Pima County Public Library Ravenous Readers

Kings of Colorado

2012-02-23T13:30:00.000-08:00

This book kicked me in the gut, made me cry and then left me with a smile. Set high in the mountains of Colorado, Kings of Colorado by David E Hilton, is a tough book about Will Sheppard, a 13 year old who is sent to a reformatory ranch after stabbing his very abusive father. While doing their time, the youth at the ranch tame wild horses by breaking them and the ranch staff tries to tame the boys by breaking them too -- sometimes in very horrible ways.

The story is narrated by the 62 year old Will, who has lost his wife and his job. When an event makes all his memories of that time in Colorado come flooding back, he decides to write down his story and try to make some sense out of that time in his life

There is violence in this book -- more violence than I usually tolerate. Fortunately, this is a story not just of loss and pain, but of real friendship and the humanity that can be found even in harsh places.

Betsey

GLBT Favorites

2012-02-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Our GLBT Services Committee is hosting a great author event in April, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk it up and recommend some other favorite books, too! Sister Spit is a dynamic audio/visual performance headlined by Dorothy Allison and Michelle Tea, plus other special guests. They will be performing with two free shows at Fluxx Gallery, 414 E. 9th St., on Saturday, April 7th, at 4 and 9pm. (Dorothy Allison will be at the first show only.) Read on for more GLBT books...

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One of my favorites makes a top 100 list

2012-02-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

Over the summer, NPR listeners voted on more than 5,000 science fiction and fantasy titles. The nerds... ahem... I mean the experts over at NPR then narrowed the list down to the top 100 picks. The result is an eclectic mixture of classic and modern titles. Some of the titles I expected to see. If it had been missing obvious cult favorites like Lord of the Rings, Dune, or Star Wars, I would have had to dismiss it as an inferior list. Many of my old favorites were there, but imagine my delight when one of my new favorites made the cut. Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher is relatively new and Butcher's other series The Dresden Files seemed to be the more well known.

Smash Cut

2012-02-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

I am a fan of chocolate and reading. I am happy when I get one of those heart shaped boxes of chocolate on Valentine's Day. Sadly, one heart shaped box of chocolate does not last very long.
Here is my suggestion for the day after Valentine's Day. On your way home from work, stop at the library and check out a romantic suspense book and then stop at the store and buy discounted leftover valentine chocolate. I just finished Smash Cut by Sandra Brown, a perfect romantic suspense to read with chocolate. In this book, Paul Wheeler, wealthy CEO of Wheeler Enterprises, and Julie Rutledge, a beautiful young art dealer, have been meeting every Tuesday at a posh hotel for the the past two years. One Tuesday when Paul and Julie are leaving the hotel, a masked
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Titles for Valentine's Day

2012-02-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is nearly here! And if you need ideas about what to read to celebrate the holiday, I've got you covered. First, I just stumbled upon Twosomes: Love Poems from the Animal Kingdom, a teensy tiny gem of a book. And it promptly became my very favorite Valentine's Day title. You can read it in less than three minutes, but I promise that those three mintues will be well the effort it might take you to locate the book. Fifteen silly couplets about animal love, ranging from porcupines to earthworms, are illustrated with pictures of beaming, cartoon-like animals batting their eyes and gazing adoringly at one another. I was utterly enthralled.

But maybe you're not interested in a book of goofy poems. Maybe for your Valentine's Day reading, you'd prefer something a bit more grown up. If so, I recommend The Science of Kissing, an engaging mix of psychology, history, and biology that tells you everything you could ever hope to learn about the subject. Want to know about kissing practices in other cultures? Why we kiss? Whether or not men and women kiss differently? This book has your answers.

Or maybe the only reason you tolerate this mushy pink holiday is for the conversation hearts and chocolate truffles. Then for you, then let me suggest Candy and Me or Candyfreak, which are fabulous candy memoirs that will make your mouth water and leave you lunging for the nearest heart-shaped box of chocolate...even if it was intended for your sweetheart. Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to indulge, whether it's in candy or a good book (or in this case, both!).

Happy reading, and Happy Valentine's Day!

~Queen of Books

Counting Down to the Tucson Festival of Books

2012-02-06T00:23:00.000-08:00

Elmore Leonard was on the cover of the New York Times Book Review this morning, and my happy thought was, "Oh, he'll be in Tucson at the Festival of Books next month!" And so will an astonishing number of authors we love to read, but rarely get to hear: Larry McMurtry, Richard Russo, Sebastian Junger, Alice Hoffman, Pete Dexter, Richard Peck, Terry Brooks, Iris Johansen, T.C. Boyle, Diana Gabaldon, John Sandford, Michael Palmer, Pam Houston -- the list goes on for nearly 400 names, and is as wonderful as it is astonishing. Imagine, they'll all be here, in Tucson, on the UA Mall for two very memorable days, the 10th and 11th of March.

With so many great authors at our very own literary miracle in the desert, readers who love books and the folks who write them will want to make a plan to see their favorites. My plan includes checking in on some of the most interesting women writing today, like Susan Casey, who'll be on hand to talk about her recent best-seller, The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean. U of A alum Casey embedded herself with scientists and extreme surfers around the world to learn about monster waves, the unimaginably gargantuan ocean behemoths that swallow up ocean-going vessels and coastal cities. Once the stuff of sailors' legends, these waves are now a reason for concern about the planet. Casey's narrative will mesmerize and terrify you, and will certainly make you think twice before signing on for an ocean cruise.

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Healer

2012-02-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

A library customer enthusiastically recommended the book Healer by Carol Cassella and it was definitely worth reading.

The Boehning family finds themselves in a financial crisis when biochemist Addison risks all they have on the development of a cancer drug. With their lives in shambles and virtually no possessions,
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Triple Crossing

2012-01-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

After perusing all the "Best of 2011" lists, I'm surprised that Triple Crossing by Sebastian Rotella never generated a huge hold list like many best sellers. It was a New York Times notable book and it had a great review on National Public Radio. One problem might be that the novel defies clear cut classification, falling somewhere between novel, mystery and thriller.

Rotella's first novel is set on "The Line" between San Diego and Mexico. The main characters are from both the US and Mexico. Rotella does a wonderful job of taking the reader on a behind the scenes tour of Mexican organizations, from drug cartels to the state and federal police, human rights organizations, and anti-corruption groups. On this side of the border, the characters work for the Border Patrol and the Office of the Inspector General. The action moves from the US, to Mexico and then to the region known as the Triple Border - the area where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet.

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Creatures - All Great, Some Small

2012-01-26T13:49:00.000-08:00

I tend to shy away from animal rescue stories. Having been in the animal shelter business, I am painfully aware of how many of the stories end. In A Small Furry Prayer : Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life, Steven Kotler relives unrelenting loss - he dug seven graves in seven weeks during one bad stretch at Rancho de Chihuahua - but also celebrates the compassion and kinship connecting us all.

Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wicked Autumn is the first of Agatha Award-winning author G. M. Malliet's books I've had the opportunity to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

For me, it was a combination of a cozy murder mystery and a village story (like the Miss Read stories, which I adore). Max Tudor is a former MI-5 agent turned Anglican priest. He is still adjusting to his new parish of Nether Monkslip when the village's self-appointed organizer of all things, especially the annual Harvest Fayre, Wanda Batton-Smythe is murdered. Many secrets of Nether Monkslip and its residents are brought to light in the process of solving the murder.

This is a slow-moving book, taking its time to introduce the reader to the main and minor characters and the village they reside in. I enjoyed getting to know Max Tudor's character especially how he came to the priesthood.

Now that I've met Max Tudor and the residents of Nether Monkslip, I look forward to returning.

Happy Reading!
Patti

Music of the 80's

2012-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

If you were a teen in the 80's, or for some reason you love 80's music, keep reading. Otherwise, a new blog post will appear in a few days. Rolling Stone magazine's music journalist Rob Sheffield shares his mixed relationship with new wave/pop/disco/punk/rock and of course girls in his book Talking To Girls About Duran Duran. In these days of needing to provide full disclosure, I went to college and I'm friends with Rob's sister who plays a major role in the story (essentially makes it more vivid for me, won't detract any for you).
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My favorites of 2011

2012-01-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

For past three months, I've been reading science fiction and fantasy books for teens. A lot of them. Wizards, dystopias, magic, quests - they're coming out my ears, I tell you. These are my top four.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick - When a powerful electromagnetic pulse kills off two-thirds of the human race and knocks the rest back to the Stone Age, it's every man, woman, and child for himself. 17-year-old Alex was already living on borrowed time, what with the brain tumor and all, so she thought she knew about living life one day at a time. Along with Afghanistan vet Tom and eight-year-old Ellie, she discovers that it's a little more difficult when you have to fight wild animals and teen cannibal zombies for the privilege.

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Around The World In 276 Pages

2012-01-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

Topophilia* is the dominant theme of Maphead by Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings. Jennings details his personal fascination with the love of place and then takes the reader on a wonderful exploration of map culture - from earliest parchment to the sophistication of modern day GPS.

Twinkie Novels

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Years are over; everybody's starting to take down their decorations and hide the scales. Whether you find this time of year energizing or whether you're recovering from the holidays, I find this is a great time of year to indulge in twinkie novels.

What is a twinkie novel, you ask? A twinkie novel is one with no nutritional value. It's the book that you read purely for the pleasure of reading. It's also probably the book you keep shelved in the bedroom and put a paper bag over when you take it out in public. Everyone's definition of their twinkie novel will be different; what one person will boldly read on the bus, another will hide in their jacket. But my challenge for you this New Year is to display your twinkie novel proudly.

And so, I offer you my own twinkie novel of the year: Master of Smoke by Angela Knight.
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WW II

2012-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

I like to read about history. I especially enjoy historical fiction and nonfiction that deals with the ins and outs of World War II. I don't know why this time period fascinates me, I just know that it does and that is true for many of you too – and many of you have read much more widely than I about this period of history. Still, I want to mention a few that I read and enjoyed recently.

Agent ZigZag: a True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal by Ben Macintyre was published in 2007 after the MI5 finally declassified the files about this fascinating man. Agent Zigzag was Eddie Chapman, a British double agent who spied for England during WW II and was also awarded the Iron Cross by the Nazis. He was quite a character and the book about him is an interesting and quick read.

Happy New You!

2012-01-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

What are your New Year's resolutions? Learning a new skill, traveling the world, reinventing yourself, or getting around to something you've put off for a while? I just put up a display of books to help get you started. Here's the virtual version!

Freerunning and parkour amp running and jogging up a notch, into an extreme sport. Do you dare try?

Hard Truths

2011-12-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman

Where is Wendy White? The sweet girl's disappearance is being accepted as one of those unfortunate events that will never be solved. Obviously, an agent from the outside has infiltrated rural Haeden. Wendy was the target. These things happen. These things happen all of the time.

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Sugar Queen or Back of Beyond?

2011-12-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

The New Year is almost here. The holidays are almost over. Doesn't it seem like we should have time to read now? This is the perfect time to read in front of the fireplace with a favorite beverage close at hand. I will recommend something light and upbeat to start the New Year. If light and upbeat is not your style, I will also recommend something fast paced and full of action.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen is full of hope and a little magic.

The Penderwicks

2011-12-21T14:37:00.000-08:00

We're right in the middle of the holiday season and I'm brimming with merriment and good cheer, so all I want to read these days are fun, cheerful books. If you're feeling that way too, then you should scoop up a copy of The Penderwicks and prepare to be charmed! The four sisters parading through the pages of this book may very well be some of the most lovable children you'll ever meet. There's four-year old Batty, who never goes anywhere without wearing her favorite butterfly wings; ten-year old Jane, a dreamy, aspiring author whose heroine is nearly as spunky as she is; eleven-year old Skye, a blunt and spirited tomboy who says exactly what she thinks; and twelve-year old Rosalind, the practical oldest sister who (almost always) cares for her siblings with kindness and grace. The Penderwick sisters, along with their new friend Jeffrey, spend the summer getting into and out of scrapes--including a close encounter with a bull, a midnight tumble into the lake, and an accidental romp through what was supposed to be a prize-winning garden. If you're looking for a quick, sweet, light-hearted read to get you through the holidays, look no further!

~Queen of Books

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

2011-12-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Eleanor Brown’s debut novel, The Weird Sisters, is nothing less than a gift to lovers of witty, domestic literary fiction.

The Andreas sisters are not weird in the conventional sense: think Shakespeare, rather than "strange." Rosalind, Bianca and Cordelia--see what I mean?--are the offspring of a renowned Shakespeare expert and his loveable, distracted wife. The sisters grew up in a small, Midwestern University town, generally getting on each others' nerves (in the way of sisters) and flinging Shakespeare quotes at each other (not a normal sisterly activity, but Brown makes it work).

As adults the Andreas girls have gone their separate ways but as the novel opens they are about to be reunited, without warning. Bianca and Cordelia are returning home, individually and unannounced, on the pretext of helping the way-too-responsible Rosalind care for their ailing mother. In reality they harbor their own secrets and are seeking refuge while they figure out what to do next. They are not overjoyed to see one another.

Staff picks

2011-12-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

These are the titles our staff enjoyed reading last month.

Patti enjoyed The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly. Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great great grandmother Jo March. She finds comfort and guidance from those letters as she deals with her own sisters.

Betsey recommends Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpren. This is is a hilarious tour through high school clique-dom, as Jessie tries to find new friends.

Karen liked Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos. Six years after their friendship ended, Pen receives a letter from her old friend, Cat. She will end up revisiting her complicated feelings about her former friend.

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Never Enough Nordic Noir

2011-12-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

I'm always on the lookout for another Nordic Noir that catches my eye - so special thanks to my Goodreads friend for giving The Keeper of Lost Causes a 5-star review. I had seen this one come through the library, but it took a friend's rating to inspire me to read it. Jussi Adler-Olsen, winner of The Glass Key award, is promoted as Denmark's #1 crime writer. This is his first book published in the United States. The Keeper of Lost Causes is part thriller, part police procedural and entirely worth reading.
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The Forgotten Waltz

2011-12-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Anne Enright explores adultery - Irish style - in her latest novel The Forgotten Waltz as Gina Moynihan recalls her attraction to Sean, the resulting affair and the casualties resulting from the dissolution of two families. What starts as a story about a self-absorbed love affair becomes an unsentimental cautionary tale told through sharp observations and unflinching prose. As with all of us, Gina's recollections are not linear and the most compelling are the dynamics between Gina and her beautiful excessive parents, and Sean with his brittle wife and fragile daughter.

The Library Journal summarizes this complicated tale best when describing it as, "A breathtaking work that will surprise you." Be surprised by this and other fine works by Anne Engright including her Man Booker Prize winning novel, The Gathering at your Library.

Vicki Ann

On The Nightstand

2011-12-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

For a reading addict, it's a bit dangerous working in the library. I read book review magazines to find out the latest and greatest, I talk with coworkers about books and then folks coming in to the library gush about the wonderful book they just read and I "must" read it too, and let's not forget about the serendipity of walking in the shelves when a book cover catches your eye. Which is why I have over 1500 books on my to-read bookshelf on Goodreads. Of course, many of those books I actually check out with plans to read and then they are on my nightstand just waiting for the right moment. Below is a random sampling from the nightstand:

The Voodoo Wave by Mark Kreidler and Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestad - it's impossible for me to pass by a new surfing book. I'll never surf myself, but I love to watch and read about it whenever I can.
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A Pair of Time-Travel Novels

2011-11-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Generally, I like to read things with straightforward plots, clear and understandable. But then there are days that I just want my brain to be twisted into a pretzel, and that's when I pick up books like Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis, which won the prestigious Hugo Award earlier this year.

Set in . . . well, it's hard to say when this is set, because that's the plot, you see. In 2060, humanity has perfected the art of time travel. At Oxford, historians don't just read old diaries and peruse photographs, they go back in time to observe history as it happens. They do their best not to affect events, but they're secure in the knowledge that history is self-correcting and nothing they do can alter its course. Not really, anyway.
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A Lifetime in the Making...

2011-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, a blog reader approached me and told me he loved a book I recommended, and he had one I should read. He described it to me, and it sounded up my alley, so I picked it up and gave it a try.

Lately I've been turning over the concept of "predestined love" and it seems I am involuntarily reading a spate of books that explore this idea. However, The Little Book by Selden Edwards is much more than a love story. A book that took thirty years to write, it spans ninety-one years with a grandiose historical setting, taking on pivotal historical moments, family relationships, time travel, and love.

