“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is widely recognized as one of the most influential books of our time. It chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most traumatic ones. Frankl was so precocious and intuitive that he first spoke publicly about the meaning of life when he was only 15 years old and began corresponding […]
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The Woman in the Library Book Review
“I am a bricklayer without drawings, laying words in sentences, sentences into paragraphs, allowing my walls to twist and turn on whim…no framework…just bricks interlocked…no idea what I’m building or if it will stand…no symmetry, no plan, just the chaotic unplotted bustle of human life.” — Sulari Gentill, The Woman in the Library. The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet until the tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream. Security guards take charge, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who are sitting at the same table, pass the time in […]
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Lights Out Book Review
“Choose fear or choose faith, but only one choice will bring peace.” — Natalie Walters, Lights Out As a CIA analyst, Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing. Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you. Every lead they follow draws them dangerously […]
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On the Mountain of the Lord – Book Review
“This is the land where prophecy is fulfilled,” Lev said. “Where the temporary and the eternal meet. Can’t understand the things of today without studying the words of yesterday.”—Ray Bentley and Bodie Thoene, On the Mountain of the Lord. Submerged in doubt after a brutal car accident ripped his wife, child, and faith from him, Dr. Jack Garrison travels to Israel on a fact-finding mission. When he experiences inexplicable visions within hours of landing, he knows he’s in over his head. Join Dr. Garrison as he teams up with longtime friend Lev and a dauntless female Israeli Border Police officer to battle a furtive yet deadly enemy. His journey will […]
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I Must Betray You – Book Review
“Please remember that when adversity is drawn out of the shadows and recognized, we ensure that human beings living under oppression—past and present—know they are not forgotten. Together, we can shine a light in dark corners of the past. Together, we can give history a voice.”—Ruta Sepetys, I Must Betray You. Ruta Sepetys’s latest novel is set in Romania in 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe, but tyrannical dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who has been in power for twenty-four years, still governs by isolation and fear. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. When Cristian is blackmailed […]
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The Night She Disappeared – Book Review
Tallulah and her boyfriend, Zach, both nineteen, are going out on a date, leaving their infant son with her mother, Kim. Kim watches her daughter leave and, as late evening turns into night, which turns into early morning, she waits for her return. And waits. The next morning, Kim phones Tallulah’s friends, who tell her she was last seen heading to a house party in Surrey, England called “Dark Place.” She never returns. A year later, Sophie Beck, a mystery writer, is walking in the woods near the boarding school where her boyfriend works as a head-teacher when she sees a hand-lettered cardboard affixed to a tree that reads: “DIG […]
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Rock Paper Scissors – Book Review
“Sometimes I feel like I need to check out of life the way other people check out of hotels. Sign whatever I need to sign, hand back the keys to the life I am living, and find somewhere new.” ~ Alice Feeney, Rock Paper Scissors. Things have been wrong between Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away in the Scottish Highlands, it might be just what their marriage needs. Neither was picturing spooky Blackwater Chapel, a dilapidated, freezing cold, converted stone chapel, complete with hidden passages, a crypt, a bell tower, and mysterious locked doors. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional […]
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The Light We Left Behind
Beginning in 1940, the Trent Park estate outside London housed captured German Luftwaffe pilots to extract military information. The rooms of the house were equipped with hidden microphones to MI19 operatives could listen in on their conversations. In 1942, it became a prisoner-of-war camp (the Cockfosters Cage) for German generals and staff officers. They were pampered with delectable meals, fine wine and whisky, and luxury accommodations in hopes they would lower their guard and converse openly about military intelligence. The British Germany’s military capabilities, weaponry, war crimes, and the resistance movement. Among the 109 German top brass held at Trent Park were generals Otto Elfeldt, Ferdinand Heim, Gerhard Bassenge, Friedrich […]
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Steel Fear – Book Review
In Steel Fear, combat-decorated Navy SEAL Brandon Web and award-winning author John David Mann come together to share a high-octane thriller about murder on an aircraft carrier. The moment Navy SEAL sniper Finn sets foot on the USS Abraham Lincoln to hitch a ride back to the States from the Persian Gulf, it’s clear something is amiss. When crew members disappear one by one, what at first seems like a random string of suicides soon reveals something sinister: there’s a serial killer onboard. Suspicion falls on Finn, the newcomer to the ship who is being sent home in disgrace, after a failed mission in Yemen—the details of which he doesn’t remember. He […]
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Life Flight – Book Review
Penny Carlton and FBI special agent Holten Satterfield have been on a few dates, but have secrets they don’t want to share. She is the daughter of a famous actress and served time in a juvenile detention center. Holt’s sister is in prison for murdering her husband. If their relationship is to move to the next level, they’ll need to be honest. As an EMS helicopter pilot, Penny is used to high-stress situations, but being forced to land on a mountain in a raging storm with a critical patient tests her skills and nerve to the limit. In the ensuing days, Penny finds herself under attack by an escaped serial […]
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