The puppy diaries : raising a dog named Scout

 by Jill Abramson. After her West Highland white terrier Buddy died, heartbroken New York Times managing editor Abramson was reluctant to get another dog. Then she was hit by a truck. Suffering post-traumatic depression, she agreed with her husband to get a puppy, a British standard golden retriever named Scout. Determined that Scout would become a better-behaved dog than Buddy, she registered the puppy for obedience training based on the positive-reinforcement principles of dog expert Karen Pryor. Trained as an investigative reporter, Abramson interviewed many dog trainers, breeders, veterinarians, and owners, and read many manuals in her search for the best way to raise her puppy. She also sampled services for dogs and their owners in the upscale Tribeca neighborhood of New York and in rural Connecticut. This engaging report on Scout's first year belongs in most public libraries. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The art of fielding : a novel

 by Chad Harbach. *Starred Review* Sports fiction has a built-in plot problem. The drama usually rides on a team's success or failure as it moves through a season to the Big Game. The team either overcomes adversity and wins, following in the cliche-strewn tradition of everything from The Bad News Bears to Rocky, or it loses, a literarily more resonant route, to be sure, but inevitably unsatisfying if the reader has become a fan along the way. First-novelist Harbach finds an inventive and thoroughly satisfying solution to the Big Game problem, and it works because the reader doesn't live or die with what happens on the field. This sprawling multiple-story saga follows the coming-of-age and midlife crises of five characters at Westish College, a small liberal-arts school in Wisconsin. At the center of it all is Henry Skrimshander, a shortstop of phenomenal ability who has led the school's baseball team to unprecedented heights. Then a wildly errant throw from Henry's usually infallible arm provides the catalyst for game-changing events not only in Henry's life but also in those of his roommate, Owen Dunne; his best friend and mentor, the team's catcher, Mike Schwartz; the school's president, Guert Affenlight; and the president's daughter, Pella. In an immediately accessible narrative reminiscent of John Irving, Harbach (cofounder of the popular literary journal n+1) draws readers into the lives of his characters, plumbing their psyches with remarkable psychological acuity and exploring the transformative effect that love and friendship can have on troubled souls. And, yes, it's a hell of a baseball story, too, no matter who wins. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The quest : energy, security and the remaking of the modern world

 by Daniel Yergin. The quest for energy is quite simply the quest for power, argues energy expert Yergin. Unanticipated events manmade and natural, from the coup in Egypt whose ripples threaten to destabilize oil production in the Middle East to the earthquakes that destabilized Japan's nuclear energy plants can pivot the world's economy as more and more emerging nations demand more energy. Yergin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Prize (1991), begins by detailing how the energy system of oil, gas, and electrical power has fueled the economic growth of the modern world. He goes on to provide a close examination of the concerns about the environment, terrorism, geopolitics, and economics that will affect changes in energy sources. He offers context for growing scientific concern about climate change, China's huge stores of coal reserves that make it self-sufficient but threaten the environment, and new perspectives on energy, from Brazil's rising role as ethanol producer to growing investment across the world in renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power. A comprehensive, accessible look at energy. --Booklist (Check Catalog) 

Song of the Silk Road

 by Mingmei Ye. Yip's lively new novel manages to be at once modern and traditional. Struggling scribe Lily Lin is writing her Chinese-American family saga, stuck in a dead-end relationship with a married man, and employed as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant in midtown Manhattan. When she is contacted by a law firm representing a previously unknown but apparently wealthy Chinese aunt, she ignores her good fortune, thinking it fishy, "like a cliched plot in a cheap novel." But it's not, and if Lily follows her aunt's obsessive instructions to retrace her own Silk Road sojourn, Lily will receive three million dollars. She accepts the challenge, and thus begins an absorbing journey that only seems to make sense as a way of uniting the Chinese and Western halves of Lily's heritage. Surprising and often funny. Yip's (Peach Blossom Pavilion) modern heroine's quest is filled with unique companions, unforeseen dangers, unexpected joys, and bitter sorrows. Part epic, part coming-of-age story, part modern fairy tale, it only falters in an easy ending, which readers, by then in love with Lily Lin, will likely forgive. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Going home : finding peace when pets die

