Money to Burn : a Novel of Suspense
Publishers Weekly Bestseller Grippando?s overwrought financial thriller gives its hero, Michael Cantella, almost as rude an awakening as Kafka?s Gregor Samsa. Scandals involving subprime lending, short selling, and Ponzi schemes provide a timely backdrop. On the eve of his 35th birthday, Cantella goes from being a star performer at a premier Wall Street investment firm […]
Imperfect Endings
Publishers Weekly A deceptively cheery tale about her mother?s plans to end her own life underscores the author?s conflicted role in filial caring and responsibility. Carter?s mother, a widow living in Washington, D.C., had suffered from Parkinson?s disease for more than 20 years, and by 2001 had grown debilitated and depressed about her physical helplessness; […]
The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie
Michele Leber – Library Journal An 11-year-old solving a dastardly murder in the English countryside in 1950 wouldn't seem to be everyone's cup of tea. But Flavia Sabina de Luce is no ordinary child: she's already an accomplished chemist, smart enough to escape being imprisoned by her older sisters and to exact revenge, forthright and […]
Miracle On the Hudson : the Survivors of Flight 1549 Tell Their Extraordinary Stories of Courage, Faith, and Determination
Donated to the Lisbon Public Library by Paula Hapgood. Publishers Weekly: In a stunning display of skill and steely nerves, pilot Chesley Sullenberger managed a Hudson River water landing in freezing weather, with no engines, to save the lives of every single person aboard his aircraft. Aided by New York and New Jersey emergency responders […]
Worst Case : a Novel
From the Publisher Best case: survival The son of one of New York's wealthiest families is snatched off the street and held hostage. His parents can't save him, because this kidnapper isn't demanding money. Instead, he quizzes his prisoner on the price others pay for his life of luxury. In this exam, wrong answers are […]
Brava, Valentine : a Novel
Publishers Weekly Trigiani's sequel to Very Valentine is a sweet second act for shoemaker and designer Valentine Roncalli. Val takes over the New York family-run shoe business with feet-of-clay older brother, Alfred; falls for the dashing, older Gianluca in Italy; and takes a business risk in South America, where she unearths a dusty chapter of […]
Committed : a Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage
The New York Times – Curtis Sittenfeld By the end Gilbert had?convinced me that "the book that I needed to write was exactly this book." Because really, in the wake of Eat, Pray, Love, wasn't she damned if she did and damned if she didn't? If this book were too similar to that one, some […]
Stones Into Schools : Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, In Afghanistan and Pakistan
The New York Times – Janet Maslin Much of Stones Into Schools hinges on the logistical challenges, but this book is also suffused with its author's unorthodox tactics and distinctive personal style?It also colorfully describes the local sidekicks and power brokers without whom, [Mortenson] says, "I would still be nothing more than a dirtbag mountaineer […]
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Washington Post – Eric Roston: Skloot's vivid account?reads like a novel. The prose is unadorned, crisp and transparent?This book, labeled "science–cultural studies," should be treated as a work of American history. It's a deftly crafted investigation of a social wrong committed by the medical establishment, as well as the scientific and medical miracles to […]
Winter Garden
Publishers Weekly Female bonding is always good for a good cry, as Hannah (True Colors ) proves in her latest. Pacific Northwest apple country provides a beautiful, chilly setting for this family drama ignited by the death of a loving father whose two daughters have grown apart from each other and from their acid-tongued, Russian-born […]