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KFOR Book Chats – 2017

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Starting in April 2002, and continuing through November 2018, a panel of library staff members have appeared somewhat regularly on Cathy Blythe’s Problems and Solutions (site https://www.problemsandsolutions.net no longer active) program on radio station KFOR 1240 AM & 103.3 FM in a segment called “Book Chat,” sharing information about books, literacy and library programs. Here is a list of the books discussed on the shows during 2017:

Here is a list of the books discussed in the most recent show: December 14, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V., and Vicki W.

Journey: An Illustrated History of Travel
by Simon Adams for Smithsonian with publisher Dorling Kindersley (j910.4 Ada)

An illustrated account of human movement, travel, exploration, and scientific discovery — from the first trade networks in ancient Sumer to the epic Voyager missions.

Human journeys arise from all manner of impulses, from migration and the search for food, to pilgrimages, trade, scientific curiosity, or simply the quest for adventure. Journey traces each through lively accounts, alongside the biographies of conquerors, explorers, and travelers; stories of technological innovation; literary journals; and works of art. Themed spreads and feature panels capture the romance of travel with evocative accounts, archive images, historic maps, and artifacts, while catalog spreads add glamour and nostalgia, showcasing objects and documents associated with the rise of travel, such as postcards and passports. A textured cover with a picture-perfect image and shiny finishes make it ideal for gift-giving.

Produced in association with the Smithsonian Institution.


Book of Bones: 10 Recording-Breaking Animals
by Gabrielle Balkan, illustrated by Sam Brewster (j573.76 Bal)

It’s a book of world records… of bones! Guess whose bones are the longest, shortest, heaviest, spikiest, and more. With touchable skeletons!

Ten record-breaking animal bones are introduced through a series of superlatives set up as a guessing game with clues. Readers examine animals’ skeletons and guess to whom they belong; the answers are revealed in vibrant, full-color scenic habitats, with easily understood — and humorous — explanations. This entertaining introduction to the connection between animal bones (anatomy) and behavior is playful, relatable, and includes touch-and-feel finishes that bring the bones to life!


The Journey Trilogy: Journey
by Aaron Becker (jP Becker)

Follow a girl on an elaborate flight of fancy in a wondrously illustrated, wordless picture book about self-determination — and unexpected friendship.

A lonely girl draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and through it escapes into a world where wonder, adventure, and danger abound. Red marker in hand, she creates a boat, a balloon, and a flying carpet that carry her on a spectacular journey toward an uncertain destiny. When she is captured by a sinister emperor, only an act of tremendous courage and kindness can set her free. Can it also lead her home and to her heart’s desire? With supple line, luminous color, and nimble flights of fancy, author-illustrator Aaron Becker launches an ordinary child on an extraordinary journey toward her greatest and most exciting adventure of all.

A 2014 Caldecott Honor Book


The Journey Trilogy: Quest
by Aaron Becker (jP Becker)

Aaron Becker, creator of Journey, a Caldecott Honor book, presents the next chapter in his stunning wordless fantasy.

A king emerges from a hidden door in a city park, startling two children sheltering from the rain. No sooner does he push a map and some strange objects into their hands than he is captured by hostile forces that whisk him back through the enchanted door. Just like that, the children are caught up in a quest to rescue the king and his kingdom from darkness, while illuminating the farthest reaches of their imagination. Colored markers in hand, they make their own way through the portal, under the sea, through a tropical paradise, over a perilous bridge, and high in the air with the help of a winged friend. Journey lovers will be thrilled to follow its characters on a new adventure threaded with familiar elements, while new fans will be swept into a visually captivating story that is even richer and more exhilarating than the first.


The Journey Trilogy: Return
by Aaron Becker (jP Becker)

Welcome the much-anticipated finale of Caldecott Honoree Aaron Becker’s wordless trilogy — a spectacular, emotionally satisfying story that brings its adventurer home.

Failing to get the attention of her busy father, a lonely girl turns back to a fantastic world for friendship and adventure. It’s her third journey into the enticing realm of kings and emperors, castles and canals, exotic creatures and enchanting landscapes. This time, it will take something truly powerful to persuade her to return home, as a gripping backstory is revealed that will hold readers in its thrall. Caldecott Honor winner Aaron Becker delivers a suspenseful and moving climax to his wordless trilogy, an epic that began with the award-winning Journey and continued with the celebrated follow-up Quest.


A Fine Romance: Falling in Love With the English Countryside
by Susan Branch (914.2 Bra)

Susan Branch is the author of twelve best-selling “Heart of the Home” books about cooking, gardening, best friends, and the little things that make life sweet. Her latest is a hand-painted love story about her voyage on the Queen Mary @@ and two months in England, touring the countryside and sharing stories, recipes, and travel tips. Each page is a piece of art — filled with paintings, pictures, and her hand-written and unique thoughts about everything from pubs to Beatrix Potter’s Hilltop Farm. It is both whimsical and a visual tour de force of art and words.


Martha’s Vineyard: Isle of Dreams
by Susan Branch (Biography Branch)

In the winter of 1982, long before she became the watercolor artist and author we know today, Susan Branch, 34-years-old and heartbroken from the sudden and unexpected end of her marriage in California, “ran away from home” to the Island of Martha’s Vineyard hoping to gain perspective. It was meant to be temporary, a three-month time-out from the daily grind of being broken up and miserable, but within days of her arrival, alone and not quite in her right mind, Susan “accidentally” bought a tiny one-bedroom cottage in the woods – which is how she discovered she was moving 3,000 miles away from everyone and everything she had known and loved. Funny, observant, touching, and addictive (you are not going to want this book to end), based on the diaries she has kept all her life, Susan Branch relates her inspirational tale of lost love and self discovery, her search for roots, purpose, and destiny with laugh-out-loud honesty. A road map for overcoming loss, following your heart, and making dreams come true, charmingly hand-lettered and watercolored in Susan’s inimitable style, there are diary excerpts, recipes, and hundreds of photographs.


The Noisy Book
by Margaret Wise Brown (jPB Board Book Brown)

From Margaret Wise Brown — author of the childhood favorite Goodnight Moon — and Caldecott-winning illustrator Leonard Weisgard comes The Noisy Book, now back in print in a sturdy board book!

The little dog, Muffin, hears a noise. Squeak squeak squeak. What could it be?

Originally published in 1939, the classic story of the little dog, Muffin, accompanied by big and bright illustrations will introduce children to the sounds around them.


The Quiet Noisy Book
by Margaret Wise Brown (jPB Board Book Brown)

From Margaret Wise Brown–author of the childhood favorite Goodnight Moon–and Caldecott-winning illustrator Leonard Weisgard comes The Quiet Noisy Book, now back in print in a sturdy board book!

Muffin, the little dog, has been asleep all night. Quietly something wakes him up. A very quiet noise. What could it be?

Originally published in 1950, the classic story of the little dog, Muffin, accompanied by big and bright illustrations is sure to show readers that sometimes the quietest of sounds are the most important of all.


Mother Bruce
by Ryan Higgins (jP Higgins)

Bruce the bear likes to keep to himself. That, and eat eggs. When his hard-boiled goose eggs turn out to be real, live goslings though, he starts to lose his appetite. Even worse, the goslings are convinced he’s their mother. Bruce tries to get the geese to go south, but he can’t seem to rid himself of his new companions. What’s a bear to do? [A Golden Sower Award nominee]

Hotel Bruce
by Ryan Higgins (jP Higgins)

When Bruce gets home from a southern migration trip with his goslings, he is tired. He is grumpy. And he is definitely not in the mood to share his home with the trio of mice who have turned his den into a hotel.

There’s a possum pillow fight wreaking havoc in one room, a fox luring guests into a stew in the kitchen, and a snuggly crew of critters hogging the bed. Bruce growls and grumbles and tries to throw them all out, but the entrepreneurial mice just can’t take a hint. Bruce is in a little over his head, especially once the goslings join the staff. Will this grumpy bear ever get his quiet, peaceful den back to himself?


