Popular Reading

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The CSS Popular Reading Collection contains approximately 800 books for your reading pleasure. Books are located on the first floor of the Library and are shelved by the author's last name. Anthologies published yearly, such as Best American Short Stories, are shelved by the first three letters of the title (i.e BAS).

NEW POPULAR READING FOR JULY 2010

Fiction
Abe, Shana. The Time Weaver.

Allen, Preston. Jesus Boy.

Allende, Isabel. Island Beneath the Sea.

Amis, Martin. The Pregnant Widow.

Blum, Judy. The Stormchasers.

Bova, Ben. The Hittite.

Briggs, Patricia. Silver Borne.

Carey, Jacqueline. Namah's Curse.

Connelly, Michael. Dragons.

Cronin, Justin. The Passage.

Gael, Juliet. Romancing Miss Bronte.

Green, Jane. Promises to Keep.

Guillou, Jan. The Road to Jerusalem.

Guillou, Jan. The Templar Knight.

Hamilton, Laurell K. Bullet.

Hampl, Patricia. The Florist's Daughter.

Johansen, Iris. Eight Days to Live.

King, Laurie R. The God of the Hive: A Novel of Suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

Koontz, Dean. Frankenstein: Lost Souls.

Larsson, Stieg. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

Marlantes, Karl. Matterhorn: A Novel of Vietnam.

Martin, Charles. The Mountain Between Us.

Meyer, Stephanie. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

Mieville, China. The City & the City.

Morgenstern, S. Ed. By Wm. Goldman. The Princess Bride.

Nesbo, Jo. The Devil's Star.

Paretsky, Sara. Hardball.

Perry, Anne. The Sheen of Silk.

Peters, Elizabeth. A River in the Sky.

Picoult, Jodi. House Rules.

Pyle, Howard. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.

Rebeck, Theresa. Twelve Rooms with a View.

Robards, Karen. Shameless.

Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead.

Sansom, Ian. The Case of the Missing Books.

Scotch, Allison Winn. The One That I Want.

Smiley, Jane. House Rules.

Turow, Scott. Innocent.

Udall, Brady. The Lonely Polygamist.

Young-Stone, Michele. The Handbook for Lightening Strike Survivors.

Non-Fiction
Alexander, William. 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and the Perfect Crust.

Bell, Laura. Claiming Ground: A Memoir.

Best, S. Payne. The Venlo Incident: A True Story of Double-Dealing, Captivity, and a Murderous Nazi Plot.

Bowden, Charles. Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields.

Butterworth, Alex. The World that Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents.

Brizendine, Louann. The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think.

Fox, Michael J. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist.

Guilliatt, Richard, and Peter Hohnen. The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorized the Allies in WWI.

Haley, James L. Wolf: The Lives of Jack London.

Hewitt, Ben. The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food.

Junger, Sebastian. War.

McGough, Matthew. Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees.

Miller, Lisa. Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife.

Nadeau, Barbie Latza. Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox.

Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing & Choice are Undermining Education.

Smith, Rick, & Bruce Lourie. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everday Things.

WHAT ARE PEOPLE READING AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY?
Library Journal maintains a list, updated weekly, of the 15 most popular fiction and the 15 most popular non-fiction books checked out in America's public libraries. Scroll to the bottom of LJ's homepage to check out how your reading list compares to others!

Free Reader's Advisory
Books-in-Print offers FictionConnection, a free reader's advisory service to recommend books based on author, genre, etc. Just click on the link above and choose the category of book you are interested in reading.
----- use this link for off-campus access to FC.

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NEW POPULAR READING FOR JULY 2010

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
Decorated combat veteran Karl Marlantes wrote this novel over the course of 30 years. The critics love it, but a reader doesn't need them to realize this is a great book that shows men at their best in situations that no one should ever be in. The men of Bravo Company, most not even 20 years old, live a world that would be absurd if it wasn't for the reality of death that is with them each day, and their stories are reflected in many ways by today's war, as depicted in Sebastian Junger's reporting in his book War.

Check out Matterhorn at the CSS Library

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory
Journalist Peter Hessler rents a car and heads off in search of the Great Wall of China only to discover it's not a wall at all. And that's not all he discovers. If we in the West find China mysterious, China seems mystified by itself as it experiences the growing pains of modernization. Hessler writes with style, makes keen observations, and throughout demonstrates a great affection for the Chinese people. A wonderful book for the traveler to lazy to rent a car.

Check out Country Driving at the CSS Library

LibraryThing is social networking site that allows book collectors to catalog their own collections, make their collection lists available to other members, and share information and talk about books.

The CSS Library's Popular Reading Collection is available via LibraryThing. Browse the list of titles or use the "tags" to look for books by topic or genre.

If your would like to browse the most recent additions to the Popular Reading Collection, check the "What's New" tab on this page for the most current month we have added books to the PRC.

LibraryThing does not track circulation, so you cannot find out from it whether or not a book is checked out. In order to do that, see the tab on this page for ScholastiCAT.

Use ScholastiCAT for the following -

To determine if a books is currently checked out:
---Access ScholastiCAT and search using "title begins with ... " for the book's by title.
---Click on the title of the book.
---Click on the "location/available" field.
---Look under "due date" on the left hand side. If the book is available, it will list "on shelf."

To place a hold on a Popular Reading book:
---Follow the same steps listed above.
---Now click on the "place hold" link and login using your PALS barcode number (it is listed on the back of your CSS ID) and your password (your last name).
---Follow directional prompts.

To view a list of all Popular Reading books:
Access ScholatiCAT and search using "subject begins with ..." for "popular reading".

Published reviews can be found in a number of different ways.

Books-in-Print
BIP provides the full-text of reviews from such souces as Library Journal, Booklist, Choice, & Publisher's Weekly. Locate your book by title, author, or ISBN. Citations accompanied by a star on the left-hand side will have reviews. Click on the citation, and from the full record choose the tab for "title reviews."
----- use this link for off-campus access to BIP

Academic Search Premier
ASP has many more citations to a wider variety of reviews than BIP. However, it can be tricky to use. Login to ASP & go to "advanced search." In the drop-down box of the top left, type in the first three or four words of you book's title (omit the initial article). In the drop down box to its immediate left, click on the arrow and choose "PS Products & Reviews" for the type of search. Now click on "search.
If the full-text is not available with the citation, use our A to Z link to look for the text in other databases.
----- Use this link for off-campus access to ASP

Write your own review!
LibraryThing is a social networking sites for book lovers. Create you own account for free and start a conversation about a book you love!