Large NonFiction

NonFiction

Parents Ask, Experts Answer: nurturing happy, healthy children by Tina Nocera.  Nocera lives in New Jersey and has a very tiny author photo on the back cover. That is not fair, give the woman a larger shot, she wrote a book.

Craft Camp: over 40 fun projects for kids by Sterling Publishing Co. This large paperback has a new vinyl cover so it smells like plastic. I also had my head on it.

Science of Swimming Faster edited by Scott Riewald, PhD and Scott Rodeo, MD. 548 pages of text and 28 pages of references. Wow. This is more textbook than casual read. I need to get out of this house this winter and go swimming.

Women's Guide to Triathlon edited by Tara S. Comer. Cover photo has a couple competitors on bike and wearing their swimsuits. Do women usually run in the swimsuits, or do they do a quick change into running shorts after the bike race?

Stunning Braids: gorgeous hairstyles for any occasion from work to weddings by Monae Everett. Page 110 says, "Create a deep side part on one side of the head."

Mug Meals: delicious microwave recipes by Dina Cheney. Page 90 says," Using half red and half quinoa makes for a prettier salad."

Parent's Guide to Talking About Sex by Janet Rosenzweig, BS, MS, PhD, MPA. Page 169 says, "Both children in this scenario are learning the wrong lesson when a child continues to ask that a behavior stop and no one gives her support by disciplining the aggressive child."

Waste Not, Want Not Cook Book by Cinda Chavich. Is Chavich a Spanish name? Maybe a Czech name? Could be more Easter European, I suppose.  Maybe I should take some linguistic classes. Her Introduction says, "Imagine... rapidly escalating... people... being felt... for purely economic reasons... and... find new ways... to... support... Metro Vancouver."

1,001 Delicious Recipes for People With Diabetes, 3rd Edition edited by Sue Spitler, et al. Page 690 says, "Chick Peas, 524."

Engineers: from the great pyramids to the pioneers of space travel edited by Adam Hart-Davis.  Page 245 says, "Within only a few years of Monier's first concrete bridge of 1875, bridges constructed with his reinforcing technique had proliferated across Europe."

Healthy Family Slow Cooker Cookbook by Christina Dymock. About the Author says Dymock writes romances as well.Page 55 says, "Pork chops are often sold in different thicknesses."

Roger Dahl's Comic Japan: best of Zero Gravity cartoons from the Japan Times by Roger Dahl. Page 73 says, "The only thing worse than neighbors who quarrel... ...is neighbors who quarrel in a language you're not fluent in."

Smaller NonFiction

NonFiction

Training Your Puppy: the essential guide by Fiona Baird. The cover has a picture of a puppy. That makes sense. You wouldn't want a Hippogriff.

A Backpacker's Guide to Making Every Ounce Count by Steven Lowe.  I'll take this one home for the 12-year-old. You know, I've been telling my kids how Harry Potter is actually a fraud.

Reverse Wine Snob: how to buy and drink great wine without breaking the bank by Jon Thorsen. My story is that J.K. Rowling wrote a self-serving story of Harry "Mr. Hotshot" Potter that has been taken as an accurate history.

Common Sense Parenting, 2nd Edtion by Bridget A. Barnes MS and Steven M. York, MHD. You see, the true heroes of the wizarding world are the Malfoys.

Climbing: Protection by Nate Finch. Safety guide to rock climbing. Harry Potter was an arrogant jerk just like his father.

Improvise: scene from the inside out, 2nd edition by Mick Napier. We should be living under the grace and power of the Dark Lord, but that sneaky Potter somehow succeeded.

250 Amazing Fishing Tips by Lamar Underwood. At least we still have the great and esteemed Malfow family to guide us through these un-dark days of Potter-mania. My children are not falling for it.

Nine New Novels Nicely Narrowed Near Novice Knockers

Fiction

The Race For Paris by Meg Waite Clayton. Two women reporters in 1944 rush to document the liberation of Paris.

Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford. Manhattan social climbers.

The Girl with Deep Blue Eyes by Lawrence Block. Hard Case Crime publishes a brand new novel by the always excellent Block.

Murder House by James Patterson Literary Industries and David Ellis. Your quarterly Patterson delivery. 

The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo. DeCarlo lives in East Texas, I wonder is she knows Joe R. Lansdale. The novel is about broke and pregnant woman heads to her mom's hometown for possible inheritance.

Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter. Slaughter writes a lot of books. Hey, that's the same author photo as the last book. The photo is quite nice and done by Alison Rosa. Rosa's web page has an Slaughter photo, at least it looks like her anyway.

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg.  Woman's family all die in sudden disaster. Woman takes a road trip. Do other cultures celebrate the road trip as much as American writers? Kirkus gave this a starred review, that's a big deal.

Sweet Caress by William Boyd.  I read Boyd's Restless, I liked the book.  Woman photojournalist lives through the 20th century.  Boyd lives in London and France. I wonder if he drives back and forth. Seems like that would be easier than flying, the distance cannot be that long and he could take the chunnel.

Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon. Has Karon slowed down her publishing rate? This is a Mitford novel and people sure do enjoy these. Karon's photo was taken outside. It looks hot out.

3 DVD Titles With 2 Audiobooks

DVD

Agent Carter: the complete third season starring Hayley Atwell.  I like this show. You can always tell when the stunt doubles are working though, that and the quick cut editing for the fight scenes is disappointing. The lead character is English.



Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starring [many people]. I like this show, too. Agents suffers from the same problem as above. Sure, I understand there are plenty of time limitations when making a weekly TV show. You also cannot let an actor portraying a main character get injured and be unable to work. The scenes have to be safer and quick to choreograph, right?



Mad Men starring John Hamm. I've never seen this show. Does this have action sequences? Someone put a video on YouTube of every time someone in the series took a drunk or vomited.



Audiobooks on CD

Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins by Reed Farrel Coleman. 8 hours on 7 CDs. Coleman is a good dude, he spends a lot of time in Milwaukee. I really enjoyed the two novels he wrote under the pen name Tony Spinosa.

Make Me by Lee Child.  14 hours on 12 CDs. If this novel is like the others then you'll read about Jack Reacher battling bad guys, bedding good girls, and beating feet once the dust settles.

One Small, Lonely NonFic

NonFiction

Whiskey: what to drink next by Dominic Roskrow. I looked through this book and whatever you end up drinking you better be ready to pay. A lot of these look to start in the $50-a-bottle range. Those single malts have to get pricey. Especially the Japanese ones. Page 204 says, "The sweetness was seen as a way of bringing women into the whiskey category, but research shows that men are just as likely to be drawn to it."

Large Print

Large Print

Many NonFics

NonFiction

A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver.  What's this about, let me check.  Oh, poetry, says so right on the cover.  Wow, She won a Pulitzer in poetry in 1984.

