submitted by Kit Darling and the members of the Bay Area Book Club

September – a month of beginnings and endings

The Club doesn’t meet over the summer, but that doesn’t mean that we stop reading. So here are some recommended reads available from the Hamilton Public Library. To borrow one or place a reserve, go to https://hpl.bibliocommons.com  .

First Snow, Last Light by Wayne Johnson.  “Ned Vatcher, only 14, ambles home from school in the chill hush that precedes the first storm of the winter of 1936 to find the house locked, the family car missing, and his parents gone without a trace.” This is the opening sentence of a rambling story, part mystery, part character study set in Saint Johns, Newfoundland with brief diversions to Boston and New York. His search for the ‘Vanished Vatchers’, Ned’s father Edgar and his mother, consumes Ned for decades until a final, surprising revelation. This rambling tale is peopled by a cast of misfits, tragic characters and sly main-chancers. For many readers – including this one, the character of Fielding, enigmatic and tragic becomes the most interesting. I am wanting to read more by this author. Kit Darling

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab “There are a hundred kinds of silence.  There’s the thick silence of places long sealed shut, and the muffled silence of ears stoppered up.  The empty silence of the dead, and the heavy silence of the dying. There is the hollow silence of a man who has stopped praying, and the airy silence of an empty synagogue, and the held-breath silence of someone hiding from themselves.  There is the awkward silence that fills the space between people who don’t know what to say.  And the taut silence that falls over those who do, but don’t know where or how to start.  Henry doesn’t know what kind of silence this is, but it is killing him.”  At the centre of this genre defying novel is a Faustian bargain, a curse that affects the adventures of Addie across centuries and continents. In 1714 Addie makes a deal with the “darkness, dark God, shadow”. She is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.  Lonely and abandoned, she is strong, tough, and fearless, not willing to give up her soul.  She strives to leave her mark and be remembered through her art, her music and her ideas. Everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore who remembers her name. Their unfolding relationship and her gradually developing one with the devil, both simple and complex will captivate you entirely. Hauntingly beautiful and compulsively readable. Paige Turner

Note: The bookmobile will be at Bennetto on Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:00. There will be no access to the bookmobile to browse, but staff will be on hand for contactless returns and holds pickup.

Have you read any of our recommendations? Liked any of the same books we talked about or disagreed totally? Let us know at bayareabookclub@bell.net  .