eBranch Blog

September 27, 2004

Heir to the Glimmering World is New Today Show Pick

Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick is the new Today Show book club pick.

In 1930s New York, Rose Meadows becomes the assistant to Herr Mitwisser, the patriarch of a large, chaotic household. The professor is a terrifying figure, obsessed with arcane research. His wife, Elsa is becoming unhinged. Their 16 year old daughter, Anneliese runs the household. Rosie's place here is uncertain, and she finds her fate hanging on the arrival of James. James is the Bear Boy and is inspired by the real Christopher Robin.

New Bestsellers 9/27

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
WSJ = Wall Street Journal

Fiction

Pearl S. Buck. The Good Earth
This great modern classic depicts life in China at a time before the vast political and social upheavals transformed an essentially agrarian country into a world power. Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life--its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, and rewards. Includes biographical and historical information and more. (USA #8)

Iris Johansen. Blind Alley
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan meets her greatest challenge yet: a killer who leaves his victims faceless and with burned fingerprints. (NYT #11, PW #10, WSJ #10)

Sidney Sheldon. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
In this classic page turner from "the master of the storytelling game" ("People"), four people from the world's largest think tank are murdered. Soon, two of the murdered men's wives find their own lives threatened as they become reluctant allies in a life and death game of cat-and-mouse. (NYT #3, PW #3, USA #13, WSJ #4)

Jennifer Weiner. Little Earthquakes
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "In Her Shoes" comes a hilarious and warmhearted story of three young women who find friendship against the background of new motherhood. (NYT #7, PW #9, WSJ #8)

Nonfiction

Seymour M. Hersh. Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghirab
From the brilliant investigative reporter who exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal comes a revealing and unflinching look behind the public story of the Bush administration's war on terror, its intelligence failures, and the alleged lies that led America into Iraq. (NYT #5, PW #7, WSJ #7)

Kitty Kelley. The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
As the Bush family has risen to dominance, so too they have been master orchestrators of their own public image, acting and operating under the shield of privacy their money and status have always afforded them. Until now. The First Lady of unauthorized biography now reckons with the first family of the United States--and the result is at once a rich and shocking history and a very human portrait of the world's most powerful dynasty. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #2, WSJ #1)

Phil McGraw. Family First: Your Step-by-Step Plan for Creating a Phenomenal Family
In his most powerful book to date, Dr. Phil calls upon all parents in America to open their eyes and recognize the importance of families. With his trademark to-the-point style, Dr. Phil outlines the issues and lays out practical solutions for bringing families back together. (PW #3, USA #4, WSJ #3)

Business

Robert G. Allen. Nothing Down for the 2000s
Nothing Down for the 2000s shows you how to locate the best buys, deal with real estate agents, and manage properties, all with little - or no - money down. Excellent for beginners or experienced investors, Nothing Down for the 2000s is the key to generating low-risk, high-profit wealth and to a potential future of security and financial independence. (WSJ #10)

Children's Chapter

Katherine Hannigan. Ida B
In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school. (Audiocassette)

September 20, 2004

New Bestsellers 9/20

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

The Library Journal Lists of Most Borrowed Books in Public Libraries for Fiction and Nonfiction were updated for September 15.

NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
WSJ = Wall Street Journal

Fiction

Patricia Cornwell. Trace
Dr. Kay Scarpetta travels to Richmond, Virginia, to help solve a perplexing crime. Under strange and less-than-ideal circumstances, she investigates the death of a 14-year-old girl to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #1, WSJ #1)

Kristin Gore. Sammy's Hill
Kristin Gore, comedy writer and daughter of Tipper and Al Gore, makes her hilarious and touching fiction debut with a poignant look at Capitol Hill as seen through the eyes of a particularly charming young intern. (NYT #16, PW #10, WSJ #11)

