Welcome to the Fifth Annual Season's Readings!

A gift book should either be no surprise or a big surprise: the one you always wanted or the one you never knew you wanted. It should either be expensive and large, or cheap and small. It should be high-minded or totally frivolous.
-- William Grimes, New York Times, December 15, 2006

When the holiday season comes, I exchange gifts with special friends as well as family. Finding the perfect item for them is always a challenge. There’s the voracious reader, who usually picks mysteries; my son, a great fan of Heroes and all things science fiction and fantasy; my young niece, who I don’t see very often; and a new friend, one whose companionship and support has meant a lot to me this year. I want something they will like, something that will perhaps speak to them in a new way and encourage them to look at the world just a little differently. I want that WOW! item.
I also want a a gift that fits with their lives—a book for the person whose children have moved out, a great film for someone who loves the cinema, or a magazine for those who only have quick little pieces of time because their days are busy.

Welcome to the Fifth Annual Season's Readings!
These items, picked by our librarians, include outstanding titles in a variety of formats. These are the ones that you just might not find otherwise. These are the WOW! gifts, unusual and enjoyable.

Have a joyous holiday season and a safe and peaceful 2009, full of many new books and much good reading.

Gail

Table of Contents

MUSIC AND MOVIES

NONFICTION -- Home Ec. Grows Up

NONFICTION -- History

NONFICTION -- Words to Live By

FICTION -- A Little Light Reading

FICTION -- Personal Journeys

FICTION -- Thrills and Suspense

CHILDREN -- Picture and Board Books

CHILDREN -- Nonfiction

CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS -- Fiction

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CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULTS -- Fiction

The City of Ember
by Jeanne Duprau
ISBN: 978-0385736282
The People of Sparks
ISBN: 978-0375828256
Science fiction series that brings us to a future that is completely dark and underground. Where is the light? How will we continue in this place if we run out of food, light bulbs, and other supplies? For middle grades 4 through 7.
–Joyce Laiosa

The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
ISBN: 978-0439813785
Caldecott Award winner for 2008: a story in pictures, text, and dreams.
–Joyce Laiosa




The Arrival by Shaun Tan
ISBN: 978-0439895293
One of the best books published last year. It is part graphic novel (sequential art), part picture book, wordless, dramatic, enthralling, and I could go on with the superlatives. It is a story of immigration that takes the reader (and you really have to read the pictures) through the hard journey of a new immigrant, his hopes for the future, his family left behind, and the loneliness of this journey. A brilliant book for the whole family.
–Joyce Laiosa


Young Adult

Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
ISBN: 978-0316015844
New Moon
ISBN: 978-0316024969
Hot! Hot! Hot! The movie is coming out, the fourth book in the series (Breaking Dawn) was just released, and young women can’t get enough of the beautiful Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen.
–Joyce Laiosa

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
ISBN: 978-0439023481
Everyone is talking about this book. A compelling life-or-death contest, a suspense packed read and perhaps controversial. Every teen will be thrilled to receive this book.
–Joyce Laiosa



The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 
by Sherman Alexie
ISBN: 978-0316013680
National Book Award winner for 2007 (Youth). Well done novel based on the author’s real life freshman year in high school. A Native American boy, living on a Spokane reservation, chooses to go to a white school. He must deal with racism, poverty, death, alcohol abuse, and typical teenage problems, too. It is very funny, with an original voice. Teen boys will love it!
–Joyce Laiosa

CHILDREN -- Nonfiction

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka
by Jon Scieszka
ISBN: 978-0670011063
Every guy, no matter what the age is going to love this very funny memoir about Jon(The Stinky Cheese Man and MORE!) Scieszka’s childhood. He is one of six brothers and that should tell you everything you need to know. Great read-aloud, great read alone, and one to be shared with everyone in the family.
–Joyce Laiosa


New Junior Cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens)
ISBN: 978-0696220005
Get the kids cooking, and you’ll get the kids eating healthier and taking an interest in their food.
–Joyce Laiosa




