Friends

Friends of the Webb. Will now meet quarterly with the next meeting scheduled for Wednesday April 13, at 10:30 am.

Dan Brown Readalikes. Daniel Silva, Michael Crichton, Barbara Wood, Katherine Neville,  Dean Ing, David Poyer, Jonathan Rabb, Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, Robert Ludlum, Steve Berry, Raymond Khoury, Julia Navarro, Lincoln Child, Greg Iles, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Frank Peretti, Randy Alcorn.

Another PIT Crew Visit. The Paranormal Investigation Team from  

MonsterVisionTV.com paid a visit in February and have posted their latest video on their website. It is episode 1 of season 6, but there is a problem with some of the language used by a few members of the team.


NEW MATERIALS 

Adult

The Cyprus House  by Michael Koryta 
From Booklist

After making his name with five strong crime novels, Koryta started adding chills to the thrills in the horror-tinged So Cold the River (2010). In this one, battle-hardened WWI veteran Arlen Wagner can foretell others’ deaths. With the Great Depression crippling the country, he works in the Civilian Conservation Corps and keeps his demons at bay with hard work and a flask full of whiskey. He and young friend Paul Brickhill are traveling by train to a new CCC camp in the Florida Keys when Arlen’s supernatural sense tells him they have to get off the train if they want to stay alive. They find themselves at Cypress House, a strangely empty fishing resort on the Gulf Coast run by beautiful but taciturn Rebecca Cady—and right in the middle of a vipers’ nest of small-town corruption and misery.

The Illumination  by Kevin Brockmeier 
Amazon.com Review 

Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2011: When wounds and illnesses, both superficial and severe, begin emitting a beautiful shimmering light--a phenomenon quickly coined "The Illumination"--a chain of characters learn to adapt to this unexpected change in Kevin Brockmeier's incandescent novel, The Illumination. No longer able hide their own pains from the world, and suddenly exposed to the discomfiting wounds of strangers, friends, and lovers, these characters struggle to adapt to a new way of experiencing life and, in very different ways, to understand the intrinsic connection between love and pain. "There was an ache inside people that seemed so wonderful sometimes," one character muses. And then, because this ache is also corporeal, "He wished he had brought his camera with him." While Brockmeier's brilliant novel is innately tied up in pain and loss, witnessing the lives he creates in the midst of this new wonder is not only a beautiful experience but, yes, an illuminating one.

When the Killings Done  by T.C. Boyle 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Boyle (The Women) spins a grand environmental and family drama revolving around the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara in his fiery latest. Alma Boyd Takesue is an unassuming National Park Service biologist and the public face of a project to eradicate invasive species, such as rats and pigs, from the islands. Antagonizing her is Dave LaJoy, a short-tempered local business owner and founder of an organization called For the Protection of Animals. What begins as the disruption of public meetings and protests outside Alma's office escalates as Dave realizes he must take matters into his own hands to stop what he considers to be an unconscionable slaughter. Dave and Alma are at the center of a web of characters—among them Alma's grandmother, who lost her husband and nearly drowned herself in the channel, and Dave's girlfriend's mother, who lived on a sheep ranch on one of the islands—who provide a perspective that man's history on the islands is a flash compared to nature's evolution there.

Young Adult

Something Like Hope  by Shawn Goodman 
From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up–Shavonne, who has gone from one juvenile detention center to another since junior high, will be moving out of the system on her 18th birthday. Fury and frustration are huge obstacles she must conquer by coming to grips with a drug-addicted prostitute mother; abusive foster parents who allowed her to be raped; a father who died in jail; giving up her own baby to the foster-care system; and forgiving herself for an accident that injured her beloved baby brother. Her personal challenges are compounded by troubled and desperate fellow inmates; several cruel, manipulative, corrupt guards who beat and taunt them; and youth counselors without a clue, who hurt more than help. Luckily, the last embers of hope deep within Shavonne's soul are flamed by one kind guard and an empathetic and straightforward counselor who successfully reaches through to her at the 11th hour. Shavonne's first-person narrative captures readers' attention and never lets go. Short, compelling chapters keep up the tempo as her shocking and sad past and present are revealed and her desire for a better future takes center stage.

Desires of the Dead  by Kimberly Derting 
Product Description  

The missing dead call to Violet. They want to be found.
Violet can sense the echoes of those who've been murdered—and the matching imprint that clings to their killers. Only those closest to her know what she is capable of, but when she discovers the body of a young boy she also draws the attention of the FBI, threatening her entire way of life.
As Violet works to keep her morbid ability a secret, she unwittingly becomes the object of a dangerous obsession. Normally she'd turn to her best friend, Jay, except now that they are officially a couple, the rules of their relationship seem to have changed. And with Jay spending more and more time with his new friend Mike, Violet is left with too much time on her hands as she wonders where things went wrong. But when she fills the void by digging into Mike's tragic family history, she stumbles upon a dark truth that could put everyone in danger.

Juvenile 

Young Fredle  by Cynthia Voigh  
From School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-It was a Peppermint Pattie that was Fredle's undoing. A kitchen mouse who was already too curious for his own good (his mother admonishes, "Curiosity killed the cat. Think about what a terrible monster curiosity must be, if it can kill a cat"), Fredle becomes ill from consuming too much chocolate and is pushed out of the family's nest. The Missus traps him and releases him outside, a terrifying place for a creature with no familiarity with grass and sky, let alone raptors, snakes, and raccoons. Fredle's adventures and attempts to return home (and what is home, anyway?) are chronicled in a way that makes readers begin to grasp what it must be like to be a mouse, and the struggle to understand where he fits in. The allure of the world versus the beauty of belonging is just one of the many complex issues addressed in this engaging story about a plucky little mouse who, after his adventures, returns to his family and sets out to change things for himself and others like him.

Audio Cassettes New to Us

Nora Roberts: Blue Smoke

                       Angels Fall

Stuart Woods: Capital Crimes
                       Orchid Blues
Janet Evanovich: Plum Lovin

                          Lean Mean Thirteen

Mary Higgins Clark: Two Little Girls in Blue