Book highlights, 9/22/10

Half-Broke Horses  /    Jeanette Walls

Described as a “true-life novel,” Half-Broke Horses tells the story of Walls’s grandmother, Lily Casey Smith(1901-1968). Smith, who died when Walls was eight years old, was a tough, intelligent woman who found a life lesson in everything. She lived a hard-scrabble life in West Texas and Arizona, but “got the lace knocked off her panties” early while breaking horses on her parents’ farm.

Taking double loads, she earned a bachelor’s degree in 2 years; book work was so much easier than ranch work that she felt like a lady of leisure.  She taught school – and to earn more money, also drove the bus (a hearse!) and worked as the school janitor.  As a young mother, she sold bootlegged whiskey out of her home till a disgruntled customer almost got her arrested.

A hard-working ranch wife, Lily was also a winning poker player, a racehorse rider, and a bush pilot.

 

     

  THE GOOD SOLDIERS

          By David Finkel

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, commanding officer of the Army infantry battalion 2-16, has a motto: “It’s all good.” From a skinny boy with protruding ears, “The Kauz” molded himself into the man who could do the most pushups, run the fastest mile. A man whose opinions are sought by others, who could ask anything of anyone and have that person comply for fear of disappointing him. “As one of his soldiers said, ‘He is the kind of [leader] you would follow to hell and back.’” (p.9). And follow him they did. Into the most dangerous area of Baghdad, determined to be the difference in “the surge.”

David Finkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and editor at the Washington Post, was embedded with the battalion. This book documents their fifteen months in Iraq.

My sister's keeper / Jodi Picoult

 
A teenage girl suffering from leukemia. A younger sister genetically designed as an ideal donor. A family devastated by difficult choices. The movie earned $12.5 million on opening weekend. Don’t miss the original!

 

 

Bonechiller / Graham McNamee

Harvest Cove is a lovely tourist spot in summer, but in winter, it’s a tiny, frozen ghost town. And in the cold of the Canadian winter, something is stalking teenagers, making them disappear. From his half-Ojibwa girlfriend, Danny learns about Windigos, massive cannibalistic creatures that hunt and sting their prey. Danny and his friends decide the

A New School Year

Another school year has begun, full of hope and optimism. Students arrive bearing backpacks and laptops.


The fans hum, trying in vain to beat back the heat and humidity. The library was 81 degrees this morning, not too bad for September.

The halls are heavy with footsteps; the rooms ring with young voices. Students come to study.
                 “Do you know anything about Geometry?”
                  “Well, let’s see. . . .”
My memory is fuzzy but we manage to set up the equation and solve for x. I pronounce it fun; the student, who aspires to be a writer, has a less enthusiastic assessment.

Books begin to circulate. Slowly. Never as quickly as I would like. New books with pristine spines, freshly covered and cataloged, wait on the New Book Shelf, silently calling, “Pick me! Pick me!” Meanwhile, the librarian is rooting for all the books. Will students venture beyond the oh-so-easy-to-love teen romance to the gothic mystery, the story of a teen immigrant, or the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy? I hope someone will read “Operation Mincemeat,” the true story of a how a dead body with false papers helped assure an Allied victory in World War II.

During band rehearsal, a trumpet player repeatedly attempts a high note. A student trying to concentrate on a computer screen complains, “He should stop. Sounds like he’s killing a cat.”

The final bell. Students rush to leave - heading home, to sports practice - trailing shoe laces and promises.

Book highlights

Every two weeks, the library will be highlighting a few titles from the collection, some popular and some overlooked gems. Enjoy!

Vampires

[The Historian / Elizabeth Kostova]

A medieval book, empty except for a woodcut of a dragon and the word "Drakulya,” and a group of letters addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor” plunge a sixteen-year-old girl into a dangerous mission to uncover the secrets of her parent’s past. As she researches Vlad the Impaler and the legend of Drakula, the drama mounts as does the body count.

Beautifully written, spine-tingling drama.

