New Books for January

FICTION

A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The 14th and final novel in the Wheel of Time fantasy series.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  A woman disappears on her fifth anniversary; is her husband a killer?

The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer.  Tracking an assassin who is recreating the crimes of the four men who murdered presidents, Beecher White discovers that they all were working together.

The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter. The veteran sniper Bob Lee Swagger investigates the assassination fo John F. Kennedy.

Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. A novel about Elizabeth Kechkly, who was born a slave, earned her freedom through her dressmaking skill and became a friend to Mary Todd Lincoln; she is a character in the movie : Lincoln.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis. Fifty-some years in teh life if ab African-American family whose matriarch arrives in Philadelphia in 1923.

Standing in Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin. After retiring from the Edinburgh police force, John Rebus investigates the case of a young woman who disappeared in 1999.

Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton. Stories about Grafton's character Kinsey Millhone as well as explorations of Grafton's own past.

The Forgotten by David Baldacci. The military investigator John Puller, the protagonist of "Zero Day," probes his aunt's mysterious death in Florida.

Collateral Damage by Stuart Woods.  Back in New York, the lawyer Stone Barrington joins his former partner Holly Barker in pursuing a dangerous case.

The Round House by Louise Ardrich. A native American family faces the ramifications of a vicious crime.

The Husband List by Janet Evanovich. In New York City in 1894, a wealthy young woman yearns for adventure and the love of an Irish-American with new money, rather than the titled Britons to whom her mother hopes to marry her off.

NONFICTION

Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer celebrates Jefferson's skills as a practical politician.

No Easy Day by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. An account by a former member of the Navy SEALS, written pseudonymously, of the mission that killed bin Laden.

TEENS

Ali's Pretty Little Lies: Pretty Little Secrets by Sara Shepard. In the weeks leading up to Ali's murder, Ali reveals her plots against Emily, Hanna, Aria, and Spencer, as well as a dark secret that has the potential to destroy everything.

Bitter Blood by Rachel Caine. College student Claire Danvers struggles to remain neutral in the growing conflict between the vampiers and humans of Morganville, which is further complicated by the arrival of a ghost-seeking television production crew.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor. Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters--the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever know.

Blood Moon by Alyxandra Harvey. When the vampire tribes convene for the rare Blood Moon ceremonies, family secrets and forbidden magic put all of the Drakes in danger, and Nicholas is caught between saving his little sister Solange or his girlfriend Lucy.

CHILDREN

The Best Time to Read by Debbie Bertram. A boy who has just learned to read tries to find someone in his family who will listen to him read aloud.

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas James Dean. When Santa falls ill and Christmas may have to be canceled, Pete the cat comes to the rescue.

Ace Atkins - At home in Mississippi

Fans of the late Robert B Parker have asked me, "Who is this Ace Atkins who's taken over writing the Spencer books?"

Well, as it turns out, Ace Atkins is quite an interesting guy! (His real name is Ace, by the way: William Ace Atkins.)

Currently visiting professor in Journalism at the University of Mississippi, Atkins has an extensive background as a crime writer. He covered the crime beat as staff reporter for the Tampa Tribune from 1996 through 2001. He wrote his first two novels during that period. His first, Crossroad Blues, is about the murder of Robert Johnson in 1938.

His reporting on the unsolved murder of Tampa crime boss Charlie Wall earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2000. In 2006, Atkins turned the story into the novel White Shadow. Colleen Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times book editor commented, "White Shadow, the best novel set in Tampa I've read."

His next novels, Wicked City, Devil's Garden. and Infamous were all set in personally relevant locations: San Francisco, Alabama (where he was born) and Tampa. A mixture of first-hand interviews, original research into police and court records and tightly woven plots, they reflect Atkins' interest in true crime stories. In Devil's Garden, Atkins explores the early life of one of his heroes, Dashiell Hammett, the originator of the hard-boiled crime novel.

Recently Atkins began a series featuring Quinn Colson, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who returns home to north Mississippi. In 2011 the estate of Robert B Parker tapped him to continue the Spenser novels. When he was offered the previous books for reference, he answered that wouldn't be necessary - he already owned all of them! Robert B Parker was one of his literary heroes. Release of the two series is being coordinated so that the Spenser books will appear in the spring and the Colson books in the summer.

When asked why he moved to Mississippi, Atkins said, "Because most of my books are set in Mississippi, because the looks of the land and the people are different from the rest of the country, and because Mississippi is a very culturally rich state." He lives on a historic farm outside Oxford with his family.

