Pick up some great reading at the Library!

The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson (2011)                                     
Sari is a bit of an outcast in her small Hungarian village in 1914.  She has been trained by her father to be a herbalist and healer.  When her father dies, she moves in with the local midwife because she is only 14 and not ready to marry Ferenc.  The men leave to fight in WWI and a prisoner of war camp moves into the estate outside the village.  The women go to the camp to cook and clean and as life happens, they have some fun, too.  The trouble begins when the men return after 4 years to reclaim their dominance in the lives of their wives and village.  The women deal with this brutish turn of events in a rather horrifying way.  Based on a true story, the descriptions of village life are detailed and give a real sense of place.  The character development of the women and the life they have to live allowed me to understand their decision about the men folk and their behavior.   ~ Recommended by Sue

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (2011) 
This very readable and accessible story of the life and assassination attempt of President James Garfield in the late 1800's by a deranged Charles Guiteau who believed the president owed him an ambassadorship in Europe, brings history alive.  This tragedy occurred only 14 years after the assassination of Lincoln but unlike Lincoln, Garfield lingered for months in excruciating pain before he died.  His death has been attributed to incompetent doctors who ignored the new Lister theory of invisible germs and the failure of Alexander Graham Bell's desperate attempt to develop a metal detector to find the lead bullet in Garfield's back in time to save the President.  Political corruption and the infighting at the Presidential Convention make for interesting reading.  Have things really changed since then?   ~ Recommended by Regina

Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb (2012)
Best-selling author Nora Roberts’ alter ego pens another futuristic thriller in her “In Death” series, set in 2060. This time, Lt. Eve Dallas encounters a crime scene like none she has ever seen- an entire restaurant full of people covered in each other’s blood. All of the victims are also the killers. When she discovers that the cause of this mass murder is an airborne cocktail of hallucinogens linked to Urban War terrorists, Dallas and her loyal police team, including her husband Roarke, must race against time-before they strike again.   ~ Recommended by Mei-Ling

Goliath by Steve Alten (2002)
Goliath is the giant supersub designed by Rochelle "Rocky" Jackson, of the U.S. Navy, but never built. However the plans are stolen and the ship is built by Simon Covah, whose plan for the ship brings the world to the edge of WWIII, in his attempts to prevent WWIII. The attempts to stop Covah and retake Goliath make an exciting story, but the reader must first get through the long technical description of the attack and sinking of the U.S. S. Ronald Reagan.   But hang in there and when the  story centers on Goliath and its biochemical computer brain, "Sorceress," it draws you in!   ~ Recommended by Michele