Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

It’s official.  Trendspotting.com, one of the world’s foremost consumer trend firms, has identified “’generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset” for 2009 and 2010.  Dubbing the growing number of practitioners as “Generation G,” Trendspotting.com says consumer disgust at the financial excesses that resulted in the recession has led to a longing for giving, sharing, community, and corporate responsibility in this social networking age.  You can read about this growing trend here. 

In support of this culture of giving, here are books you can check out FOR FREE at your local library: 

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer
This is my Christmas present to almost everyone on my list this year.  It gives reasons for donating money to fight global poverty, allays fears about donations  going to waste, and suggests different worthy organizations.  A wonderful book. 

One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity by Debbie Macomber
True stories about the results of intentional acts of generosity. 

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
Examples of both citizen and corporate activism in the world today. 

Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime by Bill Gates, Sr.
This is more a memoir of the senior Gates’ tenets for a successful life:  Hard work, generosity, and curiosity.  I include it because this man, along with Melissa Gates, has obviously had a great impact on the generosity of his famous son Bill Gates, Jr. 

And here are two inspirational tales about what a difference one person can make in the world:

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
Details about a former skiing bum’s  ten year mission to build schools in Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s impoverished regions. 

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba
A teenager in famine-stricken Malawi devises a windmill out of bicycle parts and other scraps and changes the life of his family and community. 

Happy Thanksgiving and good reading!

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

Here is another Best Books list, from Library Journal, one of the professional journals from which librarians select books for the collection.  LJ doesn’t do a Top 10, but they have a “best genre fiction” section, which includes Christian fiction, romance, mystery, thrillers, and science fiction.  Click here for the list.

Today’s post is from Eva at Parr Library:

Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge: An American Parable by Gary Cartwright

This fast-paced, mesmerizing story of the murders of El Paso lawyer Lee Chagra and John H. “Maximum John” Wood proves that truth really is more far-fetched than fiction.  I started out reading this on my brother’s recommendation because we grew up in El Paso.  What started as a quaint reminiscence of favorite hometown locales quickly became engrossment in the stories of these driven Lebanese lawyers, their human passions and weaknesses, and the greed and corruption of those they chose to associate with.  The Chagra family name was constantly in the newspaper when I was in high school and now I realize why.  Author Gary Cartwright uses personal interviews and court transcripts to bring to vivid life the saga of the larger-than-life criminal lawyers Lee and Joe Chagra, their drug-smuggling brother Jimmy, and the federal judge who had vowed early on to give the maximum sentence to anyone convicted of drug dealing.  Judge Wood’s harsh sentences and the ill will they generated probably contributed to his death at the hands of Charles Harrelson, assassin-for-hire and father of actor Woody Harrelson.  There are so many players in this story it can be hard to keep up, but the action is steady and compelling and makes for an exciting, too-wild-to-be-fiction tale.

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library:

That time of year is upon us, and I don’t mean the Christmas countdown.  I mean the announcements of Best Books of 2009.  Both Amazon and Publishers Weekly have issued their lists, even though the year’s not over.  What is it about these lists?  Even though I suspect they are somewhat arbitrary and incomplete  (for instance, there is only one book that made both the Amazon and Publishers Weekly top 10 – Stitches by David Small), I cannot keep myself from checking out every one.  So, just to keep in the spirit of the season, I’m posting the “best” lists I encounter and tagging them under “Best Books of 2009”.  Feel free to contribute any best book list you run across as well!  

Amazon’s Top 10 Editor’ Picks for 2009 (click to see their complete list)

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann – Fiction
Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder – Nonfiction
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel –Fiction – Booker Prize winner for 2009
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin – Fiction
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia – Young adult fiction
Crazy for the Storm by Norman Ollestead – Nonfiction memoir
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson – Fiction
The City &  the City by China Mieville – Fiction
Stitches by David Small – Graphic novel memoir
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba – Nonfiction 

Publisher Weekly’s Top 10 Books for 2009 (Click to see their complete list)

Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey – Biography
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon – Fiction
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War by Neil Sheehan – Nonfiction
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin – Fiction
Big Machine by Victor LaValle – Fiction
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes – Nonfiction
Stitches by David Small – Graphic novel memoir
Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford – Nonfiction
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer – Fiction
Lost City of Z by David Grann – Nonfiction

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library:

Looking for presents for the bibliophile in your life?  A book signed by the author might fit the bill. Debbie Macomber will be signing her second nonfiction book, One Simple Act:  Discovering the Power of Generousity on Tuesday, December 1, 7 pm, at Legacy Books, Plano’s independent bookstore at 7300 Dallas Parkway,  972-398-9888, www.legacybooksonline.com.  And Sarah Palin will be town that same week, promoting Going Rogue: An American Life.  The details of her booksigning Friday, December 4, from 11 am to 2 pm at Legacy Books can be found here on their website – www.legacybooksonline.com.

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann

I read this book because it was up for consideration for one or more of the library book clubs, and plus it sounded like it might be fun; sheep solving a mystery, that sounds right up my alley.  For the most part it was pretty enjoyable, just your basic cozy Scottish Highland mystery (with all the murder that goes on up there it’s a wonder they have any people left).  The gimmick of the sheep was cool but ultimately, other than the odd bleating and occasional sheep-panic, there wasn’t a whole lot to distinguish the sheep from Hamish Macbeth or any number of other Scot detectives.

