New library books for the chilly season
Robert Langdon is on the run again. You may have seen him glancing nervously over his shoulder as he picked up a takeout lunch at El Jardin or cadged a ride in one of the big rigs pulling out of Thornton's. If not there, you surely can find him peeking out from a shelf at the Kingston Springs Library in the new Dan Brown thriller, “The Secret of Secrets.”
Although Langdon made his first appearance in Brown's 2000 thriller, “Angels & Demons,” most readers will recall first meeting him in the 2003 megaseller, “The Da Vinci Code.” “The Secret of Secrets” is the sixth in the Langdon series and is described by its publisher thusly: “The story follows symbologist Langdon as he travels to Prague to attend a lecture by his romantic partner, noetic scientist Katherine Solomon. When a brutal murder occurs, Katherine disappears with her manuscript, and Langdon is targeted by a powerful organization, leading him on a globe-spanning chase through science and mythology to uncover a secret about the human mind.”
When I interviewed Brown in 2003 for “Bookpage” magazine, he pointed to the extensive research that underlies the drama in his novels. "One of the aspects that I try very hard to incorporate in my books is that of learning," he said. "When you finish the book — like it or not — you've learned a ton.” We'll see if that still holds up in “The Secret of Secrets.”
Also new to the Library is Rebecca Bloom's “When Women Get Sick: An Empowering Approach for Getting the Support You Need.” The website for the book says that it “shows women and their supporters how to maximize coverage, benefits and security and minimize stress, fear and confusion as they navigate illness. It will make people angry because it exposes just how deficient our healthcare system is and how it hurts women. But it will empower women with cancer and other serious illnesses to get the right help and avoid being left holding the bag as they fight for their wellness.”
Here are other new titles available:
FICTION: “The Academy” (Elin Hildebrand); “Throne of Glass” series (Sarah J. Maas): “Billion-Dollar Ransom” (James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski); “The Book Club for Troublesome Women” (Marie Bostick); “Crowns of Nyaxia” series (Carissa Broadbent); “Blood and Ash” series (Jennifer Armentrout); “That Last Carolina Summer” (Karen White); “The Surrogate Mother” (Freida McFadden); “Witch Walker” series (Charissa Weaks); “The Women of Oak Ridge” (Michelle Shocklee); “Apostle's Cove” (William Kent Krueger); “The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective” (Jo Nichols).
NONFICTION: “Fodor's Complete Guide to the National Parks of the USA “ and “Songs of Nashville: The Real Stories Behind Country Music's Greatest Hits” (Jake Brown).
