Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris Signed

Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldn’t drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldn’t summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with acedia. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this “noonday demon,” so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern world’s vernacular.
Like Norris’s bestselling The Cloister Walk, Acedia & me is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling Amazing Grace, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norris’s and her husband’s bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies— and that the “restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.”An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris’s own experience, Acedia & me is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important.“One of the most eloquent yet earthbound spiritual writers of our time.”— The San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle
“Norris . . . is one of history’s writing pilgrims but also a contemporary American one, boldly willing to forsake any number of cultural fads, trends and preoccupations in favor . . . [of a] searching expedition within herself. . . .”— The New York Times Book Review
Word comes we get 12 of Norris' exploration of her life as a writer and of acedie, a destructive soul-weariness. Illness, the challenges of commitment, and an interest in the monastic life. Please order quickly to avoid disappointment.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

The Catch by Archer Mayor

The Catch by Archer Mayor is the 19th in the Joe Gunter series.

Joe Gunther, a Vermont cop for most of his adult life and now the head of the VBI (Vermont Bureau of Investigation) gets the call that every law enforcement person hates and every friend and family member of a policeman fears -- a cop has been shot and killed. A deputy sheriff was shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can been seen on the cruiser's tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had been stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston.

Which is what brings Gunther and his team to the investigation - an attempt to shut down the major drug running operation. Specially that of one Alan Budney, disaffected son of a lobsterman, now a drug kingpin, who uses the closed, clannish lobster fishing community and his extended family in particular, to move drugs along the New England coast.

The most recent book - and last from Grand Central - Chat, has spent four week on the extended Booksense bestseller list and, as always, has been on the NEBA bestseller list since publication. He is the winner of the 2004 New England Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction.

You can meet Archer Mayor at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Wednesday, October 1st at 7 PM where he will sign and discuss his new book, The Catch.



Friday, September 26, 2008

Heat Lightning Signed First From John Sandford


Fresh from the #1 bestselling author, John Sandford, investigator Virgil Flowers takes on a puzzling—and most alarming—case, in the new book Heat Lightning

John Sandford's introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success: "laser-sharp characters and a plot that's fast and surprising" (Cleveland Plain Dealer); "an idiosyncratic, thoroughly ingratiating hero" (Booklist). Flowers is only in his late thirties, but he's been around the block a few times, and he doesn't think much can surprise him anymore. He's wrong.

It's a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you're keeping count), when the phone rings. It's Lucas Davenport. There's a body in Stillwater—two shots to the head, found near a veteran's memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth.

Exactly like the body they found last week.

The more Flowers works the murders, the more convinced he is that someone's keeping a list, and that the list could have a lot more names on it. If he could only find out what connects them all . . . and then he does, and he's almost sorry he did.

Because if it's true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought—and every one of them is booby-trapped.

Filled with the audacious plotting, rich characters, and brilliant suspense that have always made his books "compulsively readable" (Los Angeles Times), this is vintage Sandford.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

The New Signed William Tapply


Hell Bent by William Tapply
With his personal life at a bit of a cross-roads, Boston attorney Brady Coyne finds his own past coming back to haunt his professional life when his ex-girlfriend Alex Sinclair turns up looking for a lawyer to represent her brother. Augustine Sinclair was a notable photo-journalist, happily married to his high-school sweetheart with two small children – until he returned from a stint a freelancer photographer in Iraq missing a hand and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – now he’s lost his career, his peace of mind and his family. Brady is brought in to help him handle the divorce so that he does lose any more but before they get very far, the photographer is found dead in his rented apartment, an apparent suicide.
But something isn’t right about the suicide – the details are just a bit off – and Brady starts to think that his client has been murdered, the suicide staged. With very little to go on and with nearly everyone wanting to quickly close the books on a case that has all the classic indications of suicide, Brady soon finds himself in the midst of one of the most dangerous situations of his entire life, facing people who will stop at nothing to keep from being exposed.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

New British Signed

The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin
The third book in Jason Goodwin's celebrated series takes Yashim from the winding alleyways of Istanbul to the decaying grandeur of Venice. Charged by the Sultan to find a stolen painting by Bellini, he enlists the help of his friend Palewski, the Polish Ambassador, and goes undercover. Venice in 1840 is a city of empty palazzos and silent canals, and Palewski starts to mingle with Venetian dealers - self-made men, faded aristocrats and the hedonistic Contessa. But when two bodies turn up in the canal, he realises that art in Venice is a deadly business. And meanwhile, what has happened to Yashim? "The Bellini Card" is a thrilling adventure in which a quest for a lost painting turns into dangerous game of cat and mouse that threatens to destroy the Ottoman throne and overturn the balance of power in Europe.

