Some Audio Books and Some Photos

Audio Books on CD

Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton. 7CDs at 8 hours. Convict gets early release from prison and goes under the thumb of a crime lord.

Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick. 11 CDs at 13.5 hours.  in 1776 G. Washington was retreating across Manhattan while B. Arnold was winning battles up north. The divergent paths of both generals as the war continued.

Grunt: the curious science of humans at war by Mary Roach. 7CDs at 9 hours. The effect of hearing loss, zippers for snipers, etc.

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. 6CDs at 7.5 hours. More fiction from the fab duo.

The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer. 9CDs at 10 hours. Woman awakes with memory loss and rediscovers her immediate past was kinda sketchy.

Beer Money: a memoir of privilege and loss by Frances Stroh. 6CDs at 6.5 hours. A life of privilege as a beer heiress outside Detroit. As Detroit collapsed so did the family's business and fortune.

Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry. 5CDs at 6 hours. Woman discovers her sister's murdered corpse. Woman does not trust the cops and starts to poke around.

Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. 11CDs at 12.5 hours. 13-year-old boy disappears in a state forest and his mother, understandably, freaks out.


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Local Color

Scout Dunk Tank at Town and Country Days at the end of June.









I need to fix the staff kitchen sink.


We are hosting a John Muir exhibit of eight panels produced by Wisconsin Historical Society.


Summer Reading Program game day.

Slow Saturday.

Slow Saturday

Some Audiobooks, Some Novels, Some NF DVDs

DVD

Stop Bullying with Mike Hall.




Keeping the Fire Alive. I thought this might go out.




Fiction

Magic by Danielle Steel. Romance in Paris with rich people doing rich people things. I've never been to Paris, but I've seen it on TV.


Someone Always Knows by Marcia Muller. A private eye novel.

Make Me Love You by Johanna Lindsey. Two feuding men are told to marry from each other's families to end the feud. Romance novel.

Audiobooks on CD

The Highland Countess by Marion Chesney.

Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt.  OSwalt moved to Los Angeles and watched A LOT of old films at the New Beverly Cinema.

Schooled by Lorelei James. James's romances with sex get checked out a lot.

Patriot Threat by Steve Berry. A thriller filling a gap in our collection.

A Bunch of Discs

A Collection of Plastic Platters Embedded with Digital Data That Is Converted to Sound By Magic Computer Boxes



We had three boxes of donations. I pulled the discs that I thought would go out.  Here is a selected list of tunes from the items shown.

Stand Up Comics and a Murder

DVD

Uncle John starring John Ashton. Psychological thriller of a missing man and a surprise suspect. Filmed near Lodi, Wisconsin.


Daniel Tosh, People Pleaser by Daniel Tosh. Stan up comic does stand up comedy.


Brian Regan Live from Radio City Music Hall by Brian Regan. Stand up comic tells jokes while standing up.


Fiction

The Games: a Private novel by Mark Sullivan and James Patterson Amalgamated Literary Indisdustries. Security company guy works at the Olympics in Brazil.

Fiction

Fiction

The Mandibles: a family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver. Family in the future lives through an economic collapse and depression.

We Were Never Here by Jennifer Gilmore. 16-year-old girl is in the hospitable when teenage boy visits as volunteer.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. Older daughter runs the house for her scientist father and uppity younger sister. Scientist father tries to convince her to marry his lab assistant to prevent the assistant's deportation.

The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. Goldberg has a new novel? Gee, I'd never have guessed from his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Musical Musics

Composers Compose, Singers Sing, Musicians Play, Engineers Record and Magic Computer Discs Deliver the Sound

A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead. Englishmen sing songs of being hip and being mistaken for Robert Carlyle.


Last Year Was Complicated by Nick Jonas. Amerinan singer sings songs of pop and keeping short hair. I was listening to this and enjoyed the songs.

Two Flicks

DVD

The Driftless Area starring Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel.Guy meets mysterious woman and things happen. I just read the 2006 novel this is based off and I enjoyed the book quite a bit.


When Calls the Heart starring Erin Krakow, Lori Loughlin, others. Some sort of romance-y thing with a Canadian Mountie and women with nice hair. Several films based off Janette Oke stories. Oke was hugely popular at the public library I worked at in KS 20 years ago. I'm not sure if Canadians were hugely popular. Or Mounties.

A Movie, Some Books

DVD

The Young Messiah starring Sean Freaking Bean. Sean Freaking Bean is in this, so you'll watch it anyway.


NonFiction

Give Us the Ballot: the modern struggle for voting by Ari Berman. The Voting Rights Act and what followed.

1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs - the election that changed the country by James Chace. I guess the subtitle tells you enough about the topic.

Large Print

Large Print

A Bunch of Discs and Larry Watson

Recorded Sounds Are Played Back Through Electronic Gagdets

Love You To The Death by Tegan and Sara. Canadian women sing songs of love.



Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande. American woman sings songs of love. And danger.


I Still Do by Eric Clapton. English guitarist sings songs.


Now That's What I Call Music 58 by [various], [Various] sing songs of [various].

Ash and Ice by The Kills. English duo sing my recent earworm.



DVD

When Calls the Heart: heart of a hero starring [actors]. I'm not sure what this is about. The cover says, "Canadian Mountie gets married and bearded man argues with bowler hat wearing man."


Fiction

As Good As Gone by Larry Watson.

The Course of Love by Alain De Botton. 

More Charlie Stella

Fiction

Tommy Red by Charlie Stella. Mob hit man gets into a snafu.  This novel is only 165 pages long. Since this is a Stella novel you can bet it's 165 pages of greatness.

The Alaskan Laundry by Brendan Jones. Young woman flees Cleveland family trouble and works as commercial fisherman in Alaska.

The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. Science fiction.

The Girls by Emma Cline. Young woman in Northern California is drawn to an exciting and free group of people. She doesn't realize she is getting involved with a cult.

Brighton by Michael Harvey.  Guy goes to hometown to help a friend who 27-years-ago took the blame for a crime.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx. Two indentured servants go to Canada and work as woodcutters and Proulx follows their descendants over 300 years.

NonFiction

American Law 101: an easy primer on the U.S. legal system by Jasper Kim. #1, have lots of money.

Bills, Quills, and Stills: an annotated, illustrated, and illuminated history of the Bill of Rights by Robert J. McWhirter.  Neat stuff.

Fairy Tale baking: more than 50 enchanting cakes, bakes, and decorations by Ramla Khna. Lots of pretty pictures.

Fiction, 8-14. With random passages!

Fiction

The Fireman by Joe Hill. "The fire whistled and seethed."

Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica. "I say that I like it."

A Hero of France by Alan Furst. "It was the jolly tune that did it."

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillan. "I let out a sigh of relief."

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. "The farmers market was busy already."

