Second Son by Lee Child

Did you know that there's a Jack Reacher short story, exclusively available as an eBook? Well, there is, and we've got it!
"Okinawa, 1974. Even at thirteen, Jack Reacher knows how to outwit and overpower anyone who stands in his way. And as the new kid in town, that's pretty much everyone. His family has come to the Pacific with his father, who's preparing for a top-secret Marine Corps operation. After receiving a rude welcome from the local military brats, Reacher and his older brother, Joe, intend to teach them a lesson they won't forget. But it's soon clear that there's more at stake than pride. When his family's future appears to come crumbling down, it's the youngest Reacher who rises to the occasion with all the decisive cunning and bravura that will one day be his deadly trademark."

No phone service on July 28

The City of Red Wing will be upgrading the phone system on Saturday, July 28. As a result, the library will have no phone service that day. However, you'll still be able to contact us from home - just use chat or text! (look over on the left side of the home page to get started).

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch

From Publishers Weekly: "The first novel from German screenwriter Potzsch is a brilliantly-researched and exciting story of a formative era of history when witches were hunted and the inquisitors had little belief in their methods beyond their effect in pacifying superstitious townspeople. Jakob Kuisl, hangman of Schongau, must quickly find the person responsible for the occult murder of the local children and the kidnapping of his eldest daughter, Magdalena. Though the townspeople are convinced the local midwife is the murderer, and a witch, Jakob knows she is innocent and only has days to prove it. Teaming up with the physician's son, Simon, Jakob sets out to save the innocents and bring justice to the murderer, each step bringing him closer to evil and increasing the risk to his daughter and himself. Potzsch, actually descended from a line of hangmen, delivers a fantastically fast-paced read, rife with details on the social and power structures in the town as well as dichotomy between university medicine and the traditional remedies, which are skillfully communicated through character interactions, particularly that of Magdalena and Simon. The shocking motivations from unlikely players provide for a twist that will leave readers admiring this complex tale from a talented new voice."

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

From Publishers Weekly: "In this gripping debut, 11-year-old Julia wakes one day to the news that the earth's rotation has started slowing. The immediate effects-no one at soccer practice; relentless broadcasts of the same bewildered scientists-soon feel banal compared to what unfolds. "The slowing" is growing slower still, and soon both day and night are more than twice as long as they once were. When governments decide to stick to the 24-hour schedule (ignoring circadian rhythms), a subversive movement erupts, "real-timers" who disregard the clock and appear to be weathering the slowing better than clock-timers-at first. Thompson's Julia is the perfect narrator. On the brink of adolescence, she's as concerned with buying her first bra as with the birds falling out of the sky. She wants to be popular as badly as she wants her world to remain familiar. While the apocalypse looms large-has in fact already arrived-the narrative remains fiercely grounded in the surreal and horrifying day-to-day and the personal decisions that persist even though no one knows what to do. A triumph of vision, language, and terrifying momentum, the story also feels eerily plausible, as if the problems we've been worrying about all along pale in comparison to what might actually bring our end."

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

From Library Journal: "Walter's newest book will have readers checking out Richard Burton movies and Cinque Terre guidebooks after marveling at his imagination and spot-on characters. It's 1962, and Dee Moray, an American starlet, has just fled the tumultuous Roman set of Cleopatra to hole up in a dilapidated hotel in an obscure Italian seaside village. Pasquale Tursi, the young proprietor of the Hotel Adequate View, is instantly smitten. Flash-forward 50 years. Claire, the ambitious yet practical young assistant to the once-legendary producer Michael Deane, is enduring another Wild Pitch Friday. A screenwriter desperate to sell his script ("Donner! An epic story of resiliency!") and an older Italian man bearing Deane's tattered business card both appear at Claire's door. Walter expertly traces the lines among these characters, using keen wit and snappy dialog to express the theme that "life was a glorious catastrophe." The pop-culture references and wistful tone will please Nick Hornby fans and build Walter's following. Not to be missed."

Broken Harbor by Tana French

From Publishers Weekly:"Edgar-winner French's eloquently slow-burning fourth Dublin murder squad novel shows her at the top of her game. In a half-built luxury development near Dublin, a family of four is attacked and left for dead, with only the mother clinging to life. For Det. Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, introduced in 2010's Faithful Place, this is a case that makes-or breaks-a career. With his new rookie partner, Det. Richie Curran, Mick arrives soon after Patrick Spain and his two children, six-year-old Emma and three-year-old Jack, are discovered stabbed to death in their home, while mother Jennifer is taken to the hospital. The house, one of the few completed in the Brianstown development, is a bloody mess, and suspicion immediately falls on Patrick, who recently lost his job. The recession figures prominently, as Brianstown-once known as Broken Harbor-was abandoned by contractors when money dried up. Mick's own childhood memories of Broken Harbor are marred by tragedy and intertwined with watching over his mentally unstable sister, Dina. As usual, French excels at drawing out complex character dynamics. "

Newly arrived at the library:

My Afternoons with Margueritte (Rotten Tomatoes rating 84%)

The Artist (Rotten Tomatoes rating 98%)







Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Rotten Tomatoes rating 94%)

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

From Library Journal:"This debut answers the question of whether the rich are different from you and me. The answer is yes, because we wouldn't be caught dead in slacks with whales embroidered on them. Like so many recent movie comedies, the novel takes us into the home-and then the summer home-of a wealthy New England family in the days leading up to a daughter's wedding. We have misbehaving bridesmaids and the bumbling father of the bride, who, in this case, is lusting after one of the bridesmaids. Oh, and the bride is seven months pregnant. But never mind that, her father is beside himself because he can't get a membership in the local country club. The characters are an accumulation of over-the-top WASP-like traits: Harvard educations, social clubs, old money, bigotry, family secrets, and funny nicknames like Winn and Biddy. Shipstead's yeoman prose describes the family's mishaps in cinemagraphic detail."

Book reviews

Ever wish there was a place you could go, a la Rotten Tomatoes, to see reviews of the latest books? Bookmarks Magazine provides, for free, just such a spot on their web site. A great place to check out what's getting a lot of buzz and why!

Sober Cannibals, Drunken Christians: Melville, Kierkegaard, and Tragic Optimism in Polarized Worlds by Jamie Lorentzen

A personal note - my two children were lucky enough to have Jamie Lorentzen as a AP English teacher during their time at Red Wing High School. But not only is he one of the best teachers you will ever run across, he's also a distinguished author and scholar. In his latest book, he discusses how the "writing styles of American writer Herman Melville (1819-1891) and Danish writer Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) complement each other, especially their humor, irony, penchants for paradox, and passions for imagery and poetics. In addition, their works similarly address issues of the world and time. Esthetic, ethical, social, philosophical, and theological paths on which they walk reveal similar footprints. World historical circumstances to which they were responding in their time and to which they continue to respond in our time are not dissimilar. Melville's and Kierkegaard's rebounding echoes reverberate in our highly charged and polarized times, speaking especially to the timeless conundrum of what Kierkegaard calls the disastrous confounding of politics and religion and what Melville calls drunken Christianity-namely, the intoxicated mixing of worldly issues with otherworldly issues without care paid to maintaining necessary ethical distinctions."  - Randy

Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness at Goodyear and Beyond by Lilly Ledbetter

From Publishers Weekly: "In 1998, after Ledbetter had spent 19 grueling years working at a Goodyear plant, an anonymous note showed her that she made 40% less than her male counterparts. So began her decade-long legal battle for equal pay, a story she tells movingly and frankly. After a hardscrabble childhood in a small Alabama community, Ledbetter knew a job at the nearby Goodyear plant meant lifelong financial stability. In 1979 as a manager there, Ledbetter found men reluctant to take orders from a woman, and faced blatant sexual harassment (a performance review ended with a solicitation). Ledbetter tried to take it in stride, but the stress took a mental and physical toll. Goodyear continually transferred her between departments, citing poor performance, but failed to produce evidence when Ledbetter requested it. After discovering the anonymous note, she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, leading to her landmark discrimination lawsuit under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act. While Ledbetter lost the case on appeal (a decision upheld by the Supreme Court), the experience prompted her to become a spokesperson for equal pay. In January 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, a satisfying coda to this inspiring tale."

Apps for book lovers

I frequently get great ideas from library patrons. I was chatting today with Erin, who told me about MyBookDroid, an Android app that allows her to use a smartphone to keep track of books she's read (and would like to read). Scanning a book's ISBN barcode will automatically enter the book data for you and give you access to reviews and price comparisons. There are other similar apps - Goodreads, Book Crawler and Anobii, to name a few, - and if you own a smartphone and love to read, I highly recommend looking into them. I know I will - thanks, Erin! - Randy

The Last Kind Words by Tom Piccirilli

From Publishers Weekly: "At the start of this sharp slice of contemporary noir from Thriller Award-winner Piccirilli, retired second-story-man Terrier Rand, who's been trying to put his family's work as professional thieves behind him while ranching out west, has returned east to see his older brother, Collie. Collie is about to be executed for the cold-blooded murder of eight people five years before, though he claims one of those kills wasn't his. When Terrier starts digging through the evidence, he finds inconsistencies that suggest a serial killer may have been using Collie's killing spree to cover up his own. Piccirilli's mastery of the hard-boiled idiom is pitch perfect, particularly in the repartee between his characters, while the picture he paints of the criminal corruption conjoining the innocent and guilty in a small Long Island community is as persuasive as it is seamy. Readers who like a bleak streak in their crime fiction will enjoy this well-wrought novel."

New at the library!

We're always trying to make library services more convenient for our patrons. One of the most important ways we can do that is by making it easier for you to contact us. So in addition to email and phone, you can now reach us during regular business hours by chat (see the link on the left side of the home page) and by text (651-314-7333). Please give either a try and let us know what you think!

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

From Library Journal: "In the wake of Harkness's best-selling debut, A Discovery of Witches, fans have been im-patiently waiting to discover where Matthew, the vampire geneticist, and Diana, the witch historian, landed when they "stepped into the unknown" at that novel's cliff-hanging close. Now in Elizabethan England, they are hunting an enchanted alchemical manuscript. At the same time, Diana must continue her magic education and Matthew reunites with friends, including Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh. New readers should start with the first book, as the sequel seamlessly continues the adventures of the scholarly pair and because of the author's detailed world building and complex story line. The characterizations of 16th-century Oxfordshire with a paranormal twist (Marlowe is a gay daemon, for example) add a historical richness to the epic, while the plot sets readers up for the culminating struggle anticipated in the trilogy's final book."

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

From Publishers Weekly: "Auggie Pullman was born with severe facial deformities-no outer ears, eyes in the wrong place, his skin "melted"-and he's learned to steel himself against the horrified reactions he produces in strangers. Now, after years of homeschooling, his parents have enrolled him in fifth grade. In short chapters told from various first-person perspectives, debut author Palacio sketches his challenging but triumphant year. Though he has some expectedly horrible experiences at school, Auggie has lucked out with the adults in his life-his parents love him unconditionally, and his principal and teachers value kindness over all other qualities. While one bully manages, temporarily, to turn most of Auggie's classmates against him, good wins out. Few first novels pack more of a punch: it's a rare story with the power to open eyes-and hearts-to what it's like to be singled out for a difference you can't control, when all you want is to be just another face in the crowd."

The King's Blood by Daniel Abraham

From Library Journal: "Simeon, Emperor of Antea, has died, leaving his throne to his son Aster, who is still a boy, and the regency to Geder Palliako, an accidental war hero who prefers philosophy and books to human contact. When an act of diplomacy goes wrong, war breaks out between the Severed Empire and the land of Asterilhold, and it falls to the Empire's true protectors-individuals who stand outside the circle of power-to save the kingdom. In the meantime, Cithrin bel Sarcour, the voice of the Medean Bank in Porte Oliva, seeks a way to prove she deserves to be more than a figurehead and enlists the aid of guard captain Marcus Wester and a group of traveling players who have assisted her in the past. This sequel to The Dragon's Path manages to advance a complex and byzantine plot while leaving enough loose threads to carry into future installments. Abraham's multidimensional characters represent a fascinating cross section of late medieval/Renaissance society."

From Library Journal: "Forty years after the Beatles broke up and 30 years after John Lennon's death, interest in the band and their music remains undiminished. Author and journalist Riley presents an exhaustive and thorough look at Lennon's life, psyche, and music from his boyhood in Liverpool to his murder in 1980. Moving from dockside clubs in Hamburg, Germany, to increasingly intricate recording sessions, and, ultimately, to the rancor during the group's dissolution and Lennon's subsequent solo years, Riley profiles Lennon's musical growth, increased political activism, and complex relationships with Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. Especially illuminating are sections on Lennon's pre-Beatle life and discussions of Lennon and Ono's place at the intersection of performance pop art and social engagement. Based on conversations with Lennon associates as well as published source material, memoirs, and interviews, Riley's book is a balanced biography as well as a fascinating critical assessment of Lennon's music and his place in the culture."