Avalanche by Patrick F. McManus

Avalanche by Patrick F. McManus

From the Publisher
SHERIFF BO TULLY OF BLIGHT COUNTY, IDAHO, IS BACK.

When the call comes in that Mike Wilson, the unlikable owner of West Branch Lodge, has gone missing, Sheriff Tully is delighted. This is an excellent opportunity for Tully, his tracker pal Dave, and his retired sheriff father, Pap, to enjoy a few evenings of hot tubs and single-malt scotch at the luxurious lodge while working the case. However, visions of R & R vanish in a flash on the drive up, when Tully and Pap suddenly realize an avalanche is thundering down the mountain, straight toward them.

Tully manages to outrun the crush of snow, but the road behind is blocked, and there's no telling for how long. Tully's stranded at the lodge with a motley group of vacationers and locals: a sassy co-ed, a group of rambunctious fraternity boys, a shadowy group of what looks like ex-cons, the missing owner's wife, a suspiciously good-looking bartender, and worst (or perhaps best) of all, Tully's old flame, who shows up with her dogsled and naughty intentions.

Both vacationers and locals start to look like suspects when Tully discovers startling evidence proving that the avalanche was no accident of nature. But why would anybody want him dead? And then the missing persons case turns into a murder case when Mike Wilson's body turns up in the river a couple of days later. But who killed him, and how? Furthermore, when another murder in Blight City is reported that week, the only suspect who makes sense...is the dead guy, Mike Wilson. But how could that have happened? It's up to Tully to figure it all out in this comic romp through the wilds of Blight County, from bestselling author Patrick McManus.

⇒ Via: BN.com

TSheriff Bo Tully is called upon to investigate a disappearance of a Lodge owner when he finds himself target of an murder attempt. Light tale interspresed with tongue in cheek humour.

The Heart of the Matter by Paul Loeb, Suzanne Hlavacek

The Heart of the Matter: Breaking Codes and Making Connections Between You and Your Dog or Cat by Paul Loeb, Suzanne Hlavacek

From the Publisher
Here's a romance on which far too many of us spend far too little time --the love affair with our pet. If you thought deciphering the signals from your significant other was hard, try keeping a consistent relationship with your finicky cat. But now acclaimed animal behaviorist Paul Loeb offers The Heart of the Matter. From the bestselling author of Smarter Than You Think comes the essential guide to help all pet owners connect with their pets -- to care for them and keep them close -- the healthful, soulful connection every pet owner craves.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Controversial viewpoints from an animal trainer Paul Loeb on how to train dogs. Sloppily written accounts in a chatty, conversational style that neither convinces nor advances understanding about dog behavior. Examples and narratives are so long drawn that the reader forgets the original premise. The entire book can be summarized as follows:
If you have a behavioral issue with your dog then throw something at it (rolled up socks, sneaker, book, magazine, leash). Make sure that it connects the dog.
Feed your dog freshly prepared human food.
On house training the dog, make sure the dog goes potty by "encouraging" him by inserting a matchstick up his butt. I had read a mention of this practice in conjunction with dog shows where it is desirable that the dog does not have any "accidents" but this is the first time I read it being explicitly advocated.

Let the Dog Decide by Dale Stavroff

Let the Dog Decide: The Revolutionary 15-Minute-a-Day Program to Train Your Dog - Gently and Reliably by Dale Stavroff

From the Publisher
This is a groundbreaking, completely reliable and gentle training method that both you and your dog will enjoy.
Dale Stavroff's revolutionary approach to dog training shows you how to work with your dog's natural attributes—its independent will, insatiable curiosity, and strong instinctual drives—not against them. This unique, easy-to-follow system of informal handling and three fun five-minute training sessions a day makes the dog an active, eager participant in training. Step-by-step, Let the Dog Decide explains how to:
* Profoundly transform your relationship with your dog by building benevolent eye contact
* Limit dependence on the leash and abandon choke chains and pinch collars
* Interrupt unwanted behaviors with a breakthrough technique that strengthens the dog-human bond
* Make the best use of clicker conditioning
* Achieve absolute reliability in your dog's behavior by training on a small bench
* Empower your dog's natural decision-making ability and produce cooperative obedience that is self-directed and both leash- and handler-independent

Full of gentle, effective techniques for building your dog's confidence and trust in you and solving common behavioral problems, Let the Dog Decide will teach you how to engage your dog's will in harmony with your own and make you both winners.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Training techniques with emphasis on taking into account a dog's own natural ability and enthusiasm. One thing I did not like was Author's view that shelter dogs or mature dogs up for adoption cannot be trusted. If he is such a great trainer he should prove himself with so called tough cases.

