11/25: New at the library this week

Movies:

The forbidden kingdom

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Bears in the night / Stan Berenstain; Jan Berenstain
Seven bears sneak out of bed, through the window, and across the dark countryside to investigate the source of a noise. (Age Range: 3 to 6)

The monster in the box / Ruth Rendell
Outside the house where Wexford investigated his first case – a woman found strangled in her bedroom – he noticed a short, muscular man wearing a scarf and walking a dog. He gave Wexford an unnerving stare. Without any solid evidence, Wexford began to suspect that this man – Eric Targo – was the killer. Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham and Wexford continues to quietly suspect that the increasingly prosperous Targo – van driver, property developer, kennel owner and animal lover – is behind them.

Now, half a lifetime later, Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence. Wexford tells his long time partner, Mike Burden, about his suspicions, but Burden dismisses them as fantasy. Meanwhile, Burden’s wife, Jenny, has suspicions of her own. She believes that the Rahmans, a highly respectable immigrant family from Pakistan, may be forcing their daughter, Tamima, into an arranged marriage – or worse. (Chief Inspector Wexford Series #22; read an exerpt)

11/4: New at the library this week

Movies:

Where the wild things are (view clips, trailers and interviews)
The happy elf (view trailer)

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Audiobooks

Seduced by moonlight / Laurell K. Hamilton
I am Meredith Gentry, P.I. and Princess Merry, heir to the throne of Fairie.
Now there are those among me who whisper I am more.
They fear me even as they protect me. And who can blame them?
I’ve awakened the dazzling magic that’s slumbered in them for
thousands of years. But the thing is, I can’t figure out why.

My aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is no longer distracted by her usual sadistic hobbies. Her obsession has turned unwaveringly to me. The mission to get me pregnant and beat my cousin Prince Cel to the crown is taking longer than expected. Even though I spend each night with the Queen’s Ravens, my immortal guards, no child has come of our decadent pleasures. But something else is happening. My magic courses through me uncontrollably. And as I lock my half-mortal body with their full-Sidhe blooded ones, the power surges like never before.

It all began with the chalice. I dreamed of it, and it appeared, cool and hard, beside me when I awoke. My guards know the ancient relic well—its disappearance ages ago stripped them of their vital powers. But it is here with us now. My touch resonates with its force, and they’re consumed with it, their Sidhe essences lit up by it. But even as they cherish me for this unexpected gift, there are those who loathe me for it. Me, a mongrel, only half fey and part mortal. The Unseelie court has suffered for so long, and there are some who would not have it weakened further by an impure queen. My enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what I am capable of. Nor, for that matter, do I. . . . (Meredith Gentry Series, #3; read a sample chapter)

Welcome to two new library board members!

The library board is pleased to welcome two new members: Tracie Merrill and Tracy Philpot.

Tracy and Tracie will be stepping into seats recently vacated by Bill Schorr and Mary Klinger, and will be working with current board members Leny Buchman, Sherri Burt, Ila Dillon and Savannah Lewis.

The library board meets with Director Shirly Giles on a quarterly basis. Our next meeting is posted in the sidebar to the left. Interested members of the community are always welcome to attend board meetings although participation by the public is at the discretion of the chair.

10/28: New at the library this week

Audiobooks

Suspect / Michael Robotham (unabridged; cassettes)
At forty-two, psychiatrist Joe O’Loughlin seems to have it all: a thriving practice, a beautiful wife, an adoring daughter. But Joe’s snug, happy world is crumbling. Recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he’s dreading the inevitable and all too palpable deterioration of his body and mind. Then, when the police ask for his help in solving the brutal murder of a woman they assume is a prostitute, he’s horrified to recognize the victim as a nurse he once worked with, and with whom he had a bit of a past. As Joe begins to suspect that one of his patients may be responsible, the police zero in on him.(read a sample chapter)

Mark Twain / Geoffrey C. Ward; Dayton Duncan; Ken Burns (unabridged; two copies: cassettes & CD)
A companion audiobook to the 4-hour PBS television series.
Using material from Twain’s works, diaries, and letters, Mark Twain follows the great writer/humorist/lecturer/people’s philosopher from the Hannibal, Missouri of his childhood, to the Europe and Middle East of his travels (and hilarious travel books); from his beginnings as a newspaperman to his storied life as (in his own words) “the most conspicuous man on the planet.”(read an exerpt)

The rise of Theodore Roosevelt / Edmund Morris (abridged; cassettes)
A biography published on the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president. (read a sample chapter)

The king of torts / John Grisham (unabridged; cassettes)
The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real firm. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young man charged with a random street killing, he assumes it is just another of the many senseless murders that hit D.C. every week.

