Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.

Shilo says, "I absolutely loved the whole series!"

Fourteen year old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "Flock" are just like ordinary kids - only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time, like when Angel, the youngest member of the Flock is kidnapped and taken back to the School where she and others were genetically engineered by sinister scientists; Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. (Barnes and Noble)

Recommended by Shilo, Youth Services:

Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich.

Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet.

Recommended by Michele, Collection Development:

Eat this, not that : thousands of simple food swaps that can save you 10,20, 30 pounds--or more! by David Zinczenko.

A small, concise, quick format book on easy food swaps which take you from unhealthy to healthy choices in minutes. From the produce aisle to meats to snack foods to pantry staples and dairy it is a quick name brand lesson in what's really in our food and how substituting one brand for another can lower your sugar, fat and chemical intake in minutes. The food additive glossary was a real eye opener! Here's to good health and a great book.

Recommended by Margit, Administration:

Brimstone, Dance of Death, and The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child create a rare form of suspense by the ability to keep you on the edge of adventurous reality versus mystical fiction, continuously weaving historical fiction into present day crime investigations in the Natural History Museum in New York, underground Manhattan tunnels, New Orleans, and places like Tibet and Florence, Italy. The continuity of characters throughout all the Preston/Child novels is comforting; however each "good" and each "evil" character is continuously challenged to the breaking point of their capabilities.

Brimstone is the first novel of the Diogenes trilogy in which the brother "Diogenes" of FBI agent Pendergast continues to unfold an almost unbeatable "evil" talent. So if you allow yourself to get drawn into the page turning suspense of this mystery, you will be able to continue with Dance of Death and The Book of the Dead, completing the Diogenes trilogy.

Fortunately Preston and Child wrote a much wider array of novels both preceding this trilogy and several novels which continue the character development thereafter. Both Preston and Child wrote novels each by themselves, all of which I have appreciated greatly; however, I am most impressed by their joint Pendergast series which starts with the novels Relic, Reliquary, and The Cabinet of Curiosities, and continues on through the Diogenes trilogy and currently ends with The Wheel of Darkness.

Recommended by Carol, Youth Services:

The Red Lemon by Bob Staake.

Farmer McPhee's yellow lemons are ready to be picked and made into lemonade, pies, and muffins, but when a red lemon is found in the crop and discarded, it eventually yields some surprises.

Recommended by Carol, Youth Services

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.

At the height of Mao’s infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for "re-education." The narrator and his best friend find themselves in a remote village where they are made to cart buckets of excrement up and down precipitous winding paths. Their meager distractions include a violin, as well as, before long, the beautiful daughter of the local tailor. But it is when the two discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought lost forever. (Barnes and Noble)

Recommended by Carol, Youth Services:

Why the Frog Has Big Eyes by Betsy Franco.

A fable explaining how a staring contest left frogs with large eyes.

Recommended by Jennifer P., Library Page:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the suit of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.

Recommended by Jennifer P., Library Page:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

Jen says, "I like him as an author in general, I've read a few of his books and have never been disappointed."

A fable about following one's dreams, listening to one's heart, and reading life's omens features dialog between a boy and an unnamed being.

Recommended by Neil, Circulation:

The Weather in the Streets and A Note in Music by Rosamond Lehmann.

Though once thought of as a "middlebrow author," largely because her books were written about and consumed by women, Rosamond Lehmann's novels are now (mostly) back in print and are receiving their just acclaim. One can now discern strong modernist and anti-traditional elements in her "love stories". Indeed she is admired by both Virginia Woolf, iconoclast Ivy Compton-Burnett, as well as Margaret Drabble.

Cyril Connerly perceptively noted that Ms. Lehmann combines something of the earthiness of Colette with the imaginative insight of Virginia Woolf.

Recommended by Neil, Circulation:

The Heart of Me (DVD)

Socialite Madeleine invites her bohemian sister Dinah to stay with her and her husband, Rickie. Rickie and Dinah find themselves unable to control their desire for each other. What starts as a momentary affair spirals into decades of deception, ectasy and passion.

This film is based on Rosamond Lehmann’s novel The Echoing Grove.

Recommended by Kim, Collection Development:

Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath.

