Midnight Crossroad - Charlaine Harris

Midnight Crossroad - Harris, Charlaine

Summary: The first book in a new trilogy describes what happens in Midnight, Texas, a dried-up, one traffic light town, when a mysterious new resident, Manfred Bernardo, moves in.




Publishers Weekly Reviews
Bestseller Harris (the Southern Vampire Mysteries, which spawned the HBO series True Blood) introduces the small town of Midnight, Tex., where the locals can all take a day off for a picnic by the river—and discover a corpse. Residents of Midnight include a practicing witch, a telephone "psychic" who has true visions, a minister who tends a pet cemetery, and a vampire who works the night shift at the pawn shop. Even the witch's house cat has his secrets. With polished ease, Harris brings her cast on stage, pairs them off to reveal character through conversation, and ambles the mystery along, as the residents of Midnight tend to their chores and run errands to the big towns of Marthasville and Davy. While not ignoring the downsides of smalltown life, with too-knowing neighbors and teens desperate to get out, Harris also works in its joys and comforts. This is a solid entry in Harris's catalogue and will do very well with her fans.

Check Availability

The Penderwicks - Jeanne Birdsall

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy - Birdsall, Jeanne

Summary: While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.




Horn Book Guide Reviews
Along with their loving but preoccupied botanist father and a clumsy dog, the motherless Penderwick sisters spend their summer holiday in the Massachusetts Berkshires in a rose-covered cottage on the grounds of a mansion. Suffused with affectionate humor, this charming, old-fashioned story feels familiar in the way the best books seem like old friends.

Check Availability

Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder? - Patricia Demuth

Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder? - Demuth, Patricia

Summary: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, based on her own childhood and later life, are still beloved classics almost a century after she began writing them. Now young readers will see just how similar Laura's true-life story was to her books. Born in 1867 in the "Big Woods" in Wisconsin, Laura experienced both the hardship and the adventure of living on the frontier. Her life and times are captured in engaging text and 80 black-and-white illustrations.

Check Availability

Let the Old Dreams Die - John Ajvide Lindqvist

Let the Old Dreams Die - Ajvide Lindqvist, John

Summary: Called Sweden's Stephen King, the author of the internationally acclaimed Let the Right One In continues the story of Oskar and Eli in this terrifying collection that also includes "Equinox," in which a woman makes a disturbing discovery while taking care of her vacationing neighbor's house.



Booklist Reviews
Lindqvist's short stories pack the same emotional punch as his novels. This collection includes sequels to two of his best-known works, Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead. Both are pleasing, if frightening, epilogues to their respective stories. Aside from those, there are atmospheric tales of people with strange origins and things to hide in The Border, urban monsters in A Village in the Sky, and the terrible thing a woman finds while house-sitting in Equinox. There's also Eternal/Love, which explores the true horror of immortal love. Suffice it to say—this is only a small sampling of the stories presented here—that Lindqvist's short pieces are terribly effective horror fiction, both in the sense of being deeply unnerving and rarely safe to read any night, and also in the sense of exploring the hidden, shadowy facets of human emotional lives. These are excellent examples of the form, and well worth reading—just not alone in a cold, dark house.

Check Availability

Nebraska (DVD)

Nebraska (DVD)

Summary: After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father thinks he's struck it rich, and wrangles his estranged son into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Getting waylaid in the father's hometown in Nebraska, the son tries to reconnect with his impenetrable father.


Video Librarian Reviews
Filmed in monochromatic black-and-white, filmmaker Alexander Payne's multiple-Oscar-nominated Nebraska subtly conveys the melancholy lives of ordinary Midwesterners. Best Actor nominee Bruce Dern stars as grizzled Woody Grant, an alcoholic, aging resident of Billings, MT, who is convinced that he won a million dollars in a Publisher Clearing House-like mega-sweepstakes lottery. Obviously struggling with senility, Woody is stubbornly determined to reach the company's headquarters in Lincoln, NE, even if he has to walk there. This is what Woody tells his younger son, David (Will Forte), who picks up his dad after he's wandered down the highway. David's older brother, Ross (Bob Odenkirk), and their exasperated mother, Kate (June Squibb), want to put Woody in a nursing home, but David, feeling empathy for the frail, confused old man, offers to drive him to Lincoln to claim his alleged prize. En route, the pair visit relatives and friends, and David learns more about his reticent, inscrutable father—from an old girlfriend (Angela McEwan) and former business partner (Stacy Keach)—while also discovering that everyone wants a cut of Woody's windfall. As the cantankerous old coot, Dern delivers a restrained-yet-convincing, career-crowning performance, while cinematographer Phedon Papamichael's austere, elegiac imagery evokes Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, and Edward Hopper. Recommended. (S. Granger) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2014.

Check Availability

Japan 1941 - Eri Hotta

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy - Hotta, Eri

Summary: A history of the attack on Pearl Harbor from a Japanese perspective argues that the nation's leaders largely understood they were destined to lose the war, offering insight into the tradition-obscured belief system that prompted the country to place its citizens in harm's way.