Arthur Phillips. The Egyptologist
"Set mostly in Egypt in the early 1920s, stars Ralph Trilipush, an obsessive Egyptologist. Trilipush is more than a little odd. He is pinning his hopes on purported king Atum-hadu, whose erotic verses he has discovered and translated; now he must locate his tomb and its expected riches. Meanwhile, an Australian detective, for reasons too complicated to go into, is seeking to unmask Trilipush, who may have had some relationship with a young Australian Egyptologist who died mysteriously. Trilipush and the detective are two quite unreliable narrators, and the effect is that of a hall of mirrors. Where does fact end and imagination, illusion and wishful thinking begin?" - Publisher's Weekly (WSJ #15)

Nonfiction

Bill Gertz. Trechery
The bestselling author of "Breakdown" and "Betrayal" offers a shocking expos about an insidious threat to America's national security. (NYT #9, PW #10, WSJ #10)

Paris Hilton. Confessions of an Heiress
This Learjet's view of the fast, fun world of Paris Hilton is packed with enough photos, advice, and inside scoop to help anyone live the glamorous life. (NYT #7, PW #7, WSJ #5)

Aron Ralston. Between a Rock and a Hard Place
"Icebound" meets "Into Thin Air" in this astonishing, day-by-day account of Ralston's terrible accident, self-amputation, and subsequent rescue and recovery. (NYT #8, PW #11, WSJ #12)

Art Spiegelman. In the Shadow of No Towers
In his first new book of comics since the groundbreaking "Maus," Art Spiegelman offers a deeply personal, politically charged, graphically and emotionally stunning account of the events and aftermath of September 11, 2001 a no-holds-barred political statement and a revelation of the cultural reach of cartooning. (NYT #14, WSJ #14)

Business

Bill Rancic. You're Hired
The winner of the hit TV show "The Apprentice" shows how readers can become their own personal success story in both business and life by using his own business experiences, work ethic, top business strategies, and lessons learned from the show and from working for Donald Trump. (WSJ #11)

Children's Fiction

Cornelia Funke. Dragon Rider
After learning that humans are headed toward his hidden home, Firedrake, a silver dragon , is joined by a brownie and an orphan boy in a quest to find the legendary valley known as the Rim of Heaven, encountering friendly and unfriendly creatures along the way, and struggling to evade the relentless pursuit of an old enemy. (PW #2)

September 16, 2004

The Good Earth is New Oprah Book

Oprah announced the Pearl S. Buck book as the new title on September 15.

Pearl S. Buck. The Good Earth
This great modern classic depicts life in China at a time before the vast political and social upheavals transformed an essentially agrarian country into a world power. Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life--its terrors, its passions, its ambitions, and rewards. Includes biographical and historical information and more.

2004 Hugo Awards Announced

The 2004 Hugo Awards were announced at the annual WorldCon convention earlier this month.

Best Novel
Lois McMaster Bujold. Paladin of Souls
Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family's castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets - for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road - escape - beckons.... A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion.

Judy Blume Wins National Book Foundation Award

Judy Blume has been awarded the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

Source: New York Times

September 14, 2004

Election-Related Books for Young People 2004

This list of Election-Related Books for Young People was created by the Children's Book Council. These books provide a detailed and wide-ranging understanding of our electoral process and its effects on our government, society, and day-to-day lives.

Eileen Christelow. Vote!
Using a campaign for mayor as an example, shows the steps involved in an election, from the candidate's speeches and rallies, to the voting booth where every vote counts, to the announcement of the winner.

September 13, 2004

New Bestsellers 9/13

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.

The Library Journal Lists of Most Borrowed Books in Public Libraries for Fiction and Nonfiction were updated for August 15.

NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
WSJ = Wall Street Journal

Fiction

Terry Brooks. High Druid of Shannara: Tanequil
In the sequel to Jarka Ruus Pen leads a quest to find the mystical Tanequil tree in order to save Grianne from her magical prison. (NYT #7, PW #4, WSJ #4)

Susanna Clarke. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that it leaves readers longing for more. (NYT #9, PW #10, WSJ #8)

Janet Evanovich. The Rocky Road to Romance
This classic tale full of charm and wit from the acclaimed #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum mystery series is available once again. (USA #9)

