The Biblio File
February 28, 2022
One more day until March! The first official day of spring is March 20, 2022 which, according to our calendar is also the International Day of Happiness. Looking outside today I would bet that in 3 weeks it won’t look much like spring but there’s still a lot of reasons to be happy! For the winter and snow enthusiasts- consider this bonus time to sled, snowshoe, ski and enjoy the crisp air. For those who only like the warm it’s a nice starting point for a countdown to shorts and sandals. For those who love an additional reason to stay inside and read…spring 2022 is for you!
This week the library ghost left 2 books for us to trip over when we got into work.
First Thrills compiled and edited by Lee Child is an interesting collection of short crime stories from 12 bestselling authors and 13 rising stars (though the book was published in 2010 so some of those rising stars may be bestsellers now). At the end of each story there is a little blurb about the author and other books they may have written. What a great way to take a quick bite to find out if you want to try more!
The Verdun Affair by Nick Dybek begins in France, 1921. “Tom, a young American orphaned in World War I, is working at an ossuary in Verdun, helping priests comfort families seeking answers about their loved ones. But nothing in his past—not his rough-and-tumble Chicago childhood nor his experiences driving ambulances across French battlefields—can prepare Tom for the arrival of Sarah Hagen. From the moment he sees her, a young woman in a blue dress desperate for news of her missing husband, he knows he will help her in any way he can.
As their affair takes them across a fractured Europe, Tom and Sarah reckon with the ways extraordinary circumstances impact the lives of ordinary people. They eventually part but when news of an amnesiac soldier in Naples reaches Tom in Paris, he sets off, only to find Sarah there, hopeful as ever, along with an Austrian journalist named Paul who has his own agenda. Years later, a chance encounter with Paul forces Tom, now a screenwriter in Hollywood, to confront his past—and the woman he’s never been able to forget.”