Library Journal Reviews
In 1941, Japan was a resource-strapped country bogged down in a costly war with China. So why did it decide to initiate a war with the United States? Hotta (Pan-Asianism and Japan's War, 1931–45) explores every aspect of this question. She reveals that many high-ranking Japanese officials had real doubts about launching an attack on America. However, a combination of weak civilian leadership, outsize military involvement in government, extreme nationalism, and bureaucratic inertia forced Japan down a path of certain destruction. Her book gives colorful descriptions of the various characters involved, from the common Japanese soldier on the frontlines all the way up to the emperor himself. VERDICT This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in Japan's involvement in World War II generally or its motivations for attacking the United States specifically. While scholarly and thoroughly researched, it's also a highly enjoyable read. Hotta writes the story with a novel's narrative drive, making it a real page-turner. Readers seeking a more concise exploration of this topic should consider Jeffrey Record's A War It Was Always Going To Lose: Why Japan Attacked America in 1941.—Joshua Wallace, South Texas Coll. Lib., McAllen

Check Availability

An Ordinary Woman - Cecelia Holland

An Ordinary Woman : A Dramatized Biography of Nancy Kelsey - Holland, Cecelia

Summary: Nancy Kelsey, her husband, and a small group of Americans make the perilous overland trek to California, where she works at Sutter's Fort and rides in the Rebellion that wrests California from Mexico, in a novel based on the real-life exploits of one courageous American pioneer woman.



Booklist Reviews
In 1838, at the age of 15, Nancy, the daughter of pioneers, marries farmer Ben Kelsey, who is 12 years her senior. Together they eke out a living on a small farm in Missouri. Three years later, Ben is filled with wanderlust after hearing about riches and open land in California, so he, his brothers, and their families organize a party of ambitious pioneers to make the journey even though they have no knowledge of the terrain. Luckily, they meet up with a group of missionaries traveling to Montana, who guide them along until Ben and company split off to head south, making Nancy the only woman to brave the uncharted trail through California's daunting desert and mountains. Later, she and Ben join the fight for statehood, prosper during the gold rush, and hit the trail again after Ben loses his money. A real trouper, Nancy sticks with her man through thick and thin, and Holland provides an interesting fictional account of a true story of pioneer life.

Check Availability

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing - Sheila Turnage

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing - Turnage, Sheila

Summary: When Miss Lana accidentally buys a haunted inn at the Tupelo Landing town auction, Desperado Detectives--aka Mo LoBeau and her best friend Dale--opens up a paranormal division to solve the ghost's identity before the town's big 250th anniversary bash.



Horn Book Guide Reviews
In this sweet, laid-back sequel to Three Times Lucky, Mo LoBeau and Dale find themselves in another mystery. When the abandoned Tupelo Inn goes up for auction, Miss Lana and Grandmother Miss Lacy outbid a snippy banker and take ownership of the ramshackle inn, including a strange apparition. Mo's distinctive voice, full of humor and Southern colloquialisms, narrates a tale with many twists and turns.

Check Availability

My Life in Middlemarch - Rebecca Mead

My Life in Middlemarch - Mead, Rebecca

Summary: A New Yorker writer revisits the seminal book of her youth--Middlemarch-- and fashions a singular, involving story of how a passionate attachment to a great work of literature can shape our lives and help us to read our own histories.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* When Mead first read George Eliot's Middlemarch, a "masterwork of sympathetic philosophy," as a young woman in an English seaside town, it became her polestar. A New Yorker staff writer and author of One Perfect Day (2007), Mead now explains why in this heady blend of memoir, biography, and literary criticism. She performs an exhilarating, often surprising close reading of the novel, which Eliot began writing at age 51 in 1870. And she takes a fresh look at Eliot's daringly unconventional life, visiting the writer's homes and casting light not only on the author's off-the-charts intellect but also her valor in forthrightly addressing complex moral issues, cutting sense of humor, "large, perceptive generosity," and the deep love she shared with critic and writer George Henry Lewes and his sons. Mead injects just enough of her own life story to take measure of the profound resonance of Eliot's progressive, humanistic viewpoint, recognition of the heroism of ordinary lives, and crucial central theme, "a young woman's desire for a substantial, rewarding, meaningful life." Mead's rekindling of appreciation for Eliot and her books blossoms into a celebration of the entire enterprise of writing and reading, of how literature transforms our lives as it guides us toward embracing "all that might be gained from opening one's heart wider." Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Shōgun - James Clavell

Shōgun: A Novel of Japan - Clavell, James

Summary: After John Blackthorne shipwrecks in Japan, he makes himself useful to a feudal lord in a power struggle with another and becomes a samurai.




New York Times Review
It's almost impossible not to continue to read "Shōgun" once having opened it. Yet it's not only something that you read--you live it....Clavell wants everything in "Shōgun," and he nearly gets it: living characters, tumultuous events, stories that shine, a culture assembled like a jigsaw puzzle....He writes in the oldest and grandest tradition that fiction knows.

Check Availability

The Aviators - Winston Groom

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight - Groom, Winston

Summary: The Aviators tells the saga of three extraordinary aviators--Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, and Jimmy Doolittle--and how they redefine heroism through their genius, daring, and uncommon courage. Groom's rich narrative tells their intertwined stories--from broken homes to Medals of Honor (all three would receive it); barnstorming to the greatest raid of World War II; front-page triumph to anguished tragedy; and near-death to ultimate survival--as all took to the sky, time and again, to become exemplars of the spirit of the 'greatest generation'" - Provided by publisher.

