Thursday, December 28, 2006

January 2007


FICTION:

F ABOULELA
Aboulela, Leila, 1964-. The translator. 1st American ed. New York : [S.l.] : Black Cat ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, [2006], c1999.

Sammar, a Sudanese widow working as an Arabic translator at a Scottish University, develops a deep friendship with a secular Islamic scholar that helps her awaken to the possibility of real love, but their relationship is threatened by her lover’s lack of faith.

F ADICHIE
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 1977-. Half of a yellow sun. 1st North American ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

The lives of Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy, Olanna, the mistress of the professor the boy works for, and Richard, a Englishman in love with the woman’s sister, are endangered during the political unrest resulting from the forming of the independent nation of Biafra in Nigeria.

F AMMANITI
Ammaniti, Niccolò, 1966-. I’ll steal you away. 1st American ed. Edinburgh ; New York : Canongate, 2006.

“Ischiano Scalo. A place where even the main road out of town gives up after a couple of miles, where escape from a life of boredom and emptiness is almost impossible. Forced into crimes he never wanted to commit, 11-year-old Pietro reaches crisis point when his parents ignore his pleas for support and his schoolteacher turns her back on him - looking for help, he find instead a terrible revenge. Escape from Ischiano Scalo comes at a price. Life there will never be the same again.” Through the eyes of a desperate boy and a deluded small-town Don Juan, Niccolo Ammaniti gradually reveals his cast of misfits, lighting up the grand dreams and sad realities of ordinary people living extraordinary lives in this taut and bittersweet masterpiece.

F ANDREWS MYSTERY
Andrews, Donna. No nest for the wicket. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.

Croquet is a genteel game, usually played on a summer afternoon on a tranquil green lawn. Extreme Croquet is a whole other story. That’s what Meg Langslow and her new friends are playing on the several-acre farm of her new neighbor, a countryside studded with rocks, steep hills, and placid, seemingly immovable cows. While this society game can get quite warm, it hasn’t reached the stage of actual homicide—at least not until Meg knocks her ball down a small cliff and encounters the body of a dead woman.—From publisher description.

F ANTHONY FANTASY
Anthony, Piers. Stork naked. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
‘Stork Naked’ tells the tale of Surprise Golem, an expectant mother who has just lost her baby. In Xanth, babies are actually delivered by storks and the stork assigned to deliver Surprise’s bundle of joy has inexplicably refused to surrender it, flying off instead through a hole in the fabric of reality. Now, to track down her child, Surprise must lead an ill-assorted group of associates on a quest through dozens of different Xanths with sinister forces determined to stop them.

F ARNALDUR INDRIASON MYSTERY
Arnaldur Indriðason, 1961-. Silence of the grave. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.
In Indridason’s excellent second mystery (after 2005’s ‘Jar City’), a skeleton, buried for more than 50 years, is uncovered at a building site on the outskirts of Reykjavik. Who is it? How did he or she die? And was it murder? The police wonder, chief among them the tortured, introspective Inspector Erlendur, introduced in ‘Jar City’. While an archeologist excavates the burial site, several other narratives unfold: a horrifying story of domestic abuse set during WWII, a search for missing persons that unearths almost-forgotten family secrets involving some of the city’s most prominent citizens, and Erlendur’s own painful family story (his estranged, drug-addicted daughter is in a coma, after miscarrying her child). Publisher’s Weekly.

F ARSENAULT
Arsenault, Mark. Gravewriter. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.
Although Billy Povich and his wife had been separated at the time she was killed in a car accident, he still intended to kill the man who had been at the wheel the night of her death. A summons to jury duty for a murder trial changes his plans as he finds himself in a race against time to save all he holds dear.

F ASHFORD MYSTERY
Ashford, Lindsay Jayne. Frozen. 1st U.S. ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.
Profiler Megan Rhys has been asked to advise the police on the murders of two young prostitutes whose killers may be working together. When information provided by police doesn’t add up, Megan wonders if someone is trying to manipulate her, or if her own prejudices are coloring her judgment. After still more deaths, and a break-in at her home, other questions come to mind. Could the killer be closer than she realizes, and is she being betrayed by a member of her own family?

F ATWOOD
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939-. The tent. 1st ed. in the U.S.A. New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, c2006.
Here is a collection of illustrated fictional essays by Margaret Atwood that explore a wide range of subjects, including youth, history, Shakespeare, and orphanhood.

F BARBIERI MYSTERY
Barbieri, Maggie. Murder 101. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
English professor Alison Bergeron was not having a good day! Waking to find her car had been stolen, she had walked to the train station to get to work. Arriving at her office at St. Thomas College, she discovered two homicide detectives waiting for her. The good news: they found her car. The bad news: the body of one of her students was in the trunk. Trying to get her name off Detective Bobby Crawford’s suspect list was foremost in her thoughts as she began her own investigation.

F BARRON MYSTERY
Barron, Stephanie. Jane and the barque of frailty. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.
It’s 1811 and Jane Austen is with her brother in London awaiting the publication of her first novel. She’s distracted by the murder of a woman said to have been having an affair with Lord Castlereagh. Suspecting there’s more to the story than meets the eye, Jane’s attempt to learn the truth leads her into the heart of a conspiracy with roots in the French Revolution.

F BECKETT MYSTERY
Beckett, Simon. The chemistry of death. New York : Delacorte Press, 2006.

Three years after moving to rural Norfolk to escape his life, David Hunter if thrown back into a nightmare when the corpse of a woman is found in the woods, bringing everything David has been trying to escape back into his life and forcing him to confront a killer and the dreams that haunt him.

F BRASELTON
Braselton, Jeanne. The other side of air : a novel. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.
As Katy Doyal’s time on Earth draws to a close, she struggles to leave behind an orderly life and enlists the help of a stranger, a middle-aged free-spirit named Rose, to care for her husband, Ephraim, and after Katy’s death, Ephraim finds a sense of peace with Rose.

F BREWER
Brewer, Sonny. A sound like thunder : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.
Rove MacNee, approaching eighty, looks back on his sixteenth year, recalling the death of his grandmother, his father’s drunken rages, and the possibility that his mother was having an affair with Josef, a German neighbor who gave Rove his first boat, allowing him to escape his troubled home life.

F BROCKMANN
Brockmann, Suzanne. Into the storm : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.

A friendly competition between U.S. Navy SEALS Team Sixteen and Troubleshooters, Inc., turns serious for former lovers and operatives Mark Jenkins and Lindsey Fontaine, when receptionist Tracy Shapiro, who had been posing as a hostage during the training exercise, goes missing and evidence of a serial killer is found in the area.

F BROOKS FANTASY
Brooks, Max. World War Z : an oral history of the zombie war. 1st ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2006.

Max Brooks,son of actor Mel Brooks, chronicles the fictitious “zombie wars” that nearly decimated the human population, with first-hand accounts from people who have had a brush with the undead and facts and figures documenting how many undead currently roam the planet.

F BRUEN MYSTERY
Bruen, Ken. American skin. 1st ed. Boston : Lanham, Md. : Kate’s Mystery Books ; Distributed by National Book Network, c2006.
Stephen Blake is a good man blown in bad directions. He and girlfriend Siobhan, best friend Tommy, IRA terrorist Stapleton, and a particularly American sort of psychopath named Dade, are all on a collision course somewhere on the road between the dive bars of New York, and the pitiless desert of the Southwest. American Skin is the long-awaited American novel by Ken Bruen, the hardboiled master of Irish Noir.

F BURKE MYSTERY
Burke, Jan. Kidnapped. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.
Irene Kelly hopes the articles profiling missing children run in the local newspaper will bring in more tips and help authorities uncover the truth, but she is unprepared for the articles’ deadly backlash and teams up with one victim’s brother to try and find the children before it is too late.

F CAREY
Carey, Lisa. Every visible thing. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2006.

Five years after their oldest son, Hugh, disappeared, the members of the Furey family try to move on with their lives, with his mother losing herself in a new career, his father leaving behind his faith, and his two siblings, Owen and Lena, trying to come to terms with the loss of their brother and their own adolescent crises.

F CAROFIGLIO
Carofiglio, Gianrico, 1961-. A walk in the dark. London : Bitter Lemon, 2006.

When Martina accuses her ex-boyfriend-the son of a powerful local judge-of assault and battery, no witnesses can be persuaded to testify on her behalf, and one lawyer after another refuses to represent her. Guido Guerrieri knows the case could bring his legal career to a messy end, but he cannot resist the appeal of a hopeless cause. Nor can he deny an attraction to Sister Claudia, the young woman in charge of the shelter where Martina is living, who shares his love of martial arts and his virulent hatred of injustice.

F CARTER
Carter, Steven, 1961-. Famous writers school : a novel. New York : Counterpoint, 2006.

Famous Writers School is composed of the letters and stories of three authors who are taking a would-be correspondence course by that grandiose name, and the self-serving “lessons” that Wendell Newton, their endearingly obtuse instructor, doles out in response. Wendell’s oddball collection of students include Rio, an alluring blues singer on whom he quickly develops a crush; Linda Trane, an unhinged housewife who seems to be stalking him; and Dan, a truly talented author of hardboiled detective fiction. As Dan’s gritty mystery arrives piece by piece, Wendell gets hooked on the story, and decides to dress it up in his own style in order to pass it off as his creation. Gradually the slender threads of connection between each character become apparent, even as Wendell’s imagination careens out of control.

F CASE
Case, John. Ghost dancer : a thriller. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2007.
Having just been released from Allenwood Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, Jack Wilson is hell-bent on a return to Paradise, which to him is a destruction of Western civilization. Native American by birth, though skeptical of so-called Indian culture, he’s obsessed with the secret notebooks of Nicola Tesla and the ‘Ghost Dance’ of his namesake. Tesla claimed to have discovered a weapon of unparalleled destructiveness that would rid the earth of the white civilization. If it was real, Wilson not only wanted it, but planned to use it!

F CASEY MYSTERY
Casey, Donis. Hornswoggled : an Alafair Tucker mystery. 1st ed. Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, 2006.
Set in the prairie town of Boynton, Okla., in the spring of 1913, Casey’s nostalgic, folksy second novel to feature Alafair Tucker finds the full-time mother of 11 and part-time sleuth worried about one of her grown daughters, Alice. Alice is sweet on barber Walter Kelley, an attractive widower whom the determined and discerning Alafair mistrusts; Walter is just too popular with the ladies. Since Alice is set on having Walter, Alafair seeks distraction by investigating the unsolved murder of Louise Kelley, Walter’s late wife, whose stabbed body surfaced in a creek bordering the Tucker farm eight months earlier.

F CAULEY
Cauley, Harry. Millersburg. Sag Harbor, NY : Permanent Press, c2006.
Ben and his sister, Estella, struggle to lead normal lives under the tyrannical rule of their grandmother, Mamu, who rules the family with an iron fist, but when the family estate becomes the scene for murder, they rely on their own strengths to find the killer and protect themselves.

F CHERRYH FANTASY
Cherryh, C. J. Fortress of ice. 1st ed. New York : EOS, c2006.
Cefwyn, who is king at last, is rebuilding his kingdom following its destruction in ‘Fortress of Dragons.’ Then a new challenge arises and peace is threatened by a sinister force through his own son. It’s up to Cefwyn and his powerful friend Tristen Sihhe to unmask the dark forces that threaten Cefwyn’s reign and the tentative peace.

F CHURCH MYSTERY
Church, James. A corpse in the Koryo. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, c2006.

Inspector O is pulled into a web of betrayal and death in North Korea when he becomes the target of a government plan to eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decades-old kidnappings and murders.

F CLEGG FANTASY
Clegg, Douglas, 1958-. The lady of serpents. 1st ed. New York: Ace Books, 2006.
Aleric and his vampire companion, Ewen, become trapped in a subterranean prison and are forced to survive by drinking each other’s blood; but when they are released, they face Alienora, a powerful sorceress, determined to create her own world.

