Sisters Marnie and Nell have a little secret they would like to keep buried; two actually. Marnie is the oldest and has been more of a parent to Nell than anyone else, Nell is a 12 year old violin prodigy with an outdated vocabulary due to watching too many old films. When their parents drug habit orphans them, Marnie makes up her mind that since she is nearly sixteen and will then be legally an adult, she and Nell will tell no one about what has happened. But getting them buried in the back yard proves to be only the beginning of their troubles. Lennie, their neighbor, soon realizes that the children's parents seem to have abounded them and steps in to help, but Lennie has troubles of his own. Filled with marvelously flawed characters that keep giving you hope even in the darkest moments "The Death of Bees" will grab you from the first page.

Have you ever lost your car keys?  How about the whole car?  You aren't alone!  Author Joshua Foer has been there, and he's competed in the U.S. Memory Championship!  In his new book, Moonwalking with Einstein, Foer explains that those who possess seemingly photographic memories are likely no different from you and me.  In fact, people with great memories rarely have above average  IQs.  What they do possess, is knowledge of long used memorization techniques.  In an age where books were incredibly rare, the only practical means of possessing them was to memorize them, which is why many ancient text are actually elaborate poems (Beowulf, The Odyssey, The Iliad).  As Foer explores this underground world of memory champions and their techniques, we learn that these are techniques that can be employed by just about anyone to memorize simple things like a to-do list or even longer more complicated items like credit card numbers.  Moonwalking with Einstein is not just a great piece of investigative journalism but a guide we can all use to vastly improve our memories... if we just put our mind to it.

If the world was going to end in 6 months what would you do? Would you travel the world, track down old friends, go on a bender? That's the question facing Detective Frank Palace and he's decided to go to work. The Last Policeman, is a fantastic detective mystery set at the end of the world; it's not "if" but "when,"as an asteroid powers its way toward earth. Drug use and suicides have sky rocketed, crops rot in the fields, and still Detective Palace is working the beat, laboring to prove that a presumed suicide is something more sinister. As the days pass, society is unraveling at an ever faster pace. Detective Palace faces an inevitable question: "Why spend your final days chasing a killer if the whole world is about to end?" The answer is locked deep in his past. I absolutely loved this first book of a planned trilogy. Think Cormac McCarthy meets Michel Connelly and you are on the right track.

Do not dismiss this as some laser blasting, time traveling with little green men of a book (I read and like those as well by the way) Set in a hot and steamy modern Thailand, Bacigalupi has envisioned a world where drought and pest have withered all but the most artificial of crops and corporations fiercely protect their property rights of newly engineered seed. With many character at different levels in the food chain “The Windup Girl” lets you see life in this world from all angels. In a world where the only true currency is food it seems that it is our humanity is the first victim of starvation.

Anne Garrels takes you on a fascinating journey into the world of today's war correspondent. In the fall of '02 and spring of '03 she was documenting what the build up to war was doing to the Iraqi people. Go behind the scences to see what today's reporters go through to bring us the stories from the front line. You'll read about the bribing every reporter does simply to get in and out of the country, how every new conflict reunited old colleagues as well as rivalries, and the different tricks of the trade reporters use to get the stories in on time (like reporting naked to prevent government thugs from interrupting her broadcast.

In my opinion, this is best post 9/11 novel you can read. As bursting with brilliance as it is dripping with satire. I love this book.

If you read one zombie novel this year(and shouldn't we all?) make it "Hater". Have you ever seen the movie "28 Days Later?" This is what I image those 28 days were like. Danny is no stranger to violent outbursts, he is a parking fine processor after all, but things are really getting out of hand. Day by day, seemingly reasonable people are cracking and going on homicidal rampages. Is it a sign of the times, the result of our violent culture, or is something more complicated at work here? The perfect pick for this ghoulish time of year. I'm already nagging the publisher for the sequel... it's coming in the spring!

