Rylander Memorial Library - New Arrivals Archive

New Arrivals

A darker book than any in the series thus far with a level of sophistication belying its genre, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" moves the series into murkier waters and marks the arrival of Rowling onto the adult literary scene. While she has long been praised for her cleverness and wit, the strength of Book 6 lies in her subtle development of key characters, as well as her carefully nuanced depiction of a community at war. In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", no one and nothing is safe, including preconceived notions of good and evil and of right and wrong. With each book in her increasingly remarkable series, fans have nervously watched J.K. Rowling raise the stakes; gone are the simple delights of butterbeer and enchanted candy, and days when the worst ailment could be cured by a bite of chocolate. A series that began as a colorful lark full of magic and discovery has become a dark and deadly war zone. But this should not come as a shock to loyal readers. Rowling readied fans with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by killing off popular characters and engaging the young students in battle. Still, there is an unexpected bleakness from the start of Book 6 that casts a mean shadow over Quidditch games, silly flirtations, and mountains of homework. Ready or not, the tremendous ending of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will leave stunned fans wondering what great and terrible events await in Book 7 if this sinister darkness is meant to light the way.

Psychology professor Buss first became interested in the roots of homicide when a close friend flew into a murderous rage against his wife at a party. The fact that this gentle man came close to murdering a loved one contradicted a number of beliefs Buss had always held about homicide, chief among them that murderers are necessarily insane. This book, the result of Buss' research into a never-used file of more than 400,000 murders and a close collaboration with psychiatrists at the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry, led him to a new view: that murder is the product of evolutionary forces and that the homicidal act, in evolutionary terms, conveys advantages to the killer. Buss sets out to dispel what he terms some misperceptions about murder, misperceptions based largely on the media's focus on serial killers. Well argued and unsettling; a provocative, diligently wrought explanation of why cops always count the husband as a suspect.

It has been eight years since two-year-old Kristal Malley was brutally murdered by two young teenage boys, Troy Turner and Rand Duchay; Alex Delaware has pushed his role in the drama out of his mind. Troy is now dead, murdered in prison, and Rand has been released—and he promptly calls Alex to tell him he has some important information, and brings the sad, sordid circumstances back. When Rand is found murdered--with Delaware's phone number in his pocket--the cops come knocking, in the person of Delaware's friend, Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. Kellerman always fashions fiendishly complicated cases, both literally and psychologically, for Alex to unravel, and this one is no different. During the course of the investigation, he and longtime pal L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis encounter a host of wayward children, a foster family from hell, infidelities that have to be charted to be kept straight and a serial killer who's the exact opposite of the genre's usual madman slasher but just as deadly. Delaware and Sturgis take on the familiar roles of compatriots in crime solving, as they try to determine if Kristal's murder has any bearing on Rand's death. Before they can figure that out, though, they must slash their way through a morass of lies, abuse, and dirty secrets, which envelop nearly everyone involved in the original tragedy. There's less suspense here than in some of Kellerman's past Delaware novels; Alex and Milo spend a great deal of time swapping theories in the kitchen, in the car, and at restaurants, methodically piecing together gossamer-thin trails of evidence. But there's still enough surprise along the way to keep things interesting, especially at the close, when both Delaware and Sturgis face a moral quandary with which readers will sympathize. It's an impressive piece of detection, and readers who enjoy watching the delicate untangling of a Gordian knot–like plot will find this one a winner. Less action, more substance for Kellerman fans.

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing.

Residents of an Edinburgh apartment building are put merrily under the microscope in this latest offering from Scotsman McCall Smith, author of the best-selling Ladies Detective Agency series. This book—comprising 110 sections, originally serialized in the Scotsman, that drolly chronicle the lives of residents is episodic, amusing and peopled with characters both endearing and benignly problematic. Pat, 21, is on her second "gap year" (her first yearlong break from her studies was such a flop she refuses to discuss it), employed at a minor art gallery and newly settled at the eponymous address where she befriends neighbor Domenica. There she admires vain flatmate Bruce, a handsome surveyor who is insufferably self-absorbed. He is hardly boyfriend material, she tells herself, nor is Matthew, the aesthetically impaired owner of the gallery where she's employed. Pat's mundane life becomes infinitely more interesting when she suspects that one of the gallery's paintings may be an undiscovered work of eighteenth-century portraitist Samuel Peploe. A low-level mystery develops about painting painting Pat discovers, proceeds to lose and then finds in the unlikely possession of Ian Rankin, whose bestselling mysteries celebrate the dark side of Edinburgh just as Smith's explore the (mostly) sunny side. The possibility of romance, the ongoing ups and downs of the large, well-drawn cast of characters, the intricate plot and the way Smith nimbly jumps from situation to situation and POV to POV as he gently mocks fellow Scots (what is proper kilt protocol--underwear or no?)—he was charged, after all, with keeping his newspaper readers both momentarily satisfied and eager for the next installment—works beautifully in book form. The building's irrepressible tenants are vintage McCall Smith: gossipy widow Domenica McDonald, who tools around town in a custard-colored Mercedes, and the preposterous Pollock family, whose five-year-old son, Bertie, speaks fluent Italian, plays the saxophone, and reads W. H. Auden for fun. Readers needn't possess plaid clothes or a brogue to savor this wise, witty send-up of Edinburgh rogues.

