Cosby, S.A. All The Sinners Bleed. New York : Flatiron Books, 2023.

Content Warnings: death, torture, rape, gore, violence, racial slurs, school shootings, pedophilia.

If you like your mysteries/thrillers with a good dose of Southern flavor and existential crisis, read All the Sinners Bleed. This book was on several “Best Books of 2023” lists, but I just picked it up (via Libby eaudiobook) last month.

Titus Crown is the sheriff of Charon County, Virginia. The rural county doesn’t have many major crimes, and Crown likes it that way. He came back home after working at the FBI for many years, at least in part to take care of his aging father. While his first year on the job hasn’t been perfect, he’s feeling okay about how he has done.

But then there is a shooting at the high school. As he and his deputies rush in, the shooter meets them on the steps, and is killed by two of his deputies. Before he is killed, the shooter admits to killing a teacher, but also tells them the teacher committed horrible crimes. Crown finds himself stuck – between the white residents who want to make the teacher a martyr and the black residents who believe the shooting of yet another black man is about race. His pleas to allow the investigation to reveal what really happened falls on deaf ears on both sides.

The investigation discovers a group of men who have been abusing and killing children for years, and one of that group is still out there, watching the investigation and biding their time before striking. Crown’s family and friends are in danger, as is anyone who might be able to identify the killer.

Crown also is dealing with the planned march by a far-right Confederate group during the annual Fall Festival, and the opposition to the parade from people from his father’s church, who worked so hard to get a black man elected to the sheriff’s office. They feel betrayed by him, and he feels frustrated with them and their lack of trust in him to do the right, and the legal, thing in allowing the parade.

The plot of this book is incredible, but what really shines is the characters. Crown is a conflicted man with way too much on his shoulders. His father is the character I’d like most to meet – he often offered a little bit of levity in a very heavy book, but he also was there for his sons during their hardest times. We also get to know Crown’s deputies, his brother, and his current girlfriend, as well as his ex-girlfriend who is in town to cover this horrible crime. Since I enjoyed this as an audiobook, I also have the praise the narrator, Adam Lazarre-White. He did a wonderful job of bringing these characters to life.

This book also shines a light on race relations in the South in the present day. While things look better on the surface, there is still a lot of racism, hatred and distrust when you dig down just a little into Charon’s psyche. Residents of the South might find themselves nodding along as Cosby describes some of the issues Charon residents face, and how race is intertwined with education, housing, jobs and religion. This book gave me a lot to think about, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in racial justice.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

New Easy Readers Bring Joy to Kids!

If your child is a beginning reader, you know the joy of finding easy readers that get them excited. We have a lot of new options, and are highlighting six of them!

The Fix-Its: Nail Need Help by Sarah Lynne Reul

Have a kid who loves science and engineering? This STEM-based easy reader introduces kids to Nail and Hammer. Nail is stuck, and Hammer wants to help, but he seems to only make things worse!

Ayudo by Joe Cepeda

Ayudo finds a canteen, and finds out his superpower is helping everyone he meets! This Spanish-language easy reader is perfect for Spanish-speaking families and for those learning Spanish.

LEGO© City: Meet the Astronaut by Steve Foxe

Kids love LEGO©, and an easy reader featuring their favorite building blocks is always fun to read! Friends Madison and Billy interview astronaut Captain Momentous and learn all about careers in space exploration.

On wheels! by Ethan Long

Horse and Buggy is a great series with laugh-out-loud stories and pictures. In this book, Horse and Buggy get all of their safety equipment on and try out a skateboard, with hilarious results.

Words are magic!  by Zaila Avant-garde

Zaila Avant-garde is a former winner of the Scripps Spelling Bee, who has written a book about the joys of letters and words. This is perfect for kids just learning to read, with rhyming text and pictures that help them decode the story.

This is Hulk by Anthony J. Lee

Who doesn’t love the Hulk? This easy reader shares Bruce Banner’s early years as a scientist and how he became the Hulk. Reluctant readers and Marvel lovers alike will devour this book!

If none of these appeal to your child, don’t worry! We have more (a lot more). Visit your favorite library branch today to check out easy readers.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

Since March is Women’s History Month, we’re sharing some of the Historical Fiction books that were published in the last year by women, about women in history!

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Frances Perkins arrived in New York in the early 1900s with the conviction that she could make a difference for women and children working in horrible conditions in factories. She ultimately was named Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, and was instrumental in establishing many New Deal policies, including the 40-hour work week, minimum wage, and an end of child labor. This book chronicles both her professional life and her personal life, including the difficulties of balancing them in front of the world that doesn’t want a woman to succeed.