 by John Katz. Leave it to prolific author Katz (Soul of a Dog) to write this beautiful, heartrending book about saying good-bye to a loved pet. Katz draws from personal experience to discuss the difficulties of deciding to put a pet down, dealing with the guilt, and honoring that pet's legacy. He offers special prayers and rituals for helping children grieve the loss of a pet. Best, he speaks of the one-of-a-kind relationship people have with their pets and sees animals as free of the conflict, drama, and disappointment that seem to taint human relationships. Katz addresses a need, and he does it beautifully. Bring tissues. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Scenes from village life

 by Amos Oz. Loosely connected stories from renowned author Oz (A Tale of Love and Darkness, 2004) take place in the Israeli village of Tel Ilan, which is shifting from a tight-knit, rustic farming community to one of art galleries and boutique markets. This disquieting transformation and general unease underlie this thought-provoking collection, in which the mayor's wife suddenly leaves him, a stranger mysteriously arrives, and a real-estate agent becomes entranced by a dilapidated property. The memorable Digging finds the elderly Pesach living with his widowed daughter, Rachel. The cantankerous Pesach nags Rachel about unexplained digging noises at night, a complaint she disregards until the Arab student she is housing also mentions similar sounds. In Relations, a doctor anxiously awaits the arrival of her injured nephew as she reflects on their complicated relationship. With the haunting Singing, an evening of communal singing is punctuated with news of air raids, leaving one participant unable to shake an unexplained feeling of urgency. Filled with tension and allegory, Oz's perceptive tales explore the nuance and alienation of transitioning states. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The great A&P and the struggle for small business in America

 by Marc Levinson. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company was a trendsetter and market leader from its founding in 1869. It capitalized on the growing tea trade and innovative marketing approaches to become the first retailer anywhere to sell $1 billion of merchandise in a single year. Levinson shows how, through expanded product lines, trading stamps, branding, and financial control, astute management drove the company's success in reinventing itself in response to changing market conditions. It portrays the colorful personalities of the men who ran A&P in the early days and their effectiveness as leaders. It also cites the missed opportunities, beginning in the 1950s, that resulted in the company's downfall. The A&P story is a fascinating case history within the evolution of the U.S. grocery industry. Levinson makes it read like a novel, full of interesting anecdotes and references to a large bibliography. Anyone interested in the retail industry may find this book a great study of responding to the need to adapt to market and economic pressures to survive. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

City of whispers

 by Marcia Muller.  *Starred Review* Muller's sleuth, Sharon McCone, has a new, intensely personal case. Still feeling some residual effects from being shot in the head (Locked In, 2009), Sharon receives an e-mail from her mentally ill half-brother, Darcy Blackhawk, asking for help. When he fails to reply to her response, she gets worried and looks for him. The message came from a computer at an Internet cafe in San Francisco, a city that Darcy has never visited. As Sharon searches for him, she finds the body of a young woman at the Palace of Fine Arts. A witness says that Darcy was heading there. The search widens, and Sharon finds links to the unsolved murder of a banking heiress. She needs to solve both cases to find her brother and ensure his safety, putting herself and her family in danger. The case makes Sharon appreciate her diverse, sometimes dysfunctional family and reinforces her love for her husband, Hy. As Sharon celebrates another birthday, devoted readers will appreciate all the more both the groundbreaking nature of this series (the first to star a female PI in hard-boiled fiction) and the fact that, throughout her long run, Sharon has aged gracefully and matured as a heroine and a woman. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Don't shoot : one man, a street fellowship, and the end of violence in inner-city America

 by David M. Kennedy. In a matter-of-fact, street-smart style, coming from years of working with police officers, gang members, and community workers in some of America's most dangerous neighborhoods, Kennedy, professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explains his remarkably effective strategies for combating violent crime. When research showed that only a disproportionately small number of criminals commit most of the most serious crimes, Kennedy had the police identify gang members on parole or probation and urge them to come to a meeting. At the gathering were members of the gangs' families, community service providers, and the police, who explained the legal risks the perpetrators faced (most gang members didn't know)-and demanded that shootings stop. If the killings continued, the perpetrators would not receive another chance; instead, they'd be met with severe punishment, and their entire gang would be targeted. When this program, called Operation Ceasefire, was first tried in Boston in the '90s, violence plummeted by almost two-thirds, and Kennedy chronicles the difficulties in implementing the program to meet the needs of 50 other cities. Warning against the country's "orgy" of incarceration, which disproportionately targets black males in America's most vulnerable neighborhoods, this heartfelt book shows what can happen when police, gangs, and communities come together to address some of America's most intractable social problems. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

The brass verdict : a novel

 by Michael Connelly. *Starred Review* It hasn't gone well for L.A. lawyer Mickey Haller since the events described in The Lincoln Lawyer (2005). The recovery from being shot was slow, and the addiction to prescription drugs was worse than the recovery. But Haller has kicked the pills and is ready to practice law again when his friend and fellow attorney Jerry Vincent is murdered, and Mickey inherits all Vincent's cases, including a career-maker: the trial of a studio executive accused of killing his wife and her lover. Quickly, Mickey realizes he's caught in the middle: defending the mogul requires concealing facts that could help solve the Vincent murder. OK, Mickey's used to playing fast and loose with the cops, but the investigating officer, Harry Bosch, knows when he's being played. Careful Connelly readers will know that there's a connection between the author's two heroes, Bosch and Haller, even though this is the first time the two costarred together (see The Black Light, 1993). Connelly plays the dueling characters off against one another effectively, especially for those familiar with the previous books, but it isn't all about backstory. Like Lincoln Lawyer, this is a fine legal thriller, full of both electric courtroom scenes and fascinating behind-the-scenes stuff about the business of lawyering. Connelly is justly celebrated for his characters and his ability to create mood from the sights and sounds of L.A., but he's also a terrific plotter, and that skill is in high relief here. Essential for fans; a great read for anybody. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Five chiefs : a Supreme Court memoir

 by John Stevens. Stevens' law professor, Nathaniel Nathanson, who served as law clerk to Justice Louis Brandeis, whose seat Stevens later inherited, instilled in him a curiosity about the mystery of the law, the unresolved issues constantly coming before the U.S. Supreme Court. In fond memory of the professor, Stevens aims to convey the kinds of insights routine in Nathanson's class. He succeeds without the ponderousness of legal studies. Stevens briefly reviews the first 12 chief justices and the pressing judicial and political issues of their times before focusing on the 5 with whom he had personal contact, Fred Vinson (as his clerk), Earl Warren (as a practicing lawyer), Warren Burger (as a junior justice), William Rehnquist (as a colleague), and John Roberts (as the senior associate justice). Stevens' personal contact with those 5 adds texture and insights to the biographical sketches through anecdotes and fascinating behind-the-scenes details. He ends with his own perspective as the third-longest-serving justice in U.S. history and the senior associate justice. second among equals on the high-court bench. Photographs enhance this engaging look at the Supreme Court. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: When he resigned last June, Justice John Paul Stevens was the third longest-serving justice in American history; this behind-the-scenes look at the Court is sure to get plenty of media attention. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Feast day of fools : a novel

