The Traveling Library

The New Traveling Library

2011-11-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Rescued from oblivion and ready to entertain and inform you about great books I have read.

2011-07-28T10:03:00.001-07:00

Post to save this blog until I move it.

Here You Go! A Multicultural Feast!

2011-02-16T12:24:00.000-08:00

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Set 100 years ago, this character story concerns the disintegration of the Ibo community in the face of white missionary intrusion. - CDE

West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story by Mir Tamim Ansary

3 Appelfeld, Aharon Tzili. The Story of a Life
4 Aronson, Marc Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde
5 Baird, Robert (editor) Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice: Definitions, Causes and Solutions
6 Baldwin, James A. Fire Next Time
7 Bosworth, Beth Tunneling: A Novel
8 Boyle, T. Coraghessan Tortilla Curtain, The
9 Bradford, Richard Red Sky at Morning
10 Bragg, Richard All Over but the Shouting
11 Brenner, Barbara Voices: Poetry and Art from Around the World
12 Butler, Octavia E. Kindred
13 Butler, Robert Olen Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, A
14 Campbell, Joseph Power of Myth, The
15 Carroll, Andrew (editor) Letters of a Nation
16 Cary, Lorene Black Ice
17 Chase, Marilyn Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco, The
18 Clarke, Judith Wolf on the Fold
19 Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
20 Corwin, Miles And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students
21 Danticat, Edwidge Krik? Krak!
22 de Saint-Exupery, Antoine Night Flight
23 Dick, Philip K. Man in the High Castle, The
24 Dickinson, Peter Eva
25 Didion, Joan Democracy
26 Didion, Joan Last Thing He Wanted, The
27 Dietz, Maggie (editor) Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology
28 Dorris, Michael Yellow Raft in Blue Water, A
29 Endo, Shusaku Wonderful Fool
30 Ferris, Jean Bad
31 Franco, Betsy (editor) Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls
32 Franco, Betsy (editor) You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys
33 Frank, Rudolf No Hero for the Kaiser
34 Fuentes, Carlos Old Gringo, The
35 Fugard, Athol Master Harold and the Boys
36 Gaines, Ernest Gathering of Old Men, A
37 Gandhi, Mahatma Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, An
38 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel Strange Pilgrims
39 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
40 Gilman, Dorothy Incident at Badamya
41 Glenn, Mel Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems
42 Glenn, Mel My Friend's Got This Problem, Mr. Candler
43 Greene, Graham Quiet American, The
44 Greene, Graham Travels with My Aunt
45 Guterson, David Snow Falling on Cedars
46 Hagedorn, Jessica Dogeaters, The
47 Hegi, Ursula Tearing the Silence: Being German in America
48 Hicvilmaz, Gaye Frozen Waterfall, The
49 Hillerman, Tony Dance Hall of the Dead
50 Hinojosa, Maria Crews: Gang Members Talk to Maria Hinojosa
51 Hinojosa, Rolando Dear Rafe
52 Hoeg, Peter Smilla's Sense of Snow
53 Hong, Maria (editor) Growing Up Asian American
54 Hopkinson, Nalo Brown Girl in the Ring
55 Keneally, Thomas Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The
56 Keneally, Thomas Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List)
57 Kim, Nancy Chinhominey's Secret
58 Kincaid, Jamaica Annie John
59 Kincaid, Jamaica Autobiography of My Mother, The
60 Kingsolver, Barbara Animal Dreams
61 Kingsolver, Barbara Bean Trees, The
62 Kingsolver, Barbara Pigs in Heaven
63 Kingston, Maxine Hong Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, The
64 Kiyama, Henry Yoshitaka Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924
65 Krisher, Trudy Spite Fences
66 Lee, Chang-Rae Gesture Life, A
67 Lee, Gus China Boy
68 Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
69 Lee, Spike Best Seat in the House
70 McBride, James Color of Water
71 McCloud, Scott New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, The
72 McPhee, John Coming into the Country
73 Mehta, Gita River Sutra, A
74 Meyer, Carolyn Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker
75 Mukherjee, Bharati Jasmine
76 Mukherjee, Bharati Middleman and Other Stories
77 Myers, Walter Dean Fallen Angels
78 Myers, Walter Dean Shooter
79 Naipaul, V. S. House for Mr. Biswas, A
80 Naipaul, V. S. Miguel Street
81 Newth, Mette Abduction, The
82 Nye, Naomi Shihab (editor) This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World
83 O'Brien, Tim Things They Carried, The
84 Osa, Nancy Cuba 15: A Novel
85 Pinsky, Robert (editor) Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology
86 Rosenbaum, Stuart E. (editor) Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice: Definitions, Causes and Solutions
87 Rothberg, Jerome Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas
88 Rozan, S. J. China Trade
89 Sachar, Louis Holes
90 Salzman, Mark True Notebooks
91 Saroyan, William Human Comedy, The
92 Schami, Rafik Damascus Nights
93 Schooler, Lynn Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship, Tragedy, and Survival in the Alaskan Wilderness, The
94 Selcadurai, Shyam Funny Boy
95 Shute, Nevil Town Like Alice, A
96 Singer, Marilyn Face Relations: Eleven Stories About Seeing Beyond Color
97 Strempek Shea, Suzanne Hoopi Shoopi Donna
98 Sturm, James Golem's Mighty Swing
99 Szymusiak, Molyda Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980, The
100 Tateishi, John And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps
101 Taylor, Clark House That Crack Built, The
102 Thomas, Joyce Carol (editor) Gathering of Flowers: Stories About Being Young in America, A
103 Thoms, Annie (editor) With Their Eyes: September 11 - The View from a High School at Ground Zero
104 Waldman, Ayelet Daughter's Keeper
105 Weiss, M. Jerry (editor) From One Experience to Another
106 Wiley, Ralph Best Seat in the House
107 Winick, Judd Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned

Keep Reading!

2011-02-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm delighted to say that I'll be able to post again very soon. I'm researching the history of my small hometown, Needles, California at the Needles Regional Museum. I'm going to sneak in a few posts of teen books and maybe tidy things up a bit. Look for some postings of books with a multicultural theme. It just seems a nice thing to do now.

Bless,
Martha

Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq by Thura Al-Windawi

2010-08-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

Nineteen-year-old Thura al-Windawi kept a diary during the conflict in Iraq, saying that it was her way of controlling the chaos. The diary, which documents the days leading up to the bombings, the war itself, and the lawless aftermath, puts a personal face on life in Baghdad. As Thura describes her life and that of her two younger sisters, she shows readers the many small details that illuminate the reality of war for Iraqi families, and especially for Iraqi children.

Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin

2009-08-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sophie Blue started wearing a black skirt and Midnight Noir lipstick on her last birthday. It was also the day her father disappeared. Or spontaneously combusted. Which is sort of bad timing, since a Popsicle truck with tinted windows has started circling the house.

Kenny Fade is a basketball god. His sneakers cost more than his Jeep. He's the guy all the ladies (and their mommas) want. Bad.

Sophie Blue and Kenny Fade don't have a thing in common. Aside from being reasonably sure they're losing their minds.

Acclaimed author Sean Beaudoin's wildly innovative novel combines uproarious humor with enough plot twists to fill a tube sock. Part thriller, part darkly comic philosophical discussion, and accompanied by a comic book interstitial, Fade to Blue is a whip-smart romp that keeps readers guessing until the last paragraph. - From the publisher.

Mattie Rae says:

I'm just way too un-hip for this selection. But I do have the notion life in the Virtuality is very tempting and very scary. So, watch it out there. I left the book off at the library today and I'm hoping the young adults will read it and then explain it to me. :)!

Good News

2009-07-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Look for reviews soon from Sweet Pea and The Rock Lady.

2009-07-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

58% of the letters in Sean Beaudoin's name are vowels.

In ASCII binary code, his name is 01010011 01100101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01000010 01100101 01100001 01110101 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110

Backwards, it's Naes Nioduaeb. In Pig Latin, it's Eansay Eaudoinbay.

Sean Beaudoin has used his B.A. in photography as a springboard into the following jobs: construction laborer, circus roustabout, busboy, used book buyer, hotel desk clerk, camp counselor, statue repairman (really), seller of jazz vinyl, and a nine-day stint as The World's Worst Telemarketer. He now resides mostly in Seattle, but also sometimes San Francisco, with his wife and daughter.

I also tend to list my history and traits in the third person, as if someone else were writing it for me. I love hot sauce and almonds and Turkish coffee. I hate the phrase "it is what it is." When people say that, I tend to respond, in a much deeper voice than I really have, "NO, IT ISN'T." I like vinyl and French movies and books about unhappy people from the Fifties. I'm not particularly crazy about police procedurals, ketchup, rap-metal, Julia Roberts, cell phones, or Sudoku. - From the author's website.

Going Nowhere Faster by Sean Beaudoin

2009-07-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Five Things The Publisher Said About This Book:

1. "It's fast paced."

2. "It has feel-good moments"

3. "It's laugh-out-loud funny."

4. "You'll come to love these characters more than your own family."

5. "Some people prefer The Brothers Karamazov, but those people are stuck in the past."

Some Advice I, Stan Smith, Can Give You, The Potential Reader:

1. Ask your mom for some cash. If she says no, slip a twenty from her purse and buy this. Or, even better, have your best friend pretend to faint by the register and stuff this in your sweatpants while the clerk freaks out and checks for a pulse.

2. My therapist, Dr. Feldman, says #2 isn't very nice or funny. He says stealing is "Off the hook". He says a lot of things. Ignore him.

3. Someone keeps vandalizing my bike. What kind of person vandalizes a bike? On the other hand, what 18 year-old still rides one? My mother believes in karma. My father believes in math. I believe that some big-forehead game show host should knock on my door and give me a Ferrari. And one of those enormous cardboard checks. When someone with a cardboard check knocks on your door, answer it.

4. If you buy this and bring it into the school cafeteria and stand on a table and read parts of it out loud in a hammy Canadian accent, your popularity will increase exponentially.

5. Pick a phrase. "Love is like a rock" for instance. No matter what question anyone asks you, use this phrase as an answer. Do it for two full weeks. When every single person you know is finally, amazingly, incredibly furious, give in and blame this book." - From the author's website.

Mattie Rae says:
Stan Smith, a high school senior, has a really tall mom who is a strict vegan (everyone else sneaks out for hot dogs and ice cream), an inventive and helpful dad whose tool chest seems to be missing a plumb line and a level, a precious precocious 6 year old little sister, a stalwart yet drooling old dog, a good/bad/good again best friend, a first, probably not the last girlfriend, a lot of really weird teachers, a great job at the video store with a boss who eats a lot of candy, a very high IQ, and a terrific dream, like follow your dream, dream, and someone who is trying to kill him. Like there is a little of Stan Smith in all of us, I wish, well, not the maniac killer stalker part. Check it out! Read the book! Enjoy!

Hi, everybody!

2009-06-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Good news. The Traveling Library is back. And more people are reading and reviewing books. Look for some great reviews in the near future.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2008-06-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Set in our own time along the bloody frontier between Texas and Mexico, this is Cormac McCarthy's first novel since Cities of the Plain completed his acclaimed, best-selling Border Trilogy.

Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot dead, a load of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything. But only after two more men are murdered does a victim's burning car lead Sheriff Bell to the carnage out in the desert, and he soon realizes how desperately Moss and his young wife need protection. One party in the failed transaction hires an ex-Special Forces officer to defend his interests against a mesmerizing freelancer, while on either side are men accustomed to spectacular violence and mayhem. The pursuit stretches up and down and across the border, each participant seemingly determined to answer what one asks another: how does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?

A harrowing story of a war that society is waging on itself, and an enduring meditation on the ties of love and blood and duty that inform lives and shape destinies, No Country for Old Men is a novel of extraordinary resonance and power.

YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners - 2004 Literature and Language Arts

2008-05-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Literature and Language Arts

Go and Come Back by Joan Abelove.
In a story of mutual culture shock, Alicia, a young Isabo girl in a remote area of Peru, is just as fascinated by the American anthropologists, Joanna and Margarita, as they are with the ways of her people.

Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison.
Bone confronts illegitimacy, poverty, the troubled marriage of her mother and stepfather, and the stigma of being considered “white trash” as she comes of age in South Carolina.

In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.
The four Mirabel sisters were called the Mariposas, or butterflies. Dede, the only survivor, tells the story of courage that helps liberate the Dominican Republic from the dictator Trujillo.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Calling the police to a party is a tough choice, but what made Melinda call is the devastating secret that keeps her locked in silence.

Feed by M.T. Anderson.
In this society your brain cyberfeed provides an endless stream of information, entertainment and advertising. When Violet’s feed is disrupted, she’s cast adrift and everyone is forced to examine the power of the feed in his/her life.

Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian.
Based on a true story from the Armenian Holocaust, this is an eloquent, touching and heart-wrenching portrait of pain and triumph during a time of tragedy.

Chambers, Aidan. Postcards from No Man’s Land. New York: Dutton, 2002. Seventeen is an age of self-discovery, and Jacob has gone to Amsterdam to explore his life. His quest strangely parallels discoveries about his grandfather’s life there during World War II.

Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo. New York: Knopf, 2002. LaLa learns the stories of her Awful Grandmother and weaves them into a colorful family history. The “caramelo,” a striped shawl begun by her Great-Grandmother, symbolizes their traditions.

Frank, E. R. Life is Funny. New York: DK Publishing, 2000. Growing up in New York can be agonizing, humorous, and always a challenge for the teens who tell their stories.

Freymann-Weyr, Garret. My Heartbeat. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Can Ellen get the boy who loves her brother?

Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: a Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Every author leaves clues to lead readers deeper into the inner meanings of their writings. Learn how to follow literary breadcrumbs in any story.

Kaplow, Robert. Me and Orson Welles. San Francisco: Macadam/Cage, 2003. What would it be like to spend a week with the great Orson Welles, even sleeping in his pajamas? Richard Samuels, a budding teenaged actor, gets the opportunity to see what life on stage, and behind the stage, is really like on Broadway in 1937.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. New York: HarperTorch, 1998. Taylor Greer leaves Kentucky and heads west to find a new life. When a baby is abandoned in her car, she learns that responsibilities and independence are not mutually exclusive in this story of family and community.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor, 1995. Advice to the fledgling writer: “Just take it bird by bird.” A gentle, anecdotal guide for beginning authors.

Mah, Adeline. Chinese Cinderella: the True Story of an Unwanted Daughter. New York: Delacorte, 1999. Wu Mei, also called Adeline, is the Fifth Younger Sister of her family, and the one who bears the blame for all their bad fortune. In her inspirational tale of survival in 1940’s China, she triumphs against all odds.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Steve Harmon is accused of being an accomplice to murder. He creates a screenplay of his wrenching experiences at the crime scene, in jail, and on trial.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Another world, another culture -- poems that personalize the conflicts and people, deepening understanding of the impact of September 11th.

O’Connor, Patricia. Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. New York: Putnam, 1996. When there’s something important to say, how you say it counts. Pronouns, antecedents and more grammar-ology made fun and painless.

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. New York: Knopf, 1996. Lyra Belacqua, a young girl living in an alternate Oxford, and her daimon, Pantalaimon, set out to find her kidnapped playmate and uncover a sinister plot. Now Lyra must use her special powers to thwart evil and redeem the world.

Reynolds, Sheri. A Gracious Plenty. New York: Harmony Books, 1997. What happens to us when we die? Finch Nobles, a cemetery keeper with horrible burn scars, talks to the dead, and helps them examine what keeps them tied to the earth.

Sapphire. Push. New York: Knopf, 1996. Precious Jones is a survivor. She had her father’s baby at 12 and now, at 16, she is pregnant by him again. But an alternative school, a dedicated teacher, and classmates who understand help her fight back.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2002. Growing up in Iran wasn’t all that bad, or all that different, except that Marjane wanted to be a prophet when she grew up. Dramatic black-and-white illustrations tell her story.

Sebold, Alice. Lucky. New York: Scribner, 1999. “You save yourself or you remain unsaved.” With these words, Sebold recounts the brutal rape that she was “lucky” to survive. Tragedy and hope combine as she makes her way through a survivor’s maze of emotions.

Shakur, Tupac. A Rose that Grew from Concrete. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Written when Tupac was 19 and not yet a star, these poems bring emotion, power and passion to the experience of becoming yourself.

Smith, Anna Deveare. Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights and Other Identities. New York: Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1999. A dramatic look at the Crown Heights riots and race in the United States through the voices of 23 fascinating and unique characters, based on interviews with real people.

And the winners are...

2008-05-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

The Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

Honor Awards:

Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet by Elizabeth Knox

One Whole and Perfect Day by Judith Clarke

Repossessed by A. M. Jenkins

Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association.

Skellig by David Almond

2008-05-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

Man, bird, or angel? Who or what is Skellig?

Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. It was all going to be wonderful. But now his baby sister's ill, his parents are frantic, and Dr. Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then one day he steps into the crumbling garage.

What is this thing beneath the spiderwebs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never seen before? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend Mina. Together they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever.

Told in lyrical prose, Skellig is a mystery, an adventure, and a family story, in which Michael learns about nature, poetry, and the healing power of love. - Book Jacket

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

2008-05-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation.

Born with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-white school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that he never knew existed.

Written with raw emotion by acclaimed writer Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, his first novel for young adults, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one unlucky boy trying to rise above the life everyone expects him to live. - Book Jacket

April New Fiction

2008-05-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

2008-05-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

In 2002, the most important federal commission in decades was established to examine the events surrounding the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

In 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued its unanimous report to broad acclaim.

Now, in this riveting and groundbreaking investigation of the 9/11 investigators, veteran New York Times journalist Philip Shenon reveals stunning shortcomings in the Commission's work - a series of oversights, omissions, and distortions that raise fundamental questions about 9/11 and the government's failure to prevent it.

From the Commission's inception, Shenon covered its workings on a daily basis, developing sources at all levels of the investigation. For this book, he returned to those sources to write the definitive account of how the Commission operated, who influenced its findings, how political considerations interfered, and what didn't make it into the final report.

Taking readers behind the scenes, Shenon describes the valiant efforts of the Commission's investigators to uncover the facts surrounding 9/11, despite being obstructed and even deceived at many turns. His discoveries are revelatory: The executive director of the Commission, Philip Zelikow, maintained a clandestine relationship with Karl Rove and took actions that were seen as shielding President Bush and Condoleezza Rice from the panel's scrutiny. Investigative staffers at the Commission believe Zelikow repeatedly sought to minimize the administration's intelligence failures in the months leading up to 9/11, which had the effect of helping to ensure President Bush's re-election in 2004.

The Commission is an eye-opening account of how Washington really works: the manipulations of politicians, the secrets of intelligence officers, the battles over information, the pursuit of truth.

In vivid and sobering detail, The Commission shows how the events of 9/11 could have been avoided, how the Bush administration missed crucial opportunities to prevent it, and why the Commission could not tell the whole story. - Book Jacket

Author: Philip Shenon

2008-05-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

Philip Shenon is an investigative reporter at the New York Times, where he has worked since 1981. He was the lead reporter on the investigation of the September 11 Commission and has held several of the most important assignments in the Washington Bureau, including chief Defense Department correspondent, diplomatic correspondent, congressional correspondent, and Justice Department correspondent. Shenon has reported for the Times from scores of countries across six continents. The Commission is his first book. He lives in Washington, D.C. - Book Jacket

Interview of Philip Shenon about The Commission on After Words, Book TV, C-SPAN2

In Search of Ancient Ireland: The Origins of the Irish from the Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English by Carmel McCaffrey & Leo Eaton

2008-04-22T17:07:00.002-07:00

So much of what people today accept as ancient Irish history - Celtic invaders from Europe who turned Ireland into a Celtic nation; St. Patrick driving the snakes from the country and converting its people to Christianity - is myth and legend with little basis in reality. The truth is more interesting.

The Irish, as Carmel McCaffrey and Leo Eaton show in In Search of Ancient Ireland, are not even Celtic in an archaeological sense. And there were plenty of bishops in Ireland before a British missionary called Patrick arrived.

Most of what we think of as Irish is a product of the nineteenth century. Many times in the past five thousand years Ireland has stood at the heart of European culture. In the middle of the eighth century B.C. it may have been the wealthiest place in Europe.

Ms. McCaffrey and Mr. Eaton trace the history, archaeology, and legends of ancient Ireland from 9000 B.C., when nomadic hunter-gatherers appeared in Ireland at the end of the last Ice Age - to 1167 A.D., when a Norman invasion brought the country under control of the English crown for the first time.

The authors visited monasteries and ring forts, climbed mountains and delved deep into sacred caves, and were accompanied on this journey through the historical landscape by many of Ireland's best-known scholars, historians, archaeologists, poets, and storytellers.

Ireland's ancient past is still filled with many mysteries. But because of a cascade of new archaeological discoveries and new techniques for interpreting them, the truth about this past is coming into sharper focus. This book is replete with new information, some of it at odds with what many Irish descendants believe about their ancestral home.

In Search of Ancient Ireland is not simply the story of events from long ago. Across Ireland today are festivals, places, and folk customs that provide a tangible connection to events thousands of years past. They too are part of the book's link to the past. - Book Jacket

Author: Leo Eaton

2008-04-22T17:07:00.001-07:00

Author: Carmel McCaffrey

2008-04-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith

2008-04-15T08:01:00.001-07:00

Investigator Arkady Renko is back in Moscow. The remarkable hero of Gorky Park and Polar Star has been in exile, first on the run in Siberia, then in the Bering Sea on a Russian factory ship servicing American fishing trawlers. The city he returns to, the city he last knew when he was head of the homicide department of the Moscow prosecutor's office, is totally different from the one he left. Now the Communist Party is dead, the ruble is worthless, and organized crime is the only entity that functions efficiently in the city. The Russian mafia isn't merely fattening off the economy; it is the economy, the only part of the country that works.

At a black market Arkady meets an underworld banker minutes before the man and his car erupt in flames. As burning dollars and deutsche marks rain down around him, Arkady begins an investigation that leads him not only to the most powerful figures in Moscow today, its mafia chiefs, but also to the great love of his life, Irina Asanova.

The new lords of the city are Borya Gubenko, Sportsman of the Russian Republic turned black marketeer, and Makhmud, the aged leader of the Chechens, the Sicilians of the Russian mafias. There is also the sleek Max Albov, who has defected to the West and back to Moscow, a man who goes wherever the money is, as well as various Party commissars greedily plundering the last assets of the Soviet Union. Caught between them is Arkady, the uncrushable Slav ironist, who can't help wondering whether being an honest man in a bankrupt system isn't a wasted life.

From the smoldering site of the fire Arkady rescues a shortwave radio, and on it he later hears Irina Asanova reading the news about the Soviet Union on Radio Liberty, and emigre station based in Germany. Of course the news is no news to him, but Arkady listens to it like a man who has come back to life. Irina was the cause of his imprisonment and exile, while for her he was the price of her freedom. Now he listens to her as if she were lying in bed next to him.

As Moscow collapses around Arkady like a burning house, he escapes to Irina and to Germany - a new Germany at once Teutonically efficient and frighteningly corrupt - only fo find the Russian mafia already on hand, enjoying the country's good beer, driving BMWs through the Brandenburg Gate, and searching murderously for Investigator Renko, that familiar fugitive, whose destiny is once more to find his lost love and suffer again. - Book Jacket

Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith

2008-04-15T07:54:00.001-07:00

Arkady Renko has made too many enemies and now he toils in obscurity on a Russian factory ship in the middle of the Bering Sea. But when a female crew member is picked up dead with the day's catch, Arkady becomes obsessed with the case and once again discovers more than he wants to know and certainly more than he bargained for.... - Barnes and Noble

Author: Jerry Stanley

2008-04-12T07:11:00.001-07:00

Being a writer is one of the great achievements of my life. As a teenager growing up in Detroit, Michigan, I hated school, all my teachers, and learning in general. When I was expelled from high school at the age of seventeen for fighting, I had passed two units—one in woodshop and one in gym. In bidding me farewell, my counselor fired his last shot at my self’-esteem: “Stanley,” he said, “you’re so dumb you couldn’t finish school even if you tried.”

