Staff Picks - June 2011

By Hilary Thayer Hamann
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

"Hamann's debut traces the sensual, passionate, and lonely interior of a young woman artist growing up in windswept East Hampton at the end of the 1970’s (From the Publisher)."

By Robin Hobb
Series Farseer Trilogy
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager

"From an extraordinary voice in fantasy comes the stunning conclusion to the Farseer trilogy, as FitzChivalry confronts his destiny as the catalyst who holds the fate of the kingdom of the Six Duchies and the world itself (From the Publisher)."

By Gretchen Craft Rubin
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

"Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project (From the Publisher)."

By Jane Mendelsohn
Recommended By Adrienne Rein, Library Clerk

"In this brilliantly imagined novel, Amelia Earhart tells us what happened after she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared off the coast of New Guinea one glorious, windy day in 1937 (From the Publisher)."

By Robert Harris
Series Cicero
Recommended By Barney Levantino, Reference Librarian

"Harris returns to ancient Rome for this entertaining and enlightening novel of Marcus Cicero's rise to power. Narrated by a household slave named Tiro… (From Publishers Weekly)."

By Jon Krakauer
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

"Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone–chilling narrative in which the author recounts his experiences on an ill–fated, deadly climb. Thrilling armchair reading (From School Library Journal)."

By Michael Shaara
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian
With Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian, Sonia Grgas, Health Reference Librarian

Tuesday, June 25, 2013. 1:30 PM.

This novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned nonfiction on the same subject. Michael Shaara's account of the three most important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of the main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most inspiring figure in the book, however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left flank on the second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned the tide of the war against the rebels.

By Simon Winchester
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

"A journalist who has written extensively about Asia and spent nine years in Hong Kong making frequent visits inland, Winchester is comfortable with the country's long, complex history and politics, and he writes about them with an easy grace that defies the usual picture of China as an enigma wrapped in a conundrum (From Publishers Weekly)."

By Steve Martini
Recommended By John Shea, Library Page

\"In Martini\'s nail–biting 11th Paul Madriani thriller, the California lawyer once again crosses paths with hired assassin Liquida Muerte (aka the Mexicutioner), whose enmity he earned in the previous book, Guardian of Lies (From Publishers Weekly).\"

By John Le Carré
Recommended By Barry Ernst, Reference Librarian

"Le Carré combined the inside knowledge of his years in British intelligence with the skills of the best novelists to produce a story as taut as it is twisting, unlike any previously experienced, which transports anyone who reads it back to the shadowy years in the early 1960s, when the Berlin Wall went up and the Cold War came to life (From the Publisher)."

By Beth Harbison
Recommended By Marie McLaughlin, Head of Circulation

"…The story of three women who believe that happiness is the next dress size down, the next dollar figure up, or the next appreciative glance from a stranger. But mostly it\'s the story of how three women save each other, and show each other the path to true contentment (From the Publisher)."

By Tina Lynn Seelig
Recommended By Alisa Fogel, Librarian-Programming

\"Seelig guides her readers as they make the difficult transition from the academic environment to the professional world, providing tangible skills and insights that will last a lifetime (From the Publisher).\"