MPL's Book Nook

Guilty Consciences, edited by Martin Edwards

2012-01-31T15:17:00.000-05:00

Guilty Consciences is a Crime Writers' Association Anthology, which has been edited by Martin Edwards. With a foreward by author and contributor Peter James, and an introduction by the editor Martin Edwards, such an eclectic mix of the Crime Writers' Association's finest mystery authors cannot fail to bring out the guilty conscience in us all...

Authors:

ROBERT BARNYARD

ANN CLEEVES

BERNIE CROSTHWAITE

JUDITH CUTLER

CAROL ANNE DAVIS

MARTIN EDWARDS

JANE FINNIS

PETER JAMES

H.R.F. KEATING

ALANNA KNIGHT

SUSAN MOODY

AMY MYERS

SARAH RAYNE

CLAIRE SEEBER

L.C. TYLER

DAN WADDELL

YVONNE WALUS

Now available at the Mooresville Public Library!

Dead Man's Grip, by Peter James

2012-01-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

Carly Chase is still traumatized ten days after being in a fatal traffic accident that kills a teenage American student from Brighton University. Then she receives news that turns her entire world into a living nightmare. The drivers of the other two vehicles involved have been found tortured and murdered. Now detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Sussex Police force issues a stark and urgent warning to Carly: She could be next.

The student had deadly connections. Connections that stretch across the Atlantic: to America and an organized-crime group. Someone has sworn revenge and won't rest until the final person involved in that fateful accident is dead. The police advise Carly her only option is to go into hiding and change her identity. The terrified woman disagrees. She knows these people have ways of hunting you down anywhere. If the police are unable to stop them, she has to find a way to do it herself. But already the killer is one step ahead of her, watching, waiting, and ready.

Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind, by Kitty Ferguson

2012-01-25T14:22:00.000-05:00

Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our age--bestselling author of A Brief History of Time, celebrated theoretical physicist, and an inspiration as he exhibits grace, dignity, and courage while coping with devastating disability. With rare access to Hawking, including childhood photos and in-depth research, award-winning author Kitty Ferguson has created a rich and comprehensive picture of Hawking's life: his childhood; the heartbreaking ALS diagnosis when he was a first-year graduate student; his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe; and his rise to international fame. Ferguson uses her gift for translating the language of theoretical physics into the language of the rest of us to make Hawking's scientific work accessible.

Stephen Hawking is an insightful, absorbing, and definitive account of an extraordinary life and a brilliant mind of our age. Go through the worm hole with him, as you read this wonderful book of a life that has been nothing more than cosmic.

White Truffles in Winter, by N.M. Kelby

2012-01-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) was the unparalleled French cheg whose impact on restaurants and high cuisine is still with us. He was also a complicated man-kind yet imperious, food obsessed yet rarely hungry, capable of great passion, and inscrutable reserve. In this lushly imagined new novel, N.M. Kelby transports us into Escoffier's world, weaving a sensual story of food and longing, war and romance in , White Truffles in Winter.

The novel opens near the end of Escoffier's life, as he writes his memoirs. He was witnessed a tumultuous sweep of history from a unique position, and he recounts his days a cook in the Franco-Prussian War, a chef for the beau monde in Paris and at the London's Savoy, and a confidant of royalty and world leaders. The heart of Escoffier's story, however, lies in his love for two very different women: the famously beautiful and reckless actress Sarah Bernhardt, one of the most adored women of her day, and his wife, the independent and sublime poet Delphine Daffis, whose hand in marriage Escoffier gambled for, only to live apart from her for much of his career.

Now Escoffier has retired and returned to Delphine. She requests just one thing: that he produce a dish in her name as he has done for so many, including Bernhardt and Queen Victoria. Yet how does one re-create the complexity of love in a single recipe? The great chef has no idea. Aided by a head-strong young cook who looks remarkably like Bernhardt, Escoffier must rediscover food's emotional capacity, its ability to communicate passion, regret, grief, forgiveness, and love.

There but for the, by Ali Smith

2012-01-24T14:54:00.000-05:00

At a dinner party in the posh London suburb of Greenwich, Miles Garth suddenly leaves the table midway through the meal, locks himself in an upstairs room, and refuses to leave. An eclectic group of neighbors and friends slowly gathers around the house, and Miles' story is told from the points of view of four of them: Anna, a woman in her forties; Mark, a man in his sixties; May, a woman in her eighties; and a ten-year-old named Brooke. The thing is, none of these people knows Miles more than slightly. How much is it possible for us to know about a stranger? And what are the consequences of even the most casual, fleeting moments we share every day with one another?

Brilliantly audacious, disarmingly playful, and full of Smith's trademark wit and puns, There but for the is a deft exploration of the human need for separation-from our pasts and from one another-and the redemptive possibilities for connections. It is a tour de force by one of our finest writers, Ali Smith.

The Rook, by Daniel O'Malley

2012-01-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

It's already January, and I'm behind. This new year came, and it's been going fast ever since. Hopefully with these reviews, I will get into the swing of things once again!

"Dear You,
The body you are wearing used to be mine..."

So beings the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies--all wearing latex gloves. With no memory of who she is or how she got there, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and escape those who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in the Checquy, a secret government agency that protects the world against supernatural threats-from sentient fungus to stampeding ectoplasm-while keeping the populace in the dark. But now there is a mole on the inside, and this person wants Myfanwy dead. In her quest to save herself and unmask the traitor, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she could ever have imagined. And she must learn to harness her own rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability.

11/22/63, by Stephen King

2011-12-21T15:21:00.000-05:00

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King--who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer--takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away-a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Ick!

Not much later Jake's friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession--to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there's Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore.

Time travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Red Mist, by Patricia Cornwell

2011-12-15T18:58:00.001-05:00

Determined to find out what happened to her former deputy chief, Jack Fielding, murdered six months earlier, Kay Scarpetta travels to the Georgia Prison for Women, where an inmate has information not only on Fielding, but also on a string of grisly killings. The murder of an Atlanta family years ago, a young woman on death row, and the inexplicable deaths of homeless people as far away as California seem unrelated. But Scarpetta discovers connections that compel her to conclude that what she thought ended with Fielding's death and an attempt on her own life is only the beginning of something far more destructive: a terrifying terrain of conspiracy and potential terrorism on an international scale. And she is the only one who can stop it.

Written by the #1 bestselling crime writer, Patricia Cornwell, yet again amazes us with her writing. Red Mist, is the newest Scarpetta Novel, and it will leave you wanting more and reading into the night. Check this video from Patricia, about Red Mist....

Breaking Point, by Dana Haynes

2011-12-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

En route to a conference, three NTSB experts are aboard a twin-turboprop plane when it crashes into a thickly forested mountainside. But the crash isn't an accident and the experts weren't the target. The plane was brought down by a mercenary--an enigmatic, shadowy, self-described patriot known only as Calendar, who is using weapons technology banned by international treaty. The targets: three men who planned to blow the whistle on the dangers of this technology and the power brokers behind its development. The NTSB experts (known as "crashers" to insiders) are literally dropped in the middle of a case that neither starts nor ends with one plane crash with some of their own on board.

Breaking Point is a twisty, compelling thriller that goes from the streets of Spain to the mountains of the western United States to the heart of the dark, hidden corridors of power-home to dangerous secrets that few suspect and fewer know. With allies-unseen and even unknown-working behind the scenes to help them, the team is trapped in the middle of a high-stake game of cat and mouse with the deadliest of consequences, a game that not all of them will survive....

Slash and Burn, by Colin Cotterill

2011-12-14T15:03:00.000-05:00

Laos, 1978: Dr. Siri, the national coroner of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, might finally be allowed to retire (again). Although he loves his tow morgue assistants, he's tired of his job, which he never wanted in the first place. Plus, he's pushing eighty, and wants to spend some quality time with his wife before his untimely death (which has been predicted by the local transvestite fortune teller).

But retirement is not in the cards for Dr. Siri after all. He's dragged into one last job for the Lao government: supervising an excavation for the remains of a U.S. fighter pilot who went down in the remote jungle in northern Laos ten years earlier, during the Vietnam War. The presence of American soldiers in Laos is a hot-button issue for both the Americans and the Lao involved, and the search party includes high-level politicians and scientists. Then one member of the excavation party is found dead, setting off a chain of accidents that Dr. Siri suspects are not completely accidental.

Everyone is trapped in a cabin in the jungle, and the bodies are starting to pile up. Can Dr. Siri get to the bottom of the MIA pilot's mysterious story before the fortune teller's prediction comes true?

No Higher Honor, by Condoleezza Rice

2011-12-08T18:15:00.001-05:00

"Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter."

~ Condoleezza Rice ~

From one of the world's most admired women, this is former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's compelling story of eight years serving at the highest levels of government. In her position as America's chief diplomat, Rice traveled almost continuously around the globe, seeking common ground among sometimes bitter enemies, forging agreement on divisive issues, and compiling a remarkable record of achievement.

With the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rice found herself at the center of the administration's intense efforts to keep America safe. Here Rice describes the events of that harrowing day--and the tumultuous days after. No day was ever the same. Additionally, Rice reveals new details of the debates that led to the war in Afghanistan and then Iraq.

They eyes of the nation were once again focused on Rice in 2004 when she appeared before the 9/11 Commission to answer tough questions about the country's preparedness for--and immediate response to, the 9/11 attacks. Her responses, it was generally conceded, would shape the nation's perception of the administration's competence during the crisis. Rice conveys just how pressure filled that appearance was and her gratitude and surprise when, in succeeding days, she was broadly saluted for her grace and forthrightness. From that point on, Rice was aggressively sought after by the media and regarded by some as the administration's most effective champion.

No High Honor takes the reader into secret negotiating rooms where the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance, and it draws back the curtain on how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving Pakistan and India, Russia, and Georgia, and East Africa. Surprisingly candid in her appraisals of various colleagues and the hundreds of foreign leaders with whom she dealt, Rice also offers keen insights into how history actually proceeds. In No Higher Honor she delivers a master class in statecraft-in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded.

The Wedding Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini

2011-12-08T17:15:00.001-05:00

Sarah McClure arrived at Elm Creek Manor as a newlywed, never suspecting that her quilting lessons with Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson would inspire the successful and enduring business Elm Creek Quilts, whose members have nurtured a circle of friendship spanning generations. As the wedding day of Sarah's daughter, Caroline, approaches, Sarah's thoughts are filled with brides of Elm Creek Manor past and present--the traditions they honored, the legacies they bequeathed, the wedding quilts that contain their stories in every stitch.

Because Sarah learned the craft after her marriage, she had no wedding quilt, only one to commemorate her first anniversary. When the young bride confides in her mother a single, fervent wish--"I wish I had a wedding quilt, one I made myself"--Sarah yearns to grant it. A wedding quilt is a symbol so powerful that even the most-talented novice would be daunted by the task of stitching, in mere days, a masterpiece worthy of the couple's bonds of love, commitment, trust, and hope for the future. Sarah turns to the Elm Creek Quilters, cherished friends who help her create a fitting tribute for a beloved daughter who will soon stand beside her husband in the union of their shared lives. As they pool their creative gifts, memories of Elm Creek Manor--and of the women who have lived there, in happiness and in sorrow--spill forth, rendering a vivid pastiche of family, friendship, and love in all its varieties.

Jennifer Chiaverini is the author of the New York Times bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series, as well as five collections of quilt projects inspired by the novels. The Wedding Quilt is my first quilt story that I have read, and even though it may not be my favorite, the friendship that women have and sweet memories of weddings past that us women hold dear is endearing and heart-warming.

Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse, by James Wesley, Rawles

2011-12-01T17:13:00.000-05:00

What if the world as we know it ended tomorrow?

