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Staff Recommendations
*click on a title for more information or to place the book on hold
~AUGUST 2010~
Aline Recommends:
- Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin (juvenile fiction)
Jason Blake is an autistic 12-year-old living in a neurotypical world.Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does.
- Who Owns the World: the Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet by Kevin Cahill (adult non-fiction)
You don't have to be a student of geography or cartography to have an interest in the world around you, especially with globalization making our planet seem smaller than ever. Now you can IM someone in Alaska, purchase coffee beans from Timor-Leste, and visit Dubai. But what do we really know about these lands? WHO OWNS THE WORLD presents the results of the first-ever landownership survey of all 197 states and 66 territories of the world, and reveals facts both startling and eye-opening.
- If I am Missing or Dead: a Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation by Janine Latus (adult non-fiction)
At age 37, Janine Latus's younger sister, Amy, was strangled to death by her live-in boyfriend, bundled in a plastic tarp and buried beside a remote country road. It was a wretched end to a too-short life, one frequently marked by disappointment, sadness and struggle. Part memoir, part biography, the book explores Latus's own relationships with abusive men—and her eventual emancipation from a marriage riven by emotional and physical violence.
Brenda Recommends:
- Going it Alone by Clare Dowling (adult fiction)
A hilarious and romantic novel about marriage, motherhood and mid-life crises. Millies biological clock has been ticking for some time, and on the eve of her fortieth birthday the alarm bell starts ringing. She needs to have a baby and fast, but after months of fruitless trying, her husband Andrew is feeling like a walking sperm bank and their marriage is in crisis. Matters come to a head when Andrews job relocates to London and Millie decides that if he wont stick around to get her pregnant, then shell do it without him. Setting her sights on Spain, Millie embarks on a voyage of discovery.
- The Girl from Botany Bay by Carolly Erickson (adult non-fiction)
Veteran biographer Erickson (Great Harry, etc.) focuses on Mary Broad, who was arrested for robbery in 1786 and transported in sordid conditions to the new penal colony in Australia. But the book is, more generally, a stark and fascinating account of what prisoners endured: in England, where harsh laws protected property in an era of unsettling social change; on board ship; and in the penal colonies themselves, where the convicts and their guards carved a bleak existence out of the inhospitable environment.
- Alive! the Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read (adult non-fiction)
On October 12, 1972, an Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes. Ten weeks later, only sixteen of the forty-five passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks spent in the shelter of the plane's fuselage without food and with scarcely any hope of a rescue. The survivors protected and helped one another, and came to the difficult conclusion that to live meant doing the unimaginable. Confronting nature at its most furious, two brave young men risked their lives to hike through the mountains looking for help -- and ultimately found it.
- The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan (adult non-fiction)
Married to a man with violent tendencies and a severe drinking problem, Evelyn Ryan managed to keep her 10 children fed and housed during the 1950s and '60s by entering--and winning--contests for rhymed jingles and advertising slogans of 25-words-or-less.
Caleigh Recommends:
- Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson (adult fiction)
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.
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson (picture book)
This tale based on a true story about a charming penguin family living in New York City's Central Park Zoo will capture the hearts of penguin lovers everywhere. Roy and Silo, two male penguins, are "a little bit different." They cuddle and share a nest like the other penguin couples, and when all the others start hatching eggs, they want to be parents, too. Determined and hopeful, they bring an egg-shaped rock back to their nest and proceed to start caring for it. They have little luck, until a watchful zookeeper decides they deserve a chance at having their own family and gives them an egg in need of nurturing.
- Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (adult fiction)
Cannie Shapiro is in her late twenties, funny, independent, and a talented reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. After a "temporary" break-up with her boyfriend of three years, she reads his debut column, "Good in Bed," in the women's magazine Moxie. Titled "Loving a Larger Woman," this very personal piece triggers events that completely transform her and those around her. Cannie's adventures will strike a chord with all young women struggling to find their place in the world, especially those larger than a size eight.
