Cassidy Silver wants a friend but is a social outcast in her seventh grade class because of the taunting of a group of popular girls. When Victoria moves to Cassidy’s school, Cassidy finds a friend who seems to have magical powers; Victoria claims to be telekinetic. Cassidy wants to believe but finds she doubts Victoria’s claims. The setting for the book is Canada, and while slight international differences in school are evident, the frustrations felt by Cassidy are universal. The theme was reminiscent of Roald Dahl’s novel, Matilda, in a shorter story for young teens and with a less complex plot.  This is a good quick read for young teens and tweens. (Source: Teen Scene from Wright Memorial Public Library)

This book just won a 2009 Newbery Honor Award, and justifiably so. Mibs Beaumont is about to turn 13, and in her family it means that she will "inherit" some skill that will need to be managed.  Her oldest brother was able to create electricity when he turned 13 – her other brother disrupted the weather by causing hurricanes. After a car accident leaves her beloved Poppa unconscious in a hospital, Mibs hopes that her new savvy will help him wake up. With that belief, she stows away on a pink bus she thinks is heading toward the hospital 90 miles away. Driven by a pink bible salesman and accompanied by two brothers, two church friends and a waitress they meet along the way, a wild chain of events begins that will affect the lives of the entire group. What will Mibs’ savvy be? Will she be able to save her father? This story is very well written and after a very suspenseful and chaotic ride though Kansaska-Nebransas, comes to a satisfying conclusion. Readers in grades 5-9 will enjoy this story. (Source: Teen Scene from Wright Memorial Public Library)

In her first book, Fat Is a Feminist Issue, published 31 years ago, Susie Orbach told us why lots of women had a dysfunctional relationship with their bodies. Some women got fat, she said, not because they were greedy, but because being fat made them feel safe. For a woman, she said, being slim might get you the wrong kind of attention – not just from men, but from other women, too. So lots of people have an unconscious drive towards being fat, even if they think, on the surface, that they want to be slim. What an insight! That’s what I thought, when I read it. And also: what a twisted world we live in!As a psychotherapist, Orbach had asked women what their fat was actually doing for them. It was giving them a certain relief, they said. It “took them out of the category of woman and put them in the androgynous state of ‘big girl’”. It gave them something concrete to worry about, so they wouldn’t have to think about all their other troubles. “Above all,” Orbach wrote, “the fat woman wants to hide.” In this new book, Orbach tells us what has happened to our bodies in the intervening three decades. These days, we live in an even more twisted world. Or, as Orbach puts it, “the problems I sought to describe have mushroomed”. Now that we no longer use our bodies to make things, she says, we make our bodies instead. Our bodies are the product. Of course, the human body has always been sculpted by what it does. And now, mostly, it does not till the fields, or mine the coal, or hump things around. In the modern age – what Orbach calls “late modernity” – it sits at a keyboard, tapping away, like I’m doing right now – or on a sofa, reading a newspaper, like you’re doing right now.And what do sedentary people in modern societies have in common? What are we doing, exactly, when we sit at our keyboards? Well, for one thing, we’re not getting much exercise. …

Your novel. Four hundred pages of excitement, passion and sly social comment, currently languishing in your sock drawer. You poured into it everything you had; your immediate family loved it; your friends couldn’t put it down. So why won’t anyone publish it? Is it a) because the literary world is a members-only clique dedicated to keeping out new talent; b) because publishers and agents are chronically lazy and simply couldn’t be bothered to read to the amazing ending, which is the entire point of the story; or c) because it’s a load of pony from start to finish. You know the answer as well as I do, but you won’t be told. You have read manuals about how to write novels, you may even have attended a writer’s group. Still, like Belshazzar at the feast, you understood not the writing on the wall. Well, here it is again, in bigger letters. To find out exactly how your work has been weighed in the balance and found wanting, read How Not to Write a Novel, in which Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark list all the essential components of the classic stinker. It will have a ludicrous plot, of course, or none. It will have characters who are unbelievable or extremely tiresome, or both. It will be studded with clichés and riddled with the author’s prejudices. Newman and Mittelmark make up typical examples of dreadful prose, often so accurately that even the vainest are likely to recognise their own howlers and lapses of taste.Everyone acquainted with the slush pile, the technical term for the heaps of unsolicited manuscripts sent to publishers and agents, knows that atrocious novels are depressingly alike. “We have been standing here by the side of the road for a very long time,” say the authors. “Had you been standing here with us, you would have seen the same preventable tragedies occurring over and over. …

