We still have some books for sale featuring some of your favorite authors. Pick up Mary Higgins Clark, Danielle Steele, John Grisham, James Patterson, and Robert B. Parker for $2, $3, or $5.

The Webb will be closed Fri., Dec. 31 and Sat., Jan. 1
 

New Materials

Adult

The Finkler Question  by Howard Jacobson 
From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, Jacobson's wry, devastating novel examines the complexities of identity and belonging, love, and grief through the lens of contemporary Judaism. Julian Treslove, a former BBC producer who works as a celebrity double, feels out of sync with his longtime friend and sometimes rival Sam Finkler, a popular author of philosophy-themed self-help books and a rabidly anti-Zionist Jewish scholar. The two have reconnected with their elderly professor, Libor Sevcik, following the deaths of Finkler and Libor's wives, leaving Treslove-the bachelor Gentile-even more out of the loop. But after Treslove is mugged-the crime has possible anti-Semitic overtones-he becomes obsessed with what it means to be Jewish, or "a Finkler." Jacobson brilliantly contrasts Treslove's search for a Jewish identity-through food, spurts of research, sex with Jewish women-with Finkler's thorny relationship with his Jewish heritage and fellow Jews. Libor, meanwhile, struggles to find his footing after his wife's death, the intense love he felt for her reminding Treslove of the belonging he so craves. Jacobson's prose is effortless-witty when it needs to be, heartbreaking where it counts-and the Jewish question becomes a metaphor without ever being overdone.

Moonlight Mile  by Dennis Leshane
Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010  
From Publishers Weekly

An old case takes on new dimensions in Lehane's sixth crime novel to feature Boston PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, last seen in 1999's Prayers for Rain. Twelve years earlier, in 1998's Gone, Baby, Gone, Patrick and Angie investigated the kidnapping of four-year-old Amanda McCready. The case drove a temporary wedge between the pair after Patrick returned Amanda to her mother's neglectful care. Now Patrick and Angie are married, the parents of four-year-old Gabriella, and barely making ends meet with Patrick's PI gigs while Angie finishes graduate school. But when Amanda's aunt comes to Patrick and tells him that Amanda, now a 16-year-old honor student, is once again missing, he vows to find the girl, even if it means confronting the consequences of choices he made that have haunted him for years. While Lehane addresses much of the moral ambiguity from Gone, this entry lacks some of the gritty rawness of the early
Kenzie and Gennaro books.

Sunset Park   by Paul Auster 
From Booklist

*Starred Review* Passionately literary, Auster nonetheless publishes as frequently as a genre author, writing poetic and brainy feigned procedurals featuring inadvertent outlaws. In his sixteenth novel, four flat-broke twentysomething searchers end up squatting in a funky abandoned house in Sunset Park, a rough Brooklyn neighborhood. Bing, the “sloppy bear” ringleader, plays drums and runs the Hospital for Broken Things, where he mends “relics” from a thriftier past. Melancholy artist Ellen is beset by erotic visions. Grad student Alice is researching pop-culture depictions of postwar sexual relationships. Miles is a fugitive. Poisoned by guilt over his stepbrother's death, he hasn't communicated with his loving father, a heroic independent publisher; his kind English professor stepmother; or his flamboyant actor mother for seven years. Lately he's been in Florida, “trashing out” foreclosed homes, stunned by what evicted people leave behind in anger and despair. Miles returns to New York after things turn dicey over his love affair with a wise-beyond-her-years Cuban American teenager. As always with the entrancing and ambushing Auster, every element is saturated with implication as each wounded, questing character's story illuminates our tragic flaws and profound need for connection, coherence, and beauty. In a time of daunting crises and change, Auster reminds us of lasting things, of love, art, and “the miraculous strangeness of being alive.”

