Book Talk

Visionaries

What gift is given to those who are able to dream big dreams? Those who have a vision far beyond the imaginings of most?  Samuel de Champlain was one such man. Raised in France during a period of deadly religious strife, his plan for the French colonies he explored and helped develop showed none of his mother country’s intolerances. He encouraged tolerance of Protestantism by the largely Catholic French, intermarriage between colonists and natives, and peace between warring tribes.  He attempted to build a land of peace and respect during a period sadly lacking either. Pulitzer Prize winning author David Hackett Fischer authors Champlain’s Dream: the European Founding of North America.

Giants: the Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, by John Stauffer explores the lives of two men with different, yet interlocking visions. Douglass could help Lincoln save the Union while Lincoln could help Douglass’ fight against slavery.

In these tough economic times Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s name is mentioned quite often. Do we need a new New Deal? And how did a man born to immense wealth and privilege envision the projects and programs to help the poorest. In Traitor to his Class: the Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, H.W. Brands explores Roosevelt’s genius and the lasting effects his presidency has to this day.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson, 32 Ways to be a Champion in Business, does not seem like a likely choice for visionary, but his life since basketball has been inspirational. Not content merely to make money for himself, he set out to improve work opportunities and quality of life in African-American communities.  By partnering with established companies, he feels that he has helped create more than 40,000 jobs for minorities.

Fiction

Adam Dalgliesh returns in The Private Patient by P.D. James. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn checks into a private clinic to have a scar removed, she has no reason to expect any complications. Two days later she is murdered. Dalgliesh’s investigation leads him into the private lives of the current staff, and events that happened 350 years ago.

Eric Jerome Dickey has written Dying for Revenge.  When international hit man Gideon misses his victim, he becomes the target of his client, a woman with power, money and determination.

A notebook written in ancient Greek, a hidden cave on Crete containing a tablet of mysterious writings, a beautiful archeologist and a disgraced WWII special ops soldier are in ingredients in The Lost Temple by Tom Harper.

Your Heart Belongs to Me, by the ever popular Dean Koontz, features young Internet entrepreneur, Ryan Perry. Ryan has it all, including a newly diagnosed, incurable heart problem. A year after his transplant he feels great. Until the heart shaped gifts begin to arrive, along with the message, “Your heart belongs to me.”

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian