2012-05-19 23:56:00
JON RUTTER
Most visitors to Amish Country never experience in-depth encounters with the Amish and don't care to, Susan L. Trollinger writes in her new book, "Selling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia." People would generally rather shop. They'd rather eat mashed potatoes and gravy. The......
2012-05-19 23:55:00
STAFF
What looks like the passing of a book, is really the passing of a baton. A younger generation is taking charge of Lancaster Public Library's 58th annual spring used-book sale, one of the oldest and largest in the country. Longtime sale organizer Pat Ditzler, left, and her successor, Sandy Mi......
2012-05-19 23:54:00
SCOTT EYMAN, The Palm Beach Post
"Driving Mr. Yogi" began as a 1,500-word story in the New York Times last spring. Sportswriter Harvey Araton has greatly expanded the story for this book, and he hasn't done himself any favors. In sum, it's about the friendship between Yogi Berra, the aging but game old Yankees catcher and m......
2012-05-19 23:53:00
STAFF
What Erna Reinhart always liked about the late actor Jimmy Stewart was that he stood for "the qualities of goodness and the all-American way of life," she said when she and husband Charles Reinhart inked a deal to publish "Jimmy Stewart on the Air." "He never lost that hometown appeal," the ......
2012-05-19 23:51:00
PATRICK ANDERSON, Special to The Washington Post
Mario Puzo (1920-99) was one of 12 children born in New York's Hell's Kitchen to two illiterate Neapolitan immigrants. Puzo graduated from City College, loved the novels of Dostoyevsky and in his 20s began writing stories for pulp magazines. He published two little-noticed novels, ......
2012-05-19 23:50:00
STAFF
Find these fast-paced, spine-tingling young-adult murder mysteries on the teens' new-book shelf at the Duke Street Library.1 BUTTERFLY CLUES, by Kate Ellison. Lo's compulsive behavior symptoms get her into trouble after she witnesses a murder while wan......
2012-05-19 23:49:00
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) — At age 95, Kirk Douglas is not too old to give e-books a shot. The legendary actor has an e-memoir coming out in June. Titled "I Am Spartacus! Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist," the book tells about the epic that came out in 1960 and helped break Hollywood's b......
2012-05-12 23:55:00
JON RUTTER
Rock-climbing prodigy Hugh Herr got lost in a blizzard on Mount Washington, N.H., in 1982. The Penn Manor High School student spent three nights clinging to life in the freezing cold and consequently lost both his legs below the knee. Yet 26 years later, Herr gave his blessing......
2012-05-12 23:54:00
STAFF
One night in the land of rolling hills, hot sun and mosquito nets, a tiny bundle all wrapped up in blankets was carefully placed in front of a bright blue door. ... Far away, on the other side of the world, a mommy was dreaming of a baby ... growing in her heart, not in her bel......
2012-05-12 23:53:00
JAN STUART, San Francisco Chronicle
In a rare show of literature appreciation, a Capitol Hill official likened the tale of intrigue surrounding a Chinese Communist Party chief and his possibly homicidal wife to "a 'Bourne Supremacy' plot." If Christopher Buckley's waggishly amusing "They Eat Puppies, Don't They?" enjoys a smid......
2012-05-12 23:52:00
JOHN McMURTRIE, San Francisco Chronicle
Most bookstores feature Parenting sections. But how about setting aside space for Bad Parenting? Among the many recent troubled-childhood memoirs is Jeanette Winterson's disturbing account "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" Now comes another addition to the crowded subgenre: Alis......
2012-05-12 23:51:00
STAFF
To commemorate the centennial of the birth of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, San Francisco's City Lights Publishers has released "I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters." Edited by Michael G. Long, associate professor of religious studies and peace and conflict studies at Elizabetht......
2012-05-12 23:50:00
STAFF
Find the memoirs of some remarkable people on the new-book shelf at the Duke Street Library.1 IN THE WATER THEY CAN'T SEE YOU CRY, by Amanda Beard. The seven-time Olympic medalist describes her battles with depression, eating disorders and substa......
2012-05-12 23:49:00
STAFF
DAD GETS HIS DUE IN BIOGRAPHY
Leanne Eshleman Benner was a writer in search of a new book project when her father, Dr. D. Rohrer Eshleman, shared with her stories he had written about God's protection of him throughout his life. That's how she came to write an......
2012-05-05 23:55:00
JON RUTTER
The government deemed the Wild West tamed in 1890, and that was that. American impressions of the frontier would forever be studded with sagebrush and stamped by images of buffaloes and Great Plains wagon trains. But in 1605, more than 270 years before Custer fought his f......
2012-05-05 23:54:00
JON FERGUSON
More than anything, Rich Podolsky wanted to be a songwriter. Podolsky grew up in the 1950s and '60s, a time when songwriters like Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were just as famous as the performers who made hits......
2012-05-05 23:53:00
NORA KRUG, Special to The Washington Post
The story Nora Roberts tells of her transformation from harried homemaker to published novelist reads like something from one of her novels: Stuck at home with two young sons during a 1979 snowstorm, she began writing longhand, and the epiphany hit: " 'This is it. This is the thing I am meant to ......
2012-05-05 23:53:00
STAFF
As both graduations and elections near, there's plenty of buzz about outrageous college costs and equally outrageous student debt. It couldn't have come at a better time for Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder, whose book, "The New College Reality: Make College Work For Your Career," was just released by......
2012-05-05 23:52:00
STAFF
The Lancaster Literary Guild is calling for applicants for the position of poet laureate of Lancaster County. Applicants must be published poets who have lived in the county for a minimum of three years and will continue to live here for the two-year duration of the laureateship. Duties......
2012-05-05 23:51:00
STAFF
Feel as if you never have time to cook? Check out these cookbooks full of quick and easy meals from the new-book shelf at the Duke Street Library.1 EVERYDAY FOOD: LIGHT, by Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Features delicious, healthful recipes, all unde......
2012-05-05 23:50:00
STAFF
LINCOLN HISTORIAN AT ROUND TABLE
Historian Michael W. Kauffman, author of "American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies," will be the guest of the Lancaster Civil War Round Table, which meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 10, at Lititz Publi......
2012-04-28 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Author Peter Behrens has described the flawed hero of his family saga "The O'Briens" as "a tough guy who comes out of the bush." That's the Canadian bush. By age 17, Joe O'Brien is making his way into other wilds — those of turn-of-the-20th-century New York City, newly d......
2012-04-28 23:54:00
STAFF
The Canadian frontier of an earlier age is the setting for another multigenerational tale, "Touch," by Alexi Zentner. Lancastrian Norman Dietz narrates it in the nearly eight-hour audiobook offered by Dreamscape Media. While Peter Behrens' "The O'Briens" comes to life lyrically and intellect......
2012-04-28 23:53:00
ROXANNE TODD
Comic books are a family affair for Lancaster resident Tim Truman and son Benjamin Truman, the dynamic duo behind the "Hawken" horror-Western series published by IDW. The idea for the series, featuring an old gunslinger who sees the ghosts of every man he ever killed, was born on a family va......
2012-04-28 23:53:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Legendary actress Bette Davis owned a pillow that bore a favorite motto of hers. "Old age ain't for sissies," it read. Indeed, being an aging adult isn't easy. There are medical situations, financial burdens. And, at times, long-kept secrets in need of release. But old age can also be a......
