New Books at Doylestown Library

Looking for a good book to curl up with after Thanksgiving dinner? Here are just a few of the new titles available from the library in Doylestown:

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash  

Twelve year old Easter and her six year old sister Ruby end up in the North Carolina foster care system when their mother dies. Enter their absentee father who spirits them away from the only stable home they have ever known. Luckily, they have on their side their court appointed guardian who is zealous in his pursuit of the girls. Throw into the mix a thug after their father due to some missing money, and you have a fast paced story. Readers who enjoyed Cash’s first novel, A Land More Kind than Home, will enjoy this one also.

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

It’s been eight years since Tan’s last novel, Saving Fish from Drowning, and in this once again she skillfully blends two of her favorite locales, Shanghai and San Francisco. The novel begins in Shanghai in 1912 when Violet expects to join her mother on a voyage to San Francisco. The treachery of a supposed friend separates mother and daughter and the ship sails without Violet, leaving her an orphan in China.   As she is so good at doing, Tan explores the relationships among three generations of women: mother, daughter and granddaughter. Unfolding at the turn of the last century, all three women confront circumstances that force each to become a courtesan to earn her livelihood. All suffer abandonment and loss and are forced to develop new identities for themselves. In addition to the three main characters, there is a well-developed cast of characters who either try to undo or to shape the lives of these three women, and Tan’s mastery of the lavish world of courtesans and Chinese customs is evident in every page.

Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade by Minter, Adam

What really happens to your cell phone when you recycle it? Minter, the son of a scrap man and correspondent for Bloomberg World View, brings first-hand knowledge to this tale of things we all throw out when we recycle our bottles and cans and cardboard and where they end up. There is big money in recycling and there are entire industries that have sprung up all over the world, but especially in China, that are devoted to recycling everything from motor oil to Christmas tree lights. The recycling industry provides huge profits for owners of plants and thousands of jobs for the workers in these plants. The author also discusses the health concerns as well as environmental and pollution issues that go hand in hand with the recycling industry. International recycling is a world of commodities trading that is every bit as cut throat as anything on Wall Street. The book gives a detailed view of a mostly unknown business that touches the lives of everyone, whether they recycle or not. The author was recently interviewed locally on Fresh Air with Terry Gross . The podcast of the interview can be found on the WHYY radio website.

The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle

A Picture-perfect family is suddenly torn apart when it comes to light that their beautiful, teen-age, all-American daughter is having an affair with her married math teacher, TJ. And even more upheaval comes when she chooses to sit behind him at his trial rather than with her family, disputing their claims of coercion and insisting that she is truly in love with him. In a ripped-from-the-headlines-Jodi Picoult-like-story, this book is the study of three strong women. Protagonist Morgan, the precocious teenager, mature for her age – is she the victim as her mother, Dinah, declares or the vixen that, Rain, TJ’s wife, sees her as? Riggle successfully examines the inner turmoil of these characters and shows how they evolve in their roles in a drama that affects the entire town.

A Nasty Piece of Work by Robert Littell

Foregoing his usual espionage novels, Littell pens his latest as a kind of throwback to a Raymond Chandler- like tale. Ornella Neppi isn’t really a bad person; she’s just in way over her head. She has agreed to manage her uncle’s bail bond business while he recuperates from an operation, and that’s where the trouble begins. She accepts the deed to a $375,000 condo as surety for a cocaine dealer’s $125,000 bail. But the dealer, Gava, has fled Las Cruces, and the deed turns out to be a forgery. Ornella enlists Lemuel Gunn to help her track him down. A former cop in New Jersey, he was also tossed out of the CIA for making trouble in Afghanistan and now has landed in New Mexico as a PI. And Gava seems to have little sense of self-preservation; he calls the cops ahead of time to tell them when and where he’ll be dealing. Why he’d rat himself out is a most pleasing puzzle. Might it be that he’s in the FBI witness protection program but is unable to behave himself? Mix in a couple of feuding crime families, Gunn’s adopted college-age daughter, a few FBI agents and a plethora of Nevada casino personnel and you have yourself a dandy tale that invites you along for a great ride.

Not only do these sound like the perfect dessert after dessert on Thanksgiving, one of them might make the perfect holiday gift for the reader on your list. I know I wouldn't mind find one (or all) of them under my tree.

Happy reading and Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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