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.

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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


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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).

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Middlesteins - Jami Attenberg

The Middlesteins - Attenberg, Jami

Summary: Two siblings with very different personalities attempt to take control of their mother's food obsession and massive weight gain to save her life after their father walks out and leaves her reeling in the Chicago suburbs.


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* The Middlesteins, a Jewish family of strong temperaments and large dysfunctions, living in the middle of the country in Chicago and its suburbs, revolve around Edie, a woman of gargantuan appetites. Attenberg (The Melting Season, 2010) marshals her gift for mordant yet compassionate comedy to chart Edie's rise and fall in sync with her ever-ballooning weight. Smart, generous, and voracious in every way, Edie is a lawyer who loves food and work more than her pharmacist husband. Her daughter, Robin, a private-school history teacher, is anxious and reclusive. Edie's even-keeled, pot-smoking son, Benny, is married to Edie's opposite, petite and disciplined Rachelle, an ambitious stay-at-home mother of twins. After Edie loses her job and rolls past the 300-pound mark, she becomes a medical crisis waiting to happen. Finally galvanized into action, her in-denial family is both helpful and destructive, each effort and failure revealing yet another dimension of inherited suffering. A flawless omnicient narrator, Attenberg even illuminates the life of the man who owns foodaholic Edie's favorite Chinese restaurant while executing perfect flashbacks and flash-forwards and subtly salting this irresistible family portrait with piquant social commentary. Kinetic with hilarity and anguish, romance and fury, Attenberg's rapidly consumed yet nourishing novel anatomizes our insatiable hunger for love, meaning, and hope. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Chopsticks - Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Chopsticks - Rosenthal, Amy Krouse

Summary: When a pair of chopsticks get separated, after some traumatic moments the two friends eventually learn to stand on their own.

Library Media Connection
Stuffed with puns, this "change in place setting, not exactly sequel to Spoon" (Disney Hyperion, 2009) will delight those who see all the clever artistic jokes. Best friends forever, chopsticks are one day separated when one suffers a break. Whisked away, chopstick's clean break can be repaired if he stays off it for a while. Knife, spoon, and fork are on-lookers who never remember seeing chopsticks separated. Independence and teamwork spice up the story. Magoon's inspired illustrations further extend the clever teasing. This is delightful for adult readers and illustrative of creative writing and whimsical art. Ann Bryan Nelson, Volunteer Media Specialist and Guest Teacher, Thompson Ranch Elementary School, Dysart Unified School District, Surprise, Arizona. ADDITIONAL SELECTION. Copyright 2012 Linworth Publishing, Inc.

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Wild - Cheryl Strayed

Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Strayed, Cheryl

Summary: A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.


Kirkus Reviews
Unsentimental memoir of the author's three-month solo hike from California to Washington along the Pacific Crest Trail. Following the death of her mother, Strayed's (Torch, 2006) life quickly disintegrated. Family ties melted away; she divorced her husband and slipped into drug use. For the next four years life was a series of disappointments. "I was crying over all of it," she writes, "over the sick mire I'd made of my life since my mother died; over the stupid existence that had become my own. I was not meant to be this way, to live this way, to fail so darkly." While waiting in line at an outdoors store, Strayed read the back cover of a book about the Pacific Crest Trail. Initially, the idea of hiking the trail became a vague apparition, then a goal. Woefully underprepared for the wilderness, out of shape and carrying a ridiculously overweight pack, the author set out from the small California town of Mojave, toward a bridge ("the Bridge of the Gods") crossing the Columbia River at the Oregon-Washington border. Strayed's writing admirably conveys the rigors and rewards of long-distance hiking. Along the way she suffered aches, pains, loneliness, blistered, bloody feet and persistent hunger. Yet the author also discovered a new found sense of awe; for her, hiking the PCT was "powerful and fundamental" and "truly hard and glorious." Strayed was stunned by how the trail both shattered and sheltered her. Most of the hikers she met along the way were helpful, and she also encountered instances of trail magic, "the unexpected and sweet happenings that stand out in stark relief to the challenges of the trail." A candid, inspiring narrative of the author's brutal physical and psychological journey through a wilderness of despair to a renewed sense of self. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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Law and disorder - John Douglas