- The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir (adult fiction)
This tale chronicles the life of Elizabeth I from her early childhood to her coronation, through the final years of her father, Henry VIII, and the brief reigns of her siblings, Edward VI and Queen Mary. Renowned for her "mercurial temperament" and "formidable intelligence," in Weir's account Elizabeth spends her childhood shuttling between royal estates and preparing for life as a "great lady" after she is stripped of her position as successor to the British throne following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn. As Elizabeth grows, her progressive views on women's roles, religion, and politics take shape-including her legendary vow never to marry, forged through observation of others' relationships as well as a painful first-hand brush with romance at age fourteen.
Elvina Recommends:
- Triumph: Life After the Cult--a Survivor's Lessons by Carolyn Jessop (adult non-fiction)
After escaping the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints community with her eight children, Jessop filed for and won unprecedented sole custody of her children and has just successfully sued her ex-husband for child support. In "Triumph", Jessop updates the audiences about the details of her life after the raid, including how she coped with her daughters return to FLDS and the damaging misinformation about the sect that flooded the media, and draws on her experiences to spell out the tools of transformation that are available to anyone.
- The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (adult fiction)
Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief - due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, and he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family's future.
Kelly Recommends:
- Chocolate, the Consuming Passion by Sandra Boynton (non-fiction) Packed with Boynton's famous hippos, bunnies, pigs, and other animals, this book is a whimsical commentary on the individual's relationship to chocolate, its varieties, and its sources.
- I Don't Care if We're Not There Yet: the Backseat Boredom Buster by Joanne O'Sullivan (adult non-fiction)
Children love being on vacation or visiting friends and family—it’s just the boring hours traveling on the plane, train, bus, or automobile that they hate. But even long journeys will fly by with this jam-packed collection of activities. In fact, it will keep kids so busy they won’t even care when they get there! All kinds of puzzles, personality quizzes, brainteasers, writing and drawing prompts, and word and board games entertain a single kid or a large group.
- Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World by Jill Rigby (adult non-fiction)
"In this age of overindulgence and underparenting, Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World gives sound advice that will transform your family. With courage and conviction, Jill Rigby debunks many of the conventional beliefs in child rearing, replacing them with the wisdom of experience."Dr. Kevin Leman -- Author, Making Children Mind without Losing Yours
- Sand for Snow: a Caribbean-Canadian Chronicle by Robert Sandiford (adult biography)
Robert Edison Sandiford moved from Canada to his parents' native Barbados in 1996. He went for 'wife and work '-his new bride was a Bajan, and he had landed an editor's position at the leading daily newspaper. Yet his journey 'Back Home' also led to a series of insightful and often poignant meditations on relationships, island life, and the decline of his father, diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease twelve years earlier.
Lara Recommends:
- Small Beneath the Sky: a Prairie Memoir by Lorna Crozier (adult non-fiction) A volume of poignant recollections by one of Canada's most celebrated poets, "Small Beneath the Sky" is a tender, unsparing portrait of a family and a place.
- The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich (adult fiction)
On a spring morning in 1932, young Karl and Mary Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus, North Dakota. After being orphaned in a most peculiar way, they seek refuge in the butcher shop of their aunt Fritzie and her husband, Pete; ordinary Mary, who will cause a miracle, and seductive Karl, who lacks his sister's gift for survival, embark upon an exhilarating life-journey crowded with colorful, unforgettable characters and marked by the extraordinary magic of natural events.
- Perfection: a Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz (adult non-fiction)
Perfection is the story of Julie Metz's journey through chaos and transformation as she creates a different life for herself and her young daughter. It is the story of coming to terms with painful truths, of rebuilding both a life and an identity after betrayal and widowhood. It is a story of rebirth and happiness--if not perfection.
- Whitewater Cooks: Pure, Simple, and Real Creations from the Fresh Tracks Cafe by Shelley Adams (adult non-fiction)
Whitewater Resort in the Canadian Rockies is renowned for its spectacular scenery, deep snow and Fresh Tracks Café. Despite constant pleading from customers, recipes for dishes made famous there were as unattainable as snowflakes in July. Even the café staff was sworn to secrecy. Now, Whitewater Cooks opens the kitchen doors.