The America we are accustomed to is no more. Practically overnight the stock market has plummeted, hyperinflation has crippled commerce, and the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure have fallen. The power grids are down. Brutal rioting and looting grip every major city. The volatile era known as "the crunch" has begun, and this new period in our history will leave no one untouched. In this unfamiliar environment, only a handful of individuals are equipped to survive.

Andrew Laine, a resourceful young U.S. Army officer stationed overseas in Afghanistan, wants nothing more than to return home to Bloomfield, New Mexico. With the world in turmoil and all air and sea traffic to America suspended, Laine must rely on his own ingenuity and the help of good Samaritans to reach his family. Andrew will do whatever it takes to make it home to his fiance, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Major Ian Doyle is a U.S. Air Force pilot stationed in Arizona with his wife, Bianca. Their young daughter, Linda, is trapped in the North-eastern riots. Three teenage orphans, Shadrach, Reuben, and Matthew Phelps, have no choice but to set out on their own when their orphanage closes at the beginning of the Crunch. Then there is Ignacio Garcia, the ruthless leader of the gang, La Fuerza, who will stop at nothing to amass an army capable of razing the countryside. And over everything looms the treat of a provisional government, determined to take over America and destroy the freedoms upon which it was built.

The world of Survivors is a terrifyingly familiar one. Rawless has written a novel so close to the truth, readers will forget it's fiction. If everything you thought you knew suddenly fell apart, would you survive?

Feast Day of Fools, by James Lee Burke

2011-11-29T17:08:00.000-05:00

Sheriff Hackberry Holland patrols a small Southwest Texas border town with a deep and abiding respect for the citizens in his care. Still mourning the loss of his cherished wife and locked in a perilous almost-romance with his deputy, Pam Tibbs, a woman many decades his junior, Hackberry feeds off the deeds of evil men to keep his own demons at bay.

When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy Lorca witnesses a man tortured to death in the desert and reports it, Hack's investigation leads to the home of Anton Ling, a regal, mysterious Chinese woman whom the locals refer to as La Magdalena and who is known for sheltering illegals. Ling denies having seen the victim or the perpetrators, but there is something in her steely demeanor and aristocratic beauty that compels Hackberry to return to her home again and again as the investigation unfolds. Could it be that the sheriff is so taken in by this creature who reminds him of his deceased wife that he would ignore the possibility that she is just as dangerous as the men she harbors?

James Lee Burke returns with his most allegorical novel to date. With such issues of immigration, energy, religious freedom-with the rich atmosphere and devastatingly flawed, authentic characters that readers have come to celebrate during the five decades of his brilliant career. Feast Day of Fools is now ready to be checked out at your lovely library.

Kill Me If You Can, by James Patterson & Marshall Karp

2011-11-29T16:46:00.000-05:00

An innocent art student finds $13 million in diamonds. Let the manhunt begin.

Matthew Bannon, a poor art student living in New York City, finds a medical bag filled with diamonds during a chaotic attack at Grand Central Terminal. Plans for a worry-free life with his gorgeous girlfriend, Katherine, fill his thoughts--until he realizes that he is being hunted.

Chasing him is the Ghost, the world's greatest assassin, who has just pulled off his most high-profile hit: killing Walter Zelvas, a top member of the international diamond syndicate. There's only one small problem. The diamonds he was supposed to retrieve from Zelvas are missing. Now the Ghost is on Bannon's trail-- but so is a rival assassin who would like nothing more than to make the Ghost disappear forever.

From America's #1 storyteller, James Patterson, comes a high-speed, high-stakes thrill ride of love, greed, and suspense. I couldn't help but picture this story as a movie in my mind. You will be on the edge while reading, Kill Me If You Can. Check it out today at your favorite library!

Hot Water, by Erin Brockovich (with CJ Lyons)

2011-11-23T14:40:00.000-05:00

Environmental activist AJ Palladino, first encountered in Rock Bottom, is no stranger to the juggling act of managing work and family. But when she's asked to leave home for a case involving a nuclear power plant, it takes all her strength to keep everything from crashing down on her.

Collection River is a new, one-of-a-kind nuclear facility in South Carolina designed to create medical isotopes with the potential to save millions of lives. Recently, the plant has been plagued by a series of mishaps that, despite several investigations, remain unexplained. The accidents have caused local unrest and drawn the attention of anti-nuclear protest groups, as well as several homegrown terrorists who sense an opportunity to sow fear and chaos.

When Colleton River's owner contacts AJ for help, she knows she will have her hands full investigating the accidents and calming tensions at the plant. But AJ's simple business trip takes disastrous turns as she uncovers the source of the plant's accidents and, after an approaching hurricane prevents her from returning to West Virginia, her son disappears. As AJ's life back home unravels, the plant hurtles toward nuclear catastrophe-with AJ caught between both worlds. Can AJ stop the plant's meltdown and save the community, herself, and her son on time?

The Burning Soul, by John Connolly

2011-11-23T14:16:00.000-05:00

What's the worst thing you've ever done?

There are some truths so terrible that they should not be spoken aloud, so appalling that even to acknowledge them is to risk sacrificing a crucial part of one's humanity, to exist in a colder, crueler world than before.

Randall Haight has a secret: He is a convicted murderer, a man with the blood of a young girl on his hands. He has built a new life for himself in the small Maine town of Pastor's Bay, but someone has discovered the truth about him. He is being tormented by anonymously sent reminders of his crime. He wants private detective Charlie Parker to make them go away.

But another girl has gone missing, this time from Pastor's Bay itself, and her family has its own secrets to protect. Now, in a town built on blood and shadowed by old ghosts, Parker must unravel a twisted history of violence and deceit involving the police and the FBI, a doomed mobster and his enemies, and Randall Haight himself. Because Randall is telling lies. . . .

Zone One, by Colson Whitehead

2011-11-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

Acclaimed novelist Colson Whitehead turns his critical eye to the end of the world with a dazzling portrait of modern civilization in all its wretched, shambling glory.

In this singular take on the post-apocalyptic horror novel, a pandemic has devastated the planet. The plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. (yep you guessed it. Another post-apocalyptic story about zombies!)

The worst of the plague is over, and the provisional government in Buffalo orchestrates the return to civilization with the aid of therapy seminars, corporate sponsorships, and the uplifting anthem "Stop! Can You Hear the Eagle Roar? (Theme from Reconstruction)." The resettlement of Manhattan is a top priority. Armed forces stationed in Chinatown's Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street-aka Zone One-but pockets of plague-ridden squatters remain.

While the military has eliminated the most dangerous of the infected, teams of civilian volunteers are tasked with clearing out a more innocuous variety-the malfunctioning "stragglers," who exist in a catatonic state, transfixed by their former lives. The janitor stands in the middle of an abandoned cafeteria, eternally swabbing the same square of linoleum. The psychiatrist languishes in her office, waiting for a patient who will never arrive. The summer intern bends over a copy machine searching for the source of a paper jam that will never be fixed. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units clearing lower Manhattan building by building, block by block. Alternating between haunting flashbacks of Spitz's desperate fight for survival during the worst of the outbreak and his present narrative.

Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Mark Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go wrong....

At once a chilling horror story that embraces the pleasures of the genre and a literary novel by a contemporary master, Zone One is a profound portrait of a man grappling with loss and loneliness.

The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman

2011-11-15T15:46:00.000-05:00

Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel.

In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spell bounding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Azzia is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power.

The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets--about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's masterpiece.

Prince of Ravenscar, by Catherine Coulter

2011-11-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

The number-one New York Times-bestselling author, Catherine Coulter, returns with a brand new Sherbrooke novel, Prince of Ravenscar, featuring a cast of witty and outrageous characters and two wonderfully complex mysteries.

In April 1831, her grace Corinne Monroe wants her widowed son, Lord Julian, to marry her best friend's daughter, Miss Sophie Wilki. Julian last saw Sophie when she was twelve years old, silent, skinny, and always staring at him. However, his mother is nothing if not persuasive, and Julian reluctantly accompanies her to London to meet the young lady. And he knows that whatever happens isn't going to be good.

Lord Devlin Monroe, Julian's nephew, is very fond of his intriguing reputation in society: he delights, he frightens, he brings on delicious shudders. He's enjoying an extraordinarily pleasant bachelor life until Miss Roxanne Radcliffe and her niece, Miss Sophie Wilkie, appear in London society, and he suddenly finds himself wondering how he could have enjoyed a midnight alone. Julian and Devlin must discover what really happened three years earlier when Julian's first wife, Lily, was found dead. If they don't find out the truth, their lives could be ruined. And there is another, even more perfidious, danger that lurks in the shadows waiting.

The Stonecutter, by Delores Haltom

2011-11-10T15:42:00.000-05:00

How the word became flesh . . . .

This is a story about stone-both the magnificent stone belt that lies in the heart of Indiana and the stone that lay in the heart of a miserable, old recluse.

Celibeth Jones cherished her hatred of the townspeople, and she wasn't about to forgive what they had done to her just because some young marble sculptor from New York said God loved her. After the disappearance of her doctor husband, the town gossips accuse her of killing him. They loved the doctor and hated her, and so they ostracized her for forty years. Someday, somehow, she intended to have her revenge. The question was, did she want revenge more than she wanted salvation?

The nonfiction portion of this work is also about stone. It begins with the Mississippian geological epic, when the formation of Salem limestone occurred in the warm, tropical sea that covered southern Indiana. It continues with a history of the Tenn Commandments that God first carved in stone and gave to Moses. God knew that laws written in stone would only suffice until they could be written on the hearts of His people. God accomplished this through His Son, Jesus.

It is a difficult concept to understand, but if you can receive it, the apostle John has written that, "The Word, became flesh and dwelt among us. His name is Jesus." This book is an explanation and celebration of that glorious miracle.

Delores J. Haltom, seventy-two, is a world traveler who studied extensively in the Holy Land. She has been a life-long member of the Nazarene Church in Indiana, where she served as Sunday School teacher. This is her first book, The Stonecutter. Come by the library on Dec 10 from 1-3PM to meet Indiana author, Delores Haltom and learn a thing or two about Stone cutting. Delores will talk about Indiana's history of stone cutting, answer questions, and even sign your book. She will talk about her book and how she developed the story. We will serve some hot chocolate, and who doesn't love hot chocolate?

Those Across the River, by Christopher Buehlman

2011-11-10T14:55:00.000-05:00

One, two, don't look at me, Look-a-roo.

Three, four, who'sat scratchin' at my door?

Five, six, getcha while you pickin' sticks.

Seven, eight, getcha if you stay out late.

Nine, ten, I'll never get back home again . . .

Haunted by memories of the Great War, failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife, Eudora, have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family's old estate--the Savoyard Plantation--and the horrors that occurred there. At first, the quaint, rural ways of their new neighbors seem to be everything they wanted. But under the facade of summer socials and small-town charm, there is an unspoken dread that townsfolk have lived with for generations. A presence that demands sacrifice.

It comes from the shadowy woods across the river, where the ruins of the Savoyard Plantation still stand. Where a long-smoldering debt of blood has never been forgotten . . . .

Where it has been waiting for Frank Nichols.

Christopher Buehlman has written a treat. Terrible, haunting, and beautiful is this book in a nutshell. Those Across the River is perfect to read during the winter chill.

Maid, by Kimberly Cutter

2011-11-09T19:24:00.002-05:00

Behind the girl rides her army of ten thousand warriors, all of them united by the same strange and feverish joy as they crash across the winter fields, through the white land, and toward the shadowed stillness of the pines. She is seventeen, a peasant, unschooled, simple as a thumb. But on this morning, she is simply God's arrow, shot across the winterland, brilliant and savage and divine. Unstoppable.

It is the fifteenth century, and the tumultuous Hundred Years' War rages on. France is under siege, English soldiers tear through the countryside destroying all who cross their path, and Charles VII, the uncrowned king, has neither the strength nor the will to rally his army. And in the quiet of her parents' garden in Domremy, a peasant girl sees a spangle of light and hears a powerful voice speak her name. Jehanne.

