new movies

new nonfiction

Novella Carpenter loves cities—the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can’t shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents’ disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways: a homegrown vegetable plot as well as museums, bars, concerts, and a twenty-four-hour convenience mart mere minutes away. Especially when she moved to a ramshackle house in inner city Oakland and discovered a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door. She closed her eyes and pictured heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop.

A century ago, Luther Burbank was the most famous gardener on the planet. His name was inseparable from a cornucopia of new and improved plants—fruits, nuts, vegetables, and flowers—for both home gardens and commercial farms and orchards. At a time when the science of genetics was in its infancy and agriculture was often a perilous combination of guess work and luck, many people wanted a piece of the man they called the Wizard of Santa Rosa.

For years, the policies of the Catholic Church during the rise and terribly destructive rule of the Nazis have been controversial. Pope Pius XII has been attacked as "Hitler's Pope," an anti-Semitic enabler who refused to condemn Nazism, much less urge Catholics to resist the German regime. The Church has been accused of standing by while the Nazis steadily revealed their evil designs. Yet all such arguments have been based only on sketchy evidence. The Vatican has kept its internal workings secret and locked away from scrutiny.

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy across mountainous terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential if they were to defeat the Taliban.

Just as Watergate was the defining political story of its time, so Enron is the biggest business story of our time. And just as All the President's Men was the one Watergate book that gave readers the full story, with all the drama and nuance, The Smartest Guys in the Room is the one book you have to read to understand this amazing business saga.

Three wines from each winery are presented with recipes that either use the wine as an ingredient or as a perfect pairing

This Week for Kids

Ok, deep breath...here we go!

Monday at 6:00--The Wii Bowling Tournament continues! Come enjoy snacks and virtual bowling!

Tuesday at 11:00--Story Time. I'm doing it again: Weather permitting, we'll do flower and tree stories than take a tour of the Brown Library Garden and other pretty library landscaping!

Tuesday 1-5pm--Drop In Craft. This week's project is beach t-shirts! Bring your own t-shirt and I'll have fabric markers and paint, jewels, buttons, and more...

Wednesday at 3:00--Seacoast Science Center Tidepool program! Come to the Center to see tidepool critters up close in their natural environment with a naturalist. Free parking and admission to the Center is included. You MUST sign up for this--If you have not signed up by Friday afternoon at 5pm, you will need to arrange your own visit another time.

Wednesday at 6:00--Community Read Along Movie Night! Join us for "Zathura" and free popcorn!

Thursday at 3:30--Frisbee Golf with Hula Hoops! Yes, we're going to try again. This time, I have a back-up so that if we can't go outdoors, I'll have an indoor game for anyone who needs to get out of the house!

Friday at 11:00--Story Time. For this week, we're going to do a mini-experiment: we'll read a book or two, then watch a Reading Rainbow movie of those books or different ones by the same authors!

Note: If weather is a factor, story time topics will be reversed!

Special Event!: Monday at 3:30, Magician Debbie O'Carroll will be here with "The Magic Library"! Don't miss this opportunity to see some really great magic and possibly even be part of the show... :)

This Week for Kids!

This week's programs for "Summertime and the Reading is Easy":

Monday at 6:00--Community Read-a-Long Wii Bowling Tournament.

Tuesday at 11:00--Story Time! This is an all ages drop in story time. I have given up on counting on the weather--this one WILL be indoors! We're going to try some super simple all-ages cooking...

Tuesday at 3:30--"Wild About Turtles"! Join Mary Doane of Project Nature for a cool presentation with turtles! Find out what turtles eat and how many of them there are in the world...

Wednesday at 6:00--Family Movie Night! Join us for "Holes" and free popcorn.

Thursday 1-5pm--Drop In Craft! Come make a frog with a tongue that really sticks out. Then have a fly contest with your friends!

Friday at 11:00--Story Time! This is an all ages drop in story time. Since I have been offered an indoor water option (Debbie and Jen--you're WONDERFUL!), we're going to do some indoor mini-sailing!

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR NEXT WEEK'S TIDEPOOL PROGRAM AT THE SEACOAST SCIENCE CENTER! SIGN UPS ARE REQUIRED! CALL LISA AT 474-2044 TO SIGN UP.

new fiction

When American doctor Julia Gallo is kidnapped in Afghanistan, the terms of her ransom leave the president with only one course of action: send covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath to free the man the kidnappers demand as ransom--al-Qaeda mastermind, Mustafa Khan.