Lovers of Parker's books I have spoken to have received Ace Atkins as a worthy successor, and that is really saying something! The next Spenser novel, Wonderland, will be out in May.

Find out more about him at his website.

Favorite Reads 2012: The Greater Journey

I love to read nonfiction, especially history and biography. Obviously, David McCullough is one of my favorite authors. His books are so well written that you might think they were fiction. They definitely are not, as they are meticulously researched.

His latest, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, is a bit different from his earlier books. It's not about one person or event, and it doesn't take place in the United States. It's about the hundreds of Americans who went to Paris between 1830 and 1900 - not to visit or live - but to study. These were American artists, doctors, writers, scientists, and others who were adventurous enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean (which in those days was a dangerous and long trip) just to learn. They went on to have a tremendous effect on American culture and history.

What we as Americans may not realize is that during these years there was no place in America to learn these skills. Since they had to leave home, they decided to go to the best place to learn - Paris, France. Paris was the intellectual and cultural center of the world at that time. The book ends in 1900, because by then, it was no longer necessary to leave the US to study, mainly because of these intrepid adventurers who brought their knowledge home.

I was amazed at how many well known American artists, physicians, writers, and others made the "greater journey" to Paris. Elizabeth Blackwell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Samuel Morse, James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Sumner, John Singer Sargent, and Mary Cassatt are just a few.

Through the eyes of this author you will come to love Paris and vividly see the impact of this city upon these American students. You will also come to realize the tremendous effect these travelers had on our country. It also has many magnificent color pictures. This is an inspiring, enlightening, and entertaining book that I can highly recommend.

Favorite Reads 2012: Have You Met Pete the Cat?

Have you read to your child today? Have you been upstairs in our Children's Department lately? If not then I must introduce you to one of my new favorite characters, Pete the Cat!

Pete is a cool, laid back, blue cat who never sweats the small stuff. He never gets flustered when he runs into a problem, and he always manages to find a way to make lemonade out of lemons. He teaches young kids ages 4 and up to be resilient and to bounce with the bumps in life.

My first introduction to this "cool cat" was the book Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes written by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean.  The book begins with Pete singing about how much he loves his new white shoes. On each new page he steps into colorful piles of strawberries, blueberries, mud; each time changing his shoes to a new color. Does he whine? Does he complain? Heck No! He just sings a new song about red shoes, blue shoes, and brown shoes and so on.

Frankly, things don't get much better than a happy song about each and every bad luck event, each of which can be turned into something positive. This is a book any child would love, as well as would the adult in his or her life.

The Library has been building up our collection of Pete the Cat books so come in and introduce yourselves to Pete. You can also find Pete at his web page. Here you will be introduced to the author and illustrator who also have very interesting background stories themselves.

Favorite Reads 2012: Loves Carolyn Haines

A native of Mississippi, Carolyn Haines is the author of over fifty books in multiple genres. She was named the 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award and is the recipient of the 2009 Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence.

Bonefire of the Vanities is my 12th book in the Carolyn Haines Bones series. Why do I continue reading every one of these books? Well...when they are so well written and more than interesting...how could I not continue reading them. This latest in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries was no exception.

Sarah Booth Delaney and her BFF Tinkey (and partner PI) have been requested by Madam Tomeeka aka Tammy to guard Marjorie Littlefield from harm. It appears Marjorie is staying with the Westins, Brandy & Sherry, at an estate, Heart's Desire. Heart's Desire has a long history and most of it is quite dark and only getting darker. Sarah Booth and Tinkin set out under the guise of being maids for Marjorie.  How long being a maid will last with Tinkie...your guess is as good as mine!

Despite the wishes of her overprotective fiance, Sarah Booth Delaney can't give up her detective work, no matter how dangerous it becomes. It's too much a part of her. On this case, avoiding danger might be impossible--she's on the trail of a porn-star-turned-psychic operating from a haunted estate on the edge on town. Medium Sherry Cameron promises to reunite grieving family members with their dearly departed, but it seems vaguely suspicious that Sherry will only accept emotionally vulnerable and tremendously wealthy clients.  Aging billionaire Marjorie Littlefield fits the profile perfectly--her daughter died in a tragic accident as a young girl, she's been estranged from her son for decades, and she's planning to leave her considerable inheritance to her cat.

Convinced she's uncovered a scheme to separate a lonely woman from her fortune, Sarah Booth talks her way onto the estate as a maid, where she finds Marjorie and several other wealthy eccentrics ready to commune with the dead. Between chores, Sarah Booth explores the estate, mingles with the other staff...and finds a few dead bodies. But which guest or staff member might be the killer? Even Jitty, Sarah Booth's personal haunt, won't tell until Sarah Booth has uncovered all of Sherry's well-kept secrets.

