The Lie: A Novel
by Fredrica Wagman
Fiction
Book 70

Book Review
"Fredrica Wagman writes like no one else: her prose swoops and dips and soars, taking us inside a strange and captivating fictional world. THE LIE is a wholly original look at the vagaries of love and desire as told through the vivid fantasies and acute perceptions of its narrator. An ordinary-seeming wife, mother and daughter, Ramona Smollens attempts to escape the grip of a painful past, in which she has had to endure a rageful father and a monstrously narcissistic mother, only to discover that the glamor of grownup life wears thin quickly enough and that marriage to a sympathetic man comes with its own disappointments and deceits. Identifying as she does with the mangled psyche and erotic allure of screen siren Rita Hayworth, Ramona speaks a kind of lyric truth that uncovers the heartbreak nestled inside the layers of daily life. Her inability to feel sexual pleasure gradually emerges as a metaphor for the bewildering gap that exists between our earliest wishes and the eventual shape of our destinies." -- Daphne Merkin

Book Description
Coming of age in 1940s and 1950s America, Ramona Smollens takes her cues about female sexuality from Hollywood movie stars. None is more voluptuous than Rita Hayworth, the redhead who knows how to please a man and becomes a volcano of passion at her lover's touch, whose image inspired American flyers on their missions in World War II and even graced the first atomic bomb tested at the Bikini atoll. Ramona marries young and escapes her mother's house shortly after the death of her father. She takes with her a dark family secret, the sort of secret one simply did not talk about and that would stalk her as she matured into her role as wife and mother, remained a devoted daughter to her aging mother, and secretly harbored an obsession with the iconic Hayworth.

The fictional story Wagman tells of one woman's struggle with the conventions of her day is a bold literary achievement. Underpinning it all is the sad, unspoken truth of the real-life, flesh-and-blood Hayworth, the woman whose father sexually abused her. "Men go to bed with Gilda," She used to say, "but wake up with me." During Hayworth's lifetime, the public had no understanding of the depth of mean, and pain, behind Hayworth's seemingly self-effacing words. To Ramona, and millions of women like her, Hayworth's on-screen persona seemed the ideal, but was in fact "the lie." With this novel, Wagman realizes Kafkas famous dictum that "a book must be the axe that breaks the frozen sea within us."

Sonata for Miriam: A Novel
by Linda Olsson
Fiction
Book 69

Book Description
Linda Olsson's first novel, Astrid & Veronika, introduced readers to her gorgeous prose, and her extraordinary understanding of human relationships. With her second novel, she once again charts that terrain in a novel that also explores the significant impact of history on individual lives. In Sonata for Miriam, two events occur that will change composer Adam Anker's life forever. Embarking on a journey that ranges from New Zealand to Poland, and then Sweden, Anker not only uncovers his parents' true fate during World War II, but he also finally faces the consequences of an impossible choice he was forced to make twenty years before -- a choice that changed the trajectory of his life.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* If we don't know where we come from, can we really know who we are? That's the question that haunts Adam Anker, the middle-aged, New Zealand-based music professor who narrates most of Olsson's poignant new novel. Growing up in Sweden, Adam forever wondered why his distant Polish mother wouldn't tell him about the circumstances of his birth and the father he never knew. When his own daughter, Mimi, is killed in a tragic accident, Adam sets off on a quest to find his roots. His search, which begins at a Holocaust exhibit in an Auckland museum, takes him to Krakow, Poland, where he spends time in the company of two wizened gentlemen who dispense a series of devastating secrets. (Adam also intermittently reflects on Mimi's mother, Cecelia, a lover long absent from his life since she forced him to make a heartbreaking choice.) The novel's final chapters are narrated by Cecelia, as she anticipates a reunion with Adam after nearly 20 years. As in her first novel (Astrid & Veronika, 2007), Olsson renders luminous prose that lingers over the startling beauty of New Zealand and the blistering truths of the human heart. This is a potent, piercing tale of revelation and regret. --Allison Block

Visit Linda Olsson's web site

e-Riches: Next-Generation MArketing Strategies for Making Millions Online
by Scott Fox
Non-Fiction
Book 68

Book Description
Whether you're operating an online business or are looking to expand the Internet presence of your brick-and-mortar company, you'll need surefire marketing techniques if you want to keep your customer base growing and make the kind of money you deserve. This title is featuring inspiring and instructive success stories, as well as easy-to-implement, step-by-step methods. Packed with simple money-making secrets for Web 2.0, this book provides powerful e-marketing strategies for the next generation of business.

Publishers Weekly
"The book is aimed at absolute newbies, so while experienced Internet users may find this too basic, it will be a godsend to those who are intimidated by the digital revolution."

The Texicans
by Nina Vida
Fiction
Book 67

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Vida's luminous, dramatic seventh novel finds Joseph Kimmel, a Missouri school teacher, heading to mid-19th-century Texas to claim his recently deceased brother's belongings; he's left for dead when his horse is stolen. Across the plains, after her Texas Ranger husband dies fighting Comanches, Aurelia Ruiz takes refuge at a Comanche camp and adopts their ways. Henry Castro, a Frenchman with dreams of creating an Alsatian-immigrant-populated town in his own name, not only rescues Kimmel but marries him off to Katrin, an unattached white emigre whom a Comanche leader had espied and wanted for his own. The newlyweds head off to create a distinctive ranch, one that welcomes members of the Tonkaway tribe, Mexicans, escaped slaves, free African-Americans and others in distress. Affairs of the heart are never neglected in Vida's novels (Goodbye, Saigon, etc.), and Kimmel soon finds himself enraptured when he meets the beautiful Aurelia, just as a posse of xenophobic ranchers wreak havoc on the ranch. This radiant work of historical fiction -- vibrantly atmospheric and emotionally dense -- spans 12 years in the lives of many engaging characters, who come to life on every page.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Texas in the mid-19th century is the background for this novel. Aurelia Ruiz, daughter of a Mexican man and his Anglo wife, earns money for her family by curing people during a cholera epidemic. Once the outbreak is over (and the money is gambled away), her father sells her to a Texas Ranger. Mistreated by him, Aurelia wishes he would disappear, and soon enough he is killed fighting the Comanches. She then takes refuge in a Comanche camp. Meanwhile, Joseph Kimmel, a Polish Jew and former mountain man, fur trapper, and schoolteacher, sets out for San Antonio. He stops to help a runaway slave, who takes his supplies and money. Fortunately, Kimmel encounters Henry Castro, who is leading a wagon train with Alsatian immigrants to form a new settlement. Castro recruits him as treasurer. Kimmel ultimately becomes an independent rancher and obsessed with Aurelia, who has fled the camp. The exciting plot is rich and complex, and the author successfully enables readers to see events from the viewpoint of the many well-drawn characters.

Visit the author's web site.

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret
by Steve Luxenberg
Book 66

Product Description
Beth Luxenberg was an only child. Everyone knew it: her grown children, her friends, even people she'd only recently met. So when her secret emerged, her son Steve Luxenberg was bewildered. He was certain that his mother had no siblings, just as he knew that her name was Beth, and that she had raised her children, above all, to tell the truth.

By then, Beth was nearly eighty, and in fragile health. While seeing a new doctor, she had casually mentioned a disabled sister, sent away at age two. For what reason? Was she physically disabled? Mentally ill? The questions were dizzying, the answers out of reach. Beth had said she knew nothing of her sister's fate.

Six months after Beth's death in 1999, the secret surfaced once more. This time, it had a name: Annie.

Steve Luxenberg began digging. As he dug, he uncovered more and more. His mother's name wasn't Beth. His aunt hadn't been two when she'd been hospitalized. She'd been twenty-one; his mother had been twenty-three. The sisters had grown up together. Annie had spent the rest of her life in a mental institution, while Beth had set out to hide her sister's existence. Why?

Employing his skills as a journalist while struggling to maintain his empathy as a son, Luxenberg pieces together the story of his mother's motivations, his aunt's unknown life, and the times in which they lived. His search takes him to imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit, through the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the hospitals where Annie and many others were lost to memory.

Combining the power of reportage with the intrigue of mystery, Annie's Ghosts explores the nature of self-deception and self-preservation. The result is equal parts memoir, social history, and riveting detective story.

Book Reviews
"The author calls on his investigative reporting skills not just to uncover the facts, but to explore what happens when lies or omissions become truth, exposing the contradictions, contrasts and parallels that exist within every life, every relationship and every family. Beautifully complex, raw and revealing."
--Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

"Part memoir, part mystery, part history of the mental-health movement, Annie's Ghosts is a fascinating account of a life lived in the shadows."
--Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

"Luxenberg's beautiful book is in part the story of secrecy itself, when words carried mysterious power and wounds could not be healed through forgiveness."
--Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock and There Is No Me Without You

"It is too simple to call this a magnificent detective story. More than that, Annie's Ghosts is an honest and faithful rumination on a sad, delicate mystery . . . a remarkable journey to the very center of a secret."
--David Simon, creator of HBO's The Wire

"Steve Luxenberg's hunt for the story of his hidden aunt is both a gripping detective story and a haunting memoir. It will leave you breathless. The personal tale is astonishing, and Luxenberg uses it to explore, in a deft and poignant way, the nature of secrets, memories, historical truth, and family love."
--Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein and Benjamin Franklin