2012-04-28 23:52:00
PAULA WOLF
It amazes me when crime writers publish a book a year and it's not so formulaic that the reader is bored. Take Ruth Rendell, the doyenne of British mystery writers, who's just penned "The Vault," her 23rd Inspector Wexford novel. I've read most of them — the ones av......
2012-04-28 23:51:00
COLETTE BANCROFT, Tampa Bay Times
Here are a few standouts in this season's baseball book lineup: • "Calico Joe," by John Grisham, is the best-selling author's first novel about his favorite sport. Inspired by the real-life 1920 fate of Ray Chapman, the only player in pro baseball to be killed by a pitch, Grisham create......
2012-04-28 23:50:00
STAFF
Laugh while you read these humorous novels from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 LUNATICS, by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel. This uproarious tale, told in alternating voices, follows a pet shop owner and a curmudgeon on the run from police......
2012-04-28 23:49:00
STAFF
HEAR THE GOSSIP ABOUT JENNIE WADE
Visitors to Gettysburg learn that Jennie Wade was in the kitchen kneading biscuit dough when a stray bullet from the battlefield passed through the door of the house, striking and killing her instantly. Soldiers came to ......
2012-04-21 23:57:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Read from his work? Lecture? Oh, please. Donald Davis tells stories. Two decades as a Methodist minister no doubt helped prepare Davis for his second career as an award-winning storyteller featured at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Storytelling Festival in J......
2012-04-21 23:56:00
STAFF
Comedian Joan Rivers, famous for her acerbic assessments of award show red-carpet walkers, isn't generally regarded as the encouraging type. Yet she gushed over Harrisburg dance teacher Vicki G. Riordan's troupe of middle-aged tap dancers, the Tap Pups: "Are you freakin' kidding me? Harrisbu......
2012-04-21 23:55:00
STAFF
In her best-selling memoir, "Here If You Need Me," Kate Braestrup traced her path from a secular, cosmopolitan upbringing, through the loss of her husband, Maine State Trooper Drew Griffiths, to life as a Unitarian Universalist minister and chaplain to Maine State Game Wardens. Entering the semin......
2012-04-21 23:54:00
STAFF
As early as the 1820s, artists and writers were exploring new ways of thinking about the human relationship with the natural world. Amid the dramatic scenery of the Hudson River Valley, Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper created a distinctly American literature grounded in folklore ......
2012-04-21 23:53:00
STAFF
Though Manheim is celebrating its 250th birthday, don't send a birthday card — send a postcard to everyone you know. The Manheim Historical Society just published a commemorative book of vintage, sepia-toned and tinted postcards of local significance. You can keep "Historic Manhei......
2012-04-21 23:52:00
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP) — With no fiction winner for Pulitzer followers to buy this year, some are settling for one or more of the three finalists. The publishing industry was surprised and angered when Pulitzer officials announced Monday that no fiction prize would be given, with the prize board alleged......
2012-04-21 23:51:00
STAFF
ADOPT-A-BOOK AT DUKE ST. LIBRARY
Both the venerable art of calligraphy and the latest in publishing technology will be featured in the Friends of the Lancaster Public Library's Adopt-A-Book event from 5:30-8 p.m. Friday, April 27, at 125 N. Duke St....
2012-04-21 23:50:00
STAFF
You'll have sweaty palms and a racing heart reading these suspenseful thrillers from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.
1 ARCHIVE 17, by Sam Eastland. Stalin's most trusted secret agent, the legendary Inspector Pekkala, is on his dea......
2012-04-14 23:55:00
JON RUTTER
On New Year's Day 2000, David "Sonny" Lacks Jr. drove into an empty alley behind his brother's house in Baltimore and dropped off investigative science writer Rebecca Skloot. "This is where we take scientists and reporters wanting to know about our mother," he said. "It's wher......
2012-04-14 23:54:00
MARY ELLEN WRIGHT
What kind of evidence do you need to prove a crime was committed: forensic studies, newspaper photos, eyewitness accounts, all of the above? And what if the crime was part of one of the 20th century's most notorious of mass killings, the Holocaust? "Sometimes seeing is be......
2012-04-14 23:53:00
JANET MASLIN, N.Y. Times News Service
A political talk show is a gladiatorial contest in which squabbles, polemics and screaming matches are exploited for their entertainment value. A book by the political talk-show host is often a marketing tool for it. But "Drift," by Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC, is an argument — a sustained......
2012-04-14 23:52:00
JEFF AYERS, For The Associated Press
Chris Pavone channels spy-fiction superstars Robert Ludlum and John le Carre in his amazing first novel, "The Expats." Kate Moore leaves her double life as a wife and mother and a covert operative in the CIA when her husband, Dexter, gets a new job in Luxembourg. She tries to be a stay-at-ho......
2012-04-14 23:51:00
STAFF
LIT GUILD HOSTS POET DANA GIOIA
The Lancaster Literary Guild will host poet Dana Gioia at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, at The Ware Center, Millersville University Lancaster. The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts won the American Bo......
2012-04-14 23:50:00
STAFF
Many popular mystery series have new entries this spring. Find some of your favorite detectives on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 THE BIG CAT NAP, by Rita Mae Brown. When inexplicable car accidents are attributed to driver error, Harry......
2012-04-07 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
DEAR AMY:
I'm a single mom without a home, a job or even family and friends to help me out. Where do I turn? — Seeking a Second Chance
DEAR SEEKING:
Try Bridge of Hope. It works with churches to h......
2012-04-07 23:54:00
MIKE GROSS, Assistant Sports Editor
In 2000, Tiger Woods won 10 golf tournaments, including three of the four major championships, including, in roughly five weeks, the U.S. Open by an insane 15 shots and the British Open by eight shots. That was the white-hot center of a roughly two-year period in which Woods n......
2012-04-07 23:53:00
STAFF
Franklin & Marshall College's 11th annual Emerging Writers Festival brings five promising young American creators of short stories, a novel, poetry and plays to campus for readings and craft workshops April 11-13. Featured are Rebecca Makkai, Christine Hemp, Anna Moench, Megan Mayhew Ber......
2012-04-07 23:52:00
STAFF
Watercolorist and book illustrator Esther Rose Graber, her five artistic daughters and one daughter-in-law display their talents not only in their studios but in their kitchens. Now they've put all their best-looking, best-tasting recipes together in an eye-catching, mouth-wat......
2012-04-07 23:51:00
STAFF
ARTS COMBINE FOR FANTASY'S DEBUT
Lancaster resident Keith David Wilson will celebrate the release of his debut novel, "Geillan: A Prisoner's Tale," with an evening of readings from his book recorded around the globe and interlaced with complementary live......
2012-04-07 23:50:00
STAFF
April 15 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. For insight into this tragedy, read these books from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 THE DRESSMAKER, by Kate Alcott. A romantic historical novel about a spirited young ......
2012-04-01 00:12:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY
Karin Rezendes is pretty sure that her friends chose "Fifty Shades of Grey" as their book club selection just to see the appalled look on her face when they discuss the steamy, much-buzzed-about novel. Rezendes, who's in charge of the ever-growing young adult collection at Lan......
2012-03-31 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Brian Frailey was an Internet bookseller who wasn't content to interact with customers solely by computer. So in October 2006, he opened the 1,200-square-foot DogStar Books at Chestnut and Pine streets to complement his virtual sales of used and rare books. His goal was to create a......
2012-03-31 23:53:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Before she was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of historical novels, Geraldine Brooks covered the latest world crises for The Wall Street Journal. She went from "parachuting into other people's lives as they face ... desperation" to combing old documents in America's small-tow......
2012-03-31 23:52:00
STAFF
"A" is for Anabaptist, "B" is for Borscht" and "C" is for Catherine the Great, who persuaded Prussian Mennonites to settle in southern Russia in the late 18th century. "On the Zwieback Trail: A Russian Mennonite Alphabet of Stories, Recipes and Historical Events" is an alphabet book for all ......
2012-03-31 23:51:00
STAFF
Music meets literature in these singers' biographies and memoirs. Find them on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 MY SONG: A MEMOIR, by Harry Belafonte. The popular singer and former UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador shares the story of his impov......
2012-03-31 23:50:00
STAFF
'BANKER TO THE POOR' WILL LECTURE
When famine struck Bangladesh in 1974, Muhammad Yunus, a University of Chittagong professor with a doctorate in economics from Vanderbilt University, wondered, "What good were all my complex theories when people were dyi......
2012-03-24 23:56:00
MARY ELLEN WRIGHT
It wasn't so long ago that libraries were silent temples of books. Those books are still there. But the digital age has hewn libraries into temples of technology, as well. The needs of iPad-wielding, app-using, tech-savvy patrons are changing how the library delivers books and informati......
2012-03-24 23:52:00
MATTHEW CONTINETTI, Special to the Washington Post
MSNBC's recent decision to suspend and then fire Pat Buchanan felt rather anticlimactic. Phil Griffin, the network's president, told reporters that Buchanan was in trouble for offensive ideas expressed in his latest book, "Suicide of a Superpower." But nothing contained therein is any different f......
2012-03-24 23:51:00
STAFF
LOCAL AUTHOR IS CONTEST FINALIST
Bowmansville author Linda Oatman High will travel to England as one of six finalists for the London Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. Her story, "Nickel Mines Hardware," looks at the effects of the Ami......
2012-03-24 23:50:00
STAFF
Want to pick up a new hobby or improve your skill at an old one? Find these helpful craft books on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 DESIGN SPONGE AT HOME, by Grace Bonney. The design blogger's definitive guide to home décor, featu......
2012-03-17 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Jeff Deck was a professional copy editor who turned amateur — and criminal. That's how the National Park Service saw it when Deck and his "The Great Typo Hunt" accomplice/co-author Benjamin D. Herson moved an apostrophe and added a comma to a historic sign at the Grand C......
2012-03-17 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
When best-selling novelist Terry McMillan delivers the annual Hazel I. Jackson Lecture at Millersville University, she will be "Speaking From the Heart," as her talk is titled. Readers of "Waiting to Exhale" "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Getting to Happy" would expect ......
2012-03-17 23:53:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Despite its title hinting at naps and — oh no! — bedtime, "Stop Snoring, Bernard!" is not likely to put 3-to-6-year-olds to sleep. Sorry, mom and dad. True, Zachariah OHora's debut picture book tells of a zoo's young sea otter trying to find a place to sleep w......
2012-03-17 23:52:00
JULIE BOSMAN, N.Y. Times News Service
"Fifty Shades of Grey," an erotic novel by an obscure author that has been described as "Mommy porn" and "Twilight" for grown-ups, has electrified women across the country, who have spread the word on Facebook pages, at school functions and in spin classes. The problem has been finding it. T......
2012-03-17 23:51:00
JESSICA GELT, Los Angeles Times
When it came to reading a book out loud, Dustin Hoffman was a bit rusty. The last time he had done something similar was in New York City in the late 1960s. A local radio station had recruited 30 or so people, including Hoffman, to read "War and Peace" on air. "It was wonderful," recalls Hof......
2012-03-17 23:50:00
STAFF
March is Women's History Month. Find these remarkable women's stories on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 KING PEGGY, by Peggielene Bartels. A charming real-life fairy tale of an American secretary who discovers she has been chosen "king......
2012-03-17 23:49:00
STAFF
YA AUTHOR ENTERTAINS AT AARON'S
Bethlehem librarian and author Josh Berk is returning to Aaron's Books in Lititz for "Mischief & Mayhem" at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 24. He'll bring with him his second humorous mystery for teens, "Guy Langman: Crime Sce......
2012-03-10 23:54:00
MARY ELLEN WRIGHT
A good book and a nice, hot cup of coffee have always made great companions. Some libraries celebrate that relationship every day in a spot where the circulation desk meets the cappuccino machine. The Elizabethtown and Manheim Township public libraries operate coffee shops within their facil......
2012-03-10 23:53:00
JON FERGUSON
Hershey gets a mention in saxophonist Bobby Keys' book about his life in rock 'n' roll, "Every Night's a Saturday Night." Keys recounts a tour in the early 1960s called the Caravan of Stars in which he backed up artists such as Bobby Vee, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and ......
2012-03-10 23:52:00
STAFF
A cousin's discovery of a 200-year-old gravestone in an Amish farmer's pasture near Refton inspired former Willow Street resident Everett J. Thomas to write a book about their ancestor. "Johann" is a historical novel that imagines the life of the 8-year-old boy who sailed to P......
2012-03-10 23:51:00
NICK OWCHAR, Los Angeles Times
How's your back feeling? Sore? If you want a deep-tissue massage, forget the spa. What you need is a good bite from a werewolf. As one discovers in Anne Rice's novel "The Wolf Gift," the shift from human to wolf and back again is like a sexy shiatsu session: "He felt it ... in the ......
2012-03-10 23:50:00
WIRE SERVICES
Three books by comedians focusing on their love lives are sure to make you laugh (and feel better about your own love life). • "You're Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death and other Humiliations," by Michael Ian Black, covers subjects ranging from being in "baby jail" to wh......
2012-03-10 23:50:00
STAFF
Fiction writer Kevin Brockmeier will read from his work and announce the student recipient of Franklin & Marshall College's 2012 Jerome Irving Bank Award at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, at Philadelphia Alumni Writers House on campus. The Little Rock, Ark., resident is the author of thr......
2012-03-10 23:49:00
STAFF
Warm your heart and soul with these faith-based inspirational novels from the new-book shelf at the Duke Street Library.1 AN AMISH FAMILY REUNION, by Mary Ellis. During a rumspringa visit to Niagara Falls, Phoebe Miller meets Eli Riehl, who charm......
2012-03-03 23:55:00
STAFF
Agirl leaves her poverty-stricken home in Puerto Rico and heads to New York City with her mother and many siblings. As the oldest child, she must learn English so she can be the family's interpreter and guide. It's a transition Puerto Rican writer Esmeralda Santiago made in 1961 when she was......
2012-03-03 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
You've heard of the military-industrial complex. Dr. Kelly Denton-Borhaug identifies a military-religious complex further complicating efforts to create a just and peaceful world in her new book, "U.S. War Culture, Sacrifice and Salvation." The Lutheran minister and assoc......
2012-03-03 23:53:00
STAFF
Mat Johnson's latest novel, "Pym," is billed as "a comic journey into the ultimate land of whiteness by an unlikely band of African American adventurers." It's about an untenured black professor, a "blackademic," obsessed with Edgar Allen Poe's novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Na......
