Choose new leisure reading titles at Galvin Library

By Pattie Piotrowski

Did you think Galvin Library carried only research materials? Well, Galvin also has a Leisure Reading collection full of popular titles, bestsellers and the best in current fiction and non-fiction. Now the library is looking for the university community’s input to help select titles for the Leisure Reading collection. While purchases for the permanent collection are driven by curriculum and research needs, Galvin Library’s Leisure Reading collection is part of a lease program, which allows the library to temporarily place titles on the shelves and then rotate them out for new selections. The collection is located at the top of the main stairwell on the north side of the stairs, and also features books selected as part of the One Book, One Chicago effort http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/onebook_onechgo.php

The list of titles here will be available to the library beginning in December. Glance over the titles and descriptions and give the library your feedback in one of two ways:

Tear this list out of TechNews, check off the titles you’d like us to add and submit the list by placing it in the box on the reference desk on the upper level of the library

Access the list at Galvin Library’s blog, http://galvinlibrary.wordpress.com and send us your selections using the comments section

Either way you submit your choices, we’ll compile the votes and stock the shelves with new titles.

Leisure Reading 2008 Blockbusters

fiction

CHRISTMAS GRACE : A NOVEL
Perry, Anne
With Christmas just around the corner, Thomas Pitt’s sister-in-law, Emily Radley, is suddenly called from London to be with her dying aunt. Leaving her husband and two children behind, Emily makes the long journey to an all-but-forgotten town in the county of Connemara, on the western coast of Ireland. She soon discovers that a tragic legacy haunts the once close-knit community.

DRAGONHEART
McCaffrey, Todd
Circumstances and the mood of the weyrfolk worsen when advance patrols relay the dreaded news that black dust, the unmistakable herald of falling Thread, has been sighted. As more dragons sicken and die, leaving only a new generation of weyrlings too young to succeed them, Weyrleader B’Nik and queen rider Lorana arrive from Benden Weyr to comb Fort Weyr’s archives in a desperate search for clues that may hold the solution to the plague

ENDER IN EXILE
Card, Orson Scott
At the close of ‘Ender’s Game,’ Andrew Wiggin realizes he can no longer live on Earth. Far more than just a boy who won a game, he is the Savior, a hero, a military genius whose allegiance is sought by every nation of the newly shattered Hegemony. With his sister, Valentine, he leaves his home world and begins the long journey to the colonies. The story of those years has never been told, until now.

HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED : A NOVEL
Lamb, Wally
Caelum Quirk, teacher, and his wife Maureen, a nurse, move to Colorado and work at the Columbine High School. In April 1999, Maureen finds herself in the school library cowering in a cabinet, as two vengeful students go on a murderous rampage. The effects of chaos are not easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

JUST AFTER SUNSET : STORIES
King, Stephen
In many of these stories, the line between the living and the dead is blurred. A husband calls his widowed wife; a couple at a roadside tavern get together nowhere else; the kiss of a young blind girl brings the dying back to life. And in a never-before-published story, a No Trespassing sign warns passersby to stay away from a circle of stones, especially just after sunset.

BLACK OPS: A PRESIDENTIAL AGENT NOVEL
Griffin, W. E. B.
The first disturbing reports reached Delta Force Lieutenant Colonel Charley Castillo in the form of backchannel messages: covert U.S. intelligence assets working everywhere from Virginia to Budapest suddenly gone missing and inexplicably, found dying or dead. Castillo is interested after a recent experience with two CIA traitors whose own deaths were swift and suspicious.

BONE BY BONE
O’Connell, Carol
In the northern California town of Coventry, two teenage brothers go into the woods, but only one comes back. No one knows what happened to the younger brother, Josh, until 20 years later, when the older brother, Oren, now an ex-investigator for the Army CID, returns home. His first morning back, he finds a human jawbone on the porch. It’s not the first, his father tells him. Josh is coming home, bone by bone.

CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT
Berry, Steve
As a boy, Cotton Malone was told his father died when his submarine sank in the North Atlantic. Now he calls in a favor and asks his ex-boss, Stephanie Nelle, to get him his father’s military files. What he learns shocks him: his father’s sub was a nuclear vessel lost on a classified mission beneath Antarctica. The key to the mystery may be found in a stranger place: a manuscript unearthed from the tomb of Charlemagne.

