The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

From Library Journal: "Schwalbe and his mother, Mary Anne, always had a bond forged with books, and after she was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, they strengthened that bond by forming a "book club" together. Throughout this memoir, Schwalbe and his mother discuss characters and themes from the books they read, and Schwalbe considers these same characters and themes in relation to his mother, who, as an administrator at Harvard and the Dalton School in New York City and a widely admired humanitarian, tirelessly strove to help others. In the process, Schwalbe shows why books were so important to him and his mother: they introduce readers to new worlds and fabulous characters while, at the same time, they help explain the world in which the readers themselves live. This book will bring tears to readers' eyes-it is an essential title for lovers of memoir. Recommended for anyone who enjoys books about mothers and sons, books about the love of books, and books about the strength of families."

Library closed for the holidays

The library will be closed from December 24-25. We will be open our normal hours on Wednesday, December 26 (10-7pm). Happy holidays!

Death at SeaWorld by David Kirby

From Publishers Weekly: "Journalist Kirby offers another passionate industry expose, focusing on SeaWorld Orlando's popular orca display and its costs in happiness and safety for both the animals and the humans who care for them. The main issue at hand is trainer Dawn Brancheau's death, caused in 2010 by the orca and star SeaWorld attraction Tilikum, but Kirby's painstaking account takes its time before arriving at this central tragedy. In addition to the long history of previous violent incidents involving captive killer whales, Kirby teaches readers more than they ever expected to learn about such subjects as marine park management and orca social dynamics. This comprehensive background can sometimes be more diligent than engrossing, but the narrative goes into high gear with its concluding confrontation between what Kirby portrays as SeaWorld's corporate juggernaut, and the scrappy "anti-cap" (captivity) activists. From this latter camp, the book gives the most attention to disillusioned former trainer Jeff Ventre and, taking center stage as the story's heroine, marine biologist Naomi Rose. Kirby's exhaustively researched chronicle offers the definitive look at its subject, coming down squarely on Rose's side to conclude that the human use of orcas for entertainment does neither species any favors."

New music at the library

Some Nights by Fun

The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection by Taylor Swift

Runner by The Sea and Cake

Making Mirrors by Gotye

First of a Living Breed by Homeboy Sandman

Bohemian Girl by Terese Svobode

From Library Journal: "Set at the beginning of the Civil War, Svoboda's fifth novel is told from the unusual perspective of Harriet, a young woman whose father has sold her into slavery to settle a gambling debt owed to a Native American obsessed with building a mound. After escaping captivity, she encounters a range of colorful individuals on the American frontier, her adventures recalling those of Huck and Jim in Twain's classic American novel. To protect herself, she eventually feigns the identity of a slain shopkeeper's niece and assumes ownership of his store while also pretending to be the mother of an abandoned child. In this nod to Willa Cather's My Ántonia, Svoboda offers a brave and believable heroine who not only perseveres but thrives amid strange characters and harsh times."

Twelve Desperate Miles: The Epic WWII Voyage of the SS Contessa by Tim Brady

From Kirkus Reviews: "The first American offensive against Hitler, the November 1942 invasion of North Africa, began with a commando raid to capture an airfield outside Casablanca. The idea originated with eager American spies on the spot and impressed Gen. Patton, commander of forces invading the beaches in Morocco. He didn't tell his superiors (Marshall and Eisenhower), who expressed dismay when they learned of it. Reaching the airport required that two ships travel 12 miles up a shallow river, impossible without a local pilot; the spies found one, René Malevergne, a discovery probably responsible for this book because he kept a diary. Taking advantage of this historical treasure, Brady builds his story around this local resistance figure and recounts Malevergne's experiences under the Vichy government, his odyssey when he was smuggled out of Morocco to Gibraltar, flown to Britain and then to America before recrossing the Atlantic. He observed the landing from his hometown (Vichy French forces resisted; the Americans suffered hundred of casualties) and then piloted the ships, successfully reaching the airport despite obstructions, collisions and enemy fire. An entertaining story of individual heroism, which Brady surrounds by an equally entertaining account of the North African invasion, the largest amphibious operation in history at the time."

