STAFF PICKS
Welcome to the staff picks section of our website!
Discover new titles from the recommendations of your favorite staff members at the Burleson Public Library.
Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich
Book recommended by Rod
Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a “lucky”
bottle from her Uncle Pip. Problem is, Uncle Pip didn’t specify if the bottle
brought good luck or bad luck. . . .
BAD LUCK: Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of
$786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be
produced. Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie,
office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to
save their jobs.
GOOD LUCK: Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Lula, and
Connie have an advantage in finding Vinnie. If they can rescue him, it will buy
them some time to raise the cash.
BAD LUCK: Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than
raising $786,000. Vinnie’s messing up Mooner’s vibe, running up pay-per-view
porn charges in Ranger’s apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.
GOOD LUCK: Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning
out, Mooner’s Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle, they just
might raise enough money to save the business, and Vinnie, from ruin.
BAD LUCK: Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep being a bounty
hunter. In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a
turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr.
Jingles.
GOOD LUCK: The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton’s
hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger.
With any luck at all, Uncle Pip’s lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting
lucky---the only question is . . . with whom?
Sizzling Sixteen . . . so hot, the pages might spontaneously combust!
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Lie Down With the Devil by Linda Barnes
Book recommended by Rod
Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle wants to know what her on-again, off-again
boyfriend Sam Gianelli did to earn himself the secret indictment for murder
that’s keeping him out of the country. A man with plenty of secrets, Sam won’t
tell her anything, much less let her help—and she isn’t having any more luck
getting info from her old friends at the Boston PD. Sam’s exile could have
something to do with his mob connections, but it can’t be that simple. Nothing
involving Sam ever is.
Finding no easy answers, Carlotta goes back to basics and takes a job working
for a jittery bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiancé is being faithful.
The case is simple enough—at first. But Carlotta catches the kind of break she
wished she hadn’t when her client ends up getting killed. Now, as she’s hunting
a down a murderer, she can’t help but wonder whether love itself isn’t the
ultimate dead end…
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Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
Book recommended by Sara
Eve Levine — half-demon, black witch and devoted mother — has been dead for
three years. She has a great house, an interesting love life and can’t be killed
again — which comes in handy when you’ve made as many enemies as Eve. Yes, the
afterlife isn’t too bad — all she needs to do is find a way to communicate with
her daughter, Savannah, and she’ll be happy.
But fate — or more exactly, the Fates — have other plans. Eve owes them a favor,
and they’ve just called it in. An evil spirit called the Nix has escaped from
hell. She feeds on chaos and death, and is very good at persuading people to
kill for her. The Fates want Eve to hunt her down before she does any more
damage, but the Nix is a dangerous enemy — previous hunters have been driven
insane in the process. As if that’s not problem enough, the only way to stop her
is with an angel’s sword. And Eve is no angel. . . .
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This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson
Book recommended by Sara
Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper
and discs, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make
way for the librarians! They want to help. They're not selling a thing. And
librarians know best how to beat a path through the googolplex sources of
information available to us, writes Marilyn Johnson, whose previous book, The
Dead Beat, breathed merry life into the obituary-writing profession.
This Book Is Overdue! is a romp through the ranks of information professionals
and a revelation for readers burned out on the clichés and stereotyping of
librarians. Blunt and obscenely funny bloggers spill their stories in these
pages, as do a tattooed, hard-partying children's librarian; a fresh-scrubbed
Catholic couple who teach missionaries to use computers; a blue-haired radical
who uses her smart phone to help guide street protestors; a plethora of
voluptuous avatars and cybrarians; the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by
the FBI; and a boxing archivist. These are just a few of the visionaries Johnson
captures here, pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with
their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open
access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.
Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the
automated maze of contemporary life, none of us—neither the experts nor the
hopelessly baffled—can get along without human help. And not just any help—we
need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no
matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they
save us from being buried by the digital age?
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Scott Pilgrim Series by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Graphic novel recommended by Matt
Scott Pilgrim has a simple, easy life. He has a roommate who
tolerates his chronic unemployment and slobbish ways. He has a low-maintenance
girlfriend. And he's in a band! A real band that has practices and gigs and
groupies. Well, two groupies and one of them is his girlfriend - but that still
counts! Yes, Scott is content with things as they are...
... until he meets Ramona Flowers. And suddenly feeling content isn't enough.
Ramona is the girl of his dreams, literally, as he first sees her rollerblading
through his head as part of her job as a dimension-hopping courier. And Ramona,
for her part, likes what she sees inside Scott's head - even if he is a bit of a
goof and a slacker. But before Scott can earn the right to be Ramona's
boyfriend, he must defeat Ramona's Seven Evil Exes... and suddenly Scott's life
isn't so simple or easy.
Based in equal parts on the epics of ancient myth and 8-bit video games (the
villains drop money when they are "defeated"), Scott Pilgrim manages the neat
trick of being funny and off-the-wall while still being a fairly serious,
non-preachy coming-of-age story. What is more impressive is that Ramona, far
from being a passive damsel waiting to be rescued, has her own story arc in
which she has to deal with - and grow past - her own issues as well as the women
in Scott's life. This book is an enjoyable read for teenagers of all ages, sure
to become even more popular when the film adaptation - Scott Pilgrim vs. The
World - hits theaters this month.
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Nomansland by Lesley Hauge
Book recommended by Matt
On a remote island to the north, an all-female society struggles for survival in
the wake of a nuclear disaster called The Tribulation. Protecting this community
from the vicious monstrous creatures called men that are said to rule the world
outside are The Trackers - young women raised and trained in the arts of
fighting, horseback-riding and survival.
Keller is a novice Tracker, whom has always tried to obey the edicts of the
elders. She has tried to avoid The Pitfalls - the sinful acts like Decoration or
Reflection or Secrecy that were committed by the women of the past before the
Tribulation. She has even avoided making friends among the other Trackers, for
friendship - preferring one person's company over another's - is forbidden by
the edicts.
Things change once Liang - another of the Trackers - finds a lost artifact in a
dwelling from the time before The Tribulation. It is a collection of pages
unlike anything Keller has seen in the loose pages of their library - pages
which speak of what life was like for young women in the time before. These
pages - and the other odd artifacts Keller and Liang find in the dwelling
afterwards - will change their lives and shake their society.
Similar in theme to both The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, this book's original
setting and the unique perspective of a teenage protagonist saves it from
seeming derivative of other "dark future" fiction. Think of it as Brave New
World for the Gossip Girl set.
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Book recommended by Carolyn
Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when
her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic
city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the
throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust
into a vicious power struggle with cousins she never knew she had. As she fights
for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her
family's bloody history.
With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Yeine will learn how perilous
it can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably
together.
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All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon
Book recommended by Carolyn
All the world is here.
It is there.
It is everywhere.
All the world is right where you are.
Now.
Following a circle of family and friends through the course of a day from
morning till night, this book affirms the importance of all things great and
small in our world, from the tiniest shell on the beach, to warm family
connections, to the widest sunset sky.
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Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Series recommended by Amanda
Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is. That's because he's being raised by his miserable aunt and uncle who are terrified Harry will learn that he's really a wizard, just as his parents were. But everything changes when Harry is summoned to attend an infamous school for wizards, and he begins to discover some clues about his illustrious birthright. From the surprising way he is greeted by a lovable giant, to the unique curriculum and colorful faculty at his unusual school, Harry finds himself drawn deep inside a mystical world he never knew existed and closer to his own noble destiny.
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Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Book recommended by Nathan
The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. Chuck Palahniuk's outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and spawned a movement. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with white-collar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter, and dark, anarchic genius, and it's only the beginning of his plans for violent revenge on an empty consumer-culture world.
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Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey
Book recommended by Joy
Steve Harvey, the host of the nationally syndicated Steve
Harvey Morning Show, can't count the number of impressive women he's met over
the years, whether it's through the "Strawberry Letters" segment of his program
or while on tour for his comedy shows. These are women who can run a small
business, keep a household with three kids in tiptop shape, and chair a church
group all at the same time. Yet when it comes to relationships, they can't
figure out what makes men tick. Why? According to Steve it's because they're
asking other women for advice when no one but another man can tell them how to
find and keep a man. In Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve lets women
inside the mindset of a man and sheds lights on concepts and questions such as:
—The Ninety Day Rule: Ford requires it of its employees. Should you require it
of your man?
—How to spot a mama's boy and what if anything you can do about it.
—When to introduce the kids. And what to read into the first interaction between
your date and your kids.
—The five questions every woman should ask a man to determine how serious he is.
— And more...
Sometimes funny, sometimes direct, but always truthful, Act Like a Lady, Think
Like a Man is a book you must read if you want to understand how men think when
it comes to relationships.
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Practicing the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Book recommended by Joy
In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle shared the enlightenment he himself experienced after a startling personal transformation. This book extracts the essence of his teachings about how to free oneself from enslavement to the mind. His views go beyond any particular religion, doctrine, or guru. The goal is to be able to enter into and sustain an enlightened state of consciousness throughout everyday life. Through meditations and simple techniques, Eckhart shows readers how to quiet their thoughts, see the world in the present moment, and find the truest path to happiness.
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