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Pressia is a sixteen year old survivor of the Detonations. They occurred when she was only six, so she doesn't remember much about life during the Before, but her grandfather tries to keep the memories alive by telling her stories of amusement parks, movie theaters and birthday parties. They do the best they can to survive; people sicken and die from drinking the water and others' faces basically melt away, as a result of the nuclear winter.

All sixteen year olds outside the Dome are required to turn themselves in to be trained as a soldier or, if they aren't considered strong enough, to be used as live targets. Pressia doesn't want to experience either of these things so she's on the run. While trying to avoid the soldiers hunting her, she comes across Partridge who has chosen to escape the Dome to search for his mother, who he is certain survived the Detonations. His father is one of the most influential men among the Pures (as Dome dwellers are called) in the Dome but is emotionally distant and Patridge has a tenuous relationship with him.

Pures are safe and healthy and live a much different life than those outside the Dome. Patridge knows he should be content in the Dome, but he's lonely, especially after his brother commits suicide. Then his father slips and makes a remark which gives Patridge hope that his mother survived the Detonations and is out there somewhere...so he escapes, risking his life to find her.

Pure is a fast paced adventure suggested for fans of Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games trilogy and Justin Cronin's The Passage.

Submitted by Jacki @ Central

Definitely Dead is sixth installment of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. So far I've reviewed book one, Dead Until Dark and book four, Dead to the World.

So much has transpired in Sookie's life over these past six novels. Here's an update. Just when she hopes to return to a normal life (again), the supernatural world drags her in even deeper. Sookie has a real-life fairy godmother, Claudine. Where did she come from and what role will she play in the future? Long lost and recently murdered cousin Hadley bequeathed her possessions to Sookie who now needs to travel to New Orleans to sort through it all. How far will the telepath go to discover the details surrounding her cousin's death? People are looking for the missing Debbie Pelt whom Sookie killed in self-defense. What truly motivates their search? Quinn a revered and rare type of were becomes Sookie's boyfriend. Is he the one? His business, E(E)E, or Extreme(ly Elegant) Events, plans and coordinates important events and ceremonies for the supernatural. Quinn's status invariably brings more excitement and trouble into Sookie's already crazy life. Lastly, Jason, Sookie's brother, has undergone some kind of transformation. Are his carefree life and womanizing ways a thing of the past?

Submitted by Valerie @ MPL Central

I loved this book even though I am not a fan of futuristic robot books or of modern military tactical endeavors. Author Daniel H. Wilson has a Ph.D. in robotics and uses this unique knowledge to create Robopocalypse, an absolutely fascinating story about the near extinction of the human race in the not so distant future. There are far too many interesting and important characters to mention here, but the main character, soldier Cormac Wallace, describes some of the events preceding Zero Hour when the Robs/robots take over the world and the New War that follws. Interspersed throughout the story others recount what happened to them in different countries around the planet. The cross culture viewpoints really make the fear and chaos of war relatable to all.

Submitted by Valerie @ MPL Central

Plugged takes readers on one crazy adventure after another with a seemingly endless pool of bad guys and hoodlums. The title itself has a bizarre double meaning - plugs as in hair replacements and plugged as in shot with a gun. Irishman Daniel McEvoy quickly gets drawn into dangerous and deadly trouble that wreaks havoc on his simple life as a bouncer in a small exotic dance club. With snappy dialogue, the poor guy narrates the entire debacle along with the strange and thickly accented voice in his head. (Readers instantly wonder if Daniel is going insane). It quickly goes down hill for him from there with a kidnapped doctor, a cocky attorney, a dead dancer, a stupid and ridiculous club owner, a dirty police officer, illegal drugs, the local mob, a psychotic neighbor, and the usual dense thugs. One mystery overlaps another and keeps you guessing to the very end.

Submitted by Valerie @ MPL Central

A Walk Across the Sun begins after a tsunami ravages the Indian hometown of teen sisters Ahalya and Sita Ghai; as a result, they are orphaned. They try to find safety, but are abducted by human traffickers and enter a dangerous world of sexual violence and illegal business. Meanwhile, in Washington, D. C., Thomas Clarke, an attorney is dealing with his own personal tragedies. He has lost his infant daughter and his wife has left him. He chooses to travel to India on sabbatical to do pro bono work fighting human trafficking. After hearing about the Ghai sisters he works to get them to safety. His mission takes him across three continents and into the modern world of slavery.

While this story is fictional, the problem of human trafficking is very real. Addison mentions several ways to learn more and get involved at the end of the book, including the Trafficking in Persons Report, rating the efforts of hundreds of countries in combating the trade; prosecuting traffickers, pimps, and slave owners; and caring for victims. The TIP Report offers an overview of modern slavery and real-life stories from around the world. These reports are available on the State Department's website. If a nongovernmental source is preferred, there is the Polaris Project. The library also has books available, including A Crime So Monstrous by Benjamin Skinner, Sex Trafficking by Siddharth Kara and Disposable People by Kevin Bales.

Submitted by Jacki @ Central

The Ramayana is one of the greatest ancient Indian epics and a sacred story cherished by millions throughout the world. It is the story of Prince Ram's quest to save his beautiful wife Princess Sita. The epic has been told and retold for thousands of years, the story changing as it is translated into one of the many languages of South Asia. In one of the most popular versions, Princess Sita, representing the pinnacle of womanly virtue, is abducted by Prince Ram's rival, the demon-king Ravana. Princess Sita is held captive in Ravana's kingdom Lanka, but refuses to give into Ravana's advances. Meanwhile Prince Ram makes a harrowing journey to save his wife. After gathering a force great enough to defeat Ravana's demons, he rescues his wife and they return to their kingdom.

All is not well however, as Sita's virtue is questioned and disparaged. After a series of tests to prove her innocence, Sita is still thrown out of the kingdom. Pregnant at the time, she raises her twin sons in the great forest and ever the devoted wife, laments her separation Prince Ram. The story continues but Sita's virtue is still doubted. Enter Samhita Arni's graphic novel adaptation of the story: Sita's Ramayana. This is a Ramayana told through Sita's eyes, where understanding the pain of her journey and the full extent of her courage is primary. Told in the vibrant and dynamic art of traditional Patua scroll paintings, Sita's Ramayana is a radical new telling of an ancient tale.

Interested in more female retellings of The Ramayana? Then check out Sita Sings the Blues, an animated version of The Ramayana written, animated, produced and directed by artist Nina Paley and featuring tracks by Annette Hanshaw.

Submitted by Kristina @ MPL Central

I check out a lot of cookbooks, and tend to read them like novels. Most serve the same function for me as novels - I'm transported to exotic locales and the content fuels the imagination. Which is to say, I don't actually make many recipes from the fancy foodie cookbooks, but it's fun to pretend I'm a person that does.

Finally, I have found a book that reads more like an update of a favorite childhood novel, and it features the most unexotic food I can imagine: Jell-o. Long relegated as a treat for the very young or the very old, banished to hospital trays or the end of buffets, Victoria Belanger is breaking that mold by making the mold! Most of the incredibly creative recipes in Hello, Jell-o! begin with unflavored gelatin an rely on juice, fruit or various creamy concoctions to amp up the flavor. You'll find desserts you've likely not seen before in gelatinous form, such as carrot cake, pumpkin pie and chocolate peanut butter cups. Several vegan recipes are included, so nobody has an excuse to miss out on the fun! If you miss the simpler times of diving into a bowl of Jell-o for dessert, be sure to check this out and recapture some memories.

Submitted by Mandy @ Central, Youth & Community Outreach Services

Earl Derr Biggers.
Besides having one of the grooviest names in mystery writing, Earl Derr Biggers also created one of the most controversial and slickest sleuths in literature (and film for that matter). When Charlie Chan made his literary debut in the Saturday Evening Post serialization of The House without a Key (1925), the catalyst for corny aphorisms was hatched onto an appreciative mystery reading public. At times complex and other times laughable, this novel avoids all the trappings of pulp Noir. Chan is described as an extremely overweight man with baby cheeks and a soft, dainty step. The anti-Fu Manchu. Though murder is a sloppy business, Chan's investigation is crisp and clean.

Charlie Chan Carries On (1930) is the fifth of the six original Chan novels and is more of the same as the other four. But they are all fun. If you need a break from high brow murder stories, give ol' Charlie Chan a try.