Law and disorder: the legendary FBI profiler's relentless pursuit of justice - Douglas, John

Summary: The FBI's pioneer of criminal profiling and the person on whom the character Agent Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs is based, reflects on his nearly 40-year career during which he pursued, studied and interviewed such criminals as Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, and devoted his time helping the wrongfully accused and convicted. - (Baker & Taylor)

Kirkus Reviews
From a pioneer of behavioral analysis, a look at notorious murder investigations marred by controversy. Well-known FBI profiler Douglas has co-authored several books with Olshaker on this specialty (The Cases that Haunt Us, 2000, etc.). Here, he focuses on diverse cases that share one commonality: Either the investigation developed around false leads with disastrous results, or the actual killer was targeted yet saw justice confounded by similar procedural issues. "The role of the profiler is to redirect or refocus an investigation and to help police narrow and analyze their suspect list," he writes. The cases he discusses here are those he did not address as an active-duty agent, and he often wonders if he would have fared better as an investigator. In at least two cases, he reluctantly argues that wrongful convictions led to miscarriages of justice. William Heirens served a life sentence as Chicago's "Lipstick Killer," yet Douglas believes him innocent: "I would have considered him too young to…make the leap from petty burglaries to violent rapes and murders." He also argues that Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson murders of his children based on scientific theories that were disproven well before the execution. The author devotes long sections to two notorious cases: the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and the wrongfully convicted West Memphis Three. He consulted in both cases and remains convinced that shoddy evidence management, prosecutorial overreach and media frenzies led to false accusations with dreadful consequences. Douglas remains fascinated by the nitty-gritty of advanced investigation, and he smoothly explains key evidentiary details and psychological twists, though he becomes impatient with those who question his conclusions. Yet, his thesis remains bifurcated: He both agonizes over the prospect of an innocent person being executed and strongly argues that the death penalty ought to protect society from the "worst of the worst," sadistic repeat offenders like Ted Bundy. The prose is mostly workmanlike, but in a culture besotted with serial killers, Douglas can claim a rare authenticity regarding the evil that men do. Copyright Kirkus 2013 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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The Richard Burton diaries - Richard Burton

The Richard Burton diaries - Burton, Richard

Summary: The personal diaries of the renowned actor and glamorous celebrity describe his life from 1939 to 1983 and his struggles with his weight, drinking, and jealousy when other men looked at the love of his life, Elizabeth Taylor. - (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Nearly three decades after his sudden death, Burton is experiencing a pop-cultural rebirth. Most people remember the Welsh-born actor as the heavy-drinking fifth (and sixth!) husband of Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he made several films (most memorably the 1966 classic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the expensive 1963 fiasco Cleopatra) and whose combustible, extravagant, and scandal-ridden relationship with her will be dramatized later this month in the Lifetime television movie Liz & Dick. His personal musings about Taylor (plus scorn and praise for a plethora of his Tinseltown peers) are sure to be the most talked about here, but these diaries also provide a rounded portrait of a smart, witty, and doting husband and father. Burton squandered his once brilliant acting career, taking mediocre paycheck roles in later years, and battled enough demons to fill several lifetimes. For a true glimpse into the heart and mind of this wildly talented yet conflicted man—who garnered no less than seven Academy Award nominations, with no wins—this mammoth, unsanitized, and handsomely presented collection of Burton's innermost thoughts, along with the fascinating minutiae of a huge star's day-to-day existence, should restore his reputation as one of the most original Hollywood stars of all time. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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Body Talk - Robyn (CD)

Body Talk - Robyn (CD)

Summary: 2010 release from the Swedish Pop sensation, the third and final album in Robyn's unique trilogy for 2010. Features five of the best tracks from Body Talk Pts One and Two plus five brand-spanking new songs from the ridiculously prolific pop star. Includes the singles `Hang With Me' and `Dancing on My Own' as well as 'Indestructible'. Island.

