Help For Those Who Can't Find Anything To Read

As always, the titles which have just been ordered are very seductive. There's Jessica Abel's graphic novel, La Perdida; new mysteries by John Dunning (book-related) and Betty Webb (set in Arizona); What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills; Building green : a complete how-to guide to alternative building methods : earth plaster, straw bale, cordwood, cob, living roofs by Clarke Snell & Tim Callahan; another Katrina book, The storm : what went wrong and why during hurricane Katrina : the inside story from one Louisiana scientist by Ivor van Heerden and Mike Bryan ; Hazel Rowley's literary biography, Tête-à-Tête : Simone De Beauvoir And Jean-Paul Sartre.

The not-quite-as-new, the titles people are already standing in line for, start out with the usual authors at the top of the list — Patricia Cornwell, John Sandford, (ok, not so usual: Sweet swan of Avon : did a woman write Shakespeare? by Robin P. Williams), Janet Evanovich, Anne Tyler (Digging to America), Mary Higgins Clark, Alexander McCall-Smith. But it also includes The foreign correspondent by Alan Furst; Everyman by Philip Roth; Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky; The omnivore's dilemma : a natural history of four meals by Michael Pollan; Terrorist by John Updike; Michael Connelly's Crime beat : a decade of covering cops and killers.

We try to keep you armed with lists--What's New lists; the lists, guides & suggestions on the Books and Literature page; most popular southwest titles; etc. Still stuck for something that appeals? Ask at the desk and we'll try to help.