Fact
November 4th, 2009 by Alison
Larsson: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. But her uncle, Henrik, is convinced that she was murdered by someone in her own family - the deeply dysfunctional Vanger clan. Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired to investigate, but when he links Harriet’s disappearance to a string of gruesome murders from forty years ago, he needs a competent assistant - and he gets one: computer hacker Lisbeth Salander - a tattoed, truculent, angry girl who rides a motorbike like a Hell’s Angel and handles makeshift weapons with the skill born of remorseless rage. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they delve into the sinister past of this island-bound, tightly-knit family. But the Vangers are a secretive lot, and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out just how far they’re prepared to go to protect themselves - and each other.
Check availability on East Renfrewshire Libraries’ catalogue.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Hancock: Two of us
When John Thaw died in 2002, a nation lost one of its finest actors and Sheila Hancock lost a beloved husband. In this double biography she chronicles their lives, from the Second World War to the Iraq War, from rationing to affluence, together and apart.
Check availabilty on East Renfrewshire Libraries’ catalogue.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
New Scientist: Do polar bears get lonely?
Do spiders get thirsty? How long would it take a cow to fill the Grand Canyon with milk? How do they get the stripes on toothpaste? Plus 107 other questions answered. “Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?” is the third compilation of readers’ answers to the questions in the ‘Last Word’ column of “New Scientist”, the world’s best-selling science weekly. Following the phenomenal success of “Does Anything Eat Wasps?” (2005) and the even more spectacularly successful “Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze?” (2006), this latest collection includes a bumper crop of wise and wonderful answers never before seen in book form. As usual, the simplest questions often have the most complex answers - while some that seem the knottiest have very simple explanations. “New Scientist’s” ‘Last Word’ is regularly voted the magazine’s most popular section as it celebrates all questions - the trivial, idiosyncratic, baffling and strange. This all-new and eagerly awaited selection of the best again presents popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Rhys Jones: Mountains
From the remotest areas of Northern Scotland to the wilds of Dartmoor in the South West, Griff’s journey across the rooftops of Britain takes him to some of the country’s most beautiful, rugged and fascinating locations.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Fry: Stephen Fry in America
Britain’s best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab. Stephen’s account of his adventures is filled with his unique humour, insight and warmth in this beautifully illustrated book that accompanies his journey for the BBC1. Stephen has always loved America, in fact he came very close to being born there. Here, his fascination for the country and its people sees him embarking on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Grogan: Marley & Me
John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.
Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever, a dog like no other. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, flung drool on guests, stole women’s undergarments, and ate nearly everything he could get his mouth around, including couches and fine jewelry. Obedience school did no good—Marley was expelledAnd yet Marley’s heart was pure. Just as he joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. Marley shared the couple’s joy at their first pregnancy, and their heartbreak over the miscarriage. He was there when babies finally arrived and when the screams of a seventeen-year-old stabbing victim pierced the night. Marley shut down a public beach and managed to land a role in a feature-length movie, always winning hearts as he made a mess of things. Through it all, he remained steadfast, a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit’s end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Foreman: The Duchess
Lady Georgiana Spencer was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was nearly as famous in her day. In 1774 Georgiana achieved immediate celebrity by marrying William Cavendish, fifth duke of Devonshire, one of England’s richest and most influential aristocrats. She became the queen of fashionable society and founder of the most important political salon of her time. But Georgiana’s public success concealed an unhappy marriage, a gambling addiction, drinking, drug-taking, and rampant love affairs with the leading politicians of the day. With penetrating insight, Amanda Foreman reveals a fascinating woman whose struggle against her own weaknesses, whose great beauty and flamboyance, and whose determination to play a part in the affairs of the world make her a vibrant, astonishingly contemporary figure.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Bryson: Shakespeare
This short biography of William Shakespeare by world famous writer Bill Bryson brims with the author’s inimitable wit and intelligence. Shakespeare’s life, despite the scrutiny of generations of biographers and scholars, is still a thicket of myths and traditions, some preposterous, some conflicting, arranged around the few scant facts known about the Bard — from his birth in Stratford to the bequest of his second best bed to his wife when he died. Following his international bestsellers ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ and ‘The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid’, Bill Bryson has written a short biography of William Shakespeare for the Eminent Lives series — which seeks to pair great subjects with writers known for their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
French: Dear Fatty
Dawn French is one of the greatest comedy actresses of our time, with a career that has spanned nearly three decades, encompassing a vast and brilliant array of characters. Here she describes the journey that would eventually establish her as a perhaps unlikely, but nevertheless genuine, national treasure.
December 23rd, 2008 by editor
Urban: Rifles
As part of the Light Division created to act as the advance guard of Wellington’s army, the 95th Rifles are the first into battle and the last out. Fighting, thieving and raping their way across Europe, they are clearly no ordinary troops. The 95th are in fact the first British soldiers to take aim at their targets, to take cover when being shot at, to move tactically by fire and manoeuvre. And by the end of the six-year campaign they have not only proved themselves the toughest fighters in the army, they have also - at huge personal cost - created the modern notion of the infantryman.
