World Atlas of Roman Carpet

Carpet

New carpeting being installed today on the main floor.






NonFiction

World Atlas of Musical Instruments by Bozhidar Abrashev and Vladimir Gadjev.  We had an older, similar book that was kinda dingy with black and white photos.  This one is new with great color photos.

Fiction (Release date for tomorrow, March 26th)

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear.maisie Dobbs investigates the death of an Indian woman in 1933 London.

Killer Honeymoon by G.A. McKevett.  Now that plus-sized P.I. Savannah Reid has finally walked down the aisle, she's ready for aromantic island getaway with new husband Dirk Coulter...but finding a dead body on the beach can be a real killjoy.

Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. I read some references to this recently, maybe in the Sunday newspaper.  Speaking of the newspaper, the delivery person for the Madison paper seems incapable of getting the paper onto the porch.  The paper usually lands in the snowy yard or on the snow and up against the far side of the porch.

Death of Yesterday by M.C. Beaton.  Cover painting has a bicycle on the side of a rural road.  Maybe the newspaper carrier in this novel ditched his bike to go fishing on the background stream.

Let the Dead Sleep by Heather Graham.  Some sort of mystery or something.  Maybe I would know what the novel is about because maybe a review was in the Sunday paper.  But, since I did not want to traipse across the snow for the paper before church yesterday morning, and was busy the rest of the day, I did not find out. 

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.  A brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world [or newspaper delivery] that seems to be falling apart around him.

DVD

Roman Holiday starring Gregory OPeck and Audrey Hepburn.  Peck and Hepburn tool around Rome on a scooter stopping to drink espresso and complain about newspaper delivery back home.

A New Kind of Love starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.  Romantic comedy.

Is Laukkanen A Finnish Name?

It Looks Finnish With All the K's and N's and a U

Criminal Enterprise by Owen Laukkanen.  The cover stinks.  I usually ignore all cover jacket blurbs except this has one by Kirkus.  Kirkus is stingy about giving good reviews but had this, "Fans of crime thrillers shouldn’t miss this one or anything else with Laukkanen’s name on the cover. The writing is so crisp, the pages almost want to turn themselves. He’s a terrific storyteller."

I Saw The Movie

The Looking Glass War by Jon Le Carre.  8 CDs at 9 hours.  1965 and a novice spy is sent into the Eastern Bloc to find missiles.  The flick was released in 1969 and was pretty decent.  I cannot recall if I watched the flick on video or TV.  There is a scene in the film where the lackadaisical spy is being pushed by Anthony Hopkins's character to take things seriously.  Hopkins starts a fistfight with the spy get the guy to defend himself and escape.

Three in One

Eclipse Bay Collection: Eclipse Bay, Dawn in Eclipse Bay, Summer in Eclipse Bay by Jayne Ann Krentz. 15 CDs at 18 hours. This will check out.

Fiction

Six Years by Harlan Coben.  Looks like Harlan Coben made sure to shave his head the morning of his author photo.

Family Pictures by Jane Green.  Stay on your digital camera forever and never seem to get uploaded.

You & I, Me & You by Mary Janice Davidson.  I did not want to use those ampersands in the title but I did anyway.  I am very adventurous.

Photos

Renovation



Lights are being shifted




New door frame for door to conceal the bookdrop and tool supply area. The new door will have an etched glass window to let in light.  I think.  The door window will be something translucent.




Railings by front door were sanded down and glue applied for new tops.




New tops getting installed on railings.




Tops are on, joined, and sanded smooth.




The painters have continued down the stairwell and into the lower level.

Photo Version

Large Print




Fiction




Audiobook on CD

Renovation: New Carpeting

New Carpeting

We are getting carpet squares for easy replacement of spills and stains.


Old stairway.


Boxes of carpet squares.


Old stairway.


Installation in Library Hall.


Rolled carpet is for the stairs and landings.


Regular stairway.

Stuff. Nonsense. No Relation.

Ugh.  More Large Print.  Let's get through this quickly.

BridegroomWore Plaid by Grace Burrowes. Agenda 21 by Glenn Beck with Harriet Parke. A Time For War by Michael Savage.  Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown.  Finding Home by Lois Greiman.  Out of Warranty by Haywood Smith.  The Importance of Being Wicked by Victoria Alexander.  Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. Love Is A Canoe by Ben Schrank.  Truth In Advertising by John Kenney.

Audiobooks on CD

Vatican Diaries by John Thavis.  10 CDs at 13 hours.  Journalist who worked 25 years in Vatican writes book about the Vatican and Vatican daily life, Vatican scandals, Vatican history and tradition, Vatican personalities, and various Vaticaneers.  Vatican Vatican Vatican.

Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor (no relation).  7 CDs at 8 hours.  Saylor's (no relation) mystery novels set in Ancient Rome are always very good.  Saylor's (no relation) main character, Gordianus, is a hired troubleshooter, an ancient P.I.  Gordianus works for the snobby and wealthy patrician families and Saylor (no relation) often has Gordianus travel to different part so Italy and the Roman Empire while including real-life Roman figures into the plot.  (no relation).

Alone on the Ice: the greatest survival story in the history of exploration by David Roberts.  10 CDs at 111.5 hours.  In 1913 the greatest Douglas Mawson in history was a member of an Antarctic Exploration team.  Mawson's greatest dog team in history fell into a crevasse and left Mawson dangling by the greatest sledge harness in history.  On his crawl back to camp Mawson realized the greatest soles in the history of feet had "detached from the flesh beneath.

Cesar Milan's Short Guide to a Happy Dog by Ceasr Milan. 5 CDs at 5.5 hours.  98 short and happy lessons.  I don't know if this audio title is narrated at a whisper.

Food, Firearms, Fiction

NonFiction

Gun Guys: a road trip by Dan Baum.

• Flyleaf version:  Dan Baum is both a lifelong gun guy and a Jewish Democrat who grew up in suburban New Jersey feeling like a "child of a bitter divorce with allegiance to both parents."  In Gun Guys he grabs his licensed concealed-carry handgun and hits the road to meet some of the 40 percent of Americans who own guns.

• Short version:  Gun nerd takes a drive.

• Gerard version: Who the heck writes a nonfiction book and doesn't include any photos?  He makes up for that absence with good notes, bib., and index.

Audiobooks on CD

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang.  7 CDs at 8 hours.  Immigrant kid in Florida "obsessed over football, fought all-American boys who called him a chink, partied like a gremlin, and sold drugs with his crew" then opened a restaurant in New York City and wrote a book called Fresh Off the Boat.

The Heavy by Dara-Lynn Weiss.  7 CDs at 7.816 hours.  Weiss's seven-year-old daughter is obese.  Weiss has "her own food and body issues."  Weiss and daughter work to improve.  Weiss has to constantly spell out her hyphenated first name to everyone.

Slim For Life by Jillian Michaels.  7 CDs at 7.8 hours.  TV woman writes book.  TV Woman reads book out loud into microphone.  Fancy computer gadgets encode that recording onto thin plastic discs.  Those discs are packaged and sold.  LD Fargo Public Library buys a package of those discs.  LD Fargo Library advertises the availability of those discs.

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy. 9 CDs at 10.966 hours.  I've been reading a 1982 James Bond novel by John Gardner, Icebreaker.  Icebreaker is set in Northern Finland during winter.  I was in Finland in the summer of 1989.

Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse by Robert Knott.  6 CDs at 7.366 hours.  Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are hired to guard a train with Mexican prisoners.  Robbers arrive.

Four Books

Fiction

Children of Kings by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross.  Science fiction.

House Girl by Tara Conklin.  I think I once tied reading House Gun by Nadine Gordimer.  That novel has a group of guys living together in South Africa.  The protagonist's of the novel are dismayed when their son is accused of murder by using the "house gun" (kept for home defense) on someone.  Dang, that came out in 1998.

House Girl is a dual story of 1852 slavery and a 2004 lawyer who tries to find a descendant. 

Gotcha! by Fern Michaels.  What a lousy cover.  A photo of red autumn leaves and what seems to be a porch out-of-focus in the background.  Heck, the title is small print and stuck in the lower right corner.

The Striker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott.  This is a typical Cussler cover with A BIG FIERY EXPLOSION.  The co-author's name is printed in much, much smaller type.

Xtreme Berlin Training Thrones

DVD

Berlin 36 starring [Germans].  Fosbury flop free Jewish high jumper is harassed and harried by dirty, rotten, stinking, filfthy nazis to try and get her off the German Olympic team.



Game of Thrones: the complete second season starring The Great and Mighty Peter Dinklage and naked women (or so I've heard).  Sneakiness and secrecy seal sword swinging associates.



Personal Training with Jackie: power circuit training starring [someone named Jackie].  Five different workouts.



Personal Training with Jackie: crunch-free xtreme abs starring [that same Jackie lady].  Standing and floor routines.

Renovation Photos

Renovation Photos

Some updates.

Framing, HVAC, water line, electrical, and sewer line in new lower level toilet room. Doorway  is to the right.


Water and sewer for new sink.


Drywall torn out for new camera wiring in lower level.


Bathroom drywall is done.


Some of the pendant lights in the reading room are being moved.


Paint is here and ready.

Milwaukee Music, Swedish Serbs, South Dakota Sniper

Milwaukee Music 

Power Ballads by Will Boast.  I read this book and enjoyed it.  Only one or two stories are actually set in Milwaukee.  Short stories that revolve around a professional drummer in Chicago.  The drummer loves jazz music but makes money by playing in various bands and playing on a big name tour.  A neat look at working musicians.

Swedish Serbs

Easy Money by Jens Lapidus.  One of the few members of the Nordic crime wave I have read.  Well, listened to.  I heard the audio version of this Stockholm crime drama and enjoyed it.  A business student rises in the drug trade while ostensibly searching for his missing sister.  A native Serbian is stuck in middle management of a Stockholm crime ring and does not mind the brutality.  An Argentinian convicted for drug trafficking escapes prison with an eye for revenge. 

South Dakota Sniper

Merciless by Lori Armstrong.  Former Army sniper Mercy Gunderson is a newly hired FBI Special Agent assigned to Rapid City.  Her job is boring and disappointing.  I have not read this book but did enjoy talking with Lori Armstrong at Bouchercon in St. Louis.

Others

Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns.  Small town Rhode Island is newly haunted by supernatural or mysterious events.  I read a good review.  I think.

Shadow and the Crown by Patricia Bracewell.  The cover image says Female protagonist in swords and knights romance.  The flyleaf says Yeah, that guess is about right.

Robert's Rules of Order: newly revised: 11th edition by Henry M. Robert III.  We needed a new one. 

Wny Did I Order This?

Why Did I Order This?

Scaling Force: dynamic decision-making under threat of violence by Rory Miller and Lawrence A. Kane.  Why did I order this?  I'm sure I took someone's online recommendation but I cannot recall where.  Maybe from that comic strip's (Unshelved) weekly recommendations.  Let me see.  Yeah, they did. 

Anyway, the authors list six levels of force from presence to lethal.  This looks pretty good.


Large Print
  
The Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter.  Bob Lee Swagger solves the assassination of President Kennedy.

Magnificence by Lydia Millet.  The fly leaf says a widow inherits a mansion with stuffed animals and meets "uniquely damaged humans".  Let's lay on some thick sarcasm and say, "Oh, what an original idea.  A widow moves and meets wacky people and they all heal each other."

Fiction

Crystal Cove by Lisa Kleypas.  One of our romance paperbacks written by Kleypas has gone out 42 times.

I've Actually Read Three of These Authors

Ones I've Read

Benediction by Kent Haruf.  He writes tales of rural life, old rancher dudes, and families with generational gaps.  This novel has a guy with terminal cancer, a new pastor in town, and other stuff.  The book is probably worth your time.

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks.  I read Faulks's Birdsong and liked it.  Birdsong was a World War One tale and well done.  I have the movie version at home on DVD but that thing is three hours long and I'm not sure I want to tackle it.

Suspect by Robert Crais.  Crais writes good thrillers and is best know for his series characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.  This is the PTSD one with a PTSD Police Officer and a PTSD Army dog teaming up to fight PTSD and bad guys.  I wonder if the dog dies in the end.

I've Never Read These People

Calculated in Death by J.D. Robb.  Does Nora Roberts farm these out to ghost writers?  Maybe she collaborates with ghost writers.  I write this because she really cranks them out.

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.  Picoult has curly hair.

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow.  I have a theory that Stabenow's whole career exists as a way to write off her trips to Alaska and all the National Parks as business expenses.

