11/3: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Hollywood ending
• Foyle's War : Invasion, Bad Blood, Bleak Midwinter, Casualties of war
• The history boys
• CutThroat island
• The passion
• Planet of the apes
• Ghost
• Red dragon

Videos:

• Identity

Books:

• Thursday Next in first among sequels / Jasper Fforde — It's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Rheinback Falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. And before this can be corrected, Miss Marple dies suddenly in a car accident, bringing her series to a close as well. When Thursday receives a death threat clearly intended for her written self, she realizes what's going on—there is a serial killer on the loose in the Bookworld. And that's not all—The Goliath Corporation is trying to deregulate book travel. Naturally, Thursday must travel to the outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to triumph against increasing odds. (Thursday Next Series, #5)
• It's getting ugly out there : the frauds, bunglers, liars, and losers who are hurting America / Jack Cafferty — For the millions who watch the "Cafferty File" on CNN's The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty stands for common sense-the much-needed voice of reason who skewers right-wing nut jobs and liberal eggheads alike. For years, he's voiced the views, hopes, and fears of the average American in inimitable style. Now, in It's Getting Ugly Out There, he brings that level-headed wisdom to bear on the most critical issues facing us today-and explains why Americans must take our country back from those who are harming it. (table of contents)
• The first commandment / Brad Thor — Six months ago: In the dead of the night, five of the most dangerous detainees in the war on terror are pulled from their isolation cells in Guantanamo Bay, held at gunpoint, and told to strip off their orange jumpsuits. Issued a civilian clothes and driven to the base airfield, they are loaded aboard a Boeing 727 and set free. Present day: Covert counterterrorism agent Scot Harvath awakens to discover that his world has changed violently - and forever. A sadistic assassin with a personal vendetta in wreaking havoc of biblical proportions. Unleashing nightmarish horrors on those closest to Harvath, the attacker thrusts everything Harvath holds dear - including his life - into absolute peril. (read a sample chapter)
• The deepest water / Kate Wilhelm — Abby Connors' father, Jud, was a novelist whose career finally took off after three novels and years of hard work. Jud was also the most important man in Abby's life, to the chagrin of her husband, Brice. When Jud is murdered in his Oregon lakefront cabin, Abby's life is overturned. Was the killer someone she knew? (read a sample chapter)
• Tell me again about the night I was born / Jamie Lee Curtis — A young girl asks her parents to tell her again the cherished family story of her birth and adoption. (Age Range: 3 to 7)
• Love kills / Edna Buchanan — When a bulldozer in the Everglades unearths the skull of an infamous kidnapper, the Cold Case Squad is brought in to investigate. Britt was the last person to see him alive, and the detectives have questions only she can answer. On a remote desert island where she has sought solace, Montero finds a camera on an isolated beach. The film inside yields photos of a happy young couple on their honeymoon. Soon after, Britt is shocked to learn the newlyweds were lost at sea. When only the groom is rescued, the connection between the reporter and the new widower astonishes her -- and Britt is even more astonished when she finds out the truth. Ultimately, her search for the bridegroom's secrets and the Cold Case Squad's search for the kidnapper's killer collide. (Britt Montero Series, #9; read a sample chapter)
• High noon / Nora Roberts — Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she's Savannah's top hostage negotiator, defusing powderkeg situations with a talent for knowing when to give in-and when to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work-and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her agoraphobic mother, still traumatized by the break-in after all these years, and her precocious seven-year-old, Carly.
• Killer weekend / Ridley Pearson — Eight years ago, in Sun Valley-snowcapped playground for the wealthy and ambitious-all that stood between U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler and a knife-wielding killer was local patrolman Walt Fleming. Now Liz Shaler returns to Sun Valley as the keynote speaker of billionaire Patrick Cutter's world-famous media and communications conference, a convergence of the richest, most powerful business tycoons. The controversial attorney general is expected to announce her candidacy for president. It's a media coup for Cutter-but a security nightmare for Walt Fleming, now the county sheriff.
• Washington / Meg Greenfield — Washington is an exploration of a subculture that is both fabled and notorious. Like an anthropologist, Greenfield uses her famous wit, her eye for detail, and her understanding of how political people behave to show us why so many Americans hate Washington, D.C. - and how some who live there manage, despite all the obstacles, to do some good. (read an exerpt)
