Check out the new books! Click on the titles to check the library location and availability.
Thelonious Monk : the life and times of an American original
This first full-dress biography of Thelonious Sphere Monk, legendary jazz pianist, prolific and vastly influential composer, and one of the creators, in the 1940s (along with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie), of the revolutionary new music called bebop, is nothing short of a landmark in jazz literature…. “Jazz is my adventure,” Monk said. “I’m after new chords . . . how to use notes differently.” Kelley gives us that adventure in the epic scope it deserves. - Booklist
The best American poetry 2009 / David Wagoner, editor
Sometimes a year doesn’t fully oblige the editor of a best-of annual. Wagoner, one of the finest senior American poets, edited Poetry Northwest for 36 years, a fact reflected in the huge number of journals-56-from which he drew this volume’s 75 entries. He knows where to look for poems. .. – Booklist
Iranian rappers and Persian porn : a hitchhiker’s odyssey into the new Iran
When Englishman Maslin decides to hitchhike across Iran, his friends tell him he’s insane, that he’ll be taken hostage or worse. Instead, Maslin is welcomed with dizzying delight and staggering generosity. One English-speaking Iranian after another shows him the sights and invites him home. – Booklist
Dark side of the moon : Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the space race
“Beautifully readable and fascinating in its dissection of von Braun’s layers of lies and deceptions-including his self-deceptions. ” - Book jacket
And last, but not least. The holidays are over, folks —
