FREADOM

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-02-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

The Ambition
By: Lee Strobel

As this nonstop thriller opens, attorney Tom O'Sullivan finds himself delivering a mafia payoff to a judge who happens to be running for Senate. Meanwhile, investigative journalist Garry Strider's girlfriend Gina stops sleeping with him -- and then moves out -- on account of her religious scruples about sex before marriage. This is Chicago, where there's plenty of political corruption to go around, especially during an election season, and the pastor of Gina's megachurch is considering a run for Senate against the corrupt judge. Strider investigates, the mafia tighten their grip on O'Sullivan, and some surprising events occur at the megachurch. For another Christian legal thriller that explores the moral fallout from corruption, try Reed Arvin's The Will.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-02-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

Then Came You
By: Jennifer Weiner

This timely tale delves into women's lives, with themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy, and donorship.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

As I Lay Dying
By: William Faulkner

One of William Faulkner's finest novels, As I Lay Dying was originally published in 1930, and remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices, it vividly brings to life Faulkner's imaginary South, one of the great invented landscapes in all of literature, and is replete with the poignant, impoverished, violent, and hypnotically fascinating characters that were his trademark.

Read the First Chapter
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

The Sentry
By: Robert Crais

Dru Rayne and her uncle fled to L.A. after Hurricane Katrina; now they face a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a protection gang, he offers his help, but neither of them wants it. Pike and Elvis Cole soon learn that Dru and her uncle are not who they seem.

Review by Bruce Tierney

For years, Joe Pike served as taciturn sidekick to Robert Crais' wisecracking L.A. detective, Elvis Cole. Cole was nominally the brains of the outfit, while Pike carried the big stick, or perhaps more precisely,was the big stick. This time out, Pike takes the starring role in Crais' latest thriller, The Sentry. Rescuing damsels in distress is Pike's forte, and indeed this is how The Sentry opens, with Pike intervening in a gang shakedown of a sandwich shop run by lovely Dru Rayne. Pike realizes early on that the gang will not take his interference lying down, so he decides he'd better keep an eye on things at the store; also, it should be noted that our Zen warrior is mightily attracted to Dru. Cole signs on to investigate around the edges of the situation, and discovers in passing that Dru is perhaps not who she represents herself to be, and that her presence may indeed prove lethal to Cole's longtime friend and partner. But what to tell Pike, and when? Or is Pike so infatuated with Dru that he cannot recognize the truth, even when it engages him in a stare-down? Suspenseful, tautly plotted and diversely populated--once again, we see why Robert Crais continues to top the bestseller charts.

View Series
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

Fallen
By: Karin Slaughter

The mother of the Georgia cop Faith Mitchell is taken hostage, and the evidence unveils police corruption, bribery, and murder.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

Conquistadora
By: Esmeralda Santiago

The multitalented author of When I Was Puerto Rican offers a big, bold novel about life on a Caribbean sugar plantation in the mid-19th century. As a young girl growing up in Spain, Ana Larragoity Cubillas is powerfully drawn to Puerto Rico by the diaries of an ancestor who traveled there with Ponce de León. And in handsome twin brothers Ramón and Inocente-both in love with Ana-she finds a way to get there. She marries Ramón, and in 1844, just eighteen, she travels across the ocean to a remote sugar plantation the brothers have inherited on the island. Ana faces unrelenting heat, disease and isolation, and the dangers of the untamed countryside even as she relishes the challenge of running Hacienda los Gemelos. But when the Civil War breaks out in the United States, Ana finds her livelihood, and perhaps even her life, threatened by the very people on whose backs her wealth has been built.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

The Night Circus
By: Erin Morgenstern

Two young rivals at a magical circus become collaborators as they fall in love.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2012-01-07T07:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday
By: Danielle Steel

A woman, her daughter, and a former football player arrive at their own crucial turning points on the same day.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-12-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

The Silent Governess
By: Julie Klassen

Historical Romance. Olivia Keene flees the scene of a crime hoping to seek refuge with a friend of her mother's, but goes astray and ends up at Brighton Court, the estate of Lord Edward Stanton Bradley's family. Edward discovers her on the grounds and believes she has overheard a damaging conversation; he insists she accept the position of governess in the nursery so he can prevent her from reporting what she heard and ruining his reputation. Olivia becomes a member of the household and encounters further challenges, misunderstandings, and heartaches…as well as romance. The Silent Governess won a 2010 Christy Award. For another historical romance by author Julie Klassen, read The Girl in the Gatehouse.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-12-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Sisterhood Everlasting
By: Ann Brashares

The friends from the Traveling Pants series, now in their late 20s, plan a reunion in Greece.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-12-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Breaking the Rules
By: Suzanne Brockmann

One person Eden Gillman wouldn't mind never seeing again is Navy SEAL Izzy Zanella, her estranged husband. But with her brother Dan recovering from serious combat injuries, Eden must turn to his comrade-in-arms Izzy for help in rescuing her other brother, Ben, from their abusive stepfather. Eden and Izzy still have feelings for each other, but is their shared past too painful for them to contemplate a future together? Breaking the Rules is the sixteenth "superb, nail-biting" (Library Journal) installment in Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters Series, which starts with The Unsung Hero.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-11-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

Thirteen Days to Midnight
By: Patrick Carman

Dark Fantasy. After inexplicably surviving the car crash that killed his foster father, 15-year-old Jacob Fielding discovers that, with three whispered words, he's been bequeathed the power of invulnerability. When he realizes that he can share this power with others, Jacob makes his best friend Milo and gorgeous new girl Ophelia indestructible, too. But as Ophelia, in her fervor to save the world, unintentionally wreaks havoc with her borrowed powers, the dark side of Jacob's "gift" is slowly revealed. Nail-biting suspense combines with an ethical conundrum and a healthy dose of action in this creepily thought-provoking read.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-11-18T07:50:00.000-08:00

The Wreckers
By: Iain Lawrence

As if his first voyage aboard his father's merchant ship The Isle of Sky wasn't thrilling enough for 14-year-old John Spencer, their journey home turns deadly when a vicious storm strikes and they shipwreck off the English coast. John survives the disaster only to discover that the greatest danger may still lie ahead of him--the residents of the coastal village of Pendennis have secrets that they will protect at any cost, and they've figured out that John knows far too much about them. John must fight to save himself--and possibly his father--in this suspenseful nautical adventure, which is the 1st book in author Iain Lawrence's High Seas trilogy.

View First Chapter
View Table of Contents

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-11-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

Tick Tock
By: James Patterson

NYC's #1 detective, Michael Bennett, has a huge problem--the Son of Sam, the Werewolf of Wisteria and the Mad Bomber are all back. The city has never been more terrified
Tick--a killer's countdown begins
A rash of horrifying crimes tears through the city, throwing it into complete chaos and terrorizing everyone living there. Immediately, it becomes clear that they are not the work of an amateur, but of a calculating, efficient, and deadly mastermind.
Tick--Michael Bennett is on the chase
The city calls on Detective Michael Bennett, pulling him away from a seaside retreat with his ten adopted children, his grandfather, and their beloved nanny, Mary Catherine. Not only does it tear apart their vacation, it leaves the entire family open to attack.
Tock--your time is up
Bennett enlists the help of a former colleague, FBI Agent Emily Parker. As his affection for Emily grows into something stronger, his relationship with Mary Catherine takes an unexpected turn. All too soon, another appalling crime leads Bennett to a shocking discovery that exposes the killer's pattern and the earth-shattering enormity of his plan. From the creator of the #1 New York detective series comes the most volatile and most explosive Michael Bennett novel ever.

View Series

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-11-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story
By: Leonie Swann

In the Irish village of Glennkill, shepherd George Glenn takes wonderful care of his sheep (he even reads to them). So when he's found murdered--lying in a field with a spade sticking out of him--his flock decides they'll find his killer. Miss Maple, the smartest sheep around, leads the woolly group--which includes Othello, Melmoth, and Zora--who, while they can't talk or behave like regular detectives, have been exposed to a lot of books and can certainly listen and think. This "completely original, sparklingly inventive, cleverly written story" (Booklist) was first published in Germany and is an international bestseller.

Read the first chapter!
Interview with the author!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-10-31T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
By: Stieg Larsson

Review by Bruce Tierney

The final volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, finds neo-punk and genius hacker Lisbeth Salander recuperating from a bullet to the brain. She's in no hurry to get better: A multiple-murder trial awaits her recovery. She has wreaked vengeance on her tormentors, who conspired to imprison her for most of her teen years. A few are dead, and the rest are scurrying to cover their tracks and somehow neutralize her before she can incriminate them. So was it murder, or self-defense? Or is there just the slightest possibility that Salander is, if not entirely innocent, at least not guilty in the eyes of the law?

