New books - Old authors

Some of the most popular authors in our collection have recently come out with new novels, so be sure to grab them fast before they get snatched up by another fan.
Medical thriller master Robin Cook has just released his 28th book: Foreign Body. A 4th-year medical student is stunned to learn that not only did her beloved grandmother travel to India for a necessary - and expensive in America - surgery, but that the grandmother died as a result. As the student travels to India to try and find out what happened, she gets caught up in a sinister conspiracy and the murky world of medical tourism.
Jeffrey Deaver brings back his popular couple - Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs - for another investigative thriller in The Broken Window. When his cousin is arrested for rape and murder, with seemingly ironclad evidence against him, Rhyme begins to uncover a crooked use of identity theft. When the secretive master criminal behind these crimes and false trails realizes that Rhyme and Sachs are closing in, "the hunters become the hunted".
Luanne Rice returns to Hubbard's Point - the setting for Beach Girls - to bring readers a story of an unsolved murder and the broken people who were left behind. The murder of teenage Charle Rosslare may have faded from most people's memory in Hubbard's Point, but his musician mother is still unable to play and his girlfriend is still determined to find out what happened - with the help of his mother's old boyfriend.
Jeff Shaara follows up his popular novel of World War II (The Rising Tide) with a story of D-Day. The Steel Wave is the second in his WWII trilogy, and Shaara is one of the foremost historical fiction authors writing today. If you haven't read his Civil War series - starting with Gods and Generals - you should really give it a try. This is a great choice for anyone who enjoys military history.

In honor of those who have fallen

In 2006, The Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, and he has created an amazingly powerful new book from that reporting. When Colorado lost it's first soldier in Iraq, Sheeler began documenting the stories of the soldiers who died, the families they left behind, and the Marines whose task and honor it is to bring the grim news home. In Final Salute: a story of unfinished lives, Sheeler brings the reader along with Marine Major Steve Beck as approaches the front door of homes in Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and South Dakota bearing the news that their son has died.
This is one of the most uncomfortable books I have ever read, and one that is impossible to get through in one sitting. The best you can do is read a few pages, put it down to think, and come back later. There is no analysis here - no political agenda - no defense or denunciation of our presence in Iraq. This is about the families, the friends and the fellow soldiers who are left behind.
This is a painful, horrible, essential book.

Can you see it?

There is no image as difficult to decipher and as laboriously studied as that of an fetal ultrasound. Every expectant parent, regardless of experience, peers intently at the screen trying to tell the difference between the hand, the leg and the backside. But this is the first fuzzy sight of your new child and you want so much to see something. Your Developing Baby: conception to birth is a wonderful resource for helping to understand ultrasound images, how they're used and what they mean. Written by two professors of radiology from Harvard Medical School (Drs. Peter M. Doubilet and Carol B. Benson), this book has hundreds of ultrasound images that are accompanied by extremely useful diagrams outlining what each blob and shadow means (sorry, but they all look like blobs and shadows to me). The book also illustrates how amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling are done, how to tell the difference (in utero) between fraternal and identical twins, how triplets space themselves within the uterus, and what an ectopic pregnancy looks like. Most parents will enjoy seeing the pictures of babies at different stages of development, comparing these images to their own unborn child and imagining what their newest family member will look like. This is sure to be a must-read book for any expectant parent (or grandparent).

Travel: funny, enlightening, and a tad scary

Since I don't travel much (Seattle doesn't really count, now does it...) I always get a vicarious thrill from reading the travel accounts of others. As a genre, travel books can actually take on quite a wide variety of forms.
Funny: Having slogged away a few years in the islands of the Pacific (The Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned With Savages), J. Maarten Troost now turns his bemused attention to the largest nation on Earth - China. Lost on Planet China: the strange and true story of on man's attempt to understand the world's most mystifying nation is another droll story of Troost's attempt to fit his modern American slacker soul into an entirely different culture.
Enlightening: Tony Horowitz is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Blue Latitudes: boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before. Recently made aware of his (and most Americans') ignorance of North American exploration between Columbus and the Pilgrims, he decides to travel around the continent following the footsteps of 16th century Europeans. A Voyage Long and Strange: rediscovering the new world is a great example of literary nonfiction - you are completely entertained as you learn all sorts of new things.
A Tad Scary: An absolutely complete, all-encompassing, soup-to-nuts guide for anyone who is going to travel anywhere, Peter Greenberg's The Complete Travel Detective Bible is also a little frightening. No dab hand at domestic travel myself, I usually find the process uncomfortable but uneventful. After leafing through 600 pages of topics such as no-fly lists, medical evacuations, airline bankruptcy, and passport security, I feel like I never want to get on a plane again. That being said, this book is an amazing resource for travelers. Did you know that there are such things as pregnancy spas, frequent-flier miles for pets, and sleep concierges? If you're looking for pet-friendly hotels, DIY bike tours, visa requirements, or nudist travel opportunities, this is the book for you. Just bring your St. Christopher's medal along.

