Book News and New Book Reviews
Just a sampling of our new materials (right side)!
by Christopher Hayes (Get the Book)
Hayes (editor at large, The Nation), host of MSNBC's Up w/ Chris Hayes, here presents a valuable analysis of what is wrong with the United States. In a well-researched and well-written presentation, he argues convincingly that the nation's elite have botched just about everything. But more importantly, Hayes makes a solid case that the existing social order, a meritocracy geared to reward the best and the brightest, is doomed to failure. Yet after Hayes makes these important arguments, his solutions fall short. He calls for taxing the rich and for a vast redistribution of wealth to create not only equality of opportunity in the United States, but "equality of outcomes." He ignores the realities of the deeply divided American political landscape and pins his hopes on the radicalization of the upper middle class, with their ire directed at the wealthiest. VERDICT This is more wishful thinking on the part of the author than a valuable roadmap to show the way for the country to solve its problems, but it will appeal to social theorists and political news junkies, particularly those on the left of the political spectrum. Purchase accordingly. --Library Journal
by Robert Goolrick (Get the Book)
With understated delicacy, Goolrick, in his second novel, after the well-received A Reliable Wife (2009), creates a mesmerizing gothic tale of a good man gone wrong. Charismatic Charlie Beale, just returned from WWII, is desperate to put down roots, and the small, bucolic town of Brownsburg, Virginia, where no crime had ever been committed, seems to offer him the simple life he craves. He immediately finds work at the butcher shop, where his courteous ways make him popular with the local housewives, while his baseball prowess impresses the men. He becomes fast friends with his employer's family, especially five-year-old Sam. But when Charlie sets eyes on Sylvan Glass, the beautiful young wife of the town's richest citizen, the simple life he so desires vanishes in an instant. The two begin a torrid affair, often using young Sam as their cover, and what Sam sees and experiences in their presence changes him forever. Goolrick effortlessly creates a timeless, erotically charged tale of illicit passion and peoples it with a unique cast of characters, ranging from a gifted black seamstress to a country girl besotted with Hollywood movie stars and fashion. Finely crafted fiction from a captivating writer. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A 100,000-copy first printing and a major promotional campaign for Goolrick's terrific sophomore effort may well boost the author's profile. --Booklist
by Edward Lucas (Get the Book)
Lucas, Moscow bureau chief for the Economist from 1998 to 2002, has covered Eastern Europe since 1986. He has a very straightforward message, that Russian spies are not a Cold War relic. They are working right now and very effectively at infiltrating our society and stealing our secrets. The fact that most people think spying is a thing of the past gives Russian agents the ultimate cover, since no one can see what he or she believes no longer exists. Lucas provides a history of Russian spying from the era of Lenin to the arrest and deportation of Anna Chapman, one of a ring of suburban agents that so shocked the U.S. in 2010. He details how KGB tactics are now employed for new aims. He also gives a convincing and unsettling overview of the ways in which Russian organized crime, big business, and conventional diplomacy work together to dupe the West. This enormously complex material is made understandable and riveting by Lucas' expertise and his passion for exposing this threat. --Booklist
by David Ellis. (Get the Book)
Edgar-winner Ellis is a Chicago prosecuting attorney (he was the house prosecutor who tried Governor Rod Blagojevich before the Illinois senate), and he brings his legal expertise and insider's knowledge to the crafting of his legal thrillers. The third in Ellis' Jason Kolarich series (the others are The Hidden Man, 2009, and Breach of Trust, 2011) is one of those reads that starts, literally and metaphorically, in a dark street at night and that manages to extend that What's going to come up at me? feeling to just about every scene. A young woman, a student and paralegal, is shot to death on the street. A homeless man is found nearby and arrested; he is in possession of the young woman's purse, and he identifies the gun fired at the victim as his own. He's an Iraq War veteran, with PTSD and disorganized schizophrenia. Defense-attorney Kolarich takes on what seems to be an easily closed case, but as he delves into the paralegal's life, he discovers that any number of people may have wanted her dead. One flaw Ellis writes about a Chicagoesque city, when there's no reason to be coy about setting. But everything else here, from interviews through prepping the team of lawyers through the rigors and excitement of the trial itself, rings perfectly true. --Booklist
by Ronald P. Formisano (Get the Book)
Some 40 to 45 percent of Republican primary voters are Tea Party members seeking to direct the course of this year's presidential election. Yet the group that has been at the center of politics since 2009 is still not clearly defined in terms of objectives and message. Is it more concerned about shrinking the government or prodding the nation toward more conservative social values? The Tea Party has clearly pushed the political agendas of both major parties to the right, but will it have an enduring effect on American politics? Formisano offers a historical perspective, comparing the Tea Party to similar populist movements, both progressive and reactionary, of the past, from the original Boston Tea Party to the People's Party of the 1890s, from the Progressive Party of the 1920s to the Dixiecrats of the 1940s and, more recently, the parties of George Wallace and Ross Perot. He examines the conditions that gave birth to the Tea Party and whether it is genuinely grassroots or directed by corporate interests and billionaires. A helpful primer on a movement that is changing the American political landscape. --Booklist
by Elin Hilderbrand (Find the Book)
It's graduation day at Nantucket High School, and the senior class is celebrating with a beach party and bonfire. But what starts out as a joyous celebration ends in tragedy when a car filled with students crashes on an isolated country road. The crash kills the driver, Penny Alistair, and leaves her twin brother, Hobson, in a coma. The other two occupants, Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and her friend, Demeter, escape unharmed but are emotionally scarred. The fallout from the devastating accident grips the tight-knit community. By all accounts, Penny intentionally drove the car off the road. But what would cause Penny, a talented singer with a brilliant career ahead of her, to risk her life and the lives of her closest friends? The aftermath of the accident reveals a group of young people struggling with their own demons and a community wrapped in a complicated web of secrets. Hilderbrand (Silver Girl, 2011) has once again written an engaging story wonderfully illustrating the often complex lives of young people struggling toward adulthood and the roles of parents and the community in negotiating that journey. --Booklist
by Jon Gernter. (Get the Book)
Gertner, a writer and editor who grew up in the shadows of Bell Labs' campus in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, describes the beginning of modern communications primarily between the late 1930s and the mid-1970s through the lenses of several executives and scientists. Their collective stories present an extraordinary picture of a company focused on innovation. The intent of Bell Labs (Bell Telephone Laboratories) was to support the research and development of its parent, AT&T, which sought universal connectivity in the early 1900s and in 75 years realized that dream. Bell Labs became the laboratory of the future. This is where new ideas were transformed into inventions that changed the world, such as the transistor in 1947, the essential building block of all digital products in contemporary life. Other inventions included lasers and information technologies incorporated into computers, communications, factory-productivity methods, and defense weaponry. This is a worthwhile book for history buffs and for many library patrons intrigued by the origins of our technology-driven world. --Booklist
by Heather Gudenkauf (Get the Book)
Post-Columbine, we've sadly become accustomed to the familiar story surrounding school shootings: the disaffected gunman, the heroic teacher/student/law enforcement agent, the frightened parents, the intrusive media. Most of us experience these tragedies from a safely removed distance. Gudenkauf (These Things Hidden, 2011) breaks down that barrier and puts the reader smack in the center of events as they unfold, with an unknown gunman holding hostage an elementary school and, by extension, the entire small town of Broken Branch. Using multiple narrators to excellent effect, Gudenkauf interweaves various perspectives, including those of Augie, a troubled 13-year-old transfer student, and Mrs. Oliver, a teacher nearing retirement, bent on protecting her children, to demonstrate the way in which the big picture emerges only in hindsight. At the heart of the storm, it's all chaos, misinformation, and false leads. The characters, while representing archetypes, spring from the page as fully formed individuals with complex back stories. The reader becomes heavily invested in their survival, which, more than the mystery of the gunman and his motive, propels this suspenseful narrative compellingly forward. --Booklist
by Jordan W. Smoller. (Get the Book)
Enlisting research in evolutionary biology, genetics, and psychology, along with advances in molecular neuroscience and neuroimaging, Harvard psychiatrist Smoller redefines the biology of normal. Genetic variation, natural selection, environment, and unique individual experiences coalesce in molding our social and emotional selves. He considers the neural basis of social cognition, empathy, and even love, both the romantic and maternal varieties. Smoller maps out the biology of disgust, resiliency, and fear and then correlates these phenomena with anatomical areas of the brain the insula, hippocampus, and amygdala, respectively. We learn that our memories get resculpted. And that oxytocin, a peptide hormone consisting of a measly nine amino acids, works like a love potion in women and also stimulates trust. In the fetching chapter The Brain of the Beholder: Beauty and Sexual Attraction, we find out that evolution seems to favor symmetrical facial features and statistically middling appearances rather than an exotic visage. In the worlds of psychiatry and neuroscience, normal is hardly average nor necessarily an ideal state but, rather, a landscape of human possibility. --Booklist
