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Hot Reads for Adults
“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen has been performed and recorded by hundreds of musicians over the years. It has been sung by opera singers and American Idol contestants. It’s been played at weddings, funerals, 9-11 tributes and the Olympics. It has been used on television for such shows as The West Wing, ER, House and Dancing with the Stars. Its use in the animated film Shrek gave it a rebirth and its inclusion on that film’s soundtrack album gave it a whole new young audience.
The song rose from extremely humble beginnings when Cohen’s album Various Positions was refused by Columbia Records. Even when it was finally released, the song itself received no particular notice. It would be ten more years, when Jeff Buckley released his album Grace, that the song would come into its own, and even that took several more years.
This book gives us a fascinating look at pop culture through the phenomenon of one song that eventually captured the world’s imagination and was embraced by people of all faiths and those of no faith at all. (Check out YouTube for thousands of renditions!)
Reviewed by Audrey Lewis
. . . → Read More: THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN: LEONARD COHEN, JEFF BUCKLEY & THE UNLIKELY ASCENT OF HALLELUJAH by Alan Light
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The Last American Man is an examination of contemporary American male identity by acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert. Eustace Conway left his family’s comfortable suburban home in 1977 at the age of 17 to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades, he lived there making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he had trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway’s mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America.
You may recognize Mr. Conway, who has since become famous as one of the characters documented on History channel’s Mountain Men and who has faced considerable legal troubles concerning his land at Turtle Island. While this biography is now 11 years old, it will give you some insight into the man who has become so popular today. The Last American Man is an engaging read sure to make you want to know more about Conway and his way of life.
Reviewed by Kimberly White
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Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander are forensic anthropologists, who have founded a non-profit organization called 32/1. Its function is to try to identify and locate missing persons. The agency’s name comes from the section of the Geneva Convention Acts that states that in war, people have the right to know what happened to their missing relatives.
When a vehicle is involved in a traffic incident and several body parts fly out, Jayne and Steelie are called upon to work with the FBI to help identify the victims. When the circumstances recall a series of similar crimes in another state, the investigators realize they are searching for a highly organized and professional serial killer.
This is an exciting read for those who like Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell. Jayne and Steelie are strong, bright, tough and dedicated to what they do.
Clea Koff is a forensic anthropologist and author. She was a member of the first international forensic team brought together by the United Nations to investigate evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity, commencing in Rwanda in 1996. She subsequently participated in missions in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. The Bone Woman, Koff’s memoir of her experiences working for the . . . → Read More: FREEZING by Clea Koff
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Several years ago, Fiona Bristow was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer. Because Fiona escaped, the killer took revenge by killing her fiancé and his K-9 police partner. Following this tragedy, Fiona moved to Orcas Island where she found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. In memory of her fiancé she started up a successful dog training school where she taught obedience and search and rescue.
Just as Fiona was feeling confident in her rebuilt life, Simon Doyle entered the scene, desperate for her help. Thanks to his mother, Simon was the new owner of a totally undisciplined puppy, properly named Jaws.
Jaws proved no match for Fiona. Simon, however, gave her a bit of a turn. Fiona tried to resist his charms as he did hers. While things were heating up for them, a copycat killer was making his plans to exact the old revenge on Fiona and to finally to end her life.
I recommend this as not only a great Nora Robert’s read, but as a bonus you will get great dog-training tips!
Reviewed by Kathy Dittrich
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The very name Mark Fidrych can make a longtime baseball fan smile. They remember his phenomenal rookie season for the Detroit Tigers in 1976. In an era of cynicism, as the country was still recovering from the turmoil of Watergate and the Vietnam War, America’s pastime had lost some of its luster, but during the summer of the Bicentennial, a lanky 21-year-old, with more than a passing resemblance to Sesame Street’s Big Bird, burst onto the scene with infectious enthusiasm that was impossible to resist.
Fidrych’s antics: patting down the mound, “talking” to the ball, and throwing balls “that had hits in them” back to the umpire, made him a national celebrity. But he backed up his act with solid pitching, winning 19 games and Rookie of the Year honors that year.
Doug Wilson’s biography is as fun as “The Bird’s” happy-go-lucky personality. While star athletes today are multimillionaires, Fidrych never became rich off his injury-shortened career. In later life, he became a truck driver, which led to his untimely death in 2009, but even in his heyday, Fidrych seemed a “regular guy” – albeit one with a unique take on life.
Reviewed by Lynn Heitkamp
. . . → Read More: THE BIRD: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MARK FIDRYCH by Doug Wilson
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Hildy Good is the top real estate seller in the area. She has lived in Wendover, MA for her entire life. She knows everyone’s history, and what their houses look like. She is 60 and divorced, with two grown daughters. Those daughters staged an intervention and Hildy was stuck going to rehab, even though she knew that she was only a social drinker. Now everyone in her small town knows that she has stopped drinking. Only, she hasn’t. Hildy is very likable, even when she may be doing some very questionable things. This book was a quick read. Small towns have secrets, even ones people try to keep from themselves.
Reviewed by Fiona Swift
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One word. Karma. Lissy Ryder was the most popular girl in her suburban Chicago high school. She was ruthless, but worshipped. Beloved, yet feared. Flash forward 20 years and Lissy just doesn’t understand why people don’t seem to find her as charming as they did back then. After losing her job and being dumped by her husband, Lissy is forced to move back in with her parents. She feels like she’s lost control until she attends her high school reunion and is reunited with a past classmate; a classmate Lissy did not consider worthy to be her friend. Now this classmate has a special potion that can change everything. So just who is Lissy Ryder now?
Reviewed by Jen Harden
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In this touching memoir Worth recounts her life as a midwife in post – World War II London. At the age of twenty-two Worth trained with an order of Anglican nuns whose mission in life was providing prenatal care, safer childbirth, and post-partum advice to the impoverished women in the Docklands slums of East End London. The absolute horrid conditions in the tenements, the almost total lack of public health care, and the joys and dangers of childbirth are all graphically yet lovingly conveyed. The author paints a portrait of a time hardly imaginable in a modern society, but exist it did. The stories of her interactions with the women, men and children of the area as she assisted in perhaps the most intimate of human dramas, childbirth, are ones that linger long after the book is back on the shelf.
Reviewed by Neica Dey
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From bare knuckle fighting to family barbershop quartets to the Kennedy years, each new generation of the Meisenheimer family learns what it means to be “A Good American”. This novel brings laughter and tears and introduces the reader to unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from New Orleans, a schoolteacher who teaches her students about life and music, and a couple who come to the U.S., fleeing disapproving parents in the Old Country. A quick decision at Bremen places the couple on a ship to Louisiana instead of New York, thus changing the course of their lives in ways they can’t imagine. The reader will not soon forget this heartcatching family saga.
A Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Amazon “Best Books of the Month” February 2012
Barnes and Noble Discover Pick Spring 2012
Top 2012 Summer Read for NPR’s Morning Edition
Reviewed by Audrey Lewis
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Years of secrets and deception were about to be exposed the same day that Adele Alban died. Her daughter, Grace, and her teenage daughter return to the grand mansion, Alban House, on the shores of Lake Superior. After years of absence from her childhood home, Grace soon realizes the home is shrouded in family secrets and mysteries that lie within the walls of the secret passageways. For her own safety and her daughter’s, Grace must untangle these secrets and get to the truth behind the deaths that have occurred over the years. With the help of Reverend Matthew Parker they find more than they were looking for. This book is filled with mystery, paranormal activity, romance, witches and spells and will leave you wondering what is real and what isn’t. You might want to leave the lights on when you read this one!
Reviewed by Linda Brown
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