Thursday, April 03, 2008

Large Print, One DVD, Chick Lit, a Joke

DVD

The Mist
starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher. A thick mist filled with monsters traps a bunch of people in a supermarket.

Large Print

Miss Julia Paints the Town by Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia tries to scare off developers by exposing and promoting all the weirdos in town.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. Two best friends from childhood have a split. A schism. An estrangement. A rift.

Texas Princess by Jodi Thomas. A romance. Guy teaches Senator's daughter to horse ride and they take off into the mountains after an assassination attempt.

Fiction

Seraphim by Michael Hauf. A French female knight in 1433 looks to destroy fallen angel Lucifer de Mort.

Women on the Edge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Isabel Sarpe. "Welcome to Kettle, Wisconsin where everyone knows nothing bad ever happens."

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. College girl Laurel helps out in mentally ill facility and finds that recently deceased dude was once famed photographer. Believes she has a found a family secret in his photograph collection.

NonFiction

Chicken Soup for the Parent's Soul edited by Jack Canfield. I've never read one of these books. But, in the spirit of this long running book series here is a new April Fool's joke by a five-year-old: "How do you tell if someone pooped in your socks? Rubber Ducky!

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Two Audio, One DVD, Oprah

AudioBooks

Be Cool by Elmore Leonard. Not very new but new to us.

Hamlet's Dresser by Bob Smith. Smith grew up in Stratford, Connecticut and found "a window through which to view the world" in Shakespeare. He becomes Hamlets dresser at the annual Shakespeare festival.

DVD

Second Chance starring Michael W. Smith and Jeff Obafemi Carr. Suburban pastor Ethan works under his dad at a wealthy suburban mega-church. Ethan's concern with running the church as a business get him sent to a sister church in a poor, urban neighborhood to learn about faith.

Oprah

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. A paperback version.

Six Fiction with a Sorta Local Author

Fiction

Winding Ways Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. A bunch of quilting women get together and make quilts and friends. Some chick book. Since Chiaverini lives in Madison I tried to schedule an author visit. Chiaverini has her publisher do her bookings and those weasels at Simon and Schuster are impossible to contact so I gave up. For the moment at least.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. The return of Cannie Shapiro from Good in Bed. Cannie is married with a daughter. Her daughter, Joy, who discovers the fictionalized and sexualized account of Cannie's life and suspects her parentage.

Winter Study by Nevada Barr. Park Ranger Anna Pigeon's latest adventure takes her to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior.

Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark. Columbia University senior Mack walked out of his apartment several years ago and never returned to his life. He calls his mother every Mother's Day but never says where he is or why he stays gone. One year his sister decides to find him.

Third Angel by Alice Hoffman. "A magical and stunningly original story that charts the lives of three women in love with the wrong men." Oh boy.

Adam by Ted Dekker. Profiler Adam has been obsessed with finding the serial killer Eve. After killing sixteen women Eve targets Adam as "Eve's Adam" and shoots him in the head.

Three Mysteries and Four Large Print

Mystery

South of Shiloh by Chuck Logan. Civil War reenactor Paul from Minnesota is killed in Mississippi during the mock battle of Kirby Creek by a live round. His neighbor on the Union line, Kenny Beeman, was the real target and now Paul's wife has enlisted friend and newsman John Rane to investigate.

Zapped by Carol Higgins Clark. Jack and Regan Reilly are caught in a blackout in New York City. Ever seen Zapped with Scott Baio? I enjoyed that movie in junior high.

Death Walked In by Carolyn Hart. Something about stolen Double Eagle coins and family intrigue.

Large Print

Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry. "The Prince of Wales invites several financiers and their wives to dinner to discuss an African railway. The party comes to a rough end when the men's evening entertainment - a whore - is found dead on the Queen's monogrammed sheets. Thomas Pitt of the Special Services enlists his maid Gracie to help solve the crime."

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear. We have the regular print edition, too. Some mystery about Kent during harvest time and hop-picking. Tyranena Brewing gives tours and lets you taste some of the compressed hop pellets they use for brewing.

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston. Isabella is the world's largest supercollider and is almost ready to use. "Will it divulge the mysteries of the universe, or as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is Isabella a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty? Twelve scientists are sent to a remote mountain to turn it on - and what they discover is utterly unexpected."

An Ordinary Man: an autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina. Rusesabagina was the hotel manager that Hotel Rwanda was based on. He spoke at GAC.