Last week my niece, Savanna, took a brief respite from the rigors of 5th grade and I from the rigors of a hot checkout desk to go on our annual birthday shopping trip. Each shopping trip starts with a two-hour visit to the Hobby Lobby, followed by a 10-minute dining moment. We don’t like to waste time eating. Then we look for a present. This year it was a little girl’s party dress with sequins on it, plus a pink phone with pink fur on it. I really wanted the phone for myself, but I couldn’t visualize the loving husband planning an ice fishing trip or scheduling a roofing project on a pink fur-lined phone. Savanna and I are great shoppers. In fact, the previous Sunday we spent two hours perusing the products at Pamida and buying fuzzy poster art. Some day I will reveal my previously undisclosed philosophy on women shopping. The real-inner-hidden-deeper-secret-reason we go on the birthday trip is the Mini-Critters pet store stop. We visit each fish tank, each birdcage, and each rat pen. Savanna and I are both allergic to fur-bearing animals so I encourage "no petting" of the puppies, kittens, and rabbits. But, because all Bremer girls love puppies, kittens, and rabbits, we break down and spend a good half-hour petting each and every animal there. Then, on the way home, we suffer. By the time we get to the Brandon exit, Savanna’s lips have swelled up and my lungs are non-functional. Do we care? No, because two Bremer girls got to spend the afternoon together doing their favorite things. If reading is one of your favorite things, you might want to check out the new book by Scott Turow, "Ordinary Heroes." Stewart Dubinsky knew his father had served in World War II. And he'd been told how he had rescued Stewart's mother from the horror of the Balingen concentration camp. But when he discovers, after his father's death, a packet of wartime letters to a former fiancée and learns of his father's court-martial and imprisonment, he is plunged into the mystery of his family's secret history and driven to uncover the truth about this enigmatic, distant man who'd always refused to talk about his war.As he pieces together his father's past through military archives, letters and, finally, notes from a memoir his father wrote while in prison, secretly preserved by the officer who defended him, Stewart starts to assemble a dramatic and baffling chain of events. In reconstructing the terrible events and agonizing choices his father faced on the battlefield, in the courtroom and in love, Stewart gains a closer understanding of his past, of his father's character and of the brutal nature of war itself. Also new on the shelf is James Patterson’s "Mary, Mary." FBI agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family at Disneyland when he gets a call from the Director. A well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an e-mail describing the murder in vivid detail. Alex quickly learns that this is not an isolated incident. The killer, known as Mary Smith, has done this before and plans to kill again. Right from the beginning, this case is like nothing Alex has ever confronted. Members of Hollywood’s A-list fear they’re next on Mary’s list, and the case grows by blockbuster proportions as the LAPD and FBI scramble to find a pattern before Mary can send one more chilling update. The Library will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.
