PATRON PICKS -- Fall of Giants

Christina's Pick:  Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett

Synopsis:

The first novel in The Century Trilogy, this book follows the fates of five interrelated families-American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh-as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man's world in the Welsh mining pits...Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House...two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution...Billy's sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London...

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty. As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.

In future volumes of The Century Trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves-and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Follett brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.

Christina says:  Ken Follett writes in a way that makes you part of the book.  It was like being a part of the lives of these characters during the war.  He has a unique ability to bring together real and fictional characters in a way that no one else does.  There were people I hated, people I loved, affairs waiting to happen, and of course, a war everyone wanted to win.  I got sucked in and became upset when it was over.  I am excitedly awaiting the next book in the trilogy.  It was an excellent read, as are all of his books!

STAFF PICKS -- The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes

Elizabeth's Pick:  The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Barry Grant

Synopsis:

The original super-sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, is back on the case.  When James Wilson retires from journalism, he decides to settle down in Herefordshire with a room-mate, a Mr Cedric Coombes, and at first thinks little of his new friend’s eccentric behaviour. But he can’t shake the feeling that he knows him from somewhere else. As Coombes displays his magnificent deductive prowess, and becomes embroiled in the police investigation of the apparent murder of a man in bathtub, Wilson, or should we say Watson, begins to wonder just who this Coombes really is . . .

Elizabeth says:  The premise picks up in modern day England and proceeds to draw you into this very believable "new" but not "new" Sherlock Holmes.  A fun read and now the second book (beginning of a series) has been published.  Try them both.

PATRON PICKS -- When Beauty Tamed the Beast

Kristan's Pick:  When Beauty Tamed the Beast, by Eloisa James

Synopsis:

Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she's betrothed to a Beast.

 

Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.
 
Linnet is not just any woman.
 
She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.
 
Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return. If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

Kristan says:  Great spin on classic fairy tale and modern TV character, beautifully written.

PATRON PICKS -- 33 Men

Bob's Pick:  33 Men:  Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners, by Jonathan Franklin

 

Synopsis:

33 Men is the riveting and authoritative account of the 2010 San José mine rescue in Chile-after one of the longest human entrapments in history. With his coveted "Rescue Pass," Franklin was permitted access far past the police perimeter. It would be seventeen long days before the miners were discovered alive and the world press descended. It would be another fifty-two days before the miners were all successfully rescued.

 
For eight weeks, Franklin conducted interviews with families, rescue workers, the mine psychologist, drill operators, scientists, and the architects of the rescue operation. He reported from an improvised office on the mountainside that was the nerve center of the rescue operation, in a makeshift container. Far below, families and loved ones lived in a cluster of tents known as Camp Hope. While the men were still underground, Franklin interviewed them via a crude telephone; he helped send vital supplies to them via the "paloma" (pigeon). And when the first miners were rescued on October 13, Mr. Franklin had the first media contact with the recently freed men in a series of interviews from inside the field hospital.
 
33 Men reads like a thriller, toggling between the dramatic chaos belowground as the men realized that their escape routes were blocked and that their shelter held only enough rations for ten men to survive seventy-two hours; and the desperate rescue efforts aboveground-the massive campaign from the top level of the Chilean government to enlist and unite brilliant minds from around the world in the San José rescue effort. In captivating and never-before- revealed detail, Franklin tells a spellbinding story of the improbable survival of the miners, trapped some 2,200 feet underground for sixty-nine days. He also chronicles what had to go right-an impossibly long list-to rescue them all alive. The death-defying rescue demanded endurance, ingenuity, and most of all, unified fronts above and below ground. To be sure, none of this came easily.
 
Based on more than 110 interviews with the miners, their families, and the rescue team, Franklin's account combines an expert eye for detail and dialogue with the remarkable human interest story of these miners struggling to survive in a savage environment.

Bob says:  A "sequel" to 9-11 with a spiritual and psychological lesson.

STAFF PICKS -- Jitterbug Perfume

Christine's Pick:  Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins

Synopsis:

Jitterbug Perfume is an epic.
 
Which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn’t conclude until nine o’clock tonight (Paris time).
 
It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle.
 
The bottle is blue, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god.
 
If the liquid in the bottle actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left. (Barnes and Noble book summary)

Christine says:  A quirky and "scent"ual romp through history in search of the fountain of youth.  A book I reread every few years for a laugh and a fun story.

