Saturday, December 28, 2019

A Peaceful Retirement by Miss Read, 152 pages

Fairacre's retired schoolmistress was looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But from the start, Miss Read receives plenty of advice on how to spend it. She has the opportunity to become a secretary, treasurer, librarian, babysitter and even a regular for local radio! Add a trip to Florence and offers of marriage, and it seems that her peaceful retirement has vanished.


Wednesday, December 25, 2019

A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memoires and Traditions edited by Eliot Wigginton, 170 pages

This captivating book of recollections celebrates the holiday traditions of Appalachian families as passed from one generation to the next. Based on Foxfire students' interviews with neighbors and family members, the memories shared here are from a simpler time, when gifts were fewer but perhaps more precious, and holiday tables were laden with traditional favorites. More than just reminiscences, however, A Foxfire Christmas includes instructions for recreating many of the ornaments, toys, and recipes that make up so many family traditions, from Chicken and Dumplings to Black Walnut Cake, and from candy pulls to corn husk dolls and hand-whittled toy cars. The students who created this book attended Rabun County High School, where the innovative Foxfire program originated, in the mountains of northeast Georgia. They conducted the interviews, shot and developed most of the photographs and edited the final manuscript.


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

This is Really War: The Incredible True Story of a Navy Nurse POW in the Occupied Philliphines by Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, 318 pages

In January 1940, navy nurse Dorothy Still eagerly anticipated her new assignment at a military hospital in the Philippines. Her first year abroad was an adventure. She dated sailors and attended dances. But as 1941 progressed, signs of imminent war grew more urgent. Military wives and children were shipped home to the States, and the sailors increased their daily drills. Days after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese military assaulted the Philippines.
When Manila fell to Japan in early January 1942, Dorothy was held captive in a hospital and then transferred to a civilian prison camp.  Under the direction of Chief Nurse Laura Cobb, Dorothy and ten other navy nurses maintained rank and reported each day to a makeshift hospital. Cramped conditions, disease, and poor nutrition meant the navy nurses and their army counterparts were overwhelmed caring for the camp.
In May 1943, a civilian physician asked Cobb if the navy nurses would consider transferring to a new prison camp in the countryside. The twelve nurses feared the unknown, but they could not deny they were needed. On the morning of their departure, inmates used the public address system to play the navy fight song, "Anchors Aweigh." The nurses were overwhelmed by the response. They had indeed been the anchors of the camp, who kept ill inmates form drifting.
In the new prison camp, the "twelve anchors" turned a stripped infirmary into a functioning hospital. Despite their own ailments, they provided nonstop care for starving, diseased, and abused inmates. Over the years, their friendships deepened, and several of the women, including Dorothy, even found love.
This Is Really War is an inspiring story about a young nurse who fought for life during a dark time.



Sunday, December 22, 2019

Weird Wild West: True Tales of the Strange and Gothic by Keven McQueen, 169 pages

The Wild West is infamous for its outrageous stories, cowboys, and gun battles. But the region is also known for its ghost stories, unexplained deaths, bizarre murders, and peculiar burials.


In Weird Wild West, author Keven McQueen brings together a fabulous collection of tales of the darker and stranger side of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. Exploring mysterious deaths, true crime stories, and paranormal activity, this eerie collection uncovers long buried and disturbing stories of the region. Included are the unforgettable tales of the body-snatching of Billy the Kid, the revenge curse of a former deputy district attorney in Colorado, and the weird tale of Mr. Moon, who couldn't keep his dearly departed wife in the ground despite his best efforts.


An intriguing, frightful, and entertaining exploration of the strange and gothic side of the Western states, Weird Wild West promises to send chills down your spine.


Friday, December 20, 2019

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, 192 pages

In the remote Welsh mountain village of Gwytherin lies the grave of Saint Winifred. Now, in 1137, the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey has decided to acquire the sacred remains for his Benedictine order. Native Welshman Brother Cadfael is sent on the expedition to translate and finds the rustic villagers of Gwytherin passionately divided by the Benedictine's offer for the saint's relics. Canny, wise, and all too wordly, he isn't surprised when this taste for bones leads to bloody murder.

The leading opponent to moving the grave has been shot dead with a mysterious arrow, and some say Winifred herself held the bow. Brother Cadfael knows a carnal hand did the killing. But he doesn't know that his plan to unearth a murderer may dig up a case of love and justice...where the wages of sin may be scandal or Cadfael's own ruin.


