Lakis Fourouklas's Blog, page 18

New Bites: Jimmy the Stick by Michael Mayo

The Lindbergh kidnapping was one of the most highly publicized crimes of the 20th century. Charles Jr., the 20-month-old son of the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, was abducted on March 1, 1932 from his home in New Jersey. The first week after the kidnapping was a time of fear, confusion and utter disbelief as America scrambled to come to terms with the horror, protect their own kids, and find someone to blame.

 
Jimmy the Stick is a historical mystery that takes place during this chaos. After retiring from a career of running with mobsters and working as a bootlegger, Jimmy started a speakeasy in New York City. Evoking the atmosphere of the 1930s Prohibition, his bar is a place where crooks, police and civilians can come for a nice drink in a dark and discreet atmosphere. His “retirement” ends, however, on the day after the kidnapping when he’s inexplicably beat up at his bar, then brought to New Jersey to protect his former partner’s son from Lindberg’s same fate. There, he discovers, the suburban calm of the rich is anything but, and worse, his crooked past is threatening to catch up to him…

Book Review: Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson

Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson is the third
historical mystery featuring Mrs. Harriet Westerman and anatomist
Gabriel Crowther (available October 11, 2012).

 



England, 1783. In Island of Bones, Crowther’s haunting
past is at last revealed. For years he has pursued his forensic
studies—and the occasional murder investigation—far from his family
estate. But an ancient tomb there will reveal a wealth of secrets when
laborers discover an extra body inside. The lure of the mystery brings
Crowther home at last.





When I started reading this novel I didn’t really think that it would
be an easy read. Perhaps that had something to do with the events which
take place in the distant past or with the fact that by now I’m so used
to fast-paced thrillers that I felt that a novel of this size and scope
would be hard to go through. I’m happy to report that I was proven
totally wrong.



Continue at Criminal Element

Mo Yan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

It has just been announced that Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2012.



Mo Yan was born Guan Moye to a peasant family in Gaomi in Shandong Province in 1955. His education ended in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution broke out when he worked as a peasant. He subsequently worked in a factory before joining the army, where he became a member of the cultural department. His main inspiration still remains the Gaomi area though he combines both the urban and the rural and the historical and the present. His pen name means don't speak.



To read more about him visit Wikipedia

The 2012 National Book Award Finalists

The finalists for the (US) 2012 National Book award finalists were announced yesterday. The shortlisted books are:



Fiction



This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers



Nonfiction



Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 by Anne Applebaum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4 by Robert Caro

The Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez

House of Stone by Anthony Shadid



Poetry



Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations by David Ferry

Heavenly Bodies by Cynthia Huntington

Fast Animal by Tim Seibles

Night of the Republic by Alan Shapiro

Meme by Susan Wheeler



Young People's Literature



Goblin Secrets by William Alexander

Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

New Bites: Red Rain by R.L. Stine

 

R.L. Stine, New York Times bestselling author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series—two
of the bestselling children’s book series of all time—now sets his
sights on adults with a terrifying new horror novel, Red Rain, centered on a town
in the grip of a sinister revolt.

  Before there was J. K.
Rowling, before there was Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins, there was
R.L. Stine. Witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, his books defined
horror for a generation of young readers— readers who have now come of
age. In Red Rain, Stine uses his unerring knack for creating
terror to tap into some very grownup fears. Travel writer Lea Sutter
finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, the
wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts
a path of destruction through the island and Lea barely escapes with
her life.



In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers two orphaned
boys—twins. Filled with a desire to do something to help, to make
something good of all she witnessed, Lea impulsively decides to adopt
them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful;
Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark, a child psychologist, and
their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t quite so pleased. But even
they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a
few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders,
with the police narrowing in.



For the millions of readers who grew up on Goosebumps, and for every fan of deviously inventive horror, this is a must-read from a beloved master of the genre.

New Bites: The Tower Chronicles. Geisthawk Volume 1 by Matt Wagner and Simon Bisley

He Lives to Kill the Dead! Written by Matt Wagner, award-winning creator
of Grendel and Mage, and developed with Thomas Tull, executive producer
of 300 and The Dark Knight, The Tower Chronicles is the tale of John
Tower, a supernatural bounty hunter who tracks down the creeping shadows
that the modern world has all but forgotten. His harrowing missions
lead him across the globe and into the darkest recesses of mankind's
most dangerous places to banish a wide variety of poltergeists, demons,
and other unfathomable evils to free his troubled patrons from their
tormentors' ethereal grasp

New Bites: Televenge by Pamela King Cable

Televenge by Pamela King Cable came out on Friday, October 5, 2012.



Andie Oliver is a faithful woman--to God, to her handsome husband Joe,
and to televangelist Reverend Calvin Artury, a Godfather in a Mafia of
holy men.Raised in the 1970's to be subservient and submissive in the
tradition of the Bible-belt South, she becomes a prisoner of that
tradition. As a reluctant member of Artury's evangelical megachurch, the
House of Praise in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Andie's dream of
children, home, and marriage falls apart when Joe is hired by the
ministry team. Joe had been a gentle lover, a kind man, and a
hard-working and faithful husband. Only lately had Andie felt him turn
his attention more to church than her.



