Sunday, September 30, 2012

A Fun Couple of Books For Young Chapter Readers

George, aka "Suds," has just entered third grade, and he's heard the rhyme about "first grade babies/second grade cats/third grade angels/fourth grade rats," but what does this mean for his school year? It means that his teacher, Mrs. Simms, will hold a competition every month to see which student deserves to be awarded "the halo" - which student is best-behaved, kindest to others, and, in short, perfect.

Suds is determined to be the first to earn the halo, but he's finding the challenge of always being good to be more stressful than he had anticipated. Does he have to be good even outside of school? (Does he have to be nice to his annoying little sister?) And if Mrs. Simms doesn't actually see him doing a good deed, does it even count?


Fourth graders are tough. They aren't afraid of spiders. They say no to their moms. They push first graders off the swings. And they never, ever cry.

Suds knows that now that he's in fourth grade, he's supposed to be a rat. But whenever he tries to act like one, something goes wrong.

Can Suds's friend Joey teach him to toughen up...or will Suds remain a fourth grade wimp?

“Air is... a spore-world of essays, essaylets, mini-biographies, gossip, whispers, lists, prose-poems and asides. ...Cheery, chatty and compulsively curious, Mr. Logan is able to draw the reader into pretty much any subject... In this lovely book, Mr. Logan makes the air airy again.” -- Wall Street Journal


The author of Dirt and Oak brings to life this quickest, most sustaining, most communicative element of the earth.

Air sustains the living. Every creature breathes to live, exchanging and changing the atmosphere. Water and dust spin and rise, make clouds and fall again, fertilizing the dirt. Twenty thousand fungal spores and half a million bacteria travel in a square foot of summer air. The chemical sense of aphids, the ultraviolet sight of swifts, a newborn’s awareness of its mother’s breast—all take place in the medium of air.

Ignorance of the air is costly. The artist Eva Hesse died of inhaling her fiberglass medium. Thousands were sickened after 9/11 by supposedly “safe” air. The African Sahel suffers drought in part because we fill the air with industrial dusts. With the passionate narrative style and wide-ranging erudition that have made William Bryant Logan’s work a touchstone for nature lovers and environmentalists, Air is—like the contents of a bag of seaborne dust that Darwin collected aboard the Beagle—a treasure trove of discovery.

Listen to an interview with the author HERE.

TC Tidbit: 10 Literary Authors Who Have Written for TV

Florida Library Association for the 50 State Salute to Banned Books Week


Celebrate The Right To Read!!!!


Saturday, September 29, 2012

New Middle Grade Tales On Our Shelves

When Mira receives a cryptic postcard from her missing mother, she sets off with her father and brother to find her in Paris. Only Mira doesn't know she's looking in the wrong century.

With an innocent touch to a gargoyle sculpture on the roof of Notre Dame, Mira is whisked into the past. There she learns her mother isn't just avoiding the family, she's in serious trouble. Following her mother's clues, Mira travels through time to help change history and bring her mother home.

"Long after I finished this fast-paced and compelling novel, I thought about Mira. Would I be as determined in pursuit of truth and tolerance? Would you?" --Karen Cushman, Newberry Medal Winner

Charlie Joe Jackson, the most reluctant reader ever born, made it his mission in the first book to get through middle school without reading a single book from cover to cover. Now he's back, and trying desperately to get straight A's in order to avoid going to academic camp for the summer. In order to do this, he will have to betray his friend, lose the girl of his dreams, and end up acting in a school play about the inventor of paper towels. Charlie Joe's not exactly the "school play kind of guy", but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Magical Realism and Recipes


When several notebooks were recently discovered among Frida Kahlo’s belongings at her home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, acclaimed Mexican novelist F. G. Haghenbeck was inspired to write this beautifully wrought fictional account of her life. Haghenbeck imagines that, after Frida nearly died when a streetcar’s iron handrail pierced her abdomen during a traffic accident, she received one of the notebooks as a gift from her lover Tina Modotti. Frida called the notebook “The Hierba Santa Book” (The Sacred Herbs Book) and filled it with memories, ideas, and recipes.

Haghenbeck takes readers on a magical ride through Frida’s passionate life: her long and tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera, the development of her art, her complex personality, her hunger for experience, and her ardent feminism. This stunning narrative also details her remarkable relationships with Georgia O’Keeffe, Leon Trotsky, Nelson Rockefeller, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Henry Miller, and Salvador Dalí. Combining rich, luscious prose with recipes from “The Hierba Santa Book,” Haghenbeck tells the extraordinary story of a woman whose life was as stunning a creation as her art.

