Online Extra: Top Ten Reads

Making
Rounds with Oscar by David
Dosa M.D. 

They thought he
was just a cat. Oscar
is a cat with an attitude and no particular love for people. But he has
an
extraordinary gift. He always seems to know when one of the patients at
the
Steere House Nursing Home is about to die. He then enters the room and
curls up
on their beds and spends their last hours with them as if on a vigil.
He
provides comfort and companionship when people need him the most.
Funny,
touching and unforgettable.

Physick
Book Of Deliverance Dane by
Katherine Howe   

A
fresh and interesting present day
story with ties to the past. Harvard grad student Connie Goodwin has to
clean
out her grandmother’s home near Salem. As she struggles with
this task she
discovers a mystery and has to research her own past and that of Salem
in order
to find the answers to questions in her own life as well as that of her
family.
This is a great mix of family, history, genealogy and the supernatural.

A
Captain’s Duty by Richard Phillips   

Subtitled:
Somali pirates, Navy
SEALs, and dangerous days at sea.

It reads
like an action thriller, but is the true story of the Maersk Alabama,
the US
flagged cargo ship carrying food for the World Food Program that was
boarded by
armed Somali pirates in April of 2009. The captain was captured and
held
captive for 5 days before being rescued by US Navy SEALs. This true
life
adventure captures you and keeps you hanging on, even though you know
how it
ends. A great guys read but women will enjoy as well. One of the few
happy
ending stories coming out of the treacherous waters around Somalia.

Major
Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen
Simonson   

Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads
a quiet life in the village of St. Mary,
England, until his brother’s death sparks an unexpected friendship with
Mrs.
Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together
by their
shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the
Major and Mrs. Ali
soon find their friendship blossoming into
something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that
considers
Ali a foreigner?.  A
delightful novel,
you fall in love with the characters from the first page.

Whistling Dixie
in a
Nor’easter by Lisa Patton  

Leaving her
beloved Memphis to help her husband’s pipe dream of running a
Vermont
inn, southern belle Leelee Satterfield discovers numerous unanticipated
challenges and is forced to apply her southern-style wits in the wake of a cruel
swindle. You will fall in
love with Leelee from the
very first sentence.

Untraceable
by Laura Griffin  

When one of
her clients vanishes for real, PI Alexandra Lovell, who specializes in
helping
people disappear and begin new lives in safety, turns to the Tracers,
an elite
team of forensic scientists, and a sexy detective for help. Exciting
and
romantic thriller, great for a summer beach read.

The Glassblower
of
Murano by Marina Fiorato  

Leonara
Mannin
goes to Venice to enhance her skill as a glassblower and learn more
about a
mysterious ancestor. Switching between modern-day and
seventeenth-century Venice,
the reader becomes involved in an intriguing mix of history, mystery,
art,
romance and politics.

The Tale of
Halcyon
Crane by Wendy Webb     

When
a
mysterious letter lands in Hallie James’s mailbox, her life
is upended. Hallie
was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a
fire
decades earlier. Now she travels alone to a remote island to uncover a
past she
never knew was hers in this modern ghost story.

The Tale of
Halcyon
Crane by Wendy Webb     

When
a
mysterious letter lands in Hallie James’s mailbox, her life
is upended. Hallie
was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a
fire
decades earlier. Now she travels alone to a remote island to uncover a
past she
never knew was hers in this modern ghost story.

Wife of the Gods
by
Kwei Quartey   

Detective
Inspector Darko Dawson is
sent from the big city to the village of Ketanu to solve the murder of
a young
AIDS worker. The investigation reveals more of the secrets from his
past and
also of the TROKOSI- a system where young girls are sent to live with
fetish
priests in order to bring good luck to their families. A fascinating
story of
African culture past and present.