Summer Reading

Welcome to Summer Reading 2011!  At the end of 3 weeks we had 311 people signed up.
This week, 23 new people participated, 45 people read 102 books, which brings the totals for the summer to 330 books and 102 readers.

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Hidden Prey By Sandford, John 2005-04 - Berkley 9780425199602 Check Our Catalog When a Russian sailor is found shot to death on the shore of Lake Superior, everyone from the local authorities to a female cop flown in from Russia has a theory. Lucas Davenport has one, too, and it puts him in peril in this "New York Times" bestseller. HPL patron:  Hidden spy rings in northern Minnesota?  Psychological twist of conflicting loyalties and programming of a political killer-standoof of new Russians vs. old. …More

Invisible Prey By Sandford, John 2007-06 - Putnam Adult 9780399154218 Check Our Catalog The latest novel from bestselling author Sandford features the return of Lucas Davenport in this brilliantly suspenseful, richly characterized, and exciting drama that is one of the most startling in the Prey series yet. HPL patron:  Why are wealthy Minneapolis elderly women being murdered?  Follow Lucas Davenport as he investigates the crimes and seeks the motives for the murders. …More

Belong to Me By de los Santos, Marisa 2009-04 - Harper Paperbacks 9780061240287 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title The bestselling author of "Love Walked In" returns with this luminous story about neighbors, family, friends, and love. HPL patron:  Loved it.  Great reading (or listening.) …More

A Living Nightmare By Shan, Darren 2002-06 - Little, Brown Books for Young Readers 9780316605106 Check Our Catalog Soon to be a major motion picture based on the three books in the Cirque Du Freak series, these books feature new cover images. Darren Shan is an ordinary schoolboy who enjoys hanging out with his three best friends. Then one day they stumble across an invitation to visit the Cirque Du Freak, a mysterious freak show. As if by destiny, Darren wins a ticket, and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires. …More

Tunnels of Blood By Shan, Darren 2003-04 - Little, Brown Young Readers 9780316606080 Check Our Catalog Darren, the vampire's assistant, gets a taste of the city when he leaves the Cirque Du Freak with Evra the snake-boy and Mrs. Crepsley. Soon, corpses are discovered drained of blood, and Darren and Evra must confront a foul creature who may mean the end of them all. …More

The Defector By Silva, Daniel 2009-07 - Putnam Adult 9780399155680 Check Our Catalog In this extraordinary follow-up to the bestselling "Moscow Rules," Gabriel Allon returns to find himself once more on the front lines of the secret war between East and West. Allon uncovers a deadly conspiracy and, in order to stop it, he must risk everything--even his life. HPL patron:  If you like espionage you would love this author. …More

Joy in the Morning By Smith, Betty 2010-07 - Harper Perennial 9780061774331 Check Our Catalog A timeless classic is reborn! From Betty Smith--author of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," one of the most beloved novels of the past century--comes an unsentimental yet radiant and powerfully uplifting tale of young hearts and marriage. In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only eighteen, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law--and there they marry. But their first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated, in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, Annie and Carl come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty and love, will help them make it through. HPL patron:  Revisiting a wonderful novel that I read back in high school is like spending time with an old friend.  Just a little outdated, but very fond memories of time gone by. …More

Daughter of Twin Oaks By Snelling, Lauraine 2009-04 - Thorndike Press 9781410414533 Check Our Catalog Seeking to fulfill the promise she made to her dying father, eighteen-year-old Jesselynn Highwood determines to take her little brother and the family's remaining Thoroughbreds from Twin Oaks plantation in Kentucky to her uncle's farm in Missouri, where they will be safe for the remainder of the Civil War. Jesselynn is also fleeing a cruel man in Confederate uniform who has pledged to take revenge against her for refusing his hand in marriage. No longer safe at Twin Oaks, she embarks on a perilous journey, taking on the momentous responsibility for the lives and welfare of all who go with her. They ride at night and hide during the day, dodging both Confederate and Union troops along the way. Encountering hunger, sickness, and the devastation of war, they finally arrive in Missouri only to discover that the situation there puts them in even greater danger. Discouraged, disillusioned, and facing a severe testing of her faith, Jesselynn will stop at nothing to save her family, the horses, and whatever remains of Twin Oaks. Will the wounded soldier she rescues from certain death be able to break down the walls of bitterness that surround her heart? …More