Read an article about other things found in Kahlo's belongings HERE. 

Get the Reading Group Guide HERE.

TC Tidbit: 20 Books About Movies Every Film Lover Should Own

Friday, September 28, 2012

Dispatch From The Field: Joe's Love Affair With Julia Child Rages On


Julia Child entered the lives of millions of Americans with her bestselling cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking; her popular and long-running cooking show, The French Chef; and her beloved memoir, My Life in France. In this intimate and revealing biography, based on exclusive interviews and scores of private letters and diaries, Noel Riley Fitch leads us through her incredible life.

We travel with Julia from her exuberant youth in California to her raucous days at Smith College; from her volunteer service with the OSS during World War II to the day she met Paul Child, the man with whom she would enjoy a fifty year marriage. We’re with her when she takes her first culinary course at 37 and discovers her true calling; when she begins work on her landmark cookbook and suffers the rejections of most publishers in New York. And when finally her vision strikes a chord with a generation of Americans tired of bland cuisine, we’re there to share in the making of a legend.

Julia Child became a household name by resisting fads and narrow conventions, by being the quintessential teacher and an inspiration to modern women, and by doing it all with her trademark humor and aplomb. Appetite for Life is her truly remarkable story.


Joe says:
"One hundred years and one month ago now, Julia McWilliams was born in Pasadena, California. Her grandparents had headed west in the 1840's and that pioneering, adventurous spirit was most definitely passed down to Julia. She would live in India, China, France, Germany and Norway, as well as both coasts of the United States.

Her pioneering spirit affected more than just where she lived. It propelled her to tackle American attitudes on food, to essentially change the way we cook, eat, and think about food. When she became a celebrity based on her cookbooks and cooking programs on PBS, she became the pioneer behind what is now a multi-billion dollar food entertainment industry.

 Appetite for Life, originally published in 1997 and now updated with the information released after Julia Child's death, is the most thorough biography I have read about the First Lady of Food. Noel Riley Fitch was granted full access of letters and diaries by Julia Child herself, and with that information really brings to life Julia's early days in Pasadena, at Smith College, and while working for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) during WWII. It was during this time that she met the man who would become the great love of her life, and together they formed what I think is one of the most loving partnerships ever.

Her devotion to Paul Child took her to Paris, where she began her culinary education. His devotion to her helped sustain and energize her throughout the rest of their lives. And though I've read (& loved!) other biographies on Julia Child, I don't think I've read one as thorough. Not only the part we're so familiar with (either from watching her on television like I did, or other books or movies), but the nitty-gritty of her life as she wrote the books and recorded the shows. Her life before and after Paul. Her youth and college days. 

Riley Fitch shows such detail in Julia's young life. It was from this foundation (wealthy & healthy stock) that Julia Child really blossomed as an adult. Julia never forgot her wealthy upbringing, but didn't dwell on it either, except to rebel against it. She knew she was lucky to be able to travel and never forgot that not everyone can live the way she did. 

Although Riley Fitch's affection for Julia Child shines in the book, the writing never devolves into mere hero worship. If Julia is to be admired, it is on her own terms, and the writing lets Mrs. Child speak for herself, with her wit, charm, decidedly anti-Republican liberalism, and most of all: her famous and natural humor. I have long admired Julia Child, and thought I knew her well. But by reading Appetite For Life, I feel like I really know her. And thanks to Noel Riley Fitch, love Julia Child all the more.

Julia Child has been done a deep service by this book. I would say this book belongs on your cookbook shelves, right next to your well-worn & stained copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. If I could compare this book to one of Julia Child's recipes, I would say this is her Bouillabaisse: from such humbleness, the divine is present, thanks to a little saffron, a lot of laughter,  and a bubbling froth of utter joy in life. Bon Appetit!"

New To Our YA Shelves...

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence her for good.


Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret

Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.

Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.

But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself.


I should not exist. But I do.
Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren't they settling? Why isn't one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn't. . . .

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she's still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable—hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.


There was something about Ellie…Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her distance—and kept watch.
    
Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are thirty-four clues she left behind. Thirty-four strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed. Thirty-four secrets of a brief and painful life.
    
Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own. As they confront the past, they will discover not only the darkest truths about themselves, but also what Ellie herself had been hiding all along….


 
James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged.

Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game.

Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

TC Tidbits: Literary Happy Hour

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Come Meet the Author and the Illustrator Tomorrow Night!!!

 
Ever since Prue McKeel returned home from the Impassable Wilderness after rescuing her brother from the malevolent Dowager Governess, life has been pretty dull. School holds no interest for her, and her new science teacher keeps getting on her case about her dismal test scores and daydreaming in class. Her mind is constantly returning to the verdant groves and sky-tall trees of Wildwood, where her friend Curtis still remains as a bandit-in-training.
 
But all is not well in that world. Dark assassins with mysterious motives conspire to settle the scores of an unknown client. A titan of industry employs inmates from his orphanage to work in his machine shop, all the while obsessing over the exploitation of the Impassable Wilderness. And, in what will be their greatest challenge yet, Prue and Curtis are thrown together again to save themselves and the lives of their friends, and to bring unity to a divided country. But in order to do that, they must go under Wildwood. 


Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis are going to be at our Historic Lodo Store at 7:00 PM on Friday,  September 28, 2012.

Author Colin Meloy, singer and songwriter for the band The Decemberists, and acclaimed illustrator Carson Ellis, will read from and sign their new book Under Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book II, the eagerly anticipated sequel to Wildwood.

***Free numbered tickets for a place in the booksigning line will be handed out at 6:00 pm. Seating for the presentation prior to the booksigning is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis to ticketed customers only. Colin will be happy to sign one piece of Decemberist’s memorabilia per person with the the purchase of a Wildwood book.***

“Boianjiu’s debut novel chronicles the gritty, restless experiences of three young women during their compulsory service in the Israeli Defense Forces…The bold, matter-of-fact narrative…[mirrors] the complexity of a landscape in perpetual transition.” —Booklist


The searing, riveting debut novel about young women coming of age in the military, from one of the most promising literary talents of her generation

Yael, Avishag, and Lea grow up together in a tiny, dusty Israeli village, attending a high school made up of caravan classrooms, passing notes to each other to alleviate the universal boredom of teenage life. When they are conscripted into the army, their lives change in unpredictable ways, influencing the women they become and the friendship that they struggle to sustain. Yael trains marksmen and flirts with boys. Avishag stands guard, watching refugees throw themselves at barbed-wire fences. Lea, posted at a checkpoint, imagines the stories behind the familiar faces that pass by her day after day. They gossip about boys and whisper of an ever more violent world just beyond view. They drill, constantly, for a moment that may never come. They live inside that single, intense second just before danger erupts.
  
In a relentlessly energetic voice marked by caustic humor and fierce intelligence, Shani Boianjiu creates a heightened reality that recalls our most celebrated chroniclers of war and the military, while capturing that unique time in a young woman's life when a single moment can change everything.

Read an article by the author about writing while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces HERE.


This Book Hits The Shelves TODAY

A big novel about a small town...

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?

A big novel about a small town, The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first novel for adults. It is the work of a storyteller like no other.

Get some juicy tidbits about the book HERE.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

"To say it is powerful, haunting and memorable seems inadequate for this stunning debut book," says Lisa C.

"This book tells the story of two soldiers' who served in Iraq. To say it is powerful, haunting, and memorable seems inadequate for this stunning debut novel.

Two young soldiers, Private Bartle (18) and Private Murphy (21), are sent to Iraq with the same unit and stationed in Al Tafar.  Immediately immersed in a bloody battle for the city, surrounded by death and destruction, they follow orders, protect each other, and do everything they can to stay alive.  Responsibility becomes a key issue - exactly what are a soldier's responsibilities beyond the orders. When reading some of the battle scenes, or the scenes in the village, I could almost hear them because of Powers' exquisite description - the artillery, children in the streets, dogs barking the commander shouting orders, the cries, the Humvees engines, and the explosions. This novel is stark, beautiful and gut-wrenching.

As we find more about Private Bartle's emotional upheaval after he returns home, we see he doesn't fit in his former life. Nothing fits; nothing works, he has too much guilt, too many overwhelming memories. He can't function.  We see the never-ending military machine pursue him; pursue a truth, relentless in its search for a justice that will close an official book. Bartle is swept up and away.

The novel gave me a better understanding of some of what a friend of mine who served in Iraq must have gone through. I will never know the details, but now I can see why no one comes home from a war the same. It changes everyone.

