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John Darnton
The Experiment
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
The reader is quickly drawn into this medical thriller by Darnton, the author of bestseller Neanderthal . When Jude Harley, thirty year old tabloid journalist, runs into a distraught young man called Skyler, both are horrified. They could be identical twins, except that Skyler seems at least five years younger. Events become even more puzzling and frightening when Jude's girlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth "Tizzie" Tierney, a medical researcher in biology and identical twins, turns out to be a look alike for Skyler's dead love, Julia. It turns out that Skyler has escaped from an island off the Georgia coast where highly unusual experiments are secretly being performed. Jude, Skyler, and Tizzie set out to discover what is going on. Soon various nefarious types are trying to kill them. The plot thickens quickly. Darnton has done his research into the intricate details of DNA and fertilized egg-splitting. It's a science-gone-mad tale for the intelligent reader. 2/2/01

John Darnton
Neanderthal
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
Archeologists and paleontologists and just about everyone else have wondered for hundreds of years why the Neanderthal man, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, died out and we, HomoSapiens, survived. Neanderthal man was as smart as we are. He was much bigger and stronger. He probably was far more numerous for a time. He survived the misery of the Ice Age in Europe and Asia for some two hundred thousand years. What happened? What decisive trait did he lack? Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Darnton is a spectacular storyteller and takes the reader on a fantastic journey to northern Asia in search of answers. Susan Arnot and Matt Mattison, former lovers and rival paleontologists, are sent by a very secretive government agency, with an ulterior movtive, to look for an eminent Harvard scholar. Kellicut has not been heard of for months from his research station in the high Pamirs in Asia. What they find amazes everyone. This is one fun read with lots of scientific research, suspense and adventure tossed in. 1/04/01

Lindsey Davis
Time to Depart. A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery Novel
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
The Informer (a present day Private Investigator) Falco is an endearing rogue. Set in Vespasian's Rome, AD 72, notorious mobster, Balbinus Pius, has finally been put on a boat and exiled from Rome or has he? Crime and murder continue to sweep the city. Falco is hired by the Emperor's son to work along with his friend Petronius Longus to go undercover into the notorious brothel, Plato's Academy. There is murder, mayhem, crooked vigiles (Rome's policemen), passion and lots of culture and history. A marvelous piece of historical fiction that is hilariously funny. 6/5/01

Jeffrey Deaver
Garden of Beasts
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
Deaver does not disappoint with his nineteenth novel, a twisty thriller set in Nazi Berlin during the 1936 Olympics. Even Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe make cameo appearances. German speaking, killer-with-a-conscience, Paul Schumann, is sent to Berlin to kill Rheinhard Ernst, chief architect of the rearming of Germany. In Berlin, Paul is to meet his contact who seems suspicious. This man is killed by the supposedly real contact. The plot thickens quickly. A very decent and most clever policeman, Willi Kohl, of the Berlin police force, is on Paul's trail. Deaver weaves two main themes together: Paul must assassinate Ernst and Kohl must find Paul. All of the top Nazis, Hitler, Himmler, and Goring, also make appearances. But it is Paul and Willi who keep the action rushing forward. Things get very complicated and twisted in this great, atmospheric thriller. The title of the book refers to Berlin's "Tiergarten." 12/1/05
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Kim Deitch
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
a favorite of Alan's, Fiction and Audiovisual Services
History is written by the winners. It is also the story of the little people and Kim Deitch's lavish graphic novel is emblematic of animation's rise and fall, from Winsor McCay's heady early vaudeville-style performances to the increasing bowdlerization of successive years. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams succeeds as a baroque work of the true Underground Comix style (think 1960's counterculture, cross-hatched lines, talking pianos, R. Crumb, etc.) and a down to earth tale emphasizing the glory and tragedy of the architects of a form who tried to wield art over commerce. 9/4/07
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Pete Dexter
Paris Trout
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
Dexter has written a very grim novel of the murder of a fourteen-year-old black girl by a brutish white man Paris Trout, who feels that he has not committed a crime. The time and place is a small, sleepy Georgia town, just after World War II. The reader meets Trout's timid wife, Hanna, who he abuses sexually. Trout and his crime haunt his kindly defense lawyer, Seagrave. Then there is Hanna's divorce lawyer, a young, self-righteous man who is blind to Trout's viciousness. These fascinating characters will make an imprint on your mind. It is one of the best books to come out of the American South. 2/4/02

