American Rust: A Novel

If you are a Cormac McCarthy fan, you will probably enjoy this debut novel by Philipp Meyer. Just like McCarthy, Meyer takes readers down long dark roads leading to ultimate despair.

Meet Billy Poe and Isaac English, high school buddies with failed dreams, giving up on any future in Buell, Pennsylvania, a dried up steel town. One fateful night, they take off leaving a trail of violence behind them. What starts as a fight with some transients in an old steel warehouse turns into murder of the worst kind. One bad decision, leads to another and another leaving both characters questioning their choices in life.

Isaac is tired of caring for the "old man," resentful of his mother's suicide and angry with his sister, Lee, for chasing her academic dreams. And Billy isn't any better off. Laid off from his menial job and living with his mother, Grace, in a run down trailer, he watches her throw her life away on an abusive husband and useless boyfriends.

American Rust is a story of loyalty and love in disintegrating America. Morals and values are explored and exploited. What is right may be right, but it can also be wrong. Billy and Isaac are similar to Steinbeck characters and Meyer's honest style of writing is comparable to Faulkner.

Laura

Prepub Alert

Below is a prepublication list of popular fiction. Publishers are releasing these novels just in time for the holidays, although you can pre-order them now through http://www.amazon.com/.

U for Undertow by Sue Grafton
The Disappeared by M.R. Hall
Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton
Breathless by Dean Koontz
La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith
Too Many Murders by Colleen McCullough
New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherford
Hollywood Moon by Joseph Wambaugh

Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne

Enjoy!

Laura

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September is Library Card Sign-Up Month!

Dominick Dunne 1925-2009

Best known for his partying in Hollywood with the rich and famous, penning sensational articles in Vanity Fair and the reporting of celebrity trials including O.J. Simpson, Dunne died last August after completing, Too Much Money.

In his follow-up to People Like Us, published in July 1989, the 83 year-old author recreates New York high society characters Lil Altemus and Ruby and Elias Renthal as they try to solve the murder of a millionaire magazine publisher. Hmm...expect lots of dirt and gossip on unscrupulous high rollers, society snobs and wannabes climbing the social ladder!

Look for the release of Too Much Money December 2009.

Laura

The New Sexy

A Reliable Wife

I can't say this was a good book or a bad book; it just was not for me. Even though Goolrick's debut novel, A Reliable Wife received rave reviews, I found it slow, repetitive and unconvincing. The author's lyrical prose drags on and on with a few high points here and there. The crescendo ending does make sense, but still leaves readers thinking "so what."

In Wisconsin 1907, a devious and lovely Catherine Land answers Ralph Truitt's newspaper ad for a reliable wife, thus the title. Truitt, a wealthy industrialist, practically owns the barren and frigid town. But he can't buy Catherine's love or crack her shell. The conniving temptress has her own agenda, which does not include Truitt.

From the very start, Catherine is not the person she claims to be. Before she meets Truitt at the train station, she throws her elegant velvet gown out the train window arriving in a simple black dress. She steps off his private train car into a blizzard to find a 58 year-old stern and solemn widower plagued with guilt, secrets and pent-up desire. Even the photo Catherine mails to Truitt is of another woman.

"This begins in a lie," he tells Catherine sternly as
he picks up her bags. "I want you to know that I know that...Whatever else,
you're a liar."

What starts as a cat and mouse game of lies, games and vengence turns into a tale of guilt, greed and desperation. Catherine and Truitt are both harboring emotionally charged secrets eating away at their very sanity. Eventually, the pathetic couple reconciles to each other's needs and differences.

The novel won the April 2009 American Book Association Indie Award and Columbia pictures bought the film rights last spring.

http://robertgoolrick.com/

Laura

Read-alikes

Have you exhausted your favorite author and want something new to read? Part of my job as a librarian is to help people find good books. You may be wondering where I get suggestions. Here are a few tips on finding new authors and novels.

Read-alikes are books similar to established authors such as John Grisham, Janet Evanovich and Dean Koontz. Lets use John Grisham as an example.

1. Go to Google and type in "if you like john grisham." Voila, you will receive many websites suggesting books similar to Grisham. Look for websites written by public libraries in the web address. This technique works best with popular authors.

2. Click on the this link http://www.readalike.org/. On the left hand side of the page, is a list of books sorted by genre. Lets try Historical. Up pops a page with reviewed authors and online resources. Click on Phillipa Gregory. You will receive an author bio, book review and read-alikes. Online resources also offer lots of ideas.

3. Many public libraries also provide reading lists for patrons.

Now curl up with a good book!

Laura