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.

8/29: New at the library this week

Audiobooks

Lord John and the brotherhood of the blade / Diana Gabaldon (unabridged; CD)
Seventeen years earlier, Grey’s father, the Duke of Pardloe, shot himself, days before he was to be accused of being a Jacobite traitor. By raising a regiment to fight at Culloden, Grey’s elder brother has succeeded in redeeming the family name, aided by Grey, now a major in that regiment. But now, on the eve of the regiment’s move to Germany, comes a mysterious threat that throws the matter of the Duke’s death into stark new question, and brings the Grey brothers into fresh conflict with the past and each other.

From barracks and parade grounds to the battlefields of Prussia and the stony fells of the Lake District, Lord John’s struggle to find the truth leads him through danger and passion, ever deeper, toward the answer to the question at the centre of his soul–what is it that is most important to a man? Love, loyalty, family name? Self-respect, or honesty? Surviving both the battle of Krefeld and a searing personal betrayal, he returns to the Lake District to find the man who may hold the key to his quest: a Jacobite prisoner named Jamie Fraser. Here, Grey finds his truth and facesa final choice: between honour and life itself.

Genghis : bones of the hills / Conn Iggulden (unabridged; CD)
From the fierce cold plains of Mongolia to the Korean Peninsula, Genghis’s brothers, sons, and commanders have made emperors bow, slaughtering vast armies of fighting men. But as Genghis enters a strange new land of towering mountains and arid desert, he stirs an enemy greater than any he has met before. Under his command, Shah Ala-ud-Din Mohammed has thousands of fierce Arab warriors, teeming cavalry, and terrifying armored elephants. When Genghis strikes, the Arabs prove their mettle. On the verge of defeat, Genghis is forced to leave his own vast encampment, and the women and children in it, in the path of an enraged, savage enemy.

8/15: New at the library this week

Movies:

The reader
The secret of Roan Inish
Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow your dreams
Hello Kitty goes to the movies
Princess stories : A gift from the heart
Princess stories : Beauty shines from within
Barbie as Rapunzel

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

8/12: New at the library this week

Games

The orange box (XBox360)
Halo 3 (XBox360)
Guitar Hero III (XBox360)
Def Jam Fight for NY (XBox)
Fable: The lost chapters (XBox)
Matrix: Path of Neo (XBox)

Movies:

Billy’s bootcamp : Basic training
Billy’s bootcamp : Ultimate bootcamp
Billy’s bootcamp : AB bootcamp
Billy Blanks’ tae bo : Capture the power
Rachel getting married
TrueBlood : Strange Love
Revolutionary road

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Spirit basket : Over 200 years of adventures in Alaska / Marie Osborn Reid
This novel portrays historical events experienced by an Alaska Native family over more than two centuries. Generations of teenagers adjust from subsistence living to invasion by Russian fur traders, the purchase by America, gold fever, WWII detention, huge earthquake, disastrous oil spill, and much more. Each chapter is a new adventure of a new generation.

Ch.1 Harvest of the Fur Seals, Attu Island in 1745
Ch. 2 Escape, Aleutian Islands in 1770
Ch. 3 The Governor’s Daughter, Kodiak in 1794
Ch. 4 The Priest, New Archangel, Russian America in 1834
Ch. 5 Coming of America, Sitka in 1867
Ch. 6 Gold Nuggets, from Sitka to Nome in 1900
Ch. 7 Return, from Fairbanks to Seward in 1925
Ch. 8 Evacuation, from St. Paul Island to a Southeast camp in 1942
Ch. 9 Earthquake, in Anchorage in 1964
Ch. 10 The Spill, in Valdez in 1989
Ch. 11 Olympic Games, in Fairbanks in 2010
(read exerpts)

A plague of secrets / John T. Lescroart
The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco’s A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix.

But how much did Maya Townshend—the beautiful socialite niece of the city’s mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop—know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend?

As another of Maya’s acquaintances falls victim to murder, and as the names of the dead men’s celebrity, political, and even law- enforcement customers come to light, tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover-up. Prosecutors close in on Maya, who has a deep secret of her own—a secret she needs to protect at all costs during her very public trial, where not only her future but the entire political landscape of San Francisco hangs in the balance, hostage to an explosive secret that Dismas Hardy is privilege-bound to protect.

