Book For The Week - 5/31/2011

About Face

by
Donna Leon

From the authors website:
"Donna Leon’s eighteen novels have won her countless fans, heaps of critical acclaim, and a place among the top ranks of international crime writers. Through the warm-hearted, perceptive, and principled Commissario Guido Brunetti, Leon’s best-selling books have explored Venice in all its aspects:  history and tourism, high culture and the changing seasons, food and family, but also violent crime and political corruption.

In About Face, her latest mystery, Leon returns to one of her signature subjects: the environment, which has reached a crisis in Italy in recent years. Incinerators across the south of Italy are at full capacity, burning who-knows-what and releasing unacceptable levels of dangerous air pollutants, while in Naples, enormous garbage piles grow in the streets. In Venice, with the polluted waters of the canals and a major chemical complex across the lagoon, the issue is never far from the fore.

Environmental concerns become significant in Brunetti’s work when an investigator from the Carabiniere, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage, asks for a favor. But the investigator is not the only one with a special request. His father-in-law needs help and a mysterious woman comes into the picture. Brunetti soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation into murder and corruption more dangerous than anything he’s seen before.

Donna Leon’s readership has significantly expanded with her recent books, including 2008’s The Girl of His Dreams, her most successful hardcover yet. Coupled with a major marketing campaign for new trade paperback editions of key backlist titles from Penguin and audiobooks from BBC America Audio, About Face, an exceptional addition to the series, is sure to take her sales to new heights. "


(I finished listening to this book last pm on my way to work.  This is the book that caused me to be interested in looking up about dumping toxic waste in Africa.  It is the second book by Donna Leon I have listened to.  A couple years ago I listened to her "Blood From a Stone"  which prompted me to learn more about conflict diamonds.   It is my understanding that all her novels introduce a social issue.  I will look forward to listening to more of her work.  As always click on the author's name to follow the link and learn more.)

Book For The Week - 5/13/2011

Yesterday

by


Fern Michaels

Publisher Comments:

Raised on her father's South Carolina plantation, Callie Parker wanted for nothing, and now she is about to marry wealthy local scion Wyn Archer. But her wedding wouldn't be complete without the three people she grew up with under the sheltering branches of the angel oaks at Parker Manor.
There's Bode Jessup, part brother and part idol, who has become a wildly attractive man. Next is Brie Canfield, Callie's freckle-faced playmate, now an FBI agent with a life of her own. Last is shy waif Sela Bronson, whose only reason for returning to Parker Manor is to escape an unhappy marriage.
As Callie's childhood companions gather to relive the charmed years they spent together, they discover how little they know of their beloved yesterday...and how one woman's darkest secret can tear them apart.


(I finished listening to this audio book a week or so ago.  My younger sister suggested I try a book by Fern Michaels called "Seasons of her life"  but I could not find that one on audio so I obtained "Yesterday"  by the same author.  I enjoyed the book.  It is a fluff book.  I would put it in the same area  of the  book shelf as Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts or a Harlequin Romance book.  It is not serious fiction by any means.  But it provides a good escape and it held my interest. Click on the authors name and the book title to learn more.)