2012-03-03 23:52:00
JESSICA GELT, Los Angeles Times
When a big bank goes bust in Manhattan, forcing a thriving construction site in Mumbai to shut down and the price of recyclable scrap to plummet, entire families in the slums of India go hungry. This is the butterfly effect of the harrowingly interrelated global economy described in Pulitzer......
2012-03-03 23:51:00
JEFF AYERS, The Associated Press
If you knew the exact date and time of your death, what would you do? "Everyone has to die sometime. Be brave." In Lisa Gardner's latest D.D. Warren thriller, "Catch Me," Charlene Grant is terrified that her death is just days away. Two years earlier, on Jan. 21, one of her two bes......
2012-03-03 23:50:00
STAFF
COUPLE PRESENTS NUPTIAL BOOK
Is there a wedding in your future? Before Alex and Ahesha Catalano married, every night they recorded in journals their preparations for the event, along with their feelings about it and each other. The journals, which t......
2012-03-03 23:49:00
RONALD P. HARPER, I Know A Story
Hubley Manufacturing in Lancaster made mostly cast-iron toys from the 1890s through the 1960s. My dad, Forrest "Skeets" Harper, worked at Hubley for most of those years, from 1913 until he retired in 1963. One of the biggest items in the product list in the 1920s was a line of......
2012-03-03 23:49:00
STAFF
Try a book both you and the kids will enjoy. Find these new novels in the children's room at the Duke Street Library.1 ALWAYS NEVERLAND, by Zoe Barton. Ashley is whisked away from her home by Peter Pan to help the Lost Boys with spring cleaning, but he......
2012-02-25 23:55:00
DAINA SAVAGE
For the most part, bugs have a creepy-crawly factor that makes them hard to love. Just mention stinkbugs or bedbugs, and your skin starts to shudder and itch. But while you may think of them as pests, these are the relatively benign inhabitants of the insect world. They've got......
2012-02-25 23:54:00
STAFF
"The movements are not always pretty. Not everyone likes Martha's new way of dancing. Audiences have booed her performances, but Martha never lets that stop her."
Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan are writing about "Appalachian Spring," a 1944 ballet conceived ......
2012-02-25 23:53:00
CONNIE STEWART, Los Angeles Times
Who knew yoga could be so dangerous? A woman falls asleep in seated forward fold and damages both sciatic nerves. A man sits on his heels for hours (over a period of days or weeks) and deadens nerves in his lower legs. A woman practices kapalbhati — forceful exhaling — and collap......
2012-02-25 23:52:00
J. VICTORIA SANDERS, San Francisco Chronicle
Every February, the same stories about African-Americans are recycled for Black History Month: usually somber narratives steeped in a past of Jim Crow segregation and a people who progressed in spite of slavery. But "How to Be Black" is a mostly satirical hybrid of memoir and handbook. Barat......
2012-02-25 23:51:00
STAFF
FRIENDS CELEBRATE, MOBILIZE
The Friends of the Lancaster Public Library, holding their first meeting of the year at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29, in the library's Windolph Room, will celebrate the accomplishment of one of their own. The American Librar......
2012-02-25 23:50:00
STAFF
Read with your ears, not with your eyes! Try these exciting new audio books from the Duke Street Library.1 HOME FRONT, by Kristin Hannah. Michael and Joleen seem to have it all: a solid marriage, exciting careers, children they adore. But after 12 year......
2012-02-25 23:48:00
BELINDA BOOTH, I Know a Story
I was about 7 years old and had a loose tooth, right up front on the bottom. I kept pushing at it with my tongue to make it wigglier. My big sister, Melissa, came by and noticed what I was doing. She offered to help me get that tooth out of my mouth. "Then the tooth fairy will come tonigh......
2012-02-18 23:56:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
The website Answers.com authoritatively states 16,000 books have been written about the 16th president. And after eyeing the 34-foot-tall tower of 6,800 books on Abraham Lincoln recently installed at Ford's Theatre Center for Ed......
2012-02-18 23:55:00
ROCHELLE A. SHENK
Penryn Fire Company is celebrating a century of service to the community this year with the new book "Penryn Fire Co. No. 1, 1912-2012: The First 100 Years." The 150-page paperback, with 60 color and black-and-white photos, is a history of Penryn as well as the fire company. "Penryn has chan......
2012-02-18 23:55:00
STAFF
The Civil War meant opportunity for many different groups of Americans, not just African-Americans but German-Americans too, historian and journalist Adam Goodheart says. He will discuss these two groups in his lecture, "1861, a Year Prolific of Revolution: The Civil War Begins," at 11:35 a.......
2012-02-18 23:54:00
PATRICK ANDERSON, For The Washington Post
Its publisher and several advance readers liken William Landay's novel "Defending Jacob" to Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent," arguably the finest of American legal thrillers. The hype is justified. I don't think Landay's novel has quite the elegance or gravitas of Turow's, but it's an exceptiona......
2012-02-18 23:53:00
MAGGIE GALEHOUSE, Houston Chronicle
At its best, Twitter is about wit. And just as "wit" is buried deep within "Twitter," wit is often the hardest thing to find on Twitter, even in tweets of ordinarily witty people. Here are a few authors who manage to maintain their sharpness in 140 characters or fewer.MARGA......
2012-02-18 23:52:00
SUSANNAH MEADOWS, N.Y. Times News Service
The idea is marvelous. "Bringing Up Bebe" promises to teach us how to raise the kind of perfect children produced by "Tiger Mother" Amy Chua without the fuss of chaining them to the piano or throwing them out of the house. And it aims to satisfy our desire for French finishing school, which start......
2012-02-18 23:51:00
STAFF
PULITZER WINNER TALKS ON DYSLEXIA
Dyslexia couldn't stop Philip Schultz from winning a Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His much-lauded 2007 poetry collection, titled "Failure," dealt with various types of failures, but its poems are characterized as "full of t......
2012-02-18 23:50:00
STAFF
Keep up to date on politics with these books from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 STRATEGIC VISION: AMERICA AND THE CRISIS OF GLOBAL POWER, by Zbigniew Brzezinski. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser considers the implica......
2012-02-11 23:56:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
"Year of Wonders," Geraldine Brooks' acclaimed first novel was published in 2001; 2006 brought her Pulitzer Prize-winning "March"; 2009, her "People of the Book," the One Book, One Community pick here; and 2011, her latest best-seller, "Caleb's Crossing." Wonder of wonders, th......
2012-02-11 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Working in mortgage lending for almost 20 years, Mark Pontz has helped hundreds of people — many with young children — move to new homes. While lots of kids "were excited, ... an equal number had anxiety and concern about leaving 'the familiar,' " he explained via ......
2012-02-11 23:54:00
JON RUTTER
The 1920s explorers of Mount Everest packed champagne and tinned quail and butterfly nets. They stormed Tibet wearing their imperial snobbery on their sleeves, but also evinced boyish wonderment at their hardy Sherpa porters and the unfolding brutal fairyland of the peaks....
2012-02-11 23:53:00
MARVIN ADAMS
Jim Bumgarner was born in Norman, Okla., one-quarter Cherokee and about three-quarters contrary. Nothing about his early years during the Depression and World War II indicated the town would someday erect a statue of him near the movie theater where he hung out as a boy. ......
2012-02-11 23:52:00
STAFF
Is premarital sex a sin? Are same-sex relations permissible? Jennifer Wright Knust will address such issues during her "Sex in the Bible: Bad and Good" lecture at 11:35 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in Mayser Gymnasium, Franklin & Marshall College. It is free to the public. The assoc......