Free Music Downloads!

No, it's not Napster run amok. There's no LimeWire necessary. Instead, Ketchikan Public Library patrons now have access to over 670 albums through our wonderful ListenAlaska system. Choose from an array of blues, rock, folk, jazz, classical, children's, opera, pop, electronica, and choral music. Popular artists such as Hound Dog Taylor, Barenaked Ladies, Dar Williams, Buddy Guy and Laura Nyro can all be found in this new collection. Even better, you can discover some new and unknown talents and experiment with some different musical tastes, because this system is so easy to use and it is entirely free!
Each title comes with a playlist, a link to other albums by the artist, and an excerpt you can listen to 'on the fly' - so that you can try it out before you check it out. In addition to being able to listen to these albums on your computer, you can also transfer them to any OverDrive compatible device. Some of the selections can even be burned onto a CD or transferred to an iPod.
What's that - an iPod? Yes, indeedy....not only do we have free music available online, but we now offer over 400 audiobooks that are compatible with any portable music device including iPods!. Just look for the OverDrive mp3 format. (A couple of small caveats: you need to download the 3.0 version of the OverDrive media console in order to use the mp3 format - the link is available at the bottom of the left side menu. Another thing to consider is that the mp3 files are about twice the size of the traditional WMA files, which means they will take twice as long to download. This isn't a problem, just something to take into account when you schedule your downloading.) The world is once again your oyster, iPod users! Download and listen to audiobooks anytime of the day or night, from anywhere in the world. How's that for library service?

Eco-parenting

People are becoming more and more aware of their impact on the planet and the impact of modern living upon themselves. Health concerns about environmental toxins, lead-laden toys, and food safety share equal space in the newspaper with warnings about climate change, disappearing wilderness and swelling landfills. There are two new books on the shelf that help people apply their growing concern for the environment to those who are most endangered: our children.
Growing Up Green!: baby and child care is a guide to raising children in an environmentally responsible - and safe - way. Written by Deidre Imus and backed up by 18 medical experts (including popular health guru Dr. Mehmet Oz), this book tackles issues such as vaccine safety, what plastics to avoid, buying safe toys, eating properly during pregnancy, and shopping for 'green' school supplies. With so many concerns about phthalates, lead, mercury and bisphenol A, it's nice to have a guide that clearly explains what to look for and how to keep these chemicals out of your kids' lives. Imus also discusses ways to keep your kids fit and fed with healthy foods, how to get involved in local environmental issues, and how to keep your schools, playgrounds and yards safe for children.
I Love Dirt! 52 activities to help you & your kids discover the wonders of nature is a great way to get your family out of the house and into the world. Author Jennifer Ward offers a variety of fun and easy activities for young children. Each activity is designed to get your child (and you) to experience the plants and animals around you. Even something as simple as puddle jumping is an opportunity to get your child thinking about the natural world and how they fit in with everything else. This is also a wonderful way to get your family out into the fresh air for a little exercise. Take this book home and get many fun ideas for nurturing little adventurers.

Mature beauty

Every time you go to the grocery store, the magazines at the check-out stand promise to make you beautiful and alluring with simple style and makeup tips. Unfortunately, most of these tips (and the models) are aimed at women in their 20's. But as many a woman has sadly discovered, what looks good on a 24-year-old looks plain silly on someone who's 60 ("mutton dressed as lamb", as my great-grandmother would say).
That does not mean that middle-aged women can't look good and feel good about themselves. It just takes a different approach to hair, clothes and makeup: an approach designed to flatter your attributes and play down any less desirable features. With Staging Your Comeback: a complete beauty revival for women over 45, makeup artist Christopher Hitchens ("The Makeover Guy" - as seen on Oprah) shows you how to determine your personal image - classic, casual, romantic, etc. - and also how to figure out your body type. He then shows you how to take the body you have and project the woman you want to be, by skillful application of makeup, adventurous hairstyles, and careful choice of clothing. He finishes things off with 12 makeovers of women ages 48-69, and you wouldn't recognize the women after their transformation. This is an inspiring book for any woman who has looked in the mirror and thought "I don't feel as old as I look".