Found Wanting by Robert Goddard
Richard Eusden is on his way to work in London one unremarkable winter morning when he is intercepted by his ex-wife, Gemma. She has sad news of his old friend, her other ex-husband, Marty Hewitson. Marty is dying, but needs a favour done for him - now, today, at once. Eusden reluctantly agrees and sets off on what should be a simple errand. But, soon it turns into a race for life, his and Marty's, across Belgium, Germany and Denmark and on into the Nordic heart of a mystery that somehow connects Marty's long dead grandfather, Clem Hewitson, an Isle of Wight police officer, with the tragic fate of the Russian Royal Family.Eusden discovers to his dismay that he can trust no-one, not even an old and dying friend, in a battle for survival with those who are determined to steal the secret they believe he and Marty hold - and will kill for it if they have to. Every move Eusden makes threatens to be a step into disaster. But, move he must - in pursuit of the truth, on the heels of history. It is his only hope.

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
The superb new psychological thriller from bestselling author Val McDermid mixes fiction with one of the most symbolic and exceptional moments in recent history - the national miners' strike It seemed like an unsolvable mystery at the time: a wealthy heiress and son kidnapped in Fife, then a botched payoff, leaving her dead with no trace of the child. So when, over twenty-five years later, a possible clue is discovered by a journalist in Tuscany, cold case expert DI Karen Pirie doesn't hold much hope of unravelling the infamous enigma. She's already investigating a case from the same year. At the height of the miner's strike, Mick Prentice broke ranks to join 'scab' strike-breakers down south. But new evidence suggests Mick's disappearance may not be as straightforward as that - and Karen's investigations take her into a dark domain of secrets, betrayal and the ultimate violence! Past and present intertwine in a novel of taut psychological suspense that explores the intersection of desire and greed.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Dennis Lehane's New Book, The Given Day Signed First Edition.


Don't miss geting your signed copy of The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future. Filled with a cast of unforgettable characters more richly drawn than any Lehane has ever created, The Given Day tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power. Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.
Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era—Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.
Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.
You can meet Dennis on Friday, October 3 at 7 PM at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore where he will speak and sign his new book.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Night of Thunder by Stephen Hunter signed


Pulitzer-prize winning newspaperman, Stephen Hunter, has a new book, Night of Thunder, a ride not to be missed.

Woe unto he who crosses Bob Lee Swagger, especially when his daughter's life is at stake. Forced off the road and into a crash that leaves her in a coma, clinging to life, reporter Nikki Swagger had begun to peel back the onion of a Southernfried conspiracy bubbling with all the angst, resentment, and dysfunction that Dixie gangsters can muster. An ancient, violent crime clan, a possibly corrupt law enforcement structure, gunmen of all stripes and shapes, and deranged evangelicals rear their ugly heads and will live to rue the day they targeted the wrong man's daughter. It's what you call your big-time bad career move. All of it is set against the backdrop of excitement and insanity that only a weeklong NASCAR event can bring to the backwoods of a town as seemingly sleepy as Bristol, Tennessee.

A master at the top of his game, Hunter provides a host of thrilling new reasons to read as fast as we can. When Swagger picks up peeling where his daughter left off, and his swift sword of justice is let loose, we find a true American hero in his most stunning action to date. And -- in the form of Brother Richard, a self-decreed "Sinnerman" out of the old fire-and-brimstone tradition -- Hunter offers up his most diabolical, engaging villain yet. A triumph of story, character, and style, Night of Thunder is Stephen Hunter at his very best.

Don't miss your chance to meet author, Stephen Hunter at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Wednesday, September 24th at 7 PM where he will speak and sign his new book Night of Thunder

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New Bill Pronzini Signed


The Other Side of Silence by Bill Pronzini “A tight, twisty tale that an old pro’s sure-handed way with character makes both believable and engrossing.”

A scintillating new thriller by one of the masters of the genre, following his Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

“When Geena finally left him and filed for divorce, Fallon put the Encino house up for sale and took the last two weeks of his vacation from Unidyne. Then he loaded the Jeep Liberty and drove straight to Death Valley. The desert country had a way of simplifying things. It cleansed your mind, allowed you to think clearly. Allowed you to breathe. The one place he truly belonged.”

So opens Bill Pronzini’s exciting new thriller. On his third day in the Valley, Rick Fallon comes upon a deserted Toyota Camry, and soon thereafter, the almost-dead body of Casey Dunbar. Having rescued her, Fallon soon learns what had driven her to give up on life…and, his own life on hold, he resolves to unravel the twisted and dangerous strands of hers, a quest that leads him to the glitter-dome of Las Vegas among other locales. The result is a story as dramatic and memorable as anything Pronzini has written, reminiscent of his classics Blue Lonesome and A Wasteland of Strangers. In The Other Side of Silence, Bill Pronzini is indeed a Grand Master.

Friday, September 19, 2008

More 'In The News' From David

We've added a few books to our BOOKS IN THE NEWS table.

First, Bob Woodward's, The War Within: The Secret White House History 2006-2008. The is the most recent Woodward contribution to the dialog about the Bush presidency from the Washington Post's award winning author (All the President's Men).

