Staff Picks
February 2008
Stay in touch with the personal favorites of the KDL Staff. Each title is handpicked.
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Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities by Richard Baer A psychiatrist describes his work with Karen Overhill, a patient complaining of acute depression who turned out to have been a victim of horrific childhood sexual abuse, who to survive had developed seventeen distinct and separate personalities, and his challenging efforts to reunite the separate selves into a whole person. Catalog Link |
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The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray At Spence Academy, sixteen-year-old Gemma Doyle continues preparing for her London debut while struggling to determine how best to use magic to resolve a power struggle in the enchanted world of the realms, and to protect her own world and loved ones. Catalog Link |
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The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James The discovery of an old chest in the attic of the Austen family home reveals secrets about Jane’s private romantic life and the inspiration of her beloved works. Catalog Link |
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Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal by Peter Thomson For a man cut loose from his life in the U.S., Lake Baikal — Siberia’s sacred inland sea — becomes a place of pilgrimage, the focal point of 25,000-mile journey by land and sea in search of connection, permanence, restoration and hope. Catalog Link |
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Courageous by Jack Campbell Captain John “Black Jack” Geary, jumping from system to system to keep one step ahead of the Syndics, stumbles upon fragments of intelligence that expose the existence of another potential player in the war that has the means to destroy the human race. Catalog Link |
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PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren Offers illustrated postcards from the PostSecret website sent in by people who anonymously reveal secrets from their past which they have never told to anyone, presenting a full range of emotions. Catalog Link |
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The Hungry Years: Confessions of a Food Addict by William Leith A journalist for the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph describes his own struggle with weight issues as well as his observations about today’s size-obsessed culture, in an account that discusses society’s unhealthy relationship with food, the dynamics of carbohydrate addiction as explained by Dr. Robert Atkins, and factors that have contributed to body image in today’s world. Catalog Link |
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Blue Heaven by C.J. Box Fleeing the killers whom they witnessed committing murder, twelve-year-old Annie and her younger brother William escape into the woods of northern Idaho, not knowing whom they can trust and pursued by the murderers and a group of dirty cops seeking to prevent the youngsters from revealing what they know. Catalog Link |
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Before I Die by Jenny Downham A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies. Catalog Link |
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Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris Harper Connelly, a young woman possessing the ability to uncover the final location of a recently deceased individual and to share their last moments, aided by her manager and stepbrother Tolliver, uses her skill to find the dead. Catalog Link |
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Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris While giving a college class a demonstration of her unique talent to find the dead and see their final moments of life, Harper Connelly is stunned to discover two bodies in a single grave — one the original occupant, one a recently deceased girl — and joins forces with her stepbrother Tolliver to find a killer. Catalog Link |
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Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days: An Almost Completely Honest Account of What Happened to Our Family When Our Youngest ... Came to Live with Us for Three Months by Judith Viorst A whimsical account of the multi-generational frenzy that ensued when the author’s son’s family temporarily moved into her home describes how her compulsively ordered environment was thrown into turmoil by a whirlwind of young grandchild dynamics. Catalog Link |
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Sweethearts by Sara Zarr After losing her soul mate, Cameron, when they were nine, Jennifer, now seventeen, transformed herself from the unpopular fat girl into the beautiful and popular Jenna, but Cameron’s unexpected return dredges up memories that cause both social and emotional turmoil. Catalog Link |
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The Book of Lost Things: A Novel by John Connolly Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of his mother, twelve-year-old David finds himself violently propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly melded. Catalog Link |
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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Set in twelfth-century England, this epic of kings and peasants juxtaposes the building of a magnificent church with the violence and treachery that often characterized the Middle Ages. Catalog Link |
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The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History by Michael A. Stusser An ingenious assortment of “interviews” with some of the world’s most famous — and late — personalities asks probing questions about their lives, achievements, and more in dialogues with Alexander the Great, Emily Dickinson, Albert Einstein, Nostradamus, Thomas Jefferson, Caligula, Beethoven, Buddha, Edgar Allan Poe, Leonardo da Vinci, Joan of Arc, and many others. Catalog Link |
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Out Stealing Horses: A Novel by Per Petterson After a meeting with his only neighbor, sixty-seven-year-old Trond is forced to reflect upon a long-ago incident that marks the beginning of a series of losses for Trond and his childhood friend, Jon. Catalog Link |
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Christmas Lights: A Novel by Christine Pisera Naman Evoking the warmth, tenderness, inspiration, and magic of the Christmas season, a series of holiday vignettes journeys into the lives of seven very different women — Katherine, Juliana, Adrianna, Victoria, Cassandra, Alexandra, and Isabella — as they deal with marriage, motherhood, illness, friendship, love, and the wonders of the holidays. Catalog Link |
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Pieces of My Sister's Life by Elizabeth Joy Arnold Thirteen years after their uniquely close bond is shattered, twin sisters Kerry and Eve Barnard finally get the chance to put things right, at a time when it matters most. Catalog Link |
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The Next Thing on My List: A Novel by Jill Smolinski Following a car accident that claims the life of her passenger, Marissa, June Parker stumbles upon a list that Marissa had written entitled “20 Things to Do By My 25th Birthday” and is compelled by both guilt and a sense of setting things right to complete the list for Marissa, struggling to complete a variety of different goals before the deadline while learning more about her own life in the process. Catalog Link |
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The Memory of Running: A Novel by Ron McLarty Working as a quality control inspector at a toy factory in Rhode Island, friendless alcoholic Smithy Ide considers himself a loser until a tragic event prompts him to set off on an epic cross-country bicycle journey that promises him a final chance to become the man he has always wanted to be. Catalog Link |
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The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver A tale told from the parallel perspectives of two possible timelines considers the life of American expatriate Irena McGovern, who in one reality stays faithful to her disciplined American intellectual partner, and in the other runs off with an exuberant British long-time friend. Catalog Link |
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The Tinderbox by Jo Bannister Six years after the disappearance of his daughter Cassie, Laurence Schofield begins a new search for her that leads him to London’s underworld, called the Tinderbox. Catalog Link |
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Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer Feeling stuck in a dead-end job while her friends get married and start families, coffee house waitress Maggie despairs of being an overweight bridesmaid at the impending nuptials of her high-school best friend, a former overweight woman who has undergone gastric-bypass surgery. Catalog Link |