Fiction

Title

Author

Blood of angels
Secret purposes
Adored
Dangerous ground
Out of range
Act of war
Shadows
Close case
Crusaders cross
Rogues game
Magic street
It's alright now
1 shot
Lord Vishnus love handles
Shadowfall
Potter Springs
Tyranny of the night
Levis will
Specimen days
Diana Lively is falling down
Enemy of God
12th card
Looking for Peyton Place
Summer we got saved
Sun and shadow
Celebrity
Little black dress
11 on top
Love creeps
Something blue
Change of heart
2 to tango
Zipporah wife of Moses
Homesick Creek
Puppets
Long way down
Dark harbor
Killing time
Company car
Six bad things
Until I find you
Easy streets
Stealing with style
Man who shot Liberty Valance
Rage
Empire rising
Locked rooms
Last refuge
Velocity
Dearly devoted Dexter
Marriage most scandalous
Always time to die
Cold granite
Good yarn
Double tap
Society girls
Blown
44 Scotland Street
1776
Torment of others
Baby tree
Interruption of everything
Vendetta
McKettricks choice
Oh pure and radiant heart
Field of blood
Sweetgrass
Where there's a will
Twilight
Cape Perdido
Disturbed earth
Haunted
Fire sale
Appaloosa
Lifeguard
Mapmakers daughter
Sky bridge
Lie by moonlight
Cross bones
Summer of roses
Endless chain
Superstition
Sudden death
Double cross blind
Harry Potter and the half blood prince
Thicker than blook
Revenge of sith
Devil’s corner
Ladies of Garrison Gardens
Killer swell
Trance
Miracle
36 Yalta Blv
Divided kingdom
Forcing Amaryllis
High Plains tango
Power of the dog

Arvin
Baddiel
Bagshawe
Bond
Box
Brown
Buchanan
Burke
Burke
Burton
Card
Chadwick
Child
Clarke
Clemens
Coleman
Cook
Cramer
Cunningham
Curran
Daley
Deaver
Delinsky
Devoto
Edwardson
Elmer
Estleman
Evanovich
Filipacci
Giffin
Gulley
Guttridge
Halter
Hammond
Hecht
Hornby
Hosp
Howard
Hribal
Huston
Irving
James
Jenkins
Johnson
Kellerman
Kelly
King
Knopf
Koontz
Lindsay
Lindsey
Lowell
MacBride
Macomber
Martini
Mason
Mathews
M cCall
McCullough
McDermid
McGraw
McMillan
Michaels
Miller
Millet
Mina
Monroe
Mortimer
Mosby
Muller
Nadelson
Palahniuk
Paretsky
Parker
Patterson
Pilkington
Pritchett
Quick
Reichs
Rice
Richards
Robards
Rosenfelt
Ross
Rowling
Rudolph
Saxton
Scottoline
Shaffer
Shelby
Sorrentino
Steel
Steinhauer
Thomson
Ure
Waller
Winslow

Nonfiction

Title

Author

Science in agriculture
Conservancy the land trust movement
South Park conservatives
Boys of Pointe de Hoc Ronald Reagan
Wedding goddess
Murderer next door
Share the care
Win the crowd
Lance Armstrong's war
Collapse how societies fail
Pain free
Michael Finneys consumer confidential
Lilias Yoga gets better with age
Grail bird
Texas gardening
Ultimate dog grooming
Conduct under fire
You can do it
Texas hill country
Myself and strangers
Lotus grows in the mud
Good Housekeeping the complete household
Book of photography
Losing Moses on the freeway
Restless sleep
George Washington the founding father
Charting a course to wellness
Truth about Hillary
First emancipator
Birds of the Texas Hill Country
1776
Recovered not cured
Colonel and Little Missie
Texas sky
Deficit of decency
Guide to survivorship for women with ova
Hold on to your kids
All about quilting from A to Z
Say the magic words
James Dean
Stalins folly
What your doctor may not tell you
How to grill
Garbage land
Behavior of birds
Bullies, tyrants and impossible people
Extreme cuisine
Applied economics
Babys first skills
Identify yourself
Circling back chronicle of a Texas river
Texas snakes

Anderson
Brewer
Anderson
Brinkley
Brockway
Buss
Capossela
Cohen
Coyle
Diamond
Egoscue
Finney
Folan
Gallagher
Garrett
Gleeson
Glusman
Grandcolas
Graves
Graves
Hawn
Hearst Books
Hedgecoe
Hedges
Horn
Johnson
Kerr
Klein
Levy
Lockwood
McCullough
McLean
McMurtry
Meinzer
Miller
Montz
Neufeld
No author
Padwa
Perry
Pleshakov
Pochapin
Raichlen
Royte
Rylander
Shapiro
Sloane
Sowell
Stoppard
Thomson
Truette
Werler

Audio CD’s

Fiction

Title

Author

Split Second

God Save the Sweet Potato Queens

Darkest Fear

Closers

The Gold Coast

Welcome to the World

Evenings at Five

Which Big Giver Stole the Chopped Liver?

Mystic River

Shoot the Moon

Anderson’s Roundup

Winter Solstice

Divine Evil

The Pilot’s Wife

Low Country

Rage

Texas vendetta

Alice in jeopardy

Saturday

Little Scarlet

Appaloosa

Flat crazy

Abilene gun down

High Plains tango

GodninBaldacci

Browne

Coben

Connelly

Demille

Flagg

Kahn

Lehane

Letts

May

Pilcher

Roberts

Shreve

Siddons

Kellerman

Kelton

McBain

McEwan

Mosley

Parker

Rehder

Sherman

Waller

Nonfiction

Title

Author

Alexander Hamilton

Portrait of a Killer

Don’t Know Much About Geography

Devil in the White City

Positive Energy

Ghost Soldiers

Chernow

Cornwell

Davis

Larson

Orloff

Sides

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