Reading - Middle School: Save Rafe!

Middle School: Save Rafe! by James Patterson

After a rough summer, Rafe is heading back to the dreaded Hills Village Middle School, the site of the very worst years of his life. And as if that's not bad enough, he's learned that he's going to be held back a year unless he can prove himself on an outdoor survival excursion--complete with dangerous white-water rafting, dizzying rock climbing, and fanatical counselors. Rafe and the rest of the pack of "delinquent" trainees are forced to cooperate as they prepare for the final test: a solo excursion in the deep woods. Can Rafe come out of the experience in one piece? And if he does, will he go home as the same insecure kid?

Reading - Blood Foam

Blood Foam by Brendan Dubois

A wounded and healing Lewis Cole—retired Department of Defense analyst and magazine columnist—returns to his fire-damaged home on Tyler Beach with two things on his mind: to recover from a bullet wound and to repair his nearly two hundred-year-old home before a hurricane scours his house into the unforgiving ocean.

But just when his work has begun, former lover and journalist Paula Quinn comes to him with an urgent request. Her fiancé, attorney Mark Spencer, has gone missing. Phone calls, e-mails, and text messages have gone unanswered. His car is gone, and his home is empty.

Lewis is Paula’s last hope to find her missing fiancé, and despite his fear for what might happen to his home, Lewis agrees to search for the missing attorney.

But one puzzling aspect of Mark’s life leads to Lewis asking more questions . . . until gunfire suddenly erupts in placid downtown Tyler. And Lewis and Paula find themselves on the run from a deadly gang, who are also searching for Mark Spencer—to find him and kill him for a past betrayal. So Lewis begins a difficult quest while his own world is threatened by ruthless men and gathering storm clouds.

Reading - Death of the Demon

Death of the Demon by Anne Holt

In a foster home outside Oslo, a twelve-year-old boy is causing havoc. The institution’s steely director, Agnes Vestavik, sees something chilling in Olav’s eyes: sheer hatred. When Vestavik is found murdered at her desk, stabbed in the back with an Ikea kitchen knife—with Olav nowhere to be found—the case goes to maverick investigator Hanne Wilhelmsen, recently promoted to chief inspector in the Oslo Police. 

Could the child be a murderer? As police canvass the city for Olav, Hanne, working alongside the foulmouthed detective Billy T., orders an investigation of the home’s employees. But despite her supreme deductive skills, she is hopeless at delegating, hopeless at pooling information, hopeless at sharing responsibilities. Can Hanne learn to trust others before her bullheaded instincts lead her astray—in the workplace and on the home front? 

Meanwhile, Olav makes his way through the city, looking for the mother who was forced to consign him to the state’s care. A dark and captivating new chapter in this brilliant, rollicking series, Death of the Demon examines that murky intersection between crime and justice.

Reading - The New Mrs Clifton

The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan

As the Second World War draws to a close, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton surprises his sisters at their London home.  But an even greater shock is the woman he brings with him, Krista - the German wife whom he has married secretly in Berlin.

Krista is clearly devastated by her experiences at the hands of the British and their allies - all but broken by horrors she cannot share.  But Gus's sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof.  And their friend Bella, Gus's beautiful, loyal fiancee, cannot understand what made Gus change his mind about her.

What hold does Krista have over their  honourable Gus? And how can the three women get her out of their home, their future, their England?

Reading - So Say the Fallen

So Say the Fallen by Stuart Neville

When DCI Serena Flanagan is asked to sign off the suicide of a severely disabled local businessman, she finds herself envying the grieving widow's comfortable life and devoted marriage, until the widow's close relationship with the local rector begins to sound an alarm.  But with a clean crime scene and no evidence to back her up, have Serena's instincts led her down the wrong path?

With her husband struggling to deal with the aftermath of an attack that nearly cost him his life, and her young children anxious and unhappy, Serena's determination to unlock the mystery of what happened in that house may cost her her job - and her family.

Reading - Enchanter

Enchanter by Vladimir Nabokov

A middle-aged, well-off, outwardly respectable man sits on a part bench, contemplating the depths of his 'murky soul' and his obsession with young girls.  When he spies a coltish, russet-haired beauty on a roller skates, he makes it his mission to seduce her, even if he must marry her ailing mother to do so.  Planning his every move with the precision and coolness of a chess player, he ultimately choreographs his own downfall.

Reading - A Second Shot of Coffee with Jesus

A Second Shot of Coffee with Jesus by David Wilkie

A Comic Strip

The wildly popular online comic Coffee with Jesus, described by Library Journal as offering "disarmingly funny reflections on human failings and faith," is back with a venti-sized second volume. Find yourself in your favorite characters, and laugh with Jesus at the absurdities of our world and the ways we walk in it. Follow your favorite characters as they honestly engage with Jesus about their successes and failures and wants and needs, effectively showing what conversation with God―or prayer―might look like. These poignant and pointed visual vignettes are rife with good theology and will have you laughing for days.