Thursday, July 26, 2012

Stars, Glass, and Latin America

Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer 
When Maxon met Sunny, he was seven years, four months, and eighteen days old. Or, he was 2,693 rotations of the Earth old. Maxon was different. Sunny was different. They were different together. Now, twenty years later, they are married, and Sunny wants, more than anything, to be "normal." She's got the housewife thing down perfectly, but Maxon, a genius engineer, is on a NASA mission to the moon, programming robots for a new colony. Once they were two outcasts who found unlikely love in each other: a wondrous, strange relationship formed from an urgent desire for connection. But now they're parents to an autistic son. And Sunny is pregnant again. Sunny wishes Maxon would turn the rocket around and come straight-as-hell home.

A City of Broken Glass by Kim Cantrell
Hannah Vogel, journalist and former spy for the British, travels to Poland with her twelve-year-old son, Anton, to write a feature article on 1938's Saint Martin festival. When she hears that twelve thousand Polish Jews have been deported from Nazi Germany, Hannah drops her fluff piece and rushes to get the story on the refugees, regardless of the consequences. Kidnapped from her hotel by the SS and driven across the German border, Hannah is rescued by Anton and her former lover Lars Lang, whom she presumed dead two years earlier. Hannah doesn't know if she can trust Lars again but she has little choice after being injured in the escape.

Perla by Carolina De Robertis
Perla Correa grew up a privileged only child in Buenos Aires with a polished, aloof mother and a straightlaced naval officer father, whose profession she learned early on not to disclose in a country still reeling from the abuses penetrated by the deposed military dictatorship. Although Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of the conflict, her love for her papa is unconditional. But when she is startled by an uninvited visitor, she begins a journey that will force her to confront the unease she has long suppressed and make a wrenching decision about who she is and who she will become.



Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Teen Pick of the Week: Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm by Jordan Mechner (graphic novel)
Five very different people are about to be put to death for a crime they didn't commit. Well, one of them may have done it. But the only way they can escape the hangman's noose is to find the common thread that ties them together. The one man they have all encountered, and who changed their lives--Dastan, the prince of Persia! Through six tales of adventure, excitement, love, sorcery, and death, the truth behind both the Sands of Time and the prince of Persia will come to light.

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!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fiction Pick of the Day: XO

XO: a Kathryn Dance novel by Jeffery Deaver

COUNTRY-POP INGÉNUE Kayleigh Towne’s career is just reaching new heights with her huge hit single “Your Shadow”—but increased fame is also bringing unwanted attention. An innocent exchange with one of her fans, signed with an “XO,” leads Kayleigh into the dangerous and terrifying realm of obsession. Edwin Sharp thinks Kayleigh’s songs contain messages that speak directly to him. Despite her clear rejection and threats from lawyers and law enforcers, he remains convinced that “Your Shadow” was written just for him, and he announces he’s coming for Kayleigh. Then a potentially fatal accident occurs at the concert hall where Kayleigh is rehearsing for a triumphant hometown performance, and she is convinced that someone—maybe Edwin—was there watching her from the darkness. True to his word, Edwin Sharp soon makes an ominous appearance in town, and California Bureau of Investigation Agent Kathryn Dance, a friend and fan of Kayleigh’s on vacation in Fresno to attend the show, intervenes on her behalf, drawing Sharp’s frightening attention to herself. That night a member of the road crew whom Kayleigh had once dated is murdered in an eerie echo of an image from her chart-topping song. As more deaths loom on the horizon, Kathryn Dance must use her considerable skills at investigation and body-language analysis to stop the stalker and save more innocent victims. But before long she learns that, like many celebrities, Kayleigh has more than one fan with a mission . . .

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

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

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Teen Pick of the Week: The Truth About Forever

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
A long, hot summer... that's what Macy has to look forward to while her boyfriend, Jason, is away at Brain Camp. Days will be spent at a boring job in the library, evenings will be filled with vocabulary drills for the SATs, and spare time will be passed with her mother, the two of them sharing a silent grief at the traumatic loss of Macy's father. But sometimes unexpected things can happen--things such as the catering job at Wish, with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister's project of renovating the neglected beach house, awakening long-buried memories. Things such as meeting Wes, a boy with a past, a taste for Truth-telling, and an amazing artistic talent, the kind of boy who could turn any girl's world upside down. As Macy ventures out of her shell, she begins to wonder, is it really better to be safe than sorry?

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!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Journeys, Olympics, and Werewolves

The Road to Grace by Richard Paul Evans
Reeling from the sudden loss of his wife, his home, and his business, Alan Christoffersen, a once-successful advertising executive, has left everything he knew behind and set off on an extraordinary cross-country journey. Carrying only his backpack, he is walking from Seattle to Key West, the farthest destination on the map. Now almost halfway through his trek, Alan sets out to walk the nearly 1,000 miles between South Dakota and St. Louis, but it's the people he meets along the way who give the journey its true meaning: a mysterious woman who follow Alan's walk for close to a hundred miles, the ghost hunter searching graveyards for his wife, and the elderly Polish man who gives Alan a ride and shares a story that Alan will never forget.

Gold by Chris Cleave
Kate and Zoe met at nineteen when they both made the cut for the national training program in track cycling--a sport that demands intense focus, blinding exertion, and unwavering commitment. They are built to exploit the barest physical and psychological edge over equally skilled rivals, all of whom are fighting for the last one tenth of a second that separates triumph from despair. Now at thirty-two, the women are facing their last and biggest race: the 2012 Olympics. Each wants desperately to win the gold, and each has more than a medal to lose.

Talulla Rising by Glen Duncan
The woman is Talulla Demetriou. She's grieving for her werewolf lover, Jake, whose violent death has left her alone with her own sublime monstrousness. On the run, pursued by the hunters of WOCOP (World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena), she must find a place to give birth to Jake's child in secret. The birth, under a full moon at a remote Alaskan lodge, leaves Talulla ravaged, but with her infant son in her arms she believes the worst is over--until the windows crash in, and she discovers that the worst has only just begun.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Teen Pick of the Week: Steel

Steel by Carrie Vaughn
Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure. The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home--one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.

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!

Friday, July 6, 2012

July Display: Celebrate with Cake!

Check out some books from our July display: Celebrate July with Cake!

Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats by Bakerella
What's cuter than a cupcake? A Cake Pop, of course!
Wildly popular blogger Bakerella (a.k.a. Angie Dudley) has turned cake pops into an international sensation! Cute little cakes on a stick--from decorated balls to more ambitious shapes such as baby chicks, ice cream cones, and even cupcakes--these adorable creatures are the perfect alternative to cake at any party or get-together. Angie makes it easy and fun to re-create these amazing treats right at home with clear step-by-step instructions and photos of more than 40 featured project, as well as tips for presenting, decorating, dipping, coloring, and melting candy coating.

Fudge Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke
Bakery owner Hannah Swenson just can't keep her hands out of the batter when murder stirs things up in Lake Eden, Minnesota, leaving the sheriff dead, an innocent deputy accused, and a killer still on the loose!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice.

Teen Pick of the Week: Hunger

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she's been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home--her constant battle with hunger and the struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life and to face the horrifying effects of her awesome new power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power--and the courage to fight her own inner demons?

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!