 by James Lee Burke. *Starred Review* Bad guys in James Lee Burke's fiction tend to be very bad, human incarnations of evil, manifestations of something deep in our lizard brain, something that will not be civilized, that craves only chaos. In this latest Hackberry Holland title, starring the seventysomething reformed drunk and whoremonger, now sheriff in a small southwest Texas border town, the bad guys are still very bad, but they have become more multidimensional, human impulses at war with the lizard core. Chief among the antagonists this time is Preacher Jack Collins, Holland's nemesis, presumed dead at the end of Rain Gods (2009) but now risen from the desert, still toting the Thompson machine gun with which he attempts to exorcise a lifetime of demons. But this is anything but a mano-a-mano conflict. Holland and his chief deputy, Pam Tibbs, are tracking a disaffected Homeland Security scientist in possession of secrets that a wealth of bad guys Mexican drug dealers, Russian mobsters would happily peddle to al-Qaeda. At the center of it all is a mysterious Chinese woman, Anton Ling, who operates a kind of underground railroad for illegals but who is an object of fascination for all the principals, from Holland to Preacher Jack to a Mexican gang leader obsessed with finding a way to bless his dead children. As Burke steers the elaborately structured narrative toward its violent conclusion, we are afforded looks inside the tortured psyches of his various combatants, finding there the most unlikely of connections between the players. This is one of Burke's biggest novels, in terms of narrative design, thematic richness, and character interplay, and he rises to the occasion superbly, a stand-up guy at the keyboard, as always. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Who's afraid of post-blackness? : what it means to be Black now

 by Touré Toure, journalist and commentator and a member of the post-civil rights era generation, addresses the complexities of the contemporary meaning of black identity. The term postblack is often but not intended to be confused with postracial, meaning beyond race or racism. But postblack asserts the continuation of black identity in a broader, more inclusive format. Toure interviewed more than 100 successful blacks in arts, politics, business, and other arenas to gain a broader perspective on racial identity. Among his subjects: Reverend Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Kara Walker, Melissa Harris-Perry, Harold Ford Jr., Questlove, and Chuck D. The result is a cross section of perspectives, interweaving Toure's own perception that the narrow expectations of blackness and black identity from whites, as well as blacks, is no longer appropriate. Toure examines how blacks, in their aspirational quest, use black identity as a filter, not as a definition. For example, being identifiably black affects a person's experience or perspective on life but does not dictate his or her opinion or position. A compelling book in the age of Obama and struggles with the notion of a postracial society. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Changó's beads and two-tone shoes

 by William Kennedy. *Starred Review* Kennedy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning bard of Albany, is  back with a jazzy, seductive, historically anchored novel of politics and romance, race and revolution. Young Daniel Quinn awakens one night in 1936 to watch his amiable father, George, preside over a jam session involving Jimmy, a prominent black club owner; Cody, an exceptional black piano player; the future mayor of Albany; and Bing Crosby. Turn the page, and it's 1957. Quinn, now an impulsive and romantic newspaperman, is in Havana, drinking with Hemingway and falling hard for Renata, a rich and daring gunrunner of hyperventilating beauty and perpetual intensity and mystical need. The reporter and the femme-fatale revolutionary meet Castro and marry in a Santeria ceremony invoking Chango, the god of thunder. When next we see them, it's 1968 and racial tension in profoundly corrupt Albany is on the boil. Quinn and Renata tend to personal crises as Jimmy and Cody's civil-rights-activist sons and a rebel priest get caught up in the violence, and George, now senile but still charming, becomes the waltzing ghost of Albany past, positively Shakespearean in his munificent delusions. Music, rapid-fire dialogue, lyrical outrage, epic malfeasance, trampled idealism, and a bit of autobiography drive Kennedy's incandescent and enrapturing tale of the heroic and bloody quest for justice and equality and the gamble of love.. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: This gripping addition to Kennedy's celebrated Albany Cycle, which includes Ironweed (1983) and Roscoe (2002), is literary news of the highest order. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The better angels of our nature : why violence has declined

 by Steven Pinker. Readers will understandably question psychology professo. Pinker's basic premises that violence has declined significantly and that we are living in the most peaceable era of human existence. But he makes the case with data and trend lines indicating that despite the horrors of our modern age terrorism, genocide, everyday mayhem we are actually killing and maiming less frequently than in earlier history. Pinker takes a very long view, drawing on history and psychology to examine a very hopeful trend. He begins by looking at six historical trends that have led to advancements from hunting to agriculture to commerce and governance, resulting in greater prosperity and ease. In the arena of psychology, he explores five inner demons and how they have been fueled and calmed by historical factors. Finally, he examines fou. better angel. forces, including empathy, self-control, morality, and reason, that have historically kept us from eliminating our species. This long, well-researched, comprehensive tour-de-force provides a helpful look at the human condition. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Train dreams

