Holiday closings

The library will be closed for the New Year's holiday on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. We'll see you next year - have a happy New Year!

Best of 2010

It's that time of year when it seems everybody is publishing "Best of 2010" lists. Here's a few noteworthy ones:

Audiofile's Best Audiobooks of 2010
Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of 2010
The Seattle Times 27 Best Books of 2010
Barnes & Noble Editors' Picks for 2010
Kirkus Reviews Best Mysteries of 2010

Happy browsing!

As a former San Franciscan, I couldn't help but plug this new book: Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge. The Washington Post wrote that the author "eloquently retraces this industrial achievement from planning and construction up to the present day with its $6-and-up tolls. He tells the story behind each of the bridge's masterminds -- the bankers, builders, egos and engineers -- and also devotes a whole chapter to a tragic side of the bridge's history as a frequent site of Bay area suicides." Well worth a read (and even better, a visit!). - Randy Decker

After tackling such topics as the fate of cadavers (Stiff), the existence of ghosts (Spook), and sex in scientific research (Bonk), Mary Roach settles her gaze on the not-so-glamorous lives of astronauts, their training, and the quirky experiments performed in the name of space science. Roach's research sends her into the archives and into zero-gee flight in order to find answers to such questions as what happens when an astronaut vomits in his/her helmet, and whether or not it is feasible, or even possible, to have sex in a gravity-free environment. As informative as it is funny, this book will appeal to space enthusiasts, trivia whizzes, and anyone out for a good laugh.

Holiday closings

The library will be closed for the holidays on Dec. 23, 24 and 25. We'll see you on Monday, Dec. 27. Happy holidays!

...come the Kirkus Reviews list of the best Zombie and Vampire books of 2010. The most unusual of the bunch (and that's saying something!) is Paul is Undead, a tale of the British (zombie) Invasion of the 1960s. Publishers Weekly called it a "humor-filled splatterfest in which the rise and fall of the zombie Beatles unfolds through eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings, and interviews. Roughly paralleling the real-world career of the Beatles, this alternate history reimagines successes, failures, and rivalries with over-the-top bizarro charm." Check it out!

New from Tom Clancy!

For years, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus have waged an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorists who threaten western civilization. The most dangerous of these is the Emir. This sadistic killer has masterminded the most vicious attacks on the west and has eluded capture by the world's law enforcement agencies. Now the Campus is on his trail. Joined by their latest recruits, John Clark and Ding Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his cousins, Dominick and Brian Caruso, are determined to catch the Emir and they will bring him in . . . dead or alive.

Great book for teens you may have missed

From Publishers Weekly: "Beautiful, popular Samantha and her three best friends are the ruthless queen bees of their high school. But Samantha is living a nightmare: throughout the book, she relives the day of her death seven times, with some dramatic alterations and revelations depending on her choices. She faces the often tragic consequences of even the smallest acts, awakens to the casual cruelties all around her, and tries to get things right and maybe even redeem herself. If this sounds too much like a Groundhog Day-style plot, make no mistake: evocative of Jenny Downham's Before I Die, Oliver's debut novel is raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful. Samantha's best friends are funny, likable, and maddening, but readers will love Samantha best as she hurtles toward an end as brave as it is heartbreaking."

Grand unveiling of new children's area mural

Come see the fantastic mezzanine mural completed by artist Greg Preslicka! On Monday, December 20 from 4-7 pm you'll be able to meet Greg, see the new mural and enjoy the cookies and juice provided by the Friends of the Library.

This project is funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, sponsored by SELCO in cooperation with the Red Wing Public Library.

From Publishers Weekly: "Winchester, bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, returns to the natural world with his epic new book, a "biography" of the Atlantic Ocean, from its origins 370 million years ago through the population of its shores by humanity and their interactions with it. He sees the Atlantic as the vital ingredient in the blooming of Western civilization. He scrutinizes the early explorations from the Vikings and Norsemen through Columbus, detailing the perils of the open sea. With his excellent research and engrossing anecdotes about the ocean as "a living thing," Winchester spotlights its inspiration on poets, painters, and writers in its majestic beauty. Winchester's sea saga is necessary reading for those who want to understand the planet better, even as, he notes, our waters are rapidly changing from pollution, overfishing, and climate change."

