Found in the pages of Bookmarks Magazine: Sept/Oct 2010 Issue

Here are the books I found drool-worthy in the latest issue of Bookmarks Magazine:

The World to Come by Dara Horn: Inspired by the true story of a Chagall painting that was stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York in 2001 (and that later turned up), The World to Come weaves together stories about Stalinist Russia and Yiddish literature. It is at once a mystery, Jewish history and folklore, biography, philosophical treatise, love story, and fantastical adventure.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman: In the near future, 10-year-old Honor and her parents, lured by an evil Corporation, are relocated to Island 365 from a North America flooded by climate change. In their new home, they are expected to conform to a seemingly benevolent yet dictatorial Earth Mother. When Honor’s parents revolt and her mother is turned into a government flunkey, it falls to their daughter to save them.

Intuition by Allegra Goodman: At the Philpott Institute, a small cancer research lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, postdoc researcher Cliff makes an amazing breakthrough: he discovers that the R-7 virus has reversed cancer growth in mice. Or so he thinks. When oncologist Sandy Glass sidesteps protocol and publishes Cliff’s preliminary results despite the warning of Philpott’s codirector, the stakes become high. Robin, Cliff’s ex-girlfriend and colleague, attempts to disprove Cliff’s results, while Cliff cries innocent. Soon, unwanted controversy for the grants-driven lab threatens its very existence.

Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth: Is it any surprise that among the various shady characters recruited by the CIA and other agencies over the years one might find a vampire? Certainly not – in today’s publishing world. Nathaniel Cade, Secret Service agent, has previously been pardoned for his supernatural crimes by President Andrew Johnson. This patriotic creature of the night is sworn by – you guessed it – a blood oath to forever protect the American commanders in chief and generally defend the United States from supernatural dangers ordinary humans can’t handle. Whether they’re the very real threats behind 1950s horror movies or zombies under the control of Al-Qaeda-like Jihadists, Cade is on the case.

Other finds:

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis

How Did You Get This Number?: Essays by Sloane Crosley