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.

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

8/11: 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)

4/5: New at the library this week

Videos:

• Hard candy
• Mrs. Harris
• She's the man

DVDs:

• Anne of Avonlea
• DaVinci's inquest, season 1
• Babel
• World War II: when lions roared
• Road to Bali; Road to Rio
• When it was a game
• Nacho libre

Books:

• At some disputed barricade / Anne Perry — July 1917: Joseph Reavley, a chaplain, and his sister Judith, an ambulance driver, are bone-weary as they approach the fourth year of the conflict; the peace of the English countryside seems a world away. (World War One Series #4; read an exerpt)
• Secrets of a family album / Isla Dewar — Obsessively neat Lily, a writer who writes about writers, is asked to interview the enigmatic Rita Boothe, journalist, photographer, self-styled culinary expert and wit. Sitting in Rita's living room, leafing through a book of photographs from the early seventies, Lily comes across a picture of an incandescently sexy young woman sitting in the back of a limousine swigging Jack Daniels. It is her mother, Mattie.
• Bad blood / Linda A. Fairstein — Defendant Brendan Quillian, a prominent young businessman, is charged with the brutal strangulation of his beautiful young wife, Amanda. His conviction is not a certainty: Quillian was conveniently out of town on the day of the killing, and he has hired a formidable defense attorney who seems one step ahead of Cooper as the trial opens. But with the help of detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, she is confident she can prove Quillian paid a hit man to commit the crime. (Alexandra Cooper Series; read a sample chapter)
• Step on a crack / James Patterson — With the unexpected death of a beloved former first lady, the nation falls into mourning as the world's most powerful people gather in New York for her funeral. Then the inconceivable occurs. Billionaires, politicians, and superstars of every kind are suddenly trapped by one man's brilliant and ruthless scenario.
• The suspect / John T. Lescroart — When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart was recently asked for a divorce, and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Tamarack Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will.
• The best life diet / Bob Greene — a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss, and he can help you too. You'll eat the same delicious food that Oprah enjoys, and, just like Oprah, you'll have Bob to encourage you at every step.
• An Irish country doctor / Patrick Taylor — Barry Laverty, M.D., can barely find the village of Ballybucklebo on a map when he first sets out to seek gainful employment there, but already he knows that there is nowhere he would rather live than in the emerald hills and dales of Northern Ireland. The proud owner of a spanking-new medical degree and little else in the way of worldly possessions, Barry jumps at the chance to secure a position as an assistant in a small rural practice.
• The road / Cormac McCarthy — A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. They sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearting, a cart of scavenged food-and each other. (read an exerpt)
• From Baghdad, with love : a Marine, the war, and a dog named Lava / Jay Kopelman — When Marines enter an abandoned house in Fallujah, Iraq, and hear a suspicious noise, they clench their weapons, edge around the corner, and prepare to open fire. What they find during the U.S.–led attack on the "most dangerous city on Earth," however, is not an insurgent bent on revenge, but a tiny puppy left behind when most of the city's population fled before the bombing. Despite military law that forbids the keeping of pets, the Marines de-flea the pup with kerosene, de-worm him with chewing tobacco, and fill him up on Meals Ready to Eat. (read an exerpt)
• Do-it-yourself home improvement : a step-by-step guide / Julian Cassell — Covering everything you need to know for any home task. From quick-fix repair jobs to major construction, this is the ultimate visual guide to every aspect of home improvement.

2/27: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Dracula
• In harm's way
• Carrie
• Nutty Professor II
• Good morning Vietnam
• The exorcist III
• Mission to Mars
• Gone in 60 seconds

Books:

• Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West / Gregory Maguire — When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? (read an exerpt; sample chapter)
• Hollywood Station / Joseph Wambaugh — For a cop, a night on the job means killing time and trying not to get killed. If you're a cop in Hollywood Division, it also means dealing with the most overwrought, desperate, and deluded criminals anywhere. When you're patrolling Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, neither a good reputation nor the lessons of scandals past will help you keep your cool, your sanity, or your life when things heat up. (read a sample chapter)
• The bronze horseman / Paullina Simons — Tatiana and Dasha Metanov are not just sisters, but close friends. They share a bed in the communal apartment where they live under Soviet rule in Leningrad, a city of lost grandeur where people now struggle in poverty along its once romantic streets. In the summer of 1941, war is the furthest thing from their minds. Then the horrifying announcement comes crackling over the radio: the German army has invaded. It is against this background that Tatiana falls in love with a Red Army officer, Alexander—the very same soldier who is the object of Tatiana's beloved sister's affection. As the relentless grip of winter closes in and the German army advances, Tatiana and Alexander are drawn into an impossible love that could tear Tatiana's family apart. (read an exerpt)
• The summer garden / Paullina Simons — This is the climactic book in Paullina Simons' epic trilogy that began with the international bestseller, the heartbreaking The Bronze Horseman. From the bestselling author of The Girl in Times Square, comes the magnificent conclusion to the saga that was set in motion when Tatiana fell in love with her Red Army officer, Alexander Belov, in wartime Leningrad in 1941.
• Murder at the opera / Margaret Truman — Political opera has been alive and well in Washington D.C. since the city became the nation's capital, and the Washington National Opera company, housed at the Kennedy Center, is no stranger to politics itself. Murder at the Opera re-introduces a popular couple who have appeared in some of the earlier Capital Crimes novels: law professor Mac Smith and his wife, Georgetown gallery owner Annabel Reed-Smith, who has a professional relationship with some of the Washington National Opera's most renowned players - its trustees. (Capital Crimes Series, #22) (read a sample chapter)
• Mornings on horseback : the story of an extraordinary family, a vanished way of life, and the unique child who became Theodore Roosevelt / David G. McCullough — is about the world of the young Theodore Roosevelt. It is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household (and rarefied social world) in which he was raised. (read an exerpt; sample chapter)
• The path between the seas : the creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 / David G. McCullough — The building of the Panama Canal was one of the most grandiose, dramatic, and sweeping adventures of all time. Spanning nearly half a century, from its beginnings by a France in pursuit of glory to its completion by the United States on the eve of World War I, it enlisted men, nations, and money on a scale never before seen. Apart from the great wars, it was the largest, costliest single effort ever mounted anywhere on earth, and it affected the lives of tens of thousands of people throughout the world. Here in all its heartbreak and eventual triumph the epic adventure is brought vividly alive by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such books as The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Truman, and John Adams. (read an exerpt)
• Surprisingly simple quilts / Martingale & Company — Add beauty and brilliance to quilts without all the work! Great fabric and color combinations are the key to gorgeous quilts, and this collection of patterns proves that easy and eye-catching can make the perfect quilting team. Choose from over a dozen projects that require no templates-truly quick and easy to complete.
• The book of lost things / John Connolly — High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in his imagination, he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world, populated by heroes and monsters, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book... The Book of Lost Things. (read a sample chapter)
• Blue rodeo / Jo-Ann Mapson — Owen Garrett is sitting on his horse surveying a bundle of activity: A newcomer in town, Margaret Yearwood, dressed only in a man's workshirt and panties, is running back and forth between a water faucet and two amorous dogs engaged in what Owen calls "the natural order" - and one of those dogs is his own blue heeler, Hopeful. When Margaret's attempts to separate them fail, Owen takes the opportunity to introduce himself to his new neighbor, who he soon learns shares his desire to leave the past behind.
• Point blank / Anthony Horowitz — When an investigation into a series of mysterious deaths leads agents to an elite prep school for rebellious kids, MI6 assigns Alex Rider to the case. Before he knows it, Alex is hanging out with the sons of the rich and powerful, and something feels wrong. These former juvenile delinquents have turned well-behaved, studious—and identical—overnight. It's up to Alex to find out who is masterminding this nefarious plot, before they find him. (Alex Rider Series; Age Range: Young Adult) (read an exerpt)
• Skeleton Key / Anthony Horowitz — Working as a secret agent for Britain's most exclusive agency, Alex Rider has seen it all. He's been shot at by international terrorists, stood face-to-face with pure evil, and saved the world—twice. But fifteen-year-old Alex is about to face something more dangerous than he can imagine: A man who's lost everything he cared for—his country, his son—a man who has a nuclear weapon, and will stop at nothing to get his world back. Unless Alex can stop him first... (Alex Rider Series; Age Range: Young Adult) (read an exerpt)

