2011 Minnesota Book Award Winner

Let me begin today, illumined by Thy light, to destroy this part of the natural man which lives in me in its entirety, the obstacle that constantly keeps me from Thy Love.Taught this prayer as a boy by his grandfather, James Dressler recites it each time he’s tempted by earthly desires. Originally drawn to the priesthood by the mystery, purity, and sensual fabric of the Church, as well as by its promise of a safe harbor from his tempestuous home, James finds himself — just a few years after his ordination — attracted again to his first love, Betty García. Torn between these opposing desires, and haunted by his familial heritage, James finds himself at a crossroads. Exploring age-old and yet urgently contemporary issues in the Catholic Church, and infused throughout by a rich sense of the history and vibrant texture of St. Paul, and infused throughout by a rich sense of the history and vibrant texture of St. Paul, Vestments is an utterly honest and subtly lyrical novel.

From Publishers Weekly: "Thompson's stellar second thriller featuring Insp. Kari Vaara (after Snow Angels) finds Vaara working as a homicide detective in Helsinki, where he investigates the murder of Iisa Filippov. While Vaara suspects the victim's Russian husband, Ivan, he can't touch Ivan because the Russian is well connected within the police department. Vaara also looks into international accusations of war crimes against a Finnish national hero, 90-year-old Arvid Lahtinen, who allegedly executed Jews and other POWs at a secret Finnish stalag during WWII. But he soon learns that not only did his own grandfather serve in the same unit but the stalag is just one of the wartime secrets Lahtinen is hiding that are potentially embarrassing to the Finnish government. Thompson elegantly threads Finland's compelling national history with Vaara's own demons in this taut, emotionally wrought novel.

Teens' Top Ten nominees announced

Teens' Top Ten is an annual 'best books of the year' list, but nominated and chosen by teens themselves. Check out the 25 nominees and then come check them out at the library!

2011 Hugo Award Nominees

The Hugo Award is the leading award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. The 5 nominees for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel are:


Blackout by Connie Willis








Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold








The Dervish House by Ian McDonald








Feed by Mira Grant









The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Barnes & Noble updates the NookColor

We know from our conversations with patrons that many of our eBook users own a NookColor. Barnes & Noble has just released a software update that turns your NookColor into something close to a tablet computer. Among the new features are an expanded repertoire of apps, a better browser, enhanced reading experience and more - definitely worth a look (and a download) for NookColor owners.

What better way to spend Earth Day than by reading about Earth...and beyond. Way way way beyond. As Publishers Weekly wrote, ""There was a time when 'universe' meant 'all there is,' " writes Greene, but soon we may have to redefine that word, along with our own meager understanding of the cosmos. A theoretical physicist and celebrated author, Greene offers intrepid readers another in-depth yet marvelously accessible look inside the perplexing world of modern theoretical physics and cosmology. The possibility of other universes existing alongside our own like holes in "a gigantic block of Swiss cheese" seems more likely every day. Beginning with relativity theory, the Big Bang, and our expanding universe, Greene introduces first the mind-blowing multiplicity of forms those parallel universes might take, from patchwork quilts or stretchy "branes" to landscapes and holograms riddled with black holes. With his inspired analogies starring everyone from South Park's Eric Cartman to Ms. Pac-Man and a can of Pringles, Greene presents a lucid, intriguing, and triumphantly understandable state-of-the-art look at the universe."

From the Barnes & Noble Review: "In her acceptance speech for Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Tina Fey announced that she was proud to make her home in "the 'not-real America'." It is perhaps that healthy sense of incongruity that makes the head writer, executive producer, and star of NBC's Emmy Award-winning 30 Rock such a cogent observer of the contemporary scene. Bossypants, her entertaining new memoir, shows that strangeness has been her constant companion. Fey's stories about her childhood in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania are only appetizers for LOL forays into her college disasters, honeymoon catastrophes, and Saturday Night Live shenanigans. Most funny read of the month; the best possible weekend update."