Kim says, "Being a big fan of 'light-weight' mysteries, I really enjoyed Konrath’s book. It was a quick read and very entertaining both in humor and some gory detail."

A rapid-fire debut thriller that dares to ask who'll come out on top: Jack Daniels or the Gingerbread Man? The stakes aren't as obvious as they sound. The Gingerbread Man is a psychopathic serial killer who kidnaps, tortures, tortures, tortures, and kills selected young women from the Chicago streets, and Jack (née Jacqueline) Daniels is the Violent Crimes lieutenant who's caught the case but can't catch the perp. On the contrary: The killer announces his attachment to the lead officer by going after her, leaving doctored chocolates in her car, breaking into her apartment, and taunting her with the obligatory phone messages. While she's trying to turn the tables on him, Jack is crossing swords with a pair of FBI clones, cracking jokes with her partner about how she can't even hang on to her live-in boyfriend, applying to a dating service, and watching as the Gingerbread Man gives the nice accountant she's been set up with the shock of his life before snatching his next victim and tying her up in his basement. Can Jack shake her bad luck and bring in her quarry before he kills her and blows up half the Windy City? Plotting, personalities, and gallows humor are all standard-issue. Konrath's most distinctive contribution to the serial-killer genre, apart from seasoning it with a savvy heroine who just can't keep a man, is some seriously gruesome sadism that should keep the kiddies away. (Kirkus)

Recommended by Kim, Collection Development:

Baptism by Fire: Eight Presidents Who Took Office in Times of Crisis by Mark K. Updegrove.

The newest presidential history from former Newsweek editor Updegrove (Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies after the White House) looks at eight presidents who took office at critical moments in U.S. history and shaped American notions of presidential authority and purview: Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Tyler, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford. Updegrove drafts short accounts of each administration, succinctly examining how each helped define and refine the office. By calling upon little known trivia and providing useful context, he weaves an engaging narrative; however, it isn't without its flaws. Updegrove can't seem to resist contrasting the decisions of these time-honored presidents with current President George W. Bush, and his liberal eye glosses over some of the uglier aspects of these Commanders-in-Chiefs-ironically deifying men who, by Updegrove's own account, wanted desperately to be viewed as men, not legends. Ultimately, this is a satisfying read for armchair historians with sympathetic politics, particularly in the attention it calls to aspects of the office. (Publisher's Weekly)

Recommended by Ann, Collection Development:

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.

In this work of fiction Fergus recreates the world of the Wild West through the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lives. Fergus turns history into a page–turner!

Recommended by Ann, Collection Development:

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.

Discover for yourself this highly readable and beautifully written Pulitzer Prize winning novel! Angle of Repose was written by one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, Wallace Stegner. In this novel Stegner creates the unforgettable character of Susan Burling Ward, an aristocratic East Coast author and illustrator who falls in love and moves with her husband to the mining camps and outposts of the newly settled American West. Stegner employs, to great effect, a clever literary devise of telling Ward's story through her grown grandson's research and recollections. This is a gripping novel rich in detail and drama.

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho.

Simple, yet captivating, this turned out to be my favorite Paulo Coelho book. In a story about good and evil, a stranger wanders into a small town carrying eleven gold bars and the devil as his companion. This stranger, Carlos, proposes a bargain to the townsfolk – someone must be murdered within the week and the tiny impoverished town will receive the gold. With this the battle for the town's souls begins. What path will they choose?

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them to all send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. (Barnes and Noble)

Recommended by Helen, Collection Development:

The Nine Queens (DVD)

An Argentinean film about con artists on the make. The film opens with Juan trying to scam a convenience store when Marcos steps in to arrest him. In truth, Marcos is a veteran con himself and the two split the money after fleeing the scene. Marcos asks Juan to be his partner in a series of small-time jobs. When one of the men gets a message from his sister, the two head to the hotel where she works to pull off a big con that was initially planned by an aging criminal too ill to do it. The swindle centers around a fantastically accurate forgery of a rare stamp called the Nine Queens. As the two doggedly try to set up the deal, mobsters and the like learn of the job and try to horn in. (Barnes and Noble)

If you enjoy films with twist endings like The Usual Suspects, you will surely appreciate this one.