Death in the Grotto


Book Description

Death in the Grotto is the story of a death, perhaps a murder, at Notre Dame University. A student, Ben Pacelli, is caught up in the murder when he finds the body tucked among the stones of the sacred Grotto at Notre Dame. Ben starts as suspect, and is drawn into the investigation of the death of a young woman he has dated. His journey takes him through a post-modern University, as he struggles to find out how the girl died. Suspects include a priest, a linebacker, and a professor of philosophy. The story is interesting, and the writing is crisp, often funny, and more than a little poignant. As the death is unraveled, Ben begins to grow up, and finding the murderer becomes as much a quest to understand as a quest for justice. Vivid characters, interesting situations, and a wonderful sense of place make this book a sharp commentary as well as a good read.




All the Light We Cannot See


Book Description

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti* Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).




Death Takes a Holiday


Book Description

"In Death Takes a Holiday, it's just after World War I and the loneliest of souls arrives at an Italian villa disguised as a handsome young Prince, and for the first time experiences the joys and heartbreaks of life. The show began as an Alberto Casella play from the 1920s that was made into a much-loved 1934 film. The original film was remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black."--Page 4 of cover.




Death on the Menu


Book Description

Perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier, national bestseller Lucy Burdette's eighth Key West Food Critic mystery sees the return of fan-favorite food critic Hayley Snow, who must once again get to the bottom of a bitter murder. When a killer strikes just before flan time, beloved food critic Hayley Snow is forced to sniff out the killer before someone else bites the dust. Hayley Snow, fiery food critic for Key Zest magazine, has just landed a ticket to one of the most prestigious events in Key West: a high-brow three-day conference at the Harry Truman Little White House. Even though she’ll be working the event helping her mother’s fledgling catering business, there’s plenty of spicy gossip to go around. But just before her mother’s decadent flan is put to the test, Key West’s most prized possession, Hemingway’s Nobel prize gold medal for The Old Man and the Sea, is discovered stolen from its case. Unsavory suspicions point to Gabriel, a family friend and one of the new busboys working the event, who mysteriously goes missing moments later. Anxious to clear his name, Gabriel’s family enlists Hayley to help find him, but right as they begin their search, his body is found stabbed to death in the storeroom. Hayley has no shortage of suspects to interrogate and very little time before the killer adds another victim to the menu in national bestselling author Lucy Burdette’s delectable eighth Key West Food Critic mystery, Death on the Menu.




Lourdes Diary


Book Description

"A charming and touching story that reminds us, with St. Bernadette, that grace is everywhere." —Robert Ellsberg, author, Blessed Among All Women The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France appeals to Catholics as few other places do. The famous grotto is a place of healing that attracts some six million pilgrims to Lourdes each year. One of these recent pilgrims was James Martin, an American Jesuit. Fr. Martin went to Lourdes to serve as chaplain for a group of pilgrims sponsored by the Order of Malta, an international Catholic association devoted to charitable works. During his stay, Martin kept an illuminating diary of his trip. His touching and humorous account of the busy and gratifying days that he spent at Lourdes is a vivid description of a place filled with a powerful spiritual presence. "Lourdes is now one of those places where I have met God in a special way," Martin writes. Through this diary, we are able to share in his journey and feel the presence of God that he encountered there.







Shaftesbury Magazine


Book Description







A Death in the Family


Book Description

In this utterly remarkable novel Karl Ove Knausgaard writes with painful honesty about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father, and his bewilderment and grief on his father's death. When Karl Ove becomes a father himself, he must balance the demands of caring for a young family with his determination to write great literature. In "A Death in the Family" Knausgaard has created a universal story of the struggles, great and small, that we all face in our lives. This title is a profoundly serious, gripping and hugely readable work written as if the author's very life were at stake.




The Death of Magick


Book Description

Envision a naive young man beguiled, robbed, and ridiculed by a beautiful sorceress. Imagine the young man became the greatest assassin that ever lived. See in your mind's eye an assassin consumed by hatred of all things Magick and committed to their destruction. Visualize the creation- through the power of a Wish- of an artifact of great power to assist his quest. Picture the assassin's second Wish- a Wish for more time and a labyrinth to keep his treasure forever secure from any that might seek the artifact. Realize the consequences of the imperfect Wish- albeit difficult, a path to the assassin's treasure, the Death of Magick. Envision the struggle across space and time between a just and powerful sorceress with rainbow tresses and a demon of timeless evil. The sorceress must seek the weapon created to bring about her destruction.The strongest and wisest of two very different worlds attempt to unravel the mysteries of ancient parchments and devise a plan to defeat the demon threatening both worlds. A new generation of Donothor and Parallan- empowered by Light, Dark, and Illusory Magick- accepts the challenge and assists their king and mentors. What roles have a beautiful mysterious red-haired elf, the bloodline of an enemy, and an artifact of evil? Will the sacrifices of generations be for naught? If they find the Death of Magick, will the weapon destroy them before they face the demon?