Book News and New Book Reviews
Just a sampling of our new materials (right side)!
by Alan Titschmarsch. (Get the Book)Regardless whether one refers to a plant's colour or color, deadheads it using secateurs or clippers, or mucks about in one's Wellies or boots, gardeners everywhere speak a universal language. They can also relate to common delights and setbacks, from a kinked garden hose that upends a prized geranium to the effervescent blooming of a heretofore recalcitrant wisteria. An esteemed and prolific author and novelist and beloved columnist for the BBC's Gardener's World Magazine, Titchmarsh may write specifically about the gardening goings-on in his little corner of Britain, but the rewards and challenges he extols are ones that gardeners from Arizona to Maine will recognize. Month by month, in succinct, witty, outraged, and outrageous essays, Titchmarsh mirthfully holds forth on the proclivities of plant collectors and garden tourists, problem pets and potting sheds, hated plants and proper hedges. Devoured cover-to-cover or dipped into casually, this rollicking collection of Titchmarsh's most vibrant columns is a true garden of reading delights. --Booklist
by Kimberley Freeman (Get the Book)
When Beattie Blaxland finds herself pregnant in 1930s Glasgow, she thinks the worst that can happen is that her married lover, Henry, will abandoned her. Instead, he runs away with her to Australia, where he drinks, gambles, and abuses her, all the while doting on their daughter, Lucy. Determined to have a better life, Beattie runs away to Tasmania, where she and Lucy make a rocky start at Wildflower Hill, a large sheep ranch badly managed by a sinister English gentleman. In present-day London, Beattie's granddaughter, Emma, a driven ballet dancer, suffers her own setbacks, which propel her home to her family in Australia. There she learns her grandmother left an unwelcome inheritance that changes her life. Despite its length, this first novel moves swiftly through secrets, forbidden love, and heartbreak, revealing two strong female protagonists and appealing secondary characters, especially the two men who work at Wildflower Hill with Beattie. Fans of multigenerational family sagas (like those of Kate Morton and Colleen McCullough) who are attracted by hardscrabble, romantic settings will eat it up. --Booklist
by James Carville. (Get the Book)
Two well-known political figures begin by admitting to the failure of the Democratic Party to address concerns of the middle class. Political consultant Carville and researcher Greenberg offer background on their separate roads as, respectively, Cajun and northern Jewish political junkies that led them to the Democratic Party and the realization that the middle class had become the neglected American political constituency. At times, Carville and Greenberg alternate narration in a dialogue that takes to task the Democrats and urges policies aimed at providing relief to the beleaguered middle class on issues from taxation to health-care reform. They offer charts, statistics, and contrasting perspectives from the plainspoken sane world and the fog machine of politics. They admit the difficulty of clearly defining the middle class but settle on a broad definition that takes in three-quarters of the nation, noting that being middle class is an identity, a way of life, an idea and aspiration and a set of values. While this book's perspective is decidedly Democrat, the concerns will have appeal across the political spectrum as the election approaches. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Political guru James Carville and savvy pollster Stan Greenberg team up for a presidential campaign-oriented book that will be part of the media circus surrounding the election. --Booklist
by Chris Bohjalian (Get the Book)
Between April 1915 and April 1916, one and one-half million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire during WWI. Bohjalian uses this as the backdrop for his new novel. Elizabeth Endicott accompanies her father to Aleppo, Syria, to bring aid to the Armenian deportees. While there, Elizabeth meets Armen Petrosian, an Armenian engineer working for the Germans and searching for his wife and child, though certain they are already dead. In spite of the loss and horror around them, they fall desperately in love. The story is told through the eyes of Laura Petrosian, Elizabeth and Armen's great-granddaughter. After seeing an exhibit of photographs of the Armenian victims, she discovers letters and photos and begins to piece her great-grandparents' story together. Soon the slaughter you know next to nothing about takes over her life, and she makes profound discoveries about her ancestors and herself. This is a powerful and moving story based on real events seldom discussed. It will leave you reeling. --Booklist
by Charles H. Green (Get the Book)
Spurred by President Obama, the Small Business Association has stepped up its loan program to companies around the nation. But to receive an SBA-guaranteed loan, firms must navigate a complex course of processes, qualifications, documentation, and approvals. You need this new edition of Charles Green's invaluable book to chart the best way to apply for and get an SBA loan. Green wastes no time in showing: Why an SBA loan guarantee is a good option in tough economic times How to choose the right bank at a time when many banks have failed and credit is tight What the new rules and regulations say about the paperwork and documentation loan applicants must supply In today's turbulent economic climate, solid financial backing is the key to small business survival. And this fully updated guide to SBA loans will help you land it. (Summary)
by Jean Zimmerman (Get the Book)
In 1663, New Amsterdam colonists are plagued by a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit known as the witika (a version of the Algonquian wendigo); by difficult relations with the local Lenape tribes; and by the despotic cruelty of Director General Peg Leg Stuyvesant. Suspicions run rife as orphan children disappear, and when the orphanmaster, Aet Visser, comes under suspicion, his trader friend, Blandine van Couvering, reluctantly joins the handsome English spy, Edward Dummond, in finding the truth. Their mutual attraction is hardly surprising, but the grisly clues they uncover, and the depravity they expose, will shock even veteran readers of historical thrillers. A fascinating perspective on colonial politics and human behavior, this compulsively readable, heartbreaking, and grisly mystery set in a wild, colonial America will appeal to fans of Robert McCammon's fast-paced and tautly suspenseful Mister Slaughter (2010) and Eliot Pattison's Bone Rattler (2007). --Booklist
by Andrew Blackwell (Get the Book)
In this extremely interesting travel journal, Blackwell details his experiences touring the world's most polluted places. Endlessly curious and forthright, he was determined to get as close as possible to international hot spots of nuclear disaster, mining, sewage, and trash. Few people would share Blackwell's dedication in approaching a place like Chernobyl (whose safe future is in serious doubt), yet no one will be able to resist his reports on the things he sees, the people he meets, and the bizarre discoveries he makes. From reflecting on the country's first gusher to embarking on a Gilligan's Island-esque voyage to the Pacific's floating garbage patch, Blackwell exhibits an extreme willingness to immerse himself in the moment while never taking anything or anyone too seriously. From asking necessary questions to nailing our economic and environmental hypocrisy (Americans don't buy electronics from China, he observes; we rent them and send them back to be torn apart ), the author proves himself time and again to be the sort of journalist who is both devastatingly hip and brutally relevant. This sort of environmental investigation cuts through partisan hype and serves as a vital link between adventure and ecological awareness. That Blackwell accomplishes it with humor makes his book that much more effective. --Booklist
by Cindy Woodsmall. (Get the Book)
Annie Martin is an Old Order Mennonite (electricity and telephones are allowed in her sect). Aden Zook is an Old Order Amish. Together, they run Zook's Diner, while Aden also looks after his wheelchair-bound twin brother, Roman. Annie knows that Aden is kind, but she also knows he's so much more-he's a talented artist. The two share romantic feelings that they must fight. A life together just might mean the loss of the business and of family. VERDICT This bittersweet and heartwarming story by the popular author of the "Ada's House" and "Sisters of the Quilt" Amish series is sure to appeal to fans of Wanda E. Brunstetter and Richard Paul Evans. --Library Journal
by Carissa Phelps (Get the Book)
In this brave memoir, Phelps spares no detail of her loveless, troubled childhood. In the second grade, her stepfather throws her out the door in front of the school bus as her mother watches. One of 11 children in a rundown house in Coalinga, Calif., Phelps skips classes and curses her teacher in the first days of junior high. By 12, she drops out and rarely comes home. When she does, her mother drives her to a juvenile hall and leaves. The state sends her to group homes, but she always runs away, preferring the freedom of the streets, where she meets crack-addicted Natara, a prostitute, and Icey, a pimp, a pair who promise to take care of her. Despite the unspeakable atrocities done to her along the way, Phelps is too young and naive to escape their dark web. After Icey is arrested for other crimes, Phelps is raped by older men who subsequently discard her. Finally, after stealing a car, she lands in the Youth Authority detention center. There, she meets her first mentor, counselor Ron Jenkins. Slowly and with setbacks, Phelps rebuilds her life and graduates from high school thanks to the perseverance of a teacher. She finds love and acceptance through the kindness of strangers who see her potential. Later, while earning a law degree and M.B.A. from UCLA, the author, as she explains, takes great strides to reach out to troubled kids, and creates a documentary, Carissa, about her life. --Publishers Weekly
