Finally! Time to Read: NonFiction and Fiction for Your Enjoyment

If you're like the rest of us, you're always on the hunt for something new and interesting to read.  Here are four suggestions to consider. As the most recent installment in our 'Finally!  It's Time to Read' series, here are 6 suggestions for those who love both the bookstore and the ebook selections.

NonFiction
1.)  Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever is a book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (2011).   Kip says it was well done and had good information. His next choice will be the Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (2012) also by O'Reilly and Dugard.

2.)  Jon Meacham's Thomas Jefferson:  The Art of Power (2012). Meacham's meticulous biography chronicles Jefferson's life, and it also gives great insight into other major figures who joined the struggle for American independence.  A complicated man, Jefferson championed the cause of the new republic in the face of continuing opposition from those who wished to return the new republic to the English monarchy model.  He was a pivotal force, guiding the young nation, building it and seeing it through challenge after challenge. The struggle definitely did not end with the signing of the Declaration of Independence!  Insight into his personal life gives us some measure of understanding regarding the causes that he espoused, then dropped, the perceptions of the Virginia landowner, and the dynamics of his family.  And what a picture of our legislators of the time! Yikes!! This is a biography not to be missed.

3.)  Sheryl Strayed's personal saga of her hike over the Pacific Crest Trail, Wild (2012) won A Best Nonfiction Book of 2012: The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly;  A Best Book of the Year: NPR, St. Louis Dispatch, Vogue.  Strayed's background of struggle, loss, addiction,and betrayal-her own and that of others she has loved- have led her to the lowest point in her life.  She decides to pull her life together by attempting to strike out with an overwhelming challenge for a novice hiker; the Pacific Crest Trail. Strayed's naive approach to the grueling trek and her inadequate preparation make her goal even more challenging.    Her adventures on the trail and the hikers she meets lead her to new insights about her limitations, her ability to cope with the unknown, and ultimately to a deeper understanding of herself. 

Fiction

1.)  Cheryl A. recommends The Mermaid Chair (2006)by Sue Monk Kidd.  Cheryl notes, "If you like coastal stories, The Mermaid Chair is good, thought provoking and provides a glimpse into finding yourself (with a twist). Remember, it is fiction. "  Now, it's Cheryl's last caution that really pushes us to run out and buy this book! Hmmm.......(If you enjoyed Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees (2002), you'll love this book, too.)

2.)  Lisa Gardner's Catch Me (2012). This is the sixth in the series featuring Boston detective, D. D. Warren.  She is really stumped when a young woman asks her to investigate her own death, sure to occur in a few days. Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant appears convinced that she will be killed in just 4 days, on the anniversary of two other murders.  Both of her best childhood friends were murdered, one last year and one the year before-and each one on the same date.   Positive that she won't escape her death,  'Charlie' has decided that she will be as prepared as humanly possible for the assault.  She races the clock with her strength training, target practice, boxing, and self-defense tactics, intending to fight to her last breath.  As Warren struggles with other homicide investigations, sometimes she suspects Charlie and at other times senses that Charlie is telling the truth. And the reader has no idea which is really right until the last chapter!   A great story.  Peggy bought the hard copy and is glad she did as she has now loaned it out to other fiction buffs.

3.)  Any Jack Reacher fans among us? Jason Bourne?  The Ted Bell heroes?  Here's a debut novel by Brad Taylor, Retired Lt. Col., Special Forces:  One Rough Man (2012). Taylor introduces the story with a George Orwell quote, " 'People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do them harm.' "  Pike Logan is one such man, a member of  a clandestine organization commissioned by the President.  Those in 'The Taskforce' describe Logan as their "most successful operator."  He is torn between duty to his country and the overwhelming personal need to protect its people on one hand and his love for his own family on the other.  After a cataclysmic personal tragedy, Logan disappears.  He is dragged out of hiding by a young archeology student, Jennifer Cahill, who is trying to find her uncle.  Professor Cahill is a discredited archeologist hunting for a Mayan temple in Guatemala and has not checked in with his niece as he always has.  The quest to find her uncle pulls both Cahill and Logan into frightening intrigue across the world and corruption on the homefront.  Peggy highly recommends One Rough Man and looks forward to Brad Taylor's next book.

(Our thanks to Kip, Cheryl A. and Peggy for sharing some suggested readings.)