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Sarah Jeffrey is at loose ends, having just broken up with her boyfriend and feeling bored with her job as a teacher in England; looking for something new and different, she gets a job as an aid worker in Bangladesh, where she meets Ed Salisbury, the charismatic leader of Schools for Change, a charity that plans to build a school in a small seaside village. Sarah falls in love with Ed, and everything seems to be going wonderfully until they run up against Oxan, the multinational oil conglomerate that is buying up the land around the village; the two are unpleasantly surprised when the villagers show mistrust in Ed’s motives. Things come to a head when a giant tropical storm hits and Ed disappears; the last time she sees him, he is running toward the ocean in the midst of the cyclone. Sarah can’t believe her lover is dead, but she returns to London at the request of a senior official in the aid organization; there she is shocked to discover that Ed had many secrets, and his work in Bangladesh was far different than she ever knew. This is an absorbing novel about love and betrayal, with an interesting and complex take on Western attempts to do good in the Third World; fans of Robert Goolrick’s A Reliable Wife or In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien will want to try this one.

McKinty’s latest terrific thriller introduces us to a young Havana cop, Detective Mercado, who discovers that her father, Alberto Suarez, has been killed in a hit-and-run in Fairview, Colorado, where he had been living after defecting to the U.S. Mercado feels it is her duty to investigate, and if possible, take revenge on his killers; she doesn’t believe that his death was an accident. However the Cuban government has little sympathy for her loss, so Mercado smuggles herself into the U.S., posing as a maid; she appears to be just another one of the many undocumented Mexican workers in town. During her investigation, she discovers many troubling things about the town, like the debauched retinues of Hollywood types who have taken over the town, the corrupt and bullying local sheriff, and the many secrets kept by her own father; what was a former intellectual and political refugee doing working as an exterminator in a town like Fairview, and why did someone want him dead? The tension coils tighter and tighter as Mercado pursues her answers, and he vengeance. Suspenseful and gritty, this book would be a good choice for fans of Ken Bruen or George Pelecanos.

In Winona, Minnesota in 1907, women did not have a great many career options besides wife and mother; certainly it was unusual, and perhaps somewhat questionable, for a woman to want to become a photographer, a dangerous profession due to all of the toxic and explosive chemicals used. Fifteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele starts to live her dream of becoming a professional photographer when she is hired as an assistant by F.J. Bauer, learning how to create poses for portraits, develop photographs, and the business end of running a photography studio. In turn, her employer learns about the possibilities of photography as an art form from Jessie Ann, who loves the complexity of light and shadows all around her in the rural Minnesota landscape. The two of them become friends, and eventually develop a mutual attraction; this is a problem for both of them, since Bauer is married, albeit unhappily so. All of the characters are exquisitely rendered, creating an almost photographically detailed sense of time and place, and drawing the reader in to the story; the story’s themes of the difficulties faced by a woman artist in a repressive society, and the dilemma of dealing with an attraction to someone who is unavailable, are sensitively handled. This book is highly recommended for readers who like Tracie Peterson or Lynn Austin, or for anyone who wants a beautifully written historical novel.

The third outing of this fun mystery series finds former hotel manager and amateur detective Trevor Lambert unemployed; his previous job went up in smoke when the hotel he was running burned to the ground. Now Trevor decides that running his own bed & breakfast in beautiful Graverly Manor, located on a lake near Vancouver, is just the thing to get him out of the doldrums. The stories that the picturesque inn is haunted by the ghost of Lord Andrew Graverly, and the chambermaid with whom he was having a fling, only make the place more interesting to Trevor, so when Lord Andrew’s elderly widow, Lady Elinor, hires him for a one month trial run to see if he can really handle the place, it seems like his troubles are over. In short order Trevor starts encountering unusual phenomena like strange noises, terrible odors, and disappearing chambermaids; Trevor must investigate to discover what is behind these disturbances, and what Lady Elinor is hiding. Clarissa, one of the hotel’s guests who is also looking into the mansion’s shadowy past, joins forces with Trevor to ferret out the truth before anything even more sinister happens. The ghostly manifestations and the author’s sly humor make this one a lot of fun; fans of K.K. Beck’s Jane da Silva mysteries or the Pennyfoot Hotel series by Kate Kingsbury will like this.

Finding a book about the evolution of language this is as funny and as informative as this one is a real treat. Keyes discusses what he terms “verbal artifacts,” i.e. references to events or things that happened a long time ago, but have entered the lexicon; examples are everywhere, and include such expressions as "Put your John Hancock there," "The buck stops here," and "You're not in Kansas anymore." Most Americans know perfectly well what these expressions mean, but have no idea where they came from; for foreign speakers of English, or for generations born long after the event or thing that inspired the expression (like “drinking the Kool Aid”), they can be bewildering. Keyes has come to the rescue with this compendium of “retrotalk,” or allusions to past events, old slang that is still in use, and references to once-famous and now otherwise forgotten people (Ponzi schemes, Judge Crater, etc.). Reading this is like a trip through American pop culture of the last century or so with a very witty and erudite friend, who also appreciates that use of language is constantly evolving, and trying to bridge the language gap is important to endure that everyone understands the discourse. Readers who enjoy books by Malcolm Gladwell or Christopher Buckley will get a kick out of this one.

This companion volume to the Discovery Channel documentary Nature’s Most Amazing Events is full of absolutely beautiful photographs of some of the most astonishing moments in the lives of animals from Alaska to South Africa. The book includes the annual flood of Botswana’s Okavango River delta, which allows plant life in the Kalahari Desert to flourish and creates habitat for elephants as well as many other species of animals and birds; the melting of the Arctic ice caps; the great annual migration of wildebeests across the vast Serengeti plain; the salmon run in British Columbia; the great feeding frenzy in Alaska’s coastal waters; and the annual sardine migration off the coast of South Africa, which is a feast for marine species from dolphins to sharks. The breathtaking color photographs are accompanied by commentary from the photographers who recorded these events, and a great deal of information about each ecosystem and the various animals that dwell there. If you have ever wanted to see the awe-inspiring beauty of nature first hand, this book is the next best thing to going there yourself and witnessing these moments in person; it makes us aware of the fragility of life on earth.

In 1769, two different ships set sail on voyages of exploration in the South Seas; one was the British ship Endeavour, commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, which left New Zealand on a voyage of scientific discovery; the other was the French ship St. Jean-Baptiste, commanded by Jean de Surville, which left Pondicherry, India, which was at that time a French possession. Both of the vessels were on missions of exploration, sent to map the previously uncharted area of the South Pacific; both were also looking for the mythical Jewish continent thought to be located in the ocean between New Zealand and South America, as well as protecting the interests of their respective countries in the Pacific. Cook mapped the area, while he and his crew endured extreme privation, illness and danger from the Great Barrier Reef. De Surville charted an area of the Pacific that was unknown before is arrival. While trying to find a shorter route back home, Cook discovered Australia, landing at what is now known as Botany Bay and making tentative overtures to the Australian natives. The author uses the diaries of the expeditions’ members, including Cook, de Surville, and naturalist Joseph Banks, to create a vivid and detailed narrative of their extraordinary journeys; their encounters with natural phenomena, new species, and new peoples were fascinating, and helped set the stage for the future of the region. This book is a treat for anyone who likes history, sea stories, or natural history.

Conniff is a naturalist and travel writer who has written for Smithsonian and National Geographic, and has traveled extensively around the world to examine and document species from spiders to chimpanzees, in locations from the inner city to the African veldt. This entertaining collection of stories follows his adventures with animals, from tracking tigers in the Himalayas to trying to get close to wild dogs in Africa, and of course the piranhas of the title; although many of these encounters have a strong element of danger, somehow Conniff always manages to emerge unscathed to share his experiences with the rest of us. There are a number of colorful people depicted, like Justin Schmidt, and entomologist who is developing a detailed Pain Index of Insect Stings by allowing insects of all kinds to bite him and comparing the results. This is an excellent book for the naturalist or armchair traveler who finds this kind of thing fascinating, but really doesn’t want to jump into a pool of feeding piranhas or hunt leopards in Namibia; fans of Bill Bryson or John Grogan will enjoy it.

Asta Hewitt is a seven-year-old girl living in rural Maine with her widowed mother and her nine-year-old brother, Orion. Asta and Orion’s lives are very circumscribed; their mentally ill mother has told them that the rest of the world was ravaged by a plague, and she has kept them isolated indoors for years, away from other people. As a result, the two very bright and imaginative children have created a richly textured world for themselves, and they have an extremely close bond. Their mother acts capriciously, sometimes loving, sometimes cruel, but always unpredictable; then one day she doesn’t come home, and the children decide they must go out into the world to search for her. Meeting people for the first time is frightening and unsettling; as Asta and her brother interact with adults and other children, she begins to realize that her mother has lied to them. The children react differently to their new situation; Orion is overwhelmed and stops speaking, but Asta tries to learn everything she can about this strange new world, so she can adjust to their new reality and help her brother, who has been separated from her by well-meaning but misguided adults. Asta is an intelligent, resourceful and creative child with a unique and captivating voice, and the author intelligently examines themes of a mother’s love for a child, the importance of family, and how children can be at the mercy of uncomprehending adults. This book is reminiscent of Lisa Tucker’s Once Upon a Day or Monkeys by Susan Minot.

Zaki Khalil left his native Pakistan years ago and immigrated to London, hoping for a better life. He became a shop owner, achieving financial success and an affluent lifestyle for his family, but he doesn’t enjoy his life very much; he fears that he is getting old, and wants to break away and do what makes him happy, which is gambling, traveling, and having affairs with women. Zaki’s serious-minded son Jinan, an attorney, is married to Frenchwoman Delphine, who loves the luxuries her husband’s income provides but feels unsatisfied and empty. Their teenage son Lucky dreams of playing on England’s World Cup soccer team, and is in love with Portia, the clerk at his grandfather’s shop. When Delphine succumbs to Zaki’s entreaties to resume the affair they were involved in years before she married Jinan, the consequences for the entire family are life-changing. This novel treats familiar themes, such as the difficulties of assimilation, and the weight of responsibility taking precedence over one’s own desires, in a fresh way; the author writes with candor and humor, making the reader care about these characters and their plight despite their flaws and bad choices. If you enjoyed Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake or Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, this book would be a good choice.

In this intriguing new novel, we meet August Rose, a man who has struggled all his life with issues of identity, love, and loyalty. When we first encounter August, he is a prisoner at the Guantanamo detention facility, where he is being interrogated by Harper, a pitiless American agent dedicated to getting information he believes August posseses regarding the activities of a terrorist group. August withdraws into his memories to escape Harper’s brutal torture; he thinks about the most important women in his life, remembering his childhood and adolesence in Harlem in the fifties and sixties. August’s mother Juliet was a loving but insecure Italian woman, whose family disowned her after she gave birth to a multiracial child; she loved and accepted him, but he felt alienated from both the white and black communities. As a young man, he met Elise Merkete, a troubled young woman who recruited him to a shadowy movement dedicated to “vigilante democracy;” his involvement with them led to his current imprisonment and torture. Finally, he remembers Selina, a beautiful white woman and the great love of his life; although their affair brought August more heartbreak than happiness, he has many wonderful memories of their years together until Selina’s death in a terrorist bombing in Spain. Duncan unflinchingly depicts the reality of torture and the physical and psychological scars it leaves on its victims; he also creates a complex and believable world in which no one is entirely to blame, and no one is without guilt. This novel is would be a good choice for readers who enjoy the works of Richard Price or Kate Atkinson.

A debut mystery with an interesting twist, this one is set in the time of King Arthur, but the characters of Arthurian legend are the secondary characters; the protagonist is soldier-turned-scribe Malgwyn ap Cuneglas, who lost his right arm in battle against
the Saxons. Malgwyn would have preferred to die an honorable death on the battlefield, but Arthur saved his life, sending him to the monks of Glastonbury to learn to read and write; he harbors a secret resentment against Arthur for this, but his loyalty is even stronger than his anger. When a young girl is found murdered at the castle gates, Merlin is implicated, endangering Arthur’s authority and his bid to be elected High King; Arthur calls upon Malgwyn to investigate the murder and exonerate Merlin. The scribe’s sleuthing turns up a nefarious plot to cause Arthur dishonor and force him to give up his throne; are the Druids behind it, seeking to prevent a Christian from taking power, or could it be the work of the Saxons, who claim to want peace but seem ready to go to war? Fast paced, gritty and exciting, this is a terrific first entry in what looks to be an excellent new mystery series. Readers who like the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters or P. C. Doherty’s Hugh Corbett mysteries will appreciate this one.

The tale of Antony and Cleopatra is one of the most famous love stories in history, and the author argues that much of what we believe about the tragic lovers is due to Roman propaganda put forth after they both committed suicide in the year 30 B.C.E.
Cleopatra was born in Alexandria in 69 B.C.E; when her father Ptolemy Auletes died eighteen years later, he left his kingdom to her and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, who was twelve years old at that time. Cleopatra was a very intelligent, cultured and well-educated woman who spoke several languages fluently, and she was a shrewd political leader, trying to preserve as much of her kingdom’s strength and independence as possible. She used her position to secure a marriage with Julius Caesar, bearing him a son and living with him in Rome for a time; however Caesar’s murder in 44 B.C.E made her position more precarious, and she then allied herself with Antony, who had become the most powerful Roman leader in the political turmoil that followed the assassination. In the next few years, the two leaders moved to consolidate and expand their power in Egypt and Rome; they were very successful until their defeat at the Battle of Actium by their rival Octavian, who later became Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome. Cleopatra is depicted in myth and history as a sensual seductress who beguiled Antony into doing what she wanted, but Preston very capably explodes that myth, providing convincing historical evidence of Cleopatra’s life and reign as a canny queen and consort to Antony. This is a terrific history book that reads like a novel.

The author spent seven years researching her family’s history from the late 19th century to the present day, and considering how her family’s saga intersected with larger historical events and trends in the vast migration of Indian people around the globe. Hajratwala’s family roots were in the Gujarat region of northeastern India; they were descended from a dynasty of kings who has long ago lost their power. Many members of the family became weavers, and they spread out over five villages in the area. For many years the family was happy in their peaceful village life, but then the famine of 1899 compelled the author’s great-grandfather, Motiram, to leave his family and sail to Fiji, where he learned to be a tailor. Motiram was very successful, building his business from a tailor shop into one of the largest retail chains in the South Pacific. Other members of the family immigrated to such places as Durban, South Africa, and the United States, where they too found success as business owners and as professionals in a variety of fields. A number of common threads that run through the family’s experiences, such as the problems of dealing with racism and prejudice, living with economic hardship as brand new immigrants, handling the alienation and loneliness of assimilation into a new culture, and the importance of family and community ties. This is an absolutely compelling story of one family’s far-flung history, made even more riveting by the author’s depiction of the broader context of the Indian diaspora.

The author trained as a midwife in the 1950s, learning her profession from the nuns of a convent of nurses and midwives located in the poorest East London slums. The nuns dedicated themselves to providing medical care for the poorest people at a time when there were no other options; without their help, many more women and babies would have suffered. Worth tells the story of her training and work delivering thousands of babies in squalid conditions, with little in the way of equipment and drugs, dealing with patients who were often malnourished and ignorant about their own bodies and the process of childbirth. Worth saw many sad stories of poverty and neglect, but also many stories of loving families doing their best to get by and provide for their children. Many of her colleagues were interesting personalities as well, including the upper-class woman who gave up her life as a socialite to become a nurse, the nun who loved cake, the long suffering handyman, and many more. Worth doesn’t romanticize the poverty and suffering she saw, but she does paint a vivid and often charming picture of how a new life enters the world. Readers who enjoyed the James Herriot books or Mildred Kalish’s Little Heathens will like this one.

It sometimes seems that current scientific knowledge has progressed so far beyond an average person’s level of understanding that it is impossible to understand without an advanced degree, but in the last few years several authors, like Neil Shubin and Brian Greene, have quite successfully taken on the challenge of making modern science comprehensible to the lay reader; Christopher Potter can be added to that list with this new book. The author takes us on a journey from a single human cell all the way out to clusters of galaxies drifting in the vastness of space, vividly illustrating the scale of the universe in a way that makes the mind boggle while presenting a clear picture of Earth’s place in the cosmos. He discusses concepts of measurement, and explains why this idea is so central to the scientific method (that is, being able to reproduce measurable results in an experiment). He considers the history of scientific inquiry from antiquity to the present, showing how models of the universe were created, modified, and sometimes discarded as human knowledge grew over time, and discussing Einstein’s work, quantum theory, and the theory of evolution. Potter explains these very complex topics clearly and effectively without simplifying too much, and creates an extremely entertaining and interesting book in the process. Anyone who likes science will want to read this.

This is an exciting fantasy novel that effectively weaves together stories from three very different times in the history of Britain. In the sixth century town of Londinium, a young knight called Galaad experiences a vision that compels him to go to the court of King Artor, where he convinces the king to follow him on a quest for the Holy Grail. Centuries later, during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897, the London Metropolitan Police fear that a series of brutal murders may be the work of Jack the Ripper, whose killing spree a decade earlier threw the city in a panic; however private detective Sandford Blank and his assistant Roxanne Bonaventure believe that a new killer, with a sinister motive involving the Grail, is responsible. One hundred years later, runaway American teen Alice Fell is in London trying to discover the meaning of her own mysterious visions, which seem to be showing her future; pursued by strange menacing creatures, she is assisted by the enigmatic Stillman Waters. The malevolent forces behind all of these incidents cause the breakdown of barriers of time and space, bringing all of the various characters together to fight an evil so great that it could lead to the end of everything. The author has blended fantasy, mystery and science fiction into a gripping story that will enthrall readers until the very end of the book. Readers who enjoyed Neal Stephenson’s excellent Anathem or American Gods by Neil Gaiman should definitely try this one.

This is the exciting sequel to 2007’s excellent City of Fire, which introduced LAPD Robbery-Homicide Detective Lena Gamble. She is assigned to investigate the gruesome murder of an unidentified young woman whose dismembered remains were found in a dumpster in Hollywood. Her supervisor warns her that the brass may be trying to set her up for failure; Gamble has been persona to them non grata since her last case exposed police corruption. The case seems pretty cold, as the victim is unidentified and there are few clues and no apparent witnesses, but Gamble has a mysterious ally in her pursuit of the killer; someone mails her the victim’s drivers license and a video of her being kidnapped from a restaurant parking lot. Lena doggedly follows the evidence, which points toward the wealthy owner of a drug company, as well as various higher-ups in the LAPD and other movers and shakers. Several other murders occur that may be related, and Gamble must find the missing witness before the killers do; in the process, she puts herself in danger as well. The story is full of twists and turns, the suspense will keep readers on the edge of their seat, and the LA setting is depicted in all its glamour and squalor. Fans of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series or the Prey books by John Sandford will definitely want to try this series.

Leila al-Ghani is a young woman living in the war-torn city of Mosul in Iraq. Her dream has always been to become a doctor, and she has begun working toward her dream by getting a degree from Cairo University. Leila’s parents had always encouraged her to pursue her career goals and to think of herself as a modern woman, but since the beginning of the war, they have become increasingly conservative, and they now wish her to follow the traditional path of an arranged marriage. Unable to go to medical school in her current circumstances, Leila gets a job as a translator at the U.S. Combat Support Hospital on the nearby American military base; part of her job includes working with torture victims being treated at the hospital. She hides her job from her family, trying to pursue her goals on her own despite their disapproval. When Leila meets handsome Special Forces Major James Cartwright, they fall in love. James has been emotionally disconnected because of the terrible things he has witnessed during the war, but his feelings for Leila reawaken his conscience. When Leila’s father Tamir discovers his daughter’s betrayal, he is furious, and Leila must make difficult choices between her family’s demands and her own dreams and desires. The author skillfully depicts the terror and violence of war, and the profound psychological effects of living in a war zone; the romance is captivating, and the suspense will keep readers riveted. This book would be a good choice for fans of The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar or Laura Fitzgerald’s Veil of Roses.

Gina Tait is a high-powered career woman, and every minute of her day is filled with obligations. Her to-do list is never ending, so when she is trapped in a malfunctioning elevator for an hour and a half with laid-back artist Brad Harding, it seems like the worst thing that could happen. When Brad sees Gina, he sees the polar opposite to his own lifestyle as a single parent living in a small country town, and believes they have nothing in common. But Gina is surprised by how much she is attracted to him, and how well they get on together; Brad finds his interest piqued as well, and after they escape their confinement in the elevator, they decide to try and be friends. When Brad’s daughters meet Gina, they are convinced that the two are perfect for each other, and put a plan in motion to get them together. The author creates very believable and appealing characters, and shows us how two very different people can come together and find not only common ground, but happiness. This is a charming and fun romance that will please fans of Jane Green, or C.A. Belmond’s Penny Nichols books.

In 1796, George Washington proposed that a national botanic garden be established in Washington for the benefit of the American people. His idea came to fruition when the United States Botanic Garden was established by Congress in 1820. The Botanic Garden’s mission is to collect, preserve and disseminate plant species for the benefit of the American people. Although the garden languished for a time in the 1830s, it was substantially enlarged in 1842, when Charles Wilkes returned from the United States Exploring Expedition, a four-year voyage of exploration in the Pacific Ocean that gathered thousands of plant and animal specimens, including more than 250 plants that were added to the Botanic Garden. Other later scientific expeditions gathered more plant specimens and seeds for the Garden, and it grew and prospered into the twentieth century. The garden moved to a new larger site in 1920, and was completely renovated in the 1990s, reopening in 2001 larger and better than ever. This beautiful book is filled with lush color illustrations, including many historical images and photographs, as well as gorgeous contemporary photographs. Paging through the book is like taking a trip to a peaceful and calm oasis of vegetation; it is a special treat for gardeners.

In 2003, Williams was living in a tiny rented apartment in Brooklyn with her husband and young child; they loved their neighborhood, but were longing to buy a house with more space, and take on all the benefits (and even the disadvantages) that come with home ownership. It was their misfortune that they began looking for a home at the height of the real estate frenzy in New York City, perhaps the priciest and most overheated real estate market in the country. Everything they could afford on their $400,000.00 budget was dismayingly awful; terrible unsafe neighborhoods, falling-down and squalid hovels resembling the tenements of the early 1900s, and houses built on the expressway or infested with termites were the only kinds of properties they could find anywhere near their target areas. The search dragged on for three years, and they were forced to make many compromises before finally finding a suitable home in Inwood, a neighborhood much farther away from the city than they had originally wanted. As she tells her own story, the author periodically checks in with others trying to find suitable housing in different regions of the country, finding that the same problems (too little house for too much money) were happening to some extent all around the country. The author’s story is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and it will ring true for anyone who endured house hunting in the last few years. In addition to offering a cogent explanation for the madness of the housing bubble, she vividly illustrates the effect of the real estate crunch on average middle class Americans.