What would life be like with the one who got away? From the author of My Husband’s Sweethearts—hailed as “a laugh-and-cry novel”* that’s “whip-smart, tender…an undiluted joy to read”**—comes this bighearted, funny, fiercely perceptive tale about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything.…
For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets—from her father, a marine biologist who buried himself in work after her mother’s death; and from her husband, Peter, who’s always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen’s life, she starts to remember a time when love was an ocean.
What does Elliot want? In fact, he has a rather surprising proposition: he wants Gwen to become his wife. His pretend wife. Just for a few days. To accompany him to his family’s lake house for the weekend so that he can fulfill his dying mother’s last wish. Reluctantly Gwen agrees to play along—with her husband Peter’s full support. It’s just one weekend—what harm could come of it?
But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot’s quirky, wonderful family—his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece—she starts questioning everything she’s ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she’s ever known.

At the annual church chili supper, Reverend Schrock falls face down into his bowl. It seems someone put peanut butter in the chili, knowing full well that he was allergic. As Pennsylvania Dutch Innkeeper Magdalena Yoder investigates, she finds plenty of people who wanted the reverend dead, including a serial monogamist with a grudge and a wrongly-accused man whom the reverend testified against. As more motives emerge, Magdalena struggles to find the truth amidst evidence that is all too quickly becoming a five-alarm frenzy.

This Week for Kids!

Another busy week!
Monday at noon: Picnic and Puppets! Carol and Crew will join us for an indoor picnic. Bring your blanket and your lunch, we'll bring the puppet show and lemonade: no rain, sunburn or bugs allowed.
Monday at 6:00: Community Read-a-Long Wii Bowling Tournament--make a team, come sign up and play!
Tuesday at 11:00: Story Time. This is an all ages drop-in story time. Weather permitting, we'll do sidewalk chalk art afterwards.
Tuesday 1-5pm: Drop In Craft! Bring a pair of plain flip-flops in to decorate--we'll have ribbons, jewels, buttons, glitter glue, and more...
Wednesday at 3:00: Community Read-a-Long Zathura Game Afternoon! Come play the Zathura board game with your friends and family.
Wednesday at 6:00: Family Movie Night! The movie tonight is Horton Hears a Who. Free popcorn included.
Thursday at 6:00: Spooky Campfire Stories! Come meet local storyteller Gail Drucker by a "campfire" with s'mores for thrills and chills! (The fire is fake, the s'mores are real!).
Friday at 11:00: Story Time! This is an all ages drop in story time. We're going to read stories about cooking and our craft will be edible... :)

new audiobooks

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well. Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating -- and then terrifying-journey. Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable -- and resourceful -- as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In "Ayana", a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment. In "N", which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside - or keep the world from falling victim to it. Just After Sunset -- call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you. It's the perfect time for Stephen King.

Bound by blood but divided by troubles, Moses Reed, a no-frills LAPD detective, and Aaron Fox, ex-cop turned high-end private eye, usually go their separate ways. But the disappearance of Caitlin Frostig isn't usual. A straight-A student from Malibu, Caitlin has only two men in her life: her sullen single father and her wholesome college sweetheart. Reluctantly tag-teaming in a search for fresh leads, Moses and Aaron uncover more than just a secret as they descend into the sinister, seamy side of the City of Angels after dark.

The youngest of three daughters, Angela DeSaria Malone was always “the princess” of the family, a girl who thought she knew how her life would unfold. High School. College. Marriage. Motherhood. That was how it had gone for her sisters, her cousins, her friends. But it didn’t work out that way for Angie. She and her husband tried desperately to have a child; year after year, their perfectly decorated nursery remained empty. Finally, their marriage collapsed under the weight of lost dreams.After the divorce, Angie moved back to her hometown and rejoined her loud, loving, slightly crazy family. In West End, a place where life rises and falls in time with the tides, she will find the man who once again will open her heart to love . . . and meet the girl who will change Angie’s life.Lauren Ribido lives in a rundown apartment in a bad part of town with a mother who cares more about her next drink than about her daughter. At seventeen, Lauren knows that her aspirations in life may never come to pass.From the moment they meet, Angie sees something special in Lauren. They form a quick connection, this woman who is desperate for a daughter and the girl who has never known a mother’s love. When Lauren is abandoned by her mother, Angie doesn’t hesitate to offer the girl a place to stay.But nothing could have prepared Angie for the far-reaching repercussions of this act of kindness. In a dramatic turn of events, she and Lauren will be tested in a way that mothers and daughters seldom are. Together they will embark on an intensely moving, deeply emotional journey to the very heart of what it means to be a family.

