Good Reads & Views

The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff
Fiction

Ella, a thirty-something painter in London, realizes that her love of portrait painting stems from the pictures she began drawing, in her youth, of her absent father. As an adult, she has a thriving business as an artist, and the stories of the various people she paints provide additional layers beyond Ella’s own story. However, at this point, Ella’s own life has become more interesting that she ever expected: her long-lost father has reappeared in her life, her mother is discovered to have been telling some enormous lies, her sister is engaged to be married, and Ella herself falls for a man she knows is unavailable. The characters in this novel are warm and believable, and so is the world created by the author. 

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
Nonfiction

This book offers the reader a look at Economics from a different angle.  The author explains Economic Principles using everyday situations.  The first situation he uses is teachers and Sumo Wrestlers. He uses these examples to explain how certain outcomes are not always caused by the situation we think. He also compares real estate agents, what he calls super parents, and how a person’s name relates to their social class and job skills. Overall this is an interesting book that gives the reader a different view of the world of Economics.

Bridesmaids
DVD BRI

Annie's life is a mess, but when she finds out her lifetime best friend is engaged, she must serve as Lillian's maid of honor. Though lovelorn and broke, Annie bluffs her way through the expensive and bizarre rituals. With one chance to get it perfect, she'll show Lillian and her bridesmaids just how far you'll go for someone you love.

Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot
YA Fiction

Princess Mia is just beginning her junior year of high school.  Things seem to be finally going the way Mia planned.  She is happy with her boyfriend, she doesn’t have to be student body president anymore, and she is finally finished with the dreaded Geometry.  She soon finds out that everything in her life is about to be turned upside down once again.  Michael, her boyfriend, tells her he is moving to Japan for at least a year.  Lilly, her best friend, informs her that she is going to nominate Mia to be president again, and Mia decides that there is only one way to keep Michael from moving to Japan.  Find out if Michael really leaves for Japan and if Mia will serve a second term as student body president.

Dante's Divine Comedy by Seymour Chwast
Nonfiction

Many artists have portrayed Dante Alighieri's (1265-1321) Divina Commedia, making it one of the most illustrated books. Chwast's first graphic novel sets this 14^th century classic as an irreverent film noir. Dante – the detective – wears a trenchcoat, fedora, and sunglasses, and smokes a pipe. He is led through the Inferno and Purgatory by the ancient Roman poet Virgil who is replete with mustache, bowler hat, spats, and a walking stick. Dante’s deceased love Beatrice, wearing fine clothing and lipstick, takes over in Paradise. They encounter evil demons, serpents, and various sinners, along with angels that look like they were choreographed for a Ziegfield Follies production or Esther Williams film. Through his deceptively minimalist drawings (with witty allusions to medieval art), Chwast gives us a succinct but layered telling of Dante’s story.

The Book in the Renaissance by Andrew Pettegree
070.5094 PET

Pettegree, a historian at the University of St. Andrews and director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue, a database including the surviving 345,170 books and pamphlets printed in Europe from about 1450 to 1600, provides a fascinating analysis of early printing based on the USTC, estate inventories of remaining stock at the time of a printer or bookseller’s death or bankruptcy, and other sources.  Printed books did not initially attract a broad market: clerics and nobles in early decades still preferred manuscript books with colorful illuminated pictures and decorative elements, and these were generally produced by businesses with stables of copyists which knew in advance that each copy was already sold.  Printers never had enough moveable metal type to print an entire book, so they had to set type for one section, redistribute type, and print following sections; so they had to decide in advance to print 500 or 1,000 or more copies without knowing how many would actually sell.  Gutenberg was one of many who finally finished printing his famous Bible only to have banker Johann Fust demand immediate loan repayment and take over his presses, metal types, and shop.  Gradually printers and publishers built capital reserves and a growing market for vernacular languages as well scholarly Latin publications for the revival of interest in classical Greek and Roman authors, conflicts between Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation, government proclamations, schools, science and exploration, medicine and healing, and fiction.

The Bone House by Brian Freeman
Fiction

Mark Bradley and his wife Hilary have moved to Wisconsin’s Door County to escape their frenzied life in Chicago. Both secure teaching positions but when Mark is accused of having an affair with a teenage student, his teaching career is ruined.  While the couple is vacationing in Florida the student’s wild younger sister is found strangled on the beach and Mark becomes the obvious suspect.The Florida detective investigating the murder travels to Wisconsin to unravel the case and discovers an explosive web of innuendoes, suspicions and island residents trying to run from their past. An unpredictable ending and a great read for anyone familiar with Door County.

