STAFF PICKS

We like to read, and we like to share what we read! This is a list of recent favorites.

A Round-the-World Contest March is Women's History Month, and readers can mark the occasion by learning about two of America's most adventurous women. In 1889 after Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days became popular, two publications sent female reporters on their own race around the world to beat the fictional record. In Eighty Days, Matthew Goodman recounts the frenzied journeys of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland and offers a fascinating look at life during the late 19th century. On a personal level, Bly and Bisland were a study in contrasts, but both were pioneering journalists who challenged gender stereotypes in the Victorian era.

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Thirteen Reasons Why By Asher, Jay 2010-07 - Penguin Books 9780141328294 Check Our Catalog When Clay Jenson plays the casette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. …More

The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories By Rich, Simon 2013-01 - Reagan Arthur Books 9780316219396 Check Our Catalog The stories in Rich's new book are bizarre, funny, and yet . . . relatable. Rich explores love's many complications--losing it, finding it, breaking it, and making it--and turns the ordinary into the absurd. With razor-sharp humor and illustrations, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Rich takes readers for an exhilarating, hilarious ride on the rollercoaster of love. …More

The Snow Child By Ivey, Eowyn 2012-02 - Reagan Arthur Books 9780316175678 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead--and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. …More

The Bro Code for Parents: What to Expect When You're Awesome By Harris, Neil Patrick With Kuhn, Matt 2012-10 - Touchstone Books 9781451690583 Check Our Catalog The newest book in the "New York Times"-bestselling "Barney Stinson" canon teaches prospective parents everything they need to know to have a legendary kid. …More

Nano By Cook, Robin 2012-12 - Putnam Adult 9780399160820 Check Our Catalog After a tumultuous year in which her mentor is murdered and her estranged father comes back into her life, Pia, the embattled medical student from "Death Benefit," decides to take a year off from her medical studies and escape New York City. …More

Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients By Goldacre, Ben 2013-02 - Faber & Faber 9780865478008 Check Our Catalog Goldacre shares that all people should be able to understand precisely how data manipulation works and how research misconduct on a global scale affects everyone. This is the pharmaceutical industry as it has never been seen before. …More

The Last Dragonslayer By Fforde, Jasper 2012-10 - Harcourt Children's Books 9780547738475 Check Our Catalog In his witty first novel for young readers, "New York Times"-bestselling author Fforde introduces 15-year-old Jennifer Strange, who runs an agency for underemployed magicians in a world where magic is fading away. But when visions of the death of the world's last dragon begin, all signs point to JenniferNand Big Magic. …More

The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People By Shubin, Neil 2013-01 - Pantheon Books 9780307378439 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title From one of our finest and most popular science writers, the bestselling author of "Your Inner Fish," comes the answer to a scientific mystery story as big as the world itself: How have astronomical events that took place millions of years ago created the unique qualities of the human species? …More

The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date By Arbesman, Samuel 2012-09 - Current Hardcover 9781591844723 Check Our Catalog Arbesman is an expert in scientometrics, literally the science of science--how society knows what it knows. Knowledge in most fields evolves in systematic and predictable ways, and understanding that evolution can be enormously powerful. …More

The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History By Klingaman, William K. 2013-02 - St. Martin's Press 9780312676452 Check Our Catalog In the tradition of "Krakatoa" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel" comes a sweeping history of the year 1816, when there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months and in the U.S., the extraordinary weather produced food shortages, religious revivals, and extensive migration. …More

The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose By Albert, Susan Wittig 2012-09 - Berkley Publishing Group 9780425247761 Check Our Catalog Albert once again returns to the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s. As the town readies itself for the annual Confederate Day festivities, the ladies of the Darling Dahlias gardening club have their hands full with three mysteries. …More

Where'd You Go, Bernadette By Semple, Maria 2012-08 - Little Brown and Company 9780316204279 Check Our Catalog 2013 Alex Award Winner BookPage Notable Title To her Microsoft-guru husband, Bernadette's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to her 15-year-old, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. …More

The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing By Perry, John 2012-08 - Workman Publishing 9780761171676 Check Our Catalog A wise, charming, and compulsively readable book offering ingenious strategies and task triage for procrastinators. …More

Inside the Creative Studio By Prato, Cate 2011-11 - Interweave Press 9781596683983 Check Our Catalog …More

Speaking from Among the Bones: A Flavia de Luce Novel By Bradley, Alan 2013-01 - Delacorte Press 9780385344036 Check Our Catalog From award-winning author Alan Bradley comes the next cozy British mystery starring intrepid young sleuth Flavia de Luce, hailed by "USA Today" as "one of the most remarkable creations in recent literature." …More

Art Making & Studio Spaces: Unleash Your Inner Artist: An Intimate Look at 31 Creative Work Spaces By Perrella, Lynne 2010-01 - Quarry Books 9781592535392 Check Our Catalog Art Making and Studio Spaces is a visual studio tour, an opportunity to turn the key and discover the inner workings of artists in their ultra-personal, unique workspaces. The mission of the book is to look inside studios in progress, amidst the throes of the artmaking process, and to investigate the thoughts of the artists within. This book reveals the interplay between artist and studio, and explores how each workspace reflects a different, distinctive creative journey. Photography by Sarah Blodgett, plus contributed photos by some of the artists, combines with personal insights to provide an incomparable studio tour that will inspire you to create your own private work space. Pages from Lynne Perrella's art journal are included, to give further insight into this bottomless topic of "art and where it happens." …More