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.

8/15: 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)

2/2: New at the library this week

Audiobooks:

A wrinkle in time / Madeleine L’Engle — Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg’s father, who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government. (Age Range: 12 and up: Time Quartet Series, #1; read an sample chapter; casettes)

The Eyre affair / Jasper Fforde — When asked to summarize his creation is a single sentence, Jasper Fforde described it as “a literary detective thriller with romantic overtones, mad-inventor uncles, aunts trapped in Wordsworth poems, global multinationals, scheming evildoers, an excursion inside the novel Jane Eyre, dodos, knight-errant-time-traveling fathers, and the answer to the eternal question: Who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays?” (Thursday Next Series, #1; read an exerpt)

1/26: New at the library this week

Books:

• Hand of evil / Judith A. Jance — With his hand trapped in the door of a speeding car, a man struggles to remain upright as he’s dragged along a deserted stretch of San Juan Road in Phoenix’s South Mountain Preserve. It’s the perfect place to drive a man to his grave — literally. Starting with a crime so gruesome even prowling coyotes keep their distance from the remains, a killer begins crisscrossing the Southwest on a spree of grisly murders. (Ali Reynolds Series, #3; read an sample chapter)
• Taste of home baking book — Discover more than 725 recipes for irresistible baked goods-from cookies, bars, brownies, cakes, cheesecakes, pies, bread puddings, and meringues to yeast breads, quick breads, coffee cakes, muffins, biscuits, and more-and bask in the warm, complex aroma of a fresh-baked loaf of bread, the luscious whiff of cinnamon rolls, or the sweet, fruity fragrance of pies. Best of all, they are all made with easy-to-find ingredients. Every recipe has been tasted and reviewed by the professional home economists of the Taste of Home test kitchens. More than 675 full-color photographs illustrate mixing and baking methods and showcase the delectable baked results!
• World without end / Ken Follett — takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas-about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race-the Black Death. (read an sample chapter)
• Violet goes to the country / Melanie Cecka; Jan Karon — Violet and her owner, Alice, are off to the country for a visit. Violet is as excited as can be, but she keeps getting in the way of Alice’s uncle Leo (who is “not much of a cat person”). (Age Range: 4 to 8)
• Payback / Jasmine Cresswell — For twenty-five years multimillionaire businessman Ron Raven played the loving husband and father— to two very different households. But when Ron disappears, his deception is revealed. Now it’s time for…PAYBACK. (Ravens Trilogy, #3; read an exerpt)
• Missing / Jasmine Cresswell — For twenty-five years, multimillionaire businessman Ron Raven fooled everyone, successfully playing the loving husband and father to two very different households. But when Ron suddenly disappears, the truth about his deception is revealed. Now two families are left alone with their questions, while the one man who holds the answers is . . . MISSING. (Ravens Trilogy, #2; read an sample chapter)
• Suspect / Jasmine Cresswell — For twenty-five years, multimillionaire businessman Ron Raven had been fooling everyone, successfully playing the loving husband and father to two very different households. But when Ron suddenly disappears, the truth about his deception is revealed. Now faced with the ultimate betrayal, his families are left questioning who can be trusted . . . and who remains SUSPECT. (Ravens Trilogy, #1; read an sample chapter)
• Double cross / James Patterson — A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. has the whole East Coast on edge. It is like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. With each murder, the case becomes increasingly complex. There’s only one thing Alex knows: this killer adores an audience. (Alex Cross Series, #13)
• The New Year’s quilt / Jennifer Chiaverini — 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. Vowing not to repeat the mistake with her new daughter-in-law, Amy, who opposed Sylvia’s marriage to her father, Andrew, Sylvia must convince Amy that family is more precious than pride. (read an exerpt)
• Home to Holly Springs / Jan Karon — This novel takes Father Tim on a journey to his hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi. A host of fascinating encounters with people along the way ensure that the trip is colorful, though as Father Tim arrives in response to a mysterious summons, he may discover that home is where the heart is but also where secrets are hidden.
• Escape / Carolyn Jessop ; Laura Palmer — When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy. (read an exerpt)
• A week from Sunday / Dorothy Garlock — Adrianna Moore’s recently passed father has left his entire estate to his lawyer, who tells her that to regain her inheritance, she must marry him “a week from Sunday.” Driving desperately to a new life, Adrianna collides with Quinn Baxter’s truck, falls for him, and must deal with Quinn’s scheming housekeeper as well as the spurned lawyer, who continues to track Adrianna in order to force her to marry him. (read an sample chapter)
• On Tall Pine Lake / Dorothy Garlock — Nona Cinrad has been making it throught “by the hardest.” Each day is a struggle–to go on after her parents’ sudden death, to win her rightful inheritance from her untrustworthy half-brother, and to raise her high-spirited younger sister. Hired to manage a fishing camp deep in the Arkansas woods, the strong-willed redhead is eager to settle down…until she clashes with two men. One is a mysterious, well-dressed stranger who seems to know her. The other is the camp’s new owner, Simon Wright. (read an sample chapter)
• The abduction / Mark Gimenez — Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness where he battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an internet geek-turned-billionaire, half watches his daughter Gracie’s soccer game while conducting business on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her uncle has already collected Gracie. But Gracie has no uncle – she was kidnapped.