America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't by Stephen Colbert

I could have put a book review here, but I think Colbert's summary of the book is way more entertaining: "Book store nation, in the history of mankind there has never been a greater country than America. You could say we're the #1 nation at being the best at greatness. But as perfect as America is in every single way, America is broken! And we can't exchange it because we're 236 years past the 30-day return window. Look around--we don't make anything anymore, we've mortgaged our future to China, and the Apologist-in-Chief goes on world tours just to bow before foreign leaders. Worse, the L.A.Four Seasons Hotel doesn't even have a dedicated phone button for the Spa. You have to dial an extension! Where did we lose our way?! It's high time we restored America to the greatness it never lost! Luckily, AMERICA AGAIN will single bookedly pull this country back from the brink... [T]he dose of truth [America] needs to get back on track." -Randy

The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr

From the Barnes and Noble Review: "Where, oh where has Caleb Carr been? After triumphs that began with the 1994 bestseller The Alienist, he stopped publishing fiction after The Italian Secretary of 2005. Like its predecessors, The Legend of Broken combines Carr's consummate storytelling powers with his willingness to defy easy expectations. Set in the fortress of Broken in medieval Germany, the fiction pits the kingdom's brave defenders, attackers, and those with their own agendas against one another. Exhilarating and multilayered, the novel exhibits the author's talent at presenting full-bodied characters in unfamiliar historical settings. A talented writer back on the map; editor's recommendation."

The Broken Ones by Stephen Irwin

From Library Journal: "The world is reeling from a natural disaster that occurred a few years earlier. In just one day, Earth's poles shifted to affect climate, agriculture, and governmental infrastructure and setting off a global economic crisis. This event is known as Gray Wednesday, the day when the spectral and living worlds became one. Set in Australia, Irwin's (The Dead Path) novel is a dystopian tale of crime and the supernatural. Each person is haunted by a ghost, someone from his or her past. However, the identity of the ghost that haunts Det. Oscar Mariani is unknown to him. Mariani is no typical cop: he works only with those who claim to have committed their crimes-murders-at the direction of their ghosts. In a haunted world, Mariani must track down a serial killer who is murdering young women and mutilating their bodies with cryptic occult symbols. Genre-bending and imaginative, Irwin's sophomore novel is part fantasy, part supernatural crime thriller. Similar in style and content to the works of Cherie Priest and Richard Matheson, this will appeal to a variety of genre readers who enjoy intelligent fiction that pushes boundaries."

How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue

From Publishers Weekly: "Donohue's sweet debut is a clever exploration of how a West Coast mean girl grows up and gives in to friendship, love, and dozens of delicious cupcakes. Julia St. Clair, a spoiled and pampered Pacific Heights princess, returns home to marry and comes face-to-face with childhood playmate Annie Quintana, daughter of the St. Clair family's Ecuadoran cook and now a rising pastry chef. In high school, Julia cruelly betrayed Annie just before Annie's mother died under mysterious circumstances. After Annie caters a charity event at the mansion where she grew up, the two 28-year-olds reconnect, and Annie accepts Julia's offer to go into business with a cupcake shop. Julia's handsome ex-beau Jake muscles his way between the old friends as they tentatively try to forgive, forget, and get rich-if a sinister stalker doesn't destroy their successful cupcakery first. While the revenge-fueled thriller plays out, Julia finally reveals a dark secret to Annie and begins to embrace the love of her long-suffering fiance, while Annie finds a crazy love of her own with a pompous produce farmer. Donohue's culinary romantic thriller will keep readers hungry for more."

Great book you may have missed: My Cat, Spit McGee by Willie Morris

From Booklist: "The former editor in chief of Harper's magazine follows his 1995 boy-and-his-dog memoir, My Dog Skip, with an equally moving account of the cat he owned in adulthood, who traveled under the name Spit McGee. Of course, one does not "own" a cat, and Morris "owns up" to that fact as well as the fact that until he fell under the spell of Spit McGee, he did not consider himself a cat person in the least. But it was Morris "who actually delivered him at birth, and [has] saved his life four times." Now Spit is eight years old, and he and Morris are pretty tight. Morris talks about the entire story of their association and muses over typical feline traits, such as their dining habits and their adoration of new things to explore, and he makes general comments on feline-human history. Like the previous book about his dog, this one is particularly poignant without being maudlin. You've read pet books before but never one as meaningfully or even beautifully written as this one and its predecessor."

Author visit

The Red Wing Public Library and the Friends of the Library are pleased to present award winning Minnesota author Greg Breining. His most recent book is Paddle North: Canoeing the Boundary Waters-Quetico Wilderness. He will be speaking in the Library's Foot Room at 10:00am on Saturday, November 24. The program is free and open to the public. Please come join us!