CROSSROADS
Plain, Belva
Cassie accepted a monumental task when she took the year-old child of a deceased loved one into her home to raise. As Gwen blossoms into adolescence, the two generations clash. Gwen rebels by pursuing a completely different career and marrying the man she loves despite his shady back-ground. Because of this, Cassie and Gwen’s relationship seems irreparably damaged.

INDEPENDENCE OF MISS MARY BENNET
Mccullough, Colleen
McCullough’s gripping sequel to Jane Austen’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’ takes Austen’s classic characters out of the confines of the drawing room and exposes them to the seamy underside of British life in the early 19th century. With kidnapping, murder, long-concealed secrets, illegitimate children, and mysterious henchmen, this riveting and intricately plotted gothic tale is McCullough at her very best.

LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR
Stover, Matthew Woodring
When Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and their comrades are lured to Mindor to face Lord Shadowspawn’s Black Stormtroopers, they don’t realize that the entire battle is a trap meant for them, a diabolical attempt by Lord Shadowspawn to destroy the heroes of the New Republic and restore the Empire, with him at the helm. Discover the events that led Luke Skywalker to revive the Jedi Order.

TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD
Rowling, J. K.
Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter’s final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is the volume of five fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.’ Only one story is recounted in the ‘Hallows’ book, and the four remaining stories are revealed here for the very first time.

nonfiction

OUTLIERS: WHY SOME PEOPLE SUCCEED AND SOME DON’T
Gladwell, Malcolm
Gladwell explains the world of ‘outliers’, the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. We pay too much attention to what successful people are like and too little attention to where they are from, that is their culture, family, generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. He explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and others.

REAGAN I KNEW
Buckley, William F.
The late William F. Buckley Jr. offers a reminiscence of 30 years of friendship with the man who brought the American conservative movement out of the political wilderness and into the White House. Reagan and Buckley understood and taught each other for decades, and together they changed history. This book presents an American political giant as seen by another giant who perhaps knew him better than anyone else.

SOMEBODY: THE RECKLESS LIFE AND REMARKABLE CAREER OF MARLON BRANDO
Kanfer, Stefan
Kanfer takes us through Brando’s childhood, supplying the background we need to understand the Brando who arrived in New York in the 1940s, studied with the legendary Stella Adler, and at the age of 23 became the star of Broadway in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. The author looks at each of Brando’s films, and brings into focus his self-destructiveness, lifelong dissembling, ambivalence toward his craft, and the tragedies that shadowed his last years.

SPELLBOUND BY BEAUTY: ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND HIS LEADING LADIES
Spoto, Donald
The final book of the Hitchcock trilogy examines the director’s life and his strange passions for the actresses he often transformed into icons. Here is the full and fascinating story of Hitchcock’s movies and stars, his management style, his unusual presentation of sex and romance, and the Hollywood dreams that often became nightmares. This intimate portrait is rich with fresh revelations based on undisclosed tapes, new interviews, and personal papers.

32 WAYS TO BE A CHAMPION IN BUSINESS
Johnson, Earvin
After hanging up his sneakers and pursuing his business interests, Magic Johnson faced investors who assumed he was just another ex-jock without a clue. Now Magic reveals how he proved them wrong by transforming his ability to build a team, his capacity to inspire loyalty, his knack for reading others, and his sense of timing into off-the-court success.

BUILT TO SUCCEED
Phelps, Michael
Michael Phelps covers his philosophy on training and competition, as well as his life being raised by a single mother and coping with an attention-deficit disorder in this book. Phelps, 23, became the winningest Olympian ever at this summer’s Beijing games, winning eight golds to add to six previous Olympic first-place victories. He holds seven world records.

STREET GANG : THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF SESAME STREET
Davis, Michael
‘Sesame Street’ was born as the result of a discussion at a dinner party at Joan Ganz Cooney’s house concerning the poor quality of children’s programming. The show was an instant success and is the longest running children’s programming in television history. Its unique format has revolutionized how education is presented to children.