Heard Any Good Books Lately? August 2022 edition - Transcript The content of this program is intended for people who are blind and print impaired. Hello and welcome to our August 2022 edition of “Heard Any Good Books Lately?” a program from the North Carolina Reading Service. I’m George Douglas. This program is brought to you by the Friends of the North Carolina Library for the Blind, an organization of citizens, volunteers and patrons all interested in supporting the library and the services it provides. The Friends group was founded in 1989 and now has more than 300 members across North Carolina. If you would like to join the Friends group yourself, we’ll have information on how to do that later in the program. This program is all about books, with special emphasis on those available from the State Library of North Carolina – Accesible Books and Library Services. The library has more than 86,000 titles in its collection. Books and magazines are available in large print, Braille and talking books as well. The library also has more than 11-thousand patrons across the state. If you are not a patron but are interested in becoming one, I’ll have more information at the end of this program. This month we will take a look at some of the most popular books checked out in the month of July at the State Library of North Carolina - Accessible Books and Library   The Paris Apartment, a novel by Lucy Foley From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide… Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question. The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.   The No Show by Beth O’Leary Three women. Three dates. One missing man... 8.52 a.m. Siobhan is looking forward to her breakfast date with Joseph. She was surprised when he suggested it - she normally sees him late at night in her hotel room. Breakfast on Valentine's Day surely means something ... so where is he? 2.43 p.m. Miranda's hoping that a Valentine's Day lunch with Carter will be the perfect way to celebrate her new job. It's a fresh start and a sign that her life is falling into place: she's been dating Carter for five months now and things are getting serious. But why hasn't he shown up? 6.30 p.m. Joseph Carter agreed to be Jane's fake boyfriend at an engagement party. They've not known each other long but their friendship is fast becoming the brightest part of her new life in Winchester. Joseph promised to save Jane tonight. But he's not here... Meet Joseph Carter. That is, if you can find him. The No-Show is the brilliantly funny, heart-breaking and joyful new novel from Beth O'Leary about dating, and waiting, and the ways love can find us. An utterly extraordinary tearjerker of a book, this is O'Leary's most ambitious novel yet.   19 Minutes to Live: Helicopter combat in Vietnam by Lew Jennings "19 Minutes to Live" illustrates the incredible courage and determination of helicopter pilots and crews supporting those heroes that carried a rucksack and a rifle in Vietnam. Over 12,000 helicopters were used in the Vietnam War, which is why it became known as "The Helicopter War". Almost half of the helicopters, 5,086, were lost. Helicopter pilots and crews accounted for nearly 10 percent of all the US casualties suffered in Vietnam, with nearly 5,000 killed and an untold number of wounded. Lew Jennings flew over 700 Air Cavalry Cobra Gunship Helicopter missions and received Three Distinguished Flying Crosses for Valor. This memoir describes first-hand the harrowing experiences of helicopter pilots and crews in combat operations, from the far South to the DMZ, including the infamous Ashau Valley, Hamburger Hill, LZ Airborne and others.   Sister Stardust by Jane Green small-town British girl relocates to London, where she gets involved with a fast crowd that introduces her to psychedelic drugs, free love, and complicated questions. In 1960s England, Claire Collins has long yearned to leave rural Dorset and build a bigger life full of glamour. When her widowed father remarries, her desire to hit the road only intensifies. After a particularly nasty fight with her stepmother, Claire boards the first train to London with little more than pocket money and determination. After a dicey beginning, she finds lodging in a hostel and a job working as a shopgirl. Then she meets John McKenna, a young man with connections to the burgeoning British music scene. Before long, John is introducing Claire to one celebrity after another, well-known musicians and famous groupies. On a whim, Claire’s new famous friends bring her to Morocco, where she meets Talitha Getty, the wife of enormously wealthy Paul Getty. As Claire falls under the dizzying spell of riches and nonstop parties, she tries everything her new friends offer her, from LSD to opium and orgies. The more deeply entrenched she becomes, the more she begins to wonder whether the new life she’s created for herself contains more pitfalls than prizes. Chock-full of vibrant historical details about London and Morocco in the 1960s, Green’s first foray into historical fiction does not disappoint. The novel shines brightest when Claire, who narrates, first arrives in London and again when she forms her initial impressions of Morocco. Green portrays the scenery and atmosphere so vividly that readers will be instantly transported. The descriptions of Marrakech, with its bright colors and beautiful architecture, present an especial sensory delight. While Claire seems to believe the story she tells is about Talitha, the narrative is really about an average girl’s brief brush with fame during an unprecedented time, tackling difficult questions of self-doubt, fulfillment, and individual purpose—complete with cameo appearances by Mick Jagger, John Lennon, and a host of others. A provocative story about youth culture during the 1960s, overflowing with sex, drugs, and rock and roll.   The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J Mondragon Mondragon debuts with this charming tale of knitting, faith, and change. Margaret Benson, a passionate, brusque member of Hope of Glory Community Church, runs the congregation’s Heavenly Hugs Prayer Shawl Ministry, just as she runs most everything at the struggling church. But life is about to change for Margaret and her band of knitters when the Prayer Chapel is closed for repainting and they must find a new place to knit. Rector Pete McIlhaney has an ulterior motive: the church will close if congregation numbers continue to fall and he hopes Heavenly Hugs can help by spreading the positive message of Hope of Glory to recruit new members. Margaret, Rose, Jane, and Fran move first to the local bookstore at the mall and then to the couches outside Macy’s. Despite Margaret’s disgruntled view of Rector Pete for forcing them out, Heavenly Hugs begins to make a difference and new members flock to the group: Sarah asks for prayer for an upcoming test; Eileen is gifted a prayer shawl and begins visiting the church; Celeste asks for prayer for her sick boss, the bookstore manager; Amy and Kineasha ask for knitting lessons. As the knitting group catches on, lives begin to change and even Margaret’s rough demeanor thaws. Inspirational fans who enjoy the work of Rachel Hauck will love this story.   Tiger in the Sea: the ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival by Eric Lindner Businessman Lindner (Hospice Voices) recounts in this dramatic history the 1962 crash-landing of a charter plane in the North Atlantic and the survivors’ fight to stay alive as they waited hours to be rescued. En route with 68 passengers, including a Hawaiian family and 30 U.S. paratroopers, from Newfoundland to Germany, pilot John Murray was 1,000 miles from land when one of the plane’s four engines caught fire. A second engine was lost when a crew member mistakenly pulled the lever for a shutoff valve. Murray decided to ditch the plane after a fire broke out in the third engine. Fifty-one people who survived the crash landing into the storm-tossed ocean made it onto the one available life raft (which was designed to hold 20 and had accidentally been inflated upside down). Every time a wave hit, the raft threatened to capsize and toxic aviation fuel leached into the survivors’ wounds. It took six hours for the closest ship, a Swiss freighter, to reach the crash site. Remarkably, all but three of the people on the life raft survived. Lindner recounts the action in crisp, colorful prose and skillfully interweaves the perspectives of multiple passengers and crew members, their family members, and people who took part in the rescue operation. Aviation and adventure buffs will be riveted.   The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd Review by Vivian Shaw March 24, 2022 Peng Shepherd’s “The Cartographers” is, at its heart, about three things: family, found and otherwise; how much of one’s life can be built and balanced on a single lie; and the transformative nature of cartography. Its examination of this last aspect is what takes the book from an enjoyable, fast-paced (and fantastical) thriller to something you want to put down and think about before rereading it — snarling viciously at anyone who tries to pick it up before you can get that second pass. It’s brilliant. One of the triumphs of “The Cartographers” is the exploration of what it means to make a map. Does the act of surveying, measuring, drafting and drawing the map affect the landscape it represents? Is it possible to map something without altering it in the process? How accurate can any map be, given that it only represents a snapshot of that landscape at one point in time, and to what extent does this matter? “The Cartographers” explores these questions with deep, vivid intensity; it will make you think twice about the power of paper maps, especially in a world where they’ve been supplanted by electronic devices. Nell Young’s passion is cartography. Intelligent and accomplished, she’d been poised to follow in her father’s footsteps as the second Dr. Young, dedicated to the study and restoration of historic maps at the New York Public Library. That career, along with Nell’s relationship with a fellow cartographer, was shattered in a screaming argument with her father seven years ago over the authenticity of three maps. Fired from the library and blacklisted in academia, she’s reduced to photoshopping water stains onto prints of historic maps at Classic Maps and Atlases™ in Brooklyn to make rent. Then her father is found dead in his office at the library, and in a secret compartment of his desk, Nell finds a battered, 90-year-old gas station road map — one of the very questionable maps that had sent her packing seven years ago. The mystery deepens when she discovers that this map is an incredibly rare and sought-after collector’s item that’s described by other institutions as MISSING, DESTROYED or STOLEN. As Nell wades further into her investigation, with the help of her ex-boyfriend and fellow scholar, Felix (who now works at tech giant Haberson Global, refining algorithms for the predictive, constantly evolving, interactive Haberson Map), she reconnects one by one with the members of a mysterious — and sinister — organization known as the Cartographers. They turn out to be friends of Nell’s parents from their university days who remember Nell as a toddler. Shepherd gives us the backstory in individual flashbacks from the perspectives of several Cartographers, handling the segues so smoothly that the shifts back to Nell’s current point of view slip past like silk. At first the huddled secrecy of the group seems excessive, but as events unfold, it becomes clear that everything they have done, and everything Nell’s father did to her on that awful afternoon, has been to keep Nell safe. The gas station map hides — in plain sight — a secret