Friday, December 27, 2013

New Adult Fiction - Dec. 27, 2013

The New Countess by Fay Weldon (Book 3 in the Habits of the House trilogy)

By the bestselling novelist and award-winning writer of the pilot episode of the original Upstairs Downstairs. England, 1903. Lord Robert and Lady Isobel Dilberne and the entire grand estate, with its hundred rooms, are busy planning for a visit from Edward VII and Queen Alexandra just a few months away. Preparations are elaborate and exhaustive: the menus and fashions must be just so, and so must James, the new heir and son of Arthur Dilberne and Chicago heiress, Minnie O'Brien. But there are problems. Little James is being reared to Lady Isobel's tastes, not Minnie's. And Mrs. O'Brien is visiting from America and causing trouble. Meanwhile, the Dilbernes' niece, Adela, is back and stirring up hysteria in the servants' hall by claiming the house is cursed. The royal visit is imperiled, but so are the Dilberne finances once more. His Lordship is under tremendous stress, and the pecking order will soon be upset as everything at Dilberne Court changes. 

Also try:

Habits of the House, Book 1
Long Live the King, Book 2













 
The Hunters by Chris Kuzneski

The hunters - an ex-military leader, a historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert and a thief, financed by a billionaire philanthropist - are tasked with finding the world's most legendary treasures. The mission: recover a vast Romanian treasure that was stolen by the Russians nearly a century ago. With a haul valued at over $3.5 billion, everyone wants to claim the vast treasure, but its location has remained a mystery... until now. Can the hunters succeed where all others have failed?




With Blood in Their Eyes by Thomas Cobb

On February 10, 1918, John Power woke to the sound of bells and horses’ hooves. He was sharing a cabin near the family mine with his brother Tom and their father Jeff; hired man Tom Sisson was also nearby. Then gunfire erupted, and so began the day when the Power brothers engaged the Graham County Sheriff’s Department in the bloodiest shootout in Arizona history. Now Thomas Cobb, author of Crazy Heart and Shavetail, has taken up the story in this powerful and meticulously researched nonfiction novel.
Grappling with themes of loyalty, masculinity, technology, and honor, this sweeping saga reveals the passion and brutality of frontier life in Arizona a hundred years ago. Richly authentic and beautifully written, With Blood in Their Eyes breathes dramatic new life into this nearly forgotten episode of the American West.




Return to Oakpine by Ron Carlson

From a widely admired author, a poignant novel about homecoming, friendship, growing up, and growing old for fans of Richard Ford and Richard Russo. In this finely wrought portrait of western American life, Ron Carlson takes us to the small town of Oakpine, Wyoming, and into the lives of four men trying to make peace with who they are in the world. In high school, these men were in a band. One of them, Jimmy, left Oakpine for New York City after the tragic death of his brother. A successful novelist, he has returned thirty years later, in 1999 - because he is dying. With Carlson’s characteristic grace, we learn what has become of these friends and the different directions of their lives. Craig and Frank never left; Mason, a top lawyer in Denver, is back in town to fix up and sell his parents’ house. Now that they are reunited, getting the band back together might be the most important thing they can do.




The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman

A man's body is found below a waterfall. It looks like suicide or an accidental drowning—until DI Frannie Bliss enters the dead man's home. What he finds there sends him to Merrily Watkins, the Diocese of Hereford's official advisor on the paranormal. It's been nearly 40 years since Hay was declared an independent state by its self-styled king—a development seen at the time as a joke, a publicity scam. But behind this pastiche a dark design was taking shape, creating a hidden history of murder and ritual-magic, the relics of which are only now becoming horribly visible. It's a situation that will take Merrily Watkins—alone for the first time in years—to the edge of madness.




The Mulligans of Mt. Jefferson by Don Reid

In a small Virginia town, Cal, Harlan and Buddy grow up and get into -- and out of -- all the trouble that boys manage to think up. A local restaurateur, "Uncle" Vic, calls them the Mulligans, because they always seem to find a way through a thicket of trouble -- family problems, girls, college, war service -- to success. On an early morning in 1959, police lieutenant Buddy receives a startling phone call: Harlan has been shot in a break-in. Together, Cal and Buddy begin to unravel what might have happened to Harlan, uncovering more questions than answers -- and they begin to wonder what secrets lie beneath years of friendship. After a lifetime of pulling through scrapes together, are the Mulligans out of second chances?

Thursday, December 19, 2013

New Adult Nonfiction - Dec. 19, 2013

A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classic
by Caseen Gaines

The definitive guide to everything fans want to know about A Christmas Story shares the inside story behind the film’s production, release, and unlikely ascent to the top of popular culture. From Jean Shepherd’s original radio broadcasts to Bob Clark’s 1983 sleeper hit film and beyond, A Christmas Story has become a beloved Yuletide tradition over the last three decades. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of its theatrical release, this is the untold story of the making of the film, and what happened afterwards. Complete with rare and previously unreleased photographs, now fans of the movie and film buffs alike can lean all they didn’t know about the timeless classic.



Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing
by Anya von Bremzen

"I don’t think there’s ever been a book quite like this; I couldn’t put it down. Warm, smart and completely engaging, this food-forward journey through Soviet history could only have been written by someone who was there. Part memoir, part cookbook, part social history, this gripping account of Anya von Bremzen’s relationship with the country she fled as a young girl is also an unsentimental, but deeply loving tribute to her mother. Unique and remarkable, this is a book you won't forget." Ruth Reichl, author of Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples 




The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain by James Fallon

The Psychopath Inside tells the fascinating story of Fallon’s reaction to the discovery that he has the brain of a psychopath. While researching serial murderers, he uncovered a distinct neurological pattern in their brain scans that helped explain their cold and violent behavior. A few months later he learned that he was descended from a family with a long line of murderers which confirmed that Fallon’s own brain pattern wasn’t a fluke.

As a scientist convinced that humans are shaped by their genetics, Fallon set out to reconcile the truth about his brain with everything he knew about the mind, behavior, and the influence of nature vs. nurture on our personalities. How could he, a successful scientist and a happy family man with no history of violence, be a psychopath? How much did his biology influence his behavior? Was he capable of some of the gruesome atrocities perpetrated by the serial killers he had studied?

Combining his personal experience with scientific analysis, Fallon shares his journey and the discoveries that ultimately led him to understand that, despite everything science can teach us, humans are even more complex than we can imagine.



27: A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse
by Howard Sounes

Imagine a club that people are dying to get into -- literally! Sounes examines the lives of six musicians and singers who died at the age of 27, plus other music industry figures who died at that age, to discover what -- apart from coincidence -- this phenomenon signifies. He discovers a common story of excess, madness, and self-destruction.


 
 

Hollywood Costume edited by Deborah Nadoolman Landis

Featuring the most beloved costume designs from the past 100 years of Hollywood films, Hollywood Costume celebrates, for the very first time, the costume designer’s contribution to the telling of the cinematic story. Published in conjunction with an exhibition launched at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that the New York Times called “extraordinary,” the book showcases the talents of renowned designers such as Adrian, Edith Head, and Sandy Powell, among many others, whose work spans the silent era to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the present day. With memorable wardrobe classics from The Tramp, Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Pirates of the Caribbean, Ocean’s Eleven, Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, and many more, Hollywood Costume is the ultimate volume for fashionistas and film lovers alike.  



Eminent Hipsters by Donald Fagen

"Since the popular music group Steely Dan produced its last album in 2003, founding member Fagen has been keeping busy performing in occasional reunion tours and channeling his celebrated, lyric-generating talents into penning crafty and incisive essays. In his first collection of these distinctively droll and erudite pieces, Fagen covers a wide range of topics, from boyhood memories to musical criticism. The eminent hipsters referred to in the title are Fagen’s early idols, such radio personalities as Jean Shepherd, best known for narrating A Christmas Story, and late-night jazz DJ Mort Fega, the cool uncle you always wished you’d had. 'Class of ‘69' recounts his momentous years at New York’s Bard College, where he met Steely Dan cofounder Walter Becker, and 'With the Dukes of September' excerpts his journal notes from a recent musical tour he took with fellow music legends Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald. While Steely Dan devotees will, of course, revel in Fagan’s barb-edged observations, any observer of popular culture will find his essays informative and trenchantly amusing." Carl Hays in Booklist

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

New Children's Books - Dec. 17, 2013

Little Red Writing by Joan Holub
Little Red Writing by Joan Holub

Acclaimed writer Joan Holub and Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet team up in this hilarious and exuberant retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, in which a brave, little red pencil finds her way through the many perils of writing a story, faces a ravenous pencil sharpener (the Wolf 3000)... and saves the day.





Friends by Eric Carle
Friends by Eric Carle

From the creator of the all-time classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar comes a sweetly resonant story about the power of friendship. When a best friend moves away, it can be painful for the child who is left behind. But the spunky boy in this upbeat story makes up his mind to find his missing playmate. Young readers will cheer on the boy as he braves currents, climbs mountains, and dashes through rain before, finally, reuniting with his friend.


Ivy + Bean take the case by Annie Barrows
Ivy + Bean take the case by Annie Barrows

Watch out, you diabolical masterminds! There's a new detective on Pancake Court: Bean! She laughs at danger! She solves even the most mysterious mysteries! What? There aren't any mysteries? Then Bean and her assistant, Ivy, will make some!

In this tenth installment of Ivy + Bean stories, Bean decides to set up shop as a private investigator after watching a movie about a detective on the television --and she and Ivy start looking for mysteries to solve.