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FEBRUARY 2010

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FICTION

Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne: Book Cover

Too Much Money
Dominick Dunne 

"My name is Gus Bailey...It should be pointed out that it is a regular feature of my life that people whisper things in my ear, very private things, about themselves or others. I have always understood the art of listening."

 
Torch of Freedom
David Weber    

As the slavemasters of Mesa plot against the Star Empire of Manticore and the newly liberated slave planet of Torch, Anton Zilwicki and the notorious Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat set off on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth concerning a wave of mysterious assassinations that have been launched against Manticore and Torch. Most people are sure that the Republic of Haven is behind the assassinations, but Zilwicki and Cachat suspect others of being the guilty party.

Catalyst by Anne McCaffrey: Book Cover Catalyst: A Tale of the Barque Cats
Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough    

IPilot, navigator, engineer, doctor, scientist�ship's cat? All are essential to the well-staffed space vessel. Since the early days of interstellar travel, when Tuxedo Thomas, a Maine coon cat, showed what a cat could do for a ship and its crew, the so-called Barque Cats have become highly prized crew members.

Impact by Douglas Preston: Book Cover Impact
Douglas Preston

Wyman Ford is tapped for a secret expedition to Cambodia... to locate the source of strangely beautiful gemstones that do not appear to be of this world. A brilliant meteor lights up the Maine coast... and two young women borrow a boat and set out for a distant island to find the impact crater.

 

  Midnight Rainbow
Linda Howard   

A romance in the jungle - Grant Sullivan, tough, masculine and handsome, is a retired military expert entrusted with a mission in the Costa Rican jungle - to find hostage and socialite Jane Hamilton Greer. When Grant rescues her in a rather cavalier and physical fashion, no love is lost between them. But gradually their mutual attraction and passion becomes apparent and the jungle smoulders in more ways than one.

The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming: Book Cover

The Kingdom of Ohio
Matthew Flaming  

After discovering an old photograph, an elderly antiques dealer living in present-day Los Angeles is forced to revisit the history he has struggled to deny. The photograph depicts a man and a woman. The man is Peter Force, a young frontier adventurer who comes to New York City in 1901 and quickly lands a job digging the first subway tunnels beneath the metropolis.

 
Noah's Compass
Anne Tyler     

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky: Download Cover
 
Not My Daughter
Barbara Delinsky      

When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.

  The Sorceress of Karres
Eric Flint, Dave Free         

As Captain Pausert had often had occasion to observe, life just wasn�t fair! Hadn�t he (with the help of the notorious witches of Karres, of course) outmaneuvered the deadliest of space pirates and eliminated the threat of the Worm World (as told in The Witches of Karres), after which, at the least, he deserved some time off.

  Thereby Hangs a Tail
Spencer Quinn         

Following the acclaimed Dog On It, the second mystery in the Chet and Bernie series featuring an irresistible canine narrator.

 

A Whisper to the Living
Stuart M. Kaminsky        

A Whisper to the Living continues the adventures (some would say trials and tribulations) of Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union. Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing Russia.

  Death of a Valentine
M.C. Beaton     

Amazing news has spread across the Scottish countryside. The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, may actually marry at last. The entire village of Lochdubh adores Macbeth's bride-to-be. Josie McSween is Hamish's new constable, and she is a pretty little thing, with glossy brown hair and big brown eyes. The local folk think that Josie is quite a catch, but Hamish couldn't be more miserable.

Deep Creek
Dana hand       

Idaho Territory, June 1887. A small-town judge takes his young daughter fishing, and she catches a man. Another body surfaces, then another. The final toll: over 30 Chinese gold miners brutally murdered. Their San Francisco employer hires Idaho lawman Joe Vincent to solve the case.

Savage Lands
Clare Clark       

It is 1704 and, while the Sun King Louis XIV rules France from the splendour of Versailles, Louisiana, the new and vast colony named in his honour, is home to fewer than two hundred souls. When a demand is sent requesting wives be dispatched for the struggling settlers, Elisabeth is among the twenty-three girls who set sail from France to be married to men of whom they know absolutely nothing.

