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Your parents never leave you. You can shut them out of your life, but they'll haunt you and maybe haunt your marriage and then you'll discover that you ARE them.
So it happens for Jack Griffin, the protagonist in "That Old Cape Magic." He is on the way to Cape Cod to dispose of his father's ashes and then attend a wedding in which his daughter is maid of honor.
As the weekend unfolds, we flash back to Griffin's childhood, his college professor parents and their summers on Cape Cod. He seems to have no fondness for his parents, but he can't let them go.

By Peter Cook, The Digital Scene

Having just finished his book "Time Out of Joint," we'd like to call attention to one of our favorite authors: Philip K. Dick. Although he died almost 30 years ago, he remains one of our favorites for a few reasons.

First, he was able to turn the genre of science fiction into something more than mediocre-at-best genre fiction. He took science fiction ideas and turned them into studies of religion, philosophy and the human condition. He was not content to use science fiction to escape, but used it to explain.

Second, and we love him for this, there is no telling what will happen when you pick up his books. You can start off reading a book of his about a clear-cut situation and by the end you're traveling across planets in search of greater truth and religious insight. There are some authors that after the first chapter or two, you know exactly where the book is headed. That is not so with P.K.D.

For those two major reasons, his control over his subject matter and his ability to twist a premise into something you could never have imagined, he is one of our favorite authors of all time. So read up, because he was prolific, and enjoy.

Scott Mingus' new book, "The Louisiana Tigers.'

More than a dozen books have been written on York County in the Civil War in the past 10 years.

Add another one: Scott Mingus' newest work "The Lousiana Tigers in the Gettysburg campaign."

For a mini-review of the book, visit: York County's Widow Zinn to Confederate Gen. Jubal Early in new Louisiana Tigers' book: 'Are you goin' to destroy us?'

Columbia Malleable Casting Corporation workers at Second and Linden streets in Columbia are shown on the cover of the new book 'Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville.' Molds they will use to produce iron castings are in the foreground of this Columbia Historic Preservation Society photo.

Arcadia Publishing has released a new photo book 'Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville' whose name describes its contents.

For a mini-review about Frederic H. Abendschein's book on those river towns, click here.

DEBORAH SULLIVAN
On the Shelves

In times of war, when an army wanted to dominate another town, it would destroy the town's library, erasing its history. The conquerors would then write a new town history explains author Stuart A.P. Murray, in his recent book "The Library: An Illustrated History."

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- A critical work on black intellectuals and an anthology of the late Chicano poet Jose Antonio Burciaga are among this year's winners of American Book Awards.

The awards, now in their 30th year, are given for outstanding work of multicultural literature and are sponsored by the nonprofit educational organization, the Before Columbus Foundation.

Recipients announced Tuesday included Houston A. Baker's "Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Right Era," "The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of Jose Antonio Burciaga" and Claire Hope Cummings' "Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds."

A review from reader Loretta Martin:

When a news alert flashed on CNN on June 13, 2005, announcing that a jury had reached a verdict in Jackson's molestation trial, Halperin thought American legal history was about to be made. He was sure justice would be served, that this would not be another O.J. Simpson travesty where a celebrity had gotten away with murder.

Mackenzie Allen Phillips was a happily married family man. One weekend, when his wife was booked at a continuing education class in Seattle and his two older boys were back at college, he decided to take the three youngest children on a final camping trip to Wallowa Lake in northeastern Oregon.

They had fun doing all the usual camping activities and made friends with some of the other families staying at the campground. On the final morning of their trip, the two older kids, Josh and Kate, borrowed a canoe and headed out onto the lake. As Mack was keeping an eye on them, he saw the canoe roll over. Kate surfaced but there was no sign of Josh. Mack hit the icy water and dove under, looking for Josh, who he found tangled in the canoe webbing. After several attempts, he was able to free Josh and get him to the surface of the water and back to shore.
After catching his breath, Mack looked for his youngest child, Missy, who had been coloring in her book at the table. She was not there. He, along with other campers, searched everywhere for her. A witness saw a distraught little girl leaving the campground in a green pickup truck driven by a man no one remembered seeing over the weekend. The police and the FBI were notified. A massive search had begun.