valuable enough to kill for, which throws into question the entire structure of reality: Is the act of printing a thing on a map enough to bring it into existence? Could drawing a door, or a room, or a staircase on a map create one? Nell is drawn into an increasingly dangerous sequence of events that sheds light on the secrets within secrets that surround her mother’s death decades earlier. In the process of confronting and addressing what really happened and the covert, decades-long quest to find a way back to what was lost, the decision is up to Nell whether to change fate or to be swept along with it. Shepherd, also the author of “The Book of M,” nails the sense of deep-seated, profound connection and love between a small group of people drawn together by shared experience and interest, creating an intense familial bond. The Cartographers met in college and stayed connected through doctoral study and work, pushing each other to far greater heights than they’d have managed academically and personally on their own. “I thought we were going to be friends forever,” one of the Cartographers recalls. “I thought nothing could tear us apart.” The tragedy of the book is what happens to that bond — and why. “The Cartographers” is both beautiful and intellectual, and Shepherd sticks the landing in a deeply satisfying fashion, echoing Edmund Spenser: “For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.” The Cartographers, Review by Vivian Shaw, March 2022 A History of the 20th Century by Martin Gilbert A chronological compilation of twentieth-century world events in one volume—from the acclaimed historian and biographer of Winston S. Churchill. The twentieth century has been one of the most unique in human history. It has seen the rise of some of humanity’s most important advances to date, as well as many of its most violent and terrifying wars. This is a condensed version of renowned historian Martin Gilbert’s masterful examination of the century’s history, offering the highlights of a three-volume work that covers more than three thousand pages. From the invention of aviation to the rise of the Internet, and from events and cataclysmic changes in Europe to those in Asia, Africa, and North America, Martin examines art, literature, war, religion, life and death, and celebration and renewal across the globe, and throughout this turbulent and astonishing century.   The Homewreckers by Mary Kay Andrews A young Georgia widow flips a historic house and finds evidence of a long-missing woman while developing a growing attraction for a co-worker. Hattie Kavanaugh married her high school sweetheart and lost him to a motorcycle accident after just a few years of marriage. Almost seven years on, she’s still living in her unfinished bungalow renovation near Savannah, grieving her husband, Hank, and flipping houses with his dad, Tug; her best friend, Cassidy Pelletier; and Cass’ mother, Zenobia. After a disastrous flip where Hattie loses all her savings on a gorgeous—but dilapidated—157-year-old home, Hattie decides to take an offer to star in a Home Place Television Network production with Cass that will bring in a steady paycheck as she works on her next flip and tries to earn back the money she’s lost. The catch—which she doesn’t know but her producer, Mo Lopez, does—is that the show she signed on for has changed in concept from a straight house-flipping show to a house-flip–meets–dating-show, where the goal is for the handsome designer, Trae Bartholomew, to seduce her over the course of the series. Hattie digs deep to fund the flip, pawning her engagement ring and taking a loan from her father, a wealthy ex-felon who has served time in prison for embezzlement. Author Andrews has packed a lot into this story: Not only is there drama from the reality show and Hattie’s growing attraction to a co-worker, but 17 years earlier beloved local schoolteacher Lanier Ragan went missing, and the story follows both the renovation of the long-abandoned beach home Hattie buys and the discovery of evidence in the cold case of the teacher’s disappearance. A fun story with twists and turns that will appeal to romantics and cold-case fans alike. The Finders: A Mace Reid K-9 Mystery by Jeffrey B Burton Jeffrey B. Burton's THE KEEPERS is the next installment of the Mace Reid K-9 series, featuring golden retriever cadaver dog Vira and her handler, Mason Reid. Mason “Mace” Reid lives on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in human remains detection --- that is, he trains dogs to hunt for dead bodies. He calls his pack of cadaver dogs The Finders, and his prize pupil is a golden retriever named Vira. When Mace Reid and Vira are called in to search Washington Park at 3:00 in the morning, what they find has them running for their very lives. The trail of murder and mayhem Mace and CPD Officer Kippy Gimm have been following leads them to uncover treachery and corruption at the highest level, and their discoveries do not bode well for them...nor for the Windy City itself. THE KEEPERS is an exciting, fast-paced mystery filled with courageous dogs you'll want to root for.   Closing That’s all for this month’s edition of “Heard Any Good Books Lately? I’m George Douglas. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like more information about how to become a patron of the State Library of North Carolina - Accessible Books and Library Services, simply Google or search for Accessible Books – North Carolina Library – or call toll free -888-388-2460. That’s 888-388-2460. You can also use the same numbers and website to join the Friends of the NC Library for the Blind. It is that wonderful organization that sponsors this monthly feature on books. This program is intended for people who are blind or print impaired. “Heard Any Good Books Lately” will be available right after the broadcast at our website NCReadingService.Org. So long until next time.