Welcome to bookchat where you can talk about anything...books, plays, essays, and books on tape. You don’t have to be reading a book to come in, sit down, and chat with us.
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.
~Edward P. Morgan
http://www.quotegarden.com/...
New books are fun to find. Sometimes we are waiting for a book in a series or a sequel, or sometimes we are waiting for a book by a favorite author. It is time to ask what new books are here or on the way for spring.
I am listing some authors I have read, and some I know nothing about but the stories look good, and some that I know friends here like to read.
Authors I have read
1. Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective-a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other-or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.
Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as Case Histories, is embarking on a different sort of rescue-that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.
2. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.
In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku—the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible—gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world’s top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy production, and astronautics.
In all likelihood, by 2100 we will control computers via tiny brain sensors and, like magicians, move objects around with the power of our minds. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment, and Internet-enabled contact lenses will allow us to access the world's information base or conjure up any image we desire in the blink of an eye.
Meanwhile, cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on a cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism…
3. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series #12) by Alexander McCall Smith
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The latest installment in the beloved, best-selling series is once again a beautiful blend of wit and wisdom, and a profoundly touching tale of the human heart.
At a remote cattle post south of Gaborone two cows have been killed, and Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s No. 1 Lady Detective, is asked to investigate by a rather frightened and furtive gentleman. It is an intriguing problem with plenty of suspects—including, surprisingly, her own client…
4. Live Wire (Myron Bolitar Series #10) by Harlan Coben
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Harlan Coben has risen to the top of bestseller lists worldwide, attracting voracious audiences for his peerless novels of domestic suspense as well as those featuring his fan-favorite sports agent, Myron Bolitar. Now in Live Wire, he offers a knock-your-socks-off novel that will electrify all his fans: Myron’s family takes center stage.
Myron Bolitar has always dreamed about the voluptuous femme fatale walking into his office and asking for help. The woman standing in his doorway has killer curves all right: She’s eight months pregnant, which kind of ruins the fantasy. Former tennis star Suzze T and her rock star husband, Lex, are both clients, and over the years Myron has negotiated his share of contracts for the power pair. But now Lex has disappeared and a very pregnant Suzze is in tears, fearing the online rumors questioning the baby’s paternity have driven away the man she swears is the child’s father…
5. A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs Series #8) by Jacqueline Winspear
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Maisie Dobbs's first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor—and leads to the investigation of a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi Party.
In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs's career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities "not in the interests of His Majesty's government."
6. Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Elizabeth Moon returns to the fantasy world of the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter—Paks for short—in this second volume of a new series filled with all the bold imaginative flights, meticulous world-building, realistic military action, and deft characterization that readers have come to expect from this award-winning author. In Kings of the North, Moon is working at the very height of her storytelling powers.
Peace and order have been restored to the kingdoms of Tsaia and Lyonya, thanks to the crowning of two kings: Mikeli of Tsaia and, in Lyonya, Kieri Phelan, a mercenary captain whose royal blood and half-elven heritage are resented by elves and humans alike.
7. The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicles Series #2) by Patrick Rothfuss
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
8. Betrayer (Fourth Foreigner Series #3), Vol. 4 by C. J. Cherryh
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The twelfth book in Hugo Award winner C.J. Cherryh's epic Foreigner series.
The civil war among the alien atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri his son and heir, and his human paidhi, Bren Cameron, have returned to the Bujavid, their seat of power.
But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over.
Coming May 3rd
9. The Rogue Crew (Redwall Series #22) by Brian Jacques, Sean Rubin (Illustrator)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Redwall Abbey has never seen a creature more evil or more hideous than Razzid Wearat. Captain of the Greenshroud, a ship with wheels that can sail through water as well as the forest, this beast is a terror of both land and sea, traveling Mossflower Country, killing nearly everything–and everyone– in his path. And his goal? To conquer Redwall Abbey…
And in Paperback April 26
The Sable Quean (Redwall Series #21) by Brian Jacques
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Buckler the hare, Blademaster of the Long Patrol, must save the youngsters of Redwall Abbey-kidnapped by the vile Vilaya the Sable Quean-and stop the villain's conquest of Mossflower Wood.
I am reading this one right now and it will be out in paperback on May 24
10. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Publishers Weekly says this is going to be a 10 part series. Will I live long enough to read it all, that is the question. B&N offers no synopsis to speak of so I will say that there are three characters offered up so far that I like. To be honest, I can’t imagine this going on for 10 books. This first one is 1000 pages.
My synopsis:
Once upon a time there were Heralds who fought for the people. Now, 4500 years later, two groups of people fight on a great broken plain. The Alethi fight to avenge the death of their king and to compete for gem hearts in giant chasmfiends.
