Good Reads & Views

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
Nonfiction

Because they are now generally regarded as a sign of mental illness, many people who have them keep it a frightening secret.  But they are far more common in otherwise healthy people than is commonly realized, and most are harmless. In this intriguing book, neurologist Sacks explores the types and causes of hallucination, including the imagery common in migraine, phantom limbs, sleep paralysis, and many others, including fascinating case studies. By the author of Awakenings, on which the movie was based.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Fiction

Buckle in for a thrill ride in this virtual adventure story with a dash of romance. Wade Watts is a broke teenager living in a trailer stack outside Oklahoma City, but inside the virtual worlds of the Oasis he is Parzival, one of the millions of “gunters” searching for clues in ‘80s trivia to the location of a $250 billion Easter Egg hidden someplace in the Oasis. When Wade and his friends decipher the first clue, it sets off a worldwide frenzy and a global conglomerate desperate to find the Egg wants to hire Wade ... or else eliminate the competition.

The virtual worlds described are really cool and a contrast to the ruined real world. The story builds slowly, but by the end I was desperate to find out what happened next. The audiobook read by Wil Wheaton is also well worth seeking out.

Sinner’s Creed: A Memoir by Scott Stapp 
Nonfiction

Sinner’s Creed is the memoir of Scott Stapp, lead singer of the band Creed.  The story chronicles Scott’s own upbringing in a very religious household, his rock bands rise to fame, their break up, his struggle with drugs and alcohol, his divorce, and a suicide attempt.  He is now clean and sober, remarried with kids and in the midst of launching a solo career.  He gives all of the credit for his recovery to his faith in God.  He shares his story for the first time.  Readers will be inspired by his faith and be encouraged that despite the mess we can sometimes make of our lives God is always present.  

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
Nonfiction

 “Dear Sugar” is the unorthodox advice column of the online magazine The Rumpus, and this collection of intimate exchanges is definitely not Dear Abby. Profane (expletives are not deleted) and funny; honest and earnest; Strayed (Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail and Torch) offers her readers patience and recognition without dispensing the usual bromides. Rather than tell readers what to do, Strayed leads them to their own answers by sharing her personal experiences. In sharp and luminous prose, and with brutal honesty, Strayed lays bare stories of her life: the early death of her mother, her sexual abuse by male relatives, and her struggles with addiction. Her stories help establish a deep level of empathy that resonates with her readers. The letter called “The Ordinary Miraculous”, in which Sugar’s mother buys a child’s dress, and the letter answering the question “What would you tell your twenty something self if you could talk to her now?” should be read with a box of tissues at hand.

Your Invitation to a Modest Breakfast by Hannah Gamble
Nonfiction

Gamble’s slim volume of poetry, from the 2012 National Poetry Series, is a quirky mix of the mundane and the profound. These thoughtful, meandering poems are personal and intimate, but they also speak to a more general human experience. For example, in “Summer in the First Days,” Gamble writes, “What is love, we ask,/and the woman/on the telephone says,/Oh nothing much,/I just got back from the store.” This young, up-and-coming poet is highly recommended.

God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons For Life’s Little Detours by Regina Brett
Nonfiction

Each chapter in this book is a life lesson offered by the author.  She uses her own life experiences, as well as, things she has learned from other people in each lesson. These lessons range from not worrying about the past to having hope for the future. The author chooses to live her life according to these rules, and encourages others to do the same. Well her life is not perfect, she has credited these lessons with making her the person she is today, which is someone she is proud of.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Nonfiction

Bill Bryson may be best known for A Walk in the Woods, his humorous memoir of hiking the Appalachian Trail, but this memoir of his childhood just might be funnier yet. Bryson grew up in Des Moines in the 1950s, and while his childhood was relatively normal (this is not one of those traumatic childhood books), his storytelling abilities make this book entertaining and hilarious. Whether it’s the horrors of having a paper route or going on a dreaded road trip with another kid’s weird family, Bryson’s memories of childhood are vivid. He narrates the audiobook himself, so the listener gets the full effect of his phrasing and tone. Prepare to laugh out loud.

Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
Fiction

Who knew writing a book could cause such a commotion? Her small income vanishing as the economy tanks, the only way Barbara Buncle can think of to make a little money in 1930s Britain is to write a novel under a pseudonym. Basing the fictional characters on her fellow villagers, she allows their print versions to run wild. And when it becomes a bestseller, indignation meetings spread rapidly through the village, plotting to unmask the author. A reprint of a charming gentle read, originally published in 1936.  If you liked Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, try this one!

Zahra’s Paradise by Amir
Nonfiction

In this web comic turned graphic novel, a mother struggles to find out what happened to her beloved son Mehdi during a student protest in Iran in 2009. Beautifully drawn, with allusions to Persian poetry, this is a fascinating and harrowing tale of a family torn apart by an oppressive government rife with corruption. The name Amir is a pseudonym, because the author and artist of this work might suffer retribution from the government if it were known who they are.

Iron House by John Hart
Fiction

Two young brothers left to die by a frozen creek are found by hunters and taken to a decrepit boy’s home in the North Carolina Mountains. At the Iron House, gangs of the strong abuse and terrorize the weak.  When Julian, the younger brother, reaches his limit and stabs one of his abusers to death, his older brother Michael takes the blame and runs away to the streets of New York to survive and thrives when he is taken in by a prominent mob leader. Julian is adopted by a wealthy and privileged family and their worlds evolve light years apart. Life circumstances and the unbreakable brotherly bond dictate that their paths will cross again in intense and life threatening ways. This is a story of loss, courage and love alongside violence, greed and unspeakable cruelty.

Populazzi by Elise Allen
YA Fiction

Cara Leonard is not exactly happy about her move to a new school to start her Junior year.  Her best friend Claudia, despite being sad that she and Cara will no longer be at the same school, is thrilled. Claudia thinks this is an opportunity for Cara to reinvent her social life. With the help of the latter, which Claudia has researched and written, the girls believe that Cara can break into the group of extreme populazzi at her new school. Cara meets new friends along the way, but realizes almost too late that the sacrifices she must make to become a supreme populazzi are not always worth it.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich 
Fiction     
 
Janet Evanovich is back with #19 in the Stephanie Plum series.  “Notorious Nineteen” is yet another laugh out loud adventure from the female bond agent.  It’s been a slow summer for the bale bonds office and Stephanie takes a job with Ranger guarding him from a Special Forces adversary.  When a big money skip comes into the bonds office she must partner with her on again boyfriend, sexy Joe Morelli, in order to catch Geoffrey Cubbin, the con man who has gone missing.   He disappears from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy without a trace and with the help of Lulu and Grandma Mazur Stephanie embarks on a plan to track him down.  Food poisoning, a bad bridesmaid dress and threatening notes will not stop her from getting her guy and her big paycheck.  

I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know by Kate White
Nonfiction

Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Kate White covers the ins and outs of success in one’s professional life – from landing a job and moving up the ranks to being the boss, while striking a good work-life balance along the way. Her catchy chapter titles read like magazine cover lines (“9 Things You Should Never Do in a New Job,” “How to Dazzle at a Meeting,” and “The Bliss Quiz: Is Your Success Making You Happy?,” for example), and she delivers her advice like a girlfriend, in a fun and no-holds-barred sort of way. Recommended for women at any career stage who are looking for some quick-read tips on making it.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff
Nonfiction

Before there was Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, there was Helene Hanff and her correspondence with the booksellers of Marks & Company, purveyors of rare and secondhand books in post WWII London. It begins with an inquiry about secondhand books and evolves into a touching 20 year relationship between an outspoken, salty New York writer and a rather more restrained British bookseller. You may be inspired to begin an epistolary relationship of your own after reading this witty and charming record of cultural differences and international friendship.

Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Fiction

The story of the rise and decline of a Hippie commune in a rundown old New York state mansion - called Arcadia House - is told from the view of Bit, the only child of parents who were founding members of the community. Through heartache and joy, laughter and tears, Bit grows into a sensitive young man who ultimately must find his own way in life. Beautiful prose and memorable characters make this a bittersweet but satisfying coming-of-age tale from the author of The Monsters of Templeton.

Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency by Mark K. Updegrove
Nonfiction

An excellent introduction to the Johnson presidency. Updegrove, Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, has put together a fine overview of LBJ’s presidential years. The book consists of the compilation of excerpts from books, articles, interviews, and recordings, which Updegrove masterfully selected and placed into a sequence that reads smoothly as a narrative. The brevity of each entry allows the reader to move quickly through the book, and the use of the participants’ own words gives an intimacy to the stories that are told.

