Skidompha Public Library

New Non-Fiction

Heilemann, John and Mark Halperin     Game Change:  Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

Two leading political reporters pull back the curtain on the recent campaigns, after interviewing hundreds of people who lived the story, in a book that is extravagantly detailed, occasionally shocking, often hilarious.

Wiswell, Richard     The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook:  A complete guide to managing finances, crops, and staff – and making a profit  Based on his 27 years of Vermont farming, the author presents the joys and challenges of starting and operating an organic farm and advises us on making vegetable production more planet-friendly and efficient.

Gladwell, Malcolm     What the Dog Saw, and Other Adventures   This collection of essays by the popular author of Blink and The Tipping Point explores the quirks of contemporary American culture, presents offbeat personalities, and answers questions we’ve all pondered, such as: what does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

Lauber, Jeannine     Chosen Faith, Chosen Land:  The untold story of America’s 21st century Shakers  This historic and current perspective on the last remaining Shaker community, which is in Sabbathday Lake, Maine, examines their faith, philosophy, work, and way of life, and confounds our assumptions that the Shaker culture is dead in the U.S.A.

Bradley, James     The Imperial Cruise:  A secret history of empire  A century after Teddy Roosevelt dispatched his Secretary of War, his own gun-toting daughter Alice, and a bunch of congressmen on a mission to the Far East, the author recreates the voyage and shows how the historical agreements the group forged with Asia did in fact not increase our strength there but backfired in many ways.

White, Edmund     City Boy:  My life in New York during the 1960s and ‘70s  The brilliant writer tossed away an opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. at Harvard to follow his lover to NYC, where poor and unknown, he began to write, to immerse himself in the gay movement including the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and eventually began to flourish in a city economically devastated but bristling with art and ideas.

Grossman, Anna Jane     Obsolete:  An encyclopedia of once-common things passing us by  In this witty and informative collection of short essays, the author takes a thoughtful look at nearly-extinct apparatuses, ideas, and behaviors forced out by technology and changing styles and mores, for example, blind dates, camera film, basketball players in short shorts, and body hair.

Jobey, Liz, ed.     Are We Related?  The new Granta book of the family  This collection of favorite essays from the magazine on the family explores the complicated, often fraught relationships that families involve.

Orton, Kathy     Outside the Limelight:  Basketball in the Ivy League  This first book to look inside Ivy League basketball and at what makes it unique vividly captures the fervor of the personalities who champion their fame – as well as the triumphs and disappointments that define an Ivy hoop season.

Van Heugten, Sjraar et al.     Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night  This art book presents many of van Gogh’s paintings of twilight and the dark hours, most of which are now considered to be key works in his oeuvre, in which he addressed the paradoxical challenge of representing night through color.  In memory of Patricia Atwood.

Kertess, Klaus     Jane Freilicher  As one of the most admired painters at work today, Freilicher came of age in the era of Abstract Expressionism at the center of a milieu of important NYC painters and poets, but has continued to pursue a distinctive and intimate painterly realism for more than 50 years. In memory of Patricia Atwood.

New Fiction

Clay, Heather     Losing Charlotte  A woman living on a horse farm in KY travels to NYC after the death of her estranged sister to help the husband, a virtual stranger, cope with grief and loss.

Theroux, Paul     A Dead Hand  When an aimless travel writer with writer’s block receives a plea for help from an American philanthropist whose son’s friend has gone missing in India, he follows the story to the twisted streets of Calcutta, and is pulled along a dark trail of obsession and need.

Blake, Sarah     The Postmistress  What would happen if the postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod did the unthinkable and didn’t deliver a letter?  This sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women and of two countries town apart by war begins on the eve of the US’s entrance into WWII, and moves from the Cape to a London bomb shelter.

Hall, James     Silencer  After inheriting millions from a long-lost relative, a Key Largo beach bum is tempted out of his hermetical fringe life as a fly-tier, and buys massive expanses of land in central FL to preserve them against development, but is kidnapped and a business associate murdered.

Deveraux, Jude     Days of Gold  In this adventurous romantic tale set in 1770s Scotland, the laird of his clan has everything he wants in life, respect and female companionship (although left landless and modest in means when his grandfather lost the castle in a card game), and is at peace until he meets a beautiful and privileged woman, irresistible but embodying all that he despises, who turns to him for help in recovering her inheritance.

Hoag, Tami     Deeper than the Dead  When three children and their teacher find a woman’s body in the woods, it marks the end of their innocence and also that of their sleepy CA community, as clues point to escalating activity of a serial killer, and tracking him tests bonds of friendship and loyalty.

Godwin, Gail     Unfinished Desires  At an all-girls’ school in the mountains of North Carolina, the undisputed queen bee of her class befriends a new student recently orphaned by the mysterious death of her mother, their friendship filling a void for both girls but also setting in motion a chain of events that will profoundly affect the course of many lives.

Griffin, W.E.B.     The Honor of Spies  In 1943, an agent for the Office of Strategic Services finds himself in a prisoner-of-war detention facility in Mississippi, and his mission is to help a German lieutenant colonel escape in return for which the German may reveal details of a secret plot to assassinate Hitler.