Sweet & Simple: Dessert for Two
by Christina Lane (641.86 Lan)

How does she do it? Christina Lane, everyone’s favorite “for two” cookbook author has once again taken her favorite desserts and scaled them down to size. Here are nearly 100 delicious new recipes drawn from her personal favorites, complete with her signature gorgeous photography. Perfect for new couples, empty-nesters, and anyone who’s ever polished off far too much of a regular-size dessert, these cakes, cookies, pies, bars, and more are sure to please. Among the mouthwatering selections, you’ll find: Gooey Butter Cake Cookies Three-ingredient Flourless Chocolate Cake Salted Butterscotch Tart Peppermint Brownies Greek Yogurt Cheesecake Ramekins Baked Rice Pudding with Caramel.

Lane uses pans in creative ways (a loaf pan, for example, is perfect for making two big brownies; muffin tins make great mini pies), but also takes advantage of smaller pans that are now widely available. Her familiar, friendly voice invites readers to whip up a little dessert and enjoy. She’s even included some light and skinny options for her fans. Sweet & Simple is sure to be another instant classic!


The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
by Kay Logan-Peters (378.782 Log)

Early in 1869, Nebraska’s legislature convened for the first time in the new capital city of Lincoln. Eager to reap the benefits of the Morrill Act, legislators quickly approved a bill establishing the University of Nebraska. Visionary lawmakers rejected the creation of two universities and determined that the state university and the state agricultural university should “be united as one educational institution.” Thus was born Nebraska’s great land grant and comprehensive research university that serves Nebraskans and the world beyond the state. Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, Olympic athletes, and Nobel Prize-winning scientists have launched their careers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as have world-class artists, entertainers, educators, and business leaders.


Crafting for Cat Ladies: 35 Purr-fect Feline Projects
by Cat Roberts (not currently in libraries’ collection)

Sweet and trendy, creative and fun to make, the crafts are divided into four sections — accessories, apparel, home, and party. Projects range from a kitty clutch wallet and cat print jeans to kitty-shaped coasters and cat-themed tablecloth. Each project includes easy-to-follow step-by-step photography as well as an overview of the tools and materials used in the book and all necessary templates..


Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures
by Joel Sartore and Kwame Alexander (jP Alexander)

A howling wolf, a stalking tiger, a playful panda, a dancing bird–pairing the stunning photography of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore with the delicate poetry of Newbery award-winning author Kwame Alexander, this lush picture book celebrates the beauty, diversity, and fragility of the animal world. Featuring more than 40 unique animal portraits, the pages invite kids to explore each creature’s markings, textures, and attributes in stunning detail, while calling on all of us to help protect each and every one. Three picture-packed gatefolds inside showcase even more familiar and exotic species. These images are part of Sartore’s lifelong project to photograph every animal in the world, with special attention given to disappearing and endangered species.


Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World
by Reshima Saujani (j005.1 Sau)

Part how-to, part girl-empowerment, and all fun, from the leader of the movement championed by Sheryl Sandberg, Malala Yousafzai, and John Legend.

Since 2012, the organization Girls Who Code has taught computing skills to and inspired over 40,000 girls across America. Now its founder, Reshma Saujani, wants to inspire you to be a girl who codes! Bursting with dynamic artwork, down-to-earth explanations of coding principles, and real-life stories of girls and women working at places like Pixar and NASA, this graphically animated book shows what a huge role computer science plays in our lives and how much fun it can be. No matter your interest–sports, the arts, baking, student government, social justice–coding can help you do what you love and make your dreams come true. Whether you’re a girl who’s never coded before, a girl who codes, or a parent raising one, this entertaining book, printed in bold two-color and featuring art on every page, will have you itching to create your own apps, games, and robots to make the world a better place.


The Larry Gets Lost series
by John Skewes and Michael Mullen (jP Skewes)

On trips to various places around the country, Larry the dog regularly gets separated from his family. His searches for his boy, Pete, and the rest of the family leads him on adventures through the history of each of the locations he’s visiting.


Here Comes Santa Cat
by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Claudia Rueda (jP Underwood)

Ho, Ho…Who? Cat! not again. The holidays are around the corner, and Cat knows what he has to do. But being nice…it doesn’t come naturally. Still, Christmas is a time for miracles, and with a little luck, even Cat may find the holiday spirit — and a festive surprise of his own.


A Very Fuddles Christmas
by Frans Vischer (jP Vischer)

Fuddles — the fat, pampered cat — weathers a wintry wonderland in this holiday story of merry misadventures!

The way Fuddles, the overly indulged feline, sees the world, it’s better to receive than give! And what better gift for Fuddles than Christmas? One winter day, he wakes up to the smells and sights of the holiday: a juicy turkey dinner, sweet gingerbread, and a tree decorated with shiny, glittering toys — all for him! But when Fuddles tries to climb the tree, his family chases him away. He runs outside to escape, smack into cold and ice and snow! Will Fuddles ever make it back home in time to celebrate the merriest time of the year?


The Native American Biographies series: The Life of Crazy Horse (including The Life of Crazy Horse)
by various authors (various juvenile call numbers)

Numerous significant Native American historical figures come to life through historical photographs and primary sources. Sidebars and a detailed timeline help readers gain a full understanding of these fascinating figures’ lives.


The America the Beautiful third series (including Nebraska)
by various authors (various juvenile call numbers)

Takes an updated look at the geography, history, government, people, culture, and attractions of each state of the United States of America.



Today’s special guest was Vicki Wood, coordinator of Youth Services for the Lincoln City Libraries. Vicki presents a book talk on “Great Books to Give as Gifts” each year in late November and early December — several of the books she talked about in today’s episode of “Book Chat” were from her 2017 version of that list. Click here to see Vicki’s full 2017 recommendations list!


Here is a list of the books discussed in the most recent show: November 2, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V., and show producer Lizz B.

Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories
by Agatha Christie (Christie)

At last, a single volume that gathers together all of the short stories featuring Agatha Christie’s most famous creation: Hercule Poirot. The dapper, mustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head and curious mannerisms has solved some of the most puzzling crimes of the century — and, in his own humble opinion, is “probably the greatest detective in the world.” In this complete collection of stories, ranging from short tales to novellas, Poirot faces violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings, and thefts — all solved with his characteristic panache. Only Agatha Christie could have devised cases worthy of Hercule Poirot’s skill and “little gray cells.”

The libraries’ Just Desserts mystery book discussion group just held a Hercule Poirot discussion to end our 2017 meetings on October 26th, 2017. If you’d like some Hercule Poirot resources, or would like to share your opinion about Christie’s Poirot stories, visit the following links:

Discussion post on the Just Desserts Blog (to leave comments)
Hercule Poirot complete book and story list
Hercule Poirot novels with Descriptions


Little Grey Cells: The Quotable Poirot
by Agatha Christie (823 Chr)

Marvelous little hardback collection of quotes from Agatha Christie’s famed Belgian sleuth, taken from the 33 novels and more than 50 short stories that featured that detective. Organized by topical categories…if you’re looking for a quick pearl of wisdom from the fussy but brilliant little crime-solver this is a fun way to find it!


Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie (Christie)

One of Agatha Christie’s most famous mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express was inspired by two real-life crimes and the author’s own experience being stranded on the Orient Express during Christmas of 1931. While traveling to Paris, a wealthy American is stabbed to death in his cabin on the Orient Express. With the train stuck in a snowdrift, there is no easy escape for the killer. Fortunately, detective Hercule Poirot is aboard and launches a clever investigation into the curious assortment of passengers, of whom each seems to have a motive. Coming out November 10th in an all-new feature film, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, with an all-star cast!


Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk
by Michelle Derusha (Biography Luther)

Their revolutionary marriage was arguably one of the most scandalous and intriguing in history. Yet five centuries later, we still know little about Martin and Katharina Luther’s life as husband and wife. Until now. Against all odds, the unlikely union worked, over time blossoming into the most tender of love stories. This unique biography tells the riveting story of two extraordinary people and their extraordinary relationship, offering refreshing insights into Christian history and illuminating the Luthers’ profound impact on the institution of marriage, the effects of which still reverberate today. By the time they turn the last page, readers will have a deeper understanding of Luther as a husband and father and will come to love and admire Katharina, a woman who, in spite of her pivotal role, has been largely forgotten by history. Together, this legendary couple experienced joy and grief, triumph and travail. This book brings their private lives and their love story into the spotlight and offers powerful insights into our own twenty-first-century understanding of marriage. [Note: Katharina Derusha is a local, Lincoln, NE author!]

The Half-Drowned King
by Linnea Hartsuyker (Hartsuyker)

The first installment in a debut trilogy, The Half-Drowned King tells the compelling story of the political intrigues, battles, and struggles for power that led to the rise of King Harald the Fair-Haired, first king of Norway, seen through the eyes of the young man who became his most trusted warrior and advisor. Conjuring a bloodthirsty, superstitious, and thrilling ancient world (9th century), this debut novel is for fans of Game of Thrones, the Vikings TV series, and Outlander.


Pet Sematary
by Stephen King (King)

“Sometimes dead is better….” When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son — and now an idyllic home. As a family, they’ve got it all…right down to the friendly cat. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth — more terrifying than death itself…and hideously more powerful.


A Quiet Life in the Country: A Lady Hardcastle Mystery
by T.E. Kinsey (not in library collection)

Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they’ve just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life.

But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There’s a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation…

As Lady Hardcastle and Flo delve deeper into rural rivalries and resentment, they uncover a web of intrigue that extends far beyond the village. With almost no one free from suspicion, they can be certain of only one fact: there is no such thing as a quiet life in the country.


Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
by Phaedra Patrick (Patrick)

In the quiet village of Noon Sun, Benedict Stone lives out the stagnant life of an unhappily married jeweler, until the daughter of his estranged brother arrives from America and turns his whole life upside down.


The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
by Douglas Perry (364.152 Per)

Chicago, 1924. There was nothing surprising about men turning up dead in the Second City. Life was cheaper than a quart of bathtub gin in the gangland capital of the world. But a pair pf murders that spring had something special.

For intrepid ‘girl reporter’ Maurine Watkins, a minister’s daughter from tiny Crawfordsville, Indiana, big city life offered un-imagined excitement. Newspaperwomen were supposed to write about clubs, cooking and clothes, but within weeks of starting at the Chicago Tribune, Watkins found herself embroiled in two scandalous sex-fueled murder cases. The first involved Belva Gaertner, the witty, sophisticated millionaire divorcee who feared returning to the poverty of her childhood. Then there was Beulah Annan a Kentucky farm girl turned jazz baby whose wistful beauty obscured an ice-cold narcissism. Both had gunned down their lovers under mysterious circumstances.

In Chicago, Watkins learned, the all-male juries didn’t convict women-especially beautiful women. The young reporter was determined to change that. She mocked ‘Stylish Belva’ and ‘Beautiful Beulah’ on the front page and made them the talk of the town. But the public reaction was not what she expected. Love-struck men sent flowers to the jail; newly emancipated women sent impassioned letters to the newspapers. Soon more than a dozen ‘murderesses’ preened and strutted in Cook Country Jail as they awaited trial, desperate for the same attention that wa being lavished on Watkins’s ‘favorites.’ None of these women-nor the police, the reporters, or the public-could imagine the bizarre way it would all end.

Douglas Perry vividly captures the sensationalized circus atmosphere that gave Chicago its most famous story. Fueled by rich period detail and a cast of characters who seemed destined for the stage. The Girls of Murder City is crackling social history that simultaneously presents the freewheeling spirit of the Jazz Age and its sober repercussions.


Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures
by Joel Sartore and Kwame Alexander (jP Alexander)

A howling wolf, a stalking tiger, a playful panda, a dancing bird — pairing the stunning photography of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore with the delicate poetry of Newbery award-winning author Kwame Alexander, this lush picture book celebrates the beauty, diversity, and fragility of the animal world. Featuring more than 40 unique animal portraits, the pages invite kids to explore each creature’s markings, textures, and attributes in stunning detail, while calling on all of us to help protect each and every one. Three picture-packed gatefolds inside showcase even more familiar and exotic species. These images are part of Sartore’s lifelong project to photograph every animal in the world, with special attention given to disappearing and endangered species.


The Photo Ark: One Man’s Quest to Document the World’s Animals
by Joel Sartore (779.59 Sar)

This book of photography represents National Geographic’s Photo Ark, a major cross-platform initiative and lifelong project by photographer Joel Sartore to make portraits of the world’s animals — especially those that are endangered. His message: to know these animals is to save them. Sartore intends to photograph every animal in captivity in the world. He is circling the globe, visiting zoos and wildlife rescue centers to create studio portraits of 12,000 species, with an emphasis on those facing extinction. He has photographed more than 6,000 already and now, thanks to a multi-year partnership with National Geographic, he may reach his goal. This book showcases his animal portraits: from tiny to mammoth, from the Florida grasshopper sparrow to the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Paired with the prose of veteran wildlife writer Douglas Chadwick, this book presents an argument for saving all the species of our planet.


Rare: Creatures of the Photo Ark
by Joel Sartore (DVD 591.68 Rar)

Rare: Creatures of the Photo Ark travels with renowned photographer Joel Sartore as he photographs at-risk and rare species in the wild, in zoos, and in nature preserves. The 3-part series explores his Photo Ark initiative, which aims to document every species at risk of extinction. This captivating and visually stunning special will reveal why ensuring species future matters to us all.


Here is a list of the books discussed in the most recent show: September 19, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V.., and show producer Lizz B.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
by Jim Fergus (Fergus)

One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial “Brides for Indians” program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man’s world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.


A Column of Fire
by Ken Follett (Follett)

International bestselling author Ken Follett has enthralled millions of readers with The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, two stories of the Middle Ages set in the fictional city of Kingsbridge. The saga now continues with Follett’s magnificent new epic, A Column of Fire. In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love. Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England. The shrewd, determined young monarch sets up the country’s first secret service to give her early warning of assassination plots, rebellions, and invasion plans. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents.


The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North American Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
by Henry Fountain ( On Order )

In the bestselling tradition of Erik Larson’s Isaac’s Storm, The Great Quake is a riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history — the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega — and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place. At 5:36 p.m. on March 27, 1964, a magnitude 9.2. earthquake — the second most powerful in world history — struck the young state of Alaska. The violent shaking, followed by massive tsunamis, devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later, George Plafker, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, arrived to investigate. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.In a compelling tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain combines history and science to bring the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail. With deep, on-the-ground reporting from Alaska, often in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people — and on science.


Fashion: The Evolution of Style
by Lucinda Gosling (391 Gos)

Takes the reader on a journey along the ever-changing road of what we wore, from the turn of the 12th century to the 1980s. Packed with over 400 images, the volume charts the contrasts and rapid evolution of style across the decades. Compiled from one of the UK’s most unique historical archives, Mary Evans Picture Library, Fashion is a celebration of glamour and style, and an insight into how clothes are part of the fabric of our lives.


The Dynamite Room
by Jason Hewitt (Hewitt)

It’s July 1940, and eleven-year-old Lydia has just run away from life as a child evacuee in Wales. She arrives in her English village, gas mask in tow, only to find it abandoned. Her family’s house is shuttered and empty, the windows covered by black-out blinds — but Lydia settles in, determined to wait there until they return. Late that night he comes: a wounded soldier, gun in hand, heralding a full-blown German invasion. There are, the man explains, certain rules that Lydia must now follow. He says he won’t hurt Lydia, but she cannot leave the house. As the unlikely pair coexists in the claustrophobic confines of the house, each becomes dependent on the other for survival. But when Lydia tries to uncover what brought the soldier to her door, she realizes that he knows more than he should about her family–and that he’s plotting something for them both.


