Thursday, August 27, 2009

Whole Lotta Trouble



Reding, Nick. Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009.

"Journalist Reding tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people. As if this weren't enough, an incredibly cheap, longlasting, and highly addictive drug has rolled into town." -- from publisher description.

Green, George Dawes. Ravens. New York: Grand Central Pub, 2009.

"When Shaw and Romeo pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida--away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a $318,000,000-million jackpot ticket has been sold. When a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: he and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize." --From publisher description.


Kodas, Michael. High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed.
New York: Hyperion, 2008.

"Much has changed on Mount Everest in recent years. This is the first book to detail how the recent infusion of wealth into the mountains is reacting with the age-old lust for glory to draw crime to the highest places on the planet, and how a mountain's ability to reduce climbers to their essential selves is revealing villains as well as heroes, greed as well as selflessness . . . "
--From publisher description.