Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire - Summary: "Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant... again. Naive and abused, Precious responds to a glimmer of hope when a door is opened by an alternative-school teacher. She is faced with the choice to follow opportunity and test her own boundaries. Prepare for shock, revelation and celebration."

Call number: PN1997 Precious DVD

Call number: Reserves

Up - Summary: "Up is a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell."

Call number: PN1997 Up DVD

2012 - Summary: "Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect radiation from unprecedented solar storms is having on the earth. Helmsley learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and unless they steps to prepare for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build arks to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world."

Call number: PN1997 2012 DVD

Paper Heart - Summary: "Charlyne Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. Well, at the very least, she doesnt believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood mythology of love, and her own experiences have turned her into yet another modern-day skeptic. Follow Charlyne across America as she and her good friend (and director) Nicholas Jasenovec search for answers and advice about love, by talking with friends and strangers, scientists, bikers, romance novelists, and children. They each offer diverse views on modern romance, as well as various answers to the age-old question: does true love really exist? Charlynes pursuit to discover the nature of love takes on a fresh new urgency when she meets a boy after her own heart: Michael Cera. As their relationship develops on camera, her pursuit risks losing the person she finds closest to her heart. Combining elements of documentary and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story."

Call number: PN1997 PaperHeart DVD

Cold Souls - Summary: "In this surreal comedy, Paul Giamatti plays an actor named...Paul Giamatti. Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which hes been searching, soul storage. But complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of soul trafficking. Balancing a tightrope between deadpan humor and pathos, and reality and fantasy, Cold Souls is a true soul searching comedy."

Call number: PN1997 CouldSoul DVD

Where the Wild Things Are - Summary: "Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. He lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought."

Call number: PN1997 WhereWild DVD

Zombieland - Summary: "In a world that has become overrun with zombies, two men must figure out how to survive. Wimpy Columbus is afraid of his own shadow, while Tallahassee is the biggest, baddest gun-toting zombie-slayer who ever lived. When they meet two sisters, Wichita and Little Rock, the four strike out for an amusement park that is said to be zombie-free. This mismatched group will have to rely on each other to survive, which could be worse than surrendering to the zombies. Bonus: commentaries and more."

Call number: PN1997 Zombiela DVD

The Informant! - Summary: "What was Mark Whitacre thinking? A rising star at agri-industry giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Whitacre suddenly turns whistleblower. Even as he exposes his company's multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, Whitacre envisions himself being hailed as a hero of the common man and handed a promotion. But before all that can happen, the FBI needs evidence, so Whitacre eagerly agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent. Unfortunately for the FBI, their lead witness hasn't been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers. Whitacre's ever-changing account frustrates the agents and threatens the case against ADM as it becomes almost impossible to decipher what is real and what is the product of Whitacre's rambling imagination. Based on the true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history."

Call number: PN1997 Informant DVD

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Summary: "A scientist tries to solve world hunger only to see things go awry as food falls from the sky in abundance."

Call number: PN1997 CloudyC DVD

Patriot Games - Summary: "Jack Ryan, a retired CIA agent, is forced back into the business after he foils an assassination attempt on a member of the Royal Family. Now he has to stop the assassin's brother from killing not only him, but his family as well."

Call number: PN1997 PatriotGa DVD

The People Vs. Larry Flynt - Summary: "As Larry Flynt battles in court for the right to continue publishing his pornographic magazine, his case becomes a struggle to protect free speech for everyone."

Call number: PN1997 PeopleVs DVD

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Summary: "A renowned scientist (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself face to face with an alien called Klaatu (Keanu Reeves), who has traveled across the universe to warn of an impending global crisis. She quickly discovers the deadly ramifications of Klaatus claim that he is a friend to the Earth. Now she must find a way to convince the entity who was sent to destroy us that mankind is worth saving but it may be too late."

Also contains the 1951 original.

Call number: PN1997 DayEarth DVD

Big Night - Summary: "Big Night is the story of two Italian brothers whose superb restaurant is on the brink of bankruptcy. Their only chance for success is to risk everything they own on one extravagant feast for bandleader Louis Prima. But their "big night" is complicated by a lovers' triangle, a sneaky restaurant rival, and the hilarious perfection of chef Primo."

Call number: PN1997 BigNight DVD

61* - Summary: "One was the Yankee's best loved player, the other was their most valuable. In the summer of 1961, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle took on Babe Ruth's record, the 1927 single-season 60 home run slam. It would be a summer that baseball fans would never forget."

Call number: PN1997 61* DVD

Kissing Jessica Stein - Summary: "Fed up with her fruitless search for "Mr. Right" and tired of blind dates from hell, attractive journalist Jessica Stein whimsically responds to a classified ad--from Helen! Making and breaking new rules of dating as they go, the two women muddle through an earnest but hilarious courtship that blurs the lines between friendship and romantic love."

Call number: PN1997 KissingJe DVD

48 Hrs - Summary: "An experienced cop teams up with a convict in order to capture an escaped murderer."

Call number: PN1997 48Hrs DVD

Honeydripper - Summary: "In 1950 rural Alabama, it’s a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt, Tyrone is desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits into his juke joint and away from the rival club across the way. He lays off his regular talent and hires the famous electric guitar player Guitar Sam for a one night only gig."

Call number: PN1997 Honeydr DVD

The Amityville Horror - Summary: "The new owners of a Long Island house have flies and oozing walls; not even a priest can help."

Call number: PN1997 Amityv 1979 DVD

Joy Ride - Summary: "It’s all fun and games when two brothers take off cross-country to bring home a pretty college friend. But the jokes end when a prank backfires and they find themselves stalked by a vengeful trucker who won’t give up his relentless chase until somebody pays with their life."

Call number: PN1997 JoyRide DVD

Less Than Zero - Summary: "Returning home from college for Christmas vacation, Clay (Andrew McCarthy) is eager to resume his long-time romantic relationship with Blair (Jami Gertz) and his old friendship with the irresponsible Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.). But he finds the two have started a relationship of their own and developed a fondness for clubs, wild parties and endless amounts of cocaine. Clay's determination and love for Blair enables him to win her back, but Julian is a different story. Increasingly hopeless, addicted and deeply in debt to his dealer (James Spader), Julian puts Clay and Blair through the ultimate test of friendship, loyalty and love."

Call number: PN1997 LessThan DVD

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Summary: "Let yourself be magically transported to William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Take two pairs of star-crossed lovers, a feuding pair of supernatural sprites and a love potion gone awry, put them all together in an enchanted moonlit forest and you have a delightful mix of merriment and magic."

Call number: PN1997 Midsumm DVD

Miller's Crossing - Summary: " An Irish politician's right-hand man plays all the angles in a Prohibition gangland."

Call number: PN1997 MillersC DVD

Clear and Present Danger - Summary: "An acting CIA chief learns the president has triggered a war with Colombian drug cartels. Directed by Philip Noyce. From the Tom Clancy novel."

Call number: PN1997 ClearPres DVD

Valley Girl - Summary: "A California girl with a regional dialect falls totally for a punk rocker. Directed by Martha Coolidge."

Call number: PN1997 ValleyG DVD

Ghost in the Shell - Summary: "A cyber agent must stop a potent form of artificial intelligence before it can reach human form."

Call number: PN1997 GhostShel DVD

Crooklyn - Summary: "Carolyn Carmichael is the loving but care-worn mother who struggles to make ends meet for her unemployed musician-husband and their five children. The family must rely on each other and their sense of humor to face both the joys and the sorrows of everyday life together. Inspired by the memories of Spike Lee and his family."

Call number: PN1997 Crooklyn DVD

The Basketball Diaries - Summary: "Crime pays for the drug addiction of a high-school hoopster and three teammates in 1960s New York." Based on the novel by Jim Carroll.

Call number: PN1997 Basketba DVD

About a Boy - Summary: "Will Lightman is a good-looking, smooth-talking bachelor whose primary goal in life is avoiding any kind of responsibility. But when he invents an imaginary son in order to meet attractive single moms, Will gets a hilarious lesson about life from a bright but hopelessly geeky 12-year-old named Marcus. Now, as Will struggles to teach Marcus the art of being cool, Marcus teaches Will that you're never too old to grow up." Based on the book by Nick Hornby.

Call number: PN1997 AboutBoy DVD

Panic Room - Summary: "A divorced woman and her little daughter buy a house to begin their new life together. What they think is a dream house soon becomes anything but when thieves break in shortly after they move in. But, mother and daughter make it to the steel-reinforced panic room and what they think is protection from the would be thieves. As it turns out, what they're after is in that room and they're not leaving without it."

Call number: PN1997 PanicR DVD

Christmas Vacation - Summary: "Cousin Eddie's arrival in his beat-up RV dashes the Griswold family's hopes for a quiet Christmas. Yule crack up!"

Call number: PN1997 ChristmasV DVD

Stripes - Summary: " A lazy New York cabby quits his job and convinces his bored buddy they should both join the Army."

Call number: PN1997 Stripes DVD

Road to Perdition - Summary: "Sullivan, a hit man for the mob, is forced to run to save his son from certain death after his son witnesses a hit. The ROAD TO PERDITION weaves a mesmerizing tale of a father and son bound together by tragedy and betrayal. On an unforgettable journey of honor, vengeance, and redemption, they will confront the overwhelming odds--and forge an indestructable bond."

Call number: PN1997 RoadPerd DVD

The Red Violin - Summary: "The Red Violin has a lasting hold on all the lives it has touched. From its creation in 17th century Italy, to the courts of Imperial Vienna in 1790, to Victorian England, to the People's Republic of China in the 1960's, and finally, to a modern day auction house in Montreal, the violin has been at the center of controversy, adventure, love and passion. It is the mythical power of this unique instrument that draws Charles Mortiz (Samuel L. Jackson) into its web and incites him to action, just days before it is to be auctioned off."

Call number: PN1997 RedViolin DVD

Spawn - Summary: "Based on the comic book by Todd MacFarlane. Five years after being murdered by corrupt colleagues in a covert government agency, Al Simmons makes a Faustian pact with the devil so he can be resurrected to see his beloved wife one last time. In exchange for his return to Earth, Simmons agrees to lead Hell's Army in the destruction of mankind."

Call number: PN1997 Spawn DVD

The Good Girl - Summary: "Thirty-year old Justine Last longs for more in life than her boring husband and dead-end job at Retail Rodeo. She falls for a passionate young co-worker and her good-girl existence takes a turn for the worse."

Call number: PN1997 GoodGirl DVD

Quiz Show - Summary: "A hard-charging lawyer sparks a national controversy when he uncovers corruption in America's hottest game show. Television's quiz show era is rattled when ex-quiz show contestant Herbie Stempel points an accusing finger at Charles Van Doren, the wildly popular champion of the show called twenty-one."

Call number: PN1997 QuizShow DVD

When Harry Met Sally - Summary: "Two Manhattan careerists take 12 years to figure out they love each other. Directed by Rob Reiner."

Call number: PN1997 WhenHar DVD

The Naked Gun - Summary: "A blundering Los Angeles detective and his boss foil a plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth."

Call number: PN1997 NakedGun DVD

Walking and Talking - Summary: ""Walking And Talking" is a humorous look at friends and relationships in the '90s. It follows the antics of four friends as they search for love. Laura and Frank are engaged, but she finds herself fantasizing about other men. Andrew is involved in a long distance phone sex relationship. And in Amelia's search for Mr. Right, she finds men obsessed with horror movies and dwarf bowling?! Through the good dates, the bad dates, and no dates, these four friends laugh together at life and love."

Call number: PN1997 WalkingT DVD

Reefer Madness - Summary: "A campy cult favorite, released as a propaganda film meant to scare America's youth off drugs. Includes all new colorized version and restored original B&W version, and audio commentary by Mike Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Call number: PN1997 ReeferM DVD

Vera Drake - Summary: "Vera Drake tells of a woman in 1950s England who is devoted to caring for her family, but secretly aids women who want to terminate unwanted pregnancies. When the authorities find her out, Vera’s world and family life rapidly unravel."

Call number: PN1997 VeraDr DVD

Glengarry Glen Ross - Summary: "Slick real-estate salesmen fight for survival and hot leads in David Mamet's adaptation of his play. Directed by James Foley."

Call number: PN1997 GlenGarry DVD

Ghost Hunters: Season 2, Part 2 Contents:
Lizzie Borden House; Mansfield Prison; Crescent Hotel; Ellis home, Waverly Hills Sanatorium; Mades’ home; Paladium theater; Leonard’s House; Valentown Museum; Willard Library; Domestic disturbance; Hodgeman home; Hartford Conservatory; St. Augustine Lighthouse; Domani’s Restaurant; St. Augustine Jail; Stone Lion Inn; Edgerly home; Stanley Hotel.

Call number: BF1472 .U6 2006 DVD

This American Life: Season 1 - Summary: "Join host Ira Glass and his company, as they bring a different theme to life each week, in the format of the popular Chicago radio show by the same name. Bonus features include commentary, photo gallery, and more."

Call number: PN1992.8 .R43 T45 2008 DVD

This American Life: Season 2 - Summary: "Join host Ira Glass and his company, as they bring a different theme to life each week, in the format of the popular Chicago radio show by the same name. In Escape, teenage boys in Philadelphia impress girls using a mode of transportation obsolete in their neighborhood since the 19th century, and a young man’s fight for independence from his mother is complicated by some very specialized circumstances. In Two wars, we learn about two foreigners in the U.S.: one is an Iraqi refugee, traveling the U.S. to let Americans ask him anything they want, and an immigrant from Bulgaria, who realizes that an ongoing argument with his American wife about lawn maintenance has to do with the life he left behind the Iron Curtain twenty years before. Going down in history tells the stories of people trying to make and remake history, including Wisconsin convicts attempting a prison break using dental floss, high school students whose yearbook photos show nothing of the drama in their lives, and a man with a decades-long obsession with one particular bird, who reveals the footage that may prove he’s actually seen it. Underdogs features the world of boxing, way down the "food chain" from championship fights, and a group of New York kids who fight bullies by being funny. Scenes from a marriage profiles cartoonist Chris Ward’s illustrations showing that every marriage, even a happy one, is a courtroom, and the disintegration of another couple’s marriage is chronicled, as the husband’s obsession with a legal forces them to face some tough questions. John Smith is the story of one life, told through the eyes of people all over the country who share the name John Smith."

Call number: PN1992.8 .R43 T45 2009 DVD

Glee: Season 1 Volume 1: Road to Sectionals - Summary: "Filled with beloved characters and sensational musical numbers, Glee Season 1: Road To Sectionals is an electrifying, pitch-perfect winner. William McKinley High School once had a champion glee club, but now they are floundering. That is when an idealistic Spanish teacher (Matthew Morrison, Music & Lyrics) takes up their cause, vowing to transform the rag-tag group of singers and dancers into champions. From Ryan Murphy, the creator of Nip/Tuck, Glee also stars Jane Lynch (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Jessalyn Gilsig (Nip/Tuck) and a slew of talented newcomers including Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer. Featuring the first 13 episodes, Glee Season 1: Road To Sectionals DVD will also include the Directors cut of the pilot episode; exclusive behind-the-scenes featurettes; audition videos from the talented cast and the hit music topping the charts at iTunes such as cast versions of Queens Somebody To Love, Hearts Alone, Journeys Dont Stop Believin, Cline Dions Taking Chances, Rihannas Take A Bow, Carrie Underwoods Last Name, Jazmine Sullivans Bust Your Windows, Kanye Wests Gold Digger and REO Speedwagons Cant Fight This Feeling."

Call number: PN1997 TV Glee Season1 DVD

Dexter: The First Season - Summary: "Dexter Morgan is a Miami police forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer of criminals who he believes have escaped justice."

Based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season1 Pt1 DVD

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season1 Pt2 DVD

Dexter: The Second Season

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season2 Pt1 DVD

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season2 Pt2 DVD

Dexter: The Third Season

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season3 Pt1 DVD

Call number: PN1997 TV Dexter Season3 Pt2 DVD

True Blood: The Complete First Season - Summary: "Vampires have come out of the coffin and are now living among us. Surviving on synthetic blood, they no longer need human blood to survive. Or so it seems... The small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana boasts a wide array of colorful locals. Meet Sookie Stackhouse (Academy Award winner Anna Paquin), a sweet and innocent waitress who hides her powerful ability to read minds; Bill Compton, a 173-year-old vampire who's just moved back to town; Sookie's brother Jason, a ladies' man who can't seem to stay out of trouble; tough-as-nails Tara, Sookie's loyal best friend; Sam, the owner of Merlotte's who tries to keep his feelings for Sookie to himself; Lafayette, a man about town who's always cooking up something illicit and off the menu and a quirky cast of characters who each hide their dark secrets in the shadows of night in the series that's like no other."

Based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

Call number: PN1997 TV TrueBlood Season1 DVD

Six Feet Under: The Complete Series - Summary: "The complicated lives and relationships of the Fisher family, owners and operators of an independent funeral home."

24 DVDs

Call number: PN1997 TV SixFeetUn DVD

Flight of the Conchords: Complete Second Season - Summary: "Despite living as Big Apple bohemians for over a year, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie - a.k.a. Flight of the Conchords - remain as hopelessly out of place in Manhattan as a kiwi in a pigeon nest. Will Bret and Jemaine ever find excitement, romance, or the elusive paying music gig?"

Call number: PN1997 TV FlightConch Season2 DVD

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: Season 1 - Summary: "Follows Mma Ramotste, a recently bereaved woman, as she sets up the only woman-run Private Detective Agency in Botswana and her attempts to get it off the ground. She gets help from Mma Makutsi, her new secretary, and Mr. JLB Matekoni, the owner and super mechanic of the wonderful Speedy Motors. Mma Ramotste takes on cases, meets many new people who need her help - from a woman who thinks the man who has turned up at her door is not her father, to another lady who has a boyfriend who may or may not be faithful to her."

Based on the novels by Alexander McCall Smith.

Call number: PN1997 TV No1Ladies DVD

Capitalism: A Love Story - Summary: "On the 20-year anniversary of his groundbreaking masterpiece Roger & Me, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan. From Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan, Michael Moore once again takes filmgoers into uncharted territory. With both humor and outrage, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story explores a taboo question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Years ago, that love seemed so innocent. Today, however, the American dream is looking more like a nightmare as families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore takes us into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story is both a culmination of Moore's previous works and a look into what a more hopeful future could look like. It is Michael Moore's ultimate quest to answer the question he's posed throughout his illustrious filmmaking career: Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?"

Call number: HB501 .CC242259 2010 DVD

The Cove - Summary: "In a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan, behind a wall of barbed wire and Keep Out signs, lies a shocking secret. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt for thousands of dolphins. The nature of the work is so horrifying, a few desperate men will stop at nothing to keep it hidden from the world. But when an elite team of activists, filmmakers and free-divers embark on a covert mission to penetrate the cove, they discover that the shocking atrocities they find there are just the tip of the iceberg."

Call number: QL737 .C432 C68 2009 DVD

Food, Inc. - Summary: "Food, Inc. lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat, how it's produced and who we have become as a nation."

Call number: HD9005 .F6581 2009 DVD

The Last Lecture - Summary: "Experience the moving lecture that generated a national best selling book and inspired millions to believe in the power of achieving their childhood dreams. For Randy Pausch, who had recently received a terminal cancer diagnosis, the topic of this lecture was anything but hypothetical."

Call number: QA76.2 .P38 A3 2008 DVD

By the People: The Election of Barack Obama - Summary: "Documents Obama's history-making road to the White House as the nation's first African-American president. Follows the former Senator from his decision to throw his hat in the ring to his historic election and inauguration. Includes interviews, candid moments with his wife Michelle and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, plus his senior campaign staff, his supporters, aides, and the media. Special features include commentary, deleted scenes, and featurette."

Call number: E907 .B9 2010 DVD

Beyond Our Differences - Summary: "Features interviews with religious leaders and politicians as they are asked what inspires them in these challenging times, as more and more people are turning to religion and spirituality to gain a sense of meaning and understanding with what they are facing."

Call number: BL48 .B49 2009 DVD

Valentino: The Last Emperor - Summary: "VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR provides a first-time glimpse into Valentinos world of bygone glamour. Filmed from June 2005 to July 2007, the crew shot over 250 hours of footage with exclusive, unprecedented access to Valentino and his entourage. The resulting non-fiction film is a portrait of an extraordinary partnership, the longest running in fashion, and a dramatic story about a master confronting the final act of his celebrated career. The film also includes celebrity appearances from Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeanne Beker, Anna Wintour, Claudia Schiffer, Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Karl Lagerfeld."

Call number: TT505 .V3 V35 2009 DVD

It Might Get Loud - Summary: "Documents three generations of electric guitar players sharing their stories on how they developed their own unique sound and playing style. Viewers will hear fresh music from each artist and witness intimate moments as they discuss what influences how they write and play. Includes commentary, deleted scenes, featurette, and Toronto Film Festival press conference."

Call number: ML398 .I8 2009 DVD

At the Death House Door - Summary: "An intimate look at the death penalty in the state of Texas through the eyes of Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served 15 years as the death house chaplain to the infamous 'Walls' prison unit in Huntsville. During Pickett's remarkable career he presided over 95 executions, including the world's first lethal injection. After each execution, Pickett recorded an audiotape account of his trip to the death chamber."

Call number: HV8966 .U6 T4 2009 DVD

Born Rich - Summary: "Twenty-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire, Jamie Johnson turns in a remarkable documentary about the lives of the children of the wealthiest families in the world."

Call number: HG222.3 .B676 2003 DVD

Hurricane on the Bayou (IMAX) - Summary: "A powerfully moving large-format film unlike any other, this film carries audiences behind today's news headlines on a journey deep into the soul-stirring heart of Louisiana - before, during, and after the unprecedented devastation of Hurricane Katrina."

Call number: HV636 .H87 2007 DVD

Art 21: Art in the Twentyfirst Century: Seasons 1&2

Call number: N6512 .A6685 2003 DVD

Art 21: Art in the Twentyfirst Century: Season 3 - Summary: "An invigorating look at established artists and newcomers, from Laylah Ali, Ellen Gallagher, and Matthew Ritchie to Josiah McElheny, Jessica Stockholder, and Krysztof Wodiczko."

Call number: N6512 .A6685 2005 DVD

Art 21: Art in the Twentyfirst Century: Season 4 - Summary: "Romance: Laurie Simmons, Lari Pittman, Judy Pfaff, Pierre Huyghe
Protest: Nancy Spero, An-My Lê, Alfredo Jaar, Jenny Holzer
Ecology: Ursula von Rydingsvard, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Robert Adams, Mark Dion
Paradox: Mark Bradford, Catherine Sullivan, Robert Ryman, Allora & Calzadilla."

Call number: N6512.7 .A6685 2007 DVD

Art 21: Art in the Twentyfirst Century: Season 5- Summary: "Through in-depth profiles and dynamic behind-the-scenes footage featuring artists speaking directly about their inspirations and ideas, Season Five shows a broad range of artistic practice, technical innovation, and experimentation, from artists tackling large-scale collaborative projects in hangar-like studios to those working in the quiet of more intimate studio settings."

Call number: N6512 .A6685 2009 DVD

The Boys of Baraka - Summary: "The Baraka School is an experimental institution in Kenya where children live by strict guidelines, yet are given the freedom to grow. Follow 12 out-of-control boys from the streets of Baltimore as they move into their temporary home, the Baraka School."

Call number: HV9069 .B69 2006 DVD

Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music - Summary: "Performers at the 1969 outdoor rock concert include Joan Baez, Ten Years After, the Who, Joe Cocker, Arlo Guthrie, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix. Oscar for best documentary."

Call number: ML38 .B48 W66 2009 DVD

St. Augustine - Summary: "Journey to St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest permanent European settlement in America. Learn about the struggles between Spain, France, and England over the land, the daily life and customs of the Spanish settlers, and more."

Call number: F319 .S2 1998 DVD

The Heart of the Game - Summary: "This passionate and inspirational documentary goes up close and personal to capture the Roosevelt Roughriders girls' basketball team during six turbulent seasons, taking us far beyond the court to the unbridled desire to make history."

Call number: GV886 .H43 2007 DVD

The September Issue - Summary: "An unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the making of the coveted September issue of Vogue in 2007, which was the largest and most sold to date. Features audio commentary, deleted scenes, photo gallery, and interviews with cast and fashion icons, including Anna Wintour, Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta, John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, and others."

Call number: TT500 .A1 S47 2010 DVD

The Greatest Speeches of All Time Volume 1 - Summary: "Seen and heard in this original footage are the dramatic speeches from world leaders that changed the course of history and inspired millions worldwide. Contains10 original speeches by Malcom X, FDR, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry S. truman , JFK, and others."