Helping Salander from outside is renegade journalist Mikael Blomkvist, at times the focus of Salander's affections, and more recently the object of her unbridled loathing. Blomkvist isn't exactly sure how he fell from her graces, and she has not been forthcoming with the answer; indeed, she rebuffs his every advance. And so this uneasy pair labors, sometimes at odds, sometimes in parallel, in pursuit of Salander's freedom.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest neatly ties together all the loose ends from the previous two cliffhangers, yet it still leaves the reader yearning for more. At the time of his death, Larsson left behind an unfinished manuscript of what would have been the fourth book in the series, and synopses of the fifth and sixth. Sadly, we will probably never see them, at least not as the author intended.

Publisher Comments

The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson's internationally best-selling trilogy
Lisbeth Salander--the heart of Larsson's two previous novels--lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge--against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.
Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.

View Series

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Ghost Mountain Boys
By: James Campbell

The "Ghost Mountain Boys" of the 32nd Infantry division lacked combat training, basic supplies, and back-up when they were dropped on New Guinea's southern edge and ordered to march overland to push Japanese forces out of Buna, on the far coast. During their 42-day trek, 10,000 died; the majority succumbed to hideous tropical diseases borne in rancid water or septic mud, and complicated by a lack of medical supplies. Despite grisly hardships, the soldiers miraculously attained their goal. Fans of the author's earlier Alaskan adventure The Final Frontiersman will find this grimmer fare. For WWII history buffs, however, it offers a meaningful glimpse into one of the war's lesser-known ordeals.

View First Chapter

View Table of Contents

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-10-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ape House
By: Sara Gruen

The author of Water for Elephants brings another great animal tale. Isabel Duncan is both scientist and den mother to six bonobos, outgoing, intelligent, and mischievous great apes who use American Sign Language and graphic symbols to communicate. Without warning, an explosion shatters their orderly existence. Isabel spends weeks in the hospital and then learns that her six much loved bonobos have been stolen. With the help of lab intern Celia and two computer hacker friends, a sympathetic tabloid reporter, and an unforgettable Russian prostitute, Isabel works to track down the apes when they are cast on a reality television show that calls into question scientific assumptions about common DNA that is shared by apes and people.

Read the First Chapter!

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-10-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

I Think I Love You
By: Allison Pearson

From the author of the best seller "I Don't Know How She Does It, "a follow-up that promises to be one of the most widely read and talked-about novels of the season.
1974, Wales. Thirteen-year-old Petra and her best friend, Sharon, are in love with David Cassidy and obsessed with The Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet their teen idol. 1998, London. Petra is pushing forty and on the brink of divorce. While cleaning out her mother's closet, she finds a dusty letter--a letter her mother had intercepted--declaring her the winner of the contest she and Sharon had labored over with such agony and bliss. Twenty-four years later, twenty pounds heavier, the girls reunite for an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol at last, middle age--theirs and his--be damned.
Poignant, hilarious, joyful, profoundly moving and uplifting, "I Think I Love You "captures what girls learn about love through the universal experience of worshiping a teen dream. It will resonate with readers everywhere.

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-09-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Freedom
By: Jonathan Franzen

From the National Book Award-winning author of "The Corrections" comes a darkly comedic novel about family. Franzen's intensely realized characters struggle to learn how to live in an ever-confusing world--one with the temptations and burdens of liberty, the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, and the heavy weight of empire.

Review by Alden Mudge

Nine years have passed since the publication of Jonathan Franzen's monumental novel The Corrections. That book, a National Book Award winner, remains one of the best and most popular American works of literary fiction of this new century. And it casts a long shadow over any piece of fiction Franzen subsequently chooses to write.

"The disorientations of going from relative obscurity to relative well-knownness were obviously daunting," the author acknowledges during a call to his home in Santa Cruz, California. Franzen "got involved with a Santa Cruz girl," the writer Kathy Chetkovich. As a result, each year the pair spend a month in the winter and most of the summer on the West Coast. In New York, Franzen writes in a small, sparsely furnished studio apartment. In Santa Cruz, while school is out of session, UC Santa Cruz offered him office space.

"I have the kind of nature that needs to prove that it wasn't any fluke, that I can do it again."

Addressing the personal impact of the success of The Corrections, Franzen says, "I have the kind of nature that needs to prove that it wasn't any fluke, that I can do it again. So the pressure from the outside was combined with an enormous internal pressure."

The pressure has served Franzen extremely well. His new novel, Freedom, is different from The Corrections but is, in its own way, as good as its predecessor. The novel concerns the travails of the Berglunds, a seemingly perfect, progressive, middle-class family whose lives fall apart shortly after 9/11.

Freedom is a sort of contemporary epic, part tragedy and part comedy, whose basic story is swiftly outlined in the novel's pitch-perfect opening section, "Good Neighbors," part of which appeared in the New Yorker. There we meet the young Berglunds, early gentrifiers of the Ramsey Hill section of St. Paul, Minnesota. Patty, a former college basketball star, is a self-deprecating, "sunny carrier of sociocultural pollen," so devoted to parenting her children Jessica and Joey as to excite envy among her neighbors. Walter, a "generous and smiling" young lawyer who rides a commuter bike to work and spends weekends rehabbing the family's Victorian, is thought by neighbors to be "greener than Greenpeace."

The first fissure in the family façade develops as their entrepreneurial and surprisingly self-possessed son Joey rebels against his father's authority, then falls in love with the girl next door, the daughter of a jilted mistress of a local politician, and finally moves out of the Berglund household and into the considerably more conservative and lower-class home of his girlfriend. By the time Joey finally heads off to college, the family is in tatters. They leave St. Paul and head to Washington, D.C., where Walter has taken a job with a foundation devoted to saving the habitat of the Cerulean Warbler, whose sole funding comes from an energy magnate named Vin Haven--who is, as it turns out, a close associate of Vice President Dick Cheney.

The remainder of the novel drills deeper into the family's frustrations, competitions and betrayals, and the moral and political compromises that divide these family members and their friends and lovers. Franzen's characters are not entirely likable people, and there is more than enough sadness and disappointment to make Freedom a difficult book to read. And yet, through the sheer force of Franzen's abilities--his mastery of tone and voice, his sharp understanding of family dynamics and his subtle sense of humor--Freedom rings with meaning and pulses with recognizable contemporary life. In the end, the novel is oddly and surprisingly uplifting.

In conversation, Franzen is extremely reluctant to speak about his weighty novel's multiple levels of meaning. It's as if he doesn't want to intrude upon a reader's freedom to decide for herself. Asked what he'd like readers to think about when they finish reading Freedom, he demurs, saying, "I'm just hoping people have an experience with the book. I want the pages to turn without effort. I think that's probably more important than ever. Because we are competing with so many other media, the challenge is to try to do something interesting and halfway serious, within the context of easily distracted people. I mean, I am an easily distracted reader. If the book's not doing it, there are a lot of other things I could be doing."

On the other hand, Franzen is astonishingly, even courageously forthcoming about the personal demons that at some subterranean level inform Freedom.

"Even though The Corrections drew directly on some experiences I had when my father was dying," Franzen says, "it didn't get into the real stuff with me and my parents, and it steered entirely clear of my rather long marriage. Even though there's nothing in the new book that actually happened to me--there's not a scene, there's not an incident that is from my own life--to go a little way into the shameful heart of my fraught relationship with my mom, to go a little way into the kind of things, again shameful, that happen in a long marriage, was really the core adventure."

"And I might also say that not having kids was something I was dealing with in the years when the book was coming together. Specifically it manifested itself in a kind of rage against young people that I was feeling some years ago. So it was important for me to try to create a young character [Joey] who I could love and forgive--if only to be rid of an anger that I knew really had nothing to do with its object."

Then there is the thread of Franzen's political and environmental anger. "I'm an old environmental writer," Franzen says "Yet the environment is just about the hardest thing there is to write about. The news is bad, and your rhetorical options are either to shrilly and unrealistically decry what other people are doing, or to guiltily and despairingly acknowledge what is happening. Neither of those make for good fiction. So I wanted a character [Walter] who might be lovable for other reasons, who could also embody some of the environmentalist rage that I was certainly feeling during the Bush years and am certainly feeling now with what's happening in the Gulf."

Yet the wily, manipulative energy baron Vin Haven is, in Franzen's characterization, a pretty good guy. "It's very hard to make fiction out of political anger," he explains. "When you're speaking politically, you really can't allow in the possibility that you are the problem. But of course we are all the problem. The flip side of that is that the people we see as the problem in our political way of thinking are also people too."

Franzen's adherence to the dictates of good fiction at the expense of ideology is embodied in a set of psychologically, morally and, yes, politically complex characters. The novel, he says, "only took a year to actually write the pages. The eight years preceding that were spent coming up with interesting, difficult characters who I could nonetheless love."

