STAFF PICKS

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

Murder Is Bad Manners By Stevens, Robin 2016-04 - Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 9781481422130 Check Our Catalog Two friends form a detective agency--and must solve their first murder case--in this "sharp-witted debut" ("Publishers Weekly," starred review) that is the first adventure in a brand-new middle grade mystery series set at a 1930s boarding school. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are best friends at Deepdean School for Girls, and they both have a penchant for solving mysteries. In fact, …More

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club By Hoose, Phillip 2015-05 - Farrar Straus Giroux 9780374300227 Check Our Catalog Awards: Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards (2015) At the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation's leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, …More

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 By Loconte, Joseph Author Loconte, Joe 2015-06 - Thomas Nelson 9780718021764 Check Our Catalog The untold story of how the First World War shaped the lives, faith, and writings of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis The First World War laid waste to a continent and permanently altered the political and religious landscape of the West. For a generation of men and women, it brought the end of innocence and the end of faith. Yet for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the Great War deepened …More

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa By Sledge, Eugene B. 2007-05 - Presidio Press 9780891419068 Check Our Catalog Based on notes Sledge secretly kept in a copy of the New Testament, With the Old Breed captures with utter simplicity and searing honesty the experience of a soldier in the fierce Pacific Theater. Here is what saved, threatened, and changed his life. Here, too, is the story of how he learned to hate and kill-and came to love-his fellow man. …More

The Illustrated Man By Bradbury, Ray 2012-04 - Simon & Schuster 9781451678185 Check Our Catalog Classic Bradbury, this collection of tales offers images that are as keen as a tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that stain the body. Featuring a new Introduction, "The Illustrated Man" presents 18 startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin. …More

Splendid Slippers: A Thousand Years of an Erotic Tradition By Jackson, Beverley 1998-01 - Ten Speed Press 9780898159578 Check Our Catalog For a thousand years, Chinese mothers tightly bound the feet of their daughters and encased them in tiny, exquisitely embroidered slippers. How and why did this torturous tradition evolve and continue into the 20th century? Beverley Jackson's vast collection of photographs and a prized collection of "splendid slippers" create a uniquely poignant and evocative portrait of Chinese culture. Full …More

Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story By Folman, Ari Author Polonsky, David 2009-02 - Metropolitan Books 9780805086737 Check Our Catalog Based on actual events, this mesmerizing, animated documentary begins one night at a bar, when an old friend tells Ari about his recurring nightmares. The two men conclude that theres a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War. As Ari delves deeper into the mystery, his memory beings to creep up in surreal images. …More

City of Ice By Farrow, John 1999-05 - Random House (NY) 9780812991727 Check Our Catalog A college kid in a Santa Claus suit is tortured, murdered, and left hanging from a meat hook on Christmas Eve--a gift intended for one particular cop. Reminiscent of Smilla's Sense of Snow, this gripping debut thriller set in bone-chilling midwinter Montreal features one of the most compelling new heroes to emerge in crime fiction: Sergeant-Detective Emile Cinq-Mars. A brilliant …More

Ice Lake By Farrow, John 2001-07 - Random House (NY) 9780812992649 Check Our Catalog A woman discovers a frozen corpse under the ice in her fishing shack--coincidentally, on the same lake where Detective Cinq-Mars is enjoying an afternoon of ice fishing with his partner just a few shacks away. In this keenly intelligent, strikingly original new novel of suspense John Farrow once again creates a colorful, convincing tableau replete with criminals, cops, corrupt …More

The Secret Chord By Brooks, Geraldine 2015-10 - Viking 9780670025770 Check Our Catalog One of our most supple and insightful novelists. Jane Smiley, "The New York Times Book Review" A rich and utterly absorbing novel about the life of King David, from the Pulitzer Prize winning author of "People of the Book" and "March." With more than two million copies of her novels sold, "New York Times" bestselling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and …More

Python for Kids: A Playful Introduction to Programming By Briggs, Jason 2012-12 - No Starch Press 9781593274078 Check Our Catalog "Python for Kids" is a lighthearted introduction to the Python language and programming in general, complete with illustrations and kid-friendly examples. …More

