WHEN GODS DIE: a Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery—C.S. Harris—Great fun, entertaining and puzzling mystery taking place in the early 1800s in England. “Society” of England is well portrayed as Sebastian roves about (often with his Tiger, Tom) poking into lives and evidence to find out why Guinevere has been found dead in the chambers of the Prince Regent of England. King George is portrayed…along with some of the political action taking place in Europe and in the new ‘Americas’. Super historical mystery.

THE ALIBI MAN—Tami Hoag—Decadence and danger are featured in Hoag’s latest. Elena formerly of the elite but having turned her back on that lifestyle, and family, rediscovers it’s massive flaws as she investigates the death of a co-worker, an extremely desirable young lady from Russia. In sometimes contact with her former partner on the police force (Landry) he pieces together the pieces of evidence which start with Elena’s discovery of the co-worker in a Florida canal, just before an alligator attacks the dead body and continues through the Polo Club, hangout of the Rich and Powerful (and spoiled). Elena’s task is to penetrate the alibis which she recognizes because a major suspect was the man to whom she was engaged a ‘lifetime’ ago. Quick, fast and easy read.

Hello! It's my first day on the job, and I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Joy, the new teen and technology librarian at SPL. I'll be putting my two cents in here from time to time, and I look forward to sharing the love of books with all of you.

Right now I'm reading Encore Provence by Peter Mayle and Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson.

See you all in LibraryLand!

THE ALEXANDRIA LINK—Steve Berry—An international cartel tries to locate the lost library of Alexandria to use the wonderful information contained therein for their own gains. Berry’s hero, Cotton Malone, now bookseller in Copenhagen, is involved with his ex-wife and kidnapped step-son in resolving the issues while private interests and various governments cause their own sets of difficulties. I found this book a fairly standard ‘international thriller’ but full of information about how The Bible was translated—or mistranslated—the latter leading to the thread of the plot. Great airplane or beach book.

THE SHADOW OF THE WIND—Carlos Ruiz Zafón—Recommended (as well as purchased for us) by Pablo Alvarez-Alvarez, our AFS son from Spain, “Shadow of the Wind” lives up to the high praise of the reviewers. Kirkus Reviews said it “will keep you up nights—and it will be time well spent. Absolutely marvelous”, while The Washington Post opines, “Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic an thrilling should rush right out to the nearest bookstore and pick up The Shadow of the Wind. Really you should.” A book about a book, parallel stories between the two, taking place in Barcelona immediately following WWII, the descriptions of life are vivid; in fact, this book is an exemplar of what wonderful writing and story telling can be. The characters are so well crafted you 'know' them yet they aren't so predictable they aren't amazingly interesting; and Fermin Romero de Torres makes statements about life, and it's situations, that leap from the page with accuracy or provoking of thought. It’s one of those books you can hardly wait to finish, to come to a resolution, but one you really don’t want to be over. In the time it takes to read it, you’ve become friends.