PATRON PICKS -- TTYL

Hannah's Pick:  TTYL, by Lauren Myracle (YA)

Synopsis:

An epistolary novel for the 21st century, this sharp, funny, and true-to-life breakout hit about friendship is told entirely in instant messages. And Internet-savvy teens have fallen in love with flirty Angela (SnowAngel), moody Maddie (mad maddie), and good girl Zoe (zoegirl) and their frank perceptions about a tumultuous tenth-grade semester. Now perfectly priced for its audience, the paperback is being released alongside Myracle's brand-new hardcover novel, Rhymes with Witches.

Author Bio: In addition to ttyl, Lauren Myracle is the author of three other novels, including her latest, Rhymes with Witches. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and lives in Colorado.

Hannah says:  The characters were plausible enough to feel real.  Good humor.

PATRON PICKS -- Touching Stars

Rosemarie's Pick:  Touching Stars (Shenandoah Album Series), by Emilie Richards
 
Synopsis:
Gayle Fortman has built a good life for herself and her three sons as an innkeeper in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. She has even maintained a cordial relationship with her ex, charismatic broadcast journalist Eric Fortman, covering with the boys for his absences and broken promises. Luckily Travis Allen, her closest neighbor, has been a loving surrogate father to the boys and her own best friend.
 
Then, on the eve of oldest son Jared's graduation, Eric returns, having nearly lost his life in Afghanistan. Worse, he has lost his way and his courage, and needs a place to recover. Gayle realizes this might be the last chance for her sons to establish a real bond with their father, and offers him a summer at the inn and a chance to put things right. Gayle and Eric are all too aware that their onetime love and attraction are still there. But can the pieces of their broken lives be mended, or are they better laid to rest?

Rosemarie says:  Series on the various families and their history in the Shenandoah area.  Riveting.

PATRON PICKS -- Unbroken (2nd recommendation)

Susan's Pick:  Unbroken (A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption), by Lauren Hillenbrand

Susan says:  Stunning, true story of an ordinary guy from Cal. who discovers he's a runner, after a young life of petty thievery, and makes it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, joins the army, quits, gets drafted, becomes bombardier, is a castaway in the Pacific when plane crashes, and a Japanese Prisoner of War.  True.  Amazing.  Courageous.

PATRON PICKS -- Angel

Kevin's Pick:  Angel, by James Patterson (YA)

Synopsis:
In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it.

Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little Angel.

Kevin says:  The action, mixed with a plot that leaves the reader unable to put the book down, kept me entertained.  James Patterson has made another masterpiece.

STAFF PICKS -- The Mischief of the Mistletoe

Patti's Pick:  The Mischief of the Mistletoe, by Lauren Willig

Synopsis:
Arabella Dempsey's dear friend Jane Austen warned her against teaching. But Miss Climpson's Select Seminary for Young Ladies seems the perfect place for Arabella to claim her independence while keeping an eye on her younger sisters nearby. Just before Christmas, she accepts a position at the quiet girls' school in Bath, expecting to face nothing more exciting than conducting the annual Christmas recital. She hardly imagines coming face to face with French aristocrats and international spies...
 
Reginald "Turnip"Fitzhugh-often mistaken for the elusive spy known as the Pink Carnation- has blundered into danger before. But when he blunders into Miss Arabella Dempsey, it never occurs to him that she might be trouble. When Turnip and Arabella stumble upon a beautifully wrapped Christmas pudding with a cryptic message written in French, "Meet me at Farley Castle," the unlikely vehicle for intrigue launches the pair on a Yuletide adventure that ranges from the Austens'modest drawing room to the awe-inspiring estate of the Dukes of Dovedale, where the Dowager Duchess is hosting the most anticipated event of the year: an elaborate twelve-day Christmas celebration. Will they find poinsettias or peril, dancing or danger? Is it possible that the fate of the British Empire rests in Arabella's and Turnip's hands, in the form of a festive Christmas pudding?

Patti says:  I love the characters, especially Turnip!  I also enjoyed Lauren Willig's humor throughout the book.

PATRON PICKS -- The Hunger Games

Elle's Pick:  The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Synopsis:
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

Elle says:  It was so intriguing with a pile of ongoing action and surprises.  The suspense was never-ending, going along with awesome, well-developed charactors like Katniss.  The Hunger Games is a winner.

