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Archive for the ‘New Release’ Category

New Release: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

March 9th, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

51dzUj9767L._SL160_By Seth Grahame-Smith
Grand Central Publishing | 336pgs
Release Date: March 02, 2010

Seth Grahame-Smith’s fantastical foray into the horror/history genre Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, opens in a small cabin in Indiana, during the year 1818. Lincoln, a boy of just nine years, watches his mother’s life slip away as she suffers from a mysterious illness called “Milk Sickness.” Later as a young man, he learns that his mother’s death was caused by a vampire, and embarks on a life-long crusade to fight against the undead masses. Though Lincoln’s great accomplishments of ending slavery and fighting to keep America united have been well documented, his vendetta against vampires remained secret. Author Seth Grahame-Smith is finally able to bring these secrets to light with the discovery of The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln. Drawing on events recorded in the diary, Grahame-Smith stages an epic “biography” of the 16th President, revealing the shrouded history of the Civil War, and the role the undead evil-doers played in the upheaval.
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Pellegrino’s Hiroshima Account: Fact or Fiction?

March 3rd, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

51flTefvl2L._SL160_In February, concerns were raised about the veracity of one of Charles Pellegrino’s sources in his new book The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, which documents the experiences of Japanese blast survivors as well as the American flight crews that dropped the atomic bomb. Joseph Fuoco (now-deceased) claimed to be a last-minute substitution on the flight crew of one of two escort planes accompanying the Enola Gay during its fateful mission on Aug. 6, 1945. But, Fuoco’s account of the bombing and his claim that an accident while readying the weapon killed an American scientist and weakened the bomb’s power, have been vehemently denied by historians and the surviving flight crew members. The Seattle Times reports that evidence has come to light that proves flight engineer, James Corliss, actually flew in the escort plane, not Fuoco. Though, it is possible that he did participate in reconnaissance flights over Hiroshima before and after the blast.
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New Release: Lift

March 1st, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

51tkybBfS1L._SL160_By Kelly Corrigan
Hyperion | 96pgs
Release Date: March 2, 2010

Addressing her children, Kelly Corrigan writes a tender, richly intimate missive on the challenges and joys of parenthood in her new book Lift. With humor and thoughtfulness, the author intertwines the real-life stories of three adults’ experiences with the peaks and pitfalls of raising children. The book title, taken from a hang gliding term, describes the technique in which a glider must fly deliberately into turbulent air, in order to avoid losing altitude. Corrigan chose this term to symbolize the challenging, sometimes rough and chaotic, ride of parenting. She highlights the complexity of this role with honesty and tenderness. Though parents may fall short in their duties at times, Lift serves as a reminder of the importance and rewards of child rearing.
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Henrietta Lacks’ Miraculous Contribution to Medicine

February 24th, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

h_lacksIn 1951, before Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in the Johns Hopkins Hospital “colored” ward, doctors took a small sample of her tumor. The tissue sample, taken without Lacks’ knowledge, stunned scientists when the cells successfully grew in the research lab. This marked the first time a line of human cells had survived without a human body. Lacks’ cells, later known as HeLa, proved extremely robust and flourished in the lab environment. Since their initial harvest, at least 50 million metric tons of the cells have been grown, and have contributed to advances and breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases like polio and AIDS. Yet, Lacks’ family were never told of (or compensated for) this research, and only learned of her miraculous afterlife in the 1970’s when the scientists at Johns Hopkins contacted the family in hopes of further testing. Science writer Rebecca Skloot combines Lacks’ personal history and her family’s reaction to the situation, along with scientific accounts, to tell a compelling story in her new book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Crown, 330pgs).
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New Release: Split Image

February 22nd, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

41lbFWs4EvL._SL160_By Robert B. Parker
Putnam Adult | 288pgs
Release Date: February 23, 2010

A body found in a trunk sends police chief Jesse Stone on the trail of the mob in Split Image, the ninth installment of Robert B. Parker’s immensely popular series. When a lackey for “retired” crime boss Reggie Galen turns up dead, Stone initially believes the case to be a straight-forward mob hit. As a second body is found on Paradise Beach, this time that of a high-ranking mobster, the investigation becomes more complicated. Battling the pressures of the case, and his personal demons, Stone takes comfort in his friendship with PI Sunny Randall (star of Parker’s widely read series, Spare Change, etc.). Randall is in town to track down a young girl involved with a shady religious cult. As their cases unravel, and the investigators get closer to the truth, the pair learn they have much in common and form a deeper personal bond.
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The Scandal Rag that Started it All