The Panther by Nelson DeMille

From Booklist: " This gripping thriller (set early in 2004) finds antiterrorist agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, joining an investigative team in Yemen. Their stated mission: to continue looking into the suicide bombing of the USS Cole, the military vessel that was attacked by al-Qaeda in the port of Aden three-and-a-half years earlier. Their unstated mission: to bring to justice the mastermind of the Cole bombing, the man known as the Panther. As with previous Corey novels, the book balances suspense and action with humor: Corey relates the story in the first person, spicing his narrative with witty or sarcastic asides and other entertaining verbal meanderings, as though he’s telling us the story at a far remove, when the tense and potentially deadly events of the mission have been tempered by time and distance. Packed as usual with memorable characters (including one who’s starred in a couple of his own DeMille novels), political commentary, gritty atmosphere, and action, the book will be gobbled up by the author’s many fans, but readers unfamiliar with DeMille’s work (if there still are any) should be steered in its direction, too. It’s a first-class thriller, regardless of whether John Corey is the reader’s old friend or a new acquaintance."

Happy Thanksgiving!

The library will be closed on Thursday, November 22 due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday. We will be open our regular hours on Friday (10am-6pm) and Saturday (9am-3pm).

Holiday Stroll Stories with the Red Wing Royal Ambassadors

Come join the 2012 Red Wing Royal Ambassadors as they read holiday stories before the Holiday Stroll parade! Friday, November 23 at 4:00pm in the story well. The event is free and open to the public - no registration is required. Happy Holidays!

Mountains of the Moon by I. J. Kay

From Library Journal: "Kay's first novel follows the tragic life of Lulu, a character whose name changes with the circumstances of her existence. The story begins with Lulu's release from prison after a decade of internment. Despite her history, Lulu approaches one dire situation after the next with a trusting, almost guileless outlook. Those who can empathize with Kay's damaged character will applaud her journey to the Mountains of the Moon in central Africa and her lifelong battle to rise above her past. The reader should be aware that Kay's narrative often shifts without warning between past and present, creating a storyline that can be difficult to follow. This is a challenging novel. The flashbacks and staccato sentence structure contribute to a chaotic tone. However, the book will appeal to readers drawn to unconventional works."

Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys - the Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance by Lisa Alther

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "Well researched and finely written...Alther goes beyond the bloody facts, showing how utterly American the feud was, and how it reverberates yet today...But the best part is tracking the bloodstained characters through their astounding, outrageous lives. Lots of photographs spice things up even more.""

This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz (winner of the 2012 National Book Award for fiction)

From Publishers Weekly: "Decisively back in the form that permanently etched his name onto a list of unforgettable writers, Diaz brings life to the short story with a voice that demands attention. Often caught between hopeless romanticism and flippant machismo, Diaz's characters are as vulnerable and maddening as they are endearing and sexy. Among other familiar voices in this collection, Yunior reappears, older but not necessarily wiser, particularly as his once invincible brother Rafa struggles with cancer and everything else it means to be sick, poor, and uninsured. But as the title reveals, the beautiful, defiant, and impossible ladies that claw away at Yunior's soul drive this book. As before, Diaz's searing, sometimes hilarious, and always disarming language holds everything together with just enough of a sense that it all could fall to pieces in the process-if it hasn't already. Drown inspired an entire generation of imitators and with this collection, readers will remember why everyone wants to write like Diaz, bring him home, or both. Raw and honest, these stories pulsate with raspy ghetto hip-hop and the subtler yet more vital echo of the human heart."

The Brothers Grimm

It's been 200 years since the brothers Grimm first published their Children's Stories and Household Tales. Marking the anniversary are two wonderful new collections of their tales: The Annotated Brothers Grimm (The Bicentennial Edition), edited by Maria Tatar and Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version, edited by Phillip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass. Well worth a look!

New DVDs

Just arrived at the library (Rotten Tomatoes 90% and up edition...):

The Avengers (Rotten Tomatoes rating 92%)

Bernie (Rotten Tomatoes rating 92%)







Being John Malkovich (Rotten Tomatoes rating 93%)







The Last of the Mohicans (Rotten Tomatoes rating 97%)







The Best of Youth (Rotten Tomatoes rating 95%)

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

From Publishers Weekly: "This moving debut from Powers (a former Army machine gunner) is a study of combat, guilt, and friendship forged under fire. Pvt. John Bartle, 21, and Pvt. Daniel Murphy, 18, meet at Fort Dix, N.J., where Bartle is assigned to watch over Murphy. The duo is deployed to Iraq, and the novel alternates between the men's war zone experiences and Bartle's life after returning home. Early on, it emerges that Murphy has been killed; Bartle is haunted by guilt, and the details of Murphy's death surface slowly. Powers writes gripping battle scenes, and his portrait of male friendship, while cheerless, is deeply felt. As a poet, the author's prose is ambitious, which sets his treatment of the theme apart-as in this musing from Bartle: "though it's hard to get close to saying what the heart is, it must at least be that which rushes to spill out of those parentheses which were the beginning and end of my war." The sparse scene where Bartle finally recounts Murphy's fate is masterful and Powers's style and story are haunting."

Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor by Hali Felt

From Library Journal: "After reading an obituary of cartographer Marie Tharp, Felt became intrigued by this "forgotten" woman of the 20th century. In an era when women were relegated to being secretaries, Tharp, who earned a master's degree in geology, was hired as a research assistant in 1948 at Columbia University's Lamont Geological Observatory to assist mainly male graduate students with their research. She began working with Bruce Heezen, a graduate student and later Tharp's partner, interpreting soundings data (records of sonar pings measuring the ocean's depth) compiled from his ocean expeditions. Using Heezen's data, Tharp plotted and created the first maps of the ocean floor, which laid the groundwork for proving the then controversial theory of continental drift. Some consider her maps one of the most remarkable achievements in modern cartography, and Felt's biography brings her contributions to life."

Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris

From Library Journal: "In this sequel to Harris's wonderful Chocolat and The Girl with No Shadow, Vianne Rocher and her daughters, Anouk and Rosette, return to the village of Lansquenet after receiving a mysterious letter that alludes to brewing troubles and asks Vianne for help. A growing Muslim community has taken over the derelict shanties across the river, filled the air with the scent of exotic spices, and built a minaret. The traditionalist French residents are disturbed and afraid. Vianne's chocolate shop, turned into a school for Muslim girls, has been torched and Father Francis Reynaud accused of the crime. Once her nemesis, Father Francis is at the heart of the turmoil that is fragmenting the village. Is he the real villain? Can Vianne work her magic again and reunite the community? Harris's skill at vibrantly depicting the charm and eccentricity of rural French life is at the heart of this delightful novel. Harris has used this story as a plea for tolerance and understanding, but her message is not the least pedantic. Fans of the first two books will delight in becoming reacquainted with Vianne, her dashing man, Roux, and her clever daughters."

The Prophet by Michael Koryta

From Library Journal: "Brothers Adam and Kent Austin have been estranged for years over the events that led to their sister's murder while they were in high school. Each, in his own way and for his own reasons, has chosen to associate with criminals in his adult life. Adam is a bail bondsman; Kent is the local high school football coach who serves as part-time spiritual counselor in a nearby prison. The murder of a teenage girl that mirrors their sister's killing and that seems to implicate them reunites the Austin siblings. As local police and the FBI work to solve the case, the brothers' feelings of family loyalty and need result in a tenuous love-hate relationship that leads to mistrust, misjudgment, and disaster. Koryta's latest thriller powerfully portrays the angst of the dysfunctional family stretched to the breaking point by blame and guilt. The tension and suspense is relieved only by scenes depicting Kent's football team in fierce combat at the state finals. Gut-wrenching at every level."

It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein

From the publisher: "Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein identify two overriding problems that have led Congress - and the United States - to the brink of institutional collapse. The first is the serious mismatch between our political parties, which have become as vehemently adversarial as parliamentary parties, and a governing system that, unlike a parliamentary democracy, makes it extremely difficult for majorities to act. Second, while both parties participate in tribal warfare,both sides are not equally culpable. The political system faces what the authors call 'asymmetric polarization,' with the Republican Party implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the Democrats politically, no matter the cost. With dysfunction rooted in long-term political trends, a coarsened political culture and a new partisan media, the authors conclude that there is no 'silver bullet' reform that can solve everything. But they offer a panoply of useful ideas and reforms, endorsing some solutions, like greater public participation and institutional restructuring of the House and Senate, while debunking others, like independent or third-party candidates. Above all, they call on the media as well asthe public at large to focus on the true causes of dysfunction rather than just throwing the bums out every election cycle. Until voters learn to act strategically to reward problem solving and punish obstruction, American democracy will remain in serious danger."

Great mystery series you may have missed

Twenty-one books to date and still going strong, Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series, set in Venice, entertains both as mysteries and as a guide to Venice and Italian society. Of the latest, Library Journal says "Leon's 21st Commissario Guido Brunetti mystery begins with the discovery of a corpse in one of Venice's canals. The victim had been stabbed and suffered from a disfiguring disease, and Brunetti feels that he has seen this man before. As the investigation progresses, Brunetti is forced to follow leads in the unfamiliar territory of the Italian mainland, for that is where the dead man, eventually identified as a veterinarian, lived and worked. Brunetti must navigate among powerful families and corporate interests to unravel the dark motives behind this murder. Followers of the series and lovers of Venice will appreciate Leon's fascinating details of life in this unique city; she also includes some pointed asides about the current European financial crisis and its origins. This is a strong series entry, but newcomers should probably start earlier in the series to familiarize themselves with recurring characters." I agree! Start at the beginning and you're in for an extended treat. -Randy