The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
YA Fiction

Back in 1990, long before Twilight, Annette Curtis Klause invented the paranormal romance with this tale of a non-sparkling 300-year-old vampire and the young woman who helps him feel human again. Zoe’s mother is dying of cancer, her father spends every moment he can at the hospital with her, and Zoe’s best friend, Lorraine, is moving soon. Zoe is on her own much of the time and has no one to talk to about how alone she feels, until she meets the mysterious Simon, who is as lonely as she is … but much more dangerous. Could he be responsible for the string of murders in town? If you like this story, check out the author’s werewolf tale, Blood and Chocolate.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Fiction

While visiting friends in Chicago, Hadley Richardson, a quiet and sheltered young woman from St Louis, meets a younger, passionate, fledgling journalist full of dreams. In spite of her friends’ warnings Hadley falls in love with the dashing young man and after a whirlwind courtship she becomes Mrs. Ernest Hemingway. The couple heads to Paris for adventure and to be where “the real writers” are and they throw themselves into the extravagance of Jazz Age Paris. As Hemingway struggles to become part of the literary scene, Hadley puts up with uncertain living conditions and shattering loneliness until the inevitable happens and Ernest finds another woman. This is a fictionalized account of the passionate love affair of a remarkable couple.

The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
Nonfiction

For an entire year, professor of biology David Haskell repeatedly visited a square meter of ground in a Tennessee forest. Calling it a mandala, he uses it as a representation of the natural world. From the microscopic tendrils of fungi, entwining themselves with rootlets for their mutual benefit, to the fall of a massive old shagbark hickory tree, from tiny springtails buried in the leaf litter to a family of coyotes howling within feet of him, he traces the connections within the ecosystem, and meditates on what they mean to the mandala, the forest, and the world.

Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich 
Fiction      
 
“Thanksgiving” by Janet Evanovich is a cute romantic story about a girl, Megan Murphy, and a guy, Pat Hunter who meet and fall in love.  She works in Colonial Williamsburg and he is a pediatrician who is given an infant to care for by one of his patients.  The mother drops the baby off and leaves Pat to take care of it and he convinces Megan to help him.  Megan ends up falling for the both of them and soon they are pretending that they are a married couple.  C. J. Critt is the narrator of this Thanksgiving story and is the perfect voice for Janet Evanovich’s lighthearted humor.  This is a nice holiday read. 

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
YA Fiction

Football and Clea seem to be the only two things on Cody’s mind. It is the summer before his junior year of high school and he is the starting quarterback on the football team and is dating the beautiful Clea Weston. Shortly after school begins, Clea’s father sends her to a boarding school in Vermont, and Cody is injured and forced to sit out the rest of the season. Cody is so upset over his inability to play football that he drops out of school. Shortly after making this decision, he learns that Clea has gone missing from her Vermont boarding school. Join Cody as he travels to Vermont, learns who to trust and who not to trust, and tries to solve the puzzle of who took Clea and how to get her back.

Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman
Fiction

If Temple Grandin had been abandoned as a child to wander her family’s Mexican beach property near their failing tuna factory, and then rescued by an aunt determined to connect her to the world, she could have been Karen--the Me of this first novel. The first person narrative provides a funny, warm and intimate look at an autistic savant who grows from a speechless, feral child to the director of the world’s first humane tuna fishery.

Replay by Ken Grimwood
Fiction

At age 43, Jeff Winston unexpectedly dies, but is granted an opportunity the rest of us will only ever dream of – he reawakens in his college dorm room as his 18-year-old self. He gets to make new choices in this life based on the knowledge he garnered in his previous one, and he chooses well, making winning bets on the Kentucky Derby and the World Series and investing in companies like IBM and Apple. Between his obscene wealth and the new family he’s started, Jeff has it made – until he dies and awakens as a youth once again. As he cycles through various iterations of his original life, he starts to wonder what the whole point is and how he can make it stop, until he meets someone who, like himself, seems doomed to repeat the past.

Viper Pilot: A Memoir of Air Combat by Dan Hampton
Nonfiction

If you’re looking for an adrenaline rush, this just might be the book for you. Hampton was a very successful F-16 pilot in the Air Force, and his stories are fast-paced and amazing. His assignment as a “Wild Weasel” was to draw enemy fire from surface-to-air missiles in the first Gulf War and later in Iraq, in order to discover and target the enemy. Consequently, his “normal” workday was a bit stranger than what most of us experience. His writing style is crisp, and he uses military pilot lingo throughout the book, which brings an immediacy to the combat scenes. There’s a helpful glossary of terms, also, so if you don’t know what “zippering the mike” means, you can look it up. A remarkable aviation memoir.