Everyone lies. Realtors lie to sell property faster. Holding out to sell your home for an extra $10,000 only means $150 for the realtor, so waiting for a better price isn’t always the priority they tell you it is. Our law enforcement lie to create or hide “crises” when it serves them to do so. In the run up to the Atlanta Olympics, law enforcement grossly under reported violent crime to increase their chances of winning the Olympic bid. They continue to do so; the Atlanta police department “lost” more than 22,000 reports in 2002 alone! But guess what? There is one thing that doesn’t lie: it’s the numbers Steven D. Levitt, an economist with the University of Chicago, uses the numbers to give greater definition to what many of us see as a very grey world. He is not the kind of economist who is interested in the trade deficit or inflation rates. No, he wants to know if drug dealers make so much why do many still live at home or if naming your child “Loser” will ruin his/her life. Levitt asks these questions and many more in his new book, Freakonomics and lets the numbers do the answering. This is the kind of book that will drive your friends and family crazy because you won’t be able to shut up about it.

When I was growing up faith was something that was a sacred and private matter. Your faith was something you no more discussed with strangers than your love life. Times have changed; people wear their faith on their sleeve, and on their ties, and on their car’s bumper. Every politician must explain their own personal relationship with the all-mighty. God Is Not Great is one of the latest books which discusses the relevance of faith in the modern world. With humor and wit Christopher Hitchens walks through many of the arguments against faith. Out of the most recent publications about atheism this is my favorite. If you, like me have come to question the morality of a church that spends more time protecting pedophile priests than it does the poor; a faith that turns killers into martyrs; a religion that declares divine ownership of land, then it may be time for you to give this good book a read.

Calling A Death in Vienna a satisfying read does not do it justice. Silva's novels are solidly written backed by thorough research. His newest novel completes the trilogy started with The English Assassin. Central character Gabriel Allon's pursuit of a Nazi War criminal takes him around the world while those wishing to silence him are never far behind. The pace and action are only matched by the wonderful characters Silva has created here, the hit man chasing Gabriel down (the watchmaker) being one of my favorite. I must warn you though, if you are like me and haven't read the two earlier novels in the series, you won't be at all lost with this book, but you will be heading straight back to the shelf to read both The English Assassin and The Confessor for another dose of excitement.

If Cartman from “South Park” wrote a social manifesto I image that it would be very similar to Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and I mean this in the best possible way. So many of Klosterman’s observations ring true that, between laughs, I find myself nodding yes again and again. It is a special mind that can see parallels between the Trix Rabbit and Sisyphus or how the show “Saved by the Bell” says so much about my generation. At times the most irreverent insights can also be the most can be the most profound and this is what makes the book so much fun.

I’ll be honest; it was the cover that first caught my attention. It’s simple and gorgeous but upon closer inspection I found a quote on the back praising the author’s earlier work “Chaos”. The quote was from one of my hero’s, Douglas Adams. I knew if Douglas Adams liked this man’s writing I had to know more. In “The Information” James Gleick describes the evolution of information and information technology. Gleick explores primitive societies that communicate complex messages over long distance using only drums. He investigates the origins of the dictionary and its first champions. He explores the arrival of computing machines and their pioneer Alan Turing who, as a school boy, visualized all of the parts and components of the machines that would be foundation of what we know as the modern computer. Gleick’s journey takes us all the way to modern day where without computer assistance we would be drowning in an informational flood, or is it the computers that are the source of this flood? At first glance the topics and length of this book feels daunting but the reader is quickly swept away by entertaining prose and fantastic characters leaving you with a new appreciation for tools you use every day, from alphabetizing to search engines.

Time Travel, parallel worlds, zombies, this book really does have it all! Tommy Learner is a new member of The Explorers a group that seeks out and explores time portals. When the legendary villain, The Dead Gentleman, threatens to take over our world Tommy and his friend Jezebel Lemmon are our last hope. Fast paced and lots of fun.

Noah's brother was an elite Special Forces expert...until he lost his mind and was locked away. You see, Noah's brother was driven mad by fighting a Nano war. A war that is now coming for Noah. This is a war that is being fought by microscopic soldiers on battlefield inside human bodies. "Twitchers" are video game obsessed kids who are fighting on the front lines of this war, operating the nanobots that can invade our minds, control our thoughts, and much, much worse. Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation is run by Siamese twin brothers who are trying to take control of the world by infecting one leader after another with their nanotech bots. Noah and his fellow BZRKers are determined to stop them but they'll have to beat the "Bugman" first. A great story filled with vivid scenes makes this YA novel stand out above the rest. Believe me, after reading this you'll never look at the human eye in quite the same way.