Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall: a novel - Mantel, Hilary

Summary: Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price.


Kirkus Reviews
Exhaustive examination of the circumstances surrounding Henry VIII's schism-inducing marriage to Anne Boleyn.Versatile British novelist Mantel (Giving Up the Ghost, 2006, etc.) forays into the saturated field of Tudor historicals to cover eight years (1527–35) of Henry's long, tumultuous reign. They're chronicled from the point of view of consummate courtier Thomas Cromwell, whose commentary on the doings of his irascible and inwardly tormented king is impressionistic, idiosyncratic and self-interested. The son of a cruel blacksmith, Cromwell fled his father's beatings to become a soldier of fortune in France and Italy, later a cloth trader and banker. He begins his political career as secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England. Having failed to secure the Pope's permission for Henry to divorce Queen Katherine, Wolsey falls out of favor with the monarch and is supplanted by Sir Thomas More, portrayed here as a domestic tyrant and enthusiastic torturer of Protestants. Unemployed, Cromwell is soon advising Henry himself and acting as confidante to Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary, former mistress of both Henry and King Francis I of France. When plague takes his wife and children, Cromwell creates a new family by taking in his late siblings' children and mentoring impoverished young men who remind him of his low-born, youthful self. The religious issues of the day swirl around the events at court, including the rise of Luther and the burgeoning movement to translate the Bible into vernacular languages. Anne is cast in an unsympathetic light as a petulant, calculating temptress who withholds her favors until Henry is willing to make her queen. Although Mantel's language is original, evocative and at times wittily anachronistic, this minute exegesis of a relatively brief, albeit momentous, period in English history occasionally grows tedious. The characters, including Cromwell, remain unknowable, their emotions closely guarded; this works well for court intrigues, less so for fiction.Masterfully written and researched but likely to appeal mainly to devotees of all things Tudor. Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Check Availability

The teleportation accident - Ned Beauman

The teleportation accident - Beauman, Ned

Summary: "In the declining Weimar Republic, Egon Loeser works as a stage designer for New Expressionist theatre. His hero is the greatest set designer of the seventeenth century, Adriano Lavicini, who devised the so-called Teleportation Device for the whisking ofactors from one scene to another-a miracle, until the thing malfunctioned, causing numerous deaths and perhaps summoning the devil himself. Apolitical in a dangerous time, sex-driven in a dry spell, Loeser leaves the tired scene in Berlin in pursuit of the lubricious Adele Hitler (no relation), who couldn't care less about him. Heading first to Paris and then to Los Angeles, he finds his entire tired Berlin social circle reconstituted in exile, under the patronage of a crime writer and his possibly philandering wife. He also finds himself uncomfortably close to a string of murders at Caltech, where a physicist, assisted by Adele herself, is trying to develop a device for honest-to-God teleportation.Following his breathtaking debut, Boxer, Beetle, Ned Beauman ups the ante, creating in The Teleportation Accident a marvelous mash-up of historical fiction, L.A. noir, science fiction, and satire, and proving himself a star on the rise"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Egon Loeser, an avant-garde set designer in Weimar-era Berlin, is obsessed with a girl named Adele Hitler (no relation), who, like most other girls, won't sleep with him, forcing Egon to spend his evenings with the alluring women portrayed in a pornographic novel called Midnight at the Nursing Academy. Then there is his current project, designing the sets for an Expressionist production of a play about Renaissance set designer Lavicini, whose so-called teleportation device (think "Beam me up, Scotty") exploded in a crowded Italian theater. Loeser hopes to re-create the teleportation device for a spectacular finale that will gain him the respect he craves from his fellow dissolute artists. Naturally, it all goes bad. Fraulein Hitler hooks up with Egon's worst enemy, and the teleportation device explodes, well, prematurely, forcing Egon to escape to Paris and from there to California. Tragically, he loses his favorite book en route. Egon can run, but he can't hide. Adele turns up in California, too, working for a wacky scientist who appears to be experimenting with something very like a teleportation device. There is so much going on in this truly bizarre novel—everything from slapstick to noir to steampunk—that discombobulated readers may feel as though they've fallen down a narrative wormhole. But what a wormhole! Beauman, a kind of comic version of Nick Harkaway in Angelmaker (2012), gives us an apolitical German in 1930s Berlin who is indifferent to Nazis but despises Bertolt Brecht and who hasn't had sex in three years but still pines for a girl named Hitler. It makes no sense, but it's brilliant. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Ruby star wrapping - Melody Miller

