On the shelves - April 22

The following books are available at :

Clovis Carver Public Library

"Use Your Brain to Change Your Life: Secrets to Look, Feel, and Think Younger Every Day" by Daniel Amen shares ten steps to help you slow, or even reverse, the aging process in the brain and to dramatically decrease your risk for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

"Private #1 Suspect" by James Patterson focuses on former marine Jack Morgan who founded the world's most effective investigation firm, but when he is accused of a horrible murder, even his own world-class investigators cannot prove that he is innocent.

"To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker" by Sydney Nathans draws on two collections of letters and diaries that tell the remarkable story of a woman who in August, 1848, fled her North Carolina slave owner for refuge in the North where she and sympathetic friends spent the next seventeen years trying to recover her family.

"D.C. Dead: A Stone Barrington Novel" by Stuart Woods takes Barrington and Dino Bacchetti to the White House where the president needs their talents and legendary discretion for a particularly sensitive case, and they find that Washington high society has a scandalous side that its members would kill to keep secret.

"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain extols the virtues of the listeners and the thinkers – the reflective introverts of the world – who appreciate that hard problems demand careful thought and who understand that it is a good idea to know what you want to say before you open your mouth.

"Covert Warriors: A Presidential Agent Novel" by W.E.B. Griffin re-introduces Charley Castillo and his group of retired spies who are sent to Mexico to investigate a murder-kidnapping in exchange for an imprisoned cartel king, but by the time they finish connecting the dots, they will be on the hit lists of the Kremlin, the Cubans, the Venezuelans, and the drug cartels -- and totally out on their own.

"Sophie: The Incredible True Story of the Castaway Dog" by Emma Pearse recreates the remarkable journey of a canine Robinson Crusoe after an Australian cattle dog was swept overboard in a storm, swam six miles through shark-infested waters to appear on several remote islands, and survived in the wild for five months before being trapped by park rangers and reunited with her owners.

Portales Public Library

"Heroes for My Daughter" by Brad Meltzer.

New York Times Bestselling author, Brad Meltzer, brings together the stories of sixty remarkable people, a diverse set of individuals from across time and from all walks of life: inventors and artists, explorers and scientists, who each dedicated their life to making our world a better place. From Amelia Earhart to Eleanor Roosevelt, Randy Pausch to Anne Frank, Lucille Ball to Theodore Roosevelt, Rosa Parks to the passengers on United Flight 93, the lives of these women and men offer lessons to guide our daughters on their journey to adulthood and are sure to inspire them as they take their place as citizens in our society and in the world. The stories told in Heroes for My Daughters are perfect for daughters and mothers to read and treasure together.

"The Springsweet" by Saundra Mitchell.

It's a long way from Baltimore to Oklahoma Territory, but Zora Stewart will go any length to put the tragic events of her sixteenth summer behind her. This city girl heads to the tiny frontier town of West Glory to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going. Zora couldn't be more surprised when another Baltimorean, Theo de la Croix, shows up in West Glory. Theo made the trip out west hoping to court Zora, but she has developed an attraction to a rather less respectable fellow: Emerson Birch, a rough mannered young "sooner" whose fertile land is coveted. Zora begins to suspect that there may be more than luck behind Emerson's good land and she soon discovers an extraordinary power of her own: the ability to sense water under the parched earth. Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land when her aunt hires her out as a "springsweet" to advise other settlers where to dig their wells. Even more, Zora finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water and just maybe she can finally move beyond simply surviving and start living.

"Bug Shots: The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly" by Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel.

Is bugging a crime? After all, bugs bite, drink blood, and steal food from gardens and field. They can even kill plants, animals, and occasionally, people. On several of the major categories of insects, Alexandra Siy compiles "rap sheets". By becoming Fellow Bug Investigators, readers are encouraged to join the FBI as the book examines insect habits, good and bad, and asks children to come up with a verdict. Providing close-up views of astonishing claws, jaws, and other specialized parts, the amazing photomicrographs magnify insect parts from 8 to more than 12,000 times their actual sizes. Learning about insects turns into an intriguing case in this fascinating book.