Happy Day! The Federal and State tax forms are in — at least most them. We are at the mercy of governmental time frame on this. However, almost all tax forms, publications, instructions, etc. are available on the Internet at the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov). Click on "Forms and Publications" When that page opens, click on "Form and Instruction Number." You can also find a link to state forms on this page. If you can’t get it, call me at the library, 449-5040. We can print them off for you for a fee of 15¢ per page plus tax. Enough about taxes; now on to the real important matters of life, new books. It’s a new year with a new book budget and that means happy library patrons. Out on the shelf this week is "The Broker," by John Grisham. In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world’s most sophisticated satellite surveillance system. Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. After he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The question is not whether Backman will survive, there is no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who will kill him? Also new on the fiction shelf is Richard North Patterson’s "Conviction." Fifty-nine days. That’s how long Rennell Price has to live after spending 15 years on death row for the assault and murder of a girl whose body was found floating in San Francisco Bay. But attorney Terri Paget has dedicated her life to fighting for people like Rennell Price. This time, Terri has a client she believes may actually be innocent."I didn’t hurt that little girl" is all Rennell Price has ever said in his own defense. In a trial, Rennell, along with his older brother, Payton, was found guilty of the heinous crime, and the conviction has been upheld through one appeal after another. As Terri spends time with Rennell and re-creates the events that put him on death row, she starts to understand the forces that shaped Rennell and the reason he has never been able to defend himself adequately.As Terri prepares for a last appeal, she gets a new weapon for her battle-fresh evidence suggesting that another man, not Rennell, helped Payton commit the atrocity. But the grim machinery of capital punishment is already in motion. As Terri’s last-ditch battle unfolds, this much is clear: Rennell’s innocence may not be enough to save him. New on the non-fiction shelf is "A Brother’s Journey" by Richard Pelzer. He is the brother of Dave Pelzer, who authored "A Child called It." Once David, the elder of the two, was removed from the household, the author became the target of their mother's alcohol-induced rage. As Pelzer details his outward struggle to survive, he assaults readers with the graphic facts about being beaten for falling asleep, and being forbidden to bathe and forced to eat scraps from a dog bowl. By looking back at the skinny, red-haired boy who wanted nothing more than his mother's love, Pelzer discovers his true spirit, which he shares with us in hopes of healing himself.
