Posts Tagged ‘Book Recommendations’
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Summer Reading
Speaking of Dog Days…. check out these great books, currently available to request
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Classic stories from the great animal storyteller… James Herriot’s Dog Stories. Here are the complete dog stories from the first four volumes of the warm and witty memoirs of the beloved Yorkshire vet. Certain to please any dog lover, these stories can be read over and over again. |
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For those who love to be outdoors…Hiking with your Dog. A practical guide to hiking and camping with your canine buddy. |
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Memoir …The Angel By My Side: The True Story of a Dog Who Saved a Man…and a Man Who Saved a Dog. Two serious heart attacks and open-heart surgery had taken away most of the good things that Mike Lingenfelter had in his life, when an energetic golden retriever named Dakota, who had been rescued from death himself, came to the rescue… |
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Heartwarming tales of an animal’s heroic feats…. The Dog Who Rescues Cats: The True Story of Ginny and The Blessing of the Animals : True Stories of Ginny, the Dog Who Rescues Cats. Meet Ginny, who has an amazing sixth-sense ability to find and rescue ailing stray cats. She and her owner Philip have carried out incredible rescues – in one scenario, she burrows frantically through a container filled with broken glass, badly cutting her paws, to expose a tiny injured kitten. Don’t miss these two books! |
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Contemporary fiction…To Dance With the White Dog. Sam Peek has lost his beloved wife of fifty-seven good years, and his children worry: how can this elderly man live alone? When Sam begins telling his children about a dog as white as the pure driven snow — a dog that seems invisible to everyone but him — his children think that grief and old age have finally taken their toll…it’s a bittersweet, lovely tale of an old man’s |
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Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Look at these temporally relevant books, currently available to request…
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Mysteries/Thrillers… Fourth of July. If you haven’t read the Women’s Murder Club series, what are you waiting for? This tremendously popular group of books has enthralled mystery lovers from book one. |
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Literary Fiction… Independence Day. Frank Bascombe (introduced in the earlier book The Sportswriter), is in the aftermath of his divorce and the ruin of his career. Over one Fourth of July weekend, Frank is called into sudden, bewildering engagement with life. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1996. |
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Childrens …Judy Moody Declares Independence. A visit to Boston spurs Judy’s interest in Revolutionary heroes and heroines, and she’s soon on a quest for more independence. Ages 9-12. Also check out The Declaration of Independence in the Abby Hayes series, for younger readers (4-8). |
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Historical Romance … Sweet Liberty: Freedom and Love Reign at Four Historical Fourth of July Celebrations. Four women, at four different historical periods in American history, are poised on the brink of freedom. Liberty–sweet liberty–can take many forms; how will they find their way to theirs? |
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Memoir... Born on the Fourth of July. Ron Kovics’ powerful memoir was a New York Times bestseller. It details the author’s life story (portrayed by Tom Cruise in the Oliver Stone film version) from a patriotic soldier in Vietnam, to his severe battlefield injury, to his role as the country’s most outspoken anti-Vietnam War advocate, spreading his message from his wheelchair. |
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Monday, June 15th, 2009
Look at these books by, for and about dads, currently available to request…
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General Fiction… Look Back All the Green Valley. Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town of his boyhood to tend to his ailing mother, and clean out his deceased father’s workroom. What he discovers there leads him—and the reader—on an unforgettable journey through the secret life of Jess’s father, which culminates in a moment of profound mystery… and comedy. |
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Memoirs… Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul. Tony Hendra, a writer and satirist who was one of the geniuses behind THIS IS SPINAL TAP, shares an inspiring true story about his spiritual journey toward God, in the form of a tribute to the Rev. Joseph Warrilow, a Benedictine monk who lives in a monastery on the Isle of Wight. A New York Times Notable Book. |
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Military History … Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War. When Bob Greene went home to central Ohio to be with his dying father, it set off a chain of events that led him to knowing his dad in a way he never had before — thanks to a quiet man who lived just a few miles away, a man who had changed the history of the world…. Duty is the story of three lives connected by history, proximity, and blood; indeed, it is many stories, intimate and achingly personal as well as deeply historic. |
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Business …Business Dad : How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa) Businessmen with kids often feel trapped between rising expectations at work and at home…there are never enough hours in the day. What’s a business dad to do? Tom Hirschfeld, veteran businessman and father of two, addresses the dilemma with surprising insights and sensible solutions…. |
