Perseus

by Richard Matturro
Bungling his way into a heroic adventure in which he must slay the snake-haired monster Medusa, Perseus is burdened with the company of Andromeda, an opinionated young woman he saves from the Sea Serpent. What develops is a romantic comedy of epic proportions.

This book was written by local author, Richard Matturro. His other books include Luna and Leslie.

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The heart of simple living; Seven paths to a better life

by Wanda Urbansky

Sustainable living expert Urbanska offers knowledgeable simple solutions and accessible paths for bringing one's life and home in balance with the planet, technology, and daily demands. Practical stories and teachings provide the motivation to make lifestyle changes that encourage a way of life that is more meaningful and satisfying.

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Original gangster : the real life story of one of America's most notorious drug lords

 by Frank Lucas. An act of shocking violence witnessed by the six-year-old Frank Lucas opens this spellbinding memoir by one of Harlem's most famous heroin smugglers. Growing up in 1930s North Carolina, Lucas turned to a life of crime to support his family. He made his way to New York, getting by on petty theft and street crime, until the gangster Bumpy Johnston took him under his wing. Lucas rose quickly in the underworld, taking a tremendous risk to smuggle heroin himself and earning a staggering profit by cutting out the middlemen. He counted many a politician, entertainer, and sports figure among his friends, and his story inspired the 2007 movie American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington. But, finally, his lifestyle attracted the wrong kind of attention, and he found himself sentenced to 70 years in prison. He was paroled after five years but later served further time for another conviction. Here he expresses remorse for the lives that were ruined by the product he sold, but the overall tone is a fond remembrance of a life lived in the fast lane. VERDICT With the connection to American Gangster, this should be a hit with movie buffs as well as true-crime fans. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Gardens of the sun

 by Paul J. McAuley. In the aftermath of the Quiet War, the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community have conquered the city-states on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, whose citizens are known as the Outers. With most Outers forced into prison and labor camps, their lands plundered by victorious Earth, only a few refugees attempt to preserve the old ideals. Earth's fractious politics lead to divisions among the conquerors, and one powerful family hires a genetic expert to search for the missing Avernus, the Outers' greatest mind. Complexities and intrigue abound in this sequel to The Quiet War. Verdict The award-winning author's storytelling talent and future vision brings an intense realism to his speculative tales of inner and outer space. Fans of hard science as well as dynastic fiction should enjoy his newest saga. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

1001 ideas for stone work : the ultimate sourcebook

 by Richard Wiles. The natural look and feel of stone is unmatched by any other building or decorating medium. It provides a professional and elegant appearance that is also practical and durable for home interiors and exteriors. Thousands of inspirational photographs inthis book show you how to integrate this prized material into your home. Packed with expert advice on design, materials, budgets, maintenance, and installation,1001 Ideas for Stone Workis your professional guide to working with stone. --Summary (Check Catalog)

Fever dream

 by Douglas J. Preston. If a movie were made from the latest Special Agent Pendergast novel, the tagline might read: This time, it's personal. Twelve years ago, in Africa, Pendergast's wife was mauled to death by a lion after she shot at it and missed. Now, in the present day, Pendergast makes the startling discovery that his wife's gun was loaded with blanks. He enlists the aid of his old friend, New York City cop Vincent D'Agosta, to help him track down the people responsible for his wife's death and mete out some very personal justice. The Pendergast novels, beginning with 1995's Relic, are uniformly excellent, although they have grown steadily darker and more elegantly written. Singly, both authors turn out solid stand-alone thrillers, but together they reach an entirely different level, achieving a stylistic grace and thematic resonance neither has so far matched alone. This may be the best of the Pendergast novels, if for no other reason than we are permitted to see the man beneath the cold, steely exterior. For fans of the earlier novels, a definite must-read. --Booklist. (Check Catalog)

Patios and walkways : expert advice from start to finish

 by Peter Jeswald. Covering walkways, patios, decks, sheds, and more, the second edition of Outdoor Builder features a better layout and more instructional details than the original, but without inspirational galleries. Black & Decker Patios & Walkways stands out for its detailed photos and step-by-step, logically arranged instructions; however, most of the designs are not particularly sophisticated or innovative. There is an original section on drainage options with projects. In the latest in a good series, building expert Jeswald (Basement Ideas That Work) offers sound advice and insights. With great photos accompanying designing and construction information, there are also trade secrets scattered throughout, like why using old house bricks in a walkway is a bad idea. Only six sample projects are outlined, but each uses different materials and techniques. As with many volumes in the "Black & Decker" series, some of the projects in both of these new books are available in other titles by the publisher. Step-by-step information and suggested variations make Outdoor Builder well suited for beginners; Black & Decker Patios & Walkways is overall the best choice for its excellent instruction and drainage coverage; and Jeswald's authoritative contribution will serve more advanced do-it-yourselfers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

