June Large Print!

Aunt Dimity & the Village Witch by Nancy Atherton
When Amelia Thistle moves to Finch, her new neighbors welcome here with open arms and inquiring minds. Among them is Lori Shepherd, who isn't fooled by Amelia's unassuming persona. Amelia is, in fact, a world-famous artist with a rabid fan base. In order to keep peace, Lori must help Amelia conceal her identity. Amelia, meanwhile, sets about working on the riddle that brought her to the town in the first place. A fragment of a family diary hints that one of Amelia's ancestors might have been Mistress Meg, the Mad Witch of Finch. Following the clue, Lori hunts through Finch's darkest corners, all the while dodging nosy neighbors and Amelia's frantic fans.

The House of Velvet and Glass by Katherine Howe
Reeling from the deaths of her mother and sister on the Titanic, Sibyl Allston is living a life of quiet desperation with her taciturn father and scandal-plagued brother in Boston's Back Bay. She flees for solace to the parlor of a table-turning medium. But when her brother is suddenly kicked out of Harvard and falls under the sway of a strange young woman, Sibyl turns for help to psychology professor Benton Derby, despite the tensions of their past. As Benton and Sibyl work together to solve a harrowing mystery, their long-simmering sparks flares to life, and they realize that there may be something even more magical between them than a medium's scrying glass.

Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny by Garrison Keillor
On the 12th floor the Acme Building in St. Paul, Guy Noir looks down the barrel of a loaded revolver in the hands of geezer gangster Joey Roast Beef who is demanding to hear what lucrative scheme Guy is cooking up with stripper-turned-women's-studies-professor Naomi Fallopian. Everyone wants to know--Joey, Lieutenant McCafferty, reporter Gene Williker, Guy's ex-girlfriend Sugar O'Toole, the despicable Larry B. Larry, the dreamboat Scarlett Anderson, Mr. Kress of the FDA--and Guy faces them one by one, as he and Naomi pursue a dream of earning gazillions by selling a surefire method of dramatic weight loss.

Teen Pick of the Week: Ripper

Ripper by Stefan Petrucha
Carver Young dreams of becoming a detective, despite growing up in an orphanage with only crime novels and his lock-picking ability to encourage him. Yet when he is adopted by Detective Hawking of the world-famous Pinkerton Agency, Carver not only gets the change to find his biological father but finds himself smack in the middle of a real-life investigation: tracking down a vicious serial killer who has thrown New York City into utter panic. When the case begins to unfold, however, it's worse than he could have ever imagined, and his commitment to Mr. Hawking and the Pinkerton Agency comes into question. As the body count rises and the investigation becomes dire, Carver must decide: Where does his true loyalty lie?

Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Memorial Library!

Read a great teen book recently? Want to recommend it as Teen Pick of the Week? Email me!

Summer Reads

Check out some books from our Summer Display!

Table for Five by Susan Wiggs
Lily Robinson and Sean McGuire have nothing in common other than the shared guardianship of Sean's nieces and nephew. Brought together by tragedy, the two strangers are joined in grief and their mutual love for these children. Now Sean and Lily are about to embark on the journey of ups and downs, patience and understanding that make a family. And along the way they will find a future filled with hope, happiness, and the certainty that love is the best choice of all.

The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux
Three best friends, all with the same birthday, about about to turn forty. Celebrating at a summerhouse in Maine, Leslie Headrick, Madison Abbleby, and Ellie Abbott are taking stock of their lives and loves, their wishes and choices. But none of them expect the gift that awaits them at the summerhouse: the chance for each of them to turn their "what-might-have-beens" into reality.

1105 Yakima Street by Debbie Macomber
Bruce Peyton's pregnant wife, Rachel, has left, saying she can't handle the household stress any longer. Bruce's thirteen-year-old daughter, Jolene, is jealous of Bruce's relationship with his new wife, and is making things very difficult for them. Bruce doesn't know where Rachel is--she isn't with Teri Polgar or any of her other friends from the salon. Meanwhile, Linc Wyse's father-in-law is trying to destroy his business. And Charlotte Rhodes is becoming forgetful, causing her family to worry about her and Ben. As always, there is plenty going on in Cedar Cove!