The Right Side
by Spencer Quinn (Quinn)

In this riveting new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone. LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it. Shattered by one last blow–the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci–LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci had called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog — a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet — seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side. Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned — yet still seeking redemption and purpose — LeAnne takes hold of the reader and never lets go.


A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles (Towles)

In all ways a great novel, a nonstop pleasure brimming with charm, personal wisdom, and philosophic insight.this book more than fulfills the promise of Towles’ stylish debut, Rules of Civility.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred) From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility — a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel With his breakout debut novel, Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction, bringing late 1930s Manhattan to life with splendid atmosphere and a flawless command of style. Readers and critics were enchanted; as NPR commented, “Towles writes with grace and verve about the mores and manners of a society on the cusp of radical change.” A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.


Here is a list of the books discussed in the most recent show: August 17, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., and Lisa V..

Invisible Ink: My Mother’s Secret Love Affair With a Famous Cartoonist
by Bill Griffith (Biography Griffith)

Fifteen minutes after Bill Griffith’s father died from a bicycle accident in 1972, his mother turned to him and said, ‘If I don’t tell you this now, I’ll never be able to tell you. I had a long and happy relationship with a man you knew slightly.’ Thus began Griffith’s journey to reconstruct this hidden relationship between his mother and a deeply cultured jack-of-all-trades cartoonist and crime novelist. Invisible Ink unfolds like a detective story, alternating between past and present, as Griffith recreates the quotidian habits of suburban Levittown and the professional and cultural life of Manhattan in the 1950s and ’60s as seen through his mother’s and his own teenage eyes. Griffith finally discovers the holy grail of his mother’s past: her diary, an ecstatic evocation of her sexual liaison, and an eloquent testament to her deepest feelings; and an unfinished novel that parallels the trajectory of her own life. Griffith puts the pieces together and reveals a mother he never knew.


A Want of Kindness
by Joanne Limburg (Limburg)

The wicked, bawdy Restoration court is no place for a child princess. Ten-year-old Anne cuts an odd figure: a sickly child, she is drawn towards improper pursuits. Cards, sweetmeats, scandal, and gossip with her Ladies of the Bedchamber figure large in her life. But as King Charles’ niece, Anne is also a political pawn, who will be forced to play her part in the troubled Stuart dynasty.Transformed from overlooked princess to the heiress of England, she will be forced to overcome grief for her lost children, the political maneuverings of her sister and her closest friends, and her own betrayal of her father, before the fullness of her destiny is revealed. In A Want of Kindness, Limburg has created a richly realized time and world, and in Anne, a complex and all-too-human protagonist.


Optimists Die First
by Susan Nielsen-Fernlund (YA Nielsen-Fernlund)

Beware: Life ahead.

Sixteen-year-old Petula de Wilde is anything but wild. A former crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula shut herself off from the world after a family tragedy. She sees danger in all the ordinary things, like crossing the street, a bug bite, or a germy handshake. She knows: life is out to get you.

The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class with a small group of fellow misfits. Then a new boy, Jacob, appears at school and in her therapy group. He seems so normal and confident, though he has a prosthetic arm; and soon he teams up with Petula on a hilarious project, gradually inspiring her to let go of some of her fears. But as the two grow closer, a hidden truth behind why he’s in the group threatens to derail them, unless Petula takes a huge risk…


Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles and the World in 1967
by Brian Southall (Music 781.66 Beatles)

A carefully crafted and collectible volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of a legendary and groundbreaking Beatles album. Expert Brian Southall’s unique edition recounts the story behind the music and the cultural climate of 1967 when Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band debuted.

The “A-side” of this coolly curated title is all about the Beatles, the music on the album, the recording process, how the disc was received at the time and how it has been acknowledged as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. The “B-side” looks at the state of the world in 1967, from the Summer of Love to anti-war protests to the launch of Rolling Stone magazine to Jimi Hendrix’s first UK tour as a solo artist–and so much, much more.

Fascinating photographs and text build a complete picture of the world as it was when one of the most famous albums of all time was released.


The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built
by Jack Viertel (Music 782.14 Viertel)

For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?

In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next–by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion–from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward.

Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically.

The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast — the Broadway hit.


A Square Meal: A Culinary History of The Great Depression
by Jane Ziegelman and Andrew Coe (973.917 Zie)

From the author of the acclaimed 97 Orchard and her husband, a culinary historian, an in-depth exploration of the greatest food crisis the nation has ever faced — the Great Depression — and how it transformed America’s culinary culture.

The decade-long Great Depression, a period of shifts in the country’s political and social landscape, forever changed the way America eats. Before 1929, America’s relationship with food was defined by abundance. But the collapse of the economy, in both urban and rural America, left a quarter of all Americans out of work and undernourished–shattering long-held assumptions about the limitlessness of the national larder.

In 1933, as women struggled to feed their families, President Roosevelt reversed long-standing biases toward government-sponsored “food charity.” For the first time in American history, the federal government assumed, for a while, responsibility for feeding its citizens. The effects were widespread. Championed by Eleanor Roosevelt, “home economists” who had long fought to bring science into the kitchen rose to national stature.

Tapping into America’s long-standing ambivalence toward culinary enjoyment, they imposed their vision of a sturdy, utilitarian cuisine on the American dinner table. Through the Bureau of Home Economics, these women led a sweeping campaign to instill dietary recommendations, the forerunners of today’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

At the same time, rising food conglomerates introduced packaged and processed foods that gave rise to a new American cuisine based on speed and convenience. This movement toward a homogenized national cuisine sparked a revival of American regional cooking. In the ensuing decades, the tension between local traditions and culinary science has defined our national cuisine–a battle that continues today.

A Square Meal examines the impact of economic contraction and environmental disaster on how Americans ate then — and the lessons and insights those experiences may hold for us today.


Here is a list of the books discussed on July 18, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V., and producer Lizz B.

Figures in Silk
by Vanora Bennett (Bennett)

The story of two sisters caught up in the maelstrom of historic events, Figures in Silk by Vanora Bennett combines the fascinating art and history of silk making with political intrigue and a sweeping, unforgettable love story. A breathing immersion into a Tudor England torn asunder by the War of the Roses, Figures in Silk is historical fiction at its finest–a rare and welcome treat for readers captivated by the fiction of Tracy Chevalier, Sarah Dunant, Geraldine Brooks, Susan Vreeland, and the Boleyn novels of Phillipa Gregory.


Stay Interesting: I Don’t Always Tell Stories About My Life, But When I Do They’re True and Amazing
by Jonathan Goldsmith (Biography Goldsmith)

What makes a life truly interesting? Is it the people you meet? The risks you take? The adventures you remember? Jonathan Goldsmith has many answers to that question. For years he was a struggling actor in New York and Los Angeles, with experiences that included competing for roles with Dustin Hoffman, getting shot by John Wayne, drinking with Tennessee Williams, and sailing the high seas with Fernando Lamas, never mind romancing many lovely ladies along the way. However, it wasn’t all fun and games for Jonathan. Frustrated with his career, he left Hollywood for other adventures in business and life. But then, a fascinating opportunity came his way–a chance to star in a new campaign for Dos Equis beer. A role he was sure he wasn’t right for, but he gave it a shot all the same. Which led to the role that would bring him the success that had so long eluded him — that of “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” A memoir told through a series of adventures and the lessons he’s learned and wants to pass on, Stay Interesting is a truly daring and bold tale, and a manifesto about taking chances, not giving up, making courageous choices, and living a truly adventurous, and always interesting life.


News of the World
by Paulette Jiles (Jiles)

In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows. Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember — strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become — in the eyes of the law — a kidnapper himself.


A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L’Engle (YA/j L’Engle)

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

A Wrinkle in Time is the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal.


A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel
Adapted by Hope Larson from the novel by Madeleine L’Engle (YA L’Engle)

The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O’Keefe, and the three Mrs— Who, Whatsit, and Which— the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our universe in the Newbery award-winning classic A Wrinkle in Time. But in 50 years of publication, the book has never been illustrated. Now, Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of tessering and favorite characters like the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast. Perfect for old fans and winning over new ones, this graphic novel adaptation is a must-read.


Paul McCartney: The Life
by Philip Norman (Biography McCartney/Music 781.66 McCartney)

Since the age of twenty-one, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock-n-roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now, Paul’s story is told by rock music’s foremost biographer, with McCartney’s consent and access to family members and close friends who have never spoken on the record before. PAUL McCARTNEY reveals the complex character behind the façade and sheds new light on his childhood — blighted by his mother’s death but redeemed by the father who introduced him to music. This is the first definitive account of Paul’s often troubled partnership with John Lennon, his personal trauma after the Beatles’ breakup, and his subsequent struggle to get back to the top with Wings — which nearly got him murdered in Africa and brought him nine days in a Tokyo jail. Readers will learn about his marriage to Linda, including their much-criticized musical collaboration, and a moving account of her death. Packed with new information and critical insights, PAUL MCCARTNEY will be the definitive biography of a musical legend.


The English Boys
by Julia Thomas (Thomas)

Daniel Richardson and his best friend, Hugh Ashley-Hunt, both rising British actors, are in love with the same woman, the free-spirited Tamsyn Burke. Daniel reluctantly steps aside when Tamsyn decides to marry Hugh, but right before the wedding ceremony, Tamsyn is murdered. Suspicion falls on the family, friends, and associates in attendance. Motivated by both Hugh’s grief and his own, Daniel joins forces with Tamsyn’s younger sister, Carey, to find the killer. As he digs into Tamsyn’s past, Daniel unearths secrets she was hiding, and begins to discover why someone wanted her silenced forever.


The Night the Lights Went Out
by Karen White (White)

From the New York Times bestselling author of Flight Patterns comes a stunning new women’s fiction novel about a young single mother who discovers that there’s no such thing as the perfect neighbor, and that finding out who your true friends are is the most important lesson of all. After a newly divorced mother of two moves to an affluent Atlanta suburb with her children, she becomes involved in the secrets and scandals lurking behind the façades of the seemingly perfect families who live there…secrets that someone would kill to keep hidden.


Here is a list of the books discussed on June 15, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V., and producer Lizz B.

One Book - One LincolnMoonglow
by Michael Chabon (Chabon)

Following on the heels of his New York Times bestselling novel Telegraph Avenue, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon delivers another literary masterpiece: a novel of truth and lies, family legends, and existential adventure — and the forces that work to destroy us.

In 1989, fresh from the publication of his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon traveled to his mother’s home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. Tongue loosened by powerful painkillers, memory stirred by the imminence of death, Chabon’s grandfather shared recollections and told stories the younger man had never heard before, uncovering bits and pieces of a history long buried and forgotten. That dreamlike week of revelations forms the basis for the novel Moonglow, the latest feat of legerdemain from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.

Moonglow unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as “my grandfather.” It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact — and the creative power — of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator’s grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. It is also a tour de force of speculative autobiography in which Chabon devises and reveals a secret history of his own imagination.

From the Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia to the invasion of Germany, from a Florida retirement village to the penal utopia of New York’s Wallkill prison, from the heyday of the space program to the twilight of the “American Century,” the novel revisits an entire era through a single life and collapses a lifetime into a single week. A lie that tells the truth, a work of fictional nonfiction, an autobiography wrapped in a novel disguised as a memoir, Moonglow is Chabon at his most moving and inventive.

[A 2017 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]

A Scone to Die For
by H.Y. Hanna (Hanna — not currently owned by the libraries)

When an American tourist is murdered with a scone in her quaint Oxfordshire tearoom, Gemma must solve the mystery with the help of the nosy Old Biddies and a mischievous little feline named Muesli. But between her bossy, matchmaking mother and the return of her old college love as a handsome CID detective, Gemma soon has her hands full and her head spinning!

Murder is bad for business, especially when customers think your scones are more deadly than delicious. With the body count rising and her tearoom going bust, can Gemma find the killer before things turn to custard?


Tough as They Come
by Staff Sgt. Travis Mills with Marcus Brotherton (Biography Mills)

Thousands have been wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five have survived quadruple amputee injuries. This is one soldier’s story.

Thousands of soldiers die every year to defend their country. United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure that he would become another statistic when, during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was caught in an IED blast four days before his twenty-fifth birthday. Against the odds, he lived, but at a severe cost — Travis became one of only five soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to survive a quadruple amputation.

Suddenly forced to reconcile with the fact that he no longer had arms or legs, Travis was faced with a future drastically different from the one he had imagined for himself. He would never again be able to lead his squad, stroke his fingers against his wife’s cheek, or pick up his infant daughter.

Travis struggled through the painful and anxious days of rehabilitation so that he could regain the strength to live his life to the fullest. With enormous willpower and endurance, the unconditional love of his family, and a generous amount of faith, Travis shocked everyone with his remarkable recovery. Even without limbs, he still swims, dances with his wife, rides mountain bikes, and drives his daughter to school.

Travis inspires thousands every day with his remarkable journey. He doesn’t want to be thought of as wounded. “I’m just a man with scars,” he says, “living life to the fullest and best I know how.”


The Dangerous Ladies Affair
by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (Muller)

For the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, stopping extortionists is not only grand, but excitingly lucrative.

When a pleasant afternoon’s bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention.

The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist’s first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker’s real problem is something he doesn’t want to reveal. That was fine with the detective, and when he was informed that some private letters were involved and Wrixton absolutely needed them back, there was nothing more Quincannon needed in the way of background. As with so many of San Francisco’s elite, the bedroom doors never seemed to stay shut.

That was the easy ∂ far more difficult was the matter of the dead courier, murdered most foully in a locked room within a locked room, creating a trail that will take John Quincannon through most of San Francisco’s less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise.

The Dangerous Ladies Affair is the next thrilling installment in this charming historical mystery series from MWA Grand Masters Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.


By Gaslight
by Steven Price (Price)

A literary tour de force of a detective’s ceaseless hunt for an elusive criminal

By Gaslight is a deeply atmospheric, haunting novel about the unending quest that has shaped a man’s life.

William Pinkerton is already famous, the son of the most notorious detective of all time, when he descends into the underworld of Victorian London in pursuit of a new lead on the fabled con Edward Shade. William’s father died without ever finding Shade, but William is determined to drag the thief out of the shadows.

Adam Foole is a gentleman without a past, haunted by a love affair ten years gone. When he receives a letter from his lost beloved, he returns to London to find her. What he learns of her fate, and its connection to the man known as Shade, will force him to confront a grief he thought long-buried.

A fog-enshrouded hunt through sewers, opium dens, drawing rooms, and s#65533;ance halls ensues, creating the most unlikely of bonds: between Pinkerton, the great detective, and Foole, the one man who may hold the key to finding Edward Shade.

Steven Price’s dazzling, riveting By Gaslight moves from the diamond mines of South Africa to the battlefields of the Civil War, on a journey into a cityscape of grief, trust, and its breaking, where what we share can bind us even against our darker selves.


The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar
by Matt Simon (578.4 Sim)

A fascinating exploration of the awe-inspiring, unsettling ingenuity of evolution

On a barren seafloor, the pearlfish swims into the safety of a sea cucumber’s anus. To find a meal, the female bolas spider releases pheromones that mimic a female moth, luring male moths into her sticky lasso web. The Glyptapanteles wasp injects a caterpillar with her young, which feed on the victim, erupt out of it, then mind-control the poor (and somehow still living) schmuck into protecting them from predators.

These are among the curious critters of The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar , a jaunt through evolution’s most unbelievable, most ingenious solutions to the problems of everyday life, from trying to get laid to finding food. Join Wired science writer Matt Simon as he introduces you to the creatures that have it figured out, the ones that joust with their mustaches or choke sharks to death with snot, all in a wild struggle to survive and, of course, find true love.

Winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award.


