The Book Supremacy by Kate Carlisle-322 pages

Bibliophile Mystery #13

Books, spies, escape rooms and a mystery..what's not to love?  And a line that any librarian could relate to "If only we could chain up anyone with an overdue book!"  Yes, a little extreme, but admit it you had that thought more than once!  I was looking for something a little lighter for a read and this fit the bill.  The characters are feasible and enjoyable.  And the main character Brooklyn is unrelenting in finding the killer.  I recommend it.

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

 

                                       The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs-355 pages

In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the building which is in need of constant fixing.  But Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.

After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.

To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations, from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future, and her own heart.

I enjoyed this book very much.  There is also some romance and surprise twists and turns.

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory - 322 pages

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend...

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other... 

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick-224 pages

As you may know, this novel is/was the inspiration for the films Bladerunner and Bladerunner 2049. The characters' names are the same in the movies as in the book, but that is the only thing exactly the same. In the novel, keeping animals (such as electric sheep, but there are real animals, too) is seen as a status symbol. In the movie, animals are not part of the story. Anyway, the novel is thought-provoking and a good read. The biggest difference between a human and an android is empathic capacity. However, androids are treated as worse than animals because of this difference. Many humans are not very empathetic in real life and it makes one think about empathy and about the dangers and challenges of technology. Also, it causes one to think about what the future might be like, especially if androids really do come to fruition (of which I am not a fan). Overall, this was a good, interesting read.