New books and media for July 08

FICTION

F ANDERSON
Anderson, Kevin J. Hidden empire. New York : Orbit, c2007.
Humans have colonized the worlds of the Spiral Arm and the rest of the galaxy seems to be theirs for the taking. . .However, the Jovian worlds are home to an alien species. The victims of unintentional genocide, the advanced hydogues aren’t looking for an apology or reparations when they launch their warships on a single mission to annihilate every last human in the universe.

F BINCHY LP
Binchy, Maeve. Circle of friends. Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, 2007.
It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny - the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve - the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother’s wealthy family to be raised by nuns. Eve and Benny - they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager’s lace curtains...except their own. It widened at Dublin, at the university where Benny and Eve met beautiful Nan Mahlon and Jack Foley, a doctor’s handsome son. .

F BREEN
Breen, Susan. The fiction class. New York : Plume, c2008.
Author Arabella Hicks struggles to connect with the students in her weekly fiction class and begins to suspect her problems are stemming from her unresolved feelings towards her mother, until Arabella learns her mother has always dreamed of being an author and Arabella is inspired to try and help her fulfill that dream.

F CATES
Cates, Kimberly. The wedding dress. Don Mills, Ont. : Harlequin, c2007.
Jared Butler has sold the movie rights to his book about the legendary Lady Aislinn to secure the funds necessary to continue his dig at her castle. Unfortunately, he also has to host the actress who wants to immerse herself in this corner of Scotland so she can play Lady Aislinn with some authenticity. Weary of being known only as Jade Star, action hero, Emma is anxious to begin preparing for her newest role. She is stunned to discover that Dr. Jared Butler is not a small nerdy man in tweed, but rather a large, craggy, and very surly Scot. Jared thinks she is beautiful, but is certain that she is also a stereotypical spoiled Hollywood diva. But as Emma reveals her true self, Jared lets her into his own personal turmoil. (from Booklist).

F CHIAVERINI LP
Chiaverini, Jennifer. The New Year’s quilt : an Elm Creek quilts novel. Detroit : Thorndike Press, c2007.
As Sylvia, a late-in-life newlywed, has discovered, love can enter our lives at any age. Yet before she can truly delight in her present happiness, she must face the sorrow hidden in her past—her own role in the tragic circumstances that left her estranged from her sister, Claudia, until it was too late to make amends.

F CHILD
Child, Lee. Nothing to lose : a Jack Reacher novel. New York : Delacorte Press, c2008.
Jack Reacher proves the truth of the old adage about the dangers of a man with nothing to lose when he walks the twelve miles between the towns of Hope and Despair looking for a cup of coffee only to encounter hostility, a vagrancy charge, and an order to move on.

F CRANDALL
Crandall, Susan. A kiss in winter. New York : Warner Books, 2007.
Six years ago, tragedy struck and Caroline Rogers had to make tough decisions to sell the family farm and put her life on hold to raise her younger siblings. Now that they’re entering adulthood and her long-delayed photography career is taking off, she can almost taste the freedom. Shaken by self-doubt, Dr. Mick Larsen turns his back on his big-city psychiatric practice and settles for the small-town quiet of Redbud Mill, where he can hide his past successes and failures. To Caroline, he shows only a man who wants to put down roots and start a family - good reasons for her to stay away. Then someone starts vandalizing local landmarks she has photographed.

F CRANDALL
Crandall, Susan. On Blue Falls Pond. New York : Warner Forever, c2006.
When her grandmother develops macular degeneration, Glory Harrison reluctantly returns to the small Tennessee town where she had lost her husband and unborn daughter in a deadly fire. Feeling protective, Glory is dismayed to find that Eric Wilson, the fire chief who saved her life, is leaving his strange little boy, Scott, with Gran, and worries that Eric is taking advantage of her. As Glory tries to come to terms with her tragedy and the suppressed memories of events leading up to it, Eric has to deal with the realization that Scott may have some very serious developmental or mental issues. Eric’s ex-wife refuses to believe anything is wrong with Scott, and even though she doesn’t want Eric herself, she doesn’t want him to find anyone else. (from Booklist).

F CUSSLER
Cussler, Clive. Plague ship : a novel of the Oregon files. New York, NY : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2008.
For four novels, Clive Cussler has charted the exploits of the Oregon, a covert ship completely dilapidated on the outside but, on the inside, packed with sophisticated weaponry and intelligence-gathering equipment. Captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo and manned by a crew of former military and spy personnel, it is a private enterprise, available for any government agency that can afford it. . .The crew has just completed a top secret mission against Iran in the Persian Gulf, when they come across a cruise ship adrift in the sea. Hundreds of bodies litter its deck, and as Cabrillo tries to determine what happened, explosions rack the length of the ship. Barely able to escape with his own life and that of the liner’s sole survivor, Cabrillo finds himself plunged into a mystery as intricate - and as perilous - as any he has ever known, and pitted against a cult with monstrously lethal plans for the human race . . .plans he may already be too late to stop.

F DE LOS SANTOS
De los Santos, Marisa. Belong to me : a novel. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2008.
Cornelia Brown willingly gives up her urban life to move with her husband, Teo, to the suburbs, where she struggles to form friendships with her judgmental neighbor and a kindred soul who helps Cornelia overcome the loneliness that seems to be consuming her.

F DOOLY
Dooly, Paige Winship. Sweet home Alabama : one anonymous love poem mistakenly finds its way into four couples’ lives. c2006.
An anonymous, old-fashioned love note-a literature student’s homework assignment-has been misplaced by its author. Jason finds the love note and mistakenly believes his new employee, Nicole, is hopelessly infatuated with him. When Zak finds the note on his tool cart at the garage, he’s convinced Ellen’s snobby friends and wealthy parents no longer pose an obstacle and plots an all-out strategy to win her heart. A matchmaking sister uses the note to ignite romance between Samantha and friend Garrett. And the note causes a collision of mistaken identity for Callie and Darryl and results in true love for two lonely souls.

F EVANOVICH
Evanovich, Janet. Fearless fourteen. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2008.
Stephanie Plum, a bond enforcement agent, takes a job from security expert Carlos Manoso, but her boyfriend, Joe Morelli, a police officer who is looking for his cousins, Dom and Loretta Rizzi, who are suspects in a bank robbery, thinks she should be spending her nights with him.

F FAULKS
Faulks, Sebastian. Devil may care. 1st ed. in the U.S.A. New York : Doubleday, c2008.
James Bond is recalled from sabbatical in Rome in the late 1960s after the brutal murder of an Algerian drug runner throws suspicion on the activities of Dr. Julius Gorner, a pharmaceutical magnate whose intense interest in opiate derivatives is setting off alarms in Britain and around the world.

F FOER
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely loud & incredibly close. 1st Mariner Books ed. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2006, c2005.
Follows nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he encounters a number of interesting characters in his search for information about his father who died in the World Trade Tower and tries to find the lock that fits the mysterious key his father had.

F FULTON
Fulton, Alice. The nightingales of Troy : stories of one family’s century. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, c2008.
These 10 linked short stories by MacArthur fellow Fulton track the lives of four generations of women from Troy, N.Y., where “love comes to die.” (from Publishers Weekly).

F GALCHEN
Galchen, Rivka. Atmospheric disturbances. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2008.
The well-ordered life of psychoanalyst Leo Liebenstein has been lent color and quirky charm by his exotic flower of a wife, Buenos Aires-born Rema. But panic and disorientation set in one day when, upon the most dubious of subliminal clues, Leo decides she has been replaced by a “simulacrum,” an imposter who, for reasons unknown, has taken the place of the real Rema.

F GERRITSEN LP
Gerritsen, Tess. The bone garden : a novel. Doubleday large print home library ed. New York : Ballantine Books, c2007.
Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil—human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, medical student Norris Marshall has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”—those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. But when a distinguished doctor is found murdered and mutilated on university grounds, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

F GRAHAM
Graham, Heather. The death dealer. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2008.
Genevieve O’Brien enlists the help of private investigator Joe Connolly, who had recently saved her from a killer and for whom she has romantic feelings, to solve a series of murders in which the victims were all fans of Edgar Allan Poe.

F GREEN
Green, Jane. The beach house. New York : Viking, c2008.
Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn’t care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldn’t she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes. So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly, people start moving into the house, filling it with noise, with laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside-down.

F GROFF
Groff, Lauren. The monsters of Templeton. 1st ed. New York : Hyperion, c2008.
Willie Upton returns to her hometown of Templeton, New York, pregnant and ousted from a prestigious archaeology program for carrying on an affair with her married professor.

F HAMILTON
Hamilton, Laurell K. Blood noir. 1st ed. New York : Berkley Books, c2008.
Vampire hunter Anita Blake, agreeing to accompany her friend, and sometimes lover, werewolf Jason Schulyer to his dying father’s bedside, is unaware that Jean-Claude’s ability to sense danger has been suppressed and Marmme Noir is planning to attack her.

F HART
Hart, John. The king of lies. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, c2006.
Jackson Workman “Work” Pickens, a criminal defense attorney in a class-conscious southern town, has come to hate his profession and his life, with the burdens of a bad marriage, psychologically damaged sister, and missing father weighing him down, but he is shocked out of his inertia when his father’s corpse is found and Work becomes the prime suspect in the murder.

F HARVEY
Harvey, John. Flesh & blood. 1st Harvest ed. Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2006.
Fifteen years ago Susan Blacklock disappeared. Although Detective Inspector Frank Elder has taken early retirement, the case still plagues his mind. Prime suspects Shane Donald and Alan McKiernan were convicted a year later of the brutal rape and murder of a young girl, and now that Shane has been granted parole, Elder feels compelled to revisit his past.

F HEIGHTON
Heighton, Steven. Afterlands : a novel. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c2006.
Heighton revisits the catastrophe of the 1871 Polaris expedition, in which 19 members of the crew were cast adrift on the ice off the coast of Greenland. Using the historical record to ground his fictional recounting of what happened once these men, women, and children were accidentally separated from the ship, he then allows his imagination to supply the stories behind the tension that drove the small group apart. (from Booklist).

F HOLT
Holt, Anne. What never happens. 1st American ed. New York : Grand Central Pub., c2008.
Oslo police detectives Adam Stubo and his wife Johanne Vik, busy caring for their newborn, reluctantly join in the investigation of a serial killer who appears to be seeking retribution against celebrities—a case that reminds Johanne of one she worked on as an FBI agent and that she has tried to forget ever since.

F JENOFF
Jenoff, Pam. The kommandant’s girl. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2007.
Nineteen-year-old Emma Bau takes on a new identity after her husband, Jacob, is forced to disappear to escape Nazi forces, leaving Emma behind to face the atrocities of war and deny her growing attraction to another man.

F JOHNSON
Johnson, Jane. The tenth gift : a novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2008.
Julia Lovat travels to Morocco to try and learn more about Catherine Ann Treganna, a young seventeenth-century woman whose diary Julia has discovered, and in the course of her journey, Julia finds long-buried secrets and a surprising love that will change her life forever.

F KANE
Kane, Andrea. Dark room. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2007.
Morgan Winter, after the trauma of discovering her parents’ corpses as a child, has rebuilt her life and established a high-class matchmaking service in Manhattan. Winter’s world is rocked when the man who confessed to the murders is exonerated, and the inquiry is reopened. Fortunately, Pete Montgomery, who was the lead NYPD detective on the case and is now a PI, accepts the assignment of solving the decades-old crimes. Lending assistance is Montgomery’s photojournalist son, Lane, whose contacts in the intelligence community prove useful. (from Publishers Weekly).

F KEILLOR LP
Keillor, Garrison. Pontoon : a Lake Wobegon novel. Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, c2007.
Having learned that her Lutheran mother lived a secret life full of pleasure, Barbara decides to honor the dead woman by scattering her ashes over Lake Wobegon.

F LE
Le, Nam. The boat. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, c2008.
Stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea. . .(from the publisher, edited).

F LEWIS
Lewis, Pam. Perfect family. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2008.
William Carteret opens a Pandora’s box of family secrets when he begins investigating the mysterious death of one of his younger sisters, uncovering shocking secrets about his late mother, his beloved sister, and even his own past.

F LIVESEY
Livesey, Margot. The house on fortune street : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Harper, c2008.
Abigail, an actress who believes that everyone has a book or writer who is the key to their life, proves the truth of that axiom as her relationship with her academic boyfriend falls apart after the arrival of an anonymous letter claiming she has been unfaithful, and her best friend and tenant Dara is unsettled by attempts by her distant father Cameron to reconcile.

F NOTARO
Notaro, Laurie. There’s a (slight) chance I might be going to Hell : a novel of sewer pipes, pageant queens, and big trouble. New York : Villard, c2007.
When Maye Roberts’s husband, Charlie, gets a tenure-track job at prestigious Spaulding University, childless, 30-something Maye leaves her tight-knit group of friends and job as a Phoenix reporter to move to the school’s eponymous Washington State burg. While Charlie fits in easily, Maye, after a faculty dinner run-in with Dean Spaulding’s wife, Rowena, feels lonely and bored. When she learns about the Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a local tradition that guarantees the winner a town full of friends, she enters with her singing dog, inflaming Rowena further. As tensions thicken, Maye’s rather notorious pageant sponsor, Ruby, may hold the key to Rowena’s continuing rage and to the decades-old incident that sparked it. (from Publishers Weekly).

F OLSEN
Olsen, Gregg. A wicked snow. New York : Pinnacle Books, c2007.
California crime scene investigator Hannah Griffin, a happily married mother of one, is forced to confront the horror of her past when she receives a message that seems to indicate her mother—the prime suspect in a mass murder twenty years earlier—is still alive.