It has taken a lot to prove him wrong. I joined the Air Force to get away from home and after a few years started taking correspondence courses through the mail. During the day I drove bulldozers and forklifts, and at night I learned how to write a complete sentence. I was twenty-one when I finally received my diploma from high school, which was somewhere near the base but which I never saw or visited. I was playing drums in a rock-’n’-roll band when I left the service and enrolled in junior college. This was the turning point in my life: not what I learned there, but getting the nerve to enroll.

I was the model insecure student, as hardly a day passed without my remembering, “Stanley, you’re so dumb. . . .” I can look back now with amusement and laughter at some of the things I did. For example, when I was registering on the first day, standing in a long line to get past this one station, a woman asked, “What do you think your major will be?” I had no idea of what she meant by “major,” but the girl in front of me said “English” and that got her through, so I said “English” (whatever that was) too. A month or so later, while talking about the upcoming midterm (my first), the teacher said, “Blue books are required. You can’t take the midterm without a blue book.” I spent nearly an hour in the library looking for the blue books—in the card catalog under blue, in the periodicals—until a kind reference librarian told me, without snickering, that they were in the bookstore. Though amusing now, when these things happened to me, they were proof that I would be found out: I don’t belong here.

Fearing failure, I became an overachiever. I overstudied every subject, and wrote and rewrote each term paper before finally relinquishing it. But I still lived in doubt from one grade report to the next. Making the dean’s list, graduating from junior college with honors, and being invited to join an honor society all gave me tremendous confidence—for about a day, before the old demon of self-defeat reemerged. Nevertheless, I made my second big decision and enrolled in a state university. At least I now knew what a major was, and I proclaimed “History,” but the most enduring memory of my first few weeks there was learning how to spell university (in case I suddenly had to).

When it became clear that I would get my bachelor’s degree cum laude, I vowed to continue my education until they kicked me out or until there were no other degrees to earn, whichever came first. This was the easiest decision because it came last and not because I had unshakable confidence in my ability to do graduate work. Looking back, I now see that I was not ready for school when my counselor committed that great crime against me by calling me stupid. The hardest decision was the first time I tried to prove him wrong by enrolling in junior college and showing up for my first class quite literally trembling in my chair.

Before the university said that’s it, I earned a Ph.D. and a Phi Beta Kappa key and was lucky to secure a teaching position at a university where I was forced to think about becoming a writer to keep my job. I wrote scholarly articles and book reviews and delivered papers at professional conferences, which led to promotion as full Professor of History with tenure. Only then did I start thinking about becoming a writer in the sense of communicating with a wide audience by using language that could be understood. I would be lying, however, if I said I know why I became a writer. My best guess is that I became a writer because I had to—I’m not happy unless I’m writing something.

I started writing magazine articles, which gave me the experience I needed to write books. I wrote fishing articles, human interest stories, and accounts of things that had happened to me that were unusual or amusing. For instance, while attending college, I lived above a funeral parlor for three years; I wrote about my humorous—and chilling—experiences there in Nightlife in the House of the Dead: Notes from the Second Floor. I had a heart attack and an out-of-body experience and wrote about that also. All of this gave me experience in writing for different audiences. I did not sell everything I wrote, but that was okay, because I’ve learned there’s no such thing as wasted writing or bad writing. All writing leads to better writing.

Because I’m a historian, nonfiction writing has always been more interesting to me than fiction; and because of my background, I’m drawn to topics where people overcome adversity and empower themselves. Children of the Dust Bowl is a good example of this; I can identify with the Okie children who were kicked out of school because they were considered too dumb to learn but who, nevertheless, built their own school, got an education, and went on to succeed with their lives. Similarly, I Am an American is about a group of people who suffered injustice and still struggled against the inequity of ignorance and of prejudice.

The time that I have to write is determined by my teaching schedule, except in the summer, when I divide my days between fishing and writing. I teach courses in California history, the American West, and Native Americans and California Indians, usually three days a week, leaving three days open for writing and Sundays for racquetball, the family, and chores. I need at least four hours to do any serious writing, and other things must be in place: a Xerox photo of my subject affixed to the wall, where I can readily see it, the research notes for the day arranged in neat order, and a copy of my last book resting on the pages of my new book. Before I write, I have to read the last few pages I’ve written—to prove I can do it because I have done it.

If in four hours I can write two to five pages that can say exactly what I want to say, I’m happy. But beyond that, I’m not sure what it takes to be a writer. For me, good writing requires good thinking, and good thinking requires good reading, plus research. The other thing I suspect about writing is that probably anyone can do it if they work at it long enough and hard enough. I’m the proof.

Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne

2008-04-10T07:54:00.001-07:00

In A.D. 664, King Oswy of Northumbria has convened a synod at Whitby to hear debate between the Roman and Celtic Christian churches and decide which shall be granted primacy in his kingdom. At stake is much more than a few disputed points of ritual; Oswy's decision could affect the survival of either church in the Saxon kingdoms.

When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic church, is found murdered, suspicion falls upon the Roman faction. In order to diffuse the tensions that threaten to erupt into civil war, Oswy turns to Sister Fidelma of the Celtic Church (Irish and an advocate for the Brehon Court) and Brother Eadulf of the Roman church (from east Anglia and of a family of hereditary magistrates) to find the killer. But as further murders occur and a treasonous plot against Oswy matures, Fidelma and Eadulf soon find themselves running out of time.

Author: Peter Tremayne

2008-04-10T07:53:00.001-07:00

Peter Tremayne is the fiction pseudonym of a well-known authority on the ancient Celts (Peter Berresford Ellis), who has utilised his knowledge of the Brehon law system and 7th-Century Irish society to create a new concept in detective fiction.

Author: Robert Crais

2008-04-03T08:21:00.001-07:00

Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction. Other literary influences include Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker, and John Steinbeck.

After years of amateur film-making and writing short fiction, he journeyed to Hollywood in 1976 where he quickly found work writing scripts for such major television series as Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Miami Vice, as well as numerous series pilots and Movies-of-the-Week for the major networks. He received an Emmy nomination for his work on Hill Street Blues, but is most proud of his 4-hour NBC miniseries, Cross of Fire, which the New York Times declared: "A searing and powerful documentation of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to national prominence in the 20s."
In the mid-eighties, feeling constrained by the collaborative working requirements of Hollywood, Crais resigned from a lucrative position as a contract writer and television producer in order to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. His first efforts proved unsuccessful, but upon the death of his father in 1985, Crais was inspired to create Elvis Cole, using elements of his own life as the basis of the story. The resulting novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, won the Anthony and Macavity Awards and was nominated for the Edgar Award. It has since been selected as one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Crais conceived of the novel as a stand-alone, but realized that—in Elvis Cole—he had created an ideal and powerful character through which to comment upon his life and times. Elvis Cole’s readership and fan base grew with each new book, then skyrocketed in 1999 upon the publication of L. A. Requiem, which was a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller and forever changed the way Crais conceived of and structured his novels. In this new way of telling his stories, Crais combined the classic ‘first person’ narrative of the American detective novel with flashbacks, multiple story lines, multiple points-of-view, and literary elements to better illuminate his themes. Larger and deeper in scope, Publishers Weekly wrote of L. A. Requiem, "Crais has stretched himself the way another Southern California writer—Ross Macdonald—always tried to do, to write a mystery novel with a solid literary base." Booklist added, "This is an extraordinary crime novel that should not be pigeonholed by genre. The best books always land outside preset boundaries. A wonderful experience."

Crais followed with his first non-series novel, Demolition Angel, which was published in 2000 and featured former Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Technician Carol Starkey. Starkey has since become a leading character in the Elvis Cole series. In 2001, Crais published his second non-series novel, Hostage, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and was a world-wide bestseller. Additionally, the editors of Amazon.com selected Hostage as the #1 thriller of the year. A film adaptation of Hostage was released in 2005, starring Bruce Willis as ex-LAPD SWAT negotiator Jeff Talley.

Elvis Cole returned in 2003 with the publication of The Last Detective, followed by the tenth Elvis Cole novel, The Forgotten Man, in 2005. Both novels explore with increasing depth the natures and characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. RC’s third stand-alone novel, The Two Minute Rule, was published in 2006. The eleventh entry in the Elvis Cole series, The Watchman, will be published sometime in 2007.

The novels of Robert Crais have been translated into 36 languages and are bestsellers around the world. Robert Crais is the 2006 recipient of the Ross Macdonald Literary Award.

Currently, Robert Crais lives in the Santa Monica mountains with his wife, three cats, and many thousands of books.

RobertCrais.com

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais

2008-04-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

When quiet Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole's Disney-Deco office, she's lost something very valuable - her husband and her young son. The case seems simple enough, but Elvis isn't thrilled. Neither is his enigmatic partner and firepower, Joe Pike. Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood's studio lots and sculptured lawns soon leads them deep into a nasty netherworld of drugs and sex - and murder. Now the case is getting interesting, but it's also turned ugly. Because everybody, from cops to starlets to crooks, has declared war on Ellen and Elvis. For Ellen, it isn't Funtown anymore. For Elvis, it's just a living. He hopes. - Book Jacket

Greenwitch by Susan Cooper

2008-03-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

Simon and Jane and Barney come to Trewissick, in Cornwall, enlisted by their mysterious Great-Uncle Merry to help rescue a priceless golden grail stolen by the forces of evil - the Dark. They are not at first aware of the strange powers of another boy brought to help, Will Stanton. Nor do they realize the sinister significance of the Greenwitch, a traditional image of leaves and branches that for centuries the women of Trewissick have made, each spring, and cast into the sea for good luck in fishing and harvest. But this is the time of the Greenwitch's making, a night-long ceremony that Jane is allowed to witness, in mingled fear and pity, and it shapes all the events that follow.

In a series of disturbing and sometimes dangerous incidents, the children discover the whereabouts of the stolen grail, the Greenwitch - possessed of a dreadful, vengeful power - is called from the ocean depths by the Dark, and its Wild Magic is loosed over the land. Yet, because of Jane's pity, the Greenwitch makes to her a strange gift, for a time at least, will keep the Dark from rising.

Greenwitch is the third of five books in Susan Cooper's memorable sequence, The Dark is Rising. Its central theme, supported by legends from the myth-haunted West Country of England, is that of unpredictable Wild Magic of the earth, "a force neither of the Dark nor the Light nor of men." - Book Jacket

thelostland.com

Author: Alistair MacLean

2008-03-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Alistair MacLean was a Glasgow school teacher before launching his noted career as a novelist with H.M.S. Ulysses. Eight month spent in the British Navy on Scapa Flow and the operations carried out in the Arctic, on the Norwegian coast, and against the Tirpitz in Alta Fjord provided the basis for his first novel.

H.M.S. Ulysses: A Novel of War in the North Atlantic by Alistair MacLean

2008-03-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

This story of a light cruiser and her last six days on the Murmansk run is one of the finest novels of action in the North Atlantic ever written.

She was a young ship in 1942, fully equipped with radar and unbelievably fast, but she had grown old in the Russian convoys and on the Arctic patrols. She had been a lucky ship, but her crew, on the last run above the Circle, had been driven beyond human endurance. This is the story of the men - the brave, the weak and the unhappy men - who made up that crew.

It starts with a mutiny, continues with a hurricane, concludes with attacks on the Anglo-American convoy of which the Ulysses was a part by submarine wolf packs, dive bombers, and German cruisers.

On every page of this compelling and thrilling book the story of the men of the Ulysses who rose through suffering to heroism - and then to something even greater - is told in unforgettable terms. - Book Jacket

YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learner - 2004 Humanities

2008-03-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

Adler, Sabine. Lovers in Art. New York: Prestel USA, 2002. Romance and art are natural companions in this gorgeous book that spans five centuries of Western European art.

Belloli, Andrea P. Exploring World Art. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 1999. Take a fresh look at Western European art in a global context and discover the ways in which artists of different times and cultures express universal themes.

Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. New York: DaCapo Press, 2003 (reprint) In Odessa, Texas, high school football is more than a recreational interest, it is the whole town’s passion.

Blackstone, Harry Jr. The Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion. Scranton, PA: Newmarket Press, 2002 (reprint). The classic of legerdemain describes the rich history of magic and reveals a few “tricks of the trade.”

Brassai. Brassai: Letters to My Parents. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. European photographer Brassai details his life’s experiences in his letters home, describing both his own development as an artist and the fascinating world of Paris from 1920 to 1940.

Card, Orson Scott. Sarah. New York: Forge, 2001. The character of Sarah, Abraham’s beloved wife, illuminates this rendering of a pivotal story from the Old Testament.

Chevalier, Tracy. Girl With a Pearl Earring. New York: Dutton, 1999. Sixteen year-old Griet is hired as a maid in the household of Delft painter Johannes Vermeer, where she becomes an assistant and muse to the famous artist.

Corio, David. The Black Chord. New York: Universe Books, 1999. The often-painful evolution of African American music is explored with a funky text and lively photographs.

Coulton, Larry. Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn. New York: Warner Books, 2000. Working through racism, alcoholism, and domestic violence, the players on Hardin High School’s girls’ basketball team come out winners in life as well as on the court.

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. New York: Greenwillow Books, 2001. What does a guy do when he has all the talents to be a star athlete, but hates his high school athletic program?

Franck, Frederick (ed.) What Does It Mean to be Human? Reverence for Life Reaffirmed by Responses From Around the World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Thought-provoking essays on one of the most essential questions one can ask.

Garfunkel, Trudy. On Wings of Joy: The Story of Ballet from the 16th Century to Today. New York: E-Reads Ltd., 2002. Immerse yourself in the world of ballet, from its earliest choreography to the life of a modern ballerina.

Goldberg, Myla. Bee Season. New York: Doubleday, 2000. Eliza’s extraordinary gift for spelling leads her to understand the sounds of the alphabet, in a way that echoes the teachings of the mystical Kabbal.

Greenberg, Jan (ed.) Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century American Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. Can a painting speak? This collection of lyrical responses to famous American works of art will make you a believer.

Hedges, Chris. War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. New York: Public Affairs, 2002 A Pulitzer Prize winning author presents a passionate, thought-provoking look at wars through the ages, and exposes the myths of the culture of combat.

Howe, Peter. Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer. New York: Artisan, 2002. War photographers seek out the most horrifying and dangerous places in the world to practice their craft. What compels them to do it?

King, Ross. Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture. New York: Walker and Co., 2000. In this vivid recreation of the political and artistic milieu of 15th century Florence, an audacious architect achieves the impossible, and makes possible modern building.

Light, Alan. The Vibe History of Hip Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999. VIBE magazine looks at the music, dance, and fashion that have evolved into hip hop culture.

Livingstone, Lili Cockerville. American Indian Ballerinas. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Four Native American women from Oklahoma share the struggles and triumphs of their dance careers and personal lives in stories that inspire with courage and beauty.

McGreevey, Tom and Yeck, Joanne. Our Movie Heritage. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Everyone loves movies. But film must be preserved or these cinematic treasures will be lost.

Perry, John. Encyclopedia of Acting Techniques. Cincinnati, OH: Quarto, 1997. The actor’s life--see how it’s done by the pros in this extravagantly illustrated primer on dramatic performance.

Sandler, Martin W. Photography: An Illustrated History. Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 2002. Everything you want to know about photography and the people behind the cameras is beautifully presented in a book for readers and browsers of all ages.

Smith, Huston. Illustrated World Religions. San Francisco: Harper, 1995. The interconnectivity of the world’s great religious movements, with their parallel and disparate beliefs, is lyrically explored.

Vreeland, Susan. The Passion of Artemisia. New York: Viking, 2002. This eloquent rendering of the story of Artemisia Gentileschi evokes appreciation of both her magnificent art and her struggles to succeed as an artist, a story that mirrors the experiences of young women today.

Author: Bill Hillsman

2008-03-24T08:07:00.001-07:00

Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time by Bill Hillsman

2008-03-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

A marketing communications and political and public affairs consultant, Hillsman ran Paul Wellstone's Senate campaign. He combines a memoir of his efforts with a guide to combating what he calls the Election Industry, Inc. Among his topics are why good people won't run for office, how to win without big money, learning from commercial advertising, how negative advertising is used to inhibit voter turnout, and the best use for political polls (buy them by the roll). - SBCL

Hillsman owns a small advertising agency in Minnesota. He did the political advertising campaign for Paul Wellstone for the US Senate. I remember the ad "Fast-Paced Paul" to this day. It was a spoof on traditional political commercials, very effective, got Wellstone a lot of free press and, guess what, he was elected.

This ad man has applied the principles of good commercial advertising to political campaigns ever since with some interesting stories to tell and successes to brag about.

Do political ads make you nauseous? Do you turn them off? Do they turn you off? Did you ever think that may be their intent? Cynical, I know. But it bears some thought.

This is a great, entertaining book with a mission. The American electorate needs to know the character of the candidate, where they stand on the important issues, and the truth. What a concept! - Mattie Rae

Author: Sherry Garland

2008-03-21T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland

2008-03-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

When she is forced to leave Vietnam, a young girl brings a lotus seed with her to America in remembrance of her homeland. - SBCL

A young Vietnamese girl carries a precious lotus seed as she flees her war-torn homeland for a strange new country. Years later, her grandson takes the seed from the family altar and plants it in the yard. The grandmother mourns her loss until a beautiful pink lotus appears in the yard. She then presents each grandchild with his or her own seed and keeps one for herself to remember her country of birth. - CDE

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou

2008-03-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes takes Maya to Ghana, where she joins a community of black Americans. In a vivid celebration of the sights, sounds, and feelings of Africa, Maya Angelou also explores what it means to be African-American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters, but where American-ness asserts itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. Once again, she longs for home. - Barnes and Noble

Author: Maya Angelou

2008-03-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

2008-03-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

The moving and beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman. ". . . I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood . . . have I found myself so moved . . . Her portrait is a Biblical study of life in the midst of death".--James Baldwin. - SBCL

The author tells of her painful childhood and adolescence, of her growth out of a childhood fantasy that she was an enchanted white girl, and of her self-acceptance. This book contains mature situations and adult language. Abusive human rights violations are portrayed. - CDE

Books on World Cultures: Western European

2008-03-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850
2 D’Aulaire, Ingri D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
3 D'Aulaire, Edgar P. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
4 Fleischman, Paul Mind's Eye
5 Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
6 Hoffman, Mary Stravaganza: City of Masks
7 Holliday, Laurel (editor) Why Do They Hate Me? Young Lives Caught in War and Conflict
8 Hooper, Mary At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
9 Llorente, Pilar Molina Apprentice
10 Maguire, Gregory Good Liar, The
11 McKay, Hilary Saffy's Angel
12 Morgenstern, Susie Secret Letters from 0 to 10
13 Pattou, Edith East
14 Rosen, Michael J. Shakespeare: His Work and His World
15 Sachs, Marilyn Pocket Full of Seeds, A
16 Stanley, Diane Leonardo da Vinci
17 Sutcliff, Rosemary Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad

Grades 9-12

1 Aristophanes Birds, The
2 Bernstein, Leonard West Side Story
3 Boll, Heinrich Clown, The
4 Brecht, Bertolt Threepenny Opera, The
5 Chabon, Michael Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: A Novel, The
6 De Luca, Erri Sea of Memory
7 de Maupassant, Guy Best Short Stories
8 de Saint-Exupery, Antoine Flight to Arras
9 Del Giudice, Daniele Takeoff: The Pilot's Lore
10 Dick, Susan (editor) Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf
11 Dickens, Charles Personal History of David Copperfield, The
12 Dickens, Charles Tale of Two Cities, A
13 Doherty, Berlie Daughter of the Sea
14 Doyle, Roddy Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
15 Doyle, Roddy Woman Who Walked into Doors, The
16 Dumas, Alexandre Count of Monte Cristo, The
17 Dumas, Alexandre Three Musketeers, The
18 Eisner, Will Fagin the Jew
19 Eliot, George Adam Bede
20 Endo, Shusaku Wonderful Fool
21 Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary
22 Fleischman, Paul Mind's Eye
23 Fowles, John Collector, The
24 Gaiman, Neil Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
25 Garner, Eleanor Ramrath Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany
26 Geras, Adele Troy
27 Godden, Rumer Battle of the Villa Fiorita, The
28 Grass, Gunter Dog Years
29 Grass, Gunter Novemberland: Selected Poems, 1956-1993
30 Grass, Gunter Tin Drum, The
31 Guareschi, Giovanni Little World of Don Camillo, The
32 Hamsun, Knut Hunger
33 Hamsun, Knut Pan
34 Heaney, Seamus Opened Ground: Selected Poems, 1966-1996
35 Hegi, Ursula Stones from the River
36 Hegi, Ursula Tearing the Silence: Being German in America
37 Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
38 Hesse, Hermann Narcissus and Goldmund
39 Hoffman, Mary Stravaganza: City of Masks
40 Homer Iliad, The
41 Homer Odyssey, The
42 Hugo, Victor Hunchback of Notre Dame, The
43 Hugo, Victor Les Miserables (The Wretches)
44 Hunter, Mollie Sound of Chariots, A
45 Jen, Gish Who's Irish?
46 Joyce, James Dubliners
47 Joyce, James Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A
48 Kazantzakis, Nikos Zorba the Greek
49 Keneally, Thomas Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List)
50 Kuper, Peter Metamorphosis
51 Lenz, Siegfried German Lesson, The
52 Levi, Primo If Not Now, When?
53 Llewelyn, Morgan Ireland: A Graphic History
54 Maguire, Gregory Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
55 Malamud, Bernard Assistant, The
56 Mann, Thomas Death in Venice
57 O'Brien, Edna Country Girls Trilogy, The
58 O'Brien, Flann At Swim - Two-Birds
59 Orwell, George Down and Out in Paris and London
60 Pattou, Edith East
61 Pausewang, Gudrun Final Journey, The
62 Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
63 Renault, Mary King Must Die, The
64 Reuter, Bjarne Boys from St. Petri, The
65 Rosoff, Meg How I Live Now
66 Sagan, Francoise Bonjour Tristesse
67 Shanower, Eric Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships
68 Simenon, Georges Maigret and the Apparition
69 Simenon, Georges Maigret and the Gangsters
70 Simenon, Georges Maigret and the Toy Village
71 Smith, Betty Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A
72 Spinelli, Jerry Milkweed: A Novel
73 Stevenson, Robert Louis Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The
74 Synge, J. M. Playboy of the Western World; and, Riders to the Sea, The
75 Tomasi di Lampedusa, Giuseppe Leopard, The
76 Vonnegut, Kurt Slaughterhouse Five
77 Woolf, Virginia Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

2008-03-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a classic, Hosseini's latest novel is at once an incredible chronicle of 30 years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation found in love. - SBCL

Author: Khaled Hosseini

2008-03-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2008-03-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds; Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons - their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption. - SBCL

Author: Rudolfo A. Anaya

2008-03-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya

2008-03-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

When a curandera comes to stay with a young boy, he tests the bonds that tie him to his culture and finds himself in the secrets of the past. - SBCL

Antonio Marez must face numerous conflicts as he grows up in New Mexico. He is helped by Ultima, a curandera who cures with herbs and magic. At each turn of Tony's life, she is there to nurture his soul. - CDE

I felt the same power in this book as I felt when I read Chinua Achebe. The power of a great writer to create a world of his heritage so that it becomes your world as well. Where everything makes sense to you and you live and breath the story. This is the story of a little boy, he is only six, who moves innocently in the worlds and conflicts of his Spanish and Mexican ancestors and cultures. It is the story of his New Mexican family, his mom and dad who come from totally opposing traditions. And it is the story of Ultima, the healer, the curandera. Ultima, the old and wise woman, has learned the ways of the ancients, the Native Americans, the Spanish and the Mexican. She is the midwife that delivered all the children of the family, and especially the last child, Antonio. Out of respect the family has given her a home in her old age.

