

A true and deeply moving narrative of forbidden love during World War II also provides a shocking, hidden history of race on the home front. 17,500 first printing.
Staff Picks
Kirsten's Picks
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite. If a historical romance with suppressed women scientists, a young widow, lesbian love, and amazing descriptions of embroidery sounds like your kind of thing, you will LOVE this.
 
The lady's guide to celestial mechanics
by Olivia Waite
Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. One of the reasons I loved this is that Hibbert does a great job of treating Chloe’s experiences with chronic illness realistically. Plus the love interest goes to therapy, which is incredibly swoon-worthy!
 
Get a life, Chloe Brown
by Talia Hibbert

"Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost--but not quite--dying, she's come up with seven directives to help her "Get a Life", and she's already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family's mansion. The next items? Enjoy a drunken night out. Ride a motorcycle. Go camping. Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. And... do something bad. But it's not easy being bad, even when you've written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job. Redford 'Red' Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He's also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit. But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe's wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior.."
My Boyfriend is a Bear by Pamela Ribon. Nora has had bad experience after bad experience with lousy boyfriends. One day, she has a chance run-in with a bear… which turns into the best relationship she’s ever had! But can their love survive hibernation? I realize this sounds bizarre, but it’s really funny and even moving at times.
 
My boyfriend is a bear
by Pamela Ribon

A chance encounter with a bear in the Los Angeles Hills leads to the best relationship Nora has ever had, but winning over her family and friends and his looming hibernation will test if true love can really conquer all
Fangs by Sarah Anderson. What happens when a vampire and a werewolf date? Lots of shenanigans! You may be familiar with Sarah Anderson from her comic series “Sarah’s Scribbles,” but this series of funny and sweet comics showcases her artwork in an entirely different way.
 
Fangs
by Sarah Andersen

The creator of the popular Sarah’s Scribbles comics presents the offbeat love story of a 300-year-old vampire who finally meets her match on a night when she meets a charming werewolf in a bar, with unexpectedly awkward results. Illustrations.
Time Was by Ian MacDonald. I usually am not a huge fan of time travel stories, which tend to spend excessive amounts of time on their own cleverness. This novella about two men who fall in love during World War II and end up chasing each other across time and space, trying to make their timelines overlap, won me over completely. It’s poignant and beautifully written, a little gem of a book.
 
Time was
by Ian McDonald

"A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books. In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two found a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found. Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate time lines overlap"--Back cover
Bonus Recommendation: A Bromantic Read
 
Saint Young Men by Hikaru Nakamura. Ok, it’s not a romance, but our protagonists squabble like a married couple! Jesus and the Buddha are taking a vacation from Heaven together to experience 21st century Japan, and hilarity ensues. I have never laughed so hard at a manga in my life! Nakamura can’t resist the easy laugh or a great visual gag, but this comedy manga is also chock full of deep-cut references to Buddhism and Christianity; thankfully, there are plenty of end notes to explain some of the references to Western audiences, and I have learned a lot about Buddhism along the way. It might be a bit sacrilegious for some audiences, but as a former parochial school kid and undergrad Religion minor, I could not love it more.
 
Saint Young Men 1
by Hikaru Nakamura
 
Hobbes's Picks
The next always
by Nora Roberts

Olivia tries to reconstruct in detail the night her mother, a member of the Hollywood elite, was murdered. Reprint.
The obsession
by Nora Roberts

Years after discovering her father's predatory double life, successful photographer Naomi Bowes struggles to hide her painful past from her fellow residents in a community thousands of miles away, a situation that introduces her to a new relationship and forces her to confront her demons. By the best-selling author of the In Death series.
I’ve always been leery of the label “Romance” when it comes to books, as it generally brings to my mind the covers of Harlequin novels that don’t have a single element that appeals to me (not the content- I’ve never read one- but the covers themselves send me screaming toward horror novels, whose covers tend to be just as lurid, but much more appealing to my own aesthetic). A couple years ago my best friend and I made it a point to read books that were… outside our comfort zones; to read books that we normally wouldn’t afford a second glance. For both of us that had to include a romance novel, and for me personally that meant I’d have to read a book by a particular romance writer whose books I’d been avoiding most of my life.
 
I grew up in central Maryland, right where Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland come together (which is also where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers converge at Harper’s Ferry, WV), and went to middle- and high-school in Boonsboro, MD. One of our neighbors was Ellie Aufdem-Brinke, and I remember my mom talking with Ellie when I was in Elementary school, after a PTA meeting, about a romance she’d written that had just been accepted for publication by Silhouette (which came into being in order to take advantage of submissions that had been rejected by Harlequin; Ellie’s first 6 attempts at writing were Harlequin rejects). She published her first book with Silhouette in 1981 and went on to write 23 more novels for them over the next 2 years, under the pen name Nora Roberts.
 
