The Next Queen Of Heaven by Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire's new book, The Next Queen Of Heaven, focuses on small town America and the role that religion plays in this setting.  The cast of characters rely on religion in various ways for various purposes, some spiritual, some skeptical while others are going through the paces of their lives looking for ways to connect and finding them in different churches.  The book is set in the small town of Thebes, New York in the late 1990's.

Jeremy Carr is the choir director at the local Catholic parish.  He is hoping to make his big break after Christmas as he has won a place in a musical revue in New York.  Jeremy is gay, and his singing group is made up of his friends who are also gay; one fighting AIDS.  What has kept him in Thebes outside of a sense of obligation is his inability to stop loving Willem, who had a fling with him before Willem got married.  Jeremy knows his love is impractical, but is stuck and can't bring himself to leave.

Another part of the book revolves around the Scales family.  Mrs. Scales is raising three children by herself, and looks to religion to help her get through the days and provide a structure for her children.  She is met by indifferent success, at least by the measures of traditional success.   Tabitha is the oldest and the town scandal as she moves from man to man.  The middle son is Hogan, a dropout who is interested in cars and garages and video games, but not much else.  The youngest is a son named Kirk, who is interested in music and drama and doesn't fit in well in a traditional school setting.  Mrs. Scales, who is a fundamentalist Christian, is transformed when she goes next door to the Catholic church and gets hit over the head with a statue. 

There are other characters that play a part in the patterns.  A group of ancient nuns live in an old convent outside of town, and a friendship develops between them and Jeremy's group.  There are various ministers and priests, some of whom are helpful and some of whom use religion to accomplish their personal goals.  Each person is clawing their way towards finding some meaning in their lives.

Gregory Maguire is best known for his Wicked series, which used The Wizard Of Oz story to reinterpt live and love.  This new book strikes out into fresh territory, which retaining Maguire's offbeat humor and ability to delve into his character's lives.  This book is recommended for all readers.

Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, Paper Engineering by Chuck Fischer

If you look up this book on a book seller site, it will say Pop-Up book.  But calling what Chuck Fischer does with paper pop-up is like saying the ocean is a bit wet.  He calls it paper engineering and that is a much more accurate term.

Fischer has retold Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol with magically intricate paper art.  Each page unfolds to amazing figures that leap off the page.  The images are amazingly detailed and take the reader to Victorian England.  Each page also has an insert booklet where the reader can read related chapters from Dicken's novel.

Fischer has done images for the title page (a Victorian London street scene), You Will Be Haunted by Three Spirits (a ghost trailing chains and weights, The Ghost Of Christmas Past (a spirit rising from a candle), The Ghost of Christmas Present (a harvest king with a magnificent feast is portrayed), The Last Of The Spirits (a towering black figure which fills the viewer with awe), and God Bless Us Every One (showing Scrooge and Tiny Tim in a glorious conclusion)

Chuck Fischer is an artist whose designs have been replicated world-wide in paintings, holiday ornaments and home furnishings.  His designs include wallpaper and fabrics in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.  He has done six previous paper engineering books.  I was lucky enough to get a copy of his glorious Angels last year.  These books are destined to become family heirlooms for the joy they bring to the viewer and are highly recommended for all readers, whether young or young at heart.

Up From The Blue by Susan Henderson

Tillie is seven months pregnant, newly moved into an apartment she is supposed to be getting ready while her husband goes on one last business trip, and frantic.  She feels contractions, and doesn't even have a phone connection to call a hospital or doctor to see what is wrong.  Desparate, she reaches out to her father from whom she has been estranged for years.  He comes to her rescue and gets her to the hospital where it is confirmed that her baby is to born today, early or not.

As she waits for the birth, Tillie is torn between the uncertain future and her memories of growing up, especially the year she was eight.  That was the year her family moved from a military base to Washington DC, so that her father, the colonel, could work at the Pentagon on a new missile system.  That was also the year her beloved mother disappeared from her life, first mentally, then physically.  Her mother is caught up in a deep, bone-numbing depression, and can not function in a normal family setting.  Tillie relives those years and how her mother's absence affected all her relationships.  It affected not only her maternal relationship, but her paternal one at all.  Having normal friendships were beyond her, and even her brother and she were remote figures passing each other without connecting.  Only one teacher could see behind her moods and distractedness to the real little girl hiding inside.

This book  is dangerous.  Readers should make sure that they have carved out a sufficient amount of time, as once they start reading, all else fades into insignificance.  Jobs will be neglected, children left to fend for themselves, spouses ignored.  Susan Henderson has written a book that grabs the reader by the throat, and brings them into a world where the love between a mother and child when the mother is damaged is explored.  The topic is grim, but the book is anything but.  Tillie is a little girl the reader will fall madly in love with.   One hopes she can make her way in the world to a successful future.  This book is highly recommended for all readers.

Regression by Kathy Bell

When fourteen-year old Adya Jordan wakes from a coma, she awakes with detailed memories of her life as a forty year old married woman.  She remembers in detail her house, her love affair and marriage to her husband and the six children they had, and can picture them in her mind.  Of course, her parents and the doctors are skeptical and feel that her memories indicate the need for further brain scans and tests.  She learns to hide her memories from those around her.

Yet, she is sure that her memories are correct, and interacting with others does nothing to diminish the detailed memories she holds.  Then, after several months, she starts to understand.  In school, the only place computers are allowed, she answered a question and is given a number to call.  It is the number of the powerful Three Eleven Corporation, and they offer her an internship.

The Three Eleven Corporation controls most of the world's economy.  They control all technology, and thus the financial, manufacturing and government realms.  As Adya begins her stay with them, she learns the secret behind their power.  The Corporation is composed of other individuals like her who have been regressed from the future.  In particular, they all have specific memories of their last date in their former lives; November 11, 2011, or 11/11/11, Three Eleven.  Adya is the first woman to be regressed and the others are not sure what that means.

The men in Three Eleven believe that there is a worldwide catastrophe coming on 11/11/11, which is currently twenty-seven years in the future.  They have joined together to try to stop this, and to do so, have taken power over all facets in government.  They see themselves as benevolent, but Adya questions their authority and whether their decisions are correct.  Is it right to be incredibly wealthy because you can control the stock market with knowledge from a former life, or "discover" technological advances made by others in the future?  This is the path they have chosen, and it is now time for Adya to decide if she will fight with them or against them as the world moves closer to 11/11/11.

Kathy Bell has written Regression in a manner that will fascinate those who believe in past lives and regression, and intrigue those who are willing to consider the possibility.  This book is recommended for science fiction readers and those interested in New Age philosophies.