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Umbrellas of Cherbourg (DVD)

Umbrellas of Cherbourg (DVD)

Summary: Musical drama about two young lovers who are separated and marry others. - (Baker & Taylor)


Review
Thirty years after its release in 1964, this poignant romantic drama, in which virtually all of the dialogue is sung, was badly in need of restoration. The bright colors had faded and washed out in a haze of pink, and the film stock had badly aged. Fortunately, the movie was properly restored to its original splendor and rereleased to worldwide acclaim. Not only was this French romance a daring musical experiment (because the entire screenplay is a kind of epic song, beautifully scored by Michel Legrand), but it also introduced Catherine Deneuve, who was 20 years old when the film was released and became one of France's all-time screen legends. Deneuve plays a young woman in love with a local auto mechanic named Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) who has been drafted into the army. In his absence she learns that she is pregnant and then marries a rich man who agrees to raise the child. The bittersweet story follows what happens when Guy returns from service. To reveal anything more would be a disservice to anyone who hasn't seen this touchingly heartfelt film. --Jeff Shannon- Amazon.com

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Bonk - Mary Roach

Bonk - Roach, Mary

Summary: Roach shows how and why sexual arousal and orgasm can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to make the bedroom a more satisfying place.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* The New Yorker dubbed Roach "the funniest science writer in the country." OK, maybe there's not a lot of competition. But even if there were thousands of science-humor writers, she would be the sidesplitting favorite. Of course, she chooses good subjects: cadavers in Stiff (2003), ghosts in Spook (2005), and now a genuinely fertile topic in Bonk. As Roach points out, scientists studying sex are often treated with disdain, as though there is something inherently suspicious about the enterprise. Yet through understanding the anatomy, physiology, and psychology of sexual response, scientists can help us toward greater marital and nonmarital happiness. Such altruistic intentions, which the book shares, aren't the wellspring of its appeal, however. That lies in the breezy tone in which Roach describes erectile dysfunction among polygamists, penis cameras, relative organ sizes and enhancement devices, and dozens of other titillating subjects. Not to be missed: the martial art of yin diao gung ("genitals hanging kung fu"), monkey sex athletes, and the licensing of porn stars' genitals for blow-up reproductions. To stay on the ethical side of human-subjects experimentation, Roach offers herself as research subject several times, resulting in some of her best writing. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

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Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway

Angelmaker - Harkaway, Nick

Summary: Avoiding the lifestyle of his late gangster father by working as a clock repairman, Joe Spork fixes an unusual device that turns out to be a former secret agent's doomsday machine and incurs the wrath of the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Harkaway's celebrated debut, The Gone-Away World (2008), offered a gonzo take on postapocalyptic fiction, but it was really just a warm-up act—a prodigiously talented novelist stretching muscles that few other writers even possess—for this tour de force of Dickensian bravura and genre-bending splendor. At the center of the tale is a mild-mannered clockmaker in contemporary London, Joe Spork, who is doing his best to live down the legacy of his crime-boss father. Then an elderly lady, who happens to be a superspy from decades past, deposits a curious artifact on Joe's doorstop, and before you can say "doomsday machine," Joe's friends are being murdered, he's accused of terrorism, and he appears to be the only person with even an outside chance of saving humanity from a truly bizarre form of extinction: the doomsday machine, we learn gradually, was designed to bring world peace by forcing us to speak only the truth, but in the wrong hands, truth-telling can be the deadliest of weapons. Yes, there's espionage here, along with fantasy and more than a little steampunk, but there's also an overlay of gangster adventure, a couple of tender romance plots, and some fascinating reflections on fathers and sons and the tricky matter of forging a self in the shadow of the past. The latter is particularly interesting, as Harkaway is the son of John le Carré, and while he writes in an utterly different style and on a much grander scale than his father, the fact remains that—stripped of its mad monks and artificial bees and pre-Raphaelite craftsmen turned thugs—Harkaway's novel is at its core a powerful meditation on the anxiety of influence, similar in that way to his father's A Perfect Spy (1986). But influences aside, this is a marvelous book, both sublimely intricate and compulsively readable. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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The absolutely true diary of a part-time indian

Summary: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.