F PALAHNIUK
Palahniuk, Chuck. Snuff. 1st ed. New York : Doubleday, c2008.
Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room.

F PARKER
Parker, Robert B.. Resolution. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2008.
After the bloody confrontation in Appaloosa, Everett Hitch heads into the afternoon sun and ends up in Resolution, an Old West town so new the dust has yet to settle. It’s the kind of town that doesn’t have much in the way of commerce, except for a handful of saloons and some houses of ill repute. Hitch takes a job as lookout at Amos Wolfson’s Blackfoot Saloon and quickly establishes his position as protector of the ladies who work the backrooms - as well as a man unafraid to stand up to the enforcer sent down from the O’Malley copper mine. . .tensions continue to mount, so that even the self-assured Hitch is relieved by the arrival in town of his friend Virgil Cole. When greedy mine owner Eamon O’Malley threatens the loose coalition of local ranchers and starts buying up Resolution’s few businesses, Hitch and Cole find themselves in the middle of a makeshift war between O’Malley’s men and the ranchers. In a place where law and order don’t exist, Hitch and Cole must make their own, guided by their sense of duty, honor, and friendship. (from the publisher, edited).

F PATTERSON
Patterson, James. Sail. 1st ed. New York : Little, Brown, c2008.
Since the death of her husband, Anne Dunne and her three children have struggled in every way. In a last ditch effort to save the family, Anne plans an elaborate sailing vacation to bring everyone together once again. But only an hour out of port, everything is going wrong.

F REAVES
Reaves, Michael. Mr. Twilight. New York : Del Rey/Ballantine Books, c2006.
This tale combines the mystical and the mysterious, the supernatural and the primitive, in a rich, steamy brew of otherworldly adventure.

F RENDELL
Rendell, Ruth. Not in the flesh : a Wexford novel. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Crown Publishers, c2008.
In Not in the Flesh, Chief Inspector Wexford tries to piece together events that took place eleven years earlier, a time when someone was secretly interred in a secluded patch of English countryside. Now Wexford and his team will need to interrogate everyone who lives nearby to see if they can turn up a match for the dead man among the eighty-five people in this part of England who have disappeared over the past decade. Then, when a second body is discovered nearby, Wexford experiences a feeling that’s become a rarity for the veteran policeman: surprise.

F RIFKIN
Rifkin, Sherri. LoveHampton : a novel. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Griffin, c2008.
Television producer Tori Miller has until Labor Day to save her reputation, after a summer in the Hamptons led the thirty-something down a glamorous path, entangling her in complicated romantic situations and breaking too many of the Hampton’s unwritten social rules.

F ROBERTS
Roberts, Nora. Valley of silence. Jove mass-market ed. New York : Jove Books, c2006.
A circle of six, including Irish sorcerer Hoyt, his vampire twin Cian, the witch Glenna, the warrior Blair, shape-shifter Larkin, and the scholar Moira—who has traveled through time to claim her rightful place as queen of the ancient kingdom Geall—band together to fight the evil queen Lilith and her vampire army in a battle that will determine the fate of the world, while Cian and Moira struggle to deny their passion for each other.

F ROBERTS LP
Roberts, Nora. Angels Fall. Large print ed. Detroit : Large Print Press, c2007.
Reece Gilmore has come a long way to see the stunning view below her. As the sole survivor of a brutal crime back East, she has been on the run, desperately fighting the nightmares and panic attacks that haunt her. Reece settles in Angel’s Fist, Wyoming—temporarily, at least—and takes a job at a local diner. And now she’s hiked this mountain all by herself. It was glorious, she thought, as she peered through her binoculars at the Snake River churning below. Then Reece saw the man and woman on the opposite bank. Arguing. Fighting. And suddenly, the man was on top of the woman, his hands around her throat...—From publisher description.

F ROSS
Ross, Ann B. Miss Julia strikes back. New York : Viking, c2007.
After being robbed, Miss Julia is determined to find the culprit and brings her son Lloyd, friend Etta Mae Wiggins, and private investigator Mr. Pickens along on an investigation that leads her to Palm Beach, Florida.

F SEWELL
Sewell, Kitty. Ice trap : a novel of suspense. 1st Touchstone hardcover ed. New York : Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, c2008.
At the height of his career, a British surgeon has found success in both the hospital and at home. He and his wife have everything they want out of life, except the child she longs for, the child Dr. Woodruff secretly believes he may never be ready to parent. Suddenly, the delicate equilibrium of their relationship is blown apart by the arrival of shocking news. Deep in the desolate sub-Arctic wilderness of Canada where Woodruff lived and worked years before, a woman claims he is the father of her thirteen-year-old twins. To make sense of the impossible, he must return to that frozen wilderness, where no rules and few laws apply. Leaving his shattered relationship behind, he finds that his well-guarded secrets have even deeper and more sinister layers.—From publisher description.

F SMITH
Smith, Martin Cruz. Havana bay : a novel. Ballantine Books trade pbk. ed. New York : Ballantine, c2008.
In Havana, detective Arkady Renko of the Moscow police joins forces with beautiful Ofelia of the Cuban police to investigate the murder of a Russian diplomat. The protagonists find love while the reader gets an inside look at post-Cold War Havana.

F STEEL
Steel, Danielle. Rogue. New York, N.Y. : Delacorte Press, c2008.
Having had just about enough of the gadabout ways of dot-com millionaire and perpetual Peter Pan, Blake Williams, Maxine, 42, divorced him five years ago and is raising their three children (ages 13, 12 and 6) while running a thriving psychiatric practice specializing in childhood trauma and adolescent suicide. Blake, meanwhile, is continent-hopping among houses in London, Morocco and New York, bedding nubile young things. Maxine and Blake have remained friends, but when a horrific teen suicide case leads Maxine to meet doctor and childless divorcé Charles West, she finally falls for the type of man she thinks she’s always wanted: serious, responsible and a bit stuffy. A disaster makes Blake rethink his lifestyle, however, and Maxine suddenly has a choice to make. (from Publishers Weekly).

F STEIN
Stein, Garth. The art of racing in the rain : a novel. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2008.
Enzo, the dog of professional race car driver Denny Swift, recalls the memories of his life and shares his insight into the human condition that he learned from observing his owner.

F SWAN
Swan, Mary. The boys in the trees : a novel. 1st ed. New York : Henry Holt and Co., c2008.
Residents of a small Canadian town are left to wonder if they might have been able to prevent the tragedy when William Heath, an apparently devoted husband and father, kills his wife and daughters after being accused of embezzlement by his employer.

F TAN LP
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. [Waterville, Me.] : Wheeler Pub., c2005.
In 1949 four Chinese women began meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong. They called their gathering the Joy Luck Club. Forty years later they look back and remember.

F TOLKIEN LP
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973. The hobbit, or, There and back again. Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, c2003.
Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

F WHITE
White, Randy Wayne. Black widow. New York : G.P. Putnam’s Sons, c2008.
Doc Ford agrees to help his goddaughter, Shay, who is being blackmailed by an unknown extortionist who is threatening to release a video that could destroy her future, but Doc regrets the decision when one of Shay’s friends becomes an innocent victim in a plan gone horribly wrong.

