Almont District Library

Summer Updates

2010-08-19T11:03:00.003-04:00

We had another successful Summer Reading Program this year! We are so proud of our readers and are happy they were dedicated to reading during this hot, hot summer! Our top young reader read over 124 hours total and we also had many readers who accomplished reading over 10 hours this summer. We hope that these dedicated readers continue to read during the upcoming school year and we see them again next year when the SRP theme's is "One World, Many Stories."

Ms. Donna's Storytime for Preschoolers starts up again on Tuesday, September 14th at 11:30 a.m. Join Ms. Donna and other children for storytime, dancing, singing, and crafts! Pre-registration is not required! Stop by every Tuesday morning!

Update!

2010-01-20T12:27:00.003-05:00

As you may have noticed, we haven't updated with new releases in the past 5 months. This is because we have a new feature on our website that automatically generates our new releases through an RSS feed. We have feeds set up for DVDs, Adult, Young Adult, and Children's Materials.

What is an RSS Feed??

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually.

Please visit this link to view these new RSS feeds that will provide you with information on what is new to our library collection!

New Arrivals

We have also added little feeds on the side of this blog that will update the reader with the 5 latest new arrivals to each designated collection.

NEW ARRIVALS- August

2009-08-21T11:01:00.002-04:00

NEW DVDs

"Coraline"
"Dragonball: Evolution"
"Duplicity"
"The Edge of Love"
"Everwood: The Second Season"
"Fast & Furious"
"The Great Buck Howard"
"Grey Gardens"
"Hannah Montana The Movie"
"I Love You Man"
"The Librarian - Return to King Solomon's Mines"
"Obsessed"
"Princess Protection Program"
"17 Again"
"The Soloist"
"Two Lovers"
"Watchmen"

NEW ADULT FICTION

"Ashes of Midnight" Lara Adrian
"Swan for the Money" Donna Andrews
"Resurrecting Midnight" Eric Jerome Dickey
"Second Chance" Jane Green
"Boys R Us" Lisi Harrison
"Ghostgirl" Tonya Hurley
"Chosen to Die" Lisa Jackson
"Dark Lover" Brenda Joyce
"Bad Moon Rising" Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Born of Fire" Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Born of Ice" Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Born of the Night" Sherrilyn Kenyon
"Take Two" Karen Kingsbury
"Cherry Bomb" J.A. Konrath
"Love, Aubrey" Suzanne Lafleur
"The Blue Notebook" James A. Levine
"92 Pacific Boulevard" Debbie Macomber
"Wyoming Brides: Denim and Diamonds/The Wyoming Kid" Debbie Macomber
"Rhino Ranch" Larry McMurty
"Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" Laurie Viera Rigler
"Bitten and Smitten" Michelle Rowen
"Fanged and Fabulous" Michelle Rowen
"Lady and the Vamp" Michelle Rowen
"Stakes and Stilettos" Michelle Rowen
"Tall, Dark and Fangsome" Michelle Rowen
"Killer" Sara Shepard
"Viola in Reel Life" Adriana Trigiani

ADULT NON-FICTION

"Material Obsession: Modern Quilts With Traditional Roots" Kathy Doughty
"I Appreciate It: My Life" Andy Griffith
"Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, and Charm Quilts" Pam Lintott
"Letters From Dad" Greg Vaughn
"Banquet at Delmonico's" Barry Werth

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

"Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy" Ally Carter
"Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover" Ally Carter
"I'd Tell You I love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You" Ally Carter
"L.A. Candy" Lauren Conrad
"Nothing But Ghosts" Beth Kephart
"Blood Promise" Richelle Mead
"Blue Moon" Alyson Noel
"You Are Here" Jennifer E. Smith

CHILDREN'S FICTION

"Turkey Trouble" Wendi Silvano
"By the Light of the Halloween Moon" Caroline Stutson
"Busy Tree" Jennifer Ward
"Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep" Maureen Wright
"Hiccupotamus" Aaron Zenz

July New Arrivals

2009-07-17T10:14:00.004-04:00

NEW DVDs

Biography: Barack Obama
Coraline**
Education of Charlie Banks
Fast & Furious**
Inkheart
History Channel: The Beltway Unbuckled
History Channel: China's First Emperor
History Channel: Einstein
History Channel: A Global Warning?
History Channel: The Great Depression
History Channel: Hunting Hitler
History Channel: Journey to 10,000 BC
History Channel: King
History Channel: Life After People
History Channel: Nostradamus 2012
History Channel: Primal Fear
History Channel: Real Tomb Hunters
History Channel: Secrets of Body Language
History Channel: Stealing Lincoln's Body
History Channel: Templar Code
History Channel: Vampire Secrets
History Channel: Women in the White House
Home
Ice Road Truckers: The Most Dangerous Episodes
Jonas Brothers the Concert Experience
Knowing
The Pink Panther 2
Push
Ramen Girl
Watchmen**

Bob the Builder: Truck Teamwork
Care Bears: Telltale Tummies
Dora the Explorer: Super Babies Dream Adventure
Elmo and Abby's Birthday Fun
Wonder Pets: Ollies Slumber Party

NEW ADULT FICTION

"Shattered" Kathi Baron
"One Wish" Leigh Brescia
"Hot Pursuit" Suzanne Brockman
"Rain Gods" James Lee Burke
"Saved by the Music" Selene Castrovilla
"Listen" Nancy Coffelt
"Moon Looked Down" Dorothy Garlock
"Running For My Life" Ann Gonzalez
"Burn" Linda Howard
"Devil's Punchbowl" Greg Iles
"Storm Cycle" Iris Johansen
"Fire and Ice" Judith A. Jance
"Twenties Girl" Sophie Kinsella
"Guardian of Lies" Steve Martini
"Black Hills" Nora Roberts
"Undone" Karin Slaughter
"Best Friends Forever" Jennifer Weiner
"Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder" Rebecca Wells

NEW ADULT NON-FICTION

"Strain" Guillermo Del Toro
"Between Us Baxters" Bethany Hegedus
"Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" Katherine Howe
"Ending of Overeating" David Kessler
"Paul Harvey's America: The Life, Art, and Faith of a Man Who Transformed Radio and Inspired a Nation" Stephen Mansfield
"Stoning of Soraya M." Freidoune Sahebjam
"10 Steps to Successful International Adoption" Brenda K. Uekert
"Girls from Ames" Jeffrey Zaslow

NEW YOUNG ADULT FICTION

"Fade" Lisa McMann

NEW JUVENILE FICTION

GERONIMO STILTON SERIES

"All Because of a Cup of Coffee"
"Attack of the Bandit Cats"
"Cat and Mouse in a Haunted House"
"Cheese-Colored Camper"
"Curse of a Cheese Pyramid"
"Down and Out Down Under"
"Fabumouse School Adventure"
"Fabumouse Vacation for Geronimo"
"Field Trip to Niagara Falls"
"Four Mice Deep in the Jungle"
"Geronimo Stilton, Secret Agent"
"Geronimo's Valentine"
"I'm Too Fond of My Fur"
"It's Halloween, You 'Fraidy Mouse"
"Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye"
"Merry Christmas, Geronimo"
"Mona Mousa Code"
"Mouse Island Marathon"
"My Name Is Stilton, Geronimo Stilton"
"Mysterious Cheese Thief"
"Paws Off, Cheddarface"
"Phantom of the Subway"
"Race Across America"
"Red Pizzas for a Blue Count"
"Search for Sunken Treasure"
"Secret Of Cacklefur Castle"
"Shipwreck On the Pirate Islands"
"Surf's Up, Geronimo!"
"Temple of the Ruby of Fire"
"Thea Stilton and the Dragon's Code"
"Valentine's Day Disaster"
"Valley of the Giant Skeletons"
"Very Merry Christmas"
"Watch Your Whiskers, Stilton!"
"Wedding Crasher"
"Wild, Wild West"

New Arrivals - June

2009-06-19T11:00:00.005-04:00

NEW DVDs

"Bottle Shock"

"Confessions of a Shopaholic"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Donnie Darko"

"Education of Charlie Banks"

"Fanboys"

"Fired Up"

"Friday Night Lights: Season 3"

"Gran Tarino"

"He's Just Not That Into You"

"Home"

"Ice Road Truckers"

"Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience"

"The Last Templar"

"Love Takes Wing"

"New In Town"

"Other End of the Line"

"Passengers"

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop"

"Ramen Girl"

"Rescue Me: Season One"

"Rescue Me: Season Two"

"Rescue Me: Season Three"

"Rescue Me: Season Four"

"Revolutionary Road"

"S. Darko"

"Stealing Lincoln's Body"

"Taken"

"Taking Chance"

"Underworld: Rise of the Lycans"

"Valkyrie"

"The Visitor"

"The Wedding Weekend"

"Bob the Builder: Truck Teamwork"

"Care Bears: Telltale Tummies"

"Dora the Explorer: Super Babies Dream Adventure"

"Elmo and Abby's Birthday Fun"

"My Friends Tigger, Pooh, and a Musical Too"

"Wonder Pets: Ollie's Slumber Part"

NEW MUSIC

"Big Whiskey and Groogrux" Dave Matthews Band

"Blood" Franz Ferdinand

"Hair" Original Broadway Cast

"Kids Bop"

"John Williams Greatest Hits"

"Turning Down the Water for Air" James Yuill

"West Side Story" New Broadway Cast Recording

NEW ADULT FICTION

"Sisters and Husbands" Connie Briscoe

"Oolong Dead" Laura Childs

"Waiting for You" Susane Colasanti

"Lovers" John Connolly

"Undead and Unforgiven" Mary Janice Davidson

"News for Dogs" Lois Duncan

"Return to Sullivan's Island" Dorothea Benton Frank

"Neighbor" Lisa Gardner

"Skin Trade"Laurell K. Hamilton

"Here's How I See It-- Here's How It Is" Heather Henson

"The Story Sisters" Alice Hoffman

"Reformed Vampire Support Group" Catherine Jinks

"Dying to Meet You" Kate and Sarah Klise

"Relentless" Dean Koontz

"Rogue of my Own" Johanna Lindsey

"Fugitive" Phillip Margolin

"Scoop" Fern Michaels

"Among the Tin Cans and Broken Glass" T.A. Novak

"Brimstone" Robert B. Parker

"Wings" Aprilynne Pike

"206 Bones" Kathy Reichs

"Cheater" Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

"Wednesday Wars" Gary Schmidt

"Strange Angels" Lili St. Crow

"Summer House" Nancy Thayer

"Uninvited" Tim Wynne-Jones

NEW ADULT NON-FICTION

"Sworn to Silence" Linda Castillo

"Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinny Girl" Bethenny Frankel

"Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America" John Earl Haynes

"How to Build a Dinosaur" Jack Horner

"Reluctant Heiress" Eva Ibbotson

"Late, Lamented Molly Marx" Sally Koslow

"Dexter by Design" Jeffry P. Lindsay

"Any Minute" Joyce Meyer

"Either You're in or You're in the Way" Logan Miller & Noah Miller

"Water, Stone, Heart" Will North

"Well and the Mine" Gin Phillips

"Adaptability: How to Survive Change You Didn't Ask For" M.J. Ryan

"Tomato Rhapsody" Adam Schell

"Shanghai Girls" Lisa See

"Ghosts of War" Ryan Smithson

"Mommywood" Tori Spelling

"Die For You" Lisa Unger

"Eat This Not That!" David Zinczenko

NEW YOUNG ADULT FICTION

"Being Nikki" Meg Cabot

"Necropolis" Anthony Horowitz

"Vampire Kisses #1: Blood Relatives" Ellen Schreiber

"Vampire Kisses #2: Blood Relatives" Ellen Schreiber

NEW CHILDREN'S FICTION

"Poppy and Ereth" Avi

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Judi Barrett

"Itty Bitty" Cece Bell

"Tickle Monster" Josie Bissett

"Friend or Fiend?" Judy Blume

"Sloppy Joe" Dave Keane

"The Obama Story" T.S. Lee

"King's Taster" Kenneth Oppel

"Amelia's First Day of School" Herman Parish

"Sylvie" Jennifer Sattler

"Prince Pig" Eileen Spinelli

May New Arrivals!

2009-05-07T10:24:00.002-04:00

With the start of summer just around the corner, please check with our website or stop by the library for information about the Summer Reading Program! This year's theme is "Be Creative @ Your Library" and we have lots of exciting activities planned for the children of the community! Also remember that our performances fill up fast because of our limited amount of space, so get here early on June 15th for Sign-up Day!

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New DVDs

"Bride Wars"
"The Cake Eaters"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Hotel for Dogs"
"Last Chance Harvey"
"Nature: American Eagle"
"The Reader"
"Seven Signs of the Apocalypse"
"Urban Legends Season 1"
"Wendy and Lucy"
"The Spirit"
"The Wrestler"

"Care Bears Cheer There and Everywhere"
"Curious George Goes Green"
"Elmo's World: Elmo and the Bookaneers"
"Happily N'ever After 2: Snow White"
"iCarly Season 1"
"Is Your Mame a Llama?"
"Saddle Club Season 2"
"Sesame Street: Being Green"

New Music

Angels & Demons Soundtrack
Annie - Original Cast
Joan Baez - Ring Them Bells
Cabaret - Original Cast
A Camp - Colonia
Kenny Chesney - Greatest Hits II
A Chorus Line - Original Cast
Ciara - Fantasy Ride
Leonard Cohen - Live in London
Gavin DeGraw - Free
Bob Dylan - Before the Flood
Bob Dylan - The Basement Tapes
Fiddler on the Roof - Original Cast
Ben Folds - University A Cappella
Buddy Guy - The Definitive Buddy Guy Collection
Mat Kearney - City of Black & White
Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing
My Fair Lady - Original Cast
Maria Taylor - Ladyluck
Pilot Speed - Wooden Bones
Chuck Wicks - Starting Now

New Adult Fiction

"First Family" David Baldacci
"Rogue Forces" Dale Brown
"Gone Tomorrow" Lee Child
"Scarecrow" Michael Connelly
"Boneman's Daughters" Ted Dekker
"Intent to Kill" James Grippando
"Deadlock" Iris Johansen
"Road Dogs" Elmore Leonard
"Summer on Blossom Street" Debbie Macomber
"Razor Sharp" Fern Michaels
"The 8th Confession" James Patterson
"Wicked Prey" John Sandford
"Look Again" Lisa Scottoline

New Adult Non-Fiction

"Lost Boy" Brent W. Jeffs
"Your Best Birth" Ricki Lake
"Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" Mark R. Levin
"Paul Newman: A Life" Shawn Levy
"How Sex Works: How we look, smell, taste, feel and act the way we do" Sharon Moalem
"Not Becoming My Mother" Ruth Reichl
"Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption" Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo
"The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement" Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. and W. Keith Campbell, Ph.D.
"Unfinished Business: What the Dead Can Teach Us About Life" James Van Praagh
"Valkyrie" Phillipp Freihe Von Boeselager

New Young Adult Fiction

"If I Stay" Gayle Forman
"Discordia: The Eleventh Dimension" Dena K. Salmon
"Distant Waves: A Novel of Titanic" Suzanne Weyn
"Thirteenth Child" Patricia Wrede

New Juvenile Fiction

"Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries" David Adler
"Best Friends and Drama Queens" Meg Cabot
"News For Dogs" Lois Duncan
"Sunrise: Warriors Power of Three #6" Erin Hunter

New Children's Books

"Sir Ryan's Quest" Jason Deeble
"Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale" Daniel Kirk
"Budgie & Boo" David McPhail
"The Very Curious Bear" Tony Mitton & Paul Howard
"Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully" Julianne Moore & LeUyen Pham
"Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire!" Jane O'Connor
"Fancy Nancy: The Dazzling Book Report" Jane O'Connor
"Jack & Jill: Miracle Dog with a Happy Tail to Tell" Jill Rappaport & Linda Solomon
"All in a Day" Cynthia Rylant
"Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa: Horse in the House" Erica Silverman & Betsy Lewin
"When Papa Comes Home Tonight" Eileen Spinelli
"Funny Farm" Mark Teague
"How Many Cats?" Lauren Thompson & Robin Eley
"Pete's Disappearing Act" Jenny Tripp & John Mandors
"Mama Says: A Book of Love for Mothers and Sons" Rob D. Walker

New Children's Non-Fiction

"One Giant Leap" Robert Burleigh & Mike Wimmer
"Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11" Brian Floca

New Adult Books

2009-04-16T10:51:00.003-04:00

ADULT FICTION

"Borderline" Nevada Barr

"Home Safe" Elizabeth Berg

"Cursed" Carol Higgins Clark

"Just Take My Heart" Mary Higgins Clark

"Fatally Flaky" Diane Mott Davidson

"Diary" Eileen Goudge

"Nightwalker" Heather Graham

"Believers" Zoe Heller

"Take One" Karen Kingsbury

"Tea Time for he Traditionally Built" Alexander McCall Smith

"Mr. and Miss Anonymous" Fern Michaels

"Dangerous Beauty" Sophia Nash

"Kiss" Sophia Nash

"Song is You" Arthur Phillips

"Perfect Poison" Amanda Quick

"Geometry of Sisters" Luanne Rice

"Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greek Myths, Retold" Cynthia Rylant

"Eternal" Cynthia Leitich Smith

"Loitering With Intent" Stuart Woods

ADULT NON-FICTION

"Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads" Christine Avanti

"Priceless Memories" Bob Barker

"Columbine" Dave Cullen

"Paula Deen's, The Deen Family Cookbook" Paula H. Deen

"Michigan Rivers Less Paddled" Doc Fletcher

"Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist" Michael J. Fox

"Before You Do Reflections: Making Great Decisions That You Won't Regret" T.D. Jakes

"Never Give Up: Relentless Determination to Overcome Life's Challenges" Joyce Meyer

"Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education" Craig M. Mullaney

"Might As Well Laugh About It Now" Marie Osmond

"Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single World of the Bible" David Plotz

"In Praise of Stay at Home Moms" Laura Schlessinger

"Perfectly Imperfect: A Life In Progress" Lee Woodruff

NEW DVD ARRIVALS

2009-04-13T13:07:00.005-04:00

NEW DVDs

"Bedtime Stories"

"The Day the Earth Stood Still"

"Doubt"

"Marley & Me"

"Milk"

"Pinocchio"

"Quantum of Solace"

"Rachel Getting Married"

"Role Models"

"Seven Pounds"

"The Tale of Despereaux"

"Yes Man"

New Releases for March

2009-03-26T10:37:00.003-04:00

DVDs

Australia
Blindness
Body of Lies
College
Flash of Genius
Librarian 3: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Open Season 2
Religulous
The Rocker
Twilight
W.

American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Dora the Explorer: Dora and the Three Little Pigs
Space Buddies

Adult Fiction

"Paths of Glory" Jeffrey Archer
"Lost Quilter: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel" Jennifer Chiaverini
"Long Lost" Harlan Coben
"Corsair: A Novel of the Oregon Files" Clive Cussler
"Lavender Morning" Jude Deveraux
"Secrets to Happiness" Sarah Dunn
"Still Life" Joy Fielding
"Malice" Lisa Jackson
"True Detective" Jonathan Kellerman
"Smooth Talking Stranger" Lisa Kleypas
"Temptation and Surrender: A Cynster Novel" Stephanie Laurens
"Life Sentences" Laura Lippman
"All the Living" C.E. Morgan
"Dear Husband" Joyce Carol Oates
"Execution Dock" Anne Perry
"Handle With Care" Jodi Picoult
"Dog On It: A Chet and Bernie Mystery" Spencer Quinn
"Murder at the Academy Awards" Joan Rivers and Jerrilyn Farmer
"Pursuit" Karen Robards
"If Tomorrow Never Comes" Marlo M. Schalesky
"Slumdog Millionaire" Vikas Swarup
"Birthday Present" Barbara Vine

Adult Non-Fiction

"A Digital Photographer's Handbook" Tom Ang
"A Lion Called Christian" Anthony Bourke
"Play: How it Shapes the Brain" Stuart L. Brown
"Warford: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945" Carlo D'Este
"It Looked Good on Paper: Bizarre Inventions, Design Disasters, and Engineering Follies" Bill Fawcett
"Midnight on the Line: The Secret Life of the U.S. - Mexico Border" Tim Gaynor
"Final Days of Jesus" Shimon Gibson
"Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven" Susan Jane Gilman
"With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain" Michael Korda
"Cloris" Cloris Leachman
"I'll Scream Later" Marlee Matlin
"Healing and Preventing Autism" Jenny McCarthy
"Women's Health for Life" Donnica Moore
"Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes" Mary Tyler Moore
"The Sewing Book" Alison Smith
"Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts" Martha Stewart

Audio Books
(Adult, Young Adult, and Juvenile)

"The Garden Party and Other Stories" Maeve Binchy
"A Lion Called Christian" Anthony Bourke
"Hunted" PC Cast
"Everything is Fine" Ann Dee Ellis
"The Grand Finale" Janet Evanovich
"The Graveyard Book" Neil Gaiman
"Undress Me In the Temple of Heaven" Susan Jane Gilman
"Brutal" Michael Harmon
"True Detective" Jonathan Kellerman
"Running Hot" Jayne Ann Krentz
"Temptation and Surrender" Stephanie Laurens
"Life Sentences" Laura Lippman
"The Willoughbys" Lois Lowry
"Road Rage" Ruth Rendell
"Say Cheese and Die Screaming" R.L. Stine

Young Adult Fiction

"The Amaranth Enchantment" Julie Berry
"Paparazzi Princess: Secrest of my Hollywood Life" Jennifer Calonita
"Hunted" PC Cast
"City of Glass" Cassandra Clare
"Alex Rider Series" Anthony Horowitz
"Max" James Patterson

Juvenile Fiction

"Lifting the Sky" Mackie D'Arge
"The Rescue: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"Shattering: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Siege: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Journey: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Capture: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Coming of Hoole: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The First Collier: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Outcast: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Hatching: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"The Burning: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series" Kathryn Lasky
"Bone" Jeff Smith
"Gooney Bird is so Absurd" Lois Lowry

Juvenile Non-Fiction

"What's the Weather Inside?: Poems" Karma Wilson

Easy Children's Fiction

"Anakin in Action!" Simon Beecroft
"Arthur in New York" Marc Brown
"Biscuit Visits the Doctor" Alyssa Satin Capucilli
"Biscuit's First Sleepover" Alyssa Satin Capucilli
"Boo! Made You Jump!" Lauren Child
"But I am an Alligator!" Lauren Child
"Charlie and Lola: We are Extremely Very Good Recyclers" Lauren Child
"Barbie and the Diamond Castle" Kristen Depken
"Batman Saves the Day" Jennifer Frantz
"This is the Firefighter" Laura Godwin
"Benny and Penny" Geoffrey Hayes
"The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes" Marlane Kennedy
"Best Teacher Ever" Mercer Mayer
"It's Earth Day! "Mercer Mayer
"Book Fiesta" Pat Mora
"Mighty Casey" James Preller
"Batman Versus the Joker" N.T. Raymond
"Honey Bunny's Honey Bear" Marilyn Sadler
"Barbie Mariposa" Christy Webster
"Can You See What I See? Nature" Walter Wick
"Can You See What I See? Toys" Walter Wick
"Watch Me Throw the Ball!" Mo Willems

NEW DVD Arrivals!

2009-02-12T10:45:00.003-05:00

NEW DVDs

Appaloosa
Burn After Reading
Changeling
City of Ember
The Duchess
Eagle Eye
The Express
Ghost Town
Haunted Histories Collection Volume Three: Dracula, Witches, Voodoo, and Exorcism
High School Musical 3
The House Bunny
In Bruges
The Lucky Ones
Max Payne
Mirrors
My Best Friend's Girl
Nights in Rodanthe
Pineapple Express
Pride and Glory
Righteous Kill
RocknRolla
The Secret Life of Bees
Swing Vote
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Women
The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Back at the Barnyard-Cowman: Uddered Avenger
Backyardigans: Robin Hood the Clean
Curious George: Robot Monkey
Girls of Little House on the Prairie: Country School
Girls of Little House on the Prairie: Prairie Friends
Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa
Spongebob Squarepants: Spongicus

NEW ARRIVALS

2009-01-31T10:23:00.003-05:00

The Almont District Library has joined the membership of the Valley Library Consortium (VLC), an integrated automated Library System.

Starting January 14, 2009, patrons will be able to access our library catalog as well as the catalogs of 25 other library systems with a database of more than 800,000 Titles.

Please visit our catalog.

Please help the library by returning all materials you may have at home so we can add them to the new system.

Please come into the library and fill out a new library card application!

