Nonfiction Reads

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I am excited to share that I, Sarah Turner-Hill, have read TWO nonfiction books so far this year. Pretty wild news, I know. I am a consistent consumer of fiction, but for 2026 the one reading goal I made for myself was to read more nonfiction. Two books is more for me, so I am already crushing my goal (thank you for your kind support). The two nonfiction books I read I thoroughly enjoyed (another win) so I would like to share my thoughts with you. 

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

I discovered this book from our library’s 2025 Staff Picks, a list of staff members’ top reads for the year. This book was listed by two different staff members so I took that as a good sign. Written by KC Davis, a licensed professional therapist, How to Keep House While Drowning truly is a gentle approach to home care, but also self care. Its aim is to provide simple, accessible steps and advice not only for cleaning your home, but how to improve the thoughts and feelings about cleaning your home. The book is founded on the recognition that there can be a lot of self-loathing and hate talk when it comes to chores and the grownup tasks of keeping a home clean and functioning. Davis proposes that instead of thinking of things like dishes, laundry, cleaning, and even cooking as “chores”, think of them as “care tasks”. And a care task should serve you, not the other way around. Davis provides simple, functional ways to help make this happen in such a real, vulnerable way, drawing from her own experiences struggling with taking care of her home amid mental health struggles or simply during regular life stress. I really appreciated how real this book was, it contained no shaming, doing the opposite by providing tips to stop shaming yourself when the laundry basket piles up or those clothes you’ve been meaning to donate have been in your car for months. The format is also very accessible. It’s written in bite size pieces with the intention of reading a little bit daily or over time, which was perfect for me. It also has helpful skip ahead reading guide tips; if you are short on time or attention the end of a chapter will tell you specifically where to go next or highlights from that chapter if you don’t want to read the entire thing. It’s a very easy book to read, with Davis mentioning its format and even type coloring is designed with struggling readers in mind. I really appreciated Davis’ approach to cleaning (or should I say care tasks) and how validating this book was.

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The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

Oh. My. Gosh. I love a memoir and this one did not disappoint. I didn’t know any of the back story to Shari or the nightmare she was about to unfold within the pages of this book. I discovered this book because it won the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Memoir. Now I know why. Shari is the oldest daughter of six children, and as Shari grew up her and her five siblings became unwillingly famous thanks to their moms hit YouTube Channel 8 Passengers, in which Shari’s mom, Ruby, vlogged her households day to day lives. Shari’s story reveals the truth that often happens in social media: the surface is a facade that hides a darker truth. Behind the camera Ruby was tyrannical; rigid with rules, controlling, and demanded her children act a certain way, both on and off camera, and wouldn’t hear of it if Shari didn’t want to be filmed or wanted to do something other than what her mother instructed. Ruby’s YouTube channel grew to viral level, with videos gaining millions of views. The height of the popularity was simultaneously a nightmare for Shari and her siblings, who mentions “The line between genuine interaction and performance had blurred so completely that sometimes, I wasn’t sure any of us could tell the difference anymore.” Then Ruby meets “lifestyle” coach Jodi Hildebrandt and joins her coaching program “ConneXions”, which would be best described as a cult. Jodi and Ruby’s need for control fed off one another and their relationship became extreme, with Jodi moving in with the family for a time. Shari moved out for college at 18 and continuously worried over the wellbeing of her younger siblings, and Ruby’s usual tyrannical tendencies were knocked up to disturbing proportions once Jodi entered the picture. There is a lot in this book to try to sum up here, but eventually Jodi and Ruby were both arrested on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. Perhaps this sounds familiar as it was viral news in 2023. This was a difficult read given the subject matter of Ruby’s cruelty and abuse of her children; Shari shares many horrific details and truly sad events. Shari wrote this memoir as part of her healing process, and that shows in her approach and the strength you can feel coming from her words. Where she has the opportunity to say whatever she wants about the situation, she shares the truths of her experiences in a way that comes across honest, healing, and unhateful, although Ruby earned any hate Shari could have sent her way. It’s a complicated, heartbreaking story, but very impactful and important, especially as the trend of family vlogging is as popular as ever.

