Library Loot

Welcome to my first edition of Library Loot. Library Loot hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at ReadingAdventures is a way to peek into everybody's book bag and see what they brought home from the library in the last week.

As a natural voyeur, I have to check out these weekly finds. I feed my book obsession by adding new titles to my list of books to check out at the library. Sometimes they have them, sometimes they don't but I never run out of list to check.

One of the books I checked out this week I read about first on One Person's Journey Through a World of Books. I was so intrigued I put it on the list. I haven't heard from Sheila to see if she's read it yet, but when I saw it on the shelf at the library I was so excited!

Anyways, on to the books!

Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk stumbles upon a shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying a caged group of exotic animals. Yet, something is wrong with these beasts: a parrot with no feathers, a pair of Capuchin monkeys conjoined at the hip, a jaguar cub with the dentition of a saber-tooth tiger. They also share one uncanny trait- a disturbingly heightened intelligence. To uncover the truth, Lorna must team up with a man who shares a dark and bloody past with her, U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Jack Menard. Together the two must hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck while uncovering a mystery tied to fractal science and genetic engineering, all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to mankind's earliest roots.

(I don't know what I was thinking when I checked this one out. It sounded better in the library!)

When Susan Tate's seventeen-year-old daughter, Lily, announces she is pregnant, Susan is stunned. A single mother, she has struggled to do everything right. She sees the pregnancy as an unimaginable tragedy for both Lily and herself.

Then comes word of two more pregnancies involving high school juniors who happen to be Lily's best friends- and the town turns to talk of a pact. As fingers start pointing, the most ardent criticism is directed at Susan. As principal of the high school, her detractors accuse her of being a lax mother, perhaps not worthy of the job of shepherding impressionable students. Susan struggles with the implications of her daughter's pregnancy, her job, financial independence, and long-fought-for dreams. The emotional ties between mothers and daughters are stretched to breaking in this emotionally wrenching story of love and forgiveness.

The hottest summer of the twentieth century. In a tiny community of five houses enclosed by wheat fields, the adults shelter indoors, while six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside. Exploring a dilapidated

and uninhabited farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he dare not tell anyone about it. To come to terms with what he has found, Michele has to draw strength from his own sense of humanity...

This book is a masterpiece of coming of age; a compelling portrait of losing one's innocence and a powerful reflection on the complexities and compromises inherent in growing up.

(This is the one I read about on One Person's Journey)

One terrible night. One outraged act. What price will people pay to hold their homes and dreams together? When Kate and Stuart Kinzler buy a run-down historic house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they're looking for a decent remodeling investment and a little space in which to rekindle their troubled marriage. Instead they discover that their home was the scene of a terrible crime many years ago- a revelation that tips the balance of their precarious union. When a mysterious man begins lurking around her yard, Kate- now alone- is forced to confront her home's dangerous past. Hers is not the only life that has crumbled under this roof. But the stranger who has returned to this house- once his own childhood home- is in search of something Kate may never really understand.

Forty-six-year old David Ponder feels like a total failure. Once a high-flying executive in a Fortune 500 company, he now works a part-time, minimum wage job. His wife makes more money then he does by cleaning houses, and he drives an old car with a mismatched fender and a heater that no longer works. Then an even greater crisis hits: his daughter becomes ill, and he can't afford to get her the medical help she needs. When his car skids on an icy road, he wonders if he even cares to survive the crash. But an extraordinary experience awaits David Ponder. He finds himself traveling back in time, meeting leaders and heroes at crucial moments in their lives. From the European theater of World War II to an ancient middle eastern king's throne room, from a civil war battlefield to a warehouse in heaven, David encounters some of the wisest people who ever lived. Abraham Lincoln, King Solomon, Anne Frank, Harry Truman, and others teaching him unforgettable life lessons. By the time his amazing journey is over, he has received seven secrets for success- and a second chance to create a life worth living, no matter what opposition or obstacle he might face. (This one looks really fun. I can't wait to see what advice he gets!)

The books above ar what I came home with this week. Have you read any of them? Will I enjoy this week's Library Loot?