The story revolves around the flock of George Glenn who made a habit of reading to his sheep and is found dead, pinned to the ground by a spade, straight off.  The sheep, emboldened by their knowledge of literature, decide they owe it to their shepherd to solve his murder.  Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in the county, they set out to do just that.

It’s hard, I imagine, to do a book based on sheep and have the characters all be singular in some way; I mean a certain sameness would seem to be inherent, they are sheep for Pete’s sake.  The author tries, and for the most part succeeds, with the major sheep to give them an individual personality but the ancillary sheep tend to blend together and the sheep who “likes unusual words” and the “fastest sheep in the flock” all sort of blend into “the sheep we need for this plot device.”  The humans are kind of hard to distinguish also and with one or two exceptions could all just be the same person.  Finally, the mystery itself is something of a let-down as well but only because we aren’t really allowed enough insight as readers to put it together ourselves.

I can’t say that I disliked the book, because I love any story that uses the verb “bleat,” but I was pretty disappointed.  Maybe I had my expectations too high.  If you like cozy mysteries, then this one will be fine. You’ll read it and probably enjoy it, it just won’t stay with you like a really transcendant book should; but I guess even in the book world not everyone gets to be an astronaut.

Today’s post is from Cynthia at Harrington Library:

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

The generation of the American Civil War had to deal with death on a scale unknown before or since. An estimated 620,000 soldiers died on both sides of the conflict. An equivalent proportion today would be 6 million dead. Faust explains how the living responded to the devastating carnage. How does one make sense of individual death in the face of mass death? Gilpin explores the change in attitude regarding the government’s responsibility to the massive army of citizen soldiers. For the first time the federal government awarded widow and orphan pensions to the families of Union casualties. The rise in importance of the undertaking profession is discussed. The development of necessary bureaucratic methods of counting the dead is a result of the Civil War and the search by so many bereaved families for what happened to their loved ones. The evolution of the military cemetery system also was a result of the carnage. The fact that only Union dead were reinterred and honored in these military cemeteries was a source of bitterness in the South for decades to come. Gilpin gives us a window on a previously unexplored aspect of the Civil War. This is a fascinating and poignant book of social history.

Today’s post is from Carole at Haggard Library:

The Lost Art of Gratitude: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith

In this sixth novel about Isabel, she, her boyfriend Jamie, and their eighteen-month-old son Charlie, are all doing well.

Their homelife is idyllic as Isabel edits her philosophical journal, The Review of Applied Ethics, and Jamie pursues his musical career as a bassoonist. Both parents enjoy Charlie, playing games with him and indulging his every wish. They are thrilled when he says his first word, “olive.”

Through a chance meeting in a restaurant, the little family reencounters Minty Auchterlonie, a high-powered businesswoman Isabel has dealt with before. Even though Isabel and Jamie both know Minty is dishonest and manipulative, Minty soon convinces Isabel to do a favor for her, which leads to complicated problems for Isabel, as she tries to proceed in the most fair and ethical manner.

This charming and thoughtful story may be the best yet in this series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

Book With No Title…Yet: Possibly a Memoir but More Likely just a Bunch of Crazy Fiction by Erik Knapp

I mentioned a while back that I was going to participate in the National Novel Writing Month event and I thought, because I am largely an ego-maniac, that you all would like an update on said participation.  To jog your memory, the National Novel Writing Month event is a deal where you sign up on the website and agree to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  This tallies out to be 1, 667 words a day (I’m doing that from memory so if my math is off, there you go).  It’s all about the writing, moving forward and not worrying about such concepts as proofreading, plot and, in at least my case, intelligibility.  It was under those guidelines that I started my story.

I settled on the idea of a Candide-esque sort of story thinking that the modular nature of it would fit in pretty well with the need for speed.  I could take my hero anywhere or anywhen I wanted and it would at least be semi-plausible.  I gave him a partner on his journey so I could fill space with dialogue and also, thanks to a tip from Blackswan one of my fellow bloggers, I gave him an arch-enemy and dogged pursuer in the form of celebrated French actor Gerard Depardieu.  From there, off we went!

Today is November 16th and according to my math I should have over 25,000 words written.  I am sorry to say that according to this expectation my participation can only be considered an epic fail.  At least it would be if I were just concerned about word count (which is technically exactly what I should be concerned with).  However, I have discovered what I consider to be the secret joy in this event.  It’s the anticipation of the whole thing, the world of possibilities that opens up in your mind when you decide to give it a try; that has been the fun part for me.  I’ve had some technical difficulties this month trying to get it done and I sincerely doubt I will get all 50,000 words in there unless I decide to go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining on myself (which has been suggested).  But that doesn’t really matter to me…I plan to keep plugging away at it until the end of November and see what I can do and where I am and then keep going until it’s done.  I actually like the story I’ve come up with and I am interested in seeing where it goes.  So, technically you could say, barring some unforseen miracle or sickness that  gives me about 7 straight idle days, my participation wasn’t a full success.  I, however, would have to respectfully disagree.

Today’s post is from Brad, a patron at Harrington Library:

The Scarecrow: A Novel by Michael Connelly

Jack McEvoy is a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times that has just been laid off from his job because of budget cuts. He wants to go out with a bang – but, he ends up getting much more than he bargained for. This is a high-tech murder thriller that will keep you reading. The Scarecrow uses technology in ways that will make you think about how much people can find out about you and manipulate your life through the Internet. This is a fast and thrilling read.