Collection Developments @ Sno-Isle

Okay, okay, so the the new REM album  isn’t in the catalog yet, it will be soon honest.  But in the meantime NPR has the full concert that REM performed at SXSW 2008.  They perform several new tracks from Accelerate.  REM is coming to Burnaby B.C. later this month.

in reading reviews for new adult fiction, i am often struck by the the contradictory tone of Kirkus whose reviewers seldom agree with other review sources.  also, it seems that Kirkus reviews are often written by frustrated wanna-be authors who diligently work at creating a cleverly constructed sentence that is sometimes impossible to understand.  here are 2 examples of disagreeing opinions, one from a review of “The Evil that Men Do” and the other, “This Night’s Foul Work.”  sure, reviews are subjective, but when a source is consistently different than others, one starts to take those reviews with a grain of salt.

“The Evil that Men Do”

Kirkus Reviews 2008 April #2

A down-on-his-luck ex-shamus returns to sleuthing to help his family.To say that Jackson Donne is at a low point in his life is like saying a tornado is windy. Abruptly widowed, deprived unfairly of his private investigator’s license, he spends much too much time looking for solace in the bottle. Since he can no longer legally sleuth, he earns a pittance as a night-time security guard for a storage company. Enter Susan, the sister he’s been forever out of touch with by his own choice. You simply discarded us, she accuses him, because you were afraid to let anyone get close enough to hurt. Now, however, there’s trouble in the family, and Donne realizes how enlivening it is to be needed. Their mother has been saying strange, even scary things, Susan informs him, things that suggest a family past murkier than anyone has ever suspected. Are these the ramblings of dementia? Susan has to know. It may be that someone who plays for keeps wants desperately to see that certain secrets stay buried. An uncle and aunt are brutally murdered before Donne can question them. He himself endures a “message” beating. History, Donne learns the hard way, can have a long reach and a devastating punch.This sequel to When One Man Dies (2007) shows distinct improvement. But tight-lipped, under-responsive Donne remains essentially charisma-challenged. Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Website: http://www.cahners.com

White’s stunning second crime novel to feature ex-cop and ex-PI Jackson Donne fulfills the promise of his debut, When One Man Dies (2007). Restaurateur Franklin Carter, Donne’s obnoxious but rich brother-in-law, hires him to investigate Donne’s mother’s claims that his grandfather murdered someone. Since Donne’s mother is suffering from dementia, the detective has his work cut out for him, even before someone bombs Carter’s New York City restaurant and later abducts Carter. When Donne becomes a suspect after his elderly aunt and uncle are gunned down in their quiet New Jersey home, he must ally himself with a sympathetic cop to gain any traction in the case. Readers will readily forgive a major coincidence at the heart of the plot because the author does such a fine job of depicting the inner conflicts of his fallible but ultimately heroic protagonist. (June)

“This Night’s Foul Work”

Kirkus Reviews 2008 April #2

When two thugs are found with their throats cut, the local narcs claim the case, but as usual Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg knows better.Adamsberg, who looks like Columbo and thinks like Holmes, heads the Serious Crime Squad in Paris. His flights of fancy are scorned by his detractors. Often his “unstructured mind [is] like an unreadable map” even to his own people. So it’s business as usual when, after the briefest of examinations, he declares that though the stiffs were certainly drug dealers, their murders were not drug-related. On the strength of this gnomic observation, Adamsberg wangles a few extra days to make the case for his side of the turf war. Insights provided by beautiful, elegant, world-class pathologist Dr. Ariane Lagarde point Adamsberg toward a serial killer who, for reasons of his own, battens on young virgins with splendid hair. With two virgins down, Adamsberg intuits—he rarely makes a move not proceeded by an intuition—that one more is to follow. He’s right, of course. So the game’s afoot, the race is on—and eventually the case is cracked in a way that apparently convinces the powers that be but may leave readers shaking their heads.A sub-par performance by a popular French writer (Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand, 2007, etc.) who this time out seems unduly charmed by his own eccentricity. Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Website: http://www.cahners.com

The outstanding fourth whodunit to be made available in the U.S. from Vargas (Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand ) makes it’s easy to see why he’s twice won the CWA’s International Dagger Award. Paris Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, an endearing oddball sleuth in the tradition of John Dickson Carr’s Henry Merrivale, is convinced that the two narcotics dealers recently found with slit throats weren’t the victims of business rivals, relying largely on his intuition and the unexplained presence of dirt under the dead men’s fingernails. Adamsberg’s dogged pursuit of small details leads him to a series of unusual mutilations of wild deer as well as to a serial killer who targets virgins and may be seeking the ingredients to an elixir for eternal life. While the final twist will be less than shocking to some readers, the immensely enjoyable prose, seasoned liberally with humor, should help the author gain the larger American audience he deserves. (June)

my crush on Markus Zusak - who will win? no, this confession is not the point of this post, this is. Publisher’s Weekly featured a moderated panel with an assistant coordinator for Young Adult Services, Sherman Alexie, a literary agent, and a bookseller grappling with the difficulty of defining YA literature. maybe it doesn’t want to be put in a box, just like the teens who read it….

first introduced and discussed here, Borders is opening one of their concept stores in Tukwila:

Borders will open another new concept store, in July in Tukwila, Wash., near Seattle, one of 14 new concept stores Borders is opening this year. The 26,368-sq.-ft. store will be in the Westfield Southcenter Mall, located at Southcenter Parkway and Strander Boulevard.

over the week-end, the 2007 Nebula Awards were handed out:

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon

Novella: Fountain of Age by Nancy Kress

Novelette: The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by Ted Chiang

Short Story: Always by Karen Joy Fowler

Script: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

Other presentations included:

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

If you love free stuff, and you’re a Star Wars junkie–check this out.