Antonio is beginning the journey from being a boy to growing to manhood in the world. But he is also, through his dreams and experiences, starting another journey, one of self-discovery and gaining his place in the spiritual world as well. And Ultima becomes his spiritual guide.

Antonio, always asking questions, and bravely open to new experiences, learns to trust Ultima's wisdom and ultimately his own understanding. It is a book to be read when you are ready to read it. I believe you will know that time.

Book TV on CSPAN2, 3-8-2008 to 3-10-2008

2008-03-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 8, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
8:00 AM 1 hr, 4 min The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive As Other Powers Rise
Authors: Nina Hachigian; Mona Sutphen
9:00 AM 2 hr, 58 min In Depth: John McWhorter
12:00 PM 1 hr, 13 min History
The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California
Author: Richard Rayner
1:30 PM 1 hr, 2 min History
Discovery!: The Search for Arabian Oil
Authors: Tim Barger; Thomas Lippman; Wallace Stegner (deceased)
2:30 PM 57 min History
The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, & the Death of Reconstruction
Author: LeeAnna Keith
3:30 PM 57 min Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science
Author: John West
4:30 PM 1 hr, 11 min History
Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Author: Edward Renehan, Jr.
5:40 PM 17 min In Depth Vignette - Francis Fukuyama
6:00 PM 59 min Encore Booknotes: Michael Parenti "The Assassination of Julius Caesar:A People’s History of Ancient Rome"
Author: Michael Parenti
7:00 PM 1 hr, 6 min Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Author: Ha-Joon Chang
8:00 PM 57 min Unveiling the Whole Truth: What the Media Failed to Tell American Voters
Author: Wayne Perryman
9:00 PM 54 min Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance
Author: Mike Moore
10:00 PM 57 min Politics
After Words: Philip Shenon author of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" interviewed by Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor of TIME magazine
11:00 PM 1 hr, 2 min History
God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World
Author: Walter Russell Mead

Sunday, March 9, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
12:00 AM 1 hr, 37 min Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State
Author: Norman Solomon
1:45 AM 1 hr, 13 min History
The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California
Author: Richard Rayner
4:00 AM 1 hr, 3 min This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor
Author: Susan Wicklund
5:00 AM 1 hr, 11 min Politics
Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage: Valuing All Families Under the Law
Author: Nancy Polikoff
6:30 AM 1 hr, 17 min Race: A History Beyond Black and White
Author: Marc Aronson
7:45 AM 11 min 2008 CPAC: Jerome Corsi, "The Late Great U.S.A.: The Coming Merger With Mexico and Canada"
Author: Jerome Corsi
8:00 AM 58 min Politics
Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times
Author: Willie Brown
9:00 AM 57 min Unveiling the Whole Truth: What the Media Failed to Tell American Voters
Author: Wayne Perryman
10:00 AM 55 min Prince of Darkness: Richard Perle
Author: Alan Weisman
11:00 AM 45 min Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other
Author: Leslie Sanchez
12:00 PM 58 min After Words: David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)," interviewed by Maya MacGuineas
1:00 PM 54 min Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance
Author: Mike Moore
2:00 PM 1 hr, 35 min Making Poor Nations Rich
Author: Benjamin Powell (ed.)
3:30 PM 53 min A Woman in Charge
Author: Carl Bernstein
4:30 PM 1 hr, 11 min Politics
A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win
Author: Shelby Steele
5:40 PM 13 min William Noel, Co-author, "The Archimedes Codex" (Short Version)
Authors: Reviel Netz; William Noel
6:00 PM 57 min Politics
After Words: Philip Shenon author of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" interviewed by Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor of TIME magazine
7:00 PM 1 hr, 35 min Making Poor Nations Rich
Author: Benjamin Powell (ed.)
8:30 PM 21 min The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, the Right, and Threats to Our Liberties
Author: David Boaz
9:00 PM 57 min Politics
After Words: Philip Shenon author of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" interviewed by Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor of TIME magazine
10:00 PM 1 hr, 32 min The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West
Author: Edward Lucas

Monday, March 10, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
12:00 AM 57 min Politics
After Words: Philip Shenon author of "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation" interviewed by Michael Duffy, assistant managing editor of TIME magazine
1:00 AM 54 min Twilight War: The Folly of U.S. Space Dominance
Author: Mike Moore
2:00 AM 56 min Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East
Author: Jared Cohen
3:00 AM 2 hr, 58 min In Depth: John McWhorter
6:15 AM 1 hr, 32 min The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West
Author: Edward Lucas

Book TV on CSPAN2, 3-1-2008 to 3-3-2008

2008-03-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 1, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
8:00 AM 55 min The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang
Author: Binka Le Breton
9:00 AM 52 min Public Lives
Miles Gone By: A Literary Biography
Author: Jr., William F. Buckley
10:00 AM 49 min Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture
Author: Taylor Clark
11:00 AM 1 hr, 1 min Politics
Israel Through My Lens: Sixty Years as a Photojournalist
Authors: Ruth Corman; David Rubinger
12:00 PM 58 min Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs after 9/11
Author: Jack Shaheen
1:00 PM 1 hr, 7 min The Pentagon: A History
Author: Steve Vogel
2:15 PM 57 min History
Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union
Authors: Paul Kendrick; Stephen Kendrick
3:15 PM 44 min History
I've Got A Home In Glory Land: A Lost Tale of The Underground Railroad
Author: Karolyn Smardz Frost
4:00 PM 1 hr, 30 min History
Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations
Author: Vincent Virga
5:30 PM 27 min History
Diane Ackerman, "The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story"
Author: Diane Ackerman
6:00 PM 58 min Encore Booknotes: Peter Jennings "The Century"
Author: Peter Jennings
7:00 PM 1 hr, 36 min History
African American National Biography
Authors: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
9:00 PM 59 min Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation
Author: Charles Barber
10:00 PM 58 min After Words: David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)," interviewed by Maya MacGuineas

Sunday, March 2, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
12:00 AM 57 min History
Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union
Authors: Paul Kendrick; Stephen Kendrick
1:00 AM 1 hr, 9 min Top Secret: When Our Government Keeps Us in the Dark
Author: Geoffrey Stone
2:00 AM 1 hr, 36 min History
African American National Biography
Authors: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
3:45 AM 1 hr, 14 min Dissent: Voices of Conscience
Author: Ann Wright
5:00 AM 55 min The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang
Author: Binka Le Breton
6:00 AM 1 hr, 1 min Politics
Israel Through My Lens: Sixty Years as a Photojournalist
Authors: Ruth Corman; David Rubinger
7:00 AM 58 min Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs after 9/11
Author: Jack Shaheen
8:00 AM 47 min Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War
Author: Ashley Gilbertson
9:00 AM 1 hr, 8 min The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News
Author: Peter Gomes
10:00 AM 52 min Politics
Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism
Author: Alfred Regnery
12:00 PM 2 hr, 58 min In Depth: John McWhorter
3:00 PM 1 hr, 14 min Dissent: Voices of Conscience
Author: Ann Wright
4:15 PM 45 min 2007 Miami Book Fair International: Ralph Nader, "The Seventeen Traditions"
Author: Ralph Nader
6:00 PM 58 min After Words: David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)," interviewed by Maya MacGuineas
7:00 PM 52 min Politics
Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism
Author: Alfred Regnery
9:00 PM 58 min After Words: David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)," interviewed by Maya MacGuineas
10:00 PM 1 hr, 26 min Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Marc Sageman
11:30 PM 35 min Public Lives
From the Barrio to Washington: An Educator's Journey
Author: Armando Rodriguez

Monday, March 3, 2008
Time
(ET) Duration
(approx.) Program
Author(s)
12:00 AM 2 hr, 58 min In Depth: John McWhorter
3:00 AM 58 min After Words: David Cay Johnston, author of "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill)," interviewed by Maya MacGuineas
4:00 AM 1 hr, 26 min Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Marc Sageman
5:30 AM 1 hr, 36 min History
African American National Biography
Authors: Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham; Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
7:00 AM 50 min Politics
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go To Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes
Authors: Thomas Cathcart; Daniel Klein

Author: David Powers

2008-03-18T08:25:00.001-07:00

Author: Carmen Agra Deedy

2008-03-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

Books on World Cultures: Vietnamese/Vietnamese American

2008-03-18T08:12:00.002-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Fleischman, Paul Seedfolks
2 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
3 Garland, Sherry Song of the Buffalo Boy
4 Huynh, Quang Nhuong Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam, The
5 Wartski, Maureen Crane Boat to Nowhere, A
6 Wartski, Maureen Crane Long Way from Home, A
7 Yep, Laurence American Dragons: Twenty-five Asian American Voices

Grades 9-12

1 Butler, Robert Olen Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, A
2 Duong, Thu Huong Novel Without a Name
3 Duong, Thu Huong Paradise of the Blind
4 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
5 Greene, Graham Quiet American, The
6 Hayslip, Le Ly When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace
7 Komanyakaa, Yusef Dien Cai Dau (Wesleyan Poetry)
8 Mukherjee, Bharati Jasmine
9 Pham, Andrew Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
10 Wartski, Maureen Crane Boat to Nowhere, A

Author: Hilary McKay

2008-03-18T08:12:00.001-07:00

Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

2008-03-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Saffron Casson has discovered that she's adopted. The daughter of her mother's twin, Saffy was brought back by her Grandad from Siena, Italy, when her mom died in a car crash. At Grandad's death, he leaves something to Saffy: it is "her angel." How Saffy discovers what her angel is lies at the heart of this enchanting story. - SBCL

Saffron, nicknamed Saffy, didn't possess a color name as the other three children in her family (Cadmium, Indigo, and Rose). When she is eight years old, she learns why. She is an orphan and goes on a whirlwind trip to her birthplace in Siena, Italy, to seek and reunite with an inherited stone angel in a garden. The theme of family and friendships offers memorable characterizations and humor. - CDE

Author: Alexander McCall Smith

2008-03-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

2008-03-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to "help people with problems in their lives." Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors. - SBCL

Author: Barbara Michaels

2008-03-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

Author: Antonia Felix

2008-03-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

And the winners are...

2008-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

2008 Alex Awards Winners

American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China by Matthew Polly

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

Essex County Volume 1: Tales from the Farm by Jeff Lemire

Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Night Birds by Thomas Maltman

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults, and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens. The award is named in honor of the late Margaret Alexander Edwards, fondly called ìAlexî by her closest friends, a young adult specialist at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. She used adult books extensively with young adults to broaden their experience and enrich their understanding of themselves and their world.

YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners - 2004 History

2008-03-17T08:12:00.001-07:00

History
Alexander, Caroline. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition. New York, Knopf, 1998. It’s man against nature at the dawn of World War I, as the lure of the last unclaimed land on earth dazzles with its beauty and danger in this adventure of discovery and survival.

Aronson, Marc. Witch Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2003. Revisit a time of nightmare, fear, hysteria--beyond The Crucible, sift through the myths, half-truths and misinformation to make up your own mind about what really happened in Salem Village and why.

Berg, A. Scott. Lindbergh. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998. Daring, mysterious, and one of the 20th century’s first superstars—who was the man behind the myth and how did his historic flight across the Atlantic remake the world?

Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York, SoHo Press, 1998. A Caribbean holocaust story, when nationalist madness and ethnic hatred turn island neighbors into executioners. Amid the rumors of terror, Annabelle and Sebastien hold on to love, to dignity—and struggle to survive.

Ellis, Joseph E. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. What seems like a foregone conclusion was anything but—six dramatic vignettes reveal the men behind the events of the most decisive decade in American history.

