How to Sell by Clancy Martin

Released May 2009

“How to Sell” is a story of ambition, corruption and slick and skewering salesmanship.  Clancy Martin is writing from his own experience starting out with nothing and getting into the jewelry business.  The story follows Bobby Clark through his exploits in the world of fine jewelry sales, doing whatever it takes to push glitz on customers, genuine or not.  The business is rife with crooked deals, shady characters and Bobby is at the heart of it all, sinking fast.

Readers will get sucked in by Bobby’s hapless voice – his frank candor is a total contrast to the slimeball dealings we witness him orchestrating.    It’s a sort of attempt at the American Dream tale from someone more invested in scams and hustling than in hard work and honesty.  It’s greedy and messy and through it all,  it can be pretty funny as well. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Nothing But A Smile by Steve Amick

Release date: March 10, 2009

Reading this book was like watching a movie from the 1940s, with lots of screwball moments and a good love story developing throughout. And the pinup photo shoot scenes would be hilarious.

Reading this book was like watching a movie from the 1940s, with lots of screwball moments and a good love story developing throughout. And the pinup photo shoot scenes would be hilarious.

The characters were perfectly portrayed, Sal with her mix of spunk and business sense and Wink’s easy-going nature and corny jokes. I thought the dialogue was dead on, never sounding forced, never unrealistic, even with the hearty helping of 1940s slang. The romance and humor was balanced by the lousy treatment of women in the workplace and the challenges of housing and employment for returning GIs. It put the reader in a snapshot of the time and place, exactly as a novel should.

Overall, it was light and funny and captivating without being consuming. A very nice break from required reading. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

The Gecko & Sticky: Villain’s Lair by Wendelin Van Draanen

Released February 2009

“A wittily offbeat and action-packed adventure. Readers are immediately plunked into the action as Dave and his talking gecko, Sticky, make their way to Damien Black’s creepy mansion through a bat-infested, oozing cave. They are after the magical ingots, which, paired with a wristband already in their possession, give the wearer various amazing powers. Black is an old-fashioned villain, with a ‘Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!’ sense of devilishness, and things get hairy when Dave and Sticky—a reformed (?) thief formerly in Black’s employ—are trapped in Black’s Pit of Doom. The two narrowly escape with one ingot, the one that provides wall-walking abilities, with Black and his bumbling cohorts in pursuit—all in the first half. The second half is less of a romp, as the villains look for Dave and mistake another boy for him. By tale’s end Sticky and Dave learn to trust each other, and, of course, the power of good prevails over evil. A dastardly good read that benefits from its quirky drawings and may well become a can’t-wait-for-the-next-one series.”  –Kirkus Reviews

The Big Splash by Jack D. Ferraiolo

Released September 2008

“The seventh-grader version of a Raymond Chandler PI, Matt Stevens coolly navigates the mean streets (okay, the mean hallways) of Franklin Middle School in a first novel with an ingenious premise: junior high noir. Matt’s classmate, the once-bullied Vinny Biggio, commands a whole ‘organization,’ complete with hit men, in this case boys and girls who use loaded squirt guns, stealth attacks and their peers’ predictable responses (choruses of ‘Jimmy peed his pants!’) to ensure their targets’ permanent and total ostracism. The plot has to do with the spectacular takedown of one Nicole Finnegan, aka Nikki Fingers, the school’s most feared ‘trigger-girl,’” that is, until her recent retirement from Vinny’s operation. Just who ordered the hit on Nikki, and why? Twists and curve balls keep readers guessing; extended jokes like one about a petty thief’s desperate need for cash (‘On the surface, Peter was a happy-go-lucky model student, but underneath, he had a dirty little secret: He was a Pixy Stixer’) will keep them laughing. With crisp prose and surprisingly poignant moments, Ferraiolo’s debut entertains on many levels.”  (Grades 6-8)  –Publishers Weekly

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

Released: December 2, 2008

“Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of ) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of “Hollywood in-breeding,” come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen.

Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It’s an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty — Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher — homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed.

Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success. Entertainment Weekly declared it “drolly hysterical” and the Los Angeles Times called it a “Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes.” This is Carrie Fisher at her best — revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-deprecation, and buoyant, infectious humor.”  – Amazon.com

Geek Chic by Margie Palatini

Released: Oct. 1, 2008

“Tweens will celebrate the arrival of an intrepid heroine with plenty of sparkle and spunk to spare. At nearly 11, Zoey may have just begun fifth grade, but she is already counting down to sixth. Determined not to put those 198 days to waste, she decides that an image-intervention is required in order to achieve that pinnacle of cool: to sit with ‘The Bashleys’ during lunch. Palatini captures the growing pains of young girls on the cusp of preadolescence, struggling to define themselves while desperately wanting to fit in with the group. Zoey chronicles her (mis)adventures with an openness and wry self-awareness that will have readers laughing even as they cringe in commiseration. An impromptu meeting with teen magazine journalists leads to Zoey’s discovery that geek is chic, when you embrace your individuality. Snappy prose coupled with graphic-novel styling holds appeal for savvy modern readers up-to-date with rapid-fire texting and instant messaging.”  –Kirkus

Extreme Pumpkins: Diabolical Do-It-Yourself Designs to Amuse Your Friends and Scare Your Neighbors

Released 2007

If you have a better idea for a jack o’lantern than the carving on the cover of this book – you need to write a book.  Because this is the best pumpkin I’ve ever seen.  This book, and it’s counterpart: Extreme pumpkins II : take back Halloween and freak out a few more neighbors, are written by Tom Nardone, a Michigan author and Halloween genius.

The books include full-color carving guides with easy to follow instructions.  Look for them in the Holidays and Celebration section of Adult Nonfiction and have the spookiest pumpkins on the block! — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian