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Staff Recommendations – March 2006
INDEXES TO PAST STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS: BY TITLE | BY REVIEWER
TV SERIES/SPECIALS ON DVD | AGATHA CHRISTIE | LGBTQ+ | STAR TREK | STAR WARS
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March 2006 Recommendations
Guitar: An American Life
by Tim Brookes (Music 787.87 Bro)
Brookes alternates chapters describing the building of his custom-made guitar with chapters on the social history of the guitar in America. Fascinating reading for anyone interested in music, and especially for guitar players.
Recommended by Peter J.
Bennett Martin Public Library
A Venetian Affair
by Andrea DiRobilant (B M5105d)
A Venetian Affair is DiRobilant’s account of the “impossible love” between his young patrician ancestor, Andrea Memmo and the half-English beauty Giustinana Wynne. To the Venetians of the 18th century, love was a consummate game. The rules were meant to be broken, and the more obstacles there were to happily-ever-after, the more attention they paid. Giustiana and her Memmo play out their personal drama against a backdrop of intrigue, war, duty and a Venice fading into its long twilight. This is an absorbing and emotionally involving love story-and it’s all true! For added impact, get both the book and the Compact Disc so you can hear the beauty of the Italian names and phrases when they’re properly spoken. A Venetian Affair is like a tragi-comic opera, and may leave you shopping for a Carnival mask and dreaming of gondola rides on the Grand Canal.
( official Andrea Di Robilant website )
Recommended by Lisa V.
Gere Branch Library
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
by Anne Fadiman (028.9 Fad)
This is a small but delightful book. It contains essays or vignettes describing Ms. Fadiman’s lifelong love of books and reading as well as strange but interesting facts about other booklovers in history. She brings in tidbits about growing up in an erudite family. In the acknowledgement section at the back of the book I discovered that she had originally written parts of these essays for a column in the Library of Congress’ magazine “Civilization.” It’s a quick but charming read, especially for bibliophiles.
( Wikipedia page for Anne Fadiman )
Recommended by Cindy C.
Bennett Martin Public Library
How to Be a Successful Cartoonist
by Randy Glasbergen (741.5 Gla)
A fun, fast-paced tour through the basics of designing your own print cartoons, with a strong focus on single-panel one-shots and daily newspaper comic strips. Filled with step-by-step artistic and business advice, the best part of this book for me was the many examples from Glasbergen’s own work and from the work of numerous well-known comic artists. Also included are numerous short interviews with successful cartoonists, exploring their stories of how they got into the business.
If you like this volume, you’re likely to appreciate his follow-up volume, too: ‘Toons: How to Draw Wild and Lively Characters for all Kinds of Cartoons.
( official Randy Glasbergen website )
Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library
Feng Shui…for Dummies
by David Daniel Kennedy (133.333 Ken)
Learn how to transform the energy of your surroundings both at home and at work to benefit all areas of your life. This book was recommended to me by a local Feng Shui teacher as the most comprehensive and accurate account of the Black Sect Tantric Buddhist Feng Shui teachings.
Recommended by Patty L.
Walt Branch Library
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
by James Luceno (Luceno)
An awesome book by one of the better Star Wars writers around: James Luceno. Set during the end of the Clone Wars, the book details the story of Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader. It also provides some clues about why Vader never ventured back to Tatooine and Naboo. This is a stand-alone title that fans of the Expanded Universe will enjoy as well as those who have seen the movies but haven’t read many, if any, Star Wars novels.
( official Star Wars Legends page at the Wookiepedia site )
See more books like this on our Star Wars booklist
Recommended by Corey G.
Bennett Martin Public Library
Witch of the Palo Duro
by Mardi Oakley Medawar (Medawar)
Tay Bodal is a Kiowa healer who end up embroiled in a murder mystery involving his Kiowa band. Eschewing the traditional warrior ethic and behavior, Tay Bodal chooses to perfect his doctoring skills instead by studying dissection, the effect or herbs and diet, and illnesses of the mind. The humor and humanity of the Native American are what makes these mysteries special.
( Wikipedia page for Mardi Oakley Medawar )
See more books like this on our Sweetgrass and Desert Sage booklist
Recommended by Rayma S.
Bennett Martin Public Library
Jacob Have I Loved
by Katherine Paterson (j Paterson)
A beautifully written story about sibling rivalry and coming of age.
( Jacob Have I Loved page at the official Katherine Paterson website )
Recommended by Evelyn D.
Bennett Martin Public Library
Singularity
by William Sleator (j Sleator)
What if there were a place you could go to, where you could spend all day, yet only a few seconds would pass in the outside world? This is what is called a singularity. If you had a twin who always seemed smarter, faster, and superior to you, how might you use it?
( Wikipedia page for William Sleator )
Recommended by Bob B.
Bennett Martin Public Library
The Repairman Jack series
by F. Paul Wilson (Wilson)
This is an excellent batch of books! Jack is an unusual man with a way for fixing problems. He isn’t your traditional repairman – if you have a leaky pipe or a broken TV, he’s not your man. He fixes problems like blackmailers and kidnappers in sometimes less-than-legal ways. Unfortunately, he’s attracted the interest of the Others, a supernatural force that is working on the destruction of all humankind. Will Jack defeat them? We’ll have to see – the series is still going strong!
( official Repairman Jack series Web site (a.k.a. the official F. Paul Wilson site) )
Recommended by Julie H.
Walt Branch Library
last updated November 2023
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