Ice Rink in Commons Park

Ice to Skate On



Watch Out for the Squirrels

Huh, I Was Sure That Trailer Was Correct

DVD (infected by musical interludes)

Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey.  Male stripper meets girl.  I think.



Core Fusion Cardio: pure intensity with [fit people in tights].  "Get sweaty and svelte as you lose weight."


Family Guy: volume ten starring [voices].  Animated comedy series.

Zappa's Double Yoga Vaccine

DVD

Yoga Meltdown with Jillian Michaels.  Exercises.


Dark Knight Rises starring Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard.  Knight fight French invaders.


Darling Companion starring Sam Shepard, Diane Keaton, Ayelet Zurer.  Woman becomes overly attached to a new dog and makes everyone hunt for it.


Double Hour starring [Italians].  "Do you order all these movies?"  "Yes. I buy in-demand things and also order flicks you might not find elsewhere."



Melodic Noise is Digitized and Stored for Retrieval

Come of Age by The Vaccines.  The Vaccines will be playing in Milwaukee in January or February and singing songs of peppy pop.



Lumpy Gravy by Frank Zappa.  1967 has returned to sing songs of weirdness.

Music By That Other Gustavus Guy

1619 Broadway by Kurt Elling.  Jazz singer sings songs from the Brill Building.


Gustavus Guy

Gustavus Guy is Peter Krause.

One Boyle Pitbull Goes Celebration Red

Music and Voices Upon A Playable Device

Take Me Home by One Direction.  Diminutive English kids sing songs for girls.



Standing Ovation: the greatest songs from the stage by Susan Boyle.  English lady sings old songs.


Global Warming by Pitbull.  Guy with weird stage name sings dancey songs.



Album Title Goes Here by Deadmau5.  Canadian plays songs of techno.

Celebration Day by Led Zeppelin.  Wrinkled Englishmen reminisce while singing songs.



Red by Taylor Swift.  American singer sings songs on Target Store commercials.

Futurimpromethe-ama

DVD

Prometheus starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbbender, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, CGI.  Prequel to Alien CGIs a big people-eating CGI bug to scare your CGI off and sing peppy pop tunes.


Futurama: Volume 6 starring [voices of people].  Idiot falls into cryogenic chamber and wakes up in the future.


Futurama: Volume 7 starring [voices of the same people including that actress from Married with Children and Sons of Anarchy.  But, I have never watched Sons of Anarchy even though that big dude, Ron Perlman, is fun to watch.  Did you see Perlman in that short Punisher video that Thomas Jane produced?]



The Simpsons: the fifteenth season starring [an animated slob, an animated brat, and an animated greyhound.  As if any greyhound is "animated"].

Snow and Retirement Reception

Snow

From yesterday, December 19th.






Retirement

Public reception for Vicki York.

Parker J. Palmer Attacks En Masse

NonFiction 
In Support of the Upcoming January 22nd Book Discussion Sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Greater Lake Mills

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy one.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy two.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy three.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy four.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy five.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy six.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy seven.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy eight.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy nine.

Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer.  Copy ten.

Parker attended Carleton College. He is now suspect.  Everyone sing! Gusties will shine tonight, Gusties will shine!

Musical Notes Inlaid onto a Thin Metal Service That Can Be Scratched and Ruined

Babel by Mumford and Sons.  Singers sing songs of folkeyness.

Fiction

Edgewood by Karen McQuestion.  Self published sci-fi.  But, McQuestion is an honest to goodness writer and had titles published by a subset of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt named Mariner.

I once read a book of Norwegian sea stories and liked it. I think this was the book.

One Sound, 18 Video

Music on Flat, Circular Piece of Plastic

The Dreamer by Rhett Miller.  Singer sings songs with his gold tooth mouth.



DVD

Little Rascals: the complete collection starring [kids who never got residuals].  The guy who played Spanky spoke at my college in "90 or '91.  I was only able to attend his talk for about an hour and then had to leave to wash dishes in the cafeteria.  I was telling everyone about hearing Spanky and my classmates and dorm mates did not know what I was talking about.
The Champaign Public Library used to loan out 8mm films and projectors.  My parents would get the Our Gang features for birthday parties.



Detention starring Josh Hutcherson.  High school horror comedy.

ParaNorman starring [animated people and monsters].  Boy who sees dead people has to save his town from a curse.

Expendables 2 starring [guys with muscles].  Guys with veiny muscles - Bruce Willis excluded - shoot things.  I have no idea what the plot is.

Eastbound and Down: complete third season starring [chubby guy with mullet].  Baseball pitcher joins minor league team in Myrtle Beach.  I went to Myrtle Beach in 1999.  I did some go-kart driving and enjoyed it greatly.



Dragons: riders of the Berk starring [voices].  The case says "4 explosive episodes" so I guess this is not a feature film.

Citizen Gangster starring Scott Speedman, Brian Cox.  Canadian war veteran robs banks.  Hoser guy wears a toque and robs a bunch of Loonies from a Toronto bank then goes home to sit on his chesterfield.


Shape: 400 calorie fat-blast with [fit blond ladies].  Three 15-minute workouts.



Shape: make over your butt, hips and thighs with [fit blond lady and background models].  The box photos imply lots of lunges.

DVD Bonanza!

DVD Bonanza (with limited number of embedded trailers)

Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner, David Strthairn, Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach, Joan Allen.  Secret agent's life is threatened by the government and, according to the tv commercials, he jumps from a roof into a narrow alley.

Savages starring Blake LIvely, Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro.  Great novel.  So-so movie.

Safety Not Guaranteed starring [people you don't know except for] Kristen Bell.  Guy says he knows how to time travel and is looking for people to go with him.



Angry Boys starring [Australian acting different parts].



Breaking Bad: First Season starring Meth.  Cancer stricken high school teacher brews meth to earn money for his family.

Breaking Bad: Second Season starring Meth and Guns.  High school teacher is making much meth money and his drug business causes other trouble.

Men in Black 3 starring Josh Brolin, Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones.  More franchise.

Ted starring Mila Kunis, Mark Wahlberg.  Teddy bear that came to life with boyhood wish is still around and causing trouble when owner an adult.

World Without End starring Cynthia Nixon, Miranda Richardson.  389 minutes of Ken Follett.


Girls starring Peter Scolari and Lena Dunham.  Single women, just out  of college, and in New York City.

Snow Engagement of Ages with Musical Interlude

DVD

Rock of Ages starring Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise, Paul Giamatti.  Musical with '80s rock music.  I heard someone this past weekend pan the movie but rave about the stage production.  Judge the flick for yourself.


Five-Year Engagement starring [that schlubby guy] and Emily Blunt.  What's the deal with Emily Blunt?  Was  she in some big name TV show or movie?  I see her name around but have no idea why.  Comedy movie that, I presume, deals with a couple taking forever to get married.


Snow White and the Huntsman starring CGI Software, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth.  Queen wants to CGI Snow White and sends the Huntsman to CGI his way into the CGI woods to CGI Kristen Stewart who was CGI'd into showing CGI emotions.