Andrea di Robilant
A Venetian Affair
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
This is narrative history of 18th century at its best. Andrea di Robilant brings to life, from letters found by his father in an old family palazzo, the turbulent and illicit affair of patrician Andrea Memmo and an illegitimate, half-English girl, Giustiniana Wynne. The lovers brazenly pursued their tempestuous love with reckless abandon in the face of Venetian morality. Friends and servants helped the lovers by providing dank little rooms. There were meetings at masked balls, louche casinos, and theater boxes with drawn curtains. Some of the passionate letters are written in code. Even the notorious Casanova appears to give Guistiniana some crucial assistance. 250 years later this unbridled passion, filled with historical intrigue, grabs the reader and does not let go until the very last page. 5/1/07
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Anita Diamant
The Red Tent
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
Diamant has written a paean to womanhood in the world of the Old Testament. Through the eloquent voice of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and Leah, we enter the red tent where women were sequestered during menses, birthing, illness, and dying. We learn about the ancient religious and sexual practices of Jacob’s tribe. Dinah relates the tensions between Jacob’s four wives: practical Leah, beautiful Rachel, religious Zilpah, and gentle Bilhah. The earthy, lusty stories and passionate history make for magnificent reading. 6/3/02

James Dickey
To the White Sea
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
Dickey is not for the squeamish or the politically correct. His writing is raw and brutal. It is for those readers who appreciate a poetic novel about survival at all costs. An Alaskan woodsman, gunner Muldrow, is the only survivor of a plane in a devastating firebombing mission over Tokyo in World War II. Muldrow becomes a wily, merciless predator, killing men, women, and animals along his march to snowy Hokkaido. There he hopes he can live out his life living off the land. 6/5/01

Annie Dillard
For the Time Being
a favorite of Nancy's, Information Services
Annie Dillard is a philosopher, a passionate observer of nature, and a lyrical (Pulitzer Prize-winning) author. As the title implies, this book is a take on the temporary nature of our time here. In mosaic, seemingly piecemeal form these essays address the insignificance (and somehow, the resultant significance) of our individual lives in the context of the world’s humanity, past and present. She covers the surprisingly interesting origins and travels of sand, has frequent musings on clouds and numbers, and has conceptual encounters with the world’s great theologians. Her sections on evil, natural disasters, and birth defects offer startling insights into the vagaries of man’s immersion in nature. Chinese Emperor Qin’s regular cruelties are beyond imagination, yet provide a relevant backdrop against which to view the world’s current inconceivable inhumanities. She forces us to look at our culture’s insistent denial of death, at the interconnectedness of all the world’s people, and at the human suffering that has been such a constant at the hands of man and nature. In small, easily digestible, thought-provoking sections Dillard leads us to consider man’s place in, and the divinity of, the world. 2/1/06
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Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
In Vice, the authors show how Cheney thinks and how he has become the most powerful and least liked vice president in US history. He is extremely secretive, cold, ruthless, and manipulative. He has constantly striven to increase executive power; to achieve an imperial presidency. According to the authors, he and Bush began considering deposing Iraq's Hussein way before the September 11 attack. To this end, Cheney neutralized the CIA by insisting he get information connecting Iraq to al-Qaeda. Those CIA briefers who did not cooperate were fired. Many questions still remain unanswered. Why was Halliburton awarded no-bid contracts? What role did he play in the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson? Why should torture be justified? The authors conclude that Cheney is "nakedly amoral." 12/17/07
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Marguerite Duras
L'amante Anglaise
a favorite of Irene's, Information Services
"Quite unlike any other crime novel and far more disturbing," states the New Yorker. In rural France, a brutal murder is committed. Why did Claire kill her deaf-mute cousin? Is Claire mad? As the events are told to a visiting writer, a very dark and unsettling picture unfolds of life in a supposedly tranquil French town. 11/7/03
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