Pick up a diverse mix of new titles at the library

The new titles highlighted for the week of December 15, are a diverse mix that should appeal especially to the “straight- shooting tell-it-like it is” folks and the adventure-seekers among us.

Arguing with Idiots: How to stop small minds and big governments, by Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck, has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths but small minds: knowing the facts. Idiots can't be identified through voting records. They can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.

The Lacuna: A Novel, by Barbara Kingsolver
In her most accomplished novel, Barbara Kingsolver takes us on an epic journey from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover. This is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities.

Born in the United States, and reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter, but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence.

Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach--the lacuna--between truth and public presumption.

Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and why Suicide Bombers should buy Life Insurance, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Four years in the making, SuperFreakonomics asks not only the tough questions, but also the unexpected ones: What's more dangerous, driving drunk or "walking" drunk? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it's so ineffective? The authors challenge the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands? How much good do car seats do? What's the best way to catch a terrorist? Did TV cause a rise in crime? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfishness? Can eating kangaroo save the planet?

Levitt and Dubner mix smart thinking and great storytelling. By examining how people respond to incentives, they show the world for what it really is - good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, super freaky.

New York, by Edward Rutherfurd
Rutherfurd celebrates America's greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, bestselling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families. As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York from the city's founding to the attacks on the World Trade Center.
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No Less than Victory, by Jeff Shaara
This is the crowning achievement in master storyteller Jeff Shaara's soaring World War II trilogy, revealing the European war's unforgettable and harrowing final act. Presenting his riveting account through the eyes of Eisenhower and Patton and the young GIs who struggle face-to-face with their enemy, and through the eyes of Germany's old soldier, Gerd von Rundstedt, and Hitler's golden boy, Albert Speer, Jeff Shaara carries the reader on a journey that defines the spirit of the soldier and the horror of a madman's dreams. No Less Than Victory further contributes to Shaara's reputation as one of this era's most accomplished author of historical military fiction.

The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw
A thrill-seeking Harvard linguistics professor and an ultra secret branch of the Catholic Church go head-to-head in a race to uncover the secrets of the lost city of Atlantis. The ruins of the technologically advanced, eerily enigmatic ancient civilization promise their discoverer fame, fortune, and power. But the ruins also hold earth-shattering secrets about the origin of man.
While world-famous linguist and archaeologist, Thomas Lourds, is shooting a film that dramatizes his flamboyant life and scientific achievements, satellites spot impossibly ancient ruins along the Spanish coast. Lourds knows exactly what it means: the Lost Continent of Atlantis has been found. The race is on, and Lourds' challengers will do anything to get there first. Whoever controls the Lost Continent will control the world.