The traveling trader

Michael Wigge, aka the Barterman has fulfilled his life-long dream. He is the owner of a home in Hawaii. The real story is that he managed to get it by trading! Michael, an enterprising and adventurous young man started in Mainz, Germany with an apple. He took a bite of it and then traded it for a pack of cigarettes. His book, How to BARTER for PARADISE, follows him through 14 countries for 200 days and documents his trading experiences.  He takes part in a few demonstrations, makes friends with the prince of Hutt River, goes on a crocodile feeding trip and climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro. Reading is believing! Enjoy! DB

Adventure on the High Seas

When mild-mannered personal chef Owen Wedgewood is violently kidnapped by pirate queen Mad Hannah Mabbot from his late benefactor's residence in 1800s England, he's in for a wild ride aboard The Flying Rose, where he is forced to create exceptional meals with scant ingredients in exchange for his continued survival.  Told through Wedgewood's diary, Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder sees our protagonist confront his own shortcomings and prejudices as he slowly assimilates (kicking and screaming) into the pirate crew and becomes closer to the fearsome Captain Mabbot, who is busy trying to upset the entire opium trade and catch her nemesis, The Brass Fox.  HM

Elementary, My Dear Watson!*

Not even the death of his creator could hamper the detecting of the world's greatest super-sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.  Accompanied by his trusty sidekick (and oftentimes foil), Dr. Watson, Holmes has found his way into any number of modern retellings and new adventures in the years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's death in 1930.  Check out our current display in the Adult Department, including titles from authors such as Michael Chabon, Loren D. Estleman, and Anthony Horowitz (yes, of Alex Rider fame), all featuring original takes on your favorite detective (such as Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count which is actually a lot better than it sounds).

*TRIVIA -- Sherlock Holmes never actually says "Elementary, my dear Watson," in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works; the phrase was apparently popularized by the first "talking film" featuring the detective in 1929.  HM

Fairy Tales Revisited

Even though this is a young adult book, it is a must read for adults!  In The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer you are reunited with all of the fairy tales that you knew as a child, from Snow White and the Evil Queen to the Little Mermaid and Red Riding Hood.  This is the tale of twins Alex and Connor Bailey who find themselves in the land of stories.  As they come face to face with well known fairy tale characters you learn about what happened to these characters AFTER their ‘stories’ end.  Do they all really live happily ever after?  There are lots of moral lessons sprinkled throughout the book, as there is in any good fairy tale, but the best part for me was being reunited with the stories I grew up with.  The tale of the twins predicaments keep you on the edge of your seat and while you think you know what’s going to happen next there are plenty of surprises.  I listened to this as an audiobook because it is read by the author and I love Chris Colfer’s voice (Kurt from Glee, in case you didn’t know).  SG

Night of the Unread

If you've been in the library recently, you may have seen our display of books that have not checked out in awhile. Maybe they lived on a bottom shelf, maybe they had an ugly cover -- whatever the reason, these are truly hidden gems that have been looked over in the past. For example, as soon as you see Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, it's pretty easy to guess why it's been ignored; at a daunting 773 pages, it's a major undertaking. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth it. Following the fictionalized adventures of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (as in the Mason-Dixon Line), Pynchon takes readers on a whirlwind tour "featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse " (from the inside flap). If that doesn't sound worth the 773 pages, I don't know what does. HM

Teen-Adult Crossover: A Mooo-ving Story

Looking for your next Epic Read? Look no further than Libba Bray's Going Bovine, winner of the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award.
Cameron Smith just wants to coast through high school (and life) with as little effort as possible. But then the unthinkable happens: He is diagnosed with a rare and particularly vicious form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a.k.a. mad cow disease). Within weeks, perhaps days, he will die. Bummer! As Cameron wastes away in the hospital, he is visited by Dulcie, a pink-haired, punk rock angel with a bad sugar habit. Dulcie promises Cameron that if he goes on a quest to find Dr. X, a mysterious mad scientist who went missing several years ago, he will not only save the universe from certain destruction, he will also be cured of all ailments. Armed with a magical, health-protecting wristband from Disney World and accompanied by Gonzo, his paranoid roommate, Cameron reluctantly accepts the challenge. Cameron and Gonzo journey from Texas to Florida. Along the way they jam with a ghostly jazz musician, narrowly escape being brainwashed by a bizarre happiness cult, pick up a very strange companion who may (or may not) be the Norse god Balder in disguise, party at the world's biggest Spring Break bash, and dodge evil fire giants. Finally, Cameron accomplishes his mission...with some very unexpected results. Loosely based on Don Quixote, Going Bovine will appeal to readers on many different levels. Don't hurt your happiness. Check out Going Bovine today!--AJL

Teen-Adult Crossover Title

What if absolutely everything about your life was decided for you, from what you'll eat for lunch to when you'll draw your last breath? In Matched, the first book of Ally Condie's terrifying dystopian trilogy, nothing is left up to either chance or choice--and everyone accepts this way of life without question. Well, almost everyone. Matched centers around 17-year-old Cassia, who, at the beginning of the book, is enroute to her Matching Ceremony. Here, she will learn the identity of her future husband. To her happiness, she is matched with her best friend, Xander. Then she receives a second match to Ky, a boy who is considered to be an outcast and who is not even supposed to be in the matching pool. Not surprisingly, Cassia and Ky fall in love, and Cassia begins to question everything about her life she previously, and rather blindly, accepted without a second thought. She learns that her society's government may not the benign entity she always assumed it to be. She learns what happens to those who dare to be different. Comparable to Lowry's The Giver and Orwell's 1984, Matched is action-packed and filled with plot twists both disturbing and intriguing. Readers will be interested until the final page. Cassia's and Ky's adventures continue in Crossed, which will be released November 2011. Stay tuned!

Don't miss The Red Pyramid

From the author of the popular Percy Jackson series comes an adventure of Egyptian proportions. In The Red Pyramid, the first volume in Rick Riordan's new Kane Chronicles, siblings Carter and Sadie must team up to save the world. The action begins immediately: In a failed attempt to "make things right" following their mother's mysterious death, the teens' father, Dr. Kane, blows up the Rosetta Stone and accidentally releases five Egyptian gods and goddesses trapped within. Now only Carter and Sadie have the power to stop the potentially disastrous events that have been set in motion. And time is fast running out.... Aided by a basketball-loving baboon and a very special cat, the teens must race to the Phoenix desert where Set, the god of chaos, is building a red pyramid that will give him the power to destroy and take over North America--and, very possibly, the world.

The action is fast-paced and the characters are well-developed. Woven into the story are bits of Egyptian history and plenty of mythology. The Red Pyramid ends with a cliffhanger, suggesting that first volume of The Kane Chronicles has only uncovered the very tip of the iceberg (or pyramid, if you rather). Even better than Percy and not to be missed!