The fluoridation of America's water was recently celebrated by the U.S. Center for Disease Control as one of the ten greatest public health acheivements of the twentieth century. However, after reading The Case Against Fluoride, you'll be wondering how anyone could argue in good faith that there is a case for it. The lead author, a former professor of chemistry and toxicology, carefully...   >> Read more

It's darkly comic, it's suspenseful, it's an inside look at out-of-control Wall Street about to go over the falls in 2006-2008. It's Michael Lewis' The Big Short - "short" as in "short sale," an open-ended bet that the price of an asset will drop sharply. The assets in this case are sub-prime mortgages, generally considered to be unshortable. But the collection of socially-challenged financial do-it-yourselfers ...   >> Read more

Roubini argues that the economic meltdown of 2007-2009 was not a freak event (a "black swan") but instead should have been utterly predictable (a white swan). And the author should know, since back in 2006 he began telling everyone who would listen that the financial sky was going to fall and exactly how it was all going to go down. He presents a brief history of previous financial meltdowns, demonstrating that, to a large extent, once you've seen one, you've seen them all....   >> Read more

Serena, by Ron Rash is a tale of greed and the thoughtless pursuit of power.  This historical novel is set in the early 1930's in the North Carolina mountains.  The main characters are George and Serena Pemberton, just married, who have traveled from Boston to North Carolina in order to create a timber empire. Their goal is to cut every tree in North Carolina and then move on to Brazil and do the same.

When Ron Rash started writing Serena, he pictured a...   >> Read more

Do you like to read but also enjoy beautiful black and white illustrations? Have you made your acquaintance with the graphic novel? The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a Caldecott Award winning hybrid of text and graphic illustration and a wonderful introduction to this rapidly growing and increasingly important literary influence.

This lovely book combines text, silent movie stills and black and white graphic representations to tell the story of Hugo, an orphaned boy living in...   >> Read more

Rachel never thought of herself as black or white. In her home, she was always just Rachel. Now, at eleven years old, she’s been uprooted from her life in Chicago and sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Portland. Divided between the memory of her Danish mother and the African-American world of her father’s family in which she has been immersed, Rachel struggles with her uncertain identity as "the new girl." Her light skin and blue eyes set her apart at her mostly black...   >> Read more

Best-selling author Dean Koontz is famous for his science fiction, horror and fantasy writing, but in Bliss to You: Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life, he defers to his beloved, deceased dog Trixie by serving as editor of her advice on how to lead a happy life.
Deceased? Why, yes! According to Koontz, Trixie, a golden retriever originally trained by Canine Companions to assist persons with disabilities, had her career cut short because of elbow surgery. Forced into early retirement, she...   >> Read more

Author Ivan Doig takes readers on a fascinating voyage through two years of World War II, as seen through the eyes of Ben Reinking, quarterback of Treasure State University's undefeated "Supreme Team".  As Ben follows in the footsteps of his 10 teammates reporting on their adventures, triumphs and loss, he searches for purpose in his life, always wondering what might happen to that life if the odds don't go his way.

Although the action occurs during WWII, this book is...   >> Read more

Joanna, a corporate wife, is weary of the frequent moves her family makes to accomodate her husband’s career ladder.  At 46, with an empty nest, she decides during her morning jog to leave New Jersey.

She drives to Pawleys Island and accepts a live-in companion position with an elderly widow, Grace. Grace asks Joanna to stay on for six months, but does not reveal a secret that she is also hiding from her own family.

The seasonal life of Pawleys Island...   >> Read more

Set in World War II Germany and narrated by Death himself, The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, a 9-year-old orphan.  Rosa and Hans Hubermann, Liesel’s foster parents, teach her to love and to trust.  Hans teaches her to read from her first treasure, The Grave Digger’s Handbook, a book she found at her brother’s funeral.  Together, they shelter a young Jewish man, Max Vandenburg, from whom Liesel learns perseverance...   >> Read more

Home ownership is a politically and socially charged concept currently in America. Is everyone entitled to own a home? What happens when people and companies move into a neighborhood and change living conditions to make it appeal to a different group of potential homeowners? Nathan McCall asks these questions and others in his novel Them. A predominantly African-American downtown neighborhood in Atlanta is being bought up by investors and sold to Whites at a sizeable profit. The story is...   >> Read more