The Color of Earth by Kim, Dong Hwa
YA Nonfiction

Ehwa and her widowed mother live in a Korean village. Both fall in love, suffer heartbreak, and are ridiculed by others at times, but the strong relationship they have with one another helps them heal. Ehwa’s mother plants gourds on her roof so that the fragrance of the flowers will lead her paintbrush salesman lover back to her. Ehwa picks tiger lilies in hopes that she will run into a young monk she met once – he gave her a tiger lily and it became her favorite flower. (Little does she know the monk pines for her as well.) Ehwa sometimes asks her mother questions about growing up and the birds and the bees, and her mother gently answers her in this poetic and quiet story. 

We Learn Nothing: Essays and Cartoons by Tim Kreider
Nonfiction

A collection of personal essays written by political cartoonist Kreider, some of the chapters actually contradict the book’s title. Among other things, Kreider starts out writing about getting stabbed, talks about his criminal uncle Lee and their interesting family history, and admits to feelings of unease when Jim, a former professor of his, becomes “Jenny.” Other chapters discuss his mother’s time in the hospital after collapsing at home, and how Kreider ended up with an extended family when two half-sisters come into play. Interspersed with Kreider’s own cartoons, these reflections on the sometimes mundane and the sometimes life-changing are funny, analytical and serious, all at the same time.

Powers by James A. Burton
Fiction

Albert Johansson has had centuries of practice in keeping cool under pressure. That doesn’t help much when a demon manifests itself as he’s making a sandwich in the kitchen. He has forgotten a lot of things in his very long life—he has almost forgotten himself—but he can remember how dangerous doing a demon’s bidding can be. Almost as dangerous as not doing it. Now he’s on the hunt, for something he’s not sure he wants to find, with a policewoman whose background is as odd as his own. If you like this one, try Ben Aaronovitch and Kelly McCullough as well.

The Caller by Karin Fossum
Fiction

17 year old Johnny Beskow, a teen with a talent for mischief, embarks on a series of seemingly harmless but very malicious pranks directed towards the residents of his small Norwegian town. An unattended infant in her backyard is found unharmed but covered in blood, an elderly woman reads her own obituary in the newspaper, a mother gets an anonymous phone call saying her daughter is in the hospital following an auto accident. Inspector Konrad Sejer becomes involved and soon recognizes the effects on the victims long after the actual events, and the potential for this game to get out of hand. This is not a whodunit. We know from the beginning who the perpetrator is, but it is a dark disturbing story of the impact and pervasiveness of evil and its consequences.

The genius of color photography : from the autochrome to the digital age by Pamela Roberts
Nonfiction

This history of color photography from 1839 to the present by a former Curator at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, England, is extensively illustrated with color reproductions on nearly every page.  The earliest is an autochrome by Auguste and Louis Lumière showing a youth in a Pierrot costume and the last chapter includes over fifty digital images with captions and commentary.  Other chapters discuss developments by decades.  Images include portraits, nature studies, landscapes, buildings, still life, and street scenes in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.

Tattoos On The Heart: The Power Of Boundless Compassion by Greg Boyle
Nonfiction

Pastor Gregory Boyle is no stranger to gang activity in Los Angeles. He acts as a mentor and Pastor to many members of rival gangs. He does this by being involved in the Homeboy and Homegirl Industries, which gives jobs to gang members who are interested in changing their lives. He tells the stories of many such gang members who have both changed their lives and lost their lives while living in gang territory.  He also tells how these members learn to work with and respect members of rival gangs.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
Fiction

During the late-1990s tech boom, Type A twentysomething Emily’s start-up is riding high. Meanwhile, her younger sister Jess continues to meander her desultory way through graduate school, while working at an antiquarian bookstore. Ever since their mother’s death when they were young, Emily has felt maternal toward Jess, and the two sisters’ close relationship forms the backbone of this marvelous modern-day comedy of manners. Emily’s long-distance engagement to another tech executive makes her life seem like it’s on track, while Jess’s romantic life is a bit more complicated (and much more interesting). Goodman weaves in additional storylines that link with the two sisters’ lives, making this novel a highly satisfying book discussion choice.