When Life Throws You Lemons, Make Cranberry Juice by Shari Bookstaff

In 2006, Shari Bookstaff went into a hospital to have surgery to remove a large benign brain tumor.  Although this was a serious operation, all signs were that it would be a successful surgery, followed by a week's stay and then several months of recuperation at home.  Instead, something went wrong in the surgery and she spent nine months in various hospitals and has been left with serious complications that are life-altering.

Bookstaff had faced adversity before.  While she trained as a marie biologist, she was so seasick that she had to find ways to use her degree to work as a marine biologist on land.  She became a college professor to overcome this.  She faced pregnancy difficulties, and after years of disappointments, had two children.  Her marriage fell apart.  But none of these life experiences could prepare her for the new life she was given after her surgery.

Shari talks in the book about how she has adjusted to her new life; being realistic about what has been taken away and finding ways to bring positive features into her life to counteract what has been lost.  She talks in detail about the medical procedures, the long months and years of physical therapy and the ways her daily life is different and harder than that experienced by most people.  But she also highlights the joyful events that center around her children and her determination to bring happiness into her life.  She talks about what she has lost, but she also describes what is left and what is new with vim and vigor.

No one gets out of life alive.  Everyone faces adversity, although some people's lives are much harder and more difficult than others.  This book can help those struggling with a life event.  Yes, things have changed and there are negative impacts that won't disappear, but there is also life after a tragedy, and it can be a wonderful life.  This book is recommended for those who are facing a struggle or those who have others in their lives who are doing so whom they want to help. 

Mr. Darcy's Obsession by Abigail Reynolds

In Mr. Darcy's Obsession, Abigail Reynolds explores the period between Darcy's first wooing of Elizabeth Bennett and their marriage; a time that they were estranged for a while due to Elizabeth's misunderstanding of his intentions. 

Hard times have fallen on the Bennett family after the death of Mr. Bennett.  Jane has married a tradesman to provide some relief for the family; she doesn't love him but honors him and is grateful for his help.  She now works in trade herself; a shop that sells ribbons and other lady's accessories.  Elizabeth has been sent to her aunt and uncle to serve as a nanny.  It is there that Mr. Darcy once again encounters her, and realizes that no matter the difference in social status, she is the only woman he has ever wanted. 

Although determined to win her for his own, life intervenes.  Another Bennett sister, Lydia, has become pregnant out of wedlock, a situation much worse than genteel poverty as it meant the whole family would be socially ostracized, as would anyone who acknowledged them.  Mr. Darcy cannot help but contrast this situation with similar ones in his own family and comes to realise that the only difference is the money and power that allowed his relatives to hide their shame.

Meanwhile, he becomes more and more disenchanted with the social structure he has always taken for granted, with its huge discrepencies between those with money and the vast majority without.  His eyes are opened by the disgraceful actions of his cousin and uncle and their treatment of women, despoiling where they wished, never caring for the aftereffects they condemned the women they picked to. 

Regardless of the various situations, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth manage to break through the strictures of society and come to a happy ending.  The reader is taken along on their journey, while gaining insight into the day to day life of this period.

I was prepared to dislike this book.  I'm far too much of a feminist to accept a society where a woman's every move is dictated in advance, and there is little room for advancement or ability to follow interests.  But Abigail Reynolds has charmed me with her portrayal.  While portraying the romance and the passion that simmered beneath, she hasn't made her characters into ones consumed with passion and sexual desire every minute of the day.  Reynold's writing is gentle as the subject but she does not veer away from the inequalities that marred this social setup.  I enjoyed a further glance at the backstory of these characters and of daily life in this period.  This book is recommended highly for lovers of the Elizabeth Bennett/Fitzwilliam Darcy love story, and for those interested in an insight into this era.

Angel Of Death Row by Andrea Lyons

Nineteen times, Andrea Lyon was appointed as the defense attorney in a death penalty case.  Nineteen times she was successful in avoiding the death penalty for her clients.  In Angel Of Death Row, a name given to her by the Chicago Tribune, Andrea Lyon takes the reader through twelve of these death penalty cases.  Along the way, the reader learns of Lyon's legal philosphies, the intense and engrossing work that defending a capital case involves, and the scary misperceptions and misjustices that make being charged with a capital offense such an overwhelming perception.

There was the case of the mother on trial for killing her daughter.  The truth was, however, that the police coerced a confession from her by telling her that confessing was the only way she could go to her baby's funeral.  When the case was reinvestigated, it turned out that someone else entirely was responsible.  Another case involved a woman on death row for killing her husband.  Her issue?  Her original defense attorney decided that the case against her was so flimsy that no one would believe she did it, and did no investigation of his own, and put up very little defense.  Since the prosecution came to court prepared with his version, the woman was convicted and served behind bars for years before Ms. Lyon was able to help her gain her freedom.

Lyon doesn't pretend that everyone she defends is blameless.  She is willing to have a guilty client serve a reasonable term, but one of her core beliefs is that it is imperative that the whole story comes out so that the jury can determine if there are mitigating factors that would lead toward a long jail term rather than a death sentence.  Several of the cases illustrate this tenet.  Others show defendants that she saved from a death sentence in spite of themselves, when they were to mentally ill to provide much help.

This book is fascinating for those who follow crime and legal tactics.  They are taken behind the closed doors of a defense attorney at the top of her game, and given an illustrative look at what really decides many court cases.  If one is charged with a crime, that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't be convicted if innocent.  It takes an attorney willing to investigate and determine the truth and also one competent enough to get enough points raised that an effective appeal is possible.  This book is recommended for readers interested in legal matters or those who enjoy hearing about someone at the top of their game relate their experiences.

Take A Chance On Me by Jill Mansell

Love doesn't run smoothly in Channing Hill, and there's no more entertaining narrator than Jill Mansell to document it's rocky course.  There is Cleo, local limo driver, who has finally settled down into a job she likes and a man she adores, Will.  Unfortunately, she runs into Will and his wife, Fia one day while out on a trip and realises that once again she has fallen for someone totally unsuitable.

Fia, who didn't know about Cleo but did know about Will's propensity to lie and cheat, ends their marriage and ends up as the new chef at the pub in Channing Hill.  Cleo's neighbor and best friend, Ash, falls in love with Fia the moment he sees her, but doesn't stand a chance.  Fia has fallen in love with the local gentry, Johnny LaVenture, a world-class sculptor.  Cleo who grew up with Johnny isn't thrilled to have him back in town as he made her adolescent days a nightmare with his constant teasing.

Does no one have it right when it comes to love?  Cleo's sister Abbie and her husband Tom, seem to have the right recipe.  But their world comes tumbling down when two things occur.  Abbie's boss falls in love with her and Tom discovers he has a teenage daughter he knew nothing about.  She turns up on their doorstep and has soon moved in, while Abbie has moved out and in with Cleo.

Mansell has written another hilarious, engaging romance with characters the reader would love to meet and a plot that twists and turns and somehow manages to resolve all these romantic entanglements neatly and successfully by the end of the book.  The reader is treated to a cozy yarn that never fails to entertain.  This book is recommended for readers looking for a lighter book that will make them realise that love exists for us all, no matter how long and difficult the journey.

The Magician's Book by Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a cofounder of Salon.com and writes frequently in The New York Times Book Review.  She is also the editor of The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors.   In The Magician's Book, she takes readers back to her discovery of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles Of Narnia, and how they changed her life as a child.

Miller was entranced by the books as soon as she read them.  This absorption lasted for many years, but then was marred when she read some criticism and realised what had been obvious to most adult readers; that the Chronicles were an allegory that replayed the Christian tenets of a savior who self-sacrifices to save the world.  She felt manipulated and used, and it took many years before she could come back and enjoy the series again as an adult.

The book gives the reader background about Lewis' life, his friends and his influences.  He was a great friend of Tolkien, who was writing his epic Lord Of The Rings series.  But while Tolkien was very serious, creating an entire universe and worried about its consistency, Lewis saw his series as fairy tales and borrowed bits and pieces that didn't make logical sense but somehow combined into a magical world.

There is also much discussion of how language is used; how older, oral literature is mirrored in more modern works, and how authors construct their works.  This is a fascinating look behind the scenes that only someone as connected to this world as Miller can give the average reader.  She also brings in several other modern authors like Neil Gaiman and Susannah Clark for their childhood and adult reactions to the Chronicles.

This book is recommended for those readers who enjoyed the Chronicles as a child and who are interested to see how they were constructed and the meanings behind various scenes.  I've been listening to the books this past year with my daughter and so found this book fascinating. 

Haiku by Andrew Vachss

A group of men have come together as a family in a large city. The world sees them as homeless, but they see the worth and talents each brings, and have banded together to take care of each other. Ho is a former martial arts instructor who walked away from fame and fortune when he decided he was losing his honor by gaining riches. Lamont is a former convict and poet, now a man who drinks to make it through the day. Michael was a high-roller; a stockbroker with all the accomplishments of wealth until he became a gambler and lost all that he had accumulated. Brewster is a high-functioning schizophrenic, rejected by his family and on and off of his medicine. Target is a damaged man that none of the others understand. Ranger is a Vietnam vet who returned physically but not mentally from those brutal fields.

This group comes together to accomplish a goal, something that is compellingly important to one of the group. Each man contributes what talents he has and they work together to accomplish their task. As they work, each also starts to let go of his demons and move toward a healthier place; helped by each other when nothing society had to offer seemed to help at all. The theme is that each man has his own truth, his 'haiku' and his life task is working toward the discovery of this inner truth and honor.

Readers will recognize Andrew Vachss as the author of the Burke series; eighteen books that have some of the same themes. That series focuses on how society ignores the helpless; children who are molested and women who are degraded and brutalized. Burke and his group of friends work together to save these victims. In this series, the theme has been twisted a bit to show that there are other victims of society; the homeless who each have a story and an event that has put them where they are. Another twist is that now the same individuals others would see as victims have the ability to save themselves as well as others. Fans of previous Vachss books will enjoy Haiku; it uses the same sparse writing and the themes of honor and protection of those less able to help themselves. This book is recommended for readers of crime and mystery books.

AUDIO GIVEAWAY!!!!! DELIVER US FROM EVIL BY DAVID BALDACCI

A brand new thriller featuring returning characters Shaw and Katie James from The Whole Truth.

Bestseller Baldacci's sequel to The Whole Truth (2008) lacks the creative plotting and masterful handling of suspense that marked his earlier thrillers. Evan Waller, outwardly a respectable Canadian businessman but secretly a human trafficker who sells children into prostitution, has expanded into arranging nuclear weapons deals with Islamic fundamentalists. Shaw, the lead of The Whole Truth, sets out to stop Evan, as does Regina “Reggie” Campion, a British femme fatale, who works for a clandestine group that tracks down and executes war criminals. Reggie and Shaw, both of whom intend to make their move while Evan is on vacation in Provence, cross paths while maintaining their cover stories. Shaw becomes attracted to Reggie, even as he fears that Evan, who's in fact a sadistic Ukrainian who served the Soviets, will abduct her.

GIVEAWAY RULES

 YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.

1. The giveaway starts Saturday, September 25 and ends on Friday, October 8th at midnight.

2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.

3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.
5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Good luck!

In The Arms Of Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan

Devotees of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice will be interested to see what author Sharon Lathan has done with these characters in her sequel book, In The Arms Of Mr. Darcy.  Lathan has written several books in this series; Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One; Loving Mr. Darcy: Journey Beyond Pemberley and My Dearest Mr. Darcy.

In this edition, the reader visits the Darcy's the winter after their son and the heir to Pemberley has been born.  Both parents dote on their newborn, as do all their relatives and friends.  Although it is considered a bit strange that Elizabeth chooses to nurse her son rather than employ a wet nurse, no one dares to voice any surprise that the fond parents want to see to their son's care themselves.

In addition to the relationship between Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, there are others who are entering the courts of love.  Darcy's sister Georgina is entering her debutant days, as is Kitty Bennett, Elizabeth's sister.  We see them at a splendid ball, and get a sense of the manners and norms of courting.  Darcy's good friend, Richard, home from the military, has fallen in love with a widow and asks Darcy's advice.  There are other relationships that develop, some surprising in their intensity and some remaining safely contained in the shoals of society's strictures.

The reader is transported to the start of the Industrial Revolution in England.  It is a land of titled nobles and servants and a group of professionals, but most of the power, money and influence is concentrated in a few noble hands.  The daily life in large manor houses is amazing for modern readers to contemplate, and Lathan does an excellent job of outlining what such a daily routine consisted of.  This book is recommended for readers who loved Austen's work and are interested to see the story continue.

A Cure For All Diseases by Reginald Hill

Sandytown is the perfect seaside resort.  It's newest venture is advertising itself as a health resort.  There is already a world-class clinic, and a local group is bringing in alternative therapists also.  There's a plan to turn the local manor house into a luxury hotel/spa and all seems ducky.  The main partners in the venture are Lady Denham, who is the local gentry, and Tom Parker, who is interested in the alternative therapies and is the general cheerleader for the project.

All's well until a local gathering is interrupted by the discovery of the body of Lady Denham.  It seems there are a myriad of suspects.  In addition to Tom Parker, Lady Denham had several relatives who wanted to be her heirs.  There are also local characters who she has insulted or treated shabbily.  On top of this, there are secrets with some of the alternative healers.

The case falls to Peter Pascoe, who is heading up Yorkshire police in the absence of Andy Danziel.  But Daziel is on the spot---he's recuperating from a terrorist bombing at the clinic.  The entire cast of characters from this series are on the spot, along with some former villians and new intriguing characters.