F WIGGS
Wiggs, Susan. Dockside. Don Mills, Ontario : Mira, c2007.
Nina Romano, whose daughter has grown up and left home, is excited to begin a new life of travel and freedom, and Greg Bellamy, innkeeper and single father of two, is too busy for a relationship, but the pair find themselves in love despite themselves over the course of a summer.

F WIGGS
Wiggs, Susan. Snowfall at Willow Lake. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2008.
International lawyer Sophie Bellamy returns to Willow Lake after surviving a harrowing hostage situation, hoping to reconnect with her children, and finds love with local vet Noah Shepherd, who helps Sophie rebuild her relationship with her children and rediscover the meaning of true love.

F WILDE
Wilde, Lori. There goes the bride. New York : Warner Books, c2007.
Wilde offers her take on the runaway-bride tale. Texas oil heiress and interior designer Delaney Cartwright has always followed her mother’s wishes, but now she is weeks away from her extravagant wedding to Dr. Evan Van Zandt and plotting her own kidnapping. Her fiance may be her perfect society match, but it is police detective Nick Vinetti, the grandson of a client, with whom Delaney pictures herself walking down the aisle. When she finds a beautiful veil in a consignment shop, the owner warns her it will deliver her one true wish—even if she won’t admit what that is. (from Booklist).

F WOODS
Woods, Sherryl. A slice of heaven. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2007.
South Carolina restaurateur Dana Sue Sullivan’s ex-husband, whom she threw out of the house two years earlier for his extramarital activities, arrives back in her life after their sixteen-year-old daughter has an anorexia-related heart attack.

F WOODS
Woods, Sherryl. Feels like family. Don Mills, Ont. : Mira, c2007.
At forty-two, South Carolina matrimonial lawyer Helen Decatur finds herself wanting a baby and attracted to a sexy bachelor who does not want a family.

NON-FICTION

150.22 WHE
Wheelis, Allen. The way we are. 1st ed. New York : W.W. Norton, c2006.
Allen Wheelis starts from the premise that human beings do not know themselves because deception - including self-deception - is not only a strategy for survival, it is the basis of the social contract whereby man trades his individual freedom for the security of a tribe or state. Are we really motivated by ideals such as freedom, equality, and justice?. . .This unsparing map of the human condition is presented in hypnotic prose and illustrated by vivid fictional narratives. Unsparing as it is, the book finds its way to an episode of transcendent love, for this too is part of the way we are. (from the publisher, edited).

158.1 RYA
Ryan, M. J. (Mary Jane). This year I will-- : how to finally change a habit, keep a resolution, or make a dream come true. 1st ed. New York : Broadway Books, c2006.
Author Ryan offers wisdom and coaching to help readers make this time the time that change becomes permanent. People think there is one way to lose weight, and another way to stay on top of their e-mail. Rather than one-system-fits-all, each person has their own formula for making changes that stick—but most people don’t know what theirs is. This book helps you lock on to your unique formula for planning, implementing, and seeing a life change through, so you can use it again and again to tackle anything else you’d like to do. (from the publisher, edited).

200 TIP
Tippett, Krista. Speaking of faith. New York : Viking, c2007.
As a journalist and then a diplomat, author Tippett was enthralled by the promise of political solutions to divisive issues. When politics failed to provide worthy answers, she attended Yale Divinity School to pursue larger questions about what makes a meaningful life. In her quest for faith’s illumination of life’s complexities, passions, and frailties, she developed a style of discourse—a “life of conversation”—that she now shares with millions of people every week via her public radio program. Tippett’s in-depth conversations with theologians, scientists, ethicists, and seekers who share their experiences, combined with her engaging style, are revolutionizing the way many think and speak of faith in their families and communities and in the larger world.—From publisher description.

231.8 EHR
Ehrman, Bart D. God’s problem : how the Bible fails to answer our most important question—why we suffer. New York : HarperOne, c2008.
Ehrman explores the divergent array of biblical perspectives on the essential question of suffering. Ehrman also traces his own journey from belief to doubt as he puts forth a case for why both Old and New Testament teachings fail to reconcile the concept of a loving God with the reality of human misery.

303.6 GIF
Long shadows : Veterans’ paths to peace. Madison, WI : Atwood Pub., c2006.
These are veterans with a point of view whose trajectories of belief had many different starting points, took many different paths, but in every case led to an abhorrence of war; anti-war feeling among veterans has not been given the attention it deserves, and this volume is an attempt to correct that imbalance, writes Howard Zinn in the Foreword. Veterans speak of war and peace with a certain creditability that others lack. Having experienced war and peace more intimately than many others, their responses and thoughts reflect the life-defining or life-changing capacity of war. Long Shadows is a collection of 19 interviews with veterans who candidly discuss their paths from military involvement to peace activism.

305.244 DAV
Davidson, Sara. Leap! : What will we do with the rest of our lives? 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2007.
Examines the choices and challenges the Baby Boomer generation is facing at the dawn of the twenty-first century, drawing on her own experiences to explore how Boomers’ lives are changing as they enter their fifties and sixties and how those changes are influenced by the world around them.

305.562 ALE
Alexander, Prioleau. You want fries with that? : a white-collar burnout experiences life at minimum wage. 1st ed. New York : Arcade Pub., c2008.
Prioleau Alexander. . .walked away from a lucrative career as an advertising executive, seeking a life like that dude on Kung Fu. Over the next year he worked minimum-wage jobs as a pizza deliveryman, ice cream scooper, construction worker, ER tech, fast food jockey, and even cowboy on a Montana dude ranch. In YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT? Prioleau explores life at minimum wage. . .(from the publisher, edited).

332.024 SAN
Sandberg, Erica. Expecting money : the essential financial plan for new and growing families. New York, NY : Kaplan Publishing, c2008.
A guide for new parents that provides essential information about the average costs for having and raising a family.

332.722 BUR
Burdick, Michael. Theft by mortgage : what “they” don’t want you to know. Las Vegas, NV : Associate Publishing Group, c2006.
The publisher claims that this book shows the 7 most common ways that brokers cheat you and teaches you how to save thousands of dollars on every loan, never pay closing costs, eliminate all origination fees, and protect yourself from predatory lenders. It includes a bonus CD-ROM in rear pocket. (from the publisher, edited).

362.1 MUL
Narrative matters : the power of the personal essay in health policy. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, c2006.
This anthology brings together the personal stories of patients, physicians, policy makers, and others whose writings humanize discussions and deliberations about health policy.

