Author: hudsonarealibrary

Fugitive apprehension agent – AKA bounty hunter – Stephanie Plum is at it again! 

Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night and left her his lazy-boy and keys to a safe containing a treasure and Stephanie is trying to help Grandma find the safe.  Accompanied by her friend and co-worker, Lula – a full-figured gal with a unique sense of style – Stephanie brings in the bad guys despite being shot at, blown up and kidnapped all the while wreaking havoc and wrecking cars as she follows clues left by Trenton, New Jersey’s “wise guys” to the treasure.  And hunky police detective Joe Morelli and mysterious and sexy Ranger are in the mix as well. 

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Successfully mixing reality and fiction, author Anthony Horowitz plays Dr. Watson to former Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne’s Holmes.  Because of the two prior works written by Horowitz about their partnership (The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death) the duo has been invited to a literary festival on the tiny Channel island of Alderney.  This tiny island had been occupied by the Germans during World War II and used as a concentration camp, and many dead English prisoners had been buried there.  Meanwhile the islanders are in a heated debate about a power line that would cross the island, and disrupt.  So, when the major financial sponsor of the festival is murdered, Hawthorne and Horowitz take the lead in the investigation until the police arrive from a nearby island.  Suspects are plentiful, and include islanders and visiting authors alike, and then another murder occurs . . .

Suspenseful and fun!

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Bernadette is a stay-at-home mom to Bee, a miracle child, born with a heart defect that required multiple (like six) open heart surgeries before she was five, but now successfully navigating middle school at Galer Street Day School.  Hough Bernadette had been a world-renowned architect and recipient of a MacArthur Grant, she has become “allergic” to dealing with the other school parents (who she calls gnats) and other people to the point that she’s hired a virtual personal assistant – from India – to help her with her daily tasks.  Meanwhile her husband, Elgin Branch, is a superstar at Microsoft, but so busy with work that he doesn’t realize the depths to which Bernadette has fallen.  Things come to a climax as she is planning – with assistant Manjula’s help – a family trip to Antarctica to celebrate Bee’s perfect report card, when a feud erupts with a neighbor over blackberry bushes, one of the other gnats becomes Elgin’s personal assistant and a Galer Street Day School fundraiser goes seriously awry.  So . . . Bernadette disappears and everyone, except Bee, thinks she is dead.

This was a Hudson Library Literary Guild book/movie selection.  It was an entertaining story of a dysfunctional family finding their way back together, and a scathing look at attitudes that can be created by privilege.  The movie followed the book fairly closely and was funny and enjoyable.

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Historical Fiction at its finest!  Using the real-life spy network (The Alice Network created by Lois De Bettignie – one of her pseudonyms was Alice Du Bois) during World War I, the author creates a thrilling story of female courage and self-definition of appropriate gender roles.  The story is told from alternating viewpoints.  Charlie St. Clair is a young, single pregnant American on her way to Switzerland with her mom to “take care of” her “little problem.”  But Charlie breaks away from her mother to seek assistance from a drunken recluse, Eve Gardiner, in finding her French cousin Rose, who went missing during World War II.  Meanwhile Eve’s story begins during the First World War when she is recruited by the English military because of her language skills to become part of the Alice Network in France.  When Charlie starts asking questions about a man Eve had thought long dead, they ultimately join forces to find out what really happened to that man, and to Charlie’s cousin rose. 

My description does NOT do this book justice.  The author has created a gripping story using many real people and events of Works War I that should be better known – especially the women who refused to be constrained by so-called “appropriate” societal roles in a time when the didn’t even have the right to vote!  (Partial female suffrage was obtained in 1918 for British women over 30 and in 1928 for all people over 21.  In the US the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution giving American women the right to vote was not ratified until 1920.)

A Reese Witherspoon book club selection.

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This non-fiction book explores the life and political career of John W. E. Thomas.  He was born a slave to a free black man and a female slave owned by a doctor in Mobile, Alabama.  During the Civil War, his dad attempted, unsuccessfully, to buy his son’s freedom.  But Thomas bad been educated by his doctor/owner and was used to collect fees and run other errands for the doctor.  Post-War he moved to Chicago to reside with his father and continue his education.  He ultimately became a lawyer, and helped to organize African-Americans politically in Chicago, and he also remained loyal to the Republican Party – the party of Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, throughout his political career. 

When he died in 1899, Thomas had founded the city’s first private school for African-American children,, and was believed to be the wealthiest African-American in Chicago.  But his legislative legacy is more important than those personal accomplishments as he wrote, and helped to pass, the first state civil rights law, in 1885.

Though a bit dry, and confusing at times, this is an important look at 1) a little-known piece of Illinois’ history; and 2) an eye-opening look at Chicago, and Illinois’ political processes. 

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Wow!  Talk about thrilling – this book is it!!!  With a combination of fictional, but very realistic and plausible events, this story was absolutely enthralling and very scary . . .

After a single-term President left the United States with few allies in the world, and loyalists (to him!) still in most high government positions, terrorists strike across the globe.  The new President has appointed Ellen Adams, a newbie to politics, but the former head of an international media empire, as his Secretary of State as a way to keep this “enemy” close and under his control.  She must scramble to try to find answers with regard to the recent unclaimed terrorist acts but as she investigates, she finds a conspiracy that – if successful – would sacrifice thousands of American lives in the name of patriotism.  Not sure who she can trust other than her best friend and counselor, Betsy, the Secretary of State faces off against world leaders in a desperate effort to avoid the cataclysmic crisis!

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You may have heard of the case of Rita Crundwell, former comptroller of Dixon, Illinois who was convicted of embezzling about $54 million over the twenty-some years she worked for the city.  Despite some obvious similarities, this is NOT that story.

Instead it’s the story of Becky Farwell, of Pierson, Illinois, still living on the family farm, working for the city of Pierson, and best friends with Ingrid, one of her high school classmates.  It’s also the story of Reba, art collector and artist sponsor, wearing designer clothes in her Chicago condo and New York galleries as she hobnobs with other wealthy art collectors.  AND, it’s a story of obsession . . . the thrill of discovering the “activity” that funds her new passion for art, the satisfaction of acquiring a new piece for her collection and the constant fear of being caught.  

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Visitors to the New York Museum of Natural History are found savagely murdered, and their autopsies suggest that the killer might not be human. . .

Despite the inability of museum staff, or the police to find the killer, the museum plans to go forward with the gala opening party for its newest exhibit.  As the exhibit is opened another body is found, causing panic among the many well-heeled guest just as a terrible storm causes a catastrophic power outage in the museum, injuring many as security doors crash down, locking visitors inside.   Museum researcher, Margo Green, finds herself working with her doctoral adviser, Dr. Frock, and FBI Agent Pendergast, to follow the trail of the maniac – or monster – terrorizing the museum. 

This is the very first Pendergast novel, and was impossible to put down.

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The kidnapper had pulled off the “perfect” crime before several times without being caught.  Kidnap a child, terrorize mom and dad separately until the ransom is paid, and following this motto, “the kid always makes it” the kidnapped child is released.  But that might just change when he kidnaps five-year old Abby Jennings because she is an insulin-dependent diabetic.  Her parents, Will and Karen, individually held by the kidnapper’s associates decide to fight back in whatever way they can. 

This fast-paced suspenseful thriller keeps the reader guessing to the very end as to how THIS kidnapping will be resolved. 

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Susan Green has created the perfect life – for one.  She has a job that suits her analytical skills, a London flat perfectly sized for one, and an “arrangement” without commitment that satisfies her (minimal) desire for a social life, and provides some more personal benefits too. 

But when Susan finds herself pregnant, and then her mom dies and she then finds herself fighting her lazy brother in court for her rightful share of her mom’s estate, Susan’s carefully ordered life is falling apart.  Enter rob, the well-meaning, but somewhat dubious friend of her brother, and Kate, the frazzled upstairs neighbor to further complicate Susan’s life. . .  Will she be able to cope with the chaos her life has become before the baby arrives, or will that event be yet another challenge?

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection, and an enjoyable amusing story.

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