A new book by Naomi Wolf, "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. As the practice of democracy becomes a lost art, Americans are increasingly desperate for a restored nation....But though it is easy to identify our political problems, the solutions are not always clear. Wolf illustrates the breathtaking changes that can take place when ordinary citizens engage in the democratic system the way the founders intended and tell tells how to use that system, right now, to change your life, your community, and, ultimately, the nation.

And, for fun, we've added Curtis Sittenfeld's ("Prep") new novel, American Wife. Kurt Anderson said, "What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady's."

Thursday, September 18, 2008

New Signed Books From The Poisoned Pen


Cat in a Sapphire Slipper by Carole Nelson Douglas, the twentieth title in the sassy Midnight Louie mystery series, is a fast-paced, racy mystery with a lovable cast of characters and one terrific tough dude to keep them all in line. The tough-talking, twenty-pound, tomcat PI is as feisty as ever as he and his gang try to keep his favorite roommate from losing her man.
PR honcho Temple Barr’s romance novelist aunt Kit has wound up in a romantic plot of her own. She’s snagged one of the most eligible bachelors on the Strip, one of the elder Fontana brothers, a silver-tongued reputed ex-mobster with a heart of gold.
There is to be a wedding…and where there is a wedding there is usually a bachelor party. Things go disastrously wrong when the entire party is hijacked and taken to a remote ranch out in the Nevada desert, a place where the women are wild and the sex is legal. And among the group? None other than Temple’s own Matt, an ex-priest.
Truly a fish out of water, he soon comes upon a beautiful young woman who is quite naked and most thoroughly dead. Given the remoteness of the location with very few suspects on hand (plus the Fontanas' shady reputation) this could be a very bad thing indeed.
And Louie? Well, he managed to go along for the ride and once again it’s up to that big old tomcat to bail out his humans and save the day.

Tiny Little Troubles
by Marc Lecard, the critically acclaimed author of Vinnie's Head, is a fast-paced crime story about an eccentric thug chasing after a piece of nano-technology and the scientist that created it.

Aaron Rogell is a brilliant San Francisco scientist with a nanotech start-up, a beautiful wife, and a brand-new baby. But Aaron has an ugly little problem; he just can't keep it in his pants. Ignoring business and family, he spends most of his quality time with an upscale call girl named Aphrodite, a toothless street hooker, and other less presentable companions. But when one of Aphrodite's lowlife acquaintances--the fearsome Pablo Clench--learns that her new boyfriend has invented a miraculous technology that may be worth fabulous sums of money, life for Aaron Rogell will never be the same again. And soon, Aaron, his wife and child, the bad guys, and just about everyone else ends up with lots of tiny little troubles.

Night Kill by Ann Littlewood
Iris Oakley, a young zookeeper at the Finley Memorial Zoo in Vancouver, Washington, hopes to reconcile with her newly sober husband, Rick. But when he’s found dead—and dead drunk—in the lion exhibit, a paralyzing mix of grief and anger at his betrayal keeps Iris from questioning the assumptions around his death. But Iris’ friends motivate her to prove that her husband could not have died the way it appears. Soon, however, these same friends impede her progress as she follows ambiguous clues and sorts through unlikely motives. Meanwhile, Iris must also adjust to losing her beloved job as feline keeper and instead learn to be a bird keeper. The zoo’s veterinarian respects her skills, but the foreman would far rather she get a job elsewhere—and the senior bird keeper seems to agree. After Iris survives a series of near-fatal “accidents,” she begins to understand what really happened to Rick. But Iris must survive to prove it....

Buried Lies
by Peter Rennebohm
Gus Ivy was restless, so he thought he d test retirement by spending the winter with friends in Arizona. Endless rounds of golf convinced him that such an idle life probably was not for him. On a particularly restless day, Gus visits his barber and discovers an obscure Sagebrush western written by a favorite author. He s excited to add it to his collection, and negotiates a buy with Frank, the barber. Unfortunately, the sixty-year old Cavity Lake Gang has drawn the attention of a band of cutthroats who will stop at nothing to get their hands on Gus s copy. He doesn t know why the book is so valuable only that he is determined to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Together with a mysterious woman from Montana, Gus and his new friend, set off on a quest that will take them to the Navajo Indian Nation in Northeast Arizona, and beyond. It s a chilling race against a decades-old deadline and a bunch of ruthless killers a race to solve a fascinating puzzle embedded within the book, but the end game may prove too costly as multiple deaths and a kidnapping litter their trail.

The Leper by Steve Thayer
A veteran of World War I, John Severson becomes a school teacher in a tough, working-class St. Paul neighborhood where a high school diploma is a rarity. Severson has dreams, aspirations. But something had happened to him during the war, something awful. And it follows him home and changes every part of his life. John Severson becomes a leper. Instantly he is torn from his dreams, disconnected from his beautiful plan, ripped from the woman he loves. But Severson is determined to reclaim what he lost, to overcome the horror that is leprosy, to dream again.

