Monday, December 23, 2013

Books ordered for January

The Story of Doctor DolittleThe Story of Doctor Dolittle   
  • Hugh Lofting (Children's)
  • Synopsis
  • John Dolittle is a kind-hearted country physician who keeps goldfish in his pond, rabbits in the pantry, white mice in a piano, and a hedge-hog in the cellar. He also has an unusual gift: he can talk to animals-a talent that comes in handy, since he prefers treating animals, rather than humans, as his patients.
    One day, a mysterious call summons him to Africa, where a serious epidemic has spread among the monkey population. Of course, the good doctor sets out immediately with some of his best friends-Jip, the dog, and Polynesia, the parrot, among others. Along the way, they're joined by new acquaintances, including the pushmi-pullyu, a remarkable creature that has a head at both ends of its body.
    "Any child who is not given the opportunity to make the acquaintance of this rotund, kindly, and enthusiastic doctor/naturalist and all of his animal friends will miss out on something important," said renowned primatologist Jane Goodall.
    An entertaining classic that has charmed readers of all ages for generations, Hugh Lofting's timeless tale is accompanied by 27 of his own delightful illustrations.
    An abridged version of the adventures of a kind-hearted doctor, who is fond of animals and understands their language, as he travels to Africa with some of his favorite pets to cure the monkeys of a terrible sickness.
  • Richard Scarry's Readers (Level 2): One, Two, AH-CHOO!One, Two, AH-CHOO!   
  • Erica Farber, 
  • Huck Scarry (Illustrator)
  • (Children's)
  • Synopsis
  • Sally Cat has a cold. One, two, AH-CHOO! Mr. and Mrs. Cat have colds, too, and so does almost everyone at school. It's up to Huckle and Lowly to take care of them all—and that means some messy, silly, Scarry-style fun! But by day's end, Huckle and Lowly are so tired that, oh no: two more to go AH-CHOO!










  • Richard Scarry's Readers (Level 1): Snow DanceSnow Dance   
  • Erica Farber, 
  • Huck Scarry (Illustrator) 
  • (Children's)

    Synopsis
    Down comes one flake.
    Down come some more.
    See the snow, snow!
    Huckle has a shiny new red sled—but what he doesn't have is snow. After many funny attempts to find a solution to his problem, Huckle and his pals decide to do a “snow dance.” And guess what? It works! This Level One story will delight beginning readers even as it teaches them to sound out simple words.







    Gooney Bird and All Her CharmsGooney Bird and All Her Charms   
  • Lois Lowry, 
  • Middy Thomas (Illustrator)
  • (Junior)
  • Synopsis
  • Gooney Bird Greene returns for more adventures in the sixth book in this sweet and accessible chapter book series from the two-time Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry. 
    Each book takes place during a month of the school year in Mrs. Pidgeon’s second grade classroom and explores a different subject. In this latest book set in March, Gooney Bird’s class learns about the human body with the help of a real skeleton.







  • Go! Go! Go! Stop!Go! Go! Go! Stop!   
  • Charise Mericle Harper (Children's)
  • Synopsis
  • One day Little Green rolls into town and says his first word: "Go!" The town is building a bridge, and now everyone has a job to do, from dump truck to forklift. Little Green helps them do their jobs with gusto. Until . . . there is a little too much gusto. They can go, go, go . . . but how will they stop?
    This bright, fun book with a bold package captures the endless energy of little boys and the timeless appeal of trucks and machines—both for building and knocking down. Plus, it has an underlying message about working together to get things done.

  • The Impossible Knife of MemoryThe Impossible Knife of Memory   
  • Laurie Halse Anderson (Young Adult)
  • Synopsis
  • For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
    Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.

    Okay, AndyOkay, Andy   
  • Maxwell Eaton (Children's)
  • Synopsis
  • From the Max and Pinky books to Two Dumb Ducks, Eaton loves a comic duo, and he’s got a great one in a wildly excitable coyote named Preston and his beleaguered alligator friend Andy. In this graphic novel–style chapter book, which helps launch the Jump Into Chapters line, Preston thwarts and annoys Andy at every turn. The first chapter finds Andy stalking a rabbit, only to have Preston scare it off. “What are we doing?” Preston asks, peering through foliage. “We are doing nothing,” replies Andy. “But it seems like we are doing something,” persists Preston as the rabbit peers down at them from a tree. Eaton’s chunky drawing style, clean backgrounds, and simple speech-balloon dialogue keep the panels uncluttered and the action easy to follow. In the second chapter, Preston’s constant question, “Okay?” eventually drives Andy off a small cliff; in the third, Preston tries to make Andy guess what animal sound he’s making (“A rock.” “No.” “A shoe.” “No”). Whether readers are the “Preston” or “Andy” in their own friendships, they’ll find this duo’s interactions irresistible.

