The County Library discussion

It's almost the start of a new year, so we're looking forward to our next round of Reader's Choice!

The nominees for the 2025 Spring Round of Reader’s Choice are:
Above the Fire
The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities
The Berry Pickers
The Deep Sky
Food, We Need to Talk: The Science-Based, Humor-Laced Last Word on Eating, Diet, and Making Peace with Your Body
The Framed Women of Ardemore House
The Housekeepers
I Hope This Finds You Well
Last Call at the Local
No One Can Know
The Other Mothers
The Painter's Daughters
The Penny Mansions
The Spellshop
The Tainted Cup
This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America
This Spells Love
UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There
Where You End

Visit your local branch to see the displays or check Libby for our digital copies!

Visit our Reader’s Choice page to see past winners and more about the program: https://www.slcolibrary.org/we-recomm...
Online voting will be available after January 2.

Can’t wait to hear what you all think!

I read the Berry Pickers. It was excellent.

Reading:

Read:
No One Can Know – 3
The Other Mothers – 3
The Deep Sky – 3
Food, We Need to Talk: The Science-Based, Humor-Laced Last Word on Eating, Diet, and Making Peace with Your Body – 4
The Penny Mansions – 3
The Tainted Cup – 3
The Spellshop – 2.5
UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There – DNF
The Painter’s Daughters – 3
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities – 3
The Housekeepers – DNF



Interested:

Maybe:
+ The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder – 3.36
+The Berry Pickers – 4.13
+ The Framed Women of Ardemore House – 3.66
+ I Hope This Finds You Well – 3.80
+ Last Call at the Local – 3.85
+ Where You End – 3.17

Not likely:
Above the Fire – 3.98
This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America – 3.97
This Spells Love – 3.79

+ on hold
++ checked out

Teresa wrote: "I read the Berry Pickers. It was excellent."

Even if you read it before the session started, you can still vote on it! You can vote in your branch or online: https://www.slcolibrary.org/we-recomm...

You got it up so quick! Thank you!

I checked out The Tainted Cup a couple months ago but haven't gotten to it yet. Occasionally there's a nominee I've already read.

Ellen Thayn,
Thanks, I didn't know that. I went to the link and voted ☑️.

Dang, two aren't on audio. And one will only come in on audio if the library gets more copies...it says they've all expired. Someone should probably look into that, lol.

Britt, Book Habitue wrote: "Dang, two aren't on audio. And one will only come in on audio if the library gets more copies...it says they've all expired. Someone should probably look into that, lol."

Yes, this is something we are aware of. Sadly, we're in the period at the start of the year when we aren't able to order until our funds are confirmed. But once that happens in the next week or so, you'll see these titles available again!

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities - 4

One is a graphic novel; I'm not sure how that would work on audio. My brain doesn't comprehend graphic novels, so I have to skip that one.

Finished "Where You End", Not really sure what to say, but it just made me feel icky. Couldn't wait till I was done with it.

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities - 4
I Hope This Finds You Well - 3
Where You End - 2

oh I didn't realize there was a graphic novel. Yeah those don't work well.

Though the comic panel parts of Flora and Ulysses are brilliantly done in the audiobook....so it's possible ish.

A full novel is a bit much though.

The Other Mothers has a very slow start but picks up around 20%. The ending is a bit open-ended.

I got to 30% in Above the Fire before bailing. The father-son dynamic just felt so weird and the dystopian theme and anxiety fueled ramblings....not good for my mental health. No thanks.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf

No One Can Know was compelling but I liked it less and less as it went on and parts of the plot seemed very undeveloped.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2

Where You End was... okay. Odd and very lacking in likeable characters. Just compelling enough to finish but hard enough to follow in places that I had to relisten multiple times to wrap my brain around it.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3

Looks there are only 2-3 copies of the audiobooks, so it's going to be a very long wait for these.

I'm really struggling with The Deep Sky. The sentences just seem so choppy. Is that just me?

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder - 3
At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities - 4
I Hope This Finds You Well - 3
Where You End - 2

The Other Mothers was okay. No likeable characters and a lot of it just seemed ...cliche I guess?

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3

Food We Need to Talk -- pretty good.

The Deep Sky -- fine. It does have a lot of awkward sentences. It actually said "Ruth was ruthless."

I wanted to love The Painter's Daughters but I found myself bored and unable to connect with the characters. Can't decide if it's the book or me. It's been a stressful couple of weeks so maybe it was just that.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3
The Painter's Daughters - 3

Last Call at the Local. *eyeroll*
Two and a half stars because the story was cute enough but the ADHD portrayal drove me so crazy I skipped a bunch of the Raine chapters. I honestly wish the whole thing had been from Jack's perspective.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3
The Painter's Daughters - 3
Last Call at the Local - 2.5

The Penny Mansions is cute and mildly amusing but not hilarious.

This Spells Love annoyed me. i liked the idea, but didn't like how it was done and then all the sexual talk about body parts. The relationship was just unrealistic in the new time line. Plus the other characters in the book might have made it more interesting, but there was nothing there to them.

Really enjoyed Food We Need to Talk.
Entertaining and interesting.
Also completely forgot it was a reader's choice 😅

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3
The Painter's Daughters - 3
Last Call at the Local - 2.5
Food We Need to Talk - 5

The Spellshop was very saccharine and the first half was pretty boring. Just started The Painter's Daughters and a bit bored so far. The Tainted Cup was fine; hard to keep the characters straight with all the weird names.

