V is for vengeance

 By Sue Grafton.  V may stand for vengeance, but think V for Vegas, too that's where the latest in Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series begins. It's there, in 1986, that 23-year-old Phillip Lanahan runs afoul of Santa Teresa Mob boss Lorenzo Dante and finds himself spinning off a multilevel parking structure to an unpleasant end. V is also for Vance, shoplifter Audrey Vance. To meet her, fast-forward two years. Eagle-eyed Millhone spots her lifting silk pj's in Nordstrom's and turns her in. Later, Kinsey is surprised when the woman is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, and even more suprised when the woman's fiance hires Kinsey to prove Audrey didn't commit suicide and wasn't, as Kinsey suspects, part of an organized ring of shoplifters, or pickers. Trust Kinsey to find the truth, and trust Grafton to bring together in crazy harmony a set of circumstances and an oddly assorted bunch of characters (old acquaintances and new) that, in a lesser writer's hands, would have produced narrative chaos. With only four alphabet mysteries to go, speculation on the final installment has already begun. In the meantime, Grafton's devoted fans should sit back and enjoy a terrific installment in the here and now. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Almost president : the men who lost the race but changed the nation

 by Scott Farris. Farris (former bureau chief, United Press International) bases this book on the premise that the losers of our country's presidential elections can be as influential-and as interesting to read about-as the winners. From Henry Clay, "the greatest legislator in American history," to Al Gore, who went on to devote his efforts to fighting global warming, to John Kerry to John McCain, Farris effectively demonstrates that many party nominees in presidential races were able to accomplish more in defeat than they ever could have achieved through victory. He profiles 12 losing candidates, e.g., Al Smith, who lost to Herbert Hoover in 1928, who fought bias and bigotry simply in being the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee and helped change the landscape for Catholics in politics. Ross Perot's surprisingly successful campaign challenged the political status quo and set the stage for future "outsider" candidates. Verdict Based on published sources, this book does a great job supporting the thesis that the profiled figures had greater ability to promote their agendas precisely because they did not win the presidency. A terrific resource for general presidential history buffs and high school and undergraduate libraries. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

To win her heart

 by Karen Witemeyer. Levi Grant emerges from prison with little more than renewed faith and a blacksmith's job in Spencer, Texas, but his first meeting with Eden fosters hope for a wife, family, and home as well. Tall, well muscled, and hesitant, he realizes that he comes across as taciturn and uncouth. But he perseveres in engaging Eden's attention, even though his lisp presents difficulties. Eden was raised as the indulged only child of a wealthy and influential Austin family, and moved to this small town five years ago after being jilted only days before her wedding. She has been content to do good works and maintain a low profile, until Levi challenges her to help Chloe, a 15-year-old raised in the local saloon by her prostitute mother, escape her would-be rapist and become respectable. Witemeyer's hard-hitting Christian historical romance skillfully incorporates Jesus' parables of the prodigal son and the adulteress' rock-toting accusers into her characters' struggles with redemption, worthiness, and new beginnings. A commendable addition to the genre. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Willpower : rediscovering the greatest human strength

 by Roy F. Baumeister. The Victorians came up with the term willpower to describe resisting temptation. Most psychologists never bought it, especially the related notion that willpower was a manifestation of energy within the body. Thanks largely to research conducted by Baumeister, however, it looks like the Victorians were right. In one of many startling revelations, Baumeister and science-writer Tierney show how willpower, aka self-control, is linked to glucose, which explains, for example, why PMS is commonly associated with an inability to control food cravings (glucose is diverted to the reproductive system, leaving less for the rest of the body). Willpower, the authors persuasively argue, isn't merely a quaint notion; it's real. Each of us has a finite amount of it, and the sooner one understands how it works, the sooner one will learn how to avoid depleting one's personal supply. If the book weren't so lucid, it would be tempting to dismiss it as hokum. But it's hard to ignore or ridicule the ideas here. In fact, they seem not just plausible but blindingly obvious. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Legacy : an Event Group thriller

 by David Lynn Goleman. Nothing less than the fate of the earth is at stake in bestseller Goleman's sweeping sixth Event Group thriller (after Primeval). A small alien named Mahjtic, a secret our government has kept for years, warns that the Grays, a branch of evil aliens, are headed toward our planet bent on domination. Earth's only salvation is to acquire advanced weaponry left on the surface of the moon and in an Ecuadorian mine by the remnants of another alien society 700 million years ago. Tasked with the weapons acquisition assignment is the Event Group, a secret government unit headed by Col. Jack Collins that takes on scientific and military missions that fall far beyond the bounds of normality. A subplot involving a wealthy televangelist slows the action somewhat, but as soon as he has been dealt with, the book hits its massive stride and seldom slows. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Veterinary guide for animal owners : caring for cats, dogs, chickens, sheep, cattle, rabbits, and more

 by C. E. Spaulding. The ten chapters in this animal care guide explain the housing, feeding, breeding, and basic medical treatment of cattle, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, dogs, and cats. The practical approach provides simple solutions to common problems and recommends when to hire a veterinarian for more difficult conditions. Originally published in 1976 by Rodale Press. Spaulding is a retired veterinarian and Clay works as a veterinary field technician. --Summary (Check Catalog)