Mom had tried several of Roberts’ early books, and was just not impressed, so I was never inclined to read any of them myself. But she kept giving them a try over the years, and just found them… well, boring (mom was not adverse to romance herself, and had read more than her fair share of Victoria Holt . Then, in 2011, we were talking on the phone and mom said “You won’t believe this, but I actually read a Nora Roberts book that I loved.” Oh no! Don’t tell me that! Now I’ll have to give her a fair try!
 
So, a few years later, when my friend Troy and I were talking about what we would read over the next year, I know that I’d have to read that book by Nora Roberts: The Next Always, the first in the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy. And I did. And I enjoyed the hell out of it. Not the least of my pleasure was in reading about a place I knew very well: I recognized businesses that I’d grown up around, including the barbershop where I’d gotten my haircut for years as a kid (Pete’s), and the ice cream shop where I’d worked one of my first jobs, as well as the building at the heart of the novel, The Inn Boonsboro, which had been the home of the local skate shop when I was in High School (Ellie [now Wilder] and her husband purchased the building after I left the East Coast and turned it into the real-life Inn Boonsboro- you can actually go stay there). Local family names were also familiar, as was just the simple lay of the land. The story was fun, slightly menacing, and involved a charming ghost, and the romantic aspects of it were not overwhelming and they were, well… effective (let’s just say I can see why she’s so popular). Overall I had great fun reading it. The writing was strong, the story was enjoyable, and the characters were very likable.
 
I haven’t read the rest of the trilogy yet, but I fully intend to. I followed that one with one of her romantic thrillers, The Obsession, and enjoyed that one as well. There was infinitely more sex, and Roberts (simply based on a sample of two books, mind you) seems preoccupied with home renovation and interior decoration, but she has great taste in all those areas. I don’t regret for a moment giving her a try, and actually do look forward to reading more from her (and goodness knows there are plenty to choose from!) I also read a few Westerns that year, but that’s for another time.
 
Lisa's Picks
The Greatest in Romance according to romance guru Lisa:
 
Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - A fun rom com with heart and some real LOL moments, set in the world of Chicago professional sports. Part of the Chicago Stars series, but can be read as a stand-alone.
 
Match me if you can
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

A sequel to This Heart of Mine finds Annabelle Granger endeavoring to promote her grandmother's matchmaking business by landing sports agent Heath Champion as a client, an effort that is challenged by Heath's arrogant nature and Annabelle's own unexpected feelings. Reprint.
A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole - Vampires, werewolves and other fantastical creatures - oh my! The first in a series of contemporary paranormal romances, this book is a real tour de force of fun, paranormal romantic fiction with a large cast of memorable characters that venture from Paris to Scotland to New Orleans on all sorts of supernatural adventures.
 
 
A hunger like no other
by Kresley Cole

Seeking revenge for years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan of werewolves, abducts the ethereal Emmaline, a young woman who is half Valkyrie and half vampire, and finds himself falling in love with his captive
The Bride by Julie Garwood - This one is considered a classic in the world of the historical romantic fiction.  The tale of a feisty English bride married at first sight to a powerful Scottish chieftain who may or may not have murdered his first wife.  It's sweet and swoony.
 
The bride
by Julie Garwood

Ordered by the king to take an English bride, Scottish laird Alec Kincaid selects the feisty, violet-eyed Jamie, the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison, who brazenly swears to resist Alec, until she realizes her feelings have changed
The Chesapeake Bay series by Nora Roberts - Who can talk romance without giving at least a nod to the queen or romance herself, Nora Roberts?  This is my favorite trilogy of hers.  Set on the coast of Maryland, it is the tale of three brothers who feel obligated to fulfill their dad's deathbed request - that they protect and help raise his new foster child - a little boy of mysterious and potentially dangerous origins. 
 
Sea swept
by Nora Roberts

Cameron, a champion boat racer, returns home to the Maryland shore at the behest of his dying father to care for Seth, a troubled young boy
Rising tides
by Nora Roberts

Ethan Quinn works to make the family's Chesapeake Bay boatbuilding business a success while struggling--despite his dark and painful past--to find happiness with the woman whom he has always loved
Inner harbor
by Nora Roberts

Advertising executive Phillip Quinn joins forces with the beautiful Sybill to protect a young boy from his opportunistic mother
Chesapeake blue
by Nora Roberts

Returning as a successful artist to the home of the family that adopted him, Seth Quinn is intrigued by independent newcomer Dru Whitcomb Banks, who is hesitant to trust Seth, while dark secrets from the past threaten the entire Quinn family
Jonathan's Picks
Miss Meteor by Anna-Marie McLemore and Tehlor Kay Mejia
A wonderfully sweet story of a girl that needs the help of her friends to win a local beauty pageant despite not being tall, white, and blonde. She’s got the added stress of being an actual alien in a town obsessed with extra-terrestrials and her friends might have some relationship issues that need working out before she has to go back into space.
 
Miss Meteor
by Tehlor Kay Mejia

A teen who secretly arrived with the meteor that gave her small hometown its name discovers that she is turning back into stardust and teams up with her best friend in an effort to secure her human existence by entering a local beauty pageant that has always been won by thin, blonde, white girls. 50,000 first printing. Simultaneous eBook.
She drives me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen
It’s got sports, fake-dating, and small town rivalries. Honestly just a fun YA romance I could easily see as a movie.
 
She drives me crazy
by Kelly Quindlen

Getting into a fender-bender with a beautiful rival after an embarrassing loss to her ex, a talented basketball athlete reluctantly agrees to a carpool arrangement before an opportunity for revenge leads to an unlikely relationship. 35,000 first printing. Simultaneous eBook.
Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christopher
He writes listicles, she is too busy climbing corporate ladders to have time to date. His new assignment is to write a piece outlining how to get a woman to dump you. It’s hard to get dumped though when you actually catch feelings. 
 
Not the girl you marry
by Andie J. Christopher

"To prove to her boss that she’s not scared of feelings, Hannah Mayfield decides Jack Mayfield is the perfect man to date for a couple of weeks, but, unbeknownst to her, Jack has chosen her for an article called “How to Lose a Girl."""
Matthew's Pick
It's a ZomRomCom.
 
Shaun of the dead

Slacker Shaun decides to turn his life around and win back the girlfriend who just dumped him by taking on the hoardes of flesh-eating zombies that are beginning to take over the streets of London
New Arrivals!
Non-Fiction
We are the Baby-Sitters Club : essays and artwork from grown-up readers
by Marisa Crawford

"Ann M. Martin's Baby-Sitters Club series featured a complex cast of characters and touched on an impressive range of issues that were underrepresented at the time: divorce, adoption, childhood illness, class division, and racism. In We Are the Baby-Sitters Club, writers and a few visual artists from the original BSC generation will reflect on the enduring legacy of Ann M. Martin's beloved series, thirty-five years later-celebrating the BSC's profound cultural influence"
From the streets of Shaolin : the Wu-Tang saga
by S. H. Fernando

This definitive history of the rap supergroup examines their genesis and evolution from their start in the housing projects of Staten Island to the hip-hop renaissance they helped usher in during the 1990s. 40,000 first printing.
Black girl baking : wholesome recipies inspired by a soulful upbringing
by Jerrelle Guy

A collection of recipes for soul-inspired baked goods from the creator of the Chocolate For Basil vegetarian blog features such options as plaited dukkah bread; honey buns; strawberry, balsamic shortcake; and banana s'mores pizza
Fiction
Happy endings : a novel
by Thien-Kim Lam

Determined to make her sex toy business a success, Trixie Nguyen teams up with her ex, a struggling restaurant owner, and, as both businesses pick up, they find their steamy truce turning into something more. Original. 40,000 first printing.
Libertie
by Kaitlyn Greenidge

"Coming of age as a free-born Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson was all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, had a vision for their future together: Libertie would go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie feels stifled by her mother's choices and is hungry for something else. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it -- for herself and for generations to come"
Rhapsody
by Mitchell James Kaplan

"One evening in 1924, Katharine "Kay" Swift--the restless but loyal society wife of wealthy banker James Warburg and a serious pianist who longs for recognition--attends a concert. The piece: Rhapsody in Blue. The composer: a brilliant, elusive young musical genius named George Gershwin. Kay is transfixed, helpless to resist the magnetic pull of George's talent, charm, and swagger. Their ten-year love affair, complicated by her conflicted loyalty to her husband and the twists and turns of her own musicalcareer, ends only with George's death from a brain tumor at the age of thirty-eight. Set in Jazz Age New York City, this stunning work of fiction, for fans of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank, explores the timeless bond between two brilliant, strong-willed artists. George Gershwin left behind not just a body of work unmatched in popular musical history, but a woman who loved him with all her heart, knowing all the while that he belonged not to her, but to the world"
Young Adult
Summer in the city of roses
by Michelle Ruiz Keil

In 1990s Portland, Oregon, seventeen-year-old Iph, aided by George, a modern-day Robin Hood, seeks her sensitive fifteen-year-old brother, Orr, while Orr has escaped wilderness boot camp and is residing with The Furies, an all-girl punk band
Up All Night : 13 Stories Between Sunset and Sunrise
by Laura Silverman

Featuring contributions from Karen McManus, Nina LaCour and Brandy Colbert, this collection of 13 stories captures teens in the magical hours between sunset and sunrise as they fall in love, defy space and time, and solve mysteries. Simultaneous.
Skate for your life
by Leo Baker