  • National Geographic Readers: KoalasNational Geographic Readers: Koalas   
  • Laura Marsh (Children's)
  • Synopsis
  • With a seemingly permanent half-smile on their face, koalas are appealing to boys and girls alike. Filled with adorable photos, and carefully leveled text, this level 1 reader introduces beginning readers to these furry creatures, from cub to adult, exploring where they live, what they eat, and  even the way they say "hello" --by touching noses!









  • Still Life with Bread CrumbsStill Life with Bread Crumbs   
  • Anna Quindlen
  • Synopsis
  • A superb love story from Anna Quindlen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Rise and Shine, Blessings, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life
  • Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.
  • Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.

  • InnocenceInnocence   
  • Dean Koontz
  • Synopsis
  • He lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from society, which will destroy him if he is ever seen.
  • She dwells in seclusion, a fugitive from enemies who will do her harm if she is ever found.
  • But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chance—and nothing less than destiny—has brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching.
  • In Innocence, #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz blends mystery, suspense, and acute insight into the human soul in a masterfully told tale that will resonate with readers forever.





  • Belle Cora: A NovelBelle Cora: A Novel   
  • Phillip Margulies
  • Synopsis
  • "I had crossed all the lines they you say you can never cross without being destroyed, and here I was, alive and strong."In the grand tradition of Moll Flanders and Vanity Fair, this is the story of a good girl who became a bad woman. At the old homestead her name is never spoken and her picture is turned to the wall, but in the vast world beyond everyone remembers her as the celebrated madam of the finest parlor house in San Francisco. Now, at the end of her life, after half a century of successfully hiding the details of her scarlet past, Belle has decided to reveal all her secrets.
    In 1838, Arabella Godwin and her beloved younger brother, Lewis, are orphaned and shipped away from their home in New York City to live on their aunt's desolate farm upstate. The comforts she has always known are replaced with grueling work and a pair of cunning enemies in her cousins Agnes and Matthew. Amid this bleak existence, there emerges light in the form of a local boy, Jeptha Talbot.  He is everything good that Arabella craves. His love saves her and becomes an obsession that will last her whole life.   
    Time and again she will be broken and remade. She will bear a gambler’s child, build a fortune, commit murder, leave a trail of aliases in her wake and sacrifice almost everything—though perhaps not enough—for the man whose love she cannot bear to lose.  At last her destiny will take her to Gold Rush California, to riches and power.
    Until the day she mysteriously disappears.
    Told with unflagging wit and verve, Belle Cora brings to life a turbulent era and an untamed America on the cusp of greatness. Its heroine is a woman in conflict with her time, who nevertheless epitomizes it with her fighting spirit, her gift for self-invention, and her determination to chart her own fate.

    Fear Nothing (Detective D.D. Warren Series #7)Fear Nothing (Detective D.D. Warren Series #7)   
  • Lisa Gardner
  • Synopsis
  • In #1 New York Times bestseller Lisa Gardner’s latest pulse-pounding thriller, Detective D. D. Warren must face a new fear as a serial killer terrorizes Boston.
    My name is Dr. Adeline Glen. Due to a genetic condition, I can’t feel pain. I never have. I never will.
    The last thing Boston Detective D. D. Warren remembers is walking the crime scene after dark. Then, a creaking floorboard, a low voice crooning in her ear. . . . She is later told she managed to discharge her weapon three times. All she knows is that she is seriously injured, unable to move her left arm, unable to return to work.
    My sister is Shana Day, a notorious murderer who first killed at fourteen. Incarcerated for thirty years, she has now murdered more people while in prison than she did as a free woman.
    Six weeks later, a second woman is discovered murdered in her own bed, her room containing the same calling cards from the first: a bottle of champagne and a single red rose. The only person who may have seen the killer: Detective D. D. Warren, who still can’t lift her child, load her gun, or recall a single detail from the night that may have cost her everything.
    Our father was Harry Day, an infamous serial killer who buried young women beneath the floor of our home. He has been dead for forty years. Except the Rose Killer knows things about my father he shouldn’t. My sister claims she can help catch him. I think just because I can’t feel pain doesn’t mean my family can’t hurt me.
    D.D. may not be back on the job, but she is back on the hunt. Because the Rose Killer isn’t just targeting lone women, he is targeting D.D. And D.D. knows there is only one way to take him down:
  • Fear nothing.
  • River RoadRiver Road   
  • Jayne Ann Krentz
  • Synopsis
  • From the New York Times–bestselling author of Dream Eyes and Copper Beach, a brand-new quintessential Jayne Ann Krentz romance.

