A rising star in Republican politics confirms that despite its warts, the United States remains the single-best place on Earth for someone to rise from humble roots to greatness. It’s one of handful of offerings that also includes a celebrated Hollywood actor fears that if education doesn’t return to its basics, the American dream will wither and dry. We’ll also hear of the murder of a man trying to solve a mystery on the high seas, and learn the 100-year-plus history of Major League Baseball’s annual World Series. Our fiction selection is the latest from Dean Koontz, the master of suspense and terror.
“America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity,” by Tim Scott (Thomas Nelson)
In this compelling memoir, Scott reveals the events that inspired Americans, including himself, to rise above adversity and achieve national prominence. The Republican senator from South Carolina challenges readers to seize:
- the heights as well as the low points on the journey to a more perfect union;
- a path noted by optimism, hope, and resolve; and,
- a future distinguished by endurance, unity, and strength.
Scott offers an honest reckoning with our nation’s failures and an ode to its accomplishments, and calls on Americans to rise courageously to the greatness within our reach. (Nonfiction)
“Dead in the Water: A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy,” by Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel (Portfolio)
Here’s a true-life mystery written by two Bloomberg investigative reporters that reads like a gripping, well-crafted crime novel. The story begins July 2011, when a gang of Somali pirates allegedly attacked and set the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso ablaze while it was navigating its way through the dangerous Gulf of Aden. But when Lloyd’s of London hired marine surveyor David Mockett to investigate and assess the damage, he immediately raised questions. How did the pirates get aboard the tanker so easily? And if their goal was to hijack the ship and hold it and its cargo for ransom, why would they destroy it? Mockett never got to answer those and other questions that puzzled him — he was murdered soon after raising them. “Dead in the Water” is the end-product of more than four years of investigation and research, and reveals an intricate, never-before-told global conspiracy. (Nonfiction)
“The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series,” by Tyler Kepner (Doubleday)
In “The Greatest Stage,” New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner brings the annual championship series of America’s pastime and the legends of the sport to life. Here’s a game where triumph or tragedy can hinge on the tiniest of details — a ground ball slipping under a shortstop’s glove, or the direction a fly ball takes after striking a foul pole. The author takes us back to 1903, the event’s beginning when the American League champs first met those of the National League, and up to the present time. And he offers insight on the series from many Hall of Fame winners, including Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer. Kepner reveals the secrets behind the men and the myths of Major League Baseball’s annual championship in this ultimate history of the World Series that every fan will want in his home library. (Nonfiction)
“The House at the End of the World,” by Dean Koontz (Thomas & Mercer)
Celebrated suspense-thriller novelist Koontz’s latest centers on Katie, a woman who finds solace escaping an overwhelming loss by living a life alone in a fortress-like stone house situated on the remote Island of Jacob’s Ladder. But the comfort she enjoys from her solitude and her painting is about to come to a crashing end. A secret government research facility is located on a neighboring island, and two government agents arrive on Katie’s island in search of someone — or something. But they refuse to identify what it is. Whatever, it is has alarmed even the animals on Jacob’s Ladder. Katie is soon joined by a young girl who appears out of a violent storm, and together they seek to escape a terror that could bring an end to everything. (Fiction)
“One Thought Scares Me…: We Teach Our Children What We Wish Them to Know; We Don't Teach Our Children What We Don't Wish Them to Know,” by Richard Dreyfuss (Skyhorse)
A-list actor and Academy Award winner actor Richard Dreyfuss seemed to drop out of sight recently. The star of such films as “American Graffiti,” “Jaws,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” reveals here that he has given up something he loves, for something else he loves just as much — perhaps more. Dreyfuss gave up acting to save America. “And I firmly believe that if we don’t revive the study of civics we will be dead before 2050,” he told TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck, who responded, “long before.” “We will have the same name, but it will be a nightmare,” Dreyfuss continued. He argues that students are no longer taught the documents that form our founding principles — the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. Nor do they learn how to critically think — only what to think. And if not corrected that will be our downfall. (Nonfiction)
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