The characters that I am engaged with are Kaladin who wanted to be a soldier instead of a doctor. His courage is enormous. Shallan is a young woman who has left her home to try to save it. She draws plants, animals and people to study them whenever she has the chance.
Adolin is the nephew of the fallen King and the cousin of the new one. He fears that his father, who was a great warrior, is losing his mind. He does not seem to realize or care that he is being seen as weak. A message from the dying king was written on the wall in blood. That last message of the King and the whispering in his mind that the kingdoms should unite rather than compete with each other is what is haunting Dalinar.
...................
YA…I have already read this one and I enjoyed it as an adult:
11. The Rendering by Joel Naftali
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Doug narrates in a series of blog posts (many interrupted by either his best friend, smart girl Jamie, or the artificial intelligence who mothers him, the avatar) how he came to temporarily save the world and to be branded a terrorist and a murderer. He was innocently playing video games in the employee lounge of the biotechnology center where his aunt was a director when an insane genius ex-employee broke in, stole the equipment to digitize anyone and make his own biodroid army, killed Doug's aunt, and blew up the center (and soon the nearby town). Doug managed to escape, accidentally creating three super-powered creatures, and gaining a electronics-destroying superpower of his own with which to fight the evil Dr. Roach.
12. Though Not Dead (Kate Shugak Series #18) by Dana Stabenow
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The residents of Alaska’s largest national park are stunned by the death of one of their oldest members, eighty-seven-year-old Old Sam Dementieff…Even private investigator Kate Shugak. Sam, a lifelong resident, dubbed the “father” of all of the Park rats—even though he had no children of his own—was especially close to Kate, his niece, but even she is surprised to discover that in his will he’s left her everything, including a letter instructing her simply to, “find my father.”
Easier said than done, since Sam’s father is something of a mystery. An outsider, he disappeared shortly after learning about Sam’s existence, taking with him a priceless tribal artifact, a Russian icon. And in the three days after Kate begins her search through Sam’s background, she gets threatened—and worse.
Coming May 24
13. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.
After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history. As David McCullough writes, “Not all pioneers went west.” Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, who enrolled at the Sorbonne because of a burning desire to know more about everything. There he saw black students with the same ambition he had, and when he returned home, he would become the most powerful, unyielding voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate, almost at the cost of his life.
Two staunch friends, James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse, worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Cooper writing and Morse painting what would be his masterpiece. From something he saw in France, Morse would also bring home his momentous idea for the telegraph...
Books that look good
1. Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
2. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The life Kamila Sidiqi had known changed overnight when the Taliban seized control of the city of Kabul. After receiving a teaching degree during the civil war—a rare achievement for any Afghan woman—Kamila was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home. When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. Armed only with grit and determination, she picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business of her own.
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana tells the incredible true story of this unlikely entrepreneur who mobilized her community under the Taliban. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story, and the result is an unusually intimate and unsanitized look at the daily lives of women in Afghanistan. These women are not victims; they are the glue that holds families together; they are the backbone and the heart of their nation…
3. Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War by Annia Ciezadlo
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
A luminous portrait of life in the Middle East, Day of Honey weaves history, cuisine, and firsthand reporting into a fearless, intimate exploration of everyday survival.
In the fall of 2003, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. Over the next six years, while living in Baghdad and Beirut, she broke bread with Shiites and Sunnis, warlords and refugees, matriarchs and mullahs. Day of Honey is her memoir of the hunger for food and friendship—a communion that feeds the soul as much as the body in times of war.
Reporting from occupied Baghdad, Ciezadlo longs for normal married life. She finds it in Beirut, her husband’s hometown, a city slowly recovering from years of civil war. But just as the young couple settles into a new home, the bloodshed they escaped in Iraq spreads to Lebanon and reawakens the terrible specter of sectarian violence…
4. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Winner of the 2011 Newbery Medal
The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I’d seen only in Gideon’s stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future.
Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.”
Because friends are interested
Coming July 12
1. A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) by George R. R. Martin
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.
Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.
2. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next Series #6) by Jasper Fforde
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
The newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey.
Jasper Fforde's exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written Thursday.
The Council wants her to pretend to be the real Thursday and travel as a peacekeeping emissary to the warring factions. A trip up the mighty Metaphoric River beckons-a trip that will reveal a fiendish plot that threatens the very fabric of the BookWorld itself.
3. In Fire Forged (Worlds of Honor Series #5) by David Weber
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Honor Harrington is arguably the most popular character in modern science fiction, but there are many other stories in the Honorverse besides those in which she has the central role. This fifth volume in the popular Worlds of Honor series explores some of those stories with the help of such top writers as best-selling author Jane LIndskjold, New York Times best-selling author Timothy Zahn, and more—including an all-new Honor Harrington adventure, set in her younger years, when a mob of space pirates made the mistake of tangling with Commander Harrington. That was a fatal mistake—for the pirates . . .
