SAPL Reader's Blog

Weekend Picks

SAPL Scaries Vol. III

Still scary, over here!

Kurt dreams of sitting atop a social media empire, but for now, he drives for the rideshare company Spree. Fortunately, Kurt has come up with the perfect way to go viral: #TheLesson. He’s decked out his car with cameras for a nonstop live stream full of killer entertainment, murdering his passengers. In the middle of all this madness, a stand-up comedian with her viral agenda crosses Kurt’s path and becomes the only hope to put an end to his misguided carnage.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Nancy is having grisly nightmares in which something monstrous wants to kill her. Meanwhile, her high-school friends, who are having the same dreams, are being slaughtered in their sleep by the fiend.

Summer of ’84

Summer is usually a time for fun and games, but some teens get much more danger than they bargained for after beginning to suspect their neighbor is a serial murderer.

After a family tragedy, a young American couple joins some friends at a midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village. What begins as a carefree summer holiday takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that grow increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.

Tuesday Afternoon Drop-In Book Club November Selection

No Good Asking
by Fran Kimmel

Print | eBook (Hoopla) | eAudiobook (Hoopla)

You can also access the ebook via Libby (we have a “simultaneous use” subscription for this title).

Additional “book club only” print copies are available at the Adult Information Desk upon request.

This month, The Tuesday Drop In Book Club will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 11 am (please note time change – we are excited that Fran Kimmel will join us for part of the meeting!)

Register to drop-in and discuss this heart-felt and heart-warming novel.

A profoundly moving exploration of our capacity to heal one another.

Ellie and Eric Nyland have moved their two sons back to Eric’s childhood farmhouse, hoping for a fresh start. But there’s no denying it, their family is falling apart, each one of them isolated by private sorrows, stresses, and missed signals. With every passing day, Ellie’s hopes are buried deeper in the harsh winter snows.

When Eric finds Hannah Finch, the girl across the road, wandering alone in the bitter cold, his rusty police instincts kick in, and he soon discovers there are bad things happening in the girl’s house. With nowhere else to send her, the Nylands reluctantly agree to let Hannah stay with them until she can find a new home after the Christmas holidays. But Hannah proves to be more balm than burden, and the Nylands discover that the only thing harder than taking Hannah in may be letting her go.

Open Book interview

Lacombe Express interview

Author interview (Alexis Marie Chute blog)

A Kirkus book review

A Prism Magazine book review

Discussion Questions

Joanne’s Mystery Picks

Guilty Not Guilty
By Felix Francis

Felix Francis is the son of the late Dick Francis, author of over 40 best-selling books. However in the son’s case, the apple has fallen far, far away from the tree.

What begins as a gripping story of murder and estranged families soon becomes tedious and boring as the author pads the story with long descriptions of historical murder cases and assorted trivia, totally irrelevant to the case.

Bill Russell is a volunteer steward at Warwick Races when he’s informed that his wife has been found murdered in their home. He’s quickly placed at the top of the suspects list and charged with her murder. His behavior at this point turns to the melodramatic as he weeps uncontrollably, calling out to his dead wife and berating her for “leaving him” all the while acting more like an adolescent than a middle-aged man. The police seem ham-fisted in their investigation, ignoring the most basic aspects of collecting evidence.

It was impossible to suspend disbelief in reading this because it was all just too unbelievable: from the characters, to the way in which the investigation was carried out. Give it a miss and choose another book to read. I wish I had!

Joanne gives this book 1 dagger out of 5!

Seniors Drop In Book Club November Selection

No Good Asking
by Fran Kimmel

Print | eBook (Hoopla) | eAudiobook (Hoopla)

You can also access the ebook via Libby (we have a “simultaneous use” subscription for this title).

Additional “book club only” print copies are available at the Adult Information Desk upon request.

The Seniors Book Club usually meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 2:00 PM via Zoom. Please note: because of Remembrance Day this month, we will meet a week later on November 18!

