New Books

AUSTRALIANA

Howard, Ann	A carefree war	AUS 940.53161099 HOWA
McGregor, Alasdair	A forger’s progress	AUS 720. 92 MCGR

BIOGRAPHY

Aden, Abdi	Shining : the story of a lucky man
Clancy, G. B.	Hitler’s lost spy (Annette Wagner)
Duriez, Colin	Oxford inklings (Inkling group of writers)
Gislason, Kari	The promise of Iceland
Harden, Blaine	The great leader and the fighter pilot (Kim Jong-il)
Rivers, Melissa	The book of Joan (Joan Rivers)

CLASSICS

None this month

COOKING

None this month

CRAFT

None this month

GARDENING

Wong, James

Grow for flavour

GENERAL NOVELS

Bannan, Sarah – Weightless

In the small town of Adamsville another school year is beginning and everyone knows what to expect. The same girls will be elected cheerleaders, the same teachers will inspire or irritate, and all hopes will be focused on the football team winning the state championship. That is until a new girl joins the junior class. Pretty, bright, and just a little mysterious, Carolyn Lessing disrupts the established order.

Bannan’s novel takes a skilfully nuanced approach to the high school mean girls drama plot. No easy emotional pull of championing vindication for a victim here; expect instead to experience the unease of tangled intentions and perceptions that leave no clear answers while offering deep insights.

Library Journal, volume 140, issue 8: May 1, 2015.

Kanon, Joseph – Leaving Berlin

Set in 1949, a few years after Kanon’s The Good German (2001), this novel explores the grave moral complexities of life in Soviet-controlled East Berlin through the tense encounters of Alex Meier, a young Jewish novelist of some repute working for the CIA. A native of Berlin, Alex fled the Nazis for America before World War II. When his leftist politics got him in trouble in the U.S., costing him his marriage, he struck a deal to go back to Germany as an undercover spy with the promise that he could return to America with his record cleared.

His cover story is that he missed his homeland, like other returning intellectuals, including Bertolt Brecht (a minor character in the book). In fact, he has greatly missed Irene, the woman he left behind, whose romantic involvement with a Russian makes her one of his targets. Like everything else in the wreckage of the blockaded city, where going for a walk through the park attracts suspicion, his reunion with her is fraught with danger, especially after her ailing brother shows up after escaping a Russian labour camp.

The novel has its share of abductions and killings, one of which leaves Alex in the classic role of odd man out. Kanon relies almost exclusively on dialogue to tell his story, which sometimes leaves the reader feeling as hemmed in as the Berliners, but the atmosphere is so rich, the characters so well-drawn and the subject so fascinating that that is a minor complaint. Another compelling, intellectually charged period piece by Kanon, who works in the shadows of fear as well as anyone now writing.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2015.

Silva, Daniel – The English spy

Silva’s hero, Gabriel Allon, works in the best (if somewhat preposterous) tradition of the gentleman spy who coolly juggles avocations and assassinations. Allon is an art restorer par excellence and a master spy who works for Israel’s secret intelligence service. This time out, the art restoration (which generally is the most fascinating and original part of Silva’s novels) is glossed over in favour of the search for the killer of a British royal. No sooner have Gabriel and his wife, Chiara (pregnant with twins), discovered a long-lost Caravaggio in sore need of repair, but he’s called away to try to determine who masterminded the murder of the former wife of the future king of England aboard her pleasure yacht in the Caribbean.

The victim is obviously derived from Princess Diana, but the way that Silva shows us the steps involved in the princess’ assassination is truly thrilling. Despite this coming a little early on in the novel, Silva delivers another involving spy novel as cat-and-mouse game.

Booklist, volume 111, number 21, July 1, 2015.

Attenberg, Jami	Saint Mazie
Bannan, Sarah	Weightless
Blehm, Eric	Legend
Boyle, T. Coraghessan	The harder they come
Carroll, Steven	Forever young
De Bernieres, Louis	The dust that falls from dreams
De Mille, Nelson	A quiet end
Doerr, Anthony	About Grace
Evans, Harriet	A place for us
Fielding, Joy	Someone is watching
Fowler, Karen Joy	Sister Noon
Ghosh, Amitav	Flood of fire
Gruen, Sara	At the water’s edge
Janson, Julie	The crocodile hotel
Joel, Maggie	The second-last woman in England
Kanon, Joseph	Leaving Berlin
Keyes, Marian	The woman who stole my life
Kiefer, Christian	The animals
Kinsella, Sophie	Finding Audrey
Lee, Harper	Go set a watchman
Liontas, Annie	Let me explain you
Martini, Steve	The Enemy Inside
Michie, David	The Dalai Lama’s cat and the power of meow
Nable, Matt	Guilt
North, Freya	The turning point
Palmer, Matthew	Secrets of state
Pearse, Lesley	Without a trace
Pym, Barbara	An academic question
Shona Patel	Flame Tree Road
Silva, Daniel	The English spy
Various	Something special, something rare

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HISTORICAL NOVELS

Cameron, Christian – The ill-made knight

William Gold comes into the world as his family slides down the social ladder. His head filled with tales of chivalry, instead he is branded a thief, and must make do with being squire to his childhood friend, Sir Robert, a knight determined to make a name for himself as a man at arms in France. While William himself slowly acquires the skills of knightly combat, he remains an outsider – until the Battle of Poitiers, when Sir Robert is cut down by the greatest knight of the age, Sir Geoffry de Charny, and William, his lowly squire, revenges him.

But with his own knight dead, no honour accrues to William for this feat of arms, and he is forced to become a mercenary. Scavenging a mottled set of armour from the knightly corpses, he joins one of the mercenary companies now set to pillage a defenceless France, and so begins a bloody career that sees William joining forces with the infamous Sir John Hawkwood and immersing himself in a treacherous clandestine war among the Italian city states.

But paradoxically it is there, among the spies, assassins and hired killers serving their ruthless masters, that William finally discovers the true meaning of chivalry – and his destiny as a knight.

Goodreads, accessed July 24, 2015 from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13550502-the-ill-made-knight#other_reviews

Nelson, James L. – The French prize

Maritime historical fiction author Nelson’s latest work begins a new phase in his emerging story lines. Protagonist Jack Biddlecomb, son of the famous war hero Isaac Biddlecomb, takes command of the Abigail , a merchant ship moving freight to Barbados. He’s young, impetuous, and has a penchant for duelling, making his first voyage as Captain an uncertain endeavour.

With the fear of the French cruising the Caribbean for trophies, Jack’s ship is fitted with cannons and unaware of other forces behind the scenes, Jack embarks on a dangerous journey that includes sparring with the French, battling the treacherous ocean, and making some unlikely allies.

This novel immerses the reader into American maritime history with a strong protagonist and a well-told seafaring adventure story of intrigue. The narrative moves quickly compared to Patrick O’Brian’s dense description, and it sheds light on the U.S. presence on the high seas and the delicate balance of powers in Europe. For sea dogs and landlubbers alike.

Library Journal, volume 140, issue 11, June 15, 2015.

Cameron, Christian	The ill-made knight
Cameron, Christian	Tyrant : king of Bosporus
Nelson, James L.	The French prize
Plampin, Matthew	The street philosopher
Wilcock, Penelope	The wounds of God
Wilson, Catherine A.	The order of the lily
Worth, Sandra	The rose of York : crown of destiny

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MYSTERY

Jance, J. A. – The remains of innocence

A seeming stroke of good fortune for Liza Machett—finding $147,000 in $100 bills squirreled away by her late mother—proves quite the contrary in bestseller Jance’s absorbing novel featuring tough but tender-hearted Sheriff Joanna Brady. As Liza, a Massachusetts assistant restaurant manager, tries to stay a step ahead of the arson and murder that start to erupt around her in the wake of her windfall, not to mention hometown cops who consider her a person of interest, there’s also a mini crime wave sprouting on Sheriff Brady’s turf in Cochise County, Arizona.

Right on the heels of the suspicious death of a developmentally disabled senior, found with the remains of mutilated animals, a member of Brady’s own team—with a link to Liza—is tortured and murdered. As the dual story lines crisscross and the body count mounts, Jance hits her stride with a suspenseful plot that will keep readers flipping pages until the surprising, if overly convoluted, finale.

Publishers Weekly, volume 261, issue 28: July 14, 2014.

Kuhns, Eleanor – Death in Salem

Set in the late 18th century, weaver and private detective, Will Rees, travels from his home in Maine to Salem, Massachusetts to buy cloth for his wife, Lydia, but he’s soon detained by an old friend, Stephen “Twig” Eaton, who saved his life during the War for Independence. Twig’s beloved servant, Xenobia, has been arrested for the stabbing murder of Jacob Boothe, a prosperous Salem merchant, and he wants Rees to exonerate her. Not everyone welcomes Rees’s probing as he looks for motives for the crime and when the killer doesn’t stop with just one victim, the pressure on Rees to close the case increases. Lydia joins him in Salem and assists with his inquiries, even as she fears that he’s risking his life unnecessarily. Evocative descriptions of Salem, especially of the whaling industry, make up for a whodunit plot less crafty than the author’s usual.

Publishers Weekly, volume 262, issue 16: April 20, 2015.

Manzini, Antonio – Black run

With his Clark’s desert boots and his Roman ways, Deputy Prefect of Police, Rocco Schiavone, is a fish out of water in the Alpine town of Aosta, where he has been transferred for disciplinary reasons. Contemptuous of his new home and its reserved citizens, the brusque detective comes alive when a mangled corpse is found on one of the pistes above the ski resort of Champuloc. Working to identify the body and find the killer, Rocco deals with incompetent underlings and petty superiors, grills meek postmasters and arrogant ski instructors, and beds the local women who find him alluring in spite of his crankiness.

