Heard Any Good Books Lately? June 2022 edition - Transcript
[Music]
0:11
The content of this program is intended for people who are blind and print impaired. Hello and welcome to our June 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 and Physically Handicapped. 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'd like to join the friends group yourself, we'll have information on how to do that later in the program.
0:55
This program is all about books with emphasis on those available from the North Carolina library for the blind. The library has more than 86000 titles in its collection books and magazines are available in large print, braille and talking books as well. The library has more than 11000 patrons across the state and if you're not a patron but are interested in becoming one I’ll have more information at the end of this program.
1:25
This month, we'll take a look at some of the most popular books checked out in the month of May at the state library of North Carolina accessible books and library services. By the way that's a new name for the North Carolina Library for the Blind and I’ll repeat that again at the end of this program.
1:45
Now let's begin. Our first book for today is entitled just let go by Courtney Walsh. Here's the plot. For Quinn Collins buying the flower shop in downtown harbor point fulfills a childhood dream but it also gives her the chance to stick it to her mom who owned the store before skipping town 20 years ago and never looking back, while completing much needed renovations. However, while also competing for a prestigious flower competition with her mother as the head judge soon has Quinn in over her head, not that she'd ever ask for help. Luckily, she may not need to. Quinn’s father and his meddling friends find the perfect solution in notorious Olympic skier Grady Benson, who had only planned on passing through the old-fashioned lakeside town. But when a heated confrontation leads to property damage, helping Quinn as a community service sentence seems like the quickest way out and the best way to avoid more negative press.
Quinn finds Grady reckless and entitled. He thinks she's uptight and too regimented. Yet as the two begin to hammer and saw Quinn sees glimpses of the vulnerability behind the bravado and Grady learns from her passion and determination qualities he seems to have lost along the way. But when a well-intentioned omission has devastating consequences, Grady finds himself cast out of town and Quinn’s life possibly forever. Forced to face the hurt holding her back, Quinn must finally let go or risk missing out on the adventure of a lifetime.
Again, that book is entitled just let go by author Courtney Walsh.
3:51
Next let's take a look at a book entitled the Paris apartment. It's a novel by Lucy Foley and from the New York Times best-selling author of the guest list comes a new locked room mystery. Set in a Paris apartment building in which every single 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. Well, 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 either. 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 is a neighbor. Everyone is a suspect. And everyone knows something that they are just not telling.
Sounds like a good mystery story the Paris apartment it’s called and it's a novel by Lucy Foley.
5:31
Next let's take a look at a book called Unyielding Hope by Janet or I think it's probably pronounced Jeanette Oke and that's spelled O-k-e, Jeanette Oke. As a young girl Lillian Walsh lost both her parents and a younger sister now in her twenties. After enduring the death of her adoptive mother, Lillian must find her place in the world. now just as her adoptive father is leaving for an extended trip, to his native Wales, a lawyer appears at the door to inform Lillian that she has inherited a small estate from her birth parents and that the sister she had long believed dead is likely alive.  when she discovers that her sister grace is living in a city not far away Lillian rushes to a reunion fearful that the years of separation will make it hard to reconnect. When the two sisters meet, grace is not at all what Lillian expected to find. Though her circumstances have been difficult, grace has big dreams. Can Lillian set aside her own plans to join her sister in an adventure that will surely change them both?
The book is entitled Unyielding Hope by Janette Oke.
7:00
Next, let's look at a book entitled proposing mischief by Regina Jennings. Only one person can give her the freedom she seeks but is it worth the risk? here's the plot. Macy Kenworth is being forced to stay on her parents’ ranch. After a short-lived relationship with the wrong man, she's worried about inflaming things further between her former beau and her protective family. left to rue her mistakes, she keeps busy exploring the idol mine at the edge of their property where she discovers a great treasure. Boone Bragg is also stuck with his parents on vacation. The management of Bragg mining falls on him and one of his advisors wants him as a son-in-law. One wrong move and Boone will end up either offending an associate or marrying a woman he can't endure. While closing up a spent mine, Boone gets two surprises. One is a spitfire farm girl who's trespassing with a pickaxe and the other is the amazing crystal cavern that she has discovered. Suddenly Boone sees a way to overhaul the family business with part of the cavern on Kenworth land. Boone makes Macy a proposal that he hopes will solve all her problems. Instead, it throws Joplin into chaos, and it will take all of Macy’s gumption to set things straight.
Once again, this book is called proposing mischief by Regina Jennings.
8:48
Now here's a book that was very popular during the month of May, it's called Coyote Alibi a Naomi Mini Mules Mystery Book One by Jenna Burgess. This is the first book in a laugh out loud small-town murder mystery series. It's a lighthearted small-town mystery on the edge of the Navajo nation. Sounds like fun. Here's the plot.
On the edge of the Navajo nation, rookie paralegal Naomi Mini Mules pauses on a lakeside cliff top to enjoy a moonlit moment. When she hears, what might be, gunshots she decides to head for home. The next thing she hears is news of a murdered local sleaze whose passing upsets exactly no one. But when his wife can offer only a coyote for an alibi the police aren't inclined to look much further for a suspect. That leaves Naomi and her new boss Attorney Grant Carson to take up sleuthing. They navigate through a colorful assortment of criminals, surly teenagers, prominent locals, some polygamists, and a mobster or two. And then they become targets themselves.
Here's a little background on these two sleuths, it'll maybe intrigue you to want to listen to this book. Naomi Mini Mules is bluffing her way into a new paralegal career for which she is not entirely qualified. Luckily, she's smart and feisty and has lived in sage landing all her life so she knows just about everything that goes on here on the western edge of the Navajo nation. now she's also got some training and a lot of motivation as a divorced 30-something mom of two. She needs a steady job, and she wants a stable career so that's Naomi Mini Mules.
Next Grant Carson, also the key personality in this book, is middle-aged cynical and handsomely scruffy. He's a reluctant attorney, a tough ex-prosecutor from phoenix who has escaped to a remote lakeside town to practice just enough law to augment his small pension. Since arriving in sage landing, he's kept company with some attractive women, but the real passion of his life is his old yacht the deep end. So that's the story about Grant Carson. 
The book is called Coyote Alibi and it's a Naomi Mini Mules Mystery Book Number One. It's by Jenna Burges. By the way, her name is spelled J-e-n-a and Burges is B-u-r-g-e-s. Jenna Burges the Coyote Alibi sounds like a good one
[Music]
11:57
And you're listening to Heard Any Good Books Lately an exclusive production of the North Carolina Reading Service. Thanks for joining me today, I’m George Douglas, hope you're enjoying the program so far.
12:09
Next, we're going to take a look at a book entitled The Violin Conspiracy it's by Brenda Slocum and I’m going to read a review by Joshua Barone. This review was written for the New York Times back in February of this year. Joshua Barone by the way is the Assistant Performing Arts Editor on the Culture Desk and a contributing Classical Music Critic at the New York Times. The book is called The Violin Conspiracy. Here's the plot.
