In the Woods

As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children, gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood-filled shoes, and unable to recall a single detail of the previous hours.

Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox – his partner and closest friend – find themselves investigating a case with chilling links to that long-ago disappearance. Now, with only snippets of buried memories to guide him, Rob has the chance to unravel both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.-- publisher description.

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War for the Oaks

Guitarist Eddi McCandry has just dumped her boyfriend and their band when she finds herself running through the Minneapolis night, pursued by a sinister man and a huge, terrifying dog.  As she soon discovers, the two creatures are one and the same: a phouka, a faerie being who has chosen Eddi to be the mortal pawn in the age-old war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. 

Eddi isn't interested--but she doesn't have a choice.  For more than her own survival is at stake. To save the city--and the man--that she loves, Eddi must face off against the Dark Queen of the Unseelie Court in the ultimate duel of music and magic.  -- from the cover

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My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story (Iowa connection)

Experience the deadly din of modern warfare and the inspiring leadership and courage of legendary First Sergeant Brad Kasal in this riveting new book. It's a page-turning, first-hand account of Kasal's courageous mission to rescue fallen comrades under intense enemy fire during the Battle of Fallujah-actions that earned him the distinguished Navy Cross, America's second highest military award. This stunning, unforgettable account shows an American hero rising to the challenge of world events with leadership, valor, and loyalty. -- from the publisher

You may find similar titles on our From the Frontlines booklist.

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Brotherhood

There could not be a greater contrast than between the cold engineering that leveled the twin towers and the response of the 343 New York firefighters who rushed in to their deaths. Those men are honored in this collection of evocatively understated photographs showing all 70 of the city's affected firehouses, from Red Hook's company of "Happy Hookers" to Harlem's "Fire Factory."

The pictures by 50 noted photographers show the firehouses in all attitudes of mourning and recovery, crowded with donated flowers, candles, homemade signs, and children's drawings (some from as far as Mississippi) that have helped buoy up the survivors in the months since the attack. These displays are evidence of a popular rediscovery of firefighters, writes McCourt in his pitch-perfect foreword to the book. All of September 11's FDNY dead are listed delicately across the bottom of the pages of portraits of the lost men's firehouse beds, wall-posters, empty lockers, boots, and heat-darkened helmets, as well as their squad mates struggling on. -- Nathan Ward, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

More items may be found on our Remember 9/11 booklist.

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The Looming Tower

Wright, a talented New Yorker staff writer with a diverse portfolio and a long-standing personal interest in the Middle East, was on the al-Qaeda beat within hours of the 9/11 attacks. The product of his efforts is more deeply researched and engagingly narrated than nearly all of the looming stack of books on Osama bin Laden and his cohorts published in the past five years.

The events are familiar: this account begins with theorist Sayid Qutb, covers the trajectories of bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and culminates with Mohammed Atta and the collapsing Trade Center. But Wright's interview--fueled, character-driven approach captures both the complexity of individual actors--Qutb's alienation, for example, and bin Laden's struggle for legitimacy--as well as the fluid internal dynamics of the often covert terrorist organization.

The tragic centerpiece of the book, familiar to New Yorker readers, is Wright's sensitive portrayal of John O'Neill, the deeply flawed working-class FBI gumshoe from New Jersey who may have been the only American to fully understand the al-Qaeda threat before 9/11. Wright seems to have found his calling: a perceptive and intense page-turner, this selection and Peter Bergen's The Osama bin Laden I Know (2006) should be considered the definitive works on the topic. --Brendan Driscoll Copyright 2006 Booklist

For more titles see our booklist, Remember 9/11.

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Do Not Be Sad: A Chronicle of Healing

At 8:47 am on September 11th, 2001, the first alarm sounded and twenty-four firemen from Engine 24 Ladder 5 left the station. Eleven never returned. The weight of the tragedy seemed unfathomable. And yet it was being experienced at firehouses all over New York City.  Within hours, Mayor Giuliani set up a makeshift headquarters at Engine 24 Ladder 5, just blocks from where the tragedy began. The station was quickly becoming a pivotal symbol for what the entire city was going through.

In the days, weeks and months that followed, hundreds of letters from children across the country poured into Engine 24 Ladder 5. They expressed their love, appreciation and support. They reflect what many of us are feeling; A shared loss, a shared grief, a shared resilience and pride in New York and in our country. It is a sentiment so strong that these children felt the need to reach out to people they had never met.

The children of America sent the letters here to Engine 24 Ladder 5 - but they were meant for all New York City firefighters. In the midst of grief, pain and confusion, their innocence, love and hope supply much-needed inspiration and offer tribute to a group of true American heroes.-- from the publisher.

You may find more titles on our Remember 9/11, 10th anniversary reading selections.

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of those around him. His neighbors may have mocked him and called him misala--crazy--but William was determined to show them what a little grit and ingenuity could do.

Here is the remarkable story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him.-- from the hardcover edition

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Candy Apple Red (Jane Kelley series #1)

Jane Kelly is through with following men anywhere. Last time she did, she left Southern California for the dubious charms of Lake Chinook, Oregon, where she's traded in bartending for the much more glamorous trade of process serving. (Well, she can tell herself it's glamorous, anyway.) And the boyfriend, of course, is long gone. She's not making any lifetime commitments, but when Portland divorce attorney Marta Cornell calls with a P.I. job, the money involved sounds like the answer to her dwindling bank account - until she learns Tess Bradbury wants her to investigate the disappearance of Bobby Reynolds. Four years ago, without warning, Bobby murdered his young family and promptly vanished. No one disputed that he'd slaughtered his own flesh and blood except Tim Murphy, his best friend - and Jane's ex, the one guy she's never quite gotten over. The murders had driven a wedge between him and Jane, and finally drove him right out of town. Now he's on his way back, to attend a Lake Chinook Historical Society benefit that Cotton Reynolds, Bobby's father, is hosting. It looks like Jane's going to be following men around again - this time with a tape recorder and a camera.-- from the publisher


You may also like these Janet Evonavich readalikes.