2012-02-11 23:51:00
STAFF
Do you like a little magic with your romance on Valentine's Day? Find these new paranormal romance novels on the paperback shelf of the Duke Street Library.
1 HEXED, by Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James and Jeanne C. Stein. Fo......
2012-02-11 23:50:00
JOYCE BOHN, I Know a Story
On the evening of Leap Day, Feb. 29, 1896, my mother, Bertha Alice Fike, was born in a snowy fence corner in the mountains of West Virginia. Grandma's labor pains started and, because my grandfather was sick in bed with the flu, Grandma headed to a neighboring farm to get help with the de......
2012-02-11 23:50:00
STAFF
MEGAN HART SIGNS NOVEL AT B&N
Megan Hart, best known for her hot romance and horror novels, has recently been gaining fans for her mainstream fiction, such as "All Fall Down." Hart will sign this new 400-page paperback, published by Mira at $14.......
2012-02-04 23:56:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Marietta is not a large place. But its history can fill pages. More than a thousand, in fact. The story of the little Lancaster County borough perched on the banks of the Susquehanna River is told in a big way in "The Scoop on Marietta: A Small River Town," which salutes the town, in......
2012-02-04 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Tell the truth: Does your book club actually discuss books? The Readers' Hour Book Club never did — and never tried to hide the fact. For those hours that members came together, the plot, dialogue and characters in the room trumped anything on the page. Maybe that's......
2012-02-04 23:54:00
ALAN CHEUSE, For The San Francisco Chronicle
I haven't seen "Justified" on FX, but you don't have to in order to enjoy the low-key dramatic splendors of Elmore Leonard's new novel, "Raylan." It focuses on the character of U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, who appeared in two previous Leonard novels on which that cable TV series is based....
2012-02-04 23:53:00
JEFF AYERS, For The Associated Press
William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States, reappears in the present day and creates political chaos in Jason Heller's charming and funny debut novel, "Taft 2012." In this re-imagined, slightly altered history, Taft, who served one term as president, disappears on the morni......
2012-02-04 23:52:00
RON CHARLES, The Washington Post
In "The Odds," another in Stewart O'Nan's growing body of distinctly trim books, the opening punches — smuggling cash! highway crash! — immediately give way to the small, plain movements of a middle-aged couple in a hotel room. This willfully anti-dramatic structure succeeds only beca......
2012-02-04 23:51:00
STAFF
AARON'S FEATURES FUNNY FICTION
Lizz Lund moved to Lancaster in 1999 and turned a twinkling eye on her neighbors — who happen not to be Amish, despite what everyone in Lund's native New Jersey thinks. The result is "Kitchen Addiction!" a zany novel ......
2012-02-04 23:50:00
STAFF
Winter is a great time to experiment in the kitchen. You'll find these inspiring cookbooks on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 JENI'S SPLENDID ICE CREAMS AT HOME, by Jeni Britton Bauer. Frustrated by icy and crumbly homemade ice cream, B......
2012-01-28 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
World Book Night is coming to America on April 23 — and to Aaron's Books on April 18, owners of the Lititz bookstore announced last week. Sam and Todd Dickinson said their store will participate in World Book Night, an annual celebration begun in the United Kingdom last ......
2012-01-28 23:52:00
HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
Winners of the top prizes in children's literature this year wrote stories of resilience in confronting everyday problems: a boy grounded by his parents, a dog losing a favorite toy. Jack Gantos' "Dead End in Norvelt" won the Newbery Medal for the best children's book of 2011, and Chris Rasc......
2012-01-28 23:51:00
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, Bloomberg News
Shortly after midnight April 15, 1912, the owner of the RMS Titanic leaped into one of the last lifeboats to be launched from the ship's flooded deck. In saving his skin while women and children drowned, he left his reputation to sink with the stricken liner. J. Bruce Ismay's inglorious yet ......
2012-01-28 23:50:00
STAFF
AMIRI BARAKA VISITS E-TOWN
Writer Amiri Baraka will speak on "Politics, Art and Culture" at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, Elizabethtown College. The event is free to the public The Poetry Foundation website says Baraka, aka LeRoi J......
2012-01-28 23:49:00
STAFF
It's a brave new world out there. Find these science-fiction titles on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 LEVIATHANS OF JUPITER, by Ben Bova. A physicist prepares an expedition to prove huge creatures native to Jupiter are intelligen......
2012-01-21 23:54:00
PAULA WOLF
Several years ago, I developed an affinity for British mysteries. Since then, I have become well-acquainted with such crime-fighting protagonists as Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley and Ruth Rendell's Reginald Wexford. A character I've begun to enjoy more recently is Chief Sup......
2012-01-21 23:53:00
SUSANNE PARI, San Francisco Chronicle
Jan. 25 is the one-year anniversary of Egypt's Revolution Against Torture, Poverty, Corruption and Unemployment, so named by Wael Ghonim, the creator of a Facebook page that played a leading role in organizing the movement that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak and dissolved his ruling National D......
2012-01-21 23:52:00
JANET MASLIN, N.Y. Times News Service
At the start of Shalom Auslander's staggeringly nervy new novel "Hope: A Tragedy," a doleful Solomon Kugel climbs fearfully into the attic of his recently acquired farmhouse. He hopes the tapping sounds emananting from there are being made by mice. No such luck. The tapping is coming from a ......
2012-01-21 23:51:00
YAEL GOLDSTEIN LOVE, San Francisco Chronicle
Ed Slaterton is part of the "grunty jock crowd," a high school basketball hero who, in his über-popularity, is like "some movie everyone sees growing up." Min Green is a wry, thoughtful, film-obsessed junior who manages for one miraculous stretch of time to get Ed to stop using the word "gay......
2012-01-21 23:50:00
JULIE BOSMAN, N.Y. Times News Service
That current darling of U.S. public television, "Downton Abbey" has publishers and booksellers hoping to tap into its audience. They believe those who tune in to follow the war-torn travails of an aristocratic family and its meddling but loyal servants are also literary types likely to devour boo......
2012-01-21 23:49:00
STAFF
DEBUT NOVELIST SIGNS AT B&N
There are blurbs, and then there are blurbs, such as the one on the back cover of Don Hess' new 769-page novel, "To Catch a Fox": "Intriguing, sexy, deceitful, capturing an industry only a few really know," attributed......
2012-01-21 23:48:00
STAFF
Do you like reading on the edge of your seat? Find these suspenseful novels on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 LOCKED ON, by Tom Clancy with Mark Greaney. Coming out of retirement to run for president, Jack Ryan faces a high-stakes atta......
2012-01-14 23:55:00
WIRE SERVICES
What kind of journalist presumes to know Michelle Obama's mind? In lesser hands, "The Obamas," released last Tuesday, would be an act of astonishing overreach. But Jodi Kantor, who covered the Obamas for The New York Times during the 2008 presidential campaign and is a Washington corresponde......
2012-01-14 23:54:00
JON FERGUSON
Art and commerce collide with spectacular results on the pages of Paul Grushkin's "Dead Letters: The Very Best Grateful Dead Fan Mail." The psychedelicized San Francisco rock band was one of the top touring acts in the music industry by 1983, but promoters and scalpers were dr......
2012-01-14 23:53:00
STAFF
Today, an African-American lives in a White House that, two centuries ago, was built by African-Americans' forced labor. In his 2010 book, "The Black History of the White House," Clarence Lusane notes that a quarter of all U.S. presidents have held slaves. This, in a nation founded on the co......
2012-01-14 23:52:00
RICK MAESE, The Washington Post
Finding Tim Tebow — really finding Tim Tebow — isn't as easy as it may seem. Nathan Whitaker discovered that last year when he was dispatched to the Tebow home. Whitaker signed on to help the Denver Broncos' lightning rod of a quarterback write his autobiography, the eventual New......
2012-01-14 23:51:00
STAFF
Keeping your New Year's resolutions? Here's help from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 WILLPOWER: REDISCOVERING THE GREATEST HUMAN STRENGTH, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney. Psychologist Roy F. Baumeister teams up with New York Tim......
2012-01-14 23:51:00
MICHELLE ANDREWS, Special to the Washington Post
Nearly two years after the passage of the federal health-care overhaul, more than 40 percent of people say they know little or nothing about how the law will affect them, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's latest tracking poll. That figure hasn't budged since April 2010, just after the l......
2012-01-14 23:50:00
STAFF
BUSINESS BOOK
"Maximum profit and high ideals are not incompatible. They're inseparable. …Companies with ideals of improving people's lives ... outperform the market by a huge margin," Jim Stengel writes in "Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World'......
2012-01-08 00:12:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY
Theresa Myers considers the children she transports to and from East Petersburg Elementary School on Bus 21 Red to be her kids. She takes pride in their achievements. She listens carefully when they come to her with concerns and questions. So when, in September, some of the children ......
2012-01-07 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Teacher Adam N. Leonard encountered some reluctant readers in his class at Lebanon's Cedar Crest High School a few years ago. While much was being made of the boy magician and the teen vampire who had captured the imagination of young readers worldwide, these rowdy boys were h......
2012-01-07 23:53:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Tom Smith refers to himself as "just an old farmer." How many old farmers have written and published a book earning more than $10,000? Smith's book of reminiscences of his little Drumore Township crossroads — "Liberty Square Observed and Noted" — was a Southern End best-seller in......
2012-01-07 23:52:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Shape a fantasy world. Place a spunky, unusually gifted and beautiful young woman at its center. Pour on the adventure, complete with arduous treks, unpredictable turns of fate, double-crosses and death-defying struggles. Stir in a dash of romance; consummate near the end. To ......
2012-01-07 23:51:00
CAROLYN KELLOGG, Los Angeles Times
Presents have been opened, wrapping thrown away, and for a few quiet days you are curled up reading the new Steve Jobs biography, a gift from your dad. You find a surprising detail and call to your significant other, "Honey, did you know ... ?" But because he's busy making dinner, the idea fizzle......
2012-01-07 23:50:00
COLETTE BANCROFT, St. Petersburg Times
Whether you are still gung-ho or now rather tongue-in-cheek about your New Year's resolutions, there's a book to help you carry through with them. • "Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool," by Martin Cizmar, is the go-to when your skinny jeans get snug, with ti......
2012-01-07 23:50:00
DWIGHT GARNER, N.Y. Times News Service
This time of year I find myself lingering in the personal finance section of bookstores, hoping some painless and rain-making tip rubs off on me. Sometimes I buy one of those crisp-looking money books by Suze Orman or Dave Ramsey, place it by my bedside, then read something else. This year t......
2012-01-07 23:49:00
STAFF
If laughter is the best medicine, get a dose of humor from these offerings on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 I DIDN'T ASK TO BE BORN (BUT I'M GLAD I WAS), by Bill Cosby. The doctor of comedy holds forth on everything from a game-show c......
2011-12-31 19:06:00
MARY ELLEN WRIGHT
A lot has happened to Robert Swartwood in the year since a slim paperback he edited featured dozens of authors creating whole literary worlds with very few words. The Lititz writer was interviewed on a national radio program, and his book was reviewed favorably in prestigious ......
2011-12-31 19:05:00
PAULA WOLF
Compared with Jackie Robinson shattering the color barrier in Major League Baseball, the integration of professional football almost seems an underreported milestone. For example, I knew the Cleveland Browns' Marion Motley was one of the first black players, back in the 1940s,......
2011-12-31 19:04:00
LIESL SCHILLINGER, N.Y. Times News Service
A new biography, "Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey" from Broadway Paperbacks, gives the juicy back story behind the Emmy-winning "Masterpiece Theater" drama "Downton Abbey," set in an English castle. Few viewers know Downton's American chatelaine, Cora Crawley, was inspired by the real......
2011-12-31 19:03:00
WIRE SERVICES
Health care is likely to resurface as a major topic ahead of the presidential election. A handful of recent books challenge or explain how standards of medical care in the U.S. emerged. • "Ask Me Why I Hurt," by Randy Christensen with Rene Denfeld: A pediatrician in Phoenix, Ariz., gets......
2011-12-31 19:02:00
PETER GIANOTTI, Newsday
Vincent van Gogh's autobiography is painted in luminous, powerful brushstrokes, the supreme portrait of the artist. "As my work is," he said, "so am I." "Van Gogh: The Life," the intricate and panoramic biography by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, is a provocative work about the volca......
2011-12-31 19:01:00
STAFF
GUILD HOSTS STOWE EXHIBIT
At the bicentennial of her birth, American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe is the focus of an exhibit at the Lancaster Literary Guild. "Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe: 'If She Was a Boy:' Her Religion, Her Family, and Her Gendered......
2011-12-31 19:00:00
STAFF
Among the wonderful books published in 2011 are these highly regarded nonfiction tomes found on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson. Based on interviews with Jobs and 100-plus family, friends, colleagues and c......
2011-12-31 18:59:00
KIM KLUXEN MEREDITH, I Know a Story
The holidays are naturally magnets for nostalgia. Still, it is amazing to me that, as we continue to make our lives easier, we still refer to our childhood as "the good old days." Sure, it was a simpler time, and our memories sometimes get hazy with age. But for me, growing up in a ......
2011-12-24 16:05:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
At a time when bookstores — independent and chain — are going out of business, Aaron's Books is recommitting itself to a bricks-and-mortar presence in downtown Lititz. The independent, family-owned bookstore is moving from 43 S. Broad St. to 35 E. Main St. in an ef......
2011-12-24 16:04:00
MAGGIE GALEHOUSE, Houston Chronicle
Best-books lists say as much about the list maker as the state of literature in any given year. At the risk of revealing too much, I recommend the following 2011 titles to those who enjoy action and a bit of muscle in their fiction ("Bullfighting," "The Cat's Table," "Pym"); who like to laug......
2011-12-24 16:03:00
RASHA MADKOUR, The Associated Press
Making friends shouldn't be complicated. We've been doing it since we were kids, right? But as a new book points out, "friend-making is not the natural process it used to be." Chicago transplant and journalist Rachel Bertsche discovers this the hard way when she finds herself without close f......
2011-12-24 16:02:00
STAFF
A grown-up granddaughter finally learns to savor her Czech-flavored heritage. A gifted young clarinetist would rather be a baton twirler but fears telling her musical mother. A Clandestine Claudia's clerk takes a disastrous turn as a store-window lingerie model: "It's like being a gerbil at the p......