Daily Record/Sunday News librarian Joan McInnis reviews "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova:

Alice Howland was at the top of her game. At 50 she had achieved her life's goals -- tenure as a professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard and much sought after as a lecturer. She was married
to a fellow Harvard professor and renowned researcher, and she had managed to
juggle her demanding work schedule with her roles as a loving wife and mother.

Her grown children were pursuing good careers, and her married daughter was hoping to make her a grandmother. Life was good until the day she suddenly experienced
confusion while on her daily run and had difficulty finding her way back home. Other
troubling memory lapses occurred, forcing her to seek a medical explanation. After intensive testing her doctor informed her that she was suffering from early onset Alzheimer's.

Here are two reviews from reader Nancy Duncan:

I just read two books featuring lace, but they aren't how-to books.

The first one is "The Lace Makers of Glenmara" by Heather Barbieri.

After her mother's death and a failed romance, 26-year old Kate Robinson travels to her ancestral homeland of Ireland hoping to reinvent herself. After backpacking through the country she arrives on the west coast, in the seaside town of Glenmara.

Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief" is the journalist's tale about a man who was convicted of poaching orchids from state lands in Florida -- and about how certain people are driven by their passions. It was loosely adapted to film in Charlie Kauffman-penned and Spike Jonze-directed "Adaptation."

The main narrative of the story follows John Laroche, the man who, along with two Seminoles, went into the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve to find and remove rare orchids. His plan was to breed them -- make them widely available, "save" them from other people needing to attempt to remove them, and make a lot of money doing it.

Reader Loretta Martin reviews "Jokes My Father Never Taught Me" by Rain Pryor with Cathy Crimmins:

I found this a fascinating read from cover to cover.

Rain was 4 years old when she first met her father, comedian Richard Pryor, in 1973. As a girl who grew up adoring her father even as she feared him, Rain gives an intimate memoir.

It's quite frank and gives insight into the man as she knew him right through his death from MS in 2005.

A review from reader Loretta Martin:

I definitely wanted to know what made Madonna such a phenomenon, and who better to tell me than her brother?

For 47 years Christopher was very close to Madonna, playing an important role in her life as her backup dancer, personal assistant, dresser, decorator, art director and tour director. It was Madonna who made him realize he was gay. And it was Madonna who made it possible for him to travel all over the world with her on her tours and special appearances.

"Hooked for Life: Adventures of a Crochet Zealot" by Mary Beth Temple hooked (ha, ha) me right away because I learned to crochet at my mother's knee as soon as I was old enough to hold a hook.

Unlike Temple, I am not a zealot. My recent crocheting (say for the past 35 years) has been restricted to scarves and dishcloths because, well, I'd rather read than crochet.

So this was perfect -- I could read about crocheting.

Author Debbie Macomber has a legion of ardent fans. So I jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of the latest installment in her Cedar Cove series, "92 Pacific Boulevard" due in stores Aug. 25, to see what all the fuss was about.

The novels are set in a small town in Washington state. There are lots of colorful characters, which regular readers must consider family by now. I kept them all straight thanks to a "cast of characters" list in the front of the book.

Reader Loretta Martin reviews "Crazy for the Storm, A Memoir of Survival" by Norman Ollestad:

Ollestad recounts his life as he recalls a plane crash in February 1979 which took the life of the pilot, Ollestad's father and Sandra, his father's girlfriend, leaving the 11-year-old boy to fend for himself as he manages to escape alive.

Patrick Radden Keefe will speak and sign copies of his new book, "The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream," from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the York County Heritage Trust Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St.

Below, Byron Borger, owner of Hearts & Minds bookstore in Dallastown, writes about the book and his own experiences:

I can remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I recall planning the subsequent protest/prayer vigil at York County Prison, the guns aimed at us there on Concord Road, the impromptu press conference. I recall the natural leadership of my dear friend and local United Methodist pastor, Joan Maruskin as she stepped -- pushed by the Spirit, she might say -- into the local and national limelight.

I will never forget the gladness in the moment we met the savvy and passionate -- -ticked off with righteous indignation, he might say --- small town lawyer, Craig Trebilcock. It was obvious that he was willing and able to speak to prison officials and TV reporters and the array of religious human rights advocates gathered at the prison.

It was early August 1993. It was one of the most important days in my life as it started an involvement with the local support group, People of the Golden Vision, gathered to demand fair asylum hearings for dozens of Chinese immigrants detained by the INS, sent oddly to our central Pennsylvania prison.

