|
|
|
|
Pattern
Recognition
by William
Gibson |
a
book recommendation
by Michelle, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
The master of futuristic hi-tech fiction brings us a story set closer to home. Cayce Pollard is a “coolhunter”—an advertising consultant who can judge whether new products will succeed based on a violent, allergy-like reaction to successful company logos. Afflicted with this strange panic disorder, and while grieving the loss of her father, who went missing in New York the morning of September 11, she discovers that someone has broken into her apartment, hacked into her computer, and stolen the records of her therapist. The only thing that offers her relief amid this turmoil is following the progress of a mysterious series of film footage that has appeared on the Internet, and seeking the company of other footage enthusiasts in an online community. Then an advertising executive hires Cayce to find the producer of the footage—an assignment that only brings her deeper into a web of conspiracies and corporate espionage.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Mrs.
Kimble
by Jennifer
Haigh |
a
book recommendation
by Katie, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
This riveting debut novel is the story of the three women who in turn have been married to Ken Kimble. It is less the story of the con artist opportunist who married these women, but rather it is the story of the wreckage he left behind after each marriage. The story begins in 1961 with first wife, Birdie, whom Ken had married as an eighteen-year-old student of his at a small Baptist college in the Midwest. He has already left her with a toddler and a seven-year-old she is ill equipped to raise on her own. She quickly slips from depression into despair and finally alcoholism. Ken meets second wife, Joan, in Florida where he shows up longhaired wearing faded blue jeans sporting a nineteen-year-old fiancé on his arm (another student). Joan, a 39-year-old wealthy
Newsweek journalist, is in Florida living in her late
father's estate while she recovers from a mastectomy. Ken quickly forgets his fiancé in favor of the emotionally vulnerable Joan. He passes himself off as Jewish and ends up with the keys to the kingdom when first
Joan's uncle makes him his business partner and ultimately when Joan dies of cancer. In 1979, Ken has a chance meeting with Dinah, wife three, in Washington DC. As a girl, Dinah had babysat Ken and
Birdie's two children. Dinah is self-conscious about a large port wine birthmark that covers half of her otherwise beautiful face. Ken offers to pay for a new laser treatment to remove it. And within a few short months they are married. Throughout the story we catch glimpses of Ken manipulating each wife and taking advantage of the
women's insecurities. Each wife manages to delude herself about what he really is. But in the end he seems to have done some good for his families in spite of himself. And Ken---well, he gets what he deserves.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Ice
Cream
by Helen
Dunmore |
a
book recommendation
by Michelle, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
Short stories can be a hard sell; readers often don’t know what to make of them, they can’t settle down with them like a good novel, and it’s hard to find others who have read them to give recommendations. On the other hand, short stories can be perfect light reading when you don’t have a lot of time to devote to a lengthier and more engrossing book, and stories as charming as the ones in this collection are as difficult to resist as its title’s namesake.
Dunmore’s stories are brief glimpses into the lives of ordinary people and their yearnings, like the actress craving forbidden ice cream and young people seeking love. From the fanciful “Mason’s Mini-Break”, about a modern tourist’s encounter with a nineteenth-century author, to the harrowing future depicted in “Leonardo, Michelangelo, Superstork”, where an oppressive government controls every aspect of conception and childbirth, to the simpler but no less moving picture of a grieving husband in “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife”, these stories touch the reader briefly yet profoundly.