Best Homemade Kids' Snacks on the Planet: more than 200 healthy homemade snacks you and your kids will love by Laura Fuentes. Fuentes has some sort of website. That must be her and her children on pages 220 and 221. There are nice photos in this book. Actually, the entire book design is pretty nice, that is important for a cookbook.

Build the Perfect Bug Out Survival Skills by Creek Stewart. Head to the hills! Bring your guns! Store vodka for trade! Learn to skin rabbits! Pencil sharpener shavings for tinder? That's a good idea. A lot of stuff in here looks fun to try out.

ToddlerCalm: a guide for calmer toddlers and happier parents by Sarah Ockwell-Smith. I'm past the need for this book. I need one of those teenager guides.  Or, one of those "Stop making that sound!" guides.

My First Book of Chess Tactics by David MacEnulty. I should take this home for the 9-year-old. Page 129 says, "If the king takes the rook, it will be unable to stop the promotion."

Coffee Break

NonFiction Continued

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day by Leanne Brown.  Brown is Canadian. Brown has black hair.  Brown's husband's name is Dan. I do not know Dan's hair color.

Japanese Jiu-Jitsu: secret techniques of self-defense by Darrell Max Craig. Why did I order this book? Martial arts and self defense books do not usually circ' well. Craig lives in Houston. I wonder if he knows Joe R. Lansdale. I bet Craig always has to spell his first name for people.

The "I Don't Know How to Cook" Book by Mary-Lane Kamberg. What kind of name is Kamberg? The K causes confusion. The "k"  makes me think Finish. The "berg" makes me think German. Maybe it's Russian. Maybe Kamberg's parents moved here as defectors in 1965 but were actually sleeper agents?

Taste of Home: Easy weeknight dinners by Taste of Home.  Taste of Home cookbooks are popular.  You ever watch that Americans TV show? I've not seen it yet, that is about Russkie spies, right?

Manga Crash Course: drawing Manga characters and scenes from start to finish by Mina "Mistiqarts" Petrovic. Russkie is a fun word to say. I feel like a character in a Cold War movie. "Those Russkies are sneaking in, I tell ya! We gotta stop'em!"

The Upcycled T-Shirt by Jenelle Montilone. Learn to use t-shirt fabric to make things, "Roger, you're nuts. Those aren't Russkies, they're scientists! They're dedicated to knowledge and the advancement of humanity."

Big Book of Paleo Recipes by Linda Larsen. Another cookbook. "Yeah, is that what you think? First scientist I ever saw who seemed more interested in the Colonel's orders than the laboratory."

Easy Jewelry Making: 50+ projects edited by Erica Swanson. "The guy just arrived. He left his home, his family, his country. He's trying to make friends Roger, he's not plotting against us, he's working with us."

No End in Sight: uncanny X-Men by Sean Ryan,et al. Mutants do things. "I'm starting to wonder about you, Poindexter. You keep standing up for this shifty guy and I'm starting to wonder about your loyalty. What about it, bub? Maybe your blood is a little too red?"

Drawing Pets by David Williams. Instructional guide.  "That's outrageous! I was in the Pacific and you can compare my record to yours any day! You arrogant jerk!"

Final Patriot Photograph

Fiction

Patriot by Ted Bell.  I have not read any of Bell's novels. This has something about spies, murder, and Russians in Europe.

Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni.  This is about a Seattle Homicide Detective and a serial killer.

The Photograph by Beverly Lewis. This is an Amish novel about three orphaned adult sisters and their brother.

Large Print

Fiction? Non

NonFiction

Campside Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking by Paul Kautz. I still need to take the BALOO training for Cub Scout leaders. Thank goodness a session is coming up later in the month. I've been helping out with Cub Scouts for over six years and still not gotten the training.

DIY: Wardrobe Makeovers by Suzannah Hamlin Stanley. I bet you Stanely has spell both her first and last names to avoid misspelling. Judging by the author photo that is Stanley on the front cover as well. On page 63 she writes, "Press open the old hem."

Guns the Right Way: introducing kids to firearms safety and shooting by Jerry Luciano. As if anyone would write a book called Guns the Wrong Way. Too bad there is no book called Guns the Free Way because ammo costs and range fees really add up.

"Is This Thing On?": A friendly guide to everything digital for newbies, technophobes, and the kicking and screaming by Abby Stokes. Page 347 says, "Let's talk Twitter." Oh, please, let's not talk Twitter.

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: four women undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott. This one looks interesting.

Goldberg's Shining Furies

Fiction

The Scam by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. The latest in the very popular series. I follow Goldberg on Twitter. Goldberg is visiting his in-laws in France and posting lots of photos. Well, the photos are on Instagram but get shared on Twitter.

McKnight in Shining Armor by Tami Hoag. I've never read a Hoag novel. I always think of the Monty Python pronunciation of knight. Kuh-Nig-It.

The End Game by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison. I think Coulter has a new author photo. You can tell Coulter is a big deal because the photo covers the entire back cover.

Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie was on TV the other day.  He must live in New York now.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. Groff is from somewhere the author bio won't tell you. I'm from Central Illinois.

Dishing the Dirt by M.C. Beaton. Well, Champaign is always described as being in East Central Illinois.

Dance of the Bones by J.A. Jance. You know what else is in East Central Illinois? Soybeans and corn.

Devoted in Death by J.D. Robb. You know what else in the rest of Illinois? Soybeans and corn.

NonFiction

Kaplan ACT 2016: strategies, practice and review by Kaplan, Inc.  You know what's in Wisconsin? Dairy farms and lakes.

Some Girls Read Large Print

Records Made in 1977 are Digitized for Further Distribution on Compact Disk

Some Girls by The Rolling Stones. Englishmen sing songs about decaying New York. The liner notes say: Jagger liked to play loud and mean. "Oh, here comes Lou Reed agin," engineer Chris Kimsey would say every time the singer strapped on his guitar.


Large Print

A Book. Another Book.

Fiction

Deeper in Sin: the wicked Dukes by Sharon Page.  Page 37 says, "Panic hit. For a moment, her faith in him wobbled." No author photo. The vague author bio makes me think Page is a pen name. Her website bio makes me think not. Website does have an author photo. My favorite author photos are the ones where you can see the subject's wristwatch and read the time.

Audiobook on CD

Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulin. 7 CDs at 8 hours. That is a long title. Single mom isn't make room for a love life. No author photo. The narrator, Ann Marie Lee, has a photo. Lee has red hair and does some TV acting. I have brown hair and do internet blathering. My dog has black hair and lies in the sun on the driveway.

Old Music Is New Music

Musicians Play Instruments In A Recording Studio. Those Digital Recordings Are Processed By Computers Into a Physical Display That Is Inscribed Onto A Very, Very Thin Metal Sheet That Is Sandwiched Between Layers of Plastic

This Time by Dwight Yoakam. Country singer sings songs and plays guitar on this 1993 album.

Tomorrow's Sounds Today by Dwight Yoakam. Country guitarist plays guitar and sings songs on this 2000 album.



Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones. Englishmen sings rock songs in English accents. And use heroin on this 1971 album.

Greatest Hits by Jimmy Buffet. Singer sings songs and wears flip-flops on this 1985 compilation.



Brutal Youth by Elvis Costello. Rock singers sings rock songs and dares you to ask him about Margaret Thatcher. Go on, he dares you. He double dog dares you on this 1994 album.

My Aim Is True by Elvis Costello. Rock guitarist plays guitar and dares you to ask him about his former bass player. Go on, ask him while listening to this 1977 album.



Unorthodox Jukebox by Bruno Mars. Singer with fancy hair sings songs and dances - dancing not visible on CDs on this 2012 album.

30 #1 Hits by Elvis Presley. Tennessean sings songs of suspicious ghetto hound dogs in this 2002 compilation.

Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan.  Minnesotan sings to  Abe that he better run in this 1965 album.

Home by The BoDeans. Milwaukeean singers sing '80s pop songs on this 1989 album.

Because Bill Crider Said So

Fiction

Selena and Greg Barth. Recommended by Bill Crider. Woman fights back against a crime syndicate.

Large Print

A Bunch of Novels and More Unrelated Commentary.

Fiction

Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick. I read a book called the Bird Sisters. It was okay, but not for me.

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart. I approve of the title and cover illustration. The illustration looks sharp.  Stewart lives in Eureka, CA and took her author photo while leaning on a iron fence.

Hollow Man by Mark Pryor. Pryor's name is above the title, I guess that means his name is well known.  Psychopath living in Austin, TX gets talked into robbing a van filled with cash.

A The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante. A Post-It Note on the cover says, "This was on the cover of the NYT Book Review this week." Huh, I missed that issue.

Purity by Jonathan Franzen. I like this cover too. White background with blue text on top of a small, blurred, black-and-white image of a young woman.

Solomon Curse by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake. Your quarterly Cussler installment. Not much else to say.

Undercover by Danielle Steel. Your biannual Steel installment.

White Ghost by James R. Benn. SWEET! I didn't know this one came in, I like this guy's novels. They are very entertaining and he always sticks his characters in a little known battle or episode during WWII.

House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure. Architect writes a novel about an architect in 1886 New York who has to plan a burglary for a street gang.

The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore. You think Moore ever goes by "Triple M"? Wealthy family in the Bay Area is "achingly real and delightfully screwball". Moore's author photo is a studio shot. Author photos seem to be split in half between studio setting and "Let's take the camera to the park."

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz.Lagercrantz has taken over the Lisbeth Salander series. I never got around to reading any of those books. I never saw the movies either. Lagercrantz is a Swede and in his author photo he is not wearing a neck tie.

NonFiction

A Beginner's Guide to Paradise: 9 steps to giving up everything so you can: move to a Pacific island, wear a loincloth, read a hundred books, build a bungalow, diaper a baby monkey, and maybe, just maybe, fall in love by Alex Sheshunoff. The screwy subtitle annoys me.

DVD

Mad Max Fury Road starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. I avoided all news about the film's plot and characters so that the story will be a complete surprise when I see it.

One Single, Lonely Hardcover Novel

Fiction 

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica.  Kubica lives outside Chicago. the cover says her last book, The Good Girl, was a bestseller. Woman impulsively brings home a homeless teen and the girl's infant. Family are not happy and the teen starts to do weird stuff. Or something. The dust cover says, "as clues into Willow's past begin to surface , Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger."
Kubica wore a kind of dark turquoise cardigan sweater for her author photo. At least I think it's a sweater, it might be a jacket. Fake Library Stats always makes cardigan jokes. And cat jokes. And drinking jokes. There is not a lot of variety on Fake Library Stats.

Some Literary Stuff and A Few Others

Fiction

The Drowning by Camilla Lackberg. Swedish crime thriller. Lackberg lives in Stockholm. I guess that makes sense. Stockholm is in Sweden. Stockholm is also in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota.

Best Boy by Eli Gottlieb. I'll bet this guy's last name usually gets misspelled with one "t". An autistic man living in a care home has trouble with new people. You think Lackberg ever gets lost driving in Stockholm?

Days of Awe by Lauren Fox. This book is about something. Does Lackberg even drive? That seems like the kind of city where people get around using public transit and walking.

The Fall of Princes by Robert Goolrick. 1980s Wall Street honcho wishes he still had the dough. Lackberg is a bestseller in Swededn, surely she has the dough to leave town and take summer vacations in the woods.

After the Storm by Linda Castillo. Looks like an Amish themed novel. If you're going out of the city for a week's lake vacation in central Sweden wouldn't you want a car? Heck, you'd need a car, right?

Armada by Ernest Cline. A novel with many pop culture references. I listened to a novel set in rural Sweden, The Farm. I liked the book.

Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen.  Famous mystery author writes another book. I also read, or listened to, the Stockhold Noir Trilogy by Jens Lapidus. Those were very good.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. European bestseller. Those Lapidus novels were filmed but I've only watched the first one so far.

Audiobooks on CD

X by Sue Grafton. 11 CDs at 13.5 hours. I started watching the second of the three Lapidus films, Hard To Kill, but have not gotten back to it yet. I've not been unable to sit and relax for I can read the subtitles.

The Nature of Melody Blank, Murderer's Daughter

Fiction

Point Blank by Fern Michaels. How long has Michaels been writing? OCLC seems to list 1975 as her first published year.

The Last Time I Saw Her by Karen Robards. The cover says,"Woman lost at sea." The dust jacket says, "Something about the ghost of a convicted killer and his identical twin?" What?!

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny.  This made me think of Do To the Beast by Afghan Whigs.

X by Sue Grafton.  I guess she couldn't figure out a good way to shoehorn Xerxes or Xylophone into the title.

Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark. Interior designer helping family whose father disappeared with five million dollars.

Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory.  When King Henry VIII says you're getting married, then you're getting married.

Audiobook on CD

The Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman. 14 hours on 11CDs.

Large Print

76 Hours of Made-Up Stories

Audiobooks on CD

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs. 10 hours on 8CDs.  Temperance Brennan spends more time in a lab and catches more killers.

Armada by Ernest Cline. 12 hours by 10CDs. More nostalgia. I guess.

Mrs. Sinclair's Suitcase by Louise Walters. 10 hours on 8CDs. Read by two people. I suppose that is because the story is told by two people.

Avenue of Spies by Alex Kershaw.  7 hours on 6CDs. I always think of Kershaw Knives when I see that guy's name. I've never bought a Kershaw knife, they seem OK. I suppose it all depends on the model and the steel quality.

Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig. 13.5 hours on 11CDs. I listened to Moonstone a few months ago. Yeah, that is a different story. This has romance and espionage in 1807 Portugal. 

Dexter is Dead by Jeff LIndsay. 12 hours on 10CDs. I have not read or heard any of these novels in a while. I should start up again, I always enjoyed the novels.

The Promise of Home by Amy Rubinate. 11.5 hours on 9CDs. Lives in small town Vermont intermingle, intercept and interlace.

Four Standbys and One New One.

Fiction

Moonshadows by Julie Weston. The cover looks like a Western It is a Mystery. In the West.

Stone Mattress: nine wicked tales by Margaret Atwood. "Nine unforgettable tales that reveal the grotesque, delightfully wicked facets of humanity."

Murderer's Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman. Psychlogist with a traumatic past and a secret life.

I'm Going to Touchtype the Next Two Entries. 

With no corrections (except for italics).

Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. Novel about MOntana, I bet.  Biy sent from Montana to Manitowoc when grtandmother has surgery. He comes back and brings his great auncle along.

Friction by Sandra Brown. Cover has a guy with a lever action rigle sillhouted. Dustcover says, TX Ranger is tryuing to get child custor, courtroom is attacked, Ranger helps, things happen.

Fiction N-Z

Fiction

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich. What's left after a political speech. Panowich's first novel.  Crime novel with family drama, set in North Georgia. Unlike Panowich himself who is set in East Georgia.

Alert by James Patterson Amalgamated Text Supplies and Michael Ledwidge. Intimidated... scare... on edge... responsibility... wreaking havoc... shocking murder... biggest threat of all.

Among the Ten Thousand by Julia Pierpont.  Pierpont lives in New York and has a blurb by Megan Abbott. That's pretty cool, I consider Abbott to be a Big Deal.  Teen and pre-teen kids get package of printed emails detailing their father's secret life.  I kinda wish I had a secret life.


Something Rich and Strange by Ron Rash.  Short stories set in Appalachia. Let's get back on topic, let's talk about me. My family was at the Land's End warehouse sale over the weekend and I tried on a pseudo-trenchcoat.

Invasion of Privacy by Christopher Reich.  I told my kids I was a spy in East Berlin during the '80s.

Who Let the Dog Out? by David Rosenfelt. I told them I wore a was recruited as a teenager because the CIA needed people who would not arouse suspicion.

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. I was captured by the Stasi but was almost immediately traded for another spy held in West Germany.

Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner. My cover was blown, of course, and I had to quit undercover work.

The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward. I then told them I also worked in Paris as an undercover cop, pretending to be a drug buyer.

Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig. I can't remember if I came up with a reason for why that job didn't work out.

DVD

West Side Story starring [You know who]. You know the story.




Large Print

Fiction A-M

Fiction

We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. That is two long name to type. She should change her name to M. M is easy to type.

House of Echoes by Brenda Duffy. I was watching a mid '80's Airplane rip-off last night entitled Call Me Sarge. Julia Duffy was in the film.  Dang, Julia Duffy is 64-years-old. I guess Newhart was quite a while ago.

Devil's Bridge by Linda Fairstein. Fairstein has a lot of loyal readers. Not me, though, I have not yet read one. Fairstein has a nice author photo and the selected image was taken at 4:20PM according to Fairstein's wristwatch.

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth. The cover has a lot of purple.  Forsyth is Australian. Did you know they write everything upside down in Australia?

Evergreen Falls by Kimberly Freeman. Hey, another Australian book. Freeman lives in Brisbane.

Lost in the Sun by Lisa Graff. You know who isn't Australian? That's right, Lisa Graff. She lives by Philadelphia.

Fool Me Once by Steve Hockensmith with Lisa Falco. Hockensmith authors the excellent Holmes on the Range detective series. I don't know anything about Falco, let's see...nothing much online. Maybe she uses a pen name.

The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman.  Hoffman? I cannot recall her famous titles. Let's check that...Fortune's Daughter did well, I think. So did Dovekeepers.

Silver Linings by Debbie Macomber.  I've seen a cover like this before. Handing lanterns with tea candles and photoshopped fireflies all over the place. What cover was that? Oh, it was the last Macomber, Last One Home.

Losing Me by Sue Margolis.  Novel about a woman about to turn 60.

Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon. I like the cover.  The cover has a gothic look, like an early '70s novel. McMahon lives in Vermont. I drove through Vermont once. Or, was that New Hampshire? Is there a difference?

Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell. This cover also has a 1970s throwback style but with lots of green. Mitchell's author photo is black and white.  She lives in Georgia. Her acknowledgements thank the University of West Georgia's English Department. Acknowledgements is very difficult for me to spell.

Be still, my beating heart, Crider has arrived

Sheriff Dan Rhodes

Between the Living and the Dead by Bill Crider.

NonFiction

Beautiful Paper Cutting: 30 creative projects for cards, gifts, decor, and jewelry by Lark Crafts (publisher name, not someone called 'Lark'). Page 75 says, "10. Close the box." Crider content unknown.

A History of Heists: bank robbery in America by Jerry Clark.  The influence on American culture, the thieves, and the investigators. Reminds me of two guys who robbed banks across the central plains and northwest in the 1990s or 2000s. One guy was caught, if I remember correctly, when he was in his suburban backyard testing a homemade silencer. Crider content unknown.

Browsings: a year of reading, collecting, and living with books by Michael Dirda.  50 essays about reading. Crider content unknown.

Large Print

(Crider content unknown.)

One Flick

DVD

Insurgent starring Naomi Watts and [other people I never heard of]. Teen angst with guns.

Mickey Spillane's Chocolate Freezer Pleaser

DVD

Chocolate starring [many actors and stuntmen]. Autistic teen girl grows up watching martials arts movies on TV and martial arts classes across the street and turns into karate savant.



Fiction

The Legend of Caleb York by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. Spillane wrote a western screenplay intended for John Wayne. That project did not work out but Collins has developed this novel from the original script. Dedicated to Bill Crider, that's kinda neat. I have about 50 minutes of listening left on the Mike Hammer novel Complex 90.


NonFiction

Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers Cookbook by Catherine Cassidy, editor in Chief.

Music and Marketing

Sounds are Made. Sounds are recorded. Sounds are translated into physical object. Your machine translates those physical marks into sound waves.

English Graffiti by The Vaccines.  English singers sing songs of love.


Still by Richard Thompson. Option 1) English singer sing songs. Option 2) English guitarist plays guitars.



NonFiction

The Passion Conversation: understanding, sparking, and sustaining word of mouth marketing by Robbin Phillips, et al. The importance of conversation and personal relationship to draw and keep customers.

Eight Novels

Fiction

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal. I was gone for three nights to Boy Scout camp up near Mountain, WI.

Badlands by C.J. Box. Hot weather and read a novel and napped more than anything else over the two full days I stayed.

Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay. I did go for a decent walk on Tuesday through the camp and the surrounding forest.

Wishes For Christmas by Fern Michaels. Nicolet National Forest surrounds the camp and seemed to have plenty of trails, roads, and biking paths.

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans. One younger boy tripped and fall onto a sharp stick that pierced the back of his hand.

Perfect Touch by Elizabeth Lowell. The Scout was crying and upset. An older Scout and I walked the injured kid to the health office.

The Forgotten by Heather Graham. The puncture wound was not so bad, but the health officer sent us to an urgent care location just in case stitches were needed.

Brush Back by Sara Paretsky. No stitches. The flap of skin was glued shut. We missed dinner time at camp so we stopped at the Burger King in Oconto Falls.

NonFiction - Dictator special

NonFiction

The Job: true tales from the life of a New York City Cop by Steve Osborne.  Page 165 says, "During our conversation he must have sense my disappointment at the fact he didn't receive any jail time."

The Double Life of Fidel Castro: my 17 years as personal bodyguard to El Lider Maximo by Juan Reinaldo Sanchez with Axel Gylden. Former bodyguard and fixer to Fidel Castro fell into disfavor, went to Cuban prison, escaped to Mexico and Florida and wrote a tell-all. Mistresses, drug dealing, guerrilla training, multiple mansions, torture, executions.

A Kim Jong-Il Production: the extraordinary true story of a kidnapped filmmaker, his star actress, and a young dictator's rise to power by Paul Fischer.  In 1978 future North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il ordered the kidnapping of a famous South Korean actress and director to force them to make films. Page 93 says, " Inside, Kim gave Choi a tour of the ostentatious villa: the en-suit bedrooms, the living room and library, the home cinema. There was a tacky crystal chandelier of two in every room and Japanese gadgets on every surface, giving the house a gauche, unrefined energy - 'a Las Vegas-meets-Vladivostok feeling,' as Choi described later."

Kale and Coffee: a renegade's guide to health happiness and longevity by Kevin Gianni. Writer travels the United States testing different diet and health advice. Page 152 says, "As we reach the salt farms, the land in front of us is dotted with carefully laid out rectangular patches of black trays filled with water."

Sugar Impact Diet Cookbook by JJ Virgin. This was on the Amazon bestseller list, so I bought it.

The Real Paleo Diet Cookbook by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. Someone asked that we have more paleo diet books.

ACT 2016: strategies, practice and review by Kaplan. Someone else complained we did not have enough ACT prep books.

Exercise, Entertainment, Entry

DVD

'71 starring Jack O'Connell. British soldier stranded in Belfast.  Uh-oh.



Justified: final season starring Timothy Olyphant, Walter Goggins, many others. Final season of Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens and his screwed up home county in Kentucky. With lots of swooshing sound effects.



Woman in Gold starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds.  Woman files suit to recover property stolen during World War Two.



House of Cards: the complete third season by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Political intrigue.



Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee. I figured this would be used.



Method Express by Tracy Anderson. Exercise routines to exercise.



Method Beginners by Tracy Anderson. Exercise routines for more exercise. Anderson is not tall, she measure 5'.



Audiobooks on CD

Medium raw: a bloody valentine to the world of food and the people who cook by Anthony Bourdain. 8 CDs at 9 hours.

The Old Blue Line by J.A. Jance. 2CDs at 2 hours. Crime and punishment.

Departing Staff

Staff

Congratulations to Maddie who graduated high school and will be going to college out-of-state.

Some New Old Fiction

Fiction

Simon Scarrow
Scarrow's historical fiction starts out featuring Roman Legionaires serving in Britain. These novels fill some gaps in our collection.

Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow.

Eagle's Conquest by Simon Scarrow.

C.S. Forester
The series is older but should still circ'.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester.

Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester.

Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester.

Terry Goodkind
We do not have a lot of Science Fiction so we decided to add these copies.

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind.

Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind.

Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind.

AudioBooks on CD

Audiobooks on CD

Vixen by Bill Pronzini. 5 CDs at 5.5 hours. This had a big recommendation by Bill Crider.  I don't want to paste the review in, here is the link http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2015/07/vixen-bill-pronzini.html.

Skin Deep by Timothy Hallinan. 8 CDs at 10 hours. Hallinan writes the Junior Bender series which have been popular here. Hollywood P.I. looks after a woman beating actor and women are getting killed.

The Shapeshifters by Stefan Spjut. 12 CDs at 14.5 hours. Boy goes missing in 1978 Northern Sweden. Mother claims a troll took him. Twenty-five years later another child goes missing and a researcher looks for trolls.

Kill Me Darling by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. 6 CDs at 6.5 hours. I really enjoy these Mike Hammer novels by Spillane and Collins. I can never remember how to spell Collins's middle name.

Old is New Again

Fiction

We had some donations that are in good condition and fill some gaps in the collection.



Large Print

Nemesis by Catherine Coulter.

Lost Book




"I found this book in a vacation cottage in Waupaca. Please let the patron know it has been returned. Betty ____"

Double Naked Plus a Kilt

Fiction

Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs.  Bodies, woods, laboratories, marriage proposal. Canadian content is unclear.

Scents and Sensibility by Spencer Quinn. According to the cover photo this is about dogs in Arizona. The summary on the dustcover says the same.

The Rumor by Elin Hildebrand. Don't we have this already? Nope, I guess I was thinking of the audiobook. Is Hildebrand from Milwaukee? I don't remember. Let's check...nope, she lives in Massachusetts.

Novel Habits of Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.

The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka. Scientist does something.  The summary is unclear.

Naked Greed by Stuart Woods. Your quarterly update.

Naked Eye by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen.   Woman thinks serial killer was not executed and is out and about.

Large Print

NonFiction

Custom Crocheted Sweaters by Dora Ohrenstein. Kilt free with many nice photos and patterns.

Primates Avenue of Love

NonFiction

Primates of Park Avenue: a memoir by Wednesday Martin. I read a review that had snippets of an author interview. Martin moved into a high end NYC neighborhood. The local women were constantly jockeying and vying for social status and position. Martin used her anthropological training to analyze the people and figure how to insert herself into the pack.

Fiction

The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry.  Widow sells her story to a screenwriter who needs a hit. Her story, and the screenplay, are not quite true.

New Items, Part Four

Fiction

Grey by E.L. James. The same stuff but told by the male character. Does this novel reflect the first Grey novel or the whole series? I'll wait for Bill Crider to read this novel and let the rest of us know.

NonFiction

Ubuntu Unleashed, 2015 by Matthew Helmke. How much of a computer guru does Helmke have to be to write something like this?

Casseroles by Sterling Publishing. No author or editor name on this.Seafood casserole? Sure, there is tuna, but also anchovies (page 59). Anchovies and sardines sound gross but the photos are fantastic.