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke.  Ugh.  Red velvet birthday cake.  That's what I got every year at school.  My mother would order one for me from through the Gustavus Adolphus cafeteria.  Not that the cake was bad but it's not to my taste.  Each year I'd eat some and put it in my dorm room mini-fridge where the cake would dry out.  I'd cut off the dried bit and eat the inside and finally throw away the husk.

The Unofficial Guide: Disneyland 2013 by Bob Sehlinger, Seth Kubersky and Len Testa.  Once again they neglected to hire Victor Gischler for this series.

Be Saddened, Cheer Up, Go For A Walk

Be Saddened

Kill Anything That Moves: the real American war in Vietnam by Nick Turse.  Policies set at the top of the chain of command resulted in widespread killings and murders of noncombatants on the ground.  Including children.

Cheer Up

Monty Python's Flying Circus: all the bits: complete and annotated annotations by Luke Dempsey.  Script of each television episode with annotations and screenshots.  880 pages of very heavy paper meaning this book will start to fall apart after 2-3 checkouts.

• "Accident Black Spot" is a regular sign on British roads.
• Richie Benaud, former Australian cricketer, was a longstanding Australian cricket commentator in the U.K. and around the cricketing world.
• The lawn mowers are both called "Betta-Cutta."
• Tooting is about 12 miles east of Hounslow.
• "My brain hurts" is a phrase still heard regularly in the U.K., and all because of this sketch.
• British people enjoy criticizing the French whenever possible, and one of the chief knocks is to question their personal hygiene.
• Yes. Yes. Yes. (a maniacal look in his eyes) Yes, yes Mr Phipps. I love seeing the customers when they come in to complain about some book being damaged, and ask to see the chief librarian and then...you should see their faces when the proud beast leaps from his tiny office, snatches the book from their hands and sinks his fangs into their soft er...(collects himself) Mr Phipps...Kong! You can be our next librarian - you're proud majestic and fierce enough...will you do it?

Garfield Fat Cat 3-Pack: volume 16 by Jim Davis.  Elementary school kids love these Garfield volumes.  I know two kids who quote these comics.  I know two kids where one pretends to be Garfield and the other pretends to be Odie and the 'Garfield" yells at the 'Odie'.  I know two kids who pretend to be cats and try to purr.  I know two kids who get yelled at to "stop that and get out of here!"

Go For A Walk

Ice Age Trail Atlas by the Ice Age Trail Alliance.  "105 detailed color hiking maps".  This is a reference copy.  Do Not Steal The Maps!  We have a photocopy machine you jackape.

First Poetry Postcards of the Ice Age Trail

Large Print

First Prophet by Kay Hooper. FBI psychics solve crime with psychic powers and predict what's on TV tonight.

Postcards from Cedar Key by Terri DuLong.  A chocolatier knits the wool from her pet alpacas.  Chocolatier reads mom's dead papers.  Chocolatier meets English guy. 

The Lawgiver by Herman Wouk.  Something about Moses.  The description on the back cover is confusing.

NonFiction

Ice Age Trail Companion Guide 2011 by Ice Age Trail Alliance.  Guide to the 1,000 mile trail that winds around Wisconsin.  We also bought a map binder that will go into reference. 

Library's Least Popular YouTube Video

The least popular YouTube video the library has done with only 16 views.  We have both of Kraushaar's poetry collections.  I think poetry is often best when read aloud.  But, a reader's interpretation, or misinterpretation, can vary so greatly from the author's intent. So, I asked Mark to share a reading with both of us reading the same poems.

Lansdale Novella, Football, Spying On Hippies, Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

Fiction

Dead Aim by Joe R. Lansdale.  Lansdale is a Facebook posting maniac.  He recently commentd that Amazon sold out on this new novella featuring a young Hap and Leonard.  Hap and Leonard agree to guard a woman going through a divorce.  Things go badly because everything Hap and Leonard do goes badly.  Except screwing up and having bad luck.  Hap and Leonard are great at screwing up and having bad luck.

Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson Literary Industries Amalgamated.  Huh, look a that.  Patterson is listed as the sole author.

NonFiction

Subversive: the FBI's war on student radicals and Reagan's rise to power by Seth Rosenfeld.  250,000 of FBI documents showing "surveillance, illegal breakins, infiltration, planted news stories, poison-pen letters, and secret detention lists" aimed at groups in Berkeley, CA.

How the SEC Became Goliath: the making of college football's most dominant conference by Ray Glier.  Short version: the SEC spends tons of dough on recruiting and coaching and facilities and other conferences are jealous.  I'll withhold commentary seeing as how the Big 10 lets anyone with a pulse join.  The Big 10 just hasn't been the same since the University of Chicago dropped out.

Gods of Mischief: my undercover vendetta to take down the Vagos outlaw motorcycle gang by George Row.  Guy in California desert town goes undercover for three years.  Guy then goes into witness protection.

Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel.  Underwater photos of dogs jumping into water after tennis balls.  No greyhounds.

New Items by Old Authors

You've Heard of Them

A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy.  A painting for the cover.  Binchy died in July of 2012.  No information in the book is she wrote all of this, part of this, or if her name is now a corporate moniker.  I took three tries to type moniker without a keystroke error.  Monkier is a good word though.

Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner.  Gardener is not dead.  She has a well done author photo.  The photo looks to edited with everything around her lit face blacked out.  An appropriately dramatic presentation for a thriler novel.

Guilt by Jonathan Kellerman.  Kellerman has a beard in his author photo.  His photo follows the same style as Gardner's with Kellerman wearing black and having a dark grey, mottled background behind him.  Maybe this is the new style.

Deadly Stakes by J.A. Jance.  One of those AZ desert based novels rather than a Northwest US based novels.  Jance lives by Tucson.  Forgotten Weapons posted a match video from north of Tucson.

Hit Me by Lawrence Block.  Block's photo looks new also.  His is bright and cheery though.  I suppose that fits with this bright and cheery series of a paid killer.  I'm not sure if I read the novel preceding this one or not.  The Baker and Taylor slip of paper in this book says the whole shipment was processed with pride by Judith Trail.

You've Never Heard of Him

Bark River Chronicles: stories from a Wisconsin watershed by Milton J. Bates.  the Bark River begins northwest of Milwaukee and empties into Lake Koshkonong by Fort Atkinson.  Milton details his many canoeing trips along the river.  Amy Lutzke at Dwight Foster PL in Fort is listed in the acknowledgments.  Milton writes "this is not a guidebook."

Large Print

Vintage Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.  What the heck does that mean?

The Road to Cardinal Valley by Earlene Fowler.  It means I am a robot.

Invisible Murder by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnette Friis.  A Danish robot.

Photo Update

Renovation Update

This morning the concrete floor for the lower level's new toilet was cut for plumbing.  I was not in the building this morning so I did not hear the noise or breath the dust.

Tomorrow I haul off the old shelving.  I had to cancel this task last Friday because of the snow storm.

Photos

The layout had to change to allow access to the water meter (located by the dark vertical pipe in the center left of the photo).




The pipes in the upper right of this photo have to be rerouted up and over the new room's ceiling.

Nothing New, Musical Interlude

Nothing New

We did get Joe R. Lansdale's most recent book in today's mail but it is not yet ready for your hands.

No Renovation News

The contractor starts tearing up concrete tomorrow.  I will take photos.

Musical Interlude

Welshman Sweet Baboo pretends to be a cat.  I do not know if his real name is Linus.

More Photos

Photos

That kid looks familiar.  Did he do work here before?




Temporary Layout




New Toilet Location in Lower Level

Another Renovation Update

Update

Today's first moving day went extremely well.  Almost everything is done.  We'll still be closed Thursday to get everything squared away and cleaned up.  We re-open on Friday and will continue with normal operating hours.

Photos











Relevant Musical Interlude

We will be recycling a lot of substandard metal shelving.  (The thin gauge metal is not that heavy.)

Quarterly Danille Steel Release

Fiction

Until the End of the World by Danielle Steel.  Lawyer lives Manhattan to be a minister in Wyoming.

Musical Interlude(s)

Tales From Turnpike House was released by Saint Etienne in 2006.  I really enjoyed this when first listening a few years ago.  A concept album - not that it matters - about residents in a London apartment building.  The album contains lighter tunes like this one:




, dancey tunes like this:




, and a louder one like this:

Renovation Update

Renovation Update

Lower level demolition for the new restroom begins Feb 7th.

Library Closed Feb 6 and 7 for Start of Renovation

Library Closed

Feb 6 and 7 we are closed.  The renovation begins with moving out lots of books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, chairs, so on, so forth.  To do this we have to close on February 6 and 7.

The front door will be blocked to the public during all of Phase One of the renovation project.  Phase One will last about 6 weeks.  East side door and back door will still be open for you, the public.


Volunteering

Yes, you can help move us in the move on Feb 6 and 7.  Call me at 648-2166 (excluding Dunedin and that guy in St. Paul) to volunteer.

Other News

I have no other news of note

Musical Interlude

I just ran across the Jim White CD with this song. I have this from when I paid more attention to alternative and traditional country music.

Further Commentary

DVD

The Simpsons: the fourteenth season starring voices [not in your head].  I stopped watching a few years ago.  I don't even watch reruns all the way through.

Fiction

Suspect by Robert Crais.  New characters.  PTSD patrolman and PTSD Army dog are partnered.  Robert Crais's author photo does not include one of those ugly Hawaiian shirts.

Private Berlin by Patterson Literary Production, Amalgamated.  Some novel about something that happens to someone in some place.

NonFiction

Naked Statistics: stripping the dead from the data by Charles Wheelan.  No photos.  A handful of charts.  Author photo includes some dog chewing on a stick.  The dog is intently looking off camera at whoever is trying to get him to stay still as the shutter opens.

I just looked this guy up to find more dog photos.  No dog photos.  Wheelan teaches at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.  I got married in New Hampshire.  Or, maybe Vermont.  I'm not sure which is which.  Residents of Vermont and New Hampshire like to pretend there is a difference between the two but they're wrong.

AC/DC: high voltage rock'n'roll: the ultimate history by Phil Sutcliffe.

Morrisey on Tour.  I was thinking of attending one of his shows but don't know it I will or not.  I need to decide soon.  I thought about driving to Clear Lake, IA for that show but need to decide quick since it is February 5th.




Or, maybe not.

Multiple Choice Question

Multiple choice question. 


Why is the Library Director happy?




A. Wearing a sweater negates ironing his shirt.
B. His hair is sticking up less than normal.
C. The City Council accepted the general contracting bid by Advanced Building Corporation for the library's interior renovation.
D. His sweater makes him look like Count Dracula vacationing on the Dalmatian Coast.

Answer: All of the above.

More. Less.

It's All the Same

NonFiction

Hell-Bent: obsession, pain, and the search for something like transcendence in competitive yoga by Benjamin Lorr.




Read My Lips: a complete guide to the vagina and vulva by Debby Herbenick and Vanessa Schick.  I looked for an author interview and the only things I found were Herbenick talking about other stuff besides the book.




Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Fictionalized bio.  Why doesn't someone write a bio of me?  I'm mostly fictional.

Third Bullet by Stephen Hunter.




AudioBook on CD

Shadow Woman by Linda Howard.8 CDs at 10 hours.



Two For Texas by James Lee Burke.  5 CDs at 5.5 hours.



DVD

Hit and Run starring Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard, Tom Arnold.  Max Allan Collins says:

HIT AND RUN is a great crime comedy melodrama that stars Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell (wasted on Showtime’s unpleasant HOUSE OF LIES) opposite her significant other, Dax Shepard, who also wrote and co-directed. Shepard, besides being the lucky bastard who gets to live with Kristen Bell (I say this as the lucky bastard who gets to live with the former Barbie Mull), is mostly known for playing villains in film comedies like EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH as well as holding down one of the leads on the TV series, PARENTHOOD. This is the kind of movie I used to see all the time in the ‘70s – quirky, walking the line between comedy and drama, with sharp, natural dialogue, lots of interesting characters, plus plenty of action (it’s a car chase movie). I’m also reminded of Don Westlake’s ‘60s and ‘70s comedy novels. You want to know how good this movie is? Tom Arnold is hilarious in it. So, in a much different way, are Bradley Cooper and Beau Bridges. It is in times in wonderfully poor taste, but in a much smarter way than most bad taste movies – including gags involving prison rape and racial stereotyping. It’s also a tender love story. I haven’t checked Rotten Tomatoes, but I bet at least half the critics hate this. Don’t listen to them.

"Where does all this large print come from?"

"No one knows.  No one."

Threat Vector by Tom Clancy.  International intrigue and violence.

Dream Eyes by Jayne Ann Krentz.  Same as the regular print but with larger letters.