Mystery

[The Boxer and the Spy / Robert Parker]

When fifteen-year-old Jason’s body washes up on a New England beach, his death is ruled a suicide. But shy, artsy Jason was not the type to experiment with steroids; his classmate, Terry Novak believes Jason was murdered and sets out to bring his killer(s) to justice. A young boxer, Terry uses violence only when absolutely necessary; he is on a quest not only to solve a crime but to learn “to live honorably and with moral purpose.” (Amazon; 9/8/10)


Robert Parker weaves terrific mysteries with sparkling dialogue and vivid descriptions. Don’t miss his “Spenser” novels.


Drama / Drug Addiction


“Life was good
before I
met
                            the monster.

After,
life
                              was great.

At
least
                           for a little while.” (Crank / Ellen Hopkins ; p. 1)

The disturbing story of Kristina; her bad-girl alter-ego Bree; and her addiction to the “monster,” crystal meth. Written in verse and based on the story of Hopkins’ own daughter.

Hopkins has written three books about Kristina and her family : Crank, Glass, and Fallout (to be released on September 14)


Fiction / Islam

[Does my head look big in this? / Randa Abdel-Fattah]

Sixteen-year-old Amal is an Australian-born, Muslim Palestinian. A smart, funny girl, and a devout Muslim, she chooses to wear the hijab (head covering) despite her parents’ misgivings and jibes from her fellow students. The book “tells of her emotional and spiritual journey as she copes with a mad crush on a boy, befriends an elderly Greek neighbor, and tries to help a friend who aspires to be a lawyer but whose well-intentioned mother is trying to force her to leave school and get married.” (Amazon ; 9/8/10)

Manages to deal with serious issues in a funny, entertaining manner.

New Books - 9/7/2010

Science, health, and ethical issues


The right to die
Biodiversity
The energy crisis
Fast food
Should vaccinations be mandatory?
Are natural disasters increasing?

Economy

Bankruptcy
The federal budget deficit
Politics
How does religion influence politics?
Age of consent
Censorship
Civil liberties
Voter fraud
Should the U.S. close its borders?
Violence

New Books - Fun Reads!

Historical/Political Fiction


The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society / Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
As England is recovering from WW II, Juliet Ashton discovers her next writing project in a book club on Guernsey Island – “a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew.” (from WorldCat ; 8/24/10) Relayed in a series of letters are intrigue, romance, and stories of life and relationships in the shadow of Nazi occupation. [Good book! Don’t miss this one. – The Librarian]

Half of a yellow sun / Chimamanda Adichie
Nigerian novelist Adichie presents the fictional story of Olanna and Kinene, wealthy and well-connected sisters facing personal and professional crises in the midst of a bloody civil war. (Loosely based on events in 1960’s Nigeria.) “The characters and landscape are vividly painted, and details are often used to heartbreaking effect: soldiers, waiting to be armed, clutch sticks carved into the shape of rifles; an Igbo mother, in flight from a massacre, carries her daughter's severed head, the hair lovingly braided.” (from Amazon, 8/23/10)

Fantasy / Gothic Fiction

Phantom island / Krissi Dallas
“One fateful summer night ...when one rule is broken ... five teenagers will discover an unexpected adventure full of magic, romance, and true friendship." (from Amazon, 8/23/10)

The road / Cormac McCarthy
In this postapocalyptic novel, “a father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food--and each other.” (from WorldCat; 8/24/10)

Shadowed summer / Saundra Mitchell
Iris and her friends fill their empty, hot summer days by casting spells in the town cemetery. Then a male voice whispers in Iris’ ear, demanding that the disappearance of a teenage boy be solved.

A spell of winter / Helen Dunmore
In the years prior to WWI, siblings Cathy and Rob grow up on their grandfather’s crumbling estate sharing a world of dark secrets: their mother’s abandoning her family; their father’s mental illness and death in an asylum; and a bond so fierce it threatens to smother them. A novel in gothic style.