7/9: New at the library this week

Movies:

Flawless is a 2007 British fictional crime film directed by Michael Radford, written by Edward Anderson, and starring Michael Caine and Demi Moore.

Eastern promises is a 2007 crime drama film directed by David Cronenberg, from a screenplay written by Steven Knight. The film tells of a British midwife’s interactions with the Russian Mafia in London and stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel.

Milk is a 2008 American biographical film on the life of gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Twilight is a 2008 American romantic-fantasy film directed by Catherine Hardwicke and based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. The protagonists of the film are Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, who are played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, respectively. The premise focuses on a teenage girl and a vampire who fall in love.

Doubt is a 2008 film adaptation of the John Patrick Shanley stage play Doubt: A Parable. Written and directed by Shanley and produced by Scott Rudin, the film stars Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

5/3: New at the library this week

Movies:

Demolition man
Clear and present danger
The puppet masters
Fly tying made clear and simple
Under seige
Daredevil
(all of above are on videotape)

Books:

Neither here nor there : travels in Europe / Bill Bryson
Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies—in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe’s most diverting and historic locales.

The lost continent : travels in small-town America / Bill Bryson
An unsparing and hilarious account of one man’s rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town.

5/2: New at the library this week

Audiobooks

Miracle at St. Anna / James McBride
Inspired by a historical incident that took place in the village of St. Anna di Stazzema in Tuscany and by the experiences of the famed Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Division in Italy during World War 11, Miracle at St. Anna is a singular evocation of war, cruelty, passion, heroism, and love. It is the story of four American soldiers, the villagers among whom they take refuge, a band of partisans, and an Italian boy, all of whom encounter a miracle — though perhaps the true miracle lies in themselves. (cassettes, unabridged)

The appeal / John Grisham
In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it.

Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided? (CD; unabridged)

4/22: New at the library this week

Books:

Throne of Jade / Naomi Novik
When Britain intercepted a French ship and its precious cargo—an unhatched dragon’s egg—Capt. Will Laurence of HMS Reliant unexpectedly became master and commander of the noble dragon he named Temeraire. As new recruits in Britain’s Aerial Corps, man and dragon soon proved their mettle in daring combat against Bonaparte’s invading forces.

Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands—and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far East—a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await. (Temeraire Series, #2; read an exerpt)

4/15: New at the library this week

Movies:

Stop bullying now! : Video toolkit
The Spiderwick chronicles
In Bruges
Slumdog millionaire
(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Welcome to the departure lounge : adventures in mothering mother / Meg Federico
The adventure begins when Meg’s mother, Addie, vacationing in Florida, takes a spill. At the hospital, Addie bolts upright on her gurney and yells “I demand an autopsy!” before passing out cold.

“One minute, she is unconscious, the next, she’s nuts,” observes Meg Federico in this hilarious and poignant memoir of taking care of eighty-year-old Addie and her relatively new (and equally old) husband, Walter, in their not-so-golden years.

Addie’s accident is a portent of things to come over the next two years as Meg oversees her mother’s home care in the Departure Lounge, the nickname Meg gives Addie and Walter’s house in suburban New Jersey. It is a place of odd behaviors and clashing caregivers, where chaos and confusion reign supreme.

Meg had expected that Addie and Walter would settle into a Rockwellian dotage of docile dependency. Instead the pair regress into terrible teens. Meg watches from the sidelines in disbelief as her mother and stepfather, forbidden by doctors to drink, conspire to order cases of scotch by phone; as Addie’s attendant accuses the evening staff of midnight voodoo; as the increasingly demented Walter’s sex drive becomes unbridled and mail-order sex aids are delivered to the front door. Meg jumps in to cope with the pandemonium–even as she struggles to manage her own family back in Nova Scotia. (read an exerpt)

3/10: New at the library this week

Movies:

Conversation(s) with other women
Kung fu panda
Wanted
For love or country : The Arturo Sandoval story
The last enemy
(all new movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Among the mad / Jacqueline Winspear
It’s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met—and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard’s elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane’s personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie’s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia’s abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.