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Review by Sarah Turner-Hill, Adult Programming Coordinator

ASHIMPA by Catarina Sobral and SUNDUST by Zeke Peña

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Happy Spring! I haven’t done a picture book round-up in a while, so I thought I would share a few of my recent favorites. 

Zeke Peña’s Sundust incorporates fantastical elements in a story about two siblings who explore the desert in their Southwestern town near the Mexican border. Illustrator Pena’s authorial debut begins, “Where the rock wall ends, the desert begins.” This sentence sets the stage for adventure. The unnamed characters follow a fuschia line over mesas, around discarded car parts, and under and over various flora and fauna. As they trail the fuschia, which they refer to as sundust, they pay close attention to everything it touches. They explore a nopal tree, comparing its toughness and brightness to their mother. They watch a caterpillar transform into a butterfly and realize that, “change is okay.” Profound observations feel wise without being didactic; this is likely due to the hummingbird-like speed through which they traverse the landscape. The story is mostly rooted in reality, though magical elements shine through. In this way, the children in the story feel especially authentic. When you’re a kid, imagination can turn even the most mundane situations into epic adventures. 

Zeke Peña’s artwork is also incredible. The splashes of fuschia propel the story forward both literally, as the kids chase the sundust streak, and figuratively, as the effervescence of the color provides the book with an undeniable energy. Sundust received the Caldecott Honor this year, and the accolade is well deserved. This ode to the sun, the desert, and home is a treat to read and to look at; it deserves a place among the classics. Peña, who lives in Northwest Arkansas but was raised in the Southwestern United States, has written an enduring love letter to a place. 

Another recent favorite picture book of mine is Ashimpa: the Mysterious Word by author-illustrator Catarina Sobral. This quirky tale of language and grammar was translated from Portuguese by Juliana Barbassa. As a self-proclaimed grammar nerd, I can find much to enjoy about parts of speech, though I know that’s not the case for everyone. Ashimpa is a rarity in that it turns an overview on different parts of speech into a story of levity, humor, and absurdity. 

One day, the story begins, a researcher discovers a new word: ashimpa. Everyone wants to use this word but no one knows how. So, the researcher asks Mrs. Zulmira, who is 137 years old, if she has ever heard it. Mrs. Zulmira declares that the word is actually “ashimp” and it’s a verb. To show its meaning, she uses it in a ridiculously vague sentence, “People ashimped, people had always ashimped.”

So as not to appear unintelligent or out of the loop, everyone in the town begins using the word. One day, however, a linguist declares that “ashimpa” is a noun. The people pivot to using it in this way without question. This pattern continues through various types of speech to comedic effect. Sobrol’s pencil-sketch illustration and cut paper designs add to the quirkiness of the story. The people and scenes are simple sketches, yet they exude a childlike playfulness. Even with minimal facial features, Sobrol’s characters express a range of emotions that add to the story’s humor. This book is fun as a read aloud and could be expanded into an interactive grammar lesson. 

Both Sundust and Ashimpa: the Mysterious Word are available in the Children’s Department of the Joplin Public Library. Happy reading!

Find Ashimpa in catalog.

Find Sundust in catalog. 

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

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It’s not unusual for revered writers to lose some of their literary vitality as they age (sorry, Don DeLillo). It also appears that Ian McEwan received his immunization against this particular affliction. What We Can Know, his 18th novel, is a prescient work of fiction that both charms and haunts. And similar to McEwan’s Atonement, a novel published a quarter century ago, What We Can Know will eventually take residence somewhere deep in memory, where recalling its very existence evokes some weighty emotions—even if the details are lost.