Changes By Steel, Danielle 2011-04 - Dell Publishing Company 9780345527066 Check Our Catalog Top TV anchorwoman Melanie Adams had given up on love after a failed marriage and an unhappy affair. With her two teenage children and her television news career, she had no room in her life for a man. Then she met famous heart surgeon Peter Hallam, a widower with three children of his own. Suddenly Melanie was experiencing feelings she thought were gone forever. But two families (one in New York and one in Los Angeles), two exciting careers, and two strong-willed people were too much to handle. And Melanie faced a painful choice between her glamorous life in the public eye, her private life, the needs of her family, and the new family she took on. Changes lead each of them to new places, new problems, new people, and the new life they begin. HPL patron:  Greatinsight into how 2 families become one-an adult love story of  2 independent people as well as the early days of heart transplants-a woman raising her children alone and building a successful career-tough choices and adjustment becoming a wife again, a stepmother and loyalty to her own children, as well as to herself. …More

Imagine Love By Stone, Katherine 1997-03 - Random House Publishing Group 9780345482976 Check Our Catalog Imagine moonlight and roses. And London and Paris. And the intoxicating magic of a Louisiana bayou. Then journey with master storyteller Katherine Stone on this breathtaking voyage of danger, courage, and love. They met beside the brilliant blue bayou. She was an innocent girl, and he was a reckless and angry boy. Claire Chamberlain believed in dreams, and Cole Taylor believed in nothing at all. Cole had no reason to believe--until her. They pledged their love beneath the silver winter moon. But the hopes of Cole and Claire were destined to be drowned in blood. Now, twelve years later, Cole has returned to Harlanville. He has found fame as a singer of love songs. And Claire? Her life has changed, irrevocably, yet she has found a private peace--such a fragile one that Cole's very presence shatters her precarious serenity. And now Cole is asking her to do the impossible, to come away with him, to London. Claire knows he will break her heart again. But she will be with him, she has to be, for as long as she can bear the pain. Claire's is not the only endangered heart in London. A murderer has sent Lady Sarah Pembroke an engraved Valentine invitation--to her own death. And is Claire's girlhood friend afraid of the knife-wielding monster? Hardly. The Global News's star correspondent, the woman who feels oddly sane amid the madness of war, has her own private demons, memories far more fearsome than a murderer who chooses the most romantic day of the year to inflict his lethal terror. But neither Sarah's past nor the killer stalking her are as terrifying as Jack Dalton, the FBI consultant determined to save Sarah's life. Jack needs Sarah's help in his exhaustive, careful search forclues. But remarkably, and infuriatingly, Sarah resists. Sarah will not tell Jack the intimate information he needs to know. She cannot. And yet it is as if he already knows her anguished secrets, cares for her more than he should, and wants more from Lady Sarah Pembroke than she can ever give. Imagine Love is an enthralling read, a beautifully crafted tapestry of suspense and love, of surprises you won't imagine, and of men and women you will never forget. "From the Hardcover edition." HPL patron:  Definitely "romantic".  Written like a ballad-about singers appropriately-about surviving "monster" parents-one physically abusive, the others abusively disinterested.  How one's injuries can propel one to great accomplishment.  An intriguing mystery/crime! …More

The Golden Spiders By Stout, Rex 1995-06 - Crimeline 9780553277807 Check Our Catalog Incredibly brilliant Nero Wolfe is famous for his genius at detection. He is also famous for his wealthy clients and extremely high fees. So why has Wolfe accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two people to hire him been ruthlessly murdered? …More

Jerusalem Vigil: The Zion Legacy: Book One By Thoene, Bodie Author Thoene, Brock Joint Author Thoene, Brock 2001-03 - Penguin Books 9780140298567 Check Our Catalog A novel of the struggle for Jerusalem, the story opens in 1948 when the new state of Israel will be proclaimed and British troops prepare to hand over the key to Zion Gate. The Sachar family is caught up in the turmoil, as history unfolds all around them. …More

Covet By Ward, J. R. 2009-09 - Signet Book 9780451228215 Check Our Catalog From the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels comes the first book in a spellbinding new series of mortal sin--and immortal love. Redemption isn't a word Jim Heron knows much about--his specialty is revenge, and to him, sin is all relative. But everything changes when he becomes a fallen angel, and is charged with saving the souls of seven people from the Seven Deadly Sins. Original. …More