Kirkus Reviews
Joint biography of three legendary pilots. Groom (Shiloh, 1862, 2012, etc.) takes his subjects from their earliest days through World War II, when they all found a way to aid the struggle against the Axis powers. All three of Groom's subjects earned their renown by doing something extraordinary. Eddie Rickenbacker (1890–1973) rose from auto mechanic to champion race car driver and then became the top American flying ace of World War I. Jimmy Doolittle (1896–1993), a tough kid who boxed to pay for college, became the military's leading test pilot in the 1920s. Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) dropped out of college to be a stunt pilot before becoming the most famous man alive for his New York to Paris flight in 1927. Groom traces their early careers, showing how they learned the nuts and bolts of aviation in the process of becoming pilots. This stood them in good stead in their later careers. Lindbergh personally oversaw the building of the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane for his epic flight, and, later in World War II, helped U.S. forces in the Pacific improve the range of the P-38 fighter planes. Doolittle is probably best known for his 1942 bombing raid on Tokyo, in which he used innovative tactics to shake the enemy's confidence in the impregnability of the Japanese homeland. Rickenbacker, on a secret mission to deliver orders to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, survived more than three weeks on a life raft in the shark-infested South Pacific after his plane went down, nearly starving, continuing the mission as soon as he recovered from the ordeal. Groom lets his empathy with his subjects somewhat outweigh their flaws, notably Lindbergh's initial failure to recognize the evil of Nazism. Ultimately, though, the author convincingly portrays them as true American heroes, men who changed the world by their deeds and who inspired countless others to emulate their examples. A gripping document of a brilliant era in our history and a few of the men who helped make it so.

Check Availability

Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (CD)

Julie London Sings the Choicest of Cole Porter (CD)

Summary: The cool, sexy voice of Julie London was the perfect instrument for the sophisticated-yet often suggestive-songs of Cole Porter. Here are I've Got You Under My Skin; Love for Sale; Easy to Love; My Heart Belongs to Daddy; In the Still of the Night , and 11 more of her best Porter performances! -Amazon

Check Availability

Insomnia - Stephen King

Insomnia - King, Stephen

Summary: Ralph Roberts can't sleep. A recent widower, dismayed at life, he cannot seem to close his eyes and rest. After a number of sleepless nights, he begins seeing things that are imperceptible to most people. He can see auras of light surrounding individuals which shift and change depending on their well-being, and terminate in a long balloon-like string. Most creepily, he can sometimes see three little bald men dressed like surgeons going around and cutting off these strings.

Kirkus Reviews
A small town in Maine again serves as King's setting in this deft, steady tale, in which two lovable geezers travel through hyper-reality to balance the books of human existence, or something to that effect. King throws in a tender romance, sensitive and often funny portrayals of the ravages of age, and the somewhat loopy presence of Rite-Aid drugstores, Cup-A-Soup, and Port-O-Sans smack-dab in the middle of hyper-reality. This commingling of the supernatural and the commonplace is what makes this hefty read so enjoyable.

Check Availability

The Thickety - J. A. White

The Thickety: A Path Begins - White, J. A.

Summary: When twelve-year-old Kara discovers her mother's grimoire in the dangerous forest, she must decide if she'll use it, even though such magic is forbidden.



Kirkus Reviews
Nail-biting suspense is the hallmark of this long fantasy novel, from the terrifying prologue to the shocking epilogue. This pleasantly accomplished debut presents readers with a dystopian, theocratic society that fears and executes witches and magic users. The community lives on the island of De'Noran, where the habitable land is being devoured by strange forest called the Thickety. In the prologue, readers meet little Kara Westall, who is roused from her bed and dragged to watch her mother's execution as a witch. Years later, Kara, now 12, is responsible for herself, her younger brother, Taff, and their father, crippled by depression. When Kara finds her mother's grimoire in the Thickety and uses it, the already suspenseful narrative becomes nerve-wracking. The author's storytelling chops show in how he ratchets up suspense, delivers believable characters (both good and evil), and reveals information slowly and only when absolutely necessary. There is a stunning climax and a seemingly perfect resolution. Readers will know, however, that nothing is perfect, and the epilogue confirms this fact while providing hope for a sequel. The spellbinding story, lashings of suspense and stalwart heroine will draw in fantasy fans and keep them reading until the bitter ending.

Check Availability

The Mark of the Dragonfly - Jaleigh Johnson

The Mark of the Dragonfly - Johnson, Jaleigh

Summary: Since her father's death in a factory in the Dragonfly territories, thirteen-year-old Piper has eked out a living as a scrapper in Merrow Kingdom, but the arrival of a mysterious girl sends her on a dangerous journey to distant lands.



Booklist Reviews
It is a harsh life for Piper, an orphan who makes her living salvaging meteor-storm debris and repairing small machines in Scrap Town #16. When she rescues an unconscious girl, Anna, from the wreckage of a travelers' caravan and discovers that the girl is under the protection of the king of the Dragonfly Territories, Piper knows that returning Anna to her family is the perfect chance for her to start a new life. But getting there will require a trip on the expensive and dangerous 401, a beautiful old train with mysterious guards. And that's not their only roadblock: Anna has lost her memory. And a strange, intense man who will stop at nothing to capture her is hot on her heels. Part Firefly and part Kenneth Oppel's Airborn (2004), this alternate-world novel is full of mechanical wonders, magical people, and unambiguous good guys and bad guys. Appealing characters and lots of action make it a good choice for young adventure readers with a taste for steampunk. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Half a Chance - Cynthia Lord

Half a Chance - Lord, Cynthia

Summary: Lucy, with her mother and her photographer father, has just moved to a small rural community in New Hampshire, and with her new friend Nate she plans to spend the summer taking photos for a contest, but pictures sometimes reveal more than people are willing to see.



