August Recommendations for Kids - Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Fiction

Roasted Peanuts by Tim Egan - Best friends Jackson the cat and Sam the horse try out for the baseball team, to their dismay Jackson does not make the team. Although Jackson is the slowest cat anyone has ever seen, he has an amazing throw. All ends well, and with engaging humor, Jackson takes a job as a peanut vendor.

Baseball Great by Tim Green - Twelve year old baseball star Josh feels trapped by his father's failed dreams to play major league baseball. Josh’s father has him try out for the Titans, a winning team riddled with questionable supplements and steroids. Will this team provide Josh the exposure he needs, and at what personal cost?

Top of the Order by John Coy - The Panthers have no one to cover second base except Sydney, who arrives with a pink baseball glove to the horror of her brother who is the team’s pitcher. Each team member faces challenges in their lives, but share a love of baseball and a desire to win.

The Desperado who Stole Baseball by John H. Ritter - In 1881, the scrappy, rough-and-tumble baseball team in a California mining town enlists the help of a quick-witted twelve-year-old orphan and the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid to win a big game against the National League Champion Chicago White Stockings.

The Girl who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane - Following the recent accidental death of her father, Molly works through her grief and deals with her withdrawn mother by turning to baseball. Her father loved baseball and taught her to throw a knuckleball, a pitch which flutters like a butterfly. In spite of resistance, she is determined to try out for the boys baseball team.


Nonfiction

The Story of the Los Angeles Dodgers by John Nichols - Los Angeles has many attractions, and the Los Angels Dodgers of Major League baseball claims the honor of being its first franchise. The Dodgers are one of the oldest teams in the game, and joined the National League as a team in Brooklyn, New York. Fans walking to the ballpark darted across the busy trolley tracks in Brooklyn, dodging the streetcars, thus the local writers nicknamed the team the “Trolley Dodgers” which was later shortened to the Dodgers.

The Story of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim by Sara Gilbert - The original Angeles team began in Los Angeles in 1961 when Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, was awarded an American league expansion team; he remained its sole owner for more than 30 years. Some of the most famous players are profiled, among them Troy Glaus, Reggie Jackson, and the rally monkey! Also in this series is The Story of the San Francisco Giants by Adele Richardson.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson -

"We are the ship; all else the sea."-Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League.

Negro League baseball is the story of exceptional athletes, resolute owners, discrimination, and sportsmanship. It is the story of extraordinary players who overcame segregation, hatred, deplorable conditions, and low pay to pursue their dream of playing baseball. Comprised of nine chapters (“innings”), with a foreword by Hank Aaron, this traces the League from its inception in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson left in the late 1940s. Anecdotes regarding legendary Satchel Paige and the knife-weilding umpire, Bullet Rogan along with excellent illustrations, bring this history to life.

You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? by Jonah Winter - A picture book biography of Sandy Koufax, arguably the greatest left-handed basesball pitcher of all. He started with basketball, began playing baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and had an amazing career when he learned to tame his pitches after the team moved to Los Angeles.

August Recommendations for Adults

Fiction

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil - When her husband dies in a car crash, uncannily soon after announcing he wants a divorce, Jo Mackenzie packs up her two rowdy boys and moves from London to a dilapidated villa in her seaside hometown. There, she takes over her beloved Gran's knitting shop and begins her single parent life in the small seaside town. After a rough beginning, Jo soon finds comfort in a "Stitch and Bitch" group; a collection of quirky, lively women who share their stories, and their addiction to cake, with warmth and humor. The women meet every week at the shop on Beach Street and trade gossip and advice as freely as they do a new stitch. But when a new man enters Jo's life, and an A-list actress moves into the local mansion, the knitting club has even more trouble confining the conversation to knit one, purl two. An uplifting, winning tale about the healing power of friendship and new beginnings, sure to delight all passionate knitters and win over befuddled, would-be knitters, too.