Julie Garwood. Murder List
Chicago detective Alec Buchanan has been assigned to provide protection for hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison. Regan had once attended a self-help seminar where the presenter asked each attendee to make a "fantasy revenge" list of people who had hurt or deceived them in the past, people they would like to have eliminated. Regan had forgotten all about that list until the people on it began to die. Apparently, someone is determined to turn her fantasies into reality, and death stalks her every move. (NYT #2, PW #3, WSJ #3)

THE SECRET ON ARARAT, by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. (Bantam, $25.) In Book 2 of the "Babylon Rising" series, the biblical scholar Michael Murphy searches for Noah's ark. (NYT #12)

Debbie Macomber. 44 Cranberry Point
In the highly anticipated novel in her bestselling Cedar Cove series, Macomber picks up on the trail of the unsolved murder that occurred at the Thyme and Tide Bed and Breakfast in "311 Pelican Court." (USA #8)

Nora Roberts. Charmed & Enchanted
The fascinating and mysterious Donovan cousins share a secret that sets them apart from ordinary beings. But Ana Donovan has secrets she is certain no man can--or will--accept. Reissue (USA #2)

Nonfiction

WHERE THE RIGHT WENT WRONG, by Patrick J. Buchanan. (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's, $24.95.) The former presidential candidate takes on members of the Bush administration and other conservatives. (NYT #14)

Children's Chapter

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Peter and the Starcatchers
Soon after Peter, an orphan, sets sail from England on the ship Never Land, he befriends and assists Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a greedy pirate and the native inhabitants of a remote island. (NYT #6)

Brian Jacques. Rakkety Tam
There has never been a Redwall hero quite like Rakkety Tam, the roguish Highlander squirrel who sets off for Mossflower Wood on a mercenary errand and loses his heart to the charms of Redwall Abbey. (NYT #10)

Religion

His Holiness The Dalai Lama & Victor Chan. The Wisdom of Forgiveness
Chan's conversations with the Dalai Lama reveal His Holiness's personal fears; under which circumstances he believes he could be capable of violence; how the experience of profound spiritual insight feels in the body and mind; and more. (PW #9)

Elect a Movie

Tired of the current political rhetoric? Check out movies about politics, the presidency, and elections. Elect a Movie includes everything from documentaries to comedy to drama.

Dick
The year is 1972, and, like most high school students. Betsy Jobs and Arlene Lorenzo just want to have a good time. But when, during a class field trip to the White House, they cluelessly wander into a behind-closed-doors, top-secret shredding session, it's time to both wag the dog and walk it. Seeking to uncover just how much the witless duo discovered, the Commander-in-Chief appoints them "Official White House Dog Walkers," and it isn't long before the girls go from taking out Checkers to taking out Tricky Dick , in this fun-raising comedy of historic distortions. Directed by Andrew Fleming. Starring Kirsten Dunst & Michelle Williams. PG-13

September 07, 2004

New Bestsellers 9/6

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. For a complete listing see our collection of Best Seller Lists.
NYT = New York Times
PW = Publisher's Weekly
USA = USA Today
WSJ = Wall Street Journal

Fiction

Martha Grimes. The Winds of Change
From "one of the established masters of the genre" ("Newsweek") comes the latest in the critically acclaimed Richard Jury Series. As he leans over the body of an unidentified five-year-old girl, shot in the back on a shabby London street, Superintendent Jury knows he'll be facing one of the saddest investigations of his life. (NYT #11, PW #7, WSJ #8)

Jack Higgins. Dark Justice
A failed attempt on the President's life is just the beginning. Someone is recruiting a shadowy network of agents with the intention of creating terror. White House operative Blake Johnson and his British counterpart set out to trace the source of the havoc. (NYT #8, PW #9, WSJ #9)

Nonfiction

NAMATH , by Mark Kriegel. (Viking, $27.95.) A biography of the renowned New York Jets quarterback, advertising icon and man about town. (NYT #13)

HIPPIE, by Barry Miles. (Sterling, $24.95.) A lavishly illustrated coffee-table book celebrates the period from 1965 to 1971, the era of unparalleled tuning in, turning on and dropping out. (NYT#12)

