A Cold-Blooded Business by Dana Stabenow, 247 pages

 Once, Kate Shugak was the star investigator of the Anchorage D.A.'s office. Now she's gone back to her Aleut roots in the far Alaska north - where her talent for detection makes her the toughest crime-tracker in that stark and mysterious land...

Work hard, play hard. That's the credo on the oilfields of Alaska's North Slope, where harsh conditions and long, isolated shifts make for some of the best-paid jobs in the state. Management typically turns a blind eye to off-hours drinking and gambling, but a spate of drug-related deaths means it's time for Royal Petroleum to get its house in order. Working on behalf of the Anchorage DA, Kate Shugak is brought in undercover to identify the dealer and shut down the flow of cocaine. Of course, the dealer might have some very different ideas.

Informed by her own years working on the North Slope, Dana Stabenow's A Cold-Blooded Business captures a slice of life in a very Alaskan milieu.

Christmas at the Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery, 247 pages

 Christmas at the Biedermeier Hotel means employment, and employment means walking-around money. For ten months out of the year, jobs come fitfully and infrequently to Biedermeier residents, but between Advent and Epiphany any girl who wants something to do between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. has her pick of Holiday window dresser, salesgirl at the card stores on 42nd Street, Broadway usherette, assistant laundress at the Lincoln Center Nutcracker, Pinkerton security at the World’s Fair exhibition halls in Queens.

Katherine considers the possibility of making amends with her siblings in Ohio after a Gaudete Sunday service at Old First Presbyterian. Lucianne goes into business for herself at last, trying to run a telephone-order male escort agency (strictly above-board and Social Register only) out of her room, while Mrs. Mossler attempts to solve the mystery of the Biedermeier’s skyrocketing phone bill and frets over Christmas tips for the hotel’s few remaining employees.

And while the three thieves who stole twenty-four gems worth three million dollars from the American Museum of Natural History on October 29th have recently been caught, not all of the jewels have been recovered—and Patricia and Carol have behaved terribly strangely for the better part of a month. Christmas is a season of wonder and mystery, after all.

Looking For Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip by Nevin Martell, 247 pages

 For ten years, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life. In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes, Nevin Martell sets out on a very personal odyssey to understand the life and career of the intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. Martell talks to a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, and Brad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, and along the way reflects upon the nature of his own fandom and on the extraordinary legacy that Watterson left behind. This is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and it's the fascinating story of an intrepid author's search for him, too.

Ghost Stories of America by Dan Asfar & Edrick Thay, 247 pages

 A fright-filled collection of out-of-this-world Americana, GHOST STORIES OF AMERICA draws on the folklore of 50 states to weave its magic. Check out the Red Onion Saloon in Alaska, where the spirits of former prospectors and courtesans continue to relive the fleeting glory of the Klondike Gold Rush. The ghost of Chicago mobster Al Capone is still said to be serving time in Alcatraz, considered one of the most haunted places in America. And Hawaiian patriot Queen Liliuokalani, melancholy in life, now is said to be a spirit overjoyed at her state's resurgent pride. All this and much more in GHOST STORIES OF AMERICA.

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat, 247 pages

A rattletrap plane landed on a frozen lake in the Keewatin Barrens, unceremoniously deposited one man and a mountain of supplies, and lurched off again into the sky. Farley Mowat, official biologist for the Canadian government, had arrived at his destination. His mission: "to determine the range/population ration of Canis lupus in order to establish contact with the study species." In other words, "The wolf, Lieutenant Mowat, is your problem!" In these pages Farley Mowat describes an Arctic summer spent watching and tracking the activities of a wolf family which he came to know better than he knew himself.
Like others before him who have made close acquaintance with the wolf, Mowat found the wolf in fact to be very different from the wolf of legend. Though he saw his wolves, at first, as objects for study, they soon became more than that. The regal, silver-white male, austerely identified as Wolf "A" in the official notebook, soon turns into"George"; his graceful, ebullient mate turns into "Angeline"; and the single male, baby-sitter for the four mischievous cubs, turns into "Uncle Albert."
Mowat unraveled the complex tactics of wolves on a hunt; investigated the male rituals of marking off the "family boundaries." He tested, by trying it himself, the nutritional value of the wolf's summer diet-mice. He observed the hospitality meted out to visiting wolves and learned how cubs are reared and educated. He found that the wolf is an adept fisherman, a loyal spouse, an impressive lover. From Ootek, an Eskimo steeped in the ways of the wolves, he learned something of their language, and of the meaning behind the Eskimo saying, "The wolf keeps the caribou strong."

Murder Has Nine Lives by Laura Levine, 247 pages

Jaine Austen is such a fun character. I would like to see her have a more long term relationship, but that's because the author has created a character I've really come to care for. One of the best parts of these books is the emails from Jaine's parents. This is one series I'll definitely keep reading.

Dead Boy by Laurel Gale, 247 pages

What's a young boy to do, when he's pretty much confined to his house with no friends, because he's dead? This was a really good read, I'm hoping the author continues on with the story in another book.

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, 247 pages

A really interesting read that takes place during WWII in Russia, looking at the people who lived in the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad. I loved how the book went back and forth, through the eyes of an Alzheimer's sufferer, who may not have been able to remember day to day details in her current life but sank deep into the past vividly. I finished the book wanting to read more about this time period in Leningrad.