Wolff examines the American educational system by exploring the experiences of some of our most celebrated achievers, including Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Helen Keller, Henry Ford and Elvis Presley. This cross-section of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, all of whom went on to achieve greatness in their chosen fields, had very different educational experiences; some were taught at home, some had a bit of formal schooling, some more than a bit, and some stayed in the formal educational system all the way through university. The most interesting thing about all of these narratives is the thread that runs throughout, a love of learning and a curiosity about the world that led each of these people to seek out knowledge and experience that helped them in their chosen pursuits. It’s fascinating to see how they all overcame challenges and barriers placed in their way, and went on to achieve their goals. Wolff is obviously knowledgeable about the subject, and his writing style is lively and engaging, never pedantic; the stories he tells about these celebrated people are appealing, and the narrative of success against the odds is a truly American story. The ways in which these individuals fostered their success by seeking out all kinds of educational opportunities, including real life experience in business, industry, politics and other fields, has implications for the current educational system in this country. This book is highly recommended for readers who enjoy history or biography, or who are interested in education issues.

For many people, mentioning exorcism brings visions of horror movies that show victims of demonic possession writhing, levitating furniture, and disgorging strange body fluids; however this ancient rite of the Catholic Church is usually experienced quite differently in real life. The author follows the Rev. Gary Thomas, a priest from San Jose, California, as he takes a Vatican-approved course on exorcism at a university in Rome, and then goes through an apprenticeship with an experienced Italian exorcist. Thomas was asked to take this training by his bishop, and was somewhat reluctant in the beginning, feeling that exorcism was a somewhat of a relic from a less enlightened time in Church history. However as he studied the rite his perspective changed, and Thomas experienced a spiritual reawakening, opening himself to new possibilities; the experiences he witnessed also caused the author to reexamine his own faith. Baglio includes fascinating stories from practicing exorcists and from people who have undergone the ritual, and he explores the history and rituals of exorcism, the teachings of the Catholic Church on demonic possession; he also considers how the Church reconciles the practice with modern medical ideas on mental illness. This is a balanced, well-researched and compelling work on an intriguing topic.

This excellent debut mystery features Detective Emmanuel Cooper, an Englishman living in South Africa in 1952, just a few years after the establishment of apartheid as official government policy. Cooper is still recovering from terrible experiences he suffered in World War II. When Afrikaner police captain Willem Pretorius is murdered in the small town of Jacob’s Rest, near the Mozambique border, Cooper’s investigation points to whites as the main suspects; the government’s Security Branch refuses to accept this theory of the crime, accusing black radical activists and pressuring Cooper to go along with their version. When he refuses, he is taken off the case, but decides to continue investigating in secret. Cooper discovers that Pretorius’s family has a great deal of power and influence in the community, as well as a number of closely held secrets that they will do anything to protect. To find the killer, Cooper risks his career, and perhaps his life. The author writes convincingly about the oppression and violence of apartheid, and brings South Africa of the mid-twentieth century vividly to life. Readers who enjoy the Alan Banks series by Peter Robinson or T. Jefferson Parker’s Charlie hood series will like this one.

Mira Braverman is a successful London psychotherapist in the late 1990s; she spends her days listening to her patients talk about their troubles, but she remains emotionally distant from them. Her patients include Howard, an irascible divorced man who makes nasty remarks about Mira’s Serbian heritage, as well as Jess and Caroline, who are both struggling with infertility, and Kate, a woman devastated by the loss of her child. Motherhood and the desire to have children are recurring themes among Mira’s patients, and she is good at her work, despite her own childlessness. Mira’s marriage is happy, but she is very concerned about the family she left behind in war-torn Serbia. When her husband Peter is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Mira’s orderly world and professional detachment are shattered; she finally connects emotionally with the grief and pain her patients are suffering. Her life is dramatically changed as she struggles to care for Peter and to deal with her own sorrow; her relationship with Peter’s grown son Graham is perhaps the most changed, in ways Mira didn’t expect. This is a keenly observed study of human tragedies and foibles; the characters are written with great understanding and sympathy, but with real human failings and virtues. The writing is lovely, drawing the reader deeply into the lives of these people, with a strong element of humor. Fans of The Whole World Over by Julia Glass or Kristin Hannah’s True Colors will enjoy it.

Originally published in Albania in 1970, this is a new English translation of one of Kadare’s most important works. The novel tells the story of the siege of an Albanian Christian city by the Ottoman Turks, early in the 15th century. The Ottomans send an emissary to the Albanians, demanding immediate and total surrender, but the Albanians refuse to comply. The far superior Turkish forces set up camp on the plains below the city’s mountain fortress, believing they will achieve victory quickly; but they find conquest of the citadel more difficult than they thought. The story is told from the point of view of several different Ottoman characters, including the pasha who commands the military forces, the man designated to keep a chronicle of the campaign, an astrologer whose predictions help guide the pasha’s strategy, and several others; the point of view of the Christians besieged in the citadel is also heard. Blending history, fantasy and folklore, Kadare creates a gripping and suspenseful narrative of war and its consequences. This book would be a good choice for readers who liked Barry Unsworth’s Land of Marvels or The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

In this fast-paced follow up to 2007's In the Shadow of the Glacier, the author continues the adventures of Probationary Constable Molly Smith and her partner, Sergeant John Winters, police officers in the small British Columbia village of Trafalgar. Molly is still recovering from a personal tragedy, and Winters has his own family difficulties, but these concerns must be put aside when Molly’s social worker mother, Lucky, finds the body of a young woman in the woods near the Trafalgar Women’s Support Center, a three-month-old baby boy beside her. It appears that she died of a drug overdose, but she has injuries apparently caused by restraints. Molly and John find few clues about her life other than her name, Ashley, her son’s name, Miller, and the fact that she had a rather public argument with the man responsible for a controversial resort development being built just outside the village. The detectives must discover how the baby fits into the mystery, as well as probing into the bitterness between the aging hippie faction who want the town to remain unspoiled, and the pro-development faction who want the economic benefits of increasing tourism in the area. Delany does a terrific job of recreating the small town setting, exploring how a seemingly tranquil village can have conflict seething beneath the surface. This series would be a good choice for readers who liked Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy series, or the Anna Pigeon mysteries by Nevada Barr.

In recent years there has been a resurgence of books exploring various aspects of the American Revolution, mostly concentrating on the Founding Fathers; this book considers the role of blacks in the struggle for independence, and their hopes for the future of the brand new republic. Although the revolution championed the idea of liberty and equality in the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”) it soon became evident that many of the Founders did not see these rights as applying to anyone but white land owners like themselves, and they did not see the terrible institution of slavery, nor the racism of the existing social order, as being in conflict with their belief in liberty and equality. Tracing the evolution of the independence movement and the development of slavery as an economic force using the individual stories of black patriots like William Lee, Olaudah Equiano, Absalom Jones, and slave rebellion leaders Denmark Vesey and Gabriel of Virginia, the reader sees the tragic human cost of the failure to extend liberty and equality to all Americans. This book is an excellent adjunct to such works as Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis or David McCullough’s 1776; it presents another part of the story, too little discussed until now.

Most children go through a period in which they are fascinated by dinosaurs, some of the largest reptiles ever to exist on the planet, and most are also interested in creatures such as frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians. This book is the grown-up version of all those dinosaur books you loved as a kid, filled with gorgeous and vividly colored illustrations of many of the different species of reptiles and amphibians. Not only are these animals exotic and beautiful, they are often the first to be affected by environmental problems like pollution and climate change; many of these species are threatened by loss of habitat as well. This beautiful book celebrates their amazing adaptability and diversity, while reminding us of their tremendous importance in ecosystems all over the world, and sounding a warning bell about the precarious future.

The words of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe at the final battle between his people and the forces of the U.S. Government are well known; “I will fight no more forever.” In 1877, the American army pursued them for weeks across 1700 miles, through difficult mountain terrain in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, as they attempted to flee the incursion of white settlers into their homeland and the broken promises of treaties that forced them onto ever-shrinking reservations. Finally, less than 50 miles from the Canadian border, after suffering through a brutal five-day siege, Chief Joseph surrendered, trying to save his people. The author traces the history of the American government’s dealings with the Nez Perce, from the first treaties in the 1850s, when the U.S. tried to force the tribe to allow whites to live on their land, up to the present day. The historical accounts are interspersed with chapters on how the region has fared since then, with particular attention paid to the daunting environmental and economic issues faced by the remaining members of the tribe and other area residents. This is a sobering look at a disgraceful period of American history.

Mae West was an icon of the early days of American cinema, known for her racy movie roles and fabulous Hollywood lifestyle, but she was also a pioneering woman in the film industry as a writer, actress and comedienne. Born in Brooklyn in 1893, Mae West started out as a performer at age five, appearing in a church social, and quickly graduated to amateur talent shows, where she almost always won prizes. At fourteen, she began appearing in Vaudeville, moving to progressively bigger and better parts and shows, until she began writing her own material. In 1926 her Broadway play Sex caused a scandal; she went to jail for ten days for obscenity, but the resulting publicity made her a star, and her next role, Diamond Lil, was a huge hit. In 1932, Hollywood came calling; West was under contract to Paramount, and made several classic films, including She Done Him Wrong, I’m No Angel, and many others, working with such stars as George Raft, Cary Grant, and W.C. Fields and becoming Paramount’s most bankable star of the 1930s. West always championed the sexual equality and economic freedom of women, and continued to make films into her seventies. The author conducted extensive interviews with West just before her death in 1980 at age 87, and it is chock full of terrific anecdotes about her life and career, all related in her own words. This is a fascinating look at an important artist, and an inside peek at the glamorous-and not so glamorous-aspects of the film industry in its early years. Anyone who likes the movies will enjoy it.

This short novel was originally published in England in 1962, and the American edition was worth the wait for those who enjoy seafaring adventure. The story begins in the winter of 1950, when a cargo vessel struggles to survive a North Atlantic gale off the Irish coast, dangerously close to foundering; the desperate crew sends out an S.O.S, which is picked up by a passenger liner in the area. John Driscoll, one of the officers of the rescue ship, is put in charge of the rescue effort; when they arrive in the vicinity of the Achilles, the endangered ship, they discover that she has already broken up, and the survivors of her crew are barely hanging on to the wreckage. This forces Driscoll and the rescuers to come up with a daring plan to save the crew, and to risk their own lives to achieve it. The intensity of the storm, the desperation of the Achilles crew, and Driscoll’s own fears and insecurities about his ability to save them are rendered in taut, fast-paced prose, making the terrible storm and the plight of the sailors vividly compelling to the reader. If you enjoyed Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm or you like the novels of Clive Cussler, try this one.

The follow up to last year’s A Reason to Kill, the first book in Adams’ new Rina Martin series, is a worthy successor. Rina is a retired actress who runs a boarding house; she has also helped investigate murders in the past, due to her innate curiosity and her friendship with Detective Inspector Sebastian MacGregor. When a body washes up on the nearby beach, Rina and Mac believe it may be Edward Parker, the father of their 13-year-old friend George, who has been missing for several weeks. However the dead body turns out to be Pat Duggan, the son of local crime lord Jimmy Duggan; they discover Pat was kidnapped several days previously, but the crime was never reported to the police. His father refused to meet the kidnapper’s ransom demands, and they killed him. This leads to the discovery of a series of previously unknown kidnappings in the area, all unreported out of fear of the kidnappers, and the terrifying knowledge that other children are still at risk from the kidnappers. Rina and Mac are wonderful protagonists, and the book’s other characters are all nicely fleshed out as well; the story draws the reader in and holds their interest until the very end, using suspense and flashes of humor. This series is highly recommended for fans of Anthea Fraser or M.C. Beaton.

When Elena Miranda encounters a couple of Canadian tourists in her suburban Havana neighborhood, she has no idea a chain of events has been set in motion that will result in murder and espionage. Sean and Marina ask Elena for a glass of water while out jogging, and she lets them into her apartment; her brother Pablo is suspicious of them, but nevertheless agrees to accompany them for a night in the town, which ends in his shocking murder. When Sean and Marina disappear, it becomes evident that they were not who they claimed to be as Captain Felix Trujillo investigates Pablo’s death; why did they want so badly to get into Elena’s apartment, and how does Pablo’s father, a former hero of the revolution with many enemies and now imprisoned for murder, fit into the puzzle? While Trujillo unravels the threads of the mystery, others are determined to conceal the truth, and greed and betrayal make it almost impossible to trust anyone, or to take anything at face value. The Cuban setting is terrific; the reader can feel the tropical heat and see the decay and corruption of Havana, and the plot twists will keep them guessing until the very end. If you liked the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri or Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri Paiboun mysteries, you’ll love this one.

For his entire career in medicine, Doctor Eli Branch has been pursuing the goal of becoming one of the pre-eminent surgeons and researchers on the subject of aneurysms, and his new position at Gates Memorial Hospital in Memphis appears to be the final step in that process. It is also a sort of homecoming, as Eli’s father was a professor of anatomy at the affiliated medical school, Mid-South Medical College. Everything seems to be going well until one of Eli’s patients dies mysteriously during surgery; he is unfairly blamed for the death by the hospital’s chief vascular surgeon. After some probing, Eli discovers evidence that a medical manufacturing corporation may be trying to conceal their part in these deaths, and that his father may have been involved as well. The investigation turns deadly when more strange patient deaths occur, and Eli enlists the help of pathologist Meg Daily to save his patients, his career, and even his life. This is an exciting and fast-paced medical thriller, with just enough medical detail to hold the reader’s interest without being overwhelming, plenty of action, and an engaging pair of medical detectives. Fans of Michael Crichton or Robin Cook will definitely want to give this one a try.

What can one do after having had the most powerful and most scrutinized job in the world, President of the United States? The answers to that question make up this fascinating book, which reveals the often surprising careers and causes former Presidents have taken up after leaving office. Until 1958, the former President received no pension, and so unless they had personal wealth and could retire and take it easy, most of our former Chief Executives had to find a way to provide for themselves and their families. Some, like George Washington, were successful; others, like James Monroe, died penniless and in debt. However most of them chose to go on and do something useful, like a career in business, politics or the law, or even devote themselves to a charitable or humanitarian cause. From George Washington through Bill Clinton, this book tells us how these men who were at the pinnacle of power and achievement coped with having to give it up, and went on to (for the most part) live productive lives; sometimes their second careers outshone their time in office. Full of interesting and entertaining anecdotes, this is a must-read for American history buffs.

Books about World War II and the people who fought it have become rather a booming industry in the last few years, and not all of them were created equal; so it’s refreshing to come across one that tells a great story in a compelling way. Torpedo Squadron Eight, the most decorated naval air unit ever (and also the unit with the highest casualties) was a pivotal element in the U.S. victories at Midway and Guadalcanal, both key battles in the Pacific theater. In the Battle of Midway, Squadron Eight was sent in to attack the approaching Japanese carrier fleet, with no fighter escort; every one of those planes was shot down by Japanese fighters, but they occupied the enemy while American dive bombers arrived far overhead, bombing and sinking most of the Japanese carriers and ensuring an Allied victory. At Guadalcanal Island, the squadron’s survivors fought in the long and bloody battle to prevent the Japanese from establishing a base there; this battle was considered a turning point in the Pacific war, after which the Allies had gained the upper hand. The story of both battles is told in a gripping, journalistic-style narrative, including personal information about the aviators, and stories of the survivors’ lives after the war ended. This book would be an excellent choice for readers who are interested in the War in the Pacific, or anyone who likes a thrilling tale.

The treatment accorded to Native Americans by the U.S. government is a long and deplorable chapter in American history. This book covers one part of that litany of shame, the forced relocation of the Ponca tribe from Nebraska to Oklahoma in 1877, and its unintended outcome, a landmark Supreme Court decision that established the rights of Native Americans to be considered persons under the Constitution. The Ponca tribe was forced to leave their land in the Niobara River valley in northern Nebraska after the U.S. government mistakenly included their land in the Sioux Reservation created by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. The journey was long and difficult, and when the Ponca arrived in Oklahoma, they found the land unsuited to agriculture, which was their principle source of food. When Chief Standing Bear’s son died the following winter, he led a party back to the Niobara; they wanted to bury him in their traditional burial ground, and to try to return the Ponca people to their own land. Standing Bear was arrested, and with the help of some surprising allies, including Nebraska newspaper editor Thomas Tibbles and former Indian fighter Gen. George Crook, he mounted a legal challenge questioning the right of the government to remove the Poncas from their land. The case received massive attention in the press, and forced the government to admit that Indians were people, entitled to equal protection under the law. The case was also one of the key steps in removing control of relations with Indians from the military and passing it to the civilian government. This is an important book that also tells a riveting story; readers will be engrossed in the Poncas saga from the first page to the last.

In 1949, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold was published; in this classic work, Leopold discusses his ideas on conservation and his “Land Ethic.” The author is an ecologist who has spent the last thirty years following Leopold’s ideas on his own land, Stone Prairie Farm, in southwestern Wisconsin. When he first began, the land had been used to grow corn for many years; there was little trace of the prairie, woods and wetlands that had once flourished there. Little by little, doing much of the work himself and forging ties in the surrounding community as he went along, Apfelbaum restored the land to its original state, bringing back native plants and encouraging the wildlife that had once lived there to return to newly restored habitats. It is now a living, breathing illustration of Leopold’s ideas. The author owns Applied Ecological Services, a consulting firm that provides ecosystem restoration, and he does an excellent job of explaining the long and delicate process of landscape restoration, as well as making it why we should be interested in doing so; he makes the journey so intriguing that readers will begin thinking about how they can apply his ideas to their own land. Reading this book is like taking a long walk in the country on a summer day with a learned friend as a guide to the natural world.

Really more a collection of four novellas than of short stories, this excellent book traces the life-altering experiences of the narrator, a man now middle-aged recalling his childhood and young adulthood in Sri Lanka in the 1940s and 1950s. In the title story, he is a ten-year-old boy, devastated at having to leave his dog Tony behind when his family is forced to move due to financial problems; when he makes the long journey back to their old home to rescue his pet, the outcome is not what he expected. “Poor Young Man” deals with the narrator’s realization that his parents are actually human beings, and have their strengths and their human failings, and how he came to terms with this knowledge. In "Elsewhere: Something Like a Love Story," he recounts his first real love, which was doomed from the start, although he could not understand why at the time. Finally, in the story “Hark, the Moaning Pond: A Grandmother's Tale” the narrator speaks of his relationship with his grandmother, leading to a stunning meditation on the history and mythology of Sri Lanka. The writing is gorgeous and lyrical, and the stories’ themes of the importance of love, the complications of leaving childhood behind and becoming an adult, the sadness and inevitability of loss, and the mutable quality of memory translate beautifully across cultures and timelines. Readers who enjoyed David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini will want to read this.

The summer of 1898 finds the city of Vienna in turmoil as a terrifying killer stalks the streets, his victims stabbed viciously and dumped in public places, their noses sliced off. When the latest victim, a model for scandalous painter Gustav Klimt, is found in the Prater Amusement Park, the artist falls under suspicion; after all, anyone who could produce such shocking pictures must surely be capable of such horrific violence; or at least that is the reasoning of Police Inspektor Meindl, who is investigating the murders. Frustrated by their failure to catch the killer, the police arrest Klimt on flimsy evidence found in his studio, and so his lawyer, Karl Werthen, turns to his friend Doktor Hanns Gross, a pioneer in the nascent field of criminology, for help in solving the crimes. Vienna was a fertile ground for social, political, and cultural change, with many famous scientists and artists residing or visiting there, from Sigmund Freud to Mark Twain; there was a great deal of social upheaval as Viennese society struggled with these rapid changes. Jones seamlessly integrates real historical figures into the story, and recreates the fascinating era of the fin-de-siecle without drowning the reader in historical detail; he has also written a terrific thriller that will grip the reader to the very end. Readers who liked Caleb Carr’s The Alienist or the Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon will love this one.

The author has written a realistic, and sometimes harrowing, portrayal of four members of the National Guard who are sent to Afghanistan. They include Justin, a California surfer whose life until now has been all about catching the perfect wave; Jimmy Ray, a mechanic from the South who has a lot of problems with deep-seated anger; Luis, a Hispanic immigrant who believes strongly in the American dream; and Cindy, a high school teacher and mom from Iowa who is dismayed and apprehensive to find herself getting sent into a war zone. All of them will find themselves tested in ways they could never have imagined, and the things they experience will change their lives profoundly. Yenne doesn’t pull any punches describing scenes of battle or other aspects of living in a war zone. He also effectively shows how people in extreme situations can quickly develop extremely close relationships, and either rise to the challenges they face, or become unglued. Readers who want to know what being in combat is really like will definitely get a taste of it from this novel. If you liked Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried or you enjoy the Civil War novels of Michael and Jeff Shaara, this one will interest you.

Rosie Caballero feels her life is rather dreary; she scrapes by on a small income, working at a job she hates, and her love life consists of a series of dates with total losers. The only bright spots are her grandmother, her cousin Cheeto, and her dog Tootie, all of whom give her the love and support she finds little of elsewhere. Then one day Rosie’s life changes completely when she wins $600 million in the lottery, and suddenly everyone who treated her like dirt wants to be her best friend. At first it’s a fantasy come true; Rosie and her family go wild, buying whatever they want and traveling to exotic vacation spots. The icing on the cake is Rosie’s new boyfriend Brad Merritt, the current Hollywood It-boy and the actor Rosie has had a crush on for years. However, dealing with tsunami of publicity, complete with hounding paparazzi and a huge crowd of people lined up for handouts, soon starts to seem more like a burden than a blessing, and the worst thing for Rosie is not being certain who she can trust. Rosie is a terrific heroine; the reader will be rooting for her and her family as she struggles to find her way. This book is terrific pure entertainment, perfect for a beach read or plane ride, or just for fun. If you enjoyed Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes or the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, try this one.