F CLEVERLY MYSTERY
Cleverly, Barbara. The bee’s kiss. 1st Carroll & Graf ed. New York : [Berkeley, Calif.] : Carroll & Graf Publishers ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2006.

Former Scotland Yard detective Joe Sandilands is called in to investigate the murder of Dame Beatrice Jagow-Joliffe and the theft of her emerald necklace, and finds himself embroiled in political intrigue when the authorities suddenly close the case and demand the return of the files.

F COEL MYSTERY
Coel, Margaret, 1937-. The drowning man. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, 2006.

Father John and Vicky Holden investigate the theft of a petroglyph sacred to the Arapaho of Wyoming and a similar case from seven years before, attempting to clear a suspect, Travis Birdsong, of both crimes—and of manslaughter—and as they struggle to do so, the death toll rises.

F COLLINSWORTH
Collinsworth, Eden. It might have been what he said : a novel. 1st ed. New York : [S.l.] : Arcade Pub. ; Distributed by Time Warner Book Group, c2006.
Isabel seems to have everything a woman could want, intelligence, a fabulous job, and a loving husband, but when Isabel is driven to an act of insanity, she is forced to reexamine her life and determine where everything went wrong.

F CONNOLLY MYSTERY
Connolly, John, 1968-. The book of lost things. New York : Atria Books, c2006.

Twelve-year-old David’s grief over his mother’s death at the start of World War II intensifies with his father’s remarriage and the impending birth of a sibling, so when his books begin talking to him, tempting him to enter a portal into a magical world, he decides to take the risk.

F COX MYSTERY
Cox, Michael, 1948-. The meaning of night : a confession. 1sted. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., c2006.
London scholar and murderer Edward Glyver makes his confession about how he sought revenge on Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, the man he believed responsible for everything wrong in his life, especially a missed chance at a large inheritance.

F CRANE
Crane, Caprice. Stupid and contagious. 1st ed. New York : 5 Spot, 2006.
Two twenty-something neighbors—Heaven, who has just been fired from her loathed waitressing job, and Brady, who is full of big ideas but has yet to sign a band to his record label—set out on a mission to find the founder of Starbucks.

F CUSSLER
Cussler, Clive. Treasure of Khan. New York : Putnam, 2006.

Genghis Khan once ruled an empire four times the size of Alexander the Great’s: an expanse that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. When Dirk Pitt tracks down a missing survey team who disappears from Siberia under questionable circumstances, he discovers a mysterious mogul who is wreaking havoc on Middle East oil export facilities. The Mongolian dreams of restoring the conquests of ancient Mongolia, and holds a dark secret about Genghis Kahn, Kublai Khan, and the treasures of Xanadu.

F DANIELEWSKI
Danielewski, Mark Z. Only revolutions : Only revolutions. 1sted. New York : Pantheon Books,cc2006.

Presents a story about teenage lovers Hailey and Sam printed on two sides with one side telling the story from Hailey’s point of view, and the other from Sam’s.

F DAVIS
Davis, Charles. Angel’s rest. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2006.

Eleven-year-old Charlie York’s idyllic life in Sunnyside, Virginia, is shattered in 1967 when his father is killed by a shotgun blast and his mother is arrested for murder, and he becomes even more confused when his caretaker, Lacy Albert Coe, is victimized by townspeople who are offended that the elderly African-American storyteller has been left in charge of a white child.

F DOSS MYSTERY
Doss, James D. Stone butterfly. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.

Because of a dream Ute tribal elder Daisy Perika has been having, she fears that a girl is in danger of being murdered. Since she has not seen the girls’ face in her dreams, she can’t give her nephew, part-time rancher, part-time investigator Charlie Moon, a description when she asks him to find the girl. Charlie thinks this gets him out on a wild goose chase. Then an elderly man is murdered in Nevada and the suspect found standing over him is the girl from Daisy’s dream.

F DOUGLASS FANTASY
Douglass, Sara. The crippled angel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
As demons fight to breach the gates of heaven, the archangel Michael asks former monk Thomas Neville to find the demons that have taken human forms and expose their evil nature, forcing Thomas to turn his back on his vows and begin a new life.

F DU BRUL
Du Brul, Jack B. Havoc. New York : Dutton, 2006.
Long before the German zeppelin ‘Hindenburg’ kept its appointment with destiny in 1937, death was already onboard in the form of a madman with a locked safe containing something that could change the course of history. Just before arriving at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, he threw the safe overboard, planning to return for it later. Seven decades later, mining engineer Philip Mercer discovered the lost safe and the cryptic letter inside, launching him on an adventure like none he’d ever experienced before.

F DUNN MYSTERY
Dunn, Carola. Gunpowder plot : a Daisy Dalrymple mystery. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher travels to a school friend’s family home to write an account of the estate’s famous Guy Fawkes celebration, but her quiet weekend is ruined when tension between family members turns deadly.

F EDWARDSON MYSTERY
Edwardson, Åke, 1953-. Sun and shadow : an Erik Winter novel. New York : Viking, 2005.
Erik Winter, the youngest chief inspector in Sweden, is already dealing with the stresses of his father’s death, his fortieth birthday, and impending parenthood, when a serial killer with a penchant for death metal music strikes in Gothenburg and investigation indicates a link to the police department.

F ENRIGHT MYSTERY
Enright, Tracey. Claire Fontaine, crime fighter : a novel of life and death—and shoes. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2006.
Assistant Claire Fontaine uses her wealth and connections to help her boss, private investigator Henry Bennett, find a serial murderer who victimizes Los Angeles party girls.

F ERICKSON
Erickson, Carolly, 1943-. The last wife of Henry VIII. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
Catherine Parr was the least known, yet most clever of all of Henry VIII’s six wives. Although she was very much in love with Thomas Seymour, she was thrown into the intrigue-filled snake pit of the royal court. From the splendors of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to Henry’s last gory years when heads rolled, Catherine withstood the onslaught, eventually finding happiness with Seymour, who coveted Princess Elizabeth’s affections. Catherine won out, but at great cost.

F FEEHAN FANTASY
Feehan, Christine. Dark celebration : a Carpathian reunion. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Books, 2006.
Mikhail Dubrinsky, Prince of the Carpathians, fears he can’t protect his people from the extinction of their species. His enemies are plotting to slaughter Carpathian females, which also puts his life mate, Raven, and their daughter Savannah, in danger. He becomes more hopeful as Carpathians from around the world gather to join their powers. Now for the first time, all the inhabitants of Carpathian legend reunite for a celebration of sensual adventure, undying passion, and astonishing fantasy.

F FORBES
Forbes, Charlotte. The good works of Ayela Linde : a novel in stories. 1st ed. New York : [S.l.] : Arcade Pub. ; Distributed by Time Warner Book Group, c2006.
The housekeeper, butcher, family and friends, and others describe their encounters with Ayela Linde, the illegitimate daughter of a Mexican dressmaker born during the Great Depression, providing a portrait of her life from the age of seventeen to old age.

F FORD
Ford, Richard, 1944-. The lay of the land. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 2006.
Frank Bascombe’s career in real estate is thriving and his life finally seems to be on the right track, but when he is faced with marital and medical crises, he must find a new way to navigate the challenges of life without endangering everything he has worked for.

F FRESAN
Fresán, Rodrigo, 1963-. Kensington gardens. 1st American ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
Peter Hook, a wildly successful writer of children’s books, kidnaps, binds, and gags the child actor who plays the time-traveling child hero of Hook’s books in the movies. During the course of an evening, Hook narrates two intertwining tales: his own life story as a child of a Swinging Sixties couple in London and that of Peter Pan’s creator, J.M. Barrie. Fresan forces ironic parallels, for example, between Hook’s and Barrie’s lives (with Kensington Gardens as the focus of both of them) and between the Edwardian and psychedelic ages. Library Journal.

F GEORGE
George, Margaret, 1943-. Helen of Troy. New York : Viking, 2006.
A novel about the legendary Helen of Troy and her epic Homeric story set in the heart of the Mycenaean culture.

F GLAUSER MYSTERY
Glauser, Friedrich, 1896-1938. Fever. London : Bitter Lemon Press, 2006.
When two women are “accidentally” killed by gas leaks, Sergeant Studer investigates the thinly disguised double murder in Bern and Basel. The trail leads to a geologist dead from a tropical fever in a Moroccan Foreign Legion post and a murky oil deal involving rapacious politicians and their henchmen. With the help of a hashish-induced dream and the common sense of his stay-at-home wife, Studer solves the multiple riddles on offer. But assigning guilt remains an elusive affair.

F GLEESON MYSTERY
Gleeson, Janet. The thief taker : a novel. 1st Simon & Schuster pbk. ed. New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006.
Agnes Meadowes’ seeks refuge from the streets of 1750’s London by working in the kitchen in the house of the Blanchards. For 40 pounds a year she prepares jugged hare, oyster loaves, and cauliflower pickles. With the murder of an apprentice and the disappearance of an expensive silver wine cooler and the kitchen maid, Nicholas Blanchard asks Agnes to investigate. She enters a dark labyrinth of secrets, jealousy, and criminal intent in her search for the truth.

F GREENWOOD MYSTERY
Greenwood, Kerry. Murder on the Ballarat train : a Phryne Fisher mystery. 1st U.S. ed. Scottsdale, Ariz. : Poisoned Pen Press, 2006, c1991.
On the train to Ballarat, 1920s Australian feminist flapper and private investigator Phryne Fisher (Flying Too High) wakes up to the smell of chloroform. She saves all her fellow passengers, except an old, cantankerous woman whose body is found at the side of the train tracks. While investigating the murder for the woman’s daughter, Phryne also takes in an amnesiac waif on the train who has no knowledge of why she is traveling in the opposite direction of her ticket. Library Journal.

F GUENE
Guène, Faïza. Kiffe kiffe tomorrow. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harvest Original/Harcourt, c2006
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After her father’s abandonment, Doria struggles to make a new life for herself and her mother in the projects of Paris.

F HAMILTON MYSTERY /FANTASY
Hamilton, Laurell K. Mistral’s kiss : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, 2006.
Meredith Gentry, a detective, is also a princess to the Faerie world. Now it’s time for her to fulfill her obligation to conceive an heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court. Though the quest may be rife with pleasures, the shadows of intrigue continue to spread over the royal court and sabotage lurks at every turn. While the Unseelie Mound reawakens in the dead gardens, powerful curses are at work and Meredith’s own command of magic has turned dangerously unpredictable.

F HARRIS
Harris, Robert, 1957-. Imperium : a novel of ancient Rome. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.

Tiro, the confidential secretary of a Roman senator, sets in motion a chain of events that puts his master in one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history when he invites a terrified stranger into his home.

F HARRIS MYSTERY
Harris, Charlaine. Grave surprise. Berkley Prime Crime, c2006.
A college class gets more than it bargained for when Harper Connelly gives a demonstration of her uncanny talent. Instead of just finding one body in an old grave, she finds two: the original occupant and a recently deceased girl whom Harper had tried, and failed, to find two years previously. To dispel suspicions about her own innocence, Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver undertake their own hunt to find the killer-only to find yet another body in the same grave.

F HARTE ROMANCE
Harte, Amanda. Painted ponies. New York : Avalon Books, c2006.
Her face forever changed by a tragic fire, Anne Moreland returns to her hometown of Hidden Falls, hoping to resume her old life. But nothing is the same. Her brother is gone; his nemesis is back in town; and the man who meets her train is a stranger, a handsome stranger who carves the most incredible carousel horses. He’s a man who loves beauty and adventure—absolutely the wrong man for a scarred woman who is building a new life for herself in Hidden Falls. No matter how wonderful he is, it would be foolish to dream of a future with Rob.

F HERBERT SCIENCE FICTION
Herbert, Brian. Hunters of Dune. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.
Duncan, Sheeana, and several refugees struggle to keep the Enemy at bay, using genetic technology to bring back Paul Muad’Dib, Chani, Lady Jessica, Dr. Wellington Yueh, and others from Dune’s past. Based on an outline by late “Dune” author Frank Herbert.

