Staff Picks

   

From Elizabeth: The House of Tyneford by Natasha Solomons  $15.00  In the spring of 1938, the Landau family of Vienna began to make plans to escape the growing concerns of life under the terror of Hitler.  Nineteen year old Elise goes to southern England to work as a parlor maid in a large manor house leaving behind an upper class life with her mother who was an opera singer and her father who was a novelist.  The son of the master of Tyneford returns home from Cambridge and in time a friendship between Elise and Kit develops into a more serious relationship.  This is a love story set amidst the aristocracy of an old manor house and the changes that came about after the war.  The author has taken bits and pieces of her own family's story and spun a tale that will transport you across the pond to war torn England.  Fans of Kate Morton will welcome a new voice for Anglophiles.

From Vicky: Little Princes by Conor Grennan $14.99

Little Princes is an inspiring, heartwarming, honest and often funny story about the author's work at an orphanage in Nepal. What began as a three month stint volunteering to impress friends, particularly girls, turned into a life-changing experience for both Conor and the children. Most of these children, he discovered, were not orphans at all. They had been sent at great cost by their parents to safety from the civil war raging about them, but were taken instead by child traffickers who had abandoned them or sold them into slavery. Conor's efforts to reunite the children with their families proved to be dangerous, much more complicated than he could ever imagine and utterly riveting.

 

From Vicky:  Habibi by Craig Thompson List Price:  $35.00  Our Price:  $28.00  I'm not ordinarily a graphic novel reader.  In general, I think of them as too edgy or too violent for my taste.  However, my son introduced me to Craig Thompson's graphic novel Blankets, and I am now a huge fan of his work.  Blankets tells the moving story of Thompson's childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood.    Now, eight years after Blankets, Thompson has revealed a masterpiece in his new book, Habibi, the story of two orphans, Dodola and Zam, who escape the Arab slave trade and use their wiles to survive for years until Dodola is kidnapped into a harem.  This is a sweeping epic and love story, inspired by Islamic history and religion, and perfectly brought to life with Thompson's amazing artwork.  Not only is this a beautiful book inside, it's also gorgeous outside! It  looks like a beautiful leatherbound book and features bright gilt decoration and Arabic calligraphy.  This is an adult book with adult themes.

From Elizabeth:  Sweet Shawlettes by Jean Moss $21.95  Shawlettes are the new socks! These hugely popular, fashion accessories are worn about the shoulders and meant for showing off. They're not only stylish but these budget-friendly pieces make for perfect portable projects. Shawlettes can be endlessly reinterpreted in beautiful ways as this book shows. It's one that will capture knitters' imaginations for years to come.

Rose: A Life in Service to Lady Astor by Rosina Harrison  $15.00
In 1928, Rosina Harrison arrived at the illustrious household of the Astor family to take up her new position as personal maid to the infamously unconventional Lady Astor, who sat in Parliament, entertained royalty, and traveled the world. In her decades of service, she received one $5 raise, but she traveled the world in style and retired with a lifetime's worth of stories. Like Gosford Park and Downton Abbey, Rose presents a captivating insight into the great wealth 'upstairs' and the endless work 'downstairs', but it is also the story of an unlikely decades-long friendship that grew between Her Ladyship and her spirited Yorkshire maid.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie  List Price:  $35.00  Our Price:  $28.00  Massie returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography--the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at the young age of 14 and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. History offers few stories richer in drama than that of Catherine the Great, and Massie brings this eternally fascinating woman vividly to life.     

 

Inside a suitcase kept in his mother's attic, Gup discovered letters written to his grandfather in response to an anonymous ad placed in a Canton, Ohio newspaper in 1933 in which he offered cash to 75 families facing a devastating Christmas.  In this inspiring true story, the author travels coast to coast to learn the impact his grandfather's anonymous gift had to change and save lives during that desperate Depression-era holiday.

   

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts  List Price:  $26.00  Our Price:  $20.80

The Eighty-Dollar Champion tells the dramatic odyssey of a horse called Snowman, saved from the slaughterhouse by a young Dutch farmer named Harry. Together, Harry and Snowman went on to become America's show-jumping champions, winning first prize in Madison Square Garden. Set in the mid to late 1950s, this book captures the can-do spirit of a Cold War immigrant who believed - and triumphed.   

 

 

Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! By Alan Richardson and Karen Tack $17.95  The New York Times-bestselling authors of Hello,

Cupcake! and What's New, Cupcake? are back!  This talented pair,  returns with projects that are more hilarious, more spectacular, more awe-inspiring--and simpler than ever.   But they don't stop at cupcakes. No sweet treat is safe from their ingenuity: refrigerator cookies, pound cakes, pie dough, cheesecakes, bar cookies, and Jell-O are all transformed into amazing and playful desserts. There's something for everybody in this book, and every single item you need can be found in the neighborhood supermarket or convenience store.

In the Beginning:  An Osprey Family Story by Elliott Carr  $25.95

Elliott Carr, a retired bank president, captured 15,000 images of two successive osprey pairs and their nesting broods behind the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History over a four year period.  Many of his photographs can now be seen in his new book, In the Beginning - An Osprey Family Story.  He has captured almost every movement and nuance of these magnificent birds in flight, on the nest, fishing and eating.

 

Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans  $20.00  For more than 400 years, the art of ballet has stood at the center of Western civilization. Its traditions serve as a record of our past. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully told, Apollo's Angels, the first cultural history of ballet ever written, is a groundbreaking work. Homans, a historian, critic, and former professional ballerina, wields knowledge of dance born of dedicated practice.  

 

 

 

Children's Picture Books

 

Grandpa Green  by Lane Smith  $16.99

Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener. He was a farmboy, a kid with chickenpox, a soldier, and an artist. In this captivating new picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a fantastic world where memories are handed down in the fanciful shapes of topiary trees.  

 

 

Quincy Moves to the Desert  by Camille Matthews  $15.95   

In the second book of the Quincy the Horse series, Quincy and his friend, Beau, leave the comforts of home and go on a big trip across the US on a huge horse van. Beau is in his element as Quincy's tour guide. This is the story of Quincy's journey of self-discovery. He has his doubts about the trip until Beau explains that they are going West where there are "Trails as far as a horse can see."  Full of energy and imagination, the beautifully illustrated book includes a map of the US with nine highlighted states.    

 

 

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen  $15.99   

The bear's hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, whether they have seen it. Told completely in dialogue, this delicious take on the classic repetitive tale plays out in sly illustrations laced with visual humor.   

 

 

 

 

 

Children's Books 7-13  

 

Osborne $12.99  Attention all Magic Tree House fans - Jack and Annie are back!  It's 1861 in Washington, D. C.  President Lincoln is desperately working to save the country from war.  Can they help the President?   For those who would like more information about Lincoln, see the accompanying nonfiction volume.     

 

 

 

Heart of a Samurai by Margie Preus  $7.95 

Heart of a Samurai is based on the true story of a 14 year old Japanese boy, Manjiro, who was shipwrecked in 1841 and rescued by the crew of a New Bedfored whaling ship.  This is a gripping story and includes artwork drawn by Manjiro illustrating his story.  Read the story, then go to the New Bedford Whaling Museum to learn more!  Available January 10th. 

 

 

Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon  $6.99  Zora and Me is based on the early life of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, collector of black folklore and member of the Harlem Renaissance.  Young Zora loves to tell tales, but when a murder takes place in her small Florida town, her tales threaten the peace in her small town.

 

 

 

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool  $7.99   

Moon Over Manifest won the 2011 Newbery Medal.  It is the story of 12 year old Abilene, who goes to live with an old friend of her father's in his hometown of Manifest, Kansas during the depths of the Depression in 1936.  Abilene becomes embroiled in a mystery that goes back to WWI when immigrants first came to the town.  Fabulous read!

 

 

 

The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez  $6.99   

The Red Umbrella takes place during 1961, when Operation Pedro Pan brought 14,000 Cuban children to America, where they were put in foster homes across the country in order to escape Castro's communist government.  14 year old Lucia Alvarez finds herself in Nebraska where she struggles to adapt to her new situation while desperately missing her family, home, country and culture.    

 

 

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia  $6.99   

One Crazy Summer is the story of three sisters who go to California to visit with their estranged mother in 1968 and end up attending a Black Panther summer camp.  Told by 11 year old Delphine, this is a thoughtful and beautifully written coming of age story as Delphine finds her own path between her rule-following grandmother and her defiantly rule-breaking mother. 

 

Teens and Young Adult

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen $16.99   This is a wonderfully written, inspiring novel about a high school track star who loses her leg in a car accident.  We feel the shock  of her loss, the pain of recovery and therapy, and the struggles for acceptance with friends and peers, including a new friendship with a classmate with cerebral palsy.  Wendelin van Draanen is a fabulous, award-winning author, whose books include Flipped and the Sammy Keyes series.  (Ages 12-16; available January 10)