The County Library discussion

Here we go again! If you're looking to pick up some books for your summer reading, Reader's Choice starts tomorrow, July 1st!

The nominees for the 2025 Fall Round of Reader’s Choice are:

All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today
Assassins Anonymous
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband
The Book of Doors
Cascade Failure
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands
The Crescent Moon Tearoom
Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies
The Great Divide
How to Age Disgracefully
How to Solve Your Own Murder
The Husbands
Nightwatching
Polar Vortex: A Family Memoir
The Return of Ellie Black
The Rule Book
The Treasure Hunters Club
The Twilight Garden
Under Your Spell
William

Visit your local branch to vote or vote online at https://www.slcolibrary.org/we-recomm...

Voting runs July 1 to October 31. Let me know what you think of the nominees!

All available in audio except the graphic memoir. None currently available though.
So that's a whole bunch of hold spots filled up😂

I was hoping I could get near the front of the line by checking it out today, but apparently you have to jump on the minute the list comes out.

I put some on hold, prioritizing the sci fi and fantasy. The Husbands has been on my Maybe list, so I'll probably give that a shot. I still have one book from last round on hold.

I finally finished Coffee Shop of Curiosities. Today. 😅
It was pretty cute. Very Sarah Addison Allen.

I read The Return of Ellie Black last month, and recommend it

I'm 2/3 of the way through Great Divide and I'm struggling. I want to know what happens to some of the characters juuuuust enough to keep going but I've turned the speed up to 3x.

Great Divide was a ton of characters and tiny details and....meh? Just not my thing I guess.

Running list

The Great Divide - 3

I finished my reading for the spring nominees -- didn't read four of them. Food, We Need to Talk stands out as the clear winner. Most of the rest were ties. I was not in line with the majority of voters, though.

I enjoyed Aging Disgracefully. Cute and quirky.

I also really liked Food, We Need to Talk.

The Return of Ellie Black was really good.

Running list
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5

I enjoyed Under Your Spell. I loved the different things the characters figured out about themselves without the story becoming heavy.

Finished William -- fun horror but ending was kind of weak for me. One down.

DNFed William at 50% Not my thing, but Audrey could you message me about the ending and what was weak? I'm curious but not enough to trudge my way through the rest of the book😅

Running list
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5
William - dnf

Loved the Return of Ellie Black. It kept me engaged the whole time.

How to Solve Your Own Murder was great. Looking forward to the sequel.

Running list
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5
William - dnf
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 5

Audrey - would you message me as well about William please? I accidentally returned it with only 30 minutes left and it is so not worth the cost to the library to check it out again, especially since I didn't like it. I'm past the point where Lily went into the cellar because she heard something.

Done

Twilight Garden is a very sweet story of found family and cozy domestic drama. It's also a very slow story (12 hours!). I don't think the title or cover art actually fit the book at all.
I'm not sad I read it but it was a bit too slow for my taste.

Running list
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5
William - dnf
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 5
The Twilight Garden - 3.5

I'm still waiting on holds ...

Thanks Audrey.

I'm just going to ditto Britt on Twilight Garden.

ugh. Wish I remembered I had listened to The Rule Book last December before checking it out again. i didn't hate it, but I didn't like it. 2 stars.

Crescent Moon Tearoom.... drove me nuts. The main conflict through the bulk of the book felt so unnecessary and obnoxious. At least it ended well.

Running List
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5
William - dnf
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 5
The Twilight Garden - 3.5
bailed on Under Your Spell
The Crescent Moon Tearoom - 3
bailed on The Rule Book

Here are my ratings so far:
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband - 5 (I did have fun with the story, but I mostly gave it a 5 to show appreciation to the author for talking about domestic violence - I'm not a victim or anything, just that I think it's sad that it happens [end of commentary])
Cautious Traveller's Guide... - dnf
Every Time I Go On Vacation... - 4
The Great Divide - 4
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 4
Nightwatching - 3 (dnf, but gave a rating)
Return of Ellie Black - 4
Rule Book - 4 (normally I don't read Romances, except for Reader's Choice, and sometimes I like them)
Treasure Hunters Club - 3 (dnf, but gave a rating - too much swearing for me, if I remember right)
Twilight Garden - 4
Libby checkouts - William, Husbands, and Book of Doors

A friend told me she thought Book of Doors had too much swearing, so I might not finish that one. I know this isn't a "Gentle" Reader's Choice, but I just don't like a lot of unnecessary swearing.

Polar Vortex was fine. Didn't really do anything for me and the ending was so abrupt I triple checked thinking I'd missed a page or something.

I generally don't read romance except for the Readers' Choice ones but I am really trying to not force myself to spend time in books I don't want to be reading so I bailed this time.

Running List
The Great Divide - 3
The Return of Ellie Black - 4.5
William - dnf
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 5
The Twilight Garden - 3.5
bailed on Under Your Spell
The Crescent Moon Tearoom - 3
bailed on The Rule Book
Polar Vortex - 3

Read Cascade Failure -- tries to be another Firefly. Not bad; kind of melodramatic at times. Lots of swearing.

Running list -

Cautious Traveller's Guide... - dnf
Every Time I Go On Vacation... - 4
The Great Divide - 4
How to Solve Your Own Murder - 4
Nightwatching - 3 (dnf, but gave a rating)
Return of Ellie Black - 4
Rule Book - 4 (normally I don't read Romances, except for Reader's Choice, and sometimes I like them)
Treasure Hunters Club - 3 (dnf, but gave a rating - too much swearing for me, if I remember right)
Twilight Garden - 4
Husbands - checked out, but after listening to the first 30 minutes, checked it in for other Libby users to try - too much swearing for me, but interesting premise, I guess