Check
availability and/or place hold for books by Helen
Dunmore's
|
|
|
|
 |
Set in the rural mountains of Kentucky in 1917, this moving story unfolds when a beautiful Cherokee woman named Vine falls in love and marries Irishman Saul Sullivan. The tender tale of their relationship and the prejudice they face and ultimately overcome captures the heart. Although not raised by Cherokee customs, Vine misses her Cherokee people and the community she leaves behind. Putting her homesick feelings aside, she develops enduring friendships with her mother-in-law, Esme, and the frisky midwife Serena. When World War I breaks out Saul is forced to take a job distant from home. After giving birth to her child Birdie, Vine notices her brother-in-law, Aaron is obsessed with her and he begins to make unwelcome advances. After Vine bluntly rejects him, Aaron disappears only to return several months later with a wife of his own whom he beats while in a drunken rage. He disappears again for many days, yet continues to lust after Vine. When Aaron attempts to rape Vine in front of her daughter, she
ultimately kills him in self-defense. Her attempt to hide what she has done drives the plot. A family secret told to Vine by Esme reveals fascinating insight into the characters of the novel. The
author's keen understanding of the customs of the Appalachian people and their love for the land as well as the eloquent prose makes this, Silas
House's second novel an enthralling read.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Fallout
by James W. Huston |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
A former Navy Top Gun fighter pilot starts his own air combat school in the Nevada desert near Tonopah using surplus Russian Mig-29’s purchased from the bankrupt former Soviet republic of Moldova. His school is under contract with the Department of Defense to train pilots of allied countries in advanced air combat tactics. A bright idea goes bad when his first students turn out to be radical Islamic terrorists masquerading as Pakistani Air Force pilots. Their objective – launch an aerial attack on a major West Coast target. Prophetically, Huston wrote
Fallout before the September 11th destruction of New York’s World Trade Center towers.
Huston is a former Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot, a Top Gun, and lawyer who now writes military techno-thrillers.
Balance of Power and The Price of Power are about Congress legally overriding a weak president to go after terrorists in Indonesia. Read these two in sequence.
Fallout and Flash Point are his best works. These, and his newest work
The Shadows of Power, can be read in any order. All feature our naval forces embroiled in fighting terrorism around the globe and at home. The combat sequences are exhilarating but the villains and supporting characters are often clichéd – an all too common characteristic of the techno-thriller genre.
Check
availability and/or place hold for books by James W. Huston
|
|
America
by Stephen Coonts |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
A satellite undergoing testing as part of the Star Wars defense system mysteriously plunges into the Atlantic Ocean and disappears. About the same time, terrorists daringly hijack our nation’s newest stealth submarine, the USS America. Soon, electromagnetic pulse cruise missiles launched from the submarine rain down on New York City and Washington, D.C., knocking out all computer-driven devices. Admiral Jake Grafton suspects the two acts are related. He and his team race to locate the satellite and recover the sub before the world is brought to its knees.
America is no. 9 in the series featuring Navy pilot, now Rear Admiral Jake Grafton. Grafton’s flying adventures began as a lieutenant with
The Flight of the Intruder – a definite must read for fans of this genre. Coonts’s first novels were about flying, were somewhat autobiographical, very realistic, and drawn from his experiences as an A-6 Intruder pilot during the Vietnam Conflict. As Jake Grafton advances in rank, he eventually finds himself flying less and engaged more with fictionalized enemies both foreign and domestic. Stephen Coonts is a master of the military techno-thriller and one of my favorite authors. Check out the book or the audiobook
America and check out Stephen Coonts’s website at http://www.stephencoonts.com.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Pandora’s Clock
by John J. Nance |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
If flying makes you reach for an airsickness bag, read something else. But if you like cliff-hanging thrillers involving air hijackings, international intrigue, and impending doom aboard our nation’s airliners, then John Nance is your ticket to reading excitement. I’ve read them all and can particularly recommend
Pandora’s Clock.
On a flight from Frankfurt, Germany, the pilot of a 747 requests an emergency landing in London for an ailing passenger. Surprisingly, his routine request is denied! Soon no country will let him land because the dying passenger may have been infected with a virus of pandemic proportions. As the virus’s clock ticks down from incubation, to infection, and ultimately death, will everyone aboard die? Where can the plane land before the fuel tanks are exhausted and it crashes into the sea? Is the virus a hoax or can a cure be found in time?
John Nance is the master of the airline disaster novel. He is a commercial airline pilot, a lawyer, a pilot and safety education expert with Air Force, and a television commentator on airline safety. John Nance knows the intricacies of flight, airline operations, and what happens when things go wrong in the air. Better still, he know how to put these complexities on paper to weave a best-selling action thriller.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Protect and Defend
by Richard North Patterson |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
When newly elected President Kerry Kilcannon, a Roman Catholic, appoints a liberal San Francisco appeals court judge to be the first woman Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a major political fight ensues over her nomination led by arch-conservatives in the Senate. Two obstacles stand in her path: a love child she has kept secret and a high-profile abortion case that may come before her court -- a case that involves the highly volatile issues of partial-birth abortion, parental consent, and right to choose.