Terrorism Up Close and Personal

2011-11-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

Some lives and some novels are dramatically altered by one defining moment. Incendiary by British journalist Chris Cleave is a brilliantly haunting example of Before and After.

On a lovely spring day, the narrator's husband and four year old son are happily attending a football match when 11 terrorist bombs explode in Arsenal Stadium blowing them and a thousand other spectators to bits and pieces.

Patrons' Recommendations

2011-11-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things I enjoy about my job is talking about great books with library patrons and making suggestions about something they might like. However, one of the more unexpected pleasures of my job is all the recommendations I receive from patrons. Two books I have read recently based on patrons' suggestions are In the Woods by Tana French and Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn.

In a Single Sitting

2011-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

I have seen entire blogs and websites devoted to books read in a single sitting. Really? People have that much time that they can read all their books in a single sitting? Alas, I don't seem to have that much time. When I do read a book in a single sitting, it stands out as something special. I had heard of the Noah Braddock Private Investigator series, but I was a bit skeptical. A surfing PI seemed like a bit of a stretch. When Liquid Smoke came into the library, the cool cover caught my eye (I know...how shallow!) and I thought I'd give it a go.

Noah is approached by a lawyer looking for help with her client, an inmate on death row in San Quentin. Noah is reluctantly drawn into the case when he hears the prisoner is Russell Simington, his biological father he never met. Simington has a reputation as a remorseless, cold blooded killer who made his career as a gun for hire. The family reunion sets events in motion with unforeseen and tragic consequences.

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Staff Picks

2011-11-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

Here is what our staff recently enjoyed reading.

Betsy and Heather recommend Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. Two stories weave back and forth, one told in prose and the other in pictures as two children search for what is missing in their lives. Ultimately they find they need to be open to the wonders of the world.

Helene enjoyed The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson. It's an enchanting love story set in P. T. Barnum's American Museum in 1865 New York City. The main character, Bartholomew, is The World's Thinnest Man.

Karen liked The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok. This is Mira's memoir. Her mother is a homeless, schizophrenic whom she has been estranged from for seventeen years. After a car accident affects Mira's memory, her mother's diaries and letters allow her to build a memory palace and regain pieces of her childhood.

The Olive in all of us

2011-11-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout is a novel in short stories. The anchoring character is Olive Kitteridge, a school teacher in a small town on the coast of Maine. The stories take place over a lifetime of years. Each story features Olive, her family or a resident of the town. The author magically weaves these stories together so that by the end of the book the reader truly knows Olive.

Now the frightening part, Olive is us. Olive is occasionally funny, often cruel, at times sensitive and sometimes extremely vulnerable. Her husband, Henry, who can only be described as long suffering, loves Olive despite her flaws. Her only child, Christopher, is smothered by Olive’s possessiveness, dependence and also her love. I found that when I disliked Olive the most, I saw a part of me.

Shhh.....It's a Secret!

2011-11-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

When Lemony Snicket completed his Series of Unfortunate Events, I fell into a state of despair. What other series, I wondered, could possibly fill this void in my life? What other books might contain an anxious but omniscient narrator who speaks directly to the readers; clever, resourceful children who manage to scramble out of any scrape, no matter how impossible or scary; and evil but slightly stupid villains whose nefarious plans threaten all hope of happiness? What other series might contain a mystery compelling enough to keep me awake late at night to finish the first book, just so I could dash to the library the next morning to scoop up the second title?

At last, my wait is over. I've found that series. Meet 11-year olds Cass and Max-Ernest, who, in a series of five books (each based on one of the five senses), try to uncover an enormously important secret, while preventing a group of grown-up scoundrels from finding it first. With a touch of magic, lots of luck, and plenty of brainpower, the children manage to stay just a few steps ahead of the bad guys--and the readers, too.

There's only one catch: the name of the book I'm recommending to you is also a secret. No, really, it is. Check out The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch, the first in the Secret Series.

~Queen of Books

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

2011-10-31T01:05:00.000-07:00

It's hard to imagine a character more luckless than Sam Pulsifer, the antihero of An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. As a teenager he unwittingly sets fire to the Amherst home of poet Emily Dickinson, reducing it to ashes and snuffing out the landmark's docent and her husband in the process. He does ten years for his crime and returns home to find, to his utter amazement, hundreds of letters from people suggesting other famous authors' homes that deserve torching.

But Sam only wants to extinguish his fiery past and move on. With a new family, a career, and a life that's back on-track he keeps his incendiary history a secret until the unlucky day a stranger appears, introducing himself as the only child of the couple who died in the Dickinson House blaze. "You ruined my life," he tells Sam, "and now I'm going to ruin yours."

In short order the homes of Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Herman Melville and other New England writers suffer suspicious blazes very much like Sam's trademark crime. His attempts to prove his innocence make for a darkly humorous story that will please any reader drawn to quirky characters, unlikely scenarios and a plot that twists and turns. At 305 pages it's a quick and satisfying read.

--Helene

Cleverly Twisted

2011-10-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

Two recent incidents prompted me to blog about this great book:

1. Spotting a Superman costume while shopping for Halloween festivities

2. A recent reader's advisory interaction with someone requesting "a fast, clean, unique, suspenseful mystery thriller"

Because I am not blogging about a comic book, the relationship of these incidents may appear uncertain. It is this combination of seemingly unrelated events that reminded me of the author Brad Meltzer.
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NaNoWriMo Nears!

2011-10-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Have you always wanted to write a novel? Maybe you even have a dusty half-finished manuscript in a dresser drawer or saved on your computer somewhere. Someday, you tell yourself, when you are not so busy, when you have that good idea, when you can take a workshop, when... But that day never comes. Wouldn't you like to get this goal off your bucket list and be able to tell yourself that you've written a novel? Well, have I got an idea for you...
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Lonesome Dove

2011-10-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

How many times have you heard or said, "I remember where I was when...."? Though more than 20 years have passed, I clearly remember my introduction to Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Standing in Kirk-Bear Canyon Library, I pulled out a paperback copy. Intimidated by its size (more than 900 pages) and its theme (at that time, I had never read a Western), I finally checked it out and read one of the finest books of our time.

This Pulitzer Prize winning tale defies labels - its scope and appeal are epic and universal. The storyline follows two former Texas Rangers and their crew as they drive a cattle herd from the Texas bush country to the wilds of Montana. On the way, The Hat Creek Outfit encounters plenty of action including rustling, lynching, locusts, lightning, raging rivers, stampedes, outlaws and Indians. However, beyond the action, this is a novel of character, opportunities, relationships and lives - loved, lost and wasted.

If you haven't read it, put Lonesome Dove on the top of your "Bucket" list. Even if you have read it, make plans to relive the adventure.

Find other fine works by Larry McMurtry at your Library.

Vicki Ann

Historical Fiction Turnaround

2011-10-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

After about the fifth novel I've totally enjoyed in the historical fiction genre, I realize that I have to stop saying I don't like historical fiction. I guess I never wanted to feel like I was reading to learn about a time period, rather that I was just reading a good story. But good historical fiction gives you both (and it's not a bad thing to learn about a particular time period).
With all of that baggage out of the way, I really enjoyed Ellen Baker's novel I Gave My Heart to Know This. You get a little bit of Rosie the Riveter, a little bit of keeping the home fires burning during World War II, a little bit of Wisconsin farm life, a little bit of California dreaming and a whole lot of family secrets. A wonderful story with well developed characters that might also convince you to give the historical fiction genre a try if you've stayed away before. I'm a fan now!

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Liar, Liar

2011-10-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

There are many things to love about Megan Whalen Turner's books. For starters, there's her lovingly built world, which draws heavily on ancient Greece and Rome. There's her twisty-turny plots, which deal with the fates of nations and surprise you at every page turn. There's her grand themes, about love and fate and the terrible choices a king or queen must make. But for me, the thing that keeps bringing me back, and actually drove me to purchase my own copies of all four books, is Eugenides. He's the star of three books, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia, and a major character in another, A Conspiracy of Kings.

Eugenides of Eddis is a thief, a liar, and a scoundrel. You really can't trust a word that comes out of his mouth. And yet, you can trust him.
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Silent in the Grave

2011-10-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

As I sat down to write this post, I had to think. What have I read recently that was fantastic, amazing, really rave worthy? I won't tell you how long I sat thinking, but finally it came to me. Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. First, allow me to share the first sentence.