Jane Pauley. Skywriting: a Life Out of the Blue
In this inspiring memoir, the beloved broadcaster and host of a brand-new daytime talk show writes about growing up in the Midwest, her three decades on NBC's "Today" show and "Dateline NBC," and what happened when, at mid-life, things began to change. (NYT #8, PW #8, WSJ #9)

Children's Chapter

Barbara Park. Junie B., First Grader: Boo!...and I Mean It!
With Halloween approaching, Junie B. needs to find a costume that will scare off the real witches and ghosts that she believes will be out on the holiday. (NYT #2)

Jonathan Stroud. The Golem's Eye
In their continuing adventures, magician's apprentice Nathaniel, now fourteen years old, and the djinni Bartimaeus travel to Prague to locate the source of a golem's power before it destroys London. (NYT #7)

Children's Picture

Judy Sierra. Wild About Books
A librarian named Mavis McGrew introduces the animals in the zoo to the joy of reading when she drives her bookmobile to the zoo by mistake. (NYT #1)

Business

James Surowiecki. The Wisdom of Crowds
A revolutionary look at the way the world works by the "New Yorker's" "Financial Page" columnist. "The Wisdom of Crowds" is the biography of an idea with profound implications for how people run their businesses, organize society, structure their political system, fight terrorism, and think about the future. (NYT #10)

Audio Fiction

Dan Brown. Deception Point
When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory -- a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery -- a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all. (Abridged Cassette) (PW #6)

Clive Cussler. Lost City
An enzyme that prolongs life has been discovered in the North Atlantic, in an area known as Lost City . But why are all those connected with it getting killed? including the people attempting to harvest it, the scientists stationed in a remote Greek laboratory who have been disappearing one by one and what does the body found frozen in the Alps have to do with this? To Kurt Austin, leader of NUMA's Special Assignments Team, and his colleague Joe Zavala, it will become very clear they have their work cut out for them. In fact, it may be their greatest challenge ever. (Unabridged CD) (PW #3)

JD Robb. Visions in Death
On one of the city's hottest nights, New York Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas is sent into Central Park--and into a hellish new investigation where each new victim is posed in a prayerful position with her eyes removed. (Unabridged CD) (PW #10)

September 02, 2004

Top 10 High School Flicks

Remember lockers, lunch time, bullies, prom, and just hanging out? E! Online has come up with this list of the Top Ten High School Flicks of all time.

Risky Business
Joel's parents are going on vacation and leaving him in charge of the house. They trust their college-bound 17-year-old son but they shouldn't. Every kid's dream is every parent's nightmare. No sooner do Joel's parents step on the plane when he raids the liquor cabinet, has a joyride in Dad's Porsche, and has a night of passion with a young call girl named Lana. Directed by Paul Brickman. Starring Tom Cruise & Rebecca De Mornay.

Top Ten Horror Films List

Lock your doors and turn out the lights, E! Online has come up with this list of the Top Ten Horror Films of all time.

The Exorcist
A young girl becomes possessed by the devil and causes several violent deaths before she can be cured. Directed by William Friedkin. Starring Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, & Linda Blair. Based on the book The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.

Attack of the B Movies List

In Attack of the B Movies, you're in for a treat with these classic monster movies, mostly from the 50s. Get ready for the Blob, Godzilla, zombies, aliens, mad scientists, and other monsters to attack.

The Blob
Residents of a small Pennsylvania town combat a slimy space invader. Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth. Starring Steve McQueen.

September 01, 2004

New Books/Movies/Audio Lists Updated

The New Books, Audios, and Movies lists have been updated with titles cataloged in August 2004.

2004 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

The Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list is created by the Young Adult Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. Books are chosen that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure.

Christopher Hart. Manga Mania Fantasy Worlds: How to Draw the Enchanted Amazing Worlds of Japanese Comics
Come enter the world of manga fantasy. It's the place where swords and sorcery meet faeries, ogres, gothic beasts, futuristic knights, warrior women, alien races, science fiction, and more. With complete step-by-step instructions plus full-color examples of every character throughout, this is a book no manga fan can be without.

Bill Willingham. Legends in Exile (Fables series)
In this fantasy fairy tale characters are involved in a mystery when Rose Red goes missing.