Liberty defined : 50 essential issues that affect our freedom

 by Ron Paul.  In his latest book, the long-time Texas Congressman and Republican presidential candidate puts his distinctive libertarian spin on some of the most controversial topics in American politics. He sees the primary battle as a struggle to throw off a creeping authoritarianism, characterized by unchecked government spending, foreign military incursions, and other excesses, in order to recapture the original liberties that the Founding Fathers proscribed. Eliminating tyranny from contemporary politics can only be achieved by embracing liberty and not by relying on failed government programs and misunderstood protections, according to Paul. To accomplish that goal, the tyrannical excesses of both Democrats and Republicans must be reined in. In alphabetical order, Paul tackles an eclectic mix of topics from abortion and campaign finance reform to terrorism and Zionism; the unifying construct being that these weighty issues are "controversial" and "tend to confuse people." He is an equal opportunity critic who doesn't hesitate to underline contradictions emanating from both parties. Groupings by topic would have made more sense, but it's a small quibble for anyone determined to understand how Ron Paul views America. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Open city : a novel

 by Teju Cole.  Nigerian immigrant Julius, a young graduate student studying psychiatry in New York City, has recently broken up with his girlfriend and spends most of his time dreamily walking around Manhattan. The majority of Open City centers on Julius' inner thoughts as he rambles throughout the city, painting scenes of both what occurs around him and past events that he can't help but dwell on. For reasons not altogether clear, Julius' walks turn into worldwide travel, and he flies first to Europe, where he has an unplanned one-night stand and makes some interesting friends, then to Nigeria, and finally back to New York City. Along the way, he meets many people and often has long discussions with them about philosophy and politics. Brought up in a military school, he seems to welcome these conversations. Upon returning to New York, he meets a young Nigerian woman who profoundly changes the way he sees himself. Readers who enjoy stream-of-consciousness narratives and fiction infused with politics will find this unique and pensive book a charming read. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Behind the beautiful forevers

 by Katherine Boo. While the distance between rich and poor is growing in the U.S., the gap between the haves and have-nots in India is staggering to behold. This first book by a New Yorker staff writer (and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post) jolts the reader's consciousness with the opposing realities of poverty and wealth in a searing visit to the Annawaldi settlement, a flimflam slum that has recently sprung up in the western suburbs of the gigantic city of Mumbai, perched tentatively along the modern highway leading to the airport and almost within a stone's throw of new, luxurious hotels. We first meet Abdul, whose daily grind is to collect trash and sell it; in doing so, he has lifted his large family above subsistence. Boo takes us all around the community, introducing us to a slew of disadvantaged individuals who, nevertheless, draw on their inner strength to not only face the dreary day but also ponder a day to come that will, perhaps, be a little brighter. Sympathetic yet objective and eloquently rendered. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The shadow patrol

 by Alex Berenson. Tougher than Kevlar, John Wells is in Afghanistan for his sixth outing (after The Secret Soldier) in league with best-selling author and former New York Times reporter Berenson. Wells may suffer a bit of ennui from his killing lifestyle, but his high-octane adventure keeps his readers revved-up and racing to reach the end. The job is to track down a mole operating at the CIA station in Kabul. Soon, Wells realizes that heroin trafficking is at the core of the betrayal. Relying on nuances, a few bits of circumstantial evidence, and his own strong experiences, Wells lays and springs a trap with himself as bait. Verdict As real as the morning headlines, this thriller pours on the blood and guts but also traces the enigmas faced by men in a war zone. Berenson's special gift is to crank up the suspense until the armchair spy hollers for relief-and the next Wells installment.  -Library Journal (Check Catalog)

I know who you are and I saw what you did : social networks and the death of privacy

