Plain Witche's Tree to Eternity

Fiction

The Witche's Tree by M.C. Beaton. I was thinking Beaton passed away. Let's check... Nope, she seems to be alive and well. This is one of her Agatha Raisin novels.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan. Huh, Egan was awarded a Pulitzer for a previous novel. That must have been nice.

A Plain Leaving by Leslie Gould. Another Amish book. Man, maybe I should write an Amish book. I'm not a writer so the book would be awful, I guess I an skip that.

NonFiction

From Here To Eternity: traveling the world to find the good death by Caitlin Doughty. Great cover. Mortician travels the world to investigate burial rituals.

Library Display

The library is hosting a traveling exhibit.

Crossing the Line: The Milwaukee Fair Housing Marches of 1967-1968 commemorates the 50^th anniversary of Milwaukee’s civil rights marches by examining the practices and prejudices that led to segregation in Milwaukee and chronicling the school desegregation and fair housing movements of the 1960s.

We will have the exhibit until October 24.

 

 

 

Stolen Ballad on the Left Behind Solstice. With snark!

Fiction

The Deep Dark Descending by Allen Eskens. Wintry image on the cover with a black hole in the ice that reminds me of two things: 1. Coffee and 2. Hole in the Ice.


Ghost on the Case by Carolyn Hart. I don't like the cover. Too vague. Hart was a founder of Sisters in Crime. That's cool.

Origin by Dan Brown. Is this latest novel tearing up the bestseller list? I'm serious. I do not know the answer and will not check.  Brown was clean shaven for his author photo.

Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber. Christmas theme novel. Macomber wore red for her author photo. Is this a special Christmas theme photo or the same photo for her other novels?

All She Left Behind by Jane Kirkpatrick. The cover says Mennonite Romance on the Western Prairie. Back cover says, "1870 Oregon and single mother gets lovey dovey with older widower."

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash. The cover says, "Dirt poor miners barely get by in 1926." The dust cover says, "Close, Mr. Saylor. 1929 woman works the North Carolina and starts unionizing."

The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain. The front cover says, "I don't know what is going on." Dust cover says, "Pregnant woman marries guy and moves to North Carolina in 1944."

Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand. Another one of those Novels on Beach novel.

The Relive Box and Other Stories by T.C. Boyle. Boyle still has crazy hair.

Audiobook on CD

Two Nights by Kathy Reichs. 

Three Books Of Fiction? Non!

NonFiction

Exorcising Emma: a childhood memoir by Margot Peters. Famed biographer Peters writes about her own grandmother. Her grandmother was unpleasant. Peters mentioned to a library staffer that Peters only wrote the book after other relatives passed away to not have the family difficulties the story involves.

Logical family: a memoir by Armistead Maupin. Maupin spoke at an ALA conference I went to several years ago. He had some fascinating stories. He grew up in NC and worked as a reporter for Jesse Helms's newspaper. Maupin heard that a local bigwig was secretly gay and wanted to print the scoop. Helms said something to the effect of, "Oh no. You can never print anything so awful about a person. That is beyond the pale." Maupin, who is gay, was really struck by that. You can write a story about people who murder, rape, steal, rob, abuse children, cannibalize, etc. but saying someone is gay is too rough? (Actually, the Helms job may have been a TV station but the story remains the same otherwise.)

The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the winning of World War II by Winston Groom. Triple biography.

Big Pile of Stuff

Fiction

The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille. Army vet takes a job to go into Cuba and recover millions in dollars left there when Castro took over.

The Christmas Room by Catherine Anderson.  Christmas themed romance with a dog and a trailer on vacation trailer on the cover. A horse, too, there is a horse in the background.

Don't Let Go by Harlan Coben. There seems to be a lot of Coben titles with the word 'go'. Let me check... well, I sit corrected. This is the only title with 'go'.

Sleep Like A Baby by Charlaine Harris.  Aurora Teagarden solves crime. I heard Harris speak a few years ago. Her talk was entertaining and interesting. I had all the coffee I could drink and sat next to a nice lady from Chicago who writes mysteries, Clare O'Donohue.