The painter’s daughters by Emily Howes

What lengths will you go to in life to protect your sister? Peggy Gainsborough (daughter of the famous painter Thomas Gainsborough) knows her sister Molly would be put in an asylum if the world saw her during one of her bouts of mental confusion. She does all she can to hide her sister’s slips into mental illness, until she falls in love and everything goes wrong. While Gainsborough’s daughters were only famous through his portraits of them, this examination of how mental illness, especially in women, was treated in the 1700s is fascinating.

A woman of pleasure : a novel by Kiyoko Murata

In the early 1900s in Japan, girls were sold to brothels when their families couldn’t support them. Aoi Chi came from a modest background, but became the protégé of an oiran, which was the highest-rank courtesan in the brothel. Being sold to a brothel meant she was well-educated, fed and clothed, and the patronage of the oiran brought her even more power and knowledge. Ultimately, she led a strike of courtesans and brought about change in the red-light districts of Japan. This book is based on the real-life courtesan strike in Meiji-era Japan in the early 1900s.

The American queen : a novel by Vanessa Miller

Louella begins this book as a slave on a plantation, with hate in her heart. As she and all of the slaves are freed, and decide to travel to the Carolinas, she begins to hope that perhaps she and her husband William can build a new kind of place, where all people can be treated with respect. This book is based on the real-life settlement of the Kingdom of Happy Land, on the border of North and South Carolina. Louella and William were the queen and king, but everyone worked and their goods were shared communally.

No better time : a novel of the spirited women of the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion by Sheila Williams

In a time of segregation and war, women of all ages, races and economic levels served in the Women’s Auxiliary Corps in the 1940s. A group of Black WACs were sent abroad to sort and handle the mail to GIs, which numbered more than 17 million pieces of mail, and which had been housed in warehouses and airplane hangars, in far-than-pristine conditions. After the war, these women came back to the United States and fought for their right to be treated as equals. Williams illuminates these women, whose sacrifices and contributions to the war have been unknown until now.

The Queen of Sugar Hill by Reshonda Tate Billingsley

Hattie McDaniel should be on the top of the world, after being the first African to win an Academy Award. But many White people hate her for “not knowing her place” and many Black people hate her for “selling out” by portraying the typical slave in the antebellum South. But McDaniel forged on, leading the way for other African American actors, fighting against discrimination in housing, and navigating a difficult personal life with four failed marriages. Billingsley took historical data and created a wonderful portrait of McDaniel that brims with life.

Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

Margaret Fuller led a full, rich life as a journalist, crusader, patron of the arts, muse and revolutionary leader. Ralph Waldo Emerson invited her to spend time with his friends, where she influenced Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, as well as Emerson himself. She co-founded a magazine, served as the first female foreign news correspondent, was the first woman admitted to the library at Harvard University, and had many other accomplishments in her life, including marrying a count in Italy and working for Italy’s unification. This is a sweeping epic of a novel that just happens to be based on real life events!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

Parents and caregivers know the best way to help their child become a strong reader and successful at school is to read to them! But as kids get older, they may not embrace reading time as much as they did when they were younger. Reading to an older child/tween/teen can lead to great discussions, serve as an introduction to books you loved as a child, and allow a child to fully enjoy a book that is at or above their current reading level. It also can introduce you to newer releases that you would never have gotten to enjoy if you didn’t read them to your kid(s)!

Here are some of my suggestions for great family reads – let us know which ones you tried and if you and your kids enjoyed it!

Books to Read to Tweens

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo – DiCamillo’s books are well-loved by children and adults alike. Because of Winn-Dixie features Opal, her preacher father, the ugly but sweet dog she found in the parking lot of the Winn-Dixie (and thusly named after the store), and the people of Naomi, Florida, who tell Winn-Dixie and Opal their stories and begin to heal her heart.

The Track series by Jason Reynolds – Four kids, chosen for an elite middle school track team, have to find a way through their own challenges to become a team and support each other. Each book isn’t too long, which makes this a good choice for kids who want some variety in what they read! They also serve as a great gateway to Reynolds’ other books for tweens and teens.

Slacker by Gordon Korman – This book is especially good for those kids who spend all of their time on video games, because they’ll definitely relate to Cameron Boxer, who invents an imaginary club at school that supposedly does good deeds (but really allows Cameron and his friends to slack off). But when other people join the club and actually want to do good things, like rescue a beaver named Elvis, Cameron ends up way more involved than he ever wanted to be. There’s a sequel as well called Level 13.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart – These are big thick books that might be overwhelming for a child to tackle on their own, and it is a series that adults will enjoy as much as their children! Reynie is an orphan, and answers an ad for gifted children in the paper. He and three other kids (Kate, Sticky and Constance) are chosen for a special mission that only they can do. You will love these characters so much, and enjoy reading about their impossible missions with your children.

The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke – Meggie’s father accidentally read an evil villain from the book Inkheart into the real world, and only Meggie can put him back and save the world. Kids will love thinking about the possibility of fictional characters crossing into the real world, and there are several other books and series about book jumping (The Land of Stories, Story Thieves, The Book Jumper, Storybound) to read as well!