Submitted by Dan@Central

We all have a little clutter in our households--a pile of junk mail on the kitchen table, some old clothes in a box for donation by the door, a few outgrown kids' toys in the closet. But if these clutter piles begin to take up so much space that it interferes with your daily life, you just might be a Hoarder. Extreme hoarding is more than a personality quirk or a sign of sloppiness--it is a serious psychological condition that requires professional help to conquer. Matt Paxton is one of those professional helpers. The owner of Clutter Cleaner and an extreme cleaning specialist, Paxton has become a TV star of late participating in house cleanings featured on A&E's Hoarders. His book, The Secret Lives of Hoarders, takes readers into the homes and lives of the people he helps, offering some of the voyeuristic appeal of the TV show. He goes further to talk about the issues surrounding hoarding and the interpersonal techniques he uses to engage hoarders in cleaning up their homes and, ultimately, their lives. He also has advice for all of us to deal with our own clutter issues. Fans of the show will definitely hear Matt's straightforward, tough-love voice in these pages. Well worth reading whether you are familiar with the show or not.

Submitted by Brett @ Central

The Good Father asks the question, who is to blame when a child is a murderer? The father, Dr. Paul Allen, is a prosperous, well know doctor. His life is changed when his son from a previous marriage is charged with assassinating the lead democratic candidate at a rally. The rest of the book is the father trying to figure out what really happened. Why was his son in California when he was supposed to be at college? Was his son the lone gunman? Was this part of a larger conspiracy theory? If his son did commit this murder, why? Was it because his father remarried and moved across the country with the boy shuffling between two households never seeming to fit in? Was it the fault of the father? The mother? Mental illness?

The book easily shuffles between narratives of the father researching both his son's case, as well as other well-known presidential assassins; memories of his son's younger years; and more recent stories of what happened to his son since he dropped out of college to travel across the United States. Paul uses his research, his memories and his son's journal to determine what really happened, even though his son does not want him to.

The book is an intriguing read, though I typically like my books to wrap up nicely, sometimes it is also good for a book to end with some mystery.

Submitted by Meredith W. @ Wisconsin Talking Book & Braille Library

The weather is changing and we're shedding the layers of winter. It's time to power up. To keep you and your family eating with the seasons, these healthy family-friendly cookbooks may be just what you're looking for.

The Baby & Toddler Cookbook: Fresh, Homemade Foods for a Healthy Start by Karen Ansel & Charity Ferreira. ©2010
Basic & lovely with recipes children (aged six months to three years) will eat up. Nutritional advice is given, too.

Cooking For Baby: Wholesome, Homemade, Delicious Foods for 6 to 18 Months by Lisa Barnes. ©2008.
Eighty recipes organized by age. When you read about how easy it is to prepare freshly made food, you may find that you will never go back to expensive jars.

The Fussy Eaters' Recipe Book: 135 Quick, Tasty and Healthy Recipes that Your Kids Will Actually Eat by Anabel Karmel. ©2008. The premise here is to involve your child in shopping & preparing healthy food. Lots of great advice is given, too, from making an "eat up" book to presenting food in a change of scenery (i.e. outdoors).

One World Kids Cookbook. by Sean Mendez. foreword by Ferran Adriá. ©2011. Food lore, fun, maps, and recipes from around the world will provide an enhanced experience to cooking from this delightful & culturally informative cookbook.

The Organic Family Cookbook: Growing, Greening, and Cooking Together. by Anni Daulter. ©2011.
Advice from growing, shopping, being green & cooking make for a very entertaining book full of nutritional ideas & recipes for delicious eating.

Peas and Thank You: Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love. Sarah Matheny. ©2011. Clear directions & nutritional information for flavorful vegan fare from a popular mommy blogger.

Real Food for Healthy Kids: 200+ Easy, Wholesome Recipes. by Tracey Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel. ©2008.
Ingredients used are fresh, wholesome, convenient and available at grocery stores.

Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating. by Tyler Florence. ©2011.

Provide the freshest start for your baby using Chef Tyler Florence's 60 purees of vegetables, grains & fruit.

Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone. by Ann Gentry. ©2011.

Owner of L.A.'s popular Real Food Daily restaurant brings her vegan, family friendly recipes and ideas to us all.

The Wholesome Baby Food Guide: Over 150 Easy, Delicious, and Healthy Recipes from Purees to Solids. by Maggie Meade. ©2012.

