Think of all the years passed by

in which you said to yourself

“I’ll do it tomorrow,”

and how the gods have again and again

granted you periods of grace

of which you have not availed yourself.

It is time to realize

that you are a member of the Universe,

that you are born of Nature itself,

and to know that a limit has been set to your time.

Marcus Aurelius

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

recent acquisitions

Adult Fiction

A Walk Across the Sun - Corban Addison

The Broken Land - Kathleen O'Neal Gear

The Ice Pilots - Michael Vlessides

Irises - Francisco X. Stork

Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith

Gun Games - Faye Kellerman

My Sweet Audrina - V.C. Andrews

How To Be An American Housewife - Margaret Dilloway

Ingenious Pain - Andrew Miller

Lunatics - Dave Barry

A Death in Tuscany - Michele Giuttari

A Florentine Death - Michele Giuttari

Love In a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich

The Winter Palace - Eva Stachniak

Halo Primordium - Greg Bear

Covert Warriors - W.E.B. Griffin

Rip Tide - Stella Rimington

Believing the Lie - Elizabeth George

Adrenaline - Jeff Abbott

Gideon's Corpse - Douglas Preston

Fortune Cookie - Bryce Courtenay

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adult Non-Fiction

What Disturbs Our Blood - James Fitzgerald

Wearing the Green Beret -Jake Olafsen

Take the Step - Grace Cirocco

C'mon Papa - Ryan Knighton

A New Leaf - Merilyn Simonds

Retirement's Harsh New Realities - Gordon Pape

Fraser's Penguins - Fen Montaigne

Worth Fighting For - Lisa Niemi Swayze

The Magic Room - Jeffrey Zaslow

I Got This - Jennifer Hudson

Bread Is the Devil - Heather Bauer

Making Toast - Roger Rosenblatt

Kayak Morning - Roger Rosenblatt

A Life in the Dark - Pauline Kael

The Breakup Bible - Rachel A. Sussman

Sybil Exposed - Debbie Nathan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Young Adult

Charmfall - Chloe Neill

Cinder - Marissa Meyer

What Boys Really Want - Pete Hautman

Alex Rider Crocodile Tears - Anthony Horowitz

Clarity - Kim Harrington

Hannah - Kathryn Lasky

May - Kathryn Lasky

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CD Books

American Dervish - Ayad Akhtar

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty - Joshilyn Jackson

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As my mother bit into her Big Mac,

her glasses caught the reflection of a purple neon light somewhere behind me.

Barry White's "Love's Theme," my favourite song, blasted from the loudspeaker.

Mami looked hilarious in her new aqua eyeshadow.

Her plucked eyebrows gave her a surprised expression.

Then there was her frosted pink lipstick,

which was smeared across her chin now,

and the unfamiliar scent of Charlie.

I'd helped her choose that perfume.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

recent acquisitions

Adult Fiction

Death Benefit - Robin Cook

The Whisperer - Donato Carrisi

The Hunter - John Lescroart

Sleepwalker - Karen Robards

77 Shadow Street - Dean Koontz

D.C. Dead - Stuart Woods

The Scottish Prisoner - Diana Gabaldon

The Setting Lake Sun - J.R. Leveille

Sandman Brief Lives (graphic novel) - Neil Gaiman

Red Mist - Patricia Cornwell

Christmas Magic - Cathy Kelly

Death Comes To Pemberley - P.D. James

Escape Velocity - Robin Stevenson

Ladybird Ladybird - Abra Ebner

Gatsby's Girl - Caroline Preston

Thirteen Hallows - Michael Scott

Eye Lake - Tristan Hughes

The Drop - Michael Connelly

Soft Target - Stephen Hunter

Snuff - Terry Pratchett

Explosive Eighteen - Janet Evanovich

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth - Alexander McCall Smith

A Fatal Thaw - Dana Stabenow

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adult Non-Fiction

Minor Hockey To NHL - Paul M. Valliant

Raising Boys in a New Kind of World - Michael Reist

Arguably - Christopher Hitchens

Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food - Christine Avanti

UFOs in Wartime - Mack Maloney

How Hockey Explains Canada - Paul Henderson

Young Prince Philip - Philip Eade

Oliver's Twist - Craig Oliver

The Table Comes First - Adam Gopnik

Civilization - Niall Ferguson

King - Allan Levine

Into the Silence - Wade Davis

Something Fierce - Carmen Aguirre

Nation Maker - Richard Gwyn

A Season In Hell - Robert R. Fowler

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Young Adult

xxxHolic #18 (graphic novel)

