December 2014
Carol's Latest Picks
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The Wild Truth
by Carine McCandless
Jon Krakauer's bestselling Into the Wild tells the
spellbinding story of Chris McCandless who walked into the Alaskan wilderness alone and starved to death in 1992. Now, more than twenty years later, the real story of Chris's life and his journey is told by his sister Carine. The author tells her own story as fill-in-the-blanks of her brother's, her best friend and the person with whom she felt the closest bond. She tells how she and Chris grew up as a part of a dysfunctional and violent family, eventually causing Chris to "divorce" himself from their parents and their troubled household. Carine speaks openly about the reality of her life in the McCandless family and the years she struggled to maintain a relationship with her parents after the death of her brother. Beautiful, yet heart-wrenching, this memoir presents the story of a man the world thought they knew, and his sister, who with her half-siblings, have come together and finally found redemption in sharing the "truth" of their story. Highly recommended.
(Harper Collins, $27.99)
From Deb: Carol is passionate about this riveting story and can't stop talking about it. If you think you know the full story of Into the Wild, don't miss this one.
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 The Burning Roomby Michael Connelly
Veteran cop Harry Bosch is partnered with rookie detective Lucia Soto who has no homicide experience, but is a star in her own right having received experience during a former take-down street robbery. When the team is assigned to one of L.A.P.D's Open-Unsolved Unit cases they find a man has died from complications due to being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier. As Bosch and Soto search through the case boxes it leads them to evidence that reveals the shooting was anything but random. The investigation picks up as it leads to several other unsolved cases that occurred twenty years ago. When their investigations begins to threaten lives, Bosch and Soto must decide if the risk in finding the truth is worth it or if they should let some secrets stay behind. Fast-moving and compelling, the author shows his fans why Harry Bosch is one of the most popular characters in crime fiction.
(Little Brown & Company, $28.00)
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 The Heart Has Its Reasonsby Maria Duenas
Blanca Perea is a talented professor teaching college literature courses in Madrid. Married for twenty years with two adult sons, she feels she has it all. But, suddenly her husband drops a bombshell when he leaves her for another woman, shattering her world as she questions the life she thought she once had. She decides to change her surroundings and accepts a research grant in California where she will look into the life of an exiled Spanish writer who died decades ago. As she leaves her own troubled life in Madrid behind, Blanca is now drawn into the writer's haunted world and the complex life that touched the lives and unfulfilled ambitions of his colleagues. As she is challenged with hidden agendas and determined to uncover lies, she finds the strength to pursue a new life of her own.
Highly Recommended.
(Atria Books, $26.00)
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 Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
As a longtime fan of this author I was eager to read her latest novel. In Leaving Time Picoult weaves events and people together in a captivating story about elephants and the emotions they share with humans. Included is a down-on-her-luck psychic, a spunky teen, and a haunting murder. 13 year-old Jenna Metcalf is consumed with memories of her mother, Alice, a scientist who studied grief and other human-like emotions among elephants, and who disappeared a decade earlier following a tragic accident. Alice, her husband, and Jenna had once called a New Hampshire sanctuary their home, but now, ten years later, Jenna is searching through her mother's journals hoping to piece together what split her family apart. Picoult explores the mother-daughter bond using both elephants and humans, asking are we much different from pachyderms when it comes to processing emotions and what mothers will do for their young.
(Ballantine, $28.00)
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Night Blindness
by Susan Strecker
For fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult, the author brings readers an emotional love story in her debut novel. For thirteen years Jensen Reilly has been running from her past. She and Ryder, her high school sweetheart, were part of an accident that caused the death of her older brother Will. Now married, but with secrets still weighing her down, Jensen is called home when her father is diagnosed with a brain tumor and must face memories of her old life: Ryder, who is now her father's surgeon, and her mother who has created a new life for herself and is trying to bury the grief of her son's death. And now Jensen may have to face what her marriage to Nic might have been: an escape from the burden of a secret that could devastate the family she loves. And so she must make a decision that may change her life forever. Can she tell the truth about that long ago evening with Ryder and Will? What really happened that she has kept buried for thirteen years? And how will it affect those she loves the most? Told from the heart, this story will leave readers turning the pages to the very end. Highly recommended.
(St. Martin's Press, $25.99)
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Debbie Lane
Bookshelf Stores, Inc.
11429 Donner Pass Rd. Ste#2
Truckee, CA 96161
Thamk You for your continued support!
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