Staff Picks - Spring 2010
“The Bad Seed remains a masterpiece of suspense that's as chilling, intelligent, and timely as ever before (From the Publisher).”
By Dinaw Mengestu
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk
In his run–down store in a gentrifying neighborhood of Washington, DC, Ethiopian immigrant Stepha Stephanos regularly meets with fellow African immigrants Ken the Kenyan and Joe from the Congo. They consider how their new immigrant expectations measure up to the reality of life in America after seventeen years and make keen observations of American race and class tensions.
By Meg Cabot
“Cabot relies entirely on highly amusing e-mails to tell a fetching meet-cute story…. Full of clever e-mail banter and tongue-in-cheek humor, this cheeky novel should be enjoyed in one sitting (Publishers Weekly).”
By Tom Rob Smith
Series Leo Demidov
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services
Tuesday, July 21, 2009. 7 PM.
“During the terror of Stalin's last days, a secret policeman becomes a detective stalking a serial killer in a debut novel from a shockingly talented 28-year-old Brit (Kirkus Reviews).”
By Dave Pelzer
Recommended By Kalpana Mehta, Reference Librarian
David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.
By Abraham Verghese
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk
Twin brothers born from a secret love affair between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Addis Ababa, Marion and Shiva Stone come of age in an Ethiopia on the brink of revolution, where their love for the same woman drives them apart.
By Val McDermid
Twenty five years after the body of a young barmaid, Rosie Duff, was discovered in the snow banks of a Scottish cemetery the Cold Case file has been reopened. For the only suspects, the investigation has also opened old wounds and new fears. For a stranger has emerged from the shadows with his own ideas about justice. And revenge.
By Jeffrey Zaslow
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian
The "girls", eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, Iowa, now in their forties, have a lifetime of memories in common, some evocative of their generation and some that will resonate with any woman who has ever had a friend.
Genre Biography/Memoir
By Dave Eggers
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian
A memoir in which the author discusses the unrelated deaths of his parents within a period of months, his newly acquired responsibility for his eight–year–old brother, and his creation of a satirical magazine.
By Amy Sedaris
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director
“Comedic actress Sedaris shares with readers her collection of quirky, idiosyncratic tips on entertaining garnered from her mom, Girl Scouts, waiting tables, bartending school, and other eclectic sources (Library Journal).”
By Stefanie Pintoff
Series New York Historical Mysteries
Recommended By Ed Goldberg, Head of Reference
“With this taut, atmospheric, and original story of a haunted man who must search for a killer while on the run from his own demons, In the Shadow of Gotham marks the debut of an outstanding new talent (From the Publisher).”
By Brunonia Barry
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk
Towner Whitney, a dazed young woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers, has survived numerous traumas and returned to her hometown of Salem, Mass., to recover.
By Randy Pausch
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian
“Over the years, numerous professors have given talks entitled "The Last Lecture." For Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch, however, the topic was no mere formality... he already knew that he had metastatic pancreatic cancer (From Barnes and Noble).”
By Victor Hugo
Recommended By Josephine Amoia, Children's Librarian
After nineteen years in prison, Jean Valjean has difficulty adjusting to the outside world, which scorns and shuns him.
Became the movie: Les Misérables.
By John Connolly
Recommended By John Shea, Library Page
“In John Connolly's thriller, Charlie Parker is haunted by a man and a woman who appear to have only one purpose: to end to Parker's existence (From the Publisher).”
By Claude Brown
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian
A rerelease of a 1965 best–selling classic traces the author's experiences as a first–generation African American raised in the Northern ghettos of Harlem in the mid–20th century, an upbringing marked by violence, drugs and devastating urban disadvantage.
By Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Series Chicago Stars
Recommended By Lisa C., Library Clerk
“Brimming with audacious humor, delicious sensuality, and beautifully developed characters, this touching, multilayered story also has an emotional depth that readers will savor (Library Journal).”
By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services
Monday, January 17, 2011. 7 PM.
Richard Mayhew's life is forever changed after he rescues a young girl named Door and finds himself living in a city of monsters, saints, murderers, and angels, and he must help Door on her mission to save this strange underworld kingdom from destruction.
By Marly Swick
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director
In a perceptive story of one family, set against the backdrop of the Kennedy presidency, Suzanne, a young woman, recounts the dissolution and ultimate redemption of her family, her mother’s struggle with bouts of severe depression, and her relationship with her mother
By Gail Tsukiyama
With Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian
Tuesday, January 26, 2010. 1 PM & 7:30 PM.
Set in Japan just before WWII, the novel tells of a young Chinese man's encounters with four locals while he recuperates from tuberculosis.