Holiday Reading

The holiday break is the perfect time to catch up on your reading and the LRC staff is here to help with our 2011 Holiday Reading Recommendations!

Life Sentences by Laura Lippmann:

"This stunning stand-alone from bestseller Lippman (Baltimore Blues) examines the extraordinary power and fragility of memories. Writer Cassandra Fallows achieved critical and commercial success with an account of her Baltimore childhood growing up in the 1960s and a follow-up dealing with her adult marriages and affairs. The merely modest success of her debut novel leads her back to nonfiction and the possibility of a book about grade school classmate Calliope Jenkins. Accused of murdering her infant son, Jenkins spent seven years in prison steadfastly declining to answer any questions about the disappearance and presumed death of her son. Fallows (white) tries to reconnect with three former classmate friends (black) to compare memories of Jenkins and research her story. In the process, she discovers the gulf (partially racial) that separates her memories of events from theirs. Fallows's pursuit of Jenkins's story becomes a rich, complex journey from self-deception to self-discovery."-Publisher's Weekly

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson:

"Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman."-Publisher's Weekly

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles:

"In his smashing debut, Towles details the intriguing life of Katherine Kontent and how her world is upended by the fateful events of 1938. Kate and her roommate, Evelyn Ross, have moved to Manhattan for its culture and the chance to class up their lives with glamour—be it with jazz musicians, trust fund lotharios, or any man with a hint of charm who will pay for dinner and drinks. Both Kate and Evelyn are enamored of sophisticated Tinker Grey, who they meet in a jazz club; he appears to be another handsome, moneyed gent, but as the women vie for his affection, a tragic event may seal a burgeoning romance's fate. New York's wealthy class is thick with snobbery, unexpected largesse, pettiness, jealousies, and an unmistakable sense of who belongs and who does not, but it's the undercurrent of unease—as with Towles's depiction of how the upper class can use its money and influence to manipulate others' lives in profoundly unsavory ways—that gives his vision depth and complexity. His first effort is remarkable for its strong narrative, original characters and a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself."-Publisher's Weekly

A Creed Country Christmas by Linda Lael Miller:

"Miller delivers a holiday heartwarmer her fans are sure to adore. When Juliana Mitchell runs out of money, she loses the Indian school she runs in 1910 Montana, and the four children in her care are left with nowhere to go. Lucky for her (and them), she meets rancher Lincoln Creed, whose daughter is in desperate need of a governess. But things don’t work out exactly as Creed envisioned, and it turns out Juliana could fulfill a much larger role in the Creed home. Things look like they’re turning out well for everyone, but an Indian affairs agent might upset the happy if unconventional setup. Mitchell makes for a sympathetic heroine, and in Creed, Miller has moved beyond the usual quiet frontiersman to create a sensitive, loyal gentleman that readers will love."-Publisher's Weekly

Down River by John Hart:

The 2008 Edgar Award winner for best mystery fiction brings the reader back to Rowan County, NC, where Adam Chase makes a mysterious return from exile and revives the accusations of murder that drove him away 5 years ago. A brilliantly-paced thriller with hidden motivations and many shades of gray.

"Hart surpasses his bestselling debut, The King of Lies (2006), with his richly atmospheric second novel, which offers a tighter plot, more adroit pacing and less angst. Five years earlier, Adam Chase was arrested for murder, largely on the basis of his stepmother's sworn testimony against him. He was acquitted, but nearly everyone, including his father, still thinks he did it, and Adam's deep bitterness has kept him away from home ever since. Now, at the request of a childhood friend, he's back in Salisbury, N.C., where all the old demons still reside and new troubles await. The almost Shakespearean snarl of family ties is complicated by a very modern struggle between economic progress and love for the land, between haves and have-nots. Throughout, Hart expertly weaves his main theme: that by their freedom of choice, humans are capable of betrayal but also of forgiveness and redemption. This book should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature."-Publisher's Weekly

The Brothers K by David James Duncan:

"...a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad. Highly inventive formally, the novel is mainly narrated by Kincaid Chance, the youngest son in a family of four boys and identical twin girls, the children of Hugh Chance, a discouraged minor-league ballplayer whose once-promising career was curtained by an industrial accident, and his wife Laura, an increasingly fanatical Seventh-Day Adventist. The plot traces the working-out of the family's fate from the beginning of the Eisenhower years through the traumas of Vietnam. One son becomes an atheist and draft resister; another immerses himself in Eastern religions, while the third, the most genuinely Christian of the children, ends up in Southeast Asia. In spite of the author's obvious affection for the sport, this is not a baseball novel; it is, as Kincaid says, "the story of an eight-way tangle of human beings, only one-eighth of which was a pro ballpayer." The book portrays the extraordinary differences that can exist among siblings--much like the Dostoyevski novel to which The Brothers K alludes in more than just title--and how family members can redeem one another in the face of adversity. Long and incident-filled, the narrative appears rather ramshackle in structure until the final pages, when Duncan brings together all of the themes and plot elements in a series of moving climaxes."-Publisher's Weekly

Return to Wild America by Scott Weidensaul:

A fascinating combination of environmentalism and adventure, Weidensaul recreates the classic 1955 Wild America journey made by birding legend Roger Tory Peterson and naturalist James Fisher. From reculsive ocelots in Texas to a surprising wild New York City, the amazing stories of species and habitats are driven by Weidensaul's beautifully detaield descriptions.

Moneymakers by Ben Tarnoff:

An absorbing historical book that reads like a thriller, Tarnoff recounts how "three of America's most successful counterfeiters—Owen Sullivan, David Lewis, and Samuel Upham—each cunningly manipulated the political and economic realities of his day, driven by a desire for fortune and fame. Irish immigrant Owen Sullivan (c. 1720- 1756) owed his success not just to his hustler's charm and entrepreneurial spirit, but also to the weak law enforcement and craving for currency that marked colonial America. The handsome David Lewis (1788-1820) became an outlaw hero in backwoods Pennsylvania, infamous for his audacious jailbreaks and admired as a Robin Hood figure who railed against Eastern financial elites. Shopkeeper Samuel Upham (1819-1885) sold fake Confederate bills to his fellow Philadelphians during the Civil War as "mementos of the rebellion," enraging Southern leaders when Union soldiers flooded their markets with the forgeries."-publisher website

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson:

"...a vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought to life through the stories of two people: William E. Dodd, who in 1933 became America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s regime, and his scandalously carefree daughter, Martha. Ambassador Dodd, an unassuming and scholarly man, is an odd fit among the extravagance of the Nazi elite. His frugality annoys his fellow Americans in the State Department and Dodd’s growing misgivings about Hitler’s ambitions fall on deaf ears among his peers, who are content to “give Hitler everything he wants.” Martha, on the other hand, is mesmerized by the glamorous parties and the high-minded conversation of Berlin’s salon society—and flings herself headlong into numerous affairs with the city’s elite, most notably the head of the Gestapo and a Soviet spy. Both become players in the exhilarating (and terrifying) story of Hitler’s obsession for absolute power, which culminates in the events of one murderous night, later known as “the Night of Long Knives.” The rise of Nazi Germany is a well-chronicled time in history, which makes In the Garden of Beasts all the more remarkable. Erik Larson has crafted a gripping, deeply-intimate narrative with a climax that reads like the best political thriller, where we are stunned with each turn of the page, even though we already know the outcome. --reviewer Shane Hansanuwat

11/22/63 by Stephen King:

Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher, is shown by a friend the means to travel back in time and charged with a mission: cure America's present condition by preventing the assasination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. King's fresh take on the genre downplays the sci-fi and instead focuses on vivid period details, well-developed characters, and a realistic and living history that resists change. The difficulties of time travel make this fantastic tale more realistic and relatable and the glimpse into Lee Harvey Oswald's personal life help flesh out the fully-realized setting. Fans of It will be pleased to see Derry, Maine, make an extended cameo appearance.

Raising the Dead by Ron Rash:

A beautiful and moving collection of WNC poetry that captures community, the region, and the haunting impact of the flooding of the Jocassee Valley. Rash's verse begs to be read out loud and shared.