The Dalziel-Pascoe series in one of my absolute favorites.  Hill writes breezily and humour comes through in the speeches of his characters.  The mysteries are densely plotted, and the reader is usually surprised by the ending.  This book is highly recommended for all mystery lovers, and if you haven't read any of the series, you'll want to go back and read them all!

Fat Chick by Lorraine Duffy Merkl

We meet Trish Collins as she is on top of her world.  Finally, a perfect size zero, she has a great job at an ad agency representing TREND, the most sought-after fashion magazine.  She has a great relationship with her boyfriend, who is also the personal trainer who helped her get a toned and muscular body.  She isn't hurting for anything....

The book then goes back and portrays Trish's life when she was fat.  Losing her father early, she stuffed her pain with food.  She continues to eat until she is large, every taunt and male rejection just fueling her appetite as she turns again and again to the friend that never rejects, food.

Finally, she has had enough and decides this is the time she will make a real difference.  She joins a program, joins a gym, and over months, gets thin and thinner and thinner.  Her life is now perfect, or is it?

Lorraine Duffy Merkl has created a woman that will find a touchpoint with most women.  Most of us have wished for thinner bodies or wished we were even thinner, typing our self-worth to how many pounds show on the scale and what size we can buy in the department store.  She shows Trish's struggles with sterotypical rejections and then flips the mirror and shows the pros and cons of being super-thin.  The writing is breezy and the characters sometimes shallow, but this is intentional on the author's part as she shows the archtypes that rule women's places in society.   This book is recommended for women readers and males that want to understand the enormous part weight and self-image play in almost every woman's life.

What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

Has there ever been a more satisfactory villian than Jack the Ripper?  His identity as the first publicized serial killer, the depravity of his acts, and the fact that he was never conclusively identified has made his fame more eternal, as each person can configure the facts to fit their own ideas of who he must have been.

In What Alice Knew, Paula Marantz Cohen has contrucked an interesting premise in which the James siblings, Henry, William and Alice, come together to identify Jack the Ripper.  William has been asked by Scotland Yard to come over from America to lend his psychological expertise.  Henry is a member in good standing of London society, and his talent as a novelist often leads him to notice relationships that others are oblivious to.  Alice, their invalid sister, has necessarily concentrated her powers to delve into others' minds and thoughts.  Together they make a formidable team.

The facts of the Ripper's crimes are all here, but don't overwhelm the reader.  Other famous people make appearances, including Oscar Wilde, John Singer Sargent, Samuel Clemens and James Whistler.  Each familiar name and the portrayal of their world helps the reader understand how shocking these crimes were and how they were the talk of every table and meetingplace in London.  Can William, James and Alice find a way to uncover the identity of this man before he kills again?

Cohen has created an intriguing world.  A Distinguished Professor of English at Drexel University, she has the necessary knowledge of the period to make a very believable world, from the cream of society to the servants who organize the lives of these men and women, to those unfortunates mired in poverty and brutish lives.  In addition, she knows the worlds of art, literature and education that give the book its realistic feel.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers and those interested in the James family and their social strata. 

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men is a set of vignettes told from the male viewpoint.  Some are quite short, while others are much more lengthy.  Not for the faint-hearted, there is lots of talk about sex and some raunchy language.

My favorite tale was told by a man who picked up a woman for casual sex and ended up being moved by her life story.  Hitchhiking, she was picked up by a serial sex offender/murderer, and managed to save her own life by talking the man out of his need to kill her by empathizing with him.  The man starts out by regarding the woman lightly, just another plaything, but her story makes him realise that she has depth and is someone to be taken seriously.

Another favorite is the retelling of that first time on the high diving board (not that many pools still have these due to insurance concerns).  Wallace captures the moment completely, using every sense to vividly place the reader out there on the board as they smell, see, hear everything the diver does.  No detail is too small for Wallace to remember and comment on.

The writing is gorgeous even when the topics are disturbing.  I can't think of an author who writes more concretely about the details of an event.  This is definately not a book that feminists will applaud; the men here are brazen, outspoken and often churlish.  But the reader will not soon forget these stories.  This book is recommended for readers who like to dip into books and read one or two stories at a time.

The Last War by Ana Menendez

They had the perfect marriage.  Brando was a journalist, Flash was a photographer.  Together they roamed the world, documenting wars for audiences safely at home.  Now Brando is in Iraq in the early days of the war, embedded with the troops, while Flash waits in Istanbul for her visa.  At first, she misses him immensely, but as the days pass, she wonders if she wants to follow him one more time, if this war will be any different from all the others.

Then the letter comes.  A sly, smug letter, informing her that Brando is living with another woman.  She doesn't recognize the name of the letter writer, although the author writes as if she knows the couple well.  Flash is torn.  Fiercely rejecting the news one minute, down in the depths of depression and validating it the next, she doesn't know what to believe.  Days go by.  Brando continues to call most days but she doesn't mention the letter to him.  She wants to see his face when she asks.

As she wanders Istanbul, she keeps seeing a mysterious woman in Muslim garb, who seems to be following her.  After several encounters, she confronts the woman and discovers that it is a former acquaintance, Alexandra.  Alexandra is a writer, fixer, mover, who floats from culture to culture, always in demand but never that close to anyone.  Flash and Brando met her and her young Arab lover years before in a convoy in Afghanistan, and have run into her over the years since.

In the next weeks, Alexandra seems to take Flash on as a project.  She forces her to get out and about, telling her there is no truth to the letter.  Kind and sympathetic one day, she is cruel and dismissive the next.   This leaves Flash in more disarray than ever, never knowing from one moment what is true and what is false, who can be believed and who will betray her.

I. Loved. This. Book.  It engages the reader on the first page and never lets go.  Everyone has had the experience of loving someone, and reading about the agony of wondering if that love has been betrayed struck to the heart.  As the author reveals layer upon layer of the characters, showing past events that have led to the current stages and hinting at causes, the reader is entranced.  The mood is languorous with an undertone of menace.  As the best books do, it makes the reader question what they know about life and love.  This book is recommended for all readers.

Ashes To Water by Irene Ziegler

Annie Bartlett has returned to her hometown and the memories she fled from years ago. She received a call that her father, Ed,  has been murdered and his current girlfriend has been charged.  Annie and her sister, Leigh, grew up in a household full of anger and recrimination.  Her father was a serial adulterer and her mother, a nurse, committed suicide when the girls were still young. 

Leigh grew up to be the girl she thought her father was attracted to as she attempted to get his attention.  Flitting from man to man, her beauty her weapon, she has become mired in addiction and a dead-end life.  Annie took a different route.  She rejected everything about her upbringing and left town the minute she could get enough money to do so.  She has carved out a good life for herself, engaged to a man she loves and has a career as a photographer.