Frank, Mitch. Understanding September 11, Answering Questions about the Attacks on America. New York, Penguin Group, 2002. These events are burned into images we can never forget—but after the pain of September 11 we ask “why” and “what” do we need to learn about the historical, religious and cultural issues that sparked the attacks.

Geras, Adele. Troy. New York, Scholastic, 2001. A city under siege, epic battles and heroes, powerful supernatural forces—it’s the story of the Trojan war seen through the eyes of its women in one our oldest stories of the cruelty of war.

Glancy, Diane, Stone Heart: A Novel of Sacajawea. New York, OverlookPress, 2003. You are there on the epic journey of Lewis and Clark that opened the west to the call of manifest destiny. Contrasts between the explorers’ actual journals and the young Shoshone woman’s own records reveal the inherent clash of cultures in this vast new land.

Hansen, Drew D. The Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation. New York, HarperCollins, 2003. This great humanitarian and leader did indeed have a dream, and it has resonated through the years to expand all of our hopes for a future built on tolerance.

Harper, Kenn. Give Me My Father’s Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo. South Royalton VT, Steerforth Press, 2000. Imagine the horror as Minik visits the Museum of Natural History and learns the true fate of his father. The next time you visit a museum, will you wonder about the exhibits, and the dark price sometimes paid to extend our understanding of ourselves and our world?

Lanier, Shannon. Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family. New York, Random House, 2000. Thomas Jefferson fathered two families—one black, one white, brought together by his determined young descendent--a story about family, a story about identity, a story about secrets revealed and history made complete.

Least Heat-Moon, William. Columbus in the Americas. Hoboken NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 2003. Was he a visionary and daring explorer, or a ruthless conquistador with dreams of riches and glory? Discover the truth behind the myth of a man whose impact still resonates through the continents he stumbled across.

Marrin, Albert. Terror of the Spanish Main, Sir Henry Morgan and His Buccaneers. New York, Dutton, 1999. What lies behind the dark and romantic image of the pirate, and what is the legacy of this brutal and bloody time?

McCullough, David. John Adams. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2001. He was a man of his times who transcended his times, and one of the least understood of the Founding Fathers.

Poets of World War II. New York, Library of America, 2003. They have been called the Greatest Generation, and in their own voices they reveal the true price of their call to arms.

Rogasky, Barbara. Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the Holocaust. New York, Holiday House, 2002. (revised, expanded edition) Some of history’s darkest days are examined in this new look at the horror and humanity of the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection. New York, Penguin, 2001. Nordic epics open up a world of wonder and power, a Viking world of heroic adventure and discovery at the turn of the first millennium.

Starkey, David. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII. New York, HarperCollins, 2003. How one man’s matrimonial woes elevated a very disparate group of women to temporary positions of power changed the way a nation was ruled, and shook the foundations of the Catholic Church.

Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. (reissue) Castles and crusades, plague and famine, the glittering excitement of new ideas and discoveries and the agony and displacement of war—a time not unlike our own in its rhythms and dimension.

Ung, Loung. First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. New York, HarperCollins, 2001. The perils of life under the brutal Pol Pot regime change a young woman’s life forever, as she and her family find themselves fugitives of war, without even their names to remind them of what they lost.

Von Drehle, David. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003. Beyond the terror, destruction and loss of life, this event changed the landscape of our cities and the lives of working people everywhere.

War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars. New York, Scribner, 2001. The Legacy Project preserves the voices of soldiers and statesmen who lived through violent times that changed the course of nations. Listen to their stories in their words—they will inform and inspire you.

Watson, Peter. The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century. New York, HarperCollins, 2001 It was a time of marvelous optimism and belief in the perfectibility of man through science and new ideas. Explore the thoughts of the major players from Freud to Einstein, and events from Kitty Hawk to the distant reaches of the universe.

Weatherford, Jack. Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World. New York, Random House, 1990. Discover how profoundly the native peoples of North and South America influenced what we eat, how we trade, and our system of government.

Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883. New York, HarperCollins, 2003. When the earth’s most dangerous volcano exploded off the coast of Java, hundred foot waves flung ships inland, a rain of hot ash made temperatures plummet, the shock wave traveled around the world seven times, and 40,000 people died. The aftermath of this disaster saw the rise of radical Islam, civil unrest and a legacy of anti-Western militancy that continues today.

Books on World Cultures: Russian/Russian American

2008-03-17T08:05:00.000-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Bierman, Carol Journey to Ellis Island: How My Father Came to America
2 Hautzig, Esther Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia
3 Hesse, Karen Letters from Rifka

Grades 9-12

1 Brodsky, Joseph So Forth
2 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Brothers Karamazov, The
3 Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment
4 Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich Dead Souls
5 Gogol, Nikolai Vasilevich Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
6 Hautzig, Esther Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia
7 Jin, Ha Ocean of Words
8 Pasternack, Boris Leonidovich Doctor Zhivago
9 Rybakov, Anatoli Naumovich Children of the Arbat
10 Tolstoy, Leo Anna Karenina
11 Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace

Author: Firoozeh Dumas

2008-03-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

2008-03-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no first-hand knowledge of this country beyond her father's glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since.

Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas's family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encounted a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot.

In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies? - a complete mystery). American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?- an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh's parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don't get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi). - SBCL

In this bittersweet memoir about growing up Iranian in southern California, Dumas relates her family's encounters with American culture and how their preconceived notions frequently clashed with reality. - CDE

Author: Demi

2008-03-17T07:46:00.001-07:00

Muhammad by Demi

2008-03-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Through a clear text and stunning illustrations based on those of traditional Islamic expression, Demi introduces the Prophet to young readers. In keeping with Islamic tradition, the Prophet and his family have not been depicted in this book. - SBCL

This easy-to-read narrative tells the story of Muhammad's life and the beginning of Islam. The artwork depicts the religion and the culture of that time. Included are a one-page description of Islam, a map of Muhammad's world, and a bibliography of text and art references. - CDE

Author: Lynne Reid Banks

2008-03-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

Broken Bridge by Lynne Reid Banks

2008-03-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

The murder of fourteen-year-old Glen Shelby, soon after his arrival in Israel to visit his father's family, has a dramatic effect on the lives of his relatives, the other members of their kibbutz, and the Arabs responsible for his death. - SBCL

This novel about the struggle of religion and ideology depicts life in present-day Israel. Bombings and explosions in the kibbutz make the inhabitants begin to wonder if the perpetrator is from the inside or the outside. - CDE

Author: Elizabeth Peters

2008-03-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Crocodile on the Sandbank: An Amelia Peabody Mystery by Elizabeth Peters

2008-03-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

Set in 1884, this is the first installment in what has become a beloved bestselling series. At thirty-two, strong-willed Amelia Peabody, a self-proclaimed spinster, decides to use her ample inheritance to indulge her passion, Egyptology. On her way to Egypt, Amelia encounters a young woman named Evelyn Barton-Forbes. The two become fast friends and travel on together, encountering mysteries, missing mummies, and Radcliffe Emerson, a dashing and opinionated archaeologist who doesn't need a woman's help -- or so he thinks. - Author's Website

Books on World Cultures: Pacific Islander

2008-03-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Holt, Kimberly Willis Keeper of the Night
2 Salisbury, Graham Island Boyz: Short Stories
3 Sperry, Armstrong Call It Courage

Grades 9-12

1 Salisbury, Graham Island Boyz: Short Stories
2 Tyau, Kathleen Little Too Much Is Enough, A
3 Yamanaka, Lois-Ann Wild Meat and the Bully Burgers

March Teen Books

2008-03-16T07:18:00.001-07:00

March New Fiction

2008-03-16T07:16:00.001-07:00

Hush by Jacqueline Woodson

2008-03-16T07:07:00.002-07:00

This 2002 National Book Award finalist is reissued with a new look. When Toswiah Green's policeman father testifies against a fellow officer, the family members must change their identities and move to a different city. Now Toswiah is Evie Thomas--and that's the least of the changes. - SBCL

This intriguing story tells of a devastating situation. A middle-class African American family is forced to enter the federal witness protection program after the father decides to testify against two policemen who killed an innocent boy. The family must leave a comfortable and familiar life. Just as Evie learns to cope with her new name and all new names and biographical details, she must also learn that her parents aren't as capable of readjusting as circumstances require. - CDE

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

2008-03-16T07:07:00.001-07:00

Under the Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba by Alma Flor Ada

2008-03-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

The author recalls her life and impressions growing up in Cuba. - SBCL

Gentle, sad, and humorous stories about growing up in Cuba in the 1940s highlight the importance of family, friends, neighbors, and teachers to a young girl. Black-and-white snapshots illustrate this companion to Where the Flame Trees Bloom. - CDE

Author: Alma Flor Ada

2008-03-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

Books on World Cultures: Native American

2008-03-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Bierhorst, John (reteller) People with Five Fingers: A Native Californian Creation Tale, The
2 Bruchac, Joseph Lasting Echoes
3 Burks, Brian Runs with Horses
4 Burks, Brian Walks Alone
5 Creech, Sharon Walk Two Moons
6 Dorris, Michael Window, The
7 Eckert, Allan W. Incident at Hawk's Hill
8 Eckert, Allan W. Return to Hawk's Hill
9 Erdrich, Louise Birchbark House, The
10 Gale, David (editor) When the Rain Sings, Poems by Young Native Americans
11 George, Jean Craighead Julie
12 George, Jean Craighead Julie of the Wolves
13 Hale, Janet C. Owl's Song, The
14 Hesse, Karen Aleutian Sparrow
15 Hobbs, Will Bearstone
16 Holman, Felice Real
17 Jacobs, Paul Samuel James Printer: A Novel of Rebellion
18 Kirkpatrick, Katherine Trouble's Daughter: The Story of Susanna Hutchinson, Indian Captive
19 Kroeber, Theodora Inland Whale: Nine Stories Retold from California Indian Legends, The
20 Kroeber, Theodora Ishi, Last of His Tribe
21 Mikaelsen, Ben Touching Spirit Bear
22 O'Dell, Scott Black Star, Bright Dawn
23 O'Dell, Scott Zia
24 Osborne, Mary Pope Adaline Falling Star
25 Oughton, Jerrie Music from a Place Called Half Moon
26 Patrick, Denise Lewis Longest Ride, The
27 Rappaport, Doreen Flight of Red Bird, The Life of Zitkala-Sa, The
28 Riley, Patricia (editor) Growing Up Native American
29 Roop, Connie Girl of the Shining Mountains: Sacagawea's Story
30 Roop, Peter Girl of the Shining Mountains: Sacagawea's Story
31 Smith, Roland Last Lobo, The
32 Sterling, Shirley My Name Is Seepeetza
33 Tallchief, Maria Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina
34 Tanaka, Shelley Lost Temple of the Aztecs: What It Was When the Spaniards Invaded Mexico (I Was There)
35 Wells, Rosemary Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina
36 Whelan, Gloria Miranda's Last Stand
37 Yolen, Jane Encounter

Grades 9-12

Beal, Merri I Will Fight No More Forever: Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War
2 Begay, Shonto Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa
3 Bierhorst, John In the Trail of the Wind: American Indian Poems and Ritual Orations
4 Brooks, Martha Bone Dance
5 Crow Dog, Mary Lakota Woman
6 Dorris, Michael Yellow Raft in Blue Water, A
7 Erdrich, Louise Antelope Wife, The
8 Erdrich, Louise Bingo Palace, The
9 Gillan, Maria (editor) Growing Up Ethnic in America: Contemporary Fiction About Learning to Be American
10 Heat-Moon, William Least Blue Highways - A Journey into America
11 Hesse, Karen Aleutian Sparrow
12 Hillerman, Tony Dance Hall of the Dead
13 Kazimiroff, Theodore L. Last Algonquin, The
14 Kingsolver, Barbara Bean Trees, The
15 Kingsolver, Barbara Pigs in Heaven
16 Kissam, Edward Poems of the Aztec Peoples
17 Meyer, Carolyn Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker
18 Mikaelsen, Ben Touching Spirit Bear
19 Momaday, N. Scott Way to Rainy Mountain, The
20 Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
21 Penn, W. S. (editor) Telling of the World: Native American Stories and Art, The
22 Rothberg, Jerome Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas
23 Sarris, Greg Grand Avenue
24 Silko, Leslie Ceremony