Mystery

Reality check / Peter Abrahams
Cody, a 16 year old football player, is benched by a knee injury and drops out of high school. When Clea, Cody’s well-to-do girlfriend disappears from her boarding school, he drives from Colorado to Vermont to find her. An exciting, page-turning mystery.

Romance

The book of Luke / Jenny O’Connell
“Nice girl” Emily Abbott is tired of finishing last! When her family moves from Chicago to Boston during her senior year and her boyfriend, Sean, dumps her, Emily and her friends write a guys’ guide to girls. The girls decide Emily should try out their theories on Luke, but the tables are turned when the experiment gets serious.

The last song / Nicolas Sparks
Ronnie and her younger brother have been sent to Wrightsville Beach, NC, to spend the summer with their father. Angry and resentful over her parents’ divorce, Ronnie doesn’t know that her father is dying. And she doesn’t plan on falling in love.

Plan b / Jenny O’Connell
Vanessa has her life planned : “coast through senior year; graduate; travel around Europe; join boyfriend out East for college. Then the phone rings.” A new half-brother wasn’t part of the plan. (from the book cover.)

Rules of Attraction / Simone Elkeles [romance]
In this sequel to Perfect Chemistry, Alex’s younger brother, Carlos, works to escape the clutches of a Mexican gang and a conniving drug lord while winning the heart of the lovely Kiara. [Some Spanish dialogue, clarified by context.]

Two-way street / Lauren Barnholdt
Jordan and Courtney are high school sweethearts. They’re attending the same college, even driving the long trip to orientation together. Then Jordan dumps Courtney for a girl he met on the Internet. Secrets are not good for a relationship.

Family Relationships

A blue so dark / Holly Schindler
Fifteen year old Aura is frightened as her artist - mother, Grace, sinks further and further in schizophrenia and refuses medication. Aura associates the disease with creativity, and fearing that she might be genetically predisposed, she stops exploring her own her own creative abilities. A sober but hopeful novel.

Girl in translation / Jean Kwok
Ah-Kim Chang (Kimberly) and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn from Hong Kong. Despite poverty and deplorable living conditions, Kimberly excels at school and paves the way for a better future for herself and her mother.

New Books - Research

Science and ethics -- 100


The ethics of biotechnology / Jonathan Morris

World Religions -- 200

African traditional religion / Aloysius Lugira

Daoism / Paula Hartz

Shinto / Paula Hartz

Economics - 300

The Oxford encyclopedia of economic history / Joel Mokyr, ed. (Reference ; for the ECON Class!!)

Crisis economics : a crash course in the future of finance / Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm

Energy, Global Warming, and Politics - 300

Energy policy (Point, Counterpoint series) / Paul Ruschmann

Energy : powering the past, present, and future / Julie Casper

Environmental regulations and global warming (Point, Counterpoint series) / Paul Ruschmann

500

Bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics : getting the big picture / Ann Batiza



Immigration - 300

Immigration policy / Alan Allport & John E. Ferguson

History and Politics - 300

Imperialism : a history in documents / Bonnie Smith, ed.

The progressive movement : advocating social change / Tim McNeese

500

The family values movement : promoting faith through action / Samuel Crompton



History and Literature (Where history and English projects intersect!) - 300

Medicine in society : historical essays / Andrew Wear, ed.

Women’s history : Britain, 1850-1945 : an introduction / June Purvis, ed.

900

Daily life in the 18th century / Kirstin Olsen

Dr. Johnson’s London : everyday life in London 1740-1770 / Liza Picard

Intellectual Property, or what is plagiarism? - 300

Protecting ideas (Point, Counterpoint series) / David Hudson

Science -- 600

Biotechnology and your health : pharmaceutical application / Bernice Schacter

Biotechnology on the farm and in the factory : agricultural and industrial application / Brian Shmaefsky



Literature -- 800

Holocaust literature (2 volume collection of writings about the holocaust) / John Roth, ed.

Magill’s survey of American literature / Stephen Kellman, ed.