Young Adult

Virals  by Kathy Reichs 

From School Library Journal

Gr 6-10–Tory Brennan, 14, lives on an island off the coast of South Carolina. Her newly discovered father works in science research for the University of Charleston, which is why she and her friends with similar pedigrees attend the ritzy prep school in town with the local aristocracy. Tory and her three friends, all boys, are science geeks and love to explore the outer islands where monkeys and other wildlife abound. While exploring a supposedly deserted lab complex, they discover the caged offspring of a wolf and German shepherd that has been diagnosed with parvovirus. Tory's concern leads the group to rescue the pup with the notion of curing and saving it from science experiments. Tory knows that parvo cannot infect humans, but once the treatment begins the four teens start to experience symptoms that make them doubt her initial belief. Along the way, they also stumble upon a murder mystery dating back to the Vietnam War era that quickly becomes linked to the mysterious science experiments that are being kept hidden on the islands. What starts as a science mystery thriller takes a sharp right turn into the realm of science fiction with genetically altered DNA and superhuman senses that may cause more savvy readers to scoff. However, the fast-paced thrills, cool science, and great characters will create a flood of fans waiting for the next installment.

Juvenile 

The Properties of Water  by Hannah Roberts McKinnon 

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: Though Lace Martin lives in the wake of her older sister Marni—a popular high-school student and star of the varsity swim team—the two are as close as can be both in and out of the water. So when Marni is involved in a tragic diving accident, Lace is suddenly on her own—learning how to tread her way through a summer of changing relationships with new and old friends while adjusting to the presence of Willa Dodge, a seemingly mysterious woman sent to live with the Martins as they adapt to their new reality. While Willa cooks, cleans, and swims in the lake beside the Martin’s house, Lace begins to unravel truth from fiction about Willa’s intentions, why handsome Sully Tanner asked her out, and what exactly happened at Turtle Rock that so profoundly changed everything. Beautifully-written and full of evocative language and poignantly-drawn scenes, Hannah Roberts McKinnon’s second book, The Properties of Water, is a tender look at the bonds between friends and family, and the lessons one learns while growing up, through the eyes of a young woman who nearly learned what it would be like to lose everything.
 
Easy Readers

The Rabbit Problem  by Emily Gravett 
From School Library Journal

Gr 1-5–If a pair of rabbits is put together under certain conditions (“NO Rabbits may leave the field”), how many will there be in one year? This puzzle, posed by Fibonacci in the 13th-century, is the premise for Gravett's latest work. The cover depicts a bemused rabbit calculating at a blackboard. The endpapers cast a wider view, with more of the problem shown visually and verbally. Readers follow a rabbit through an underground tunnel (title page) and emerge from a die-cut hole into a field –at the top of a calendar. As always, Gravett's design choices are perfect for enhancing the narrative. Now viewers turn the book lengthwise and watch the effects of the ever-multiplying bunnies in watercolor scenes on the top, while the hand-lettered notes and novelty items glued to the dates below reveal seasonal challenges. In March, while the stressed parents learn infant care, a baby book showcases a tiny ultrasound of the twins. July depicts bored bunnies watching carrots grow. A miniature newspaper (The Fibber) includes biographical information on the famous mathematician, personals, birth announcements, graphs, and horoscopes. Under an empty, snow-covered field and through the die-cut hole that follows December 31, a peek and a page turn reveal the population explosion leaping, literally, off the page in a sturdy pop-up spread. This hilarious (and accurate) tale can be enjoyed by the numerically challenged and gifted alike.

Old Bear and His Cub  by Oliver Dunrea 
Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: Beautiful wintery illustrations are the perfect background for Old Bear and His Cub. Old Bear and Little Cub love each other with all of their hearts, and their day together revolves around Old Bear ensuring that Little Cub does things that will keep him safe and healthy, like eating his porridge and staying off the rocks. Children will relate to Little Cub’s attempts at independence, while parents will appreciate that Little Cub accepts Old Bear’s authority simply because Old Bear loves him so. The tables are turned when Old Bear catches a cold and it's Little Cub who knows what's best--blackberry tea and books read aloud all through the night. Simple and charming, Old Bear and His Cub is a heart-warming reminder of the joys of caring for one another.