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. There have been a spate of new books commemorating the occasion, and one of the best is The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It. Library Journal wrote "[d]rawing on diaries, letters, speeches, newspaper reports and editorials, memoirs, songs, poems, and other sources, the editors bring together a rich variety of voices relating or remembering the crisis of the Union from Lincoln's election in 1860 through the first year of war. Running through these accounts is white Southerners' certainty in the right of secession and their right to undertake war to defend slavery's interest and white man's liberty, as is the certainty of Northerners in the right and necessity of saving the Union by whatever means to continue the great experiment in self-government. At the same time, confusion and doubt reign as contemporaries worry about how to achieve their ends and whom to trust to do so. Readable and riveting."

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. One of the New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2010. One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR's On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

New DVDs

Newly arrived at the library:


How I Ended This Summer (Rotten Tomatoes rating 81%)





127 Hours (Rotten Tomatoes rating 93%)






Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story

With Spousonomics, Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson offer something new: a clear-eyed, rational route to demystifying your disagreements and improving your relationship. The key, they propose, is to think like an economist. That's right: an economist. Economics is the study of resource allocation, after all. How do we - as partners in a society, a business, or a marriage - spend our limited time, money, and energy? And how do we allocate these resources most efficiently? Spousonomics answers these questions by taking classic economic concepts and applying them to the domestic front. Spousonomics cuts through the noise of emotions, egos, and tired relationship clichés. Here, at last, is a smart, funny, refreshingly realistic, and deeply researched book that brings us one giant leap closer to solving the age-old riddle of a happy, healthy marriage.

From The New York Times: 'Conventional wisdom, sports division, takes a beating in Scorecasting, a book aimed at unsettling serious fans with essays that debunk ingrained strategy…malign the approach of champion athletes…and offer a number of otherwise eye-opening assertions…For their arguments, the authors…have whipped up a recipe that includes statistical analysis, psychological theory, creative sociology and a brash confidence in circumstantial evidence…the results are alternately irritating, vexing, provocative and entertaining—and convincing more often than not. Indeed, for most readers the fun will involve sputtering "But, but, but… and mustering counterarguments." Check it out and let the arguing begin!

Glutton, demon of destruction, symbol of slaughter, mightiest of wilderness villains: The wolverine comes marked with a reputation based on myth and fancy. Yet this enigmatic animal is more complex than the legends that surround it. With a shrinking wilderness and global warming, the future of the wolverine is uncertain. The Wolverine Way reveals the natural history of this species and the forces that threaten its future, engagingly told by Douglas Chadwick, who volunteered with the Glacier Wolverine Project. This five-year study in Glacier National Park - which involved dealing with blizzards, grizzlies, sheer mountain walls, and other daily challenges to survival - uncovered key missing information about the wolverine's habitat, social structure and reproduction habits. Check it out!

hart

From Library Journal: "Suffering from the recent death of his wife and haunted by the images of ghosts reliving their deaths over and over, Nicholas Close returns from London to his childhood home in Australia. But his steps are dogged by murders reminiscent of those that happened when he was a boy. Nicholas's childhood and adult fears collide as he races to uncover the evil stalking his hometown and family. VERDICT Exploring the dark corners where childhood nightmares become adult terror, this debut novel by an Australian filmmaker and screenwriter is a ghost story to please murder mystery and horror fans alike, as well as John Saul and Peter Straub fans. Memorable characters, beautifully crafted writing, and an adept hand at storytelling will have readers begging for Irwin's next book."

From Publishers Weekly: "In this moody and spine-shivering sequel to 2009's Elfland, Warrington takes readers deeper into the workings of the Aetherials, the magical beings who live in the Spiral, and the Vaethyr, who flit between the Spiral and Earth. World-famous sculptor Dame Juliana Flagg lives in Cairndonan, a dilapidated mansion in the highlands of northwest Scotland. Dame J can barely afford to care for herself, much less the mansion and grounds, but she can't tear herself away from the haunting, haunted place. Her uncle mysteriously disappeared from Cairndonan just after WWI, never to be seen again. Sometimes Dame J makes eerie sculptures that she can't bear to show or sell. Is the magic of Cairndonan connected to the malevolent, quasi-mythical Dunkelman? Warrington doesn't miss a beat with this sinister, ghostly tale of some of the darker aspects of the Aetherial world and its denizens' dealings with humanity."