Powers is an Iraq War veteran. He served in the army in Mosul and Tal Afar. He just received his M.F.A. in poetry from the Michener School of Writing in Austin this year. This book stands up there with Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Karl Marlantes Matterhorn and Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.  I look forward to reading more of his work."

--Lisa C.

“Not for the faint of heart, this pulse pounding page-turner grabs you from the start and never lets you go. A wickedly clever and evocative combination of history, horror, mystery, and magic.”—Booklist


From debut author Douglas Nicholas comes a haunting story of love, murder, and sorcery.

During the thirteenth century in northwest England, in one of the coldest winters in living memory, a formidable yet charming Irish healer, Molly, and the troupe she leads are driving their three wagons, hoping to cross the Pennine Mountains before the heavy snows set in. Molly, her lover Jack, granddaughter Nemain, and young apprentice Hob become aware that they are being stalked by something terrible. The refuge they seek in a monastery, then an inn, and finally a Norman castle proves to be an illusion. As danger continues to rise, it becomes clear that the creature must be faced and defeated—or else they will all surely die. It is then that Hob discovers how much more there is to his adopted family than he had realized.

An intoxicating blend of fantasy and mythology, Something Red presents an enchanting world full of mysterious and fascinating characters— shapeshifters, sorceresses, warrior monks, and knights—where no one is safe from the terrible being that lurks in the darkness. In this extraordinary, fantastical world, nothing is as it seems, and the journey for survival is as magical as it is perilous.

Read an interview with the author HERE.

TC Tidbt: Vintage Photographs From Famous Libraries

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Cathy's Suggestions for Political Reads

It's no secret that a lot of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are distressed with the state of politics and political discourse.  The books for this post are meant to help look at how we got where we are and to examine a few key issues that seem intractable, but perhaps shouldn't be.






Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas.

In his bestselling The New Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today.

This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth.

This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists.

Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined.

Based on 18 months of reporting, Woodward's 17th book The Price of Politics is an intimate, documented examination of how President Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government’s fiscal condition over three and one half years.

Drawn from memos, contemporaneous meeting notes, emails, and in-depth interviews with the central players, The Price of Politics addresses the key issue of the presidential and congressional campaigns: the condition of the American economy and how and why we got there. Providing verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, the book shows what really happened, what drove the debates, negotiations, and struggles that define, and will continue to define, the American future.

David Wessel, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning reporter, columnist, and bestselling author of In Fed We Trust, dissects the federal budget: a topic that is fiercely debated today in the halls of Congress and the media, and yet is misunderstood by the American public.

In a sweeping narrative about the people and the politics behind the budget, Wessel looks at the 2011 fiscal year (which ended September 30) to see where all the money was actually spent, and why the budget process has grown wildly out of control. Through the eyes of key people--Jacob Lew, White House director of the Office of Management and Budget; Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office; Blackstone founder and former Commerce Secretary Pete Peterson; and more--Wessel gives readers an inside look at the making of our unsustainable budget.
 
In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace, and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into adulthood.
  
For nearly fifty years Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy nation. A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called “the outcasts of our nation’s ingenuity.” But Jonathan is not a distant and detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the children who have trusted and befriended him.
  
Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves, but for our society.

The urgent issues that confront our urban schools – a devastating race-gap, a pathological regime of obsessive testing and drilling students for exams instead of giving them the rich curriculum that excites a love of learning – are interwoven through these stories. Why certain children rise above it all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are defeated by the time they enter adolescence, lies at the essence of this work.

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2001, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke to a world still reeling from the terrorist attacks of September 11. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” proclaimed Annan, “we have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further—we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations, or regions.” Yet within only a few years the world was more divided than ever—polarized by the American invasion of Iraq, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the escalating civil wars in Africa, and the rising influence of China.
 
Interventions: A Life in War and Peace is the story of Annan’s remarkable time at the center of the world stage. After forty years of service at the United Nations, Annan shares here his unique experiences during the terrorist attacks of September 11; the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; the war between Israel, Hizbollah, and Lebanon; the brutal conflicts of Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia; and the geopolitical transformations following the end of the Cold War. With eloquence and unprecedented candor, Interventions finally reveals Annan’s unique role and unparalleled perspective on decades of global politics.

