Off the Shelves – January 5

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The following items are available at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W. McKenzie Road. For more information on the library’s collection or to reserve a title, visit hcplibrary.org.

Adult Fiction

“The Valley of Dry Bones,” by Jerry B. Jenkins

The Valley of the Dry Bones” overlays the ancient End Times prophecies of Ezekiel onto the landscape of modern California. After a 17-year drought, multiple earthquakes and uncontrollable wildfires, the state is desolate. The president declares the state uninhabitable and irreparable, directing California’s 39 million citizens to relocate. From the air, California looks like a vast abandoned sand box, but to some people, it’s their home. With less than 1 percent of the population remaining in California at their own risk, the holdouts encounter a clash of culture, ethnicity, religion and politics that pits friend against friend with the future of California at stake.

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Adult Non-Fiction

“The Terror Years: from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State” by Lawrence Wright

This collection of essays recalls the rise of terrorism in the Middle East from the 1990s through the more recent beheading of journalists by ISIS. Since his Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Looming Tower,” author Lawrence Wright is acknowledged as one of the major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. The collection follows how Al Qaeda and its cult-like beliefs have morphed and spread; a picture of Saudi Arabia under the control of the religious police; the Syrian film industry; Israel and Hamas waging war over Gaza. Other essays look into Al-Qaeda as it forms a master plan for its future, experiences rebellion from within and spins off a growing web of terror in the world. The American response is covered in profiles of two FBI agents and a head of the CIA. It ends with the beheading by ISIS of four American journalists and how our government handled the situation.

Audio

“The Weekenders” by Mary Kay Andrews

Some people stay all summer long on Belle Isle, North Carolina. Some people come only for the weekends — and it’s something they look forward to all week long. While Riley Griggs is waiting for her husband to arrive at the ferry one Friday afternoon, she is instead served with papers informing her that her island home is being foreclosed. To make matters worse, her husband is nowhere to be found. She turns to her island friends for help and support, but each of them has their own secrets and the clock is ticking as the mystery deepens. Cocktail parties and crab boil aside, Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know and the summer that could change everything.