364.152 PRE
Preston, Douglas J. The monster of Florence. New York : Grand Central Pub., c2008.
United in their obsession with a grisly Italian serial murder case almost three decades old, thriller writer Preston (coauthor, Brimstone) and Italian crime reporter Spezi seek to uncover the identity of a vicious serial killer in this chilling true crime saga. The murders took place outside of Florence where Preston had moved with his family. From 1974 to 1985, seven pairs of lovers parked in their cars in secluded areas were brutally killed. With all of the chief suspects acquitted or released from prison on appeal, the authors began to snoop around, although witnesses had died and evidence was missing.

395.2 ZAV
Zavatto, Amy. The pocket idiot’s guide to being the mother of the bride. New York : Alpha, c2005.
Being the mother of the bride is a full-time job - often with little or no thanks. With the help of this guide, mothers-in-law-to-be can now tackle the seemingly endless details with calm. Inside, you will find what is expected of the mother of the bride (and all the role’s no-nos), ways to dissolve the stress around her and reduce her own tension, tips on being the best mother-in-law any groom has ever had, and how to help the bride avoid sticky family situations.

530.11 EIN
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955. A stubbornly persistent illusion : the essential scientific writings of Albert Einstein. Philadelphia : Running Press, c2007.
A collection of writings by Albert Einstein that elaborate on his Theory of Relativity, explaining Relativity in his own words through excerpts from his works, with an introduction and commentary by Stephen Hawking discussing Einstein’s influence on twentieth-century science.

582.16 TUD
Tudge, Colin. The tree : a natural history of what trees are, how they live, and why they matter. New York : Three rivers press, c2007.
Colin Tudge travels around the world - throughout the United States, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China, and most of Europe - bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us: how they grow old, how they eat and reproduce, how they talk to one another (and they do), and why they came to exist in the first place.

599.938 PAL
Palmer, Douglas. Seven million years : the story of human evolution. Pbk. ed. London : Phoenix, c2006.
Traces the history of human evolution, focusing on how researchers have found links to other species and how those discoveries have altered the way people perceive themselves.

612.8 HAN
Hannaford, Carla. Smart moves : why learning is not all in your head. 2nd ed., rev. and enl. Salt Lake City, Utah : Great River Books, c2005.
Neurophysiologist and educator Dr. Carla Hannaford brings the latest insights from scientific research to questions that affect learners of all ages. Examining the body’s role in learning, from infancy through adulthood she presents the mounting scientific evidence that movement is crucial to learning. Dr. Hannaford offers clear alternatives and remedies that people can put into practice right away to make a real difference in their ability to learn. She advocates more enlightened educational practices for homes and schools including: a more holistic view of each learner; less emphasis on rote learning; more experiential, active instruction; less labeling of learning disabilities; more physical movement; more personal expression through arts, sports and music; less prescribing of Ritalin and other drugs whose long term effects are not even known.

613.263 WAT
Watson, Brenda. The fiber35 diet : nature’s weight loss secret. New York : Free Press, c2007.
Explains how people can improve their health by adding more fiber to their diet, with a program designed to help people lose weight by making sure they have at least thirty-five grams of fiber in their daily diet.

616.86 HIF
Iliff, Brenda. A woman’s guide to recovery. Center City, Minn. : Hazelden, c2008.
Shares the personal stories of women who have overcome addiction, and offers advice and support to other women who are struggling to recover from addiction and transform their lives.

616.9041 ROT
Rotbart, Harley A. Germ proof your kids : the complete guide to protecting (without overprotecting) your family from infections. Washington, DC : ASM Press, c2008.
A comprehensive handbook for parents and physicians on disease prevention and treatment, with advice on a number of childhood infections.

623.88 MAL
Maloney, Elbert S. The boater’s handbook : the indispensable look-it-up book. 3rd rev. ed / by Elbert S. Maloney. New York : Hearst Books, c2004.
Whether it’s dealing with emergencies, complying with safety regulations, refreshing your knowledge of seamanship and piloting, reading charts, assessing weather conditions, maintaining your vessel, or just figuring out which flag to fly, the gamut of boating knowledge is covered, clearly and concisely, in this handy, portable guide.

640.41 LUB
Lubin, Jeanne Bossolina. Who knew? Hoboken, NJ : Castle Point Pub., c2006.
Why you should always store eggs small side down and thousands of other tips, secrets and quick fixes to make your life easier, your home cleaner and your food taste better—all while saving time and money.

641.5 BRO
Brown, Alton. Feasting on asphalt : the river run. New York : Stewart, Tabori & Chang, c2008.
A companion to the Food Network series “Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run,” following host Alton Brown as he travels by motorcycle from the delta of the Mississippi River north to Minnesota, eating at restaurants and roadside cafes, and stopping at attractions along the way. Includes photographs, journal entries, and recipes.

647.9574 NEW
New York City restaurants 2008. New York : London : Zagat Survey ; Simon & Schuster [distributor], c2007.
New York City Restaurants covers over 2,050 restaurants in the five boroughs. This handy guide contains Zagat Survey’s trusted ratings and reviews for New York City-area restaurants based on the opinions of diners.

649.7 DAM
Damon, William. The path to purpose : helping our children find their calling in life. 1st Free Press hardcover ed. New York : Free Press, c2008.
Explores why so many children in today’s society are choosing to live at home longer, seem to lack career motivation, and struggle to accept the responsibilities of adulthood.

658.406 JOA
Joachimsthaler, Erich. Hidden in plain sight : how to find and execute your company’s next big growth strategy. Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, c2007.
Revealing the innovative processes of such organizations as BMW, Zara, General Electric Healthcare, and Frito-Lay, Hidden in Plain Sight offers you a new approach to identifying and executing your company’s growth strategy.

746.43 NAR
Knitting memories : reflections on the knitter’s life. St. Paul, MN : Voyageur Press, c2006.
Raveling or unraveling, knitters such as Lily Chin, Betty Christiansen, Teva Durham, Clara Parkes, Caroline Herzog, and Lela Nargi take us into their confidence, sharing with us the whimsy, the insights, and simple pleasure that the age-old craft of knitting has brought into their lives—and now ours.

746.434 MAC
Mackin, Hilary. The big book of weekend crochet : over 30 stylish projects—from bags to baby blankets. Pleasantville, NY : Reader’s Digest Association, c2007.
Provides step-by-step instructions for over thirty crochet projects, including a variety of sweaters, a vest, a boa, a rug, various bags, blankets, and more.

751.4 SUN
Sundell, Lexi. Painting acrylic flowers A-Z : an illustrated directory of techniques for painting 40 popular flowers. Cincinnati, Ohio : North Light Books, c2007.

791.4502 PAL
Palin, Michael. Diaries 1969-1979 : the Python years. 1st U.S. ed. New York : Thomas Dunne Books, c2007.
A collection of diary entries written by English writer Michael Palin between 1969 and 1979 in which he discusses the success of Monty Python, his struggles with being a celebrity, his family, his friendships, and more. Includes photographs.

