Oak Ridge Public Library

Having nimbly assisted his late father, Dick Francis, with his incredible body of best- selling mysteries, Felix Francis is more than capable of carrying on the family business. Dick Francis’s Gamble (M) is his first solo effort. He sticks to what he knows best as he unfolds the story of former jockey Nick “Foxy” Foxton as he sets out to find the man who shot and killed his friend and business partner Herb Novak at England’s famous Grand National. As Nick begins to dig deeper into Herb’s life, he realizes that his friend was involved in some shady doings – things that could certainly have gotten him killed and that might possibly get Nick killed as well.

Former New York Times reporter Janny Scott takes an in-depth look at the life of a woman we know little about yet whose influence can certainly be felt today. Stanley Ann Dunham was Barack Obama’s mother – an unorthodox young Midwesterner who forged a career for herself, had two inter-racial marriages, and raised her son and daughter alone at a time such actions were very controversial. Using interviews with family, friends, and colleagues as well as Dunham’s professional and personal papers, Scott tells the story of A Singular Woman (973.099).

Forced into retirement at age 60, airline pilot Marshall Stone decides it is time to thank the French and Belgium resistance fighters who helped him escape the Nazis when his B-17 was shot down during World War II. He particularly wants to reconnect with Robert, the passionate young man who led him across the Pyrenees to safety in Spain, and with lovely Annette, the young woman who befriended him in Paris. Kentucky writer Bobbie Ann Mason based her latest book, The Girl in the Blue Beret, on the experiences of her late father-in-law.

World War I was supposed to be the war that would end all wars. Now noted mostly for its senseless and devastating carnage, the opposition it engendered at the time divided families and nations and caused many dissenters, some of them notable personalitiesof the day, to be thrown in jail. Historian Adam Hochschild brings the period vividly to life in To End All Wars: a Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 (940.341).

Generations of readers have delighted in Charlotte’s Web, E. B White’s classic story about a pig named Wilbur who is befriended by a very wise spider. That tale was born out of White’s happy childhood spent around the barns and stables at his home in New York. Michael Sims has written a wonderful biography of White – a gentle man who found his joy in nature – in The Story of Charlotte’s Web (921.000).

The man who calls himself David Loogan has settled into a quiet life in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is still editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets and has moved in with Detective Elizabeth Waishkey who he met in his first adventure Bad Things Happen. One morning he finds a manuscript on the floor by his office. When he reads it, though, David realizes that he holds the confession of a man who has killed twice already and has plans to kill again. Very Bad Men is the latest by Harry Dolan.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Camouflage: a Nameless Detective Novel (M), by Bill Pronzini;

Breaking Silence, by Linda Castillo;

The Wreckage, by Michael Robotham;

The Devil Colony: a Sigma Force Novel, by James Rollins;

Days of Gold, by Jude Deveraux;

Portrait of a Spy, by Daniel Silva.

Non-fiction –

Tangled Webs: How False Statements Are Undermining America – From Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff (364.134), by James B. Stewart.

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August 5, 2011

The second part of Iris Johansen’s trilogy focusing on Eve Duncan and her search for her daughter Bonnie is now out. While Eve sits at the bedside of her critically injured lover, Joe Quinn, Johansen takes us back to their first meeting. Bonnie had just disappeared, and as Eve begins to work with Quinn following leads on other missing children in the area their respect for each other deepens into something more. In the present day, Eve’s friend Catherine Ling is in pursuit of John Gallo, Bonnie’s father and suspected abductor.

There is more to Martha Stewart than her cooking, gardening, and crafting talents. She is also an expert on maintaining, organizing, and cleaning every room in a house, and she has great tips for wisely choosing furnishings and appliances. She has just produced a massively huge volume full of all her practical advice. It is called Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook (640.000).

Lulu Atwater is confused about herself, her life, and her future. While her older sister Emma is planning her own wedding and her younger sister Sophie is headed for a promising career on the London stage, Lulu feels adrift. Help comes from an unexpected source when she discovers a cache of letters written by her great-great grandmother Josephine March, also known as Jo, who felt in the nineteenth century much like Lulu feels about herself today. The Little Women Letters is by Gabrielle Donnelly.

Novelist Jeff Abbott pumps up the excitement in Adrenaline, the opener to his new series. The CIA office in London is bombed in a terrorist attack. Just before the explosion, agent Sam Capra had received a call from his pregnant wife Lucy, who is also an operative, telling him to leave the building immediately. That makes Sam the only survivor and puts him at the top of the list of suspected double agents – especially after Lucy disappears. Beaten up and held under arrest by his former colleagues, Sam manages to escape and sets out to find Lucy, his newborn child – and some answers.

How fondly do you remember your high school years? Did you fit in with the popular crowd, or were you one of the outsiders? Journalist Alexandra Robbins looks at the “cafeteria fringe” people – the loners, nerds, and other “weird” kids – to see how they have fared in life. Surprisingly, she reports, the very traits which set them uncomfortably apart in high school have helped them succeed as adults. She gives the details in her entertaining new book, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School (303.324).

A woman locates her birth mother with devastating results in Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens. Sara Gallagher never really felt accepted by her adoptive family, so at the age of 33 she sets out to find her biological mother. University professor Julia Laroche, however, wants nothing to do with her daughter who was conceived when she was attacked and raped by the notorious Campsite Killer. He is still on the loose, even though he has terrorized the region for almost 40 years – but now he decides that he wants to meet his daughter and her young child.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Fallen (M), by Karin Slaughter;

The Jefferson Key, by Steve Berry;

Betrayal of Trust: a J. P. Beaumont Novel (M), by J. A. Jance;

Scales of Retribution: a Mystery Set in Sixteenth Century Ireland (M), by Cora Harrison;

Silver Girl, by Elin Hilderbrand.

Non-fiction –

I’m All Over That, and Other Confessions (791.430), by Shirley MacLaine.

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July 29, 2011

After 16 books, everyone has decided that Stephanie Plum, Trenton’s most entertaining bounty hunter, should settle down with either her on-off boyfriend policeman Joe Morelli or the sizzlingly mysterious Ranger. But right now, Stephanie has other things on her mind – like the bodies that keep turning up on an empty lot connected to the bail bonds office and the suspicion that she may be on the killer’s short list of victims. Janet Evanovich ratchets up the fun in Smokin’ Seventeen (M).

Tom Clancy fans may be delighted that he has produced another novel as big as a doorstop on the heels of his 2010 blockbuster Dead or Alive. Unfortunately, Against All Enemies is pulling in fairly poor reviews. You be the judge as special CIA operative Maxwell Moore sees his entire team wiped out in a bombing in Pakistan. His search for the terrorist cell that is responsible leads him to a frightening scenario: the Taliban and the Mexican drug cartels seem to have joined forces against the United States.

After spending years helping women understand their true relationship with food and overeating, Geneen Roth and her husband had accumulated a large sum of money. A wealthy and trusted friend recommended they invest with a fellow by the name of Bernie Madoff. Out of that debacle, Roth came to realize that she had pretty much thought of money as she had once thought of food – and that she, like many of us, never fully grasped her relationship with finances. She shares what she has learned in Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money (332.024).

When she was 29, Christine Lucas survived a terrible car accident that left her with short term memory loss. She cannot remember anything from one day to the next, so each morning when she awakens, she must learn again who Ben, her husband of 22 years, is and accept the middle-aged face she sees in the mirror. One day, she receives a call from Dr. Nash who tells her he is her neuropsychologist and explains that they have been working together to recover her memory. He has had her keep a journal which he wants her to read. But when she opens it to the first page, she is shocked to see the words “Don’t trust Ben” written there in her own handwriting. Before I Go To Sleep is a finely crafted thriller by first-time novelist S. J. Watson.

If you aren’t already, there is a good chance that you will be involved in the long-term care of an aging parent, relative, or friend. Dr. Robert L. Kane, who directs the Center on Aging at the University of Minnesota, has compiled a wealth of information into “a one-of-a-kind compassionate resource” that includes guidance on choosing facilities and handling insurance and finances as well as dealing with doctors. Most importantly, he gives sound advice on taking care of your own well-being. It’s all in The Good Caregiver (649.800).