"To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor."

I love that first line! Anyway, Silent in the Grave is the first of the "Lady Julia Grey" series. With a gothic Victorian setting, the series follows the eccentric March family, but especially Julia, as she dares social mores and protocols in discovering a new side to herself after the death of her husband leaves her a widow. The characters are outrageous but believable, the pace is just right, and the ending shocking. What more could you want?

Wordcatcher: An Odyssey Into The World of Weird and Wonderful Words

2011-10-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Consider the game of catch - one throws - the other receives. In Wordcatcher , Phil Cousineau has chosen 250 words he terms wild, wonderful and weird and tosses them to the curious reader in a number of unique and satisfying ways.

Consider his criteria for inclusion. Each word has a surprising derivation (BAFFLE), or is fun to pronounce (BAMBOOZLE) or is mellifluous to the ear (GOSSAMER). Accompanying each entry are companion words - words with close connections to the defined word as well as a myriad of literary examples.

Ready to play? Sip a cappuccino (see page 66) and leisurely contemplate kavla (pg. 168)

RR@RR

P.S. The modern family's road trip is packed with a mobile entertainment center (TV, DVD and CD player). When Phil was growing up, his father made sure to pack a dictionary along for the road. It came in handy when the family visited the Philadelphia home of Edgar Allan Poe and the tour guide uttered the word "tintinnabulation".

Bliss, Remembered

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Do you listen to NPR on Wednesday mornings? Do you enjoy listening to Frank Deford talking about sports? You may not know that in addition to writing for Sports Illustrated and talking about sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO, Deford has written 15 books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Bliss, Remembered is the most recent book written by Deford and is one of my current favorites. Set in both in 1936 and 2004, the story is about a woman named Sydney Stringfellow, an Olympic swimming hopeful in 1936. While in Berlin for the Olympics, Sydney falls in love with a young German man – the son of a German diplomat. Once back in the States, another young man enters her life. Fast forward to 2004. Sydney is dying of cancer and wants to tell her son a story about a secret part of her life. What follows is a wonderful conversation between mother and son, as she tells him things about herself he has never known.

I was enchanted by this story and thrilled with the ending. Whether or not you like Deford on Wednesday mornings, give this book a try. It’s wonderful!

Death, Cataloged

2011-09-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a big believer in judging a book by its cover! I browse the library's new arrivals all the time, looking for a catchy title, an author I've heard good things about, or a description that grabs me. The Suicide Index by Joan Wickersham was one that appealed to two very different sides of me: the one that loves catalogs (naturally, since I work at the library!), and the one that morbidly enjoys grief memoirs. In this National Book Award finalist, Wickersham crafts the stark, painful story of her father's suicide, organized in an index.

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Finding Christian Fiction

2011-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

I am often asked for the location of the Christian fiction section in the library. Fiction, in the library, is shelved by author. So, how does one find sub-genres within the fiction section?

Christian fiction may be mystery, romance, suspense, science fiction or horror. My first suggestion is to use the "find popular authors by genre" link in the Books and Reading section on library's website. Another suggestion is to try using subject headings. A search for Christian fiction as a subject heading will yield 1509 results. If you have read your way through all the Beverly Lewis Amish books and want to find more Christian fiction Amish books, use the sort/limit function in the catalog by adding Amish as a subject. The results will be other Christian fiction books with Amish themes. You will discover the author Cindy Woodsmall by using this method.
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Seriously cute

2011-09-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

I love browsing coffee table books. When I say coffee table books I mean books with fantastic photography and just enough text to make for good browsing. I rarely purchase them, but it's fun to look. That's where the library is great. I can reserve all kinds of interesting ones, take them home, and browse to my heart's content; all without breaking the bank. In particular, I am a sucker for ones featuring cute animals. A new favorite that just came in is Friends by Catherine Thimmesh. It features unusual animal friendships like the orangutan and the kitten, and the giraffe and the ostrich. The photography is great and because all the stories are true there are little snippets of background information to keep things interesting. For one featuring cute puppies (wait aren't they always cute as puppies?) try Snog a Puppy's Guide to Love by Rachael Hale.

Staff Picks

2011-09-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here is what our staff is reading this month.

Helene enjoyed The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin. Follow the heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams.

Michelle liked Rip Tide by Kat Falls. When Ty finds a sunken township chained to a submarine, it's the first clue in an underwater mystery that threatens his family.

Karen recommends Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward. When the headless corpse of her ex-fiancee turns up on their property siblings Paul and Lacey Hansen investigate. This mystery is written tag team between the two authors and as they disagree about how the story should proceed the suspects and the body count rise.

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Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson

2011-09-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

OK, this title didn't send me scurrying to the shelves, but when I saw that Shakespeare: The World as Stage was written by the incomparable Bill Bryson I was delighted with my find. I love the way Bryson serves up information that's good for you and presents it with so much great storytelling, wry observation and outright wit that its impossible not to get smarter just reading him--sometimes in spite of yourself.

Shakespeare the man is a challenging subject. There's not much known about the Bard, who departed this good life in 1616 without leaving posterity much of a personal record. As Bryson points out, there are only a handful of days in Shakespeare's entire life about which we can say "...with absolutely certainty where he was." So, four hundred years later, to know Shakespeare the man one must understand the world in which he lived.

Bryson is a jolly tour guide to this world, clearly at home in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. He happily walks us through these calamitous times and covers all manner of diverse topics along the way, from economics (a well-paid headmaster earned 20 pounds annually) to societal norms (40 percent of brides were pregnant on their wedding day), and from jurisprudence (you could be fined for letting your ducks wander in the road) to diet (folks liked their food sweet, so black teeth, rotted from sugar, were commonplace. Poor people blackened their teeth so as to look more prosperous). There's fascinating stuff to learn about the theater, too (the Puritans believed theaters were "hotbeds of sodomy [and] wanton liaisons," and blamed them for all sorts of social ills and even a few natural calamities, like the earthquake of 1580).

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Strong Women

2011-09-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

Traveling with Pomegranates: a mother-daughter story by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

In this intimate memoir, novelist Kidd and her daughter, Taylor, travel through Greece, Turkey and France. Each woman chronicles her unique quest to navigate a stage in life. Fifty-something Kidd is anxious about her health, menopause and creativity. Twenty-something Taylor struggles with depression and rejection as she tries to figure out what to do with her life. Both women seek to redefine and strengthen the mother-daughter bond.

Although this book moves slowly, almost too slowly, I'm glad that I fought the urge to stop reading. The resolution is satisfying. Ultimately, inspired by the lives of Athena, the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc and strengthened by a renewed understanding of each other, each woman finds clarity. The message is moving, memorable and thought-provoking. Additionally, the alternating narration adds interest and depth to the story, as do the descriptions of the fantastic travel destinations.

The story of this journey will resonate with women everywhere. Get ready to plan a trip--for your mother or your daughter, or maybe just for yourself.

The Poacher's Son

2011-09-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

When I think of Maine, I have visions of beaches, lobster pots, yachts and lighthouses. It's easy to forget that the state is also known for timber, toothpicks and paper. The Poacher's Son is set far from the beaches, in the heart of the deep woods of Maine.

Rookie Game Warden Mike Bowditch returns home from investigating a pig-stealing bear to find a message from his estranged father, Jack, on his answering machine. It doesn't seem like a coincidence when Jack turns out to be the primary suspect in a double murder and the target of a statewide manhunt. No matter how many times he was disappointed in the past by his father, Mike can't believe that Jack is a cold-blooded murderer. Mike puts his career on the line when he heads out to find his father and discover what really happened.

Warm Bodies: A Novel by Isaac Marion

2011-09-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, another zombie book. But what makes this one so special, you may ask?

How about if the zombie story was told from the point of view of the zombie? That's exactly what Isaac Marion has done in his beautifully written debut novel Warm Bodies.

The world of "R," the zombie narriator, is one in which all of the cities have fallen, zombies live in groups, and the surviving people have created survival cities inside sports stadiums. The newest generation of children have not known a world without zombies.

Now throw in a zombie-human romance and you have a book you won't be able to put down!

Find it at your local library!

~Roller Derby Librarian

Bent Road

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the high plains of Kansas, where you can see for miles and nothing's as it seems.