As he digs into the background of his client, Clay stumbles on a conspiracy too horrible to believe. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of a complex case against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, looking at the kind of enormous settlement that would totally change his life—that would make him, almost overnight, the legal profession’s newest king of torts… (read an exerpt)

A special thank-you to Jan Wyland

This has been a bad year for wearing out the first generation of our library computers. Let us observe a moment of silence for our old Gates grant computer, the first of our public computers and a reliable workhorse for many years now.

Since the loss of this computer left us short on public internet use computers, Jan Wyland has generously donated to us the former genealogy center computer to replace it.  This computer is now set up and ready for you to browse the internet and perform basic text and spreadsheet editing as well as reading and saving pdf files.

Thank you so much, Jan, for helping us to keep this valuable service available to the public.

10/24: New at the library this week

Movies:

Babylon A.D.

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

The lost symbol / Dan Brown
As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object — artfully encoded with five symbols — is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation… one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon — a prominent Mason and philanthropist — is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations — all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth. (read an exerpt)

Vampires and ghosts and ghoulies…oh my!

Getting in the spooky spirit for Halloween? Check out our special display of Halloween books and movies for all ages, now featured at your library.

10/10: New at the library this week

Movies:

The counterfeiters
Defiance

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Crazy for the storm : a memoir of survival / Norman Ollestad
From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the charismatic father he both idolized and resented. These exhilarating tests of skill prepared “Boy Wonder,” as his father called him, to become a fearless champion—and ultimately saved his life.

Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman and his father crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains. “Dad and I were a team, and he was Superman,” Ollestad writes. But now Norman’s father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.

A long trek home : 4000 miles by boot, raft, and ski / Erin McKittrick
In June 2007, Erin McKittrick and her husband, Hig, left Seattle for the Aleutian Islands, traveling solely by human power through some of the most rugged terrain in the world. This is the story of their unprecedented trek along the northwest coast and their encounters with pelting rains, ferocious winds, blizzards, and bears, as well as with the tiny communities that dot this wild region. (Seldovia author)

10/3: New at the library this week

Audiobooks

Firefly beach / Luanne Rice (unabridged; cassette; read an exerpt)

Coolly sophisticated and steadfastly single, Caroline Renwick has always been the sister everyone could count on. As she and Clea and Skye gathered at Firefly Hill, their childhood home, Caroline thought that they had all put the past behind them. But as summer gets under way, a mysterious man arrives—a man who has the power to bring it all back….

Joe Connor was only six when his father died at Firefly Hill. Though he and Caroline had never met, the five-year-old girl reached out to him. They became pen pals and friends, until a teenaged Joe finally learned the truth about what had happened to his father that night. Now, after years of silence, Joe is suddenly here … and Caroline still feels a connection. But she can’t help but wonder if this handsome man holds the key to her family’s healing—or its destruction. And in his presence, how long will she be able to guard her heart?

Dreaming of the bones / Deborah Crombie (unabridged; cassette; Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Series, #5)
It is the call Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid never expected—and one he certainly doesn’t want. Victoria, his ex-wife, who walked out without an explanation more than a decade ago, asks him to look into the suicide of local poet, Lydia Brooke—a case that’s been officially closed for five years. The troubled young writer’s death, Victoria claims, might well have been murder.

No one is more surprised than Kincaid himself when he agrees to investigate—not even his partner and lover, Sergeant Gemma James. But it’s a second death that raises the stakes and plunges Kincaid and James into a labyrinth of dark lies and lethal secrets that stretches all the way back through the twentieth century—a death that most assuredly is murder, one that has altered Duncan Kincaid’s world forever.

10/1: New at the library this week

Audiobooks

Undue influence / Steve Martini (unabridged; cassettes)
Paul Madriani is back in a complex web of murder and deceit — this time within his own family. His wife Nikki has just died of cancer. On her deathbed, Nikki made Paul promise to look after her younger sister, Laurel Vega, who is mired in a bitter child-custody battle with her ex-husband, a powerful state senator.

When Jack Vega’s new wife is found slain execution-style, Laurel becomes the prime suspect. Paul — remembering his promise to his wife — has no choice but to take Laurel’s case. But as he tries to mount a defense and probes deeper into the lives of those involved, he discovers a trail of betrayal and duplicity that hides the truth at every turn. (Paul Madriani Series #3)

For whom the bell tolls / Ernest Hemingway (unabridged; cassettes)
The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.

Goodnight, Irene / Jan Burke (unabridged; cassettes)
For thirty-five years the identity of the dismembered woman found under the Las Piernas pier has remained a mystery. What secret did she take to her grave? Southern California reporter Irene Kelly has uncovered a maze of forensic records and confidential files that suggest a motive far more sinister than anyone imagined. The discovery has brought her close to Detective Frank Harriman, and closer still to exposing a killer who will resort to anything to keep his secrets buried — and Irene silenced forever.