The first sub-Saharan African to hold the position of Secretary-General, Annan has led an extraordinary life in his own right. His idealism and personal politics were forged in the Ghanaian independence movement of his adolescence, when all of Africa seemed to be rising as one to demand self-determination. Schooled in Africa, Europe, and the United States, Annan ultimately joined the United Nations in Geneva at the lowest professional level in the still young organization. Annan rose rapidly through the ranks and was by the end of the Cold War prominently placed in the dramatically changing department of peacekeeping operations. His stories of Presidents Clinton and Bush, dictators like Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe, and public figures of all stripes contrast powerfully with Annan’s descriptions of the courage and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and better world.

Showing the successes of the United Nations, Annan also reveals the organization’s missed opportunities and ongoing challenges—inaction in the Rwanda genocide, continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the endurance of endemic poverty. Yet Annan’s great strength in this book is his ability to embed these tragedies within the context of global politics, demonstrating how, time and again, the nations of the world have retreated from the UN’s founding purpose. From the pinnacle of global politics, Annan made it his purpose to put the individual at the center of every mission for peace and prosperity.

A personal biography of global statecraft, Annan’s Interventions is as much a memoir as a guide to world order—past, present, and future.

Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was Ayn Rand's greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatizes her unique philosophy through an intellectual mystery story that integrates ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex.

Set in a near-future U.S.A. whose economy is collapsing as a result of the mysterious disappearance of leading innovators and industrialists, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life-from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy...to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction...to the philosopher who becomes a pirate...to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad...to the lowest track worker in her train tunnels.

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller.

Colorado senator Morgan Carroll brings us an inside look at how state legislatures really work and how ordinary citizens can make and change law and policy in their state and become their own lobbyists. This hands-on guide includes practical tips, form letters, documents, checklists, online content, and resources to empower all citizens to help make government work for them. Take Back Your Government is an accessible book that can teach anyone how to be an effective advocate and a better-informed citizen and will give readers the ability to push back the influence of paid lobbyists. This book will appeal to people of all political persuasions.

Morgan Carroll is a Colorado state senator whose own civic activism launched her ultimate decision to run for office. She is the Colorado majority caucus chair, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and a practicing attorney. Carroll has served in the Colorado legislature since 2005, and she has conducted hundreds of town hall meetings and community seminars teaching ordinary citizens how to make and change laws.

The New York Times Magazine's original "Ethicist" Randy Cohen helps readers locate their own internal ethical compasses as he delivers answers to life's most challenging dilemmas—timeless and contemporary alike. Organized thematically in an easy-to-navigate Q&A format, and featuring line illustrations throughout, this amusing and engaging book challenges readers to think about how they would (or should) respond when faced with everyday moral challenges, from sex and love to religion, technology, and much more. Sure to ignite brain cells and spark healthy debate, Be Good is a book to refer to again and again.


“Chock-full of fascinating characters and intelligent questions, this is as close to perfect as middle-grade novels come.” --Publishers Weekly

 

The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of the Newbery Medal book When You Reach Me: a story about spies, games, and friendship. Seventh grader Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building and meets Safer, a twelve-year-old self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer's first spy recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: what is a lie, and what is a game? How far is too far to go for your only friend?  Liar & Spy will keep readers guessing until the end.



TC Tidbit: Fellow Booksellers At Bookmans Share A Bright Idea


Monday, September 24, 2012

Jackie's A Fan Of This Book of Books


An ode to the art of traditional bookselling and independent bookstores, this book offers lists of favorites that have flown under the radar, but off of bookstore shelves.  First published on Hans Weyandt’s blog for Micawber’s Books, each check-list style contribution includes a bookseller’s top fifty books, anecdotes, and interviews about the life of being a bookseller, reader, and engaged citizen.  Introduced by Ann Patchett, the book exhibits the range and diversity of these booksellers’ tastes and the stores in which they work.  But it goes beyond a typical book of lists to show how independent bookstores are havens for readers where individual tastes, location, and personality matter and where the staff provide an expertise and wisdom about readers and books often lost in large and online retail spaces. One hundred percent of royalties will go to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE).

Jackie says:
"This book came to me at a very valuable time, a time when I'm exhausted by trying to read the murky crystal ball that is the future of publishing and bookselling while awaiting what could be a huge game changing election depending on how the votes go. I've gotten lost in the fear of it all. But this book, this tiny little book, has reminded me of just how lucky I am, because my job is to read, talk about and sell books. This book reminded me that this is my CAREER--it's not just a job. And it's not just a career, it's a calling that is the truest, best, most wonderful thing I've ever done and gotten paid for. As author and bookseller Ann Patchett says in her introduction to the book:

'There is no greater joy for a bookseller than introducing a reader to a book they will love for the rest of their lives. Those of us in this business are, after all, matchmakers at heart.

So consider this little book...a sort of catalogue of matchmakers.'


These are lists, fifty titles long, from independent booksellers all over the country, of their very favorite books to share with others. Each list is prefaced with a bit about the stores they are from and their ideas about books and bookish things. There is room built into the book for your own list, and space to make notes as you read the lists. A extra special thing about this book is that all the proceeds go to the American Booksellers Foundations for Free Expression (ABFFE), a group that fights literary censorship and supports struggling bookstores.

For me, it reads like a bucket list of book stores I MUST see before I die. I've got one down--Tattered Cover's got a list in there too. This is a great book for any bibliophile anywhere."

"Some of the finest writing I've ever read," says Eric B.


Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, a mesmerizing new novel from the award-winning author of The Secret Scripture

A first-person narrative of Lilly Bere’s life, On Canaan’s Side opens as the eighty-five-year-old Irish émigré mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. Lilly, the daughter of a Dublin policeman, revisits her eventful past, going back to the moment she was forced to flee Ireland at the end of the First World War. She continues her tale in America, where—far from her family—she first tastes the sweetness of love and the bitterness of betrayal.

Spanning nearly seven decades, Sebastian Barry’s extraordinary fifth novel explores memory, war, family ties, love, and loss, distilling the complexity and beauty of life into his haunting prose.


TC Tidbit: 10 Awesome Bookstores Repurposed from Unused Structures

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Chet and Bernie Are On The Job in Hollywood

 

Everyone’s favorite detective team returns in a new adventure as canine narrator Chet and his human partner P.I. Bernie Little find that Hollywood has gone to the dogs.

Hoping to bring some Tinseltown money to the Valley, the mayor lures a movie studio to town to shoot their next production, a big-budget Western in the classic tradition. The star is none other than ruggedly handsome—and notoriously badly behaved—Thad Perry. When the mayor decides that someone needs to keep an eye on Thad so that he doesn’t get into too much trouble, Bernie and Chet are handpicked for the job. The money is good but something smells fishy, and what should have been a simple matter of babysitting soon gets more complicated—especially when they discover that Thad has a mysterious connection to the Valley that nobody wants to talk about. What kind of secret could Thad have left behind when he went to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune? The only people who might know the answer have a bad habit of turning up dead before they can talk.

As Bernie’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend Suzie goes long-distance, and Chet’s late-night assignations appear to have resulted in an unexpected dividend, it’s all our two sleuths can do to keep Thad and his motley entourage of yes-men, handlers, and hangers-on in their sights. Worst of all, Thad is a self-proclaimed cat person, and his feline friend Brando has taken an instant dislike to Chet.
Like the winning books before it, this fifth book in the series combines a top-notch mystery with genuine humor and a perceptive take on the relationship between human and dog that will stay with you long after the case is solved.

“Craughwell provides a delightful tour of 18th-century vineyards still in production, a look at French aristocrats just before the Revolution and the France that paid little attention to the color of a man’s skin...A slim but tasty addition to the long list of Jefferson’s accomplishments.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The founding Father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose” – to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom.

Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in U.S. history. As James apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative nonfiction book tells the fascinating story behind their remarkable adventure – and includes 12 of their original recipes! 

Read a Q&A with the author HERE.



TC Tidbit: Insults by Shakespeare


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Best Scrabble Book Trailer EVER! The Book's Pretty Great Too.

 

Scrabble aficionados may know that both “Brr” and “Brrr” are legitimate plays, but what about everyday names like Peter, Carl, and Marge? They’re not listed as proper nouns, but they are certainly playable. For lovers of Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Words with Friends, this lively guide helps readers make the most out of word games, packed with new ways to remember the best words alongside tips for improving game play and much more. Part strategy guide and part celebration of all things wordy, this collection of facts, tips, and surprising lists of playable words will instruct and delight the letterati.

The Prequel Trilogy for The Malazan Book of the Fallen Has Begun

 

Now is the time to tell the story of an ancient realm, a tragic tale that sets the stage for all the tales yet to come and all those already told...