A revised and expanded version of the earlier works Antarctica and the Arctic: The Complete Encyclopedia and Antarctica: The Blue Continent, this terrific book is a thorough and authoritative compendium of knowledge of Antarctica, with contributions from a team of experts that includes scientists, historians and explorers. Every aspect of the continent is covered, from prehistory and geology, to climate, the ice, and wildlife; there are also sections on current scientific research, the impact of climate change, the need for conservation, and the political arguments about sovereignty, use of resources, and scientific expeditions, tourism, and many other issues. The entire volume is profusely illustrated with photographs, maps, and other illustrations; they appear on nearly every one of the 400 pages of this book. Antarctica is perhaps the last mostly wild and unspoiled place on earth, and it serves as a bellwether for climate change and political wrangling that affects the rest of the planet; it is also a unique and beautiful place worthy of study and preservation, and this book is the perfect illustration of that need.

From 1961 to 1966, McGeorge Bundy was the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (the equivalent to today’s position of National Security Advisor) during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations; along with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and a few others, he was the one of the key people who charted America’s course during the Vietnam conflict. Bundy was considered one of “the best and the brightest;” he was a scion of a wealthy and politically connected Boston family, a Yale graduate, and a professor at Harvard. When McNamara published his memoir In Retrospect in 1995, in which he stated his belief that America’s war in Vietnam was a tragic mistake, Bundy decided to revisit his own memories of that time, and worked with Goldstein to write his own memoir. However Bundy died in 1996, before it was finished, and so Goldstein used his research and conversations with Bundy to write this history of Bundy’s role in the Vietnam conflict. Goldstein asserts that Bundy was a rather fanatic hawk who strongly believed in the rightness, and the potential for success, in using U.S. military might to defeat the Viet Cong; he continued to believe in the “Domino Theory” and the need for America to avoid embarrassment by pulling out of Viet Nam until years later, near the end of his life. This fascinating book investigates how such a bright and talented person could have been so wrong, and stubbornly continued to believe he was right for so long, despite strong evidence to the contrary; and how we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Readers interested in history and foreign relations will find this a compelling read.

Sand is one of the most plentiful substances on earth; it can be found nearly everywhere on every continent, at the bottom of the sea, even on other planets, like Mars. It is so omnipresent that we scarcely notice it until it blows into our eyes or gets in our shoes, but sand is much more embedded into everyday life than most of us realize. The author, a geologist, follows the journey of a single grain of sand from its creation and movement along the Susquehanna River, to its resting place on the sea bed; along the way he includes fascinating digressions on the creation and composition of sand, an analysis of the fluid dynamics of deserts, the historical and cultural significance of sand, and the many ways sand is used in many products, from concrete to toothpaste. The book is a lively and creative look at a thing both humble and majestic, both a nuisance and a vital element of human endeavors; readers who enjoyed Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: a World History or the books of Henry Petroski will be intrigued by this book.

Baker spent more than thirty years researching the history of his family over two centuries, using records of former slave owners now housed in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, interviews with family members, letters and diaries, and newspapers and Census records to create a complex and riveting portrait of life under slavery and in the post Civil War era. He became interested in the topic while looking at some photographs of former slaves in his seventh-grade social studies textbook; he later discovered that two of the people depicted in the photos were his great-grandparents. Baker traces the origins of his family from their enslavement in West Africa to their arrival at Wessyngton Plantation in Tennessee, founded in 1796 by Joseph Washington, a distant cousin of our first President. The slaves’ labor built Wessyngton, the largest tobacco plantation in America, and kept the plantation profitable until the Civil War and Emancipation. After the war, the era of sharecropping and Jim Crow laws made life extremely difficult for the former slaves, but they persevered, and eventually many of them (and their descendents) moved north to find work and to better their lives. The story of the slaves of Wessyngton Plantation is a very significant part of the history of our nation; Baker provides the personal context of individual stories that makes it even more powerful. This is an essential book for anyone interested in American history.

The second entry in the Kim Reynolds series finds Kim, a college librarian in suburban New Jersey, and her boyfriend, Detective Mike Gardner, investigating the suspicious death of Rick Bradshaw, who was found dead in the swimming pool at Kim’s apartment complex. The victim was not a nice guy, and the suspects are legion: his fiancée; his current and former mistresses; his numerous ex-girlfriends, most of whom hated him; and assorted husbands of those numerous ex-girlfriends and mistresses. They are assisted by Mike’s new partner, Bert St. Croix, formerly of the NYPD and the first black woman in the Webster Township PD, and by Kim’s psychic talents (she can see ghosts). While they work on tracking down the killer, Mike tries to persuade Kim to accept his proposal of marriage, and Bert experiences a rocky start with her colleagues in the department. This is an entertaining mystery with very likable characters, and Kim’s psychic abilities are interesting without being too off-the-wall. Readers who liked James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series or the Reagan Reilly books by Carol Higgins Clark will get a kick out of this one.

In the maybe-not-that-far-from reality near future, the world is on the verge of collapse; wars, ecological disasters, economic meltdown, and pandemics have become the new reality. Retired marine Sargent “Sarge” Whitmore figures out a way to benefit from the chaos around him; he creates the Clothos Academy, a school for the children of the super-rich, and gets the wealthy to pay dearly for the privilege of sending their precious children somewhere they believe is safe. The school is located in an abandoned monastery on a small island in the Mediterranean, impenetrable and remote from the rest of humanity. When the students arrive, problems begin to surface. The students, despite their privileged status, are not exactly the cream of the crop; they are afflicted with everything from eating disorders to serious trouble with the law. The faculty is not much better; the school doctor is an alcoholic, and Sarge is maintaining order and encouraging his students’ fear by broadcasting daily videos about the horrors going on in the outside world. Then there is the mystery of what really happened to the monks who once lived there; will the same fate befall the Clothos students? Reed has created a frightening and believable dystopian future that will grip the reader until the final page. If you liked The Terror by Dan Simmons or Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan, give this a try.

This is an engaging historical romance featuring Gaddon Maddox, the 4th Earl of Camberley, who is flat broke and running out of family heirlooms to sell to keep his family’s estate going. He believes the solution to his financial problem is to marry a rich American heiress. To this end, he travels to Newport, Rhode Island, the exclusive summer retreat of the fabulously wealthy, where flocks of young American heiresses are eager to meet the titled and good-looking Englishman; however he is put off by the crassness of this marriage market, and flees to the less posh but more congenial seashore. There he meets Audrey St. Clair, who is also trying to escape Newport, where her formidable mother wants to marry her off to the highest bidder. The two of them concoct a plan to avoid an unwanted betrothal; Audrey will pretend to be engaged to Gaddon, while helping him rebuild his family fortune with profitable investments, and also pacifying Audrey’s persistent mother. When the summer is over, they will each be free to pursue their own lives; however they both find it more difficult than they thought to stick to the plan, and they may in fact be falling in love. The book is frothy and charming, offering an intriguing glimpse of the caste system of the very wealthy in late 19th century America, as well as an engaging pair of lovers that readers will want to see live happily ever after. If you liked An Agreeable Arrangement by Shirley Marks or Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford, this book will please you.

Set in Havana in 1994, this powerful novel tells the story of Usnavys, a man in his fifties who is barely hanging on in the grim world of post-revolutionary Cuba. When the Castro regime began in 1959, Usnavys was a young man with high hopes for the future, and he has managed to hang on to his optimism all this time, despite terrible poverty and the constant hemorrhage of people escaping to the U.S. by boat. But now his wife has lost her job, and they and their daughter must often go hungry, as there is little money for food or anything else. Their home is in terrible disrepair, with crumbling walls and leaking roof; most of the city has become ruins, where people stay only because they have nowhere else to go. The only thing of value they possess is a stained-glass lamp, inherited from Usnavys’ mother; curious about its origins, he begins tracing its history, which leads him to discover some unexpected truths about his past. Obejas deals with themes of political and religious conflict and freedom, the disillusionment that comes to all at some point in life, and the lengths to which people will go to survive. Evocative prose, strong characters and deft depiction of the complicated and sad history of Cuba make this a standout novel; it is highly recommended for anyone who liked The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos or The Konkans by Tony D’Souza.

This book of amazing animal photographs has an almost indescribable beauty. Zuckerman has photographed the animals against a stark white background, showing their exquisiteness without any distraction, and picturing them in stunning detail. The 175 different animals depicted run the gamut from honeybees to mandrills, including just about every kind of animal you can think of, all in glorious color; the lack of accompanying text allows the images to speak for themselves. This is the kind of book that you can get lost in for hours, and it will make you marvel at the astonishing beauty and diversity of the animal world.

The author, a journalist who has written about the developing world for such publications as Time, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon, traveled around the globe to look for evidence of climate change, and to discover how these changes have affected the political, social, and economic landscape, as well as the ecology of places from Sudan to Northern California. It is somewhat alarming to learn that the effects of climate change can already be seen clearly on such things as the changing geographical ranges of plant and animal species due to warming temperatures, the growing incidence of desertification, and the increasing number of violent storms. What is even more disturbing is the author’s contention that political and social instability like the genocide in Darfur, the diaspora of survivors of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, and the potential for global pandemics, will only get worse as climate change continues. Whatever your beliefs about climate change may be, this book is a sobering wakeup call to take a closer look at the potential ramifications of climate change.

The author tells the frightening true story of what it is like to be the target of a stalker. When Brennan (a pseudonym, used to protect her privacy and her family) first meets Paul, the man who became her worst nightmare, he seems like a normal guy, very charming and charismatic; he works hard to win Brennan, who is initially wary after being involved in several unhappy romantic relationships. When she finally gives in to his attentions, their relationship progresses quickly and they start living together; it is only then that she finds out about some of the more unsavory aspects of his character, including infidelity, bullying behavior, and hints of illegal activities. When Brennan has had enough, she tries to leave, but Paul is obsessed with her, and resorts to some very scary tactics to track her down and make her life miserable, such as hiring people to break into her home, causing problems in her professional life, and even getting he phone cut off. Without solid proof of Paul’s harassment, the police can’t do much to help her, and her life becomes an exercise in anxiety, punctuated with moments of sheer terror. Perhaps the scariest thing about this book is seeing how a normal person like Brennan, a well-educated professional woman, goes from being a self-assured woman to a terrorized victim. This book will keep you up late at night racing to finish it; fans of Ann Rule will be riveted by this one.

In 1846, the tiny settlement of Yerba Buena, located on the shores of San Francisco Bay, had fewer than 1000 inhabitants; after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848 and California became part of the United States, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill near Coloma in January of that year changed everything completely. News of this find spread quickly, spurring thousands of people from all over the world to come to California seeking to make a fortune mining for gold, rapidly increasing the population of the town to 25,000 people by the end of 1849. The “forty-niners” brought a host of others who came to sell them supplies and provide all manner of other goods and services, from livery stables to brothels. In less than two years the city grew from a sleepy hamlet to a booming, cosmopolitan town, and was well on its way to becoming the financial, economic and cultural center of the region. Richards has written a colorful and engaging history of a tumultuous time in San Francisco’s history.

Russell Harmon has two great obsessions: Dart Night at the 321 Club in Garnet Lake, Idaho, and his cocaine addiction. On Dart Night, Russell is special, he is someone important, and he is in control. The rest of the time he is kind of a loser; he lives with his mother and has a series of dead-end jobs. Russell owes money to Vince Thompson, his drug dealer, who is angry and unstable; there is also Brice Halberstam, a new player whose skill threatens Russell’s standing in the dart league. The other characters are Russell’s friends Tristan, a good-looking former school star who seems to be having a nervous breakdown, and Kelly, a single mother trying to find a way out of this small dead-end town. All of these people have their flaws, and their secrets; the intersection of their lives will mean danger for some, and big changes for all of them. The author does a great job of incorporating information about the game of darts into the story without making it seem artificial, and the small town setting is colorfully depicted. This novel will be enjoyed by readers who liked Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity or Steve Almond’s memoir Candyfreak.

Benjamin Purdue has been in prison for twenty years, serving time for a murder he did not commit. Benjamin’s his mother was a prostitute, and their hardscrabble life in the remote Blue Ride Mountain hamlet of Shady Hollow, Virginia, didn’t offer much in the way of future prospects. Ben was in love with the prettiest girl in town, Amanda Lynn Jennings, and had hopes that they could build a life together, but those hopes were shattered when he was forced to shoot another man in self-defense and went to prison for it. Now he has served his time and is being released back into the world; he journeys back to Shady Hollow, trying to find out what happened to his family and to his old life, but he no longer recognizes the town, which has been razed and replaced with a housing development; all that is left is the old cemetery, where he finds the graves of his family. Searching for answers and for a better life, Ben decides to try and find Amanda; what he doesn’t know is that his search will lead him to answers about his past, and a way forward to his future. Ben is a compelling character who holds our interest throughout the book, and his need to truly understand his past will resonate with readers. If you liked The Sweet In-Between by Sheri Reynolds or Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, try this one.

August is a young college student when he first encounters Papa, the leader of a religious cult called True Mind Heart Center. August has lost his way, becoming mired in a dead-end lifestyle of drugs and cynicism; but something about Papa and his teaching appeals to him very strongly, and he joins the group, becoming one of their most loyal disciples. August carries out Papa’s orders without question until a series of events shakes his faith; Papa decides to marry Melody, a ten-year-old girl whose mother is a friend of August, and when some members of the group protest this, they are brutally “redirected” to obey. August begins to question his own involvement in the cult, and decides to leave, getting as far away from the cult’s desolate Arizona headquarters as possible. However, August finds that it is not easy leaving this way of life behind, and he struggles to find his way back to the world. This is a deeply affecting story, filled with powerful imagery, and dealing with important themes of religious belief, personal freedom, and responsibility, both to oneself and to the community. Readers who liked Yann Martel’s Life of Pi or Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates will appreciate this novel.

In this excellent follow-up to Die with Me, Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia and his partner, Detective Sergeant Sam Donovan, are assigned to the case of a murdered woman found in London’s Holland Park in the dead of winter. Art dealer Rachel Tenison was left bound in a highly ritualistic pose that seems to indicate a connection with an unsolved murder that happened a year ago. The members of the team are all struggling with their own problems-family pressures, infidelity, unrequited love-as well as the lack of clues in the case. Tartaglia becomes somewhat obsessed with the victim, who was a beautiful blonde with some rather dark secrets of her own, while Sam tries to sort out her relationship with a married colleague who has shown interest in her. The detectives painstakingly assemble information and accounts from witness, trying to piece the story together, and their investigation takes them from the world of politics to London’s rather sordid S&M scene; when the truth finally becomes clear, they may be in greater danger than they thought possible. This mystery would be a great choice for readers who enjoyed Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series, or In the Woods by Tana French.

The Atlantic Ocean has been an important source of wealth, an avenue for trade and the exchange of ideas and technology, and both a source and an arena of conflict from the earliest days of human history to the present time. This book is a wonderful overview of the Atlantic’s history and its importance; from the very first ocean voyagers before the birth of Christ, to the Vikings, to the European explorers who “discovered” the New World, to the Age of Sail and the World Wars, the author covers the vast history of the Atlantic in a very thorough and entertaining manner. Hundreds of beautiful color illustrations, including images of manuscripts, maps, paintings, and photographs are included throughout the text, providing a visual feast for browsers. This book is highly recommended for history buffs and armchair explorers alike.

Desmond and Moore are generally considered the pre-eminent biographers of Charles Darwin, an impressive feat considering the staggering amount of information that has been produced by and about the man. In this book, the authors eloquently argue that the roots of Darwin’s obsession with the origins of humanity lay in his repugnance for the practice of slavery. Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin, the scientist’s maternal and paternal grandfathers, were both ardent supporters of England’s anti-slavery movement, as were other members of the family and many of their friends; Darwin also abhorred the terrible brutality toward slaves that he saw during his time on the Beagle. In this new interpretation, Darwin’s work is seen as having a moral imperative; he wanted to use scientific evidence to prove that all human beings are descended from common origins, thus demonstrating that forcing humans into slavery is immoral and evil. Interestingly enough, this argument against slavery did not necessarily mean that blacks were to be accepted as intellectual or social equals in nineteenth-century society. This book is a fascinating reinterpretation of Darwin’s life and work, and is of particular interest in light of the recent debate on the teaching of evolution, as well as the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

The author, who has spent nearly thirty years working in the American criminal justice system, did not have an easy childhood herself; she grew up in a tough Chicago neighborhood where few of the adults in her life expected that she would ever amount to anything. She defied the odds, becoming an attorney and advocate for prison inmates. Schwartz became convinced that the current penal system is ineffective; in 1997, she founded RSVP, the Resolve to Stop Violence Project, focusing on teaching inmates ways to avoid reoffending and to take responsibility for their crimes, and to atone for them. She very frankly addresses the pressing central issue of the prison system: “What do we do with the people who get out of jail and come back to communities?" Schwartz provides some very thoughtful ideas about how to address this issue in this sobering and absorbing book.

Every day it seems that we are bombarded by statistics on everything from high school kids’ participation in sports, to the risk of dying from secondhand smoke, as well as just about anything else you can imagine. There are statistics on crime rates, health issues, business, education, government, and many other topics constantly published in every medium, from newspapers and television to the internet, and much of what is out there is misleading, misinterpreted, or simply wrong. The author, a professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, offers help in making your way through this confusing morass of information. This book will help you sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly of statistical information in your daily life.

The manuscript of the title is the fabled holy text of Islam, lost for many years, and now the goal of an international archeological expedition to Wadi Hassoun, a remote Egyptian village. As the group moves from the busy modern city of Cairo to the slower-paced rural area, time seems to slow down; in the modern era, the expedition searches for clues to the whereabouts of the manuscript, and these scenes are interspersed with moments from the history of its creation, and showing its impact on Islamic culture and society. All of these events are joined to form a kind of narrative mosaic of the manuscript’s history and meaning, which becomes clearer as the pieces are fitted together. The expedition is being bankrolled by a consortium of wealthy Londoners, and there is some uneasiness among the group’s members about the ethics of this; can such an important cultural and religious treasure really belong to those who can afford to spend the most to obtain it, or is there a greater duty to ensure that it belongs to everyone? How do we interpret the often mysterious and ambiguous and clues left from the past, and uncover the truth? These and many other questions are beautifully incorporated into a story that layers suspense, wonderful historical detail, exquisite writing, and a profound understanding of human strengths and frailties. This gorgeous novel is highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead or The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.

In this exciting debut mystery, we meet newly minted Detective Constable Gary Goodhew, age twenty-five, who has been assigned to help solve the murder of a young woman in Cambridge. Eager to prove himself to his colleagues and his superiors, Goodhew-who is somewhat of a workaholic with not much of a personal life-goes beyond his role as an assistant, working on his own without his partner, going back to review the crime scene, and interviewing witnesses. This refusal to follow police protocol annoys his supervisor, Detective Inspector Marks; however he must admit that Goodhew is very intelligent and has good instincts, as the young investigator turns up clues that have eluded the other members of the team. The investigation has other complications for Goodhew; evidence that casts suspicion on a friend has come to light, and he is torn, trying to decide what to do about it. Fast-paced and exciting, this accomplished debut would be an excellent choice for fans of Peter Robinson’s Alan Banks series, or the Inspector Rebus books by Ian Rankin.

This darkly hilarious novel is kind of like a cross between the movie “This is Spinal Tap” and James Frey’s fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces. The LA rock band Blood Orphans seemed to be on their way to superstardom; they signed a contract with a major record label, they had a cadre of devoted fans coming to their concerts, and they landed a gig opening on tour for Aerosmith. Disaster struck when a rock journalist accused them of writing a racist song; the fallout from this debacle saw them being cut from the Aerosmith tour and dropped by their label. A couple of years later, stranded in Amsterdam at the end of a not very successful European tour, the group’s manager, coke fiend and fashionista Joey Fredericks, and the messed-up members of the band tell their stories in alternating chapters, as the group implodes, collapsing under the weight of the backlash and their own egos. The author knows the music scene intimately, having done a stint in a band in Seattle during the grunge era, and this knowledge shines through in the book, making you feel like you are watching one of those “Behind the scenes” shows about troubled bands, only with all of the juicy bits left in. If you liked Elmore Leonard’s Chili Palmer books or Blast from the Past by Kinky Friedman, this would be a good choice.

Willett is one of the most dependable authors around for a really enjoyable reading experience. This time, we have the story of Tessa Rainbird, Will Rainbird, and Beatrice Holmes, three distant cousins who were previously unknown to each other and who have inherited a beautiful coastal estate in Devon from their recently deceased eighty-four-year-old cousin Mathilda Rainbird. Tessa is twenty-two, and still recovering from the tragic death of her parents and younger brother a few years earlier; Will is a widowed diplomat who has been living abroad, and Beatrice is a recently retired matron at a boys’ boarding school. Along with Mathilda’s former housekeeper Isobel Stangate, the three of them move into the estate, and to their surprise find that sharing the property leads to deepening relationships with each other and with the community, allowing them all to heal and eventually thrive in ways they never expected. This is a lovely family drama reminiscent of the novels of Rosamunde Pilcher or Maeve Binchy.

It seems like we are constantly barraged with information about “good” foods and “bad” foods, and the latest research on what foods cause or prevent diseases, as well as a constant stream of fad diets, from “cleansing” to the Atkins diet; how can anyone make sense of the overwhelming tide of information? Fortunately for us, the author has written this timely and accessible book to help those of us who do not possess advanced degrees in nutrition science make sense of it all. He helps us understand and evaluate the confusing and often contradictory claims of various scientific studies, diet plans, advertising, as well as persistent myths about food. Chapters cover such highly touted foods and nutrients as tomatoes, acai berries, soy, and omega-3 fatty acids, as well as the reviled trans fats, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals in food. He explains how digestion works and how these various foods affect our bodies, all in a clear and easily understandable way, and gives recommendations on eating sensibly while avoiding fads and hand-wringing about contaminants and “bad” additives in food. Anyone concerned about what they eat will want to read this.