A professional skateboarder shares their experience as a non-binary athlete
Junior Fiction
Harry versus the first 100 days of school
by Emily Jenkins

This warm and witty chapter book follows first-grader Harry, day by day, for the first 100 days of school, during which he makes great friends, learns how to use his words and much more. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations.
Thanks a Lot, Universe
by Chad Lucas

When his anxiety spirals into panic attacks after being placed in foster care, an increasingly desperate Brian is offered shy assistance by a basketball teammate Ezra, who is concealing a secret crush. A first novel. Simultaneous eBook.
Children's Picture Books
Starboy : inspired by the life and lyrics of David Bowie
by Jami Gigot

A lonely boy feels like a stranger on his own planet until the day his radio bursts to life with the rhythm of stardust energy. Includes notes and facts about David Bowie's life
Little Bat in Night School
by Brian Lies

Excited for his first night of school, Little Bat finds his world turned upside down when he finally arrives, in this adorable picture book that celebrates the experience of going to school for the first time. 40,000 first printing. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations.

Send us your suggestions!
 
Have you recently finish a great book, movie, or TV series? Want to recommend it to others? Now is your chance!
 
Click here to complete the Patron Picks form. The title(s) you suggest may be featured in future The Good Stuff newsletters. You can include any comments you have about how good the book, TV series, DVD, or other item is. Your recommendation may also be anonymous. 
 
Let us know what you loved and why you loved it so we can tell others!
 
On Order and Ready for Holds
HOLDS! PLACE YOUR HOLDS RIGHT HERE!
We've got some great books coming to the library in the next few months and you can place your holds on them right now!
 
Fiction

Crossroads – Jonathan Franzen
Bewilderment – Richard Powers
The Magician – Colm Toibin
Matrix – Lauren Groff
Oh, William - Elizabeth Strout
Inseparable - Simone De Beauvoir
Poison for Breakfast - Lemony Snickett
Take Me With You When You Go - David Levithan
Never Say You Can’t Survive - Charlie Jane Anders
Better off dead : a Jack Reacher novel -  Lee Child  Andrew Child
The Lincoln Highway - Amor Towles
19 Yellow Moon Road - Fern Michaels
Non-Fiction

Taste: My Life Through Food – Stanley Tucci
Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes – Phoebe Robinson
Poet Warrior – Joy Harjo
On Animals - Susan Orlean
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music -  Dave Grohl
Zen & the Art of Saving the Planet - Thich Nhat Hanh
Trisha’s Kitchen: Easy Comfort Food for Friends & Family - Trisha Yearwood
Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir - Stevie van Zandt
Beat Bobby Flay: Conquer the Kitchen with 100+ Battle-Tested Recipes: A Cookbook -  Bobby Flay
Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem - Amanda Gorman
American Happiness & Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020 - George F Will
The Case for Heaven: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for Life After Death - Lee Strobel
Countdown bin Laden: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice - Chris Wallace
Forever Young: A Memoir - Hayley Mills
What About the Baby?: Some Thoughts on Art & Fiction - Alice McDermott
The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism - Tucker Carlson
Renegades: Born in the USA - Barack Obama
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside - Nick Offerman
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) - David Sedaris
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence - Anita Hill
You Were Made for This Moment: Courage for Today and Hope for Tomorrow - Max Lucado
Browse Our New Binge Collections
Check out our new Binge Boxes - movie series and collections bundled together for easy check out.
 
Here's a sample of the titles you can borrow:
  • A lesson in humor -- comedies for teachers
  • The sunshine state matinee
  • If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere : NYC
  • Rip-roaring West Coast
  • Don’t go in the water
  • Kid's movies: The 90s
We will be adding more titles to this new collection over time. Click here to search our catalog for "Binge Box".
 
Free Mystery Book Grab Bags
Want to take a gamble on a selection of free books? We're now offering FREE bags of used books, first come, first-served! Give us a call at 541-996-2277 and let us know 
what type of grab bag you'd like, then schedule a curbside pick-up and receive 5-10 books. The books are yours to keep. Currently available grab bag types:
  • Cookbooks/DIY/Gardening
  • Adult Non-fiction
  • Adult Fiction
  • Historical Fiction
  • Thrillers
  • Fantasy/SF/Horror
  • Romance
  • Children's Chapter Books
 
Please note: We are not able to fulfill requests for specific authors or titles - the books in your bag will be selector's choice.
 
When you're done with the books, feel free to pass them on to a friend or place them in your local Little Library.

We hope to see you very soon. Stay healthy and stay safe.
 
Sincerely,
 
The Staff of Driftwood Public Library
Driftwood Public Library
801 SW Hwy 101
Lincoln City, OR 97367
www.driftwoodlib.org
Phone: 541-996-2277
Email: Librarian@lincolncity.org
Library staff are available by phone Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM until 5:00 PM