A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles (Compact Disc Towles)

He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility — a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

[A 2017 One Book – One Lincoln finalist]

Captivate: The Science of Succeeding With People
by Vanessa Van Edwards ( On Order )

Do you feel awkward at networking events? Do you wonder what your date really thinks of you? Do you wish you could decode people? You need to learn the science of people.

As a human behavior hacker, Vanessa Van Edwards created a research lab to study the hidden forces that drive us. And she’s cracked the code. In Captivate, she shares shortcuts, systems, and secrets for taking charge of your interactions at work, at home, and in any social situation. These aren’t the people skills you learned in school. This is the first comprehensive, science backed, real life manual on how to captivate anyone—and a completely new approach to building connections.

Just like knowing the formulas to use in a chemistry lab, or the right programming language to build an app, Captivate provides simple ways to solve people problems. You’ll learn, for example…

· How to work a room: Every party, networking event, and social situation has a predictable map. Discover the sweet spot for making the most connections. · How to read faces: It’s easier than you think to speed-read facial expressions and use them to predict people’s emotions. · How to talk to anyone: Every conversation can be memorable — once you learn how certain words generate the pleasure hormone dopamine in listeners.

When you understand the laws of human behavior, your influence, impact, and income will increase significantly. What’s more, you will improve your interpersonal intelligence, make a killer first impression, and build rapport quickly and authentically in any situation — negotiations, interviews, parties, and pitches. You’ll never interact the same way again.

[Not currently owned by the Lincoln City Libraries.]

Here is a list of the books discussed on April 10, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., and Lisa V.

Transcendental
by James Gunn (Gunn)

Riley, a veteran of interstellar war, is one of many beings from many different worlds aboard a ship on a pilgrimage that spans the galaxy. However, he is not journeying to achieve transcendence, a vague mystical concept that has drawn everyone else on the ship to this journey into the unknown at the far edge of the galaxy. His mission is to find and kill the prophet who is reputed to help others transcend. While their ship speeds through space, the voyage is marred by violence and betrayal,making it clear that some of the ship’s passengers are not the spiritual seekers they claim to be.

Like the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales , a number of those on the starship share their unique stories. But as tensions rise, Riley realizes that the ship is less like the Canterbury Tales and more like a harrowing, deadly ship of fools. When he becomes friendly with a mysterious passenger named Asha, he thinks she’s someone he can trust. However, like so many others on the ship, Asha is more than she appears. Uncovering her secrets could be the key to Riley’s personal quest, or make him question everything he thought he knew about Transcendentalism and his mission to stop it.

James Gunn’s Transcendental is a space adventure filled with excitement and intrigue that explores the nature of what unifies all beings.

( James Gunn will be appearing as one of the literary guests at the ConStellation 8 (http://www.constellationne.net/) science fiction convention in Lincoln, April 28-30, 2017. )


Celine
by Peter Heller (Heller)

From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars and The Painter , a luminous, masterful novel of suspense — the story of Celine, an elegant, aristocratic private eye who specializes in reuniting families, trying to make amends for a loss in her own past.

Working out of her jewel box of an apartment at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Celine has made a career of tracking down missing persons, and she has a better record at it than the FBI. But when a young woman, Gabriela, asks for her help, a world of mystery and sorrow opens up. Gabriela’s father was a photographer who went missing on the border of Montana and Wyoming. He was assumed to have died from a grizzly mauling, but his body was never found. Now, as Celine and her partner head to Yellowstone National Park, investigating a trail gone cold, it becomes clear that they are being followed — that this is a case someone desperately wants to keep closed. Inspired by the life of Heller’s own remarkable mother, a chic and iconoclastic private eye, Celine is a deeply personal novel, a wildly engrossing story of family, privilege, and childhood loss. Combining the exquisite plotting and gorgeous evocation of nature that have become his hallmarks, Peter Heller gives us his finest work to date.


Lilac Girls
by Martha Hall Kelly (Kelly)

For readers of The Nightingale and Sarah’s Key, inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939 — and then sets its sights on France.

An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.

For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.

The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents — from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland — as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

In Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly has crafted a remarkable novel of unsung women and their quest for love, freedom, and second chances. It is a story that will keep readers bonded with the characters, searching for the truth, until the final pages.


Ordinary Grace
by William Kent Krueger (Krueger)

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family — which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother — he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.


Marbled, Swirled and Layered: 150 Recipes and Variations for Artful Bars, Cookies,Pies, Cakes, and More
by Irvin Lin (641.86 Lin)

Incredible desserts with layers and swirls of flavor that are beautiful and delicious–inside and out

When you marble, layer, and swirl doughs, batters, toppings, or frostings, good looks and good taste come together in one total package. Irvin Lin, creator of the popular blog Eat the Love, shows how these techniques open the door to inventive flavor combinations that look as fantastic as they taste. Bakers of all levels will enjoy recipes ranging from easy brownies and bars to brunch-worthy muffins and morning buns to show-stopping cakes and tarts: cinnamon spiral icebox cookies, pistachio-swirl brownies, triple-chocolate pie, multicolored “Neapolitan” layer cake, and more. Lin offers variations to suit any taste (more than 150 recipes total) plus baking and decorating tips throughout on topics like making your own all-natural food coloring, rolling up jelly roll-style cakes, and discovering the magic of browned butter. Readers (and eaters) are sure to ooh and ahh over every dazzling dessert at first glance–and then again at first bite.

( If you’re interested in cookbooks, you can subscribe to the libraries’ What’s Cooking? e-mail newsletter to learn of new cookbook additions to our collection! Scroll to the bottom of this sample issue to find the subscription link! )


One Minute Till Bedtime: 60 Second Poems to Send You Off to Sleep
edited by Ken Nesbitt, with art by Christoph Niemann (j811.08 Nes)

Just one more before bedtime? Please?

It’s time for tuck-in, and your little one wants just one more moment with you — so fill it with something that will feed the imagination, fuel a love of reading, and send them off to sleep in a snap. Reach for a one-minute poem! Former Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt presents a blockbuster collection of all-new poetry penned by some of the most beloved and celebrated poets of our time, including Jack Prelutsky, Jon Scieszka, Mary Ann Hoberman, Nikki Grimes, Lemony Snicket, Jane Yolen, and many more. Illuminated with dreamlike wit and whimsy by New York Times illustrator and award-winning artist Christoph Niemann, here is a new bedtime classic. When the busy day is drawing to a close and the whole family is ready for rest, take a minute for poetry and send your little one off to sleep.


Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
by Kathleen Rooney (Rooney)

She took 1930s New York by storm, working her way up writing copy for R.H. Macy’s to become the highest paid advertising woman in the country. It was a job that, she says, “in some ways saved my life, and in other ways ruined it.”

Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now — her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl–but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak, illuminating all the ways New York has changed — and has not.

A love letter to city life in all its guts and grandeur, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney paints a portrait of a remarkable woman across the canvas of a changing America: from the Jazz Age to the onset of the AIDS epidemic; the Great Depression to the birth of hip-hop.

Lillian figures she might as well take her time. For now, after all, the night is still young.


Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology
edited by Daniel Simon (811.08 Neb)

The first anthology of its scope, Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology encompasses 150 years of the state’s literary history, featuring 80-plus poets and more than 180 poems. This landmark collection includes poems by authors best known for their prose–like Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, and Tillie Olsen — as well as some remarkable but relatively forgotten writers from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Among the contemporary writers, it includes poets of Nebraska’s renowned “second renaissance” along with a rich array of younger writers who are redefining what poetry from and about the state might represent. A broadly inclusive as well as diverse anthology, Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology celebrates the state’s brilliant contribution not only to Great Plains literature but to the broader traditions of American letters.


Beatle Meets Destiny
by Gabrielle Williams (YA Williams)

When superstitious eighteen-year-old John “Beatle” Lennon, who is dating the best friend of his twin sister, meets Destiny McCartney, their instant rapport and shared quirkiness make it seem that their fate is written in the stars.


