The Short List

We add new titles to the Overdrive downloadable audio books every month. here are a few of April’s new titles:

Bad Money by Kevin Phillips

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos

The Girl Of His Dreams by Donna Leon

God’s Problem by Bart Ehrman

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

A Voyage Long And Strange by Tony Horwitz

On Wednesday, May 21st at 4 p.m., Amy Forbes from the Treehouse Players in Deep River will present a theater workshop for children ages 6-12. Dress comfortably for fun music and movement activities. Call the Library to register: 767-1560.

This is a popular time of year for book awards and the Agathas, presented by Malice Domestic, announced their winners recently. The Agatha Awards honor the traditional mystery–books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie.The genre is generally characterized by mysteries that contain no explicit sex, excessive gore, or gratuitous violence; usually featuring an amateur detective, they have a confined setting and characters who know one another. Agatha Awards will be given for materials first published in the United States by a living author during the calendar year in hardcover, as paperback originals, or e-published by an e-publishing firm.

Nominees & Winners of Agatha Awards-Malice Domestic XX

BEST NOVEL

(Winner) A FATAL GRACE by Louise Penny

THE PENGUIN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Donna Andrews
HER ROYAL SPYNESS by Rhys Bowen
HARD ROW by Margaret Maron
MURDER WITH RESERVATIONS by Elaine Viets

BEST FIRST NOVEL

(Winner) PRIME TIME by Hank Phillippi Ryan

A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DEATH by Charles Finch
A REAL BASKET CASE by Beth Groundwater
SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn

BEST NON-FICTION

(Winner) ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: A LIFE IN LETTERS by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley

BEST CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT

(Winner) A LIGHT IN THE CELLAR by Sarah Masters Buckey

BRAVO ZULU, SAMANTHA! by Kathleen Benner Duble
COVER-UP: MYSTERY AT THE SUPER BOWL by John Feinstein
THE FALCONER’S KNOT by Mary Hoffman
THEODOSIA AND THE SERPENTS OF CHAOS by R.L. LaFevers

New arrivals this week include:

Fiction:

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs, author of The Friday Night Knitting Club. The lives and loves of a TV chef, her daughters, neighbor and associates all receive a makeover in this lighthearted romantic problem-solver.

Host by Stephenie Meyer, author of the extremely popular young adult series Twilight, turns her skills to an adult book with a clever premise; a gripping story of love and betrayal in a future with the fate of humanity at stake.

Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield Based on real-life events, this novel concerns the daring British and Commonwealth soldiers who challenged German General Rommel’s desert forces.

House On Fortune Street by Margot Livesey ” The absorbing latest from Livesey (Banishing Verona) opens multiple perspectives on the life of Dara MacLeod, a young London therapist, partly by paying subtle homage to literary figures and works.” Publisher’s Weekly

Non-Fiction:

Craftsman by Richard Sennett Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, Sennett explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world.

Gandhi And Churchill: the epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age by Arthur Herman Each was a late-Victorian political figure who continued to lead into the mid-20th century. Each held an exemplary vision for his country that initially and spectacularly prevailed, but ultimately collided with new modern realities. Each proved great and flawed in different ways.

Post American World by Fareed Zakaria “This is a book not about the decline of America but rather about the rise of everyone else.” America’s strength will lie in freedom and diversity—and the post-American era may not last all that long, since America’s population is growing, and growing younger, while the demographics of Asia and Europe are largely pointing to older populations and, in time, fewer workers.

Spies For Hire: the secret world of intelligence outsourcing by Tim Shorrock “The author penetrates the covert worlds of corporations with names like CACI International Inc., Mantech International and Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as government agencies spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars with no accountability. The author does a remarkable job of learning as much as he can: gaining entry into conventions of defense contractors usually closed to journalists; sitting through the hearings of congressional committees whose members are regularly stonewalled by the government agencies they are supposed to oversee; reading through partially declassified documents to make the case that only members of Congress, ostensibly accountable to the citizens who elected them, can halt the inefficiencies and occasional outright financial corruption emanating from the private contractor/intelligence agency nexus.” Kirkus

The Library will be closed this Sunday, May 11th to celebrate Mother’s Day. We will also be closed on Monday, May 26th in honor of Memorial Day.

The Friends’ Book Sale will take place on Saturday, May 17th from 10-5 and on Sunday, May 18th from 1-5. All books are half-price on Sunday. The Library will be closed on Saturday, May 17th although patrons will be allowed to check materials in and out…no computers will be available and access to some materials may be curtailed due to the book sale. The Library will be open as usual on Sunday, May 18th.

Richard Morgan’s novel Black Man, “a science fiction thriller, which follows a black, genetically-modified assassin, or Variant Thirteen, in pursuit of a serial killer,” has won the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction. The annual award is presented for best science fiction novel of the year and selected from a list of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.

“There has been a lot of controversy about this year’s shortlist,” Morgan said. “It’s nice to have won against the mainstream contenders because it shows the genre has tremendous self-confidence.”

The shortlist included The Red Men by Matthew de Albuitia, The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter, The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall, The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall and The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod.

This year’s Nebula Awards, sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, were announced this past weekend at the Nebula Awards banquet in Austin, Tex.:

• Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
• Scripts: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

The Morningstar website recently posted a “Beginning Investor’s Reading List” by David Kathman which included the following books:

The Only Investment Guide You‘ll Ever Need, by Andrew Tobias: “A classic overview of the essential things of which any investor should be aware … Tobias covers the basics of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, 401(k)’s, IRAs, real estate, and how to save and invest prudently for the long term. If you feel totally at sea when it comes to investing, this book is a good place to get your footing,” says Morningstar.

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein: A Warren Buffett biography with plenty of background on the Oracle of Omaha.

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf: Written by prominent members of Morningstar’s Vanguard Diehards forum, this book covers the investing philosophy of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel: “The most entertaining and accessible defense of efficient-market theory, which says that it’s impossible to predict what the market will do with any kind of consistency,” says Morningstar.

Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy Siegel: Covers “historical evidence about which types of stocks perform best over the long run, as well as various attempts to beat the market and thus disprove the efficient-market hypothesis,” says Morningstar. “A chapter at the end on how best to use stocks in a portfolio is especially valuable for beginners.”

All About Asset Allocation by Richard A. Ferri: Focuses on the art of divvying up a portfolio between investments “in a way that’s accessible to investors who are just starting out,” says Morningstar. “Ferri includes a big-picture overview of asset allocation and why it matters, discussions of the various asset types (U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternative investments), and a clear discussion of how to build and maintain a portfolio.”

The Renaissance Learning report, What Kids Are Reading, “calculated the books most read by more than 3 million schoolchildren last year.” The report lists the top 20 books read in each grade from 1-12 and breaks them down by gender and by geographic area as well. The report also includes essays by Mary Pope Osborne, S.E. Hinton, Daniel Handler and Christopher Paul Curtis on the benefits of reading. And, finally, the report breaks down the top books read by the top students–those who score in the top 10% of their class for reading achievement. Here are the books read most overall:

• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (first grade)
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff (second grade)
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (third grade)
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume (fourth grade)
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (fifth grade)
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (sixth grade)
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (seventh and eighth grades)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (ninth through twelfth grade)

The Edgar Awards have been presented each year since 1954 by the Mystery Writers of America and are named in honor of Edgar Alan Poe. This year’s winners were announced on May 1st. Please visit our earlier postings with the list of the award nominees. This year’s winners include:
• Best Novel: Down River by John Hart
• Best First Novel by an American Author: In the Woods by Tana French
• Best Juvenile: The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh
• Best Young Adult: Rat Life by Tedd Arnold

Fans of Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society, winner of the 2008 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award, will enjoy spending a rainy afternoon browsing The Curiosity Chronicle. Similar to other newspapers, there are articles about the characters and plenty of interesting things to learn. Readers will also enjoy the challenging puzzles and games. Perhaps this might be a good time to learn Morse Code.