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Courtesy Xochitl Mora,

Off-site location promises good discussions and good coffee

 The Laredo Public Library’s two book clubs’ May meetings are just around the corner and they are inviting Laredoans to spring into the two titles selected for the upcoming meetings, set for Wednesday, May 16, 2012, at a new location.  In order to create a more relaxing, inviting atmosphere, the book clubs will be meeting at off-site locations four times a year.  For the month of May, both library book clubs will be meeting at the Scholars Café Barista, located at 1701 Peaceful Meadow Court.

 For a real page turner, check out this month’s “Scene of the Crime” book club’s selection.  “All I Did Was Shoot My Man,” a thriller by Walter Mosley. In the latest and most surprising novel in the bestselling Leonid McGill series, Leonid finds himself caught between his sins of the past and an all-too-vivid present. The novel follows Leonid McGill, an old school private eye detective who uses his big heart and a lifetime of boxing skills to save a woman from the grasp of mobsters desperate to reclaim the money she stole from them. Thing is, she didn’t do it.  

Seven years ago, Zella Grisham came home to find her man, Harry Tangelo, in bed with her friend. The weekend before, $6.8 million had been stolen from Rutgers Assurance Corp., whose offices are across the street from where Zella worked. Zella didn’t remember shooting Harry, but she didn’t deny it either. The district attorney was inclined to call it temporary insanity-until the police found $80,000 from the Rutgers heist hidden in her storage space.

For reasons of his own, Leonid McGill is convinced of Zella’s innocence. But as he begins his investigation, his life begins to unravel. His wife is drinking more than she should. His oldest son has dropped out of college and moved in with an exprostitute. His youngest son is working for him and trying to stay within the law. And his father, whom he thought was long dead, has turned up under an alias.

A gripping story of murder, greed, and retribution, All I Did Was Shoot My Man is also the poignant tale of one man’s attempt to stay connected to his family.

 For books with an inspirational theme, the “Gateway City Book Lovers Club” is always a good choice.  This month, however, the club’s tome of choice, “The Coldest Night,” is by Robert Olmstead, the story is a bit grittier, but just as poignant.  Robert Olmstead’s riveting new novel is not only a passionate story of love and war, it is a timeless story of soldiers coming home to a country with little regard for, and even less knowledge of, what they’ve confronted. Through his hero, Olmstead reveals an unspoken truth about combat: that for many men, the experience of war is the most enlivening, electric, and extraordinary experience of their lives.

 Henry Childs is just seventeen when he falls into a love affair so intense it nearly consumes him. But when young Mercy’s disapproving father threatens Henry’s life, Henry runs as far as he can — to the other side of the world.

The time is 1950, and the Korean War hangs in the balance. Descended from a long line of soldiers, Henry enlists in the marines and arrives in Korea on the eve of the brutal seventeen-day battle of the Chosin Reservoir — the turning point of the war — completely unprepared for the forbidding Korean landscape and the unimaginable circumstances of a war well beyond the scope of anything his ancestors ever faced. But the challenges he meets upon his return home, scarred and haunted, are greater by far.

The “Scene of the Crime” Mystery Book Club meets from 6-7PM and immediately following, from 7-8 PM, the “Gateway City Book Lovers’ Book Club meets. There are no dues, no roll call, and no tests! Just Laredoans having fun reading and discussing a book. 

 All books are available for check-out at the Reference Desk at the Laredo Public Library or available for purchase at Books-A-Million at Mall Del Norte.  For more information, contact Pam Burrell by calling 795-2400, x2268 or via e-mail at pam@laredolibrary.org.