 by Denis Johnson.  National Book Award-winner Johnson, ever the literary shape-shifter, looks back to America's expansionist fever dream in a haunting frontier ballad about a loner named Robert Grainier. Left in the dark about why he was put on a train by himself as a young boy and sent cross-country to relatives in Idaho, Grainier revels in the hard, dangerous work and steadying loneliness of logging mighty forests and building gravity-defying and spirit-testing railroad bridges over plunging gorges. He finally marries, only to return to the massive undertakings he hungers for, leaving his wife and baby girl in their isolated cabin. After hearing about and witnessing myriad crimes and catastrophes embodying the sublime and the macabre, Grainier is blasted into his own private hell of horror and grief. By the time he emerges, cars and planes have further transformed the world. Johnson draws on history and tall tales to adroitly infuse one contemplative man's solitary life with the boundless mysteries of nature and the havoc of humankind's breakneck technological insurgency, creating a concentrated, reverberating tale of ravishing solemnity and molten lyricism. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Toxic free : how to protect your health and home from the chemicals that are making you sick

 by Debra Dadd-Redalia. Longtime consumer advocate Dadd (Home Safe Home) offers advice on how to purge your home of hazardous substances to improve health and quality of life. Cleaning products, household textiles, food, and other everyday substances that can contain harmful toxins are discussed. Suggestions on how to live toxin free accompany each section. Dadd also discusses the dangers of environmental contaminants such as pesticides and air pollution. Appendixes educate readers further on human physiology, the effects of toxic exposure, and how to identify harmful substances. This book is much more comprehensive in scope than the onslaught of titles that limit their focus to specific kinds of materials-beauty or cleaning products, for example. Similar titles published in recent years include Myron Wentz and Dave Wentz's The Healthy Home and Beth Greer's Super Natural Home. -VERDICT The book is well organized and informative but would benefit from citations to better illustrate the hazards and health implications discussed. Those looking for a primer on household toxins and suggested alternatives will enjoy this resource. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The affair : a Reacher novel

 by Lee Child. *Starred Review* Jack Reacher fans know the basics about their hero career army MP suddenly transformed into the ultimate lone wolf (Have Toothbrush Will Travel) but they don't know the backstory. Finally, Child fills us in on what drove Reacher, a good soldier above all, out of the army. The basic structure resembles most Reacher novels: Jack turns up in an out-of-the-way locale (small-town Mississippi here), confronts a clutch of evildoers, takes them down, packs his toothbrush, and hits the road. But this time hitting the road means leaving the army, which becomes necessary because certain of the evildoers are soldiers, too, and to bring them down, Reacher must discard the MP's manual altogether. For fans of the series, much of the fun comes in spotting Reacher's now-familiar idiosyncrasies at the moments they were born (the habit, for example, of owning only one set of clothes, wearing them until they get dirty, and then buying replacements). The plot itself involves a serial killer possibly a soldier wreaking havoc among the locals living near an army base. Teaming up both professionally and romantically with the town sheriff, a comely former marine, Reacher simultaneously attempts to find the truth and protect the army. As usual, plenty of eggs get broken in spectacular style on the way to making a Reacher omelet. Child's mastery of high-octane plotting remains remarkable, as does his ability to inject what, in other hands, might have been cartoon characters with all the sinews that power human beings. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Public parts : how sharing in the digital age improves the way we work and live