Superman Secret Origin - Geoff Johns

The Demon's Surrender - Sarah Rees Brennan

Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake

Beauty Queens - Libba Bray

Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor

The Tiffin - Mahtab Narsimhan

Tilt - Alan Cumyn

Demon's Covenant - Sarah Rees Brennan

Demon's Lexicon - Sarah Rees Brennan

The Girl Who Was On Fire

Erak's Ransom - John Flanagan

The Haunted - Jessica Verday

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CD Books

No Rest For the Dead

Lost December - Richard Paul Evans

El Paso - Matt Braun

Doc Holiday - Matt Braun

The Angel Esmeralda - Don DeLillo

The Rum Diary - Hunter S. Thompson

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If there was any doubt at the turn of the twentieth century,

by the turn of the twenty-first, it was a foregone conclusion:

when it comes to revealing the true nature of reality,

common experience is deceptive.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

recent acquisitions

Adult Fiction

Hot Water - Erin Brockovich

Locked On - Tom Clancy

The Vault - Ruth Rendell

The Girl in the Box - Sheila Dalton

The Curse - Harold Robbins

Revan - Drew Karpyshyn

Lionheart - Sharon K. Penman

The Narrative of John Smith - Arthur Conan Doyle

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach

Micro - Michael Crichton

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

The Stranger's Child - Alan Hollinghurst

Rain Falls Like Mercy - Jack Todd

Nightwoods - Charles Frazier

The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides

To Be Sung Underwater - Tom McNeal

Scalped 8 (Graphic Novel)

The Green Woman (Graphic Novel) - Peter Straub

The Boy in the Suitcase - Lene Kaaberbol

Adam & Evelyn - Ingo Schulze

11/22/63 - Stephen King

Shelter - Harlan Coben

Christmas Treasures - Thomas Kinkade

Prince of Ravenscar - Catherine Coulter

Devil's Gate - Clive Cussler

The Prague Cemetery - Umberto Eco

The Time of My Life - Cecilia Ahern

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adult Non-Fiction

The Long Trail - Ian Tyson

Unquenchable - Natalie MacLean

Jerusalem - Simon Sebag Montefiore

Never Leave Your Wingman - Deana J. Driver

Explorers - Andrea De Porti

Sports Illustrated Hockey Talk

Lemon-Aid New Cars & Trucks 2012

Cosmos Close-Up - Giles Sparrow

The Natural World Close-Up - Giles Sparrow

Auroras - Dan Bortolotti

Catherine the Great - Robert K. Massie

Jack Kennedy Elusive Hero - Chris Matthews

The Book of Holiday Awesome - Neil Pasricha

The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Robin Sharma

Killing Lincoln - Bill O'Reilly

Then Again - Diane Keaton

Blue Nights - Joan Didion

The Damned - Nathan M. Breenfield

I'd Listen To My Parents If They'd Just Shut Up - Anthony E. Wolf

Exporting Democracy - Bob Rae

Holy Ghost Girl - Donna M. Johnson

The End of Normal - Stephanie Madoff Mack

300 Astronomical Objects -Jamie Wilkins

InStyle Ultimate Beauty Secrets

One Bird's Choice - Iain Reid

Atlantic - Simon Winchester

The Rescue of Belle and Sundance - Birgit Stutz

Five Good Ideas

The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes - Judy Collins

Canada's Constitutional Monarchy

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Young Adult

Longing - Karen Kingsbury

The Siege of Macindaw - John Flanagan

The Kings of Clonmel - John Flanagan

The Battle for Skandia - John Flanagan

The Sorcerer of the North - John Flanagan

Beautiful Monster - Kate McCaffrey

Crossed - Ally Condie

The Hidden - Jessica Verday

Silence - Becca Fitzpatrick

The Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Donald was a juice box with a terrible attitude.

Out of nowhere, he'd whale on the other juice boxes,

slamming them with plastic lunchroom trays and puncturing their sacred tinfoil puncture holes

with bobby pins he swiped from the girls who sat at the popular girl's table.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

recent acquisitions

Adult Fiction

 

The Sisters - Nancy Jensen

Neverwinter - R.A. Salvatore

V Is For Vengeance - Sue Grafton

Kill Alex Cross - James Patterson

The Night Eternal - Guillermo Del Toro

Algoma - Dani Couture

Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan

The English Ghost - Peter Ackroyd

Light From a Distant Star - Mary McGarry Morris

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt

The Next Always - Nora Roberts

The Dashwood Sisters Tell All - Beth Pattillo

Innocent Foxes - Torey Hayden

She Felt No Pain - Lou Allin

And On the Surface Die - Lou Allin

Three Wishes - Liane Moriarty

The Decision - Penny Vincenzi

Hotel Vendome - Danielle Steel

Out of Oz - Gregory Maguire

The Fear Index - Robert Harris

Zero Day - David Baldacci

Beauty and the Werewolf -  Mercredes Lackey

Bad Intentions - Karin Fossum

The Corn Maiden - Joyce Carol Oates

Cloudburst - V.C. Andrews

Comfort & Joy - Kristin Hannah

Lost December - Richard Paul Evans

Survivors - James Wesley

A Plain & Fancy Christmas - Cynthia Keller

The Ballad of Tom Dooley - Sharyn McCrumb

How Firm A Foundation -  David Weber

Murder Unleashed - Rita Mae Brown

Shock Wave - John Sandford

The Christmas Wedding - James Patterson

Before the Poison - Peter Robinson

As the Pig Turns - M.C. Beaton

The Gods of Atlantis - David Gibbins

Highly Inappropriate Tales For Young People - Douglas Coupland

The Virgin Cure - Ami McKay

The Lady of the Rivers - Philippa Gregory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Adult Non-Fiction