Winterings by Peter Geye. "Harry's my friend, and if he's divorcing you, it's because you've failed him and made him miserable."

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley. "Lily shakes her head and her ears flap and she licks her chops."

Fiction, 1-7. With author photo commentary!

Fiction

Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham. Something in the "Krewe of Hunters" series. Graham has glamorous hair in her author photo.

Cavendon Luck by Barbara Taylor Bradford. Nice cover design.  Bradford's author photo is almost full body, that's kinda neat.

End of Watch by Stephen King. Trilogy sequel to Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. Black and white author photo. The photo is tiny, too.

Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi. 300 years a Ghanian history from life in Ghana to the people sold into slavery overseas. Another black and white photo. It looks like Gyasi is wearing a grey shirt. But is she? There is no colors in the photo to tell.

Dishonorable Intentions by Stuart Woods. Snake on the cover. Same author photo on the back.

Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger. I like the title and the cover design. I have not yet read an Unger book. I have seen her photo. Looks like the photo was taken in late afternoon. I think she is wearing purple.

The Children by Ann Leary. Leary is wearing grey for her photo. The grey garment kinda looks like a rain coat. The photographer spells her first name "Cathrine". No, it's not a raincoat Leary has on, it's a duster. Another Leary photo is on White's webpage. According to that web page Leary does a lot of work in black and white and photos plenty of celebrities.

NonFic and Mystery

Mystery

The Highwayman by Craig Johnson. The cover says, "A Longmire story." This is 190 pages so maybe it is more of a novella.

Death at Breakfast by Beth Gutcheon. That does not sound appetizing.  Two retired women visit Maine for a 5-day cooking course. Murder happens.

NonFiction

The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman. The cover is fantastic. The Clark's nutcracker can hide as many as 30,000 seeds of dozens of square miles and still find them.

A Good Month for Murder: the inside story of a homicide squad by Del Quentin Wilber. I read a nice review. The author hung out with a murder squad in Prince George's County outside D.C. He focuses on February, 2013 with twelve homicides. No photos. No photos?!

Ordinarily Well: the case for antidepressants by Peter D. Kramer. This had a nice review as well. Author works at Brown Medical School. I cannot recall where Brown is located. New Jersey? Connecticut? Rhode Island? It's somewhere over there and I am too busy to look it up. (But, not too busy to ponder and type.)

Grunt: the curious science of humans at war by Mary Roach. Roach is popular. I've never read one of the books but they sound neat. A photo at the head of each chapter.

A Bunch of Movies, Some With Trailers

DVD

Peanuts Movie starring Charlie Brown. I've not seen this.

Jem and the Holograms starring Molly Ringwald. I've not seen this and I hope I never will.

Hyena Road starring Paul Gross. Canadian guy makes war movie about Afghanistan war.


Driftless Area starring Anton Yelchin. Guy goes to hometown for parents funeral, meets a woman, meets a criminal. Is this set in Wisconsin or not? "Driftless Area" can mean any place without glacial drift.


Man Up starring Simon Pegg. I don't know what this is about. The cover design says "Straight laced dude in London meets wacky woman."

Room starring Brie Larson. Man, this sure looks depressing.

The Vvitch starring [actors]. Hey, that's the way they spell the title on the cover. The title and font were not my idea.


Garage Sale Mystery: All That Glitters starring Lori Laughlin. I guarantee this flick will circ.


Triple 9 starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. The cover says, "Some sort of crime movie with case." Ejiofor is one heck of an actor.


The Program starring Ben Foster. The story of Lance Armstrong. Some guy who works at Trek said Armstrong would visit Waterloo and demand to see all the neat new stuff. The engineers would have a spare shelf of stuff for whenever Armstrong visited. Armstrong would make his demand and a guy would produce something and say, "Here is something brand new we've been working on."


Risen starring Joseph Fiennes. Something about Easter, I think.

Arrow: complete third season starring [actor with lots of muscles]. My wife watches this show and Flash. I cannot tell the two programs apart unless one of the heroes is on screen with his costume.

Hail, Caesar starring [big name actors]. Someone gets kidnapped? That's what the trailers implied.

Rotating Plastic Discs

Rotating Plastic Discs Produce Music and Singing

Fallen Angels by Bob Dylan.  Singer sings old songs in new album. Bill Crider posted to some dude's ranking of Dylan albums. I was okay with the dude's top three, he put this record at #29 of 37. I like this tune.


A Cure For Loneliness by Peter Wolf. Singer sings songs of rock. Wolf is 70 years old. That is five years younger than Dylan.


Rotating Plastic Discs Produce a Narrator's Voice.

The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr. Philip with one "l". I've heard one or two Kerr novels featuring character Bernard Gunther. I enjoyed the stories.

Rotating Plastic Discs Produce Sound and Images

Around the Corner with John McGivern: Lake Mills. The TV show that aired a few months ago and I still have not watched. Hey, Dunedin, it's available online, too, if you've got nothing else to do.

Therapy Dogs Last Saturday

Woof

Seven Super Slivers of Satisfying Stories

Fiction

Smoke by Dan Vyleta.Cover illustration makes it look like a novel about smoggy London. I was reading the other day how the famous London fog was a result of air pollution. Once Britain began improving air quality the fog went away.

Unloaded: crime writers writing without guns edited by Eric Beetner. I read something about this online. Patti Abbott has a story in here, so I probably saw something from her. I just saw a type error in the book. I should email someone and bitterly complain. Author love when you do that. Authors also really like you to email them about gun-related errors.

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler. Brokenn wine glass on the cover. We have a lot of chipped plates at home. The set we bought is not durable. We're not inclined to replace the dishes because are children are still young.

The Sorcerer's Daughter: the defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Swords, daggers, women in wispy dresses. When I was in middle and high school I tore through Brooks's first novels. Lots of adventure and wizardy things.

Seven Days Dead by John Farrow. More great Canadian crime fiction from Farrow. Farrow also writes under his real name, Trevor Someorother. Let me look that up... Ferguson. Trevor Ferguson.  The library owns the DVD of Ferguson's novel The Timekeeper. It's a pretty decent flick, too bad this trailer is poor quality.


The Last Ranch by Michael McGarrity. Another modern Western by McGarrity. A post-WWII rancher is facing a land grab from the federal government.

Three Novels

Fiction

The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton. Guy gets out of prison twenty years early through help of a crime lord. Now he has to do whatever the crime lord says.I read Hamilton's Lock Artist, it was good. Oh, hey! I just found out I read another book of Hamilton's A Cold Day in Paradise. I have a paperback copy of that sitting around at home.

Tall Tail by Rita Mae Brown. I refuse to list a cat as a co-author. 

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani. "After" party? Man, I never go to party parties. I exercise in the basement and then drink bar while wasting time online.

Stuff. Musical Interludes.