Horn Book Guide Reviews
When twelve-year-old Lucy enters a photography contest, she must decide whether to submit a picture of her new friend Nate's grandmother, whose life has become punctuated with moments of dementia and confusion. Nate is horrified by his grandmother's panicked expression, but Lucy knows it's an amazing picture. The story is moving, and readers will find themselves caught up in sensitive Lucy's honest and thoughtful narration.

Check Availability

Crampton Hodnet - Barbara Pym

Crampton Hodnet - Pym, Barbara

Summary: A novel featuring a pair of farcical romances captures early versions of the author's famous clergymen and excellent women, the original Miss Doggett and Jessie Morrow from Jane and Prudence, and a distinctly Oxford cast of characters.



Kirkus Reviews
Barbara Pym, in the 1940s, considered Crampton Hodnet too dated to be published. But now it is the book's very datedness--it is set in Oxford in the 1930s--that provides much of its charm. And in this early manuscript Pym introduced character types she would develop more fully later in her career...A funny and fast-moving book, Crampton Hodnet will delight Pym lovers as well as provide an enlightening introduction for those unfamiliar with an author who has been compared by many with Jane Austen. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews

Check Availability

Republican Gomorrah - Max Blumenthal

Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party - Blumenthal, Max

Summary: An intimate, investigative portrait of how the purveyors of the politics of personal crisis and redemption brought down the GOP--and why they're still calling the shots for the party. Offers a look at the powerful players, such as Karl Rove and Howard Ahmanson, and the political and personal problems they have dealt with that will impact the future of the Republican Party in a post-Bush world.


Book News Review
In this book, journalist Blumenthal suggests that recent scandals involving prominent right-wing politicians are no accident. Instead, he suggests, they are evidence for the accuracy of social psychologist Erich Fromm's theory that the sexual and moral anxieties of fear-ridden people make them more susceptible to the appeal of authoritarian belief systems. Based on extensive interviews with right-wing leaders and activists, Blumenthal's book succeeds at being more than a lurid accounting of sexual escapades and immoral behavior, clearly showing how "the personal is political" in a way that the coiner of that phrase probably never intended. This book will appeal to readers interested in current U.S. politics

Check Availability

The Boys in the Boat - Daniel Brown

The Boys in the Boat : Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Brown, Daniel

Summary: Traces the story of an American rowing team from the University of Washington that defeated elite rivals at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics, sharing the experiences of their enigmatic coach, a visionary boat builder, and a homeless teen rower.



Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* If Jesse Owens is rightfully the most famous American athlete of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, repudiating Adolf Hitler's notion of white supremacy by winning gold in four events, the gold-medal-winning effort by the eight-man rowing team from the University of Washington remains a remarkable story. It encompasses the convergence of transcendent British boatmaker George Pocock; the quiet yet deadly effective UW men's varsity coach, Al Ulbrickson; and an unlikely gaggle of young rowers who would shine as freshmen, then grow up together, a rough-and-tumble bunch, writes Brown, not very worldly, but earnest and used to hard work. Brown (Under a Flaming Sky, 2006) takes enough time to profile the principals in this story while using the 1936 games and Hitler's heavy financial and political investment in them to pull the narrative along. In doing so, he offers a vivid picture of the socioeconomic landscape of 1930s America (brutal), the relentlessly demanding effort required of an Olympic-level rower, the exquisite brainpower and materials that go into making a first-rate boat, and the wiles of a coach who somehow found a way to, first, beat archrival University of California, then conquer a national field of qualifiers, and finally, defeat the best rowing teams in the world. A book that informs as it inspires. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

The Caliph's House - Tahir Shah

The Caliph's House - Shah, Tahir

Summary: An English travel writer and author of Sorcerer's Apprentice describes his and his family's experiences after purchasing a rundown palace in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, as they work to renovate the house, exorcise the jinns--mischievous invisible spirits--haunting the structure, and cope with the house's human guardians. (Baker & Taylor)


Booklist Reviews
Afghan writer Shah uproots his family from the comforts of London and moves to Casablanca. There he purchases not just any house but the abandoned residence of the caliph. Undeterred by suicide bombers, jinns, and innumerable job applicants, Shah installs his family in the decrepit house and begins to restore its walls, its gardens, and its fountains. Reconstructing the house immerses Shah in Moroccan everyday life. He has to deal with plagues of rats, swarms of bees, and the ever-threatening prospect of organized crime. Shah's picture of Moroccan society, its deeply held Islamic faith, its primitive superstition, and its raucous economy makes for endlessly fascinating reading. Particularly telling is his encounter with the realities of Ramadan, which seems to bring out both the best and worst in people's characters. Shah is cautious not to judge a society different from Western expectations, and he never makes fun of the odd characters who pepper his narrative. Shah's own heritage as both Afghan and Briton blesses him with a unique and penetrating point of view.

Check Availability

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged - Rand, Ayn

Summary: The decisions of a few industrial leaders shake the roots of capitalism and reawaken man's awareness of himself as an heroic being.




