A Year In Reading

Description: In a tropical country where shadowy political affairs lurk behind-the-scenes of its glamorous film industry, three people maneuver inside a high stakes game of statecraft and espionage: Lillian, a reluctant diplomat serving a fascist nation, Aristide, an expatriate film director running from lost love and a criminal past, and Cordelia, a former cabaret stripper turned legendary revolutionary. Each one harbors dangerous knowledge that can upturn a nation. When their fates collide, machinations are put into play, unexpected alliances are built, and long-held secrets are exposed. All is barreling towards an international revolt...and only the wiliest ones will be prepared for what comes next.

Description: "John Harper is in hiding in a remote hut on a tropical island. As he lies awake at night, listening to the rain on the roof, he believes his life may be in danger. But he is less afraid of what is going to happen than of what he's already done. In a local town, he meets Rita, a woman with her own tragic history. They begin an affair, but can they offer each other redemption? Or do the ghosts of the past always catch up with us in the end? Moving between Europe during the Cold War, Civil Rights-era California, and Indonesia during the massacres of 1965 and the subsequent military dictatorship, Black Water explores some of the darkest events of recent history through the story of one troubled man."-- Provided by publisher.

Description: Sixteen-year-old Aphra Behn Connolly investigates why her father let an unknown family stay at their exclusive tropical island resort, who strangled a famous rock star's girlfriend with her own bikini top, and what a smoldering teenaged guest is hiding.

Description: "From a beloved, award-winning writer, the much-anticipated novel about what happens when two families go on a tropical vacation--and the children go missing. When Liv and Nora decide to take their families on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. Theship's comforts and possibilities seem infinite. The children--two eleven-year-olds, an eight-year-old, and a six-year-old--love the nonstop buffet and the independence they have at the Kids' Club. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America,a series of minor misfortunes leads the families farther and farther from the ship's safety. One minute the children are there, and the next they're gone. What follows is a riveting, revealing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the once-happy parents--now turning on one another and blaming themselves--try to recover their children and their lives. Celebrated for her ability to write vivid, spare, moving fiction, Maile Meloy shows how quickly the life we count on can fall away, and how a crisis changes everyone's priorities. The fast-paced, gripping plot of Do Not Become Alarmed carries with it an insightful, provocative examination of privilege, race, guilt, envy, the dilemmas of modern parenthood, and the challenge ofliving up to our own expectations"-- Provided by publisher."From a beloved, award-winning writer, the much-anticipated novel about what happens when two families go on a tropical vacation--and the children go missing"-- Provided by publisher.

Description: Tom goes with his Uncle Harvey to Peru, where they narrowly escape imprisonment and death as they hunt for buried treasure after tracking down a journal written by John Drake, a young relative of Sir Francis Drake, on a voyage to Lima in 1577. Includes biographical information on John and Francis Drake.

Description: A plane wreck deposits a group of boys, aged six to twelve, on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order on their existence quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts.

Description: "Off the coast of tropical Mauritius, an ecological catastrophe with global implications is occurring. The ocean's floor is collapsing at a rapid rate. World-champion free diver and marine biologist Carrie Anderson joins a scientific expedition determined to discover the cause-and how to stop it. But what they uncover is even more horrific. Deep beneath the surface, something is awake. Something hungry. Something...cold. Now, the pressure builds as Carrie and her colleagues must contend with the murderous operatives of a corrupt corporation, an unnatural disaster that grows bigger by the day, and a monstrous predator that may spell the extinction of all mankind."-- Provided by publisher.

Description: Tessa Jamison couldn't have imagined anything worse than losing her beloved twin girls and husband; until she was convicted of their murder. For ten years, she has counted off the days in Florida's Correctional Center for Women, fully expecting to die behind bars. Fighting to prove her innocence holds little appeal now that her family's gone. But on one extraordinary day, her lawyers announce that Tessa's conviction has been overturned due to a technicality, and she's released on bail to await a new trial. Hounded by the press, Tessa retreats to the small tropical island owned by her late husband's pharmaceutical company. There, she begins to gather knowledge about others in similar situations to her own; people who have lost their families in horrific ways, only to see the perpetrators walk away unpunished. For the first time since her nightmare began, Tessa feels a sense of purpose. She'll use the fortune at her disposal to track down criminals who have outwitted the law.

Description: "November 1942: Japanese and American forces have been fighting for control of Guadalcanal, a small but pivotal island in Japan's expansion through the South Pacific. Both sides have endured months of grueling battle under the worst circumstances: hellish jungles, meager rations, and tropical diseases, which have taken a severe mental and physical toll on the combatants. The Japanese call Guadalcanal Jigoku no Shima--Hell's Island. Amid a seeming stalemate, a small group of U.S. Navy dive-bombers is called upon to help determine the island's fate. The men have, until recently, been serving in their respective squadrons aboard the USS Lexington and the USS Yorktown, fighting in the thick of the Pacific War's aerial battles. Their skills have been honed to a fine edge, even as injury and death have inexorably depleted their ranks. When their carriers are lost, many of the men end up on the USS Enterprise. Battle damage to that carrier then forces them from their home at sea to operating from Henderson Field, a small dirt-and-gravel airstrip on Guadalcanal. With some Marine and Army Air Force planes, they help form the Cactus Air Force, a motley assemblage of fliers tasked with holding the line while making dangerous flights from their jungle airfield. Pounded by daily Japanese air assaults, nightly warship bombardments, and sniper attacks from the jungle, pilots and gunners rarely last more than a few weeks before succumbing to tropical ailments, injury, exhaustion, and death. But when the Japanese launch a final offensive to take the island, these dive-bomber jocks answer the call of duty--and try to perform miracles in turning back an enemy warship armada, a host of fighter planes, and a convoy of troop transports"--Provided by publisher.

Description: "Frances finds herself on a plane to a remote village where she will do community service in exchange for staying out of juvenile detention. But an accident leaves her alone on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. She has to find water and food. She has to survive. And when she is there she also has to think about the past. The things that she did before. The things that made her a monster. Nothing is easy. Survival is hard and so is being honest with herself. So when she discovers another survivor on the island, will it bring out the worst in her again? Or will it finally help her to see that her future is worth fighting for? A gripping and thoughtful story about a girl determined to survive against all odds and find the courage to become the person she wants to be." -Amazon.

Description: When the world is taken over by a brutal ruling body that controls the planet's resources, Eden resolves to survive by finding her way to a neutral island where her efforts to track down a friend are challenged by enemies and traps.

Description: Two friends who are given a treasure map by a travel agent embark on a quest for the Golden Monkey in the mysterious land of Honolulu, where they meet untold dangers, encounter strange natives, and discover ancient ruins.