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.

10/13: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Hollywood ending

Videos:

• Identity

Books:

• Teens in Russia / Jessica Smith — The Russian Federation has been an independent country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. For Russian teenagers, this change has presented many opportunities. At school, teens are learning about a history that the communist government tried to hide. In their free time, they are learning to express themselves in ways their parents were not allowed. Teens in Russia is part of Global Connections, a series that uncovers the challenges, pastimes, and customs of teens around the world. (Age Range: 10 to 12; table of contents)
• The book that dripped blood / Michael Dahl — A fur-covered book entitled Claws is loose in the city, and only the Librarian can stop it from claiming more victims. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• Manners at school / Carrrie Finn — (Reading level: Ages 4-8)
• The dead letters / Tom Piccirilli — Five years ago, Eddie Whitt's daughter Sarah became the victim of a serial killer known as Killjoy, and Whitt vowed to hunt him down-no matter what the cost. But the police have given up. And Killjoy has stopped killing...and in some bizarre act of repentance has begun kidnapping abused infants and leaving them with the parents of his original victims. (read a sample chapter)
• The book of pilates / Joyce Gavin
• Goddess : a celebration in art and literature / Jalaja Bonheim — For centuries tales of the goddess's creativity, strength, and suffering have sprung forth from every civilization and corner of the world. Editor Jalaja Bonheim, Ph.D., has compiled a unique and culturally diverse anthology of goddess-related literature and art. This elegant volume is created with a non-partisan perspective to appeal to a general audience.
• Slipknot / Linda Greenlaw — Jane Bunker is a marine investigator who has just moved back to a sleepy Maine community. She's a lover of all things Scottish and so thrifty that she never throws anything away. When the town drunk falls to his death off the town dock, it looks like an open and shut case, so Jane's insurance company will pay. But did he really fall or was he whacked in the head and then pushed? Was he really a drunk? How does this relate to a heated town hall meeting about energy windmills, fishing rights, and paternity suits? And can Jane get to the bottom of it all without spending any money and without ending up in mortal peril? The answer is "yes" about the money, but things take a turn for the worse when she finds herself literally at sea with the killer.
• Power play / Joseph Finder — It was the perfect retreat for a troubled company. No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. No cars. Just a deluxe lodge surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness and a desolate seacoast. Jake Landry is a junior executive at the Hammond Aerospace Corporation, a steady, modest, and taciturn guy with a gift for keeping his head down—and a turbulent past he prays he’s put behind him. Ordered to fill in for his boss at the annual offsite, he’s out of his element. He’s uncomfortable with the lavish accommodations and especially with the arrogant, swaggering men who run the company and the only person he knows there is the new special assistant to the CEO—who happens to be Jake’s ex. (read a sample chapter)
• Bone : v. 3: Eyes of the storm / Jeff Smith — In Eyes of the Storm, volume three of the nine-book Bone saga, Lucius, Smiley, and Phoney survive an attack by the rat creatures and return safely to Lucius' tavern in Barrelhaven. Phoney, desperate to win a bet with Lucius, stokes the townspeople's fear of dragons and boasts that he is a professional dragonslayer. Back at the farm, Fone Bone and Thorn are troubled by strange dreams, and Gran'ma Ben's reaction to them is stranger still: She reveals long-kept secrets and warns of great danger. Thorn, Fone Bone, and Gran'ma Ben may have to leave the farm forever. (Bone Series, #3; Age Range: 9 to 12)
• Bone : v4: The dragonslayer / Jeff Smith — Fone Bone confronts a host of dangers in Book 4 of the BONE saga, The Dragonslayer. He and Gran'ma Ben and Thorn have a terrifying encounter with Kingdok, ruler of the rat creatures. The Hooded One is inciting his army to full-scale war. Someone is continuing to haunt Thorn in her dreams. And then wise Gran'ma Ben disappears. To make matters worse, Phoney Bone has hoodwinked the townspeople into believing that he is a mighty dragonslayer. When he actually does catch the Red Dragon -- much to his surprise -- he must face up to his promise: to slay the dragon at sunrise. (Age Range: 9 to 12; Bone Series, #4)
• Bone : V. 5: Rock jaw / Jeff Smith — In this fifth volume of the Bone saga, Fone and Smiley Bone strike out into the wilderness to return a lost rat creature cub to the mountains. It doesn't take long before they run smack into Rock Jaw, "Master of the Eastern Border," an enormous mountain lion with a none-too-friendly disposition. Life gets even more complicated when they befriend a group of baby animals who are being orphaned by rat creature attacks. Everything comes to a head in an earth-shattering clash between Rock Jaw and Kingdok, the leader of the rat creatures. (Age Range: 9 to 12; Bone Series, #5)

10/6: New at the library this week

Audiobooks:

• Beach road (CD) / James Patterson — Montauk lawyer Tom Dunleavy's client list is woefully small - occasional real estate closings barely keep him in paper clips. When he is hired to defend a local man accused in a triple murder that has the East Hampton world in an uproar, he knows that he has found the case of his lifetime. (read a sample chapter)
• Double homicide : Boston : Santa Fe (CD) / Jonathan Kellerman ; Faye Kellerman — It's Christmastime, and police officers Darrel Two Moons and Steve Katz are expecting the usual gang assaults, feuding spouses, and alcohol-related misdemeanors. Then the call comes in from the Historic District: the reported death of an art gallery owner whose bludgeoned body stretches across a bleached pine floor like a big, nasty still life. (read a sample chapter)
• Emma's secret (cassette) / Barbara Taylor Bradford — The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns in Emma's Secret, a novel that showcases the storytelling power of Barbara Taylor Bradford.
• Death's acre : inside the legendary forensic lab the Body Farm where the dead do tell tales (CD) / William M. Bass — Dr. Bill Bass, one of the world's leading forensic anthropologists, gained international attention when he built a forensic lab like no other: The Body Farm. Now, this master scientist unlocks the gates of his lab to reveal his most intriguing cases-and to revisit the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, fifty years after the fact.