Kirkus Reviews
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature. Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents' frequent lack of gas money (they're a "poor-ass family"), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation's poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior's knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus 2007 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

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The end of your life book club - Will Schwalbe

The end of your life book club - Schwalbe, Will

Summary: Recounts how the author and his mother read and discussed books during her chemotherapy treatments, describing how the activity involved a wide range of literary genres, furthered their appreciation for literature, and strengthened their bond. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Schwalbe and his mother accidentally formed a book club in a cancer-treatment waiting room. As they discuss what they will read while Mary Anne is treated for pancreatic cancer, they deepen their already strong relationship. Schwalbe didn't plan to write this memoir as he was living it, so it's mostly nuggets of emotionally important remarks in the context of the development of his mother's illness. Will's love and respect for his mother shine through in the story of a remarkable woman's life, from how she helped refugees to her seeking to build libraries in Afghanistan. With 21 years of book-publishing experience, Schwalbe quickly introduces the books themselves in one or two paragraphs. The works they read offer a way to approach topics they otherwise wouldn't discuss, and the focus is more on what the books reveal than what happens in them. This touching and insightful memoir about the slow process of dying will appeal to readers of Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) and The Last Lecture (2008) but also to people who love delving into books and book discussions. Like Mary Anne, who reads the ending first, you know how this book is going to end, but although it is a story about death, it is mostly a celebration of life and of the way books can enrich it. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

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The perks of being a wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

The perks of being a wallflower - Chbosky, Stephen

Summary: A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie.



Booklist Reviews
" Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand." In his letters to a never-identified person, 15-year-old Charlie's freshman high-school year (1991^-92) and coming-of-age ring fresh and true. First-novelist Chbosky captures adolescent angst, confusion, and joy as Charlie reveals his innermost thoughts while trying to discover who he is and whom he is to become. Intellectually precocious, Charlie seems a tad too naive in many other ways, yet his reflections on family interactions, first date, drug experimentation, first sexual encounter, and regular participation in Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings are compelling. He vacillates between full involvement in the crazy course of his life and backing off completely. Eventually, he discovers that to be a whole person who knows how to be a real friend rather than a patsy, he must confront his past--and remember what his beloved, deceased Aunt Helen did to him. Charlie is a likable kid whose humor-laced trials and tribulations will please both adults and teens. ((Reviewed February 15, 1999)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

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Into the wild - Eddie Vedder (CD)

Into the wild - Vedder, Eddie (CD)

Summary: Music for the motion picture into the wild




Review
Taking a break from his day job fronting rock heavyweight Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder immerses himself into the big-screen story of a young man who gives all his money to charity and hitchhikes to a new life--and his eventual death--in the wilds of Alaska. Prompted by the film's creator, Sean Penn, to contribute to the musical score, the Seattle musician tackled the entire project, playing every instrument on the soundtrack's nine original and two cover songs. Vedder contemplates the traveler "setting forth in the universe" in the opener "Setting Forth," then tracks in the remaining songs the realizations and disillusionments that follow. A wish comes true in banjo-plucked "No Ceiling" to "up and disappear," while affluence is questioned on the hard-rocking "Far Behind," with Vedder singing, "Empty pockets will/Allow a greater sense of wealth." No song in the album's first half exceeds two-and-a-half minutes, remedied by Vedder's pertinent five-minute stamp on the remake of Indio's "Hard Sun," complete with eerie backing vocals by Sleater-Kinney's Corin Tucker. The songwriter puts wealth on the hot seat in "Society," questioning, "If less is more/How you keepin' score?" The darkly sung folk song bookends the reticent declaration "Guaranteed," wonderfully delivered and quietly strummed, in which the prodigal Vedder wraps the journey in one line: "Leave it to me as I find a way to be/Consider me a satellite forever orbiting." (The record is packaged like a hardcover book, with vivid photography and lyrics.) --Scott Holter -Amazon.com

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Into the wild (DVD)

Into the wild (DVD)

Summary: Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead, Christopher McCandless walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people - a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature. Based on a true story.


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