Musical Interlude

Joan Armatrading.  I listened to a BBC Radio documentary about producer George Martin who praised Armatrading for her skill and talent.

Ruckatham

Fiction

Alpha by Greg Rucka.  Comic writing novelist Rucka pens another action novel.  Delta Force dude sent to fictionalized Disney World in anticipation of 9/11 style terrorist plot.  Disney World?  Action scenes?  Sounds like Victor Gischler's forthcoming Go-go Girls of the Apocalypse sequel.

Say You're Sorry by Michael Robotham.  Robotham writes good thrillers.  Bio says he lives in Sydney, Australia.  Australia is on the other side of the world.  You know the place, right?  They have all the kangaroos and crocodiles and The Lord Humongous?

Whole Lot of Fiction

Fiction

City of the Lost by Stephen Blackmoore.  "Urban fantasy"  Dead guy deals with dead things.  I used to read Blackmoore's blog about crime in Los Angeles.  I stopped reading most blogs because it was taking too much time.  Blackmoore likes Hi-Powers.

Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman.  Kip is a former big-time author and now a low rent teacher. He saves his class from bloodshed and is courted by a cult focused on handguns.  A gun cult?  Sounds like some internet websites I regularly read.

Crow's Landing by Brad Smith.  I read Smith's previous novel Red Means Run and it was pretty decent.  Virgil Cain is fishing in the Hudson River when his anchor pulls up a steel cylinder.  A crooked cop seizes the cylinder and Virgil's boat.  Virgil wants his boat back and gets into drug dealing trouble when investigating.

Dangerous Inheritance: a novel of Tudor rivals and the secret of the Tower by Alison Weir.  Weir?  Didn't she write something popular?  Maybe I'm thinking of a different Weir because I don't recognize anything off her title list.

Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams.  Some angel novel with angel named Bobby worrying about the end of the world when souls start disappearing.  I was just getting this confused with Johnny Angel.  I didn't know Shelley Fabares sang that.

Large Print

Shiver by Karen Robards.  Repo woman finds beaten guy in trunk of BMW.  Guy takes woman hostage.

Poseidon's Arrow by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler.  Another Cusssler cover covered in planes and flames.

Large Print? We ain't got no Large Print. We don't need no stinking Large Print!

Large Print With Badges

You Are the Love of My Life by Susan Richards Shreve.  Hola, Senor.

The Last Man by Vince Flynn.  We are the Federales.

Gone by Randy Wayne White.  You know?

The 100-year-old-man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.  The mounted police.

Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James.  If you're the police where are your badges?

An Outlaw's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller.  Badges?  We ain't got no badges.

An Amish Gift by Cynthia Keller.  We don't need no badges.

Christmas in Cornwall by Marcia Willett.  I don't have to show you any stinking badges!

A Season of Angels by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer.  Better not come any closer!

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.  We didn't try to do you any harm.Why don't you try  to be a little more polite?

Spider-Man's Guide to Parenting

DVD

The Amazing Spider-Man starring GuyPretendingtoBeTeenager and Denis Leary.  Peter meets his missing father's former partner and things happen.


NonFiction

Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: how to stop yelling and start connecting by Dr. Laura Markham.  "When you and your child ate stuck in negativity" Yep, that happens sometimes.

Another Anthropomorphic Fox

Fiction

 [Book with anthropomorphic fox on cover] by Rita Mae Brown.





The Forgotten by David Baldacci.  Dalbacci took his author photo at 11:26.  I was thinking Baldacci was the guy who spoke at the Fort Atkinson library last year.  It was James Grippando who spoke, I looked it up.  The story I heard is that Grippando showed up because his sister lives in Fort and forced him to speak since he was in town for his niece's graduation.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich.  I do not know what time it was when Evanovich took her photo because he watch is turned to the side.  Evanovich and another author dude, Lee Goldberg, have been collaborated on a novel.  Goldberg does good stuff but I've only read one Evanovich novel.

Audiobook on CD

The Black Box by Michael Connelly.  I watched a DVD extra for The Lincoln Lawyer where a cameraman drove around Los Angeles and Connelly pointed out different locations and his own favorite spots.  Connelly lived in the apartment where Philip Marlowe lived in The High Window.

1731 Minutes of Sex, Violence, Horses, CIA Agents, and Laughs

Audiobooks

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich.  5 CD at 6' 04". Stephanie Plum does something new and my wife is sure to read it.

Last Man by Vince Flynn.  10 CDs at 11'00".  Super good guy Mitch Rapp does derring do.

Running Wild by Linda Howard and Linda Jones.  10 CDs at 11'47".  A cowboy stands around with his hand son his belt buckle, his unbuttoned shirt wide open and falling from his shoulders, and his face hidden beneath his hat brim.

Seven Books with Twelve Total Title Words

Fiction

Cold Days by Jim Butcher.  I got my feet underneath me, seized a computer chair by its back, and lifted it.

Private London by James Patterson Manufacturing Industries and Mark Pearson.  "You turning philosophical on me?"

Black Box by Michael Connelly.  "I told you all to get!" Briscoe called from behind her security gate.

Shiver by Karen Robards.  She glared at him.

Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding.  Shit, Jennifer thought, hearing Brianne and James return to their tent and thinking she should probably go out there and apologize to James again.

Nano by Robin Cook.  "Hey, Eric, they're on the move."

Threat Vector by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney.  Chavez and Biery left through the garage door without another word.

One Thing

Fiction

Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton. The queen of vampire sex novels publishes this short story collection.    Random paragraph:  Gannon the Sorcerer was tall, as tall as Sidra. His hair was yellow, his eyes the fresh blue of spring skies.  But his face was set in cynical lines, as if he had seen too much of the world, and it all disappointed him.  Today his eyes held anger and sorrow.

EDIT:  Dang!  This books is not new, it is from 2006!  The spine label was replaced and I thought the book was new.

Extra Bonus Content!

Batman!

Driven Generals Pushed Too Far Navigating Driven Hope

Fiction

Pushed Too Far by Ann Voss Peterson.  Police Chief Valerie Ryker solved a vicious murder case with the body burned to ash.  The killer sits in prison.  Now the original victim's body is found frozen in a lake and the killer is about to be freed.
The Colt revolver on the cover is a mirror image.  The cylinder release is shown on the right hand side of the frame.

Large Print

Perfect Hope by Nore Roberts.  "Ryder is the hardest Montgomery brother to figure out."

Audiobooks on CD

Driven by James Sallis.  3 CDs at 3.5 hours.  Driver escaped the mob in Drive and is living peacefully in Phoenix with his wife.  Driver's wife is killed in a street attack and Driver knows the same people are still after him.

The Generals: American military command from World War II to today by Thomas E. Ricks. 14 CDs at 16 hours.  I read a commentary piece this morning that ripped on Petraeus.  Not because Petraeus had an affair but because he was a publicist's success and not a military success.

Super Brain: unleashing the explosive power of your mind to maximize health, happiness, and spiritual well being 9 CDs at 11.5 hours by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E. Tanzi.  Long Titles: how to expand and exaggerate your claims with an overlong subtitle that never seems to end.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.  4 CDs at 4 hours.  Mitch Albom just bought an island somewhere.

NonFiction

Navigating Autism: the essential how-to by parents for parents by Melissa Martinez Areffi and Andrew Areffi.  What kind of name is "Areffi"?  Seriously, what is the etymology because I have no idea.  I'm thinking something Southeastern Europe.  Or Arabic.  Persian?  Basque?  I'm clueless on this one.

Special Goldberg Edition, courtesy of Bill Crider

Fiction

The Dead Man: Volume One: Face of Evil [Goldberg and Rabkin]: Ring of Knives [James Daniels] : Hell in Heaven [Goldberg and Rabkin] by Lee Goldberg, et al.  Goldberg and William Rabkin started this series of adventures novellas as eBooks.  Amazon is printing the the eBooks with three stories per volume.  A fun series with action, suspense, humor, so forth, so on.

Goldberg and Rabkin have been hiring new writers for each entry in the series. There have been some very fine ones chosen including James Reasoner, Bill Crider, Anthony Neil Smith, and Christa Faust.  A fun series.

Lumberjack Matthew Cahill was buried in an avalanche.  Cahill was dug up in spring, thawed back in the morgue, and came back to life.  Cahill is hunting down a spirit/ghost/demon/something he calls Mr. Dark.  Mr. Dark infects people with evil and only Cahill can see the rotting flesh of the infected.

The Dead Man: Volume 2: The Dead Woman [David McAfee] : The Blood Mesa [James Reasoner] : Kill Them All [Harry Shannon] by Lee Goldberg, et al.  Cahill continues to travel the U.S. searching for Mr. Dark and fighting evil.

The Dead Man: Volume 3: The Beast Within [ James Daniels] : Fire and Ice [Jude Hardin]: Carnival of Death [Bill Crider] by Lee Goldberg, et al.  Cahill kills evil people. Cahill meets chicks.  Crider writes about gators.  I liked Fire and Ice but I have not yet looked for more Hardin books.

NonFiction

Active Senior Living: a fictionalized memoir by Jan Curran [Goldberg's mother].  Humorous tales of living in an assisted living facility.  Curran was a newspaperwoman in Southern California.

That British Show That Was on MTV A Couple Times

DVD

The Comic Strip Presents starring [Limeys].  Several episodes of this funny show played on MTV in later '80s (or so).  For years after I would check TV listings for Comic Strip.  Whenever Comic Strip was listed I'd tune in and, sure enough, it was some stupid show with stand-up comics.

Each episode was a half-hour parody and, hopefully, they hold up after 30 years.  This one is very 1980s.  Lemmy of Motorhead appears at 1:01.





Cabin in the Woods starring [people I never heard of, again].  Summer campout turns deadly.

Large Print Monster Will Crush You To Death

Large Print

Killing Kennedy: the end of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  The Large Print Monster teeters above you.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.  The stacks of books seem to reach into space.

A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans.  A sudden gust of wind sways the stack sideways.

Last Man by Vince Flynn.  At first, just a few copies at the top curl downward.

Sleep No More by Iris Johansen.  Suddenly the whole stack starts to peel off as in a simile I cannot think of.

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury.  You fall to your knees, vainly covering your head from the tons of paper cascading down.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett.  "No! No! Why did you let this happen?!" you scream to the Library Director.

Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell.  "Stop exaggerating," says the Library Director, "I'm weeding the old stuff and we can do a better shift after the renovation."

EDIT:  I just noticed two of the titles listed above are regular print.  Oh, well.  My observation stands.

Select Quotes

Fiction

Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson.  Damon stood...beating a hooker...with a partner. ... "Court is now in session!" ..."Nobody better have touched those eggs!"

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan.  I was naked ... and ... been typing for forty minutes. ...One hundred and thirty-six pages...had...a...talking-ape.

NonFiction

The Chronicle of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellows, et al.  His uniform...excited...the Electric Hotpoint Toaster.  There were some perks to this role...as a happy-go-lucky...horse.

No More Room in Large Print

Large Print

Finding Casey by Jo-Ann Mapson.

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio.

Secret Keeper by Kate Morton.

Hostage by Elie Wiesel.

Mad River by John Sandford.

How I Came to Sparkle Again by Kaya McLaren. What?

Something Old, Something New by Beverly Jenkins.

Into the Kingdom of Men by Kim Barnes.

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen.

You Don't Want to Know by Lisa Jackson.  Then I won't read it to find out.

NonFiction

My Bad Parent by Troy Osinoff.  Snapshot photographs of kids with humorous commentary. [I think very few comments were funny.]

Looking for Arrow Sacks

Fiction

Looking for Yesterday by Marcia Muller. Caro Warrick was acquitted of murder but still slandered by the trial.  She hires Sharon McCone to investigate and find the real killer.

Poseidon's Arrow by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler.  A flying plane.  Explosions.  Lots of flame.  A burning yacht.  Machine guns on the flying plane.

NonFiction

Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks.  Flyleaf says: Hallucinations don't belong wholly wholly to the insane.  Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury.  People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of animals and people.  People with failing eyesight, paradoxically, may become immersed in a hallucinatory visual world.

New Books, Interior Renovation Notes, Hives

Fiction

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves. Measure out space at circ' desk for phase one - bins and holds.

Vacations From Hell by Libba Bray, et al.  Mark closed dates on online calendar and SIRSI calendar and newspaper announcement.

NonFiction

Photograph Your Kids Like a Pro by Heather Mosher.  Mark magazines as storage or mask in catalog.

New Dimension in Bead and Wire Jewelry by Margot Potter.  Furniture to dispose has to be gone by January 14th.

Audiobooks on CD

Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.  Remove end of circ desk (last week of December?).

The Hives

"Dr. Matt Destruction seems a little down."
"Yeah.  Hey, I know!  Let's give him a bass solo."
Floor planning for Phase Two.

Things

Fiction Things

Old Gray Wolf by James D. Ross.  Trouble and violence.

Sins of the Mother by Danielle Steel.  Trouble and family.

Sanctuary by Ted Dekker.  Trouble and prison.

Astray by Emma Donoghue.  Trouble and an elephant.

Giving Quit by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Trouble and stitching.

Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans.  Trouble and Christmas.

Christmas Garland by Anne Perry.  Trouble and "exotic India".

Audiobooks on CD Things

Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.  Trouble and 18 hours.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin.  Trouble and 26.5 hours.

The Racketeer by John Grisham.  Trouble and 12.75 hours.

NonFiction Thing

Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics by Steve W. Martin.  Trouble and "recognizing the customer placebo" trouble.

Canadians, Crows, and Cooder

Musical notes and singing digitized and phyiscally embedded onto a shiny surface for playback.

Carry Me Back by Old Crow Medicine Show.  Allmusic.com reviewer says: It isn't easy straddling two different centuries with one's sound and style, but Old Crow Medicine Show pull it off once again on their fourth studio album, the Ted Hutt-produced Carry Me Back, a ragged, breakneck romp that crackles with more energy than a thrash band on Red Bull.

