Library Notes week of November 24

As we approach Thanksgiving, you might consider the myth of the pumpkin pie: “Early American settlers of Plimoth Plantation (1620-1692), the first permanent European settlement in southern New England, might have made pumpkin pies (of sorts) by making stewed pumpkins or by filling a hollowed out shell with milk, honey and spices, and then baking it in hot ashes. An actual present-day pumpkin pie with crust is a myth, as ovens to bake pies were not available in the colony at that stage”. Taken from the website, Whats Cooking America. (http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/PumpkinPie.htm) Even if it wasn’t a pie then, I plan to enjoy my pumpkin as a pie this year.

Stop in and check out our new books. Maybe one of these will be just the thing to sit and enjoy after your Thanksgiving dinner.

A Most Wanted Man by John LeCarre. When boxer Melik Oktay and his mother, both Turkish Muslims living in Hamburg, take in a street person calling himself Issa they set off a chain of events implicating intelligence agencies from three countries.
Heat Lightning by John Sandford. It’s a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater—two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth. Exactly like the body they found last week.

Final Justice by Fern Michaels. The Sisterhood -- Myra, Annie, Alexis, Yoko, Nikki, and Isabelle -- have risked everything in the name of justice, including their own freedom. Their most recent mission promises to reward them with the ultimate prize -- a presidential pardon and a chance to leave their enforced exile. But as they've learned too many times before, life doesn't always turn out as planned.

Library Notes week of November 3

If you come in you will notice more changes. We are taking some of the paperbacks that are part of a series and placing them on the main shelves next to the rest of the books in the series. We have a new DVD spinner so the paperbacks have moved into the old metal spinner the DVDs and VHS tapes have occupied. We kept a small collection of VHS tapes which are on a bookshelf by the window. If you have trouble finding things, be sure to ask—we want you to find what you are looking for.

Check the new book shelves when you are in. Here are a few new titles you may find interesting.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin. It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a dissident Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history.

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. Sittenfeld tracks the life of bookish, naïve Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to the current president.

Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods. One night at Elaine’s, Stone Barrington meets Barton Cabot, older brother of his sometime ally, CIA boss Lance Cabot. Barton’s career in army intelligence is even more top secret than his brother’s, but he’s suffering from amnesia following a random act of violence. Amnesia is a dangerous thing in a man whose memory is chockfull of state secrets, so Lance hires Stone to watch Barton’s back.