Call number: PN6122 .G74 2004 DVD

The Greatest Speeches of All Time Volume 2 - Summary: "Another collection of the most important and well-known speeches of modern times. Includes Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Richard M. Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, Mario Cuomo, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and more."

Call number: PN6122 .G74 2005 DVD

The Greatest Speeches of All Time Volume 3 - Summary: "The third in a series containing more high-lights of the most important and well-known speeches of modern times. The original footage includes dramatic speeches from U.S. Presidents, politicians, and world leaders that changed the course of history including George S. Patton, Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Barbara Jordan, and others."

Call number: PN6122 .G74 2007 DVD

Blue Vinyl - Summary: "Skeptical of her parents’ decision to re-side their home with polyvinyl chloride, Judith Helfand set out to find the truth behind the toxic effects of the material. Helfland & Daniel Gold travel from Long Island to Louisiana to Venice Italy, where thirty-one executives from a PVC-producing company now await trial for manslaughter."

Call number: TD195 .P52 B585 2005 DVD

More Than a Game - Summary: "Five talented young basketball players from Akron, Ohio star in this remarkable true-life coming of age story about friendship and loyalty in the face of great adversity. Coached by a charismatic but inexperienced players father, and led by future NBA superstar LeBron James, the Fab Fives improbable seven-year journey leads them from a decrepit inner-city gym to the doorstep of a national high school championship. Along the way, the close-knit team is repeatedly testedboth on and off the courtas James exploding worldwide celebrity threatens to destroy everything theyve set out to achieve together. More Than A Game combines a series of unforgettable one-on-one interviews with rare news footage, never-before-seen home videos, and personal family photographs to bring this heart-wrenching and wholly American story to life."

Call number: GV885.43 .S745 M67 2009 DVD

The Nutcracker (Nureyev/Park) - Summary: "A stage reproduction of the Nutcracker ballet, which tells the story of a little girl’s dream of a Christmas doll transformed into a handsome prince."

Call number: GV1790 .N8 N88 2000 DVD

Ernest Hemingway Rivers to the Sea (American Experience) - Summary: "Nearly 45 years after his death, Hemingway is one of the most widely read, and widely written about, American authors. He was a dashing international figure whose larger-than-life persona is still the stuff of heated debate."

Call number: PS3515 .E37 Z58415 2005 DVD

Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (American Experience)Witness the life of passionate biologist and environmentalist, Rachel Carson, and how she exposed the effects of the unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides by the federal government, and sparked a revolution in environmental policy."

Call number: QH545 .P4 R23 2007 DVD

The Polio Crusade (American Experience) - Summary: "This film interweaves the personal accounts of polio survivors with the story of an ardent crusader who tirelessly fought on their behalf. Features interviews with historians, scientists, polio survivors, and the only surviving scientist from the core research team that developed the Salk vaccine, Julius Youngner."

Call number: RC181 .W9 P655 2009

Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer (American Experience) - Summary: "J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and legacy are inextricably linked to America's most famous top-secret initiative - the Manhattan Project. This biography presents a complex and revealing portrait of one of America's most influential scientists."

Call number: QC16 .O67 T75 2009 DVD

Surviving the Dust Bowl (American Experience) - Summary: "The draught of 1931 brought financial and emotional ruin to thousands of families in the Southern Plains. The dust bowl was America's worst ecological disaster."

Call number: F595 .S87 2007 DVD

We Shall Remain (American Experience) - Summary: "Includes five stories of heartbreak and inspiration from Native American history, and of the ingenuity as well as the stereotypes associated with the history of the culture. Bonus features include a native language overview, behind-the-scenes footage, 4 contemporary short films, and more. Narrated by Benjamin Bratt."

Call number: E77 .W417 2009 Pt.1 DVD

Call number: E77 .W417 2009 Pt.2 DVD

Call number: E77 .W417 2009 Pt.3 DVD

Mount Rushmore (American Experience) - Summary: "It is considered a masterpiece by some and a monstrosity by others. Learn more about this project that was commissioned during the Great Depression, and of Gutzon Borglum, the artist who took on the task with talent and guts. Narrated by Michael Murphy."

Call number: F657 .R8 M68 2005 DVD

Woody Guthrie: Ain't Got No Home - Summary: "This film explores Guthrie’s creative genius -- his life and music as well as lesser known talents like writing and painting. Every American who has listened to the radio knows Guthrie’s ’This Land Is Your Land.’ The music of the folk singer/songwriter has been recorded by everyone from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to U2."

Call number: ML410 .G978 W66 2007 DVD

Robert Lawrence Kuhn speaks with over 100 Chinese leaders and has inner access to Communist Party officials and material. He focuses on President Hu Jintao's philosophies and policies, and looks to the next generation of China's leaders. Who are China's future leaders? What are they doing today? What's their way of thinking about China's place in the world? What about prospects for democracy and political reform? Is there a road map for political reform?

What about the so-called "China Threat?" Or the emerging "China Model?" Kuhn confronts China's leaders with China's problems: economic imbalances (rural vs. urban), pollution, unsustainable development, migrant workers, human rights, democracy, rule of law, corruption, minorities, ethnic conflicts, censorship, social instability, ideological shakeup, shifting moral and family values, religious repression, death penalty, organs from executed prisoners, global conflicts, resource competition, and the worldwide financial crisis. The best way to know China--the best way to do business with China--is to know what motivates China's leaders and what drives their policies. This book is an intimate, candid portrayal of how China's leaders think. Readers will never get closer to China's leaders than this."

Call number: DS779.46 .K84 2010

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt - Publisher's Marketing: "A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.
Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington's presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation's largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation--in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.
In "The First Tycoon," Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore's personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fistfighter who came to command the respect of New York's social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.
"The First Tycoon" is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself."

Call number: CT275 .V23 S85 2009

Here, for the first time in a single span, is the life of the universe, from quarks to galaxy superclusters and from slime to "Homo sapiens." The universe was once a moment of perfect symmetry and is now 13.7 billion years of history. Clouds of gas were woven into whatever complexity we find in the universe today: the hierarchies of stars or the brains of mammals. Potter writes entertainingly about the history and philosophy of science, and he shows that science advances by continually removing humankind from a position of primacy in the universe, but the universe responds by placing us back there again.

With wisdom and wonder, Potter traverses the cosmos from its conception to its eventual end--while exploring everything in between."

Call number: QB982 .P68 2009

Using previously overlooked documents from a host of archives, "Abigail Adams" shows that the wife of the second president of the United States was far more charismatic and influential than historians have realized. One of the finest writers of her age, Adams passionately campaigned for women's education, denounced sex discrimination, and matched wits not only with her brilliant husband, John, but with Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. When male Patriots ignored her famous appeal to "Remember the Ladies," she accomplished her own personal declaration of independence: Defying centuries of legislation that assigned married women's property to their husbands, she amassed a fortune in her own name.

Adams's life story encapsulates the history of the founding era, for she defined herself in relation to the people she loved or hated (she was never neutral): her mother, whom she considered terribly overprotective; Benjamin Franklin, who schemed to clip her husband's wings; her sisters, whose dependence upon Abigail's charity strained the family bond; James Lovell, her husband's bawdy congressional colleague, who peppered her with innuendo about John's "rigid patriotism"; her financially naive husband (Abigail earned money in ways the president considered unsavory, took risks that he wished to avoid -- and made him a rich man); Phoebe Abdee, her father's former slave, who lived free in an Adams property but defied Abigail's prohibition against sheltering others even more desperate than herself; and her son John Quincy, who worried her with his tendency to "study out of spight" but who fueled her pride by following his father into public service, rising to the presidency after her death.

At once epic and intimate, "Abigail Adams" sheds light on a complicated, fascinating woman, one of the most beloved figures of American history."

Call number: E322.1 .A38 H65 2009

On Friday, August 15, 1969, a crowd of 400,000 -- an unprecedented and unexpected number at the time -- gathered on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York for a weekend of rock 'n' roll, the new form of American music that had emerged only a decade earlier. For America's counterculture youth, Woodstock became a symbol of more than just sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll -- it was about peace, love, and a new way of living. It was a seminal event that epitomized the ways that the culture, the country, and the core values of an entire generation were shifting. On one glorious weekend, this generation found its voice through one outlet: music.

"Back to the Garden" celebrates the music and the spirit of Woodstock through the words of some of the era's biggest musical stars, as well as those who participated in the festival. From Richie Havens's legendary opening act to the Who's violent performance, from the Grateful Dead's jam to Jefferson Airplane's wake-up call, culminating in Jimi Hendrix's career-defining moment, Fornatale brings new stories to light and sets the record straight on some common misperceptions. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs, authoritative, and highly entertaining, "Back to the Garden" is the soon-to-be classic telling of three days of peace and music."

Call number: ML38 .B43 W64 2009

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - Publisher's Marketing: "A riveting history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science.
When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook on his first "Endeavour "voyage in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery--astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical--swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's original evocation of what truly emerges as an Age of Wonder.
Brilliantly conceived as a relay of scientific stories, "The Age of Wonder" investigates the earliest ideas of deep time and space, and the explorers of "dynamic science," of an infinite, mysterious Nature waiting to be discovered. Three lives dominate the book: William Herschel and his sister Caroline, whose dedication to the study of the stars forever changed the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way, and the meaning of the universe; and Humphry Davy, who, with only a grammar school education stunned the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments that led to the invention of the miners' lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. This age of exploration extended to great writers and poets as well as scientists, all creators relishing in moments of high exhilaration, boundary-pushing and discovery.
Holmes's extraordinary evocation of this age of wonder shows how great ideas and experiments--both successes and failures--were born of singular and often lonely dedication, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. He has written a book breathtaking in its originality, its storytelling energy, and its intellectual significance."

Call number: Q127.G4 H65 2008

ADHD--Living Without Brakes - Publisher's Marketing: "This concise and highly accessible book contains everything that parents and busy professionals need to know about ADHD.The author describes the spectrum of ADHD, the co-occurring symptoms, and common difficulties that parents face. The rest of the book focuses on solutions, based around four rules. Rule number one is keeping it positive: punishments can change behavior, but only positive approaches can improve attitude. Rule number two is keeping it calm: it's difficult thinking clearly enough to solve problems logically if you are feeling overwhelmed. Rule number three is keeping it organized: this rule relates particularly to the child's school life. Rule number four is to keep doing rules one to three. Finally, Dr. Kutscher discusses the role of medication for treating ADHD. The concluding chapter summarizes the information covered and can also be read as a complete, freestanding text. Useful checklists and further reading recommendations are also included.Realistic and optimistic, this book is the ideal source of information and advice for parents and professionals who are trying to keep up with children who are living without brakes."

Call number: RJ506 .H9 K883 2010

Hannibal's Last Battle: Zama and the Fall of Carthage

Call number: DG247.97 .C37 2008

Examining rap history's most memorable lyricists and their inimitable techniques, literary scholar Adam Bradley argues that we must understand rap as poetry or miss the vanguard of poetry today. "Book of Rhymes" explores America's least understood poets, unpacking their surprisingly complex craft, and according rap poetry the respect it deserves."

Call number: ML3531 .B73 2009

Running spy networks overseas. Tracking down terrorists in the Middle East. Interrogating enemy prisoners. Analyzing data from spy satellites and intercepted phone calls. All of these are vital intelligence tasks that traditionally have been performed by government officials accountable to Congress and the American people. But that is no longer the case.

Starting during the Clinton administration, when intelligence budgets were cut drastically and privatization of government services became national policy, and expanding dramatically in the wake of 9/11, when the CIA and other agencies were frantically looking to hire analysts and linguists, the Intelligence Community has been relying more and more on corporations to perform sensitive tasks heretofore considered to be exclusively the work of federal employees. This outsourcing of intelligence activities is now a $50 billion-a-year business that consumes up to 70 percent of the U.S. intelligence budget. And it's a business that the government has tried hard to keep under wraps.

Drawing on interviews with key players in the Intelligence-Industrial Complex, contractors' annual reports and public filings with the government, and on-the-spot reporting from intelligence industry conferences and investor briefings, "Spies for Hire" provides the first behind-the-scenes look at this new way of spying. Shorrock shows how corporations such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, CACI International, and IBM have become full partners with the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Pentagon in their most sensitive foreign and domestic operations. He explores how this partnership has led to wasteful spending and threatens to erode the privacy protections and congressional oversight so important to American democracy.

Shorrock exposes the kinds of spy work the private sector is doing, such as interrogating prisoners in Iraq, managing covert operations, and collaborating with the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mails. And he casts light on a "shadow Intelligence Community" made up of former top intelligence officials who are now employed by companies that do this spy work, such as former CIA directors George Tenet and James Woolsey. Shorrock also traces the rise of Michael McConnell from his days as head of the NSA to being a top executive at Booz Allen Hamilton to returning to government as the nation's chief spymaster.

From CIA covert actions to NSA eavesdropping, from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo, from the Pentagon's techno-driven war in Iraq to the coming global battles over information dominance and control of cyberspace, contractors are doing it all. "Spies for Hire" goes behind today's headlines to highlight how private corporations are aiding the growth of a new and frightening national surveillance state."

Call number: JK468 .I6 S49 2008

What Are the Causes of Prostitution?

Call number: HQ118 .W45 2007

The Red Flag: A History of Communism - Publisher's Marketing: "Communism was one of the most powerful political and intellectual movements the world has ever seen. At the height of their influence, Communists controlled more than a third of the earth's surface. But perhaps more astonishing than its rapid rise and extraordinary reach was Communism's sudden, devastating collapse in November of 1989. In The Red Flag, Oxford professor David Priestland tells the epic story of a movement that has taken root in dozens of countries across two hundred years, from its birth after the French Revolution to its ideological maturity in nineteenth-century Germany to its rise to dominance (and subsequent fall) in the twentieth century. Beginning with the first modern Communists in the age of Robespierre, Priestland examines the motives of thinkers and leaders including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Che Guevara, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Gorbachev, and many others. He also asks what it was about Communism that inspired its rank and file--whether the militants of 1920s Russia, the guerrilla fighters of China, or the students of Ethiopia--and explores the experience of what it meant to live under Communism for its millions of subjects. He shows how Communism, in all its varieties, appealed to different societies for different reasons, in some as a response to inequalities and in others more out of a desire to catch up with the West. But paradoxically, while destroying one web of inequality, Communist leaders were simultaneously weaving another. It was this dynamic, together with widespread economic failure and an escalating loss of faith in the system, that ultimately destroyed Soviet Communism itself. At a time when global capitalism is in crisis and powerful new political forces have arisen to confront Western democracy, The Red Flag is essential reading if we are to apply the lessons of the past to navigating the future."

Call number: HX36 .P75 2009

For this comprehensive and illuminating work, Brown draws on more than forty years of research and on a wealth of new sources. Tracing the story of Communism from its nineteenth-century roots, Brown explains both its expansion and its decline in the twentieth century. Even today, although Communism has been widely discredited in the West, more than a fifth of humanity still lives under its rule."

Call number: HX36 .B74 2009

Secret Power of Tantrik Breathing: Techniques for Attaining Health, Harmony, and Liberation - Publisher's Marketing: "Explores the secrets and benefits of alternate nostril breathing practices - Includes breathing techniques to help overcome infertility, bad luck, and illnesses - Explains the interactions of the vital energy of breath with the chakras and energy channels (nadis) There is an intimate relationship between breathing and our emotional states. When we are nervous or excited, our breath rate increases. Conversely, if we alter our rate of breathing, we can alter our emotional state. The ancient civilization of India developed methods for changing the emotions and states of consciousness through yogic meditation and pranayama (breath control). Secret Power of Tantrik Breathing teaches the advanced pranayama system of svaraodaya, which is based on the fact that we normally breathe freely through only one nostril at a time. In a healthy person, breathing changes roughly every one and a half hours from one nostril to the other, with each nostril imparting different qualities to one's mental and physical state. The left nostril is cool, soothing, passive, and feminine in nature; the right is warm, energizing, active, and masculine. When the breath remains in one nostril for longer than normal, mental and physical illness can result. The goal of svaraodaya is to harmonize the breath from each nostril with the life task needing to be accomplished. This book explains how to practice this breath control and how the vital energy of breath interacts with the chakras and energy channels (nadis) to create overall balance and harmony. It also includes svaraodaya breathing techniques to help overcome illnesses, infertility, and bad luck; make predictions; and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth."

Call number: RA781.7 .S63 2009

Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul: How to Create a New You - Publisher's Marketing: "Fifteen years after his #1 "New York Times" bestseller, "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind," Deepak Chopra revisits "the forgotten miracle"-the body's infinite capacity for change and renewal. You cannot take advantage of this miracle, Chopra says, unless you are willing to completely reinvent your body, transforming it from a material object to a dynamic, flowing process. "Your physical body is a fiction," Chopra contends. Every cell is made up of two invisible ingredients: awareness and energy.
Using Chopra's ten steps to wholeness, you can harness those basic elements to change the distorted energy patterns that are the root cause of aging, infirmity, and disease.
Transformation can't stop with the body, however; it must involve the soul. The soul-seemingly invisible, aloof, and apart from the material world-actually creates the body. Only by going to the level of the soul will you access your full potential, bringing more intelligence, creativity, and awareness into every aspect of your life.
"Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul" delivers ten breakthroughs-five for the body, five for the soul-that lead to self-transformation. In clear, accessible terms, Chopra shows us how to commit ourselves to deeper awareness, focus on relationships instead of consumption, embrace every day as a new world, and transcend the obstacles that afflict body and mind.
Deepak Chopra has inspired millions with his profound teachings over the years. His bestselling books have explored the mind/body connection and the power of spirit. With his latest book, he invites you to experience with him the miracles that unfold when we connect the body directly to the awesome mysteries that give life meaning-directly to the soul. When you have completed this journey, after reinventing your body and resurrecting your soul, the ecstasy of true wholeness becomes possible for the very first time."

Call number: BF575 .S37 C53 2009

Open: An Autobiography - Publisher's Marketing: "From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.
Agassi's incredibly rigorous training begins when he is just a child. By the age of thirteen, he is banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair, pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning-fast return.
And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world's best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.
Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. Alongside vivid portraits of rivals from several generations--Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer--Agassi gives unstinting accounts of his brief time with Barbra Streisand and his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He reveals a shattering loss of confidence. And he recounts his spectacular resurrection, a comeback climaxing with his epic run at the 1999 French Open and his march to become the oldest man ever ranked number one.
In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf. Inspired by her quiet strength, he fights through crippling pain from a deteriorating spine to remain a dangerous opponent in the twenty-first and final year of his career. Entering his last tournament in 2006, he's hailed for completing a stunning metamorphosis, from nonconformist to elder statesman, from dropout to education advocate. And still he's not done. At a U.S. Open for the ages, he makes a courageous last stand, then delivers one of the most stirring farewells ever heard in a sporting arena.
With its breakneck tempo and raw candor, "Open "will be read and cherished for years. A treat for ardent fans, it will also captivate readers who know nothing about tennis. Like Agassi's game, it sets a new standard for grace, style, speed, and power."

Call number: GV994 .A43 A43 2009

Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.

Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revere-like alarm about American wildlife in peril--including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk--Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all."

Call number: E757 .B856 2009

Dangerous or Safe?: Which Foods, Medicines, and Chemicals Really Put Your Kids at Risk - Publisher's Marketing: "A leading pediatrician answers a question that's on every parent's mind: What's safe for my kids?
There is no doubt that children today are living in an increasingly toxic world. Parents are more worried then ever, and conflicting reports in the media and rumors on the playground can cause even more confusion about which products are perfectly safe and which are harmful, even deadly. "Dangerous or Safe?" provides desperate parents with concrete answers on what foods, chemicals, and medicines pose real danger to kids.
Combining scientific data, medical expertise, and a parent's intuition, Dr. Cara Natterson-a top pediatrician and mom herself-outlines these threats by first explaining the newest scientific research and then providing a "bottom line" for parents to follow based on the facts and her medical expertise. Making complicated medical and scientific information accessible, Dr. Natterson shows parents how to maximize their children's health and safety.
"Dangerous or Safe?" explains the hazards of commonly known materials like lead and plastics; debunks myths about perceived threats; and exposes startling new evidence on seemingly benign products-such as cell phones-that may in fact endanger us all. An indispensable resource for parents, this relatable guide gives moms and dads clear instructions on what scary products to avoid, and which so-called poisons are completely safe. Whether it's allergens in the atmosphere or pesticide spray in the yard, "Dangerous or Safe?" prepares parents for nearly every hazard their child will face."

Call number: RA1225 .N384 2009

The Canal Builders: Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal - Publisher's Marketing: "A groundbreaking history of the Panama Canal offers a revelatory workers-eye view of the momentous undertaking and shows how it launched the American century
The Panama Canal has long been celebrated as a triumph of American engineering and technology. In "The Canal Builders," Julie Greene reveals that this emphasis obscures a far more remarkable element of the canalas constructionathe tens of thousands of workingmen and -women who traveled from around the world to build it. Drawing on research from around the globe, Greene explores the human dimensions of the Panama Canal story, revealing how it transformed perceptions of American empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.
For a project that would secure Americaas position as a leading player on the world stage, the Panama Canal had controversial beginnings. When President Theodore Roosevelt seized rights to a stretch of Panama soon after the country gained its independence, many Americans saw it as an act of scandalous land-grabbing. Yet Roosevelt believed the canal could profoundly strengthen American military and commercial power while appearing to be a benevolent project for the benefit of the world.
But first it had to be built. From 1904 to 1914, in one of the greatest labor mobilizations ever, working people traveled to Panama from all over the globeafrom farms and industrial towns in the United States, sugarcane plantations in the West Indies, and rocky fields in Spain and Italy. When they arrived, they faced harsh and inequitable conditions: labor unions were forbidden, workers were paid differently based on their race and nationalityawith the most dangerous jobs falling to West Indiansaand anyone not contributing to the project could be deported. Yet Greene reveals how canal workers and their families managed to resist government demands for efficiency at all costs, forcing many officials to revise their policies.
"The Canal Builders" recounts how the Panama Canal emerged as a positive symbol of American power and became a critical early step towards twentieth-century globalization. Yet by chronicling the contributions of canal workers from all over the world, Julie Greene also reminds us of the human dimensions of a project more commonly remembered for its engineering triumphs."

Call number: F1569 .C2 G66 2009

Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds - Publisher's Marketing: "How genetic engineering threatens seeds, and the stories of those working to save this precious environmental resource Seeds are at the heart of the plant systems that provide us with food, energy, medicine, and even the air we breathe. Their power to adapt will be crucial to our ability to cope with a changing climate. In "Uncertain Peril," environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings examines how agriculture has changed dramatically, how corporate control of seeds undermines their biological integrity and natural abundance, and how communities can maintain seeds as the common heritage of all humanity and preserve the regenerative capacity of the earth."

Call number: S494.5 .B563 C86 2008

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen - Publisher's Marketing: "Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, "Born to Run "is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: "Why does my foot hurt? "In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world's greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.
Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.
With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. "Born to Run" is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run."

Call number: GV1061.23 .M6 M33 2009

The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War - Publisher's Marketing: "A groundbreaking reading of the "Iliad" that restores Homer's vision of the tragedy of war, by the bestselling author of "The Bounty"
Few warriors, in life or literature, have challenged their commanding officer and the rationale of the war they fought as fiercely as did Homer's hero Achilles. Today, the "Iliad" is celebrated as one of the greatest works in literature, the epic of all epics; many have forgotten that the subject of this ancient poem was war-not merely the poetical romance of the war at Troy, but war, in all its enduring devastation.
Using the legend of the Trojan war, the Iliad addresses the central questions defining the war experience of every age: Is a warrior ever justified in standing up against his commander? Must he sacrifice his life for someone else's cause? Giving his life for his country, does a man betray his family? How is a catastrophic war ever allowed to start-and why, if all parties wish it over, can it not be ended?
As she did with "The Endurance" and "The Bounty," Caroline Alexander lets us see why a familiar story has had such an impact on us for centuries, revealing what Homer really meant. Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, "The War That Killed Achilles" is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of our civilization."

Call number: PA4037 .A5955 2009

The Soul of a New Machine - Publisher's Marketing: "Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the "machine" that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century."

Call number: TK7885.4 .K53 2000

"The Case against Perfection" explores these and other moral quandaries connected with the quest to perfect ourselves and our children. Michael Sandel argues that the pursuit of perfection is flawed for reasons that go beyond safety and fairness. The drive to enhance human nature through genetic technologies is objectionable because it represents a bid for mastery and dominion that fails to appreciate the gifted character of human powers and achievements. Carrying us beyond familiar terms of political discourse, this book contends that the genetic revolution will change the way philosophers discuss ethics and will force spiritual questions back onto the political agenda.

