To place any of the recommendations on hold, please click on the title. This will take you into the catalogue. You will need to log in with your library card barcode and PIN (last 4 digits of your phone number) to place your hold.

JANUARY 2012

  ADULT FICTION:

BURGLARS CAN'T BE CHOOSERS by Lawrence Block
Bernie Rhodenbarr is a personable chap, a good neighbor, a passable poker player. His chosen profession, however, might not sit well with some. Bernie is a burglar, a good one, effortlessly lifting valuables from the not-so-well-protected abodes of well-to-do New Yorkers like a modern-day Robin Hood. (The poor, as Bernie would be the first to tell you, alas, have nothing worth stealing.) He's not perfect, however; he occasionally makes mistakes. Like accepting a paid assignment from a total stranger to retrieve a particular item from a rich man's apartment. Like still being there when the cops arrive. Like having a freshly slain corpse lying in the next room, and no proof that Bernie isn't the killer. Now he's really got his hands full, having to locate the true perpetrator while somehow eluding the police -- a dirty job indeed, but if Bernie doesn't do it, who will? (Caleigh Recommends!)

RAIN GODS by James Lee Burke
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on the trail of an Iraq veteran and his girlfriend, it's up to Texas Sheriff Hackberry Holland (cousin of Billy Bob Holland) and his deputy Pam Tibbs to find them first and figure out who's behind a mass murder of illegal aliens before anyone else ends up dead. (Tessa Recommends!)

MAYBE THIS TIME by Jennifer Crusie
North Archer, Andie Miller's ex-husband, asks her to become the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already--and live in a haunted house! What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-in-law, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. (Wanda Recommends!)

PLUM ISLAND by Nelson DeMille
New York detective John Corey, recovering from bullet wounds on an island, narrates his investigation into the murder of two scientists researching biological warfare. The two, a man and his wife, also appear to have been involved in a search for a pirate treasure. By the author of The Gold Coast. (Tessa Recommends!)

ONE FOR THE MONEY by Janet Evanovich
Meet Stephanie Plum of Trenton, New Jersey. She's a rookie bail bondswoman who has the awkward habit of leaping first and looking later when she's out snagging bail jumpers. It's not a job for the faint at heart, but it's tailor-made for Plum. (Cindy Recommends!)

STILL ALICE by Lisa Genova
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer's disease. (Kelly Recommends!)

THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE by Heather Gudenkauf
Two little girls, from different families, go missing in the night. Now the families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets. (Pat Recommends!)

A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness
Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery, so she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. (Wanda Recommends!)

THE BOY by Betty Jane Hegerat
In 1959 Ray and Daisy Cook and their five children were brutally slain in their modest home in the central Alberta town of Stettler. Robert Raymond Cook, Ray Cook's son from his first marriage, was convicted of the crime, and had the infamy of becoming the last man hanged in Alberta. Forty-six years later, a troublesome character named Louise in a story that Betty Jane Hegerat finds herself inexplicably reluctant to write, becomes entangled in the childhood memory of hearing about that gruesome mass murder. Through four years of obsessively tracking the demise of the Cook family, and dancing around the fate of the fictional family, the problem that will not go away is how to bring the story to the page. A work of non-fiction about the Cooks and their infamous son, or a novel about Louise and her problem stepson? Both stories keep coming back to the boy. Part memoir, part investigation, part novella, part writer's journal, The Boy, is the author's final capitulation to telling the story with all of the troublesome questions unanswered. (Lara Recommends!)

GODS IN ALABAMA by Joshilyn Jackson
When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God : she would never again lie, never fornicate outside of marriage, and never ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama. All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found. (Caleigh Recommends!)

SECOND GRAVE ON THE LEFT by Darynda Jones
If you hang around with dead people, life can deliver a whole world of trouble. Take it from Charley Davidson, part-time P.I. and full-time Grim Reaper. The deceased find her very sparkly. Demons find her irresistible. And one entity in particular wants to seduce her in every way possible… When Charley and Cookie, her best friend slash receptionist, have to track down a missing woman, the case is not quite as open and shut as they anticipate. Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally.) has left his corporeal body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. (Wanda Recommends!)

AN AMISH CHRISTMAS by Cynthia Keller
Packing for Pennsylvania after her husband loses his job, Meg and her family suffer a car accident and are aided by an Amish family who invite them to stay for the Christmas holiday while they wait for car repairs, a situation that reveals cultural differences and the strength of family bonds. (Mary Recommends!)

LIAR, LIAR by KJ Larsen
Burned by her run-around ex-husband Johnnie Ricco, Caterina DeLuca took the skills she mastered during marriage and opened her own private eye agency. Now she's a second-story woman, armed with a camera, ready to print 8x10 glossies. The men in her big, whacko family, all Chicago cops--one a crook--aren't sure what to make of Cat's career choice. But hey, it's serve and protect! (Mary Recommends!)