When "The Snakehead" author Patrick Keefe writes of that day, halfway through his sprawling epic of organized crime in Chinatown, climaxing in the study of human smuggling, including the Golden Venture detainees, my hands shook.

A review of "The Third Angel" by our staff librarian, Joan McInnis.

What a magical spell Alice Hoffman has created in "The Third Angel."

The reader, is quickly caught up in the lives of two sisters reuniting for the London marriage of the older, Allie. The hotel setting, once the residence of their mother during a London visit years before, foretells happenings that are out of the ordinary.

When it comes to ancient warfare, Steven Pressfield really knows his stuff.

I previously reviewed the Thermopylae-inspired "Gates of Fire," and I just finished his novel "The Afghan Campaign," which again proves the writer's ability to mix a contemporary fiction narrative with faithfully historical subject matter.

The book is a soldier's account of Alexander the Great's attempt to conquer the area that is now known as Afghanistan.

The Macedonian king had already taken command of all of Greece, moved through the Greek and Persian settlements in eastern Turkey and subdued most of the Persian empire.

But the harsh desert and mountain climates of Afghanistan still remained, the portal to his next wish of dominating India.

Celia Rivenbark does not cover new territory in "Belle Weather, Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits," but when you read it you won't care.

Her tales of domestic life in North Carolina are like Erma Bombeck's but with an edge. Chapters on her home renovations, "duh Hubby" and the Princess (her 9-year-old daughter) will have you chuckling, sometimes out loud.
Rivenbark is not your goody two-shoes southern wife and mom. Well, mostly she is, but she writes with a twang and a zing that perk up the ordinary PTA meetings and summer beach vacations of her life. I personally could have done without the s-word when she used it a few times; it didn't fit. But maybe that's just me.
Still, I enjoyed her tales of family and friends. Rivenbark's columns occasionally run in the York Daily Record/Sunday News.
Read a couple chapters of this book at the end of a long hard day and she'll have you smiling as you fall asleep. And that's not so bad, is it?

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

Alice Lindgren is from a small town in Wisconsin where she lives with her parents and grandmother in the 1950s. She has no illusions of grandeur, she believes her life will follow the path of her parents, but a series of events in her teenage years leads her in an unexpected direction.

Loosely based on a biography of Laura Bush, the author attempts to understand why a quiet, bookish librarian would marry such a man as George Bush, or as he is called in the book, Charlie Blackwell.

The book is divided up by the houses Alice lived in. First her parents' house in Riley, Wisconsin; the apartment she lived in as a single, working woman; the governor's mansion in Wisconsin and finally the White House.

The last part of the book is the most introspective. At this point Alice is looking back and wondering what if, what if those events as a teenager hadn't happened, would her life have been so different? What lead her to this point, where she is struggling with the decisions her husband has made as president -- and is she complicit with them in her silence?

Until Laura Bush writes her own biography and gives us insight into the why and how of her decisions, we can read "American Wife" and think we know the answers.

The amazing thing to me about this book by Alexander McCall Smith, is that it was originally a serial in The Scotsman, Edinburgh's daily newspaper about five years ago.
Imagine reading part of a novel each day in the paper.
That is why this story unfolds in 110 short chapters. In the foreword, Smith says the serialization was a challenge. I think he pulled it off.

Some people just seem to string words together better than most of us. Rick Bragg is one of those people.
This beautifully written book tells the story of Bragg's father, a poor hillbilly of Alabama, who was an alcoholic and scofflaw, the "prince" of his milltown, Frogtown.

Dean Koontz's latest suspense novel, "Relentless," hits bookstore shelves June 9.

Let us know what you think, good or bad.

Send a short review to gfogal@ydr.com.

The first reviewer receives ... well, you get to see your review right here. Isn't that enough?

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

The middle place is not a great place to be

I'm referring to the book "The Middle Place" by Kelly Corrigan. She describes this as the time in life where you are an adult with a spouse and children, but you are still a child of your own parents.

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

One of my favorite books is "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. When I heard about the new edition of the book, where zombies had been added to this tale of manners, I was a little leery about how the classic would fare.

I need not have worried.

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

"Still Alice" by Lisa Genova is a well written, fictionalized account of a woman facing early onset Alzheimer's.

From reader Nancy Duncan:

In preparation for the July release of the next Harry Potter movie, I decided to re-read "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It was a good thing I did.

This is a must-have for the Beatles fan, edited by June Skinner Sawyers; Penguin books paperback.

Think of this book as an MP3 version of the Beatles story. It's made up of bits and pieces, lots of them, from interviews the Beatles gave, to excerpts of their biographies and reviews of their music. A few writers even touch on WHAT IT ALL MEANS. In short, there is something for everyone.

From reader Nicki Stiger, a review of "Special Education":

Since switching careers from being a writer to a special education teacher, I have been trying to devour as many memoirs and nonfiction books about the subject as possible. I came across "Special Education: One Family's Journey Through the Maze of Learning Disabilities," by Dana Buchman.

Chick lit with yarn is a good way to describe this book, a novel about Georgia Walker, who owns Walker and Daughter, a knitting store in Manhattan. She is a single mother with a precocious 12-year-old daughter, Dakota, and lots of worries.
Seems to me she had a good thing going. I was wishing she'd just get over herself at times. Same with the other characters, women who work in or visit the shop and come together every Friday to knit and keep each other company.

Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library, reviews "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle":

What a commitment! The family of novelist Barbara Kingsolver -- two parents, two daughters -- pledges to live off the land for one year, eating only locally grown food and meat. They move from their home in Tucson to a family farm in the Appalachians of Virginia. They start their experiment in March, just when the ground is waking up from winter.

Joan McInnis, York Daily Record/Sunday News librarian, reviews "A Fine Balance":

I didn't know a thing about the Indian movie "Slumdog Millionaire" before I went to see it, except that it was built around the concept of the TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

I expected a comedy -- talk about wrong expectations. And when I picked up a novel about India, "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry, I thought I might find some similarities to my revised impression of the movie. This time I was right on. And even more so.

Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library, reviews "People of the Book":

In 1996, after the bombing of Sarajevo, rare book expert Hanna Heath is asked to examine an ancient Jewish prayer book. During her examination, she removes several objects from the book. It is through the study of these objects that Hanna is able to trace the history of the book back to 15 BC Spain.

Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library, reviews "The Day the World Came to Town":

When U.S. air space was closed immediately after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, 38 commercial airliners, carrying more than 6,000 passengers, were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, a town with a population of 10,000.

A review of "The Art of Racing in the Rain" from Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library:

Ever wonder what your dog is thinking? This book will answer that question.

Nancy Duncan, children's librarian at Red Land Community Library, reviews "To Dance With the White Dog."

A short book about life, love and endings. Sam Peek is an old man whose wife of many years, Cora, has just passed away. Sam is lonely. He has children close by, and an elderly housekeeper who comes to his house more to visit than clean, but there is an emptiness to Sam's life.

Review by Robert Cook

Okay, I'll admit the Kindle 2 is not for everyone. In fact, it's not for every book I want to read, but the 2 makes me believe that the electronic reader is here to stay.

What I Like About the Kindle 2:

Joan McInnis, librarian for the Daily Record/Sunday News, reviews "Cherie Blair: Speaking for Myself":

From a girlhood in working class Liverpool to wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street, Cherie Booth Blair tells her remarkable story.

When 24-year-old Jason Stevens receives the news of his great Uncle Red Stevens death, he is greedy with anticipation, as is the rest of the family. The family gathers for the reading of the will and, one by one, each family member is granted a share of his multi-billion dollar estate and then departs from the lawyer's office.

The last one remaining is Jason and he anticipates a big inheritance. Only Jason's Uncle Red has something different in mind for him. Instead, his great uncle has devised a crash course on life with 12 tasks -- or "gifts" -- designed to challenge Jason in improbable ways, sending him on a journey of self-discovery and forcing him to determine what is most important in life: money or happiness. By the end of the year-long journey, Jason changes from a greedy, angry young man into one filled with love, compassion for life and understanding the importance of character. He is now ready to receive the "Ultimate Gift."

This book has become a movement that has motivated millions of people throughout the world to give to others, connect with friends and family, and help those in need.

The book was released into a major motion picture in the spring of 2007.

