Fables. Book one: the deluxe edition - Bill Willingham

Fables. Book one: the deluxe edition - Willingham, Bill

Summary: "Imagine that all the characters from the world's most beloved storybooks were real--real, and living among us, with all their powers intact. How would they cope with life in our mundane, un-magical reality?"--Cover, p. [4].

LJ Express Reviews
Verdict Excellent artwork by Lan Medina, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Craig Hamilton and well-thought-out stories will entice even those who usually don't read graphic novels. Longtime fans of the series will enjoy the supplemental material. Essential for graphic novel collections.-Justin Hoenke, Cape May Cty. Lib., NJ Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

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Regretsy: where DIY meets WTF - April Winchell

Regretsy: where DIY meets WTF - Winchell, April

Summary: HANDMADE? IT LOOKS LIKE YOU MADE IT WITH YOUR FEET!

A chicken poncho. A painting of a corn dog. A clock made out of an old “mostly clean” cheese grater. All this and more await you in the pages of Regretsy, a veritable sideshow of handcrafts gone wrong. Based on the eponymous hit blog and arranged in categories such as Dead Things, Pet Humiliation, and Garbage, Regretsy showcases the best of the worst from Etsy.com, ranging from the hilariously absurd to the purely horrifying. Each page of this jaw-dropping volume features the actual seller’s listing with a light coat of hostile commentary to give it a good shellacking. So join us as we descend into handmade hell and gawk, gasp, and marvel at the disturbingly odd artifacts that Regretsy has collected for your viewing pleasure, proving that you can never have too much of a bad thing. - (Random House, Inc.)

Review
Absolutely wonderful and downright horrifying.- New York Magazine

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Luna: a novel - Julie Anne Peters

Luna: a novel - Peters, Julie Anne

Summary: Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.

Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews
Regan has a lot on her plate. She is under pressure at school and being compared to her brother, the computer genius. She is madly in love with her chemistry lab partner, who is out of her league. Her parents do not seem to like each other very much. And she has to deal with the fact that her brother Liam is actually a girl named Luna. Liam is transgendered, a female born in a male body. He has known since he was little but always hid it from the world. Now that he is a senior in high school, he is ready to make a transformation, and he depends on Regan's support. Luna borrows Regan's makeup and clothes, and Regan helps out with cover stories to their parents and friends at school. As the school year goes on, Liam becomes more aggressive in wanting to be Luna full-time, resulting in much fear and confusion for Regan. Although the book is about Liam's struggle with being transgendered, it is really Regan's story. If one removed that entire theme, there would still be a great novel about teenage life, showing the real strength of the writing and the characters. Peters handles the issue with grace, sympathy, and a huge dose of reality. The book does not scream, "Controversial topic!" Instead it brings up a sensitive issue and shows it in such a realistic light that the reader will come away having learned something, and one might hope, with a sympathetic attitude toward people dealing with gender issues.-Rebecca Vnuk 4Q 3P S Copyright 2004 Voya Reviews.
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Love is a mix tape: life and loss, one song at a time - Rob Sheffield

Love is a mix tape: life and loss, one song at a time - Sheffield, Rob

Summary: "In the 1990s, 'alternative' was suddenly mainstream, and bands like Pearl Jam and Pavement, Nirvana and R.E.M.--bands that a year before would have been too weird for MTV--were MTV. The boundaries of American culture were exploding, and music was leading the way. It was also in the 1990s when a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl named Renee, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. He was tall. She was short. He was shy. She was a social butterfly. They had nothing in common except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss. Here, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renee"--From publisher description.

Booklist Reviews
Sheffield was a "shy, skinny, Irish Catholic geek from Boston" when he first met Renee. Southern born and bred, "she was warm and loud and impulsive." They had nothing in common except a love of music. Since he made music tapes for all occasions, he and Renee listened together, shared tapes, and though never formally planning to, married. On May 11, 1997, everything changed. He was in the kitchen making lunch. Suddenly, she collapsed, dying instantly of a pulmonary embolism. Devastated, he quickly realized that he couldn't listen to certain songs again, and that life as he knew it would never be the same. Fun and funny, moving and unbearably sad, Sheffield's account at its quirkiest, and because of his penchant for lists, is reminiscent of Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity (1995). Anyone who loves music and appreciates the unspoken ways that music can bring people together will respond warmly to this gentle, bittersweet reflection on love won and love irrevocably lost. ((Reviewed December 15, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

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Pictures at a revolution: five movies and the birth of the New Hollywood - Mark Harris

Pictures at a revolution: five movies and the birth of the New Hollywood - Harris, Mark


Summary: "[Explores] the epic human drama behind the making of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1967--Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Doctor Doolittle, and Bonnie and Clyde--and through them, the larger story of the cultural revolution that transformed Hollywood, and America, forever."--From publisher description.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Film critics and historians can turn out some of the deadliest prose on the planet, so when the odd Pauline Kael or David Thomson rises above the stereotype, it's always a cause for celebration. Add Mark Harris to the short short list of film writers who can tell a story. And what a story it is! Harris uses the Academy Award nominations for Best Picture of 1967 (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and Doctor Doolittle) as the lens through which to view the cultural revolution of the late 1960s as it affected the movies. Moving back and forth in time in the manner of some of our best narrative nonfiction fiction writers (from John McPhee to Laura Hillenbrand), Harris tracks the genesis of each of the five movies as they came to reflect the building war between Old and New Hollywood: Doctor Doolittle, of course, represents the old way, a mediocre, big studio musical determined to milk the last possible dollar from the cash cow that was Sound of Music, while Bonnie and Clyde, the brainchild of two precocious Esquire editors, was unquestionably the avatar of the New World. The backstory on the films never fails to fascinate—a perfect blend of cultural commentary and film-business analysis—but the miniportraits of all the personalities (from dying Spencer Tracy to fish-out-of-water Dustin Hoffman to wunderkind director Mike Nichols to dozens more) are unfailingly spot-on, always delivering something about these overexposed celebrities that we didn't know or hadn't thought about in just that way. No contest, this is one of the best film histories ever written. Don't miss it. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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Darwin, his daughter, and human evolution - Randal Keynes

Darwin, his daughter, and human evolution - Keynes, Randal

Summary: A glimpse into the life of the man who changed the world's way of comprehending the origins of human nature tells the story of Darwin's home life, his inner turmoil, and his relationships with his wife and daughter. - (Baker & Taylor)

BookPage Reviews
The evolution of Darwin's thought

Charles Darwin died in 1882, but his theory of evolution lives on, debated by generation after generation. As for the evolution of the theory itself, author Randal Keynes, great-great grandson of Darwin and a descendant of economist John Maynard Keynes, gives us some unique insights in Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution. Keynes believes Darwin's life and science were intertwined and offers a fascinating, detailed look at Darwin's family life and the impact the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter Annie had on his work.

In a chest of drawers he inherited from his grandmother, Keynes found Annie's writing case. Among her mementos were the notes Darwin kept throughout Annie's illness and a "memorial" of her, in which he describes her character and joyful spirit. We sense Darwin's profound loss, even at a time when the death of a child was not uncommon.

Unlike his wife Emma, who was a devout Christian, Darwin, an agnostic, could find no solace in religion for dealing with Annie's death. Religious belief at the time held that humankind was on a higher level than animals. Suffering and illness were meant for man's moral improvement. In contrast, Darwin believed that death was simply a natural process. Humans were on the same plane as the rest of life and subject to the same evolutionary forces.

Based on his work as a naturalist, Darwin first developed his species theory in 1838, three years before Annie was born. It was 21 years and many re-workings later that he published The Origin of the Species. In The Descent of Man, published in 1871, Darwin dealt with the animal ancestry of mankind. Both of these works were brought into sharper focus, according to Keynes, as Darwin reflected on Annie's life and death.

Drawing on a wealth of previously unseen material, including personal diaries and family photographs, Keynes gives the reader a thorough understanding of Darwin's life and times. Interweaving religion, medicine, science, poetry and philosophy, he offers a thought-provoking portrait of a grieving father who became a ground-breaking scientist.

Ellen R. Marsden writes from Ashburn, Virginia. Copyright 2002 BookPage Reviews

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Dimanche and other stories - Irene Nemirovsky

Dimanche and other stories - Nemirovsky, Irene

Summary: Collects ten short stories written between 1934 and 1942, focusing on such themes as social class, familial tensions, the French bourgeoisie, questions of religion, and personal identity. - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
The reclamation and translation of Némirovsky's fiction continues with this gorgeous collection of short stories. One can appreciate why the tale that carries the book's title was so designated, "Dimanche" is a jewel, refracting so much of human experience through the prism of one interminable and heartbreaking Sunday in the life of a French family whose ties are growing frayed. But the title of an even more encompassing tale, "Liens du sang" ("flesh and blood") is the better phrase for what Némirovsky explores in these elegant, magnetic, and devastating stories of marriage, mothers and daughters, youth and age, rich and poor. Each faceted, cutting tale exposes the barely concealed resentments and envy underlying marriages desiccated by routinely unfaithful husbands, martyred wives, and shiny, selfish children, especially beautiful daughters who hold their muted mothers in contempt. A Russian Jewish emigrant to France who died of typhus at Auschwitz at age 39, Némirovsky was an empathic, prescient, and boldly clinical dramatist in the mode of Chekhov, Maupassant, and Colette. A Némirovsky biography is on the way. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

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Ex libris: confessions of a common reader - Anne Fadiman

Ex libris: confessions of a common reader - Fadiman, Anne

Summary: A collection of essays discusses the central and joyful importance of books and reading in the author's life - (Baker & Taylor)


Kirkus Reviews
Award-winning journalist and editor Fadiman (The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, 1997) comes from a bookish family (her father is Clifton Fadiman). And part of the charm of these collected personal essays about books and book-loving is the way she adhesively, casually, playfully chronicles her family through its books and bibliomania. An essay about the devoted reader's compulsive love of proofreading opens novelistically with the Fadiman parents and their adult children sitting down to a restaurant dinner and, as their preferred first course, passionately helplessly? correcting the menu's typos. As a reporter who is here making a transition to the first-person essayist's voice, Fadiman (also the new editor of the American Scholar) maintains a sparkling sense of story, whether the stories tell us about her or about someone else. And her book shows an impish range in subject. In ''Never Do That to a Book,'' she comments on hard uses made of books: how we're wont to scribble in them, even teethe on them. ''My Odd Shelf'' discusses that part of a bibliomaniac's library dedicated to the anomalous fervent hobby (for George Orwell, it was ''ladies' magazines from the 1860s, which he liked to read in his bathtub.'' Fadiman's own odd shelf holds volumes about the history of polar explorations, and she retells some of these sagas in admirably vivid and unadorned style. At times, the origin of the essays as commissioned pieces for the author's column in Civilization magazine does restrict their scope: they seem too brief, glib, coy, or intellectually unventuresome. As a self-described romantic whose imagination lauds the Victorians and seems jovially (and delightfully) anachronistic, Fadiman comes across sometimes as an escapist unwilling to examine the terms of her escape or to question them. Instead, she's intelligently entertained by books and she's entertaining. Copyright 1998 Kirkus Reviews

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Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome - Wharton, Edith

Summary: Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious, and hypochondriac wife, Zeenie. But when Zeenie’s vivacious cousin enters their household as a "hired girl," Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the possibilities for happiness she comes to represent.

In one of American fiction’s finest and most intense narratives, Edith Wharton moves this ill-starred trio toward their tragic destinies. Different in both tone and theme from Wharton’s other works, Ethan Frome has become perhaps her most enduring and most widely read novel.

