Tuesday, March 31, 2015

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: BRAD MELTZER

Brad Meltzer's next novel is due out in June 2015: The President's Shadow.  This will be the third book in the series centering on Beecher White, an archivist at the National Archives.

Brad Meltzer has written many works of fiction as well as nonfiction for children.  For more information on Brad Meltzer, visit his website at http://bradmeltzer.com/

Adult Fiction by Brad Meltzer:
The Fifth Assassin (The Culper Ring Book 2)
The Inner Circle (The Culper Ring Book 1)
The Book of Lies
The Book of Fate
The Zero Game
The Millionaires
The First Counsel
Dead Even
The Tenth Justice



Adult Nonfiction by Brad Meltzer:
History Decoded: the 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time
Heroes For My Son
Heroes For My Daughter









Children's Nonfiction:
I am Jackie Robinson
I am Albert Einstein
I am Rosa Parks
I am Abraham Lincoln
I am Amelia Earhart





For books similar to Brad Meltzer's fiction, try one of these!
The Collectors by David Baldacci
Hidden Order by Brad Thor
Deception Point by Dan Brown
Never Go Back by Lee Child
Locked On by Tom Clancy
The Stranger by Harlan Coben
Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
The Wolf at the Door by Jack Higgins

Pictures from RockCat.

Monday, March 23, 2015

THE DARING LADIES OF LOWELL

The book club selection for April is The Daring Ladies of Lowell by Kate Alcott.  This historical novel tells the story of Alice Barrow who moves to Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1830s and begins to work in the mill factory.  Alice must deal with the dangerous conditions of the mill, the death of a friend, and the beginning of a romantic relationship.

Kate Alcott is also the author of The Dressmaker and A Touch of Stardust.  For more information on Kate Alcott, visit her website at http://katealcott.com/

Already finished all of Alcott's work?  Try one of the novels listed below.

April Morning by Howard Fast takes place in 1770s, during the American Revolution.

The Sheen on the Silk by Anne Perry follows Anna Zarides as she seeks to prove her brother's innocence.  She disguises herself as a eunuch and moves in close to those involved in her brother's fate.


Savannah by Eugenia Price tells the story of Mark Browning, a young man who renounces his father's fortune and moves to Savannah.  Once there, Mark is torn between two women: the wife of his mentor and a young lady with secret.

China Dolls by Lisa See takes place in 1938.  Helen, Ruby, and Grace are competing at the same audition for showgirl roles at an exclusive night club.  The three girls grow to depend on one another until everything changes with the attack on Pearl Harbor.


The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber tells the story of Sugar, a whore in Mrs. Castaway's brothel.  Her climb up Victorian society brings the reader into the lives of many characters: socialites, journalists, and servants.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in a New England colony and shows the impact a single act has on the lives of three members of the community: Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth.


Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9780385536493/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12


Monday, March 16, 2015

SHORT STORIES

Our Book to Movie Club is reading a short story this month: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber.  The movie version stars Ben Stiller and was released in 2013.

Already finished with the March selection for Book to Movie Club?  Try one of these short stories!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates (A collection of short stories)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been by Joyce Carol Oates
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville
Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
One More Thing by B.J. Novak (A collection of short stories)

Movie Versions:
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Brokeback Mountain
Sleepy Hollow

Picture from http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Walter-Mitty/dp/B00H7KJRVY/ref=sr_1_2_twi_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1426089305&sr=1-2&keywords=secret+life+of+walter+mitty

Monday, March 9, 2015

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: JODI PICOULT

Jodi Picoult is the best-selling author of over 20 novels.  Her novels have been on the New York Times Bestsellers List and some have been made into movies.  Picoult's next novel, Off the Page is due out this coming June.

For more information on Jodi Picoult, visit her website: http://www.jodipicoult.com/index.html

Try one of her novels today!

The Storyteller: Sage befriends a local retired teacher Josef.  One day, he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him.  Sage refuses until he tells her that he deserves to die.  After he reveals his secret, Sage begins to wonder if he is right.  What should she do?  Can someone who has committed a terrible crime redeem themselves?  Can you offer forgiveness to someone if you were not the one who was hurt?  And, if she does fulfill his request, is it murder or justice?