Inside Out & Back Again By Lai, Thanhha 2011-02 - HarperTorch 9780061962783 Check Our Catalog Awards: Beehive Awards (2014), Black-Eyed Susan Award (2013), Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens (2012), Charlie May Simon Children's Book Award (2014), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (2013), Iowa Children's Choice (ICCA) Award (2015), Jane Addams Children's Book Award (2012), National Book Awards (2011), Nene Award (2013), Newbery Medal (2012), North Carolina Children's Book Award (2014), Nutmeg Book Award (2014), Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award (2014), Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award (2013), Rhode Island Children's Book Awards (2013), Sasquatch Award (2014), Sequoyah Book Awards (2014), South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award (2013), Virginia Readers Choice Award (2015) Inspired by the author's own childhood experience of fleeing Vietnam as a refugee and immigrating to Alabama, this tween novel told in verse is sure to capture young readers' hearts and open their eyes. …More

The Shadow of Malabron By Wharton, Thomas 2009-10 - Candlewick Press (MA) 9780763639112 Check Our Catalog Awards: Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award (2010) Dreams, fairy tales, and reality intersect in this rich, absorbing fantasy ofa rebellious teen on his journey through the Perilous Realm. There he meets agirl with a special destiny of her own, and Shade, an unusual wolf. …More

Dear Hank Williams By Holt, Kimberly Willis 2015-04 - Henry Holt & Company 9780805080223 Check Our Catalog It's 1948 in Rippling Creek, Louisiana, and Tate P. Ellerbee's new teacher has just given her class an assignment--learning the art of letter-writing. Luckily, Tate has the perfect pen pal in mind: Hank Williams, a country music singer whose star has just begun to rise. Tate and her great-aunt and -uncle listen to him on the radio every Saturday night, and Tate just knows that she and Hank are …More

The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady: Darling Dahlias By Albert, Susan Wittig 2015-09 - Berkley Books 9780425260623 Check Our Catalog "New York Times" bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert transports readers to the summer of 1934, when a sensational murder shakes up the small Southern town of Darling, Alabama and pulls in the ladies of the Darling Dahlias garden club, who never let the grass grow under their feet when there's a mystery to solve The eleven o clock lady has always been one of garden club president Liz …More

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs By Hari, Johann 2015-01 - Bloomsbury USA 9781620408902 Check Our Catalog "New York Times" Bestseller It is now one hundred years since drugs were first banned in the United States. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, thirty-thousand-mile journey into the war on drugs. What he found is that more and more people all over the world have begun to recognize three startling truths: Drugs are not what we think they are. …More

Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret By Everest, D. D. 2015-04 - HarperCollins 9780062312112 Check Our Catalog D. D. Everest's magical middle grade debut, filled with enchanted books and mysterious activity, is sure to captivate readers. Open this book . . . if you dare to face what awaits you inside On his twelfth birthday, Archie Greene receives a mysterious package containing an ancient book in a language he doesn't recognize. The gift leads him to a family he didn't know he had and a world he …More

Started Early, Took My Dog By Atkinson, Kate 2011-03 - Reagan Arthur Books 9780316066730 Check Our Catalog Awards: L.A. Times Book Prize (2011) Retired police detective Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life--until she cares for a young child. Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective from "Case Histories," rescues an abused dog. Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished. …More

The Friday Night Knitting Club By Jacobs, Kate 2007-02 - Putnam Publishing Group 9780399154096 Check Our Catalog Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what theyve created isnt just a knitting club--its a sisterhood.Berkley Publishing Group …More

The Dinner By Koch, Herman Translator Garrett, Sam 2013-02 - Hogarth 9780770437855 Check Our Catalog Awards: ALA Notable Books (2014) The darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives--all over the course of one meal. …More

The Snow Queen By Cunningham, Michael 2014-05 - Farrar Straus Giroux 9780374266325 Check Our Catalog An apparition spotted in Central Park has a man marveling at the place of magic in our lives. Or is it all just a trick of the light? …More

The Martian By Weir, Andy 2014-02 - Crown Publishing Group (NY) 9780804139021 Check Our Catalog Awards: Alex Awards (2015), Indies Choice Book Awards (2015), John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2015), Thriller Awards (2015) When a freak dust storm brings a manned mission to Mars to an unexpected close, an astronaut who is left behind fights to stay alive. …More

Everything I Never Told You By Ng, Celeste 2014-06 - Penguin Press 9781594205712 Check Our Catalog Awards: Alex Awards (2015) "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet" . . . So begins thestory of this exquisite debut novel, about a ChineseAmerican family living in 1970s small-town Ohio.Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee;their middle daughter, a girl who inherited hermother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-blackhair. Her parents are determined that Lydia willfulfill the dreams they were unable …More