Cowboys and Cossacks

Looking for something different?  Tired of James Patterson?  The Cowboy and the Cossack is an excellent book to cleanse the palate.  Nancy Pearl, NPR contributor and librarian has chosen this book to be part of the Book Lust Rediscoveries series.

Book Lust Rediscoveries is a series of books that were published between 1960 and 2000 but are now out of print but deemed worthy of reprinting.

Nineteen-year-old Levi, a cowboy from Montana, tells the story of fifteen cowboys herding 500 longhorn cattle to Siberia.  Fifteen Russian Cossacks join with the cowboys for the trek across Russia.

I loved the book.  You are right there with them in Russia and experience the clash of cultures and the realization of the similarities.

Waiting for the next Jack Reacher novel?

If you are looking for a series to read while waiting for the next Jack Reacher  or Mitch Ryan novel to be released, try Gray Man by Mark Greaney:
http://catalog.ccls.org/search~S1?/tgray+man/tgray+man/1%2C2%2C4%2CB/frameset&FF=tgray+man&2%2C%2C2/indexsort
=- .  Gray Man is a world class assassin.He is a former special forces and CIA agent who got burned and now kills but kills only those who really deserve to die.  The novel has Gray Man racing across Europe to save a kidnapped family while twelve assassin groups chase him.  Whoever kills him gets millions of dollars.

Gray Man is a gritty page turner.  Great to read while waiting for the next Jack Reacher book.

Adult Summer Reading Challenge

Do you have more time to read during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer? Join the D-town Summer Reading Challenge. For each book that you read you will get a chance to win a prize at the end of the summer. Registration is ongoing. The challenge ends on August 31st. Register at the circ desk.

INDENTURED SERVANT

In 1791 a seven-year old girl is orphaned while onboard a ship from Ireland to Virginia.  At this tender age she becomes an indentured servant on the  captain’s plantation.  She lives and works with the slaves of the kitchen house.  The story is told through two people; the eyes of the white girl Lavinia who straddles the life of the slaves and the white world of freedom and Belle a slave who is the daughter of the captain.  Tragic story but a page-turner.  The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.

NEVER TOO LATE

Three single friends in their late fifties buy a hundred year old”megalith of faded brick” on sixteen acres in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the novel A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.  A money pit pretty well sums up what they have bought.  Three women with three dreams for a new life and new lifestyle.  Great reading about their dilemmas and how they surmount problem after problem and make a new life and new friends.

Mother Daughter Writing Team

Just read Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy a mother daughter writing team.  Monkeewrench is the first of  five novels.  The novel takes place in Wisconsin and Minnesota with two police departments looking for a killer.  Snappy dialog, believable cop characters, computer geeks and plot twists.  Has been described as Evanovich meets Fargo.  Loved it.

Political Thriller

I discovered a new author Mike Lawson.  Just read his first two novels Inside Ring and Second Perimeter.  Joe DeMarco is the main character and he works for the Speaker of the House and “fixes problems”  for him.  Snappy dialog, great characters and interesting storylines.  He has five Joe DeMarco novels out…happy reading.