Here is a list of the books discussed on March 9, 2017

Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V. and show producer Lizz B.

City of the Lost
by Kelley Armstrong (Armstrong)

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows this crime will catch up to her. Casey’s best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana’s husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it’s time for the two of them to disappear again. Diana has heard of a domestic violence support town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you’re accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. As a murderer, Casey isn’t a good candidate, but she has something they want; she’s a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn’t the only secret Rockton is hiding– in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.


Alice I Have Been
by Melanie Benjamin (Benjamin)

Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole-and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.

But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful?

Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year-the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories.

That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice-he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war.

For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.

A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.


The Andromeda Strain
by Michael Crichton (Crichton)

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.

Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to “collect organisms and dust for study.” One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.

Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town’s inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

The terror has begun…


Breaking Creed
by Alex Kava (Kava)

This 2015 volume by Omaha thriller writer Alex Kava introduces her new series protagonist, ex-soldier and current K9 trainer, Ryder Creed. When Creed and one of his dogs break up a child trafficking scheme, and then rescue a young drug mule, he and his family of co-workers are put in the cross-hairs of a vengeful drug lord with a deadly assassin in his hire. Meanwhile, FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell (Kava’s previous series star) crosses paths with Creed, and their cases intertwine.


Dogs of War: The Stories of FDR’s Fala, Patton’s Willie and Ike’s Telek
by Kathleen Kinsolving (636.755 Kin)

Dogs of War is a treasure trove of marvelous anecdotes, scintillating tidbits, and delightful photographs of three beloved dogs sharing the limelight with Roosevelt, Patton, and Eisenhower as they battled together in their efforts to save the world from fascism. It includes such stories as Fala accompanying FDR on board the USS Augusta, where the President and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlanta Charter; Willie, who shuddered with fear at the sounds of gunfire during combat but traveled with Patton everywhere; and Telek, who garnered front page coverage in the British tabloid media when he and “wife” Caacie, pregnant with puppies, were photographed at a kennel during a six-month quarantine after returning home with Ike from Algiers.Dogs of War celebrates the unconditional, loving bond for man and his best friend, pays tribute to World War II history as our nation approaches the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and resurrects the tremendous thrill of a forbidden wartime romance. Fala, Willie, and are three incredible dogs who will undoubtedly capture the world’s heart!


Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond
by Larry McMurtry (Biography McMurtry)

In a lucid, brilliant work of nonfiction — as close to an autobiography as his readers are likely to get — Larry McMurtry has written a family portrait that also serves as a larger portrait of Texas itself, as it was and as it has become.

Using as a springboard an essay by the German literary critic Walter Benjamin that he first read in Archer City’s Dairy Queen, McMurtry examines the small-town way of life that big oil and big ranching have nearly destroyed. He praises the virtues of everything from a lime Dr. Pepper to the lost art of oral storytelling, and describes the brutal effect of the sheer vastness and emptiness of the Texas landscape on Texans, the decline of the cowboy, and the reality and the myth of the frontier.

McMurtry writes frankly and with deep feeling about his own experiences as a writer, a parent, and a heart patient, and he deftly lays bare the raw material that helped shape his life’s work: the creation of a vast, ambitious, fictional panorama of Texas in the past and the present. Throughout, McMurtry leaves his readers with constant reminders of his all-encompassing, boundless love of literature and books.


100 Photographs: The Most Influential Photos of All Time
by the Editors of Time Magazine (779.1 One)

Since its inception, TIME magazine has been synonymous not just with outstanding journalism, but also with outstanding photography. Now, to mark the 175th anniversary of photography and the birth of photojournalism, the Editors of TIME magazine are publishing this companion book to the groundbreaking digital celebration of photography that TIME.com will be mounting online, displaying the most influential photographs of all time.

While they may not be the most famous or well-known photographs, each one is unique for the way in which it changed, influenced, or commemorated a particular world event. From the first sports photograph to ever win the Pulitzer Prize – that of Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium to the photograph of Student Neda Agha-Soltan’s death during Iran’s 2009 election protests, each of the photographs in 100 Photographs: The Most Influential Images of All Time is significant in how it forever changed how we live, learn, communicate, and in many cases, view the world.


The Lonely Hearts Hotel
by Heather O’Neill (O’Neill)

With echoes of The Night Circus, a spellbinding story about two gifted orphans -in love with each other since they can remember-whose childhood talents allow them to rewrite their future. The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one’s origins. It might also take true love. Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen. Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city’s underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes -after years of searching and desperate poverty -the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they’ll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same. With her musical language and extravagantly realized world, Heather O’Neill enchants us with a novel so magical there is no escaping its spell.


Here is a list of the books discussed on February 9, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V. and show producer Lizz B.

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella
by Fredrik Backman (Backman)

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

With all the same charm of his bestselling full-length novels, here Fredrik Backman once again reveals his unrivaled understanding of human nature and deep compassion for people in difficult circumstances. This is a tiny gem with a message you’ll treasure for a lifetime.


The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier and Longer
by Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elisa Epel (572.8 Bla)

A groundbreaking book coauthored by the Nobel Prize winner who discovered telomerase and telomeres’ role in the aging process and the health psychologist who has done original research into how specific lifestyle and psychological habits can protect telomeres, slowing disease and improving life.

Have you wondered why some sixty-year-olds look and feel like forty-year-olds and why some forty-year-olds look and feel like sixty-year-olds? While many factors contribute to aging and illness, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn discovered a biological indicator called telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes telomeres, which protect our genetic heritage. Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel’s research shows that the length and health of one’s telomeres are a biological underpinning of the long-hypothesized mind-body connection. They and other scientists have found that changes we can make to our daily habits can protect our telomeres and increase our health spans (the number of years we remain healthy, active, and disease-free). The Telomere Effect reveals how Blackburn and Epel’s findings, together with research from colleagues around the world, cumulatively show that sleep quality, exercise, aspects of diet, and even certain chemicals profoundly affect our telomeres, and that chronic stress, negative thoughts, strained relationships, and even the wrong neighborhoods can eat away at them. Drawing from this scientific body of knowledge, they share lists of foods and suggest amounts and types of exercise that are healthy for our telomeres, mind tricks you can use to protect yourself from stress, and information about how to protect your children against developing shorter telomeres, from pregnancy through adolescence. And they describe how we can improve our health spans at the community level, with neighborhoods characterized by trust, green spaces, and safe streets. The Telomere Effect will make you reassess how you live your life on a day-to-day basis. It is the first book to explain how we age at a cellular level and how we can make simple changes to keep our chromosomes and cells healthy, allowing us to stay disease-free longer and live more vital and meaningful lives.


City on the Edge of Forever
an audio-only production by Harlan Ellison (available through the libraries’ Hoopla digital service)

The original teleplay that became the classic Star Trek episode, with an expanded introductory essay by Harlan Ellison, “The City on the Edge of Forever” has been surrounded by controversy since the airing of an “eviscerated” version — which subsequently has been voted the most beloved episode in the series’ history. In its original form, “The City on the Edge of Forever” won the 1966–67 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Teleplay. As aired, it won the 1967 Hugo Award. “The City on the Edge of Forever” is, at its most basic, a poignant love story. Ellison takes the listener on a breathtaking trip through space and time, from the future, all the way back to 1930s America. In this harrowing journey, Kirk and Spock race to apprehend a renegade criminal and restore the order of the universe. It is here that Kirk faces his ultimate dilemma: a choice between the universe-or his one true love. This edition makes available the astonishing teleplay as Ellison intended it to be aired. The author’s introductory essay reveals all of the details of what Ellison describes as a “fatally inept treatment” of his creative work. Was he unjustly edited, unjustly accused, and unjustly treated?

For a full cast/character list and table of contents, please visit https://skyboatmedia.com/audiobook/city-edge-forever/.


To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
by Jenny Han (YA Han)

Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control in this heartfelt novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series.

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once?

Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved-five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.


