Bahama Burnout (Oceanview Publishing, 2009) by Don Bruns is the latest in the Mike Sever series.  Sever is a rock and roll writer who finds himself embroiled in a mystery when he heads to Nassau, Bahamas.  He is on assignment to interview Jonah and Rita Britt, owners of the legendary Highland Studios.  Known for pumping out hits, Highland is where some of the most recognized names in rock made music magic.  But, a devastating fire and an unidentified body have got everyone uneasy.  What is the real story behind the fire?  Will Sever find the truth before anyone else dies?

Mudbound (Algonquin, 2008) by Hillary Jordan  has won many awards, including the Bellwether Prize for Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver.

When Irene Nemirovsky began working on Suite Francaise (Vintage International, 2006), she was a highly successful writer living in Paris.  But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died.  For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.  Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 into a wealthy banking family and emigrated to France during the Russian Revolution.  After attending the Sorbonne, she began to write and swiftly achieved success with an early novel, David Golder.  Her other novels are The Ball, Snow in Autumn, Dogs and Wolves, and The Courilof Affair.  Read The New York Times Sunday Book Review that calls Suite a “stunning book.” Another novel has also been recently discovered and is now in print, Fire in the Blood.

Pam Jenoff’s third novel, Almost Home, takes place in London and Cambridge, England.  The heroine, Jordan Weiss, works for the U.S. State Department, who is assigned to London at her own request.  Ten years earlier, Jordan had attended Cambridge as a graduate student.  She had been the coxswain on the school’s rowing crew.  She had fallen in love with Jared Short, another member of the crew, but he drowned the night before the big race.  As she reaquaints herself with London and meets up with some of her old school friends, Jordan begins to understand that Jared did not drown, that he was already dead when he went into the river. 

Minette Walters is the author of 14 suspense novels and the winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger Award, among others.  Her work has been translated into 26 languages.  Walters lives in Dorset, England.

I recently went on a Walters binge,  reading The Sculptress, The Ice House, and The Scold’s Bridle.  She still is the Queen of the psychological thriller!

Her latest, The Chameleon’s Shadow, brings to the forefront the very real psychological damage done to soldiers.  The lead character, Lt. Charles Acland, comes home from Iraq with serious head injuries and permanent disfigurement.  He is crippled by migraines and begins to display sporadic bouts of aggression.  When he almost beats a man to death and becomes a suspect in three killings, he is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation and trauma.

Buy The Chameleon’s Shadow and all of Walter’s books at your local, independent bookstore.

Love is in the air and in all these titles!

Lovesick (Speak/Penguin Young Readers Group, 2005) for teens by Jake Coburn

Love Hurts (Edge/Gauntlet, 2006) by Barry Hoffman

Love Stinks (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2002) by Gin Sander

Love in the Time of Cholera (Penguin, 1989) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love the One You’re With (St. Martin’s Press, 2008) by Emily Giffin

Love and Respect  (Thomas Nelson, 2004) by Emerson Eggerichs

Love and Other Natural Disasters (Hachette Group, 2009) by Holly Shumas

Love Don’t Live Here Anymore ( Dutton/Plume, 2002) by Denene Millner and Nick Chiles

Love Story  (Bantam, 1971) by Erich Segal

Love Medicine (HarperCollins, 2005) by Louise Erdrich

The Love Dare  (B&H Publishing, 2008) by Stephen Kendrik

Love Matters  (Harlequin, 2008) by Delilah

Love Me Forever  (Avon, 1996) by Johanna Lindsey

Love Me Forever (Kensington Zebra, 2004) by Rosemary Laurey

Love Me Forever (Jove, 2003) by Donna Fletcher

Love Mode  (Blu, 2005) by Yuki Shimizu

Love Mercy (Penguin, 2009) by Earlene Fowler

Love Magic Book  (Little, Brown and Co., 2008) by Gillian Kemp

Love at Second Sight (AuthorHouse, 2000) by Carol Cail

You can find these titles and many more at your local independent bookstores.

Written by Barbara Levenson, a longtime Miami resident who currently serves as a senior judge in the circuit court of Miami-Dade County, Fatal February (Oceanview Publishing, February 2009) introduces protagonist Mary Magruder Katz.

For Mary, a half Jewish, half Southern Baptist Miami criminal defense attorney, things are about to get completely complicated. Mary’s life starts to spin out of control when a minor fender bender turns out to be an unlikely shot from Cupid’s bow. Carlos Martin, the other car’s driver, isn’t just a distracted driver–he’s distracting. Carlos is charming, handsome, and mysterious. Hardly before she knows what hit her, Mary breaks off her engagement, jumps into a sizzling romance with Carlos, gets fired from her former fiancé’s highbrow law firm, starts her own practice, and lands her first client, Lillian Yarmouth.

But Lillian isn’t just any client; she’s the prime suspect in what has become the Miami society murder of the year. And it’s up to Mary to prove Lillian’s innocence. But first, Mary will have to prove her own innocence by defending an ethics claim brought about by her former fiancé.

In the midst of clearing her name and investigating Lillian’s alleged crime of passion, Mary finds that this case, like all matters of the heart, is anything but black and white. And Mary has clearly stumbled onto something that has someone seeing red.  February may be the shortest month of the year, but Mary’s got some long days–and nights–ahead. This month could be a real killer.

Barbara Levenson is a cum laude graduate of the University of Miami Law School, and has resided in Miami, Florida, for the past 32 years. Barbara has served as a prosecutor, and run her own law practice where she focused on criminal defense and civil rights litigation. Barbara was elected to a judgeship in the circuit court of Miami-Dade County where she still serves as senior judge.

What better way to kick off the new year than with books about our history-making 44th President, Barack Obama.  Gallopade International is an award-winning publisher of more than 15,000 educational products for children and adults.  For 25 years, they have focused on social studies with an emphasis on history, geography and biographies all correlated to state standards.  They are offering seven resources about the President-Elect and his family. 

You can find many other books by President-Elect Obama including Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Three Rivers Press, 2004) and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage, 2008), at your local independent bookstores.

Another historical event happens on February 11th and 12th, 2009, when the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission officially kicks off a year-long birthday celebration of our 16th President.  Gallopade has seven exciting, colorful, educational and interactive products for teachers and parents.

There have been so many books written about Lincoln that it would be impossible to count them, read them, or recommend them!  One of the best, though, is The Lincoln Bicentennial Collection: 3-volume box set (Library of America, 2008).  Called “the best selection of Lincoln’s writings available today, perhaps the best ever,” by the Christian Science Monitor, this set includes the 2-volume edition edited by the late Lincoln scholar Don E. Fehrenbacher and the brand new The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy.  Order through your local independent bookstore!

Leslie from Inkwood Bookstore  in Tampa, Florida, recommends Little Brother (Tor Books, 2008) by Cory Doctorow and Waiting for Teddy Williams (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2004) by Howard Frank Mosher.

Russ Adams at Bienville Books in Mobile, Alabama, recommends The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  Another good book, says Russ, is The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, by Kristin Levine, a good read in the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckelberry Finn.  He also recommends the paperback edition of Alabama Moon by Watt Key as a good book for boys who like outdoors and don’t like reading!  This book is being made into a movie starring Jimmy Bennett as Moon.

Julie Schoerke at jkscommunications recommends The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones by Helen Hemphill (Front Street, 2008).

Carol Moyer at Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, North Carolina, recommends Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins, Something Wicked by Alan Gratz, Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci, Darkling Plain  (fourth and final installment of The Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve, Nation by Terry Pratchett and Lamplighter by Dean Cornish.

Happy Holidays to all of you readers who keep the book spirit alive in your local independent bookstores! 

Christine Kringle by Lynn Brittney with illustrations by Brita Granstrom (Lynn Brittney, 2007).  Enter the Christine Kringle writing contest.  Deadline is January 31, 2009.

The True Meaning of Christmas by Santa Claus with Mitch Finley (The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2008)

Winter’s First Snowflake by Cheri L. Hallwood with illustrations by Patricia M. Rose (Forever Young Publishers, 2006)

The Night Before A Dogtown Christmas by Nola Lee Kelsey with illustrations by Avonelle Kelsey (Dogs Eye View Media, 2008).  And, for a laugh outloud take on living in the country, read Kelsey’s Bitch Unleashed!

Conspiracy of Silence (Oceanview Publishing, 2008) by Martha Powers is the story of Clare Prentice, a young woman who finds out she is adopted and her search for her biological parents.  Unraveling the mystery of her life, Clare finds out that her mother was murdered and the case was never solved.  Read a review by Melissa Wade, Vero Beach Book Center at SIBA’s Authors Round the South site.

Traffic, Why We Drive the Way We Do (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008) by Tom Vanderbilt is a look at the physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us.  Some of the findings are astonishing:  road rage is good for society, most crashes happen on sunny, dry days, and that our minds can trick us into thinking the next lane is moving faster!  The book has its own blog and is quite humorous reading.  As Mary Roach says in her NY Times review, “it’s a surprising, enlightening look at the psychology of human beings behind the steering wheels.”  She also offers an alternate title for the book:  Idiots!

November

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon, Amber Beattie, David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Richard Johnson, Shelia Hancock, Rupert Friend, Jim Norton
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: November 7th (limited)
Based on: THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne

Bruno is a young boy living in Berlin in 1942 with his well-to-do family. But soon, the family is forced to move to Poland due to his father’s promotion at the Krakow concentration camp. There, Bruno meets and befriends a young Jewish boy being held in the camp. Their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

Quantum of Solace
Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Gemma Arterton
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: November 14th (wide)
Based on: The short story “Quantum of Solace” by Ian Fleming

Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 fights the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr. White, who reveals the organization that blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Forensic intelligence links an MI6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti, where a case of mistaken identity introduces Bond to the beautiful but feisty Camille, a woman who has her own vendetta. Camille leads Bond straight to Dominic Greene, a ruthless businessman and major force within the mysterious organization.

On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world’s most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano. Using his associates in the organization and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land.

In a minefield of treachery, murder and deceit, Bond allies with old friends in a battle to uncover the truth. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, 007 must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene’s sinister plan and stop his organization.

The Soloist
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, Lisa Gay Hamilton
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: November 21st (limited)
Based on: THE SOLOIST by Steve Lopez

Journalist Steve Lopez discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.

Twilight
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Cam Gigandet, Edi Gathegi, Rachelle Lefevre, Anna Kendrick, Taylor Lautner
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: November 21st (wide)
Based on: TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight is an action-packed, modern-day love story between a vampire and a human. Bella Swan has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother remarries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn’t expect much of anything to change.

Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen, a boy unlike any she’s ever met. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance. Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands and hasn’t aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he’s immortal. But he doesn’t have fangs and he doesn’t drink human blood; Edward and his family are unique among vampires in their lifestyle choice. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for — a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.

But what will Edward and Bella do when James, Laurent and Victoria, the Cullens’ mortal vampire enemies, come to town, looking for her?

The Road
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: November 26th (wide)
Based on: THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

After a nuclear explosion, a man goes on a nightmarish road trip in an attempt to transport his son to safety, while fending off starving stragglers and marauding packs of cannibals.

Slumdog Millionaire
Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Kahn, Madhur Mittal, Freida Pinto, Tanay Chheda, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: November 28th (limited)
Based on: Q&A by Vikas Swarup

Jamal Malik, an 18-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions.

December 2008

Defiance
Cast: Daniel Craig, George MacKay, Live Schrieber, Jamie Bell, Allan Corduner, Alexa Davalos, Tomas Arana, Mark Feuerstein
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 12th (limited)
Based on: DEFIANCE: The Bielski Partisans by Nechama Tec

Four Jewish brothers living in Nazi-occupied Poland escape into the forest where they join up with Russian resistance fighters in battling the Nazis. Throughout the war they built a village inside the forest and saved the lives of more than 1,200 other Jews.

The Tale of Despereaux
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Ben Falcone, Emma Watson, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: December 19th (wide)
Based on: THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX by Kate DiCamillo

Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Dor, there was magic in the air, laughter aplenty and gallons of mouthwatering soup. But an accident left the King brokenhearted, the Princess filled with longing and the townsfolk without their soup. Sunlight disappeared. The world became gray. All hope was lost in this land…until Despereaux Tilling was born.

A modern fairy tale from visionary filmmaker Gary Ross, together with directors Sam Fell and Rob Stevenhagen, The Tale of Despereaux tells the story of several unlikely heroes: Despereaux, a brave mouse banished to the dungeon for speaking with a human; Roscuro, a good-hearted rat who loves light and soup, but is exiled to darkness; Pea, a Princess in a gloomy castle who is prisoner to her father’s grief; and Mig, a servant girl who longs to be a Princess, but is forced to serve the jailer.

Tiny and graced with oversized ears, Despereaux was born too big for his little world. Refusing to live his life cowering, he befriends a Princess named Pea and learns to read (rather than eat) books — reveling in stories of knights, dragons and fair maidens. Banished from Mouseworld for being more man than mouse, Despereaux is rescued by another outcast, Roscuro, who also wants to hear the tales. But when the Princess dismisses Roscuro’s friendship, he becomes the ultimate rat and plots revenge with fellow outsider Mig.

After Pea is kidnapped, Despereaux discovers he is the only one who can rescue her and that even the tiniest mouse can find the courage of a knight in shining armor. In this tale of bravery, forgiveness and redemption, one small creature will teach a kingdom that it takes only a little light to show the truth: what you look like doesn’t equal what you are.

Yes Man
Cast: Jim Carrey, Bradley Cooper, Zooey Deschanel, Sasha Alexander, Karen Bankhead, John Michael Higgins, Danny Masterson
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: December 19th (wide)
Based on: YES MAN by Danny Wallace

A man signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything…and anything. At first, unleashing the power of “yes” transforms his life in amazing and unexpected ways, but he soon discovers that opening up his life to endless possibilities can have its drawbacks.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Kimberly Scott, Julia Ormond, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: December 25th (wide)
Based on: The short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

An old man physically ages backward. At age 50, he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman and then must come to terms with the relationship as they literally grow in opposite directions.

Marley & Me
Cast: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Arkin, Haley Bennett
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: December 25th (wide)
Based on: MARLEY & ME by John Grogan

An ambitious young reporter, John Grogan, and his wife, Jenny, also a reporter, move to a Florida, buy a house and adopt a Labrador puppy they name Marley. Marley quickly becomes a rollicking force of nature in their lives.

Revolutionary Road
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, David Harbour, Michael Shannon, Zoe Kazan, Ryan Simpkins, Ty Keegan Simkins
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 26th (wide)
Based on: REVOLUTIONARY ROAD by Richard Yeats

Revolutionary Road is the story of a young couple trying to find fulfillment in an age of conformity. Trapped in a world of encoded convention, they dream without faith, as lies and self-deceptions build to explosive consequences.

Fresh Kills (G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 2008) is Bill Loehfelm’s debut novel and it is a thriller.  His main character, Junior Sanders, is a hard-drinking, blue-collar bartender born and raised in the bleak landscape of Staten Island.  When he and his sister, Julia, are reunited upon the murder of their father, Junior has to face the brutal truth about his father, an alcoholic and violent man.  The story begins as a simple who-done-it and changes into a psychological drama centered upon two siblings who are desperately trying to survive their father’s murder: one with love and compassion and the other with hatred and self-destructiveness.

Fresh Kills won the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  The winner was selected from 5,000 submitted manuscripts.  Putnam editors chose the 10 finalists and readers chose the winner based on online excerpts.

The second thriller is The Legal Limit (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), Martin Clark’s third novel.  The story is about a murder and cover-up that comes back to haunt the witness, who just happens to be a law student and the brother of the killer.  Like Fresh Kills, the story in Legal is the story of siblings raised by a violent and abusive father.   It is the story of one brother taking the brunt of the abuse to protect the other brother.  It is the story of two brothers, Mason and Gates Hunt,  turning out completely different from one another.  And, it is the story of how much of your own life do you risk for the sake of your family.

Allison Glock points out in her NYTimes Sunday Book Review, that Clark’s real strength in this novel is his familiarity with the material.  As a circuit court judge in Stuart, Virginia, he knows the people of small towns.  He knows the law, of course, and how it can be used and abused by both the honest and dishonest among us.  When Mason, now back home as the commonwealth attorney, is accused by his brother Gates of the years-old murder, he must concoct a legal defense for himself.  A defense that will eventually encumber his family and his best friend and assistant commonwealth attorney, Custis Norman.  Will he be able to pull if off when overwhelming evidence of his guilt is brought to light? 

Clark’s previous novels are The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and Plain Heathen Mischief.

The Neurology of Angels (Friction Publishing, 2008) is Krista Tibbs’ first novel.  She studied neuroscience at MIT, holds an MBA in health sector management from Duke University and now works in the biotechnology industry conducting clinical research for diseases with unmet medical needs.

The basic story of this novel tells how a new drug is brought to market and the politics behind how the drug companies use profits for research versus how the costs of these drugs impact the economic situation of those who need the drugs.  It is also about ordinary people that are trying to do what’s right for themselves and their families.  The story works through the struggles that pit parents, politicians and researchers against each other.  In this story, the rare disease that aflicts young Sera is named vanishing white matter.

As Dianne Salerni points out in her review for PODBRAM, the novel focuses on the issues of national health care, the cost of medicine, and whether FDA regulations are stringent enough to protect us from drugs that are more deadly than the disease they are meant to cure.  Quite remarkably, Tibbs is able to bring the reader into this world and see the different sides to this very political and emotional issue.