NEW ARRIVALS

ADULT FICTION

"44 Charles Street" by Danielle Steel - "When Francesca Thayer and her husband, Todd, divorce, he wants to sell their art gallery as well as their charming house at 44 Charles St., and split the proceeds. Francesca can't bear to part with either. She talks her artist father into becoming a partner in the gallery, but that still leaves the problem of how to keep her home. Against the advice of her mother, Francesca decides to share her house with three other people. .. This book is classic Steel--lots of emotion, friendship, romance, heartbreak, tragedy, and danger. Her countless fans are guaranteed to find it impossible to put down." --Shelley Mosley, Booklist

MYSTERY

"10th Anniversary" by James Patterson - "It opens with the wedding of Sergeant Lindsay Boxer to her longtime love, Joe Molinari. Soon after exchanging vows with Joe, Lindsay is on the trail of a missing baby whose 15-year-old mother was found wandering the streets in the rain, dazed and disoriented. ADA Yuki Castellano is trying an important case that could make or break her career; it involves a wealthy doctor accused of fatally shooting her unfaithful husband in cold blood. Yuki is none too pleased when Lindsay looks into the case at the behest of the woman's attorney, but Yuki has a secret of her own: she's started dating Lindsay's boss. Reporter Cindy Thomas is working on a story about several women who have been drugged and raped in the San Francisco area, but the big lead she uncovers threatens to make her a target. With the quick pace and short, sharp chapters readers have come to expect, Patterson and Paetro's latest will keep fans of the series turning pages long into the night."' Kristine Huntley. 416pg. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2011. 

"Ape House" by Sara Gruen -"It begins with the bombing of the Great Ape Language Lab, a university research center dedicated to the study of the communicative behavior of bonobo apes. The blast, which terrorizes the apes and severely injures scientist Isabel Duncan, occurs one day after Philadelphia Inquirer reporter John Thigpen visits the lab and speaks to the bonobos, who answer his questions in sign language. After a series of personal setbacks, Thigpen pursues the story of the apes and the explosions for a Los Angeles tabloid, encountering green-haired vegan protesters and taking in a burned-out meth lab's guard dog. Meanwhile, as Isabel recovers from her injuries, the bonobos are sold and moved to New Mexico, where they become a media sensation as the stars of a reality TV show. Unfortunately, the best characters in this overwrought novel don't have the power of speech, and while Thigpen is mildly amusing, Isabel is mostly inert. --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2010. 

"The Serialist" by David Gordon - "A seedy freelance writer provides the wry narrative voice for Gordon's winning debut, a darkly humorous thriller. New Yorker Harry Bloch, who once had lofty literary ambitions, has spent the past two decades as a hack, mostly as an advice columnist called the Slut Whisperer for Raunchy magazine. Bloch also earns cash by doing homework for affluent private school students, a side business managed by a precocious teenage girl who was the first pupil he was paid to tutor. His boring life takes an unexpected turn after he receives a letter from death-row inmate Darian Clay (aka the Photo Killer), who, as a fan of the Slut Whisperer, thinks Bloch is right for the job of assisting him on his memoirs. In exchange for Clay revealing where he concealed the heads of his female victims, Bloch must seek out women who have written to Clay and write stories about their having sex with the serial killer. A number of plausible plot twists help shift the story from farce to whodunit." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2010. 

"The Lock Artist" by Steve Hamilton - "The book's main character, Mike, who suffered a trauma so great in childhood that it left him literally speechless, tries to confront his past by writing in prison. The novel's format embodies Mike's fragmented sense of self. His first-person narrative proceeds in fits and starts, jumping from the present day to his first professional job as a safecracker at the age of 18, to just after his trauma at age 8, to 2000, before his incarceration, and back and forth, focusing on several years, or months, or even a single day. The effect is that of a jigsaw, with both Mike and the reader trying to fit the pieces together. There's a double irony at work: although Mike skirts his trauma, he is always condemned, he tells us, to relive that day. And this master safecracker can't tumble the locks on his own mind. Intense and involving. Connie Fletcher."-- AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2009. 

ADULT NON-FICTION

"Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know" by Alexandra Horowitz - 

Psychology professor and dog person Horowitz... was studying the ethology (the science of animal behavior) of white rhinos and bonobos at the San Diego Zoo when she realized that her research techniques could just as easily apply to dogs at the local dog park; there, she began to see 'snapshots of the minds of the dogs' in their play. ... she's found that, though humans bond with their dogs closely, they're clueless when it comes to understanding what dogs perceive-- leading her to the not-inconsequential notion that dogs know us better than we know them. Horowitz begins by inviting readers into a dog's umwelt--his worldview--by imagining themselves living 18 inches or so above the ground, with incredible olfactory senses comparable to the human capacity for detailed sight in three dimensions (though dogs' sight, in combination with their sense of smell, may result in a more complex perception of 'color' than humans can imagine). Social and communications skills are also explored, as well as the practicalities of dog owning (Horowitz disagrees with the 'pack' approach to dog training). Dog lovers will find this book largely fascinating, despite Horowitz's meandering style and somnolent tone." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2009. 


"The Joy of Cheesemaking" by Jody Farnham and Marc Druart -" This new title not only offers step-by-step instruction in the crafting of cheese but also goes beyond Rita Ash's book to encompass cheese appreciation through lively profiles of artisan American cheese makers. This guide is aimed at all levels of readers, from hobbyists to professionals, but it will appeal more broadly to readers of food books. Farnham and Druart strike a good balance between the science of cheese making and love of cheese itself as they guide readers through calculations, sources for materials, explanations of outcomes at various stages of the process, and even wine or beer pairings. VERDICT This well-written guide with full-color illustrations is approachable, enthusiastic, and helpful. Recommended for collections where food books are popular."--Peter Hepburn, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago,  LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2011.

BIOGRAPHY

"Under A Wing" by Reeve Lindbergh -"an evocative reminiscence of her youth in Darien, Conn., with her two famous parents. This gentle memoir shows a unique and uniquely poignant family life: 'In our family it has always been hard to know what is right and what is wrong, in terms of what we can do for one another. It has been hard for us, too, to separate individual identity from family identity.' The resulting publicity left their family with a fear of exposure. The author's father was always wary of what others could see a cautiousness that extended to clothes, architecture and even the color of the family car. Although her father was constantly trying to shape and mold his children... his widely perceived anti-Semitism ultimately hurt his family deeply. Anne Morrow Lindbergh emerges from this retrospective as a gentle, even ethereal, intellectual whose style was the polar opposite of her husband's. While the reader might like to know more about Reeve and her own family, instead, we are given an intimate look at other family members and at her parents' marriage. From an idyllic if somewhat isolated youth in Darien, to her father's death and her mother's mental deterioration, Reeve has watched and learned and shared with readers what she refers to as the living language of her parents' marriage." -- CAHNERS PUBLISHING, c1998

DVD's


"Around the World in 80 Days"


"Casablanca (2 Disc Special Edition)"


"Covert Affairs: Season One"


"The Fighter"


"The King and I (50th Anniversary Edition)"


"The King's Speech"


"Masterpiece Theatre: Mill on the Floss"

"Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest"

"Nutcracker"

"Show Boat"

"Singin in the Rain"

"Steig Larsson Trilogy: (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)"