The charismatic Reverend conducts
faith-healing crusades, creating the largest religious television
audience in the world, surpassing the income and followers of Oral
Roberts and Billy Graham. Working limitless hours, Joe is sucked deeper
into the ministry while Andie attempts to free him from the Reverend's
control and far-reaching influence.



But it is Mavis Dumass, Andie's best
friend since birth, a sassy, gorgeous African-American woman and
aspiring recording star, who holds the secrets to Reverend Artury's
carefully veiled debauchery. Mavis is fiercely protective of Andie (and
just as fiercely disdainful of both Joe and Reverend Artury). What
happens to Mavis leaves Andie near mental collapse and struggling for
freedom from the cult's grip.



Andie is still unaware of the extreme
danger their pastor wields until she witnesses the murder of a church
member. Fearing for her life, she plummets from a dreadful existence
into a horrific one as she uncovers Reverend Artury's long-hidden
truths, and loses everything, including her children. But she strikes
back, threatening to expose the Reverend to the world.



Raised by two
psychopathic aunts, Reverend Artury reverts to the twisted cleansings of
his childhood. As his mental stability declines, Andie quickly realizes
she must go into hiding. Fighting for redemption for her family and
herself, Andie confronts the very definition of evil personified.
Evading ruthless adversaries who will go to any lengths to protect
Reverend Artury, Andie battles the darkest side of televangelism.Vivid
and tragic, Televenge exposes chaos in the megachurch, and
embraces those who discover their destiny in unconditional love in a
world fraught with fear and intimidation. With more twists and turns
than the Blue Ridge Parkway, Televenge takes you from the Piedmont South
to the Hawaiian Islands, to Nigeria, Africa, and back to the high
country of North Carolina.



In pitch-perfect voices, Pamela King Cable's
emotionally rich debut novel creates four extraordinary characters who
will stay with the reader long after they finish the book. Suspensful
and deeply moving, Televenge will be one of the most talked about books
of the year.

New Bites: Alexis York Lumbard - The Conference of the Birds

The Conference of the Birds by Alexis York Lumbard came out on September 16.



Lavishly illustrated by award-winning illustrator, Demi, this magical
and inspiring story of the adventures of a flock of wayfaring birds in
search of their king will delight children with its tales of overcoming
fear, physical hardship, and inner limitations. Based on an 800 year old
classical parable, and retold by mother of three, Alexis York Lumbard,
it will provide parents with a unique opportunity to teach moral and
spiritual development to their children.



This is Alexis York Lumbard's first published children's book. Having
noticed a lamentable absence of high quality books of spiritual
substance for the earliest of readers, she began writing her own stories
since becoming a mother in 2005. With a B.A. in Religious Studies from
George Washington University, it is her sincere hope to bring the wisdom
and beauty of the world's religions to the eager and gifted minds of
young children. Alexis, her husband, and three children live in Newton,
MA.

New Bites: C. K. Kelly Martin - Yesterday

  

Yesterday is a fast paced post-apocalyptic time-travel novel of two teens on the run. Perfect for fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner and Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone .

 




     THEN: The formation of the UNA, the high threat of eco-terrorism,
the mammoth rates of unemployment and subsequent escape into a world of
virtual reality are things any student can read about in their 21st
century textbooks and part of the normal background noise to Freya
Kallas's life. Until that world starts to crumble.





     NOW: It's 1985. Freya Kallas has just moved across the world and
into a new life. On the outside, she fits in at her new high school, but
Freya feels nothing but removed. Her mother blames it on the grief over
her father's death, but how does that explain the headaches and why do
her memories feel so foggy? When Freya lays eyes on Garren Lowe, she
can't get him out of her head. She's sure that she knows him, despite
his insistence that they've never met. As Freya follows her instincts
and pushes towards hidden truths, the two of them unveil a strange and
dangerous world where their days may be numbered. Unsure who to trust,
Freya and Garren go on the run from powerful forces determined to tear
them apart and keep them from discovering the truth about their shared
pasts (and futures), her visions, and the time and place they really
came from. Yesterday will appeal to fans of James Dashner's The Maze Runner, Veronica Roth's Divergent, Amy Ryan's Glow, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Ally Condie's Matched.

New Bites: Jeff Parker and Erika Moen - Bucko

The Collected Bucko by Jeff Parker and Erica Moen came out on September 25.



After discovering a dead body in an office bathroom, hungover job
interviewee Rich “Bucko” Richardson becomes suspected of the murder.
What he thinks is a quest to find the real killer turns into a weeklong
romp through the wilds of Portland, Oregon, complete with bike-mounted
cover bands, steampunk Makers, Juggalos, SuicideGirls, meth heads, so
much absinthe, and an entire city made of books. After taking the
Internet by storm, Jeff Parker and Erika Moen’s dirty, funny murder
mystery is now the most hilarious book in comic shops!