Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

New Books Coming to the Watauga County Library in June and July

Compiled by Katrina Benton and Andrew Stewart

Whether on the beach, on your own deck, at the Greenway or at some other favorite spot, now is the ideal time for al fresco reading—one of the best summer activities going. The Watauga County Public Library is doing its part by stocking up with new books in June and July.

Fiction

Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey
In this contemporary chronicle on Los Angeles life, dozens of characters are introduced and have the opportunity to tell their story such as a young Mexican-American woman, a narcissistic action-movie star, a couple escaping their small hometown and an aging alcoholic from Venice Beach who meets a teenage meth-addict.

Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge
A childhood betrayal tears apart two friends, Abigail and Lila, until 25 years later, Abigail, a successful cookbook author and TV personality, discovers Lila, a recently banished Park Avenue socialite, at her door. Lila helplessly seeks the aid of her longlost friend, who in return seeks revenge by making Lila her housekeeper.

The Beach House by Jane Green
Nan, the crazy old widow without a family in Nantucket, discovers that her never-ending savings are ending. She decides to rent her home to strangers who move in and begin filling her house, once again, with noise, laughter and tears. Nan suddenly finds herself a new family and a fresh outlook on life.

Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons
Lilly Constable McCall returns to Edgewater, Maine, after the death of her beloved husband. In Edgewater, Lilly reminisces about her childhood and recalls the summer of 1962 when a peculiar new girl makes quite an impact on her life.

The Sand Castle by Rita Mae Brown
Two feisty Southern sisters, Juts and Wheezy, return in this dialogue-driven novel set on a single summer day in 1952. Juts’ daughter and Wheezy’s grandson Leroy tag along to the beach to build a sand castle, but Wheezy’s daughter—Leroy’s mother—has just died, leaving Leroy frightened by the world around him.

My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates
Oates revisits the Jon Benet Ramsay murder, replacing the Ramsays with the Rampikes. Dad Bix’s bullying and compulsive philandering lead mother Betsey to obsess over making her daughterinto a prize-winning figure skater, and the tale of greed, ambition and tragedy is chronicled by son Skylar.

Last Kiss by Luanne Rice
The bestselling author returns to Hubbard’s Point, Connecticut, and to beloved characters from Beach Girls to tell the haunting story of a close-knit community grappling with a heartbreaking tragedy, and of a woman rebuilding her life and reclaiming a love she thought lost a lifetime ago.

Time is a River by Mary Alice Monroe
Mia Landan, a recovering breast cancer patient, leaves Charleston for the Appalachian Mountains to seek refuge at a fishing cabin near Asheville after discovering her husband’s infidelity.

Palace Council by Stephen Carter
The complex relationships between many of the 1960s most influential political and civil rights leaders fuels a conspiracy. The history lesson is deftly woven with fictional characters and intrigue.

Man With the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove
What would have happened if V-E Day had not ended World War II in Europe and the Allies had faced an Iraq-like fanatical Nazi resistance? The Nazis might have used a vast array of unconventional warfare, and the Allies forced to fight a very different war.

Telex From Cuba by Rachel Kushner
Kushner’s colorful, character-driven debut captures the essence of life for a gilded circle of American expatriates in pre-Castro Cuba, chronicling a medly of privileged partiers, philandering spouses and their rebellious children. The fun ends when rebels attack American industrial sugar plantations and other American-owned businesses.

Romance

Married Lovers by Jackie Collins
Personal trainer Cameron Paradise flees her boyfriend in Hawaii to discover a new life in the L.A. scene, filled with drugs, lust and desire. She meets Ryan Lambert, a married man and successful movie producer, who becomes her lover.

Fearless by Diana Palmer
Rodrigo Ramirez, an undercover cop, is sent to work as a farmhand in Jacobsville, Texas, to investigate a drug smuggling operation. Ramirez meets Gloryanne, the farm owner’s stepsister, and falls in love. Now, Ramirez must balance work and love in this high-paced romance.

Tribute by Nora Roberts
As former child star Cilla McGowan tries to make her famous grandmother’s long-neglected farm habitable, Cilla is haunted by the mysteries surrounding her Marilyn Monroe-like grandmother’s death. The hunky graphic designer next door haunts her in a different manner.

Close by Martina Cole
A bestselling novelist in the United Kingdom, Cole now has her sights on the United States with this London gangland take on The Sopranos. Spanning more than 40 years in the underworld, this tale is about Patrick Brodie’s love affair with Lily, the only woman who ever made him think of marriage.

Just Too Good to be True by E. Lynn Harris
Brady Bledsoe is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL. But a beautiful and charming cheerleader has her sights set on ending Brady’s celibate pledge and maybe getting a piece of the big NFL payday. Meanwhile, Brady’s mother tries to protect her boy as she always has and keep the secret she has kept from him all these years.

Thriller/Suspense/Mystery

The Reapers by John Connolly
Louis witnesses a brutal murder as a young boy that shakes his entire small, southern town. Years later, Louis cannot carry the burden any longer and decides to fight back with his partner Angel.

Plague Ship by Clive Cussler and Jack DuBrul
In the fifth novel of Cussler’s series on the exploits of the Oregon, an old, worn ship on the outside but a modern designed weapon and technology base on the inside, Juan Cabrillo, the captain, is assigned yet another exciting mission in the Persian Gulf against a dangerous cult.

Into the Fire by Suzanne Brockmann
Ex-Marine Vinh Murphy has been depressed and MIA from elite security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated since his wife was killed in the crossfire of what should have been a routine assignment. Now the neo-Nazi group, thought to be the perpetrators of his wife’s death, blames him for their leader’s death.

Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais
Elvis Cole became a star when he cleared an innocent man of a murder charge. But when that innocent man is found dead three years later holding pictures of the victim, Cole finds himself on trial.

Fever: A Nameless Detective Novel by Bill Pronzini
The Nameless Detective takes on his 33rd whodunit mystery. This time, Nameless investigates the beating of a loyal churchgoer’s son.

Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
After the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux has left the bayou to recuperate on a ranch in the Montana mountains. But he is soon embroiled in a murder on the location of a movie being filmed nearby.

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich
Bond Enforcement Agent Stephanie Plum has yet another intense adventure when she finds herself in the center of a $9 million bank robbery, a hot relationship, a murder and a kidnapping.

Killer View by Ridley Pearson
Sherrif Walt Fleming sets out on a search-and-rescue mission when a skier goes missing at Sun Valley’s Galena summit, but within minutes, a member of his team is gunned down by a sniper and his best friend disappears.

Losing Ground by Catherine Aird
The dramatic theft of an 18th century painting is discovered moments before the old manor house, depicted in the background of the painting, is burned down. Detective Chief Inspector Sloan must delve into the rival groups vying to preserve the property or develop it.

Uneasy Relations by Aaron Elkins
The Edgar Award-winning author’s newest offering about professor of forensics Gideon Oliver, or as he is better known, the Skeleton Detective, investigates a skeleton of a human woman clutching the skeleton of a part-Neanderthal, part-human discovered at the Rock of Gibralter. Along the way, two fresh dead bodies have torn Gibraltar apart.

Wishbones by Carolyn Haines
Southern sleuth Sarah Booth Delaney packs up her hound dog and private investigation business and follows her acting bug to Hollywood where she quickly lands the leading lady part in a racy remake of Body Heat. But can she handle leaving her ancestral home in Mississippi, and who is to blame for the mysterious accidents around the movie set?

The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst
The year is 1937; Europe is preparing for war. Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier, a 1914 war hero, finds himself in the middle of abduction and betrayal in Warsaw, as well as a passionate love affair with a Parisian woman who is a lawyer for the League of Nations.

Death and Honor by W.E.B. Griffin and William Butterworth
Cletus Frade, a Marine pilot recruited by the OSS, is ordered to set up his own official airline in 1943 Argentina. Frade investigates two suspicious German operations interwoven with the airline that could lead to his ultimate death.

Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin
Detective Dana Cutler is assigned to follow college student Charlotte Walsh in Washington, D.C. But, after her unexpected murder, Cutler’s life turns into an action-packed chase to find the killer.

Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
Bestseller Iris Johansen and her Edgar Award-winning son Roy collaborate on their first thriller. Marine architect Hannah Bryson is hired by a U.S. maritime museum to ensure the decommissioned Soviet submarine Silent Thunder is safe for public exhibition. But is it really a trap?

Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
After ten novels, Daniel Silva and his intriguing hero Gabriel Allon have established themselves at the top of the international espionage game. Allon is led to Russia by the death of a journalist, but he finds a new place rich in oil with Stalinists primed to reclaim the lost empire.

Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
Prostitutes are disappearing one by one at the hands of a serial killer who makes their worst nightmares come true, and FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy is drawn into the venomous mind games of the killer who uses spiders to do his dirty work.

Fractured by Karin Slaughter
In one of Atlanta’s most lavish neighborhoods, the bestselling author returns with a ticking time bomb of suspense, a gritty portrait of a cop’s life and a searing exploration of a shocking crime and its aftermath.

Hit and Run by Lawrence Block
Hit man John Keller was already planning to quit and settle down with his stamp collection, but his client paid in advance for a job in Iowa. Instead of finding trouble with the crime he committed, he sees his face plastered on every news station as the murderer of the charismatic governor of Ohio.

Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich
Dr. Jonathan Ransom is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his wife when they’re trapped in a blizzard and she is killed. When Jonathan receives an envelope addressed to his wife containing two baggage-claim tickets, he finds himself in a life-and-death struggle for his wife’s possessions. Suddenly the subject of an international manhunt and the target of a master assassin, Jonathan is forced on the run.

The Last Oracle by James Rollins
Commander Gray Pierce is approached by a man only seconds before he is shot and dies in Pierce’s arms. This event sets Pierce and Sigma Force, one of the most closely guarded secrets in the United States’ espionage network that deals with archeological and scientific threats to the world, on a globetrotting and action-packed mystery.

TailSpin by Catherine Coulter
FBI Special Agent Jackson Crowne is forced to land his plane in the Appalachians with passenger Dr. Timonthy MacLean, a renowned psychiatrist. Crowne discovers MacLean has frontal lobe dementia and is unable to keep doctor-patient confidentiality, which means someone is trying to unlock Washington’s most kept secrets from the doctor, but who?

Death Angel by Linda Howard
Drea is proud to be the girl of Rafael Salinas, a coldhearted killer with a long criminal record. But, after realizing the horror of her beau’s actions, she robs him and takes his money. He hires an assassin to kill her but falls short. Now, with a new mindset and the FBI, Drea seeks to take down Rafael and all his dangerous friends.

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell
Jill Breck with Zach Balfour, her bodyguard, discover the real world of art collecting and the high-stakes game its participants play, as well as run a tricky race against a killer.

The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver
A psychotic killer gains access to America’s biggest data miner and uses personal information to rape, rob and kill innocent victims and then blame others for his own crimes.

Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
After the death of her husband, Anne Dunne decides to plan a family vacation with her three children to find healing. But, as soon as the family sets sail, everything goes wrong. Anne struggles to keep her daughter from committing suicide, her son off drugs and her other younger son calm in this twisted thriller.

Shadow Command by Dale Brown
General Patrick McLanahan battles Russia and his own United States to save a space station. McLanahan refuses to allow the nations to proceed in their mission, even if he has to die trying.

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
Jack Reacher is just passing through two towns in Colorado, Hope and Despair, when he is pushed into a war between the two. Reacher fights on Hope’s team to try to crack the dark secrets of Despair, a town linked to a terrible American war. Will Reacher give up or help Hope take the win?

Fantasy & Science Fiction

Blood Noir by Laurell Hamilton
Vampire Anita Blake agrees to do a favor for Jason, her werewolf lover, but is caught up in a scandal that not only threatens the reign master, Jean-Claude, but also makes her a strategic aid in an ancient vampire queen’s rise to power.

Undead and Unworthy by Mary Janice Davidson
In the seventh Queen Betsy novel, vampire heroine Betsy Taylor must survive suburban married life, an insufferable ghost and an unwelcome visit from a pack of formerly feral vampires.

Brida by Paulo Coelho
Brida, young Irish girl, is on a quest for knowledge. Beginning with her interest in magic, the wise people Brida meets along the way introduce her to the spiritual world.

By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber
The mercantile kingdom of Charis has bitterly defeated the combinded navies of the rest of the world of Safehold, an alliance designed to destroy Charis. Charis has no land army presence to protect against sieges, yet the manipulations of a mysterious being that calls himself Merlin has brought about good fortune. The Church of God Awaiting will stop at nothing to bring down Charis, a technological land, to the medieval lifestyle of the rest of Safehold.

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
Daniel X has a power even better than the powers to stop bullets and leap buildings in a single bound. The greatest power is the power to create, and he is earth’s protector, the Alien Hunter. Finally, he is closing in on his parents’ assassin to seek vengeance.

The Valley–Westside War by Harry Turtledove
Ours is the only world that owns the secret of travel between parallel continuums. Turtledove’s teenaged heroes usually use their powers for trade with parallel worlds. But one parallel world is different because there the atomic war began in 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love.

Western

Resolution by Robert B. Parker
Everett Hitch and his friend Virgil Cole find themselves in the middle of a no-law, no-order war against the greedy copper mine owner in an Old West town.

Politics

Letter to a New President by Robert Byrd and Steve Kettman
West Virginian Robert Byrd is the longest-serving member of the United States Senate in the history of the country. In his nintieth year of life, he writes about the commonsense lessons he has learned from his unique vantage point to help the next president wrestle with the heavy demands of the office.

This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich
The bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed showcases instances of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in 62 previously published essays.

Religion/Spirituality

End of Days: Predictions and Prophesies about the End of the World by Sylvia Browne and Lindsay Harrison
Psychic Sylvia Browne discusses the End of Days and answers questions about prophecies and predictions of the future, such as what to do to prevent catastrophic events from happening.

Why is God Laughing by Deepak Chopra
Bestselling author Deepak Chopra uses the fictional plight of a comedian and his unlikely mentor to give a refreshing new take on spirituality. And he may just show a path back to hope, joy and even enlightenment. The laughter along the way makes the answer to the title question go down a lot easier.