January 2025 Book Club Titles

January 2 -- Vera Wong’s Unsolicited advice for Murderers by Sutanto, Jesse (DB113039)

"Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady, lady of a certain age who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?" 

January 9 -- Starter Villain, Scalzi, John (DB118263)

"Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat." 

January 16 -- The Hobbit, or, There and back again Tolkien, J.R.R. (DB48978)

The wandering wizard Gandalf recruits Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, to be the fourteenth member of an expedition. Hobbits prefer comfort to adventures, but Bilbo joins the quest and encounters many perils, including a dragon.

January 23 -- Me: Elton John (DB97053)

Memoir of the musical legend. Born Reginald Dwight in a London suburb, the performer soon found his sound and his style. He discusses his career and struggles with drug addiction. Also discusses his work with AIDS charities and his relationship with husband, David. 

January 30 -- I’ll be gone in the Dark McNamara, Michelle (DB090637)

The late author's lifelong interest in true crime culminated in investigating the never-identified serial-killing rapist who plagued California in the seventies and eighties, whom she dubbed the Golden State Killer. This detailed telling of what she learned was completed posthumously by her researcher. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex.