The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins

The second book in the Blue Heron series follows another Holland sister.  Honor is the oldest sibling in the family and after a trip to the gynocologist she is told she should really think about having babies because her eggs are getting up there in years.  After asking her long time crush and best friend to marriage and in return being rejected shes not sure what to do next.  Enter Tom Barlow-who is trying to stay to in the country because of his unofficial stepson.  With his work visa about to expire he has to get a green card somehow. The two agree to marry each other but will they see the feelings they have for each other?

The family relationships is one thing that makes this such a great book. Tom is trying so hard to keep his relationship with his almost stepson alive.  He's willing to do anything for the boy who has turned into a moody teen and wants nothing to do with Tom. 

Higgins books are always full of funny moments.  Throughout the book Honor's eggs have a running commentary with her and like in the first book in the series, The Best Man, the Holland grandparents are as dysfunctional as ever.

Hilarious and heart breaking at times this book was a fantastic read.  I'm excited that there is going to be a book three in this series!

This book will be out on October 29.  Place a hold on it here.

Dust by Joan Frances Turner

Reading Level: Adult

Submitted by Max

Dust is an excitingly fresh look at the frequently explored genre of the post-apocalyptic zombie world.  As an added bonus, the story takes place right here in Northwest Indiana.  But that is only one of the pleasant surprises Turner has in store.  Unlike most zombie novels, movies and TV shows, this tale is told from the perspective of a zombie!  Our undead one-armed heroine Jessie has settled somewhat comfortably into the zombified world.  In this world the zombies can communicate quite well with each other, and besides craving raw meat and shambling along, are very much still conscious beings.  Following the infection of the area, most of the humans have fled to fortified towns, and science teams work along the lakeshore in an attempt to find a cure.  But just as things began to settle down, a new disease is introduced by the scientists that brings unforeseen consequences.  It was meant to exterminate the zombies by destroying their digestive tracks, and it does that.  But it also gives them regenerative abilities that allow them to plague the humans more than ever before.  But that's not the beginning of it, as the disease will kill humans after making them as ravenous as the zombies.  As the carefully balanced world begins to fall apart, Jessie and her undead friends try to reach the lakeshore.  An aging undead had told her that the sands had healing powers, and could preserve them.  As a last resort they trudge through the newly devastated world, while deception, betrayal, and the disease itself tear them apart.  Giving the zombies feelings and a voice between each other makes them seem even more human than the survivors, and it brings a new side to the genre.  As touching as it is entertaining and engaging, Dust is a well-written mix of dark humor, unexplored concepts, interesting story and emotional moments that will make you want to get to the last page much faster than a zombie can walk.  It is a one of a kind book, and i recommend it to anyone hungry for a good zombie book.

Written In Bone by Simon Beckett

Reading Level: Adult

Submitted by Gerti

This is the second novel I have read by mystery writer Simon Beckett, and it's a bit of a disappointment.  It's only been a few weeks since I read his first one, "The Chemistry of Death," and his third, "Whispers of Death," which is perhaps even better than the first.  "Written in Bone," however, does not come up to the level of the other two, despite the drama that lasts up until the final paragraphs.

In the novel in the series, the protagonist, Dr. David Hunter, came to a small British village called Manham in response to an advertisement for a general practitioner.  The back story is that Hunter's wife and daughter were killed in an auto accident, and he left the city of London because he found it hard to deal with the death of his family constantly working on homicide cases for the police.

In the course of solving a series of murders in Manham, Hunter started dating a single school teacher Jenny.  After she is kidnapped and then saved by him (of course!), the couple return to London, and Hunter goes back to his career as a forensic anthropologist because he realizes the dead need him to tell their tales.  At the start of this second book in the series, Hunter has just finished one investigation, but is called in to help with what seems like a simple case in the Outer Hebrides on an island called Runa.  The rest of Britain's forensic teams are busy working on a train crash with multiple victims, so Hunter feels obligated to go check out what looks at first to be a hobo burned by a fire set in an abandoned hut, which is discovered by Brody, a police detective who retired there.  Hunter and Brody get on well, but are hindered in their investigation by a drunken Sergeant named Fraser, who feels Brody should have stayed retired.

The police team analyzes the strange burnt body, which looks to a young policeman to have spontaneously combusted, because the feet, ankles and a hand have remained unburnt.  But Hunter soon realizes it's homicide, which means a crime team should be called in.  The weather refuses to cooperate, however, and first communications with the outside world are lost, then the storm threatens to destroy the decrepit shelter in which the body is housed, forcing Hunter and his group to move the remains to the island's clinic.  When the clinic catches on fire while Hunter is there trying to determine the victim's identity, he realizes that the killer is out to stop the team from solving this crime at all costs.

Beckett generally uses misdirection to throw the reader of the killer's trail, and in this book introduces several plausible red herrings before finally putting it all together at the end of this book.  In the dramatic final pages, Hunter has been tracked back to his London apartment by the real murderer, who has somehow escaped a deadly fire on Runa.  All this confustion and excitement is almost too much, and left my head spinning, trying to fit all the facts together.  That confusion makes "Written in Bone" Beckett's weakest book, but it is worth reading for fans.

