Staff Recommendations
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White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s
by Boyd, Joe
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowJune 3, 2013
Call Number: 788.99092 B789
Joe Boyd is an iconic American music producer and executive who has been involved in the recording industry for five decades. His interest in music production began when he watched the pre-Dick Clark Bandstand on television in Princeton, New Jersey. On his first production gig, Boyd brought the blues artist Lonnie Johnson to Princeton. He subsequently enrolled in Harvard, where he became part of the bohemian folk scene in Cambridge.
In Cambridge, Boyd became acquainted with folksingers Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Maria D'Amato. He developed a relationship with George Wein,... Read Full Review
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Dirt Candy : a cookbook : flavor-forward food from the upstart New York City vegetarian restaurant
by Cohen, Amanda.
Reviewed by: Amy Bradley, Librarian, Washington Irving Branch LibraryMay 23, 2013
Call Number: 641.63 C6775
Before your mother was trying to get you to eat your vegetables, someone was doing the same to her. All the way back to John Harvey Kellogg’s vegetarian diet that was intended to restore the body’s purity (But what will I eat!? Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, of course) and Sylvester Graham’s sweet and crunchy cure for onanism (the Graham Cracker), American health foods have framed vegetables as bland, better-for-you alternatives to meat – rather than the delicious ends in themselves that they are. Dirt Candy aims to change this.
Built around recipes from... Read Full Review
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The Jersey sting : a true story of corrupt pols, money-laundering rabbis, black market kidneys, and the informant who brought it all down
by Sherman, Ted, 1953-
Reviewed by: Eileen Ybarra, Librarian III, Electronic ResourcesMay 21, 2013
Call Number: 364.38 S553
In a fascinating true crime tale of financial deception, betrayal, fraud and political corruption The Jersey Sting recounts a long joint investigation between the then New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office of Chris Christie and the FBI. The linchpin of this investigation was Solomon Dwek, an FBI informant who eventually netted dozens involved in a web of government corruption and money laundering throughout New Jersey. Many New Jersey politicians and rabbis from the New Jersey and New York Hasidic and Sephardic Jewish communities were taken down. Even a kidney transplant... Read Full Review
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Hard magic
by Correia, Larry.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMay 13, 2013
What if Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade were able to use magic to assist them in solving mysteries? And what if the culprits they were tracking had magic as well? What would a pre-World War II world infused with magic be like? And how would the addition of magic alter the progress of world events? All of these questions are explored in Hard Magic: Book I of the Grimnoir Chronicles, by Larry Correia.
Jake Sullivan is a decorated World War I vet, an ex-con, a private eye and an Active (person with magical abilities). He was released early from the Special Prisoners’ Wing of... Read Full Review
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Me Before You
by Moyes, Jojo, 1969-
Reviewed by: Loren Spector, Acting Senior Librarian, Felipe de Neve Branch LibraryApril 23, 2013
Will Traynor was once a handsome, young, successful, vivacious man living in London. Now, after a tragic accident, he is a 35-year-old quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair and his parent’s house in a small English town for the rest of his life.
Louisa (Lou) Clark is a quirky, 26-year-old recently unemployed waitress in a long-term, dead end relationship, living at home with her financially struggling family in the same small English town.
When Lou, desperate for work to help support her family, interviews for a job as a caregiver she never expects to get the job -... Read Full Review
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Gods like us : on movie stardom and modern fame
by Burr, Ty.
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowApril 22, 2013
Call Number: 301.55 B968
Burr expounds on the nature of stardom from the early silent era to the present day in this provocative and well-researched tome. Iconic movie stars, including Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise are profiled. Burr questions the meaning of stardom in the Internet age, when stardom is often accidentally obtained, the major film studios have limited power, and stars have more currency as "brands" than actors. While Gods Like Us is not a comprehensive overview of Hollywood history, Burr... Read Full Review
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People who eat darkness : the true story of a young woman who vanished from the streets of Tokyo and the evil that swallowed her up
by Parry, Richard Lloyd.
Reviewed by: Eileen Ybarra, Librarian III, Electronic ResourcesApril 17, 2013
Call Number: 364.952 P265
Lucie Blackman’s body was missing for months before the Tokyo police found her. In fact, it initially took gargantuan efforts on her father's and sister’s part in creating publicity for Lucie’s case, in hopes that she would be found. At one point, even then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly entreated the Tokyo police to quickly find Lucie. The truth of Lucie’s untimely death, and the truth about the person who killed her, would ruin a family and expose inadequacies and inner workings of the Tokyo police department and the Japanese criminal legal... Read Full Review
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Heading out to wonderful : a novel
by Goolrick, Robert, 1948-
Reviewed by: LAPL Staff, LibrarianApril 15, 2013
World War II has only recently ended, and life has started to return to normal in sleepy Brownsburg, Virginia. Charlie Beale arrives, looking for a place to finally settle down, and with his natural charm, he’s quickly accepted as a member of the community. When he meets the beautiful young Sylvan Glass, it’s love at first sight, and Sylvan is more than ready to be swept off her feet by a handsome and dashing beau. She has dreams of Hollywood, glamour, and the movies – dreams that she feared had died for good when her family married her off to the town's richest man... Read Full Review
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The mad scientist's guide to world domination : original short fiction for the modern evil genius
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryApril 12, 2013
Call Number: SF
The mad scientist has been a science fiction standard since the genesis of the genre with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818. Many novels and films revolve around a scientific genius and his (or her!) plans, but are they necessarily mad? And are their plans truly nefarious or only "evil" from a certain point of view? Some of the genre’s best and brightest contemporary authors explore this archetype from the inside out with fascinating, insightful and often hilarious results in The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.
Within this collection of... Read Full Review
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
by Sáenz, Benjamin Alire
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryApril 12, 2013
Call Number: YA
Two 15-year-old boys, each spending the afternoon at the community pool: “I can teach you how to swim,” one says to the other. With this kind and innocent offer, a relationship begins that will alter both of these boys, and their families, as they forge a friendship that will help them on their journey to becoming men.
Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza is the classic loner. He prefers his own company to that of others. He is also perpetually bored, moody, and has bouts of inexplicable anger. With nothing better to do on a summer morning in 1987, he heads to the... Read Full Review
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Sailor Twain : the mermaid in the Hudson
by Siegel, Mark, 1967-
Reviewed by: Amy Bradley, Librarian, Washington Irving Branch LibraryApril 2, 2013
Call Number: 740.9999 S571
The year is 1887, and the steamboat Lorelei courses the foggy Hudson River. Its captain, Sailor Twain, is a dutiful man who runs the ship much on his own. Prowling the deck late one evening, he encounters a mermaid struggling to pull herself onboard. Blood flows out of a wound in her side, across her breasts and her gray, pungent skin. Twain clumsily carries her into his cabin, at once lustily drawn to and repulsed by her. He dresses her wound, and nurses her back to health in secret.
As the mermaid grows stronger, her presence transforms Twain's cabin into a seabed... Read Full Review
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The explorer
by Smythe, James.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMarch 28, 2013
What if you were doomed and found yourself in a situation from which there was no rescue, no escape. There are no secret panels to look behind, no levers to pull, no button to push or secret skill that can save you. You are completely isolated and without the knowledge that might, MIGHT, be able to save you. That you will die is a certainty. How would you face it? Could you face it? Is it possible to stare directly into the face of our mortality with dignity? Or would we inevitably devolve to our baser instincts? These are just some of the questions examined in James Smythe’s ... Read Full Review