JCPL librarians bring you book recommendations and discuss the bites and beverages to pair with them.
Books & Bites Podcast, Ep. 116
We’re halfway through the Summer Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge, and this episode, we discuss books set on islands.
Island settings are about more than sipping cocktails on the beach. Sometimes, as with Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None, the primary goal is to get off the island while you still can.
Whether you’re into thrillers, horror, historical fiction, or romance, you’ll find the island of your dreams—or nightmares—with our picks. Listen below!
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Jacqueline’s Pick
This YA thriller is filled with greed, secrets, and a mystery waiting to unfold. Millionaire Malcolm Wyatt invites six teen social media influencers, Liam, James, Will, Ava, Harper, and Paisley, to his new private island getaway.
But when one of the teens goes missing, their sunny island beach adventure turns into a gothic setting complete with stormy weather, eerie surroundings, and mounting suspense.
Pairing: Funnel Cake with Blueberry Sauce
Michael’s Pick
This horror novel follows a boy scout troop camping for the weekend on a remote, uninhabited island off the coast of Prince Edward Island.
When the Scoutmaster, who’s also the local town doctor, discovers a mysterious, skeletal man stumbling through their campsite, he takes the man into their cabin.
He quickly finds that he’s in way over his head when he discovers the horror that has made its home inside the man.
Once the Scoutmaster becomes infected, the weekend devolves into a bloody nightmare for the troop of boys who must try to find a way off the island without becoming infected.
Pairing: Dark ‘n Stormy Rum Cocktail
Carrie’s Picks
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor
This coming-of-age novel opens in September 1938 when a whale washes ashore on a tiny island off the coast of Wales. It’s home to 18-year-old Manod, who lives with her lobsterman father and younger sister, Llinos.
When ethnographers Joan and Edward arrive from Oxford to study the Welsh-speaking island’s culture, they hire Manod as their assistant and translator. To Manod, it feels like a way out of the harsh island life that’s expected of her.
Pairing: Welsh Cakes
This contemporary romance is set on another tiny British island, this time the fictional Ormer in the English Channel.
The island farm shop has just hired someone named Charlie Jones as manager, but on Charlie’s first work day, not one but two people named Charlie Jones show up: a grieving woman who wants to start a family, and a newly sober man just off a big break up.
Since no one at the shop seems to know who the job was actually meant for, the Charlies agree to a trial period of sharing the position—and living quarters. Naturally, shenanigans ensue.
Pairing: Not-too-fancy farm shop coffee