If you are growing concerned about "green" living and earth's dwindling resources, "Farewell, my Subaru" by Doug Fine needs to be on your reading list. Fine grew up in the New York suburbs, graduated from Stanford University and travelled the world reporting for NPR, newspapers, and various magazines. Now in his late 30s, he purchased a ranch in remote New Mexico and set out to become independent from oil without losing his accustomed comforts like motorized...   >> Read more

In Garden Spells, her first novel, Sarah Addison Allen blends horticultural folklore with the supernatural and serves it up with a southern flavor. She tells the story of the Waverleys, who have lived in their ancestral home in Bascom, North Carolina, for generations but are still considered outsiders...   >> Read more

"Run with the Horsemen" is a novel about young Porter Osborne Jr., growing up on a farm "between the wars" in Georgia. Porter, referred to as "the boy," is the only boy in a family of girls. His extended family consists of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, all of whom add character and drama to a mischievous boy's simple life. Porter experiences life in the giant shadow of his father, with the loving tutelage of his regal mother, under the watchful eye...   >> Read more

The eternal battle of the sexes is transferred to the battlefield between Evangelical Christians and proponents of sex education. Ruth Ramsey, sex ed teacher at a local high school, is trying to survive the aftermath of her divorce and a scandal caused by her frank teaching of sex ed. Tim Mason, junkie turned born-again Christian, is struggling with the desires of his old life and the demands of his new one. Their paths cross, and neither is the same. Tom Perrotta's subtle, funny, painful...   >> Read more

Fans of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" series have been rejoicing all summer since the seventh and final book in the series was published in June. The latest installment focuses on one of the series' most popular characters, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, the gentle and funny Southern gardener whose romantic ups and downs captivated readers first in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper columns and later in the book series. Fans worried about Michael's fate following...   >> Read more

What do a murder, an invention and an ocean liner have in common? All share an enthralling "CSI-type" tale in Erik Larson's latest narrative non-fiction, "Thunderstruck." Guglielmo Marconi was attempting to replace the enormous undersea communication cable with the invention of wireless radio early in the 1900s. Hawley Harvey Crippen was an American doctor living in England who was reduced to selling patent medicines for a living. Larson combines the story of the inventor...   >> Read more

"The Sunday List of Dreams" holds everything Connie Nixon has put on hold since finding herself a divorced mother with 3 daughters to raise. Now those daughters are long grown and the reader meets Connie on the day of her retirement from 32 years of nursing work. She has 3 months until starting a new job and plans to clean out and sell her house and start living the list. In a forgotten box Connie discovers her oldest, estranged daughter Jessica's business plans for starting a sex...   >> Read more

John Connolly's latest book follows the adventures of a 12-year-old boy driven by grief into the world of mystical books and grim fairy tales. Living in London during the WWII blitz, David loses his mother to illness, acquires a stepmother and tries to ignore a new baby. The unnatural voices of the characters pull the grieving and fearful lad into their mysterious world of beasts and bogeymen. In this new fairy tale, David must struggle through darkness and shadows to find the fairy king's...   >> Read more

"Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed", by Pulitzer and Aventis Prize winner, Jared Diamond, examines failed and successful societies around the world and throughout history . Diamond explores what these societies had in common, why one failed and the other flourished, one is extinct and the other prospering. He takes the reader through a brief history lesson, explores archaeological evidence, and draws conclusions that factored into each society's breakdown or...   >> Read more

In the author's note he states that as a historian he "knew a wicked hurricane could alter world history". Douglas Brinkley is an academic historian at Tulane University, resident of New Orleans and commentator for network news channels. The Great Deluge covers the week of Saturday, August 27th to Saturday, September 3 with hundreds of personal detailed descriptions of Katrina. Private individuals, government employees, members of the Coast Guard and FEMA, Max Mayfield of the...   >> Read more

Ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes at a fine restaurant? If you love reading about food, dig into this book and savor every bite. Bill Buford, a writer for The New Yorker, was curious about whether he could take his basic kitchen skills and refine them enough to work in a high-profile restaurant. What began as an idea for a magazine article turned into an obsession for Buford as he apprenticed with superstar Italian chef Mario Batali at Babbo, his flagship eatery in New York...   >> Read more

Before he can carry out the stabbing, Dr. Bill Brockton has a crucial decision to make: right- or left-handed? He soon discovers he needs both hands, and all his weight, to drive the knife home. Not to worry, though, his "victim" is already dead, one of the cadavers donated to the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility, better known as "The Body Farm." A forensic anthropologist, Brockton's job is to perform experiments on these bodies to aid law...   >> Read more