The novel is set not too far in the future, 2120; yet it’s still just on the other side of human catastrophe. Nation-states as we know them are gone. AI-initiated defense systems led to various nuclear exchanges. Sea levels have risen dramatically and in what used to be England—and what now appears to be a series of archipelagoes—there lives a scholar, Thomas Metcalfe, trying to piece together an understanding of life in the early 21st century.

We are given microscopic glances into the state of the world Thomas occupies, which makes sense. Thomas doesn’t even know the immediate state of his world. Global interconnectivity via the web has essentially disappeared. Thomas still has access to the detritus of the once-digital world. He can read logs of our digital correspondences and posts. But he finds them—just as most of us find them now—to be not only indigestible but also garbage.

His focus of research concerns the events surrounding a 2014 dinner party that took place at the country home of Francis Blundy, an eminent poet. It would become known as the “Second Immortal Dinner” because it was when Francis, in front of notable guests, recited a sonnet cycle for his wife entitled “A Corona for Vivien.” There was only one copy of the poem. It was never published and not known to be read by anyone other than Francis. Through attendees’ journals and letters, Thomas studies their lives and the world they occupied. So, in many ways, this is the world Thomas lives in as well, a plentiful world he can only dream about.

But, of course, Thomas must make his way in his contemporary world. If you’re a humanities instructor today and think teaching literature and history is a struggle, Thomas and his colleague—and on/off romantic partner—Rose would like for you to try it after the collapse of civilization. To their students, with their “flattened and timorous” minds, there’s almost a cruelty in studying a world that once held so much. When forced to examine the past, their students wear a particular countenance: an unspoken knowing that most of the inhabitants of the early 21st century “deserved the mega-deaths they brought upon themselves.”

To Thomas and Rose, within the years the world shattered “world literature produced its most beautiful laments, gorgeous nostalgia, eloquent fury–and those masterpieces, so we promised, we would study together.” Still, they have intense disagreements over how one should chronicle the past. Thomas is so obsessed with the missing poem, Rose believes he’s no longer acting as a responsible scholar, at least when it comes to filling in the historical blanks around the time “A Corona for Vivien” was recited.

Thomas knows that the missing poem is famous because it’s missing. The real scholarship lies in the reactions it elicited, that the idea of the poem is what people find beautiful. It’s a repository for dreams. But Thomas is fixated with the poem proper. To complete the circle, he and Rose go on a journey to find it.

McEwan forces the reader to sit with his various characters. A first-time McEwan reader may wonder if the time is worth the payoff. A returning McEwan reader knows to wait. And sure enough, like an increasing electric current, What We Can Know starts to hum. Throughout the second part of the novel, I found myself quite often smiling as I read, beguiled by McEwan’s writing and devilish techniques.

What We Can Know places the reader in a unique position, for we are contemporaries of the people Thomas studies. We understand them more than we can understand Thomas and his contemporaries. Nevertheless, regardless of the human era, “We are trapped between the dead and the unborn, the past ghosts and the future ghosts,” thinks Thomas. After experiencing many tribulations, he continues, “Our ultimate loyalties must be to the loud and ruthless present.”

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Review by Jason Sullivan

The Accidental Rewrite by Milly Johnson

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Polly Potter is unhappy. Her partner, Christopher, takes her completely for granted at home and at work her misogynist boss treats her as a servant and takes credit for her work. But in The Accidental Rewrite by Milly Johnson, Polly is about to make some changes.

Polly and Christopher have been together for eight years and their relationship deteriorated to the point that he had an affair. Polly left but agreed to come back if they would work on getting back to what they once had. A year has past and things are no better. The only enjoyment she has is her creative writing class which Christopher doesn’t even know she attends. He has no interest in what she does other than cleaning and cooking.

Polly made her plan to leave but decided to wait until after a family commitment. Christopher’s sister is renewing her vows and Polly is to be bridesmaid and wear the hideous dress picked out for her. While waiting she begins an assignment for her writing class. She is to plan a novel. Her heroine, Sabrina Anderson, is all the things Polly wishes for herself. Sabrina is strong and leaving her unfaithful husband and lousy job, her daughter is alive and traveling, and she had parents who loved her.