My name is Mary Sutter

 by Robin Oliveira. Despite her skill as a midwife, Mary Sutter cannot overcome the obstacle that bars her from further medical training: her gender. The Civil War changes everything. After her brother enlists in the Union Army, Mary follows him from Albany to Washington, DC, to volunteer as a nurse. She ends up at the ramshackle Union Hotel, crowded with recruits dying of disease, where Dr. William Stipp reluctantly agrees to hire her. As Union losses mount, her work becomes essential. But she relents to her mother's pleas to return home to help her twin sister through childbirth. After failing to save her sister, Mary returns to the front, where she eventually performs surgery in partnership with Stipp, whose admiration for her skill deepens to love before new family concerns carry her home again. VERDICT Oliveira deftly depicts the chaotic aftermath of battles and develops her own characters while incorporating military and political leaders of the time. The historic details enrich the narrative without overshadowing Mary's struggles. This well-written and compelling debut will engage all readers of historical fiction, especially those interested in the Civil War. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

97 Orchard : an edible history of five immigrant families in one New York tenement

 by Jane Ziegelman. Ninety-seven Orchard was an address shared by five immigrant families who lived in one tenement building at different times from the end of the Civil War up to World War II. Ziegelman, who will direct the Culinary Center to open at New York's Tenement Museum, which is the actual 97 Orchard building, documents, in a manner not often found in such social histories, their struggles to adjust to a new way of life in America. Interspersed among the tales of each group are culinary details and specific recipes that add vividly to the flavor and texture of the descriptions of the hardscrabble life these families-German, Irish, Jewish, and Italian-experienced. The multitude of gastronomic details, from the origin of snack shops called delicatessens to the growing popularity of something called macaroni, are painstakingly described. It is an eye-opening exploration of the social and economic history of those who thrived and survived, in spite of significant odds, on New York's Lower East Side. VERDICT Recommended for those seeking up-close and personal-as well as edible-insights into the daily lives of late 19th- and early 20th-century "new Americans". --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Backseat saints

 by Joshilyn Jackson. On the surface, she's Ro Grandee, dutiful wife of a handsome Texan with ready fists. But underneath her flowery skirts and painful bruises lurks Rose Mae, a fierce Southern spitfire who's already escaped an abusive father. These days Rose seems resigned to taking punches, working in the Grandee family gun shop, and waltzing with the vacuum cleaner until an oddly familiar airport gypsy foretells a fortune that is murder-literally. Rose's husband is going to kill her, unless she manages to kill him first. Rose takes her dog, Gretel, and her Pawpy's old gun and runs for her life, blazing a harrowing trail from Texas to Alabama and on to California and exhuming a heap of family skeletons along the way. VERDICT Jackson has resurrected a character from her best-selling gods in Alabama and crafted a riveting read that simply flies off the page with prose as luscious as sweet tea and spicy as Texas chili. Fans of Southern fare as varied as Sue Monk Kidd, Dorothy Allison, and Michael Lee West are sure to love it. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Hopes and prospects

 by Noam Chomsky. This selection of Chomsky's essays and lectures comes divided into geographical areas, but the issues are global in scope and import. In dissecting the rhetoric and logic of American empire and class domination, at home and abroad, Chomsky continues a longstanding and crucial work of elucidation and activism. His latest updates elaborate upon his signature themes-the double standards applied by the centers of U.S. power, including the mainstream media and intellectual culture, and the pervasive disconnect between American policies and public opinion in what Chomsky dubs a "dysfunctional democracy." But this book flags another major interest of Chomsky's, signaled in the title: global avenues of resistance, in particular the democratic and independent course being forged across Latin America (where several of these lectures were originally delivered). There are significant redundancies and polemical flourishes, but the writing remains unswervingly rational and principled throughout, and lends bracing impetus to the real alternatives before us. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

The red thread : a novel

  by Ann Hood. Hood's latest engaging novel is a timely exploration of the adoption process, specifically the adoption of Chinese girls by five couples in Providence, Rhode Island, brought together by Maya and her Red Thread Adoption Agency. One by one, Hood introduces each couple: there's a compulsive investment banker and her consultant husband; a social do-gooder and her immature husband who still pines for an ex-girlfriend; Maya's friend Emily, who longs for her own daughter, tired of vying with her stepdaughter for her husband's affection; an ex-baseball player who fears losing his wife's love and attention to the new adoptee; and a mismatched couple with their own mentally challenged daughter whom the wife struggles to love. Maya is an upbeat ringleader who believes every child is connected by a red thread to those fated to play a part in his or her destiny. Hood intersperses the stories of these diverse couples with the sad stories of five Chinese babies slated for adoption, resulting in part soap opera, part enlightening look at contemporary adoptions, and an altogether entertaining read. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Crossing Mandelbaum Gate : coming of age between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978