classical music stars lead surprisingly monotonous lives. They practice every day. They travel. They endure passport control. They check into hotels. They do it again and again. A routine punctuated and made worthwhile by the thrill of performance, so it's remarkable that a life like this makes for such a page turner. And Brendan Slocum’s debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy a musical, billed as romance, cleverly contained within a literary thriller. Ostensibly a mystery about a rising star’s instrument being stolen and held for a multi-million-dollar ransom. just days before, he had hoped to make history at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. This book fits more neatly on the shelf next to musical coming-of-age novels like Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark. Both chart the sometimes imperceptible but essential steps of an artist's development. The tedium of foundational technique. The life-changing generosity of a mentor. The wistfulness of relationships quietly lost along the way. The violin conspiracy though adds another step. The loss of a family heirloom both valuable and priceless. And its owner, Ray McMillian, who goes from weddings to the world's greatest stages and from a rented school instrument to a storied treasure, faces other problems surrounding his violin and its provenance. Early chapters tease at a settlement with Ray’s family and a lawsuit from people named Marx. This confluence of crises reminds Ray of all he has overcome in life as he rose from a disadvantaged youth to global fame. He once had little hope of college but much less a future in performance and he has long suffered the casual indignities of racism in music and beyond. After his violin is stolen, he thinks he was bringing their words to life. He was exactly what they said he was, incompetent, irresponsible. Such reflections are the heart of the novel, which begins with the theft but then retraces Ray’s past for most of the remaining pages. We learned that he grew up being told by his mother that his playing was just noise. But had he was encouraged by his grandmother. She surprised him one Christmas with his great-great grandfather's old violin, which was caked in rosin and in need of repair after decades of languishing in her attic. Well according to family lore, it was a gift that Pop-Pop, once enslaved, received from his owner as a free man. An appraisal later reveals that the fiddle is actually a Stradivarius, the stuff of violin legend. Selling it would provide a windfall. A fact lost on neither Ray’s relatives nor the Marx family’s insidiously polite descendants of Pop-Pop’s slaver who sued to get the instrument back. But Ray would never want to let go of it. He just wants to play and indeed he does under a rapidly growing spotlight. After the Stradivarius news spreads, in a classical music industry that bears little resemblance to reality, orchestral programs are planned on short notice and the irresistibly conservative conductor Ricardo Mooty is describing, is described rather, as promoting diversity in every program he developed. Well needing to ignore family and racist colleagues, Ray develops a healthy myopia. Relationships unrelated to his artistic growth fade. His unflappable discipline helps him play the role of a cocksure soloist, even as he secretly feels like a fraud or as he is reminded of his place in America by a cop who draws a gun on him during a gratuitous traffic stop that leads to being held in jail instead of performing in Baton Rouge. If a set piece like that seems blunt, an author's note mentions that many of the novel’s events come from my own life experiences and in parentheses here and note that black musicians told similar stories during demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Now the writing isn't without its lapses a warm touch is unironically described as like pizzicato a dry pluck of the string. A violin sits in ray's hand like a wet fish glinting a simile that might register visually but not textually. Sluice is an evocative verb though too. Vivid to appear as often as it does, and the central mystery can be solved by anyone who's seen a golden age Hollywood noir. Yet Slocum isn't too different from his protagonist. A natural, he easily conjures the thrill of mastering a tough musical passage and the tintedness. like torture of everyday racism, there is a lot of work ahead as he writes his second novel. But as a teacher says to Ray, precision and technique can be learned. After all that's just practice.
Again, the book is called The Violin Conspiracy by Brenda Slocum. And that was a review that I just read by Joshua Barone the Assistant Performing Arts Editor on the Culture Desk and the contributing Classical Music Critic of the New York Times and that review was written in just February of this year.
19:10
Now let's take a look at a book called When I’m Gone Look for me in the East by Quan Berry. From the acclaimed author of We Ride Upon Sticks a luminous novel that moves across a windswept Mongolia as a pair of estranged twin brothers make a journey of duty, conflict and renewed understanding. Here's the plot for this one.
Tasked with finding the reincarnation of a great lama somewhere in the vast Mongolian landscape, the young monk Chulun seeks the help of his identical twin who was recognized as a reincarnation himself as a child but has since renounced their once shared monastic life. Harking back to her vivid and magical first novel, set in Vietnam, Quan berry carries us across a landscape as unforgiving as it is beautiful and culturally varied. From the stark Gobi Desert to the ancient capital of Genghis Khan, as their country stretches before them questions of the immortal soul along with more earthly matters of love sex and brotherhood haunt the twins who can hear each other's thoughts. Are our lives our own or do we belong to something larger? When I’m Gone is a stunningly, far-flung, examination of our individual struggle to retain faith and discover meaning in a fast-changing world and a pain to Buddhist acceptance of what simply is. The book is entitled when I’m gone look for me in the east and it's by author Quan Berry.
21:08
Now let's turn to a book that looks really interesting to me it's called One True Loves by Elise Bryant and I’m going to re-read a review now by Alethia Contes. This review was written and recorded in January of this year for National Public Radio.