Enjoy a rip-roaring cowboy adventure and laugh-out-loud mystery, with brothers Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer (better known as Old Red and Big Red). During an 1892 cattle drive, Old Red becomes besotted with Sherlock Holmes when his brother reads "The Red-Headed League." Determined to follow in his hero's footsteps, Old Red gets the chance to utilize the master's techniques when an unsavory foreman hires the pair to work at a Montana cattle spread, where the ranch’s general...   >> Read more

"Outlander" is a historical fiction romance novel made interesting by time travel. The series begins in 1945 with Claire and her husband, Frank, on a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. Frank has just returned from seven years of service during World War II and has occupied his time with historical interests in the area. Claire, a British combat nurse, finds the Scottish flora and folklore more fascinating. During one of her botanical excursions, Claire falls through a...   >> Read more

Writer Lisa See uses her talent for mystery to transport the reader into the alien world of rural nineteenth-century China. A land of arranged marriages, foot binding, superstition and Confucius; a world where the size of a woman's feet determines her social success; a society where women spend their days in upstairs chambers, kowtowing to elders, serving tea and communicating in nu shu, a secret language known only to women. Holding this together is the friendship between Lily and Snow...   >> Read more

Imagine becoming the new restaurant critic for The New York Times – one of your most important jobs is visiting restaurants, critiquing the food, service and atmosphere – but you can’t do it because everyone already knows who you are and why you are there. This is the scenario food writer Ruth Reichl faces when she moves to New York City from Los Angeles to begin her new job. Restaurant owners are on high alert for a visit from Reichl, so she soon learns that she must...   >> Read more

The sight of blood makes Dexter Morgan a bit squeamish -- a decided disadvantage in his job as a blood-spatter analyst with the Miami police department. It doesn't help much with his hobby, either. You see, Dexter is a serial killer. From an early age, he knew he wasn't like other people. His foster father, a Miami police officer, detected that difference and taught Dexter to put his deadly compulsions to good use. While other serial killers prey on the innocent, Dexter preys on the guilty....   >> Read more

Michael Phillips has written a touching fantasy in the flavor of George MacDonald and C.S.Lewis.

The character, whose name is unimportant, awakens into a strange yet beautiful world. With the help of the individuals he meets, he begins to re-evaluate his past life.

He enters into the garden of tiny moments and the fragrance of fire on the journey to find his "Self". The colors and aromas of the flowers covering these magnificent gardens reach deep into his senses...   >> Read more

What do a ruthless land developer, a philandering minister, a rich widow, a bankrupt Wall St trader and 13 authors have in common? One rousingly humorous serial mystery!
(Each acclaimed author pens only one chapter)

The story opens with each of three residents of the posh community of Gryphon Gate receiving a threatening fax. All are told to meet with their blackmailer at the sixth hole of the golf course at 8 pm. They arrive in sequence and each privately discovers the body of...   >> Read more

Miles Lord is an African-American male attorney from South Carolina practicing in an Atlanta law firm.

The firm and Taylor Hayes, his boss, have financial interests in a favored descendant of the Romanov family, Stefan Baklanov. Due to Miles' fluency in Russian and scholarly knowledge, Taylor Hayes involves him in the Tsar Commission confirmation of Baklanov to restore the monarchy following the failure of the Russian government.

The book's prologue presents a dialog between...   >> Read more

Eight years ago, an intruder broke into the posh Adirondack lodge of wealthy media mogul, William Andrews, and his famous socialite first wife, Kay Parker. She was brutally murdered and he was seriously injured. The perpetrator was never caught, and Bill spent the next several years building up his powerful empire, Andrews Global Network.

Bill buys the newspaper that employs business reporter, J.J. Warren (Jane) and after several unflattering articles, she soon arranges an interview...   >> Read more

Would you describe the phrase “world’s first commodities exchange” as edgy and mysterious? What about the term “futures”?

Author David Liss manages to mesh finance and mystery into a real page turner in "The Coffee Trader." The setting is 1659 Amsterdam, home of the world’s first commodity exchange, a town where fortunes are won or lost in a blink of an eye.