 With 750 million members, Facebook has the power and reach of a nation, the third largest in the world. Andrews, legal scholar and expert on social media, examines the concept of social network as a nation in need of a constitution that protects the rights of its citizens. Law-enforcement agencies and repressive regimes alike are using information from Facebook pages to go after perceived wrongdoers. Similarly, school administrators and employers search Facebook for information. With the blurring of lines between government and social networks, Facebook and other social media are used to publicize what used to be private information on citizens that they have willingly or inadvertently made public. Andrews explores growing talk of a social-network constitution, not to establish hard-and-fast rules but to offer a firm expression of fundamental values to foster development of technology that protects privacy. She includes a proposed constitution that ensures the right to connect, to free speech and expression, and to privacy of place and information. A fascinating look at social media and a valuable resource for Internet users to protect personal data. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Best staged plans

 by Claire Cook.  Sandra and her husband, Greg, raised their two kids while renovating their Massachusetts Victorian house. Now she's ready for the next stage in her life, but an empty nest is nowhere in sight since her son is still living in the basement. She decides to take her home-staging business to the next level by decorating a boutique hotel in Atlanta. It will allow her to spend time with her newlywed daughter, keep an eye on her best friend's younger boyfriend, who owns the hotel, and hopefully give Greg the push he needs to ready the house for sale. Conflict between happy family memories and the need to move forward is tempered by a great running gag about reading glasses, realistic relationships with friends and children, and much-needed perspective from a stranger in need. Addicts to HGTV marathons will drool over Sandra's tips for paint samples and thrift-store bargains. Cook's likable heroine is charming without being silly, and her story is very well paced all the way to a genuinely delightful conclusion. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Republic of noise : the loss of solitude in schools and culture

 by Diana Senechal.  In Republic of Noise, Diana Senechal confronts a culture that has come to depend on instant updates and communication at the expense of solitude. Where once it was common wisdom that the chatter of the present, about the present, could not always grasp the present, today we treat "real time" as though it were the only real time. Schools emphasize rapid group work and fragmented activity, not the thoughtful study of complex subjects. The Internet offers contact with others throughout the day and night; we lose the ability to be apart, even in our minds. Yet solitude does not vanish; it is part of every life. It plays an essential role in literature, education, democracy, relationships, and matters of conscience. Throughout its analyses and argument, the book calls not for drastic changes but for a subtle shift: an attitude that honors solitude without descending into dogma. Outspoken, lyrical, and unassuming, Senechal's book dismantles the "groupthink" that pervades our lives. --Summary (Check Catalog)

http://www.colonie.org/library/

 by Erika Bauermeister. When Kate receives a clean bill of health after a double mastectomy, she invites the women in her life to a victory dinner. Motivated by her recent decision to join her college-age daughter on a whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, Kate takes the opportunity to assign each woman at the table her own challenge for the next year. Though some challenges seem deceptively simple on the surface (learn to bake bread, get a tattoo, tend your garden), Kate seems to know exactly how each task will force each woman to confront some of her deepest fears. Using individualized chapters to detail how each woman approaches her assigned challenge, Bauermeister displays an admirably adaptable and lyrical narrative voice. The chapters are short, yet Bauermeister paints remarkably detailed portraits of each and every woman. Examining those not afflicted with Kate's condition but undeniably affected by it, Joy for Beginners is an inspiring, tender, resonating, and rejuvenating read. --Booklist (Check C atalog)

Ali in Wonderland : and other tall tales

 by Alexandra Wentworth.  There is a moment in every woman's life in which she becomes completely unzipped, demented, whacked, non compos mentis begins actress and comedienne Wentworth's lively, laugh-out-loud memoir. Wentworth, perhaps best known for her role as Schmoopie in Seinfeld's infamous Soup Nazi episode, has spent her life surrounded by characters so over-the-top she couldn't possibly have made them up. Headlining the eccentric entourage is her drop-dead hilarious WASP mother, Muffie, who once served as President Reagan's White House social secretary. (No-nonsense and seemingly free of neuroses, Muffie deals with any stressful situation by booking a room at the Four Seasons.) Wentworth, who is married to esteemed journalist George Stephanopoulos, may have been born inside the Beltway, but there's no spinning in her candid commentary on psychotic roommates, persnickety bosses, and the well-fed family that hosted her during a summer in Spain. The clan's patriarch, she writes, looked like Javier Bardem if Javier Bardem had swallowed Penelope Cruz. Fans of Amy Sedaris and Merrill Markoe will enjoy Wentworth's warped weltanschauung and wicked wit. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Spring