February 18th, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

confidential_magUpon reading James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential, former journalist Henry E. Scott developed a deep fascination of Confidential magazine (fictionalized in the novel as Hush-Hush magazine). The result, Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, “America’s Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine” (Pantheon, 240pgs), delineates the history of the original scandal rag that gave birth to today’s purveyors of titillating tales, such as Us Magazine, Entertainment Tonight and TMZ. Publisher Robert Harrison introduced the bi-monthly magazine in 1952, its blazing yellow and red masthead and catchy headlines gleefully exposing the infidelities, sexual orientation and political leanings of the day’s biggest stars. Through his research, Scott was surprised to find that each published article was carefully fact checked, and most of the stories reported the facts accurately. Though more respectable publications, like Time, derided the scandal sheet as “a cheesecake of innuendo, detraction, and plain smut”, the public devoured every issue and circulation soon rose to more than 3 million.
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New Release: Horns

February 16th, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

41IvUL5U64L._SL160_By Joe Hill
William Morrow | 384pgs
Release Date: February 16, 2010

After a night of hard partying, a hungover Ignatius Perrish wakes to find a pair of horns growing from his forehead in Horns, the new supernatural thriller by Joe Hill. The horns mark another bizarre and unwelcome experience for Ig, whose life has been a living hell for the past year. Born into a family of prestige and power, he had previously been living a charmed, happy life with his true love, Merrin Williams. But after Merrin is viciously raped and murdered, Ig’s life falls apart, as he becomes the prime suspect in her death. Though he is never prosecuted, due to lack of evidence, the court of public opinion has found him guilty and condemned him. The people of Gideon, New Hampshire believe that Ig’s freedom is not a testament to his innocence, but rather to his parents’ deep pockets. Ig is shocked to learn that curious powers accompany the grotesque horns; people blurt out their deepest, most private thoughts, at his touch. He’s soon hellbent on using his dark powers to bring Merrin’s true killer to justice and exacting a satisfying revenge.

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New Release: To Hell on a Fast Horse

February 9th, 2010 Holly Lambert 1 comment

51wWB9lV-rL._SL160_By Mark Lee Gardner
HarperCollins Publishers | 336pgs
Release Date: February 09, 2010

Western historian Mark Lee Gardner weaves the life stories of Sheriff Pat Garrett and outlaw Billy the Kid (William Bonney) together in the twin biography To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West. Drawing from extensive research and historical documents, Gardner separates myth from the truth, following the lawman’s intense quest to bring the notorious criminal to justice. From Billy the Kid’s initial capture in Las Vegas in December of 1880, to his reckless daylight escape from a courthouse in April of 1881, Gardner documents one of the Old West’s most iconic rivalries. “I am not going to leave the country,” states the Kid upon his escape, “and I am not going to reform, neither am I going to be taken alive again.” These words prove to be prophetic.
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Anne Boleyn: Wrongly Accused?

February 5th, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

anne_boleynHistorian Alison Weir builds a case for Anne Boleyn’s innocence in the charges of adultery and treason that lead to her death sentence, in her new book The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn (Ballantine, 464pgs). Boleyn has remained a striking historical figure through the centuries, and volumes have been written about her life and marriage to King Henry VIII. “She’s the Other Woman in an eternal triangle,” states Weir in an interview with NPR, “and Katherine of Aragon is the Good Wife whom Henry dumps for her.” In this latest book, Weir conducts “a forensic investigation” of the queen’s downfall and focuses on the last four months of her tragic life.
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New Release: Cosmic

February 3rd, 2010 Holly Lambert No comments

41C8BmZoW8L._SL160_By Frank Cottrell Boyce
Walden Pond Press | 320pgs
Release Date: January 19, 2010

Twelve-year-old Liam is prematurely forced into the role of a grown up in Cosmic, bestselling author Frank Cottrell Boyce’s third children’s book. His huge summer growth spurt and facial hair make him look more like a dad than a kid, and Liam, along with friend Florida, take advantage of this fact when they enter a contest as father and daughter. The pair win a trip on the first rocket ship to carry civilian passengers into space, with Liam serving as the “adult chaperon” to four other children. When the spaceship soars out of control 239,000 miles away from earth, it is up to Liam, with his new found maturity and finely honed World of Warcraft skills to save the day. This humorous, science fiction adventure, is also a touching story that examines the true meaning of maturity and the responsibility of fatherhood.
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