Lover Unleashed: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood By Ward, J. R. 2011-03 - New American Library 9780451233165 Check Our Catalog "Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark warrior cloth as her brother. Because she is a fighter by nature, and a maverick when it comes to the traditional role of Chosen females, there is no place for her on the Far Side...and no role for her on the front lines of the war, either. When she suffers a paralyzing injury, human surgeon Dr. Manuel Manello is called in to treat her as only he can--and he soon gets sucked into her dangerous secret world. Although he never before believed in things that go bump in the night--like vampires--he finds himself more than willing to be seduced by the powerful female who marks both his body and his soul. As the two find so much more than an erotic connection, the human and vampire worlds collide...just as a centuries-old score catches up with Payne and puts both her love and her life in deadly jeopardy"-- HPL patron:  Good reading, exciting, great characters and a really good series.   Thumbs up! …More

The Choir Director By Weber, Carl 2011-02 - Kensington Publishing Corporation 9780758231840 Check Our Catalog The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Big Girls Do Cry" takes readers back to church, where it's time for some hard-earned lessons in love, brotherhood, and betrayal. …More

Ladies' Bane By Wentworth, Patricia 2011-02 - Isis 9780753187043 Check Our Catalog …More

Impossible By Werlin, Nancy 2008-09 - Dial Books 9780803730021 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Inspired by the ballad Scarborough Fair, popularized by Simon & Garfunkel, this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance. It tells the story of a teenage girl who has nine months to break an ancient curse in order to save both herself and her unborn daughter. …More

Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic By Weyn, Suzanne 2009-04 - Scholastic Press 9780545085724 Check Our Catalog Chased by their pasts and drawn toward a more hopeful future, four sisters embark on the journey of their lives--aboard the "Titanic."Weyn weaves fact, fiction, and fate in this spellbinding novel. …More

Night Vision By White, Randy Wayne 2011-02 - G. P. Putnam's Sons 9780399157059 Check Our Catalog Doc Ford is on a collision course with death in this extraordinary new novel from the "New York Times" bestselling author. Alot is going on in the trailer park known as Little Guadalajara, inhabited principally by illegal laborers. The park manager is the hired gun of a financial syndicate that wants to develop the property, and he's prepared to do whatever it takes-but he can't figure out what to do about the teenage girl, the one the laborers believe has some sort of gift. When she witnesses him killing a man, though, and runs, there's nothing left to figure: He's got to find her fast and shut her up good. Her only hope for survival: a marine biologist (and sometimes more) named Doc Ford, who along with his friend Tomlinson, must undertake a search through an underground, invisible nation...and just hope he reaches her first. …More

The Skystone By Whyte, Jack 2002-01 - Forge 9780765303721 Check Our Catalog Everyone knows the story-how Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, how Camelot came to be, and about the power struggles that ultimately destroyed Arthur's dreams. But what of the time before Arthur and the forces that created him? How did the legend really come to pass? Before the time of Arthur and his Camelot, Britain was a dark and deadly place, savaged by warring factions of Picts, Celts, and invading Saxons. The Roman citizens who had lived there for generations were suddenly faced with a deadly choice: Should they leave and take up residence in a corrupt Roman world that was utterly foreign, or should they stay and face the madness that would ensue when Britain's last bastion of safety for the civilized, the Roman legions, left? For two Romans, Publius Varrus and his friend Caius Britannicus, there can be only one answer. They will stay, to preserve what is best of Roman life, and will create a new culture out of the wreckage. In doing so, they will unknowingly plant the seeds of legend-for these two men are Arthur's great-grandfathers, and their actions will shape a nation . . . and forge a sword known as Excalibur. …More

The Swiss Family Robinson By Wyss, Johann David Retold by Tait, Chris Illustrator Akib, Jamel 2007-02 - Sterling Publishing (NY) 9781402736940 Check Our Catalog Rich in suspense and surprises, this story of a shipwreck, a deserted island, and a single family who wonder if they can survive entices young readers to come along on a wonderful adventure, where each moment brings a new thrill. Illustrations. …More

Highly Effective Detective Crosses By Yancey, Richard 2011-02 - Minotaur Books 9780312383107 Check Our Catalog In this fourth installment of the Teddy Ruzak mystery series, our earnest detective is faced with an impossible dilemma when a vicious psychopath targets his beloved Gal Friday. Can he save her without sacrificing everything he believes in? …More

Heaven Sent By Zale, Dynah 2007-08 - Urban Books 9781933967189 Check Our Catalog From the author of "Drama in the Church" comes a page-turning story about a woman whose web of deceit and addiction closes in on her, threatening her new life and family. …More