With spooks and charlatans around every corner, Sarah Booth is the only PI in the southlands who can put an end to this elaborate scam in Bonefire of the Vanities, the charming twelfth entry in Carolyn Haines's sparkling series.

I love going back to Dahlia House and going on another journey with Sarah Booth and Tinkie.  Love this series and appreciate the author taking the time to write such an interesting story with substance rather than churning out one shallow book after another in short order.  Well worth the wait.

Favorite Reads 2012: A Fascinating Historical "What If"

One of my favorite reads of 2012 was a novel based on a fictionalized John F Kennedy being sent on a secret spy mission by FDR, just as Hitler's forces were spreading over the map of Europe like a dark, spilled potion.

Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews hooked me right from the beginning. I was immediately intrigued by the notion of Harvard senior JFK setting off on a "research" trip around Europe. That alone would have been fascinating; and, indeed, he did actually travel to all the places described in the novel at those times. But even more fascinating was the idea of FDR summoning the young, sickly student to his private train coach deep beneath the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and confiding to him that he could not trust anyone around him, particularly FBI Director J Edgar Hoover. Now, the United States had no real secret service in 1939. "Spies" were often diplomats and trusted citizens living abroad. It's hard to imagine such a situation living in today's high tech surveillance world.

FDR had decided to use JFK's tour of Europe, gathering historical information for his senior thesis, as a convenient cover to gather intelligence on Hitler's plan to buy off American presidential candidates in order to unseat FDR, insuring America's neutrality. He mentions suitcases full of cash coming into the country. The fact that young Jack was considered a wild, undisciplined, and completely inexperienced "weak link" in the Kennedy clan does not seem to concern FDR at all. His confidence convinces Jack to give it a try. There is no way for him to anticipate the perilous situations in which he will find himself traveling through European countries in the throes of being marched upon by the Nazis. He encounters helpers along the way and even has to learn to send and receive messages in code.

I got a whole new perspective on JFK from this book. Even though it is fiction, it is clear that the author did quite a bit of research on him and his family. I knew that he had been ill much of his life, but had no idea how baffled doctors were as to what repeatedly nearly killed him. He was eventually diagnosed with a hormonal deficiency, but the treatment in 1939 was almost as horrific as the attacks he suffered. I knew that he had lived in the shadow of his brother Joe, who was the heir apparent to the Kennedy fortune and who carried the hopes of patriarch Joseph P Kennedy for ultimate political power, but did not fully realize that Jack was considered almost a throwaway by his father. But in the world of fiction, what Jack uncovers during his harrowing trip will change that dynamic forever.

Of course, there are vivid descriptions of other members of the Kennedy clan. The relationships among the older siblings, and the very young Teddy, belonging to another generation, almost. There is romance, of course: the mysterious Diana whose allegiances are never quite certain. And murder: many of them! Carried out by a Nazi assassin whose mark is a spider carved into the victim.

Hooked yet? This genre is not one I usually am drawn to; the subject of JFK is what attracted me. It sparks a lot of speculation about what historical secrets may still be out there, and how some things in the power struggle of politics never change.

Jack 1939 may be found in the "new" section at the library.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our wonderful patrons!

The Library Has a Baby!

Right after he was born

The Library has a baby! I know, you didn't even know we were expecting. That's because we didn't actually deliver it ourselves. That honor belongs to our children's librarian, Eboni Perryman.

Karion Jermaine Watson was born on Tuesday, December 4 at 3:52 pm. He weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21" long. The mother and the baby are doing fine and hope to be home today.

When he woke up

As you can see from the pictures, he's adorable. Eboni says he is a really good baby and rarely cries. The nurses say he likes everybody and loves to cuddle. The only trouble was he didn't seem to know how to nurse, although he liked his bottle. Eboni was wondering if something was wrong with her or her milk. Fortunately, one of the mothers in our Tuesday morning story time came to the rescue. She has lots of experience nursing babies and was able to show Eboni how to do it. Now the baby seems to be nursing just fine, and the amount in the supplemental bottle is decreasing.

Now he's socializing

We tried to get a picture of the mommie with her baby, but she was being camera shy. She promises one soon.

Eboni will be on Family Medical Leave for six weeks, but in the meantime, we'll keep you updated on the Library Baby on facebook.

PS: Don't tell Eboni this is the Library Baby - she thinks he's hers!