Crime by Irvine Welsh brings his brand of mayhem to the glitzed-out, drugs-and-danger state of Florida.

In the wake of a nasty child-murder case, Detective Inspector Ray Lennox of the Edinburgh PD has suffered a full-scale breakdown. He's been placed on leave for mental retuning and takes off for a few days of sun in Miami. From there, Crime becomes an unmistakably Welshian blend of the macabre and the psychologically astute, as Lennox faces a dwindling supply of antidepressants, a bridal-magazine-toting fiancée who wants him to think seriously about floral arrangements, and some coke-happy locals who lead him back into old habits. Is he really in the right shape to be playing knight-errant to a terrified ten-year-old girl? Will his best instincts and worst judgments get them both killed, or find him the redemption he seeks?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Heretic's Daughter

Have you read The Heretic's Daughter a debut novel by Kathleen Kent?
A book Publisher's Weekly gave a starred review to, calling it " an original first novel...fresh, bracing and unconventional."

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.


Click here to read an excerpt



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen


The Keepsake by New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen knows how to expertly dissect a brilliantly suspenseful story, all the while keeping fascinated readers riveted to her side. By turns darkly enthralling and relentlessly surprising, The Keepsake showcases an author at the peak of her storytelling powers.

For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,” the mummy–to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact–seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.

To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large–and is now taunting them.
Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering–or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.

The twisted killer’s familiarity with post-mortem rituals suggests to Maura and Jane that he may have scientific expertise in common with Josephine. Only Josephine knows that her stalker shares a knowledge even more personally terrifying: details of a dark secret she had thought forever buried.

Now Maura must summon her own dusty knowledge of ancient death traditions to unravel his twisted endgame. And when Josephine vanishes, Maura and Jane have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.




Tess will be signing and talking about her book at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Saturday, October 4 th at 6 PM. Don't miss your chance to see this interesting author.

Monday, September 15, 2008

The new Barbara Vine Birthday Present


The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine (Signed as Ruth Rendell)
Mention his name and most people will say, 'Who?' while the rest think for a bit and ask if he wasn't the one who got involved in all that sleaze back whenever it was ...?

It's late spring of 1990 and a love affair is flourishing: between Ivor Tesham, a thirty-three year old rising star of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, and Hebe Furnal, a stunning North London housewife stuck in a dull marriage. What excitement Hebe lacks at home, however, is amply compensated for by the well-bred and intensely attractive Tesham - an ardent womanizer and ambitious politican. On the eve of her twenty-eighth birthday, Tesham decides to give Hebe a present to remember: something far more memorable than, say, the costly string of pearls he's already lavished upon her. Involving a fashionable new practice known as 'adventure sex', a man arranges for his unsuspecting but otherwise willing girlfriend to be snatched from the street, bound and gagged, and delivered to him at a mutually agreed venue...Set amidst an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War, and sleazy politics, "The Birthday Present" is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.

Click Here to read a lovely article from the Times on Line

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Literary Novels Not To Be Missed

The Little Book by Selden Edward

An irresistible triumph of the imagination more than thirty years in the making, The Little Book is a breathtaking love story that spans generations, ranging from fin de siècle Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.

The Little Book is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legend’s
son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is—still his modern self—wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siècle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.

It’s not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.

But the truth at the center of Wheeler’s dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family’s unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century. The Little Book is a masterpiece of unequaled storytelling that announces Selden Edwards as one of the most dazzling, original, entertaining, and inventive novelists of our time.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is winning the hearts of reader across the country. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (non-fiction)

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban's backyard

Anyone who despairs of the individual's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools-especially for girls-that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortenson's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.

And this Australian debut House at Riverton by Kate Morton a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters-and an ending-the reader won't soon forget.

Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.

In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they-and Grace-know the truth.

In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties, and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.

The novel is full of secrets-some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne Du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war, and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Mysteries for the Upcoming High Holy Days

On AuthorsWebTV.com See Frederick Ramsay talk about The Stranger Room (Poisoned Pen $25 Signed), his double-locked-room mystery (two murders 150 years apart). Ramsay’s suspenseful fourth regional mystery (after 2007’s Buffalo Mountain). Schwartz discovers that both crimes, with sinister undertones of Poe, occurred at the antebellum-era Lydell mansion. The estate’s owner, Jonathan Lydell IV, is distraught to find his renovated “stranger room” (a guest room with its own outside entrance) soiled by death and the intrusion of law enforcement. While Schwartz and acting deputy Karl Hedrick (on loan from the FBI) contend with Lydell’s condescension and racism, they’re soon distracted by a growing meth epidemic, vandalism and even another death in Picketsville.

"Ramsay skillfully weaves historical fact into his story, all the while blending brisk action with excellent characterization. Schwartz has matured throughout the series, and readers will eagerly await his next adventure." (Aug.) -Publishers Weekly

The Ike Schwartz series is recommended especially for our Jewish readers who may be looking for reading relating to the upcoming High Holy Days.