THE VIRGIN CURE by Ami McKay
"I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart." So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth's father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from his wife and daughter forever, and Moth has never stopped imagining that one day they may be reunited – despite knowing in her heart what he chose over them. Her hard mother is barely making a living with her fortune-telling, sometimes for well-heeled clients, yet Moth is all too aware of how she really pays the rent. (Lara Recommends!)

THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern
A circus, titled Le Cirque des Reve, comes to town out of the blue and without warning. Within its tents, young magicians Celia and Marco compete to be the best, having done so since childhood. However, under the backdrop of their intense rivalry, a blossoming romance develops. (Wanda Recommends!)

ONE DAY by David Nicholls
Over twenty years, snapshots of an unlikely relationship are revealed on the same day--July 15th--of each year. Dex Mayhew and Em Morley face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself. (Lara Recommends!)

EXCAVATION by James Rollins
While on an expedition to Peru, archaeologist Dr. Henry Conklin discovers the remains of an ancient Incan city hidden from human eyes for centuries. This mysterious ancient territory, called Cloud Ruins, has remained undisturbed for centuries, protected by ingenious traps that only the most clever and courageous dare to manoeuvre. But something is waiting for Conklin, his nephew Sam, and their exploratory party. A thing created by Man, yet not human. (Caleigh Recommends!)

OPEN AND SHUT by David Rosenfelt
Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys' network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But Andy prefers the company of his best friend, Tara, to the people he encounters in the courtroom. Tara, a golden retriever, is clearly smarter than half the lawyers who clog the courts of Passaic County. However, just as it seems Andy has everything figured out, his dad, New Jersey's legendary ex-D.A., drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium. The shocks pile on as he discovers his dad left him with two unexpected legacies: a fortune of $22 million that Andy never knew existed . . . and a murder case with enough racial tinder to burn down City Hall. (Tessa Recommends!)

SARAH'S KEY by Tatiana de Rosnay
On the sixtieth anniversary of the 1942 roundup of Jews by the French police in the Vel d'Hiv section of Paris, American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article on this dark episode during World War II and embarks on an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah, a young girl caught up in the raid. (Aline Recommends!)

THE BEST OF ME by Nicholas Sparks
The heart-rending story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they've taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world. (Wendy Recommends!)

---

ADULT NON-FICTION:

GHOST TOWN STORIES OF THE RED COAT TRAIL by Johnnie Bachusky
The Red Coat Trail of southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta runs near the route of the North West Mounted Police's famous 1874 March West. Today, this lonely highway passes through a windswept land of ghostly abandoned towns. Johnnie Bachusky takes readers back to the heyday of these towns, which sprang up as settlers travelled west during the last great land rush. (Aline Recommends!)

THE LAST NARCO: INSODE THE HUNT FOR EL CHAPO, THE WORLD'S MOST WANTED DRUG LORD by Malcolm Beith
A courageous young journalist takes his readers deep inside the hunt for the most powerful, feared, and charismatic drug lord in the world---Mexico's Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman---and tells the full story of the drug trade over the past thirty years. (Brenda Recommends!)

CANDY CONSTRUCTION by Sharon Bowers
How to build edible race cars, castles, and other cool stuff out of store-bought candy. (Kelly Recommends!)

HEAVEN IS FOR REAL: A LITTLE BOY'S ASTOUNDING STORY OF HIS TRIP TO HEAVEN AND BACK by Todd Burpo
When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery. He talked of visiting Heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. (Wendy Recommends!)

LOVE TIMES THREE by Joe Darger
The family that was an inspiration for Big Love, writes the first-ever memoir of a polygamous family that captures the extraordinary workings of their day-to-day life and makes a strong argument for the acceptance of plural marriage. (Elvina Recommends!)

SERIOUSLY... I'M KIDDING by Ellen DeGeneres
The much-loved and hilarious entertainer riffs on many of her favourite topics, from hosting a talk show to what makes her happy. (Pat Recommends!)

A STOLEN LIFE by Jaycee Dugard
This is the memoir of Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, CA, on June 10, 1991, when she was 11-years-old, and was missing for over 18 years before her reappearance in 2009. Jaycee is writing this book on her own, without the help of a ghostwriter. Dugard approaches the book as a journalist, giving readers an intimate account in chronological order beginning with her perspective as a child, and then as an adult experiencing freedom for the first time. The result is a raw, intimate account that will shed light on her ordeal and provide inspiration with her courage and extraordinary resilience. (Aline Recommends!)

TRIUMPH OF THE CITY by Edward Glaeser
A pioneering urban economist offers fascinating, even inspiring proof that the city is humanity's greatest invention and our best hope for the future. (Wendy Recommends!)

