Most Popular Books: February 2010

The twenty most checked-out books at the library during the month of February. Click on titles to view and reserve these books in the catalog. Click on More about the book for reviews and summaries.

1.		The Lost Symbol: A Novel by Dan Brown More about the book
2.		Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama More about the book
3.		U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton More about the book
4.		Dog Days by Jeff Kinney More about the book
5.		Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney More about the book
6.		The Help by Kathryn Stockett More about the book
7.		Wiggle by Doreen Cronin, art by Scott Menchin More about the book
8.		The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney More about the book
9.		New Moon by Stephenie Meyer More about the book
10.		Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich More about the book
11.		Kisser by Stuart Woods More about the book
12.		Under the Dome: A Novel by Stephen King More about the book
13.		Worst Case: A Novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge More about the book
14.		The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell More about the book
15.		The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan More about the book
16.		Alex Cross's Trial by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo More about the book
17.		A Touch of Dead: Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories by Charlaine Harris More about the book
18.		True Blue by David Baldacci More about the book
19.		Noah's Compass: A Novel by Anne Tyler More about the book
20.		If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond More about the book

Immersion Memoirs, Stunt Memoirs, and Schtick Lit

Immersion memoir? Stunt memoir? Schtick lit? This nonfiction genre goes by many names and has been extremely popular for the last few years. Books from this genre offer ample amounts of both insight and humor while following a basic pattern.

For a specified amount of time, often one year, the author decides to:

1. Act according to a set of guidelines or within specific limitations.
2. Repeat or accomplish a specific task.

If you are a fan of the genre or looking for a place to start, check out one of these books. Click on titles to view and reserve these books in the catalog.

	No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process by Colin Beavan Beavan’s witty, thought-provoking chronicle of a year spent trying to have a minimal impact on the environment. More about the book
	A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy by Sarah Bongiorno Bongiorno recounts her often comic misadventures trying to buy items ranging from sunglasses to a DVD player. More about the book
	Give It Up: My Year of Learning to Live Better With Less by Mary Carlomagno Carlomagno shares what she learned after picking twelve of her favorite things including shopping, alcohol, and television, and giving up each of them for one month. More about the book
	The Year of Living Like Jesus: My Journey of Discovering What Jesus Would Really Do by Ed Dobson Evangelical pastor Dobson’s thoughtful reflection on a year spent not just following, but literally living like Jesus. More about the book
	The Year of Yes: A Memoir by Maria Dahvana Headley Headley’s snappy story of a year in which she said yes to everyone who asked her out, meeting her future husband in the process. More about the book
	Do-Over!: In Which A Forty-Eight-Year-Old Father Of Three Returns To Kindergarten, Summer Camp, the Prom, and Other Embarrassments by Robin Hemley Hemly’s humorous but wise retelling of what happened when he decided to take ten of the lowest moments of his childhood and relive them again, attempting to get things right the second time around. More about the book
	The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs A humorous collection of experiments in living in which Jacobs, among other things, outsources most of his life to Bangalore, India and lives according to George Washington’s 110 rules of civility. More about the book
	The Know-it-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs Jacobs' humorous memoir of a year in which he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, becoming aware of all the things the book could and could not teach him. More about the book
	The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs Jacobs' funny, thought-provoking memoir of a year in which he attempted to follow all 800+ rules in the Hebrew Bible. More about the book
	Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver Part memoir, part journalism, and part cookbook, Kingsolver’s widely popular book details a year in which her family ate only food that was produced locally. More about the book
	Not Buying It: My Year without Shopping by Judith Levine. Levine’s memoir of a year in which she bought only necessities is a witty, reflective meditation on consumerism and the difference between needing and wanting. More about the book
	Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Twelve Self-Help Programs, One Whirlwind Year of Improvement by Beth Lisik Lisik chose twelve things she wanted to change about herself, found a guru for each thing she wanted to change, and spent a month devoted each of them. She relates her experince in this funny, insightful book. More about the book
	Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alyssa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon Released just one week before Kingsolver’s similarly-themed book, Plenty is a quirky, engaging retelling of a year spent eating only locally produced foods. More about the book
	The Urban Hermit by Sam McDonald Facing enormous debt and a rapidly expanding waste line, McDonald decided to limit himself to spending $8 per week and eating 800 calories per day. He shares his experiment in this funny, uplifting book. More about the book
	Eat this Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit by Ryan Nerz Nerz tells the tale of his year spent immersed in the world of competitive eating, profiling many of the sport's stars along the way. More about the book
	Living Oprah: My One-Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk by Robyn Okrant In this thoughtful book, Orkant shares a year of following every piece of advice dispensed through Oprah’s show, magazine, and website. More about the book
	Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living by Julie Powell Powel’s chronicle of year in which she cooked every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Made into a movie with the same title. More about the book
	A Devil to Play: One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra's Most Difficult Instrument by Jasper Rees Rees weaves accounts of the history and current uses of the French horn into his account of trying, within one year, to learn the instrument well enough to perform a Mozart concerto. More about the book
	The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose As a 19-year-old college sophomore, Roose spent an eye-opening semester "abroad" at Liberty University that resulted in this thoughtful, respectful documentation of fundamentalist Christian culture from a secular perspective. More about the book
	Reading the OED: One man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea Shea’s year-long quest resulted in this witty and personal celebration of the English language that is part memoir and part lexicon of some our oddest words. More about the book
	Friends Like These: My Worldwide Quest to Find my Best Childhood Friends, Knock on Their Doors, and Ask Them to Come Out and Play by Danny Wallace Nearing 30, Wallace set off on a quest to find and reconnect with his best childhood friends before his impending birthday. More about the book
	Yes Man by Danny Wallace The basis for a movie with the same title, this book is Wallace’s witty, entertaining account of a year in which he said “yes” to absolutely everything. More about the book

Staff Pick: I.O.U.

I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester

John Lanchester’s I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay is a smart, bitingly funny book that is very successful at it stated goal: making the causes and consequences of the 2008 crash comprehensible to the average reader. Given the dry, if not depressing, nature of its subject matter, it is also remarkably entertaining.

Early in the book Lanchester states, "Many bright, literate people have no idea about all sorts of economic basics." I would count myself among those bright, literate people and thank Lanchester for making me feel better about my ignorance while, in the end, enlightening me. Before reading I.O.U. I could recognize much of the terminology used to describe the financial crisis--“credit default swaps”, “zombie banks”, “toxic assets”, etc.--but would have been hard pressed to define it, let alone use it to construct an explanation. After reading I.O.U., I could begin to do both.

Lanchester is the author of three novels including Fragrant Harbor. His skills as a novelist are evident in the pacing and plotting of I.O.U. You want to keep reading to find out what happens next, and all of the book’s narrative strands come together in the end. He is also a deft and witty creator of metaphors and cultural references—good at making a point clear while making the reader laugh.

If this hasn’t convinced you to read it, check out Dwight Garner’s excellent review in the New York Times.

Jacob - Adult Services

More about the book

Have You Read...Bentley Little?

Bentley Little is one of the horror genre's best kept secrets. He has been writing for twenty years and has penned more than a dozen novels and over one hundred short stories but almost never gives interviews, doesn't have a website, and rarely appears at book signings. He published his first novel in 1990 and it won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, the genre's highest annual honor for new novelists. Since then, he has gone on to develop a unique voice that has won famous fans such as Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

Little's books often revolve around supernatural forces at play in the familiar, everyday world of modern America. His novels are often set in the Southwest, usually Arizona, and have very short titles that reflect the world of the novel -- The Association is about a sinister homeowner's group, The Store is about a big box retailer with evil lurking in its aisles, The Policy is about a deadly life insurance contract. Although he employs seemingly mundane settings, Little’s plot twists and turns can be truly horrifying in a visceral, sometimes repulsive, way. Don’t be surprised to open up one of Little’s books and find yourself among re-animated murder victims bent on revenge, mutilated goats portending the Apocalypse, and murderous clowns who exist in another dimension.

If you’ve read all of Koontz and King and are looking for a fresh voice in the horror genre who employs both the supernatural and the satirical to get at what’s most horrifying in our modern world, give Bentley Little at try.

LPL owns the following:

	The Academy Evil stalks the halls and possesses the principle at a newly-formed charter school. More about the book
	The Association A gated community’s newest residents find that non-compliance with the rules and regulations of the Homeowner’s Association can be deadly. More about the book
	The Collection Thirty two short stories that showcase the author’s dark, demented visions. More about the book
	Dominion A new student trying to fit in at a new school forges a friendship that has horrific implications for the student body. More about the book
	His Father’s Son A man hears his father’s deathbed murder confession and must grapple with the evils unleashed by this long-held secret. More about the book
	The Policy A salesman offers insurance policies that not only cover accidental death and dismemberment, but often lead to those ends as well. More about the book
	The Resort A dream vacation at an exclusive destination soon turns into a nightmare for one family. More about the book
	The Revelation The signs of the Apocalypse are upon a small town in Arizona and salvation may lie with a pregnant woman and fire-and-brimstone itinerant preacher. More about the book
	The Store A big box retailer comes to a small town and offers jobs and benefits to the area, but at a horrific price. More about the book