• You've been warned / James Patterson — Kristin Burns is making her way in New York City. Her photos are being considered at a major Manhattan gallery, she works by day with two wonderful children, and the man of her dreams is almost hers for keeps. But just as everything she's ever wanted is finally within reach, her life changes forever--with one murderous nightmare. (read a sample chapter)
• Dead heat / Dick Francis ; Felix Francis — Max Moreton is a rising culinary star and his Newmarket restaurant, The Hay Net, has brought him great acclaim and a widening circle of admirers. But when nearly all the guests who enjoyed one of his meals at a private catered affair fall victim to severe food poisoning, his kitchen is shuttered and his reputation takes a hit. Scrambling to meet his next obligation, an exclusive luncheon for forty in the glass-fronted private boxes at the Two Thousand Guineas, Max must overcome the previous evening's disaster and provide the new American sponsors of the year's first classic race with a day to remember.
• Playing for pizza / John Grisham — Rick Dockery was the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. With a 17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst single performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he became a national laughingstock and, of course, was immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by all other teams. But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds Arnie finally locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact now be a starting quarterback–for the mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy. (read an exerpt)
• The coldest winter : America and the Korean War / David Halberstam — Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures -- Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order. (read a sample chapter)
• The war : an intimate history, 1941-1945 / Geoffrey C. Ward ; Ken Burns — Focusing on the citizens of four towns - Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama - The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Woven largely from their memories, the compelling, unflinching narrative unfolds month by bloody month, with the outcome always in doubt. All the iconic events are here, from Pearl Harbor to the liberation of the concentration camps - but we also move among prisoners of war and Japanese American internees, defense workers and schoolchildren, and families who struggled simply to stay together while their men were shipped off to Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa. (read an exerpt)
• The great American bake sale book / Alison Molinare Boteler
• Drop the hook, let's eat / Rachel Barth
• The tin roof blowdown / James Lee Burke — Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with looters and predators of every stripe. The power grid of the city has been destroyed, New Orleans reduced to the level of a medieval society. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. Bodies float in the streets and lie impaled on the branches of flooded trees. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city. (Dave Robicheaux Series, #16; read an exerpt)
• The good guy / Dean R. Koontz — Timothy Carrier, having a beer after work at his friend’s tavern, enjoys drawing eccentric customers into amusing conversations. But the jittery man who sits next to him tonight has mistaken Tim for someone very different—and passes to him a manila envelope full of cash. (read an exerpt)
• Blaze / Richard Bachman — The story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. -- of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions. Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs -- and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers. But then George is killed, and Blaze, though haunted by his partner, is on his own. (read a sample chapter)
• Open house / Elizabeth Berg — Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. (read an exerpt)
• Bon appetit: tastes of the world
• Chocolate fantasies / Oxmoor House
• Miller's international antiques price guide, 2004 / Elizabeth Norfolk
• The country fair cookbook / Alison Molinare Boteler
• The Blue Willow Inn cookbook / Jane Stern — For five years in a row, The Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia, 40minutes east of Atlanta, has been voted best small town restaurant in the Southby the readers of Southern Living magazine. Billie and Louis Van Dyke saythat no one is allowed to leave hungry, and certainly no one should after feasting on a variety of Southernsalads, meats, vegetables, breads and desserts and, of course, sweet tea, the"Champagne of the South," and lemonade. Housed in a gloriouslyrestored southern mansion, The Blue Willow Inn is home to Southern hospitalityand charm at its best.
• The King Island journal : The 1951-52 journal of Juan and Rie Munoz, teachers on a Bering Sea island / Juan Munoz ; Rie Munoz — A collection of more than 140 photos and letters from 1951-52, when the Munozes taught school at the village.