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Reviews

Reviews

by Barry Miles - Biography, Nonfiction

Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. In CALL ME BURROUGHS, Beat historian Barry Miles presents the first full-length biography of Burroughs to be published in a quarter century --- and the first one to chronicle the last decade of Burroughs' life and examine his long-term cultural legacy.

by Susie Hodge - History, Military, Nonfiction

SECRETS OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR is the compelling chronicle of the warrior monks and their fight to defend the Catholic faith, and of their participation in the efforts to vie for control of the Holy Land with the Muslim armies of Kurdish military genius Saladin and his successors. Informally organized in 1119 to protect pilgrims on their journeys to visit the Holy Land, and officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church in 1129, the medieval Knights Templar grew into an elite fighting force that played a central role in the battles of the Crusades.

by Fay Weldon - Fiction, Historical Fiction

THE NEW COUNTESS is the final novel in Fay Weldon's trilogy that began with HABITS OF THE HOUSE and continued with LONG LIVE THE KING. The bestselling novelist and award-winning writer of the pilot episode of the original "Upstairs Downstairs" lifts the curtain on British society, upstairs and downstairs, under one roof.

by Matthew Lysiak - Nonfiction, True Crime

The world mourned the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012. Now comes a startling, comprehensive look at this tragedy, and into the mind of the unstable killer, Adam Lanza. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and a decade’s worth of emails from Lanza’s mother to close friends that chronicled his slow slide into mental illness, NEWTOWN pieces together the perfect storm that led to this unspeakable act of violence that shattered so many lives.

by Mark Rowlands - Nonfiction

In RUNNING WITH THE PACK, Mark Rowlands reveals the most significant runs of his life --- from the entire day he spent running as a boy in Wales, to the runs along French beaches and up Irish mountains with his beloved wolf, Brenin, and through Florida swamps with his husky-mix, Nina. Intertwined are the fascinating meditations that those runs triggered --- from mortality, midlife and the meaning of life.

by Simon Winchester - History, Nonfiction

How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Simon Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers and innovators. Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.

by Paula Daly - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

During an impossibly hectic week, Lisa Kallisto takes her eye off the ball for a moment and her world descends into a living nightmare. Not only is her best friend’s 13-year-old daughter missing, but it’s Lisa’s fault. Wracked with guilt over her mistake, she sets out to right the wrong. As she begins digging under the surface, she learns that everything is not quite what it first appears to be.

by Doris Kearns Goodwin - History, Nonfiction, Politics

Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the broken friendship between Teddy Roosevelt and his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. With the help of the “muckraking” press, Roosevelt had wielded the Bully Pulpit to challenge and triumph over abusive monopolies, political bosses and corrupting money brokers. Roosevelt led a revolution that he bequeathed to Taft only to see it compromised as Taft surrendered to money men and big business.

by Lacy Crawford - Fiction

EARLY DECISION is a novel that follows five students over one autumn as Anne, “the application whisperer,” helps them craft their college essays, cram for the SATs, and perfect the Common Application. It seems their entire future is on the line --- and it is. It’s because the process, warped as it is by money, connections, competition and parental mania, threatens to crush their independence just as adulthood begins.

by Wally Lamb - Fiction

After 27 years of marriage and three children, Anna Oh --- wife, mother, outsider artist --- has fallen in love with Viveca, the wealthy Manhattan art dealer who orchestrated her success. They plan to wed in the Oh family’s hometown of Three Rivers in Connecticut. But the wedding provokes some very mixed reactions and opens a Pandora’s Box of toxic secrets --- dark and painful truths that have festered below the surface of the Ohs’ lives.