Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.
Released February 24, 2009
Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.
He weaves in the museum background, a brief history of the world of art theft and museum security standards and glimpses of the adventures of artwork once it’s on the lam. Boser manages to make it both educational and exciting – all the background provided makes the details of the Gardner heist more interesting.
Toward the end of the book, Boser makes the ludicrous decision to solve the crime on his own. His attempt, which mostly consisted of talking to untrustworthy “connections” and scoping out Irish bars for Whitey Bulger, came off as a childish foray into art crime superhero-ism. Still, it demonstrated how wrapped up an author can get in the story being researched.
If you are an art lover, if you enjoy a real-life unsolved mysteries, you are definitely going to enjoy this book. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Nonfiction
Tagged: adventure, mystery, nonfiction, ripped from the headlines
Released November 2008
This book is well-organized and no-nonsense. Following Flanagan’s advice could probably build you a very clean and efficient home. It could probably also empty your wallet and strip you of items whose value is basically sentimental.
I liked how the book is laid out, the sections are divided up by room. While it was fun to day dream about dumping out every drawer in the kitchen and starting over… that’s not terribly practical. This book would be useful to come back to again and again as a reference to help you re-populate various rooms when appliances die or it’s redecorating time.
Flanagan certainly knows her stuff and picks interesting and useful looking items to populate her super-house. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Nonfiction
Tagged: eco-living, nonfiction
Released March 17, 2009
This book can give you conversation icebreakers for the rest of your life. It’s full of odd facts, bizarre stories and unforgettably wacky characters. This is a perfect book for someone with a busy schedule, because the stories are bite-sized and convenient to pick up and put down and get absorbed into the next story.
I read it over breakfast for a couple of weeks – it’s just like reading the back of cereal box! — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Nonfiction
Released May 2008
Recommended for ages 10-14
Trenton Lee Stewart’s second novel about Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance, the four young pals of the Mysterious Benedict Society, was just as fun, exciting, and fast-paced as the first one. Starting “Perilous Journey” was like getting together with old friends; the first book set up the characters so well you felt like you knew them, so it was great fun jumping back into their lives again. Also, having learned Constance’s big secret in the first book, I seemed to love and appreciate her even more this time around. As in the first book, this story takes the Benedict Society on a dangerous adventure, where they follow clues and solve riddles. This time they have to save Mr. Benedict and Number Two from the evil Mr. Curtain. Any reader who loved “The Mysterious Benedict Society” will certainly eat this one up, and those who haven’t read the first novel should rush out and get it before reading this one – this series is not to be missed. There’s a third installment coming this fall. – Becky Fermanich, Youth Services Librarian
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: adventure, fiction, mystery, tween
Released June 2007
This book provides steps for a simple approach to living less wasteful lives. Reading this book doesn’t make you feel guilty and it doesn’t preach. Instead, it shows you how simple changes can help you use the resources we take for granted more efficiently.
This book provides steps for a simple approach to living less wasteful lives. Reading this book doesn’t make you feel guilty and it doesn’t preach. Instead, it shows you how simple changes can help you use the resources we take for granted more efficiently.
I also found this book to be a useful reference guide for making informed decisions. It contains an index and is arranged by topic, such as “home”, “school” and “shopping” so you get specific pointers for distinct areas of life rather than as broad generalizations.
Between each section, there are celebrity testimonials. I found all of these unimpressive, from Owen Wilson mumbling that he likes driving a Prius to Tyra Banks telling me to keep my life simple. The celebrity pages are easy to ignore, but the many tips to help you reduce waste in your life are not.
This is a great resource for anyone interested in cutting back for the greater good. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Nonfiction
Tagged: eco-living, nonfiction
Released February 2008
I found Ed Begley Jr.’s guide to green living very accessible to people getting more into this lifestyle. The overall tone of the book was very positive – Ed’s enthusiasm for all things eco-friendly is pervasive. He shares his approach to energy saving or recycling, and gives good explanations for the why this each is a useful conservation habit.
I found Ed Begley Jr.’s guide to green living very accessible to people getting more into this lifestyle. The overall tone of the book was very positive – Ed’s enthusiasm for all things eco-friendly is pervasive. He shares his approach to energy saving or recycling, and gives good explanations for the why this each is a useful conservation habit.
I found that I liked the additional voices included in the book, Ed’s wife Rachelle chimes in occasionally and “Ed’s Green Friends” have sections where they explain the benefits of specific products and practices. I appreciated Rachelle’s point of view as someone who is adapting from a life of “regular” consumption to a more environmentally-aware lifestyle. I also liked that Ed left some of the more technical explanations to experts in his “Green Friends” sections. He clearly knows his stuff and has crunched the numbers and has a big-picture mentality when it comes to consumption, but he doesn’t sound like a know-it-all, he sounds more like someone passing along helpful hints from their experience.
I jotted down notes about the types of recyclable plastics and found his recylcing sorting guide very useful. I do think that this book is most helpful in Ed’s own southern California area, because I took his advice and Googled my area and “hazardous waste” only to find that getting rid of it responsibly is not as easy as Ed makes it sound. Also, ridding my life of e-waste is not going to be convenient or free. Still, he answers a lot of valuable questions and lays out solid reasoning for cutting consumption. Thanks, Ed! — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Nonfiction
Tagged: eco-living, nonfiction
The Spellman series by Lisa Lutz contains:
#1 – The Spellman Files
#2 – Curse of the Spellmans
#3 – Revenge of the Spellmans – released March 10, 2009
I’ve come across reviews for the later entries in this series and it sounds like a lot of fun. Quirky with a twist of zany. Because I can’t take more than a twist of zany with my books. Too much zany ruins a book for me.
Review of The Spellman Files:
I’ve come across reviews for the later entries in this series and it sounded like a lot of fun. Quirky with a twist of zany. Because I can’t take more than a twist of zany with my books. Too much zany ruins a book for me.
The idea of a family of private eyes who compulsively investigate each other is a great one and Lutz throws in good characters, great details (filberts in the bridge mix) and snappy dialogue. For my taste, there wasn’t exactly enough story, but I think it’s because Lutz was never going for a stand-alone and therefore spent a lot of time fleshing out characters to woo us into a series situation.
And I guess it worked. I remained on the fence through most of this book, thinking, yes there are funny parts (I love Rae at the Philosopher’s Club), but I’m not enthralled. Then, in the last 20 pages, I was kind of enthralled. So while I wouldn’t consider myself a rabid convert of a fan, I’d definitely recommend it to someone looking for a light read with some sass. – Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian
Categories: Adult Fiction