After a 20 year self-imposed exile, Arthur Scott relocates his wife and three children to the Kansas farming community of his youth. Years before, his beautiful blond sister Eve died mysteriously and small town speculation cast guilt on her boyfriend Ray who, after Eve's death, married her sister. The locals' open curiosity and condemnation reduced him to an abusive drunk and the likely suspect when another local beautiful blonde girl disappears shortly after the Scotts arrive.

Neither pastoral nor sympathetic, the country and community portrayed in Bent Road by Lori Roy is pure Midwest gothic with danger and drama around every corner.

Find it at your Library.

Vicki Ann

This Post Brought To You By The Letter M, And The Number 3

2011-08-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's true confession time. I love my job as a librarian. But, if by some remarkable chance, the folks from Sesame Street wanted to hire me, I'd move in a New York minute. I was raised on this show, and I just never grew out of it. The witty banter, the love of words and reading, numbers and letters, goofy puppets - what's not to love? Imagine my delight when somehow, the DVD Best of Sesame Street Spoofs landed in my lap. All the fun skits and songs, none of the boring videos of animals and large machinery.
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The Walking Dead, at Your Library

2011-08-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

No question about it, zombies are hot right now. Here are a few notable zombie books I've read recently.

Ever since the first teenager walked the earth, adults have been the enemy. Now it's even more literally true, when a strange virus has turned everyone over sixteen into mindless cannibal monsters, leaving kids and young teenagers to fend for themselves in an increasingly desperate fight. It's not for the faint of stomach, but for those that like their zombie movies both gory and thought-provoking, The Enemy by Charlie Higson is a sure bet.

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Haigh is for Jennifer

2011-08-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

If you've missed reading any of Jennifer Haigh's 4 novels, you'll delight in discovering a new author for your literary fiction list. Hallmarks of Haigh's novels include beautiful language, unique multifaceted characters and the author's compassionate understanding of the complexities of family dynamics. Family in different shapes and guises forms the core of Haigh's fiction.

The Condition You'll first meet the McKotches, a large patrician Boston family, at The Captain's House, their usual summer gathering spot on Cape Cod. But this summer, the usual becomes anything but as family members watch Gwen, on the verge of adolescence, enter the water. Comparisons are inevitable between Gwen and her younger cousin but Gwen definitely looks younger. In fact, Gwen is diagnosed with Turner's Syndrome, a condition that will forever hold her in the body of a child. Gwen's condition is obvious but over the next twenty years other family conditions - less obvious but equally significant - financial, emotional and spiritual are masterfully brought to recognition.

Sea Stories

2011-08-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

It's August. It's hot. Let's face it, all of us in Tucson are dreaming about the beach... and when we say beach, we think beach reads. A beach read tends to hold the connotation of something light, something fun, something that probably falls into the guilty pleasure category you hide under your bed.

I've got another variety of beach reads for you: sea stories. Pirates and adventures and tales of the high seas! My one problem: I have so many favorite sea stories it was almost impossible to pick out one or two to highlight. But I love lists, so I am going to start a list of some of my all time favorite sea stories, and invite you all to keep this list rolling. If you are reading this from our library website, please click through to our blog page to add your favorite to our comment section.

Piratica by Tanith Lee (as swashbuckling as it gets)
The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman (for all the Gaiman fans out there)
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Staff Picks

2011-08-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

Check out what our staff enjoyed reading this month.

Betsey enjoyed The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. Holling is the only boy who doesn't attend religious instruction in school. Instead he must stay in Mrs. Baker's class and read Shakespeare. He must also deal with bullies, rats, and the school play.

Heather liked Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. The people on a small island must rely on all their ingenuity to communicate in an increasingly limited language when the goverment progressively bans letters from the alphabet. As the letters are banned they also disappear from the book, with hilarious results.

Maureen recommends Say the Word by Jeannine Garsee. After the death of her estranged mother, who left Ohio years ago to live with her lesbian partner in New York City, seventeen-year-old Shawna tries to deal with her anger, her mother's other family, and secrets from the past.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2011-08-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

I did not want to read this book. The book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, has a very cute name. Books with cute names just do not appeal to me. I like mysteries with hard boiled characters and plots that keep you on the edge of your seat. However, I needed a title to use for a book club, and it seemed like everything I wanted wasn't available. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is suggested for book club discussion groups. It was also a best seller, so I decided to give it a try.

Poetry for Skeptics

2011-08-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Maybe you're not usually the kind of person who curls up with a mug of tea and a volume of poetry on lazy summer nights; maybe you haven't read many poems since your high school English teacher assigned something that just seemed long and confusing. If your conception of poetry primarily consists of dusty tomes filled with poems written by dead poets, or if your reading tastes veer towards thoughtful, well-written novels, you should stop everything, right now, and go find a book by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. His brand new collection of poems is called Horoscopes For the Dead, and the one before that is Ballistics. The poems in both these books (as well as his earlier titles) focus on everyday themes and are written in beautiful, clear verse. They are often funny, sometimes poignant, and never stuffy or standoffish. Billy Collins has a way of making the ordinary seem extraordinary--or at least worth noticing. Full of contrasts, surprises, and vivid imagery, these poems should be savored in a hammock, on a porch, beside a pool--anywhere you can relax and allow the words to settle into your bones. These poems are the perfect cure for the midsummer blues.
~Queen of Books

Deaf Sentence

2011-08-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Poor Professor Bates! The hero of David Lodge's Deaf Sentence won't see sixty again and, in a synergistic purgatory that may seem familiar to aging boomers, he's uncomfortably sandwiched in between the needs of adult children, concerns about his ailing father, a domestic role reversal prompted by his wife's business, and an infirmity of his encroaching old age that drives the action of this hilarious novel: after years of swimming against the tide of hearing loss, Desmond Bates must accept the fact that he is all but deaf.

It's a problem, all right. Weary of the constant professional humiliations posed by his deafness, Bates throws in the towel and retires from his teaching position at a university in Northern England. But, retirement simply presents its own set of hearing challenges. Hearing aids provide little relief so he tends to just wing it in social situations. Pretending he can hear when he actually has no idea what's just been said is frequently funny and occasionally catastrophic,
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Real Issues

2011-07-28T10:53:00.001-07:00

Did you enjoy the popular book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"? Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork gives us a book featuring a similarly strong-voiced, lovable main character, struggling with real world issues.

Meet 17-year-old Marcelo. Marcelo's father wants Marcelo to experience the real world and hopes to remove Marcelo from his specialized school the next school year. An opposed Marcelo can avoid the new assignment if he successfully completes summer employment at his father's law firm.

This beautifully written, insightful book displays Marcelo's challenges (he has Asperger's Syndrome) empathetically. In the real world, Marcelo experiences love and ethical dilemmas and discovers that nothing is black and white. Watching Marcelo, simultaneously naive and wise, navigate this new terrain is both engaging and thought provoking. While this highly acclaimed book is categorized for teens, it will appeal to a wide audience. And for family, friends and teachers whose lives have been touched by the autism spectrum, this story offers a revealing look at your genius' internal thought processes and strategies. Take a read! M

Missing Persons

2011-07-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I read mysteries, I feel like Goldilocks in The Three Bears. This book is too cozy! This book is too scary! When I read Missing Persons by Clare O'Donohue, I felt like it was just right. Missing Persons is the first in a new series featuring Kate Conway. Kate, a reality TV producer of true crime shows, throws herself into her work after her estranged husband dies unexpectedly. When the cause of his death in inconclusive, Kate becomes a suspect in his death.

The plot moves along briskly, with the television show becoming more intertwined with Kate's personal life. Kate is a great character; she's both strong and funny. O'Donohue sets up an interesting supporting cast as well, especially Vera, the dead husband's girlfriend. When I'm next in the mood for a cozy mystery, I'm going to have a look at O'Donohue's first series that starts with The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery.

- Susannah

Staff Picks

2011-07-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the books our staff has been reading this past month.

Jenn recommends The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey. The holy grail of surfing is the 100 foot wave. Follow a tribe of extreme surfers as they get the adrenaline high from conquering these waves and living to tell about it.

Maureen recommends Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. Zombies have taken over most of the world. Benny reluctantly gets apprenticed to a zombie hunter and it will ultimately teach him what it means to be human.

Heather recommends 101 Places Not to See Before You Die by Catherine Price. Here is a humorous look at some of the least appealing places to visit. A few spots in Arizona even make it into this book.