Garfield Fat Cat 3-Pack, volume 17 by Jim Davis. Because children loooove Garfield.

New Items, Part Three

Fiction

Summerlong by Dean Bakopoulos. I just read a review of this in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. The reviewer thought the book went on too long.

Those Girls by Chevy Stevens. Three sisters go on the run from an abusive dad, fall into trouble, change their names, trouble finds them 18 years later.

The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna. Set during WWII in Door County, WI. No wonder it's gotten plenty of press in the Madison newspaper.

The Guest Cottage by Nancy Thayer. To-be-divorced woman rents a summer cottage. Things happen.

Code of Conduct by Brad Thor. A very bright yellow cover on this one. Page 187 says, "When he finished, the Old Man let out a long, low whistle."

The English Spy by Daniel Silva. Assassin hired to kill another assassin. Page 187, "He watched it turn into the road without a name."

New Items, Part Two

Audiobooks on CD

Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton. 5CDs at 6 hours. Sutton? I heard of that guy, he writes some of the Dead Man horror stories.

Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell. 9 CDs at 10 hours. Author wants to kill off a character readers love and the author is sick of.

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick.  10 CDs at 12 hours.  According to the author bio Mr. Quick lives in North Carolina. According to the descriptive summary this novel is about people doing things.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.  11 CDs at 12.5 hours.  This book is from 2008. I must have bought this on sale. The cover has a tie-in image for the forthcoming film version.

Fiction

Nemesis by Catherine Coulter.



Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara. 593 pages on General Sherman.

New Items, Part One

Fiction

Ideal: the novel and the play by Ayn Rand. Unpublished novel is not unpublished. Page 90 says, "A white cross flamed over the pulpit, on a black wall."

The Star of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson. I don't like the cover. Jackson was awarded the Maytag Fellowship at Iowa Writers' Workshop. She was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Fulbright sounds a lot better than Maytag. Maytag makes me think of the TV commercials. I have not idea what this book is about, you can read it and tell me. Jackson went to Cape Town with the Fulbright. I wonder if she met Roger Smith or Deon Meyer.

The Silenced by Heather Graham. So, this is a series? Krewe of Hunters? IF the FBI had as many special units as the novels pretend they'd need twice as many Agents.

Twice in a Lifetime by Dorothy Garlock.  Garlock lives in Clear Lake, Iowa. I'm trying to remember where that town sits. I'll look it up...okay, it's off I-35 by Mason City. Dillinger robbed a bank in Mason City.

Dinner with Buddha by Roland Merullo. There's a fat guy joke in that title but I cannot find it.

Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi. A novel about manufacturing water jet cutters. Maybe. I don't know. The cover design makes this look like a computer thriller. The dustcover says it's a about drought and water battles in the future. I just read a random page and enjoyed what I saw.

The Man Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes. Her name is familiar, let's see what else she wrote...a whole bunch of books, none that I remember seeing before. I must be thinking of the Sammy Keyes childrens' series.

Let's See What We Have Here...

Well, Let Me Look...

Death of Dog Whisperer by Laurien Berenson.  Paperback mystery.

Cabin Fever: the sizzling secrets of a Virgin Airlines Flight Attendant by Mandy Smith. Page 234 says, "I should've headed to the nearest tube station after the meal."

The Dark Net: inside the digital underworld by Jamie Bartlett. Oooh, scary.  Page 155 says,"I had a market and a vendor."

A Tempered Faith: rediscovering hope in the ashes of loss by Jennifer Sands. Widow recovers from grief after 9/11.

Large Print

Another stack of books.

Mish-Mash of Books

Fiction

Black Rock by John McFetridge. Young cop in 1970 Montreal looks for a serial killer among the political and social upheaval. I think I picked this one out, it sure sounds like a book I would select. McFetridge has a mystery series set in Toronto. I always think of the Kids in the Hall opening when I think about Toronto



The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes.  Exploring... hidden... secrets... mysteriously  driven... tragic truth... shake her family to the core... impossible choice... inspired... atmospheric... poignant... determined... power.

Beneath the Bonfire by Nickolas Butler. The same guy who wrote Shotgun Lovesongs, which I never got around to reading. The cover is a kinda '70s style with yellow, red and orange colors. The dust jacket says Shotgun was an international bestseller. That's neat. I do have a shotgun but it's an old 16 gauge bolt action and I've never shot it.

Corrupted Memory by Ray Daniel. Guy finds a dead man on the front stoop. Dead Man looks like Guy's deceased father. Dead Man is a previously unknown half-brother to Guy. More things happen.

NonFiction

The Honored Society: a portrait of Italy's most powerful mafia by Petra Reski.  Should mafia be capitalized? I was griping to someone that this book has no photos at all. No mug shots, no surveillance shots, no courtroom scenes, no street scenes. No maps either. Page 173 says, "It was a classic Mafia marriage: Ninetta was from an old Corleone family, her brother was rising through the hierarchy. He had the honor of being murdered by his future brother-in-law."

NonFiction Action Pack!

NonFiction

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covery. Replacement. KAPOW!

The Yankee Commandante: the untold story of courage, passion, and one American's fight to liberate Cuba by Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss. Ohioan goes to fight with Castro, realizes Castro is a bad dude, things go bad.  ZOOM!

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the quest for a fantastic future by Ashlee Vance.  BANG!

What If? serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions by Randall Munroe.If two immotal people were placed on opposite sides of an uninhabited Earthlike planet, how long would it take them to find each other?  WHAM!

The Road to Character by David Brooks. Pundit writes book.  ZOING!

Gumption: relighting the torch of freedom with America's gutsiest troublemaker by Nick Offerman. Guy with facial hair writes book.  BOOM!

Youth Basketball Drills: 160 drills for skill development by Burrall Paye and Patrick Paye. ZIP!

Thug Kitchen: eat like you give a fuck by Thug Kitchen LLC.  WHANG!

Some Music

Musicians Perform, The Performance is Recorded, The Recording is Transcribed Onto A Medium Composed of Plastic and Metal

Cover Story by The Verbs.  Singers sing songs of Dave Clark. With guitars.




Emmaar by Tinariwen. North African Tuareg's sing Malian songs. With Guitars.



To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. Californian sings songs of Californians. He also has a bone to pick. With guitars.



Public Service Announcement

With guitars.

New Fiction - Photo Version

Fiction
















NonFiction

More Photos: painting and programs

Painting

Exterior painting started earlier this week. The front doors were removed from the frames to sand and scrape off several years worth of varnish and dirt.

















Read, Rhythm, and Rhyme Storytime 

This is an excellent storytime we are running every Wednesday through Summer Reading.

More Fiction and Another Lansdale Novel

Fiction

Extricate by Graham Wynd. Here's a unique one, I saw this online and ordered it up.Man falls for a woman and starts removing obstacles to her love, starting with his wife.

Charlie Martz and Other Stories by Elmore Leonard. Unpublished stories by the writer who passed away in 2013.

Country by Danielle Steel. Steel continues her reign. Widow starts on a new life.

The Ultimatum by Dick Wolf. TV producer Wolf's last novel did well. Here is a sequel.

Wildfire in His Arms by Johanna Lindsey. Romance novel cover but the male model has his shirt on. With a hat. And a horse. I cannot tell if the horse is wearing a hat.

The Truth According to Us by Anne Barrows.  Rich young woman forced into Writer's Project job in 1938. Sent to West Virginia to write a city history.

Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale.  Fictionalization of cowboy and shootist Nat Love. The library also owns Lansdale's Black Hat Jack: the true life adventures of Deadwood Dick, as told by his ownself which has short stories about Love.

The Defenders of Shannara: The Darkling Child by Terry Brooks. Thirty years ago I read the first Shannara books. There must be another 50-60 since then.

Second Street Station: a Mary Handley Mystery by Lawrence H. Levy. I like the cover. Late 19th Century woman detective in New York City. Levy wrote for television and credits include Saved By The Bell and Seinfeld. Yeesh, what a contrast.

Blueprints by Barbara Delinsky.  Family turmoil with work trouble, sudden death and new love.

The Fixer by Joseph Finder. Man renovating his father's house finds millions of dollars hidden in the walls.

NonFiction

Tales From the Blue Line by Rob Riley.  Riley has written a series of piece for Crimespree Magazine about his time with the Milwaukee Police Department from 1971 to 2001. This collects 29 of those stories. 

Summer Reading Program Events

Summer Reading Program

Some photos from Monday afternoon's game and LEGO time, and Tuesday's Lunch with a Hero with Chief of Police Patrick Matuszewski and Sgt. Troy Oestreich.

Game On!

Lunch With A Hero

One of My Favorite New Songs

 Fiction

Copenhagen Connection by Elizabeth Peters. Originally published in 1982. This new paperback has a really nice cover illustration.
 
Musicians Musicalize Music on Music Discs

Music In Exile by Songhoy Blues. Malian singers sing music in Benin and move to London. The story with these guys is that extremists in Mali banned music and the band hoofed it.  How the heck do you stop music? And why? Another great tune I heard while listening to BBC 6 Music.



Audiobook on CD

Black List by Brad Thor. 10CDs at 12 hours. Spy guy shoot'em up. This is from 2012 but was a donation and we don't already have it.

Large Print

A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor. Victorian London.

Second Sister by Marie Bostwick. White House politics.

Sea Garden by Marcia Willett. Painting in Devon.

Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham.  Central park and Brooklyn.

Lillian on Life by Alison Jean Lester. Attack robots in Arkansas.  Just kidding.

Large Print, Music, Older Film

Fiction

Concrete Angel by Patti Abbot. Manipulative mother starts using her toddler son as a criminal accessory. Her grown daughter decides to step in. Library Journal gave it starred review. "What about Kirkus's review?" you ask. "Let's not talk about Kirkus," I say, read the book for yourself.

DVD

The Driver starring Ryan O'Neal and Bruce Dern.  Getaway driver is pursued by police detective. I used to study Roger Ebert's annual film guides and read all his old reviews. Ebert praised The Driver so I watched it and I enjoyed it. Someone online - maybe author Anthony Neil Smith - linked to an article about the screenplay and that got me thinking that people would enjoy watching this one.



Musicians Play Music That is Recorded, Mixed Together, and Embedded on Super Thin Layers of Metal That Are Then Sandwiched Between Layers of Plastic

Postcards from Paradise by Ringo. Singer sings songs of being Ringo. The title reminds me of a Mark Knopfler song.





Only Me by Rhonda Vincent. Bluegrass musician sings songs of bluegrass. We have another album of hers that has circ'ed well.



Now That's What I call Music! 53 by various. Now that's what I call singers singing songs.


Now That's What I call Music! 54 by various. Now that's what I call more singers singing songs.



Large Print

A Deadly Web by Kay Hooper. A book about things.

The Daring Exploits of a Runaway Heiress by Victoria Alexander. A book about more things.

Blueprints by Barbara Delinksy. A book about more and more things.

Piranha by Clive Cussler. A book about more and more and more things.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King. A book about more and more and more and more things.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. A book about more and more and more and more and more things.

Cuba Straits by Randy Wayne White. A book about more and more and more and more and more and more things.

What I Love About You by Rachel Gibson. A book about more and more and more and more and more and more and more things.

Finders Keepers, Judy Blume

Fiction

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave. Woman hears "explosive" secret from fiance and heads to family vineyard. Explosive.



In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume.  Woman returns to New Jersey home in 1987 to commemorate 1952. "Blume imagines and weaves together...generations of families...disasters...vivid portrait...Elizabeth Taylor haircuts...A-bomb hysteria...young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy."




Finders Keepers by Stephen King. No tunes come to mind.


Cash Landing by James Grippando. Broke restauranteur in Miami teams with others to rob an armored car of $7.4 million. No tunes come to mind, but how about this?

Wisconsin Books

NonFiction

Blue Men and River Monsters: folklore of the North edited by John Zimm. Oral history culled from the WPA's work in Wisconsin that run from 1935 to 1937.  Watertown was know for it's geese, "Cooked noodles are every day crammed down their throats by their owners, a wooden pestle being used for this purpose."

The Heart of Things: a Midwestern almanac by John Hildebrand.  Guy from Northwestern Wisconsin writes about the "humor and drama in everyday life." Page 97 says, "Floating down the North Fork one summer with my daughter in the bow, we spotted what appeared to be a dead fish at the bottom of a rocky pool. It was a sleeping catfish, long as my arm, and as our canoe passed overhead it slowly tail-finned into deeper water. Late this afternoon when I reach the rocky pool, I'm a little disappointed to find the sleeping catfish isn't there."

Little Hawk and Lone Wolf: a memoir by Raymong C. Kaquatosh. Lonely nine-year-old Menominee boy befriends a timber wolf in the '30s. He grows up, goes to war, gets a job, and the wold is still around.

Putting Down Roots: gardening insights from Wisconsin's early settlers by Marcia C Carmichael. Gardening history with lots of pretty pictures from Old World Wisconsin.

Blaze Orange: whitetail deer hunting in Wisconsin by Travis Dewitz.  Photo book of hunting up north.

Perimeter: a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan by Kevin J. Miyazaki.  Portraits of people who live and work around the lake with interspersed two-page photos of the water.

More Nonsensical Commentary

DVD

Blackhat starring Chris Hemsworth. There is an actor in here named, get this, Yorick van Wageningen. Michael Mann made this one. I like Mann's films but this computer hacker stuff just seems silly.



