Summer Reading

Welcome to Summer Reading 2011! At the end of 5 weeks we had 355 people signed up. This week, 11 new people participated and 48 people read 150 books, which brings the totals for the summer to 138 people and 655 books.

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Mind Readers By Allingham, Margery 1997-01 - Amereon Limited 9780891901792 Check Our Catalog …More

Always in My Heart By Anderson, Catherine 2002-08 - Signet Book 9780451206664 Check Our Catalog Following the death of their eldest son, Ellie and Tucker Grant divorce and gradually make the transition into separate lives. But their two sons Zach and Kody are convinced that their parents are still meant to be together. The brothers hatch a plan to run away from home into the Oregon wilderness. Surely Ellie and Tucker will come to their rescue--and their senses. …More

Seventh Heaven By Anderson, Catherine 2000-09 - Avon Books 9780380799381 Check Our Catalog After being gone for ten years, Joe returns to his small Oregon town to raise his son and rekindle a passion with Marilee. But the gentle, self-assured girl is now tormented by secrets. How can she agree to marry this man when she can't even bear to tell him the truth? …More

Catalyst By Anderson, Laurie Halse 2002-09 - Viking Children's Books 9780670035663 Check Our Catalog 2009 Margaret Edwards Award Winner Kate Malone is a straight A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, unwilling family caretaker, emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by compartmentalizing it, not unlike the periodic table. She can handle anything--or so she thinks. …More

Wintergirls By Anderson, Laurie Halse 2009-03 - Viking Books 9780670011100 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Six years after Cassie and Lia resolved to become the skinniest girls in their school, Cassie dies. Unable to bear the sadness and guilt following Cassie's death, Lia spirals deeper into her own eating disorder. Elijah, the last person to see Cassie alive, helps Lia find the strength to face her own demons and enter recovery. …More

Black Friday By Ashley &. Jaquavis Author Ashley, And Jaquavis 2011-04 - Urban Books 9781601624451 Check Our Catalog Authors Ashley and JaQuavis live up to their reputations as the dynamic duo of street lit with this highly suspenseful, hood-savvy tale of a murder that changes one unlucky witness's life forever. Original. HPL patron: This book was very good. I love everything by Ashley and JaQuavis. …More

Hell's Corner By Baldacci, David 2010-11 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446195522 Check Our Catalog On the night of a State Dinner honoring the British Prime Minister, a bomb detonates in what looks like a terrorist plot. The mysterious attackers have a special target in their sights, and it's up to the Camel Club to stop them, or face the catastrophic results. HPL patron: Very good. …More

Minding Frankie By Binchy, Maeve 2011-03 - Knopf Publishing Group 9780307273567 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Binchy is back with a tale of joy, heartbreak, and hope in a close-knit Dublin community. When Noel learns that his former flame is terminally ill and pregnant with a child she claims is his, he agrees to take care of the baby girl once she's born. But as a recovering alcoholic whose demons are barely under control, Noel can't do it alone. Luckily, he has an amazing network of family and friends who are ready to help. HPL patron: A delightful story-perfect summer reading! HPL patron: Not as good as her other books. …More

Cold Wind By Box, C. J. 2011-03 - Putnam Adult 9780399157356 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title When Earl Alden is found dead, dangling from a wind turbine, it's his wife, Missy, who is arrested. Unfortunately for Joe Pickett, Missy is his mother-in- law, a woman he dislikes heartily, and now he doesn't know what to do-especially when the early signs point to her being guilty as sin. But then things happen to make Joe wonder: Is Earl's death what it appears to be? Is Missy being set up? HPL patron: I was bored with this book. Not enough action, plot too scattered. I can't believe Lee Child recommended it. …More

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon By Paxson, Diana L. 2008-08 - Roc 9780451462114 Check Our Catalog Paxson expands Bradley's beloved Avalon series in this dramatic, bestselling installment. This sweeping epic, the prequel to "The Forest House," follows the journey of Boudica, and tells the story of the Roman conquest of Britain that precedes the return to Avalon. HPL patron: Roman conquest of Britannica-the story of Boudica-the Celtic princess who united the tribes against the Romans. Beautiful rendition-image of land and people-realistice portrayal of the devastation of armed conflict. …More

Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - From America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness By Brady, Frank 2011-02 - Crown Publishing Group (NY) 9780307463906 Check Our Catalog From an author who wrote one of the bestselling Bobby Fischer books ever and who was himself a friend of Fischer's comes an impressively researched biography that for the first time captures the complete, remarkable arc of the life of the chess master. HPL patron: Story of the rise and fall of chess prodigy Boby Fischer. Well paced and narrated, makes fascinating reading. …More

The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini By Brandon, Ruth 2003-10 - Random House Trade 9780812970425 Check Our Catalog For many performers, stage life and real life are separate identities. For master illusionist Harry Houdini, the two were inextricably linked. In this widely acclaimed biography, Ruth Brandon shows how Houdini's obsession with his own mortality drove him to create death-defying stunts that not only captivated the public but also subdued his own raging psychological demons. As Brandon relates Houdini's methods of escape, she asks: What was he trying to escape from? Her exploration of the psychic landscape of one of the most enduringly famous performers of the twentieth century makes for utterly fascinating reading. Brandon reveals much that is new: how Houdini invented a phantom son; why he wrote long daily letters to his wife, Bess, who lived one � oor below him; his combative relations with mediums and spiritualists, including Arthur Conan Doyle; and the � rst full description of his fabled death. This de� nitive biography allows readers to peer into Houdini's psyche and understand him more deeply than ever before. HPL patron: Ruth Brandon reveals much that's new including how Houdini invented a phantom son, wrote daily long letters to his wife, Bess, who lived on the floor just below him. The first details of Houdini's fabled death, fresh material on the early life of Margery, the medium who played a significant role in Houdini's liofe. …More

