eBranch Blog

July 27, 2005

Restaurant Reading

Grab one of these restaurant reads and settle in at your favorite restaurant, cafe, or tea room for a delicious read. Provided by the staff at the West Universty Branch Library.

Sharon Owens. The Tea House on Mulberry Street
In Belfast, Ireland, a caf? run by a workaholic chef and his daydreaming wife is common ground for an assortment of desperate, yet loveable characters.

New Bestsellers 7/25/05

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.

Due to technical difficulties, the Wall Street Journal best seller lists were not updated this week. We hope to correct this problem soon.

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

Fiction

Suzanne Brockmann. Breaking Point
As commander of the nation's most elite FBI counterterrorism unit, agent Max Bhagat leads by hard-driving example: pushing himself to the limit and beyond, taking no excuses, and putting absolutely nothing ahead of his work. That includes his deep feelings for Gina Vitagliano, the woman who won his admiration and his heart with her courage under fire. But when the shocking news reaches him that Gina has been killed in a terrorist bombing, nothing can keep Max from making a full investigation-and retribution-his top priority. (NYT #11, PW #8)

James Lee Burke. Crusader's Cross
Critically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke returns to Louisiana where his ever-popular hero, Dave Robicheaux, sleuths his way through a hotbed of sin and uncertainty. (NYT #10, PW #9)

John Irving. Until I Find You
According to his mother, Jack Burns was an actor before he was an actor, but Jack?s most vivid memories of childhood were those moments when he felt compelled to hold his mother?s hand. He wasn?t acting then.? So begins John Irving?s eleventh novel, Until I Find You ? the story of the actor Jack Burns. (NYT #3, PW #3, USA #13)

James Patterson & Andrew Gross. Lifeguard
Everything is going right for lifeguard Ned Kelley. He is involved with Tess, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and what's more, a million dollars is within touching distance; his share of the score for the robbery of some world-class art. All he has to do is trigger alarms to throw the cops off the scent. But when Tess is brutally murdered and the others involved in the robbery are massacred, Ned is the prime suspect. He has been set up. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #2)

J.D. Robb. Origin in Death
Set in 2059 in New York City, the number-one bestselling In Death series has given fans a searing glimpse into near-future law and order. Now, as scientists work to expand the limits of technology, Detective Eve Dallas tracks the cunning, cold-blooded killer of a father and son. (NYT #5, PW #6, USA #12)

J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry searches for the full and complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort, and thereby finds what may be his only vulnerability. (USA #1)

2005 Best Books for Young Adults

Good books can be hard to find, but not if you check out this list of Best Books for Young Adults. The list is selected by Young Adult Library Services Association with the assistance of teens.

Richard Peck. The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts
In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell's dream of quitting school and joining a wheat threshing crew is disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching at his one-room schoolhouse after mean, old Myrt Arbuckle "hauls off and dies."

Walter Dean Myers. Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices
Acclaimed writer Walter Dean Myers celebrates the people of Harlem with these powerful and soulful first-person poems in the voices of the residents who make up the legendary neighborhood: basketball players, teachers, mail carriers, jazz artists, maids, veterans, nannies, students, and more. Exhilarating and electric, these poems capture the energy and resilience of a neighborhood and a people.

July 25, 2005

Go Wild...in Your Backyard

Each week during the Summer Reading Program we are featuring something wild. This week's theme is your Backyard! There's Backyard Reading and Online Fun.

July 20, 2005

Go Wild... with Monsters!

Each week during the Summer Reading Program we are featuring something wild. This week's theme is Monsters! There's Monster Reading and Online Fun.

July 18, 2005

New Bestsellers 7/18/05

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 July 15.

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

Fiction

ADORED, by Tilly Bagshawe. (Warner, $23.95.) A gorgeous young woman sets out to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and become a Hollywood superstar. (NYT #10)

Mary Janice Davidson. Undead and Unappreciated
Fans can't get enough of author MaryJanice Davidson and her topsy-turvy world of the undead with its newly-crowned queen, Betsy Taylor. Now, Betsy continues her reluctant reign while being bedeviled by family secrets. (PW #13, WSJ #10)

Elizabeth Lowell. Always Time to Die
Carly, a successful family historian, discovers that tracing bloodlines in New Mexico is a deadly sport when she searches for information on the state's multimillionaire governor. (NYT #6, PW #9, WSJ #9)

Lynn Schnurnberger & Janice Kaplan. Mine Are Spectacular
Three friends living in the wealthy New York suburb of Hadley Farms know they can count on each other through it all: pregnancy, affairs, ex-husbands, new fiancs, and Botox. (WSJ #14)

Nonfiction

MY FRIEND LEONARD, by James Frey. (Riverhead, $24.95.) The author of the addiction memoir "A Million Little Pieces" remembers a helpful mobster friend. (NYT #12)

Bernard Goldberg. 100 People Who are Screwing Up America
No preaching. No pontificating. Just some uncommon sense about the things that have made this country great -- and the culprits who are screwing it up. (NYT #6, PW #7, WSJ #4)

Bob Woodward. The Secret Man
Woodward tells the story of his relationship with Mark Felt, AKA "Deep Throat." (NYT #4, PW #6, WSJ #7)

WSJ Business

Doris Christopher. Pampered Chef
Doris Christopher's extraordinary account of how she turned an innovative concept and $3,000 investment into a business with annual sales approaching the billion-dollar mark. It is packed with real-life lessons and inspiring insights for small-business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. (#10)

July 14, 2005

Must-Read Thrillers Book List

Looking for thrill a minute reading this summer? The International Thriller Writers has created a list of Must-Read Thrillers. The first thrillers were written in the early to mid 1800s. The genre has continued to be one of the most popular with readers and moviegoers as many of the books are the basis for movies. Get ready for an exciting, thrilling, seat of the pants read with these books.

1838
Edgar Allan Poe. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
After reading an 1836 newspaper account of a shipwreck and its two survivors, Edgar Allan Poe penned his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the story of a stowaway on a Nantucket whaleship who finds himself enmeshed in the dark side of life at sea: mutiny, cannibalism, savagery-even death.

1995
David Baldacci. Absolute Power
A burglar in the bedroom of a mansion has his work interrupted by the arrival of the mistress of the house with the president of the U.S. The couple have a fight and she is killed. The burglar flees, taking along a blood-stained letter opener as evidence, but is spotted by presidential bodyguards. The White House chief-of-staff, an ambitious woman, has him tracked and killed, but not before the burglar has told his story to a lawyer. The lawyer realizes he is next, but how to save oneself from the government?

July 11, 2005

New Bestsellers 7/11/05

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 Publisher's Weekly Audio Fiction and Nonfiction best seller lists have been updated for July.

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

Fiction

72 HOUR HOLD, by Bebe Moore Campbell. (Knopf, $24.95.) Trying to help her bipolar 18-year-old daughter, a woman enlists the aid of a radical group of psychiatrists that models itself on the Underground Railroad. (NYT #11)

John Twelve Hawks. The Traveler
In this stunningly suspenseful first novel, reminiscent of George Orwell and Philip Pullman, John Twelve Hawks has created a vividly imagined world that runs parallel to our own. Moving at lightning speed from the back alleys of Prague to the underworld of Los Angeles to a guarded research facility in New York, "The Traveler" goes beneath the surface to give us new insights on history and our own lives. (NYT #13, PW #10, WSJ #11)

Sherrilyn Kenyon. Sins of the Night
In the realm of the Dark-Hunters there is a code of honor that even immortal bad boys must follow: Harm no human. Drink no blood. Never fall in love. But every now and again a Dark-Hunter thinks himself above the Code. That's when I'm summoned. Who am I? I'm the one thing the fearless fear. Step over the line and it's my wrath you will face. Nothing can touch me. Nothing can sway me. I am relentless and unfeeling. (USA #12)

Sara Paretsky. Fire Sale
V.I. Warshawski may have left her old South Chicago neighborhood, but she learns that she cannot escape it. When V.I. takes over coaching duties of the girls' basketball team at her former high school, she faces an ill-equipped, ragtag group of gangbangers, fundamentalists, and teenage moms who inevitably draw the detective into their family woes. (NYT #10, PW #13, WSJ #12)