It's a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, the realm of Darkness, where Mother Dark reigns. But this ancient land was once home to many a power. and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners' great hero, Vatha Urusander, is being promoted by his followers to take Mother Dark's hand in marriage, but her Consort, Lord Draconus, stands in the way of such ambitions. The impending clash sends fissures throughout the realm, and as the rumors of civil war burn through the masses, an ancient power emerges from the long dead seas. Caught in the middle of it all are the First Sons of Darkness, Anomander, Andarist, and Silchas Ruin of the Purake Hold...

Steven Erikson entered the pantheon of great fantasy writers with his debut Gardens of the Moon. Now he returns with the first novel in a trilogy that takes place millennia before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen and introduces readers to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness. It is the epic story of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in shaping the world of the Malazan Empire.

Read "An Introduction to Forge of Darkness For Readers Old and New Alike" HERE.

Read an excerpt HERE.

TC Tidbit: Happy Hobbit Day!!!

Hobbit Day you ask? Yes, Hobbit Day.

Hobbit Day is the birthday of the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, two fictional characters in J. RR. Tolkien's popular set of books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Learn more about it, and how to celebrate it, HERE.
 

Take a look at a whole gallery full of hobbits HERE.

Friday, September 21, 2012

TC Staff Are Crazy About This Book!!!


Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.




Heather says:
"The Diviners is my first experience with Libba Bray's writing (though I've been told that I must read the Gemma Doyle trilogy, which I certainly will now!), and I absolutely loved this book. When Evie causes a bit of a scandal in her boring midwestern home town, she is shipped off to her brilliant, eccentric uncle in New York City. This is nothing but good news to Evie, a free-spirited, fearless teenaged flapper, with a unique ability to 'read' people by handling objects belonging to them. She's a Diviner, but she doesn't know it  or know anyone else with a similar skill. Soon Evie and her uncle, and a growing circle of friends drawn together by loneliness and loss (and some very interesting talents), are entangled in a gruesome murder mystery, with clear signs of a connection to the occult. 1920's New York is the perfect back-drop for this zany, creepy, fast-paced thriller ? and solving a series of horrific murders is apparently only the beginning of Evie and her new found family's fight against the forces of Evil. Libba Bray's new book is a brilliantly crafted novel, and thankfully only the first of the Diviners' hair-raising adventures."

Jackie says: 
"I owe a debt to a co-worker (see above) for being relentless about convincing me to read this book--I shied away at its rather stout size, thinking of the stack of books I'd already collected.  But she made a good case, and she was 100% correct--I LOVED this book, and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. Set in the 1920's in New York City, the time of speakeasies and flappers, jazz and, at least for Gemma and her uncle, murder.  Her uncle is an expert in the occult, and he is asked to help the police find the killer who had carved occult symbols into a murder victim and left her on the river's edge.  Gemma, never one to stay on the sidelines, accidentally discovers some occult powers of her own that may help her identify the killer, if he doesn't get to her first.

While technically a YA book, this is a great read for just about anyone who enjoys historic and/or atmospheric mysteries.  And the best part--this is first book in a planned series."

Meet The Author At Tomorrow's Storytime!


When your porcupine feels prickly,
don’t assume that she is sickly.
Our vet told us not to worry:
porcupines are never furry.


Have you ever thought about the right thing to say to a hippo or a shark? Do you know how mice like to celebrate their birthdays? If you meet a ladybug who is really a man-bug, what do you call him?

Animals big and small, soft and slippery, wise and weird reveal their oddities in these poems and paintings by Kathy DeZarn Beynette. You’ll giggle yourself silly as you discover that it’s the peculiar and persnickety things about creatures—including humans!—that make each of us so fascinating.

About that prickly porcupine: you know, some friends just aren’t supposed to be furry, and that’s okay.

Tomorrow, Saturday, September 22, 2012, at 10:30 am at our Colfax Avenue store: 
Artist and children's author Kathy Beynette will be the headliner at a "Meet the Author Storytime" with her adorable new children’s picture book When Your Porcupine Feels Prickly. Twenty-two of Beynette’s bright and joyous animal paintings are paired with poems about the creatures portrayed. Sweetly hilarious and unfailingly kind, the poems model good manners based on respect, empathy, and compassion—gently imparted life lessons that extend naturally to the human world and its inevitable quirks and foibles. Infused with the artist’s passion for animals, art, and the written word, When Your Porcupine Feels Prickly will be treasured by children and adults alike.