What We're Reading Now

 

We're always on the lookout for wonderful new books, from picture books to adult, from light to literary.  Take a look at some of our current favorites, featured on the What We're Reading table this month.

Juliet (Hardcover)

$25.00
ISBN-13: 9780345516107
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Ballantine Books, 08/01/2010
When her Aunt Rose dies, Julie Jacobs finds out that her real name is Giulietta Tolomei and that she was born in Siena.  Having nowhere else to go, Julie flies to Siena in search of her past and more information about her family.  As she continues her investigation, she wonders if she has a connection to the original Giulietta Tolomei and her lover Romeo Marescotti.  With vivid descriptions of the city and its contrada, districts occupied by competing families, Anne Fortier weaves a compelling story full of intrigue, historical references, and romance.  This story has constant twists and turns and characters that you care about. Juliet is delightful entertainment! – Mary Lee

Mockingjay (Hardcover)

$22.99
ISBN-13: 9780545310604
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Scholastic Press, 09/01/2010
When The Hunger Games came out two years ago, we were amazed that so many Blue Willow staff members – and our customers – were enthralled with the story and its heroine, Katniss Everdeen.  We now know Katniss has survived the Hunger Games twice, against all odds, and the Capitol is angry.  We’re not sure what will happen next, but we do know that we all cannot wait to get our hands on Mockingjay! – Cathy

By Jeanne Birdsall, Matt Phelan (Illustrator)
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9780618986767
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Clarion Books, 08/01/2010
Flora and her annoying little brother, Crispin, are carried away by the wind.  It’s the perfect chance for Flora to get rid of Crispin, but she turns down opportunities from a dragonfly, the man in the moon, and the wind itself, but she can’t bring herself to do it.  This whimsical story reminds us all that even annoying siblings are still family.  For ages 4 and up. – Cathy

$12.95
ISBN-13: 9780761158158
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Workman Publishing, 06/01/2010

We all know people with anger management issues. And truthfully, you might know how it feels to know you are angry beyond reason. This approachable, little gem gives you strategies to understand and deal with anger with loved ones and strangers (yes, the kind I feel when I see shopping carts in a parking lot that have not been returned to the proper place). –Valerie


$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780670022014
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Viking Adult, 08/01/2010
This dark story, told in Rachel DuPree’s voice, is Laura Ingalls Wilder on steroids.  Rachel and her husband each claim 160 acres under the Homestead Act and move from Illinois to the Badlands of South Dakota, a desolate, windblown, hostile environment that sucks the blood and the soul out of almost everyone who has settled there.  It is a story of survival, with the environment and with a husband bent on becoming a large landowner and a wealthy cattleman.  Rachel could play John Wayne in “True Grit.” – Kate

$18.95
ISBN-13: 9781565126060
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 08/01/2010

Sometimes the best things come in small packages.  This extended essay on life, pain, and nature is both intimate and world expanding.  Elisabeth Bailey suffers from a rare disease that leaves a formerly healthy nature lover to spend her days and nights horizontal on the bed, as any movement is excruciating.   When a friend brings her wild violets dug up from Bailey's farmyard, there is a snail in the pot.  Bailey watches the snail and grows infatuated with its small movements, not unlike her own.  She introduces the reader to an animal who is misunderstood at best, as well as to the world of being confined to the bed and how one can see the beauty of life wherever one is. – Valerie

 


 


$16.99
ISBN-13: 9781595142863
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Razorbill, 08/01/2010
This new novel from the author of the incredible Audrey, Wait! tells the story of three sisters:  April, May and June.  Since their parents’ divorce, the sisters discover that each of them has a secret power.  April can see the future, May can disappear, and June can read minds.  They try to navigate high school and their new family structure with these new powers and encounter situations both hilarious and tragic.  A great read for grades 7 and up.  – Cathy

$24.95
ISBN-13: 9780385533287
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Doubleday, 09/01/2010
Funny, fantastical, and heartbreaking, this story of the famous tower and its inhabitants will enchant you. When the London Zoo sends all of the animals (plus the giraffes) that have been given to the queen to the Tower of London, the guards are understandably upset. Their world is crazy enough already and this adds insult to injury. Let's root for Balthasar and Hebe Jones! – Valerie

$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781400065455
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Random House, 06/01/2010
The setting of this compelling story is a small island off the coast of Nagasaki where the Dutch East Indies Company has a trading post in 1799, at the end of its domination of trade in the orient. The Japanese are intent on keeping their country isolated from the rest of the world, so foreigners rarely cross to the mainland, and few Japanese live among the Dutch. Jacob de Zoet arrives with a 5-year assignment to prove himself as an accounting clerk in order to win the hand of a girl back in Holland, but trying to be an honest and moral Dutchman surrounded by corrupt, dishonest, and conniving Europeans and Japanese proves to be an uphill battle. Jacob also becomes infatuated with Orita, a Japanese midwife who is studying medicine with a European doctor in the small foreign colony, but the complex social and political structure of Japanese culture creates problems for both Jacob and Orita. Add to this mix the changing world political situation as the European nations vie for empires, and the little trading colony becomes the site of several different kinds of battles. This is a fabulous tale, written by a master of the English language. – Alice

$26.00
ISBN-13: 9781439166956
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Scribner, 08/01/2010
Oh, how family holidays can go wrong--terribly wrong. Thanksgiving for the Olsons begins on a hopeful note, and yet the reader can’t help but feel impending doom. Anyone will be able to relate to the family dynamics of this classic American family in this familiar yet disturbing novel. Vanderbes nails the characters and their voices perfectly.  – Valerie

The Eternal Ones (Hardcover)

$17.99
ISBN-13: 9781595143082
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Razorbill, 08/01/2010
Growing up in a small town in Tennessee, Haven Moore has been labeled a weirdo, a demon child.  That's because Haven has always had visions of a past life as a girl named Constance in love with a boy named Ethan.  When she sees a picture of Iain Morrow on the news, she has another vision and realizes that Iain may be Ethan.  She heads to New York to discover the truth and finds herself in the middle of a mystery that could end in her death.  This thriller, full of intriguing characters and a compelling mystery, was nearly impossible to put down!  Best for grades 7 and up. – Cathy

$16.95
ISBN-13: 9780823420469
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Holiday House, 09/01/2010
 It's time to think about the start of school and, as usual, to find those great new gems that blossom beautifully as a part of the classroom environment.  Thank You, Miss Doover is just that book for older elementary students.  Miss Doover's (get it?  Do Over?) class is working on writing friendly letters, and page by page, the hilarity of children's frankness and teachers' careful editing make for a great hook to a writing lesson.  It's perfect to teacher letter-writing, vocabulary, editing, expanding on basic writing, and more!  A wonderful new addition to your classroom or any child’s personal library! – Becky