2011-12-24 16:01:00
STAFF
Many wonderful books were published this year. Find these highly regarded novels on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.
1 LOST MEMORY OF SKIN, by Russell Banks. Suspended in a modern-day version of limbo, the young man at the ce......
2011-12-24 16:00:00
STAFF
'FUBAR' SIGNING
The Comic Store, 28 McGovern Ave., is hosting a signing of "Fubar 2," a collection of World War II zombie stories in graphic-novel format. Two of the creators, Jeff McComsey and Steve Becker, will be on hand to personalize buyers' co......
2011-12-24 11:52:00
STAFF
"Breaking In and Staying In: PA Authors and Illustrators Talk About Launching and Maintaining Their Careers" is a writing-for-children workshop scheduled at Lancaster Public Library. Set for 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, it features these award-winning authors: Sandy Asher, Lancaster;......
2011-12-17 23:56:00
JON RUTTER
War-horse writer Jim Harrison has uncorked another homegrown classic in "The Great Leader." His protagonist, the grizzled, bearlike Detective Simon Sunderson, is trailing a religious cult leader whose name and location keep changing. The hunt is stoked by something more t......
2011-12-17 23:55:00
GERALD BARTELL, For The Washington Post
In the 1950s, long before he won a Pulitzer Prize for his film criticism, Roger Ebert spent many a Saturday afternoon sipping root beer and munching jawbreakers, Necco Wafers and licorice at the Princess Theater in his home town of Urbana, Ill. Five cartoons, a newsreel, a Batman, Superman or Roc......
2011-12-17 23:54:00
HEPHZIBAH ANDERSON, Bloomberg News
As a paid-up member of the Jane Austen Society, 91-year-old P.D. James had long pondered the idea of combining her two great enthusiasms: reading Jane Austen and writing detective fiction. Unsure of whether her creative energy would hold out for a 15th book featuring Cmdr. Adam Dalgliesh, he......
2011-12-17 23:53:00
WIRE SERVICES
The best prescription for holiday stress? A dose of laugh-out-loud humor. P.J. O'Rourke — Republican-turned-hippie-gone-libertarian, Midwesterner in Andover threads — has a sequel of sorts to "Holidays in Hell," in which he told of trying to have a good time in the world's most d......
2011-12-17 23:52:00
STEVE KETTMAN, San Francisco Chronicle
No man shaped contemporary sports journalism more than Howard Cosell, an exasperating and often razor-sharp presence behind the mike whose boxing calls might have been the best ever ("Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!") and whose "Monday Night Football" banter with "Dandy D......
2011-12-17 23:51:00
STAFF
DERBY MANUAL FOR BEGINNERS
On your mark, get set, are you ready to create a winning race car from a block of wood and plastic wheels? Pinewood Derby racing season is approaching, with Cub Scouts starting at the end of December. And a similar event, ......
2011-12-17 23:50:00
STAFF
Dystopian novels are gaining popularity. Find these — wonderful for readers of all ages — in the Teen Area of the Duke Street Library. Each has a sequel coming in 2012.1 MATCHED, by Ally Condie. All of Cassia's life, Society has dictated wh......
2011-12-10 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
With e-books catching on, tiny tots may be the last demographic with their eyes all aglow over real ink-and-paper gift books. Here are four new children's hardcover picture books likely to light that spark in a young reader this Christmas season. (All are priced at $16.99 or $......
2011-12-10 23:53:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
"Set Apart" is the theme of the seventh edition of "God Stories," a new yearlong daily devotional from the Regional Church of Lancaster County. The 365 entries — each composed of a Bible verse, elucidation and short prayer — emphasize "being set apart by God and fo......
2011-12-10 23:52:00
GEORGE GENE GUSTINES, N.Y. Times News Service
Superheroes are the cornerstones of the graphic novel. But if caped crusaders aren't your gift recipient's cup of tea, the heroines now include Amy, the depressed clothing store clerk at the center of cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier's "Life With Mr. Dangerous." Other titles for both tradi......
2011-12-10 23:51:00
JULIE BOSMAN, N.Y. Times News Service
As more readers switch to e-books, publishers are giving old-fashioned print books a makeover. Many new releases have design elements usually reserved for special occasions — deckle edges, colored endpapers, high-quality paper and exquisite jackets that push the creative boundaries of ......
2011-12-10 23:50:00
JEFF AYERS, For The Associated Press
"Micro" is a new story from the late Michael Crichton, who died in 2008, finished by Richard Preston, author of the nonfiction best-seller "The Hot Zone." The thriller centers on a biotech company in Hawaii and a group of students who end up stranded and endangered in a rain forest. Nan......
2011-12-10 23:49:00
STAFF
NEW INSIGHT INTO LINCOLN, GRANT
Edward H. Bonekemper III tells tory of "one of the greatest civilian-military partnerships in history" — the teamwork of the commander-in-chief and the general-in-chief of Union forces during the Civil War — in......
2011-12-03 23:56:00
WIRE SERVICES
When President George H.W. Bush came to visit her in the hospital, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could say only "Wow!" and another word she had been uttering frequently at the time, "chicken." Months later, shown photos of famous people, Giffords looked at Arnold Schwarzenegger and said, more......
2011-12-03 23:55:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
The Hankey Opera Guild is mounting a production of Mozart's "Don Giovanni." So is Lititz opera buff Gale Martin, in recasting gothic, comic, romantic and supernatural elements of the opera in her new novel. "Don Juan in Hankey, Pa." has "aria-singing ghosts, May-December seduc......
2011-12-03 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
As a youngster, Charles Yrigoyen Jr. had two hobbies: trains and photography. The combination of them has resulted, nearly 60 years later, in a picture book for serious train buffs titled "Reading Railroad Action at the Outer Station, 1952-1954." Yrigoyen's 120-plus full-page ......
2011-12-03 23:53:00
STAFF
Perkasie resident S. Duane Kauffman, editor of "Your Son and Brother Sol: Letters From Solomon E. Yoder While Serving With the American Friends Service Committee in Post-World War I Europe," will sign, discuss and read from his book 7-8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, at Lancaster Mennonite Historical Soc......
2011-12-03 23:52:00
NICK OWCHAR, Los Angeles Times
Recent Lancaster Literary Guild lecturer Robin Robertson is caught between worlds: the London in which he lives and an epic past evoked by longboats and bonfires, where myths, not science, explain the cosmos. His 2006 poetry collection, "Swithering," actively moved between both, just as that......
2011-12-03 23:51:00
STEVEN LEVINGSTON, The Washington Post
You won't find Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's "unsanitized and uncompromising ... no spin American story" — the best-selling "Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever" — in the official store at Ford's Theatre, site of the dreadful act. "K......
2011-12-03 23:50:00
STAFF
Baby, it's cold outside! Heat up with these romances from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 A LASTING IMPRESSION, by Tamera Alexander. Claire Laurent is a gifted artist forced to paint forgeries by her scheming father. Hiding from h......
2011-12-03 23:49:00
STAFF
BOOKS FOR VISITORS
The Columbia Historic Preservation Society is now offering museum visitors ages 9-16 a free copy of Glenn Banner's "Flames Across the Susquehanna," a book on local Civil War history. The "A Look For a Book" program offers students......
2011-11-26 23:56:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Ten years ago, it was impossible to "de-friend" someone electronically. Cellphone ring tones were not yet competing with restaurant dinner music or concert hall arias. And no deaths had yet been attributed to cyberbullies. It was a simpler time when Sheryl Eberly's "......
