Oak Ridge Public Library

Novelist Ann Patchett has turned the commencement address she gave at Sarah Lawrence College in 2006 into a charming and thought-provoking little book. In it, she gives her own very personal answer to the perennial graduation question What Now (170.440). For Patchett, that meant a Catholic school upbringing followed by college and a year of teaching. But it wasn’t until she became a waitress at Friday’s in Nashville that her real education began.

For a remote, relatively unpopulated place, Cochise County, Arizona, has a lot of criminal activity. Sheriff Joanna Brady methodically investigates several cases, from the young woman who deliberately shot an intruder mistakenly thinking he was her psychopath boyfriend to the elderly couple who seemingly committed suicide by driving off a cliff. What is hard for Joanna to handle is her home life, where her patient husband Butch, a stay-at-home dad, is about to go on a book tour to promote his first novel leaving Joanna to care for her teenage daughter and baby Dennis. Damage Control (M) is the latest from J. A. Jance.

As a reformed burglar, Tommy Carmellini brings a unique skill set to his work in the CIA under Admiral Jake Grafton. He will need to use every trick in his bag as he tries to stop al-Quaada’s Abu Qasim, who has somehow learned that a group of America’s wealthiest men have been given a green light by the President to finance their own secret war in Iraq. As Qasim skillfully begins to eliminate the financiers, Tommy sets out to eliminate Qasim. Stephen Coonts and Tommy return with The Assassin.

Through its many artifacts, the history of Egypt and its ancient civilization has always held a strong fascination for many of us. Egyptologist Barbara Mertz brings to life these long-ago people and reveals what we know of their daily routine in Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (932.000). When Mertz isn’t studying Egypt, she writes a series of very popular mysteries about it featuring archaeologist Amelia Peabody under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters.

Can a twenty-something marketing exec find happiness waitressing in an upscale Manhattan restaurant? That’s the question sisters Heather and Rose MacDowell try to answer in their light-hearted fiction debut, Turning Tables. Erin Edwards asks her father to pull a few strings at Roulette, the hot new eatery in town, to help her get hired after she loses her job. All Erin knows about restaurants is that she likes eating in them, so she has a lot to learn before she can win over the owner and the egomaniacal Chef Carl.

The trend for many of us is to eat our meals out, usually at a fast food place. While many chain restaurants are offering healthier choices, we don’t always pick them. David Zinczenko, Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Health magazine, has created a fabulous little guide to help you choose wisely when dining out. Eat This, Not That (613.200) lists the best and worst nutritional choices at all major franchise restaurants, plus offers tips on the most healthful brands to buy at the grocery store.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

This Charming Man, by Marian Keyes;

Codex 632: the Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus, by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos;

The Night Trilogy, by Elie Wiesel;

Sunrise, by Karen Kingsbury.

Non-fiction –

Discovery at Rosetta: the Stone that Unlocked the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (493.100), by Jonathan Downs;

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul (248.842), by John Eldredge.

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August 15, 2008

Those of you who first met Eckhart Tolle through his book A New Earth, which received a huge endorsement from Oprah Winfrey, know that he constructed that work on the foundation of The Power of Now (204.400). Published in 1997, it follows Tolle on his own difficult spiritual journey to a Zen-like peace that he finally achieved by learning to live in the here and now.

While on a coffee buying trip to Nicaragua, Ellie Enderlin runs into Peter McConnell, her sister Lila’s former lover. Lila was murdered 20 years ago and in a best selling book about the crime, Peter was named as her killer – even though the case has yet to be solved. The man who wrote the book, Andrew Thorpe, had been Ellie’s English professor and friend. He based his work on her confidences and ended up ruining McConnell’s life. The chance meeting with Peter catapults Ellie back to the days before Lila was killed. She begins to rethink her relationship with her sister and starts searching for answers to why Lila was murdered – and by whom. No One You Know is the latest from Michelle Richmond.

If you enjoy watching “The Biggest Loser” on TV, you have seen fitness expert Bob Harper successfully motivate the contestants to reach their target weight. Now he helps you, too, in a weight loss guide that gets you emotionally, physically and nutritionally prepared to “take charge, lose weight, get in shape, and change your life forever”. That’s quite a challenge – Are You Ready! (613.250).

Someone is murdering the members of the Exeter Guild, and coroner Sir John de Wolfe is hard pressed to discover who it is. His shady brother-in-law, Richard de Revelle, suggests it might be the notorious outlaw Nicholas de Arundell who is hiding out somewhere in the wilds of Dartmoor. Sir John doesn’t trust Revelle and suspects his motives for accusing Arundel. Just as he thought, when he finally finds Arundell, he hears a very different story. Twelfth Century Exeter is the setting of Bernard Knight’s new Crowner John mystery The Noble Knight (M).

The Punch opens with the aftermath of that hotheaded confrontation as brothers David and Scott Henry sit side by side in the emergency room – one with a broken nose, the other with a broken fist. How they reached this dubious point in their lives makes up the bulk of Noah Hawley’s latest novel – a comic look at a uniquely dysfunctional family as they try to deal with the death of their patriarch who had somehow always managed to hold them together.

We have all seen the news stories and TV shows warning about the dangers of the Internet, but what can you as a parent really do to make sure your kids are safe while they cybersurf? Gregory S. Smith, an expert in information technology with the World Wildlife Fund, has put together a realistic “roadmap for parents and teachers” on How to Protect Your Children on the Internet (004.678).

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Shadow Command, by Dale Brown;

Sweet Love, by Sarah Strohmeyer;

A Patent Lie, by Paul Goldstein;

Tribute, by Norah Roberts.

Non-fiction –

Forward From Here: Leaving Middle-Age and Other Unexpected Adventures (305.260), by Reeve Lindbergh;

Ghost Hunters of the South (133.100), by Alan Brown.