 by David Szalay.  Set in London, Spring unfolds around the lives of James and Katherine. James is at a low point in his life. After the dot-com bust of 2006 and a failed business venture, he has sunk his last assets into a race horse with a marginal track record. He meets Katherine, a hotel manager, at the start of a blustery British spring and clings pathetically to her affection as his last hope for happiness. Katherine, however, is anything but happy to let down her guard. After dating a married man, she waffles in and out of love with James, creating a hot-and-cold romance with him that verges on the torturous. Szalay, who was listed as one of the Daily Telegraph's 20 best writers under 40, gets to the heart of what it means to encounter disappointment and heartache. His characters, particularly James, are skilled in picking up the pieces of their broken lives and moving on to something better, however elusive better may prove to be. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Towers of midnight

by Robert Jordan. Jordan's epic is coming to its long awaited conclusion in the next book, so this installment (Book 13) exquisitely ratchets up the suspense. The last battle is coming, and Rand must garner the armies of nations, unite disparate allies, and as the Dragon Reborn, prepare to face the Dark One in combat. Fans will find the preparations of the multitude of characters exciting and satisfying. Michael Kramer and Kate Reading have narrated all of the previous books, and continue to give peerless performances. Both boast a wide range of vocals and accents, and perform all characters convincingly. Their readings and characterizations are complementary and consistent in manner and style so that the sprawling series is kept coherent. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Quiet : the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

 by Susan Cain.  It's hard to believe, in this world of social media and reality TV, that one-third to one-half of Americans are introverts. Yet being an introvert has become a social stigma. The rise of what the author dubs the Extrovert Ideal (in which the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight) began with Dale Carnegie and his wildly popular self-help books. Simultaneously, we saw the rise of the movie star and of personality-driven ads and the appearance of the inferiority complex, developed by psychologist Alfred Adler. Today, pitchmen like Tony Robbins sell the idea of extroversion as the key to greatness. But and this is key to the author's thesis personal space and privacy are absolutely vital to creativity and invention, as is freedom from peer pressure. Cain also explores the fundamental differences in psychology and physiology between extroverts and introverts, showing how being an introvert or an extrovert is really a biological imperative. No slick self-help book, this is an intelligent and often surprising look at what makes us who we are. --Booklist (Check catalog)

How it all began : a novel

 by Penelope Lively.  The ruling vision of master British novelist Lively's latest delectably tart and agile novel is the Butterfly Effect, which stipulates that a very small perturbation can radically alter the course of events. The catalyst here is a London mugging that leaves Charlotte, a passionate reader and former English teacher become adult literacy tutor, with a broken hip. She moves in with her married daughter, Rose, to recuperate. Rose works for Henry, a lord and once-prominent historian, whose ego is as robust as ever but whose mind is faltering as he attempts to launch a BBC documentary to hilarious effect. With Rose out helping her mother, Henry prevails upon his daughter, Marion, an interior designer, to accompany him out of town, where she meets a too-good-to-be-true client. When she texts her lover, who deals in architectural salvage (tangible history), to postpone a rendezvous, his wife intercepts the message. Charlotte begins tutoring Anton, a smart and soulful East European, who affirms her ardor for language and story and awakens Rose out of her smothering stoicism. Throughout this brilliantly choreographed and surreptitiously poignant chain-reaction comedy of chance and change, Lively (Family Album, 2009) shrewdly elucidates the nature of history, the tunnel-visioning of pain and age, and the abiding illumination of reading, which so profoundly nourishes the mind and spirit. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

