Zero day

 by David Baldacci. Decorated army veteran John Puller is a special agent in the military's Criminal Investigative Division. When a colonel and his family are brutally murdered in West Virginia, Puller partners with the local homicide detective, Sgt. Samantha Cole, to solve the crime. As their investigation deepens, the number of fatalities increases. How are these victims connected? Puller and Cole must discover the truth behind the conspiracy that sent these individuals to their deaths. The clock is winding down. Three. Two. One. Zero. Game over? Verdict Baldacci fans will embrace this new series hero as Puller doggedly pursues justice in spite of his personal problems: Puller's retired military hero father suffers from dementia, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason. High-octane suspense and conspiracy thriller buffs who enjoy John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and W.E.B. Griffin will also snatch up this title. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Battlefield angels : saving lives under enemy fire from Valley Forge to Afghanista

 by Scott Mcgaugh. Marketing and communications professional McGaugh (marketing director, USS Midway Museum; Midway Magic) presents a historical survey of American military medicine providing medical and U.S. military history buffs with a look at the personnel who have tended the wounded during and after battle over the last 235 years. Each of the 14 chapters starts with a brief vignette of the experiences of a medic at a certain conflict. The battle of Trenton in the Revolutionary War is followed by Civil War advances, then World War I, six chapters on World War II, then the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Verdict Although there are many more-focused books on military medicine available, this popular history will provide a layperson's introduction to the field. Its breadth requires somewhat superficial coverage, yet the book will appeal to general readers as a useful summary of battlefield medicine, highlighting particular personalities and the evolving role of military doctors and women in service. Suitable for both adult and YA collections. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

The marriage plot

 by Jeffrey Eugenides. In Eugenides' first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex (2002), English major and devotee of classic literature Madeleine Hanna is a senior at Reagan-era Brown University. Only when curiosity gets the best of her does she belly up to Semiotics 211, a bastion of postmodern liberalism, and meet handsome, brilliant, mysterious Leonard Bankhead. Completing a triangle is Madeleine's friend Mitchell, a clear-eyed religious-studies student who believes himself her true intended. Eugenides' drama unfolds over the next year or so. His characteristically deliberate, researched realization of place and personality serve him well, and he strikes perfectly tuned chords by referring to works ranging from Barthes' Lovers' Discourse to Bemelmans' Madeline books for children. The remarkably a propos title refers to the subject of Madeleine's honors thesis, which is the Western novel's doing and undoing, in that, upon the demise, circa 1900, of the marriage plot, the novel didn't mean much anymore, according to Madeleine's professor and, perhaps, Eugenides. With this tightly, immaculately self-contained tale set upon pillars at once imposing and of dollhouse scale, namely, academia ( College wasn't like the real world, Madeleine notes) and the emotions of the youngest of twentysomethings, Eugenides realizes the novel whose dismantling his characters examine.. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher will be cashing in on the popularity of Middlesex, especially with public library users, by targeting much of their publicity campaign in that direction. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Thinking, fast and slow

 by Daniel Kahneman. Decision making tends to be intuitive rather than logical. Kahneman has dedicated his academic research to understanding why that is so. This work distills his and colleagues' findings about how we make up our minds and how much we can trust intuition. Clinical experiments on psychology's traditional guinea pigs college students abound and collectively batter confidence in System 1. as Kahneman calls intuition. All sorts of biases, sporting tags like the halo effect (i.e., unwarranted attribution of positive qualities to a thing or person one likes), bedevil accurate appraisal of reality. According to Kahneman, intuitive feelings often override System 2. or thinking that requires effort, such as simple arithmetic. Exemplifying his points in arenas as diverse as selecting military officers, speculating in stocks, hiring employees, and starting up businesses, Kahneman accords some reliability to intuitive choice, as long as the decision maker is aware of cognitive illusions (the study of which brought Kahneman the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics). Kahneman's insights will most benefit those in leadership positions yet they will also help the average reader to become a better car buyer. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Aleph

 by Paulo Cuelho. If you love mysticism Coelho-style, as many readers around the world do, chances are you will love his latest spiritually transformative odyssey. At the heart of the narrative, Paulo, profoundly disillusioned by contemporary reality, plagued by inner conflict, and losing faith in himself and the world he inhabits, sets off on a highly personal quest that defies time and space. Traveling around the world, he journeys back into his own reincarnations, understanding that his path is reflected in the eyes of others, and that if I want to find myself, I need that map. Although he encounters a diversity of significant friends along the way, his reconnection with a woman he loved and heartlessly betrayed over 500 years ago is the key to his reawakening and redemption. Another magical mystery tour full of spiritually challenging ideas and ideals from the always inspirational Coelho. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Love at first bark : how saving a dog can sometimes help you save yourself

 by Julie Klam. In You Had Me at Woof (2010), Klam cheerfully told how she transformed herself from a desperate young woman who had never had a pet into a happy dog-rescuer with a husband, a daughter, and a house full of Boston terriers. In her new book, she continues on the same path in three stories about her role in rescuing dogs assumed to be unadoptable. In each case, she takes us down to the street or into the woods to witness her first encounter with a dog that just needs food, health care, training, and loving attention to become someone's prized companion. In the process, she entertains us with details of her life, the wide network of dog rescuers with whom she texts, and the sweet dogs who have torn her home apart while fixing her heart. These lively stories set in New York City and the outskirts of New Orleans should be entertaining to read aloud, too. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Eyes wide open

 by Andrew Gross. When Jay Erlich's troubled nephew, Evan, leaps off a cliff in California, the successful surgeon flies to the aid of Charlie, his equally troubled half-brother and Evan's father. Erlich directs his ir. at a care system he believes failed Evan, until unsettling details cause him to wonder whether Evan's death was not suicide but murder. Urging the reluctant coroner's detective, Don Sherwood, to investigate further, Erlich soon finds himself obsessed with the case, believing the evidence points to a bizarre and long-running conspiracy. And as his involvement plays havoc with his personal life, he finds himself in danger, too. Gross is a workmanlike stylist, and occasionally the ensemble cast works against the story we're with Sherwood as he learns something, and with Erlich as Sherwood explains it but never mind. This is a well-plotted, swiftly moving story that forces us to keep turning pages. And the bad guy behind it all, a cult leader with a notorious real-life model, is downright chilling. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Dangerous instincts : how gut feelings betray us

 by Mary Ellen O'Toole. O'Toole, a recently retired FBI behavior analyst, is more than qualified to help people develop simple analytical tools that will help them better detect danger and recognize risky situations. In this absorbing read, she discusses why people trusted Bernie Madoff and Ted Bundy and dissects online dating responses and typical blind spots. The author helps readers analyze their decision-making patterns and provides a guide for helping them to assess and mitigate risk. O'Toole's book will provide insight to everyone, but it's particularly helpful for women living alone, parents concerned about their children's safety, or employers worried about perplexing employee behavior. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

The Stranger's Child

 by Allan Hollinghurst. On the eve of World War I, Cecil Valance, a wildly attractive and promising young poet, pays a visit to the home of his Cambridge boyfriend, the son of one of England's fine old families. He memorializes the visit with a poem that becomes famous after his wartime death. The poem, created as an autograph book keepsake for his lover's younger sister, Daphne, becomes the subject of speculation and debate for biographers and the generations that follow, as it contains hints about what might have happened during the visit and with whom. As the novel gallops ahead decade by decade, following the family fortunes of Daphne and her progeny, the events of that less tolerant era are viewed through an ever-cloudier lens. VERDICT With the prewar ambience of "Atonement", the manor-house mystique of "Gosford Park", and the palpable sexual tension of Hollinghurst's own "The Line of Beauty", this generously paced, thoroughly satisfying novel will gladden the hearts of Anglophile readers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)