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According to a Washington Post review of the book The Best of Times by Penny Vincenzi “the best way for a lot of people to meet each other is not a wedding or church picnic, but a wingding car crash.”

On a warm, sunny day the traffic on the freeway outside London is heavy, but moving right along. The vehicles on the freeway include a tractor trailer driven by Patrick, who in the past has fought sleepiness, fatigue, and confusion while driving. However, on this trip he has a passenger to help keep him alert. That passenger is a young, aspiring actress, who is hitchhiking her way to London for the audition of a lifetime.

In another vehicle ride a groom and his best man who are already running late for the wedding. They are trying desperately to make up for lost time, while covering up the devastating secret that caused them to leave so late that morning.

A taxi is driving along at a steady speed in the right lane with its passenger, an elderly widow on the way to meet the former love of her life. She hasn’t seen him for 60 years, but he has come back to England from the United States to meet her.

The car traveling in the middle lane carries a prominent doctor and his mistress, who are arguing because he has told her the relationship must end. His life would be destroyed if the affair was discovered.

Traffic continues to move at a steady pace, when suddenly the sky begins to get darker. The drivers find themselves in an odd yellow blackness with great sheets of rain beating down on the road, followed by hail, that whites out the road markings. But, then the storm is over and the sunshine returns.  However, the road is still covered with water. Suddenly, the tractor-trailer swerves across five lanes of traffic causing a miles-long pile-up within minutes. The consequences from the accident are set in motion.

High above on a hill, a farmer stands in his field and witnesses the whole event. The field becomes the area used for helicopter evacuations and the farmer’s life is destined to become entwined with many of the victims. 

The lives of the victims become entangled much like the vehicles they drove. The story of the trials they face after the accident, the loves and friendships they form, and the new lives they discover all show that some times the worst event can lead to The Best of Times.

This book and other books by Penny Vincenzi are available at the Lexington Public Library. You can also find the library’s new book list at the library or online.

What did it take for a woman from the east to become a rancher or the wife of a rancher on the Kansas prairie in 1888? In the book, A Hopeful Heart, by Kim Vogel Sawyer, Hattie Wyatt, a widow in Barnett, Kansas decides to open Wyatt Herdsman School. Wyatt Herdsman School offers a one-of-a-kind program that will teach young women from the East the skills necessary to be either a successful rancher or the wife of a successful rancher.

The inaugural class at Wyatt Herdsman School includes twenty-two-year-old Tressa Neill, who is desperate as a dowryless orphan and has been forced into the program by her aunt and uncle. Shy, small and unaccustomed to the rigors of ranch life, Tressa has no idea how she will be able to endure the Wyatt school curriculum, which was developed to expose the young women to all aspects of ranch life. The curriculum includes milking a cow, branding a calf, riding a horse, birthing animals, driving a wagon, and cooking up a mess of grub for a bunch of hungry ranch hands. While learning all the basics taught in the school, Tressa realizes she also must learn to stand up for herself, determine what love is and isn’t, and understand what her faith means.

Abel Samms, a neighboring rancher, wants no part of the interest generated by the Wyatt Herdsman School. He respects Hattie Wyatt, but has no concern for her school or her students. He once loved a girl, who also came from the East. She was to be his bride and live on his ranch. The reminders of his own broken relationship are all he needs to steer a wide berth of both the school and its students.

But then Tressa’s life is in danger. Abel is the one who is called upon and he must quickly take stock of his values and determine if he is willing to risk everything for a second chance.

You can find this book and other books by Kim Vogel Sawyer at the Lexington Public Library. Also, see our list of new books on line.

In the book The Pallbearers by Stephen J. Cannell, Walter Dix has left instructions in his will that six of his former wards are to be his pallbearers. The six are an unusual lot – a street wise biker, a defense attorney, and Iraq war veteran, a pistol packing accountant, the current secretary/treasurer of Huntington House Group Home, and Shane Scully, a homicide detective. When Scully is contacted that he is one of the selected pallbearers, he immediately postpones his vacation to Hawaii and accepts the obligation. But, his heart is also riddled with guilt. Walter or Pop as he was affectionately called has committed suicide. Scully wishes he had been there to support Pop the way he should have in the years since he has become an adult. Maybe that would have made a difference.

Pop Dix, the director of Huntington House Group Home for parentless children, was often the only stable force in many of the orphan’s lives. He was considered a father by many of his kids, often taking them surfing early in the morning. Pop was the one who gave them courage to face the world. Now he was gone. 

When Scully meets the other five pallbearers he begins to wonder why they were all chosen - were they Pop’s favorites, were they chosen because they had all achieved success in their field, or were they chosen because Pop knew they had expertise in finding the truth? The police report states he had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, but none of the pallbearers can believe this is true. Pop was an eternal optimist who loved surfing only second to the kids in his care.

