Devil in the Grove - Gilbert King

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America - King, Gilbert

Summary: Chronicles a little-known court case in which Thurgood Marshall successfully saved a black citrus worker from the electric chair after the worker was accused of raping a white woman with three other black men. Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.



Booklist Reviews
In 1951 Thurgood Marshall had already begun the Brown v. Board of Education case when he took on an explosive case to save the only survivor of the Groveland Four, young black men wrongfully accused of raping a white woman in central Florida. The young woman, estranged from her husband, concocted a rape accusation involving two black men recently returned from military service and two other, unrelated men. One of the accused was killed by a vigilante mob. After a reversal of their convictions, as they faced a retrying of the case, two others were killed by the sheriff charged with protecting them. King draws on court documents and FBI archives to offer a compelling chronicle of the accusation, which led to a paroxysm of violence against the black community in Groveland, reminiscent of the destruction of Rosewood, in 1923; brutal beatings that led to forced confessions; and the dramatic trial. Marshall, physically exhausted and facing threats to his life, was housed, fed, and protected by a black community encouraged by his presence as he battled to save the life of the last remaining member of the Groveland Four.

Check Availability

Pontoon - Garrison Keillor

Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegone - Keillor, Garrison

Summary: Astonished to learn that her impeccable mother led a secret life marked by her passionate love for a Las Vegas man and a private commitment to pleasure, Barbara elects to end destructive patterns in her own life while honoring her mother's final wishes.



Booklist Reviews
When the angel of death came for Evelyn Peterson, she didn't know that Debbie Detmer would be back in Lake Wobegon for the first time in ages to be married, kinda, in a big lakeside ceremony on a pontoon boat with, among other things, a parachuting Elvis impersonator and a hot-air balloon—all on the day Evelyn's memorial, also at the lake, would be held. Of course, how could she know that? Nobody else in town knew Debbie was coming, except for her parents, and given how Walter's been since that fall in the bathroom, maybe only Mrs. D. could be said to have known. During the days 'twixt death and marriage, lots happens. Barbara, Evelyn's daughter, learns that her mother hadn't been visiting relatives on her many out-of-town jaunts; she'd been partying with Raoul, the man she should have married. Barbara's son Kyle decides to honor Grandma's wish to have her ashes deposited in the lake by dropping them while parasailing. Now consider the possibilities with faux Elvis, balloon, and Kyle fleeting over the lake simultaneously . . . It's just the capper to a hyperbusy slice of small-town life of the sort that Keillor regularly exploits so hilariously and affectingly, and the moral of which may be that we'd all best be humble. Only comedian of horrors Christopher Moore, in his tales of Pine Cove, California, rivals Keillor as a provincial farceur.

Check Availability

A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle

A Year in Provence - Mayle, Peter

Summary: The author describes his experiences when he and his wife moved to a two-hundred-year-old French farmhouse, and shares his observations on the people and culture of Provence.




Publishers Weekly Reviews
The author describes his first 12 months in Provence, after he and his wife have abandoned England for an 18th-century farmhouse in the Luberon Mountains. Throwing themselves into the life of this rural region, they master the local customs, gain partial understanding of their neighbors' patois, overcome the frustrations of French bureaucracy, and learn to deal with workmen who operate on the idiosyncratic Provencal sense of time. In nimble prose, Mayle, columnist for GQ , captures the humorous aspects of visits to markets, vineyards and goat races, and hunting for mushrooms. Even donating blood is an occasion for fun. The Provencal cuisine is Mayle's leitmotif, however. He opens with an account of a memorable New Year's lunch, ends with an appreciation of an impromptu Christmas dinner, and describes just about every meal eaten during the months in between. His adventures, gastronomic and otherwise, are thoroughly entertaining.

Check Availability

Burning Down the House - Nell Bernstein

Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison - Bernstein, Nell

Summary: Presents a look at the juvenile justice system, describing the violence and physical abuses that pervade detention centers and advocating the need for reform so that juveniles can receive the rehabilitation they need to change their lives.



Publishers Weekly Reviews
Award-winning journalist Bernstein (All Alone in the World) turns her attention to the U.S. juvenile justice system in which more than 66,000 youths are confined. Many young people in large detention centers live under "constant surveillance," fearful of beatings, rape, solitary confinement, or being denied showers, companionship, and adequate food. Such is the grim reality of a system that removes two elements central to adolescent development—connection and autonomy—and, as Bernstein documents, drives low-level delinquents deeper into criminality. With considerable empathy, Bernstein introduces adolescents in and out of detention centers, capturing their struggles to overcome traumatic histories. She covers the rise of the "super-predator myth" in the late 1980s/early 1990s that led to increased rates of juvenile incarceration and more stringent laws ("three strikes"), as well as the wave of reform that resulted in a 39% drop in incarceration in the past decade. She interviews reform-minded administrators like Tom Decker, director of Missouri's juvenile justice system, a model for other states because of its acclaimed network of small, non-institutional placements and low rates of recidivism. Visiting "therapeutic" prisons in Minnesota, California, and New York, she concludes that no matter how much effort goes into creating "a kinder, gentler prison," these institutions remain embedded in a larger culture that seems impervious to reform. Passionate, thoughtful, and well-researched, this is a resounding call to action.

Check Availability

Salinger - David Shields

Salinger - Shields, David

Summary: Draws on extensive research and exclusive interviews to share previously undisclosed aspects of the enigmatic writer's life, from his private relationships and service in World War II to his legal concerns and innermost secrets.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
The culmination of over 200 interviews and almost a decade of research, Shields (How Literature Saved My Life) and Salerno, director of the documentary accompanying the book, offer an oral history, effectively blended with narrative and analysis of the iconic writer and his body of work. In lesser hands, this approach could quickly spiral out of control, but Shields and Salerno keep the story on track. Granted, many mileposts and lore—such as Salinger's predilection for young girls or Catcher in the Rye's influence on high-profile assassinations—will not be all that revelatory but the authors' impressive collection of first-person accounts by those who were there gives readers greater insight into the writer and his place in the world. Literary snippets, such as "I'm Crazy," a short story Salinger wrote in Europe that was the first story narrated by Holden Caulfield, and asides—"Jesus, he has a helluva talent," Hemingway is reported to have said of Salinger—combined with a number of photos will make this a must-read for fans of the celebrated author. Photos. (Sept.)

Check Availability

Out of their minds - Luis Humberto Crosthwaite

Out of their minds: the incredible and (sometimes) sad story of Ramon and Cornelio - Crosthwaite, Luis Humberto

Summary: Ramon and Cornelio are best friends, driven by boredom as teenagers to start a band. Not just any band. A norteño band, playing God's favorite music. God even pitches in to write the songs. Success, disaster and good music follow.

"Hey, what's up, come a little closer, I have something to tell you," God said to Cornelio. The deal was simple: God would be the silent partner in the norteño band that Cornelio had started with his best friend Ramon. Cornelio would sing and play the bajo sexto, Ramon the accordion, and God would write the songs. Cornelio agreed; he would sell his soul to God.

Success and disaster followed. The band went from playing bars in Tijuana to playing the biggest stadiums in Mexico. Women started fan clubs dedicated to their heroes Ramon and Cornelio. It seemed to Cornelio and Ramon that they had everything, but fame was a cruel mistress. Ramon and Cornelio’s story has some loose parallels to a real Mexican band, but it’s also the apocryphal story of the Beatles and the kids tuning up in the garage down the street.

Luis Humberto Crosthwaite is an award-winning writer, editor, and journalist who teaches at the University of Iowa. His fiction has garnered critical attention for his ability to express the complexities of living on the US/Mexico border. Among his best known books are Estrella de la Calle Sexta, Aparta de mí este Cáliz, Idos de la Mente, Instrucciones para Cruzar la Frontera, and Tijuana: Crimen y Olvido. His translated novels are The Moon will Forever be a Distant Love and Out of their Minds. He is also co-editor of Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots, & Graffiti from the US/Mexico Border.

Check Availability

Paris Trout - Pete Dexter

Paris Trout - Dexter, Peter

Publishers Weekly Reviews
An expertly crafted and bleakly fascinating tale of social conflict and madness in the deep South, this novel centers on the eponymous Paris Trout, owner of a general store and other property in Cotton Point, Ga., during the years just after World War II. A cunning, violent man, with deep roots in the community, Trout has become an economic predator of the town's poor blacks by running a loan service for them out of the safe in his store's back room. The tensions between Trout and the blacks reaches a critical point when Trout, along with a strong-arm goon, murders an 11-year-old black girl and badly injures a black woman while collecting a debt. Into the vortex of this storm are drawn a number of other characters, highlighting the racial and social divisions of Cotton Point: lawyer and gentleman Harry Seagraves, who is repelled by the case; Paris's wife Hannah, brutalized by her husband and in powerful psychological bondage to him; and Carl Bonner, a young, idealistic lawyer who seesaws between his past in the town and his recently acquired sense of being an outsider in its circumscribed society. Trout's murder trial forces Cotton Point to face some dark truths, while setting in motion a chain of events that lead to a crescendo of violence. Dexter (Deadwood, God's Pocket) is a deft and economical storyteller and a cruel but observant chronicler of deep South customs and characters, with something of a Faulknerian feeling for the bullying violence that can lay at the heart of an inbred small town. (June) Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information.

Check Availability

The professor and the madman - Simon Winchester

The professor and the madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary - Winchester, Simon

Summary: Describes how more than ten thousand definitions were submitted for the first Oxford English Dictionary from Dr. W. C. Minor, an American Civil War criminal whose life of genius and insanity make this true story both fascinating and unique. BOMC. - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
Distinguished journalist Winchester tells a marvelous, true story that few readers will have heard about. His narrative is based on official government files locked away for more than a century. As everyone knows, the Oxford English Dictionary is an essential library reference tool. The 12-volume OED took more than 70 years to produce, and one of its most distinguishing features is the copious quotations from published works to illustrate every shade of word usage. By the late 1890s the huge project was nearly half done, and the editor at the time, Professor James Murray, felt the need to meet and personally thank Dr. William Minor, with whom he had been in lengthy contact and who had contributed a lion's share of the quotations. As it turned out, Dr. Minor was an American surgeon who many years before had been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity but had been incarcerated in an English asylum ever since. The tale of their affiliation and friendship reads like a creatively conceived novel. ((Reviewed August 1998)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews


Check Availability

Dancing with butterflies: a novel - Reyna Grande

Dancing with butterflies: a novel - Grande, Reyna


Summary: Chronicles the story of four women in Los Angeles bound together in friendship by their Mexican roots and their love of Folklorico dance. - (Baker & Taylor)



Booklist Reviews
"Mexican-born Grande focuses on a subculture in the Latino community to explore universal themes in this worthy follow-up to her award-winning debut novel, Across a Hundred Mountains (2006). Folklórico, a dance that emphasizes the local culture of different regions of Mexico, is the focus around which the stories of four L.A. women and their losses are intertwined. Yesería, who founded Grupo Folklorico Alegría, takes desperate measures to regain her ability and appearance after arthritis curtails her performing. Elena, an Alegría member who codirects a folklórico group at the high school where she teaches, is so immobilized by grief after her baby is stillborn that she ends both her marriage and her dancing. Her younger sister and fellow dancer, Adriana, still angry over childhood events, increasingly allows her lesser self to lapse into destructive behavior. Soledad, a skilled seamstress who makes the group's costumes, has her hopes for the future dashed by the man she loves. Yet the strength of folklórico prevails, as the novel celebrates the sheer exhilaration and physicality of dance and the sustenance of female bonding." Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability