Real page turners
It’s called popular fiction for a good reason: it flies off the shelves in bookstores, libraries, and airport gift shops. Also known as vacation books or trade paperbacks, these novels come in various genres: mystery, romance, crime, horror, adventure, science fiction, fantasy, and period histories. The Mendocino Community Library’s Pop-Up Fiction Section was developed nearly a year ago; with nearly 90 titles, it has proven to be a favorite of many readers. If you are not familiar with any of these authors, we invite you to try one or two.
We have brand new titles by New York Times #1 bestselling writers as well as a number of evergreen authors—Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey, named one of the greatest crime novelists of all time by the Crime Writers’ Association. If you like your murder mysteries set in an English school for young women vulnerable to sinister undercurrents of rivalry and jealousy, Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes will not disappoint.
For a little Gallic ambiance, try The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester, an internationally best-selling Australian writer. When Kat Jourdan discovers a collection of priceless Dior gowns hidden in her dead grandmother’s remote cottage, she is drawn into the mystery of their origin, determined to know more about her beloved grandmother’s secret past. Prior to her writing career, Lester was a marketing executive for L’Oreal, managing the Maybelline brand, so she knows a few things about the fashion world.
In a neighboring arrondissement, Light of Paris, by Eleanor Brown, presents us with the diary of a stodgy grandmother in which she chronicles a romantic trip to Jazz Age Paris. The exciting life she lived there during the 1920s inspires her granddaughter to live her own Parisian adventure, as the story shifts between the present and the past and each woman fight for a chance to choose for herself.
To the north and west of the City of Light, in a wild Irish landscape, Niall Williams’ Four Letters of Love is an affecting love story and a testament to the power of magic and fate. Called a “classic of Irish literature” by the Belfast Telegraph, the novel is currently being made into a movie with Pierce Brosnan and Helena Bonham Carter.
Continuing in the Hibernian mode, Flynn Berry’s Northern Spy is a portrait of the modern IRA and of sisterhood and motherhood, as well as a look at life in a deeply divided country. Named by both the New York Times and the Washington Post as one of the top thrillers of 2021, Northern Spy was chosen by Reese Witherspoon for her Book Club: “I loved this unputdownable thrill ride of a book.”
Just off the coast of the Emerald Isle on a remote island, a dizzying array of suspects at a celebrity wedding populate Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, called “the perfect whodunit” by Marie Claire. There’s a murder, but there’s so much more than that. The Library Journal promises that “Fans of Christie, Louise Penny, and Ruth Rendell will absolutely love this book.”
Jenny Colgan is a Scottish writer of romantic comedy fiction and science-fiction, and the library owns several of her titles. “Nobody does cozy, get-away-from-it-all romance like Jenny Colgan,” according to the Sunday Express. With The Little Beach Street Bakery, 500 Miles from You, and others, Colgan won the 2013 Romantic Novel of the
Year award and the 2018 Romantic Novelists’ Association award for Comedy Novel of the Year.
A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch, serves up equal parts Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse, and an appealing gentleman detective in Victorian London who investigates crime as a diversion from his life of leisure. Charles Lenox likes to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire, and a good book, but he cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery.
Set in England during and after WWII, Kate Quinn’s Rose Code is a riveting tale of three women code breakers who worked at Bletchley Park, and the spy they must find when the war is over. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip takes center stage in British life, the three friends suspect that a traitor is lurking in the shadows.
Another story with historical roots is The Second Mrs. Astor, by Shana Abe, which brings to life the romantic love story between John Jacob Astor and his young bride, Madeleine. You may fall in love with this appealing couple as they move from their honeymoon in Egypt to their mansion on Fifth Avenue and, despite knowing better, find yourself hoping they avoid the tragedy that awaits on the Titanic.
Author of 19 bestsellers, some of which spent over a year on the NYT list, Lisa Jewell has been called “the queen of psychological suspense.” Among her more popular titles are the domestic dramas The Family Upstairs and the million-copy seller Then She Was Gone, which delves into the lingering effects on her family of a 15-year-old girl’s disappearance.
In Jessica Francis
Kane’s Rules for Visiting, when 40-year-old gardener May Attaway receives a month of vacation from the university where she works, she decides to visit four old friends, each one from different periods of her life. Through this starting point, Kane explores the mysteries of female friendship over time and especially now in the digital age.
I have mentioned only a few of our Pop-Up Fiction titles, but drop by the library sometime and check out a couple. The Mendocino Community Library is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. Besides books, we have magazines, jigsaw puzzles, books on CD, and movie DVDs. On our web page (https://www.mendocinocommunitylibrary.org/) you can find any item in our collection.