Reading recommendations:

Decision Points

, George W. Bush

George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

Decision Points

brings readers inside the Texas governor's mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time we learn President Bush's perspective and insights on:

His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith.

The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials.

His relationship with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War.

His administration's counter terrorism programs, including the CIA's enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal governments response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis.

His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge.

This is only the tip of the iceberg above, there is so much more in these 497 pages. Hopefully, the reader will choose to read this interesting informative book.

The Dinosaur Hunter

, a novel, Horner Hickam

Life on the ranchlands of Montana comes with more than its share of trouble. The cowboys who work this untamed stretch of the American West expect it and some of them even enjoy it. One of them is Mike Wire, a former homicide detective who worked the decadent hills and valleys of Hollywood. Having enough of the murder and mayhem of the big city, Mike retreated to this far corner of civilization to spend his days running the Square C Ranch and pining for the ranch owner, Jeanette Coulter.

But Mike is soon to learn that murder and mayhem can happen under Montana's big skies too. The badlands aren't home to just horses, cattle, cowboys and cowgirls. Beneath the earth lie enough dinosaur fossils to fill several museum collections, and make a fortune for whoever claims them first. When a paleontologist and his attractive young assistants arrive at the Square C hoping to dig, Mike senses trouble is clinging to them like mud and manure, for once discovered, those bones won't stay buried, and not everyone hunting for them is doing it in the interest of science. Soon, Mike will have to combine everything he learned as a cop with everything he knows as a cowboy to protect the people and the land he could never live without.

The Dinosaur Hunter

pays tribute to the American West and the attitudes that make it such an incomparable part of the country.

Stern Men

, a novel, Elizabeth Gilbert

Before Elizabeth Gilbert wrote her beloved memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, she wowed critics everywhere with Stern Men, a wise and charming novel set off the coast of Maine. Ruth Thomas is born into a feud fought for generations by two groups of local lobster men over fishing rights for the waters that lie between their respective islands. At eighteen, she has returned from boarding school, smart as a whip, feisty and irredeemably unromantic, determined to join the "stern men" and work the lobster boats. As the feud escalates, Ruth proves herself to be an unforgettable American heroine who is destined for greatness, and love, despite herself.

See you at Rylander!