City of the Sun by David Levien - Desperate parents, Paul and Carol Gabriel, hire PI Frank Behr to find their missing 12-year old son Jamie who disappeared on his paper delivery route one morning fourteen months ago. Behr, who lost his young son to a tragic family accident, takes the job as much for his own redemption as for the money. He soon discovers the abduction was no random act but part of a larger and darker world. Over the course of the investigation, Behr and Paul relive and share their lives as fathers, forming a unique bond not quite friends yet more that partners. Behr is a detective in the classic tradition - intuitive, smart, emotionally true, and not given to small talk, the hero who rescues those left helpless by the touch of evil.

The Lace Makers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri - The ancient craft of lace making is an apt and elegant metaphor for the process of rebuilding a life after an emotional crisis. Seeking solace, Kate Robinson returns to her ancestral family homeland and lands in Glenmara on the west coast of Ireland, quickly establishing strong ties with the local lace makers. The group provides the support that carries her through her grief to discover an unexpected creativity, and soon they are creating a line of exquisitely embellished lingerie. Between the twist and the cross, the women of the village face their long denied dreams and their deepest fears. The characters are warm and engaging, sure to please.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris - A National Book Finalist and voted Best Book of the Year by several major newspapers, Ferris dissects with hilarity and measured compassion the lives of office workers. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. A siege mentality takes hold as alliances and liaisons are made and betrayed. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey - In a shady grove outside the small town of Ketanu, a young woman, an AIDS worker and medical student, has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. Eager to close the case, the local police have arrested a poor, enamored teenage boy and charged him with murder. Needless to say, they are less than thrilled when Detective Inspector Darko Dawson from Accra, the capital city, arrives to lead an inquiry into the baffling case. The people of Ketanu follow the old ways, clashing with Dawson’s cosmopolitan sensibilities and practical police procedures. For the Inspector, it means confronting the estranged family he left twenty-five years ago and the unsolved disappearance of his mother. Dawson discovers that the world of spirits is closer to home than he is ready to admit. Rich in atmosphere and local characters, Quartey evokes the world of Ghana past and present in this debut novel.


Nonfiction

At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life by Wade Rouse - Inspired by the simple life depicted in Thoreaus’s Walden’s Pond and lured by the charm of being rugged, Wade and Gary move to Saugatuck, Michigan and find that although there are fewer things to do, eat, buy, see, desire, and covet, life is far from simple in the northern woods. Challenged and humiliated daily by implacable weather, relentless wild creatures, eerie silence, and the shocking discovery that he has no wardrobe for doing chores, Wade rises to the occasion and sets 10 life goals. A fun read that could be taken as a cautionary tale for those who have found themselves, in frustrated moments of multitasking, humming the theme to Green Acres.

The Eat-Clean Diet For Men: Real Food for Real Men, Your Ironclad Plan to a Lean Physique by Robert Kennedy & Tosca Reno - From the supermarket to the weight room, bodybuilders Kennedy and Reno take you through the steps for developing a clean eating plan and building a robust physique. You eat 2,190 meals a year, make each one count! Page layouts are colorful and easy to read with photos, grocery lists, meal plans, and great recipes that take on the carbs clean style, substituting whole grains for white flour and natural sweeteners for white sugar in the down home comfort foods we all love to eat.

Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt by Leslie F. Miller - Miller journeys into the moist white underbelly of the cake world visiting factories and wedding cake boutiques and ogling buttercream frostings along the way. For Miller, cake is the touchstone against which all other sensual experiences are measured. She interviews chefs, bakery owners, shares childhood memories about cake, adult baking disasters, and a few family recipes. The chapter on the history and cultural importance of regional cakes is worth the price of the admission. I never knew Maryland had a state cake. Cake lovers will delight in this light and fluffy homage to cake.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford - Motorcycles and philosophizing seem to go hand in hand, in this original debut Crawford, a philosophy professor at the University of Virginia and owner of Shockoe Moto, a motorcycle repair shop, reflects upon the deep satisfaction gained from certain kinds of manual work: fixing things and making stuff. He theorizes that the work of builders and mechanics help create communities and enrich our spiritual lives because craftsmanship cannot be made obsolete or outsourced. The discipline and practice needed to master a skill requires the work of the hand and the mind, a way of working deemed nonessential in most blue and white collar jobs. A thought provoking mediation about the future of human work.

Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves - Time to repack your mental baggage, step out of your travel comfort bubble and encounter the world you are traveling through. Steves believes in the enlightening value of traveling thoughtfully: discussing the politics and history of the places you visit with the locals will make you less of a tourist and more of a participant. Gain a global perspective and make friends, which is what travel is all about. Always the passionate traveler, Steves shows how to be fearless as well, with a little commonsense.

New Cookbooks at the Library

Robin Rescues Dinner: 52 Weeks of Quick Fix Meals, 350 Recipes, and a Realistic Plan to Get Weeknight Dinners on the Table by Robin Miller - Robin delivers the goods, laying out weekly prep and menu plans for getting the food from the grocery store to your dinner table with a minimum amount of time spent over a hot stove. Most recipes serve 4 but many have instructions for doubling - "Morph Into Another Meal." Fun, adventurous, global, and easy, check out her "20 Fast Meals from a Rotisserie Chicken", "12 Pantry Pastas", and the other fast meals from leftovers. Prep and cooking times are generally 30-45 min. A feast for the imagination as well as the belly, browse through the detailed Table of Contents while munching on Nacho Napoleons. For a preview of several recipes from this book go to: www.robinrescuesdinner.com.

The Flavors of Asia: Recipes from China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam by Mai Pham - Restaurant owner Mai Pham demystifies the techniques and ingredients of Asian cooking including how to buy and cook the right kind of noodle. These recipes will require you to buy exotic ingredients and a few new cooking utensils, but you will be rewarded by acquiring the ability to cook Korean Barbecued Short Ribs, Pad Thai, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, and Coconut Fudge at home. BTW, an excellent recipe for Dashi is included. Do not neglect to read the section on fish sauce, that funky and addictive Southeast Asian seasoning. Revelations await!

America’s Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family’s Favorite Restaurants by Ron Douglas - Everyone loves a secret and Douglas reveals copycat versions of many a fast-food joint’s famous secret recipe as well as signature dishes from restaurants A to Z. There’s Fried Chicken from Church’s and KFC, Junior’s Cheesecake, pancakes from IHOP’s and Perkins, an extensive list from the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Macaroni Grill. Also included are P.F. Chang’s, Outback Steakhouse and Taco Bell. This method of “eating out” will not break the budget. Low-fat alternatives and nutrition conscious substitutes are suggested.

The Good Cookie: Over 250 Delicious Recipes, From Simple to Sublime by Tish Boyle - Why this cookie book over all the others? Let’s start with the sublime, like the down home Brooklyn Heights Brownies dense, rich, and glazed, or the continental Hazelnut Jam Sandwiches, Boyle has a cookie for every mood, every occasion, and in every shape including amy-oes and the timeless whoopee pie. If you don’t really like to bake, quick fixes like Midnight Brownies made with Midnight Milky Way bars will satisfy the need with little effort. Basic recipes and techniques will help the beginning cookie-maker make the perfect cookie while experts will be challenged by Two-Toned Tuile Corkscrews and Lattice-Toped Linzer Torts. Be tempted!

The Complete Book of Pickling: 250 Recipes, from Pickles & Relishes to Chutneys & Salsas by Jennifer MacKenzie - Not just your run-of-the-mill pickle book, in addition to the standard dill recipes you will find recipes for Sweet and Tangy Pickled Grapes, White Balsamic and Pepper Pickled Strawberries, Martini Olives, Apple-Onion and Ale Relish, and much more. The recipes are designed for small batches, 8 oz. and pint jars.