Delinsky, Barbara     Not My Daughter  When the community begins pointing fingers at the high school principal, who is also a single mom, when her 17 year old daughter announces she is pregnant,  they are even more shocked when two more girls come forward with the same news, and the principal soon finds her job, financial independence and long-fought-for dreams at risk.

Porter, Henry     The Bell Ringers  In England in the near future, unsettled by terrorism, where license-plate recognition software records every car’s movements and a top-secret data-mining system combs through personal records to identify violators of even very minor laws, the former head of intelligence dies while on vacation, the victim of a terrorist bomb, leaving to his former lover not only his estate, but also his dangerous secrets and unfinished business.

Gaspar, Frank     Stealing Fatima  Bereft of faith in church doctrine and sustained by gin, a priest explores the dark places in his soul while dealing with a long-lost boyhood friend dying from AIDS who comes to him fleeing from an armed-robbery warrant.

Wambaugh, Joseph     Hollywood Moon  A veteran policewoman and single mom teams with a struggling-actor-turned-cop to chase the young man who’s been attacking women, while two surfer cops keep bumping into an odd, suspicious duo – a smooth-talking player in dreads and a crazy-eyed tattooed biker — and no one suspects that all three felonious types might be involved in something bigger.

McMahon, Katharine     The Crimson Rooms  Haunted by the death of her brother in WWI, a woman supports the family by clerking at a lawyer’s office and is stunned to find a woman and child on her doorstep, the woman claiming the child is her brother’s, conceived at a field hospital during the war.

Preston, Douglas     Impact   A former CIA agent turned freelance investigator is sent by the U.S. Government to locate a secret Cambodian gemstone mine, but what he digs up is conspiracy, murder, and a strange object from a moon of Mars, an object that might be about to unleash something unimaginable upon Earth.

Miller, Risa     My Before and After Life  This novel deals with conflicts of love and faith that can result when a family member becomes religious, in this case occurring when a father and his new wife visit Israel and embrace Judaism, causing their non-observant daughters to go off the deep end.

Parker, T. Jefferson     Iron River  As a government stakeout team patrols the iron river along the Texas/Mexican border where illegal guns flow from U.S. dealers to the Mexican drug business, a federal officer’s bullet strikes and kills an innocent boy, who is the son of the head of the Gulf Cartel and one of the most violent men in the world.

Black, Daniel     Perfect Peace  In 1940s Arkansas, the mother of 6 boys gives birth to yet another son, and, having wanted a girl very badly, decides to deceive her family and neighbors by raising the 7th boy as a girl for his/her first 8 years.

Edghill, India     Delilah  Delilah, raised to be a priestess to the five Cities that rule Canaan, and Sampson, chosen to lead the Israelites in a rebellion against the chafing rule of the Five Cities, meet under the most challenging circumstances, in this powerful retelling of their lives and times.

Woods, Stuart     Kisses  A handsome NYC lawyer, after encountering a beautiful actress in his favorite restaurant, soon finds himself  shielding the woman from her ex-husband, protecting a young heiress from a con artist/drug dealer, and plotting to take down a Ponzi scammer.

Oates, Joyce Carol     A Fair Maiden  A friendship between a 16 year old girl and an older man who is a children’s author, music lover and art collector seems innocent enough at first, until she begins accepting presents and agrees to pose for his newest painting.

Mawer, Simon     The Glass Room  This novel tells the story of those who inhabit a house in Czechoslovakia before and during WWII, where a glass room exists, seeming to expose the inner thoughts of those who enter it.

Harrison, Kim     White Witch, Black Curse  In this science fiction thriller, a feisty young bounty hunter, crushed when her lover is murdered, vows to find the killer and take her revenge, but she is hampered when her past comes back to haunt her–literally.

Lescroart, John     Treasure Hunt  In this San Francisco thriller, a bored private investigator is eager to become involved in investigating the murder of a charismatic, high-profile activist, who in spite of his heroic stature on many prominent boards may have had a hand in some very shady deals.

Byrne, Trevor     Ghosts & Lightning  A man returning to modern Dublin for his mother’s funeral settles in, and reacquaints himself with old friends and places, but begins sensing supernatural beings and influences that affect his new life.

Tyler, Anne     Noah’s Compass  This gentle, humorous and compassionate novel features a fifth-grade teacher forced to retire at 61, who wakes up in a hospital with his head bandaged, and whose efforts to recover the memory of moments in his life that have been stolen from him lead to an unexpected detour.

Higgins, Jack     The Wolf at the Door  After three assassinations in NYC, on Long Island, and in London, it becomes clear that someone is targeting the members of an elite intelligence unit known as “the Prime Minister’s private army” and all those who work with them, and whoever is doing it has a lot of resources at his command

New Mysteries

Thompson, James    Snow Angels  This series debut is set in northern Finland’s kaamos, the country’s two weeks of complete darkness, when an inspector, newly married and about to become a father, neglects his depressed and lonely wife to immerse himself in the murder of a young Somali movie star.  Oops!  Is that the inspector’s ex-wife on the suspects list?