The LJ Bookroom blog writes:

Free Star Wars Novel Download
April 29, 2008

“This just in from Del Rey: As a special gift to Star Wars fans, Del Rey will be offering Book One in the series, Star Wars: Legacy Of The Force: Betrayal, as a free downloadable PDF, audio book, and eBook. This promotional offer will run for two weeks, from 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, April 29, until midnight on Tuesday, May 13. The free download, which can be shared, e-mailed or printed, will be available here. “

I downloaded the audiobook in about two minutes. Now to try the e-book…..

Annotations from Baker & Taylor

Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

Hood, Ann

The author of The Knitting Circle documents her family’s journey of grief after the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter after a virulent illness, a process during which she learned how to knit and experienced comfort in unexpected ways.

Everything They Had

Halberstam, David

Features collected sports writings by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian, in a volume of newspaper and magazine pieces that imparts his perspectives on noted modern sports figures, the states of the major leagues, and the relevance of second-tier and amateur athletics.

Financial Infidelity: Seven Steps to Conquering the # 1 Relationship Wrecker

Weil, Bonnie Eaker, Ph.D.

A leading couples therapist evaluates secret spending behaviors that compromise relationships, explaining the dangers of binge shopping, financial power plays, hidden bank accounts, and other factors while offering counsel on the relationship between money and intimacy.

Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side

Van Praagh, James

A co-executive producer of The Ghost Whisperer and world-famous medium shares true encounter tales from the author’s own life, reveals lesser-known details about how ghosts participate in everyday life, and discusses how to enable a more fulfilling life by being open to the spirit world.

Living Jonathan’s Life: A Doctor’s Descent into Darkness and Addiction

Davis, Scott M.

In a powerful and provocative memoir, a renowned addiction medicine physician describes how he experienced the same phantom pains in the same places that his twin brother Jonathan did before he died and its devastating repercussions for his own life.

The Monster of Florence

Preston, Douglas

Documents the author’s discovery that his new family home in Florence had been the scene of a recent double-murder committed by an infamous and then-unidentified serial killer, his relationship with the investigative journalist co-author, and the prosecutorial vendetta through which the authors were wrongfully and devastatingly targeted.

Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times

Goodman, Amy / Goodman, David

The award-winning co-authors of The Exception to the Rulers and Static pay tribute to grassroots activists, including Wilton High School students who were barred from performing a play inspired by the true experiences of Iraq War soldiers, African-American residents who fought racism and City Hall to reclaim their homes in New Orleans, and more.

War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq

Engel, Richard

A long-serving Nightly News television journalist in Iraq presents a detailed account of the war on the front lines that addresses such topics as the hiding place of Saddam Hussein, the political process of ayatollahs within Shiite seminaries, and life within al-Qaeda safe houses.

A Wedding Like No Other: Inspiration for Creating a Unique, Personal, and Unforgettable Celebration

Post, Peggy / Post, Peter

Draws on the expertise of a renowned etiquette maven to share practical guidelines for hosting an ideal wedding celebration, in an anecdotal resource that counsels couples on how to prioritize the elements of greatest personal importance.

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back

Singular, Stephen

Traces the rise and fall of Mormon fundamentalist Warren Jeffs, describing his role in forcing numerous young women into polygamous marriages and his own marriages to scores of wives before his activities landed him on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

The Woman Who Can’t Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living With the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science–a Memoir

Price, Jill / Davis, Bart

A first-person account of the author’s experiences with her extraordinary photographic memory describes her efforts to come to terms with abilities that cause her to remember events and details with complete recall, in a memoir that also relates her participation in extensive scientific studies.

from Friday’s Shelf Awareness:

“Queen guitarist Brian May will take part in a signing session in California next month, but it won’t be records and pictures he’ll be putting his John Hancock on; the rocker will be autographing copies of his latest book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe [Johns Hopkins University Press, $29.95, 9780801889851/0801889855]. Fresh off receiving his Ph.D. in astrophysics, May co-wrote the tome with legendary astronomer Patrick Moore and astrophysicist Chris Lintott. The book covers the history of the universe from the Big Bang to Heat Death and touches on evolution and how the world will end. It includes photographs, timelines and a glossary, and Brian will be signing copies of it on May 6th at Book Soup in L.A.”

Time magazine begins with a headline asking if Stephenie Meyer is the new JK Rowling, but goes on to point out the differences in their writing.  “The Host” did get a favorable review from PW, so i will bite my tongue.

Randy Pausch writes about his final lecture and his life when he discovers he is dying of pancreatic cancer.  This title has become very popular.  Unfortunately, the large type edition went into the catalog before the regular print edition.  The large type edition captured many holds before I found out we did not own the regular print edition. 

I have bought many more copies of the regular print edition. We are not going to try and move all the holds to the large print edition.  We hope patrons will soon find the regular print edition and put their holds there.

We try avoid this problem.  Acquistions labels the edition so patrons can tell which version of a title we are ordering.  Sometimes it just goes wrong.

Becky Buckingham