Poems and tales for the romantic in everyone are @ your library

If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster

From Publisher -

The fiction debut of the New York Times bestselling author of My Fair Lazy.

Told in the uproariously entertaining voice readers have come to expect from Jen Lancaster, If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen- romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying-but always funny-process of buying and renovating their first home in the Chicago suburbs that John hughes's movies made famous. Along their harrowing renovation journey, Mia and Mac get caught up in various wars with the homeowners' association, meet some less-than-friendly neighbors, and are joined by a hilarious cast of supporting characters, including a celebutard ex- landlady. As they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings- with Mac taking on the renovations himself- Mia and Mac will discover if their marriage is strong enough to survive months of DIY renovations.



She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey through Poems by Caroline Kennedy

Library Journal

For Kennedy, poetry has the great gift of "shap[ing] an endless conversation about the most important things in life." She learned that when she turned 50 and three friends sent her poems that afforded her both comfort and guidance. Thereafter she began creating this anthology of nearly 200 poems addressing the various stages of a woman's life, among them "Falling in Love," "Motherhood," "Death and Grief," and, yes, "Beauty, Clothes, and Things of This World." Many of the poems here are expected, e.g., Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee," but others are delightful discoveries or reminders. Consider Kim Addonizio's "What Do Women Want?": "I want a red dress/ I want it flimsy and cheap/ I want it too tight/ I want to wear it/ until someone tears it off me." Or Paneshia Jones's "Bra Shopping": "At sixteen I am a jeans and t-shirt wearing tomboy who can think/ a few million more places to be…." Or Anna Swir's "The Greatest Love": "Her dear one says: You have hair like pearls.'/ Her children say:/ Old fool.' " The poets range from Sappho to Shakespeare to Plath, and Kennedy has the nerve to open with Gertrude Stein. VERDICT All in all, a warm and comfortable anthology for anyone (men, too) seeking solace in verse. —Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts

Publishers Weekly

This searing stand-alone from bestseller Roberts (The Search) celebrates the smoke jumpers of Missoula, Mont., who routinely risk life and limb to beat down raging forest fires. As close knit as any military combat unit, the "Zulies" include veteran Rowan Tripp, haunted by the loss of Jim Brayner, her onetime jump partner who was killed the previous season in a fall, and rookie Gulliver Curry, who soon earns the nickname "Fast Feet" for his speed and prowess. Threatening trouble is cook Dolly Brakeman, Jim's girlfriend, who blames Rowan for his death—and whose new baby may well be Jim's. Rowan and Gull grow closer as the team battles fires from Montana and Idaho to California and Alaska. Meanwhile, the Zulies are plagued by vandalism and sabotage as well as a killer with arson among his crimes.