Cornered - Ron MacLean

Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson

The Human Body Close-Up - John Clancy

The Best Gluten-Free Family Cookbook - Donna Washburn

Women Know Everything

Murder in Amsterdam - Ian Buruma

Lighten Up - Peter Walsh

Hemmingway - Boris Vejdovsky

Hubble - Robin Kerrod

Beyond Bullets - Rafal Gerszak

Fighting The Good Fight - Adam Proteau

Have a New Teenager By Friday - Kevin Leman

The New Atkins For a New You - Eric Westman

Awkward Family Pet Photos - Mike Bender

Across Many Mountains - Yangzom Brauen

Falling Backwards - Jann Arden

I Didn't Ask To Be Born - Bill Cosby

Wayne Gretzky's Ghost - Roy MacGregor

Brave Battalion - Mark Zuehlke

Cancer Connections

100 Days That Changed Canada

Emily Post's Etiquette

Eva Braun - Heike B. Gortemaker

Out of the Depths - Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Audio Books

Enjoy Every Sandwich - Lee Lipsenthal

Shockaholic - Carrie Fisher

The Virginia City Trail - Ralph Compton

Blue Nights - Joan Didion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Young Adult

I Heart You, You Haunt Me - Lisa Schroeder

Matched - Ally Condie

Dirty Little Secrets - C. J. Omololu

In Ecstasy - Kate McCaffrey

Along For the Ride - Sarah Dessen

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What will be remembered about the twenty-first century,

more than anything else except perhaps the effects of a changing climate,

is the great, and final, shift of human populations

out of rural, agricultural life and into cities.

We will end this century as a wholly urban species.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Some people choose to work nights.

Sometimes, the night chooses people.

That's what I think happened to me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

He could hear the stray dogs that lived on the quays

barking out of the darkness.

Nearly everything around him was invisible,

save for what could be seen under the spray of a few sulphur lanterns--

watersiders pulling a procession of baggage wagons,

some families huddled together.

They were all beginning to walk towards the ship.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On the boat we were mostly virgins.

We had long black hair and flat wide feet and we were not very tall.

Some of us had eaten nothing bur rice gruel as young girls and had slightly bowed legs,

and some of us were only fourteen years old and were still young girls ourselves.

Some of us came from the city, and wore stylish city clothes,

but many more of us came from the country

and on the boat we wore the same old kimonos we'd been wearing for years

--faded hand-me-downs from our sisters that had been patched and redyed many times.

Some of us came from the mountains, and had never before seen the sea, except for in pictures,

and some of us were the daughters of fishermen who had been around the sea all our lives.

Perhaps we had lost a brother or father to the sea, or a fiance,

or perhaps someone we loved had jumped into the water one unhappy morning

and simply swum away, and now it was time for us, too, to move on.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It feels important to start with the truth about how I got here.

When everything gets messy and brutal and complicated,

the truth is the first thing to go, isn't it?

The First Husband - Laura Dave

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The images were stark: a foreboding gray sky overhead,

a turbulent river churning by in the background,

and throngs of people--men and women--racing against time to save their town.

With the temperature below freezing and snow from a late spring blizzard swirling around them,

the volunteers worked hurriedly but efficiently to build makeshift levees,

using millions of sandbags. Stuffed into snow boots and down coats,

sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers

tossed bags weighted with sand to each other, each bag moving along to the next person,

until at last the bag took its place standing guard alongside the swollen river.

from The Weather of the Future - Heidi Cullen

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hanging in the trees, as if caught there, is a sickle of a moon.

Its wan light scatters shadows on the snow below, only obscuring further the forest

that this man negotiates now as much by feel as by sight. He is on foot and on his own

save for a single dog, which runs ahead, eager to be heading home at last. All around,

the black trunks of oak, pine, and poplar soar into the dark above the scrub and deadfall,

and their branches form a tattered canopy overhead. Slender birches, whiter than the snow,

seem to emit a light of their own, but it is like the coat of an animal in winter: cold to the touch

and for itself alone. All is quiet in this dormant, frozen world. It is so cold that spit will freeze

before it lands; so cold that a tree, brittle as straw and unable to contain its expanding sap,

may spontaneously explode. As they progress, man and dog alike leave behind a wake of heat,

and the contrails of their breath hang in pale clouds above their tracks. Their scent stays close

in the windless dark, but their footfalls carry and so, with every step,

they announce themselves to the night.

The Tiger - John Vaillant