In order to grapple with the ethics of enhancement, we need to confront questions largely lost from view in the modern world. Since these questions verge on theology, modern philosophers and political theorists tend to shrink from them. But our new powers of biotechnology make these questions unavoidable. Addressing them is the task of this book, by one of America's preeminent moral and political thinkers."

Call number: QH438.7 .S2634 2009

The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed - Publisher's Marketing: "The mother of Matthew Shepard shares her story about her son's death and the choice she made to become an international gay rights activist
Today, the name Matthew Shepard is synonymous with gay rights, but before his grisly murder in 1998, Matthew was simply Judy Shepard's son. For the first time in book form, Judy Shepard speaks about her loss, sharing memories of Matthew, their life as a typical American family, and the pivotal event in the small college town that changed everything.
"The Meaning of Matthew" follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime, when Judy and her husband traveled to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life support machines; how the Shepards learned of the incredible response from strangers all across America who held candlelit vigils and memorial services for their child; and finally, how they struggled to navigate the legal system as Matthew's murderers were on trial. Heart-wrenchingly honest, Judy Shepard confides with readers about how she handled the crippling loss of her child, why she became a gay rights activist, and the challenges and rewards of raising a gay child in America today.
"The Meaning of Matthew" not only captures the historical significance and complicated civil rights issues surrounding one young man's life and death, but it also chronicles one ordinary woman's struggle to cope with the unthinkable."

Call number: HV6250.4 .H66 S54 2009

"Nanotechnology 101" provides contemporary topics about the infusion of nanotechnology in the areas of the environment, food safety, medicine and healthcare, consumer goods, agriculture, homeland security, and energy supply. With a bibliography, sidebars, and interviews with leading figures in the field, "Nanotechnology 101" provides the perfect starting point for anyone wishing to understand this burgeoning science."

Call number: T174.7 .M66 2007

The End of Laissez Faire and the Economic Consequences of the Peace - Publisher's Marketing: "John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was one of the most influential economists of the first half of the twentieth century. His theory of government stimulation of the economy through deficit spending influenced Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" administration and inspired his most famous work, General Theory of Employment, Interest and money (1935-36). In the End of Laissez-Faire (1926), Keynes presents a brief historical review of laissez-faire economic policy. Though he agrees in principle that the marketplace should be free of government interference, he suggests that government can play a constructive role in protecting individuals from the worst harms of capitalism's cycles, especially as concerns unemployment. When the Great Depression struck a few years later, this work seemed very prescient. Keynes first earned widespread prominence immediately following World War I, when he published The Economic Consequences of the Peace in 1919. This book gained a good deal of notoriety because of its withering portraits of both French premier Georges Clemenceau and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Keynes criticized the Allied victors for signing a treaty that would have ruinous consequences for Europe, if not modified as he suggested Unfortunately, few leaders appreciated Keynes's criticisms, and he saw his worst fears realized in the rise of Hitler and the devastation of World War II. Keynes's brilliant mind and lucid writing are evident on every page. Both of these works are still well worth reading for his profound knowledge of economics."

Call number: HB95 .K35 2004

* Swap lasagna noodles for veggies. Pasta used to be a guilty pleasure for many Biggest Losers--until they learned to make a healthy version. Try replacing lasagna noodles in your favorite recipe with slices of grilled zucchini or eggplant. Better yet, try the Veggie Lasagna recipe in Chapter 4!

* Swap traditional yogurt for Greek-style yogurt. Greek-style fat-free yogurt contains the same number of calories as regular fat-free yogurt but has "twice "the protein and half the carbs. It's a great base for dips, too. Try using it in the French Onion Dip in Chapter 5!

* Swap sugary cereals for whole grains. The slow release of energy from complex carbs will help you feel full and keep your blood sugar steady and your energy revved. Or turn to Chapter 5 to make your own Hi-Pro Vanilla Breakfast Grains!

Throughout the book, you'll also find advice and tips from "The Biggest Loser "experts, trainers, and the contestants themselves, who understand the challenges of fitting lifestyle changes into a busy schedule. These simple, budget-friendly swaps can make a major difference in your health and weight loss efforts. Start swapping--and losing--today!"

Call number: RM222.2 .F667 2009

Frida Kahlo: The Still Lifes - Publisher's Marketing: "The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of the most famous artists of all time. However, while much has been written about Kahlo's striking self-portraits (of which some 80 are known), her still-life paintings (of which 40 or so are documented) have not been subjected to such close scrutiny until now. In this groundbreaking study, noted Kahlo scholar Salomon Grimberg explores in detail and interprets all of the artist's still lifes, including some that have come to light only recently. Offering provocative new perspectives on Kahlo's creative process, and revealing how the still lifes reflected her internal reality and complement her self-portraits, this book represents an indispensable contribution to the literature on an enduringly popular artist."

Call number: ND259 .K33 G75 2008

Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon - Publisher's Marketing: "Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human, minutes after Neil Armstrong, to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind's greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their Earth-centric perspective unalterably changed by the iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the surface of the moon, the blackness of space behind him and his fellow explorer and the Eagle reflected in his visor. Describing the alien world he was walking upon, he uttered the words "magnificent desolation." And as the astronauts later sat in the Eagle, waiting to begin their journey back home, knowing that they were doomed unless every system and part on board worked flawlessly, it was Aldrin who responded to Mission Control's clearance to take off with the quip, "Roger. Understand. We're number one on the runway."
The flight of Apollo 11 made Aldrin one of the most famous persons on our planet, yet few people know the rest of this true American hero's story. In "Magnificent Desolation," Aldrin not only gives us a harrowing first-person account of the lunar landing that came within seconds of failure and the ultimate insider's view of life as one of the superstars of America's space program, he also opens up with remarkable candor about his more personal trials-and eventual triumphs-back on Earth. From the glory of being part of the mission that fulfilled President Kennedy's challenge to reach the moon before the decade was out, Aldrin returned home to an Air Force career stripped of purpose or direction, other than as a public relations tool that NASA put to relentless use in a seemingly nonstop world tour. The twin demons of depression and alcoholism emerged-the first of which Aldrin confronted early and publicly, and the second of which he met with denial until it nearly killed him. He burned through two marriages, his Air Force career came to an inglorious end, and he found himself selling cars for a living when he wasn't drunkenly wrecking them. Redemption came when he finally embraced sobriety, gained the love of a woman, Lois, who would become the great joy of his life, and dedicated himself to being a tireless advocate for the future of space exploration-not only as a scientific endeavor but also as a thriving commercial enterprise.
These days Buzz Aldrin is enjoying life with an enthusiasm that reminds us how far it is possible for a person to travel, literally and figuratively. As an adventure story, a searing memoir of self-destruction and self-renewal, and as a visionary rallying cry to once again set our course for Mars and beyond, "Magnificent Desolation" is the thoroughly human story of a genuine hero."

Call number: TL789.85 .A4 A3 2009

"Aces of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes" is a celebration of the bakery that started it all. This colorful scrapbook is loaded with stories about Duff's early days as a graffiti artist turned young chef, his successes and hilarious disasters, and the amazing team he built step-by-step. Through candid interviews and profiles and hundreds of photographs, illustrations, and collages, the book shows how energy, inspiration, collaboration, and a bit of luck can conspire to help anyone achieve their creative vision.

Of course, at the center of this stunning book are Charm City's Cakes. From the simple to the breathtakingly complex, Duff shows off some of the bakery's more unusual techniques and tools that shape their famous creations. He also offers a behind-the-scenes look at his Food Network show, shares his most incredible customer stories and requests, and reveals some of the bakery's favorite cake facts and tips--along with a comprehensive episode guide and a monster cake montage featuring seven years' worth of the bakery's astonishing cake creations."

Call number: TX771.2 .G65 2009

Annie Leibovitz describes how her pictures were made, starting with Richard Nixon's resignation, a story she covered with Hunter S. Thompson, and ending with Barack Obama's campaign. In between are a Rolling Stones Tour, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, The Blues Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keith Haring, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patti Smith, George W. Bush, William S. Burroughs, Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth. The most celebrated photographer of our time discusses portraiture, reportage, fashion photography, lighting, and digital cameras."

Call number: TR680 .L376 2008

Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds - Publisher's Marketing: "A do-it-yourself guide to designing, building, and maintaining your water tank, cistern or pond, and sustainably managing groundwater storage. It will help you with your independent water system, fire protection, and disaster preparedness, at low cost and using principles of ecological design. Includes building instructions for several styles of ferrocement water tanks."

Call number: TD390 .L83 2005

For example, there are different ways to configure walls so that they perform their primary functions a " bearing, dividing, and sheltering a " in an optimal manner.

This book presents the most common load-bearing systems, such as plate, massive, and skeleton construction, and describes their impact on the structure as a whole. It explains how spaces can be vertically or horizontally connected and assembled into larger wholes. The individual elements, such as floor slabs, roofs, openings, and foundations, are described together with their functions and the various possibilities for connecting them.

The book goes beyond the wealth of possible detail to demonstrate the basic principles of detailing. Numerous specially prepared drawings set forth the principles of components and then illustrate them with reference to realized projects."

Call number: NA2750 .M45 2009

Cartoon Animation - Publisher's Marketing: "This is the one sourcebook that cartooning and animation enthusiasts have been clamoring about for years! A time-tested classic, this tried-and-true reference is often used as a textbook in cartooning workshops, and beginning and professional cartoonists alike are known to have copies of "Cartoon Animation" in their libraries. In this comprehensive title, famed animator Preston Blair shares his expertise on how to develop a cartoon character, create dynamic movement, and coordinate dialogue with action. Topics include character development, line of action, dialogue, timing, and, of course, animation! This valuable resource provides all the inspiration and information you need to begin drawing your own animated characters."

Call number: NC1765 .B52 1994x

The Complete History of Surfing: From Water to Snow - Publisher's Marketing: "Surfing is one of the most exciting and stunningly beautiful sports in the world. The modern surfer on his small plastic board is the product of a fascinating history of development. Nat Young, one of the world's great surfers, has produced an illustrated history of the sport that is the most definitive and authoritative ever published. This book is the result of a lifetime involvement with surfing and a deep interest in its history. Nat has had discussions with the greats of the sport, from Duke Kahanamoku to contemporary stars like Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, and Layne Beachley. He tells for the first time the real story behind the remarkable development of surfing, from the ancient Hawaiians to California in the 1940s and right up until today. Spreading around the world like wildfire, surfing is now a mainstream sport, connecting skateboarding, windsurfing, and kitesurfing. Nat also examines the exciting evolution from surfing to snowboarding, tracing the original innovators up to present times. To all this, Nat brings his personal knowledge and stories, and the inside expertise gathered in his years of a deep and passionate involvement with the sport."

Call number: GV840 .S8 Y67 2008

Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr - Publisher's Marketing: "In Jim Crow Florida, a young black man's courageous fight to obtain equal rights for blacks ends in a personal tragedy that remains unsolved to this day. This is his story. Before Martin Luther King Jr. began to preach from his pulpit in Montgomery, before the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, and before Rosa Parks' famous bus ride, a man named Harry T. Moore toiled in Jim Crow Florida on behalf of the NAACP and the Progressive Voters' League. For seventeen years, in an era of official indifference and outright hostility, the soft-spoken but resolute Moore traveled the back roads of the state on a mission to educate, evangelize, and organize. On Christmas night in 1951, in Mims, Florida, a bomb placed under his bed ended Harry Moore's life. His wife, Harriette, died of her wounds a week later. Although Florida's governor reopened the case in 1991, no one was ever convicted of this crime. Using previously unavailable FBI files, Green introduces his readers to the good and the bad, the villainous and the virtuous, in Jim Crow Florida. In doing so, he offers a poignant and gripping memorial to the pioneering work of Harry T. Moore, one of the earliest martyrs of the modern civil rights movement."

Call number: E185.97 .M79 G74 2005

Cracker: The Cracker Culture in Florida History - Publisher's Marketing: "What exactly is a "Cracker"? An entertaining, informative look at a slice of old Florida culture. For over 200 years scholars have attempted to define the Crackers, but their name is as elusive as their nature, their character as tough as Florida's hardscrabble countryside, and any real Cracker will tell you that's just the way they like it. Part history, part folklore, "Cracker" is a generously illustrated account of Cracker heritage, its rich history, and its disappearance as today's fast-paced society reaches even into the remote backwoods of the state. From the language they spoke to the houses they built, from clandestine moonshine stills and cowhunting to "grits and gravy," Dana Ste. Claire offers a colorful and revealing tour of Crackerdom."

Call number: F311 .S74 1998

A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary - Publisher's Marketing: "In the 1970s, justices on the Florida Supreme Court were popularly elected. But a number of scandals threatened to topple the court until public outrage led to profound reforms and fundamental changes in the way justices were seated. One justice abruptly retired after being filmed on a high-roller junket to Las Vegas. Two others tried to fix cases in lower courts on behalf of campaign supporters. A fourth destroyed evidence by shredding his copy of a document into "seventeen equal" strips of paper that he then flushed down a toilet. As the journalist who wrote most of the stories that exposed these events, Martin Dyckman played a key role in revealing the corruption, favoritism, and cronyism then rampant in the court. "A Most Disorderly Court "recounts this dark period in Florida politics, when stunning revelations regularly came to light. He also traces the reform efforts that ultimately led to a constitutional amendment providing for the appointment of all Florida's appellate judges, and emphasizes the absolute importance of confidential sources for journalists."

Call number: KFF525.5 .D5 D93 2008

Making Waves: Female Activists in Twentieth-Century Florida - Publisher's Marketing: "From Ruth Bryan Owen, Florida's first congresswoman, and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College, to Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, the first chairwoman of the Seminole Tribe, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas, champion of the Everglades, Making Waves examines the lives and works of women activists who made a significant impact on Florida in the last century. This collection enriches our understanding of the history of modern Florida and the role women played in it. To a degree greater than any other southern state in the 20th century, Florida experienced dramatic economic, political, social, and environmental challenges, and Florida's women were in the forefront of the great social and political responses to those challenges. These 13 essays describe the contributions made by women in urban renewal, civil liberties, civil rights, child welfare, labor unions, education, environmental protection, rural extension work, and women's liberation. By illuminating the involvement of the state's women in many of these fundamental issues, Making Waves provides a long-overdue chapter in Florida history. It will also contribute to the advancement of the study of women's history by examining women's activism in a variety of contexts and illustrating how this activism was often circumscribed by class and racial bias."

Call number: HQ1438 .F6 M355 2003

From a psychological and social point of view, Andrew was unprecedented. While the book relates the history of the storm and its consequences, its greatest strength is the personal level at which it engages the reader. Nearly 100 people representing diverse backgrounds share their experiences, from a mother who weathered the storm in a tiny bathroom shared with another adult, four children, and a dog, to a roofer who traveled from Tennessee to help in the rebuilding process, to Bryan Norcross, the TV weather-man whose voice guided many through the storm. Their testimonies create a real sense of how Andrew impacted each human being -- the decision to evacuate or not, preparations, what happened during the storm, the clean-up, looting, price gouging, rebuilding, and living in the aftermath.

Providing a context for these oral histories, the book also draws upon a wide range of published sources such as newspaper and documentary accounts. A comprehensive bibliography includes government reports, conference proceedings, maps, and video recordings. Photos from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration supplement the engaging text to reveal the incredible before and after, testifying to the ingenuity and resiliency of South Floridians carrying on in the face of such devastation."

Call number: HV636 1992 .F6 P76 2002

Founded in 1947 by Walton Hall Smith and Newt Perry, Weeki Wachee and its featured attraction, mermaids, combined the allure of pinup girls with the wholesome talents of variety entertainers to create a daily schedule of underwater acts ranging from eating bananas and performing ballet to staging underwater musicals. For nearly 60 years, these mermaids with their underwater talents have attracted crowds of vacationers, film crews, and celebrities. Drawing on extensive archival research as well as interviews with dozens of mermaids and other park employees, Vickers traces the park's rise to prominence. Brilliantly illustrated with 250 stunning photos, the resulting work shows what it was like to be a mermaid at Weeki Wachee in its heyday."

Call number: GV1853.3 .F62 V53 2007

Weeki Wachee Springs - Publisher's Marketing: "Mermaids are like leprechauns: itas very hard to sneak up and catch a glimpse of one. But in a hamlet on the Gulf Coast of Florida, people have been able to do just that since 1947, when Newton Perry opened a small roadside attraction with an underwater theater. For nearly 60 years, live mermaids have been the unique focal point of Weeki Wachee Springs. Mysterious and enchanting, these young performers have done everything from teaching a class to typing a letter underwater. They are carefully trained, completely enthusiastic, and delightful to see. Wander through the pages of this book and meet the mermaids of Weeki Wachee in their magical underwater theater."

Call number: GV1853.3 .F62 P45 2005

Florida's Space Coast - Publisher's Marketing: "Florida's Space Coast is an area that got its name from one of the most exciting times in United States history. Settlers were living in Brevard County as far back as the 1800s, and even after World War II, it was still a quiet place to live. Cities and beach towns along 74 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline were thrust into the modern age in the early 1950s, when rockets began lighting up the skies above them. By the end of that decade, the space race had begun, and the nation would set a path to put men on the moon. The area's population surged with over 200,000 new residents, and things would never be the same. It was a time when people risked their lives for space exploration, and a community came together to make it happen."

Call number: F317 .B8 A2 2009

Cape Canaveral - Publisher's Marketing: "Cape Canaveral is a name that evokes visions of giant rockets and a shuttle thundering into space. In fact, the capeas history is much older than the space program. In the beginning of European exploration of the New World, maps marked Cape Canaveral as a hazard for sailors. Its treacherous shoals and currents caused the destruction of many ships and the deaths of many seafarers. The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, built in the 19th century, became a welcome landmark, warning ships of dangers and serving as a beacon of light for a bright future. In addition to serving as a major seaport, Cape Canaveral became another kind of portal in the 1960s: the Kennedy Space Center is now known locally and worldwide as the agateway to the stars."

Call number: F319 .C338 O83 2008

Florida's Shipwrecks - Publisher's Marketing: "The Sunshine State has a rich maritime history spanning more than five centuries. Tragically, part of that history includes thousands of ships that have met their fates in Florida waters. Potentially more than 5,000 shipwrecks reside off Florida's 1,200 miles of coastline, with hundreds more lost in the state's interior rivers. In and of itself, the Florida Keys archipelago, consisting of approximately 1,700 islands stretching 200 miles, is littered with the remains of close to 1,000 shipwrecks. In fact, many features of the Florida Keys were named after various shipwreck events, such as Fowey Rocks, which earned its name after the 1748 wrecking of the British warship HMS Fowey, and Alligator Reef, where the schooner USS Alligator met her demise in 1822. Florida's Shipwrecks utilizes captivating images to illustrate dramatic stories of danger and peril at sea, introducing readers to a fascinating cross-section of Florida's shipwreck history."

Call number: G525 .B266 2008

Gainesville - Publisher's Marketing: "Gainesville, Florida, has grown from a small agricultural community in the north-central part of the state to a thriving city. Many people have had a hand in Gainesvilleas evolution. After befriending the Timucuan Indians, who had originally inhabited the region, the Spanish began recruiting other settlers to move to the area. Despite those valued contributions, however, the people who brought the railroad to Gainesville deserve the most credit for giving the town its start. Soon after tracks were laid through the city, small businesses sprouted and opportunities for new industries arose. The cityas population expanded along with its economic growth, and more people began to witness the unique potential of Gainesville. In 1905, the city became home to the University of Florida, and a rich educational heritage began. The university brought great attention to the town and subsequently made Gainesville one of the most important cities in the state and one of the most prominent educational epicenters in the South."

Call number: F319 .G14 H53 2008

Amelia Island - Publisher's Marketing: "Tiny Amelia Island, in the northeast corner of Florida, was once among the most important ports in the western hemisphere. Before Florida was granted statehood, the island served as an international gateway between Spanish Florida and the English colonies that would later become the United States. Where Spanish monks and pirates once roamed, the island eventually developed into a significant seaport that exported the rich resources of Floridaas interior in the late 1800s. This era was known as the Golden Age of Amelia Island and the town located on its north end, Fernandina. The railroad that connected Amelia Island to the Gulf Coast was largely responsible for the Golden Age, as it brought a burgeoning economy and many of the Southas most prominent and wealthy figures. Today the island is best known as a resort community but retains the influence and charm of its remarkable past."

Call number: F317 .N3 H53 2007

Cypress Gardens - Publisher's Marketing: "Florida's first theme park, Cypress Gardens, was the brainchild of Richard Downing Dick" Pope Sr. With his wife, Julie Downing Pope, he transformed a marshy, lakeside property in Winter Haven into a magnificent garden. The park's first visitors in 1936 toured pathways surrounded by lush plants from around the world. Two years later, electric boats meandered through the park's winding, hand-dug canals. Water ski shows commenced in 1942, and the park became the "Water Ski Capital of the World." The Florida-shaped Esther Williams Swimming Pool still graces the shore of Lake Eloise. The park was a set for dozens of short feature films, a stage for beauty pageants, and a site for special television broadcasts. A butterfly garden, zoo, rides, and the small-town Southern Crossroads shopping and dining area remain popular features. Kent Buescher purchased Cypress Gardens in 2004, and today's expanded Cypress Gardens Adventure Park preserves the family-friendly appeal of Dick and Julie Pope's magnificent park."

Call number: GV1853.3 .F62 F54 2006

Boynton Beach - Publisher's Marketing: "Boynton Beach, located on South Florida's Atlantic coast, is known as the "Gateway to the Gulf Stream." Ernest Hemingway once called these great ocean currents the last wild country left. Fishermen who study navigational charts understand that Boynton Beach is unique as the closest community to the Gulf Stream. Just minutes from the Boynton Inlet, water reaches a depth of 800 feet. Maj. Nathan Boynton came to the area in 1894, built a hotel, and envisioned a prosperous future for the idyllic village. Today Boynton Beach celebrates its diverse population, ideal location, and a rich and fascinating history that includes Henry Flagler's railroad, land booms, hurricanes, shipwrecks, and steadfast farmers."

Call number: F319 .B69 G55 2005

Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age - Publisher's Marketing: "Florida in the late 1800s was a paradise waiting to be discovered. During this period, two visionary tycoons of the Gilded Age set out on separate ventures that would transform the Sunshine State from America's last frontier into a destination for the rich and famous. The grand hotels that Henry M. Flagler and Henry B. Plant opened at their planned resort sites offered a fantasy stay surrounded by all the accoutrements expected by sophisticated, Gilded Age patrons. Florida's Grand Hotels from the Gilded Age provides a look at these magnificent structures during their glory years, along with the fashionable entertainment and social and recreational pastimes that engaged their gilded guests."

Call number: TX909 .A94 2005

Key West - Publisher's Marketing: "Much more than the typical vacation destination, Key West combines a free-spirited ambiance with magnificent coral reefs, a unique historic legacy with an enduring artistic sensibility. For centuries, explorers and adventurers, immigrants and entrepreneurs, artists and wanderers have come to the island oasis, and today Key West, a city like no other, is home to them all. Through hurricanes, fires, labor strikes, and the tourism boom, the community of Key West has sustained a unique way of life and attracted a wide variety of people to its shores, including such famous figures as writers Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, President Harry Truman, and musician Jimmy Buffett. Whether strolling through the downtown historic district, searching eclectic shops for one-of-a-kind treasures, enjoying a piece of key lime pie, or participating in the look-alike contest during Hemingway Days, Key West offers endless opportunities for pleasure. The landmarks, the people, and the continuing story of Key West are the entertaining subject of this new photographic tribute."

Call number: F319 .K4 H66 2000

Art Deco of the Palm Beaches - Publisher's Marketing: "Art Deco design is a jazzy celebration of the Machine Age, mass production, geometry, and the straight line. In Palm Beach County, sleek themes are seen representing tropical, nautical, masculine, and stylized motifs that reflect speed and technology. Elements include eyebrows, flat roofs, porthole windows, rounded corners, columns, glass blocks, bandings, multiples of three, and Zig-Zag steps. Palm Beach County has dozens of Art Deco treasures built throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, which are located in the downtowns of Delray Beach up through West Palm Beach. Art Deco architecture found in Palm Beach County is spread out rather than concentrated in one location. These buildings are significant to the history of South Florida because they represent some of the earliest structures ever built in the area. These remarkable gems are in danger of being demolished due to the ever-increasing amount of development throughout the county."