I ended up skimming UFO; it just wasn't that interesting to me. Nothing inherently wrong with the writing or anything besides the constant misuse of "disinterested."

Deep Sky was pretty good.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No One Can Know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3
The Painter's Daughters - 3
Last Call at the Local - 2.5
Food We Need to Talk - 5
The Deep Sky - 4

I am skipping UFO but I finished a different set of books and now I am working on these.

If you have read At The Coffeeshop of Curiosities I would love to talk to you. I think it is a lot more Southern Gothic than women's reading cozy. My comments and questions have spoilers.

I love reader's choice, it is the only way I read new books I think. I am so happy to be here.

I've got Coffeeshop on hold but it looks like quite a wait.

Painter's Daughters was actually fairly good.

One of my friends told me it was a 26 week wait!

Libby says I have four weeks before I get Coffeeshop; it's been on hold a long time. I'm 16 weeks out from I Hope This Finds You Well. Usually it's a little sooner than that as many don't take the whole three weeks to listen. But I don't know if I'll get more before April is over.

If someone would talk to me about Coffeeshop I would love to turn it back in. I have a lot of angst about the big reveal at the end.

Finished Above the Fire. That felt like a long slog with no real ending.

Jennifer wrote: "If someone would talk to me about Coffeeshop I would love to turn it back in. I have a lot of angst about the big reveal at the end."

I finished Coffeeshop, if you want to chat about it. Overall, very cozy. Sweet.

I think I'm going to bail on The Housekeepers. I'm 25 percent in and very bored.

3 and 4 Reader's Choice ago {maybe more?), I was surprised by the wide variety of books that I wouldn't have picked up on my own that had ended up being very enjoyable reads and even some new favorites. It was fun to expand my selections! The last couple Reader's Choice have seemed sorta... meh. I consider a 3 star book perfectly acceptable and readable, if not exceptional. Even lower, I I usually stick through a book to the end just because I'm at least curious to know where it goes, or if it gets better, or maybe sheer stubbornness. But I've never DNF so many so quickly as this selection.

Maybe it's just me getting older and knowing how long my personal book queue is, even when I'm more than happy to add more. You know what I'd really like to see some time is a Reader's Choice that has been selected from library patron reader submissions - especially personal favorites that aren't necessarily well known, but should be.

Amanda wrote: "3 and 4 Reader's Choice ago {maybe more?), I was surprised by the wide variety of books that I wouldn't have picked up on my own that had ended up being very enjoyable reads and even some new favor..."
Sorry that this round hasn't spoken to you!

For the Reader's Choice program, you can actually suggest titles for us to add to our long list of potential picks! You can recommend them to librarians in your local branch or send them to me via Goodreads.
The books in the Reader's Choice program are typically from debut or less-well known authors and they have to have been published in the last 18 months. For example, when the next batch of Reader's Choice nominees goes up on July 1st, they will all have been published January 2024 or later. If you have a recommendation that falls in those parameters, you are more than welcome to suggest it!

Amanda wrote: "3 and 4 Reader's Choice ago {maybe more?), I was surprised by the wide variety of books that I wouldn't have picked up on my own that had ended up being very enjoyable reads and even some new favor..."

Same here, but I've been old for a while. At first, every nomination I picked up was 5 stars, but that has been rare lately.

4 stars for Housekeepers but I think it could have been 5 star if I'd been able to read it all in one go instead of it going back and having to wait to get it again.

I got partway through Spellshop.... characters who make me look like a super extroverted social butterfly concern me😅 and I was kinda bored but if I get it back on audio I may finish it.
I've thought it was just me but sounds like several of you have been having a harder time with the reader's choice lately. I'm trying to decide if the current trends in literature are just not my thing or what.
I know this time around it's partly the chaos in my life meaning I'm reading old comfort reads or listening to music more.

Running List
Above the Fire - dnf
No one can know - 2
Where You End - 3
The Other Mothers - 3
The Painter's Daughters - 3
Last Call at the Local - 2.5
Food We Need to Talk - 5
The Deep Sky - 4
Housekeepers - 4

Oh I got partway through Coffeeshop before it had to go back too.
Having to wait for the book to come back partway through is definitely a reflection of the crazy in my life but also messing up my reading experience 😅🤦🏻

The first half of Spellshop was pretty boring. It picked up in the second half, but the end it had given me diabetes.

I just got Antique Hunter's and Last Call, so I'll try to fit those in, but I just started another book while waiting.

I got 29% into Last Call but it's not really my thing.

All the votes have finally been tallied and we have our winners!

1. The Berry Pickers
2. At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities
3. No One Can Know
4. The Spellshop
5 Above the Fire
6. The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder
7. The Other Mothers
8. Last Call at the Local
9. I Hope This Finds You Well
10. This Country
11. The Framed Women of Ardemore House
12. The Penny Mansions
13. The Tainted Cup
14. This Spells Love
15. The Housekeepers
16. Food, We Need to Talk
17. Where You End
18. The Painter's Daughters
19. The Deep Sky
20. UFO

Thanks to everyone for your support of Reader's Choice! We'll have our next round starting in July.

I'm still on hold for The Berry Pickers.