Interstellar starring [famous actors]. Someone the other day said they liked this. Did you ever watch the Los Angeles police show Mann did a few years ago? Robbery Homicide Division? That was a good program but only lasted for one season at ten episodes.



Outlander: season one, volume one starring [people]. Sold in two volumes so that you have to pay twice to get a full season.  This is unrelated to that awful swords and aliens film series.



Fifty Shades of Grey starring [other people]. Woman meets uber-rich guy who wears ties. Or something. I don't know, I never read those books.


Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley What's the big deal about Cumberbatch? I don't get it.



Wild starring Reese Witherspoon. Woman gets upset and goes hiking. I think that sounds like a decent plan. What I do not agree with is writing an entire book about a huge hike and not printing one stinking picture.

Movies I Missed Ordering

DVD. What can I say? I missed'em.

Unbroken starring Jack O'Connell. You ever seen that David Bowie POW movie, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence? I should try watching that again.

American Sniper starring Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller. Is the baby prop as awful as commenters said?

Hunger Games Mockingjay, Part One starring Jennifer Lawrence, many others. Girl with arrows shoots arrows at people.

The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies starring Hobbits, Elves, Orcs, one dragon, one Dark Lord. Neil Finn did a tune for one of these things. The premiere was in Wellington. I just looked at a map and Wellington is on a small peninsula. Google Maps says it is a 12.5 hour drive from Dunedin. Oof. That's a long haul. Taking the train is a two day trip.

Audiobooks

Audiobooks on CD and Stuck in Plastic Travel Cases

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich. 7 CDs at 7 hours. Characters do something and other things happen.

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly. 6 CDs at 6.5 hours.  Doriem Kelly went to Michigan. That's a black mark.

The Grand Finale by Janet Evanovich.  5 CDs at 5 hours.  More people doing things.

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews.  12 CDs at 15 hours. No disc count or time listed on the cover. I found that info in the catalog. I also found a brief plot description of "in an attempt to find themselves, three friends vacation at a beach house." Yeah, good luck with that.

Dead Wake: the last crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson.  11 CDs at 13 hours. The Lusitania is most famous, of course, for being the passenger cruiser with an awful name.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Directive by Eric Van Lustbader.  12 CDs at 14.5 hours.  Spies spy.

Large Print

Cover Your Eyes by Mary Burton. Cover image has a woman covering her eyes.  Really? That's your best effor?

NonFiction

Entrepreneurship: create your own business with 25 projects by Alex Kahan. This is a kids book. I'll reclass this dude for the children's collection.

Good News, Another John Farrow Novel.

Fiction

The Storm Murders by John Farrow. Recently retired Montreal Sergeant-Detective Emile Cinq-Mars is called to a consult on double murder case. Fourth entry in a great series.

I read City of Ice when it came out in 1999 and thought it was great. Ice Lake was also good. I have no idea about River City because there was no darn U.S. release. I've not hunted long to find a used copy, the one I did see was quoted at $2,796.72. That seems a bit high.

More Fiction, Volume Two

Fiction

Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer. Is this the daughter-mom duo? Let me check...yes, it is. The dual bio on back says van Leer is in college. I wonder if they timed the release so that she could do promotion during summer. Then again, they'd be doing promotion well before hand to prep the release, right? I ask because I don't actually know.

Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy.  This one sounds familiar.  Let me check...nope, I was mistaken. This is about hidden maps used for the Underground Railroad. Yes, as a child I did wonder how they built all those underground train tunnels, and where the engine smoke went to.

Patriot Threat by Steve Berry. I wonder where Berry lives. Let me check...the book does not say, I will not look it up. Ex-spy chases after stolen documents in Europe. 

Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf. Haruf sets another novel in small town Eastern Colorado.  Haruf died in 2014. Did someone finish this for him?  Let me see...it doesn't say. I presume he finished the book before he died.

Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker. Does this have one of those black-and-white author portraits that Barker's husband does? Let me see...Nope, it's a color photo and says "Courtesy of the author." Dang, I must have seen that B&W photo on an old book because there were lawsuit issues between those two in 2012.

What Burns Away by Melissa Falcon Field. I'm not sure what this is about. Sounds like some deeply depressed woman is self-destructive. I wonder where Field is from.  Let's see...Huh. She lives in Madison.  It also says she spends her summer in Maine. I went to Maine once.

NonFiction

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.  I always mix up McCullough with James M. McPherson. McPherson is 3 years younger at 78-years-old. Where does McClullough live? I do not know, let's see...McCullough lives in an underwater lair under the coast of Jamaica and he directs his minions using a radio transmitter hidden within a buoy.

More Fiction, Volume One

Fiction

Seveneves by Neal Stevenson. Some sort of SciFi thing. I've not read his other books.

Worm by Anthony Neil Smith. Newcomer to the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota runs into trouble. Of course he runs into trouble, it's a Smith novel.

Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille. I think it would be funny if someone screwed up the title as Radian Angle and it went to print that way.

Double Down by Fern Michaels. One of her Sisterhood books. The same author photo with Michaels on a couch with her dogs. Michaels philanthropy is impressive.

Piranha by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison. Another Cussler novel, another cover with flames and boats.

The Jesus Cow by Michael Perry. Farmer has a cow bearing bearing the image of Jesus. Laughter ensues.

I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter.  Hunter writes about Jack The Ripper. I guess he won't add in his usual Remington .308 sniper rifle with it's 168 grain boat tail sniper hard as nails sniper GRRRRR! stuff.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik. This needs a "New" sticker. Hey! Novik is married to the great Charles Ardai, founder of Hard Case Crime!

NonFiction

Find the Good: unexpected life lessons from a small-town obituary writer by Heather Lende.  Page 47 says, "He decalred he wasn't going to hassle with any so-called inflatable suspenders."

Artful Canary Cats

Mysteries

Li'l Tom and the Pussyfoot Foot Detective Bureau: the case of the Parrots Desparecidos by Angela Crider Neary. Some sort of cat mystery, alligator presence is undetermined. I used to check out her blog that had photos of spots in the Bay Area. I cannot find that site but she has some on Facebook.


Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths. Norfolk England with a dead guy in a WWII era fighter plane.

Ming Tea Murder by Laura Childs.  Childs has three mystery series. Huh. She must have fans pestering her for more books because that's a lot of books to write.

Tail Gait by Rita Mae Brown. I refuse to list a cat as co-author. This cover has a silhouetted cat holding a cheer pom-pom. I kinda recall doing a silhouette art project in elementary school.

I Need A Coffee by Give Me A Minute.




Canary by Duane Swierczynski. I've always enjoyed Swizziricivxz's books. An Honors Student is forced into being confidential informant for the police and she runs into trouble. Everyone in Swizxixiccxz novels run into trouble.

NonFiction

Bound: over 20 artful handmade books by Erica Ekrem.  And yet this is a paperback. Page 85 says, "Draw the needle out through sewing station 5."