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Staff Picks for October
Featured author-- Lynne Ewing
Lelia's Staff Picks
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
"When humans encroach upon his home valley, Firedrake, a young silver dragon, sets off to find the Rim of Heaven, a legendary haven in the mountains. But evil Nettlebrand, a human-made hunter of silver dragons, is spying on him, hoping Firedrake will lead him to even more delicious treats. The creature, referred to as the Golden One, resembles a huge dragon, but he is covered in cold, hard gold scales and cannot fly; however, he can magically appear in any body of water. During his journey, Firedrake is joined by a feisty brownie, a homunculus (who initially spied for Nettlebrand) and Ben, an orphan who may be the dragon rider foretold in an ancient prophecy. Readers will delight in the creatures that turn up in this extended quest. The elves, dwarves and a thousand-eyed djinni (a kindly professor of archaeology and his friends also aid the travelers in piecing together clues) help contribute to a rich lore (all enchanted creatures have red eyes, for example, and dragon-fire will reveal their true natures)." ---Publisher's Weekly
$12.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
Maid for Murder by Barbara Colley
"In New Orleans's historic Garden District, life is all about attending the right parties, impressing the right people, and making the right amount of money (a lot!). It's an attitude fifty-nine-year-old Charlotte La Rue has never really understood. She leads a quiet, simple, practical life, reading mystery novels and hanging out with her parakeet. Business is booming at her house cleaning service, Maid-for-a-Day, and everything's perfect. Well, almost everything..."
$5.99
Booked for Murder by Tim Myers
"When Innkeeper Alex Winston displays the cursed Carolina Rhapsody Emerald at the Hatteras West Inn and Lighthouse, murder checks in, claiming the lives of two guests and forcing Alex to catch a clever killer. Fifth in the popular Lighthouse Inn Mystery series."
$5.99
Tinker by Wen Spencer
"Wit and intelligence inform this off-beat, tongue-in-cheek fantasy from Spencer (Alien Taste, etc.), set in near-future Pittsburgh-or rather, the part of Pittsburgh that's been translated to the Faerie world of Elfhome by a faulty hyperphase gate created by the Chinese. After 18-year-old tech genius Tinker saves Windwolf, the elven governor of North America on Elfhome, from a pack of nasty wargs, Windwolf in gratitude turns her into an elf and makes her his consort. In her new and important position, Tinker becomes the target for a conspiracy of humans, elves and oni (Japanese demons that control their own part of Faerie) who are trying to build another gate for use in conquering Earth and Elfhome. Furious action, including a memorable car chase, good characterization, playful eroticism and well-developed folklore all help lift this well above the fantasy average."---Publishers Weekly
$21.95
A Picture of Guilt by Libby Fischer Hellmann
"The big news story in Chicago is the murder trial of Johnny Santoro, a dock worker whose girlfriend has been killed. Most Chicagoans are betting on a quick guilty verdict, but Ellie Foreman has doubts about his complicity--Santoro is strangely familiar to her. Checking back to the outtakes of a video project in progress while the murder took place, Ellie finds evidence that could save Santoro from a lifetime behind bars. It seems the perfect alibi, but the tape is compromised by radio interference and Santoro goes to jail. Almost immediately, Ellie's world begins to shift: a suspicious vehicle follows her, the Chicago mob shows up, and the FBI wants to question her. She doesn't have answers, but she has questions of her own about the radio transmissions. Everything indicates someone wants something from her, something bigger than the Santoro case. If only she could figure out what it is..."
$6.50
Andrew's Staff Picks
Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
"Agent Pendergast, last seen in the authors' Still Life with Crows, returns in a gruesome murder mystery. In an exotic mansion, Jeremy Grove's charred remains are discovered in an otherwise locked and barricaded room. The area smells of brimstone, and singed into the floorboard appears to be a cloven hoofprint. According to rumor, Jeremy made a Faustian pact with Satan in his youth. Did the Dark Lord finally demand payment? Pendergast can't resist a mystery, and he incorporates the help of police officers from the authors' previous novels. In addition, a major character appears courtesy of Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White."
$25.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
"All good things must come to an end, Constant Reader, and not even Stephen King can make a story that goes on forever. The tale of Roland Deschain's relentless quest for the Dark Tower has, the author fears, sorely tried the patience of those who have followed it from its earliest chapters. But attend to it a while longer, if it pleases you, for this volume is the last, and often the last things are best.
Roland's ka-tet remains intact, though scattered over wheres and whens. Susannah-Mia has been carried from the Dixie Pig (in the summer of 1999) to a birthing room -- really a chamber of horrors -- in Thunderclap's Fedic; Jake and Father Callahan, with Oy between them, have entered the restaurant on Lex and Sixty-first with weapons drawn, little knowing how numerous and noxious are their foes. Roland and Eddie are with John Cullum in Maine, in 1977, looking for the site on Turtleback Lane where "walk-ins" have been often seen. They want desperately to get back to the others, to Susannah especially, and yet they have come to realize that the world they need to escape is the only one that matters.
Thus the book opens, like a door to the uttermost reaches of Stephen King's imagination. You've come this far. Come a little farther. Come all the way. The sound you hear may be the slamming of the door behind you. Welcome to 'The Dark Tower'."
$35.00 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
"Bob Arctor is a dealer of the lethally addictive drug Substance D. Fred is the police agent assigned to tail and eventually bust him. To do so, Fred takes on the identity of a drug dealer named Bob Arctor. And since Substance D--which Arctor takes in massive doses--gradually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities, Fred doesn't realize he is narcing on himself.
Caustically funny, eerily accurate in its depiction of junkies, scam artists, and the walking brain-dead, Philip K. Dick's industrial-grade stress test of identity is as unnerving as it is enthralling."
$12.00
Murder Between The Covers by Elaine Viets
"Helen has a new job "off the books" at Page Turners bookstore in Fort Lauderdale...until the owner is murdered. But since the arrogant Page Turner III had so many enemies, Helen will have to read between the lines to uncover the truth about a clever killer."
$5.99
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
"Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.
And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.
A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.
And it's just the beginning ..."
$15.95