No Review Available

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The United States of Arugula : how we became a gourmet nation - David Kamp

The United States of Arugula : how we became a gourmet nation - Kamp, David

Summary: A compilation of essays goes inside the American food revolution to explore the growing interest in gourmet eating, chronicling the evolution of the movement and profiling those responsible for the transformation. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
It seemed in the late 1950s that Americans were hopelessly wed to time-saving, nutritionally suspect food whose chief virtue was its ability to provide instant gratification of the most untutored senses. Then along came, in close succession, an imperious French chef, a couple of gay men, and a remarkably tall, surprisingly telegenic woman. They formed a vanguard for battalions of cookbook writers, restaurant owners, chefs, food critics, grocers, and television producers and personalities who brought the principles of fine food to increasingly sophisticated masses with plenty of discretionary income to indulge themselves. With pronounced and definite opinion, Kamp retells the culinary saga of these revolutionary times. His accounts of these pioneers of taste explain the contributions of each, and he regales the reader with gossipy anecdotes that belie the public faces with which these "authorities" sometimes masked their appetites for sex, drugs, celebrity, and money. Kamp's recounting of the rise of California cuisine--epitomized by Alice Waters and her Berkeley circle--aptly summarizes the era's glories and excesses. ((Reviewed August 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

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Of human bondage - W. Somerset Maugham

Of human bondage - Maugham, W. Somerset

Summary: A young man struggling for self-realization is caught up in a destructive love affair - (Baker & Taylor)



Reviews
"It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham," wrote Gore Vidal. "He was always so entirely there."
Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life. There is no more powerful story of sexual infatuation, of human longing for connection and freedom.
"Here is a novel of the utmost importance," wrote Theodore Dreiser on publication. "It is a beacon of light by which the wanderer may be guided. . . . One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding sensually to its colors and tones."

"The modern writer who has influenced me the most." - George Orwell

"One of my favourite writers." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"A writer of great dedication." - Graham Greene -- Review

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The bucolic plague: how two Manhattanites became gentleman farmers: an unconventional memoir - Josh Kilmer-Purcell

The bucolic plague: how two Manhattanites became gentleman farmers: an unconventional memoir - Kilmer-Purcell, Josh

Summary: "Michael Perry meets David Sedaris in this follow-up to Josh Kilmer-Purcell's beloved and bestselling debut memoir, I AM NOT MYSELF THESE DAYS--another riotous, moving, and entirely unique story of his attempt to tackle the next phase of life with his partner on a goat farm in upstate New York"--Provided by publisher.

Staff Review
Josh is a hilarious writer, as fans of his previous more gritty memoir can attest. This memoir centers around he and his partners purchase of the amazing old Beekman Mansion in upstate New York, sort of accidentally becoming goat farmers, and being embraced by their new community of characters. Bonus is that his partner Brent worked for Martha Stewart Omnimedia as "Dr. Brent" for several years, so there's great insider hilarity about Martha-World. They can now be seen as "The Beekman Boys" on Planet Green.

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The accidental billionaires : the founding of Facebook, a tale of sex, money, genius and betrayal - Ben Mezrich

The accidental billionaires : the founding of Facebook, a tale of sex, money, genius and betrayal - Mezrich, Ben

Summary: "The high-energy tale of how two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers, trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex, ended up creating Facebook."--Jacket.


Staff Review
I'm on it, you're on it, our "Friends" are on it, and it's growing every day. Now find out how this stunning social phenomenon was created and why, and how it's morphed into what you use today. I thought it was fascinating!

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Fragile beasts: a novel - Tawni O'Dell

Fragile beasts: a novel - O'Dell, Tawni

Summary: Presents the story of brothers Kyle and Klint, whose precarious lives in Pennsylvania coal country are further challenged by their alcoholic father's death, until they are taken in by a septuagenarian curmudgeon with a tragic past. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Their father was a notorious drunk; their mother, a self-absorbed shrew who callously abandoned them for life with another man. After their father is killed in a senseless accident, teenage brothers Klint and Kyle Hayes face being returned to their mother's custody against their will. For Klint, the move to Arizona would mean sacrificing his attention-getting baseball career at the height of the college and pro-scouting season. For sensitive and artistic Kyle, holding onto the only home he has ever known is essential to making sure his brother achieves the success necessary to free them both from the oppression of their small, western Pennsylvania mining town. Salvation comes in the unlikely form of Candace Jack, a wealthy and reclusive elderly woman who is persuaded to give the boys a home, and herself a second chance to feel love again. In this tough and tender tale, O'Dell's triumphant portrait of loss and rejection, sanctuary and redemption, shines with poignancy, dignity, and transcendent joy. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

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Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Paul Tough

Whatever it takes: Geoffrey Canada's quest to change Harlem and America - Tough, Paul

Summary: An intriguing portrait of African-American activist Geoffrey Canada, creator of the Harlem Children's Zone, describes his radical new approach to eliminating inner-city poverty, one that proposes to transform the lives of poor children by changing their schools, their families, and their neighborhoods at the same time.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Canada has captured national attention with his bold effort to offer a cradle-to-college program for thousands of underprivileged children in Harlem. Tough, a New York Times Magazine writer, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the dramatic ups and downs of the Harlem Children's Zone, a $58 million project encompassing 97 city blocks and serving 7,000 children. Tough details Canada's own personal struggle out of poverty as a motivating factor for getting into the kid-saving business. Canada devised a conveyor belt from preschool through elementary and middle schools in Promise Academy, offering enrichment programs for children and parents to compensate for their disadvantages compared to middle-class families. Tough focuses on individual families and staff to tell a compelling story of a neighborhood fighting mightily to provide its children with the educational benefits of more well-to-do communities. Tough also views Harlem Children's Zone in the broader context of raging debate among academics and economists from James Heckman to Glen Loury regarding causes and cures of urban poverty and low school performance. This is an engrossing look at a visionary man and a bold experiment that has caught the eye of a wide range of politicians, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has promised to replicate the program throughout the U.S. if elected. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre - Bronte, Charlotte

Summary: A young woman looks back at her childhood in a harsh orphanage and describes her growing love for the man who employs her as governess. - (Baker & Taylor)


Review
Early responses to Jane Eyre, first published in 1847, were mixed. Some held the book to be anti-Christian, others were disturbed by a heroine so proud, self-willed, and essentially unfeminine. The modern reader may well have trouble understanding what all the fuss was about. On the surface a fairly conventional Gothic romance (poor orphan governess is hired by rich, brooding Byronic hero-type), Jane Eyre hardly seems the stuff from which revolutions are made. But the story is very much about the nature of human freedom and equality, and if Jane was seen as something of a renegade in nineteenth-century England, it is because her story is that of a woman who struggles for self-definition and determination in a society that too often denies her that right. But self-determination does not mean untrammeled freedom for men or women. Rochester, that thorny masculine beast whom Jane eventually falls for, is a man who sets his own laws and manipulates the lives of those around him; before he can enter into a marriage of equals with Jane he must undergo a spiritual transformation. Should the lesson sound dry, it's not. Jane Eyre is full of drama: fires, storms, attempted murder, and a mad wife conveniently stashed away in the attic. This is very sexy stuff - another reason Victorian critics weren't quite sure what to make of it. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Chris Kellett

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The guru of love - Samrat Upadhyay

The guru of love - Upadhyay, Samrat

Summary: A math teacher and tutor earning a low wage and living in a small apartment with his wife and children, Ramchandra becomes involved in an illicit affair with one of his students, Malati, a beautiful, impoverished young new mother. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
Upadhyay demonstrated his considerable gifts for depicting the dynamics of place and the complexities of relationships in his standout short story collection, Arresting God in Kathmandu [BKL Ag 01]. In his utterly absorbing first novel, he continues in this vein, depicting Kathmandu in a time of escalating turmoil as poor rural Nepalese swell the population, Hindi holidays stretch tight budgets, and students and workers agitate for a democratic government. Math teacher Ramchandra earns so little he must tutor private students to support Goma, his sweet-natured, once well-off wife, and their two adolescent children. His growing frustration over his persistent poverty and his in-laws' stinging contempt are taking their toll, as is his attraction to a student, the beautiful and very poor unwed mother Malati. Once the epitome of discipline and self-sacrifice, Ramchandra falls hard for Malati, wreaking havoc at home. After a period of anguished separation, his forgiving wife returns and insists that Malati and her baby join their struggling household. Goma's all but cosmic compassion, wisdom, and love form the gravity that holds this precarious universe together as Upadhyay's lucent and tender storytelling gently unveils the strange interplay between self and family, the private and the political, and most mysteriously, the erotic and the spiritual. ((Reviewed November 1, 2002)) Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews

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Island beneath the sea: a novel - Isabel Allende

Island beneath the sea: a novel - Allende, Isabel

Summary: The story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny in a society where that would seem impossible"--Provided by publisher.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Allende, an entrancing and astute storyteller cherished the world over, returns to historical fiction to portray another resilient woman whose life embodies the complex forces at work in the bloody forging of the New World. Zarité, called Tété, is born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue, where enslaved Africans are worked to death by the thousands, and European men prey on women of color. So it is with Tété and her "master," the deeply conflicted plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain, who relies on her for everything from coerced sex to caring for his demented first wife, his legitimate son, and their off-the-record daughter. When the slave uprising that gives birth to the free black republic of Haiti erupts, Toulouse, Tété, and the children flee to Cuba, then to New Orleans. In a many-faceted plot, Allende animates irresistible characters authentic in their emotional turmoil and pragmatic adaptability. She also captures the racial, sexual, and entrepreneurial dynamics of each society in sensuous detail while masterfully dramatizing the psychic wounds of slavery. Sexually explicit, Allende is grace incarnate in her evocations of the spiritual energy that still sustains the beleaguered people of Haiti and New Orleans. Demand will be high for this transporting, remarkably topical novel of men and women of courage risking all for liberty. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

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Sing them home - Stephanie Kallos

Sing them home - Kallos, Stephanie

Summary: Everyone in Emlyn Springs knows the story of Hope Jones, the physician's wife whose big dreams for their tiny town were lost along with her in the tornado of 1978. For Hope's three young children, the stability of life with their preoccupied father, and with Viney, their mother's spitfire best friend, is no match for Hope's absence. Larken, the eldest, is now an art history professor who seeks in food an answer to a less tangible hunger; Gaelan, the son, is a telegenic weatherman who devotes his life to predicting the unpredictable; and the youngest, Bonnie, is a self-proclaimed archivist who combs roadsides for clues to her mother's legacy, and permission to move on. When they're summoned home after their father's death, each sibling is forced to revisit the childhood tragedy that has defined their lives.

Booklist Reviews
Things are swept away by tornados in Emlyn Springs, Nebraska: pianos, houses, and a young girl and her mother. Although the young girl, Bonnie Jones, is eventually recovered, her mother, Aneira Hope Jones, never resurfaces. The painful circumstances surrounding their mother s death leave the Jones children, Larken, Gaelen, and Bonnie (henceforth christened Flying Girl), emotionally stunted and struggling to learn how to love. Years later, when another natural disaster draws them together, the three are confronted by the clouded past that has haunted them since childhood. In multiple ways, it is the community members of Emlyn Springs who teach these motherless children how to love again. Sing Them Home ushers us into small-town life, with all its distinctive cultural nuances, eccentric personalities, and homegrown secrets. With the same beauty and lyricism of her first novel, Broken for You (2004), Kallos stitches together a colorful patchwork of memories and images, creating a rich narrative fabric that develops and changes as it passes through each character s hands. Copyright Booklist Reviews 2008.

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The biology of belief: unleashing the power of consciousness, matter, and miracles - Bruce H. Lipton

The biology of belief: unleashing the power of consciousness, matter, and miracles - Lipton, Bruce H.

