| Staff Favorites |
Some of Our Staff Favorites
Abyss
By David Hagberg
Tom Doherty Associates $24.99
It's a pleasant summer afternoon in the Gulf Stream, twenty-five miles off Hutchinson Island on Florida's east coast. NOAA scientist Dr. Eve Larsen is about to prove she has the answers to global warming, and the solution to stopping killer storms across the planet. She is a part of a multi-trillion dollar, multinational project to farm clean, endless energy from the oceans' currents—and alter the planet's weather for the better. At that moment, contract killer Brian DeCamp walks into the Hutchinson Island Nuclear Power Station, aiming to cause a meltdown so catastrophic it'll make Chernobyl seem like nothing. Security cam footage leads to an intervention by legendary former CIA director Kirk McGarvey, who manages to thwart the catastrophe...but the failed sabotage sets off a chain of events more terrifying than McGarvey could ever have imagined. With Big Oil ruthlessly hunting for profit after the BP disaster in the Gulf, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Before I Go To Sleep
By S.J. Watson
HarperCollins $25.99
S. J. Watson makes his powerful debut with this compelling, fast-paced psychological thriller, reminiscent of Shutter Island and Memento, in which an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember her past or form new memories, desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is—and who she can trust. Suspense builds as Christine wakes up every morning not knowing the identity of the man next to her in bed. As the day goes on, she begins to remember bits and pieces, but then she goes to sleep, only to awake the next morning, once again not knowing anything about her past.
You're Next
By Gregg Hurwitz
St. Martin's Press $24.99
Mike Wingate had a rough childhood — he was abandoned at a playground at four years old and raised in foster care. No one ever came to claim him, and he has only a few, fragmented memories of his parents. Now, as an adult, Mike is finally living the life he had always wanted — he’s happily married to Annabel, the woman of his dreams; they have a precocious eight-year-old daughter, Kat; and his construction company is about to finish a “green” housing development that will secure a solid future for them all. Then the unimaginable happens: Something from Mike’s own past, a past he doesn’t even remember, comes back to visit terror upon him and his family. Menacing characters show up and begin threatening Mike, and when he reports them, the police seem more interested in Mike’s murky past than in investigating or protecting his young family. Now, with Mike, his wife, and their daughter suddenly under attack from all sides, Mike must turn to Shep, a truly dangerous man — and Mike’s only true friend — from their childhood days together in foster care. Together, the two of them will do whatever it takes to protect Mike’s family against the hidden men behind the terrifying warning “You’re Next!”
Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom
By Jennifer Holland
Workman $13.95
Written by National Geographic magazine writer Jennifer Holland, Unlikely Friendships documents one heartwarming tale after another of animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the most unexpected ways. A cat and a bird. A mare and a fawn. An elephant and a sheep. A snake and a hamster. The well-documented stories of Koko the gorilla and All Ball the kitten; and the hippo Owen and the tortoise Mzee. And almost inexplicable stories of predators befriending prey—an Indian leopard slips into a village every night to sleep with a calf. A lionness mothers a baby oryx. Ms. Holland narrates the details and arc of each story, and also offers insights into why—how the young leopard, probably motherless, sought maternal comfort with the calf, and how a baby oryx inspired the same mothering instinct in the lionness. Or, in the story of Kizzy, a nervous retired Greyhound, and Murphy, a red tabby, how cats and dogs actually understand each other’s body language. With Murphy’s friendship and support, Kizzy recovered from life as a racing dog and became a confident, loyal family pet. These are the most amazing friendships between species, collected from around the world and documented in a selection of full-color candid photographs.
An illustrated pop-up book commemorating 100 years of Palm Beach history.
Written by Flagler Museum Executive Director, John Blades.
$25.00
Violets of March
By Sarah Jio
Penguin $15.00
A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author. In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after. Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life. A mesmerizing debut with an idyllic setting and intriguing dual story line, The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.
Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America
By Les Standiford with Sgt. Joe Matthews
HarperCollins $24.99
Before Adam Walsh there were no faces on milk cartons, no Amber Alerts, no National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, no federal databases of crimes against children, no pedophile registry. His 1981 abduction and murder—unsolved for over a quarter of a century—forever changed America. One sunny July morning in 1981, Reve Walsh and her six-year-old son Adam stopped by the local Sears to pick up some new lamps. Enchanted by a video game at the store's entrance, Adam begged Reve to let him try it out while she shopped. When she returned a few minutes later, Adam was gone. The shock of Adam's murder, and of the inability of the police and the FBI to find his killer, radically altered American innocence and our ideas about childhood. Gone forever were the days when parents would allow their kids out of the house with the casual instruction "Be home by dark!" Reve and John Walsh—who would go on to create America's Most Wanted—became advocates for the transformation of law enforcement's response to and handling of such cases. Prompted by the Walshes' activism, Congress passed the Missing Children Act in 1982, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was founded in 1984. While our lives have been significantly altered by Adam Walsh's case, few of us know the whole story—how, after more than twenty-seven years of relentless investigation, decorated Miami Beach homicide detective Joe Matthews finally identified Adam's killer. Bringing Adam Home is the definitive account of this horrifying crime—which, like the Lindbergh kidnapping fifty years earlier, captured public attention—and its aftermath, a true story of tragedy, love, faith, and dedication. It reveals the pain and tenacity of a family determined to find justice, the failed police work that allowed a killer to remain uncharged, and the determined efforts of one cop who accomplished what an entire legal system could not. As harrowing as In Cold Blood, yet ultimately uplifting, Bringing Adam Home is the riveting story of a triumph of justice and the enduring power of love.