From Publishers Weekly: "Veteran Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal) shows once again he's a master of the political thriller by taking a simple but completely original idea and turning it into a compelling story. The unnamed Obama-like U.S. president, disgusted by the horrors wrought by illegal drug trafficking, decides to bring the entire weight and resources of the federal government against the international cocaine trade. He first declares drug traders and their cartels to be terrorists, subjecting them to new and extensive legal procedures, then he brings in ex-CIA director Paul Devereaux to head the team that will implement the effort. Devereaux, known as the Cobra from his operations days, is old school-smart, ruthless, unrelenting, and bestowed by the president with free rein to call in any arm of the government. Forsyth lays out how it would all work, and readers will follow eagerly along, always thinking, yes, why don't they do this in real life? The answer to that question lies at the heart of this forceful, suspenseful, intelligent novel."

If you like mysteries featuring tough guy (and gal!) private eyes, then check out our list of 25 Great Private Eye/Tough Guy Books! Ranging from classics such as Raymond Chandler to the masters of modern noir such as Dennis Lehane, you are sure to find something you like.

A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism. The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope. To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best: poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying. In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. Augusten Burroughs called Unbearable Lightness “possibly the best book on the subject ever written. De Rossi is the real deal, a fine writer with a sharp mind and substance. This rich, layered book of remarkable courage, power, and significance will serve as life-changing inspiration for many.”

Scandinavian crime fiction

Stieg Larsson, who died in 2004 at the age of 50, was a Swedish journalist and writer, best known for writing the Millennium Trilogy of crime novels (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), published after his death. His novels helped create a demand in the US for other Scandinavian crime fiction. If you liked his books and are looking for books with a similar setting and/or tone, check out our If You Like Stieg Larsson booklist (and come to the next meeting our our Read-A-Likes book club!)

New Christmas music at the library

40 Most Beautiful Christmas Classics (Chanticleer)




A Christmas Caroll from Westminster Abbey (The Choir of Westminster Abbey)



I Sing the Birth (New York Polyphony)

If you like Janet Evanovich...

...you should try Minnesota author Lois Greiman's Christina McMullen series, starting with Unzipped. When her most famous client, football star "Bomber" Bomstad, suddenly drops dead while making an unwanted pass, cocktail-waitress-turned-shrink Chrissy McMullen finds herself the target of Jack Rivera, a no-nonsense detective who is sure that the sexy psychotherapist has been up to some most unethical behavior. Reviewers called it "a snappy, funny whodunit." Check it out!

Social networking comes to books

Social networking (think Facebook) has arrived in a big way for book lovers! GoodReads, LibraryThing and Shelfari are all great ways to keep track of your books and reading. You can also see what other people are reading, get recommendations, read reviews, join online discussions and more!

Great mystery series you may have missed

For those who like hard boiled private investigator mysteries, it doesn't get much better than Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro series. You may be familiar with a movie made from one of his books - the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone directed by Ben Affleck. It was a critical and commerical smash - but the books are even better. Here's how BookList describes the first book in the series, A Drink Before the War: "Play-rough, talk-tough Patrick Kenzie and smart, feisty Angie Gennaro don't take no lip from nobody when they're on a hot case, and their latest is hot all right. When two well-known U.S. senators ask Patrick and Angie to recover some confidential documents they believe were stolen from their office by cleaning woman Jenna Angeline, the detectives think their job will be a piece of cake: find the woman, tell the senators where she is, and let them take it from there. But of course, the case isn't that easy, and before they're finished, Patrick and Angie tackle gang warfare, corruption, prostitution, blackmail, and murder. Lehane offers slick, hip, sparkling dialogue that's as good as it gets, a plot that rockets along at warp speed, and the wonderfully original, in-your-face crime-solving duo of Kenzie and Gennaro."