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New Arrivals

Adult Fiction

"Death of a Witch" M.C. Beaton
"Heart and Soul" Maeve Binchy
"Three Weeks to Say Goodbye" C.J. Box
"Bone Crossed: A Mercy Thompson Novel" Patricia Briggs
"Dark of Night" Suzanne Brockman
"Messenger" Jan Burke
"Terminal Freeze" Lincoln Child
"While My Sister Sleeps" Barbara Delinsky
"Plum Spooky" Janet Evanovich
"Lethal Legacy" Linda Fairstein
"Curious Case of Benjamin Button" F. Scott Fitzgerald
"Extreme Measures" Vince Flynn
"Born to Run" James Grippando
"Associate" John Grisham
"True Colors" Kristin Hannah
"White Witch, Black Curse" Kim Harrison
"Darker Place" Jack Higgins
"Devil's Punchbowl" Greg Iles
"Bright Futures" Stuart M. Kaminsky
"Luke's Story" Tim F. Lahaye
"Under the Radar" Fern Michaels
"Fool" Christopher Moore
"Batter Off Dead: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes" Tamar Myers
"Second Opinion" Michael Palmer
"Night and Day" Robert B. Parker
"Run for Your Life" James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
"Eclipse" Richard North Patterson
"Lady of High Regard" Tracie Peterson
"What I Did For Love" Susan Elizabeth Phillips
"Harvesting the Heart" Jodi Picoult
"Mercy" Jodi Picoult
"Picture Perfect" Jodi Picoult
"Plain Truth" Jodi Picoult
"Sale Falls" Jodi Picoult
"Second Glance" Jodi Picoult
"Song of the Humpback Whale" Jodi Picoult
"Breakneck" Erica Spindler
"Whisper to the Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel" Dana Stabenow
"One Day at a Time" Danielle Steel
"Help" Kathryn Stockett
"Very Valentine" Adriana Trigiani
"Cutting for Stone" Abraham Verghese
"Bones of the Dragon" Margaret Weis
"Mad Desire to Dance" Elie Wiesel
"Mounting Fears" Stuart Woods

Adult Fiction Paperback

"Play Dirty" Sandra Brown
"Dangerous Tides" Christine Feehan
"Magic in the Wind" Christine Feehan
"Oceans of Fire" Christine Feehan
"Turbulent Sea" Christine Feehan
"Twilight Before Christmas" Christine Feehan
"Midnight Sons: Brides for Brothers / The Marriage Risk" Debbie Macomber
"Storm Born" Richelle Mead
"Succubus Blues" Richelle Mead
"Succubus Dreams" Richelle Mead
"Succubus Heat" Richelle Mead
"Succubus on Top" Richelle Mead
"Montana Creeds: Logan" Linda Lael Miller
"Daughter's Inheritance" Tracie Peterson & Judith Miller
"Unexpected Love" Tracie Peterson & Judith Miller
"Lie by Moonlight" Amanda Quick
"Dockside" Susan Wiggs
"Fireside" Susan Wiggs
"Snowfall at Willow Lake" Susan Wiggs
"Summer at Willow Lake" Susan Wiggs
"Winter Lodge" Susan Wiggs

Adult Non-Fiction

"Traitor to His Class" H.W. Brands
"All Pets Go To Heaven : The Spiritual Lives of Animals" Sylvia Browne
"Khomeini's Ghost : The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of the Militant Islam" Con Coughlin
"What Was I Thinking? : 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories" Barbara Davilman
"Uncommon : Finding Your Path to Significance" Tony Dungy
"Pit Stop in a South Kitchen : Two Moms of Racing Legends Serve Up Stories and Recipes" Martha Earnhardt
"Engine 2 Diet : The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds" Rip Esselstyn
"Why Him? Why Her?" Helen Fisher
"Animals Make Us Human : Creating the Best Life for Animals" Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson
"Moments of Clarity" Christopher Kennedy Lawford
"Joy of Keeping Chickens: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Poultry for Fun or Profit" Jennifer Megyesi
"Popes of Avignon: A Century of Exile" Edwin Mullins
"Celebutards" Andrea Peyser
"Last Days of the Ramanovs : Tragedy at Ekaterinburg" Helen Rappaport
"Embracing the Sky : A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind" Daniel Tammet

NEW YOUNG ADULT - November

2008-11-28T13:43:00.002-05:00

YOUNG ADULT

"The Serial Garden" Joan Aiken

"Reunion" Meg Cabot

"The Dead Girl's Dance" Rachel Caine

"Feast of Fools" Rachel Caine

"Glass Houses" Rachel Caine

"Midnight Alley" Rachel Caine

"The Chocolate War" Robert Cormier

"Fade" Robert Cormier

"Tenderness" Robert Cormier

"Blue Bloods" Melissa De La Cruz

"Masquerade" Melissa De La Cruz

"Revelations" Melissa De La Cruz

"Runner" Carl Deuker

"The Diamond of Darkhold" Jeanne DuPrau

"The Graveyard Book" Neil Gaiman

"Not as Crazy as I Seem" George Harrar

"The Bone Magician" F.E. Higgins

"The Landing" John Ibbitson

"Dommwyte" Brian Jacques

"Lost in the Labyrinth" Patrice Kindl

"Naruto: Vol. 32" Masashi Kishimoto

"White Sands, Red Menace" Ellen Klages

"The Snow Pony" Alison Lester

"The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" Barry Lyga

"The Big Game of Everything" Chris Lynch

"Shadow Kiss" Richelle Mead

"Brisingr" Christopher Paolini

"Kotuku" Deborah Savage

"Black Box" Julie Schumacher

"Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America" Dyan Sheldon

"Larry and the Meaning of Life" Janet Tashjian

"Inu-Yasha: Vol. 35" Rumiko Takahashi

"You Just Can't Get Enough" Cecily Von Ziegesar

"Beautiful City of the Dead" Leander Watts

NEW ADULT NON-FICTION - November

2008-11-28T13:07:00.003-05:00

ADULT NON-FICTION

"Angel Horses" Allen Anderson

"The First Billion is the Hardest" T. Boone Pickens

"The Reagan I Knew" William F. Buckley

"The Leader in Me" Stephen Covey

"American Prince: A Memoir" Tony Curtis

"The Way I Am" Eminem

"Wishful Drinking" Carrie Fisher

"Do the Right Thing" Mike Huckabee

"Doris Day" David Kaufman

"Too Fat To Fish" Artie Lange

"Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide To Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy, and Stupid" Denis Leary

"Late Show Fun Facts" David Letterman

"The Road of Lost Innocence" Somaly Mam

"Mother Warriors" Jenny McCarthy

"Tried By War" James M. McPherson

"Three Cups of Tea" Greg Mortenson

"Remarkable Birds" Stephen Moss

"Michelle: A Biography" Liza Mundy

"Patriotic Grace" Peggy Noonan

"Darwin Awards 5: Next Evolution" Wendy Northcutt

"Dreams From My Father" Barack Obama

"A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" Bill O'Reilly

"Against Medical Advice" James Patterson

"Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" Anne Rice

"Rickles' Letters" Don Rickles

"Whisper of Fear: The True Story of Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers" Rhonda B. Saunders

"The Snowball" Alice Schroeder

"Daily Coyote: A Year With Charlie" Shreve Stockton

"My Stroke of Insight" Jill Bolte Taylor

"Pieces of My Heart" Robert Wagner

"Saved: Rescued Animals and the Lives They Transform" Karin Winegar

"O's Big Book of Happiness" Oprah Winfrey

NEW ADULT FICTION - November

2008-11-28T11:26:00.003-05:00

NEW ADULT FICTION

"Six Geese A-Slaying" Donna Andrews

"Living with the Dead" Kelley Armstrong

"A Spoonful of Poison" M.C. Beaton

"The Charlemagne Pursuit" Steve Berry

"Hounded to Death" Rita Mae Brown

"Santa Clawed" Rita Mae Brown

"Quilter's Kitchen" Jennifer Chiaverini

"Jesus" Deepak Chopra

"Dashing Through the Snow" Mary Higgins Clark

"Brass Verdict" John Connelly

"Scarpetta" Patricia Cornwells

"The Glass of Time" Michael Cox

"Arctic Drift" Clive Cussler

"The Bodies Left Behind" Jeffery Deaver

"Dying for Revenge" Eric Jerome Dickey

"The Tsarina's Daughter" Carolly Erickson

"Grace" Richard Paul Evans

"Dead Heat" Dick Francis

"Leaving Whiskey Bend" Dorothy Garlock

"I See You Everwhere" Julia Glass

"Archbishop in Andalusia" Andrew M. Greeley

"Born to Run" James Grippando

"Swallowing Darkness" Laurell K. Hamilton

"The English Major" Jim Harrison

"Ghost at Work" Carolyn G. Hart

"Private Patient" P.D. James

"Cruel Intent" Judith A. Jance

"Dark Summer" Iris Johansen

"Exposed" Alex Kava

"Bones" Jonathan Kellerman

"A Dog Named Christmas" Gregory Kincaid

"Just After Sunset" Stephen King

"Your Heart Belongs to Me" Dean R. Koontz

"'Tis the Season!" Lorna Landvik

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Stieg Larsson

"Longing" Beverly Lewis

"Hardly Knew Her" Laura Lippman

"Tethered" Amy MacKinnon

"Cedar Cove Christmas" Debbie Macomber

"A Lion Among Men" Gregory Maguire

"McKettrick Christmas" Lina Lael Miller

"Rough Weather" Robert B. Parker

"Christmas Grace" Anne Perry

"Crossroads" Belva Plain

"Salvation in Death" J.D. Robb

"The Pagan Stone" Nora Roberts

"Heat Lightning" John Sandford

"Death With Interruptions" Jose Saramago

"Testimony" Anita Shreve

"Lucky One" Nicholas Sparks

"The Widows of Eastwick" John Updike

"The Color of Light" Karen White

"Time of my Life" Allison Winn

NEW DVD Titles - November

2008-11-28T10:37:00.006-05:00

NEW DVDs

CHILDREN

Animalia

Bob the Builder: On Site Houses & Playgrounds

Charlie and Lola: Eight I am collecting a Collection

Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Snow Princess

George of the Jungle: Season 1

Go Diego Go! Diego's Halloween

Goosebumps: Monster Blood

Goosebumps: A Night in Terror Tower

Goosebumps: One Day at Horrorland

Jane and the Dragon

The Saddle Club: Season 1

School House Rock: Election Collection

Shrek the Halls

Sleeping Beauty

Tinkerbell

Wall-E

Wayside School: Season 1

Where the Wild Things Are

ADULT

Deception

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Get Smart

The Happening

Haunted Histories Collection

The Incredible Hulk

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Iron Man

John Adams

Leatherheads

The Love Guru

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams : Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture

Run, Fatboy, Run

Sex and the City

The Thin Red Line

Tropic Thunder

You Don't Mess With the Zohan

New Arrivals

2008-09-19T11:31:00.005-04:00

NEW ARRIVALS

DVDs

"Baby Mama"

"The Bank Job"

"Made of Honor"

"Mrs. Pettigrew Lives For a Day"

"Nasa: The Complete Story"

"Smart People"

"21"

"What Happens in Vegas"

"Back at the Barnyard: When No One is Looking"

"Barbie & the Diamond Castle"

"Curious George Sails with the Pirates"

"Eloise: A Rawther Unusual Halloween"

"Garfields Fun Fest"

"Holly Hobbie: Fabulous Fashion Show"

"Little Einstein's Flight of the Instrument Fairies"

"The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning"

ADULT FICTION

"One Fifth Avenue" Candace Bushnell

"China Lake" Meg Gardiner

"Crosscut" Meg Gardiner

"Jericho Point" Meg Gardiner

"Kill Chain" Meg Gardiner

"Mission Canyon" Meg Gardiner

"Liberty: A Lake Wobegon Novel" Garrison Keillor

"Girls: A Novel" Lori Lansens

"Rush Home Road" Lori Lansens

"Comforts of a Muddy Saturday" Alexander McCall Smith

"Uncertain Dream" Judith Miller

"Where Love Dwells" Delia Parr

"Exit Music" Ian Rankin

"The Letters" Luanne Rice

"Heat Lightning" John Sandford

"Hot Mahogany" Stuart Woods

ADULT NON-FICTION

"Bliss to You: Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life" Dean Koontz

"Late Show Fun Facts" David Letterman

"Good, Good Pig" Sy Montgomery

"Dewey: A Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" Vicki Myron

CHILDREN'S FICTION

"Pout-Pout Fish" Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna

"Willow May: Goes to the Midnight Carnival" Icats Nitram and Pamela McCarville

NEW Arrivals!

2008-09-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

DVDs

“Nim’s Island”

“Veggie Tales: Tomato Sawyer & Huckleberry Larry’s Big River Rescue””

“Maggie and the Ferocious Beast: Beach Party”

“Bob the Builder: Let’s Build the Beach”

“Care Bears: Up and Down”

ADULT FICTION

“Gypsy Morph” Terry Brooks

“Fade Away” Harlan Coben

“Dark Curse” Christine Feehan

“Keepsake” Tess Gerritsen

“The Phoenix Unchained” Mercedes Lackey

“The Random Passage” Jacques LaMarche

“The Book of Scandal” Julia London

“Book of Lies” Brad Meltzer

“Final Justice” Fern Michaels

“Laughter of Dead Kings” Elizabeth Peters

“Devil Bones” Kathy Reichs

“Lover Awakened” JR Ward

“Just Breathe” Susan Wiggs

ADULT NON-FICTION

“Watch You Bleed” Stephen Davis

“Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution and how it can renew America” Thomas L. Friedman

“We Are Soldiers Still: A journey back to the battlefields of Vietnam” Harold Moore

ADULT BOOK ON CDs

“Being Elizabeth” Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Foreign Body” Robin Cook

“One More Sunrise” Michael Landon

“Tribute” Nora Roberts

“Off Season” Anne Rivers Siddons

“Fractured” Karin Slaughter

“Nights in Rodanthe” Nicholas Sparks

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“Tsubasa: Vol 18” Clamp

“Naruto: Vol 31” Masashi Kishimoto

“The Hardy Boys, Undercover Brothers, #14” Scott Lobdell

“Alice-in-Between” Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“Alice the Brave” Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“Nancy Drew, Girl Detective, #14” Stefan Petrucha

JUVENILE FICTION

“Eleven” Lauren Myracle

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

“Eyewitness Volcano” Susanna Van Rose

Summer Reading Program Wrap-Up & New Arrivals!

2008-08-15T12:43:00.004-04:00

Our Summer Reading Program ended this year on August 2nd with amazing results from our young readers! There was a 15% increase in sign-up and a 55% increase in children who finished the program in comparison with last year. In total, we had 259 children signed up for our program and 110 finished the program to receive their free books.

Many of the children also read beyond the program’s required 10 hours to put their names into the grand prize drawings that we held on August 4th. Also by entering their names into the extra drawings we tallied up the child who read the most hours to receive our grand prize of an iPod nano!

Presenting our Winners!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Biggest Reader of the Summer Reading Program
iPod Nano

Miquela Longley

GRAND PRIZE DRAWING WINNERS

Ryan Pini

Kelsey Jenuwine

Serena Bara

Andrew Longley

Nicholas Beach

Our program performances this year were also an amazing success for our library! Every performance was filled to capacity and the children were always entertained! Some of the performance favorites were Science Alive, Kevin Kammeraad, and Animal Encounters. We are hoping that next year we will have some of your favorites return to our library to help promote reading!

Next year’s Summer Reading Program slogan is going to be “Be Creative @ Your Library” with the central theme around Arts and Music!

Pre-School story-time will be returning Tuesday, Sept 16th at 11am with Miss Donna. If there are any changes to this date and time, we will be sure to let you know!

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NEW ARRIVALS

DVDs

“The Suite Life with Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin’ in the Rain”
“Elmo’s World: Summer Vacation”
“Care Bears: King of the Moon”

ADULT FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)

“Being Elizabeth” Barbara Taylor Bradford
“Cry Wolf” Patricia Briggs
“Smoke Screen” Sandra Brown
“Gale Force” Rachel Caine
“Never Romance a Rake” Liz Carlyle
“The Gargoyle” Andrew Davidson
“Nightwalker” Jocelynn Drake
“Before the Scandal” Suzanne Enoch
“Rough Justice” Jack Higgins
“Mercedes Coffin” Faye Kellerman
“First Daughter” Eric Lustbader
“Some Like It Wicked” Teresa Medeiros
“A Highlander Never Surrenders” Paula Quinn
“Scandalous Deception” Rosemary Rogers
“Faces of Fear” John Saul
“The Last Colony” John Scalzi
“Eighth Shepherd” Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
“Deadline!” Paula L. Tutman

ADULT NON-FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)

“Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Biography” Tommy Chong
“Measure of the Heart: A Father’s Alzheimer’s, A Daughter’s Return” Mary Ellen Geist
“Six Six Six: The FBI Agent, The Mob Killer, and the Bloody Alliance the Geds Couldn’t Hide” Peter Lance
“Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Nineteen-year Love Story of an Owl and His Girl” Stacey O’Brien
“The Marriage Benefit: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together” Mark O’Connell
“Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing” Nia Wyn

ADULT AUDIO BOOKS

“Say Goodbye” Lisa Gardner
“Blue Smoke and Murder” Elizabeth Lowell

YOUNG ADULT FICTION
(See Descriptions Below)

“Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox” Eoin Colfer
“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer

YOUNG ADULT NON-FICTION

“Construct-a-Catapult” Lee Pulis

YOUNG ADULT AUDIO BOOKS

“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer
“The Dangerous Days of Daniel X” James Patterson

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

Eyewitness Series
“Horse” Juliet Clutton-Brock
“Castle” Christopher Gravett
“Soccer” Hugh Hornby
“Eyewitness Ancient Rome” Simon James
“Astronomy” Kristen Lippincott
“Ocean” Miranda MacQuitty
“Shark” Miranda MacQuitty
“Dinosaur” David Norman
“Climate Change” John Woodward
“Great Musicians” Robert Ziegler

CHILDREN’S FICTION

“Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes?” Jim Jinkins

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ADULT FICTION

“Being Elizabeth” Barbara Taylor Bradford
At age twenty-five, Elizabeth Deravenel finds herself in a position few women her age could image: the head of Deravenels, a business empire that spans the globe. It’s a company whose reach is wide and whose secrets are deep. Deravenels has roots that go far back in her family’s history, and she knows the price that many had to pay to see it reach the success it is today. And Elizabeth is the youngest executive in the company she now leads. Surrounded by rumors and disloyalty, she knows that there are many people who would give anything to take down the company—and her with it. With her enemies circling, she finds herself at a crossroad of choices involving her mind, her heart, and her destiny. As scandal surrounds the one man she’s ever loved, Elizabeth discovers how the next move she makes could have deadly and final consequences. Being Elizabeth is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her storytelling best.

“Cry Wolf” Patricia Briggs
Anna never knew werewolves existed until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’d learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. But Anna is that rarest kind of werewolf: an Omega. And one of the most powerful werewolves in the country will recognize her value as a pack member—and as his mate.

“Smoke Screen” Sandra Brown
At the start of this scorching if somewhat formulaic thriller from bestseller Brown (Play Dirty), Charleston, S.C., TV reporter Britt Shelley wakes up in bed next to the dead body of police detective Jay Burgess. While Jay had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the authorities suspect foul play. Jay's former best friend, ex-fireman Raley Gannon, suffered a similar shock five years earlier, waking up next to party girl Suzi Monroe's naked corpse after a party at Jay's home. Raley had been investigating a fire at a local police station that took seven lives, despite the heroic efforts of Jay and several other cops, one of whom is now South Carolina's attorney general. Cleared of Suzi's death, Raley eventually teams with Britt to look into a nasty arson coverup. Brown laces her dependable romantic fireworks with a solid action-filled plot, though readers should be prepared for a few stereotypes, including a limp-wristed gay, a macho skinhead and a power-mad female politician.

“Gale Force” Rachel Caine
Weather Warden Joanne Baldwin is on vacation when her Djinn lover, David, asks Joanne to marry him. She’s thrilled to say yes, even if some others may be less than happy about it.

Unfortunately, Joanne’s pre-marital bliss is ended by a devastating earthquake in Florida. And she can’t ask David and his kind for assistance. Because the cause of the quake is unlike anything Joanne has ever encountered—and a power even the Djinn cannot perceive.

“Never Romance a Rake” Liz Carlyle
If he wins this hand...
Shunning the glittering elite of high society Kieran, Baron Rothewell, prefers the dangerous pursuits of London's demimonde. Hardened by a tormented past, he cares little for anyone or anything. So how can he resist the wager proposed by the dissolute Comte de Valigny? A hand of cards for the possession of the comte's exquisite daughter.
Will he win her heart?
Abandoned by her highborn father -- until he decides to use her -- Mademoiselle Camille Marchand puts no trust in an aristocrat's honor, especially that of the notorious baron. She too is gambling -- for her life -- and Rothwell is just one more card to be used. But whatever dark desires run through his veins call to her own, and the heart plays its own game -- winner take all!

“The Gargoyle” Andrew Davidson
At the start of Davidson's powerful debut, the unnamed narrator, a coke-addled pornographer, drives his car off a mountain road in a part of the country that's never specified. During his painful recovery from horrific burns suffered in the crash, the narrator plots to end his life after his release from the hospital. When a schizophrenic fellow patient, Marianne Engel, begins to visit him and describe her memories of their love affair in medieval Germany, the narrator is at first skeptical, but grows less so. Eventually, he abandons his elaborate suicide plan and envisions a life with Engel, a sculptress specializing in gargoyles. Davidson, in addition to making his flawed protagonist fully sympathetic, blends convincing historical detail with deeply felt emotion in both Engel's recollections of her past life with the narrator and her moving accounts of tragic love. Once launched into this intense tale of unconventional romance, few readers will want to put it down.

“Nightwalker” Jocelynn Drake
For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker—an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed . . . and may be all that prevents her doom.
The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead. For Mira, the time has come to hunt . . . or be hunted.

“Before the Scandal” Suzanne Enoch
It Was a Scandal Waiting to Happen . . .
Colonel Phineas Bromley is a legend—on the battlefield and in the bedroom. Though he's won many wars, and even more hearts, nothing could prepare him for his new life. When Phin discovers that someone has been pushing his family toward ruin, he assumes the role of a legendary highwayman. Riding out in the middle of the night, hidden behind a mask, Phin heads straight into trouble . . . and into the arms of the ravishing girl next door.
Coming face-to-face with a masked man did not frighten Alyse Donnelly as it should have. Instead, she finds him rather dashing. But her foolish heart has led her into trouble before, and helping a fugitive may mean jeopardizing her own plans, no matter how enticing his kisses. Now, as the danger grows, Alyse must make a choice between freedom . . . and the chance for true love.

“Rough Justice” Jack Higgins
he solid 15th entry in Higgins's Sean Dillon thriller series (after The Killing Ground) finds aging, arthritic ex-gangster Harry Salter retired from active operations, leaving Dillon, once the IRA's most feared enforcer, as the real leader of the loose gang of stalwart lads who covertly battle the foes of Western civilization. A newcomer to the team, Maj. Harry Miller, on the surface a mild-mannered MP who's in reality the British prime minister's secret hit man, hooks up with series regular Blake Johnson in Kosovo, where the Russians, intent on reclaiming old glory, are stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, Islamic fundamentalists are intent on bringing Britain to its knees. The action moves swiftly amid a variety of foreign locales, including Moscow, London and Beirut, to a climax that will leave readers asking themselves, evidence to the contrary, whether the great game is really over.

“Mercedes Coffin” Faye Kellerman
In bestseller Kellerman's uneven 17th novel to feature LAPD Lt. Peter Decker and wife Rina Lazarus (after 2007's The Burnt House), Decker must solve a 15-year-old cold case—the murder of saintly Bennett Little, a high school history teacher whose bound body the police found, with three shots in the back of his head, in the trunk of Little's Mercedes. When unscrupulous music producer Primo Ekerling turns up dead in the trunk of his Mercedes, Genoa Greeves, a wealthy computer mogul with fond memories of Little as a teacher, offers the LAPD a seven-figure charitable donation to reopen the case. Early in the reinvestigation, Decker is brought up short when one of the original cops on the case eats his gun just before a scheduled appointment with the lieutenant. Finding a link between Little and Eckerling won't prove easy. Fans may enjoy the interplay among Decker, Rina and their children, but newcomers would be advised to start with an earlier entry in this popular crime series.

“First Daughter” Eric Lustbader
In this uneven thriller from bestseller Lustbader (The Bourne Legacy), Alli Carson, the 19-year-old daughter of the U.S. president-elect, moderate Republican Edward Carson, is abducted a month before her father's inauguration to be programmed to do something truly terrible at the inauguration ceremony. ATF agent Jack McClure is chosen to lead the search for Alli, primarily because she was the boarding-school roommate of his now-deceased daughter, Emma. Jack faces many difficulties, chief among them his own severe dyslexia. The unnamed current president, who makes religion the basis for all his decisions, wants to use the search as an excuse for all-out war on his enemies, the First American Secular Revivalists and their secret partners, the E-Two terrorist group. Lustbader does a fine job depicting the search for Alli and reconstructing Jack's past, but the confusing political message will leave many readers wondering what the book was really about.

“Some Like It Wicked” Teresa Medeiros
In veteran author Medeiros's wickedly clever latest, set in 1805, Catriona Kincaid is a lovely Scotswoman exiled in England after her parents' deaths for the Scottish Cause. When her uncle tries to marry her off to protect her from further persecution by the British, she talks roguish Sir Simon Wescott into a devil's deal: marry her and take half her copious dowry in exchange for guiding her to Scotland to find her brother, Connor. Simon accepts, under the stipulation that he can take her, too. Love soon strikes them, but his determined avoidance of heroics and her desire to lead her kinsmen against the English lead to serious complications. Wit, charm and bravery abound as the two try to find their way back to one another.

“A Highlander Never Surrenders” Paula Quinn
Defending Her Was His Duty

Skilled with a sword and quick with her wit, Scottish rebel Claire Stuart cannot be tamed. And nothing can deter her from rescuing her beloved sister and saving them both from arranged marriages--not even the handsome Highlander who vows to protect Claire. His scorching gaze and fiery kiss bring her to the brink of surrender, but she belongs to no man...

Seducing Her Would Be His Reward

Graham Grant has had his share of lasses. But he has never met one as headstrong or as bonnie as Claire--or one with such desperate, dnagerous plans. Helping her could betray his honor, his country, and more. Graham can't claim her. Yet everything in him says: Take her, make her yours, teach her pleasure, and never let her go.

“Scandalous Deception” Rosemary Rogers
Desperate to escape her lecherous stepfather, flame-haired Brianna Quinn seeks refuge with the Duke of Huntley, a childhood friend. But her hopes crumble when she discovers that Edmond, the duke's hot-blooded twin, is masquerading as the duke to thwart an assassination scheme. With nowhere to turn, Brianna plays into the intrigue as Edmond's fiancée…and soon their forced proximity ignites into a burning desire. But when Edmond's enemies threaten Brianna, he must choose between his countrymen and the woman he loves more than life itself.…

“Faces of Fear” John Saul
Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Conrad Dunn has put his talents to work making his wife, Margot, the embodiment of physical perfection, but after her face is scarred in a boating accident, Margot takes her own life in this less than suspenseful thriller from bestseller Saul (The Devil's Labyrinth). Remarrying within a year, Dunn persuades his new teenage stepdaughter, Alison Shaw, who's struggling to adjust to life in the Dunn mansion and to a private school with a ridiculously affluent student body, to undergo breast-enhancement surgery. Meanwhile, the police are searching frantically for the Frankenstein Killer, a serial slayer who removes his female victims' glands as well as more obvious body parts. The motive for the killings and the eventual outcome will surprise few readers. The basic premise has a plot hole big enough to fit a truck, but Saul fans may not notice or care if they do.

“The Last Colony” John Scalzi
Full of whodunit twists and explosive action, Scalzi's third SF novel lacks the galactic intensity of its two related predecessors, but makes up for it with entertaining storytelling on a very human scale. Several years after the events of The Ghost Brigades (2006), John Perry, the hero of Old Man's War (2005), and Jane Sagan are leading a normal life as administrator and constable on the colonial planet Huckleberry with their adopted daughter, Zoë, when they get conscripted to run a new colony, ominously named Roanoke. When the colonists are dropped onto a different planet than the one they expected, they find themselves caught in a confrontation between the human Colonial Union and the alien confederation called the Conclave. Hugo-finalist Scalzi avoids political allegory, promoting individual compassion and honesty and downplaying patriotic loyalty—except in the case of the inscrutable Obin, hive-mind aliens whose devotion to Zoë will remind fans of the benevolent role Captain Nemo plays in Verne's Mysterious Island. Some readers may find the deus ex machina element a tad heavy-handed, but it helps keep up the momentum.

“Eighth Shepherd” Bodie Thoene, Brock Thoene
After Yeshua of Nazareth has raised his friend El'azar from the dead, news of Yeshua travels fast and the Sanhedrin begin their plot to kill him. Despite the danger, Yeshua and his followers begin the journey to Jerusalem for Passover. Meanwhile, Zachai the tax collector (Zacchaeus), the most hated man in Judea, longs to be a part of the Jewish society that he has been cut off from due to his profession. He falls into despair, believing God can't hear him and that he will always be alone. Simona, a leper who was healed by Yeshua but remains cut off from society to live in the sycamore grove, shows compassion to Zachai and tells him of Yeshua. Zachai begins his quest to find Yeshua in hopes that this man can heal his heart, just as he healed Simona's leprosy.

“Deadline!” Paula L. Tutman
Deadline is very loosely based on something that actually happened to Paula when she was a young police reporter in Baltimore.

The Set up...PS Garrett, Detroit's top crime reporter shows up at the scene of a double murder. Two kids are shot and killed senselessly...it's a crime of opportunity...but what PS doesn't know is the triggerman still lurks on the scene. While soaking up the aftermath of his handy work, he catches a glimpse of his favorite TV reporter. He realizes that if he keeps killing, she'll keep showing up...and perhaps...just perhaps...one of these times she shows up to cover his crimes, he'll get a chance to meet her...and make her his.

ADULT NON-FICTION

“Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Biography” Tommy Chong
Dave's Not Here, Man
But America's favorite stoner comedian, Tommy Chong, is back and funnier than ever as he takes us on a nostalgic trip through his career with partner Richard "Cheech" Marin. Over the course of their decades-long partnership, Cheech and Chong performed to sold-out crowds across the country, made nine hit albums, starred in eight blockbuster movies, and created memorable and iconic characters that still resonate with fans today.
But the good life didn't just appear in a haze of smoke. It all started during the late 1960s in a strip club in the fragile heart of Vancouver's Chinatown, where Tommy was winding down his career as a Motown recording artist and starting an improv comedy troupe, and Cheech was a draft-dodging, pottery-throwing, underground music reviewer. Together they came to define the hippie-era counterculture, and theircelebrated movie debut, Up in Smoke, remains one of the highest-grossing Warner Bros. films ever.
In his very own unauthorized autobiography, New York Times bestselling author and pop culture hero Chong reveals his unique relationship with Cheech and recalls the inspiration for their most beloved bits. He introduces famous guest stars like Peter Sellers, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Dan Aykroyd, John Lennon, Diana Ross, and Jack Nicholson, and examines the influences that had the greatest impact on his comedy -- from R&B musicians and Redd Foxx to Lenny Bruce and (of course) marijuana. Finally, with keen insight and utter candor, he explores the rift that has separated the legendary comedy team for more than twenty years.
From pot smoking to politics to the universe at large, Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography is the closestyou'll ever get to sitting in a van made entirely of marijuana, trading stories with an unlikely legend, and feeling...well...funny.