Nic Bishop Frogs
by Nic Bishop
ISBN: 978-0439877558
Nic Bishop Spiders
ISBN: 978-0439877565
Photographer Nic Bishop has put together two visually stunning books. Budding naturalists to budding photographers will be intrigued!
–Joyce Laiosa


A Child’s Garden of  Verses
by Robert Louis Stevenson
ISBN 978-0811841689
This children’s classic was my favorite book as a child. I loved the illustrations as much as the poems but unfortunately the book belonged to my sister. I always wanted my own copy of this special book. So don’t disappoint your children; give each of them their own copy!
–Julie Stump

CHILDREN -- Picture and Board Books

Picture Books


My Pony
by Susan Jeffers
ISBN: 978-1423112952 (paperback)
A beautifully illustrated horse story that will delight horse lovers young and old.
–Joyce Laiosa



Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Fancy Words
by Jane O’Connor
ISBN: 978-0061549236
Fancy Nancy
ISBN: 978-0060542092
She is an original, she is cute as a button, and she loves to dress fancy, eat fancy, and use fancy vocabulary. Here she is in the original Fancy Nancy and in an alphabet book, too.
–Joyce Laiosa


Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
ISBN: 978-1596430532
Dog and Bear: Two’s Company
ISBN: 978-1596432734
Two of the sweetest friends you will ever meet are perfect gifts for toddlers to preschoolers. Great for budding readers, too.
–Joyce Laiosa


Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
by Mo Willems
ISBN: 978-0786819881
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
ISBN: 978-1423109600
These books about a determined pigeon who really, really, REALLY wants to get his own way will be read again and again, recited, laughed over and remembered. Great gifts for all preschoolers through early elementary readers.
–Joyce Laiosa


The Paper Bag Princess
by Robert Munsch
ISBN 978-1550379150
Every girl should read this book both when she is little and when she starts dating. In order to rescue the handsome prince she is to marry, the clever and brave Princess Elizabeth takes on the fire-breathing dragon that just leveled her kingdom. When Prince Ronald is less than enthusiastic about a badly dressed, soot covered rescuer, Elizabeth has to reconsider her definition of “happily ever after.” Forget the princess stereotype and pick up this book that’s all about girl power. Recommended for ages 4-8.
–Macaire Hill


Board Books

Black and White
by Tana Hoban
ISBN: 978-0061172113
Great color contrast for the very youngest babies – a great baby gift!
–Joyce Laiosa




Peek-a-Baby
by Karen Katz
ISBN: 978-1416936220
Lift the flap book and see illustrations of baby faces. It’s the literary equivalent of Peek-a-Boo! Great for babies on laps.
–Joyce Laiosa



Yellow – Red – Blue
by Sami
ISBN: 978-1593545871
An excellent book to help your child focus on faces, and colors, as a little something in the picture changes with every turn of the page.
–Joyce Laiosa

FICTION -- Thrills and Suspense

Christine Falls
by Benjamin Black
Quirke, a Dublin pathologist with a prickly personality, is a widower. He drinks too much and spends too much time alone. Quirke is a character who grows on you, because he’s smart, eccentric and flawed, and also because he is relentless in finding the truth about the death of a young woman named Christine Falls, whose body turns up in his morgue one evening.
ISBN: 0312426321; Audiobook: 1427200726
–Suzanne Fisher


Child 44
by Tom Rob Smith
Leo, a Red Army war hero (and he has the photograph to prove it), works for the Soviet secret service. His dedication to his job starts to crack after he watches innocent people tortured into giving false confessions. His confusion increases when he’s assigned to investigate his own wife. A parallel plot involves a series of child murders Leo is ordered not to investigate. This thriller reads like a combination of Kafka, Martin Cruz Smith, and Dennis Lehane.
ISBN: 0446402389; Audiobook: 1600241598
–Suzanne Fisher