Julia Quinn. It's In His Kiss
"Too intelligent for her own good and best friends with Lady Danbury, one of society's most outspoken grande dames, Hyacinth is in her fourth season on London's Marriage Mart and again unimpressed by the male selection. Only Lady Danbury's handsome, pockets-to-let grandson Gareth St. Clair can hold his own in a conversation with her and sometimes even leaves her in a speechless, stomach-flipping state. When Hyacinth offers to translate the diary of Gareth's deceased Italian grandmother, the pair find themselves comparing notes, then exchanging kisses and finally burglarizing his estranged father's house at midnight. But the diary also holds secrets that could jeopardize their new love." - Publisher's Weekly (USA #6)

Kathy Reichs. Cross Bones
When an Orthodox Jew is found shot to death in Montreal, Temperance Brennan is called in to examine the body and to figure out the puzzling damage to the corpse. Unexpectedly, a stranger slips her a photograph of a skeleton and assures her the picture is the key to the victim's death. Before she knows it, Tempe is involved in an international mystery as old as Jesus, a mystery that could rewrite 2000 years of religious history. (NYT #9, PW #8, WSJ #6)

Danielle Steel. Miracle
It is New Year's Eve when the storm of the century hits northern California. In a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco, the lives of three strangers are about to collide. For Quinn Thompson, what happens in the storm's wake will bring down a barrier he has built around himself since his wife's death. For neighbor Maggie Dartman, it will spark friendship at a time when she needs it most. And for Jack Adams, a carpenter who will repair Quinn's and Maggie's homes, the storm brings an opportunity: to help two people and to be repaid with the greatest gift of all. (NYT #3, PW #9, USA #13, WSJ #5)

PW Religion

John Eldredge. Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul
Why do little girls love to dress up in twirling skirts? Why do they dream of a day their prince will come and together they will live in a great adventure? Because that is the heart God set within every woman. That is the role she was created to play-to be a valiant and beautiful woman whose life changes the world.Why do most women abandon those desires when they grow up? (#5)

Pope John Paul II. Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium
In this volume, Pope John Paul II speaks for the first time on global politics. He discusses his views on freedom and democracy and speaks about the twentieth-century totalitarian ideologies of communism and nazism. Making an emphatic appeal for mankind to regard freedom "not only as a gift but a task" to be used for the common good, he calls for a dialogue between all the world's civilizations and religions. This work is a unique reflection on human life, and will be admired by thinkers of all religions and nationalities. (#9)

Joyce Meyer. Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone
Author tackles a lack of self-esteem and the need to please others as a major problem in relationships and offers guidance via Christian belief and values. (#6)

Frank E. Peretti. Monster
Miles away from the hectic city, Reed and Rebecca hike into the beautiful Northwestern woods. They're surrounded by gorgeous mountains, waterfalls, and hundreds of acres of unspoiled wilderness. But something-or someone-begins closing in on them. Something no human has ever seen. And it's killing everyone in its path without remorse. (#7)

July 06, 2005

Go Wild...about Dinosaurs!

Each week during the Summer Reading Program we are featuring something wild. This week's theme is Dinosaurs! There's Dinosaur Reading and Online Fun.

In the Night Room Wins Stoker Award

The 2004 Stoker Awards were presented on July 25, 2005 at the Horror Writers Association annual conference. They are given for superior achievement for works published in the previous year. The Awards are named in honor of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula.

Novel:

Peter Straub. In the Night Room
A famous children's book author, in the wake of a grotesque accident, realizes that the most basic facts of her existence, including her existence itself, have come into question.

Work for Young Readers (tie)

Clive Barker. Abarat
Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed.

Steve Burt. Oddest Yet

The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Michael Moorcock

July 05, 2005

New Bestsellers 7/4/05

The following books are appearing on the best seller lists for the first time this week. Due to an out of town trip, last week, this entry includes last week's new bestsellers; they are noted with an *.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 June 15.