Incognito by Gregory Murphy.  I just bent over the corner of my calendar and now it will not lie flat.

Collateral Damage by Stuart Woods.  I've been reading Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale.  I stayed up too late reading the book.

Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton.  The Lansdale book is from about eight years ago and dedicated to his daughter.

Shadow Woman by Linda Howard.  His daughter has her own career and work but helps her dad out.  Lansdale found some copies of his novels and was posting them for sale on Facebook.  I bought a couple for Christmas presents and his daughter handles those orders.

Nano by Robin Cook.  The books have not arrived yet.  But, Lansdale's daughter sent an email yesterday asking if the books were delivered and she seems to be on it.  I have this image of Lansdale finding some dusty box full of Devil Red in his garage and thinking, "Where did these come from?"

Facebook by Speaking Of.  Lansdale posts a lot on Facebook.  His topics are writing related but when does he actually write?  Let alone kung the fu?

Computers, Combat, Ken, Crazies, Kennedy

Computers

Windows 8 for the Older and Wiser by Adrian Arnold and Richard Millett.  Computers.

Windows 8 Bible: the comprehensive tutorial resource by Jim Boyce and Rob Tidrow.  Are.

Quickbooks 2013 by Thomas Barich.   Stupid.

Combat

The Generals: American military command from World War II to today by Thomas E. Ricks.  Changes in command and responsibility over the past 70 years.  From common firings in WWII to command whitewashing of Vietnam to command of today.  Command.

Pacific Time on Target: memoirs of a Marine artillery officer, 1943-1945 by Christopher S. Donner.  This is what happens when the Library Director reads catalogs from Kent State University Press.

Viper Pilot: a memoir of air combat by Dan Hampton.  A review said that flying descriptions were gripping.  I just noticed that the author is a Texas A&M graduate.  I congratulate Hampton on exceeding his Aggie peers and learning how to read.  (giggle). 
- What's the best selling underarm deodorant in College Station?  Raid.
- There was an Aggie who wore the same pair of socks every day.  His mother finally told him to put on a new pair of socks on every day.  A few days later, he couldn't put his shoes on.
- My cousin Andrew said his dorm was infested with roaches.  He told me he sprayed bug killer into his clock radio and took the cover off to find a dozen or so roaches in there.  That grossed out the middle-school-aged me.

Ken

Because I Said So!: the truth behind the myths, tales & warnings every generation passes down to its kids by Ken Jennings.  Don't chew you ice, it's bad for your teeth.  If you touch that baby bird, it's mommy will abandon it.  Never run the microwave empty.

Crazies
Brooklyn Zoo: the education of a psychotherapist by Darcy Lockman.  I read a promo, thenI  read a review, then ordered it.  Psychologist in training at a understaffed and overfilled public institution.

Kennedy

The Patriarch: the remarkable life and turbulent times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. BookTV coverage.

The Rest

Prescription for Herbal Healing, 2nd Edition by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC.  You know what the library does not have?  An acronym dictionary.  I much prefer that over using the stupid internet.

Tap dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on practically everything, 1966-2012 by Warren Buffett.

Why Yes, I Do Agree That Robin Zander Is A Vocal Genius

Zander

Downed


Fiction

Collateral Damage by Stuart Woods.  New Mexico lawyer Stone Barrington rights wrongs and circ's mightily.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier.  The cover reminds me of Rikki Tikki Tavi.

Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton.  Short stories of a private detective with a VW.

1356 by Bernard Cornwell.  Cornwell continues creating corpses of killed continental creeps.  [Dead French.]

Dream Eyes by Jayne Ann Krentz.  Jayne Ann Krentz and Amanda Quick should use different author photos.

Picture Books for Adults and Lots of Exercises

Picture Books

Bottoms Up: a toast to Wisconsin's historic bars and breweries by Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz with photographs by Mark Fay.  Beer and brandy.



I heard this story by a guy who toured the winery that distills either Christian Brothers or E&J brandy.  The guy telling me the story told a winery worker he was from Wisconsin.  The winery worker pointed to the three loading bays serving the brandy warehouse and said, "Those are three bays serve the United States.  Everything from that one (as he pointed to one of the three) ships only to Wisconsin."

Prom by Mary Ellen Mark.  I read review.  The review said this photography book of prom photos was interesting.  It is.

