Wednesday, March 25, 2009

One Local Poet, One on Catholicism, 11 Novels

Poetry

Falling Brick Kills Local Man by Mark Kraushaar. Kraushaar is the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and has had his work published in multiple poetry and literary magazines.
EDIT: Kraushaar just googled his way over here. If you would like to meet the man himself come to the Men's Book Club on April 29th, 7 PM. We will be meeting at the tasting room in Tyranena Brewery. We will discuss The Poet of Tolstoy Park.

NonFiction

Practicing Catholic by James Carroll. Carroll "shows how Roman Catholic struggles illuminate spiritual quests in all faiths...charts the Church's transformation from a reactionary monolith to a vital institution in which the deepest aspects of faith are being called into question."

Fiction

No Survivors by Tom Cain. Samuel Carver, trained assassin, lies hospitalized. His Russian girlfriend has to leave him to go back to her job as a spy. Samuel slowly recovers to follow her and gets entangled in a billionaire's scheme to buy a Russian suitcase nuke.

Blood and Bone by William Lashner. 26 year old Kyle spends his time playing video games, drinking in Philadelphia bars, and scoring chicks. When a former legal partner of his dead father is killed the police look at Kyle as a suspect. Police questioning makes Kyle wonder about what really happened to his father.

Long Lost by Harlan Coben. Myron Bolitar heads to Paris to help a former girlfriend, Terese, who dumped him 10 years ago. She is accused of killing her ex-husband but soon Molitar and Terese are on the run from the police, Homeland Security and the Mossad.

True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman. Hey, a new author photo of Kellerman. He does not have any make-up on and his hair is combed back from his forehead.

Revenge of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. Continuing tales of the detective agency Spellman Inc. Popular and funny mystery series of the Spellman family and the family business of private detecting.

Mixed Blood by Roger Smith. American bank robber Jack is hiding out in Cape Town, South Africa. When he bloodily repulses a home invasion two local cops and a neighboring security guard find out about Jack's profession and are hot after the three million US dollars he last stole.
Supposed to be really good with a great setting in Cape Town where the country's black versus white problems still linger.

The Dakota Cipher by William Dietrich. A french rogue and his Norwegian pal flee France to search the American frontier for a mythic Viking settlement that is supposed to hold Thor's hammer.

Execution Dock by Anne Perry. Monstrous pimp Jericho Phillips is suspected of murdering a thirteen year old boy prostitute. Commander William Monk attempts to catch and hang the monstrous Phillips but the wily crook and his wealthy clients won't make it easy.

Loser's Town by Daniel Depp. Former stuntman David Spandau works as a PI in Hollywood. Depp gets a job to help a blackmailed actor under pressure from a local drug dealer anxious to become a movie producer. "Crackling dialogue, fast-paced plot, and seedy, jaded characters...a gruesomely hilarious, occasionally wistful depiction of what goes on beneath those white letters on the mountainside."

Spade and Archer by Joe Gores. A prequel to The Maltese Falcon.

Shannon by Frank Delaney. Boston priest Robert Shannon travels to Ireland in 1922. Still suffering shell shock from WWI Shannon was sent there to both recover and shut him up about corruption in the Boston archdiocese. He is "thrust headlong into the maelstrom of Irish politics."

Eight Large Print from Ruth the Page

Large Print

Sunset Bay by Susan Mallery.

That Went Well: adventures in caring for my sister by Terrell Harris Dougan. Terrell's retarded sister Irene is "a woman in her sixties who still believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny - and who also enjoys playing those characters for the children at the local hospital."

Luke's Story by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

True Colors by Kristin Hannah. Cover photo: Three girls walk through the water at low tide.

Wicked Game by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush. Twenty years after their classmate disappeared the surviving women gather when her body is possibly found. Then the women start being killed.

Whisper to the Blood by Dana Stabenow. Another Alaska novel featuring cop Kate Shugak. I've never read any of these by Stabenow keeps writing them so they must be pretty decent.

Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockman. One of those "Navy SEALs fight evil" novels.

Two Rivers by T. Greenwood. Mourning widower Harper lives in Two Rivers, VT and takes in a pregnant teen who survives a train crash.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Four AudioBooks with Joe Lansdale and Charlie Huston

AudioBooks

Claimed by Shadows by Karen Chance. 11 CDs at 13.5 hours. "In this second entry in the popular Cassaandra Palmer series, Cassie finds herself in possession of more power than she dares to use and at odds with a master vampire."

Mucho Mojo by Joe R. Lansdale. 7 CDs at 8 hours. "Hap and Leonard return in this incredible, mad-dash thriller, loaded with crack addicts, a serial killer, and a body count." Leonard takes along best pal Hap to clean up the house of Leonard's dead uncle. Under the house's rotting floorboards they find a small skeleton in a trunk. Time to investigate.

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston. 8 CDs at 10 hours. A another novel by the great Charlie Huston. Webster has find a part-time job with a crime scene clean-up company in Los Angeles County. When a hot Malibu girl asks Webster to help her cleanup her brother's trouble Webster knows he should not say yes. But, she is hot.

The Better Part of Valor by Tanya Huff. 8 CDs at 10 hours. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr told off a two star general after a mission. Now Korin has been separated from her platoon and sent to protect a scientific expedition on a derelict spaceship and under command of an officer "who might prove more of a menace to the mission's success than anything they encountered."

What to Read 22 Barry Eisler's "Fault Line"

What to Read 22

A brief talk with Barry Eisler at the Mystery One Bookstore in Milwaukee. Eisler was worn out at the end of the day but gracious enough to spend ten minutes to talk about Fault Line. Mystery One regularly schedules visiting authors for book signings. Visit them in Milwaukee. But, first visit us in Lake Mills.