AHML Staff Choices

Check the catalog for this item.

It has been a long wait.

Three years, to be precise, since the last Arkady Renko novel.

Ever since 1981, when Gorky Park hit the book stands running,  no other serial novel has had such a sad, weather-beaten hero-of-the-common-man as the Russian investigator Arkady Renko.  He is persistent, clever, self-effacing, plodding, suicidal, broken-hearted, witty, loyal to a fault,  keen-eyed,  and mostly acts like a beaten dog.

Russians are a proud people.  Another of their stronger traits is that they are realistic.  They seem to have the ability to accept the hand that they have been dealt, self-analyze it, and still continue to survive in a society that seems to have only two classes:  the Haves and the Have nots.

In this 6th installment, Arkady is once again on the brink of being fired for insubordination.  While helping out a friend who is a hopelessly drunken detective, Arkady stumbles upon a serial killer.  Unfortunately for Arkady and the next victims, the government is not accepting of his theories and are hurried to distance themselves from him.

Arkady’s young ward, Zhenya, the brilliant, street chess-hustler, is also trying to distance himself from Arkady.   Zhenya stumbles upon a very young girl – Maya – whose infant was stolen from her while trying to escape her miserable life of  forced prostitution.   Zhenya, who would be the last to admit that he has learned anything useful from Arkady,  tries to take on the role of protector, while assisting to find the kidnapped child.

As always, there is Cruz’ continuing central theme  of class struggle.

Check the catalog for this item.

When I saw the cover of this book amongst the countless all-caps titles and author names with flashy images that adorn most of the new fiction collection, I snapped it up like a gold nugget in a muddy riverbed. The lack of words on a book cover was half of the attraction for me. In particular because it was in the fiction section, so it couldn’t be an art book or a poetry collection. I was not disappointed. I wouldn’t recommend this book for everyone because it is so unique that readers with a strongly held notion of “novel” will be frustrated by it.

From start to finish every sentence in The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? is a question. Yet, Powell manages to establish a substantial character for his narrator, or should I say, interrogator? Not that this feels like an interrogation in any negative sense. The questions spark nostalgia, curiosity, introspection and at times, fear and disgust. By the end, I felt a kinship with the narrator and I appreciated Powell’s mastery in crafting this most unusual book. I can’t think of when I last felt so strongly that I wish I had thought of that.

Check the catalog for this item. I was browsing in new fiction and the title and cover lead me to pick up this mystery. This is the fourth in a series featuring a Royal Thai detective in Bangkok named Sonchai. The story starts around a grisly murder of an American movie director in the sex trade part of Bangkok. The story is a witches’ brew of graphic violence, Thai sex, Tantric sex and Buddhist sensibilities. The characters include a beautiful Tantric Yogin, a deranged Tibetan Lama and a drug dealing general and a corrupt police chief. I found the book very refreshing and a mystery unlike any I’ve read, I will now start his series and read them in order.

Check the catalog for this item.
When last we saw Lisbeth Salander, she had been shot in the head and hip by her wicked father, and buried alive by her mutant monster brother. As she lies in her hospital room recovering from her critical condition, Mikhail Blomkvist, her rescuer in the previous book (The Girl Who Played With Fire) must prove her innocence. To do so, he must expose a decades-old conspiracy within the Swedish security police that has, among other atrocities, perpetrated a lifetime of abuse aimed at Salander in order to protect the identity of her father, a Soviet defector and longtime secret asset to Sapo. A hornets nest indeed. This exciting finale to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy does not disappoint his fans. Its just too bad it has to end here.

Check the catalog for this item.

The Girls of Murder City : fame, lust, and the beautiful killers who inspired Chicago is the full title of a new book by Douglas Perry. Even if you have no interest in the musical Chicago, haven’t seen it, didn’t like it, you will still find much to interest you in this book.

Its fascinating to read that from 1840-1920 no women were convicted of murder in all of that time. It doesn’t mean that women weren’t killing, no, it has more to do with the fact that the juries were all male and still put women on a pedestal. AND forget it if you were good-looking. All the newspapers had tabloid elements to them and your picture appeared on the front page: pictures of you from before the murder, pictures of you in jail perhaps looking helplessly up to the sky. The newspapers were just as responsible for depicting these women as helpless much to the chagrin of the prosecutors.

Finally, in 1924, a jury convicted a poor dishevelled Italian immigrant, Sabella Nitti, who spoke little English. Even after this, good-looking women could still get off for the most heinous murders. When a female lawyer decides to take the appeal case of Sabella Nitti, she dresses her up and gives her English lessons and she wins the appeal.  This book is about all of those women and the female journalists who wrote about them.

It was the fact that it was so difficult to get a conviction of a good-looking woman that made the Illinois Courts change to adding women to juries. Really a fascinating read and great book club read.

Check the catalog for this item.

I recently saw a trailer for a film that is opening in a few weeks called “The Town” that is based on this novel.  I have never read this author and was pleasantly surprised just how good he is.  His characters are real and his plot is Shakespearean. . .Boston-style. 