Finally the day of the vow renewal arrives. Polly has her bags packed, her money and passport in her purse, and will load her car and leave after the ceremony. When she reaches the town hall and is ready to follow the bride down the aisle, she realizes something is terribly wrong. Even with all eyes on her Polly can’t do what is expected and flees.

She doesn’t take time to pack all her things in the car, she just goes. She sticks to her plan to spend a couple of weeks at the coast where she has happy memories. Almost there Polly stops at a scenic spot hoping to regroup and get a cup of coffee. But a bad day gets worse when she is mugged and injured.

Awakening in the hospital her mind is blank. Her purse and car are gone and the only thing she knows is her name, Sabrina Anderson. Of course, no one with that name is listed as missing and Christopher and family are not searching for Polly Potter. If her memory doesn’t return, she is destined for a long hospital stay then a shelter.

Marielle, a retired nurse and a volunteer at the hospital, befriends Sabrina/Polly and decides to help her regain her memory. Marielle has an apartment attached to her home and offers it to Sabrina while she is recovering. She even finds Sabrina/Polly a job working in her son’s restaurant.

As Polly settles into her new home and job, she remembers some things but it is all mixed up with Sabrina’s story. She grows close to the people she works with, especially Tony, Murielle’s son, and begins to build a new life.

But what will happen when her memory returns? When Sabrina’s life collides with Polly’s, will she be strong enough to fight for the life she deserves?

Johnson has written a humorous, heart-warming novel about found family and second chances. A special touch is the printed retractions from The Daily Trumpet between some chapters. The Daily Trumpet is the local paper renowned for all the mistakes they make including one involving Sabrina.

You may find it takes a while to get to the heart of this novel but keep reading, you will be rewarded. The library has this title in both regular print and large print.

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Review written by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian

Superfan by Jenny Tinghui Zhang

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Minnie is a college freshman, feeling adrift and isolated after relocating from Denver to Austin. College was supposed to be a time to meet lifelong friends and have new experiences. Instead she finds herself eating dinner alone in the dining hall and watching internet videos in her dorm room.

That is where she first encounters HOURglass, a soon-to-be-viral boy band modeled after K-pop groups.

The boys make her feel less alone. Their shining light beaming out of the laptop screen and into her soul. She watches their performances, follows their journal videos, participates in live streams – HOURglass becomes the center of her life.

Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s SUPERFAN is a dual-perspective novel. Half of it follows Minnie through her first year of college while the other focuses on Eason, one member of HOURglass, and a secret from his past that could destroy their chance at fame.

To the fans, Eason is Halo. He is the bad boy of the group; rough around the edges, but loved the most because of it. Each member of HOURglass has had his image and history carefully curated to endear them to their fanbase.

The public knows that Halo is the member that came in with the least experience. Minwoo was an opera singer in Korea. Julian was a professional figure skater. Colt has model-like good looks and a background in sports.

Eason’s big break came when he delivered food to an audition. A week later, he got a phone call telling him the executives liked his air of pent-up frustration. It was a break that he did not know he needed. He has worked himself to the bone to become Halo – to avoid ever going back to his old life.

HOURglass has accumulated a devoted following. Their U.S. tour has sold out stadiums, and they have a huge following for all of the videos they post. Minnie feels deeply connected to the boys, but she knows that she is one devoted fan in a legion of devoted fans.

Still seeking connection, she finds an online forum dedicated to HOURglass called The Heaven. The people are all welcoming and she can tell that they are all huge fans of the band. Minnie is even able to find support about the other issues in her life through the forum.

But there is a darker side to The Heaven. A sub-group of members has dedicated themselves to following the band. They have connections in particular industries or enough money to buy privileged information. They appear at the airports and hotels when the band is traveling. And they know the secret that is haunting Eason.

