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Friday, February 1, 2013

More great stories are on the shelf @ your library

The Last Man by Vince Flynn



Library Journal –


Joe Rickman's bodyguards are dead, and Rickman himself is missing. Bad news, because Rickman ran clandestine operations in Afghanistan for eight years. Mitch Rapp is told to find Rick or else, and here's the snag: he doesn't think the guy was kidnapped. Another No. 1 New York Times best seller from Flynn?





Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson

Kirkus Reviews –

A sterling collection of amazing stories from an offbeat journalist at the top of his game. Ronson (The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, 2011, etc.) is a British writer and documentarian whose printed work appears mainly in the Guardian, where all but two of these pieces originally appeared. Perhaps best known for The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), about the military's attempt to weaponize psychic phenomena, the author is a born skeptic who, nevertheless, is strongly attracted to the incredible and outré. The pieces range from a discussion about God, horror movies and magnets with the Insane Clown Posse to the title story, about a young woman who disappeared while working on a Disney cruise off the coast of Mexico. Ronson also visited mothers of "Indigo children" (toddling psychics), took pop star Robbie Williams to a UFO conference in New Mexico, leafed through director Stanley Kubrick's obsessively compulsive collection of film research artifacts, and weathered the wrath of the "sociopathic" inventor of neurolinguistic programming (among other extraordinary hotheads). Each piece is delicious in its own way, amusingly told by Ronson, who is always a character in the story. Two standouts: "Who Killed Richard Cullen?" a damning and prescient look at the credit industry's targeting of risky clients for subprime rates, and "Blood Sacrifice," about the Jesus Christians, a tiny sect that decided collectively to donate kidneys to strangers. Casual readers will find plenty to like about this excellent collection, but journalism and philosophy students should find it especially stimulating.




Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss by Peter Criss with Larry Sloman

Library Journal –

Drummer Peter Criscuola, aka Peter Criss, was a founding member of larger-than-life rock band KISS, along with fellow New Yorkers Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, and Paul Stanley. Unfortunately, addictions and egos wreaked havoc on the band. Citing "creative differences," Criss went solo and got clean but never achieved massive success again until the original KISS reunited with great fanfare in the mid-90s. The reunion wasn't always happy, though, and Criss and KISS went their separate ways again. Criss still plays drums and writes songs, but he seems to be focused on a happy domestic life. Criss, a rock 'n' roll and cancer survivor, uses a "tell it like it is" writing style rife with F-bombs and other colorful language as he writes frankly about his humble Brooklyn upbringing, his rise and fall in the music world, personal and professional betrayals, addictions, sexual exploits, marriages, divorces, near-death experiences, health problems, and rather poignantly, his faith. A highlight is his recollection of recording the classic song "Beth," which he sang and cowrote. VERDICT A must read for all past and present KISS fans and fans of no-holds-barred rock 'n' roll tell-alls.



NYPD Red by James Patterson and Marshall Karp


From Barnes & Noble -



When Manhattan's elite "Hollywood on the Hudson" film festival begins to turn into a horror show, NYPD detective Zach Jordan and his partner Kylie MacDonald work quickly to save the city from chaos. A James Patterson novel receiving stellar reader reviews.






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