Call number: NA730 .F62 P355 2007

Cape Canaveral was chosen as a missile launch site because of its many geographical advantages. However, in the early years of the space program, the area was far from an ideal place for NASA employees to raise their families.

NASA brought in thousands of space-related workers, who, besides sending machines and men into space, had to meet the challenge of moving their families from urban environs to a rural southern county. This book engagingly recounts the parallel stories of the establishment of America's space program and its impact on the development of Brevard County."

Call number: TL4027 .F52 J6377 2002

The Help - Publisher's Marketing: "Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, "The Help" is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't."

Call number: PS3619 .T636 H45 2009

Out Stealing Horses - Publisher's Marketing: "An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life that are gone forever."

Call number: Paperback rack

Edisto - Publisher's Marketing: "A novel that has drawn comparisons with the work of J. D. Salinger, Truman Capote, and Flannery O'Connor, "Edisto "centers on one Simons Everson Manigault, a twelve-year-old possessed of a vocabulary and sophistication way beyond his years and a preadolescent bewilderment with the behavior of adults. These include his mother, who is known as the Duchess, and his enigmatic father-surrogate, Taurus. Imbued with a strong sense of place--an isolated strip of South Carolina coast called Edisto--Padgett Powell's novel is "truly remarkable . . . both as a narrative and in its extraordinary use of language" (Walker Percy). "

Call number: Paperback rack

The novel opens in England in 1914 at the deathbed of Dorothy Townsend, a suffragette who starves herself for the cause. Her choice echoes in the stories of her descendants interwoven throughout: a brilliant daughter who tries to escape the burden of her mother's infamy by immigrating to America just after World War I to begin a career in science; a niece who chooses a conventional path -- marriage, children, suburban domesticity -- only to find herself disillusioned with her husband of fifty years and engaged in heartbreaking and futile antiwar protests; a great-granddaughter who wryly articulates the free-floating anxiety of the times while getting drunk on a children's playdate in post-9/11 Manhattan. In a kaleidoscope of voices and with a richness of imagery, emotion, and wit, Walbert portrays the ways in which successive generations of women have responded to what the Victorians called "The Woman Question."

As she did in her critically acclaimed "The Gardens of Kyoto" and "Our Kind," Walbert induces "a state in which the past seems to hang effortlessly amid the present" ("The New York Times"). "A Short History of Women" is her most ambitious novel, a thought-provoking and vividly original narrative that crisscrosses a century to reflect the tides of time and the ways in which the lives of our great-grandmothers resonate in our own."

Call number: PS3573 .A42113 S54 2009

Shanghai Girls - Publisher's Marketing: "In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn't be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules.
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other, but each knows exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other the most. Along the way they face terrible sacrifices, make impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are-Shanghai girls."

Call number: Paperback rack

Let the Great World Spin - Publisher's Marketing: "In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann's stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.
Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author's most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.
Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.
Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann's powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city's people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the "artistic crime of the century." A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a "fiercely original talent" (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal."

Call number: Paperback rack

One True Thing - Publisher's Marketing: "One True Thing is a breathtaking, brilliantly realized novel, and it moves Anna Quindlen to the forefront of fiction writers in America. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, Quindlen is widely admired for her extraordinary intelligence, humor, and insight, and for the depth of her perceptions about the public and private lives of ordinary people. All these distinctive and original gifts, plus the magic only a superb writer of fiction can create, are evident in this astonishing book. A young woman is in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her mother. She says she didn't do it; she thinks she knows who did. When Ellen Gulden first learns that her mother, Kate, has cancer, the disease is already far advanced. Her father insists that Ellen quit her job and come home to take care of Kate. Ellen has always been the special child in the family, the high achiever, her father's intellectual match, and the person caught in the middle between her parents. She has seen herself as very different from her mother, the talented homemaker, the family's popular center, its one true thing. Yet as Ellen begins to spend her days with Kate, she learns many surprising things, not only about herself but also about her mother, a woman she thought she knew so well. The life choices Ellen and her mother have made are reassessed in this deeply moving novel, a work of fiction that is richly imbued with profound insights into the complex lives of women and men. Anna Quindlen writes masterfully, and with great sophistication and grace, about love and death, sexuality and betrayal, the triangles within a family, identity, growth, and change. She writes about the mysteries at the heart of the person we thinkwe are, of who and what we know. And she explores the ambiguities that make up marriage, character, family, and fate. As Kate Gulden's pain increases, so do the dosages of morphine. And so does Ellen's belief that her mother's suffering is unendurable. One True Thing is a remarkable achievement, a dazzling novel by the writer who has been called "a national treasure"."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Associate - Publisher's Marketing: "If you thought Mitch McDeere was in trouble in "The Firm," wait until you meet Kyle McAvoy, "The Associate"

Kyle McAvoy grew up in his father's small-town law office in York, Pennsylvania. He excelled in college, was elected editor-in-chief of "The Yale Law Journal," and his future has limitless potential.
But Kyle has a secret, a dark one, an episode from college that he has tried to forget. The secret, though, falls into the hands of the wrong people, and Kyle is forced to take a job he doesn't want--even though it's a job most law students can only dream about.
Three months after leaving Yale, Kyle becomes an associate at the largest law firm in the world, where, in addition to practicing law, he is expected to lie, steal, and take part in a scheme that could send him to prison, if not get him killed.
With an unforgettable cast of characters and villains--from Baxter Tate, a drug-addled trust fund kid and possible rapist, to Dale, a pretty but seemingly quiet former math teacher who shares Kyle's "cubicle" at the law firm, to two of the most powerful and fiercely competitive defense contractors in the country--and featuring all the twists and turns that have made John Grisham the most popular storyteller in the world, The Associate is vintage Grisham."

Call number: Paperback rack

Push - Publisher's Marketing: "An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a courageous, determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary."

Call number: PS3569 .A63 P87 2009

Cryptonomicon - Publisher's Marketing: "A remarkable epic adventure of soldiers and secrets, spies and code breakers, cryptography and high-tech finance. When the adult grandchildren of two men once involved in code-breaking espionage in World War II find a sunken Nazi submarine, they're led to a massive conspiracy, the effects of which can either enhance freedom--or subjugate the world. A "New York Times" Notable Book."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Hot Kid - Publisher's Marketing: "Carlos Webster was fifteen in the fall of 1921 the first time he came face-to-face with a nationally known criminal. A few weeks later, he killed his first man a cattle thief who was rustling his dad's stock. Now Carlos, called Carl, is the hot kid of the U.S. Marshals Service, one of the elite manhunters currently chasing the likes of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd across America's Depression-ravaged heartland. Carl wants to be the country's most famous lawman. Jack Belmont, the bent son of an oil millionaire, wants to be public enemy number one. Tony Antonelli of "True Detective" magazine wants to write about this world of cops and robbers, molls and speakeasies from perilously close up. Then there are the hot dames Louly and Elodie hooking their schemes and dreams onto dangerous men. And before the gunsmoke clears, everybody just might end up getting exactly what he or she wished for."

Call number: Paperback rack

Furies of Calderon - Publisher's Marketing: "In the realm of Alera, where people bond with the furies-elementals of earth, air, fire, water, and metal-fifteen-year-old Tavi struggles with his lack of furycrafting. But when his homeland erupts in chaos-when rebels war with loyalists and furies clash with furies-Tavi's simple courage will turn the tides of war."

Call number: Paperback rack

Academ's Fury - Publisher's Marketing: "For one thousand years, the people of Alera have united against the aggressive and threatening races that inhabit the world, using their unique bond with the Furies--elementals of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Metal. But now, the unity of the Alerians hangs in precarious balance. The First Lord of Alera has fallen in his efforts to protect his people from the vicious attacks of their enemies. Now, the fate of the Alerians lies in the hands of Tavi, a young man who must use all of his courage and resourcefulness to save his people--and himself."

Call number: Paperback rack

Cursor's Fury - Publisher's Marketing: "The power-hungry High Lord of Kalare has launched a rebellion against the aging First Lord, Gaius Sextus, who with the loyal forces of Alera must fight beside the unlikeliest of allies-the equally contentious High Lord of Aquitaine.
Meanwhile, young Tavi of Calderon joins a newly formed legion under an assumed name even as the ruthless Kalare unites with the Canim, bestial enemies of the realm whose vast numbers spell certain doom for Alera. When treachery from within destroys the army's command structure, Tavi finds himself leading an inexperienced, poorly equipped legion-the only force standing between the Canim horde and the war-torn realm."

Call number: Paperback rack

Captain's Fury - Publisher's Marketing: "After two years of bitter conflict with the hordes of invading Canim, Tavi of Calderon, now Captain of the First Aleran Legion, realizes that a peril far greater than the Canim exists-the mysterious threat that drove the savage Canim to flee their homeland. Now, Tavi must find a way to overcome the centuries-old animosities between Aleran and Cane if an alliance is to be forged against their mutual enemy. And he must lead his legion in defiance of the law, against friend and foe--or no one will have a chance of survival . . ."

Call number: Paperback rack

Princeps' Fury - Publisher's Marketing: "From the "New York Times"-bestselling author of "Captain's Fury" and the Dresden Files novels comes Book Five in the Codex Alera series. For a thousand years, Alera and her furies have withstood every enemy, and survived every foe. The thousand years are over."

Call number: Paperback rack

"I came busting into the world during one of New York's worst snowstorms, so my mother named me Winter."

Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, this teenage female hustler knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold wind blows her life in a direction she never expected, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime.

In this special gift edition, Sister Souljah shares her secret thoughts on creating the story that rocked ghettos worldwide and introduced all readers to the real ghetto experience. For the first time ever, readers will discover the answers to the continuous questions asked by her fans. Souljah discusses the symbolism behind characters like Midnight and Santiaga, as well as the many meanings of the story. Readers will also learn about Souljah's unique writing process and exactly what inspired her to pen the definitive novel of the hip-hop generation. In her own voice, Souljah will share why this novel is truly a story of our time."

Call number: Paperback rack

Raised in a wealthy, influential, Islamic African family, Midnight enjoys a life of comfort, confidence, and protection. Midnight's father provides him with a veil of privilege and deep, devoted love, but he never hides the truth about the fierce challenges of the world outside of his estate. So when Midnight's father's empire is attacked, he sends Midnight with his mother to the United States.

In the streets of Brooklyn, a young Midnight uses his Islamic mind-set and African intelligence to protect the ones he loves, build a business, reclaim his wealth and status, and remain true to his beliefs.

Midnight, a handsome and passionate young man, attracts many women. How he interacts and deals with them is a unique adventure. This is a highly sensual and tremendous love story about what a man is willing to risk and give to the women he loves most. Midnight will remain in your mind and beat in your heart for a lifetime.

Her "raw and true voice" ("Publishers Weekly") will both soothe and arouse you. In a beautifully written and masterfully woven story, Sister Souljah has given us "Midnight," and solidified her presence as the mother of all contemporary urban literature."

Call number: Paperback rack

Vanishing Act - Publisher's Marketing: "After Harry Wong, Yoko's true love and a staunch supporter of the Sisterhood, becomes the victim of identity theft, a distraught Yoko is about to rush to his side when the Sisters intercept her. A situation like Harry's requires finesse and the Sisterhood's distinctive brand of vigilante justice. "

Call number: Paperback rack

In Odd We Trust - Publisher's Marketing: "Odd Thomas is a regular nineteen-year-old with an unusual gift: the ability to see the lingering spirits of the dead. To Odd, it's not such a big deal. And most folks in sleepy Pico Mundo, California, are much more interested in the irresistible pancakes Odd whips up at the local diner. Still, communing with the dead can be useful. Because while some spirits only want a little company . . . others want justice.
When the sad specter of a very frightened boy finds its way to him, Odd vows to root out the evil suddenly infecting the sunny streets of Pico Mundo. But even with his exceptional ability-plus the local police and his pistol-packing girlfriend, Stormy, backing him-is Odd any match for a faceless stalker who's always a step ahead . . . and determined to kill again?"

Call number: Paperback rack

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book Two: The Sea of Monsters - Publisher's Marketing: "In this highly anticipated sequel to "The Lightning Thief," Percy Jackson discovers there's trouble at Camp Half-Blood--the magical borders protecting Half-Blood Hill have been poisoned. To save Camp Half-Blood, Percy must retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of the Cyclops."

Call number: Paperback rack

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book Three: Titan's Curse - Publisher's Marketing: "When the goddess Artemis goes missing, she is believed to have been kidnapped.And now it's up to Percy and his friends to find out what happened. Who is powerful enough to kidnap a goddess? They must find Artemis before the winter solstice, when her influence on the Olympian Council could swing an important vote on the war with the titans. Not only that, but first Percy will have to solve the mystery of a rare monster that Artemis was hunting when she disappeared -- a monster rumored to be so powerful it could destroy Olympus forever."

Call number: Paperback rack

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Book Four: The Battle of the Labyrinth - Publisher's Marketing: "As this fourth installment of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series unfolds, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable as Kronos's army prepares to invade. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends set out on a quest through the Labyrinth."

Call number: Paperback rack

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson Novels #01) - Publisher's Marketing: "Mercy Thompson's sexy neighbor is a werewolf and she's working on a VW bus owned by a vampire. But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself--she's a shape-shifter."

Call number: Paperback rack

Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson Novels #02) - Publisher's Marketing: "Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places--and in dark ones--and now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind. "

Call number: Paperback rack

Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson Novels #03) - Publisher's Marketing: "When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder, its up to shapeshifting car mechanic Mercy Thompson to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not. And she'll have to choose between the two werewolves in her life--whether she wants to or not."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: 25th Anniversary Edition - Publisher's Marketing: "How shall we begin?
This is the story of a book called" The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--not an Earth book, never published on Earth and, until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or even heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book.
or
This is the story of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a number-one best seller in England, a weekly radio series with millions of fanatic listeners, and soon to be a television spectacle on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
or
This is the story of Arthur Dent, who, secnds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, is plucked off the planet by his friend, Ford Prefect, who has been posing as an out-of-work actor for the last fifteen years but is really a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with the words don't panic written on the front. ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.")
In their travels they meet:
-Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch President of the Galaxy
-Trillian--Zaphod's girl friend, formerly Tricia McMillan, whom Arthur once tried to pick up at a cocktail party
-Marvin--a paranoid android, a brilliant but chronically depressed robot
-Veet Voojagig--former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years
To find the answers to these burning questions: Why are we born? Why do we die? And why do we spend so much time in between wearing digital watches?read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But remember . . . don't panic, and don't forget to bring a towel."

Call number: PR6051 .D3352 1980

As a prosecuting attorney in Houston, Penn Cage sent hardened killers to death row. But it is as mayor of his hometown -- Natchez, Mississippi -- that Penn will face his most dangerous threat. Urged by old friends to try to restore this fading jewel of the Old South, Penn has ridden into office on a tide of support for change. But in its quest for new jobs and fresh money, Natchez, like other Mississippi towns, has turned to casino gambling, and now five fantastical steamboats float on the river beside the old slave market at Natchez like props from "Gone With the Wind."

But one boat isn't like the others.

Rumor has it that the Magnolia Queen has found a way to pull the big players from Las Vegas to its Mississippi backwater. And with them -- on sleek private jets that slip in and out of town like whispers in the night -- come pro football players, rap stars, and international gamblers, all sharing an unquenchable taste for one thing: blood sport -- and the dark vices that go with it. When a childhood friend of Penn's who brings him evidence of these crimes is brutally murdered, the full weight of Penn's failure to protect his city hits home. So begins his quest to find the men responsible. But it's a hunt he begins alone, for the local authorities have been corrupted by the money and power of his hidden enemy. With his family's lives at stake, Penn realizes his only allies in his one-man war are those bound to him by blood or honor: Caitlin Masters, the lover Penn found in "The Quiet Can Game" and lost in "Turning Angel"Danny McDavitt, the heroic helicopter pilot from "Third Degree"Tom Cage, Penn's father and legendary local family physicianWalt Garrity, a retired Texas Ranger who served with Penn's father during the Korean War

Together they must defeat a sophisticated killer who has an almost preternatural ability to anticipate -- and counter -- their every move. Ultimately, victory will depend on a bold stroke that will leave one of Penn's allies dead -- and Natchez changed forever.

After appearing in two of Iles's most popular novels, Penn Cage makes his triumphant return as a brilliant, honorable, and courageous hero. Rich with Southern atmosphere and marked by one jaw-dropping plot turn after another, "The Devil's Punchbowl" confirms that Greg Iles is America's master of suspense."

Call number: Paperback rack

A Southern doctor is pulled into a terrifying ring of murderous secrets -- in this powerhouse thriller from "New York Times" bestselling author Greg Iles

Dr. Chris Shepard has never seen his new patient before. But the attractive young woman with the scarred face knows him all too well. An FBI agent working undercover, Alex Morse has come to Dr. Shepard's office in Natchez, Mississippi, to unmask a killer. A local divorce attorney has a cluster of clients whose spouses have all died under mysterious circumstances. Agent Morse's own brother-in-law was one of those clients, and now her beloved sister is dead. Then comes Morse's bombshell: Dr. Shepard's own beautiful wife consulted this lawyer one week ago, a visit Shepard knew nothing about. Will he help Alex Morse catch a killer? Or is he the next one to fall victim to a deadly trap of sex, lies, and murder?"

Call number: Paperback rack

In the span of twenty-four hours, every-thing Laurel Shields believes about her life and her marriage to a prominent doctor will be shattered -- if she survives a terrifying ordeal. The day begins with the jarring discovery that, soon after ending an affair, Laurel is pregnant. But when she returns home to find her husband ashen, unkempt, and on the brink of violence, a nightmare quickly unfolds. In the heart of an idyllic Mississippi town, behind the walls of her perfect house, Laurel finds herself locked in a volatile standoff with a husband she barely recognizes. Confronted with evidence of her betrayal, she must tread a deadly path between truth and deception while a ring of armed police prepares a dangerous rescue. But Laurel's greatest fear -- and her only hope -- lies with her former lover, a brave man whom fate has granted the power to save both Laurel and her children -- if she can protect his identity long enough...."

Call number: Paperback rack

In a secret government lab, America's top scientists work on Trinity -- a supercomputer that could surpass the power of the human mind. As the project's ethicist, Dr. David Tennant works in a firestorm of limitless science and ruthless ambition. After a fellow scientist is murdered, David uncovers who the killer is. Desperate, he turns to Rachel Weiss, the psychiatrist probing the nightmares that have plagued him since joining the project, and both are forced to flee for their lives.

Pursued around the globe, David and Rachel piece together the truth behind Project Trinity, and the apocalyptic power it possesses. But Trinity's countdown has already begun, and humanity is now held hostage by a form of life that cannot be destroyed. The only hope for survival lies in the shocking connection that exists between Trinity and David's tortured mind. Mankind's future hangs in the balance -- and the price of failure is extinction."

Call number: Paperback rack

Elantris - Publisher's Marketing: "Elantris was the capital of Arelon: gigantic, beautiful, literally radiant, filled with benevolent beings who used their powerful magical abilities for the benefit of all. Yet each of these demigods was once an ordinary person until touched by the mysterious transforming power of the Shaod. Ten years ago, without warning, the magic failed. Elantrians became wizened, leper-like, powerless creatures, and Elantris itself dark, filthy, and crumbling.
Arelon's new capital, Kae, crouches in the shadow of Elantris. Princess Sarene of Teod arrives for a marriage of state with Crown Prince Raoden, hoping -- based on their correspondence -- to also find love. She finds instead that Raoden has died and she is considered his widow. Both Teod and Arelon are under threat as the last remaining holdouts against the imperial ambitions of the ruthless religious fanatics of Fjordell. So Sarene decides to use her new status to counter the machinations of Hrathen, a Fjordell high priest who has come to Kae to convert Arelon and claim it for his emperor and his god.
But neither Sarene nor Hrathen suspect the truth about Prince Raoden. Stricken by the same curse that ruined Elantris, Raoden was secretly exiled by his father to the dark city. His struggle to help the wretches trapped there begins a series of events that will bring hope to Arelon, and perhaps reveal the secret of Elantris itself.
A rare epic fantasy that doesn't recycle the classics and that is a complete and satisfying story in one volume, Elantris is fleet and fun, full of surprises and characters to care about. It's also the wonderful debut of a welcome new star in the constellation of fantasy."

Call number: Paperback rack

Mistborn: The Final Empire

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn Trilogy #02) - Publisher's Marketing: "Evil has been defeated. The war has just begun.
They did the impossible, deposing the godlike being whose brutal rule had lasted a thousand years. Now Vin, the street urchin who has grown into the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and Elend Venture, the idealistic young nobleman who loves her, must build a healthy new society in the ashes of an empire.
They have barely begun when three separate armies attack. As the siege tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.
It may just be that killing the Lord Ruler was the easy part. Surviving the aftermath of his fall is going to be the real challenge."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Hero of Ages (Mistborn Trilogy #03) - Publisher's Marketing: "To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin kills the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists called the Deepness is back, along with ashfalls and earthquakes. Now, humanity appears to be doomed, in this conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy."

Call number: Paperback rack

A spate of elaborate murders in Washington D.C. have the whole East Coast on edge. They are like nothing Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. With each murder, the case becomes increasingly complex. There's only one thing Alex knows: the killer adores an audience.

As victims are made into gruesome spectacles citywide, inducing a media hysteria, it becomes clear to Alex that the man he's after is a genius of terror--and he's after fame. The killer has the whole city by its strings--and he'll stop at nothing to become the most terrifying star that Washington D.C. has ever seen."

Call number: Paperback rack

Cross - Publisher's Marketing: "Alex Cross was a rising star in the Washington, DC, Police Department when an unknown shooter gunned down his wife, Maria, in front of him. The killer was never found, and the case turned cold, filed among the unsolved drive-bys in D.C.'s rough neighborhoods.
Years later, still haunted by his wife's death, Cross is making a bold move in his life. Now a free agent from the police and the FBI, he's set up practice as a psychologist once again. His life with Nana Mama, Damon, Jannie, and little Alex is finally getting in order. He even has a chance at a new love.
Then Cross's former partner, John Sampson, calls in a favor. He is tracking a serial rapist in Georgetown, one whose brutal modus operandi recalls a case Sampson and Cross worked together years earlier. When the case reveals a connection to Maria's death, Cross latches on for the most urgent and terrifying ride of his life.
From the man USA TODAY has called the "master of the genre," CROSS is the high-velocity thriller James Patterson and Alex Cross's fans have waited years to read - and the pinnacle of the bestselling detective series of the past two decades."

Call number: Paperback rack

Pop Goes the Weasel - Publisher's Marketing: "Detective Alex Cross is back-and he's in love. But his happiness is threatened by a series of chilling murders in Washington, D.C., murders with a pattern so twisted they leave investigators reeling. Cross's pursuit of the killer produces a suspect, a British diplomat named Geoffrey Shafer. But proving he's the murderer becomes a potentially deadly task. As Shafer engages in a brilliant series of surprising countermoves, Alex and his fiancee become hopelessly entangled with the most memorable nemesis Cross has ever faced."

Call number: Paperback rack

Mary, Mary - Publisher's Marketing: "Somebody is murdering Hollywood's A-list. Her calling card: "You've got mail." On a family vacation, FBI agent Alex Cross is asked to investigate the shooting of a top actress and an e-mail sent to the Los Angeles Times with shocking details about the murder, signed Mary Smith. More killings and more e-mails follow, and Mary Smith is getting better every time. To hunt down this merciless killer of Tinseltown's elite, Cross must navigate a world where the stars sip San Pellegrino at the Ivy as hopefuls hover around studio gates with 8 X 10 glossies. And when the case catapults into blockbuster proportions, Cross and the LAPD scramble to find a pattern-before Mary sends one more chilling update."

Call number: Paperback rack

Max - Publisher's Marketing: "James Patterson's bestselling Maximum Ride series is back, with Max and the gang as The Protectors. Someone--or some"thing-"-is decimating ships and sea life off Hawaii's coast, and Max and her flock find themselves sucked into the Navy's top-secret investigation of the catastrophe. Their objective: Rescue Max's activist mom from a wicked subterranean enemy. The hitch: They must dive deep into dark waters, where gruesome evil dwells... and for high-flying Maximum Ride, could there be "anything" more terrifying than being trapped in the great abyss? Now in paperback, this soaring new adventure takes Maximum Ride and the Flock into terrifying new territory--fans, hold your breath!"

Call number: Paperback rack

When Robicheaux, now a police officer based in the somewhat quieter Louisiana town of New Iberia, learns that an old friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest always at the center of controversy, has been the victim of a particularly brutal assault, he knows he has to return to New Orleans to investigate, if only unofficially. What he doesn't realize is that in doing so he is inviting into his life -- and into the lives of those around him -- an ancestral evil that could destroy them all.

