Adult

Alexandra Horowitz, an eminent research scientist in the field of dog cognition, explores what the nose knows by taking an imaginative leap into what it is like to be a dog. Inspired by her own family dogs, Finnegan and Upton, Horowitz sets off on a quest to make sense of scents. In addition to speaking to experts across the country, Horowitz visits the California Narcotic Canine Association Training Institute and the Stapleton Group’s “Vapor wake” explosives dog training team; meets vets and researchers working with dogs to detect cancerous cells and anticipate epileptic seizure or diabetic shock; and travels with Finnegan to the west coast where he learns how to find truffles.

Lost for more than 75 years, THE KNIFE SLIPPED was meant to be the second book in the Cool & Lam series, but was shelved when Erle Stanley Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities --- however shocking for 1939 --- shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful criminals, crooked cops, blazing dialogue and delicious plot twists.

With direct threats from Australia’s warring Right and the Left having quieted, wealthy Rowland Sinclair and his group of bohemian friends are on their way home to Sydney via New York after a lengthy stay in Europe. The wealthy Sinclair scion has treated his artist friends to first-class accommodations on the Cunard ship, the luxury liner of the day. Also on board are some members of the Theosophical Society, as well as an aggressively conservative Irish Catholic Bishop and his cohorts. Their clash ups the tensions in first class and presents the liner’s captain with a tricky situation when bodies start to drop.

The restaurant industry in Italy is as tough, cutthroat and unforgiving as anywhere else in the world --- sometimes even colluding with the shady world of organized crime. Leonardo Lucarelli is a professional chef who has been roaming Italy opening restaurants, training underpaid, sometimes hopelessly incompetent sous-chefs, courting waitresses, working long hours, riding high on drugs, and cursing a culinary passion he inherited as a teenager from his hippie father. In MINCEMEAT, Lucarelli teaches us that even among rogues and misfits, there is a moral code in the kitchen that must, above all else, always be upheld.

The first target is Dallas, Texas. A deadly nerve gas called New Archangel is unleashed upon the City of Angels, claiming innocent lives, spreading nationwide panic, and fueling global fears of another attack. In the icy reaches of rural Alaska, special agent Jericho Quinn is enlisted to hunt down the man who created the bioweapon --- a brilliant Russian scientist who is trying to defect and hiding in the Alaskan wilderness. But time is running out. The scientist is beginning to lose his mind to dementia. If Quinn doesn’t find him before the Russians do, the entire western seaboard and beyond will feel the wrath of New Archangel --- and darkness will fall upon the earth.

The mystery of Athens is simple: how did a tiny community of 200,000 souls or so manage to give birth to towering geniuses across the range of human endeavor, create one of greatest civilizations in history, and lay the foundations of our own contemporary intellectual universe? Although its story is less well known than that of Rome, the allure of Athens would go on to impact Alexander the Great, the Romans, as well as the Founding Fathers. The Athenians laid the foundations of the house in which we live today, and Anthony Everitt brings its story to life.

Along the River Thames, the body of a woman has been discovered chained to a stone post and left to drown. “The Bride in the Tide,” as the London press gleefully dubs her, has the Peculiar Crimes Unit stumped. Why wouldn’t the killer simply dump her body in the river as so many do? Arthur Bryant wonders if the answer lies in the mythology of the Thames itself. Unfortunately, the venerable detective seems to be losing his grip on reality. John May fears the worst, as Bryant starts hallucinating that he’s traveled back in time to solve the case. As more bodies are pulled from the river’s depths, May and the rest of the PCU find themselves in over their heads.

In 1940 Edmund Wilson was the undisputed big dog of American letters. Vladimir Nabokov was a near-penniless Russian exile seeking asylum in the States. Wilson became a mentor to Nabokov and their intimate friendship blossomed over a shared interest in all things Russian. But then came Lolita, and suddenly Nabokov was the big (and very rich) dog. Finally the feud erupted in full when Nabokov published an unreadable literal translation of Pushkin’s famously untranslatable verse novel Eugene Onegin. Wilson attacked his friend’s translation in The New York Review of Books. Nabokov counterattacked in the same publication. Back and forth the increasingly aggressive letters volleyed until their friendship was reduced to ashes by the narcissism of small differences.

For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, and to find the answers to life’s questions big and small. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book and how it relates to concerns we all share. These books span centuries and genres --- from STUART LITTLE to THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, from DAVID COPPERFIELD to WONDER, from GIOVANNI’S ROOM to REBECCA, and from 1984 to GIFTS FROM THE SEA. Throughout, Schwalbe tells stories from his life and focuses on the way certain books can help us honor those we've loved and lost, and also figure out how to live each day more fully.

A British archaeologist --- a member of an expedition gone missing for over two years --- stumbles out of the Egyptian desert. Before he can explain what happened to his team, he dies. But his remains hold a terrifying discovery that only deepens the mystery: something had begun mummifying his body while he was still alive. Commander Grayson Pierce of Sigma Force is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the brutal murder and discovering the fate of the missing team. He and his allies must confront a danger that will unleash a cascading series of plagues around the globe, culminating in a scourge that could kill all of the world’s children…and forever end mankind’s future.