1Q84

 by Haruki Murakami. *Starred Review* Murakami writes two kinds of novels: short, intimate, crystalline portraits of lovers, often trapped in alternate worlds or struggling between secret selves (After Dark, 2007), and much longer, broad-canvas epics (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1997) that submerge the reader in a tidal wave of story. His latest definitely falls into the latter camp, and, yet, it clings resolutely to the intimacy of the shorter works. This foray into what is unquestionably Murakami's most vividly imagined parallel world begins simply, with two seemingly ordinary events: two lonely 10-year-olds, a boy and a girl, Tengo and Aomame, hold hands in an empty classroom, and for the next 20 years, while never seeing one another, they dream of meeting but are strangely paralyzed to make it happen. Then Aomame, a 30-year-old woman in 1984 and an assassin who kills men who abuse women walks down an emergency exit from a Tokyo expressway and finds herself in another world, which she calls 1Q84, a world overseen by two moons and ruled, apparently, by the quixotic little people. Meanwhile, Tengo has rewritten a novel by an enigmatic 17-year-old girl that accurately describes the world of 1Q84. As the lives of Tengo, Aomame, and a Dostoyevskian private investigator, who works for a religious cult that worships the little people, swirl closer and closer together, Murakami draws the reader deeper and deeper into this utterly baffling universe, switching narration between the three principal characters, each of whom grasps only a small part of their two-mooned world. Gradually but inexorably, the tension builds, as we root passionately for Tengo and Aomame to find one another and hold hands again, so simple a human connection offering a kind of oasis in the midst of the unexplainable and the terrifying. When Murakami melds fantasy and realism, mystery and epic, it is no simple genre-bending exercise; rather, it is literary alchemy of the highest order. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Murakami, whose work has been translated into 40 languages, is one of our most-honored international fiction writers. His latest will attract great interest in literary circles. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Out of Oz : the final volume in the Wicked years

 by Gregory Mcguire. After the slightly disappointing Son of a Witch (2005) and A Lion among Men (2008), Maguire recaptures his mystical mojo in the fourth and final installment of the Wicked Years series. Although it still falls a bit short of the startling dark artistry that defined Wicked, rapidly catapulting it to the top of the best-seller list and spawning a major Broadway musical, this twisted fairy tale is a worthy conclusion to an imaginative and emotionally searing cultural phenomenon. With the fate of Oz hanging in the balance, the Emerald City is preparing to invade Munchkinland. Although th. Matter of Doroth. seemed settled some time ago, Miss Gale is caught in the epicenter of another natural disaster, hurling her straight back into the heart of Oz. As an incarcerated Glinda whiles away the days waiting for the long-overdue arrival of an old friend, Elphaba's granddaughter, Rain, unable to escape heredity and fate, takes center stage. Everyone who has ever known, loved, or even been a bit frustrated by Maguire's creative, myth-bending reworking of the Oz saga will eagerly hop onboard to find out exactly how the journey ends, because nobody does fractured fairy tales better than Maguire. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The hospital by the river : a story of hope

 by Catherine Hamlin.  Hamlin and her late husband, Reg, devoted most of their adult lives to practicing obstetrics among Ethiopia's rural poor, where inadequate medical care and bad road conditions made childbirth a risky endeavor. Obstructed labor-frequently lasting five days or longer-resulted in the death of a vast number of babies and caused incontinence in the mothers, who then became outcasts and beggars. In this chronicle of her work in Ethiopia, Hamlin tells of how she and Reg perfected the technique of surgically repairing this damage, operating on more than 25,000 women, most of whom were then able to lead normal lives. Several specialized themes create odd juxtapositions: explicit descriptions of obstructed childbirth, incontinence, and desperate poverty are interspersed with genteel accounts of visits with kings and queens, assorted denizens of high society, Ethiopian brigadiers, and the like. Hamlin sees her service as part of the missionary tradition that her grandparents began, and at the age of 77, she continues to practice by performing surgery, training Ethiopian doctors and midwives, raising money for the hospital she founded, and beginning each morning with prayers and Bible study in her house of mud and sticks. This moving account is recommended for public libraries and specialized collections on women's studies and obstetrics/midwifery. --Library Journal (Check catalog)