Fiction

The Sympathizer by Viet Thang Nguyen. Pulitzer for fiction. Former Vietnamese Army guy is a spy in the United States. that reminds me of the band Animal Logic. The drummer was Stewart Copeland.




Beyond the Ice Limit by Preston and Child. Something about water? That's what the cover says. Song reminder? How about another Neil Finn tune?




Boar Island by Nevada Barr. Where is Boar Island? Let's see... supposedly near Acadia National Park in Maine. Hmm, any Maine songs come to mind? Nope. What about bulls?


Blood Flag by Steve Martini. Flag songs, flag songs, flag songs. Nothing there either.

NonFic

Dehydrating at Home: getting the best from your dehydrator, from fruit leathers to meat jerkies by Michelle Keogh.  Lots of pretty pictures. Good thing too, because I cannot think of dehydrator songs.




Menopause Solution by Stephanie S. Faubio, MD. Well, Faubio is kinda close to Fabian.

Wisconsin History

Non Fiction

Wisconsin Agriculture: a history by Jerry Apps. Lots of photos. Cheese, wheat, wine, cranberries, honey, other things that are eaten.  Ginseng is mentioned. So is muck farming. Good, I still don't know what the heck a muck farm is.

Polka Heartland: why the Midwest loves to polka by Dick Blau and Rick March. Page 143 says, "In the 1960s, the music of Lojze Slak was played frequently on Slovenian American ethnic radio programs."

Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: photographs by the first American female war corresponded killed in action by John Garofolo. A biography of Milwaukee native Chappele's told by using her photographs.  Chappelle was killed in Vietnam in 1965.

Native People of Wisconsin by Patty Loew. A new, updated edition.

Ship Captain's Daughter: growing up on the Great Lakes by Ann M. Lewis. Her father worked, and then captained, ships on the Great Lakes starting in the '30s. A slim volume.

DVD

A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps. "Remembering country winters."


Remarkable Homes of Wisconsin. Video tour of fancy places. I tried to find a video of a jokey home tour Steve Martin gave back in the early to mid-'80s. I failed.



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Deadpool and Some Novels

DVD

Deadpool starring Guy in Red. Cursing and violence and jokes. I've not yet seen it.



Blu-Ray

Deadpool starring High Definition Guy in Red. High definition cursing violence and jokes.



Fiction

Prayers The Devil Answers by Sharyn McCrumb. Widow becomes sheriff in 1936. Things happen.

LaRose by Louise Erdrich. Man kills his best friend's five-year-old son in hunting accident. Man ancient rules he gives his own son to the other family. Things happen.

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A Few NonFics, A SciFi and Fiction

NonFiction

The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. I'm not sure what this book is about but it is on the best seller list.

The Comedians: drunks, thieves, scoundrels, and the history of American comedy by Kliph Nesteroff. I heard an interview with this guy. He had many neat stories about comedians and how the business worked from the days of burlesque and vaudeville through to radio and television.

Crochet 101: master basic skills and techniques easily through step-by-step instruction by Deborah Burger.  Crochet and quilting books do fairly well here. A new beginner's guide like this one might do well.

Epilogue by Will Boast. Boast's short story collection of a few years ago was very good. After Boast's father died Boast found out the man had a first family in England.

Fiction

Brush of Wings by Karen Kingsbury.  A romance? Kingsbury specializes in Christian romance doesn't she?  The cover illustration is not for me. Kingsbury has a big smile for her author photo. She should have a full page author photo, she sells tons of novels.

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom. Ooh, this has a map on the endpapers. Escaped slave is living as white aristocrat in Philadelphia but has to travel back to North Carolina.

Archangel by Marguerite Reed. SciFi novel with people colonizing another planet running into money trouble and dealing with newcomers who may just pollute the new planet.

Reed's Facebook posts keep ending up on my feed because of JD Rhoades "likes" and comments. (We have a few Rhoades books here as well.) I suppose I could mess with the Facebook settings to stop all the "likes" from showing up. Yesterday's Facebook feed was filled with Mother's Day posts by people I have never met.  Anyway. I ordered Reed's book.

I think Reed lives north of Wichita. My family's spring break visit to KS did not include driving all over the state like our usual summer visits. We've seen just about every dang zoo in the state. Plus the Kansas Cosmosphere. And Cowtown. And Exploration Place. And Aviation Museum. And Strataca Salt Mine. And Brookville Hotel. And Kansas Motorcycle Museum. And Coronado Heights. And every single Dala horse in Lindsborg.

I suppose we can try Abilene next time. The Greyhound Museum and Eisenhower Library are there. The coffee place in Lindsborg makes a nice Cuban Coffee.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. The cover says "World War Two in London."

American Blood by Ben Sanders. New Zealand crime novelist writes a novel set in New Mexico.

Eleven Novels

Fiction

Giving Up The Ghost by Mac McCoy. Mystery paperback with a widow who can talk to dead victims and solve murders. I bought this because we don't get many paperback only books. I also bought this because the author is from KS.

Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian. Don't we have this already? Let me check ... Nope, this is our only copy. Orhan's grandfather dies and leaves the rug business to a woman in far away Los Angeles.

15th Affair by James Patterson Literary Industries, Amalgamated and Maxine Paetro. Paetro works a lot of Patterson. This series is popular.

Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo.  Russo has a follow up to his novel Nobody's Fool. I watched the film version of Nobody's Fool and didn't see what the big deal was. The main character was not a lovable rascal, he was a deadbeat who left his family.

Unwound by Lorelei James.  Romance novel by Lori Armstrong under her romance pen name. Oh, wait. Maybe Armstrong was the pen name. Let me check ... I was correct. Armstrong is her real name.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick.  Widower travels the world to find out his wife's life before they met and married. Maybe she was a spy. Or an assassin. Or a bank robber. That is what happens in most of the books I read.

Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman. Guess who hasn't read a Lippman book yet? [points at self] This guy. Megan Abbott speaks very highly of Lippman. I pay attention to Abbott's opinion.

The Girl From Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux. I like the cover. I don't like most romance-y covers.

Redemption Road by John Hart.  I like this cover as well. Hart won two Edgar Awards in a row. Wow. That is impressive.

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman.  Backman is Swedish. His author bio says his novels have been sold in twenty-five languages and that he lives with his wife and two children. I misread that as "He lives with his wife and 25 children."

The Apartment by Danielle Steel. I still want to stick and "e" on the end of Steel.

Your New Ear Worm

Computer Magic Decodes Digital Information Into Sound Waves

The Hope Six Demolition Project by PJ Harvey. English Woman sings songs of economic inequity.






Harvey does not have tour dates for Wisconsin or New Zealand.

More Harris Vampires

Fiction

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris. A surge in suicides in super small Midnight, TX (24 buildings, one is abandoned) gets vampire Lemuel investigating. Harris has her author photo taking the complete back cover. That makes sense, she's sold tons of books.

