Friday, November 10, 2006

Two New Christmas Novels and More NonFiction

Adult Fiction

The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg. A Christmas story told through Mary and Joseph. Mary meets devout Joseph and together they fight the troubles of a surprise pregnancy. "For Mary the pregnancy is a divine miracle...For Joseph it is ongoing test of his faith and courage in his wife as well as God."

A Christmas Secret by Anne Perry. Dominic and his wife Clarice are escaping dreary London for three weeks while Dominic fills in as the vicar in rural Cottisham. But the vacationing Reverend is not vacationing after all and when a blizzard covers Cottisham "Domininc and Clarice suddenly find themselves in danger."

Adult NonFiction

Surviving Divorce by Sheryl Garrett, CFP. A roadmap by a financial planner on hiring an attorney, dividing assets and retirement/pension savings, child support and alimony, how to handle changes in income, expenses, etc.

Wisconsin: Off the Beaten Path by Martin Hintz and Daniel Hintz. This is the latest edition by the father and son writing team. "Tired of the same old tourist traps? Take the road less traveled and discover the hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales other guidebooks just don't offer."

The Diabetes Snack, Munch, Nibble, Nosh Book, 3rd Ed. by Ruth Glick. Snacks to match your blood glucose management planning. With a Just for Kids section.

Mom's Best Crowd Pleasers by Andrea Chesman. "101 no-fuss recipes" authored by the lady who wrote Mom's Best One Dish Suppers (which we also have).

Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista. I have no idea what any of this stuff is: dying paper towels, freezer paper monoprints, transparency sandwiches, freeform sitching and embroidery, create books with wildly-sewn bindingsmaking letterforms with assorted mark-making tools. Step-by-step photos and instructions.

Juvenile DVDs

Cars. Hotshot rookie race car Lightning McQueen is living life in the fast lane until he hits a detour on his way to the most important race in his life. Stranded in Radiator Springs, a forgotten town on the old Route 66, he meets Sally, Mater, Doc Hudson and a variety of quirky characters who help him discover that there's more to life than trophies and fame.

Over the Hedge. In DreamWorks' smash-hit comedy, these hungry critters go over the hedge to take a bite out of Suburbia.

Bob the Builder: Snowed Under, the Bobblesberg Winter Games. It's the countdown to the Bobblesberg Winter Games, and the team assigned to build the courses is snowed under. Bob and his crew have stepped in to get the job done, but time is running out! As the competitors train for the big event, Bob and the team race the clock to ramp up the ski jump, build a log cabin, and smooth over the ice rink. Will everything be ready before the opening ceremonies?

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Fresh New Fiction for Friday (NonFiction Too)

Adult Fiction

Nature Girl by Carl Hiassen. Typical Hiassen loonieness in the Everglades. Honey Santana has kidnapped annoying telemarketer Boyd to teach him civility. Honey is followed into the swamps by her ex-boss, her ex-husband, and her current son (that was joke, did you catch it?).

Cross by James Patterson. Alex Cross returns to face down the psychopath who murdered his wife back when Alex still worked for the Washington D.C. Police. If you have not yet read one of Patterson's Alex Cross books give this one a try.

Santa Cruise by Carol and Mary Higgins Clark. Mother and daughter team up again for another Christmas themed mystery. In Santa Cruise characters from their respective novels join together for a murder mystery at sea.

John's Story: The Last Eyewitness
by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Novel of John writing his gospel at the age of 90 after a "renegade begins misleading the masses with dangerous, heretical teachings."

Adult NonFiction

American Diabetes Association Complete Guide to Diabetes, 4th Edition. An update for our health/disease collection.

SAT Math for the Clueless by Bob Miller. If you missed Miller's PreCalc with Trigonometry then take this home and impress your friends.

Windows XP: Answers from the Experts by Jim Boyce and Deb Shinder. From the back cover, "Loaded with easy-to-follow advice on upgrading, maintaining, and troubleshooting this powerful operating system. You'll get details on customization and management, backups and recovery, networking, and security, as well as plenty of information on applications, multimedia, and communication tools."

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Even more new Fic and NonFic

Adult Fiction

Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans. Another Christmas story by Evans.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom. A new novel by the best-selling memoirist.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. This turned into a sleeper best-seller in the publishing world. Look at the super neat-o website.

Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear. The fourth Maisy Dobbs mystery. Dobbs investigates the death of a painter in 1930 England.

All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer Fleming. After the female Anglican pastor and the male Sheriff of Millers Kills, NY break off their intramarital affair the Sheriff's wife is found dead in the Sheriff's home. This has received very good reviews.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. A recent book club selection in town. AN unemployed veterinarian during the Depression joins the circus for a job and meets his two loves: Marlena the entertainer and Rosie the elephant.

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George. Ms. George writes a lot of novels with two regular detective characters and her readers enjoy each one. This novel changes pace to follow the orphaned trio of Joel, Ness and Toby as they "do their best to cope with their new life in London's often-menacing neighborhood of North Kensington."

Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson. Lawson wrote Crow Lake and sets Other in the middle of a love triangle in Northern Canada of the 1930s and 1950s.

Adult NonFiction

Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry. Wisconsin's most popular poet/writer/EMS worker/fireman.

Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men One Message by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. Trump and Kiyosaki (author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series) team together.

Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly. The pundit's latest.

Truth About Muhammed: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion by Robert Spencer. You should check this out just for the sake of the incendiary title.

What Colleges Don't Tell You, and What Other Parents Don't Want You To Know: 272 Secrets For Getting Your Kid Into The Top Schools by Elizabeth WIssner-Gross. "The author's approach is to endow the student's advocate, usually a parent who has the most time to devote to the task, with the skills to elicit and enhance the student's natural accomplishments, rendering him or her desirable to colleges" review link.

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. Bryson's best selling humour has covered Australia and the Appalaichan Trail, English language and the history of science. Life and Times is about growing up in 1950s Iowa.

New Adult Fiction, Nonfiction and a Juvenile Book too Good to Miss

Adult Fiction

Found by Karen Kingsbury. Number 3 in the Firstborn Series by the popular Christian author.


Adult Nonfiction


Europe by Eurail: the dest-selling and most reliable guide to European train travel by LaVerne Ferguson-Kosinski. Our last Eurail guidebook was several years old. So I threw it away and bought this one.

Britain by Britrail: the best-selling and most reliable guide to British train travel by LaVerne Ferguson-Kosinski. Same author, same topic, focused on Britain.

Mom's Best One-Dish Suppers
by Andrea Chesman.

The Farmer's Market Cookbook: more than 100 recipes using the freshest ingredients by Richard Ruben.

Statistics for the Utterly Confused, 2nd Ed. by Lloyd Jaisingh, Ph.D. "When it comes to understanding, even good students can be confused. Perfect for students in any introductory non-calculus-based statistics course"

New Juvenile Non-Fiction

Pick Me Up: Stuff you need to know... edited by David Roberts. Science, People, History, Arts, the Earth. Interesting and quick facts on a huge variety of topics. Very fun book to browse through for both kids and adults.

Monday, November 06, 2006

New Fiction and nonfiction

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. The latest novel from super-author Nicholas Sparks. John Tyree joined the Army after a rebellious high-school career. While on leave in North Carolina John meets Savannah and they fall in love. 9/11 occurs while John and Savannah are planning their lives together after John's enlistment ends. Circumstance and duty tear them apart, but will they reunite?

After they were Packers: the Super Bowl XXXI champs & other Green Bay legends by Jerry Poling. Coverage of past packers including: WR Don Beebe, now a high school football coach. LB Georeg Koonce, works at the Eastern Carolina Univeristy Athletic Office and owns real estate. Even K Jan Stenerud works for HNTB which designs and remodels stadiums.

Great Wisconsin Winter Weekends by Candice Gaukel Andrews. Information on winter sports, holidays, festivals, etc. Coverage focuses on certain cities and regions including: Milwaukee, Madison, Bayfield, Wausau, Sheboygan, and a lot of others.


The Long Walk: a true story of a trek to freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. Rawicz was a Polish Army officer captured by the Soviets in 1939 when the Soviets and germany split Poland. Imprisoned in a Siberian gulag, Rawicz and five other prisoners escaped and wlaked two thousand miles through Siberia, Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, China, Tibet and the Himalayas into British India. After reaching India, Rawicz enlisted in the Free Polish Army to continue fighting the Germans.