Book Talk

Enjoy your new year!

What better way to start a new year than with a trip down memory lane. A lovely new book, Rochester Memories, Volume III: The 1900s through 1969, has been published by the Democrat & Chronicle. It’s wonderful to recognize some of the buildings from long ago and to appreciate the social institutions that have made Rochester a wonderful place to live. We all got a laugh at a picture from 1942 which shows a library delivery tote box identical to the ones we still use!

The turn of the year usually triggers our impulse for self-improvement and for many of us that means organizing and de-cluttering. Sarah Nettleton has authored The Simple Home: the Luxury of Enough, which is full of photos of interior and exterior environments embodying her philosophy. She stresses that simple is timeless, sustainable and thrifty. And if the pictures mean anything, lovely to look at.

If improving your health is on your agenda, get a copy of Doctor Chopra Says: Medical Facts & Myths Everyone Should Know, by Dr. Sanjiv Chopra and Dr. Alan Lotvin.  Drinking coffee offers many health benefits. It may give protection from heart disease, Parkinson’s colon cancer, cirrhosis and a number of other conditions. And I just thought it tasted good.  Fish is still a valuable part of a normal diet. Statin drugs really do seem to be a miracle drug and may be found to have much wider applications. This book is reassuring to read and will send you off with a new health plan.

Do I even need to mention our new resolve for improving our finances? We had all gotten a little casual about money, but were shocked back to attention! Ken Kamen has written Reclaim you Nest Egg: Take Control of your Financial Future. Though we all feel a little insecure these days, Kamen says the one thing we can control is our own behavior. How you think about money is key to understanding your actions, and realizing where, when and why you lost control. He offers simple, doable, empowering suggestions for improving your personal balance sheet.

There is nothing like a good thriller to help you pass a long winter’s day. Fortunately some of our favorite authors have new contributions.

You may have encountered Bob Lee Swagger, Stephen Hunter’s sniper turned FBI agent; he appears again in Dead Zero. A marine sniper team at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Whiskey 2-2, is ambushed by professionals using advanced high tech weaponry. Wounded but alive, Sergeant Ray Cruz is determined to complete his mission until a blast leaves a thirty-foot crater where he was supposed to be hiding. Months later a mysterious message is received in Washington using the code Whiskey 2-2. Swagger is called in to unravel a situation full of double crosses and hidden agendas.

Iran’s president is threatening to annihilate the United States and Israel. Israel wants a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, the U.S. President doesn’t. A mysterious cleric, who claims to be the Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi or Twelfth Iman, has also appeared. Rumors of signs and miracles are spreading like wild-fire. David Shirazi, CIA, is sent to Tehran with the orders to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, and leave no American fingerprints. Read The Twelfth Iman by Joel Rosenberg.

Ever-popular Dean Koontz offers, What the Night Knows. Long ago, a killer named Alton Turner Blackwood killed four families before being killed by the last member of the last family. Twenty years later someone is murdering families in the same way, recreating the details of the crimes. Homicide detective John Calvino is certain his family will be a target, just as his family was when he was fourteen and killed Blackwood.

Dead Like You by Peter James, also involves a repeat crime. Two murders of women in Brighton, England are copies of murders that had occurred in 1997. The unsolved crimes were notable in that the killer took the women’s shoes. Detective Roy Grace is in a race to avoid the death of the fifth victim.

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian