The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
by Lauren Willig
Published 2008 by Penguin Audiobooks

Compact Disc, English. ISBN: 9780143142959

Find this book in our catalog.

Jacket Notes:

Willig continues the exciting series with her fourth novel featuring Lord Vaughn, the delightfully devilish spy from "The Masque of the Black Tulip," and Mary Alsworthy, the raven-haired beauty whose sister accidentally stole her suitor in "The Deception of the Emerald Ring." Unabridged. 10 CDs.

Then We Came to the End
by Joshua Ferris
Published 2007 by Little Brown and Company

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780316016384

Find this book in our catalog.

Jacket Notes:

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/08/2007

In this wildly funny debut from former ad man Ferris, a group of copywriters and designers at a Chicago ad agency face layoffs at the end of the '90s boom. Indignation rises over the rightful owner of a particularly coveted chair ("We felt deceived"). Gonzo e-mailer Tom Mota quotes Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the midst of his tirades, desperately trying to retain a shred of integrity at a job that requires a ruthless attention to what will make people buy things. Jealousy toward the aloof and "inscrutable" middle manager Joe Pope spins out of control. Copywriter Chris Yop secretly returns to the office after he's laid off to prove his worth. Rumors that supervisor Lynn Mason has breast cancer inspire blood lust, remorse, compassion. Ferris has the downward-spiraling office down cold, and his use of the narrative "we" brilliantly conveys the collective fear, pettiness, idiocy and also humanity of high-level office drones as anxiety rises to a fever pitch. Only once does Ferris shift from the first person plural (for an extended fugue on Lynn's realization that she may be ill), and the perspective feels natural throughout. At once delightfully freakish and entirely credible, Ferris's cast makes a real impression.(Mar.)

The Misadventures of Maude March: Or Trouble Rides a Fast Horse
by Audrey Couloumbis
Published 2005 by Random House

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780375832451

Find this book in our catalog.

Jacket Notes:

Eleven-year-old Sallie March is a whip-smart tomboy and voracious reader of Western adventure novels. When she and her sister, Maude, are orphaned for the "second time, they decide to escape their new self-serving guardians for the wilds of the frontier and an adventure the likes of which Sallie has only read about. This time, however, the wanted woman isn't a villain out of a dime novel-it's Sallie's very own sister!

Narrated by the irrepressible Sallie, what follows is the rollicking story of what "really happened out there on the range. Not the lies the papers printed, but the honest-to-goodness truth of how things went from bad to worse and how two very different sisters went from being orphans to being outlaws-and lived to tell the tale! Bursting with memorable characters, fast-paced action, and laugh-out-loud moments, this is Newbery Honor winner Audrey Couloumbis's most unforgettable work yet. "From the Hardcover Library Binding edition.

09/01/2005 REVIEW: School Library Journal

Gr 5-8 -Sallie March, 11, devotee of dime novels, narrates this rollicking Wild West adventure. The irrepressible tomboy and her ladylike older sister, Maude, have been living in Cedar Rapids with their stern Aunt Ruthie since their parents died. When she is shot dead by a random bullet, Reverend Peasley takes the girls in, but works them like servants. Then grandfatherly Mr. Wilburn proposes to Maude, and it's the last straw. The sisters take two horses and head to Independence, MO, in hopes of finding their uncle. They disguise themselves as boys and begin to live as dime-novel heroes, hooking up with Marion Hardly, aka Joe Harden (the Joe Harden, of the dimer series?), who is also their aunt's killer. Although the girls' intentions are never bad, they end up in the midst of a bank robbery and committing murder. The newspapers are full of news of Mad Maude March, gone crazy with grief. All ends well as they make it to Missouri, where everyone has a reputation anyway. Sallie's narration is delightful, with understatements that are laugh-out-loud hilarious. While this novel at first seems a departure for Couloumbis, there are many similarities toGetting Near to Baby (1999) andSay Yes (2002, both Putnam). Her strong females are memorable, largely due to her perfect pitch in conveying their unique voices. Hard to put down, and a fun read-aloud.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME

Free Food for Millionaires
by Min Jin Lee
Published 2007 by Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover, English. ISBN: 9780446581080

Find this book in our catalog.

Jacket Notes:

Casey Han's four years at Princeton gave her many things, Rbut no job and a number of bad habits.S In her remarkable debut novel, Lee examines what it means to maintain one's identity amid changing and complex social roles.

REVIEW: Publisher's Weekly 01/22/2007

In her noteworthy debut, Lee filters through a lively postfeminist perspective a tale of first-generation immigrants stuck between stodgy parents and the hip new world. Lee's heroine, 22-year-old Casey Han, graduates magna cum laude in economics from Princeton with a taste for expensive clothes and an "enviable golf handicap," but hasn't found a "real" job yet, so her father kicks her out of his house. She heads to her white boyfriend's apartment only to find him in bed with two sorority girls. Next stop: running up her credit card at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Casey's luck turns after a chance encounter with Ella Shim, an old acquaintance. Ella gives Casey a place to stay, while Ella's fiancé gets Casey a "low pay, high abuse" job at his investment firm and Ella's cousin Unu becomes Casey's new romance. Lee creates a large canvas, following Casey as she shifts between jobs, careers, friends, mentors and lovers; Ella and Ted as they hit a blazingly rocky patch; and Casey's mother, Leah, as she belatedly discovers her own talents and desires. Though a first-novel timidity sometimes weakens the narrative, Lee's take on contemporary intergenerational cultural friction is wide-ranging, sympathetic and well worth reading.(May)