11/28: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Wicker Park
• Enemy Mine
• Raising Victor Vargas
• Poltergeist
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• A Foreign Field

Videos:

• Time Out

Books: The library has just been given a lovely edition of Margaret Mitchell's classic Gone with the Wind to replace an aging and falling-apart copy that was all we had on the shelf.

11/23: New at the library this week

Books

• Callahan Cousins: Summer Begins/Elizabeth Doyle Carey (Grade 3-6) - In this first book in the series, the 12-year-old Callahan cousins all converge on their beloved grandmother for a summer of excitement.
• Callahan Cousins: Home Sweet Home/Elizabeth Doyle Carey (Grade 4-6) - Continuing the summer saga of four 12-year-old cousins running loose and free on Gull Island, this installment finds the girls redecorating a house on their grandma's property.
• Akimbo and the Elephants/Alexander McCall Smith (Grade 2-3) - This beginning chapter book series features a young African boy fiercely devoted to the conservation of his animal friends.
• Akimbo and the Lions/Alexander McCall Smith (Grade 3-5) - By a well-known author of adult books, this story featuring a young boy, Akimbo, who lives "in the heart of Africa," conveys appreciation and respect for the African landscape, culture, and people, as well as a sense of the importance of wildlife conservation.
• Seldovia Sam and the Blueberry Bear/Susan Woodward Springer (Ages 9-12) - This exciting series continues with Sam dreading the looming first day of school where he fears his annual back to school essay about his summer's activities will not be as impressive as the know-it-all Melody Chambers'.
• Eldest/Christopher Paolini (Grade 5 Up) - The land of Alagaesia is suffering under the Empire of the wicked Galbatorix, and Eragon and his dragon Saphira, last of the Riders, are the only hope.
• The Penultimate Peril/Lemony Snicket (Ages 9-12) - Lemony Snicket has captured the hearts of childen and adults alike with the hilariously gloomy series that began, of course, with The Bad Beginning.
• Flush/Carl Hiaasen (Grade 5-8) – Noah and his sister, Abbey, are more understanding of their volatile dad's latest arrest than their mother, who begins talking of divorce. Dad sank the Coral Queen, a casino boat on a Florida Key because, he alleges, its owner, Dusty Muleman, has been illegally dumping raw sewage into the local waters.
• At First Sight/Nicholas Sparks - The relationship between journalist Jeremy Marsh and librarian Lexie Darnell that began in True Believer (2005) has now progressed. Jeremy is moving from New York to Boone Creek, North Carolina, as they plan for their wedding and the birth of their child.
• Skeleton Man/Tony Hillerman - Joe Leaphorn, former Navajo tribal police lieutenant, is not a happy retiree. So when his successor asks him to look into how a young Hopi named Billy Tuve came by a valuable diamond the boy tried to pawn for a fraction of its worth, Joe finds himself involved in a five decade old mystery.
• Iron Orchid/Stuart Woods - Having ditched her Orchid Beach, Fla., police chief post, returning supersleuth Holly Barker opts for a CIA career in Woods's by-the-numbers thriller, the fourth in the Barker series.
• Delectable Mountains/Earlene Fowler - At the start of Fowler's topnotch 12th cozy to feature the quilter and amateur sleuth, Benni stumbles on the body of church handyman Walt Adams, who's oozing blood onto the sanctuary's new carpeting.
• Remains Silent/Michael Baden and Linda Kenney - Married couple Baden, former New York City medical examiner, and Kenney, legal commentator for CNN and Court TV, team up for this debut thriller starring a romantic and professional pair with job titles remarkably similar to their own.
• Mrs. Mike and the Search for Joyful/Benedict & Nancy Freedman - More than 50 years after the publication of the popular Mrs. Mike, which told of Mary O'Fallon's journey from Boston to Alberta and her marriage to RCMP Sgt. Mike Flanagan, the story continues during WWII with one of Mary's adopted children, Kathy Forquet.

