Lindenhurst Memorial Library's Book Blog

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything: A Novel

2012-01-27T14:00:00.000-05:00

Author Janelle Brown has written a novel about three women from an affluent Los Angeles family and how they are forced to figuratively leave “LaLa Land” behind and learn to cope with reality. Janice, the wife of pharmaceutical company executive Paul Miller, expects to be fabulously wealthy when the company goes public. Instead, she is shocked to find out that Paul is leaving her for her best friend/tennis partner. Moreover, she discovers that several months earlier, she had unknowingly signed papers giving up rights to half of the money earned during the marriage. Her older daughter Margaret, publisher of a failed feminist magazine that has left her penniless, returns to help Janice cope. It’s also a convenient way for Margaret to hide out from creditors. Teenage daughter Lizzie, always plump and an outsider among her peers, finds new-found popularity when she joins the swim team, slims down and also becomes the school slut. But after hitting bottom, the only way to go is up; the Miller women wise up and decide to fight back. Their trip back to semi-normalcy is loaded with humorous and sarcastic turns of events involving divorce lawyers, drug-dealing pool boys, country club society, evangelical church members, and more.

Babylon's Ark: the Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

2012-01-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

The true adventures of Lawrence Anthony, a South African conservationist, owner of an animal preserve and founder of the Earth Organization. At the beginning of the Iraqi War, with its human bloodshed and destruction of property, little was known about the fate of the Baghdad Zoo, located in the center of the city. Anthony cared about the well-being of the zoo’s inhabitants and traveled to Baghdad in order to rescue those who had survived the gunfire and bombings. The situation was very rough at first, many of the animals having been killed or stolen to sell on the black market. Anthony’s “can-do” attitude and political savvy got Iraqis, members of the U.S. military and international animal lovers working together to overhaul and revitalize the zoo; a project that still is ongoing today. This is an uplifting narrative.

V is for Vengeance

2011-12-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

The 22nd entry in author Sue Grafton’s “alphabet series” of mysteries, this story departs from the usual first person narration by protagonist Kinsey Millhone. Instead, Kinsey shares the space with two other characters, businessman/Mafia boss Lorenzo Dante and society wife Nora Vogelsang. After witnessing a department store shoplifting and reporting it to security, Kinsey is dismayed to later find out that the woman supposedly committed suicide. Kinsey is hired by the woman’s fiancé to investigate whether she really was murdered. Alternating stories include that of Dante’s family problems with a thuggish brother and senile father combining with an FBI investigation of his affairs, all coming to a head; and of society wife Nora Vogelsang’s plotting of justice against a cheating husband. As usual, the occurrences of seemingly unrelated events evolve into the satisfactory resolution of main and minor mysteries. We meet a variety of criminals and law enforcement officials, both good and evil; and are observers of an illicit love affair. The tying up of loose ends is a delight.

Afternoon Book Discussions

2011-12-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk four weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

January 18th
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, written by Janelle Brown
Over the course of one summer, the three Miller women – Janice, abandoned by her wealthy husband; daughter Margaret, facing bankruptcy; and teenage daughter Lizzie – do battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, their own demons, and one another.

February 15th
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace – One School at a Time, written by Greg Mortenson
The inspiring account of one man’s campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.

March 21st
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, written by Erik Larson
An account of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event – architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

April 18th
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, written by Muriel Barbery
The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu.

May 16th
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, written by Mary Ann Schaffer
As Juliet and Dawsey exchange letters, she learns about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a unique book club formed on the spur-of-the moment, as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the Germans.

June 20th
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte
The classic 1847 novel traces the doomed love affair between an orphaned, independent-minded governess and her brooding employer, Mr. Rochester.

A Stolen Life: A Memoir

2011-12-01T11:01:00.000-05:00

Here is Jaycee Dugard’s life story, in her own words, recounting the events surrounding her abduction, imprisonment and eventual return home eighteen years later. As an eleven-year-old girl snatched from her school bus stop by previously convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy, Jaycee’s horrifying experiences were just beginning. Aside from repeated sexual attacks by Phillip, resulting in Jaycee’s first pregnancy at the age of fourteen and the birth of two daughters, Jaycee also was forced to live in filthy backyard outbuildings and act compliantly towards her captors. She was instructed to tell her daughters that she was their older sister and Nancy their mother. Despite this psychological oppression, Jaycee managed to raise and educate her two daughters as normally as possible; although several times she does wonder aloud (to the reader) how her life might have been different if she hadn’t been abducted. But throughout the whole book we are in awe of Jaycee’s strength under impossible circumstances. This is a true survival story.

November is National Diabetes Month: Highlighting Cookbooks

2011-11-18T17:04:00.001-05:00

One way to control diabetes is through appropriate diet. Here are a few current selections to help with that goal.

Just What the Doctor Ordered Diabetes Cookbook, is written by Joseph D’Amore, a medical doctor, and his sister Lisa D’Amore-Miller, a nutritionist. The book includes 125 recipes that are designed to be easy to prepare and taste delicious. The authors also include “Prescription for Success” tips that provide cooking, diet, lifestyle and diabetes self-management advice.

The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook, written by Amy Riolo, presents recipes for a diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains. They are based upon the typically healthy recipes found in Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and other countries in the region.

The Essential Diabetes Cookbook: Good Healthy Eating from around the World, written by Antony Worrall Thompson, includes two hundred recipes from all international cuisines that are modified to suit the diabetic diet.

The Diabetes Comfort Food Cookbook: Foods to Fill You Up, Not Out, written by Robyn Webb, presents healthy versions of classic comfort foods for the diabetic. Selections include lasagna, meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, cake and more.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

2011-11-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular belief, our conscious brain is not in charge of human behavior. Author David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine, relies upon his in-depth research of medical journals and texts (listed in bibliographic format at the end of the book) to present a thorough analysis of the human brain. However, we still have a lot to learn about our subject. Below the conscious level, we rely on instincts, impulses, automatic systems and emotions to guide ourselves through life. Is brain development reliant on genetics or environment? Is free will a misnomer? There are no easy answers to any of the questions brought up in this book.

A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness

2011-11-01T11:05:00.000-04:00

Author and psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi presents his premise that the most successful political leaders during times of war and other calamities are not those who are mentally healthy. Instead, it is those individuals who have suffered some of the symptoms of depression, bipolar disorder and other diseases both mental and physical that are most successful in leading their people through times of crisis. These conditions provide the individual with such attributes as realistic outlook (as opposed to optimism), empathy, creativity, and resilience. These leaders, including John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and others, have been successful. Adolf Hitler doesn’t fit in with this group, the author contends, because of his overmedication with opiates, barbiturates and amphetamines. Other leaders such as George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Tony Blair and Neville Chamberlain, while mentally healthy enough to lead in times of peace and well-being were not capable of command during crisis.

Ghaemi’s theories will have some readers nodding in agreement and others totally opposed.

The Tenderness of Wolves

2011-10-31T14:24:00.000-04:00

Scottish author Stef Penney sets her first novel in the small settlement of Dove River in the Canadian wilderness of 1867. After Mrs. Ross discovers the body of her neighbor Laurent Jammett, a trapper and former employee for the Hudson Bay Company, she dutifully reports the apparent murder to the de facto legal representative Andrew Knox. Immediately, the authorities are called in: representatives of the Hudson Bay Company including the youthful Donald Moody who becomes involved in a romantic subplot. Also arriving are half-breed Indian and trapper William Parker who originally is suspected of the murder, and American trader Thomas Sturrock who, years earlier, was involved in an attempt at tracking the disappearance of two local girls.

Mrs. Ross soon regrets her discovery; she realizes that her teenage son Francis has been missing since about the time of the murder. With William Parker as her guide, she sets off in search of Francis. The company representatives are in close pursuit, interested in determining if Francis is the murderer. Surprises abound as the chase continues, with a somewhat unexpected denouement. The reader is presented with more than one mystery to solve. The multi-dimensional characters, richly detailed text, and energetic plot add interest to this novel.

The Big Sleep

2011-10-27T11:45:00.000-04:00

Author Raymond Chandler’s first Philip Marlowe mystery packs a big punch for hard-boiled detective novel devotees. Set in late 1930’s Los Angeles, Marlowe is hired by General Sternwood, a dying millionaire to find out who is blackmailing his daughter. His investigation leads to a situation that is more than he bargained for when he discovers that the General’s two daughters, leading immoral lives, are involved with pornography and murder. Chandler’s poetically descriptive language and precise depiction of his gritty characters enhances the novel’s ambiance. Philip Marlowe is a noble individual who rises above the fray to bring about justice.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

2011-09-26T15:33:00.000-04:00

Here is an unusual topic for fiction. What do you think the afterlife would be like? Author David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and non-fiction writer, presents us with a collection of short stories offering a variety of alternatives. In one afterlife you might relive all of the experiences in your previous life, only grouped together, so that you would sleep for thirty years, stand on line for eighteen months, shower for two hundred days, and more. In another one, you find that after death your role is to populate the dreams of living people; eventually you will return to life and the actors in your dreams will be the dead. In some versions of the afterlife, God is a giantess, or a married couple not always living happily ever after, or a group of Collectors who run scientific experiments using us as the subjects to answer their questions. Heaven might be a comfortable lounge where you get to watch the details in the lives of your descendants. Or it might be a place where everything is immortal, even the things that we create, such as cell phones, knickknacks, old computers, etc. All of these tales and others allow the author to express his ideas of human philosophies, hopes and emotions in a concise volume.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

2011-09-16T16:10:00.000-04:00

Written by Elizabeth McCracken, this is an exploration of the author’s feelings during a tumultuous time in her life. Recently married, she and her husband Edward, both writers, temporarily move to France on work assignments. Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant and the couple spends the next several months in a blissful state, enjoying both the pleasurable elements of French culture and the exciting promise of future parenthood. Then the unthinkable happens; in her ninth month of pregnancy Elizabeth senses that something is wrong with the baby. She is rushed first to the clinic and then to the hospital where she delivers a stillborn son. Inconsolable in her grief, even though her husband is very supportive, Elizabeth falls into the depths of depression. We are present in all her thoughts and feelings. Not long after this she becomes pregnant again, hoping against hope that she will deliver a healthy baby. Even when Elizabeth does deliver a healthy second son, Gus, she still has a place in her heart for their first child and asserts that this book is a memorial to him.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month

2011-08-16T16:59:00.000-04:00

Childhood immunization is a controversial topic; one camp insists that it is responsible for autism and other illnesses and disabilities in children; the other side maintains that vaccination is mandatory in order to prevent epidemics. Here are some recently published books on the topic.

Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten our Human Rights, our Health, and our Children, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland, presents a series of articles featuring instances of vaccinations causing illnesses to children, adolescents and adults. They contend that government mandates for vaccination violate individual rights and suggest ways to reform American health policy.

Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, written by Paul A. Offit, an infectious disease physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, maintains that the media’s presentation of anecdotal incidence of disease and disabilities caused by vaccinations is playing on parents’ fears. He asserts that epidemic, the end result of not being protected by vaccinations, is far worse, posing a threat to all of society.

The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, written by Seth Mnookin, also contends that the media, in an effort to being fair to both sides of the argument, has encouraged certain groups to advance a health-scare hoax. He also points to various anti-vaccination outbursts over the years since the smallpox vaccine was developed as the continuation of an anti-scientific sentiment in society.

The Vaccine Answerbook: 200 Essential Answers to Help You Make the Right Decisions for your Child, written by physician Jamie Loehr, provides detailed information about specific vaccines, their side effects, when it is not recommended to administer them, and when to schedule them for your child. He also explores some of the controversies surrounding vaccines and their purported cause of disabilities.

August Birthdays

2011-08-08T14:12:00.001-04:00

Martha Stewart – August 3, 1941
Being Martha: The Inside Story of Martha Stewart and her Amazing Life, written by Lloyd Allen, a friend of Martha’s daughter and a former neighbor, paints a flattering picture of her as viewed by her mother, daughter, brother, and others. Less adulatory and more well-balanced is Martha: On Trial, In Jail, and on a Comeback, written by Robert Slater. It is based on a series of in-depth interviews of people who have dealt with Martha. Martha herself is not interviewed. The book mainly focuses on her trial, incarceration and her future projects after release from prison.

Lucille Ball – August 6, 1911
Laughing with Lucy: My Life with America’s Leading Lady of Comedy, written by Madelyn Pugh Davis with Bob Carroll Jr., recounts the stories, both familiar and little-known, of the production of the I Love Lucy show and the other Lucille Ball sitcoms. Davis and Carroll were the show’s co-writers.

Julia Child – August 15, 1912
A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS, written by Jennet Conant, tells the story of Julia and Paul’s lives as members of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, long before Julia’s career as a chef took off. Years later, they were involved in another battle when McCarthy-era politics threatened many of their intelligence colleagues including Jane Foster, who actually may have been a Soviet spy.

Shanghai Girls: A Novel

2011-07-18T13:07:00.000-04:00

In this compelling novel written by Lisa See, two upper-middle class young women from late 1930’s Shanghai, China endure physical and emotional upheaval before their escape to Los Angeles after being sold by their father as wives to two Chinese men living there. We see the sisters, Pearl and May, developing maturity and strength as they go from a sheltered and carefree existence, to struggle, abuse and escape during the Japanese invasion, to a life of hard work and racial discrimination in Los Angeles. The book covers a twenty-year period during which the sisters strive to adapt to their new home, husbands and extended families, and to survive financially. Along the way, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of the sisters’ relationship with each other, coexisting with their petty jealousies and passionate trust in one another, and keeping their one secret from others for fear of upsetting their new lives in America. We see how the generations of the extended family interrelate. We also get a direct comparison of Chinese and Chinese-American cultures. The book ends without the expected finalization of the story; it is continued in See’s latest work Dreams of Joy.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

2011-06-17T16:18:00.001-04:00

This incredible story, written by Garth Stein, will touch your heart and make you want to believe in its legitimacy, even though it’s a work of fiction. Enzo the dog was raised from a puppy by Danny, an aspiring racecar driver whose family eventually expanded to include a wife and daughter. The dog also was a faithful family member, honor bound to protect them all. Remarkably, Enzo is the narrator of the story as he is a self-educated canine. Thanks to instruction from television and other sources, Enzo is capable of higher thinking, although he is unable to speak and has to communicate through gestures and actions.

There are two stories here, one being the tragedy that befalls Danny’s family when his wife dies and her parents try to gain total custody of the daughter, because of their belief that they will be better guardians than Danny who they see as less than stable because of his profession. But Danny is able to succeed in the end, thanks to his racing philosophy and sheer determination. The second story involves Enzo’s desire to become a human in his next life, something he has learned about from an educational television program and that he believes he is ready for. In a book balanced by equal portions of humor and pathos, we speed through Enzo’s short canine life, cheering on this noble creature who in the end receives his just reward.

I'll Walk Alone

2011-06-06T12:04:00.001-04:00

Octogenarian author Mary Higgins Clark has successfully published a long string of light mystery/romances over the years, skillfully blending succinctly drawn characters with continuous plot progression. I’ll Walk Alone features protagonist Alexandra “Zan” Moreland , a divorced, thirty-something interior decorator whose three-year-old son Matthew was kidnapped while with his sleeping baby sitter in Central Park two years ago. In addition to the desolation she feels from this loss, Zan also worries that she is losing her mind when it is discovered that large sums of money have been removed from her accounts by her, something that she knows she has not done. When a recently discovered photograph provides proof that Zan kidnapped her own child, even her friends and associates believe it to be true, although they suspect that Zan suffers from a split personality. Pursued by the press and the police, she struggles to prove her innocence and rescue her son. After some plot surprises, the reader is rewarded with the conventional happy ending and an enjoyable read.

Lost Painting

2011-06-03T16:30:00.001-04:00

Join author Jonathan Harr as he recounts the search for and discovery of the missing painting “The Taking of Christ” created by the Italian baroque artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Caravaggio is an artist of outstanding ability whose popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries. Several of his paintings have disappeared from the public view. Recently there has been much scholarly interest in Caravaggio’s works.

In this book, the adventure/mystery revolves around three major players: graduate student Francesca Cappelletti, who researches the provenance and history of
“The Taking of Christ”, Sir Denis Mahon, the world’s foremost expert on Caravaggio, and Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer who discovers the masterpiece at an Irish monastery and brings it to the National Gallery of Ireland. Harr presents an abundance of detail on the workings of art history research and art restoration, allowing the general reader to follow the action easily. He also enables the reader to access the thoughts and feelings of the main characters.

The Whistleblower

2011-05-19T10:08:00.000-04:00

The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac with Cari Lynn
Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors, and One Woman’s Fight for Justice

This is the true life story of a Lincoln, Nebraska police officer turned International Human Rights Investigator. Looking for a change, Bolkovac, enticed by the high Dynocorp salaries, made the decision to apply for a job oversees. She soon discovered Dynocorp was inundated with unqualified candidates and that landing a job would be easy. Bolkovac traveled to Bosnia and began a journey that would soon lead her to discover a cover up of massive proportions.

Bolkovac discovers her employer, Dynocorp, is covering up the involvement of its own employees and contractors in the Bosnian sex trade industry. Their involvement ranges from the taking bribes to look the other way to the actually purchasing and resale of the young women. When Bolkovac discovers the wrong doing and reports it she was fired under false pretenses.

Bolkovac is a very courageous woman and there is no doubt she helped many foreign women who were victims of sex trafficking. However, this book is so structurally flawed, that it renders the text boring and practically unreadable. The tale is told in a strictly linear fashion that reads like a police deposition and lacks any kind of story-like quality. There is a lot of extraneous information inserted into the text that adds nothing to the story, while the most interesting side story, Bolkovac’s relationship with Jan, is totally glazed over (but I imagine it was very romantic). Perhaps the movie being made of this tale will be better.

About the Author
Bolkovac is a former police investigator from Nebraska that served as an International Police Task Force investigator in Bosnia. She divides her time between Licoln, NE and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Where the mysterious Jan lives…)
Lynn is the author of three books of narrative non-fiction and has written for numerous magazines and newspapers including O, Health, Good Housekeeping and the Chicago Tribune. She live in LA, California.

Read-a-Likes (or alternatives to try)
The Natashas: inside the new global sex trade by Victor Malarek

Sex trafficking: inside the business of modern slavery by Siddharth Kara

The Franklin scandal: a story of powerbrokers, child abuse and betrayal by Nick Bryant

Three Junes

2011-05-06T15:40:00.001-04:00

This first novel, written by Julia Glass, focuses on relationships and the joys and heartaches that they bring. The book features the McLeods, a Scottish family, and includes father Paul, mother Maureen, and sons Fenno, David and Dennis. In three sections of the book, and using flashbacks, we experience their lives in Scotland, Greece and the United States during three points of time in the 1980s and 1990s. The author sensitively portrays the attributes and foibles of the characters, all family members, friends and lovers of one another. Three of them are serendipitously linked: father/widower Paul meets and is attracted to the young American artist Fern while on a Greek cruise; six years later at the occasion of Paul’s death we observe the adventures of eldest son Fenno, a straight-laced homosexual expatriate who owns a bookstore in New York; finally four years later Fern and Fenno become acquainted while visiting with friends in the Hamptons.

Descriptive language allows the reader to visualize the settings as though they are works of art and the plot moves smoothly back and forth through time. This is a worthwhile book to read.

Mystery: An Alex Delaware Novel

2011-04-26T14:25:00.001-04:00

Author Jonathan Kellerman presents another mystery featuring his popular character Dr. Alex Delaware. Forensic science, computer savvy, psychological analysis and plain old sleuthing play equal parts in solving the murder of a woman who advertised on an online dating site matching older wealthy men with beautiful young women.

While at a romantic restaurant, Alex and girlfriend Robin spot an attractive young woman sitting by herself. The next day, coincidentally, Alex’s friend, LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis brings him to the crime scene at which this same woman was mutilated and murdered. Investigations lead Alex and Milo to a wealthy family with links to old Hollywood society. Twists and turns lead to the mystery’s satisfying resolution. First-rate character development and attention to detail keep the momentum moving along.

A Death in Belmont

2011-04-12T13:56:00.002-04:00

A true crime story is up close and personal for author Sebastian Junger as he chronicles the Boston Strangler serial murders that took place during the early 1960s. Before the advent of DNA evidence, some individuals were tried and convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence. This is what happened to Roy Smith, a black man and ex-convict who was working as a housecleaner in Bessie Goldberg's home the day she was sexually assaulted and murdered, the thirteenth victim in the Boston area.

At the same time, a few blocks away, Albert DeSalvo was working as a hired helper on a home construction job for one-year-old Sebastian Junger's parents. The work was completed without incident, although Sebastian's mother had a premonition about DeSalvo possibly causing her harm.

