Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Death Weavers (Five Kingdoms #4) by Brandon Mull

Trapped in a world where magic is powerful and dreams are real, Cole’s epic adventure continues in book four of the New York Times bestselling “fanciful, action-packed adventure” series (Publishers Weekly, starred review), from the author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series.

Cole and his friends have made it to the fourth of the five kingdoms that comprise the Outskirts—Necronum, land of the dead. New allies and new dangers await...





Monday, March 14, 2016

Off the Grid by C.J. Box

Nate Romanowski is off the grid, recuperating from wounds and trying to deal with past crimes, when he is suddenly confronted by a small team of elite professional special operators. They’re not here to threaten him, but to make a deal. They need help destroying a domestic terror cell in the Red Desert, and in return, they’ll make Nate’s criminal record disappear.

But they are not what they seem, as Joe Pickett discovers. They have a much different plan in mind, and it just may be something that takes them all down, including Nate and Joe. And if there is other collateral damage? That’s just the fortunes of war.


 Other C. J. Box books in the Mount Michael Library


Monday, March 7, 2016

The Iron Druid Chronicles 1-3

Wikipedia Synopsis: The Iron Druid Chronicles - Author's Website
The series is set in our world (the first couple of books are set in a nicely researched Tempe, Arizona) where supernatural creatures exist, such as witches, vampires, werewolves, demons, elementals as well as various deities from many mythologies. The entire series is told in the first-person point of view and in the beginning is told exclusively by Atticus O'Sullivan (aka. Siodhachan O Suileabhain), a genuine Druid who owns and runs a bookshop, Third Eye Books and Herbs, as he gets embroiled in the day-to-day struggle of Gods and Goddesses and other supernatural creatures.




Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Jason Reynolds New Books

Author's Website
All American Boys: 
Two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.

A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book and winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award.

The Boy in the Black Suit:
Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this “vivid, satisfying, and ultimately upbeat tale of grief, redemption, and grace”

When I Was Greatest:
In Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head—even if you’re totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut that Publishers Weekly calls “a funny and rewarding read” captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.

2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book.





Double Switch (Johnny Adcock, #2)

Johnny Adcock, the aging major-league relief pitcher who moonlights as a private investigator, returns in the thrilling follow-up to The Setup Man.

      Johnny Adcock doesn’t have an office; he has the bullpen. That’s where he’s sitting shelling sunflower seeds after a game, when up walks Tiff Tate, the enigmatic, career-making PR/stylist behind the most highly marketable looks in baseball. Tiff needs Adcock’s special brand of expertise. Her new client is Yonel Ruiz, the rookie phenom who courageously risked life and limb in shark-infested waters to flee his native Cuba for fame, fortune, and freedom in Major League Baseball. Now that Ruiz has signed a record-setting contract, the Venezuelan cartel that smuggled him out is squeezing him for a bigger slice of the action and they’ve unleashed a ruthless assassin, known only as La Loba, to collect. Adcock takes the case, even though the front office wants to shut down his side job and has sent its no-nonsense corporate fixer and “director of security” to keep a close eye on him. Adcock is immediately swept up in a high-pressure game full of surprising twists, double crosses, and deadly gambits that will leave him fighting for his life and in danger of losing more than the heat off his fastball or a spot in the playoffs.

Also by T.T. Monday: Setup Man


Sunday, February 21, 2016

This Is Your Brain On Sports

This is Your Brain on Sports is the book for sports fans searching for a deeper understanding of the games they watch and the people who play them. Sports Illustrated executive editor and bestselling author L. Jon Wertheim teams up with Tufts psychologist Sam Sommers to take readers on a wild ride into the inner world of sports. Through the prism of behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology, they reveal the hidden influences and surprising cues that inspire and derail us--on the field and in the stands--and by extension, in corporate board rooms, office settings, and our daily lives.  - TitlePeek

Listen: NPR interview with the Authors "This Is Your Brain On Sports' Gets Inside Minds Of Players, Coaches And Fans

Friday, February 19, 2016

League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions and the Battle for Truth

“PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYERS DO NOT SUSTAIN FREQUENT REPETITIVE BLOWS TO THE BRAIN ON A REGULAR BASIS.”

So concluded the National Football League in a December 2005 scientific paper on concussions in America’s most popular sport. That judgment, implausible even to a casual fan, also contradicted the opinion of a growing cadre of neuroscientists who worked in vain to convince the NFL that it was facing a deadly new scourge: A chronic brain disease that was driving an alarming number of players -- including some of the all-time greats -- to madness.

League of Denial reveals how the NFL, over a period of nearly two decades, sought to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage. - Goodreads

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Calamity (Reckoners #3) by Brandon Sanderson

When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when Prof struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Once the Reckoners’ leader, Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back...

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it. They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.

The last book in the series.

Books 1 & 2 of THE RECKONERS TRILOGY

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Extra Innings

In the year 2092, baseball legend Ted Williams is brought back to life through the science of cryogenics. The world has become unrecognizable, and the game of baseball has been thoroughly corrupted with robot pitchers and juiced hitters. His only solace is in Dr. Elizabeth Miles, the scientist who brought him back, and her young son, Johnnie.

How will he adjust? Will he make the same choices he made in his first life, or will he use this time to right any wrongs? What would any of us do in a similar situation? Extra Innings deals with these questions and more as a futuristic world welcomes a legend.


Friday, February 12, 2016

Zer0es by Chuck Wendig

Five hackers—an Anonymous-style rabble-rouser, an Arab Spring hacktivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll—are detained by the U.S. government, forced to work as white-hat hackers for Uncle Sam in order to avoid federal prison. At a secret complex known only as "the Lodge," where they will spend the next year working as an elite cyber-espionage team, these misfits dub themselves "the Zeroes."

But once the Zeroes begin to work, they uncover secrets that would make even the most dedicated conspiracy theorist's head spin. And soon they're not just trying to serve their time, they're also trying to perform the ultimate hack: burrowing deep into the U.S. government from the inside, and hoping they'll get out alive. Packed with electric wit and breakneck plot twists, Zer0es is an unforgettable thrill ride through the seedy underbelly of "progress." - Goodreads

NPR Book Review: 'Zer0es' Takes The Cyber-Thriller To An Electrifying Extreme