Here is a very thorough book on how and when to start solid foods. A nineteen page index, resource page, and seasonal fruit & vegetable appendix will guide you well.

You can find more healthy eating cookbooks by searching under the subject: Cooking (Natural Foods).

Submitted by Rebecca@Central

Join other fans of The Hunger Games trilogy in celebrating the release of The Hunger Games movie by taking part in a trivia challenge based on the books.

Correct answers will bring you rewards, but incorrect ones may bring an uncertain future. There can be only one winner!

Hunger Games Trivia Challenge
Bay View Library,
For Ages: 13-18,
2566 S. Kinnickinnic Ave
Thursday, March 22,
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Registration Required
Call: (414) 286-3011

Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Developed by teens, for teens, through TAB - MPL's Teen Advisory Board. Sponsored by Best Buy.

Going Away Shoes: Stories is an anthology of 11 short stories that focus on older women who reflect on their lives while managing personal crises. The caregiver of a dying mother sorts through boxes of her mother's shoes while remembering her own side-tracked romance & journalism career. A gentle grandmother struggles to accept her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter who both have potty mouths. A newly-divorced mother has a Christmas Eve Roto-Rooter emergency while she prepares for a visit from her ex & his family (parents & new wife). Returning to their childhood home, a woman & her brother remember their successful plots to prevent their father from replacing their dead mother with a new wife. A single mother, working as a school nurse, learns through painting to make lemonade out of her mistakes. A second wife wonders about her husband's first marriage. An extended letter to her former marriage counselor reveals a woman ready to grow beyond her stifling marriage. A married woman, via a road trip, helps her first lover during his last days of cancer even though he has his own wife & family nearby. One evening a retired schoolteacher, a soccer mom, and teenaged girl all look for salvation through "magic words" from their men. (Sorry. I love you. Thank you. Please.) A reformed drunkard unfortunately instigates an intervention for her abstemious husband via her distant children who will gather for just that purpose but not for general social contact with their parents. Lastly, a woman protects herself against matchmakers by inventing a convincing phantom lover.

As pathetic as these stories could be, McCorkle infuses each with a lyricism unique to her prose. Taken as a group, these stories seem feminist in their focus, but they are not the rabid sort of feminism: they are the silently desperate sort.

Submitted by Leah @ Wisconsin Talking Book & Braille Library

Many stories of Africa deal with AIDS, war, poverty and famine. In the graphic novel genre, very few stories feature African protagonists. Marguerite Abouet, the writer of the graphic novel Aya, sets out to change this. Aya is the light-hearted tale of three friends living in the Ivory Coast in 1978. Aya strives to be a doctor while her friends, Bintou and Adjoua, want to chase boys and dance all night. While Aya is not the central character, the story is told through her eyes and presents a unique view of post-independence Ivory Coast. The issues presented in the book; meddling parents and young love, are universal enough so that anyone can relate to them. The writing is accompanied with lush illustrations by Clement Oubrerie and a glossary of African slang terms and recipes mentioned in the book. Aya's story is continued in Aya of Yop City, and Aya: The Secrets Come Out. Don't miss the film adaption coming out this summer!

Submitted by Maria @ Central

"How to Titles" are a staple of publishing and library collections and there are many titles published each year with the goal of improving how we live our lives. This is not a new phenomenon; nearly 500 years ago, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) invented the literary form of the essay. His Essays of Montaigne much like Shakespeare's works and the Bible - has been in print ever since.

As reviewers have said "It is hard to imagine a better introduction--or reintroduction--to Montaigne's essays than Bakewell's book." I find it comforting to know that our problems are not unique to our times but have been wrestled with for centuries. How to educate our young, How to live with others, How to survive love and loss, and even How to read were only some of the topics Montaigne addressed. Not all of Montaigne's essays dealt with major life crises. Other topics were much more mundane but equally enlightening: How do you avoid getting drawn into a pointless argument with your wife, How do you deal with a bully, How do you cheer up a crying neighbor, and finally something for everyone - How to reconcile yourself to failures.

The author has seamlessly merged biographical information about Montaigne with a discussion of why he wrote his essays and what guidance he has to offer us. Like any good biographer, the author has brought Montaigne to life and made him relevant to today's readers who would like to live life well, and make the most of every moment so that life does not drain away unappreciated. Check catalog for availability.

