After : Poems
Library Journal Review: The conversational yet metaphysical poems in Hirshfield's (Given Sugar, Given Salt) sixth collection look at everyday circumstances through a foreshortened lens. Images of flowers, fruits, stones, wolves, beetles, fireflies, paintings, and dogs?most of these poems mention dogs?all represent elusive emotional states. In Lemons, e.g., Hirshfield uses grated lemon rind bitters to suggest […]
Russell the Sheep
Donated to the library by Paula Hapgood in honor of area people who work with wool. School Library Journal Review: PreS-Gr 1?Russell can't sleep. While the other sheep are dozing off, he ponders the problem of insomnia. Is he too hot or too cold? Perhaps a better place would help. When nothing works, he tries […]
Traitors Gate
Your Eyes In Stars
Publishers Weekly: Kerr's (Gentlehands) eminently readable novel set during the Depression almost feels like two books in one. Narrated by 14-year-old Jessie Myrer, the daughter of a prison warden (she dubs him a "benevolent dictator"), the first part chronicles her blossoming friendship with a new neighbor, Elisa Stadler, whose family has moved from Germany to […]
The Mighty and the Almighty : Reflections On America, God, and World Affairs
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Secretary of State under President Clinton and a devout Catholic (with recently discovered Jewish roots), Albright (Madam Secretary) is especially qualified to tackle the thorny subject of the role of faith in international relations. In a remarkably accessible, even breezy style, she looks at these issues in light of recent […]
Beasts of No Nation
Kirkus Reviews: This astonishing debut by a gifted 23-year-old American of Nigerian ancestry tracks an African child soldier's descent into hell. Resilient but terrified, Little Agu is a wide-eyed, preteen boy thrown among the demented and the depraved. At the start, in an unspecified West African country, he's being dragged out of a shack in […]
Dirty Blonde
Publisher Weekly Review: Rookie federal judge Cate Fante's early days on the Philadelphia bench rapidly descend into nightmare in this compelling stand-alone legal thriller from bestseller Scottoline (Devil's Corner). Fante is the presiding judge in an intellectual property case in which Richard Marz, a former Philly prosecutor, is suing Art Simone, a powerhouse Hollywood producer, […]
A Year In the Life of William Shakespeare, 1599
Publisher Weekly Review: The year 1599 was crucial in the Bard's artistic evolution as well as in the historical upheavals he lived through. That year's output?Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and (debatably) Hamlet?not only spans a shift in artistic direction and theatrical taste, but also echoes the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth's court […]
The Penultimate Peril
After any harrowing struggle, it is nice to consider checking into a hotel for a rest. In fact, this might be just the break Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire could use after their wearying deep-sea adventure. A hotel can be a good choice for any family vacation. With so many floors, such a variety of […]