Richard North Patterson is the author of 11 previous novels, including the
prequel No Safe Place. This equally exciting political tale follows the California campaign of presidential candidate Kilcannon, who like Robert F. Kennedy, is the target of an assassin. While I recommend you read both novels,
Protect and Defend stands on its own as a masterly written political and legal thriller. Patterson, a former lawyer, does an excellent job of explaining the legal appeals process, the complexities of the abortion issue, and the power maneuvering involved in confirming presidential appointments.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Trainman
by P.T. Deutermann |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
A lone man seeks revenge for the death of his family at a defective railroad crossing. His goal: destroy, in succession, each of six major railroad bridges crossing the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans. An FBI team is sent to investigate. Meanwhile, a special train is being prepared to move 4 seriously damaged Soviet nuclear warheads from an Army weapons depot in Alabama to a destruction plant in Utah. As each bridge falls, the special train must be rerouted. Will the special train with its deadly cargo be the next victim of the trainman? FBI Agents Hush Hanson and Carolyn Lang race against the clock to prevent the ultimate disaster.
P.T. Deutermann is a retired Navy captain who devotes himself to murder mysteries often involving military or FBI personnel. His other books include
The Hunting Season, Zero Option, and Sweepers. Whether it’s the description of a bridge, the inner workings of a ship, the route taken by a fleeing subject, or the layout of a decommissioned weapons factory, PT’s writing excels in technical accuracy. As you read
Trainman, I suggest you also check out a copy of Mary Costello’s
Climbing the Mississippi Bridge by Bridge
(click the title to check availability) which contains exquisite line drawings of several Mississippi River bridges and a map of the area so you can follow along with the action.
Check
availability and/or place hold for Trainman
|
|
Turning on the Girls
by Cheryl Benard |
a
book recommendation
by Michelle, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
At first glance, this novel appears to be a flowery women’s romance, but in fact it is a future dystopia in the classic science fiction tradition. After conquering the world and ousting its patriarchal leaders, the new female-led government sets about "re-educating" men to live in the new society. Lisa works for the Ministry of Thought and is assigned the project of revising women’s erotic literature to create more acceptable fantasies for women. Ultimately she finds herself in the middle of the conflict between an underground movement bent on toppling the feminist regime and a government agency willing to prevent that outcome at any cost.
Benard’s work is colored with equal parts social commentary and riotous humor, and the novel is sure to spark thoughts about how men and women live today and how they might in the future.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Life
of Pi
by Yann Martel |
a
book recommendation
by Paula, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
Life of Pi is the thoughtful story of a spiritually-minded boy, Pi Patel, who finds himself lost at sea in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger as his only companion. His family’s decision to sell the zoo they operate in India and to move to Canada is a fatal one. Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker, are the only two survivors of the shipwreck that claims the rest of the passengers and crew. Follow Pi as he navigates blindly on the Pacific Ocean with only his wits and his faiths to sustain him (he is simultaneously a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian). You won’t want to miss this exciting and moving story! Yann Martel won the 2002 Booker Prize for his subtle, compassionate storytelling.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Little Friend
by Donna Tartt |
a
book recommendation
by Paula, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
Harriet Cleve DuFresnes is a precocious adolescent who is trying to solve the murder of her older brother, Robin. Robin was mysteriously killed on Mother’s Day when Harriet was still an infant. Her family never recovers from the loss of their only son, and Harriet is consumed with the idea of avenging Robin’s death. She focuses her attention on the drug-addled and psychologically
damaged Danny Ratcliffe, who was once Robin’s friend. Tartt’s considerable wit and strong characterization drive this book to a surprising finish.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Lost Soldiers
by James H. Webb |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
Brandon Condley, a Marine officer who served in Vietnam 25 years before, now has the job of searching for and identifying American soldiers killed and missing in action. Rather than return to the States after the war, he stays in Asia, never quite putting the conflict behind him. When a body is found in a remote village, Condley investigates. Evidence suggests that this soldier was not killed in action but was murdered by a deserter who may still be alive in a remote mountain village.