Other 2008 book you might read are:

Empty Ever After (A Moe Prager Mystery) by Reed Farrel Coleman
There are no second acts for the dead...or are there? For over twenty years, retired NYPD officer and PI Moe Prager, has been haunted by the secret that would eventually destroy his family. Now, two years after the fallout from the truth, more than secrets are haunting the Prager family. Moe Prager follows a trail of graverobbers from cemetery to cemetery, from ashes to ashes and back again in order to finally solve the enigma of his dead brother-in-law Patrick. He plunges deeper into the dark recesses of his past than ever before, revisiting all of his old cases, in order to uncover the twisted alchemy of vengeance and resurrection. Will Moe, at last, put his past to rest? Will he find the man who belongs in that vacant grave or will it remain empty, empty ever after?

Edgar award winning Stuart Kaminsky’s, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov returns in People Who Walk in Darkness.

Rostnikov is a Russian bear of a man, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union Russia. Known as “The Washtub,” Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing (that is, disintegrating) Russia. Surviving pogroms and politburos, he has solved crimes, mostly in spite of the powers that be that rule his world.

In People Who Walk in Darkness, Rostnikov travels to Siberia to investigate a murder at a diamond mine, where he discovers an old secret…and an even older personal problem. His compatriots head to Kiev on a trail of smuggled diamonds and kidnapped guest workers…and what they discover leads them to a vast conspiracy that not only has international repercussions but threatens them on a very personal level.
People Who Walk in Darkness is a fast-paced novel of modern Russia told by one of mystery’s finest storytellers.

John Lescroart's Betrayal
New York Times bestseller John Lescroart returns with an ambitious, torn-from- today’s-headlines thriller featuring his trademark blend of real people and real suspense.

John Lescroart’s millions of fans have been waiting three years for the return of San Francisco defense attorney Dismas Hardy and his buddy, detective Abe Glitsky—and in that time John Lescroart’s popularity has continued to soar. Now, Hardy and Glitsky reunite in a story filled with the big themes that are worthy of them—the intersection of love, betrayal, and a desperate search for the truth in a critical matter of national security.

When Dismas Hardy agrees to clean up the caseload of recently disappeared attorney Charlie Bowen, he thinks it will be easy. But one of the cases is far from small-time—the sensational clash between National Guard reservist Evan Scholler and an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Two rapid-fire events in Iraq conspired to bring the men into fatal conflict: Nolan’s relationship with Evan’s girlfriend, Tara, a beautiful school-teacher back home in the states, followed by a deadly incident in which Nolan’s apparent mistake results in the death of
an innocent Iraqi family as well as seven men in Evan’s platoon. As the murky relationship between the US government and its private contractors plays out in the personal drama of these two men, and the consequences become a desperate matter of life and death, Dismas Hardy begins to uncover a terrible and perilous truth that takes him far beyond the case and into the realm of assassination and treason.

From the treacherou
s streets of Iraq to the courtrooms of California, Betrayal is not only John Lescroart’s most ambitious and provocative novel, it is a magnificent tour de force of pure storytelling.

The Book Stops Here
by Ian Sansom
Disgruntled, disheveled, fish-out-of-water mobile librarian Israel Armstrong is finally going home to London, rattling along with his irascible companion Ted Carson in their rust bucket book van en route to the Mobile Meet. The annual library convention gives Israel the opportunity to catch up with his family, eat paprika chicken and baklava, and drink good coffee. But they've barely found parking when the unimaginable occurs: their library-on-wheels is stolen!

Who on earth would want to take a thirty-year-old traveling disaster with the words "The Book Stops Here" painted across the back? Israel and Ted are determined to find out. But their search is leading them on a very twisty trail through the countryside in pursuit of a suspicious convoy of New Age travelers. And the hunt is raising numerous troubling questions—such as where exactly is Israel's high-flying girlfriend, Gloria? And is Ted really making a move on Israel's widowed mother?





Thursday, September 11, 2008

Books on Books

BOOKS: A Memoir is Larry McMurtry’s very personal story—from his boyhood growing up in a largely “bookless” house to his lifelong passion of buying, selling and collecting rare and antiquarian books. It’s a wonderful tale of the transformation of a reluctant young cowboy into a world-class literary figure, who has spent his life not only writing books, but rounding books up the way he once rounded up cattle.

More books about books:

Nicholas Basbanes Among the Gently Mad, a book with more than seventy thousand copies in print that delighted bibliophiles everywhere-comes a twenty-first-century guide to book collecting that deals with both the traditional methods of acquisition and the electronic tools now available on the Internet.