2011-11-26 23:55:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Death is an inescapable part of life, but modern medicine has made death a distant thing. We live longer. We're healthier. And if we do get sick, much that used to kill us no longer does. Which is why, for many, facing one's own demise is more shocking and unthinkable than eve......
2011-11-26 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Did you know the Maxwell House Coffee slogan "Good to the Last Drop" was first uttered by Teddy Roosevelt? That Grover Cleveland's nickname was "Uncle Jumbo"? That Andrew Jackson, captured by the British at age 13, refused to clean an officer's boots and bore his sword's ......
2011-11-26 23:53:00
STAFF
Want to go from underdog to wonder dog? If you work like a dog, wag your tail, learn new tricks and deal with life's vacuum cleaners, you'll find you don't need a pedigree to be best in show. Those are just a few of the metaphors (and chapter headings) in "True Blue Leadership: Top 10 T......
2011-11-26 23:52:00
MARY FOSTER, The Associated Press
"V Is for Vengeance," and it's also for very, very good. With just a few letters remaining in Sue Grafton's alphabet mystery series, the author has hit a high mark with her latest offering, a complex tale of love, betrayal, ambition and, of course, murder. "V Is for Vengeance" begins wi......
2011-11-26 23:51:00
STAFF
The holidays are here, and with them come some interesting family dynamics. Find these books, which will make your family seem downright normal, on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 BIRDS OF PARADISE, by Diana Abu-Jaber. Avis and Brian Mu......
2011-11-26 23:50:00
STAFF
LIBRARIES' TEEN CONTEST WINNER
Sarah Nickchen, of Mount Joy, won the grand prize in the recent countywide Teen Read Week Library Photo Contest, which invited teens to submit photos with themes of reading, books or libraries. Both Mount Joy's Milanof-Scho......
2011-11-19 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
Dani Church is a both a writer and a knitter. When her crime-novel marketing plans stalled, "I needed something fun to do on the side." "Fun" turned out to be a craft manual, "The Secret Lives of Letters: 26 Easy-To-Knit Alphabet Plush Toy Knitting Patterns." Don't imagin......
2011-11-19 23:53:00
JON RUTTER
Meet Endless Mountains woodsman Ken Ely, who once built a rock wall to block Marcellus Shale gas drillers from a road on his land. Meet Victoria Switzer, a transplanted urban homesteader building her dream home amid shrieking energy-company generators and compressors. And......
2011-11-19 23:52:00
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Daniel Blake Smith reveals new insight into the events that led to the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation in "An American Betrayal: Cherokee Patriots and the Trail of Tears." After Indian fighter Andrew Jackson became U.S. president, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Jack......
2011-11-19 23:51:00
STAFF
CIVIL WAR NOVELS
Narvon resident J. Arthur Moore will sign his children's historical novel, "Up From Corinth," from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, Nov. 25-27, at Treasure Hill Antiques and Collectibles, 2931 Main St., Morgantown. The retired ......
2011-11-19 23:50:00
STAFF
Graphic novels aren't just comic books anymore. There's a story to suit all tastes. Check out these new books on the graphic novel shelf at the Duke Street Library.1 THE AVENGERS: VOLUME 1, by Brian Michael Bendis. The first title in Marvel's re-launch......
2011-11-12 23:56:00
JON RUTTER
Prickly social critic James Howard Kunstler figures the steering wheel got away from America about the time he was born. Cheap, postwar gas had unleashed a vehicular Frankenstein by 1950. Sprawl was consigning once-vibrant city centers to poverty and sharpening racial divides.......
2011-11-12 23:55:00
JEFF GREENFIELD, The Washington Post
First, the (possibly) bad news: If you're expecting Stephen King to provide an alternative history of what America would have been like had John F. Kennedy not been assassinated, put those expectations aside. Not until 800 pages have gone by in "11/22/63" does King offer up an account of the......
2011-11-12 23:54:00
TOBIN HARSHAW, Bloomberg News
John Grisham loves an underdog. In "The Litigators," he puts the emphasis on dog. The law firm of Finley & Figg is an unlovable mutt. The case its partners hope will vault them to the big time is flea-ridden. Their worthless watchdog is named AC (short for Ambulance Chaser) and the office is ......
2011-11-12 23:53:00
STAFF
You can give gifts as well as get gifts for others during the fourth annual Alternative Gift Fair Sunday, Nov. 20, the event at the Farm & Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Road. Avid reader Alyssa Deraco, a Centerville Middle School student, will be collecting fair patrons' gently used children......
2011-11-12 23:52:00
STAFF
Not all picture books are for kindergartners. The Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley is publishing "Through the Years: Photographic Views of the Cocalico Valley" by its librarian, Cynthia Marquet. One of the pictures, at left, shows fourth-graders waiting for lunch in a......
2011-11-12 23:51:00
STAFF
As the weather cools down, snuggle up with a good mystery. Find these books on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 DECEPTION AT LYME OR THE PERIL OF PERSUASION, by Carrie Bebris. In Jane Austen's "Persuasion," the seawall proved dangerous t......
2011-11-12 23:51:00
STAFF
As the weather cools down, snuggle up with a good mystery. Find these books on the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 DECEPTION AT LYME OR THE PERIL OF PERSUASION, by Carrie Bebris. In Jane Austen's "Persuasion," the seawall proved dangerous t......
2011-11-12 23:50:00
STAFF
PUBLISHER ANNOUNCES GRAB-BAG BENEFIT
Fox Chapel Publishing is holding a grab-bag book sale to benefit longtime employee Shannon Flowers and Fire Department Mount Joy, which helped her and others whose homes were flooded during Tropical Storm Lee rece......
2011-11-05 23:54:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
The Amish — like the vampires, zombies and Regency-era royals before them — are crowding the pages of popular literature. Best known are the chaste romances featuring the Amish, such as those regularly produced by Lancaster city native Beverly Lewis. But lately the Amish have bee......
2011-11-05 23:53:00
PAULA WOLF
With the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and Arab Spring still fresh in people's minds, "we're at a very interesting turning point in the history of the Middle East," one presenting new challenges to American foreign policy, author Stephen Kinzer says. World powers tha......
2011-11-05 23:52:00
JON FERGUSON
Not surprisingly, Josh Ritter's first novel sprang from a song. The leap from lyrics to prose wasn't that huge for the literary-minded musician whose best songs bristle with invention, fully developed characters and narrative ambitions. Ritter, who will perform with his t......
2011-11-05 23:52:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Books Editor
"An itinerant loner, a failed entrepreneur, a nutty, religious mystic." Does that sound like the gentle Johnny you were introduced to in the first grade, along with fresh-cut apple slices at snack time? The carefree, philanthropic, environmentally-conscious-before-his- ti......
2011-11-05 23:51:00
STAFF
Elizabethtown writer Maria V. Snyder's short story "Under Amber Skies" can be found in "Corsets & Clockwork," a collection of 13 steampunk romances for young adults edited by Trisha Telep and published by Running Press. Zosia Jadwiga Nowak is a World War II-era Polish teen whose believes......
2011-11-05 23:50:00
STAFF
Steampunk, a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science fiction, is a phenomenon influencing film, fashion, music, art and literature See for yourself in these books from the new-book shelf of the Duke Street Library.1 ......
