Plum Island by Nelson DeMille

Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio. The victims were biologists at Plum Island, a research site rumored to be an incubator for germ warfare. Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications - and thrusts Corey and two extraordinary women into a dangerous search for the secret of PLUM ISLAND. . . ~authors website

Ebola Virus

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) is a severe, often-fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys,

gorillas, and chimpanzees) that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976.The exact origin, locations, and natural habitat (known as the "natural reservoir") of Ebola virus remain unknown. However, on the basis of available evidence and the nature of similar viruses, researchers believe that the virus is zoonotic (animal-borne) and is normally maintained in an animal host that is native to the African continent. A similar host is probably associated with Ebola-Reston which was isolated from infected cynomolgous monkeys that were imported to the United States and Italy from the Philippines. The virus is not known to be native to other continents, such as North America. ~questions and answers about ebola

Critical Praise

"CHILLING. . . . That rare breed of suspense novel that keeps you sitting on the edge of your beach chair even while you're laughing out loud.-Newsday

"FASCINATING. . .expertly melds medical mystery, police procedural, and nautical adventure. . . .Acquires its own storm force as it moves toward a catastrophic denouement. . . .A smooth job from an old pro."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"BITING WIT....A peach of a puzzle...with Detective John Corey, DeMille has created the kind of rambunctious hero that readers will want to see again."-Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Nelson DeMille is the author of: By the Rivers of Babylon, Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Night Fall, and Wild Fire. He also co-authored Mayday with Thomas Block and has contributed short stories, book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers. 

House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende

The novel follows three generations of Trueba women—Clara, Blanca, and Alba—as they struggle to establish their independence from Esteban Trueba, the domineering family patriarch. The political backdrop to this family story is the growing conflict between forces of Left and Right, culminating in a military coup that leads to a stifling dictatorship. While the country is never specifically named as Chile, its political history reflects that of the author's homeland.

About the Author

Allende (pronounced "Ah-yen-day") was born August 2, 1942, in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Chilean diplomat Tomás Allende and his wife, Francisca Llona Barros. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, her godfather, who later became president of Chile. Allende's parents divorced when she was just two-years-old, and her mother took her to live with her grandparents. Allende's grandparents had a profound influence on her, and she has said they served as the models for the characters of Esteban and Clara Trueba in The House of the Spirits. 

The Binding Chair by Kathryn Harrison

"The Binding Chair" tells the intertwined stories of two women: May, the daughter in a well-to-do Chinese family growing up in the last decades of the 19th century, and Alice, an English girl born in the first decade of the 20th. When May is 5 years old, her grandmother "sits her on a red chair decorated with characters for obedience, prosperity and longevity" and binds her feet -- a literally bone-breaking and flesh-annihilating process that Harrison describes in loving detail. From this inauspicious beginning, May's situation worsens. Married to an abusive silk merchant at the age of 14, she runs away and supports herself in a Shanghai brothel, where she forswears everything Chinese and waits for a Western "benefactor." After seven years, he arrives in the person of a gentle, unemployable Englishman who belongs to a society dedicated to eradicating the custom of foot binding. He promptly becomes erotically obsessed with May's tiny feet, he marries her and brings her home to the Shanghai household he shares with his sister, his banker brother-in-law and his two nieces. The Chinese prostitute May thus becomes Mrs. Arthur Cohen, aunt to the strong-willed, rebellious Alice Benjamin. ~about the book

Foot Binding

In Chinese foot binding, young girls' feet were wrapped in tight bandages so that they could not grow and develop normally.  The process  made her

 completely incapable of any strenuous physical labour. If a girl's feet were bound in this manner, four toes on each foot would break within a year; th

e first ("big toe") remained intact. The arch had to be well-developed for the perfect "lotus foot" to be formed.

Bound feet were considered intensely erotic. Qing Dynasty sex manuals listed 48 different ways of playing with women's bound feet. Some men preferred never to see a woman's bound feet, so they were always concealed within tiny "lotus shoes".

Zhou Guizhen, who is 86-years-old, shows one of her bound feet where the bones in the four small toes were broken and forced underneath the foot over a period of time, at her home in Liuyi village in China's southern Yunnan Province, February 2007. Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are increasingly rare but the millennium-old practice nevertheless took almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially banned in 1911. ~feet binding

~More from Splendid Slippers

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

Seabiscuit: An American Legend is the ultimate underdog story. Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion; his legs were crooked; he had a sad little tail; and he was precisely the color of mud. For two years, he floundered at the lowest level of racing, misunderstood and mishandled, as slow as growing grass, before his dormant talent was discovered by three men. One was Tom Smith, known as "The Lone Plainsman," a virtually mute mustang breaker who had come from the vanishing frontier, bearing the secrets of horses. One was Red Pollard, a half-blind failed prizefighter and failing jockey who had been living in a horse stall since being abandoned at a makeshift racetrack as a boy. The third was Charles Howard, a former bicycle repairman who made a fortune by introducing the automobile to the American West. Bought for a bargain-basement price by Howard and rehabilitated by Smith and Pollard, Seabiscuit overcame a phenomenal run of bad fortune to become one of the most spectacular, dominant and charismatic performers in sports history. Competing in the cruelest years of the Depression, the rags-to-riches horse emerged as an American cultural icon, drawing an immense and fanatical following, inspiring an avalanche of merchandising, and establishing himself as the single biggest newsmaker of 1938. ~about the book

Horsey Terms

Also Ran - Any selection not finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th in a race or event.

Bat -  A jockey's whip.

Blow-out - A short, timed workout of about a mile in distance, usually a day before a race, designed to sharpen the speed of a horse (blow him out).