The mystery here is almost beside the point; what keeps the reader glued to the story is Rocco. He’s fascinating in his contradictions—sarcastic yet haunted, undaunted in his pursuit of justice yet also slightly underhanded in his methods. Fans of Andrea Camilleri’s Sicily-set “Inspector Montalbano” series will enjoy this debut mystery for its sly humour, vividly drawn characters and amusing cultural clashes between rugged mountaineers and the more urbane southerner.

Library Journal, volume 140, issue 6: April 1, 2015

Runcie, James – Sidney Chambers and the forgiveness of sins

Forgiveness—of betrayal, deceit, abuse, vengeance, neglect—is at the heart of this mystery, featuring full-time Anglican priest and part-time detective Sidney Chambers. Starting with a distraught man who seeks sanctuary, believing he’s murdered his wife, and ending with an art theft after the disastrous Florence flood of 1966, Chambers is continually called on to solve crimes, in concert with his good friend Inspector Geordie Keating.

These include a man killed when a piano falls on his head, threats to Sydney’s best friend, Amanda Kendall, as she prepares for her wedding, and the explosion in the science building of a boys’ school. Professional and personal responsibilities also impact Chambers, as he is promoted to archdeacon of Ely and his daughter, Anna, grows from an infant to a toddler, making his presence at home with his family more of an issue for his wife, Hildegard, and leading Chambers himself to seek forgiveness. Chambers is a winning protagonist, fervid in his faith yet prone to human frailty, and his exploits provide multiple pleasures for readers of cozies and beyond. The full Grantchester mystery series, projected to include six novels, will have a new entry in each of the next two years, and readers, as well as fans of the PBS show based on this series, should treasure them.

Booklist, volume 111, number 13: January 1, 2015

Arango, Sascha	The truth and other lies
Billingham, Mark	Time of death
Black, Cara	Murder in Pigalle
Bouman, Tom	Dry bones in the valley
Brown, Rita Mae	Let sleeping dogs lie
Castillo, Linda	After the storm
Clark, Mary Higgins	Death wears a beauty mask
Collins, Kate	A root awakening
Connolly, Sheila	An early wake
Dunn, Carola	Superfluous women
Ellis, Kate	The death season
Ellory, R. J.	Mockingbird songs
Fossum, Karin	The drowned boy
Graham, Heather	The dead play on
Hale, Rebecca M.	How to catch a cat
Hendricks, Gay	The fourth rule of ten
Hodgson, Antonia	The last confession of Thomas Hawkins
Jance, Judith A.	Remains of innocence
Kasasian, M. R. C.	Death descends on Saturn Villa
Keating, Kevin P.	The captive condition
Kirman, Robin	Bradstreet gate
Kuhns, Eleanor	Death in Salem
Lackberg, Camilla	Buried angels
Lescroart, John T	The fall
Lorna Barrett	Book clubbed
Manzini, Antonio	Black Run
Merrick, Leonard	Mr Bazalgette’s agent
Preston, Douglas J.	Blue labyrinth
Runcie, James	Sidney Chambers and the forgiveness of sins
Slaughter, Karin	Pretty girls
Templeton, Aline	Bad blood
Templeton, Aline	Evil for evil
Templeton, Aline	Cradle to grave
Walker, Martin	The dying season
Warner, Dave	Before it breaks
Woodhouse, Jake	Into the night
Various	Capital crimes

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NON FICTION

Aczel, Amir D. – Finding zero

Our modern lives depend on mathematics, which in turn depends on the numerals 0 through 9. Yet the historical origins of these so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals, as well as the deeper concept of numbers themselves, are a mystery. “How did the idea of a number originate,” asks mathematician and writer Aczel, “and how did it develop and mature through history?”

In his quest to find out whence the numbers came, Aczel crosses the globe, visiting India, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere. In Cambodia he finds an ancient stone tablet that could be the earliest depiction of 0 yet found.

The full story of the numbers remains to be uncovered, but in weaving together mathematics and history with his personal explorations, Aczel enables readers to experience the joy of the chase.

Scientific American, accessed July 24, 2015 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/book-review-finding-zero/

Aczel, Amir D.	Finding zero	513.5 ACZE
Adams, Mark	Meet me in Atlantis	398.234 ADAM
Arroll, Megan A.	Invisible illness	616 ARRO
Gold, Claudia	Women who ruled	352.23 GOLD
Larson, Erik	Dead wake	940.4514 LARS
Norris, Mary	Between you & me	428.2 NORR
Popper, Pamela A.	Food over medicine	616.39 POPP
Watkins, Susan	Jane Austen’s town and country style	823.7 WATK

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POETRY

None this month

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ROMANCE

Evans, Molly	Her family for keeps
Green, Abby	The bride Fonseca needs
Kendrick, Sharon	The ruthless Greek’s return
Lennox, Marion	The Earl’s convenient wife
Marinelli, Carol	Sicilian’s shock proposal
Roberts, Nora	The plan
Winters, Rebecca	The millionaire’s true worth