A review from reader Loretta Martin:

Being an avid fan of what to expect after death, I read a lot of what people have to say when they've supposedly returned from heaven and/or hell. Usually I opt for the so-called "true experiences," but when the fictional "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" was recommended to me, I decided to give the fictional version a chance.

A review from reader Loretta Martin:

Sometimes you read a book review that makes you say to yourself, "Hey, sounds like a good read -- hearing about growing up the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, not to mention being the famous Princess Leia of 'Star Wars' -- all of which supposedly lead her to become an alcoholic with a sense of humor, all on top of being bipolar ..."

Here is a review from reader Nancy Duncan:

Just like "Rebecca."

I mean that in the best sense. In "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield, we get a classic gothic novel, full of ghosts, haunted mansions and dark secrets. Setterfield has taken lessons from DuMaurier and the Bronte sisters.

A lonely foreigner in New York City, an assortment of characters from all over the world, 9/11 and a dissolving marriage make up the plot of "Netherland" by Joseph O'Neill.
Not exactly heart-warming, though by the end I started to warm to Hans, the main character and narrator. It helps that the book ends on a happy, hopeful note after plowing through so much ennui to get there.

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

When I finished "The Reader," I wasn't that impressed with it. Then I went to Book Club.

As a Beatles fan, I open every book about the group or its members with anticipation. So it was with John Lennon The Life. I was not disappointed.

I love cookbooks. That isn't to say I like to cook, I'm more of a baker than a cook. But I love looking at cookbooks, especially ones with glossy photographs. My favorite section to hang out in at libraries and bookstores is the cookbook area.

Under my little brother's direction, I read "Generation Kill," a 2004 book written by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, about the 1st Recon Marines who were at the tip of the spear in the 2003 Iraq invasion.

The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken, a Search for Food and Family by Laura Schenone.

Laura Schenone was a woman on a mission. She wanted to make the family's traditional ravioli, the one served at Christmas. But even after finding the family recipe, she wasn't satisfied.

A review from reader Beth Vrabel:

Take Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and mix with the Olympics. Blend in all that's evil about reality televison, add a dash of "Romeo & Juliet," and you'll end up with something not nearly as irrestible as "The Hunger Games."

This book, despite being geared toward Young Adults (of whom, sadly, I am not), was so compelling and original that I flipped back to the beginning to read again as soon as completing the last page.

A review from one of our readers, Loretta Martin:

Walking past the book section of Wal-Mart the other day, I noticed a book with a title that caught my eye: "23 Minutes in Hell" by Bill Wiese.

Being a big believer in heaven, and having reading some pretty compelling testimonials of some people who have "visited" there, I immediately grabbed it so I could read about people who have "visited" the other side.

I'm talking about the Internet. People who have grown up with the Internet, as opposed to people like me who had to "learn" it, are much more likely to turn to the web in all things.

This was illustrated to me in "Harry, A History," by Melissa Agnelli. The Harry in the title refers to Harry Potter. Melissa Agnelli became the editor of the Leaky Cauldron, the most popular and well-respected fan site for all things Harry Potter.

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- The Bernard Madoff books are in the works.

Less than one week after the former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market was arrested for an alleged multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme, publishers HarperCollins and the Random House Publishing Group each announced Thursday that they had signed up books about the scandal.

In 2010, HarperCollins will release an investigative work, currently untitled, by reporter-anchor Andrew Kirtzman, who has been featured on the New York television stations WCBS and NY1; Random House will publish a Madoff book, also currently untitled, by Richard Behar, a journalist who has written for Time, Fortune and other magazines.

Several people I know told me I must read "The Shack" by William Young. I had seen it in all the stores and knew it was a best-seller. I'm always up for the latest in book trends, so obliged them.

Gloria Fogal is the Daily Record/Sunday News books page editor. Nancy Duncan is a Daily Record/Sunday News staff librarian and the children's librarian at Red Land Community Library.

Nancy: What do readers really want for Christmas? More books! So, Gloria and I came up with our top five books of all time. Believe me, it wasn't easy limiting myself to just five titles.

Here are my favorites, in no particular order.

"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett

The building of a 12th-century cathedral and all it entails. A huge, spellbinding book with ambition, sex and the struggle for power -- all that you want in a novel that will last a long time. A wonderful choice for a long, cold winter.