“Measure of the Heart: A Father’s Alzheimer’s, A Daughter’s Return” Mary Ellen Geist
For everyone who loves someone with Alzheimer's, Geist observes, there are markers and moments that tell you the disease is on the way. Her account of two years spent helping a person with Alzheimer's stay in this world is both travel guide and love story—neither in the conventional sense. As Geist makes her way, trying new things, failing, scratching plans, making mistakes, and starting all over again, she uses her professional skills as a journalist and TV anchor to incorporate conversations with other caregivers, consultation with experts and wide reading in the literature. Sensitive that Alzheimer's disease affects patients and spouses in many different ways, Geist offers helpful suggestions (using his words instead of trying to teach him mine) and practical advice (Doing activities alone is imperative to the survival of a caregiver). True, there was a downside to having to come home to help care for my father, but Geist's love of her parents and their love for one another is as palpable as the sadness wrought by the disease. To all readers, she offers a deeply affecting account of personal growth: I define myself and my life in a whole new way. These days, it is the measure of the heart that matters most to me.

“Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Nineteen-year Love Story of an Owl and His Girl” Stacey O’Brien
Owls permeate literature and mythology, an ancient animal ("some 97 million years" old) that has fascinated for centuries; still, few people have had as intimate an encounter with the mysterious night birds as biologist O'Brien. As a student researcher at Caltech, she fell in love with an injured four-day-old barn owl and seized the opportunity to adopt him permanently. She named him Wesley, and for 19 years kept, cared for and studied him, forging a tremendous relationship with the still-wild animal, as well as a vast understanding of his abilities, instincts and habits: "He was my teacher, my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God." Her heartwarming story is buttressed by lessons on owl folklore, temperament ("playful and inquisitive"), skills, and the brain structure that gives them some amazing abilities, like spotting a mouse "under three feet of snow by homing in on just the heartbeat." It also details her working life among fellow scientists, a serious personal health crisis, and the general ins and outs of working with animals. This memoir will captivate animal lovers and, though not necessarily for kids, should hold special appeal for Harry Potter fans who've always envied the boy wizard his Hedwig.

“The Marriage Benefit: The Surprising Rewards of Staying Together” Mark O’Connell
Baby boomers' expectations for their marriages are often unrealistic. When their relationship comes up short on romance and sex, but seems long on disagreements and strife, many boomers choose to leave.

THE MARRIAGE BENEFIT is less a book about how to make our relationships better than it is about how our relationships can make us better if we just work on our expectations and improve communications. Harvard Medical School clinical instructor and psychotherapist O'Connell offers a peek behind the door of a marriage therapist, where readers can see that their problems are not unique.

Through wonderfully revealing anecdotes of couples with problems many of us face: long-held bitterness, diminished sexuality, the scars of infidelity, and the search for authentic meaning, O'Connell shows how by respecting each other's individuality, looking for "real" sex, and learning how to play with each other again, we can reap the benefits of the long-term emotional investment we've made.

“Blue Sky July: A Mother’s Story of Hope and Healing” Nia Wyn
Set between the summers of 1998 and 2005 in Cardiff, Wales, Blue Sky July follows the story of Nia Wyn, a mother who battles against impossible odds to heal her son after he suffers a brain injury and is diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. Told by doctors that her son would never walk, talk, see or even recognize her, Wyn devotes her every waking moment to exploring alternative treatments in the hopes of achieving even the smallest of breakthroughs. Through her intimate day-to-day interactions with her son and partner, Wyn explores the impact of the tragedy on her thoughts and feelings as this most extraordinary relationship unfolds into one of the most uplifting and poignant memoirs published this or any year.

Already a sensation in the UK, Blue Sky July will strike a chord with every reader in search of a memoir resonating with an extraordinary sense of honesty, courage, and faith in the unassailable bond between mother and child. This is an inspirational story through and through.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox” Eoin Colfer
Artemis's mother has contracted a deadly disease--and the only cure lies in the brain fluid of African lemurs. Unfortunately, Artemis himself was responsible for making the lemurs extinct five years ago. Now he must enlist the aid of his fairy friends to travel back in time and save them. Not only that, but he must face his deadliest foe yet...his younger self.

“Breaking Dawn” Stephenie Meyer
It might seem redundant to dismiss the fourth and final Twilight novel as escapist fantasy--but how else could anyone look at a romance about an ordinary, even clumsy teenager torn between a vampire and a werewolf, both of whom are willing to sacrifice their happiness for hers? Flaws and all, however, Meyer's first three novels touched on something powerful in their weird refraction of our culture's paradoxical messages about sex and sexuality. The conclusion is much thinner, despite its interminable length. Everygirl Bella achieves her wishes quickly (marriage and sex, in that order, are two, and becoming an immortal is another), and once she becomes a vampire it's almost impossible to identify with her. But that's not the main problem. Essentially, everyone gets everything they want, even if their desires necessitate an about-face in characterization or the messy introduction of some back story. Nobody has to renounce anything or suffer more than temporarily--in other words, grandeur is out. This isn't about happy endings; it's about gratification.

New Arrivals 8/04/2008

2008-08-04T17:17:00.001-04:00

DVDs

“Meet Bill”

“The Backyardigans: Mighty Match-Up”

“The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin’ in the Rain”

“Elmo’s World: Summer Vacation”

“Care Bears: King of the Moon”

CDs

“The Very Best of the Bangles” The Bangles

“Seeing Things” Jakob Dylan

“The Very Best of Heart” Heart

“Where the Light is: Live in Los Angeles” John Mayer

“The Very Best of Eddie Money” Eddie Money

“The Very Best of Rick Springfield” Rick Springfield

ADULT FICTION

“Foreign Body” Robin Cook

“The Likeness” Tana French

“Hidden” Shelley Shepard Gray

“Painted Dresses” Patricia Hickman

“Acheron” Sherrilyn Kenyon

“Iodine” Haven Kimmel

“Black Ice” Anne Stuart

“Fire and Ice” Anne Stuart

“Cold Case” Kate Wilhelm

ADULT LARGE PRINT FICTION

“Nightshade” Susan Wittig Albert

“The Toll-Gate” Georgette Heyer

“The Broken Gun” Louis L’Amour

“The Cowboy’s Lady” Debbie Macomber

“Another Country” Katharine Swartz

“Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes”

ADULT BOOK ON CDs

“Swan Peak” James Lee Burke

“Shoe Addicts Anonymous” Elizabeth M. Harbison

“Just Too Good to be True” E. Lynn Harris

“Edge of Evil” Judith Jance

“The James Boys” Richard Liebmann-Smith

“Last Kiss” Luanne Rice

ADULT NON-FICTION

“The Science of Fear: Why we fear the things we shouldn’t—and put ourselves in greater danger” Daniel Gardner

“Society’s Child” Janie Ian

“Llewellyn’s 2009 Moon Sign Book”

“Llewellyn’s 2009 Sun Sign Book”

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“The Running Man” Michael Gerard Bauer

“Caught Between the Pages” Marlene Carvell

“Girl v. Boy” Yvonne Collins

“Playing With Matches” Brian Katcher

“The Midnight Twins” Jacquelyn Mitchard

JUVENILE FICTION

“The One and Only Zoe Lama” Tish Cohen

“A Girl, A Boy, and Three Robbers” Gail Gauthier

“Football Hero” Tim Green

“Raymond and Graham Rule the School” Mike Knudson

“Good Things Come in Small Packages” Anne Mazer

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

“Songbirds” Jonathan P. Latimer

“One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia”

CHILDREN’S FICTION

“Off to First Grade” Louise Borden

“John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late” John Burningham

“Mildred and Sam go to School” Sharleen Collicott

“The New Bear at School” Carrie Weston

July New Arrivals

2008-07-25T13:05:00.003-04:00

DVDs

“Are We Done Yet?”

“Are We There Yet?”

“The Bucket List”

“Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup 2007-2008 Champions”

“Definitely Maybe”

“Drillbit Taylor”

“The Eye”

“Fool’s Gold”

“Jumper”

“Meet the Spartans”

“The Other Boleyn Girl”

“Penelope”

“Shutter”

“The Spiderwick Chronicles”

“Step Up 2: The Streets”

“Stop-Loss”

“Unaccompanied Minors”

“US Navy Carriers: Weapons of War”

“Vantage Point”

“Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show”

“Diary of a Spider and more Cute Critter Stories”

“Madeline: Meet Me In Paris”

“Sesame Street: Dinosaurs!”

“The Sound of Music”

ADULT FICTION

(Descriptions below)

“Vampyres of Hollywood” Adrienne Barbeau

“Royal Pain” Rhys Bowen

“Into the Fire” Suzanne Brockman

“Sand Castle” Rita Mae Brown

“Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel” James Lee Burke

“Queen of Babble: In the Big City” Meg Cabot

“Queen of Babble Gets Hitched” Meg Cabot

“Chasing Darkness” Robert Crais

“Vi Agra Falls: A Bed and Breakfast Mystery” Mary Daheim

“Undead and Unworthy” Mary Janice Davidson

“Cure” Athol Dickson

“Say Goodbye” Lisa Gardner

“Just Too Good to be True” E. Lynn Harris

“Death Angel” Linda Howard

“Damage Control” Judith Jance

“Riven” Jerry B. Jenkins

“Silent Thunder” Iris Johansen

“Made in the USA” Billie Letts

“Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Sanction” Eric Lustbader

“My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike” Joyce Carol Oates

“Last Kiss” Luanne Rice

“Tribute” Nora Roberts”

“Don’t Tell a Soul” David Rosenfelt

“Fractured” Karin Slaughter

“Rogue” Danielle Steel

“Dark Lover” J.R. Ward

“Lover Eternal” J.R. Ward

“Story of Edgar Sawtelle” David Wroblewski

ADULT NON-FICTION

(Descriptions below)

“From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava” Jay Kopelman

“Dali and I: The Surreal Story” Stan Lauryssens

“90 Minutes in Heaven: An Inspiring Story of Life Beyond Death” Don Piper & Cecil Murphy

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

(Descriptions below)

“City of Ember: Book 1” Jeanne Duprau

“People of Sparks: Book 2” Jeanne Duprau

“Prophet of Yonwood: Book 3” Jeanne Duprau

“How To Be Bad” E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, & Lauren Myracle

JUVENILE FICTION

(Descriptions below)

“Twelve” Lauren Myracle

“Thirteen” Lauren Myracle

EASY FICTION

“No Matter What” Debi Gliori

“Bunny, My Honey” Anita Jeram

“Lost in the Woods” Carl R. Sams & Jean Stoick

ADULT FICTION

“Vampyres of Hollywood” Adrienne Barbeau

Actress Barbeau and bestseller Scott (The Alchemyst) give a novel twist to one of the hoariest clichés of vampire lore in this compulsively readable dark fantasy. Secret vampires in the film industry have concocted vampire myths and disseminated them through horror movies to mislead superstitious humans (e.g., real vampires can walk by day). One of the biggest bamboozlers is Ovsanna Moore, a seductive centuries-old vampire currently producing and acting in B-movies with titles like Vatican Vampyres. When humans and vampires in her studio entourage begin dying spectacularly gruesome deaths, Ovsanna knows that someone is specifically targeting her. Since it's just a matter of time before investigating detective Peter King uncovers Ovsanna's vampire pedigree, she must solve the mystery or “die” and resurface somewhere else. Alternate chapters from Peter and Ovsanna's limited points of view build narrative tension. Briskly paced and full of fang-in-cheek humor, this novel is one of the more entertaining recent works of supernatural noir.

“Royal Pain” Rhys Bowen

The Queen of England has concocted a plan in which Georgie is to entertain a Bavarian princess— and conveniently place her in the playboy Prince’s path, in the hopes that he might finally marry.

But queens never take money into account. Georgie has very little, which is why she moonlights as a maid-in-disguise. She must draw up plans: clean house to make it look like a palace; have Granddad and her neighbor pretend to be the domestic staff; un-teach Princess Hanni the English she’s culled from American gangster movies; cure said Princess of her embarrassing shoplifting habit; and keep an eye on her at parties. Then there’s the worrying matter of the body in the bookshop and Hanni’s unwitting involvement with the Communist Party. It’s enough to drive a girl crazy...

“Into the Fire” Suzanne Brockman

Suspense doesn’t burn any brighter and desire doesn’t run any deeper than when Suzanne Brockmann takes the helm, opens the throttle, and takes readers along for a breathless ride as she breaks the thrill barrier–again and again. With Into the Fire, Brockmann lights the fuse on her most explosive story yet.

Vinh Murphy–ex-Marine and onetime operative for the elite security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated–has been MIA ever since his wife, Angelina, was caught in a crossfire and killed during what should have been a routine bodyguard assignment. Overcome with grief, Murphy blames the neo-Nazi group known as the Freedom Network for her death. Now, years later, Freedom Network leader Tim Ebersole has been murdered–and the FBI suspects Murphy may have pulled the trigger. To prevent further bloodshed, Murphy’s friends at Troubleshooters scramble to find him and convince him to surrender peacefully.

Murphy himself can’t be sure what he did or didn’t do during the years he spent mourning and lost in an alcohol-induced fog. He does know he occasionally sought solace from Hannah Whitfield, a former police officer and the very friend who’d introduced him to his beloved late wife.

But Hannah, still grappling with the deafness that resulted from an injury sustained while on duty, was fighting her own battles. For years Hannah had feelings for Murphy, and one painful night their suffering brought them together in a way neither expected–and both regretted.

Murphy is ready to rejoin the living. As always, he finds himself knocking on Hannah’s door, and as always, his longtime friend welcomes him back into her home. Yet even as Murphy slowly rebuilds his splintered life, he continues to fight his growing feelings for Hannah.

Then he learns of Ebersole’s murder and comes to believe that the Freedom Network has targeted him–and Hannah–to avenge their leader’s death to violence. Now Murphy must face the terrifying prospect of losing another woman he loves.

As the Troubleshooters desperately search for him, Murphy races toward a deadly confrontation with the Freedom Network and ultimate choice: surrender his life in hopes that Hannah will be spared, or risk everything to salvage whatever future they may have together.

“Sand Castle” Rita Mae Brown

Feisty Southern sisters Juts and Wheezy, of bestselling author Brown's Six of One trilogy, are back and as irascible as ever. The story unfolds in a single summer day in 1952, when the two make a day-trip to the beach accompanied by Jut's seven-year-old daughter, Nickel, and Wheezie's grandson, eight-year-old Leroy, whose mother has recently died. The day's events are simple: a long drive to the beach, the building of an elaborate sandcastle, a spat between sisters, lunch at a crab shack, a sudden injury and the drive back home. Brown creates palpable tension throughout, largely with tightly constructed dialogue. Nickel's teasing of grieving Leroy foreshadows the small catastrophe to come, and her cruelty contrasts with Juts's awkward attempts to draw her newly religious sister, still mourning the death of her daughter (Leroy's mother), back into the world. When the four return from lunch, Leroy receives a wound that rivals his inner pain. The sisters' collective response and Leroy's eventual release into sadness shape the end of the day, but not of the novel: the final three paragraphs elevate this tale from bittersweet to heartbreaking.

“Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel” James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke's new novel, Swan Peak, finds Detective Robicheaux far from his New Iberia roots, attempting to relax in the untouched wilderness of rural Montana. He, his wife, and his buddy Clete Purcell have retreated to stay at an old friend's ranch, hoping to spend their days fishing and enjoying their distance from the harsh, gritty landscape of Louisiana post-Katrina.

But the serenity is soon shattered when two college students are found brutally murdered in the hills behind where the Robicheauxs and Purcell are staying. They quickly find themselves involved in a twisted and dangerous mystery involving a wealthy, vicious oil tycoon, his deformed brother and beautiful wife, a sexually deviant minister, an escaped con and former country music star, and a vigilante Texas gunbull out for blood. At the center of the storm is Clete, who cannot shake the feeling that he is being haunted by the ghosts from his past -- namely Sally Dio, the mob boss he'd sabotaged and killed years before.

In this expertly drawn, gripping story, Burke deftly weaves intricate, engaging plotlines and original, compelling characters with his uniquely graceful prose. He transcends genre yet again in the latest thrilling addition to his New York Times bestselling series.

“Queen of Babble: In the Big City” Meg Cabot

Midway though Cabot's latest novel, Chaz (the boyfriend of protagonist Lizzie Nichols's best friend) tells Lizzie, Someday you're really going to have to describe to me in more detail what life is like on the planet you live on. Because it sounds really great, and I'd like to visit there one day. Ultimately, this is what is both problematic and enormously appealing about the work of Cabot, the woman who shot to fame selling the idea that fairy tales really do come true. Lizzie is the fairy tale heroine. She is the fat, awkward girl in all of us, profoundly Midwestern, from the Spanks (modern Spandex girdles) she wears to her indignation at subway rudeness to her insistence on paying her wealthy boyfriend rent for living in his mother's Fifth Avenue apartment. As the book opens, Lizzie has just moved to New York City with her best friend, Shari, and their boyfriends, Luke and Chaz. Lizzie is determined not to become like her acquaintance Kathy Pennebaker, the prototypical smalltown girl who fails in Manhattan and returns home to wander the aisles of the local grocery store loading up on cough syrup for a weekend meth-making session. Things quickly become perfect for Lizzie. Luke asks her to move into his mother's apartment. She finds an amusing though nonpaying job working as a wedding dress restorer with an insane French couple. Lizzie also takes a paying job as a receptionist at Chaz's father's law firm. There are slight problems in paradise: the wedding store where Lizzie works has fallen on hard times and is involved in a rivalry with another wedding dress restorer. Luckily, Lizzie stumbles on a wedding dress gold mine when she befriends a woman who takes cares of seals at the zoo. It turns out that the seal-keeper is about to marry into one of Manhattan's most prominent families; suddenly, the smart crowd is coming to Lizzie's store. But Lizzie's quest to become successful is sidetracked by Shari's relationship problems and Lizzie's conviction that Luke's mother is having an affair and her obsession with the idea that Luke will never marry her. There is something oddly affirming about Cabot's writing. After sitting down with Queen of Babble in the Big City, it is totally clear to me why her books are huge bestsellers. Meg Cabot is nice. She sees the world as a wonderful place, and you want to live in her world and be her best friend. Her characters are charming. There is a school of thought that says reading should be entertaining, and this is exactly what Meg Cabot produces for us: fun. She is the master of her genre; she is the George Bernard Shaw if not the George Eliot of chick lit.

“Queen of Babble Gets Hitched” Meg Cabot

When last seen, the irrepressible Lizzie Nichols was canoodling with Chaz after she and Luke, Chaz's best friend, broke up (Queen of Babble in the Big City, 2007). Now—shocker alert—Luke returns to New York and slips a three-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger. Lizzie accepts even though she's still all googly over Chaz, who bluntly warns Lizzie that Luke's all about Luke and couldn't love her the way he does. Lizzie, a wedding dress restorer and budding designer specializing in wedding garb, faces a hives-inducing decision: dump rich Luke, who wants to be an investment banker in Paris, and hook up with Chaz, who wants to teach? Or should she marry Luke and ditch New York for Paris? And then there's the matter of her burgeoning design business, helped along by Ava Geck, a Paris Hilton–like celebrity heiress. Cabot takes full advantage of the material, delivering her trademark wit, sharp banter and lively antics from the first page. Fans of the series have another one to savor.

“Chasing Darkness” Robert Crais

It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide. But the gunshot victim is less gruesome than what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven brutally murdered young women -- one per year, for seven years. And when the suicide victim is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders, the news turns Elvis Cole's world upside down.

Three years earlier Lionel Byrd was brought to trial for the murder of a female prostitute named Yvonne Bennett. A taped confession coerced by the police inspired a prominent defense attorney to take Byrd's case, and Elvis Cole was hired to investigate. It was Cole's eleventh-hour discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Lionel Byrd to walk free. Elvis was hailed as a hero.

But the discovery of the death album in Byrd's lap now brands Elvis as an unwitting accomplice to murder. Captured in photographs that could only have been taken by the murderer, Yvonne Bennett was the fifth of the seven victims -- two more young women were murdered after Lionel Byrd walked free. So Elvis can't help but wonder -- did he, Elvis Cole, cost two more young women their lives?

Shut out of the investigation by a special LAPD task force determined to close the case, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike desperately fight to uncover the truth about Lionel Byrd and his nightmare album of death -- a truth hidden by lies, politics, and corruption in a world where nothing is what it seems to be.

Chasing Darkness is a blistering thriller from the bestselling author who sets the standard for intense, powerful crime writing.

“Vi Agra Falls: A Bed and Breakfast Mystery” Mary Daheim

Judith's worst nightmare comes true when Vivian Flynn—husband Joe's first wife—moves back into the neighborhood, bringing along her newest spouse, Billy "Blunder" Buss, a former minor-league baseball player who is many years younger than his shop-worn bride. Still, the B&B business is going well and the newlyweds don't seem to be causing problems for the Flynns. That seemingly calm summer idyll is broken when Vivian, who has become mysteriously wealthy, announces plans to tear down her own house and the recently vacated bungalow next door so she can build a big, bad condo. Judith, along with the rest of the neighbors in the cul-de-sac, is up in arms, vowing to fight the project to the death.

Vivian's past catches up with her when Frankie Buss comes to town. Billy and Frankie's late father, elderly Oklahoma rancher Potsy Buss, was married to Vivian for nine months before dying and bequeathing her his vast wealth. Frankie Buss intends to stir the pot of gold that Potsy left his widow, and he's trying to cut a deal with Vivian and her most recent mate, Billy. Naturally, where else would Frankie and his wife, Marva Lou, stay but at Hillside Manor?

And naturally, somebody checks out . . . permanently. The "somebody" isn't a Buss family member, and turns out to be a "nobody" because the body can't be identified. To save the B&B as well as her sanity, Judith must figure out not only who did it, but who it was who was found dead in Vivian's backyard.

“Undead and Unworthy” Mary Janice Davidson

No one does humorous romantic fantasy better than the incomparable MaryJanice Davidson” (The Best Reviews), and nobody reigns over the undead with more savvy than her heroine Betsy Taylor, back to rule the nights as Vampire Queen––and survive the days as a new suburban bride. But it’s not all marital bliss. Betsy’s husband, Sinclair, has been perusing The Book of the Dead, Betsy’s being hounded by a ghost who’s even more insufferable in death than in life, and a pack of formerly feral vampires has decided to pay an unwelcome visit…

“Cure” Athol Dickson

In his follow-up to the Christy Award-winning River Rising, Dickson focuses on a missionary, Riley Keep, who becomes an alcoholic after a devastating experience in the mission field. Blending science fiction and suspense, Dickson sets his novel in the small fishing town of Dublin, Maine. Rich with local dialect and scenery, the novel explores what happens to this bucolic village when dozens, then hundreds, of desperate homeless people descend upon it, having heard that someone there has a miracle cure for alcoholism. As Dublin becomes increasingly dystopic, Riley and the people in his life experience one crisis after another. Dickson's approach is thought-provoking, and his prose beautifully evokes the taciturn spirit of the Mainers who people this novel. As a suspense novel, however, it suffers from a series of implausible misunderstandings. Far too many of the novel's crises involve characters not having discovered facts the reader has known or surmised for some time. Mistaken assumptions about identities, relationships, motives, and culpability for evil deeds serve as a tiresome framework for much of Dickson's plot. His characters seem too smart not to make certain discoveries sooner, and this problem slows down an otherwise well-paced novel that is full of interesting ideas and well-developed characters.

“Say Goodbye” Lisa Gardner

Come into my parlor . . .

For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Said the spider to the fly . . .

As a member of the Evidence Response Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder . . . or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.

Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is that she’s close—too close—to a psychopath who makes women’s nightmares come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’s time for Kimberly to . . .

“Just Too Good to be True” E. Lynn Harris

Harris serves up a treat that will capture and enchant audiences everywhere—a big, bold, and irresistible novel about football, family, and secrets.  Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church’s "Celibacy Circle." Now in his senior year at college, the smart, and very handsome, Brady is a lead contender for the Heisman Trophy and a spot in the NFL.   As sports agents hover around Brady, Barrett, a beautiful and charming cheerleader, sets her mind on tempting the celibate Brady and getting a piece of his multimillion-dollar future—but is that all she wants from him, and is she acting alone?   Carmyn is determined to protect her son. She’s also determined to protect the secret she’s kept from Brady his whole life. As things heat up on campus and Carmyn and Brady’s idyllic relationship starts to crumble, mother and son begin to wonder about the other—are you just too good to be true?   A sweeping novel about mothers and sons, football and beauty shops, secrets and lies, JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE has all the ingredients that have made E. Lynn Harris a bestselling author: family, friendship, faith, and love.

“Death Angel” Linda Howard

In Linda Howard’s gifted hands, second chances, unexpected romance, and unrelenting action combine into a riveting new novel of suspense. In Death Angel, bad girls can wake up and trust their hearts, bad guys can fight for what’s right . . . and dying just might be the only way to change one’s life.

A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.

Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide–and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?

Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound–and stop nervously looking over her shoulder–she will need to take down those who marked her for death.

Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself–as well as her heart.

“Damage Control” Judith Jance

On a beautiful sunny day in the Coronado National Monument, an elderly couple's car goes off the side of a mountain and into oblivion. The terrain is so rocky that a helicopter must be flown in to retrieve the bodies, and to make matters worse, a thunder-storm is looming on the horizon. Hours later and miles away, the subsiding rain reveals gruesome evidence: two trash bags containing human remains.

It's just another day in the life of Cochise County sheriff Joanna Brady.

Back at home, Joanna has a newborn baby, a teenage daughter, a writer husband, and a difficult mother to deal with. But in the field, it turns out that she has much more on her hands. The remains are those of a handicapped woman who had wandered away from a care facility with a suspicious track record. Another resident, with whom the woman may have been involved, has also been reported missing.

Meanwhile, a note is found in the glove compartment of the car lying twisted down the mountainside, stating that its occupants intended to take their own lives. Yet a contradictory autopsy report surfaces, and when the deceased's two daughters show up to feud over their inheritance, Joanna knows there is more to this case than just a suicide pact.

And she will go all out to find the truth—no matter where it leads.

“Riven” Jerry B. Jenkins

When a condemned man with nothing to lose meets one with nothing to gain, everyone washed by the endless ripples of that encounter will forever recall the day a little bit of heaven invaded a whole lot of hell. Brady Wayne Darby and Thomas Carey could hardly have been more disparate individuals. Yet when Darby, a no-account loser raised in a dingy suburban trailer park, encounters Carey, a weary man of God, an entire--state indeed, a nation--is affected. Embark on a wondrous journey where death, guilt, and despair are unfathomably trumped by rebirth, forgiveness, and hope.

“Silent Thunder” Iris Johansen

Number-one bestselling author Iris Johansen teams up with Edgar Award winner Roy Johansen and the result is an explosive, tour-de-force thriller. . . .

It was the assignment of a lifetime. . . .