The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco by Marilyn Chase

2008-03-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase's fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that resonates in today's headlines. The Barbary Plague transports us to the Gold Rush boomtown in 1900, at the end of the city's Gilded Age. With a deep understanding of the effects on public health of politics, race, and geography, Chase shows how one city triumphed over perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all scourges. - SBCL

How politics and science worked against the Chinatown residents who fell victim to Bubonic Plague sets the stage for an exploration of how government doctors later solved the mystery of the plague's outbreak in twentieth-century California. - CDE

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

2008-03-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind. - SBCL

Christopher is autistic and possesses a superbly logical brain. His routine, which keeps him grounded, is disturbed when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. When Christopher is initially blamed for the killing, he decides to track down the real killer. He turns to his favorite fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, for guidance and finds out who killed Wellington. Unfortunately, he also finds out that his own family is falling apart at the seams. - CDE

Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story by Antonia Felix

2008-03-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

The US secretary of state and likely future candidate for president could not have found a friendlier biographer than Felix, also the author of Laura: America's First Lady, First Mother. The work concentrates on family, education, and career path. Readers looking for a critical assessment of Rice's policies and politics, not to mention her academic output, will need to look elsewhere; about the toughest statement in the volume is a former Stanford colleague's comment that "even when you disagree with her about something, she has good reasons." - SBCL

Books on World Cultures: Multicultural

2008-03-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Grades 9-12

1 Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
2 Ansary, Mir Tamim West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story
3 Appelfeld, Aharon Tzili. The Story of a Life
4 Aronson, Marc Art Attack: A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde
5 Baird, Robert (editor) Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice: Definitions, Causes and Solutions
6 Baldwin, James A. Fire Next Time
7 Bosworth, Beth Tunneling: A Novel
8 Boyle, T. Coraghessan Tortilla Curtain, The
9 Bradford, Richard Red Sky at Morning
10 Bragg, Richard All Over but the Shouting
11 Brenner, Barbara Voices: Poetry and Art from Around the World
12 Butler, Octavia E. Kindred
13 Butler, Robert Olen Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, A
14 Campbell, Joseph Power of Myth, The
15 Carroll, Andrew (editor) Letters of a Nation
16 Cary, Lorene Black Ice
17 Chase, Marilyn Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco, The
18 Clarke, Judith Wolf on the Fold
19 Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
20 Corwin, Miles And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students
21 Danticat, Edwidge Krik? Krak!
22 de Saint-Exupery, Antoine Night Flight
23 Dick, Philip K. Man in the High Castle, The
24 Dickinson, Peter Eva
25 Didion, Joan Democracy
26 Didion, Joan Last Thing He Wanted, The
27 Dietz, Maggie (editor) Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology
28 Dorris, Michael Yellow Raft in Blue Water, A
29 Endo, Shusaku Wonderful Fool
30 Ferris, Jean Bad
31 Franco, Betsy (editor) Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls
32 Franco, Betsy (editor) You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys
33 Frank, Rudolf No Hero for the Kaiser
34 Fuentes, Carlos Old Gringo, The
35 Fugard, Athol Master Harold and the Boys
36 Gaines, Ernest Gathering of Old Men, A
37 Gandhi, Mahatma Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, An
38 Garcia Marquez, Gabriel Strange Pilgrims
39 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
40 Gilman, Dorothy Incident at Badamya
41 Glenn, Mel Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems
42 Glenn, Mel My Friend's Got This Problem, Mr. Candler
43 Greene, Graham Quiet American, The
44 Greene, Graham Travels with My Aunt
45 Guterson, David Snow Falling on Cedars
46 Hagedorn, Jessica Dogeaters, The
47 Hegi, Ursula Tearing the Silence: Being German in America
48 Hicvilmaz, Gaye Frozen Waterfall, The
49 Hillerman, Tony Dance Hall of the Dead
50 Hinojosa, Maria Crews: Gang Members Talk to Maria Hinojosa
51 Hinojosa, Rolando Dear Rafe
52 Hoeg, Peter Smilla's Sense of Snow
53 Hong, Maria (editor) Growing Up Asian American
54 Hopkinson, Nalo Brown Girl in the Ring
55 Keneally, Thomas Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The
56 Keneally, Thomas Schindler's Ark (Schindler's List)
57 Kim, Nancy Chinhominey's Secret
58 Kincaid, Jamaica Annie John
59 Kincaid, Jamaica Autobiography of My Mother, The
60 Kingsolver, Barbara Animal Dreams
61 Kingsolver, Barbara Bean Trees, The
62 Kingsolver, Barbara Pigs in Heaven
63 Kingston, Maxine Hong Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, The
64 Kiyama, Henry Yoshitaka Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924
65 Krisher, Trudy Spite Fences
66 Lee, Chang-Rae Gesture Life, A
67 Lee, Gus China Boy
68 Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
69 Lee, Spike Best Seat in the House
70 McBride, James Color of Water
71 McCloud, Scott New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, The
72 McPhee, John Coming into the Country
73 Mehta, Gita River Sutra, A
74 Meyer, Carolyn Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker
75 Mukherjee, Bharati Jasmine
76 Mukherjee, Bharati Middleman and Other Stories
77 Myers, Walter Dean Fallen Angels
78 Myers, Walter Dean Shooter
79 Naipaul, V. S. House for Mr. Biswas, A
80 Naipaul, V. S. Miguel Street
81 Newth, Mette Abduction, The
82 Nye, Naomi Shihab (editor) This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World
83 O'Brien, Tim Things They Carried, The
84 Osa, Nancy Cuba 15: A Novel
85 Pinsky, Robert (editor) Americans' Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology
86 Rosenbaum, Stuart E. (editor) Hatred, Bigotry, and Prejudice: Definitions, Causes and Solutions
87 Rothberg, Jerome Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas
88 Rozan, S. J. China Trade
89 Sachar, Louis Holes
90 Salzman, Mark True Notebooks
91 Saroyan, William Human Comedy, The
92 Schami, Rafik Damascus Nights
93 Schooler, Lynn Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship, Tragedy, and Survival in the Alaskan Wilderness, The
94 Selcadurai, Shyam Funny Boy
95 Shute, Nevil Town Like Alice, A
96 Singer, Marilyn Face Relations: Eleven Stories About Seeing Beyond Color
97 Strempek Shea, Suzanne Hoopi Shoopi Donna
98 Sturm, James Golem's Mighty Swing
99 Szymusiak, Molyda Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980, The
100 Tateishi, John And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps
101 Taylor, Clark House That Crack Built, The
102 Thomas, Joyce Carol (editor) Gathering of Flowers: Stories About Being Young in America, A
103 Thoms, Annie (editor) With Their Eyes: September 11 - The View from a High School at Ground Zero
104 Waldman, Ayelet Daughter's Keeper
105 Weiss, M. Jerry (editor) From One Experience to Another
106 Wiley, Ralph Best Seat in the House
107 Winick, Judd Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned

Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block

2008-03-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Available for the first time in a single volume, these postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all--love. - SBCL

The problems and challenges of growing up free-spirited, but thoughtful, are presented in the collection of novels by a California author. The characters and language are quirky and reflect offbeat humor and insights on youth culture. Gay issues. This book addresses controversial issues of interest to many adolescents and includes scenes and language that reflect mature content. - CDE

Books on World Cultures: Jewish/Jewish American

2008-03-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Grades 6-8

1 Adler, David A. Picture Book of Anne Frank, A
2 Agra, Carmen Yellow Star, The: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark
3 Armstrong, Jennifer In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
4 Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust
5 Banks, Lynne Reid Broken Bridge
6 Bell, William Zack
7 Frank, Anne Diary of a Young Girl, The
8 Hesse, Karen Letters from Rifka
9 Hesse, Karen Witness
10 Holliday, Laurel (editor) Why Do They Hate Me? Young Lives Caught in War and Conflict
11 Kerr, Judith When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
12 Kurtz, Jane Storyteller's Beads, The
13 Levine, Gail Carson Dave at Night
14 Levitin, Sonia Journey to America
15 Levitin, Sonia Return, The
16 Lobel, Anita No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War
17 Maguire, Gregory Good Liar, The
18 Miklowitz, Gloria D. Masada: The Last Fortress
19 Mochizuki, Ken Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
20 Napoli, Donna Jo Stones in Water
21 Nye, Naomi Shihab Habibi
22 Opdyke, Irene Gut In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
23 Reiss, Johanna Upstairs Room, The
24 Rocklin, Joanne Strudel Stories
25 Sachs, Marilyn Pocket Full of Seeds, A
26 Singer, Isaac Bashevis Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories
27 van der Rol, Ruud Anne Frank - Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance
28 Verhoeven, Rian Anne Frank - Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance
29 Wilson, Nancy Hope Becoming Felix
30 Yolen, Jane Devil's Arithmetic, The

9-12 Science

2008-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

1 Abe, Kobo Ark Sakura, The
2 Alvarez, Walter T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
3 Anderson, M.T. Feed
4 Asimov, Isaac I, Robot
5 Bear, Greg Darwin's Radio
6 Berg, A. Scott Lindbergh
7 Bloor, Edward Crusader
8 Bodanis, David Secret House: 24 Hours in the Strange and Unexpected World in Which We Spend Our Nights and Days, The
9 Bradbury, Ray Illustrated Man, The
10 Bradbury, Ray Martian Chronicles, The
11 Briggs, Raymond When the Wind Blows
12 Camus, Albert Plague, The
13 Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland
14 Carson, Rachel Louise Silent Spring
15 Chase, Marilyn Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco, The
16 Clements, Andrew Things Not Seen
17 Crichton, Michael Andromeda Strain
18 Davis, Brett Bone Wars
19 Del Giudice, Daniele Takeoff: The Pilot's Lore
20 Dickinson, Peter Eva
21 Dillard, Annie Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
22 Earle, Sylvia A. Wild Ocean: America's Parks Under the Sea
23 Endo, Shusaku Sea and Poison, The
24 Farmer, Nancy House of the Scorpion, The
25 Feynman, Richard P. Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
26 Finney, Jack Time and Again
27 Fleischman, Paul Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, A
28 Fossey, Dian Gorillas in the Mist
29 Garcia, Cristina Aguero Sisters, The
30 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
31 Gibson, William Neuromancer
32 Halam, Ann Dr. Franklin's Island
33 Heinlein, Robert A. Have Space Suit - Will Travel
34 Herbert, Frank Dune
35 Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
36 Hersey, John Hiroshima
37 Hesse, Karen Out of the Dust
38 Heyerdahl, Thor Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft
39 Hiaasen, Carl Hoot
40 Hickam, Homer October Sky (Rocket Boys)
41 Hillerman, Tony Dance Hall of the Dead
42 Hockenberry, John Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence
43 Hopkinson, Nalo Brown Girl in the Ring
44 Hosler, Jay Clan Apis
45 Hosler, Jay Sandwalk Adventures: An Adventure in Evolution Told in Five Chapters, The
46 Ibuse, Masuji Black Rain
47 James, P. D. Death of an Expert Witness
48 Junger, Sebastian Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, The
49 Kadohata, Cynthia Floating World, The
50 Kafka, Franz Metamorphosis, The
51 Keller, Helen A. Story of My Life, The
52 Keyes, Daniel Flowers for Algernon
53 Krakauer, Jon Into the Wild
54 Krakauer, Jon Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
55 Lem, Stanislaw Eden
56 London, Jack Call of the Wild, The
57 London, Jack To Build a Fire and Other Stories
58 Lord, Walter Night to Remember, A
59 Mah, Adeline Yen Falling Leaves
60 Mahy, Margaret Alchemy
61 Maristed, Kai Belong to Me
62 McCaffrey, Anne Dragonflight
63 McPhee, John Oranges
64 Melville, Herman Moby Dick
65 Miller, Jr., Walter M. Canticle for Leibowitz
66 Mowat, Farley Never Cry Wolf
67 Nakazawa, Keiji Barefoot Gen
68 Nelson, Marilyn Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem
69 Nichols, John Milagro Beanfield War, The
70 Nye, Naomi Shihab (editor) This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World
71 Oe, Kenzaburo Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
72 Ottaviani, James Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb
73 Price, Susan Sterkarm Handshake, The
74 Sachar, Louis Holes
75 Schlosser, Eric Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
76 Schooler, Lynn Blue Bear: A True Story of Friendship, Tragedy, and Survival in the Alaskan Wilderness, The
77 Shute, Nevil On the Beach
78 Sinclair, Upton Jungle, The
79 Sobel, Dava Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
80 Steinbeck, John East of Eden
81 Sturm, James Golem's Mighty Swing
82 Taylor, Clark House That Crack Built, The
83 Thomas, Lewis Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, The
84 Thoreau, Henry David Walden
85 Thurber, James My World and Welcome to It
86 Trumbo, Dalton Johnny Got His Gun
87 Verne, Jules Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
88 Wells, H. G. Island of Dr. Moreau, The
89 Wells, H. G. War of the Worlds, The
90 Werber, Bernard Empire of the Ants
91 Werlin, Nancy Double Helix: A Novel
92 Willis, Connie Doomsday Book
93 Winick, Judd Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned
94 Wolfe, Tom Right Stuff, The