Whether readers will also love these characters remains to be seen, but they will certainly appreciate Franzen's ability to transmute the dross of contemporary American life into the gold of Freedom.

Want more on Freedom? Check out Alden Mudge's 'behind the interview' blog post.

Publisher Comments

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes?

In his first novel since "The Corrections," Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-09-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

A Most Wanted Man
By: John Le Carré

This rewarding tale begins with a young man named Issa who seeks shelter in the home of a Turkish family in Hamburg, Germany. He is an illegal immigrant and a devout Muslim in a city that, since 9/11, looks askance at such men and which is home now to British, American, and German intelligence. Sent by his father (a Russian soldier who raped his Chechen mother) to take possession of money now in the hands of private banker Tommy Brue, who's got father issues of his own, Issa is marked as a militant by German intelligence. And as he determines what to do with his new fortune, Issa may further endanger himself and those who have tried to help him. This is le Carré's "strongest, most powerful novel," says author Alan Furst in a New York Times book review.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-09-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

Tattoos & Tequila: To Hell and Back with One of Rock's Most Notorious Frontmen
by Vince Neil with Mike Sager

Check our catalog and reserve!

After reading this no-holds-barred autobiography from Vince Neil, lead singer of '80s hair band Mötley Crüe, you may not know what makes Neil tick, but you'll certainly know all about his experiences with women, cars, drugs, and alcohol. Unsurprisingly, since Neil is a former rock star, most of these experiences are debauched and excessive. But the inclusion of interviews with those who surround him--ex-wives, for example--will give you another perspective on the man. Fans of the group memoir Mötley Crüe: The Dirt or the autobiographies from his bandmates, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, will enjoy this rocking read.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY (Smells Like Dog)

2011-09-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

Smells Like Dog
By: Suzanne Selfors

Ordinary farm kid Homer Pudding dreams of being like his uncle, a famous treasure-hunter, but spends his days cleaning up after his family's many goats. Then Uncle Drake dies--under rather suspicious circumstances--and Homer inherits Drake's basset hound, Dog. There's a strange coin attached to Dog's collar, and Homer is certain that the letters etched on the coin are important. Little does he know, however, just how wild things are about to get. If you like this story's humor, over-the-top bad guys, and eccentric characters, check out its sequel, Smells Like Treasure.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-09-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

Cleopatra: A Life
By: Stacy Schiff

Her life spanned fewer than 40 years, but she was the last Egyptian pharaoh and one of the most influential women of the age. She married twice, each time to a brother; she poisoned one and waged a war against the other. To this day, the life of Cleopatra VII (69-30 B.C.) intrigues us. This adept biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff tells us why it should. The true story of the woman behind the myth.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-08-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

A Red Herring Without Mustard
By: Alan Bradley

In the third installment of Bradley's bestselling series, Flavia de Luce must clear a woman's name to prevent a grave injustice, while trying herself to avoid an early (and unjust) grave.

Review by Arlene McKanic

The first thing that Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old sleuth, does in his latest mystery is set a gypsy fortune teller’s tent on fire. It gets worse from there, but this is a Flavia de Luce novel. So there’s a nasty bludgeoning followed by a gruesomely inventive murder and the discovery of yet another corpse, all on the de Luce property. We can count on the undaunted Flavia to get to the bottom of these crimes.

Because she’s an expert in poisons, which she sometimes uses to get non-lethal revenge on her mean sisters Ophelia and Daphne, Flavia solves her crimes through chemistry. The title may refer to the persistent and unexpected smell of fish around both crime scenes and persons of interest. But as Flavia knows, a fishy smell doesn’t necessarily mean fish. And let’s not forget the pair of fox andirons that belonged to Flavia’s long-dead Mum, Harriet. They seem heavy enough to smash in a skull or two.

A Red Herring Without Mustard is as hilarious, gripping and sad as the previous books in this enjoyable series. The comedy comes from a little girl pulling one over on a bunch of clueless grown-ups as she pretends to be as clueless as they are. It’s gripping because it’s a well-paced murder mystery, and it’s sad because Flavia’s family is so messed up. Her sisters truly, deeply, inexplicably hate her. Her father, as inurned in grief over his wife as ever, now has the extra burden of trying to keep up Buckshaw, the de Luce’s great pile of a house, and the acreage it sits on. It’s gotten to the point where he’s auctioning off the family silver—another detail the reader should keep in mind,

Bradley displays his usual insight into Flavia’s character, though I’ve always suspected the books are from the point of view of an old lady recalling an unusually interesting childhood, like Mattie in True Grit. Bradley’s also good with his minor characters, a colorful bunch that includes Dogger, the shell-shocked factotum; Mrs. Mullet, the de Luces’ voluble, no-nonsense cook; and Inspector Hewitt, the stoic detective who’ll never admit how much Flavia helps his cases. A Red Herring Without Mustard introduces the deeply troubled Bull family and Porcelain, the unstable granddaughter of the fortuneteller. The requisite, well, red herrings, are numerous enough to keep the reader guessing. Once again, Bradley succeeds. And so, of course, does Flavia.

Publisher Comments

Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop's Lacey--mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia's own backyard.
Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse--that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce's drawing room.
Pedaling Gladys, her faithful bicycle, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers some odd new twists. Most intriguing is her introduction to an elegant artist with a very special object in her possession--a portrait that sheds light on the biggest mystery of all: Who is Flavia?
As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-08-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Weird Sisters
By: Eleanor Brown

A major new talent tackles the complicated terrain of sisters, the power of books, and the places we decide to call home.
"There is no problem that a library card can't solve. "
The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. "See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much." But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.

Review by Amy Scribner

Although she’s been writing for years, The Weird Sisters is Eleanor Brown’s first novel, and her joy at being published is almost palpable.

In a birth announcement of sorts, Brown posted a photo of an early copy of the book on her blog and gushed somewhat adorably about its beauty. “The paper is beautiful and doesn’t reproduce quite right in photos—it’s a beautiful pearlescent white that glitters in light,” she wrote.

It’s true—the cover is gorgeous. That’s nothing, though, compared to what’s inside this delicious, wholly original novel.

Brown laughs when teased about her blog post.

“There’s something about seeing the hardcover that just made it all feel very real and very close, and kind of brought home that I’d done something worth celebrating,” Brown says.

Indeed, The Weird Sisters is a book worth celebrating. Because their father is a renowned Shakespearean scholar, the Andreas family communicates largely through the words of the Bard. It is not unusual for them to drop Shakespearean quotes into a conversation about, say, wedding rings or what to eat for breakfast.

The three Andreas sisters—Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia, each named for great Shakespearean characters—come home to the tiny college town where they grew up when their mother is diagnosed with breast cancer. Rosalind (or Rose) doesn’t have far to go, since she lives and teaches nearby in Columbus. Bianca (or Bean) comes home from her glitzy life in Manhattan after being disgraced at work. And the baby sister, Cordelia (Cordy), wanders home from her latest aimless road trip around America, broke, tired and pregnant.

The novel wonderfully captures how it feels to go home again—and all the bittersweet, mixed emotions that can come along with it. Who hasn’t visited the parents and immediately reverted to a sullen teenager, or been home for the holidays and run into an ex at the grocery store?

“The reason I was interested in the story of the Andreas sisters comes very much from my family in broad strokes,” says Brown, who has two sisters. “When we get back together, we tend to slip back into those roles.”

It’s a meaningful choice of theme for someone like Brown, who has lived all over the world and admits she has a constant longing to find a place where she wants to stay. Brown just moved from Florida to Colorado with her partner, writer J.C. Hutchins. She has also lived in England, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Philadelphia.

And yet, she admits that someone had to point out to her the dichotomy between her own peripatetic life and the focus on home in her book.

“I did have a psychology undergrad degree,” Brown laughs. “You’d think I would’ve picked up on that!”

Brown came late to Shakespeare, never really a fan until she studied at Oxford and got to see productions at the Globe and Stratford-upon-Avon. “That’s when I really fell in love with the language and stories,” she says.

Telling someone she’s written a book about a family that speaks in Shakespeare quotes causes people “to kind of get that look in their eye, like ‘I didn’t know there was going to be a quiz,’ ” she says. “But really this is about a family that is crippled by the fact that they’re not talking honestly and openly with each other using their own words. Every family has patterns that hold them back.”

In the Andreas’ case, that pattern includes a dad who wanders around the house muttering things like, “Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.”

Huh?

“Here’s one of the problems with communicating in the words of a man who is not around to explain himself: It’s damn hard sometimes to tell what he was talking about,” the sisters say, in the book’s terrific first-person-plural voice. Capturing that voice—in which the sisters collectively tell the story—was no easy feat.

