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Start Shooting by Charlie Newton. Random House
Officer
Bobby Vargas is hard-edged but idealistic, a Chicago cop who stands at
the epicenter of a subterranean plot that will have horrific
ramifications for both himself and the entire city. Twenty-five years
earlier, a gruesome murder rocked the unforgiving streets of Four
Corners. Now, suddenly, a dying Chicago paper is running a serial
exposé on new evidence in that old case, threatening to implicate Bobby
and his older brother, Ruben-a decorated, high-ranking detective and
cop- prince of the streets. The smear campaign stirs up decades-old bad
blood, leading the Vargas brothers down an increasingly twisted and
terrifying path, where the sins of the past threaten to destroy what
remains of the truth.
Serial Killer Whisperer, The: How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most TerrifyingKiller by Pete Earley. Simon & Schuster
From New York Times bestselling author Pete Earley-the
strange but true story of how a young man's devastating brain injury
gave him the unique ability to connect with the world's most terrifying
criminals.
Fifteen-year-old
Tony Ciaglia had everything a teenager wants-good grades, good athletic
skills, and good friends-until he suffered a horrific head injury at
summer camp. Pronounced clinically dead three times by helicopter
paramedics before he reached a hospital, Ciaglia lapsed into a coma.
When he emerged his right side was paralyzed and he had to relearn how
to walk, talk, and even how to eat. He had to take countless pills to
control his emotions.
Abandoned and
shunned by his friends, he began writing to serial killers on a whim and
discovered that the same traumatic brain injury that made him an
outcast to his peers now enabled him to connect emotionally with
notorious murderers. Asked by investigators from the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children to aid in solving a murder, Tony began
launching his own personal searches for forgotten victims, with clues
often provided to him voluntarily by the killers themselves.
The Serial Killer
Whisperer takes readers into the minds of murderers as never
before-straight from a killer's thoughts to paper. It is also an
inspiring tale of an American family whose idyllic life is shattered by a
terrible accident, and how healing and closure came to a tormented man
in the most unlikely way-by connecting with monsters. This sounds fascinating.
The Real Romney by Michael Kranish & Scott Helman. Harper Collins
In The Real Romney,
Kranish and Helman delve searchingly into the psyche of a complex man
now at his most critical juncture-the private Romney whom few people
see. They show the remarkable lengths to which Romney has gone in order
to succeed in politics and business, shrewdly shifting identities as
needed, bringing tough-minded strategy to every decision, and always
carefully safeguarding his public image. For the first time, readers
will gain a full understanding of the kind of man Romney is-the kind of
man who may be running their country.
Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry by Dylan Ratigan. Simon & Schuster
Dylan Ratigan is
mad as hell. Infuriated by government corruption and corporate
communism, incensed by banksters shaking down taxpayers, and despairing
of an ailing health care system, an age-old dependency on foreign oil,
and a failing educational system, Ratigan sees an America that has
allowed itself to be swindled and robbed. In this book, his first, he
rips the lid off our deeply crooked system-and offers a way out.
Wine to Water: A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World by Doc Hendley. Penguin
Doc Hendley never set out to be a hero. In 2004, Hendley-a small town bartender- launched a series of wine-tastingevents
to raise funds for clean-water projects and to bring awareness to the
world's freshwater crisis. He planned to donate the proceeds through
traditional channels, but instead found himself traveling to one of the
world's most dangerous hot spots: Darfur, Sudan.
Doc is a regular, rough-and-tumble guy who loves booze, music, and his Harley- but he also wanted to help. Wine to Water
is a gripping story about braving tribal warfare and natural disasters
and encountering fascinating characters in far-flung regions of the
world. It is also an authoritative account of a global crisis and an
inspirational tale that proves how ordinary people can improve the
world.
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson. Hachette
A Grown-up Kind of Pretty
is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships
and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds
of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the
cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the
backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her
stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But
it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal
love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who
will stop at nothing to defend their future.
The Odds by Stewart O'Nan. Penguin
Stewart O'Nan's thirteenth novel is another wildly original, bittersweet gem like his celebrated Last Night at the Lobster.
Valentine's weekend, Art and Marion Fowler flee their Cleveland suburb
for Niagara Falls, desperate to recoup their losses. Jobless, with their
home approaching foreclosure and their marriage on the brink of
collapse, Art and Marion liquidate their savings account and book a
bridal suite at the Falls' ritziest casino for a second honeymoon. While
they sightsee like tourists during the day, at night they risk it all
at the roulette wheel to fix their finances-and save their marriage. A
tender yet honest exploration of faith, forgiveness and last chances, The Odds is a reminder that love, like life, is always a gamble. O'Nan is one of my favorite writers.
