Preview Shelf: Notable New Books by CDPL Volunteer, Janice Clauser

By Neil Barofski, former Special Inspector General in charge of oversight of TARP, Bailout is an inside account of how Washington abandoned Main Street while rescuing Wall Street. In Exit Interview, David Westin reflects on what he learned in fourteen years of constant change as president of ABC News during an impeachment, the war on terror, and our worst economy since the Great Depression. Bill McGuire’s Waking the Giant discusses how our changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. An unusual selection is The Defining Decade, Meg Jay’s study of why our twenties matter, and how to make the most of them now.
The Amish tale Keeping Secrets is book two of Sadie’s Montana by Linda Byler: horses are being shot selectively, and no one is safe. Will the snipers be found? The Fiddler by Beverly Lewis brings new characters into a couple’s experiences in the Amish Old Order community. The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain concerns a single father devoted to his daughter; when he loses his job, the only way to earn money for her welfare is against his principles. Helpless by Daniel Palmer concerns a high school soccer coach/single father doing well with his child until he’s a suspect in his wife’s murder. Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters has a chopped-off cover to reveal this comment: “Hilarious, thought provoking, and poignant. – J. Courtney Sullivan.” The three sisters’ father speaks in Shakespearean verse, and has named them after the Bard’s heroines. Nora Roberts’ The Last Boyfriend is book two of the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy involving a couple, a pizza parlor, and an about-to-open inn across the street.
New novels keep arriving. A betrayal and a murder in pro-Nazi Spain spark a struggle for power that grips a family for generations in The Sadness of the Samurai by Victor Del Arbol. Jeff Shaara’s A Blaze of Glory is the first novel of a new trilogy about the Civil War, taking us to the action-packed Western theater for a vivid re-creation of one of the war’s bloodiest and most iconic engagements – the Battle of Shiloh. The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King is a return to the rich landscape of Mid-World, the territory of the Dark Tower fantasy saga begun in 1974, but this novel also stands on its own, a haunting journey to Roland’s world of magic. XO by Jeffery Deaver is about a country-pop ingenue’s career bringing her unwanted attention and obsession because an innocent exchange with a fan is signed ‘XO.’ The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer takes us to the days before Britain declared war on Germany, as the main character joins the Merchant Navy and his ship is sunk by a U-boat. In The Skeleton Box, a Starvation Lake mystery by Bryan Gruley, the entire town is uneasy because someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files but taking nothing. Marly Youmans’ A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage (with a gold seal of The Ferrol Sams Award for Fiction from Mercer University Press) tells of a young boy leaving a town in Georgia during the Great Depression to become a road kid and “ride the rails” groping for a place where he can feel content.