Here is a review of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by Deepti Hajela of The Associated Press:

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" (Children's High Level Group, $12.99, 111 pages), by J.K. Rowling: Just in time for the holidays, J.K. Rowling has given Harry Potter fans a little gift.

Gloria Fogal, books page editor, and Nancy Duncan, children's librarian, discuss Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book."


Gloria: After watching a video of author Neil Gaiman reading the first chapter of his new children's novel, "The Graveyard Book," I knew I had to find out what happened to Nobody Owens, the boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts after his parents and sister are murdered. I was familiar with Gaiman, having read his decidedly weird yet engaging "Coraline."

Nancy: I knew nothing about Gaiman except that he was one of the "cool" authors of graphic novels, so I had no expectations when I began reading "The Graveyard Book." Maybe I should have done some research on the book first. It is catalogued at the library as JFiction-geared for children in elementary grades through middle school. It would take a special child to read and understand this book.

Greg Mortenson never made it to the top of K2, one of the Himalayas' most formidable peaks. But his mountain-climbing defeat turned into a victory over ignorance and illiteracy.
Because of him, thousands of Pakistani and Afghan children, including girls, can go to school. And it all started when he wandered into a remote village in Pakistan.

I read "Bunnicula" when I was in grade school. I don't remember a whole lot, but it's about a vampire bunny that enjoys sucking the juices out of vegetables. yummy...

For a better synopsis click here

Video being a dominant medium these days and so many of us checking online videos, here's one that does something different. It promotes a book.

Check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m2LPBA0SKVWTR7

In September of 1939, Nazi bombers attacked Warsaw. One of the casualties was the Warsaw Zoo.

Here is a review from one of our readers, Loretta Martin:

Being the celebrity watcher that I am, I sometimes wait for years to find out the true story about what had really happened when a scandalous incident occurs. Around the world the tabloids put out every scenario you can -- or can't -- imagine. Usually there are so many versions of what actually happened that you don't have any idea which one is really true, and most of them aren't. You finally end up picking the one with the reasoning that fits with your line of thinking -- and then you sit back and wait for the truth to be told.

The death of Robert Wagner's wife, Natalie Wood, and the circumstances surrounding her death in late November of 1981 were a shock to everyone. They were on board their boat, the "Splendour." Christopher Walken and Wood were in the middle of filming "Brainstorm" and he was an invited guest the night the tragedy occurred. The tabloids had a field day making up their versions of the story and Wagner had been advised by his attorney not to answer any questions the reporters might ask. So he didn't, and I wondered if we would ever hear the truth from Wagner himself.

I've been a fan of English mystery writer Ruth Rendell since devouring one of her books lent to me by a friend years ago, "A Demon in My View." It is one of Rendell's excellent psychological thrillers. She also writes more conventional mysteries starring Inspector Wexford.

That was an unexpected find in Laura Lippman's "What the Dead Know."

Once I got past the first chase scene, "Odd Hours" picked up the pace.

I'm now in Dean Koontz's trance, the one that makes me carry around his latest book, just in case I get a spare moment to read even a few pages. (I don't bring it to work with me. It would be too tempting.)

I know at first, I was pretty disappointed. But I'm enjoying the trip down Memory Lane with Odd and his ghost dog.

I read "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards during a weeklong trip to the beach this summer.

It's a quick read, but a pretty good one.

It's the story of a doctor forced to deliver his own child during a blizzard in the '60s. It turns out his wife has twins. First, she delivers a healthy boy. But when the boy's twin sister arrives, the doctor can tell that the baby has Down syndrome.

Over the summer, I read David Halberstam's "Firehouse."

Halberstam writes of Engine 40, Ladder 35, a fire company in Manhattan. On Sept. 11, 13 men from the firehouse responded to the World Trade Center. Only one of them made it back.

But the book he writes is about much more than the events of that morning.

After I read the first chapter of Hannah Tinti's "The Good Thief" on her Web site, I immediately went to amazon.com and ordered a copy.

"The Good Thief" reads like a Dickens novel, but with fewer characters (something I really appreciate at my age).

Here's a review from one of our readers, Loretta Martin:

"The Twilight Saga" by Stephenie Meyers

I'm not one who would choose a novel about vampires or werewolves for reading. But if that's the reason you're not devouring "The Twilight Saga" by Stephenie Meyers, you're cutting yourself off from some of the best reading "for kids" out there today.