Coming July 5
4. Gauntlgrym: Neverwinter, Book I by R. A. Salvatore
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Drizzt joins Bruenor on his quest for the fabled dwarven kingdom of Gauntlgrym: ruins said to be rich with ancient treasure and arcane lore. But before they even get close, another drow and dwarf pair stumbles across it first: Jarlaxle and Athrogate. In their search for treasure and magic, Jarlaxle and Athrogate inadvertently set into motion a catastrophe that could spell disaster for the unsuspecting people of the city of Neverwinter—a catastrophe big enough to lure even the mercenary Jarlaxle into risking his own coin and skin to stop it. Unfortunately, the more they uncover about the secret of Gauntlgrym, the more it looks like they can’t stop it on their own. They’ll need help, and from the last people they ever thought to fight alongside again: Drizzt and Bruenor.
Coming June 7
5. Dragongirl by Todd J. McCaffrey
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
With a cast of beloved characters from previous Pern novels, Dragongirl is another triumph for Todd McCaffrey—and a riveting chapter for the Dragonriders of Pern.
Young Fiona, rider of the gold queen Talenth, has returned with the dragons and riders who fled into the past to heal their battle wounds and prepare to fight anew the menace of Thread. Now more than three years older, Fiona is no longer a child but a woman—thrust into authority by a shocking tragedy. But leading weyrfolk who are distrustful of a young outsider will be only one of her challenges. Despite gaining reinforcements from the past, too few dragons have survived the recent plague to stem the tide of the intensifying Threadfall. As a senior Weyrwoman, Fiona must take decisive action. With the aid of Lorana, the rider who sacrificed her dragon for others, and Fiona’s true love, the harper Kindan, she proposes a daring, nearly impossible plan. But if it succeeds, it just might save them all.
Coming May 24 in paperback
6. Betrayer of Worlds by Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Fleeing the supernova chain reaction at the galactic core, the cowardly Puppeteers of the Fleet of Worlds have—-just barely—-survived. They’ve stumbled from one crisis to the next: The rebellion of their human slaves. The relentless questing of the species of Known Space. The spectacular rise of the starfish-like Gw’oth. The onslaught of the genocidal Pak.
Catastrophe looms again as past crises return—-and converge. Who can possibly save the Fleet of Worlds from its greatest peril yet?
Coming June 21
7. Smokin' Seventeen (Stephanie Plum Series #17) by Janet Evanovich
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.
Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.
Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town.
Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.
With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.
8. The Fifth Witness (Mickey Haller Series #4) by Michael Connelly
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home.
Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too—and he's certain he's on the right trail.
For friends who do not find me talking enough about romance books...
9. The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/...
Synopsis
...Miranda and Adam, high-school sweethearts now in their late fifties, arrive by chance at the same time in Rome, a city where they once spent a summer deeply in love, living together blissfully. At an awkward reunion, the two—who parted in an atmosphere of passionate betrayal in the 1960s and haven’t seen each other since—are surprised to discover that they may have something to talk about. Both have their own guilt, their sense of who betrayed whom, and their long-held interpretation of the events that caused them not to marry and to split apart into the lives they’ve led since—both are married to others, with grown children. For the few weeks they are in Rome, Adam suggests that they meet for daily walks and get to know each other again. Gradually, as they take in the pleasures of the city and the drama of its streets, they discover not only what matters to them now but also more about what happened to them long ago...
What new books are you finding or hoping to read?
Diaries of the week
Write On! The ticking clock.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
History for Kossacks: Ancient Libya
by Unitary Moonbat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
History for Kossacks: Medieval Libya
by Unitary Moonbat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
March 28, 1919 - ... and lots of “somefings” on your neck
by Andrew C White
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Please read the whole diary below...
Hill Country Ride for AIDS - why I ride
by anotherdemocrat
http://www.dailykos.com/...
ad says:
Here is an article about critical spending cuts that AIDS agencies are facing. Not for fluffy stuff like help running errands, or the food bank -- they facing cuts in being able to provide medication:
"Notably absent from the subcommittee's priority list is a program that provides drugs to low-income HIV/AIDS patients.
One of two members who voted against the spending plan says it amounts to deciding who lives and who dies. AIDS Services of Austin Executive Director Paul Scott agrees.
'These medications are so critical, it's as if you're denying someone oxygen, and the consequence is death.'"
Her donations page is here:
http://www.hillcountryride.org/...
plf515 has a book talk on Wednesday mornings early.
sarahnity’s list of DKos authors
http://www.dailykos.com/...