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August 8, 2008

It is hard to imagine a home without books. Oddly enough, the popular and prolific author Larry McMurtry grew up in one. That all changed in 1942 when his cousin, who had enlisted, passed on to him a box with 19 adventure books in it. Those first volumes became the foundation of his massive collection and catapulted him into book selling. It may have inspired his own award-winning knack for storytelling as well. McMurtry reveals more of his life in Books: a Memoir (921.000).

Crusty Nan Powell loves Windermere, the rambling beach house on Nantucket that has been in her family for years. Nan feels she has reached the age when she can pretty much say and do whatever she wants, but that doesn’t help her when her investments dry up. The only way to keep Windermere, she decides, is to take in boarders. Jane Green follows how life changes for Nan and her guests in The Beach House.

Steven Kearney isn’t even a failed novelist and poet – he is a non-published novelist and poet. With thousands of unpublished pages to his credit, the paunchy, closing-in-on-fifty Kearney has little going for him. So, when the town of Creedemore, Colorado, offers him a residency to write and direct a play about the local history, he quickly relocates. Creedemore is beautiful – but it is also in the middle of a range war of sorts between local landowners and environmentalists. Spend some fun-filled time in Creedemore with Steven and an outrageous cast of characters in Ron McLarty’s Art in America.

Misdiagnosed by four doctors in Paris, Meredith Norton returned to her parents’ home in California with her French husband and toddler in tow to find out she had inflammatory breast disease. Despite being given numerous copies of Lance Armstrong’s life story, Norton decided to meet her cancer her own way – with Krispy Kreme donuts and lots of naps. Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Really be Distracting (616.994) is the humorous memoir of this not particularly courageous but very normal woman.

Through her marriage to George Boleyn, Jane Parker became part of the brilliant court life of Henry VIII. She served as Lady-in-Waiting to five of his wives, starting with Katharine of Aragon, and managed to sidestep execution when her husband and her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, were not so lucky. Unfortunately her own tragic fate was irreparably tied to Queen Catherine Howard. Julia Fox follows the life of this resilient woman in Jane Boleyn: the True Story of Lady Rochford (942.052).

Anesthesiologist Marie Heaton is good at what she does. She has dedicated her life to her career and has worked hard to achieve her position at Seattle’s premier hospital. The accidental death of an 8-year-old girl during surgery shakes Marie to her very core. The ensuing lawsuit forces her to re-exam everything – her career, her life choices, and her relationship with her father who is going blind and will soon need constant care. Carol Cassella, an anesthesiologist in Seattle, makes her compelling fiction debut with Oxygen.

New DVDs –

Feature –

The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker;

There Will Be Blood, with Daniel Day Lewis;

Shrek the Third, featuring the voices of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy;

Mr. Brooks, starring Kevin Costner and Demi Moore;

P.S. I Love You, featuring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler.

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August 1, 2008

It seems incredible that with only a small army of men, Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez toppled the vast Aztec nation governed by the divine ruler Montezuma II. Buddy Levy tells the fantastic tale of how he did it in less than three years using a clever combination of military tactics and diplomacy in Conquistador: Hernan Cortez, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (972.020).

When he isn’t collecting stamps and enjoying life in general in his beloved New York City, John Keller kills people. He is a hit man – a paid assassin – and he is ready to hang up his gun and retire. One last job takes him to Des Moines, but as he waits for the signal to proceed, he learns that the Governor of Ohio has just been assassinated – in Des Moines. It seems Keller has been set up, and now every cop in the country is looking for him. Hit and Run (M) is the latest from that Grand Master of Mystery Lawrence Block.

Jane Johnson, Publishing Director of HarperCollins UK, has crafted an exciting tale inspired by the experiences of one of her ancestors. Julie is an expert needlewoman who receives a startling gift from her married lover when he breaks off their affair. It is an antique book of embroidery patterns from the 17^th Century. Handwritten in the margins is the diary of a young woman named Cat who was abducted in 1625 by a crew of Moroccan pirates. Stunned by Michael’s desertion, Julie sets off for Morocco to learn what she can about Cat - and she ends up finding a new life for herself. Her story and Cat’s are intricately stitched together in The Tenth Gift.

Fans of the Heartland Series may have seen a recent segment on the work being done to bring back the native American Chestnut. Once ranging from Alabama to southern Maine, these extraordinary trees were a mainstay of Native American and Colonial life, providing an excellent source of wood and food until they were decimated by blight. Mighty Giants, an American Chestnut Anthology (583.460) beautifully illustrates the intrinsic value of this once great resource and the ongoing effort to save it from extinction.

Despite its recent spurt of popularity, the movement toward sustainability and going green has been with us a long time. One of the best resources for making wise, earth-friendly decisions is the Green Guide: the Complete Reference for Consuming Wisely (304.280). It has grown considerably since its first publication in the early 1990s and continues to offer smart tips on everything from healthful eating and natural cleaning aids to ecofriendly travel here and abroad.

Instead of pulling the McKotch family together as medical crises often will, the discovery that their 13-year-old daughter, Gwen, has Turner’s syndrome, a chromosome deficiency that will trap her in the body of a child forever, tears them apart. Each of them becomes insulated to the truth, and the marriage of Gwen’s parents, already shaky, founders. The family members are forced out of their isolation, however, twenty years later when Gwen falls in love. The Condition is by Jennifer Haigh.

Other new titles:

Fiction –

Married Lovers, by Jackie Collins;

The Forbidden, by Beverly Lewis;

Escape, by Robert K. Tanenbaum;

Cast, by Roxana Robinson.

Non-fiction –

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (338.470), by Melody Petersen;

Farewell, My Subaru: an Epic Adventure in Local Living (333.720), by Doug Fine.

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