Ruby star wrapping: creating packaging to reuse, regive, and relove - Miller, Melody

Summary: "This is the ultimate resource for those who are as creative as they are willing to conserve. Ruby Star Wrapping inspires you to think resourceful, think reusable, think unusual when it comes to gift packaging. Raid the pantry for boxes, use old linens for pouches, and make beautiful accessories out of fabric and paper scraps--the projects here illustrate how to create beautiful, reusable packaging from the common materials in your home. With its thirty easy-to-make giftwrap patterns, this book reminds us of the wonderful creative potential inherent in the act of giving a gift. When wrapped with thought, beauty, and a little ingenuity, the packaging can be a gift in itself."--www.Amazon.com.

Check Availability

Bake it in a cupcake - Megan Seling

Bake it in a cupcake - Seling, Megan

Summary: Shares recipes for creating treats with surprises inside, from cherry pie dark chocolate cupcakes and Boston cream puff pie cupcakes with chocolate ganache to French toast cheesecake cupcakes and creme egg cupcakes.

"It's a fact: Bake It in a Cupcake is stuffed with awesome, over-the-top deliciousness. Brimming with fun and decadent recipes, it's an essential volume for the adventurous baker, and bound to garner a cultlike following of enthusiastic tasters." — Jessie Oleson of CakeSpy.com

"The cupcake is my oldest friend and arguably the love of my life. (Sorry, Terry.) I didn't think the cupcake could be improved, but Megan Seling has done it. Her pumpkin pie–filled cupcake is possibly the best cupcake I've ever eaten. I've sampled several dozen of Megan's stuffed cupcakes—each a delicious work of art and a mind-boggling feat of engineering—and now it's your turn. Prepare to have your mind and your taste buds blown—along with any preconceived notions you may have had about what a cupcake can be." — Dan Savage, author of Savage Love, creator of the “It Gets Better” Project, consumer of cupcakes

"As someone who has disliked everything about cupcakes except eating them, I finally have been broken–and have surrendered to the awesomeness of the Cupcake Age–by Megan Seling's Bake It in a Cupcake. If you even remotely care about having fun in the kitchen, eating tasty tidbits, and awakening the creative monster within us all, then this book is for you. And it’s mandatory for parents!"— Andrew Zimmern, chef, author, and host of Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods - (Andrews McMeel)

Check Availability

From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - E.L. Konigsburg

From the mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Konigsburg, E.L.

Summary: Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, twelve-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself.



Kirkus
/* Starred Review */ Elaine Konigsburg's first sharp bite of suburban life, Jennifer, He- cate, Macbeth...(131, J-43) was a dilly; this one's a dandy--just as fast and fresh and funny, but less spoofing, more penetrating. From the files of Mrs. Frankweiler comes the chronicle of Claudia Kincaid, almost twelve, and her brother Jamie, who is nine. Tired of being her same old taken-for-granted self, Claudia decides to run away, and Jamie goes along because he is flattered at being asked. Claudia has planned every detail: escape on the empty school bus, change of clothing in a violin case, sanctuary in the Metropolitan Museum. For a week the children elude the guards and exploit the opportunities of the museum: they sleep in a royal bed, bathe in the cafeteria pool, and pass part of each day in study on the fringe of lecture tours. Midweek, a marble angel of dubious origin arrives; Claudia is convinced that it is a Michelangelo and determines to prove it: she will authenticate Angel and become a heroine before going home. But no--by arrangement of Mrs. Frankweiler, she goes home a heroine only to herself (and happy); and she knows something about secrets she hadn't known before--they have to come to an end... Like the title, Mrs. Frankweiler is a bit of a nuisance; and an offhand, rather bemused reference to dope addiction is unnecessary but not inappropriate. What matters is that beyond the intriguing central situation and its ingenious, very natural development, there's a deepening rapport between their parents; "we're well trained (and sure of ourselves)...just look how nicely we've managed. It's really they're fault if we're not homesick." There may be a run on the Metropolitan (a map is provided); there will surely be a run on the book. (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 1967)