Vengeance is Best Served Cold

2011-07-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

Meet Walt Longmire, the sheriff of a remote county in Wyoming in the novel The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson. Recently widowed, he resides in the shell of the dream house he never completed and operates out of boxes he never unpacked. His deputy is a prickly ex-East Coast cop and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, served with him in Vietnam and now serves burgers and adult beverages.

Not much happens in his county, so Walt's surprised when he gets the call about the dead man found near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Walt wants to believe it's an unfortunate hunting accident, but the victim is one of four young men who, two years earlier, raped and brutalized a young Cheyenne girl born with fetal alcohol syndrome. The boys were released with suspended sentences and Walt suspects it's a case of good ol' frontier justice.

Walt approaches and observes his life with a keen, wry, humble wit. Honestly I'm reluctant to share him as this is my first introduction to him and the series (the latest, Hell is Empty was released in June), but he's too good to keep to myself.

Find all of Craig Johnson's books at your Library.

Vicki Ann

Shhh! The next Help

2011-07-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to be the person that predicts that this book will be the next phenomenal surprise word-of-mouth blockbuster book of the year. Imagine an alternate version of The Help. This one involving a mystery, set in Mississippi and written by a guy. Which means that there won't be a lot of long, thoughtful delving into any emotions. But it doesn't mean that the emotional landscape is barren. It just means there won't be a lot of dissection, introspection and contemplation. I'm leaving this blog post purposefully vague. Be the first on your block to check out Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin and you can tell everyone you were part of the crowd that helped make this book a runaway hit.

More Books

Newes from the Dead

2011-07-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

What if you woke up in the middle of your own autopsy? That's the provocative premise behind Mary Hooper's Newes from the Dead, based on a true story. In 1650, a British servant girl named Anne Green was wrongfully sentenced to death, but the hanging didn't completely kill her. Instead, she lies in her coffin, barely alive, and drifts back through the events that brought her to her present condition. At the same time, a young medical student prepares for the dissection of a convict's corpse - Anne Green.

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A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World

2011-07-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

If summer has you stretched in a multitude of directions and reading time is in short supply, A Moveable Feast: Life-Changing Food Adventures Around The World, edited by Don George, offers 38 short chapters jam-packed with fabulous food and memories from chefs, travel writers, and a generous sampling of food editors and critics.

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Vintage Favorites

2011-07-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that summer seems to be the time to revisit favorite books. Maybe it's because, for adults, summer evokes memories of summer vacations, laziness, childhood. And so we reread the entire Harry Potter series, indulge in beach reads, and turn back the clock to our retro-reads.

I read this vintage classic for the first time last month, and couldn't believe I hadn't read it sooner. The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber has it all: an evil duke, a clever prince, and an enchanted princess, not to mention delightful illustrations. Plus, it's a quick read.

Also on my list of retro-summer-reads...

Houseplant Survival Hope

2011-07-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

I love houseplants! Unfortunately, houseplants have very short lives under my care. I tell myself that's OK, they are just cut flowers that last a little longer. My dilemma is that I recently bought a house that has an indoor atrium. This 5 foot by 5 foot area has a faucet, a drain and a skylight. I am afraid that since the average houseplant under my care lives only about 2 weeks this could become a very very expensive indoor gardening experiment. A lot of plants can fit in an area that size. Pima County Public Library has great books on indoor gardening. Find them by searching for the subject house plants.

I have checked out almost every title about growing houseplants in the Pima County Library system. My favorite book is The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual: Essential Know-how for Keeping (Not Killing!) More Than 160 Indoor Plants by Barbara Pleasant.

Staff Picks

2011-06-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here is some of what our staff has read this month.

Helene recommends Paper Trails: True Stories of Confusion, Mindless Violence, and Forbidden Desires, A Surprising Number of Which Are Not About Marriage by Pete Dexter. A collection of Pete Dexter's newspaper columns on life, death, and everything in between.

Maureen enjoyed Mare's War by Tanita Davis. Two teenagers reluctantly join their grandmother on a cross country road trip and find themselves entranced by her stories about serving in the African American regiment of the Women's Army Corps during World War 2.

Nyssa recommends Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Two Chinese sisters are sold into marriage to American husbands to settle their father's debts. Through it all their bond as sisters sustains them.

More picks.

My Kind of Place

2011-06-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

When it's summer in Tucson, and so blisteringly hot that you'd think you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, some people throw their shorts and flip flops into a suitcase and hightail it out of town. Others of us settle into an the sofa, crank up the air conditioning, and begin to read about those places we may not get to visit otherwise. Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Susan Orlean's My Kind of Place, a quirky conglomeration of essays broken into the categories of "Here," "There," and "Everywhere."

When the Killing's Done

2011-06-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of reading anything by T.C. Boyle (and many joys await his readers) is the way he makes you reexamine the things you thought you knew. In his latest outing, When the Killing's Done, Boyle offers a thought-provoking look at environmental issues through the story of two philosophically incompatible characters engaged in a pitched battle over animal rights. Alma Boyd Takesue, a biologist for the National Park Service, oversees a program to eradicate an invasive species of rats from the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara. Her goal is to return the islands to their one-pristine condition by preserving their native flora and fauna. Dave LaJoye, an animal rights activist, objects to the way the Parks Service is, in his opinion, trying to play god.

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The Girl in the Green Raincoat

2011-06-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Think "Rear Window," but with a pregnant private investigator confined to bed rest in her third trimester of pregnancy. In The Girl in the Green Raincoat, Baltimore native, Tess Monaghan still manages to get herself in plenty of trouble even when she doesn't leave her room. While suffering through her confinement, Tess watches dog walkers in the park every afternoon. One day, Tess spies a little dog running off without his owner. Tess can't rest until she finds out what happened to the missing woman.

Reservation Blues

2011-06-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

First, a blatant bit of self-promotion. The theme for the Mission Branch Library's "It's Winter Somewhere" book club is literary award winning fiction. We enjoy spirited discussions and mixed reviews on winners of the Pulitzer, Booker, National Book Award and others. Even if the book is not universally embraced, most often we all agree on the beauty of the language or the theme's poignancy. But, while worth the effort, many award winners can be challenging reads requiring great stamina and concentration.

Which is why we all enjoyed Sherman Alexie's novel Reservation Blues, which contains the required amount of beauty and poignancy in a rollicking read. Much of the story happens in the Spokane Reservation starting when Thomas Builds-the-Fire stops at the Crossroads to pick up blues musician Robert Johnson. Looking to reclaim his soul and scarred fingers, Johnson leaves his guitar in Thomas' truck. The guitar, not content taking a back seat, strums its siren song forcing Thomas to form a band with Victor and Junior who are both friends and foes. These guys rock and the talented guitar even lands them a recording session in New York where, confronted by their demons, they self-destruct.

Multiple award winner Alexie tackles the challenges and situations of reservation life with magic and vigor, weaving historic fact with fantasy. His observations on our cultural differences and the messages reservation children are fed, along with their government-issued peanut butter, are laugh out loud funny and tragic.

Reservation Blues is based on characters from Alexie's short collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven as is the movie Smoke Signals.

Find Sherman Alexie and other award winning books at your Library.

Vicki Ann

This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

2011-06-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

It's summer! And that means it is time to let those chick lit titles fly!

My favorite author that gets put into this genre is Marian Keyes. She is an Irish writer who knows how to put serious substance into her entertaining reads. This Charming Man is a novel about how four different women's lives have been shaped by this one man - Paddy de Courcy. Paddy de Courcy is Ireland's debonair politician, the "John F. Kennedy Jr. of Dublin." All the charm in the world cannot cover up what this man really is - an abusive, egotistical brute.

This novel is not for the faint of heart; Lola, Grace, Marnie, and Alicia each narrate their story with Paddy. Each of them discover how strong they really are, and the variety of places one can find support.

I'd like to see you try to put this page-turner down this summer!

Find This Charming Man at your library!

~ Roller Derby Librarian

Reading Across the Pond

2011-06-05T10:15:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been reading a lot of kid's books that were originally published in other countries. These are always interesting because the slang, the traditions, the geography, and the history are all different. Here are a few I really enjoy.

Raider's Ransom by Emily Diamand
This book takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, when the oceans have risen, drowning most of the United Kingdom and hurtling humanity back into a more medieval society where only hints and scraps of high technology remain. It follows Lilly, on a quest to rescue the daughter of the prime minister from the Viking-like Raiders, and Zeph, the son and heir to the Raiders' leader. Exciting, fast-paced, and a little haunting when you recognize pieces of our world in the wreck of theirs.