Lately there has been a great deal of talk about the need to find alternative energy sources and reduce American dependence on foreign oil, but nowhere has the idea of using alternative fuels been so hilariously explored as it is in this book. Melville, a freelance journalist who has written for a variety of publications from The Wall Street Journal to Outside magazine, decided to see if a car using alternative fuel could work well in real-life situations; what could be more real than a cross-country road trip? Recruiting his college pal Iggy as technical support (since he knows something about engines, whereas Melville is mechanically inept), they convert an old diesel-fueled Mercedes sedan to run on used french fry oil, which they usually get for free from restaurant dumpsters. Along the way, they visit such eco-friendly destinations as Google headquarters (which is solar-powered), a wind farm in southern Minnesota, and Al Gore’s Tennessee mansion. Melville achieves his goal of demonstrating that sustainable energy really can work, and does it with a lot of humor and charm. This book reads like a mash-up of David Sedaris, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and the movie An Inconvenient Truth; it takes a serious issue and turns it into a really fun (and educational) book.

George Wythe of Richmond, Virginia was among the most prominent of the patriots who led the American Revolution; he signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and was a close friend and mentor to such luminaries as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. In 1806, when Wythe was eighty, he and two members of his household were poisoned. Wythe lingered in agony for two weeks, insisting to anyone in earshot “I am murdered.” Adding to the shocking nature of the crime was the main suspect, Wythe’s grandnephew and namesake, George Wythe Sweeney, who had stolen money and forged checks in Wythe’s name. The case had many strange twists; for example, Wythe’s doctors refused to confirm that he had been poisoned. Forensic investigation was extremely primitive; criminal trials depended mostly on eyewitness testimony, as scientific evidence was neither widely available nor credible, and the most damaging witness in the case-the only one of the victims who survived-was not allowed to testify at the trial. Chadwick has written a completely absorbing account of a two-hundred- year-old crime that was as sensational in its day as the O.J. Simpson case or the Lindbergh kidnapping. Readers who enjoyed Howard Blum’s American Lightning or Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis will be captivated.

Ellen Greene had made a lot of unfortunate choices in her life; her marriage ended in divorce, leaving her with two small children to care for on her own, and a series of unfulfilling and unhappy jobs forced her to move to several different states. By the time she was in her late thirties, she was convinced that she would never find a good man; then Marsh Greene appeared, and the two of them built a very happy life together. Ellen decided that she would keep track of all of her husband’s kindnesses and moments of humor and affection during the year, and share this “Sweet Things List” with him each Valentine’s Day. They continued this tradition from the beginning of their relationship, when Ellen was still learning to trust Marsh and the happiness of her new life, to the time they spent living in China, and later sailing around the Pacific Ocean, and eventually to Marsh’s serious illness and his death. This is a poignant and loving tribute to a beloved husband that has a great deal to say about how to cherish each other in the time we have together; readers who liked Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture or Wesley the Owl by Stacy O’Brien will be moved and inspired by this book.

Set in Montana during the Nez Perce War of 1877, this fine historical novel follows the saga of John Seton, a young Nez Perce who has spent parts of his life among both whites and among his own people. He understands the Indian way of life; the Nez Perce had always been migratory, following the game they hunted through the territory of the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest, and he also understands that this nomadic lifestyle clashes with the ways of the white settlers moving into the area to farm or raise cattle. Some of the Nez Perce have accepted that their days of roaming the land freely are coming to an end, while other refuse to give up their traditional ways; conflict between the whites and the Indian factions is heating up. John believes he has had a vision from Coyote, but he is not certain what it means; he is drawn to the faction of Nez Perce trying to flee to Canada, and eventually witnesses the great battle between the Indians and the U.S. Army, which ended when their leader Chief Joseph was forced to surrender before reaching the Canadian border. Replete with fascinating details of the nomadic lifestyle of the Nez Perce, their cultural and religious beliefs and their traditions, this book manages to be informative while still telling a rousing story of one young man’s coming-of-age. Readers who like Larry McMurtry or Wilbur Smith will enjoy this novel.

In this exciting thriller, Caroline Perez is a former CIA agent who has become obsessed with her assignment to topple the government of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who has ruled the country with an iron hand for half a century. She now works for a clandestine group called the White Orchid, whose goal is to overthrow Castro by any means necessary. To achieve this, Carolina is willing to do anything, including deceiving her Uncle Roberto, who is an important player in Miami’s Cuban expatriate community and is also working against Castro. Meanwhile, in Havana, Minister of Health Carlos Gutierrez has lost his faith in Cuba’s leadership, as he has seen lies and corruption in the government become commonplace, betraying the ideals of the Revolution. He becomes involved in an assassination plot at great risk to himself and his family. However, the conspiracy runs far deeper than either Carolina or Carlos knows, and there are double-agents and traitors all around them. Merullo creates a suspenseful story that grips the reader completely until the final page; readers who like John Le Carre or James Grippando will be riveted by this thriller.

A rather unusual and imaginative blend of mystery and fantasy awaits the adventurous reader in this new novel by Rafael Reig. Set in an alternative universe version of Madrid in 1999, it follows the story of children’s book author Lola Lios, who is murdered by a gun-toting thug. In this strange world, Spain has been annexed to the United States, and Spanish has been supplanted as the official language by “Anglo,” and the country is divided between the armed enclaves of the rich and the lawless and chaotic areas of the rest of the country. Lola’s ghost is trying to find out who killed her and why; she gets assistance in her quest from Benito, the teenage main character in her successful children’s book series. Lola’s death may have had something to do with K666, the mysterious drug that may be the key to eternal life. This novel is a fascinating blend of mystery, science fiction, fantasy, and comedy, all coming together to create a singular debut novel. Readers who liked The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami or Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, With Occasional Music will definitely want to read this one.

The third outing in the Honey Driver mystery series finds Honey, who owns the Green River Hotel in Bath and is also the Hotel Association police liaison, accompanying her friend Mary Jane on a “ghost walk” around the city. They don’t see any ghosts, but the tour is far from uneventful; one of the participants, Lady Templeton-Jones, is found strangled in a shop owned by a man with a suspicious past. Since Honey had been asked to book a room for the victim, and since she has ties with hunky local detective Steve Doherty, she decides she must investigate. The suspects include the shady shop owner, the tour participant who may be scamming people by selling them fake British titles, and various others who may have wished harm to Lady Templeton-Jones, and who have their own secrets to conceal. In addition to helping solve the murder, Honey must deal with family dramas involving her mother and her daughter’s boyfriend, as well as earning a living with her hotel. Will she be able to ferret out the truth and unmask the real killers? You’ll have to read it to find out. Fans of Dorothy Cannell’s Ellie Haskell series or the Peter and Georgia Marsh series by Amy Myers will like this funny and absorbing mystery.

Benford, a physicist, and Malartre, a biologist, present a terrific overview of the history of robotics and artificial intelligence, covering the many ways in which robots are now used in everyday life, and predicting how their use will continue to expand in the future. The possibility-and the fear-that robots could someday become superior to humans have long been staples of science fiction and fantasy. Robots in books, like R. Daneel Olivaw in Asimov's Robot series, and in movies like the Terminator series or the HAL9000 in 2001: a Space Odyssey, make robots taking over and eliminating humans seem like something that could be just around the corner. However, the authors contend that robots, while very useful and sophisticated tools, can never match the complexity of a living human brain. This book is a great introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about robots and artificial intelligence; it discusses their history and their potential for the future in a very interesting and accessible way.

A sobering account of the long and bloody history of the ivory trade, which has had a profound and often terrible impact not only on the beautiful animals slaughtered for their tusks, but on the humans involved in gathering, transporting, and selling this precious commodity. Ivory has been prized since prehistoric times; it has been used to create religious objects, jewelry, and many other items such billiard balls, piano keys, and decoration on a myriad of things. In the nineteenth century, the vast demand for ivory led to the killing of millions of African and Asian elephants, until by the early 1980s they were in danger of extinction; in addition, many of the people who killed the elephants and carried the ivory to market were enslaved, brutally exploited, and killed. In 1990, a worldwide ban on the international ivory trade helped to bring some of the herds back, but poaching and black market ivory trading remain a huge problem, as does the lack of adequate habitat for many of the elephant herds in Africa; the dangers and abuses suffered by those who get the ivory also endure. This is a fascinating and important story; anyone interested in conservation or the plight of the elephants simply must read it.

The author is a young woman just starting out in her career as a web designer, living in a city apartment and wanting to avoid the consumer culture, and have a stronger connection to the basics; growing her own food, living a greener lifestyle, and generally learning to become more self sufficient. She decides to chuck her citified life and moves across the country to a small farm in Idaho, where she learns about gardening, raising chickens, beekeeping, and all manner of other things a person needs to know to be self-reliant. She celebrates such pleasures as finding good second-hand household items instead of buying new, cheap plastic implements; knitting her own sweaters and wearing the same dress for a year; and feeling a deeper connection to the land, and to the community that offers her knowledge and support as she creates this new life. The book offers a lot of information and tips, as well as a list of sources for do-it-yourselfers of all varieties, and it is charming, funny and engaging as well; Woginrich is willing to laugh at herself and some of her more disastrous attempts at practicing her burgeoning homesteading skills. Readers who liked Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or The Prairie Girl’s Guide to Life by Jennifer Worick will definitely want to give this a try.

The Middle East region has been a hot spot for trouble for millennia, and the sixty years since the end of World War II have not seen any real change in this regard. The author, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times and the Washington Post with years of experience in the region, asserts that the foreign policy of the U.S. has been inconsistent and mostly ineffective in the post-war era. He proceeds to back up his analysis with a history of conflict in the Middle East, from the Suez Canal crisis to the current Iraq War, including the tangled history of the conflicts between Israel and Egypt, America and Iran, the Soviet Union and Iraq, Iran and Iraq, and fighting in Lebanon, as well as the two incarnations of the Intifada, beginning in 1987 and again in 2000. Tyler concludes that there are many villains and few heroes in this saga, on any side of the conflict, and we must find a better way to deal with the often troubled countries and factions in the region to have any hope of lasting peace. This is an absorbing, well-documented, and very fair-minded history of a complex and often explosive topic.

A wonderful blend of suspense, fantasy, and mystery, Fathom weaves together the stories of ancient mythological creatures and modern day humans living in rural Florida. The story begins in the 1930s, when Arahab, an ancient water goddess who is trying to return earth to the rule of the ancient gods, uses an unhinged teenage girl named Bernice to set her plans in lotion. When Bernice’s horrified cousin Nia witnesses her committing a murder, Nia is turned into stone, where she remains until the final battle between the factions of the ancient gods begins. Nia realizes that she must act to save humanity from destruction, with the help of some of the elemental spirits who don’t want to go back to the old days, and of a human drawn into the conflict. Priest has done a wonderful job of world building; she combines elements from horror, fantasy and fairy tales to create a unique and intriguing story that will grab your attention from the first paragraph to the final sentence. Readers who enjoyed Priest’s Eden Moore trilogy or who like Neil Gaiman or Dan Simmons will want to try this one.

This is the third entry in the entertaining Cape Weathers series, following Stealing the Dragon and Beating the Babushka. As a private investigator in San Franscisco who started out as a reporter, sniffing out a story is second nature to Weathers. His latest gig involves looking into the disappearance of a California state senator and his son, a drug addict with a history of trouble with the law; when they both turn up dead on a golf course in Mexico, the senator’s daughter hires him to investigate. Weathers collects his associate Sally Mei, a tough chick who learned to fight in the Triad gang in Hong Kong, and goes south of the border. He follows the clues, which lead from a Mexican drug cartel to shady bankers and CEOs back in California, as well as getting on the wrong side of the cops and the DEA, and discovers a much bigger-and more dangerous-situation than he expected. This series features a terrific and funny wisecracking relationship between Weathers and Mei, as well as an absorbing mystery with plenty of action. Fans of Robert Crais or James Lee Burke should try it.

Theodor von Neuhoff was born into an aristocratic family that had fallen on hard times, and spent his life traveling and adventuring, making his way in the world by his wits and charm. After the death of his father, Theodor managed to achieve a position as a page at the Court of Louis XIV at Versailles, where he quickly became a favorite due to his skills at eavesdropping, gossiping, and making conversation. Due to a series of fortunate incidents, Theodor manages to secure wealthy and influential patrons to easy his way as he drifts through the courts of Europe, acting as a secret agent, a professional gambler, and other such pursuits, marrying a noblewoman and gaining and losing fortunes along the way. In 1736, he joins the Corsican rebellion and is proclaimed King; he believes he has found his true station at last, but his reign turns out to be a short and undistinguished one. Full of elaborate and fascinating historical detail about the glittering life of the European courts at their most ascendant, this novel is a treat for fans of historical fiction and history buffs alike. Readers who liked Philippa Gregory’s Earthly Joys or Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors will enjoy this novel.

The characters in these short stories always seem to become embroiled in unusual and bizarre situations; the author has managed the very neat trick of making everything he writes absolutely believable and true-to-life. In the story “Choco,” A Moscow woman finds that her pet bear, adopted from a circus, causes complications in her love life; in another story, with the very descriptive title "Aesthetic Displeasure Unearths Lack of Marital Fortitude," the main character makes a startling discovery while visiting an old friend at a rural retreat. The other stories in the collection are also full of weird and wonderful people and events, and all of them are engaging, funny and full of astute observations about human behavior and foibles. If you like Tom Perrotta or David Sedaris, give this a try.

This collection of black and white photographs was taken by the great photographer Jim Shaughnessy between 1946, when he was just 13 years old, and 1988, when he was well established as one of the premier railroad photographers in America. The pictures of trains show a variety of coal and diesel locomotives, lonely railroad crossings and bustling city roundhouses, railroad workers and passengers, and incidents like a derailed passenger train. The images are clear and crisp, and have a compelling and curious beauty; they depict everyday objects and people from a bygone era, giving them a gorgeous, almost mystical appearance, while revealing each scene’s intimate details. This book will be of particular interest to rail enthusiasts, but it is also a treat for those who appreciate the art of photography.

Anne Louise Germaine de Stael lived through perhaps the most tumultuous period in the history of France, and managed to retain her position and influence throughout, not an easy task when you consider the dangers she faced during the Revolution, the Terror, and the Napoleonic era. Born in 1766, Germaine was the daughter of Jacques Necker, the Minister of Finance for Louis XVI, a position of great power; from her birth she was a part of the most glittering circles of the court, and she possessed a prodigious intellect. She married a Swedish diplomat with whom she had three children, and continued her mother’s tradition of holding the most famous and respected salons in Switzerland and Paris; the greatest luminaries of the day were all in attendance at various times. She published novels and political treatises, making an enemy of Bonaparte, who exiled her when she dared to criticize him; she also championed a woman’s right to legal, economic and sexual freedom until her death in 1817. The author has written an erudite biography of one of the most fascinating women in European history, a woman who witnessed and participated in many of the most important events of the eighteenth century.

The forty children interviewed for this book range from age 6 to 16 and come from many different kinds of military families, all of whom have at least one parent who is serving, or who has served, in Iraq or Afghanistan. The children live in a variety of places, on military bases or in regular towns and cities, and they have different attitudes about the war; some support it, some oppose it, and others try not to think about it, as much as possible. All of them have important and interesting things to say about what it is like to live without a parent, either during a deployment, or forever, in the case of children whose parents who have died. The stories of these children are sometimes triumphant and happy, sometimes tragic and poignant, often even for the same child; this deeply affecting book illuminates the terrible human cost of war, and the amazing resilience of humanity, in ways that the reader will never forget.

There is perhaps no more divisive topic in present day America than the issue of race; with a newly elected African American President, it seem as if we have a golden opportunity to have an intelligent conversation about this highly charged subject, but somehow this has not happened (at least not yet). In Strange Fruit, Kenan Malik explores the concept of race as a social construct and as a biological reality, and finds that many of our most deeply held beliefs about race and about humanity are quite simply at odds with the facts. He considers the origins of our ideas about race, from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Movement, and from the scientific rationalism of Darwin to the twisted research of the Nazis, and on to current questions such as how race influences medical research and treatment, and asks the hard questions; what does race mean in a world where so many are multiracial, and how does it affect our sense of self and identity? The author is not afraid to broach controversial issues, and to offer ideas on how we can proceed. Provocative, well-researched, and lively and well-written, this book is recommended for anyone interested in current issues or history.

Dr. Reggie Lee has just been hired as a curator at the National Gallery in London, and her first assignment is an exhibition of Caravaggio’s St. Cecilia and the Angel, an altarpiece created in 1605, as well as two other copies of the work. A problem crops up when the curator of the Italian collection of the Louvre, the owning museum of one of the copies Reggie wants for the exhibit, refuses to allow the loan of the painting. Reggie goes to Paris to try and change his mind, but before she can get to him, he dies in an apparent suicide. All of this may be connected to a recent theft from the museum, but when yet another, previously unknown copy of the Caravaggio turns up, Reggie investigates; is the new copy a fake? If so, who is responsible, and how does it tie into the art thefts? Reggie must find the answers before she too becomes a victim of the killers. This is a very enjoyable debut mystery; it will definitely appeal to fans of Aaron Elkins’ Chris Norgren series, or the Jonathan Argyll series by Iain Pears.

This intriguing novel is narrated entirely through the blog of the main character. L.G. Fickel has a day job as an editor at a rather staid literary publishing house in Boston, but her real passion is noir, which she discusses on her blog, entitled “Life is Pulp.” Her readers are just as passionate about noir as she is, whether they agree with her or not, and they don’t hesitate to make their views known, pulling no punches along the way. Fickel shares almost everything on her blog, including a frightening real-life incident when she witnesses a man jumping in front of a commuter train. At first his death seems to be a suicide, but the police are not so sure; they begin looking at Fickel as a possible murder suspect when some of her blog posters uncover a previous connection between Fickel and the dead man, and speculate online as to what really happened. The blog format is a new twist on the traditional mystery format, and it adds a freshness and vibrancy to the story. Readers looking for something a bit new and different should try this one.

Barzak has written a deeply affecting novel in the form of a series of interconnected short stories, all of which are set in Japan. Characters appear and disappear in the different stories, sometimes appearing in major roles, sometimes staying in the background. In “If you can read this you’re too close,” a young man has a strange experience with a blind man while on the train; “Realer than you” deals with an American teenager who is homesick for his own country. In “The suicide club,” four people who feel marginalized in Japanese society find a new purpose together, and “Sleeping beauties” explores a woman’s grief at the death of her lover. All of the stories are beautifully written and very evocative of different facets of Japan, urban and rural, modern and ancient; they are like an intricate puzzle box whose design can only be seen when the puzzle is complete. Readers who enjoyed Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle or Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn will find this of interest.

The author, a former NFL player with the New York Giants football team, certainly knows whereof he writes in this debut novel about… an NFL player for the New York Giants. Dominic Fucillo is thirty, which is just about retirement age in the brutally youth oriented culture of professional sports; he is also recovering from a knee injury that may end his career. He sees the current season, in which the Giants are having an unexpected hot streak, as his ticket to sports immortality; if he can help his team win the Super Bowl, he can go out in a blaze of glory. Dom’s life is focused on the game; he is isolated from his family and friends, and keeps his teammates at arm’s length; the coach is obsessed with winning and cares little about the problems of the players, and drug use and corruption are rampant. This is a dark and gritty look at the world of professional athletes, but it is a compelling read, especially for those who are interested in the behind the scenes details of the NFL.

Belt was one of the first women photographers for National Geographic magazine, and this is a wonderful portfolio of her work. She documented places and events all over the world, from refugee camps in Southeast Asia to snowstorms in the Midwest, from survivors of Hurricane Katrina to survivors of war in Bosnia. Her photographs are absolutely stunning, but this book also includes terrific stories about how and when the photographs were made. Belt traveled all over the globe with loads of photographic equipment, and often with her husband and two children traveling along with her; she has many funny and interesting anecdotes about her adventures. This book will be appreciated by photography lovers, armchair travelers, and anyone who likes a good story.

This is one of those books that will have you laughing out loud at certain passages, making the person next to you ask “What’s so funny?” A compendium of disastrous attempts at matchmaking, it includes such catastrophes as Brenda Scott Royce’s mother’s insistence that TV producer Michael Gelman of the Regis and Kathie Lee show was the perfect match for her daughter, and she sent dozens of letters to the show to convince him her daughter was perfect for him. There is also the would-be actor who peppers each sentence with the word “totally,” the Dungeons and Dragons fanatic, and many more wacked-out contenders for worst date in the history of… well, EVER. Anyone who has ever been fixed up by a family member with less-than-impressive results will get a special kick out of this, but the hilarity will resonate with everyone. If you liked Carrie Fisher’s recent memoir Wishful Drinking this one will be right up your alley.

Wilderson grew up in a comfortable middle class family in Minneapolis; his was one of the few black families living in Kenwood in the fifties and sixties, and his family’s position insulated him from American racism of that era, at least to some extent. When he married a South African woman and returned with her to her homeland, he became involved with the African National Congress; Wilderson documented incidents of violence against blacks, becoming radicalized to the extent that Nelson Mandela declared him a threat to national security. Eventually, disillusioned with life in South Africa, he spilt from his wife and returned to the U.S., where he followed a rather meandering career path, becoming a stockbroker for a time, and later a writer and academic. This is a fascinating portrait of a turbulent and painful time in history, not so far removed from the present day; Wilderson’s brutally honest (and not always flattering) portrayal of the ANC is absolutely compelling. Readers who liked Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane or Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother will want to read this.

Sinatra is of course best known as one of the greatest singers of American popular music, but he was also a film actor who appeared in more than 70 movies from 1941 to 1995; his film work has generally garnered less respect than his music. His Hollywood resume included such undisputed classics From Here to Eternity, On the Town, and The Manchurian Candidate, but most of his other films are less well known, and many are, quite frankly, pretty terrible (Guys and Dolls or The Kissing Bandit, for example). Santopietro makes the case that Sinatra had real talent as an actor, but his already-huge fame as a singer defined and limited his onscreen persona, and his self-absorption did not serve him well, leading him to coast on his fame when he could have done so much more with his acting career. The author provides a great deal of interesting detail on Sinatra’s long and varied Hollywood career; this is essential for Sinatra fans, and will also be of interest to movie buffs.

The title of this terrific debut novel might turn some people off, but don’t let it make you miss a truly compelling read. It is set in the waning years of the corrupt and oppressive Marcos dictatorship, which is being propped up by the U.S. government to protect American interests in the Philippines. Dissident Doming Aquinaldo has been forced to abandon his university studies and now works as a driver for American diplomat Trace Caldwell and his wife Rue. Doming is secretly spying on Caldwell for the rebel movement trying to overthrow Marcos; however he develops an attachment to Rue, who is growing more and more uncomfortable with her husband’s support of the corruption and cruelty of the regime, and they fall in love, which creates complications for everyone. The world of Manila in the Marcos era is brilliantly recreated, from the smell of the food and heat of the tropics to the casually accepted violence of the government against dissenters and the unbelievable arrogance of the dictatorship. Readers who liked Richard Price’s Lush Life or Sujata Massey’s Rei Shimura series should definitely try this one.