Dog Days by Jon Katz

Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz

Jon Katz shares his aptly named Bedlam Farm with his wife, four dogs, two cows, four donkeys, three hens, a rooster, a barn cat, and an indeterminate number of sheep. Living amid such an unruly menagerie, this inveterate pet lover can hardly regard himself as lord of the manor. Indeed, he must strive hard simply to rise above the chaos of his personal animal kingdom. As in A Good Dog and his other books, Katz balances entertaining anecdotes with insights about the creatures who share our lives.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Author describes his daily life on a farm with a menagerie of companions. A very sensitive and pragmatic account of his life on a farm in rural Vermont

Mortal Coil by Anthony McGowan

Mortal Coil by Anthony McGowan

From the Publisher
There is a London you might not know. A London of dingy pubs and brutal alleyway encounters; a seething metropolis populated by weasel-faced burglars, psychotic doormen, and professional killers with cold hearts and cruel intentions. It's a place Matthew Moriarty knows only too well. Jobless, hopeless, and half-crippled by a beating, Moriarty is at rock bottom, left with only a dwindling supply of prescription painkillers for company. And when he accepts a lucrative offer to track down a missing friend, things get a whole lot worse. As the search leads Moriarty into mortal danger, one thing becomes clear: mess with this city and it messes with you.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Bar bouncer turned reluctant private eye finds himself dragged into a murder mystery involving his friend when his friends employers hire him to investigate his disappearance.

Bank by David Bledin

Bank by David Bledin

From the Publisher
Every July, a fresh crop of college graduates clad in spiffy new suits fills the offices of investment banking firms, each newly minted analyst longing for big money while sacrificing anything that resembles a normal life. In this enormously entertaining first novel, a lovable, stressed-out guy nicknamed Mumbles tells the story of how he and his cohorts not only struggle to survive corporate purgatory, but also find satisfying ways to strike back at the system. Fueled by a constant flow of Starbucks coffee, Mumbles and his friends take on such tasks as secretly filming a despised colleague's boardroom romp with an assistant, creating footage they plan to broadcast at the company's holiday party. But true gratification comes only when they actually start standing up to the bank's evil minions, those who have no qualms about piling on a weekend's worth of work on a Friday afternoon. With sharp comedy, episodes of inspired hijinks, and its glimpse into a world of fleeting elevator romances and not-so-infrequent nervous breakdowns, BANK is a touching and lively novel that is, at its heart, about figuring out what really matters in life.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Escapades of a intern set in an investment bank.

Spider Mountain by P. T. Deutermann

Spider Mountain by P. T. Deutermann

From the Publisher
Summoned by a friend, ex-cop Cam Richter agrees to do a favor: investigate the assault of a young woman in a remote area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cam knows the misty hills and shadowed hollers of the park, and his outdoor skills might break a case that local cops can't - or maybe don't want to - solve.

Cam has no idea how dangerous his search will become, because in this part of Appalachia, matriarch Grinny Creigh and her extended family destroy those who intrude into their web. The Creighs control the crystal meth trade and own just about everything and everyone in their neck of the woods. But they also operate a much worse enterprise, a dark secret that terrifies any children unfortunate enough to come within their grasp.

Blocked by a menacing sheriff with ties to the family, Cam is shut down and sent away, no wiser about why the young woman was attacked and what she saw. He returns, stealthily stalking the Creighs and their secrets, moving ever closer to Grinny's mountain house and what it might conceal...not knowing that his presence on her web has been detected, and that the Creighs are hunting him with creatures bred for that purpose and starved into relentless fury.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Former detective turned PI is called in to investigate a rape and assault case which leads him to a closed knit community of drug trafficers and organ traders.

The Lightning Rule by Brett Ellen Ellen Block

The Lightning Rule by Brett Ellen Ellen Block

From the Publisher
Corruption, race, justice, and honor collide in this riveting thriller set against the backdrop of the infamous Newark Riots of 1967

They say lightning never strikes the same spot twice. But Detective Martin Emmett is about to prove the exception to the rule. It is the summer of 1967 and Newark, New Jersey, is in the grip of a heat wave that is bringing the city's simmering racial tension to a boiling point. Banished to desk duty, his career on the line, the young detective is offered a chance at professional redemption if he can quickly and quietly solve the murder of a black teenager whose mutilated body has been found in a subway tunnel. The investigation leads Emmett to a terrible discovery: the dead boy is just one victim in a string of sadistic murders.

In a time before the term "serial killer" was coined and technology acted as the right arm of the law, Emmett uncovers the trail of a madman who has been abducting black teens and using the sewers beneath the city streets as a maze in which to hunt them in a twisted game of predator and prey. While the race riots engulf Newark, crippling the city with chaos and bringing the police force to its knees, Emmett must track down the killer before the next hunt begins.

Critically acclaimed author Brett Ellen Block returns with an explosive novel of suspense, politics, and race. Masterly plotted and delivered in beautiful prose, The Lightning Rule is a fierce story about the raging battle to restore brotherhood and morality to a city under siege from within.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Sin 1967 against a background of race riots in Newark, an out of favour police detective finds himself on track of baffling murders which were overlooked but turns out to be mark of a serial murderer.

Adoption Option: Choosing and Raising the Shelter Dog for You by Eliza Rubenstein, Shari Kalina

Adoption Option: Choosing and Raising the Shelter Dog for You by Eliza Rubenstein, Shari Kalina

From the Publisher
This book is the first of its kind to begin where the adoption process itself actually starts. The Adoption Option tells you how to be sure that this option is the right one for you, and then goes on to help you figure out what kind of dog will suit you best and how to make sure you're using a reputable shelter. Obviously, these issues are just the beginning of your life with your new dog, so the book provides especially helpful information on what to expect from a dog with a new life "on the outside." As a compilation of invaluable information and adoption success stories, this book is a wonderful resource for the conscientious new pet owner.

⇒ Via: BN.com

Tips and guidance for novice as well as experienced dog owners on adopting a shelter dog with good advice on care and nurturing of animals.