To place any of the recommendations on hold, please click on the title. This will take you into the catalogue. You will need to log in with your library card barcode and PIN (last 4 digits of your phone number) to place your hold.

Jesse T. Recommends
Laika by Nick Abadzis (Graphic Novel)
This is the journey of Laika, the abandoned puppy destined to become Earth's first space traveler. With the blending of fact and fiction, this story intertwines three compelling lives. Along with Laika, there is Korolev, a driven engineer at the top of the Soviet space program and Yelena, the lab technician responsible for Laika's health and life.  

The story of stuff : how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health-- and a vision for change - by Annie Leonard (Adult Non-Fiction)
Annie Leonard, creator of the Internet film sensation "The Story of Stuff", offers an astonishing book that tracks the life of the "stuff" we use every day - where it comes from, how it is produced, distributed, consumed, and disposed.

Feynman - by Jim Ottaviani (Graphic Novel)
This substantial graphic novel biography presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Jim Ottaviani tells the story of Feynman's life, from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. Ottaviani tackles the bad with the good, leaving the reader delighted by Feynman's exuberant life and staggered at the loss humanity suffered with his death. 

Carmen Recommends

Super 8 (Movie)

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined. Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have

Dog Handling - by Clare Haylor (Adult Fiction)
Yesterday, Liv Elliot had it all: a great flat in London’s Notting Hill, an actual career (okay, as an accountant), and a coveted fiancé. Every girl’s dream, right? But then Tim declared that the wedding was off—leaving Liv shell-shocked. Luckily, she’s got her best friend’s fab Australian beach house in which to recuperate.

The restorative powers of the Sydney sun, sand, and sea soon have Liv feeling wonderfully anti-accountant. Then she runs into old flame Ben Parker. It’s been years since they fooled around during a summer fling, but Liv never forgot that genetically blessed face. Raring to help her land beautiful Ben, Liv’s friends teach her the Rules of Dog Handling: Treat a man like a dog and he’ll be eating out of your hand. But surely this can’t actually work? Liv is about to find out that it can—but she’s hardly prepared for the results.

Splat the Cat - by Rob Scotton (Children's Fiction)
It's Splat's first day of school and he's worried. What if he doesn't make any new friends? Just in case, Splat decides to bring along his pet mouse, Seymour, and hides him in his lunchbox. The teacher, Mrs. Wimpydimple, introduces Splat to the class and he soon starts learning all his important cat lessons. But when Seymour escapes and the cats do what cats do (they chase mice!), Splat's worried again. Maybe now he'll lose all his friends, old and new! Just in time, wise Mrs. Wimpydimple takes charge and teaches everyone an important new lesson. Maybe Cat School is going to be okay after all!

Marion Recommends

The Pit Dragon Triology - Jane Yolen (Young Adult Fiction)
The triology is a series of science fiction and fantasy.  The books are set in the far future, on a desert planet called Austar IV, which has a history and climate similar to that of Australia.   The planet was originally a place where convicts would be exiled. For many generations the outcasts had adapted to their new environment and even formed a functioning society, focusing on a caste system of paid bonders and their owners. The amazing feature of the planet is that it does hold life, but very little, and has one species of dragons. The humans eventually managed to tame some of the dragons, and train them. They are bred for food and fighting. The economy on Austar is centered around "the pit" where owners bring their dragons in to fight.

From Baghdad with Love: A Marine, The War, and a Dog Named Lava - by Jay Kopelman (Adult Non-Fiction)
When Marines enter an abandoned house in Fallujah, Iraq, and hear a suspicious noise, they clench their weapons, edge around the corner, and prepare to open fire. What they find during the U.S.–led attack on the “most dangerous city on Earth” in late 2004, however, is not an insurgent but a puppy left behind when most of the city’s residents fled. Despite military law forbidding pets, the Marines de-flea the pup with kerosene, de-worm him with chewing tobacco, and fill him up on Meals Ready to Eat.