30 lessons for living : tried and true advice from the wisest Americans

 by Karl A. Pillemer. Who better to teach lessons on living, asks Pillemer (human ecology, Cornell Univ.; director, Cornell Inst. for Translational Research on Aging), than the thousands of Americans over the age of 65 who have successfully navigated the territories of marriage, career, money, and aging? By conducting innumerable interviews, Pillemer found that their advice upends contemporary wisdom: they suggest marrying a person like oneself, choosing a career for intrinsic rewards, and spending more time with one's children. The author skillfully weaves a prevailing theme (e.g., parenting, aging fearlessly) with self-disclosing statements from interviewees to create a compelling, inspirational book. One of the best of its kind. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Defending Jacob : a novel

 A 14-year-old boy is stabbed to death in the park near his middle school in an upper-class Boston suburb, and Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber takes the case, despite the fact that his son, Jacob, was a classmate of the victim. But when the bloody fingerprint on the victim's clothes turns out to be Jacob's, Barber is off the case and out of his office, devoting himself solely to defending his son. Even Barber's never-before-disclosed heritage as the son and grandson of violent men who killed becomes potential courtroom fodder, raising the question of a murder gene. Within the structure of a grand jury hearing a year after the murder, Landay gradually increases apprehension. As if peeling the layers of an onion, he raises personal and painful ethical issues pertaining to a parent's responsibilities to a child, to a family, and to society at large. Landay's two previous novels (Mission Flats, 2003; The Strangler, 2007) were award winners, but he reaches a new level of excellence in this riveting, knock-your-socks-off legal thriller. With its masterfully crafted characterizations and dialogue, emotional depth, and frightening implications, the novel rivals the best of Scott Turow and John Grisham. Don't miss it. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Unruly Americans and the origins of the Constitution

 by Woody Holton.  According to Holton (history, Univ. of Richmond), when most people articulate their favorite parts of the Constitution, they actually list things found in the Bill of Rights. However, the Constitution was ratified without these rights attached to it. Holton examines why the Constitution was ratified absent those rights. One explanation is that the Founders considered the states too democratic and the state legislatures too willing to appease the will of the majority. The author resurrects arguments by lesser-known political players who thought that the Union could be carried without abandoning legislative rule, and in the process he gives Charles Beard's economic interpretation a second look with surprising conclusions. State legislatures granted tax and debt relief in the years between the conclusion of the revolution and the ratification of the Constitution. Many citizens who demanded the legislature respond to their distress thought that their rebellion would bring about a democratic solution. State legislatures, absent pressure from the people, wrecked the economy. The motivation for the Constitution, therefore, is not merely based on the Founders' own self-interest--broadly felt domestic economic turmoil necessitated a more perfect Union.  --Choice (Check Catalog)

 by Erin Duffy. After a childhood introduction to the fast-paced world of Wall Street, sweetly naive Alex has landed a position at one of the finance industry's most prestigious firms. Instead of being guided through the finer points of bond trading, however, Alex is initially given tasks mostly centered on taking lunch orders and keeping everyone's nicknames straight. As she is accorded more responsibility, the realities of the financial industry and the mostly male egos around her conspire to make her job a little more difficult than she anticipated. Like The Devil Wears Prada (2003) set on Wall Street, Duffy's first novel is a sharp, witty look at the intricacies of the trading floor and the people who populate it. The writing is clever and articulate, and Alex's story of personal growth makes her a sympathetic, likable heroine. Filled with too-good-to-be-true anecdotes and enough of a biting, cynical bent to offset the chick-lit romance angle, Bond Girl is a fun read-alike to the canons of Weisberger, Kinsella, and Green. Duffy's acknowledgment of the recent financial collapse and ensuing recession makes Bond Girl an entertaining and timely read. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Coming apart : the state of white America, 1960-2010