The investigation begins innocently enough. Assisted by good friend and P.I. Clete Purcel, Robicheaux confronts the man they believe to be responsible for Dolan's beating, a drug dealer and porno star named Gunner Ardoin. The confrontation, however, turns into a standoff as Clete ends up in jail and Robicheaux receives an ominous warning to keep out of New Orleans' affairs.

Meanwhile, back in New Iberia, more trouble is brewing: Three local teenage girls are killed in a drunk-driving accident, the driver being the seventeen-year-old daughter of a prominent physician. Robicheaux traces the source of the liquor to one of New Iberia's "daiquiri windows," places that sell mixed drinks from drive-by windows. When the owner of the drive-through operation is brutally murdered, Robicheaux immediately suspects the grief-crazed father of the dead teen driver. But his assumption is challenged when the murder weapon turns up belonging to someone else.

The trouble continues when Father Jimmie asks Robicheaux to help investigate the presence of a toxic landfill near St. James Parish in New Orleans, which in turn leads to a search for the truth behind the disappearance many years before of a legendary blues musician and composer. Tying together all these seemingly disparate threads of crime is a maniacal killer named Max Coll, a brutal, brilliant, and deeply haunted hit man sent to New Orleans to finish the job on Father Dolan. Once Coll shows up, it becomes clear that Dave Robicheaux will be forced to ignore the warning to stay out of New Orleans, and he soon finds himself drawn deeper into a viper's nest of sordid secrets and escalating violence that sets him up for a confrontation that echoes down the lonely corridors of his own unresolved past.

A masterful exploration of the troubled side of human nature and the darkest corners of the heart, and filled with the kinds of unforgettable characters that are the hallmarks of his novels, "Last Car to Elysian Fields" is James Lee Burke in top form in the kind of lush, atmospheric thriller that his fans have come to expect from the master of crime fiction."

Call number: Paperback rack

But it is when Buford LaRose -- scion of an old Southern family and author of a book on the Crown case -- is elected governor that Dave Robicheaux's involvement with Aaron Crown deepens to a level he can barely fathom. And it is Buford's social-climbing wife, Karyn, with whom Robicheaux had an affair years before, who proves to be his most poisonous adversary.

Filled with thrilling adventure, lightning-paced action, and street smart realism, "Cadillac Jukebox" is a brilliant addition to Burke's standout Dave Robicheaux series."

Call number: Paperback rack

A Morning for Flamingos - Publisher's Marketing: "A CAJUN COP INFILTRATES THE MOB... BUT IS HE TOO CLOSE?
Clutching the shards of his shattered life, Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux has rejoined the New Iberia police force. While transporting two death-row prisoners, Dave is wounded and his partner killed -- reopening the doors to a past he would have rather kept closed.
Now he's trailing a killer into the heart of the Big Easy's underworld. Increasingly possessed by his undercover role, Robicheaux surprisingly forms an intimate bond with a Mafia don. Embroiled in a world of drug dealers, prostitutes and double-crosses, Robicheaux must still confront his most dangerous enemy -- himself.
Rich with fascinating characters and dramatic plot twists, the audio debut of James Lee Burke and his Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux recalls the best of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe -- tough, complex and thoroughly entertaining."

Call number: Paperback rack

Sunset Limited - Publisher's Marketing: "Detective Dave Robicheaux re-turns to center stage in an incendiary new novel by James Lee Burke.
A gripping tale of racial violence, class warfare, and the sometimes cruel legacy of Southern history, "Sunset Limited is a stunning achievement, confirming Burke's place as one of America's premier stylists as well as master storytellers. "Not since Raymond Chandler has anyone so thoroughly reinvented the crime and mystery genre," said novelist Jim Harrison, and in "Sunset Limited Burke continues to carve out new territory.
As always in the fiction of James Lee Burke, the past impinges on the present: The forty-year-old crucifixion of a prominent labor leader named Jack Flynn remains an unsolved atrocity that has never been forgotten in New Iberia, Louisiana. When Flynn's daughter, Megan, a photojournalist drawn to controversial subjects, returns to the site of her father's murder, it quickly becomes clear that her family's bloodstained past will not stay buried.
Megan gives her old friend Dave Robicheaux a tip about a small-time criminal named Cool Breeze Broussard, scarcely suspecting that the seemingly innocuous case will lead Robicheaux and his partner, Helen Soileau, into the midst of a deadly conspiracy. As New Orleans mobsters and mysterious hit men converge on his parish, Robicheaux soon finds that all the clues point back in time to the tortured death of Jack Flynn.
Combining brilliant prose, crackling suspense, and an exquisite sense of character and place, "Sunset Limited is a wrenching tale of historic violence and soiled redemption that reveals one of America's finest novelists at his masterful best."

Call number: Paperback rack

The Neon Rain - Publisher's Marketing: "Detective Dave Robicheaux has fought too many battles: in Vietnam, with killers and hustlers, with police brass, and with the bottle. Lost without his wife's love, Robicheaux's haunted soul mirrors the intensity and dusky mystery of New Orleans' French Quarter -- the place he calls home, and the place that nearly destroys him when he becomes involved in the case of a young prostitute whose body is found in a bayou. Thrust into the world of drug lords and arms smugglers, Robicheaux must face down a subterranean criminal world and come to terms with his own bruised heart in order to survive."

Call number: Paperback rack

Heartwood - Publisher's Marketing: "Billy Bob Holland, the former Texas Ranger-turned-defense attorney introduced in "Cimarron Rose", returns to find himself involved in a brutal feud involving a wealthy local kingpin and a ruthless group of Mexican-American gang members desperate to be players in a game they can't win."

Call number: Paperback rack

Assassin's Apprentice - Publisher's Marketing: "Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him sectetly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom"

Call number: Paperback rack

Royal Assassin - Publisher's Marketing: "This sequel to the acclaimed Assassin's Apprentice continues the story of Fitz, the illegitimate royal son tutored in the dark arts of the assassin. With the King near death, the Red Ship Raiders renew their slaughter of entire seaside towns and the throne itself is threatened. Now the fate of the kingdom rests in Fitz's hands."

Call number: Paperback rack

Assassin's Quest - Publisher's Marketing: "With her awe-inspiring "Farseer" trilogy, Robin Hobb has established herself as a writer who "continues to revitalize a genre that often seems all too generic, making it new in ways that range from the subtle to the shocking" ("Locus"). Now she presents a masterful finale that sends FitzChivalry--assassin, royal bastard, and king's pawn--on the ultimate quest: to eliminate the man who has stolen the throne and corrupted all he once held dear. "

Call number: Paperback rack

The Catcher in the Rye - Publisher's Marketing: "Anyone who has read J. D. Salinger's New Yorker stories - particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme - With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is full of children. The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep."

Call number: PS3537 .A426 C3 1951 c.2

Nine Stories - Publisher's Marketing: "The Stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, Just Before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man, Down at the Dinghy, For Esme -- With Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, and Teddy."

Call number: PS3537 .A426 N56 1991 c.2

The Ice Queen - Publisher's Marketing: "Be careful what you wish for. A small town librarian lives a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks it into a new beginning. She goes in search of Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead, then simply got up and walked away. Perhaps this stranger who has seen death face to face can teach her to live without fear. When she finds him he is opposite, a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches."

Call number: Paperback rack

Practical Magic - Publisher's Marketing: "For more than two hundred years, the Owens women had been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. And Gillian and Sally endured that fate as well; as children, the sisters were outsiders. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, but all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One would do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they shared brought them back-almost as if by magic..."

Call number: Paperback rack

A Million Little Pieces - Publisher's Marketing: "Intense, unpredictable, and instantly engaging, this is a story of drug and alcohol abuse and rehabilitation as it has never been told before. Recounted in visceral, kinetic prose, and crafted with a forthrightness that rejects self-pity, it brings readers face-to-face with a provocative understanding of the nature of addiction and the meaning of recovery."

Call number: Paperback rack

*student request

My Friend Leonard - Publisher's Marketing: "Perhaps the most unconventional and literally breathtaking father-son story you'll ever read, "My Friend Leonard" pulls you immediately and deeply into a relationship as unusual as it is inspiring.
The father figure is Leonard, the high-living, recovering coke addict "West Coast Director of a large Italian-American finance firm" (read: mobster) who helped to keep James Frey clean in "A Million Little Pieces," The son is, of course, James, damaged perhaps beyond repair by years of crack and alcohol addiction-and by more than a few cruel tricks of fate.
James embarks on his post-rehab existence in Chicago emotionally devastated, broke, and afraid to get close to other people. But then Leonard comes back into his life, and everything changes. Leonard offers his "son" lucrative-if illegal and slightly dangerous-employment. He teaches James to enjoy life, sober, for the first time. He instructs him in the art of "living boldly," pushes him to pursue his passion for writing, and provides a watchful and supportive veil of protection under which James can get his life together. Both Leonard's and James's careers flourish . . . but then Leonard vanishes. When the reasons behind his mysterious absence are revealed, the book opens up in unexpected emotional ways.
"My Friend Leonard" showcases a brilliant and energetic young writer rising to important new challenges-displaying surprising warmth, humor, and maturity-without losing his intensity. This book proves that one of the most provocative literary voices of his generation is also one of the most emphatically human."

Call number: Paperback rack

*student request

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It - Publisher's Marketing: "A revealing, forward-looking examination of the outsize influence Google has had on the changing media Landscape.
There are companies that create waves and those that ride or are drowned by them. As only he can, bestselling author Ken Auletta takes readers for a ride on the Google wave, telling the story of how it formed and crashed into traditional media businesses-from newspapers to books, to television, to movies, to telephones, to advertising, to Microsoft. With unprecedented access to Google's founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined.
Using Google as a stand-in for the digital revolution, Auletta takes readers inside Google's closed-door meetings and paints portraits of Google's notoriously private founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as those who work with-and against-them. In his narrative, Auletta provides the fullest account ever told of Google's rise, shares the "secret sauce" of Google's success, and shows why the worlds of "new" and "old" media often communicate as if residents of different planets.
Google engineers start from an assumption that the old ways of doing things can be improved and made more efficient, an approach that has yielded remarkable results- Google will generate about $20 billion in advertising revenues this year, or more than the combined prime-time ad revenues of CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX. And with its ownership of YouTube and its mobile phone and other initiatives, Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells Auletta his company is poised to become the world's first $100 billion media company. Yet there are many obstacles that threaten Google's future, and opposition from media companies and government regulators may be the least of these. Google faces internal threats, from its burgeoning size to losing focus to hubris. In coming years, Google's faith in mathematical formulas and in slide rule logic will be tested, just as it has been on Wall Street.
Distilling the knowledge accrued from a career of covering the media, Auletta will offer insights into what we know, and don't know, about what the future holds for the imperiled industry."

Call number: HD9696.8 .U64 G6623 2009

The Good Soldiers - Publisher's Marketing: "It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,"he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them.
Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Baghdad, and almost every grueling step of the way.
What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions Finkel grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, Finkel has also produced an eternal tale -not just of the Iraq War but of all wars, for all time."

Call number: DS79.764 .U6 F56 2009

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World - Publisher's Marketing: "With penetrating insights for today, this vital history of the world economic collapse of the late 1920s offers unforgettable portraits of the four men whose personal and professional actions as heads of their respective central banks changed the course of the twentieth century
It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one personas or governmentas control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions taken by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
In "Lords of Finance," we meet the neurotic and enigmatic Montagu Norman of the Bank of England, the xenophobic and suspicious Amile Moreau of the Banque de France, the arrogant yet brilliant Hjalmar Schacht of the Reichsbank, and Benjamin Strong of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose faAade of energy and drive masked a deeply wounded and overburdened man. After the First World War, these central bankers attempted to reconstruct the world of international finance. Despite their differences, they were united by a common fearathat the greatest threat to capitalism was inflationa and by a common vision that the solution was to turn back the clock and return the world to the gold standard.
For a brief period in the mid-1920s they appeared to have succeeded. The worldas currencies were stabilized and capital began flowing freely across the globe. But beneath the veneer of boom-town prosperity, cracks started to appear in the financial system. The gold standard that all had believed would provide an umbrella of stability proved to be a straitjacket, and the world economy began that terrible downward spiral known as the Great Depression.
As yet another period of economic turmoil makes headlines today, the Great Depression and the year 1929 remain the benchmark for true financial mayhem. Offering a new understanding of the global nature of financial crises, "Lords of Finance" is a potent reminder of the enormous impact that the decisions of central bankers can have, of their fallibility, and of the terrible human consequences that can result when they are wrong."

Call number: HG172.A2 A43 2009

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual - Publisher's Marketing: "A pocket compendium of food wisdom-from the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food"
Michael Pollan, our nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, "Food Rules" is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat."

Call number: RA784 .P6429 2009

How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower - Publisher's Marketing: "In AD 200, the Roman Empire seemed unassailable. Its vast territory accounted for most of the known world. By the end of the fifth century, Roman rule had vanished in western Europe and much of northern Africa, and only a shrunken Eastern Empire remained. What accounts for this improbable decline? Here, Adrian Goldsworthy applies the scholarship, perspective, and narrative skill that defined his monumental "Caesar" to address perhaps the greatest of all historical questions--how Rome fell. It was a period of remarkable personalities, from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius to emperors like Diocletian, who portrayed themselves as tough, even brutal, soldiers. It was a time of revolutionary ideas, especially in religion, as Christianity went from persecuted sect to the religion of state and emperors. Goldsworthy pays particular attention to the willingness of Roman soldiers to fight and kill each other. Ultimately, this is the story of how an empire without a serious rival rotted from within, its rulers and institutions putting short-term ambition and personal survival over the wider good of the state. How Rome Fell is a brilliant successor to Goldsworthy's "monumental" ("The Atlantic") "Caesar.""

Call number: DG311 .G65 2009

The Companion Guide to Rome - Publisher's Marketing: "Six years after his first, very thorough, revision, John Fort has returned to the task, so that this long-honoured guidebook, regarded by the discerning visitor, since its first publication forty years ago, as THE indispensable introduction to the glories of Rome, continues to give an accurate picture of the city's treasures as they are currently displayed. This latest edition of the Guide is immeasurably enhanced by the replacement of the old street plans with new, clear versions of the itineraries that structure a volume which remains the unrivalled guide to perhaps the most beautiful and historic city in the world. John Fort, who has lived in the city for the past thirty years, walked every step of the routes described so vividly by Georgina Masson, and many more besides. In addition to checking and updating the information she provided so inimitably, he uncovered and describes a wealth of sights which slipped her notice, and accompanies the visitor through all the major museums and galleries as now arranged. The result is a guide to that incomparable array of classical, Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces which will enthral first-time visitors to the Eternal City and also delight the persistent returnee with fresh inspiration and stimulation."

Call number: DG804 .M34 2009

Call number: Library Reserves

*faculty request

Bonnicksen carefully illustrates the challenges of making policy for sensitive and often sensationalized researchresearch that touches deep-seated values and that probes the boundary between human and nonhuman animals."

Call number: QH445.7 .B66 2009

Daniel Sekulich takes readers on an eye-opening voyage into the world of high seas piracy, a multinational, multibillion-dollar enterprise controlled by organized crime syndicates and local warlords. Sekulich sails through some of the most dangerous waters on the planet to chronicle this threat to national and international security. He meets with victims of attacks, those fighting the perils, and even pirates themselves.

"Terror on the Seas "tells an explosive story of modern piracy, one that's costing over $25 billion a year to battle and that poses the risks of environmental disaster, economic chaos, and holy war."

Call number: G535 .S434 2009

Cheating Death: The Doctors and Medical Miracles That Are Saving Lives Against All Odds - Publisher's Marketing: "An unborn baby with a fatal heart defect . . . a skier submerged for an hour in a frozen Norwegian lake . . . a comatose brain surgery patient whom doctors have declared a "vegetable."
Twenty years ago all of them would have been given up for dead, with no realistic hope for survival. But today, thanks to incredible new medical advances, each of these individuals is alive and well . . .Cheating Death.
In this riveting book, Dr. Sanjay Gupta-neurosurgeon, chief medical correspondent for CNN, and bestselling author-chronicles the almost unbelievable science that has made these seemingly miraculous recoveries possible. A bold new breed of doctors has achieved amazing rescues by refusing to accept that any life is irretrievably lost. Extended cardiac arrest, "brain death," not breathing for over an hour-all these conditions used to be considered inevitably fatal, but they no longer are. Today, revolutionary advances are blurring the traditional line between life and death in fascinating ways.
Drawing on real-life stories and using his unprecedented access to the latest medical research, Dr. Gupta dramatically presents exciting accounts of how pioneering physicians and researchers are altering our understanding of how the human body functions when it comes to survival-and why more and more patients who once would have died are now alive. From experiments with therapeutic hypothermia to save comatose stroke or heart attack victims to lifesaving operations in utero to the study of animal hibernation to help wounded soldiers on far-off battlefields, these remarkable case histories transform and enrich all our assumptions about the true nature of death and life."

Call number: RC87.9 .G87 2009

How We Live and Why We Die: The Secret Lives of Cells - Publisher's Marketing: "Everything about our existence-movement and memory, imagination and reproduction, birth and, ultimately, death-is governed by our cells. They are the basis of all life in the universe, from the tiniest bacteria to the most complex animals. In the tradition of the classic Lives of a Cell, but with the benefit of the latest research, internationally acclaimed embryologist Lewis Wolpert demonstrates how human life derives from a single cell and then grows into a body, an incredibly complex society made up of billions of them. When we age, our cells cannot repair the damage they have undergone; when we get ill, it is because cells are so damaged they stop working and die. Wolpert examines the science behind topics that are much discussed but rarely understood-stem cell research, cloning, DNA, mutating cancer cells-and explains how all life evolved from just one cell. Lively and passionate, this is an accessible guide to understanding the human body and life itself."

Call number: QH582.4 .W65 2009

Preventing and Managing Workplace Violence: Legal and Strategic Guidelines - Publisher's Marketing: "This book concentrates not just on defining workplace violence but also identifies possible settings where violence may be more likely to occur, how to recognize the signs, and what to do if you suspect an employee is a potential risk. Post-9/11 safety concerns, what to do to minimize the occurrence of workplace violence, and employer liability are just a few of the other topics included as well."

Call number: HF5549.5 .E43 P735 2008

The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work: A Complete Guide for Managers, Supervisors, and Co-Workers - Publisher's Marketing: "According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), more than two million workers in the United States alone are victims of workplace violence each year, leading to millions of dollars lost in employee productivity. Many people believe that bullying occurs only among school-age children and fail to acknowledge the presence and devastating effects of bullying in the workplace. It is time that this destructive issue be addressed and resolved; however, you may be asking yourself how to accomplish such a task. The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work will provide you with valuable information on the topic, as well as unique solutions to the problem. In this new book, you will learn how to identify the problem of workplace bullying, how to define the workplace bully, how to identify characteristics of a targeted employee, how to identify pathological characteristic of workplace bullies, how to bust bullying, and how to bully-proof your employees. This book also discusses the indicators of a toxic workplace, the causes of workplace bullying, reasons why workplace bullying is perpetuated and unchallenged by other employees, the connection between bullying and lethal workplace violence, and the legal aspects of bullying. Furthermore, you will learn about mob bullying, the effects of bullying on the target, and the effects of bullying on the organization. The author also covers such special topics as workplace bullying in federal, state, and local organizations; the United States armed forces; Fortune 500 companies; and medical organizations, as well as reverse bullying by employees who inappropriately assert harassment and bullying by their superiors even though they have been fairly disciplined for sub-standard job performance. This book goes one step further and provides solutions to end workplace violence, anti-bullying pledges, and examples of zero-tolerance bullying policies. If you are a manager, a supervisor, or even just an employee and you suspect bullying is occurring, you need to read this book. Whether bullying is already happening or you want to be sure it never does, The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work will provide you with everything you need to know to create a better working environment."

Call number: HF5549.5 .B84 K64 2008

The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power - Publisher's Marketing: "Readers of "The New York Times" know David Sanger as one of the most trusted correspondents in Washington, one to whom presidents, secretaries of state, and foreign leaders talk with unusual candor. Now, with a historian's sweep and an insider's eye for telling detail, Sanger delivers an urgent intelligence briefing on the world America faces.
In a riveting narrative, "The Inheritance" describes the huge costs of distraction and lost opportunities at home and abroad as Iraq soaked up manpower, money, and intelligence capabilities. The 2008 market collapse further undermined American leadership, leaving the new president with a set of challenges unparalleled since Franklin D. Roosevelt entered the Oval Office.
Sanger takes readers into the White House Situation Room to reveal how Washington penetrated Tehran's nuclear secrets, leading President Bush, in his last year, to secretly step up covert actions in a desperate effort to delay an Iranian bomb. Meanwhile, his intelligence chiefs made repeated secret missions to Pakistan as they tried to stem a growing insurgency and cope with an ally who was also aiding the enemy-while receiving billions in American military aid. Now the new president faces critical choices: Is it better to learn to live with a nuclear Iran or risk overt or covert confrontation? Is it worth sending U.S. forces deep into Pakistani territory at the risk of undermining an unstable Pakistani government sitting on a nuclear arsenal? It is a race against time and against a new effort by Islamic extremists-never before disclosed-to quietly infiltrate Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
"Bush wrote a lot of checks," one senior intelligence official told Sanger, "that the next president is going to have to cash."
"The Inheritance" takes readers to Afghanistan, where Bush never delivered on his promises for a Marshall Plan to rebuild the country, paving the way for the Taliban's return. It examines the chilling calculus of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il, who built actual weapons of mass destruction in the same months that the Bush administration pursued phantoms in Iraq, then sold his nuclear technology in the Middle East in an operation the American intelligence apparatus missed. And it explores how China became one of the real winners of the Iraq war, using the past eight years to expand its influence in Asia, and lock up oil supplies in Africa while Washington was bogged down in the Middle East. Yet Sanger, a former foreign correspondent in Asia, sees enormous potential for the next administration to forge a partnership with Beijing on energy and the environment.
At once a secret history of our foreign policy misadventures and a lucid explanation of the opportunities they create, "The Inheritance "is vital reading for anyone trying to understand the extraordinary challenges that lie ahead."

Call number: E902 .S365 2009

Eating Animals - Publisher's Marketing: "Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, "Eating Animals" explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, "Everything is Illuminated" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," widely loved, "Eating Animals" is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell."

Call number: TX392 .F58 2009

The Job-Hunter's Survival Guide: How to Find Hope and Rewarding Work, Even When "There Are No Jobs" - Publisher's Marketing: "From the author of "What Color Is Your Parachute?" comes this timely and concise guide to assist recent college graduates as well as the millions of recently unemployed workers find new jobs fast."

Call number: HF5382.7 .B628 2010

Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA - Publisher's Marketing: "Once upon a time, the CIA took the risks necessary to protect America. "If you fall," went its mantra, "fall forward." In "Beyond Repair, " one of the agency's most respected former operatives mounts a scathing cri-tique of the preparedness of today's CIA--and, spe-cifically, the Directorate of Operations at its core--to defend America against the dizzying dangers of the twenty-first century. In a compelling blend of analy-sis and fascinating true-life stories, Charles S. Faddis argues that the CIA has devolved into a low-risk or, often, no-risk bureaucracy of careerists whose mantra might be summed up thus: "Don't fall."
"Every senior officer I know in the CIA carries personal liability insurance," writes Faddis, "because of the fear of being sued for actions taken in the line of duty." And, he notes, no operatives who commanded CIA teams in Afghanistan have been promoted to key positions. Why? Because they operate within a system that is no longer built to encourage and reward the risk taking and creativity they excelled at.
Faddis discusses the birth of the CIA--then called the Office of Strategic Services--during World War II under "Wild Bill" Donovan, the twentieth-century American father of spy craft. Donovan's daring would not get him far in today's CIA, Faddis observes. Describing how the twenty-first-century CIA works from the inside out, he paints an unsettling picture of an agency that has truly gone awry--recalling, for example, his own experience in a Middle Eastern country as a chief of station without a qualified Arabic linguist on hand.
Faddis concludes by setting forth the main points of a plan for building a new entity. He proposes that this agency draw on the best qualities of the OSS (and readopt its name) while adapting to twenty-first-century needs, and that it be staffed by many of the CIA's finest men and women. This new agency would maintain the midnight watch, so Americans can sleep well at night."

