Beach Reads

Looking for a great summer read?  Check out the Reading Room in Bailey Library! 





History professor, Patsy MacLemoore, wakes up in jail after an alcoholic blackout wondering what landed her there.  She jokingly asks her lawyer and jailers, "Okay, what did I do?  Kill someone?"  She had no idea that a mother and daughter were found run over in her driveway and that she was the prime suspect after being apprehended driving with a revoked license! Faced with life in prison, she tries to atone for this unpardonable act by getting sober, finding a new community and husband. Decades later a new piece of information turns up that surprises everyone and causes Patsy to reassess her life.

In this thriller/mystery, break-ins are plaguing elderly residents of the small town of Starvation Lake.  When the break-ins escalate to murder, Gus Carpenter sets out to discover the truth.  He has no idea his journey will lead him to a secret lockbox belonging to his mother that could forever change his life.

Ever wish you could ditch your life and begin over again???  32 year old Emily Aulebach, a Manhattan lawyer decides to do just that!  She leaves work early one day, impulsively packs a bag and takes off, leaving her husband, sister, friends and job behind.  She heads to a town in New Hampshire where she spent a summer during her college years.  This is the place where she first "went wrong" in her life and she is determined to fix it.  She has to start here.

Two couples get together at a fashionable restaurant for dinner one night.  The evening begins with polite small talk that hides the terrible things that really need to be said.  The conversational knives are sharpened as each new course is served until they finally bring up the real subject--their fifteen year old sons. The 2 boys are united by a single horrific act that triggered a police investigation and shattered their families. Civility and friendship are thrown out the window when each couple shows just how far they will go to protect those they love.  This international bestseller will leave you breathless.

1852 - 17 year old Joesphine is a house slave to aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell

2004 - Lina Sparrow, an ambitious young lawyer, works on a class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves

Lina discovers art historians suspect Lu Anne Bell's humanizing portraits of slaves that worked on her Virginia tobacco farm was actually the work of her house slave, Josephine.  A descendant of Josephine's would be the perfect face for her lawsuit, if one can be tracked down.  As Lina pieces together the story of Josephine, she begins to question her own life and her mother's mysterious death twenty years before.  This searing tale of art and history, love and secrets explores what it means to repair a wrong, and asks whether truth can be more important than justice.

This is just a sampling of what can be found in the Reading Room, second floor of Bailey Library.  You are sure to find a genre or author to help you while away the summer days ahead.