Ahhh... it's that time of year again. The leaves are changing color, the smell of smoke is in the air and it's the perfect season to curl up with a good book!
Over the last several months, publishing houses have produced some amazing novels for your reading pleasure and The Daily Cardinal staff has been hustling to read them all. Here are some of our favorites.
Michael Lewis
(W.W. Norton & Company)
With the baseball playoffs going strong, this book is perfect pleasure reading. It focuses on the Oakland A's organization and on the progressive philosophies with which they have fielded competitive teams every year, in spite of their modest payrolls.
Lewis chronicles the studies of leading analysts such as Bill James, while providing a compelling look at Billy Beane's journey from star prospect to failed major-leaguer to the game's best general manager. With hilarious accounts of Beane's draft day and trade deadline activities and insightful looks at ballplayers, \Moneyball"" is indispensable for any baseball fan.
David Maraniss
(Simon & Schuster)
This true story starkly illuminates UW-Madison's tumultuous climate during the Vietnam War.
Author David Maraniss recounts two days in October 1967 when student protests on campus turned violent while a battalion of soldiers marched into an ambush in Vietnam.
Maraniss was a freshman at UW-Madison in 1967. In this book he vividly captures how violence erupted when police clashed with students trying to prevent Dow Chemical from recruiting on campus because they produced Agent Orange, which was used to make napalm.
""They Marched into Sunlight"" will fascinate anyone curious about UW-Madison's role during a very turbulent time in American history.
Dan Brown
(Doubleday & Co., Inc.)
The curator of the Louvre has been murdered in the museum. Among the corpse and the masterpieces lies the beginning of a code leading to the reason for the murder. Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, must race against time to solve the code before the curator's secret is lost to the world.
Those interested in religious history, art and architecture will love this thriller the most. The best part about the book is that it prompts the reader to ask questions about the everyday world, not the least of which is: How can UW-Madison get a symbology major?
Robert B. Parker
(G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Few mystery novels this year were as sharp as ""Back Story,"" Robert B. Parker's latest addition to the classic Spenser novels.
This time, the Boston detective investigates a 30-year-old murder, uncovering a web of cover-ups and half-truths that reach into the FBI and the mob.
The banter between Spenser and other characters is as quick as ever, and action scenes-including a stadium shoot-out-continue Parker's tradition of being simultaneously swift and suspenseful. Fans will find the 30th Spenser in true form, while the engaging humor and plot will easily ensnare new readers.
Eddy Joe Cotton
(Three Rivers Press)
This book serves as a good reminder of how nice it is to have a warm home for the winter. The book follows Cotton on his journey as a tramp, riding the rails through the American West and looking for a warm, dry place.
The book is a spectacular novel that manages to romanticize tramps while describing their gritty existence. ""Hobo"" resonates with the rhythm of trains, describing a forgotten way of life and reminding the reader what freedom is. While Cotton may not have conveniences and heat, he conveys the beauty of sleeping beneath the stars and finding bliss in every bite of food.
Mary Kay Andrews
(Harper Collins)
It seems that everyone in Mary Bliss McGowan's upper-class neighborhood is getting divorced. At first, Mary Bliss feels superior to the others, living in her perfect home with a doting husband-until the day she comes home to find her husband has vanished, taking all their money and leaving her with an enormous pile of bills, a vicious mother-in-law and a rebellious teenage daughter.
So what's a mom to do? She comes up with a strange solution-Mary Bliss and her best friend fly to Mexico, fake her husband's death, and try to collect his life insurance.
Although some of the scenes are far-fetched, this book is very well-written, and while it is frequently silly, it is often cut with a much-needed dose of reality. The combination will appeal to many readers.
J.A. Jance
(William Morrow)
A young woman living in a trailer in the desert is murdered. Her body is found, surrounded by the bodies of her 18 dogs, who all died as the heat climbed inside the cheap metal vault.
While investigating the death, Sheriff Joanna Brady uncovers a family torn apart by a cult in neighboring Mexico, where child brides are the norm, but beyond the protection of American law.
Brady makes her 10th appearance in this novel by J.A. Jance, struggling to balance her new marriage, a miserable pregnancy, her friends and work so that nothing is neglected.
This book tackles many social issues, such as working mothers, gender roles, pet ownership, child abuse and border-crossing struggles.
Jance manages to weave these issues into a plot so mesmerizing that any reader will have a difficult time putting this book down.
Mark Salzman
(Alfred A. Knopf)
In this novel, Salzman describes his experiences as a writing teacher in a juvenile hall in Los Angeles. Working with troubled teens, he coaxes them out of their shells over time and gets them to pour their souls into notebooks. Many of the essays shared in this book are touching, and much of the writing is beautiful. The story seems to run along the same lines as ""Dangerous Minds"" or any of the other troubled-youths-helped-by-brilliant-teacher stories.
Salzman frequently writes in the vernacular used by the teens, which may on occasion confuse readers unfamiliar with the style.
It also seems the reader cannot go two paragraphs without coming across a string of obscenities, which may offend more sensitive people.
Othewise, this is a very touching and occasionally poignant read.
Karin Slaughter
(William Morrow)
For aficionados of the ever-popular ""whodunit,"" this book is a can't-miss. The story takes place in small-town Georgia, where medical examiner Sara Linton has to handle what seems to be a string of suspicious suicides all related to a local college campus.
College officials are very eager to keep the burgeoning scandal under wraps, but Linton and her ex-husband, Chief of Police Jeffrey Tolliver, along with one security guard are determined to get to the bottom of the deaths.
This book does an excellent job of giving the characters depth and keeping the pace consistent enough to keep readers interested from the first page all the way through to the end.