 by Jeff Jarvis. The author of What Would Google Do? (2009) returns with another thoughtful look at the Internet age. A welcome and well-reasoned counterpoint to the arguments that social-networking sites and the easy availability of personal information online are undermining our society and putting our safety at risk, the book shows how instruments of connectivity like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Twitter can be, if used constructively, major contributors to society. (Recall, for example, how early news out of Egypt during the recent revolution came via Twitter.) Jarvis doesn't ignore the downsides of online connectivity, of course, but he puts them in what appears to be a more objective context. With the recent publicity surrounding the Rupert Murdoch media empire and the cellphone-hacking scandal, the book's theme that the Internet is a valuable tool for social change might strike some readers as a bit ill-timed, but the argument is highly persuasive (especially when Jarvis shows how the printing press, like the Internet, also came with predictions of misuse, invasion of privacy, and disaster). A must-read for anyone interested in the issue of connectivity versus privacy. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Lethal

 Sandra Brown. Lee Coburn is lethal. A trained killer suspected of murdering seven men in a trucking company warehouse in coastal Louisiana, he is the object of an area-wide manhunt when he feigns injury to get into the home of widow Honor Gillette and her four-year-old, Emily. The Gillette house isn't just a refuge for Coburn. He's after something valuable left by Honor's late husband, Eddie, a cop who died in an apparent accident two years ago. As the terrorized Honor fears for Emily's safety and expects to be raped or murdered, it becomes clear that things aren't what they seem. Everything revolves around the Bookkeeper, shadowy head of a scheme for illegally trafficking guns, drugs, and girls, who brooks no deviation from orders given. Though it's fairly obvious early on that Honor is drawn to Coburn's laser blue eyes, Brown keeps the plot twisting and turning, the body count rising, and the action accelerating to a satisfying climax. Brown knows how to write romantic suspense and once again has produced a satisfying page-turner. --Booklist Review (Check Catalog)

Deadline artists : America's greatest newspaper columns

 "It is the great American art form, read by millions every day." When these eloquent, compassionate newspaper columns were first delivered, they were treated as individual works of art, almanacs to suit any disposition. Well-catalogued and categorized, this exultant retrospective of American journalism seems ideal for today's attention spans and travel schedules. In the most memorable modern excerpt from the section "Wars and Other Foreign Affairs," Pete Hamill stands in a "pale gray wilderness" following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and tells readers: "As I write, it remains present tense." In other sections, Hunter S. Thompson and O. Henry reveal a raw, emotional, and entertaining style of journalism; a formula that Jimmy Breslin's surreal "'Are You John Lennon?'" piece surely encapsulates. Avlon, Angelo, and Louis's glorious compilation "is a chance to be there at moments when America changes, for better or for worse." Free-flowing to the very end, lasting drops of pure wisdom come in the form of Mary Schmich's infamous "sunscreen" composition, while Benjamin Franklin's 1757 sermon of advice literally offers words to live by. "Well done is better than well said," Franklin writes, but as far as this essential anthology goes, it's so well done, there's nothing left to say. --Library journal (Check catalog)

Shadow in Serenity

 by Terri Blackstock. There's a shadow in Serenity, TX, and his name is Logan Brisco. Having grown up in a traveling circus, Carny Sullivan had her fill of scam artists. The last thing she wants is to see someone con the people she has come to love. Logan has promised the town a portion of the proceeds of an amusement park he wants to build, but Carny thinks there's something behind his dazzling smile. Is she right, or can Logan prove that he is sincere? VERDICT Christy Award winner Blackstock is known for her Christian romantic suspense stories, with over six million books sold worldwide. That alone should demand purchase, but the crisp prose and multi-dimensional characters will be a hit with readers wanting a fast-paced story. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Death in the city of light : the serial killer of Nazi-occupied Paris