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

Fiction

Lee Child. One Shot *
This astonishing new thriller takes Jack Reacher on his most relentless quest for justice yet. The case isn't what it seems; lives are tangled in baffling ways; and the killer missed one shot--giving Reacher one shot at the truth. (NYT #10, PW #10, WSJ #12)

Pearl Cleage. Babylon Sisters
Catherine Sanderson seems to have it all: a beautiful, intelligent daughter; a successful career; and a lovely home. All of that is in jeopardy because her daughter is looking for her father and BJ, the only man Catherine has ever loved doesn't know about her daughter, and mysteriously, her new employers are interested in her connection wtih BJ. An explosive novel. (E #6)

Janet Evanovich. Eleven on Top
Stephanie Plum has decided to quit her job as a bounty hunter. She wants something safe. She wants something normal. She's tired of creeps, weirdos, and stalkers. Then just when she thinks she's out, they pull her back in. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #1, WSJ #1)

Linda Howard.?Killing Time *
(PW #11, WSJ #8)

Elizabeth Kostova. The Historian *
In this riveting debut novel, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could--the quest to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula. (NYT #1, PW #1, USA #2, WSJ #1)

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Dance of Death *
FBI Special Agent Pendergast is pitted against his most personal foe: His brother, Diogenes, has planned a horrendous crime and is framing Pendergast for a series of terrible murders. (NYT #5, PW #7, WSJ #5)

Adriana Trigiani. Rococo
This is the story of one man and his artistic vision in a place in desperate need of an aesthetic absolute, or, at the very least, a good deal on flocked wallpaper. A strapping, handsome painter energizes the women in the town, galvanizes the faithful, and restores hope where there was none. (NYT #12, PW #11, WSJ #10)

Nonfiction

Buzz Bissinger. Three Nights in August *
A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author captures baseball's strategic and emotional essences through a point-blank account of one three-game series viewed through the keen eyes of legendary manager Tony La Russa. Drawing on unmatched access to a manager and his team, Bissinger brings the same revelatory intimacy to major league baseball that he did to high school football in his classic bestseller, Friday Night Lights. (PW #12)

Brenda Stone Browder. On the Up and Up
J.L. King's groundbreaking "New York Times" bestseller, "On the Down Low," revealed the shocking truth about one man's secret life. Now, readers can discover the other side of the story in this inspiring, informative book by the one woman who can tell it right, the one woman who knows--his ex-wife. (E #5)

THE DEVIL'S TEETH, by Susan Casey. (Henry Holt, $25.) A journalist's account of shark season on the Farallon Islands, off the coast of Northern California. (NYT #15)

LANCE ARMSTRONG'S WAR, by Daniel Coyle. (HarperCollins, $25.95.) How the great cyclist won his sixth Tour de France in 2004. (NYT #13)

J. L. King with Courtney Carreras. Coming Up from the Down Low
In this blockbuster new book, King takes readers to the next level in his exploration of the down-low world by answering the most common questions from the thousands of people he’s met while traveling the country. (E #6)

Edward Klein. The Truth About Hillary
For more than a decade, countless journalists and biographers have struggled to pin down the character of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yet despite all the scrutiny, no one-until now-has explained her many contradictions and deceptions. (NYT #2, PW #4, USA #10, WSJ #4)

Michael Lewis. Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life *
"There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind; it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever." There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis 's ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. "I didn't have words for it then, but I do new: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do." The coach's message was not simply about winning but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and now thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him. (PW #14)

Kevin Trudeau. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About *
Kevin Trudeau blows the lid off a nest of deception and double standards concerning general and individual health in this new book, "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About." Kevin has risked government prosecution to bring you the full story of an intricate conspiracy. (PW #13, WSJ #12)

July 01, 2005

New Books/Movies/Audio Lists Updated

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

2005 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

Looking for a cool book to read this summer? Check out this list of Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers from the Young Adult Services Association. Featured titles include fiction and nonfiction.

Lee Klancher. Monster Garage: How to Customize Damn Near Everything
If you want to get a little taste of what it's like to create your own monster, How To Customize Damn Near Anything is your ticket to the world of custom vehicles. You'll learn the ins and outs of custom painting, engine building, chassis construction, welding, and more.

Suzanne Weyn. Bar Code Tattoo
It's the near future. When you turn seventeen, you get a barcode tattoo. It's a rite of passage. It's the be-all and end-all of identity. Everybody does it. But what if you say no? What if you don't want to become a code? For Kayla, this one choice changes everything. She becomes an outcast in high school. Dangerous things happen to her family. And eventually she finds herself on the run.