Now both girls are back and trying to make sense of what has occurred to their father.  Did the girlfriend kill him over another woman as the police believe?  Or were the other tensions in town involved?  There is an arsonist at large and Ed seemed to know something about that.  Then there is the struggle between developers who wanted Ed's lakeside house and the people in town who were fighting against having their area changed from a sleepy lakeside town to a major tourist area replete with casinos and the crime and changes that brings.  Can Annie find out what has happened before the town pulls her back into her former life and the heartbreak it brought?  Will the truths she learns as she struggles to find out what has occurred help her also make sense of her upbringing?

Irene Ziegler has written an engaging mystery.  Her characters are complex and the plot twists and turns satisfactorily.  In addition to the mystery, there are themes of past issues resolution, conflict between development and tradition, and the struggle of characters to move past what was done to them as children and to become strong, independent adults.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers.

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

In A Separate Country, Robert Hicks takes the reader to post-Civil War New Orleans.  The book follows the life of General John Hood and his family in this period.   General Hood came to New Orleans as a feared and respected man, a Confederate general who led forces and unleashed chaos upon the land.

After the war, he flounders trying to find what his new life will be.  Grievously injured with one leg missing and one arm that won't work, he isn't sure he even knows how to fit into society when he isn't needed to lead men to war.  He finds his purpose when he meets and marries Anna Marie Hennen, a famous New Orleans society beauty.  Hood and Anna Marie have eleven children. 

Hood introduces the reader to the intricacies of Southern society.  There are cotton brokers, lotteries, freed slaves now attempting to make a living, and men in societies formed for the sole purpose of refusing African-Americans their rights.  There are many orphans who also claw and fight for a chance at a new life once their family ties have been cut asunder by war.  There are men that learn to fit in, and those who are so damaged by the war that they never find redemption.

This book is highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction.  It is rife with complex characters.  There is Rintrah and Pascale, orphans who run away from the orphanage and carve out lives for themselves.  Pascale has both black and white heritage and sometimes passes as a white man, a scheme for which he pays dearly.  Rintrah is a dwarf who fights and schemes until he controls much of the underworld of the city.  Father Mike is a priest who isn't priestly, except when the yellow fever plague arrives.  He recruits all these characters along with John Hood to fight the plague and try to save the poor people of the city who are it's first and most severely affected victims. 

Hicks has created a city where the reader feels they could walk down the streets and encounter people they know.  The characters are intricate and Hicks outlines the various relationships that tie them together.  He explores what it means to be a man at war, and a man who seeks redemption.  This is an extremely satisfying book, and readers won't be disappointed. 

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

Lucian Glass's life was defined by one moment in time.  As a young art student, he arrived at a galley to find his girlfriend murdered.  Attacked also, Lucian barely survives.  That event changed his life.  Rather than pursuing a career as an artist, he becomes an FBI agent who specializes in art fraud.

His current case is one of his most challenging.  His long-time nemesis, Dr. Malachi Samuels, is a doctor who explores the fields of reincarnation and past-life regressions.  Glass also believes that he is a mass murderer who kills his way to the treasures he acquires to help in his research.  When the new case evolves, he believes that Samuels must be the mastermind behind the scenes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is involved in a custody case with Iran.  The Iranian government believes that the museum has wrongfully acquired a statue of Hypnos, the god of sleep.  As they work through the legal intricacies, a new player bursts on the scene.  The museum is sent a masterpiece; a Matisse.  But, the painting has been shredded, ruined beyond restoration.  The sender claims to have four more paintings of the same quality.  He has a proposition.  The museum can give him the statue in return for the paintings, or he will send them one at a time, destroyed.  Glass works the case, sure that his opponent is Samuels, but is he right?  He is also pulled back in time when he becomes involved with his girlfriend's cousin, who has remained in the art world.

Fans of M.J. Rose won't be disappointed in this novel.  Fast-paced with entrancing characters and an exploration of reincarnation and the art world, The Hypnotist is a compelling read.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Blessings Of The Animals by Katrina Kittle

Veterinarian Cami Anderson returns from a horse rescue to find her husband of eighteen years packing.  To her shock, he tells her he is moving out.  Even more shocking, within a week she discovers that he is living with a girl not much older than their daughter, a young woman that Cami had employed at her practice.

The Blessings Of The Animals follows Cami's life after this door slams shut on a big piece of her life.  Readers get a viseral sense of what this kind of betrayal feels like.  The book explores the depths of her shock, anger and despair, and how she begins to move beyond the nightmare to carve out a new life that expands her horizons and brings her contentment, love and even joy.

Kittle fills the book with vibrant characters.  There is Gabrielle, the couple's smart, vivacious teenage daughter who reacts by breaking up with her longtime boyfriend and refusing to let anyone get close.  Cami's birth family is introduced.  Her patrician mother and father, who raised her in the horse-racing and training business, show up in stark contrast to her ex-inlaws, who are a extroverted, noisy and nosy bunch.  Her brother is gay and in a relationship that seems very stable.  Friends surround Cami, from her best female friend to a male doctor friend who has been in her life since childhood, and who now wants to make the friendship something more serious.

Then there are the animals.  There is Moonshot, the horribly abused stallion she rescued that day, who comes back to life and health under Cami's care, all the while restoring her own sense of well-being.  There is a comic goat, a rescued three-legged ginger tom, and various other dogs and horses and donkeys.  The animals unfreeze her heart and help her remember what she loved about her career.

What a joy it is to find a book that you can't wait to pick back up!  Kittle's deft portrayal of this common situation and her insight into how life can start over will strike a chord in readers.  This book is highly recommended for all readers.

The Vanishing by Deborah Willis

In the fourteen stories in Vanishing, Deborah Willis explores the ways that we lose people and items that are important to us.  Some are vanish through infidelity and some through physical separation, while others vanish through death or even loving outside accepted boundaries.  In each case, there is the person who vanishes, and those left behind, who must determine how to move on in their lives without the person who is gone.

The opening story, "Vanishing"  is my favorite.  In this story, a playwright father and husband leaves his house one day, never to return.  The story follows his wife and daughter throughout their lives after this event, outlining the various ways that his disappearance changes their lives, even decades later.  The deftness Willis demonstrates in this outline of all the repercussions caused by his decision to leave brings the story close to the reader, and makes them spend time thinking of how their life would change without their loved ones close at hand.

In this first book of fiction, Deborah Willis displays the insight into human decisions that has marked her previous work.  She won the PRISM International annual fiction prize.  She was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction.  Her work can also be found in The Bridport Prize Anthology, Event, and Grain.  This book is recommended for readers interested in determining how we relate to each other, and what it means when the human connections are broken, either through actions or physical space.