DVD

Jane Got A Gun starring Padme Amidala and Obi Wan-Kenobi. Padme is living on the western plains with her family. Her husband comes home riddled with bullets, courtesy Obi Wan. More trouble ensues.


Krampus starring Toni Collette. Scary things happen.


Audiobook on CD

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. 14 hours at 11 CDs.  Bryson goes around England and tells you what happened.

Extrreme Secrets Hide Fast at the 42nd Street Library

DVD

Banshee: the complete 3rd season starring Antony Starr, Ivana Milicevic, Frankie Faison. I watched the first season of this on Amazon Prime. It's a fun show. An ex-con assumes the identity of a newly hired Sheriff in Pennsylvania. Never mind how no one ever met the real guy, or that Sheriffs are elected, or how so many people keep getting killed. It's still fun.



Fiction

Murder at the 42nd Street Library by Con Lehane. Here is everyone's first question, "Is this guy related to Dennis Lehane?"  Heck if I know. This is his fourth crime novel. NYPL Librarian solves a crime at the central library with scholars and writers as suspects.

Extreme Prey by John Sandford.  Someone gets killed.

City of Secrets by Stewart O'Nan. This is O'Nan's 17th novel. O'Nan's author photo is small and black-and-white.

Fast and Loose by Fern Michaels. The space bar on my key board has something stuck under it. Words keep running together asItype.

Hide Away by Iris Johansen. Same author as her last novel. I really like the cover art. Woman is striking a determiend hands-on-hips pose on a boulder at the water's edge of a fjord. Some guy is stanind up in a canoe and paddling over. Standing in a canoe? What the heck?

Here Is A DVD

DVD

The Lady In The Van starring Prof. McGonagall, Alex Jennings. Older woman parks her van in a man's driveway and she stays there for 15 years. Here is the German trailer. German is not available on the DVD but you can listen to the French, Portuguese and Thai versions.

47 Discs with Musical Interludes

DVD

Skyfall starring James Bond. I shouldn't list this one. The DVD needed a replacement case and it was on our processing cart. But, I've typed this far so I might as well add a video clip.



Audiobooks on CD

Dictator by Robert Harris. 14 hours on 11 CDs.  Cicero is exiled from Rome and his family but returns to Rome and prominence.



Deep Blue by Randy Wayne White. 8.5 hours on 7 CDs. Secret spy living in South Florida is threatened by ISIS.

The Wolves by Alex Berenson. 11.5 hours on 9 CDs. This novel and Deep Blue (above) have the same narrator, George Guidall. CIA guy looks for revenge on billionaire who tried to start a war with Iran.


The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. 1 hours on 9 CDs. Didn't we have this already? Guess not.



Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase. 12 hours on 10 CDs.  English woman want sto marry at old family estate. Family history concerns her.

Wisconsin Author Plus Four More People

Wisconsin

The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton. I read a review of this novel this morning in the New York Times Book Review. Apple farmers and family dynamics. Hamilton's author photo does not show a wrist watch.

Fiction

'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick. That title just sounds like a romance, doesn't it?  A woman match maker in Victorian England is getting odd threats and asks a crime novelist for help. The male novelist is skeptical. No wrist watch on Quick's author photo. Is quick her real name? I cannot keep all her real name and pen names separate.

The Last Mile by David Baldacci. No wrist watch for Baldacci's photo. His arms are not even showing.

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. Curtis is a female. The only other Curtis I know is a 10-year-old who gets in trouble at Cub Scout Pack meetings because he and another child named Ian are mischievous. Ms. Sittenfeld's author photo is also missing a wrist watch.  This is  'brilliant and playful' retelling of Pride and Prejudice.

Maestra by L.S. Hilton.  Nope, no wrist watch  for her photo. Woman turns femme fatale to climbup the ranks of London society.

One Flick

DVD

The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. I still have not seen this. I read the novel by Punke. The novel was recommended by someone who said it was the best book he ever read. Well... it wasn't that good but it was pretty decent. After I read the book I looked PUnk eup to see if he had any more novels. Nope, no novels but he has had an interesting careeer.

Music Lingo

Notes Are Sung, Notes Are recorded, Notes Are Played Back For Your Enjoyment

Love Yes by TEEN. Singers sing something. I don't know what this is, I saw an advert and figured "What the hey."


Bang Zoom Crazy Hello by Cheap Trick. Singers from Rockford, Illinois sing rock with one of the greatest rock singers ever, Zander


Audiobooks on CD

Kiss Me in Christmas by Debbie Mason. 8 hours on 7 CDs. Big time actress still lusts for rugged high school quarterback.

X: the truth is out there: the X-Files series, book 2 edited by Jonathan Maberry. Short stories based on the TV show's characters. I heard the first edition and enjoyed it.

NonFiction

Lingo: around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren.  All the multiple languages and dialects spoken in Europe and their relationships over time. Including Breton, Maltese, Frisian, Romansh, etc.

Large Print

Lilac Girls Programming Obsession

Fiction

The Obsession by Nora Roberts. Photographer's father abducted a girl when photographer was also a girl. I think.

Most Wanted by Lisa Scottoline. Woman sees her sperm donor's photo on TV after his arrest for murder. Things happen, I suppose. Scottoline's author photo is the same as the last book or two.Her photo is on the inside of the dust cover to make room for all the praise on the back.

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly. The cover photo is three women walking arm in arm. That keeps making me think this book has multiple authors, but it doesn't. Kelly's author photo is by a guy named Jeffrey.

The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King. I almost always see King's name and try to remember if she is Stephen King's wife. She is not Stephen King's wife, that is Tabitha King. Laurie R. King's husband passed away in 2009. Her husband had a very interesting and varied career and a big beard.

The 14th Colony by Steve Berry. I'm not sure what this is about. The front cover says "historical fiction". The back cover says "author photo". Berry's photo has him wearing a grey suit coat. I'm not sure what you call that kind of material.

Musical Interlude

How has this CD circ'ed only one time? Sinkane's 2014 album is Mean Love.


NonFiction

Programming the Photon: getting started with the internet of things by Christopher Rush. Program your stuff.

Big Girl: how I gave up dieting and got a life by Kelsey Miller. The small bio says Miller lives in Brooklyn. The small author photo says Miller was outside for the photo.

Quicken: 2016 the official guide by Bobbi Sandberg. Learn your software. Sandberg has been teaching this stuff for over 30 years.

The Ulitmate Star Wars Treadmill Workout

DVD

Star Wars: the force awakens starring Chewbacca. Space people use laser swords. We have two DVD and two BluRay copies. I had no idea there was another Star Wars film coming out in a few months.


SketchUp: a design guide for woodworkers by Joe Zeh. Dovetail sockets, splayed pieces, explode tool.

Knock-Em Dead: the ultimate job search guide 2016 by Martin Yate. Page 383 says, "Skyper interviews, 159-61."