Submitted by Tom @ Center Street Library

The AMC series, Mad Men, returns for its 5th season tomorrow, after 17 long months. Books inspired by the show include:

Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America by Natasha Vargas-Cooper. A journalist and fan of television's Mad Men analyzes and discusses the context and social history of cultural artifacts featured in the show that capture the historical themes of the mid-century, including ads, paintings, politics and social mores.

The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook by Judy Gelman. Presents a collection of recipes for food and drinks shown on episodes of "Mad Men," providing a synopsis of the episode that the dish was in, historical and cultural context for the food and drink featured in the show, and tips on throwing a successful 1960s cocktail party.

The Fashion File Janie Bryant. The Emmy-Award winning costume designer for Mad Men offers readers a peek into the dressing room of the hit show, revealing the design process behind the various characters' looks and showing every woman how to find her own leading lady style--whether it's vintage, modern or bohemian.

New York Public Library's Billy Parrott is keeping a list of the books mentioned on the show. Broken down by season and episode, it's fun to peruse and sure to spark reading inspiration.

Submitted by Jacki @ Central

In Hurt Go Happy 13-year old Joey Willis lives with her 4-year-old brother and her over-protective divorced mother and her mother's new husband in rural California. Deaf since six, Joey's mother fears that her daughter would be ostracized by her "difference" if she learned sign language. Mom doesn't understand how difficult lip-reading can be but fully understands that the worst punishment she can give her daughter is to turn away her face so that Joey can't read either her lips or her expression. Consequently, during this difficult first teenage year, Joey feels isolated from both her family and her peers. Then, a chance meeting with a retired anthropologist and his baby chimp that he has taught to sign occurs. So Joey secretly begins to learn sign to talk with her new friends. When her mother discovers Joey's new skill and her new friends, she takes a long time to see the reality & repercussions of her denial of Joey's communication handicap. That much of a story would be sufficient for most books, but when Joey's love for the chimp prompts her to rescue the animal from a chemical laboratory's animal testing site this takes on a 'Free Willy' flavor. Thankfully, the author never stoops to preaching animal rights--just animal conservation and rescue. Marketed as a children's book, any age would find this a gripping and heart-wrenching story.

Submitted by Leah @ Wisconsin Talking Book & Braille Library

The American Way of Eating is a groundbreaking book that exposes why Americans eat the way they do, where we get our food, and why food is priced the way it is. Many Americans know that the processed food we eat is not good for us but we still eat it anyway. What the author, Tracie McMillan, strives to uncover is why healthy food is a luxury for the average American. McMillan went undercover working as a grape picker, peach picker, garlic cutter, Wal-Mart produce clerk and a line cook at Applebee's to find the answer to this question.

From the farms of California to the food deserts in Detroit, McMillan traces where our food comes from and what it takes to get it to the American consumer. What she ultimately discovers is that healthy food became a luxury because of a myriad of factors including food transport, advances in agriculture technology, and the creation of American suburbs. Although other recent books have attempted to chronicle American food culture, McMillan is the first to follow the trail of food from its creation to its consumption. This book will be an eye-opener to anyone who wants to go behind the scenes of America's food.

Submitted by Maria @ Central

Bad Dog starts when Marty and his wife, Gloria, adopt a Bernese mountain dog puppy. Gloria hopes this new companion will replace the society she's used to sharing with her husband who's become antisocial due to his alcoholism. Unfortunately, the dog proves untrainable and even attacks Gloria, while Marty can't understand the need to housebreak or paper-train the puppy.

Only after Gloria leaves Marty and Hola, the dog, does Marty realize he must dry out and at least work on getting the dog to be polite. He decides to train Hola for the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen certification. Failing the certification more than once finally alerts Marty to the seriousness of his alcoholism. He realizes it's getting in the way of his concentration and ability to train Hola. To discipline her, he must discipline himself. So who's the bad dog here? Sparely, but humorously written, skirting the maudlin that could result from an addict's recovery story, Marty relates his lows and highs and credits the Canine Good Citizen training sessions for much of his recent successes.

Submitted by Leah @ Wisconsin Talking Book & Braille Library