What We're Reading: Melanie, Reference Services
December 7, 2011
A Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin. Fantasy Fiction
A tale of court intrigues in the land of Seven Kingdoms, a country "blessed by golden summers that go on for years, and cursed by cruel winters that can last a generation." Mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill the pages of this magnificent saga
November-December
Temeraire Series: His Majesty's Dragon; Throne of Jade; Black Powder War; Empire of Ivory; Victory of Eagles; Tounges of Serpents. By Naomi Novik; Narrated by Simon Vance. Book on CD
Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain’s defense by taking to the skies . . . not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.
November 19, 2011
Books Can Be Deceiving, by Jenn McKinlay. LP
Newly single Lindsey Norris, the director of the Briar Creek Public Library, tries to help her best friend Beth, a children's book author, prove her innocence when she is accused of murdering her boyfriend Rick, a local celebrity.
November 5, 2011
Queen of the Dead, by Stacey Kade. YA Fiction
Will gets involved with The Order, a group consisting of ghost-talkers like himself, as he continues to help spirits into the light, while Alona, his vain, self-centered, and cranky spirit guide begins to learn the value of helping others.
November 1, 2011
The Ghost and The Goth by Stacey Kade. YA Fiction
After being hit by a bus and killed, a high school homecoming queen gets stuck in the land of the living, with only a loser classmate--who happens to be able to see and hear ghosts--to help her.
October 19, 2011
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Fiction
Madeleine Hanna breaks out of her straight-and-narrow mold when she falls in love with charismatic loner Leonard Bankhead, while at the same time an old friend of hers resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is his destiny.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan. Book on CD
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.
Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Book on CD
Bathtub gin, flappers and house parties that last all week enliven Fitzgerald's classic tale. Stylish and engaging, "The Great Gatsby" is also a startling literate portrait of Gatsby's search for meaning in his opulent world.
October 10, 2011
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. Fiction.
It's now 1968, and Claire Beauchamp Randall has returned to Inverness, Scotland, with her daughter, Brianna. This is Claire's first visit back since she and husband Frank visited 22 years before--when she walked through a Druid stone circle into the middle of the 18th century. Now, Frank is dead, and Claire hopes to learn what happened to the second great love of her life--gallant Jamie Fraser, laird of Lallybroch whom she married during her journey into the past. She's also looking for a way to tell Brianna who her real father is. Framed by these dilemmas, the bulk of the story consists of the second installment of Claire and Jamie's adventures. Escaping the English death sentence passed against Jamie, they flee to prerevolutionary Paris, where they secretly work at foiling Bonnie Prince Charlie's efforts to regain the Scottish throne. But this espionage is only the beginning...
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. New Fiction.
Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to 1743 Scotland, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for a young soldier, James Fraser.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. New Fiction
Witch and Yale historian Diana Bishop discovers an enchanted manuscript, attracting the attention of 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont. The orphaned daughter of two powerful witches, Bishop prefers intellect, but relies on magic when her discovery of a palimpsest documenting the origin of supernatural species releases an assortment of undead who threaten, stalk, and harass her.
September 7, 2011
Broken Dishes by Erlene Fowler; Narrated by Johanna Parker. Book on CD
Benni is helping out a friend on her ranch, which was recently converted from a working ranch to a retreat destination. In addition to organizing the quilting classes, she's lending a hand wherever needed. Things are finally coming together, that is until a dead body and Benni's nemesis Detective Ford "Hud" Hudson show up.
It's All About the Bike by Robert Penn. New Nonfiction. 796.6 P
The bicycle is one of mankind's greatest inventions and the most popular form of transport in history. Robert Penn has ridden one most days of his adult life. In his late 20s, he pedaled around the world. Yet, like cyclists everywhere, the utilitarian bikes he currently owns don't even hint at this devotion. Robert needs a new bike, a customized machine that reflects how he feels when he's riding it - like an ordinary man touching the gods. It's All About the Bike is the story of a journey to design and build a dream bike. En route, Robert explores the culture, science and history of the bicycle. From Stoke in his native UK, where an artisan hand builds his frame, to California, home of the mountain bike, where Robert tracks down the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and back to the UK to Coventry (birthplace of the modern bicycle, natch), this is the narrative of our love affair with cycling. It's All About the Bike is, like Penn's dream bike, a tale that's greater than the sum of its parts but those parts are nothing to sneeze at. His components set the standard in reliability, craftsmanship and beauty. A cheerful and charming tour guide, Penn tells how the bicycle has changed the course of human history, from the invention of the "people's nag" to the bike's role in the emancipation of women, and from the engineering marvel of the tangent-spoked wheel to the enduring allure of the Tour de France. It's the story of why we ride, and why this simple machine remains central to life today.