I've been reading Dean Koontz for more than 15 years.

His books are like candy to me.

I read "The Husband" twice, because I didn't get enough the first time.

I read "Intensity" standing up, in the middle of the night, in the bathroom of my dorm room because my roommate was asleep and I didn't want to wake her while I was a slave to his writing.

I'm a pretty big fan.

But recently, I haven't been impressed.

I am dead tired today (please don't tell my boss) because I stayed up past midnight reading "Breaking Dawn," the fourth book in the "Twilight" series.

I just don't get it. I don't understand why these books are so popular. There was a little bit of action in each book, but way too much conversation and way too little character development. By the fourth book, I really didn't care who lived and who died. I just wanted it to be over!

Here are some books in the science fiction/fantasy genre that I heartily recommend instead of "Twilight":

"The Giver" by Lois Lowry
"The Traveler" by John Twelve Hawks
"Interview With the Vampire" by Anne Rice
"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger
"His Dark Materials" triology by Philip Pullman
"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Here are two book reviews from one of our readers, Marti Ronemus:

The two books I read this week couldn't have been more different. Let's start with everyone's current favorite, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It is set in 1947, immediately after the War, and in London and the channel island of Guernsey.

I'm talking about Gary Hazen, one of the characters in "The Grace That Keeps This World" by Tom Bailey. This is the 2008 selection for One Book, One Community.

I expanded my garden this year. I planted six tomato plants instead of two.

And after doing battle with a relentless groundhog and a legion of green hornworms, I managed a very nice harvest. (OK, I'm not ready to open a roadside stand, but there have been more than a few BLTs.)

Anyone who has ever tried to grow their own vegetables will get a chuckle from William Alexander's "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden." (This book would make great winter reading. You know, right before the seed catalogs arrive.)

By JOSEPH MALDONADO
For the Daily Record/Sunday News

It shouldn't surprise anyone that York County's architecture is as varied as the people who have made up its population over the years.

After all, York Town, as the city was known in 1741, predates this country's Declaration of Independence in 1776 by almost 35 years.

And yet, the 160 pages that fill Scott Butcher's new book, "York's Historical Architecture," are exactly that -- a surprise.

When you go as far back as 1200 B.C., it becomes difficult to reconcile history from myth.

And it can be especially difficult when you're talking about ancient Greek history because the monumental collapse of the Bronze Age around 1100 B.C. resulted in a period of dark ages until 800 B.C. Much of the writing that existed before the dark ages were lost.

The little that survived can be found in bits and pieces from certain sources -- and the poetry of Homer.

In "The Trojan War: A New History," Cornell professor Barry Strauss attempts to give a history of that great ancient war using not only those few surviving written sources but also using archeological findings and the things we know about the Greeks other regional cultures of that time period. Plus, there are the texts written after the dark ages period that refer to the mythology (for example, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil).

This review is by staffer Teresa Cook:

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

Jill Bolte Taylor was a brain scientist, when, at the age of 37, she suffered a massive stroke. But as part of her brain shut down, the other part allowed her to feel a deep inner peace.

I fell in love with Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief." The minute I finished it, I started reading it again. It has bumped "Charms for The Easy Life" by Kaye Gibbons to No. 2 on my all-time favorite books list.

Review by Joan McInnis

"War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq" By Richard Engel. Simon & Schuster, New York. c. 2008.

You know his face and voice from the NBC nightly news reports about the war in Iraq, and now Richard Engel has put his experiences on paper for a vivid and horrifying tale of what it has been like to cover the war since it began.

In the process the reader comes to know the man as well as the reporter and what toll
his coverage has exacted. His marriage ended in divorce; he narrowly escaped kidnapping, lost fellow reporters to sudden death, and had his hotel room blown up around him as a suicide bomber struck his hotel.

It was no wonder the constant violence led to burn out.

One of the book clubs I belong to (yes, I'm a dork and belong to two) read "One Red Paperclip" by Kyle MacDonald this month. It tells the story of a 20-something in Canada who traded his way up from a paper clip to a house in a year's time.

I missed the book club meeting, but I heard the reviews were mixed. I enjoyed the tale and the life lessons MacDonald incorporates along the way. Others thought it was just another guy-gets-lucky Internet story.