SUPERFAN is an excellent examination of fame and fandom. The ways that we claim ownership over something that can never really be ours. Minnie loves Halo, and she is motivated by wanting to help and protect him.

When they do come face-to-face, Eason also feels a connection to her – he can feel how passionate she is about HOURglass. But she is more than just their fan and he is more than just her idol, and neither of them will ever experience that part of the other.

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Book review by Alyssa Berry, Technical Services Librarian

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage

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New Year’s Day in the Australian outback is not turning out how twenty-nine year old Lexi Villers had envisioned.  One minute she is camping with her two best friends – Finn and Jack – and she is about to make what feels like a stronger connection with Jack, when a helicopter interrupts.  Out steps her grandmother’s long-time personal assistant, Stewart, and he lets her know that there has been a terrible accident and she needs to return home to England immediately.  

Lexi’s grandmother is the Queen of England, and due to a skiing accident Lexi is now first in line for the crown.  Despite leaving on bad terms years earlier, and vowing that she would not take part in the royal family’s drama moving forward, Lexi quickly resumes her royal duties. Her relationship with her family and the Crown is a complicated one. Since birth she has felt immense pressure to conform to her family’s expectations, and with little guidance she has always had to decide how to navigate her personal ambitions and her inherited responsibilities.  And this time home is no different, with the Queen giving her a year to decide if she will assume her rightful position, next in line for the crown, or if she will officially renounce it for good.  

Lexi is unsure what to do.  She has built a beautiful life of her own in Australia.  She has friends, a career, a solid place that feels like her own.  But being “next in line” she feels a strong sense of duty to help her family.  Over the next year Lexi learns a lot about herself, her family, her friends and her country.  In the end, a scandal threatens her plans and she must decide how she wants to live the rest of her life. 

I saw this contemporary fiction novel promoted as a “modern fairytale,” and that might not be the best description, but it is a great hook to get people  interested in the book. Readers who enjoy stories where the characters are the heart of the story will likely find this one engaging and memorable. The book has something for everyone – drama, romance, intrigue and feminism.

My favorite part of the book is the pacing. There are pockets of intrigue and drama, but also quiet scenes where Lexi looks internally at her choices. The author seems to employ this so readers can have a behind the scenes look and consider why the characters act as they do it. The author unfolds the story a bit at a time, through flashbacks and it is effective in keeping the action moving and hooking the reader. The timing is spot on, and notably, the dialog is clearly delivered.

All-in-all this novel is easy-to-read and entertaining. Questioning where one fits in the world is one that most people struggle with, making the story engaging and accessible to many.  

Review written by: Jeana Gockley, Joplin Public Library Director

Find the book in the catalog.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

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Dear Reader,

This April marks the fourth year for Joplin Reads Together, Joplin Public Library’s community read designed for adults. A month-long initiative, Joplin Reads Together aims to provide the community with a shared reading experience, community connection, a promotion of literacy, and programming by way of selecting one novel, inviting the author to visit the library, and hosting programs inspired by that novel. This April the library will host 11 programs inspired by the selected novel, including a presentation and book signing by the author. We couldn’t pull it off without the support from our three Joplin Reads Together Community Partners: Friends of the Joplin Public Library, Post Art Library, and MSSU Spiva Library. I appreciate their contribution and excitement each year! Just as I appreciate the community members that have joined in Joplin Reads Together each year, and the first-timers that join! It is always a joy to see our hope come to life: community members that might otherwise never cross paths excitedly coming together over a shared interest. I’ve been fortunate enough to write about the selected novel in my book reviews for the last three years and I’m excited to once again share about the selected title for 2026: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. 