Roy Smith spends several years in jail for the murder he says he did not commit; Albert DeSalvo eventually confesses to all of the Boston Strangler murders except for that of Bessie Goldberg. Was DeSalvo really the Boston Strangler or just someone looking for fame? Was Smith a victim of racial prejudice or was he a murderer? Junger tries to examine both men fairly as to their guilt or innocence, but in the end there still are unanswered questions.

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

2011-03-20T11:53:00.001-04:00

Written by Dava Sobel, this is an account of the lives of Galileo Galilei and his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, based upon the remaining correspondence between the two as well as other biographical sources. Galileo, a man of genius and of deep religious faith, spent a lifetime battling the Roman Catholic Church over his controversial astronomical theories. Maria Celeste, one of his three illegitimate children who eventually entered a convent in Florence, was of a similar bent to her father, described by him as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me.”

Through the reading of this book, we become acquainted with the historical events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including Bubonic Plague outbreaks and the Thirty Years’ War. We learn of Galileo’s introductory works in the science of physics and his inventions which included the telescope. We are able to observe the actions of this era’s men of politics, religion and science and how they influenced the future. Most of all, we are witness to the expression of deep love and friendship between a father and a daughter.

The Friday Night Knitting Club

2011-03-04T16:29:00.002-05:00

This novel, written by Kate Jacobs, offers the reader in-depth character development, drama, sorrow, joy and more. It is the story of Georgia Walker, a single mother raising her biracial child in Manhattan, fighting the odds to achieve financial security through the growth of her yarn store business. We are witness to Georgia’s nurturing of her daughter Dakota through the difficult years of early adolescence and the return of Dakota’s father in her life. We see how Georgia’s friendships, old and new, sustain her in her personal life and how she in turn supports these friends with their circumstances. There is romance for a few of the characters, adventure for others, and a growth of independence for all. Knitting rules are placed throughout the book, intended as metaphors for life management.

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America

2011-02-03T13:53:00.004-05:00

Written by Robert Charles Wilson, this is a portrait of an imagined 22nd-century America, in which Julian Comstock reflects the political and social turmoil in today’s world. The most poignant political themes in the novel are the separation of Church and State, religious freedom, the US‘s dependency on oil and the increasing monetary gap between the middle and the upper classes. Additional themes include America’s consumer-driven society tainted by the desire for excess and the dangers of viral mutation from antibiotics.

This novel takes place after the age of oil, in feudal caste society. The presidency is no longer determined by election but is inherited or appointed. The whole of North America is the new USA and the USA is still at war with the Europeans, who are labeled “the Dutch,” over Canada’s northern territories. After the end of oil, an indentured class is created, these citizens sell the only thing they own, their own bodies, in order to survive.

Julian Comstock, a member of privileged class, sets off to find America and himself. Julian is accompanied by two companions, Sam and Adam, who are of the working or indentured classes. The three involuntarily get drafted into the army and are sent off to fight the Dutch. The three eventually return as heros to New York, now the US’s capital. Soon the group is threatened by their political ties to the president and Julian is faced with overwhelming opposition from the powerful Church/Feudal run government.

As well as a political novel, Julian Comstock is a coming of age story. I would recommend this book to both adults and older teens, especially lovers of Science Fiction.

About the Author
Robert Charles Wilson, born in 1953, has been a full-time professional writer since 1986. He has published 14 novels, numerous short stories, and several non-fiction pieces and book reviews. He lives in Concord, Ontario, with his wife Sharry, a professional proofreader. Wilson received the Hugo award for his novel Spin in 2006.

Read-a-likes:

Paul Park
Alison Sinclair
Eric Nylund
Pat Murphy

Books on Baking: Ban Those Winter Blues

2011-01-31T14:15:00.003-05:00

The book Bake!: Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking, written by Nick Malgieri, is an ideal selection for beginning and intermediate bakers. Each of its twenty chapters highlights a different baking technique; its 125 recipes include numbered steps and many photographs.

Baked Explorations : Classic American Desserts Reinvented, written by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, is the second book from the owners of the Brooklyn bakery Baked. (They now own a second bakery in Charleston, South Carolina.) Seventy-five recipes are distributed in chapters featuring breakfast, tarts and pies, cookies and bars, cakes, confections and pastry. The authors have appeared often on television with Oprah, Martha Stewart, and on the Food Network.

The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free, written by Anne Byrn, is one of several Cake Mix Doctor books from the author. Using gluten-free cake mixes in combination with a variety of other items, Byrn produces cakes, cupcakes, brownies, bars and cookies, frosting and more from over seventy-five recipes. Byrn often appears on television shows' cooking segments.

Sarabeth's Bakery : from My Hands to Yours, written by Sarabeth Levine with Rick Rodgers, is the first cookbook from the longtime Manhattan bakery owner. Scones, muffins, croissants, cookies, and other classics, often paired with the spreadable fruits for which Sarabeth is known, are featured in her step-by-step recipes accompanied by photos. More advanced recipes are presented too.

Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books

2011-01-25T18:07:00.003-05:00

The author, Aaron Lansky, was a graduate student who took a Yiddish language class. At that time, Yiddish was believed to be a dying language. His professor encouraged him to travel to New York to search for some Yiddish books. Aaron was able to track down an assortment of them that someone was throwing out. He realized that if something wasn’t done, soon there wouldn’t be any Yiddish books left in the world. So began Aaron’s adventures as a collector and distributor of Yiddish books.

Working with a small group of like-minded friends, Aaron created the National Yiddish Book Center. They traveled cross-country and around the world to rescue Yiddish books being discarded because their owners were moving from their homes and didn’t have room for them, or the children who inherited the books weren’t able to read them. For each donation of books, they also were showered with an abundance of home-cooked meals and colorful stories. Eventually the group established a permanent library on a New England college campus, where the collection of over one million and a half books is available, some for reference use and some for circulation. An ongoing digitization project will guarantee the perpetuation of these works.

New Year's Resolutions: Grow Your Finances

2011-01-05T18:35:00.001-05:00

Is 2011 the year you want to increase your personal wealth? Here are some books to help you.

“Debt Free for Life”, written by David Bach, offers tips on how to get out of debt and avoid incurring new debt using his Debt Wise program. He also shows how to lower the interest rates on credit cards, fix your credit report and score, get non-profit credit counseling, and more.

“Getting Started in Rebuilding Your 401(k) Account: A Comprehensive Guide to a Strong Retirement Portfolio, Second Edition”, written by Paul Katzeff, is a current handbook on restoring your investments to their pre-recession levels. From the basics of 401 (k) plans, to new rules about them, to choosing the right investments, this guide can assure your financial future.

“The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less”, written by John Robbins, focuses on finding success through health and happiness, not financial wealth. He offers tips on living on less, fitness through diet and exercise, and planning for economic catastrophes.

“

Afternoon Book Discussions

2010-12-20T16:48:00.000-05:00

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

2010-12-20T15:53:00.002-05:00

Part character study, part mystery; this book, written by Maggie O’Farrell, will have you wondering how an intelligent, albeit highly strung young woman could be entrapped in a mental institution for over sixty years. The title character, Esme Lennox, spends her childhood in India and then returns to Scotland with her family. The family views the adolescent as hard to handle and a misfit in proper society. Circumstances lead to her being committed to Cauldstone Hospital. Years later, her great-niece Iris Lockhart is notified that the hospital is closing and Esme is being released. Iris never knew of the woman’s existence; her grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. Here is a conundrum that evolves into something more.

The narrative, told in turn by Iris, Esme, and Kitty, gives depth to the characters. The plot briskly advances towards the conclusion. The reader will be indignant at the ease with which misbehaving women can be locked away for life. Will justice be done?

The Plain Truth

2010-11-26T11:09:00.002-05:00

Here is another gripping novel from Jodi Picoult, featuring an ethical dilemma and the steps to its resolution. A dead newborn is found in a barn on the property of an Amish farmer. Evidence leads to the baby being the child of the farmer’s daughter, Katie Fisher. Katie is accused of murdering the child. High profile lawyer Ellie Hathaway, in the throes of an emotional crisis herself, decides to defend Katie.

The story combines an in-depth observation of Amish culture with the elements of a legal thriller. As the author enables us to view the various characters’ perspectives as to what is right and wrong, we also find ourselves becoming emotionally involved with the story. After several twists and turns in the plot, the reader is presented with a complex ending.

Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy

2010-11-24T14:09:00.002-05:00

Author Carlos Eire presents a memoir of his upper middle class childhood in Cuba, spanning the years between Batista’s rule and the ascension of Fidel Castro. Eire describes his early youth as one of privilege and enjoyment; the reckless pleasures of rough play activities with his friends and father is contrasted with the strict religious education he receives from the monks at his school. His family members and friends are depicted lovingly and humorously; the portrayal of his father the judge who believes that he is the reincarnation of King Louis the Sixteenth is hilarious. The characterizations of people that Eire does not like explode with rage.

As Castro comes into power, Eire’s family finds that their range of freedoms narrows. In 1962, their parents send Carlos and his brother Tony to the United States during Operation Peter Pan, where they endure life-altering changes. Eventually their mother joins them but their father remains behind in Cuba.

Eire’s lyrical prose accentuates the emotional timbre of his account, allowing the reader to empathize with his plight.

Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

2010-10-22T17:06:00.003-04:00

Meteorology was a new science at the turn of the twentieth century in the United States; yet at times it seemed to be more art than science. The National Weather Bureau was an industrious government department, but corruption and petty jealousies were endemic. Into this mix came Isaac Cline, an intelligent man yet one who was overconfident in his forecasting abilities, believing himself to know exactly how the weather would behave.

One of the deadliest hurricanes ever to occur in the United States, and one that caught residents by surprise when it struck Galveston, Texas in 1900 is a main character in this suspenseful non-fiction story, written by Erik Larson. The book is based upon Cline’s letters, telegrams and reports and the written accounts of several of the survivors. The storm caused at least six thousand deaths and a massive loss of property. The reader will be on the edge of his seat as this real-life drama plays out.

October is National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month

2010-10-05T14:41:00.001-04:00

Jan’s Story: Love Lost to the Long Goodbye of Alzheimer’s, written by CBS News correspondent Barry R. Petersen, is the story of his wife Jan Petersen, their marriage, and what happened after they discovered Jan was suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s Disease at the age of 55.

Take Your Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss, written by television’s Leeza Gibbons and based on her experiences coping with her mother Jean’s illness. Progressing through more than ten years of decline first at home and then at a nursing home dementia unit, the reader learns both about diseases involving memory loss as well as how caregivers can care for themselves physically and emotionally.