Summary: Author Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a breakthrough, showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.--From publisher description. - (Baker & Taylor)

No Review Available

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When the past is present: healing the emotional wounds that sabotage our relationships - David Richo

When the past is present: healing the emotional wounds that sabotage our relationships - Richo, David

Summary: In this book, psychotherapist David Richo explores how we replay the past in our present-day relationships—and how we can free ourselves from this destructive pattern. We all have a tendency to transfer potent feelings, needs, expectations, and beliefs from childhood or from former relationships onto the people in our daily lives, whether they are our intimate partners, friends, or acquaintances. When the Past Is Present helps us to become more aware of the ways we slip into the past so that we can identify our emotional baggage and take steps to heal it.

Drawing on decades of experience as a psychotherapist, Richo helps readers to: Understand how the wounds of childhood become exposed in adult relationships—and why this is a gift; Identify and heal the emotional wounds we carry over from the past so that they won't sabotage present-day relationships; Recognize how strong attractions and aversions to people in the present can be signals of our own unfinished business; Use mindfulness to stay in the present moment and cultivate authentic intimacy - (Random House, Inc.)

No Review Available

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Everyday Commitments - David Richo

Everyday Commitments - Richo, David

Summary: A guide for inspiration and contemplation containing fifty-two promises, such as "Cultivating Loving-Kindness" and "Being Authentic," to develop compassion, honesty, and integrity, and promote healthy relationships. - (Baker & Taylor)

Library Journal Reviews
In an effort to help individuals bring proper spiritual etiquette into a world full of greed, hate, and delusion, psychotherapist and author Richo (How To Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving) offers 52 ways to express kindness and compassion in everyday life. Daily readings open with a single commitment followed by a short commentary containing a practical exercise. For example, the commitment to avoid gossip includes an explanation of why the practice is tempting as well as an exercise for speaking directly to people whose behavior has been unwelcome. The page-long chapters are easy to digest and will undoubtedly assist in achieving positive change. Recommended for most libraries.
[Page 70]. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

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The sisters from Hardscrabble Bay - Beverly Jensen

The sisters from Hardscrabble Bay - Jensen, Beverly

Summary: A sequence of tales chronicling the early 20th-century lives of New Brunswick sisters Idella and Avis Hillock includes "Gone," an account of their mother's heartbreaking childbirth crisis and the Pushcart Prize-nominated "Wake," in which they attend their wild father's funeral. - (Baker & Taylor)

Staff Review
I really enjoyed this tale of sisters Avis and Idella and the world as it progresses around them. Great characters and dialogue. A lovely book. The fact that the author died before seeing her only book get published makes it all the more bittersweet.

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World War Z; an oral history of the zombie war - Max Brooks

World War Z; an oral history of the zombie war - Brooks, Max

Summary: World War Z is a fictional account of a worldwide outbreak of the living dead in the near future. WWZ is done in an interview-style format with each chapter consisting of first-person interviews of individuals who lived through the Zombie War from its initial outbreak to it's final battles and mop-up operations.

Booklist Reviews
"The Crisis" nearly wiped out humanity. Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and author of The Zombie Survival Guide, 2003) has taken it upon himself to document the "first hand" experiences and testimonies of those lucky to survive 10 years after the fictitious zombie war. Like a horror fan's version of Studs Terkel's The Good War (1984), the "historical account" format gives Brooks room to explore the zombie plague from numerous different views and characters. In a deadpan voice, Brooks exhaustively details zombie incidents from isolated attacks to full-scale military combat: "what if the enemy can't be shocked and awed? Not just won't, but biologically can't!" With the exception of a weak BAT-21 story in the second act, the "interviews" and personal accounts capture the universal fear of the collapse of society--a living nightmare in which anyone can become a mindless, insatiable predator at a moment's notice. Alas, Brad Pitt's production company has purchased the film rights to the book--while it does have a chronological element, it's more similar to a collection of short stories: it would make for an excellent 24-style TV series or an animated serial. Regardless, horror fans won't be disappointed: like George Romero's Dead trilogy, World War Z is another milestone in the zombie mythos. ((Reviewed August 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.

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The stolen child - Keith Donohue

The stolen child - Keith Donohue

Summary: Stolen by changelings from his family, Henry Day is given the name Aniday by the ageless and magical beings, who replace him with another child who takes his place with his parents, a young boy who possesses an extraordinary gift of music.

Library Journal
Fairy tales often reach into dark places, and this one is no exception. Inspired by a W.B. Yeats poem, it is a modern retelling of the changeling myth, in which a child is stolen away by fairies who leave one of their own in its place. In this case, seven-year-old Henry Day is the changeling; the real Henry is now called Aniday and lives in the woods with a group of other stolen-away children. We follow Henry and Aniday in alternating chapters as Henry grows up and Aniday, forever seven, does not. Henry tries to fit into his new life, but traces of his previous existence keep revealing themselves, e.g., he has a musical talent that the original Henry never had. Meanwhile, Aniday struggles to hold on to his humanity even as he forgets who he was. Despite the fantastic element, Donohue anchors the book in a mid-century America that feels specific and real. A haunting, unusual first novel, The Stolen Child is recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/05.]-Jenne Bergstrom, San Diego Cty. Lib. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information

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The God delusion - Richard Dawkins

The God delusion - Dawkins, Richard

Summary: Argues that belief in God is irrational, and describes examples of religion's negative influences on society throughout the centuries, such as war, bigotry, child abuse, and violence.


Choice Reviews
Dawkins (Oxford), the prolific polemicist who is also a brilliant scientist and erudite writer, has launched another attack on the sacred center of religions: God. He declares God a delusion and devotes 350-plus pages to elaborate on this theme. The book is replete with the absurdities of many self-proclaimed religionists, and disposes of scientific proofs for God with ease. It dismantles the framework in which God becomes plausible, and illustrates how religions have led to war, bigotry, and child abuse. Virulent attacks, whether on belief systems or on governments, whether with words or bloody deeds, arise from moral outrage or the victim complex. They are based on the conviction that their targets represent all that is wrong/evil in the world, and are spurred by the hope that enemies will be eliminated by such words or acts. Their authors are ignorant of, or choose to ignore, anything positive that their enemies might have done. Though it is doubtful that these authors will succeed in completely decimating the adversary, their attacks can have reformatory effects on the enemy and on their own group. For these reasons, more than for any originality in the thesis, this book is a worthy addition to humanity's cultural history. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. Copyright 2007 American Library Association.

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The merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

The merchant of Venice - Shakespeare, William

Summary:"The Merchant of Venice" is the story of Antonio, the drama's title character, and his friend Bassanio. Bassanio is in need of money so that he may woo Portia, a wealthy heiress. Bassanio asks Antonio for a loan and Antonio agrees to this loan, however all his money is tied up in shipping ventures. Together the two go to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to request a loan for Bassanio to be guaranteed against Antonio's shipping ventures. Shylock agrees to the loan at no interest in the condition that if the debt is not repaid Shylock may collect a pound of Antonio's flesh. At the same time Portia, who is being wooed by various suitors, is upset over a curious stipulation in her father's will regarding the man that she may marry.

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Short stories - Guy de Maupassant

Short stories - Maupassant, Guy de

Summary: A collection of the author's most characteristic stories portrays life in nineteenth century France - (Baker & Taylor)


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Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes - Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir

Summary: Gathers nearly forty of Holmes' cases, including his investigation of a great black hound which carries out the terrible provisions of an ancient family curse - (Baker & Taylor)


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Till we have faces: a myth retold - C.S. Lewis

Till we have faces: a myth retold - Lewis, C.S.

Summary: This tale of two princesses - one beautiful and one unattractive - and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is Lewis’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one of his most enduring works.


Review
At once more human and more mythic than his Perelandra trilogy, Lewis's short novel of love, faith, and transformation (both good and ill) offers the reader much food for thought in a compact, impressively rich story. Less heavy-handedly Christian-allegorical than Narnia, Till We Have Faces gives us characters who remind us of people we know facing choices and difficulties we recognize. This deceptively simple book takes on new depth with each rereading.

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