    It’s been thirteen years since Lucy Sheridan was in Summer River. The last time she visited her aunt Sara there, as a teenager, she’d been sent home suddenly after being dragged out of a wild party—by the guy she had a crush on, just to make it more embarrassing. Obviously Mason Fletcher—only a few years older but somehow a lot more of a grown-up—was the overprotective type who thought he had to come to her rescue.
    Now, returning after her aunt’s fatal car accident, Lucy is learning there was more to the story than she realized at the time. Mason had saved her from a very nasty crime that night—and soon afterward, Tristan, the cold-blooded rich kid who’d targeted her, disappeared mysteriously, his body never found.
    A lot has changed in thirteen years. Lucy now works for a private investigation firm as a forensic genealogist, while Mason has quit the police force to run a successful security firm with his brother—though he still knows his way around a wrench when he fills in at his uncle’s local hardware store. Even Summer River has changed, from a sleepy farm town into a trendy upscale spot in California’s wine country. But Mason is still a protector at heart, a serious (and seriously attractive) man. And when he and Lucy make a shocking discovery inside Sara’s house, and some of Tristan’s old friends start acting suspicious, Mason’s quietly fierce instincts kick into gear. He saved Lucy once, and he’ll save her again. But this time, she insists on playing a role in her own rescue . . .
  • Mrs. Lincoln's RivalMrs. Lincoln's Rival   
  • Jennifer Chiaverini
  • Synopsis
  • The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, Jennifer Chiaverini, reveals the famous First Lady’s very public social and political contest with Kate Chase Sprague, memorialized as “one of the most remarkable women ever known to Washington society.” (Providence Journal)
    Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, while aspiring to even greater heights.
    Beautiful, intelligent, regal, and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society and as a future presidential candidate. Her efforts were successful enough that The Washington Star declared her “the most brilliant woman of her day. None outshone her.”
    None, that is, but Mary Todd Lincoln. Though Mrs. Lincoln and her young rival held much in common—political acumen, love of country, and a resolute determination to help the men they loved achieve greatness—they could never be friends, for the success of one could come only at the expense of the other. When Kate Chase married William Sprague, the wealthy young governor of Rhode Island, it was widely regarded as the pinnacle of Washington society weddings. President Lincoln was in attendance. The First Lady was not.
    Jennifer Chiaverini excels at chronicling the lives of extraordinary yet littleknown women through historical fiction. What she did for Elizabeth Keckley in Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and for Elizabeth Van Lew in The Spymistress she does for Kate Chase Sprague in Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival.
  • CellCell   
  • Robin Cook
  • Synopsis
  • The New York Times–bestselling author and master of the medical thriller returns with a top-notch fusion of groundbreaking medical science and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
     
    George Wilson, M.D., a radiology resident in Los Angeles, is about to enter a profession on the brink of an enormous paradigm shift, foreshadowing a vastly different role for doctors everywhere. The smartphone is poised to take on a new role in medicine, no longer as a mere medical app but rather as a fully customizable personal physician capable of diagnosing and treating even better than the real thing. It is called iDoc.
    George’s initial collision with this incredible innovation is devastating. He awakens one morning to find his fiancée dead in bed alongside him, not long after she participated in an iDoc beta test. Then several of his patients die after undergoing imaging procedures. All of them had been part of the same beta test.
    Is it possible that iDoc is being subverted by hackers—and that the U.S. government is involved in a cover-up? Despite threats to both his career and his freedom, George relentlessly seeks the truth, knowing that if he’s right, the consequences could be lethal.
  • The Polaris Protocol: A Pike Logan ThrillerThe Polaris Protocol: A Pike Logan Thriller   
  • Brad Taylor
  • Synopsis
  • Retired Delta Force commander Brad Taylor returns with the fifth propulsive thriller in his New York Timesbestselling Pike Logan series.
    Taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are used to putting their lives at risk, but in The Polaris Protocol it’s Jennifer’s brother and countless more innocents who face unfathomable violence and bloodshed.
    Pike and Jennifer are in Turkmenistan with the Taskforce—a top-secret antiterrorist unit that operates outside US law—when Jennifer gets a call from her brother, Jack. Working on an investigative report into the Mexican drug cartels, Jack Cahill has unknowingly gotten caught between two rival groups. His desperate call to his sister is his last before he’s kidnapped.
    In their efforts to rescue Jack, Pike and Jennifer uncover a plot much more insidious than illegal drug trafficking—the cartel that put a target on Jack’s back has discovered a GPS hack with the power to effectively debilitate the United States. The hack allows a user to send false GPS signals, making it possible to manipulate everything from traffic signals and banking wire transfers to cruise missiles, but only while the system’s loophole remains in place.
    With the GPS hack about to be exploited and Jack’s life at stake, Jennifer and Pike must find a way to infiltrate the cartel’s inner circle and eliminate the impending threat. The price of failure, for both the Taskforce and the country, is higher than ever.
  • Robert B. Parker's Bull RiverRobert B. Parker's Bull River   
  • Robert Knott
  • Synopsis
  • “Clever detective work and considerable shooting. It reads lightning fast...Suspenseful.”
    Booklist
    Itinerant lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are back in the saddle with guns blazing in this gritty, intense addition to the New York Times–bestselling series.
    After hunting down the notorious desperado Alejandro Vasquez, Territorial Marshal Virgil Cole and Deputy Everett Hitch return him to San Cristóbal to stand trial. No sooner do they remand him into custody than a major bank robbery occurs and the lawmen find themselves tasked with another job: investigating the robbery of the Comstock Bank, recovering the loot, and bringing the criminals to justice.
    But when their primary suspect is found severely beaten outside a high-class brothel and turns out to be using a false identity to escape a torrid past, it is Alejandro who becomes the key to their investigation. Cole and Hitch are soon on the trail of the money, two calculating brothers, and the daughter of St. Louis’s most prominent millionaire in a Cain and Abel story that brings revenge to a whole new level.
  • That Old Black MagicThat Old Black Magic   
  • Mary Jane Clark
  • Synopsis
  • New York Times bestselling author Mary Jane Clark whips up a savory and suspenseful confection, filled with murder, mystery, history, and voodoo, in which Piper Donovan must unmask a devious killer striking in New Orleans's legendary French Quarter
    That old black magic
    Aspiring actress and wedding-cake decorator Piper Donovan has barely arrived in New Orleans to perfect her pastry skills at the renowned French Quarter bakery Boulangerie Bertrand when a ghastly murder rocks the magical city.
    Intrigued by the case, Piper can't help but look for the "Hoodoo Killer" among the faces around her. Could it be the handsome guide eager to give her special private tours? Or the inscrutable jazz musician who plays on historic Royal Street? What about the ratings-starved radio talk-show host? Or even the amiable owner of the local Gris-Gris Bar?
    Though Piper has a full plate decorating cakes for upcoming wedding celebrations, she's also landed an exciting but unnerving role in a movie being shot in the Big Easy. When the murderer strikes again, leaving macabre clues, she thinks she can unmask the killer. But Piper will have to conjure up some old black magic of her own if she hopes to live long enough to reveal the truth.
  • Worthy Brown's DaughterWorthy Brown's Daughter   
  • Phillip Margolin
  • Synopsis
  • Inspired by a true story, New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin turns his hand to historical fiction in this masterful saga about justice in the American West.
    Like thousands of other Americans in the nineteenth century, Matthew Penny, a young lawyer, believes that he and his wife, Rachel, can forge a better future out West. But after she drowns on the Oregon Trail, Matthew arrives on the frontier with nothing but shattered dreams. Unable to face the memories that await back home, he joins the handful of lawyers practicing in Portland, Oregon—which in 1860 is just a riverfront town in a state less than a year old.
    Worthy Brown, a slave from Georgia, journeys west with his master, Caleb Barbour, who promises to reward Worthy and his daughter, Roxanne, with their freedom if they help him establish a homestead in Oregon. When Barbour reneges on his pledge, Worthy’s hope for a fresh start with his child is destroyed.
    In the hands of critically acclaimed thriller writer Phillip Margolin, the fates of these desperate men intertwine in a breathtaking narrative about the extent of evil and the high price of true justice. Matthew and Worthy decide to challenge Barbour in court, but events rapidly spiral out of their control and the stakes become higher than either of them could ever have imagined. And when Matthew, struggling to survive in the cutthroat, corrupt world of frontier law, crosses paths with Heather Gillette, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Portland businessman, his grief-stricken existence is turned upside down, and suddenly he has everything to fight for.
    Over two decades in the writing, Worthy Brown’s Daughter is a compelling white-knuckle drama about two broken men risking everything for what they believe in. Powerfully evocative of time and place, woven through with rich historical detail, it charts new territory for Margolin—but its epic, deeply human scope is still defined by the suspense and energy his fans have come to expect from his books.
  • Dark Wolf (Dark Series #25)Dark Wolf (Dark Series #25)   
  • Christine Feehan
  • Synopsis
  • WHERE DARK LYCAN ENDED, DARK WOLF BEGINS...
    BOOK NUMBER 25 IN CHRISTINE FEEHAN'S ACCLAIMED CARPATHIAN SERIES
    #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan now delivers her most eagerly awaited novel of all—ten years in the making—in the “the erotic, gripping series that has defined an entire genre” (J. R. Ward).
    In Dark Lycan, Christine Feehan journeyed into the heart of the Carpathians, and into the souls of two lifemates stirred by the flush of passion and the threat of annihilation. In Dark Wolf, the breathtaking story continues as the bonds of family are imperiled, and the fate of two lovers lies hidden in the seductive shadows between life and death.
    Skyler Daratrazanoff always recognized the miracle that was Dimitri Tirunul, a man beyond any dream that had ever engaged her nights. But she was human. Vulnerable. He was Carpathian. Nearly immortal. She was nineteen. He was an ancient. Yet she held half his soul, the light to his darkness. Without her, he would not survive. Caught between the two warring species, Dimitri has spent centuries hunting the undead to keep his people free, and humans safe. He had survived honorably when others had chosen to give up their souls. But now, marked for extermination by the Lycans, Dimitri found himself alone, and fearing for his life. But salvation was coming…
    No Lycan would ever suspect someone like Skyler to dare mount a secret rescue operation. A teenage girl. A human of untested abilities. But she had something no one else had. She was predestined for Dimitri—as he was for her. And there was nothing stronger for Skyler than her desire to see her life-dream come true. Whatever the risk.
      INCLUDES A PREVIEW OF CHRISTINE FEEHAN’S NEXT CARPATHIAN NOVEL, DARK BLOOD
  • Monday, December 2, 2013

    Books ordered for December

    Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Retribution (Bourne Series #11)Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Retribution (Bourne Series #11) by Eric Lustbader

    Synopsis
    Jason Bourne is one of the most popular and compelling characters in modern fiction. Originally created by bestselling author Robert Ludlum, now New York Times bestselling writer Eric Van Lustbader carries on Ludlum's legacy with a new novel about the rogue secret agent who has lost his memory . . .
    Jason Bourne has been pursued by powerful governments—and escaped.
    Hunted by the most skilled assassins in the world—and outsmarted them.
    Targeted by terrorists—and defeated their plans for global chaos. But now, Bourne wants only one thing: retribution.
    THE BOURNE RETRIBUTION
    Bourne's friend Eli Yadin, head of Mossad, learns that Ouyang Jidan, a senior member of China's Politburo, and a major Mexican drug lord may have been trafficking in something far more deadly than drugs. Yadin needs Bourne to investigate. Bourne agrees, but only because he has a personal agenda: Ouyang Jidan is the man who ordered Rebeka—one of the only people Bourne has ever truly cared about—murdered. Bourne is determined to avenge her death, but in the process he becomes enmeshed in a monstrous world-wide scheme involving the Chinese, Mexicans, and Russians.
    Bourne's increasingly desperate search for Ouyang takes him from Tel Aviv to Shanghai, Mexico City, and, ultimately, a village on China's coast where a clever trap has been laid for him. Bourne finds himself pursued on all sides and unsure whom he can trust. As he moves closer to Ouyang, closer to avenging the woman he loved, he also moves ever closer to his own death . . .