Antennas to Hell by Slipknot.  I thought "attennas" had an extra "e" in it.  Metal guys play metal music.  Booklet has blood and guts imagery.

Spark Seeker by Matisyahu.  Reggae rapper from New York.

Election Special by Ry Cooder.  Cooder complains on politics.

Audiobook on CD

Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny.  11 CDs at 13.5 hours.  Quebec cop Inspector Gamache investigate a murdered monk.

DVD

Headshot starring [Thais and guns].  Policeman is blackmailed and "becomes disillusioned by the state of human nature", starts killing people for pay, shaves his head, sees things upside-down.



Le Havre starring [French].  Shoe shiner in Le Havre takes in a stowaway boy who stranded in the port town.



Moonrise Kingdom starring Bill Murray.  Two 12-year-olds run away for the summer.  Adults look.

Walking Dead: the complete second season starring [actors].  Zombies walk around and eat people.  Non-zombies try to escape.

Big News and Small News

Big News

Fundraising goal achieved.  We will soon request bids for general contracting.





Small News

I got rid of my cardboard coffee cup sleeves.

Witches Night Out 2012

Witches Night Out 2012

Why was this one week before Halloween?  I have no idea.

Onion Book of Blood

NonFiction

Onion Book of Knowledge: 183rd Imperial Edition edited by Joe Randazzo.  Shipped without a paper cover and embossed in gold colored ink to make it look fancy.  Hard Hat, protective metal or plastic helmet worn by construction workers and the pussy architects who sometimes stop by for a peek.

Fiction

Angels at the Table by Debbie Macomber.  I'm thinking this is a Christmas themed novel.  No trees on the cover but lots of shiny lights and red color.

The Racketeer by John Grisham.  What do you care about the plot?  You'll read it anyway.

Uncommon Appeal of Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith.  Mma Ramotswe visits England to speak with Isabel Dalhousie about why Library Director, Gerard Saylor, has never read any of these Smith books.

Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe.  Yes, Tom Wolfe is still alive.  Yes, Tom Wolfe is still writing books.  Yes, Tom Wolfe is still dressing like a frippery ponce.

More

More AudioBooks

Winter of the World by Ken Follett. 25 CDs at 31.75 hours.  Interview with Follett from BookTV.

Hexed by Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James, Jeanne C. Stein.  "Four all new stories of magic and mayhem" by four authors with oddly spelled first names.

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. 12 CDs at 14.5 hours.  Old bachelor helps out pregnant teen girls.

Into the Woods by Kim Harrison.  16 CDs at 20 hours.  Scary stories.

Bailout: an inside account of how Washington abandoned Main Street while rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky. 8 CDs at 9.5 hours.  More scary stories.

More Books

Double Vision by F.T. Bradley.  Troublemaker kid Linc is a ringer for a kid super agent.  Linc gets hired.  Book bio says Bradley is from the Netherlands.  That means she wears wooden shoes, hates Germans, and panics when hearing water leaks.

The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell.  Bones.  Dead people.  Bad guys.

3 Print 3 Plastic

Print

Into the Woods by Kim Harrison.  Short story collection of fantasy tales set in the woods.  Harrison has long red hair. 

The Twelve by Justin Cronin. Apocalyptic zombies.  Cronin taught at Rice.  That means he is a nerd.  We were going to go by Rice during our family trip to Houston but since my father, the only Rice alumnus in the group, was not there we skipped it.  I was happy to go and visit the cheap bar there. 

Sleep No More by Iris Johansen.  Series character Eve Duncan experiences thrills and chills.  Johansen was born in 1938.  Her son has an Edgar nomination.  The Edgar Award is a big deal.

Plastic

Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell. 10 CDs at 13 hours.  Scarpetta researches missing paleontologist.

Tales From the Fire Zone by Jonathan Maberry. 3 CDs at 3 hours.  Zombie tales from zombie man.

Fatal Dive: solving the World War II mystery of the USS Grunion by Peter F. Stevens.  6 CDs at 7 hours.  Submarine Grunion sunk in 1942 with 70 crew aboard.  Found in 2006.  What caused the sinking?

Romans and a Comic with Mixed Reviews

NonFiction

The Guy Under the Sheets: the unauthorized biography by Chris Elliott.  Since no one else was writing an unauthorized biography of Chris Elliott he did so himself.  Mixed reviews but second one is entertaining.

Booklist's David Pitt wrote: This hugely entertaining pack of lies reads like a Woody Allen essay from the New Yorker, but, buried among the silliness, there is a nugget or two of legitimate autobiography. Wildly weird and hugely entertaining.

Library Journal's Barry X. Miller wrote: a clunker...readers...will come away disappointed...ridiculous parody, jokes that go over like a lead balloon, and hyperbole of migrain-inducing dimensions. There is no narrative through-line, and everything, including all semblance of a coherent story or point of interest, is sacrificed on the altar of cheap laughs.  VERDICT: Not funny! Recommended only for the hardest of the hardcore Chris Elliott fanboys.

Fiction

Centurion by Simon Scarrow.  Adventure novel of the Roman Legions.  A fun series featuring centurions Macro and Cato.  Similar read to Bernard Cornwell.

Don't do that.

Photo

Bloodline Delusion From The Shoe Hive

NonFiction

The Shoe: best foot forward by Tamsin Blanchard.  Because women like shoes.  Hopefully they will like this book even though the plastic cover has a bunch of dang air bubbles in it.

A Family's Guide to Tourette Syndrome edited by John T. Walkup, MD, et al.  This has air bubbles all over it, too.

Comic Book Novel

The Hive by Charles Burns. Not covered in air bubbles.  Not to be confused with The Hives.


Large Print

Dick Francis's Bloodline by Felix Francis.  Horses.  Murder.  Thrills

Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb.  Does Nora Roberts use a ghost writer or does she write really fast?  I watched part of an interview with Ken Follett and he works six days a week from about 7 AM to 4 PM.  Sometimes he works seven days a week.  You can watch the interview here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308209-1.

DVD

30 Rock: season 6 starring Alec Baldwin.  "She's like a little human tumbler of scotch."  You can check out the DVD (for free) to watch the full episode.  Or, pay two bucks for every 22 minutes of show.

95 hours

Music on Shiny Flat Disc With Centered Hole

Love at the Bottom of the Sea by The Magnetic Fields.  I heard Andrew In Drag on BBC6.  I then heard other songs.  I then decided other people might be interested.

Audiobooks on CD

Dearie: the remarkable life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz.  20 CDs at 25'29".  "It's rare for someone to emerge in America who can change our attitudes, our beliefs, and our very culture. It's even rarer when that someone is a middle-aged, six-foot-three-inch woman whose first exposure to an unsuspecting public is cooking an omelet on a hot plate on a local TV station."

Phantom by Jo Nesbo.  13 CDs at 16'18".  Harry Hole leaves Hong Kong to return to Oslo and help his former stepson who is accused of murder.

Into the Fire by Dakota Meyer and Bing West.  5 CDs at 5'51".  Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor for action in Afghanistan.

No Easy Day: the firsthand account of the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer.  6 CDs at 7'00".  Doesn't the subtitle explain everything?

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie.  22 CDs at 26'30".  Rushdie writes novel.  Rushdie has Iranians trying to kill him.  Rushdie uses the name Joseph Anton.  Rushdie hides out for nine years.  Rushdie dates good looking women.

Stranger in the Room by Amanda Kyle Williams.  11 CDs at 13'03".  Thriller with a killer.

Far From the Farm: stories and poems by Eunice Wagner.  1 CD at 0' 43".  Humorous tales by local lady. 

Parenting Advice

Books on CD

You Can't Make Me [but I can be persuaded]: strategies for bringing out the best in your strong-willed child by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias. 3.5 hours on 3 CDs. "Difficult to discipline and seemingly impossible to motivate, these children present unique, exhausting, and often-frustrating challenges to those who love them."  Was the hyphen between often and frustrating really necessary?

Android Owls Unmoored by Night

Fiction

Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Goodrich Hummer. Yes, I ordered this book and I have no memory of it.  I'll check the back...let' see...nope, still do not remember.  Something to do with a girl named Apron.

Live By Night by Dennis Lehane.  Crook joins the mob in 1920s Boston and rises through the ranks of prohibition crime.

NonFiction

Owls of the World: a photographic guide by Heimo Mikkola.  Really nice photos.  #114 is the Rock Eagle Owl from India.  The Rock Eagle has big honking eyebrows sticking straight up.

Droid 4 for Dummies by Dan Gookin.  Learn how to use that fancy-schmancy phone, Mr. Big Shot.  If that phone is so fancy-schmancy why do you need a book to learn it?  Huh?  Shouldn't that phone be teaching you?  What do you say to that Mr. Texty Bluejaw?

Canadian Chair Cover?

Fiction

Trinity Game by Sean Chercover.  Dabiel Byrne works for the Vatican "debunking false miracle claims."  Byrne is sent to the U.S. where Byrne's estranged uncle has turned televangelist and is predicting the future.  Chercover's previous private eye novels were well done.

Round House by Louise Erdrich.  Woman living on South Dakota Indian reservation is attacked and the traumatized withdraws into depression.  Her 13-year-old son sets out to find out what happened.

Mad River by John Sandford.  Thriller featuring Sandford's Virgil Flower's character trying to catch criminals tearing through rural Minnesota.

NYPD Red by James Patterson and Marshall Karp.  Cranking'em out.

NonFiction

Launch Pad: inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's most exclusive school for startups by Randall Stross.  Big-time Y Combinator funds startups and provides guidance.

More Large Print Than I Know What to Do With.  Seriously, We Are Running Out of Room

Last Man by P.T. Deutermann.  Thriller.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain.

Meryl Street Movie Club by Mia March.

St. Zita Society by Ruth Rendell.

A Cowboy Under My Christmas Tree by Janet Dailey.

These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen.  Pekkanen?  Is that Finnish?

First Warm Evening of the Year by Jamie M. Saul.

Return to Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs.

A Place in the Country by Elizabeth Adler.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

56 Discs

12 discs

A Wanted Man by Lee Child.  14.5 hours.  Reacher ends up hitchhiking his way into trouble.  I heard the song before.

24 discs

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett.  30.5 hours.  Another long historical novel by Follett and his hair.  Read by the great John Lee.

12 discs

A Wanted Man by Lee Child.  14.5 hours.  "Wait a moment.  Is this the same book as above?" Yes, it is.  One of these was ordered early and bought the second one by mistake.  However, since Child's books are popular I figured to keep both copies.

4 discs

Homeland: the complete first season starring Claire Danes and Damian Lewis.  Lewis is English?



2 discs

Project X starring [bunch of kids and a dwarf].  Teen party gets out of control.



2 discs

The Lucky One starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling.  Infantryman looks for woman whose photo was his good luck charm.

Three Supreme Flicks and Two Supreme Series

DVD

The Dictator starring Supreme Leader Aladeen.  Supreme Leader Aladeen protects his nation from democracy.

The Avengers starring [lots of people].  Supreme super heroes protect the nation from aliens or something.

Dawn of the Dragonslayer starring [more people].  Supreme orphan protects nation from dragons.

TV Series

Strike Back: season one starring [even more people].  Supremely disgraced soldiers protect the nation from terrorists.

Boardwalk Empire: second season starring [yes, more people].  Supreme mobster protects his gambling business from the police and rivals.

What to Read 49: Mark Kraushaar Poetry

What to Read 49

The Uncertainty Principle by Mark Kraushaar.  Some poems and questions.

Casual Cat Died Again

AudioBook on CD

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.  15 CDs at 18 hours.  I was listening ti BBC news yesterday and there was a conversation guessing what reader reactions would be to this, Rowling's first adult novel.  Especially since the novel has sex scenes. Phooey, her work was already popular with adults.

Fiction

What the Cat Saw by Carolyn Hart.  We have a saying in my house, "Cats are evil."  Okay, I have that saying in my house and the others say, "Aww, he's [one of two cats] is so cute and lovey."

The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde.  Fjords?  New Zealand has those.

NonFiction

America Again: re-becoming the greatness we never weren't by Stephen Colbert.  3-D photos in color.  3-D glasses to go with.  Great, libraries loooove it when little extra things like glasses and cards are added to books and have to be tracked.  We really love it when we have to bill people for losing those pieces.  We really, really love it when people contest those bills.  Because of that I'm not going to worry if the little cardboard and plastic glasses go missing.

Nothing New. Here Is A Photo.

Photo

The Black Hawk War of 1932 was brief.  In may of 1832 Chief Black Hawk led his tribe of Sac and Fox from Iowa back to Illinois and Wisconsin to the land that was ceded in an 1802 treated.  The U.S. sent troops after the tribe and pursued them across Wisconsin.  A battle at the Wisconsin River in July and a slaughter at the Mississippi River in August of 1832 ended the war.  The band's retreat included passage through present-day Lake Mills.

There are several books about Black Hawk and the war including 2007's Black Hawk: the battle for the heart of America by Kerry Trask.

This marker is in the Northwest corner of Commons Park across the street from the library.  You can see the library in the upper left corner.

2012 Lake Mills High School Homecoming

Photos

I would take more photos but I feel like "creepy, old guy" when standing on the sidewalk with a camera.

Erotic Chaos

Fiction

Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Erotica edited by Maxim Jakubowski. "A selection of 30 outstanding stories from the leading writers of the past 20 years."  That Grey stuff has been checking out so you may as well read this one.  Several years ago I read Jakubowski's novel It's You That I Want to Kiss but I do not remember what it was about..

Brink of Chaos by Tim Lahaye and Craig Parshall.  The flyleaf's plot description is very confusing.  This is part of the The End series featuring character Joshua Jordan.

The Godforsaken Mad Madame of Philadelphia

DVD

Godforsaken starring [Dutch].  Teen boy hooks up with nutjob crook and they go on a killing spree in Hollamd while wearing wooden shoes.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: season 6 starring [people].  Five dirtbags in Philadelphia cause mayhem and drink a lot.  A funny sitcom.  Interesting note:  The character named Dee is often ridiculed by other characters for being ugly or weird looking.  One of her regular tormenters is played by that actress's real-life husband.  I find that humorous.