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A Beautiful Place to Die

2011-06-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

I'm number 460 on the waiting list for Michael Connelly's new book, The Fifth Witness, and there are still 25 people on the list ahead of me for the new Inspector Ian Rutledge book by Charles Todd. What do I read while I wait? I've got a book for you! A book of mystery, corruption, politics and for all you Ian Rutledge fans, a police detective who hears voices in his head. A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn is set in a small town in 1950s South Africa.
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Web + book = Double the fun

2011-06-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

I don't have a computer at home, so anytime I want to search on the Internet I bike over to my closest public library. Some of my favorite quirky websites are publishing books, so those of us who can't keep up on the web can at least read about the fun world we live in. Here are three great books that will entertain for hours (and feel free to follow up on the web).
First we'll start with cakes, specifically Cake Wrecks. Now I've had my share of cake mishaps - the three-layered cake that leaned like the tower in Pisa, the checkerboard cake that was as dry as a checkerboard, etc. But the pictures in this book literally take the cake - and they are all professionally created in bakeries across the country!

A Small Book with a Big Message

2011-05-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Just before the start of summer reading and my probable selection of novels on the beachy side, I was strolling among the non-fiction aisles and found Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries. Full disclosure: it was the bright chartreuse cover - a color that I love and can't wear - that first caught my eye.

Business writer Peter Sims' basic thesis is that creative innovation can best be achieved by continuing to try a series of small steps - petite forays into the unknown or the untried - some destined to be successful, some destined to fail.
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Summer Reading Is Here!

2011-05-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, when school lets out, vacation begins, and readers across the country crack open their books to get through the long hot months.

This year, as you're thinking about summer reading, remember that it's not just for kids and teens. We're encouraging adults to participate as well - keep an eye out on our public homepage for our summer reading sign up, or ask your local friendly librarian for details.

Without further ado, here are three titles to start out your summer reading.

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Staff Picks

2011-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here is what our staff has been reading this past month.

Georgia recommends Arms Wide Open by Patricia Harman. A midwife's memoir of living free and naturally against all odds.

Nyssa enjoyed The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Set in northeastern Himalayas where a rising insurgency challenges the old way of life.

Karen liked Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

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Stealing Buddha's Dinner

2011-05-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Initially, I was drawn to Bich Minh Nguyen's memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, because of its cover. The hardcover version features an offering plate that holds an ice cream cone, Pringles, a candy necklace, Skittles, and a Hostess cupcake. My mouth watering, I picked up the book and began to read.

Nguyen and her family moved to the United States from Vietnam when she was a young child, and her memoir describes her attempts to become "Americanized." This is a book about food and family, as many memoirs are, but it's about much more than that.

Missed it by that much...

2011-05-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad may have won the 2011 Pulitzer Price for fiction, but it had some respectable competition from some great reads. One of the also-rans, Jonathan Dee's The Privileges, is an unsung but immensely readable novel. In this modern-day love story, set against the backdrop of Wall Street greed and venality, Dee offers a page-turning and curiously non-judgmental view of the unethical behavior that made some people very, very rich.

The novel opens with the wedding of Adam and Cynthia Morey. They are attractive, savvy, fiercely devoted to each other and determined not to repeat the mistakes of their dysfunctional parents. A life of unlimited possibilities stretches before them and they intend to have it all -- and quickly. Adam goes to work at a private equity firm, Cynthia stays home with their two children, and to outward appearances their life in Manhattan is idyllic. But, in reality, it's on shaky ground. For Cynthia, ennui is setting in. For Adam, things aren't happening fast enough. Being upwardly mobile is fine, but it's not as good as arriving on a private jet. Believing his family deserves more than he's providing, Adam embarks on some very risky insider trading. It pays off in enormous wealth but imperils the couple's children and their own humanity in ways that neither saw coming.

Dee has a deft hand for characterization -- far from being stereotypical greed-heads, Adam and Cynthia are breathing, sentient, self-aware and appealing, and Dee makes us care about them. There's no reason we should like these people, but we do anyway. Their dishonesty somehow just doesn't feel, well, dishonest. Is it acceptable to behave unethically when it's done for love? Dee's new twist on an old story may surprise you.

--Helene

Titles similar to The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

2011-05-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some other titles similar to The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly

Blindman's Bluff by Faye Kellerman

Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein

A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart

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The Winners' Circle

2011-05-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

The Kentucky Derby is heralded as the "most exciting two minutes in sports" and post time for the 137th running is Saturday at 6:24 p.m. ET.

Lord of Misrule, the 2010 National Book Award written by Jaimie Gordon,
doesn't cover Derby horses. Instead it follows a handful of miscreants frequenting a seedy track - where the feature race is a $2000 claimer - and the horses they run into the ground. Gordon worked at similar tracks and captures its unique and gritty atmosphere and language, but confuses the narrative with disjointed perspectives and an unbelievable dose of Mafia and murder. The only sympathetic characters are Little Spinoza, a dreamy bay with soft eyes and a shiny checkerboard butt, and Pelter an old Stakes horse run down the Grades. In the racing world, the term "quality" refers to an individual that stands out in the field. For my money Lord of Misrule, while good, falls short of quality.
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Diana Wynne Jones, RIP

2011-04-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's always a shock to me when a beloved author dies. How can an author die? Aren't they mythological beings who create entire worlds for us? But they're as mortal as we are, and I was reminded of that last month when I heard that children's fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones had died of lung cancer.

Her books are full of magic, adventure, and a sharp, biting wit that's particularly British - much like Harry Potter in tone, except with more of a satirical edge.

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Author Crush

2011-04-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

I will confess right up front that I'm going to gush. I can't stop reading/listening/watching Neil Gaiman's work. Right now I'm listening to Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders and I'm in love. I love Neil Gaiman's voice, I love his characters, I love his creepy (but not too creepy) stories. Frankly, he could read the phone book and I'd be entranced.

New Favorite - C.J. Box

2011-04-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when someone recommends an author that leads you to discover a whole new series? C.J. Box has become one of my new favorite authors. Nowhere to Run features Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden. The book starts as Pickett is finishing up a year in exile in Southern Wyoming. He heads out on his last patrol through the area before returning home to his family. When he comes across a pair of twin brothers living off the land, things start to get dangerous. Box gives a wonderful description of the Wind River Range as both beautiful and menacing. Nowhere to Run is the 10th in the series, but it works well as a stand alone novel. Pickett is an engaging hero and I'm looking forward to reading everything in the series. Open Season is the first book and Cold Wind, the 11th, has just been released.

-Susannah

This Book is Overdue!

2011-04-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last week as libraries across America celebrated National Library Week, my thoughts turned to all things library, and my attention was easily captured by This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson.

Johnson heralds this newly evolved librarian as your tour guide through the continuously complex morass of information that has become of the staple of daily life. The typical cybrarian or information specialist is tech savvy to the max and proudly obsessed by all details of a digital nature.

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Reading Outside the Comfort Zone

2011-04-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've been reading outside my comfort zone, which, as it suggests, has been uncomfortable and even painful at times, but which has also led me to discover some books I wouldn't have happened on otherwise.

One of those books is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. O'Brien is a master at capturing detail, nuance and delivering a superbly crafted story. A Vietnam war story, O'Brien goes nowhere near gratuitous violence or gory, grisly scenes, but he still manages to capture the essence of war in a way that made it impossible for me to read and eat at the same time.

Another book I discovered this week was The Hours by Michael Cunningham.
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On the Road

2011-04-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

A recent transfer doubled my weekly commute. I was distressed because nine hours a week on the road would really limit my reading time, or so I thought. As things have turned out, I am reading more than ever. How? Audio books have been my salvation. I am currently "reading" The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson. I downloaded this audio book to my MP3 player from the Pima County Public Library's Overdrive digital download service.

