Best Mystery for 2010--Edgar Award Winner Announced

The Mystery Writers of America announced the 2010 Edgar Award Winner on Thursday evening, April 29, 2010. The novel to read for 2010 is:

The Last Child by John Hart
After his twin sister Alyssa disappears, thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon is determined to find her. When a second girl disappears from his rural North Carolina town, Johnny makes a discovery that sends shock waves through the community in this multi-layered tale of broken families and deadly

Other nominees included:

The Missing by Tim Gautreaux
The author of "The Clearing" returns with the story of a man fighting to redeem himself after World War I, of parents coping with horrific loss, and of others for whom kidnapping is only a job, in this novel that brings to vivid life the exotic world of steamboats and shifting currents and rough crowds.


The Odds by Kathleen George.
A police procedural focusing on four children recently abandoned who try to help a wounded man they find in a warehouse with a dead man who is being hunted by a drug dealer and the police.


Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston
Based in Los Angeles, a man suffering from post traumatic stress takes a job cleaning up crime scenes. As he is finishing a suicide scene, he receives a call from the dead man's daughter wanting him to clean up another scene for her and her thug brother. He is drawn in by her womanly wiles and finds that he is in way over his head with this family.


Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
Oslo Police Detective Harry Hole is assigned to investigate a series of bank robberies of unparalleled savagery while at the same time absolving himself of the murder of his former girlfriend in a criminal investigation led by his longtime adversary Tom Waaler and Waaler's vigilante police force.


A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn
Jacob's Rest, a tiny town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique, 1952. An Afrikaner police officer is found dead. Detective Emmanuel Cooper, an Englishman, begins investigating the murder following a trail of clues that lead him to uncover a shocking forbidden love and the imperfect life of one Captain Pretorius. SH

New Cookbooks for Spring

The following are a few of our new and popular cookbooks. Enjoy!


The 10 things you need to eat : and more than 100 easy and delicious ways to prepare them by Dave Lieberman




Bread Baking : an artisan's perspective by Daniel T. DiMuzio



The French women don't get fat cookbook by Mireille Guiliano



Now eat this : 150 of America's favorite comfort foods, all under 350 calories by Rocco DiSpirito



The art of eating in : how I learned to stop spending and love the stove by Cathy Erway



-DB

and the winner is . . . .

Nothing sells a book faster than when it garners one of the coveted awards or selections like the National Book Award, the New York Time's best book, or being picked for Oprah's Book Club. Just this past week another big name in the world of letters, the Pulitzer Prize, announce its winners. Here's the list of books that won, but I'd also suggest taking a look at the website of another notable, ProPublica.org which shared the award for investigative journalism with the Philadelphia News.

FICTION - Tinkers by Paul Harding

HISTORY - Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed

BIOGRAPHY - The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

POETRY - Versed by Rae Armantrout

GENERAL NONFICTION- The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman

MW

New Books for May

Here are some popular fiction and mystery titles being published in May:

61 Hours by Lee Child

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Blue-Eyed Devil by Robert Parker

Private Life by Jane Smiley

Innocent by Scott Turow

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The Library of Congress and Twitter

Did you really eat a half a bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish for breakfast while watching a DVR'd episode of Gossip Girl this morning? Well, be careful what you admit to on Twitter. The Library of Congress is archiving you. They decided last week to store the complete archives of Twitter. Starting in six months, your tweets will be saved on an LoC hard drive and accessible to historians. Check it out here: http://blog.twitter.com/2010/04/tweet-preservation.html

maf

Most Popular 2010 SF & Fantasy

The most popular 2010 SF and Fantasy as measured by library circulation.

1. Starbound by Joe Haldeman

Haldeman's sequl to Marsbound. Carmen Dula and her husband have spent six years travelling to a distant solar system that is home to the enigmatic, powerful race known as "The Others," in the hopes of finding enough common purpose between their species to forge a delicate truce. By the time Carmen and her party return, fifty years have been consumed by relativity-and the Earthlings have not been idle, building a massive flotilla of warships to defend Earth against The Others. But The Others have more power than any could imagine-and they will brook no insolence from the upstart human race.

2. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

In a novel as good as it is massive, the first of two Rain Wilds Chronicles, Hobb returns to the dragons of the Rain Wilds forests, first met in her Liveship Traders trilogy. They have survived but aren't thriving. Weak and sick, they must be cared for by the forest's inhabitants. The only way to save them is to send them back up the Rain Wilds river, lest they run amok and destroy the more civilized peoples who don't want the responsibility of caring for them. On the perilous journey to do just that, a rich merchant's wife from Bingtown and a 16-year-old girl from the Rain Wilds tribes meet. They initially have nothing whatsoever in common except wanting to help the dragons, but that is enough for a bond between them to be eventually established as they fight natural and man-made hazards. The scenes on the water will remind readers of the Liveship Traders, as will the good characterizations and the lush forest settings. Hobb continues to occupy a perch at or near the top among contemporary fantasists. This book is imaginative, literate, and compassionate from first page to last. -Booklist

3. Iorich by Steven Brust

In his new adventure, Vlad Taltos is still running from the Jhereg with a huge price on his head. Hearing that old friend Aliera e'Kieron has been arrested on a trumped-up charge and wondering why her comrades, starting with the empress, haven't lifted a finger, he repairs to Adrilankha to investigate, narrowly skirting his enemies, encountering many well-wishing old friends, and then uncovering a complex political situation encompassing everyone from the empress to the Left Hand of the Jhereg. And he meets his son and has a bittersweet reunion with his ex. A good read for longtime fans and newbies alike.

4. The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

Controlled by an alchemical potion that blunts their ferocity, the dragons of the Realms serve as hunting beasts and war mounts as well as valuable tokens of wealth in the game of politics. Both Prince Jehal and Queen Shezira desire power and seek it through murder or marriage until a missing white dragon signals the onset of serious trouble in the Realms. Deas's debut fantasy features dragons that are wild and powerful when left to their own devices, and his characters are both diverse and complex. Verdict Dragon-based fiction is popular, and fans of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, and other dragon tales should enjoy this well-written fantasy debut. -Library Journal

5. The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg

In a new series, Berg introduces the kingdom of Sabria, where sorcery is declining under an explosion of knowledge in the natural sciences and a charismatic young king. Failed student of magic Portier de Duplais is now a librarian at the kingdom's last college of magic. When his distant cousin, King Phillipe, asks him to investigate an attempted murder that showed magical influences, Portier jumps at the chance to leave his rut. To his dismay, Portier is partnered in the investigation with the biggest fool at court. Then he must gain the help of Dante, a brilliant but heretical sorcerer with a penchant for violence. As the investigation continues, so do the deaths, and Portier gets into an increasingly complex fight for his own, the king's, and the kingdom's lives. An archetypal mystery and a genuine page-turner that should please both mystery and fantasy fans. -Booklist

TB

Selling the Wellesley Booksmith

Wellesley has been fortunate to have a great bookstore right in our very own downtown. Wellesley Booksmith has a great selection and has a wonderful record of bringing authors in for talks. The owner of Booksmith (both Wellesley and Brookline) is getting ready to retire after 48 years in the business and is selling the Wellesley store. Watch a very nice video with store manager Deb Sundin talking about the sale.
--RL

Book of the Day Review Delivered Directly to YOU

Have a free daily BookPage review of a new and/or popular title sent directly to your e-mail so you can keep up with what's new in the publishing world. Decide if it is a must-read for you! Try this sample review and then Sign up with BookPage! SH

40th Anniversary of Earth Day

Forty years ago this month, Earth Day was organized as a response to a growing environmental crisis. More than 20 million people took part in protests, teachins and rallies and, as a result of these actions, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, strengthened the Clean Water Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency. Progress was made but there is still much to be accomplished. Following are several new titles which you may find enlightening and inspiring but you will certainly learn something new and amazing.

No Impact Man : The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process



Eco Barons : The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet


Flotsametrics and the floating world : how one man's obsession with runaway sneakers and rubber ducks revolutionized ocean science





Earthtalk : expert answers to everyday questions about the environment : selections from E - the environmental magazine's nationally syndicated column

New Books for April

What are the popular fiction and mystery titles being released this month? Here's a list of a few:

Baldacci, David Deliver Us From Evil

Berg, Elizabeth The Last Time I Saw You

Clark, Mary Higgins The Shadow of Your Smile

George, Elizabeth This Body of Death

Grimes, Martha The Black Cat

Leon, Donna A Question of Belief

Martel, Yann Beatrice and Virgil

McCall Smith, Alexander The Double Comfort Safari Club

Patterson, James Ninth Judgment

Woods, Stuart Lucid Intervals

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The Revolution Will Be Televised....

Check out C-Span's extensive Video Library. Wow. Every C-Span program on all three C-Span networks since 1987 is available in the video archives. The archives have been extensively indexed, making them easily searchable. All C-Span programs here -- all 160,000 hours worth -- can be viewed online for free.

maf

Strengthen Your Investments With Library Resources!

Some would have you think that the recession is over and that we're back to the boom times, while others are more cautious and think that there's still some rocky times ahead. Regardless of your outlook for the market, there's never a bad time to use a couple of good resources (compliments of your local library) to strengthen your investments.

Morningstar is one of the best online databases out there to get ratings, reviews, and other helpful resources to give you an edge on your investments--and you can use it compliments of the library! Soon (like next week soon) we'll be getting this set up for you to use at home, but in the meantime you can come in to the library to use it. That's okay, though, because if you stop by the library you can also check out our Investment Table, which is chock full of great print resources like Valueline ratings, newsletters, and other reports. If you'd like to see a full list of these resources, look no further than our Guide to Investment Resources located on our website.

A little overwhelmed by all this? Never fear, the librarian is here! I lead two classes about our resources: one is a thorough overview of the Morningstar database; the other is a quick tutorial on the database and highlights all our wonderful print resources--newsletters, ratings & reviews, guides, etc. This upcoming April 27th from 10-11am I'll be hosting the second class, which you can sign up for here, and you can always check the library's events calendar for further classes.

MW