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
YA Fiction

This teen thriller offers an entertaining mix of humor and horror. When Rory Deveaux moves to London, she expects to work hard at her classes and survive being on the field hockey team at Wexford, her new private school. She gets to know her classmates, flirts with a boy in the library and reminisces about life back in Louisiana. Despite some awkward moments trying to fit in, Rory has a great sense of humor, a keen eye and a strong voice: “Annoy a Southerner, and we will drain away the moments of your life with our slow, detailed replies until you are nothing but a husk or your former self and that much closer to death.” But when a Jack the Ripper imitator terrorizes the city, Rory realizes she sees things other people can’t. Things that could get her killed.

Following the Path by Joan Chittister
Nonfiction

In the modern world, our choices can be overwhelming. How do we decide what we are going to do, who we are going to be, with so many options surrounding us? Whether you are just starting out in life, rethinking your life in middle age, or about to start over in retirement, this book will help guide you to the calling which will let you use your own particular gifts to build a joyous, purposeful life and enrich the world.

Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross
Fiction

Dr Jay Erlich seems to have a perfect life, a thriving practice in New York, a happy marriage, good kids. The polar opposite is his half brother, a wayward child of the 60’s living in California, with a penchant for drugs and alcohol whose bi-polar son has just died of an apparent suicide. Jay heads to California to help his brother and sister-in-law cope with their loss and begins to have suspicions about his nephew’s death. As Jay becomes entangled in a web of lies, deceit, danger and terror it becomes clear that his brother is hiding something from his past that puts all of them in danger. A chilling story inspired by the death of the author’s nephew. You’ll want to make sure the lights are on, the doors locked and you have time enough to finish this in one sitting. It’s hard to put down.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Fiction

The author of the Harry Potter series has written her first adult book and the emphasis is on “adult.” If you are expecting a cozy English village novel this is most definitely not it. If you like smooth writing, excellent character development and gritty realism, with a dash of black humor thrown in for good measure, then you  want to give this book a try: When Pagford Parish Councillor Barry Fairbrother unexpectedly dies, an opening is created on the council (the casual vacancy of the title) and the opposing factions go to war. Class and politics, drug use and raging teenage hormones are among the various issues covered in this 503 page tragicomedy. Hogwarts it’s not, but highly recommended it is.

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Fiction

The first novel by an award-winning author of a short-story collection, based in part on her architect grandfather’s experiences along with extensive research in holocaust and other archives, The Invisible Bridge focuses on the treatment of Jews during the Nazi occupation of Europe in World War II.  After sending examples of his work to an exhibit in Paris, a talented Hungarian Jew named Andras wins a scholarship to the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture and leaves Budapest for Paris in 1938.  There he meets and falls in love with a ballet teacher named Claire or Klara, member of a wealthy Jewish family in Budapest who had earlier fled to Paris when falsely accused of murder while fleeing attacks by Nazi thugs.  As the Nazis take control in France and Hungary in the early 1940s, Andras is told that his visa has expired and cannot be renewed unless he returns to Hungary.  Despite assurances, on arrival he is sent to a slave labor camp.  Eventually the same happens to Klara when a family crisis forces her return to Budapest. As Nazi collaborators in both countries complied with Hitler’s demands that they round up Jews and send them to concentration and extermination camps, most were sent directly to gas chambers and crematoria.  But because workers were needed to repair roads and clear mines for advancing German armies and for factories producing war goods near the concentration camps, some of the most able bodied Jews along with non-Jews in the French resistance were selected for slave labor.  Few survived, because they gradually starved from lack of food or froze to death in skimpy clothes or were beaten and shot by guards when too weak to work or were chosen for elimination by Nazi doctors. Hope keeps Andras and Klara alive in a riveting story about what happened to most Jews and non-Jewish resistance members in the camps.  See also a recent nonfiction title by Caroline Moorehead, A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France.

The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
Nonfiction

Winner of a Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001, Stiglitz is a Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Chief Economist at the World Bank. His Price of Inequality was a New York Times best-seller in 2012. He discusses how and why the huge gap in income between the top 1% and other wealthy Americans and the middle-class and poor developed from the 1970s to 2008’s financial collapse and recession. A major reason: the wealth of the upper 1% provides political power to induce politicians of both parties to enact policies that do not benefit most citizens. Reforms should include increasing taxes, making them more progressive, eliminating special interest subsidies, investing in education and infrastructure, and strengthening the social safety net. And the 99% need to learn that their self-interest is not served by the self-interest of the top 1%. See also a similar critique by Paul Krugman, End This Depression Now.