New DVD from the PBS show Nature

Crows do not have the best of reputations. They are generally dismissed as spooky - Hitchcock used them quite successfully to frighten moviegoers, or as a general nuisance - scarecrows were after all invented to scare crows away from crops. But their image is about to take a real turn. New research has shown they are among the most intelligent animals in the world, able to use tools as only elephants and chimpanzees do, able to recognize each other's voices and 250 distinct calls. They are very social, mate for life, and raise their young for up to five years. And they are able to recognize individual humans and pick them out of a crowd up to two years later. Crow experts from around the world sing their praises, and present us with captivating new footage of crows as we have never seen them before.

From Publishers Weekly: "Veteran journalists Kovach and Rosenstiel begin their intelligent and well-written guidebook by assuring readers this is not unfamiliar territory. The printing press, the telegraph, radio, and television were once just as unsettling and disruptive as today's Internet, blogs, and Twitter posts. But the rules have changed. The gatekeepers of information are disappearing. Everyone must become editors assuming the responsibility for testing evidence and checking sources presented in news stories, deciding what's important to know, and whether the material is reliable and complete. Utilizing a set of systemic questions that the authors label "the way of skeptical knowing," Kovach and Rosenstiel provide a roadmap for maintaining a steady course through our messy media landscape. As the authors entertainingly define and deconstruct the journalism of verification, assertion, affirmation, and interest group news, readers gain the analytical skills necessary for understanding this new terrain. "The real information gap in the 21st century is not who has access to the Internet and who does not. It is the gap between people who have the skills to create knowledge and those who are simply in a process of affirming preconceptions without growing and learning." Check it out!

25 Great Biographies

If you're a fan of reading biographies, check out our new booklist, 25 Great Biographies, Autobiographies & Memoirs. There's something for everyone: actors, scientists, athletes, politcians, historical figures, singers and much more. Check it out!

Winner of the 2010 National Book Award for Fiction

A brilliant novel that captures the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing, where trainers, jockeys, grooms and grifters vie for what little luck is offered at a run-down West Virginia track. Tommy Hansel has a plan: run four horses, all better than they look on paper, at long odds at Indian Mound Downs, then grab the purse—or cash a bet—and run before anyone’s the wiser. At his side is Maggie Koderer, who finds herself powerfully drawn to the gorgeous, used up animals of the cheap track. She also lands in the cross-hairs of leading trainer Joe Dale Bigg. But as news of Tommy’s plan spreads, from veteran groom Medicine Ed, to loan shark Two-Tie, to Kidstuff the blacksmith, it’s Maggie, not Tommy or the handlers of legendary stakes horse Lord of Misrule, who will find what's valuable in a world where everything has a price.

The last Kurt Wallander novel?

From Library Journal: "Mankell returns to his beloved detective Kurt Wallander in this tenth and possibly final installment of the best-selling series. Wallander delights in the birth of his first grandchild and enjoys the company of his daughter, Linda, but struggles with his role as an older and increasingly forgetful investigator for the Ystad Police. When the parents of Linda's partner go missing, Wallander finds himself deep in a decades-old mystery involving foreign spies, submarines, and Cold War politics. He strives to understand the complexities of the case while also dealing with the loneliness of old age, the sadness of friends' passing, and an alarming tendency to forget where he is and what he's doing. Wallander might be aging, but Mankell is dead on in crafting an intricate plotline equal to the skills and insight of his famous detective. This is essential for fans of the series, and it succeeds as a stand-alone in the crowded field of dark, psychological Scandinavian thrillers."