Fire Ice by Clive Cussler

Reading Level: Adult

Submitted by Max

Fire Ice is another triumph by one of my preferred authors, the one and only Clive Cussler.  Once again he's brought as a nautical adventure full of laughs, suspense and action.  Though I was somewhat hesitant to call this book a masterpiece (mostly because he has introduced a new main character) it has proved to be just as good as the originals.  The new hero, Kurt Austin, is an ex-CIA agent who is now employed by the National Underwater and Marine Agency (Numa).  Along with his crew of friends and sea experts, he must stop the ravings of a mad Russian named Razov.  Claiming Romanov ancestry, this undersea mining tycoon leads a cult of neo-Imperialist Cossacks who plan to wage war on the new Russian government and its ally, the United States.  Razov plans to disturb large deposits of methane hydrate under the seafloor, causing tsunamis and accelerated global warming with devastating effects.  Austin must use his skills and quick thinking to track down Razov and stop him from fulfilling his nefarious scheme.

Overall, this book is not exactly a literary work of art, but with clever writing and a light, readable feel, it maintains the reputation of Cussler's novels: exciting, funny, and engaging, If you like the ocean, adventure stories, fast-paced action, or even a bit of mystery, then this and the rest of the Cussler series are for you.  Come check them out!

Threat Vector by Tom Clancy

Reading Level: Adult

Submitted by Rose

Jack Ryan Jr. son of President Jack Ryan and member of the secret organization The Campus, again comes to the rescue of his country in a cyber attack from an unknown source.  He and his fellow members of The Campus determine the enemy is China who wishes to be the number one power in the world.  International intrigue and fast military action keep the reader on edge and eager to read more.

The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction

Submitted by Gerti

Like Sam Kean's earlier work, "The Disappearing Spoon," "The Violinist's Thumb" was brilliant and exhausting all at once!  Much harder to read than his earlier work on the stories behind all the elements, this book deals with DNA and its history, touching on various scientist and their struggles to define what makes us human, and what makes us able to produce other humans with similar traits!  If that sounds sexy, it's not, although Kean uses as much humor as he can muster to turn this muddy sledding through hard science into a joy ride.  I had heard about Gregor Mendel like every American high school graduate, but the truth being figuring out what turned my brown eyes blue is a lot more complicated than that fairy tale!

As in his previous work, Kean's strength lies in his ability to humanize scientists like Mendel, Watson and Crick, and to make them not only geniuses of the first order, but also incredibly fragile and fallible human beings, who have to deal with office politics, economics and jealous co-workers the same as the res of us.  Personally, I was thrilled to know that women scientists played a large role in the discovery and understanding of genetics, and have subsequently taken out other books (which I haven't read yet!) to get to know those people better.

This is a book that will give you a thrill a chapter, but you as the reader will have to work hard for it.  There were many times when I finished a chapter, and wanted to rush out and research the topic Kean had discussed.  I even ended up telling some of the stories to my kids in the car on the way to school--which is pretty crazy, since it was stories about Neanderthal man!  More than a book by Crichton or Cook, I felt this author really understood the science he was writing about, but since he didn't dummy things down, there were times when I struggled to keep up both with concepts and specific facts.  I feel much richer for having read this book, which like his previous work is a fascinating but difficult journey through the history of scientific discoveries.  But unlike the last book, with this account I'm willing to admit to Kean (or anyone else!) that he is smarter than am I, because there are still some concepts here that I do not grasp.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

Reading Level: Young Adult

Submitted by Gertie

This is the first book I've ever read by the acclaimed author Candace Bushnell that I felt would be appropriate for my teenaged daughter to read.  I've read a half dozen books by Bushnell already, and love her easy, breezy (and sometimes sleazy) writing style!  This book, on the other hand, is a revelation with its simpler, more innocent voice, which makes the read a scintillating mix of sex and sentimentalism.  I haven't seen the TV series based on this book yet, but I look forward now to doing so!

The main characters include the famed Carrie Bradshaw, who is also the main character in the acclaimed TV series "Sex and the City."  Here she is a young high school student, caught between her romance-minded girlfriends, Maggie and Lali, who are somewhat more sexually advanced and aggressive than she is, and her desire for more adventure than her hometown has to offer!  A new boy in school, Sebastian Kydd, brings the choice to a head, as Carrie and seemingly every other female in her class have a crush on him, and for a while, Carrie holds his attention.  But some of the other girls are willing to do more than she is to snag this prize, and Carrie wrestles with betrayals and backstabbing as her best friend and the most popular girl in the class vie to win Sebastion's roaming heart.

Carrie has other options besides being Sebastion's girlfriend, though, including a boring suitor at Brown University with literary connections, and her burgeoning interest in becoming a writer.  She eventually leaves all the high school drama behind after winning a prestigious writing opportunity in New York City, but not before burning a few bridges and setting a few rivals on fire with her scathing attacks in the student newspaper.  In the end, only the reader can decide whether Carrie has made the right decision, but of course, most of us are already aware of her success in the Big Apple, making these petty high school jealousies seem slightly irrelevant.

"The Carrie Diaries" is a delightful read which took me back to my own high school days in a way few other "teen" books have.  Perhaps it's because Bushnell is closer to my generation than some of the other authors penning YA fiction; perhaps because high school is where I made the decision to become a writer, just as Carrie does.  Whatever the reason, the book was a great pleasure for me to read, and makes another great addition to my Bushnell library!