"Steve Luxenberg sleuths his family's hidden history with the skills of an investigative reporter, the instincts of a mystery writer, and the sympathy of a loving son. His rediscovery of one lost woman illuminates the shocking fate of thousands of Americans who disappeared just a generation ago."
--Tony Horwitz, author of A Voyage Long and Strange and Confederates in the Attic

"Annie's Ghosts is perhaps the most honest, and one of the most remarkable books I have ever read. It is an exploration into a family's past, a relentless hunt that unearths buried secrets with multiple layers and the uncertain motives of their keepers, and one son's attempt to fully understand the details and meaning of what has been hidden . . . From mental institutions to the Holocaust, from mothers and fathers to children and childhood, with its mysteries, sadness and joy--this book is one emotional ride."
--Bob Woodward, author of The War Within and State of Denial

"I started reading within minutes of picking up this book, and was instantly mesmerized. It's a riveting detective story, a moving family saga, an enlightening if heartbreaking chapter in the history of America's treatment of people born with what we now call special needs."
--Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand and You're Wearing That?

"This is a memoir that pushes the journalistic envelope . . . Luxenberg has written a fascinating personal story as well as a report on our communal response to the mentally ill."
--Helen Epstein, author of Where She Came From and Children of the Holocaust

"This is a book about secrets: family secrets, secrets as wounds, secrets that begin as tactics and end as shackles. Like an archaeologist obsessed, Steve Luxenberg digs to unearth the long-buried truth about his mother's hidden sister . . . we learn about lost worlds and a lost time, we learn about ourselves, and we learn about the universally wounding, shackling, echoing life of secrets."

--Walter Reich, MD, former Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor of International Affairs, Ethics, and Human Behavior, and Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University

About the Author
Steve Luxenberg has been a senior editor with the Washington Post for twenty-two years, overseeing reporting that has won numerous awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes for explanatory journalism. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Visit Steve Luxenberg's web site

The Genius of Instinct: Reclaim Mother Nature's Tools for Enhancing Your Health, Happiness, Family, and Work
by Dr. Hendrie Weisinger
Non-Fiction
Book 65

Product Description
Why are we sometimes so unhappy and unfulfilled? Why do we sometimes get into the wrong relationships, take the wrong jobs, and make the wrong choices? The answers and solutions to these everyday plights are revealed by today's "scientists of the mind," evolutionary psychologists who have discovered stunning new lessons about the power of instincts and their capacity to transform lives positively. But too many of us have lost contact with our instincts. We don't hear them. We don't use them. And that gets us in trouble--over and over again. Now, Dr. Hendrie Weisinger shows how to reconnect with the instincts Mother Nature gave you. You'll rediscover the six most indispensable human instincts that have evolved over millions and millions of years. Then, you'll learn how to use them to thrive in every part of your life...enhancing your health and happiness, your marriage and parenting, even your work and personal creativity!

Visit the author's web site.

Royal Blood: A Novel of Tudor England
by Rona Sharon
Fiction
Book 64

Product Description
In the Tudor Court of 1518, your friends and enemies can be one and the same...During the annual celebration of the Order of the Garter, Sir Michael Devereaux arrives in King Henry VIII's court on a mission for his benefactor. The celebration's endless feats and sumptuous women delight the charismatic newcomer, who becomes captivated by the enigmatic Princess Renee of France. But evil, it seems, has followed Michael to the court. Shortly after his arrival, an unknown killer claims several victims, including the Queen's lady-in-waiting, and the powerful Cardinal Wolsey asks Michael to help with the investigation. As he searches for the killer, Michael is haunted by disturbing images of the victims - flashes of violence that lead him to doubt his own sanity. Michael soon realizes that the key to solving the crime is connected to both the Pope's Imperial vault in Rome and a mystery from Michael's own past - revealing a secret that is so damning, it could forever alter the future of mankind.

Watch the book movie.

Visit the authors web site.

The Gentleman Host: A Cruise Ship Nightmare
by Dwight Norris
Fiction
Book 63

Product Description
In the thriller The Gentleman Host, a serial killer makes the ocean his playground as he poses as a suave gentleman host on cruise lines and throws unsuspecting middle-aged women overboard in the middle of the night.The killer continues his rampage for more than two decades before Dusty Flanagan, an ex-Marine and retired Chicago police detective, receives a call from Sam Murphy, a former police detective who now works in security for a major cruise line. Murphy convinces Flanagan to partner with him on the investigation that begins with the two determining if the disappearances are tragic accidents or heinous crimes. Their task is not easy without a body, witnesses, or a crime scene, but with a little bit of intelligence, humor, technology, old-fashioned dogged pursuit, and dumb luck, the detectives manage to zero in on the killer. A woman is used for bait, and as the Mystic Seas heads for Jamaica, taking the killer alive proves to be a challenge for the two detectives, but their most shocking development is yet to come when they glimpse into the twisted mind of a serial killer.