Max Rydal of the Special Investigation Branch of the British Army is looking forward to some downtime with his family when a delicate situation comes to the attention of his superiors. It appears that Sam Collier, a pilot decorated for bravery in the Gulf War, is the target of a smear campaign. It starts with anonymous poison pen letters, but then escalates as Sam’s wife, Margot, is threatened. Max can hardly believe this is happening, as Sam and Margot has always appeared to be the golden couple, successful and happy; but in taking a closer look, Max discovers that all may not be as it seems in the Collier household. Meanwhile the unit doctor, Major Clarkson, is grappling with his own difficulties as he deals with an unfounded accusation against him; all of this puts the whole base in an uproar, making it difficult for Max to ferret out the truth. This is an absorbing mystery, with a military twist on the traditional police procedural; fans of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series or the Dalziel and Pascoe series by Reginald Hill will enjoy it.

Bridget Sweeney flees London with her young daughter, Yasmin, taking a job as caretaker at Rospetroc, the Cornwall estate of the Blakemore family, to escape the physical abuse of her ex-husband Kieran. It seems like a heaven-sent opportunity, until Bridget starts to notice odd things happening; footsteps are heard where no living person could have been, objects are mysteriously moved, and it appears that someone invisible is sleeping in the spare bed in Yasmin’s room. Bridget discovers that the locals believe the house is haunted; decades earlier, a nine-year-old girl named Lily disappeared under suspicious circumstances while staying at Rospetroc as a refugee from the Blitz. Now Yasmin is talking about her new friend Lily, and Bridget is frightened that what she thought was their haven may present as much danger to them as Kieran did. The mystery of what really happened to Lily, and Bridget and Yasmin’s peril, make for a taut and suspenseful read; fans of Elizabeth George will like it.

It’s hard to believe that this is the author’s debut novel; the writing is compelling and fresh, and the novel is populated with fully realized characters. Christophe and Joshua DeLisle are twins growing up in Bois Sauvage, a small town along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The twins have had a difficult life so far; abandoned by their mother and cared for by an ailing grandmother, they have few prospects in this economically depressed and somewhat backward place. Joshua manages to find work on the docks, but Christophe falls into the drug trade, supplementing the family’s income with profits from selling pot and eventually other, harder drugs. When the twins’ absent father shows up, a confrontation ensues that will change all of their lives forever. The Mississippi heat is almost palpable, and the wonderful dialog and descriptions are so vivid the images seem to rise off the page. This is an author to watch.

This new biography of one of the giants of cinema takes a slightly different approach than the usual narrative of achievements; the author, a professor of psychiatry, offers a psychological analysis of how Chaplin’s early life and family shaped his later work. Born in 1889 to a pair of vaudeville performers who could not care for him and his two siblings, Chaplin was sent to an orphanage at age seven. His father died of alcoholism and his mother of syphilis, after a long period of destitution and madness. Desperate to escape the poverty and hopelessness of his childhood, Chaplin found success as a vaudeville comedian, and was eventually discovered by Keystone Studios mogul Mack Sennett, who brought him to Hollywood, where he soon became the biggest film star of the era, and the most famous person in the world. Chaplin’s miserable childhood was part of the inspiration for his genius, especially the beloved “Little Tramp;” the author sheds light on how Chaplin transformed the tragic events of his life into inspired comedy. Readers interested in film history or who enjoy illuminating biographies will want to read this book.

Dolphins have been a source of fascination since the beginning of human history; they are featured in ancient legends and stories, and in modern times they are scrutinized for their complex social structure and methods of communication. The authors are scientists who have studied these beautiful animals for years, discovering how they live and interact with each other, and with other species (like humans). Individual dolphins seem to have distinct personalities, and dolphins as a group have a large “vocabulary” they use to communicate information and share their emotions. This interesting book provides a closer look at the mysterious world of these majestic creatures.

It might seem like a contradiction to create something as orderly as an encyclopedia about something as anarchic and anti-establishment as punk music, but Cogan succeeds admirably at documenting the history of the genre over the last 30 years. From well-known bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols to lesser known entities like Crass or The Vandals, Cogan provides an overview of the genre as a whole, along with entries on just about every band from the punk and hardcore scene, including many previously unavailable photos, often in color. If you remember the movies “Rock and Roll High School” or “The Decline of Western Civilization” fondly, or have ever wanted to go to (the now defunct) CBGB, this book is the next best thing. Read it and re-live your misspent youth.

This little book will provide hours of fun for kids and adults. It provides simple, easy-to-follow instructions for creating all kinds of paper crafts, including pop-up books and greeting cards, flip books to make your own tiny animated movies, and paper toys like the “Hexaflexagon” and Magic Wallet. The examples given are fun and whimsical, and can easily be adapted to allow each crafter’s own creativity and ideas to shine. If you are looking for something new, fun, and different to try, this book is just what you are looking for!

Julian Custer is enjoying a long-awaited holiday in the Scottish countryside when he happens upon the scene of an accident. Rushing to the burning car, he manages to save the young woman in the passenger seat, although not without suffering burns on his arms; but the driver, her brother, is dead. In the hospital, Julian discovers that the woman he’s saved, Delia Barrow, had just arrived from New Zealand with Ally, the brother killed in the crash, hoping to claim their inheritance, which is a farm near Inverness. As Julian is a solicitor, he offers to help Delia, who is without any friends or family or means of support, to try and obtain her legacy. The two of them grow closer as they try to settle Delia’s affairs, and discover that the crash was not an accident; their lives may be in danger as the killers try to finish the job. Hammond has created an entertaining yarn with engaging characters, and the reader gets a real sense of rural life in Scotland.

Lily Bartholomew enjoys the perks and privileges of her New York City upper-crust lifestyle; living in a lavish apartment, wearing designer clothes, attending swanky charity events and eating in the best restaurants is a heady experience for a middle-class girl from Nashville, Tennessee. However Lily’s fairy-tale marriage hits a speed bump when she gets pregnant unexpectedly, and her relationship with her husband Robert becomes strained when he can’t decide if he loves his mother (and the trust fund she uses to control him) more than his wife. Throw in Lily’s inability to lose the last few pounds of baby weight (a huge problem in a world where wearing anything larger than a size 2 is unthinkable) and you have a real crisis. Lily reinvents herself by writing a newspaper column on lifestyles of society’s elite; her honesty about the snobbishness and shallowness of the wealthy creates new problems until Lily figures out what really matters to her. Readers who liked Bergdorf Blondes or Sex and the City will get a kick out of this.

This entertaining mystery follows the story of Elena, Princess of Wales, who has had enough of the stultifying royal lifestyle, and has filed for divorce from her husband, Prince Edward. Her mother-in-law, Queen Catherine, wants to avoid scandal at any cost, including perhaps even the lives of Elena and her sons, 13-year-old Richard and 10-year-old Lawrence. When Elena’s divorce lawyer dies under rather suspicious circumstances, and then she and Lawrence are almost killed by an explosion, Elena realizes that she must look outside the royal family for assistance. She turns to a journalist, American Michael McLarrity, for protection and help, but there are those who believe the monarchy should be eliminated, and will stop at nothing to achieve that goal, including murder. Froetschel uses the bare bones of the story of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, to construct this engrossing mystery; readers who enjoyed Julie Kramer’s Stalking Susan or Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense books will like this one.

Linda Van Wyck left South Africa years ago to live in Australia, trying to escape both the repression of apartheid and difficulties with her family. Now she is returning for her father’s funeral, but after she arrives at the family’s orange farm she discovers that her father left a mystery; who really killed her younger brother Hannes, who was stabbed to death more than forty years ago? At the time, three black men were convicted of the crime, but there is evidence that their confession was coerced. Linda investigates, but encounters many difficulties; the murder happened a long time ago, and some would prefer to leave all of these matters buried in the past. The South African setting is beautifully recreated, with lovely descriptions of the landscape and people, and the author has written a thoughtful depiction of life under the terrible system of apartheid and in its aftermath.

Most cookbooks provide detailed instructions for exactly how to reproduce a particular dish, with precise measurements, cooking times, and techniques; this one brings out the cook’s creativity by letting you decide how to put everything together. The authors provide detailed information on how to create fabulous taste in any dish by mixing flavors together to achieve maximum deliciousness. The list of thousands of ingredients tells you how to cook just about anything, and what flavors work well together in different ways and in different seasons of the year. This book would be terrific both for very experienced and for beginning cooks; it will help them free their creative impulses, and concoct something truly spectacular in the kitchen.

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, the nation was a tinderbox waiting to explode. James Brown, probably the preeminent black entertainer at that moment, was scheduled to give a concert that night in Boston, but the mayor and other city officials feared that the show might encourage rioting and moved to cancel it. Brown fought back, arguing that the concert could be a chance for making a plea for calm, and he prevailed; the concert went on, opening with “Please please please,” which called on all Americans to follow Dr. King’s message of non-violence, self-respect, and tolerance. The concert was broadcast on live television, and unlike most other major U.S. cities, Boston did not erupt in violence that night. The author goes on to trace Brown’s career and involvement in politics, and discussing his powerful influence on the music industry. Fans of the Godfather of Soul will not want to miss this, but it will also be of interest to those interested in the sixties and the Civil Rights Movement.

Marco Polo’s epic journey from Venice across the Silk Road to the court of Kublai Khan in China and back, traveling more than 20 years and 30,000 miles, began in 1271. Along the way he and his party survived many hazards and saw many amazing things, which are recounted in Marco Polo’s book Il Milione, or The Travels of Marco Polo. Belliveau and O’Donnell retrace his route as closely as possible, crossing Central Asia by train, by jeep, by camel and other beasts of burden, and on foot, marveling at everything they see. They have many adventures and are often in danger, as this has always been a rather unstable area of the world; the book also has hundreds of gorgeous photographs of the people and landscapes on the journey. Armchair travelers, photographers, and historians alike will love this book.

In the tradition of such investigative journalists as Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair, who exposed the Standard Oil conspiracy and the atrocities of the meat packing industry, the author takes on Big Oil with no holds barred. The oil industry is the most profitable one in the world, and the ongoing machinations of the industry to avoid competition and regulation are scandalous; Juhasz asserts that Big Oil has wormed its way into the corridors of power, exerting tremendous influence on American economic and foreign policy, enriching itself at the expense of the American people, and destroying the environment. The author pulls no punches, providing detailed documentation and sources for her claims; this is a very readable and extremely sobering look at an industry that affects each one of us on a daily basis, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the current state of the U.S. economy and government.

This book is a sequel to the excellent The Fat Man’s Daughter from 2005, featuring antiques dealer Leah Kolbe and her fiancé Jonathan. The story begins in Hong Kong in 1937; the Japanese have invaded, and Leah barely escapes to the island of Macau, while Jonathan is left behind to fight the occupation. Leah arrives without any money, and goes to work for the British Consulate. Eventually she agrees to become the mistress of a Japanese weapons and steel industry tycoon, acting as a spy for the British. While living this dangerous double life and simply doing what she must to survive, Leah tries to discover what happened to Jonathan. The author skillfully creates the desperation and terror of living in wartime, and keeps the reader absorbed until the last page. Readers who like Eliot Pattison’s Shan Tao Yun mystery series or Invisible World by Stuart Cohen will like this.

Valdes-Rodriguez has come out with a sequel to 2003’s The Dirty Girls Social Club, the bestseller about six young Latinas, a tight-knit group of college friends who have stuck together after graduating. In this book, five years have passed, and the lives of the sucias (dirty girls) have changed, some for the better, and some not. Usnavys has a great job, a husband and a child, but she is bored and restless and jeopardizes her marriage with her cheating; Lauren struggles with bulimia and an unfaithful fiancé; Rebecca is dealing with infertility; Sara is now a successful cooking show host, but her past as a battered wife has come back to haunt her; Amber has become a pop star, but her fame is precarious; and Elizabeth worries that her desire to be a mother has soured her relationship with her lover. All of them have achieved some success and suffered some failures, and they will all have to face up to their problems; but they will do it together, and have a lot of fun while they’re at it. This is one of those chick-lit titles that is fun and frothy but also has three-dimensional characters and some interesting things to say about friendship and life. Anyone who read the first book should definitely pick this up; fans of Terry McMillan or Emily Giffen will enjoy it as well.

This is an intriguing historical novel set in Jacobean England, in the early years of the 17th century. The story follows Sarah, a widowed herbalist who has earned the enmity of Sam Ridley, a leader in her village; fleeing his revenge, she encounters Bill, a “sin-eater,” paid to eat food touched by the dying and thus take their sins into himself, allowing them to die in peace. The abuse he suffers as a result of this has nearly driven him mad, but Sarah believes she can heal him with her knowledge of herbal remedies. Later they meet Mary, a woman unhappily married to the man who holds her father’s debts. The intersection of their lives will lead to great troubles, but also opportunities for change in a world that offers little hope for the poor and downtrodden. Filled with fascinating historical detail, this is a novel that will reward a reader willing to try something a bit different.

The author sets the novel during the founding of Israel, beginning with the Zionist pioneers of the 1920s who went to Palestine hoping to create a new Jewish nation, and following on through the events of the war in 1973. Leon Abramowitz and his son Chaim come to Palestine in 1922, but find that the Promised Land is not the paradise they sought; despite this, Chaim learns to prosper in this new land, eventually amassing a fortune. Later others arrive, including disillusioned Zionist Yehezkel Klein, his son Schmuel, Russian expatriate Lev Gutkin, whose hatred of the Stalinist regime led him to Israel, and David Bonhopper, who tried to help people who have fallen through the cracks into poverty and despair. The complex narrative follows the characters lives through their country’s often violent and chaotic history, creating a nuanced picture of some of the most important events of the twentieth century; the novel is also a gripping story. Readers who liked Dara Horn’s The World to Come or The Book Thief by Markus Zusak will enjoy this book.

The name of Casanova has become a synonym for the sexually adventurous man, but the real Giacomo Casanova was so much more, as Ian Kelly reveals in this excellent biography. Born in Venice in 1725, Casanova intended to become a priest but was tossed out of the seminary; he then embarked on a series of amazing adventures that would take to all of the capitals of Europe and gain him entry to the most glittering courts of the era. An intimate of such luminaries as Voltaire, Madame de Pompadour and Catherine the Great of Russia, he was at various times in his life a musician, a diplomat, a merchant, a librarian, and a writer and translator; he amassed several fortunes, and lost huge sums of money as well. This fascinating puzzle of a man wrote his memoirs, which astonished, entertained and often outraged readers, and guaranteed his place in history; his life story is also an essential document of European history during a tumultuous and critical period of time. Kelly brings Casanova vividly to life.

Once a feared and respected lawman who kept order in the vast unsettled territory west of the Mississippi River before and during the Civil War, Jack Slade’s dismal fate is recorded in Mark Twain’s short story “Roughing It;” he was hanged by a band of vigilantes in Montana. The author delves into the true history of Slade’s life, and discovers that Twain didn’t get everything correct. Slade was almost single-handedly responsible for the security of the Overland Mail service in the West from Nebraska to California, making sure that stagecoaches and mail got to their destinations, and keeping the supply of California gold moving back east to enrich the federal government. Yet Slade was also an alcoholic who began later turned to crime himself, becoming a menace to the people he had formerly protected. Full of terrific period detail, this is an excellent book about one of the “lost” figures of Western history.

Those of us who have never gone mountain climbing, and perhaps have no desire to do so, will be fascinated by this history of mountaineers’ incursions into one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the Himalayas. Starting in the 1890s, adventurers (mostly from Europe and America) made their way to the region to explore and to attempt climbing the rugged peaks. Their equipment and knowledge was primitive by today’s standards, but the success they achieved despite this is astonishing. In addition to documenting the important people and expeditions over the last century, the authors talk about the political and social significance of mountain climbing; why do people choose to do this? For armchair adventurers, this is an exciting look at an insular and rarified world.

Coste had always dreamed of a career as a major-league ballplayer from his earliest years growing up in Fargo, North Dakota. He was an All-American at Concordia College in Moorhead, but this did not help him much in his quest to get to the big leagues; instead he spent the eleven years after college in the minors, moving from team to team as a catcher in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Ottawa, and Brainerd, among other places; he even played on teams in Mexico and Venezuela. All the while he refused to give up his dream of being called up to the big leagues, and his spirit and persistence earned him fans and admirers wherever he went. When he finally got the call from the Philadelphia Phillies in 2006, he was determined to make the most of his big chance, and he succeeded admirably; he eventually earned the nickname “Chris Clutch” for his ability to get hits in do-or-die situations. This is an entertaining and gripping story of perseverance and determination; Coste is personable and modest about his successes, the kind of guy you’d like to take out for a beer after the game.

Ramona Griffen was devastated by the sudden death of her husband two years ago, leaving her overwhelmed with grief and with two small children to raise while trying to finish her dissertation on linguistics. Leonardo da Vinci is a young Italian student in her ESL class; when he needs a place to live, Ramona lets him rent her husband’s old studio in the back yard. The young man’s enthusiasm and joy in living surprise her, and she begins to recover from her sorrow as they fall into a romantic relationship; then the arrival of another suitor, as well as the meddling of Ramona’s family in her life, makes things even more complicated. This novel is fresh and funny, and also a poignant examination of how grief affects us; readers who liked The Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg or Jane Green’s The Beach House will love this.

A terrific follow-up to The Ragtime Kid, this mystery, set in New York City in 1916, features Scott Joplin, the great composer. Dying from syphilis, afflicted with dementia and desperate for money to leave to his wife Lottie, Joplin goes to Irving Berlin to try to convince him to produce the musical he is writing, despite his belief that Berlin had cheated him in an earlier collaboration. After their meeting ends in disarray, Joplin is found standing over the body of one of Berlin’s employees. He proclaims his innocence, and his protégé Martin Niederhoffer enlists the help of Nell Stanley, another Joplin friend, to go undercover at Berlin’s firm and ferret out the truth. The New York City setting is vividly described, and the characters-both historical and fictional-are just as strongly realized. Fans of Larry Millett’s Sherlock Holmes American Chronicles should definitely try this series.

Sebastian Rolveden, called Seb, has an interesting life; he lives in England, in a lighthouse on the coast of Essex, and supports himself as a writer. When Seb comes into possession of the papers of his grandfather and namesake, he discovers that his grandfather may have been involved in the murder of celebrated artist Julian Rawbeck and the disappearance of one of his most notorious works, a painting called “The Ruffian on the Stair.” Seb and his girlfriend Leah are intrigued with this old mystery, and try to find out the truth while looking for the missing artwork; however it soon becomes obvious that although the crime occurred long ago, there are still those who do not want the truth revealed. This is an intelligent and absorbing mystery with an engaging main character; fans of Anne Perry or Elizabeth Peters will enjoy the Victorian atmosphere.

The latest short story collection from Bradbury contains both new stories and old favorites, all set in the Midwestern town of Green Town, Illinois, Bradbury’s fictional stand-in for his hometown of Waukegan. The twenty-seven stories here range from short vignettes (The River that Went to the Sea) to longer and more complex tales (Miss Bidwell), but they all have in common Bradbury’s lyrical writing, a gorgeous recreation of an entire world of color, movement, and sensation of summer in a small town. This collection should be savored and enjoyed by Bradbury’s fans and readers who love beautiful writing.

The remains of the city of Pompeii, destroyed by lava and ash flows in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, have been a rich treasure trove for scholars since its “discovery” by workers building a palace for the King of Naples in 1738. In the centuries following, the site has been carefully excavated, providing a wealth of information about life in the Roman Empire. The author takes us on a fascinating and entertaining tour of the archeological evidence, explaining what everyday life was like in that time and place, and how the denizens of Pompeii lived and died.

The Kent was a ship of the British East India Company, bound for India with more than 700 people aboard, including most of a military regiment and their wives and children, and a full load of cargo that included a large quantity of beer and spirits. Not far from England, in the Bay of Biscay, disaster struck; in the middle of a violent storm, fire broke out on board, moving toward the ship’s gunpowder magazine. By sheer luck, the Cambria, another vessel, happened upon the burning Kent and begin the extremely perilous rescue of the ship’s passengers and crew in very heavy seas, knowing that the Kent could explode at any moment. Amazingly, almost all were rescued, and the disaster had a huge impact on the British public; accounts of survivors and rescuers were published for years afterwards, and the Kent became a symbol of British courage and fortitude. This gripping account of the tragedy will be of great interest to nautical and history buffs, or anyone who likes a rousing adventure story.

The author is a Professor of English at Vermont’s Middlebury College, as well as a poet, novelist, biographer and literary critic; in this book he considers the tremendous influence of thirteen books, from Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford’s narrative of the history of the Pilgrim colony from 1620 to about 1650, to Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, the 1963 book that energized the feminist movement. Each of the titles is placed in historical context; some the author considers masterpieces, others he considers more important for their impact on American culture and society than for their literary merit. The selections are sometimes provocative, and always interesting. This would be an excellent choice for anyone who is interested in how books are important in everyday life.

Florenz Ziegfeld started life as the son of immigrants living in Chicago, and became one of the most powerful men in American theater, whose influence is still being felt even now. Ziegfeld had an uncanny knack for spotting properties and performers that would have broad appeal, and was a very shrewd businessman and promoter. He discovered such stars as Eddie Cantor, Fannie Brice, W.C. Fields, and Will Rogers, featuring them in elaborate musical revues that become the Ziegfeld Follies, and creating the Ziegfeld Girl, a chorus of beautiful women who performed in scandalous costumes. Ziegfeld was instrumental in creating the form of the Broadway musical as we know it today, i.e. a strong story enhanced with related songs, instead of a series of unrelated popular songs performed in a revue; Show Boat, first produced in 1927, was the first in a series of such shows. This lively biography brings to life the raucous origins of American musical theater and the fascinating life of one of its most innovative, successful, and influential people.

In the Dark is full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the last page. When Det. Sgt. Paul Hopwood of the London Metropolitan Police is killed by an out of control car during a gang initiation gone wrong, his pregnant girlfriend (and fellow police officer) Helen Weeks suspects that his death was not an accident. While going through his things, she discovers evidence of his relationship with shadowy crime boss Frank Linnell, and it begins to seem that Paul’s death is related to an ongoing internal affairs investigation. When the gang members involved in the fatal accident start turning up dead, Helen must figure out what’s going on before it’s too late. This gritty and action-packed thriller will appeal to fans of George Pelecanos or Richard Price.

Vincenzi’s sprawling saga, originally published in the U.K. in 1993, follows the life of wealthy society doyenne Lady Caroline Hunterton from the Second World War to the Sixties. During the War, Caroline falls in love with American fighter pilot Brendan FitzPatrick, bearing him a daughter; she believes he has abandoned her and gives the daughter, Fleur, up for adoption, and marries another man, with whom she eventually has three more children. Brendan returns unexpectedly, and when Caroline is unavailable, he decides to go back to America with Fleur. When Caroline’s second family learns about the existence of Fleur, turmoil and bitterness follow. Then, when celebrity gossip journalist Magnus Phillips writes a tell-all book about Caroline’s life, it threatens the very existence of both families. Readers who like Barbara Taylor Bradford or Anne Rivers Siddons should give Vincenzi a try.

This excellent novel follows the intertwined lives of three women over three generations and four decades. In 1953, Ruby’s young son George suffers an eye injury; wracked with guilt about the accident that caused it, Ruby feels that she deserves the anonymous letters that start arriving, blaming her for George’s predicament. Iris, George’s nurse, has fallen in love with Rob, a medical student, but her working-class background makes it difficult for her to gain acceptance in the world of Rob’s wealthy upper-class family. Years later, in 1995, highly successful eye surgeon Sylvia tries to reconstruct George’s surgery; however her personal life is in chaos, as she fears that she is unsuited to motherhood. The connections between all of these women are slowly revealed as we move back and forth across the years, until the intricate web of circumstances that bind them together is revealed. Readers who enjoyed Penelope Lively’s The Photograph or Jennifer Haigh’s Mrs. Kimble will find this a terrific read.

This intriguing debut novel follows a young Parisian woman in her obsessive quest for love. The unnamed young woman has a job as an announcer in the Gare du Nord, one of the city’s massive train stations; however her real preoccupation is with watching the man she loves, who is unfortunately involved with another woman. Feeling powerless to take control of her own life, she drifts along, filling her time with meaningless activities and chance sexual encounters, until an unexpected opportunity to be with her love makes her delve deeper into the reasons for her unhappiness. The City of Light is as much a character in the novel as any of the people who live there, and the emotional realism of the story is compelling. Readers who like Paul Auster or Ian McEwan will want to try this one.

Delta blues music has had tremendous influence on music all over the world, continuing on into the twenty-first century; the author, a jazz pianist and historian, has written an epic history of the creation of the blues tradition. From the earliest African roots music, to the minstrel shows and W.C. Handy, to the greats of the twenties and thirties (Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House) and the post-war era (Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King), and the rediscovery of classic blues in the later part of the twentieth century, Gioia covers everything thoroughly and well. This is a great introduction to a classic American art form.

In 1968, the members of the Apollo 8 mission to the moon were concentrating on their survey of the moon; however one of the crew’s photographs of the Earth rising above the surface of the moon were astonishing. They have now become iconic images of the planet on which we all live. When the photographs of the earthrise were transmitted back, they had a profound impact on nearly everyone who saw them, providing a spark that helped create the environmental movement, and making us ponder our place in the universe.

This newly updated history of the Marine Corps is a treat for anyone who likes military history. Beginning with the origins of marine forces back to ancient times, and covering the long and storied history of the U.S. Marines, it features a large and excellent array of photographs and illustrations, as well as a chapter on the Marines in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is authoritative and fascinating for history buffs.

For most people, running in the New York City Marathon is either an unattainable dream or a perplexing puzzle; why on earth would anyone want to do that? The answer, even for those who don’t understand the motivations of marathoners, can be found in these pages. New York Times writer Robbins has produced an exhilarating account of the 2007 marathon, a mile-by-mile account from the shifting perspectives of both the professional athletes and amateurs who compete, as well as the history of the race and the fascinating details of how such a huge and complex event is staged. Anyone who likes sports, or New York City, or just an interesting tale, will want to read this one.

Last week we had suggested fiction for summer reading, this week we look at nonfiction. This is a highly idiosyncratic list compiled by Ramsey County Library staff to enhance your summer reading enjoyment, just in time for hot weather and summer vacations.

From the cover: "On January 21, 1998, federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was kidnapped off the streets of Manhattan. This is the story of what happened next…" Amazing memoir, unbelievably riveting and wonderfully written, and impossible to put down.

Laugh-out-loud tales of growing up with big hair in a wacky family in New Jersey and Dunn's adventures interviewing celebrities for Rolling Stone.

Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating.

In this profoundly affecting memoir, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.

When the U.S. Marines -- or "jarheads" -- were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the first Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months, he was punished by boredom and fear, he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. And as engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.

This critically acclaimed memoir tells the story of the woman who piloted The Washington Post through the stormy times related to the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, and a pressmen's strike, managing to raise that newspaper to even greater heights. Written by one of the true insiders in Washington, Graham’s memoir is a fascinating look at the real lives of the wealthy and powerful.

After a 12-year absence, a real-life prodigal seeks to serve his hometown -- New Auburn, Wisconsin, population: 485 -- by joining the volunteer fire and rescue department. Perry's storytelling ability makes his account of his life as a small-town EMT come alive.

At the height of their fame, Alexander Liberman and Tatiana du Plessix Gray were the grandest power couple in the New York City fashion world, gifted Russian émigrés who consorted with Dali and Dietrich and told American women how to look, where to travel, and what to read. Their adulation for success was as obsessive as their fierce, neurotic love for each other, and they treated everyone else with ruthless opportunism. Long, detailed, and fascinating.

Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans 20 years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest to surgical wards to book parties in New York. It is about loyalty and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.

The Sterns talk about how they got started reviewing restaurants across the country, and their experiences doing so. Unpretentious and hilarious.

Based on a century's worth of diaries and letters, Tillyard tells a story of love and elopement, birth and death, revolution and treason, joy and tragedy. The Lennox sisters were great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians. Here are their shared experiences on private matters--food, clothes, books, houses, gardens, and children.

In 1944, a massive fire broke out at a circus in Hartford, Connecticut. Simply written and incredibly evocative, this book is a fascinating portrait of wartime America as well as of humanity.

When we hear the word "Victorian," we think of the usual stereotypes: stuffiness, corsets, tightly controlled emotions, and general uptightness. But what if everything we think we know about the Victorians is wrong? Matthew Sweet says we should look beyond the stereotypes and see the Victorians as pleasure lovers, not to mention the inventors of modern-day enjoyments such as movies, roller coasters, the shopping mall, and the lurid crime novel. This is a funny and fascinating look at a most important era of our history.

Wonderfully written, researched and documented and deeply personal book on the Hinckley fires, which killed more than 400 people and destroyed the town and much of the surrounding forest.

The author tells the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada. The perpetrator was Gilbert Joseph Bland, Jr., an enigmatic antiques dealer from South Florida, whose cross-country slash-and-dash operation had gone virtually undetected until he was caught in 1995-and was unmasked as the most prolific American map thief in history.

This creative Non-Fiction is an horrifying and gripping true story. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.

After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships; three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.

In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations, and the book showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.

From the winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary comes a new collection of Dave Barry's greatest hits. From coed softball to airline flights, no subject is sacred!

Anyone who ever sampled a thirst-quenching bacon milkshake or fondly recalls those days when meat loaf arrived at the dinner table molded into the shapes of farm animals will cherish this hilarious and gut-wrenching book. Kitchen cutup James Lileks has mined scores of Eisenhower-era cookbooks to retrieve pictures and recipes best left forgotten.

A collection of "how to" essays that the funny and very dry Browning wrote for the Guardian, filled with comic gems. Perfect for the beach.

With notepad and camera in hand, Eric scouted the highways and byways, lakes, streams, and rivers of Minnesota in search of the odd and the offbeat. He tracked down impossible-to-believe tales, only to discover odd grains of truth that will astonish-and sometimes creep out-even the most knowledgeable Minnesotan.

The monarch butterfly is our best-known and best-loved insect, and its annual migration over thousands of miles is an extraordinary natural phenomenon. The author set out late one summer to follow the monarchs south from their northernmost breeding ground in British Columbia. Chasing Monarchs tells the engrossing story of his adventurous journey with these graceful wanderers -- down the Columbia, Snake, Bear, and Colorado rivers, across the Bonneville Salt Flats, and through the Chiricahua Mountains to Mexico, returning north along the California coast.

Philip Gonzalez had lost all interest in living after an industrial accident left him disabled. A friend suggested he adopt a dog.Reluctantly he went to the shelter, where Ginny, a badly abused one-year-old pup,quickly won him over. Philip realized immediately that Ginny was no ordinary dog--she had an amazing sixth sense that enabled her to find and rescue stray and ailing cats.

While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote met a dog-a Labrador mix-who was living on his own in the wild. They became attached to each other, and Kerasote decided to name the dog Merle and bring him home. There, he realized that Merle’s native intelligence would be diminished by living exclusively in the human world. He put a dog door in his house so Merle could live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle’s Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine.

Natural history and fiction writer Quammen explores the psychological, mythic, and spiritual dimensions of the relationship between one flesh-eating animal and one human victim. He believes that relationship has played a crucial role in shaping the way people construe their place in the natural world. His sojourn ranges from old literature such as Beowulf and Gilgamesh, to the movie Alien Resurrection.

Set in New York's Central Park, in the spring of 1992, Red-tails in Love recounts the five-year story of a pair of red-tail hawks who built a nest on a high ledge of a building on Fifth Avenue. Marie Winn acts as a delightful guide, chronicling the exploits --hunting, fighting, courting, and mating--of the hawks and the awe of those who observed them.

Veteran journalist Lynn Sherr has been an avid giraffophile since she visited the African wilderness nearly 25 years ago Tall Blondes traces the cultural history of the giraffe from its first appearance in Europe in 46 B.C. through medieval bestiaries and up to the modern giraffe star of a TV movie, and much more.

Perfect if you are longing to escape the hot weather… This is an unforgettable study of the Far North, the marvelous and mysterious land of stunted forests and frozen seas, of muskox and narwhal, where sunrise and dusk are seasonal rather than daily phenomena.

In this highly acclaimed, bestselling memoir, a 38-year-old laid-off college professor of Sioux and white blood drives around the U.S. on the "blue highways, " the rural back made that are colored blue on old maps. The places he discovers during his 13,000-mile journey are unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and often full of simply the wonder of the ordinary.

After the success of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, author John Berendt searched for another city, another subject. He chose the island city of Venice. When he arrived in 1996, the city was almost smoldering in controversy; just three days before, La Fenice, its historic opera house, had gone up in flames, and this city of canals was awash in rumors and accusations about the fire's cause. As Berendt immersed himself in Venetian culture, he learned that secrets and quarrels were seldom far beneath the surface.

Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.

Any of Theroux’s books would make a terrific summer read, but this one is a classic for good reason. Asia's fabled trains -- the Orient Express, the Khyber Pass Local, the Frontier Mail, the Golden Arrow to Kuala Lumpur, the Mandalay Express, the Trans-Siberian Express -- are the stars of a journey that takes him on a loop eastbound from London's Victoria Station to Tokyo Central, then back from Japan on the Trans-Siberian. Brimming with Theroux's signature humor and wry observations, this engrossing chronicle is essential reading for both the ardent adventurer and the armchair traveler.

Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China's foremost martial arts teacher. Salzman is a terrific writer, and this is a compelling portrait of China.

These travel diaries capture the essence and exuberance of the young legend, Che Guevara. In January 1952, Che set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America on an ancient Norton motorcycle. He encounters an extraordinary range of people-from native Indians to copper miners, lepers and tourists-experiencing hardships and adventures that informed much of his later life.

The author realizes a lifelong dream as he navigates the waters of the Mississippi River in a spartan sixteen-foot motorboat, producing a masterpiece of contemporary American travel writing. In the course of his voyage, Raban records the mercurial caprices of the river and the astonishingly varied lives of the people who live along its banks. Witty, elegaic, and magnificently erudite, Old Glory is as filled with strong currents as the Mississippi itself.

Golden Prague seemed mostly gray when Patricia Hampl first went there in quest of her Czech heritage. In that bleak time, no one could have predicted the political upheaval awaiting Communist Europe and the city of Kafka and Rilke. Hampl's subsequent memoir, a brilliant evocation of Czech life under socialism, attained the stature of living history and has become a classic travel memoir.

At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world.

With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity.

It all began with a letter inquiring about second-hand books, written by Helene Hanff in New York, and posted to a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road in London. As Helene's sarcastic and witty letters are responded to by the stodgy and proper Frank Doel of 84, Charing Cross Road, a relationship blossoms into a warm, charming, feisty love affair. Absolutely wonderful.

In August 1914, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition-one of history's greatest epics of survival. This book is absolutely riveting, and the photographs are amazing.

This riveting book is about the investigation of the ghost stories-the instances of supernatural phenomena that could not be explained away-and itis about the courage and conviction of William James and his colleagues to study science with an open mind. At the heart of the story is the ongoing tension between empiricism and spiritualism-between a way of explaining the world that is grounded in the purely tangible and a way that is grounded in a mixture of the evident and the hidden.

The author explores how science has attempted to study our post-mortem fate. Roach traces early psychical research to current US investigations of near-death experiences and case studies by the International Centre for Survival and Reincarnation Researches. The title belies her desire to get scientific validation for free-floating consciousness.

At the center of Kidder's exciting moral adventure is Dr. Paul Farmer, a Harvard-trained physician who decided to take his expertise and kindness on the road. In his bright-eyed quest to cure the world, Farmer has battled AIDS and other infectious diseases in Haiti, Cuba, Russia, and Peru. Kidder's powerful narrative about a hero who believes that "God loves everyone but especially the poor" will inspire and challenge every reader.

Pollan turns modern food production and agricultural history into fascinating and thought provoking subject-matter.

This is a warm, funny and mostly true account of the first year that the author spent as a schools' inspector in North Yorkshire. His brilliantly portrayed cast ranges from endearing to eccentric, but it is the children themselves who steal the show. He has a delightful voice, and his anecdotes about children and teachers are amusing, wry, and perceptive. Think of him as the James Herriot of education. Other titles include Over Hill and Dale, Head Over Heels in the Dales, Up and Down in the Dales.

Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today. This is a terrific book, as are all of Petroski’s other books on the history of technology.

Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of salt") without appreciating their deeper meaning. However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his world- encompassing new book, salt-the only rock we eat-has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind.

This classic book is the moving account of two remarkable boys, brothers Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, struggling to survive in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes, a public housing complex disfigured by crime and neglect.

In honor of the arrival of real summer weather, here are some suggestions compiled by Ramsey County Library staff for good beach/vacation/cabin reading. This week, fiction: next week, nonfiction.

Allnut and Rose, a disreputable Cockney and an English spinster missionary, wend their way down a river in Central Africa in a rickety, asthmatic steam launch, and are gradually joined together in a mission of retaliation against the Germans.

This sprawling series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, follows the adventures of Royal Navy Captain Jack Aubrey and his close friend Stephen Maturin, a physician, naturalist, and spy who accompanies him on his voyages around the globe. The entire series is like a huge novel in many parts, with plenty of action and wonderful characters; O’Brian beautifully recreates the Age of Sail in this long and very satisfying adventure series.

Famous British agent Charlie Muffin goes undercover in the Russian Mafia to unravel a major smuggling operation involving nuclear weapons-grade uranium and plutonium. This author has also written a number of other exciting adventure titles.

Two Englishmen, a woman missionary, and an American fleeing the consequences of shady financial deals are traveling companions.

The setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are the days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes -- fire, flood, and landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kong -- the heart of Asia -- rich in every trade... money, flesh, opium, power.

When the U.S. Army breaks through the doors of an Incan temple to remove an idol carved out of a strange stone--a stone that could be used in a terrifying new weapon--they discover they have broken a golden rule.

Floating down the Mississippi on their raft, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, a runaway slave, find life filled with excitement and the spirit of adventure. Join Huck and Jim and their old friend Tom Sawyer as they come up against low-down thieves and murderers, whilst being chased by Huck's evil, drunken father who is after Huck's treasure. The classic American novel, and a terrific summer read.

Teenager Adam Cooper gets caught up in one of the pivotal events of American history, the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.

John Steinbeck draws on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, and interweaves their stories in this world where only the fittest survive-creating what is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works.

One of Dickens's best-loved and most personal novels, David Copperfield is the embodiment of Dickens's own boyhood experience recalling his employment as a child in a London warehouse.

In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess and soon finds herself in love with her employer who has a terrible secret. Jane Eyre is the classic gothic romance.

Kimball O’Hara grows up an orphan in the walled city of Lahore, India. Deeply devoted to an old Tibetan lama but involved in a secret mission for the British, Kim struggles to weave the strands of his life into a single pattern. Charged with action and suspense, yet profoundly spiritual, Kim vividly expresses the sounds and smells, colors and characters, opulence and squalor of complex, contradictory India under British rule.

Afflicted with a club foot, Philip Carey suffers through his life, struggling to free himself from a destructive love affair and finally finding contentment as a country doctor.

Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother.

Columnist chick has romantic troubles and hilarity ensues. Told completely through emails sent by and to gossip columnist Mel Fuller, this laugh-out-loud funny novel is an absolutely delightful read.

The ultimate chick lit book, the one that started it all… if you haven’t read this yet, you must do so immediately, it’s vvg.

An enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her spirited young daughter.

Stella Gibbons' novel is a wickedly funny portrait of British rural life in the 1930s. Flora, a recently orphaned socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm.

A discrete advertisement in The Times, addressed to "those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine," is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women.

Seamlessly blending fantasy and chick lit, this novel is about Texas girl who moves to NYC and gets a job with a company that creates magic spells. Endearing characters, hilarious situations, and despite the presence of magic and talking gargoyles and kissing frogs in Central Park, far more believable than most chick lit.

The story of 17-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in an English castle, I Capture the Castle is as brightly witty and adventuresome today as it was when it was first published 50 years ago.

This delightful comedy of manners and morals, money, marriage, and murder follows smart, sexy, and impeccably dressed American Isabel Walker as she lands in Paris to visit her stepsister Roxy, a poet whose marriage to an aristocratic French painter has assured her a coveted place in Parisian society...until her husband leaves her for the wife of an American lawyer. Could "le divorce" be far behind?

A dishy, trashy and thoroughly fun novel about a young girl who becomes a model in the 1980s, and balances her college life at Columbia University along with trying to succeed in the modeling world. Spot-on 80s references, thoroughly drawn characters and the soapy world of modeling make this a frothy treat, written by an actual ex-model.

An utterly delightful novel about Lyn, Gemma and Cat--triplets in various stages of matrimonial and romantic drama, as well as drama in their relationships with each other and their parents. Fabulously endearing characters, fabulous quotes about being a sister make this a must read.

44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales, Love Over Scotland). Follows the adventures of the somewhat eccentric denizens of an Edinburgh apartment building; these collections of short vignettes are really hilarious.

Tom Perrotta’s literary debut takes readers to New Jersey in the 1970s as a boy named Buddy struggles with the timeless mysteries of sex, death, parents-and of course, bad haircuts.

There are way too many individual titles in this hilarious fantasy series to list here (last time we checked there were 36 titles in the series), but if you are new to Pratchett’s wacky universe, you can start with The Colour of Magic and go on from there. The author makes fun of everything from Lord of the Rings to Wicca to clueless tourists, and just about anything else you can think of.

Hugh Laurie concocts an uproarious cocktail of comic zingers and over-the-top action in this irresistible tale of a former Scots Guard-turned-hired gun, a freelance soldier of fortune who also happens to be one heck of a nice guy.

A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the world ever.

The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to find out what's wrong.

This story about the 30-year friendship of two vaudeville comedians who make it big in the early days of Hollywood and television is touching, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny. Although as different offstage as on, straight man Mose Sharp and funny man Rocky Carter both struggle to overcome their demons and discover the essential value of male friendship.

The Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault (Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, Funeral Games) traces the life of Alexander the Great from boyhood through the building of the Macedonian Empire, and the years after his death when squabbling over his successor caused the empire to degenerate into chaos. A sublime recreation of the ancient world.

Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the magnificent story of four generations in the life of an American family. A wheelchair-bound retired historian embarks on a monumental quest: to come to know his grandparents, now long dead. The unfolding drama of the story of the American West sets the tone for Stegner's masterpiece.

From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

In addition to the beautiful language, this novel does a superb job of evoking time, place and the culture of our Midwestern immigrant heritage.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

Historian Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation's identity, but before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a passionate romance within the pages of the secret history that almost threw off the course of world events. How did the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly find a hero of her own? Chick lit and historical fiction are seamlessly blended in this fun novel.

On a spring day in 1865 Gawain Harper trudges toward his home in Cumberland, Mississippi, where three years earlier he had boarded a train carrying the latest enlistees in the Mississippi Infantry. Unmoved by the cause that motivated so many others, he had joined up only when Morgan Rhea's father told Gawain that he would never wed his beloved Morgan unless he did his part in the war effort. Upon his return, he discovers post-war life is far from what he expected.

Book one of Bartimaeus Trilogy - Great dialogue by one of the cheekiest djinni in literature. Serious and amusing at the same time.

With his best friend on life-support after taking drugs at a party, seventeen-year-old Clay, a medical technician, recalls their long friendship, future plans, and recent disagreement, and tries to figure out who is responsible for the accidental overdose.

This is a rollicking adventure story. While disguised as a boy, Jacky Faber experiences adventure and romance on the high seas in this exciting page turner.

Ten-year-old Comfort Snowberger learns about life's surprises in this funny, poignant, and very Southern coming-of-age story. This is a story that will stick with you long after you have read it.

Book one of Gemma Doyle Trilogy - a nice antedote to Jane Austen, shows the down side of a girl growing up in the rigid English upper class of the 19th century. Fantasy and magic, mistakes and terror abound!

Bobby Pendragon is a seemingly normal fourteen-year-old boy. He has a family, a home, and even Marley, his beloved dog. But there is something very special about Bobby. He is going to save the world…

One of those books that you can read over and over again at any stage in life and find more enjoyable each time you revisit it.

Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent in this fast-paced and often very funny novel.

For Jane Austen lovers, a great novel about what it would be like to have magic in 19th century Enland. Amusing!

On a chilly February day, two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence. Each will make a disastrous moral decision and their friendship will be tested to its limits in a novel brimming with surprises.

At once a moving evocation of life’s inexplicable calamities and a magical celebration of childhood and familial love, is the story of three generations of an Irish-American family through the eyes of its youngest members.

An intimate exploration of love and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II. For the five Novak children, the forties are a decade of tragedy, excitement and stunning change. Baker Towers is both a family saga and a love letter to our industrial past, to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation.

In this extraordinary fiction debut, two remarkable narratives converge on Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world. In 1913, Elsa Pendleton travels from England to Easter Island with her husband, an anthropologist sent by the Royal Geographical Society to study the colossal moai statues. Sixty years later, Dr. Greer Farraday, an American botanist, travels to Easter Island to research the island’s ancient pollen and to put back the pieces of her life after the death of her husband. A series of brilliant revelations brings to life the parallel quests of these two intrepid young women as they delve into the centuries-old mysteries of Easter Island.

Set in Kerala, India, in 1969, The God Of Small Things is the story of seven-year-old twins Rahel and Estha, born of a wealthy family and literally joined at the soul. Winner of the 1997 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Hedge-fund manager, wife, and mother of two, Kate Reddy manages to juggle nine currencies in five time zones and keep in step with the Teletubbies. But when she finds herself awake at 1:37 a.m. in a panic over the need to produce a homemade pie for her daughter’s school, she has to admit her life has become unrecognizable. Hilarious and moving, this book is so true to life it will keep you riveted until the very last word.

Don’t be put off by the title, which is an acronym for “Failed In London, Try Hong Kong.” Sir Edward Feathers has progressed from struggling young barrister to wealthy expatriate lawyer to distinguished retired judge, living out his last days in comfortable seclusion in Dorset. The engrossing and moving account of his life, from birth in colonial Malaya, to Wales, where he is sent as a "Raj orphan," to Oxford, his career and marriage, parallels much of the 20th century's torrid and twisted history.

This incredibly affecting novel is a coming-of-age story and initiation into loss in the guise of a sci-fi story about human cloning.

An intriguing tale about families, fiction, and what to do when life veers wildly off script; when fiction and reality blur, and the novelist finds herself caught somewhere in the middle of it all, where does it end?

A self-anointed spinster at fifty-one, Myra Lipinsky has endured the isolation of her middle life by doting on her dog, Frank, and immersing herself in her career as a visiting nurse. Myra considers herself reasonably content, until Chip Reardon, the too-good-to-be-true golden boy she adored from afar, is assigned to be her new patent.

On a quiet little block near Central Park, five lonely New Yorkers find one another, compelled to meet by their canine companions. Over the course of four seasons, they emerge from their apartments, in snow, rain, or glorious sunshine to make friends and sometimes fall in love. A love letter to a city full of surprises, The New Yorkers is an enchanting comedy of manners (with dogs!).

Full of mischief, insight, and pathos, Kesey's powerful story of a mental ward and its inhabitants probes the meaning of madness, often turning conventional notions of sanity and insanity on their heads.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. This was made into a classic film noir with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.

When two young women in France of 1790 discover the Montglane Chess Service in Montglane Abbey, their Abbess recognizes its mystic ability to provide anyone playing it with unlimited power and desperately scatter its pieces around the world. But in 1972, computer expert Catherine "Cat" Velis is hired to recover the chess pieces--and is caught up in a nefarious, globe-spanning conspiracy.

Newspaper reporter Irene Kelly and her homicide detective husband Frank Harriman make a great murder-solving team in Southern California. The first book is Goodnight Irene.

Set in late Victorian England, this excellent series features Anglo-Irish aristocrat Lord Francis Powerscourt and a wonderful cast of supporting characters. The books are full of historical information and period detail, but are never dull or preachy; everything is there for a good reason, and the depth and breadth of the author’s knowledge is amazing. They are also cracking good mysteries. The first book is Goodnight Sweet Prince, followed by six additional titles (so far).

In 1929, intrepid Maisie Dobbs defies convention to start her own London detective agency in this excellent series.

One of the first English detective novels, this mystery involves the disappearance of a valuable diamond, originally stolen from a Hindu idol, given to a young woman on her eighteenth birthday, and then stolen again. The author’s novel The Woman in White is also a terrific mystery.

The entire Lord Peter Wimsey series is terrific, but this one is a standout, with a hilarious take on the advertising industry that still rings true more than 70 years after it was originally published.

This terrific series is set in Botswana. The No.1 Ladies´ Detective Agency consists of one woman, the engaging Precious Ramotswe. A cross between Kinsey Millhone and Miss Marple, this unlikely heroine specializes in missing husbands, wayward daughters, con men and imposters.

In this extraordinary tale -- which preceded The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Harris introduced the unforgettable character Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And in it, Will Graham -- the FBI man who hunted Lecter down -- risks his sanity and his life to duel a killer called... The Red Dragon.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.

A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Dr. David Beck is taunted with the impossible -- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

In the Nazi-occupied city of Prague during the last days of World War II, Baroness Elisabeth of Pomerania -- the widow of a German Wehrmacht general -- is found horrifically murdered, her body ritually mutilated, her heart removed. Is her murder a demented political act by a Czech nationalist or the work of a sadistic serial killer? As Allied forces converge on the war-torn city, rookie Czech detective Jan Morava and Gestapo agent Erwin Buback are assigned to find out, before the killer uses the mounting political turmoil to strike again.

and the other novels in Le Guin's Earthsea sequence (The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, et al.) -- is one of the most deeply influential fantasy series ever published. Enchanting, lyrical, and almost subliminally profound, this novel is a must-read for fantasy fans of all ages. Long before Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School were ever conceived by J. K. Rowling, there was Le Guin's Ged and the school for wizards on Roke Island.

A doomed lord, an emergent hero, and a dazzling array of bizarre creatures inhabit the magical world of the Gormenghast novels which, along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, reign as one of the undisputed fantasy classics of all time. At the center of it all is the seventy-seventh Earl, Titus Groan, who stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Gormenghast Castle and its kingdom, unless the conniving Steerpike, who is determined to rise above his menial position and control the House of Groan, has his way. The trilogy includes Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone.

In the debut title of the series, Her Majesty’s Dragon, aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. The series continues with Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, and the forthcoming Victory of Eagles.

The author leads us back to 1870s London, where Sugar, a nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, yearns for escape into a better life. Her ascent through the strata of Victorian society offers us intimacy with a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters. This is one of those novels that makes you lose yourself completely in the story; it is absolutely compelling and wonderful.

Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California.

With utter authority and aplomb, Jane Smiley’s seventh novel opens up the world of horse racing as never before; it takes us on a circuit from Del Mar to Saratoga and back again, bringing to life the owners, the trainers, and (most humorously) the horses themselves.

Set in early-19th-century England, Clarke's novel introduces readers to a group of magicians from whom the "magic" has departed. Enter Mr. Norrell, a misanthropic, book-hoarding magician who takes up a challenge to prove that magic still exists.

After Mr. Norrell succeeds at his ambitious endeavor, he takes on a pupil, the charismatic Jonathan Strange, and together they begin to restore the sorry state of English magic. But a rift opens between these two allies, leading them to turn their magic on each other, and a darker, more sinister magic begins to reveal itself.

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia--a racially mixed late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth, avid speculators, and worldly-wise politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur turned conglomerate king, whose expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality.

Set in London and Cornwall from World War II to present, The Shell Seekers tells the story of the Keeling family, and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations. The sequel September is also very good, and she has written lots of other long family sagas that are excellent as well.

Nicky Rigopoulos seems to have the luck of the devil; his career as a personal injury attorney in Syracuse, New York, is successful despite his dubious practice of settling claims for his clients at pennies on the dollar and using the money he makes to finance his campaign for state court judge. His personal life is Byzantine as well, due to his many dalliances with women like Lilly Longacre, who is married to the chief of the local Democratic Party that endorsed Nicky’s bid for a judgeship. When Nicky’s law partner (who was also his campaign manager) is brutally murdered, the police focus on him as the main suspect in the case, and things get even more complicated when Nicky’s estranged ex-wife is also killed; this second murder only makes the cops even more certain that Nicky is their man. Determined to keep his troubled campaign afloat and clear his name, Nicky investigates on his own; the trail leads him from a trailer park to a casino to the inner sanctums of the movers and shakers, and the action never stops as the mystery builds to its conclusion. This is a fun and fast-paced mystery with an anti-hero the reader can’t help but like, and lots of plot twists which are somehow all neatly resolved by the end of the story; readers who like John Grisham or Lisa Scottoline will want to try this one.

Jacob Logan fled the small North Carolina town of Mayfield for the big city of Boston years ago, and built a life there for himself. But now his business has failed, and he is still dealing with unresolved issues from his parents’ deaths; Jacob decides to return to Mayfield and the house he grew up in to regroup and figure out his next move. After his arrival, a series of odd events occurs; his belongings are destroyed in a freak accident, his car is stolen, and the strange taciturn caretaker takes a dislike to him. Then there is the mystery of the fireflies, which appear everywhere in town except on Jacob’s property. The author has written a very subtle and effective ghost story, with a terrific depiction of a small Southern town; this is one of those books that you will want to stay up to finish, keeping all of the lights turned on. If you enjoyed Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca or The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes, this one will send a cold chill up your spine.

The unnamed ginseng hunter of the title is a Chinese man who lives near the border with North Korea and makes his living gathering the valuable ginseng root; he lives a simple, quiet life, with little interest in the turmoil of the larger world around him. With no family, his only regular human contact is with the prostitutes of Miss Wong’s bordello in the city of Yanji, which he visits once a month when he needs supplies. When a North Korean prostitute who has lived through a terrible ordeal tells him her story, it changes his insular world forever, forcing him to confront the growing violence all around him; he must decide whether to engage the rest of the world, or try to continue hiding as he has been doing all of his life. The author has written an evocative and atmospheric novel about a place most of us will never see, and has created a setting and characters so vivid the reader will feel as though they are there watching as the story unfolds. This novel is highly recommended for readers who enjoyed Tessa Bridal’s The Tree of Red Stars or Waiting by Ha Jin.

There is perhaps no family in America more written about, or more mythologized, than the Kennedys; in this novel, the author takes a new approach, using Nora Brennan, an Irish nanny for the nine Kennedy children, as the narrator. The story begins in 1917 when Nora takes a job with a young (and growing) Kennedy family, little realizing that this will place her near center stage for some of the most important moments in American history over the next few decades. Nora observes Joe Kennedy teaching the Kennedy boys that money will get them anything they want, including political office, and his wife Rose grooms the girls to be good Catholic wives. Nora loves all of the children, but has a special affection for Rosemary, whose learning disabilities made her lag behind the rest of her high-achieving siblings. On the eve of World War II, Nora makes a decision that will affect her life-and the lives of her charges-forever. This intriguing and well-written tale takes the reader behind the scenes of America’s most famous and tragic family.

In 2004, former Marine captain Brian Steidle went to Sudan as an observer for the African Union; his job was to help monitor conditions under a ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and various rebel factions. When he arrived, he knew very little about the region, its people, or the history of the conflict, but he quickly realized that the situation was extremely perilous. Steidle watched, sickened, as Arab Muslims called “Janjaweed,” inflicted horrific violence on Black Muslims in the name of ethnic cleansing; they raped, tortured, and killed thousands, looted and burned villages and towns, and drove people from their homes, forcing them into refugee camps. All of this happened with the complicity of the Sudanese government, which provided money and weapons to the Janjaweed, and it happened despite the presence of neutral observers; as of September 2006, the United Nations estimated that more than 400,000 people had been killed, and more than two million had been forced to flee the country. Outraged at the A.U. forces’ inability to act to prevent the violence, and at the continuing indifference of the United Nations and the rest of the world community, Steidle decided to document what he saw in photographs and in his own words, and this harrowing memoir is the result. This is a terrifying eyewitness account of the horrors of genocide, and it will haunt you long after you finish reading it.

The memoir genre has become crowded with entries in the last decade or so, which makes a powerful memoir such as this a real find. The author grew up in Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s, experiencing what seemed like an idyllic childhood from the outside; what outsiders were not allowed to see was the alcoholism and physical and sexual abuse that marred his parents’ relationships with each other and with their son. Goolrick recounts the lavish cocktail parties given by his college professor father and housewife mother, and the rigid code of secrecy upholding the fiction of Southern gentlemen and ladies that forced him to deny the terrible wrongs his father inflicted on the family. Although the dysfunctional family is a staple of Southern Gothic, the author’s searing honesty and witty prose create a profoundly moving account of his life; this memoir will remain in the reader’s memory long after the final page has been read and the book put away. Readers who devoured Meredith Hall’s Without a Map or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers will find this just as deeply affecting.

Although warnings about humanity’s impact in the world’s climate have been around for at least two decades, it seems that this message has really entered into the mainstream in the last two to three years; “green” products are everywhere, and discussion of global warming or climate change have been omnipresent in the media, even in the current presidential election campaigns. It truly is a “hot topic,” and with so much information (and misinformation) out there to overwhelm and confuse us, the authors of this book provide a primer on what global warming is, how it is believed to be happening, and why we should care about it, as well as offering recommendations on how to ameliorate the situation, for society as a whole and for individuals who want to do their part. For anyone who wants a comprehensive and comprehensible book on global warming and how we can solve its problems, this is an excellent overview.

In 1984, the NBA was fighting to change the perception that it was a second-rate professional sports organization; NBA teams were doing well, but pro basketball was nowhere near as popular as it is today. The 1984 draft roster included such amazing talents as Michael Jordan, Akeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton, all of whom eventually entered the Hall of Fame. Astonishingly, the Portland Trailblazers used their number two draft pick to select Sam Bowie, passing on future superstar Michael Jordan; he went on to become a legend with the Chicago Bulls, leading the team to six NBA championships in the 1990s. Before the draft, teams would intentionally lose games to improve their draft position; after the 1984 draft, the system was changed to a lottery to prevent this kind of chicanery. The superstardom of players like Jordan, Olajuwan and Barkley changed the stakes, boosting the NBA to its current height of popularity and creating a culture where players could become multimillionaires overnight, with huge salaries and endorsement deals. Bondy analyzes why the draft happened as it did, the fallout, and the long term impact on the NBA and the sport in this entertaining and engrossing book; anyone who is interested in hoops or wants to learn about the inner workings of American professional sports will enjoy this.

Monica is an attorney at Steel Associates, the most exclusive law firm in Beverly Hills, specializing in high-profile Hollywood divorces. Her job requires her to be an attorney, a marriage counselor, a referee, and a celebrity minder in various combinations, and sometimes all of those things at the same time. Her latest high profile case is the breakup of Cameron and Lydia Johnson, the It-couple known in the tabloids under the rather unfortunate sobriquet “Camydia,” and the scandal is causing a media sensation. Monica must handle her clients’ antics, keeping a lid on the media coverage as much as possible, while fending off attempt by her office rival to sabotage her career and steal a coveted promotion. As if all this were not enough, Monica’s fiancé Raj, who is in London on a work assignment, has been ignoring her messages, which makes her suspicious, but she doesn’t have the time or energy to worry about it. The author has created a very engaging character in Monica, and the sendup of the celebrity world is fun and frothy; readers who liked Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada or The Chocolate Lovers Club by Carole Matthews will get a kick out of this one.

Russell Fink has issues; he still lives with his parents at twenty-six, he hates his job as a copier salesman, and he feels trapped in an engagement to a woman he doesn’t love. Russell is also still weighed down with guilt and grief at the death of his twin sister Katie, who died of leukemia when they were nine, and his relationships with his parents and his older brother Peter are not exactly like the Cleaver family. His best friend is his basset hound, Sonny, who Russell believes is clairvoyant; when Sonny is poisoned, it send Russell into a tailspin as he tries to find out who killed his dog. There is a lot going on in this novel as Russell tried to navigate the hazards of his daily existence while figuring out what he really wants to be doing with his life, and who he wants to be doing it with; but the author writes memorable characters and amusing dialogue, and it all keeps the reader riveted until the last page. It’s like a cross between Nick Hornby and Jan Karon, which sounds strange, but it works.

This is the first book in a planned series of mysteries featuring German history professor Josef Stachelmann, and it’s a fantastic beginning. The professor’s specialty is the history of the Nazi era, and this expertise comes in very handy when his friend Oskar Winter, chief of the Hamburg homicide unit, investigates the deaths of the wife and children of Maximilian Holler, a prominent local businessman. They were each murdered in separate incidents going back over several years, and the latest death has made it clear that someone is targeting Holler. Stachelmann digs into the past to try to discover the motive for these crimes, and uncovers evidence that Holler’s saintly image may be obscuring dark secrets. Holler’s family was involved in a scheme to acquire the property of Jews persecuted under the Nazi Regime at bargain prices, and the murders may be payback; however there are other possible explanations as well. The situation gets even more complicated when Stachelmann discovers that his own father may have been involved in the scheme, and he is endangered by his relentless seeking of the truth. This is a gripping thriller with a compelling mystery, but it is also a sensitive and forthright treatment of Germany’s struggle to deal with the terrible facts of its Nazi past. Readers who enjoyed the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri or Cara Black’s Aimée Leduc mysteries will love this.

Jamilet Juárez was born in a small Mexican village; conceived when her mother was raped, the large red birthmark covering her back and legs makes her even more of an outcast. When her Aunt Carmen invites Jamilet to come to Los Angeles to live, she jumps at the chance to escape; she hopes that she will be able to save enough money to pay a doctor to remove the birthmark that has caused her so much pain. Using forged papers, Jamilet gets a job in a psychiatric hospital. When Senor Peregrino, a cantankerous elderly patient, hides her papers, he says he will only return them if Jamilet will agree to listen to his life story. He tells her about his fateful pilgrimage to the Spanish Cathedral of Santiago as a youth, how he met-and lost-the love of his life, and then left his native country to emigrate to America. When he finally discovered the truth about his long-lost love, it changed his life forever. Jamilet has also fallen in love, but she fears she cannot truly reveal herself-scars, secrets and all-to the man she loves. The two outcasts build a strong relationship as each of them copes with their burdens. The novel deftly explores how small misunderstandings and misdirections can have a tremendous impact on the course of a life. Readers who enjoyed Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto or Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel will appreciate this book.

On the afternoon of Easter Sunday, 1873, one of the pivotal events in post-Civil War American history occurred in the small Louisiana town of Colfax; the fact that most Americans have never heard of this incident may be changed by this powerful book. In the years after the end of the war, the South was in turmoil; the economic, political and social costs of the war had been staggering, and racial bitterness and hatred had come to a boil. African Americans tried to assert their rights to vote and hold elected office, but white supremacists and groups such as the Klan were not about to let that happen. After Republicans (some of them African American) were elected to various positions in a hotly contested election in 1872, a group of African American freedmen occupied the courthouse to prevent whites from taking over. A group of ex-Confederate soldiers attacked, killing more than 100 of the freedmen. The ensuing criminal case against the white attackers went on for years, ending up in the Supreme Court largely due to the persistence of U.S. Attorney James Beckwith, who did not want them to get away with these murders. The subsequent decision of the Court set the course of government policy until the Civil Rights Era of the 1950’s and 1960s; the federal government did not try to enforce the rights of African Americans again until nearly a century later. This fascinating book tells the riveting story shameful event in American history, ensuring that the truth will not be buried again; readers who are interested in social history or civil rights will want to read this.

Now that election season is ramping up to a feverish pitch, this book is very timely. Minow was Chairman of the F.C.C under John F. Kennedy, and has been involved with the presidential debates for years, most recently as vice chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-profit organization that has set up the debates each election year since 1987, after the League of Women Voters ended their sponsorship. The debates have been the target of much criticism in the last few years for barring candidates other than Republicans or Democrats (Ralph Nader in 2000, for example), for prohibiting questions from the voting public, and for allowing candidates to present canned speeches as responses to the pre-selected questions. Many voters and members of the media feel that the debates have become simply a public relations show, and this book addresses that issue, as well as offering some ideas on how the structure of the debates might be improved to make them more relevant. Whatever your views on the debates or the candidates, this is an interesting perspective from an author who has exhaustive (and often personal) knowledge of the debates’ history; this book is important reading in this election year.

Albert Einstein is well known as one of the most influential and highly regarded scientists in all of human history, whose work has dramatically changed not only the science of physics, but the course of daily life for the entire planet. His image is instantly recognizable around the world, and every high school student learns about the Theory of Relativity in science class. Despite this, many people have little true understanding of what Einstein’s work actually means, and why it is so important. Hawking sets out to rectify this by letting Einstein’s own words explain his revolutionary ideas, adding additional explanation and background as needed. In addition to Einstein’s work on the Theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics, his essays on political, religious, and philosophical topics are also included, which makes this an essential compendium of the work of perhaps the most brilliant and influential scientist of all time. This book is highly recommended for anyone who is curious about the nature of the universe, and wants to understand how scientists explain its workings.

After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, chaos reigned as various factions fought to gain control over the country; warlords controlled their own territories, and groups of mujahideen (“Holy warriors” who had fought the Soviets) competed for power and influence. In 1994 one group of mujahideen called the Taliban became pre-eminent after a successful assault on Kandahar, and they consolidated their rule in 1996 by taking over the city of Kabul. The Taliban were seen by many as providing much-needed stability after a long period of fighting and political and social disarray, but their strict interpretation of Islamic Law was seen by many others as extremely oppressive and totalitarian, particularly in their treatment of women. For many Americans, the Taliban were not in the forefront of awareness until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, after which the Taliban were accused of harboring and assisting the terrorists, which led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and their removal from power. This collection of thoughtful and well-researched essays from leading scholars of the region offers an excellent analysis of the history, influence, and impact of the Taliban, on Afghanistan and on the rest of the world; an overview of the country’s history is also included, which helps place the essays in context. This is a vitally important resource for anyone seeking to understand the origins of the conflict in which we are currently embroiled.

This intriguing mystery novel is set in Hungary in the 1950s, during the period of Soviet control of the country. The Hungarian people, still suffering from the deprivations of World War II, did not easily accept Soviet domination, and in 1956 the Hungarian Revolution attempted to reassert native rule; the Soviets retaliated with a massive military offensive, crushing resistance and effectively sealing the country’s borders. The story begins when Lieutenant Marosi of the Hungarian Border Patrol is shocked and saddened to learn that Eva Szalánczky, an outspoken journalist and critic of the regime and the woman he has loved since they were both children, has been killed while attempting to cross the border illegally. Marosi is determined to find out why Eva chose this fatal course of action, when she could have come to him for help in escaping; he delves into her life, speaking to her friends and associates in Budapest, and discovers that there was a great deal he did not know about his childhood love. The Hungarian setting and political intrigue are fresh and beautifully written, and the story is suspenseful, with thoughtfully created and fully realized characters. Readers who enjoyed Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko series or the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell will like this one.

For much of her life, Liza Donovan has had curiously vivid dreams of people living in a 19th century whaling community. When her Aunt Kitty invites Liza and her friend Jane to spend her summer break from graduate school on Nantucket, Liza is eager to go; she wants to see for herself if her strange dreams have any basis in historical reality, or if it is all just a fantasy she has created in her mind. Upon arriving, Liza is astonished to discover that the whaling captain she has been dreaming about, Obadiah Young, was a real person, as was his wife Lucy, whom Obadiah was accused of murdering. Liza enlists the help of Adam Gallagher, the handsome curator of the local whaling museum, to find out more about these people and their lives; he is skeptical about her dreams, but is drawn to her, and they begin dating. To further complicate matters, Aunt Kitty’s godson Lucian, who is living at her estate, is also interested in Liza. She must decipher the meaning of her dreams, and discover what really happened between Obadiah and Lucy more than a century and a half earlier. This romantic suspense novel is engrossing and well-written; the paranormal element of Liza’s dreams adds an intriguing bit of mystery to the story. Readers who like Mary Stewart or Stephanie Meyer will enjoy reading Brallier’s latest book.

The seventh entry in the wonderful Lord Francis Powerscourt series is a delight. In this outing, Powerscourt and his wife Lady Lucy have returned to his Irish homeland; they have been asked to investigate the theft of several ancestral portraits from the stately homes of members of the Anglo Irish aristocracy, a bit of a change of pace from some of Powerscourt’s past cases involving murder, mayhem and political upheaval. Although Irish nationalists have plotted for years to rid themselves of the Anglo-Irish presence and restore Catholic rule, no one seems to take the art theft for anything more than a prank. However Powerscourt believes that there may be something more sinister happening; it may be related to the construction of a new chapel on Croagh Patrick, the sacred mountain where St. Patrick fasted for forty days. When a murder is discovered, Powerscourt must go into action, as he struggles with his own ambivalence toward the Irish question. This series is witty, charming, and highly literate; each book is full of fascinating detail about the politics, personalities, art and culture of the late Victorian and early Edwardian years, and Powerscourt and his family and friends are very appealing.

The author sets this novel in a remote Canadian radio station in 1975, in the time when the era of radio was ending and the primacy of television was beginning. Nearly everyone who works at the CBC Radio station in the remote city of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories is running from something: Dido Paris, the news anchor, ended her marriage after her affair with her father-in-law was discovered; announcer Harry Boyd was fired from his television job in Toronto; receptionist Eleanor has had an unhappy personal life; and Eddy, the sound engineer, has a vaguely mysterious and somewhat unsavory past as well. Into this group of mostly unwilling transplants comes ambitious Gwen Symon, who has come to do an internship at the station. At the same time all of this is happening, controversy is growing over whether a proposed petroleum pipeline should be built across the nearly untouched Canadian wilderness; this would bring economic benefits, but would destroy sacred Native lands and wildlife habitat, and bring great changes to the region, something not everyone wants to see happen. Several of the denizens of the radio station decide to go on a canoe trip together, following the route of ill-fated explorer John Hornby, who perished on an exploration trip in 1927. This is one of those novels in which nothing terribly dramatic happens; it’s a lovely, poignant tale of ordinary people living ordinary lives, with gorgeous prose and terrific dialogue. You will want to keep reading just to spend some more time in the writer’s company. If you like Louise Erdrich or Carol Shields, this book will appeal to you.

The term “carnivorous plants” seems almost like an oxymoron; how could plants turn the tables on the members of the animal kingdom, consuming them as a lion consumes its prey? Nevertheless these plants do exist and thrive, and this book is a fascinating introduction to these “flowers of evil.” There are more than 600 varieties of these plants, and they are found in locations all around the world, from the bogs of the Pacific Northwest, to the fast-flowing streams of Amazonia, to rock outcroppings in the Ivory Coast of Africa, to the steppes of Siberia. They have a variety of mechanisms for trapping their prey, from pitcher-shaped blossoms to sticky leaves and “snap traps” like that of the Venus flytrap, all designed to catch animals from single-celled organisms to unwary insects. The book also explains how to cultivate the various species, in case you are bored with African violets or ferns.

Knize has had a successful career as a journalist writing about environmental policy, but when she was 43, she suddenly became obsessed with a new passion; becoming a pianist. The author came from a home where music was very important-her father was a professional musician, and she had studied piano as a child-but somehow along the way to adulthood she laid aside her musical ambitions. Now in middle age, she began taking piano lessons, and then realized that she had to buy a piano of her own. Her quest for the perfect instrument takes her to dozens of piano stores and warehouses; from Yamahas to Steinways, nothing was quite right until Knize found a Grotrian-Steinweg grand piano that seemed to speak directly to her soul. Desperate to possess this paragon of pianos, she took out a second mortgage and had the piano (which she named Marlene) shipped to her home in Missoula, Montana; unfortunately, the journey was hard on Marlene, and the piano’s glorious sound had been deadened, something that can happen when such a delicate instrument is shipped over a long distance. Knize sought professional help from piano technicians, and even from the Grotrian factory in Germany. If all of this sounds a bit obsessive, it is, but readers will find themselves deeply involved with the author’s quest to find and then “heal” this piano with which she feels an almost mystical connection. This book is a wonderful digression into the complex world of the piano; if you enjoyed The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thaddeus Carhart or Piano Lessons by Noah Adams, or just like well-written nonfiction, this is an excellent choice.

Jack Kirby was a giant in the comics industry; he was instrumental in creating some of the greatest comics heroes of all time, including the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Captain America, and many others. Kirby’s comics art was innovative, exciting, and highly influential; he pioneered a dynamic style of art that gave the characters energy and strongly suggested movement. Kirby also included minority characters in his comic books, and co-created the Black Panther, the first black comics hero. However, Kirby didn’t always get the recognition and financial rewards he deserved from the corporate types who published comic books, although he was (and is) beloved by the fans. The author met Kirby in 1969 when Kirby hired him as his assistant, and the rest is history. This biography doesn’t follow the usual conventions of the genre; it’s chatty and informal, as if you were talking to the author at your kitchen table, and it includes pages and pages of terrific art from Kirby, much of it never published before. Anyone who remembers waiting anxiously for the next installment of Spider-Man or X-man will appreciate this book.

Belle Greene was only twenty-six, with a few years of experience working at the Princeton University Library, when multi-millionaire and philanthropist J.P. Morgan hired her to organize his collection of rare books and illuminated manuscripts. Beautiful, outspoken and daring, Belle took the opportunity she had been given to create an outstanding collection for Morgan, becoming a formidable player in the lofty world of rare book dealers and collectors. She had a rather unconventional personal life as well; she never married, but had a series of lovers, including married art critic Bernard Berenson. She traveled the world buying books and manuscripts for Morgan, and she lived lavishly, staying in the finest hotels and traveling first class. In 1924, Morgan’s son Jack created the Morgan Library, which housed his father’s collection of books, manuscripts, and drawings, and appointed Belle the director, a position she held until she retired in 1948. However Belle had a secret, known to some in the rarefied world of art; she was a black woman “passing” as white. Her father was the first black man to graduate from Harvard, but when Belle’s mother left him, she claimed that the family was part Portuguese to explain her darker skin color. The amazing life of this fascinating and erudite woman reads like a novel; she lived her life to the fullest, and left a great legacy in helping to establish the Morgan Library as a world-class institution.

This is a sequel to the author’s terrific debut mystery, The Collaborator of Bethlehem; it continues the story of Omar Yussef, the principal of a girls’ school in the Dehaisha Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem. Yussef goes along on an inspection trip of the camp by two United Nations officials, but the trip is anything but routine, as chaos and violence explode all around. The ineffectual Palestinian government in Gaza is overwhelmed by the violent conflict of the various factions struggling desperately to control the region, and no one is really in charge. When one of the U.N. inspectors is killed and another kidnapped, one of Yussef’s colleagues is accused, and he feels he must investigate to vindicate his friend. Yussef has no allies in his quest, and must relay on only his own wits to solve the murder and free his friend. The setting of Gaza, which is being torn apart by political and social upheaval, makes for a very interesting mystery; the plot is absorbing and the characters are complex and realistic. Just as in real life, there are no easy answers. Fans of Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series or the Thomas Lynley series by Elzabeth George will want to read this one.

All through high school, Ben Reilly was the kid who got pushed around by all of the other more popular kids; he was especially harassed by Terrance O’Connor, a good-looking jock who accused Ben of homosexuality. Ten years later, Ben is an English teacher at a suburban high school in Staten Island, but he has not forgotten or forgiven his abuse at Terrance’s hands; when a violent altercation occurs at his school, Ben decides to find his tormentor and get revenge. Terrance is now a successful journalist living in Manhattan, but the outward appearance of success masks his inner dissatisfaction; he has many doubts and questions about his path in life. Ben tracks Terrance down to confront him, but instead the two begin an uneasy friendship, and Ben’s obsession with revenge mutates into something more complicated, and possibly even more dangerous to both men. Readers who enjoyed Phil Lamarche’s American Youth or The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt will want to read this one.

The Lucy Hatch series, of which this is the fourth title, is a terrific slice of small-town Texas life. In this entry, Lucy’s stepdaughter Denny has fled her cheating husband and budding country music career in Nashvillle, while Lucy’s husband Ash, a singer/songwriter who had been touring around the country with his band, is hanging around home getting on her last nerve after his record contract got cancelled. To make things even more stressful, Lucy’s boss Peggy is planning to retire and close up her florist shop, leaving Lucy unemployed and with few prospects. Life in the little Texas town of Mooney has always been pretty much the same, but now big changes are coming for everyone in Lucy’s life, and perhaps most of all for Lucy herself. This series is funny and heart-warming, and the latest entry continues that tradition. If you like books by Lorna Landvik or Tim Farrington, this would be a good choice.

This atmospheric western novel is set in the Arizona Territory in 1871, where seventeen-year-old Ned Thorne has run away from home in Connecticut to join the army. Ned is as green as they come, and he is determined to prove himself to his comrades, his superior officers, and to his family back home. When a nearby ranch is raided by Apaches, a woman is kidnapped and two men are killed; Ned’s commander, Lieutenant Austin, leads a rescue mission into the mountains to find her and bring her back. They follow the band of Apaches into Mexico, which leads to a brutal showdown, after which none of them will ever be the same. If you liked the westerns of Larry McMurtry or Cormac McCarthy, try this one.

This quirky and highly personal memoir tells the story of Moore’s childhood in the fifties and sixties in Eerie, Pennsylvania (and yes, that is the author’s real name). Moore, a professor of writing at Ohio University, explores the uncertainty and cultural dissonance of growing up in a time when media messages were strangely at odds with much of daily life; television shows like Leave it to Beaver showed a safe, placid view of family life, while at the same time elementary school kids were taught to “duck and cover” in case of nuclear attack. There was a strong undercurrent of anxiety running through American society. Later, Moore spent much of his time experimenting with LSD and smoking pot while ambling around the country in an old Volkswagen; the turmoil of the late sixties, with political assassinations, Vietnam protests, and violence like the Manson murders, created fertile ground for raging paranoia. When he finally figured out that writing was what he wanted to do in life, desire overtook panic as his dominant motivation; he pursued this calling with all of his energy, and the writing life provided a focus that had been lacking. This is a refreshing take on the traditional style of the memoir; funny and inventive, the essays draw the reader in with humor and then sneak in serious subtext when it is least expected. Readers who like Haven Kimmel or David Sedaris would enjoy this.

The development of atomic weapons is one of the most important historical events of the twentieth century, and their far-ranging impact is felt as strongly today as when they were first used in 1945; atomic weapons ended Word War II, and began a nuclear arms race that lasted through the Cold War, and still endures into the present. Now we fear that terrorists may gain access to these weapons. The Manhattan Project began in 1939 as part of a smaller research project on uranium; scientists, many of them expatriates who had escaped the Nazi regime, feared that Hitler would develop atomic weapons and use them to subdue the entire world. The project grew into one of the most elaborate and successful scientific efforts in history, employing more than 100,000 people and creating a weapon of previously unimaginable power, all in complete secrecy. This volume includes essays, articles, and excerpts from histories, biographies, plays, novels, letters, and the oral histories of key eyewitnesses; an analysis of Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb to end World War II and discussion of the continuing global arms race are only two of the topics addressed here. If you enjoy reading history or current events, this book would be an excellent choice.

We tend to think of the Crusades as battles between Christendom and the Muslim world, but that is not the whole story. The Languedoc region of France has long been a stronghold of cultural, political, and religious dissent; the region had its own local language (Occitan) and was politically independent from the French crown. The Languedoc was also the stronghold of the Cathars, adherents to a Christian sect that espoused a dualist theology, rejecting the Catholic belief in the Trinity. The Catholic Church had tried for years to suppress this sect, which the Church viewed as heretical (and too popular and powerful for Rome’s comfort); by 1209, Pope Innocent III had abandoned attempts at peaceful persuasion, and issued a Papal bull declaring Cathari lands forfeit to anyone who would take up arms against the heretics. The fighting went on for years, with the Crusaders initially succeeding in taking the Cathari lands, but after 1215 a series of revolts displaced the invaders until about 1226, when Louis VIII entered the fray on the side of the Church; by 1229 the Cathars had mostly been killed or displaced, and the Papal Inquisition that began in 1229 dealt the sect its death blow. The Albigensian Crusade was the first example of genocide, the author argues, and provided a blueprint for later campaigns against Jews and Muslims, as well as the impetus for the continuing existence of the Inquisition. This is a fascinating story of a world long lost to time, where religious belief and political conflict intersect; it has many important implications for the modern world as well. Anyone who enjoys reading history will want to try this one.

Most Americans under the age of fifty probably know Gene Autry mainly as the voice singing the Christmas classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but his career as a singer, actor and producer in film and television, astute businessman, and innovator of that American film classic, the cowboy movie, made him an American icon. Autry was born in Texas, and spent much of his early life on the road as his father moved from job to job on farms and ranches. At a young age he began performing in public, and at fifteen he went out on tour with a traveling medicine show; after working at several other jobs, Autry struck out on his own to build a career as a radio singer and musician. In 1929 he signed a recording contract, and became one of the most popular country singers of the 1930s; this led to opportunities in the motion picture industry, and the rest is movie history. Autry was one of the first to realize the potential of the new medium of television, and performed in several television series, as well as producing. He also diversified his investments into real estate and other fields, even becoming the owner of the California Angels. He built great wealth for himself, and was also a philanthropist who helped others, but he had his own private demons. This biography tells the fascinating story of one of Hollywood’s true pioneers, on screen and off; anyone who remembers those cowboy movies fondly, or wants to know more about the early days of the film industry, will enjoy this.

Epperson is best known as a screenwriter for such films as One False Move and The Gift, and his talent for creating cinematic scenes translates beautifully to the page. The story is classic noir, following the saga of Danny Landon, a formerly vicious gangster in Los Angeles of the 1930s; "formerly" because, after a blow to the head, he suffers from partial amnesia, and can't remember the brutal acts that earned him the nickname "Two Gun Danny," and cannot reconcile his criminal past with his current abhorrence of violence. Danny works for Bud Seitz, who is even more vicious than Danny was; his sobriquet "the Kind One" was invented by a former girlfriend whom he later had killed. When Seitz orders Danny to spy on his current girlfriend Darla, an alcoholic chanteuse, Danny falls in love with her, putting both of them at risk from Seitz's rage. At the same time, Danny discovers that the 11-year-old daughter of his neighbor is being molested, and in his new-found humanity, he believes he must help her. The writing is gorgeous; the descriptive prose and dialogue are so real and fresh the reader can visualize each character and scene as if they were watching one of Epperson's movies. Highly recommended for fans of Raymond Chandler or James Ellroy.

The author was the son of Russian exiles living in Brussels, who returned to the Soviet Union in 1919 to be part of the Bolshevik Revolution; eventually he became disillusioned with Stalin's brutality, and after spending some time in a Soviet prison, he left for his own term of exile, first in Europe and then Mexico. This novel tells the story of Daria, a Soviet agent who endures some of the most terrible events of the twentieth century, as well as the constant fear of arrest and imprisonment by her own government. The book is written in four sections; in the first, Agent D, a friend and fellow Soviet agent, tells Daria of his plans to escape with his lover. In the next section, Daria endures the Siege of Leningrad, and in the third section, she is in Berlin, witnessing the bombardment of the city by the Allies in the final days of the war. The last section finds Daria and Agent D reunited in Mexico, where they both hope to escape their pasts and the specter of Stalin's retribution for their betrayal. Serge creates a searing portrait of Europe's descent into the conflagration of war, and a compelling story of individual lives forever changed by it. This would be an excellent choice for readers who appreciate the powerful works of Cormac McCarthy or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

One day everything is going great in Sophie Kintrock's life; the next day Doug, her boyfriend of six years, dumps her (right after she finishes his laundry). Sophie is angry, but she still loves him, and wants to try and win him back. When she finds out he has already moved on to another woman, Sophie decides to break them up, and she's found the perfect way to do it; the interloper believes in psychics, so Sophie will pretend to be one to convince her that she should dump Doug. Her accomplice in this crazy plan is Nick, a psychic researcher she meets while reconnoitering in Doug's apartment building. What Sophie didn't predict is that she would become successful and in-demand as a psychic, and that she would start to like spending time with Nick; maybe her plans will have to change. Cook has written a funny and engaging entry in the chick-lit genre; if you like Sophie Kinsella or Emily Giffen, try this one.

Scott is a writer living in New York City; he is also a meth addict, struggling desperately with his demons. His mother, Donna, who is suffering from cancer, still lives in Scott's Kansas hometown. When she calls Scott, asking him to help her in her quest to discover what happened to some local children who have gone missing, he returns home, uncertain whether the cancer has affected his mother's reason. Donna herself disappeared for a time as a child; she believes she was kidnapped and then returned, and is obsessed with finding out what happened to her and to the other missing children. Scott reluctantly agrees to pursue the mystery, following the clues to a teenage boy trapped in a basement, while trying to decipher what is real and what is the product of his mother's memories and delusions; his drug addiction also clouds his perceptions, so we are never quite certain whether Scott is seeing things clearly himself. This fascinating psychological novel is layered with mysteries; the answer to what really happened to Donna and the others is only part of it, and the nature of memory, the power of our pasts and our relationships, and the despair of addiction are the powerful themes developed by the author. This is recommended for readers who enjoyed Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin or Absolution by Miriam Herin.

Ever since their inception, newspapers have been one of the easiest and cheapest ways to disseminate news and information to a large number of people. The profession of journalism is seen by many as an integral part of a democracy, keeping the citizenry informed and the government and its officials accountable. For much of American history, almost every town of any size had its own newspaper, and everybody depended on it to keep up with what was happening in the world; however newspapers in the U.S. and around the world have been in decline for the last few years as television and the internet have taken on much of the role of disseminating news, and economic forces have changed the way advertising-sponsored newspapers function in the marketplace. This volume of essays was produced by a group of contributors intimately familiar with the newspaper industry, and edited by Charles Madigan, a well-known reporter for the Chicago Tribune. They speculate on the causes of the decline, and what the future of news-gathering will be, in an engrossing and ultimately somewhat pessimistic vein. Whether you are one of those people who can't start the day without a look at the morning paper or one of those whose news is delivered via RSS, this book will be of interest.

Bekoff is a scientist, professor emeritus of Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the author of many scientific papers and books on animal behavior. He is the co-founder (with Jane Goodall) of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a group that works to advance higher ethical standards in the treatment of animals used in scientific research. In this book, he recounts anecdotal evidence regarding animal emotions (such as laughing dogs or grieving elephants), and considers the research available on whether animals do in fact have emotions, and what evolutionary pressures might have worked to foster the development of emotions in animals (and humans). He then discusses how animals are often abused on farms, in laboratories, and in the larger world, and what can be done to stop this abuse. Whatever your views on animal rights, this book provides an absorbing and moving perspective, and is well worth reading.

In the summer of 1926, four American women attempted to become the first women to swim across the English Channel: one of them was 20-year-old Gertrude Ederle, a gold and bronze medalist at the 1924 Olympics who was backed in her attempt by Joseph Patton, founder of the New York Daily News. On August 6, Gertrude made her attempt. The distance from Calais to Dover is 21 miles, in 60-degree water with rough seas and treacherous currents; the previous record for the swim was 16 hours and 33 minutes, which she beat by more than two hours, arriving in 14 hours 30 minutes. The news media seemed more interested in the women's swimsuits, which were considered somewhat risqué at the time, but the real story is the amazing athletic feat achieved by Gertrude Ederle. She was the toast of America, welcomed back with a ticker tape parade and a great deal of fanfare; more importantly, she demonstrated conclusively that women could be world-class athletes, and helped set the stage for the tremendous growth of women's athletics. However, fame was not as kind to her as it was to other celebrities of the era, and when she died in 2003 few people remembered her contributions. This book rectifies that oversight, telling the story of this thrilling and important moment in sports history with relish, and finally establishing Ederle's place in history once and for all. Readers who enjoyed Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand or King of the World by David Remnick will want to read this terrific book.

This book is an absolutely fascinating look at human evolution from a team of scientists, scholars and artists who have recreated the appearance and the lives of early human ancestors, from sahelanthropus tchadensis, who lived in what is now Chad, North Africa, about seven million years ago, to homo neanderthalensis, who lived in Europe between fifty and two hundred thousand years ago. For each species, there is a fictional account of one individual member of the species, as well as amazingly realistic visual recreations, and information on their chronology, physiology, lifestyle and range of living area. The photographs are so lifelike you feel as if you are looking back over millions of years in time; this look at our distant past creates a sense of wonder at the amazing variety of life, and the sheer improbability of human evolution, considering everything that could have gone awry. This would be a great choice for anyone interested in paleontology, archeology, anthropology, or art.