The Thousand Mile Stare: One Family’s Journey through the Struggle and Science of Alzheimer’s, written by Gary Reiswig, chronicles a family’s slow realization that their family members carried the gene for early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and their participation in research studies.

Last of His Mind: a Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s, written by John Thorndike, is a memoir of the novelist John Thorndike and his father Joe, a former writer and editor. At the age of 92, Joe is sliding into the mental and physical problems of Alzheimer’s disease. He doesn’t want to move into a nursing home, so his son moves in with him. Over the following year, John experiences many insights and emotional highs and lows while caring for his father.

100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Age-Related Memory Loss is written by former CNN medical correspondent and syndicated “Eat Smart” columnist Jean Carper. She presents 100 medical, nutritional and lifestyle practices that could help prevent memory loss diseases.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

2010-09-27T12:12:00.001-04:00

Prolific writer/humorist Bill Bryson treats baby boomers and others to his experiences growing up during the 1950s and 1960s. As the youngest child of journalist parents, Bill grew up in Iowa during simpler times, when the United States was king of the consumer world and the fear of nuclear bomb attack was managed with practice air raid drills. Cigarette smoking, sex, movie theaters, country fairs, and baseball are just some of the topics Bryson examines with humor and a touch of nostalgia.

The Space between Us: A Novel

2010-09-21T15:53:00.002-04:00

Written by Thrity N. Umrigar, this is the story of two women in modern day India; Sera, an upper-middle class Parsi housewife and Bhima, her long-time servant. Although they are separated by class and circumstance, the two have both endured hardship and sorrow in their lives. Though Bhima has worked in Sera’s home for many years, and they enjoy a companionship based on Sera’s family and household needs, there still is that division of class that precludes such things as Bhima’s sitting on the furniture and using household dishes and utensils.

Sera is the widow of an abusive man who finds joy in sharing her home with her daughter, her only child and son-in-law who soon are expecting a child. Bhima, whose marriage fell apart after her husband’s work injuries led to a downward spiral to alcoholism, raised her granddaughter Maya after her daughter and son-in-law died of AIDS. She lives one step above poverty but manages to carry on in hopes of seeing her pretty and intelligent granddaughter graduate college (paid for by Sera) and pull herself out of the lower class. Then tragedy strikes with the revelation that Maya is pregnant and refuses to name the father of the child. Sera arranges for an abortion for the reluctant Maya. From there the story unfolds until the unknown father’s identity is revealed.

Fashion for Women

2010-08-31T16:03:00.004-04:00

With the approach of the fall season, women everywhere plan updates to their fall wardrobes. Here are two books that will help.

What to Wear for the Rest of Your Life: Ageless Secrets of Style, writer Kim Johnson Gross, a former model and the author of the Chic Simple fashion book series, addresses the fashion issues faced by all women as they age. Gross encourages the reader to recognize the different roles she plays in her life, and helps her recognize the styles, fabrics and colors that suit her best, leading to the creation of a “feel good closet”.

How to Never Look Fat Again: over 1,000 Ways to Dress Thinner – without Dieting!, is written by Charla Krupp, a magazine editor and fashion consultant on various national TV shows. In this book, Krupp demonstrates how the right styles, fabrics and colors can help you look thinner and younger. She offers tips on hiding figure problems such as arm flap, muffin top, back fat, Buddha belly, a big booty, and more.

September is Healthy Aging Month

2010-08-30T14:03:00.002-04:00

September is Healthy Aging Month. Here are some books to celebrate.

Living Agelessly: Answers to your Most Common Questions about Aging Gracefully, is written by Linda Altoonian, the author of the “Dear Ageless” column from the AP Wire Service. Intended for the aging and their caregivers, the book focuses on enjoying life by taking care of health, nutrition, physical and mental fitness, and safety issues. Tips also are given on legal, social and spiritual concerns.

Younger (Thinner) You Diet: How Understanding Your Brain Chemistry Can Help You Lose Weight, Reverse Aging, and Fight Disease, written by Eric R. Braverman, M.D. is a guide to changing the brain’s chemistry in order to slow the aging process and lose weight. Dr. Braverman demonstrates how specific foods, nutrients, teas and spices will boost the body’s production of dopamine in order to burn fat, avoid the effects of aging organs and ameliorate certain health conditions such as heart disease, arthritis and more.

The Longevity Prescription: the 8 Proven Keys to a Long, Healthy Life is written by Robert N. Butler, M.D., who founded the first department of geriatric medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Butler discusses the eight areas in which improvements can lead to a longer and healthier life. They are: nutrition, exercise, sleep, relaxation, medical care, mental vitality, love and intimacy, and community connections. He also advises on how to handle special health challenges such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

Your Skin, Younger: New Science Secrets to Naturally Younger Skin is written by Mark G. Rubin and Phillip M. Levy. These two dermatologists present the natural approach to anti-aging the skin by lessening the impact of poor diet/nutrition, stress and intestinal function. The book includes healthy recipes and food preparation methods, relaxation techniques and exercises.

Beyond the Cleavage, written by former movie star Raquel Welch, presents her life story, personal philosophy and health and beauty advice in one package.

Dog Days

2010-08-12T13:46:00.002-04:00

Relax during the dog days of summer by reading one (or all three) of these books about man’s (and woman’s) best friend.

Last Dog on the Hill: the Extraordinary Life of Lou is written by Steve Duno, a pet behaviorist. After Duno rescued a Rottweiler mix feral puppy from a marijuana farm, the dog who he named Lou was trained to be a rehabilitation animal, working with hearing-impaired children, war veterans, gang members, Alzheimer patients, and others. A heartwarming story!

Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love is written by Justine van der Leun. This is a combination of love story, both male-female and human-dog, and travel book. An American woman vacations in Umbria, Italy, and falls in love with a native. She lives with him and his family for a year, in the meantime acquiring a mistreated dog as her pet. When the romance sours Justine continues her stay in Umbria with the dog.

One Dog at a Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan is written by Pen Farthing. In between frequent fighting against the Taliban in Now Zad, Afghanistan, Sergeant Farthing and his troop of Royal Marines rescue first one and then several stray dogs. They are kept in a makeshift pound on base. Eventually, when Farthing’s military assignment comes to an end, he develops a way to rescue thousands of homeless dogs.

July Birthdays/Biographies

2010-07-20T10:32:00.003-04:00

Tom Cruise – July 3, 1962
Tom Cruise: an Unauthorized Biography, written by Andrew Morton, promises new revelations about the popular actor. The book describes his childhood, his three marriages, and his involvement with the Scientology religion. The reader will enjoy the photographs too.

George Steinbrenner – July 4, 1930
Steinbrenner: the Last Lion of Baseball, written by Bill Madden, was published shortly before the subject’s recent death. It chronicles the early career of Steinbrenner in the family shipping business before his purchase of the Yankees, then focuses on Steinbrenner’s strong control over team activities that led to the Yankees’ seven World Series titles and the hiring and firing of several managers. Author Madden’s thirty years experience as a sportswriter for the New York Daily News serves him well.

Dalai Lama – July 6, 1935
Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic, written by Mayank Chhaya, presents the biography of the reincarnated 14th Dalai Lama derived from a series of interviews. This political and religious leader of Tibet escaped capture by the Chinese and has been exiled in India since 1959. The author also describes the Buddhist traditions of Tibet along with the history of the Tibet-China conflict.

Alex Rodriguez – July 27, 1975
A-Rod: the Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, written by Selena Roberts, gives the biographical details and more of this controversial baseball player. The youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs and a star for the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez also has been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Afternoon Book Discussions

2010-07-16T15:50:00.001-04:00

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story

2010-06-30T19:53:00.002-04:00

Here is the true story of a brave Polish couple: Jan and Antonina Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife. After surviving the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, and the slaughter and theft of their zoo animals by the Germans, they devoted themselves to covert operations against the Germans for the remainder of the war. These included the smuggling and hiding of hundreds of Polish Jews at their villa and in the empty animal cages, and such Polish Resistance activities as bomb making and hiding ammunition. Diane Ackerman presents us with a work of non-fiction written with suspense and lyrical quality; offering the reader an understanding of the account’s historical value.

More Barbecue Books

2010-06-04T10:07:00.001-04:00

Here are some more books to inspire you at the grill!

Emeril at the Grill: a Cookbook for all Seasons, written by Emeril Lagasse, is not only a compilation of more than 150 recipes but also an entertaining read. Not content to present only the standards, Emeril is inspired by a variety of cuisines and foods. Recipes consist of those for grilled entrees, sides, salads, and desserts. Instructions for party cocktails and punches are included too.

America’s Best BBQ: 100 Recipes from America’s Best Smoke Houses, Pits, Shacks, Rib Joints, Roadhouses and Restaurants, written by Ardie A. Davis and Paul Kirk, offers techniques, tips and recipes from across the United States. Here they present ideas culled from some of the country’s experts, and from their own combined knowledge, for starters, main dishes, sides and desserts. An added bonus is a chapter on starting a barbecue business.

Grilling for all Seasons, by Rick Browne, the host of PBS’s
Barbecue America, offers guidelines for the novice and the experienced along with recipes and menus for winter, spring, summer and fall. Included with the traditional meat dishes are ideas for preparing fruits, vegetables, desserts and breads on the grill.

Barbecue Season Begins

2010-06-03T15:10:00.001-04:00

Although barbecuing and grilling are year-round activities, it’s most popular during the summer. Here are some recent books to help improve your skills.

Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste and Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking, written by Adam Perry Lang, takes you from the basics to beyond when you are cooking all varieties of meat. Lang, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and haute cuisine chef-in-training took a career detour towards barbecue cuisine. The book features more than 130 recipes and color photos.

Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint written by Chris Lilly, great grandson-in-law of the original Big Bob, is a celebration of barbecue done Alabama-style. Included are recipes for the dry rubs, glazes, sauces and slathers for a variety of meats; tips on using different woods and creating the right heat also are given. Complete your meal with a selection of recipes for sides and desserts.

Wood-Fired Cooking: Techniques and Recipes for the Grill, Backyard Oven, Fireplace, and Campfire, written by Mary Karlin, is a compilation of more than 100 recipes originating from regions around the world such as India, Italy, the Mediterranean, the United States and North Africa. Karlin, a cooking school instructor in California, reviews the basics and then steers the reader to more complex dishes.

Grillin’ With Gas: 150 Mouthwatering Recipes for Great Grilled Food, written by Fred Thompson, features more than 150 recipes for a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, sides and desserts. Learn the basics and the more advanced techniques for gas grilling and selection of ingredients.