Tristan Strong series by Kwame Mbalia (or any other Rick Riordan Presents series) – Action, sword battles, and strong heroes and heroines populate the books published by Riordan’s imprint at Disney-Hyperion. We love them because they introduce families to different religions, cultures, and folk tales/legends from our own country and the entire world. The Tristan Strong series is based on African American folklore, like Brer Rabbit and John Henry, and is perfect for a read-aloud.

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls – This story about Billy and his two dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann, has brought children to tears for more than 80 years now. While adults will gulp as they consider that this book is probably now considered historical fiction, kids will love the timeless story of a young boy who saves up to buy hunting dogs and finds that they are his truest friends.

Books to Read to Teens

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien –Kids might be scared off by the length of these books, which is why they are a perfect pick for a family read. Even reluctant readers won’t be able to resist the sword fights, the fantastical creatures and the comradery of the questers. You also can watch the wonderful movies after reading each one and discussing it.

We Have Always Lived In the Castle by Shirley Jackson – Gothic, creepy, yet also darkly humorous, this is one of Jackson’s best-known books, and a good introduction for a younger teen to adult horror novels. This is also a short novel, so a reluctant listener might be willing to give you the few weeks it will take to read this, a bit each night.

The Great Library series by Rachel Caine – This dystopian series of novels is based on an alternate history where the printing press was never invented, and people use a Kindle-like device to read. Paper books are rare and outlawed, making them a favorite on the black market. Jess is part of a family of black-market book dealers, and has been sent to the Great Library as a spy. You will have great discussions about powerful people controlling the narrative and the world when reading this series!

The Belles series by Dhonielle Clayton – this series, too, is dystopian in nature. Women born with gifts to grant beauty to other women are cultivated in Orléans to be Belles. Camellia wants to be the best Belle and get the most prized assignment, to tend to the royal family. But the more she learns about beauty, about the royal family, the more she questions the system and whether her abilities are a gift or a curse. This can be a great springboard to talking about what beauty means to them, and who gets to name them beautiful or ugly. Another similar series is Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.

The Bandit Queens. Shroff, Parini. New York : Ballantine Books, [2023].

Content warnings: misogyny, classism, body shaming, rape and attempted rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, alcoholism, acid attacks, murder.

Sometimes you pick up a book, expecting one thing, but get something else entirely. I picked up The Bandit Queens, expecting something similar to the Finlay Donovan and Aunties series. As you can see from the content warnings, this book (at least in some ways) is much deeper than those series, and deals with some pretty heavy topics. But it still made me laugh and cheer these women on as they deal with their no-good husbands!

Everyone in the village believes Geeta killed her husband. He disappeared several years ago, leaving her not all that upset, considering he abused her, and blamed her for their childlessness. Geeta is a loner, but (she thinks) she’s happy that way. She is feuding with her childhood best friend, Saloni, whom she sees every week at their microloan group meeting. Also part of their microloan group are twins Priya and Preity, and Farah. When Farah doesn’t show one week, Geeta pays her share of the loan. She visits Farah and finds out her husband beats her. Farah begs her to help kill her husband, and when Geeta hears him threaten to beat her up, too, and steal her hard-earned money, Geeta agrees.

Of course, once the others hear, Preity decides her husband has to go, too (after all, he threw acid at her before they got married and ruined her face). Geeta is horrified. She feels extreme guilt after helping Farah, and she certainly doesn’t want to help Preity as well. She thinks, why does everyone jump to the conclusion that their husbands have to die? When Farah decides to blackmail her for her involvement, Geeta really regrets starting down this path!

There are many laugh out loud parts of this book. Geeta begins the book as a loner and ends it with a wonderful group of friends, a dog, and a romantic partner as well. The deaths are original and interesting, and the characters pop off the page. The book pokes fun at how women complain about their offspring, but always follow it up with how blessed they are to be mothers and how it is so rewarding.

On the serious side, this book discusses caste in a way that is at least in part educational for someone outside the system, as well as poverty, spousal abuse, honor killings/acid attacks, rape, and other indignities women face in India as well as all over the world. The women discuss why women are blamed when men can’t control themselves, and why it is okay to rape a woman if she is your wife. I thought Shroff did an excellent job of integrating these issues into the story so it feels natural for the characters to discuss them.

Because I am not from India, I cannot address the concerns some readers have about the stereotypes her story may perpetuate, except to say that I see their point. You could read this book and picture the entirety of India as a poor place with bad sanitation, extreme poverty and backwards people who believe someone’s caste and/or religion makes them untouchable. However, I will acknowledge this deficiency and still say I really enjoyed this book! I will look for other books set in and written by people from India to further my knowledge.

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at madams@alamancelibraries.org.