Star War the Old Republic Encyclopedia: the definitive guide to the epic conflict by Ian Ryan. My house is filled with so many Star Wars LEGO sets.

Home Herbal: cook, brew and blend your own herbs edited by Susannah Steel.  "Strawberry and macadamie smoothie...acts as a male reproductive tonic."

The Holmes Inspection: the essential guide for every homeowner, buyer and seller by Mike Holmes.   "Everything about this little basement bathroom is wrong."

DVD

Jillian Michael's Killer Buns and Thighs with Jillian Michaels.  Jillian Michaels can kill you with her thighs I guess.

Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 with Jillian Michaels.  If you take 30 minutes to rip something you should just use a knife.

Jilliam Michaels Killer Abs by Jillian Michaels.  Jillian Michaels's abs are on death row in Louisiana.

Ultimate Kettlebell for Beginners by Paul Katami.



Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey, Gina Gershon.  Texas police detective is also a hired killer.  He takes partial payment for a murder in the form of his client's sister.

Large Print Avalanche is Imminent

Large Print

The Child's Child by Barbara Vine.  AKA grandchild.

Goldberg Variations by Susan Issaacs.  Glenn Gould content unknown.

After the Rain by Karen White.  Your shoes may get muddy.

A Wish and a Prayer by Beverly Jenkins.  AKA No planning.

Don't Say A Word by Beverly Barton. A Word.

The Rancher by Diana Palmer.  And the farmer can be friends.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. Vacation in Lebanon, KS.

Fox Tracks by Rita Mae Brown. From all the running.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller.  Lassie?  Pete the Pup?  Hooch?

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu.  Of smarmy blog entries.

Do You Enjoy Books? How About Music?

Books You May Enjoy

Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.  Quick name some husband-wife writing teams.  Muller- Pronzini!  Max Allan Collins-Barbara Collins!  Those are the only two I can think of.

Husband List by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly.  Looks like a romance.  Set in 1894.  I hear Halen Van was popular that year.

Blood Money by James Grippando.  Florida attorney takes murder case with massive media exposure.  The accused (Casey Anthony stand-in )is assaulted upon acquittal and the same attorney is asked to look into things.

Music on CD You May Enjoy

Master Works for Strings by Douglas Lilburn. String musicians play string music.  I enjoy another CD of Lilburn's work.  I don't recall how I ran across the CD but here is a piece from there with photos of Middle-earth.

Music and Video

Melodic Noise Is Digitized and Distributed in Physical Form

Come Home to Mama by Martha Wainwright.  Note to listeners: do not become pals with Martha Wainwright and anger her.  Link to review.  (Embedded song by Wainwright includes standard Wainwright vocabulary, so do not play where a singer singing profanity is frowned upon.  I have headphones on.)

Warrior by Kei$ha. Approved by Megan Abbott.  I think Abbott likes the aggressive persona. That is a guess because I do not actually know Abbott.

Yes, the actual spelling is Ke$sha.  But AllMusic.com has some impressive comments: Taste never enters into Ke$ha's equation: she's gleefully vulgar embracing the magic in a dude's pants, copping a rapper's growl, tossing out profanity, encouraging the shock and awe of any listener with a lick of sense. Ke$ha may play dumb but she isn't stupid: she knows a good hook, whether it's in the rhythm, chorus, lyric, or melody, she knows how far to take it to the edge, knows how to be tacky without being gross.  Here is a profane song singing duet with Iggy.



Good Kid, M.A.AD. City: a short film by Kendrick Lamar.  I have no idea what this is, I ordered off a catalog listing of bestsellers.  Here, lets check the YouTube...seems to be rapping.  Continuing the cursing theme is a rapper singing a rap song.

The Aftermath: ascension by Coheed and Cambria.  Heavy metal by heavy metal singers singing heavy metal songs.  The other CD the library owns, Year of the Black Rainbow, has checked out very well.  Find one of their songs by yourself.

DVD

Lawless starring Shia LeBouf, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain.  How do Australians pronounce "Guy"?  Bootleggers get in gunfights and talk tough.


Katy Perry: part of me by Katy Perry and [many support musicians and staff].

Company starring Stephen Colbert and [lesser lights].  Stage production of Stephen Sondheim musical.



Liberal Arts starring [actors I won't bother listing].  Plot?  Watch the trailer.

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.