Crack the Code: decrypting your job search by Reid A. Robison and Joseph Ellsworth. Pgae 77 says, "Far too many students miss the opportunity to bond with a professor."

QuickBooks 2016 by Bobbie Sandberg and Leslie Capachietti. Capachietti, that is a difficult name for me to type.

The Ultimate Treadmill Workout by David Siik. I should try this out. I wonder if I could program my machine rather than hit buttons all the time.

2016 National Building Cost Manual, 40th Edition edited by Ben Moselle. Whoah. A mid-range quality garage at 600 square feet is $25,662.

The Complete Guide to Walls and Ceilings by Black and Decker. Page 33 says, "Hold the saw vertically to prevent damage to the door jamb or wall."

2016 National Repair and Remodeling Estimator, 39th edition by Albert S. Paxton. Did this guy write it all himself? There is a ton of data in here to update and verify.

The Homemade Workshop: Build Your Own Woodworking Machines and Jigs by James Hamilton. Build a dual stage drum stander out of plywood, fasteners, and an old DC motor.

Blacksmithing Techniques by Jose Antonio Ares. Step-by-step for same lame projects like candelabras. But, once you learn the skills you can do neat things like maces, helmets, battering rams, and metal dog sculptures.

Many More NonFic

NonFic

Personal Finance for Professionals by Susan A Berson. Aimed at younger adults. First time with a decent salary but plenty of debts to pay.

Civil Rights for Beginners by Paul von Blum. Dang. I thought this was a comics version. Nope. Just has black and white drawings. Covers the early 20th Century through the present.

How to Talk to Your Kids About Divorce by Dr. Samantha Rodman. This reminds me of a Family Circus cartoon where Dolly runs inside the house "[Friend's name] family is getting a divorce! Can we get one too?"

Investing 101 by Michele Cagan, CPA.  "Cuts out the boring explanations, and instead provides a hands-on lesson that keeps you engaged as learn how to build a portfolio and expand your savings."

You Did What?!: the biggest blunders professionals make by Kim Zoller and Kerry Preston. Page 78 says, "Scarves should be color coordinated and enhance the suit."

Crack the Code: decrypting your job search by Reid A. Robison and Joseph Ellsworth. That title reminds me of a song but I cannot quite put the tune together. Here's Donnie Iris instead.



CompTIA Network+ by Mike Meyers and Jonathan Weissman.  Page 355 says, "Technologies ... on the ... network ... recall ... the ... first-generation ... family."

More Made-Up Stories

Fiction

Miller's Valley by Anna Quindlen. One semester in college the student union was showing a ton of films during finals. I went and saw Miller's Crossing at 10PM or 11PM, or something. I really enjoyed that flick.


As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark.  I don't think Clark writes her books any more. After so many books her new novels just come out of her head fully formed and edited. Clark just types the text, has someone check for typos and they send the doc straight to the printing house.

Family Jewels by Stuart Woods. Woods is wearing tortoiseshell glasses and a cotton shirt for his author photo.

Dominion: the chronicles of the invaders by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard. Is the Irish Connolly  or the Los Angeles Connolly? Let me check ... he's the Irish guy. Ridyard grew up in South Africa. That reminds me that I need to read more Deon Meyers and Roger Smith novels.

Last of the New

Fiction

No Safe Secret by Fern Michaels. The cover has a lot of yellow. The cover looks like a 1970s romance.

Darkness by Karen Robards. This is all pink with some orange and the cursive text makes it look like a 1980s novel.

NonFiction

Infectious Madness: the surprising science of how we "catch" mental illness by Harriet A. Washington. Megan Abbott wrote a fine novel about "catching" hysterical illnesses, The Fever.

The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: an essential guide for the newly diagnosed, third edition by Gretchen Baker. Covering diet, exercise importance, insurance, glucose testing, etc. I don't think Megan Abbott has written a diabetes book.

21 Days to Success with LinkedIn by Ron Sukenick and Ken Williams. A customer asked about this topic a couple weeks ago so I ordered this book.

Nolo's Essential Guide to Child Custody and Support, 3rd edition by Emily Doskow. I think Doskow writes a lot of these legal guides. Let me check ... yep, nine books to her name.

101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions by Ron Fry. Our other guides are dated and need replacement. Page 107 says, "How often do you get angry?"

The Marketing Plan handbook: develop big-picture marketing plans for pennies on the dollar, 2nd edition by Robert W. Bly. Page 203 says, "make a seemingly contradictory statement or promise."

The Angst of Adolescence: how to parent your teen (and live to laugh about it) by Sara Villenueva, PhD. Page 67 says, "This is a real problem."

Temperament Tools: working with your child's inborn traits, revised edition by Helen Neville and Diane Clark Johnson. Cute children on the cover.

101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview by Ron Fry. Same author, different book.

Body Weight Workouts for Men: 75 anytime, anywhere exercises to build a better body by Sean Bartram. Three levels of difficulty with many photographs of guys doing exercises.

Going to Court: an introduction to the U.S. Justice System by Ursula Furi-Perry. Easy to read guide written by a lawyer from Massachusetts.

Even More, The Do-It-Yourself Edition

NonFiction

DIY Updos, Knots and Twists by Melissa Cook. This book has a lot of photos of hair. Including the Inverted Fishtail Updo and the Braided Mohawk.

10-Minute Hairstyles by Andre Martens. German author teaches you how to make an Updo With A Spiral Twist on page 110. Many photos of hair models.

1-2-3 Magic: effective discipline for children 2-12 by Thomas W. Phelan, PhD. Smiling people on the cover. I just read a tip and should try it out.

Linux Administration: a beginner's guide, 7th edition by Wale Soyinka. I still don't know what a "kernel" is.

The Everything Guide to Homeschooling by Sherri Linsenbach. No pictures in this one.

Tiling: a homeowner's guide by Joseph Truini. Many photos. I need to re-grout part of our shower. I wonder if that is covered. Let me see ... yep, pages 234-236.

All New Building Decks by the editors of FineHomeBuilding. I have a deck that needs replacement as well. I also need my garage roof shingled. The garage painted. The garage re-leveled. Some garage wood replaced. Insulation put in the house's upstairs walls. New windows in my bedroom and laundry room. New carpet in the laundry room. The list goes on.

Still Catching Up - Here Are Cookbooks

NonFiction

So Fast, So Easy Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger with Julie Kaufman. 725 recipes. Page 308 says, "Spread meat ... adding ... cumin seeds ... lock the lid ... customize."

The Big Book of Diabetic Recipes by Marie Feldman, RD, CDE. 500 recipes including "lamb and root vegetable tagine". Tagine?

Brownies, Blondies and Bars by Stephanie Brubaker. This cookbook has plenty of pretty pictures. The previous two books do not.

Vegan Delights by Toni Rodriguez. 88 recipes with many pretty pictures. Author is a Spaniard. Author has a tattoo that says vegana.

No Experience Necessary: the culinary odyssey of chef by Norman van Aken. 20 years of restaurant work. He has a restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando.

Best Side Dishes Ever by Monica Sweeney. Page 38 says, "Preheat oven to 425F."

The Gluten Free Slow Cooker by Hope Comerford.  Author lives near Detroit and has short hair. Page 141 says, "With ... ingredients ... bean salad ... bring ... jazzing ... lemon juice."

The 'I Love My Nutri Bullet' Recipe Book by Britt Brandon, CFNS, CPT. No pretty food photographs in this one.

Dairy-Free Delicious by Katy Salter. Many pretty food photos but not every other page like some books.

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Many, Many Novels

Fiction

Out of the Blues by Trudy Nan Boyce. Debut crime novel by retired Atlanta Police Officer. Homicide Detective gets cold case of a dead blues musician. Page 133 says, "The band was back on, starting out the set low and steady."

A Painted Goddess by Victor Gischler. Third novel in Gischlers fantasy trilogy. With swords, magical tattoos, bad guys, good guys, jokes, and horses. Page 328 says, "Maurizan and Hank went down from the hillocks to get the news."

The Passenger by Lisa Lutz. Hey, isn't Lutz going to be in Milwaukee again this fall for Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee? Page 174 says, "I decided the ID could work."  I figured Lutz would have a huge author photo considering she sells a lot of books. Nope, just the regular head shot.

The Widow by Fiona Barton. Widow comes clean about her suspected husband. Barton is English and lives in southwest France. Her author photo was taken outside. The weather looks very nice.

Too Many Books. Here Is A Photo.

I Was on Vacation, Here is Another Lansdale

Audiobooks on CD

Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty. 10.5 hours on 9 CDs. Crime novel in Ireland. I think. A locked room mystery.

The Gangster by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott.  9.5 hours on 8 CDs. Isaac Bell fights the Black Hand in 1906 New York City.

Honky Tonk Samurai by Joe R. Lansdale. 10 hours on 9 CDs. Hap and Leonard bust heads and get conned. The usual. Hap and Leonard tend to get hoodwinked.

DVD

The Hateful Eight starring Kurt Russell.  Some sort of western. I have not yet seen the flick.

The Iron Ministry by J.P. Sniadecki. China's railways serve a billion people amid an economic and technological boom.


The Hunger Games: the Mockingjay Part 2 starring Jennifer Lawrence. Girl sticks it to The Man.


Plastic Discs Carry the Sounds of Modern Music

Gimme Danger by various artists. Compilation CD from Mojo magazine with singers singing songs of "desert rock".


Ouroboros by Ray LaMontagne. This singer of songs circ's at Lake Mills.


We Can Do Anything by The Violent Femmes. Milwaukee people produce new album. The biography on Allmusic.com lists the recent lawsuits.


The Rough Guide to Americana by various artists. Various singers sing various songs about various Americana themes. Oh, hey! Robert earl Keene sings a Richard Thompson tune!


Hamilton: Original Broadway cast by Various Singing Actors. This is a big deal, right? I've not heard it yet.

Singh is Bling, Archer

DVD

Singh is Bling starring [Bollywood people]. Cinematic silliness.



Archer: season 6 starring [Voices]. Super spy is a super jerk with super laughs. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Snort.




Plastic Discs Carry Secret Computer Language That is Translated Into Music

This Unruly Mess I've Made by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Rapper raps the rap on moped rapping.



Post Pop Depression by Iggy Pop. Singer sings songs of post-punk Pop pop.



Fiction

Treachery at Lancaster Gate by Anne Perry. Treachery is not spelled with a U. Another mystery with the Pitt family investigating a bombing.

Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben. Harlan is also not spelled with a U. Pilot sees her dead husband on her nanny cam.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. D'Apriz is not spelled with a U either. Sweeney has a Twitter account. I'll check it out, wait here... she will be visiting Boston and was on NPR. I'm not sure what the book is about. I like the cover.

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. Summer in a sleepy Sussex town in 1914.

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Bimonthly Delivery from Patterson Amalgamated

Fiction

Private Paris by James Patterson Amalgamated Writing Services and Mark Sullivan. 

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier. My typing is worse than usual this morning. The novel is about a frontier family in Ohio and California. Chevalier's author photo was taken with a white background.

The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon. Another Commissario Brunetti mystery set in Venice. Maps are printed inside the front covers. Maps are cool.

Property of a Noblewoman by Danielle Steel. Romance. I always think Steel has an "E" on the end.

Two If By Sea by Jacqueline Mitchard. Mitchard used to live in Madison. If I remember correctly she moved to Massachusetts after an "investment manager" turned out to be a dirty thief. Mitchard is also a coffee fan. Novel's plot: U.S. vacationer in Brisbane loses his family in a tsunami but rescues as boy. Man takes Boy back to US.

Audiobook on CD

The Steel Kiss by Jefferey Deaver. 13 CDs at 14.5 hours.  Police detectives pursue killer.

NonFiction

Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline.  Page 203 says, After trying on everything at home, I decided to keep the shorts, and cast the rest back into the secondhand waste stream by donating them to a thrift store.

Double THRONES and Dounble SCHMIDT

DVD

Sisters starring Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Her John Leguizamo is in this, that guy is a good actor.


Game of Thrones: complete fifth season starring horses and swords. I ordered two copies.


The Big Short starring [famous actors]. Something about money and white collar dirtbags? I'm not sure, I didn't read the book.



Tangerine starring Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor. Prostitute gets out of County jail and hears her boyfriend cheated on her. She goes looking for him across Los Angeles.


Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: season one starring Ellie Kemper and Jane Krakowski. Woman is rescued from underground bunker and explores the world. Krakowski is a comic genius.

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More Lansdale, Yet Again.

Fiction

Steel Kiss by Jeffery Deaver. T. Jefferson Parker recently posted a photo of himself and Deaver at the Tucson Festival of Books.

Off The Grid by C.J. Box.  CJ Box was in the photo with Deaver and Parker.

Clawback by J.A. Jance. Jance was not in the photo with Deaver, Parker and Box. But, Jance still has a home in Tucson. I don't know if she attended the Festival. Maybe she decided to skip the crowds. Maybe she doesn't like the coffee there. Maybe she went in disguise so she wouldn't get hounded by fans.

Audiobooks on CD

Captains Outrageous by Joe R. Lansdale. 9 hours on 7CDs. Lansdale is booked to attend the Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee conference this autumn.

Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale. 5 hours on 5CDs. That conference always conflicts with the Cub Scout Pancake Breakfast and I've missed most or all of the conference the past five years or so.