The story of Joan of Arc, the visionary and saint who believed she had been chosen by God, who led an army and saved her country, has captivated our imaginations for centuries. But the story of Jehanne--the girl--whose sister was murdered by the English, who sought escape from a violent father and a forced marriage, who taight herself to ride and to fight, and who taught herself to ride and to fight, and who somehow found the courage and tenacity to persuade first one, then two, then thousands to follow her, is at once thrilling, unexpected, and heartbreaking.

The Maid is a novel about the power and uncertainty of faith, and the exhilarating and devastating consequences of fame. It is a must read!

Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks

2011-11-09T16:39:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Sparks has become America's preeminent chronicler of the human heart, writing some of our most cherished and widely recognized love stories. Now, in his new novel, Safe Haven, Sparks explores the legacy of a love turned sinister, telling the suspenseful story of a woman who must learn to trust again in order to love again.

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into tow relunctant relationships; one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart, and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family. But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her...a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport.

Out of Oz, by Gregory Maguire

2011-11-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

It all comes to an end in the stunning conclusion of the bestselling series the Wicked Years. Gregory Maguire's Wicked Years series--a sophisticated fantasy cycle inspired by the classic children's novel The Wizard of Oz--became national bestsellers and the basis for a hit Tony-winning Broadway musical. Now, Maguire returns with the final installment in his transformative work, a thrilling and compulsively readable saga in which the fate of Oz is decided at last.....

Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who's knocking at the door. It's non other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy. Yet amidst all this chaos, Elphaba's granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broom--and her legacy--in an Oz wracked by war.

The stirring, long-awaited conclusion to the bestselling series begun with Wicked, Out of Oz is a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprises--the hallmarks of the unique imagination of Gregory Maguire.

Triangles, by Ellen Hopkins

2011-11-08T19:25:00.002-05:00

Ellen Hopkins is the bestselling author of YA Crank series, and other YA novels. All of her books are written in poem form and usually deal with what teens are facing today, and are dealing with now. Now, she has written an adult book that has been long anticipated and it's just as good as her YA novels. Readers who started with Crank in 2004 are now adults, and I think they will appreciate this new novel.

Three female friends face midlife crises in a no-holds-barred exploration of sex, marriage, and the fragility of life.

Holly: is filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, she shed sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Will it bring the fulfillment she is searching for?

Andrea: is a single mom and avowed celibate, she watches her friend Holly's meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for--a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly's castaway husband?

Marissa: has more than her fair share of challenges--a gay, rebellious teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts.

As one woman's marriage unravels, another's rekindles. As one woman's family comes apart at the seams, another's reconfigures into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman's up is another one's down, and all of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness. Unflinchingly honest, emotionally powerful, surprisingly erotic, Triangles is the ultimate page turner. Hopkin's gorgeous, expertly honed poetic verse perfectly captures the inner lives of her characters, just like she has done in her YA novels. Hopkins does not falter nor fail at this new adult novel. Check it out today at your library.

The Crank series.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

2011-11-07T15:58:00.001-05:00

"Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address

There are tons of Steve Jobs' quotes out there, but who is the guy behind these exceptional speeches, press releases, and presentations? He was Steve. An inventor of our generation who was not afraid to think out side the box and develop something that was different. Different in the way we think, act, feel, and experience. To most people, they are just finding out about Steve. To some like me, you are geeks and followed his journey when it came to tech week, blurbs on the internet, and what to expect come fall or spring. And to many when you saw the icon of the apple, you saw trust. When I think of innovation in technology, I think Steve Jobs. But, there is more to his story....

From the author of the bestselling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, this is the exclusive biography of Steve Jobs. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. Walter Isaacson was just on for the ride.

You may have to place this book on hold at our library, but be sure to stop by to check out a copy.

The Borrower, by Rebecca Makkai

2011-11-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai, is a delightful, funny, and a moving tale of a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading who take to the road. Lucy Haull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly anti-gay classes.

Lucy, a rebel at heart beneath her librarian's exterior, stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on an improvised road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets and an inconvenient boyfriend thrown in their path. Along the way, Lucy struggles to make peace with her Russian immigrant father and his fugitive past, and is forced to use his shady connections to escape discovery.

But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the strange man on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

Grimm Fairy-Tales, by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm

2011-11-02T15:29:00.001-04:00

When I was a little girl, I went through a phase where I was fascinated by spooky stories, folklore, and myths. I was a very imaginative girl and one day my grandmother introduced me to fairy-tales. I will always remember her sitting next to me with a book called GRIMM in her hand, and her saying to me, "let's find out the truth..." She would read me the soft versions, but then read the "true" tellings. It is one of my fondest memories of my grandmother. No book was ever banned, nor too bad to read if it made my imagination soar in her eyes. To this day, I'm still fascinated by these tales and folklore.

So if you're looking for a sweet, fanciful tale to get you to dream about far away places, princesses, and castles, look somewhere else! Some of the most fanciful as well as the most fearsome stories ever collected were put together by a pair of scientific philologists. The stories were collected by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800's, and they spent thirteen years accumulating the folk tales from various sources, chiefly from those in Hesse and Hanau, districts relatively unaffected by Germany's growing industrialization. Most of these tales are centuries and centuries old, told by generation after generation. These tales were never aimed at the young, but some of them knew of these tales. As centuries passed, and generations passed down these tales, they started to become sweeter and softer. Hence the fairy-tales that we know now (and Disney re-makes). But where did these tales originate? How and why were they started? It makes you wonder, if some of these were really fiction to begin with......

With the up and coming TV show, GRIMM, that plays on Friday's on NBC...these tales are now being acted out. I only thought that it would be nice to let my readers know that we have the Grimm Fairy-Tales available at the library in a wide range to pick from. W have the books in children form, YA, and Adult. All are the same tales, but condensed down for the younger folk. As GRIMM becomes a popular series to watch, don't forget the book; let's find out the truth......

Confidence Men, by Ron Suskind

2011-10-31T15:37:00.000-04:00

The hidden history of Wall Street and the White House comes down to a single, powerful, quintessentially American concept: confidence. Both centers of power, tapping brazen innovations over the past three decades, learned how to manufacture it. Until August 2007, when that confidence finally began to crumble.

In this gripping and brilliantly reported book, Ron Suskind tells the story of what happened next, as Wall Street struggled to save itself while a man with little experience and soaring rhetoric emerged from obscurity to usher in "a new era of responsibility." It is a story that follows the journey of Barak Obama, who rose as the country fell, and offers the first full portrait of his tumultuous presidency.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind introduces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers--and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you've never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, Confidence Men brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation's two capitals--New York and Washington. One of private gain, the other of public purpose--in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America's future.

IQ84, by Haruki Murakami

2011-10-29T11:46:00.000-04:00

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls IQ84--"Q is for 'question mark.' A world that bears a question." Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer:a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love sotry, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's-IQ84 is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers. Enjoy!

Graveminder, by Melissa Marr

2011-10-27T18:07:00.000-04:00

One of my friends told me about this book, Graveminder, and that it was by the YA author Melissa Marr. I didn't know that Melissa Marr wrote an adult novel, and I knew I had to pick it up and start reading it. Melissa Marr is well known for her "Wicked Lovely" series, which is wonderful by the way, and Melissa has this ability to create worlds and take you with her.

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Clayville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker-in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past--can set things right once the dead begin to walk. Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse.

If you want a great book to read for the Halloween season, I would check out Graveminder. It has everything that you'd want: bumps in the night, death, murder, and darkness. Melissa Marr does not let you down, and you know you're in for a good read by her. Check it out today at your library, and enjoy this book trailer about her other series, Wicked Lovely.

The Infernals, by John Connolly

2011-10-24T14:04:00.000-04:00

From New York Times bestselling author John Connolly, a wonderfully strange and brilliant novel about a boy, his dog, and their struggle to escape the wrath of demons.

Young Samuel Johnson is in trouble. Not only is his eyesight so poor that he mistakenly asks out a letter box on a date, but an angry demon is seeking revenge for Samuel's part in foiling the invasion of Earth by the forces of evil. It wants to get its claws on Samuel, and when Samuel and his faithful dachshund, Boswell, are pulled though a portal into the dark realm, the home of the Infernals, it gets its chance.

But catching Samuel is not going to be easy, for the Infernals have not reckoned on the bravery and cleverness of a boy and his dog, or the loyalty of Samuel's friend, the hapless demon Nurd, or the presence of two clueless policemen and the unlucky, if cheerfully optimistic, driver of an ice-cream van. Most of all, no one has planned on the intervention of an unexpected band of little men, for Samuel and Boswell are not the only inhabitants of Earth who have found themselves in the underworld. If you thought demons were frightening, just wait until you meet Mr. Merryweather's Elves....

The Infernals, is full of imagination and a delightful story. Whimsical and wicked, The Infernals is refreshing and humorous. It is definitely a new read that you should check-out!

Bonnie, by Iris Johansen

2011-10-17T15:19:00.001-04:00

The truth has eluded her for years.....

Now is she ready to face it?

When Eve Duncan gave birth to her daughter, she experienced a love she never knew existed. Nothing would stand in the way of giving Bonnie a wonderful life-until the unthinkable happened and the seven-year-old vanished into thin air. Eve found herself in the throes of a nightmare from which there was no escape. But a new Eve emerged: a woman who would use her remarkable talent as a forensic sculptor to help others find closure in the face of tragedy.

Now with the help of her beloved Joe Quinn and CIA agent Catherine Ling, Eve has come closer than ever to the truth. But the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that Bonnie's father is a key player in solving this monstrous puzzle. And that Bonnie's disappearance was not as random as everyone had always believed.

Iris Johansen's trilogy takes the reader on an action-packed journey that will keep the reader on the edge of their seats. This third installation, Bonnie, will surpass all hopes. It will keep you on your toes, and gripping for more!! Reserve it now at your library!

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations On Life with John F. Kennedy, by Michael Beschloss and Forward by, Caroline Kennedy

2011-10-17T15:09:00.001-04:00

Shortly after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, with a nation deep in mourning and the world looking on in stunned disbelief, Jacqueline Kennedy found the strength to set aside her own personal grief for the sake of posterity and begin the task of documenting and preserving her husband's legacy. In January of 1964, she and Robert F. Kennedy approved a planned oral-history project that would capture their first-hand accounts of the late President as well as the recollections of those closest to him throughout his extraordinary political career. For the rest of her life, the famously private Jacqueline Kennedy steadfastly refused to discuss her memories of those years, but beginning that March, she fulfilled her obligation to future generations of Americans by sitting down with historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and recording an astonishingly detailed and unvarnished account of her experiences and impressions as the wife and confidante of John F. Kennedy.. The tapes of those sessions were then sealed and later deposited in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum upon its completion, in accordance with Mrs. Kennedy's wishes.

The resulting eight and a half hours of material comprises a unique and compelling record of a tumultuous era, providing fresh insights on the many significant people and events that shaped JFK's presidency but also shedding new light on the man behind the momentous decisions. Here are JFK's unscripted opinions on a host of revealing subjects, including his thoughts and feelings about his brothers Robert and Ted, and his take on world leaders past and present, giving us perhaps the most informed, genuine, and immediate portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy we shall ever have. Mrs. Kennedy's urbane perspective, her candor, and her flashes of wit also give us our clearest glimpse into the active mind of a remarkable First Lady.

The Kingdom of Childhood, by Rebecca Coleman

2011-10-11T17:08:00.001-04:00

Let me introduce the NEW controversial book on shelves at this moment. And if it isn't, it will be!