F ILES
Iles, Greg. True evil. New York : Scribner, 2006.
Following her sister’s death, FBI agent Karen Crowe, suspecting that her brother-in-law was responsible, took her nephew and fled with him. Nine weeks later, in another part of Mississippi, Karen walks into a doctor’s office where she tells him she’s uncovered a strange rash of deaths among clients of a local divorce attorney and, since the doctor’s wife was one of the attorney’s clients, she warns the doctor that he might be in danger of being killed. Together they work to expose the attorney.

F JAKES
Jakes, John, 1932-. The gods of Newport : a novel. New York : Dutton, c2006.
Before Newport became the great summer resort of New York’s moneyed elite, the town at the southern tip of Aquidneck Island was the home port for smugglers and slavers. In the 1880s and 90s, thanks to social gadflies like Ward McCallister and Harry Leher, Newport began to attract rich Americans who turned the quiet New England village into a haven for the extravagant and social climbers. This is the story of what happened when New York aristocrats and Newport locals found themselves in a social struggle.

F JOERN
Joern, Pamela Carter, 1948-. The floor of the sky. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2006.
A widow soon to lose her ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills is faced with questions about family and the future when her sixteen-year-old pregnant granddaughter arrives from the city for the summer.

F JONES
Jones, Edward P. All Aunt Hagar’s children. New York : Amistad, c2006.
Here is a collection of fourteen short stories by award-winning author Edward Jones that explore the people and unique sub-culture of Washington, D.C.

F JUST
Just, Ward S. Forgetfulness. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Thomas Railles, an American expatriate who at one time did small jobs for the CIA, is devastated when his French wife, Florette, is murdered after she is injured while out walking and found by four Moroccans who, believing her to be American, chose to kill rather than help her.

F KADISH
Kadish, Rachel. Tolstoy lied : a love story. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Tracy Farber has always been happy with her single life and her career at a major university, but when she takes on a project to disprove Tolstoy’s theory that happiness is boring and determine whether happiness can be interesting, she is forced to re-examine her own life and discover if she is truly happy.

F KEATING
Keating, H. R. F. (Henry Reymond Fitzwalter), 1926-. One man and his bomb. 1st St. Martin’s Minotaur ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.

Detective Superintendent Harriet Martens had worked tirelessly to prevent terror. Then she and her husband got the phone call every parent dreads. Their twin sons had been the victims of a bombing. One was dead and the other seriously injured. In spite of her tragedy, her superior entrusts her to investigate the disappearance of an accidentally created substance from a local agricultural lab that could devastate every plant form on the globe. To find the culprit she must pull out all the stops.

F KELLERMAN
Kellerman, Jonathan. Capital crimes. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.

The Kellerman’s team up to bring readers two white-knuckle stories. In ‘Thy Sister’s Keeper,’ a California legislator is killed and Detectives Will Barnes and Amanda Iris are assigned the task of whittling down the lesbian’s long list of enemies to find a killer. In ‘Music City Breakdown,’ Martel ‘Sweetboy’ Jeffries, a music legend, is murdered before he can start enjoying his royalty payments. Detectives Southerby and Van Gundy, dig into his past in an effort to find a killer. The selections include special appearances by Alex Delaware, Peter Decker, and Rina Lazarus.

F KERR MYSTERY
Kerr, Philip. The one from the other : a Bernie Gunther novel. New York : Putnams, c2006.

Bernie Gunther, a private detective in Munich in 1949, is prospering in the aftermath of the war cleaning up some of the messes left behind by the Nazis, but he finds himself surrounded by enemies, not knowing who to trust, when he is hired by a woman to confirm that her missing husband, a wanted man for his deeds at a Polish concentration camp, is really dead.

F KING
King, Tabitha. Candles burning : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Books, 2006.
After her father is brutally murdered, Calley Dakin and her mother find themselves exiled to Pensacola Beach, where Calley learns she has psychic abilities and struggles to protect herself from those who wish to exploit her gift.

F KOONTZ
Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray), 1945-. Brother Odd. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.

Odd Thomas is back. This time he’s done something he never imagined he would do. He’s left Pico Mundo and everyone he held dear to embrace the solitude and peace of an isolated monastery high in the western mountains. Now, even among the monks, he’s managed to find himself in trouble. A killer is stalking the ancient, holy halls and Odd is about to confront an enemy more powerful than any he has yet encountered.

F KUSHNER FANTASY
Kushner, Ellen. The privilege of the sword. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.

Katherine Talbert travels to live with her impulsive and self-indulgent uncle, the Mad Duke of Tremontaine, who decides she should be trained in swordsmanship instead of prepare for marriage, and she proves to be as good as any of the men.

F LAHAYE
LaHaye, Tim F. John’s story : the last eyewitness. New York : Putnam Praise, c2006.

Ninety-year-old John, the last surviving apostle, remembers his broken life before befriending Jesus and is called upon to write a gospel that definitively establishes Jesus as the Son of God.

F LAZEBNIK
LaZebnik, Claire Scovell. Knitting under the influence. 1st ed. New York : 5 Spot/Warner Books, 2006.
“Three twentysomething women in Los Angeles deal with relationships and family, with their weekly Sunday knitting circle as the only thing holding them together”—Provided by publisher.

F LINDSEY ROMANCE
Lindsey, Johanna. Captive of my desires. New York : Pocket Books, 2006.

After her mother’s death, Gabrielle Brooks sets sail to the Caribbean in search of her father, discovers he has become a pirate, and spends three happy years sailing with him. His decision that she should return to London to find a proper husband leads to intrigue, scandal, and Gabrielle’s passionate quest for revenge, as she finds herself falling for a carefree sea captain with no interest in matrimony.

F MATHEWS
Mathews, Francine. The Alibi Club. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.
As the Nazis approach Paris, Sally King, Memphis Jones, Nell Bracecourt, and Irene Curie are thrown together by a murder at the infamous Alibi Club and their attempts to keep a deadly weapon out of German hands.

F MCCALL SMITH
McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948-. The right attitude to rain. 1st ed. New York : Pantheon, c2006.

Isabel’s cousin, Mimi, arrives in Edinburgh with her husband Joe and turns Isabel’s world upside down when she introduces Isabel to Tom Bruce and pulls Isabel into a romantic triangle that could ruin all their lives.

F MIAMI MYSTERY
Miami noir. New York : Akashic Books, [2006].
Sixteen new, diverse and highly entertaining mystery stories pack Akashic’s latest city-by-city tour of modern noir, spotlighting the “Miami School,” which has sprung to dynamic life in the wake of the legendary Charles Willeford and his signature novel Miami Blues. This anthology prowls through South Beach and across Alligator Alley, hitting every demographic, from long-term Cuban migr s to Haitian boat people and the garden variety psychopathic redneck. In James W. Hall’s “Ride Along,” a college professor with an interest in crime writing goes slumming with a thug called Jumpy-“6’4”, skinny as a greyhound, pasty-skinned, all knuckles and Adam’s apple”-with unexpected results. Vicki Hendricks does a neat deconstruction of classic noir with “Boozanne, Lemme Be,” wherein the 4’10” protagonist-“too short for normal chicks, too tall for a dwarf”-lives undetected under a house until he connects with the titular Boozanne and dives still further into ruin. This volume is as solid as the coral rock lying beneath the Miami streets. Publisher’s Weekly.

F MODESITT FANTASY
Modesitt, L. E. Soarer’s choice. 1st ed. New York, NY : Tor Book, 2006.
‘Soarer’s Choice’ concludes the Corean Chronicles begun in ‘Alector’s Choice’ and finds the civilization of the Alectors again on the move. Corus, the planet they’re moving from, will be used as a dumping ground for malcontents and others who don’t make the cut to move on to a richer new world. It doesn’t bode well for the future of human civilization, nor for Dainyl, who is trying to hold everything together. The mysterious Ancients, the Soarers, may hold a powerful, destructive trump card.

F MORTIMER
Mortimer, John Clifford, 1923-. Rumpole and the reign of terror. New York : Viking, c2006.

Rumpole is once again defending one of the Timsons on a theft charge when Tiffany Timson, who has married a Pakistani doctor, against her family’s wishes, comes to him begging for his legal help. It seems her husband had begun receiving anonymous letters and computer messages at the hospital where he worked that appeared to connect him to Al Qaeda. Rumpole accepts the job after the doctor is arrested. Defending a suspected terrorist proves a daunting task under the new terrorism laws.

F MORTON
Morton, Brian, 1955-. Breakable you. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.
As his ex-wife struggles with her emotions over their failed marriage and his daughter becomes involved with a man mourning the death of his child, novelist Adam Weller deals with his waning career, relationship with a younger woman, and the opportunity to submit a lost manuscript of his literary mentor’s as his own.

F MOSLEY MYSTERY
Mosley, Walter. Fear of the dark : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2006.

Bookseller Paris Minton and his friend Fearless Jones search for Ulysses S. Grant, Minton’s missing cousin who became involved in a blackmail scheme.

F MURAKAMI
Murakami, Haruki, 1949-. Blind window, sleeping woman : twenty-four stories. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 2006.
A collection of short stories by Haruki Murakami that explore the fantastic and the natural in everyday life.

F ORTHS
Orths, Markus, 1969-. Catalina. New Milford, Conn. : Godalming : Toby ; Melia [distributor], 2006.
Catalina is the story of Catalina d’Erauso, the ‘Lieutenant Nun’. When Catalina’s beloved older brother Miguel is sent to the New World to see to the family’s fortunes, Catalina has only one wish: to follow him. She begins her quest by earning her education in a convent. And then, one day, she leaves. She cuts her hair, dresses in men’s clothing, and becomes Francisco. Catalina develops and internalizes her new identity as a man so thoroughly that she convinces not only everyone around her - including her lovers - but eventually even herself. Her path leads her from San Sebastian to New Spain, Chile and Peru. It is the story of a despairing quest for the other - and for one’s self.

F POWERS
Powers, Richard, 1957-. The echo maker. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

Set in small-town Nebraska near the bird-watching spectacle of Platte River, Powers’s ninth novel centers on the life of 27-year-old Mark Schluter, who is unable to recognize his sister, Karin, after suffering a near-fatal accident. Desperate for clarity, Karin turns to world-renowned cognitive neurologist and writer Gerald Weber (reminiscent of the real-life Oliver Sacks). Cleverly, this novel isn’t simply about Mark’s damaged brain (he appears to suffer from a rare case of Capgras syndrome); instead, it sheds light generally on the human mind and our struggle to make sense of both the past and the present. Echo Maker is both mystery and case history as Mark struggles to investigate his accident through an anonymous note and Weber attempts to sort through the nuance and plasticity of the mind in his own declining years. Library Journal.

F QASHU
Qashu, Sayed, 1975-. Let it be morning. 1st ed. New York : [Berkeley, Calif.] : Black Cat ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2006.

A disillusioned journalist returns to his Arab village in Israel hoping to find peace and simplicity with his family, but when Israeli tanks surround the village, he must help his family find safety before their world is blown apart.

F ROBERSON FANTASY
Roberson, Jennifer, 1953-. Karavans. New York : DAW Books : Distributed by Penguin Group, c2006.

Fleeing the war-torn land of Sancorra and the blood thirsty Hecari, pregnant Audrun, her husband Davyd, and their four children seek to travel in the last karavan of the season.

F SCARROW Scarrow, Simon. The eagle’s prophecy. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, 2006.
It is spring ad 45 in Rome, and Centurions Macro and Cato, dismissed from the Second Legion in Britain, are waiting for an investigation into their involvement in the death of a fellow officer. It is then that the imperial secretary, the devious Narcissus, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to rescue an imperial agent who has been captured by pirates operating off the Illyrian coast. With him were scrolls vital to the safety of the emperor and the future of Rome. But Narcissus also sends Vitellius, an old enemy of the two centurions.

F SHAARA
Shaara, Jeff, 1952-. The rising tide : a novel of the Second World War. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, 2006.
‘The Rising Tide’ begins a trilogy of the Second World War that offers you-are-there immediacy, historical detail, and all-inclusive points of view as Shaara portrays the events that pulled America into the conflict. Beginning with Hitler’s conquest of Poland, Norway, France, and most of Western Europe, through Japan’s attack, and to the deserts of North Africa, he introduces a gallery of characters that includes Eisenhower, Patton, Rommel, Churchill, and Mussolini, as well as tank drivers and paratroopers.

F SHINN FANTASY
Shinn, Sharon. Dark moon defender. 1st ed. New York : Ace Books, 2006.
The King’s Rider Justin is sent to the small town of Neft to watch for suspicious activity at the Lumanen Convent, which houses the Daughters of the Pale Mother, but when Justin befriends a young novice from the convent, his mission is endangered by his feelings for the girl.

F STARK
Stark, Richard, 1933-. Ask the parrot. 1st ed. New York, NY : Mysterious Press, 2006.
Parker thinks he’s home free when a quiet recluse in the backwoods of Massachusetts saves him from being taken into custody by the police who are pursuing him for having pulled off one of the biggest and most dangerous bank heists the state has ever seen. Little does Parker realize that this recluse, with only a parrot for company, has something even more dubious and dangerous in mind for him. A whistleblower, tossed aside by a corrupt political establishment, the recluse has plans for revenge, and Parker holds the key.

F TAPPLY MYSTERY
Tapply, William G. Out cold : a Brady Coyne novel. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2006.

Boston attorney Brady Coyne finds trouble nearly on his doorstep when he lets his dog out into his backyard one January morning and finds a teenage girl buried in the snow. The only clue to her identify is a small piece of paper with his address scribbled on it. Now he must find out who she was, why she had his address, and what happened to her. These are details someone doesn’t want him to find the answers to.

F TRUMAN MYSTERY
Truman, Margaret, 1924-. Murder at the opera : a capital crimes novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, 2006.
In Truman’s newest ‘Capital Crimes” novel, an attempt is made on the President’s life on opening night at the Kennedy Center where it’s hard to tell if the actors are on the stage or sitting in the best seats. Just when readers think they’ve figured out what’s going on, Truman throws them a curve which proves that, as the old expression so succinctly puts it: ‘It’s not over until the fat lady sings.’

F TUROW
Turow, Scott. Limitations. 1st Picador ed. New York : Picador, 2006.
George Mason, 59, a judge on the Court of Appeals in Kindle County, has enjoyed most of his life on the bench. A rape case brought before him has him questioning the very nature of the law and his role within it. What could be troubling him so deeply? Is it his wife’s recent diagnosis, or the strange and threatening e-mails he’s started receiving? Or, is it something in the case that has led him to question his fitness to judge?

F WALLER
Waller, Robert James, 1939-. The long night of Winchell Dear : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Shaye Areheart Books, c2006.
Although Winchell Dear is a retired gambler and perfectly content with his life as a rancher, he hasn’t lost his ability to sense danger. Like the evening three men approach in a car filled with semi-automatic weapons and instructions for their target: a little adobe hut on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Now, with pistol in hand and his dog by his side, Winchell waits.

F WALTERS
Walters, Minette. The devil’s feather. 1st American ed. New York : Knopf, 2006.
Reporter Connie Burns vows to expose a British mercenary who is using the chaos of the war in Africa to hide his sadistic, misogynistic fantasies and murderous intentions, but her efforts to reveal the truth have devastating consequences when Connie is taken hostage and held for three terrifying days.

F WILHELM MYSTERY
Wilhelm, Kate. Sleight of hand. Don Mills, Ont. : MIRA, c2006.

A chance reunion with a childhood acquaintance turns into a nightmare for Wally Lederer and his wife, Meg. Wally is accused of theft and hires Barbara Holloway to represent him against what he insists is a set-up. Then the man who accused Wally is found dead, making Wally the prime suspect. As Holloway looks into her client’s past, she doesn’t like what she finds, including an abandoned first wife and children and the questionable death of a second wife. Could she be defending a guilty man?

F WILSON
Wilson, Robert, 1957-. The hidden assassins. 1st U.S. ed. Orlando, FL : Harcourt, c2006.

As Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon investigates a mutilated corpse, Seville is rocked by a massive explosion which reveals a mosque in the basement of a devastated apartment building. It confirms everyone’s terrorist fears. As panic sweeps the city with every body that’s dragged from the rubble, Falcon suspects that something’s amiss. Just as he’s about to crack the conspiracy, he makes a terrifying discovery that hints of a catastrophe far beyond Spain’s borders.

F WOODRELL
Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s bone : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2006.

Ree Dolly, a sixteen-year-old living in poverty in the Ozarks, sets out alone to find her father after he puts the family home up for bond on drug charges and disappears with the court date swiftly approaching.

F ZHANG
Zhang, Ailing. Love in a fallen city. New York : New York Review Books, 2006.

This posthumous collection contains virtually all new translations of Chang’s six novellas, which are well known in both China and Taiwan. Set in China and featuring characters with ties to Shanghai, Chang’s birthplace, the stories are further tied together by relationship issues and the question of (true) love at a time when women were expected to marry well and discussion of class, divorce, and illicit affairs was taboo. Library Journal.


NON-FICTION:

320.9743 GRA VT COLL
Graff, Chris. Dateline Vermont : covering and uncovering the stories, big and small, that shaped a state—and influenced a nation. North Pomfret, Vt. : Thistle Hill Pub., c2006.

The inside story of how Vermont transformed itself from a rural, Republican outpost into the state of Howard Dean, Jim Jeffords, Pat Leahy, and Bernie Sanders. A veteran reporter Graf speaks out about his more than 25 years of writing about the Green Mountain state and its remarkable transformation from the most reliably Republican state in the nation to a bastion of progressivism.

327.1273 BER
Berntsen, Gary. Jawbreaker : the attack on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda : a personal account by the CIA’s key field commander. 1st ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2005.
Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen reveals the American government’s pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and recounts his experiences searching for the enemy in Afghanistan.

364.152 LAR
Larson, Erik. Thunderstruck. 1st ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2006.

Larson tells the parallel stories of the skepticism and incredulity that accompanied Guglielmo Marconi’s invention of wireless communication in the late nineteenth century, and the investigation of the murder of an inconvenient wife by her love-starved husband, Dr. H.H. Crippen, who would likely have pulled off the perfect crime had it not been for the ability to send wireless transatlantic transmissions.

613.2 GUI
Guiliano, Mireille, 1946-. French women for all seasons. 1sted. New York : Knopf, 2006.
More than a theory or ideal, the French woman’s way is an all- encompassing program that can be practiced anytime, anywhere. Here are four full seasons of strategies for shipping, cooking, moving, even a tip or two for rolling out of bed looking effortlessly chic, throughout the year. Here are also 100 new no-brainer recipes celebrating staples such as leeks and chocolate, as well as less-heralded edibles, guaranteeing that boredom will never be a guest at your table.

759.13 DAV
Davis, Deborah, 1952-. Strapless : John Singer Sargent and the fall of Madame X. New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, c2003.
Davis explores the story behind John Singer Sargent’s “Madame X,” a painting of twenty-three-year-old Amelie Gautreau which unleashed a storm of controversey when it was unveiled at the Paris Salon to show the young wife with one strap of her gown falling off her shoulder, and provides insights into the lives of the artist and his subject.

909.07 CAH
Cahill, Thomas. Mysteries of the Middle Ages : the rise of feminism, science, and art from the cults of Catholic Europe. 1st ed. New York : N.A. Talese, c2006.
Cahill explores how the rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science that took place in the Middle Ages created the foundations of modern Western civilization.

921 BURAU
Burau, Caroline, 1973-. Answering 911 : life in the hot seat. St. Paul, MN : Borealis Books, c2006.

Caroline Burau, a former newspaper reporter and nursing student who couldn’t stand the sight of blood, takes a job as an emergency dispatcher because she likes helping people. But on-the-job training at the comm center proves to be more than she bargained for. As she adjusts to a daily life of catastrophe and comedy, domestics and drunks, cops and robbers, junk food and sarcasm, lost cats and suicides, she discovers that crisis can become routine, that coworkers can be mean, but that she must continue to care and, at times, learn how to let go.

921 CONNOLLY
Hodes, Martha Elizabeth. The sea captain’s wife : a true storyof love, race, and war in the nineteenth century. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, c2006.

Tells the life story of Eunice Connolly, a poor New Englander who lost her husband after the Civil War and crossed the color line in order to marry a sea captain and move to his homeland in the Grand Cayman Islands.

921 MCCARTNEY
Sandford, Christopher, 1956-. McCartney. 1st Carroll & Graf ed.New York : [S.l.] : Caroll & Graf Publishers ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2006.

Christopher Sandford relates the life of Paul McCartney, drawing upon interviews with family and colleagues, court documents, and other original sources to tell the story of the Beatles, examine the band’s breakup and McCartney’s relationship with John Lennon, and discuss his solo career and marriages to Linda Eastman and Heather Mills.

921 SHEEHAN
Sheehan, Cindy. Peace mom : a mother’s journey through heartache to activism. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York : Atria Books, 2006.

On April 4, 2004, Cindy Sheehan learned that Casey, the eldest of her four children, had been killed in Iraq, where he was serving in the United States Army. After struggling through crippling grief for three weeks, she came to an epiphany: “I will spend my life trying to make Casey’s sacrifice count for peace and love, not killing and hate”. Here are the stories Cindy has never shared before about her own experiences at the center of a media firestorm, the life-altering events that were sparked by her simple act of defiance one hot August day in Texas. Going behind the headlines and sound bites, Cindy writes candidly about the toll her activism has taken on her own life and her family, as well the unforeseen rewards her quest for peace has brought.
MEDIA:

CD 921 EISENHOWER
Wukovits, John F., 1944-. Eisenhower. Library ed. Ashland, Or. : Blackstone Audiobooks, 2006. Read by Brian Emerson.

Wukovitz explores the leadership strategies of Dwight D. Eisenhower during the World War II Allied invasion of Europe and explains the lasting impact his actions had on American and world history.

DVD 921 BLERIOT
A daring flight. Widescreen. [Boston, Mass.] : WGBH Boston Video, 2005. Narrator: David Ogden Stiers.
This is the biography of aviator Louis Blériot in the years before he produced the Bleriot XI, which in 1909 became the first heavier-than-air machine to fly the English Channel.

DVD ALL
All the king’s men. Boston : WGBH Boston Video, [2005]. David Jason, Maggie Smith, William Ash, Sonya Walger, Stuart Bunce, James Murray, Ed Waters, Tom Burke, Ben Crompton, David Troughton, Gaye Brown.

Here is a recounting of one of the strangest legends of the First World War - the disappearance of the Sandringham Company in action in Gallipoli in 1915.

DVD RIV
The River Niger ; Death of a prophet. La Crosse, WI : Echo Bridge/Platinum Disc Corporation, 2004.
The River Niger: A house-painter/poet struggles to support his cancer-plagued wife. Death of a prophet combines documentary footage with reenactments to weave a fascinating work and is a suspense thriller which follows the events in the final 24 hours of the life of religious and political leader Malcolm X.

DVD SED
La grande séduction : Seducing Doctor Lewis. New York, NY : Wellspring Media, [2005]. Raymond Bouchard, David Boutin, Benoît Brière, Pierre Collin, Rita Lafontaine, Clemence Desrochers, Lucie Laurier, Bruno Blanchet.

St. Marie-La-Mauderne is a tiny fishing village. For eight years the locals have stood in line for weekly welfare checks, remembering the good old days when the catch was good. A small company wants to build a factory on the island, but only if a full-time doctor lives in St. Marie. The situation seems hopeless until a young doctor in Montreal has an unfortunate incident with a traffic cop and finds himself on a boat to the faraway village. In order to convince Dr. Lewis to stay, the town resorts to just a bit of seductive subterfuge.

Please note: Some of the book descriptions have been excerpted from Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. They are most often based on Publisher's descriptions. Sources such as Booklist, the New York Times Book Reviews, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus and others are specifically identified.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

December 2006




FICTION:

F ALLENDE
Allende, Isabel. Inés of my soul. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, 2006.

Allende recounts the life of Ines Suarez, a fictional Spanish conquistadora, who helped to build the nation of Chile after her husband disappeared to the New World. Her treacherous journey to find him leads her to Peru, where she learns he has died in battle. Soon, she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life as they build the new city of Santiago and wage a war against the indigenous Chileans and the Mapuche.

F BARRY
Barry, Dave. The shepherd, the angel, and Walter the Christmas miracle dog. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006.

It’s 1960 in Asquont, N.Y., and Doug Barnes is excited at the prospect of portraying a shepherd in the Christmas pageant at St. John’s Episcopal Church. His excitement is mixed with annoyance at his fellow shepherds who are hacking around, which makes the pageant’s director angry. Also, the girl playing Mary opposite Joseph is distractingly cute, and the family dog is in failing health. With Christmas known as the season of miracles, perhaps the Barnes family is in line for a miracle of their own.

F BELL
Bell, Ted. Spy : a thriller. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York : Atria Books, 2006.

Intelligence operative Alex Hawke must rely on his unique training, killer instinct, and the latest high-tech gadgets to thwart a dangerous political mission in South America, all while maintaining a stylish grace under pressure that has made him a legend. James Bond has nothing on this guy!

F BELLI
Belli, Gioconda, 1948-. The scroll of seduction : a novel. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.

Manuel, a history professor, seduces sixteen-year-old Lucía as he tells her the story of Juana of Castile, a queen who, after the death of her husband, was imprisoned by his family for allegedly being mentally unstable.

F BERG
Berg, Elizabeth. The handmaid and the carpenter : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 2006.

Berg takes readers to Israel and Palestine in biblical times to reimagine Mary, Joseph, and the events of the classic Christmas story. They’re given an in-depth look at Mary and Joseph and understand them as never before as they face an unexpected pregnancy that would make them the Earthly parents of the Son of God. The lives of all those touched by the miracles of love, surprise, and belief are explored.

F BERNE
Berne, Suzanne. The ghost at the table : a novel. 1st ed. Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006.

Two sisters, Frances and Cynthia, travel to visit their estranged father for Thanksgiving, and, amidst questions surrounding their mother’s death, they struggles with differing ideas of what their relationship with him should be like.

F BRAFFET
Braffet, Kelly, 1976-. Last seen leaving. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Twenty-something drifter Miranda crashes her car late at night on a lonely highway and is picked up by a passing stranger who soon reveals himself to be more sinister than at first glance. No one knows Miranda is missing: her father died in a plane crash over Central America and her estranged mother, Anne, sought comfort in a New Age lifestyle in the Arizona desert. When Anne reaches out to her daughter, no one has heard from Miranda for two months. All signs seem to point to Miranda’s death, but she’s actually living under an assumed name in a Virginia beach town and may not want to be found. Maybe George, her highway rescuer, means nothing by his unexpected appearances and is unconnected to rumors of a serial killer stalking young women. Maybe her mother will find her in time.

F BUTCHER FANTASY
Butcher, Jim. Proven guilty : a novel of the Dresden files. New York : ROC, c2006.

Chicago wizard Harry Dresden is drafted by the White Council of Wizards to serve as a Warden and investigate rumors of black magic in Chicago.

F CAMP
Camp, Candace. An unexpected pleasure. Don Mills, Ont. : HQN, c2006.

It’s 1879, and American newspaper reporter Megan Mulcahey is sure that adventurer Theo Moreland, Lord Raine, killed her brother, Dennis, in the Amazon. Relocating in London, where Theo lives, Megan accepts a position as tutor to Constantine and Alexander Moreland, incorrigible adolescent twins also known as the “Little Greats.” Soon, Megan is treated as a member of this eccentric family, having been accepted by everyone from the duchess to Con and Alex, which makes her feel especially bad about trying to get Theo convicted of the 10-year-old crime. Worse yet, she is beginning to doubt his guilt and to develop feelings for the very man she has come to destroy. Romance, humor, adventure, Incan treasure, dreams, murder, psychics—the latest addition to Camp’s Mad Moreland series has it all. Booklist

F CAREY
Carey, Jacqueline, 1964-. Kushiel’s scion. 1st ed. New York : Warner Books, 2006.

Imriel de al Courcel, born third in line for the throne of Terre d’Ange, uses his ability to deliver pain and to exploit others’ faults.

F CHILDS MYSTERY
Childs, Laura. Motif for murder. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, 2006.

In the terrible wake of Hurricane Katrina, scrapbooking shop owner Carmela Bertrand has her hands full getting Memory Mine back in business- and her relationship with her ex-husband, Shamus, back on its feet. But the reconciliation is shattered when Shamus is kidnapped from their home. And when Carmela hurries to tell Shamus’s Uncle Henry, she finds him sitting in his library-with a bullet through his forehead.

F CLARK MYSTERY
Clark, Mary Higgins. Santa cruise : a holiday mystery at sea. New York : Simon & Schuster / Scribner, c2006.

Alvirah Meehan, the lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and her husband Willy, as well as the recently married P.I. Regan Reilly and her groom, Jack, head of the NYPD major case squad, are back. The couples are on a luxury cruise the day after Christmas along with a group of mystery writers as part of a mystery seminar. The tranquility vanishes when a ghost is sighted on board, a fan disappears, and a storm blows the ship off course. Alvirah, Regan, and the group investigate.

F COLLINS
Collins, Michael, 1964-. Death of a writer : a novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Bloomsbury : Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers, 2006.

Professor E. Robert Pendleton is driven to suicide when a rival author visits campus and forces Robert to face his own failures, but his suicide attempt is thwarted and, while he is left in a wheelchair, Robert continues his life and finds unexpected success with the publishing of a manuscript he discovered in his basement.

F CONNELLY
Connelly, Michael, 1956-. Echo Park : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006.

Harry Bosch was never able to solve the case of Marie Gesto who disappeared after walking out of a supermarket in 1995. Now working in the Open-Unsolved Unit, Bosch keeps the Gesto file on his desk. A man accused of two killings is willing to come clean about several others, including Marie Gesto. When he discovers that he and his partner missed a clue that could have led them to Gesto’s killer, and stopped nine other murders that followed, Bosch’s whole being as a cop begins to crack.

F CUSSLER
Cussler, Clive. Skeleton Coast. Berkley trade pbk. ed. New York : Berkley Books, 2006.

Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the covert combat ship ‘Oregon’ intercept a mayday signal from a defenseless boat under fire off the African coast. Responding, they save Sloane Macintyre, who’s looking for a long-submerged ship that may hold a fortune in diamonds. What surprises Cabrillo is her story about a crazy fisherman who claims to have been attacked on the open sea by giant metal snakes in the same area. The journey that follows leads to a far more lethal quarry.

F DAWESAR
Dawesar, Abha. That summer in Paris : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, c2006.

Nobel Prize-winning Indian novelist Prem Rustum, now in his seventies, makes a bid to recapture the drama and romance of his youth when he follows an aspiring young author to Paris where she has a writing fellowship.

F DEMILLE
DeMille, Nelson. Wild fire. 1st ed. New York : Warner Books, 2006.

The membership of Custer Hill Club in the Adirondack’s include some of America’s most powerful business leaders, military men, and government officials. The hunting club is a place for them to relax. However, the weekend after 9/11, it becomes a place to plan a retaliation codenamed Wildfire. That same weekend, a member of the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force is found dead and the job of unraveling a terrifying plot falls to Detective John Corey and his wife, FBI Agent Kate Mayfield.

F DONATI
Donati, Sara, 1956-. Queen of swords. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.

In the French Antilles, Jennet Huntar is imprisoned against her will, imperiling the Crown. Jennet waits for her kinsman, Luke Bonner, to lead his men into battle and take her to freedom. However, once free, she must draft Luke for an even more treacherous mission: to find their child, which she’d surrendered to a stranger before being imprisoned. It’s a quest that will test their love, bring them into conflict with local power brokers, and will either strengthen or end their future together.

F DRURY
Drury, Tom. The driftless area. 1st ed. New York : [S.l.] : Atlantic Monthly Press ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2006.

A young Midwestern bartender finds himself involved in a dangerous heist after a mysterious woman saves his life.

F EDDINGS FANTASY
Eddings, David. The younger gods. New York : Warner Books, c2006.

As the next changing of the gods approaches, the elder gods discover that an enemy has arisen from the vast wasteland in the center of Dhrall that intends on conquering the entire realm and using all its inhabitants as nourishment for its minions.

F EDWARDSON MYSTERY
Edwardson, Åke, 1953-. Never end : an Erik Winter novel. New York : Viking, 2006.

Chief inspector Erik Winter and his team face a string of rape/murders eerily similar to those in a five-year-old unsolved case. In tracing the relationship of the victims to each other and uncovering their secrets, Winter finds his investigation taking an even more personal turn that leads to a shocking conclusion.

F EGLETON
Egleton, Clive. The loner. New York : Severn House, 2006.

Ten years ago, Edward Mills was not a dangerous man. That was before he served a harsh jail sentence for stealing a million dollars worth of bonds, intended for a defecting Russian scientist. Mills was framed. Now he’s embittered, dangerous—and due for release. And he wants to know the truth, whoever he has to hurt to get to it before someone else gets to him.

F EVANOVICH MYSTERY
Evanovich, Janet. Motor mouth. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.

In her thunderous sequel to ‘Metro Girl,’ Evanovich brings back the spotter and R&D tech, Alexandra Barnaby to investigate the disappearance of the Huevo Motor Sports 69 car hauler, complete with two racecars it carried. The finger of blame is pointed at Sam Hooker, who had lost the last race of the season to the whiney rookie who drove the 69 car. Unfortunately, Alexandra, who works for Hooker, is also under suspicion. Before she realizes it, she and Hooker are knee deep in Mexican assassins and industrial espionage.

F EVANS
Evans, Richard Paul. Finding Noel. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Macy, 21, retains little from her birthparents. She only remembers being sent away at the age of seven, a little sister, and a Christmas ornament inscribed with the word ‘Noel.’ Now an adult, she decides to begin a search for her biological sister and hopefully, get some long- contemplated questions answered about her past.

F FESPERMAN
Fesperman, Dan, 1955-. The prisoner of Guantánamo. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Revere Falk, an interrogator at the prison camp at Guantanamo, Cuba, is there to interrogate a young Yemeni who may or may not have information on al Qaeda. Those duties are suspended however when he’s asked to investigate the death of an American soldier whose body was found washed up on the shore on the wrong side of the border. Falk quickly discovers that nothing is straightforward in the secretive, paranoid, overheated world of Guantanamo, and that the U.S. government isn’t the only group interested in his investigation.

F FRAZIER
Frazier, Charles, 1950-. Thirteen moons : a novel. 1st trade ed. New York : Random House, c2006.

At the age of twelve, orphan Will Cooper is sent to work a trading post on the edge of the Cherokee Nation’s land, where he spends his life learning about and defending the lives of the Native Americans and desiring the love of Claire Featherstone, the wife of a successful Cherokee landowner and patriarch.

F GEORGE
George, Elizabeth. What came before he shot her. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.

In North Kensington three orphaned mixed-race children are bounced from one home to another. The middle child Joel takes care of the youngest, Toby, who isn’t quite right. When a local gang threatens Toby, Joel makes a pact with the devil that ends in the murder of Thomas Lynley’s wife.

F GERRITSEN MYSTERY
Gerritsen, Tess. The Mephisto Club : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.

Murder doesn’t take a holiday. No one knows that better than Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles, who is summoned to a murder scene on Christmas Eve. Later teaming up with Detective Jane Rizzoli, they link the victim to psychologist Joyce O’Donnell, whom they follow to a cabal called the Mephisto Club, where the members devote themselves to the analysis of evil. The members are now wondering if a killer is in their ranks, or if they’ve summoned an evil presence from the darkness.

