Library Notes Week of September 28

From September 26 through October 3 libraries and bookstores celebrate Banned Books Week. This is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 after a sudden surge in the number of challenged books in schools, bookstores and libraries. We will have a display in the library and you may be surprised by the books you find on the challenged list.

We have some new books you might enjoy. Stop in an check one out. Here are a few to tempt you.

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo. Griffin has been driving around for nearly a year with his father’s ashes in the trunk, but his mother is very much alive. He and his wife, Joy, are driving to the Cape for the marriage of their daughter Laura’s best friend. The Cape is where he and Joy honeymooned, in the course of which they drafted the Great Truro Accord, a plan for their lives together that’s now thirty years old and has largely come true. But be careful what you pray for. A year later, a far more important wedding takes place, their beloved Laura’s. This time Griffin’s chauffeuring two urns of ashes as he contends once more with Joy and her large, unruly family, and both he and she have brought dates along. How in the world could this have happened?

A Plague of Secrets by John T. Lescroart. The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco’s A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix.But how much did Maya Townshend—the beautiful socialite niece of the city’s mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop—know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend?

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. After moving into her grandmother's crumbling house to get it in shape for sale, Connie comes across a small key and piece of paper reading only Deliverance Dane. The Salem witch trials, contemporary Wicca and women's roles in early American history figure prominently as Connie does her academic detective work. What follows is a breezy read in which Connie must uncover the mystery of a shadowy book written by the enigmatic Deliverance Dane.