Rebecca Coleman's manuscript for The Kingdom of Childhood was a semifinalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition. The novel is an emotionally tense, increasingly chilling work of fiction set in the controversial Waldorf school community. It is equal parts enchanting and unsettling and is sure to be a much-discussed and much-debated novel. I challenge you to pick this book up at your local library, and read it.

It is a story of a boy and a woman: sixteen-year-old Zach Paterson, uprooted and struggling to reconcile his knowledge of his mother's extramarital affair, and Judy McFarland, a kindergarten teacher watching her family unravel before her eyes. Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them. Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but what Zach does not realize is that their relationship is-for Judy-only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.

I believe that a library should challenge their readers with topics that may be disturbing. I believe that just because a book may be banned it should not be banned in the library. Just because one person may not like it, does not mean that that one voice is the opinion for the rest of the community. October 1 ended Banned Book week, and I'm afraid this may hit the banned list. But I challenge all of you to stretch your minds and go beyond your comfort zones, and have the freedom to read and to make your own opinions! Controversial or not. Enjoy!

The Highest Frontier, by Joan Slonczewski

2011-09-27T15:32:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Ramos Kennedy, a girl from a rich and politically influential family (descended from the famous Kennedy clan) whose twin brother has died in an accident and left her bereft, is about to enter her freshman year at Frontera College. Frontera is an exciting school built in Earth's orbit with media money-and a bit from tribal casinos, too-and is dedicated to educating the best and brightest of his future world. We accompany Jenny as she proceeds through her early days at school, encountering surprises and wonders and some unpleasant problems.

Deadly microbes that caused AIDS and anthrax are now being modified to cure disease and grow cables for space elvators. Earth is altered by global warming, and an invasive alien species called ultraphytes threatens the surviving ecosystem. Jenny is being raised for great things, but while she's in school, she just wants to do her homework, go on a few dates, and get by.

The Highest Frontier is a spectacular tour of force of the college of the future. The world in which Jenny is living is one of the most fascinating and creative in contemporary SF, and the problems Jenny faces will involve every reader, young and old. Biologist Joan Slonczewski's characters are ordinary people, courageous, and intelligent in ordinary ways, stumbling toward their separate complex truths. It's an unnerving, brilliant novel that will captivate you from the start.

Life Itself, by Roger Ebert

2011-09-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

"I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find out."

~ from Life Itself

Roger Ebert is the best-known film critic of our time. He has been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun- Times since 1967, and was the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. He has appeared on television for four decades, including twenty-three years as co-host of Siskel & Ebert at the Movies. In 2006, complications from thyroid cancer treatment resulted in the loss of his ability to eat, drink, or speak. But with the loss of his voice, Ebert has only become a more prolific and influential writer. And now, for the first time, he tells the full, dramatic story of his life and career.

In this candid, personal history, Ebert chronicles it all: his loves, losses, and obsessions; his struggle and recovery from alcoholism; his marriage; his politics; and his spiritual beliefs. He writes about his years at the Sun-Times, his colorful newspaper friends, and his life-changing collaboration with Gene Siskel. He remembers his friendships with Studs Terkel, Mike Royko, Oprah Winfrey, and Russ Meyer for whom he wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (an ill fated Sex Pistols movie ha ha). He shares his insights into movie stars and directors like John Wayne, Werner Herzog, and Martin Scorsese.

This is a story that only Roger Ebert could tell. Filled with the same deep insight, dry wit, and sharp observations that his readers have long cherished, this is more than a memoir-it is a singular, warm-hearted, inspiring look at Life Itself.

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach

2011-09-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big-league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooner's team captain and Henry's best friend, realized he has guided Henry's carerr at the expense of his own.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment to oneself and to others. You won't want this book to end!

Escape, by Barbara Delinsky

2011-09-23T10:40:00.000-04:00

Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat thinking you're stuck in a life you don't want? Did you ever consider disappearing-leaving family, friends, even a spouse-ditching everything you've known and starting over again?...Maybe even returning to an old lover?

Emily Aulenbach is thirty-two, a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, living and working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse. Now she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with victims of tainted bottled water-and she is on the bottler's side. But it isn't only work. It's her sister, her friends, even her husband, James, with whom she doesn't connect in the way she once did. She doesn't connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three thing her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future and uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town nestled in the mountains. She knows this town. Painful as returning feels, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, by Joe McGinniss

2011-09-19T16:07:00.000-04:00

How about that cover?

A new Sarah Palin biography has been released, as you can see. It claims that Palin used marijuana and cocaine, and had an affair with her husbands partner. Now, whether you go by the book and believe every single word or not, I clearly fill that this is more to do with political affiliation. Joe McGinniss is a bestselling journalist, and is the author of The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin and is a true biographer by the book. I mean, he moved next door to the Palin's. Yeah.....creepy, but I guess you do what you gotta do when investigating evidence to put in your book?! ....creepiness aside....

It did take Joe McGinniss three years of research for this book. It is said that he teamed up with Garry Trudeau so he could place big climatic scenes from his book into a story line in the Doonesbury cartoon strip.

Again whether you believe what is in this book to be fact or not, I believe Joe did a great job of using a political ambiance to his benefit. I think he went to the extremes to write this book, and nor is this my place to judge on accusations that I don't know to be true, but may I ask one question: who cares? While flipping through the pages, that's all I could ask myself. This was pure entertainment.

So feel free to check this out and make your own verdict, and enjoy this entertainment for what it's worth. But, aren't there other things in the world that we need to focus on, and read about? Palin was so last year!

Forbidden, by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

2011-09-19T15:41:00.001-04:00

Forbidden is the debut book of a new series, The Books of Mortals, by Ted Dekker. I have never read anything by Ted Dekker, but now I have to say that his writing intrigues me, and I want to read some more by him. Forbidden is a skillfully written, new novel that is surprising and hard to put down. I love being in Ted Dekker's world and I look forward to reading more from him.

Enter a thriller like none other.......

Many years have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace...and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity. (are ya hooked yet)?

Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love. But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare to take the ride. Forbidden is a passionate and riveting story that will have hooked by the first page. Enjoy!

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

2011-09-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

Within these nocturnal black-and-white-striped tents awaits an utterly unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air. Welcome to Le Cirque des Reves.

Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way--a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

Both playful and seductive, The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern's spell-casting debut, is a mesmerizing love story for the ages.

Wine Wars, by Mike Veseth

2011-09-14T15:13:00.000-04:00

I love my vino. So much so, I'm now called a wino. But as I frequent my favorite winery's I wonder, what is the competition like among wineries? I would think it's pretty competitive--you have your warm local wineries, your fancy "professional" wineries that you see at all the groceries and restaurants, and then there are the old world wineries that are usually the ones overseas. It seems pretty vast and a lot of history. But in this little book, Wine Wars, I got to go deep inside the wine industry and see just how vast this market is. And, it made my glass of vino much, more yummier!

Globalization has pushed back the borders of the wine world, creating a complex, interconnected market where Old World and New World wines and producers compete head to head. Writing with wit and verve, Mike Veseth tells the compelling story of the war between the market forces that are redrawing the world wine map and the terrorists who resist them. It is the battle for the future of wine-and even for its soul.

The fight isn't just over bottles bought and sold, however, power and taste are also at stake. Who will call the shots in the wine market of the future? Who will set the price? Whose palate will prevail? Will it be Two Buck Chuck or tradition-steeped vintners? Veseth masterfully brings all of these questions together in the only book on the wine business written engagingly for all lovers of wine!

So, sit back and curl up in that old comfy blanket with your favorite vino, and read this terrific book, Wine Wars. You will find that you have more appreciation for that wine that you are drinking, than ever before. SALUTE!!

White Heat, by M.J.McGrath

2011-09-10T09:42:00.000-04:00

White Heat is a novel in which ice seems to melt through the page, leaving you cold. With a suspenseful plot, crazy scientist, and an amazing original character. White Heat is an epic story of descriptions of the vast Arctic white landscape that will leave you wanting more.

Half inuit and half outsider, Edie Kiglatuk is the best guide in her corner of the Artic, a brutal yet beautiful land of ice, wind and sky. But as a woman, she gets only grudging respect from the elders who rule her isolated community on Ellesmere Island. While leading two adventures on an alleged duck-hunting expedition, one man is shot and killed. The council of Elders, wary that a murder case might attract unwanted emissaries from the south, is keen to dismiss it as a hunting accident. But Edie and police sergeant Derek Palliser suspect foul play.

Through this event and more like this one, Edie's inuit hunter sensibility tells her otherwise. With or without Derek's help, she is determined to find the key to this connection-a search that takes her beyond her small village into the far reaches of the tundra and the middle of an international energy showdown. White Heat is a stunning debut novel set amid an utterly foreign culture in conflict with modern forces and an ancient unforgiving landscape of ice and rock, of ancestors, and never-rotting bones. M.J. McGrath makes an unforgiving Arctic landscape, and then gives us a smart and strong yet vulnerable survivor Edie Kiglatuk. You root for Edie, 'til the very end.

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot. by Jodi Compton

2011-09-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot, is the gripping sequel to Jodi Compton's Hailey's War. When we last left her, West Point dropout, Hailey Cain, had defied a powerful mobster to protect a pregnant teenager and child. The events of Hailey's War nearly cost Cain her life, but Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot sees Hailey back in Los Angeles, now second-in-command to rising gangster Serena 'Warchild" Delgadillo.

At the heart of this thrilling novel is a complex case of stolen identity, ruthless motives, and violent crime that puts Hailey back on the road, with her old friend Warchild by her side, to reclaim her name and chase down the murderer who has taken it. Fast paced, suspenseful, and teeming with powerful young characters, Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot is a ringing affirmation of Jodi Compton's high-octane talent.

The 34th Degree, by Thomas Greanias

2011-09-06T15:44:00.000-04:00

1943. The supernatural alchemy for the ultimate weapon, encoded in an ancient biblical text, has fallen into the hands of the most ruthless organization known to man-the Nazi SS.

Present Day. Dishonorably discharged from the armed forces after the events of The Promised War, Sam Decker is trying to build a new life in Los Angeles. But nightmares of the past continue to haunt his present, and Decker discovers that the unusual lightwave-induced torture he barely survived has changed him. The Pentagon, however, believes that change makes him the only one who can endure their top-secret neuro-simulation program known as the 34th Degree. The stunning technological breakthrough utilizes the sliced brain tissues of dead terrorists to enter their memories and glean priceless intel.

Now Americans want to use the preserved brain of SS general Ludwig won Berg, the legendary "Baron of the Black Order," to send Decker back to 1943. Deker's mission is to discover the fate of the lost biblical text and steal its formula before his counterparts in the Alignment, a twenty-first-century successor to the SS, beat the United States to it.

From the New York Times bestselling author, Thomas Greanias, comes an all-new, reality-altering epic adventure featuring counterterrorism agent Sam Decker from The Atlantis Revelation and The Promised War. The 34th Degree is a suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat, wanting more.

The Good Muslim, by Tahmima Anam

2011-09-06T15:29:00.000-04:00

From the prizewinning Bangladesh novelist, Tahmima Anam, comes her deeply moving second novel about the rise of Islamic radicalism in Bangladesh, seen through the intimate lens of a family. The Good Muslim, Anam again deftly weaves the personal and the political, evoking with great skill and urgency the lasting ravages of war and the competing loyalties of love and belief.

In the dying days of a brutal civil war, Sohail Haque stumbles upon an abandoned building. Inside he finds a young woman whose story will haunt him for a lifetime to come...Almost a decade later, Sohail's sister, Maya, returns home after a long absence to find her beloved brother transformed. While Maya has stuck to her revolutionary ideals, Sohail has shunned his old life to become a charismatic religious leader. And when Sohail decides to send his son to a madrasa, the conflict between brother and sister comes to a devastating climax. Set in Bangladesh at a time when religious fundamentalism is on the rise, The Good Muslim, is an epic story about faith, family, and the long shadow of war.