Respected psychologist Dr. Timothy MacLean has been diagnosed with a disorder that alters his behavior and lowers his inhibitions, meaning he can no longer be trusted to keep his patients' secrets. Now it seems that one of them is willing to kill to keep him quiet.

new nonfiction

The stunning, never before told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the Amazon

In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets. Fordlandia, as the settlement was called, quickly became the site of an epic clash. On one side was the car magnate, lean, austere, the man who reduced industrial production to its simplest motions; on the other, the Amazon, lush, extravagant, the most complex ecological system on the planet. Ford’s early success in imposing time clocks and square dances on the jungle soon collapsed, as indigenous workers, rejecting his midwestern Puritanism, turned the place into a ribald tropical boomtown. Fordlandia’s eventual demise as a rubber plantation foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest. More than a parable of one man’s arrogant attempt to force his will on the natural world, Fordlandia depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch. As Greg Grandin shows in this gripping and mordantly observed history

From living the rock star life to wading through the world's war zones, refugee camps, and brothels, Aaron Cohen left behind his closest friends, his dying father, and his partnership with a legendary musician to take on treacherous rescue missions in search of modern-day slaves Years of drug addiction and late-night partying led Aaron Cohen, one-time best friend and business partner to Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, on a path of spiritual discovery that has both transformed and endangered his life -- a path that has drawn him into the shantytowns of Cambodia and the hidden brothels of Latin America, across the sweltering savannahs of Sudan, up to the Dalai Lama's Himalayan retreat, and through the unforgiving jungles of Burma and the deserts of Iraq. At a time when more people than ever before are enslaved somewhere on the planet, Aaron Cohen is a slave hunter -- working to find and free human beings from various forms of bondage. The flesh trade is the world's fastest-growing and most deadly illegal enterprise -- even more profitable and easier to hide than guns, drugs, and precious gems. Free from diplomatic restrictions and political agendas, Cohen is a unique asset to government agencies, think tanks, and anti-slavery organizations. He navigates the oppressive territory of pimps and drug lords, cloaked in the all-too-familiar world of substance abuse, oversized egos, and changing rules. Working alone and posing as a sex tourist, he slips into brothels, urged by madams to select from a lineup of women and girls as young as six. Sometimes he can save them from their captors, but more often than not, he must leave them behind, taking only the evidence he hopes will eventually lead to their rescue. Struggling to make ends meet on his own negligible salary, Cohen faces temptations few could resist and witnesses atrocities his friends and family cannot understand. And though many assignments over the years carry him away from his ailing father, his commitment to protect, assist, and empower human trafficking victims -- and to disrupt the patterns that lead to all forms of enslavement -- is unyielding.In a remarkable exposé of a sinister trade most of us will never experience first-hand, rocker-turned-antislavery activist Aaron Cohen reveals the fast-paced, timely, inspiring, and unforgettable story of a real life Slave Hunter.


In our ecologically aware times, composting is one smart way to minimize our carbon footprint and help the earth. This new entry in the highly successful Specialist series gives gardeners all the guidance they need to start making, storing, and using their own compost. It offers Information on different types of compost and their ingredients, advice on constructing a compost bin, and detailed explanations of wormeries, green manuring, and seed and potting composts. There’s no better or easier-to-follow guide for the eco-smart gardener!



This unprecedented look into the lives and social groups of boys across America is a parent and teacher's key to understanding the hidden hopes, fears, pains, and passions of their sons and students.
Male teenage cliques have come a long way since the days of the Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when most adolescents could be lumped together as either Jocks, Druggies, or Nerds. After crisscrossing the country--meeting with boys from varying cultures, creeds and socio-economic backgrounds, and geographic regions ranging from Seattle to Miami, Boston to Chicago--investigative journalist Malina Saval introduces readers to the next generation of male teens by creating a new series of archetypes and redrawing the ever-expanding social map.
The Secret Lives of Boys is an uncensored look into boyhood culture and reveals with unabashed honesty spine-tingling confessions, heartrending sadness and isolation, unbridled optimism and seemingly boundless resilience. By listening without judging, Saval has created an authoritative entrée into the clandestine culture of boyhood, lending a voice to a demographic undeservedly jilted. This book asks the pertinent questions: Who are these boys? What do they think of themselves? How can we advise them properly in a way that they will not resist? Saval digs deep to uncover what binds these boys, what makes them different, what they want you to know.