Holly and Ivy by Fern Michaels. Lonely heiress makes a connection before Christmas.

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart. Woman Deputy Sheriff in 1916 New Jersey fights against anti-women laws concerning "waywardness".

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Aristocrat in 1922 Moscow is under house arrest.

The Essence of Malice by Ashley Weaver. Is Ashley male or female? Let's see... Ashley is a she and works in tech service in Allen Parish Libraries. You what that means? Yep, she is a cataloger. I do so love making jokes about catalogers. The novel sounds interesting: Man and wife travel to Paris when his old nanny suspects murder in the death of her current employer. Great title, too.

A Casualty of War by Charles Todd. Bess Crawford meets an English Army Officer as she travels back to the front in WW1. She meets him a couple more times in medical facilities and wonder if his brain injury is causing his belief that his cousin shot him.

Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King. 700 pages. Owen should have just sat there with a red pen to cut down on all the pages his dad keeps typing up.

Comic Book Novel

Batman, the Dark Knight: master race by Frank Miller, et al. "Third chapter" in the Dark Knight series.

NonFiction

Altered Traits: science reveals how meditation changes your mind, brain and body by Daniel Coleman and Richard J. Davidson.

One Book

Fiction

Three Truths and A Lie by Brent Hartinger. This is a YA novel but I want to read it so I am listing it. Mystery novel with four friends going on a weekend trip to a cabin.  Hartinger was nominated for an Edgar Award for this.

Wait a minute... four friends in a weekend cabin?

Poetry and Cartoon "Dogs"

NonFiction

If My Dogs Were a pair of Middle-Aged Men by The Oatmeal. Cartoonist pretends his dogs are middle-aged men.



You Took the Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston. Fun poems, often with a twist at the end.



A Torch Kept Lit: great lives of the twentieth century by William F. Buckley, Jr. Collection of eulogies, correspondence, other stuff.

Fiction

Wicked Deeds by Heather Graham.

Caroline: Little House, revisited. Re-imaging of the Ingalls Wilder family.

To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon. "A Mitford novel". Cover image has a dog on a porch with a pickup parked in the driveway.

Haunted by James Patterson Literary Industries Amalgamated and James O Born. I read a Born book and I liked it.

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas. Popular novel.

The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille. According to the map on end papers this involves Southern Florida, Cuba, and the Andros Island. Andros Island? Oh, it's part of the Bahamas.

An Echo of Murder by Anne Perry. "A William Monk novel". Anne Perry's photo is not her posing next to a horse. Didn't earlier photos have her posing by a horse? Or maybe it was a horse barn.

3 NonFic + 2 Fic = Read A Book

NonFiction

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton has a new book? Gee, I never heard that news.

Your Patient Safety Survival Guide: how to protect yourself and others from medical errors by Gretchen LeFever Watson. Page 138 says, "Letting go of unrealistic expectations."

Exorcising Emma: a childhood memoir by Margot Peters. Peters wrote several acclaimed biographies. This about her unpleasant grandmother.

Fiction

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss. Something about a retired guy seeking enlightenment. I think.

Savage Country by Robert Olmstead. There is the silhouette of a buffalo on the cover.

Large Print

Large Print

I am busy

I Am Busy

I am busy, but I am also completing a lot of tasks. One task is to post this photo of some new books.

Are Those Upside Down?

Yes

Two War, One Batman, One Cookery, Five WiFi

War

Faces of War: the untold story of Edward Steichen's WWII photographs by Mark D. Faram. Steichen founded the Aviation Photographic Unit. The Unit told the story of the war and it's members were an "influence on generations of postwar photographers."

The Vietnam War: an intimate history by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns.  Coffee table book published in conjunction with the new miniseries on Vietnam. I was just flipping through and saw they spoke to Karl Malantes. Malantes wrote a novel based on his time there, Matterhorn, and a memoir, What It Is Like To Go To War.

Batman

Batman Rebirth: deluxe edition: book 1 by Tom King, David Finch, Mikel Janin.  Batman battles bad b*astards by bashing, bonking and boshing beside Batman's buddies.