Dreams That Won’t Let Go by Stacy Hawkins Adams
Fiction

Reuben, Indigo, and Yasmine Burns grew up living with their grandparents in Jubilant, Texas. Their parents were killed in a car accident when the siblings were very young. Reuben was in the car that day, and before she died, his mother made him promise to look after his sisters forever. Reuben struggled with the task for many years, before he finally felt he needed to move away and leave his family behind. Now six years later, he has moved his wife and son back home to Jubilent. His grandparents are thrilled, but his sisters feel betrayed and are not as thrilled. Join the family as they each learn to deal with their struggles and accept the plan that God has for their lives.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Fiction

Doctor Adoulla Makhslood is getting too old to hunt ghuls. He would rather sit in a teahouse reading poetry, even in a city on the verge of civil war, than stalk monsters through the wilderness. But the ghuls don’t care what he wants, and they are crowding in, threatening him and everyone he loves. There’s no one else to do it, so he’ll have to go out yet again. Perhaps a lifetime of cunning and his oddly assorted allies will replace the strength he can feel waning. If you like Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion series, try this one.

Younger (Thinner) You Diet: How Understanding Your Brain Chemistry Can Help You Lose Weight, Reverse Aging and Fight Disease by Eric R. Braverman
Nonfiction

Dr. Eric Braverman author of “Younger Brain, Sharper Mind” expands upon information he presented in “Younger You” that gives a totally new approach to losing weight.  New research reveals that the brain is the most important organ in nutrition and weight loss.  We can actually lose weight by eating and drinking nutrients, teas, and spices that change the chemical balance of the brain for permanent weight loss.  The brain also determines how we age and we all have the ability to take years off of our age by changing our brain chemistry.  Learn how to personalize a diet plan for specific health concerns and choose foods that boost metabolism.

Patient One by Leonard Goldberg
Fiction

The U.S. president  is hosting the Russian president at a glitzy state dinner when suddenly many guests, including the presidents and their wives, become violently ill and are rushed to the nearest hospital. Emergency room physician David Ballineau, former Special Forces operative, and trauma nurse Carolyn Ross assemble the staff to deal with what soon is recognized as not accidental food poisoning. A small band of Chechen terrorists have put a toxin in the food and plan to commandeer the hospital as soon as the dignitaries have arrived. Ballineau and Ross struggle to stabilize the critically ill president, keep the other hostages comfortable and still find a way to warn the vice president about the escalating terrorist attack. Tension mounts as the terrorists kill secret service agents and hostages.  A real page turner that will keep the reader up all night to get to the end.

This Lullaby: A Novel by Sarah Dessen
YA Fiction

Remy has endured a series of revolving door stepfathers – in fact, her mother is about to embark on her fifth marriage. Can anyone really blame Remy for wanting to keep herself free of serious romantic entanglements? She’s cruised through high school with a string of casual, short-term boyfriends, but the summer before college, she meets Dexter and starts to break all her rules. Not only is he gangly, clumsy, and so not her type, but he’s a musician, too, just like the father she never had the chance to know. Could he be the one to break through Remy’s cold exterior and truly love the wounded girl inside?

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France  by Caroline Moorehead
Nonfiction

Women as well as men who were active in the French resistance against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II were eventually identified and rounded up by a government that collaborated with the German occupation.  Some resistance workers obstructed the German war effort by derailing trains.  Others were part of an underground press that printed and distributed pamphlets urging French to resist. Many helped downed Allied bomber crews hide and escape to safety.  Some were teenagers who were caught writing anti-German slogans on walls.  Men were often summarily shot; many women were initially held in camps in France. This history focuses on 230 women who were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent on a train from Paris to the concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1943.  Unlike Jews, who were quickly sent to the gas chambers and crematoria, most of these women were put to work in nearby factories producing munitions and equipment for the German war effort or in crews clearing mines and repairing roads for advancing German troops.  But they were intentionally worked to death with little food, insufficient winter clothing for outdoor work, brutal guards who beat and shot those too sick or weak to work or meet quotas, and Nazi doctors who did regular inspections to select for immediate extermination those who had managed to hide their illness.  Out of the 230 women sent in the 1943 convoy, less than fifty survived Hitler’s end-of-war orders to finish exterminating as many as possible so there would be no witnesses.  Moorhead’s extensive research in archives and other accounts includes interviews with some who survived and families of those who didn’t.  Her account makes sobering reading; but an important highlight is how this group of women stuck together and tried to help as many as possible to survive.  Several did testify eventually at the war crimes trials.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Fiction

The summer blockbuster novel of 2012, this book is nearly impossible to put down once a person starts reading it. On Amy and Nick’s fifth wedding anniversary, Amy disappears. And the evidence points to her husband having murdered her. The novel alternates between Amy’s and Nick’s perspectives, with Amy’s story revealed through the diary she kept in the months leading up to her disappearance. Just when you think you know where the story is heading… it all changes. And then… it changes yet again. Once you get hold of a copy of this book, simply plan to do nothing but read.

Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
YA Nonfiction

Aya lives in a less prosperous town in Ivory Coast during the 1970s renaissance there, with chickens in the street and a doily on the TV. Her friends go out dancing and meet their boyfriends for secret rendezvous at the “Thousand Star Motel,” but Aya has her heart set on going into medicine, so she studies instead. When one friend becomes pregnant by a man she thinks is the other’s boyfriend, the two have to get married. I loved this graphic novel for portraying a little-seen side of African life in its rich background images and for its humor.

The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos
Fiction

Set in Greece during the repressive Regime of the Colonels that followed a military coup d’etat in 1967, culminated in a brutal attack on students in a popular uprising at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973, and lasted until 1975, Bakopoulos vividly describes the experiences of an extended family subject to potential arrests and torture for dissident views or activities.  Mihalis, a prominent poet, along with other intellectuals and university faculty, had been imprisoned and tortured during previous fascist regimes and faced similar treatment again.  Sophie, Eleni’s older daughter, fled to Paris when authorities became aware she was circulating pamphlets for a democratic underground, but later found reason to return. Anna, a younger daughter, became caught up the uprising at the Athens Polytechnic. Natalie Bakopoulos has an MFA in Fiction from the University of Michigan and teaches creative writing there and at the Aegean Arts Circle in Greece; and she bases a fascinating story in part on archives at the University of Michigan and elsewhere as well as on letters from family members living in Greece during that period.

Thunderstruck by Eric Larson
Nonfiction

A parallel tale of a murderer on the run who almost got away with his crime, and the inventor whose creation played a crucial role in the apprehension of said killer. At the turn of the last century, Guglielmo Marconi is obsessed with proving that wireless transatlantic communication is indeed possible. Around the same time, mild-mannered nice guy Dr. Crippen is suffering greatly in his marriage to a volatile and overbearing wife. Larson shows the progression of both Marconi and Crippen’s life stories and the final intersection that spells doom for one of them. Murder and new technology make for an engaging read.

My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel
YA Nonfiction

Samantha starts her school years as a bright, energetic, creative, and fun loving child.  Although she enjoys going to school and playing with her friends, she can’t quite shake the feeling that there is something wrong with her. She doesn’t understand math, the concept of numbers, money, or how to tell time. This doesn’t really pose a problem in her life, until she starts the 4^th grade, and realizes how far behind she is. In her quest to remain the same as everyone else, she experiences panic attacks and has trouble eating. This continues until she is in high school, where she is diagnosed with a learning disability. Join Samantha as she tells of her journey through high school and eventually college.

The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking: Decorating, Dining, and the Gratifying Pleasures of Self-Sufficiency – on a Budget by Kate Payne
Nonfiction

Domestic activities can prove challenging for many – the young, the broke, the inexperienced. After all, just because you’ve finally moved out of your parents’ basement, that doesn’t mean you wake up magically knowing how to decorate your new place, bake a loaf of bread, or keep the shower curtain mildew-free. Fortunately, Kate Payne is here to help, with tips on everything from “how to fold a fitted sheet without going insane” to the best items to shop for in your local thrift store. Focusing on affordable organic and chemical-free home maintenance, this book is a helpful introduction to decorating, cleaning, cooking, gardening, and entertaining.

Walking into the Ocean: A Peter Cammon Mystery by David Whellams
Fiction

Semi-retired veteran Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Peter Cammon is called upon to investigate what appears to be a simple husband/wife murder and suicide.  The case is overshadowed by a series of murders ravaging the peaceful coastal community and baffling the local police. Cammon alone believes that the two cases may be connected.  As he uncovers more clues, Cammon and a local police sergeant find themselves in danger until they are able to put together the  overlapping threads to a dramatic and shocking conclusion. The first novel of a planned trilogy.