LibraryPoint Blog

This readalike is in response to a patron's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids.  You can browse the book matches here.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves: "In a remote Sheltland Islands hamlet, New Year's Eve rings in a dead body for Inspector Jimmy Perez in this 2006 Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award winner." (Library Journal)

If you enjoyed the unique rural British Isles settings of these books, here are some other titles you may enjoy:
 

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor A tale set in eighteenth-century Cambridge finds bookseller John Holdsworth commissioned to investigate Lady Anne Oldershaw's son's mental illness, a deep melancholy tied to a woman's mysterious death and a secret society. (catalog description)

The Arsenic Labyrinth by Martin Edwards Ten years after the disappearance of a Lake District woman, Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett re-opens the case when a stranger's tip leads to clues that could solve the mystery. Once again, Scarlett's mystery and historian Daniel Kind's research intersect at the Arsenic Labyrinth, a group of mining tunnels. (catalog description)

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman is the story of Rory Dawn Hendrix, a girl growing up on the Calle de las Flores, a trailer park on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada. The Calle is a neighborhood where people live from government check to government check. It is a place where a mother must take the night and weekend shifts because the tips are better and they need the money to survive, even though there is no such thing as reliable child care. It is a world where a mother's determination to spare her daughter the abuse she suffered as a child isn't enough to give her the skills to identify the true risks to that girlchild.

Modernized versions of traditional fairy tales have become popular in recent years, with television series such as ABC’s Once Upon a Time and graphic novels such as Bill Willingham’s Fables providing creative and original narratives utilizing characters and concepts from old folk tales. Although popular, these newer variations on older fairy tales have created controversy for altering the traditional characterizations and stories that many people grew up with. This exposes a major flaw in many people’s understanding of fairy tales and traditional folk culture—which versions are the “most correct” version of the story, and why? Maria Tatar’s The Grimm Reader is a collection of many of the traditional fairy tales recorded by the Brothers Grimm, providing an English translation of some of the oldest written versions of these stories.  Notable for being far more violent than the “traditional” versions of the fairy tales popularized in the Victorian period (and later, by Disney films), the typical Grimm story is a combination of children in jeopardy, adults that range from neglectful to destructive, and flat narrative that is driven by plot rather than by characterization.

My favorite book when I was in high school was I Heard the Owl Call my Name, by Margaret Craven, so I decided to reread it to see how I related to the book now.  Even though it is almost 50 years old, the book is still just as timely and beautifully-written as it was in the 60’s. Perhaps its message is even more important in today’s world.  It is about a young Vicar, Mark Brian, who has been diagnosed with only a few years to live.  His Bishop has been told his diagnosis, but the Vicar has not. 

When the Bishop learns of the young Vicar’s diagnosis he says, “So short a time to learn so much? It leaves me with no choice. I shall send him to my hardest parish. I shall send him to Kingcome on patrol of the Indian Villages.”