Special exciting announcement: the author, Fran Kimmel, will visit our group for part of the meeting!

Register to drop-in and discuss this heart-felt and heart-warming novel.

A profoundly moving exploration of our capacity to heal one another.

Ellie and Eric Nyland have moved their two sons back to Eric’s childhood farmhouse, hoping for a fresh start. But there’s no denying it, their family is falling apart, each one of them isolated by private sorrows, stresses, and missed signals. With every passing day, Ellie’s hopes are buried deeper in the harsh winter snows.

When Eric finds Hannah Finch, the girl across the road, wandering alone in the bitter cold, his rusty police instincts kick in, and he soon discovers there are bad things happening in the girl’s house. With nowhere else to send her, the Nylands reluctantly agree to let Hannah stay with them until she can find a new home after the Christmas holidays. But Hannah proves to be more balm than burden, and the Nylands discover that the only thing harder than taking Hannah in may be letting her go.

Open Book interview

Lacombe Express interview

Author interview (Alexis Marie Chute blog)

A Kirkus book review

A Prism Magazine book review

Discussion Questions

Weekend Picks

SAPL Scaries Vol. II

In this cult favorite, modern-day witch Elaine uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her. A stylish tribute to 1960s technicolor horror, THE LOVE WITCH utilizes camp and pastiche to depict a feminist revision of the classics of a bygone era.

Karen, a single mother, gifts her son Andy a Buddi doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic.

Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

After years of treatment at a mental institution for the criminally insane, serial killer Norman Bates is finally released. Deciding to move back into his long-dead mother’s infamous old house, he soon finds himself tormented by ‘her’ demands and begins to question his own sanity.

SAPL Scaries Vol. I

Ready for a month of the best strange, deranged, hacking, slashing, haunting, and nightmarish flicks we have to pick from our crypt of scary movies? Be prepared, because they are coming for you!

Enjoy,

When Seth Brundle makes a huge scientific and technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly manages to get inside the device and the two become one.

Set in 1982 in the suburb of Blackeberg, Stockholm, twelve-year-old Oskar is a lonely outsider, bullied at school by his classmates; at home, Oskar dreams of revenge against a trio of bullies. He befriends his twelve-year-old, next-door neighbor Eli, who only appears at night in the snow-covered playground outside their building.

A Girl Walks Alone at Night

Strange things are afoot in Bad City. The Iranian ghost town, home to prostitutes, junkies, pimps, and other sordid souls, is a place that reeks of death and hopelessness, where a lonely vampire is stalking the towns most unsavory inhabitants. But when boy meets girl, an unusual love story begins to blossom…blood red.

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the school is a front for something far more sinister and supernatural amidst a series of grisly murders. SUSPIRIA is Italian Horror-master Dario Argento’s best-known and most acclaimed film.

Monday Drop In Book Club November Selection

No Good Asking
by Fran Kimmel

Print | eBook (Hoopla) | eAudiobook (Hoopla)

You can also access the ebook via Libby (we have a “simultaneous use” subscription for this title).

Additional “book club only” print copies are available at the Adult Information Desk upon request.

The Monday Evening Book Club meets on the second Monday of the month at 7:00 PM via Zoom.

Special exciting announcement: the author, Fran Kimmel, will visit our group for part of the meeting!

Register to drop-in and discuss this heart-felt and heart-warming novel.

A profoundly moving exploration of our capacity to heal one another.

Ellie and Eric Nyland have moved their two sons back to Eric’s childhood farmhouse, hoping for a fresh start. But there’s no denying it, their family is falling apart, each one of them isolated by private sorrows, stresses, and missed signals. With every passing day, Ellie’s hopes are buried deeper in the harsh winter snows.