The Revenant by Michael Punke. 9 hours on 8 CDs. I read this book a couple years ago. I don't know if Punke is writing anything new, last I looked he was lawyering in Switzerland.

Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale. 14 hours on 12 CDs. I'm hoping to finish clean-up at the Pancake Breakfast and drive over to Milwaukee. I think Victor Gischler is also scheduled to attend.

Who else will be there?

• Well, Todd Robinson is supposed to be there, I read one of his novels.
• Lisa Lutz came a couple years ago when I was able to attend the Friday evening session. Lutz is a great speaker.
• Brad Parks. I read 2-3 of his New Jersey set novels featuring a newspaper reporter.
• Timothy Hallinan is scheduled. Hallinan is kind of a Big Deal. I listened to a couple of his Junior Bender novels.
• I assume Tasha Alexander and her husband will be there. I think they drive up from Chicago each year. I still have not read any the husband's books. I keep intending to read one.

The Krays, Boxing, and a Shoot'em Up

DVD

Legend starring Tom Hardy. hardy plays the Kray brother twins, London gang bosses of the 1960s. I watched the previous movie with the brothers from Spandeu Ballet.



Creed starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone. Rocky trains Apollo Creed's son.


The Fall: Series 2 starring Gillian Anderson. Detective Superintendent looks for a serial killer.



Strike Back: final season starring Philip Winchester and Sullivan Stapleton. Military and espionage shoot-em with tight costumes and sex scenes.

Bands of Bitter Grieving

DVD

Changed Forever: grieving the death of someone you love by Paraclete Press.



Audiobooks on CD

The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson. 12 CDs at 14.5 hours. Fantasy novel.

The Bitter Season by Tami Hoag. 11 CDs at 14 hours. Crime in Minneapolis.

NYPD Red 4 by James Patterson and Marshall Karp. 7 CDs at 8 hours. Crime in Manhattan.

Joe R. Lansdale? Again?

Lansdale

Hells Bounty by Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale. Huh, Lansdale and Lansdale signed this copy. A novel with a mix of horror and western, it'll be good with plenty of similes.

Fiction

The Gangster by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Your bi-monthly Cussler installment. Page 83 says, "Claypool rose to his feet."

The Invisible Hand by Benjamin Sobieck. Crime novel set in the North Dakota oil fields. "[Sobieck's] family runs a ranch in North Dakota." Anthony Neil Smith mentioned this one before because Smith wrote a ND oil fields crime novel as well. I've been to Fargo a couple times. I went to a wrestling tournament hosted by Concordia College for two years in a row. I may have written this before, but we stayed at a motel converted to a hotel. The hotel room doors used to face outside until hallways were built around the outside of the building. But, the hallways were not heated and layers of frozen condensation created ice sheets on the inside of the tall windows. The ice and frost on the inside of the building was dreary.

Gone Again by James Grippando. "A Jack Swytek Novel." Swyteck? Was that the name of a character on Miami Vice? Let me check... kinda, that character had a different spelling with Switek.


The Ancient Mistral by Jim Harrison. Literary guy publishes three novellas. Michael Talbott who played Switek is from Waverly, IA. Last week I was spoke to a guy from Waverly.

NonFiction

Evicted: poverty and profit in the American city by Matthew Desmond. It's hard to get ahead when you cannot keep a home. Focusing on eight Milwaukee families that can barely afford rent.

The Gratitude Diaries:how a year looking on the bright side can transform your life by Janice Kaplan. Ok, but the previously listed book makes me think that philosophy only gets you so far.

Change Your Brain Change Your Life by Daniel G. Amen, MD. "Conquering anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, lack of focus, anger and memory problems."

Our Christian Founding Fathers by William Beckman. Local author.

More Music, More Music, More Music

The Sounds of Singing Are Digitized And Encoded Upon a Silvery Slice of Sound Magic

The Essential Earth, Wind and Fire by Earth, Wind and Fire. Nine men sings songs of love and mustaches. Lots of mustaches. Were those stage outfits polyester? If so, those clothes must have been super hot during performances.


This is Acting by Sia. Australian singer sings songs of Sia.

Musics

Two Plastic Discs Contain Computer Language That is Converted Into Sound

The Book of Souls by Iron Maiden. LONG LASTING AND POPULAR METAL BAND RELEASES A DOUBLE ALBUM. ALBUM!  A NEW ALBUM! NO! ALBUM!

Girl's Guide to Wedding Cake Murder

Fiction

Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young.  Missing children and dreams. Hester is an uncommon name. According to SSA Hester's highest rank in popularity was 230th in 1901. My name was 177th in 1954, that is much higher than I expected.

A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber. According to the cover the girls in question have a lot of money. Macomber has a new author photo.

Hide by Matthew Griffin. Two men fall in love after World War Two and one of them collapses when elderly. According to the dust jacket Griffin lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. I wonder if he has made the writer's pilgrimage to pay respect to Victor Gischler in Baton Rouge. Griffin is wearing a blue shirt in his author photo.

Death of a Nurse by M.C. Beaton. No author photo.

Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. Fluke's author photo has her wearing a cooking apron and posing with some desserts. Not deserts.

She's Not There by Joy Fielding. You can see the edge Fielding's watch under her blouse cuff. Page 200 says, " Barcelona... Mexican... stared... eggs... Harbor Drive."

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon. Cover illustration is a dirigible. Ia Ariel a man's or woman's name, let me check the author bio... woman.  Lawhon lives in Tennessee. Do we have other books by here? I don't know, I'll check... yes. We own 2014's The Wife, The Maid, and The Mistress. Our copy has circ'ed 9 times.

Bungalow Freaks in Little China

NonFiction

Freaks of Sideshow and Film by Mary Brett and Stevan Gould. Page 73 says, "Delina Ross is considered the most beautiful of all the bearded ladies." There is a piece about Sandy Allen.

Big Trouble in Little China: The Return of Lo Pan and How Jack Burton Became King of the Lords of Death. Comic book stories by John Carpenter.

Big Trouble in Little China: The Hell of the Midnight Road and The Ghosts of Storms.  More comic book stories by John Carpenter.

Bark House Style: sustainable designs from nature by Chris McCurry and Nan Chase. Lots of pretty pictures.

Bungalow Kitchens by Jane Powell and Linda Svendsen.  Even more pretty pictures.

Joe R. Lansdale? Again?

DVD

Spotlight starring [many actors]. Boston Globe reporters uncover and report on child abuse in the Catholic church.

Spotlight starring [the same actors]. Same thing but Blu-Ray version.

Audiobooks on CD

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. 15 hours on 12 CDs.

Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. 15.5 hours on 13 CDs. Lecturer traveling to London goes back in time to 1810. Read by Bronson Pinchot who "restores Greek Revival buildings."

Nomad by Matthew Mather. 9.5 hours on 8 CDs. Scientist has to figure out how to save the earth and get his family from Italy.