English Creek by Ivan Doig
Fiction

Fourteen-year-old Jick McCaskill narrates this story, and he is a delightful character. Growing up in Montana during the Great Depression as the son of a forest ranger, Jick’s life is filled with chores, horseback riding, and questions about life itself. As his brother leaves home to work on a ranch, Jick is left alone with his parents, whom he begins to see as real people—with real histories—for the first time in his life. And he has a lot of questions. In addition to its wonderful storyline, this book is notable because of the distinctive voices of the characters; Doig has captured the sound of the Montanans of his own youth.

Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes
Nonfiction

At 20, Austrian Hedy Lamarr married an arms dealer, and soon regretted it. Fleeing both him and the Nazis, she became a star in Hollywood. And in her down time, she used the information gleaned from her husband’s dinner guests to invent, with composer George Antheil, a jam-proof guidance system for torpedoes. After the war, the technology became available for civilian use, and now is in every wireless phone, GPS system, and all the other communication devices we depend upon. A very unusual celebrity biography, about an actress for whom stardom was only a part of her life.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Young Adult Fiction

Karou is a 17-year-old art student living in Prague with amazing drawings in her notebook of strange half-human-half-beasts she calls chimaera. Her friends think she has an amazing imagination, but to Karou, these creatures are real and her only family. She secretly runs errands for them around the globe to collect human and animal teeth. But other creatures seek the chimaera and may uncover the mystery of Karou herself.

This richly imagined story is beautifully written and kept me reading. I loved how the characters changed and shifted as each layer of the story was revealed. If you want to be immersed in another magical setting, try The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

The Art and Science of William Bartram by Judith Magee
508.092 MAG

Two of the most important early botanists in the American colonies were John Bartram (1699-1777) and his son William Bartram (1739-1823) in Pennsylvania.  During extensive travels John was the earliest to discover and identify previously unknown species in the New World and established a highly successful business sending seeds, seedlings, and live plants to England, where they were sought by nobility and others for their estates.  William accompanied his father on early trips to the Southeast, and after failures as a merchant he devoted his life to drawing and identifying the plants he discovered in his own explorations, described in William Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791).  Judith Magee, Development Manager in the Natural History Museum, London, which owns the drawings, has provided a fascinating account of William Bartram’s life and his influence on early scientists such as Alexander Wilson, George Ord, Thomas Say, and others.  Extensively illustrated with drawings by Bartram and others.

The Gilded Shroud by Elizabeth Bailey
Fiction

Practically the minute Ottilia Draycott arrives to take up her new position as companion to the dowager marchioness of Polbrook, the dowager’s straying daughter-in-law is found strangled in her bed, and her son appears to have fled the country. Undaunted, Ottilia adds “sleuth” to her job description, hoping to find the truth before someone calls in the Bow Street Runners. A great mix of mystery and Georgian romance. If you like Georgette Heyer, try this one!

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas  Mullen
Fiction   

This debut novel from Thomas Mullen, set in the Pacific Northwest during the 1918 flu epidemic, is about love, family, friendship, patriotism, and community.  World War I is in full swing and the small town of Commonwealth has established a quarantine to protect itself against the epidemic.  Guards are stationed at the only road that leads in and out of the town.  Everything is peaceful until a soldier tries to enter and the guards are forced to make a decision that will threaten the town’s residents and its future.

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis
Nonfiction

Historian Joseph Ellis writes about the lives of Abigail and John Adams through the letters that they wrote to each other.  From over 1,200 letters, Ellis tells the story of their lives during the Republic’s early years.  We learn about the time that John and Abigail spend apart as John’s political career sent him to Philadelphia, Paris and Amsterdam.  Their relationship is revealed with each other as well as with their children and how Abigail became John’s closest and most valued advisor. This book is an intimate look into their lives, into their marriage and what America’s early years were like.  The book is highly recommended.

