Looking for your next great read? See what the Newfields librarians are reading and loving this month…
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
It has been a long time since I’ve read a book that so completely consumed me. This isn’t to say I haven’t loved— and been totally immersed in—other books I’ve read recently. But that thrill of thinking about the characters when you’re not reading, of carrying the book around the house to your various reading spots, of realizing you have five minutes before you have to leave for work (or wherever) so instead of scrolling on your phone, you read, of getting “book angry” when people try to communicate with you…that is a feeling I’ve not had and did not realize how much I missed it until I read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke.
The premise is simple and I’m not giving anything away here: Natalie is a “tradwife” internet influencer who somehow travels back in time to 1855, where she must live for real the life she was only pretending to live for her followers.
The book toggles between two time periods: 1855, which is Natalie’s present, and Natalie’s real life past, telling the story of how she came to be a public figure. While it is deliciously sly in taking down the whole tradwife thing, the book is so much more than a satire or even a hit job. It’s a book about how we all perform our lives to one degree or another, about the power of the internet, about Christian nationalism and life in America in this century, about how we are all surveilled and surveilling each other. Anne Hathaway optioned the film rights before the book was even released.
It took me only a few days to finish Yesteryear and I am still thinking about it. I am also stunned that it is Burke’s first novel. I hope it is just the first of many great books to come.
📖📲🎧This book is available to check out in our collection and on audiobook and ebook on the Libby app.
–Susan M.
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Review coming soon…
📖 📲🎧This book is available in our collection and as an audiobook on the Libby app and in audiobook and ebook format on the hoopla app.
–Andy S.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Sybil is seventy-three years old, in the winter of her life. Sybil has always made sense of the world through writing letters and through this epistolary novel we see how she comes to terms with her past and present and learns forgiveness. -Publisher
The Correspondent has been making literary waves for weeks now. We haven’t been able to keep a copy on the shelf for more than a day or two, and we even added a second copy to the collection just to keep up with demand. As I write this, both copies are currently checked out, so the wave hasn’t ended yet.
But, if you are like me, perhaps this level of hype has held you back from picking this one up. Having seen this one make the book club rounds for a while, I myself was worried that the reading experience wouldn’t live up to the accolades. Additionally, I am averse to stories that are too sweet and I feared that a story of an older lady writing letters could veer into saccharine territory.
Reader, I am happy to say that wasn’t the case here.
While I had my reservations about our main character Sybil in the first half of the book, Evans eventually won me over with her carefully crafted character development.
Plus, I am a real sucker for an epistolary novel (i.e., a novel written as a series of letters or documents instead of prose.)
Evans masterfully weaves together an entire book’s worth of letters to and from Sybil and the many people she wrote spanning several years. This includes short missives to her neighborhood Garden Club—and all the drama that entails—as well as longer, more personal communications with her best friend Rosalie and the troubled teenage son of a former colleague whom she takes under her wing; and persistent letters to the English department of her local college requesting permission to audit their classes.
We don’t get every letter back and forth for each correspondence, but together the collection of letters paints a story—one where we see Sybil begin in one place and end in another. It is this character growth that really cinches the book for me. There is stubbornness, tenderness, love, hope, humor, and drama contained in these hundreds of letters. There is also thread of sadness and personal tragedy that lingers on the edges of the page, which is slowly revealed over time. This adds depth to Sybil’s character and illuminates many of her choices.
A final point for this book is that, being a novel of letters, this one reads quickly. I am told that the book works on audio without too much confusion, but I think it is helpful to have the book in front of you to better place who the letters are written to and from, especially as the cast of characters expands.
Whichever format you prefer, I highly recommend you pick this one up. If for nothing else than to join the zeitgeist and be able to share in the conversation. (If you do, please pay us a visit at the Library and tell us what you thought—good or bad. We love to hear from you!)
📖 This book is available in our collection.
-Brittney T.