796.522 BRO
Bronski, Peter. At the mercy of the mountains : true stories of survival and tragedy in New York’s Adirondacks. Guilford, CT : Lyons Press, c2008.
Adventure writer and former Lower Adirondack Search and Rescue team member Peter Bronski chronicles true stories of survival and tragedy, from famous historical cases during the early twentieth century to modern tales of harrowing struggle in the mountains and wilderness.

796.93 HIN
Hines, Mark. Skiing and snowboarding fitness : reach your potential on the slopes. Buffalo, N.Y. : Firefly Books, c2007.
An illustrated guide to training and conditioning for skiers and snowboarders that provides information on injuries and nutrition; and includes exercise programs.

811 ENG
Engels, John. Recounting the seasons : poems, 1958-2005. Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c2005.
A collection of poems by American author John Engels that offer a chronological survey of his entire writing career.

811.54 OLI
Oliver, Mary. Red bird : poems. Boston : Beacon Press, c2008.
A collection of poems by American poet and National Book Award for Poetry winner Mary Oliver in which she makes observations about nature and explores themes of love.

813 ALI
Alice Walker’s the color purple. New ed. New York : Bloom’s Literary Criticism, c2008.
Contains critical essays on Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and includes a chronology, a bibliography, and an introduction by critic Harold Bloom.

813 SAN
Sansom, Ian. The book stops here : a mobile library mystery. [S.l.] : Harper Paperbacks, c2008.
Disgruntled, disheveled, fish-out-of-water mobile librarian Israel Armstrong is finally going home to London, rattling along with his irascible companion Ted Carson in their rust bucket book van en route to the Mobile Meet. The annual library convention gives Israel the opportunity to catch up with his family, eat paprika chicken and baklava, and drink good coffee. But they’ve barely found parking when the unimaginable occurs: their library-on-wheels is stolen! Who on earth would want to take a thirty-year-old traveling disaster with the words “The Book Stops Here” painted across the back? Israel and Ted are determined to find out. But their search is leading them on a very twisty trail through the countryside in pursuit of a suspicious convoy of New Age travelers. And the hunt is raising numerous troubling questions such as where exactly is Israel’s high-flying girlfriend, Gloria? And is Ted really making a move on Israel’s widowed mother?.

814 SED
Sedaris, David. When you are engulfed in flames. 1st ed. New York, NY : Little, Brown, c2008.
David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays. . .He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine. From armoring the windows with LP covers to protect the house from neurotic songbirds to the awkwardness of having a lozenge fall from your mouth into the lap of a sleeping fellow passenger on a plane, David Sedaris uses life’s most bizarre moments to reach new heights in understanding love and fear, family and strangers. (from the publisher, edited).

814.6 GRO
Grogan, John. Bad dogs have more fun : selected writings on family, animals, and life. New York : Vanguard Press, c2007.
Contains seventy-five columns from “The Philadelphia Inquirer” in which John Grogan ruminates on a variety of topics, such as dogs, zero-tolerance school policies, and family.

818.5402 SIL
Silverstein, Shel. Playboy’s Silverstein around the world. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2007.
Best known as a children’s author but also a successful songwriter (“A Boy Named Sue”) and playwright, Silverstein started out as a cartoonist. In the 1950s and 1960s, Playboy sent him around the world to draw a travel journal. His 23 dispatches hailed from such far-flung locales as Japan, Moscow, London, Paris, and Africa, as well as such closer-to-home precincts as Greenwich Village, Haight-Ashbury, White Sox training camp, and a nudist colony. (from Booklist).

909.0802 GON
Gonick, Larry. The cartoon history of the modern world. 1st ed. New York : Collins, c2007.
Picking up where his Harvey Award-winning The Cartoon History of the Universe, Vol. 3, left off, this first of two volumes relates the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Peru; the rise of Portuguese trade; and the origins of the Sikhs, Lutherans, Calvinists, Jesuits, modern astronomy, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the United States. (from Library Journal).

910 AND
Anderson, Eric. The space tourist’s handbook : where to go, what to see, and how to prepare for the ride of your life. Philadelphia, PA : Quirk Books, c2005.
Provides practical information for would-be space tourists, describing different types of flights and covering flight training, the launch, emergencies, and such aspects as sleeping in weightless environments and using the vacuum toilet.

914.2104 FOD
Fodor’s see it London. New York : Fodor’s Travel Publications, c2006.
Fodor’s see it London is perfect for travelers who want to understand London history and culture before they arrive, and experience the country like a native Londoner while they’re there.

915.173 THA
Thayer, Helen. Walking the Gobi : a 1600-mile trek across a desert of hope and despair. 1st ed. Seattle, WA : Mountaineers Books, c2007.
Helen Thayer recounts her 1,600-mile journey across Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, which she crossed with her seventy-four-year-old husband, Bill, and two camels named Tom and Jerry, describing the inhospitable conditions, personal challenges, and dangers they faced along the way.

917.104 FOD
Fodor’s Canada. 29th ed. New York : Fodor’s Travel Publications : Distributed by Random House, c2008.
A comprehensive guide to visiting Canada that provides information on accommodations, restaurants, entertainment, sports and outdoor activities, shopping, and sights, and includes maps.

917.304 SCH
Schultz, Patricia. 1,000 places to see in the USA and Canada before you die. New York : Workman Pub., c2007.
Sail the Maine Windjammers out of Camden. Explore the gold-mining trails in Alaska’s Denali wilderness. Collect exotic shells on the beaches of Captiva. Take a barbecue tour of Kansas City - from Arthur Bryant’s to Gates to B.B.’s Lawnside to Danny Edward’s to LC’s to Snead’s. There’s the ice hotel in Quebec, the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, cowboy poetry readings, what to do in Lexington after the Derby’s over, and for every city, dozens of unexpected suggestions and essential destinations.

917.3049 FOD
Essential USA : [spectacular cities, natural wonders, and great American road trips]. 1st ed. New York : Fodor’s, c2008.
Fodor’s USA focuses on the best trips from sea to shining sea--from the vineyards of Napa Valley to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to the streets of Manhattan. Each section contains all of the crucial information that readers have come to expect from Fodor’s, including the best of the best in hotels, attractions, and restaurants.

917.63 REE
Reed, Julia. The house on First Street : my New Orleans story. 1st ed. New York : Ecco, c2008.
Julia Reed went to New Orleans in 1991 to cover the reelection of former (and currently incarcerated) governor Edwin Edwards. Seduced by the city’s sauntering pace, its rich flavors and exotic atmosphere, she was never entirely able to leave again. After almost fifteen years of living like a vagabond on her reporter’s schedule, she got married and bought a house in the historic Garden District. Four weeks after she moved in, Hurricane Katrina struck.

917.9313 SEH
Sehlinger, Bob. The unofficial guide to Las Vegas 2007. Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, c2007.
Each casino is reviewed in detail and ranked. The book also includes insider tips and other relevant information. (from the publisher, edited).

919.690 FOD
Fodor’s big island of Hawaii. 1st edition. New York ; London : Fodor’s, c2007.
With chapters dedicated to water sports and tours; golf, hiking, and outdoor activities; and beaches - plus the discerning dining and lodging coverage Fodor’s readers expect. (from the publisher, edited).

919.693 FOD
Fodor’s Oahu. 1st edition. New York ; London : Fodor’s, c2006.
Fodor’s Oáhu, 1st Edition is the guide to both sides - downtown culinary hotspots and roadside shrimp trucks, the latest Waikiki clubs and the quietest Windward beaches. This is the Hawaii locals love.

920 SPA
Spayde, Jon. How to believe : teachers and seekers show the way to a modern, life-changing faith. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c2008.
Profiles over thirty Christians from varying backgrounds, discussing their spiritual journeys as well as their different beliefs and practices.

921 ALEXANDER
Grainger, John D.. Alexander the great failure : the collapse of the Macedonian Empire. London ; New York : Hambledon Continuum, c2007.
A comprehensive study of the military conquests and achievements of Alexander the Great, maintaining that for all his military successes, he was actually responsible for his own failure and death, as well as the collapse of his empire after he died.

921 CANSECO
Canseco, Jose. Vindicated : big names, big liars, and the battle to save baseball. 1st Simon Spotlight Entertainment hardcover ed. New York : Simon Spotlight Entertainment, c2008.
Jose Canseco reveals more secrets about the use of steroids in Major League Baseball which he did not reveal in his previous book, “Juiced,” implicating other athletes, criticizing the Mitchell Report, and discussing his life since he revealed his story.

921 CARTER
Carter, Jimmy. A remarkable mother. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed. New York : Simon & Schuster, c2008.
Former president Jimmy Carter celebrates his beloved mother’s life, describing her childhood, passion for life, love for her family, generosity, and her influence on his own life and presidency.

921 CRUISE
Morton, Andrew. Tom Cruise : an unauthorized biography. 1st ed. New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2008.
Explores the life and achievements of Tom Cruise, discussing his childhood, career, three marriages, involvement in Scientology, and more. Includes photographs.

921 DOYLE
Lycett, Andrew. The man who created Sherlock Holmes : the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1st Free Press hardcover ed. New York : Free Press, c2007.
A comprehensive biography of Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that explores his childhood, family life, medical practice, authorship of nonfiction works, inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, social acquaintances, marriages, interest in spiritualism, and much more.

921 FARLEY
Farley, Tom. The Chris Farley show : a biography in three acts. New York : Viking, c2008.
A biography of comedian Chris Farley as told through interviews with friends, family members, and celebrity colleagues.

921 JESSOP
Jessop, Carolyn. Escape. 1st ed. New York : Broadway Books, c2007.
Carolyn Jessop recounts her involvement in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which forced her to become the fourth wife of a fifty-year-old man before she managed to escape and expose the group and its practices, leading to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

921 LINCOLN
Miller, William Lee. President Lincoln : the duty of a statesman. 1st ed. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, c2008.
Examines Abraham Lincoln’s moral and intellectual life while in the White House, as well as the challenges of war and the issue of slavery.

921 MCCANDLESS
Krakauer, Jon. Into the wild. New York : Anchor Books, c2007.
In April 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to a charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet and invented a life for himself.

921 NICHOLSON
McDougal, Dennis. Five easy decades : how Jack Nicholson became the biggest movie star in modern times. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, c2008.
A biography of Jack Nicholson, drawing from court documents, property records, birth and death certificates, books, unpublished manuscripts, film libraries, and interviews in an attempt to provide a portrait of his early life, his personal escapades, and his acting career which has spanned fifty years.

921 TURNER
Turner, Kathleen. Send yourself roses : thoughts on my life, love, and leading roles. 1st ed. New York : Springboard Press, c2008.
Actress Kathleen Turner provides insight into her life and career, discussing her childhood, marriage, activism, struggle with arthritis, leading roles, relationships with colleagues, and more.

921 UNTERWEGER
Leake, John. Entering Hades : the double life of a serial killer. 1st ed. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2007.
Provides an account of the life and crimes of Jack Unterweger, a man released from an Austrian prison in 1990 after serving fourteen years for the murder of a German girl, who, passing himself off as a journalist investigating the Vienna Woods Killer, strangled several more women in Austria and Los Angeles before being nabbed for the crimes.

921 WHARTON
Lee, Hermione. Edith Wharton. First Vintage books ed. New York : Vintage, c2008.
Biographer Lee gives us a new Edith Wharton—tough, startlingly modern, as brilliant and complex as her fiction. Born in 1862, Wharton escaped the suffocating fate of the well-born female, traveled adventurously in Europe and eventually settled in France. She developed a forceful literary professionalism and thrived in a luminous society that included Bernard Berenson, Aldous Huxley and most famously Henry James, who here emerges more as peer than as master. Wharton’s life was fed by nonliterary enthusiasms as well: houses and gardens, relief efforts during the Great War, and the culture of the Old World, which she never tired of absorbing. Yet intimacy eluded her: unhappily married and childless, her one brush with passion came and went in midlife, an affair intimately recounted here. Lee interweaves Wharton’s life with the evolution of her writing, the full scope of which shows her to be far more daring than her stereotype as lapidarian chronicler of the Gilded Age.—From publisher description.

933 KIN
Kingsley, Sean A. God’s gold : a quest for the lost temple treasures of Jerusalem. 1st ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2007.
Archaeologist Sean Kingsley describes his experiences tracking the Temple treasure—the golden candelabrum, silver trumpets, and bejeweled Table of the Divine Presence looted from the Temple of Jerusalem by the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus in 70 A.D., and provides information on the history, character, and religious, political, and financial meaning of the cache which is central to the Jewish faith.

940.1 LEW
Lewis, David L.. God’s crucible : Islam and the making of Europe, 570 to 1215. 1st ed. New York : Norton, c2008.
A comprehensive history of the Islam religion and culture from 580 to 1215 AD, covering the fall of the Persian and Roman empires, the rise of the prophet Muhammad, and the creation of Muslim Spain, along with the Islamic confrontation with the Judeo-Christian West.

940.548 FRA
Franks, Lucinda. My father’s secret war : a memoir. New York : London : Miramax ; Turnaround [distributor], c2008.
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lucinda Franks discovers that the remote, nearly impassive man she grew up with had in fact been a daring spy behind enemy lines in World War II.

956.054 WRI
Wright, Robin B.. Dreams and shadows : the future of the Middle East. New York : Penguin Press, c2008.
Explores how, in the last two decades, the Middle East has undergone a political and social transformation that is having a significant impact on the country, its people, and the world as a whole.

956.953 SHE
Shehadeh, Raja. Palestinian walks : forays into a vanishing landscape. 1st Scribner trade pbk. ed. New York : Scribner, 2008, c2007.
Raja Shehadeh reflects on how his native Palestine has changed in recent years, reflecting on six hikes he took between 1978 and 2006 to demonstrate the shocking transformation the countryside has under gone thanks to urban spread and the standoff between Palestine and Israel.