DVDs:

• The clearing

Videos:

• The scarlet and the black
• The truth about Charlie
• Oscar's greatest moments
• Penny serenade
• The amazing adventure
• Power yoga with Rodney Yee
• Lower body yoga for beginners (Gaiam)
• Upper body yoga for beginners (Gaiam)
• Yoga conditioning for life (Gaiam)
• Abs yoga for beginners (Gaiam)
• Stress relief yoga
• War and remembrance (12-tape set)

Books:

• The captain's dog : my journey with the Lewis and Clark tribe / Roland Smith — Born the runt of his litter and gambled away to a rusty old riverman, the Newfoundland pup Seaman doesn't imagine his life will be marked by any kind of glory—beyond chasing down rats. But when he meets Captain Meriwether Lewis, Seaman finds himself on a path that will make history. Lewis is just setting off on his landmark search for the Northwest Passage, and he takes Seaman along. Sharing the curiosity and strength of spirit of his new master, Seaman proves himself a valuable companion at every turn. Part history, part science—and adventure through and through—The Captain's Dog is the carefully researched, thrilling tale of America's greatest journey of discovery, as seen through the keen, compassionate eyes of a remarkable dog. (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Seaman : the dog who explored the West with Lewis & Clark / Gail Karwoski —This imaginative retelling of the journey of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery brings to life an unheralded member of the Corps -- Seaman, a 150-pound Newfoundland dog. As Seaman makes the long trek with the Corps, he serves a key role in the expedition's success. Come along with Seaman and his companions as they explore the vast uncharted lands beyond the Mississippi River. Travel with them as they form friendships with several Indian tribes and welcome Sacagawea to the expedition. Experience with them the many dangers of this wild land. And rejoice with them when they cross the Continental Divide and finally reach their goal -- the rocky shores of the Pacific Ocean. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• Lewis and Clark and me : a dog's tale / Laurie Myers — From his first meeting with Lewis, to being mistaken for a bear by Indians who had never seen such a large dog, to his encounters with wild animals both familiar and unfamiliar, Seaman's tales are filled with the joys of companionship and the tingling excitement of adventure. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• Mothers of the South : portraiture of the white tenant farm woman / Margaret Jarman Hagoood — In 1937 Hagood visited 254 tenant houses in the Carolina Piedmont, Georgia, and Alabama, talking with and listening to southern mothers. Mothers of the South records not only the results of her work but the voices, attitudes, and expectations of the people she interviewed. Tenant farming, a widespread way of life in the '30s, began to disappear with the coming of World War II and increased farm mechanization and became virtually nonexistent by the 1970s. Hagood's work is invaluable for its insight into this lost world.
• Alaska hooch : the history of alcohol in early Alaska / Thayne I. Andersen
• Collected poems, 1934-1952 / Dylan Thomas
• Helping children cope with grief / Alan Wolfelt — Guidelines are presented in the book of how one can create a "helping healing relationship." Through reading and participating in the activities presented, the reader will become capable of establishing a very special kind of goal-directed experience with the grieving child. Unites interpretation of human research and grief processes to accentuate the quality of caregiving to children during their grief periods. Explained are the stages through which the grieving person must travel with help, characteristics of a caregiver are expounded, and techniques presented to create the best atmosphere for a grieving child to thrive with love and care.
• Garden almanac : a month-by-month guide / Penelope O'Sullivan — Maintaining a beautiful garden is as simple as following each month's "to do" list in this handy book. Geared to zones 3 to 6, Garden Almanac provides inspiration with color photographs and historic botanical illustrations, and the tools to keep gardens flourishing: easy-to-use monthly overviews, calendars, and task lists.
• Creating birdhouses : 30 delightful projects to turn your garden into a home for birds / Mary Maguire — Choose from 30 projects to create your own birdhouse, table, nesting box, bird feeder or bird bath - each one beautiful, functional and highly individual. Includes traditional, classic designs plus more contemporary projects, as well as tips for decorating existing birdhouses and tables.
• Making old-fashioned Santas / Candie Frankel
• We all shine on : the stories behind every John Lennon song 1970-1980 / Paul Du Noyer —

9/29: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Junebug
• Thank you for smoking
• Find me guilty

Books:

• Capitol offense / Mike Doogan— A beautiful young woman is found strangled in the office of an Alaskan state senator. Standing over her dead body is gifted young legislator Matthew Hope. Before this unfortunate event, he was the most promising native Alaskan politician in the state. Now he's facing serious time, and he's not talking to anyone. In desperation, a mysterious, wealthy patron hires Nik Kane, disgraced ex-cop, to investigate the crime. What Kane discovers is a political culture corrupted by the influence of oil and big money. At the core is a secret so great that Kane may have to pay for it with something more precious than his soul.
• Robert Ludlum's the Bourne betrayal / Eric Lustbader — Jason Bourne takes a mission to rescue his only friend in the CIA, Martin Lindros, who disappeared in Africa while tracking shipments of yellowcake uranium. Once safely back in America, Lindros persuades Bourne to help track the money trail of terrorists buying the nuclear material in Odessa. But once there, Bourne is hampered by confusing flashbacks of unfamiliar places and events and he wonders: Is someone brainwashing him in order to throw him off the trail? Worse, is the man he saved in Africa really Martin Lindros? (read a sample chapter)
• Arthur & George / Julian Barnes — As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world's most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife–their fates become inextricably connected. (Man Booker Prize finalist; read a sample chapter)
• Sea change / Robert B. Parker — When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same. Somehow the combination of her past and present got her killed, but no one is talking-not the crew of the Lady Jane, the Fort Lauderdale yacht moored in Paradise Harbor; not her very blond, very tan twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia; and not her curiously affectless parents, living out a sterile retirement in a Miami high rise. (Jesse Stone Series, #5)
• Blackou t / John J. Nance — Minutes after a Boeing 747 rises majestically into a Hong Kong sunset, a flash splits the darkening sky. The pilot - suddenly blinded and doubled over in pain - fumbles in the dark in a frantic effort to gain control as the huge jet shudders through its descent. Kat Bronsky, FBI agent and terrorism specialist, is assigned the hunt for a Challenger-class business jet seen nearby just before the incident. The case poses countless questions: Was the flash a pilot error, a missile attack, or a malfunction? Or was it some new kind of weapon? And why are several government agencies interested in what Kat uncovers? (read a sample chapter)
• I like you / Sandol Stoddard Warburg — A tiny book that expresses the true meaning of friendship. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• A wrongful death / Kate Wilhelm — The peace and quiet of Barbara's retreat on the Oregon coast is shattered when a terrified young boy calls to her as she walks along a deserted beach. Frantically he leads her to a cabin deep in the woods where his mother lies senseless and battered—clearly left for dead. Barbara runs for help, but by the time she returns with the police and medics both mother and son are gone. The puzzle only deepens when, back in the city, Barbara learns that the boy she met is the grandson of a wealthy and prominent family . . . and that they have accused her of aiding and abetting his disappearance. (Barbara Holloway Series, #10; read a sample chapter)
• The girl with braided hair / Margaret Coel — In 1973, Liz Plenty Horses was accused of betraying the militant American Indian Movement, known as AIM, to the FBI after the death of one of their members. She went into hiding with her baby daughter, never to be seen again. Now, a skeleton with a bullet hole in the back of the skull has been discovered at the bottom of a ravine on the Wind River Reservation. The body was that of a woman who was murdered sometime in 1973. With the police reluctant to investigate, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley must unravel the truth-even if it incites the malice of a long-dormant killer.

9/15: New at the library this week

Books:

• Bone v. 6: Old man's cave / Jeff Smith — As war spreads through the valley, the Bone cousins join Gran'ma Ben and Lucius at Old Man's Cave to make a stand against the rat creatures. But not everything goes as planned. By the end of the book, Phoney Bone is strapped to a stone altar and about to be sacrificed; Thorn is lying lifeless nearby; and the rumblings of an earthquake suggest that the Lord of the Locusts is about to be released. Fone and Smiley Bone must do something drastic to save their friends. (Librarian's note: volumes 3, 4 & 5 are on order, so if you are afraid of spoilers, you may want to wait till they arrive.)
• Vampire Island / Adele Griffin — Life isn’t easy for vegetarian vampires trying to blend in with regular people in a new city. The Livingstone kids are fruit bat hybrids who have left Old World dangers, and immortality, behind for a “normal” life in New York City. But normal doesn’t necessarily mean easy, especially with lingering vampire traits complicating things. (Age Range: 8 to 11)
• The quickie / James Patterson; Michael Ledwidge — Lauren Stillwell is not your average damsel in distress. When the NYPD cop discovers her husband leaving a hotel with another woman, she decides to beat him at his own game. But her revenge goes dangerously awry, and she finds her world spiraling into a hell that becomes more terrifying by the hour. (read a sample chapter)
• New England white / Stephen L. Carter — returns to the New England university town of Elm Harbor, where a murder begins to crack the veneer that has hidden the racial complications of the town’s past, the secrets of a prominent family, and the most hidden bastions of African-American political influence. At the center: Lemaster Carlyle, the university president, and his wife, Julia Carlyle, a deputy dean at the divinity school—African Americans living in "the heart of whiteness." Lemaster is an old friend of the president of the United States. Julia was the murdered man’s lover years ago. The meeting point of these connections forms the core of a mystery that deepens even as Julia closes in on the politically earth-shattering motive behind the murder. (read a sample chapter)
• The secret / Rhonda Byrne — Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.
• Chocolate indulgences / Linda Collister — Chocolate lovers will be in heaven with this irresitible collection of recipes, from Truffles to Tarts and from Cookies and Cheesecakes.
• A ship made of paper / Scott Spencer — Daniel Emerson lives with Kate Ellis and is like a father to her daughter, Ruby. But he cannot control his desire for Iris Davenport, the African-American woman whose son is Ruby's best friend. During a freak October blizzard, Daniel is stranded at Iris's house and they begin a sexual liaison that eventually imperils all their relationships, Daniel's profession, their children's well-being, their own race- blindness, and their view of themselves as essentially good people. (read a sample chapter)
• Quiet strength : the principles, practices & priorities of a winning life / Tony Dungy; Nathan Whitaker — When Tony Dungy led the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI—and made history as the first African American coach to win the big game—millions of people, amazed by the success of his quiet, authoritative leadership style, wondered: how does he get it done? (read a sample chapter)

9/14: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Serenity
• Kinky boots

Videos:

• Jekyll & Hyde
• The nutcracker : A fantasy on ice
• The century of warfare : Air war 1939-1945
• Charlie Chaplin festival: The pawn shop; The immigrant
• A Walt Disney Christmas
• La Bamba
• The last tycoon
• The omen
• Lonesome dove
• Flying tigers
• The quiet man
• 101 dalmations
• The little mermaid
• Space camp adventure
• The snowman
• Star wars : A new hope
• The gate to the mind's eye
• Who framed Roger Rabbit
• The land before time

Books:

• Island of the lost : shipwrecked at the edge of the world / Joan Druett — In the winter of 1864, five seamen aboard the schooner Grafton wreck on the remote and icy Auckland Island, 285 miles south of New Zealand. An isolated speck in the Southern Ocean, it is a godforsaken place, with winds howling at sixty miles an hour, rain three hundred days a year, and an almost impenetrable coastal forest.
• Out stealing horses / Per Petterson — Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day—an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.
• Agatha Raisin and the haunted house / M. C. Beaton — Just back from an extended stay in London, Agatha Raisin finds herself greeted by torrential rains and an old, familiar feeling of boredom. When her handsome new neighbor, Paul Chatterton, shows up on her doorstep, she tries her best to ignore his obvious charms, but his sparkling black eyes and the promise of adventure soon lure her into another investigation. (Agatha Raisin Series, #14; read a sample chapter)
• The perfect paragon / M. C. Beaton — After being nearly killed by both a hired hit man and her former secretary, Agatha Raisin could use some low-key cases. So when Robert Smedley walks through the door, determined to prove that his wife is cheating, Raisin Investigations immediately offers to help. Trouble is, Agatha hates divorce cases--especially when the client is as pompous as Smedley--but she has a business to run and she's not about to turn away a paying customer. (Agatha Raisin Series, #16; read a sample chapter)
• Agatha Raisin and the day the floods came / M. C. Beaton — Crankier than ever, Agatha Raisin wants to forget that her husband left her to enter a monastery-a turn of affairs more humiliating than when she caught him with a mistress. She feels abandoned, fat, frumpy, and absolutely furious. What are her options? She takes an island vacation and joins a Pilates class. But what finally lifts her spirits is finding a corpse. (Agatha Raisin Series, #12)
• Hasty death / Marion Chesney — Eager to join the working classes, Lady Rose Summer has abandoned the comforts of her parents' home to become self-supporting. But life as a working woman isn't quite what Rose had imagined--long hours as a typist and nights spent in a dreary women's hostel are not very empowering when you're poor, cold, and tired. Luckily for Rose, her drudgery comes to a merciful end when she learns of the untimely death of an acquaintance. (Edwardian Mystery Series, #2)
• Aunt Dimity and the deep blue sea / Nancy Atherton — A series of death threats sends Lori Shepard to a remote island off the Scottish coast and to a fabulous castle restored by an eccentric friend of her husband's. But she finds herself drawn into an elaborate whodunit that may involve smuggling—or worse. Why has a human skull washed up on the beach? Is a desolate island really the best place to hide from a murderer? (Aunt Dimity Series, #11)
• Aunt Dimity and the next of kin / Nancy Atherton — Feeling a touch world-weary, Lori Shepherd decides to become a volunteer at the Radcliffe Infirmary, where she can spread a little good cheer. There she meets Elizabeth Beacham, a kind, retired legal secretary with no family, except a brother who has mysteriously disappeared. But after only a few visits, Miss Beacham suddenly passes away, leaving Lori to tie up the loose ends of her late friend's life. Lori soon discovers that hidden among Miss Beacham's belongings are clues that Lori believes her friend left for her to discover. (Aunt Dimity Series, #10)
• Death of a celebrity / M. C. Beaton — Access to Lochdubh is along a single, twisting, one-track road, but even its isolation can't keep Crystal French of Strathbane Television from dragging her crew and cameras into town. There to do a new show focusing on village life, Crystal quickly earns the outrage of the local folks when she rakes up old scandals and intimate secrets - tactics that promptly get her high ratings. Soon, even the local astrology column is hinting that Crystal had better watch her step. And no one, least of all Constable Hamish Macbeth, is surprised when she is killed. (Hamish MacBeth Series, #18; read a sample chapter)
• Death of a dustman / M. C. Beaton — Lochdubh's dustman, Fergus Macleod, a sour little man given to domestic violence and drinking, gets by with a one-day work week collecting the village's trash. But when Mrs. Freda Fleming, wrath of the Strathbane Council, decides to make an environmental example out of Lochdubh, Fergus is promoted (at double his usual salary) to man the new and elaborate recycling center. Now a bullying tyrant with a neat uniform and a new truck, he issues harsh fines and enforces petty rules-until he is found dead, stuffed into a recycling bin. (Hamish MacBeth Series, #17; read an exerpt)
• Death of a poison pen / M. C. Beaton — Minor writer John Heppel has a problem - he's by all accounts a consummate bore. When he's found dead in his cottage, there are plenty of suspects. But surely boredom shouldn't be cause for murder, or so thinks local bobby and sleuth Hamish Macbeth, whose investigation of Heppel's soap opera script uncovers much more than melodrama. (Hamish MacBeth Series, #20; read a sample chapter)
• Death of a village / M. C. Beaton — During the eerie half-light of a far north summer night, a crime spree - from scams to burglary - strikes the Highlands. Suddenly Hamish Macbeth, never an ambitious man, has more police work than he desires. (Hamish MacBeth Series, #19; read a sample chapter)
• The traveler / John Twelve Hawks — Maya is hiding in plain sight in London. The twenty-six-year-old has abandoned the dangerous obligations pressed upon her by her father, and chosen instead to live a normal life. But Maya comes from a long line of people who call themselves Harlequins—a fierce group of warriors willing to sacrifice their lives to protect a select few known as Travelers. (Fourth Realm Series, #1; read an exerpt)
• The dark river / John Twelve Hawks — Siblings Gabriel and Michael Corrigan now know that they are Travelers, part of an ancient lineage of prophets, but the realization has effected them differently. Gabriel sees it as a calling fraught with responsibility; Michael grabs it as an opportunity, defecting to the enemy. (Fourth Realm Series, #2; read an exerpt)
• Barefoot / Elin Hilderbrand — It's summer on Nantucket, and as the season begins, three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a local boy, home from college. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women--two sisters and one friend--make their way to the sisters' tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They're all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven failed in-vitro attempts, discovered her husband's infidelity and then her own pregnancy; Brenda embarked on a passionate affair with an older student that got her fired from her prestigious job as a professor in New York; and her sister Vickie, mother to two small boys, has been diagnosed with cancer. Soon Josh is part of the chaotic household, acting as babysitter, confidant, and, eventually, something more, while the women confront their pasts and map out their futures. (read a sample chapter)
• A cup of Tey (The daughter of time; Bratt Farrar; Miss Pym disposes) / Josephine Tey

9/1: New at the library this week

Videos:

• David Carradine's Tai Chi for the mind : Beginner's workout
• David Carradine's Tai Chi for the body : Beginner's workout

Books:

• Rituals of the season / Margaret Maron — Judge Deborah Knott has a severe case of anxiety in the final days before her late December nuptials to Deputy Sheriff Dwight Bryant. Her calendar is booked solid with receptions and parties, last-minute details, and family obligations. There is absolutely no way she can fit a homicide case into her schedule. (Deborah Knott Series, #11; read a sample chapter)
• Dancing with the virgins / Stephen Booth — In a remote region of northern England where a prehistoric ring of stones, the Nine Virgins, harbors a dark legend, the limbs of a murdered cyclist, Jenny Weston, are arranged to parody a woman dancing. Is a maniac on the loose? Detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry search for the killer. (read a sample chapter)
• A heartbreaking work of staggering genius / Dave Eggers — Dave Eggers' memoir of bringing up his younger brother after his parent's death. (Pulitzer finalist; read a sample chapter)
• Three cups of tea : one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations-- one school at a time / Greg Mortenson — Anyone who despairs of the individual's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth.
• Stalin's ghost / Martin Cruz Smith — Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating. Decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko's quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy. (Arkady Renko Series, #6; read a sample chapter)
• Bones to ashes / Kathy Reichs — Temperance Brennan, like her creator Kathy Reichs, is a brilliant, sexy forensic anthropologist called on to solve the toughest cases. But for Tempe, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another assignment. Évangéline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Évangéline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Évangéline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was "dangerous." Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skeleton could be the friend she lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl? (Temperance Brennan Series, #10; read an exerpt)
• Secrets of fat-free cooking : over 150 fat-free and low-fat recipes from breakfast to dinner--appetizers to desserts / Sandra L. Woodruff — A very different kind of cookbook, Secrets of Fat-Free Cooking is designed to help readers create low-fat and no-fat dishes that are easy to make, taste delicious, and are also high in nutrition. Woodruff guides readers through the basics of nutrition and provides dozens of helpful tips that will insure great results with every dish. 16 color photos. 30 line drawings.
• Pot pies : comfort food under cover / Diane Phillips — All of us grew up with pot pies--homemade if we were lucky, otherwise store-bought. Either way, we all remember breaking through that flaky, buttery crust to get at the steaming, creamy chicken or beef or vegetables inside. Pot pies are, in fact, the ultimate comfort food, conjuring up images of Mom in the kitchen and a milk-and-cookies kind of world. Now, at the turn of the century, Diane Phillips brings pot pies back into our lives. And like us, they've grown up, developed a sophistication and a range of tastes and styles. But at the same time, they remain just as comforting, soothing, and satisfying as the ones we remember with so much affection. (read an exerpt)
• Soup, a way of life / Barbara Kafka — In this stunningly rich and wide-ranging book, Barbara Kafka gives the food we love perhaps best in the world a new vitality. Though the subject is so familiar to us all, her approach is totally original. In a wonderfully diverse collection of nearly 300 recipes from all over the world -- some traditional, some newly minted, many so simple they require no cooking at all, each of them very much a part of our spiritual and emotional lives -- she offers up a lifetime worth of pleasure: (read an exerpt)
• Low fat : practical cookery / Stephen Knowlden — There are over 175 recipes in this beautifully designed, easy-to-use book, which is well-illustrated with step-by-step photography to guide you through the preparation. Full of useful cooks 'tips and recipe variations, the book provides the ultimate in choice for a collection of delicious meals that are easy to prepare but satisfy the most demanding of appetites. The dishes include bright new suggestions using the freshest and most wholesome of ingredients, while other recipes are innovative re-workings of traditional dishes.
• The Culinary Arts Institute cookbook / Culinary Arts Institute

8/25: New at the library this week

Books:

• Last breath / Mariah Stewart — As renowned archaeologist Dr. Daria McGowan readies the most important project of her career–a University museum exhibit showcasing the priceless artifacts her great-grandfather unearthed a century earlier in the Middle East–she makes a shocking discovery: many of the most significant pieces have vanished. Panicked, Daria turns to the FBI. (read an exerpt)
• High profile / Robert B. Parker — When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body-that of a young woman-is discovered just a few days later, the pressure becomes almost unbearable. (Jesse Stone Series, #6)
• Woodworking classics : skill-building projects for the home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• Woodworking favorites : top projects and techniques for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• Woodworking secrets : essential methods and projects for fine-tuning your shop skills / Woodworker's Journal
• The home woodworker : classic projects for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• From start to finish : quality plans and techniques for the home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• The complete woodworker : time-tested projects and professional techniques for your shop and home / Woodworker's Journal
• From shop to home : essential projects, tips and techniques for today's home woodworker / Woodworker's Journal
• Olivia Owl's opposites / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's Olivia Owl teaches children how to identify opposites in this beautifully illustrated board book. Children will delight as they turn each page and learn such things like big and small, long and short. Each page is packed with wonderful drawings of Maurice Pledger's animal friends. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Bobby Bear's ABC / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's lovable Bobby Bear coaxes children to think of a creature for each letter of the alphabet in this colorful board book. Young ones travel from A is for Ant to Z is for Zebra before going Zzzz along with a sleepy Bobby Bear. Children will delight in the wonderful drawings of busy bugs, reptiles, birds, and animals. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Billy Bunny's 123 / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's cuddly Billy Bunny makes counting fun in this delicately illustrated board book. Children count with Billy, finding and adding up the correct number of animals on each page, from one little bunny to ten beautiful butterflies! It's counting at its cutest and most fun! (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Oscar Otter's colors / Maurice Pledger — Maurice Pledger's lovable Oscar Otter 's Colors will delight children with it's vividly illustrated spreads. This book will captivate children as they turn each page and learn about color in nature. Each page is packed with animal friends and things in nature that are so different yet created in the same color. (Age Range: For infants or children in preschool)
• Justice denied / Judith A. Jance — Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont is handed a hush–hush special assignment: find out what really happened in the shooting death of an ex–con. At first, everything seems straightforward, but the deeper Beau digs, the more complicated it becomes. The ex–con really had turned over a new leaf and his murder has nothing to do with, say, a drug deal gone bad. Someone targeted DeShawn for death. (read a sample chapter)

8/18: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Stone cold

Books:

• The secrets of a fire king / Kim Edwards — In this, her first collection of stories-now with three new stories added-she explores the lives of those who exist on the fringes of society: a fire-eater, an American and his Korean war bride, Madame Curie's maid, and others.
• The Visual dictionary of everyday things / Dorling Kindersley Limited — Here is an entirely new kind of dictionary — one that is packed iwth vivid photogrpahs and thousands of names for the components that make up familiar objects. The Visual Dictionary of Everyday Things will give you instant access to the specialist vocabulary used in furniture making, clock making, tailoring, bookbinding, and manufacturing a multitude of everyday objects.
• Eyewitness question & answer book / John Farndon
• Seashore / Steve Parker — Here is an original and exciting new look at the fascinating natural world of the seashore. Stunning real-life photographs of crabs, lobsters, tide pools, fish, seals, seabirds and more offer a unique "eyewitness" view of life on the seashore. (table of contents)
• Crystal & gem / R. F. Symes — Here is a spectacular and informative guide to the amazing world of crystals and gems. Superb color photographs of crystals, jewels and gemstones of every color, size and shape offer a unique "eyewitness" insight into their extraordinary beauty and variety. (table of contents)
• Making things : the handbook of creative discovery / Ann Sayre Wiseman — A compilation of the "best selections" from Making Things and Making Things 2, published in the 1970s, this book has many inspirational quotes, philosophical tidbits, and a wealth of creative ideas.
• The beastly book : 100 of the world's most dangerous creatures / Jeanne K. Hanson
• The adventures of Tom Sawyer / Mark Twain — The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century.
• The Twits / Roald Dahl — How do you outwit a Twit? Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the smelliest, ugliest people in the world. They hate everything -- except playing mean jokes on each other, catching innocent birds to put in their Bird Pies, and making their caged monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps, stand on their heads all day. But the Muggle-Wumps have had enough. They don't just want out, they want revenge. (Age Range: 9 to 12)
• Esio trot / Roald Dahl — Mr. Hoppy is in love with Mrs. Silver, but her heart belongs to Alfie, her pet tortoise. Mr. Hoppy is too shy to approach Mrs. Silver, until one day he comes up with a brilliant idea to win her heart. If Mr. Hoppy's plan works, Mrs. Silver will certainly fall in love with him. But it's going to take one hundred and forty tortoises, an ancient spell, and a little bit of magic. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• The Borrowers afloat / Mary Norton — The Borrowers, a family of miniature people, journey down a drain, live briefly in a teakettle, and are swept away in a flood before finding a new home. Sequel to "The Borrowers Afield." (Age Range: 9 to 12)
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm / Nancy Farmer — The year is 2194, and Tendai, his brother, and his sister -- the children of Zimbabwei's chief of security -- have escaped from their father's estate to explore the dangerous city of Harare. The Ear, the Eye and the Arm was a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a BCCB Blue Ribbon Book, and received a Golden Kite Award, and a Parents' Choice Award. (Age Range: 7 to 10)
• The family under the bridge / Natalie Carlson — This is the delightfully warm and enjoyable story of an old Parisian named Armand, who relished his solitary life. Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them. But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one, even if the friend seemed a trifle unwilling at the start. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge. (Age Range: 7 to 11; read an exerpt)
• The door in the wall / Marguerite De Angeli — Ever since he can remember, Robin, son of Sir John de Bureford, has been told what is expected of him as the son of a nobleman. He must learn the ways of knighthood. But Robin's destiny is changed in one stroke when he falls ill and loses the use of his legs. Fearing a plague, his servants abandon him and Robin is left alone.
• Abel's island / William Steig — Abel's place in his familiar, mouse world has always been secure; he had an allowance from his mother, a comfortable home, and a lovely wife, Amanda. But one stormy August day, furious flood water carry him off and dump him on an uninhabited island. Despite his determination and stubborn resourcefulness--he tried crossing the river with boats and ropes and even on stepping-stones--Abel can't find a way to get back home. (Age Range: 8 to 12)
• Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh / Robert C. O'Brien — Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. (Age Range: 9 to 12; on this year's Battle of the Books list)
• No reservations required / Ellen Hart — Twin Cities businessman Ken Loy is the first to die; shot between the eyes during a sunset bike ride. Half an hour later, Bob Fabian, the rich and handsome owner of the Minneapolis Times Register, meets a similar fate. It was a year ago when Loy broadsided the VW Beetle driven by Fabian’s wife, Valerie, killing her instantly. Coincidence? Sleuthing food critic Sophie Greenway doesn’t buy it. (Culinary Mystery Series)
• Call the devil by his oldest name / Sallie Bissell — Haunted by the death of her mother and tortured by the secret that died upon her best friend's lips, assistant district attorney Mary Crow is obsessed with finding the man who holds the key to both those tragedies. (Mary Crow Series, #3; read an exerpt)
• Land of burning heat / Judith Van Gieson — An ancient religion, a family's hidden past, and a modern-day murder confront archivist Claire Reynier in her search for a priceless document. A young woman named Isabel Santos discovers a faded scrap of paper buried for hundreds of years under her family's adobe house. It could be the controversial last words of a Jewish mystic condemned to death by the Inquisition in Mexico City in 1596. (Claire Reynier Series, #4)
• Death angel / Martha Powers — When Kate and Richard Warner's ten-year-old daughter is murdered, the normal world disappears into a nightmare of heartbreak, fear and grief. Kate struggles to keep her own sanity and fight against the rising tide of suspicions. Eventually she realizes that the only way to discover the truth is to join forces with the police, digging through the facts of the crime in order to help bring the murderer to justice.
• Unpaid dues / Barbara Seranella — Munch Mancini is one of those fictional characters who jump off the page and into readers' hearts. Mechanic, limo driver, mom, Munch -- short for Miranda -- has lived a hard life and done it all: sex, drugs, you name it. But now she has her adopted eight-year-old daughter, Asia; she has a house; she has a job she loves. And she has trouble. (Munch Mancini Series, #6; read an exerpt)
• Ordinary heroes / Scott Turow — Stewart Dubinsky knew his father had served in World War II. And he'd been told how David Dubin (as his father had Americanized the name that Stewart later reclaimed) had rescued Stewart's mother from the horror of the Balingen concentration camp. But when he discovers, after his father's death, a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancée, and learns of his father's court-martial and imprisonment, he is plunged into the mystery of his family's secret history and driven to uncover the truth about this enigmatic, distant man who'd always refused to talk about his war.

8/11: New at the library this week

Books:

• Very merry mysteries / Charlotte MacLeod; Margaret Maron; M.C. Beaton — Rest You Merry, by Charlotte Macleod, Corpus Christmas by Margaret Maron, A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton
• Sixpence House : lost in a town of books / Paul Collins — Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the "Town of Books" that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of the author's own first book, Sixpence House becomes a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.
• Dead air / Barbara Jean Miller — A politically savvy thriller that gives the reader a real-world glimpse into TV journalism.
• Deceit / Clare Francis — Her husband's tragic death forces Ellen Richmond to cope with matters she'd never had to deal with. And things are even worse than she'd feared. Harry went sailing alone and his yacht mysteriously vanished. Could it have sunk by accident? His business was in bad shape: the police imply that he might have committed suicide. (read a sample chapter)
• Letter from home / Carolyn G. Hart — World-renowned journalist G.G. Gilman does her best not to think of the past. But one day she gets a letter—sent from the small Oklahoma town where she grew up—that brings it all back. Memories of people she had once known and loved dearly—and of the sultry summer when her life changed forever. (read a sample chapter)
• We shall not sleep / Anne Perry — After four long years, peace is finally in sight. But chaplain Joseph Reavley and his sister Judith, an ambulance driver on the Western Front, are more hard pressed than ever. Behind the lines, violence is increasing: soldiers are abusing German prisoners, a nurse has been raped and murdered, and the sinister ideologue called the Peacemaker now threatens to undermine the peace just as he did the war. (World War One Series, #5; read an exerpt)
• The distant echo / Val McDermid — Four in the morning, mid-December, and snow blankets St. Andrews School. Student Alex Gilbery and his three best friends are staggering home from a party when they stumble upon the body of a young woman. Rosie Duff has been raped, stabbed and left for dead in the ancient Pictish cemetery. The only suspects are the four young students stained with her blood.
• Officer of the court: A Novel Of WWII / Bill Mesce — On a remote Scottish island the body of an American officer has washed ashore. Major Harry Voss, a lawyer in the Army's Judge Advocate's office, doesn't hesitate to take the assignment of finding out who killed Lieutenant Armando Grassi, and why. Harry worked with Lieutenant Grassi on the case of a murdered American fighter pilot shot down by his own comrades. That inquiry left good men dead, a woman destroyed, and justice undone. For Harry, this is a chance to right the wrongs of the past. (read an exerpt)
• The coil / Gayle Lynds — Liz Sansborough thought she had left her past behind forever. A former CIA field agent as well as the daughter of perhaps the most notorious Cold War assassin, the man known to the world only as The Carnivore, Liz is now a university professor in Southern California specializing in the psychology of violence. But her dead father's legacy has come back to overtake Liz. (read a sample chapter)
• Midnight in Ruby Bayou / Elizabeth Lowell — Since the breakup of a disappointing love affair, Faith Donovan has poured her heart and soul into making the exquisite artistic jewelry favored by the rich and famous. She needs rubies of the finest quality and to get them, she needs Owen Walker, a man with an intimate knowledge of the ruby trade. The idea of working with Faith makes Owen nervous. He suspects that protecting her and the fabulous wedding necklace commissioned by the Montegeaus, a family descended from smuggles and pirates, will be more dangerous than smuggling rubies out of Afghanistan. (Donovans Series, #4; read an exerpt)
• Still life / Louise Penny — Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montréal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a long-time resident of Three Pines, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more but Gamache smells something foul this holiday season…and is soon certain that Jane died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter. (read a sample chapter)
• The prayer of the night shepherd / Philip Rickman — At Stanner Hall, a Victorian mansion-turned-hotel, Ben Foley, unemployed TV producer, hosts unprofitable murder-mystery weekends and nurtures his dream—to prove that Stanner Hall is the house on which Arthur Conan Doyle based his immortal Baskerville Hall. It's a local tradition that the origins of The Hounds of the Baskervilles lie not in Dartmoor, but in the Herfordshire legend of a black dog foreshadowing death. Young Jane Watkins, whose first weekend job is at the hotel, is intrigued. But Jane's mother, the Reverend Merrily Watkins, Deliverance Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford, is unhappy when she learns how Ben Foley proposes to prove his theory. (Merrily Watkins Series, #6)

8/9: New at the library this week

Videos:

• The pelican brief
• Lightning Jack

Books:

• Dead connection / Alafair Burke — When two young women are murdered on the streets of New York, exactly one year apart, Detective Ellie Hatcher is called up for a special assignment on the homicide task force. The killer has left behind a clue connecting the two cases to First Date, a popular online dating service, and Flann McIlroy, an eccentric, publicity-seeking homicide detective, is convinced that only Ellie can help him pursue his terrifying theory: someone is using the lure of the Internet and the promise of love to launch a killing spree against the women of New York City. (read a sample chapter)
• Harry Potter and the deathly hallows / Joanne Kathleen Rowling — The final volume in the series.
• The grey pilgrim / J. M. Hayes — A strikingly original plot blends unknown bits of real history with imagined incidents to create an unusual thriller. Its base is the last American Indian uprising in Arizona ,occuring in October, 1940. At its core lay a struggle for civil rights. Deputy U.S. Marshall and Spanish Civil War veteran J.D. Fitzpatrick arrives in Tucson, a shell shock case. His job should have been a sinecure, but then the insensitive local BIA agent provokes a gunfight over the draft and riles the Papagos. Fitpatrick is sent to the reservation to arrest the ringleader, Jujul, and his band of renegades, but they have skipped out into the desert. Why should they accept a call for military service from a country that refuses to recognize their citizenship?
• Daddy's girl / Lisa Scottoline — University of Pennsylvania assistant law professor Natalie "Nat" Greco finds herself in way over her head when an unintended visit to a minimum-security prison in nearby Chester County puts her in the middle of a deadly uprising -- and places her at the center of an elaborate plot that involves an incarcerated crime boss and more than a few improbable conspirators. (read an exerpt)
• Epic / Conor Kostick — Generations ago, violence was banned on New Earth. Society is governedand conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays. If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing.
• Interworld / Neil Gaiman ; Michael Reaves — Joey Harker isn't a hero. In fact, he's the kind of guy who gets lost in his own house. But then one day, Joey gets really lost. He walks straight out of his world and into another dimension. (read a sample chapter)
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency / Alexander McCall Smith — The No.1 Ladies´ Detective Agency, located in Gaborone, Botswana, consists of one woman, the engaging Precious Ramotswe. A cross between Kinsey Millhone and Miss Marple, this unlikely heroine specializes in missing husbands, wayward daughters, con men and imposters. When she sets out on the trail of a missing child she is tumbled headlong into some strange situations and not a little danger. Deftly interweaving tragedy and humor to create a memorable tale of human desires and foibles, the book is also an evocative portrait of a distant world. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #1; read a sample chapter)
• Tears of the giraffe / Alexander McCall Smith — Mma Ramotswe faces a new challenge: resolving a mother´s pain for her son who is long lost on the African plains. Mma Ramotswe´s own impending marriage to the most gentlemanly of men, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the promotion of Mma´s secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective, and the arrival of new members to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #2; read an exerpt)
• Morality for beautiful girls / Alexander McCall Smith — Continuing the adventures of Mma. Ramotswe, Morality for Beautiful Girls finds her expanding her business to take in the world of car repair and a beauty pageant. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #3; read a sample chapter)

7/28: New at the library this week

Videos:

• The front page

Books:

• Crispin : the cross of lead / Avi — England in the year 1377. Thirteen-Year-old Crispin, has no parents, no home, no name. Yet he is being pursued, and his life is threatened. As he seeks to find out why, he must first learn who and what he is. (Age Range: 12 and up; 2003 Newbery Medal)
• Body surfing / Anita Shreve — At the age of 29, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing once again, she has answered an ad to tutor the teenage daughter of a wellto- do couple as they spend a sultry summer in their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards' two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught up in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt for herself is threatened. (read a sample chapter)
• Secret asset / Stella Rimington — Liz has always been particularly skilled at “assessing people,” and when one of her agents reports suspicious meetings taking place at an Islamic bookshop, she trusts her instinct that a terrorist cell is at work. Her boss, Charles Wetherby, Director of Counter-Terrorism, knows to trust Liz’s instincts as well: he immediately puts a surveillance operation into place. (Liz Carlyle Series, #2; read a sample chapter)
• The night ferry / Michael Robotham — Ali Barba, a Sikh detective with the Metropolitan Police, is recovering from injuries sustained in the line of duty when she receives a letter from her estranged friend, Cate, imploring her to come to their high school reunion. Alarmed by the urgent tone of the note, and eager to make amends for her unforgivable past behavior, Ali goes to the reunion. Cate is pregnant, but before Ali has the chance to congratulate her, Cate hurriedly whispers, “They want to take my baby. You have to stop them.” (read a sample chapter)
• The far reaches / Homer H. Hickam — The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island across the Pacific. But nothing goes as planned as young Americans go up against fanatical defenders, who revel in snipers, big guns, and human wave attacks from which there is no escape save death. (read a sample chapter)
• The ladies' man / Elinor Lipman — Thirty unmarried years have passed since the barely suitable Harvey Nash failed to show up at a grand Boston hotel for his own engagement party. Today, the near-bride, Adele Dobbin, and her two sisters, Lois and Kathleen, blame Harvey for what unkind relatives call their spinsterhood, and what potential beaus might characterize as a leery, united front. The doorbell rings one cold April night. Harvey Nash, older, filled with regrets (sort of), more charming and arousable than ever, just in from the Coast, where he's reinvented himself as Nash Harvey, jingle composer and chronic bachelor, has returned to the scene of his first romantic crime. (read a sample chapter)
• Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal / Eric Schlosser — Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but here Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. (read a sample chapter)
• Knitting in the round / Jeanne Stauffer — With circular-and double-pointed needles, discover the pleasure of having fewer seams to sew at the end. And for larger projects, you won't have long straight needles poking out to the side. (table of contents)
• The good husband of Zebra Drive / Alexander McCall Smith — Automobile repair shop owner Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni -- husband of Botswana's leading, and only, female private detective, Precious Ramotswe -- unexpectedly approaches his wife with the ill-conceived idea of becoming a part-time investigator; one of Matekoni's bumbling apprentices quits; and Ramotswe's longtime assistant, Grace Makutsi, suddenly resigns. (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, #8; read a sample chapter)