PATRON PICKS--Identical

Jessica's pick:  Identical, by Ellen Hopkins (YA)

Synopsis:

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are 16-year-old identical twins, the daughters of a district court judge father and politician mother running for Congress. Everything on the surface of their lives seems Norman Rockwell perfect, but underneath run deep and damaging secrets.

Kaeleigh is the good girl-her father's perfect flower, something she has tried so hard to be since she was nine and he started sexually abusing her. She cuts herself and vomits after every binge, desperate to feel something normal. Raeanne uses painkillers, drugs, alcohol, and sex to numb the pain of not being Daddy's favorite. Both girls must figure out how to become whole, but how can they when their world has been torn to shreds?

Writing in her characteristic narrative poetry style, Ellen Hopkins shows once again how well she knows today's teens and the issues that matter to them.

Jessica says:  Interesting story.  Huge twist at the end--completely unexpected!  Amazing!  Would recommend it to anyone!

STAFF PICKS--Iron Lake

Cyndi's Pick:  Iron Lake, by William Kent Krueger

Cork O'Connor, part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian and former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota must solve the brutal killing of a judge and the disappearance of a Boy Scout during a blizzard.  Gives you a great sense of northern Minnesota and the people that live there.  This is the first of ten books featuring Cork O'Connor.

PATRON PICKS--Recommend a favorite book or DVD!

We'd love to hear about your favorite books and DVDs!  You can use the comment box below, or stop by the library and fill out one of our Patron Picks forms. 

Please include the name of the book or DVD, author (for books), why you liked it, and your first name.

"A Taste of Durham" 2012

It's almost time for "A Taste of Durham!"  This annual event will take place on Saturday, February 4, 6:30-9:00pm.  The cost is $30 per person, which includes three bar tickets.  Tickets may be purchased at the Durham Public Library, 7 Maple Avenue, Durham.

This is an adults-only event; patrons must be 21 or older. Sponsored by PALS to benefit the Durham Public Library.

Come sample the delicious food from these local restaurants:

Anoho Asian Noodle House
Brenda's Main Street Feed *
Brew Bakers
Cold Stone Creamery
Cozy Corner Restaurant and Pizza
Durham Dari Serv
Durham Market & Caterers
Durham's Kitchen
Haveli India
Kim's Cottage Confections
Lino's Market & Caterers
Little Rooster
Lyman Orchards Farm Market
Mondo Pizza
Perk On Main
Spice Catering Group
Sweet Harmony Cafe
The Whole Enchilada
Time Out Taverne
Tschudin Chocolates
* (food for your pets, of course!)









"A Taste of Durham" is a fun, community event!  Tickets are going fast, so stop by the library to purchase yours before they're sold out!

STAFF PICKS--THIRTEEN REASONS WHY

Karyn's pick:  Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher (YA)

Synopsis:
Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

Karyn says:  A really powerful book about how teenage life can snowball into suicide.  Should be required reading for every high schooler!

PATRON PICKS--The Buddha in the Attic

Penny's pick:  The Buddha in the Attic, by Julie Otsuka

Synopsis:
Julie Otsuka’s long awaited follow-up to When the Emperor Was Divine (“To watch Emperor catching on with teachers and students in vast numbers is to grasp what must have happened at the outset for novels like Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird” —The New York Times) is a tour de force of economy and precision, a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought over from Japan to San Francisco as ‘picture brides’ nearly a century ago.

In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces their extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.

In language that has the force and the fury of poetry, Julie Otsuka has written a singularly spellbinding novel about the American dream. 

Penny says:  The story of Japanese picture brides coming to the U.S.  All of their fears, thoughts, problems, disappointments, and experiences--arriving, living, working, in California, and what happened to them during WWII.  Succinctly and beautifully written.

STAFF PICKS--Sorry: A Thriller

Valerie's Staff Pick-- Sorry: A Thriller, by Zoran Drvenkar

Four young Berliners--Kris, Tamara, Frauke and Wolf--are at the end of their ropes.  Unemployed, scorned by relatives, outsiders in almost all respects, they stumble one night onto a brilliant idea.  They will offer an apology service for businesses that have laid off or otherwise mistreated individuals, and for a significant fee release middle managers and chief executives of the guilt they carry bottled up inside.  Much to their surprise, the enterprise is a huge success, which leads to their intersection with you, when you hire them to apologize to a woman you have just murdered by nailing her to a wall with 16 inch nails.

Crucial sections of the book are written in the second person, while the rest of the novel switches casually between third and first and even first-person plural, and that at times you--you, the reader--are unsure who's speaking.  You'll learn that the other "you" of Drvenkar's novel is a sadistic killer.  "You" don't just drop in for the occasional nail-a-woman-to-the-wall; you take part in the story.  You're in it.  As you gradually bring about the friends' ruin we learn so much about you, and why you do what you do.

We learn that you possess a fully fleshed history and reasons for your actions that, even if they provide some justification, do not let you off the hook.  Which is as it should be, for at the core of Sorry, is the question of guilt and absolution.

Sorry is the kind of thriller, the kind of novel, that doesn't come along every day.  Read it, you won't be "sorry."