Brilliant marine architect Hannah Bryson has been given the job of a lifetime. A U.S. maritime museum has just acquired the decommissioned Soviet submarine Silent Thunder for public exhibition. It’s Hannah’s job to make sure that every single inch of the legendary nuclear attack sub is safe for the thousands of visitors anticipated. Enlisting the aid of her brother, Connor, they examine the enormous vessel and delve into its long---and lethal---history.

But is it really a trap?

In the course of their investigation, Connor discovers a mysterious message behind one of the ship’s panels. But before he can figure out what it means, there’s a deadly assault on Silent Thunder. . . .

Though the U.S. government tries to warn Hannah away, she’ll stop at nothing to find the ruthless mastermind behind her brother’s death. Even if it means joining forces with a mysterious man who may be even more dangerous than the enemy she has sworn to bring down. As Hannah finds herself in the crossfire of an epic standoff, her only hope for survival is to unravel the sub’s explosive secret. But someone’s willing to kill to make sure Silent Thunder stays silent. . . .

Brisk, exhilarating, and filled with authentic details, Silent Thunder is what you get when you team the biggest name in suspense with the stunning plot twists of an Edgar Award--winning author. Get ready for a page-turning thrill ride!

“Made in the USA” Billie Letts

Lutie McFee's history has taught her to avoid attachments...to people, to places, and to almost everything. With her mother long dead and her father long gone to find his fortune in Las Vegas, 15-year-old Lutie lives in the god-forsaken town of Spearfish, South Dakota with her twelve-year-old brother, Fate, and Floy Satterfield, the 300-pound ex-girlfriend of her father. While Lutie shoplifts for kicks, Fate spends most of his time reading, watching weird TV shows and worrying about global warming and the endangerment of pandas. As if their life is not dismal enough, one day, while shopping in their local Wal-Mart, Floy keels over and the two motherless kids are suddenly faced with the choice of becoming wards of the state or hightailing it out of town in Floy's old Pontiac. Choosing the latter, they head off to Las Vegas in search of a father who has no known address, no phone number and, clearly, no interest in the kids he left behind.

MADE IN THE U.S.A. is the alternately heartbreaking and life-affirming story of two gutsy children who must discover how cruel, unfair and frightening the world is before they come to a place they can finally call home.

“Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Sanction” Eric Lustbader

Jason Bourne returns to Georgetown University and the mild world of his alter ego, David Webb, hoping for normalcy. But after so many adrenaline-soaked years of risking his life, Bourne finds himself chafing under the quiet life of a linguistics professor.

Aware of his frustrations, his academic mentor, Professor Specter, asks for help investigating the murder of a former student by a previously unknown Muslim extremist sect. The young man died carrying information about the group's terrorist activities, including an immediate plan to attack the United States.

The organization, the Black Legion, and its lethal plot have also popped up on the radar of Central Intelligence, where new director Veronica Hart is struggling to assert her authority. Sensing an opportunity to take control of CI by showing Hart's incompetence, National Security Agency operatives plan to accomplish what CI never could-hunt down and kill Bourne.

In Europe, Bourne's investigation into the Black Legion turns into one of the deadliest and most tangled operations of his double life-the pursuit of the leader of a murderous terrorist group with roots in the darkest days of World War II-all while an assassin as brilliant and damaged as himself is getting closer by the minute . . .

“My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike” Joyce Carol Oates

Oates revisits in fantastic fashion the JonBenet Ramsay murder, replacing the famous family with the Rampikes—father Bix, a bully and compulsive philanderer; mother Betsey, obsessed with making her daughter, Bliss, into a prize-winning figure skater; and son Skyler, the narrator of this tale of ambition, greed and tragedy. Skyler's voice—leaden with grief and guilt—is sometimes that of the nine-year-old he was when his sister was killed, and sometimes the teen he is now, 10 years later, when a letter from his dying mother solves the mystery of Bliss's death. The emotionally wrecked Rampike children are collateral damage in a vicious marital battle; Sky is shunted aside, while Bliss is ruthlessly manipulated. Stylistic tricks (direct-address footnotes chief among them) lighten Oates's razor-sharp satire of a privileged enclave where social-climbing neighbors dwell in gargantuan houses; as Oates's readers will expect, the novel is long, propelled at breakneck speed and apt to indulge in verbal excess (as in the 55-page novella within the novel). Oates's psychological acuity, however, ranks this novel as one of the best from a dark observer of our lives and times.

“Last Kiss” Luanne Rice

New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice returns to Hubbard’s Point, Connecticut, and to characters from her beloved Beach Girls, to tell the haunting story of a close-knit community grappling with a heartbreaking mystery, and of a woman rebuilding her world and reclaiming a love she believed lost a lifetime ago.

A face on a poster, a name in the news, an inexplicable tragedy. A promising young man goes out one warm summer evening and is found dead—murdered—less than twenty-four hours later. No motive. No clues. No answers. Most people reflect briefly on the disturbing headlines, perhaps say a silent prayer of safely removed sympathy, and go on with their lives. But what if the young man was your son? Or your true love?

Nearly a year after the death of eighteen-year-old Charlie, singer-songwriter Sheridan Rosslare still hasn’t played a note of the music that was once her life’s passion. Tucked away in the beach house where she raised her only child, she lives with her memories of him and a grief too big to share even with her beloved sisters or her dear friend Stevie Moore. Nor can Stevie comfort Charlie’s heartbroken girlfriend, Nell Kilvert, whom she regards as a daughter. Nell won’t rest until she finds out what really happened to the boy she loved. Out of the past she summons a man she believes cares enough, and is tough enough, to uncover the truth—Sheridan’s long-ago soul mate, Gavin Dawson.

Now Gavin’s boat, the Squire Toby, sits anchored in the harbor within sight of the window of the woman he once loved, still loves, and will always love. Sheridan, too, had once fervently believed in the miraculous power of love and healing, forgiveness, connection, and reconnection. But that faith died along with her son….

Unfolding among the Hubbard’s Point people and places that fans have come to treasure, and replete with feeling and mystery, Last Kiss weighs the power of the past to heal as well as wound, in a captivating tale of love, loss, and redemption that no reader will ever forget.

“Tribute” Nora Roberts

Roberts sets her underwhelming latest in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where former child star Cilla McGowan rehabs her famous grandmother's long-neglected farm. Cilla's movie-star grandmother, the Marilyn Monroe–like Janet Hardy, who died mysteriously on the farm at age 39, haunts Cilla as she transforms the former hideaway of the rich and famous into habitable living space and tries to resolve whether Janet committed suicide or was murdered. While cleaning out the attic, Cilla unearths a collection of unsigned love letters to Janet from a local suitor, which adds spice to the puzzle of Janet's death. Meanwhile, Cilla's hunky graphic novelist neighbor, Ford Sawyer, provides the requisite sizzle and encourages Cilla to follow her dream of becoming a top-notch building contractor—much to the dismay of Cilla's headline-hungry diva mother. Amid the demolition and sheet rocking, Cilla comes up against a disgruntled local, and a series of unnerving threats and occurrences (vandalism, torched Cilla dolls) almost unhinges Cilla. The terror tactics (and the revelation of who is behind them) are half-baked and distract from what's ostensibly a girl meets boy, boy wants girl, girl finally wants boy story.

“Don’t Tell a Soul” David Rosenfelt

Tim Wallace’s wife died in a boating accident several months ago. Tim was the only eye witness, and one New Jersey cop is sure he killed her. He didn’t, but even if the police eventually clear his name, he’ll never get over this terrible tragedy.  On New Year’s Eve, his two best friends and business partners finally convince him to go out for the first time since Maggie’s death, and at their neighborhood pub just a few minutes before midnight, things in Tim Wallace’s life go from bad to worse. “Can you keep a secret? A really big one?” a drunken stranger asks him. Before Tim can say anything or turn away, the man confesses to a months-old murder, even offering as proof the location of the woman’s body. “Now it’s your problem,” he says and walks away.  When the man turns out to have been telling the truth, Tim’s life and work are put under the microscope again by the cops, and this time they’re not giving up. But neither is Tim, even when things keep getting worse for him, and eventually he realizes he’s the only person who can figure out what’s really going on---even if it kills him.  David Rosenfelt, popular author of six Andy Carpenter mysteries, including the recent hit Play Dead, delivers his first standalone with Don’t Tell a Soul, combining the suspense and great characters of his mystery series with an unputdownable, thrilling read.

“Fractured” Karin Slaughter

With its gracious homes and tree-lined streets, Ansley Park is one of Atlanta’s most desirable neighborhoods. But in one gleaming mansion, in a teenager’s lavish bedroom, a girl has been savagely murdered. And in the hallway, her horrified mother stands amid shattered glass, having killed her daughter’s attacker with her bare hands.

Detective Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is here only to do a political favor; the murder site belongs to the Atlanta police. But Trent soon sees something that the cops are missing, something in the trail of blood, in a matrix of forensic evidence, and in the eyes of the shell-shocked mother. Within minutes, Trent is taking over the case—and adding another one to it. He is sure that another teenage girl is missing, and that a killer is on the loose.

Armed with only fleeting clues, teamed with a female cop who has her own personal reasons for hating him, Trent has enemies all around him—and a gnawing feeling that this case, which started in the best of homes, is cutting quick and deep through the ruins of perfect lives broken wide-open: where human demons emerge with a vengeance.

“Rogue” Danielle Steel

Romance titan Steel doctors up a familiar formula with fresh results. Having had just about enough of the gadabout ways of dot-com millionaire and perpetual Peter Pan, Blake Williams, Maxine, 42, divorced him five years ago and is raising their three children (ages 13, 12 and six) while running a thriving psychiatric practice specializing in childhood trauma and adolescent suicide. Blake, meanwhile, is continent-hopping among houses in London, Morocco and New York, bedding nubile young things. Maxine and Blake have remained friends, but when a horrific teen suicide case leads Maxine to meet doctor and childless divorcé Charles West, she finally falls for the type of man she thinks she's always wanted: serious, responsible and a bit stuffy. A disaster makes Blake rethink his lifestyle, however, and Maxine suddenly has a choice to make. While Steel never locks in on her characters' emotions, she keeps the pages turning and offers a satisfying twist at book's end that most readers won't see coming.

“Dark Lover” J.R. Ward

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there's a deadly turf war going on between vampires and their slayers. There exists a secret band of brothers like no other-six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Yet none of them relishes killing more than Wrath, the leader of The Black Dagger Brotherhood.

The only purebred vampire left on earth, Wrath has a score to settle with the slayers who murdered his parents centuries ago. But, when one of his most trusted fighters is killed-leaving his half-breed daughter unaware of his existence or her fate-Wrath must usher her into the world of the undead-a world of sensuality beyond her wildest dreams. –

“Lover Eternal” J.R. Ward

Two hundred years: that's how long Rhage must bear the curse born of his reckless inconsideration. Sex and violence are all he once pursued; now they are the only things that keep the beast within at bay. He has little hope for finding peace during this existence, until Mary Luce enters his life. Irresistibly drawn to her light, he's pulled into a struggle with his own demons as well as the real enemies who threaten the vampire world and Mary. Ward wields a commanding voice perfect for the genre, and readers new to the world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood should hold on tight for an intriguing, adrenaline-pumping ride featuring a race of warrior vampires who fill enemies with terror and women with desire. Like any good thrill ride, the pace changes with a tender story of survival and hope and leaves readers begging for more. Fans of L. A. Banks, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Sherrilyn Kenyon will add Ward to their must-read list.

“Story of Edgar Sawtelle” David Wroblewski

A literary thriller with commercial legs, this stunning debut is bound to be a bestseller. In the backwoods of Wisconsin, the Sawtelle family—Gar, Trudy and their young son, Edgar—carry on the family business of breeding and training dogs. Edgar, born mute, has developed a special relationship and a unique means of communicating with Almondine, one of the Sawtelle dogs, a fictional breed distinguished by personality, temperament and the dogs' ability to intuit commands and to make decisions. Raising them is an arduous life, but a satisfying one for the family until Gar's brother, Claude, a mystifying mixture of charm and menace, arrives. When Gar unexpectedly dies, mute Edgar cannot summon help via the telephone. His guilt and grief give way to the realization that his father was murdered; here, the resemblance to Hamlet resonates. After another gut-wrenching tragedy, Edgar goes on the run, accompanied by three loyal dogs. His quest for safety and succor provides a classic coming-of-age story with an ironic twist. Sustained by a momentum that has the crushing inevitability of fate, the propulsive narrative will have readers sucked in all the way through the breathtaking final scenes.

ADULT NON-FICTION

“From Baghdad to America: Life Lessons from a Dog Named Lava” Jay Kopelman

Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman won the hearts of readers with his moving story of adopting an abandoned puppy named Lava in a hellish corner of Iraq. For this Marine and his comrades, the puppy served as an important emotional touchstone in a grim and seemingly endless war.

Kopelman now writes about what it's like to be home. He credits his canine best friend with finding his wife—in the park, Lava began playing with her dog and the two owners met—and for keeping him sane as he readjusted. With the same intelligence and insight he showed in From Baghdad, With Love, Kopelman sets forth more than a dozen lessons, including: Life can change in an instant, but you'll be able to handle it; passion for something can help you tap into your most powerful reserve of energy; have a standard operating procedure for everything; never forget who you are or how you got here. Active and retired troops, soldiers' friends and families, and everyone who has ever loved a dog will embrace this book.

“Dali and I: The Surreal Story” Stan Lauryssens

An extraordinary memoir of fortune, fraud, and the master of modern art

Art dealer Stan Lauryssens made millions in modern art, but he sold only one name: Salvador Dalí. The surrealist painter’s work was a hot commodity for the newly rich, investors, and shady businessmen looking to launder their black-market cash. Stan didn’t mind looking the other way; he just hoped the buyers would look the other way as well. The artworks he sold came from some very questionable sources, but he soon discovered that the shadiest source of all was Dalí himself.

The more successful Stan became, the closer he came to Dalí, until he found himself living next door to the aging artist, in the Catalonian hills. While hiding from Interpol’s detectives, Stan spent his time with the artists, musicians, business associates, and eccentrics who surrounded Dalí. He learned about Dalí’s secret history, the studio of artists who produced his work, and the moneymaking machine that kept Dalí’s extravagant lifestyle afloat long after his creativity began to flounder.

Dalí & I offers a behind-the-scenes view of the commerce and conspiracy that go hand in hand in the international art world, written by a man who has been to the top only to discover that it’s not so different from the bottom.

“90 Minutes in Heaven: An Inspiring Story of Life Beyond Death” Don Piper & Cecil Murphy

Now available in beautiful gift edition, 90 Minutes in Heaven is the runaway bestseller about one man's experience with death and life. As Baptist minister Don Piper drove home from a conference, his car collided with a semi-truck that had crossed into his lane. Piper was pronounced dead at the scene. For the next 90 minutes, he experienced the glories of heaven, where he was greeted by those who had influenced him spiritually, and he experienced true peace. Back on earth, a passing minister who had also been at the conference felt led to pray for the accident victim even though he was told Piper was dead. Miraculously, Piper came back to life. For years Don Piper kept his heavenly experience to himself. Finally, friends and family convinced him to share his remarkable story. An inspiring and encouraging account, 90 Minutes in Heaven continues to touch and comfort millions of people around the world as it offers a glimpse of inexpressible heavenly bliss. This makes perfect gift of hope for those struggling to understand a tragedy or loss of a loved one.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“City of Ember: Book 1” Jeanne Duprau

It is always night in the city of Ember. But there is no moon, no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of "day" comes from floodlamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. "Besides," they tell each other, "there is nowhere but here" Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves--and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. What will happen when the generator finally fails?

Twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet seem to be the only people who are worried. They have just been assigned their life jobs--Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic "Instructions for Egress," they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light of which Lina has dreamed. As they set out on their mission, the haunting setting and breathless action of this stunning first novel will have teens clamoring for a sequel.

“People of Sparks: Book 2” Jeanne Duprau

When teenagers Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow lead their people up out of the Earth, fleeing their dying underground city of Ember, everything is new and a little frightening to the refugees--the sun and the moon, birds, trees, fire…and the people of Ember are strange to the 322 citizens of Sparks, one of the few towns on Earth to survive the time of The Disaster. How can they feed and house the 400 Emberites, the leaders of Sparks wonder, when they have just begun to be able to feed themselves comfortably? But if they don’t, these underground people with no survival skills will surely die in the wastelands. They take them in as best they can, but grumbling and bad feeling grows on both sides. Lina returns from a failed search for her persistent vision of a city of light to find the town, egged on by the power-hungry young thug Tick, once again at the point of war, forgetting how the Earth has been destroyed before. But Lina has seen the devastation left by The Disaster, and so she risks a brave move of reconciliation, and when Doon exposes Tick’s trickery, the two sides join as the new people of Sparks.

In this exciting and solidly constructed sequel to The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau moves the story on entrancingly, bringing along her cast of characters from underground and adding new dimensions and relationships as the action escalates to a satisfying conclusion that still allows for further volumes in this fine fantasy.

“Prophet of Yonwood: Book 3” Jeanne Duprau

In this prequel to The City of Ember (2003) and The People of Sparks (2004, both Random), 11-year-old Nickie accompanies her aunt to Yonwood, NC, to help get her great-grandfather's house ready to be sold. Months earlier, a woman in the community named Althea Tower had a vision and collapsed, muttering about fire and disaster. The townspeople interpreted it as a premonition of events since war between the U.S. and the Phalanx Nations is eminent. Althea is hailed as a Prophet and an ambitious Mrs. Beeson appoints herself Althea's interpreter. Soon she's urging everyone to give up sinful things like singing. The townspeople believe that by being virtuous they will build a shield of goodness around themselves and not be harmed. In her effort to be a good person, Nickie falls prey to this collective brainwashing and betrays a friend. She has her own secret. She's hiding a dog in the house. When Mrs. Beeson thinks the Prophet has said no dogs and forces everyone to get rid of them, the child is outraged and confronts the Prophet to demand the truth behind her pronouncements. This novel has a great deal of immediacy in light of current world events. It sharply brings home the idea of people blindly following a belief without questioning it. However, it's really more of a stand-alone title. The plot details that tie it and Ember together are only revealed in the last chapter, entitled What Happened Afterward.

“How To Be Bad” E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, & Lauren Myracle

From three critically acclaimed and bestselling authors comes one story - equal parts charming, hilarious, and emotional - of a road trip that proves that sometimes it doesn't matter where you're going, since getting there is half the fun.

Three girls who couldn't be more different have one goal in mind: to get the heck out of Dodge. Well, Niceville, Florida, actually. But it might as well be called Nowheresville. Vicks is the wild-child fry cook whose boyfriend left for college and isn't returning any of her calls; Mel, the good girl in expensive jeans who just wants everyone to like her; and Jesse, the trailer-dwelling human morality meter who's discovered a life-altering secret -

Each has her own reason for climbing into Jesse's mom's beat-up station wagon and hitting the highway for a weekend trip, whether she knows it or not. Armed only with Vicks's ancient, battered copy of a guidebook called Fantastical Florida, a map Jesse picked up with her dwindling funds, and Mel's mom's credit card, they're Miami bound. Hearts will be broken, friendships will be tested, and a ridiculously hot stranger could change the course of everything. And if they don't kill each other first, Vicks, Mel and Jesse will not only have a road trip to remember, they'll have friends for life.

JUVENILE FICTION

“Twelve” Lauren Myracle

Eleven was big. Winnie got a new best friend, and a new worst friend. But twelve is going to be huge. Last year everyone else changed, but now it’s Winnie’s turn to “develop.” Ack! Twelve is going to be a big year for Winnie, she just knows it. After all, she’s one step closer to being a teenager, but there’s just so much to deal with: pierced ears, sleepaway camp, junior high. . . .Can Winnie handle the pressure? And most important, can she handle bra shopping with Mom—in public?

“Thirteen” Lauren Myracle

Winnie Perry is a teenager—at last! And it’s a really big deal. A ginormous deal, which, wouldn’t you know it, brings ginormous problems along with it. Winnie’s bff #1 is growing up too slowly, while her bff #2 is growing up too fast, leaving Winnie stuck in the middle. Winnie’s boyfriend, Lars, is fabulous—except when he’s not. And as for Winnie’s family, well, BIG changes are in the air.

Bestselling author Lauren Myracle concludes her enormously popular trilogy about a winning young heroine whose humor, daring, and compassion for others is infectious and unforgettable.

Summer Reading Program and New Arrivals

2008-06-27T14:38:00.002-04:00

"Catch the Reading Bug" kicked off it's first performance this week with Animal Encounters. They brought cockroaches, a centipede, a baby crocodile, tarantula, and other small bugs. The children loved the performance, especially when they got to touch the spider web the tarantula was weaving!

Our next performance is Tuesday, July 8th with Kevin Kammeraad. We have two performances at 11am and 1pm. Make sure if you cannot make it to inform us so we can call people on our waiting list!

"Poetry, Puppetry, Music - Catch the bug with poetry and music! This fun and lively show encourages imagination and creativity through a variety of interactive music, poems, puppetry, singing, and laughing."

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DVDs

"The Backyardigans: High Flying Adventures"

"The Big Comfy Couch"

"Bob the Builder: The Three Musketrucks"

"Go Diego Go! Great Gorilla!"

"Madeline: Next Stop, America"

"Care Bears: Sharing in the Sunshine"

"VeggieTales: Lessons From the Sock Drawer"

"Horton Hears a Who!"

"Garfield and Friends: A Cat and His Nerd"

"Curious George Takes a Vacation and Discovers New Things!"

ADULT FICTION

“The Hollow” Nora Roberts
The New York Times bestselling author of Blood Brothers continues the thrilling trilogy of a town plagued by evil—and the three men and three women brought together by fate to fight it.

“December” Elizabeth Hartle Winthrop
Like her 2006 debut, Fireworks, Winthrop's second novel focuses on the turmoil wrought by the loss of a child. Although Wilson and Ruth Carter's 11-year-old daughter, Isabelle, is very much alive, she hasn't spoken in nine months, an elective muteness brought on by no known trauma. Her silence confounds her parents, a series of psychiatrists and her Manhattan private school, which, by December, is losing patience with her. Ruth, a successful lawyer, pores over Isabelle's past actions and sketchbooks for hidden meanings; Wilson, a well-meaning but often bumbling father who still views his preteen daughter as a little girl, is convinced that action, not analysis, will cure Isabelle. Isabelle herself, whom Winthrop introduces skillfully through a shifting third-person omniscient narrative, is most intriguing: keenly self-aware but unable to help herself, alternating between resentment and adoration for her parents, Isabelle is in many ways simply a preadolescent to the nth degree. Like budding artist Isabelle, Winthrop is a master of observation, and her ability to crystallize themes in particular vignettes (fixing a broken phonograph, buying Christmas presents) brings this affecting family drama vividly to life.

“The Beach House” Jane Green
Jane Green is one of the preeminent authors of women’s fiction today, and with each new novel, her audience grows. Green’s avid and loyal fans follow her because she writes about the true-to-life dilemmas of women—and The Beach House will not disappoint.

Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn’t care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldn’t she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes.

So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly, people start moving into the house, filling it with noise, with laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside-down.

“My Name is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare” Jess Winfield
The two narratives in Winfield's whimsical debut are unified by their shared irreverence, humor and literary gusto. The first tale is of Willie Shakespeare Greenberg, a grad student trying to prove in his hastily conceived thesis that Shakespeare was a closeted Catholic. Short on cash, stoner Willie agrees to mule a superpsychedelic mushroom and a pound of weed to a couple of Renaissance Faire enthusiasts, all the while nursing his infatuation with Dashka Demitra, his sexy thesis adviser. Willie's journey is interspersed with accounts of the other Shakespeare as he, in the months leading up to his wedding, has run-ins with hallucinatory substances and comely women while delivering a secret package to a Catholic dissident. Willie's a lovable schlemiel whose clumsy strides toward attaining a genuine understanding of Shakespeare's work mirror in many ways the Bard's quest to become the great playwright we now study. Winfield uses his deep understanding of Shakespeare's work and times (he is a founding member of the Reduced Shakespeare Company) to great effect, and his affection for the material shines throughout.

“Candle in the Darkness” Lynn N. Austin
From the time she was 12, Caroline Fletcher, daughter of a wealthy Richmond, VA, slave-holding family, knew she was different, for she knew that the household slaves were human beings, not mere property. When her mother commits suicide, Caroline is sent first to the Fletcher plantation and then to relatives in Philadelphia. Three years later, as the nation teeters on the brink of civil war, her father brings her home. Caroline is now a determined abolitionist, and she struggles to live in a culture where people believe that slavery is ordained by God. With her fianc‚, father, and cousin off fighting in the war, Caroline embarks on a dangerous path of spying and intrigue that tests her faith and demands risk and sacrifice. Unfortunately, Caroline is the only fully developed character in this work, and the African American characters are all too good to be true; despite these flaws, Austin (Hidden Places; Eve's Daughters; Wings of Refuge) has written a thoroughly engrossing and exciting tale that will appeal to fans of Virginia Gaffney's "Richmond Chronicles" and historical romances. Purchase where historical novels and Austin's other books are in demand.

“The Other” David Guterson
When John William Barry and Neil Countryman meet at a high school track meet in the early 1970s, they are two sides of the same coin: John is a trust fund baby and student of a prestigious private school while Neil is solidly working class, but they share an affinity for the outdoors and apprehension over impending changes in their lives. After an unintentionally challenging week lost in the wilds of the North Cascades, John is compelled to an ascetic path: life in a remote river valley in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest, where he chips a shelter from a granite wall and immerses himself in the esoterica of Gnostic dualism --a philosophy that holds that the material world is illusional and destructive. Neil meanwhile chooses a traditional path as a father and school teacher, despite his troubled friend's exhortations to eschew "hamburger world" and find truth in a simpler, stripped-down existence. Nothing is that simple, of course, and The Other compellingly explores the compromises we make to balance meaning and security in our lives through the choices (and their subsequent consequences) of these two men.

“July and August” Nancy Clark
From the acclaimed author of The Hills at Home comes this funny, bittersweet, wonderfully peopled family saga of beginnings and endings, couplings and uncouplings, of new friendships and old alliances.
Great-aunt Lily’s gracious pile of a house in Towne, Massachusetts, is the gathering place for her far-flung Yankee clan of grandnieces and grandnephews--all in town for the months of July and August--and with their arrival comes a high summer of comedy and drama. Brooks and Rollins, the uncommonly successful software entrepreneur brothers, turn the heads of the locals with their supermodel dates. Lily herself has made an unexpected success of a new business venture. Sally, the youngest of the clan, is having the time of her life with Cam, a charismatic Towne kid; between them they prove that in some corners of the world, children can still go out to play gloriously unsupervised and come home safely. Cousin Julie announces her wedding to a man no one has met, whose delayed arrival gives rise to a mystery. And in the single developing sorrow, the family faces the possibility of a final leave-taking by the once fiery Aunt Ginger, who continues to dish up crucial life wisdom (whether it’s sought or not) while reclining on a lawn chair in the sun.

As July and August unfurls, the cousins scheme and new romances and confidences bloom. Even Aunt Lily, who presides over it all with her hard-won equanimity, has secrets to divulge before the season is done. Throughout, Nancy Clark gives us a beautiful exploration of the ways that a family evolves over time--and the ways in which it remains the same--in this rich summer story of love lost and found.

ADULT NON-FICTION

“The Official Price Guide to Collecting Books” Marie Tedford
Book collecting has long been a popular hobby, and it continues to grow in popularity. This revised and updated edition of The Official Price Guide to Books has everything a book collector needs. It features black-and-white photographs and includes an eight-page color insert of exceptional book covers.