 by Charles A. Murray.  Despite the subtitle, Murray's book is actually about class in America, not race. By zeroing in on troubling trends in white America, he keeps the focus on the country's increasing polarization along class lines,onthe growing isolation of the well-off from the poor, with each group developing radically different cultures, perspectives, and expectations from the other's. Murray provides historical context, showing that, before the 1960s, Americans of all races and classes had similar perspectives and expectations. Using census data for 1960 and 2000, Murray, coauthor of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994), shows increasing segregation of a college-educated elite living in SuperZips from those with little education, eking out a living in poor neighborhoods. Murray also shows strong divergence in education, employment, marriage, crime, and other indicators. Beyond statistics, Murray offers sketches of life lived in the upper class and the lower class and argues for the need to focus on what has made the U.S. exceptional beyond its wealth and military power, the ideals that have held a highly diverse nation together: religion, marriage, industriousness, and morality. Writing from a libertarian perspective, Murray offers a hopeful long view of elites, who have enormous influence on economic and social policy, coming to understand the peril of their disconnection from the rest of America. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The flight of Gemma Hardy : a novel

 by Margot Livesey.  The talented Livesey updates Jane Eyre, changing the setting to Scotland and the Orkneys during the 1950s and '60s but taking care to home in on the elements of this classic story that so resonate with readers: a resourceful orphan makes her way in an uncaring world and not only endures but also triumphs. Despite readers' familiarity with the story line, they will be held rapt as Gemma Hardy, orphaned at age 10, is taken in by a loving uncle only to lose him, too. Her aunt so cruelly shuns her in the wake of her uncle's death that she looks forward to attending boarding school, but her status as a working girl means that she has little time for her schoolwork, often laboring to the point of exhaustion. Still, Gemma's high intelligence and fierce resolve see her through many difficult experiences until she lands a dream job as an au pair on the isolated yet beautiful Orkney Islands. There she meets the family that will change her life (minus the madwoman in the attic). A sure bet for both book clubs and Bronte fans. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Fiction ruined my family

 by Jeanne Darst. The memoir craze has left many writers ruing their happy, functional childhoods. Not Darst: her father was a failed novelist, her mother an alcoholic clinging to her socialite youth. That's enough fodder to keep Darst under publishing contract for decades. Her debut opens as the family moves from St. Louis to New York, where her father can focus on his latest book. Early chapters feel reminiscent of David Sedaris: off-kilter domestic scenes played for laughs. But Darst's humor gains bite as she reaches adulthood and begins to exhibit the worst traits of both parents as a stalled writer and a falling-down drunk. Darst is fearless in presenting herself as selfish, callous, and out of control, which is entertaining in a raunchy, R-rated, gross-out-comedy kind of way. At 30, Darst takes stock of her future: I'd be that aged temp . . . waiting for five o'clock to get blotto. So she sobers up, dials down the crazy (though not all the way), and redefines what it means to be an artist. A more reflective voice emerges, one capable of living with her past. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The maid of Fairbourne Hall

  by Julie Klassen. Margaret Macy really has no choice. Margaret's new stepfather, Sterling Benton, is plotting to gain control of the money Margaret will inherit from her recently deceased aunt by marrying Margaret off to his nephew Benton. With no one to turn to for help, Margaret runs away from her home in London. What little money Margaret brings with her is quickly exhausted, forcing her to accept a job as a maid at Fairbourne Hall. All Margaret has to do is quietly remain in hiding there as Nora Garret until she comes into her inheritance. But her new employer is none other than Nathaniel Upchurch, whose offer of marriage Margaret rejected years ago. Christy Award winner and RITA nominee Klassen delivers another impeccably crafted romance rich in fascinating details about life both upstairs and downstairs in a country estate. An excellent choice for fans of faith-based fiction and readers who miss traditional Regency romances. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The Watervliet Arsenal : a history of the nation's oldest arsenal : 1813-2009

by John Swantek. Contents:

The early years -- Years of growth 1824-1845 -- The Mexican War -- The Civil War -- The lean years -- Conversion to a cannon factory -- Spanish-American War to World War One -- World War One and the long Armistice -- World War II -- World War II to the Korean War -- The Korean War and the growth of the research center -- The Southeast Asia buildup -- Modernization -- A new world, a new arsenal -- The lean years, revisited -- Partnerships and the War on Terror.