Check Availability

Van Morrison live at Montreux (DVD)

Van Morrison live at Montreux (DVD)

Summary: Van Morrison's long and illustrious career has included many appearances at the Montreux Festival. This two disc set brings together two of his finest performances from 1980 and 1974, featuring classic tracks such as Wavelength, Moondance, and more.

Check Availability

200 Recetas Vegetarianas - Louise Pickford

200 Recetas Vegetarianas - Pickford, Louise

Summary: The books in this series each feature 200 recipes that use readily accessible ingredients and feature techniques well within the ability of any cook, regardless of skill level. Full-color photographs walk readers through creating a variety of healthy, delicious, stylish dishes that pamper the palate and are perfect for any occasion.

Cada libro de esta colección incluye 200 recetas que utilizan ingredientes fáciles de encontrar y procedimientos muy asequibles para cualquier cocinero, sea cual sea su nivel. Fotografías a todo color ayudan a los lectores a crear platos saludables, sabrosos y con estilo que miman el paladar y son perfectos para cualquier ocasión.


Committed vegetarians and die-hard carnivores alike will find their appetites whetted by the mouthwatering vegetarian recipes in this book. Dishes include mushroom and ginger crispy wontons, sweet potato and coconut soup, and tiramisu cheesecake.


Este libro le abrirá el apetito tanto a los vegetarianos dedicados como a los carnívoros obstinados con sus deliciosas recetas vegetarianas. Los platos incluyen wontones crujientes de champiñones y jengibre, una sopa de batata y coco y un pastel de queso al estilo tiramisú.
- (Independent Publishing Group)

Check Availability

Portable Jack London - Jack London

Portable Jack London - London, Jack

Summary: Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." Newsboy, factory "work beast," gang member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous adventurer: London is the closest thing America has had to a literary folk hero. His writing itself is concerned with nothing less than the largest questions and the grandest themes: What does it mean to be a human being in the natural world? What debts do human beings owe each other - and to all their fellow creatures? This collection places London, at last, securely within the American literary pantheon. It includes the complete novel The Call of the Wild; such famous stories as "Love of Life," "To Build a Fire," and "All Gold Canyon"; journalism, political writings, literary criticism, and selected letters.

Check Availability

Goodbye, Chunky Rice - Craig Thompson

Goodbye, Chunky Rice - Thompson, Craig

Summary: This stunning book-length debut is a quiet picture novella of a small turtle, Chunky Rice, leaving his home and his mouse friend, Dandel. A Dr. Seussian cast of colorful characters and lush cartoon-y brushwork shape this into a charming, profound tale of loneliness, loss, and undying friendship. - (Diamond Comics Distributors)

Publishers Weekly Reviews
The solemn little turtle Chunky Rice embarks on a journey from his seaport home, obeying an inner call he can't quite articulate. His mouse girlfriend, Dandel, encourages him. ("You're like a little flower that's outgrown its pot," she says, as they build their last sand castle.) But once Chunky leaves, Dandel spends her time collecting empty bottles and filling them with letters she hopes will reach him at sea. The themes of deep friendship and the pain of separation are amplified in the lives of other characters. Chunky's kindly neighbor Solomon befriends a wounded bird, seeking consolation for a childhood loss, while Solomon's estranged and gruff brother, Charles on whose boat Chunky sails long ago embraced the sea for companionship. There is little dialogue, but each panel of this comics novel from the vast expanse of ocean that fills an entire page to the tiny closeup of Dandel's sleeping face carries the emotional heft of the story forward. Thompson's b&w drawings exhibit a sturdy line and offer generous details, forcing the eye to linger on every page. The perspective zooms in and out, panels change size and overlap and Thompson uses so much black that his drawings often look like cut-paper silhouettes. His characters' irresistibly smooth, round shapes, meanwhile, add to the charm and humor of their expressions, by turns wistful, anxious and joyful. Thompson has crafted an enduring fable in words and pictures an alternative-comics answer to Saint-Exup ry's Little Prince that will charm anyone separated from a dear and loving friend. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Check Availability

