The name says it all folks, we have a couple of really good thrillers out this week. So, if you’re a sucker for the thrill ride, like I am, get ready to make a trip to your local bookstore.
Here are the new releases that’ll get you hooked for Mar 12, 2013:
Middle C by William H. Gass; Knopf; 464 pages
William Gass making an appearance, so everyone should take notice. I’ve not had the pleasure of reading Gass yet, but I have only heard fantastic things about him. I’m hoping that the motivation from this new title will help push me to pick up his work.
A literary event–the long-awaited novel, almost two decades in work, by one of the most revered American writers of our time, author of the universally acclaimed The Tunnel (“The most beautiful, most complex, most disturbing novel to be published in my lifetime.” –Michael Silverblatt, Los Angeles Times; “An extraordinary achievement”–Michael Dirda, The Washington Post); Omensetter’s Luck (“The most important work of fiction by an American in this literary generation” –Richard Gilman, The New Republic); Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife; and In The Heart of the Heart of the Country (“These stories scrape the nerve and pierce the heart. They also replenish the language.” –Eliot Fremont-Smith, The New York Times).
Middle C tells the story of this journey–an investigation into the nature of human identity and the ways in which each of us is several selves, and whether any one self is more genuine than another.It begins in Graz, Austria, in 1938. Joseph Skizzen’s father, pretending to be Jewish, leaves his country for England with his wife and two children to avoid any connection with the Nazis, whom he foresees will soon take over his homeland. In London with his family for the duration of the war, he disappears under mysterious circumstances. The family is relocated to a small town in Ohio where Joseph Skizzen grows up, becomes a decent amateur piano player, in part to cope with the abandonment of his father, and creates as well a fantasy self–a professor with a fantasy goal: to establish the Inhumanity Museum. Skizzen has trained himself to accept guilt for crimes against humanity and protects himself with the creation of a secret self that is able to remain sinless.
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg; Knopf; 240 pages
Big non-fiction book here. Not in length, but in importance. Sheryl Sandberg investigates the social constructs that are still holding women back from complete equality in the workplace and what can be done to fix the problem. Sandberg is super successful, so my hopes are that this book can provide some good insight and help us move in the right direction.
Thirty years after women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, men still hold the vast majority of leadership positions in government and industry. This means that women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. In Lean In,Sheryl Sandberg examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains the root causes, and offers compelling, commonsense solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential.
Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook and is ranked on Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2010, she gave an electrifying TEDTalk in which she described how women unintentionally hold themselves back in their careers. Her talk, which became a phenomenon and has been viewed more than two million times, encouraged women to “sit at the table,” seek challenges, take risks, and pursue their goals with gusto.
In Lean In, Sandberg digs deeper into these issues, combining personal anecdotes, hard data, and compelling research to cut through the layers of ambiguity and bias surrounding the lives and choices of working women. She recounts her own decisions, mistakes, and daily struggles to make the right choices for herself, her career, and her family. She provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having it all.” She describes specific steps women can take to combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment and demonstrates how men can benefit by supporting women in the workplace and at home.
Written with both humor and wisdom, Sandberg’s book is an inspiring call to action and a blueprint for individual growth. Lean In is destined to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can.
Rage Against The Dying by Becky Masterman; Minotaur Books; 320 pages
Alright, here are the thrillers. I’ve heard buzz about this debut from Becky Masterman for quite a while, and if the title doesn’t grab you, the Silence of the Lambs feel should. A former FBI agent, a creepy predator, and a puzzling mystery are gonna keep you glued to the pages in this one.
You have never met an (ex) FBI agent like Brigid Quinn
“Keeping secrets, telling lies, they require the same skill. Both become a habit, almost an addiction, that’s hard to break even with the people closest to you, out of the business. For example, they say never trust a woman who tells you her age; if she can’t keep that secret, she can’t keep yours. I’m fifty-nine.”
Brigid Quinn’s experiences in hunting sexual predators for the FBI have left her with memories she wishes she didn’t have and lethal skills she hopes never to need again. Having been pushed into early retirement by events she thinks she’s put firmly behind her, Brigid keeps telling herself she is settling down nicely in Tucson with a wonderful new husband, Carlo, and their dogs.
But the past intervenes when a man named Floyd Lynch confesses to the worst unsolved case of Brigid’s career—the disappearance and presumed murder of her young protégée, Jessica. Floyd knows things about that terrible night that were never made public, and offers to lead the cops to Jessica’s body in return for a plea bargain.
It should finally be the end of a dark chapter in Brigid’s life. Except…the new FBI agent on the case, Laura Coleman, thinks the confession is fake, and Brigid finds she cannot walk away from violence and retribution after all, no matter what the cost.
With a fiercely original and compelling voice, Becky Masterman’s Rage Against the Dying marks the heart-stopping debut of a brilliant new thriller writer.
The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderberg; Crown; 464 pages
And the Crown Jewel of the day comes from Crown Publishing. The Andalucian Friend is a thriller to end all thrillers. It places Sophie, a pretty average, caring person, into the middle of a crime organization moving weapons and drugs while engaging in a turf war with another gang. Lines start blurring pretty quickly in this one, so you might need to strap yourself down in your seat before you crack open the first page.
Enemies Are Everywhere
When Sophie Brinkmann—nurse, widow, single mother—meets Hector Guzman, her life is uneventful. She likes his quiet charm and easy smile; she likes the way he welcomes her into his family. She quickly learns, though, that his smooth façade masks something much more sinister.
Guzman is the head of a powerful international crime ring with a reach into drugs and weapons that extends from Europe to South America. His interests are under siege by a ruthless German syndicate who will stop at nothing to stake their claim. But the Guzmans are fighters and will go to war to protect what’s rightfully theirs. The conflict quickly escalates to become a deadly turf war between the rival organizations that includes an itinerant arms dealer, a deeply disturbed detective, a vicious hit man, and a wily police chief. Sophie, too, is unwittingly caught in the middle. She must summon everything within her to navigate this intricate web of moral ambiguity, deadly obsession, and craven gamesmanship.
The Andalucian Friend is a powerhouse of a novel—turbo-charged, action-packed, highly sophisticated, and epic in scope—and announces Alexander Söderberg as the most exciting new voice in thrillers in a generation
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