Flip into October with O'Reilly's best-selling 'Lincoln'

The November arrivals at the Johann Fust Community Library on Boca Grande continue a trend of top-notch authors on top of their game with trusted iconic characters placed in more peril than ever before.

A good example is James Patterson's "Crossfire" where beloved Det. Alex Cross faces his arch-enemy while dealing with a razor-sharp serial sniper and marry the love of his life, all at the same time. See how he deals with this over-stuffed full plate in Patterson's best installment of the series, critics say.

For Ernest Hemingway fans, (and what true reader is not?) "Hemingway's Boat" by Paul Hendrickson is a well-researched trip on the author's famed boat "Pilar." Don't miss it.

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And Bill O'Reilly's No. 1 best-selling bombshell "Killing Lincoln is now on shelves. It's a page-turned of the first order.

The following seven new books at Fust Library include:

'ABUSE OF POWER'

By Michael Savage

From the New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host comes a high-intensity debut thriller, the story of a smeared network journalist who uncovers a chilling terrorist plot

Jack Hatfield is a hardened former war correspondent who rose to national prominence for his insightful, provocative commentary. But after being smeared as a bigot and extremist by a radical leftist media-watchdog group, he ultimately loses his job and finds himself working in obscurity as a freelance news producer in San Francisco.

One afternoon Hatfield is on a ride-along with the San Francisco Police Department bomb squad when a seemingly routine carjacking turns deadly, after police find several pounds of military-grade explosives in the jacked car. And when the FBI urges Hatfield to stay out of it, he knows he's onto something big.

This event will open up a shadowy trail that leads Hatfield from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and back again, as he works with a stunning Yemeni intelligence agent and a veteran Green Beret to expose a terrorist group known as the Hand of Allah - and a plot within the highest corridors of power that will dwarf 9/11.

In this lightning-paced first thriller, spanning the globe from Europe and Israel to the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown, a reporter must make the choice between protecting his own life and investigating a terrorist cell whose goal is nothing less than total political control - no matter what the cost.

'CROSSFIRE'

By James Patterson

Detective Alex Cross and Bree's wedding plans are put on hold when Alex is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington D.C.'s most corrupt: a dirty congressmen and an underhanded lobbyist. Next, the elusive gunman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories - is the marksman a hero or a vigilante?

The case explodes, and the FBI assigns agent Max Siegel to the investigation. As Alex and Siegel battle over jurisdiction, the murders continue. It becomes clear that they are the work of a professional who has detailed knowledge of his victims' movements - information that only a Washington insider could possess.

As Alex contends with the sniper, Siegel, and the wedding, he receives a call from his deadliest adversary, Kyle Craig. The Mastermind is in D.C. and will not relent until he has eliminated Cross and his family for good. With a supercharged blend of action, deception, and suspense, "Cross Fire" is James Patterson's most visceral and exciting Alex Cross novel ever.

'HEMINGWAY'S BOAT'

By Paul Hendrickson

Author Paul Hendrickson is a craftsman of letters who knows his work the way a master shipwright knows the grain of wood he fashions into planks and spars.

Hendrickson's engrossing new book is about a boat - Ernest Hemingway's fast, commodious, 38-foot cabin cruiser built in 1933 and used by the famous author as a platform for writing, drinking, womanizing and deep-sea trophy fishing in the Gulf Stream between Cuba and Florida.

At the same time, "Hemingway's Boat" is more than a treatise on naval architecture. It offers a fresh slant on the rise and fall of a huge bear of a man and father figure of American literature. By virtue of his celebrated size and aura, Hemingway was known for much of his life as "Papa."

In the 27 years that he sailed his beloved yacht, Pilar, he wrote good books and a great one, the posthumously published "A Moveable Feast" - a brilliantly structured act of remembrance by an aging author, writing about his youth in 1920s Paris, who knew that death by suicide was near in 1961. It is a powerful narrative that begins as an idyll of optimism and promise. It ends in torment and despair.

Drawing on interviews, documents (including 34 Pilar logs) and secondary sources, the author succeeds in restoring a sense of Hemingway the man, seen as a flawed, self-sabotaging individual whose kindness and gentleness have been overlooked in accounts of his cruel and boorish side. Even as he attacked critics and fired his shotgun angrily at sea birds, the tortured author proved remarkably sweet and friendly to many, including Arnold Samuelson, an admiring young writer who became Hemingway's assistant on Pilar; and Walter Houk, now in his 80s, who remembers the author fondly as "a great man with great faults." Seven years in the making, this vivid portrait allows us to see Hemingway on the Pilar once again, standing on the flying bridge and guiding her out of the harbor at sunrise.