F GOULD
Gould, Judith. The secret heiress. New York : New American Library, c2006.

Ariadne and Nikoletta are identical twins but opposite in every way that matters. Nikoletta has been groomed to take over her father’s empire, while Ariadne, who was raised in obscurity and unaware of her vast family fortune, is generous and naive. When Ariadne agrees to a shady scheme orchestrated by her late father’s board of advisors to take the place of the twin she’s never met, she becomes involved in a web of passion, deception, and danger.

F HADDON
Haddon, Mark. A spot of bother : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Doubleday, c2006.

George Hall is ready to settle down to a comfortable retirement, until his tempestuous daughter, Katie, announces she is marrying someone George disapproves of, and George is diagnosed with a devastating illness.

F HAMBLY
Hambly, Barbara. Renfield : slave of Dracula. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Books, 2006.

A re-imagining of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” that is told from the point of view of Renfield, Dracula’s faithful servant.

F HEINLEIN SCIENCE FICTION
Heinlein, Robert A. (Robert Anson), 1907-1988. Variable star. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.

At the time of his death, Heinein left this title unfinished. Robinson took the outline and notes left by Heinlein and, authorized by the Heinlein Estate, completed the powerful, passionate tale of two young lovers driven apart by pride, power, and the vastness of interstellar time and space.

F HIAASEN MYSTERY
Hiaasen, Carl. Nature girl. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Honey Santana has a scheme to get rid of telemarketers Boyd Shreave and his mistress, Eugenie, in a wildlife refuge off the coast of southeast Florida. What she doesn’t know is that she’s being followed by her obsessed former employer, Piejack, who’s being followed by Honey’s still smitten, ex-husband, Perry, and their 12-year-old son, Fry. What ‘none’ of them know when they arrive at tiny Dismal Key, is that they’re intruding on Sammy Tigertail, a failed alligator wrestler and Everglades guide, who’s trying to be a hermit.

F JACKSON
Jackson, Shelley. Half life : a novel. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.

For twenty years, Nora has been carrying the dead weight of her conjoined twin, Blanche, and when she decides it is time for her other half to be gone for good, Nora travels to London in search of the mysterious Unity Foundation, which promises to make the two one, but as she gets closer to the time when Blanche will be gone, Nora begins reflecting on her past and wondering if she has made the right decision.

F KARPYSHYN SCIENCE FICION
Karpyshyn, Drew. Darth Bane : path of destruction : a novel of the Old Republic. 1st ed. New York : Del Rey, c2006.

Dessel, stuck in the mining tunnels of the desolate planet Apatros, dreams of the day he can escape, but when a high-stakes card game ends in violence and Dessel becomes a wanted man, he must find a way to disappear, and joins the ranks of the Sith army in the deadly war against the Republic.

F KERNICK MYSTERY
Kernick, Simon. A good day to die. 1st U.S. ed. New York : St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.
In a tense tale about a British cop turned vigilante-for-hire, Det. Sgt. Dennis Milne fled London for the Philippines after murdering innocent men he mistook for scumbags. Three years later, after changing his name to Mick Kane, he earns a living in Sabang Bay offing bad guys for pay; his latest target is a familiar London snitch who’s wanted back in England for killing Milne’s friend, Det. Asif Malik. Hungry for further vengeance, Milne risks his freedom and returns to London to track down others connected to Malik’s murder. Milne re-examines the case Malik was investigating, sets up a meeting with a crime boss and gets ambushed for his troubles. From then on, Milne barely stays a step ahead of death. Publisher’s Weekly

F KING
King, Stephen, 1947-. Lisey’s story : a novel. New York : Scribner, c2006.

In this bookend to ‘Bag of Bones’, Lisey Debusher Landon and Scott had been married 25 years when he died two years ago. Although they had shared a profound and sometimes frightening intimacy, she knew there was a place her writer husband went that both terrified and healed him. Now, it is her turn to face his demons in Boo’ya Moon. What began as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband became a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.

F KLAVAN MYSTERY
Klavan, Andrew. Damnation Street. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.

Private detective Scott Weiss and professional killer John Foy are both on the trail of Julie Wyant, a hooker with a deadly past who vanishes after Scott falls for her in the fear that Scott will be pulled into her past and become another target for the man who wants her dead.

F KRICH
Krich, Rochelle Majer. Now you see me-- : a novel of suspense. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2005.

Los Angeles crime reporter Molly Blume, newly married to Rabbi Zack, is suspicious when an ardent fan begs her help in finding his runaway daughter, and she realizes she should have trusted her instincts when she agrees, only to find herself caught up in a web of revenge, danger, and tragedy.

F LEHANE
Lehane, Dennis. Coronado : stories. 1st ed. New York : Morrow, c2006.

Lehane presents a collection of five short stories about class, gender, freedom, and violence; along with the play “Coronado,” adapted to stage in 2005 from the story “Until Gwen.”

F LUDLUM
Ludlum, Robert, 1927-2001. The Bancroft strategy. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.

Todd Belknap, ex-field agent for Consular Operations, must rescue his best friend from a vicious militia group in Lebanon. The government won't negotiate or attempt a rescue. Meanwhile Andrea Bancroft is the beneficiary of six million dollars--all she has to do is agree to sit on the board of the Bancroft family foundation. Her mother was a Bancroft briefly by marriage and then cut off from all contact with the family. Andrea's intrigue gradually changes to suspicion. What is 'Genesis' and how is the foundation involved? As events escalate, Belknap and Bancroft come together and must form an uneasy alliance if they are to uncover the truth behind 'Genesis' before it is too late.

F MACOMBER
Macomber, Debbie. Christmas letters. Don Mills, Ont. : MIRA, c2006.

Catherine O’Connor writes Christmas letters for other people because she has a knack for making their lives seem dramatic and exciting. She meets her ‘clients’ at a French cafe in Seattle. While there she’s also noticed author and child psychologist Wynn Jeffries. Her sister is a big fan of the doctor’s but Catherine isn’t impressed by his child- raising techniques. Despite their opposing opinions on this subject, as well as their differing views on Christmas, Catherine soon finds herself falling in love with him once they’re introduced.

F MALARKEY MYSTERY
Malarkey, Tucker. Resurrection. New York : Riverhead Books, 2006.

Gemma Bastian travels from London to Cairo to bury her father and investigate his final project, an attempt to recover and make public the lost Gnostic Gospels, and discovers some disturbing clues that raise troubling questions about his death.

F MANKELL MYSTERY
Mankell, Henning, 1948-. The man who smiled. New York : New Press : Distributed by W. W. Norton, 2006.

After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself in a deep personal and professional crisis; during more than a year of sick leave, he turns to drink and vice to quiet his fears and anxieties. Once he pulls himself together, he vows to quit the Ystad police force for good - just before a friend who had asked Wallander to look into the death of his father winds up dead himself, shot three times. Far from leaving police work behind, Wallander instead must investigate a formidable suspect: a powerful business tycoon at the helm of a multinational company engaging in extralegal activities in the gross pursuit of profit. Ann-Britt Hoglund, the department’s first female detective, proves to be his best ally as he tries to pierce the smiling facade of his prime suspect. But just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, the same shadowy threats responsible for the murders close in on Wallander himself. Publisher’s Weekly

F MAYOR MYSTERY
Mayor, Archer. The second mouse. 1st ed. New York : Mysterious Press, 2006.

Joe Gunther is called to the home of a young woman who apparently committed suicide, but is troubled by his findings and wants to investigate further. His normally trustworthy medical examiner however, stalls the investigation, for personal reasons. To get what he wants, Joe must help her with her situation first, but will it be in time to catch the violent trio lurking behind the woman's death?

F MCCARTHY
McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-. The road. 1st ed. New York : Knopf, 2006.

The story traces the journey of a father and his son as they walk alone after a great fire has consumed the nation and left everything in ashes.

F MCDERMOTT
McDermott, Alice. After this. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

John and Mary Keane and their four children, Michael, Annie, Jacob, and Clare, battle the tumultuous political, social, and spiritual upheavals of the 1950s and 1960s.

F MILLS
Mills, Kyle, 1966-. The second horseman. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.

Brandon Vale is a career thief, presently serving a prison sentence for a robbery he didn’t commit. When he’s broken out against his will by Richard Scanlon, the former FBI agent who framed him in the first place, he becomes part of Scanlon’s efforts to take 12 nuclear warheads off the market that are being offered by a Ukrainian crime organization to the highest bidder. As their plans go awry, Brandon suspects that the deal has even higher stakes than he imagined.

F MINICHINO MYSTERY
Minichino, Camille. The oxygen murder : a periodic table mystery. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.

Gloria Lamerino and her husband, homicide detective Matt Gennaro, plan to enjoy a relaxing vacation in New York City, but their plans are ruined when they stumble upon a murder and must find the killer before it is too late.

F NASLUND
Naslund, Sena Jeter. Abundance : a novel of Marie Antoinette. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2006.

Naslund offers a fictional autobiography in which Marie Antoinette shares the story of her life, from her baptism, to the royal courts of France, to the guillotine.

F NEGGERS MYSTERY
Neggers, Carla. The widow. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, 2006.

Neggers shares the story of Abigail Browning. Her husband died in a fall from a cliff four days into their honeymoon, and Abigail, impacted by his death, quit law school to become a homicide detective. Now, seven years later, she’s pursuing suspicions that her husband’s death was not an accident. While doing so, she becomes involved with a widower who was part of the search-and-rescue team that found her husband’s body. In this new relationship, each discovers what they’ve been looking for since that fateful day.

F OMARIE MYSTERY
O’Marie, Carol Anne. Murder at the Monks’ Table. 1st ed. NewYork : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2006.

Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen are in Ballyclarin, Ireland, attending the Oyster Festival. Unfortunately, like in San Francisco, Sister Mary Helen manages to be in the wrong place at the right time. When she stumbles across a dead body in the ladies’ room, she and Sister Eileen are warned to stay out of the case. Aside from prayerful devotion, murder is Sister Mary Helen’s specialty and it’s not long before the Irish are glad these Yank nuns dropped in on the festivities.

F OSHAUGHNESSY MYSTERY
O’Shaughnessy, Perri. Keeper of the keys. New York : Delacorte, c2006.

Ray Jackson had no clues in the disappearance of his wife, Leigh. He did have lots of questions, however. Had she run away? Was she a crime victim? Could her disappearance be tied to the obsessive, secretive architect’s childhood? Leigh’s best friend decides to find out, beginning an investigation that can’t seem to open the locked doors of Ray’s past.

F PARKER MYSTERY
Parker, Robert B., 1932-. Hundred-dollar baby. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006.

At first Spenser doesn’t recognize April Kyle when she enters his PI office. He had twice previously rescued her from bad situations over the years, but hadn’t seen her in quite sometime. Now, she is all grown up and a madam running her own brothel. With thugs threatening her business, she needs Spenser’s help once more. This time however, Spenser might not be able to help her overcome her past.

F PATTERSON MYSTERY
Patterson, James, 1947-. Cross. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown and Co., c2006.

Alex Cross’ life is finally getting back to normal following the shooting death of his wife several years earlier. He’s set up a practice as a psychologist once again and even has a chance at a new love. Then Cross’ former partner, John Sampson, calls in a favor. He’s tracking a serial rapist in Georgetown that bears a similarity to a case the two worked on years earlier and reveals a connection to Alex’s wife’s death. Cross is about to go for the ride of his life.

F PAZ SOLDAN
Paz Soldán, Edmundo, 1967-. Turing’s delirium. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

As cyberterrorists attack the Bolivian government and transnational corporations, Miguel Sáenz, star code breaker with the state security firm battling the revolutionaries, is confronted with questions about personal responsibility and the nature of his work when suspicions arise about his boss’s past.

F PELECANOS MYSTERY
Pelecanos, George P. The Night Gardener : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006.

