January Bestsellers found @ your Library

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Publishers Weekly –

A letter posted in 1941 finally reaches its destination in 1992 with powerful repercussions for Edie Burchill, a London book editor, in this enthralling romantic thriller from Australian author Morton (The Forgotten Garden). At crumbling Milderhurst Castle live elderly twins Persephone and Seraphina and their younger half-sister, Juniper, the three eccentric spinster daughters of the late Raymond Blythe, author of The True History of the Mud Man, a children's classic Edie adores. Juniper addressed the letter to Meredith, Edie's mother, then a young teen evacuated to Milderhurst during the Blitz. Edie, who's later invited to write an introduction to a reprint of Raymond's masterpiece, visits the seedily alluring castle in search of answers. Why was her mother so shattered by the contents of a letter sent 51 years earlier? And what happened to soldier Thomas Cavill, Juniper's long-missing fiancé and Meredith's former teacher? Despite the many competing narratives, the answers will stun readers.

Getting Into The Vortex: Guided Meditations CD and User Guide by Esther Hicks, Jerry Hicks

From the Publisher –

Living a better-feeling life really comes down to one thing only: coming into alignment with the Energy of our Source. Abraham reminds us that we are truly Source Energy focused into our physical bodies, and that a conscious Connection to that Broader Non-Physical part of us is necessary if we are to be the joyful Beings that we were born to be. Abraham calls that wonderful alignment Getting into the Vortex.

Through a series of Leading Edge books (New York Times bestsellers), Abraham has emphasized the importance of our conscious alignment with the Source within us. They have let us know that our natural state of Being is inside our Vortex of Creation in complete alignment with Source Energy—and that every aspect of our physical experience reflects our alignment with, or resistance to, that Connection. Everything—from the physical well-being of our bodies, the clarity of our minds, and the abundance we allow to flow, to the satisfaction in every relationship we experience—is impacted by our all-important relationship with our Vortex.

Abraham has helped us to understand that our dominant intent in every day is to get into the Vortex! And now, they have lovingly and specifically guided Jerry and Esther Hicks in the creation of an innovative and valuable tool that promises to get us into the Vortex right now . . . and that tool is enclosed in the Getting into the Vortex User Guide in the form of a 70-minute CD.

This unique recording contains four powerfully guided daily meditations that have been designed to get you into the Vortex of Creation in four basic areas of your life: General Well-Being, Financial Well-Being, Physical Well-Being, and Relationships.

Jerry and Esther are thrilled to offer this powerful, first-of-its kind, musically scored, breath-enhancing, user-friendly tool from Abraham that will get you into the Vortex.

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy

The Barnes & Noble Review –

The schizophrenic quality of Mickey Mantle's life is made powerfully manifest throughout Jane Leavy's exhaustively researched, delightfully readable biography. Right from the start, Mantle's enormous athletic potential was bundled with his debilitating psychological and physical problems. Leavy not only wrestles with the maddening contradictions of the man himself but also the carefully-constructed myth of Mantle: that the Yankee slugger, by pure willpower, transcended humble beginnings and a lifetime of physical pain to become an American icon. But she keeps her eye on more than the facts of her subject's life, recognizing that fans and writers (herself included) have "invent[ed] a kinder, warmer, bigger Mick, the Mick [we] wanted him to be."

Leavy interviewed everyone close to Mantle. The slugger's hyper-forgiving wife, Meryl, tells Leavy that "[h]e thought no one ever loved him." The Last Boy's most telling revelation may be in Mantle's sexual abuse as a boy, a trauma which made him largely incapable of trusting others. When Leavy interviewed the retired Mantle, he was drunk and made a pass at her. She also watched Mantle telling numerous dirty jokes and off-color anecdotes. The tragedy Leavy exposes is that Mantle only confronted his present problems, and damaged childhood at the end of his life. If we like our heroes because of, not in spite of, their frailties, then Mickey Mantle may be the greatest hero of all. Leavy gives us Mick, not necessarily as fans have wanted to see him, but still glorious in all his self-destructive, splendid complexity.

--Chuck Leddy