When Eric finds Hannah Finch, the girl across the road, wandering alone in the bitter cold, his rusty police instincts kick in, and he soon discovers there are bad things happening in the girl’s house. With nowhere else to send her, the Nylands reluctantly agree to let Hannah stay with them until she can find a new home after the Christmas holidays. But Hannah proves to be more balm than burden, and the Nylands discover that the only thing harder than taking Hannah in may be letting her go.

Open Book interview

Lacombe Express interview

Author interview (Alexis Marie Chute blog)

A Kirkus book review

A Prism Magazine book review

Discussion Questions

Joanne’s Mystery Picks

The Missing American
By Kwei Quartey

The Missing American: Quartey, Kwei: 9781641292122: Books - Amazon.ca

When Emma Djan, 26, meets #MeToo and has her career in the Accra, Ghana police force cut short a former colleague suggests that she apply to a private detective agency. When she gets the job, she is thrust into the murky and dangerous world of internet and sakawa scams.

Meanwhile across the world in Washington, D.C., Gordon Tilson, a widower, is about to enter that same dangerous world, unbeknownst to him. Through an internet support group he has become fond of a Ghanaian widow. When she tells him of her sister who has been in a serious car crash, he reaches out to her by sending her thousands of dollars towards the hospital bills, much to the horror of his son, Derek. When, on the spur of the moment, Gordon decides to go to Ghana to visit this woman, and then goes missing, Derek quickly follows, fearful for his father’s life. Derek and Emma’s paths soon cross as she becomes involved in the investigation of internet scams like the one perpetrated on his father.

I loved the rhythm and cadence of the writing in Quartey’s First Emma Djan Investigation. It’s reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Series. The characters are colorful and full-fleshed and the plot is rich with twists and turns. It was a great read.

The subject matter is similar to Will Ferguson’s 2012 novel 419, which I highly recommend.

Bring on book 2 in this series!

Joanne gives this book 5 daggers out of 5!

Weekend Picks

Autumn Ed.

Each day is an opportunity to add a bit of pumpkin spice to anything, even the movies you’re getting cozy with this weekend.

So, enjoy autumn’s glory, especially when the picks are about to a little spooky over the next few weeks.

When Harry Met Sally

During their travel from Chicago to New York, Harry and Sally debate whether or not sex ruins a friendship between a man and a woman. Eleven years later, and they’re still no closer to finding the answer.

Writer-director Greta Gerwig has crafted a film that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott and unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters, four young women each determined to live life on her own terms, is both timeless and timely.

Good Will Hunting

Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean Maguire.

Based on the true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner’s son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father’s wishes, and eventually became a NASA scientist.

Legends of the Fall

An epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of 1900s USA and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love.

Weekend Picks

Science Literacy Week Ed.

From some weird fiction to sensational realities, these are but a few films that get us excited about science!

Enjoy,

The exciting adventure of the day we make contact with life beyond Earth comes to the screen with a profound sense of wonder and a dazzling visual sweep that extends to the outer reaches of space and the imagination.

Seth Brundle develops a system to transport objects in a matter of seconds, but when he tries it on himself, Seth’s genes and molecules are accidently fused with those of a fly. At first Seth is elated by his new physical abilities but soon his excitement turns into a nightmare as his insect half begins to take over.

In Gattaca, only the strong succeed and the strong are genetically pre-selected at birth. When one man dares to defy the system, he gets caught in a web of lies, corruption, and murder.

Critically acclaimed filmmaker John Hughes is at it again, giving nerdy computer whiz Ilan Mitchell-Smith and his best friend power to create the “perfect woman”. Like a computer-generated fairy godmother, the duo’s out-of-this-world creation guides the pair through the pleasures and pitfalls of adolescence.

Kris is derailed from her life when she is drugged by a small-time thief. She is unknowingly drawn into the life cycle of a presence that permeates the microscopic world, moving to nematodes, plant life, livestock, and back again. Along the way, she finds another being-a familiar, who is equally consumed by the mysterious presence. The two search urgently for a place of safety within each other as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of their wrecked lives.