Herring, Peg     Her Highness’ First Murder  In this historical series debut, headless corpses of young women litter the streets of London, and an aging Henry VIII sends in his trusted Welsh Guards captain, the crippled son of Henry’s former physician, and 13-year old Princess Elizabeth to investigate.

Haywood, Gar Anthony     Cemetery Road  When a low-profile Twin Cities handyman gets word that his old friend has been murdered in LA, he returns for the funeral but risks the release of a terrible secret since another old friend resides there, and the three as young men robbed a drug dealer’s home, the crime going tragically awry.  Will he have the courage to confront his past?

Rollins, James     Altar of Eden  The author’s love of animals comes through in this timely thriller containing cutting-edge science, about an endangered species researcher who teams up with a border patrol officer to catch those responsible for a boatload of genetically modified animals found beached on a small island.

Camilleri, Andrea     The Wings of the Sphinx  The weary, aging Sicilian inspector tracks the murderer of a young woman, disfigured, marked only by a sphinx moth tattoo similar to those on 3 missing girls, participants in the underworld sex trade who were rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a prominent Catholic charity.  Why does the Church not want this crime investigated?

Hosp, David    Among Thieves  A small time thief who steals ladies’ fancy underwear asks an attorney for help, but the two contacts who could help the thief’s case turn up dead, with clues pointing to the IRA and their involvement in the theft of $300 million in art from a Boston museum. In memory of Joyce Carey.

Clinch, Wendy     Double Black  After ditching her cheating fiancé, a double-degreed proper Bostonian flees to VT to become a ski bum, bartending at night, sleeping in her car or in empty condos, and, after finding a dead man in one of them, becomes the prime suspect.

Crais, Robert     The First Rule  In this crime thriller, a successful young man is traumatized when felons invade his home and murder his entire family, the slaughter perhaps connected to his previous life as a professional mercenary.

Bauer, Belinda     Blacklands  Hoping to pull his mother and grandmother out of emotional limbo after the long-ago murder of his uncle, a 12 year old boy living a hardscrabble life in a tiny village in Exmoor enters into a bold plan to correspond with the jailed killer.

Hamilton, Steve     The Lock Artist  Unable to speak, a young man is better than anyone in the world at one thing – opening locks – a talent that makes him a hot commodity with the criminal element, until he finally sees his chance to escape corruption, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved.

Jones, J. Sydney     Requiem in Vienna  Set in 1900s Vienna, and using real people such as Mahler and Klimt, this historical mystery propels a lawyer and a criminologist toward the elusive felon threatening the life of Gustav Mahler, and who may also be killing off Vienna’s other musical geniuses, since Strauss and Brahms have recently died.

New in Large Print

Walls, Jeannette     Half Broke Horses  In this fictionalized account of a real woman (the author’s grandmother), an early settler begins her life in a dirt dugout in Texas, helping to break horses by age six, going off alone to teach school at age 15, then marrying and living a rancher’s life in Arizona, enduring the hardships and grief of an unbroken land.

Beaton, M.C.     There Goes the Bride  In this light-hearted mystery, a sleuth, dreading the upcoming marriage of her ex-husband, is shocked to hear the ex’s new young bride was shot to death just minutes before saying “I do,” and stunned to find herself the prime suspect.

Diamant, Anita     Day After Night  Four women who survived the Holocaust with profoundly different experiences become friends and narrate this tale based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than 200 prisoners from an internment camp.

New Audiobooks

Ha Jin     A Good Fall  These stories depict the daily struggles of Chinese American immigrants wanting to remain attached to their native land and traditions while also exploring newfound social and economic freedoms in the USA.

Strout, Elizabeth     Olive Kitteridge  In a coastal Maine town a junior high school teacher becomes a sort of unpredictable town crier, a person who sees into the hearts of others, discerning their triumphs and tragedies, while blind to her own failings as a wife and mother.

Blake, Sarah     The Postmistress  What would happen if the postmistress in a small town on Cape Cod did the unthinkable and didn’t deliver a letter?  This sweeping novel about the loss of innocence of two extraordinary women and of two countries town apart by war begins on the eve of the US’s entrance into WWII, and moves from the Cape to a London bomb shelter.  In memory of FiFI Richards.

Niffenegger, Audrey     Her Fearful Symmetry  In this haunting modern ghost story, self-absorbed, spoiled American identical twin sisters inherit a London flat overlooking High Gate Cemetery, but to keep the bequest intact they must live in the flat together for one year.

New Films

Humble Pie A well-meaning but socially awkward grocery clerk struggles with his troubled, obnoxious family and huge waistline as he seeks dignity, his driver’s license, and a higher purpose in life, starting by enrolling in an acting class taught by a pompous has-been.

Inspector Lewis, Series 2 For Morse fans and his Inspector Lewis Series 1 spin-off, more great mysteries.

The Elephant King When a man travels to Thailand intending to bring his reckless and hedonistic brother back home to the US to face pending legal charges, the intoxication of the exotic country changes his plans, and the two embark on an out-of-the-ordinary adventure.

Departures After the orchestra he plays in breaks up, a cellist returns to his hometown and finds a job preparing the dead for their internment, much to the horror of his family; however, by caring for the dead, he finally learns how to live.