Faith, by Jennifer Haigh

2011-09-01T16:51:00.001-04:00

The critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Condition returns with a powerful and affecting drama of faith, doubt, and redemption as one woman uncovers the truth about her family, her beliefs, and herself.

It is the spring of 2002 and a perfect storm has hit Boston. Across the city's archdiocese, trusted priests have been accused of the worst possible betrayal of the souls in their care. In Faith, Jennifer Haigh explores the fallout for one devout family, the McGanns.

Estranged for years from her difficult and demanding relatives, Sheila McGann has remained close to her older brother Art, the popular, dynamic pastor of a large suburban parish. When Art finds himself at the center of the maelstrom, Sheila returns to Boston, ready to fight for him and his reputation. What she discovers is more complicated than she imagined. Her strict, lace-curtain-Irish mother is living in a state of angry denial. Sheila's younger brother Mike, to her horror, has already convicted his brother in his heart. But most disturbing of all is Art himself, who persistently dodges Sheila's questions and refuses to defend himself.

As the scandal forces long-buried secrets to surface, Faith explores the corrosive consequences of one family's history of silence-and the resilience its members ultimately find in forgiveness. Throughout, Haigh demonstrates how the truth can shatter our deepest beliefs-and restore them. A gripping, suspenseful tale of one woman's quest for the truth, Faith is a haunting meditation on loyalty and family, doubt and belief. Elegantly crafted, sharply observed, this is Jennifer Haigh's most ambitious novel to date!!

Too Far, by Rich Shapero

2011-09-01T16:41:00.000-04:00

On the outskirts of Fairbanks, six-year-old Robbie meets a mesmerizing girl his own age, and together they explore the mysterious woodland surrounding their homes. The world they discover is built from their fantasies, and inhabited by creatures born from their dreams. But while Robbie and Fristeen grow inseparable, Robbie's parents are drifting apart, and Fristeen's mother is coming undone.

As their homes become increasingly unstable, the children travel deeper and farther into their private world. The forest--and the gods who inhabit it--becomes their refuge until, at summer's end, they are forced to choose between the crushing prospects of the real world, and the lethal demands of their ideal one.

Told as a parable, and vividly observed, Too Far is an exhilarating and heart-breaking story of an end to innocence that captures the triumphs and follies of the child's imagination as it struggles to remain boundless and free.

Don't Breathe a Word, by Jennifer McMahon

2011-08-31T14:53:00.001-04:00

Imagination is something we have when we are little, and something that often leaves us once we get older. Fortunately I work in a career that I get to use my imagination every day. Some adults aren't as lucky, and they forget what it's like to be young, and chasing fairy tales. When reading this book by Jennifer McMahon I was reminded of my childhood, and what it would be like if what I imagined was real. What if I knew there was a whole new world, just outside my window? Well, I would have gone.

On a soft summer night in Vermont, twelve-year-old Lisa went into the woods behind her house and never came out again. Before she disappeared, she told her little brother, Sam, about a door that led to a magical place where she would meet the King of the Fairies and become his queen. Fifteen years later, Phoebe is in love with Sam, a practical, sensible man who doesn't fear the dark and doesn't have bad dreams-who, in fact, helps Phoebe ignore her own. But suddenly the couple is faced with a series of eerie, unexplained occurrence that challenge Sam's hardheaded, realistic view of the world.

As they question their reality, a terrible promise Sam made years ago is revealed--a promise that could destroy them all. Beautifully written and spooky, Don't Breath a Word wraps around you and pills you into a dark world of fairies and family secrets.

Lover Unleashed, by J.R. Ward

2011-08-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark warrior cloth as her brother. Because she is a fighter by nature, and a maverick when it comes to the traditional role of Chosen females, there is no place for her on the Far Side..and no role for her on the front lines of the war, either.

When she suffers a paralyzing injury, human surgeon Dr. Mauel Manello is called in to treat her as only he can-and he soon gets sucked into her dangerous secret world. Although he never before believed in things that go bump in the night-like vampires-he finds himself more than willing to be seduced by the powerful female who marks both his body and his soul.

As two find so much more than an erotic connection, the human and vampire worlds collide...just as a centuries-old score catches up with Payne and puts both her love and her life in deadly jeopardy.

The Keeper of Lost Causes, by Jussi Adler-Olsen

2011-08-25T16:05:00.000-04:00

The Keeper of Lost Causes, the first installment of Jussi Adler-Olsen'sinternational bestselling Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective--one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullets almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself.

So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects.

But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department W, a new special investigation division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl has been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actually captures his interest. A politician vanished without a trace five years earlier. The world assumes she's dead. His colleagues snicker about the time he's wasting. But Carl may have the last laugh, and redeem himself in the process.

Because she isn't dead....yet.

I'm Feeling Lucky, by Douglas Edwards

2011-08-16T14:38:00.001-04:00

One of Google's early employees takes us on a trip inside the hyperenergized company that broke the rules and rocked the world.

Comparing Google to an ordinary business is like comparing a rocket to an Edsel. In its infancy, Google embraced extremes--endless days fueled by unlimited free food, nonstop data-based debates, and bloodletting hockey games. The company's fresh-from-grad-school leaders sought more than old notions of success; they wanted to make all the information in the world available to everyone--instantly. Google, like the Big Bang, was a singularity--an explosive release of raw intelligence and unequaled creative energy-and while others have described what Google accomplished, no one has explained how it felt to be a part of it. Until now.

Douglas Edwards, employee number 59, offers the first inside view of what it was like to be a Googler. Experience the unnerving mix of camaraderie and competition as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company's idiosyncratic young partners, create a famously nonhierarchical structure, fight against conventional wisdom, and race to implement a myriad of new features while coolly burying broken ideas and wounded products. I'm Feeling Lucky captures for the first time the self-invented culture of the world's most transformative corporation and offers unique access tot he emotions, particularly the tensions, experienced by those who built overnight one of the world's best-known brands.

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker, by Kevin Mitnick

2011-08-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world's biggest companies--and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for Mitnick, hacking wasn't just about technological feats--it was an old-fashioned confidence game that required guile and deception to trick the unwitting out of valuable information.

Ghost in the Wires, by Kevin Mitnick is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples in the computer security industry that still are felt today. This would make a great movie.

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

2011-08-13T14:34:00.000-04:00

I have been very excited to read this. Ever since I read about it in one of our book magazines, I wanted to get my hands on it. And it's here!!!

Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota-based pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new drug. Nothing about the assignment is easy: not only does no one know where Dr. Swenson is, but the last person who was sent to find her, Marina's research partner Anders Eckman, died before he could complete his mission. Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding Dr. Swenson as well as answers to troubling questions about her friend's death, the state of her company's future, and her own past.

In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, and a neighboring tribe of cannibals, State of Wonder is a world unto itself where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very part of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.

The Other Life, by Ellen Meister

2011-08-13T11:25:00.000-04:00

What if you could return to the road not taken? Think about that and what that means to you as you read my review.

Quinn Braverman is keeping two secrets from her loving husband, Lewis. One is that the real reason she chose him over Eugene, her neurotic, semi-famous ex-boyfriend, was to prove to her mother that she could have a happy, stable relationship with the guy next door. Th other is that Quinn knows another life exists in which she stayed with Eugene. The two lives run in parallel line, like highways on either side of a mountain. One one side, the Quinn who stayed with Eugene is speeding through her high-drama, childless life in Manhattan. On the other, the Quinn who married Lewis lives in the suburbs, drives a Volvo, and has an adorable young son and another baby on the way.

But the important part of the secret--the part that terrifies and thrills her--is that Quinn knows it possible to cross from one life to the other. So far she's played it safe, never looking to see what's on the other side. Then a shocking turn of events rattles Quinn to her core and she makes the reckless choice to cross over, only to discover the one person she'd thought was lost to her forever, her mother. Quinn, of course, cannot have both lives. Soon Quinn must decide which road to travel down and what she really wants.

So have you thought about the question? What would you do? What would be your decision, and do you see the risks involved? As it may seem very interesting and an exciting life to lead--you always have to choose just one. Do you travel the road less traveled, do you make your own path, or do you stay on the road you are already on? Check it out today, and figure it out for yourself!

The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure

2011-08-12T13:55:00.000-04:00

For anyone who has ever wanted to step into the world of a favorite book, here is a pioneer pilgrimage, a tribute to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a hilarious account of butter-churning obsessions.

Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairies author Laura Ingalls Wilder--a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places McClure has never been to yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family--looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. Wendy immerses herself in all things Little House--exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura's hometowns.

Whether she's churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, Wendy McClure is always in pursuit of "the Laura experience." Along the way she comes to understand how Wilder's life and work have shaped our ideas about girlhood and the American West. The Wilder Life is a loving, irreverent, spirited tribute to a series of books that have inspired generations of American women. It is also an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones-and find that our old love has only deepened.

Iron House, by John Hart

2011-08-12T13:45:00.000-04:00

Iron house is the story of two twin brothers, Julian and Michael, who were left in a riverbed when they were just babies. Now orphans in an orphanage, Iron House, they are to survive among the older orphans and defend themselves. Iron House is a turning point for the brothers in what their fate may become. Julian gets picked on, but doesn't fight, as Michael rises up to the occasion to stand up for his brother and himself. Julian later gets adopted by a senator and his wife and becomes a bestselling author, while Michael kills a man by age 10 and is left to fend for himself on the streets of New York, who later gets picked up by the mob.

As you can see the twins are quite different and they both lead very opposite lives. Forward to 23 years later, and Michael is wanting to get out of the mob. Life has changed for Michael and is not in love with his current lifestyle. He is however, in love with a beautiful woman and has a child on the way. Michael does not want his life to be his babies fate, so he does whatever he can to get out. Before Michael disappears from the Mob, he has to make sure his twin is okay and safe. He could not live with the fact if Julian is not okay, or is in harms way. What Michael finds sends him straight back to Iron House, and becomes determined to solve the mysteries of the past and keep Julian safe.

John Hart is an exceptional thriller writer, who has been the only one to win the Edgar Award back-to-back. His books, are gut wrenching, and keep you on the edge of your seat while your heart is beating in your throat. Iron House, his fourth book, is just as thrilling. It is a page turner, and John Hart will have you hanging by a thread wanting more. Check it out at your library, and enjoy the ride that is, Iron House!

The Evolution of Faith, by Philip Gulley

2011-08-10T13:38:00.000-04:00

For too long, American Christianity has been poisoned by a narrowness of mind and spirit, demanding we believe the implausible, affirm the absurd, and despise the different. For many, the concepts of original sin, a God who send people to hell, and Jesus as the only path to God can no longer be stomached. Thus thoughtful people leave the church in droves, no longer willing to diminish their live or the lives of others for the sake of faith.

But what if there were another way? What if God wanted us to grow and change, both in our theology and our beliefs? In The Evolution of Faith, Philip Gulley invites us to put aside slavish obedience to antiquated faith claims and worldviews that no longer ring true, and discover what we really believe, rather than what we've always been taught. Instead of looking for answers outside ourselves, Gulley encourages us to develop our own apologetics, a belief system open to change. In this paradigm, faith should always be seen as a work in progress.

Only when we break free from the tenets of Christianity that no longer further the faith can we create a vital and believable Christianity--a Christianity that brings out the best in us, not the worst; a Christianity at home with people of other faiths; a Christianity grateful for scientific knowledge. That is a Christianity many of us have longed for, but haven't yet found. This book is Philip Gulley's effort to discover a Christianity we, and all the world, can live with.

The Wars of Afghanistan, by Peter Tomsen

2011-08-09T16:35:00.001-04:00

This is an epic (and I mean epic) account of the world's leading experts about one of the longest-running wars in modern history and a masterpiece of scholarships on the forces that have shaped modern-day Afghanistan. Peter Tomsen, who reached the rank of ambassador in the U.S. State Department, was George H.W. Bush's special envoy to the Mujahidin in Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992. He served in senior positions in Moscow and Beijing in critical periods and is an acknowledged authority on Afghanistan. In his book, he draws on his close relationships with Afghan commanders, mullahs, and politicians, his negotiations with Pakistani generals and spies, Soviet diplomats, and Saudi-princes-and a rich trove of previously unpublished source material including recently declassified documents-to offer unprecedented insight to the horrible chain of wars that have torn Afghanistan apart since 1978. He also offers a deeply informed perspective on how Afghanistan's unique tribal society and its long history as a "shatter zone" for foreign invaders have shaped the modern Afghan narrative.

The Wars of Afghanistan embodies messianic terrorism, tribal conflicts, and the failures of great powers. It puts the war in perspective on both accounts and gives a good understanding on what exactly is going on--and where we plan on going after we're done. It's a big book---lots of heavy reading, so I highly suggest taking time in reading this book. You won't regret it.

The Sixes, by Kate White

2011-08-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

Phoebe Hall's Manhattan life has suddenly begun to unravel. Right after her long-term boyfriend breaks off their relationship, she's falsely accused of plagiarizing her latest bestselling celebrity biography. Looking for a quiet place to put her life back together, Phoebe jumps at the offer to teach in a sleepy Pennsylvania town at a small private college run by her former boarding school roommate and close friend, Glenda Johns.

But behind the campus's quiet cafes and leafy maple trees lie evil happenings. The body of a female student washes up on the banks of a nearby river, and disturbing revelations begin to surface: accusations from coeds about abuses wrought by a secret society of girls on campus known as The Sixes. To help Glenda, Phoebe embarks on a search for clues--a quest that soon raises painful memories of her own boarding school days years ago.

Plunging deeper in the danger with every step, Phoebe knows she's close to unmasking a killer. But with truth comes a terrifying revelation: your darkest secrets can still be uncovered...and starting over may be a crime punishable by death. The Sixes by Kate White, has nothing on 'Mean Girls'--it takes it to another extreme that is creepy. The Sixes will mess with your head, and guessing the whole way through. Go on a journey with Phoebe, but beware, just because it's a small town doesn't mean it's innocent.

Prime Time, by Jane Fonda

2011-08-08T14:11:00.000-04:00

Jane Fonda, #1 bestselling author, actress, and workout pioneer, gives us a blueprint for living well and for making the most of life, especially the second half of it. Covering sex, love, food, fitness, self-understanding, spiritual and social growth, and your brain, Fonda also explores the phases of life, aging, and maturing. In Prime Time, she offers a vision for successful living, A to Z.

In her #1 bestselling memoir, My Life So Far, Jane Fonda focused on the first half of her extraordinary life--what she called Acts I and II--with an eye toward preparing for a vibrant Act III. Now we have a thoughtfully articulated memoir and guide for how to make all of your life, and especially Act III, Prime Time. Check it out today, and be inspired!

Born of Shadows, by Sherrilyn Kenyon

2011-08-04T15:49:00.000-04:00

In a world where the League and its assassins rule, where betrayal and treachery are everywhere...the only survivors are those ones who are... Born of Shadows

For Caillen Dagan, a defiant soldier of fortune, survival isn't a right, it's a brutal daily battle. Moving through the Ichidian universe like a wraith, his brushes with the law and death are legendary. But when an act of rare heroism reveals his hidden birthright, he's forced into a world much more dangerous and cold-hearted than the bloody streets where he was raised--one of the obscene wealth and lethal politics.

Ferocious and determined, Desideria serves as an official bodyguard for her queen. Born of questionable genetics, she will do anything to prove herself worthy of the weapons she carries and the position she's won by combat. But when she uncovers a ruthless plot to assassinate the queen and overthrow her country's government, Desideria is caught in the crosshairs. With assassination contracts out on both of them, Caillen and Desideria must learn to fight together or die alone. And if they fail, their governments will fall into the hands of an unimaginable evil.

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The Way, by Kristen Wolf

2011-08-04T15:35:00.001-04:00

What if one of the world's greats spiritual healers was not who we thought he was?

Anna is a fiery tomboy living in ancient Palestine whose androgynous appearance provokes ridicule from the people around her and doubt within her own heart. When tragedy strikes her family, and Anna's father--disguising her as a boy--sells her to a band of shepherds, she is captured by a mystical secret society of women hiding in the desert. At first Anna is tempted to escape, but she soon finds that the sisterhood's teachings and healing abilities, wrapped in an ancient philosophy they call "The Way," have unleashed an unexpected power within her.

When danger befalls the caves in which the sisters have made their home, Anna embarks on a hazardous mission to preserve the wisdom of her mentors by proclaiming it among ordinary people. Her darling quest and new found destiny reveal, at last, the full truth of her identity--a shocking revelation that will spark as much controversy as it does celebration.

Anna's story is one of transformation, betrayal, love, loss, deception, and above all, redemption. Readers will cheer for the unforgettable protagonist--and for debut novelist Kristen Wolf, whose written a book that provokes and inspires. A compelling mix of history, myth, and fantasy, The Way is a fascinating exploration of the foundations and possibilities of human spirituality.

A "FUN"raising Evening at Zydeco's 5

2011-08-02T16:21:00.001-04:00

Come enjoy a delicious FUNDRAISING evening @ Zydeco's 5 in

Mooresville! A percentage of the proceeds from that evening's sales will support programs and services offered at the library. Reservations are required 317-834-3900 and FUN is expected! Please join us at Zydeco's and support your community's award-winning public library! We hope to see you there!

Aug. 3 from 5:00 to 9:00

Zydeco's 5

11 East Main St.

Mooresville, IN 46158

The Little Women Letters, by Gabrielle Donnelly

2011-07-30T09:34:00.001-04:00

Vibrant, fresh, and intelligent. The Little Women Letters explores the imagined lives of Jo March's descendants--three sisters who are both thoroughly modern and thoroughly March. As uplifting and essential as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Gabrielle Donnelly's novel will speak to anyone who's ever fought with a sister, fallen in love, or wondered what on earth life had in store for her.

While Emma planning a wedding and younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch her career on the London stage, Lulu can't help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-grandmother Josephine March. In her letters, Jo writes in detail about every aspect of her life: her older sister, Meg's new home and family, her younger sisters Amy's many admirers; Beth's illness and the family's shared grief over losing her too soon; and the butterflies she feels when she meets a handsome young German.

Through Jo's letters Lulu finds a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knows. Some things, of course, remain unchanged: the stories and jokes that form a family's history, the laughter over tea in the afternoon, the desire to do the right thing in spite of obstacles. And above all, the fierce undying bond of sisterhood that links the Atwater women every bit as firmly as it did the March sisters.

Millennium People, by J.G. Ballard

2011-07-30T09:22:00.000-04:00

When a bomb goes off at Heathrow Airport it looks like another random act of violence to psychologist David Markham. But then he discovers that his ex-wife Laura is among the victims. Following a police lead that suggests the explosion was not the work of a foreign terrorist, but instead a shadowy and ruthless group based in the comfortable Thameside estate of Chelsea Marina, Markham begins to infiltrate London's fringe protest movement.

Led by Richard Gould, a charismatic pediatrician turned cult leader, the clandestine group aims to rouse London's squeezed middle classes to anger and violence, to free them from both the self-imposed burdens of civic responsibility and the trappings of a consumer society: private schools, foreign nannies, health insurance, and overpriced housing. But when Markham becomes enamored with an exotic film studies professor who moonlights as a terrorist cell leader, he too gets caught up in the idealistic campaign spiraling rapidly out of control. At least succumbing to the irresistible charms of Goud, the group's leader, Markham abandons his original investigation to give his unyielding support to the uprising, becoming an active participant in the process.

In an unnerving and prophetic ending that is so jarring it will resonate well beyond the confines of fiction, Millennium People becomes more than a novel; it becomes a shockingly plausible, deeply unsettling vision of society in collapse, on that, in the words of John Gray in the New Statesman, "dissects the perverse psychology that links terrorists with their innocent victims."

A Drop of the Hard Stuff, by Lawrence Block

2011-07-28T15:16:00.001-04:00

"The Matthew Scudder novels are among the finest detective books penned this century"

-Jonathan Kellerman

Matthew Scudder is facing his demons. Forced out of the NYPD, he's given up the drink. He's thinking seriously about his relationship with sometime girlfriend Jan. Then he runs into "High-Low" Jack Ellery. a childhood friend from the Bronx. They're two sides of the same coin: Scudder once solved crimes as a detective. Ellery committed them. In Scudder, Ellery sees the moral man he might have become. In Ellery, Scudder sees the hard-won sobriety he hopes to achieve.

Then Ellery is killed. Is it what he saw or what he said that got him killed? Ellery has no family, no friends to press for justice. Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead: Ellery's Alcoholics Anonymous list of people he wronged. One of them may be a murderer, but that's not necessarily Scudder's greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery's world may lead him right back to the bar stool.

Exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and redemption, in A Drop of the Hard Stuff Lawrence Block circles back to how it all began, reestablishing the Matthew Scudder series as one of the pinnacles of American detective fiction.

BioShock: Rapture, by John Shirley

2011-07-28T15:06:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm diving in to my nerdy side here--but I have plenty of patrons, I know, who will read this and love it. Besides, with the new BioShcok coming out, I only thought it was nice that I gave its faithful followers something to do until then. And BioShock is cool--don't judge.

It was the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal had redefined American politics. Taxes were at an all-time high. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had created a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business had many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom was diminishing...and many were desperate to take that freedom back.

Among them was a great dreamer, an immigrant who'd pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and most admired men in the world. That man was Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserved better. So he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government from censorship, and from moral restrictions on science--where what you gave was what you got. He created Rapture--the shining city below the sea.

But...this utopia suffered a great tragedy.

This is the story of how it all came to be...and how it all ended.

Yeah....sounds pretty good huh? Well, you will just have to check it out at your friendly library to see what happens and if "Big Daddy" makes an appearance. I'm not telling.

A Dance with Dragons, by George R.R. Martin

2011-07-27T16:15:00.000-04:00

I should have done a review on George R.R.Martin's acclaimed series, A Song of Ice and Fire a while ago before the hit HBO series "A Game of Thrones" came out. Because now it just seems too cliche.The books of the Fire and Ice series have been out there for a good long while, and they have been very popular among the fantasy lovers. A Dance with Dragons has been long awaited and is the newest book out of his series.

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance--beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeting from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the ragtag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenery's claim to Westeros forever. Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone--a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles, and slaves will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.

The Ripple Effect, by Alex Prud'homme

2011-07-27T16:01:00.000-04:00

As Alex Prud'homme and his great-aunt Julia Child were completing their collaboration on her memoir, My Life in France, they began to talk about the French obsession with bottled water, which had finally spread to America. From this spark of interest, Prud'homme began what would become an ambitious quest to understand the evolving story of freshwater. What he found was shocking: as the climate warms and world populations grows, demand for water has surged, but supplies of freshwater are static or dropping, and new threats to water quality appear every day. The Ripple Effect is Pru'homme's vivid and engaging inquiry into the fate of freshwater in the twenty-first century.

Caleb's Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks

2011-07-21T14:31:00.000-04:00

In her new novel, Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks once again takes a shard of little-known history and brings it vividly to life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American graduate of Harvard College. From the few facts that survive of this extraordinary life, Brooks creates a luminous tale of passion and belief, magic and adventure.

The voice of Caleb's Crossing belongs to Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny island settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneering English Puritans. Possessed of a restless spirit and a curious mind, Bethia slips the bounds of her rigid society to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native inhabitants. At twelve, she meets Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a secret bond that draws each into the alien world of the other.

Bethia's father is Great Harbor's minister, who feels called to convert the Wampanoag to his own strict Calvinism. He awakens the wrath of the medicine men, against whose magic he must test his faith in a high-stakes battle that may cost his life and his very soul. Caleb becomes a prize in this contest between old ways and new, eventually taking his place at Harvard, studying Latin and Greek alongside the sons of the colonial elite. Bethia also finds herself in Cambridge at the behest of her imperious elder brother. As she fights for a voice in a society that requires her silence, she also becomes entangled in Caleb's struggle to navigate the intellectual and cultural shoals that divide their two cultures.

What becomes of these characters--the triumphs and turmoil they endure in embracing their new destinies--is the subject of this riveting and intensely observed novel. Bethia proves an emotionally irresistible guide to the wilds of Martha's Vineyard and to the intimate spaces of the human heart. The narrative travels from the sparkling harbors of Martha's Vineyard to the mean, drafty dormitories of early Harvard and, as ever, Brooks buttresses her richly imagined fiction with the fascinating and meticulously researched detail that has brought her legions of readers and a Pulitzer Prize.

Overbite, by Meg Cabot

2011-07-19T15:42:00.000-04:00

Meena Harper has a special gift, but it's only now that anyone's ever appreciated it. The Palatine Guard--a powerful secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican-has hired her to work at their new branch in Lower Manhattan. With Meena's ability to predict how everyone she meets will die, the Palatine finally has a chance against the undead.

Sure, her ex-boyfriend was Lucien Antonescu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But that was before he (and their relationship) went up in flames. Now Meena's sworn off vampires for good...at least until she can prove her theory that just because they've lost their souls doesn't mean demons have lost the ability to love. Meena knows convincing her co-workers, including her partner-uber demon hunter Alaric Wulf, that vampires can be redeemed won't be easy...especially when a deadly new threat seems to be endangering not just the lives od the Palatine, but Meena's friends and family as well.

But Meena isn't the Palatine's only hope. Father Henrique, aka Padre Caliente--New York's youngest, most charming priest, has also been assigned to the case. So why doesn't Meena--or Alaric trust him? As she begins unraveling the truth, Meena finds her loyalties tested, her true feelings laid bare...and temptations she never even imagined existed impossible to revist. This time, Meena may finally have bitten off more than she can chew.

From Barcelona, with Love, by Elizabeth Adler

2011-07-19T15:30:00.000-04:00

Bibi Fortunata was the hottest ticket in town: singer, actress, and celebrity. Two years ago she was arrested on suspicion of murdering her love and his new mistress, who was also Bibi's best friend. Bibi was front-page news in a way her publicists had never dreamed of. But the police were unable to prove anything and she was set free, with the cloud of suspicion and murder still hanging over her. Bibi left for Barcelona, where she quite simply disappeared. But when Bibi's daughter comes to private investigators Mac Reilly and Sunny Alvarez for help, they can't resist the temptation to solve this mystery once and for all. Who really killed Bibi's lover? Who would wan to frame Bibi? And who is beckoning them from Barcelona?

Filled with Elizabeth Adler's trademark lush descriptions, twisty plots, and decadent luxury, From Barcelona with Love will transport you. From the Hollywood Hills to the streets of Barcelona, from lush vineyards and wineries to the most exclusive homes in Europe, you will be on a journey with a story that will hold you spellbound.

"There Are Things I Want You to Know" about Stieg Larsson and Me, by Eva Gabrielsson

2011-07-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

Here is the real inside story--not the one about the Stieg Larsson phenomenon, but rather love story of a man and a woman whose lives came to be guided by politics and love, coffee and activism, writing and friendship. Only one person in the world knows that story well enough to tell it with authority. Her name is Eva Gabrielsson.

Eva Gabrielsson and Steig Larsson shared everything, starting when they were both eighteen until his untimely death thirty-two years later at the age of fifty. In "There Are Things I Want You to Know" about Stieg Larsson and Me, Eva accepts the daunting challenge of telling the story of their shared life steeped in love and sharpened in the struggle for justice and human rights. She chooses to tell it in short, spare, lyrical chapters, like snapshots, regaling Larsson's readers with the inside account of how he wrote, why he wrote, who the sources were for Lisbeth, and his other characters. Graciously answering Stieg Larsson's readers' most pressing questions--and at the same time telling us things we didn't know we wanted to know--about love and loss, death, betrayal, and the mistreatment of women.

The Kid, by Sapphire

2011-07-15T13:06:00.000-04:00

The Kid brings us deep into the interior life of Abdul Jones, son of Sapphire's unforgettable heroine, Precious. A story of body and spirit, rooted in the hungers of flesh and of the soul, The Kid is a story of survival and awakening, and of one young man's remarkable strength.

We meet Abdul at age nine, on the day of his mother's funeral. Left alone to navigate in a world where love and hate sometimes hideously masquerade, forced to confront unspeakable violence, his history, and the dark corners of his own heart, Abdul claws his way toward adulthood and an identity he can stand behind.

In a generational story that moves with the speed of thought from a Mississippi dirt farm to Harlem in its heyday, from a troubled Catholic orphanage to downtown artists' lofts, The Kid tells of a twenty-first-century young man's fight to find a way to the future. A testament to the ferocity of the human spirit, the deep nourishing power of love and of art. The Kid becomes a young man about to take flight. Intimate, terrifying, deeply alive in Abdul's journey we are witness to an artist's birth by fire.

Untold Story, by Monica Ali

2011-07-13T14:55:00.000-04:00

When Princess Diana died in Paris' Alma tunnel, she was thirty-seven years old. Had she lived, she would turn fifty on July 1, 2011. Who would the beloved icon be if she were alive today? What would she be doing? And where? One of the most versatile and bold writers of our time, Monica Ali, has imagined a different fate for Diana in her spectacular new novel, Untold Story.

Diana's life and marriage were both fairy tale and nightmare rolled into one. Adored by millions, she suffered rejection, heartbreak, and betrayal. Surrounded by glamour and glitz and the constant attention of the press, she fought to carve a meaningful role for herself in helping the needy and dispossessed. The contradictions and pressures of her situation fueled her increasingly reckless behavior, but her stature and her connection with her public never ceased to grow. If Diana had lived, would she ever have found peace and happiness, or would the curse of fame always have been too great?

Fast forward a decade after the (averted) Paris tragedy, and an Englishwoman named Lydia is living in a small, nondescript town somewhere in the American Midwest. She has a circle of friends; one owns a dress shop: one is a Realtor; another is a frenzied stay-at-home mom. Lydia works at an animal shelter and swims a lot. Her lover, who adores her, feels she won't let him know her. Who is she?

Untold Story is about the cost of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the possibility-or impossibility-of reinventing a life. Ali's fictional princess is beautiful, intrepid, and resourceful and has established a fragile peace. And then the past threatens to destroy her new life. Ali has created a riveting novel inspired by the cultural icon she calls "a gorgeous bundle of trouble."

The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead, by Paul Elwork

2011-07-13T14:34:00.000-04:00

It is the summer of 1925: Emily Stewart and her brother, Michael, are thirteen-year-old twins--privileged, precocious, and wandering aimlessly around their family's Philadelphia estate. Emily spends her days populating the solitary grounds with characters and creatures from her imagination, wondering about her father, who died in World War 1, and his friend who seems to have an unusually close relationship with her mother. She is curious about the family portraits that look down on the quiet hallways of her home...especially one of her great aunt. Why did she die so young? Michael keeps to himself, reading by the river, tormenting his best friend, and longing for mysteries like the ones about to emerge from the family history, the neighborhood, and the ground beneath the twins' feet.

One day Emily discovers an odd physical talent--she can secretly crack a joint in her ankle so the sound seems to burst in midair from nowhere. In their garden tea house, Emily and Michael gather the neighborhood children to fool them with these "spirit knockings." But soon this game of contacting the dead creeps into a world of adults still reeling from World War 1. When the twins find themselves dabbling in the uncertain territory of human grief and family secrets, their game spins out of control.

A Visit From the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

2011-07-12T15:15:00.000-04:00

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

A Visit from the Goon Squad is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and is an audacious read. You care deeply for the characters as you read deeper into the book, and realize how all of us are human and never perfect. I think this is one of my top reads for this year. It's a delightful, dark, and audacious new book, that I highly recommend that you check out!

The Social Animal, by David Brooks

2011-07-07T15:58:00.000-04:00

While I'm reading the popular YA book series, The Hunger Games, I have been fascinated with some of our new nonfiction novels. I have been enjoying David Brooks in particular. Brooks has explored and explained the way we live, and has investigated our social claims. He has always intrigued me with his intellectual curiosity and emotional wisdom. In The Social Animal, he dives more into two lives--a couple--and explains the hidden sources of love, character, and achievement through personal, scientific reasons, and through our brain.

This is the story of how success happens. It is told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica--how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed. Distilling a vast array of information into these two vividly realized characters, Brooks illustrates a fundamental new understand of human nature. A scientific revolution has occurred--we have learned more about the human brain in the last thirty years than we had in the previous three thousand. The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind--not a dark, dingy place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain's work gets done. This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms: the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made. The natural habitat of The Social Animal.

We are the animals, we are the bias in modern culture that overemphasized rationalism, individualism, and IQ.

"We are not rational animals or laboring animals; we're social animals with so many levels. We emerge out of relationships and live to bond with one another and connect to large ideas."

~ David Brooks

Fringe.ology, by Steve Volk

2011-07-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

More than seventy percent of Americans believe in paranormal activity. But even with a family-ghost story lurking in his own background, seasoned journalist Steve Volk has been like most of those millions of Americans--hesitant to talk about his experience in polite company. If so many of us have similar stories to tell, why are we so reluctant to take them seriously?

Paranormal claims don't traditionally sit well with reporters, but Volk devided to focus his gimlet-eyes tenacity on a new beat: the world of psychics, UFOs, and things that go bump in the night. Trust me, it gets even more interesting. It's a ride as Volk introduces us to all sorts of fringe-dwellers, many of them reluctant to admit to their paranormal experiences: a NASA astronaut-turned-mystic, a world-famous psychologist who taught us about dying and then decided death many not exist at all, and brave scientists attempting to verify what mystics have been reporting for millions of years. Volk investigates what happens in the brains of people undergoing religious experiences, learns how to control his own dreams, and goes hunting for specters in his family's old haunted house.

From his journey into the bizarre, Volk returns with a compelling argument that we need to allow for a middle space, a place where paranormal phenomena can be weird and compelling; raise crucial questions; and, quite possibly, remain unexplainable. What does happen when we die? Can our "souls", our lives, our bodies linger after we die? What does it mean to die? What is out there after we die? Paranormal is becoming the new normal, and as much as it is "fringe-like" it gives us questions to investigate and to look into deeper, like Volk does in the book. This isn't your corny-run of the mill paranormal books--Fringe.ology is refreshing, fascinating, humorous, thrilling, and wrapped in strangeness that only Steve Volk could write.

My American Unhappiness, by Dean Bakopoulos

2011-06-30T14:57:00.000-04:00

A clairvoyant when it comes to the Starbucks orders of strangers, a quixotic renegade when it comes to the federal bureaucracy, and a devoted believer in the afternoon cocktail and the evening binge, Zeke Pappas is a thirty-three-year-old scholar who asks almost everybody he meets, "Why are you so unhappy?" The answers he receives-a mix of true sadness and absurd complaint-become the core of his obsessive project, "The Inventory of American Unhappiness."

Zeke, meanwhile, remains delightfully oblivious to the increasingly harsh realities that threaten his daily routine, opting instead to focus his energy on finding the perfect mate so that he can gain custody of his orphaned nieces. Following steps outlined in a women's magazine, the ever-optimistic Zeke identifies some "prospects" : a newly divorced neighbor, a coffeehouse barista, his administrative assistant, and Sofia Coppola ("Why not aim high?").