Cookery

Nadiya's Kitchen by Nadiya Hussein. Woman with a popular cooking show writes a cookbook.

WiFi

We received five new mobile WiFi hotspots. Once I get them labeled they will go out for checkout.

Audiobooks. Many Audiobooks.

Audiobooks on CD

Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child. 7.5 hours on 6 CDs. Something about wolves, I guess.

Scars of Independence: America's violent birth by Holger Hoock. 15 hours on 12 CDs. Something about dead people, I guess.

The Stars Are on Fire by Anita Shreve. 8.5 hours on 7 CDs. Something about plasma, I guess.

The Little French Bistro by Nina George. 9.5 hourson 8 CDs. Something about bread with a really hard crust, I guess.

The Stranger in the Woods: the extraordinary story of the last true hermit by Michael Finkel. 6.5 hours on 5 CDs.  Something about a guy who needs a shower, I guess.

The Thirst by Jo Nesbo. 17 hours on 14 CDs. Something about dehydration, I guess.

Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton. 17 hours on 14 CDs. Something about picture books, I guess.

Christa Faust, Music, and Coins

Christa Faust Comic

Peepland by Christa Faust and Gary Phillips. Comic compilation. Peepshow worker in 1986 Times Square stumbles on a political conspiracy. Trouble ensues. Christa Faust does great work. I've not yet read a novel by Phillips so this will be my intro to his work.
I think I still haven't read the third Faust novel that was a tie-in to the TV show Fringe. I started watching that show after reading Faust's first two Fringe novels and ended up enjoying the program quite a bit.

Digital Encoding Allows You to Easily Transport Music Within a Thin Plastic Disc

I'm Not Your Man by Marika Hackman. English singer sings songs of longing and love. I heard the song Boyfriend on the radio and thought it was pretty good.



Wild Imagination by Sweet Baboo. Welshman sings songs of Wales, women, wine, wonder, wool, wigs, wombats, wiggles, etc.  This guy is great. Give a listen.



Villains by Queens of the Stone Age. Californians sings songs of light metal.



DVD

Hippopotamus starring Matthew Modine. Comedy about a poet asked to investigate things at a manor house. Not to be confused with the song by Sparks.




NonFiction

Beneath Your Feet: archeology at Trempealeau by Robert F. Boszhardt and Danielle M. Benden. Archeological history of Trempealeau on the Mississippi. Lots of photos and written for the casual and general reader.

U.S. Coin Digest, 2018 edited by David C. Harper. Someone asked for a money guide and I saw all our editions were old. So I bought this.

A Couple Cop Stories in Montreal

Montreal Cop Stories

I read John McFetridge's Black Rock and really enjoyed it. So, I bought these other two novels in the series.

A Little More Free by John McFetridge. 1976 Montreal Constable Eddie Doughtery is part of the tight security to avoid the disasters of 1972 Munich. Plus, an armored car robbery and the murder of two teens in Longueuil.

One Or the Other by John McFetridge. 1972 Montreal and Constable Eddie Doughtery tries to prove himself worthy of being Detective amid a deadly nightclub fire, a museum robbery and a young man's murder.

Other Made Up Stories

The Right Time by Danielle Steel.

The Burning Girl by Claire Messud.

Need To Know by Fern Michaels.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny. We have two copies of this on.

The Proving by Beverly Lewis.

Rough Trade by Todd Robinson. I read Robinson's Hard Bounce and enjoyed it. This is the second novel featuring his two characters in Boston.

What A Fantastic Cover! [Poetry Edition]

Fantastic Cover!



You, Beast by Nick Lantz. Poems by a Texan. Lantz won the Brittingham Prize. I don't know what that is but it makes me think of Birmingham, England. Lantz has himself a fancy schmancy website and taught at UW-Madison for a time.

Hey, wait a minute. I'm pretty sure I read We Don't Know, We Don't Know. Let me check... nope, I recall that one because I bought it back in 2010. Let's check the circs... Ooh. Let's not talk circ's, Lantz may be listening.