Sherry Recommends

Crow Lake - by Mary Lawson (Adult Fiction)
Crow Lake is that rare find, a first novel so quietly assured, so emotionally pitch perfect, you know from the opening page that this is the real thing—a literary experience in which to lose yourself, by an author of immense talent.  Here is a gorgeous, slow-burning story set in the rural “badlands” of northern Ontario, where heartbreak and hardship are mirrored in the landscape. For the farming Pye family, life is a Greek tragedy where the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, and terrible events occur—offstage.  Centerstage are the Morrisons, whose tragedy looks more immediate if less brutal, but is, in reality, insidious and divisive. Orphaned young, Kate Morrison was her older brother Matt’s protegee, her fascination for pond life fed by his passionate interest in the natural world. Now a zoologist, she can identify organisms under a microscope but seems blind to the state of her own emotional life. And she thinks she’s outgrown her siblings—Luke, Matt, and Bo—who were once her entire world.

The Stand - by Stephen King (Adult Fiction)
A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colorado.    

The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy) - by Tad Williams (Adult Fiction)
From The Dragonbone Chair: In the peaceful land of Osten Ard, the good king is dying-and a long-dreaded evil is about to be unleashed. Only Simon, a lowly castle scullion apprenticed to a secret order dedicated to halting the coming darkness, can solve the dangerous riddle that offers salvation to the land.


Ilke Recommends

Denise Austin: Boot Camp Total Body Blast (DVD)
In BOOT CAMP: TOTAL BODY BLAST, your personal drill sergeant Denise Austin will transform your body into a fat-burning furnace with dynamic intervals of punches, kicks, and power drills! Banish flab, burn mega calories and sculpt a champion body with Denise's unique blend of cardio, strength training and FUN!

Fitness (Magazine)
Inspiration for your mind, body and spirit.  At Fitness Magazine, they are about body confidence, real women, and healthy living. We'll keep you motivated with new playlists, videos and cool tools all the time.

The Kntting Book - by Frederica Patmore (Adult Non-Fiction)
Whether you're new to knitting or a wonder with wool, The Knitting Book is for you. Here the traditional, artistic, and practical craft has a modern makeover, in a sumptuous, fully-illustrated book that clearly explains the key tools and techniques you need to knit beautiful accessories for your home and wardrobe. With advice on contemporary styles and new materials, gone are the days of seventies-style jumpers for dad and back in vogue are knitted bags, cushion covers, drinks coasters, not to mention gorgeous and glamorous hats, scarves, and other fashion accessories.

Hope Recommends
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - by Dr. Seuss (Easy Fiction)
The Grinch tries to stop Christmas from arriving by stealing all the presents and food from the village, but much to his surprise it comes anyway. Could Christmas be more than presents?

The Monster at the End of the Book - by Jon Stone (Easy Fiction)
Grover worries page by page about meeting the monster at the end of this book.

Three to get Deadly - by Janet Evanovich (Adult Fiction)
A "saintly" old candy-store owner is on the lam-and bounty hunter extraordinaire Stephanie Plum is on the case. As the body count rises, Stephanie finds herself dealing with dead drug dealers and slippery fugitives on the chase of her life. And with the help of eccentric friends and family, Steph must see to it that this case doesn't end up being her last...

Jessie B. Recommends

Shantaram - by Gregory David Roberts (Adult Fiction)
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured." So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

jPod - By Douglas Coupland (Adult Fiction)
Ethan Jarlewski and five co-workers whose surnames begin with “J” are bureaucratically marooned in jPod, a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a massive Vancouver game design company. The jPodders wage daily battle against the demands of a boneheaded marketing staff, who daily torture employees with idiotic changes to already idiotic games. Meanwhile, Ethan’s personal life is shaped (or twisted) by phenomena as disparate as Hollywood, marijuana grow-ops, people-smuggling, ballroom dancing, and the rise of China. JPod’s universe is amoral, shameless, and dizzyingly fast-paced like our own.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns) - By Mindy Kaling (Adult Fiction)
In "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, "Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door--not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.