Mudbound: A Novel by Hillary Jordan
Fiction

Set in racist Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s like Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Hillary Jordon’s debut novel Mudbound won the Bellwether Prize in 2006 for literary fiction addressing issues of social justice.  Jordan grew up in Texas and Oklahoma and now lives in New York; her novel is riveting and keeps you awake till you finish.  Alternating chapters focus on the views and experiences of former schoolteacher Laura, who leaves her professor father’s Memphis home after falling in love and moving with her husband Henry to an isolated farm in the Mississippi Delta; Henry, who shares that period’s southern attitudes toward the proper roles for whites and blacks and treats his black and white sharecroppers with a heavy hand, though he is not as virulently racist as the father who shares their home; Florence, wife of their black sharecropper, who helps Laura with housework and survival in a bleak environment intensified by floods from a nearby stream; and two World War II veterans, Henry’s more tolerant brother Jamie and Florence’s son Ronsel, who fought in the front lines as commander of an elite black tank regiment and now finds it difficult to be subservient when told he can’t enter or exit via the front door of a store or ride in the cab of a truck rather than the rear bed.  There is a horrifying climax but with slight hints of a better time coming.

Americus by M. K. Reed
Young Adult Fiction

Americus is the name of the town in Oklahoma where Neil and Danny live. The two have been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest book in the Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde series. Danny gets the book out first, but when his religious mom catches him reading a book about witches, she insists that the book be withdrawn from the public library. When Danny sticks up for the book and then announces he’s gay, his mom sends him to military school.

Neil then has to enter high school alone, but he makes some friends and grows up along the way, eventually sticking up for his favorite book series as well as for himself. I liked how Apathea’s story wove in with Neil’s, and I cared about the characters and rooted for them. For another graphic novel about growing up, try Smile by Raina Telgemeier. For coming-of-age fiction that includes cartoons, try The Accidental Genius of Weasel High by Rick Detorie or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Fiction

Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel, set in Jackson, MS in the early 1960s, is a great book and highly recommended on audio.  Skeeter Phelan, raised by a black maid, returns from college and reconnects with her childhood girlfriends Elizabeth and Hilly.  She receives a rejection letter from Harper & Roe publishing for a job in New York City and is advised to get more experience and begin writing stories of her own.  While writing the Miss Myrna column for the Jackson Journal Skeeter begins to pay attention to the interaction between her friends and their maids and decides to get the maids to tell their stories which she will submit to Harper & Roe.  The book is funny but gives a lot of insight into the lives of the black maids in the south during a very turbulent time in history. 

Daughter’s Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick
Fiction    

This historical fiction novel set in 1896 is about a Norwegian American woman named Helga Estby who accepts a wager from the fashion industry to walk from Spokane, Washington to New York City within seven months in an effort to earn $10,000. Walking with her was her reluctant nineteen year-old daughter Clara.  The two make their way by following the railroad tracks but they arrive just short of their expected time frame.  The book explores Clara’s life after the walk and how the journey with her mother affected the rest of her life.  Narrated by Kimberly Farr.

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
Fiction  

Maine is the story of the Kellehers and the 3 generations of women.  Maine is the place where the family descends every summer to spend time at the cottage built by the family on the property that was won in a barroom bet after World War II.  Maggie, Ann Marie, Kathleen and Alice are four women who while they may have nothing in common, like it or not, are family and the author takes us into their lives, into their secrets and hardships.  This book is wonderfully narrated by Ann Marie Lee.  This is the second book by J. Courtney Sullivan.

Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure by Julian Smith
Nonfiction

Inspired by Victorian explorer Ewart Grogan, who in 1898 set out on a quest to become the first person to walk across Africa, the author sets out on a similar journey, a 4,000 mile walk across Africa through eight countries.  The author decides to retrace Grogan’s steps for similar reasons, to prove himself to his future love.  The stories of their travels are interwoven throughout the book, nearly a century apart, both inspired by history, adventure, and love.   

Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals that Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet by Christy Morgan
Nonfiction

Cooking and eating what’s good for you and the planet doesn’t always have to mean eating “rabbit food” but can instead provide quite a bit of “bliss” in every bite, as this cookbook demonstrates. Focusing on a vegan and macrobiotic lifestyle, the author has a long introductory “first things first” chapter, before going on to “the recipes” which are divided into the usual chapters of breakfast & brunch, appetizers & soups, vegetable sides, whole grains & carbs, desserts, etc. Each recipes chapter is color-coded by seasons and includes icons that tell whether the dish is gluten-free, raw food, soy-free, low or no oil, and quick (less than 45 minutes) to prepare. Welcome additions are several recipes that use sea vegetables, and “starred” recipes of chef faves and fan faves. Happy blissful eating!