Farewell to Fairacre by Miss Read, 213 pages

The last novel in the beloved Fairacre series finds Miss Read with important decisions to make. Gradually worsening health forces her to consider an early retirement. John Jenkins, a handsome newcomer, competes for her affections with the newly widowed Henry Mawne. However, Miss Read has more on her mind than men. Orphans living in her former house have bolstered the village school's roll, but these new students seem to be having problems with their adoptive family. In the midst of all this turmoil, readers can rest assured that FAREWELL TO FAIRACRE boasts all the elements they have come to love: eccentric villagers, gentle humor, and a verdant rural landscape teeming with lambs, larks, and blackthorn bushes.


Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Death of a Gigolo by Laura Levine, 235 pages

After a dry spell, freelance writer Jaine Austen’s life is suddenly full of romance. For one thing, she’s reconnected with her ex—though her cat, Prozac, isn’t happy about it. And Jaine’s also got a new ghostwriting gig, working on a steamy novel called Fifty Shades of Turquoise . . .
 
Daisy Kincaid is in her sixties and heiress to a fortune. Now she wants to make a name for herself as a romance author . . . with a little help from Jaine, that is. As Jaine labors away on love scenes, she gets to know the wealthy woman’s gentleman friend, her household staff, and her social circle—every one of whom is horrified when Daisy falls under the spell of a much younger stud named Tommy, a rude, crude lothario who’s made himself a fixture in Daisy’s Bel Air mansion.
 
After Tommy and Daisy shock everyone by announcing their engagement, it doesn’t take long for someone to stab him in the neck—with the solid gold Swiss Army knife that Daisy gave him as a gift. The challenging part is trying to narrow down the list of suspects. Jaine’s going to have to put a bookmark in that love story and focus all her creative talent into untangling a tale of money and murder . . .


Christmas Sweets by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine & Leslie Meier, 489 pages

THE TWELVE DESSERTS OF CHRISTMAS by JOANNE FLUKE
It's the perfect mix of naughty and nice when two lovestruck boarding school teachers watch six kids over Christmas break. But when someone wants the cozy couple's romance to burn out faster than a scorched fruitcake, it's Hannah Swensen to the rescue, armed with her sleuthing
skills--and twelve deliciously festive recipes . . .

NIGHTMARE ON ELF STREET by LAURA LEVINE
Aside from the mortifying costume, how bad can a gig as a mall Santa's elf be? Jaine Austen finds out when she's teamed up with the Santa from Hell. But things go from bad to worse when he's found murdered on the job--and Jaine is a suspect. Now all she wants for Christmas is to find the real killer . . .

THE CHRISTMAS THIEF by LESLIE MEIER
Elizabeth Stone is ready for a white Christmas in Tinker's Cove, Maine--until a fancy Yule ball at the Florida hotel where she works dumps snow on her plans. The sponsor's jewels have gone missing and the police are asking about her ties to a cute mystery guest. Good thing Elizabeth's mother, Lucy Stone, flew down to surprise her. ʼTis the season for a little investigating . . .


Beating About the Bush by M.C. Beaton, 236 pages

When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.

The factory mystery soon turns to murder and a bad-tempered donkey turns Agatha into a national celebrity, before bringing her ridicule and shame. To add to her woes, Agatha finds herself grappling with growing feelings for her friend and occasional lover, Sir Charles Fraith. Then, as a possible solution to the factory murder unfolds, her own life is thrown into deadly peril. Will Agatha get her man at last? Or will the killer get her first?


Sunday, December 15, 2019

The Magical Christmas Cat by Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, & Linda Winstead Jones, 372 pages

New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh and top-selling authors Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones have a special gift for readers this year: heartwarming holiday stories featuring passionate romance, paranormal adventure, and a distinctly alluring feline touch. With four new stories―including one featuring Lora Leigh's genetically altered Feline Breeds―this is a collection packed with more surprises than Christmas morning, and more chills than the snowiest winter night...


Friday, December 13, 2019

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, & Steven Scott, 204 pages


Long before George Takei braved new frontiers in Star Trek, he woke up as a four-year-old boy to find his own birth country at war with his father's -- and their entire family forced from their home into an uncertain future.

In 1942, at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, every person of Japanese descent on the west coast was rounded up and shipped to one of ten "relocation centers," hundreds or thousands of miles from home, where they would be held for years under armed guard.

They Called Us Enemy is Takei's firsthand account of those years behind barbed wire, the joys and terrors of growing up under legalized racism, his mother's hard choices, his father's faith in democracy, and the way those experiences planted the seeds for his astonishing future.