Reading Recommendations: Summerland, A Novel, Elin HilderbrandOn a warm June evening, the students of Nantucket High gather for the traditional graduation bonfire on the beach. But the celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver, Penny Alistair dead, and her twin brother, Hobby, in a coma. Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and her friend Demeter are unhurt but haunted by the events of that night, and by the questions that linger about what happened in the car and what happened in the dunes before Penny took the wheel.For Zoe, the twins' mother, the unthinkable awaits: life without her daughter, and an agonizing recovery for the son who had been a star athlete with infinite prospects. Free-spirited Zoe has been as much friend as mother to her children, but knew she must face devastating truths about them, and about her own role in all that happened.As summer unfolds, Zoe and the other parents have to ask whether their efforts to protect their children from life's realities have only left them more vulnerable. The key to understanding the accident lies in what Penny learned that evening on the beach, but will it also destroy the survivors' fragile peace?A gorgeous story about the delicate but enduring bonds of family and community, and about love in its many forms.Hunt the Wolf, a Seal Team Six Novel, Don MannNavy Seal Thomas Crocker has devoted his life to protecting the United States from the wolves of extremism. But in Abu Rasul Zaman, a top-level al-Qaeda operative, he's met his match.In Morocco, the American Embassy goes up in flames. In Washington, Crocker is shown a video of an American reporter brutally murdered by Islamic militants. Across the world, a young Norwegian girl is kidnapped and sold into slavery. Zaman, the "Protector of Islam," is behind it all.With monsters like Zaman using whatever means necessary to destroy the American way of life, the war between freedom and terror hardly seems like a fair fight. When Zaman's ring threatens to commit a major act of terrorism, Crocker finds himself up against two enemies at once; al-Qaeda and time. In response, Crocker winds his way from the beaches of Marseille to the hills of Pakistan and the streets of Jordan. He and his team employ all the tools at their disposal to battle al-Qaeda, from electronic surveillance, to hand-to-hand combat, to helicopters, ships and most of all, their own ingenuity.Full of the pure adrenaline of combat (and how, much more), Hunt the Wolf gives a rare look inside the elite team that defends our country, following its exploits to the ends of the Earth.Pretty raw at times! The Seals are there to protect us all!The Aleppo Codex, a true story of obsession, faith, and the pursuit of an ancient Bible, Matti Friedman.A thousand years ago, the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible was written. It was kept safe through one upheaval after another in the Middle East, and by the 1940's it was housed in a dark grotto in Aleppo, Syria, and had become known around the world as the Aleppo Codex.Matti Friedman's true life detective story traces how this precious manuscript was smuggled from its hiding place in Syria into the newly founded state of Israel, and how and why many of its most sacred and valuable pages went missing. It's a tale that involves grizzled secret agents, pious clergymen, shrewd antiquities collectors, and highly placed national figures who, as it turns out, would do anything to get their hands on an ancient, decaying book. What it reveals are uncomfortable truths about greed, state cover ups, and the fascinating role of historical treasure's in creating a national identity. Journalist Matti Friedman has unearthed documents kept secret for fifty years, interviewed key players from around the world, and followed the trail of the missing pages up to the present, including the charged, four year court battle to determine the codex's rightful owners. Friedman also takes us back in time, revealing the once vibrant Jewish communities in Islamic lands. Epic in its sweep, The Aleppo Codex features a fascinating cast of characters, all of whom claim the codex as their own.See you at Rylander.