eBranch Blog

May 17, 2005

New Bestsellers 5/16/05

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

Dorothea Benton Frank. Pawleys Island
When Becca Sims wanders into the beautiful seaside Gallery Valentine hoping to sell some of her watercolors, she has no idea her life is about to be transformed by the gallery's owner and his best friend. With the vivid, unforgettable characters, dreamy Lowcountry setting, and authentically brazen, compulsively readable Southern voice that have made her one of today's greatest storytellers, Dorothea Benton Frank delivers her most extraordinary novel yet. (NYT #9, PW #12, WSJ #15)

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Charlaine Harris. Dead as a Doornail
A new Southern Vampire novel--featuring Sookie Stackhouse--from the New York Times bestselling author of Dead to the World. (NYT #14, PW #14, WSJ #14)

Chuck Palahniuk. Haunted
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is a novel made up of stories: Twenty-three of them, to be precise. Twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter-sometimes all at once. They are told by people who have answered an ad headlined "Writers' Retreat: Abandon Your Life for Three Months," and who are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of "real life" that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But "here" turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world-and where heat and power and, most important, food are in increasingly short supply. (NYT #10, PW #9, WSJ #5)

James Patterson. 4th of July
After losing one of its own, Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club make a courageous return for their fourth and most chilling case ever--one that could easily be their last. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #1, WSJ #1)

Nonfiction

Goldie Hawn. A Lotus Grows in the Mud
An inspiring and unconventional memoir from one of the world's most beloved actresses. (NYT #3, PW #9, WSJ #10)

ELVIS BY THE PRESLEYS, edited by David Ritz. (Crown, $24.95.) A profusely illustrated tribute, with recollections from members of the Presley family. (NYT #7)

Michael F. Roizen. You: An Owner's Manual
This is a fun, informative and preventative health book like no other. (PW #1, USA #2, WSJ #1)

Brooke Shields. Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression
In this compelling memoir, Brooke Shields talks candidly about her experience with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, and provides millions of women with an inspiring example of recovery. (NYT #6, PW #11, WSJ #11)

May 10, 2005

2005 Notable Children's Books List

Each year the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) identifies the best of the best in Notable Children's Books.

Younger Readers
Karen English. Hot Day on Abbott Avenue
After having a fight, two friends spend the day ignoring each other, until the lure of a game of jump rope helps them to forget about being mad.

Middle Readers
Philippa Pearce. The Little Gentleman
A young girl's dull life is transformed when she meets and befriends an extraordinary talking mole that likes to be read to and tell of his own past exploits throughout the centuries.

Older Readers
Sarah Weeks. So B. It
After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

New Bestsellers 5/9/05

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

Harlan Coben. The Innocent
A gripping new novel from international bestseller Harlan Coben, author of the New York Times bestsellers Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One. (NYT #6, PW #5, WSJ #4)

Johanna Lindsey. Loving Scoundrel
In the spirit of "Pygmalion"--but with more romantic intensity--comes the story of a dashing rogue who takes in a young pickpocket who blossoms into a lady under his tutelage. (USA #4)

Debbie Macomber. The Shop on Blossom Street
In her signature warm and compelling style, Debbie Macomber tells the story of a small town yarn store owner and cancer survivor who shares life-affirming lessons with her customers through knitting classes. (USA #13)

Debbie Macomber. A Good Yarn
The highly anticipated sequel to "The Shop on Blossom Street." Once again, a disparate group of women find friendship and comfort as they learn the age-old craft of knitting. (NYT #14, PW #15)

Karen Robards. Superstition
Sparks fly between a police chief and a reporter who are thrown together when a brutal killer comes out of hiding after fifteen years. (NYT #9, PW #12, WSJ #15)

Nora Roberts. Two of a Kind
Contains the stories Impulse & The Best Mistake. (NYT #15, PW #14)

Nonfiction

Jenny McCarthy. Baby Laughs
Jenny McCarthy, the best-selling author of Belly Laughs, tells everything about the first year of mommyhood that your polite girlfriends won't, in this hilarious account of what it means to have a newborn and the challenges that new mothers endure. (NYT #7, PW #12, WSJ #12)

A DEFICIT OF DECENCY%2, by Zell Miller. (Stroud & Hall, $27.95.) The former United States senator and former governor of Georgia explains how "spiritual truths" and a sense of duty can help save America. (NYT #9)

Anna Quindlen. Being Perfect
The bestselling novelist and author of the phenomenal bestseller "A Short Guide to a Happy Life" returns with more irresistible advice and wisdom. At the heart of this beautiful and insightful book about how to shape a life with meaning is the perfection trap, and how to avoid falling into it. (PW #11, WSJ #10)

PW Audio Fiction

Mary Higgins Clark. No Place Like Home
In the latest thriller from America's queen of suspense, a young woman is ensnared into returning to a place she had wanted to leave behind forever--her childhood home. (Unabridged CD) (#9)

Sue Monk Kidd. The Mermaid Chair
Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on tiny Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion. Jessie Sullivan's conventional life has been "molded to the smallest space possible." So when she is called home to cope with her mother's startling and enigmatic act of violence, Jessie finds herself relieved to be apart from her husband, Hugh. Jessie loves Hugh, but on Egret Island-- amid the gorgeous marshlands and tidal creeks--she becomes drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is mere months from taking his final vows. What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother's tormented past, but most of all, as Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, she will find a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right. (Unabridged CD) (#10)

Alexander McCall Smith. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
This time around, the charming and ever-resourceful Precious Ramotswe finds herself overly beset by problems. She is busier than usual at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, when a strange intruder in her house forces her to confront a painful secret from her past. (Unabridged CD) (#13)

Khaled Hosseini. The Kite Runner
Amir, a rich man's son, grows up in Kabul as playmate and master of Hassan, an ethnic Hazara, a despised Afghani minority. Amir, who tells the story, has ambivalent feelings about both his father and his ultra-loyal friend as the monarchy falls, the Soviets invade, and Afghanistan is thrown into turmoil. (Abridged CD) (#15)

PW Audio Nonfiction

Jack Welch. Winning
Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and CEO of General Electric, he has traveled the world, speaking and answering questions. Now, he has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which lays out his answers. He begins with his business philosophy, exploring the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all. The core of the book looks inside the company, from leadership to picking winners to making change happen; outside, at the competition; and at managing your career--from finding the right job to achieving work-life balance. (Unabridged CD) (#8)

May 09, 2005

New Books/Movies/Audio Lists Updated

The New Books, Audios, and Movies lists have been updated with titles cataloged in April 2005.

May 04, 2005

2005 Edgar Awards Announced

The Edgar Awards are named in honor of Edgar Allen Poe. They are awarded annually for best mystery novel. The award is sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America.

Best Novel
T. Jefferson Parker. California Girl
A different world then, a different world now . . . California in the 1960s. For the Becker brothers, the past is always present and it comes crashing back when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned orange packing house.

Outstanding Books for the College Bound & Lifelong Learners Book List

The books on the Outstanding Books for the College Bound & Lifelong Learners list offer opportunities to discover new ideas and provide an introduction to the fascinating variety of subjects within an academic discipline. This list is created by a YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) committee of public, school and academic librarians, in collaboration with the Association of College and Research Libraries. The 2004 list is organized into five academic disciplines: history, humanities, literature and language arts, science and technology, and social sciences and includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography and drama.

Stephanie Nolen. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race
Stephanie Nolen tracked down all eleven of the surviving "Fellow Lady Astronaut Trainees." From the FLATs, Nolen gets the firsthand story of those exciting early days of the space race. But the thrill was short-lived. The thirteen women who were thought to be prime astronaut material were grounded in 1961 when the woman-in-space program was abruptly and mysteriously cancelled. Until now, the FLATs never knew why.

May 02, 2005

New Bestsellers 5/2/05

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 May 1.

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

Fiction

Joseph Finder. Company Man
Nick Conover, the son of a factory worker, is the CEO of a major corporation in a company town. Nick, once the most admired man in Fenwick, Michigan, is now, having presided over massive layoffs, the most despised. A single parent since the recent death of his wife, he’s struggling to insulate his ten-year-old daughter and angry sixteen-year-old son from the town’s hostility. When his family is threatened by a nameless stalker, events spin quickly out of control and Nick is faced with a dead body and damning circumstances. (NYT #15, PW #15)

Alexander McCall Smith. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
This time around, the charming and ever-resourceful Precious Ramotswe finds herself overly beset by problems. She is busier than usual at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, when a strange intruder in her house forces her to confront a painful secret from her past. (NYT #6, PW #5, WSJ #7)

Nonfiction

SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND, by Phil Lesh. (Little, Brown, $25.95.) A memoir by the bass player for the Grateful Dead. (NYT #15)

Pamela Peeke. Body for Life for Women
Pamela Peeke, M.D., M.P.H., bestselling author of Fight Fat After Forty, adapts the unique insights of the Body-for-Life program to the specific hormonal, metabolic, and physiological requirements of women so they can achieve the same life-transforming results. (PW #7, WSJ #7)
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ASSASSINATION VACATION, by Sarah Vowell. (Simon & Schuster, %$21.) A guide to three presidential murders ? of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley ? and the ways they have been used by popular culture. (NYT #10)

We now have copies of several bestsellers that have been on the lists for a while:

Harry G. Frankfurt. On Bulls---
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bulls---. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bulls--- and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bulls--- is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

Maria Shriver. And One More Thing Before You Go...
Graduating from high school is a big step for any girl. She is leaving her childhood behind and beginning the rest of her life. She is also leaving her mother's protective circle of love and guidance. One of the greatest gifts a mother can give her daughter at this pivotal moment in her life is good counsel. In And One More Thing Before You Go... Maria Shriver, bestselling author, acclaimed journalist, First Lady of California, and mother of two daughters, provides a loving and heartfelt guide for girls as they go off to college.

Essence Magazine Bestsellers

We have added the Essence Magazine Fiction & Nonfiction hardcover bestsellers to our bestsellers group. The Essence list covers African-American literature and is updated monthly. The current list is for May 2005.

Fiction #1
Zane. Afterburn
When Washington, D.C., chiropractor Yardley Brown goes to his local bank, it isn't only to make deposits into his account. He has long since accrued some interest in Rayne Waters, a bank employee who's too beautiful to be true -- and too beautiful to be single. At least that's what Yardley believes, which is why he has never approached her. Little does he know that Rayne is anything but taken. Not for want of trying, of course. But after barely surviving a dating disaster with her hairdresser's brother and then falling for a member of her church band who, it turns out, is celibate, she's on the verge of giving up. That is, until Yardley -- discouraged by his own slew of dead-end romances -- finally works up the courage to give her a try.

Nonfiction #1
Geoffrey C. Ward. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise & Fall of Jack Johnson
He was the first black heavyweight champion in history, the most celebrated?and most reviled?African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, the prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex and compelling than the newspaper headlines he inspired could ever convey.

Weirdly Western Book List

The Weirdly Western book list offers offbeat novels and short stories of the west. Provided by the staff at the West Universty Branch Library.

Ric L. Hardman. Sunshine Rider: the First Vegetarian Western
Seventeen year old vegetarian Wylie Jackson experiences brief employment as a chuck wagon cook, medicine man, huckster, and also impersonates a doctor in this humorous, fast-paced novel.