About the Author
Dwight Norris grew up on Long Island, but now lives in Southern California near his two grown children. He has written poetry, two screenplays, short stories and has been recognized for numerous nonfiction works. "The Gentleman Host" is his first novel. He is available for interviews. To find out more about the author go to www.thegentlemanhost.com.

The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life Virtual World: Marketing and Selling Your Product, Services, and Brand In-World
by Jay Mahar
Non-Fiction
Book 62

Product Description
One of the hottest trends in pop culture, Second Life, is a virtual, 3-D "world" that exists on the Internet. Populated by adults and teens alike -- in numbers going into the tens of millions -- those who use Second Life barter and buy much the way they do in real life. They're also just as open to ads, products, and marketing -- and businesses are just now discovering the enormous potential. A comprehensive, in-depth guide to the opportunities in this new marketplace, The Second Life Business Builder gives readers practical tips and strategies for creating an income stream, and marketing or extending a brand on the site. The book provides relevant examples -- from IBM creating a collaborative virtual work-space, to start-up companies with virtual goods, to Princeton University offering Second Life classrooms -- and provides proven techniques for successfully generating buzz through Second Life-centered promotions and advertisements. This is one book that reveals the best ways to make money using the hottest thing online.

From the Back Cover
One of the hottest trends in pop culture, Second Life, is a virtual, 3-D "world" that exists on the Internet. Populated by tens of millions of users, Second Life is an opportunity to network with others, buy and sell products and services using real currency, and advertise your brand in a thriving, receptive environment.

A comprehensive, in-depth guide to conducting business in this new marketplace, The Unofficial Guide to Building Your Business in the Second Life Virtual World will ensure you make best use of the site. With relevant examples -- from IBM creating a collaborative virtual workspace, to start-up companies selling virtual goods, to Princeton University offering Second Life classrooms -- you'll learn how to use Second Life to:

• formulate a successful business plan
• create and maintain a virtual world presence for yourself and your business
• generate buzz through promotions and advertisements
• sell your products and services to a new realm of customers
• expand relationships with colleagues and clients
• understand Netiquette and codes of conduct for doing business in the virtual world
• conduct meetings, conferences, and training seminars in Second Life.

Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur's Guide to Chasing Your Dreams And Breaking Out on Your Own
by James Levine
Non-Fiction
Book 61

Product Description
As a recent college graduate, there is no better time to take risks especially when it comes to making career choices. All too often, young employees find themselves in unfulfilling jobs with little chance of advancement. But with the right advice, they can strike out on their own and chase their dreams. Through personal experience as a one-time stock broker-trainee turned successful entrepreneur, Robert Tuchman knows what it's like to be stuck and what it takes to break free of a frustrating job and build your career on your own terms. In "Young Guns", he shows readers how to start out on a business venture, how to gain a client base, how to keep those clients, and what they need to sacrifice along the way in order to succeed. He reveals the myths and realities about starting a business when you're young. Filled with real-life examples of entrepreneurs under 35 who have made it to the top, this is the book that will show readers how to go for the gold and lead a passionate, daring and successful life.

From the Inside Flap
When Robert Tuchman graduated from college, he had a burning desire to follow his passion and make a name for himself. He was quickly forced to abandon his dream of being a sports writer, eventually accepting a position as a stockbroker trainee. Like many graduates, he soon realized that he was completely unfulfilled in his new job. "There has to be something better than this," he decided.

In Young Guns, Tuchman shows how you can pursue your own dreams of making it big and breaking free from the pack. In addition to his own, he tells the incredible stories of other young guns who fulfilled their dreams, including three PayPal employees named Steven Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, who started a little website called YouTube, where users could upload, view, and share video clips. Using their unparalleled marketing savvy, design skills, and a hunger to create something of their own, they turned the site into a phenomenon. Eventually, these three young guns sold their site to Google Inc., for $1.65 billion.

Entrepreneur Tuchman shows you that you can break out on your own and achieve your dreams. He explains how to start out on a business venture, and what you need to sacrifice along the way in order to succeed. As a young gun himself, Tuchman is an expert on taking risks and starting your own business. Tired of working at a job with little prospect of advancement, he formed his own company -- Tuchman Sports Enterprises -- out of a corner of his apartment with one phone and a fax machine. Within two years, his company was named to the annual Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing privately held companies.