Book News and New Book Reviews
Just a sampling of our new materials (right side)!
by Jennifer Weiner
Weiner's latest outing chronicles the plight of four women who are brought together when one of them decides to have a baby. At 43, India knows her hopes of having a child naturally are slim, and the in vitro fertilization she and her older, wealthy husband, Marcus, have been trying isn't working. So India and Marcus decide to go another route: they select an egg from a donor and choose a surrogate to carry the baby. Weiner introduces us to both: Jules is a stunning college student who decides to donate her eggs so she can pay for her father to go to rehab, and Annie, a young mother of two, chooses to become a surrogate to help support her family. The only one not happy with India's plan is Bettina, Marcus' adult daughter, who is secretly hoping her parents will reunite. In this warm and winning yarn, Weiner draws readers into the lives of each woman, and brings them together in an unexpected and ultimately rewarding way. Another surefire hit for the popular author of Fly Away Home (2010). . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Weiner has an avid and active fan base, and Internet buzz is growing about her new book and many plannedsummer appearances. --Booklist
by Thomas E. Simmons (Get the Book)
Simmons spent over 20 years researching the remarkable life of John D. Robinson, who rose from segregationist Mississippi to become a distinguished pilot, founder of the Tuskegee Institute's school of aviation, a bold defender of Ethiopia during the 1935 Italian invasion, and, finally, founder of the Ethiopian Air Force. --Library Journal
by Linda Stasi (Get the Book)
A reporter stumbles knee-deep into a major news story in Stasi's riveting first novel. Alexandra Russo receives an assignment to cover the trial of Demiel ben Yusef, who has been accused of terrorist atrocities. Others believe he has been framed and that he is actually the resurrected Jesus Christ. As his followers clash with his opponents, Russo watches ben Yusef walk to the courtroom. Before he enters the building, though, he stops to give her a kiss. She's suddenly in the headlines. Why out of the thousands in the crowd was she chosen? As she struggles for answers, Alexandra quickly learns that her life is in danger. Stasi does an amazing job of mixing science with religious paranoia in this compelling thriller. The question of ben Yusef's divinity propels the narrative to an amazing conclusion, though there is a clear setting-up for a sequel. Dan Brown and Steve Berry fans have another controversial novel in which to lose themselves. --Booklist
by Tanya Biank (Get the Book)
In her latest, Biank (Army Wives: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage) sheds light on women who serve in the armed forces. She closely follows the careers of four servicewomen between 2006 and 2011: Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, the first Hispanic female general in the Marines; 2nd Lt. Bergan Flannigan, a platoon leader married to a man in the same military police company; Sgt. Amy Stokley, a drill instructor for the Marine Corps; and Maj. Candice O'Brien, an officer whose deployment to Afghanistan strains her marriage to a military husband with PTSD. Biank is a skilled biographer, providing contextual snapshots of America's military with each passing year. Her immersion in each woman's state of mind makes these stories read almost like a novel, and the clarity of detail, from cadet slang to the social politics on base, reveals the thoroughness of her research. Biank doesn't offer any groundbreaking conclusions-women are ever more prevalent in the military, but still face challenges in a hypermasculine environment-but these engaging glimpses into the life of military women are more than worth reading for their own sake. --Publishers Weekly
by Aria Beth Sloss (Get the Book)
Lonely and bright, an only child brought up by parents less flush than her peers' parents, Rebecca turns to new-girl Alex like a flower to the sun. In ever-vernal 1960s Pasadena, opposites Rebecca and Alex become fast and fierce friends, stuck together like two ends of a battery. Their charge begins to weaken, however, when Alex's interest in theater summons her away to camp, all but fizzles in college when Rebecca would rather study biology than attempt to understand one of Alex's obscure performances, and is extinguished to near death when one dark moment leads Rebecca to make a fateful decision. Her best friend spurned and her dream of following medicine dashed in one fell swoop, Rebecca escapes restrictive southern California and the mother whose only wish for her is to marry well and starts anew. Before long, though, she and Alex reconnect, and the true nature and madness of their friendship unfurls. An impressive psychological drama, Sloss' first novel aptly brings to the fore the social issues that uniquely challenge her heroine. --Booklist
by Emily Bazelon (Get the Book)
Law journalist, senior editor at Slate (where much of this book's content appeared), and New York Times contributor Emily Bazelon is a voice of authority on bullying. An antidote to the media frenzy surrounding this now heated issue, Bazelon's even-handed, thorough, and affecting narrative provides insights and information about the kids, parents, educators, and courts dealing with the actions and aftermath of psychological and physical bullying in schools, as well as insidious cyberbullying. No longer just the province of mean girls and bad boys, bullying, and its attendant "drama," is an epidemic affecting every community and is rife with a pervasive deniability on the part of instigators, accusers, and adults who are called upon to referee. ... While less prescriptive than other books on the topic, very useful FAQs are included, as are resource lists for readers. Masterfully written, Bazelon's book will increase understanding, awareness, and action. --Publishers Weekly
by Jack McDevitt (Get the Book)
Two SF powerhouses team up for this near-future thriller that touches on one of the great conspiracy theories of our time: that NASA is keeping secrets about the Apollo program. When Jerry Culpepper, NASA public-relations director, listens to an audio recording that seems to reveal that NASA put an astronaut on the moon six months before Neil Armstong's one small step, he's inclined to dismiss it as some sort of joke. Why would NASA keep something like that a secret for 50 years? But, as more evidence appears, Jerry is forced to question everything he believes in: NASA, the space program, even himself. This is an extremely well told tale in which the authors dispense information a bit at a time, in the manner of a police procedural, and Culpepper is a well-designed character, an idealist (but not an idiot) with whom readers will find it easy to empathize. Bucky Blackstone, the larger-than-life billionaire who's planning his own manned mission to the moon (similarities to certain real-life individuals are surely not coincidental), is colorful and difficult to pin down: Is he a galumphing good guy, unaware of the confusion he's causing, or is he a devious villain? And the story's astounding conclusion is wildly imaginative but also completely believable. Readers, be warned to get comfortable before opening the book. You could put it down at some point, perhaps, but why on earth would you want to?
by Lynne Schofield Clark (Get the Book)
Media scholar Clark examines how various media are consumed by American children and teens today and how families make decisions about the role of media in their lives. Clark and her team interviewed dozens of families from all socioeconomic backgrounds, uncovering both major and subtle differences in kids' media use and their parents' attitudes about time spent online, texting, or playing games. At the core is Clark's thesis that digital interaction is simply a new peer culture space in which many of the same old parenting questions setting guidelines, teaching awareness, determining when to intervene apply. Parents today will agree that one extraordinary new stress, however, is the emotional work spent keeping up with new media and their effects. Clark doesn't comment on policy and regulation until awfully late in the book, and one wonders how quickly any book on ever-changing media will date. However, the stories are engaging, and Clark's analyses are very accessible, particularly in her concluding pages, when she summarizes different best practices for parents seeking guidance in making such important decisions. --Booklist
by Lydia Millet (Get the Book)
Millet brings her searching, bitterly funny, ecologically attuned trilogy of Los Angeles-based novels (How the Dead Dream, 2008; Ghost Lights, 2011) to a haunting crescendo. This tale of loss and realignment homes in on Susan at the end of a tragic chain of events involving her adult daughter, Casey, ending up in a wheelchair; her boss T.'s disappearance and return; and her husband's death. Susan struggles with grief and guilt and marvels at the ceaseless, atomic whirl of life and the persistence of the past. She is also astringently hilarious on the subject of men and her life as a secret slut. Millet creates a brilliant deus ex machina when her spiky protagonist unexpectedly inherits a vast mansion in Pasadena that is filled with hundreds of stuffed and mounted animals from all around the world. Susan is transformed by her new life as caretaker for this private natural history museum, this library of the dead, which becomes an unlikely haven for T.'s dementia-afflicted mother and others in need of succor and companionship. Millet is extraordinarily agile and powerful here, moving from light to shadow like a stalking lioness as Susan's strange stewardship casts light on extinction and preservation, how we care for others and seek or hide truth, and crimes both intimate and planetary. --Booklist
