Community Corner

Off The Shelf at the Swampscott Library

Here are some books to tide you over until the title you are awaiting arrives.

Library Director  submitted this article.

Just in case you are in a waiting line for one of the hot new titles that have come out over the summer and you are desperate for something to read, why not go back and read one of the author’s earlier books?

Here at themany patrons find their way to the shelves to locate a previous title by a popular author.

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61 Hours by Lee Child is an action packed tale with main character touch guy Jack Reacher. Even in a snowstorm in South Dakota, Jack can prove to be the one and only salvation for a town. Jack fights off many sinister forces that are prevalent in Bolton, South Dakota.  Jack’s head is generally “bloody but unbowed” by the end of the novel. This title will keep you on the edge of your seat as you read along.

Echo Park by Michael Connelly is an earlier novel with the character Detective Harry Bosch. Harry has become a member of the Open-Unsolved Crime unit and is faced with dealing with an earlier case of his own involving a 22-year-old girl. Bosch's whole being as a cop begins to crack when he comes to realize that he and his partner missed a clue back in 1993 that could have led them to the murderer and perhaps stop the nine murders that followed the killing of Marie Gesto.  This book is Connelly at his best

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A Time to Kill by John Grisham, arguably his best work, deals with a 10-year old black girl whose life is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. 

The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime, until her father acquires an assault rifle and takes justice into his own outraged hands. For 10 days, with burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spreading through the streets of Clanton, Mississippi, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jack Brigance struggles to save his client's life...and then his own. This book is John Grisham’s favorite as well as mine.

March by Geraldine Brooks is the story of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Mr. March has gone off to the Civil War leaving his wife and young daughters. The story is narrated at first by Mr. March who works as a chaplain to the Union soldiers and then by Marmee, who sheds a different light on the not to glamorous lives of people who live during a war. Those who loved reading Little Women will probably enjoy getting to know the father of Jo,  Beth, Meg and Amy.

Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci is another of his Camel Club books. John Carr, aka Oliver Stone, who was once an assassin for the United States, is now retired and in disgrace for murdering two government officials. The president personally requests that Stone come back to serve his country in a high-risk covert mission. Stone never gets a chance to perform the duties requested by the president because he becomes involved in an apparent terrorist attack right across from the White House. Stone once again enlists the aid of the other members of the Camel Club as they try to solve the mystery of this terrorist attempt. This could carry you over while you await the latest Baldacci book.


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