While resting during the holidays I sat down with Elise Bryant’s delightful new book full of love laughter and glamorous international travel, One True Loves. I had just returned from my own epic adventure to Egypt and it was a joy to prolong reentry into real life with her story of love found on a European cruise. Bryant’s book takes place the summer after Lenoir Bennett graduates from a Los Angeles arts high school. As she and her family embark on a cruise around the Mediterranean, brilliant resilient Lenoir will start school at NYU in the fall if she can manage to get the sour look off her face. Every time it's mentioned, her parents have instilled in their three bright children the idea that young black professionals do not have the luxury of waffling before college. But Lenore has yet to nail down a specific discipline for her major. They demand a straight answer about her future before the 12-day cruise is over, for her own good they say. Lenore’s optimistic best friend Tessa meanwhile envisions a whirlwind European romance for Lenore and orders her to throw coins in the Tivoli fountain in Rome. One for a safe journey and a second for love. Lenore, having just escaped being the other woman in a nightmare relationship scenario, thinks this is ridiculous. love just isn't meant to happen for her. But she throws in the coins anyway because she's there and because Tessa says everyone deserves a happy ending. queue the handsome fellow and cruise mate Angelino Alex Lee. Well, the crew sit Alex and his parents at the Bennett’s table for dinner. Of course, both sets of parents immediately hit it off and decide to spend the rest of the trip together. At first Lenoir thinks this isn't so great as her initial encounter with Alex was strange and less than friendly. In Lenoir’s eyes he is a jerk with a perfect 20-year plan that her parents adore. Well as the days pass though Lenore moves beyond her initial judgment and gets to know Alex for the kind, thoughtful, person he is. Alex also seizes the opportunity to learn more about Lenoir, quickly realizing that beneath her sassy, audacious, fashionable exterior, lies a creative and emotional young woman who might just need a little more time to figure out exactly what she wants from life. Being a planner, Alex takes it upon himself to help Lenore answer the burning question, what do you want to be when you grow up? One True Loves is a fantastic tale full of shenanigans, escapades, and lighthearted banter, while also delving into deeper issues of race and the perception of the successful futures of young people of color. For all Lenore’s hilarious snark, she is surrounded by a devoted family, who loves her including her genius little sister and her distracted older brother. But parental pressure and workaholism, however well meant, can still sometimes lead to dangerous consequences. One True Loves is a great way to ring in a new year full of possibilities.  Bryant elegantly reminds us that the rest of the world is still out there, and that adventure awaits now and again.
This book is called One True Loves. It's by Elise Bryan. It was brand new at the beginning of this year. The review was prepared and written by Alethia Contes for National Public Radio. And, in case you'd like to know, Alethia is a voice actress and an award-winning author of over 20 books for children and teens.
25:51
And we have time for just one more book on our program this month. This is one entitled Destined for You by Tracy Peterson. Can she withstand the storms of life that blow her away? Here's the plot for this one.
Gloriana Womack’s family is much smaller since scarlet fever killed her mother and two of her siblings. She's dedicated her modest life in Duluth Minnesota to holding the remains of her fractured family together. Caring for her father and her younger brother, but it is hard not to be overrun by worry when her father is often gone on long fishing trips. Their livelihood coming from the waters of the temperamental, and sometimes deadly, Lake Superior. Luke Carson has come to Duluth to help shepherd the arrival of the railroad to the city's port and he's eager to be reunited with his brother and sister-in-law who recently moved there and are expecting their first child. Competition for the railroad is fierce with the neighboring city of Superior Wisconsin fighting for the tracks to come through their town instead. But the real danger lies in a man who has followed Luke across the country with revenge on his mind. When tragedy brings Gloriana and Luke together, they help each other through their grief and soon find their lives inextricably linked. If they survive the trials ahead, could it be possible they've been destined for each other all along?
The book is called Destined for You and it's by Tracy Peterson.
27:44
And that is just about all the time we have for this month's edition of Heard Any Good Books Lately. I’m George Douglas. Hope you enjoyed the program. If you'd 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 you can call toll-free at 888 388 2460. That's 888 388 2460. You can also use the same numbers and website to join the Friends of the North Carolina 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 on our website ncreadingservice.org. Thanks again for joining me and so long until next time.
[Music]
28:59