Books on World Cultures: Korean/ Korean American

2008-03-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

Grades 6-8

A Step from Heaven by An Na

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins

Good Luck Gold and Other Poems by Janet Wong

A Suitcase of Seaweed by Janet Wong

American Dragons: Twenty-five Asian American Voices by Laurence Yep

Grades 9-12

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nayul Choi

Chinhominey's Secret by Nancy Kim

A Step from Heaven by An Na

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

The Lucky Gourd Shop by Joanna Catherine Scott

Author: Frederik L. Schodt

2008-03-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 by Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama

2008-03-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Frederik L Schodt

Originally published in Japanese in San Francisco in 1931, The Four Immigrants Manga is Henry Kiyama's visual chronicle of his immigrant experience in the United States. Drawn in a classic gag-strip comic-book style, this heartfelt tale -- rediscovered, translated, and introduced by manga expert Frederick L. Schodt -- is a fascinating, entertaining depiction of early Asian American struggles. - SBCL

A Japanese immigrant to California recorded his experiences in graphic novel form. The stories reflect life in San Francisco at the beginning of the twentieth century, with additional commentary by a modern editor. - CDE

Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper

2008-03-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Uses firsthand accounts, oral histories, and essays from school newspapers and yearbooks to tell the story of the Japanese Americans who were sent to live in government-run internments camps during World War II. - SBCL

This is a look at the first relocation camp built for Japanese evacuees living on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, as well as excerpts from diaries and journals, provide first-person accounts of life behind the barbed wire. The biography is framed by the author's participation in the 2001 Manzanar pilgrimage and serves as an introduction for all ages. - CDE

Author: Michael L. Cooper

2008-03-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

6-8 Science

2008-03-12T07:27:00.001-07:00

1 Adams, Adrienne (selector) Poetry of Earth and Sky
2 Adler, David A. Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man
3 Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever, 1793
4 Ardley, Neil New Way Things Work, The
5 Armstrong, Jennifer Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
6 Bell, Ruth Changing Bodies, Changing Lives: A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships
7 Bouchard, David Voices from the Wild
8 Bredeson, Carmen Gus Grissom: A Space Biography
9 Brittain, Bill Wings
10 Clements, Andrew Things Not Seen
11 Cummings, Pat (compiler/editor) Talking with Adventurers
12 Davis, Deborah My Brother Has AIDS
13 Esbensen, Barbara Juster Echoes for the Eye: Poems to Celebrate Patterns in Nature
14 Farmer, Nancy House of the Scorpion, The
15 Fleischman, Paul Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, A
16 Fletcher, Ralph Spider Boy
17 Florian, Douglas Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings
18 Garland, Sherry Lotus Seed, The
19 George, Jean Craighead Julie
20 George, Jean Craighead Julie of the Wolves
21 George, Jean Craighead Julie's Wolf Pack
22 George, Jean Craighead My Side of the Mountain
23 George, Kristine O'Connell Great Frog Race and Other Poems, The
24 George, Kristine O'Connell Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems
25 Giblin, James Cross Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin, The
26 Giblin, James Cross When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS
27 Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
28 Hesse, Karen Music of the Dolphins, The
29 Hesse, Karen Out of the Dust
30 Hiaasen, Carl Hoot
31 Hobbs, Will Changes in Latitudes
32 Hobbs, Will Maze, The
33 Hobbs, Will Wild Man Island
34 Hooper, Mary At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
35 Howe, James Misfits
36 Kerley, Barbara Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer, The
37 Keyes, Daniel Flowers for Algernon
38 Kramer, Barbara Sally Ride: A Space Biography
39 Locker, Thomas Mountain Dance
40 London, Jack Call of the Wild, The
41 Macaulay, David New Way Things Work, The
42 Mikaelsen, Ben Countdown
43 Mitton, Jacqueline Kingdom of the Sun: A Book of the Planets
44 Nelson, Marilyn Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem
45 Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw Feathers
46 Paulsen, Gary Brian's Winter
47 Paulsen, Gary Hatchet
48 Paulsen, Gary River, The
49 Prelutsky, Jack Beauty of the Beast: Poems from the Animal Kingdom
50 Prelutsky, Jack (selector) Random House Book of Poetry for Children, The
51 Sachar, Louis Holes
52 Schwartz, David M. Q Is for Quark: A Science Alphabet Book
53 Scott, Elaine Close Encounters: Exploring the Universe with the Hubble Space Telescope
54 Severance, John B. Einstein: Visionary Scientist
55 Shahan, Sherry Frozen Stiff
56 Shute, Nevil On the Beach
57 Siebert, Diane Sierra
58 Simon, Seymour Lightning
59 Simon, Seymour Muscles: Our Muscular System
60 Smith, Roland Last Lobo, The
61 Stanley, Diane Leonardo da Vinci
62 Tanaka, Shelley New Dinos: The Latest Finds! The Coolest Dinosaur Discoveries!
63 Taylor, Theodore Bomb, The
64 Van Steenwyk, Elizabeth Mathew Brady: Civil War Photographer
65 Webb, Sophie My Season with Penguins: An Antarctic Journal
66 Yolen, Jane Water Music

Author: Jane Austen

2008-03-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

2008-03-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

Jane Austen's elegant novel reveals her complex view of the human condition. The story centers around the charming and vibrant Elizabeth Bennett, one of five sisters whose family circumstance dictates that they marry well, and the misunderstandings that can result--sometimes hilariously--from hasty judgements. - SBCL

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman and with the romantic entanglements of her four sisters. - CDE

Books on World Cultures: Hmong/Hmong American

2008-03-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Grades 9-12

1 Moua, Mai Neng (editor) Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans

Author: Karen Armstrong

2008-03-12T06:45:00.001-07:00

Author: Josep Palau i Fabre

2008-03-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong

2008-03-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

From one of the world's foremost historians and thinkers on religious affairs comes the bestselling history of Islam, "a small gem, bristling with insight and sensitive historical analysis of a misunderstood and much maligned faith" ("The Washington Post"). - SBCL

The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke and Phillip R. Callaway

2008-03-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

This timely book, written by three noted scholars in the field, draws together all the evidence and presents the first fully illustrated survey of every major manuscript, from the Copper Scroll, the Community Rule, and the Temple Scroll to less well-known scripts such as the Florilegium and New Jerusalem. - SBCL

The Lost Army of Cambyses by Paul Sussman

2008-03-12T06:29:00.001-07:00

An adrenaline-packed thriller and archaeological adventure by and outstanding new storyteller. In 523 BC, the Persian emperor Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt's western desert to destroy the oracle of Amun at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Sand Sea, his army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and destroyed. Fifth thousand men were lost. At first, the incidents appear unconnected. Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is suspicious, however. And so too is the archaeologist's daughter, Tara Mullray. As each seeks to uncover the truth, they find themselves thrown together in a desperate race for survival - one that forces them to confront not only present-day adversaries but also ghosts from their own pasts. From a mysterious fragment of ancient hieroglyphic text to rumors of a fabulous lost tomb in the Theban Hills, from the shimmering waters of the Nile to the dusty back streets of Cairo, Khalifa and Mullray are drawn ever deeper into a labyrinth of violence, intrigue, and betrayal. It is a path that will eventually lead them into the forbidding, barren heart of the western desert, and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world. At once an adrenaline-packed thriller and a wonderfully evocative archaeological adventure, The Lost Army of Cambyses marks the debut of an outstanding new storyteller. - SBCL

Picasso Cubism (1907-1917) by Josep Palau i Fabre

2008-03-12T06:22:00.001-07:00

Cubism, for Picasso, was a vast experiment which led him into aesthetic territory few other artists have explored. That sense of daring adventure permeates this marvelous album, essential to our understanding of cubism and Picasso. Spanish scholar Palau i Fabre ( Picasso 1881-1907 ) makes a plausible case for the view that the invention of a cubist vocabulary constituted a genuine revolution, not just an ivory-tower affair. He recreates Picasso's cubist phase as a tortuous battle, a stroke-by-stroke quest for perfection in a newly discovered pictorial kingdom. Despite the author's ponderous style (at least in this translation from the Catalan), this lavish monograph rewards readers with its thoroughgoing commentaries, its wealth of seldom-reproduced images and its thematic groupings of kindred art works on a single page or on two-page spreads. - SBCL

Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward

2008-03-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision-making provides an authoritative behind-the-scenes narrative examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam. Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history, part military history, and part harrowing spy story. - SBCL

California Authors: Books Reflecting the Literary Diversity of the Golden State

2008-03-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

Grades 9-12

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Paula by Isabel Allende

The Stories of Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

Alicia: My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman

Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farm Workers Tell Their Stories by S. Beth Atkin

Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Bealls

Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block

A Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western by Richard Brautigan

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

My Own Two Feet: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary

And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students by Miles Corwin

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

Wild Ocean: America's Parks Under the Sea by Sylvia A. Earle

Bad by Jean Ferris

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman

Mind's Eye by Paul Fleischman

Whirligig by Paul Fleischman

Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany by Eleanor Ramrath Garner

Nappy: Growing Up Black and Female in America by Aliona Gibson

A Child of Hitler by Alfons Heck

Sonny's War by Valerie Hobbs

The Legend of Fire Horse Woman by Jeanne W. Houston

Celebrating a Quinceanera: A Latina's 15th Birthday Celebration by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang

Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez

The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jimenez

Kissing God Goodbye: Poems, 1991-1996 by June Jordan

The Floating World by Cynthia Kadohata

Chinhominey's Secret by Nancy Kim

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston

Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama

The Brimstone Journals by Ronald Koertge

Stoner and Spaz by Ronald Koertge

Crooked Little Heart by Anne Lamott

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

China Boy by Gus Lee

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

To Build a Fire and Other Stories by Jack London

Parrot in the Oven: Mi vida by Victor Martinez

A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz (editor)

Unattainable Earth by Czeslaw Milosz

McTeague, A Story of San Francisco by Frank Norris

Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo

Topdog Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge

Always Running: La vida loca, Gang Days in LA by Luis J. Rodriguez

Concrete River by Luis J. Rodriguez

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez by Richard Rodriguez

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

True Notebooks by Mark Salzman

Grand Avenue by Greg Sarris

Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California by Jerry Stanley

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan

Rain of Gold by Victor Villasenor

Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

Books on World Cultures: Filipino/Filipino American

2008-03-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Grades 9-12

1 Ancheta, Shirley (editor) Without Names: A Collection of Poems by Bay Area Pilipino American Writers
2 Brainard, Cecilia Manquerra (editor) Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults
3 Holthe, Tess Uriza When the Elephants Dance: A Novel