Check Availability

Sweet Paul eat & make - Paul Lowe

Sweet Paul eat & make: charming recipes and kitchen crafts you will love - Lowe, Paul

Summary: "It began as a little blog highlighting the recipes and crafts of the Norwegian-born food and prop stylist Paul Lowe. Six years later, Sweet Paul is an online magazine followed by millions and a print quarterly sold nationwide in specialty stores. Praised by the New York Times as " a trove of seasonal delights," it is turning heads with its easy, elegant food and style-setting aesthetic.Divided into Morning, Brunch, Noon, and Night, with color palettes to match, Sweet Paul Eat and Make includes breakfast dishes like Morning Biscuits with Cheddar, Dill, and Pumpkin Seeds and brunches like Smoked Salmon Hash with Scallions, Dill, and Eggs. For lunch, there's a super-quick Risotto with Asparagus, and for dinner, Maple-Roasted Chicken and a stunning Norwegian specialty, World's Best Cake. Rustically chic craft projects--paper flowers made out of coffee filters, a vegetable-dyed tablecloth, and a trivet from wooden clothespins--will captivate even those who are all thumbs"-- Provided by publisher.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
Fans of the magazine Sweet Paul and its blog will delight in the long-awaited cookbook by creator Lowe, Oslo-born food and craft stylist. Home cooks who love both kitchen couture and innovative simple cuisine now have a cookbook to "sweeten their everyday life." Chapters, organized by time of day (Morning, Brunch, Noon, and Night) are divided into Eat and Make sections. Lowe's love of breakfast/brunch foods is reflected in over 20 hearty start-the-day recipes. Variations on pancakes, French toast, eggs, and biscuits abound including a Breakfast Polenta with Hazelnuts, Honey, and Pears. Morning Tart with Broccoli, Goat cheese, and Smoked Salmon, a dilly, seafood Skagen Salad, and Mormor's Fish Pie are Scandinavian-inspired dishes honoring Lowe's Norwegian aunt and grandmother. Recipes also include pasta, beef bourguignon, meatballs, roasted vegetable shepherd's pie, and desserts featuring tarts, cakes, and a pavlova with vanilla cream and blackberries. Lowe, whose motto advocates "chasing the sweet things in life," presents in stunning images both a collection of easy projects such as bent-fork bookends, clay-ring egg cups, and hand-painted table runners side-by-side with delicious recipes. When it comes to creating a homey and fashionable kitchen table, Lowe proves that the combination of whisk and glue gun adds a touch of charm to everyone's kitchen. (Apr.)

Check Availability

The sense and sensiblity screenplay & diaries - Emma Thompson

The sense and sensiblity screenplay & diaries: bringing Jane Austen's novel to film - Thompson, Emma

Summary: This engaging and beautiful book includes the complete Academy Award-winning script and Thompson's own diaries detailing the production of the film, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic as "vivid, funny, and gamy." 88 photos including 36 in color. - (Norton Pub)


Reviews
A rare treat for those interested in the process of developing a first-rate movie from a classic novel. -- Ellen Myrick, Book Page

Grandly entertaining... Emma Thompson proves as crisp and indispensably clever a screenwriter as she is a leading lady. -- Janet Maslin, The New York Times

[A] fascinating journal of making the film. -- Jack Kroll, Newsweek

Check Availability

The dinner party - Judy Chicago

The dinner party: restoring women to history - Chicago, Judy

Summary: "The official publication celebrating Judy Chicago's feminist art masterpiece, The Dinner Party installation at the Brooklyn Museum, and an introduction to outstanding women in history... The Dinner Party, a monumental triangular table, and the Heritage Floor on which the table rests, represents 1,038 women in history--39 by unique large ceramic plates and runners with another 999 names inscribed on the floor's ceramic tiles. It has been seen by more than a million visitors during its international exhibition tour, and has been a principal destination at the Brooklyn Museum since its permanent housing in 2007. A perfect companion to a revolutionary artwork, the book is a must-have for both long-standing fans of Judy Chicago's oeuvre and young artists and women looking for reflections of themselves in the history of Western Civilization."--www.Amazon.com.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
When noted feminist artist Chicago was an undergrad, one of her history professors declared: "Women's contributions to European intellectual history? They made none." As she explains in the introduction to the first book to represent her groundbreaking mixed-media installation "The Dinner Party" (1974-79), this comment inspired her to create an alternative history of women's cultural, political, and scholarly achievements. Consisting of 39 handmade place settings, celebrating notable women from the primordial goddess to Georgia O'Keefe, the installation has been permanent housed in the Brooklyn Museum's Sackler Center for Feminist Art since 2007. Chicago describes the work's genesis, evolution, its collective nature, problematic exhibition history, and public impact. Organized to mirror the exhibition, each section is divided into four chronological wings, rather than chapters, and includes a short description of the woman represented and a photograph of her plate and place setting. Surrounding the photographs are summaries of the other women whose 999 names are inscribed on the ceramic tile floor ("Heritage Floor") on which the triangular table rests. Many of the plates photograph well, particularly those for Sappho and Virginia Woolf, and handmade runners are spectacular. In this volume, published to coincide with her 75th birthday and including a foreword by Brooklyn Museum director Arnold L. Lehman, and essays by Frances Borzello and Jane F. Gerhard, Chicago offers a vibrant visual and textual encyclopedia of female achievement. 100 color illus. (Apr.)

Check Availability

I carry your heart with me - e.e. cummings

I carry your heart with me - Cummings, E.E.

Summary: "I Carry Your Heart With Me is a children's adaptation of the beloved E. E. Cummings poem, beautifully illustrated by Mati Rose McDonough. Showing the strong bond of love between mother and child, within nature and throughout life, Cummings' heartfelt words expressed through McDonough's lovely illustrations combine to create a fresh, yet classic, portrayal of love."--www.Amazon.com.

Publishers Weekly Reviews
In her first children's book, artist McDonough imagines the mother-child relationship as the centerpiece for the e.e. cummings love poem "," written using its original format and punctuation. In serene mixed-media collages, a mother with soulful eyes, rosy cheeks, and her hair in a short, black bob accompanies her daughter through the early stages of her young life, from infancy to her daughter's first excursion into the world on her own. Tucked within a cozy nest or seen flying overhead, a cut-paper mother bird and its offspring mimic the mother and child during their bonding moments, as do two whimsical paper elephants, scrawled in cursive ink and newsprint. Decorative hearts, leaves, water motifs, and assorted fabrics are also integrated throughout, complementing rather than overwhelming McDonough's rich, solid colors. The message of growth, nurturing, and boundless love will reach readers, while Cummings's emotional and succinct verse stands autonomously: "and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant/ and whatever a sun will always sing is you." Ages 2–6. (Apr.)

Check Availability

The big book of slumber - Giovanna Zoboli

The big book of slumber - Zoboli, Giovanna

Summary: "All creatures of the world find time to rest. In this lullaby book, countless cozy animals settle down in their beds"-- Provided by publisher.

School Library Journal Reviews
PreS—This quiet bedtime story told in rhyming couplets reveals a wide range of fish, birds, insects, rodents, and other animals as they sleep. "Hushaby, hushaby, such comfy beds./All of these creatures are resting their heads." With a mix of indoor furniture and outdoor leaves, flowers, and trees, the book imparts a dreamlike state, appropriate to its peaceful topic. Couches, chairs, and even the ground are shown to be suitable places for repose, through images that depict animals of all kinds, from seals settled in treetop beds to a mouse, a mole, and a spider asleep in the cellar to a bird resting in a hammock. The large, ingenuous illustrations, done in paint and collage, have a naive, folklike quality. Bold patterns, including stripes, checks, patchwork, blossoms, and vines, decorate every page while still maintaining a soothing atmosphere. This title exudes tranquility and has the ability to calm a restless child at bedtime.—Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI

Check Availability

Sparky! - Jenny Offill

Sparky! - Offill, Jenny

Summary: A child takes a sloth named Sparky as a pet.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Here's how it starts:"I wanted a pet." The narrator's mother agrees, "as long as it doesn't need to be walked, bathed or fed." A librarian helps narrow her choices to a field of one: "Sloths are the laziest animal in the world." After its arrival, our narrator hopefully names her sloth Sparky, but alas, he is as described in books. Sparky's owner doesn't mind too much until provoked by überachiever Mary Potts, who informs her that not only does she have a cat that dances but also a parrot that knows 20 words. What's a sloth owner to do? Put on a show, promising "countless tricks" from Sparky! One of the wonderful things about this book is that there is no surprise ending. A sloth is a sloth. The show is as deadly dull as one would—or should—expect. But from that sad little event comes a moment of love so pure and elemental that it will affect readers of all ages. Offill and Appelhans have created quite a perfect package. The text is spare yet amusing and full of important messages presented in the most subtle of ways. Appelhans, whose career up to now has been in animated films such as Coraline, is a revelation. The enticing watercolor-and-pencil art, mostly in soft shades of browns and burgundies and featuring the artist's hand lettering, captures a range of emotions, at least from the humans. Furry, flat-nosed Sparky, on the other hand, just is, and that, as it turns out, is enough. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

1913 - Florian Illies

1913: the year before the storm - Illies, Florian

Summary: A month-by-month history of the year 1913, chronicling the important cultural and political events that took place.

Library Journal Reviews
Although some in Europe were superstitious that 1913 would be an unlucky year, it proved to be one of change, possibility, and progress. German journalist Illies vividly re-creates Western society before the war by constructing a month-by-month narrative made up of quirky snippets about happenings of all sorts—cultural, technological, biographical. In some ways it was a world brimming with newness and optimism—modern art was emerging, geothermia was being discovered, a drug later nicknamed "ecstasy" was synthesized, Detroit rolled out its first assembly line, and the Federal Reserve was founded. Geniuses abounded: Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud, and D.H. Lawrence. Albert Schweitzer was planning to visit Africa. While culture takes center stage in this microhistory, readers are also alerted to portents of political trouble: Stalin was in Vienna, soon to meet Trotsky, while Hitler was painting watercolors and looking for his big break. Some, such as Rudolf Steiner, felt that "the war keeps threatening to come." Others were sure it could not happen. The rich range of subjects, the vibrancy of the writing, here translated by Whiteside and Searle, and the intimate details of the biographies all make this a fast-paced and engrossing read. VERDICT For general readers interested in history, art, culture, and literature. Highly recommended.—Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ

Check Availability

Neptune's inferno - James D Hornfischer

Neptune's inferno - Hornfischer, James D

Summary: Draws on interviews with veterans and primary sources to present a narrative account of the pivotal World War II campaign, chronicling the three-month effort to gain control of Guadalcanal as a battle that taught the U.S. Navy and Marines new approaches to warfare.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Hornfischer's third outstanding book on the U.S. Navy's surface forces in WWII will have a ready-made audience because its subject is the naval side of the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. The campaign began when marines landed on that deservedly unfrequented island to halt the creation of a Japanese airbase that might threaten U.S. communications with Australia. The Japanese riposte inflicted a disaster on the U.S. Navy second only to Pearl Harbor, called the Battle of Savo Island. Over the next few months, the two navies went at each other hammer and tongs in what was probably the most intense naval campaign of the war. The Japanese had an ace up their sleeve in the Long Lance torpedo, the best in the world. The U.S. eventually counterbalanced the Japanese by learning (all too slowly) to use radar-directed gunfire to take back the night seas. The author offers balanced assessments of the leaders on both sides, but the real heroes are the American bluejackets, who too often paid with suffering and death for those leaders' slowness to learn. And as in his first two books, the author's narrative gifts and excellent choice of detail give an almost Homeric quality to the men who met on the sea in steel titans. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Super sad true love story - Gary Shteyngart

Super sad true love story - Shteyngart, Gary

Summary: A dark tale of America's dysfunctional coming years, and of the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Credit Poles display your financial worth as you hurry by, clutching your äppärät, a diabolical gadget that monitors your biochemistry while streaming torrents of acronym-infested babble and rating the sex appeal of everyone in sight. New Yorker Lenny Abramov, the stubbornly romantic son of flinty Russian Jewish immigrants, works for Post-Human Services, a life-extension venture. He is madly in love with young, hip, and unhappy Eunice Park, who is far more concerned about online shopping and her dysfunctional Korean immigrant family. As Lenny records his feelings in an actual diary, and Eunice confides in her best friend via e-mails, their personal worries are amplified by aggressively raunchy, reductive, and judgmental social media and dwarfed by the Rupture, America's collapse into ineptness, chaos, and tyranny as China backs American currency, the war with Venezuela escalates, and poor people live in Central Park. All Lenny wants is to make Eunice happy, but everything undermines him, from his age––at 39 he's considered decrepit—to his taboo passion for books. Full-tilt and fulminating satirist Shteyngart (Absurdistan, 2006) is mordant, gleeful, and embracive as he funnels today's follies and atrocities into a devilishly hilarious, soul-shriveling, and all-too plausible vision of a ruthless and crass digital dystopia in which techno-addled humans are still humbled by love and death. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

But enough about you - Christopher Buckley

But enough about you - Buckley, Christopher

Summary: "In his first book of essays since his 1997 bestseller, Wry Martinis, Buckley delivers a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing. Tackling subjects ranging from 'How to Teach Your Four-Year-Old to Ski' to 'A Short History of the Bug Zapper,' and 'The Art of Sacking' to literary friendships with Joseph Heller and Christopher Hitchens, he is at once a humorous storyteller, astute cultural critic, adventurous traveler, and irreverent historian."--www.Amazon.com.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* This collection of Buckley's (They Eat Puppies, Don't They?, 2012) essays perfectly showcases and draws upon his many writerly voices. Whether he is humorist, vice-presidential speechwriter, political satirist, novelist, author, editor, essayist, travel writer, critic, or eulogist (sounds like he can't hold a job, doesn't it?), one thing Buckley always is is entertaining. That's at the very least, and these are among his very best efforts. Whether he is waxing sentimental over memories of Thanksgivings past, lamenting the price of cedar nuggets (you have to read it), eulogizing his longtime friend Christopher Hitchens, or practicing the art of name-dropping—which he can legitimately do with characteristic aplomb—he makes his topic worthy of his reader's complete focus. His thoughts are pithy, trenchant, and perspicacious, and for all that, his essays are seasoned with a light dusting of self-deprecation, the secret to this book's exceptional charm. What's more, these assembled pieces are sublimely addicting. To paraphrase a ubiquitous snack slogan, bet you can't read just one! Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell

David and Goliath: underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants - Gladwell, Malcolm

Summary: Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology and an array of unforgettable characters around the world, the author of The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers looks at the complex and surprising ways in which the weak can defeat the strong, how the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success.

Booklist Reviews
*Starred Review* Gladwell's best-sellers, such as The Tipping Point (2000) and Outliers (2008), have changed the way we think about sociological changes and the factors that contribute to high levels of success. Here he examines and challenges our concepts of "advantage" and "disadvantage" in a way that may seem intuitive to some and surprising to others. Beginning with the classic tale of David and Goliath and moving through history with figures such as Lawrence of Arabia and Martin Luther King Jr., Gladwell shows how, time and again, players labeled "underdog" use that status to their advantage and prevail through the elements of cunning and surprise. He also shows how certain academic "advantages," such as getting into an Ivy League school, have downsides, in that being a "big fish in a small pond" at a less prestigious school can lead to greater confidence and a better chance of success in later life. Gladwell even promotes the idea of a "desirable difficulty," such as dyslexia, a learning disability that causes much frustration for reading students but, at the same time, may force them to develop better listening and creative problem-solving skills. As usual, Gladwell presents his research in a fresh and easy-to-understand context, and he may have coined the catchphrase of the decade, "Use what you got." Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

On writing - Stephen King

On writing: a memoir of the craft - King, Stephen

Summary: The author shares his insights into the craft of writing and offers a humorous perspective on his own experience as a writer. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
King could write a phone book and make it not only a best-seller but also gripping reading. So expect his fiction-writing how-to to be a megahit that reaches plenty of readers besides wanna-be novelists. It is riveting, thanks to King's customary flair for the vernacular and conversational tone, and to the fact that he flanks his advice with two memoirs, the latter recalling his near-fatal 1999 stint as the victim of a bad driver. The first memoir, "C.V.," concentrates on his life as a writer, which began in childhood. It took some time to publish for money, but ever since Carrie garnered $400,000 for paperback rights, he has been the Stephen King. He loves to write, though he emphasizes it is far more work than play. Loving it is essential, though, and having a good "toolbox," full of vocabulary, grammar, and the usage and mechanics prescribed by Strunk and White's perdurable Elements of Style, is next most important. It is invaluable to read a lot, and the key to novel writing is following the story--not a plot that can be charted or outlined, but the developments natural for the characters, given the situation they are in. For himself, King says, good health and a good marriage have been crucial, never more so than during his recovery from the accident. Good advice and a good, ordinary life, relayed in spunky, vivid prose, are the prime ingredients of what must be considered not at all the usual writer's guide. ((Reviewed July 2000)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

Check Availability

Still Alice - Lisa Genova

Still Alice - Lisa Genova

Summary: Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her life as her concept of self gradually slips away. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews
In a highly readable form of bibliotherapy, first-time novelist Genova, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, meticulously traces the downward spiral of a woman suffering from early-onset Alzheimer s disease. In September of 2003, 50-year-old Alice Howland leads a very busy, productive life as a psychology professor at Harvard, the spouse of a biology professor, and the mother of two grown daughters. But a series of memory problems, ranging from forgetting where she put her Blackberry to becoming disoriented on her daily run, sends her to the doctor. She learns that she is suffering from Alzheimer s, and the subsequent months and years see a steady decline in her abilities. By September of 2005, the accomplished professional can barely remember her own daughters names. Still Alice, however, is far from bleak as it depicts both the unalterable course of the disease and the various ways family members can cope with it. Clearly explaining the testing, treatment options, and symptoms of the disease within the context of an absorbing family drama, Genova has written an ideal primer for anyone touched by Alzheimer s. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

Hidden - Loïc Dauvillier

Hidden: a child's story of the Holocaust - Dauvillier, Loïc

Summary: "A grandmother shares the story of her experiences in WWII with her grandchild in this graphic novel for young readers"-- Provided by publisher.

Booklist Reviews
Worried that her grandmother has had a nightmare, a young girl offers to listen to the story, hoping to ease her grandmother's mind. And for the first time since her own childhood, the grandmother opens up about her life during WWII, the star she had to wear, the disappearance of her parents, and being sent to the country where she had to lie about her name and her beliefs. Every year, more stories set during the Holocaust are released, many for children, and this one is particularly well done. Dauvillier doesn't sugarcoat the horrors of the Holocaust; instead, he shares them from the perspective of a girl young enough to not quite understand the true scope of the atrocities. Set in occupied France, the story told is honest and direct, and each scene is revealed with care. The frankness of the storytelling is tempered by appealing cartoonlike illustrations that complement the story and add a layer of emotion not found in the narration. A Holocaust experience told as a bedtime story? It sounds crazy, but here it works. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Check Availability

The adventures of Beekle - Dan Santat

The adventures of Beekle - Santat, Dan

Summary: An imaginary friend waits a long time to be imagined by a child and given a special name, and finally does the unimaginable--he sets out on a quest to find his perfect match in the real world.

Kirkus Reviews
If an imaginary friend is unimagined, does it become a real friend? Beekle (a crowned white gumdrop of lovable cuteness) lives on a fantastic island with other creatures "waiting to be imagined by a real child." After seeing his companions leave, one by one, Beekle loses faith that he will ever "be picked and given a special name," and so he does "the unimaginable" and ventures forth to find his friend. Upon arriving at a port city, he observes adults going about their daily lives in monochrome, dingy settings that lack any spark of color or vitality. Perspectives that often isolate the tiny Beekle in corners or surround him with large figures accentuate his loneliness. Everything changes when he arrives at a playground awash in color and sees children playing with their imaginary friends—many of whom had been on his island. But even here, he still cannot find his special friend. Feeling sad, he climbs a tree, and from his perch, he hears a voice calling to him. Lo and behold, he meets his special friend, Alice. She's imagined him after all, as evidenced by the picture he retrieves for her, which is of himself handing her a picture. In a delightful comic sequence, the pair become acquainted, and "[t]he world began to feel a little less strange." Welcome, Beekle. It's nice to know you. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

Check Availability

Aunt Julia and the scriptwriter - Mario Vargas Llosa

Aunt Julia and the scriptwriter - Vargas Llosa, Mario

Mario falls in love with and marries his Aunt Julia, scandalizing the town, while Mario's friend Pedro becomes more and more obsessed with the soap operas he writes - (Baker & Taylor)

Mario Vargas Llosa's brilliant, multilayered novel is set in the Lima, Peru, of the author's youth, where a young student named Marito is toiling away in the news department of a local radio station. His young life is disrupted by two arrivals.

The first is his aunt Julia, recently divorced and thirteen years older, with whom he begins a secret affair. The second is a manic radio scriptwriter named Pedro Camacho, whose racy, vituperative soap operas are holding the city's listeners in thrall. Pedro chooses young Marito to be his confidant as he slowly goes insane.

Interweaving the story of Marito's life with the ever-more-fevered tales of Pedro Camacho, Vargas Llosa's novel is hilarious, mischievous, and masterful, a classic named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review.

Check Availability