Psychological Suspense

            This is the type of novel that keeps you up at night until you’ve finished reading it. Strange events, intrigue, danger, murder, and more – these books have them all.

            The Girl in the Red Coat is written by Kate Hamer. Beth, a single mother and her daughter Carmel are visiting a local outdoor festival when Carmel suddenly disappears. After an exhaustive search, Beth is told by the authorities that Carmel might be gone for good, but Beth refuses to give up. The novel is told by two narrators: Beth, as she continues her search, and Carmel, who has been abducted by a man claiming to be her grandfather.

            The Secret Life of Souls is written by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee. Delia Cross is a talented 11-year-old actress whose hard work has provided her dysfunctional family members with a life of luxury. A freak fire in a supposedly haunted dollhouse puts Delia at risk but Caity, her Australian cattle dog, comes to her rescue, saving her and giving her emotional support in the days afterward.

            Don’t You Cry is written by Mary Kubica. In it, two stories converge. Quinn, a young woman from Chicago is mystified when her roommate Esther disappears from their apartment, leaving only a letter behind. Then Alex, a 19-year-old coffee shop worker in a small Michigan town befriends an unusual young woman that he calls Pearl. Are they the same woman?

            June: a Novel is written by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore. Cassie Danvers, mourning the loss of her beloved grandmother June, is shocked to learn that she has inherited the entire estate of legendary matinee idol Jack Montgomery who has claimed her as his granddaughter. Jack’s daughters come to claim the fortune as their rightful due. An investigation reveals equal portions of murder, blackmail, and betrayal from the past.

            The Girls: a Novel is written by Emma Cline. Mesmerized by a band of girls in the park she perceives as enjoying a life of free and careless abandon, 1960s teen Evie Boyd becomes obsessed with gaining acceptance into their circle, only to find herself drawn into a cult and seduced by its charismatic leader.

            The Twilight Wife: a Novel is written by A.J. Banner. After a diving accident, Kyra Withrop suffers amnesia about the last two years, but as her memory returns she experiences intense fear as she remembers the truth about her marriage and about the island residents whom she had believed to be her friends.

Organization and Time Management

            Start now to streamline your life and accomplish more with the help of these current publications.

            Clearing Clutter: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual is written by Alexandra Chauran, a professional psychic intuitive who has been interviewed on National Public Radio. Her focus is not only on clearing physical clutter but on mental and spiritual clutter; she uses feng shui interior decorating, meditation exercises, and psychic guidance to accomplish this.

            The Smart Guide to Winning Back Your Time is written by Jeffrey P. Davidson, an authority on time management and work-life balance issues. Here he presents tips and techniques for better managing and restructuring daily life’s activities to gain back control of free time and time spent with loved ones.

            Driven to Distraction at Work: How to Focus and Be More Productive is written by Edward M. Hallowell, an authority on attention deficit disorder. He pinpoints why we often lose our focus at work, explaining the underlying psychological and emotional dynamics behind each example, and advises on how to train our attention.

            L’Art de la Simplicite = How to Live More with Less is written by Dominique Loreau, a French essayist who has written other books on living the simple life. She provides a step-by-step guide to decluttering one’s home, mind, and body, offering such suggestions as removing unwanted possessions, spending money on experiences, and rejecting negative relationships.

            Decluttering Your Home: Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets is written by Geralin Thomas, an instructor to professional organizers who also appeared on the Arts & Entertainment network show Hoarders for six seasons. Get started on decluttering using her tips, techniques, and trade secrets.

            Mess: One Man’s Struggle to Clean up His House and His Act is written by Barry Yourgrau, also the author of the memoir Wearing Dad’s Head. He embarks on this project after his girlfriend issues an ultimatum. The book draws on his experiences as both a hoarder and an investigator to profile subjects ranging from professional decluttering services and anti-hoarding therapy to the medical causes of hoarding and the psychological ramifications of clutter on relationships.  

New Year"s Resolutions: Diet & Nutrition

            New Year, new resolutions! Or, you can begin your self-improvement program any time of year! Here are some recently published books to help you out.

            The Change Your Biology Diet: the Proven Program for Lifelong Weight Loss, written by Dr. Louis J. Aronne, is his life-changing program and diet plan to effectively overcome addictions to sugar, fat, and salt, and achieve permanent weight loss, through adjustments to one’s metabolism.

            The American Cancer Society New Healthy Eating Cookbook, 3^rd edition is written by Jeanne Besser, a former food columnist and author of several cookbooks. This is a compilation of recipes for healthy eating that also include substitution suggestions, kitchen tips, shopping ideas, and advice on portion sizes.

            The Big Five: Five Simple Things You Can Do to Live a Longer, Healthier Life, is written by Sanjiv Chopra, the former Faculty Dean of Continuing Education at Harvard Medical School. He expands upon these five things which include drinking coffee, exercising regularly, adding nuts to a diet, getting Vitamin C and practicing meditation.

            Eat Right for Your Type: the Individualized Diet Solution is written by Peter D’Adamo. This is a revision of his earlier works and includes cutting-edge research. There is more guidance on weight loss, information on the latest diet trends, examination of healthy microbiomes, and a ten-day jump-start diet.

            The Mindspan Diet: Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk, Minimize Memory Loss, and Keep Your Brain Young is written by Preston Estep, a Harvard University geneticist. The book is based on research done on long living populations with the lowest levels of dementia. The author recommends important dietary changes to protect cognitive functions; fifty recipes are included.

            The Love Diet: a Personalized, Proven Program that Changes the Way You Feel to Transform the Way You Look is written by Dr. Connie Guttersen and Dr. Mark Dedomenico of the 20/20 Lifestyles Clinic, a medically based weight loss clinic. They hypothesize that self-doubt, self-loathing, and low self-esteem are the reasons for destructive eating habits, and present their seven-stage diet program to promote permanent change through emotional reinforcement and healthy meals.

            Food Freedom Forever: Letting Go of Bad Habits, Guilt, and Anxiety around Food is written by Melissa Hartwig, a nutritionist. She shares advice on how to improve energy and health while letting go of negative food habits, outlining a three-part plan for long-term control and recovery from restriction breaks taken during the holidays, vacations, and times of stress.

Passings of 2016

Here is a listing of writers who passed away during 2016.

Richard Adams was a British novelist best known for Watership Down, a novel that developed from stories that Adams would tell his daughters when they were children. He wrote in the fantasy genre, for both adults and children; his novels often were told from the perspective of animals. Some of his other works include Shardik and The Plague Dogs.

Pat Conroy wrote novels about life in the southern United States. His fiction included Beach Music, The Great Santini, and The Prince of Tides. He also wrote the memoir My Losing Season, about how basketball influenced his life, and A Lowcountry Life: Reflections on a Writing Life, a collection of his letters, interviews, and magazine articles.

Umberto Eco was an Italian novelist, literary critic, and university professor. His most famous works were the novels The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum, and The Island of the Day Before. He also wrote academic textbooks, children’s books, and essays.

Carrie Fisher, an actress whose most recognized film role was that of Princess Leia in the Star Wars series also was the author of several books, including Postcards from the Edge, Wishful Drinking, and most recently The Princess Diarist. She also worked as a “script doctor” in the film industry.

W.P. Kinsella was a Canadian novelist and short story writer whose most famous work was the novel Shoeless Joe, on which the film Field of Dreams was based. His other written works mainly dealt with two separate themes: baseball and life on the Canadian Indian reservations.

Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for the book To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic about attitudes about race and class held by members of society in the 1930s Deep South. It has been read by generations of American students. Lee never published another work until 2015 when a manuscript written earlier was discovered and published as Go Set a Watchman.

Gloria Naylor was an American writer born in New York City. She obtained a Master’s degree in African American literature at Yale University. Her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, won a 1983 National Book Award. Naylor also worked as a professor of writing and African American literature at several universities.

Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, coming to the United States as a Holocaust survivor. As well as writing 57 books, Wiesel was a professor, political activist and Nobel Laureate. His most famous book was Night, an account of his experiences as a prisoner of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

The Girls of Atomic City: the Untold Story of the Women who Helped Win World War II

           Written by journalist Denise Kiernan, this is the story of the beginning of the atomic warfare era and the women who helped make it happen. Beginning in the 1930s, the idea of atomic energy began to develop within the international scientific community. Then with the advent of World War II and its horrific cost to human life, the United States government decided to achieve the development of atomic warfare, before the enemy did. They established several worksites to conduct this mammoth project; the largest one located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee is the one that Kiernan examines.

            Using in-depth interviews of some of the surviving workers, along with historic documents, news articles, and other sources, Kiernan describes how this project influenced such sociological trends as working women, segregation of the races, mingling of the sexes, and the rapid development of a community. This mix of history and memoir is both informative and enjoyable to read. Historic photos of the worksite accompany the text.

Holiday Mysteries -- Part Two

Are you ready for some more holiday mayhem? Here it is.

            Christmas Caramel Murder, the latest in a series written by Joanne Fluke, finds protagonist Hannah preparing for the town’s annual production of A Christmas Carol. She also is supporting her friend, Lisa, who is implicated in the murder of her husband’s ex-girlfriend. The book features more than 20 holiday-themed recipes.

            In Smoke and Mirrors, written by Elly Griffiths, DI Edgar Stephens and magician Max Mephisto hunt for a killer during Brighton’s holiday season. Two children were gruesomely murdered at a crime scene resembling that of the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

            Fields Where They Lay: a Junior Bender Holiday Mystery is written by Timothy Hallinan. It features Junior, who has been hired by a murderous Russian gangster to look into a rampant shoplifting problem at the Edgerton Mall. He also uncovers two murders.

            Eggnog Murder presents three holiday-themed mysteries by three popular authors. The title mystery, written by Leslie Meier, is one in which a gift-wrapped bottle of eggnog proves to be a killer concoction for a Tinkers Cove local, leading Lucy Stone to seek out the murdering mixologist.

            Wishes for Christmas, written by Fern Michaels, is a crossover holiday story featuring favorite characters from both the Sisterhood and Godmothers series. In it, Maggie is preparing a tribute to a beloved teacher while Toots investigates a mystery surrounding a designer from an exclusive Charleston firm. 

            In A Christmas Escape: a Novel, written by Anne Perry, widower James Latterly seeks comfort in his loneliness in a small Mediterranean hotel during the holiday season where he is introduced to the island’s beauty by an orphaned teen. Then a violent murder takes place.

 A Christmas Message: a Novel is also written by Anne Perry. While on a once in a lifetime trip to Jerusalem for the Christmas holiday, Victor and Vespasia Narraway meet a fellow traveler who soon is murdered over a torn piece of ancient parchment. The Narraways risk their lives to complete the man’s mission.

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas is written by David Rosenfelt. Here, Andy Carpenter defends a friend who has been reported by a cranky neighbor for fostering homeless puppies during the holiday season. Then more trouble is thrust upon him when the neighbor is found murdered. 

Holiday Mysteries

            Crime never takes a holiday, even at Christmas. To prove this theory, here are some recently published holiday mysteries.

            The Bark before Christmas, written by Laurien Berenson, introduces us to Melanie Travis who is returning to her old job at a posh private school where she hopes to make the Christmas Bazaar its biggest success ever. Then a prize show dog disappears, and Santa Claus is found dead. This isn’t what’s supposed to happen at Christmas!

            Away in a Manger, written by Rhys Bowen, features Molly Murphy who steps in on behalf of two young beggars who are severely mistreated by their aunt when one is accused of stealing a purse. Molly’s investigation into the children’s background uncovers a disreputable aspect of New York upper class society.

            Deck the Hallways is written by Kate Carlisle. Contractor Shannon Hammer is trying to transform a Victorian mansion into apartments for homeless families in time for Christmas. Her work is interrupted when her father is accused of murdering a miserly bank president. Shannon must find the real killer before it’s too late.

            Harbour Street is written by Ann Cleeves. When Vera Stanhope and Joe Ashworth discover the murdered body of a woman on the metro during Christmas, they begin a search near the victim’s home. They then discover some secrets around the neighborhood and a second murder.

            Ornaments of Death, written by Jane K. Cleland, is the story about Josie who meets her charismatic distant relative Ian during the holiday season in Rocky Point. Suddenly Ian disappears! And so do two priceless seventeenth-century miniature portraits in his possession.

            Dying for Christmas, a thriller written by Tammy Cohen, features Jessica Gould, whose date with the charming Dominic leads to a horrifying Christmas celebration. Jessica is held captive by him, forced to wear his missing wife’s clothes, and open her gifts. Will he murder her or will Jessica’s secret help her stay alive?

            Purebred Dead, written by Kathleen Delaney, features heroine Mary McGill whose discovery of a bloodstained corpse and a cowering dog in a manger at Santa Louisa’s Christmas pageant leads her to investigate.

            Mystery in White: a Christmas Crime Story was originally written in the 1930s by J. Jefferson Farjeon. In this classic, a train breaks down and the passengers take shelter in a deserted country house. Then a murderer strikes.