Enter Miguel Lienzo, who must maneuver through a web of deceit and betrayal...   >> Read more

The Namesake is a book about a Bengali immigrant family, their problems with assimilation into the American culture and their growth as a family.

Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli come to America in the late 1960’s after an arranged marriage. The naming of their first child is one of many difficult attempts to bridge the new world and the life left behind. The couple chooses a pet name that they mean to replace, but never do. The child, named for a favorite Russian author, has...   >> Read more

Elizabeth Spencer’s The Southern Woman is a collection of new and selected fiction from her over 50-year career as a writer.

The title is somewhat misleading because it is not a sugary collection of sweet sentiments for the southern woman. These stories are meant for a much wider audience. Setting plays a very important role in each of the stories in this collection, whether it be the Deep South of Spencer’s native Mississippi or the piazzas of Italy.

Her stories...   >> Read more

Reuben Land, as an adult, reflects on his family in 1962 Minnesota and the events that altered the path of their lives. His voice lends a storytelling quality to Leif Enger’s first novel, Peace Like a River.

Reuben’ s lungs didn’t want to work when he was born until his saintly father, Jeremiah Land, commanded him to breathe. The miracle left Reuben with asthma. The story kept Reuben in awe of his father, and ever watchful for the next miracle. Jeremiah, a school...   >> Read more

British novelist Ian McEwan’s eighth novel, Atonement, explores the far-reaching consequences of two crimes, both committed on a summer evening in 1935 at the English country estate of the Tallis family. The eldest child, Leon, returns home for a weekend visit with college friend and ambitious businessman, Paul Marshall. Eagerly awaiting Leon’s visit are his two sisters, Cecilia and Briony and his frail mother. The first crime is an assault on a young girl, a visiting cousin, who...   >> Read more

Lefty Wright breaks into J. Andrew Chancellor’s empty house as easy as pie, and he has no idea why he is being paid so handsomely to do so. After stumbling over the corpse of the prominent criminal court judge, he realizes too late that he’s been set up.

Murder was not part of the deal, and Lefty sends out an appeal to Jake Diamond, Private Investigator, to help him prove his innocence. Diamond, who made his first appearance in J. L. Abramo’s previous novel, Catching...   >> Read more

When Columbia High Principal Coleman Jacobi threatens to send 16-year-old Earl Edge to Hopewell Reform School, Earl opts to lie about his age and join the US Army Air Corps. Fortified with a shoe box filled with fried chicken and deviled eggs, Earl begins his journey away from home with a bus ride to Fort Jackson. Mainly told through journal entries, this classic coming of age story chronicles the successes and sacrifices of a small-town trouble maker. William Price Fox currently lives in...   >> Read more

Talk about change of pace! Patterson's latest novel is a departure from the thrillers he is known for, but his fans will be pleased to find fast-paced suspense in this love story. Katie Wilkinson is crazy about Matt Harrison, and she is surprised when, a year into their romance, he breaks it off. He leaves her with a diary to read, written by his first wife, Suzanne, for their son, Nicholas. In it, Suzanne tells her son about the time before she met Matt, when, while working as a doctor at a...   >> Read more

She's back! Judge Deborah Knott is attending opening night at the annual Harvest Festival carnival in Colleton County, North Carolina. The sights, the sounds, and the smells take her back to her youth when she attended the carnival with her parents or some of her eleven older brothers. But unlike previous visits to the carnival, murder is an unexpected "attraction." The murder victim has a family connection to the Knott family. With the help of Dwight Bryant, a member of the...   >> Read more

Amy Tan's fourth novel, "The Bonesetter's Daughter" weaves the reader through the life of an American-born daughter into the life and culture of her Chinese mother. Tan threads the reader from the struggles of the modern "ghostwriter" daughter, Ruth, and her live-in relationship, with its roots in her relationship with her mother. Years earlier, Ruth's mother, LuLing, chronicled her life in China for her daughter to read. After attempting to translate the journal herself...   >> Read more

John Dortmunder is back. After a five-year hiatus, Donald Westlake has given us another installment of the most hilarious crime fiction series alive today. In league with his perennial partners in crime Andy Kelp, Stan Murch and Tiny Bulgur, Dortmunder is engaged by Shirley Ann Farraff, a.k.a Little Feather Redcorn, to help establish her claim to be half Pottaknobbee Indian. Why would she want to do this? The usual. You see, the few (very few) remaining Pottaknobbees are part owners of the...   >> Read more