New & Noteworthy @ WHPLibrary

The weather this wintry season has been particularly trying for us all. We are keeping an eye on tonight's/tomorrow's predicted conditions. Please understand that it is our goal to maintain our services to the public, whenever possible. Decisions to cancel programs or close the library are subject to actual conditions, which we cannot know until close to the time of a program or when conditions become severe.

If you want to know if we are CLOSED, please call the library and press #1 for the Hours. There will be a message on our machine. We will also post our status to the Events Calendar on our website and to Facebook and Twitter once a decision has been made.

If you are calling to see if an adult or teen program has been CANCELLED, please wait until an hour or two before the scheduled start time, and ask for the Reference Desk 516-481-6591 x22. For children's programs, call x32.

New books by J.A. Jance and Dana Stabenow will be available on TUESDAY, Feb. 1.

Fatal Error, by Jance, is the sixth book in the Allison Reynolds series. Allison is furloughed by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Department because of budget cuts. So when Brenda Riley, a former TV journalist, asks for help in finding her online fiancé, Allison is interested. A background check reveals Brenda's fiancé is Richard Lowensdale, an engineer laid off by failing defense contractor Rutherford International. Richard has a history of cyberstalking vulnerable women. When he is murdered, Brenda disappears. Allison's search for Brenda puts her in pursuit of a coldblooded killer and in the midst of an FBI investigation involving Rutherford's unethical dealings.

Though Not Dead, by Stabenow, is the 18th book in the Kate Shugak series. Kate is stunned by the death of Old Sam, her 87-year-old uncle. In his will, he leaves almost everything to Kate, including a homestead deep in gold mining country and a letter that reads "Find my father." Sam's father was an outsider who disappeared shortly after learning about Sam's existence and took with him a priceless tribal artifact. During the first three days of Kate's search, she gets shot at, hit in the head, and run off the road in deep snow and left for dead. Kate does her best to fulfill Sam's last wish - as various people follow her every move.

You can reserve these or other books by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

New bestsellers by Martha Grimes and David Ellis will be available on Thursday, February 3.

Fadeaway Girl, by Grimes, is the fourth book in the Emma Graham series. Emma continues her investigation into the disappearance of the four- month-old Slade baby from the Belle Ruin Hotel more than 20 years before. The sudden appearance in town of the baby's father, Morris Slade, makes her even more determined to learn the truth. Then a mysterious drifter named Ralph Diggs appears at the Hotel Paradise, looking for work, ingratiating himself with everyone there. Everyone except Emma.

Breach of Trust, by Ellis, is the second book in the Jason Kolarich series. Jason has spent the last year struggling to recover from the deaths of his wife and baby daughter. On the night of their deaths, Kolarich was at the office, awaiting a call from a informant named Ernesto Ramirez. Kolarich blames himself not only for the deaths of his wife and child, but for the informant's murder as well. He sets out to find the murderer of Ramirez and bring the killer to justice. In doing so he lands right in the middle of an FBI probe of the corrupt governor of Illinois. To avoid jail, Kolarich must enter a world of wiretaps and kickbacks and soon discovers that the murder of his informant was only the tip of the iceberg.

You can reserve these books or any others by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

On March 9, the West Hempstead Public Library is holding a Book Chat, to participate in this year's Long Island Reads! Every year, a group of librarians from Nassau and Suffolk Counties pick one book for all of Long Island to read and discuss. Events and discussion take place at public libraries around the Island and the author speaks and signs books in April.

This year's choice is Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead.
Synopsis: It's the 1980s and Benji Cooper, son of a lawyer and a doctor, is one of the few black students at an elite prep school in New York City. Every summer, he, his brother Reggie and his friends head east on the LIE and 'out' to Azurest in Sag Harbor. Benji's observations and social commentary are uplifting and humorous and give the reader a wonderful sense of time and place.

Colson Whitehead will speak to us about his book on Thursday, April 14! He will be in Suffolk County at the Rogers Memorial Library at 3 pm and in Nassau County at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library at 7:30 pm.

Call 481-6591 to register for our Book Chat which takes place on Wednesday March 9 at 1 PM. The books are available at the Circulation Desk. You may also download audio and eBook copies from the Nassau Digital Doorway (as a 7 day download)

New books by Alex Berenson and Belva Plain will available on Tuesday, February 8.

The Secret Soldier, by Berenson, is the fifth book in the John Wells series. Wells may have left the CIA but it hasn't left him. A mysterious call brings a surprise meeting with the monarch of Saudi Arabia. The monarch's brother is plotting against him in order to get his son on the throne. Reluctantly, and with the secret blessing of the CIA, Wells goes undercover; but the more he learns, the more complicated things become.

In Heartwood, by Plain, we meet Iris Stern, a woman with a successful academic career and a happy marriage. However as one of her daughters tries to save her troubled marriage, Iris herself must deal with the discovery of a long-held family secret. And she will find that neither her beloved husband, nor the solidity of her own marriage, is immune to the ravages of time.

You can reserve these or other books by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

The first magazine to be published in the American colonies was called The American Magazine. It began publication on February 13, 1741 in Philadelphia and covered proceedings of colonial government, in addition to moral, political and historical topics. Andrew Bedford was the publisher. The magazine lasted for three months.

Today, you can access hundreds of magazines through your public library. The Magazine Room upstairs in the West Hempstead Public Library has hard copies of many popular journals.

To access hundreds of other magazines, many of which are full text, use our databases. Go to www.whplibrary.org/research and search away! There are popular as well as academic and scholarly articles.

The lastest book by Michael Palmer, A Hearbeat Away, will be available on TUESDAY, February 15.

President Max Hilliard has been forced to quarantine everyone in the Capitol building. A terrorist group called "Genesis' has unleashed a deadly, highly contagious virus, into the building. No one knows the deadly effect of the germ except for the team responsible for its development - a team headed by the President, himself. The one person who might be able to help is virologist Griffin Rhodes, currently in solitary confinement in a maximum security federal prison for alleged terrorist acts. Rhodes has no idea why he has been arrested, but when Hilliard offers to free him in exchange for his help, he reluctantly agrees to do what he can to help save the government.

You can reserve this book or any other item by stopping by or calling the reference desk or by using your online library account.

Several new books by best-selling authors will be available on Tuesday, February 22.

Treachery in Death, by J.D. Robb, is the 40th book in the In Death series. Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on the murder of an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks. But Peabody soon stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a workout, she's alone in the locker room when the gym door opens and - while hiding inside a shower stall - she overhears two fellow officers arguing. It doesn't take long to realize they're guilty, not just of corruption, but of murder. Now Peabody, Eve, and Eve's husband, Roarke, are trying to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down.

In Now You See Her, by Joy Fielding, Marcy Taggart goes to Ireland after divorcing her husband of 25 years. Years earlier, her daughter, Devon, disappeared in the icy waters of Georgian Bay after a canoeing accident, her body never recovered. But on a day trip to Cork, Marcy is certain she spots Devon walking down the street. When her daughter disappears into a crowd, Marcy begins a desperate search to find her - and to uncover the disturbing truth.

Night Vision, by Randy Wayne White, is the 18th book in the Doc Ford series.
In a trailer park known as Little Guadalajara, inhabited principally by illegal laborers, the park manager is the hired gun of a financial syndicate that wants to develop the property. He's prepared to do whatever it takes but he can't figure out what to do about the teenage girl, the one the laborers believe has some sort of gift. When she witnesses him killing a man, though, and runs, he's got to find her and shut her up for good. Her only hope is a marine biologist named Doc Ford who must undertake a search through an underground nation and hopes he can reach her first.

Gideon's Sword, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, introduces Gideon Crew. At 12, Crew witnessed his father, a world-class mathematician, accused of treason and gunned down. At 24, summoned to his dying mother's bedside, Gideon learned that his father was framed and deliberately killed. His mother begged him to avenge his father's death. Now, with a new purpose in life, Crew crafts a mission of vengeance, aimed at those who brought about his father's destruction. But from the shadows, someone is watching. A powerful someone who is impressed by Gideon's special skills. Someone who needs just such a renegade.

You can reserve these or other titles by calling or stopping by the reference desk or by using your online library account.

Sorry, the March 2011 AARP driver safety class filled up on DAY1 of the registration period. Be sure to plan ahead if you want to enroll in May!

Our next AARP Class will be: Thursdays, MAY 19 and 26 from 9:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m.

REGISTRATION: Begins for W.H. Residents at 9:00 a.m. on THURSDAY MAY 5.
Non-residents may register, space permitting, beginning on THURSDAY MAY 12.