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Contemporary Fiction... A Father’s Affair. What happens to a father when he discovers that he has been infertile all his life? That intriguing question is the starting point of this book. Still reeling from the sudden death of his wife (the one person who could answer his questions), the protagonist, Armin Minderhout, begins a quest to discover the biological father of his thirteen-year-old son. The reader joins him on an extraordinary journey, one in which he is forced to reconsider everything and everyone he has ever believed in… |
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Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Check out these books, currently available to request…
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Children’s... Hatchet. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness. More than a survival story, Hatchet is a tale of tough decisions…Brian discovers that if he is to survive physically as well as mentally, he must discover courage. |
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Memoirs… The Glass Castle. In this riveting and un-self-pitying memoir, Jeannette Walls’ chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents…she describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being pimped by her father at a bar)…the author’s removed, nonjudgmental stance lets her love for her parents – despite their flaws and overwhelming self-absorption – resonate from cover to cover. |
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Mystery/Thriller … 1st to Die (Women’s Murder Club, Book 1). The first book in bestselling author James Patterson’s hugely popular series The Women’s Murder Club pits four San Francisco women professionals against a serial killer who’s stalking and murdering newlyweds. This is a PBS club favorite. The whole series so far (all seven books) is currently available to request. Get your whole summer’s reading – although if the couldn’t-put-them-down reviews are correct, these books won’t last you that long! |
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Contemporary Fiction…The Friday Night Knitting Club. “Walker and Daughter” is Georgia Walker’s little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia’s regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat-and occasionally clash-over their stories of love, life, and everything in between….they’ve created not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood. A charming and moving novel about women’s friendship. |
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Chick Lit... The Next Big Thing. Kat Larson figured she had nothing to lose by becoming a contestant on the new reality show “From Fat to Fabulous” — except maybe a few dozen pounds. Then she’d finally be able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Nick, the British hunk she met online, who still thinks she’s a size four…. In this funny, poignant debut, a plus-size heroine discovers she’s already beautiful enough to be… the next big thing. |
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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
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Children’s… The Ugly Princess and the Wise Fool. “A very long time ago, when all the countries you’ve ever heard of were in different places on the map, a princess was born who was not beautiful. She wasn’t even remotely pretty, and the whole kingdom was in deep shock about it…” Princess Rose doesn’t get any prettier as she grows up, but the kingdom does get over its shock. Everyone adores the skinny, buck-toothed princess, and she doesn’t mind her appearance —until the handsomest prince in the world comes looking for a bride. Despite warnings from her seafaring fairy godmother and a wise fool named Jasper, reckless Rose wishes for beauty…. |
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Historical Fiction… The Queen’s Fool. Winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court…. This is a story of a young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, who must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love. Another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller. |
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Cozy Mystery … Fool’s Puzzle Newly widowed, Benni’s making a fresh start. Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon a body of a brutally stabbed artist…and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies — and the shocking truth about the night her husband died. |
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Contemporary Fiction…Nobody’s Fool. Sixty-year-old Sully is “nobody’s fool,” except maybe his own. He’s started on a run of bad luck….The banker son of his octogenarian landlady wants him evicted; his high-strung ex-wife seems headed for a nervous breakdown; his longtime lover is blaming him for her daughter’s winding up in the hospital with a busted jaw. But Sully’s biggest problem is the memory of his own abusive father, a ghost who haunts his every day…. Richard Russo knows the small towns of upstate New York and the people who inhabit them; he writes with biting wit and compassion. |
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Paranormal Mystery... The Diva’s Fool. On the night of her final performance, Opera Diva Carmen Dellamorte, famous for her passion of Tarot cards, staggers onto the Chicago Lyric Opera House stage and dies. Is it the curse of Macbeth or a malevolent plot to dethrone the queen? Alexandria Vilkas, Chicago reporter, does more than write about the supernatural. She peeks behind the veil of death to investigate murders of the paranormal, and solving the mysterious death of a Diva is the first step on her journey. 2008 Love Is Murder Award Recipient for “Best Paranormal Mystery”. |
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Monday, March 9th, 2009
Check out these books, currently available to request right now! These come highly recommended by Team Blarney O’PBS.