Mary Recommends:
- Caught by Harlan Coben (adult fiction)
Dan Mercer stands accused of being a sexual predator thanks to the ambush journalism of Wendy Tynes, a tabloid TV reporter, who must cope with her husband's death caused by a drunken driver as well as reckon with the possibility of Mercer's innocence. When Tynes finds a link between a father of one of Mercer's alleged victims and others felled by scandal, she could become a killer's next victim.
- The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron (adult fiction)
Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find a message from his estranged father on his answering machine. The next day he receives word that his father has escaped custody and is wanted for killing a beloved local police officer. Teaming up with a retired pilot, Mike heads deep into the Maine wilderness to track down his father and find the real killer, before everything he loves winds up in the line of fire.
- This is Your Song, Lola Rose by Donna Hay (adult fiction)
Lola Rose Lambert's life changes on the day of her father's funeral. She isn't sorry that Eddie Lambert is dead. The outside world might have seen him as a solid, genial family man, but to her he was a bully who made her mother's life a misery until the day she died. She and her father have barely spoken since then. And Lola finds out why when, after the funeral, an embittered relative reveals a dark family secret.
Melissa Recommends :
- I am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby (adult biography)
In 1969, Mary-Ann Kirkby’s parents did the unthinkable. They left a Hutterite colony near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with seven children and little else, to start a new life. Overnight, the family was thrust into a society they did not understand and which knew little of their unique culture. The transition was overwhelming. I Am Hutterite takes you inside Fairholme Colony, where Kirkby spent the first ten years of her life. Her detailed portrait of Hutterian people opens a window on a closedcommunity and reveals a way of life that seems extraordinary to the outside world.
Pat Recommends:
- Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy by Jane Christmas (adult non-fiction)
To smooth over five decades of constant clashing, Christmas takes her arthritic, incontinent, and domineering mother, Valeria on a tour of Italy.
Neither has been to Italy before, but both are fans of ancient art, architecture, and history. Will gazing at the fruits of the Italian Renaissance be enough to spark a renaissance in their relationship?
- Shogun by James Clavell (adult fiction)
A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power.
- A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto (adult fiction)
Set on the border between South Africa and an unnamed country, A Blade of Grass is the taut story of two women, one white and one black, who struggle to save their farm and, ultimately, their lives.
- Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey (adult fiction)
It is the Fifties in an isolated outport in Newfoundland. Nothing penetrates this antiquated existence, as television, telephones, cars, even roads, elude the villagers and the only visitors are fog-bound fishermen. Here, outside of Haire's Hollow, lives 14-year old Kit Pitman with her mentally handicapped mother Josie — both women cared for and protected by the indomitable Lizzie, Kit's grandmother. The three live a life of some hardship, but much love, punctuated by the change of seasons in the isolated gully where they live.
Tessa Recommends:
- Voodoo River by Robert Crais (adult fiction)
On a trip to Louisiana in order to locate the biological parents of a popular television actress, private eye Elvis Cole runs into more than he bargained for, including a cast of memorable characters.
- The Allergy Bible: the Conventional and Alternative Guide to Understanding, Avoiding, and Treating Allergies by Linda Gamlin (adult non-fiction)
The Allergy Bible is the only illustrated guide to demystify the whole subject, giving the most up-to-date information in an approachable form for everyone whose life is affected by allergy.
- The Widening Gyre by Robert B. Parker (adult fiction)
The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her "i's" with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs--a problem someone has managed to put on videotape. The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate's bandwagon.
But getting back the tape of the lady's X-rated indiscretion is a nonstop express ride to trouble--trouble that is deep, wide and deadly.
Whitney Recommends :
- Heist Society by Ally Carter (youth fiction)
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.
- The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley (youth fiction)
Princess Torina, who has the ability to see the future, and her friend Landen, who seeks a sword that belongs to his conquered kingdom, are separated when a treacherous murderer gains power, but from exile each works to restore peace and the rightful rulers.
- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan (youth fiction)
Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.
~ For more Staff Recommended Reading, visit the library and check out our STAFF PICKS display! ~
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