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Fiction

This historical page-turner is a debut novel that received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Grace is 98 and feels herself slowly slipping away, when she gets a visit from a young film maker who is making a movie about a pivotal incident in the estate of the wealthy Ashbury family, where Grace worked as a servant around the time of World War I. Long-forgotten memories come flooding back and Grace decides to finally tell the secrets she has kept for so long. The author does a marvelous job of throwing in little tidbits that make the reader want to continue reading to find out what exactly happened to all the characters involved. Fans of Upstairs/Downstairs and Downton Abbey should enjoy this, as should anyone who appreciates supsense and historical atmosphere.

The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, A Super Bowl, A Lesson For Life by Jeffrey Marx
Nonfiction

Brian Kinchen dreamed of following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.  To accomplish this dream, all he had to do was play football for LSU and play in the NFL. Following his senior season at LSU, he was drafted in the 12^th round of the NFL draft.  His NFL career came to a halt very abruptly when he was cut from the Carolina Panthers.  Brian would spend the next three years trying to get back into the NFL. One day he received a call from a friend who worked for the New England Patriots stating that they wanted Brian to come try out for the team.  Brian is selected to be the long snapper, just two games before the Patriots enter the playoffs.  Follow Brian on this journey as he struggles with doubt and allows his faith in God to carry him through one of the most difficult games of his life.

The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews
Fiction

Dempsey Killebrew is a young lobbyist working in Washington D.C.  She accompanies her boss and a congressman on an ill fated trip to the Cayman Islands, and soon finds herself fired without much explanation.  Dempsey soon learns that her boss is being accused of bribing the congressman, and he in turn is accusing Dempsey of all wrongdoing.  Dempsey finds herself escaping to Guthrie, Georgia to avoid the press and fix up an old plantation house.  Upon finding “Birdsong”, Dempsey discovers that there is a distant relative living in the house with no intentions of moving and the FBI has managed to find her and ask for her help in exchange for not sending her to jail.  She also meets Carter Berryhill and his young attractive son Tee, who becomes an important source of help to Dempsey as she tries to clear her name and reclaim her life.

Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life by Ann Beattie
Nonfiction

A fascinating mash-up of nonfiction and fiction, this book blends true facts about Pat Nixon’s life with fictionalized versions of events. Beattie speculates why this intensely private woman inspired her to write an entire book, and the reasons are complex. One reason seems to be the range of possibility when speculating what went on in Mrs. Nixon’s mind when various major (and minor) events occurred in her life. Since Nixon herself remained silent, the novelist has a wide open field. A creative, intriguing look at a public figure who would have preferred to have remained private.

The 12 Chinese Animals: Create Harmony in your Daily Life through Ancient Chinese Wisdom by Zhongxian Wu
Nonfiction

Many Westerners have been introduced to Chinese Astrology by the ubiquitous placemats at restaurants that show the 12 animals and their corresponding years. This is simply the first step of a more intricate system in which the month, day, and hour of birth also have importance. Master Wu outlines the general nature of each animal and discusses how it relates to personality, health, relationships, career, finance, color, and foods. He also shares a connection to the ancient I Ching (Yijing) by providing the hexagram that corresponds to each animal sign, and he provides instructions for brief meditative ceremonies that include hand mudras (gesture or position). This book has received both the Silver Medal in the Mind-Body-Spirit category of ForeWord’s 2010 Book of the Year Award and the Independent Publisher 2011 Living Now Book Award for the Enlightenment/Spirituality category.

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Fiction

The 1^st installment of the Department Q series featuring curmudgeonly police detective Carl Mørck. Returning to work after almost losing his life in a shooting that killed his friend and left another paralyzed, Carl is assigned to form a new department to investigate a bunch of cold cases that no one cares about. He is quite happy to do nothing until his “gofer” assistant persuades him to look into the 5 year old disappearance of a Danish politician who vanished without a trace on a ferry crossing. Everyone assumes she is dead, the reader knows she is not. As Mørck works to unravel the secret it becomes a race to save her. A page turning and tension filled thriller.

Wicked Plants: the Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart
Nonfiction

Abraham Lincoln’s mother died from “milk sickness” – common among early Midwestern settlers – caused by drinking poisonous milk from cows that have eaten White Snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum). Ergot (Claviceps purpura), a hallucinatory fungus that grows on rye, may have been responsible for the disturbed behavior that resulted in the Salem witch trials. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted almost went blind from Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), but not being able to use his eyes for a year allowed him time to walk in the woods and develop an appreciation of nature. Stewart shares these and dozens more stories of the Deadly, Illegal, Intoxicating, Dangerous, Destructive, Offensive, and Painful plants that inhabit our gardens, farms, and forests. Creepy botanical etchings and mock-faded pages set the mood for the reader to discover these most criminal of plants. This book was the winner of the 2010 American Horticultural Society Book Award, and was a New York Times Bestseller.

Queen Hereafter: A Novel by Susan Fraser King
Fiction

A beautiful story of sainted Saxon princess Margaret who, after her father’s suspicious death, is shipwrecked along with her family on Scottish shores while trying to escape her father’s enemies. Malcolm, king of Scotland, welcomes them but asks for Margaret’s hand in marriage as payment for their safety.  Although the marriage is initially one of convenience, Margaret and Malcolm’s relationship grows into one of deep friendship and respect as Margaret molds the rugged and rough king into a cultured, educated, and benevolent monarch. Incorporating characters from Shakespeare’s Macbeth particularly, the fictional granddaughter of Lady Macbeth, Fraser King masterfully portrays the conflicting roles of the warrior kings of old versus a sophisticated polished court. A riveting, historically accurate depiction of 11^th century Scotland.

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
Fiction

It is 1348 and the plague is making its rounds in Great Britain amidst an atmosphere of superstition, fear and religious persecution. Nine strangers are brought together by chance, zigzagging the country in a feeble attempt to outrun the “pestilence” in the mistaken belief that it surely affects only those living on the coast who have had contact with the “foreigners” responsible for the scourge. Each member of the group has a story to tell, and each one has a secret and may not be what they appear to be. How did Camelot the peddler come by those horrible scars? What is Zophiel the magician hiding in his wagon? What is the real story with the painter and his pregnant wife?  And who or what is Narigorm, the white-haired child who reads runes? The questions start accumulating. Then one of the motley crew dies, then another, and another and a wolf keeps howling…..

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
Nonfiction

This highly readable and enjoyable 2011 National Book Award winner tells the story of the development of modernity, by way of apostolic secretary Poggio Bracciolini. A humanist who turned avid book collector, Poggio scoured monasteries for ancient Latin texts and, in 1417, discovered De rerum natura, or “On the Nature of Things” by Lucretius, a Roman poet and philosopher who was born in 99 BCE. Lucretius was a follower of Epicurus and his verse seeks the pursuit of happiness as the highest goal in a life void of superstitions and religious dogma and the accompanying threats of punishment in the afterlife. The discovery of this book fueled the Renaissance, inspiring personalities such as Botticelli, Galileo, Darwin, Montaigne, and Shakespeare, among others.

Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews
Fiction

Eloise “Weezie” Foley and BeBe Loudermilk are at it again.  This time, BeBe meets rich and handsome Ryan Edward Millbanks, or Reddy as he calls himself.  Reddy is too good to be true, which BeBe soon discovers after Reddy disappears with everything she owns.  After talking to her lawyer, BeBe learns that Reddy is a con man who has swindled more than just BeBe out of everything they own.  With the help of Harry the hotel manager, Weezie, her granddaddy, and some new friends she meets along the way, BeBe is determined to get back everything that Roy Eugene Moseley, also known as Reddy, has stolen from her.  Join them on their mission to take back everything that rightly belongs to them.

Leaning Into God When Life is Pushing You Away by Robert A. Schuller
Nonfiction

The author breaks this book into four parts.  Each part deals with an example crisis that could occur in one’s life that would lead them away from their faith in God.  The beginning of each chapter starts with a story that relates the issues that people are dealing with on a daily basis with a similar issue that someone very famous has had.  The author tells how the famous person resolved the issue and then relates the issue and the solution to a Bible story.  Most of the time, the famous person is someone from the Bible who maybe once questioned their faith, but God showed them His love and brought them out of the trials that they were facing.