    The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly: A NovelThe Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly: A Novel   
  • Sun-mi Hwang, 
  • Chi-Young Kim (Translator)
  • Nomoco (Illustrator)
  • Synopsis
  • The 2-million-copy bestselling modern fable from Korea that is winning hearts around the world
  • This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command, only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an egg of her own.
  • An anthem for freedom, individuality and motherhood featuring a plucky, spirited heroine who rebels against the tradition-bound world of the barnyard, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a novel of universal resonance that also opens a window on Korea, where it has captivated millions of readers. And with its array of animal characters—the hen, the duck, the rooster, the dog, the weasel—it calls to mind such classics in English as Animal Farm and Charlotte’s Web.
  • Featuring specially-commissioned illustrations, this first English-language edition of Sun-mi Hwang’s fable for our times beautifully captures the journey of an unforgettable character in world literature.

  • Command AuthorityCommand Authority   
  • Tom Clancy, 
  • Mark Greaney
  • Synopsis
  • The #1 New York Times-bestselling author and master of the modern day thriller returns with his All-Star team.
  • There’s a new strong man in Russia but his rise to power is based on a dark secret hidden decades in the past. The solution to that mystery lies with a most unexpected source, President Jack Ryan. 











  • The Gingerbread Bump-off (Fresh-Baked Mystery Series #6)The Gingerbread Bump-off (Fresh-Baked Mystery Series #6) by Liva Washbun

    Synopsis

    As Christmas approaches in Weatherford, Texas, Phyllis Newsom is decorating her house in preparation for the Jingle Bell Tour. The last thing she expects is that one of her ceramic gingerbread men will be used to commit murder....
    When her friend Georgia Hallerbee asks Phyllis to have her house featured in the annual Christmas Jingle Bell Tour of Homes, Phyllis is equally flattered and flustered. She already has a bridal shower on Christmas Eve and a wedding on New Year’s Eve to prepare for, and she’s been baking gingerbread cookies like they’re going out of style. But like her tasty treats, she rises to the occasion.
    Before the tour can even get under way, Phyllis hears a crash on her front porch and makes a gruesome discovery. Someone has broken a decorative gingerbread man over Georgia’s head. Santa’s naughty list just got longer—and with the police baffled, it’s up to Phyllis to catch a half-baked killer...
    Includes recipes!

    The Gods of Guilt (Mickey Haller Series #5)The Gods of Guilt (Midkey Haller Series #5) by Michael Connelly
    Synopsis
    Defense attorney Mickey Haller returns with a haunting case in the gripping new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.
    Mickey Haller gets the text, "Call me ASAP - 187," and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Murder cases have the highest stakes and the biggest paydays, and they always mean Haller has to be at the top of his game.
    When Mickey learns that the victim was his own former client, a prostitute he thought he had rescued and put on the straight and narrow path, he knows he is on the hook for this one. He soon finds out that she was back in LA and back in the life. Far from saving her, Mickey may have been the one who put her in danger.
    Haunted by the ghosts of his past, Mickey must work tirelessly and bring all his skill to bear on a case that could mean his ultimate redemption or proof of his ultimate guilt. The Gods of Guilt shows once again why "Michael Connelly excels, easily surpassing John Grisham in the building of courtroom suspense" (Los Angeles Times).

    The Death TradeThe Death Trade by Jack Higgins
    Synopsis
    The master of suspense returns with a cutting-edge tale that pits his heroes Sean Dillon and Sara Gideon against the nuclear ambitions of Iran.
    An eminent Iranian scientist has made a startling breakthrough in nuclear weapons research, but he can’t stand the thought of his regime owning the bomb. He would run if he could, but if he does, his family dies. He is desperate; he doesn’t know what to do.
    It is up to Sean Dillon and the rest of the small band known as the Prime Minister’s private army to think of a plan. Most particularly, it is up to their newest member, an intelligence captain and Afghan war hero named Sara Gideon, who thinks there just might be a way to pull it off.
    But plans have a way of encountering  the unexpected. And as the operation spins out, from Paris and Syria to Iran and the Saudi Arabian desert, there is very much that is unexpected indeed. And much blood that will be spilled.