NonFiction

The Homeowner's Guide to For Sale by Owner, 2nd edition by Jackie Bondanza. One of the nonfic book categories that I periodically update.

The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker. The famous treatise on listening to your own fears as early warning signs. I bought this once before and someone stole it! Jerk. Big Time Author Megan Abbott mentioned DeBecker in passing on her Instagram account and I remembered to buy this replacement.

Whistleblower at the CIA by Melvin A. Goodman. This had a good review. Goodman claims a bunch of people were up to no good, including Robert Gates.

When We Rise: my life in the movement by Cleve Jones. Jones was a gay rights dude in the '70s and a AIDS patient advocate in the '80s. I'm guessing this dude has a lot of guts. Speaking up in the '70s must not have been easy or safe.

I Will Find You: a reporter investigates the life of the man who raped her by Joanna Connors.  Connors was afraid of everything after the rape and started to confront her trauma when her oldest child her daughter turned sixteen.

Photos

Photos

From today's, Saturday the 19th, two events: Read to the Dogs and Pokemon Club.

Some books and a DVD

Books

Operation Long Jump: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, and the greatest assassination plot in history by Bill Yenne. Nazi plot to kill the three Allied leaders.

The Triumph of William McKinley: why the election of 1896 still matters by Karl Rove. How campaign tactics changed with McKinley's run for office.

DVD

Once Upon A Time in Venice starring Bruce Willis, John Goodman, Famke Janssen. Private detective has to help a local crook to recover the PI's stolen pet dog.

One Book, One Film, Big Words

Fiction

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Because the movie version came out.

DVD

Snatched starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn. Family vacation



Large Print

Exposed Upon A Secret Tudor

Fiction

Seeing Red by Sandra Brown. The cover illustration says"massive city fire" or "terrorist bombing in city". The author photo says, "Nice picture."

I Know A Secret by Tess Gerritsen. Cover image says, " Let's watch the sunrise on the beach." The author photo says, "Yep, that's Gerritsen. Looks like the photographer bought his chairs from an airport auction."

The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory. Cover illustration says, "Hey, I kinda look like a woodcut, but I suppose not." The author photo says, "Good choice on the outdoor setting. That looks nice."

Exposed by Lisa Scottoline. Cover illustration says, "Woman stalks a guy with a bald spot."  Author photo says, "This the same author photo as last time. Why get a new one for every book? Professional photographers are expensive and I have work to do."

Upon A Spring Breeze by Kelly Irvin. Cover photo says, "Amish woman enjoys flower gardening."This tiny black-and-white photo on interior paper did not reproduce well." The author biography says, "KANSAS! Woo-Hoo!"

How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry. Cover illustration says, "That's a nice drawing/painting. Jessica Allen did well on that." 

The Store by Richard DiLallo and James Patterson Literary Industries Amalgamated. The cover image says, " Woman on the run from danger." The author photo says, "Patterson takes a writing break to pose for a photo."

Comic Book Novel

The Mystery Knight by George R.R. Martin. Cover image says," A shield? Maybe?"  Author photo says, "Beardy McBearderson."

More Made Up Stories and One Book on the Kelloggs

Fiction

Any Dream Will Do by Debbie Macomber. The cover design follows the style of all the other Macomber books.

The Color of Fear by Marcia Muller. Muller is a big deal but her author photo is small.

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter.  Wait, didn't Slaughter just have a book published?

Use of Force by Brad Thor. I think these are international spy guy shoot-em-ups. Brad Thor has his author photo taking up the entire back cover. His photo was taken by John Reilly. I don't know the guy.

Barely Legal by Stuart Woods and Parnell Hall. Parnell Hall wrote a few songs about being a midlist author.




Audiobooks on CD

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box. 8 CDs. People really like Box's books. Give one a try.

Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody. 12.5 hours on 10CDs. A fantasy novel.

NonFiction

The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek by Howard Markel. Page 235 says, "The correspondence between the doctor and the president trails off by the end of 1934."