The Glass Room
By Simon Mawer
Other Press $14.95
On honeymoon in Venice In 1929 Viktor and Liesel Landauer face a new world when they meet brilliant architect Rainer von Abt. Soon, on a hillside near a provincial Czech town, the Landauer House with its celebrated Glass Room will become von Abt's greatest work, a modernist masterpiece in glass and steel, with travertine floors and onyx walls, filled with light and optimism. But while Vlktor's beautiful wife is Aryan, he is Jewish, and so when Nazi troops arrive the family must flee. Yet their exile is not the end of the spectacular building, It slips from hand to hand, from Czech to Nazi to Soviet and finally to the Czechoslovak state, the crystalline perfection of the Glass Room always exerting a gravitational pull on those who know it. It becomes a laboratory, a shelter from the storm of war, and a place where the broken and the ruined find some kind of comfort until, with the collapse of Communism, the Landauers can finally return to where their story began, Simon Mawer's virtuoso The Glass Room is resounding evidence of a novelist working at the peak of his powers.
!0th Anniversary
By James Patterson
Little, Brown & Company $27.99
Detective Lindsay Boxer's long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby is nowhere to be found. Lindsay discovers that not only is there no trace of the criminals—but that the victim may be keeping secrets as well. At the same time, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano is prosecuting the biggest case of her life—a woman who has been accused of murdering her husband in front of her two young children. Yuki's career rests on a guilty verdict, so when Lindsay finds evidence that could save the defendant, she is forced to choose. Should she trust her best friend or follow her instinct? Lindsay's every move is watched by her new boss, Lieutenant Jackson Brady, and when the pressure to find the baby begins interfering with her new marriage to Joe, she wonders if she'll ever be able to start a family. With James Patterson's white-hot speed and unquenchable action, 10th Anniversary is the most deliciously chilling Women's Murder Club book ever.
Warlord
By Ted Bell
HarperCollins $27.99
Alex Hawke has all but given up on life. The British-American MI6 counterterrorism operative lost the woman he loved almost a year ago and has sought refuge at the bottom of a rum bottle ever since. But late one night at his home on Bermuda, he receives a wake-up call . . . literally. His Royal Highness Prince Charles, an old friend, desperately needs his help. The prince has discovered a not-so-subtle threat directed toward the British royal family. What’s more, the evidence reveals an ominous connection to Charles’s godfather, Lord Mountbatten — the beloved family patriarch assassinated by an ingeniously designed bomb thirty years before. A shadowy figure from the past has the British crown in his sights, and has proven once before that his warnings are not to be taken lightly. Several clues point to IRA involvement, but the authorities have little to go on and answers are scarce. This is just the call to duty Hawke needs to get back into action — if the madman doesn’t strike first.
Laura Woodward: The Artist Behind The Innovator Who Developed Palm Beach
By Deborah C. Pollack
Blue Heron Press $39.99
Laura Woodward (1834-1926), born in Mount Hope, Orange County, New York, was one of a handful of women members of the Hudson River and White Mountain Schools. In the 1870s-80s, she hiked and sketched in the wilderness of the Northeast, revering nature and realistically depicting its pristine state. Her paintings invoked great praise from the critics of the day and her bravery cleared the path for women landscape artists to follow. Woodward came to Florida in the 1880s and from ca.1888-1896 became one of the most extensively traveled artists in the state. She braved the alligator, panther and bear-infused jungles to depict Florida's natural beauty in colorful watercolors and oils. Woodward was the pioneer artist of Palm Beach, one of the first professional women artists to paint in the Everglades and Miami, and the inspiration to Henry Morrison Flagler in his development of the most magnificent resort in the world. Brought up in the Victorian tradition of modesty, she remained publicly silent about her accomplishments and it is only now that the breadth of her importance is finally known. Laura Woodward: The Artist Behind the Innovator Who Developed Palm Beach not only rediscovers Florida's most important nineteenth-century woman artist and one of its greatest publicists, it also explores the challenges of women artists who lived in Woodward's era. It thoroughly discusses the early history of Palm Beach and myths about the great Henry Morrison Flagler are refuted. As Palm Beach County celebrates its 100th anniversary, it is appropriate to acknowledge the woman who precipitated its development.
Palm Beach, Florida (Images of America Series)
By Richard A. Marconi and Debi Murray
Arcadia Publishing $21.99
Palm Beach is known internationally as a winter resort where the wealthy enjoy life in a tropical paradise. More than 100 years ago, Palm Beach was far different from its well-kept beaches, estates, and fabulous Worth Avenue shopping mecca of the 21st century. When the first permanent settlers arrived, they found the area covered by thick jungle that had to be tamed before they could carve out a new life for themselves. The settlers ended up with a paradise, and when Henry Flagler decided to build a grand hotel in Palm Beach, he planted the first seed for the creation of a modern winter retreat for the rich.
Palm Beach, Florida (Postcard Packets)
Arcadia Publishing $7.99
Palm Beach boasts a rich history. In this collection of
vintage-photograph postcards, Richard A. Marconi and Debi Murray, with the
Historical Society of Palm Beach County, explore the city's past.