(Photo by Asia Kepka)
Novelist and short story writer Jennifer Haigh will speak at Beebe Library on Thursday, December 4, at 7 p.m. Her first book, Mrs. Kimble, won the 2004 PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. Her second, Baker Towers, was a New York Times bestseller and won the PEN/L.L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her latest novel is The Condition.

In her masterful first novel, Mrs. Kimble, Haigh delivers a riveting story of three women who marry the same man. Ken Kimble is a chameleon, a man able to become, at least for a while, all things to all women.

Baker Towers,”is both a family saga and a love letter to our industrial past, to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation; to the vibrant small town life of America’s Rust Belt when it was still shiny and new.

Compassionate yet unflinchingly honest, witty and astute, The Condition explores the power of family mythologies, the self-delusions, denials and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings.

Ms. Haigh’s appearance at Beebe Library is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. For more information, phone 781-246-6334, or go online at wakefieldlibrary.org. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

To use this new free service, go directly to our collection of downloadable titles. You can find books you want by searching for a specific title, or browsing different categories. Browse genres of fiction, like mysteries or historical novels, romance, or science fiction - or nonfiction titles like biographies and books on how to learn a foreign language, or English for foreign speakers.

You can also browse new titles, or recently returned ones that were enjoyed by others. Browse by format to see which titles are compatible with your player, and even browse through only those titles that are currently available at the moment. If the title you want is unavailable, you can reserve it the same as you would for any other library item.

How do you get started? You need a valid library card, an Internet connection, and you’ll need to download the free OverDrive Media Console software, which will manage your audiobook selections. On our OverDrive web site you’ll find plenty of useful help in the “Getting Started” section at the top of the left hand menu. If you need help, by all means contact the library staff by phone or e-mail and we can assist you in getting started.

Downloadable titles can be “checked out” to your computer for a period of two weeks. After that they automatically expire and are available for the next person. In addition to listening to them on your PC or laptop, most titles can also be transferred to a portable device like an MP3 player or an iPod. Some can also be burned to a recordable CD. Because of licensing and digital rights management (DRM) restrictions from the publishers, not all titles can be listened to on all equipment, but the listings on our web site will clearly list which options are available for each book. Icons next to each title will show you if it is compatible with Apple devices.

We hope to expand the NOBLE downloadable collection over time, but as a Massachusetts resident you have other options as well. Boston Public Library’s OverDrive service is available to all residents of the Commonwealth at Again, you need a valid library card, but you can easily register online for a Boston Public Library card at which will allow you to download their audiobooks as well.

People with visual impairments may also be eligible for services, including a large collection of downloadable audiobooks, from the Perkins School for the Blind.

Read the complete Library Journal article

Whitney Gaskell’s Pushing Thirty is a “Smart Funny Women” tale. Watch everything explode in the heroine’s life as she loses both job and boyfriend and experiences a Thanksgiving from the Black Lagoon.

For more humor, give Jon Hassler’s Dear James a try. At loose ends due to forced retirement from her longtime teaching post, Agatha despairs when she looks at the motley crew of friends gathered at her table for an excruciating Thanksgiving dinner (described in hilarious detail).

For an edgier read, pick up Nancy Huston’s Dolce Agonia. A New England Thanksgiving, a snow storm and friends who know too much about one another form this holiday tale.

Paullina Simon’s Red Leaves is a dark tale of suspense. During a cold Thanksgiving weekend and its aftermath, three Dartmouth students find their friend’s nude and frozen body in a snow bank, having been concealed there for some days. Meanwhile, a young small-town detective Spencer O’Malley investigates her death.

Now for some tastier reads…Brooke Parkhurst’s Belle in the Big Apple: A Novel with Recipes combines chick-lit with a culinary theme and will appeal to either audience. Parkhurst, former blogger and media gossip staple turned web and TV culinary personality, brings considerable Southern charm and sass (plus some mouth-watering recipes) to her chick-lit debut, but there’s no mistaking the revenge fantasy at the heart of this tale of struggle and success.

Some culinary mystery series offer newly published episodes. Claudia Bishop’s latest Hemlock Falls tale, The Case of the Ill-Gotten Goat, is about cheese making and murder. Laura Childs’ Tea Shop mysteries are always soothing fare. Her latest is Silver Needle Murder. Joanne Fluke’s The Carrot Cake Mystery finds sleuth Hannah Swenson investigating the murder of a family reunion attendee whose murderer could be a man suffering from Alzheimer’s. In G.A. McKevett’s Poisoned Tarts, as Halloween approaches, P.I. Savannah Reid finds herself knee-deep in tricks and treats when a member of The Skeleton Key Three, a “celebutante” clique, goes missing, and the wealthy host of the annual Halloween bash is murdered.

Tamar Myers latest Pennsylvania Dutch mystery, As the World Churns, finds Magdalena Yoder sleuthing during her honeymoon amidst a cow competition at Yoder’s Inn. Inevitable culture clash between Myers’ Amish heroine and her New York Jewish husband and her stereotypical mother-in-law offers plenty of humorous byplay. Delicious Ice-cream recipes weave their way into Myers’ tale.

In Anthony Capella’s historical novel for java devotees, The Various Flavors of Coffee, coffee trivia and romance combine into a satisfying mix. In 1890s London, Robert Wallis is a debt-ridden poet with a remarkable talent for distinguishing between coffee varieties. His knack for describing flavors lands him a job with coffee merchant Samuel Pinker. Wallis’s goal is to categorize every type of coffee bean in existence until he falls in love with Pinker’s daughter Emily and ends up exiled to a coffee plantation in Abyssinia. Here, Wallis learns about the corrupt inner workings of the coffee industry (including its dependence on slave labor) and realizes that ignorance does not excuse complicity.

Julie Mueller, once a brilliant local television reporter, has been fired for the sin of being forty, in Sarah Strohmeyer’s Sweet Love. Broke, divorced, unemployed, and struggling to raise a teenage daughter alone, she had given up on happiness until she receives for Mother’s Day four dessert classes that spark not only a new burst of culinary creativity but a burning passion for one of her fellow students, Michael Slayton, a true love she let slip away.

If you cannot locate any of these titles, please ask the Reference Desk to place a hold or request the title from another library. You can also place your own holds for any of these titles by using your library card and your PIN number.

Take Our Thanksgiving Dinner Poll

Which character from your favorite mystery novels would you most like to share Thanksgiving dinner with? Take our poll and let us know.

Toward these goals the Youth Services Department has formed an advisory committee consisting of 13 young people from all middle school grades. The group met on October 8 and October 30 to brainstorm ideas for programs and activities and to begin the process of forming sub-groups for planning, events, gaming, web presence, etc.