2/15: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Legal eagles
• The marine

Books:

• Thunderstruck / Erik Larson — tells the interwoven stories of two men-Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication-whose lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time. (read an exerpt; sample chapter)
• The rising tide / Jeff Shaara — begins a staggering work of fiction bound to be a new generation’s most poignant chronicle of World War II. With you-are-there immediacy, painstaking historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view, Shaara portrays the momentous and increasingly dramatic events that pulled America into the vortex of this monumental conflict. (read an exerpt; sample chapter)
• Wild fire / Nelson DeMille — Welcome to the Custer Hill Club - a men's club set in an Adirondack hunting lodge whose members include some of America's most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials. Ostensibly, the club is a place to relax with old friends. But one fall weekend, the club's Executive Board gathers to talk about 9/11 - and finalize a retaliation plan, known only by its code name: WILD FIRE.
• Miracle on 49th Street / Mike Lupica — Josh Cameron has it all: a World Championship ring with the Boston Celtics, an MVP award, a clean-cut image, and the adoration of millions. What he doesn't have is family. Until the day 12-year-old smartaleck Molly Parker confronts him in a parking lot and claims to be his daughter--the only daughter of Jen Parker, Josh's college sweetheart and the still the only girl he's ever loved. Trouble is, Jen Parker died last year, and now Molly has tracked down the father she never knew, the one her mother never wanted her to know about. Josh Cameron cares about two things only: himself, and basketball. The last thing this superstar wants or needs is a 12-year-old daughter. Yet this isn't just any 12-year-old. Mr. World Champion has finally met his match. (Age Range: 9 to 12)
• Dear John / Nicholas Sparks — When Savannah Lynn Curtis comes into his life, John Tyree knows he is ready to turn over a new leaf. An angry rebel, he had enlisted in the army after high school, not knowing what else to do. Then, during a furlough, he meets the girl of his dreams. Savannah Lynn Curtis is attending college in North Carolina, working for Habitat for Humanity, and totally unprepared for the passionate attraction she feels for John Tyree. (read a sample chapter)
• Forever in blue / Ann Brashares — With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer. (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series, #4; Age Range: Young Adult) (read a sample chapter)
• You, on a diet : the owner's manual to waist management / Michael F. Roizen ; Mehmet Oz — will invigorate you with equal parts information, motivation, and change-your-life action to show you how your brain, stomach, hormones, muscles, heart, genetics, and stress levels all interact biologically to determine if your body is the size of a baseball bat or of a baseball stadium. In YOU: On a Diet, Roizen and Oz will redefine what a healthy figure is, then take you through an under-theskin tour of the organs that influence your body's size and its health. You'll even be convinced that the key number to fixate on is not your weight, but your waist size, which best indicates the medical risks of storing too much fat.
• The shape shifter / Tony Hillerman — The original case involved a priceless, one-of-a-kind Navajo rug supposedly destroyed in a fire. Suddenly, what looks like the same rug turns up in a magazine spread. And the man who brings the photo to Leaphorn's attention has gone missing. Leaphorn must pick up the threads of a crime he'd thought impossible to untangle. Not only has the passage of time obscured the details, but it also appears that there's a murderer still on the loose. (Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Series, #18; read a sample chapter)

2/11: New at the library this week

DVDs:

• Malibu's most wanted

Books:

• A deeper sleep / Dana Stabenow — When the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, Kate and Jim are devastated, and like the rest of the citizens of Niniltna, Alaska, certain that a man has gotten away with murder. They can’t help but think that it’s only a matter of time before he’s in the frame for another killing. Sure enough, a few weeks later a shooting leaves two dead in an apparent robbery. But this time Kate and Jim have a witness, and they’re not going to let Louis Deem get away again. Or will he? (Kate Shugak Mystery Series, #15)
• Running with scissors / Augusten Burroughs — the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor's bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock-therapy machine could provide entertainment. (read an exerpt)
• On beauty / Zadie Smith — Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three children passionately pursue their own paths: Levi quests after authentic blackness, Zora believes that intellectuals can redeem everybody, and Jerome struggles to be a believer in a family of strict atheists. Faced with the oppressive enthusiasms of his children, Howard feels that the first two acts of his life are over and he has no clear plans for the finale. Or the encore.
• Welcome to Molly's world, 1944 : growing up in World War Two America / Catherine Gourley — Inside this book you'll see what growing up was like in World War Two America. Take a peek at real letters and diaries of girls and women, soldiers and civilians. Learn about the sacrifices Americans made to help the war effort-children gave up candy, toys, and the foods they liked to eat! Follow the brave women who joined the military, from their basic training to the battlefront. Best of all, join America in a worldwide celebration of peace. (American Girls Collection Series: Molly; Age Range: 7 to 12)
• Brimstone / Douglas J. Preston — Art critic Jeremy Grove is found dead, his face frozen in a mask of terror. His body temperature is grotesquely high; he is discovered in a room barricaded from the inside; the smell of brimstone is everywhere...and the unmistakable imprint of a claw is burned into the wall. As more bodies are discovered--their only connection the bizarre but identical manner of death--the world begins to wonder if the Devil has, in fact, come to collect his due. (Special Agent Pendergast Series, #3) (read a sample chapter)
• The National Geographic desk reference / National Geographic Society — A full-color desk reference for the millennium, collecting essential, frequently needed information into one accesible volume and offering a multifaceted and comprehensive view of geography. Photos, charts, maps & graphs. 220 full-color illustrations.

1/6: New at the library this week

Videos:

• Her alibi
• Wagons east!
• Black hawk down
• The horse soldiers
• Mission: impossible
• My girl
• Scent of a woman
• Batman returns
• Dangerous liasons
• World war II : The Stillwell Road; The Nuremberg trials
• Family business
• Brubaker
• Romeo & Juliet
• Foul play
• Guarding Tess

DVDs:

• Tristram Shandy
• The Da Vinci Code
• Black Books
• Cars
• M:i:III
• Domino

Books:

• The Mephisto Club / Tess Gerritsen — The Latin is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman's brutal murder: I HAVE SINNED. It's a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O'Donnell-Jane's professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club. (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles Series, #6)
• Mannheim Steamroller Christmas : a night like no other / Jill (Jill Parsons) Stern — When Evan Darling realizes that his children have become so focused on gifts that they've completely lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, he knows he has to do something to help them see the wonder of it all. As a blizzard rages, Evan sits the family down and tells them the extraordinary tale of a young boy's magical experience during another blizzard long ago.
• Retro stud : muscle movie posters from around the world / David Chapman
• Public radio : behind the voices / Lisa A. Phillips — After adecade of working at public radio stations around the country, Phillips was driven to know more about the people who deliver the news, the conversation and the diverse programs that she and millions of listeners enjoy every day. The result is a collection of personal stories from more than 40 of the most listened to voices in public radio. (read an exerpt)
• Stalemate / Iris Johansen — Eve Duncan has turned down the job twice already. Her skill and devotion in identifying murder victims and helping bring their killers to justice may be world-renowned. But Eve works exclusively for law enforcement and the families of the innocent, and the man on the other end of the phone is many things-none of them law-abiding or innocent. (Eve Duncan Series, #7)
• The thirteenth tale / Diane Setterfield — Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons. (read an exerpt)
• Lisey's story / Stephen King — Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty five year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Lisey knew there was a place Scott went -- a place that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it's Lisey's turn to face Scott's demons, Lisey's turn to go to Boo'ya Moon. What begins as a widow's effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. (read an exerpt)
• Barefoot Contessa at home : everyday recipes you'll make over and over again / Ina Garten — Ina shares her life in East Hampton, the recipes she loves, and her secrets to making guests feel welcome and comfortable.
• The innocent man : murder and injustice in a small town / John Grisham — In 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you.
• The Bancroft strategy / Robert Ludlum — When Todd Belknap—a legendary field agent for Consular Operations with a reputation as something of a cowboy— is cut loose from the agency after an operation goes wrong, his best friend and fellow agent is abducted in Lebanon by a militia group with a vicious reputation. When the government refuses to either rescue him or negotiate for his release, Belknap decides to take matters into his own hands.
• State of denial / Bob Woodward — examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. (read a sample chapter)

12/23: New at the library this week

DVDs:

The big valley (Season one)

A song for the season

The Christmas shoes

Cricket on the hearth

The original television Christmas classics (Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Frosty the snowman, Santa Claus is comin' to town)

The retrievers

The Ponderosa: Comes a horse & The lesser of two evils

The Ponderosa: Brother against brother & Treasure

The tangerine bear

Frankie and Hazel

I was a rat

By dawns early light

The treasure seekers

Franklin's magic Christmas

Return to the secret garden

The penny promise

Rigoletto

Escape from Wildcat Canyon

A fariy tale Christmas

Summer of the monkeys

The princess stallion

Pit pony

A family for Joe

Books:

• Runaways : Pride & joy / Brian K. Vaughan — All young people believe their parents are evil … but what if they really are? Meet Alex, Karolina, Gert, Chase, Molly and Nico – whose lives are about to take an unexpected turn. When these six young friends discover their parents are all secretly super-powered villains, the shocked teens find strength in one another. Together, they run away from home and straight into the adventure of their lives – vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.
• Runaways : Teenage wasteland / Brian K. Vaughan — (Runaways Series, #2) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Runaways : Missing: The good die young / Brian K. Vaughan — The world as we know it is about to end and the Runaways are the only hope to prevent it! But if our fledgling teenage heroes are going to succeed, they may have to become just as evil as their villainous parents. The Runaways have learned how their parents' criminal organization began, and now they must decide how it should end. As the Runaways' epic battle against their evil parents reaches its shocking conclusion, the team's mole stands revealed, and blood must be shed. Which kids will still be standing when the smoke finally clears? This is the story that changes everything (seriously!). (Runaways Series, #3) (Age Range: 12 and up)
• Runaways : True believers / Brian K. Vaughan — When a group of teenagers discovers that their parents are actually super-villains, they run away from home... but that's only step one! Now that the evil Pride is gone, nearly every bad guy in the Marvel Universe is trying to fill the power vacuum in Los Angeles, and the Runaways are the only heroes who can stop them! Plus: What does a mysterious new team of young heroes want with the Runaways, and which fan-favorite Marvel characters are part of this group? (Runaways Series, #4) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Runaways : Escape to New York / Brian K. Vaughan — The team's lineup changes forever in the perfect jumping-on point for the series that Wizard said "could be the most original book to focus on teenaged super heroes since Spider-Man debuted all the way back in 1962!" When a dangerous alien invades Los Angeles, the Runaways' own Karolina Dean may be the only hero in the Marvel Universe who can stop him... but at what cost? (Runaways Series, #5) (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Gifts / Ursula K. Le Guin — When a young man in the Uplands blinds himself rather than use his gift of "unmaking"--a violent talent shared by members of his family--he upsets the precarious balance of power among rival, feuding families, each of which has a strange and deadly talent of its own. (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Voices / Ursula K. Le Guin — Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory--the only place where she feels truly safe. (Age Range: Young Adult)
• Nature girl / Carl Hiaasen — Honey Santana-impassioned, willful, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes"-has a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls.
• Naked / David Sedaris — Sedaris's message is pay attention to me. Whether he's taking to the road with a thieving quadriplegic, sorting out the fancy from the extra-fancy in a bleak fruit-packing factory, or celebrating Christmas in the company of a recently paroled prostitute, this collection of memoirs creates a wickedly incisive portrait of an all-too-familiar world.
• Three complete novels / Nelson DeMille — (Word of honor, Cathedral, By the rivers of Babylon)
• Our bodies, ourselves : a new edition for a new era / Boston Women's Health Book Collective — Read a sample chapter, Table of contents
• Arctic lace : knitting projects and stories inspired / Donna Druchunas — Qiviut, or musk ox down, is a world-class fiber--luxurious, warm, and lightweight. People who experience it become obsessed. Qiviut makes perfect hand-knitted lace, as demonstrated by the Alaskan artisans of Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers' Co-op. This book presents how-tos for knitting and designing lace, projects suited to new as well as experienced lace knitters, yarn sources, and comprehensive cultural background.
• A photographer's life : 1990-2005 / Annie Leibovitz —"I don't have two lives," Annie Leibovitz writes in the Introduction to this collection of her work from 1990-2005. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it."