GIVEAWAY!!!! SECRET SPEECH BY TOM SMITH

Tom Rob Smith--the author whose debut, Child 44, has been called "brilliant" (Chicago Tribune), "remarkable" (Newsweek) and "sensational" (Entertainment Weekly)--returns with an intense, suspenseful new novel: a story where the sins of the past threaten to destroy the present, where families must overcome unimaginable obstacles to save their loved ones, and where hope for a better tomorrow is found in the most unlikely of circumstances 

"THE SECRET SPEECH continues the headlong pace of Child 44." --- Wall Street Journal


Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. His first novel, Child 44, was a New York Times bestseller and an international publishing sensation. Among its many honors, Child 44 won the ITW 2009 Thriller Award for Best First Novel, The Strand Magazine 2008 Critics Award for Best First Novel, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. You can visit Tom's website at http://www.tomrobsmith.com/ and follow @tomrobsmith on Twitter.


GIVEAWAY RULES
YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.


1. The giveaway starts Sunday, August 15 and ends on Friday, August 27th at midnight.

2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.
3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Good luck!

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Twin boys are born in Ethiopia.  A normal event, but this birth was not normal.  These twins were born of a mother who was a nun, someone no one had known was pregnant.  The father was an American surgeon named Thomas Stone.  The nun, Mary Joseph Praise, was Stone's assistant in the surgery and his confidant.  They had been in love for months, but never spoke of it.  Her pregnancy, hid from everyone around, resulted in her death on the delivery table as Stone tried unsuccessfully to save her.

Stunned and shocked, Stone disappears, leaving the boys in the care of two Indian doctors, Ghosh and Hema.  Hema delivered the children after Stone's inability, and claimed the boys as her own when Stone disappeared.  She named the children Marion and Shiva.  The boys grew up in Ethiopia at Missing Hospital, surrounded by love and a close family.  In addition to Hema and Ghosh, Matron and various servants were their family.

The boys had the special relationship that twins do, but they were very different.  Shiva was extremely intelligent but had no ability to conform to rules.  School wasn't something he was interested in.  Marion was the super-striver who did everything the right way, determined to make his way in the world and make his family proud. Both boys end up with medical careers.  Marion becomes a trauma surgeon while Shiva, without a medical degree, becomes a world-renowned expert in a woman's surgery method to cure fistulas.

The boys' intense childhood bond is severed when Marion discovers a betrayal by Shiva that he cannot forgive or forget.  Due to the political situation in their homeland, Marion immigrates to America.  Years later, he discovers and is reunited with his biological father.  A medical crisis brings both branches of the family, biological and adopted together to forge new relationships and learn what they all mean to each other.

Verghese has written a sprawling, extremely satisfying novel.  The reader learns of the Ethiopian culture, as well as the medical culture of surgeons and the challenges they face.  This is hardly surprising as Verghese is a doctor as well as a novelist.  Readers will not soon forget the various faces of love that are portrayed in the novel, and will remember the characters long after they finish the book.  This book is recommended for all readers interested in an engrossing novel that will entrance and entertain.

Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz

In Cairo Modern, Naguib Mahfouz follows the lives of a group of friends at the university in 1930's Egypt.  Some are from prominent families, some are brilliant, some are handsome, some are none of these things.  The book focuses on the life of Mahgub Abd al-Da'im, a desperately poor student determined to make his way in life.

After much privation, Mahgub manages to get his degree, but much to his dismay, any jobs are given out only on a patronage basis.  Mahgub has no one to serve as his patron.  Desparately he contacts anyone he knows even slightly, hoping to find a job that will allow him to escape the poverty he has known his whole life.  Finally, he is offered a job, but it comes with a price.  He is offered a job by an influential rich man who needs someone to marry his mistress.  Mahgub swallows his pride and marries the woman.

This humiliating situation leads to his first job; a job where he receives respect and more money than he has ever had in his possession.  The price he pays, a sundering of his ideals and cutting ties with his college friends, is one he regards as a viable solution.  In fact, he determines that he will not be tied down by any ideals, not friendship or family ties or any kind of morality.  The book follows the outcome of Mahgub's decision as it plays out in his life.  After initial success, he is totally defeated when he is exposed as what he is, someone who will do anything and betray anyone.

Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize in 1988, and spent his prolific writing career portraying Egyptian life in all its aspects.  Cairo Modern is an analogy for what happens to his beloved country as it veers from it's principles prior to World War II.  This book is recommended for literature lovers, and those interested in the literature of other cultures. 

The Language Of Trees by Ilie Ruby

The small town of Canandaigua has a hold on its citizens.  Some have grown up and moved away, but find themselves drawn back to their childhood haunts.  Others have lived their entire lives in this small community, centered around a lake and the trees and animals and Indian heritage that is evident everywhere.

There are also secrets.  More than a decade ago, a tragedy changed the lives of several families.  Three children, two sisters and a brother, fled the wrath of their alcoholic father and took a canoe out on the lake at night.  When a storm whipped up, the canoe capsized and the young brother, Luke, disappeared and drowned.  That death had many consequences.  It broke the marriage of his parents.  One sister< Maya, had to be hospitalized with a mental breakdown, while the other, Melanie,  became a drug addict.  Now Melanie has defeated her addiction and has a good relationship and a baby she loves.  But she has gone missing....

Echo comes back to town to deal with the illness and old age of Joseph, the town's grocer and holder of many secrets.  He took Echo in when she was orphaned and provided her with love and security.  Grant has also returned to town to try to reconcile his past.  He is fleeing a broken marriage, and trying to determine why his father was so distant from him as a child.  When he and Echo see each other, they are drawn to rekindle the past where they were each other's first love.

Ilie Ruby has created a wonderous place, a land that seems shrouded in fog and secrets that the reader must push their way through to discover the secrets that bind these individuals to this place.  This is a debut novel and it's haunting voice will linger in readers' minds long after they close the book.  This book is recommended for readers who are interested in discovering the items that make people the way they are. 

GIVEAWAY!!!!! ADMISSION BY JEAN HANFF KORELITZ

"Admissions. Admission. Aren't there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides...It's what we let in, but it's also what we let out."

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.


GIVEAWAY RULES



YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.

1. The giveaway starts Sunday, August 1 and ends on Friday, 13th at midnight.

2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.

3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

In The Murderer's Daughters, Randy Susan Meyers outlines how a domestic abuse crime affects not only the participants, but how the event causes ripple effects throughout the entire social structure around them.  Lulu is ten and her baby sister, Merry, is five when their father comes to their apartment, fights with their mother and kills her.  While Lulu runs for help, the father tries to kill both Merry and himself, failing at both.

The girl's father is imprisoned, but the girls are also.  Their lives change immediately and for all time with the thrust of that knife.  There are few relatives; elderly grandmothers on both sides and an aunt and uncle.  The grandmothers are not able to care for the girls, and the aunt convinces her husband that they cannot take the girls in.  Lulu and Merry are sent to an orphanage.  It is a bleak and terrifying place.  After several years, they are fostered out and remain with this family until they are grown.

Lulu has survivor's guilt and stuffs her feelings down, down, down until they cannot be uncovered.  She concentrates on becoming the perfect child, making excellent grades and becoming a doctor.  She feels that she must protect everyone, and attempts to control everything in her environment. 

Merry is left with questions about why her father would do such a horrible thing, and why he tried to kill her also.  Far from stuffing her feelings down, she is consumed by them, and moves from man to man, always afraid to commit to anyone or anything.  She doesn't forgive her father, but cannot break the connection and visits him in prison over the years.

Randy Susan Meyers has done an excellent job of describing the aftermath and fallout in families from violence.  She expertly outlines the different relationships the girls have, and how this one event controls how they handle every other event in their lives.  While each copes in a different manner, both are less than whole, always attempting to determine why this happened and what it means.  This book is recommended especially for readers with family tragedies.  It will help them come to terms with what has happened to their families and how to move on from disaster. 

Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari

A Japanese middle school has taken the entire class on a field trip to Taiwan as they graduate to high schools.  Since Japan's system for high schools is based on achievement tests, the students who have gone to school together for years will be separated in the future.  There are friendships and rivalries, but no one can really imagine how it will be when they don't see each other each day.  Their teacher, Mr. Tanaka, is the chaperone on this trip to Taiwan.

The children visit a famous temple, then break into groups to walk back to the park, which is built around the natural beauty of Taroko Gorge.  Everyone comes back except for three girls.  No one has seen them leave; but they have disappeared and can't be found anywhere.  What could have happened?  As time goes by, the police are called in.  An older detective and his young relative come.  He seems nonchalent about the disappearance, and says nothing can be done until morning when there is light.

There are other visitors to the park that day.  Peter Neils is a journalist who has roamed the world.  He tries to help with the search and to calm the children.  His cameraman, Josh Pickett, is a young man who can't seem to handle the pressure and becomes drunk and useless in the search.

The students quickly form alliances.  Although they have been good friends, it doesn't take long for accusations to be hurled and blame to be attached.  The event brings some students together while forcing others apart.  Regardless, this is an event that will shape the student's lives going forward.

Jacob Ritari uses his knowledge of Buddhism and Japan to set the book in a realistic setting.  Although he grew up in the United States, he studied Japanese language and literature at Japan's Sophia University.  This book is recommended for readers who are interested in how quickly a situation requires a moral choice, and how different individuals make that choice. 

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

In the late 1920's, Czech honeymooners Viktor and Liesel Landauer consider themselves part of the new, vibrant European philosophy of liberal thought focused on the arts and benignly agnostic.  They meet an architect starting his career in Vienna who exemplifies the new thought and hire him to build them a house created from the minimalist school where the heavy designs of the past are out.  Instead, they want a house with open areas, minimal furniture and clear visions both inside and out.  Spare in design, the house has living quarters upstairs and the lower floor is one vast glassed room that overlooks the city.  Young, wealthy and valued patrons of the arts, the Laundauers seem to have it all.

But gilded perfect lives rarely stay that way.  There are strains on the marriage as the years pass. Children arrive and their love moves to a settled relationship and each starts to venture outside the marriage for friendship and romance.  As the years pass and move inevitably towards the mid-1940's, all of Europe changes with the advent of the Nazi Party and Hitler's unstoppable drive to rule all that he sees.  Viktor is Jewish.  He is not observant, but that makes no difference.  Viktor clearly sees what is coming.  He manages to convince Liesel that they must leave, and with their children, nanny and her child who has been raised with their children, they move to Switzerland.  They learn what is going on from friends and family that remain behind.  All that they treasured is lost.  Many of their friends are caught up in the Nazi horrors and their glorious house built to celebrate a new age is now a "research station" where people are measured in an attempt to find the markers that separate Jew from non-Jew.

The Glass Room has a 2009 finalist for the Man Booker Prize.  In it, Mawer leads the reader through the horror of what man can do to man without clubbing them over the head with unceasing details.  He also shows how men and women hurt each other while trying to carve out a place of safety and love for themselves.  The book not only covers the years of World War II, but the Communist era that followed in this area.  It is highly recommended for all readers and is a book I'll remember for a long time. 

AUDIO GIVEAWAY!!!! THE ART OF CHOOSING BY SHEENA IYENGAR

In an era of ever-expanding choices, HOW WE CHOOSE addresses the simple-yet-mystifying question : How do we know what we want?
The answers are strange, impressive, and profound. Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia University professor whose work on choice is widely recognized and cited by companies like AOL and Citigroup, looks into the heart of what we desire-- and what we think we desire-- to show how tangential factors enter into (and run roughshod) over our decisions.

GIVEAWAY RULES


YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.

1. The giveaway starts Sunday, July 17th and ends on Friday, July 3oth at midnight.
2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.
3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.
4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.
5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

The Prosecution Rests by Linda Fairstein

The stories in The Prosecution Rests have a common theme; all revolve around courtrooms, trials and justice meted out to criminals, sometimes formally and sometimes informally. Edited by Linda Fairstein, herself a prosecutor for 25 years in Manhattan, the book pulls together some of the most interesting crime novelists in the genre. It is a book by the Mystery Writers of America, an organization for both beginning and established mystery writers. The focus of the organization is promoting both the crime writing genre and those novelists who choose it as their focus. This anthology meets both goals.

The twenty-one stories in the book are varied and interesting. They cover murders, insurance fraud, robbery, adultery and other crimes. The protagonists are prosecutors, defense attorneys, police investigators and judges. Some of the stories are fairly straightforward while others incorporate a twist that surprises the reader. The list of authors reads like a Who's Who of mystery writing. It includes Linda Fairstein, James Grippando, Phyllis Cohen, Jo Dereske, Charlie Drees, Eileen Dunbaugh, Kate Gallison, Joel Goldman, Diana Hansen-Young, Edward Hoch, Paul Levine, Leigh Lundin, Michele Martinez, Anita Page, Barbara Parker, Twist Phelan, John Putre, S.J. Rozan, Morley Swingle, Joseph Wallace and Angela Zeman. The authors chosen include in their ranks Edgar winners, past Presidents of the Mystery Writers association and Sisters In Crime writing awards. They also include writers who are new to the genre.

This book is recommended both to those readers who enjoy crime and mystery writing, and to short story fans. Each will find stories that intrigue, amaze and surprise them. With a variety of writing styles, the reader is assured of finding stories that match their taste. The reader has an opportunity to revisit established authors' work and the chance to discover new authors in the field whose work they may want to follow in the future. The Prosecution Rests gives the reader a chance to sample quality crime writing at its best.