Monument to Murder: a Capital Crimes Murder by Margaret Truman
Fiction

The latest and probably last installment in Truman’s popular series (she died in 2008).  Robert Brixton, a Savannah, Georgia P.I. is hired to investigate a 20 year old mystery involving the murder of a young African American woman released from prison after serving time for manslaughter. Brixton’s investigation takes him into the heart of Washington, D.C and a cover-up that reaches to the highest levels of government. Longtime series regulars Mackenzie and Annabel Lee Smith make a cameo appearance as Brixton encounters politicians and their families who seem to think nothing of committing crimes to save face and their good names. A sordid tale of blackmail and murder.

Anticancer: a New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber
Nonfiction

The author, a physician and neuroscientist, was diagnosed at age 31 with a malignant brain tumor which at the time was generally considered to be terminal. He underwent surgery, but a recurrence of the tumor led him to explore natural remedies, as well as the role of a healthy diet and balanced lifestyle in cancer prevention and remission. While he doesn’t deny the role of conventional medicine in treating cancer, he provides compelling information about the environment in which cancer cells thrive, and what foods, behaviors, and environmental factors can help to mitigate cancer’s effects. Unfortunately, Dr. Servan-Schreiber died on July 24, 2011 due to another recurrence of brain cancer – using his own methods he had been able to survive for nearly 20 years. He had also been one of the founders of the U.S. branch of Doctors Without Borders.

Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson
Fiction

This is a heartwarming story of two women who meet as neighbors in a small Swedish village. Elderly Astrid is a recluse with a reputation as the “village witch.” Thirty year old Veronika is a writer trying to finish a novel and come to terms with a recent tragedy. They are two completely different people but as their friendship deepens the women find they are each other’s inspiration, sharing their life stories, pains and successes. A penetrating insight into the ways people need each other to flourish.

Halfway to Hollywood: Diaries, 1980 to 1988 by Michael Palin
Nonfiction

This second volume of the Monty Python alum’s diaries begins in 1980 as Palin is working on Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits and, perhaps more prophetically, an episode of the BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, the first excursion into his successful career in travel documentaries. While on the surface these years are somewhat less interesting than those covered in The Python Years (1969-1979), Palin is an exceptional writer and shares many fascinating stories: hops to New York on the Concorde to discuss television and book deals, the allure and struggles of filmmaking, hanging out at George Harrison’s estate, constantly being mistaken for Eric Idle. Palin also evocatively documents the events leading up to his sister Angela’s suicide in 1987. This installment finishes up with the release of A Fish Called Wanda, as the author is about to set off on his travels for Around the World in 80 Days.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt
Fiction

The wittiest, grimmest Western of the year. Also, a Western for those who don’t read Westerns. Eli Sisters narrates the story in his own particular wry tone, and his narration makes this book sing. Eli and his brother Charlie are hired guns, and they’re not nice guys. It’s the 1850s, and they’ve set out to the west to commit yet another murder-for-hire. Eli decides this will be his final job with his brother before he retires to a kinder, gentler life. Naturally, his old job doesn’t let him loose without a fight. If you enjoyed True Grit, give this book a whirl.

The Thirteenth Child and Across the Great Barrier by Patricia Wrede
Young Adult Fiction

Lan’s the seventh son of a seventh son, which makes him a powerful magician. But it also makes his twin sister Eff the thirteenth child in the family, and she thinks she’s cursed and can’t do magic right. When the family moves to a town near the Great Barrier (which keeps out most of the magical creatures that live on the frontier), Eff discovers a new way of seeing things and her own magical gifts. Eff’s self-doubt drove me a little crazy, but I loved the mixture of magic and the American frontier setting. If you like this series, try Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, the first book in the Alvin Maker series.

Foiled! by Jane Yolen
Young Adult Fiction

Aleira is on her way to becoming an Olympic fencer, but outside the sport, she’s not nearly as sure of herself. Her mother found her an epee at a garage sale that has a cheap jewel glued to the end. When a cute guy in her class notices her, she falls for him but isn’t sure she can trust him, especially when he keeps trying to take her epee. The story takes a major fantasy left turn near the end that sets up a possible sequel. I found the story fast-paced and fun. If you like this book, try Steel by Carrie Vaughn, a fantasy novel about another fencing enthusiast, and Re-Gifters, another graphic novel about a girl finding her way in love and sports.

Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet
Fiction

Apparently Wanda Batton-Smythe, president of the Women’s Institute, has bullied someone once too often. In search of fresh supplies for the Harvest Fayre, Vicar Max Tudor finds her dead in the kitchen of the village hall, apparently of an accident. But to someone’s deep regret, his training with his previous employers, MI5 (Britain’s intelligence unit) kicks in. However, since everybody in the town occasionally dreamed of murdering her, the field of suspects is wide. A delightful traditional mystery. If you wish Agatha Christie was still writing, try this one!

The Price of Civilization by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Nonfiction

In his previous books, economist Jeffrey Sachs took on the subject of world poverty. In this one, he turns his attention home. Recent surveys overwhelmingly demonstrate that a large number of Americans believe our country is on the wrong track. Sachs lays out where he believes we’ve gone wrong, and, more important, the steps we need to take to fix it. With his experience and knowledge, he is well worth listening to.

Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Frazier Nash
Nonfiction

Written initially as a Ph.D. dissertation prepared under the direction of Merle Curti at the University of Wisconsin and first published in 1967, Nash’s analysis in successive editions about changing attitudes toward wilderness from the 18^th century to the present have had almost as much impact on environmental conservation as the writings of John Muir and Aldo Leopold.  Now a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he established the first such department after he joined the faculty in 1966, Nash and his colleagues have trained hundreds if not thousands of undergraduates and graduate students who went on in a variety of careers in environmental conservation.  The most recent 4^th edition in 2001 added sections on “The Irony of Victory” and “The International Perspective.”  Descendant of an early Canadian river explorer, Nash also published books about his experiences as a commercial guide on Western whitewater rivers.

Burn by Nevada Barr
Fiction

Barr’s most recent novel featuring National Park Service Ranger Anna Pigeon has her recuperating in New Orleans with her friend Geneva, a blind singer at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park.  When Anna sees a strange neighboring lodger named Jordan sneaking away in the dark she follows him and finds herself involved with Clare, who fled from the police in Seattle and was suspected of murdering her husband and two children in a house fire.  Convinced by Clare’s anguished explanation that she believes her husband’s import business included young children destined for a brief life in sexual slavery in New Orleans bordellos for pedophiles, Anna tries to help but cannot risk informing police or FBI for fear Clare would be taken away before her children are found. The climax in an upscale establishment for wealthy perverts involves complicit police on the take. Once again Anna along with Clare barely escapes with her life.   Along the way Anna through Barr expresses her repugnance with some horrible activities that may actually be happening somewhere, if not in New Orleans.

Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper by Geoffrey Gray
Nonfiction

Back before airport security really existed, skyjackings were frighteningly frequent. The D.B. Cooper case, in November 1971, was one of the most notorious skyjackings, because of the way the criminal escaped. After Cooper delivered a bomb threat and held a flight attendant hostage, he parachuted out of a low-flying 727 with the $200,000 he had demanded from the airline. And even now, 40 years later, Cooper’s never been found. After receiving a tip, author Geoffrey Gray decided to pick up the trail and try to learn the identity of the elusive D.B. Cooper. Along the way, he describes the strange mythology that has grown up around this bizarre case.

Fireproof 
DVD

Lt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage - never leave your partner behind - it's a natural instinct. But when it comes to marriage, it's another story. After a decade together, Caleb and Catherine have drifted so far apart that they are ready to move on without each other. As the two prepare for divorce, Caleb's dad asks his son to try The Love Dare experiment. He commits to the challenge. Now he will have to attempt to love his wife while avoiding God's love for him. He will need to be able to demonstrate love over and over again to a person who is no longer receptive to his love.

Flywheel
DVD

The first movie written and directed by Alex and Stephen Kendrick (Fireproof).  A dishonest used car salesman turns his life around, after he is caught deceiving customers and must return their money. The DVD includes deleted scenes, outtakes, bloopers, and a special message

Facing the Giants
DVD

A high school football coach with a history of losing games faces not only the pressures from a group of fathers wanting him fired, but also the possibility that his wife can never have children. When he turns to God, will his prayers be answered?

The Fighter
DVD

Micky Ward is a struggling boxer long overshadowed by his older brother and trainer, Dicky, a local legend battling his own demons. Their explosive relationship threatens to take them both down. However, the bond of blood may be their only chance to redeem their pasts, and, at last, give their hard-luck town what it's been waiting for: pride.

The Next Three Days
DVD

Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison.