The Lives of the Great Composers, by Harold C. Schonberg

Harold Schonberg has traced the consecutive line of composers from Claudio Monteverdi tot he tonalists of the 1990s through a series of fascinating biographical chapters. Music, the author contends, is a continually evolving art, and there have been no geniuses, however great, who have not been influenced by their predecessors. The great composers are here presented a human beings who lived and related to the real world around them. 

I am so excited for this book, The Lives of the Great Composers.  If there is any a moment that I can learn more about music in particular, I will do it.  All popular figures--Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Mahler, and many others--are included, their lives woven into a fabric rich in detail and anecdote.  There are also chapters on the nationalist schools and the so-called light music of the Viennese Strausses, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Offenbach, and others.  So cool.  

This is a delight to all music lovers, engrossing from beginning to end, and a joy to pick up and read anywhere!! Check it out today at your fantastic library! 

Here is a little something to get you in the mood!! 

Offenbach-- Can Can

The Spy who Jumped Off the Screen, by Thomas Caplan (introduction by, President Bill Clinton)

"There is wisdom as well as considerable pleasure to be extracted from the stylish, involving, utterly contemporary puzzle that is this novel... The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen will keep you under its spell and stiffen your resolve to make the world a safer place for our children." 

~ President Bill Clinton ~

A stunningly clever idea lies at the heart of this highly sophisticated thriller. Former covert operative Ty Hunter has become, almost by accident, the number one film star in the world. Recruited on a clandestine mission to prevent the transfer of nuclear warheads into rogue hands, he deploys every skill he has as an actor, soldier, and spy. This charming and fearless celebrity matches wits and muscle with two supremely urbane adversaries--the enigmatic billionaire Ian Santal and his nefarious protege Philip Frost--even as he falls in love with the entrancing young woman closest to them both, the beautiful jewelry designer Isabella Cavill. 

In prose that is both elegant and powerful told by an author, Thomas Caplan, with an unique vantage point, The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen transports you from Hollywood to Rome, the Black Sea to the Bay of Tangier, Camp David to London and Prague. Conjuring our greatest modern fear, Caplan's electrifying novel is a breakneck parable of good and evil--with a hero in the tradition of James Bond and Jason Bourne, who is sure to become and icon of the genre. 

The Sisters, by Nancy Jensen

Growing up in Hardscrablle, Kentucky in the 1920's, with their mother dead and their step-father an ever-present threat, Bertie Fischer and her older sister, Mabel, have no one but each other--with perhaps a sweetheart for Bertie waiting in the wings. But on the day that Bertie receives her eighth-grade diploma, good intentions go terribly wrong. A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstanding that will divide the sisters and reverberate through three generations of women. 

What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the Depression through World War II and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful, Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by unspeakable secrets. As the sisters go on to have daughters and granddaughters of their own, they discover that both love and betrayal are even more complicated than they seem. 

Nancy Jensen's powerful debut novel illuminates the far-reaching power of family and their secrets. Check out, The Sisters at your library today! 

Ghost Hero, by S.J. Rozan

After a dry spell and verging on desperate for work, Chinese-American P.I. Lydia Chin agrees to take a case different from her usual fare. A man calling himself Jeff Dunbar hires her to track down a rumor about a very unusual Chinese painter. Contemporary Chinese painting is blazing hot in the art world and no one is hotter than Chau Chun-Ghost Hero-Chau-a brilliant and widely recognized artist, known for mixing classical forms and contemporary political comment, whose works are highly prized. The rumor of new paintings by Chau is racing through the Manhattan art world. There's only one problem: Ghost Hero Chau has been dead for twenty years. 

S.J. Rozan is the author of many critically acclaimed novels that have won most of crime fiction's greatest honors, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, and Macavity, and Nero Awards.  Rozan keeps the level of suspense high, and doesn't fail us in the new installment, Ghost Hero. Enjoy!

Guilty Consciences, edited by Martin Edwards

Guilty Consciences is a Crime Writers' Association Anthology, which has been edited by Martin Edwards. With a foreward by author and contributor Peter James, and an introduction by the editor Martin Edwards, such an eclectic mix of the Crime Writers' Association's finest mystery authors cannot fail to bring out the guilty conscience in us all...

Authors: 

ROBERT BARNYARD

ANN CLEEVES

BERNIE CROSTHWAITE

JUDITH CUTLER

CAROL ANNE DAVIS

MARTIN EDWARDS

JANE FINNIS

PETER JAMES

H.R.F. KEATING

ALANNA KNIGHT

SUSAN MOODY

AMY MYERS

SARAH RAYNE

CLAIRE SEEBER

L.C. TYLER

DAN WADDELL

YVONNE WALUS

Now available at the Mooresville Public Library! 

Dead Man's Grip, by Peter James

Carly Chase is still traumatized ten days after being in a fatal traffic accident that kills a teenage American student from Brighton University. Then she receives news that turns her entire world into a living nightmare. The drivers of the other two vehicles involved have been found tortured and murdered. Now detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Sussex Police force issues a stark and urgent warning to Carly: She could be next. 

The student had deadly connections. Connections that stretch across the Atlantic: to America and an organized-crime group. Someone has sworn revenge and won't rest until the final person involved in that fateful accident is dead. The police advise Carly her only option is to go into hiding and change her identity. The terrified woman disagrees. She knows these people have ways of hunting you down anywhere. If the police are unable to stop them, she has to find a way to do it herself. But already the killer is one step ahead of her, watching, waiting, and ready. 

Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind, by Kitty Ferguson

Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our age--bestselling author of A Brief History of Time, celebrated theoretical physicist, and an inspiration as he exhibits grace, dignity, and courage while coping with devastating disability. With rare access to Hawking, including childhood photos and in-depth research, award-winning author Kitty Ferguson has created a rich and comprehensive picture of Hawking's life: his childhood; the heartbreaking ALS diagnosis when he was a first-year graduate student; his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe; and his rise to international fame. Ferguson uses her gift for translating the language of theoretical physics into the language of the rest of us to make Hawking's scientific work accessible. 

Stephen Hawking is an insightful, absorbing, and definitive account of an extraordinary life and a brilliant mind of our age.  Go through the worm hole with him, as you read this wonderful book of a life that has been nothing more than cosmic.