Two Little Girls in Blue
by Mary Higgins Clark

Clark's thirty-third book revisits the subject matter of her first (Where Are the Children? 1975), addressing every parent's worst nightmare, the abduction of children. Steve and Margaret Frawley return to their new house after a night out on the town to discover that their three-year-old twins, Kelly and Kathy, have been kidnapped. The kidnappers are demanding an $8 million ransom. As the executives at the company where Steve works debate paying the ransom, the three kidnappers, Lucas, Clint, and Clint's unstable girlfriend, Angie, wait for instructions from the plot's mastermind, who identifies himself only as the Pied Piper. Steve's company agrees to pay the ransom, but the Pied Piper's plan goes awry when Angie decides she wants to keep Kathy and shoots Lucas, leaving a fake suicide note claiming he accidentally killed Kathy.

Bestsellers Patterson and Gross (Lifeguard) once again deliver what their fans expect in this slapdash revenge thriller. When mob godfather Dominic Cavello is finally brought to trial by FBI agent Nick Pellisante, his longtime nemesis, the accused is strangely unconcerned even as a parade of his former criminal associates finger him as having ordered a hit on a corrupt businessman. The gangster's plan to intimidate the decision-makers at his trial reaches its climax when he arranges for a bomb to blow up the bus transporting the jury. The sole survivor teams up with Pellisante to make Cavello pay. Numerous legal howlers that would be obvious even to those who only know about trials from watching Law and Order may annoy some readers.

Shiver
by Lisa Jackson

A serial killer is on the loose in New Orleans. Carefully selected yin and yang victims are killed in pairs, each crime made to look like a murder/suicide. Abby Chastain's ex-husband is the first victim, and the only lead seems to have something to do with her mother's death at a mental hospital twenty years earlier. Streetwise Detective Reuben Montoya continues to dig for clues while the bodies stack up. Joyce Bean is at her best, narrating the story with flair and conviction. Never reaching too far for a male voice nor overdramatizing the building tension, Bean provides just the right balance for this exciting thriller.

Race Week in Paradise, Massachusetts, brings Police Chief Jesse Stone more than the usual problems of bar fights and rowdy revelers when the body of a young woman washes ashore. Scott Sowers clips the flat Boston accents to portray the deputies and townsfolk--not overdone, but spot-on when he uses them. Sowers nicely captures the no-nonsense Stone-- former LA detective, now small-town sheriff. The smart dialogue is delivered in an almost syncopated style, making the best of Parker's "he said/ she said" conventions. Stone's perseverance in tracking a ring of sex peddlers and predators keeps the story intriguing, and his conquest of some personal demons bodes well for future entries in the series.

You : On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management
by Mehmet C. Oz, Michael F. Roizen

For the first time in our history, scientists are uncovering astounding medical evidence about dieting--and why so many of us struggle with our weight and the size of our waists. Now researchers are unraveling biological secrets about such things as why you crave chocolate or gorge at buffets or store so much fat.
Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, America's most trusted doctor team and authors of the bestselling YOU series, are now translating this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist. They're going to do it by giving you the best weapon against fat: knowledge. By understanding how your body's fat-storing and fat-burning systems work, you're going to learn how to crack the code on true and lifelong waist management.

The Innocent Man : Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
by John Grisham

Grisham's first work of nonfiction focuses on the tragedy of Ron Williamson, a baseball hero from a small town in Oklahoma who winds up a dissolute, mentally unstable Major League washout railroaded onto death row for a hometown rape and murder he did not commit. Judging by this author-approved abridgment, Grisham has chosen to present Williamson's painful story (and that of his equally innocent "co-conspirator," Dennis Fritz) as straightforward journalism, eschewing the more familiar "nonfiction novel" approach with its reconstructed dialogues and other adjustments for dramatic purpose. This has resulted in a book that, while it includes such intriguing elements as murder, rape, detection and judicial injustice, consists primarily of objective reportage, albeit shaded by the now-proven fact of Williamson's innocence.

Palestine : Peace Not Apartheid
by Jimmy Carter

President Carter, who was able to negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt, has remained deeply involved in Middle East affairs since leaving the White House. He has stayed in touch with the major players from all sides in the conflict and has made numerous trips to the Holy Land, most recently as an observer in the Palestinian elections of 2006. In this book President Carter shares his intimate knowledge of the history of the Middle East and his personal experiences of the principal actors, and he addresses sensitive political issues many British and American officials shy from. PALESTINE is a challenging and provocative book. Pulling no punches, Carter prescribes steps that must be taken for the two states to share the Holy Land without a system of apartheid or the constant fear of terrorism.

State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
by Bob Woodward

If there ever was a crystalline indictment of a president's wartime decisions, this is it. In the third volume exploring the political carnage and bureaucratic infighting prompted by the September 11 attacks, legendary investigative journalist Woodward (Bush at War, Plan of Attack) dissects the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq. The picture isn't a pretty one, and Woodward's disarming, matter-of-fact prose makes his page-turning account more powerful still. The incompetence and arrogance on display in the highest levels of the executive branch is as stunning-and as unsettling-as the dismay voiced by civilians and soldiers who endeavor and fail to open the administration's eyes to the failures in Iraq, from the complex security challenges to simple logistical matters like securing sufficient translators. more

Charlie's been drunk so often and disappointed his daughter so many times that she doesn't invite him to her wedding. He even fails at his suicide. Or does he? When his deceased mother returns to love him unconditionally for one more day, he's not quite sure what's going on. The author reads his book with a deep, resonant voice that matches the sentimental sermonizing in the story. Albom's narration singsongs as Charlie reflects on his mother's past support, his own failings, and the events of a confusing present in which he relishes his mother's care and sees his own life clearly for the first time.

Stephen White is a skilled writer, and he has come up with what is arguably one of the most original ideas for a thriller ever. However, does White make it work? Alas, the execution (no pun intended) is not as satisfying as the setup. X is a control freak who insists on having the upper hand in every business or social transaction. It is completely out of character for this man to cede control over his life to the Death Angels. There are many other melodramatic and contrived elements that make it difficult to suspend one's disbelief. On the plus side, the scenes in which X visits Dr. Gregory and they engage in verbal sparring matches before getting down to the business of psychotherapy are effective and poignant. As a result of these sessions, X learns to look inside himself, and he begins to realize that it is time to get his priorities in order.