Using long-forgotten WPA files archived in the Library of Congress, bestselling author Mark Kurlansky paints a detailed picture of Depression Era Americans through the food that they ate and the local traditions and customs they observed when planning and preparing meals.

new biographies

In the tradition of recent hits like The Bitch in the House and Perfect Madness comes a hilarious and controversial book that every woman will have an opinion about, written by America’s most outrageous writer.
In our mothers’ day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.
Today we have only Bad Mothers.
If you work, you’re neglectful; if you stay home, you’re smothering. If you discipline, you’re buying them a spot on the shrink’s couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. If you buy organic, you’re spending their college fund; if you don’t, you’re risking all sorts of allergies and illnesses.
Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as “a bad mother”? Ayelet Waldman says it’s time for women to get over it and get on with it, in a book that is sure to spark the same level of controversy as her now legendary “Modern Love” piece, in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children.
Covering topics as diverse as the hysteria of competitive parenting (Whose toddler can recite the planets in order from the sun?), the relentless pursuits of the Bad Mother police, balancing the work-family dynamic, and the bane of every mother’s existence (homework, that is), Bad Mother illuminates the anxieties that riddle motherhood today, while providing women with the encouragement they need to give themselves a break.

Frances Perkins is no longer a household name, yet she was one of the most influential women of the twentieth century. Frances Perkins was named Secretary of Labor by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. As the first female cabinet secretary, at the height of the Great Depression, she spearheaded the fight to improve the lives of America's working people while juggling her own family responsibilities. Perkins's ideas became the cornerstones of the most important social welfare legislation in the nation's history, including unemployment compensation, child labor laws, the forty-hour work week, and Social Security. Also, as head of the Immigration Service, she fought to bring European refugees to safety. Based on eight years of research, extensive archival materials, new documents, and exclusive access to family and friends, this is the first complete portrait of a devoted public servant with a passionate personal life, a mother who changed the landscape of American business and society.--From publisher description.

From failure to fusilli, this deliciously hilarious read tells the story of Giulia Melucci's fizzled romances and the mouth-watering recipes she used to seduce her men, smooth over the lumps, and console herself when the relationships flamed out. From an affectionate alcoholic, to the classic New York City commitment-phobe, to a hipster aged past his sell date, and not one, but two novelists with Peter Pan complexes, Giulia has cooked for them all. She suffers each disappointment with resolute cheer (after a few tears) and a bowl of pastina (recipe included) and has lived to tell the tale so that other women may go out, hopefully with greater success, and if that's not possible, at least have something good to eat. Peppered throughout Giulia's delightful and often poignant remembrances are fond recollections of her mother's cooking, the recipes she learned from her, and many she invented on her own inspired by the men in her life. Readers will howl at Giulia's boyfriend-littered past and swoon over her irresistable culinary creations.

She's one of our most beloved political figures, and on the surface, seems to have led a charmed life. Beautiful family, thriving career, loving marriage. But she's no stranger to adversity. Many know of the strength she had shown after her son was killed in a car accident. She would exhibit this remarkable grace and courage again when the very private matter of her husband's infidelity became public fodder. And her own life has been on the line: days before the 2004 presidential election--when her husband was running for vice president--she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After much treatment the cancer went away--only to reoccur in 2007. On the campaign trail, Elizabeth met others who have had to contend with serious adversity, and here she draws on their experiences as well as her own, crafting an unsentimental and inspirational meditation on the gifts we can find among life's biggest challenges.--From publisher description.

new teen books

At fourteen, Alis has never been outside her strict religious community. But when her parents arrange for her to marry a forty-year-old man, she flees desperately to the dangerous, unfamiliar city. She learns quickly that the only way to survive there is to become a thief—or worse. Facing an impossible choice between a forced marriage or life on the streets, Alis seizes control of her own fate. But the path she chooses sets off a disastrous chain of events that leave her accused of murder. Steadfastly loyal, Alis must decide: will she betray a loved one or sacrifice herself?




Phoebe, who recently discovered she’s a descendant of Nike (the goddess, not the shoe), is finding that supernatural powers come with a crazy learning curve. Her stepfather, headmaster of the Academy for descendants of the Greek gods, has enrolled her at Dynamotheos Development Camp—aka Goddess Boot Camp—with a bunch of ten-year-olds for the summer. Embarrassing as that is, hopefully it’ll help her gain control over her powers in time to pass the test of the gods, continue training hard enough to qualify for the Pythian Games, and enjoy her godly boyfriend, Griffin, all while avoiding the ultimate mistake of accidentally misusing powers.
It’s another fast-paced myth-inspired heroine’s quest that’s sure to bring out the goddess in anyone.

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated community without questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters, with two more on the way. That is, without questioning them much---if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her.
But when the Prophet decrees that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle---who already has six wives---Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family forever.


It’s been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents’ divorce—or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.
A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town. Together they embark on parallel quests: for Auden, to experience the carefree teenage life she’s been denied; for Eli, to come to terms with the guilt he feels for the death of a friend.
In her signature pitch-perfect style, Sarah Dessen explores the hearts of two lonely people learning to connect.