Item Description:

"A complete account of America's oldest, continuously active manufacturing arsenal. From the War of 1812 to the War on Terrorism, Watervliet Arsenal has been at the center of the struggle for freedom and democracy"--P. [4] of cover. (Check catalog)

Ragnarok : the end of the gods

 by Antonia Susan Byatt.  Booker Prize winner Byatt, a writer of exceptionally deep thinking and mischievous humor, who often incisively contrasts the great web of the wild with the tangles of human yearning and invention, presents a commanding retelling of her favorite myth, Ragnarok, the Norse myth to end all myths. Byatt reinvigorates this gripping vision of the end of the world and all its creatures through the eyes of her young self, a thin child evacuated to the countryside during the German Blitz. A thoughtful child who devoured stories with rapacious greed, she becomes utterly engrossed and stringently comforted by Ragnarok. Following the myth's arc of disaster, Byatt first brings its lush, singing world to rhapsodic, scientifically precise life in a grand litany of living things as entwined as the fine threads in a vast, breathing tapestry. Then we meet the flawed, reckless gods: Odin, Thor, Frigg and her beloved son Baldur, and shapeshifter Loki, chaos incarnate, whose pranks turn the gleaming, fecund splendor of life into a wasteland of bone, ash, and darkness. In her bracing closing essay, Byatt shares her fear that we are unconsciously emulating the irresponsible and wayward and mocking Norse gods and truly bringing about the end of nature and ourselves. A gorgeous, brilliant, and significant performance. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Wanted women : faith, lies, and the war on terror : the lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui

  Scroggins (Emma's War, 2002) immersed herself in the world of radical Islam through the lives of two committed women, Aafia Siddiqui, linked to al-Qaeda and convicted by U.S. authorities, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former member of Holland's parliament and outspoken critic of the religion. Scroggins profiles the women in alternate chapters, considering how both were subjected to Western influence and each ultimately embraced diametric positions on the religion they were born into. To understand their paths, she delves deeply into the politics and cultures of Somalia, Pakistan, the Netherlands, and the U.S., all while peeling back the layers of family and society that supported and opposed Siddiqui and Ali. Readers will be rocked by their own misconceptions of Islam and by the manner in which Islam has been misrepresented by both those who support and those who oppose it. They will be stunned by the vitriol espoused by two individuals who could not disagree more and yet manage to echo each other's zealotry. Scroggins' research is wide-ranging and impeccable, and she keeps readers on the edge of their seats with her compelling prose. If we can understand Siddiqui and Ali, then we will have a better chance of understanding the war on terror. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The rope (An Anne Pigeon Novel)

 by Nevada Barr.  Sooner or later, every hero gets an origin story. Anna Pigeon, the park ranger who's starred in a series of popular novels, gets hers now. It's 1995. Anna, a new hire at the Dangling Rope Park, has disappeared. Her coworkers (most of whom consider her to be a little odd anyway) figure she's just wandered off somewhere, maybe gone back to New York. But, as we learn in terrifying detail, she's been taken by an unknown assailant and tossed naked into the bottom of a hole. The hole, as it turns out, has had previous occupants, one of whom, relatively recently deceased, Anna digs up this is sure to turn some stomachs and then takes her clothes. Eventually, she escapes from captivity by bashing her captor on the head; but, returning to the hole with law-enforcement officers, Anna discovers she's bashed not her captor but one of her colleagues, who had been trying to rescue her, or so he says. Dark and visceral, the novel is sure to appeal to Barr's legion of fans, especially those who have been clamoring for the author to light the shadows of Anna's past. Here we see a familiar character in a sort of rough-draft form, the way Lee Child's novels about Jack Reacher's early days show us a still-forming, rough-around-the-edges version of the familiar hero. A crisply written and revelatory entry in the Pigeon series. --Booklist (Check Catalog)