One of the most charmingly deluded narrators to come along in years, Zeke has an irreverent voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit and heart-on-sleeve emotion, underscored by a creeping paranoia and made more urgent by the hope that if he can only find a wife, he might have a second chance at life.

For Duty and Destiny, by William Taylor Stott (Lloyd A. Hunter)

2011-06-30T14:46:00.001-04:00

William Taylor Stott was a native Hoosier and an 1861 graduate of Franklin College, who later became the president who took the college from virtual bankruptcy in 1872 to its place as a leading liberal arts institution in Indiana by the turn of the century.

The story of Franklin College is the story of Stott, yet his influence was not confined to the school's parameters. Stott was an inspirational and intellectual force in the Indiana Baptist community, a foremost champion of small denominational colleges and of higher education in general, and a figure of note in local politics and in the Grand Army of the Republic. He also fought in the 18th Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, rising from private to captain by 1863.

Stott's diary reveals a soldier who was also a scholar in camp and on the march, one who took every available moment to read theology, philosophy, great literary works, the classics of ancient Greece and Rome, and a few novels. He was a familiar with Burns and Byron as he was with ramrods and knapsacks. While amazingly for that era, he was nonetheless a Baptist through and through. Insisting on baptism only by immersion and displaying a hatred of alcohol and its effects on his comrades.

A scion of Baptist preachers, Stott championed temperance in the army and inherited an antislavery fervor that prompted his belief that, in God's eyes there were no walls erected between the races. He loved solitude, embraced nature, and contemplated its lessons in periods of reflection and self-cultivation. Many were his meditations on God, humanity, race, and relations between the sexes.

Lloyd A. Hunter is a professor emeritus of history and American studies at Franklin College, where he founded and directed the American studies program and occupied the Roger D. Branigin Chair of History. Check out For Duty and Destiny, and enjoy reading about a Hoosier who wasn't as different as you and I.

In The Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

2011-06-29T16:50:00.000-04:00

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home.

Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom

2011-06-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

Since its publication in 1971, The Hiding Place has become a modern classic, tying for first place in Christian Reader's list of best biographies of the twentieth century. One reviewer wrote that this book shows "what it means to follow Jesus without counting the cost." And though it is a modern story set in a particular time and place, Corrie ten Boom's account of courage and faith in the face of evil is one that resonates with Christians in all situations and connects with the faithful of past generations whose convictions were tested to the point of death.

Corrie ten Boom is a witness and her powerful story recounts the courage of one Christian family of Dutch watchmakers who determined to save Jews and resistance workers from the Gestapo forces which had overrun the Netherlands. As the pressure against the Jews grew, the risks increased and the ten Booms accelerated their efforts. The family transformed their quiet home into an underground station in the network of the Dutch Resistance, creating a safe room that would shelter and feed scores of fugitives. For this, all the ten Booms were arrested, from Corrie's aging father to her young nephew, with Corrie and her sister Betsie ultimately deported to the Nazi death camp Ravensbruck.

Through the slip of a pen, a clerical error, Corrie survived, though her family did not, and following the war, she began to tell her story of God's faithfulness and his mercy even in the darkest and deepest pit. The same faith that compelled the ten Boom family to stand firm in the face of evil would continue to shape Corrie's life as she bore witness to the great power of God's love to forgive, to heal, and to restore.

Following the war, Corrie ten Boom became an international speaker and evangelist, her ministry taking her to more than sixty countries before her death in 1983. She wrote numerous books, including Tramp for the Lord, about her travels. Corrie, her sister Betsie, and her father Casper were named to the Righteous Among the Nations, gentiles who have been recognized by the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem (Yad Vashem, or the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) for their heroism in saving Jewish lives during World War II.

Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, by Annie Jacobsen

2011-06-27T16:17:00.000-04:00

"Area 51 is the nation's most secret domestic military facility. It is located in the high desert of southern Nevada, seventy-five miles north of Las Vesgas. Its facilities have been constructed over the past sixty years around a flat dry lake bed called Groom Lake.

The U.S. government has never admitted it exists.

***

This book is a work of nonfiction. The stories I tell in this narrative are real." ~Annie Jacobsen

It is the most famous military installation in the world. And it doesn't exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside Las Vegas in the Nevada desert, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government--but Area 51 has captivated imaginations for decades. Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from the fact that no credible insider has ever divulged the truth about his time inside the base. Until now.

Annie Jacobsen has exclusive access to nineteen men who served on the base proudly and secretly for decades and are now aged seventy-five to ninety-two; she also had unprecedented access to fifty-five additional military and intelligence personnel, scientists, pilots, and engineers linked to the secret base, thirty-two of whom lived and worked there for extended periods. In Area 51, Jacobsen shows us what has really gone on in the Nevada desert, from testing nuclear weapons to building super secret supersonic jets to pursuing the War on Terror.

This is the first book based on interviews with eyewitnesses to Area 51 history, which makes it the seminal work on the subject. Filled with formerly classified information that has never been accurately decoded for the public, Area 51 weaves the mysterious activities of the top secret base into a gripping narrative, showing that fact is often more fantastic than fiction, especially when the distinction is almost impossible to make.

Before I Go To Sleep, by S.J. Watson

2011-06-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

"As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me..."

Memories define us.

So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love--all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

S.J. Watson's debut book, Before I Go To Sleep, is a compelling and fast-paced psychological thriller that will take you through twists and turns. Very similar to Shutter Island and Memento, it deals with an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember anything or form new memories. She is desperately wanting to remember, and desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is, and who she can trust along the way.

Dead Reckoning, by Charlaine Harris

2011-06-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

I have been anticipating Charlaine Harris' new book, Dead Reckoning, for quite some time. And now it's here, in my hands. We left Sookie in a middle of a war, her getting to know her "true" family, dealing with love, dealing with vampires, dealing with werewolves, dealing with faeries, and dealing with her own personal troubles. Yeah....she's tired, but we know all too well that there is never a dull moment with Sookie. There will always be some drama crawling back into her life.

We begin Dead Reckoning with.....you guess it......drama. This girl can't get a break. With Sookie's knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. But Sookie suspects otherwise, and she and Sam work together to uncover the culprit--and the twisted motive for the attack.

But her attention is divided. Though she can't "read" vampires, Sookie knows her lover, Eric Northman (swoon), and his "child" Pam well--and she realizes that they are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, she is drawn into the plot--which is much more complicated than she knows. Caught up once again in the politics of the vampire world, Sookie will learn that she is as much of a pawn as any ordinary human--and that there is a new queen on the board....

The School of Night, by Louis Bayard

2011-06-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

King James I has just assumed the throne and Thomas Harriot, known as England's Galileo, ponders the universe from his modest home on his friend's estate. Harriot, the mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer, and translator, is also a member of a group of five brilliant scholars who meet under the cloak of darkness to discuss God, politics, and the black arts. When the estate provides him with a housekeeper, he has little idea how important she will become--in his studies and in his heart.

In modern-day Washington, D.C., disgraced Elizabethan scholar Henry Cavendish has been hired by antiquities collector Bernard Styles. It's rumored that Styles will do anything to get his hands on what he wants. But Henry is desperate for money, and Styles has offered him a large sum to recover a letter he claims was stolen by Henry's oldest and dearest friend, Alonzo Wax. Henry overcomes both his suspicion of Styles and his bereavement over Alonzo's recent suicide and sets out on the trail of the missing letter.

Joining Henry in his search is Clarissa Dale, a mysterious woman who suffers from visions that only Henry can understand. The pair finds themselves stumbling through a secretive world of ancient perils, caught up in a deadly modern-day of a forgotten genius and the woman he loved.

In The school of Night, Louis Bayard folds his two narratives around each other-two different centuries sharing one shocking secret-and creates a gripping story of mysterious and intrigue and a spellbinding portrait of timeless love.

Why Ryan?, by Volitta Fritsche (In memory of Ryan Fritsche, Josh Jetton, and the many other soldiers who continue to sacrifice for our country)

2011-06-22T23:30:00.000-04:00

Earlier today on the news they announced that one of our local heroes was killed over in Afghanistan, Josh Jetton. That makes two young men that have sacrificed their lives over seas from our community that have passed. It's upsetting, especially when you hear that these young men were married and expecting twins, or were engaged to get married. Today I thought about Ryan Fritsche who died overseas and his mom Volitta. Volitta knows very well how this young man's family is feeling, and I wonder why? Why does this happen? Why Ryan? Why Josh? In Josh's memory I would like to review Volitta's book that she wrote about her son, Why Ryan?

Ryan was a Morgan County boy. Full of vigor, strong, full of country, and had(has) a good heart. Vollitta Fritsche has written a moving and memorable book that talks about family, love and personal struggle through a tragedy. For anyone who has lost a family member, a friend, a son, a husband in war....you must find this book and read it. I also suggest anyone who is involved in grieving for a lost one, not even by war, to pick this book up and read it. This short read is full of memories of a soldier, and full of strength. It will make you cry, but it will also get you to walk in the sunshine again. To all of the military families, and soldiers.....you are in my thoughts and prayers, especially tonight as we grieve for another Morgan County boy. Never forgotten......

Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See

2011-06-20T17:34:00.001-04:00

Lisa See has brilliantly sprung to life the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl's strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy.

Reeling from newly uncovered family secrets and anger at ther mother and aunt for keeping them from her, Joy runs away to Shanghai in early 1957 to find her birth father-the artist Z.G. Li, with whom both May and Pearl were once in love. Dazzled by him, and blinded by idealism and defiance, Joy throws herself into the New Society of Red China, heedless of the dangers in the Communist regime.

Devastated by Joy's flight and terrified for her safety, Pearl is determined to save her daughter, no matter the personal cost. From the crowded city to remote village, Pearl confronts old demons and almost insurmountable challenges as she follows Joy, hoping for reconciliation. Yet even as Joy's and Pearl's separate journeys converge, one of the most tragic episodes in China's history threatens their very lives.

As you read, Dreams of Joy, you will see once again how a family is challenged by tragedy and time, yet ultimately united by the resilience of love. Enjoy.

The Book of Tomorrow, by Cecelia Ahern

2011-06-16T16:35:00.000-04:00

From the author of the bestseller, P.S. I Love You, comes Cecelia Ahern's new novel, The Book of Tomorrow, that is filled with family secrets, intrigue, and magic.

Born into the lap of luxury, Tamara Goodwin has never had to look to the future--until the abrupt death of her father leaves her and her mother a mountain of debt and forces them to move in with Tamara's peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village. Tamara is lonely and bored, with a traveling library as her only diversion. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author or title on it. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds inside takes her breath away.

Tamara sees entries written in her own handwriting, and dated for the following day. When the next day unfolds exactly as recorded, Tamara realizes she may have found a solution to her problems. But in her quest to find answers, Tamara soon learns that some pages are better left unturned and that, try as she may, she mustn't interfere with fate.

What if we knew what tomorrow would bring? Would we fix it? Could we even fix it? Or would we let the fates take the wheel? I think if I found a book like this I would be intrigued, but too scared to read on with each passing by. How would we live life to the fullest while knowing what will happen the following day? What would you do?

Friendship Bread, by Darien Gee

2011-06-15T15:20:00.000-04:00

An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated

One afternoon, Julia Evarts, and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: I hope you enjoy it. Also, included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread, and a request to share it with others. Still reeling from a tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She'd just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.

When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illionois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline David is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat, while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the kitchen of Madeline's tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.

This wonderful book is about life and loss, friendships and community, food and family. Friendship Bread, by Darien Gee, tells a spirited, remarkably moving tale about the triumph of hope. I'm passing this on to you to enjoy, in hopes you do the same. Happy reading!