Lost Forever

If you love the TV series "Lost," you'll love Uncharted by Angela Hunt. It is about a reunion of old friends who end up marooned on a deserted island. The difference, however, is in this story we actually learn the reason they are there and why they can't get off (in spite of not so bad efforts to do so). The island not only keeps the characters captive, but also has a way of showing them who they really are and who they now wished they had been. There are some surprises and Hunt does an excellent job of suspense. It really is a hard book to put down! This book is the October selection for the Faith-Inspired Book Club, which will meet Thursday, October 25, at 9 a.m. in the library's mezzanine.

Mothers, Daughters, Pain

Jenna Blum's Those Who Save Us is not a happy story. Anna, the mother, and Trudy, the daughter, have not led happy lives. But sometimes it is good to read about troubled lives, learn from them, feel empathy, and be better equipped to handle troubles in our own lives that will seem small by comparison. Anna was a young woman in Germany during World War II. She fell in love with a Jewish man, who was then betrayed by Anna's father and sent to a concentration camp. She ends up as the mistress to a German SS officer--not by choice but by motivated by fear and the need to survive. She has kept many secrets from Trudy, who was very young and does not remember much about those early years. Trudy is now a professor of German studies at a university in Minnesota and has embarked on a project that involves interviewing non-Jewish Germans who lived during the Holocaust. The book flips back in time from the 40s to the 90s and we watch as Trudy's memories of her and her mother's life in Germany, sparked by her interviews, gradually appear and dramatically affect her life. Ultimately, the past and the present overlap. It's a difficult but beautifully written story.

An Interesting Debate

Tom Perrotta's eagerly awaited new novel, The Abstinence Teacher, comes out in October. It is a thoughtful story about Ruth, a high school sex education teacher who is forced by her administration to adopt an abstinence-only curriculum, and Tim, a reformed druggie and evangelical Christian who coaches soccer. Ruth and Tim's paths cross when Ruth attends her daughter's soccer match and is dismayed to discover Tim leading the team in a prayer at the end of the game. Perrotta does a great job of giving us a balanced story, with expressive viewpoints from both sides of the fence. Tim and Ruth are portrayed as flawed but sincere people. Regardless of what side you're on, or even if you can easily see both sides of the issue, you will be pleased with this book. It certainly doesn't solve any disagreements, but it shows that what some see as black-and-white is more often gray.

Keeping Secrets

The Price of Silence is the new novel by Camilla Trinchieri. It is an intensely suspenseful story masquerading as a women's literary novel. Emma Perotti teaches ESL in New York and encounters An-ling a young Chinese woman. An-ling is later found dead in her apartment, and Emma is arrested. Secrets are held by everyone in this book--Emma's family included--and in alternating chapters from all the characters' points of view, we eventually find out what happened to An-ling. It's a very smart book, not a typical whodunnit at all. The characters are well developed and three dimensional; no cookie cutters here. By the time you find out who is responsible for An-ling's death, you've seen it coming. But that doesn't make the ending any less emotional or effective.

Closing Cases in L.A.

Harry Bosch is on the job again. Michael Connelly's creation is, in The Closers, back to work for the LAPD, but this time in the Open/Unsolved Unit. His job, along with his old partner Kiz Rider, is to dig into old, cold murder cases and turn over new leads to try to solve the cases. Harry and Kiz are, in a way, "speaking for the dead." Harry, in typical fashion, takes one particular victim to heart, a teenage girl abducted from her bedroom and later found murdered. Connelly is talented at drawing us along in these police procedurals, and the dialog between characters is perfect. After reading a couple of these novels, you will feel as if Harry Bosch is an old friend. And it's good to have him back in action.