The Official Price Guide to Books also includes:

· A history of the book trade
· Current market review and forecast
· Thousands of price listings covering hundreds of years of first editions
· Information about genre-collecting
· Advice on maintaining your collection
· Expert instruction on how to profit from bibliophilia
· A handy glossary and recommended reading list

“A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America” James Webb
Jim Webb—the bestselling author and now the celebrated, outspoken U.S. Senator from Virginia—presents a clear-eyed, hard-hitting plan of attack for putting government to work for the people, rather than special interests, and for restoring the country's standing around the world.  Infused with the intelligence, force, and firebrand style that has earned Senator Jim Webb enormous national attention from his earlest days in office, A Time to Fight offers a thorough and provocative assessment of the thorniest issues Americans face today, along with cogent solutions drawn from Webb's lifetime of experience as a much-decorated Marine, a widely traveled, award-winning journalist and novelist, a highly placed member of the Reagan administration, a Senator with a son who fought as a Marine in Iraq and, perhaps most important, a proud scion of America's vast but frequently ignored working class.   Webb exposes how America has entered a dangerous, unprecedented cycle of seemingly unsolvable unknowns. Our economic policies, particularly in this age of globalization, have produced widely divergent results leading to a country calcifying along class lines. Our demographic makeup has been altered dramatically and is set to keep on changing, through both legal and illegal immigration. Our editorialists and politicians talk about the American dream, and some urge us to bring democracy to the rest of the world. But more than two million Americans are now in prison, by far the highest incarceration rate in the so-called advanced world. Our foreign policy is confused, without clear direction; increasingly vulnerable to such largely unexamined long-term threats as China's emerging power while it has become bogged down in the never-ending struggles of the Middle East. As this drift toward societal regression has taken place, America's leadership has largely been paralyzed, unable or unwilling to stop the slide. "Where are the leaders?" Webb asks. "Has our political process become so compromised by powerful interest groups and the threat of character assassination that even the best among us will not dare to speak honestly about the solutions that might bring us back to common sense and fundamental fairness?"  Through vivid personal narratives of the struggles members of his family faced, and citing the courageous actions of presidents ranging from Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt to Dwight Eisenhower, A Time to Fight provides specific, viable ideas for restoring fairness to our economic system, correcting the direction of national security efforts, ending America's military occupation of Iraq, and developing greater government accountability. Webb brings a fresh perspective to political dynamics that have shaped our country. His stirring, populist manifesto calls upon voters to make the choices that will change America for the better in this election season.

“Simplexity” Jeffrey Kruger
Frustrated by the traffic on narrow bridges? Stunned by the number of buttons on a remote control? Saddened by the lack of basic medical care in the developing world? Kluger (Splendid Solutions) makes the modern world comprehensible, analyzing social and technological systems to reveal that things that seem complicated can be preposterously simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. He compares cells to cities to stock markets, renders quarks and fractals accessible and draws parallels between Wal-Mart and AIDS clinics in Tanzania. Although Kluger is prone to hyperbole, his astonishing discoveries require no exaggeration: the book describes how even the most technologically advanced manufacturing plant is infinitely simpler than a humble houseplant with its microhydraulics and fine-tuned metabolism and dense schematic of nucleic acids—and baseball fans will be dismayed to discover that football is, in fact, the more complex of the two games: the possible number of starting configurations before the play even begins is... 31.4 billion. Kluger's findings are likely to incite controversy, confirming his contention that explaining simplicity and complexity is never as straightforward as it seems.

“Amish Grace” Donald B. Kraybill
When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others last fall in a Nickel Mines, Pa., schoolhouse, media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community. The authors, who teach at small colleges with Anabaptist roots and have published books on the Amish, were contacted repeatedly by the media after the shootings to interpret this subculture. In response to the questions why—and how—did they forgive? Kraybill and his colleagues present a compelling study of Amish grace. After describing the heartbreaking attack and its aftermath, the authors establish that forgiveness is embedded in Amish society through five centuries of Anabaptist tradition, and grounded in the firm belief that forgiveness is required by the New Testament. The community's acts of forgiveness were not isolated decisions by saintly individuals but hard-won countercultural practices supported by all aspects of Amish life. Common objections to Amish forgiveness are addressed in a chapter entitled, What About Shunning? The authors carefully distinguish between forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation, as well as analyzethe complexities of mainstream America's response and the extent to which the Amish example can be applied elsewhere. This intelligent, compassionate and hopeful book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on forgiveness.

“Cracking the SAT 2009”
Cracking the SAT brings you proven techniques from the test prep experts! The 2009 edition includes full-length practices tests and exclusive free access to further review online. In Cracking the SAT, we’ll teach you how to think like the test writers and

· Master specific strategies for answering every question type
· Boost your vocabulary with our exclusive “Hit Parade”— a list of words that appear most frequently on the SAT
· Practice online with an additional full-length test, lessons, and drills
· Get the most out of your prep time with the study plan that’s right for you

We give you plenty of practice problems to help you master our proven techniques. In addition, this book contains 3 full-length, “paper and pencil” SAT practice tests. Our practice questions are just like those you’ll see on the real SAT—but with detailed answers and explanations for every question.

“Grow Organic”
A simpler, fresher look at the organic approach in the whole garden-not just fruit and vegetables but also herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees, as well as composting and recycling, attracting beneficial wildlife and preventing and managing pests and diseases-all organically, and all without the use of chemicals. This book is aimed more at the beginner than the original Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

“Outstanding in the Field” Jim Denevan
Instead of bringing food to guests in a traditional restaurant setting, Jim Denevan brings diners to their food, creating what Alice Waters has called “the restaurant I always imagined.” His innovative organization, Outstanding in the Field, sets up dinner tables in fields, ranches, dairies, vineyards, and community gardens across the country for alfresco meals that truly reconnect us with the land and people that produce our food.

In Outstanding in the Field, Denevan presents a cookbook full of seasonally inspired dishes from his farm-fresh dinners, sharing more than one hundred recipes with home cooks and food lovers everywhere. Celebrating local ingredients at their height of freshness, favorites include Haricot Vert and Early Girl Tomato Salad with Summer Savory; Burrata Cheese with Nectarines, Mâche, and Hazelnuts; Sea Scallops with Sugar Snap Peas and Chervil; Pure Maple Syrup–Braised Short Ribs; Green Tomato Marmalade; and Upside-Down Fresh Fig Cake. All of the recipes present opportunities to use the most flavorful produce, meats, and cheeses in the area where you live—and suggestions for substitutions when necessary.

America’s appetite for organic and local food has never been stronger and there is no better guide to this growing movement than Jim Denevan. With inspiring recipes, beautiful photographs throughout of farms and food across the country, and information on finding local ingredients and helping Community Supported Agriculture and community gardens, Outstanding in the Field is a cookbook that celebrates the pleasures of raising, preparing, and enjoying good food.

BOOK ON CDs

“The Other” David Guterson
When John William Barry and Neil Countryman meet at a high school track meet in the early 1970s, they are two sides of the same coin: John is a trust fund baby and student of a prestigious private school while Neil is solidly working class, but they share an affinity for the outdoors and apprehension over impending changes in their lives. After an unintentionally challenging week lost in the wilds of the North Cascades, John is compelled to an ascetic path: life in a remote river valley in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest, where he chips a shelter from a granite wall and immerses himself in the esoterica of Gnostic dualism --a philosophy that holds that the material world is illusional and destructive. Neil meanwhile chooses a traditional path as a father and school teacher, despite his troubled friend's exhortations to eschew "hamburger world" and find truth in a simpler, stripped-down existence. Nothing is that simple, of course, and The Other compellingly explores the compromises we make to balance meaning and security in our lives through the choices (and their subsequent consequences) of these two men.

“Fearless Fourteen” Janet Evanovich
Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet.

The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars

Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldn’t be more proud. He always was the smart one.

The Cousin: Joe Morelli

Joe Morelli, Dom Rizzi, and Dom’s sister, Loretta, are cousins. Morelli is a cop, Rizzi robs banks, and Loretta is a single mother waiting tables at the firehouse. The all-American family.

The Complications: Murder, kidnapping, destruction of personal property, and acid reflux

Less than a week after Dom’s release from prison, Joe Morelli has shadowy figures breaking into his house and dying in his basement. He’s getting threatening messages, Loretta is kidnapped, and Dom is missing.

The Catastrophe: Moonman

Morelli hires Walter “Mooner” Dunphy, stoner and “inventor” turned crime fighter, to protect his house. Morelli can’t afford a lot on a cop’s salary, and Mooner will work for potatoes.

The Cupcake: Stephanie Plum

Stephanie and Morelli have a long-standing relationship that involves sex, affection, and driving each other nuts. She’s a bond enforcement agent with more luck than talent, and she’s involved in this bank-robbery-gone-bad disaster from day one.

The Crisis: A favor for Ranger

Security expert Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, has a job for Stephanie that will involve night work. Morelli has his own ideas regarding Stephanie’s evening activities.

The Conclusion: Only the fearless should read Fourteen.

Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location” Jen Calonita
It seems like the summer of dreams come true for Hollywood princess Kaitlin Burke: the media loves her (again), super-cute and funny Austin Meyers is finally her boyfriend, and she's starring in a movie by her all-time favorite director Hutch Adams. What could be sweeter? But life on set is not as perfect as the makeup and costumes. And with an old love and a scheming new publicist on the scene, it's about to get a whole lot messier.

Combining the vicarious glamour of the New York Times bestselling A-List series with the innocence of The Princess Diaries, this commercial and appealing sequel offers another captivating glimpse behind the velvet ropes of stardom.

Tantalizing new Hollywood secrets appear throughout.

“The Humming of Numbers” Joni Sensel
Aidan is poised to take his monastic vows—until a girl enters the abbey, one who hums of the number eleven. Aidan has the ability to hear the humming of numbers, a buzzing energy given off by living things. He is captivated and tormented by the mysterious girl, Lana, who has some unusual abilities of her own. How can he become a monk when his mind is filled with impure thoughts?

Before he can begin to sort his feelings out, the Vikings raid. Only Aidan and Lana can save the village from certain, violent death—and only if they learn to trust in their mysterious talents.

Joni Sensel’s richly imagined new novel is a compelling blend of fantasy and adventure.

“Almost Alice” Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Is it possible to be too good a friend -- too understanding, too always there, too much like a doormat? Alice has always been a good friend to Pamela and Liz, a best friend to Pamela and Liz. But she's starting to wonder where that leaves her: What am I? An ear for listening? An arm around the shoulder? And then there's Patrick -- after ending their relationship two years ago, he's suddenly calling again, and wants to take her to his senior prom. What does that mean? As Alice tries to figure out who she is in relation to her friends, she learns one thing -- sometimes friends need you more than they let on...especially when the unthinkable happens.
Always honest, brave, and true, the Alice series never flinches from big issues, and never discounts the small ones.

“Gone” Michael Grant
In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.
Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

YOUNG ADULT NON-FICTION

“The Surrender Tree” Margarita Engle
It is 1896. Cuba has fought three wars for independence and still is not tree. People have been rounded up in reconcentration camps with too little food and too much illness. Rosa is a nurse, but she dares not go to the camps. So she turns hidden caves into hospitals for those who know how to find her.

Black, white, Cuban, Spanish—Rosa does her best for everyone. Yet who can heal a country so torn apart by war? Acclaimed poet Margarita Engle has created another breathtaking portrait of Cuba.

JUVENILE FICTION

“The Dragon’s Child” Laurence Yep
Historian Kathleen S. Yep teams with her uncle Laurence to craft a compelling tale based on transcripts of his father's 1922 immigration interview. The Yeps relate the harrowing experiences of ten-year-old Gim Lew, who, after crossing the Pacific with his father, is interned on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, where he must submit to lengthy detailed interviews about his home, village and neighbors, in order to prove he is who he claims to be. To pass this detailed interrogation, he has conscientiously studied a family book containing specifics about his home: How many windows in your house? How many steps? How are the houses in your village arranged?, etc. To enter "The Golden Mountain," he must answer the questions perfectly, leaving no room for doubt by the immigration officers. The boy's frustration and anxiety rise from the page, as does this particularly xenophobic and unjust moment in U.S. history. Fiction based on facts and the authors' smooth narration vividly evoke the past and its inhabitants.

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

“Gymnastics Training and Fitness” Jen Jones

“See How They Run” Susan E. Goodman
Using witty anecdotes and clear explanations, acclaimed writer Susan E. Goodman takes readers from the birth of democracy to the Electoral College; from front porch campaigning to hanging chads. It’s all here, spiced up with Elwood Smith’s witty illustrations, hilarious sidebars, photographs, and solid back matter. It’s a landslide victory: See How They Run stands above the rest as the most accessible, informative, and enjoyable election book on the market.

“Monarch and Milkweed” Helen Frost
Every spring the monarch butterfly migrates thousands of miles in search of the ideal milkweed plant. When she finds it, she lays her eggs on the plant, so when each egg hatches, the baby caterpillar can feed on the milkweed leaves. The milkweed plant then provides the perfect protection as the caterpillar turns into one of nature's wonders, a chrysalis, before transforming into an even greater wonder: a monarch butterfly. And once the newborn butterfly soars away, the milkweed seeds fly away on the wind and start this cycle over again.
The exacting prose and jewel-toned illustrations echo the harmony of monarch and milkweed in this carefully researched book, explaining one of nature's most spectacular displays in a refreshingly simple manner.

“Grow it, Cook it”
Grow It, Cook It is the children's cookbook that starts with the seed of a good idea. More than a cookbook, this innovative book offers a fresh approach to healthy eating by getting children involved in food right from the start. Children will learn that when they eat a carrot, they're biting into a root; salads are made up of leaves; and berries are the fruit and seeds of plants, encouraging an early appreciation of food and its origins.

The recipes in the book take the homegrown fruits, vegetables, and herbs and use a variety of cooking methods and store-bought ingredients to transform them into truly homemade meals. All the "crops" can be grown in pots, so young chefs don't even need a large garden to enjoy Grow It, Cook It.

“Earth Matters” David Rothschild
With a biome-by-biome structure that mirrors Mother Nature's own design, Our Earth Matters is a celebration of our fragile Earth, a warning to protect it, and an inspiring source book full of ideas for making a positive change.

The book begins with a brief history of our planet's birth and development, revealing how an astonishingly unlikely series of accidents made Earth the only planet in the universe known to be suitable for life. As life flourished and spread, it changed the planet and created the "biosphere." Scientists divide the biosphere into global ecosystems, or "biomes," such as Desert, Ocean, Tropical Forest, and Grassland.

Earth's delicate ecology is the unifying theme. Each section explores the unique ecological structure of a biome and reveals how human interference can upset the balance and damage the life-support systems upon which our existence depends Reference pages make up the first part of each section, with maps showing the extent of the biome, and spreads on climate, natural history, and ecology explaining how the biome works. Subsequent spreads explore the threats arising from human activity and show how positive efforts can often overcome the threats and preserve the biome. Throughout the book, spectacular and intimate photography showcases the living world's endless diversity and beauty, providing a compelling visual argument to support the book's core message.

CHILDREN'S FICTION

“Horse” Malachy Doyle
Follow one little foal as he grows into a magnificent horse! From learning to stand on wobbly legs to napping in the sunshine and trotting around the field with his mother, he changes as the seasons pass. By springtime he has grown big and strong.
Set against lush green fields and picturesque skies, this touching portrait of a mare and her foal is perfect for all horse fans!

“The Sandman” Ralph J. Fletcher
Where did that little piece of sand in the corner of your eye come from? That’s easy—the Sandman.

It all started a long time ago when a tiny man named Tor discovered that a dragon’s scale held magical powers. Ground dragon scales make magic sand that Tor sprinkles in the eyes of children to help them fall asleep. But how does he get the scales to make the special sand? He has to venture into the lair of a dragon, and that’s no easy feat!

This imaginative telling of the legend of the Sandman combined with fantastical, illuminating pictures will be enjoyed by the whole family.

“Mermaid Sister” Mary Ann Fraser
Shelly is tired of her brother, Gordy. She’d much prefer a sister. So when Coral catches a wave to shore, they are instant friends, even if one of them has flippers instead of feet. They dance and play and eat peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches. It’s great having a mermaid sister!
But when Shelly and Coral get in their first fight, Shelly wonders if Coral might be happier back at sea. Life with a sister can have its ups and downs, but it’s nothing another day at the beach can’t fix.

“Melrose and Croc: an Adventure to Remember” Emma Chichester Clark
Melrose has planned a wonderful birthday for his best friend, Croc: a vacation at a villa right by the ocean! Melrose wants everything to be perfect, especially the gift, so he decides to take a boat out on the sea to catch Croc a birthday fish. But when a blustery storm rolls in, Melrose is in danger. It’s up to his loyal friend Croc to come to the rescue—but can he get there in time?

“Sheep Blast Off!” Nancy Shaw
When a mysterious spacecraft lands in a nearby pasture, the lovable, blundering sheep get in gear for the ride of their lives! Unfortunately, these sheep don't know the first thing about piloting a spaceship . . . but there may be someone else on board who does! Readers will have a blast with Nancy Shaw's clever rhymes and Margot Apple's hilarious illustrations in this latest Sheep adventure.

“Litte Rabbit and the Night Mare” Kate Klise
One night, while Little Rabbit is sleeping, a very scary creature appears in his dream. Little Rabbit is so worried about the "night mare" that he can't eat or sleep--and he certainly can't work on his school report that's due at the end of the week. He makes signs. He builds traps. But nothing keeps that night mare away . . . until Little Rabbit dreams up a brave and brilliant solution.

Kate and Sarah Klise have created a heart-meltingly sweet story that will empower kids everywhere to face their fears.

“Twenty Heartbeats” Dennis Haseley
A wealthy man engages a great painter to create an image of the faithful horse that runs to him in 20 heartbeats. He waits for
word that his painting is ready. Years slip by, and both man and horse grow old. Finally, livid, the man returns to demand the picture he commissioned so very long ago. And in 20 heartbeats, the artist puts brush to paper to produce a piece of genius. But “[t]he man did not look at the painting. All he could see were the years that had gone by.” There are many ways to read this story: as a treatise on the nature of art and the value of product versus process; as an allegory about faith and another Great Painter; as a reminder to look beyond the obvious. These messages may elude younger readers, but no one will miss the point of Young’s arresting limited-color collage work, in which dreams are veiled in a layered rice-paper mist, and texture, curve and line, along with the compelling and considered placement of pigment, guide the eye along the narrative path.

“In a Blue Room” Jim Averbeck
Alice is wide, wide awake. Mama brings flowers, tea, a quilt, even lullaby bells to help her sleep. But none of these things are blue, and Alice can sleep only in a blue room. Yet when the light goes out, a bit of magic is stirred up. Pale blue moonlight swirls into her bedroom window. Then the night swirls out, around the moon and into the universe, leaving Alice fast alseep in a most celestial blue room.

Summer Reading Program News & New Arrivals!

2008-06-20T13:42:00.003-04:00

"Catch the Reading Bug" Summer Reading Program 2008 officially kicked off on June 10th!

Our first day was a huge success with 72 kids signing up for the program itself. As of today, there are over 200 kids signed up for the program. And plenty of kids have already completed their 10 hours of reading to receive their free books!

Remember that when children read over 10 hours, for every 2 hours, their name will be put into out grand prize drawing at the end of the program! There is also a GRAND prize for the child who will read the most hours during the summer.

Our Tuesday performances were filled (with huge waiting lists) by the end of the first day as well.

Next week we have our first performance by Animal Encounters at 11 am only. Only those signed up will be allowed to attend the performance. If there are cancellations we will be calling people on the waiting list to fill those open spots.

Stories and Live Animals - "Bug Tales" is a favorite show of students and adults alike. Not all bugs are cute and cuddly, some are actually rather creepy! Hear stories and meet the main creepy crawlies featured in the fun interactive program!

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NEW ARRIVALS

DVDs

"The Air I Breathe"

"Bella"

"Numb"

"Over Her Dead Body"

"Untraceable"

"Matilda"

"Grace is Gone"

"Semi-Pro"

"The Lost Colony"

"Mad Money"

Adult Fiction

“Monsters of Florence” Douglas Preston
United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston (coauthor, Brimstone) and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of the killer in this chilling true crime saga. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas outside of Florence were gruesomely murdered. When Preston and his family moved into a farmhouse near the murder sites, he and Spezi began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing. With all of the chief suspects acquitted or released from prison on appeal, Preston and Spezi's sleuthing continued until ruthless prosecutors turned on the nosy pair, jailing Spezi and grilling Preston for obstructing justice. Only when Dateline NBC became involved in the maze of mutilated bodies and police miscues was the authors' hard work rewarded. This suspenseful procedural reveals much about the dogged writing team as well as the motives of the killers. Better than some overheated noir mysteries, this bit of real-life Florence bloodletting makes you sweat and think, and presses relentlessly on the nerves.

“Broken Window” Jeffery Deaver
In bestseller Deaver's entertaining eighth Lincoln Rhyme novel (after The Cold Moon), Rhyme, a forensic consultant for the NYPD, and his detective partner, Amelia Sachs, take on a psychotic mastermind who uses data mining—the business of the twenty-first century—not only to select and hunt down his victims but also to frame the crimes on complete innocents. Rhyme is reluctantly drawn into a case involving his estranged cousin, Arthur, who's been charged with first-degree murder. But when Rhyme and his crew look into the strange set of circumstances surrounding his cousin's alleged crime, they discover tangential connections to a company that specializes in collecting and analyzing consumer data. Further investigation leads them to some startlingly Orwellian revelations: Big Brother is watching your every move and could be a homicidal maniac. The topical subject matter makes the story line particularly compelling, while longtime fans will relish Deaver's intimate exploration of a tragedy from Rhyme's adolescence.

“Fearless Fourteen” Janet Evanovich
Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet.

The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars

Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldn’t be more proud. He always was the smart one.

The Cousin: Joe Morelli

Joe Morelli, Dom Rizzi, and Dom’s sister, Loretta, are cousins. Morelli is a cop, Rizzi robs banks, and Loretta is a single mother waiting tables at the firehouse. The all-American family.

The Complications: Murder, kidnapping, destruction of personal property, and acid reflux

Less than a week after Dom’s release from prison, Joe Morelli has shadowy figures breaking into his house and dying in his basement. He’s getting threatening messages, Loretta is kidnapped, and Dom is missing.

The Catastrophe: Moonman

Morelli hires Walter “Mooner” Dunphy, stoner and “inventor” turned crime fighter, to protect his house. Morelli can’t afford a lot on a cop’s salary, and Mooner will work for potatoes.

The Cupcake: Stephanie Plum

Stephanie and Morelli have a long-standing relationship that involves sex, affection, and driving each other nuts. She’s a bond enforcement agent with more luck than talent, and she’s involved in this bank-robbery-gone-bad disaster from day one.

The Crisis: A favor for Ranger

Security expert Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, has a job for Stephanie that will involve night work. Morelli has his own ideas regarding Stephanie’s evening activities.

The Conclusion: Only the fearless should read Fourteen.

Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result.

“Wishbones” Carolyn Haines
Southern gal Sarah Booth Delaney packs up her hound dog and her P.I. business and sets off for Hollywood to take a shot at stardom. No stranger to acting, she aces the screen test for a racy remake of the movie Body Heat alongside leading man Graf Miliau. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and why not? Graf has already starred in one of Sarah’s previous affairs and is well on his way to landing a big part in the sequel.

Thrilled as Sarah is, her dream come true comes at a price. She has to leave behind her family’s ancestral home in Mississippi, her closest friends, and the possibility of settling down with her longtime love to film on location in Costa Rica. And it’s not long before rivalries flare, mysterious accidents occur, and this leading lady finds herself in some steamy tabloids without turning up in a single frame of film.

Carolyn Haines’s Wishbones takes the sultry romance and colorful friendships of this delightfully Southern series and heads out west for a mystery that is as thrilling off camera as it is on.

Adult Non-Fiction

“The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World” Dalai Lama
It should come as no surprise that the Dalai Lama, who is believed by his followers to be the human incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, would take a compassionate interest in helping Westerners find happiness in the daily grind. Still, this slim follow-up to the 1998 bestseller The Art of Happiness will be a revelation to those who aren't yet familiar with the thought of the brilliant Buddhist monk. Attitude and a sense of meaning are the keys to happiness at work, the exiled Tibetan leader tells psychiatrist Cutler in the course of conversations that took place over several years. What will surprise many is the prime importance the Dalai Lama places on reason and analysis, and on the need to acquire "a sense of self that is grounded in reality, an undistorted recognition of one's abilities and characteristics." Cutler presents the findings of various Western researchers, including the concept of "flow," that state of blissful absorption in an activity that allows people to lose track of time and self-identity. The Dalai Lama compares flow to meditative experience, yet downplays it. In order to achieve the kind of happiness that can be sustained even in the hardest times, he says, we must engage in the slow, steady work of training our hearts and minds, rooting out negative habits and cultivating basic human values like kindness and compassion. The Dalai Lama avoids generalization, emphasizing the complexity of individual situations. He won't condemn the manufacture of weapons, for example, because, he says, although they are destructive, "nations do need weapons for security purposes." At a time when Western spiritual seekers are flocking to books telling them that all they really need to be happy and good is to enter into a blissful meditative communion with the now, it is provocative and moving to be urged to think and to know oneself by the man who is arguably the greatest living symbol of the developed spirit in action. And what may be most moving is this: if the Dalai Lama is right, and if people do as he suggests-if they learn to see themselves impartially and to analyze their work in light of how many people it touches-they will begin to see, whether they are picking oranges or writing a novel, that the highest purpose of work and, indeed, of life is the helping of others.

“Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian” Scott Douglas
McSweeney's contributor Douglas was a college student who liked books and needed a job, so he became a page in a "run-down" Anaheim public library. He soon discovered the "dark truth about librarians"-that they don't actually read much. Still, lacking better career plans, he accepted a state grant to get a degree in library science. The more he got to know his local branch, the more it felt like "watching a soap"; the staff was "like a family." When he's not repeating petty tales of staff infighting, Douglas focuses on four types of library users: teens, homeless people, crazy people and the elderly. According to him, most of them smell, all but the elderly make too much noise, and they all, in defiance of library rules, try to access pornography on the internet. After retelling a story of someone masturbating at the computer, or of nefarious activities in the public restroom, the author is quick to follow up with proud words about being a non-discriminatory public servant; his pieties wear thin after awhile. Early on, when Douglas realizes he's a librarian because he loves helping people he's quite likeable, but when his stories become prurient, it's a turn-off.

Children's Fiction

“The Lost and Found Tooth” Louise Borden
Do you remember when and where you lost your first tooth?

New Arrivals 6/2/2008 - 6/7/2008

2008-05-30T14:53:00.003-04:00

Next week is the last storytime of the school year!

Miss Lorie is planning on celebrating with a Beach Day!

Don't forget that Summer Reading Program sign-up starts on June 10th. For more information, please check out our previous post!

DVDs

"Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey"

"Jane Austen's Mansfield Park"

"My Boy Jack"

"Curious George Goes to the Doctor and Lends a Helping Hand"

"Spongebob's Pest in the West"

ADULT FICTION

“Fatal Deduction” Gayle Roper
Libby Burton longs to be close to her twin sister, Tori, but their lives have taken them in different directions. Forced to share Aunt Stella’s old Philadelphia home in order to receive their inheritance, Libby hopes for a change, but it isn’t looking good so far.

First, Tori tries to steal the affection and allegiance of Libby’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Chloe. Then when a crossword puzzle with a hidden warning shows up on their doorstep, Tori refuses to take it seriously–in spite of the dead man who delivers it.

Libby finds comfort in neighbor Drew Canfield, but he hesitates to trust her after his disastrous marriage. As Libby struggles to act faithfully in the midst of these confusing relationships, she must also deal with a stolen diamond and a botched kidnapping. The answer to her problems lies in the riddles of the crosswords, if only she can solve the puzzle before it’s too late.

“Shadow of Power” Steve Martini
The Supreme Court is one of our most sacred—and secretive—public institutions. But sometimes secrets can lead to cover-ups with very deadly consequences.
Terry Scarborough is a legal scholar and provocateur who craves headline-making celebrity, but with his latest book he may have gone too far. In it he resurrects forgotten language in the U.S. Constitution—and hints at a missing letter of Thomas Jefferson's—that threatens to divide the nation.
Then, during a publicity tour, Scarborough is brutally murdered in a San Diego hotel room, and a young man with dark connections is charged. What looks like an open-and-shut case to most people doesn't to defense attorney Paul Madriani. He believes that there is much more to the case and that the defendant is a pawn caught in the middle, being scapegoated by circumstance.
As the trial spirals toward its conclusion, Madriani and his partner, Harry Hinds, race to find the missing Jefferson letter—and the secrets it holds about slavery and scandal at the time of our nation's founding and the very reason Scarborough was killed. Madriani's chase takes him from the tension-filled courtroom in California to the trail of a high court justice now suddenly in hiding and lays bare the soaring political stakes for a seat on the highest court, in a country divided, and under the shadow of power.

“Executive Privilege” Phillip Margolin
New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.
When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college student named Charlotte Walsh and report on where she goes and whom she sees. But then the unexpected happens. One night, Cutler follows Walsh to a secret meeting with Christopher Farrington, the president of the United States. The following morning, Walsh's dead body shows up and Cutler has to run for her life.
In Oregon, Brad Miller, a junior associate in a huge law firm is working on the appeal of a convicted serial killer. Clarence Little, now on death row, claims he was framed for the murder of a teenager who, at the time of her death, worked for the then governor, Christopher Farrington. Suddenly, a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer find themselves in possession of evidence that suggests that someone in the White House is a murderer. Their only problem? Staying alive long enough to prove it.
Executive Privilege, with its nonstop action, unforgettable characters, and edge-of-your-seat suspense, proves once again that Phillip Margolin—whose work has been hailed as "frighteningly plausible" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and "twisted and brilliant" (Chicago Tribune)—belongs in the top echelon of thriller writers.

“The Front” Patricia Cornwell
The Front, peril is what comes to them all. D.A. Lamont has a special job for Garano. As part of a new public relations campaign about the dangers of declining neighborhoods, she’s sending him to Watertown to “come up with a drama,” and she thinks she knows just the case that will serve. Garano is very skeptical, because he knows that Watertown is also the home base for a loose association of municipal police departments called the FRONT, set up in order that they don’t have to be so dependent on the state—much to Lamont’s anger. He senses a much deeper agenda here—but he has no idea just how deep it goes. In the days that follow, he’ll find that Lamont’s task, and the places it leads him, will resemble a house of mirrors—everywhere he turns, he’s not quite sure if what he’s seeing is true.

“Falsehoods rule,” warns his grandmother. And they can also kill.

This is the master writing at the absolute top of her game. You will never guess what lies behind The Front.

“Girls in Trucks” Katie Crouch
An unenthusiastic Southern debutante copes with the cruelties of postcollege New York life in Crouch's amusing debut. Sarah Walters is neither a misfit nor the queen of the Camellia Society cotillion scene growing up in Charleston, S.C. But when she and her fellow Camellias try to make a life in New York City, they find themselves coping in unexpectedly dangerous ways—from standard substance addictions to Sarah's fixation on preppy ex-boyfriend Max, a smooth and sadistic child of wealth. While the formula of young women in the big city seems destined for cliché, Crouch subverts most expectations; Sarah almost purposely misses an opportunity for happiness and stability with the gentle lover she met in Europe, and her ploy to ignite sparks with a college friend goes painfully awry. When Sarah goes back to Charleston and faces a perhaps too over-the-top family crisis (it involves suicide and lesbianism), the reader's left with the hope that the worst is over. Though this feels almost like a collection—each chapter its own story with its own narrative technique—Crouch's portrayal of a young woman's self-sabotage and the pitfalls facing young women in a cold world is wise, wry and heartbreaking.

“The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories” Robert Louis Stevenson & Jenny Davidson
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

“All She Ever Wanted” Lynn Austin
One of Christian fiction's favorite authors pens an engaging story about family secrets that begins powerfully, but eventually loses steam. Kathleen Seymour's carefully constructed world starts to collapse when her teenage daughter, Joelle, is caught shoplifting and a row with her boss leaves Kathleen unemployed. After a few sessions with a therapist, Kathleen tries reconnecting with her daughter by taking her to a party hosted by the estranged family members Kathleen left years ago. Through multiple points of view and rich, detailed flashbacks to previous generations, Austin convincingly illustrates how shame and bad choices can affect families for years. The fairy-tale ending is less convincing, as it's replete with former delinquents spouting pat phrases; it's also implausible that painful relationships between family members are easily repaired with a single trip back home. But the three-time Christy Award winner offers the surprising plot twists and fresh language that keep her fans coming back to the bookstores for each new novel.

“Dead Heat” Joel C. Rosenberg
For Jon and Erin Bennett, the world seems to be spinning dangerously out of control. A new dictator is rising in Iraq. China is making threatening new moves toward Taiwan. North Korean forces appear ready to strike south. Israel is feverishly trying to complete the Third Temple. Oil prices are surging. And in the wake of an horrific war in the Middle East, President James MacPherson's second term is coming to an end. Now the battle to succeed him is heating up into one of the most fiercely contested presidential elections in American history, and the Bennetts realize the stakes could not be higher. Who will lead a bitterly divided country over the next four years? What can the U.S. do to shape the new world order? And just what role--if any--does the U.S. play in the last days? As the presidential campaign narrows into a dead heat, the Secret Service learns of a catastrophic plot to assassinate one of the candidates--but which one, and can the terrorists be stopped in time?

“Eves Daughters” Lynn Austin
A novel of a family, this is the compelling story of four generations of women and the secret that has changed their lives.

“Sail” James Patterson & Howard Roughan
Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong. The teenage daughter, Carrie, is planning to drown herself. The teenage son, Mark, is high on drugs and ten-year-old Ernie is nearly catatonic. This is the worst vacation ever.
Anne manages to pull things together bit by bit, but just as they begin feeling like a family again, something catastrophic happens. Survival may be the least of their concerns.
Written with the blistering pace and shocking twists that only James Patterson can master, SAIL takes "Lost" and "Survivor" to a new level of terror.

“Collateral Damage” Fern Michaels

“Small Favor” Jim Butcher
Intricate yet accessible plotting and near-Arctic winter weather mark the 10th Harry Dresden adventure from bestseller Butcher (after 2007's White Night). A friendly snowball fight opens the Chicago-based wizard-detective's latest tale, but it's not long before a host of more dangerous foes are out for Harry's blood. A missing human mobster is said to be seeking greater influence among Chicago's extranormal population, but the true threat proves both more subtle and of much greater consequence. Butcher smoothly manages a sizable cast of allies and adversaries, doles out needed backstory with crisp efficiency and sustains just the right balance of hair's-breadth tension and comic relief. Encounters with a series of increasingly dangerous Billy Goats Gruff unfold with particular cleverness, and key developments involving Sgt. Karrin Murphy, Harry's reluctant police liaison, will intrigue seasoned fans as well as newcomers attracted by last year's TV adaptation of the series.

“Vineyard Chill” Philip Craig
For year-round Vineyard residents J. W. Jackson and his wife, Zee, winter brings its own beauty, with uncrowded streets, pristine snowy landscapes, and long, cozy nights by the fire. It can also bring danger.
There's a chill in the air one January day when J.W. receives a surprising visit from long-ago pal Clay Stockton. Thrice divorced and still living on the edge, Clay has come to J.W. not to relive the reckless days of their youth but to ask J.W. for help. He's in big trouble and needs to lie low on the Vineyard.
And it isn't just Clay who needs J.W.'s assistance; J.W.'s pal Bonzo has made a frightening discovery that may lead to the whereabouts of Nadine Gibson, a young woman who went missing on the Vine-yard almost a year ago. Bonzo once took Nadine bird-watching, and the circumstances connecting Nadine's disappearance to Bonzo are enough to make him a "person of interest" to the police.
With two friends in trouble and his own family receiving threats, J.W. must summon all of his investigative skills to try to restore order to his beloved island home, where fishing and good food should always take precedence over murder.
Featuring Craig's trademark mix of wit, suspense, and Vineyard ambiance, Vineyard Chill is a marvelous tribute to a much-loved author whose passion for mystery and Martha's Vineyard enriches every page.

“Nothing to Lose” Lee Child
Two lonely towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher never turns back. It's not in his nature. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets is big trouble. So in Lee Child’s electrifying new novel, Reacher—a man with no fear, no illusions, and nothing to lose—goes to war against a town that not only wants him gone, it wants him dead.

It wasn’t the welcome Reacher expected. He was just passing through, minding his own business. But within minutes of his arrival a deputy is in the hospital and Reacher is back in Hope, setting up a base of operations against Despair, where a huge, seething walled-off industrial site does something nobody is supposed to see . . . where a small plane takes off every night and returns seven hours later . . . where a garrison of well-trained and well-armed military cops—the kind of soldiers Reacher once commanded—waits and watches . . . where above all two young men have disappeared and two frightened young women wait and hope for their return.

Joining forces with a beautiful cop who runs Hope with a cool hand, Reacher goes up against Despair—against the deputies who try to break him and the rich man who tries to scare him—and starts to crack open the secrets, starts to expose the terrifying connection to a distant war that’s killing Americans by the thousand.

Now, between a town and the man who owns it, between Reacher and his conscience, something has to give. And Reacher never gives an inch.

“Plague Ship” Clive Cussler

“The Garden of Last Days” Andre Dubus III
One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works.

Except that April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he's drunk and angry and lonely.

From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus's #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog—and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.

“Summer Blowout” Claire Cook
Bella Shaughnessy is addicted to lipstick with names like My Chihuahua Bites and Kiss My Lips, an occupational hazard, since she works as a stylist and makeup artist for her family's small chain of beauty salons in Marshbury, Massachusetts, along with her four half-brothers and -sisters. The owner is her father, Lucky Shaughnessy, a gregarious, three-times-divorced charmer with Donald Trump hair, who is obsessed with all things Italian and still carries a torch for his first wife, Bella's mother. After Bella's own marriage flames out spectacularly when her half-sister runs off with her husband, Bella decides she has seen enough of the damage love can do. She makes a vow: no more men.
Then Bella meets a cute entrepreneur at a college fair, and despite their bickering, they can't seem to stay away from each other. He also gives her a brilliant business idea, one that just might allow her to share her makeup expertise with the world. A small, well-tressed dog finds her way into her life, and her heart, and she decides to chance that, too. When the whole clan heads to Atlanta for a big Southern wedding, sparks fly--in a summer blowout no one will ever forget.
This hilarious, rambunctious novel is pure Claire Cook: full of juicy conflict and unconditional love.

“Candle in the Darkness” Lynn Austin
Book 1 in the Refiner's Fire series. The daughter of a wealthy slave-holding family from Richmond, Virginia, Caroline Fletcher is raised in a culture that believes slavery is God-ordained and biblically acceptable. But upon awakening to the cruelty and injustice it encompasses, Caroline's eyes are opened for the first time to the men and women who have cared tirelessly for her. Her journey of maturity and faith will draw her into the abolitionist movement, where she is confronted with the risks and sacrifices her beliefs entail.

“Fire by Night” Lynn Austin
Book 2 of Refiner's Fire. The drama of the Civil War unfolds through the eyes of two very different Northern girls. Lovely Julia Hoffman has always enjoyed the carefree life of her well-to-do family, but when she fails to attract the attention of Rev. Nathaniel Greene, a fierce abolitionist, she determines to bring meaning to her empty and shallow existence. When she becomes a Union nurse, her eyes are opened to the realities of war and suffering. She also meets Phoebe, who has entered the army under false pretenses--and whose journey to understanding herself, as well as the tumultuous world about her, is revealed with sensitivity and drama.

“A Light to My Path” Lynn Austin
Refiner's Fire book 3 Kitty, a house slave, always figured it was easiest to do what she'd always done--obey Missy and follow orders. But when word arrives that the Yankees are coming, Kitty is faced with a decision: will she continue to follow the bidding of her owners, or will she embrace this chance for freedom? Never allowed to have ideas of her own, Kitty is overwhelmed by the magnitude of her decision. Yet it is her hope to find the "happy ever after" ending to her life--and to follow Grady, whom she loves--that is the driving force behind her choice. Where will it lead her?

ADULT NON-FICTION

“Fish Without a Doubt” Rick Moon & Roy Finamore
Comprehensive. Friendly. Indispensable. With more than 250 simple and delicious recipes.

No doubt about it, fish is a cook's dream. Fast. Low in fat, versatile, and healthful, it's even brain food. No other fish cookbook contains such a comprehensive selection of approachable, contemporary recipes. It's written by a pair of experts: a nationally known three-star seafood chef whose true passion is teaching home cooks, and an award-winning writer and sought-after food authority. Arranged for the cook's complete convenience, Fish without a Doubt encompasses chapters on all the techniques of fish cookery—from poaching to grilling to sautéing—as well as on all the most popular seafood dishes—from appetizers, to soups and salads, to burgers and pasta.

The recipes range from updated versions of classics (Trout Almondine, Linguine with Clams, Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes) to the latest favorites (Steamed Black Bass with Sizzling Ginger,Tuna Burgers with Cucumber Relish, Thai-Style Mussels). It includes slews of quickies for weeknight specials (Broiled Fillets with Butter and Herbs) and centerpieces for splashier occasions (A Big Poached Char). Featuring only seafood that is not overfished, Fish without a Doubt provides the latest information for the eco-conscious cook about our last wild frontier.

“Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story” Ricardo S. Sanchez & Donald T. Phillips
Amid all of the criticisms of America's war in Iraq, one essential voice has remained silent—until now. In his groundbreaking new memoir, Wiser in Battle, Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, reports back from the front lines of the global war on terror to provide a comprehensive and chilling exploration of America's historic military and foreign policy blunder.
With unflinching candor, Sanchez describes the chaos on the Iraqi battlefield caused by the Bush administration's misguided command of the military, as well as his own struggle to set the coalition on the path toward victory. Sanchez illuminates the fallout of the communication breakdown between the leadership on the front and the politicians in Washington, revealing fractious discussions he had with, among others, Ambassador Paul Bremer and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Drawing on his tenure on the ground, Sanchez shows how minor insurgent attacks grew into synchronized operations that finally ignited into a major insurgency and all-out civil war. He provides an insider's account of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, explaining the circumstances that led to the abuses, who perpetrated them, and what the formal investigations revealed—all the while reflecting on America's objectionable use of torture and the grave need for the country's leadership to pursue an ethical course of action in the war on terror. Sanchez also details the cynical use of the Iraq War for political gain in Washington and shows how the pressure of an around-the-clock news cycle drove and distorted critical battle decisions, such as troop drawdowns, the fight for Fallujah, and the transfer of sovereignty.
In addition, Sanchez shares the story of his career. He tells of the journey from his poverty-stricken youth on the Texas banks of the Rio Grande to joining the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at sixteen and later serving in Kosovo, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and, ultimately, Iraq. At the time of his retirement, Sanchez was the highest-ranking Hispanic in the U.S. Army.
The first book written by a former on-site commander in Iraq, Wiser in Battle is essential reading for all who wish to understand the current war and the American military's role in the new century.

“Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism” Kevin Phillips
In American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips warned us of the perilous interaction of debt, financial recklessness, and the increasing cost of scarce oil. The current housing and mortgage debacle is proof once more of Phillips’s prescience, and only the first harbinger of a national crisis. In Bad Money, Phillips describes the consequences of our misguided economic policies, our mounting debt, our collapsing housing market, our threatened oil, and the end of American domination of world markets. America’s current challenges (and failures) run striking parallels to the decline of previous leading world economic powers—especially the Dutch and British. Global overreach, worn-out politics, excessive debt, and exhausted energy regimes are all chilling signals that the United States is crumbling as the world superpower.

“Bad money” refers to a new phenomenon in wayward megafinance—the emergence of a U.S. economy that is globally dependent and dominated by hubris-driven financial services. Also “bad” are the risk miscalculations and strategic abuses of new multitrillion-dollar products such as asset-backed securities and the lure of buccaneering vehicles like hedge funds. Finally, the U.S. dollar has been turned into bad money as it has weakened and become vulnerable to the world’s other currencies. In all these ways, “bad” finance has failed the American people and pointed U.S. capitalism toward a global crisis. Bad Money is the perfect follow- up to Phillips’s last book, whose dire warnings are now proving frighteningly accurate.

“Blessed are the Brood Mares” Phyllis Lose
When Blessed Are The Blood Mares was published in 1978, no other single source existed that contained such a wide range of information on the care of the breeding of mare from mating, through gestation, to foaling and nursing, and on the care of the young horse. Now there is: the second edition of this classic.

“Blessed are the Foals” Phyllis Lose
Maintaining that congenital deformities and easy contagion in foals are often the effects of human interventionselective breeding, inbreeding and overcrowded living conditionsveterinarian Lose suggests that nature, therefore, requires human assistance to give the foal a fair chanceat survival. A knowledgeable owner, says Lose, can improve the foal's prospects by paying close attention to the animal's appearance and behavior, because sudden onset of illness in a newborn is not unusual. The key is to assist, not replace, natural processes. For example, she discourages tying off the foal's umbilical cord, which if left to rupture naturally can provide the animal with nourishment and oxygen for half an hour after birth. The volume features careful descriptions of diseases and deformities, as well as clear instructions on when to seek routine or emergency veterinary treatment. Lose provides vaccination schedules, a full section on nutrition, detailed, practical advice on common equine parasites and instructions for husbandry.

“HO” David Halberstam
In exploring the life and career of Ho Chi Minh, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam provides a window into traditions and culture that influenced the American war in Vietnam, while highlighting the importance of nationalism in determining the war's outcome.

“Last Lecture” Randy Pausch
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

“Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter” Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier is one of the most revered actors in the history of Hollywood. He has overcome enormous obstacles in extraordinary times and is a role model for many Americans because of his convictions, bravery, and grace. Poitier reflects on his amazing life in Life Beyond Measure, offering inspirational advice and personal stories in the form of extended letters to his great-granddaughter. Writing for all who admire his example and who search for wisdom only a man of great experience can offer, this American icon shares his thoughts on love, faith, courage, and the future.
Poitier draws upon the perspective and wisdom gained from his memories as a poor boy in the Bahamas, his experience of racism coming to the United States, falling in love and raising a family, breaking the race barrier in theater and film during the Civil Rights Era, achieving stardom and success in Hollywood, and being a diplomat and humanitarian. He reflects on the deepest questions and the significant passages of his life, the virtues that helped him through tough times, and the sense of purpose and history that strengthened him. He emphasizes the importance of the role of faith in a technological age, as well as our responsibility to the earth and future generations. Throughout, Poitier shares stories about the people of courage he has met along the way and the meaning of life in the face of death.
Life Beyond Measure is the perfect book to inspire readers to live the fullest life with integrity, from one of our most respected celebrities and a national treasure.

“Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope” Don & Susie Van Ryn, Colleen & Whitney Cerak Newell
Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family.
This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?
Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found.
And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings.
Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable.

“Moyers on Democracy” Bill Moyers
People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America’s most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. “And one reason,” writes noted journalist Bill McKibben, “is that Moyers pulls no punches. His understanding of America’s history is at least as deep as his understanding of Christian tradition, which is an integral part of his background . . . With his feet firmly planted in the deepest American traditions, Bill Moyers is helping to keep alive an oratorical tradition that is fading after two centuries. Trained by his career in broadcasting, he writes for the ear, his cadences and his repetitions timed to bring an audience to full realization of its role and its power.”  And that is the message of this book. Moyers on Democracy collects many of Bill Moyers’s most moving statements to connect the dots on what is happening to our country—the twinned growth of private wealth and public squalor, the assault on our Constitution, the undermining of the electoral process, the accelerating class war against ordinary (and vulnerable) Americans inherent in the growth of economic inequality, the dangers of an imperial executive, the attack on the independence of the press, the despoiling of the earth we share as our common gift—and to rekindle the reader’s conviction that “the gravediggers of democracy will not have the last word.” Richly insightful and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential reading in this fateful presidential year.

“Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America” Rick Perstein
How did we go from Lyndon Johnson's landslide Democratic victory in 1964 to Richard Nixon's equally lopsided Republican reelection only eight years later? The years in between were among the most chaotic in American history, with an endless and unpopular war, riots, assassinations, social upheaval, Southern resistance, protests both peaceful and armed, and a "Silent Majority" that twice elected the central figure of the age, a brilliant politician who relished the battles of the day but ended them in disgrace. In Nixonland Rick Perlstein tells a more familiar story than the one he unearthed in his influential previous book, Before the Storm, which argued that the stunning success of modern conservatism was founded in Goldwater's massive 1964 defeat. But he makes it fresh and relentlessly compelling, with obsessive original research and a gleefully slashing style--equal parts Walter Winchell and Hunter S. Thompson--that's true to the times. Perlstein is well known as a writer on the left, but his historian's empathies are intense and unpredictable: he convincingly channels the resentment and rage on both sides of the battle lines and lets neither Nixon's cynicism nor the naivete of liberals like New York mayor John Lindsay off the hook. And while election-year readers will be reminded of how much tamer our times are, they'll also find that the echoes of the era, and its persistent national divisions, still ring loud and clear.

“A Rare Breed of Love:” Jana Kohl
When you meet Baby, the first thing you notice is her limp. She only has three legs, you see -- she lost one following years of mistreatment at a puppy mill. But spend a little more time with Baby and her irrepressible "Ma," Jana Kohl, and you'll hear the story of how this gentle creature has gone from puppy-mill victim to celebrity "spokesdog" -- hobnobbing with celebrities, lobbying politicians, and inspiring an entire movement to end the kind of animal abuse she suffered for so many years.
Several years ago, Jana decided she wanted to buy a toy poodle. But the nightmarish conditions she was confronted with at a breeder's farm -- hundreds of dogs confined to small, dirty cages for their entire lives until they were killed for the crime of being too old to produce puppies -- opened her eyes to abuses in the world of commercial breeding. There are thousands of puppy mills all across the United States, and most of those cute little puppies in pet store windows are products of such nightmarish places. Jana knew this was a wrong she couldn't ignore.
Her first step was to adopt a rescued adult dog instead of buying a puppy from a commercial breeder. And that's how she found Baby, a roughly nine-year-old poodle who had been locked in a cage. But Jana's mission didn't stop there. Soon, Jana and Baby (whose sweet face and three-legged hobble attract attention wherever she goes) found themselves speaking to groups about the terrible conditions at many breeders' farms and urging politicians to change the lax laws that regulate this industry. Today, Baby is the unofficial spokesdog for the Humane Society of the United States on the topic of puppy mills, and she and Jana travel around the country lobbying for reform on this important issue.
A Rare Breed of Love contains more than sixty photographs of Baby with many of her high-profile fans, from Barack Obama to Judge Judy to Patti LaBelle, as well as original essays from luminaries such as Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem about the special love we all have for the pets in our lives. In this heartbreaking, compelling, and ultimately heartwarming book, Jana Kohl and Baby offer practical advice on what each of us can do to raise awareness, make a difference, and stop animal suffering everywhere.

“Right is Wrong” Arianna Huffington
With her trademark passion, intelligence, and devastating wit, Huffington Post editor in chief Arianna Huffington tackles the issues that are crucial to this year’s presidential election and, even more so, to the fate of the country.

Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked from within by a radical element—the “lunatic fringe” of the Right that has taken over the Republican Party. Despite holding views at odds with the majority of Americans, these zealots have given us an endless war in Iraq, a sputtering economy, a health care system on life support, a war on science and reason, and an immoral embrace of torture.

But they haven’t done it on their own: they have been enabled by a compliant media that act as if there is no such thing as truth and are more interested in cozying up to those in power than in holding them accountable, and by feckless Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated into backing down again and again.

Both a withering indictment and a hopeful call to arms, Right Is Wrong is an explosive, boldly incisive work that will help set the national agenda.

“Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea” Chelsea Handler
When Chelsea Handler needs to get a few things off her chest, she appeals to a higher power -- vodka. You would too if you found out that your boyfriend was having an affair with a Peekapoo or if you had to pretend to be honeymooning with your father in order to upgrade to first class. Welcome to Chelsea's world -- a place where absurdity reigns supreme and a quick wit is the best line of defense.
In this hilarious, deliciously skewed collection, Chelsea mines her past for stories about her family, relationships, and career that are at once singular and ridiculous. Whether she's convincing her third-grade class that she has been tapped to play Goldie Hawn's daughter in the sequel to Private Benjamin, deciding to be more egalitarian by dating a redhead, or looking out for a foulmouthed, rum-swilling little person who looks just like her...only smaller, Chelsea has a knack for getting herself into the most outrageous situations. Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea showcases the candor and irresistible turns of phrase that have made her one of the freshest voices in comedy today.  

“Why Men Die First: How to Lengthen Your Lifespan” Marianne Legato
It is a universal fact that men die before women. But the causes of this have long remained unexplored. In this trailblazing book, Dr. Marianne Legato--an expert in gender specific health--examines the reasons behind men's fragility and explains what they need to do to live longer.
A bestselling author and Professor of Medicine at Columbia University, Dr. Legato shows how the forces of culture and biology conspire against male mortality. Drawing on the latest research and narrated through the lives of her patients, she delves into problems that both men and women care about-- from why the male fetus is at greater risk, to why boys have a hard time adjusting to school, to how elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol make men more prone to aggression and why they are more likely to die from cardiac arrest or cancer and even depression.
Dr. Legato brings the possibility of both mental and physical wellbeing to men in this compelling and inspiring book. A superstar physician, celebrated annually in New York Magazine's Best Doctors Issue, Dr. Legato is well poised to take on this urgent topic with her unimpeachable authority and natural warmth.

BOOK ON CD

“The Host” Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer, creator of the phenomenal teen-vamp Twilight series, takes paranormal romance into alien territory in her first adult novel. Those wary of sci-fi or teen angst will be pleasantly surprised by this mature and imaginative thriller, propelled by equal parts action and emotion. A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the minds and bodies of most humans, but feisty Melanie Stryder won't surrender her mind to the alien soul called Wanderer. Overwhelmed by Melanie's memories of fellow resistor Jared, Wanderer yields to her body's longing and sets off into the desert to find him. Likely the first love triangle involving just two bodies, it's unabashedly romantic, and the characters (human and alien) genuinely endearing. Readers intrigued by this familiar-yet-alien world will gleefully note that the story's end leaves the door open for a sequel--or another series.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

“Gossip Girl, The Carlyles #1” Cecily Von Ziegesar
Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen were the reigning princesses of the Upper East Side.

Until now.

In Gossip Girl, The Carlyles the inimitable Gossip Girl introduces the most fabulous sixteen year-old triplets to ever inhabit the Upper East Side. When the Waldorfs move from their apartment at the end of Don't You Forget About Me, the Carlyle triplets of Nantucket, Massachusetts--Owen, Baby, and Peyton-- move in. In the new titles of the Gossip Girl series, we will follow the Carlyles, plus three other teenagers living in gorgeous apartments, attending the most exclusive prvate schools-- the familiar Constance Billard School for Girls and St. Jude's School for Boys-- and treating New York's Upper East Side as their personal playground. Welcome to the new era.

Lucky for you, Gossip Girl is there to whisper all their juicy secrets...

“The Boxer and the Spy” Robert B. Parker
When the body of Jason Green is found, his classmates, teachers and administrators at Cabot, north of Boston, accept the cops' official findings that he killed himself because he was juiced with "roids". Only student athlete Terry Novak disagrees with the prevalent suicide theory; he knows that Jason may have been a lover, but was not a jock so would not have done steroids to become a landscape designer as the teen planned to be. Terry wonders if his classmate he was murdered.