It is Condley’s job to piece together the puzzle of the dead soldier’s remains in spite of the maze of deception the Communist regime places in his way. In Saigon, Condley befriends a lowly cyclo driver, a former South Vietnamese officer, named Dzung. Unlike Condley, who clings to memories of Saigon before the Communist victory and American defeat, Dzung must deal with the reality of scratching out an existence as an outcast in post-war Ho Chi Minh City.
James Webb is a highly-decorated Marine Corp officer and Vietnam Veteran, was Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration, and is the author of several best selling books including
Fields of Fire, A Sense of Honor, A Country Such As This, The Emperor’s
General, and the film Rules of Engagement.
Check
availability and/or place hold
Also Recommended:
Up Country by Nelson DeMille -- another best-seller about a soldier returning to Vietnam to investigate a murder. Both of these thrillers give insight into the war, the Vietnamese culture, and the oppressiveness of the current
regime.
|
|
The Gold Swan
by James Thayer |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
It rises 2,500 feet into the sky in the center of Hong Kong harbor in a bold crescent-shaped swoop. It is destined to be the world’s tallest building and the pride of the Peoples’ Republic of China. Officially it is named the Fifth Millennium China Tower but is affectionately called as “The Gold Swan” by the local Chinese. It is a breathtaking marvel of architectural design and engineering -- but it has a fatal flaw. Two young students doing experiments with a home-made laser have discovered the tower’s secret.
Building security officer, and former FBI agent, Clay Williams suspects something is amiss when his father is murdered, one of the two young students is kidnapped, and a key contractor is arrested and secretly executed. How are these events related to the tower? Who is trying to save “face” for this architectural blunder? Clay teams with a female architect and the grandfather of the kidnapped boy – the head of a major Hong Kong crime ring – to free the boy and also discover what someone very powerful people are trying so desperately to conceal.
James Stewart Thayer is a lawyer from the Seattle area and the author of 11 other mystery thriller novels. These include the WW2 thriller
Five Past Midnight, Terminal Event about the investigation of an airline disaster,
White Star about a rogue sniper, and the nautical adventure
Force 12. All of his works have some connection to the Pacific Northwest. In
The Gold Swan, Clay Williams hails from Medford, Oregon where his father, and role model, once owned several pear orchards. His descriptions of his youth in Oregon are as vivid as his descriptions of Hong Kong, its people, and its teeming culture.
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
Buried at Sea
by Paul Garrison |
a
book recommendation
by Mark, Downtown reference librarian |
|
|
 |
Jim Leighton, a physical training expert, signs on as crew of the 50 ft. sloop Hustle bound for Rio de Janeiro. Although Jim knows nothing about sailing, the skipper teaches him the rudiments of seamanship. What starts off as a balmy 6-week voyage turns into a treacherous fight for survival. The mysterious captain is Will Spark, a wealthy computer engineer, who is being hunted by hit-men hired by the foundation he cheated. They want the computer device he stole and then they want him dead. Attacked in the mid-Atlantic, Jim and Captain Spark immediately change course for Africa. Nearly captured off Nigeria they head back toward South America, divert to the Falkland Islands, and eventually end up on the edges of Antarctica. As they sail to elude their pursuers, the captain’s health ebbs, and Jim must take over the helm alone. Aided by e-mails from his wheelchair-bound girlfriend Shannon, Jim eludes capture. But how long can he continue to sail on before he is either cornered, makes a fatal mistake, or is overcome by stormy seas?
Paul Garrison’s previous novels are the bizarre techno-thriller
Red Sky at Morning about a Chinese submarine invasion of New York City and the sailing thriller
Fire & Ice about modern-day pirates in the South China Sea. Garrison knows sailboats and the sea. His descriptions of the mechanics of sailing a modern sailboat across thousands of miles of open ocean is brilliantly woven in the storyline. Each chapter ends in a cliffhanger that will keep
you in suspense until the final pages. What a ride!
Check
availability and/or place hold
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
