Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner (fiction) With support from each other, young Philadelphia women face the challenge of new motherhood and all agree it is nothing like they imagined!  Three of them -- Ayinde, Becky and Kelley -- met at a prenatal yoga class. Following the class, Ayinde goes into labor.  Since her NBA star husband is out of town, Becky and Kelly stay with Ayinde for the duration.  After all of the women have had their babies, they face problems large and small, from sleep deprivation to cheating husbands.  As their bond strengthens, a fourth woman -- Lia, who has returned from California after a tragic loss -- is brought into the group.  It's Lia's story that puts all the other problems into perspective and gives all the women the insight they need.  Their stories run the full range of emotions, but in the end they all agree that life and love may not be perfect, but it sure is good enough.
		A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George (mystery) This twelfth entry in the popular Thomas Lynley series focuses almost exclusively on Simon St. James and his wife Deborah, secondary characters in most of the previous titles.  China River, Deb's friend from California, and her brother Cherokee received free airline tickets and a substantial fee to deliver architectural plans to Guernsey in the Channel Islands.  The plans are intended for wealthy Guy Brouard, who plans to fund and build a wartime museum on the island to commemorate its WWII occupation by the Germans.  However, after delivering the plans and spending several days admiring his mansion and the island, Bouard is found dead and China is the chief suspect.  Cherokee seeks help from Simon and Deborah and they set out for the island.  The wartime museum was only one of many empty Brouard promises.  After reviewing the conditions of the dead man's will, there are suspects aplenty.  Simon and Deborah take differing paths through this investigation but, in the end, Simo n can't prevent Deborah from confronting the real killer.
		How to Murder the Man of Your Dreams by Dorothy Cannell (mystery) After the death of the local librarian in Chitterdon Fells, the recently married milkman adopts her rambunctious dog and the Library League decides to place a bust of the deceased woman in the library.  Ellie Haskell, who has just hired an au pair for her twins, agrees to contact romance paperback model Karisma to ask if he will appear in a fundraising event.  Karisma consents but, before he arrives, the portly milkman meets an undignified end, suffering a heart attack while trying to wrestle a piece of steak from his new dog.  Then, in an apparent accident, Karisma meets his maker in the library.  Ellie doubts that the rash of deaths in her small community is just bad luck and, setting her mind to it, finds no shortage of murder suspects.  This is the seventh book in this cozy mystery series.

Adult and Teen Winter Reading Program 2006 - Spirit of Reading
Runs through Mar. 31
Native American narratives are developed with the drama of constantly expanding meaning in mind. Join us for a very special Adult and Teen Reading Program, in conjunction with the American Indian Center's Trickster Gallery (located in Town Square), highlighting Native American authors and books with Native American protagonists.

A Coach’s Book (re)View
Tuesday, Jan. 31, 7 – 8 pm
Rasmussen North
Building better business contacts begins with you.  Do you make a positive impression at job interviews, professional meetings and networking events?  Breakthrough Networking: Building Relationships That Last by Lillian Bjorseth is all about building business relationships, no matter what industry you are in or what level you have reached.  Career Strategies coach Jerilyn Willin discusses how networking can help you start a business or boost your career opportunities within or outside your current company.

Author Visit - E. E. Knight           
Thursday, Feb. 23, 7-8:30 pm
Adult Classroom
Vampire and fantasy fans will love hearing about the magical worlds created by popular author Eric Knight.  Mr. Knight will discuss where he gets his out-of-this-world ideas.  His books will be available for sale and autographing.  Register for this event by calling Amy Alessio at (847) 923-3191 or emailing aalessio@stdl.org.

A Coach’s Book (re)View
Tuesday, Feb 28, 7-8 pm
Conference Room
Whether negotiating for a raise at work or with an angry teenager at home, effectively used emotions can help you achieve the results you want.  Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro explores the five core concerns that motivate people.  Learn to use these core concerns to generate helpful emotions in yourself and others.

Inside Writing & Publishing – How to Submit Your Manuscript to Publishers
Thursday, March 2, 7:30-9 pm
Adult Classroom
Sharon Woodhouse, Publisher of Lake Claremont Press, will discuss mistakes new writers make when submitting their manuscripts to publishers.  No fee, but registration is required.

Inside Writing & Publishing – How to Write Fiction and Non-Fiction That Sells!
Wednesday, March 8, 7-9 pm
Adult Classroom
Bestselling author Jay Bonansinga offers a practical evening of inside tips to selling your books and stories.  The key is dramatic structure - a principal that dates back thousands of years but still forms the basis for the most popular books and movies.  Come armed with story ideas, and enjoy an evening of "pitching" and "sharing."  Registration is required; $10 fee.

Audiobook narrator
Thursday, March 16, 7-8 pm
Adult Classroom
Books on tape and CDs have seen a tremendous growth in popularity over the years.  In cooperation with Books on Tape, one of their audiobook narrators [not available at press time] will discuss the process of recording an audiobook and perform a reading. 

Inside Writing & Publishing – Novelist’s Bootcamp
Tuesday, March 21, 7:30-9 pm
Adult Classroom
Author T. A. Stone provides an overview of the 101 hard-core ways to take your fiction from boring to bestseller.  Kick your writing into high gear. No fee, but registration is required.

A Coach’s Book (re)View
Tuesday, Mar. 28, 7-9 pm
Conference Room
Racecar drivers are taught to “focus on the road, not the wall.”  Do you focus on what you CAN do, or on what you can’t?  Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work, by Marilee G. Adams, Ph.D., teaches readers "Question Thinking" — a powerful technique to affect the future by our design.

Inside Writing & Publishing – Workshop with the Minnesota Crime Wave
Saturday, April 8, 10:30 am-12:30 pm
Adult Classroom
Learn ways of improving your novel from popular and award-winning mystery writers Ellen Hart, Carl Brookins and two-time Anthony award-winner William Kent Krueger.  Registration is required; $10 fee.
 

Some call her mysteries "cozies," but this award-winning mystery author prefers to think of her titles as "traditional mysteries."  It doesn't matter which label you choose to use (or not to use, if you're anti-labeling), Julia Spencer-Fleming writes good mysteries:  The tension is constant.  The dialogue is dead-on.  The characters are interesting, thought provoking and honest.  And, the icing on the cake, the story twists and turns to the last page.

The main characters, Clare Fergusson and Russ van Alystyne, make a fresh and unusual detective partnership.  She is the newly-ordained, first female priest of St. Alban's, an Episcopal church in the small upstate New York town of Millers Kill and, with her background as an ex-army helicopter pilot, she's not your typical priest.  He's the town's married Chief of Police and also ex-military, so the two have something in common while solving crimes.  Russ' wife remains conveniently off-stage and the duo have developed what some reviewers have called "an ambiguously platonic relationship."

Julia Spencer-Fleming likes to think of herself as "multi-geographical" -- as a former military brat, she grew up in places as diverse as Mobile, Rome, Stuttgart and Syracuse.  A graduate of Ithaca College, George Washington University and the University of Maine School of Law, she took up writing while still a stay-at-home mother of two.  During the time it took to finish her first book, she got a full-time job at a Portland, Maine, law firm and had a third child. 

Julia didn't want to write yet another lawyer-sleuth, so she used her army past and a keen eye for the goings-on at her Episcopal church to create Clare Fergusson, first female priest in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill.  The result, In the Bleak Midwinter (2002), made debut history when it won the St.Martin's/Malice Domestic contest, the Dilys Award from the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association, along with all of the major mystery genre awards -- the Agatha, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Barry awards -- for best first novel.  Its sequel, A Fountain Filled With Blood (2003), was a Borders Original Voices selection, and the third book in the series, Out of the Deep I Cry (2004), was St. Martin's Minotaur's lead title.  To Darkness and to Death, the fourth in the Clare Fergusson series, was released in June 2005.

Now happily quit of the law, Julia lives and works in a 180-year-old farmhouse in the southern Maine countryside with her husband, three children, and beloved big dog.

MAIN DISPLAYS

MINI DISPLAYS

STAFF PICKS TABLE
This table includes an assortment of titles read and enjoyed by library staff from the various fiction collections (general fiction, mystery, science fiction) within the department.

The following is a list of upcoming films based on novels, now playing or coming soon to a movie theatre near you:

In a famous New Year's Day column, newspaperman Westbrook Pegler repeated the same sentence fifty times - "I will never mix gin, beer, and whiskey again."

Many Americanisms are used in modern English but perhaps America's biggest contribution is the expression "OK," which is used in nearly every part of speech.  Tracing its origins is a bit difficult, but "O.K." first appeared in print in 1839, as a jocular abbreviation for "Oll Korrect."  The next year, use by the Democratic O.K. Club promoting Martin van Buren ("Old Kinderhook") seemed to cement the term.

It has been said that German poet, novelist, and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs.  Also, he could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

Quote of the quarter (from Mark Twain): "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."