“It was tricky,” Brown says. “I had to kind of devise the rules; for example, how many sisters have to be in the scene to use that voice? Technically, it was really difficult, but I thought it was important because when people talk about their families, they always slip into ‘we.’ ”

So different in personality and life choices, Rose, Bean and Cordy find it complicated to be under one roof again. Bean owes thousands of dollars to her former employer. Rose is engaged to a fellow professor who wants to live in England, while she prefers to stick closer to home. Cordy has no job, no money, no college degree, no health insurance and a rapidly growing belly. How they reconnect—with themselves, each other and their parents—is the heart of this funny, warm story.

It also bears mentioning that The Weird Sisters is a book nerd’s nirvana: The whole family carries books with them wherever they go, and they read at any opportunity. Brown herself knocks off about 300 books in a good year, everything from romance to nonfiction. “Basically, I don’t go anywhere without a book in my hand,” she says.

None of this is surprising: The Weird Sisters is clearly written by a booklover. It’s irresistible and the ending, although satisfying, comes all too soon.

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-08-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

Room
By: Emma Donoghue

Review by Katherine Wyrick

Imagine living within the confines of a 12x12 room, the only natural light coming from a skylight, a television your only link to the outside world. That’s just what Irish-Canadian novelist Emma Donoghue does in Room, a book so original and daring it recently landed on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is his entire world, where he was born and where he lives with Ma, where he learns and plays. It is also where, at night, Jack crawls into Wardrobe to sleep, and to hide when Old Nick visits his mother (when the bed squeaks). For Jack, Room is the only home he’s ever known, but for Ma it’s a prison where she’s been held captive for seven years after being abducted at the age of 19.

Told in the pitch-perfect voice of a five-year-old boy raised in captivity, Donoghue’s stunning novel offers a unique portrait of one mother’s fierce devotion.

If this sounds like the stuff of tabloids, luridly sensational or gimmicky, in Donoghue’s talented hands it’s anything but. Told from Jack’s perspective, Room turns the usual victim/survivor story on its head, transforming it into something else entirely—a meditation on the nature of reality and a testament to the ferocity of a mother’s love.

In a conversation from her home in London, Ontario, Donoghue readily admits, in a lilting Irish brogue, that readers might at first balk at the idea of a five-year-old narrator, but believes that they will “relax into it after a few pages.” A native of Dublin, Donoghue received a doctorate in English literature from the University of Cambridge before launching her writing career. In 1998, she moved to Canada, where she and her partner are raising their two young children.

Her son was five while she was writing Room, and she says, “The dialogue came very easily because I know what they’re like—five-year-old boys in particular. I wanted to get Jack at that moment when [children] suddenly move from the very concrete, ‘where’s my next snack coming from,’ to the big questions. At that age they have this astonishing ability to tackle abstract issues and then swing right back to concerns about toys.”

Donoghue perfectly captures that liminal stage. Jack’s voice is wholly believable and pitch-perfect, and in him Donoghue has created a narrator who is endearing without being cloying, one whose phrasing, thoughts and insights are by turns touching and astute.

Coming across as sentimental or cutesy was, Donoghue says, her biggest fear. “Getting the readers to care is a challenge with any novel, but with this novel I knew they would care when they worked out what the situation was, so then my challenge was to rein in the sentiment.”

A writer of literary historical novels (Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Life Mask) Donoghue admits that Room marks a dramatic departure for her. “I’ve often been inspired by fact in the past, but it’s never happened to me in the present. I happened to hear about the Fritzl case in Austria, but that just gave me the hook, the notion of a child raised in a room not realizing that there was an outside world. That’s as much as I took from it.” (Interestingly, Donoghue had already completed the novel before the Jaycee Dugard case in California came to light.)

“I read up about a lot of those kinds of cases, but I deliberately kept the story in my book very different from all of them because I really didn’t want the book to be in any way like true crime,” she says. “I was interested in boiling down those situations to the essence of confinement and captivity.”

Donoghue stresses that she never intended for Room to be a realistic depiction of life in captivity. To that effect, she deliberately made Ma and Jack’s living conditions far better than in real-life cases, making their quarters an above-ground building with proper light and ventilation. She also didn’t want Room to “read like a treatise on male violence.”

“I didn’t want it to be about child abuse or about appalling neglect,” Donoghue says. “I wanted it to be just about the locked door. What if everything else is fine, but you’re locked away from the world?”

At times, Room has the feel of a macabre fairy tale—like a modern-day Rumpelstiltskin. “There’s no denying those overtones,” the author says. “I deliberately chose a common name for Jack because I wanted him to be like a hero in a fairy tale.” She’s quick to add, however, that though Room can be read on many levels, she’d rather readers understand it as a “real” story with authentic, true-to-life characters.

Above all, she explains, she was “trying to create a kind of test case for a mother’s love.” Strange as it may sound, Donoghue says that the simplicity of the story—a mother and child spending uninterrupted time together—is what has resonated with readers most. “Oddly enough, people have responded in a kind of nostalgic way. Nobody wants to idealize imprisonment, but many of us have such complicated lives, and we try to fit parenting in alongside work and socializing. . . . We try and have so many lives at once, and we run ourselves ragged.”

“Today parenting is so self-conscious and worried, so I wanted to ask the question, how minimally could you do it? One parent in one room. Would that do?”

Room seems to say yes, at least for a time—and with a young, resourceful mother like Ma. (A note to all mothers: prepare to feel inadequate as you marvel at Ma’s mothering skills and instincts.) “She really civilizes and humanizes Jack; he’s not a feral child,” says Donoghue. “She passes along her cultural knowledge to him, from religion to tooth-brushing to rules.”

Despite limited space and resources, by day, the two engage in “Phys Ed,” cooking lessons, model-making, storytelling, crafts, and standing under their skylight and screaming (for help, though Jack thinks it’s a game). Although they watch television for education and distraction, Ma limits its use, warning that it can turn your brain to mush.

As a reader, it’s easy to be lulled by the rhythm of their days until the horror of their situation reasserts itself (and the harrowing second half of the book begins). “It is a nightmare for Ma, but she’s managed to create an idyll for Jack within it, so she benefits too. She gets to escape from her situation by entering into this fantasy that they live in this world of only two people,” Donoghue says. “In a way they are their own society.”

This unique relationship gets right to the heart of Room—a book that illuminates the intimate bond between mother and child, and finds beauty in the unbearable.

Publisher Comments

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-08-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

The Paris Wife
By: Paula McLain

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, "The Paris Wife" captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

Paris is not for lovers

Review by Arlene McKanic

Paula McLain’s fictionalized study of the starter marriage of Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway, The Paris Wife, is a pleasure for anyone who wonders what it was like to be a broke, ambitious writer in Europe in the 1920s. Or, more specifically, a broke, ambitious writer’s wife.

Hadley meets Ernest at a friend’s house in Chicago. She’s in her late 20s, nearly a decade older than he is, and on the verge of permanent spinsterhood. He deflowers her, they marry and flee to Paris, where they can live cheaply and meet all manner of big shots, including Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. They have a baby, nicknamed Bumby. There’s some drinking, though Hadley doesn’t hit the sauce nearly as much as Ernest. In McLain’s hands, he’s nicer than one would think, and the word that comes to mind for Hadley is “earnest” as she struggles to make homes for them in dinky little rooms while Hem tries to make a living. In clear and unfussy prose, McLain makes the reader long for their Lost Generational squalor.

Indeed, McLain’s talent is such that the fact that few of the characters are likable doesn’t mar her story. Characters need only be interesting, and well-drawn creeps are the most interesting of them all. Exceptions to the overall badness are the Murphys, the rich, cosmopolitan and compassionate couple who adopt both the Hemingways and the F. Scott Fitzgeralds like some folks adopt ugly pound puppies, and of course Bumby, still a child when his parents’ marriage detonates. Even Hadley repels with her love of bullfighting—a woman who gets her kicks from watching an animal tortured to death is simply not someone one can like. When the appalling Pauline Pfeiffer, who will become Ernest’s second wife, crawls into bed with them one drowsy Mediterranean afternoon one doesn’t know whether to cheer or gag. Hadley, like so many of her revered matadors, ends up pretty badly gored, but survives, and lives well into her 80s.

Restrained, perceptive and a bit sad, The Paris Wife is a look at a time and a marriage that weren’t as glamorous and carefree as we’d like to believe.

Publisher Comments

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness--until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group--the fabled "Lost Generation"--that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become "The Sun Also Rises." Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage--a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they've fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, "The Paris Wife" is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

Read the First Chapter!

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-08-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Enemy Women
By:Paulette Jiles

An unforgettable story of family, love, and war follows Adair, the daughter of modest farmers in the Missouri Ozarks who is wrongly accused of "enemy collaboration" by the Union militia, as she falls in love with her interrogator, a Union major who orchestrates her escape, and embarks on a perilous journey to find her family. A first novel.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Marriage Most Scandalous
by Johanna Lindsey

Check our catalog and reserve!

Historical Regency. How's this for a scandal? After accidentally killing his best friend in a duel (precipitated by an adulterous affair), Sebastian Townshend is disowned by his family, which prompts him to flee to the continent and become the mercenary known as "the Raven." Eleven years later, his father's ward Margaret Landor hires the Raven to find Sebastian, unaware that they are one and the same. Margaret wants to know who is trying to kill her guardian and is willing to pretend to be Sebastian's wife in order to find out. But neither Margaret nor Sebastian anticipates enjoying their fake marriage--or wanting to make it real.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Distant Hours: A Novel
by Kate Morton

Check our catalog and reserve!

Fans of gothic novels like Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale, or Poppy Adams' The Sister will love Kate Morton's atmospheric latest, which features a crumbling castle nestled in the English countryside, slowly uncovered family secrets, and compelling, mysterious characters. As a child, Meredith Baker was sent to Milderhurst to avoid the Blitz; years later, her grown daughter Edie's curiosity is piqued by Meredith's tears over a letter lost for 50 years. Soon, Edie becomes acquainted with the castle's inhabitants and begins uncovering the mysterious, haunting past they share with her mother. "Enthralling,"

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Lightkeeper's Ball
By: Colleen Coble

It's 1910, and Olivia Stewart, a young woman from a prestigious New York family, learns that her sister has died in California under mysterious circumstances. Olivia mistrusts her sister's fiancé, Harrison Bennett, whom she has never met, so she heads west under an assumed name to do some sleuthing. The trip becomes more adventurous than she'd expected: someone throws her overboard--and her rescuer turns out to be Harrison. Olivia, maintaining her false identity, continues to investigate her sister's death as Harrison shows interest in her. If you've been following the Mercy Falls series, which starts with The Lightkeeper's Daughter, you'll be glad to know that this 3rd installment includes some characters from earlier novels.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving - Leigh Anne Tuohy, Sean Tuohy and Sally Jenkins

Check our catalog and reserve!

The couple at the center of the hit book and movie The Blind Side finally tell their side of the amazing story of their adoption of homeless football prodigy Michael Oher, detailing how they instilled their Christian values in their two biological children and delivering a profound message about the power of giving.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

Agnes & the Hitman
by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

"Cranky Agnes" is a food writer whose skill with a frying pan extends to taking out intruders, which is exactly what happens when one attempts to steal her dog (the miscreant ends up both dead and covered in hot raspberry sauce). Shane kills people for a living, and while disinclined to babysit a chef, he immediately falls for Agnes' cooking, curves, and temper. But in addition to the continued attempts on her life (and home, currently under renovation for a wedding), Agnes has to deal with an unfaithful fiancé, wedding sabotage, mobsters...and the $5 million that may be hidden in her basement. Fans of Janet Evanovich's humorous mysteries will appreciate this confection's eccentric characters and wackadoo situations.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-07-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

Decision Points by, George Bush

Check our catalog and reserve!

President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions of his presidency and personal life. Shattering the conventions of political autobiography, he offers a strikingly candid journey through the defining decisions of his life.

Browse & Search

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-28T05:24:00.000-07:00

The Sunday Philosophy Club: An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel Dalhousie, the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics and an occasional detective, has been accused of getting involved in problems that are, quite frankly, none of her business. When she witnesses a man fall from the upper balcony of Usher Hall. Isabel can't help wondering whether it was the result of mischance or mischief. Against the best advice of her no-nonsense housekeeper Grace, her bassoon playing friend Jamie, and even her romantically challenged niece Cat, she is morally bound to solve this case. Complete with wonderful Edinburgh atmosphere and characters straight out of a Robert Burns poem, The Sunday Philosophy Club is a delightful treat from the author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth, and Treasure
by, Glenn Beck, Kevin Balfe

Check our catalog and reserve!

The Fox News host's plan for fixing the country's financial woes.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Moon Over Manifest
by, Clare Vanderpool

Check our catalog and reserve!

Feisty 12-year-old Abilene Tucker isn't too keen on spending the summer away from her daddy, but since she can't accompany him on his new railroad job, she'll be staying with a family friend in Manifest, Kansas, where her dad once lived. Abilene is disappointed in Manifest when she first gets off the train--it looks like any other ratty, worn-out old town in the throes of the Depression--but she soon uncovers all kinds of mysteries to investigate. Spies, outlaws, secrets, and even murder are woven into this complex, multilayered story that's sure to please fans of memorable characters and richly detailed settings.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
- by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter

Check our catalog and reserve!

Her first thought upon hearing a strange sound coming from the book drop one frigid January morning was this can't be good. In fact, for both the tiny kitten found shivering in the metal box's corner and for Vicki Myron, director of the Spencer Public Library, the discovery was the best thing that ever happened to either of them, and to the tiny Iowa farming community. This uplifting story traces how a bedraggled orange fur ball became Dewey Readmore Books, an enchantingly irresistible library mascot capable of bringing international attention to a small midwestern town and melting the heart of even the most curmudgeonly visitor. Myron's beguiling, poignant, and tender tale of survival, loyalty, and love is an unforgettable study in the mysterious and wondrous ways animals, and libraries, enrich humanity.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Worth Dying For: A Reacher Novel
by, Lee Child

Check our catalog and reserve!

Jack Reacher can't let go of a decades-old case of a missing child.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-06-03T11:16:00.000-07:00

Around the World In Eighty Days by, Jules Verne

Check our catalog and reserve!

One ill-fated evening at the Reform Club, Phileas Fogg rashly bets his companions that he can travel around the entire globe in just eighty days and he is determined not to lose. Accompanied by his hot-blooded French manservant Passepartout, Fogg travels by train, steamship, sailboat, sledge, and even elephant to win the extraordinary wager, overcoming storms, kidnappings, natural disasters, Sioux attacks, and the hot pursuit of dogged Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard who believes that Fogg has robbed the Bank of England. Around the World in Eighty Days gripped audiences on its publication and remains hugely popular, combining exploration, adventure, and a thrilling race against time.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Mr. Toppit by, Charles Elton

Check our catalog and reserve!

Arthur Hayman is an aspiring children's author, but his career doesn't take off until he is killed by a cement truck and his books are championed by an American who worms her way into his family. As the popularity of the series grows, Arthur's adult children must learn to deal with their unwanted celebrity. Fans of allegorical fantasy (like the Chronicles of Narnia or even the Harry Potter books) will be drawn to Arthur's novels, which are set in a magical land but are based on his son's adventures in the woods near their Dorset home, while others will be drawn to the unusual storyline and tragic (and sometimes downright creepy) characters.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

I Still Dream About You: A Novel by, Fannie Flagg

Check our catalog and reserve!

A former Miss Alabama's radical plan to solve all her problems keeps getting interrupted.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

Unlucky for Some: A Novel of Suspense
by, Jill McGown

Check our catalog and reserve!

In Unlucky for Some, her thirteenth book featuring Detective Chief Inspectors Lloyd and Hill, the quiet life of an English town scarcely conceals the deadly menace lurking around dark corners and within the human mind. Michael Waterman is a self-made millionaire. His casinos and nightclubs ensure a constant flow of cash, and Waterman knows what he needs to do to keep it that way. So far, it seems, he has stayed on the right side of the law. Certainly, no one seriously suspects him of murdering bingo player Wilma Fenton, who was struck down while walking home with a purse crammed full of winnings. Her murder looks like an ordinary mugging except for one oddity: The killer had left Wilma’s money neatly fanned out across her body. The motive behind the bafflingly violent act dogs Lloyd and Hill– now married and the harried parents of a two-year-old daughter. The stakes are raised with a second murder, modeled on the first . . . and then a third. A cold-blooded killer is challenging not only the police but the one witness to the first slaying: England’s premier expert on serial crime, well-known journalist and TV personality, Tony Baker. It has now become a twisted game of madness and logic–in which failure to outwit the murderer means more senseless deaths.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Confession by, John Grisham

Check our catalog and reserve!

Grisham delivers his most extraordinary legal thriller yet. Filled with his trademark intriguing twists and turns, this newest novel proves that no one keeps readers in suspense like America's favorite storyteller.

Browse & Search

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy
by, Nellie Connally, Mickey Herskowitz

Check our catalog and reserve!

Nellie Connally, Texas's first lady, had just said "Mr. President, you certainly can't say Dallas doesn't love you!" to President John Kennedy when shots rang out on Nov. 22, 1963, killing the president and wounding the author's husband, Texas governor John Connall y. In this book, Nellie Connally, offers her own eyewitness version of the Kennedy assassination, sharing her personal diary of the events that unfolded both before and following November 22, 1963, disputing the Warren Commission's findings, and providing an intensely personal perspective on the nation's tragedy.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Legacy: A Novel
By, Danielle Steel

Check our catalog and reserve!

This compelling, centuries-spanning work brilliantly interweaves the lives of two women--a writer working in the heart of modern academia and a daring young Sioux Indian on an incredible journey in the 18th century. The saga journeys from present-day Boston to the wilds of Dakota lands and the glittering palaces of Louis XVI.

Browse & Search

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-05-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama
by Bill O'Reilly

Check our catalog and reserve!

The Fox News commentator scrutinizes the meaning of change in the era of Obama.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-04-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Snow Falling on Cedars - by David Guterson

Check our catalog and reserve!

A 1954 murder trial in an island community off the coast of Washington state broadens into an exploration of war, race, and the mysteries of human motivation. The dead man, Carl Heine, his accused murderer, Kabuo Miyomoto, and the one-man staff of the local newspaper, Ishmael Chambers, were all scarred by their experiences in World War II but resumed normal-seeming lives upon their return to the fishing and strawberry-farming community of San Piedro in Puget Sound. While fishermen Heine and Miyomoto set about raising families, the newspaperman remains alone and apart, alienated by the loss of an arm and a childhood love, who married Miyomoto. Chambers comes upon information that could alter the verdict of the trial if presented or change his own life if suppressed, creating a private trial as momentous as the public one, with the outcome as much in doubt.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-04-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Cross Fire by, James Patterson

Check our catalog and reserve!

Alex Cross investigates a professional assassination in Washington, and gets a chilling call from his deadliest adversary.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Don't Blink
by, James Patterson & Howard Roughan

Check our catalog and reserve!

A reporter finds himself involved in a war between the Italian mob and the Russian mafia.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-04-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hand of Fate: A Triple Threat Novel
By: Lis W. Wiehl and April Henry

When radio talk-show host Jim Fate dies from sarin gas that came in a package he received in the mail, downtown Portland is thrown into chaos. TV crime reporter Cassidy Shaw reports from the scene, while Federal prosecutor Allison Pierce rescues a toddler separated from her parents in the crowds and FBI agent Nicole Hedges is trapped in a high-rise building--and that's just the beginning! The "very real women" (Publishers Weekly) of the Triple Threat Club then combine forces as they did in Face of Betrayal to identify and track down the criminals. Popular authors Lis Wiehl, a legal commentator for Fox News, and mystery writer April Henry collaborate on this ongoing series; Hand of Fate is the 2nd volume.

View First Chapter
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-04-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

Scat by, Carl Hiaasen

Check our catalog and reserve!

Eco-Thriller. Nick Waters and his friend Marta are terrified of their biology teacher, Mrs. Starch, the most demanding and feared teacher at the Truman School. The only kid who doesn't seem to be scared of her is underachieving pyromaniac Duane Scrod, Jr., a.k.a. "Smoke." But after a class field trip to the Everglades gets cut short by a freak wildfire, Mrs. Starch goes missing! Nick and Marta don't buy the official "family emergency" explanation and decide to investigate on their own. This exciting and funny story features a big cast of quirky characters, an endangered swamp and an endangered species, mystery, peril, heroics, and possibly the worst substitute teacher ever.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-03-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Full Dark No Stars by, Stephen King

Check our catalog and reserve!

Four long stories, light on the supernatural and dealing mostly with grisly human behavior.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-03-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

A Wrinkle in Time - by Madeleine L'Engle

Check our catalog and reserve!

One stormy night a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and fantastic journey--a journey that will threaten their lives and our universe. Meg and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.
First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-03-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

Accordion Crimes - by Annie Proulx

Composed of stories that follow the path of an accordion as it passes through the hands of various immigrants to the U.S, Accordion Crimes expresses the struggles of those living on the fringes of society. Brought to New Orleans in 1890 by its Sicilian maker and his young son, the accordion finds its way into the lives of Germans in Iowa, French Canadians in Maine, Mexicans in Texas, and so on. Imaginative, detailed, violent, and heartbreaking, Accordion Crimes will appeal to fans of Louise Erdrich.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-03-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Ape House
by, Sara Gruen

Check our catalog and reserve!

Readers young and old are attracted to books that explore the mysterious and emotionally powerful human-animal bond, from Lassie Come Home to The Yearling, from Black Beauty to Seabiscuit. Sara Gruen's affinity for the animal world lies at the core of her three earlier novels, including the best-selling Water for Elephants, which explored the life of a Depression-era circus and the animal caretaker who finds solace in both the human and animal companionship he discovers there.

In Ape House, Gruen furthers her study of this unique bond, this time portraying a group of six bonobo apes housed in the fictional Great Ape Language Lab in Kansas City and the humans who either come to love them or seek to profit from their surprisingly advanced communication skills. Led by Bonzi, the matriarch and undisputed leader, the bonobo group includes Sam, the charismatic oldest male, Jelani, an adolescent show-off, and Makena, "Jelani's biggest fan," who is pregnant and due any day. Isabel Duncan is a research scientist overseeing the bonobos and their unique ability to communicate via lexigrams on their computers, supplemented by American Sign Language. She actually feels safer and more loved in the presence of her bonobo charges than with most humans.

Gruen enlivens this charming story of their emotional bonding with multiple villains--including Isabel's fiance, the head of the Great Ape Language Lab, who she discovers has a history of animal cruelty, not to mention he's a purveyor of porn who sees the bonobos as the perfect stars for his new reality TV show, enticing viewers with their healthy sex lives 24 hours a day. Ape House turns into a romp, but Gruen never loses the thread of the enviable bond Isabel has nurtured with her ape friends, as evidenced by the frantic message Makena taps on the TV show computer as she goes into labor: "make Isabel come."

Gruen undertook extensive linguistics studies in preparation for this novel, and was then invited to be one of the few visitors to the real-life Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, where six bonobos and six orangutans are housed. She describes that experience as "magical"--a word that could be used to describe her new novel as well.
Browse & Search

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-02-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'd Know You Anywhere by, Laura Lippman

Eliza Benedict is a happily married stay-at-home mother of two living in a D.C. suburb when she is contacted by Walter Bowman, who kidnapped her when she was 15. A serial killer who raped and killed young girls, he now sits on death row and writes to Eliza more than 20 years after he abducted her.

Browse Inside

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-02-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

Soon: The Beginning of the End
By: Jerry Jenkins

In a post-apocalyptic future following World War III, religion is banned worldwide in the interest of maintaining peace. Paul Stepola is an agent assigned to help flush out Christian fanatics, so he begins reading the New Testament to find out how they tick. Much to his surprise, he realizes that the words in the Bible contain truth, and he converts, becoming a double agent. In this thrilling story, Paul's personal life complicates his risky efforts to protect Christians and spread their teaching. This is the 1st book in author Jerry Jenkins' Soon Trilogy, followed by Silenced and Shadowed.

Read the first chapter!
Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-02-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

Inspired to live in a place that could sensibly feed them, acclaimed writer Barbara Kingsolver and her family picked up and moved from Tucson, Arizona, to a family farm in southern Appalachia to eat only food harvested on their own land or on local farms (and, to be honest, fair-trade coffee). Part memoir, part investigation into the consequences of mass-produced food (both to the environment and to our health), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle includes everything from ruminations on growing asparagus to an exposé of industrial agriculture to recipes, for both Kingsolver's husband, a biologist, and her 19-year-old daughter helped write this book. Grab it for a compulsively readable and thought-provoking experience.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 - by Stephen E. Ambrose

Check our catalog and reserve!

You need a reliable transportation system before you can fully industrialize a nation, and the completion of America's transcontinental railroad in 1869 was the 19th-century technological achievement that fueled the Gilded Age. Acclaimed author Stephen Ambrose documents this accomplishment by focusing on the men of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads as they raced to link the eastern and western halves of the continent. From backbreaking drives into the sides of mountains to accidental deaths, Ambrose traces the triumphs and tragedies of the laborers--many of them immigrants--who made it happen. Publishers Weekly calls this engaging social history a "rough-and-tumble, triumphant saga." For more, David Bain's excellent Empire Express covers similar territory.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-01-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Passage by, Justin Cronin

More than a hundred years in the future, a small group resists the vampires who have taken over North America.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

The Postcard Killers
by, James Patterson and Liza Marklund

NYPD detective Jack Kanon and Swedish reporter Dessie Larsson traverse Europe in hot pursuit of a serial killer, one who sends a postcard before each murder and was responsible for the slayings of Jack's daughter and her boyfriend. Cowritten by the best-selling author of Private.

Check our catalog and reserve!
First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-01-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

Velocity
by, Dean R. Koontz

Suspense Fiction. For five years, bartender Billy Wiles has waited patiently for his comatose girlfriend Barbara to wake up. His quiet life, however, comes rapidly to an end when he discovers a note under his car's windshield wiper that offers him a choice: take the note to the police and the note's author will kill an elderly charity worker, or do nothing and a pretty young schoolteacher will die. When Billy does nothing more than show the note to a friend (who happens to be a cop), a schoolteacher is beaten to death. More notes appear, asking Billy to make more and more difficult choices--and these choices are hitting closer to home. This nail-biting story is "genuinely terrific"

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2011-01-11T05:01:00.000-08:00

Winter Turns to Spring
by, Catherine Palmer and Gary D. Chapman

General Fiction. Written by veteran novelist Catherine Palmer and relationships guru Gary Chapman (author of The Five Love Languages), Winter Turns to Spring is the 4th and final volume in the Four Seasons of a Marriage series. Here, newlyweds Brad and Ashley discover the challenges of life after the honeymoon, as incongruous work schedules, disagreements about finances, and challenges in starting a family threaten to destroy the closeness they once shared. They'll need God's help and encouragement from friends and family in order for their love to blossom once more. Combining fiction with self-help, Winter Turns to Spring will both entertain and inform its readers.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz

Check our catalog and reserve!

Nonfiction. From lists of campfire songs, hiking tips, and essential gear (such as a pocket knife and flashlight) to instruction on how to paddle a canoe, tie knots, and build a campfire, this friendly, informative book includes a lot of advice on camping--and a whole lot of other great stuff. Plus, it's packed with fascinating facts as well as games, crafts, and other fun activities to do while you're basking in the great outdoors, including ghost stories to tell after dark.

First Chapter

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Star Island by, Carl Hiassen

A paparazzo attempting to kidnap a drug-addled pop star grabs her stunt double by mistake.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Sweater - by Glenn Beck

Check our catalog and reserve!

Despite his single mother's financial hardships, 12-year-old Eddie is certain this Christmas he will receive his much-desired Huffy bike. To his dismay, what he finds under the tree is "a stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that his mother carefully made. After he insults her and tosses the sweater, Eddie's mom takes them to his grandparents' farmhouse for the rest of the day. On the drive home, Eddie's exhausted mother falls asleep at the wheel and crashes, dying instantly. Sent to live with his grandparents, Eddie learns lessons of love from that handmade sweater.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-06T08:17:00.000-08:00

Lakeshore Christmas by, Susan Wiggs

Check our catalog and reserve!

Contemporary Romance. In Lakeshore Christmas, author Susan Wiggs returns to the town of Willow Lake, site of her popular Lakeshore Chronicles Series. Librarian Maureen Davenport is delighted when she's chosen to direct the town's annual Christmas pageant. However, she's not at all pleased to discover that former child star and recovering alcoholic Eddie Haven is her co-director. Sparks fly as Maureen's plans for a traditionally perfect pageant clash with Eddie's offbeat ideas. In a starred review, Library Journal praises this "delightful, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant Christmas treat."

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

A McKettrick Christmas by, Linda Lael Miller

Check our catalog and reserve!

Historical Romance. Lizzie McKettrick is returning home to Indian Rock, Arizona, to spend Christmas with her family when an avalanche causes her train to wreck in the snowy mountains. Though her new beau, Whitley, is uninterested in helping their fellow passengers, Lizzie teams up with handsome doctor Morgan Shane to treat the injured. Lizzie's blossoming feelings for Morgan help her realize the deficiencies in her relationship with Whitley--but unless rescue comes soon, there won't be a chance for her to live happily ever after with either man. This charming tale is the tenth book in Linda Lael Miller's McKettrick Romances Series.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-12-05T08:10:00.000-08:00

The Perfect Christmas by, Debbie Macomber

Check our catalog and reserve!

Contemporary Romance. There's only one thing that Cassie Beaumont wants for Christmas: a family of her own. But since her own efforts have failed to find her a husband, she turns to acerbic matchmaker Simon Dodson. Simon promises he can pair Cassie with the man of her dreams, but first she must complete three Christmas-themed tasks. As Cassie fulfills her part of the bargain, she draws closer to her perfect match--but when she gets it, will it really be what she wants? Library Journal calls Debbie Macomber's holiday romance "sweet, funny, and steeped in Christmas cheer."

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-11-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel
- by James Lee Burke

A man with ties to an evil ex-convict is dating the Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux's daughter.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-11-19T08:08:00.000-08:00

Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
by, Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

Apocalyptic Fiction. Left Behind is the 1st book in the phenomenally popular Left Behind series, which inspired an industry that now includes spin-off series, graphic novels, movie adaptations, and video games. As it opens, pilot Rayford Steele contemplates an affair with his flight attendant just before she tells him that some of the passengers have disappeared. The Rapture has begun, and Christ's followers have been swept up to Heaven while unbelievers like Rayford are left to face the Antichrist. Library Journal calls Left Behind "a gripping thriller that captures the anxiety and fear that interpretations of Revelation often inspire."

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Captive of My Desires
by, Johanna Lindsey

Historical Romance. After three glorious years sailing the Caribbean with her recently rediscovered pirate father, Gabrielle Brooks returns to London in order to find a husband. Her hopes of an advantageous marriage are ruined, however, when sexy sea captain Drew Anderson announces her father's scandalous career to London society. Determined to exact revenge on Drew, and desperate to find transportation to the Caribbean, Gabrielle steals Drew's ship and takes him captive--with sensational results. Captive of My Desires is the 8th book in Johanna Lindsay's "wickedly witty, lusciously sensual Malory series"

First Chapter

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-11-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last Night at Chateau Marmont
by, Lauren Weisberger

Check our catalog and reserve!

A woman is challenged when her musician husband suddenly becomes a star.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-11-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by,Tim Weiner

Check our catalog and reserve!

New York Times reporter Tim Weiner won two awards for this indictment of the CIA--the National Book Award and an LA Times Book Prize, both in 2007. Though he supports the idea of an American intelligence-gathering entity, Weiner argues that the CIA has failed from the very beginning because it focuses more on covert action than on actual espionage. He believes that in addition to a terrible record when it comes to covert operations, the CIA does not understand world affairs and undermines American politics. He bases these arguments on recently declassified primary documentation from the CIA archives and interviews with CIA insiders, which makes for "absorbing, appalling history"

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-10-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

Death's Excellent Vacation
edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

A collection of tales of paranormal holidays, including a new Sookie Stackhouse story.

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-10-12T05:39:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

Jack Reacher helps the police in a small South Dakota town protect a witness in a drug trial.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY (Burning Wire)

2010-10-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Burning Wire: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
- by Jeffery Deaver

The forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme investigates a series of murderous electrical explosions

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Spoken from the Heart - by Laura Bush

A memoir from the former first lady.

First Chapter

Check our catalog and reserve!

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

Fly Away Home by, Jennifer Weiner

A senator's extramarital affair affects his wife and daughters.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

City of Bones
by, Michael Connelly

Police Procedural. Michael Connelly doesn't set his books in South Africa, so you'd be forgiven for wondering how this book got on this list. It turns out that Deon Meyer is a huge fan of Connelly's, calling City of Bones "the most perfect crime novel I've ever read" and Connelly himself "the best in the world, absolutely." City of Bones, which is the award-winning 8th in the series starring maverick LAPD detective Harry Bosch, deals with child abuse and with Harry's reaction to the case of a 12-year-old boy murdered after a lifetime of abuse, and buried for 20 years. Check out Meyer's website for more of his favorite books.

Check our catalog and reserve!

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

This timeless poem--more than 2,700 year old-still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amid devastation and destruction as it moves inexorably to its wrenching, tragic conclusion. Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the Trojan War. At its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his conflict with his leader Agamemnon. Interwoven in the tragic sequence of events are powerfully moving descriptions of the ebb and flow of battle, the besieged city of Ilium, the feud between the gods, and the fate of mortals.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-09T04:52:00.000-07:00

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry

The 1918-1920 influenza pandemic, which killed millions of people around the world (50 million in 1918 alone), was particularly deadly for two reasons--the virus itself mutated quickly, which confounded efforts to stop it, and it was spread at least in part by troop movements during World War I. In this intriguing account of the deadly health crisis, author John Barry examines the origins of the killer flu, the failure of the U.S. government to recognize the seriousness of the situation, the response of the medical community, and the impact on early 20th-century society. With such subject matter, it's no surprise that "every page compels attention"

Check our catalog and reserve!

Table of Contents

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-09-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

Frankenstein: Lost Souls: A Novel by, Dean R. Koontz

Check our catalog and reserve!

Book four in the re-imagining of the classic tale.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-08-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

The God of the Hive - by Laurie R. King

Check our catalog and reserve!

Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, are separated and on the run from a ruthless foe.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-08-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Check our catalog and reserve!