 by Kai Bird. Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of American Prometheus, offers a compelling hybrid of memoir and history, weaving together recollections of his childhood in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt; the stories of his wife's Holocaust survivor parents; and rigorous scholarship on the region. The book's title-Mandelbaum Gate once separated Israeli-controlled Western Jerusalem from the Jordanian-controlled East-indicates a view on the conflict, and it's certainly that, but it's also much more: readers are given ringside seats to Cairo under Nasser, the author's American family's friends (including Osama bin Laden's elder brother), and Bird's years in India and the U.S. during the heyday of the antiwar movement of the '60s. Notable events and figures (airplane hijacker Leila Khaled, for example, or the Palestinian-Jordanian battles known as Black September) are given detailed treatment and their continuing resonance is made clear. Bird's brushes with history-his first girlfriend was held hostage on an airplane hijacked to win Khaled's release, for instance-brings home the deeply messy humanity of the stories he binds together in this kaleidoscopic and captivating book. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

The pregnant widow : inside history

 by Martin Amis. The summer of 1970 leaves its mark on a young man trying to cope with the whirlwind changes brought on by the sexual revolution. Amis's latest tour de force (after House of Meetings and Yellow Dog) revolves around Keith Nearing, a man buffeted by time, memory, and regret. During an Italian holiday, Keith and his friends while away the hours with philosophical conversation and carnal longings, a heady mix with repercussions that last into adulthood. Surrounded by impossibly lovely young women, Keith struggles to make sense of both the English novel and his own desires, a toss-up that frequently ends in a draw. Told primarily in flashback, the narrative alternates between the seminal summer in Italy and Keith's subsequent adulthood experiences. Readers who enjoy a dab of suspense with their literary fiction will relish how Amis gradually teases out story-line resolutions, while those with a taste for symbolism will appreciate how Keith's experiences come to embody the sexual longings of an entire generation. VERDICT Earthy, passionate, literate, and poignant; pick this for your highbrow beach read. --Library Journal  (Check Catalog)

Student pilot's flight manual : from first flight to the private certificate : including emergency flying by reference to instruments

 A classic for beginning aviators, this manual provides ground and flight information for student pilots working towards private certification. This comprehensive reference describes flying fundamentals in a step-by-step, accessible manner and covers all procedures including the solo, cross-country, and night flights. An authoritative volume completely revised to include the latest FAA regulations, procedures, aeronautical charts, and terminology, this resource also contains a completely integrated syllabus and serves as a guide for teaching ground and flight instruction as well as a checklist of student accomplishments from the first flight through the private-pilot knowledge and practical tests. --Summary (Check catalog)

Innocent

 by Scott Turow. It took Turow more than 20 years to bring us the sequel to his best-selling first novel, Presumed Innocent, and it was worth the wait. Now 60 and long after being acquitted of murdering his mistress, Rusty Sabich has become chief judge of the Kindle County, IL, appellate court and is running for the state supreme court. When his wife dies in her sleep, Sabich waits 24 hours before calling his son or anyone else, setting off suspicions of foul play with his old nemesis, acting prosecutor Tommy Molto. The coroner determines she died of natural causes, but Molto and his chief deputy, Brand, quietly start building a case, convinced Sabich is trying to get away with murder again. VERDICT This is a beautifully written book with finely drawn characters and an intricate plot seamlessly weaving a troubled family story with a murder. Drawing the reader in and not letting go until the last page, Turow's legal thriller is a most worthy successor to Presumed Innocent and perhaps the author's finest work to date. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Feed your pet right : the authoritative guide to feeding your dog and cat

 by Marion Nestle. Dog and cat owners encounter a dizzying array of choices and confusing labels when shopping for pet foods in supermarkets. They will welcome the information Nestle (nutrition, New York Univ.; Pet Food Politics) and Nesheim (nutrition, emeritus, Cornell Univ.) obtained from their research and firsthand experience. Readers learn what pets are supposed to eat (dogs are omnivores; cats are carnivores) and the scientific standards and government regulations that led to the development of commercial pet food. Owners are guided through the many food choices, including dry, canned, wet, and semimoist foods; products called "premium," "all natural," "prescription diet," and "hairball control"; and more unconventional diets, like raw, vegetarian, and home cooked. After discussing various foods and nutrients, they conclude with specific and sensible recommendations for pet owners, the industry, and the government. VERDICT Filled with useful information, this well-written guide is the pet nutrition counterpart to Nestle's human nutrition guide, What To Eat. Recommended for all pet owners. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)