Due to some weather-related difficulties, we weren’t able to post yesterday’s stunningly glorious post, dear readers, and for that, our apologies. But have no fear, we are safe, the Library is open, and, though we are all a bit stuff from shoveling, we are ready to go with today’s selection of new books!
The Freedom Broker: Readers looking for a fast-paced, action-packed adventure have a new author to add to their list…K.J. Howe’s debut novel introduces us to Thea Paris, an elite agent with Quantum Security International, a black-ops corporation that deals with highly sensitive rescue missions . Abducted herself as a child, Thea thought she knew all about kidnapping–until her oil-tycoon father is kidnapped right before her eyes, right before the biggest deal of his career. Now, thrown into the most important mission of her life, Thea is baffled by the lack of evidence before her. There is no ransom note, no demands…only obscure and foreboding texts written in Latin sent from burner phones. Enlisting the help of everyone at Quantum, Thea goes after the case with everything she has–but will it be enough to keep her family from devastation? Howe defies conventions by providing readers with a smart, highly capable female lead in this series, and doesn’t skimp on tension or twists. RT Book Reviews agrees, noting “Howe gives readers a handily twisted plotline, rife with tension and intrigue, that is sure to keep the pages turning. Overall, this is a strong start to a series that will appeal to fans of Stephanie Pintoff’s Eve Rossi and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.”
The Impossible Fortress: 80’s nostalgia has been a strong current through a lot of recent fiction, and Jason Rekulak is gleefully swimming through it in this love letter to the early age of video games, processed foods, and neon. For three young friends, self-declared nerds and video-game enthusiasts everyone, Playboy magazine represents all that they do not have–namely, women. So they devise a plan to steal it, thwarting police, a locked building, guard dogs (really, it’s a Shih Tzu), and alarm systems. But when each attempt ends in utter failure, they decide to swipe the security code to Zelinsky’s convenience store by seducing the owner’s daughter, Mary Zelinsky. It becomes Billy’s mission to befriend her and get the information by any means necessary. But Mary isn’t your average teenage girl. She’s a computer loving, expert coder, already strides ahead of Billy in ability, with a wry sense of humor and a hidden, big heart. Can Billy go through with the plan, or betray his best friends for the girl of his dreams? A charming, big-hearted look at first loves that positively drips with vintage nostalgia, Rekulak still delivers a story that, as Booklist notes in its starred review ” the end the plot manages to magically subvert the time period while also paying homage to it. An unexpected retro delight.”
From Bacteria to Bach and Back : The Evolution of Minds: We all know that human beings (and a lot of other animals) have brains…but how did we develop minds? Minds that could create, explain, rationalize, reason, and invent? In this slightly ponderous, but significant book, Daniel C. Dennett goes beyond DNA and neurons to show how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. Part philosophical whodunit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett’s legendary career at the forefront of philosophical thought. The result is a study of science, culture, evolution and human nature that will provide readers with as many thought-provoking questions as it answers about our place on the proverbial food-chain, and what we can really do with the eight-or-so pounds of matter in our skulls. As Publisher’s Weekly notes, Dennet’s work is dense, but is also “Illuminating and insightful. . . . [Dennett] makes a convincing case, based on a rapidly growing body of experimental evidence, that a materialist theory of mind is within reach. . . . His ideas demand serious consideration.”
Amberlough: Alternative histories! Spies! Intrigue! If any of these words gets your heart fluttering, then be sure to check out this stylistically superb debut adventure from Lara Elena Donnelly. Covert agent Cyril DePaul thinks he’s good at keeping secrets, especially from Aristide Makricosta. They suit each other: Aristide turns a blind eye to Cyril’s clandestine affairs, and Cyril keeps his lover’s moonlighting job as a smuggler under wraps. But when Cyril’s newest case ends in disaster, both he and Aristide find themselves on the run, facing mounting government backlash of a professional and personal variety. Enter streetwise Cordelia Lehane, a top dancer at the Bumble Bee Cabaret and Aristide’s runner, who could be the key to Cyril’s plans―if she can be trusted. Donnelly has crafted a sensational 1920’s setting for her characters that is as heartbreaking as it is dazzling. As her leading men deal with the rise of Fascism and the threat that poses not only to their livelihoods but their lives, the real essence of the times becomes clear–not only the freedom and joviality, but the inevitable loss that lends this book its urgency and emotion. Publisher’s Weekly agrees, giving this book a starred review and noting ““Donnelly blends romance and tragedy, evoking gilded-age glamour and the thrill of a spy adventure, in this impressive debut. As heartbreaking as it is satisfying.”
Four Weddings and a Sixpence: Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes an anthology from some of Avon Book’s most beloved authors. Employing the old rhyme “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and a Lucky Sixpence in Her Shoe”, each author spins a tale four friends from Madame Rochambeaux’s Gentle School for Girls who find an old sixpence in their bedchamber and decide that it will be the lucky coin for each of their weddings. In these historical romances of loves lost and found, challenged and regained, fans of each author will find plenty of delights in a single-serving size, while those looking for some new names to read would do well to check this book out for future reference. Booklist agrees, giving this book as a whole a starred review and cheering “Each love story in this superbly crafted anthology is expertly imbued with the distinctive literary DNA of its creator, and the end result is a wonderfully witty, sweep-you- off-your-feet romantic experience for long-time fans as well as readers new to these marvelously gifted writers.”
Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!