Middlebury Public Library book club picks for January

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Looking ahead to January, the Brown Bag Book Group will be reading and discussing “A Dog’s Purpose” by W. Bruce Cameron. This is a remarkable story of one dog’s search, through reincarnation into several lives, for the answer to the universal question, “Why are we here?” The main character, Bailey, finds himself reborn again and again as a puppy under different circumstances and always asking himself, “Will I ever find my purpose?” This book is insightful and heartwarming and offers a dog’s view on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man’s best friend. It is a human story that teaches us that love never dies, true friends are always with us, and that we are all born with a purpose.

If you enjoyed “A Dog’s Purpose” you may enjoy “A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs and Me” by Jon Katz. Unlike Cameron’s book, this book revolves around the life of one dog, Devon, a homeless border collie, and how this one dog changed the author’s life. Devon came to live with Katz after a breeder read Katz’s widely praised book “Running to the Mountain,” a book about strength and support found in his two yellow Labrador retrievers. The author writes, “Change loves me … It comes in all forms … Sometimes, change comes on four legs.” This is a deeply moving story of life and death, trust and understanding, and above all, change.

This January, the Mystery Book Group will read “Black Horizon” by James Grippando. Grippando drew inspiration for the 11th book in the Jack Swytek series from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Swyteck is a criminal defense attorney who was hired by a young Cuban wife to investigate the disappearance of her husband as a result of an explosion on an oil rig. As he begins to delve into this catastrophe, his investigation turns into international conspiracy as a Chinese, Russian and Venezuelan consortium may have deliberately caused the disaster. As Jack travels through a maze of intrigue and deception, he finds himself pressured by his own government to drop the case for the sake of national security.

If you enjoy stories based on current events and intrigue with an international flair, “The War Reporter” by Martin Fletcher should be a good read for you. The main character, Tom Layne, used to be a world-class television correspondent until his life was forever changed in Sarajevo. Beaten and humiliated, he fell into a hole diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He returns to the Balkans 11 years later to film a documentary on the man who caused his downfall, Ratko Mladic. This immoral murderer, wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, continues to elude being arrested and prosecuted. Tom falls into a web of intrigue and deceit that threatens his life, as well as that of the woman he loves, as he chases down the scoop of a lifetime.

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