Gardening Books

2010-05-28T15:45:00.003-04:00

Time-Saving Gardener: Tips and Essential Tasks, Season by Season by Carolyn Hutchinson. This book is for gardeners with only a few hours a week to spare, it is organized by season and task. It includes detailed instructions and illustrations, and an alphabetized directory of easy-care plants.

Front Yard Gardens: Growing More than Grass by Liz Primeau. Learn to plan, design and plant a mixed garden, consisting of flowering plants, shrubs and cacti. More than 200 color photographs are provided. Have a landscape that requires less watering and chemicals.

The Gardener’s Color Palette: Paint your Garden with 100 Extraordinary Flower Choices by Thomas Fischer. With 100 flower selections presented by color scheme, each entry in this book includes photographs and information on plant size at maturity, bloom time and hardiness zone. Recommendations are made on attractive pairings and controlling aggressive plants.

Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens by Barbara Pleasant. Enjoy flavorful vegetables and save money when growing one of these gardens. The text includes information on plants and materials required, planting instructions, maintenance tips for the season, and more.

The Shadow of Your Smile

2010-05-14T14:24:00.002-04:00

Here is another in a long line of light mystery/romance novels from writer Mary Higgins Clark. In this book, the potential announcement of a long-suppressed family secret threatens to disrupt two undertakings. One is the effort to achieve beatification for Sister Catherine, a now-deceased nun who possibly had brought about two medical miracles. Jeopardizing the success of this endeavor is the suspicion that Sister Catherine had given birth to a child out of wedlock in her youth; a child that subsequently was given up for adoption. The second undertaking is the survival of the Gannon Foundation, nearing bankruptcy because of mismanagement by greedy heirs. Pediatrician Monica Farrell unknowingly is involved with both of these situations. Is she also the granddaughter of Sister Catherine? The criminals eventually are exposed and romance is revealed. The plot moves along smoothly and the characters are likeable, except for the villains who are suitably corrupt.

The Three Weissmanns of Westport

2010-05-04T17:02:00.002-04:00

Author Cathleen Schine presents what has been called the modern version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. This novel depicts the lives of Betty, an elderly well-to-do woman and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie. Reality takes a calamitous turn when Joseph, the husband and father, announces that he wants a divorce after almost fifty years of marriage. Of course, another woman is involved. Left homeless while divorce proceedings plod on, Betty accepts an invitation from a wealthy friend to stay at an available property that he owns in Westport, Connecticut. Her daughters decide that they will temporarily live with their mother until she has adjusted to her situation. Together again, life as they know it takes a turn both humorous and stressful.

Ms. Schine’s razor-sharp assessments of the various characters that the three women meet and socialize with, and her satirical views on modern-day society, are worth the price of admission to this complicated world.

Half Broken Horses by Jeannette Walls

2010-04-23T17:08:00.000-04:00

Half Broken Horses is the “true-life novel” version of Jeannette Walls grandmother’s life, Lily Casey Smith. Lily is the mother of Rosemary Smith Walls, the subject of Jeannette Walls earlier memoir, The Glass Castle. Lily Casey Smith is portrayed as a progressive woman, who was never conquered by anything life threw at her. The novel follows Lily from age 10 to Jeannette Walls’ birth. Lily leads an exciting life, traveling 500 miles on horse back at age 15 to take up teaching in Red Lake, Arizona with a pearl handled handgun in her bag. From this moment teaching is forever entwined with her life, taking her to various locations throughout the Southwest. Teaching allows her to meet her husband, Jim, who is the father of her two children, Rosemary and Little Jim. Lily survives a surprising amount of tragedy and strife throughout her life and the tough as nails gal manages to survive it all. This is a wonderful quick reading novel, which will never fail to surprise its reader.

About the Author: Jeannette Walls was born c. 1960 in Phoenix, Arizona. She graduated from Barnard College and was a NYC journalist for 20 years. She currently lives in rural Virginia with her husband John Taylor.

Read-a-likes:

Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir by Shalom Auslander

Blue Skies, No Fences: A Memoir of Childhood and Family by Lynne V. Cheney

The Prodigal Daughter: Reclaiming An Unfinished Childhood by Margaret Gibson

Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America by Rose Castillo Guilbault

The Florist's Daughter by Patricia Hampl

Pamela L. Wells, Lindenhurst

The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives

2010-04-20T15:45:00.002-04:00

Humans are not the rational creatures we believe ourselves to be. Using a wide range of scientific and psychological studies, author Shankar Vedantam reveals that many of the decisions we make originate from outside of our conscious awareness. Although it may seem shocking, biases often rule our choices and evaluations.

Vedantam, also the author of the Washington Post’s “Department of Human
Behavior” column, describes how unconscious biases overtake knowledge and rational thinking, and helps the reader to understand why. He examines such situations as: why some World Trade Center victims rushed out of the building to safety while others felt it safer to remain inside; why women’s salaries are less than those of men, and transsexual men who become women earn less than transsexual women who become men; and the telescope effect in which news stories about one suffering individual garners more attention than stories about millions of genocide victims.

This is an enjoyable read for popular psychology buffs.

Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel

2010-04-07T15:18:00.001-04:00

Psychologist Alex Delaware and Police Lieutenant Milo Sturgis are at it again; that is, they’re in search of answers to a mystifying murder. Author Jonathan Kellerman recounts the tale of a young teacher who was murdered, and her body left preserved in a bathtub full of dry ice. The victim, who was employed by an exclusive preparatory academy, left behind a DVD accusing three fellow teachers of sexually abusing her. Is one of them the murderer?

Milo is assigned the case by his chief who has personal reasons for downplaying the murder; his son attends the academy and the chief fears that any scandal will ruin his son’s chances of getting into an Ivy League college. The Sturgis/Delaware team conducts their usual interviews, surveillances and computer investigations to bring the case to a satisfying close, but not until the murderer strikes again.

Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

2010-03-26T15:21:00.003-04:00

Author Michael Pollan presents an examination of the four different types of meals that we Americans eat, and the consequences it has for our health and our ecosystem. Pollan is a journalist who has written several books and articles about food and agriculture, and now is a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley. For this book, he investigated the differences between the industrial corn-reliant agricultural system, the organic or alternative food system (both small and large-scaled), and food foraged through hunting and gathering. Pollan appeals to the reader’s interest with his eloquent, fact-based text and a full character assessment of each of the individuals he meets on his journeys. He also reflects upon the moral issues of eating meat.

The Nanny

2010-03-12T15:18:00.005-05:00

This is a fictional account of a true-to-life situation, written by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Our heroine actually is named Nanny, and she is looking to supplement her income while attending NYU as a child development major and sharing a minuscule Manhattan apartment. She has worked as a nanny before, and can describe the typical characteristics of the children and parents. But this job is different! The X family consists of three separate units that rarely interact: Grayer is the four-year-old son who is precocious, demanding and longing for maternal love; Mrs. X lives for herself and whatever benefit and bauble she can grab; Mr. X is involved in his business and an affair and has little or no time for his wife and son. We also get to examine relationships between the sexes as Nanny becomes romantically involved with Harvard Hottie.
This satire of the upper class and of life in the early years of the
21st century will amuse most readers. The book was made into a movie in 2007, and the book’s sequel, Nanny Returns, was recently published.

The Senator's Wife

2010-02-25T17:05:00.001-05:00

Author Sue Miller has written a timely novel about marriage and marital infidelity. Meri Fowler, a recently-married, pregnant woman in her mid-thirties moves with her husband Nathan into a New England townhouse adjacent to one owned by Delia and Tom Naughton, a couple in their seventies. Delia is the main occupant of the house; her husband Tom is a renowned liberal senator who also is a notorious philanderer. Although Delia and Tom have not lived together as man and wife for many years, they have not divorced and in fact periodically get together for a romantic rendezvous.

As neighbors, Meri and Delia become close confidantes. Delia provides the closeness Meri never received from her mother. As the plot unfolds, Meri endures disconcerting emotions after the birth of her son, and Delia experiences a new lease on life when she participates in the rehabilitation of Tom’s health after he suffers a stroke. Then, a disastrous event upsets it all.

"The Book of Night Women" by Marlon James

2010-01-29T17:01:00.001-05:00

The Book of Night Women is the tale of a young slave coming of age in Jamaica at the turn of the 19th Century. The book is written as a slave narrative and chronicles the life of Lilith and the inhumane abuses that her and her fellow slaves were force to endure.

Lilith, at the verge of womanhood, finds herself exposed to the ugly truth of rape, murder and torture that plantation life as a slave has in store for her. After narrowly escaping rape at the hands of a fellow slave, Lilith is sheltered by the house slaves at the plantation, eventually being permanently assigned to the house by the plantation’s “master”. After a dire accident during a cocktail party, Lilith finds herself mercilessly whipped by her owners. This indignation fuels Lilith’s rage at the white slave owners which have control over her. Lilith joins a group of female slaves who call themselves “The Night Women,” who are all connected through their common parentage -- they are all the children of an abusive white slave driver. This group eventually orchestrates a slave revolt across several of Jamaica’s plantations -- a coup d’etat that has tragic results.

Read-a-Likes

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Amistad by David Pesci
The Dark Sun Rises by Denise J. Williamson
The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts
The Known World by Edward P. Jones

February is National Heart Awareness Month

2010-01-27T15:34:00.002-05:00

Here are three recently published books that focus on various aspects of heart health.

American Heart Association Complete Guide to Women’s Heart Health: the Go Red for Women Way to Well-Being and Vitality. This book provides advice for maintaining heart health and keeping heart disease at bay, for women from their 20s through their 70s and beyond. Coverage includes information on a nutritious diet, beneficial exercise and control of risk factors. Also addressed are issues such as smoking, pregnancy, menopause and hormone therapy, aging, diabetes and other diseases.

American Heart Association Healthy Family Meals: 150 Recipes Everyone Will Love. The heart-healthy recipes in this book focus mainly on dinner entrees for the busy family, accompanied by side dishes of soup, salad, vegetables and grains. Dessert is not forgotten! Also offered are tips on grocery shopping and eating out.

Exercises for Heart Health: the Complete Plan for Heart Attack, Heart Surgery, and Cardiovascular Disease Recovery and Prevention. The book prescribes an easy-to-follow exercise plan for cardiac health and muscle strength. It includes a main section on the exercises, accompanied by many photos and detailed written instructions. It also has an overview of the causes of cardiac disease and recent clinical treatments for cardiac conditions.

New Year's Resolutions: Diet and Exercise

2010-01-05T14:12:00.002-05:00

Here are three recent publications that can help you reach your goals for shaping up and slimming down.

Fitness after 40: How to Stay Strong at any Age, is written by Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon. Wright believes that it is a sedentary lifestyle, not biology that is the accelerant of aging. She imparts methods to achieve post-midlife fitness through the F.A.C.E. system of flexibility, aerobic exercise, load-bearing exercise and maximizing equilibrium and balance. The book includes exercise routines and an eating plan.

Joy’s Life Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever, written by Today Show nutrition and health expert Joy Bauer, presents a weight-loss program based on her “Look Incredible, Feel Extraordinary” (L.I.F.E.) system. Bauer explains how to overcome unhealthy eating habits and satisfy cravings with low-calorie substitutes. She shares tips on staying motivated, exercising and working through plateaus. Sample menus, recipes and exercises are given also.

The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat Well, Enjoy Life, Lose Weight, written by the weight-loss experts at the Mayo Clinic, offers a two-part weight-loss program. The first part “Lose It!” is a two-week introduction that results in the loss of six to ten pounds, if the dieter adopts new good habits and drops the old bad habits. The second part “Live It!” is a continuation of weight loss of one to two pounds per week using the new habits. Topics such as meal planning, eating out, and stress reduction also are discussed.

U is for Undertow

2009-12-31T16:16:00.001-05:00

With the latest installment in her alphabet mystery series, author Sue Grafton continues her depiction of the coastal California, 1980s-based world of private investigator Kinsey Milhone. This time around, Kinsey is approached by a young man wanting to hire her to investigate a child abduction that occurred twenty years ago. The prospective client, who was six years old at the time, thinks he remembers seeing two men burying the child in a backwoods area. Against, her better judgment, Kinsey takes on the case. And like most of her cases, this one is completely different from all of the others, yet she again is able to unearth the solution, enabling justice to prevail. In a background story, Kinsey also moves closer to reconciliation with her deceased mother’s family. Skilled plotting and deftly drawn characters make this one of Grafton’s better entries in the series.

Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked her Marriage, her Job, and her Sanity to Master the Art of Living

2009-12-22T13:49:00.005-05:00

Food memoirs seem to be proliferating nowadays. Julie Powell, the author of this book, claims her fifteen minutes of fame too. Julie is a woman approaching thirty, in a dead-end job, married to her high school sweetheart but not ready to start a family yet. Prone to emotional outbursts, Julie is feeling anxious and unfulfilled. She decides to embark upon a project that will encompass her dual interests of writing and cooking. Julie begins writing a blog about her quest to cook all 524 recipes from notable chef Julia Child’s first cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” within one year. Newfound recognition from her “bleaders” (blog readers) gives fresh meaning to her life. Julie’s descriptions of friends and family members provide a humorous touch to her book. Some fictional touches, such as Paul Child’s imagined thoughts about his wife Julia, add to the story’s ambiance too.

Afternoon Book Discussions

2009-11-20T15:14:00.002-05:00

Recipes for a Tasty Christmas

2009-11-20T13:52:00.001-05:00

Here are three cookbooks to help you prepare for the Christmas holiday season.

“Christmas Cookies: 50 Recipes to Treasure for the Holiday Season” is a collection of a variety of Christmas cookies, along with guidelines on the baking, storage, and mailing of them. There also is information on how to host a holiday cookie swap and a cookie-decorating party.

“Southern Living Christmas Cookbook: All-New Ultimate Holiday Entertaining Guide” presents more than 350 holiday recipes, from appetizers to desserts, as well as 32 menus for the holidays and for parties during the rest of the year. You can host dinners, brunches, buffets, cocktail parties and more.

“Woman’s Day Christmas Cookies, Candies and Cakes” includes an abundance of recipes, with accompanying color photos, of a variety of shaped, drop and bar cookies along with those for cakes and candies.

Recent Book Selections by Staff

2009-11-06T11:58:00.001-05:00

Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan, written by Ali Eteraz, is the story of the evolution of the author’s Muslim beliefs. Born into a Pakistani fundamentalist family, he immigrates to the United States as a teen and then returns later to Pakistan, but returns again to the U.S. after his life is threatened. Eteraz explores how his fundamentalist Muslim beliefs have taken a more moderate turn.

The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography, written by Simon Singh, is an account of the use of encryption and cryptography throughout history.

Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits by Dr. Wayne Dyer, is a guide to getting unstuck from all of the excuses that keep you from reaching your life goals.

Hardball, by mystery writer Sara Paretsky, features another adventure for female detective V.I. Warshawski. This time, she is involved with missing people, one who has been gone for forty years and other more recent cases.

One of Those Malibu Nights, written by Elizabeth Adler, combines mystery and romance, detectives and movie stars. A search for missing persons takes P.I. Mac Reilly from southern California, to Mexico, to the streets of Rome and the French countryside.

The Mermaid Chair

2009-10-30T16:53:00.001-04:00

This novel, written by Sue Monk Kidd, is about Jessie Sullivan, a middle-aged housewife caught up in twin predicaments of marital tedium and empty nest syndrome. An emergency phone call leads her to rush to her childhood home on Egret Island just off the coast of South Carolina, also the home to a monastery in which her widowed mother works as a cook. Her mother inexplicably has mutilated herself. Jessie remains on an extended stay at Egret Island, leaving her husband behind, with two goals in mind: trying to help her mother heal in both body and spirit, and looking into what really happened when her father was killed in a boating accident years ago. Also part of the plot is the situation in which Jessie finds herself attracted to Brother Thomas, a monk who is a few months away from taking his final vows. What ensues between Jessie and Thomas helps both discover what their needs and desires are, and where to direct their lives.

North River: A Novel

2009-10-02T15:06:00.002-04:00

Pete Hamill has written a period novel set in Depression-era Manhattan, filled with descriptive language and well-drawn characters. His protagonist, Dr. James Delaney, is a general practitioner who cares for all his patients with skill and compassion; his practice encompassing many of his poverty-stricken neighbors and the local Mafiosi. Always the devoted physician, Dr. Delaney is even more intently focused on his work now that his personal life has received a double blow with the disappearance of his wife (a suspected suicide) and his daughter’s elopement with a foreign revolutionary. Then, during a cold and snowy winter, the ice that forms Dr. Delaney’s lonely existence begins to melt when he receives the unexpected gift of his three-year-old grandson, left on the doorstep by the doctor’s daughter. Needing someone to help him with the child’s care, the doctor hires an immigrant woman who soon becomes an inseparable part of this newly-formed family. The plot moves along agreeably to a satisfying conclusion. Here is a story that shows how love and good people can reign supreme.

The Tenth Circle

2009-09-04T10:12:00.003-04:00

Author Jodi Picoult mounts another expedition into the moral world of the American family. Daniel Stone is a work-at-home father who is a comic book artist and his wife Laura is an English professor at a local college specializing in Dante’s Inferno; their only child Trixie is a fourteen-year-old with a promising future. Then, Trixie’s world goes askew when she claims that she has been raped by her boyfriend. Daniel, as the parent closest to Trixie, doesn’t know how to bridge the sudden distance between them. Laura, who has secrets of her own, cannot handle the situation either.

The community turns against Trixie, favoring her ex-boyfriend, the local high school football hero, in the case. Trixie runs off to Alaska, where Daniel grew up as a white boy among the Eskimos. Here he acted out by cheating, stealing, and carrying out other delinquent activities in reaction to the teasing and bullying he received. Daniel ran away when he reached adulthood, vowing never to return and recreating himself as the modern father and mild-mannered man. When Daniel and Laura follow Trixie to Alaska, the situation comes to a boiling point and then reaches resolution, but not before some surprising events take place. The tenth circle in Dante’s Inferno is the worst area of Hell; the Stone family travels there and back in their quest for justice.

Comic book illustrations complement the storyline. This book is ideal for discussion.

True Detectives

2009-05-29T15:54:00.001-04:00

The latest mystery written by Jonathan Kellerman, this book features the return of Los Angeles police detective Moses Reed and private investigator Aaron Fox, half brothers and bitter rivals. They were introduced to readers in Kellerman’s last “Alex Delaware” novel; here the characters and the plot are so well-developed that you won’t miss Alex and his friend Milo Sturgis this time around.

When a young woman disappears, a wealthy client contacts Aaron to get some answers for the girl’s father, his employee. Moses gets involved too; this disappearance is a continuation of a police case he was unable to crack earlier. Despite the enmity between Aaron and Moses, they realize that they work well together and a new-found respect for one another develops. The tightly-woven conundrum unravels as the duo discover several sinister individuals and nefarious doings that would be shocking even to Los Angeles’ relaxed moral code. Good triumphs over evil however, when the case is solved. Also, the reader is pleased to witness the brothers’ journey along the road to psychological growth.

Afternoon Book Discussions

2009-05-29T14:59:00.003-04:00

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk three weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

Wednesday, July 15th
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

Wednesday, August 19th
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Wednesday, September 16th
North River: A Novel by Pete Hamill

Wednesday, October 21st
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year
of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver

Wednesday, November 18th
Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town by Kelly McMasters

Wednesday, December 16th
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, And Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living by Julie Powell

House Beautiful 500 Makeovers: Great Ideas & Quick Changeovers

2009-04-30T17:08:00.003-04:00

Published by the editors of House Beautiful magazine, this volume of decorating ideas contains 500 designs to guide the reader in redecorating the home, be it in one room or several. Over 400 pages of full-color photographs illustrate, chapter by chapter, the basic components of design, including those of balance, simplicity, impact, function, details and color. Whether you accomplish a little or a lot, you’ll be inspired to begin creating your dream home.

Drown by Juno Diaz

2009-04-30T17:05:00.002-04:00

Drown is a collection of 10 short stories dealing with the immigrant condition. The stories cover a whole range of life experiences, from childhood through adulthood. “Ysrael,” “Aguantando,” and “No Face” are set in the barrios of the Dominican Republic and examine the childhood experience among poverty and in the absence of a father. “Fiesta, 1980,” “Edison, New Jersey” and “Negocios” reflect the Dominican migrant experience and family structure within the United States. “Aurora;” “Drown,” “Boyfriend” and “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” examine the harshness of inner city life, relationships, sexuality and drug abuse.
Diaz’s stories are honest, unapologetic accounts of life, sometimes under the harshest of conditions. Themes addressed in these stories include loss of fathers, the separation of families through immigration and the pursuit of the “American Dream,” the identity crisis of the immigrant, and inner city life.

Audience

The stories in Drown contain harsh language and depictions sexuality and drug abuse. This book is for your literary reader who is not offended by such things. The stories in this collection would be great for a book discussion.