Going clear - Lawrence Wright

Going clear - Wright, Lawrence

 Summary: "Based on more than two hundred personal interviews with both current and former Scientologists--both famous and less well known--and years of archival research, Lawrence Wright uses his extraordinary investigative skills to uncover for us the inner workings of the Church of Scientology: its origins in the imagination of science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard; its struggles to find acceptance as a legitimate (and legally acknowledged) religion; its vast, secret campaign to infiltrate the U.S. government; its vindictive treatment of critics; its phenomenal wealth; and its dramatic efforts to grow and prevail after the death of Hubbard"--From publisher description.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Immersed in this book, the reader is drawn along by tantalizing revelations while simultaneously exhausted, longing for escape from its cloistered world—mirroring the accounts of many former Scientologists on the record, here. In efficient, unemotional prose, Wright begins with the biography of founder L. Ron Hubbard: his days as a prodigiously prolific writer of pulp fiction, his odd military career, the publication of his breakthrough self-help book Dianetics (1950), and the influence, riches, and controversy that have followed since he founded the Church of Scientology in 1954. For those aware of Scientology through its celebrity adherents (Tom Cruise and John Travolta are the best known) rather than its works, the sheer scope of the church's influence and activities will prove jaw-dropping. Wright paints a picture of organizational chaos and a leader, David Miscavige, who rules by violence and intimidation; of file-gathering paranoia and vengefulness toward apostates and critics; of victories over perceived enemies, including the U.S. government, won through persuasion, ruthless litigation, and dirty tricks. Even more shocking may be the portrayal of the Sea Org, a cadre of true believers whose members sign contracts for a billion years of service, and toil in conditions of indentured servitude, punished mercilessly for inadvertent psychic offenses. Their treatment is a far cry from the coddling afforded to the much-courted celebrities. (Wright does point out that, for whatever reason, most Sea Org members remain in service voluntarily.) Page after page of damaging testimony, often from formerly high-ranking officers, is footnoted with blanket denials from the church and other parties (e.g., "The church categorically denies all charges of Miscavige's abuse" and "Cruise, through his attorney, denies that he ever retreated from his commitment to Scientology"). Readers will have to decide whether to believe the Pulitzer-winning author's carefully sourced reporting, or the church's rebuttals. But, quoting Paul Haggis, the Academy Award–winning film director and former Scientologist whom Wright first profiled in the New Yorker: "if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil rights violations." Going Clear offers a fascinating look behind the curtain of an organization whose ambition and influence are often at odds with its secretive ways. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher's announced first printing of 150,000 seems right on the money. Wright will be promoting the book on a seven-city tour, but its reputation precedes him. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Better Nate than never - Tim Federle

Better Nate than never - Federle, Tim

Summary: An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T."


Booklist Reviews
In this funny and insightful story, the dreams of many a small-town, theater-loving boy are reflected in the starry eyes of eighth-grader Nate. When Nate hops a Greyhound bus to travel across Pennsylvania to try out for the Broadway-bound musical based on the movie E.T., no one but his best friend, Libby, knows about it; not his athletic brother, religious father, or unhappy mother. Self-reliant, almost to an inauthentic fault, he arrives in Manhattan for the first time and finds his way into the audition with dramatic results, and when his estranged actress/waitress aunt suddenly appears, a troubled family history and a useful subplot surface. Nate's emerging sexuality is tactfully addressed in an age-appropriate manner throughout, particularly in his wonderment at the differences between his hometown and N.Y.C., "a world where guys . . . can dance next to other guys who probably liked Phantom of the Opera and not get threatened or assaulted." This talented first-time author has made the classic Chorus Line theme modern and bright for the Glee generation. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

John dies at the end - David Wong

John dies at the end - Wong, David

Summary: A full-length tale based on the cult online serial finds an increasing number of people changed into threatening inhuman creatures by a hallucinogen, a situation that places the fate of the world in the hands of a pair of anti-heroes.



Kirkus Reviews
Two wisecracking slackers attempt to thwart an invasion by supernatural beings. When smart but troubled video-store employee David gets a peculiar late-night phone call from a friend, he assumes John is just having another of his semi-regular drug- or alcohol-induced freakouts. But as progressively more bizarre events unfold over the next few hours, David realizes that things are different this time. It turns out John had spent the preceding evening with a man with a fake Jamaican accent named Robert Marley and had taken a strange drug called Soy Sauce, which gives users incredibly heightened awareness—along with a few odd side effects that all too often include a grisly demise. By the next afternoon, David has also inadvertently taken some Soy Sauce, been dragged to the police station for questioning about a series of gruesome deaths and received another odd call from John, after John has expired in the interview room next door. Things only gets stranger from there, as David and John (who doesn't stay dead for long) discover they are the thin, oddball line of defense between life as we know it on this planet and dark invaders from somewhere else entirely. Originally offered online in serial form, Wong's debut is creepy, snide, gross, morbidly dark and full of lots of gratuitous weirdness for weirdness' sake, not to mention penis jokes. So why is it so funny? Perhaps it's the author's well-tuned eye for the absurd, which gives his tale a compelling-against-all-odds, locker-room-humor-meets-Douglas-Adams vibe. The characters are also unexpectedly sharp, rarely the kind of two-dimensional cutouts frequently found in genre fiction. While the clunky text sometimes reads as though Wong had shoved together several different episodes against their will, it nonetheless satisfies narrative demands that could have conflicted. When it's funny, it's laugh-out-loud funny, yet when the situation calls for chills, it provides them in spades. Lowbrow, absurdist horror/comedy that works—a difficult trick to pull off. Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Check Availability

Tiny beautiful things - Cheryl Strayed

Tiny beautiful things: advice on love and life from Dear Sugar - Strayed, Cheryl

Summary: "Sugar- the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild- is the person thousands turn to for advice. Tiny Beautiful Things brings the best of Dear Sugar in one place and includes never-before-published columns and a new introduction by Steve Almond. Rich with humor, insight, compassion- and absolute honesty- this book is a balm for everything life throws our way."--www.Amazon.com.

Library Journal Reviews
This beloved Internet advice columnist, using the pseudonym Sugar, revealed herself in early 2012 to be the acclaimed novelist and memoirist Strayed (Wild). First appearing on The Rumpus (therumpus.net) in 2010, her column "Dear Sugar" quickly attracted a large and devoted following with its cut-to-the-quick aphorisms like "Write like a motherfucker" and "Be brave enough to break your own heart." This collection gathers up the best of Sugar, whose trademark is deeply felt and frank responses grounded in her own personal experience. In many ways, it is a portrait of Strayed herself: she describes her estranged father, her passionate but doomed first marriage, her relationship with her current husband (Mr. Sugar), and, most thoroughly, her much-missed mother, who died suddenly while Strayed was in college. She answers queries on subjects ranging from professional jealousy to leaving a loved partner to coping with the death of a child to a (not-so) simple "WTF?" VERDICT Part advice, part personal essay, these pieces grapple with life's biggest questions. Beautifully written and genuinely wise, this book is full of heartache and love. Highly recommended.—Molly McArdle, Library Journal

Check Availability

Visions - Grimes (CD)

Visions - Grimes (CD)

Summary: Grimes is the moniker of Canadian producer, singer, and artist Claire Boucher. She approaches music in a way that is both sensually pleasurable and exploratory; sonic experimentalism run through a 'pop' filter. The music is youthfully schizophrenic and searching, a voyage into the yet undefined territory of post-internet, re-spiritualized sound. Grimes strongly values a physical and communal experience of music (it's danceability), experimental vocalization, and psychedelia.
"...it's easily Ms. Boucher's best work and one of the most impressive albums of the year so far."--New York Times
"Its dreamy, psychedelic dance-pop songs beg for the subwoofer to be turned all the way up."--NPR Music
"8.5 out of 10...the latest and best album from one-woman project of Montreal-based Claire Boucher."--Pitchfork


Check Availability

Get Up - Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite (CD)

Get Up - Harper, Ben (CD)

Summary: Ben Harper has teamed with renowned harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite to create Get Up!, a piercing song-cycle of struggle and heart, slated for release by Stax Records/Concord Music Group on January 29th, 2013. Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Harper, Get Up!, is his 12th studio album and first new recording since 2011's Give Till It's Gone (Virgin).