Doug MacRay is the mastermind behind a robbery crew of four who all grew up together in a tough neighborhood of Boston.   He comes from strong criminal bloodlines…his father is doing 20-to-life in prison.  Doug is an alcoholic who desperately needs a change in venue but has no idea how to achieve it. 

Doug’s modus operandi is to stalk his victims for several weeks prior to   his robbery attempt and base his plans on their habits and tendencies.  One of his victims is the beautiful bank manager, Claire Keesey.  He falls in love with her from a far and after his successful holdup, meets cute with her at the local laundromat.   Doug thinks that she might be his ticket outta the life of crime. 

Claire, who has no idea that Doug was responsible for her bank’s theft, suddenly has to deal with her post-traumatic shock of being kidnapped and left to live; as well as the newly smitten FBI Special Agent’s and Doug’s fancies. 

The mouse and cat gaming between Agent Adam Frawley and Doug is unpredictable.  Neither character is honest with poor Claire, who appears to be left the dupe in their games. 

Hogan has several characters whose back-stories he slowly rolls out like a stripper showing  just enough skin to tease and tantalized their audience. 

Ben Affleck, the Hurt Locker’sJeremy Renner, and Mad Men’s, Jon Hamm all star in “The Town”  which is the movie version of this book. It’s to be released in theaters in September.    I am hoping that the film flows half as well as this book did.

Check the catalog for this item.

Emily Giffin’s  latest novel explores infidelity and the impact that a single mistake can have on a marriage.  The interesting spin in this novel is that Giffin alternates the point of view of each chapter between the wife and the “other” woman.  Giffin does an excellent job of creating sympathetic characters on both sides.  You care about Tessa the stay-at-home mom who is feeling the strain of her marriage and wondering why her husband is pulling away and spending longer hours at work and not feeling as connected to her husband.  In the next chapter, you get the perspective of Valerie a single mother raising her son, Charlie who has been injured in a camping fire and is being treated by Dr. Russo, Tessa’s husband.  Valerie and Dr. Russo become increasingly close and tension builds as their lives all become interconnected.    I thought this book was an interesting, thoughtful book.

Check the catalog for this item.

I don’t care if I found this book in Kids World, it is a stitch.  I have never watched The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; however, I have seen him perform and he is very sharp and witty.

The author of this book is the Executive Producer of Stewart’s show and also is very sharp and witty.   Oliver Watson is in 7th grade and wants to run for class president.  His only obstruction is his peers.

When I try, I can’t recall the name of my 7th grade nun, but I do remember that awkward age.  Lieb catches the spirit of a 12- year old boy, who tries to balance his inner, most dark secrets with his limited social conscious.  

This book was a delight.

Check the catalog for this item.

The tower is the Tower of London. The zoo is a return of the Royal Menagerie to the Tower after 165 years. And the tortoise is Mrs. Cook, the world’s oldest tortoise, owned by Beefeater Balthazar Jones who resides in the Tower with his wife and the memory of his young son.

Balthazar Jones and his wife, who works at the London Underground Lost & Found, are still struggling with the sudden loss of their only child, when Jones is assigned to manage the new Royal Menagerie at the Tower. Jones turns to organizing the Menagerie to deal with his grief, while his wife deals with returning items to their rightful owners to keep herself from dwelling on their loss. As they grow estranged, we learn more about how they met and fell in love.

Although there is sadness in the book between Balthazar Jones and his wife, Stuart tries to keep it lighter with the antics and assignations of the other characters. From the enraged Ravenmaster who is disturbed that other creatures should outshine his ravens, to the Minister of the Tower’s Chapel and his unrequited love for the barmaid, there is a lot of fun in the book. Stuart never lets the sadness become overwhelming.

Even if you have been on one of the Beefeater’s tours of the Tower of London you will learn more about the history of the place and how the Beefeaters (or, as they refer to themselves, Yeoman Warders) live within the confines of the Tower. A light, delightful read even if you have never visited the Tower of London.

Check the catalog for this item.

Sixteen year old Ree Dolly would like nothing better than to join the Army and leave her family behind. But her mother has had a nervous breakdown and cannot take care of her two younger brothers. Her father Jessup has run off and used the family home and land as bond for his court date on manufacturing crank. If Ree doesn’t find her father before Tuesday, the family will lose the house and all of their land.

Manufacturing Crank is the new moonshine of the Ozark Mountains and the Dolly family and relations have a monopoly on it. These are tough hard-living backwards folk who know how to survive. Everyone in the family is too frightened to give any needed information to Ree in case she becomes that thing hated above all–the snitch.

But Ree is hard living too and determined to save her family. What happens to her at the hands of her own kindred is pretty tough to read. But what makes one person in the family hard and mean can make another strong and determined. You will be pulling for Ree.

A film-adaptation of this book is currently out in the theatres. You can also add your name to the hold list for when the DVD becomes available. Click Here for DVD.