It's Wednesday W.O.W. & A-Z

Welcome to A-Z Wednesday!!

To join, here's all you have to do: Go to your stack of books and find one whose title starts with the letter of the week.

Post:

1~ a photo of the book

2~ title and synopsis

3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.

Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.

(We all love comments, don't we?)

Who knows? You may find your next "favorite" book.

THIS WEEKS LETTER IS: "F "

When a national disaster strikes, "first the living" is the rule.

Unless you're the Bug Man.

When Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans, forensic entomologist Nick Polchak signs up to help with the recovery effort. He is known as the Bug Man for his knowledge of insects and what they can reveal about the dead. The government's mandate is clear--rescue the living first, recover the dead later.

But something is very wrong in the toxic soup-bowl of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Someone is using the cover of disaster to kill...hiding the victims of murder in the same watery grave as the victims of Katrina.

It's a tale only the dead can tell. But no one besides the Bug Man is listening.


I reviewed this book in July. Here's what I thought: (Gush alert!) I love the Bug Man! Ever since I started watching television show like, Bones, I found I can't enough of those forensic-type shows or books. I particularly enjoy when the investigation uses anthropology or geology to solve the crime. Here the Bug Man uses, you guessed it: entomology!

Squeamish readers may have to skip some scenes, but I found the descriptions about the different stages in insect infestation in the dead fascinating. And that BugMan or Nick Polchak is such a unique character that his wit, intellect, and total disregard for authority (within reason!) will have you hooked from page one.

I'm usually not a fan of books surrounding natural disasters, but Downs handled the subject matter with care in First the Dead . I didn't feel he exploited the disaster, rather I felt he offered insights into recovery missions I would have otherwise not known.

You can play along at Reading at the Beach.



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As World War II rages, Danish Lutheran pastor Steffen meets young Jewish nurse Hanne---and is reluctantly swept into the movement to save Denmark's Jews. In doing God's work rather than just talking about it, Steffen's heart is transformed---but when Hanne is taken to a Nazi camp, will it be broken, too?

Wildflowers of Terezin releases in April from Abingdon Press

You can play along with Jill at Breaking the Spine.