Terry half persuades his best friend Abby to help him investigate the death. However, he makes little progress until his trainer retired professional boxer George encourages him to hold his head up, jab away, and not quit. Heeding that advice, Terry keeps digging not aware the danger he brings to himself and Abby by someone who wants the ruling to remain suicide.

Robert B. Parker provides an engaging high school mystery starring a young sleuth trying to uncover the truth about the recent death of a classmate. With a strong support cast from George to cigarette smoking Beverly, Suzi and Tank to Mr. Principal and more, the story line is fast-paced from the first jab to the last as Terry and Abby follow clues that lead them to danger.

“Found” Margaret Peterson Haddix
Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."
Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere -- and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.
Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?
With Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix begins a new series that promises to be every bit as suspenseful as her Shadow Children series -- which has sold more than 41/2 million copies -- and proves her, once again, to be a master of the page-turner.

“Rumors: A Luxe Novel” Anna Godbersen
After bidding good-bye to New York's brightest star, Elizabeth Holland, rumors continue to fly about her untimely demise.
All eyes are on those closest to the dearly departed: her mischievous sister, Diana, now the family's only hope for redemption; New York's most notorious cad, Henry Schoon-maker, the flame Elizabeth never extinguished; the seductive Penelope Hayes, poised to claim all that her best friend left behind—including Henry; even Elizabeth's scheming former maid, Lina Broud, who discovers that while money matters and breeding counts, gossip is the new currency.
As old friends become rivals, Manhattan's most dazzling socialites find their futures threatened by whispers from the past. In this delicious sequel to The Luxe, nothing is more dangerous than a scandal . . . or more precious than a secret.

“Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs” Jen Calonita
The filming for sure-to-be-blockbuster movie Pretty Young Assassins has wrapped, and teen movie star Kaitlin Burke returns to life on the set of primetime drama Family Affair. After ten seasons of filming the hit favorite TV show, Kaitlin would have thought that she could see any curveballs coming, but with a plotting new actress on set, all bets are off. The new diva, Alexis, makes even Kaitlin's long-time nemesis Skye seem like a puppy in comparison. Can Kaitlin keep her sane boyfriend, her insane job, and her composure in the face of this new star power?

Combining the vicarious glamour of the New York Times bestselling A-List series with the innocence of The Princess Diaries, this commercial and appealing sequel offers another captivating glimpse behind the velvet ropes of stardom.

Tantalizing new Hollywood secrets appear throughout.

JUVENILE FICTION

“The Willoughbys” Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry, who casts her noble and enviable shadow wide across the landscape of children's literature, from fantasy to realism, here turns her quick, sly gaze to parody, a word which in this case means "a short novel mocking the conventions of old-fashioned children's books stuffed with orphans, nannies and long-lost heirs." These clichés are ripe if familiar targets, but Ms. Lowry knocks off these barrel-dwelling fish with admirable aplomb in The Willoughbys, in which two wicked parents cannot wait to rid themselves of their four precocious children, and vice versa, and vice versa versa, and so on. The nanny adds a spoonful of sugar and a neighboring candy magnate a side order of Dahl, if you follow me, as the book's lightning pace traipses through the hallmarks of classic orphan literature helpfully listed in the bibliography, from the baby on the doorstep to the tardy yet timely arrival of a crucial piece of correspondence. The characters, too, find these tropes familiar-"What would good old-fashioned people do in this situation?" one asks-as does the omniscient, woolgathery narrator, who begins with "Once upon a time" and announces an epilogue with "Oh, what is there to say at the happy conclusion of an old-fashioned story?" This critic even vaguely recognizes the stratagem of a glossary, in which the more toothsome words are defined unreliably and digressively. (He cannot put his finger on it, at least not in public.) Never you mind. The novel does make a few gambits for anachronistic musings ("Oh goodness, do we have to walk them into a dark forest? I don't have the right shoes for that") and even wry commentary ("That is how we billionaires exist," says the man who is not Willy Wonka. "We profit on the misfortune of others") but mostly the book plays us for laughs, closer to the Brothers Zucker than the Brothers Grimm, and by my count the hits (mock German dialogue, e.g., "It makesch me vant to womit") far outnumber the misses (an infant named Baby Ruth, oy). There are those who will find that this novel pales in comparison to Ms. Lowry's more straight-faced efforts, such as The Giver. Such people are invited to take tea with the Bobbsey Twins. Ms. Lowry and I will be across town downing something stronger mixed by Anastasia Krupnik, whom one suspects of sneaking sips of Ms. Lowry's bewitching brew.

“The Penderwicks on Gardam Street” Jeanne Birdsall
THE PENDERWICK SISTERS are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn’t quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick’s sister has decided it’s time for him to start dating—and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan—a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It’s high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return.

“Kaline Klattermaster’s Tree House” Haven Kimmel
Kaline Klattermaster LOVES his mom. ADORES his mom. But his mom can be, well, a bit forgetful sometimes. A bit lax. A bit...CRAZY. For instance, she's a bit crazy when she leaves him in the tub for THREE HOURS. Or gives him a chicken leg for breakfast...or forgets that he needs to go to school. AND he's not completely sure his mother understands how time works.
She's been even a bit MORE CRAZY since his dad left. So it's a very good thing that the folks in Kaline's tree house are not so crazy. They understand him. They don't mind that he sometimes HAS to play his pretend bugle, and, of course, they are FULL of good advice on how to handle bullies.
His mom hints that the tree house is imaginary. Kaline is UNCONVINCED.

“Heroes A2Z #3: Cherry Bomb Squad” Charles David, David Anthony, & Lys Blakeslee
In this adventure, a family visit to Cherry Olde Orchard becomes a waking, walking, nightmare. The trees pick up root and start laying down the lumber. If that's not enough, their cherry bombs will flatten anything in their path. Traverse City and the National Cherry Festival will never be the same.

“Heroes A2Z #4: Digging for Dinos” Charles David, David Anthony, & Lys Blakeslee
Beaches, Bones, and Petoskey Stones. Who Knows What Dinosaurs Are Made Of? Traverse City, Michigan is home to three extraordinary heroes. Meet Abigail, the oldest. When it comes to sports, she can't be beat. Andrew is her twin. If it has wheels, he can ride it. Baby Zoe is the youngest but also the strongest. Don't let the diaper fool you! In this adventure, a trip to the lake turns into anything but a day at the beach. Digging is usually for making sand castles, but our heroes have other plans. They dig so deep that they discover something terrifying and better off buried. Worse, it's got a bone to pick with them-several hundred, actually.

JUVENILE NON-FICTION

“The Book of Time Outs: A Mostly True History of the World’s Biggest Troublemakers” Deb Lucke
Ranging from ancient history to the present, this wonderfully comical book with its superbly hilarious illustrations present episodes from the lives of famous people who needed a "time out" when they did things which upset others. Not meant entirely to be a history lesson, it is instead a book that introduces to children the notion that even famous and powerful people have had to have "time outs" for behaving badly. Such a refreshing notion for today's world, and perhaps required reading for every military dictator, president and prime minister.

“Art of the Catapult” William Gurstelle
This collection of 10 working catapult projects offers a fascinating look at world history, military strategy, and physics, related with an engaging yet lighthearted touch. This historical context makes the projects all the more interesting. The working model of the Macedonian Ballista is cool, but even more so when one learns the role that catapults played in the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Instructions are clear, with full materials lists, helpful diagrams, and no skipped steps. Saw and drill are often required, along with hardware store purchases such as PVC pipe or specifically sized wood. Some of the finished results are large, such as God's Stone Thrower, a 5' x 5' construction with considerable flinging power, while a couple are smaller, tabletop-sized models that still propel successfully. Since the ultimate object is to fling things through the air, there is repeated emphasis on safety, including a first chapter entitled "Always Be Careful," an "adult supervision required" statement for every construction, and repeated warnings within the text. As for projectiles, water balloons, peanuts, and plastic cows are mentioned among "suitable ammunition," rather than the venomous snakes, cattle manure, or severed heads referred to in the historical portions. There's excellent booktalk potential here, and lively reading even for those who never get around to constructing a catapult.

“Construct-A-Catapult” Lee Pulis
It's no stretch to claim that catapults are fun. Launch your students into a hands-on application of concepts such as torsion and elasticity as they learn the physics behind overcoming gravity and hurling objects through the air - SAFELY. Your students will get the additional benefit of a historical perspective (catapults were once a basic tool of war) as they consider design improvements in the process of projectile launching. By relating the effects of different force settings to distance projections, you can also introduce your students to the analysis of frequency distributions.

EASY FICTION

“Scared Squirrel at the Beach” Melanie Watt
We know by now that Scaredy Squirrel only feels safe when he's at home in his nut tree, with his defenses, his emergency kit and his back-up plans at the ready. So even though the sun is shining and it's time for a vacation, Scaredy does not want to go to the beach — that vast, frightening place where a squirrel could get stranded. (Not to mention other hazards such as sea monsters, falling coconuts, seagulls, pirates and lobsters.) Instead, Scaredy builds his own safe beach getaway under his nut tree, complete with germ-free inflatable pool, artificial beach scenery, a flashlight and a plastic flamingo. Still, the lure of the genuine beach is strong — even a dedicated homebody such as Scaredy can't resist it forever. Can his back-up plans save him from its perils? Will his No.65 sunscreen protect his delicate complexion?

“Max’s Bunny Business” Rosemary Wells
Bunny business? Funny business!
Max’s sister, Ruby, and her best friend, Louise, are in business. They have big plans for the profits from their lemonade stand, and they definitely don’t want Max to help or share. But trust Max to have plans of his own. He just might show Ruby that he has a better way to run a bunny business.
Everyone’s favorite bunnies, Max and Ruby, appear in a popular television series on Nickelodeon.

“Froggy Goes to Camp” Jonathan London
Look out, Camp Run-A-Muck! Here comes Froggy. . . .
Froggy’s off to camp—and Camp Run-A-Muck will never be the same!
Froggy packs a lot into one week: hikes and archery lessons, K.P. and food fights, scary stories and funny songs around the campfire. But only Froggy could also manage to lose his trunks during swim class and overturn his kayak with the camp director in it. Lovable, bumbling Froggy will keep his many fans laughing with his latest antics.  

“Young Cam Jansen and the Molly Shoe Mystery” David A. Adler
Will gumshoe Cam find Aunt Molly’s shoes?
Aunt Molly is in town. Cam Jansen and her best friend, Eric Shelton, are at the airport to greet her. They find Aunt Molly, but her favorite high heels are missing! Did she leave them in Peru, or China, or behind a trash can? Cam clicks her way through this brain-twisting easy-to-read mystery.  

“Seven Silly Eaters” Mary Ann Hoberman
In this highly comic rhyming romp that surprisingly (and nicely) twists into a birthday story, Hoberman and Frazee tweak fussy eaters with style and panache. The author's lighthearted touch takes readers swiftly through the arrival of the Peters's seven children?each with a distinct bias for the food that he or she will or will not eat. Peter likes milk of a certain temperature, Lucy demands homemade pink lemonade, Jack limits his menu to applesauce, Mac insists his oatmeal be strained, Mary Lou consumes only "soft and squishy homemade bread," and the twins are strictly egg eaters. While Mrs. Peters lovingly accommodates her brood, Frazee's illustrations energetically depict the true story. Chaos reigns throughout the house as Mrs. Peters squeezes, strains, peels, kneads, and bakes, becoming wearier with every passing year. The minutia of a seven-child home spills around the pictures in a realistic but never obtrusive way, and the artist further bolsters the scenes with individualized and effective facial expressions and body postures. When Mother's birthday approaches, the children, taxing in their dietary demands but nonetheless loving, decide to treat her to "A breakfast made of all the foods/that kept them in such happy moods." The result, both hilarious and satisfying, could add humor to classroom units on nutrition and to discussions on sibling relationships; the book will also be a good companion to Lee Bennett Hopkins's Munching (Little, Brown, 1985).

EASY NON-FICTION

“Before John Was a Jazz Giant” Carole Boston Weatherford
Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear growing up in the South in the 1930s: preachers praying, music on the radio, the bustling of the household. These vivid noises shaped John’s own sound as a musician. Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls have composed an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane.

Library Updates and New Arrivals 5/19/08 - 5/24/08

2008-05-16T10:52:00.005-04:00

As we progress in moving to a new library automation system, please remember to come into the library to fill out a new library card application!

We hope, within a year's time, to go live with the new system and you will be receiving a new library card!

Moving to a new automation system is essential for our library and for our patrons. As technology progresses, your library should be doing the same. In the future a couple of the main features that we are excited about are; you will be able to manage your library account online and will have access to our online library catalogue!

We hope that you are as excited about moving to a new system as we are!

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At this week's storytime, the kids got to take home something special for Mom and Dad! A new PET Rock! They kids decorated their new bets with feathers, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and other random craft objects.

Miss Donna read, "How Much is that Doggy in the Window?" by Iza Trapani and "Raccoon Tune" by Nancy Shaw.

Next week is Miss Donna's last week to do storytime for the spring! The last two weeks, Miss Lorie will be holding storytime for the kids! Rumor has it, the kids might be making Kites!

Remember that the last story time for the Spring is on June 3rd.

Then it will be time for the SUMMER READING PROGRAM!!!

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This year's 2008 Summer Reading Program theme is "Catch the Reading Bug."

June 10 - August 2

Sign-up begins Tuesday, June 10th at 10 am at the library!

We won't be accepting phone reservations until after 12 noon that day! (810.798.3100) Remember that pre-registration is required for all of the SRP performances! Signing up for the program itself does not require pre-registration.

Performances this year are:

June 24th @ 11am - Animal Encounters

July 8th @ 11am & 1pm - Kevin Kammeraad

[Poetry, Puppetry, Music]

July 15th @ 11am, 12:30pm, & 2pm - Science Alive

July 22nd @ 11am & 1pm - Joel Tracey

[Comedy & Juggling]

July 29th @ 11am & 1pm - Fields of Flutter, Butterflies

The Almont District Library celebrates the Summer Reading Program to help promote and encourage reading for kids of all ages.

For every 2 hours that a child reads (or a parent reads to the child), he or she will receive prizes up to 10 hours of total reading.

When the child reaches 10 hours, they will receive a free book!

For every additional 2 hours after 10, the child will have their name placed into a drawing for the grand prize drawings at the end of the SRP.

A couple of reminders:

The SRP's performances will fill up fast because of the limited amount of space available. Please sign up as soon as possible to ensure you and your child will receive a spot!

All of the SRP performances are on Tuesdays.

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DVDs

"National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets"

"Little Einstein's Race for Space"

"Wonder Pets: Save the Dinosaur!"

"The Ten Commandments"

"Davie & Golimyr"

"Mayo Clinic: Diabetes"

"Mayo Clinic: IBS"

"Mayo Clinic: Back Pain"

"Mayo Clinic: Weight Loss"

"Mayo Clinic: Arthritis"

Adult Fiction

“Odd Hours” Dean Koontz

Only a handful of fictional characters are recognized by first name alone. Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas is one of those rare literary heroes who have come alive in readers’ imaginations as he explores the greatest mysteries of this world and the next with his inimitable wit, heart, and quiet gallantry. Now Koontz follows Odd as he is irresistibly drawn onward to a destiny he cannot imagine and to undreamed of places where the perils he will face and the stakes for which he fights will eclipse all that he has known.

The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas’s gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends—and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world—not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas.

After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil that separates him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks—his dog Boo and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority…and in this dark night of the soul dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.

Burnishing Dean Koontz’s stature as a master of suspense and one of our most innovative and gifted storytellers, Odd Hours illuminates a legacy of mystery and hope that will shine on long after the final page.

“Blood Trail: A Joe Pickett Novel” C.J. Box

It’s elk season in the Rockies, but this year a different kind of hunter is stalking a different kind of prey. When the call comes in on the radio, Joe Pickett can hardly believe his ears: game wardens have found a hunter dead at a camp in the mountains—strung up, gutted, and flayed, as if he were the elk he’d been pursuing. A spent cartridge and a poker chip lie next to his body.

Ripples of horror spread through the community, and with a possibly psychotic killer on the loose Governor Rulon is forced to end the hunting season early for the first time in state history. Are the murders the work of a deranged antihunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta?

As always, Joe Pickett is the governor’s go-to man, and he’s put on the case to track the murderous hunter, as more bodies and poker chips turn up.

Bold, fast-paced, and with a controversial hook—hunting versus antihunting activists—Blood Trail is proof that C. J. Box is an ever-rising talent.

“The Girl With No Shadow” Joanne Harris

Harris revisits characters from 1999's bestselling Chocolat in this equally delectable modern fairy tale. More than four years have passed since Vianne Rocher pitted her enchanted chocolate confections against the local clergy's interpretation of Lent in smalltown France; since then, Vianne has renounced magic, changed her name to Yanne Charbonneau and moved with her two daughters to Paris's Montmartre district. There, Yanne embraces conformity and safety, much to the dismay of her increasingly troubled older daughter, Anouk. When Anouk becomes entranced with Zozie de l'Alba, an exotic itinerant who happens upon a job at the new shop, and the relationship grows increasingly sinister, Yanne must call up all of Vianne's powers, culinary and mystical, to save her family. Harris again structures the narrative (told in alternate chapters by Zozie, Yanne and Anouk) around a liturgical season (in this case Advent). Harris gives fans much to savor in this multilayered novel, from the descriptions (including Yanne's mouthwatering chocolate confections, Zozie's whimsical footwear and Anouk's artistic efforts) to the novel's classic, enduring theme of good vs. evil—and the difficulty of telling the difference.

Adult Non-Fiction

“The Secret to True Happiness” Joyce Meyer

For all the technology, conveniences, and advantages we experience in today's world, many of us struggle just to get through each day. After coming through what seemed like a lifetime of abuse, hardship, and oppression, Joyce Meyer has come to live every day in victory and joy. In her new book, she spreads the word that an exciting, enjoyable life is available to everyone! The breakthrough for Joyce came when she started to look at herself through God's eyes. There, she not only saw the truth about herself and changes she needed to make, but came to know His unconditional love. Joyce has packed this book with biblical principles and practical application revealing secrets she has discovered for living a full and joyful life. After reading this informative and entertaining book, you will be ready to ENJOY TODAY and EMBRACE TOMORROW.

“The First 30 Days: You Guide to Any Change (And Loving Your Life More)” Ariane de Bonvoisin

Has a change happened in your life that you are having trouble accepting? Is there a change you would like to make to help you love life more? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this is the book for you.

This year alone, many of us will fall in love, get in shape, and start new companies, while some of us will lose a job, deal with health complications, or get divorced. Although we often try to ignore change, whether good or bad, it is the one constant. Now, with The First 30 Days, we can learn how to embrace change, move through it, and successfully navigate the twists and turns of life.

The First 30 Days reveals how the beginning of any change is a pivotal time that can either leave us stressed and stuck or lead us forward in our lives with clarity and hope. Change coach Ariane de Bonvoisin provides the tools to make each change a new beginning, whether it is a change you want to make or one brought on by a situation out of your control. Ariane introduces nine principles that will help you develop an optimistic mind-set toward change, an attitude that encourages you to see that life is on your side and that good can come from even the most difficult circumstance. With real-life stories, practical exercises, and inspiring action points, The First 30 Days teaches the skills you need to face any change--skills that will help you today and for the rest of your life.

Book on CDs

“The Rosetta Key” William Dietrich

Last seen in Dietrich's Napoleon's Pyramids, fleeing the forces of evil in a runaway hot-air balloon over Egypt, Ethan Gage undergoes further life-threatening adventures in this rollicking sequel. Nine months before the balloon incident, Gage arrived in the Holy Land with his benefactor, Napoleon Bonaparte. After various misunderstandings involving the secrets of the Great Pyramid, Bonaparte became his implacable enemy. Now, accused of treason by Napoleon's minions, Pierre Najac and Najac's boss, the French-Italian count and sorcerer Alessandro Silano, Gage flees to Jerusalem, where he searches for his former lover, Astiza, who he fears has fallen into Silano's hands. Gage is also hunting clues that may lead him to the fabled Book of Toth, an ancient tome that promises to reveal the secrets of the universe. Ever the incorrigible gambler and all-around scamp, Gage makes an irresistible antihero. The ending promises more volumes in what one hopes will be a long series.

“The God of War” Marisa Silver

An elegantly observed coming-of-age story steeped in poverty and violence, this novel by the author of No Direction Home offers a poignant and often heartbreaking account of Ares Ramirez. The year is 1978, and 12-year-old Ares has outgrown the cramped trailer in the California desert that he shares with his mother, Laurel, and six-year-old brother, Malcolm. Malcolm has profound developmental disabilities, but Laurel, out of a free-spirited and self-righteous view of motherhood, has only recently (and very reluctantly) allowed Malcolm to get treatment. A horrific childhood accident and encroaching adolescence, meanwhile, fill Ares with a potent and inarticulate anger. In the absence of any outlet for his preoccupation with violence, Ares falls into an uneasy friendship with Kevin, the troubled foster child of Malcolm's new speech therapist. Conflict with Laurel, her on-again-off-again boyfriend and a small community that will not accept Malcolm, drive Ares into Kevin's manipulative sway, and Ares will have to choose between protecting his family or embracing the violence building inside him. The characters are painted with compassion and unflinching honesty, and the climax is pithy and consequential.

“Where Are You Now?” Mary Higgins Clark

It has been ten years since 21-year-old Kevin MacKenzie, Jr. ("Mac"), has been missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already enrolled in Duke University Law School, he walked out of his room in Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommate and has never been seen again. However, he does make three ritual phone calls to his mother every year: on her birthday, on his birthday, and on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up. Even the death of his father, a corporate lawyer, on 9/11 does not bring him home, or break the pattern of his calls.

Mac's sister Carolyn is now 26, a law school graduate, and has just been hired as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies -- her brother's inexplicable disappearance, and the loss of her father. Realizing that neither she nor her mother will ever be able to have closure and get on with their lives until they find her brother, she sets out to discover what happened to Mac, and why he has found it necessary to hide from them.

Her journey into the world of people who willingly disappear from their own lives leads her to learn about others who may or may not still be alive, and ultimately to a deadly confrontation with someone close to her who suddenly becomes an enemy -- and cannot allow her to disclose his secret...  

“The Sepulchre” Kate Mosse

Contrivance, cliché and expository overkill overwhelm bestseller Mosse's tale concerning a rare tarot deck that helps link the lives of two women living eras apart. In 1891, Parisian teenager Léonie Vernier and her brother visit their young aunt at an estate in southern France. After finding a startling account of her late uncle's pursuit of the occult, Léonie scours the property for the tarot cards and Visigoth tomb he describes, unaware that more tangible peril in the form of a murderous stalker is seeking to destroy her loved ones. Present-day biographer Meredith Martin is in France finishing a book and tracing her ancestry when she sees a reproduction of the same tarot, which bears her likeness. She investigates the connection when she, too, arrives at the estate, now a hotel in which a new battle between good and evil rages. Mosse (Labyrinth) conveys so much unnecessary information through so many static scenes of talk, reading and interior monologue that the book's momentum stalls for good soon after its striking opening. Mosse's fans will hope for a return to form next time.

“The Whole Truth” David Baldacci

"Matt, I need a war."

So begins David Baldacci's new book--a thriller unlike any he's written before. "Matt" is Mathew Pender, of Pender Associates--a shadowy organization that specializes in managing seemingly impossible situations for its clients. Sometimes, those services extend to managing--and creating--armed conflict. When Matt Pender is asked by his client--the largest defense contractor in the world--to manipulate two nations against each other, a shocking and surprising series of events are set in motion that will possibly bring the world to the brink of World War III.*

In this epic thriller with a global backdrop, David Baldacci delivers all the twists and turns, compelling characters, and can't-put-it-down pacing that readers have come to expect from this master storyteller.

“You: The Owner’s Manual” (Updated and Expanded Edition) Michael F. Roizen, MD & Mehmet C. Oz, MD

Our favorite docs, Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, have returned to the book that started it all. With brand new chapters on the liver and pancreas, a Q&A section, and The Owner's Manual Workout, You: The Owner's Manual, Updated and Expanded Edition is an even more vital guide to the most important person in your life—you.

Young Adult Fiction

“Smiles to Go” Jerry Spinelli

What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe?

Jerry Spinelli knows.

Junior Fiction

“Outcast: Warriors Power of Three #3” Erin Hunter

There will be three,  

Kin of you kin.... 

Who hold the

Power of the stars 

In their paws.

A secret prophecy shapes the lives of Firestar's grandchildren, but only one of the three knows about it. Jaypaw is captivated by the power it promises, and he believes the key to that power may lie buried in the distant past -- with the ancient cats who once walked these woods and now prowl through his dreams. His search for answers leads him toward the mountains -- the home of the Tribe of Rushing Water. Lionpaw and Hollypaw feel drawn to the mountains too, for different reasons.

But the mountains hide secrets as well as answers, and if the three cats find a way to get there, they may discover more than they ever expected.

Junior Non-Fiction

“The Mysterious Universe: Supernova, Dark Energy and Black Holes” Ellen Jackson

The universe is rapidly expanding. Of that much scientists are certain. But how fast? And with what implications regarding the fate of the universe?

Ellen Jackson and Nic Bishop follow Dr. Alex Fillippenko and his High-Z

Supernova Search Team to Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, where they will study space phenomena and look for supernovae, dying stars that explode with the power of billions of hydrogen bombs. Dr. Fillippenko looks for black holes--areas in space with such a strong gravitational pull that no matter or energy can escape from them--with his robotic telescope. And they study the effects of dark energy, the mysterious force that scientists believe is pushing the universe apart, causing its constant and accelerating expansion.

Easy Fiction

“Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words” Jane O’Connor

Fancy Words Are Simply Fascinating!

From everyone's favorite fancy girl comes an alphabetical guide to enhancing vocabulary. Why say beautiful when there are fancy words like gorgeous and glamorous? Instead of hello, try bonjour, which is French and so much fancier. An umbrella will keep you dry, but a parasol will make you feel like a Hollywood movie star!

With this helpful A-to-Z guide, Fancy Nancy shows that making plain words into fancy ones is not only educational, it's fun!

“Read All About It!” Laura Bush and Jenna Bush

Tyrone rules the school!

He's king of the monkey bars, a math machine, and a science whiz.

The only thing he doesn't like about school is reading. Books are so boring! But when strange visitors start dropping by the classroom for story hour, Tyrone discovers there's more to books than just words on pages.

Tyrone and his friends are swept up in a mysterious adventure that lands them in a most unexpected place. Mrs. Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna create a classroom adventure that will leave readers racing to the shelves!

Easy Non-Fiction

“A Home for Dixie” Emma Jackson

For as long as she could remember, Emma had wanted a dog. Instead, she got a fish, a hamster, and even a guinea pig. And although Emma loved all these pets, it was not the same as having a dog.

Meanwhile, an abandoned puppy was brought to an animal rescue. And although this little puppy had a warm place to sleep and food to eat, she dreamed of having her very own family to love.

Happily for both, Emma adopts this puppy and names her Dixie, and in each other they find the companionship they've been looking for. A Home for Dixie is their uplifting story, enhanced by adorable photography and bonus information on how to support your local animal shelter—and even adopt a rescued dog of your own.

New Arrivals 5/12/08-5/17/08

2008-05-09T14:10:00.004-04:00

DVDs

"Lonesome Dove: Complete Collection"

"Charlie and Lola: This is Actually My Party"

"Eloise in Springtime"

"Caillou: Family Favorites"

"The Great Debaters"

"National Geographic: Incredible Human Machine"

Adult Fiction

“Love the One You’re With” Emily Giffin
How do you know if you’ve found the one? Can you really love the one you’re with when you can’t forget the one who got away?

Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof, poses these questions—and many more—with her highly anticipated, thought-provoking new novel Love the One You’re With.

Ellen and Andy’s first year of marriage doesn’t just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she’s living is the one she’s meant to live. At once heartbreaking and funny, Love the One You’re With is a tale of lost loves and found fortunes—and will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered what if.

“The Year of Disappearances” Susan Hubbard
Wherever Ariella Montero goes, it seems, someone is murdered. Writing in a style that The New York Times calls "minimalism O. Henrified," Susan Hubbard continues, with The Year of Disappearances, her heroine's mysterious and spellbinding quest, begun in The Society of S, to recognize the demons who may live inside us and the ones we love -- so that they can be removed.

Adult Non-Fiction

“Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles” Don Felder
The inside story can finally be revealed
The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever, and Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 is the bestselling album of all time in the United States. Through breakup and comeback, arguments and lawsuits, their popularity has continued to soar for more than three decades. Now band member and guitarist DonFelder finally breaks the Eagles' years of public silence to take fans behind the scenes— -where drugs, greed, and endless acrimony threatened to break up the band almost daily.
In Heaven and Hell, Felder shares every part of the band's wild ride, from the pressure-packed recording studios and trashed hotel rooms to the tension-filled courtrooms where he, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley had their ultimate confrontation. Yet, beyond the mayhem and clashing egos that have become standard-issue in rock-and-roll memoirs, Felder also remembers the joy of writing powerful new songs with his bandmates; the magic of performing in huge arenas packed with roaring fans; and the hard work, dedication, and creativity that each band member brought to the music, even in the worst of times.
Offering even-handed and perceptive portraits of every member of the Eagles, Heaven and Hell is a thrilling and thoughtful, raucous and bittersweet tale about the love of music and the price of fame.

“Twisted Triangle: a Famous Crime Writer, a Lesbian Love Affair, and the FBI Husband’s Violent Revenge” Caitlin Rother
Twisted Triangle tells the compelling true story of Margo Bennett, a married FBI agent whose jealous, vengeful husband, Gene Bennett, a former undercover FBI agent, kidnapped and attempted to murder her after she had?a secret love affair with best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.
This series of bizarre events caused a sensation when it made national news a decade ago, but the whole incredible story has never before been told. Only now have Margo Bennett, her friends, and family granted investigative journalist Caitlin Rother exclusive access to personal interviews, previously sealed court records, diaries, letters, and other formerly confidential material. The book details the crazy dynamics of Margo and Gene Bennett's marriage and family, the rise and fall of their FBI careers, and Margo's clandestine lesbian affair with celebrity author Patricia Cornwell. Stranger than fiction, this story describes the makings of Gene's complex plan, his insanity defense, and the trial that ultimately vindicated Margo and sent Gene to prison, where he remains today.
Margo Bennett lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is a captain of the University of California, Berkeley, campus police department. Gene Bennett is incarcerated in Virginia, not far from the Washington DC area, where the events of this fascinating true crime narrative took place.  

“Warman’s Depression Glass Field Guide” Ellen Schroy
Some of the most profitable and exciting collecting opportunities come when least expected, which is good news for you when you have a copy of Warman's Depression Glass Field Guide. The new edition of this affordable and ultra portable (fits in most jacket pockets and purses and totes) guide contains 195 patterns with pricing, 200 color photos and a bonus 150 thumbnail line drawings, to help you with identifying and valuing glass. Plus, this quick spot reference contains a timeline of company history, a color identification guide and contact information for various Depression glass associations, to help keep you in contact with fellow collectors.

“Up Till Now” William Shatner
After almost sixty years as an actor, William Shatner has become one of the most beloved entertainers in the world. And it seems as if Shatner is everywhere. Winning an Emmy for his role on Boston Legal. Doing commercials for Priceline.com. In the movie theaters. Singing with Ben Folds. He’s sitting next to Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s practically a regular on Howard Stern’s show. He was recently honored with election to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. He was a target on a Comedy Central’s Celebrity Roast entitled “The Shat Hits the Fan.” In Up Till Now, Shatner sits down with readers and offers the remarkable, full story of his life and explains how he got to be, well, everywhere.

It was the original Star Trek series, and later its films, that made Shatner instantly recognizable, called by name---or at least by Captain Kirk’s name---across the globe. But Shatner neither began nor has ended his career with that role. From the very start, he took his skills as an actor and put them to use wherever he could. He straddled the classic world of the theater and the new world of television, whether stepping in for Christopher Plummer in Shakespeare’s Henry V or staring at “something on the wing” in a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. And since then, he’s gone on to star in numerous successful shows, such as T.J. Hooker, Rescue 911, and most recently Boston Legal.

William Shatner has always been willing to take risks for his art. What other actor would star in history’s first---and probably only---all-Esperanto-language film? Who else would share the screen with thousands of tarantulas, release an album called Has Been, or film a racially incendiary film in the Deep South during the height of the civil rights era? And who else would willingly paramotor into a field of waiting fans armed with paintball guns, all waiting for a chance to stun Captain…er, Shatner?

In this touching and very funny autobiography, William Shatner reveals the man behind these unforgettable moments, and how he’s become the worldwide star and experienced actor he is today.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House” Charles Osgood
Charles Osgood, one of America's favorite news personalities, offers a hilarious compendium of anecdotes from the last seventy years of presidential campaigns.
With anecdotes from Harry Truman to JFK to George W. Bush, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House captures the wit and humor of the campaign trail. Culled from speeches, interviews, press conferences, as well as articles written by and about the candidates--no source is left untapped.
From Bob Dole telling reporters after a loss in the primary that "I slept like a baby--every two hours I woke up and cried," and Barry Goldwater's comment that his talkative opponent Hubert Humphreys "has been clocked at 275 words a minute with gusts up to 340," to Adlai Stevenson declaring that "If I talk over the people's head, Ike must be talking under their feet," this is the go-to source for campaign humor.
Just when America most needs a good laugh, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House makes the seemingly endless race to the presidency a lot more fun.

“Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog” Ted Kerasote
Kerasote, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award, draws on inspirational experiences with his beloved canine companion, Merle, and extensive research in animal behavior to advance the notion that living in harmony with our dogs requires us to embrace—rather than suppress—their natural instincts. Patrick Lawlor delivers an animated performance, both literally and figuratively. His renderings of Merle's incessant pants of enthusiasm evoke the essence of canine loyalty. Lawlor successfully navigates the potentially tricky terrain of the book's anthropomorphism. He gives voice to Kerasote's human interpretations of Merle's expressions and behaviors in a manner that manages to preserve a healthy measure of mystery and wonder. Lawlor does slightly over-reach with regard to his performance of relatively extraneous human dialogue, especially some of the ethnic accents of experts that Kerasote quotes in the text. While not all pet owners may be able to grant the degree of freedom that Kerasote afforded Merle, this heartwarming story will still manage to enlighten and entertain fans of four-legged memoirs.

Adult Paper Back

“Blood Bank” Tanya Huff
Originally collected in one volume as half of the omnibus edition of The Blood Books: Volume Three, all of Tanya Huff’s short stories featuring homicide cop turned P.I. Vicki Nelson, her partner Mike Celluci, and vampire Henry Fitzroy are now being released in a separate edition to tie-in with the Lifetime television series, Blood Ties.

“Charm School” Susan Wiggs
A cargo-hauling clipper ship would seem an unlikely place for a Boston spinster to acquire social polish, but the insecure Isadora Peabody, who wangles passage aboard the Silver Swan and sets sail for Rio, is not the confident, self-assured woman who returns to set society (and the unworthy object of her former affections) firmly on its ear. A crew of rough, lovable seamen, a single-minded captain who is caught up short by love, and a heroine who finally learns to believe in herself draw readers into this lively, funny story. While a love scene in which the hero gets the heroine high on hemp may tarnish this story for some, the ugly-duckling aspects of the plot and the concern with slavery issues will appeal to fans across the board.

“Danger’s Kiss” Sarah McKerrigan
A trained thief, Desirée of Canterbury can wriggle out of any tight spot with a coy smile. Until she meets her match in Nicholas Grimshaw, the most feared lawman in the shire. Ruggedly handsome and all brawn, Nicholas is the key to avenging the unjust execution of her elderly guardian. Yet the crackling passion burning between them, stoked by every stolen touch, could defeat all her plans.
Nicholas is bound to Desirée by a debt of honor-though the lush, quick-witted beauty may be the death of him yet. Unwillingly installed in his household, Desirée mischievously disrupts his well-ordered life until he doesn't know whether to kiss or kill her. But soon Nicholas must use all his wiles to save them both from a merciless enemy...and, finally, claim her merry heart.

“The Harlequin” Laurell K. Hamilton
At the start of bestseller Hamilton's solid 15th adventure to star vampire hunter Anita Blake, Malcolm, the priggish head of the Church of the Eternal Life (the vampire church), is so desperate for help in dealing with the Harlequin, a troop of vampire enforcers and spies so feared vampires are forbidden to speak its name, he turns to those he considers sinful and corrupt—Anita and her sweetie, Jean-Claude, St. Louis's Master of the City. The Harlequin may have targeted Anita and the powerful triumvirate she has forged with Jean-Claude and Richard Zeeman (aka Ulfric of the werewolves). According to the rules, the Harlequin must make contact through delivery of a mask—white to indicate they are watching, red for pain, black for death. Anita receives a white mask, but the members of the Harlequin aren't playing by the rules. Shorter and more tightly structured than the previous entry in the series, Danse Macabre (2006), Hamilton's latest should prove more satisfying to longtime fans with its straightforward supernatural politics and steamy (but not extreme) sex.

“Kushiel’s Justice” Jacqueline Carey
Bestseller Carey's fifth book in her Kushiel's Legacy series, volume two of her Imriel fantasy trilogy (after 2006's Kushiel's Scion), is a moody tale of violence and divided loyalties. Phèdre nó Delaunay, the sexually adventurous heroine of the first trilogy, has become a placid foster mother to Prince Imriel, son of the unseen traitor Melisande Shahrizai. Carey's infamous explicit sex scenes now portray Imriel's illicit and often violent affair with Sidonie, daughter of Queen Ysandre. Their romance is frustrated by Imriel's obligation to marry Dorelei, an Alban princess, and beget future rulers of Alba. When Dorelei and her unborn son are betrayed and Imriel is badly wounded, he finds himself torn between his vow to avenge his wife and child and his desire to seek solace in Sidonie's arms. His inner conflicts are ameliorated by religious faith, a change from previous books that may please some readers and dismay others. Imriel serves well as protagonist, however, and events are clearly building to what promises to be a spectacular climax in the sixth volume.

“Legacy: Sharing Knife, Book 2” Lois McMaster
Ill-chance brought young Fawn Bluefield together with Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, but it was love and loyalty that joined their fates. While their unorthodox marriage has been grudgingly accepted by the clever farm girl's people, Dag's Lakewalker kin are less tolerant, greeting their union with derision, suspicion, and prejudice.
The specter of permanent exile looms above the couple—until a final decision on their lot is diverted by a sudden, viciously magical malice attack on a neighboring hinterland. Sworn to duty, Dag must answer the call, leaving his new bride behind. But what awaits him and his patrol could have serious and unimagined consequences for farmers and Lakewalkers alike, forever altering the lovers, their families, and their world.

“Silver Flame” Hannah Howell
No one captures the windswept romance of the Scottish Highlands like New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell. In this dazzling novel, a beautiful young woman fights to regain her birthright-and to resist the rugged knight who ignites her deepest desire.For six years, Sine Catriona Brodie has clung to a vow of vengeance. A pickpocket and street performer by trade, Sine bides her time until she can defeat her treacherous kinsmen. Nothing will sway her from her path, not even Gamel Logan-a tall, lean knight whose hungry gaze and heated embrace stir a longing that is both delicious and distracting.From his first glimpse of her at a roadside camp, Gamel knows that Sine, with violet eyes and hair like silken moonlight, is the soul mate he has sought. Yet Sine insists she belongs to another man, though her eager response to his seduction belies her every word. Gamel pledges to help Sine win back her lands from a cunning enemy, but the greater battle will be convincing her to conquer her past and trust in his enduring love...

“To Taste Temptation” Elizabeth Hoyt
The ton loves nothing more than a good scandal, and they're giddy with the appearance of wealthy Samuel Hartley. Not only is he self-made, American, and in the habit of wearing moccasins, but he is also notorious for fleeing a battle in which several English gentlemen lost their lives. What the ton doesn't know, though, is that Samuel is in Londonbecause of this massacre. He believes his regiment was given up to the enemy and won't rest until he finds the traitor.

Lady Emeline Gordon is captivated with Samuel. Not only does he defy convention with his unusual dress, his sensual smile, and his forthright manner, but he survived the battle that killed her beloved brother. Samuel suspects that the person responsible for her brother's death is Jasper Renshaw, Viscount Vale, a family friend since childhood--and Emeline's fiancé. Despite Emeline's belief in Vale's innocence and her refusal to break off her betrothal, she and Samuel begin a passionate affair. But can their relationship survive the fallout from Samuel's investigation?

“A Wanted Man” Linda Lael Miller
The author of more than 60 books, bestseller Miller pounds out another frontier romance loaded with hot lead, steamy sex and surprising plot twists. Rowdy Rhodes is the handsome hunk newly arrived in Stone Creek, Arizona Territory, in 1905. He's living under an assumed name and trying to change his criminal ways, but his plans to go straight go awry when he meets pretty Lark Morgan, a sophisticated local schoolteacher who is secretly on the run from a rich, abusive husband back in Denver. As they flirt, spar and try to keep their own secrets, felonious family members and other more lethal pursuers threaten them both. When Rowdy is tasked with catching the gang of train-robbing outlaws led by his own father, he is in a real dilemma. Between trysts with Lark under the horse blankets and aided by an unlikely tip, Rowdy saves the day after a terrific shootout. He can't, however, save Lark, whose salvation comes in an unexpected and satisfying plot twist. After the last owlhoot hits the dust and the smoke and secrets are cleared up, this zippy horse opera comes to a predictable and comforting ending.

“Grantville Gazette III” Eric Flint
The third volume of short fiction and nonfiction from the e-zine Eric Flint spun off from his alternate-history hit 1632 (2000) boasts the same combination of charm and intelligence as its predecessors and again has continuing character Anne Jefferson on the cover in less than she really enjoys wearing. Meanwhile, at the end, the nonfiction contributors launch a series of articles on seventeenth-century firearms, a topic almost as confused and shifting as seventeenth-century religion. Between cover and guns come stories of refugee experience, of a pastor setting up 12 American men to marry Germans and convert to Lutheranism, of the culture shock when a delegation of Benedictines encounters the 1632 town of Grantville, and of the influence of the Ring of Fire on the already lively enough religious controversy at Cambridge. And an essay considers the likely effects of mechanization on Germany's tangled land tenure system. Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.

Book on CDs

“Smiles to Go” Jerry Spinelli
What is stargazer, skateboarder, chess champ, pepperoni pizza eater, older brother, sister hater, best friend, first kisser, science geek, control freak Will Tuppence so afraid of in this great big universe?
Jerry Spinelli knows.

“The Front” Patricia Cornwell
When Patricia Cornwell introduced the quicksilver, cut-to-the-bone style and extraordinary cast of characters of At Risk, the result was electrifying: “At Risk is Cornwell’s finest novel. It works in every way possible— fascinating characters, solid plot, great pacing and expertly crafted prose” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch); “Absolutely the best. Here’s hoping we’ll see more of Win, Monique, Nana and Sykes in the coming years. They are the best characters to emerge from Cornwell’s creative pen since . . . well, Kay Scarpetta” (The Denver Post).

At Risk featured Massachusetts state investigator Win Garano, a shrewd man of mixed-race background and a notinconsiderable chip on his shoulder; District Attorney Monique Lamont, a hard-charging woman with powerful ambitions and a troubling willingness to cut corners; and Garano’s grandmother, who has certain unpredictable talents that you ignore at your peril.

And in The Front, peril is what comes to them all. D.A. Lamont has a special job for Garano. As part of a new public relations campaign about the dangers of declining neighborhoods, she’s sending him to Watertown to “come up with a drama,” and she thinks she knows just the case that will serve. Garano is very skeptical, because he knows that Watertown is also the home base for a loose association of municipal police departments called the FRONT, set up in order that they don’t have to be so dependent on the state—much to Lamont’s anger. He senses a much deeper agenda here—but he has no idea just how deep it goes. In the days that follow, he’ll find that Lamont’s task, and the places it leads him, will resemble a house of mirrors—everywhere he turns, he’s not quite sure if what he’s seeing is true.
“Falsehoods rule,” warns his grandmother. And they can also kill.
This is the master writing at the absolute top of her game. You will never guess what lies behind The Front.

“Phantom Prey” John Sandford
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body—and her collegeaged daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them—Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this.

But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death in Minneapolis, the widow truly panics. There’s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get him directly involved. Lucas begins to investigate only reluctantly—but then when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jackthe- Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here . . . something very, very bad indeed?

Filled with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the most interesting characters in thriller fiction, Phantom Prey is further proof that “Sandford is in a class of his own”

“Comfort Food” Kate Jacobs
Shortly before turning the big 5-0, boisterous party planner and Cooking with Gusto! personality Augusta “Gus” Simpson finds herself planning a birthday party she’d rather not—her own. She’s getting tired of being the hostess, the mother hen, the woman who has to plan her own birthday party. What she needs is time on her own with enough distance to give her loved ones the ingredients to put together successful lives without her.

Assisted by a handsome up-and-coming chef, Oliver, Gus invites a select group to take an on-air cooking class. But instead of just preaching to the foodie masses, she will teach regular people how to make rich, sensuous meals—real people making real food. Gus decides to bring a vibrant cast of friends and family on the program: Sabrina, her fickle daughter; Troy, Sabrina’s ex-husband; Anna, Gus’s timid neighbor; and Carmen, Gus’s pompous and beautiful competitor at the Cooking Channel. And when she begins to have more than collegial feelings for her sous-chef, Gus realizes that she might be able to rejuvenate not just her professional life, but her personal life as well. . . .

“Final Salute” Jim Sheeler
Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler’s unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final Salute Is a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them

They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. “The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know,” said Major Steve Beck.

Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines.

Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine’s name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark.

In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Salute is the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.

“Harvesting the Heart” Jodi Picoult
Picoult ( Songs of the Humpback Whales ) brings her considerable talents to this contemporary story of a young woman in search of her identity. Abandoned by her mother when she was five years old, Paige O'Toole has been left with painful doubts about her self-worth. She leaves her Chicago home for Cambridge, Mass., at 18 to fulfill herself as an artist, but must work in a diner because she can't afford art school. When she marries Harvard medical student Nicholas Prescott, his parents disown him, disapproving of their Irish Catholic daughter-in-law. Again Paige is forced to sideline her creative needs and work as a waitress in order to support Nicholas until he is able to establish his career as a cardiac surgeon. Paige is soon overwhelmed by the demands of Nicholas's socially sophisticated world, and after the birth of their son, Max, she becomes emotionally and physically exhausted. Unable to communicate her terrors about herself to Nicholas, she leaves him to search for her mother, who may hold the answers to her life. Told in flashbacks, this is a realistic story of childhood and adolescence, the demands of motherhood, the hard paths of personal growth and the generosity of spirit required by love. Picoult's imagery is startling and brilliant; her characters move credibly through this affecting drama.

“Not Even For Love” Sandra Brown
On the surface, Jordan Hadlock has it all. A great job in Switzerland and the rich and renowned Swiss industrialist Helmut Eckherdt is intent on marrying her. What more could she ask for? A clap of thunder and a pounding on her door soon give her an answer. Reeves Grant appears seeking shelter from a sudden downpour, but the real storm is inside Jordan and the passion they share that night. The next morning he disappears without a trace.Still reeling from the encounter, Jordan plays hostess at Helmut's lavish dinner party, where it is announced that he and Jordan are to be wed -- at the very same moment she spies Reeves Grant snapping pictures of the event and her new "fiancé." Now Jordan is moving toward the altar with a man she doesn't love. And working on a feature of the wealthy Helmut is photojournalist Reeves Grant, bringing with him all the memories of the emotions she felt one special night.

“The Gingerbread Girl” Stephen King and Mare Winningham
In the emotional aftermath of her baby's sudden death, Em starts running. Soon she runs from her husband, to the airport, down to the Florida Gulf and out to the loneliest stretch of Vermillion Key, where her father has offered the use of a conch shack he has kept there for years. Em keeps up her running -- barefoot on the beach, sneakers on the road -- and sees virtually no one. This is doing her all kinds of good, until one day she makes the mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Pickering. Pickering also enjoys the privacy of Vermillion Key, but the young women he brings there suffer the consequences. Will Em be next?

“Madness: A Bipolar Life” Marya Hornbacher
Hornbacher, who detailed her struggle with bulimia and anorexia in Wasted, now shares the story of her lifelong battle with mental illness, finally diagnosed as rapid cycling type 1 bipolar disorder. Even as a toddler, Hornbacher couldn't sleep at night and jabbered endlessly, trying to talk her parents into going outside to play in the dark. Other schoolchildren called her crazy. When she was just 10, she discovered alcohol was a good mood stabilizer; by age 14, she was trading sex for pills. In her late teens, her eating disorder landed her in the hospital, followed by another body obsession, cutting. An alcoholic by this point, she was alternating between mania and depression, with frequent hospitalizations. Her doctor explained that not only did the alcohol block her medications, it was up to her to control her mental illness, which would always be with her. This truth didn't sink in for a long, long time, but when it did, she had a chance for a life outside her local hospital's psychiatric unit. Hornbacher ends on a cautiously optimistic note—she knows she'll never lead a normal life, but maybe she could live with the life she does have. Although painfully self-absorbed, Hornbacher will touch a nerve with readers struggling to cope with mental illness.

“Sunday’s at Tiffany’s” James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
As a little girl, Jane has no one. Her mother Vivienne Margaux, the powerful head of a major New York theater company has no time for her. But she does have one friend--Michael--and no one can see him but her. But Michael can't stay with Jane forever, and on her eighth birthday, her imaginary friend must leave her.

When Jane is in her thirties, working for her mother's company, she is just as alone as she was as a child. Her boyfriend hardly knows she's there and is more interested in what Vivienne can do for his career. Her mother practically treats her as a slave in the office, despite the great success of Jane's first play, "Thank Heaven." Then she finds Michael--handsome, and just the same as she remembers him, only now he's not imaginary. For once in her life, Jane is happy--and has someone who loves her back. But not even Michael knows the reason behind why they've really been reunited.

“Disney Fairies Collection #6: Dulcies Taste of Magic; Silvermist, and the Ladybug Curse” Gail Herman
Poor Dulcie! After the overworked baking fairy nearly ruins breakfast, Queen Clarion tells her to take a holiday. But Dulcie’s vacation is no fun at all. Then Dulcie stumbles across an ancient magical recipe in the library. She’s desperate to try it out. But how can she bake the mysterious Comfort Cake if she’s not allowed in the kitchen?

Silvermist is the calmest water-talent fairy around and as cool as a deep mountain lake. But then an “unlucky” white ladybug lands on Silvermist’s head, and her orderly world goes topsy-turvy. Silvermist doesn’t believe in bad luck and silly old fairy superstitions. But all her troubles began after she found the white ladybug. Is Silvermist really under a curse?

Young Adult Graphic Novels

“Kindaichi Case Files v.17” Kanari Yozaburo

“Hardy Boys #13: The Deadliest Stunt” Scott Lobdell
When a mysterious saboteur infiltrates the Miss Teen Stunt Americana competition, Joe and Frank are assigned to back up one of the contestants... Lind'Z Rider, the most flamboyant and impulsive A.T.A.C. agent ever! As if the competition stunts weren’t dangerous enough, Frank and Joe must stop the saboteur before someone dies!

“Nancy Drew Girl Detective #13: Doggone Town” Stefan Petrucha
When Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson attempt to return a lost dog named “Togo” to its owner in the small town of Nevershare, they stumble onto a much bigger mystery—where did all the people go? The entire population of Nevershare is missing, except for one person, and she’s mean and not very helpful. Will Nancy solve this mystery before she and Ned also disappear?

“Nancy Drew Girl Detective #14: Sleight of Dan” Stefan Petrucha
Nancy, Ned, and George attend magician Dan Devil’s show, and witness his assistant’s magical disappearance—except she doesn’t reappear! Seems Nancy can’t even go on a date without stumbling upon a mystery. In searching for the missing assistant, Nancy goes on a magical mystery tour of Dan Evil’s home and runs into a very hungry anaconda! Rather than become snake food, she agrees to become Dan’s new assistant—but what if she vanishes too?

Junior Fiction

“Nick of Time” Ted Bell

In the grand tradition of epic novels like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island comes a wondrous tale of time travel, adventure, and riches, in which twelve-year-old Nick McIver sets out to become “the hero of his own life.”

The setting is England, 1939, on the eve of war. Nick and his younger sister, Kate, live in a lighthouse on the smallest of the Channel Islands. Nick and Kate come to the aid of their father who is engaged in a desperate war of espionage with German U-boat wolf packs that are circling the islands. The information they provide to Winston Churchill is vital as he tries to warn England of the imminent Nazi invasion.

One day Nick discovers an old sea chest, left for him by his ancestor, Captain Nicholas McIver of the Royal Navy. Inside, he finds a time machine and a desperate plea for help from the captain. He uses the machine to return to the year 1805. Captain McIver and, indeed, Admiral Nelson’s entire fleet are threatened by the treachery of the French and the mutinous Captain Billy Blood. Nick must reach deep inside, using his wits, courage, and daring to rescue the imperiled British sailors.

His sister, Kate, meanwhile, has enlisted the aid of two of England’s most brilliant “scientific detectives,” Lord Hawke and Commander Hobbes, to thwart the invading Nazis. She and Nick must face England’s underwater enemies, a challenge made all the more difficult when they discover the existence of Germany’s supersecret submarine.

In this striking adventure for readers of all ages, Nick must fight ruthless enemies across two different centuries, on land and sea, to help defeat those determined to destroy his home and his family.

Children's Easy Fiction

“Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes?” Jim Jinkins
Pinky Dinky Doo makes up silly stories to entertain her little brother, Tyler, in these two titles in the Step into Reading series. In Polka Dot Pox, Pinky cheers up Tyler, who has a cold, by telling him a somewhat convoluted tale about the problem she had when it was her turn to do pet show-and-tell at school. In Where Are My Shoes? Pinky wears the baloney from her sandwiches on her feet. After arriving at school she discovers everyone else has food shoes, too--from meat loaves to melons. The slapstick nonsense is extended in the art, which combines digital photos with bright, active cartoons. The story-within-a-story in pox may be a bit confusing, but the scenarios in Shoes show new readers the fun of making up nonsense as well as reading it.

“Pinky Dinky Doo: Think Pink” Jim Jinkins
In Pinky’s trademark story-within-a-story, Pinky wakes up one morning to find that her lovely yellow hair has turned bright, raving pink! When she discovers how and why, she and her little brother also learn that change, big or small, can be a good thing.

“Pinky Dinky Doo: Shrinky Pinky” Jim Jinkins
In the third book in the Pinky Dinky Doo series, irrepressible cartoon character Pinky makes up another story to entertain and enlighten her brother, Tyler. This time Tyler is being bullied, and Pinky tells him about her problems with Lane Puppytray. As with the other books, both the narrative voice and the emotional content seem right on the mark for the age group, as is the generous scattering of goofy character names (Ms La Deedah, Mrs. Tartarsauce). The text is matched by inventive, computer-enhanced collage artwork: spirited, busy, smoothly integrated combinations of photos and bold, full-of-action color cartoons. Pinky and her pals seem to spring right off the page. The art and the energy of the story--not the "lesson" it purports to convey--are the attractions here.