Appearing on the 50th anniversary of Hemingway's death, this beautifully written, nuanced meditation deserves a wide audience.

'KILLING LINCOLN'

By Bill O'Reilly

Bill's O'Reilly's newest book made its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list Oct. 16 and was No. 1 on the printed hardcover non-fiction list, No. 1 on the e-book non-fiction list and No. 1 on the print and e-book combined non-fiction list.

It's deserved.

A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O'Reilly, the anchor of "The O'Reilly Factor," recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history - how one gunshot changed the country forever.

In the spring of 1865, the Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of incredibly bloody battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society.

One man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.

Lafayette C. Baker, a brilliant but enigmatic New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions, including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. With an unforgettable cast of characters, vivid historical detail and page-turning action, "Killing Lincoln" is history that reads like a thriller.

'REACHER'

By Lee Child

With "Reacher," No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Lee Child has created "a series that stands in the front rank of modern thrillers" (The Washington Post).??

Elite military cop Jack Reacher's story begins somewhere was Carter Crossing, Miss., way back in 1997 on a lonely railroad track. The crime scene begets a coverup.??

A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at a nearby military base. But that soldier has powerful friends in Washington.??

Reacher is ordered undercover to find out everything he can, control the local police and then to vanish.

Reacher is a good soldier. But when he gets to Carter Crossing, he finds layers no one saw coming and the investigation spins out of control.??

Local sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux has a thirst for justice and an appetite for secrets. Uncertain they can trust one another, Reacher and Deveraux reluctantly join forces.

Reacher works to uncover the truth while others try to bury it forever. The conspiracy threatens to shatter his faith in his mission and turn him into a man to be feared.??

A novel of unrelenting suspense, "The Affair" is the start of the Reacher saga, a thriller that takes readers right to the edge.

'THE HARE WITH AMBER EYES'

By Edmund de Waal

Containing 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them larger than a matchbox, potter Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in the Tokyo apartment of his great uncle Iggie. Later, when de Waal inherited the "netsuke," they unlocked a story far larger than he could ever have imagined.: The Ephrussis came from Odessa, and at one time were the largest grain exporters in the world.

In the 1870s, Charles Ephrussi was part of a wealthy new generation settling in Paris. His passion was collecting; the netsuke, bought when Japanese objets were all the rage in the salons, were sent as a wedding present to his banker cousin in Vienna. Later, three children - including a young Ignace - would play with the netsuke as history reverberated around them.

The Anschluss and Second World War swept the Ephrussis to the brink of oblivion. Almost all that remained of their vast empire was the netsuke collection, dramatically saved by a loyal maid when their huge Viennese palace was occupied. In this stunningly original memoir, Edmund de Waal travels the world to stand in the great buildings his forebears once inhabited. He traces the network of a remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century and tells the story of a unique collection which passed from hand to hand - and which, in a twist of fate, found its way home to Japan.

'THE HIDING PLACE'

By Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place" is a staple of Holocaust literature often included with such classics as "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl" and Elie Wiesel's "Night." Published in 1971, the narrative recounts Corrie's experiences prior to and during World War II.

When Holland fell to the Germans in 1940 and the Nazis occupied the country, conditions for the Jewish population became increasingly more oppressive. In the Dutch city of Haarlem, the Ten Booms were an established and well-respected family, having operated a watch shop from their home, the Beje, for more than 100 years.

Casper Ten Boom, the family patriarch, was a dedicated member of the Dutch Reformed Church and a man of great faith with an indomitable sense of Christian charity. He and his family opened the doors of their home to any man in need who knocked.

With its idiosyncratic construction, the Beje provided a perfect hiding place for countless desperate refugees, and the Ten Booms soon found themselves deeply involved with an underground devoted to the cause of saving Holland's Jews from Hitler's "Final Solution."

The clandestine activities at the Beje were eventually discovered by the Nazis. Corrie, her father, and brothers Willem, and sister, Betsie, were seized and incarcerated.

Casper Ten Boom died in prison; Willem was released, and Corrie and Betsie were sent on to the notorious concentration camp at Ravensbruck. With an unshakable optimism and faith, Corrie and Betsie brought the comforting Word of God to the women with in the nightmarish camps. Betsie died at Ravensbruck, but Corrie survived.

Born in 1892, Corrie Ten Boom was in her 50s when the pivotal events of her life took place. After her release from Ravensbruck in early 1945 due to a clerical error, she made it her life's mission to tell the world what went on during that infamous period in history, and to give testimony that love and goodness can prevail in even the darkest hell. Corrie traveled the world to spread her message of faith and endurance well into her 80s. She died in 1983 at the age of 91.