Book Club Recommendations

April/May 2007

The Accidental by Ali Smith
Because a Fire Was in My Head by Lynn Stegner
Everyman by Philip Roth
Harpsong by Rilla Askew
Memoirs of a Muse by Lara Vapnyar

African-American Authors

Reading Recommendations for Adults:
Adams, Stacy Hawkins
Alers, Rochelle
Ansa, Tina McElroy
Berry, Bertice
Berry, Venise
Bolton, Gwyneth
Briscoe, Connie
Brown, Michele Andrea
Butler, Octavia
Campbell, Bebe Moore
Cleage, Pearl
Cohen, Esther
Cooper, J. California
DeLoach, Nora
Dickey, Eric Jerome
Emery, Lynn
Files, Lolita
Flowers, Arthur
Forster, Gwynne
Foster, Sharon Ewell
Foye, K'wan
Foxx, Nina
Gaines, Ernest
Griggs, Vanessa Davis
Harris, E. Lynn
Hill, Donna
Hodge, Margaret Johnson
Holmes, Shannon
Hurston, Zora Neale
Jackson, Brian Keith
Jackson, Sheneska
Joe, Yolanda
Johnson, R.M.
Jones, Edward P.
Little, Benilde
Mason, Felicia
McFadden, Bernice
McMillan, Rosalyn
McMillan, Terry
Mickelbury, Penny
Mitchell, Sharon
Monroe, Mary
Mosley, Walter
Naylor, Gloria
Neely, Barbara
Ray, Francis
Roby, Kimberla Lawson
Sinclair, April
Smith, Zadie
Terveloy, Jervey
Thomas, Jacquelin
Toure
Tyree, Omar
Walker, Alice
Weber, Carl
Wesley, Valerie Wilson
Zane

African-American Books for Young Adults

Books for ages 12 - 18

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Collier
Darkness Before Dawn by Sharon Draper
Romiette & Julio by Sharon Draper
The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake
Billy by Albert French
Keesha's House by Helen Frost
The Heart Calls Home by Joyce Hansen
First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Heaven by Angela Johnson
Bad Boy: a Memoir by Walter Dean Myers
Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Imani All Mine by Connie Porter
Fast Talk on a Slow Track by Rita Williams-Garcia
Like Sisters on the Homefront by Rita Williams-Garcia
Red Rose Box by Brenda Woods
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

Book Lust Recommendations: First Novels

The following is from Nancy Pearl's Book Lust. Pearl is a librarian in Seattle, and her books offer reading suggestions for every mood.

"I have an inordinate fondness for first novels. There's something so exciting about discovering new work and a new writer. What sometimes happens, of course, is that their first novels were the best they ever wrote, or sometimes (as is the case for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), the only novel they wrote. So without reference to any other books by these authors, I present here some first novels (in alphabetical order by author) that I am delighted to have read." ~Nancy Pearl


Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Charlotte Bacon's Lost Geography
Bonnie Burnard's A Good House
John Derbyshire's Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream
Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai
Harriet Doerr's Stones for Ibarra
Tom Drury's The End of Vandalism
Mark Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable
Gloria Emerson's Loving Graham Greene
Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides
Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair
Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated
Jonathan Franzen's The Twenty-Seventh City
Elizabeth Gilbert's Stern Men
John Griesemer's No One Thinks of Greenland
Elizabeth Hay's A Student of Weather
Elizabeth Inness-Brown's Burning Marguerite
Heidi Julavits's The Mineral Palace
P.F. Kluge's Biggest Elvis
Steve Kluger's Last Days of Summer
Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist
Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker
David Long's The Falling Boy
Nuala O'Faolain's My Dream of You
Ann Packer's The Dive from Clausen's Pier
Anne Pachett's The Patron Saint of Liars
Tom Perrotta's The Wishbones
Bette Pesetsky's Author from a Savage People
Steven Sherrill's The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
Zadie Smith's White Teeth
Sarah Stonich's These Granite Islands
Hans-Ulrich Treichel's Lost
Kate Walbert's The Gardens of Kyoto
Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist

***Both Book Lust and More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl are available at the Laurens County Libraries.

Going Graphic?

Graphic Novels and Manga @ the Library:

X Diary by Toma
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
Kingdom Come by Mark Waid
Power and Responsibility (Ultimate Spider-man Vol. 1) by Bill Jemas
Fruits Basket (Vol. 1-6) by Natsuki Takaya
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale- My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale- And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
Identity Crisis by Brad Metzer
Stormbreaker: The Graphic Novel by Anthony Horowitz, Antony Johnston, Kanako Damerum, and Yuzuru Takasaki
Nancy Drew: The Charmed Bracelet by Stefan Petrucha and Vaughn Ross
Harlequin Pink: Jinxed by Day Leclaire and Akemi Maki
Harlequin Pink: No Competition by Debbie Macomber and Yukino Hara
Hardy Boys: The Opposite Numbers by Scott Lobdell and Daniel Rendon

Coming Soon!