I went to check the Web site today, and apparently now he and his girlfriend are trying to trade their house for something else.

You can ask him about that yourself when he comes to speak at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg on September 23. Here's the information.

Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" is the 1927 novel that the recent Oscar-winning film "There Will Be Blood" is loosely based upon.

Probably the most obvious difference is that, in "Oil!", the main character is "Bunny," the son of the book's central oil man, J. Arnold Ross.

Voni Grimes recounts his long life in his autobiography "Bridging Troubled Waters."

Voni B. Grimes, respected community leader, has labored for months to write about his long life.

The result is a 90-page book with more than 20 photos of a life well lived.

For details, see: New book gives insight into community leader Voni B. Grimes at York Town Square blog.

Windsor's centennial book is a snapshot - well, hundreds of them - of small-town life in York County.

A 300-plus page history book packed with photos can tell much about a town.

This 100th-anniversary book of Windsor borough provides a busy side of a town that seemingly can best be described as sleepy.

For long post on this thick book, view: Windsor: Home of 'stately old houses that may appear to be miniature castles' at York Town Square.

While I’m entrenched in Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!”, I figured I’d add a review of yet another book in Canongate’s myths series.

In his contribution to the series, Alexander McCall Smith tells the tale of Angus (or Aengus), the Celtic god of dreams.

Daisy Myers' "Sticks 'N Stones," Mary Hamilton's "Rising from the Wilderness," and Carol McCleary Innerst's "York College of Pennsylvania" are three books that merit reading this summer - or any time of year.

For more details, see: Central Pennsylvania histories make smart part of summer reading stack over at sister blog, York Town Square.

"Here’s the Thing" … a perfect beach book!
What happens when an annual gal pal retreat turns into a Bohemian wedding/family reunion free-for-all? Hilarity, if you're reading Laura Rudacille’s debut novel, "Here’s the Thing," available at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/.

I've been struggling to find time to read. So, when my mom passed "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town" to me a few weeks ago, I was a little hesitant to accept.

I haven't read much of John Grisham, and I have stacks of other books I'm dying to delve into.
But, she is the woman who read to me night after night well into middle school and planted the reading seed in my soul, so I borrowed it.

Fred Rosenmiller made the news recently for his donation of scores of valuable bottles, a vintage vehicle and other items to the York County Heritage Trust.

It might not be as well know that he and other bottle collectors wrote the book on bottles, York County bottles: "Bottles & Jugs".

A novel about space invaders and body snatchers isn't typically my cup of tea. But then again, neither is a love story between a 100-year-old vampire and his teenage would-be prey.

And I'm currently reading that book for (I'm a little ashamed here) the third time. I'm talking, of course, about "Twilight," the young adult series that has made stay-at-home mom Stephenie Meyer a best-selling author.

Carol McCleary Innerst has written a book "York College of Pennsylvania" via Arcadia Publishing.

The title of pretty well explains the contents of this $19.95 picture book.

For a mini-reviews, see: New York College book provides insight into school, community on Yorktownsquare.com.

It’s rare that I take great pleasure in proofreading pages. But the other day I was asked to tackle our newest publication, “All In One Room: York County’s Schoolhouses.”

I have always loved looking at old photos — even when I didn’t know a soul in them. But “All In One Room” proved to be a gold mine of memories for me, someone too young to have attended one.

At the papal court, the thumbscrews are applied.

But wait!

The title is shocking, I know. But this book is one you can't pass up if you are a crime show fan. It's the story of a real-life CSI.

Dana Kollmann spent 10 years as a CSI for Baltimore County. This book was particularly interesting to me because my fiance is a police officer in Baltimore County and I hear his stories ALL the time. I fear they will get worse.

My family's had a bit of a baby boom recently, with our baby boy born a year and half ago, three weeks after my sister gave birth to twins. So now we have three toddlers running about — and getting into trouble.

Not surprisingly, my sister is heading to the bookstore this week to choose a parenting book or two.

By ABIGAIL STOLLAR
Spring Grove Area Senior High School

In her personal memoir, “Eat Love, Pray,” Elizabeth Gilbert shares her journey through Italy, India and Bali.

Not much to choose from between these two series for teen girls.

Both are filled with shallow, one-dimensional characters intent on keeping their place in their group of "so-called" friends.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.