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Memoir.. A Song for Mary: An Irish-American Memory. Growing up on the rough-and-tumble streets of New York City in the 1940s and ’50s, Dennis Smith was a “tenement kid,” dirt-poor, Irish-Catholic, and missing a father. He was told that his father had a disability which required him to stay in a hospital and have no visitors. By his early teens, Smith had become an angry rebel… Just as his life was about to spin out of control, he learned the truth behind his father’s absence. This lyrical remembrance by a bestselling author is a powerful odyssey of one young man coming of age in a confusing and sometimes hostile world. |
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Historical Fiction… 1921 : The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War. Morgan Llywelyn, the acclaimed historical writer, brings the story of the Irish War of Independence and the heartbreaking civil war that followed to life. Henry Mooney, a newspaper reporter, struggles with his passion for a Protestant Anglo-Irish woman, and as he reports the events in the political battle for independence, he comes to realize that the Irish struggle for freedom will leave no life untouched–and no Irish citizen with a dry eye or an untroubled heart. |
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Humor … How to Be Irish (Even if You Already Are). Of course you want to be Irish. This handbook will tell you how to “talk, look, and act Irish” and more. Whether you’re proudly Irish, anti-Irish, fallen-away Irish, or would-be Irish–that is to say, if you’re a living, breathing human being–How to Be Irish is for you. Remember – Luck has nothing to do with it! |
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General Fiction…A Star Called Henry With his trademark sharp-edged wit and breathtaking prose, Roddy Doyle introduces Henry Smart–adventurer, IRA assassin, and lover. Narrated by its protagonist, A Star Called Henry takes us through Henry’s early years of reckless heroism and adventure…to his role as a young father and rebel. At once an epic, a love story, and a portrait of Irish history A Star Called Henry is a tour de force told in a voice that is quintessentially Irish. |
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Paranormal Romance...Irish Magic and Irish Magic II Changelings, fairies, ancient deities, all ready to fall in love–where but in Ireland, the inspired setting for novellas that straddle the genre boundary between romance and fantasy. Authors Morgan Llywelyn, Susan Wiggs, Roberta Gellis and Barbara Samuel. |
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Check out these books, currently available to request right now! These come highly recommended by Team Mucho Macho PBS.
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Chick Lit… Something Borrowed. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl—until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy’s fiancé. Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from…Something Borrowed will have you laughing, crying, and calling your best friend. |
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General Fiction… The Notebook. A man picks up a very special notebook and begins reading to his beloved wife, his voice recalling the story of their poignant and bittersweet journey to happiness … so begins The Notebook, a touching novel that is a dual tale of love lost and found, and of a couple’s gentle efforts to retrieve the most cherished moments of their lives. |
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Mystery … Early Autumn. For those of you who like your romance hard-boiled…Spenser is the quintessential Tender Tough Guy. In this book: first the father hires thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy back. But Spenser decides to do some kidnapping of his own. With a contract out on his life, he heads for the Maine woods, determined to give a puny 15 year old a crash course in survival and to beat his dangerous opponents at their own brutal game. |
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Romantic Suspense… The Summerhouse. Three best friends, all with the same birthday, are about to turn forty…Leslie, Madison, and Ellie plan to spend the birthday at a summerhouse in Maine. Each finds a puzzling card from a “Madame Zoya,” offering them the chance of a lifetime: to relive any three months from the past. Will the road not taken prove a better path? |
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Paranormal Romance…You Slay Me. Aisling Grey is a courier enjoying a free, work-related trip to Paris when she learns she’s a Guardian. That’s a keeper of the Gates of Hell, for those who don’t know. Her customer is murdered, and the gold dragon statue she is supposed to deliver is stolen by one Drake Vireo, who is quite attractive–when he’s in human form, that is… The first book in the Aisling Grey series. |
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