Joe R. Lansdale

Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale. Hap and Leonard bumble through with violence and guile. Lansdale did a interview on National Public Radio a few days ago. 

Made Up Stories. With unrelated New Zealand commentary.

Fiction

Sweet Girl by Travis Mulhauser. Girl looks for her strung out mom in Northern Michigan but finds a baby in a freezing cabin. Dirt bag criminals pursue the girl and her new found ward.

If I Run by Terri Blackstock. Today's speaker at Rotary is a retired CS professor from UW-Eau Claire, his name is Wagner. He now takes on temporary teaching positions at other universities.

The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel. The speaker has taught at Canterbury University outside Christchurch in New Zealand. I chatted with Wagner a bit during lunch and he has taught there on two occasions.

Georgia by Dawn Tripp. Wagner also said he taught in China and had an appointment at Macalaster in Minneapolis. His semesters in NZ followed our winter season. So, he had winter, here, winter, there, and then winter here again. His wife declined to go immediately back so that they could have a summer.

13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad. Wagner had a slide show as well. Lots of photos of hiking and kayaking. His wife volunteered at a nature center and had some neat photos of a Kiwi bird.

Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson. Wagner and Wife also visited Stewart Island at the Southern tip of the South Island. Wagner said Stewart Island has a population of 400 people, the island is 674 square miles.

The Cellar by Minette Walters. I asked if many tourists visited Stewart and Wagner said tourism was a main draw for the place. He and his wife would often stay in family hostels when traveling but that Stewart also has resorts.

The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield. There was one penguin photo in his slide show. Beer was expensive but the local wine was not.

Coconut Cowboy by Tim Dorsey. I asked about his accommodations in Christchurch. Wagner told me the University is very big on visiting faculty. They have about 70 instructors a year (a semester, maybe?) and send out 30 of their own.  Canterbury has a big endowment to cover the costs and visiting instructors are given a house or apartment for lodging, travel costs are covered, and they get a per diem payment.

Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lipton. Wagner chanced upon the appointment after seeing an email asking for applicants. The previously hired CS instructor bowed out after the 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch. Wagner had a few photos of the City but his photos were mostly of the countryside.

Blackout by David Rosenfelt. There was no mention of Dunedin.

One Single DVD

DVD

A Walk in the Woods starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Kristen Schaal. Two older men hike the Appalachian Trail. Hilarity ensues.

Real Quick, It Is Late

Goin' Your Way by Neil Finn and Paul Kelly. Concert album and DVD.

Elements by The U.S. Marine Band.

Unforgivable Blackness: the rise and fall of Jack Johnson.

Star War: A New Hope: Empire Strikes Back: Return of the Jedi.

More Sexy Sex Novels from Lorelei James

Fiction

What You Need by Lorelei James. Well... maybe this is a straightforward romance, not one of the sexy sex ones.  Wealthy man dates his employee. I spoke to Lori Armstrong (James is her pen name) at a Bouchercon, she said her romance books way outsold her mystery/thriller novels.

Find Her by Lisa Gardner. Gardner writes a lot of books and is kind of a big deal. I'm surprised she does not have a bigger author photo.

Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase. I know nothing about this book but I the cover sure is nicely done. The cover makes me want to read this. page 172 says, "Lorna parts the paper like curtains, smiles."

Violent Crimes by Philip Margolin. I am fairly certain I have never read a Margolin book. Let me take a look at his bib. Nope, not a one. I did watch a film version.

Nonfiction

Hiking Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Eric Hansen, revised by Rebecca Pelky. I was told the Porpupine Mountains are a nice visit.  Good like finding them in the book though because there is no index. The "Porkies" are in Gogebic and Ontonagoin Counties and the Ironwood/Ontonagon area lists 13 hikes.

Holiday Delights!: recipes, crafts, and gifts by Hearst Books. This Christmas themed so I assume this was back-ordered.

DVD Drop

DVD

Full House: the complete sixth season starring [actors]. I have several snide comments about this program. I was in a trivia contest last week and one question asked "What is the dog's name in Full House." One of the trivia team members has three daughters, so he knew the answer.

Chi-Raq starring Angela Bassett. Spike Lee retells Lysistrata with a Chicago setting.


Straight Outta Compton starring [many people]. Biopic about rap N.W.A.



Straight Outta Compton starring [the same actors as before]. I bought a second copy by mistake. There are a ton of holds so I added it to the collection.



Straight Outta Compton starring [the same actors but in higher definition]. One of the orders was the DVD-Blu-Ray combo. This is the Blu-Ray.

Gischler and Esiler Make Sweet Fiction

Gischler

The Order of the Forge by Victor Gischler. Compilation of a series of comics with artwork by Tazio Bettin.  George Washington fights evil with Ben Franklin and Paul Revere at his side.

Eisler

The God's Eye View by Barry Eisler. More NSA shenanigans and violence by Eisler.  Eisler does a great job of taking the mostly unknown topics of real-life spying and espionage and makes them integral to his novels.

Fiction

Doctor Who: four Doctors by Paul Cornell.  Chaos rules when three Doctors meet! Yeah, sure it does.

The Wolves by Alex Berenson.  The billionaire who tried to trick the U.S. and Iran into a war has gone into hiding. A secret agent looks for the billionaire.

NonFiction

The Geeky Chef Cook Book by Cassandra Reeder.  Recipes based off SciFi, Fantasy and video games. Includes Romulan Ale, Plomeek Soup, Soylent Green (well, not really), and Cauldron Cakes.

The Spectre of Joe R. Lansdale

Hap and Leonard

Honky Tonk Samurai by Joe R. Lansdale. Erstwhile PIs Hap and Leonard bumble their way through another violent episode. The new TV series is coming out.


DVD

Spectre starring James Bond. I've not seen this flick nor read a review or seen previews. I want everything to be a surprise.

The Big Bang Theory: Seventh Season starring [actors]. People sure do love this show.

Fiction

Brotherhood in Death by J.D. Robb. Does Robb have a ghost writer helping her out? There are a lot books by Nora Roberts under her own name as well.

Carol by Patrica Highsmith. Reprint of the 1952 as a tie-in for the recent movie. Original title is The Price of Salt.

Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman. Another thriller with Alex Delaware. I've never been to Delaware but my cousin lived there for a couple years.

Carpe Diem, Illinois by Kristin A. Oakley. Was this a Wisconsin author? I cannot recall. Let me check ... Yep, she lives in Madison and also teaches writing.  This book is a suspense novel. I think. I was in Madison yesterday for Library Legislative Day, it went OK.

Jane and the Waterloo Map by Stephanie Barron. Mystery featuring a fictionalized Jane Austen.

NonFiction

Take Care: The Sleep Guide by Sarah Moran. The Take Care series is one of seven books covering multiple aspects of wellness.  Moran used come to the library early to write.

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