Check Availability

Cold fact - Rodriguez (CD)

Cold fact - Rodriguez (CD)

Summary: Sixto Rodriguez' 1970 EP made its way around a few times due to its catchy and concise songs with lyrics that are evocative representing his own troubled mindset.

Review
It's one of the lost classics of the 60s, a psychedelic masterpiece drenched in colour and inspired by life, love, poverty, rebellion, and, of course, jumpers, coke, sweet mary jane . The album is Cold Fact, and what s more intriguing is that its maker a shadowy figure known as Rodriguez was, for many years, lost too. A decade ago, he was rediscovered working on a Detroit building site, unaware that his defining album had become not only a cult classic, but for the people of South Africa, a beacon of revolution. Sixto Diaz Rodriguez was born in 1942 to Mexican immigrant parents in Detroit, Michigan. He recorded Cold Fact his debut album in 1969, and released it in March 1970. It s crushingly good stuff, filled with tales of bad drugs, lost love, and itchy-footed songs about life in late 60s inner-city America. Gun sales are soaring/Housewives find life boring/Divorce the only answer/Smoking causes cancer, says the Dylan-esque Establishment Blues. But the album sank without trace, thanks, in part, to some of Rodriguez's more idiosyncratic behavior, like performing at an industry showcase with his back to the audience throughout. As his music career became a memory, Rodriguez's legend was growing on the other side of the world. In South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Rhodesia, Australia and New Zealand, Cold Fact had become a major word of mouth success, particularly among young people in the South African armed forces, who identified with its counter-cultural bent. But Rodriguez was an enigma not even the label knew where to find him and his demise became the subject of debate and conjecture. Some rumors said he died of a heroin overdose or burned to death on stage. But the tide began to turn in 1996, when journalist Craig Bartholemew set out to get to the bottom of the mystery. After many dead ends, he found Rodriguez alive, well, free and perfectly sane in Detroit, ending years of speculation. Rodriguez himself had no idea about his fame in South Africa (the album had gone multi-platinum, Rodriguez has received not so much as a Rand in royalties), and embarked on a triumphant South African tour followed, filling 5,000 capacity venues across the country. Rodriguez was still largely unknown in the northern hemisphere until 2002, when Sugar Man, the album s extra-terrestrially wonderful lead track, was picked up by David Holmes. The DJ discovered the album in a New York record store, and included it on his Come Get It, I Got It compilation, re-recording the song with Rodriguez for his Free Association project a year later. Now, Light In The Attic is set to commit Cold Fact to CD for audiences in the UK and America, who can finally find out why halfway across the world Rodriguez is spoken of in the same reverent tones as The Doors, Love and Jimi Hendrix. (amazon.com)

Check Availability

House of Earth - Woody Guthrie

House of Earth - Guthrie, Woody

Summary: "Tike and Ella May Hamlin struggle to plant roots in the arid land of the Texas Panhandle. The husband and wife live in a precarious wooden farm shack, but Tike yearns for a sturdy house that will protect them from the treacherous elements. Thanks to a five-cent government pamphlet, Tike has the know-how to build a simple adobe dwelling, a structure made from the land itself-fireproof, windproof, Dust Bowl-proof. A house of earth. Though they are one with the farm and with each other, the land on which Tike and Ella May live and work is not theirs. Due to larger forces beyond their control-including ranching conglomerates and banks-their adobe house remains painfully out of reach."--Dust jacket.

