Outside of a Dog, #50

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx.

Hooray, our 50^th column! Since we started Outside of a Dog in January 2008, we’ve done 50 columns of all shapes, sizes, and recommendations – in total, we’ve suggested over 250 books to our patrons. Today’s list contains new books from each of the four Warren libraries. If you’re not sure what to read now, why not take a chance on a new-to-you book?

Arthur Miller Branch

Bright Futures: A Lew Fonseca Mystery – Stuart M. Kaminsky

Lew Fonseca, late of 2006’s “Always Say Goodbye” is a private detective who up and left his life in Illinois after his wife died. He ended up in Sarasota, Florida, finding lost people and often being tailed by scarier ones. In this tale, he thinks he has his work cut out for him, but he’s about to find more twists and turns than he expects!

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Mrs. Astor Regrets: The hidden betrayals of a family beyond reproach – Meryl Garden

Life amongst millionaires and celebrities is always something we look at with anticipation. However, in this year’s biography about the misuse of money and mistreatment of mothers, we find that the lifestyles of the rich and the famous aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.

Bio Astor

Civic Center Branch

Angels of Destruction – Keith Donohue

Margaret Quinn, a widow, seeks lost connections with an orphan in this novel set in 1985. Her daughter, Erica, ran away before the book begins to join the titular revolutionary group. Since then, Margaret’s life has been a lonely one. When 9-year-old Norah happens by her doorstep, looking for help and a home, Margaret creates a backstory for the young girl, shaping her into the granddaughter she never got to have.

Fic Donohue

Negotiating With the Dead: A Writer on Writing – Margaret Atwood

Author of over twenty-five books, novels, and anthologies, Margaret Atwood is a Canadian legend. Her dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” made a splash when it premiered in 1985, and her 2000 work “The Blind Assassin” won the Booker Prize for fiction. Here, she discusses what it means to be a writer, both from her perspective and that of other famous and not-so-famous writers.

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Dorothy Busch Branch

Illegal – Paul J. Levine

Edgar-nominated author Levine’s work has spanned almost two decades and a variety of mediums; he has written novels and episodes of the television series JAG. Here, in one of his few standalone novels, we meet shyster lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Paine, who’s on the run because of his latest lawbreaking adventure. He is almost robbed, then begged for help by 12-year-old illegal alien boy Timo. Paine is then sent on a thrilling journey to find Timo’s mother, which will take him across state, country, and moral lines.

Fic Levine

The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia – Andrew Lih

As the saying goes, veni vidi wiki (Mental Floss). One of the top ten most visited sites, and trusted for quick, mostly reliable information, Wikipedia is almost always one of the first sites to come up on a search engine. This is the inside story of how it began, and how it still continues on today.

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Maybelle Burnette Branch

Natural Elements – Richard Mason

A third novel of epic proportions, Natural Elements is a historical work that mixes together rich widows, the French Resistance, the Boer War, and metallurgy. If you’re curious as to how that works, come and check this book out!

Fic Mason

What Was I Thinking?: 58 Bad Boyfriend Stories – Barbara Davilman

A collection of humorous essays about real life bad boyfriends and the actresses, authors, and everyday women who had to deal with them. Included here are stories by Carrie Fisher, Francesca Lia Block, and Cindy Chupack (of Sex and the City/"He’s Just Not That Into You" fame.)

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