Each year, in April, we hold a special event at the library. I’m going to give you some fill-in-the-blank hints to help you determine the event in question. Becky, the best _____since 8th grade. I get by with a little help from my ______. A _____in need is a _____ indeed. You guessed it. It’s time join the Friends of the Rock County Library. You can support your library with a (tax-deductible) membership donation to the Friends. Last year the Friends rescued us from our book budget woes with a $2,000 contribution to purchase new books. It’s your membership dues that make this possible. If you are a member already, it’s time to renew. If you would like to join for the first time, stop in the library for a membership form. And please be assured, librarians hold their Friends in very high esteem. We just received a massive shipment of books, and a lot of your favorite authors have their new spring titles out. "No Place Like Home," by Mary Higgins Clark. At the age of 10, Liza Barton had shot her mother, trying desperately to protect her from her estranged stepfather, Ted Cartwright. Despite his claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Cartwright, and compared her to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing even to the similarity of their names. To erase Liza's past, her adoptive parents change her name to Celia. At age 28, a successful interior designer in Manhattan, she marries widower, Laurence Foster, and they have a son. Before their marriage, she reveals her true identity. Two years later, on his deathbed, he makes her swear never to tell anyone so that their son, Jack, will not carry the stigma of her past. Two years later, Celia is happily remarried. Then, her new husband surprises her with a gift — the house in Mendham, N.J., where she killed her mother. On the day they move in, they find the words "Little Lizzie's Place Beware" painted on the lawn, and a skull and crossbones carved into the door. More and more, there are signs that someone knows Celia's true identity. When Georgette Grove, the real estate agent who sold the house to Alex, is brutally murdered and Celia is the first on the crime scene, she becomes a suspect. As Celia fights to prove her innocence, she is not aware that she and her son, Jack, are now the targets of a killer. Also new on the fiction shelf is Fern Michaels’ "Pretty Woman." Rosie Gardener and Vickie Winters were best friends. Partners in a successful mail-order company, both women lived comfortably in lush Savannah, Ga. Rosie, overweight and unable to see her own worth, fell under the spell of Kent Bliss, a two-timing cad, and she was his meal ticket. The night before Rosie's wedding, Vickie tried to warn her about Kent's true nature. Now, on her third wedding anniversary, Rosie realizes Vickie was right. Fed up with his mistreatment, she vows to change her life — starting by kicking him out that night. The next day, she begins a diet and exercise regime. But more life-changing news awaits: Rosie has the single winning ticket in the Wonderball lottery — and she's won $302 million. With Kent lurking in the shadows to claim a share of her money, Rosie needs her friends more than ever. As she loses weight and works out under the eye of sexy personal trainer Jack Silver, a new Rosie emerges. This pretty woman is making a fresh start, and no one's greed or bitterness — or even her own occasional self-doubts — will stop her from jumping into life and love with a passion she didn't know she possessed.