Videos:

• An Everlasting Piece
• Dinner with Friends

DVDs:

• Because of Winn-Dixie
• The Polar Express
• Vintage Mickey
• Twelfth Night
• Dead Cert
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

11/12: New at the library this week

Books:

• Bait and switch : the (futile) pursuit of the American dream /Barbara Ehrenreich: The author goes undercover to "try to understand the human underside of corporate America."
• Point blank an FBI thriller / Catherine Coulter: This is the tenth book in her romantic thriller series.
• The widow of the south / Robert Hicks: In 1894 Carrie McGavock is an old woman who has only her former slave to keep her company...and the almost 1,500 soldiers buried in her backyard.
• Queen of Christmas / Mary Engelbreit: Ann Estelle is very busy working on The List. The Queen of Christmas knows there's nothing more important! How else can she get all the things she really wants?
• Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose / Mary Engelbreit: One hundred best-loved verses.
• Inkspell / Cornelia Funke: A sequel to the literary fantasy Inkheart.
• Guiness World Records 2006

DVDs:

• Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie

Videos:

• X-Files: Ascension/One Breath
• X-Files: Little Green Men/The Host
• X-Files: Sleepless/Duane Barry
• X-Files:Irresistible/Die Hand Die Verletzt
• X-Files: Humbug/Anasazi
• X-Files: Colony/End Game

Sony CDs removed from library shelves

If you've been following the tech news over the past couple weeks, you may have heard some confusing stuff about programs included on Sony music CDs that can make your computer vulnerable to malicious takeover or even break your computer entirely. The gist of the story is that in order to protect their music from what they feel to be illicit copying, Sony included on certain CDs a program required to play the CD that can open vulnerabilities in your computer. This program affects Windows computers, according to present knowledge, but just today news was released that some Sony CDs also contain programs written for Mac operating systems although the impact of these have not yet been fully evaluated. The library has confirmed that none of the CDs in its collection are those that have been identified to date as containing this program. As a precaution, the library has also removed all Sony CDs from the shelves, pending clarification of their status. Those who have Sony CDs in their own collections may want to review the list of the identified affected CDs (more on identifying the CDs). If you may have played one of them on your computer or you are concerned whether you may have this program installed, you can run a quick test to see. If you indeed do have the program, you may want to consult a computer expert regarding its removal, since current analysis indicates that the "fix" being distributed by Sony causes further problems when it removes the program. In the meantime, it's probably a good idea to back up all of your important files, just in case you end up sustaining damage to your system. To learn more and to stay up to date on the news of this problem, try a google search on the terms "sony rootkit". Update: USAToday reports that Sony is pulling all of the affected CDs off the market and will offer exchanges to customers who have purchased them. Details on the exchange program are due to be released later this week. Further update (2/24/06): Final Sony page about the rootkit, what titles contain it, and how to update or uninstall the program. Similar programs are reported to be showing up on some DVDs as well, making this a topic to continue to follow in the news.

11/05: New at the library this week

Books

• Cam Jansen and the snowy day mystery/David A. Adler: Another episode of this popular children's detective series, this one focuses on three missing computers
• Mystery at the Chilkoot Pass/Barbara A. Steiner: From the American Girl History Mysteries, Hetty McKinley, age 12, travels to the Yukon with her widower father, uncle, and friends to find their fortune at the height of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush.
• A spy on the home front/Alison Hart: Also from the American Girl History Mysteries, this story features Molly McIntire, a ten-year-old orphan girl living on the home front during World War 2
• Sam goes to school/Mary Labatt: White fluffy puppy Sam gets into various misadventures in this series. In this episode, he rides a bus to school.
• Sam gets lost/Mary Labatt: In this episode, Sam starts out on a ride with his owners, but misplaces them.
• Tales of Alaska's Bush rat governor/Jay Hammond: autobiography of the late wilderness guide and "reluctant politician".
• Lucky/Alice Sebold: a true story from the writer's college days, when she was attacked and raped but police told her she was "lucky."
• Eleven minutes/Paulo Coelho: A Brazilian bestselling author tells the story of Maria, a young woman from Brazil who becomes a high-class prostitute in Switzerland.
• White winds/Joe Wilcox: a 1967 summer climb of McKinley was one of the worst mountaineering disasters in the U.S.
• Book of Fred/Abby Bardi: tells the story of two fifteen-year-olds raised in very different communities.

DVDs

• Assassination Tango with Robert Duvall
• Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3: A Traitor to Memory
• Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3: In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner
• Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3: A Cry for Justice
• Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3: If Wishes were Horses
• Foyle's War: A War of Nerves
• Foyle's War: They Fought in the Fields
• Foyle's War: Enemy Fire
• Foyle's War: The French Drop