Larry Grieco, Librarian. Meg Wolitzer is an extraordinary writer whose fifth novel, The Interestings, has garnered high praise from the critics. This is the story of six friends who, as teens in the mid-70s, attend a summer camp for the arts and form a potentially lifelong friendship.

The story takes them from these early years all the way through middle age, “as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.” At first they shared a sense of being “interesting,” and having that in common, they forge a bond that would be hard to break. One by one, though, they are forced to adjust their expectations.

One, an aspiring comic actress, actually succumbs to a more practical occupation as a therapist. Her friend Jonah, who was a “gifted guitarist,” leaves music behind to become a mechanical engineer. Their two closest friends, however, marry and both attain a high level of success and fame. Ethan, a “brilliant animator,” has a hit TV show, and his wife, Ash, becomes a respected and admired stage director. Wolitzer, “with heart-stopping insight and wisdom,” is able to describe the processes of aging and maturing.

Chicago Tribune: “A supremely engrossing, deeply knowing, genius-level enterprise….The novel is thick and thickly populated. And yet Wolitzer is brilliant at keeping the reader close by her side as she takes her story back and forth across time, in and out of multiple lives, and into the tangle of countless continuing, sometimes compromising, conversations.”

Catherine Coulter, in keeping with a seemingly new trend, has teamed up with J.T. Ellison to continue their “Brit in the FBI” series. The new one is called The Lost Key, and features the “freshly minted” FBI agent Nicholas Drummond.

Drummond and his partner, Mike Caine, are assigned to investigate a stabbing on Wall Street. The victim, John Pearce, is not only what he seems to be, a naval historian and antiquities dealer, but much more. He is also known as The Messenger, and that takes Drummond and Caine on a trail of deadly secrets that may date all the way back to World War I.

A brilliant madman named Manfred Havelock is behind the killing and threatens to cause more havoc as he tries to retrieve “what’s been lost for nearly a century.” John Pearce’s dying words were “The key is in the lock,” but only Pearce’s son, Adam, knows where to look, and he has turned up missing. It becomes clear that Havelock is after the key, and may have abducted Adam in the process. Drummond and Caine must find them both before Havelock “changes the world forever.”

The book is every bit as complicated as it seems to be, and that’s what keeps Coulter and Ellison’s fans coming back for more.

For our third highlighted book this week, we go back to a book that was published in 1999, and that is worth revisiting. In City of Light, Lauren Belfer wrote what USA Today called “Breathtaking…a remarkable blend of murder mystery, love story, political intrigue and tragedy of manners.”

The story is set back in 1901, in Buffalo, New York, where the power plant at nearby Niagara Falls has “electrified the streets” for the first time. It is the beginning of a new century and a whole new way of life for the country, as the electricity industry is just getting underway. Buffalo, a city “poised for glory,” plays a major role in the story of Louisa Barrett, headmistress of a most prestigious school.

Louisa discovers evidence of a murder tied to the power plant, and then another mysterious death, which “ignites an explosive chain of events…in this city of seething intrigue and dazzling progress.” As a battle rages “among politicians, power brokers, and industrialists for control of Niagara,” Louisa must “protect a dark secret that implicates them all.”

Time Magazine: “Get your hands on City of Lights, a full-to-the-brim first novel…a straight-through, sleepless read.”

The library continues its Fall Film Series with Orpheus, the brilliant update of the Orpheus myth by French poet and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau.  Updated to reconstruction Paris, the story concerns a sensitive young poet named Orpheus (Jean Marais), who is married to the lovely Eurydice (Marie Dea). True to the legend, Orpheus must travel to the underworld and back for the sake of love.

Join us for a most unusual viewing and discussion with film critic Walter Chaw leading the way. The program begins at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 8, and is open to the public—with free popcorn, cookies, and ideas, all courtesy of the Friends of the Library.