Published in 2025, The Correspondent is Evans’s debut novel. One reason I am looking forward to meeting Evans in April is she has said she wrote and attempted to get published for years before The Correspondent was finally swept up. What an exciting time this must be for her, as not only did she find her success in getting her writing published, but her book has also become a word-of-mouth hit. It now sits on the New York Times bestseller list and has gained additional acknowledgements such as being longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal, as well as being named a Best Book of the Year by: NPR, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Elle, Christian Science Monitor, and She Reads.

A character driven plot, The Correspondent is an epistolary novel (composed entirely of letters and emails) that focuses on main character Sybil. Sybil is a septuagenarian with the routine of sitting down almost daily to read and write letters or emails to her friends, family, and even people she does not know, like authors about their latest books, a university president, and a DNA testing facility. By way of these letters the reader learns about Sybil and her life piece by piece, as well as the secondary characters that are in her life. While I think Sybil could be the type of character that some readers could be slow to like or have mixed feelings about, part of the magic of this book for me was how real she felt, how interestingly Evans revealed her to the reader a little at a time. I say that some readers might have mixed feelings about Sybil because she can be brash and reactionary in her feelings at times. In a way, some parts of Sybil mirror uglier parts of people we don’t always want to look at closely, and I think that is what makes Sybil such a well-crafted character. Don’t get me wrong, while I say Sybil is brash, that exterior covers a caring, loving core; Sybil is just the type of person that doesn’t always know how to express those feelings. As the novel continues Sybil shifts and grows, showing that no matter our age we can always learn and grow within ourselves. As Evans develops Sybil’s character we learn to understand why she approaches life the way she does. The novel spans several years of Sybil’s life, taking the reader along her everyday interactions and relationships by way of her correspondence. 

This novel carries themes of family (both found and biological), aging, relationships, grief, and the continued struggle and growth of loving yourself and others while carrying grief. The epistolary format makes the book really consumable, and if you enjoy audiobooks it has a really great one. The secondary characters shine and are really enjoyable to read; many of the letters in the novel are from them and not just Sybil. I have always enjoyed an epistolary novel, something about the format seems to bring the characters closer, and this one was no exception for me. If you pick up this book, consider meeting the author when she visits on April 28th and check out the other Joplin Reads Together programming in April (whether you read the novel or not, all adults are welcome!).  

Sincerely,

Sarah

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Review by Sarah Turner-Hill, Adult Programming Coordinator

ALL THE BLUES IN THE SKY by Renee Watson

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January is a big month for youth literature. Librarians, authors, and children’s literature fans spend months reading and making guesses in anticipation of what some (me) might call the Super Bowl of youth literature: the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards. Every January, a slew of award winners and honorees are announced. The awards include, most notably, the John Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and the Coretta Scott King Award. I hadn’t read any of the three winners prior to the announcement, so I rushed to read all three as soon as they were announced.

The John Newbery Medal is awarded for excellence in children’s literature. Renee Watson, this year’s winner, is no stranger to acclaim, though this is her first Newbery medal. The winning title, All the Blues in the Sky, is one of just a few novels-in-verse to win the award. I have loved many of Watson’s other books, but I was a bit reluctant to read this one. The book follows 13-year-old Sage in the months after the death of her best friend on Sage’s 13th birthday. Although I recognize the importance of books about death and navigating grief, I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for such a heavy read. However, I like to read every Newbery Award winner, so I abandoned my reservations and checked out All the Blues in the Sky. 

Watson’s newest middle-grade novel is certainly heavy, but it contains important themes and valuable lessons that upper elementary and middle school-aged readers could benefit from. All the Blues in the Sky is sad, but it’s never hopeless.

From the outset, Sage’s grief is palpable. The novel’s poetic format lends itself to a stream-of-consciousness narrative style, where the reader feels as if they are in Sage’s head. Through her poems, readers also gain insight into the nature of grief, at least in the ways it affects Sage. As she comes to terms with what happens, Sage slowly starts to connect with new friends, open up to her family, and acknowledge this new reality. Watson fully illuminates the experience of losing a loved one. Such a loss can feel too heavy and nearly impossible to survive, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that joy cannot exist alongside loss. 