The Bed & Bisket Gang by M. Rene De Paulis

In The Bed & Bisket Gang, M. Rene De Paulis illustrates to children ways in which they can make those different from them feel accepted and valued.  Sarah's family has moved to a farm.  She already has two dogs, but as the days go by she expands her family to include another dog, chickens, a donkey, a mouse, a lamb, a cow and a goat.  Each comes with problems, but Sarah and the other animals help them overcome or adjust to their difficulties and learn to lead a happy, fulfilled life.

Each chapter introduces another animal and illustrates a way in which others can be different.  There is abuse, depression, handicaps that one is born with, handicaps that are thrust upon people, and difficulties brought on by one's own actions.  In that case, the chickens were making themself miserable as a result of spying and gossiping on the other animals. 

Children will internalize the message that each of us is different and each has value to contribute.  One of the cutest features in this book are the names.  Who couldn't love cows named Mother Utter and Sir Loin, or chickens named Attila the Hen and Chicken Noodle?  The author is also the illustrator and has created simple drawings that make the characters real.  This book is recommended for young children and readers.  It would also be useful in a church setting as it uses Christian terminology and concepts. 

Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe

In Commuters, Emily Gray Tedrowe explores a topic rarely discussed, that of love found by the elderly and the complications a late second marriage entails.

Winnie McClelland is seventy-eight on her wedding day; Jerry Travis a few years older.  Winnie has lived in the same commuter town outside New York City her entire life; Jerry is a successful businessman who is very wealthy.  Neither expected to be lucky enough to find love again at their age.  Nor did they expect the complications and joys that would arise from their union.

As in all second marriages, the children of the first marriage have a major adjustment to make.  Winnie's daughter, Rachel, also lives in town.  Rachel's family has had major life adjustments after her husband is in a horrific accident that leaves him in a coma for several weeks and needing major rehabilitation afterwards.  Now she has to adjust to her diminished role as her mother's confidant and advisor.  Jerry's daughter, Annette, is adamantly against the marriage and regards Winnie as a gold digger, only after Jerry's money.  She ups the ante by suing her father for control of the business he has built and left in her charge.

Annette's son, Avery, has had little contact with his grandfather.  But he is now on his own in New York, and develops a relationship with both Jerry and Winnie.  He is starting out in many ways.  He has just found a new love, Nona, and is feeling his way towards a career as a chef.  For the first time in his life, he is feeling the comfort and reassurance of an accepting family life.

All the characters react in different fashions as Jerry's health deteriorates, and these reactions make up the second half of the book.  Emily Tedrowe explores what it means to get older and what is important to us as we age.  She delves into family relationships and the difficulties that they bring along with the joy.

This book is recommended for all readers.  The characters are vibrant, and the reader will remember them long after the book is put away.  The topic is one that many readers will encounter, either as the participant in an older love relationship, or as the child of someone in the situation.  Commuters gives guidance and hope; an uplifting book that lyrically explores the facets of love and family.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

In Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay has created a masterpiece of an Oriental culture, that of the land of Kitai. It relates a time of intrigue, political maneuvering, rebellion and change. The book's hero, Shen Tai, is suddenly thrust into this environment and must adapt to survive.

The book opens in a remote location called Kuala Nor. It is the site of an ancient battle where thousands of men were killed, their bleached bones still hungering for honor. Shen Tai spends two years at this site, during his time of mourning for his father who was a famous General. He spends his days far from all he knows and those he loves, burying the bones of the dead soldiers, both Kitan and those of the enemy force. Although he expects nothing from this labor, it does not go unnoticed. At the end of his time, two events happen. First is that an assassin, sent by enemies back at the Kitan royal court, attempts to kill him. Second, a Princess, who is the daughter of the Kitan Emperor but who was sent to a bordering country in a political marriage, makes a life-changing gift to Shen Tai.

Horses are the lifeblood of the armies and of trade. Most valued of all are Sardian horses. One is more than most men can ever hope to attain. The Princess sends Tai two hundred and fifty of these magnificent horses. This is a life-changing gift; a gift that will echo down the ages. Shen Tai must find a way to get to the Emperor's Court and give this gift to him for national prestige and honor. There are many who will try to stop him and gain the horses for their own gain. The Court is full of rival factions, each vying for favor and the possibility of future honors as the Emperor weakens with age. In addition to the political relationships, there is also the effect of love. Men do anything for the women they love, but at the same time the women also are caught up in the intricate games of statesmanship that are the daily fare of Court life. These love relationships are finely honed and the reader must read more to find out what will happen in the rivalries that exist between men over love.

Kay has written a masterpiece. It straddles the genres of historical fiction and fantasy and in doing so, takes the reader on a fascinating and engaging journey. The characters are finely drawn and their intricate relationships are revealed slowly to the reader. The political intrigue and themes of honor, entitlement and military maneuvering is presented in a complex story that leaves the reader with a sigh of contentment as they turn the last page. This book is recommended for all readers.

GIVEAWAY!!!! THE IMPOSTER'S DAUGHTER BY LAURIE SANDELL

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict).

 Later, she lucks into the perfect job--interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is--not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them--herself.

GIVEAWAY RULES


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1. The giveaway starts Saturday, July 10th and ends on Friday, July 23nd at midnight.

2. There will be five winners, chosen by random number generation.

3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Good luck!  This is a graphic novel, but not intended for children!

Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

Women are disappearing.  It's happening all over the country, and it appears that the women are targeted specifically.  The FBI are brought in, and that brings in Detective Alex Cross.  Alex has left the DC Police Department and is being fast-tracked in the FBI for a top position.  He soon discovers that the women are being ordered as if they were on a menu on a secret website for very rich, very depraved men.  The women are kidnapped and sold to these men as sex slaves.

In addition to the perplexing case, Alex has other issues to worry about.  He is separated from his new love, Jamilla, who is on the West Coast while he is on the East.  And a former love, Christine Johnson, has reappeared in a move that bodes trouble.  She is the mother of Alex's youngest child, the baby also named Alex.  Christine walked out of their lives a year ago to go find herself after a brutal crime, and now she is back and wants custody of Alex.

As Cross works the case, he discovers that the mastermind behind the kidnapping ring is a Russian man known only as the Wolf.   The Wolf is never seen, but his intimidation extends to everyone he has any contact with.  Anyone who talks about him at all is brutually murdered with no questions asked.  That makes tracking him down and stopping his spree more difficult than any other search Alex can remember.

Big Bad Wolf is a fast-paced thriller that reminds readers why they love James Patterson.  The action is non-stop and heart-pounding.   The reader is caught up in the action and also becomes involved in Alex's family concerns.  This book is recommended for all mystery readers.