Kirkus Reviews
Radical American folk singer Guthrie, gone 45 years now, turns in an accomplished if somewhat symbol-dense piece of fiction. Edited, at least to an extent, by prolific historian Douglas Brinkley and movie star and boho-lit fixture Johnny Depp, Guthrie's foray into prose (not his first: his 1943 Bound for Glory remains an iconic autobiography) is set on the Texas plains in the howling, unsettled Dust Bowl era. The new civilization of banks, deeds and lawyers is represented by wood, which is scarce out in that wind-blasted, dry country; adobe, sun-dried mud brick is the virtuous stuff of the people, themselves wind-blasted and creaky with aridity but stiff-necked and disinclined to bow down. The metaphor figures, in countless permutations, throughout Guthrie's novel, as it evidently did in letters of various confidants, including one from Woody to actor Eddie Albert (yes, of Green Acres fame) in which he writes excitedly, "Local lumber yards dont advertize mud and straw because you cant find a spot on earth without it, but you see old adobe brick houses almost everywhere that are as old as Hitlers tricks, and still standing, like the Jews." That nicely enigmatic statement stands up alongside other motifs, including Guthrie's apparent approval of large women who could give birth to a whole new human race. Written in the shadow of Steinbeck, Guthrie's novel layers on social realism without propagandizing overmuch; his straightforward depiction of his raw rural characters are reminiscent not of any of his fellow Americans so much as they are of Mikhail Sholokhov. The folksy, incantatory exuberance is all Guthrie, however: "I'm glad to see you! I'm just about th' gladdest that any man ever was to ever see any womern! Whew! Come in! Blow in! Watch out there! Your clothes are blowin' plumb off!" An entertainment--and an achievement even more than a curiosity, yet another facet of Guthrie's multiplex talents. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Check Availability

Kiki Strike: The darkness dwellers - Kirsten Miller

Kiki Strike: The darkness dwellers - Miller, Kirsten

Summary: While Kiki Strike is in Paris trying to stop her evil cousin, the princess Sidonia, from all sorts of terrible deeds, it is up to Ananka and the other Irregulars to help Kiki find the cure for baldness, foil the evil plans of Oona's twin, and keep Ananka herself from falling in love with the wrong young man.


Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews
In volume three of this adventure mystery series, Kiki is off to the small nation of Pokrovia to decline the throne and dismantle the monarchy once and for all. Ananka is left in charge of the Irregulars, a band of badass teen girls, back in New York City. Kiki is kidnapped and held captive in Paris, and Irregular Betty must head to Paris to rescue her. Once in Paris, Betty becomes embroiled in her own mystery involving jilted royalty, an accused World War II traitor, a humorless headmistress, and a secret community, The Darkness Dwellers, who patrol the Parisian catacombs. While Ananka helps another Irregular, Oona, solve the problem of her evil twin wreaking havoc in Chinatown, the intercontinental mysteries twist and turn and eventually entwine until the truth is revealed and order is restored, thanks once again to the Irregulars. What is interesting about the Kiki Strike series is that Miller's Irregulars are not static types, nor does Miller reduce the Irregulars' victories to distractions from "normal girl" activities. The Irregulars are smart, tough, and skilled, their exploits of worldwide significance. In turn, the familiar conflicts of young adult "girl books" are not present in this series, or if they are, they are made to seem petty and inconsequential compared to the real battles the girls must fight. That the girls like doing battle and solving mysteries, and that they are depicted as being dedicated to strengthening their individual talents in order to strengthen the group, makes this mystery series unusually smart and original.—Jennifer M. Miskec 4Q 4P M J S Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.

Check Availability

Barton Hollow - Civil Wars (CD)

Barton Hollow - Civil Wars (CD)

Summary: The Civil Wars consists of John Paul White, hailing from Florence, AL and Joy Williams, originally from Santa Cruz, CA, but now residing in East Nashville. The duo's chance meeting a year and a half ago fueled an immediate songwriting chemistry and creative synergy. Their second show ever, performed at a sold out Eddie's Attic, was recorded and released as a free digital album. Of the duo, Reg's Coffee House host, Scott Register, praises, In my 13 years on the radio, few of the artists I've championed had as immediate a reaction as The Civil Wars. When I first spun `Poison & Wine' listeners couldn't get enough of it and wanted to own it immediately. This band has the `it' factor that you look for. Don't miss out.

Check Availability