In 1946, as England emerges from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey and his eccentric friends, who tell her about their island, the books they love, German occupation, and the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-08-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
by, Stieg Larsson

The 3rd volume of a trilogy about a Swedish hacker and a journalist.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-06-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Home to Harmony by,Philip Gulley

Check our catalog and reserve!

Quaker minister Sam Gardner has always wanted to return to his bucolic hometown of Harmony, Indiana, and now--after 12 years pastoring in another state--he is moving there with his wife and two sons in tow. Among the eccentric individuals that populate Harmony are Dale Hinshaw, a church elder who knows "just enough Scripture to be annoying, but not enough to be transformed," and Billy Bundle, the "World's Shortest Evangelist." If you like Jan Karon's Mitford novels, you're sure to enjoy the Harmony series; Gulley's books are episodic like Karon's, with chapters that end in brief homilies highlighting the spiritual nature of everyday things. Gulley's down-home humor will also be a hit with readers who are partial to Garrison Keillor's tales of Lake Wobegon.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-06-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America - by Erik Larson

Check our catalog and reserve!

Chicago's World Fair of 1893 boasted the best of American ingenuity--the first Ferris Wheel, the introduction of the zipper--as well as the worst, for as crowds gathered on the fairgrounds, a charismatic serial killer preyed on innocents in a specially constructed complex nearby. The stories of the two men who shaped the way this historic event would be remembered--architect Daniel Burnham, who coordinated the construction of the White City, and serial killer Herman Mudgett, who exploited it--are shared in this "compelling and aptly claustrophobic" (Publishers Weekly) book, which also draws an illuminating picture of America at the turn of the century.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-06-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child

Check our catalog and reserve!

SF Thriller. Imagine, buried deep in the Arctic ice, a shadowy form with two huge, baleful yellow eyes. Who knows how long it's been there before paleontologist Evan Marshall and his team come across it. Could it be a saber-toothed tiger? There's only one way to find out. But the thawing-out goes wrong as a documentary film-maker insists on telecasting it live, despite warnings from scientists and Native Americans alike, and the creature--much bigger than it should be--escapes. Carnage ensues as Marshall seeks help and the filmmaker attempts to find--and film--the beast. This one might appeal most to fans of classic SF monster tales.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-06-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel by, Jonathan Kellerman

Check our catalog and reserve!

Masterly storytelling and expert insight into the darkest of human compulsions make #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels as compelling as they are addictive. And just when you think he has taken his spellbinding tales of mystery and psychological suspense to the limit, with Deception he takes a bold leap into terrifying and uncharted new territory.

Her name is Elise Freeman, and her chilling cry for help—to whoever may be listening—comes too late to save her. On a DVD found near her lifeless body, the emotionally and physically battered woman chronicles a year-and-a-half-long ordeal of monstrous abuse at the hands of three sadistic tormentors. But even more shocking than the lurid details is the revelation that the offenders, like their victim, are teachers at one of L.A.’s most prestigious prep schools. With Elise now dead by uncertain means, homicide detective Milo Sturgis is assigned to probe the hallowed halls of Windsor Prep Academy. And if ever he could use Dr. Alex Delaware’s psychological prowess, it’s now.

From the get-go, this case promises to be an uphill climb for truth and a down and dirty fight for justice. Allegations of rape, assault, and possibly murder at this esteemed institution renowned for molding Ivy Leaguers make for a social and political time bomb—especially given that one of the students has connections high up in City Hall. As the scandal-conscious elite of L.A. close ranks around Windsor Prep, Alex and Milo must penetrate the citadel of wealth and scholarship to expose the hidden anguish, dirty secrets, and deadly sins festering among society’s manor-born. But power and position are not easily surrendered, for that’s when the best and the brightest turn brutal and ugly. Searching for predators among the privileged, Alex and Milo may well be walking into a highly polished death trap.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Charlotte Leaves the Light On - by Annette Gail Smith

Check our catalog and reserve!

In teeny-tiny Ruby Prairie, Texas, middle-aged widow Charlotte Carter is busy running Tanglewood, a foster home for troubled girls. Her goodhearted neighbors have long been abuzz over her friendship with Pastor Jock, and just as several of Charlotte's girls prepare to move on and start their own lives, her relationship with Jock begins its own new chapter, too. Brimming with down-harm charm, Charlotte Leaves the Light On is the 3rd and final book in the Coming Home to Ruby Prairie series; the 1st is A Town Called Ruby Prairie and the 2nd is A New Day at Tanglewood.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Check our catalog and reserve

The Last Surgeon by, Michael Palmer

javascript:void(0)
A surgeon and a nurse track a killer whose specialty is murders that don't look like murder.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Check out our featured book today! (recipes included)
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

Apple Turnover Murders by, Joanne Fluke

It's June in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and for Hannah Swensen, that means bridal showers galore, plus a massive fund raising event in need of confections - not to mention a killer who never learned that charity begins at home...Early summer brings plenty of work for Hannah, even before Mayor Bascomb's wife drops by The Cookie Jar to place an order...for eleven-hundred cookies! Stephanie Bascomb is organizing an elaborate three-day event to support local charities, and though it's a worthy cause, Hannah almost flips when her business partner, Lisa, suggests setting up an apple turnover stand. Hannah's never made a turnover - but, pushover that she is, she places her faith in Lisa's mother-in-law's recipe and agrees to be a magician's assistant in the fundraiser's talent show...Dozens of pastries and one hideous purple dress later, Hannah has to admit that stepping out of her comfort zone has been fun as well as profitable. The only snag is the show's host, community college professor Bradford Ramsey. Hannah and her younger sister Michelle each had unfortunate romantic relationships with Ramsey, and when the cad comes sniffing around between acts, Hannah tells him off. But when the curtain doesn't go up, she discovers Ramsey backstage - dead as a doornail with a turnover in his hand...Now, to protect her reputation and Michelle's, Hannah must get to the bottom of the professor's bitter end. There are plenty of scorned suspects, including an ex-wife who feels cheated in more ways than one, and a prominent local who may have been using Ramsey to avenge her own randy spouse. But who was unstable enough to snuff out Professor Love? A killer who's flakier than puff pastry - and far more dangerous...

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

Check out our featured book today!
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

The Girl Who Played With Fire by, Stieg Larson

A Swedish hacker becomes a murder suspect.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ice Trap by, Kitty Sewell

Check out our featured book today!
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

Suspense Fiction. Attempting to flee the psychological repercussions of a terrible surgical mistake, surgeon Dafydd Woodruff left Wales for the farthest-away place he could imagine--Moose Creek, Canada, near the Arctic Circle. For one year he worked alongside head nurse Sheila Hailey, who didn't conceal her dislike for him. Nearly 15 years later, back in Wales and in a rocky marriage, he receives a letter from a girl claiming to be his daughter. Returning to Moose Creek to get to the bottom of a mystery he cannot fathom to be true--though a DNA test proves it is--he's drawn into a sinister and suspenseful world. You'll need a blanket for this one--the author describes frozen Moose Creek and bleak Wales exquisitely.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan by, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

Check out our featured book today!
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

Table of Contents

Barack Obama promised the nation 'change' when he took office, and according to Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, change is what America is getting...for the worse! Now, with the president's administration floundering and his popularity plummeting, the Number 1 "New York Times" bestselling political iconoclasts turn the spotlight on the upcoming midterm election of 2010 - the best chance for conservatives to take back the congressional majority and take charge of a runaway government that is careening catastrophically out of control. "2010: Take Back America" is a call to arms for concerned Americans - a timely and important book that takes aim at Obama's health care debacle, unemployment, the exploding deficit, a worsening economic crisis, and a corrupt, Democratic-controlled Congress that would tear down our freedoms while building up a Socialist state. Morris and McGann say, 'No more!' It's time for real 'change we can believe in!' Now as never before, the future of our nation depends upon it.

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Check out our featured book today!
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

Dockside by, Susan Wiggs

Contemporary Romance. Now that her daughter has left the nest, Nina Romano of Avalon, New York, is finally ready to begin a new chapter in her life. Her dream of restoring the historic Inn at Willow Lake comes screeching to a halt, however, when she discovers that single dad Greg Bellamy, her rival for almost 20 years, has already taken over the inn. Greg needs some help running the place, and Nina would make the perfect general manager--if only he could get her to accept the position. Dockside is the 3rd charming and warm-hearted book in the Lakeshore Chronicles series.

First Chapter

BOOK OF THE DAY

2010-05-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Bonesetter's Daughter by,Amy Tan
Check out our featured book today!
Call for reservations (903)569-2767

Struggling to regain her voice and express her true feelings to her husband, ghostwriter Ruth Young discovers that her inability to speak closely parallels the story of her mother LuLing's early life in China, where Ruth finds the famous bonesetter, a woman whose mouth was sealed shut during a suicide attempt.

First Chapter