Call number: JK468 .I6 F32 2010

A World Without Ice - Publisher's Marketing: "A co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize offers a clear-eyed explanation of the planet's imperiled ice.
Much has been written about global warming, but the crucial relationship between people and ice has received little focus-until now. As one of the world's leading experts on climate change, Henry Pollack provides an accessible, comprehensive survey of ice as a force of nature, and the potential consequences as we face the possibility of a world without ice.
"A World Without Ice" traces the effect of mountain glaciers on supplies of drinking water and agricultural irrigation, as well as the current results of melting permafrost and shrinking Arctic sea ice-a situation that has degraded the habitat of numerous animals and sparked an international race for seabed oil and minerals. Catastrophic possibilities loom, including rising sea levels and subsequent flooding of lowlying regions worldwide, and the ultimate displacement of millions of coastal residents. "A World Without Ice" answers our most urgent questions about this pending crisis, laying out the necessary steps for managing the unavoidable and avoiding the unmanageable."

Call number: GB2405 .P55 2009

Drawing on extensive field work and research from around the world, Goldhagen explores the anatomy of genocide--explaining why genocides begin, are sustained, and end; why societies support them, why they happen so frequently and how the international community should and can successfully stop them.

As a great book should, "Worse than War" seeks to change the way we think and to offer new possibilities for a better world. It tells us how we might at last begin to eradicate this greatest scourge of humankind."

Call number: HV6322.7 .G65 2009

Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe - Publisher's Marketing: "The Rwandan genocide sparked a horrific bloodbath that swept across sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately leading to the deaths of some four million people. In this extraordinary history of the recent wars in Central Africa, GA(c)rard Prunier offers a gripping account of how one grisly episode laid the groundwork for a sweeping and disastrous upheaval.
Prunier vividly describes the grisly aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when some two million refugees--a third of Rwanda's population--fled to exile in Zaire in 1996. The new Rwandan regime then crossed into Zaire and attacked the refugees, slaughtering upwards of 400,000 people. The Rwandan forces then turned on Zaire's despotic President Mobutu and, with the help of a number of allied African countries, overthrew him. But as Prunier shows, the collapse of the Mobutu regime and the ascension of the corrupt and erratic Laurent-DA(c)sirA(c) Kabila created a power vacuum that drew Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and other African nations into an extended and chaotic war. The heart of the book documents how the whole core of the African continent became engulfed in an intractible and bloody conflict after 1998, a devastating war that only wound down following the assassination of Kabila in 2001. Prunier not only captures all this in his riveting narrative, but he also indicts the international community for its utter lack of interest in what was then the largest conflict in the world.
Here then is a gripping eyewitness account of the most bloody upheaval of recent times, a book of passionate and unblinking intensity that is our best record to date of one of the great tragedies of the post-Cold War era."

Call number: DT658.26 .P78 2009

Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 - Publisher's Marketing: "Text messaging has spread like wildfire. Indeed texting is so widespread that many parents, teachers, and media pundits have been outspoken in their criticism of it. Does texting spell the end of western civilization?
In this humorous, level-headed and insightful book, David Crystal argues that the panic over texting is misplaced. Crystal, a world renowned linguist and prolific author on the uses and abuses of English, here looks at every aspect of the phenomenon of text-messaging and considers its effects on literacy, language, and society. He explains how texting began, how it works, who uses it, and how much it is used, and he shows how to interpret the mixture of pictograms, logograms, abbreviations, symbols, and wordplay typically used in texting. He finds that the texting system of conveying sounds and concepts goes back a long way--to the very origins of writing. And far from hindering children's literacy, texting turns out to help it.
Illustrated with original art by Ed MacLachlan, a popular cartoonist whose work has appeared in Punch, Private Eye, New Statesman, and many other publications, Txting: The Gr8 Db8 is entertaining and instructive--reassuring for worried parents and teachers, illuminating for teenagers, and fascinating for everyone interested in what's currently happening to language and communication."

Call number: TK5105.73 .C79 2008

Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty - Publisher's Marketing: "The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a "Christian nation." Many on the left contend that the First Amendment was designed to boldly separate church and state. Neither of these claims is true, argues Beliefnet.com editor in chief Steven Waldman. With refreshing objectivity, Waldman narrates the real story of how our nation's Founders forged a new approach to religious liberty.
"Founding Faith "vividly describes the religious development of five Founders. Benjamin Franklin melded the Puritan theology of his youth and the Enlightenment philosophy of his adulthood. John Adams's pungent views on religion stoked his revolutionary fervor and shaped his political strategy. George Washington came to view religious tolerance as a military necessity. Thomas Jefferson pursued a dramatic quest to "rescue" Jesus, in part by editing the Bible. Finally, it was James Madison who crafted an integrated vision of how to prevent tyranny while encouraging religious vibrancy.
The spiritual custody battle over the Founding Fathers and the role of religion in America continues today. Waldman at last sets the record straight, revealing the real history of religious freedom to be dramatic, unexpected, paradoxical, and inspiring. "

Call number: BL640 .W35 2009

Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism - Publisher's Marketing: "Death in the Everglades chronicles the demise of one of 20th-century Florida's most enduring folk heroes. The murder of Guy Bradley represents a milestone not only in the saga of the Everglades but also in the broader history of American environmentalism. This fascinating biography of his abbreviated but eventful life is emblematic of the struggle to tame the Florida frontier without destroying it. As Stuart McIver unfolds the story behind this little-known crime, he also provides a window into Florida history during the creation of modern South Florida. Born in Chicago in 1870, Bradley moved to Florida as a young boy in 1876. Nineteen years later his father became associated with the developer and railroad magnate Henry Flagler, and in 1898 the family moved to the isolated coastal village of Flamingo. Situated on the southeastern fringe of the Everglades, Flamingo was a flash point in an emerging ecological battleground that drew the Bradleys and other pioneer families into a conflict later dubbed "the Plume Wars." At the turn of the century, the mass killing of egrets and other plume birds for feathers to adorn women's hats was a serious concern among the nation's growing cadre of environmentalists, especially among those who belonged to the Audubon Society, a conservation organization founded in 1886. In 1901, at the urging of Audubon Society leaders and the American Ornithologists' Union, the Florida legislature enacted a bird protection law that provided for the hiring of local game wardens, and a year later Guy Bradley assumed the dual role of Monroe County's game warden and deputy sheriff. For the next three years, from 1902 to 1905, Bradley matched wits and sometimes weaponswith an array of plume hunters and other nefarious characters, some of whom were strangers but many of whom were friends or acquaintances of the warden or his family. In the end, Bradley was shot and killed by Walter Smith, a man he had known for nearly a decade. How this murder came about, what happened to Smith and others left behind, and how Bradley's demise and subsequent controversies affected the environmental movement are intriguing questions that frame McIver's richly textured narrative. With the instincts and skills of a master storyteller, McIver--long one of Florida's most historically-minded journalists--has recaptured a tale for the ages, a story of personal sacrifice and collective awakening that altered the course of the state's natural and human history."

Call number: GE56 .B73 M35 2003

*faculty request

Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss

Call number: QH105 .F6 P58 2009

*faculty request

The Case of Terri Schiavo: Ethics, Politics, and Death in the 21st Century - Publisher's Marketing: "The case of Terri Schiavo, a young woman who spent 15 years in a persistent vegetative state, has emerged as a watershed in debates over end-of-life care. While many observers had thought the right to refuse medical treatment was well established, this case split a family, divided a nation, and counfounded physicians, legislators, and many of the people they treated or represented. In renewing debates over the importance of advance directives, the appropriate role of artificial hydration and nutrition, and the responsibilities of family members, the case also became one of history's most extensively litigated health care disputes. The Case of Terri Schiavo assembles a team of first-hand participants and content experts to provide thoughtful and nuanced analyses. In addition to a comprehensive overview, the book includes contributions by Ms. Schiavo's guardian ad litem, a neurologist and lawyer who participated in the case, and scholars who examine issues related to litigation, faith, gender, and disability. The volume also includes a powerful dissent from the views of many scholars in the bioethics community. The book is intended for students, health care professionals, policy makers, and other in search of carefully reasoned analyses of the case that will shape our view of death and end-of-life medical care for decades."

Call number: R726 .C358 2009

Government Spending (Opposing Viewpoints)

Call number: HJ7537 .G68 2009

Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture

Call number: GV17 .P65 1987

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World - Publisher's Marketing: "Flamethrowers, poison gases, incendiary bombs, the large-scale spreading of disease... are these terrifying agents and implements of warfare modern inventions? Not by a long shot. Weapons of biological and chemical warfare have been in use for thousands of years, and "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs," Adrienne Mayor's fascinating exploration of the origins of biological and unethical warfare draws extraordinary connections between the mythical worlds of Hercules and the Trojan War, the accounts of Herodotus and Thucydides, and modern methods of war and terrorism.
"Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs" will catapult readers into the dark and fascinating realm of ancient war and mythic treachery-and their devastating consequences."

Call number: UG447.8 .M335 2009

This book has been prepared as a reference for high-school students, but it also will be useful for anyone who wants a compact, plain-spoken basic guide to the science of global warming. "Global Warming 101" begins with an examination of basic issues, followed by important controversies in the field. The book then describes scientific issues related to melting ice, rising seas, and effects on plants and animals, as well as human health. "Global Warming 101" concludes with consideration of possible solutions. "Global Warming 101" combines a survey of the science of global warming with reporting from around the world, from sinking Pacific islands and thawing Arctic permafrost, which indicate that significant global warming already has begun."

Call number: QC981.8 .G56 J639 2008

Genetics 101 - Publisher's Marketing: "What should the average person know about science? Because science is so central to life in the 21st century, science educators and other leaders of the scientific community believe that it is essential that everyone understand the basic concepts of the most vital and far-reaching disciplines. "Genetics 101" does exactly that. This accessible volume provides readers - whether students new to the field or just interested members of the lay public - with the essential ideas of genetics using a minimum of jargon and mathematics. Concepts are introduced in a progressive order so that more complicated ideas build on simpler ones, and each is discussed in small, bite-sized segments so that they can be more easily understood. "

Call number: QH437 .W56 2007

The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America - Publisher's Marketing: "Why did the War on Poverty give way to the war on welfare? Many in the United States saw the welfare reforms of 1996 as the inevitable result of twelve years of conservative retrenchment in American social policy, but there is evidence that the seeds of this change were sown long before the Reagan Revolution-and not necessarily by the Right.
"The War on Welfare: Family, Poverty, and Politics in Modern America" traces what Bill Clinton famously called "the end of welfare as we know it" to the grassroots of the War on Poverty thirty years earlier. Marshaling a broad variety of sources, historian Marisa Chappell provides a fresh look at the national debate about poverty, welfare, and economic rights from the 1960s through the mid-1990s. In Chappell's telling, we experience the debate over welfare from multiple perspectives, including those of conservatives of several types, liberal antipoverty experts, national liberal organizations, labor, government officials, feminists of various persuasions, and poor women themselves.
During the Johnson and Nixon administrations, deindustrialization, stagnating wages, and widening economic inequality pushed growing numbers of wives and mothers into the workforce. Yet labor unions, antipoverty activists, and moderate liberal groups fought to extend the fading promise of the family wage to poor African Americans families through massive federal investment in full employment and income support for male breadwinners. In doing so, however, these organizations condemned programs like Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) for supposedly discouraging marriage and breaking up families. Ironically their arguments paved the way for increasingly successful right-wing attacks on both "welfare" and the War on Poverty itself."

Call number: HV91 .C4513 2009

Johnson v. Santa Clara involved two people who in 1980 competed for a dispatcher position with the transportation department of Santa Clara County, California. Paul Johnson had more experience and slightly higher test scores, but Diane Joyce was given the job based on affirmative action. An irate Johnson sued the county and won, only to have the decision reversed in appellate court. That reversal was subsequently upheld in the Supreme Court's 1987 decision, reaffirming that it was legitimate for employers to consider gender in hiring.

Melvin Urofsky proves an exemplary guide through the complexities of this case, as he takes us from the workplace through the various levels of our federal court system. Balancing case details with an overview of constitutional law and judicial process, he creates a model legal history that is both appealing and enlightening for the non-scholar. Urofsky is especially good at highlighting the fundamental human drama of this case and shows how Johnson and Joyce were simply ordinary people, each with valid reasons for their actions, but were both ultimately caught tip in legal and social issues that reached well beyond their ownlives.

Affirmative Action on Trial pointedly addresses the issue of sex discrimination and the broader controversy over the place of affirmative action in American society. While it's hard to determine the likely future of affirmative action, especially in light of more recent court decisions and legislative initiatives, there's no question that cases like Johnson v. Santa Clara will continue to shape our understanding of its role in American society."

Call number: KF228 .J64 U758 1997

What Causes ADHD?: Understanding What Goes Wrong and Why - Publisher's Marketing: "Synthesizing a wealth of recent neuropsychological research, this groundbreaking book focuses on the multiple pathways by which attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) develops. Joel T. Nigg marshals the best available knowledge on what is actually going on in the symptomatic child's brain and why, tracing the intersecting causal influences of genetic, neural, and environmental factors. In the process, the book confronts such enduring controversies as the validity of ADHD as a clinical construct. Specific suggestions are provided for studies that might further refine the conceptualization of the disorder, with significant potential benefits for treatment and prevention."

Call number: RJ506.H9 N52 2006

Two expert authors examine specifics relating to school violence, opportunities to prevent and intervene, and the importance of planning for a crisis. Most other books about school violence either highlight the research or highlight practitioner viewpoints. This revealing book presents both, balancing insights gained through real-world experiences with research on best practices. The result is a fuller understanding of the problem-understanding that will enable solutions."

Call number: LB3013.3 .L375 2009

The Probiotics Revolution: The Definitive Guide to Safe, Natural Health Solutions Using Probiotic and Prebiotic Foods and Supplements - Publisher's Marketing: "If the thought of bacteria conjures images of germs that should be avoided at all costs--and certainly not ingested--think again! Some friendly bacteria, called probiotics, are not only beneficial to your health, they're essential. Now an internationally recognized scientist at a top U.S. medical school--one of the leading researchers in the field--sheds light on the extraordinary benefits of these natural health superstars.
Thanks to an explosion of research in recent years, one thing is clear: probiotics, the healthy bacteria that inhabit the digestive tract, are the body's silent partners for good health, optimizing the power of the immune system to fight disease and the "bad" germs we fear. But how do they work? And in the face of factors like stress and poor diet, which decrease their numbers, how do you keep your supply well stocked?
Here is an up-to-the-minute, highly accessible guide to probiotics and the foods and supplements that contain and support them--many of which may be in your diet already. Discover:
The key role of probiotics and prebiotics in restoring healthy balance to our bodies, improving immune system functioning, and curbing inflammation
How to use probiotic foods and supplements to prevent and relieve allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, yeast infections, and the negative side effects of antibiotic use
New evidence that probiotics may help fight asthma, cardiovascular disease, breast and colon cancer, autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia--and even obesity
Natural sources of prebiotics, the nutrients that help make the digestive tract more hospitable for probiotic bacteria
The Probiotics Revolution also includes a step-by-step plan for incorporating the many food sources of probiotics and prebiotics into your diet, a complete buyer's guide to probiotic supplements, and how to introduce probiotics to your family and children."

Call number: RM666 .P835 H84 2008

Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion Before and After Roe V. Wade - Publisher's Marketing: "The battle for legal abortion in the United States may have been won, but access to safe medical abortions is rapidly narrowing. Some 84 percent of all U.S. counties are now without abortion facilities, and the situation is growing worse. How are we to explain the crisis of abortion access? In Doctors of Conscience, Carole Joffe argues that in addition to the violence and disruption of the anti-abortion movement, the medical community itself must share the blame. Joffe traces the ways mainstream medicine has marginalized abortion even after Roe vs. Wade, by failing to establish needed training and services and by stigmatizing and penalizing doctors who perform abortions. The costs have been high - not only for women with unwanted pregnancies, but also for doctors committed to providing safe medical abortions. Based on in-depth interviews with forty-five physicians who have provided or facilitated abortions, Doctors of Conscience recalls the days before Roe, when emergency rooms were filled with women maimed and infected by botched abortions. Witnessing the desperation of women seeking illegal abortions was a turning point in the careers of many of the doctors interviewed. After Roe, they continued to be haunted by their experiences."

Call number: HQ767.15 .J64 1995

How did the post-"Roe v. Wade" world come to resemble pre-"Roe" so closely? While "abortion wars" may immediately bring to mind the very real threat of antiabortion violence, sociologist Carole Joffe shows how a pervasive stigma operates less dramatically but just as effectively to maintain cultural, political, and economic barriers to access.

After thirty years embedded in reproductive-health research, Joffe relays compelling testimony from doctors, health-care workers, and patients as they struggle against these barriers that shame women and marginalize physicians, even within the medical community. Real-life stories include those of poverty-stricken rape victims scrambling--and sometimes failing--to cover the cost of abortions that should be covered by Medicaid; a doctor having to beg her superior for permission to perform in-hospital a medical abortion too dangerous to handle at a clinic; and a woman whose miscarriage is causing septic shock refused care and bundled off to another hospital.

Along with these portraits, however, "Dispatches from the Abortion Wars" also offers hope for real change, pointing the way to a more compassionate standard of women's health care--one that responds to the needs of the individual and trusts women to make their own moral choices."

Call number: HQ767.5 .U5 J64 2009

As these two instances show, videogames affect the minds, bodies, and lives of millions of gamers, negatively and positively. This book approaches videogame addiction from a cross-disciplinary perspective, bridging the divide between liberal arts academics and clinical researchers. The topic of addiction is examined neutrally, using accepted research in neuroscience, media studies, and developmental psychology."

Call number: RC569.5 .V53 C53 2009

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum to the Zombie and Beyond: 100 Rediscovered Recipes and the Stories Behind Them - Publisher's Marketing: "In this expanded and updated edition of "Forgotten Cocktails and Vintage Spirits," historian, expert, and drink aficionado Dr. Cocktail adds another 20 fine recipes to his hand-picked collection of 80 rare-and-worth-rediscovered drink recipes, shares revelations about the latest cocktail trends, provides new resources for uncommon ingredients, and profiles of many of the cocktail world's movers and shakers. Historic facts, expanded anecdotes, and full-color vintage images from extremely uncommon sources round out this must-have volume. For anyone who enjoys an icy drink and an unforgettable tale."

Call number: TX951 .H223 2009

Dispatches from Juvenile Hall: Fixing a Failing System - Publisher's Marketing: "A revolutionary book that offers a fresh, bold approach to confronting the juvenile crime epidemic With the rise of violent crimes committed by teenagers in recent years, heated discussion has arisen over the societal factors that lead to juvenile criminality and the ways that public institutions are failing to curtail them. Now a team of experts with decades of collective hands-on experience present a book that cuts through the hype and paranoia to offer real solutions. Drawing on actual case studies, Dispatches from Juvenile Hall shows how conventional "tough on crime" tactics have only worsened the problem, and presents a new blueprint for change that incorporates punitive action, rehabilitation, and family intervention-a progressive program that will encourage and enlighten all those concerned about the future of our youth."

Call number: HV9104 .A612 2009

Three years ago, magazine editor Denise Brodeyas precocious four-year-old son, Toby, was diagnosed with a combination of sensory integration dysfunction and childhood depression. As she struggled to make sense of her new, often chaotic, often lonely world, what she found comforted her "most" was talking with other harried, hopeful, and insightful parents of kids with special needs, learning how they coped with the feelings they encountered throughout the day.

In "The Elephant in the Playroom," moms and dads from across the country write intimately and honestly about the joyful highs and disordered lows of raising children who are anot quite normal.a Laying bare the emotional, medical, and social challenges they face, their stories address issues ranging from if and when to medicate a child, to how to get a child who is overly sensitive to the texture of food to eat lunch. Eloquent and honest, the voices in this collection will provide solace and support for the millions of parents whose kids struggle with ADD, ADHD, sensory disorders, childhood depression, Aspergeras syndrome, and autismaas well as the many kids who fall between diagnoses.

Offering readers comfort, community, and much-needed perspective, "The Elephant in the Playroom" is sure to become essential reading for parents of special needs kids."

Call number: HQ773.6 .B75 2007

In this book, Sarolta A. Takacs offers a sweeping overview of Roman women's roles and functions in religion and, by extension, in Rome's history and culture from the republic through the empire. She begins with the religious calendar and the various festivals in which women played a significant role. She then examines major female deities and cults, including the Sibyl, Mater Magna, Isis, and the Vestal Virgins, to show how conservative Roman society adopted and integrated Greek culture into its mythic history, artistic expressions, and religion. Takacs's discussion of the Bona Dea Festival of 62 BCE and of the Bacchantes, female worshippers of the god Bacchus or Dionysus, reveals how women could also jeopardize Rome's existence by stepping out of their assigned roles. Takacs's examination of the provincial female flaminate and the Matres/Matronae demonstrates how women served to bind imperial Rome and its provinces into a cohesive society."

Call number: BL815.W6 T35 2008

Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation - Publisher's Marketing: "This book brings personal and pictorial perspectives to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Former CIA political analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give a comprehensive description of the occupation and the ways in which Israel dominates the Palestinians: Israeli settlements, the Separation Wall, roads restricted to cars with Israeli license plates, home demolitions on a massive scale, imprisonment, mass assassinations and wanton sniper and artillery fire. With more than 50 photographs vividly demonstrating the impact of the occupation on the Palestinian people, the authors argue that Israel's long-term intention is to so fragment the occupied territories that any sustainable presence in the land by Palestinians as a nation will be negated."

Call number: DS119.76 .C57 2009

The Manhattan Project: Big Science and the Atom Bomb - Publisher's Marketing: "The Manhattan Project, the allies' project during the Second World War to build the atomic bomb, did not represent a radical break in the development of twentieth-century science but rather an acceleration of developments already underway, according to Jeff Huges. Drawing on recent scholarship, Hughes offers a lively reinterpretation of these epic events and considers the dramatic role the military and industry played in shaping not just the Manhattan Project, but the whole of twentieth-century science."

Call number: QC773.3 .U5 H84 2002

In order to find out the impact of same-sex marriage, M. V. Lee Badgett traveled to a land where it has been legal for same-sex couples to marry since 2001: the Netherlands. Badgett interviews gay couples to find out how this step has affected their lives. We learn about the often surprising changes to their relationships, the reactions of their families, and work colleagues. Moreover, Badgett is interested in the ways that the institution itself has been altered for the larger society. How has the concept of marriage changed? When Gay People Get Married gives readers a primer on the current state of the same-sex marriage debate, and a new way of framing the issue that provides valuable new insights into the political, social, and personal stakes involved.

The experiences of other countries and these pioneering American states serve as a crystal ball as we grapple with this polarizing issue in the American context. The evidence shows both that marriage changes gay people more than gay people change marriage, and that it is the most liberal countries and states making the first move to recognize gay couples. In the end, Badgett compellingly shows that allowing gay couples to marry does not destroy the institution of marriage and that many gay couples do benefit, in expected as well as surprising ways, from the legal, social, and political rights that the institution offers."

Call number: K699 .B33 2009

From the founding of the United States to the present day, imperatives about the necessity of marriage and its proper form have been deeply embedded in national policy, law, and political rhetoric. Legislators and judges have envisioned and enforced their preferred model of consensual, lifelong monogamy--a model derived from Christian tenets and the English common law that posits the husband as provider and the wife as dependent. In early confrontations with Native Americans, emancipated slaves, Mormon polygamists, and immigrant spouses, through the invention of the New Deal, federal income tax, and welfare programs, the federal government consistently influenced the shape of marriages. And even the immense social and legal changes of the last third of the twentieth century have not unraveled official reliance on marriage as a "pillar of the state."

By excluding some kinds of marriages and encouraging others, marital policies have helped to sculpt the nation's citizenry, as well as its moral and social standards, and have directly affected national understandings of gender roles and racial difference. "Public Vows" is a panoramic view of marriage's political history, revealing the national government's profound role in our most private of choices. No one who reads this book will think of marriage in the same way again."

Call number: HQ536 .C757 2002

Animal Experimentation: A Guide to the Issues - Publisher's Marketing: "Animal Experimentation is an important book for all those involved in the conduct, teaching, learning, regulation, support or critique of animal-based research. Whilst maintaining the clarity of style that made the first edition so popular, this second edition has been updated to include discussion of genetically modified organisms and associated welfare and ethical issues that surround the breeding programs in such research. It also discusses the origins of vivisection, advances in human and non-human welfare made possible by animal experimentation, principle moral objections to the use of research animals, alternatives to the use of animals in research, and the regulatory umbrella under which experiments are conducted in Europe, USA and Australasia. In addition, the book highlights the future responsibilities of students who will be working with animals, and offers practical advice on experimental design, literature search, consultation with colleagues, and the importance of the on-going search for alternatives."

Call number: HV4915 .M65 2009

In this important work, Jeanne Flavin looks beyond abortion to document how the law and the criminal justice system police women's rights to conceive, to be pregnant, and to raise their children. Through vivid and disturbing case studies, Flavin shows how the state seeks to establish what a "good woman" and "fit mother" should look like and whose reproduction is valued. With a stirring conclusion that calls for broad-based measures that strengthen women's economic position, choice-making, autonomy, sexual freedom, and health care, Our Bodies, Our Crimes is a battle cry for all women in their fight to be fully recognized as human beings. At its heart, this book is about the right of a woman to be a healthy and valued member of society independent of how or whether she reproduces."

Call number: HQ1236.5 .U6 F532 2009

The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History - Publisher's Marketing: "On December 21, 2012, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a 5,125- year cycle calendar system pioneered by the Maya, will come to an end. At the same time, the earth, the sun, and the center of the galaxy will come together in an extremely rare cosmic alignment. More and more people believe that the world as we know it will experience a transformation in 2012, but few are aware of the complete history or significance of the date. John Major Jenkins, among the most authoritative voices of the 2012 movement, has written a definitive explanation of one of the most thought-provoking phenomena of our time. Drawing from his own groundbreaking research (including his involvement in the modern reconstruction of Mayan 2012 cosmology) and more than two decades of extensive study of Mayan culture, Jenkins has created the crucial guide to understanding the story of 2012-an essential overview of the history, theory, cultures, and personalities that have brought this extraordinary idea into modern awareness. Jenkins provides illuminating answers to some of the most-asked questions about 2012, including:
- How did the early Maya devise the calendar that gives us the cycle ending in 2012, and how does it work?
- How did the calendar come to be rediscovered and reconstructed in our era?
- What controversies and intrigues surround the topic, and what do scholars and researchers have to say about them?
- How can we cut through all the noise about 2012 and gain true wisdom from the Mayan teachings about this moment?"

Call number: F1435.3 .C14 J398 2009

Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?: A Complete Guide to End-Of-Time Predictions - Publisher's Marketing: "An illustrated, encyclopedic overview of the prophecies, calendars, and theories that indicate the year 2012 is a threshold of great change for humanity - Looks at the scientific and anthropological evidence for the rare galactic alignment due to occur in December 2012 - Sifts through the catastrophic theories to show what we might really expect in 2012

In December of 2012 the Mayan Calendar's Great Cycle will come to an end. Opinion remains divided as to whether apocalyptic scenarios of worldwide destruction or utopian visions of a spiritually renewed humanity will prevail after this key date has passed. What is certain, however, is that a rare galactic alignment will occur, one so unique that it is found at the core of many wisdom traditions from around the globe. Geoff Stray has been collecting the vast amounts of data relating to the 2012 phenomena since 1982. Far from confining his research to the Maya, who provide the most prominent predictions indicating this date will herald significant changes for humanity, he has studied the prophetic traditions of other cultures--including the Tibetan, Chinese, Jewish, Ethiopian, and tribal cultures from around the globe--to show the kind of convergence of cosmic purposes happening along a number of parallel tracks. This book offers an extensive study of many modern theories, including Terence McKenna's timewave zero and Maurice Cotterell's sunspot research as well as anomalous phenomena such as near death experiences and crop circles. Sifting through all the scientific research and speculation that the year 2012 has inspired, Geoff Stray provides an encyclopedic look at what we might really expect on this pivotal date."

Call number: CB151 .S84 2009

Knowledge as Power: Criminal Registration and Community Notification Laws in America - Publisher's Marketing: "Societies have long sought security by identifying potentially dangerous individuals in their midst. America is surely no exception. "Knowledge as Power" traces the evolution of a modern technique that has come to enjoy nationwide popularity--criminal registration laws. Registration, which originated in the 1930s as a means of monitoring gangsters, went largely unused for decades before experiencing a dramatic resurgence in the 1990s. Since then it has been complemented by community notification laws which, like the "Wanted" posters of the Frontier West, publicly disclose registrants' identifying information, involving entire communities in the criminal monitoring process.
"Knowledge as Power" provides the first in-depth history and analysis of criminal registration and community notification laws, examining the potent forces driving their rapid nationwide proliferation in the 1990s through today, as well as exploring how the laws have affected the nation's law, society, and governance. In doing so, the book provides compelling insights into the manifold ways in which registration and notification reflect and influence life in modern America."

Call number: KF9751 .L645 2009

"Reconsidering Sex Crimes and Offenders" is sure to challenge readers' understanding of who a sex offender is, how they should be treated, and how best to protect the community from such offenders. The book looks at how the legal definitions of certain offenses have changed over time and then explores a series of real-life case studies. Readers will discover how some citizens have been targeted and punished for consensual acts-including homosexuality, polygamy, and pornography. Additional coverage considers a number of highly controversial laws-from residency restrictions to the death penalty-and the media's role in fueling public support for them."

Call number: KF9325 .Z57 2009

Sex Offenders and Public Policy (Current Controversies)

Call number: HV6592 .S44 2008

Sex Offenses and the Men Who Commit Them: An Assessment of Sex Offenders on Probation - Publisher's Marketing: "Sex offenders are among the most despised criminals of our time, inspiring more legislation than any other class of violent offenders. Such horrific high-profile cases as those of Polly Klaas, Megan Kanka, Amber Hagerman, and, more recently, Elizabeth Smart, Jessica Lunsford, and Sarah Lunde have fed the media's overrepresentation and exploitation of cases involving unknown or barely known assailants ("stranger-danger"), which in reality constitute only a tiny percentage of all sexual assaults. Nonetheless, lawmakers and judicial personnel have responded to the false public perception that most sex crimes are perpetrated by strangers by enacting many legal policies targeted primarily at stranger offenders, including registration and community notification (often referred to as Megan's Law), AMBER alerts, intensive and/or lifetime probation (community supervision for life), specialized surveillance units, longer prison terms, and involuntary civil commitment. For better or worse, these public safety techniques are often applied to probated sex offenders, regardless of the severity of their crimes.
This book takes a hard look at this recent trend in the criminal justice response to sex crimes. Michelle L. Meloy investigated more than 150 convicted male sex offenders in a large metropolitan area who were sentenced to probation and supervised by a specialized surveillance unit. She interviewed many of these men, seeking information on the catalysts, stigmas, and effective deterrence of sexual violence. Her research is among the first to test a utility-based theory of sexual violence on a group of sex offender probationers. Rejecting the commonly held belief that sex offending is solely the result of a medical psychopathology on the part of the offender, Meloy demonstrates how certain methods of police or community surveillance undermine the ability of sex offender probationers to effectively reestablish themselves as citizens, and she provides an empirically based public policy response to sex offending that offers real promise in terms of deterrence and increased public protection."

Call number: HV6561 .M45 2006

Therapy Pets - Publisher's Marketing: "In this uplifting book we learn firsthand how the field of Animal Assisted Therapy is having remarkable success training animals to help and enhance the lives of children and adults with serious medical problems. Hospital rehabilitation programs, physical and occupational therapy sessions, nursing homes, mental healthcare facilities, and hospice programs are just some of the settings where dogs, cats, horses, and other animals have helped patients cope with often daunting medical challenges. With more than fifty photographs showing the visible improvements that trained therapy pets are making in the lives of sick and disabled people, the compelling stories relate many inspiring incidents of the healing animal-human partnership: six-year-old Brendan, disabled from birth, successfully completes his physical therapy with the help of Zorro, a big black hound once considered unadoptable; Philip, in his last days, finds some joy in the company of a therapy dog named Andy; and Tikva, a Keeshond therapy dog from Oregon, helps to comfort emotionally drained fire-fighters at New York City's Ground Zero. For animal lovers, healthcare providers, and anyone who appreciates how animals and humans interrelate, this is a wonderful, truly inspirational book."

Call number: RM931 .A65 C73 2003

The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War - Publisher's Marketing: "The globe's first true world war comes vividly to life in this arich, cautionary talea ("The New York Times Book Review")
The French and Indian War -the North American phase of a far larger conflagration, the Seven Years' War-remains one of the most important, and yet misunderstood, episodes in American history. Fred Anderson takes readers on a remarkable journey through the vast conflict that, between 1755 and 1763, destroyed the French Empire in North America, overturned the balance of power on two continents, undermined the ability of Indian nations to determine their destinies, and lit the along fuse, of the American Revolution. Beautifully illustrated and recounted by an expert storyteller, "The War That Made America" is required reading for anyone interested in the ways in which war has shaped the history of America and its peoples."

Call number: E199 .A595 2005

Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade - Publisher's Marketing: "Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade explores the philosophical and practical issues raised by activities such as surrogacy and organ trafficking. Stephen Wilkinson asks what is it that makes some commercial uses of the body controversial, whether the arguments against commercial exploitation stand up, and whether legislation outlawing such practices is really justified.
In Part One Wilkinson explains and analyses some of the notoriously slippery concepts used in the body commodification debate, including exploitation, harm and consent. In Part Two he focuses on three controversial issues (the buying and selling of human kidneys, commercial surrogacy, and DNA patenting) outlining contemporary regulation and investigating both the moral issues and the arguments for legal prohibition."

Call number: RD120.7 .W55 2003

The Hurt Locker - Summary: "When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever."

Call number: PN1997 HurtLoc DVD

Paranormal Activity - Summary: "After a young, middle class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban starter tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night... especially when they sleep... or try to."

Call number: PN1997 Paranormal DVD

Couples Retreat - Summary: "The comedy follows four Midwestern couples who embark on a journey to a tropical island resort. While one of the couples is there to work on their marriage, the other three set out to jet ski, spa and enjoy some fun in the sun. They soon discover that participation in the resorts couples therapy is not optional. Suddenly, their group-rate vacation comes at a price. What follows is a hilarious look at real world problems faced by all couples."

Call number: PN1997 CouplesRe DVD

9 - Summary: "When 9 (The Lord of the Rings Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them."

Call number: PN1997 9 DVD

Good Hair - Summary: "Comedian Chris Rock tackles the very personal issue of hair, and how attaining good hair can affect relationships, wallets, and a person's self-esteem. Features interviews with Dr. Maya Angelou, Nia Long, Ice-T, Raven Symone, and more. Bonus features include deleted scenes, featurette, and commentary."

Call number: TT972 .G66 2010 DVD

Star Trek - Summary: "The incredible story of a young crews maiden voyage on board the most advanced starship ever created: The USS Enterprise. In the midst of an incredible journey full of optimism, intrigue, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind."

Call number: PN1997 StarTrek 2009 DVD

A Serious Man - Summary: "A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary mans search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larrys unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolf) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larrys chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person a mensch a serious man?"

Call number: PN1997 SeriousM DVD

Whip It - Summary: "Hang onto your helmet and get ready to break away from the pack! Ellen Page scores huge laughs as Bliss Cavendar, a small-town teenager with a big dream: to find her own path in the world. Tired of following in her familys footsteps of compliance and conformity, Bliss discovers a way to put her life on the fast track...literally. She lands a spot on a rough-and-tumble roller derby team and becomes Babe Ruthless the hottest thing on eight wheels!"

Call number: PN1997 WhipIt DVD

This Is It - Summary: "A rare glimpse into the final days of Michael Jackson, the documentary is compiled from an estimated 80 hours of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage of the legendary entertainer preparing for his 50 sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena that were scheduled to commence in July 2009 before his untimely death in June at age 50. Interviews with collaborators and close friends of the late performer are also featured."

Call number: M1630.18 .M53 2010 DVD

Ju-On - Summary: "AN EERIE TALE OF A FAMILY WHO IS BRUTALLY KILLED IN THEIR OWN HOME, LEAVING BEHIND AN EVIL SPIRIT LURKING IN THE SHADOWS. WHEN AN UNKNOWING HOMECARE WORKER ENTERS, THE SPIRIT IS AWAKENED & A TERRIFYING CHAIN OF EVENTS BEGINS, PASSING THROUGH ALL THOSE WHO STEP FOOT IN THIS DARK HOUSE. "

Call number: PN1997 Ju-On DVD

Adam - Summary: "Adam is a handsome but intriguing young man who has Asperger’s syndrome and has led a sheltered existence. Then he meets his new neighbor, Beth. She is a beautiful, cosmopolitan young woman who pulls him into the outside world, with funny, touching and entirely unexpected results. Their implausible and enigmatic relationship reveals just how far two people from different realities can stretch in search of an extraordinary connection."

Call number: PN1997 Adam DVD

State of Play - Summary: "When D.C. Reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming politician (Affleck), he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nations power structures. In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no ones integrity, love or life is safe."

Call number: PN1997 StatePla DVD

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself - Summary: "When Madea, Americas favorite pistol-packing grandma, catches sixteen-year-old Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. Initially wanting nothing to do with the kids, April learns along the way that she can change her old ways and become a better person. But it takes a lot of work and the help of a handsome Mexican immigrant who moves in with April to push her to change."

Call number: PN1997 ICanDoB DVD

We Own the Night - Summary: "Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, he has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops. For Bobby, every night is a party, as he greets friends and customers or dances with his beautiful Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendes), in a haze of cigarette smoke and disco music. But it's 1988, and New York City's drug trade is escalating. Bobby tries to keep a friendly distance from the Russian gangster who is operating out of the nightclub - a gangster who is being targeted by his brother, Joseph (Mark Wahlberg), an up-and-coming NYPD officer, and his father, Burt (Robert Duvall), the legendary deputy chief of police."

Call number: PN1997 WeOwnN DVD

Step Up - Summary: "Incredible dancing and awesome music fuel STEP UP, the exhilarating and inspiring movie starring Channing Tatum (SHE'S THE MAN, COACH CARTER) who sizzles as Tyler Gage, a rough and streetwise hunk with raw talent. When Tyler finds himself doing community service at a school for the performing arts, he also finds Nora, a beautiful and privileged classically trained dancer who's searching for a temporary replacement for her injured dance partner. Spying Tyler's smooth moves, Nora decides to take a chance on him. But as they begin training, tension builds, tempers flare and the differences in their backgrounds explode - igniting this electrifying tale about not giving up on your dreams."

Call number: PN1997 StepUp DVD

The Iron Giant - Summary: "A BOY MAKES FRIENDS WITH AN INNOCENT ALIEN GIANT ROBOT THAT A PARANOID GOVERNMENT AGENT WANTS TO DESTROY."

Call number: PN1997 IronGian DVD

Crips & Bloods: Made in America - Summary: "Documents the emergence of the Bloods and Crips and their growth beyond the borders of South Central Los Angeles."

Call number: HV6439 .U7 C75 2009 DVD

The Invention of Lying - Summary: "In an alternate reality, lying - even the concept of a lie - does not even exist. Everyone - from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street - speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and Mark begins to realize that things are getting a little out of control when some of his tallest tales are being taken as, well, gospel. With the entire world now hanging on his every word, there is only one thing Mark has not been able to lie his way into: the heart of the woman he loves."

Call number: PN1997 InventionL DVD

A Simple Plan - Summary: "When three men come across a downed plane with over $4 million stuffed inside a duffel bag, they devise a seemingly foolproof plan to keep the money--until their scheme spirals out of control into mistrust, murder and intrigue."

Call number: PN1997 SimplePla DVD

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 - Summary: "In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Denzel Washington stars as New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train. John Travolta stars as Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, threatens to execute the trains passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. But theres one riddle Garber can't solve: even if the thieves get the money, how can they possibly escape?"

Call number: PN1997 TakingPel DVD

Definitely, Maybe - Summary: "Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a 30-something Manhattan dad in the midst of a divorce when his 10-year-old daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin), starts to question him about his life before marriage. Maya wants to know absolutely everything about how her parents met and fell in love. Wills story begins in 1992, as a young, starry-eyed aspiring politician who moves to New York from Wisconsin in order to work on the presidential campaign. For Maya, Will relives his past as an idealistic young man learning the ins and outs of big city politics, and recounts the history of his romantic relationships with three very different women. Will hopelessly attempts a gentler version of his story for his daughter and changes the names so Maya has to guess who is the woman her father finally married. Is her mother Wills college sweetheart, the dependable girl next door Emily (Elizabeth Banks)? Is she his longtime best friend and confidante, the apolitical April (Isla Fisher)? Or is she the free-spirited but ambitious journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz)? As Maya puts together the pieces of her dads romantic puzzle, she begins to understand that love is not so simple or easy. And as Will tells her his tale, Maya helps him to understand that its definitely never too late to go back...and maybe even possible to find a happy ending."

Call number: PN1997 DefinitelyM DVD

Longford - Summary: "Based on a true story of the devout Catholic British Lord Frank Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and his controversial, colorful, headline-making friendship with one of Britain's most notorious criminals, child murderess Myra Hindley."

Call number: PN1997 Longford DVD

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Summary: "Struggling musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) has spent six years idolizing his girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). Hes the guy left holding her purse in paparazzi photos and accidentally omitted from acceptance award speeches. But his world is rocked when she dumps him and Peter finds himself alone. After an unsuccessful bout of womanizing and an on-the-job nervous breakdown, he sees that not having Sarah may just ruin his life. To clear his head, Peter takes an impulsive trip to Oahu, where he is confronted by his worst nightmare: his ex and her tragically hip new British-rocker boyfriend, Aldous (Russell Brand), are sharing his hotel. But as he torments himself with the reality of Sarahs new life, he finds relief in a flirtation with Rachel (Mila Kunis), a beautiful resort employee whose laid-back approach tempts him to rejoin the world. He also finds relief in several hundred embarrassing, fruity cocktails. For anyone who has ever had their heart ripped out and cut into a billion pieces comes a hilarious, heartfelt look at relationshipsfeaturing Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader and Jack McBrayer. Part romantic comedy, part disaster film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the worlds first romantic disaster comedy."

Call number: PN1997 ForgettingS DVD

Jerusalem: Center of the World - Summary: "The story of the world's most incredible city, capturing the rich mosaic of the city's Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities. Covering a history of over 4,000 years, the film explores the founding of the city, and the birth and convergence of the world's three major monotheistic religions."

Call number: DS109.9 .J47 2009 DVD

Get Smart - Summary: "The action comedy Get Smart sends CONTROL agent Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) on his most dangerous and important mission: to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS. It also happens to be his very first mission. When the headquarters of secret U.S. spy agency CONTROL is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief (Alan Arkin) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamt of working in the field alongside his idol, stalwart superstar Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson). Smart is partnered instead with the only other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely-but-lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway). As Smart and 99 get closer to unraveling KAOS' master plan--and each other--they discover that key KAOS operative Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his sidekick, Shtarker (Ken Davitian), are scheming to cash in with their network of terror. With no field experience and little time, Smart--armed with nothing but a few spy-tech gadgets and his unbridled enthusiasm--must defeat KAOS if he is to save the day."

Call number: PN1997 GetSmart DVD

Titanic - Summary: "The story of a poor young man whose romance with a rich young woman on the most famous luxury liner of all time is cut tragically short."

Call number: PN1997 Titanic DVD

Hoot - Summary: "From Walden Media (The Chronicles of Narnia franchise) and based on the best-selling book, Hoot is a classic story that is fun for all ages. When a boy and his classmates realize that a population of endangered, burrowing owls is threatened by new construction, the kids decide to take on crooked politicians and bumbling cops in the hope of saving their new friends."

Call number: PN1997 Hoot DVD

Ella Enchanted - Summary: "Ella lives in a world where children are given a gift at birth. Ella's gift - and curse - is that of obedience. Unfortunately, Ella cannot refuse any command, which gets her into trouble. To regain control of her life, Ella must outwit a kingdom of ogres, giants, even talking books. If she's lucky, she might even find love along the way."

Call number: PN1997 EllaEnch DVD

Hope and Glory - Summary: "The comic, poignant story of a young man stuck at home with his mother, aunts and bratty sisters in WWII-era England--while the most exciting fights in history were raging within earshot of his room. His ever-tolerant mom does her parental best while Dad's off to war; but when your street's in rubble, the school's ablaze and the Luftwaffe is parachuting into your backyard, one tends to be a lot more lenient."

Call number: PN1997 HopeGlory DVD

50 First Dates - Summary: "Henry lives an enviable life in a Hawaiian paradise, spending every night with a beautiful tourist in search of an island fling. It's a sweet life with no strings attached...until he meets Lucy. He and Lucy hit it off from the get-go, but the next day she acts like she doesn't know him. Has his karma come around to kick him in the butt or what? Actually, Lucy has short-term memory loss so every night all memory of her day is erased. But a man in love will go to any lengths to win over the girl of his dreams, and if that means having to find imaginative ways of doing it over again every day, then Henry's up for the challenge."

Call number: PN1997 50First DVD

National Geographic: In the Womb - Multiples

Call number: RG696 .I5 2007 DVD

Traitor - Summary: "FBI agent Roy Clayton assumes command of a special task force and becomes entangled in a web of covert spying operations. A rogue former U.S. Special Forces operative is aiding terrorists; however, it's unclear where the man's loyalties lie."

Call number: PN1997 Traitor DVD

Nanking - Summary: "Tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Nanking, China in the early days of World War II and focuses on the efforts of a small group of unarmed Westerners who established a Safety Zone where over 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Told through deeply moving interviews with Chinese survivors, archival footage, and chilling testimonies of Japanese soldiers, interwoven with staged readings of the Westerners’ letters and diaries."

Call number: DS777.5314 .N36 2008 DVD

Carmen Jones - Summary: "A sultry plant worker drives a wartime soldier to murder in Jacksonville, Fla. Directed by Otto Preminger."

Call number: PN1997 CarmenJ DVD

Clueless - Summary: "A Beverly Hills teen plays matchmaker for teachers, transforms a bad dresser and examines her own existence."

Call number: PN1997 Clueless DVD

Bright Star - Summary: "From Academy Award winning writer/director Jane Campion (Best Original Screenplay, The Piano, 1993) comes an extraordinary film based on the true story of undying love between renowned poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw, The International) and his spirited muse Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish, Stop-Loss). In the wilds of 19th century England, a forbidden passion draws the two lovers ever closereven as fate conspires to tear them apart. Bright Star takes you to a world where, though life may be fleeting, great art and great love last forever. Let this sparkling gem of romance illuminate your heart."

Call number: PN1997 BrightSta DVD

Are We Done Yet? - Summary: "Now married to Suzanne, Nick Persons has bought a quiet suburban house to escape the rat race of the big city and to provide more space for his new wife and kids Lindsey and Kevin. But when his new home quickly becomes a costly fixer upper and he finds himself at the mercy of an eccentric contractor, Nick's suburban dream becomes a riotous nightmare."

Call number: PN1997 AreWeDon DVD

The Bride of Frankenstein - Summary: "Baron Frankenstein creates a hissing, frizzy-haired female for his other monster. Directed by James Whale."

Call number: PN1997 BrideFra DVD

500 Nations - Summary: "500 Nations is an eight-part documentary that looks back at life in North America before the arrival of the Europeans, then follows the epic struggles of Indian Nations as the continent is reshaped by contact."

Call number: E77 .F573 2004 DVD

(500) Days of Summer - Summary: "In this quirky romantic comedy about love and fate, a young greeting card writer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is hopelessly, helplessly searching for the girl of his dreams...and his new co-worker, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), may just be the one. But the 500 days of their offbeat relationship reveal (in no particular order) that the road to happiness can be unpredictable, uncontrollableand unbelievably funny!"

Call number: PN1997 500Days DVD

A Perfect Getaway - Summary: "Cliff and Cydney are an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful, and remote, beaches in Hawaii. Hiking the wild, secluded trails, they believe they've found paradise. But when the pair comes across a group of frightened hikers discussing the horrifying murder of another newlywed couple on the islands, they begin to question whether they should turn back. Unsure whether to stay or flee, Cliff and Cydney join up with two other couples, and things begin to go terrifyingly wrong. Far from civilization or rescue, everyone begins to look like a threat and nobody knows whom to trust. Paradise becomes hell on earth as a brutal battle for survival begins..."

Call number: PN1997 PerfectGet DVD

Julie & Julia - Summary: "Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible."

Call number: PN1997 JulieJ DVD

Inglourious Basterds - Summary: "In German-occupied France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as The Basterds, Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own..."