Between the Lines: This novel was written by Jodi Picoult and her daughter Samantha van Leer.  The story is told by two narrators: Price Oliver and Delilah.  Prince Oliver longs to break out of his fairy tale life, and Delilah is obsessed with Oliver and the book in which he exists.  Together, they work to gain his freedom.

Lone Wolf: Edward has been living in Thailand after a fight with his father.  One day, he receives a phone call that his father is seriously injured and in a coma.  As his chances of survival decrease, Edward and Cara (his sister) disagree on the best course of action.  Cara wants to wait for a miracle, and Edward wants to take his father off of life support in order to donate his organs.

Sing You Home: After losing their baby, Max and Zoe's marriage comes to an end.  Max leaves Zoe and finds comfort in drinking; he then finds help for this drinking problem through his brother's church.  In the meantime, Zoe falls in love with Vanessa, and the two of them get married.  Vanessa offers to carry one of Zoe and Max's embryos, but Zoe needs to obtain permission from Max first.

House Rules: Jacob Hunt has Asperger's Syndrome.  He cannot follow social cues and struggles with expressing himself.  Jacob's special focus is forensic analysis.  He likes to show up and crime scenes and tells the police what they need to do to solve their cases, and he is usually right.  One day, his tutor is found dead, the police come to question him, and he is accused of murder. 

Handle With Care: Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe are the parents of Willow, a young girl with osteogenesis imperfect.  This means that she will suffer a countless number of broken bones as she grows.  Even with the risk of broken bones, Willow is a happy child: smart, beautiful, and kind.  Everything changes when Charlotte and Sean are forced to think about some serious what-if questions. 

Change of Heart: June Nealon lives a life of waiting.  She is waiting for justice.  Shay Bourne believes the world has given him nothing, and he offers nothing in return.  In a second, something happens that changes things for Shay.  He has one last chance at salvation, but that chance lies with June's daughter Claire.

Nineteen Minutes:  Sterling is a small, ordinary town where nothing happens until the day of the school shooting.  Following the shooting, the town looks to find justice and to examine the role it played in the tragedy.  Josie Cormier could be the best witness, but she cannot remember what happened right in front of her.

The Tenth Circle: Trixie Stone is in love for the first time, and she has always looked up to her father as her hero.  That all changes when a single act of violence suddenly changes everything that Trixie has believed about her friends, self, and family.

Vanishing Acts: What happens when your past, one you didn't know you had, catches up with you?  Delia Hopkins has led a good life; she has a daughter, a fiancĂ©, and a search-and-rescue bloodhound.  As she plans her wedding, she is bothered by flashbacks of a life she doesn't remember.  She mus

My Sisters Keeper: Anna has undergone many medical procedures in order to help her older sister Kate fight leukemia.  Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate; this was something that she never challenged, until now.

Second Glance: An old man puts land up for sale and, as a result, raises protests from the local Abenaki tribe.  When odd events begin to occur, a ghost hunter, Ross Wakeman, is hired to look into things.  The only thing he finds is Lia Beaumont, a woman in search for something beyond the boundary of life and death.

Perfect Match: Nina Frost prosecutes child molesters, and in the course of her work, she has seen too many criminals walk free.  Nina and her husband discover that their own son has been sexually abused, and only five year old Nathaniel knows the identity of his attacker.  However, the trauma has left him mute.

Salem Falls: Jack St. Bride was a teacher at a girls' prep school.  His reputation was destroyed when a student's crush developed into accusations.  Jack has tried to move on by washing dishes for at a local diner.  However, a group of girls keeping secrets target Jack with another allegation.  Jack is forced to defend his innocence to the town as well as to the woman who loves him.

Plain Truth: A dead baby is found in Aaron Fisher's barn.  The discovery sparks a scandal in Amish country, and the investigation could implicate Aaron's daughter.

Keeping Faith: When Mariah and Colin White's marriage falls apart, their daughter Faith is there to see it all.  Following the divorce, Mariah falls into depression; suddenly, Faith begins to hear divine voices.  When miraculous healings begin, Faith and Mariah are forced into the center of controversy that threatens what little stability the family has left.

The Pact: The Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes are inseparable, so it came as no surprise when their children, Chris and Emily, began to show signs of romance.  Then, Emily is found shot to death by Chris as part of an apparent suicide pact. 

Mercy: Police Chief Cameron McDonald must arrest Jamie after he confesses that he killed his ill wife out of mercy.  A murder trial brings the town into chaos and drives a wedge into Cameron's marriage.

Picture Perfect: Cassie Barrett and Alex Rivers meet on the set of a movie in Africa, and they eventually get married.  However, when they return home, something begins to change the picture of their perfect marriage.  Torn between fear and love, Cassie wonders about things she never dreamed she would have to face.

Harvesting the Heart: Paige only has a few memories of the mother who abandoned her as a child.  Years later, Paige finds herself with a child of her own.  Paige begins to wonder how she can bring joy and meaning into her child's life as her own mother never did so.

Songs of the Humpback Whale: Jane Jones has lived in the shadow of her husband Oliver, a renowned oceanographer.  One day, during an argument, Jane turns on him and leaves with their daughter.  Oliver must search for his wife and daughter and a new way to see his family and himself.

Leaving Time: Alice Metcalf was an accomplished scientist studying grief among elephants when she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.  All signs point to abandonment, but Jenna refuses to believe in her mother's abandonment.

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9780345544926/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12












Monday, March 2, 2015

EVE AND ADAM

Eve and Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate tells the story of Evening Spiker.  While recovering from a car accident at Spiker Biotech, Evening meets Solo, a boy who has grown up at the facility.  To keep her busy while recovering, her mother gives her a project to work on: creating the perfect boy through the use of a detailed simulation.  During her stay at Biotech, Solo begins to give Evening clues that something is off at Spiker Biotech, and the two of them discover secrets that could be world changing. 

Eve and Adam is co-authored by a husband and wife duo.  Together they have written over 100 books, some together and some separately.  Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate co-wrote the popular Animorphs series, and Katherine is also the author of the Newbery medal winning novel: The One and Only Ivan.



For more information about Michael Grant, visit http://themichaelgrant.com/
For more information about Katherine Applegate, visit http://www.harpercollins.com/cr-102986/katherine-applegate or http://theoneandonlyivan.com/


For similar reads, check out one of the books listed below!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson - Jenna Fox wakes up from a coma and is told she is recovering from a terrible accident.  She does not remember what happened and suffers from memory lapses.  Are these memories really hers?  Why can't she remember what happened?  What will happen when she learns a secret about her existence?

Beta by Rachel Cohn - Elysia was is created in a lab; she is "born" as a 16 year old.  She wakes without life experience or childhood.  She is a experimental model of a teenage clone, created from another girl who died in order for Elysia to live.  Her role is to serve the people of Demesne, home to some of the wealthiest people on earth.  Elysia understands that she is soulless and cannot feel, but why are overwhelming sensations entering her mind?  When her chance at happiness is taken away from her, her emotions are released.

Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley - This is the classic novel of horror and genetic engineering.  A monster is created by a scientist from parts of dead bodies.  The monster eventually develops a mind of his own, and he learns to hate both himself and his creator.

Unremembered by Jessica Brody - A girl wakes up after a plane crash that she does not remember.  She enters foster care, and the only clue she has to her life comes from a boy who claims that she was part of a secret science experiment.

Double Helix by Nancy Werlin - Eli is offered a job at Wyatt Transgenics, a job with a great salary and interesting work.  However, Eli's father is against his taking the job but will not explain why.  Eli knows that there is something between Dr. Wyatt and his parents, but he does not know what it is.  As Eli works at the lab and spends time with Dr. Wyatt, he begins to learn some unsettling truths about himself.

Picture from http://syndetics.com/index.php?isbn=9780312583514/lc.jpg&client=arrowheadlbs&type=rn12