New Books, Films, Databases, and other Resources: July 2012

This book describes in fascinating detail the variety of experiments sponsored by the U.S. government in which human subjects were exposed to radiation, often without their knowledge or consent.

While on vacation in East Anglia, four children, whose previous sailing experience is limited to dinghies, accidentally drift out to the North Sea after the rising tide causes their cutter to drag anchor.

Caryl Churchill (1938-) is probably the most respected woman dramatist in the English-speaking world. She is the author of some twenty plays including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud Nine, Top Girls, Serious Money, The Skriker, Blue Heart, Far Away and A Number, seen and admired all over the world.

Italo Calvino's masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the books central character.

Patchett returns with a provocative novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest--a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

First published in 1977, "I Am the Cheese" provides an exciting introduction to psychological thrillers. This sensitive, emotional, subtly-crafted novel by the author of "The Chocolate War" was a "New York Times" Outstanding Book of the Year, as well as a "School Library Journal" Best Book of the Year.

Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title.

Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith's third novel is a brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and political, and an honest look at people's deceptions. It is also, as you might expect, very funny indeed.

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best, and the fence that protects her village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth must remain intact. After fence is breached, Mary's world is thrown into chaos, and she must choose between her village and her future.

Ryan delivers the thrilling conclusion to the Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy.

Acclaimed writer Suzanne Collins, author of the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles, delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in this stunning novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present.

This stunning set, complete with five editions of Twilight,New Moon,Eclipse,Breaking Dawn, and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella,makes the perfect gift for fans of the bestselling vampire love story. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, The Twilight Saga capture the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires.

A collection of essays from the journal, Leader to leader

First published in 1926, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage is one of the most celebrated reference books of the twentieth century. Commonly known as "Fowler," after its inimitable author, H.W. Fowler, it has sold more than a million copies and maintained a devoted following over seven decades, in large part because of its charming blend of information and good humor, delivered in the voice of a genial if somewhat idiosyncratic schoolmaster.

Ben Goldacre has made a point of exposing quack doctors and nutritionists, bogus credentialing programs, and biased scientific studies. He has also taken the media to task for its willingness to throw facts and proof out the window. But he’s not here just to tell you what’s wrong. Goldacre is here to teach you how to evaluate placebo effects, double-blind studies, and sample sizes, so that you can recognize bad science when you see it. You’re about to feel a whole lot better.

The crash of an airplane on the outskirts of Marshall, Montana, takes more than just the lives of those on board.

A homosexual love affair between an American writer and an Italian actor in Venice. It begins when both are students, is interrupted by World War II, then resumes with full passion, only to turn into jealousy and hate.

Jonathan Yardley portrays in full one of the most tormented, distinctive, and talented American writers of the 20th century.

ischievously composed, this groundbreaking work intends nothing short of a revolution in how we think about the "American" Constitution and government. In colloquial language that is by turns satirical, bantering, metaphorical, and sexually charged, a mysterious young Englishwoman tutors a young American in the history of his country.

The royal house of Ruwenda is threatened by a sorcerer whose goal is to control the world of the Three Moons.

A terrible fire in a wealthy suburban home leaves a married couple dead and Detective Lindsay Boxer and her partner Rich Conklin searching for clues.

When Jack Mullen sets out to unravel the truth about his brother's drowning death, he confronts legal interference as he discovers that his brother had been making serious money catering to the sexual needs of East Hampton's wealthiest men and women.

The first book in a new mystery series that evokes the atmosphere of Victorian Boston's high and low society. When the publisher of a scurrilous gossip rag is found shot to death in his Boston hotel suite, there are few to mourn him but many who will feel the repercussions of his death.

Phillips returns with a delightfully saucy new novel about twin sisters--and the delicious trouble that ensues when one is mistaken for the other.

Jenny Cain searches for answers surrounding her mother's death and the bankruptcy of the family business.

InWinter SolsticeRosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people. It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan. It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed.

Robinette Broadhead, who learned the secrets of a cache of Heechee starships found hidden in an asteroid, is brought face to face with the mysterious race who made them.

In Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes , White has produced an equally serious and fascinating biography, one that again goes beyond the labels and gives us the man himself.

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability-- and desperately in search of a place to eat.

Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and their friends are back on Earth after eight years away, and begin a new quest for what really happened the day the Earth was demolished, the reason why the dolphins disappeared, and God's final message to His creation.

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.  Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Tuesdays with Morrieis a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

A harrowing and hilarious escapade that ranges from Earth to Xanth to a galaxy far, far away,Swell Foop is pure magical merriment from the prolific pen of fantasy master Piers Anthony.

Landing a catch like Talmadge Evans III got Eloise "Weezie" Foley a jewel of a town house in Savannah's historic district. Divorcing Tal got her exited to the backyard carriage house, where she has launched a spite-fest with Tal's new fiance, the elegant Caroline DeSantos. An unauthorized sneak preview at an antiques sale lands Weezie smack in the middle of magnolia-scented murder, mayhem . . . and more. Unabridged. 11 CDs.

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are back, and struggling in the emotional aftermath of the events that brought them to the brink in Hour Game. Dogged by personal demons, Maxwell is agrees to treatment in a psychiatric institution, after barely surviving a violent barroom brawl. And King, to right their partnership, accepts an offer to investigate a murder in a scientific think tank named Babbage Town.