Sharing the superb insight he has gathered from booksellers over the years, Nicholas Basbanes offers a refresher course on the fundamentals that endure, while questioning certain practices of doubtful validity. Topics include how to determine if a book is a first edition, how to spot book club editions, the importance of dust jackets, scouting the flea markets, how to work the book fairs, and the importance of handling the goods, as well as discussing less tangible issues like spotting trends and having a focus. Then he takes a long look at the pros and cons of Internet buying, illuminating how you can use these electronic tools to your advantage and making this the book no modern collector will want to be without.

or or Every Book it's Reader Matthew Price wrote in the Los Angeles Times that “Every Book Its Reader reminds us that books, in all their myriad forms, are necessary equipment for living."

Great Women Mystery Writers by Elizabeth Lindsay
Mysteries are among the most popular books today, and women continue to be among the most creative and widely read mystery writers. This book gives students and general readers an overview of contemporary women mystery writers. Many of the writers discussed were not even writing when the first edition of this book appeared in 1994, while others have written numerous works since then. Writers were selected based on their status as a ward winners, their commerical success, and their critical claim. The volume provides alphabetically arranged entries on 90 great women mystery writers, including:
  • Cara Black
  • Sarah Caudwell
  • Mary Higgins Clark
  • Patricia Cornwell
  • Amanda Cross
  • Earlene Fowler
  • Charlaine Harris
  • Patricia Highsmith
  • Sujata Massey
  • Janet Neel
  • Sara Paretsky
  • And many more. Each entry provides a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, and primary and secondary bibliographies. The book closes with appendices of award winners and a selected, general bibliography. Public library patrons will value this guide to their favorite authors, while students will consult it when writing reports.

  • Read on Crime Fiction Barry Trott

    Mystery and crime readers looking for great new reads, and librarians looking for fresh reading lists for patrons will love this new resource. Rather than listing titles according to formal genres and subgenres, it categorizes hundreds of popular crime fiction titles according to five broad features: character, setting, story, language and mood--and then into thematic lists as "Reading the Bones," "Dynamic Duos," "Love you to Death," and "Bright Lights, Dead Bodies." For each title, you'll find bibliographic information and a brief, punchy description, designed to spark reader interest and capture the appeal connection. Use these lists to advise readers; create thematic reading lists for library Web sites, flyers, and newsletters; and as checklists or reading plans for those who enjoy mystery fiction. Buy two copies--one for the reference or readers' advisory resource shelf and another to circulate!

    Wednesday, September 10, 2008

    From Patrick


    The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant soon to be a movie from Columbia Pictures.


    "Based on his own family history, Matt Bondurant's excellent new novel begins in 1928, with the mythic story of Bondurant's great-uncle Forrest, who walks twelve miles
    to a hospital with a slit throat after he's attacked by thieves, and survives to tell the tale. We enter the world of prohibition-era Franklin County, Virginia, the heart of the country's bootlegging industry, where gangs such as The Bondurant Boys ran moonshine for years. Sherwood Anderson, author of Winesburg, Ohio arrives in Franklin County to research a magazine story on the Bondurants, and the famous writer gets caught up in the violent backwoods world when two anonymous men turn up at the same hospital six years brutally disfigured. Bondurant writes in a straightforward, somewhat hardboiled manner, reminiscent of James Carlos Blake and later-period Cormac McCarthy, and his fictionalized take on the underground economy of illicit liquor-making makes for compelling reading."

    Tuesday, September 9, 2008

    From Patricia


    Espresso Shot by Cleo Coyle
    New York City coffehouse manager Clare Cosi should savor the chance to create a coffee and dessert bar for a wedding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But the bridegroom is her ex-husband and she is sure he is making a mistake when the bride's close associates start dying. Donning her deerstalker, Clare shifts gears to unveil a killer before more than rare coffee beans get roasted. Recipes and coffee brewing tips from The Village Blend included. On What Grounds, Through the Grinder, Latte Trouble, Murder Must Frothy, Decaffeinated Corpse, and French Pressed ($7).

    14 by J.T. Ellison, Two decades after the Snow White Killer stopped stalking pale women with dark hair in Nashville, TN, citizens fear he has begun again. Homicide detective Taylor Jackson believes a copycat is imitating serial murders from the past. On the way to her elaborate church wedding, the murderer hijacks her limo to complete his plan for suspense that doesn't get better than this. All the Pretty Girls

    The Lost Tomb by David Gibbins
    From the underwater site of what might be the apostle Paul's chipwreck, explorer Jack Howard and his partner Costas Kazantzakis speed to Herculaneum where startling evidence from the night Vesusius erupted seems to rewrite history. What if the emperor Claudius did not die from poison but retired in the shadow of the volcano to be a scholar historian for 25 years? The same Claudius left clues leading to a secret in the Roman remains under London and from there into the heart of darkness. The author's research enables Jack and Costas, clad in the latest cutting edge gear, to leap to the right answers and discover more than one lost tomb. Brush up your Latin and remember to breathe. Atlantis, Crusader Gold

    Deadly Night by Heather Graham
    The Flynn brothers inherit a Louisiana plantation but scoff at the rumors it is haunted. When they find human bones on the place, a bogus tarot card reader Kendall starts getting true readings from the other side. The spirits are saying a murderer is at work. Eldest brother Aidan uses his FBI past to unearth answers before Kendall becomes a target while Kendall delves into the family's history. First in trilogy.

    Monday, September 8, 2008

    Some Notable Trades from The Poisoned Pen

    Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

    A long-lost work of Shakespeare, newly found.
    A killer who stages the Bard’s extravagant murders as flesh-and-blood realities.
    A desperate race to find literary gold, and just to stay alive. . . .


    On the eve of the Globe’s production of Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate Stanley’s eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. But before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz is found dead . . . murdered precisely in the manner of Hamlet’s father. Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her
    on a deadly, high-stakes treasure hunt.

    From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to
    evade a killer and decipher a tantalizing string of clues, hidden in the words of Shakespeare, that may unlock literary history’s greatest secret. At once suspenseful and elegantly written, Interred with Their Bones is poised to become the next bestselling literary adventure in the tradition of The Thirteenth Tale and The Historian.

    Ingenious Edgar Jones by Elizabeth Garner

    Set in nineteenth-century Oxford, and shot through with a powerful sense of magic, Elizabeth Garner's new novel will appeal both to fans of historical fiction and to the huge fanbase of authors like Philip Pullman. In nineteenth-century Oxford, an extraordinary child is born - Edgar Jones, a porter's son with a magical talent. Though his father cannot see beyond his academic slowness, his abilities as a metalworker and designer are quickly noticed, and become a source of tension within the family. When Edgar comes to the attention of a maverick professor at work on a museum of the natural sciences, Edgar is at once plucked from obscurity and plunged into the heart of a debate which threatens to tear apart the university. Edgar's position is a dangerous one - will he be able to control the rebellious spirit that fires his inventiveness, but threatens to ruin him and to break up his family once and for all?


    Waiting for the End of the World
    by Andrew Taylor

    It's a difficult time for William Dougal - he's given up smoking. To make matters worse, a touch of blackmail persuades him into doing a job for his old adversary James Hanbury. Nothing complicated - all he has to do is keep an eye on Dr Vertag, the leader of a lunatic fringe survival group, The Sealed Servants of the Apocalapse. But he has hardly started when the barman who tried to warn him off is murdered. Suddenly - coincidentally? - Zelda appears from Dougal's murky past. Zelda is big, black and very beautiful. Just as suddenly she is kidnapped from his flat. Dougal's natural desire to rescue her plunges him into a maelstrom of criminal activities. And then there's Malcolm - an aficionado of Proust, a convicted drug-dealer, a man with the moral code of a large and violent toddler. Fortunately, on the whole, he thinks of Dougal as a friend. The shadow of James Hanbury hangs over everything. Like truth itself, Hanbury is rarely pure and never simple...

    Sunday, September 7, 2008

    Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes


    Marie Laveau, wicked as a snake, strong as a bear.
    Conjure woman, turn your life around. Upside down.
    She'll put an evil spell on you.

    Yellow Moon the third in Jewell's bestselling voodoo series has just published.A jazzman, a wharf worker, a prostitute, all murdered. Wrists punctured, their bodies impossibly drained of blood. What connects them? Why are they rising as ghosts?
    Marie Levant, the great-great granddaughter of the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau, knows better than anyone New Orleans's brutal past -- the legacy of slavery, poverty, racism, and sexism -- and as a doctor at Charity Hospital's ER, she treats its current victims.
    When she sleeps, she dreams of blood. Rain, never ending. The river is rising and the yellow moon warns of an ancient evil -- an African vampire -- wazimamoto -- a spirit created by colonial oppression.
    The struggle becomes personal, as the wazimamoto is intent on destroying her and all the Laveau descendants. Marie fights to protect her daughter, lover, and herself from the wazimamoto's seductive assault on both body and spirit.
    Echoing with the heartache and triumph of the African-American experience, the soulful rhythms of jazz, and the horrors of racial oppression, Yellow Moon gives us an unforgettable heroine -- sexy, vulnerable, and mysterious -- in Marie Levant, while it powerfully evokes a city on the brink of catastrophe.Yellow Moon is part two of the New Orleans trilogy that began with Voodoo Season -- magical realist fiction that takes the legend of the voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, as imagined by Jewell Parker Rhodes in the bestselling Voodoo Dreams, into the present day.
    Jewell's website
    “...Rhodes puts...earnest thought into the [New Orlean's] dark history and comes up with a satisfying and eerie story that lies somewhere between the work of Anne Rice and James Lee Burke [...] The visceral descriptions of supernatural possessions are matched by equally vivacious sex scenes. A spooky, sexy novel about things that go bump in the night.”—Kirkus Reviews
    “Fans of vampire and New Orleans horror will find this an unexpected and thought-provoking treat.”—Booklist

    Friday, September 5, 2008

    Books that are In The News from David Strang


    Something new at The Poisoned Pen: I'm putting together is a table of books on subjects you are reading about in the news.

