New books and DVD's

Adult Non-Fiction

"Strong is Your Hold: Poems" by Galway Kinnell - In his first new collection, Kinnell begins with homey lyrics in praise of an enduring marriage, parenthood, and friendship. These are tranquil poems, sweet, amusing, and wholesomely sexy. Sage, too, as in the charming "Conversation," a witty exchange between the poet and his daughter... Kinnell's poems are contained, even plain, but there is mineral power in his freshly turned language, and the carefully stacked kindling of his lines leaps into sky-high conflagrations... Seasoned and forthright, Kinnell wisely turns to nature for instruction, noting "the crawling of new life out of the old, / which is what we have for eternity on earth." – Booklist, Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserve

"Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" by Richard Wrangham - Tracing the contemporary implications of our ancestors’ diets, Catching Fire sheds new light on how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. A pathbreaking new theory of human evolution, Catching Fire will provoke controversy and fascinate anyone interested in our ancient origins—or in our modern eating habits. – Amazon

"How Rome Fell: Death of a SuperPower" by Adrian Goldsworthy - In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world. By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. What accounts for this improbable decline? Here, Adrian Goldsworthy applies the scholarship, perspective, and narrative skill that defined his monumental Caesar to address perhaps the greatest of all historical questions—how Rome fell.--Amazon

Fiction

"Ghostwritten" by David Mitchell - Nine disparate but interconnected tales (and a short coda) in Mitchell's impressive debut examine 21st-century notions of community, coincidence, causality, catastrophe and fate. Each episode in this mammoth sociocultural tapestry is related in the first person, and set in a different international locale....Mitchell's wildly variegated story can be abstruse and elusive in its larger themes, but the gorgeous prose and vibrant, original construction make this an accomplishment not to be missed. 5-city author tour. -- Publishers Weekly
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Juvenile Fiction

"The Secret Book Club (Main Street)" by Ann M. Martin - The books show life as an exciting adventure but in a very sweet way. It is like going back to my childhood where life was slow but a lot of fun. I like the main characters, who have a lot of depth and act like real kids. Maybe because these stories are told from the perspective of small town America they seem to be sweeter than most, and I would definitely want my children to have these experiences. These are worth the time so check them out. -- Reviewed by: Marta Morrison from TeensReadToo.com

DVD

"Midsomer Murders" - The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in these contemporary British television mysteries...Inspired by the novels of Caroline Graham, a modern master of the English village mystery.
1. "Country Matters"
2. "Four Funerals and a Wedding"
3. "Death in a Chorus"
4. "Last Year's Model"