August 19, 2011
The Memory of Running, by Ron McLarty. Fiction
Every decade seems to produce a novel that captures the public's imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride. Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running is this decade's novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson “Smithy” Ide is a loser. An overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk, Smithy's life becomes completely unhinged when he loses his parents and long-lost sister within the span of one week. Rolling down the driveway of his parents' house in Rhode Island on his old Raleigh bicycle to escape his grief, the emotionally bereft Smithy embarks on an epic, hilarious, luminous, and extraordinary journey of discovery and redemption.
August 18, 2011
The Last Werewolf, by Glen Duncan. New Fiction
Jacob Marlowe has lost the will to live. For two hundred years he has wandered the world, enslaved by his lunatic appetites and tormented by the memory of his first and most monstrous crime. Now, the last of his kind, he contemplates suicide -- until a violent murder and an extraordinary meeting plunge him straight back into the desperate pursuit of life -- and love.
August 3, 2011
Hell on Two Wheels : An Astonishing Story of Suffering, Triumph, and the Most Extreme Endurance Race in the World, by Amy Snyder. New Nonfiction. 796.62 S
Contestants have died, been maimed, and spiraled down into the nightmarish realm of madness. Half of them don't finish-in fact, only 200 racers have ever made it to the end. Outside magazine calls it "the toughest test of endurance in the world." RAAM-the Race Across America-is a bicycle race like no other. This epic race is the most brutal organized sporting event you've never heard of and one of the best-kept secrets in the sports world. Author, Amy Snyder follows a handful of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 event-the closest and most controversial in history. Hell on Two Wheels is a thrilling and remarkably detailed account of their ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. By experiencing the race from the perspective of the racers themselves, Hell on Two Wheels breaks new ground in helping us appreciate how such a grueling effort can be so cleansing and self-revelatory. This is more than just a race-it's a monster, a crucible, an unforgettable allegory about the human experience of pain and joy and self-discovery.
July 30, 2011
Grave Surprise, by Charlaine Harris; Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan. Book on CD
Twenty-something Harper Connolly has a gift. After being struck by lighting as a child, she discovered an eerie ability to locate the deceased. In Memphis, skeptical Professor Nunley wants her to demonstrate that skill at an ancient cemetery. There, Harper stands atop a grave and says there are two bodies entombed: one centuries old, but the other, a young girl named Tabitha. Her assertion holds water. Tabitha has been missing for two years--and now the police are suspicious of Harper. So with her loyal stepbrother Tolliver, Harper begins to amass clues that will solve the case.
July 25, 2011
The Bird Sisters, by Rebecca Rasmussen. New Fiction.
As elderly women, sisters Twiss and Milly live alone in the house where they grew up in Spring Green, Wis. They spend their days tending to injured birds and roaming their land, lost in memories. For Milly, there is the constant reminder of what could have been. Twiss spent her childhood happily trailing behind their golf-pro father, but Milly dreamed about a family and children that never happened. There was hope for a young Milly, until an accident strips their father of his golfing abilities and sets in motion a series of events that rips apart the already unstable family.
July 22, 2011
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, by Charlaine Harris; Narrated by Thérèse Plummer. Book on CD
Third in Charlaine Harris's acclaimed Aurora Teagarden mystery series.
An unexpected legacy has given former librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden some time on her hands, so she decides to try selling real estate. Her mother, after all, is Lawrenceton's premier real estate agent, giving Roe a head start on this new career. But at her first house showing, Roe discovers the naked corpse of a rival broker. It looks like there's a cool killer at large, one who knows a great deal about real estate- and maybe too much about Roe.
July 1, 2011
Cleaning Nabokov's House, by Leslie Daniels. New Fiction. “I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.”
So begins Leslie Daniels’s funny and moving novel about a woman’s desperate attempt to rebuild her life.When Barb Barrett walks out on her loveless marriage she doesn’t realize she will lose everything: her home, her financial security, even her beloved children. Approaching forty with her life in shambles and no family or friends to turn to, Barb must now discover what it means to rely on herself in a stark new emotional landscape.
Guided only by her intense inner voice and a unique entrepreneurial vision, Barb begins to collect the scattered pieces of her life. She moves into a house once occupied by Vladimir Nabokov, author of the controversial masterpiece Lolita, and discovers a manuscript that may be his lost work. As her journey gathers momentum, Barb deepens a connection with her new world, discovering resources in her community and in herself that no one had anticipated. Written in elegant prose with touches of sharp humor and wit, Cleaning Nabokov’s House offers a new vision of modern love and a fervent reminder that it is never too late to find faith in our truest selves.