24 WEEKEND PROJECTS FOR PETS by David Griffin
Dog houses, cat trees, rabbit hutches and more! (Caleigh Recommends!)

ZONE 22 by Tig Hague
When Tig Hague kissed goodbye to his fiancee, Lucy, he was already thinking of his return. The couple were going house-hunting, looking for their first home together. Tig was only going to be gone a few days on a routine business trip - the annual highlight of an otherwise unglamorous job working on the Russian desk of a London bank. But just hours later something went wrong at Moscow airport. Very wrong. Misunderstanding a request from customs for a backhander to speed his progress into the country, Tig was pulled to one side to have his bag searched. No more than a deliberate inconvenience, he thought. But Tig's world was about to implode with dizzying, terrifying speed. A tiny lump of hashish, nothing more than detritus from a recent stag weekend, was discovered in the pocket of an old pair of jeans. Too small to warrant anything more than a slapped wrist back home, he hadn't even known it was there. Tig was in Moscow's Piat Centrale jail by nightfall - and that was just a stepping stone on his way to a prison camp in Zone 22 of the bleak, remote wastes of Mordova. He wouldn't be returning home for years. (Brenda Recommends!)

UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand
Overnight Louie Zamperini went from athlete to Army Air Corps bombardier. This was just the beginning of an incredible odyssey of determination and survival that forced him to draw upon every resource within himself to overcome seemingly insurmountable circumstances that took him halfway around the world - and only truly began when he returned home. (Brenda Recommends!)

CYCLING HOME FROM SIBERIA by Rob Lilwall
A gripping story of endurance and adventure, this is also a spiritual journey, providing poignant insight into life on the road in some of the world's toughest corners.  (Brenda Recommends!)

FABULOUS AT FIFTY by Janet Maccaro
Janet Maccaro has just stepped over the fifty-year mark. Join her on the journey to redefine midlife as she combines personal anecdotes with extensive knowledge on such topics as how to battle weight gain, cope with exhaustion, be refreshed through sleep and aromatherapy, maintain beautiful skin, face menopausal challenges, and preserve eyesight, digestive health, and bone strength, and much more. (Kelly Recommends!)

GIANNA: ABORTED AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT by Jessica Shaver
Gianna is the incredible true story of one girl's remarkable and courageous journey from abortion survivor to steadfast defender of life. This book isn't about issues-it's about a young woman's determination to make the most of her God-given opportunities. (Elvina Recommends!)

WHAT HELPED ME THROUGH: CANCER SURVIVORS SHARE WISDOM AND HOPE edited by Julie Silver, MD
This book, edited by a breast cancer survivor, succinctly relates the experiences, both practical and sensitive, of hundreds of cancer survivors including celebrities such as Lance Armstrong, Carly Simon, and Scott Hamilton who candidly relate what helped get them through every aspect of the cancer journey. The wisdom and hope offered in this book will be invaluable to newly diagnosed patients and their families, as well as their doctors and caregivers. (Pat Recommends!)

---

YOUNG ADULT FICTION:

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. (Jane Recommends!)

ENTWINED by Heather Dixon
Confined to their dreary castle while mourning their mother's death, Princess Azalea and her eleven sisters join The Keeper, who is trapped in a magic passageway, in a nightly dance that soon becomes nightmarish. (Whitney Recommends!)

HUNTRESS by Malinta Lo
Seventeen-year-olds Kaede and Taisin are called to go on a dangerous and unprecedented journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen, in an effort to restore the balance of nature in the human world. (Whitney Recommends!)

BIRTHMARKED by Caragh O'Brien
In a future world baked dry by the sun and divided into those who live inside the wall and those who live outside it, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone is forced into a difficult choice when her parents are arrested and taken into the city. (Whitney Recommends!)

I'LL BE WATCHING by Pamela Porter
Sixteen-year-old Ran, fourteen-year-old Nora, twelve-year-old Jim, and little Addie try to make ends meet after the deaths of their mother and father in a town of people coping with the effects of the Depression and the loss of their young men to the war. (Pat Recommends!)

DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all. (Dawn Recommends!)

---

MISC:

21 - ADELE (cd)
(Cindy Recommends!)

SING IT LOUD - KD LANG AND THE SISS BOOM BANG (cd)
(Cindy Recommends!)

TO SAVE A LIFE (dvd)
High school all-star Jake Taylor has it all. Roger, his childhood best friend, has nothing. Since the two have drifted apart, Roger feels that he has no friends, no hope, and a heart full of nothing but pain. When Roger walks onto campus with a gun, the tragic move he makes will change Jake's idyllic life forever. (Kelly Recommends!)

CANADA'S HISTORY (magazine)
(Cindy Recommends!)

For more Staff Recommendations, check out our STAFF PICKS display in the library!