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Coal Run

In a town haunted by a deadly mine explosion that took the lives of almost half the male population thirty years earlier, the reverberations are still being felt in the current generation of survivors, among them the narrator Ivan Zoschenko, the local deputy and fallen football legend, "the Great Ivan Z," whose father died that day. His pro career sidelined by an injury, Ivan now spends his days dispensing his own unique form of occasionally wise, usually comic, almost always dangerous justice and his nights drowning his regrets and guilt in a bottle. 

His story takes place during a week's time while Ivan is seemingly preparing for an old teammate's imminent release from prison. In doing so, he introduces a rich cast of characters – his fiercely independent single-mom sister, the long-absent Vietnam vet he idolized as a child, the town's no-nonsense pediatrician who brandishes vaccinations on the doorsteps of neglectful parents like a Wild West sheriff, and the old friend and onetime mirror image of himself who now lives the kind of simple life Ivan both admires and pities. During the events of this week, Ivan confronts his demons and reveals himself to be a man whose conscience is burdened by a long-held and shocking secret involving the ruined life of a young girl that must be finally reckoned with. -- from the publisher.


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Four Days to Glory (Iowa Connection)

Somewhere beyond the circle of money, glitz, drugs and controversy that characterizes professional sports in America, there exists the remnants of the ideal. In Iowa, that ideal survives in the form of high school wrestling, a way of transforming the local virtues--modesty, privation, hard work--into sporting glory. To be a wrestling champion in Iowa is to achieve greatness--individual glory where the only back to pat is your own.

For Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere, though, the stakes have been raised. Already three-time state champions in differing weight classes, each boy has a chance in his senior year of high school to do something historic--to become a "four-timer," joining the most elite group in the sport and essentially ensuring his status as an Iowa wrestling deity. For Jay, a ferocious competitor who feeds off criticism and doubt, a victory would mean vindication over the great mass of skeptics waiting for him to fail. Dan, the kid from a farm near the tiny town of Coggon (population 710), carries other burdens. For his community, for the hard-driving coach who doubles as his father, and for his own triumph over his personal demons, another title is the only acceptable outcome.  

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Heart of the Storm

With all the nail-biting excitement of a thriller, Heart of the Storm brings to life dramatic jungle rescues in the Philippines, the longest helicopter rescue mission in history to save crew members of a Ukrainian freighter 840 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, harrowing desert operations deep in the Iraqi desert, a nearly disastrous rescue off a listing two-masted schooner during an Atlantic winter storm, and many more.

During the course of his career, Fleming was responsible for saving 293 lives, including that of Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the physician and Antarctic researcher who in 1999 was airlifted from the South Pole in time to receive emergency breast cancer treatment. From the South Pole to the South Pacific to the Arabian desert, Heart of the Storm vividly recounts tales of bravery and adventure under the most extreme conditions. Col. Fleming brings us into the eye of the hurricane to experience life as it is lived by a handful of airborne heroes who routinely risk everything to save strangers from the jaws of death. An engrossing chronicle of a fascinating life, Heart of the Storm is a nonstop adrenaline rush and must reading for anyone who enjoys a rousing true-life adventure story.-- from the inside flap.


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Lost Boy

In the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), girls can become valuable property as plural wives, but boys are expendable, even a liability. In this powerful and heartbreaking account, former FLDS member Brent Jeffs reveals both the terror and the love he experienced growing up on his prophet’s compound—and the harsh exile existence that so many boys face once they have been expelled by the sect.

Brent Jeffs is the nephew of Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the FLDS. The son of a prominent family in the church, Brent could have grown up to have multiple wives of his own and significant power in the 10,000-strong community. But he knew that behind the group’s pious public image—women in chaste dresses carrying babies on their hips—lay a much darker reality. So he walked away, and was the first to file a sexual-abuse lawsuit against his uncle. Now Brent shares his courageous story and that of many other young men who have become “lost boys” when they leave the FLDS, either by choice or by expulsion.

Brent experienced firsthand the absolute power that church leaders wield—the kind of power that corrupts and perverts those who will do anything to maintain it. Once young men no longer belong to the church, they are cast out into a world for which they are utterly unprepared. More often than not, they succumb to the temptations of alcohol and other drugs.

Tragically, Brent lost two of his brothers in this struggle, one to suicide, the other to overdose. In this book he shows that lost boys can triumph and that abuse and trauma can be overcome, and he hopes that readers will be inspired to help former FLDS members find their way in the world. -- from the publisher

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The Woodsman's Daughter

Dalia is the brassy and beautiful eldest daughter of Monroe Miller, a shrewd turpentine farmer in 1800s southern Georgia haunted by a devastating secret. A resilient and resourceful young woman, Dalia strives to create a better life for herself and will stop at nothing to protect her family, but the sins of the father are never far behind.  In this spellbinding, page-turning epic, Rubio brings the swaying pines, humble shantytowns, and insular bustle of small-town living vibrantly to life. -- from the hardcover edition. 

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