Power Play by Ben Bova. St. Martins
Dr. Jake Ross, a
university astronomer, wants nothing more than to teach a few classes
each semester and continue on his research. However, he is being
aggressively recruited to be the science advisor to Frank Tomlinson, an
ambitious politician with his eye on the U.S. Senate. Dr. Ross' MHD, or
magnetohydrodynamics, is a new innovation that will allow electricity to
be generated efficiently and cheaply. The senate is essentially
guaranteed if Tomlinson can deliver unlimited energy to voters at less
than half the price of nuclear power. But MHD is still in its infancy,
and although the outlook is extremely promising there are great-and
deadly-risks.
The incumbent
senator will not give up his seat without a fight, and as Dr. Ross
discovers, the world of politics carries its own dangers. Nothing has
prepared Dr. Ross for the extreme tactics that desperate and powerful
people are willing to use.
Power Play is a timely thrill ride by Ben Bova, one of science fiction's most respected novelists.
Breakdown (V. I. Warshawski) by Sara Paretsky. Putnam
Carmilla, Queen of
the Night, is a shape-shifting raven whose fictional exploits thrill
girls all over the world. When tweens in Chicago's Carmilla Club hold an
initiation ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual
corpse, a man stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying.
The girls include
daughters of some of Chicago's most powerful families: The grandfather
of one, Chaim Salanter, is one of the world's wealthiest men; the mother
of another, Sophy Durango, is the Illinois Democratic candidate for
Senate.
For V. I.
Warshawski, the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the
killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Sophy Durango? Or to
Chaim Salanter's childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles
for answers, she finds herself fighting enemies who are all too human.
Private: #1 Suspect, No. 2 by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro. Hachette
Since former
Marine Jack Morgan started Private, it has become the world's most
effective investigation firm--sought out by the famous and the powerful
to discreetly handle their most intimate problems. Private's
investigators are the smartest, the fastest, and the most
technologically advanced in the world--and they always uncover the
truth.
When his former lover is found murdered in Jack Morgan's bed, he is instantly the number one suspect.
While
Jack is fighting for his life, one of his most trusted colleagues
threatens to leave Private, and Jack realizes he is confronting the
cleverest and most powerful enemies ever. With more action, more
intrigue, and more twists than ever before, Private: #1 Suspect is James
Patterson at his unstoppable best.
Kings of Colorado by David Hilton. Simon and Schuster
William
Sheppard had never ventured beyond his Chicago neighborhood until, at
thirteen, he was sent away to the Swope Ranch Boys' Reformatory,
hundreds of miles from home, for stabbing his abusive father in the
chest with a pocketknife. Buried deep in the Colorado mountains, Swope
is shrouded in legend and defined by one prevailing rumor: that the boys
who go in never come out the same.
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood. Penguin
Romance, magic, and an age-old prophecy - the first in a new young adult series.
Our mother was a witch too, but she hid it better. I miss her.
To
me, the magic feels like a curse. According to the Brothers, it's
devil-sent. Women who can do magic-they're either mad or wicked. So I
will do everything in my power to protect myself and my sisters. Even if
it means giving up my life - and my true love.
Because if the Brothers discover our secret, we're destined for the asylum, or prison . . . or death.
Beneath a Meth Moon by Jaqueline Woodson. Penguin
Laurel Daneau has moved
on to a new life, in a new town, but inside she's still reeling from the
loss of her beloved mother and grandmother after Hurricane Katrina
washed away their home. Laurel's new life is going well, with a new best
friend, a place on the cheerleading squad and T-Boom, co-captain of the
basketball team, for a boyfriend. Yet Laurel is haunted by voices and
memories from her past.
When
T-Boom introduces Laurel to meth, she immediately falls under its
spell, loving the way it erases, even if only briefly, her past. But as
she becomes alienated from her friends and family, she becomes a shell
of her former self, and longs to be whole again. With help from an
artist named Moses and her friend Kaylee, she's able to begin to rewrite
her story and start to move on from her addiction.
Incorporating
Laurel's bittersweet memories of life before and during the hurricane,
this is a stunning novel by one of our finest writers.