Staff Picks - April 2013

By David Mark
Series Aector McAvoy Novels
Recommended By Ed Goldberg, Head of Reference

Investigating a series of suspicious deaths and discovering that each victim was the sole survivor of a tragedy, Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy of the northern England port of Hull struggles to balance the demands of the case with the needs of his beloved family.

By Dan Brown
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

A former National Security Agency programmer threatens to release a mathematical formula that will allow organized crime and terrorism to skyrocket, unless the code-breaking computer that is used to keep them in check but that violates civil rights is exposed to the public.

By Gretchen Rubin
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

Recounts the author's efforts to render her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love, discussing how she experimented with a range of concrete resolutions and came to redefine her views about family, time, and material comforts.

By Vaddey Ratner
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian
With Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, July 9, 2013. 7:30 PM.

Her life of privilege in Cambodia shattered by the outbreak of civil war on the streets of Phnom Penh, young Raami endures four years of loss, starvation, and brutal forced labor while clinging to memories of the legends and poems told to her by her father. 

By Amy Franklin-Willis
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

"After losing her twin to a drowning accident and his wife to divorce, Zeke Cooper leaves his mother and two daughters behind in Tennessee and travels to Virginia horse country, where he considers his responsibility to repair his fractured family (From the Publisher)."

By A.M. Homes
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

Feeling overshadowed by his more-successful younger brother, Harold is shocked by his brother's violent act that irrevocably changes their lives, placing Harold in the role of father figure to his brother's adolescent children and caregiver to his aging parents.

By Christopher Hitchens
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

"Traces the author’s battle with esophageal cancer while he continued to write columns on politics and culture for ‘Vanity Fair,’ and describes his personal and philosophical view of life and death (From the Publisher)."

By Agatha Christie
Series Hercule Poirot Mysteries
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk, Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

On a three–day journey through the snowbound Balkan hills, Hercule Poirot must weed through an array of international suspects to find the passenger who murdered a gangster on the Orient Express.

By John Updike
Series Rabbit Angstrom Novels

"Ex-basketball player Harry ‘Rabbit’ Angstrom, now living in a Florida condominium, faces middle age, heart trouble, and a wife who has suddenly gone to work (From the Publisher)."

By John Grisham
Recommended By John Shea, Library Page

When a federal judge and his secretary fail to appear for a scheduled trial and panicked clerks call for an FBI investigation, a harrowing murder case ensues and culminates in the imprisonment of a lawyer who imparts the story of who killed the judge and why.

By Terry Brooks
Series Word and the Void
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager

"A steel mill strike serves as the backdrop for a battle between good and evil, as John Ross tries to protect the town of Hopewill, Illonois from the man poised to make his nightmares come true (From the Publisher)."

By Peter S. Beagle

"After moving with her mother to the English countryside, Jenny, a young American girl, begins to unravel a mystery on the grounds and uncovers evidence of another, hidden occupant of her new home, a 300-year old ghost named Tamsin (From the Publisher)."

By Carol Rifka Brunt
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Monday, April 21, 2014. 7 PM.

Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person who understood her, fourteen–year–old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle's grieving friend, with whom June forges a poignant relationship.

By Heather Gudenkauf
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

When her sister Allison, convicted of a heinous crime, is released from prison and is desperate to speak with her, Brynn, unable to forget the past that haunts her, must keep the truth from being revealed due to unimaginable consequences.

By Junot Diaz

Nine stories that feature Yunior, a Dominican American stud who, despite his macho exterior, aches to be loved. The author takes Yunior's heart and batters it every which way to show how love - romantic, physical, or familial - can affect even the most masculine character.

By Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has come to define her lifes work, transporting us to the marshland and coastline of her beloved home, Provincetown, Massachusetts. In these pages, Oliver shares the wonder of dawn, the grace of animals, and the transformative power of attention. Whether studying the leaves of a tree or mourning her adored dog, Percy, she is ever patient in her observations and open to the teachings contained in the smallest of moments.

By Richard Paul Evans
Series Christmas Box Trilogy
Recommended By Nancy Lowenstein, Library Page

"Follows the love story of MaryAnne and David Parkin as they struggle with the lessons of love, loyalty, and forgiveness and cope with tragedy, in a story about the gifts we pass on to our children (From the Publisher)."

By Pamela Schoenewaldt
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

"Irma Vitale, a painfully honest young seamstress, strikes out from her isolated mountain village for 1880s America (From the Publisher)."

By Donato Carrisi
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

Investigators Mila Vasquez and Goran Gavila unravel the layers of a series of twisted murders that begin with the discovery of the severed arms of five missing girls who were abducted in broad daylight.