The discovery of a murdered teen in a community garden reminds homicide detective Gus Ramone of an unsolved case he worked as a rookie twenty years earlier, and he enlists his now-retired mentor T.C. Cook, and his former partner Dan Holiday, who has since been disgraced as a cop, in an effort to find a killer they dubbed the Night Gardener and finally bring him to justice.

F PERRY MYSTERY
Perry, Anne. A Christmas secret : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2006.

Dominic and Clarice Corde think they’ve come to Brunswick Gardens to replace the local vicar who is away on Christmas holiday. When the vicar is discovered brutally murdered and stashed in the cellar however, it puts a different spin on things altogether. Now they must solve his murder in what is becoming a dangerously snowbound village with an equally dangerous killer on the loose. As the killer is revealed, the true meaning of Christmas is also revealed.

F QUINDLEN
Quindlen, Anna. Rise and shine : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2006.

Meghan Fitzmaurice, host of a top-rated morning television show, finds her perfect life threatened when she makes an on-air comment that has a devastating impact on Meghan, her husband, and Bridget, Meghan’s social worker sister.

F RAICHEV MYSTERY
Raichev, R. T. The hunt for Sonya Dufrette. 1st Carroll & Graf ed. New York : Carroll & Graf, 2006.

Aspiring writer Antonia Darcy, a divorced librarian at the Military and Naval Club in London, reviews an account she wrote of the disappearance and presumed drowning of young Sonya Dufrette twenty-five years earlier, which occurred while Antonia was vacationing, along with the child’s parents, at a country manor, and finding something amiss in her report, she decides to investigate the incident further.

F RANKIN MYSTERY
Rankin, Ian. Bleeding hearts : a novel. 1st American ed. New York : Little, Brown, 2006.

Who would dare double-cross an assassin who had been hired to kill a TV reporter? That’s what Michael Weston, the gun for hire, wanted to know. Now, with the cops on his tail, he’s trying to find out who his anonymous employer is and how the police knew exactly where to find him. While he’s at it, he also wants to know why the employer wanted the reporter dead. A lot of questions for a man who’s paid well to do his job and ask no questions!

F ROBB MYSTERY
Robb, J. D., 1950-. Born in death. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.

Although technology has advanced in 2060 New York City, the process for childbirth remains the same. Despite Lt. Eve Dallas’ caseload, her pregnant friend Mavis needs a big favor. Tandy Willowby, a mom-to-be from Mavis’ expectant mother’s class, has gone missing just days before her due date. It’s up to Eve to track the woman down while tracing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city’s richest, most secretive citizens, in a race against a vicious killer.

F ROSENBERG
Rosenberg, Joel C., 1967-. The copper scroll. Carol Stream, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, c2006.

In 1956, it was announced that another Dead Sea Scroll had been found, unlike any before it, describing unimaginable treasures buried in the hills east of Jerusalem, and under the Holy City itself. Some scholars came to believe the Copper Scroll could be history’s greatest treasure map, one that could lead to the discovery of the Second Temple treasures and the building of the Third Jewish Temple. But the scroll’s code has never been broken, and experts from all sides warn that any effort to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem would unleash a war of biblical proportions. Now, fifty years later, Saddam Hussein is gone, Yasser Arafat is dead, a new Iraq is rising. But so, too, is a new evil, and now White House advisors Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy find themselves facing a terrifying new threat triggered by an ancient mystery.—From publisher description.

F SETTERFIELD
Setterfield, Diane. The thirteenth tale : a novel. New York : Atria Books, 2006.

Margaret Lea, who works in her father’s bookshop, has a fascination for the biographies of the long-dead. When she gets a letter from the mysterious and reclusive famous author Vida Winter asking Margaret to write about her extraordinary life, Margaret is thrilled. Traveling to Yorkshire to meet Vida, she’s captivated by Vida’s storytelling, but doesn’t entirely believe some of it. What Margaret discovers on her journey to confirm the truth is for her a chilling and transforming experience.

F SPENCERFLEMING MYSTERY
Spencer-Fleming, Julia. All mortal flesh. 1st ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/Saint Martins Minotaur, 2006.

Police Chief Russ van Alstyne carefully contains his feelings for the Rev. Clare Fergusson. Or, so he thinks. He’s also taken by surprise when he becomes the prime suspect after his wife is found murdered in their home. To the state police, it’s an open-and-shut case. Yet, nothing is as it seems in the small Adirondack town where betrayal twists old friendships and evil waits inside white-clapboard farmhouses. Russ and Clare struggle against the reach of the law, the authority of the church, and their own guilty hearts.

F SYMONS MYSTERY
Symons, Julian, 1912-. The detections of Francis Quarles. 1st ed. Norfolk, VA : Crippen & Landru Publishers, c2006.

In 1950 for a series of short stories for London’s Evening Standard newspaper, Julian Symons invented Private Detective Francis Quarles. After engaging in mysterious activities during the Second World War, Quarles opened an office in Trafalgar Square from where he investigates puzzles ranging from robbery to murder. Contains 42 previously uncollected stories.

F TANNENBAUM
Tanenbaum, Robert. Counterplay. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York : Atria Books, 2006.

Would-be mayor Andrew Kane has escaped from prison with plans to kill Butch Karp and his family. As the Karp’s scramble to come up with a plan to keep themselves safe, they have no idea that Kane’s strategy is to join forces with a terrorist group and organize an attack on New York City. As always, ‘Counterplay’ is filled with Tanenbaum’s trademark twists and turns in the plot, resulting in another riveting page- turner.

F TOLKIN
Tolkin, Michael. The return of the player. 1st ed. New York : [S.l.] : Grove Press ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2006.

Studio executive Griffin Mill has one desperate plan to quit the studio and convince Phil Ginsberg, an almost billionaire who aspires to “really savage wealth,” to become his partner.

F TRIGIANI
Trigiani, Adriana. Home to Big Stone Gap : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2006.

Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney returns to her beloved Big Stone Gap, Virginia, after attending the wedding of her daughter in Italy and, feeling a need to fill the void of being an empty-nester, agrees to direct the town musical, a production of “The Sound of Music” starring local talent from the past and present.

F WALTER
Walter, Jess, 1965-. The Zero : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Regan, c2006.

Hero cop Brian Remy awakes to find he has shot himself in the head and the world around him has changed, with a devastating terrorist attack destroying the city and a dominating mayor trying to ruin what is left and a new girlfriend he doesn’t know and a son who pretends he’s dead trying to rule his life.

F WEINER
Weiner, Jennifer. The guy not taken : stories. 1st Atria Books hardcover ed. New York : Atria Books, 2006.

This collection brings together 12 short stories, many never before published. The title short, ‘The Guy Not Taken’, was featured in Glamour and soon after was optioned by DreamWorks SKG. Other titles include: ‘Good Men’, a prequel to ‘Good in Bed’; and ‘Just Desserts’, a tale of siblings coming to terms with their father’s sudden departure, as well as nine others.

F WEISBERGER
Weisberger, Lauren, 1977-. The Devil wears Prada. 1st Broadway Books trade pbk. ed. New York : Broadway Books, 2004, c2003.

The author, a former assistant to the editor-in-chief of Vogue, fictionalizes her experiences in this novel about a small-town girl who goes to work for a New York-based magazine called Runway.

F WOODS MYSTERY
Woods, Stuart. Short straw. New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.

Readers are reintroduced to attorney Ed Eagle, who had married Barbara Kennerly, whose sister had murdered her husband and framed another man for the crime. He found out the hard way that he should have trusted his intuition about Barbara when he awoke one morning and discovered she had vanished along with the money from his bank, business, and brokerage accounts. To add insult to injury, the private investigators he’d hired had discovered that one of Ed’s new clients was possibly involved in Barbara’s plot.

F WOZENCRAFT
Wozencraft, Kim. The Devil’s backbone. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, 2006.

Sisters Kit and Jenny could not be more different. Jenny is the dutiful one, following in her father’s footsteps to become a Texas cop. Kit is the rebellious one, hiding from her past and working as a stripper. One sister’s murder leads to the other’s investigation of it and into a world more deadly than she can imagine.

F YARBRO
Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn, 1942-. Roman dusk : a novel of the Count Saint-Germain. 1st ed. New York : Tor, 2006.

During Rome’s waning days, the vampire Ragoczy Germanius Sanct’ Franciscus, already subject to extra taxes and regulations because he is a foreigner, falls under the maleficent eye of Telemachus Batsho, a minor functionary who dreams of power and wealth. When Franciscus thwarts his attempts to extort ever-increasing sums from a young Roman of good birth, Batsho swears revenge. Franciscus finds his activities closely monitored and is accused of treason and conspiracy. His friends, threatened with similar scrutiny, abandon him to Batsho’s mercies or urge him to leave the Eternal City.


NON-FICTION:

158.2 GOL
Goleman, Daniel. Social intelligence : the new science of human relationships. New York : Bantam Books, 2006.

Goleman brings to life the entirely new field of social neuroscience. He shows that, far more than we are consciously aware, our daily encounters with parents, spouses, bosses, and even strangers shape our brains and affect cells throughout our bodies. Our relationships create a setpoint for our daily moods and influence our immune response. No matter why you read this book, you will never see your relationships in the same way again.

271 MUL
Mullins, Edwin B. Cluny : in search of God’s lost empire. New York : BlueBridge, 2006.

A thousand years ago, the French abbey of Cluny was the hub of one of the most powerful empires of the Middle Ages and the spiritual heart of Europe. Cluny was a Benedictine monastery in Burgundy, its church a breathtaking structure of towers, roofs, walls, and windows almost 600 feet long and 100 feet high, a true wonder of the world. Reconstructing the lives, beliefs, and ambitions of Cluny’s countless monks and legendary abbots, such as Hugh the Great and Peter the Venerable, this book discusses the abbey and its network of dependent monasteries in the context of medieval European history. Exploring a monastery like no other, this historical account investigates Cluny’s enduring legacy through the great cultural innovations that the abbey sponsored, from the famous medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela to some of the most magnificent churches in all of France and England.

277.3 LAN
Lanham, Robert. The sinner’s guide to the evangelical right. New York : New American Library, 2006.

The author of The Hipster Handbook brings his brand of sardonic wit and caricature assassination to bear on all things evangelical. Like all great satire, the book is cerebral, irreverent and hilarious, while also edifying in introducing the characters, vocabulary and complex political and social network loosely referred to as the Christian right. Lanham skillfully navigates the “Evangophobe” through the treacherous waters of Colorado Springs (“the Evangelical Vatican”); goes after leaders like Jerry Falwell, whose health, Lanham writes, “has been declining ever since he got shrapnel in his leg from the war on Christmas”; and explains the megachurch phenomenon, where congregations approaching 20,000 people can contribute $6 million annually. Readers familiar with Lanham’s style will immediately recognize his self-deprecating irony and indomitably hip sensibility. Publisher’s Weekly

299 CAS
Castaneda, Carlos, 1931-. The active side of infinity. 1stHarperPerennial ed. New York : HarperPerennial, 2000, c1998.

Carolos Castaneda presents a collection of the memorable events of his life, gathered on recommendation of don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman from Mexico who attempted over the course of thirteen years to introduce Castaneda to the cognitive world of the shamans of ancient times.

306.0973 ORE
O’Reilly, Bill. Culture warrior. 1st ed. New York : Broadway Books, c2006.

Bill O’Reilly argues that America is in the midst of a fierce cultural war between those who embrace traditional values and those who want America to become a self-progressive country and explores how this conflict is redefining American culture in the twenty-first century.

322 DAN
Danforth, John C. Faith and politics : how the “moral values” debate divides America and how to move forward together. New York : Viking, 2006.

Former U.S. Republican senator and Episcopal priest John Danforth argues that the growing role religion is playing in the United States government is having a negative impact on the American people and explains why he believes the government leaders need to stop using their religious beliefs to justify their political decisions.

345.766 GRI
Grisham, John. The innocent man. New York : Doubleday, c2006.

Grisham’s first nonfiction book has all the points of a bestselling thriller. How did Ron Williamson go from a major league draft in 1971 to death row for the murder of a 21-year-old cocktail waitress? If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, it will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, it will infuriate you.