The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories
by P.D. James (James)

Four previously uncollected stories from one of the great mystery writers of our time–swift, cunning murder mysteries (two of which feature the young Adam Dalgliesh) that together, to borrow the author’s own word, add up to a delightful “entertainment.”

The newly appointed Sgt. Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is “pure Agatha Christie.” . . . A “pedantic, respectable, censorious” clerk’s secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder…A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier…Dalgliesh’s godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather’s mind about an inheritance, but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Adam Dalgliesh will keep to himself. Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author’s sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex — not to say the most damning — aspects of human nature. A treat for P. D. James’s legions of fans and anyone who enjoys the pleasures of a masterfully wrought whodunit.


The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared
by Jonas Jonasson (Jonasson)

A reluctant centenarian much like Forrest Gump (if Gump were an explosives expert with a fondness for vodka) decides it’s not too late to start over . . .

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he’s still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn’t interested (and he’d like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).

It would be the adventure of a lifetime for anyone else, but Allan has a larger-than-life backstory: Not only has he witnessed some of the most important events of the twentieth century, but he has actually played a key role in them. Starting out in munitions as a boy, he somehow finds himself involved in many of the key explosions of the twentieth century and travels the world, sharing meals and more with everyone from Stalin, Churchill, and Truman to Mao, Franco, and de Gaulle. Quirky and utterly unique, The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared has charmed readers across the world.


My Not-So-Perfect Life
by Sophie Kinsella (Kinsella)

Part love story, part workplace drama, this sharply observed novel is a witty critique of the false judgments we make in a social-media-obsessed world. New York Times bestselling author Sophie Kinsella has written her most timely novel yet.

Everywhere Katie Brenner looks, someone else is living the life she longs for, particularly her boss, Demeter Farlowe. Demeter is brilliant and creative, lives with her perfect family in a posh townhouse, and wears the coolest clothes. Katie’s life, meanwhile, is a daily struggle — from her dismal rental to her oddball flatmates to the tense office politics she’s trying to negotiate. No wonder Katie takes refuge in not-quite-true Instagram posts, especially as she’s desperate to make her dad proud.

Then, just as she’s finding her feet–not to mention a possible new romance — the worst happens. Demeter fires Katie. Shattered but determined to stay positive, Katie retreats to her family’s farm in Somerset to help them set up a vacation business. London has never seemed so far away–until Demeter unexpectedly turns up as a guest. Secrets are spilled and relationships rejiggered, and as the stakes for Katie’s future get higher, she must question her own assumptions about what makes for a truly meaningful life.


Here is a list of the books discussed on January 12, 2017
Appearing with Cathy on this episode: Scott C., Becky W.C., Lisa V. and show producer Lizz B.

In Such Good Company
by Carol Burnett (791.457 CarYb)

Comedy legend Carol Burnett tells the hilarious behind-the-scenes story of her iconic weekly variety series, The Carol Burnett Show .

In In Such Good Company, Carol Burnett pulls back the curtain on the twenty-five-time Emmy-Award winning show that made television history, and she reminisces about the outrageously funny and tender moments that made working on the series as much fun as watching it.

Carol delves into little-known stories of the guests, sketches and improvisations that made The Carol Burnett Show legendary, as well as some favorite tales too good not to relive again. While writing this book, Carol rewatched all 276 episodes and screen-grabbed her favorite video stills from the archives to illustrate the chemistry of the actors and the improvisational magic that made the show so successful.

Putting the spotlight on everyone from her costars to the impressive list of guest stars, Carol crafts a lively portrait of the talent and creativity that went into every episode. With characteristic wit and incomparable comic timing, she details hiring Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway; shares anecdotes about guest stars and close friends, including Lucille Ball, Roddy Mcdowell, Jim Nabors, Bernadette Peters, Betty Grable, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth, and Betty White; and gives her take on her favorite sketches and the unpredictable moments that took both the cast and viewers by surprise.

This book is Carol’s love letter to a golden era in television history through the lens of her brilliant show. Get the best seat in the house for “eleven years of laughter, mayhem, and fun in the sandbox.”


The Lonely Hearts Club
by Elizabeth Eulberg (j Eulberg)

Love is all you need…or is it? Penny’s about to find out in this wonderful debut.

Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating. So she vows: no more. It’s a personal choice…and, of course, soon everyone wants to know about it. And a few other girls are inspired. A movement is born: The Lonely Hearts Club (named after the band from Sgt. Pepper). Penny is suddenly known for her non-dating ways…which is too bad, because there’s this certain boy she can’t help but like…


We Can Work It Out
by Elizabeth Eulberg (j Eulberg)

When Penny Lane started The Lonely Hearts Club, the goal was simple: to show that girls didn’t need to define themselves by how guys looked at them, and didn’t have to value boyfriends over everything else. Penny thought she’d be an outcast for life…but then the club became far more popular than she ever imagined it would be.

But what happens when the girl who never thought she’d date a good guy suddenly finds herself dating a great one? She doesn’t need a boyfriend…but she wants it to work out with this particular boyfriend. And he wants it to work out with her.

Only, things keep getting in the way. Feelings keep getting hurt. Words keep getting misunderstood.

Penny Lane worked hard to declare her independence. Now she needs to figure out what to do with it — and how to balance what she wants with what everyone else wants.


princessdiaristcdThe Princess Diarist
by Carrie Fisher (Biography Fisher, Scott specifically reviewed the audiobook version, narrated by Carrie and her daughter Billie Lourd)

The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher’s intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie. * Named a PEOPLE Magazine Best Book of Fall 2016 *A New York Times Bestseller *

“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds” premieres on HBO in January 2017.

When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved — plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naivete, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time — and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.


The American Heiress
by Daisy Goodwin (Goodwin)

Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora’s story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.


The Lost City of the Monkey God
by Douglas Preston (972.85 Pre)

A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world’s densest jungle.

Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God — but then committed suicide without revealing its location.

Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization.

Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn’t until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease.

Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, The Lost City of the Monkey God is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: The Illustrated Edition
by J.K. Rowling (j Rowling)

For the first time, J.K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Kate Greenaway-award-winning artist Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan.

Harry Potter has never been the star of a Quidditch team, scoring points while riding a broom far above the ground. He knows no spells, has never helped to hatch a dragon, and has never worn a cloak of invisibility.

All he knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley — a great big swollen spoiled bully. Harry’s room is a tiny closet at the foot of the stairs, and he hasn’t had a birthday party in eleven years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to an incredible place that Harry — and anyone who reads about him — will find unforgettable.


Drowning Ruth
by Christina Schwarz (Schwarz)

“[A] gripping psychological thriller…In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband…Told in the voices of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time, the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what actually happened the night of the drowning…Schwarz certainly succeeds at keeping the reader engrossed.”

–Francine Prose, Us Weekly


The Gilded Years
by Karen Tanabe (Tanabe)

Since childhood, Anita Hemmings has longed to attend the country’s most exclusive school for women, Vassar College. Now, a bright, beautiful senior in the class of 1897, she is hiding a secret that would have banned her from admission: Anita is the only African-American student ever to attend Vassar. With her olive complexion and dark hair, this daughter of a janitor and descendant of slaves has successfully passed as white, but now finds herself rooming with Louise “Lottie” Taylor, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent families.

Though Anita has kept herself at a distance from her classmates, Lottie’s sphere of influence is inescapable, her energy irresistible, and the two become fast friends. Pulled into her elite world, Anita learns what it’s like to be treated as a wealthy, educated white woman–the person everyone believes her to be — and even finds herself in a heady romance with a moneyed Harvard student. It’s only when Lottie becomes infatuated with Anita’s brother, Frederick, whose skin is almost as light as his sister’s, that the situation becomes particularly perilous. And as Anita’s college graduation looms, those closest to her will be the ones to dangerously threaten her secret.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Gilded Age, an era when old money traditions collided with modern ideas, Tanabe has written an un-put-downable and emotionally compelling story of hope, sacrifice, and betrayal — and a gripping account of how one woman dared to risk everything for the chance at a better life.


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