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New Books
The library has received several
new titles over the summer. The list below contains a short list
of some of the new titles located in the library. Stop by to check
out your favorite!
 
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Nineteen Minutes
by Jodi Picoult
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever
happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act
of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek
justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role
they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction,
right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie
Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be
the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front
of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high
school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest friendships
and families. Nineteen Minutes asks simple questions that have no easy
answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean
to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike
back? And who - if anyone - has the right to judge someone else?
Just For You to Know
by Cheryl Harness
As her family noisily slurps root beers at a drive-in stop, Carmen
longs to be invisible -- especially when Clark and Larry shout out the
news about Mama. Can it get any worse than this? Carmen imagines she's
been kidnapped -- how else did she wind up as one of the Cathcarts. . .
. At almost thirteen she's the oldest, with five noisy little brothers,
a dreamy mom, and a sometimes reckless dad. When she's a famous artist,
she'll get away from them all! This wonderfully honest and bighearted first
novel mirrors life. Carmen Cathcart becomes a friend as, with a voice that
is deeply moving yet often funny, she shares the importance of holding
on to your dreams and what it means to be a family.
Endgame
by Nancy Garden
Fifteen-year-old Gray Wilton is in juvenile detention, waiting for
his murder trial. In a series of interviews, his defense lawyer slowly
uncovers the gradual escalation of physical and emotional bullying that
drove the sensitive, musically artistic kid to the point where he takes
a gun to school and starts shooting. Reading the unfolding story is like
watching a train wreck in slow motion: the tension is palpable, as is the
sense of inevitable tragedy. Gray begins a new school year in a new town,
hoping that the bullying he suffered in middle school will be a thing of
the past. Almost immediately, he discovers that there are bullies at Greenford
High, and they don’t take long to find him. Teachers and administrators
turn a blind eye to the harassment that he and his only friend, Ross Terrel,
suffer at the hands of Zorro and the other ruling jocks. Constant hazing
turns into ugly incidents of physical violence. The final blows come when
Zorro and his buddies, during a joy ride, hit and kill Gray dog, and then
try to force Ross and Gray to perform oral sex in the gym showers. The
ending provides an emotional punch that is difficult to forget. This is
a hard-hitting and eloquent look at the impact of bullying, and the resulting
destruction of lives touched by the violence. It reinforces the need to
have adults in the lives of teens who not only see, but also take action
against the behavior. |
Bitter Harvest
by Ann Rule
Dr. Deborah Green was a brilliant, wealthy, married mother of three
who was convicted of repeatedly trying to poison her husband and of killing
two of her children in a fire she methodically set in the family home.
Rule proves once again that she is a master of the true-crime genre.
She builds the narrative from Green's days as a student of superior intelligence
through her years in an increasingly unhappy marriage to her physician
husband. Rule carefully chronicles Green's bizarre behavior and takes the
reader through the arson investigation as well as Green's husband's illnesses,
surgeries, and attempt to rebuild his life with his remaining child, who
escaped the fire. Peppered throughout the narrative are quotes from Green
herself, which expose her twisted thinking and her attempts to rationalize
her behavior. An outstanding chronicle of a crime investigation as well
as a riveting profile of a brilliant mind and empty soul.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah
"In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is
estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used
to be one of them." "In a Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael
Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a story: at the age of twelve, he
fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.
By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart
a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen,
he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff
at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain
his humanity, and finally, to heal."
Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul
of the American Heartland
by Mark Kreidler
In most of the country, wrestling is a dying sport. However, in Iowa,
thousands still turn out for the State Championships and the sport captures
attention, particularly when a chance at greatness presents itself. In
2005, two young men had the opportunity to become only the 15th and 16th
wrestlers to be four-time champions in the long history of the state tournament.
Jay Borschel and Dan LeClere had known one another since childhood and
as seniors in high school faced similar pressures and roadblocks to establishing
their legacies. Kreidler introduces readers to their world, if not their
hearts and minds. Wrestling, a sport of deprivation that thrives on an
ethos of pain, is a difficult form of athletic prowess to understand, and
at times LeClere and Borschel are the embodiment of the difficulty of understanding
the passion and commitment that it demands. They are enigmas. But the world
of Iowa wrestling and the communities that embrace it are painted both
in their glory and in the head-shaking dismay that the sport can induce.
Teen wrestlers will appreciate a book that speaks to them and respectfully
about them, and sports fans may find a new area to appreciate. |
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