Library Lines

I can’t believe October is here! It’s one of my favorite months. I love the fall colors, and cooler weather, and digging out sweaters. But it’s also the time when new books by our favorite authors start appearing, probably as an incentive to begin Christmas shopping. I don’t like thinking about Christmas shopping in October, but in the end, who cares? I’m ready to read!

John Grisham has a new book coming out this month called Gray Mountain. We meet Samantha Kofer, a lawyer from a big Wall Street firm who is downsized out of her job when the 2008 recession hits. She is given the choice to work for a year (without pay) at a legal aid clinic in Virginia, and then maybe her old job will be available again. Moving from Wall Street to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200 is culture shock. And so is confronting the coal business.

Jodi Picoult’s new novel is Leaving Time and is the story of a young woman named Jenna whose mother, a scientist studying elephants in the wild, has mysteriously disappeared. Jenna knows her mother would never just abandon her, and so she sets out to discover the truth of what has happened.

Kay Scarpetta is back in her 22nd novel by the prolific Patricia Cornwell. Flesh and Blood finds Scarpetta getting ready to celebrate her birthday with a trip to Miami. Her plans are interrupted by the murder of a high school music teacher, who was unloading groceries from his car just minutes from Scarpetta’s house. And unfortunately, the killer isn’t finished…

It’s been a bit of a wait, but Jan Karon has finally written another novel in her Mitford series called Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good. Father Tim has been retired for five years now, and he and his wife Cynthia are just back in Mitford from a trip to Ireland. It’s a nice visit back to Mitford for Jan Karon’s many fans, but the burning question is, will Father Tim accept a new position? Or has he lost his passion for the pulpit?

“You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you. Not always. Not completely,” says Jack Reacher in the new novel by Lee Child called Personal. Someone took a shot at the President of France. In spite of being in Paris, the shooter is American and extremely confident. A sniper, shooting from three-quarters of a mile sounds to Reacher like John Kott, out of prison after fifteen years and unaccounted for, and dying to make a name for himself at the G8 summit.

Now, aren’t you looking forward to October, too?

Look for these titles, and more, in the next few weeks.