618.1 SOM
Somers, Suzanne, 1946-. Ageless : bioidentical hormones and beyond. 1st ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2006.

‘Ageless’ can be seen as an arsenal of tools to take control of the aging process, enabling you to enhance every aspect of your life. Somers’ apparently ceaseless quest for cutting-edge information has filled this book with helpful suggestions about everything from sleep problems and stress to herbs and alternative medicine.

620 SAR
Sargent, Ted, 1973-. The dance of molecules : how nanotechnology is changing our lives. New York : [Berkeley, Calif.] : Thunder’s Mouth Press ; Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2006.

Presents an introduction to nanotechnology, explaining how developments in all disciplines of science are being revolutionized by this technology.

641.6 ALB
Albert, Susan Wittig. China Bayles’ book of days : 365 celebrations of the mystery, myth, and magic of herbs from the world of Pecan Springs. Berkley Prime Crime trade pbk. ed. New York : Berkley Prime Crime, c2006.

Featuring 365 days of recipes, crafts, gardening tips, remedies, and more, this special volume is a personal calendar of the legends and lore of herbs and also features brand-new essays from the mystery author Albert, clues from China’s mysteries, and some special contributions by the irrepressible members of the Myra Merryweather Herb Guild, Pecan Springs’s oldest civic organization.

641.8 ZUC
Zuckerman, Kate. The sweet life : desserts from Chanterelle. 1st ed. New York : Bulfinch Press, 2006.

Zuckerman, pastry chef at New York’s famed Chanterelle restaurant, combines aesthetics and science in this appetizing look at the hows and whys of baking. Providing detailed instruction throughout, she guides the cook through the process of creating the dessert while explaining the chemical reactions taking place when ingredients interact. Zuckerman details the intricacies of tart making, offering a variety of standard recipes such as hazelnut, sweet and flaky. Her selections of cakes are enticing, with her Goat Cheesecake Enrobed in Hazelnut Brittle bordering on the sublime. Throughout, she elucidates the basics-e.g., why some cookie recipes require additional baking soda and how an acid aids in the foaming of egg whites. Zuckerman also offers a wealth of cookie recipes and a mouth-watering array of custards, puddings, crèmes and mousses. Soufflé-making techniques are explained so simply that even the baking novice will feel empowered to make an attempt. Zuckerman also devotes sections to ice creams and frozen desserts, roasted fruits and edible garnishes. Publisher’s Weekly

649 LEV
Levine, Madeline. The price of privilege : how parental pressure and material advantage are creating a generation of disconnected and unhappy kids. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2006.

The author examines the rise of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse among privileged adolescents; and identifies specific parenting practices that have contributed to these issues.

801 DOC
Doctorow, E. L., 1931-. Creationists : selected essays, 1993-2006. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2006.

‘Creationists’ offers a collection of essays by E. L. Doctorow that explore the nature of imaginative thought, considering the many forms of creativity and the subjects that have tested his own imagination.

813 KAR
Karon, Jan, 1937-. The Mitford bedside companion. New York : Viking, 2006.

This volume features the best of the best of Mitford favorites, from scenes, to casts of characters, to favorite prayers and, of course, Uncle Billy’s quotes. It is also sprinkled with Karon’s original essays.

920 STU
Stuart, Amanda Mackenzie. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt : the story of a daughter and a mother in the Gilded Age. 1st ed. New York : Harper Collins Publishers, [2006].

Stuart chronicles the lives of Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt, focusing on how the two women struggled to break free of the deeply materialistic world into which they were born and fight for female equality.

921 BAKER
Baker, James Addison, 1930-. “Work hard, study—and keep out of politics!” : adventures and lessons from an unexpected public life. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2006.

James Baker offers a behind-the-scenes look at American politics over the last thirty-five years, chronicling his political career as White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and campaign chairman or leader for three different candidates.

921 BRYSON
Bryson, Bill. The life and times of the thunderbolt kid : a memoir. New York : Broadway Books, c2006.

Using his old fantasy-life persona as a springboard, Bryson re-creates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of Bill Bryson’s inimitable, pitch-perfect observations.

921 CAESAR
Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith. Caesar : life of a colossus. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2006.

As Adrian Goldsworthy writes in the introduction to this book, “in his fifty-six years, Caesar was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator . . . as well as husband, father, lover and adulterer.” In this landmark biography, Goldsworthy examines all of these roles and places his subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C.Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Caesar’s life from birth through assassination, Goldsworthy covers not only Caesar’s accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult, captive of pirates, seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals, and rebel condemned by his own country. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar’s character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some two thousand years later.

921 EDWARDS
Edwards, Elizabeth, 1949-. Saving graces : finding solace and strength from friends and strangers. 1st ed. New York : Broadway Books, c2006.

The breast cancer diagnosis Edwards received on November 3, 2004, is dismayingly common. Uncommon, however, is the timing and the circumstances surrounding it. Wife of the vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Edwards’s discovery of the lump on her breast came the day after the election and subsequent defeat of the Kerry-Edwards ticket. This mixture of the common and the uncommon, of the everyday and the extraordinary, defines Edwards and her life. A lawyer, mother of a grown daughter and two young children, and the wife of a politician, Edwards is both an optimist and a realist with the ability to laugh at herself. Yet she has had to endure a parent’s worst nightmare the death of her teenage son, Wade, in a car accident. In the end, however, Edwards’s memoir is not about cancer, politics or even unbearable loss (though the description of her grief is heart-wrenching). It’s about the value of people coming together to support each other. Publisher’s Weekly

921 JAFFREY
Jaffrey, Madhur. Climbing the mango trees : a memoir of a childhood in India. 1st American ed. New York : Knopf, 2006.

When she was born, her grandmother carefully spelled out the minute word “Om” in honey on her tongue, and she was given the name “Madhur,” literally “sweet as honey.” This future food writer and actress writes about her life in pre-Partition Delhi with fondness, filling page after page with vivid memories of childhood outings and sweet yogurt treats, allowing us to freely sample the tastes and texture of an India now gone.

921 KAISER
Kaiser, Martin L. Odyssey of an eavesdropper : my life in electronic countermeasures and my battle against the FBI. 1st Carroll & Graf ed. New York : Carroll & Graf Publishers ; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2005.

A top surveillance expert traces his life from an abusive childhood in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town to a premier producer of electronic surveillance devices.

921 MENDELSOHN
Mendelsohn, Daniel Adam, 1960-. The lost : a search for six of six million. New York : HarperCollins Publishers, c2006.

The author shares the story of his quest to learn the fate of six relatives who died in the Holocaust, telling of his discovery of a cache of letters that chronicled his great uncle Shmiel’s desperate attempts to get himself, his wife, and four daughters out of Poland prior to World War II, and discussing the effects of the investigation on his relationships with his family and religion.

921 STREISAND
Andersen, Christopher P. Barbra : the way she is. 1st ed. New York : Morrow, c2006.

Andersen chronicles the life and career of legendary performer Barbra Streisand, discussing her childhood, early career, marriage to James Brolin, failed love affairs, friendship with President Clinton, career achievements, personal struggles, and other related topics.

921 TAYLOR
Taraborrelli, J. Randy. Elizabeth. 1st ed. New York : Warner Books, 2006.

Taraborrelli explores the life of legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, exploring how she evolved from a child star to an American icon, describing her childhood, film roles, relationships with other stars, personal challenges, and other related topics.

921 THOMAS
Thomas, Abigail. A three dog life. 1st ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.

Author Abigail Thomas shares the story of how she started a new life after an accident left her husband brain damaged and institutionalized.

944 MAY
Mayle, Peter. Provence A-Z. New York : Knopf, 2006.

This is hardly a conventional work of reference. It is rather a selection of those aspects of Provence that Mayle in his almost 20 years there has found to be the most interesting, curious, delicious, or downright fun. This book is a delight for Mayle’s ever-growing audience and the perfect complement to any guidebook on Provence, or, for that matter, France.

973 OBA
Obama, Barack. The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream. 1st ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2006.

Senator Barak Obama addresses twenty-first century politics in the United States, commenting on economic insecurities of citizens, race, religion, terrorism, threat of a pandemic, and other related issues.

973.931 RIC
Rich, Frank. The greatest story every sold : the decline andfall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina. New York : Penguin Press, 2006.

Frank Rich examines White House propaganda from the September 11, 2006 terrorist attacks through Hurricane Katrina, arguing that the Bush administration fabricated and put a spin on events and statements in order to receive public support. This title includes a time line that compares administration spin to actual events.

973.931 WOO
Woodward, Bob. State of denial. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006.

Woodward takes readers on an inside journey from the start of the Iraq War through the present, providing a detailed, authoritative account of the President’s leadership, and the struggles among his men and women in the White House, the Pentagon, CIA and State Department. He puts the Bush legacy in historical context as he shows this presidency in action that is normally seen only years after the president has left office and offers a full view of the first presidency of the 21st century.

973.931092 BOE
Boehlert, Eric. Lapdogs : how the press rolled over for Bush. New York : Free Press, c2006.

‘Lapdogs’ is the first book to demonstrate that, for the entire George W. Bush presidency, the news media have utterly failed in their duty as watchdog for the public. In blistering prose, Eric Boehlert reveals how, time after time, the press chose a soft approach to covering the government, and as a result reported and analyzed crucial events incompletely and even inaccurately. From WMDs to Valerie Plame to the NSA’s domestic spying, mainstream fixtures such as The New York Times, CBS, CNN, and Time magazine too often ignored the administration’s missteps and misleading words, and did not call out the public officials who betrayed the country’s trust. Throughout both presidential campaigns and the entire Iraq war to date, the media acted as a virtual mouthpiece for the White House, giving watered-down coverage of major policy decisions, wartime abuses of power, and egregious mistakes—and sometimes these events never made it into the news at all. Finally, in Lapdogs, the press is being held accountable by one of its own.

989.2 GIM
Gimlette, John, 1963-. At the tomb of the inflatable pig : travels through Paraguay. New York : Vintage Departures, 2005.

John Gimlette’s eye-opening book - equal parts travelogue, history, and unorthodox travel guide - breaches the boundaries of this isolated land and illuminates a little-understood place and its people.” Filled with bizarre incident, fascinating anecdote, and richly evocative detail, At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig is a description of a country of eccentricity and contradiction, of beguilingly individualistic men and women, and of unexpected and extraordinary beauty. It is a vivid, often riotous, always fascinating journey. From the Publisher


MEDIA:

CD 974.7 LEP
Lepore, Jill, 1966-. New York burning : liberty, slavery, and conspiracy in eighteenth-century Manhattan. Abridged. Minneapolis, MN : HighBridge, c2005.

Lepore presents a history of the 1741 slave rebellion that nearly destroyed New York City, and describes the conviction of over one hundred men and women who were either burned at the stake, hanged, or imprisoned and the social and political climate of the 1730s and 1740s.

DVD 614.5 TYP
Typhoid Mary, the most dangerous woman in America. [Boston, Mass.] : WGBH Educational Foundation, c2005.

In 1906 in America it was first discovered that humans could transmit typhoid fever. This is a dramatization of the outbreak and a profile of Irish cook Mary Mallon, known as ‘Typhoid Mary’. Quarantined against her will, the story reveals the newfound power of health officials to protect the masses, often at the expense of personal liberties.

DVD 920 AFT
After the fog : interviews with combat veterans. Barnet, VT : Kingdom County Productions, 2006.

‘After the Fog’ chronicles the dramatic experiences of ten U.S. combat veterans, most of them Vermonters. Together, these former soldiers provide a vivid, detailed, emotionally charged, and highly personal picture of military recruitment, training, combat, and reintegration into civilian life. Their collective experiences include combat in World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq.

Please note: Some of the book descriptions have been excerpted from Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. They are most often based on Publisher's descriptions. Sources such as Booklist, the New York Times Book Reviews, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus and others are specifically identified.