New Titles Coming to the Library Soon:

Microsoft Office 2007 for Dummies by Wallace Wang
Harlequin Pink Graphic Novel Series by various authors
Fugitives of Chaos by John C. Wright
Exile by Richard North Patterson
Full Scoop (Large Print Edition) by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes
What a Woman Wants by Brenda Jackson
Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck
Jamaica Me Dead by Bob Morris
The Whole Pet Diet by Andi Brown
Saffron Skies by Lesley Lokko
Sliver of Truth by Lisa Unger

Looking for Chick-Lit?

Chick-Lit Authors To Check Out:

Andrews, Mary Kay
Barr, Emily
Billerbeck, Kristin
Brichoux, Karen
Brodsky, Daniella
Burke, Betsey
Bushnell, Candice
Cabot, Meg
Crusie, Jennifer
DeVries, Hillary
Fforde, Katie
Goudge, Eileen
Giffin, Emily
Grayson, Kristine
Grazer, Gigi LeVangie
Green, Jane
Heller, Jane
Hughes, Finola
Ireland, Liz
Johnson, Diane
Kaplan, Janice
Keyes, Marian
Kinsella, Sophie
LeFlore, Lyah Beth
Matthews, Carole
McCafferty, Megan
McCouch, Hannah
McLaughlin, Emma
McMillan, Terry
Monroe, Mary
Phillips, Carly
Pine, Rachael
Porter, Jane
Reid, Mary Ann
Reid, Mary Fanjob
Rendahl, Eileen
Roby, Kimberla Lawson
Shapiro, Laurie Gwen
Street, Libby
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa
Weisberger, Lauren

Staff Picks

Steven's Suggestions for Excellent Reading:

Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres
Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Most Borrowed Books

The following is Library Journal's list of the books most borrowed in U.S. libraries:

Fiction:
1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
2. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
3. The 5th Horseman by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
4. Judge & Jury by James Patterson & Andrew Gross
5. Ricochet by Sandra Brown
6. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
7. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
8. So You Call Yourself a Man by Carl Weber
9. Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
10. Predator by Patricia Cornwell
11. Mary, Mary by James Patterson
12. Rise & Shine by Anna Quindlen
13. The Camel Club by David Baldacci
14. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
15. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini


Nonfiction:
1. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
2. The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeanette Walls
3. Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan
4. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
5. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
6. Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans
7. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham
8. Free Money to Pay Your Bills by Matthew Lesko
9. 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Life and Death by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey
10. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
11. A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown
12. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
13. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcomlm Gladwell
14. Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent & others
15. State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward

New Books @ The Library

New Fiction Titles

The Wrong Abraham by David S. Brody
Crimson Portrait: A Novel by Jody Shields
The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
A Castle in the Forest: A Novel by Norman Mailer
Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery by Martha Grimes
Eunice: A Tale of Reconstruction Times in South Carolina by William James Rivers
Exile: A Novel by James North Patterson
Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende
Lords of the North by Patricia Cornwell
Mary: A Novel by Janis Cooke Newman
Swarmthief's Dance by Deborah J. Miller
Web of Evil: A Novel of Suspense by J.A. Jance


New Nonfiction Titles

Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball--and America by Steve Jacobson
From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman with Melinda Roth
American Benefits for Seniors: Getting the Most Out of Your Retirement by Matthew Lesko
The Bon Appetit Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild
Come Garden With Me: A How-to Guide for Dirt Gardeners in the Carolinas by Elizabeth Pickett Mills
Encyclopedia of North Carolina by William S. Powell
The Five Languages of Apology: How to Experience Healing in All Your Relationships by Gary Chapman
The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter R. Borneman
Lowcountry Hurricanes: Three Centuries of Storms at Sea and Ashore by Walter J. Fraser
A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorer by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman
Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home; The American Home from 1775 to 1840 by Jack Larkin
Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook's Corner and From Home by Bill Smith

New Audiobooks

The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (CD)
Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lillian Jackson Braun (CD & CASS)
A Deeper Sleep by Dana Stabenow (CD)
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris (CD)
Man in the Middle by Brain Haig (CD & CASS)
Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein (CD & CASS)
Red River by Lalita Tademy (CD)
Stalemate by Iris Johansen (CD)
Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich (CAS)
Web of Evil by J.A. Jance (CD & CASS)

New DVD's

Because of Winn-Dixie
The Call of the Wild
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing
Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo