New Releases – 4/1/2014

HARDCOVER FICTION

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

From the bestselling author of Room comes a new novel. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue’s lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boomtown like no other.

Letter Composed During a Lull in The Fighting: Poems by Kevin Powers

The award-winning author of The Yellow Birds returns with a debut poetry collection that captures the many moments that comprise a soldier’s life: driving down the Texas highway; waiting for the unknown in the dry Iraq heat; writing a love letter; listening to a mother recount her dreams.

PAPERBACK FICTION

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

A literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829. Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Named Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and will be made into a movie starring Keira Knightly.
A typist for the NYC Police Department in the 1920s, criminals come to Rose Baker to admit their transgressions, and, with a few strokes of the keys before her, she seals their fate. When Odalie joins the typing pool, Rose quickly falls under her stylish, coquettish spell and is lured into a sparkling underworld of speakeasies and jazz.

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty by J. Randy Taraborrelli

A sweeping saga of the success-and excess-of an iconic American family. The cast of supporting players includes the inimitable Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married to Conrad Hilton briefly and remained a thorn in his side for decades, and a host of other Hollywood and business luminaries with whom the Hiltons crossed paths and swords over the years.

A Farm Dies Once a Year: A Memoir by Arlo Crawford

The summer he was thirty-one, Arlo Crawford returned home for the summer harvest at New Morning Farm–seventy-five acres tucked in a hollow in south-central Pennsylvania where his parents had been growing organic vegetables for almost forty years. A chronicle of one full season on a farm, with all its small triumphs and inevitable setbacks, this is a Year” is a meditation on work–the true nature of it, and on taking pride in it–and a son’s reckoning with a father’s legacy.

Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of a Creative Mind by Biz Stone

Co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone discusses the power of creativity and how to harness it. He tells fascinating, pivotal, and personal stories from his early life and his careers at Google and Twitter, sharing his knowledge about the nature and importance of ingenuity today.

 Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis, comes an engaging new book about Wall Street. Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of Boomerang, The Big Short, The Blind Side, Moneyball, and many others, returns to the financial world to give listeners a ringside seat as the biggest news story in years prepares to hit Wall Street.

John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman

Joe’s new release pick of the day: “John Wayne was one of the most fascinating and polarizing actors of the 20th century. I’m DYING to read what Eyman has to say about the man who defined the Western.”

A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip: A Memoir of Seventh Grade by Kevin Brockmeier

Over the course of one school year—seventh grade—Kevin Brockmeier sets out in search of himself. Along the way, he happens into his first kiss at a church party, struggles to understand why his old friends tease him at the lunch table, becomes the talk of the entire school thanks to his Halloween costume, and booby-traps his lunch to deter a thief. With the same deep feeling and oddly dreamlike precision that are the hallmarks of his fiction, the acclaimed novelist now explores the dream of his own past and recovers the person he used to be.
Dancing with Cats by Burton Silver

Andrew’s new release pick of the day: “The title really says it all.”
This petite 15th anniversary hardcover reissue keeps all the original mystery and presents scores of delightful and inspiring photographs of people and cats engaging in their favorite dance routines as well as moving testimonies of the personal transformations brought about through this uniquely joyous form of human-animal connection.

PAPERBACK NONFICTION

The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin

Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the advances in neuro-imaging and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan to show which anomalies might explain common symptoms. Most excitingly, she argues that raising and educating kids on the autism spectrum must focus on their long-overlooked strengths to foster their unique contributions.
Bunny Buddhism: Hopping Along the Path to Enlightenment by Krista Lester

Julie’s new release pick of the day: “There is no higher spiritual or philosophical thinker than the rabbit. Live in the moment of twitching noses, munching hay and hopping just for the hop of it. Come. Join us on the Bunny Side. It’s peaceful here.”

COOKING

Yucatan: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition by David Sterling

Absolutely beautiful new cookbook from our friends at UT Press.
An internationally recognized authority on Yucatecan cuisine, chef David Sterling takes you on a gastronomic tour of the peninsula in this unique cookbook. Profusely illustrated and spiced with lively stories of the region’s people and places, this is the definitive book on a distinctive cuisine.

The Homesick Texan’s Family Table: Lone Star Cooking from My Kitchen to Yours by Lisa Fain

Arian’s new release pick of the day: “This is Fain’s second collection of mouth watering favorites inspired by the food of the Lone Star State. Texas is a unique place that blends flavors from the American South and Mexico with ingredients all our own. Our state’s tastes are as varied as its landscapes… Food totally equals love, and this book is a great representation of that. Wholesome, delicious and easy to make recipes for you and yours.”

YOUTH

West of the Moon by Margi Preus

Meghan G.’s new release pick of the day: “Inspired by a passage in the author’s great-great-grandmother’s diary kept as she migrated from Norway, this bewitchingly beautiful story dipped in fable and myth tells of a girl of grit and fortitude who faces off against hard-hearted foes, the terrible realities of poverty, and her own fears to save her little sister and fly east of the sun, west of the moon, and all the way to America.”
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, has been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to stop Dorothy who has found a way to come back to Oz, seizing a power that has gone to her head — so now no one is safe!

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan

Reboot by Amy Tintera

Teen Press Corps pick! Xander: “This book was incredible. The story was so full of action, suspense and awesomeness that it was hard to put down. The idea is very unique and cool—people dying and then coming back to life again, as a zombie-like, more advanced human. Tintera describes the setting really well, and Wren and Callum were well written. I cannot wait for the sequel.”