Novels in verse can fall into a few categories: sometimes they limit the effectiveness of the story and sometimes they illuminate it. All the Blues in the Sky falls in the latter category. Watson utilizes the length and language within each chaptered poem to share what Sage is willing to divulge at that time. At the beginning of the novel, Sage is more guarded and the text shows that. As she opens up in therapy, makes new friends, and allows herself to feel her feelings, the reader gains more details about what happened.

All The Blues in the Sky has many valuable lessons to impart: how we survive hard things, forgiveness for ourselves and others, and our ability to hold conflicting emotions. Watson’s novel will be helpful to readers struggling with grief. It will also be an insightful read for upper elementary and middle school readers using books to learn about other experiences and to process difficult emotions in a safe space.

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A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst

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Imagine being stuck in a life raft on the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. Now imagine your spouse being in that bobbing raft with you. The addition of the spouse into the scenario is not meant to elicit a cheap laugh. The change in setting has a genuine bearing on one’s attitude. Instantly relieved? Or immediately tense? In 1973, Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, a British married couple, experienced this exact event. They ended up writing a book about it, so you could just read their account. Or you could do yourself one better and read A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst.

Through Elmhirst’s narrative, not only do we read about the Bailey’s ordeal at sea, we have the added benefit of Elmhirst’s expert writing. She has a Truman Capote-like talent in describing subjects and events with expert concision. Within a matter of pages, the reader knows Maralyn and Maurice.

Prior to meeting Maurice, Maralyn’s circumstances left her feeling isolated from the life she wanted to live. Maurice, on the other hand, isolated so that he could live the life he wanted. To Maurice’s great fortune, he met Maralyn, a rare someone who shared his want to avoid a conventional work-a-day life and instead spend it outdoors. More importantly for Maurice, Maralyn didn’t seem to mind that he could be a downer, a man who rubbed most others the wrong way and had the “tendency to get in the way of uncomplicated joy.”

It was Maralyn who convinced Maurice that they should sell their English home and commission the building of a sailboat that would take them around the world, ending up in New Zealand to begin life anew. To Maralyn, it was that simple, her positivity at times bordering on naiveté. One friend later recounted that Maralyn often spoke of New Zealand as if “might still be uninhabited.”

They put their plan into action, with Maurice as skipper and navigator, and with Maralyn in charge of the supplies and the galley. Having honed their skills over the years, they were competent sailors. They successfully crossed the Atlantic and docked in Barbados with the intoxicating high of having crossed a wild ocean. Once through the Panama Canal and fully resupplied, they set out on the Pacific Ocean.

When the impact came, they were both below deck. The collision of a breaching whale, much bigger than their sailboat, sent water gushing into the cabin. They had just enough time to load some supplies into an inflatable raft and a dinghy. Maralyn took a photograph of the sailboat just before it completely disappeared, the last tip of the mast sticking out of the water “like a thin arm hoping for rescue.”

What follows over the next 118 days is about as harrowing as you can imagine. Drifting deep into the Pacific Ocean, their only potential stroke of luck was that they were in a shipping lane. But that also meant what was once a liberation, sailing the open ocean and watching a passing vessel recede into the distance, became a repeated soul-crushing occurrence. It appeared they were not going to be spotted at all, not while still being alive anyway.

It was also clear that Maurice was no longer the skipper, as Maralyn became the decisive one. Maurice would later say that he wouldn’t have survived without Maralyn’s firm belief that they would be rescued. She constantly had to keep him from giving up. Maralyn had them talk about their next boat and where they would venture; she made a deck of playing cards out of paper, which didn’t really last because of the ocean spray.

Still, they worked together in collecting rainwater to drink and in catching sea turtles to eat. One day they went on a near-rage and killed anything they could get their hands on, including small sharks that were caught by the tail. This was done as they kept a pet turtle aboard. After they were rescued, neither ate another piece of meat—of any kind—for the rest of their lives.

They said hurtful things to each other. They survived epic storms, “squall after squall.” But, writes Elmhirst, “They were alive, just.”

A Korean fishing vessel ultimately plucked them from the water. News of their rescue made them famous before they reached land. Their recovery process was long, but they would eventually acquire another boat to set sail once again.

The ultimate end—via illness—came for Maralyn long before it found Maurice. And it was as though Maurice was set adrift once again. “There had been,” however, “a strange kind of peace adrift on the ocean, even if it was a peace close to annihilation,” says Elmhirst. Now, on land and back in England, Maurice was without the one person to help him navigate life. He shuffled around, becoming once again—shall we say—a bit much to take. Whether waiting for rescue on the open ocean or acting on your own volition with two feet firmly on land, that time is yours. Writes Elmhirst, “…dying is still a process. You’re still alive while you’re dying.”

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Review by Jason Sullivan

Cold Weather Reads

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The snow and cold we had a few weeks ago was a perfect excuse (if you needed one) to curl up with a few good books.

One of the first I read, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, was recommended by a friend and long-time library user. The author, Walter Isaacson, takes you on an in depth dive into a sentence most, if not all, of us recognize immediately: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This crucial sentence in the Declaration of Independence penned by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams was the premise on which the United States was formed. Isaacson dissects it almost word by word, giving the beliefs and influences that each man brought to the crafting of this foundational sentence.

This is a small book, only 80 pages, with almost half it being supporting texts and the full Declaration of Independence. It won’t take you long to read but will give you a lot to think about, especially as we celebrate 250 years as a nation.

After my sojourn into seriousness, I moved onto a more light-hearted read, Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds. All of the other Allison Brennan books I’ve read have been thrillers or romantic suspense with the emphasis on suspense. This one is a cozy mystery taking place on a beautiful Caribbean island.

Mia Crawford works as a financial planner and is being offered a partnership in the firm of McCann & Cohn. But first she is being sent on a non-negotiable vacation to celebrate her five year anniversary. St. Clair is a secluded resort island and the only thing that will get Mia through her forced vacation is books. Well, books and maybe meeting an eligible man for a holiday fling.

Having finished her travel read, her first stop on the island is the gift shop to stock up. The only book that catches her eye is on the free table containing books left behind by guests. With book in hand she is ready to start her vacation.

As she meets her fellow guests, a lot of the talk is about a missing guest, Diana Harden. Word is Diana took the ferry to St. John and never returned. Mia loves a mystery so she takes every opportunity to learn as much as she can about the missing woman.

But she can’t snoop all the time so some beach time with her book is a perfect way to relax. She is enjoying the story until she finds that the previous owner defaced the book. They wrote in the margins and underlined and circled words throughout. Mia is outraged but also intrigued.

When Diana’s body washes ashore, Mia figures out that the book she has may have belonged to her. What was Diana doing that got her killed and what do all the numbers and marked words mean?

Mia now has a mystery to solve and a holiday fling to have and only 7 days to accomplish both.

While this stand-alone novel came out late last year, Brennan’s seventh book in the Quinn & Costa suspense series was just released.

In Make It Out Alive, the FBI Mobile Response Team is called in to catch a serial killer praying on married couples. All the women have a similar look which Kara matches. So she and Matt Costa go undercover as a married couple and soon lure the killer, Garrett Reid, out. Job completed the team heads back home but Kara and Matt don’t make it.

The team soon finds evidence that their teammates were drugged and abducted. Was the profile wrong? Did Reid have an accomplice? The unit pulls out all the stops to try to find them but Matt and Kara may have to find a way to save themselves.

Trapped in an abandoned booby-trapped factory with no food or water time is running out. Told from the three perspectives of killer, law enforcement, and victim this story is hard to put down.

Find In Catalog

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Reviews by Patty Crane, Reference Librarian