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Reviews

Reviews

by Elizabeth Mitchell - History, Nonfiction

The Statue of Liberty has become one of the most recognizable monuments in the world: a symbol of freedom and the American Dream. But the story of the creation of the statue has been obscured by myth. In reality, she was the inspiration of one quixotic French sculptor hungry for fame and adoration. LIBERTY'S TORCH tells the story of an artist, entrepreneur and inventor who fought against all odds to create this wonder of the modern world.

by Larry McMurtry - Fiction, Historical Fiction

The taciturn Wyatt Earp whiles away his time in between bottles, and the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc Holliday is more adept at poker than extracting teeth. Now hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge, Wyatt and Doc are living out the last days of a way of life that is passing into history, two men never more aware of the growing distance between their lives and their legends.

by Elizabeth Crook - Fiction, Historical Fiction

On an oppressively hot Monday in August of 1966, a student and former marine named Charles Whitman hauled a footlocker of guns to the top of the University of Texas tower and began firing on pedestrians below. Before it was over, 16 people had been killed and 32 wounded. It was the first mass shooting of civilians on a campus in American history. Elizabeth Crook's latest novel, MONDAY, MONDAY, follows three students caught up in the massacre.

by Steven Travers - Biography, History, Nonfiction

THE DUKE, THE LONGHORNS, AND CHAIRMAN MAO is a fly-on-the-wall exploration of a wild weekend and an immersion into the John Wayne mythology: his politics, his inspirations, the plots to assassinate him, his connections to Stalin, Khrushchev and Chairman Mao, and the death of the Western.

by Adam Begley - Biography, Nonfiction

In this eye-opening, authoritative biography, Adam Begley offers a captivating portrait of John Updike, the author who saw himself as a literary spy in small-town and suburban America. Drawing on in-depth archival research, as well as interviews with the writer's family, friends and colleagues, Begley explores how Updike's fiction was shaped by his tumultuous personal life.

by T. T. Monday - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Johnny Adcock is an aging Major League pitcher with the perfect retirement plan --- he moonlights as a private investigator. On the team bus after a game, teammate Frankie Herrera confides in Adcock that he has a “problem with his wife.” What sounds like the standard story of a pro athlete’s marriage gone sour quickly turns into the most dangerous case of Adcock’s second career when Frankie is killed in a car accident, leaving far too many questions unanswered.

by Roberto Costantini - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Winner of the Scerbanenco Prize for the best Italian crime thriller, Roberto Costantini's THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL is a psychological thriller about an edgy policeman’s personal evolution --- or devolution --- as seen through the lens of a devilish case that consumed him early in his career and continues to haunt him 24 years later.

by Howard Blum - History, Nonfiction

When a “neutral” United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs devise a series of “mysterious accidents” using explosives and biological weapons to bring down vital targets. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department’s Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them.

by Joshua Max Feldman - Fiction

A bizarre, unexpected biblical vision at a party changes everything for young Manhattan lawyer Jonah Jacobstein. This disturbing sign is only the first of many Jonah will witness, and before long his life is unrecognizable. Though this perhaps divine intervention will be responsible for more than one irreversible loss in Jonah’s life, it will also cross his path with that of Judith Bulbrook, an intense, breathtakingly intelligent woman who’s no stranger to loss herself.

by Deborah Johnson - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country. Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past.