962.7043 CHE
Cheadle, Don. Not on our watch : the mission to end genocide in Darfur and beyond. 1st ed. New York : Hyperion, c2007.
Over the past five years, youth groups, religious organizations, politicians and individuals have responded to the crisis in Sudan in increased numbers. This book is a guide for these already involved, as well as those who are interested in taking action, or speaking out against the mass killings that continue to occur in the country’s Darfur region. Coauthored by Cheadle, actor and star of the film Hotel Rwanda, and Prendergast, senior adviser of the International Crisis Group, the book is a pastiche of practical information, instructions, memoir and history. (from Publishers Weekly).

973 DAV
Davis, Kenneth C. America’s hidden history : untold tales of the first Pilgrims, fighting women, and forgotten founders who shaped a nation. 1st ed. New York : Smithsonian Books/Collins, c2008.
Contains stories from early American history, including the French Huguenots arrival in America, the story behind the pigs carried by Columbus that might have been responsible for the disease that spread throughout the Native American population, and the lesser known background of George Washington.

973.73 BEA
Bearss, Edwin C. Fields of honor. Washington, D.C. : National Geographic Society, c2006.
A comprehensive examination of fourteen major battles of the Civil War from Fort Sumter in April 1861 to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865, and contains seventy-five illustrated black-and-white photographs and nineteen full-page battlefield maps.

973.925 BRI LP
Brinkley, Douglas. Gerald R. Ford. Large print ed. Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, c2007.
A biography of Gerald R. Ford that focuses on his years as president.

973.926 CAR LP
Carter, Jimmy. Beyond the White House : waging peace, fighting disease, building hope. Large print ed. Detroit : Thorndike Press, 2007.
Examines the peacekeeping efforts of former President Jimmy Carter in the years since leaving the White House; and describes how he has fought diseases, monitored over sixty-five elections in foreign nations, and led a war against poverty, hunger, and mental illness around the world.

977.6 VEN
Ventura, Jesse. Don’t start the revolution without me! : from the Minnesota governor’s mansion to the Baja outback : reflections and revisionings. New York : Skyhorse Pub., 2008.
Ventura pulls no punches in discussing our corrupt two-party system, the disastrous war in Iraq, and what he suspects really happened on September 11. He provides personal insights into the Clinton and Bush presidencies, and elaborates on the ways in which third parties are rendered impotent by the country’s two dominant parties. He reveals the illegal role of the CIA in states like Minnesota, sensitive and up-to-date information on the Blackwater security firm, the story of the American spies who shadowed him on a trade mission to Cuba, and what Fidel Castro told him about who really assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

Audio-Visual

CD 170 THI
This I believe : the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women. North Kingstown, RI : BBC Audiobooks America, p2006.
In this thought-provoking book, which is based on the NPR series, 80 essayists use the three little title words as a jumping-off point to a discussion of their deepest personal beliefs. The list of contributors includes Colin Powell, Isabel Allende, Bill Gates, John Updike, William F. Buckley Jr., Gloria Steinem, and Penn Jillette; but it also includes relatively unknown people with everyday jobs.

CD 294.3 CHO
Chödrön, Pema. How to meditate : [a practical guide to making friends with your mind]. Boulder, CO : Sounds True, c2007.
Presented by Pema Chödrön. An introductory audio course on meditation presented by a Tibetan Buddhist nun, emphasizing: the practice of mindfulness; the importance of gentleness, patience, and humor; Shamantha (or calm abiding), the art of stabilizing the mind to remain present under any conditions; thoughts and emotions as “sheer delight” in meditation.

CD 327.73 ALB
Albright, Madeleine Korbel. Memo to the President elect : [how we can restore America’s reputation and leadership]. New York : HarperAudio, p2008.
Read by Madeleine Albright. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright offers a persuasive, wide-ranging set of recommendations to the prospective winner of the 2008 Presidential election. Secretary Albright explains how to select a first-rate foreign policy team, how to avoid the pitfalls that plagued earlier presidents, how to ensure that decisions, once carefully made, are successfully implemented, and how to employ the full range of tools available to a president to persuade other countries to support U.S. objectives.—From publisher description.

CD 339.522 JOH
Johnston, David C. Free lunch : [how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (and stick you with the bill)]. New York : Penguin Audio, p2007.
Read by the author. Identifies inequalities in America’s tax system that are placing a large percentage of citizens in financial peril in spite of a strong U.S. economy, sharing information on how the government offers favorable treatment to corporations and special interests.

CD 641.07 FLI
Flinn, Kathleen. The sharper your knife, the less you cry : [love, laughter, and tears at the world’s most famous cooking school]. Unabridged. New York : Penguin Audio, p2007.
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell. Recounts the author’s decision to change careers and attend the famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, describing how she survived the program’s intense teaching methods and competitive fellow students, in an account complemented by two dozen recipes.

CD MELMAN
Melman, Peter Charles. Landsman : a novel. Unabridged ed. North Kingstown, RI : BBC Audiobooks America, p2007.
Narrated by Daniel Oreskes. In the summer of 1853, in Lafayette City, Louisiana, 11-year-old Elias Abrams loses his mother to yellow fever. Grief-stricken and alone, he becomes embroiled in the street life of New Orleans. After Elias is falsely accused of a crime, and in order to escape arrest, he enlists in the Third Louisiana Regiment, where 3,000 other Jews will ultimately fight for the Confederacy. Before long, though, Elias’ past catches up with him, and he realizes that he must face his demons, or lose the woman he loves.

CD PAT
Patterson, James. Season of the machete. New York : Time Warner AudioBooks, p2006.
Read by Lou Diamond Phillips. Cool and glamorous, they appear to be a successful couple on a holiday. Yet Damian and Carrie Rose are psychopathic murderers for hire. On this picture-perfect vacation island, their target is Peter Macdonald, a dashing young American who forsakes a life of leisure to confront cold-blooded terror.

CD WIN
Winspear, Jacqueline. Pardonable lies : a Maisie Dobbs novel. Unabridged ed. New York : Audio Renaissance, p2005.
Read by Orlagh Cassidy. In the third novel of this unique and masterly crime series, a deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton, KC, to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but also to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. Determined to prove Ralph Lawton either dead or alive, Maisie is plunged into a case that tests her spiritual strength, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche.

DVD CLO
Cloverfield. Hollywood, Calif. : Paramount Home Entertainment, 2008.
Rob is getting ready to leave New York in order to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob’s brother Jason hands a camcorder to best friend Hud, who proceeds to tape the party over old footage of Rob’s ex-girlfriend, Beth. Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, which upsets Rob. Then the unexpected happens: New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster who stomps through midtown, destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and his friends take to the streets, but instead of running away with the other evacuees, they head toward the center of destruction so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth.

DVD CUR
Curb your enthusiasm. Standard format. New York : HBO Video, c2003.
Larry David, the infamous co-creator and executive producer of Seinfeld, plays himself in this fictionalized account of his travails in show business.