Scandal By Britton, Pamela 2004-07 - Warner Forever 9780446611312 Check Our Catalog To inherit his family's fortune, the rakish Duke of Wroxly must survive without his wealth and title in the meanest of London's streets for one month. Luckily, his ability to charm the ladies has never failed him, particularly when he meets aspiring inventor Anna Brooks. Original. HPL patron: Rein was banished as a teen and was refused his Dukedom when his uncle died. he was the only one in line to inherit, but first he had to live on the streets for four days (the lawyers tricked him and said one year.) There in St. Giles he met a market maid named Anna. They fell in love, but when she found out he was a duke she fled. Through a lot of help and pleading Anna came back and they got married. …More

Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back By Burpo, Todd With Vincent, Lynn 2010-11 - Thomas Nelson Publishers 9780849946158 Check Our Catalog This is the true story of Colton Burpo, the four-year old son of a small-town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. …More

All-American Girl By Cabot, Meg 2008-03 - Harper Teen 9780061479892 Check Our Catalog A sophomore girl stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed Teen Ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son. …More

Glass Houses By Caine, Rachel 2006-10 - Signet Book 9780451219947 Check Our Catalog Tayshas Reading List 2008-2009 College freshman Claire Danvers has had enough of her nightmarish dorm situation. When Claire heads off-campus, the imposing old house where she finds a room may not be much better. Her new roommates don't show many signs of life, but they'll have Claire's back when the town's deepest secrets come crawling out, hungry for fresh blood. Original. HPL patron: Amazing detail, love the series. …More

Red Prophet By Card, Orson Scott Author Brown, Roland Bernard Illustrator Arlem, Renalto 2007-05 - Marvel Comics 9780785127215 Check Our Catalog Things are not always what they seem in an alternate American history where folk magic actually works, and there is certainly more than meets the eye to Lolla-Wossiky, a perpetually drunk Shaw-Nee who cannot seem to shake his addiction to whiskey. But as Lolla-Wossiky ventures north in search of his dream beast, he also is on a quest to cure the ceaseless presence of the "black noise" - a shroud of darkness inside his head created by the violent death of his father that he can only push back when he is drinking. But along the voyage, an experience in Wobbish territory will change Lolla-Wossiky's life forever, and change him from a drunken Red Man into the wise and powerful Red Prophet. Also includes a special Ender's story. …More

Seventh Son By Card, Orson Scott 1993-06 - Tor Books 9780812533057 Check Our Catalog A very special child is born into an alternate frontier America, where folk magic works. …More

Virgin River By Carr, Robyn 2010-05 - Mira Books 9780778329787 Check Our Catalog When recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees an ad for a midwife-nurse practitioner, she quickly decides that the remote mountain town of Virgin River might be the perfect place to escape her heartache. Instead, she finds a home in this first novel of a new trilogy. Original. HPL patron: Mel was scared of LA after her husband was murdered, so she took a job as a midwife in Virgin River. She hated the town and house when she got there, but a baby was dropped onher steps, so she stayed in Virgin River for a while that turned into a lifetime! She met Jack who captured her heart along with the town. She fills her life delivering babies and having one of her own. …More

Her Mother's Shadow By Chamberlain, Diane 2004-02 - Mira Books 9780778320173 Check Our Catalog With her signature poignancy, Chamberlain tells the story of a woman who rebuilds her life after witnessing the murder of her mother as a teenager. Years later, when the murderer is about to be released on parole, Lacey O'Neill's thoughts return to that tragic episode and to the mother she never really knew. HPL patron: Outer banks of N. Carolina-an insightful book about overcoming tragedy, youthful rebellion, and subsequent impact-teenage pregnancy-acts of passion and consequence. Public vs. private morality. …More

One Shot By Child, Lee 2005-06 - Delacorte Press 9780385336680 Check Our Catalog This astonishing new thriller takes Jack Reacher on his most relentless quest for justice yet. The case isn't what it seems; lives are tangled in baffling ways; and the killer missed one shot--giving Reacher one shot at the truth. HPL patron: A great Reacher! …More

Latitudes of Melt By Clark, Joan 2002-01 - Soho Press 9781569472675 Check Our Catalog In the year 1912, a fisherman discovers an infant adrift on an ice floe in the North Atlantic. Back in the Newfoundland village of Drook she's considered a changeling, with her white hair and eyes of different colors. Her very survival shows that her life is charmed. Named Aurora, after the dawn of her rescue from the sea, she exhibits a singular nature as she grows to womanhood amid the austere beauty of the Newfoundland coast. She marries and has two children, but it is only after they are grown, and she is an old woman, that the mystery of Aurora's origins is solved. HPL patron: 1912-Titanic survivor-Newfoundland through 2000-a lighthouse keeper-exquisitly rendered-far north. …More

To Have and to Kill By Clark, Mary Jane 2010-12 - William Morrow & Company 9780061995545 Check Our Catalog "New York Times"-bestselling author Clark's brand-new Wedding Cake Mystery series gets off to delicious start with this first installment. …More