Jane Austen lives on

2011-04-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Jane Austen is fantastic, but you probably already know that. She is such a popular author that her books have generated hundreds of spin-offs. Whether its adding sea monsters to Sense and Sensibility, or writing about the married life of the Darcys and Bingleys, everyone seems to have a take on Austen's beloved books. Above all, I enjoy it when these spin-offs are clever.
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Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

2011-04-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Meet Flavia de Luce. She's smart and observant and charming, a brilliant sleuth and chemist. There's little that fazes her, not even finding a dead body in her cucumber patch. Oh, yes, and she's eleven years old.
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The $64 Tomato

2011-04-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

Critters are destroying my garden. I've replaced the tomato plants three times but I know it's futile. My humble little plot is barricaded so completely I can barely get to it, but these critters are unstoppable. I think they're airlifting themselves in.

Man vs. the enemies of cultivation is the subject of The $64 Tomato, a memoir sure to hit a responsive chord with frustrated farmers like me. If your attempts to grow your own salad have been thwarted by the superior forces of Mother Nature, you'll appreciate William Alexander's account of adopting the life of a gentleman farmer in New York's Hudson River Valley.

To Manhattan transplant Alexander the plan seemed simple enough: put in a kitchen garden and some fruit trees, weed a little, water a little, then sit back and enjoy nature's bounty. But instead of apples and corn he got all-out war, with contractors, plant diseases, bugs of every variety and (of course) deer, ground hogs, rabbits and all sorts of hungry, determined fauna.

Alexander's response to his negative gardening karma is hilarious. When organic solutions don't work he moves on to the hard stuff, including dreaded pesticides, traps, and a 10,000 volt-electric fence. Outsmarting Mother Nature takes up all of his time and most of his money. When he harvests the fruits of his efforts--his glorious heirloom beefsteak tomatoes--and figures the production cost per tomato, the result is an astonishing $64 each.

Still, Alexander's passion for gardening in spite of the odds is endearing, and his responses to horticultural adversity are a hoot. If you're struggling with mealy bugs and javalinas, or even if the local Safeway is as close to a garden as you want to get, this laugh-out-loud book is sure to delight.

--Helene

One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead

2011-04-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

Diamonds, bridezillas, extravagant dresses, dinners for 200, each wedding is more extreme than the last. Why is this? America has been saturated with the idea that the bigger the wedding the longer the marriage will last - and the more romantic it is (really?).

The wedding industry tells you that you should desire a "fairytale wedding with a princess dress." They are nice people, right? They're just trying to make your dream day come true (while turning a huge profit). That hand-beaded dress was more than likely made in a sweatshop; making a woman's day in Vietnam not so perfect.

It's impossible to turn on the television without seeing a show about how to make your wedding traditional, yet personalized. How do you do this?

Buy more stuff. But it's not the fairytale we have been lead to believe.

Find One Perfect Day at your library to learn more!

~ Roller Derby Librarian

John Sandford

2011-03-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

As readers, we all follow authors who reliably turn out good work. I'm a big fan of John Sanford and protagonist Lucas Davenport, a Minnesota State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator in Sandford's "Prey" series. He's just cool. He's sexy, smart, a spiffy dresser and drives fast cars. Leaning toward sarcastic and cynical, he'll bend the rules, if he cares to follow them at all, to get his man, woman or child (ok, maybe not child).

John Sandford, a pseudonym for John Camp, won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1986. In my reading travels, I have found that journalists write the tightest crime novels - John Connolly is another example - and Sandford's are fast-paced, gritty and suspenseful. And did I mention the clever dialog? Sandford has 21 novels featuring Lucas Davenport, all with "Prey" in the title. Rules of Prey is the first, and he's newest, Buried Prey, is set for release in May.

Find John Sandford at your Library.

Vicki Ann

Love and Laughs

2011-03-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

When it comes to romantic comedies, my favorites are from the 30's and 40's, the screwball comedies like It Happened One Night, which made witty banter and slapstick situations the sexiest things on screen.

It's always a treat to find an author whose books evoke the feel of those movies. Jennifer Crusie is one such author, especially when it comes to dialogue. It crackles and pops on the page, and you almost can't resist reading a little bit out loud, just because it's so much fun to say. My favorite of hers is Faking It, about an art dealer desperately trying to keep her art-forging past under wraps, and the reformed con man who might blow it all sky-high.

Another author, whose books have a more slapstick feel, is Susan Elizabeth Philips. Her characters have dressed in giant beaver costumes, starred in circuses, and manipulated the tabloids, all for the craziest of reasons. Many of her books are also set in the world of professional sports. One of her recent ones is Natural Born Charmer, about a football quarterback who picks up the strangest hitchhiker he's ever met, and discovers that she might be just the dose of reality that he needs.

~Maureen K.

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

2011-03-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

It is time for everyone to enjoy the 2nd annual Cyclovia event on Sunday March 27th. Enjoy a 5-mile course downtown where the streets will be free of cars and filled with people biking, walking, skating, etc. To help put you in the mood, here are a few bike oriented titles.
For the young ones, Duck on a Bike by David Shannon will convince everyone (including all the animals at the farm) to ride bikes.
Teens will enjoy Sarah Dessen's Along for the Ride. It's never too late to learn how to ride a bike, and add in a little romance to make the lessons a lot more enjoyable.
Finally, adults who grew up with the Talking Heads will appreciate Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. Byrne takes a folding bike on tour and explores cities around the world from the street. He also braves New York City on a bike as his regular mode of transportation. Inspiring stories.
So hop on your bike and head downtown on Sunday March 27th. For more information, check out cycloviatucson.org

More Books

Book Lust to Go

2011-03-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Book Lust To Go by Nancy Pearl

Having spent two luscious days at the Tucson Festival of Books, followed by two evenings at my book clubs, I have been reveling in the company of the "bibliobibuli." Coined by H. L. Mencken in 1957, the word refers to people whose reading is constant and intoxicating. "I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion."

If the bibliobibuli inhibited a kingdom, its ruler could easily be Nancy Pearl. Nancy, who spent all day Saturdays at the Parkman Branch of the Detroit Public Library, grew up to be the librarian whose book recommendations have been aired on radio, collected in print and been on the tongues of readers everywhere. In 1991 she initiated the concept of the all-city book club when book lovers all over Seattle read and discussed the same book. Cities all over America, including Tucson, soon started and continue to host similar book discussions.

Nancy's latest, Book Lust To Go: recommended reading for travelers, vagabonds and dreamers will delight travelers, active or armchair, as Pearl includes reading suggestions for 120 destinations both real and imaginary. She recommends history, memoir, fiction, geography and poetry to get you into the mood for your journey or take along as literary travel companions, setting the scene or finding the heart and soul of your destination. Even the method of arriving-- by walking, by train, bicycle, by sea or air--come under the scope of Pearl's literary radar.

Be sure to check out her two preceding lust titles--Book Lust and More Book Lust.

Bon Voyage!

RR @ RR

In Memoriam

2011-03-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

If you're driving around town today, wondering why all the flags are at half mast, here's why: the last surviving American veteran of World War I, Army Cpl Frank W Buckles, passed away February 27, at the age of 110. Today we're honoring all WWI veterans, in conjunction with his internment.

Also in honor of WWI veterans, here are a few books that take place around WWI.

Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator / psychologist who has worked her way up from position of servant into a position of independence. Her investigations take her back to her past as a nurse during the war as she uncovers intrigue at the cooperative farm called the "Retreat." Find it at your library.

Legends of the Fall, yes, was a movie, but first it was a novella by author Jim Harrison. Also set during WWI, it follows three Montana brothers who ride over to Canada to join the war effort, and the paths their lives take after the war has ended. Find it at your library.

~That One Girl

Warning: Hunger causing books

2011-03-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

I love food and I love books. It's rare that something other than a cookbook combines these two loves, but every now and then a book comes along that has such delicious descriptions of food and cooking that I am ravenous by the time I finish each chapter. I am not talking about a book where there is a special recipe that the character makes and that is often included at the end of the book. I am talking about books that intricately describe the act of cooking, the smells, the textures and the taste. Here are two of my favorites. I recommend not reading them on an empty stomach.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melisssa Senate

Bon Appetit!
~Grace

Titles similar to Hell's Corner by David Baldacci

2011-03-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Do you like political suspense stories? Are you waiting to get your hands on a copy of Hell's Corner by David Baldacci? Or have you already finished it? Whatever the case, if you are looking for another book like it, we have some titles you might enjoy. All these books feature assassination attempts, conspiracy theories, secrets, and suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat. And all of them are available at your local library.

Born to Run by James Grippando

Dark Justice by Jack Higgins

Mounting Fears by Stuart Woods