Twin : a memoir

  by Allen Shawn.  Faced with a continually replenishing wave of memoirs, one can feel lost in the deluge. Which titles stand out, when you've got nine different memoirs on the same subject? Happily, librarians can recommend Twin to all memoir enthusiasts, and, of course, those who read Shawn's previous title, Wish I Could Be There (2007), in which he skillfully dissected his phobias and other mental-health issues but left questions in the reader's mind about his mentally disabled twin sister. Here he delves deeper into his own psyche and what he refers to as contradictions, piecing together the role of a sister with autism in his life a twin, with all of the closeness associated with twins, and yet with a stark separation, as she left their home at age eight, permanently, for a residential treatment facility. Shawn's moving work brings us closer to understanding a diagnosis that, by its nature, challenges family bonds. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Secrets to the grave

 by Tami Hoag. A horrific murder rocks the town of Oak Knoll, Calif., in the chilling sequel to Hoag's Deeper than the Dead), set in 1986. The victim is 28-year-old artist Marissa Fordham, the single mother of Haley, a four-year-old found partially strangled and barely clinging to life next to her mother's stabbed and mutilated body. Det. Tony Mendez and his capable crew investigate the crime, while child advocate Anne Leone and her husband, former FBI special agent Vince Leone, take temporary custody of Haley. Among the several suspects is attorney Steve Morgan, the estranged husband of Sara Morgan, whose daughter, Wendy, found a victim of the accused See-No-Evil killer, Peter Crane, who's about to go on trial. Adding extra tension are Anne's efforts to help disturbed 12-year-old Dennis Farnham and the disappearance of Marissa's best friend, Gina Kemmer. Newcomers will have no trouble getting into this suspense novel rich in pre-DNA detecting methods. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

This glittering world

 by T (Tammy) Greenwood. "So hope slowly turned into desperation and desperation into sad resignation." This line from Greenwood's (Two Rivers; The Hungry Season) disturbing suspense novel paints an accurate picture of her characters' troubled lives. Ben, an adjunct history professor and part-time bartender, and his nurse fiancee, Sara, have been living a somewhat peaceful existence in Flagstaff, AZ, until an early snow falls on Halloween night and the couple discover a badly beaten Native American young man on their doorstep. Unable to forget Ricky's death, Ben forges a secret bond with Ricky's grieving sister, Shadi. Haunted by a tragedy from his own childhood, Ben becomes increasingly aware of the deep fissures in his supposedly settled life. Verdict Stark, taut, and superbly written, this dark tale brims with glimpses of the Southwest and scenes of violence, gruesome but not gratuitous. This haunting look at a fractured family is certain to please readers of literary suspense. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Break the glass

 by Jean Valentine. State Poet of New York and National Book Award winner Valentine's poems are brilliantly concentrated and neatly faceted, forged in the heat and press of experience and rumination like diamonds within the earth. In meticulously measured lines of deceptive quickness, Valentine encompasses the full spectrum of life and death as she deftly limns vivid landscapes etched by change slow and irrevocable, such as an old, abandoned stable and its fields, where the poet sees deep down to buried horses, a cow, memories. Attuned as she is to spirit, Valentine is nonetheless unsentimental, facing hard facts about the grand scheme of things when she comes across just-born, now-doomed rabbits in the garden. Her poems possess the immediacy and gestural magic of cave paintings and the resonance of psalms, albeit with a wild and pagan streak, as in the wonderfully piquant Earth and the Librarian, and a series of keening, prayerful, praise poems to Lucy, our 3.2 million-year-old foremother. Sharply honed yet mysterious, Valentine's lyrics of longing, conscience, collapsed time and space, and the elemental are startling and resounding. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The lake of dreams : a novel

 by Kim Edwards. After her father's sudden death, Lucy Jarrett leaves her home in upstate New York, hoping to put some distance between herself and her grief. Ten years later, she returns to the Lake of Dreams to find the town a very different place. Her mother's house has fallen into disrepair, and Mom's on the verge of a new romance. Developers, including her shady uncle Art, want to turn the village into a housing development. The presence of her former high-school boyfriend, glass artist Keegan Falls, stirs up long forgotten feelings. When Lucy discovers a stack of old letters hidden inside a cupboard, she quickly becomes engrossed in a mystery whose roots go back generations and whose resolution will alter long-established family histories and future plans. Once again, Edwards (The Memory Keeper's Daughter, 2005) has created a memorable cast of easily recognizable characters. As Lucy's investigation deepens, past and present join to reach a satisfying and thoughtful resolution. This is a powerful story about the influence of history, the importance of our beliefs, and the willingness to embrace them all. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The emperor of all maladies : a biography of cancer

by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Mukherjee's debut book is a sweeping epic of obsession, brilliant researchers, dramatic new treatments, euphoric success and tragic failure, and the relentless battle by scientists and patients alike against an equally relentless, wily, and elusive enemy. From the first chemotherapy developed from textile dyes to the possibilities emerging from our understanding of cancer cells, Mukherjee's formidable intelligence and compassion produce a stunning account of the effort to disrobe the "emperor of maladies."
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eBay for seniors for dummies

by Marsha CollierExpert advice helps seniors find bargains and make money on eBay. eBay is a great place to help seniors find bargains or supplement their income by selling items. This book explains how to g et your computer ready to use eBay, go to the eBay site, sign up, and browse, spot good deals, buy items, and pay safely, set up your own sale, take pictures of your merchandise and get them online, receive payment and ship items,  and understand eBay's fees and rules. eBay can be fun and profitable. This book makes it easy to get started!
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100 simple things you can do to prevent Alzheimer's and age-related memory loss

by Jean Carper
Most people think there is little or nothing you can do to avoid Alzheimer's. But scientists know this is no longer true. In fact, prominent researchers now say that our best and perhaps only hope of defeating Alzheimer's is to prevent it. Did you know that vitamin B 12 helps keep your brain from shrinking? Apple juice mimics a common Alzheimer's drug? Surfing the internet strengthens aging brain cells? Ordinary infections and a popular anesthesia may trigger dementia? Meditating spurs the growth of new neurons? Exercise is like Miracle-Gro for your brain? Even a few preventive actions could dramatically change your future.
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A museum of one's own : private collecting, public gift

by Anne Higonnet
In this beautifully and generously illustrated publication (featuring more than 70 black-and-white and 130 color reproductions), Higonnet (chair, art history dept., Barnard Coll.) examines the origins and growth of collection museums that developed as wealthy Europeans and Americans acquired fine and decorative art objects for their oftentimes specially built homes. Arising during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, collection museums were reactions to the large, public survey museums like New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Over the course of a decade of research, Higonnet studied letters, auction records, photographs, and other documents pertaining to renowned and obscure collection museums owned by Sir Richard Wallace, Duke of Aumale Henri d'Orleans, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, Henry E. Huntington, Mildred and Robert Bliss, and others. Focusing on these six principal collection museums, Higonnet covers their many aspects, including common characteristics, collections, roles in history, founders' self-representations, and private-to-public features.

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