Murder!

Mad Madame Lalaurie: New Orleans' most famous murderess revealed by Victoria Cosner Love and Lorelei Shannon.  A customer asked me to search the catalog for this one.  No one in our library system owns it but it looked interesting enough for me to purchase.  The charming society matron Lalaurie beat and murdered several slaves.

Must You Critique Author Photos? Yes, I Must.

Fiction

Severe Clear by Stuart Woods.  Stone Barrington does something in an airplane.  Author phot looks to be taken in a restaurant.  Photo is by Harry Benson who HOLY-MOLY! took these Beatles photos!

Low Pressure by Sandra Brown.  A thriller.  Brown's photo completely covers the back cover.  That means she is a Big Deal.  Probably because lots of people enjoy her books.  Author photo by Andrew Eccles.  Go to Eccles's obscurities section for shots of chimpanzees and nudes.  And nude chimpanzees.

Winter of the World by Ken Follett.  "Book Two of the Century Trilogy."  Follett got a haircut.  Remember those 1980s author photos with the bouffant?  A relative of his, Barbara Follett, took his author photo.

Hiss and Hers by M.C. Beaton.  Agatha Raisin.  M.C. Beaton is also a Big Deal, not that you could tell by the tiny black-and-white shot inside the flyleaf.  Heck, the photo does not even receive an author credit.

Large Print

Robert B. Parker's Fool Me Twice by Michael Brandman.  Parker has returned from the grave, inhabited Brandmand, and written a Jesse Stone novel.

Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs. No they are not.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom. Sounds like the title to a John Irving novel.

Severe Clear by Stuart Woods.

Zeltersman Wanted Stardust

Fiction

Monster: a novel of Frankenstein by Dave Zeltersman.  I've read many nice comments about this.  Bill Crider says it is a "whiz bang" version of the tale.

Stardust by Carla Stewart.  Gal in East Texas buries her cheating husband and buys a rundown motel.  Cover is very bright and cheerful which, to me, is incongruous with the neon sign in the background and the title.

A Wanted Man by Lee Child.  Let me guess...Reach is traveling, Reacher meets people, Reacher gets into trouble, Reacher punches people, Reacher finds a Steyr GB, Reacher has sex, Reacher catches the bad guys and hits the bricks, you and I eat up every word.

NonFiction

The Long Walk: A story of war and the life that follows by Brian Castner. Memoir of explosive ordinance disposal guy  in Iraq.  That cover sure looks familiar.

Large Print Extravaganza!

Large Print

Anouk!  Moore!  Butter!  Jenkins!

Seven

One
Argo: how the CIA and Hollywood pulled off the most audacious rescue in history by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio.  Ben Affleck directed the movie so you can probably read the book faster than watch the flick.

Two
Dog Stars by Peter Heller.  The flyleaf says, "riveting, powerful, against all odds, grace, dead, abandoned, misanthrope, sneaks, transmissions, deep, beyond, risking, fuel, narrated, savagely, talking."

Three
Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers.  Soldiers are buddies since basic training and fight insurgents and reality in Iraq. EDIT: someone Googled there way here.  I did the same search and found this author interview of C-SPAN: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/AuthorK

Four
Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis.  The cover illustration says "Amish girl is lonely."

Five
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon.  The flyleaf says, "The great American novel we have been waiting for."  I say, "What nitwit wrote the flyleaf?"

Six
Delusion in Death by JD Robb.  These in death.  Titles in death.  Write in death.  Themselves in death.

Seven
A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry.  William Monk is in charge of the River Police.  I hope this is better than that awful Pittsburgh river cop movie with Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker.

712 Pages of Knitting

NonFiction

The Principles of Knitting: methods and techniques of hand knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt.  The 2012 reprint of the famed knitting tome,  "one of the great knitting references".

Monk at Death's Door

Fiction

Mr. Monk is a Mess by Lee Goldberg.  I was slow on buying this one.  I thought we already owned a copy.  What's the deal with Goldberg on this series?  I cannot recall if he has one or two books left to write.  I also won't bother to find out.

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub.  Some sort of novel.  Girl from Door County becomes Hollywood star in the '20s.  What's the deal with Straub?  Were her parents ever living in Milwaukee when she grew up?  She went to UW for an MFA.  Her short story collection Other People We Married is worth your time.

Time Keeper by Mitch Albom.  Another inspirational story.  What's the deal with Albom?  Are his sports columns as sappy as his books?

Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George.  Girl can hear thoughts and flees from her criminal stepdad to an island in Washington state.  What's the deal with George?  I keep getting her confused with another author named George from Wisconsin.

Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham.  Orphan ends up in Texas Panhandle and makes friends with football stars.  They meet again 40 years later.  What's the deal with Meacham?  Her bio says San Antonion but there is not mention of her favorite Tex-Mex place.

Black List by Brad Thor.  U.S. spy ends up on U.S. death list. What's the deal with Thor?  Does he carry around a hammer or not?

The Tombs by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry.  What the deal with Cussler?  Do his co-authors get to drive any vehicles from Cussler's car collection?

Silver: return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion.  This got great reviews.  Son of Jim Hawkins and daughter of Long John Silver return to Treasure Island for remaining treasure.  What's the deal with Motion?  He was the UK's poet laureate, does that mean he drinks a lot?

Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay.  Housebound schizophrenic thinks he sees a murder in Google Street View.  What's the deal with Barclay?  Was he really at Bouchercon, or did I drink too much free Dewar's?

Zoo by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.  What's with Ledwidge?  He doesn't even get his picture on the dust jacket.

Death's Door by James R. Benn.  Another entry in the great WWII mystery series by Benn.  What's the deal with Benn?  Did he work at a public or academic library?  I do not recall.

Doctor Who: Shada: the lost adventure by Douglas Adams by Gareth Roberts.  What's the deal with Adams?  There is no deal, he's been dead since 2001.

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin.  Big selling book about gal and another gal.  What's the deal with Giffin?  Did she choose the photographer? Because her author photo is excellent.

Bin Laden Barns

NonFiction

No Easy Day: the autobiography of a Navy SEAL by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer.  Sailor who helped kill Bib Laden and now has Pentagon and SOCOM made at him.  Lots of diagrams of the assault.

Barns of Wisconsin by Jerry Apps.  Barns.

Cars and Coffee Concourse

Cars and Coffee Concourse

The local car place, 2 Shores, has hosted a monthly car get together on Sunday mornings.  Locally and regionally owned exotics are driven over.  Sunday, September 2nd was the third super event.  Here are some photos.  More and better photos are at http://www.facebook.com/LakeMillsCarsAndCoffee but these are the library's.

McLaren MP4 12C.  This 2012 model still had temporary registration tags on it.




DeSoto Gas Cap


2005 Ford GT license plate.

Super fancy Mercedes SLS AMG.



Plate from a second Ford GT.

1984 Alpha Romeo GTV-6. A certain nine-year-old fan of BBC's Top Gear told me this probably broke down eight times on the way here.

