Staff Recommendations – April 2007

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April 2007 Recommendations

Strange Red Cow and Other Curious Classified Ads From the Past
by Sara Bader [659.132 Bad]

Classified ads are probably something most Americans take for granted as part of modern culture but author Bader proves they are almost as old as the nation itself. Starting with the first classified ad run in a newspaper in the early 18th century, this book shows how you can trace the changes in American society through what people lose, find and seek to reclaim. You can also see that many things, like people looking for lost keys and runaway pets, never seem to change at all.

[ official Strange Red Cow page at RandomHouse.com ]

Recommended by Lisa V.
Gere Branch Library

JPod
by Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland gives humorous insights into modern American culture, from video games and ballroom dancing to globalized corporate culture. He sneaks in extras like illustrations of the Chinese characters for new catchphrases and copies of the emails characters have received. When the office workers goof off by doing complicated number puzzles, Coupland provides the complete puzzles so that the reader can play along right with the characters! I found myself laughing aloud repeatedly. This is a silly book for smart people.

[ official Douglas Coupland web site ]

Recommended by Keith S.
Gere Branch Library

The Silver Pigs
by Lindsey Davis

If you like historical mysteries and you’ve never read a Lindsey Davis novel, you don’t know what you’re missing. Set in the Rome of the Emperor Vespasian, the informer (aka detective) Marcus Didius Falco (Falco for short) solves mysteries and many day to day problems in a wise-cracking style. Davis has a good long string of Falco titles for those who like to read series. There are always a bunch of intriguing characters ready to make life difficult for our hero. The first book in the series is “The Silver Pigs.” Falco is trying to track the murder of a young Roman girl and ends up “undercover” in a horrendous British silver mine. Each succeeding book recounts new developments in Falco’s life as well as new mysteries to solve. Enjoy!

[ Silver Pigs page at the official Lindsey Davis web site ]

Recommended by Cindy C.
Technical Processes Department — Bennett Martin Public Library

Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig

A novel set in Montana in the early 1900s–a widower hires a housekeeper to create order in his home. Her arrival shakes up many established beliefs and conceptions. Fine straightforward telling with a rural setting including a one-room school that older readers may recognize. Interesting blend of one young man’s maturation, of realizing the excitement of learning, and the importance of recognizing what’s behind people’s outward appearance.

[ Publisher’s page for Whistling Season ] | [ official Ivan Doig web site ]

Recommended by Pat L.
Youth Services Department — Bennett Martin Public Library

A Northern Light
by Jennifer Donnelly

This is a book with all kinds of different appeal: A romance, a historical novel, a murder mystery, and a great book for people who love to look up new words. I didn’t pick this book up thinking it would keep me reading until 3:00 a.m., boy was I tired the next morning!

[ official A Northern Light page on the official Jennifer Donnelly web site ]

Recommended by Sarah D.
Gere Branch Library

The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory [Compact Disc Gregory]

Informative and presented in a manner (persepective of three main characters) that is entertaining and draws the listener in to what might otherwise be a somewhat “dry” history lesson.

[ the Boleyn Inheritance page on the official Philippa Gregory web site ]

Recommended by Dianne E.
Bindery — Bennett Martin Public Library

Grave Sight
by Charlaine Harris

In interesting mystery series about a young woman who, after being struck by lightning, can sense the dead. A little darker than the Sookie Stackhouse series, also by Charlaine Harris.

[ Harper Connelly page on the official Charlaine Harris web site ]

Recommended by Susan S.
Eiseley Branch Library

Rated by — Jodene G.
staff at the Walt Branch Library

The Spellman Files
by Lisa Lutz

The Spellmans are a family of private investigators who spend as much time spying on each other as they do spying for their clients. Isabel, 28, has finally had enough of trying to keep her private life private and wants out of the family business. Her parents will let her leave the business on one conditon. She must solve a 15 year old missing persons case. She solves the case and also solves the problem of how to live with a family of private investigators. This is a delightful, hilarious book that will make you glad you spent some time with the wacky Spellman family.

[ official Spellman Files web site ] | [ official Lisa Lutz web site ]

Recommended by Tammy T.
Collection Management Department — Bennett Martin Public Library

Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic
by David Nadelberg [j817 Nad]

Would you have the courage to read your old high-school journals, and risk being MORTIFIED? Yes, this book is listed as a J-Non-Ficiton title, but it will appeal to anyone who has ever gone through the ordeal of junior high, middle school or high school. That ought to cover most of the folks out there, and anyone who picks up Nadelberg’s “Mortified” will find themselves in its pages somewhere. Nadelberg based this book on his long-running stage show featuring people reading live from the diaries, journals and classroom notes of real (former) adolescents. This book will make readers alternately laugh hysterically and cringe pathetically. Irresistable in its honesty and its lack of polish. You WILL read parts of this book out loud to just about anyone who will listen.

Recommended by Lisa V.
Gere Branch Library

Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time
by Michael Perry [917.75 Per]

Not very many people in this small town in Wisconsin, but very full of life. Perry’s musings on his interactions, as a volunteer firefighter, with his neighbors makes one see more clearly and sympathetically the foibles, failings, and strengths of our human condition.

[ Reading Guide for Population 485 from HarperCollins ] | [ official Michael Perry web site ]

Recommended by Bob B.
Reference Department — Bennett Martin Public Library

last updated December 2018
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