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The Virgin's Knot by Holly Payne (Dutton, 2001)
Villagers call her Nurdane (Noordanna), ppiece of light. She is the famed weaver of Mavisu, a remote mountain village in Southwestern Turkey, who makes dowry rugs for brides, although she will never become a bride herself. Known for their healing capacities, the prayer rugs are as much a source of local legend and mystery as are the young woman's hands. Tormented between her love for Allah and her submission to Islamic law, Nurdane risks her gift to discover the truth about her hands.
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Bittersweet by Freddie Lee Johnson III (Ballantine, Fall 2001)
Clifford. Victor. Nathan. Three brothers as different as they come. Three lives that veer unexpectedly off course. One bond that heals them all. The three struggle with the unexpected--faltering marriages, breaking hearts, and torn childhoods that threaten to repeat themselves in the lives of their children--each will discover the true repemptive power of a brother's love.
By turns fierce and passionate, tender and humourous, this wise novel blasts the stereotype that black men's ties to their families are tenuous at best.
Freddie Lee Johnson III tells a refreshing story of three complex men who fight to do right by their families--both the ones they created and the one they were born into.
The result is Bittersweet.
Conflict of Interest by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg (Hyperion, 2001)
While trying three defendants for robbery, Joanne Kuhlman discovers a far more serious crime may be unfolding. One of the defendants is developmentally disabled. His attorneys and mother insist he was cruelly exploited by his crime partners.
When the young man disappears, Joanne fears he may have been murdered in a ruthless act to silence him. Her sympathies for this defendant lead her to entangle herself with his attractive attorney and compromise her career so the truth may be revealed.
Filled with extensively researched detail, breathtaking plot twists, and front-page legal drama, Conflict of Interest provides irrefutable evidence that Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, one of the pioneers of the legal thriller genre, is still at the top of her game.
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No Finish Line by Marla Runyun and Sally Jenkins (Putnam)
Millions watched in awe as Marla Runyan ran the 1500 meter event in Sydney.
But few know the real story of the woman who was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease at nine years old --
and became compelled to achieve what was thought to be beyond her reach, in the world of athletics as
well as in life. With endearing self-deprecation and surprising wit, Marla Runyan reveals what it's like to
see the world through her eyes, and what it means to compete at the world-class level,
despite the fact that -- quite literally, for her -- there is no finish line.
The Unwanted:
A Memoir by Kien
Nguyen (Little Brown & Company, 2001)
Saigon fell to the Viet Cong on April 30, 1975. Kien Nguyen watched the
last US Army helicopter leave without him, without his brother, without
his mother, without his grandparents. Left to a nightmarish existence
in a violated and decimated country, Kien was more at risk than most because
of his odd blond hair and his light eyes - because he was Amerasian. He
was the most unwanted. Told with stark and poetic brilliance, this is
a story of survival and hope, a moving and personal record of a tumultuous
and important piece of history.
The Secret
Universe of Names by Roy
Feinson (The Overlook Press, 2001)
The sounds that make up an individual's name are grounded in a biological
response to emotions. For instance, the "mmm" sound, in hundreds of languages
throughout the world, consistently appears in the word for "mother" as
well as related "maternal" words. So people with names like Mary, Michael
and Michelle are more likely to be sensitive, nurturing people than those
with names like Curt, Doug and Christine. In THE SECRET UNIVERSE OF NAMES
Roy Feinson has created a way for individuals to look up their own names.
Using Roy's formula, readers are able to define the personality characteristics
of 95% of English-speaking America, based on their names alone.
Mediscams by
Chuck Whitlock (St. Martin's Press)
Medical scam artists run from the petty to the dangerous, and their schemes can leave you poorer
but wiser, hospitalized, or much worse. Journalist Chuck Whitlock tackles the seedy world of medical scams,
exposing everything from bogus pills that claim to relieve symptoms of dunkennss, to questionable weight loss
programs, to bizarre plastic surgery procedures.
Higher
Purpose by Tom Whittaker and Johnny
Dodd (Regnery Publishing, Fall, 2001)
As Tom Whittaker struggled to keep conscious the night of Nov. 27, 1979,
his thoughts focused on a singular plea: Please, don't let them take my
legs. Earlier that evening, a drunk driver struck Tom's VW van on a remote,
snow-covered road in Idaho and shattered his legs along with his dreams.
When he awoke from emergency surgery, the 31-year-old mountaineer's right
leg had been amputated at mid-shin and his right kneecap removed. Devastated,
Tom spent the following months depressed, angry and pondering suicide.
For a man whose life had been defined by his athletic prowess, losing
his lower leg was overwhelming. As he struggled to find meaning to his
recovery and rehabilitation, it finally occurred to him: you don't need
your lower leg to kayak.
Seven months after the accident, Tom hobbled down to the south fork of
Payette River, strapped himself into his battered fiberglass kayak and
began paddling toward a set of churning rapids. In the years since then,
Tom has not only taken his life back, he's taken his family, his fellow
sportsmen and hundreds of thousands of disabled and able-bodied people
to the top of world.
In May 1998, Tom became the first amputee to summit Mt. Everest. The climb
and his inspirational story, as well as his work on behalf of disabled
people around the world, have earned him the recognition as one of America's
unsung heroes.
Final
Verdict: The True Account of the Murder of John F. Kennedy by Vincent
Bugliosi (W.W. Norton, Spring 2001)
Finally, one of America's leading legal minds puts to rest the controversy
surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. After 10 years of exhaustive
research, Vincent Bugliosi - in his long-awaited account - reveals who
shot the beloved president and why.
An Early Grave by Gary C. King (St. Martin's Press, 2001)
On September 17, 1998, police found Las Vegas gambling magnate Ted Binion lying dead on the floor with an empty bottle of Xanax beside him. The police had been called by Binion's live-in-lover, Sandra Murphy, 23, a California girl who had been working in a Las Vegas strip club when Binion first met her.
A few days later, Binion's "friend" Rick Tabish was arrested for trying to break into a vault where the millionare had stored seven million dollars. Binion's family hired a detective to start digging into the case. The evidence that was uncovered and tunred into the Las Vegas police eventually lead to the arrest of Murphy and Tabish.
The state said they were greedy lovers who conspired for binion's millions while the defense claimed that his vengefulfamily was trying to railroad Murphy to keep her from inheriting her fair share. The two sides collided in court in what became the Southwest's murder trial of the century.
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