Breakdown - When a horse suffers a potentially career-ending injury.

Bug Boy - An apprentice rider.

Chalk - Wagering favorite in a race. Dates from the days when on-track bookmakers would write current odds on a chalkboard.

Colors (Colours) - Racing silks, the jacket and cap worn by jockeys. Silks can be generic and provided by the track or specific to one owner.

Fast (track) - Optimum condition for a dirt track that is dry, even, resilient and fast.

Gelding - A male horse that has been castrated.

Hand - Four inches. A horse's height is measured in hands and inches from the top of the shoulder (withers) to the ground, e.g., 15.2 hands is 15 hands, 2 inches. Thoroughbreds typically range from 15 to 17 hands.

Mare - Female horse five-years-old or older.

Nose - Smallest advantage a horse can win by. 

Over The Top - When a horse is considered to have reached its peak for that season.

Place - Finish in the top two

Scratch (Scratching) - To be taken out of a race before it starts.

Show - Third position at the finish.

Sire - Father of a horse.

Wire - The finish line of a race.

Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral - 1938 Match Race

Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Girl With a Pearl Earring tells the story of Griet, a 16-year-old Dutch girl who becomes a maid in the house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Her calm and perceptive manner not only helps her in her household duties, but also attracts the painter's attention. Though different in upbringing, education and social standing, they have a similar way of looking at things. Vermeer slowly draws her into the world of his paintings - the still, luminous images of solitary women in domestic settings. ~authors website

Little is known for certain about Vermeer's life and career. He was born in 1632, the son of a silk worker with a taste for buying and selling art. 

Vermeer himself was also active in the art trade. He lived and worked in Delft all his life. His works are rare. Of the 35 or 36 paintings generally attributed to him, most portray figures in interiors. All his works are admired for the sensitivity with which he rendered effects of light and color and for the poetic quality of his images. ~complete vermeer

What the Author Read in 2002 (update to current reads)

December 2002 :

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith 
Under the Eagle's Shadow by Mark Hertsgaard 
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

November 2002 :

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt 
Life of Pi by Yann Martell

October 2002 :

Bad Blood by Lorna Sage 
The Children Who Lived in a Barn by Eleanor Graham 
The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin

September 2002 :

Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles 
About the Author by John Colapinto 
Embers by Sandor Marai 

August 2002:

Affinity by Sarah Waters 
I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson 
We Made a Garden by Margery Fish 

July 2002:

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 
Disturbance of the Inner Ear by Joyce Hackett 
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli 
A Parrot in the Pepper Tree by Chris Stewart

June 2002:

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason 

May 2002:

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton 
Driving over Lemons by Chris Stewart 
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

April 2002:

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman 
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 

March 2002:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters 
The Orchard on Fire by Shena Mackay 
Little Boy Lost by Marganita Lasky 
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 
The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket 
Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass) by Philip Pullman

Alexandre Desplat - Girl with a Pearl Earring

The Beach House by Georgia Bockoven

The beach house is a peaceful summer heaven, a place to escape mundane troubles. Here, four families find their feelings intensified and their lives transformed. With equal measures of heartbreak and happiness, this unforgettable story tells of the beauty of life and the power of love, and speaks to every woman who has ever clung to a child or loved a man. ~from the publisher

When thirty-year-old Julia, mourning the death of her husband, decides to sell the Santa Cruz beach house they owned together, she changes the lives of all the families who rent it year after year. Teenaged Chris discovers the bittersweet joy of first love. Maggie and Joe, married sixty-five years, courageously face a separation that even their devotion cannot prevent. The married woman Peter yearns for suddenly comes within his reach. And Julia ultimately finds the strength to rebuild her life—something she once thought impossible.

Author Biography 

Georgia Bockoven is an award-winning author who began writing fiction after a successful career as a freelance journalists and photographer. Her books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. Her first book for HarperCollins, A Marriage of Convenience, will soon be a CBS movie starring Jane Seymour and James Brolin. The mother of two, she resides in Northern California with her husband, John.

Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières

De Bernières' story takes place on Cephallonia, a small Greek island that is still, in the years before World War II, touched with all the magic of Greek legend, and suffused with a light that is "as though straight from the imagination of God in His youngest days, when He still believed that all was good" [pp. 6-7]. There the elderly Dr. Iannis and his beautiful daughter, Pelagia, enjoy an idyllic existence, and at the age of seventeen Pelagia falls in love and becomes engaged to a handsome young fisherman, Mandras. But in 1940 the Italians attack Greece, and the violent reality of the war disrupts the villagers' quiet lives and changes them forever. Mandras leaves Cephallonia to go to war, and upon Greece's defeat by the Axis the island is occupied by Mussolini's army. One of the Italian officers is billeted with Dr. Iannis: Antonio Corelli, a high-spirited and generous young man who plays the mandolin like an angel and inspires impromptu opera performances among his troops. Nominally an invader, an enemy to the Cephallonians, Corelli soon becomes a cherished member of their community and Pelagia inevitably becomes fascinated by him with all his promise of music, love, and joy. The defeat of the Italian army at the hands of the Allied forces brings new traumas and dilemmas for Pelagia and Corelli, as the Germans rout their erstwhile Italian allies with a series of hair-raising murders and atrocities, and, after the armistice, Greece herself is plunged into a brutal civil war between Communist and royalist forces. Pelagia's optimism and love of life is challenged as she suffers dreadful losses, but her courage and tenacity sustain her, and finally her lifelong search for love does not go unrewarded.

About the Author 

Louis de Bernières has been awarded the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book Eurasia Region in 1991 and 1992, and for Best Book in 1995. He was selected by Granta as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993, and lives in Norfolk, East Anglia. ~about the author