Treasure Hunt
John Lescroart      

Mickey Dade hates deskwork, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists-a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards. One "person of interest" in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe-young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends.

The First Rule
Robert Crais        

The organized criminal gangs of the former Soviet Union are bound by what they call the thieves' code. The first rule is this: A thief must forsake his mother, father, brothers, and sisters. He must have no family-no wife, no children. We are his family. If any of the rules are broken, it is punishable by death.

Hidden Empire 
Orson Scott Card        

In this sequel to Card�s bestselling novel Empire, Averell Torrent has become President of the United States, with enormous political and popular support and, if people only realized it, a tight grip on the reins of both political parties. He has launched America into a get-tough, this-world-is-our-empire foreign policy stance.

Summertime
J.M. Coetzee          

A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in his thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father-a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer.

Altar of Eden
James Rollins      

"Every James Rollins delivers mach-speed mayhem, throat-clutching suspense, high-style adventure, and a terrific story told terrifically.��Steve Berry, author of The Romanov Prophecy. The thriller king praised for his �edge-of-your-seat excitement� (San Francisco Chronicle), James Rollins storms the New York Times bestseller list with every novel he writes.

  Days of Gold
Jude Deveraux      

In 1766 Scotland, the laird of the clan, Angus McTern, has everything he wants in life. Although his grandfather lost the family's land and castle in a card game when Angus was just a boy, Angus takes his duties seriously and is respected by all the men and adored by the women. That is, until Edilean Talbot shows up.

 

Deeper Than the Dead
Tami Hoag      

Tami Hoag is in a class by herself, beloved by readers and critic s alike, with more than 22 million copies of her books in print. With Hoag's first novel for Dutton, she proves anew why the Chicago Tribune called her "one of the most intense suspense writers around."

Fired Up
Jayne Ann Krentz        

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsession fueled competition with alchemist and Arcane Society founder Sylvester Jones. Driven to control their psychic abilities, each man's decision has reverberated throughout the family line, rewarding some with powers beyond their wildest dreams, and cursing others to a life filled with madness and hallucinations.

 

Galileo's Dream
Kim Stanley Robinson       

The winner of every major science fiction award, Kim Stanley Robinson is a novelist who looks ahead with optimism even while acknowledging the steep challenges facing our planet and species: a clear-eyed realist who has not forgotten how to dream. His new novel offers his most audacious dream yet. At the heart of a brilliant narrative that stretches from Renaissance Italy to the moons of Jupiter is one man, the father of modern science: Galileo Galilei.

  I, Sniper
Stephen Hunter

Four famed '60s radicals are gunned down at long range by a sniper. Under enormous media scrutiny, the FBI quickly concludes that Marine war hero Carl Hitchcock, whose ninety-three kills were considered the leading body count tally among American marksman in Vietnam, was the shooter.

  The Honor of Spies
W.E.B. Griffin  

Griffin�s Honor Bound novels have been hailed as �terrific� (Newark Star-Ledger) and �immensely entertaining� (Kirkus Reviews), with �enough derring-do, romance and action to satisfy Griffin�s legions of fans and bring him new ones� (Rocky Mountain News). The new book is his best yet.

The Red Door (Inspector Ian Rutledge Series #12) by Charles Todd: Book Cover The Red Door
Charles Todd  

Twelve books into a series of mysteries set in England in the aftermath of World War I, the mother and son who team-write under the name of Charles Todd keep finding new ways to gauge the emotional effects of war on the living and the half-dead.
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Breaking the Rules by Barbara Taylor Bradford: Book Cover Breaking the Rules
Barbara Taylor Bradford          

Following a terrifying encounter in the quiet English countryside, a young woman flees to New York in search of a new life. Adopting the initial M as her name, and reinventing herself, she embarks on a journey that will lead her to the catwalks of Paris, where she becomes the muse and star model to France�s iconic designer Jean-Louis Tremont.

   

NON-FICTION

 

Steve McQueen, King of Cool
Darwin Porter      

The truth about Steve McQueen is spectacularly different from the legend projected by his screen persona and Hollywood's media machine. Lurid aspects of McQueen's early life include a gothic horror of a childhood and stints as both a porno performer and pay for play hustler to both men and women.

  Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security
Charles Farrell          

A troubled economy calls for answers. Forget complicated, abstract philosophy-people need sound financial advice that's easy to follow and can be implemented immediately. For the first time, a leading financial adviser has developed a remarkable set of guidelines to give individuals the same kind of objective insight into their personal finances that successful businesses have.

 

Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him
Alanna Nash     

Nearly thirty-three years after his death, Elvis Presley's extraordinary physical appeal, timeless music, and sexual charisma continue to captivate, titillate, and excite. Though hundreds of books have been written about the King, no book has solely explored his relationships with women and how they influenced his music and life-until now.

  The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine
Francis S. Collins             

From New York Times bestselling author and world-renowned doctor and geneticist Francis Collins, a book that will forever change how you think about your body, your health, and the future of medicine.
 

 

Fat Flush for Life: The Year-Round Super Detox Plan to Boost Your Metabolism and Keep the Weight Off
Ann Louise Gittleman      

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Fat Flush Plan, a year-round, seasonal program for long-term weight loss.

  Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
Laquat Ahamed   

In the 60s, Elizabeth Taylor's affair with the married Richard Burton knocked John Glenn's orbit of the moon off front pages nationwide. Yet, despite all the gossip, the larger-than-life personality and influence of this very human woman has never been captured.

  Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear
Max Lucado        

They're talking layoffs at work, slowdowns in the economy, flare-ups in the Middle East, turnovers at headquarters, downturns in the housing market, upswings in global warming. The plague of our day, terrorism, begins with the word terror. Fear, it seems, has taken up a hundred-year lease on the building next door and set up shop. Oversized and rude, fear herds us into a prison of unlocked doors. Wouldn't it be great to walk out?

 
Awakening Joy by James Baraz: Book Cover
Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness
James Baraz, Shoshanna Alexander      

Joy is not for just the lucky few�it�s a choice anyone can make. In this groundbreaking book, based on his popular course, James Baraz helps you discover a path to the happiness that�s right in front of you, offering a step-by-step program that will reorient your mind away from dissatisfaction and distraction and toward the contentment and delight that is abundantly available in our everyday lives.

 

The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read
Daniel R. Solin    

Everyone needs to rethink their retirement strategy in the new economy. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest 401(k) Book You�ll Ever Read�a comprehensive, no-nonsense, and timely guide for retirement. The book America needs now more than ever�a just-what-you-need-to-know guide to retirement financial planning written in a simple, straightforward, and easy-to-follow style.

  Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Greg Mortenson          

From the author of the #1 national bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian and the schools he has established.
 

  Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
Daniel H. Pink     

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people--at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

  Making the Most of Your Money Now
Jane Bryant Quinn        

Consumers Union named Making the Most of Your Money the best personal finance book on the market. Now Jane Bryant Quinn's bestseller has been completely revised and updated for 2010 and beyond. America's most trusted financial adviser, who helped millions of readers meet their goals in the 1990s, has done it again � providing a guide to financial recovery, independence, and success in the new economy.

  The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
Richard Dawkins           

In a brilliant follow-up to his blockbuster The God Delusion, Dawkins lays out the evidence for evolution.

 
Highest Duty by Chesley B. Sullenberger III: Book Cover
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters 
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, Jeffrey Zaslow      

In January 2009, the world witnessed one of the most remarkable emergency landings in history when Captain Sullenberger brought a crippled US Airways flight onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all of the passengers and crew aboard. The successful outcome was the result of effective teamwork, Sully's dedication to airline safety, his belief that a pilot's judgment must go hand-in-hand with�and can never be replaced by�technology, and forty years of careful practice and training.

 
 
    Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis
Mels van Driel, Paul Vincent      

The ancient Greeks paraded enormous sculptural replicas in annual celebration . . . Freud theorized that women envied them . . . an undeniable, global symbol of power and virility since the beginning of humankind�the penis has been much discussed, gestured toward, and depicted, yet seldom understood outside folklore and popular culture�s uneasy mix of self-deprecation and aggrandizement.