    We'll be featuring various books on topics that are relevant, especially in this campaign season. For instance:

    The Way of the World by Ron Suskind. The Pulitzer Prize winners story of truth and hope in an age of extremism ($28)

    Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman. Why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America. $28)

    Dreaming Up America
    by Russell Banks. This acclaimed novelist (The Sweet Hereafter) contemplates the questions of our origins, values, heroes, conflicts, and contradictions. Banks shows how the differing motives of the firsts colonists, the influence of slavery and African-American culture, and the intermingling of destructive forces and creative forces have changed us. ($22)

    The Dark Side
    by Jane Mayer. Highly reviewed inside story of how the war on terror turned into a war on American ideals. ($28)

    We also have a trade paper back of Barack Obama's early speeches, and we've ordered the only known biography of Sarah Palin as well as John McCain's Character is Destiny. Senator McCain signed the book at Poisoned Pen Central earlier before a crowd of over 200 people. Incidentally, we have one SIGNED first edition of that book -- if he becomes President, it will be even more valuable than it is now ($175).

    And if you hear about a book you are interested in, let us know and we'll order it.

    Thursday, September 4, 2008

    We Have the New Elizabeth Peters!

    Hurry if you want a signed first edition of the New Elizabeth Peters, The Laughter Dead of Kings.

    For the first time in more than a decade, New York Times bestselling Grand Master Elizabeth Peters brings beautiful, brainy Vicky Bliss back into the spotlight for one last investigation. But this time the peerless art historian and sleuth will be detecting in Amelia Peabody territory, searching for solutions to more than one heinous offense in the ever-shifting sands of Egypt's mysterious Valley of the Kings.

    Who stole one of Egypt's most priceless treasures? That is the question that haunts the authorities after a distinguished British gentleman with an upper-crust accent cons his way past a security guard and escapes into the desert carrying a world-famous, one-of-a-kind historic relic. But the Egyptian authorities and Interpol believe they know the identity of the culprit. The brazen crime bears all the earmarks of the work of one “Sir John Smythe,” the suave and dangerously charming international art thief who is, in fact, John Tregarth, the longtime significant other of Vicky Bliss. But John swears he is retired—not to mention innocent—and he vows to clear his name by hunting down the true criminal.

    Vicky's faith in her man's integrity leaves her no choice but to take a hiatus from her position at a leading Munich museum and set out for the Middle East. Vicky's employer, the eminent Herr Doktor Anton Z. Schmidt, rotund gourmand and insatiable adventurer, decides to join the entourage.

    But dark days and myriad dangers await them in this land of intriguing antiquity. Each uncovered clue seems to raise even more questions for the intrepid Vicky—the most troubling being, Where is John going during his increasingly frequent and unexplained absences? And the stakes are elevated considerably when a ransom note arrives accompanied by a grisly memento intended to speed up negotiations—because now it appears that murder most foul has been added to the equation.

    For more visit Elizabeth's website

    Wednesday, September 3, 2008

    Terry Brooks has a new book!

    The Gypsy Morph (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 3) is here! Terry Brooks won instant acclaim with his phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Sword of Shannara. Its sequels earned Brooks legendary status. Then his darkly enthralling The Word and the Void trilogy revealed new depths and vistas to his mastery of epic fantasy. Armageddon’s Children and The Elves of Cintra took Brooks’s remarkable mythos to a breathtaking new level by delving deep into the history of Shannara. And now, The Gypsy Morph rounds out–with an adventure of unforgettably imaginative scope–the first phase of a new chapter in this classic series.

    Eighty years into the future, the United States is a no-man’s-land: its landscape blighted by chemical warfare, pollution, and plague; its government collapsed; its citizens adrift, desperate, fighting to stay alive. In fortified compounds, survivors hold the line against wandering predators, rogue militias, and hideous mutations spawned from the toxic environment, while against them all stands an enemy neither mortal nor merciful: demons and their minions bent on slaughtering and subjugating the last of humankind.

    But from around the country, allies of good unite to challenge the rampaging evil. Logan Tom, wielding the magic staff of a Knight of the Word, has a promise to keep–protecting the world’s only hope of salvation–and a score to settle with the demon that massacred his family. Angel Perez, Logan’s fellow Knight, has risked her life to aid the elvish race, whose peaceful, hidden realm is marked for extermination by the forces of the Void. Kirisin Belloruus, a young elf entrusted with an ancient magic, must deliver his entire civilization from a monstrous army. And Hawk, the rootless boy who is nothing less than destiny’s instrument, must lead the last of humanity to a latter-day promised land before the final darkness falls.

    The Gypsy Morph is an epic saga of a world in flux as the mortal realm yields to a magical one; as the champions of the Word and the Void clash for the last time to decide what will be and what must cease; and as, from the remnants of a doomed age, something altogether extraordinary rises.

    Terry Brooks will be signing and speaking at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Sunday, October 19 at 1:00 pm. Don't miss the chance to meet the awesome author!

    Terry's Website