In 1936, 12 year old Thomas McArdle checked out a brand new history book from the Chestnut Street Elementary School library in Scottdale, PA. The book, The Birth of Rome by Laura Orvieto, told the story of Rome’s development, and the young McArdle needed it for his 6th grade history paper. “I just fell in love with the book and then I did a nasty thing, I kept the book. I read it about three or four times after that,” he explains in the Daily Courier. “I majored in history in college. That book, that class, and that teacher made a big difference in my life. I still read about Roman and European history.” For 73 years McArdle kept the book, taking it with him as he moved around the U.S. Recently, he contacted his cousin, who still resides in Scottdale, to help him return the book to its rightful owners.
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By Edith Belle Gelles
William Morrow ©2009 | Hardcover 352pgs
Volumes have been written about the vital role that John Adams has played in the history of the United States of America, and Abigail Adams herself has been the subject of several in-depth biographies. But, Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage portrays the life of one of America’s first couples, framed by their loving and enduring marriage. Much has been made of the Adamses’ public life, yet Abigail & John draws a more intimate portrait, illustrated by passages of their private correspondence. Though this book may not cover any fresh ground historically, it gives a wonderful sense of the Adamses as partners, lovers and patriots.
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By Robert Crais
Putnam Adult | 320pgs
Release Date: January 12, 2010
In The First Rule, Robert Crais’ second novel to feature Joe Pike as the lead character, the private detective fights to clear an old friend’s name. Frank Meyer appears to be a successful business and family man, until the day his home is invaded and he and his family are brutally murdered. A shadow of doubt is soon cast over Meyer’s character when the LAPD discovers his link to Pike, and their history as professional mercenaries. Adamant that his friend was on the straight and narrow, Pike works to solve Meyer’s murder in his characteristic strong, aloof style. With the help of partner Elvis Cole, Pike descends into the underworld of Eastern European organized crime, to find the truth and prove Meyer’s innocence.
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The Guardian has proclaimed JK Rowling the winner of the last decade, as far as book sales go. The Harry Potter author dominated the bestsellers lists during the “noughties”, selling more than 29 million books, prompting the New York Times to create a new bestsellers list for children’s books, and racking up sales of over $360 million (£225.9 million). Though she characteristically shied away from the press, Rowling’s personal story became mythologized as well: A struggling single mother, toils away in obscurity on a story about a boy wizard, only to hit it big with her first published novel. Really, really big. Though Rowling’s first royalty check for the UK publication of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (published in the U.S. as Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone) was a meager $960.00 (£600), she was a millionaire just one year later. Thanks to the continued popularity of the Harry Potter books, movie franchise and merchandise licensing, Rowling is now reported to be worth about $1 billion (£545 million).
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By Elizabeth Gilbert
Viking Adult | 304pgs
Release Date: January 5, 2010
Elizabeth Gilbert is forced to reconcile her doubts about the institution of marriage in Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, the sequel to her 2006 breakout hit Eat, Pray, Love. The memoir opens with Gilbert and Felipe, the Brazilian-born Australian man she met in Indonesia, still blissfully in love. But, upon returning to Dallas, the couple gets a bitter shock when Felipe is detained and then deported by Homeland Security. The only way for him to re-enter the country is for the couple to marry, something they both vowed never to do again. Essentially, “sentenced to marry by the Homeland Security Department,” the pair spend the next year traveling the world while waiting for Felipe’s visa to be approved. Gilbert immerses herself in matrimonial research, interviewing women around the globe, and trying to come to terms with her ambivalence towards marriage.
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By James Dalessandro
Morgan James Publishing ©2009 | 212pgs
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Scott D. Imamura
Citizen Jane is a sort of misleading title for this book. When I first picked up the book, I thought it was a story of the first successful newspaper company owned by a woman (female version of Citizen Kane). As I perused the pages, I noticed it was a true crime story. Apparently, the title was a play on words. Non-fiction reading is my forte, plus it was a true crime book. So, this book got me interested there afterward.
After reading the back cover, you get a clue from the author on “whodunit.” Yes, this a who-done-it book; but, not in the style of your usual Sherlock Holmes murder mystery novel.
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By Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger with Jeffrey Zaslow
HarperCollins ©2009 | Hardcover 340pgs
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Russ Imamura
Rarely do I read autobiographies of contemporary people. I find many of these writings are usually shallow stories of egotistical movie stars, sports figures, politicians or tele-evangelists. These books hardly ever leave me with any lasting worthwhile impressions.
However, after seeing Captain “Sully” Sullenberger on television earlier this year being interviewed by many people about his courageous handling of the Airbus plane on the icy Hudson River, I was immediately impressed by this human being. The qualities exuded by this person as he spoke were very genuine, upright, and commanding. When his book was published I had to get it right away to find out more about him.
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By Tami Hoag
Dutton Adult | 432pgs
Release Date: December 29, 2009
Tami Hoag takes readers on an intense hunt for a serial killer in her latest thriller, Deeper Than the Dead. The story opens in 1984, when three children stumble upon a partially buried corpse in the woods. The female victim’s eyes and mouth have been glued shut, and Detective Tony Mendez quickly recognizes this as the work of a serial murderer. In this time, DNA matching and internet searches are still the stuff of science fiction. But, Mendez hopes to use the most cutting edge techniques available to catch the killer, and reaches out to the FBI’s newly formed criminal profiling unit for help. They soon zero in on a suspect, and enlist the assistance of school teacher Anne Navarro to learn more about the man and his young son. If their suspicions are true, and this pillar of the community really is a cold-blooded killer, the affluent town of Oak Knoll, CA will be rocked to its foundations.
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By Terry Teachout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 496pgs
Release Date: December 2, 2009
In this new biography of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, Wall Street Journal columnist Terry Teachout mines a trove of previously unpublished material to show the complexity of Armstrong’s character. The narrative voice of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong reverberates with warmth and soul, echoing the core of Satchmo’s music. Teachout gained access to hundreds of Armstrong’s private recordings of backstage and late-night conversations, made mostly during the last half of the musician’s life. His inner strength and sheer love of music shine through in these personal exchanges, and are the foundation of his ability to overcome the racial tensions of the times. “Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born,” Teachout writes, “he didn’t repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work.”
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After 50 years of writing mystery novels, author P.D. James knows a thing or two about crafting a well-written plot. In her new non-fiction book, Talking About Detective Fiction, James discusses the history of the mystery genre and the construct of a good crime novel. “There must be a central mystery,” she explains, “and one that by the end of the book is solved satisfactorily and logically, not by good luck or intuition, but by intelligent deduction from clues honestly if deceptively presented.” James focuses primarily on British authors, and her opinions of some of the genre’s icons are surprising and amusing. Agatha Christie, she posits, “hasn’t in my view had a profound influence on the later development of the detective story.” Though James does offer this backhanded compliment to mystery legend: “Perhaps her greatest strength was that she never overstepped the limits of her talent.” James also prefers Dr. Watson over Sherlock Holmes, finding his character more genuine and relatable, though she does raise some questions about the coziness of their household.
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