The pallbearers form a Pallbearers Murder Club with Scully in the lead to investigate. Scully is surprised when he discovers Pop was indeed murdered. The trail to find the killer leads the Pallbearers Murder Club into a world of revenge, embezzling, and MMA fighters, yet all the pallbearers will not be turned back, as they search for the truth for the one man who once believed in them.

You can find this and other books by Stephen Cannell (including others in the Shane Scully series) at the Lexington Public Library. Also, look for the new book list at the library or online at the library’s website http://lexingtonlibrary.org

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

Wendy Tynes, reporter for the show “Caught in the Act,” is on a mission to identify and bring down sexual predators who are using chat rooms on the Internet. Working with local police she develops an elaborate sting, pretending to be a teenage girl and luring men to a decoy house. The men, expecting to meet a teenager, instead are greeted by television cameras and police. When Wendy traps Dan Mercer, a social worker for troubled teens and an inner city basketball coach, he flees the scene. With his reputation in shambles, Dan goes into hiding. Even though the evidence points to Dan’s guilt, Wendy cannot shake the feeling that something is not right about the case. She begins to wonder if she has trapped an innocent man.

Haley McWaid seems to have it all. She is an ultra organized high school senior, who is captain of the lacrosse team and plans to attend college next year. When she doesn’t come home one night, her family and her community fear the worst. After three months of searching she still hasn’t been found. No one has an answer to the question, “How can she have just disappeared?”

Evidence suggests that Dan and Haley’s cases are intertwined. Wendy can’t let either story rest. Using her reporter instincts, Wendy begins to delve into Dan’s past. Wendy encounters a web of secrets from Dan’s days as a student at Princeton that has traversed time to the present. She doesn’t know who to trust. Her determination to find the truth may bring closure for some, but it could destroy others. Caught by Harlan Coben is an intriguing story of missing teens, mistakes and consequences, cyber control and media competition. It is also a story showing the destruction of revenge and the need for forgiveness.

This is a great summer read for the beach, the deck, or a comfy chair. All the twists and turns will leave you guessing what is going to happen right up to the totally unexpected ending. So get “caught” up in a great summer read and read Caught by Harlan Coben.

In the book Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay, David Harwood is living the classic suburban life. He is a reporter for the local small town newspaper, the Promise Falls Standard. He has been married to Jan, a wife he adores, for five years and has a four year old son, Ethan. His parents live nearby and often volunteer to babysit Ethan.

David has a lead on a story concerning bribes being offered to local politicians by Star Spangled Corrections, the correctional company that wants to build a privately run prison in Promise Falls. His story could blow the conspiracy wide open. However, for some reason the editor of his paper refuses to run the story. David is so caught up with this story that he at first doesn’t notice the changes in Jan’s demeanor. When her depression and unusual behaviors turn to more suicidal thoughts, David suggests she seek the advice of her doctor, believing the doctor can help her.

On a warm summer Saturday Jan suggests a family outing to the 5 Mountain Amusement Park. While David is in line getting ice cream cones, Jan waits with Ethan. When David looks up, Jan is running toward him alone. Ethan has disappeared. Jan cries that she looked away for a just moment and when she turned back he was gone. David frantically begins to search the park and tells Jan to wait by the gate to be sure the kidnapper doesn’t escape. While searching the park, David finds Ethan in his stroller and sees a bearded man running away from it. He quickly returns to the gate with Ethan, only to find that Jan is now missing. After hours of searching for her, he finally notifies the police.

As the police investigate Jan’s disappearance, things don’t add up the way the investigators think they should. The police begin to question David’s story. He soon finds he is the prime target of their investigation and no one is willing to help him. Using his skills as a reporter, David decides to conduct his own investigation. He tries to stay one step ahead of the police. David wonders if Jan’s disappearance is related to the newspaper story he has been pursuing. His search to find out what really happened to his wife leads him to discover deceptions in Jan’s past and facts that are contradicted by reality.

This is a great summer read, similar to works by Harlan Coben. In Never Look Away Barclay shows that we sometimes believe what we want to believe. When everything starts to fall apart and the evidence starts building, we wonder how we could have missed the truth for so long.

Other books by Linwood Barclay that can be found at the Lexington Public Library include Fear the Worst and No Time for Goodbye. Also, be sure to check our new booklist at the library or on our website.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

A winter garden is a cold, frigid place – sometimes a place of quiet and beauty and almost Winter Gardenalways a place of solitude. In the book Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah, the winter garden that graced the grounds behind the mansion of Belyi Nochi was Anya’s favorite place. Even in her advanced years she would wander to the garden and not seem to notice the ice or the cold.

