One for the Money by Janet Evanovich is a high speed, some times humorous, some times horrific account Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter.

An very new bounty hunter, Stephanie is using her natural instincts and the helpfulness of  strangers to pursue her “fugitives”.  She is on the hunt for a bail jumper, Morelli, who has a past with Stephanie.  As she tries to bring him in, she meets a vicious boxer, Rameriz, who would stop at nothing to get what he wants, including killing Stephanie Plum. 

She acquires Morelli’s car, is assaulted by Ramirez, and does what she can to earn the money she needs to survive.  All in all, Stephanie Plum is a very likable character who, after armed with the right materials, will stop at nothing to get her man/woman fugitive.

All Amelia Spring Green/Clean entries for tweens and teens between the grades of 5-12 are due on Wednesday, February 25. You may turn in your forms and essays, art project or poem to the Library or the County Administrator’s Office. OR, you could drop them off at McDonalds and receive a free Dollar Menu item. We would love to see your projects, but we understand if you’d rather get the free food! First place prizes are, of course, iPods.

We are helping to sponsor this program with the county. Amelia is such a beautiful county, but each improvement project planned helps to make it that much butt. Please consider donating a little time to one of the planned projects, or find one of your own. If each of us gives just a little of his or her time, imagine how much brighter we could make this county shine!

Thanks to a generous donor we have been able to add a number of new books covering World War II.  Here are just some of the titles we recently added.

The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: a chronicle of the defense of Bastogne December 19, 1944 to January 17, 1945 by George Koskimaki.
 D-Day With the Screaming Eagles by George Koskimaki. 
Band of brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose.
Hunters In the Sky: a Visual guide to World War II Aircraft by Paolo Matricardi
The  Victory Era in Color!: Rare Color Photographs of the World War II Years by Jeff Ethell
Hell Wouldn’t Stop: An Oral History of the Battle of Wake Island by Chet Cunningham. 
Another River, Another Town: A Teenage Tank Gunner comes of Age in Combat, 1945. by John P. Irwin. 
The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys who flew the B-24s over Germany by Stephen E. Ambrose

Come visit us and see these and many other new titles we are always adding to our collection.

A lot of people have recommended to me books by Janet Evanovich.  Her popular series which starts with One for the Money was checked out, so I decided to read Smitten. 

It deals with a recently divorced woman, Lizabeth, desperately looking for a job so she can take care of her house and her two young boys.  She applies for a carpenter job at a construction site, with no experience, meeting Matt Hanley, the co-owner.  Needless to say, it is love at first sight, although Lizabeth does not want to admit her feelings for Matt…she wants this job to be purely platonic.  Matt is a handsome, blond, blue-eyed muscular man with a tattoo on his arm…three out of the four appeal to Lizabeth’s ideal for a man.

Throughout the book, we see their relationship develop from friendship to lust to love.  Matt is like a knight in shining armor for Lizabeth and her kids, taking care of them as her ex-husband never did.  Throw an old “crazy” aunt, a puppy with a voracious appetite,  and a flasher into the mix and you have the cute love story of Smitten. 

Remember the tv show Little House on the Prairie? It was based on a series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  One of our local Girl Scouts troops is working on a project about her, so we have a lovely display in the library as you walk into the building. Also, for the next two weeks, come to the desk and we will give you a gingersnap. Gingerbread was a popular pioneer sweet, so it’s likely that Laura would have enjoyed it while she was growing up. Come and enjoy a cookie as you browse!

James Patterson  wrote a series of books called Maximum Ride about children who have been genetically altered with wings and other powers.  There are six Avian-Americans (as they like to call themselves) who have been poked, prodded, left homeless, and almost killed several times because they are different.

Patterson uses short chapters and modern speak to make the characters believable.  The characters remind me of the Marvel superheroes who are also genetical altered or in mutation states.  They are courageous, occasionally showing their teenage angst, as well as interaction amongst the “flock”.

In Maximum Ride: The Final Warning, the Avian-Americans are recruited to go to Antarctica to help stop global warming effects.   Scientist who want to harm them attack the “flock” in Antarctica, capture them during a blizzard, and ultimately bring them to Miami in the midst of a level four hurricane to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.   When they are able to escape, the U.S. Government brings them to Senate hearings to discuss how they can help these children.

Patterson, once again, proves that he can hold his audience’s attention through the Maximum Ride series.  I would definitely recommend getting the first book Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment to see how the series start and how the characters progress through the series.