"Heat, ma'am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones."
~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's MemoirGood ol' Wikipedia describes the dog days of summer as the hottest, most sultry days of the summer. The name comes from the ancient belief that, Sirius, the Dog Star, was responsible for hot weather. Harry Potter fans will identify Sirius the dog as someone else. Speaking of good books, check out some new ones we have available below.
FICTION HARDCOVER
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST, by Stieg Larsson. (Knopf, $27.95.) The third volume of a trilogy about a Swedish hacker and a journalist.
Call #: F LAR
FLY AWAY HOME, by Jennifer Weiner. (Atria, $26.99.) A senator’s extramarital affair affects his wife and daughters.
Call #: MCN F WEI
THE SEARCH, by Nora Roberts. (Putnam, $26.95.) The only survivor of a serial killer has found peace in the Pacific Northwest, but her life is shaken by the appearance of a new man and a copycat murderer.
Call #: MCN F ROB
THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett. (Amy Einhorn/Putnam, $24.95.) A young white woman and two black maids in 1960s Mississippi.
Call #: F STO
PRIVATE, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) The head of an investigation company pursues the murderer of his best friend’s wife.
Call #: MCN F PAT
THE GLASS RAINBOW, by James Lee Burke. (Simon & Schuster, $25.99.) A man with ties to an evil ex-convict and best-selling author is dating the Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux’s daughter.
Call #: F BUR
SIZZLING SIXTEEN, by Janet Evanovich. (St. Martin’s, $27.99.) The bounty hunter Stephanie Plum comes to the aid of a cousin with gambling debts.
Call #: MCN F EVA
FAITHFUL PLACE, by Tana French. (Viking, $25.95.) Twenty-two years after a Dublin woman stood up her intended groom, her abandoned suitcase is discovered.
Call #: F FRE
THE OVERTON WINDOW, by Glenn Beck. (Threshold Editions/Mercury Radio Arts, $26.) A public relations executive and the woman he loves expose a dangerous conspiracy.
Call #: F BEC
LIVE TO TELL, by Lisa Gardner. (Bantam, $26.) The investigation of a Boston family murder leads Detective D. D. Warren to a pediatric psychiatric ward.
Call #: MCN F GAR
THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin. (Ballantine, $27.) More than a hundred years in the future, a small group resists the vampires who have taken over North America.
Call #: F CRO
THE LION, by Nelson DeMille. (Grand Central, $27.99.) John Corey, now a federal agent, pursues a Libyan terrorist who has returned to America bent on revenge.
Call #: F DEM
FOREIGN INFLUENCE, by Brad Thor. (Atria, $26.99.) The covert operative Scott Harvath joins a new spy agency and investigates a bombing in Rome that killed American students.
Call #: MCN F THO
ICE COLD, by Tess Gerritsen. (Ballantine, $26.) A group of friends are murdered when they take refuge in a remote abandoned village in Wyoming.
Call #: MCN F GER
NONFICTION HARDCOVER
THE OBAMA DIARIES, by Laura Ingraham. (Threshold Editions, $25.) A satirical fictional journal with commentary, by the conservative political commentator.
Call #: MCN 973.932 ING
SH*T MY DAD SAYS, by Justin Halpern. (It Books/HarperCollins, $15.99.) A coming-of-age memoir organized around the musings, purveyed on Twitter, of the author’s father.
Call#: 818.602 HAL
MEDIUM RAW, by Anthony Bourdain. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99.) The author of “Kitchen Confidential” looks critically both at the changes in the food and restaurant culture in the past 10 years and at the people responsible for them.
Call#: BIO BOU
THE BIG SHORT, by Michael Lewis. (Norton, $27.95.) The people who saw the real estate crash coming and made billions from their foresight.
Call#: 330.973 LEW
SPOKEN FROM THE HEART,by Laura Bush. (Scribner, $30.) A memoir from the former first lady.
Call#: 973.93 BUS
WAR, by Sebastian Junger. (Twelve, $26.99.) The intense lives of American soldiers in a lethal corner of Afghanistan.
Call#: 958.104 JUN
CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG, by Chelsea Handler. (Grand Central, $25.99.) More humorous personal essays from the comedian.
Call#: 814.6 HAN
OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent.
Call#: 302 GLA
IN A HEARTBEAT, by Leigh Anne Tuohy and Sean Tuohy with Sally Jenkins. (Holt, $24.) The couple featured in “The Blind Side” tell their story and promote the practice of “cheerful giving.”
Call #: MCN 920 TUO
HOME TEAM, by Sean Payton and Ellis Henican. (NAL, $24.95.) The head coach of the New Orleans Saints describes the team’s Super Bowl victory, which raised the city’s spirits four years after Hurricane Katrina.
Call #: MCN 796.332 PAY
STEINBRENNER, by Bill Madden. (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) A biography of the New York Yankees owner, who died last month.
Call #: MCN BIO STE
