Good Reads - January 2010

THIS MONTH WE HAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM OUR STAFF.



Isabelle is reading Dexter by Design by Jeffry Lindsay. This is the fourth thriller to feature Dexter Morgan. The narrator is a homicidal forensics investigator and the reader follows him through his days at work, as well as when he picks his next victim and finally kills them. The series inspired a TV show on HBO called Dexter.



Margo, owner of puppy Bella, suggests the new book by Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), How to Raise the Perfect Dog – more of the same advice that is in previous books but starting with a puppy instead of a problem dog. The book follows four puppies of different breeds chosen and raised by Cesar.




Bev’s suggestion is A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. This novel is set in London, England during the week before Christmas in 2008. A despicable hedge-fund manager, his neglected, pot-smoking teenage son, a book-loving subway car driver, an Islamic youth who gets recruited into a suicide-bombing cell, and a spiteful literary critic are just a few of the diverse cast of characters whose lives are all related in some way. A thriller and satire of our times.

Good Reads - November 2009

Fiorato, Marina
The Glassblower of Murano
In this internationally bestselling debut, a heartbroken woman embarks on a grand exploration of life and love as a glassblower in the city of her ancestors, Venice, and learns that the past may not be as clear as blown glass. For those who enjoy intrigue and European history with a touch of romance.




Hoffman, Alice
The Story Sisters
Elv, Claire, and Meg are the Story Sisters, and each has a fate she must meet alone - one on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing.

Good Reads - June 2009

A selection of staff-picks, fiction and non-fiction. Click on the title to check availability or place a request.



Verghese, Abraham
Cutting for Stone
Intriguing and unforgettable, this story of identical twins, born to Sister Mary Joseph Praise and Dr. Thomas Stone but raised by doctors Hema and Ghosh, is a true delight. The twin boys, Marion and Shiva, grow up at Mission Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They share everything, including a passion for medicine and an attraction to childhood playmate Genet. How this plays out over time, with devastating results that tear them apart, is central to this absorbing and thrilling family saga. Through circumstances that shatter his life, Marion, who lives in the United States, will be forced to reach out to the two men who betrayed him – his father and his brother. One learns a great deal about disease, the medical profession, and the heartbreaking lack of medical intervention in Ethiopia, in this absorbing and rewarding story. This is one book that will definitely keep you up at night turning the pages.



Fitzek, Sebastian
Therapy
This is a tale of obsession and self-delusion. Shattered by the mysterious disappearance of his ill twelve-year-old daughter, well-known, wealthy psychiatrist Viktor Larenz is unable to accept the fact that his daughter is dead. Four years later, having lost both his wife and his career, he retreats to a remote holiday island in the North Sea where he encounters a schizophrenic novelist who claims that the characters she creates come alive and that she has been having visions of Larenz's daughter. This was a huge bestseller in Germany where it toppled The Da Vinci Code from the No. 1 position.


Gillies, Isabel
Happens Every Day: an all-too-true story
Isabel Gillies had a wonderful life -- a handsome, intelligent, loving husband, two toddlers, a beautiful house; suddenly, that life was over. Her husband announced that he was leaving her and their two young sons. Far from self-pity,this memoir is so raw you feel like it is your best friend telling you her story. It is about love, marriage, family, heartbreak, and the unexpected turns of a life. A wonderful read.


Atkinson, Kate
When Will There be Good News?
If you have never read anything by this excellent Scottish writer, you are in for a treat if you pick up this one. Beginning with a shocking murder scene in which the lone survivor is a little 6 year old girl, the story continues thirty years later where this young girl has become Dr. Joanna Hunter, a successful GP in Edinburgh with a baby of her own. She hires 16 year old Reggie, who is a truly delightful character, as a nanny. Police Inspector Jackson Brodie , by a quirk of fate, ends up in a hospital in Edinburgh where his former romantic interest, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, has been sent to warn Dr. Hunter that the man who killed her family, Andrew Decker, is being released from prison. When Dr. Hunter goes missing, Reggie urges the Chief Inspector to step up the search, as Dr. Hunter’s husband is behaving in a suspicious manner. A thrilling mystery with a convoluted plot, this book is a great summer read!

Good Reads - May 2009

Steinhauer, Olen
The Tourist
Milo Weaver, a former undercover agent for the CIA, must go back undercover when the arrest of an assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo's oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases.

Taylor, Jill Bolte
My stroke of insight
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Taylor, a brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke. She observed her own mind completely deteriorate. Now she shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery.


Michaels, Anne
The Winter Vault
In 1964, Jean and Avery Escher, a newly married Canadian couple, settle into a houseboat on the Nile while Avery oversees the building of the Aswam dam. When they suffer a tragedy, they return to Toronto and separate only to try to find their way back to each other.

Lamb, Wally
The Hour I First Believed
Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school shootings, high school teacher Caelum and his school nurse wife Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful past events.