Teen Pick of the Week: Of Poseidon

Of Poseidon byAnna Banks
Galen, a Syrena prince, searches land for a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. It’s while Emma is on vacation at the beach that she meets Galen. Although their connection is immediate and powerful, Galen's not fully convinced that Emma's the one he's been looking for. That is, until a deadly encounter with a shark proves that Emma and her Gift may be the only thing that can save his kingdom. He needs her help--no matter what the risk.

Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Memorial Library!

Read a great teen book recently? Want to recommend it as Teen Pick of the Week? Email me!

Biographies, Lyrics, and America

Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez
In this remarkable dual memoir, film legend Martin Sheen and accomplished actor/filmmaker Emilio Estevez recount their lives as father and son. In alternating chapters--and in voices that are as eloquent as they are different--they tell stories spanning more than fifty years of family history, and reflect on their journeys into two different kinds of faith.

Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics by Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is one of the most beloved country music stars of all time. A pioneer for women in music, she was the first woman to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association, and she continues to play to packed houses across the country. Now, for the first time, this "Honky Tonk Girl" collects her lyrics and in her own words tells the stories that inspired her most popular songs.

The World America Made by Robert Kagan
What would the world look like if American were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times bestselling author and one of the country's most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane.

Teen Pick of the Week: Party

Party by Tom Leveen
It's Saturday night in Santa Barbara, and school is done for the year. Everyone is headed to the same party. Or at least it seems that way. The place is packed. The beer is flowing. Simple, right? But for eleven people, the reasons for being there are way more complicated....to confront my ex, to hook up (since that's what everyone expects), to make a friend...any friend, to numb the pain, to finally talk to her, to piss off my parents, to say goodbye...As each character tells his or her stories, they intersect and reconnect, collide and combine in ways that no one saw coming.

Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Memorial Library!

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New audiobooks this week!

The Litigators by John Grisham
The partners at Finley & Figg--all two of them--often refer to themselves as "a boutique law firm." Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of big breaks, ambulance chasers who've been in the trenches much too long making way too little. And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he's suddenly unemployed, any job--even one with Finley & Figg--looks okay to him. With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make their partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
In this book, Hillenbrand captures the remarkable life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner and World War II veteran. Zamperini left the Berlin Olympics in 1936 determined to return in the 1940 Olympics for a gold. Instead, Zamperini joined the Army Air Corps and miraculously survived 47 days adrift in the Pacific after his plane was shot down, only to then be captured by the Japanese and subjected to cruel imprisonment in a POW camp before being released in 1945.

Flourish: A Visionary New Understand of Happiness and Well-Being by Martin E. P. Seligman
Traditionally, the goal of psychology has been to relieve human suffering, but the goal of the Positive Psychology movement, which internationally esteemed psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman has led for fifteen years, is different--it's about actually raising the bar for the human condition. This book builds on Dr. Seligman's game-changing work on optimism, motivation, and character to show how to get the most out of life, unveiling an electrifying new theory of what makes a good life--for individuals, for communities, and for nations.

Teen Pick of the Week: The Future of Us

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
It's 1996, and Josh and Emma have been neighbors their whole lives. They've been best friends almost as long--up until last November, when everything changed. Things have been awkward ever since, but when Josh's family gets an American Online CD-ROM in the mail, his mom makes him bring it over so Emma can install it on her new computer. When they sign-on, they're automatically logged onto Facebook...but Facebook hasn't been invented yet! Josh and Emma are looking into their profiles fifteen years in the future. Their sponses, careers, homes, and status updates--it's all there. But it's not what they expected. And every time they refresh their pages, their futures change. As they grapple with the ups and downs of what their lives hold, they're forced to confront what they're doing right--and wrong--in the present.

Click on the title to place it on hold at the Ventress Memorial Library!

Read a great teen book recently? Want to recommend it as Teen Pick of the Week? Email me!