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas

From Kirkus Reviews: "A calamitous chapter in American history is illustrated by the intertwined tales of four women who survived it. The settling of the American West is full of stories, but one of its greatest tales of heroism and endurance is not well known. In the mid-1800s, Mormon leader Brigham Young instructed the followers of his new religion to leave their lives in the sinful Old World and travel to Zion, or Salt Lake, to what would one day be Utah. At his command, hundreds traveled to Iowa City, the westernmost point of the railroad, and constructed wooden handcarts, chosen for their economy, to make the 1,300-mile trek by foot. Despite the challenges—the wood was green and many, formerly city dwellers, were unfit for the journey—some groups traveled safely. Not so the Martin Company, 650 who set out in July 1856 to find ferocious heat, starvation and deadly winter storms before arriving. To illustrate this forgotten chapter, Dallas focuses on four women: Louisa, the adoring bride of a company leader; Anne, a non-Mormon who resents her convert husband for forcing her from an easy life in London; lovelorn Nannie, who travels to support her beloved, pregnant sister and brother-in-law; and Jessie, a self-reliant farm girl who chafes at the religion's strict rules. Together with a detailed cast of supporting characters, they bear and bury children and other loved ones, finding a kind of sisterhood and inner strength. They are further burdened (and bound) by the rampant sexism of the new faith, which encourages polygamy and views new women as "fresh fish." Dallas' vivid prose makes the journey's escalating hardships feel real, as Anne "no longer kept track of time or distance, just pushed the cart in a kind of daze, her mind as much a blur as the snow that fell." This fact-based historical fiction, celebrating sisterhood and heroism, makes for a surefire winner."

Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

From Publishers Weekly: "Preston and Child's high-adrenaline 12th thriller featuring maverick FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast wraps up the trilogy that began with 2010's Fever Dream and continued with 2011's Cold Vengeance with a bang. Just as Pendergast is reunited one evening in Manhattan's Central Park with his beloved wife, Helen, who he thought died 12 years earlier, Helen falls victim to a gang of well-organized kidnappers. Despite Pendergast's impressive combination of brains and brawn as well as network of helpers, his efforts to rescue Helen don't play out as he anticipated. Meanwhile, a serial murderer dubbed the Hotel Killer has been targeting guests of Manhattan hotels, mutilating his victims and leaving behind a piece of his own body (e.g., a finger, an ear lobe) to taunt the NYPD. Given the growing cast of characters and their complex backstories, those already familiar with the bestselling authors' fictional world will most enjoy this intelligent suspense novel."

Thank you celebration at the library!

In order to thank you for your patience during our September closure and for your patronage in general, we are throwing a party this Friday, December 7, from 4-6 at the library! There will be treats, children's crafts, face painting, live music provided by Neal Topliff, chair massages from Essential Chiropractic, and an appearance by children's author Jacqueline West (who will sign and sell copies of her books). Belle, a trained therapy dog, will be available for kids to read to, and we'll have a Sony PRS-505 eReader to give away as a door prize! See you then!

Cold Days by Jim Butcher

The latest Harry Dresden book is finally here and I'm happy to report that after what many reviewers (and I) considered a brief dip in quality in the 13th book, Butcher is back on his game in the 14th book! From Library Journal: "Harry Dresden is alive! But despite being returned from death, things aren't looking up for Dresden. He is now the Winter Knight at the beck-and-call of Mab, faerie Queen of Air and Darkness, and she wants him to do the impossible: kill an immortal. Secondly, Demonreach, Harry's getaway island, is under siege from some powerful outside forces and is keeping a dark secret Harry must protect. Fighting enemies new and old, with problems building and time running out, our hero must also battle within himself to keep the Winter mantel from consuming his soul and turning him into a merciless and evil killer."

My Extraordinary Ordinary Life by Sissy Spacek

From Booklist: "The key here is that phrase,“extraordinary ordinary.” Spacek, who hails from Quitman, Texas, got into show business by accident, playing her guitar for a group of friends while she was visiting her cousin, actor Rip Torn, in New York. She lucked into stardom with her second movie, Terrence Malick’s instant classic Badlands (on the set of which she also met the movie’s art director, Jack Fisk, to whom she is still married). Spacek wound up in her Oscar-winning role in Coal Miner’s Daughter because Loretta Lynn, the movie’s biographical subject, had been telling people Spacek should play her in the movie. Readers looking for one of those dirt-dishing Hollywood memoirs should keep looking, as this is the story of an ordinary, down-to-earth woman who has lived, quite by chance, a life that has more than a few extraordinary aspects. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes insight, but that’s not what the book is about. This is one star bio that puts family above fame, tranquility above stardom."

Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt

From the New York Times Book Review: "“There could have been nothing. It might have been easier. Instead there is something. The universe exists, and we are here to ask about it. Why? In Why Does the World Exist?, Jim Holt, an elegant and witty writer comfortably at home in the problem’s weird interzone between philosophy and scientific cosmology, sets out in search of such answers. ...There is no way to do justice to any of these theories in a brief review, but Holt traces the reasoning behind each one with care and clarity—such clarity that each idea seems resoundingly sensible even as it turns one’s brain to a soup of incredulity.... I can imagine few more enjoyable ways of thinking than to read this book.”"