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Staff Picks for
September/October 2007
Lelia's Staff Picks
The Wicked History of the World by Terry Deary
"In the best book ever written to prove history teachers wrong, pester parents and disgust grandmothers, you will find out the truth about the Rules of War and meet fifty of the most vicious villains of all time in a bonus feature pull-out. Want to know... --The ghastly fate of Captain Cook? --What smelly sport was played by Samurai warriors? --Who tried to kill her enemies with a cake made from poisoned bath water? ...then let The Wicked History of the World be your guide. History with the nasty bits left in!"
$10.99
The Murderer Said Shalom by Leonard Stein
"Who killed Sheba Richards? The madam of the Lolita Escort Agency is found in the bathtub of a hot pillow hotel. Inspector David Biton of the Tel Aviv Police Department is assailed with a myriad of seemingly unrelated clues in this tongue-in-cheek whodunit.
As the plot unravels and the bodies pile up, the murderer is revealed as a wily and dangerous foe who will stop at nothing. Using a combination of brains and chutzpah, the inspector traps his nemesis in a suspenseful climax."
$14.90
Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule
"This searching analysis of the shooting of three children in Oregon by their mother devolves into a study of personality. In May of 1983, Diane Downs drove to a Williamette Valley hospital emergency room with her children, all gravely wounded; one did not survive the first hour, and the other two were disabled for life. Downs initially told of a "bushy-haired stranger" who had committed the crime, but frequently changed her story. Under police questioning she recalled her childhood with a cold, domineering father who abused her sexually, her weak mother, a rape by one of her bosses, her failed marriage and many men with whom she had sex. One of these men, whom she claimed to love, did not want children, and that may have prompted the crime, speculates the author. The greatest strength of this book is the exploration by ex-policewoman Rule (The Stranger Beside Me of the aberrant personality of Downs, who is now imprisoned and not eligible for parole until 2009."---Publishers Weekly
$7.99
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
"Full of bizarre subplots, many of which don't go anywhere, bestseller Fforde's fifth novel to feature intrepid literary detective Thursday Next (after 2004's "Something Rotten") blends elements of mystery, campy science fiction and screwball fantasy à la Terry Pratchett's Discworld. With the Stupidity Surplus reaching dangerously high levels all over England, Acme Carpets employee and undercover SpecOps investigator Next has her hands full trying to persuade her 16-year-old slacker son, Friday, to join the ChronoGuard, which deals with temporal stability; if Friday continues to sleep away his future, the end is near for everyone. To complicate matters, a malicious apprentice begins making classic works of literature into reality book shows ('Pride and Prejudice' becomes 'The Bennets'), a ruthless corporation tries to turn the Bookworld into a tourist trap, and the Cheese Enforcement Agency tries to bust Next for smuggling killer curd. The fate of the world may lie in a Longfellow poem. Fans of satiric literary humor are in for a treat."---Publishers Weekly
$24.95 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
"In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, "nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing--victims of so-called "Gobblers"--and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved."
$7.50
Andrew's Staff Picks
The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald
"The best con man in the Midwest.. and he's only ten years old. Tom, a.k.a., the Great Brain, is a silver-tongued genius with a knack for turning a profit. When the Jenkins boys get lost in Skeleton Cave, the Great Brain saves the day. When Mr. Standish, the new schoolteacher, turns out to be the meanest thing on two legs, everyone knows that he'll regret the day he faced the Great Brain. Whether its saving the kids at school, or helping out Peg-leg Andy, or Basil, the new kid at school, the Great Brain always manages to come out on top-and line his pockets in the process."
$5.99
Rules of Prey by John Sandford
"A serial murderer who calls himself "mad dog" has turned his psychopathic killing into a game that has terrorized the Twin Cities. He carefully selects each victim (all women), plots clever moves to lure her, and then taunts the police with notes after he has raped and murdered his victim. Police lieutenant Lucas Davenport's talent for solving crimes is not enough to snare the madman. He will have to take on the role of gamemaster, as he does when he creates video games, to match wits and bring him to justice."
$7.99
Under My Roof by Nick Mamatas
"Herbert Weinberg's father is striking a blow for freedom. Implanting a nuclear device within a garden gnome in the front yard of their Long Island home, he's declared independence from the U.S. The household is understandably is an uproar. Mother's gone, the local weatherman has moved in, and 12-year-old Herbert is simultaneously a hostage and the Minister of Information. A daring raid plucks the lad from his ancestral home, but even while troops surround the belligerent house-state of Weinbergia, the call to freedom has been sounded. The house is rapidly filling up with American refuseniks. Can the refrigerator hold out? And will Herbert's telepathic powers defeat imperialism and reunite him with his father? Based on Aristophanes's Archanians, Under My Roof is a funny, ambitous novel."
$12.95
A Rage In Harlem by Chester Himes
"For the love of fine and wily Imabelle, hapless Jackson loses his life savings to a con man who knows the secret of turning ten-dollar bills into hundreds and steals from his boss, only to lose the stolen money at a crap table. Luckily for him, Jackson has a savvy twin brother, Goldy, who, disguised as a Sister of Mercy, earns a living by selling tickets to Heaven in Harlem. Now for the big payback..."
$10.00
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
"We now present the seventh and final installment in the epic tale of Harry Potter."
$34.99 prior to 25% new hardcover discount
Sam's Staff Picks
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
"In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut- young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives."
$6.99
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
"Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the Red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars- and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever. Here are the captivating chronicles of man and Mars- the modern classic by the peerless Ray Bradbury."
$6.50
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
"When the wizard Rincewind finds himself the reluctant travel guide to the overly optimistic tourist Twoflower, he is faced with a series of seemingly life ending circumstances. The pair travel in search of once in a life time experiences for Twoflower but there are forces at work trying to make their time on Discworld shorter than they may wish."
$7.99
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
"In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Bront's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy-enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel--unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix."
$14.00
A Giraffe and a Half by Shel Silverstein
"Delightfully zany rhymes about a giraffe who accumulates some ridiculous things--like glue on his shoe and a bee on his knee--only to lose them again, one by one."
$16.99
