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Staff Picks December 2007
Sarah's Picks


Amigurumi! : super happy crochet cute - Elisabeth A. Doherty
Publisher: Lark Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/1/2007
ISBN: 9781600590177
ISBN-10: 1600590179
"Amigurumi" are a kind of stuffed toy originating in Japan. This book is from one of America's top amigurumi innovators. It begins with simple projects like stuffed cupcakes and works up to larger stuffed critters. The directions are clear enough that even crochet beginners can make stunning works of cuteness!

Inda - Sherwood Smith
Publisher: DAW Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/1/2006
ISBN: 9780756402648
ISBN-10: 0756402646
As the second son in his family, Inda is destined to fight to keep his older brother's lands safe. But things change when he is called to attend a politically-charged military academy that traditionally only educates eldest sons. This book is intricately plotted. The many nicknames and invented vocabulary can make it a tricky read, but once I started to get a handle on the characters I couldn't put it down! The thorough world building makes "Inda" a book to read again and again.

Lord of scoundrels - Loretta Chase
Publisher: Five Star
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/1/1999
ISBN: 9780786222520
ISBN-10: 0786222522
Do you hate romances where the heroine is too wussy to stand up for herself, or the hero is an irredeemable jerk? "Lord of Scoundrels" is the cure for those books. A neglected child, the Marquess of Dain grows up to be a lord who wants to avoid getting too close to anyone and does pretty much whatever he wants. Jessica Trent is in Paris to keep her brother from squandering the family fortune trying to keep up with Dain. The interaction between the two leads is fun, and I love a heroine who can get herself out of any situation.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service - story, Eiji Otsuka ; art, Housui Yamazaki ; translation, Toshifumi Yoshida
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/27/2006
ISBN: 9781593075552
ISBN-10: 1593075553
Five students graduating from a Buddhist university (a psychic, a dowser, an embalmer, a channeler and a hacker) find the job market doesn't have a lot of room for up-and-coming spiritualists. Their solution: start a service for the already dead! The Kurosagi corpse delivery service dispenses justice, provides transportation and more. This gore factor is pretty high, but the cases the team take on are unique and darkly comedic. The library has volumes 1-7.

Cansei De Ser Sexy - CSS
Publisher: Super D / Phantom Sound & Visi
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2/16/2007
UPC: 07899083311973
You may know this group from their song "Music is my hot hot sex" which is now on the iPod Touch commercial, but CSS have been rocking since 2003! A mix of punk, electronica and New Wave - check them out for quirky lyrics and catchy beats.
Peggy's Picks


Summer at Tiffany - Marjorie Hart
Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/1/2007
ISBN: 9780061189524
ISBN-10: 0061189529
A delightful true nostalgic look back at the summer of 1945. The War is still raging in Europe and the Pacific as two Iowa college girls arrive in New York eager to find jobs and dates with servicemen. Becoming the first women to ever work on the sales floor of Tiffany’s, they rub elbows with the rich and famous, pinch pennies to eat at the Automat and experience with their fellow New Yorkers the uncertainty war brings.

Memoirs : laughing and dancing our way to the precipice - Madame de La Tour du Pin ; translated from the French by Felice Harcourt
Publisher: Harvill Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 7/1/1999
ISBN: 9781860465482
ISBN-10: 186046548X

An astounding, intelligent personal memoir by a French aristocrat during the the years of the French Revolution. A woman of tremendous courage, Madame De La Tour Du Pin flees her home and country along with her husband for the safety of a new life barely avoiding the guillotine. A first hand view of the tragedy of historical circumstance told with spirit and depth.



When the Astors owned New York : blue bloods and grand hotels in a Gilded Age - Justin Kaplan
Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 6/1/2006
ISBN: 9780670037698
ISBN-10: 0670037699
A Pulitzer prize-winning author reveals the natures of the wealthiest men of their day, John Jacob Astor IV and William Waldorf Astor. Greed, malice, excess, efficiency and intelligence were traits that defined their personalities as well as their successes and failures in their personal, social
and business worlds. Fascinating look at the everyday workings of the grand hotels and their noted guests as well.

Great joy - Kate DiCamillo ; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/9/2007
ISBN: 9780763629205
ISBN-10: 0763629200

A luminous picture book of the spirit – despite her mother’s discouragement, a young girl invites a poor and lonely organ grinder to her church’s Christmas pageant. Her compassion brings great joy to all that day.


Hanukkah at Valley Forge - Stephen Krensky ; illustrated by Greg Harlin
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/14/2006
ISBN: 9780525477389
ISBN-10: 0525477381
Beautiful wintery yet warm illustrations highlight this unusual true story set in a picture book format. One cruelly cold evening at Valley Forge, General Washington listens to one of his Jewish soldiers tell him the story of Hannukah and likens some of the trials and triumphs to his own experience of the Revolutionary War. How refreshing to see a sensitive, new way to look at history.
Linda's Picks


The princess & the pauper - Kate Brian
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 5/1/2004
ISBN: 9780689870422
ISBN-10: 0689870426
If you ever read Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, then you will be familiar with the plot. This story pertains to a princess who wants to go to a rock concert and meet the rock star of her dreams, so when she speaks at her grandmother’s high school alma mater and her “twin” is found who desperately needs money, the plan is hatched.

Hearts of stone - Kathleen Ernst
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/19/2006
ISBN: 9780525476863
ISBN-10: 0525476865
Even though we all know how devastating war can be, sometimes reading about it can make it more personal. Meet the Cameron family. They are struggling to make a living in East Tennessee. One day, Pa decides to join the Union troops fighting in the Civil War. Fifteen-year-old Hannah’s world has been torn apart forever. This would be a great family read aloud for children 4th grade and up.

Emil and Karl - by Yankev Glatshteyn ; translated by Jeffrey Shandler
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/4/2006
ISBN: 9781596431195
ISBN-10: 1596431199
Another war story set in World War II. What I found fascinating in this book was that it was written in Yiddish in 1940 for the Jewish children living in America who went to school on Saturday to learn Yiddish. The author wrote the book so they would know what was happening to the Jews living in Europe. Emil and Karl are 9 years-old and best friends. One is Jewish and one isn’t. Both lose their homes and their families. Both struggle to survive and escape together.

Dancing in the streets of Brooklyn - April Lurie
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/1/2002
ISBN: 9780385729420
ISBN-10: 0385729421
It is 1944 and Judy is playing stickball with her friends on the streets of Brooklyn, New York. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? However, when Judy discovers that the man she has called Pa her whole live isn’t her biological father, her whole world comes crashing down.

An inconvenient truth : the crisis of global warming - Al Gore
Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 4/10/2007
ISBN: 9780670062713
ISBN-10: 0670062715
If you don’t have the time or inclination to read the 325 page adult book, you might try this 191 page children’s book. It has been said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words and this book certainly proves that. The pictures and graphs point out the global warming crisis, yet hope is offered that we can change the bleak outcome if we all work together.

The autobiography of Foudini M. Cat - Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Publisher: A.A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/1/1997
ISBN: 9780679454748
ISBN-10: 0679454748
Foudini is a black cat who is telling his life experiences to Grace, a young gray cat who is new to the household. Learn about his unique relationships with Sam, a very large dog; with Warm and Pest, his owners; and with the ghost cats of Cleopatra and Freud.
Elizabeth's Picks


Leaving Microsoft to change the world : an entrepreneur's odyssey to educate the world's children - John Wood
Publisher: Collins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 9/1/2006
ISBN: 9780061121074
ISBN-10: 006112107X
Hiking through Nepal, John Wood visited a small village school. There locked away in a cabinet was the one book the whole class shared. This was unimaginable to the successful software executive from Microsoft; only one book for a whole school. He knew he had to do something to make a difference. With a thousand books bundled on the back of a yak, John Wood returned to the school and the “Room to Read” organization was born. Since then more than 1.2 million books have been donated. Thousands of libraries have been built, and 200 schools have been established. In the library world, surrounded by books, newspapers and magazines, with information easily accessed with a punch of a key, it is easy to forget how a simple book can change a life. The story of John Wood is a wonderful reminder.

