New items arrive at PCL on a weekly basis.  We encourage patrons to recommend titles to be considered for our collection!

Staff and patron picks from titles on our shelves:

We Two by Gillian Gill is the story of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the early years of their engagement and marriage and the surprisingly modern struggle for power within their loving relationship. 

Edward Rutherfurd's new epic, New York, is recommended by PCL staff member Carol Olson.  The historical novel is set against the backdrop of New York City and tells the story of the city from its beginnings to September 11th through the experiences of characters from different walks of life.

 

Carol is currently reading Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by the author of the best-seller, Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson.  The book continues the story of Mortenson's humanitarian efforts to bring education to disadvantaged Middle Eastern countries.  Carol, who loved the first book, feels that the second book is an even more personal look into the author's dedication to this area of the world.

 

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography, by William Shawcross, was very much enjoyed by patron Mary Lyon.  The royal's personal documents tell the story of her service to convalescing World War I soldiers, family relationships and her refusal to leave London during the Blitz bombings.  In the words of Mary Lyon, "She was very much an amazing woman who lived her values."  Mary also recently read Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking.  Mary felt it was an honest picture into how the "other half" lives and into the pitfalls of stardom.  mary also enjoyed the books Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan Chase by Duff McDonald and Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Chesley Sullenberger.

 

PCL Director Vicki Shurly enjoyed the paperback novel, Two Rivers, by t. Greenwood.  When a train derails in Two Rivers, Vermont, a railroad employee and single father who is haunted by grief over his role years before in a racial crime of hate,  finds a chance for atonement when he takes in a fifteen year old survivor of the wreck.  He soon begins to suspect that the African American teenaged girl's appearance in the small town is no chance circumstance.

 

In a Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke, is the story of family and the choices we make when there are no choices left to us.  Reminiscent of Nevil Shute's 1957 novel, On the Beach, the story quietly draws the reader into an all too realistic end of the world scenario.

 

Mercedes Kimling highly recommends Alcuna by Barbara Kingsolver.  In describing the book, she says, "From the mystical beginning with a young boy through his early life in Mexico and then the U.S., this is an unforgettable narrative of life there and here during the middle of the last century.  Kingsolver's dedication to exposing disgraceful government actions of the past and depicting ordinary life here during those years makes for a mesmerizing reading experience.  Add to that her talent for nature's description and you have a beautiful, poetic historical documentation of what used to be."

 

Karen Schmidt, patron and retired principal of OMPS, LOVED the book, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  The 1948 novel, recently re-released, is a BBC Top 100 Pick.  The story is told through a series of the young woman's journal entries while she teaches herself to write.  First love, broken hearts and British preconceptions of Americans are themes interwoven throughout the book.  J.K. Rowling, author of  the Harry Potter series, says, "This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I have ever met. "

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is another of Vicki's favorites.  The novel, set in the racially biased south of the early 1960's, tells how three extraordinary women, as different from one another as they could be, come together to change a town and the way they see each other. 

 

An epic in the classic sense of the word, Roses by Leila Meacham spans the 20th century and tells the tale of three generations of a powerful Texas family dynasty.  Library Journal calls this saga a "sprawling novel of passion and revenge."

 

Claudia Murphy recommends The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer.  A flawed doctor suffering from post tramatic stress disorder and a psychopath cross paths in a thriller that keeps going until the final page.  Palmer is the bestselling author of Second Opinion and The First Patient.

 

A sampling of new books at PCL includes:

U is For Undertow by Sue Grafton

Fantasy In Death by J.D. Robb

Split Image by Robert B. Parker

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Ask by Sam Lipsyte

This Book Is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

The Three Weissmanns Of Westport by Cathleen Schine

Quants:  How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It byScott Patterson

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose

Postmistress by Sarah Blake

Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Breathless by Dean Koontz

13 Bankers by Simon Johnson & James Kwak

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Caught by Harlan Coben

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

SuperFreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

What the Dog Saw  by Malcolm Gladwell

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Oprah by Kittey Kelley

How To Raise the Perfect Dog by Cesar Millan

Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

Change Your Brain, Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This Time Together by Carol Burnett

Drive by Daniel H. Pink

Willie Mays by James S. Hirsch

the Big Short by Michael Lewis

The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

 

Some of our new books on CD:

Iron River by T. Jefferson Parker

Worst Case by James Patterson

Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

Honor of Spies by W.E.B. Griffin

Trial By Fire by J.A. Jance 

Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline

Lucid Intervals by Stuart Woods

Caught by Harlan Coben

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

True Blue by David Baldacci

Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods

Deception by Jonathon Kellerman

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn

Split Image by Robert B. Parker

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

 

A few of the hot DVDs at PCL:

Hurt Locker

Planet 51

Capitalism: A Love Story

Up in the Air

District 9

UP

Old Dogs

Precious

New Moon

Tooth Fairy

Leap Year

Lovely Bones

An Education

Invention of Lying

The Young Victoria

Avatar

It's Complicated

Inglourious Basterds

Serious Man

Amelia

Pirate Radio

Coco Before Chanel

Informant

The Boys Are Back