Book Talk

January, 2007

This is the time of year when life slows down just a bit and we gear ourselves up for a busy new year. Book orders await the 2007 budget and we take at look at the past year.  In 2006 we ordered about 5,160 new adult books and discarded 3,433. Books are discarded for a number of reasons. We may no longer need more than one copy of a title, the condition of the book may be bad, or information may be out of date. This past year I did a major weeding of the medical section. There’s no other subject area where current information is so crucial.

Of course, our authors don’t stop writing and there are new things to replace the old. Some popular authors have added titles this month.  For those who like romantic suspense, Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood is a good choice. When Kate MacKenna and Dylan Buchanan marry, an eccentric professor warns them that an ancient blood feud between their clans exists. Jordan MacKenna sets out to investigate the claim.

Lalita Tademy’s long awaited new novel is Red River.  Combining family history and a little known incident from post-civil war Louisiana, Red River exposes the racial tensions in the bitter aftermath of the war. Tademy is the author of the widely red CaneRiver.

Barbara Taylor Bradford contributes The Ravenscar Dynasty. This Edwardian family saga stars Edward Deravenel as one of two male heirs remaining of the rich and powerful family.

The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom has all the elements that make a great thriller: secret cabals, ties to the Renaissance through Machiavelli’s secret addition to The Prince, blackmail, political power…

Eve Duncan, forensic sculptor, reluctantly joins forces with the powerful and dangerous Luis Montalvo in Stalemate. While working to identify a skull in the Colombian jungle she finds herself caught but two murderous factions.

Scott Ritter became a public man when he told President Bush and Prime Minister Blair that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. We have to hope that this time he is wrong. In Target Iran: the Truth about the White House’s Plans for Regime Change, he makes his case that history is about to repeat itself.

Weapons of mass destruction have been used during wars and Pulitzer Prize winning author George Weller was First into Nagasaki. He viewed the devastation and sent back releases to MacArthur’s censors. The stories were never released; the U.S. Government censored every word. After his death in 2002, Weller’s son found a copy of the manuscript which has now been published.

Henrietta Town Historian Helen Vollmer Elam has contributed a much needed history of the town of Henrietta. Part of the Images of America series, it is full of photographs from Henrietta’s long history. Some will be familiar to today’s residents. Helen will be doing a book signing at the library on Saturday, January 20 from 1 to 2. Come and purchase your own copy and have Helen autograph it for you.

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year,
Virginia Cooper, Adult Services Librarian