Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Holiday Bonus Time is coming to an end! Hurry to add a new format to your Virtual Branch and get 10 FREE MP3 Players! For a limited time all OverDrive partners can receive a FREE case of Creative MP3 players when they add one or more new format(s) (Adobe or Mobipocket eBooks, Video, or Music). Already have all formats? Contact us about signing up for a qualifying Maximum Access, Download Standing Order, or Holds Manager plan!

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For more information please visit Holiday Bonus or call Karen (216) 573-6886 ext. 222 and Lindsey at ext. 232, or email us at:collectionteam@overdrive.com

America America
By Ethan Canin

From Ethan Canin, bestselling author of The Palace Thief, comes a stunning novel, set in a small town during the Nixon era and today, about America and family, politics and tragedy, and the impact of fate on a young man's life.

In the early 1970s, Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon, through the family's generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth.

America America is a beautiful novel about America as it was and is, a remarkable exploration of how vanity, greatness, and tragedy combine to change history and fate.

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The Forever War
By Dexter Filkins

From the front lines of the battle against Islamic fundamentalism, a searing, unforgettable audiobook that captures the human essence of the greatest conflict of our time. Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, the prize-winning New York Times correspondent, we witness the remarkable chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continued with the attacks of 9/11, and moved on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Filkins's narrative moves across a vast and various landscape of amazing characters and astonishing scenes: a public amputation performed by the Taliban, children frolicking in minefields, skies streaked white by the contrails of B-52's, a night's sleep in the rubble of Ground Zero. We venture into a torture chamber run by Saddam Hussein. We go into the homes of suicide bombers, meet Iraqi insurgents, and an American captain who loses a quarter of his men in eight days.

The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of today's battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about America's wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.

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Little Brother
By Cory Doctrow

Marcus, a.k.a "w1n5t0n," is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they're mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

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The Dirty Secrets Club
By Meg Gardiner

An ongoing string of high-profile and very public murder-suicides has San Francisco even more rattled than a string of recent earthquakes: A flamboyant fashion designer burns to death, clutching the body of his murdered lover. A superstar 49er jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. And most shocking of all, a U.S. attorney launches her BMW off a highway overpass, killing herself and three others.

Enter forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, hired by the SFPD to cut open not the victim's body, but the victim's life. Jo's job is to complete the psychological autopsy, shedding light on the circumstances of any equivocal death. Soon she makes a shocking discovery: All the suicides belonged to something called the Dirty Secrets Club, a group of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide.

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The Year of Living Biblically
By A.J. Jacobs

Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also, to obey the hundreds of less-publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers. To grow his beard. To stone adulterers.

The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal. Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally, including the Amish and the Hasidim. He discovers ancient Biblical wisdom of startling relevance. And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the 21st-century brain.

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Built to Last
By Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras

Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day, as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large companies. Throughout, the authors asked: 'What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?'

Collins and Porras go beyond the incessant barrage of management buzzwords and fads of the day to discover timeless qualities that have consistently distinguished outstanding companies. They also provide inspiration to all executives and entrepreneurs by destroying the false but widely accepted idea that only charismatic visionary leaders can build visionary companies.

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Arctic Drift
By Clive Cussler

A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming . . . a series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Columbia . . . a rash of international incidents between the United States and one of its closest allies that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war . . . NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk. Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission, captain and crew perished to a man-and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them.

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Migrating Animals of the Land

Why and how do animals migrate? This series for young readers covers the journeys of an amazing range of animals. From the Arctic tern that makes a yearly round trip from Arctic to Antarctic to the African elephants circling the drying plains of Africa, moving from water hole to water hole, to the tiny ruby-throated hummingbird catching winds to carry it across the Gulf of Mexico, animal migration is astounding. The books help students understand how environment, food supply, climate and human activity interact to form a hospitable or non-hospitable environment for animals. Students will learn that migration is an often predictable, often critical form of animal behavior and that it is an adaptation that helps individual animals, groups, or even entire species survive.

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Alex & Me
By Irene Pepperberg

On September 6, 2007, an African Grey parrot named Alex died prematurely at age thirty-one. His last words to his owner, Irene Pepperberg, were "You be good. I love you."

Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous - two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Yet, over the years, Alex proved many things. He could add. He could sound out words. He understood concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none. He was capable of thought and intention. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures.

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Christmas Wishes, Mistletoe Kisses
By Fiona Harper

Three wishes this Christmas...

1. A new life in the country:
It has taken all of Louise Thornton's courage to start again. This will be a different life, one away from the paparazzi-and her cheating celebrity husband!

2. Someone to help decorate the Christmas tree:
Louise is determined to make this Christmas perfect for her son. But it's not until she meets meltingly attractive Ben Oliver that she starts to sparkle again.

3. A proposal under the mistletoe?
Single dad Ben puts his daughter first. But when he catches Louise under the mistletoe, Ben realizes only he can make Louise's wishes come true....

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Christmas & Hanukkah Joy

1. Away in a Manger

2. Bei Mir Bis Du Schoen

3. Dreidel

4. Hanukah, Oh Hanukah

5. Hativka

6. I Have A Little Dreidl

7. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

8. Joy to the World

9. O Christmas Tree

10. The First Noel

11. Ush'avtem Mayim

12. What Child is This?

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The Happy Elf

Based on Grammy-winner Harry Connick, Jr.'s original song, The Happy Elf will be sure to ring in the season with loads of holiday laughter. This delightful animated adventure is the story of Eubie, one of Santa's helpers whose overly optimistic outlook is put to the test when he decides to bring Christmas joy to a sad little town called Bluesville. Will Eubie's unbridled enthusiasm be too much for the town's austere authority? Featuring the voice and brand-new holiday songs of Harry Connick, Jr. and the voice talents of Carol Kane, Lewis Black, Rob Paulsen, and Mickey Rooney. With tons of comedy and adventure along the way, The Happy Elf is destined to be a Christmas classic the whole family will enjoy.

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The Brilliance Audiobooks 50% Off Sale is here! Choose from hundreds of Brilliance's best-selling titles, all marked 50% off! These high circulating titles are on sale until December 31st - don't miss out on this great deal. To take advantage of these great savings, orders must be placed no later than 11pm EST on December 31st.

The sale includes titles by best-selling authors such as Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, and more.

All titles in this special edition of ContentWire are included in the Brilliance 50% Off Sale!

View a complete list of Brilliance sale titles.

Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster and is a part of the CBS Corporation.

They publish approximately 2000 titles annually. It is a major force in today's consumer publishing industry, dedicated to bringing an extensive cross section of first class information and entertainment, in all printed, digital, and audio formats, to a worldwide audience of readers.

The company consists of numerous prestigious and well known imprints, including Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Scribner, Free Press, Atria, Fireside, Touchstone, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Little Simon, Simon Spotlight, and Simon Spotlight Entertainment.

Popular titles included Einstein by Walter Isaacson, An Inconvenient Book by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe, The Best Life Diet by Bob Greene, Become a Better You by Joel Osteen, YOU: Staying Young by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr Mehmet C. Oz.and the original Spiderwick Chronicles series as well as Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: The Nixie's Song by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.

Simon & Schuster Audio is one of the original and largest audio publishers in the industry, with a list of high quality fiction and nonfiction from both Simon & Schuster and external publishing houses.

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