Call number: PN1997 Inglori DVD

My Sister's Keeper - Summary: "Sara and Brian Fitzgerald's life with their young son and their two-year-old daughter, Kate, is forever altered when they learn that Kate has leukemia. The parents' only hope is to conceive another child, specifically intended to save Kate's life. For some, such genetic engineering would raise both moral and ethical questions; for the Fitzgeralds, Sara in particular, there is no choice but to do whatever it takes to keep Kate alive. And what it takes is Anna. Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) and Anna (Abigail Breslin) share a bond closer than most sisters: though Kate is older, she relies on her little sister--in fact, her life depends on Anna. Throughout their young lives, the sisters endure various medical procedures and hospital stays--just another part of their close-knit family's otherwise normal life. Sara (Cameron Diaz), a loving wife and mother who left her career as an attorney to care for her daughter, is sometimes lost inside the single-minded caregiver she has become in her efforts to save Kate. Her strong, supportive husband, Brian (Jason Patric), is often rendered powerless and passive by his wife's strength and determination. And their only son, Jesse (Evan Ellingson), drifts, at times all but forgotten as Kate and Anna take center stage. Until Anna, now 11, says no. Seeking medical emancipation, she hires her own lawyer (Alec Baldwin), initiating a court case that divides the family and that could leave Kate's rapidly failing body in the hands of fate."

Call number: PN1997 MySisters DVD

Public Enemies - Summary: "No one could stop John Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone - from his girlfriend Billie Frechette to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillinger's gang - later including Baby Face Nelson and Alvin Karpis - thrilled many, J. Edgar Hoover made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Melvin Purvis, the dashing Clark Gable of the FBI. However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis' men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic betrayals - from the infamous Lady in Red to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti - were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger."

Call number: PN1997 PublicEnem DVD

The Hangover - Summary: "Two days before his wedding, Doug and his three friends drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out bachelor party they'll never forget. But, in fact, when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can't remember a thing. For some reason, they find a tiger in the bathroom and a six-month-old baby in the closet of their suite at Caesars Palace. The one thing they can't find is Doug. With no clue as to what transpired and little time to spare, the trio must retrace their hazy steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L.A. in time to walk down the aisle."

Call number: PN1997 Hangover DVD

Extract - Summary: "Joel is one step away from selling his flavor extract factory and retiring to easy street when a freak workplace accident sets in motion a series of disasters that put his business and personal life in jeopardy."

Call number: PN1997 Extract DVD

The Diary of Anne Frank - Summary: "A German-Jewish girl spends two years in an Amsterdam attic hiding from the Nazis. Directed by George Stevens. Best supporting Oscar for Shelley Winters."

Call number: PN1997 DiaryAnne DVD

The Window - Summary: "An 80-year-old bedridden man watches the preparations for a reunion with his long-estranged son, now a world-renowned concert pianist, through a window in his home in the Patagonia region of Argentina."

Call number: PN1997 Window DVD

District 9 - Summary: "Twenty-eight years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africas District 9 as the world's nations argue over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens' welfare they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens' awesome weaponry work."

Call number: PN1997 District9 DVD

Holes - Summary: "Young Stanley Yelnats finds himself at Camp Green Lake, where digging a hole a day keeps the warden at bay, and "builds character." While he is unjustly accused, an ancient family curse still dogs him and he is thrown headlong into the adventure of his life. Stanley and his colorful campmates will have to forge fast friendships to unearth the mystery of what is really going on in the desert."

Call number: PN1997 Holes DVD

To Live - Summary: "A villager sees her husband mature from gambler to puppeteer to soldier in 1940s-'60s China. Directed by Zhang Yimou."

Call number: PN1997 ToLive DVD

South Pacific - Summary: "Navy nurse Nellie falls for mysterious Emile, on a top-secret World War II mission. Songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein."

Call number: PN1997 SouthPac DVD

Leaving Las Vegas - Summary: "A bittersweet, romantic tale about two people wrestling with intense personal demons. He's an alcoholic who has lost his job and travels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. She's a beautiful Hollywood prostitute trapped in a destructive relationship with her boyfriend. The two find each other in the dizzinging backdrop of the Las Vegas scene and discover a special companionship and understanding within each other."

Call number: PN1997 LeavingLas DVD

Charcoal People - Summary: "This deeply human documentary examines the subjects of environmental destruction from two distinct angles. Impoverished migrant workers are chopping down the Amazon rainforest to create charcoals for pig iron production used primarily in the automobile industry. The film examines their daily lives and work as they burn timber in igloo looking huts, their bodies charred gray for $2 a day, childer and elders alike, struggling to keep food on their families' tables. Touching and disturbing, the film is beautifully photographed, critically acclaimed and has been awared numerous international awards and recognition."

Call number: HD8039 .C432 B73 2002 DVD

Orphan - Summary: "The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate's fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her past. Struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives, the couple decides to adopt another child. At the local orphanage, both John and Kate find themselves strangely drawn to a young girl named Esther. Almost as soon as they welcome Esther into their home, however, an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading Kate to believe that there's something wrong with Esther--this seemingly angelic little girl is not what she appears to be. Concerned for the safety of her family, Kate tries to get John and others to see past Esther's sweet facade. But her warnings go unheeded until it may be too late... for everyone."

Call number: PN1997 Orphan DVD

G-Force - Summary: "Armed with the latest high-tech spy equipment, a covert team of highly trained guinea pigs discover that the fate of the world is in their paws. Tapped for the G-FORCE are guinea pigs Darwin, the squad leader determined to succeed at all costs; Blaster, an outrageous weapons expert with tons of attitude and a love for all things extreme; and Juarez, a sexy martial arts pro; plus the literal fly-on-the-wall reconnaissance expert Mooch, and a star-nosed mole Speckles, the computer and information specialist."

Call number: PN1997 G-Force DVD

Total Recall - Summary: "An Earthman of the future goes to Mars, driven by nightmares of his past."

Call number: PN1997 TotalRec DVD

*donation

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Summary: "Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn't counted on Romilda Vane's chocolates! And then there's Hermione, simpering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again."

Call number: PN1997 HarryPotter Yr.6-Half DVD

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - Summary: "Night has fallen upon the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The guides have gone home, the lights are out, the school kids are tucked in their beds... yet something incredible is stirring as former night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) finds himself lured into his biggest, most imagination-boggling adventure yet in which history truly comes alive. In this second installment of the Night at the Museum saga, Larry faces a battle so epic it could only unfold in the corridors of the world's largest museum. Now, Larry must try to save his formerly inanimate friends from what could be their last stand amid the wonders of the Smithsonian, all of which, from the famous paintings on the walls to the rocket ships in the halls, suddenly have a mind of their own."

Call number: PN1997 NightMusBa DVD

The Eyes of Tammy Faye - Summary: "Chronicles Tammy Faye Messner’s life from the time she met Jim Bakker through the fall of their ministry."

Call number: BV3785 .M47 E94 2003 DVD

The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012 - Publisher's Marketing: "December 21, 2012. The Internet, bookshelves, and movie theaters are full of prophecies, theories, and predictions that this date marks the end of the world, or at least the end of the world as we know it. Whether the end will result from the magnentic realignment of the north and south poles, bringing floods, earthquakes, death, and destruction; or from the return of alien caretakers to enlighten or enslave us; or from a global awakening, a sudden evolution of Homo sapiens into non-corporeal beingsatheories of great, impending changes abound.

In The End of Time, award-winning astronomer and Maya researcher Anthony Aveni explores these theories, explains their origins, and measures them objectively against evidence unearthed by Maya archaeologists, iconographers, and epigraphers. He probes the latest information astronomers and earth scientists have gathered on the likelihood of Armageddon and the oft-proposed link between the Maya Long Count cycle and the precession of the equinoxes. He then expands on these prophecies to include the broader context of how other cultures, ancient and modern, thought about the aend of thingsa and speculates on why cataclysmic events in human history have such a strong appeal within American pop culture."

Call number: QB638.8 .A94 2009

Essential Facebook Development: Build Successful Applications for the Facebook Platform - Publisher's Marketing: ""What sets this title apart is the authors' deep insight of how to leverage the Facebook API to create wildly successful applications. They even provide instructions of how to a/b test, track, and analyze metrics to increase the exposure and engagement of your applications. Their knowledge is practical and after putting their techniques to use, my applications have achieved better results." -Joseph Annuzzi, Jr., App Architect, PeerDynamic.com

With more than 250 million active users, Facebook is the world's #1 social networking platform. But developing successful Facebook applications presents unique challenges, both technical and nontechnical. Now, two of the world's most experienced Facebook developers show you exactly how to meet those challenges. "Essential Facebook Development" offers insider guidance and up-to-the-minute best practices for the entire application lifecycle: design, coding, testing, distribution, post-launch monitoring, metrics, and even application marketing. Using extensive real-world examples, John Maver and Cappy Popp reveal why some Facebook applications succeed brilliantly while others fail. Next, they walk through building a complete application using every major component of the Facebook platform. Maver and Popp thoroughly cover Facebook's most important new features, including Facebook Connect, and provide extensive information available nowhere else-from measuring application success to monetization. Coverage includes

* Thorough introductions to Facebook's current architecture, integration points, and development technologies
* Discussion of successful Facebook applications-and what makes them successful
* What every developer must know about Facebook's Terms of Service
* Creating an effective application infrastructure
* Creating canvas pages with FBML and IFrames
* Adding support for profiles, application tabs, and messaging
* Incorporating JavaScript into Facebook applications with FBJS
* Integrating Facebook into external sites with Facebook Connect and the Facebook JavaScript Client Library
* Debugging techniques for Facebook applications
* Spreading, monitoring, and tuning applications"

Call number: HM742 .M38 2010

Therapists Lippman and Lewis share with us the beneficial experience and positive lessons discovered in their decades working with men, women, and children to navigate divorce and still keep the security, stability, and emotional health of the children intact. Vignettes from and interviews with parents, children, and other therapists are included, and the tragic story of broken marriage is told through letters from mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents, and through the authors' answers to those letters. The responses highlight strong needs and sound approaches, to empower good times and help families face, deal with, then minimize the bad. Topics addressed include when and how to tell the children, moving out, setting schedules and visits, the need for flexibility, handling anger and frustration and assuring it does not get directed at the children, communicating, avoiding secrets, and maintaining relationships with grandparents and other relatives. At the core of this book lies one simple truth: though adult relationships may change, the love for children remains constant. Here, Lippman and Lewis educate us-in mind and heart-about how to best love and nurture our children during what can be one of the deepest losses they will face in their lifetimes."

Call number: HQ777.5 .L54 2008

Alcoholism (Perspectives on Diseases & Disorders)

Call number: HV5066 .A395 2010

Coverage of the government's inner workings includes such subjects as executive-branch appointments, domestic and foreign policy development and execution, the federal budget, the legislative process, the Congressional committee system, the drawing of Congressional districts, the levels of the federal judiciary, aides in all three branches, and the various government offices and oversight agencies."

Call number: JK311 .S723 2008

St. Augustine, Florida: Past and Present - Publisher's Marketing: "Tour America's oldest city, St. Augustine, and see how it evolved and changed over the past one hundred years through 334 color images. Neighborhoods, streets, and buildings are featured and compared in vintage postcards and present-day photographs. The Plaza, St. Francis Street, the Public Market, the Fountain of Youth, San Marcos Hotel, Flagler Hospital, Trinity Episcopal Church, Anastasia Island, and much, much more. More than 120 pairs of past and present views feature the city's changing landscape and show its historic landmarks alongside present day skyscrapers and commerical buildings, like the 1887-built Castle Warden next to Ripley's Believe It Or Not!. This captivating chronicle of change and preservation in one of America's most historic and oldest cities will be enjoyed and treasured by residents and tourists alike. Postcard collectors will also find this an invaluable resource."

Call number: F319.S2 S644 2009

Funny People - Summary: "George Simmons is a famous stand-up comedian who learns that he has a terminal illness and less than a year to live. When, he meets Ira, a struggling comedian at a comedy club where both the comedians are performing, George hires Ira to be his personal assistant and opening act at his performances. The two forge a close friendship as George helps Ira with his career and Ira helps George find closure in his legacy. However, when George learns that his disease has gone into remission and an ex-girlfriend re-enters his life, he's inspired to reevaluate what is important to him and what truly gives meaning to his life."

Call number: PN1997 FunnyPeop DVD

Angels & Demons - Summary: "What terrifying discovery would make the Vatican turn to Robert Langdon, the man who cracked historys most controversial code? When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati the most powerful underground organization in history he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization's most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. Upon learning that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, Langdon travels to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow the 400-year-old Path of Illumination that marks the Vatican's only hope for survival."

Call number: PN1997 AngelsDe DVD

Night on Earth - Summary: "Five brief encounters occur in five taxis on the same night in Los Angeles, New York, Rome, Paris and Helsinki."

Call number: PN1997 NightEarth DVD

Bruno - Summary: "Golden Globe-winner Sacha Baron Cohen (creator/star of Borat and Da Ali G Show) is at it again as he brings his most over-the-top character to life in the comedy that has started more conversations, generated more controversy and dared to go further than ever before! As Brno travels the world in search of fame, no one whether they are celebrities, politicians or even terrorists will be spared from his signature sense of style and his wickedly off-kilter manner! And, yes, they are all real situations!"

Call number: PN1997 Bruno DVD

The Borrowers - Summary: "Have you ever misplaced a sock? Some jewelry? Do you think you know where you left a pen or a spool of thread only to find that it isn't there? This perturbing state of affairs has a very simple explanation: The Borrowers. Borrowers discreetly co-exist alongside humans. They reside under the floorboards of our homes and offices, taking great pains to go undetected as they ingeniously procure and live off of borrowed items. But one young boy, Pete has his suspicions, and he manages to discover and make friends with an entire family of Borrowers living in his house. Their friendship, not to mention the Borrowers very existence, is soon threatened when the wicked banker Ocious P. Potter (Goodman) illegally evicts Pete s family and plans to demolish their home."

Call number: PN1997 Borrowers DVD

All about My Mother - Summary: "A woman must come to terms with the death of her 17-year-old son and her past when she seeks out her son's father."

Call number: PN1997 AllAboutMy DVD

Bigger, Stronger, Faster* - Summary: "In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. We reward speed, size and above all else: winning at sport, at business and at war. Metaphorically we are a nation on steroids. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? From the producers of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 comes a new film that unflinchingly explores our win-at-all-cost culture through the lens of a personal journey. Blending comedy and pathos, BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* is a collision of pop culture, animated sequences and first-person narrative, with a diverse cast including US Congressmen, professional athletes, medical experts and everyday gym rats. At its heart, this is the story of director Christopher Bell and his two brothers, who grew up idolizing muscular giants like Hulk Hogan, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and who went on to become members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream. When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?"

Call number: RC1230 .B544 2008 DVD

Arrested Development - Summary: "This clever, original, and all-out-hilarious comedy series from Ron Howard is critically acclaimed as the best comedy on TV."

Season 1 - Call number: PN1997 TV Arrested Sea.1 DVD

Season 2 - Call number: PN1997 TV Arrested Sea.2 DVD

Season 3 - Call number: PN1997 TV Arrested Sea.3 DVD

Irving Berlin's White Christmas - Summary: "Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye team up to enliven a winter resort inn. The Irving Berlin musical score sparkles with some great tunes, including the magical title track."

Call number: PN1997 WhiteChr DVD

Che: Part One, the Argentine - Summary: "On November 26, 1956, Fidel Castro sails to Cuba with eighty rebels. One of those rebels is Ernesto ’Che’ Guevara, an Argentine doctor who shares a common goal with Fidel Castro - to overthrow the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista."

Call number: PN1997 Che Part1 DVD

Che: Part Two, Guerrilla - Summary: "After the Cuban Revolution, Ernesto ’Che’ Guevara is at the height of his fame and power. Then he disappears, re-emerging incognito in Bolivia, where he organizes a small group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits to start the great Latin American Revolution. The story of the Bolivian campaign is a tale of tenacity, sacrifice, idealism, and guerrilla warfare that ultimately fails, bringing Che to his death."

Call number: PN1997 Che Part2 DVD

There are few international relationships as intimate, as passionate--and as dysfunctional--as that of the United States and Cuba. In "The Cuba Wars," Cuba expert Daniel Erikson draws on extensive visits and conversations with both Cuban government officials and opposition leaders--plus key players in Washington and Florida--to offer an unmatched portrait of a small country with outsized importance to Americans and American policy."

Call number: F1788 .E65 2008

Supported by affluent countries, foundations, and non-governmental organizations, the population control movement experimented with ways to limit population growth. But it had to contend with the Catholic Church's ban on contraception and nationalist leaders who warned of "race suicide." The ensuing struggle caused untold suffering for those caught in the middle--particularly women and children. It culminated in the horrors of sterilization camps in India and the one-child policy in China.

Matthew Connelly offers the first global history of a movement that changed how people regard their children and ultimately the face of humankind. It was the most ambitious social engineering project of the twentieth century, one that continues to alarm the global community. Though promoted as a way to lift people out of poverty--perhaps even to save the earth--family planning became a means to plan other people's families.

With its transnational scope and exhaustive research into such archives as Planned Parenthood and the newly opened Vatican Secret Archives, Connelly's withering critique uncovers the cost inflicted by a humanitarian movement gone terribly awry and urges renewed commitment to the reproductive rights of all people."

Call number: HB883.5 .C65 2008

Pity poor Pluto: It's a planet that was discovered because of a mistake, a planet that turned out not to be a planet at all, thanks to a still-disputed decision made in 2006. And yet, Pluto is the planet best-loved by Americans, especially children, one that may have contained the building blocks of life billions of years ago and may well serve as life's last redoubt billions of years from now.

In "The Case for Pluto," award-winning science writer Alan Boyle traces the tiny planet's ups and downs, its strange appeal, the reasons behind its demotion, and the reasons why it should be set back in the planetary pantheon. Tells the compelling story of Pluto's discovery and how it became a cultural icon Makes the case for Pluto as planet, countering the books that argue against it Comes in a small, friendly package -- just like Pluto -- and features a handsome design, making it a great gift

"The Case for Pluto" is the must-read tale of a cosmic underdog that has captured the hearts of millions: an endearing little planet that is changing the way we see the universe beyond our backyard."

Call number: QB701 .B69 2009

Recover All: A Guide for Families in Understanding Addiction

Call number: RC564 .R44 2007

Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds: Strategies for Online Instruction - Publisher's Marketing: "The infusion of games, simulations, and virtual worlds into online learning can be a transforming experience for both the instructor and the student. This practical guide, written by education game expert Clark Aldrich, shows faculty members and instructional designers how to identify opportunities for building games, simulations, and virtual environments into the curriculum; how to successfully incorporate these interactive environments to enhance student learning; and how to measure the learning outcomes. It also discusses how to build institutional support for using and financing more complex simulations. The book includes frameworks, tips, case studies and other real examples, and resources."

Call number: LB1029 .S53 A425 2009

The Longman Writer: Rhetoric, Reader, Research Guide, Handbook - Publisher's Marketing: "Clear, step-by-step writing instruction, ample annotated student essays, and extensive practice opportunities for writing have made "The Longman Writer" one of the most successful methods-of-development guides for college writing. " Created by the authors of the best-selling "Longman Reader," the text draws on decades of teaching experience to integrate the best of the "product" and "process" approaches to writing. Its particular strengths include an emphasis on the reading-writing connection, a focus on invention and revision, attention to the fact that patterns blend in actual writing, and an abundance of class-tested activities and assignments-more than 350 in all."

Call number: PE1408 .N188 2009

Florida School Laws 2009

Call number: Reference KFF390 .A29 F56

Historic Photos of the Manhattan Project

Call number: QC773 .A1 J67 2009

Murder of a Medici Princess - Publisher's Marketing: "In Murder of a Medici Princess, Caroline Murphy illuminates the brilliant life and tragic death of Isabella de Medici, one of the brightest stars in the dazzling world of Renaissance Italy, the daughter of Duke Cosimo I, ruler of Florence and Tuscany.
Murphy is a superb storyteller, and her fast-paced narrative captures the intrigue, the scandal, the romantic affairs, and the violence that were commonplace in the Florentine court. She brings to life an extraordinary woman, fluent in five languages, a free-spirited patron of the arts, a daredevil, a practical joker, and a passionate lover. Isabella, in fact, conducted numerous affairs, including a ten-year relationship with the cousin of her violent and possessive husband. Her permissive lifestyle, however, came to an end upon the death of her father, who was succeeded by her disapproving older brother Francesco. Considering Isabella's ways to be licentious and a disgrace upon the family, he permitted her increasingly enraged husband to murder her in a remote Medici villa. To tell this dramatic story, Murphy draws on a vast trove of newly discovered and unpublished documents, ranging from Isabella's own letters, to the loose-tongued dispatches of ambassadors to Florence, to contemporary descriptions of the opulent parties and balls, salons and hunts in which Isabella and her associates participated. Murphy resurrects the exciting atmosphere of Renaissance Florence, weaving Isabella's beloved city into her story, evoking the intellectual and artistic community that thrived during her time. Palaces and gardens in the city become places of creativity and intrigue, sites of seduction, and grounds for betrayal.
Here then is a narrative of compelling and epic proportions, magnificent and alluring, decadent and ultimately tragic."

Call number: DG738.14 .M35 M87 2008

If this isn't you're first experience with Mac OS X, skip right to the "What's New in Snow Leopard" sections. You may also find yourself using this book as a quick refresher course or a way to learn new Mac skills you've never tried before. What you'll learn Discover all the ins and outs of the Finder and Snow Leopard's streamlined workflow. Use the latest features of Apple's built-in applications, including Mail, Safari, iCal, Address Book, iChat, Preview, and more. Learn about Snow Leopard's improved security and reliability, and how to take full advantage of the connected world and a wealth of new mobile devices. Administer your computer and network for yourself, your family, or your business. Work with add-on devices via direct connection or wirelessly. Master effective strategies for data backup, recovery, and security. Explore all of Apple's improved iLife applications, including iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie. Delve into more advanced topics, such as how to take advantage of the Darwin subsystem in Leopard, how to run multiple operating systems on your Mac, and how to cooperate with other operating systems (and help them cooperate with you). Get started with your own Mac OS X development in Snow Leopard
Who is this book for?

New Mac users, existing Mac users upgrading from older versions of Mac OS X, and PC users making the switch to Macs. These people share a common desire to learn stuff fast and keep learning! Because this book goes into greater depth than your average Mac OS X guide, it is also excellent for small business owners, user support personnel, and system administrators. There's even an introduction to Mac OS X development for nascent programmers and the DIY crowd."

Call number: QA76.76 .O63 M478 2009

The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege... and How We Can Be Safe Again - Publisher's Marketing: "When our nation called, Tom Ridge answered. Appointed by the President to head up domestic security, Ridge established the Department of Homeland Security. In this probing and surefooted memoir, Ridge takes us through the challenges he and his new department faced, including Anthrax scares and reports (both real and false alarms) of new Al-Qaeda operations sprouting up in the United States. A "law and order" Republican who was on the shortlist to be John McCain's running mate in 2008, Ridge writes with refreshing candor on both the successes and missteps of the DHS. He details the obstacles faced in his new post--often within the administration itself--as well as the failures of Congress to provide for critical homeland security needs, and the irresponsible use of terrorism by both parties to curry favors with voters. Ridge also reveals: - How the DHS was pressured to connect homeland security to the international "war on terror" - How Ridge effectively thwarted a plan to raise the national security alert just before the 2004 Election- How Ridge had pushed for a plan (defeated because of turf wars) to integrate DHS and FEMA disaster management in New Orleans and other areas "before" Hurricane Katrina Finally, Ridge offers a prescriptive look to the future, advocating ways that America may reaffirm its safety--including his provocative support for a national ID card program and for comprehensive immigration reform--without sacrificing personal liberty. "Television captures every word and every expression. I was reasonable to think that our enemies would look for any sign of weakness in the person who in a few days would be responsible for protecting America against them. At that moment, I experienced a royal flush of emotion--after all, I was leaving the state I loved, a loyal staff, many friendships developed over a lifetime, the frustration of work unfinished, to head into the unknown and the undoable. In normal times, I might have shed a tear at such thoughts. But I was determined not to do so as I said my farewell. If I needed any reminding, I glanced down at the note I had written for counsel. "The bastards are watching." We can never guarantee we will be free from another attack. We must also understand that every day thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens work here and abroad to take us to a new level of readiness and security. For in the end, Americans do not live in fear. We live in freedom. And we will let no one take that freedom away. "--Tom Ridge, from "THE TEST OF OUR TIMES"

Call number: HV6432 .R53 2009

Governing Mandatory Health Insurance: Learning from Experience - Publisher's Marketing: "Although mandatory health insurance programs are being proposed or expanded in many developing countries, relatively little attention has been given to how these programs are governed. The available literature focuses almost exclusively on operational features that are important but will necessarily change over time-such as eli