About the Author

Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and immigrated to the Unites State with his family when he was six. He published Drown when he was 27 years old and 11 years later he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao (2008). His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, African Voices, Best American Short Stories (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), in Pushcart Prize XXII and in The O'Henry Prize Stories 2009.

Read-A-Likes

The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez

Let It Rain Coffee: A Novel by Angie Cruz

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia

2009-03-30T12:33:00.003-04:00

Here is author Elizabeth Gilbert’s account of her quest for spiritual, psychological and physical balance after a divorce and other personal problems upset her well-being. Ever the traveler in her work as a freelance writer, Liz plans to visit three countries over the course of a year in order to escape her deep depression and regain her joy of living. Her choices are: Italy, to sample the ultimate in fine cuisine and enjoy their effect on her five senses; India, to study at an Ashram belonging to a guru she met in Manhattan; and Indonesia, where her desire is “to learn . . . how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote my self to God”. Along the way she makes new friends and finds true love.

The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own

2009-03-24T17:00:00.002-04:00

What are fashion’s timeless pieces? Almost every woman has asked herself this question at one time or another. Nina Garcia, the author of this book and The Little Black Book of Style, and also a fashion judge on the television show Project Runway, is a legitimate authority to make these selections. Accompanied by sophisticated illustrations by artist Ruben Toledo, Ms. Garcia alphabetically reviews the top one hundred items in essay format, accompanied by many witty remarks and (fashion) historical insights. This is the perfect book to browse through before going on that big shopping trip.

Motherless Brooklyn

2009-02-27T16:40:00.001-05:00

A mystery written by critically acclaimed author Jonathan Lethem, this is a classic whodunit with a twist. Our hero, an aspiring private detective named Lionel Essrog, suffers from Tourette’s syndrome. The condition plays havoc with Lionel’s attempts to communicate with both the good and the bad people he runs into in his search for a murderer. However, this self-educated, intelligent man who is viewed as a good-for-nothing by many succeeds in the end.

Lionel grew up in a Brooklyn orphanage, a loner until small-time crook Frank Minna selects him and three other orphans and entices them to carry out various semi-illegal jobs with the lure of twenty dollar bills as rewards. The years pass and the orphans now are in their twenties and settled in their work for Frank. When Frank is murdered, Lionel charges into an investigation that connects him to a couple of Mafia big shots, some Japanese businessmen involved in inscrutable dealings, a Zen Buddhist commune in the middle of Manhattan, and more. Expect equal parts classic detective novel and hilarity when you read this book.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

2009-01-31T17:15:00.004-05:00

As written by Simon Winchester, here is a factual account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary intermixed with a superb mystery tale. Although it took seventy years to produce, with the assistance of thousands of learned individuals writing the definitions and tracings of over four hundred thousand words, two men were instrumental in producing a greater part of this multi-volume masterpiece. They were Professor James Murphy, editor of the dictionary for over thirty years, and Dr. William Chester Minor, an American surgeon and veteran of the Civil War, who contributed over 10,000 definitions to the work. Both of these men resembled one another in their devotion to their study of the English language. However, the mystery arose in that for twenty years, Dr. Minor refused to meet with Professor Murphy to discuss their work. When the professor finally travelled to meet the doctor, he discovered that Dr. Minor was a criminally insane murderer incarcerated in the criminal lunatic asylum of Broadmoor. It was to Dr. Minor’s advantage that his scholarly involvement in the dictionary’s creation was a balancing force in his life; it was to Professor Murphy's benefit that Dr. Minor's work contributed so much to the dictionary.

This book provides an analysis of several subjects: the design of the English language, the history of dictionaries, and the treatment of mental illness in the nineteenth century. It also offers the reader a closer view of the passions and obsessions of two brilliant men.

Dashing Through the Snow

2009-01-14T15:35:00.002-05:00

Mother and daughter suspense writers Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark team up again for another Christmas-holiday novel. Writing in their usual light mystery/romance style, the Clarks revisit some of their favorite characters: lottery winner/amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy, and private investigator Regan Reilly and her NYPD officer husband Jack. This time around, while visiting a quaint New Hampshire village celebrating its first annual “Festival of Joy”, they become involved with a local mystery: a man has disappeared shortly before it is discovered that he shares a winning lottery ticket with his co-workers. It is determined that he has been abducted. The kidnappers are con men who find themselves in over their heads when some really nasty hard-core criminals take over the job. Not to worry; a rescue ensues and all ends happily.

Loving Frank: A Novel

2008-12-26T16:56:00.001-05:00

This is a fictionalized account of the continuing romantic relationship between the innovative architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, an educated upper middle class matron who at first was a client of his. Author Nancy Horan combines in-depth research (unfortunately there is a limited amount of source material) with imagination to depict Cheney and Wright’s physical and emotional desires and how they conflicted with their fractured family relationships and the humiliation endured by both in the early 20th century Midwestern society. Cheney’s character is well-developed and sympathetic; Wright’s character is more self-centered. What would be a routine story of adultery and divorce in today’s world takes on an aura of tragedy.

Afternoon Book Discussions

2008-11-21T10:58:00.002-05:00

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk three weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

Wednesday, January 21st
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

Wednesday, February 18th
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham

Wednesday, March 18th (postponed from an earlier date)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia

Wednesday, April 15th
Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

Wednesday, May 20th
Persuasion by Jane Austen

Wednesday, June 17th
The 10th Circle by Jodi Picoult

Life of Pi: A Novel

2008-11-13T13:15:00.004-05:00

Life of Pi, written by Yann Martel, is the story of a boy’s journey and triumph despite incredible odds. Piscine Patel (self dubbed Pi) sets out by freighter with his family who is relocating to America. Along the way Pi’s ship is destroyed. He ends up trapped in a life boat with a handful of wild animals. Pi is forced to live off the sea with only his wits and an old survival manual to guide him. Life of Pi shows us the power of the human mind to overcome, despite the horrors and turmoil inflicted on it.

Similar Authors: Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and Paulo Coelho

Read-alike: Lost Horizon by James Hilton, Poseidon Adventures by Paul Gallico, Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Bones: An Alex Delaware Novel

2008-11-03T14:06:00.002-05:00

This is the latest in the bestselling Alex Delaware series written by Jonathan Kellerman. Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis team up again to solve a string of murders. When a young woman’s body is discovered, minus one hand, out in the open at an endangered marshland, detectives quickly investigate and unearth bodies of other young women similarly mutilated. Is this the work of a serial killer? Or is it a ruse to deter the investigators from uncovering a more heinous crime. Join the two men as they unravel the knots in this mystery, relying on Milo’s perseverance and Alex’s skills in psychological analysis.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2008-10-14T15:46:00.003-04:00

Share the experiences of breast cancer patients and survivors by reading these books.

Cancer Is a Bitch: (Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis)
Written by Gail Konop Baker, who is a forty-six-year-old mother of three, doctor's wife, runner, and writer. She describes her fight against breast cancer, relating how she spent a year in treatment in her struggle to get back to the life she loved.

Choices in Breast Cancer Treatment: Medical Specialists and Cancer Survivors Tell You What You Need to Know
Edited by Kenneth D. Miller, this is an authoritative resource for women everywhere. After a lengthy description of breast cancer and its treatments, the remainder of the book deals with the personal experiences of breast cancer as shared by several women.

Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Really Distracting
A memoir by Meredith Norton, an African-American woman, married to a Frenchman, whose disease is misdiagnosed in France. Returning to California, she describes her experiences with chemotherapy, double mastectomy and radiation treatments, and her fight against self-pity.

I Am Not My Breast Cancer : Women Talk Openly About Love & Sex, Hair Loss & Weight Gain, Mothers & Daughters, and Being a Woman With Breast Cancer
Ruth Peltason, an editor and breast cancer survivor, founded and hosted the “First Person Plural” Web site project, an online forum for women facing the disease. Their dialogue provides the content for this book, culled from the entries of 800 women across the U.S. and around the world.

Nineteen Minutes

2008-09-24T13:52:00.002-04:00

Nineteen Minutes, a novel written by Jodi Picoult, explores the moral issues that emerge after a high school shooting rampage. Set in a small New Hampshire college town, where everyone knows each other since grade school, the story focuses on two students, Josie Cormier and Peter Houghton, who were best friends as children but now move in different social circles. In high school, Josie is part of the popular crowd, but is not certain that this is what she wants in life. Peter, a sensitive boy who has been bullied since his first day of school, is a loner. After an ultimate incident of abuse, Peter runs amok, shooting and killing ten people and wounding many others.

Additional sub-plots allow the reader to examine the other characters, including the mothers of Josie and Peter, a police detective and the defense attorney. These individuals’ personalities are richly detailed; their actions serve as a means of exploring the various ethical dilemmas presented.

The shooting incident itself, and its origins and aftermath, are slowly revealed in alternating chapters, from the different characters’ points of view and various points of time, until all is exposed. It remains for the reader to discover that no community is immune from such horrific events.

Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie

2008-09-05T16:36:00.004-04:00

Written by Ole Edvart Rolvaag, originally in Norwegian and later translated into English, this is a story of the early Norwegian settlers and the hardships they discovered crossing the American plains in the 1870s. Tragedy was almost a daily occurrence and hunger a constant companion. Although the men toiled and suffered so that they might bring up their children in the Promised Land, the women sometimes went mad in conditions that they had known only in nightmares.

The conquest of our land was a great American triumph, but it also took its toll in human lives, misery and disaster.

New Biographies

2008-09-05T14:13:00.003-04:00

Whether the setting is Hollywood or network television or Broadway, reading the biographies of the stars can be a fascinating experience.

Life with my Sister Madonna, by Christopher Ciccone, is a memoir written by the younger brother and personal assistant of music legend Madonna. He recreates their work and travel experiences throughout her career; it includes the inside scoop about Madonna’s many transformations and ordeals.

Audition: A Memoir, written by Barbara Walters, is a no-holds barred account of Ms. Walters’ remarkable rise through the ranks of television journalism. Her interviews and experiences with many of the world’s most influential people in politics, royalty, show business, and more provide the reader with quite a few “you are there” experiences.

Home: A Memoir of my Early Years, written by Julie Andrews, details the singer/actress’s youth, from childhood to her late twenties during the 1940s to 1960s. As a member of a family act in England’s music hall circuit, Julie’s big voice leads her to fame in London’s theater district and New York’s Broadway, where she meets many theater and music legends along the way.

These and many other biographies are available at the library.

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

2008-08-21T15:28:00.002-04:00

Ruth Reichl, currently the editor of “Gourmet” magazine, tells of her experiences as the New York Times restaurant critic during the 1990s. Although Ruth’s career in the food industry included stints as chef, restaurant owner, food writer and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times, none of these posts prepared her for such an exalted position as that of the New York Times food critic. Operating in this competitive atmosphere required fortitude, an encyclopedic knowledge of all foods and cuisines, and a sense of the dramatic. In order to accurately assess each restaurant, Reichl developed a variety of characters and dressed them in an assortment of wigs, makeup and clothing. Then each of these personalities anonymously visited the restaurants to evaluate their menus and to see how they behaved toward typical customers. Sensual descriptions of food, hilarious accounts of the New York City restaurant culture, and some of Ruth’s favorite recipes enliven the pages of this book.

This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation

2008-08-11T15:03:00.003-04:00

Written by Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist and social critic, here is a satirical commentary of the first decade of twenty-first century life in the United States. Ehrenreich mourns the disappearing middle class and the rise of a two-class society, upper and lower. She zeroes in on the enemy, who include the private health insurance industry, the oil companies, the financial industry, medical professionals, big box stores, and more. Politicians and college administrators also feel her barbs.

This is a compilation of 62 previously published essays, for such publications as “The New York Times” and “The Progressive”; each essay being a few pages in length. Ehrenreich also is the author of several other books, including “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” and “Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream".

Sense and Sensibility

2008-07-31T16:37:00.002-04:00

“Sense and Sensibility”, a classic novel written by Jane Austen, is the story of two sisters who exhibit completely different emotional responses when they are both faced with romantic disappointments. Elinor, the elder sister, is directed by sense to minimize her grief in the company of others; Marianne, the younger one, encourages and deepens her personal suffering even if it causes harm to herself and pain to her family members. As with Austen’s other novels, at first glance “Sense and Sensibility” appears to be a mere love story, but it develops into something more: a critique of early nineteenth century British society and its morals. Detailed descriptions of domestic and social behavior and a text that includes frequent infusions of sarcasm and humor provide the reader with an enjoyable reading experience.

Non-Fiction Books on Demand at Lindenhurst Memorial Library

2008-07-15T10:14:00.003-04:00

New non-fiction books currently requested by our library patrons include:

Change your brain, change your life : the breakthrough program for conquering anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, anger and impulsiveness by Daniel G. Amen

Deceptively delicious : simple secrets to get your kids eating good food by Jessica Seinfeld

Stolen innocence : my growing up in a polygamous sect, becoming a teenage bride, and breaking free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall

Three cups of tea : one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations . . . one school at a time by Greg Mortenson

When you are engulfed in flames by David Sedaris

Books on Demand at Lindenhurst Memorial Library

2008-07-15T09:48:00.003-04:00

What are some of the books that your friends and neighbors have requested? Popular fiction titles recently placed on hold include:

Careless in red : a novel by Elizabeth George
Chasing darkness : an Elvis Cole novel by Robert Crais
Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger
Damage control by J.A. Jance
Death angel : a novel by Linda Howard
Love the one you're with by Emily Giffin
Say goodbye by Lisa Gardner
Tailspin by Catherine Coulter
Tribute by Nora Roberts

These and many other new fiction titles are available at our library.

The Way We Will Be 50 Years From Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century

2008-06-30T14:53:00.003-04:00

Here is a compilation of brief essays written by some of the finest minds in the current national and international arenas, in fields ranging from the sciences, to medicine, to religion, to economics, to politics and more. Many of these forecasts lean towards the optimistic, albeit with warnings to Earth’s present inhabitants that we need to clean up our act. Some of the predictions are quite believable while others verge on the fantastic. Nonagenarian Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes fame is the editor of this book and the de facto interviewer of the essayists.

Do Dead People Watch You Shower?: And Other Questions You've Been All But Dying To Ask A Medium

2008-06-18T19:16:00.003-04:00

This handbook to life after death is authored by Concetta Bertoldi, a medium from New Jersey. The book is written in question and answer format, in a down-to-earth, humorous style; each chapter being one to two pages in length. Ms. Bertoldi discusses such topics as whether the dead are with us all the time, their activities, their physical appearance, and how we all cycle between visits to heaven and reincarnating into new lives. Whether or not you believe in the topic of life after death, you may enjoy this lighthearted read.

Everything Is Illuminated

2008-06-02T10:19:00.002-04:00

In Everything is Illuminated, written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the novel’s author travels to the Ukraine in search of the woman that saved his family during the Holocaust. The author’s journey is narrated through the eyes of Alex, the Ukrainian man who is hired to assist Jonathan in his search. The novel is broken down into two separate story lines. The first part is the history of Jonathan’s family, written by Jonathan himself. The second is the travel log of Alex, who recounts his, Jonathan, and Alex’s grandfather’s journey through the Ukraine. This complex novel is both amusing and disturbing, with twists and turns that may leave the most astute reader questioning full comprehension.

Read -A-Likes: My Darling Elia by Eugenie Melnyk, Gotz and Meyer by David Albahari, Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Afternoon Book Discussions

2008-05-29T18:15:00.003-04:00

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk three weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

Wednesday, July 16th
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Wednesday, August 20th
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Wednesday, September 17th
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Wednesday, October 15th
Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Wednesday, November 19th
Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan
Wednesday, December 17th
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

Where Are You Now?

2008-05-23T16:51:00.003-04:00

Mary Higgins Clark’s most recent light mystery is set in New York City where Charles MacKenzie Jr. disappeared ten years ago, just before his graduation from Columbia University. Since then, “Mack” phones his mother and younger sister Carolyn once a year, on Mother’s Day, to tell them that he is alright and that they should not try to find him. Carolyn, now a practicing lawyer, finally decides to bring closure for her mother and herself; she will investigate his disappearance on her own since the police and a private detective were not able to solve the case previously. Then, whether or not she does locate him, she and her mother will move on with their lives.
Carolyn becomes entangled with other missing person situations that might be connected to Mack’s circumstances. Does someone close to Carolyn know what happened to Mack? Is Mack’s former college roommate a potential romantic interest for Carolyn or is he Mack's kidnapper? Read this book and find out.

Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries

2008-05-14T15:39:00.003-04:00

If you like your mysteries with a lot of supernatural flair, give Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse mysteries a try. Harris has created an interesting and amusing world, set in a small Louisiana town after Vampires have revealed they really are among us. The series heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is a psychic, with a flair for getting in and out of trouble with a cast of various supernatural beings. These novels are fun and light, good beach reads. There are currently 8 novels in the Southern Vampire series, the first being "Dead Until Dark".

From Baghdad, With Love

2008-04-29T15:01:00.003-04:00

From Baghdad, With Love, by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman with Melinda Roth, is the story of a marine who will stop at nothing to save "man's best friend" from war-torn Iraq. Lt. Col. Kopelman first met Lava, a stray puppy, in an abandoned house in Fallujah. Despite strict rules the U.S. military have against soldiers adopting pets or mascots, Lava is kept safe by Kopelman and a battalion of Marines. As his tour of duty nears an end, Kopelman attempts to transport Lava back to the U.S. A slew of accomplices are recruited to take on this challenge, including a U.S. news reporter, an Iraqi soldier and the pet food giant, Iams.
This story is both engaging and emotional. It is not only a tale of a man and his dog, but also an eye-opening account of the soldiers stationed in Iraq and the conditions under which they endure.

Aloft: A Novel

2008-04-23T19:14:00.002-04:00

Aloft, written by Chang-rae Lee, is the story of Jerry Battle, an Italian-American, semi-retired landscaper who managed the company established by his father and now run by his son. Jerry often indulges himself by flying his small airplane above Long Island for hours at a time. This is symbolic of how the soon-to-be sixty- year old man manages his life, keeping family and friends at a distance. Then, circumstances within the family change and Jerry must modify his relationships with several family members, opening up to them before it is too late.
The serious tone of Aloft is expressed through a retelling of the tragic and comic events in Jerry's past and present, yet a satirical bent is present in the description of his money-conscious world in which his neighbors believe that their self-worth is calculated by the latest home improvement or large purchase.
This book is the "Long Island Reads" selection for 2008.

Compulsion: An Alex Delaware Novel

2008-04-08T15:34:00.003-04:00

Compulsion, written by bestselling mystery author Jonathan Kellerman, is the latest in his "Dr. Alex Delaware" series. Alex, a psychologist, works as a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department, often accompanying long-time friend Lt. Milo Sturgis as he investigates grisly murders. This time around, two murders being examined seem to be committed by two different individuals, except that both murderers stole luxury cars to use while committing the crimes, and then returned the vehicles in pristine condition afterwards. Delaware and Sturgis follow the trail back more than ten years and discover several more unsolved murders. The killer, who had been able to escape earlier detection through changes in identity and appearance, finally is apprehended. As in the other books in the series, the reader is left with a sense of justice being done. And this book probably will reach the top of the New York Times Bestseller List too.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

2008-03-27T16:45:00.003-04:00

In the novel The Memory Keeper's Daughter, written by Kim Edwards, physician David Henry makes an impulsive and fateful decision that affects the psychological well-being of two families; his and another.
After he performs an emergency delivery of twins from his wife Norah during a blizzard, Dr. Henry discovers that while his son Paul is a healthy baby, the daughter Phoebe has Down syndrome. Fearing that the child will have heart problems, die young, and cause heartache for his wife, Henry asks his nurse Caroline to bring the daughter to an institution. He tells Norah that their daughter has died. However, Caroline decides not to abandon Phoebe and instead moves to another city to raise her as her daughter.
As the years pass, Norah continues to mourn the "loss" of her daughter; the suppression of this lie leads to the deterioration of the Henry's marriage and family life. Phoebe, on the other hand, thrives under Caroline's care and grows to reach her full potential.
The remainder of this book describes how this state of affairs is resolved, allowing each of its players some inner peace. The novel's finely drawn characters and realistic emotional expression make this a worthwhile reading experience.

Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

2008-03-26T15:42:00.001-04:00

Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog, written by Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan, is a memoir based on John and Jenny Grogan's often hysterical yet heartwarming adventures with their 97-pound Golden Labrador Retriever. Impulsively purchased when the couple was newly married so that they could practice their parenting skills before having children, the Grogans unknowingly selected a dog whose neurotic traits made it difficult to control him. While obedience training eventually took hold (somewhat), the family, including the three children who arrived in due course, valued Marley for his fierce loyalty and his joie de vivre. A film based on this book is in the works and is scheduled for release on Christmas 2008.