City of Thieves
by David Benioff
Kolya is the grandson of a Cossack, and Lev is the son of a Jewish poet. Arrested in wartime Leningrad, Kolya for desertion and Lev for plundering, their lives are spared by an NKVD colonel who offers to let them live if they bring him a dozen eggs for his daughter’s wedding cake – not a simple task in city under siege. In spite of the wartime horrors they witness and the seeming impossibility of their task, Kolya never loses his optimism. This is a book with heart.
ISBN: 0670018708; Audiobook: 0143143476
–Suzanne Fisher


Killing Rommel
by Steven Pressfield
This absorbing military thriller is based on the real life story of the Long Range Desert Group, an elite WWII British Special Forces unit whose mission was to destroy Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Pressfield captures the adrenaline and fear of battle and the camaraderie of the brave men whose mission was so dangerous they knew many of them would die so realistically you will forget it’s fiction.
ISBN:0385519702; Audiobook: 142818077X
–Suzanne Fisher

FICTION -- Personal Journeys

Away
by Amy Bloom
Young Lillian Leyb arrives in New York City in the 1920s after leaving her destroyed home in Russia with nothing but the clothes she is wearing. Through determination and practicality, she establishes a life in the city only to learn that her daughter Sophie, believed dead, is reportedly alive and in Siberia. The news compels Lillian to set off across the continent in hopes of finding her lost daughter. The harsh details of her life and the journey to search for her lost child create a powerful story of human resilience and emotional complexity.
ISBN 978-081-2977-790; Audiobook: 1598875218
–Judie Harren


Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
It has been a long time since I have found so much pleasure in both the story and the careful use of language. Lahiri, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, writes about the experiences of the Bengali Indians who came to the United States in the sixties and of their children, born and raised American. These eight stories describe the relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends. They speak to anyone who tries to live in today’s culture and respect their past.
ISBN: 0307265730
–Gail Sacco

FICTION -- A Little Light Reading

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
A charming story of Post WWII England told through the letters of Juliet Ashton, an author who, after publishing a series of light-hearted columns about the War, decides to follow up with a more meaningful book. When she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams asking for advice about an author they both admire, she is drawn to Guernsey Island where she discovers a community of intrepid people who survived the German occupation of the island. The combination of history, romance and humor make this a delightful read.
ISBN 978-038-5340-991; Audiobook: 0739368435
–Judie Harren


The View from Mount Joy
by Lorna Landvik
I have always enjoyed this author and her recent book is no exception. Her characters are quirky and engaging and her stories draw you into the wholesome atmosphere of the Midwest. In this story we follow the life of Joe Andreson, a likeable guy who grows up from a high school hockey player full of dreams and uncertainty to a successful businessman and father. But the path is a complicated one and his relationship with Kristi Casey, the most popular girl in school and later famous evangelist, continues to invade his life and provide insights into the darker side of human nature. Ultimately, Joe grows into a man who finds joy in his family and friends who surround and nurture him through thick and thin.
ISBN: 978-0345468383
–Judie Harren


Good Grief
by Lolly Winston
I loved the way this new author wove grief and humor together to portray a young woman’s struggle with the loss of her husband. Sophie is an intelligent and responsible PR manager until her husband succumbs to cancer and she finds herself buried under the blankets eating mountains of Oreos and stumbling haphazardly through her life. When she arrives at work in her bathrobe, it becomes apparent that it’s time to try something new and she moves in with her friend in small town Ashland, Oregon to try to rebuild her life. The story is never dull and the emotional tribulations are both heartfelt and funny.
ISBN: 978-0446619066
–Judie Harren


The Rules of Gentility
by Janet Mullany
Jane Austen meets Bridget Jones, and the result is Philomena Wellesley-Clegg, a young lady of substantial fortune and respectable (if somewhat plebeian) breeding. Philomena is in London hunting for a suitable husband; enter Inigo Linsley, the wicked younger son of a noble family, possessed of modest expectations and tremendous charm. Can “true love” be far behind? This gentle spoof of regency romances and chick lit is both charming and laugh-out-loud funny.
ISBN: 0061229830
–Macaire Hill