Adult Fiction
High Stakes by Iris Johansen.
Logan Tanner lives the
exhilarating life of a professional gambler, taking risks with nerves of steel.
From casinos in Macau to Monte Carlo to Milan, he's racked up a fortune and
become a living legend. But all the glitz and glamor hide a dark and
violent past as an extractor--a world that comes rushing back to him when the
beautiful and innocent Lara Balkon enters his life. Soon Logan is drawn into
the conflict between two Russian mafia bosses over Lara, whose life now hangs
in the balance. Logan has been offered something more valuable to him than
money--information he desperately needs--in exchange for getting Lara out of
Russia and to safety. Once together, Tanner discovers that Lara is a force to
be reckoned with in her own right. Tanner's search for the truth leads
them to the bright lights of Las Vegas. Where the person who was hunting Lara
now lies in wait for them. With the stakes climbing with each deadly
confrontation, Logan and Lara are soon catapulted into a game against pure
evil. The odds are stacked against them, but it's a game they know they must
play...even if it may cost them their lives.
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins.
When a young man is found
gruesomely murdered in a London houseboat, it triggers questions about three
women who knew him. Laura is the troubled one-night-stand last seen in the
victim's home. Carla is his grief-stricken aunt, already mourning the recent
death of yet another family member. And Miriam is the nosy neighbor clearly
keeping secrets from the police. Three women with separate connections to the
victim. Three women who are - for different reasons - simmering with
resentment. Who are, whether they know it or not, burning to right the wrongs
done to them. When it comes to revenge, even good people might be capable of
terrible deeds. How far might any one of them go to find peace? How long can
secrets smolder before they explode into flame?
The Preacher’s Daughter by Patricia Johns.
"With her preacher
father in prison for fraud, Elizabeth Yoder's life in the community of Bountiful
has been painfully uprooted. Mindful of wearing out her welcome with her
family, she jumps at the chance to stay with elderly Bridget Lantz while the
woman's daughter is away. Elizabeth has secret plans to leave for another Amish
community where she might get a fresh start, but here with Bridget, she feels
comfortable--until Bridget's strapping grandson, Solomon, returns from eight
years with the English, and inspires feelings that shake Elizabeth's
resolution... Solomon has had his own trouble with the law, after falling in
with some bad influences. He's paid the price, despite his innocence, but the
Amish are even more wary of him than they are of spirited Elizabeth. With good
reason, he supposes--he's not sure he's ready to commit to this way of life again,
especially since the Englishers are the ones offering him solutions. The only
thing that seems certain is his attraction to Elizabeth. As they strive to find
their places in the community, and with each other, can they open their hearts
to the blessing of love?"-- Provided by publisher.
Adult Non-Fiction
Across the Airless
Wilds by Earl Swift.
8:36 P.M. EST, December
12, 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt braked to a stop
alongside Nansen Crater, keenly aware that they were far, far from home. They
had flown nearly a quarter-million miles to the man in the moon's left eye,
landed at its edge, and then driven five miles in to this desolate,
boulder-strewn landscape. As they gathered samples, they strode at the
outermost edge of mankind's travels. This place, this moment, marked the
extreme of exploration for a species born to wander. A few feet away sat
the machine that made the achievement possible: an electric go-cart that folded
like a business letter, weighed less than eighty pounds in the moon's reduced
gravity, and muscled its way up mountains, around craters, and over undulating
plains on America's last three ventures to the lunar surface. In the
decades since, the exploits of the astronauts on those final expeditions have dimmed
in the shadow cast by the first moon landing. But Apollo 11 was but a prelude
to what came later: while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trod a sliver of flat
lunar desert smaller than a football field, Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each
commanded a mountainous area the size of Manhattan. All told, their crews
traveled fifty-six miles, and brought deep science and a far more swashbuckling
style of exploration to the moon. And they triumphed for one very American
reason: they drove.
If Ignorance is Bliss,
We Should All Be Ecstatic by Fred
Leavitt.
Nothing we think we know -
NOTHING - is likely to be correct. “If Ignorance is Bliss, We Should All Be
Ecstatic” explores the limitations of knowledge and argues that neither
reasoning nor direct observation can be trusted. Not only are they unreliable
sources, but they do not even justify assigning probabilities to claims about
what we can know. This position, called radical skepticism, has intrigued
philosophers since before the birth of Christ, yet nobody has been able to
refute it. Fred Leavitt uses two unique methods of presentation. First, he
supports abstract arguments with summaries of real-life examples from many and
varied fields, which make the arguments much more convincing and compelling. He
cites more than 200 studies from psychology, mathematics, chaos theory, quantum
mechanics, evolutionary theory, history, the corporate world, politics, the
military, and current news reporting. Second, Leavitt's writing is
user-friendly, even when dealing with complex issues. Whether answering the
telephone, turning on the TV, talking with friends, or munching on an apple, we
expect things to happen predictably. These expectations, paired with radical
skepticism, exemplify cognitive dissonance at the highest level.
Easy/Juvenile/Young Adult/Graphic Novel
Aru Shah and the City
of Gold by Roshani Chokshi. J
"Aru Shah and her
sisters--including one who also claims to be the Sleeper's daughter--must find
their mentors Hanuman and Urvashi in Lanka, the city of gold, before war breaks
out between the devas and asuras." -- Provided by publisher.
The Dire Days of
Willowweep Manor by Shaenon K.
Garrity & Christopher Baldwin. YA GN
One
dark and stormy night, Haley sees a stranger drowning in the river. Since her
greatest passion is Gothic romance novels, she knows her moment has come. But
when Haley leaps into the water to rescue the stranger, she awakens in
Willowweep. It certainly looks like the setting of one of her
favorite books: A stately manor. A sinister housekeeper. Three brooding
brothers. There's even a ghost. Except Willowweep is not what it seems. Its
romantic exterior hides the workings of a pocket universe--the only protection
our world has against a great force of penultimate evil, and its defenses are
crumbling. Could cruel fate make Haley the heroine that Willowweep needs?