PATRON PICKS -- J. D. Salinger, A Life

Bob's Pick:  J. D. Salinger: A Life, by Kenneth Slawenski

Synopsis:
One of the most popular and mysterious figures in American literary history, J. D. Salinger eluded fans and journalists for most of his life. Now comes a new biography that Peter Ackroyd in The Times of London calls “energetic and magnificently researched”—a book from which “a true picture of Salinger emerges.” Filled with new information and revelations—garnered from countless interviews, letters, and public records—J. D. Salinger presents an extraordinary life that spanned nearly the entire twentieth century.

Kenneth Slawenski explores Salinger’s privileged youth, long obscured by misrepresentation and rumor, revealing the brilliant, sarcastic, vulnerable son of a disapproving father and doting mother and his entrance into a social world where Gloria Vanderbilt dismissively referred to him as “a Jewish boy from New York.” Here too are accounts of Salinger’s first broken heart—Eugene O’Neill’s daughter, Oona, left him for the much older Charlie Chaplin—and the devastating World War II service (“a living hell”) of which he never spoke and which haunted him forever.

J. D. Salinger features all the dazzle of this author’s early writing successes, his dramatic encounters with luminaries from Ernest Hemingway to Laurence Olivier to Elia Kazan, his surprising office intrigues with famous New Yorker editors and writers, and the stunning triumph of The Catcher in the Rye, which would both make him world-famous and hasten his retreat into the hills of New Hampshire.

Whether it’s revealing the facts of his hasty, short-lived first marriage or his lifelong commitment to Eastern religion, which would dictate his attitudes toward sex, nutrition, solitude, and creativity, J. D. Salinger is this unique author’s unforgettable story in full—one that no lover of literature can afford to miss.

Bob says:  Shows the bitter side of his life.

PATRON PICKS -- Unbroken

Cathy's Pick:  Unbroken (A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption), by Laura Hillenbrand

Synopsis:
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood.  Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.  It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard.  So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini.  In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails.  As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile.  But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.
 
Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater.  Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion.  His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
 
In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit.  Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Cathy says:  I couldn't put it down.  The detail was incredible and I learned a lot about World War II.

STAFF PICKS -- Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Carol's Pick:  Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua

An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way.

Carol says:  This was a real eye-opener to the differences between Eastern and Western child rearing.  I loved Amy's standards and was embarrassed as to how we Westerners are raising our children.  Wish I could do it over again.

STAFF PICKS -- The Swan Thieves

Carol's Pick:  The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova

Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism. Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

Carol says:  This book was full of devotion, obsession and mystery, demanding you to turn each page.  Would be interesting to artists.  Great characters.

PATRON PICKS -- Chasing the Night

Cathy's Pick:  Chasing the Night, by Iris Johansen

Synopsis:

A CIA agent’s two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can’t. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her— and that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine’s horror, she must face looming demons of her own.

Bonnie’s killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine’s son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen’s latest thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul.

Cathy says: Johansen's latest Eve Duncan thriller does not disappoint--action and suspense make you eager to turn the page.

PATRON PICKS -- Blue's Clues

Sebastian's book pick is Blue's Clues because it has a puppy!

A Man in Uniform by Kate Taylor

Against the background of the infamous Dryfus Affair in Belle Epoque France, Taylor has written a tale of intrigue, romance and transformation. The "Man in Uniform" is a successful bourgeios Parisian lawyer, Francois Dubon, who leads a sedate and settled life. He is visited by a mysterious widow who inveigles him to prove Dryfus innocent of the charge of treason that has condemned him to solitary confinement on Devil's Island in French Guiana. There are flashes of humor as well in the efforts Dubon makes to play detective. Evocative of its time and place, this is a book which will draw you in and on to its satisfying completion.

PATRON PICKS -- Cleopatra: A Life

Christine's Pick:  Cleopatra: A Life, by Stacy Schiff

Synopsis:
Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnets, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator.
 
Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and—after his murder—three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.
 
Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way, Cleopatra's supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life.

Christine says:  Clearly historical, but well-written and engaging.  Cleopatra is even more fascinating when placed in her proper historical context.

In Search of Eden, by Linda Nichols

I have recently read this book and loved it. This is one of those feel good books. It is a story of a young woman looking for a child she had when she was 15. Her mother insisted she give it up for adoption; she didn't have a choice, didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, only got to hold her baby for a minute. Each chapter is written in the voice of a different character, so the author really keeps you involved in the book. I was always interested to know what was going to happen next to each character.
There is a bit of a religious overtone, but I quickly got used to it, and felt that it gave some depth to the characters. This book does raise some interesting questions on the topic of adoption.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Diana