book talk march 04 2025

Book Talk for March 4, 2025

James: a Novel
by Percival Everett

"From Percival Everett a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin...), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature"-- Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.
DB120063

For Jerusalem: A Life
by Teddy Kollek and Amos Kollek

Informal memoir of the mayor of Jerusalem weaves together the story of his own full life, his involvement with Israel, and his work with the Zionist movement. Relates experiences for Jewish causes in many countries including the United States, and his attempts to create a united Jerusalem.
DB12575

The Eastern Front: The History of the Great War 1914-1918
by Nick Lloyd

"The second installment in Lloyd's bravura history of the First World War, "The Eastern Front" chronicles the bloody fighting in Eastern Europe and the Balkans through diary entries, eyewitness reports and memoirs. The definitive history of the Eastern Front in the First World War, from the acclaimed military historian and author of "Passchendaele" and "The Western Front." In the second volume of his landmark First World War trilogy, Professor Nick Lloyd tells the story for the first time of what Winston Churchill once called the "unknown war": the vast conflict in Eastern Europe and the Balkans that brought about the collapse of three empires. Much has been written about the fighting in France and Belgium, yet the Eastern Front was no less bloody. Between 1914 and 1917, huge numbers of people--perhaps as many as 16 million soldiers and two million civilians--were killed, wounded or maimed in enormous battles that sometimes ranged across a front of 100 km in length. Through intimate eyewitness reports, diary entries and memoirs--many of which have never been translated into English before--Lloyd reconstructs the full story of a war that began in the Balkans as a local struggle between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and which sucked in Russia, Germany and Italy, right through to the final collapse of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. "The Eastern Front" paints a vivid and authoritative picture of a conflict that shook the world, and that remains central to understanding the tragic, blood-soaked trajectory of the entire twentieth century, including the current war in Ukraine."-- From publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.
DB124655

Mr. Clarinet
by Nick Stone

"There was nothing waiting for ex-cop Max Mingus when he walked out of Attica Prison after serving hard time for murder—his adored wife died in a car crash while he was locked up. Now Miami’s one-time top detective is haunted by an empty house, bad memories...and an impossible job offer for obscenely good money. Three years ago, Charlie Carver, the five-year-old son of a powerful Haitian billionaire, vanished. His father is offering Max $15 million to bring the boy back—or, at the very least, to find his body and deliver his abductors. Max knows he should turn this case down. There’s no way the kid is still alive, and pursuing his ghost means plunging headfirst into Haiti, a steaming island hotbed of crime, greed, voodoo, and corruption. And the three detectives who preceded Mingus are all dead...or worse. But Max has nothing left to lose—even if his investigation stirs up a murky evil that can swallow a man whole...and leads him to the soul-destroying truth about a terrifying local myth, a child-stealing nightmare called “Mr. Clarinet.”" -- Dust jacket. Violence and strong language.
DB110589

Lead me home: Hardship and Hope on the Oregon Trail
by Teresa Hupp

Caleb M...