by Garcia-Marquez, GabrielThis story of the events surrounding the murder of a quite probably innocent man illustrates how the intimacy and tangled relationships that come with small town life lead to momentous shared experiences. The murder takes place on the morning after an elaborate wedding, after which the bride is returned. The town's residents, recovering from the previous night's revelries, all immediately know about the bride's shame. In fact, several members of the community know Santiago is to be murdered, but all passively watch as it happens. Marquez tells this story in his enigmatic style, dropping the narrative in scattered pieces and leaving the reader to decide what to make of it.- reviewed by meri, University City Regional, PLCMC (Source: Reader’s Club’s Latest)

by Grabenstein, Chris Working as a young rookie cop in Sea Haven—“this eighteen-mile-long strip of sand-in-your shoes paradise down the Jersey Shore”–Danny Boyle often feels life is good. That beach environment is nice but also sometimes very unsafe. Danny’s partner, John Ceepak, by chance unearths a clue–leading to additional ones–in that same beach which links ultimately to a series cold case murders. Ceepak, a former MP from the Iraq War, pushes relentlessly into this uncomfortable investigation as the murder appears to have resurfaced after a 15-year break. Boyle dutifully follows Ceepak as the events unfold—devoted to the “thirty-six-year-old Eagle-Scout-slash-Jarhead” who does not ever lie. This book is the third of a clever, inventive, and funny series by Chris Grabenstein.

– reviewed by Lawrence, South County Regional, PLCMC (Source: Reader’s Club’s Latest)

by McDonald, RossFirst published in the early 50s, Ross MacDonald’s The Way Some People Die has the wonderful flair of classic noir fiction. Former cop and respectable private investigator Lew Archer is hired to search for a missing daughter for a refined, aging widow, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence. Her daughter, Galatea (“Galley”), is a young, independent adult, but Mrs. Lawrence is worried and apparently with just cause. Galley had quietly married a man of means but he works as a mobster. His sudden disappearance with a large amount of money sets his associates on his trail and Archer follows suit. From Santa Monica to San Francisco, this lone wolf detective tirelessly follows the case to its final end with his wise-cracks and an eye for justice. – reviewed by Lawrence, South County Regional, PLCMC (Source: Reader’s Club’s Latest)

by Smith, Ian K. M.D.
We have all seen Dr. Ian Smith on shows such as Celebrity Fit Club, a show were household names come together to shed pounds and gain self-esteem. Now, Dr. Ian has opened up his dieting secrets to the world with his self-help book appropriately titled “The Fat Smash Diet.” This four phase work, is a quick read that outlines the process it takes to lose anywhere from 10 to 200 pounds in a matter of weeks. The program is meant to be a challenge but with the tasty recipes included, the fat can be “smashed” with ease. If you want a diet that strengthens the mind as well as the body, in a few steps, pick up The Fat Smash Diet.

- reviewed by Michelle, Beatties Ford Road Branch, PLCMC (Source: Reader’s Club’s Latest)

i love it (Source: Comments for MPLIC Reference Highway)

Madison Public Library will have a booth at Madison Youth Company’s 10th annual Celebrating Youth event at the Monona Terrace on Saturday, February 14. The event takes place from 11am – 5pm and is free to the public. Stop by to find out about upcoming library programs and pick up a Library Kidspages and a special gift for kids. Hope to see you there! (Source: What’s New)