 by David King. *Starred Review* Just about every nonfiction book about a serial killer on the loose in a big city published since 2004 has been hailed as another Devil in the White City. Erik Larson's tour de force of narrative nonfiction hasn't been matched until now. European-history scholar King, author of the acclaimed Vienna, 1814 (2008), has found a villain who, like businessman H. H. Holmes in White City, was admired and trusted and thrived in an atmosphere of genteel chaos. For Holmes, the Columbian Exposition of 1893 provided young female victims. King's subject, respected doctor Marcel Petiot, tortured and dismembered at least a score of victims during the WWII Nazi occupation of Paris. Many of those were Jews, who came to Petiot seeking refuge from the Gestapo. King deftly adopts a Poe-like, thoroughly eerie tone in his opening depiction of the contents of the basement of a town home in a still-fashionable Paris neighborhood in 1944 and maintains it throughout. He follows the investigation led by Commissaire Georges-Victor Massu of the French homicide squad through the search for Petiot and his trial. The French Prefecture de Police allowed King access to the entire Petiot dossier, which had been classified since his trial. While painstaking in its research, the book has a top-notch thriller's immediacy and power to make one gasp. True-crime at its best. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Lost memory of skin

 by Russell Banks. *Starred Review* Banks is in top form in his seventeenth work of fiction, a cyclonic novel of arresting observations, muscular beauty, and disquieting concerns. An unloved runt of 22, the Kid thinks he might b. slightly retarded. but his narrational voice evinces a smart, sensitive, and witty, if dangerously uneducated, mind. With only a pet iguana for a friend, the Kid became addicted to online pornography, which leads to his becoming a virginal convicted sex offender on parole, camping out beneath a causeway at the water's edge in a city much like Miami. The Kid joins a veritable leper colony of sex offenders rendered homeless due to a law forbidding them to live within 2,500 feet of any place children may gather. Enter the Professor, a sociologist whose gargantuan mental powers are matched by his astonishing bulk. Humongous, arrogant, generous, brash, and secretive, the Professor, a character of startling and magnetic originality, latches onto the Kid first as a case study, then as an ally, until things go catastrophically wrong. Banks dramatically contrasts the soulless cybersexual carnival with the thorny complexity of flesh-and-blood encounters and our inner lives, the fecund wildness of a vast primeval swamp, and the fury of a hurricane to create a commanding, intrepidly inquisitive, magnificently compassionate, and darkly funny novel of private and societal illusions, maladies, and truths. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Banks is among our living literary giants, and promotion for this daring novel includes a print, television, radio, and online campaign and a coast-to-coast tour. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

American anthrax : fear, crime, and the investigation of the nation's deadliest bioterror attack

 by Jeanne Guillemin. In July 2008, Bruce Ivins took his own life. He had been a highly respected bioweapons researcher, working for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). He was also the prime suspect in the post-9/11 anthrax attacks that took several lives and caused a nationwide panic. In this gripping account, Guillemin, author of two previous books about biological weapons, chronicles the FBI investigation into the attacks, showing how the authorities came to focus on Ivins and also how the investigation was hampered by procedural confusion and outside influences, such as erroneous reports that escalated the public's sense of panic. Although marketed as a science book, this work, in tone and structure, more closely resembles true crime. There's science in the book, naturally, but the primary interest here arises from how investigators solved the mystery of who was behind the attacks. Highly recommended to readers of science, true crime, and even thrillers. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Winning the war on war : the decline of armed conflict worldwide

 by Joshua S. Goldstein. American University professor and international relations expert Goldstein argues that military conflicts are on the retreat globally. Using analysis and statistics, he rebuts the claim that the 20th century was among the bloodiest in human history, that civilian casualties in warfare have been increasing as a proportion of total casualties, along with violence against women, and that the number of wars being fought has been increasing since World War II. Goldstein contends that peace is a worthwhile objective for its own sake, even without other causes, such as social justice or economic reform. Goldstein reviews the history and development of U.N. peace keeping operations from their inception under Ralph Bunche and Count Bernadotte in Palestine, and while surveying the world's ongoing armed struggles, he presents leading peace research institutes (such as the one in Uppsala, Sweden) and researchers (such as the late Randy Forsberg on nuclear weapons). In addition, he reveals the flawed nature of casualty estimates based on epidemiological models that were employed for the Congo and Iraq. The result is an optimistic, if controversial, assessment by a respected anti-war advocate. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)