Comedic actor and filmmaker Albert Brooks has segued from his satiric yet thought-provoking films, such as Lost in America and Defending Your Life, to satiric yet thought-provoking novels. In his fiction debut, he takes us to the year Twenty Thirty. The good news is that cures for cancer and obesity have been found. The bad news is that the youth of the country are fed up with supporting the rapidly expanding population of longer living elderly. And, as tensions mount, Los Angeles is finally hit by that earthquake – and the government is too short on cash to offer any assistance.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Dead Reckoning: a Sookie Stackhouse Novel, by Charlaine Harris;

Just Wanna Testify, by Peal Cleage;

Dreams of Joy, by Lisa Joy;

Folly Beach: a Lowcountry Tale, by Dorothea Benton Frank;

The Kingdom: a Fargo Adventure, by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood.

Non-fiction –

The Long Road Home: the Aftermath of the Second World War (940.530), by Ben Shephard;

Small Memories: a Memoir (921.000), by Jose Saramago.

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July 22, 2011

While several writers have been tapped to continue Ian Fleming’s James Bond legacy, Jeffrey Deaver just may have the highest profile of them all. So what does he bring new to the Bond franchise? The beautiful women and high-tech cars are still around, as are the quirky villains and sublimely mixed drinks. Deaver’s Bond, however, is very much a product of a post-9/11 world. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he has been recruited into a new, ultra secret organization dedicated to fighting terrorism, and his license to kill has been turned into Carte Blanche

How can a novel about the Peoria office of the Internal Revenue Service be both provocative and entertaining? In the hands of the late David Foster Wallace it is all that and more. When Wallace took his life in 2008, one of America’s most original and challenging voices was stilled. Ironically, his works are now receiving the critical attention they deserve. The Pale King was reportedly left uncompleted, but fans note that some sharp editing has pulled it into shape.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has seen first-hand the misery war has brought to this planet. He has also watched politicians and the news media promote the agendas of the big corporations who back them. These observations interpreted through his education in the classics and Christian ethics have led him to write an insightful, disturbing, and timely book on The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress (327.090)

Dr. Eve Larson and her research team on an island off Florida’s east coast have developed a way to tap the Gulf Stream, using the ocean’s powerful currents as a source of renewable energy. It is a major development that could save the earth – and ruin the oil companies. Needless to say, they want Eve to fail and will do whatever is necessary to stop her. It falls to former CIA agent Kirk McGarvey to keep her safe in Abyss, the latest installment in David Hagberg’s suspense-filled series.

As we watched Prince William on his wedding day this past May, it was difficult to keep away thoughts of his mother, Princess Diana. Monica Ali has created a story about that unhappy woman, imagining that the late Princess rigged her death in Paris’ Alma Tunnel and escaped to a small town in the middle of America to lead a life of quiet anonymity. But even with a nose job and new hair color, Diana, who is known as Lydia, is recognized by a visiting photographer who manages to place all she now holds dear in jeopardy. Untold Story is the title.

Like Americans throughout our history, we debate today our interpretation of the Constitution and wonder what our forefathers’ intended when they created it. Historian Ray Raphael provides some guidance for us in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Founding Fathers and the Birth of Our Nation (973.309). He fills in the stuff we missed in our American History classes as he follows the development of the Constitution from its roots in the laws of England to the thoughts of the revolutionary men who wrote it.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Summer and the City: a Carrie Diaries Novel, by Candace Bushnell;

Mr. Monk on the Couch (M), by Lee Goldberg;

Best Staged Plans, by Claire Cook;

Now You See Her, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge;

The Dog Who Came in From the Cold: a Corduroy Mansions Novel, by Alexander McCall Smith;

Heat Wave, by Nancy Thayer.

Non-fiction –

Getting to Heaven: Departing Instructions for Your Life Now (248.400),by Don Piper.

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