Anya’s two daughters, Meredith and Nina, at a young age had tried to please their mother, but have now grown cautious and distant. Since the girls’ pre-teens, Anya has remained aloof and cold. In contrast both girls dote on their father, Evan, who is the peacemaker of the family – the mediator between the girls and their mother- always encouraging them to understand.

As adults, Meredith marries her childhood sweetheart, raises two daughters, and becomes a part of the family business, working next to her father in the orchards in Oregon. She does everything that is expected of her and more. Her life becomes a chain of overwhelming demands that leads her to lose track of where her life is headed. She is on autopilot. She can no longer communicate her feelings, even to her husband and family.

Nina, on the other hand, pursues a much different life. She leaves home and becomes a world renowned photojournalist, often reporting from the war zones around the world. Nina seems unable to seriously commit to a relationship. Her relationship with her long term boyfriend is faltering because she too has trouble with communication and has a fear of showing her feelings.

When Evan is suddenly incapacitated with heart failure, both girls lives are in turmoil. His death bed request is that they ask their mother to finish the fairy tale she began telling them many years earlier as children. The fairy tale opens up a past life never before revealed. When the girls realize the fairy tale is really a true story connected to their mother’s life before coming to America, they begin to understand their mother’s identity with the winter garden.

The Winter Garden takes the reader into the Leningrad of World War II. It is a story of hope, fear, second chances and coping with the winter gardens of life.

You can find the Winter Garden and other books by Kristin Hannah including True Colors and Between Sisters at the Lexington Public Library. Also find a copy of the Lexington Public Library’s new book list at the library or at the library’s website.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director

In a fall 2009 episode of the ABC Network television show Castle, Richard Castle’s book Heat Wave was an instant best seller. The episode even included a book signing. Now there is a real world book Heat Wave written by none other that Richard Castle and it also has been a big hit making the top ten list of  both the Publisher’s Weekly and New York Times Best Sellers Lists.

In the book Heat Wave Jameson Rook has been given permission to shadow detective Nicki Heat’s Homicide team in order to write a story about the NYPD in general and Nicki Heat in particular for a magazine. In the middle of one of New York’s worst heat waves real estate tycoon, Matthew Starr, is murdered, pushed off the 6th floor balcony to the street below. As the investigation builds, Matthew Starr’s much younger trophy wife is also attacked. Then Starr’s collection of valuable artwork disappears during a blackout. When other people associated with Matthew Starr begin turning up dead, Nicki Heat follows the clues through every twist and turn all the while being shadowed by Jameson Rook. The book parallels the television show. In the television show Richard Castle follows Detective Kate Beckett and is using her for a model to write about the character of Nicki Heat in the book he is writing (Heat Wave). In the book Jameson follows Nicki Heat to write an article for a magazine. The book is a fun read with jokes and banters between the characters. There is not only the mystery of who is behind the murders and deceit; there is also the greatest mystery – who actually is the author of Heat Wave? Marie Coolman of Hyperion Books states “the author has appeared on an episode of Castle.” So the list of possible authors includes James Patterson, Stephen J. Cannell, or Michael Connelly. However, the reader is left to his own opinion. Just who is the author or has the book been written by a combination of two or more authors?

A Wish for Christmas, the latest book in the Cape Light Series by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer, is a warm Christmas story that includes a good Samaritan, who has the uncanny knack of knowing exactly what people need and then giving that to them at exactly the right time.  No one in Cape Light can guess who the anonymous donor might be.

Another resident of Cape Light is also struggling with identity, but in an entirely different way.  After leaving home right out of high school, twenty-three year old David joined the Army and has been stationed in Iraq.  David was seriously injured when the Humvee he was traveling in was fired upon and overturned.  After major surgeries David still has nerve damage that forces him to use a walker. His dreams of becoming a firefighter or policeman have been put on hold. When he returns to his father’s house, he returns to a different life. His father has remarried and David now has a 5 year-old stepsister.   David begins physical therapy which helps his physical injuries, but as Christmas approaches, it becomes evident that he has emotional and spiritual wounds that also must heal.  When his former girlfriend goes to work at his parent’s tree farm, David is in turmoil.  He feels that he has nothing to offer her, but still remembers the life they shared before he left for the Army.  As Christmas approaches, David struggles toward his goal of walking without using a walker by Christmas, but will his heart be mended as well?

Meanwhile, elderly Lillian Warwick, who has been cared for by her granddaughter, suddenly finds herself living on her own.  Her granddaughter has moved to Boston to take a position as reporter for the Boston Globe and Lillian is alone for the first time in years.  Determined to thwart all her daughters’ attempts to hire someone to come help her with the cooking and cleaning, Lillian finds fault with every prospect who comes through the door.  Even after Lillian has a cooking accident that requires a call to the fire department, Lillian is determined in her resolve.

When Dr. Ezra Elliot, a close friend of Lillian’s, is suddenly the one who needs help, Lillian is the first to respond.  In caring for Ezra, Lillian is surprised to learn she can again let someone into her life.  Can she also love again?

If you are new to the Cape Light Series you will enjoy this Christmas story that addresses issues that are pertinent to our times.  If you’ve read other Cape Light novels, you’ll enjoy catching up with several of the characters in the Cape Light Community.

You can check out all the Cape Light Community novels at the Lexington Public Library.  Also look for the library’s new book list at the library or online at http://www.lexingtonlibrary.com

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

On June 10, 1940 Mussolini entered World War II on the side of Germany. In the book The Christmas Glass by Marci Alborghetti, Anna, a young widow in the town of Lake Varese, Italy, who before the war had opened her home to fourteen young Italian orphans, finds she cannot turn her back on the Jewish children who begin arriving at her rambling old house. Secretly harboring the Jewish children from watchful eyes, she soon is caring for seventeen children.

One hot August day at the orphanage, while the war rages on across the continent, Anna carefully opens a box that reveals twelve hand-blown German-made pieces of Christmas Glass. The Christmas Glass embodies family tradition for Anna. Every year on December 13, Christmas Glass Day, she and her mother, Caterina, would ceremoniously take out the Christmas Glass, relating the story of the glass and how it had come to her family, and then display the pieces with dignity until January 7. But Caterina has been gone for over a decade and Anna is convinced the war will not end quickly. Anna is determined the most important thing that remains of her mother – of her family – The Christmas Glass will not be destroyed. But Anna also knows that if Mussolini’s army finds out she is secretly sheltering Jewish children, the Christmas Glass may not be safe. Her only hope is to send the Christmas Glass to her cousin Filomena, who lives with her family on the coast of Italy. Each ornament must be wrapped so that it won’t shatter in transport. The only fabric available to cushion the ornaments is her wedding dress. With resolve, Anna cuts into her wedding gown and uses each piece to carefully wrap each ornament.

After the war Filomena and her family immigrate to America. Anna and her mother always believed the pieces of Christmas Glass should never be separated, but after Filomena’s move to America the ornaments are shared with friends and family. Eventually, twelve different people each possess one piece of the Christmas Glass. In the year 2000 at the age of 84, Filomena plans a wonderful Christmas reunion for the people who hold the twelve glass pieces. The past forty years have been filled with love and laughter, discord and disagreement, tears and joy. Each chapter of the book gives an insight into the lives of the recipients of each piece of Christmas Glass – their achievements and their heartaches. Filomena demands that each recipient of a piece of Christmas Glass come to her apartment for the reunion. All recipients may wonder if in responding they will experience the reunion of Filomena’s dreams or if the reunion will shatter the lives they have built, much like the shattering of fine glass.

This book and other new materials can be found on the Lexington Public Library’s new book list, which can be picked up at the library or look on the library’s website http://www.lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

How would it feel if you read your own obituary in the morning paper?  Would you like to make changes in your lifestyle in order to leave a new legacy? What if you had a second chance at life?

In the book The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans, James Kier reads his own obituary in the morning paper. According to the obituary, he has been killed in an automobile accident on I-80. His obituary describes him as a fierce, oftentimes ruthless businessman, with the motto, “If you want to make friends, join a book club. If you want to make money, go into business. Only a fool confuses the two.”  After reading the obituary, James clicks on the newspaper’s website and is shocked at the number of negative comments his obituary has generated. It is his first insight into the person he has become. 

As in Charles Dickens’s The Christmas Carol, James determines that he must make changes in his life.  However, he has a much harder time achieving redemption than Scrooge. He decides to have his secretary make a list of the five people he has most wronged in his business dealings and he will make amends before Christmas. But, James discovers that unlimited resources can’t necessarily buy redemption. As he struggles to make contact with each person on the list, to right the wrongs and to find forgiveness, he realizes that some wrongs are difficult if not impossible to repair. Undaunted he still strives to apologize and hopes to be forgiven. As the list grows shorter, James begins to understand the way to finding love, hope and redemption. Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons learned is that of appreciating and taking advantage of every moment shared with those we love.

Richard Paul Evans is known for his wonderful Christmas stories, especially The Christmas Box. You can find this and other books by Richard Paul Evans at the Lexington Public Library. Our new booklist is also available at the library or online at http://www.lexingtonlibrary.com.


Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

In the book The Familiar Stranger by Christina Berry, Craig Littleton surprises his family one Sunday morning by announcing that he is not going to go to church or to the deacon’s meeting. He is going to go hiking by himself at Multnomah Falls. He carefully dresses according to his plan and leaves for the falls. He calls and leaves a message on the answering machine verifying his plans.

When his wife, Denise’s cell phone rings during church, she is at first embarrassed, but the embarrassment turns to fear when she learns that Craig has been involved in a car accident. While parked by the side of the road Craig and another man are seen arguing in front of Craig’s vehicle, when it is suddenly hit by another car. Denise is asked to report to the hospital immediately. When Denise and her two teenage sons arrive at the hospital they find Craig critically injured and in a drug induced coma. They are told that the man he was arguing with was DOA - dead at the scene. As the details leading up to the accident are revealed, Denise finds herself with many questions. If Craig didn’t go to church because he wanted to go hiking “alone,” who was the man who died next to Craig? Why was Craig having a heated argument with the strange man, as had been reported? Why was Craig even parked alongside the freeway? There are many questions waiting to be answered, but when Craig regains consciousness, he not only doesn’t have answers to the questions, he doesn’t recognize Denise or the children. He doesn’t know who he is. He does not remember the accident. Before the accident Craig was temperamental, demanding and arrogant, why is he now displaying tenderness, consideration and love? The doctor diagnoses his injury as retrograde amnesia and assures them that his memory will return at anytime.

As Denise nurses Craig to health she falls in love with him all over again. He also develops a bond with his sons that never existed before. As their relationships grow, Denise wonders if it will all shatter when his memory returns. Will he revert to his old ways? Although Denise tries to trust him, distrust often rears its head.

As she tries to help Craig regain his memory by searching the past for answers and the truth, Denise must face betrayals, uncertainty and eventually determine if forgiveness can lead to a new beginning.

This is the debut novel by Christina Berry. Look for it and other new materials by picking up a copy of the new book list at the Lexington Public Library or find it on the library’s website at http://www.lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

In life we sometimes meet the person who becomes our BFF (Best Friend Forever). The best friend who shares our hopes and dreams, who is there for us when we need a shoulder to cry on, who is the one person in the world we can always depend upon because they really know and understand us.

In the book After You by Julie Buxbaum it had been that way for Ellie Lerner and Lucy Stafford for over thirty years. They had been BFF since the age of four. Then, suddenly Lucy is gone – murdered by a drug crazed mugger on a London street. Ellie drops everything in her own life in the Boston suburbs to go to London. Ellie stays after the funeral to take care of Sophie, Lucy’s precocious eight-year old daughter, who having witnessed her mother’s death, now refuses to talk to anyone. To help Sophie cope with Lucy’s death, Ellie suggests she and Sophie read the book The Secret Garden together every evening. While Ellie helps Sophie cope with her grief, they form a bond as deep as mother and child.

Ellie begins to discover that Lucy’s life was not as perfect as she had imagined. She discovers that even though they were best friends and she thought they had shared everything, Lucy had a secret life.

As Ellie helps Sophie emerge from her grief, Ellie’s own life begins to disintegrate. How long can she abandon her life in Boston? Is she running from her marriage and the emptiness her life has become since the loss of her own child, Oliver, who was stillborn? Why does her husband seem like a stranger to her?  Is she assuming a surrogate mother position in the life of Sophie? How could Lucy have kept a secret from her?

Ellie eventually must face tough choices as she learns about unconditional love, second chances, and facing the life she left behind.

This book and other new books can be found on the library’s new book list, which can be picked up at the library or found on the library’s website http://www.lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

Anna Bailey, in the book Shadows of Lancaster County by Mindy Starns Clark, has worked hard to put the past behind her and start a new life. She now has a new identity. She’s changed her name, moved across the country to California and found a career as a skip tracer. She has almost convinced herself that she has escaped the tragic accident eleven years ago that has haunted her ever since – the night when a group of friends casual drinking and carelessness led to a terrible fire and the destruction of an Amish family.

Then one phone call changes everything. Lydia, Anna’s sister-in-law calls from Pennsylvania to tell Anna that her brother Bobby is missing. She adds that someone has broken into their apartment and stolen the information about Anna’s new identity. At that exact moment someone breaks into Anna’s apartment and attacks Anna’s roommate. The attacker holds Anna at gunpoint and demands to know the location of the Beauharnais Rubies. Anna has never heard of the Beauharnais Rubies!

Anna heeds the call from her sister-in-law and with great reluctance returns to Pennsylvania and her past to try to find her brother. The more she looks into her brother’s disappearance the more questions seem to surface. Where could Bobby be? Is he injured? Is his disappearance connected to the accident eleven years ago? Is it connected to the missing rubies? What do the Beauharnais Rubies have to do with everything that is happening? When another member of the five accused of setting the fire turns up dead, Anna must use her skills as a skip tracer to and race against time to try to find Bobby before it is too late. 

This book not only involves the reader in a mystery of disappearance and murder, but also gives the reader an insight into Amish life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, including Rumspringa, of the closeness of the Amish culture and of the ability of those of the Amish faith to forgive those who harm them.

You can find other books by Mindy Starns Clark at the Lexington Public Library. The new book list for the library can be found at the library or at the library’s website www.lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

In the first book of the new series Seasons of the Tall Grass Series by Deborah Vogts entitled Snow Melts in Spring, Mattie Evans, a young, dedicated veterinarian loves the prairie and hills where she lives.  She cannot imagine living anywhere else. Mattie grew up in Flint Hills, KS, but her parents lost their ranch and were forced to move to Kansas City. Nevertheless, Flint Hills still feels like home to her. When Mattie has the opportunity to buy out the veterinary practice of old Doc Bryant because he is retiring, Mattie jumps at the chance to become Flint Hills’ veterinarian. However, life has not been easy. She has struggled to gain the confidence of area ranchers, who are not willing to trust a woman veterinarian. One rancher, John McCray soon becomes her staunchest supporter and her best friend. John, a cantankerous old man, lives alone on the Lightning M Ranch and feels the same love for the land as Mattie. John’s wife has died and his eldest son, Frank was killed years ago in an automobile accident. His youngest son, Gil, who does not share the love of the prairie land, is estranged and is a pro football player, a quarterback, playing for the San Francisco 49ers. Gil has just played his last game and now that he has retired, plans to train horses on a ranch in California.

When Gil’s favorite horse, Dusty, is critically injured in an accident, Gil refuses to accept the possibility the animal may not survive. He returns to the ranch for the first time in years. As the veterinarian treating Dusty, Mattie is unwittingly drawn into the conflict between Gil and his dad, a conflict that will reveal untold secrets. Mattie, who feels Gil is arrogant and selfish, and Gil, who wonders if Maggie is incompetent and only after his father’s money are drawn into conflict, compromise, and lessons of forgiveness. Both Gil and Mattie must eventually decide whether to follow their hearts or to hold on to the dreams and beliefs of the past.

The new book list for the library can be found at the library or at the library’s website www.lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

For Ryan James, in the book Intent to Kill by James Grippando, life couldn’t get much better. As the third baseman on the minor league team the Paw Socks based out to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, he has consistently been improving his game. The word is out now that he and his best friend, pitcher Ivan Lopez will be moving up to the major leagues next season and will officially become members of the Boston Red Sox. In fact this is probably their last game in the minor leagues. Ryan has a wonderful wife, Chelsea, who teaches at a prestigious private school during the day and attends law school at night. She’s looking forward to the day when she’ll be a lawyer. Ryan and Chelsea have a beautiful two year old daughter Ainsley.

However, everything changes in an instant when Ryan’s wife is killed in a hit and run accident on the way to his final minor league game. The driver of the other car seems to have vanished without a trace. Unable to put his world back together again, Ryan’s life evolves into sleepless nights, memories of his wife and the importance of raising his daughter. Three years later Ryan is no longer a baseball player, but is hosting a morning sports radio talk show, “Jocks in the Morning.” Then on the third anniversary of Chelsea’s death an anonymous tipster sends the message, “I know who did it.”

Ryan turns to Emma Carlisle, the prosecutor in charge of the hit and run case for help in making sense of the tip. More tips are received. Ryan makes a stunning discovery - the tip which is coded may have come from Chelsea’s own brother “Babes,” who has Asperger’s Syndrome. More messages appear and implications lead to one of the most prominent families in New England.

As the pressure mounts, authorities attempt to determine if Chelsea’s death was indeed an accident. Their resolve to discover what happened that fateful night leads Babes to bolt and go into hiding. He refuses to communicate unless it’s through Ryan’s live radio broadcast.

As the events of the night are slowly revealed, it becomes evident that the pursuit of the truth could lead Ryan, Babes and Emma into even more danger. But Ryan knows he must take the risk to try to find Babes and determine if Chelsea’s hit and run was an accident or if it was an Intent to Kill.

Check out this and other books by James Grippando at the Lexington Public Library.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

At one time Johnny Merriman, in the book The Last Child by John Hart, was living the happy, normal life of a typical twelve-year- old.  He had a twin sister, Alyssa, and happy, loving parents.  But, everything changed when Alyssa disappeared one evening on the way home from the library.  She had been seen being pulled into a mysterious van.  During the ensuing year Johnny lost more than his sister.  He lost his whole way of life.  Driven by the guilt that the abduction was his fault, Johnny’s father has left and not returned.  His mother is being controlled by a powerful man who abuses her and keeps her strung out on drugs.  He and his mother have even lost the house they had lived in with his father and Alyssa.  However, Johnny refuses to give up and continues to search for Alyssa.  His strategies include drawing a map so he can search the town street by street, spying on a list of known sex offenders and following any other leads he finds.

Johnny is not alone in his quest.  Detective Clyde Hunt, the police detective in charge of the kidnapping investigation, is also haunted by the case.  Alyssa’s kidnapping case has become an obsession with him, costing him his own marriage and family. 

When another child, Tiffany Shore, goes missing, Detective Hunt is determined that this time he will find the girl and bring her home before too much time passes.  However, he cannot forget Alyssa.

As the search for Alyssa and the truth behind her disappearance continues, Johnny and Detective Hunt follow the similar paths which reveal secrets that could lead to destruction.  When both are confronted with deceptions close to them, they must search within themselves as they face lessons in forgiveness and redemption. 

The library’s new book list is available at the library or online at http://.www.lexingtonlibrary.org.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

The book Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas takes place in 1936 in Middle Swan, CO, an isolated mining town where life is hard and dangerous for the miners, winters are bitterly cold, and women share each others’ burdens over a quilt frame. Hennie Comfort  has been living in Middle Swan for 70 years and now at the age of 86 realizes she must face the fact that it is time to leave her beloved mountains and go live with her daughter, Mae, who lives in Fort Madison, IA.

Hennie had placed a carved wooden sign stating “prayer for sale” on her fence when everything in her life was going right and she didn’t need to ask for anything. However, she didn’t really charge for prayers - she offered them freely. But, prayers are what brought Nit Spindle to her doorstep. Nit, a lonely, new bride who had just moved to the area was requesting a prayer for Effie the stillborn child she’d left behind in Kentucky. This is the beginning of an unconventional, yet wonderful friendship.

In the months before she must leave, Hennie has a passel of stories to tell and Nit is an avid listener. Hennie’s stories are of heartache, hardship, and happiness. As Hennie spins an oral history of Middle Swan interspersed with stories of her own past, she and Nit become kindred spirits. Each story helps Nit adjust to her new life.

As Hennie skillfully puts together the pieces of her life and the town’s history from the past to the present, the women of Middle Swan gather to piece and quilt the quilts that are such an important part of life in Middle Swan. Hennie’s stories about her own life begin with a tragedy and end with a secret. A whole new life is unfolding for both Hennie and Nit, but first Hennie must face the secret she has buried for so many years. This time Nit helps Hennie as she faces her past and learns the healing power of forgiveness not only transforms the one who needs to be forgiven.

Stop by the library to check out this book and other books by Sandra Dallas, including the book Tall Grass. Also look for our new book list at the library.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

In a book dedicated to her parents and inspired by a true story from their lives, Eileen Goudge in The Diary portrays an extraordinary story of love.
 
While clearing out their mother’s house after she has been debilitated by a stroke, Sarah and Emily, the two grown daughters of Elizabeth Marshall discover her old diary in the attic. The diary, dulled with age, tells the story of Elizabeth and AJ, the real love of Elizabeth’s life. The sisters are stunned to learn that their father was not their mother’s true love. The diary details the story of how Elizabeth as a young woman loses her heart to one man and remains devoted to another. Eventually, Elizabeth is forced to choose between stability and the life she had always planned with Bob in the small town of Emory, Nebraska or following her heart with the exciting, unpredictable AJ who has been working at different jobs in various parts of the country, but who has promised that he someday will return for her.

As Sarah and Emily read the diary throughout the night, they find they have many questions that are begging to be answered. Was there another man in their mother’s life before she married their father and was this AJ really her one true love? The sisters have always believed that their father was their mother’s one and only true love. Who was this AJ? He had a record as a juvenile delinquent and had been spurned by the local community, yet their mother wrote about him with passion. And most importantly, if AJ was their mother’s first true love, why did she leave him to marry their father? It is going to be difficult to find answers to these mysteries because Sarah and Emily’s father passed away ten years earlier and their mother is mute and near death in a nursing home as a result of the stroke she has recently suffered.  Perhaps the answers can only be revealed within the pages of the diary.

You can find this and other books by Eileen Goudge at the Lexington Public Library. Also look for our new book list at the library.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

Nebraska author Stephanie Grace Whitson's latest novel A Claim of Her Own is set in Deadwood, South Dakota during the gold mining era of the 1870's.

Twenty-year-old Mattie O'Keefe's brother has settled in Deadwood, South Dakota to establish a claim in the gold fields. He sends Mattie a letter boasting of the gold he's found and fortune he is accumulating.  He tells Mattie that she must be patient. When the timing is right he will send for her and bring her to Deadwood to live the life they have planned together.

However, unbearable circumstances in Mattie's life in Kansas will not allow her to wait any longer. She decides to travel to Deadwood in search of her brother.

The trip to Deadwood is difficult, but in no way does it prepare Mattie for the reality of life in Deadwood - for Deadwood is a place "frenzied and filthy. the last place on earth a man would want to bring a woman he cared about." When Mattie arrives she is determined to find Dillon and make the best of it. Then Mattie discovers that Dillon has died a few weeks earlier of the grippe and that she is all alone.

Mattie can't go back to her previous life. With the help of new friends; "Swede" a female bullwhacker and her son Freddie, Tom, co-owner of the new general store, and Aron Gallagher, the preacher with the mysterious past, Mattie decides that she is going to stay in Deadwood and work the claim herself. She becomes "Matt the Miner." She's determined to work Dillon's claim and to build on the wealth of gold he had already mined.

Mattie begins to build a life for herself in Deadwood. Besides mining gold, she helps Swede and Tom build a new store and works with others in the community. However, when Aron preaches against storing up of riches on earth, she doesn't think he's talking about her. When Mattie is suddenly thrust into making decisions that effect her life, the lives of those closest to her and her wealth, she sees the message in Aron's sermon more clearly and begins to understand which riches in life are truly worth risking your life to hold on to.

This book and other titles by Stephanie Grace Whitson are available at the Lexington Public Library. Also look for our new book list at the library.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

The book The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer is a medical mystery/thriller that will not only entertain you, but will also offer insight into living with Asperger's Syndrome.

When Dr. Thea Sperelakis, a brilliant physician working in the Congo for Doctors Without Borders, learns that her father, renowned physician Dr. Petro Sperelakis is comatose, the result of a hit and run accident, she immediately returns home. Dr. Thea is affected with Asperger's Syndrome, which gives her a photographic memory and acute analytical skills, but also leaves her with the tendency to be too trusting and to blurt out whatever is on her mind. A short time after her arrival Thea is offered her father's hospital position. Thea's siblings, a brother and sister, who are twins and also respected physicians, believe Petro's injuries are extensive enough that it would be better to let him die peacefully, but Thea refuses to give up and performs the necessary procedures to restart her father's heart.

Thea's other sibling, her older brother, is an antisocial computer genius, who chooses not to visit his father at the hospital.

Soon Thea comes to believe that the accident was not an accident at all, but a deliberate attempt on her father's life. She also realizes that her father has "locked in" syndrome. He communicates with Thea by blinking his eyes. His revelations send her on a quest to discover not only what happened to her father and why, but also to determine what medical conspiracy Petros must have uncovered at the Beaumont Clinic while he was working there. She attempts to use her position on the hospital staff to find answers to the myriad of unanswered questions that continue to besiege her, but she is thwarted at every turn. As more people are threatened, Thea realizes that an assassin is at work and medical fraud and deception are prevalent at Beaumont Clinic. With the help of Dan Cotton, a former police officer who is now the Beaumont Clinic security guard, Thea works against time to uncover the hidden secrets of the clinic in order to save lives - possibly her own life and the lives of those she loves.

The Lexington Public Library has other books and books on CD by Michael Palmer. You can also find our new book list at the library.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

Inspirational fiction continues to be a popular genre at the Lexington Public Library and is the focus of the February book display. Karen Kingsbury is one of the most well-known writers of inspirational fiction. In her latest novel entitled This Side of Heaven, twenty-eight year old Josh Warren’s life is on hold while he waits for an insurance settlement. Josh has been disabled and in chronic pain for three years, ever since he was hit by a drunk driver. He dreams of the day when the settlement will come in and he can begin to put his life aright. Then he can have the surgery that hopefully will reduce his pain level, he can pay back his parents, he can develop a new business, he can contact the girl he still loves, and most importantly he can seek custody of Savannah, the seven year-old child he believes is his daughter.

Nate and Anna, Josh’s parents, are living a life that has not connected with Josh’s in recent years except superficially. They had great expectations for their son and gave him many opportunities, but in their eyes, Josh, who chose to be a tow truck driver, has lived a life of regret. He has lived a life of bad decisions and the resulting failures. Anna can’t help but feel disappointed. As a result, Josh has become aloof, Nate and Anna have become consumed with their own lives and a heartbreaking distance has grown between them.

When tragedy strikes, Nate and Anna suddenly are constantly faced with many revelations into the life of a son they never knew. As more and more of his life is revealed, Anna learns that the settlement that rightfully belongs to Josh may be threatened. In fighting for her son, Anna will eventually discover a gift that she never expected, the greatest gift that her son could ever give her…a gift This Side of Heaven.

This Side of Heaven is fictional but is inspired by Karen Kingsbury’s brother Dave, who was also a tow truck driver. To check out this and other inspirational fiction or to pick up our new book list stop by the Lexington Public Library. Our new book list also may be found online at http://lexingtonlibrary.com.

Kathy Thomsen
Library Director
Lexington Public Library

Lexington Public Library