Slow Loris - Alexis Deacon
Publisher: Kane Miller Book Publishers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 3/1/2002
ISBN: 9781929132270
ISBN-10: 1929132271
Sloths are slow and boring. Everyone knows that. Except for Loris; Loris has a secret and that makes all the difference. Slow Loris. You’ll never look at a sloth the same way again.

Bitsy's Bait & BBQ - Pamela Morsi
Publisher: MIRA
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2/1/2007
ISBN: 9780778324232
ISBN-10: 0778324230
Buying a Bed and Breakfast is just what Katy needs to get her life back in order after her divorce. The beautiful Ozark setting will be the perfect place to live out her dreams of being an innkeeper. Unfortunately, B and B stands for bait and bar-b-que, two things Katy knows nothing about.

Two for the summit : my daughter, the mountains, and me - Geoffrey Norman
Publisher: Dutton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 8/1/2000
ISBN: 9780525944942
ISBN-10: 052594494X
Summiting the Grand Tetons in Wyoming for his 50th birthday would be the ultimate experience for Geoffrey Norman. With no previous climbing experience his solo expedition was a chance to prove to himself that he could still conquer mountains, literally and figuratively. Then his 15 year old daughter decided she wanted to come along. The story of how father and daughter climbed the Grand Tetons together shows a different kind of courage than your usual climbing adventure. Summiting the mountain took great physical and mental strength for Norman, but he also faced the challenge of letting his daughter conquer her own fears, allowing her to grow up, and eventually away.
Don's Picks


Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII - Slesin, Aviva
Publisher: Genius Products Llc
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 6/5/2007
UPC: 00720917543024
An extraordinarily moving and riveting documentary about the Jewish children who were hidden in non-Jewish households to escape the death camps of Nazi Germany. The film is directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Aviva Slesin who was a hidden child herself.

Already dead : a novel - Charlie Huston
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1/31/2006
ISBN: 9780345478245
ISBN-10: 034547824X

Manhattan is being run by vampire clans and private investigator Joe Pitt is a vampire without a clan, working hard to ensure his own independence and survival. Pitt is hired to track down a runaway heiress and soon finds himself pursued by all the clans. Huston has created a gritty urban vampire mystery story. The book is followed by the sequels No Dominion and Half the Blood in Brooklyn.


La jetée; Bez solntsa = Sunless = Sans soleil [videorecording]: two films by Chris Marker - Marker, Chris, 1921-
Publisher: Criterion Collection
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 1/1/2007
UPC: 00715515023924
The short masterpiece that inspired Twelve Monkeys. The spare and powerful La Jetée is a film almost enitrely made up of stills and tells the story of a man who time travels to the past from an apocalyptic future. The film is paired with the documentary Sans Soleil which concerns filmmaker’s Chris Marker’s impressions of Japanese culture in the 1980’s. Both films provide valuable insight into an influential but little seen artist.

Soldier of Sidon - Gene Wolfe
Publisher: Tor
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/17/2006
ISBN: 9780765316646
ISBN-10: 0765316641

Latro the Spartan hero cursed to forget each day the previous day's events and blessed to speak to gods, monsters and the dead, continues his diary (after Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete) of amazing encounters with supernatural beings. He reaches Egypt and finds the land literally haunted by spirits and deities as he continues to search for a cure to his condition.


Grim Grimoire 
Publisher: Koei Corporation
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 6/27/2007
UPC: 00857823001826
Lillet Blan is admitted to a famous school for wizards only to find it teeming with danger. She finds herself reliving the first five days of school over and over again as she struggles to stop an evil that threatens to destroy everyone in the school. This is a terrific game that has an enjoyable story which is matched with excellent gameplay that contains real time strategy elements.

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