Photos and Musical Interlude

Photos

ILLs from everywhere.


Donation by Summer Reading Program kids to Lake Mills Food Bank, Jefferson County Humane Society and Lake Mills EMS.

Musical Interlude

The Hives apologize in advance if you lose your socks.

What to Read 48: Dare Me by Megan Abbott

What to Read

Dare Me by Megan Abbott.  New crime novel by Abbott set in suburban New Jersey and narrated by high school junior and cheerleader, Addy.

Wondrous Return of Bill Crider and Charlie Stella

Charlie Stella

Rough Riders by Charlie Stella.  Crook working as FBI informant to bust heroin ring running to North Dakota. Crook teams with an Air Force Colonel to smuggle in dope from Afghanistan.  Ignore Stella's self-deprecation and modesty over his writing skill; he puts out some great novels.

Bill Crider

Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen by Bill Crider.  More murder in Blacklin County. Someone should make a gazetteer of the County and put it online.  I'm not sure if people count the Sheriff Dan Rhodes books count as "cozies" or not.  (A cozy is a murder mystery with barely any blood and little to no cursing and lots of Dr. Pepper.)

Other, Lesser Arrivals

Orchardist by Amanda Copland.  The Pacific Northwest in 1900 and a solitary orchard owner, William, takes in two pregnant teenagers.  This had a big, fancy review so I ordered it.

Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs.  More murder investigation.  I placed a hold on this title for someone yesterday.  This series entry is set in Montreal. I really enjoyed my visit to Montreal.  I've written on here before how after my trip there my wife and I were going to move there.  I was only half-kidding about the move.  I therefore dislike Reichs out of spite.

A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry.  Popular Perry produces piddling pablum.  Well, not really.  I hear Perry writes neat stuff but that alliteration just came to me.

Last to Die by Tess Gerritsen.  Gerritsen seems like a nice lady.  I watched a couple episodes of the TV version of this series.  The automated spelling check does not like Gerritsen's name.

NonFiction

The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House by Edward Klein.  I often skip many political books because so many are flash in the pan and gone in a month.  I've been focusinG on buying more since people like to read them.

Visiting Tom: a man, a highway, and the road to roughneck grace by Michael Perry.  Perry is running out of things to write about with books on pigs, chickens, trucks and neighbors.  Up next is 250 pages on hair dryers.  Perry is an exceptionally good speaker and well worth your time to drive and listen to.  We have a couple of his performances on CD.  Plus his band on CD.

Bartender King's Black Mask

Fiction

Wards of Faeire: Dark Legacy of Shannara by Terry Brooks.  Elves.  Magic.  Swords.

By Starlight by Dorothy Garlock.  Obviously a romance.  Depression era gal runs speakeasy and recently returned love interest unable to tell her that he is a revenuer.

Trickster's Point by William Kent Krueger.  Cork O'Connor is set-up as the murderer of his pal, the future Governor of Minnesota.

BARTENDER'S TALE BY iVAN dOIG.  mY caps LOCK IS ON.

AudioBooks on CD

Last Victim by Karen Robards.  13.6 hours on 11 CDs.  Some psychic criminal pathologist.

Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler.  6.5 hours on 6 CDs.  Crime fiction from the '30s.

Black Mask Stories edited by Otto Penzler.  7 hours on 6 CDs.  More crime fiction from the '30s.  Or '20s. Or whatever.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  19 hours on 15 CDs.  Flynn's other two novels were quite good.

The Stand by Stephen King.  47.83 hours on 37 CDs.  The big dog of post-apocolyptic books.

Renovation News

Summit Credit Union granted $2,500 towards the library's renovation project.




As you can see, Monday was a very yellow day.

All Blackadder, All the Time

DVD

Blackadder: the ultimate edition starring Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie.  All four seasons of Rowan Atkinson's satirical series featuring the Blackadder family over time.  Also includes Baldrick's family tree.


Damages: the complete third season starring Glenn Close, Tate Donovan, Campbell Scott and Martin Short. More legal drama and mean people.


Breaking Bad: the complete fourth season starring Bryan Cranston.  Meth makers maliciously make merry.

November Requiem.  The Carl D. Bradley sunk in Lake Michigan in 1958 and 33 crewmen were killed.  50 years later the ship's bell was recovered and brought to Rogers City where 23 of the dead crewmen were from.



Giant Squid.  Giant squids attack!  See the squid dissected!  Marvel at it's viciously sharp teeth!  See their massive eyes!  Link.

I Am Back From Vacation. Here Are Some Books.

Fiction

Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber.  We drove to central Kansas.

The St. Zita Society by Ruth Rendell.  I mostly stayed in Lindsborg but we did go a few places.  Like the Star Wars display here.

Large Print

Sneaky Pie for President by Rita Mae Brown.  Isn't this cat dead yet?

Last Victim by Karen Robards.   I read a Scott Phillips crime novel, The Adjustment, set in 1946 Wichita while in Kansas.

Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood.  I ate some shaved ice.  The six-year-old took at least 10 minutes to decide on a flavor.  I am not exaggerating on the time.

Back Fire by Catherine Coulter.  My wife and I had some beer at lunch.

Creole Belle by James Lee Burke.  There were five dogs at my in-laws house since my sister-in-law dropped off three of her dogs during their vacation.

Megan Abbott Returns

Fiction

Dare Me by Megan Abbott.  Abbott's latest novel on high school cheerleaders, their new cheer coach, and a suicide has gotten a lot of press.  Dare Me has been plugged by Oprah, several major newspapers, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and prominent writers.  Abbott does good work and now the zeitgeist has attacked!

Politics, Divorce, PTSD, Sean Doolittle

Fiction

Lake Country by Sean Doolittle.  I like the cover.  Guy kidnaps daughter of man who fell sleep while driving and killed Guy's friend.  Kidnapper takes daughter into Minnesota lake country and the kidnapper's buddy goes after him to stop things from getting worse.  I read Doolittle's Safer and liked it.  Barbara Fister really liked this book.

NonFiction

Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce: 4th edition by Emily Doskow. Someone had a divorce related reference question recently.  I checked our resources and noticed we needed to update a few titles.

Cowards: what politicians, radicals, and the media refuse to say by Glenn Beck.  Political commentary. Some people hate him.  Some people love him.  Some people drink coffee and watch Sponge Bob.

Hotels, Hospitals and Jails by Anthony Swofford.  Swofford hit it big with Jarhead, let his life go off the rails, tried to rebuild his relationship with his father.  He did a video promo.

 

Oh, hey, I just ran across this as well which is Swofford reading an excerpt from a visit to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Audio Books on CD

Heartbroken by Lisa Unger.  11 CDs at 13.38 hours.  "Tense, mesmerizing novel about the limits of dysfunctional families, of an island haunted by dark memories and restless ghosts, and of the all-too-real demons we must battle."

Great Escape by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.  12 CDs at 14 hours.  Some gal flees her wedding with a rude guy.

Five Large Print, a German, and a Jance

Large Print

An American Spy by Olen Steinhuaer.  I've heard good thigns about this guy's espionage thrillers but have not yet read one.  I downloaded an audio version The Tourist of but never listened to it.

Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins.  One of those weird photoshop amalgamation covers.  Everything is too in focus with weird blurriness added here and there.  Gal who has $275 million in a divorce settlement buys a town in Kansas, one of the few remaining towns founded by freed slaves.  Reminds me of Nicodemus which I have never been to.

Gossip by Beth Gutcheon.  Something about people in Manhattan.  New York, not Kansas which I have been to many times.

Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray.  How will you know when they get there?

Heft by Liz Moore.  Page 301 says, "Finally I stuff my keys into my pockets and my hands into my pockets as well."

NonFiction

Germany by Joanna Egert-Romanowski.  Travel guide by DK.  Page 232 says," As the centre of the German film industry Munich offers 76 cinemas, the Bavaria Film Studios and a college for film and television."

Fiction

Judgment Call by J.A. Jance.  Mystery novel set in Arid-zona.

Wood Pulp Pressed Very Thin and Inked

Fiction

Friends Forever by Danielle Steel.  Cover has five young kids kids throwing rocks into a lake.  Author photo is huge.  Credits on the flyleaf say the cover photo is a stock image from Iofoto/Shutterstock.

Broken Harbor by Tana French.  You read her other novels, now read this one.  French's author photo has her with short,  red hair, wearing a shawl/scarf and posing outside.

Celtic Conspiracy by Thore D. Hansen.  A customer asked about this.  I found it on Amazon and it had a couple decent reviews so I ordered it.  Finding a MARC record and getting this on the shelf was a chore.

Non Fiction

Guilty by Popular Demand: a true story of small town injustice by Bill Osinski.  I do not remember how I heard about this or why I ordered it.  True crime books circ' fairly well here.  This is about a double murder in Ohio in 1982 Ohio and a man wrongly convicted for the crimes.  The real killers were found in 2008.

CDL: commercial driver's license exam by Matt Mosher.  Author has "450,000 safe-driving miles behind him."  Zoinks.  That is a lot of driving.  I'm surprised this does not come with prep exams on CD-ROM.

Dutch, Danes, Doc, Devil's, Deviousness on DVD

DVD

Armadillo featuring [foreign infantrymen].  Dutch and Danish troops in Afghanistan struggle.


Devil's Teardrop starring Tom Everett Scott and Natasha Henstridge.  Mass killing in D.C. followed by a demand for $20 million or more will be killed.  Handwriting expert and FBI lady follow clues.

[I cannot find a trailer]

Burn Notice: season five starring Bruce Campbell.  Bruce Campbell plays former Navy guyhelping former CIA guy.




True Blood: season four starring [pretty people sucking blood].  I don't know what the heck the plot of this is.



Doc Martin: series 5 starring [British people].  Small town doctor is a jerk.  In a funny way.



Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer's.  Advice.

Executions and Bodies

Fiction

I Am An Executioner: love stories by Rajesh Parameswaran.  This had a nice review.  Nine stories that are "wildly original...riotous" including "the newlywed executioner of the title."

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.  Sequel to the popular novel Wolf Hall.  Thomas Cromwell has to scheme to get Anne Boleyn executed so Henry VIII can try to impregnate someone else.

Large Print

Harbor Nocturne by Joseph Wambaugh.  More comic crime from set in Los Angeles.

Rescue Me by Rachel Gibson.  Cover photo has girl in pink sun dress and cowboy boots standing between train tracks and holding a large, old, bluer suitcase.  Her head is cropped out.  Flyleaf says, "unmarried...stuffed...bridesmaid...dental...Lovett, Texas...hard-muscled...stranger...SEAL...small town..."

Soldier's Wife by Joanna Trollope.  British Army Major adjusts to life at home after Afghanistan.

Conspiracy of Friends by Alexander McCall Smith.  Small dog on the cover.

Big Sky Country by Linda Lael Miller.  Cover has a guy wearing a cowboy hat, his head lowered, as the rubs a horse's nose.  Mountains, trees, stream are photoshopped into the background.

Yes, Running Red Leopard has Wicked Feast on a Grey Night

Audio Books on CD 

98 Discs at 119.1 hours.

Yes, Chef: a memoir by Marcus Samuelsson.  10 CD at 11.6 hours.  Born in Ethiopia, raised by Swedes, cooking across Europe, opens a restaurant in Harlem.  I would have sworn some librarian in Madison recommended this one.  Oh, wait, now I remember.  It was here.

Running With the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn.  7 CDs at 8 hours.  Guy who always liked running decides to see how "far his talents could take him" and trains in Kenya.  I am not personally interested in this but the narrator is John Lee and always does a real good job.

Red House by Mark Haddon.  8 CDs at 9.6 hours.  Estranged siblings spend a week together in the English countryside with all their kids. 

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich.  5 CDs at 6 hours.  Pastry chef hunts for ancient relic.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.  16 CDs at 19.8 hours.  Popular romance novel.

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.  27 CDs at 33.8 hours.  Fourth book in the series.

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo.  17 CDs at 21.3 hours.  Double murder in Oslo and Harry Hole is on the case.

Little Night by Luanne Rice. 8 CDs at 9 hours.  Clare went to prison when she defended her sister against her husband and her sister lied and said it was an assault.  20 years later Clare's niece shows up.

Eight Novels w/ Conspiracy, Witches, Dave Robicheaux

Fiction

Creole Belle by James Lee Burke.  I'm guessing Dave Robicheaux has some killing to solve, a family mystery twitching his memory, a boat rental shed to clean, a .45 to carry, and lots of driving to New Orleans and back.

The Yard by Alex Grecian.  "Gerard?" "What?"  "Why did you order this one?" "I do not recall.  I'm pretty sure it had a good review and is something to do with an insane asylum."

Close Your Eyes by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen.  Roy is the kid and according to the flyleaf bio was awarded and Edgar.  An Edgar award is a big deal.

Getaway by Lisa Brackman.  Nice cover.  Gal on vacation with Mexico has sex with a dude and she gets dragged into "covert operations involving drug runners, goons, and venture capitalists."  She should have used protection.

Advent by James Treadwell.  Cover has a crow, flying mermaids, a big and old church and lots of blue.

A Bad Day for Mercy by Sophie Littlefield.  Littlefield left some comment on Scott Phillips (St. Louis version) blog a few days ago.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.  Sequel to a popular book.  Author photo is black and white.

Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway.  Clock repairman triggers a "1950s doomsday machine".  Trouble and conspiracy ensue over 478 deckled pages

New Books With an Update on Repairs and a Lesson in Motivational Leadership

Motivational Leadership



Fiction From Famous Authors

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner.  That's right.  Weiner.

Criminal by Karen Slaughter.  A continuation of stupid covers for Slaughter books.

I, Michael Bennett by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.  I have no interest.  Patterson took his author photo at 12:52.

Back Fire by Catherine Coulter.  Some sort of thriller.  Coulter took her author photo at 2:25.

Night Watch by Linda Fairstein.  Fairstein is wearing a ring with a green stone for the author photo.  Looks like she took her author photo at 5:30.