We've all been wondering about the twelfth title of Lemony Snicket's popular Series of Unfortunate Events which is shrouded in secrecy. Harper Collins has a contest for children to guess the title of the newest book. The deliciously devilish book is due out in October.

Does Scott Peterson merit four books?

The most recent book debuted this week at #10 on the NYTBR Best Sellers list. Forensic psychiatrist and psychiatric thriller writer Keith Ablow is the latest to peek Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson.

He joins company with Court TV’s Catherine Crier and her book, A Deadly Game: the Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation.

These professional crime profilers are joined by Scott Peterson’s sister, Anne Bird with Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson is Guilty and by Scott Peterson’s girlfriend, Amber Frey with her Witness for the Prosecution of Scott Peterson.

All four of these books had initial print runs of at least 150,000 copies.

God Bless the Child is a Coretta Scott King Honor Book that is based on the song by Billie Holiday. The illustrations depict the migration of African Americans from the rural south to northern cities during the early 1900's. The book, like the song, exemplifies the spirit of hope and love so engrained in the black community.

Just one week after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, questions abound as to how New Orleans, one of our country's most distinctive cities, will recover from the unexpected blow it has endured. Will it become a ghost town largely given over to tourism? Will its people, especially the poor who make up the Big Easy's essential fabric, be able to return? And if so, what of the city's unique flavor and singular joie de vivre will return with them? New Orleans' evocative atmosphere is the setting of many books and films, most notably Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and Suddenly, Last Summer. A couple other titles that come to mind are Interview with the Vampire and Jitterbug Perfume. Can you think of others?

Ann Arbor communications consultant, John Baldoni, is the author of several books on leadership including his most recent, Great Motivation Secret of Great Leaders. Using a variety of historical and contemporary individuals as examples to illustrate key aspects of motivation, Baldoni examines how leaders energize, encourage and exhort individuals and teams to achieve success. Baldoni spoke last year at one of the Library’s ‘Sunday Edition’ lecture programs on his previous book Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders. A video of that program will be broadcast on Ann Arbor’s Community Access Channel 17 on September 13 (3:30 pm), September 15(1:30 pm), September 16 (5:00 pm) and September 17 (1:30 pm). A videotape of his presentation is also available from the library.

I just read the most exciting book the other day. It is called Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. It is about a boy named Alex Rider, who finds out that his recently mysteriously deceased uncle was a spy for British Intelligence, MI6. He is quickly sucked in by MI6 to finish what his uncle started. To find out what happens when a 14-year-old boy suddenly has to uncover an evil plot having to do with lab top computers and biological warfare that could kill all of the children in England, you have to read the book, OR see the movie. That’s right, if you are an Alex Rider fan, the movie Stormbreaker is in production right now. Also catch Anthony Horowitz’s new series The Gatekeepers. The first book, Raven’s Gate, is in the library now.

Ellington Was Not a Street is based on the poem Mood Indigo by Ntozake Shange. This winner of the 2005 Corretta Scott King Illustrator award takes me back to my home Harlem, New York. A beautifully illustrated tribute to great men like Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois who once walked the streets that now bear their names.

The New York Times calls it “riveting”, a “meticulous dissection of the Enron story.” Kurt Eichenwald weaves together the stories of Enron’s top executives in the years and months leading up to the startling collapse of “America’s best-managed company.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson has been diagnosed with liver cancer and told a newspaper in his native Pittsburgh that he is dying.

Wilson has recently been completing his 10-play cycle chronicling the black experience in 20th-century America. Two of the plays in this cycle – “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson” earned Pulitzer Prizes. The 10th and final play, “Radio Golf,” is now running at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Wilson was diagnosed with the ailment in June. He is 60 years old and lives in Seattle.

No new play or dance events on the horizon for The Play Ground to report on so, while the nice weather is still here, we will continue to cover outdoor events. Dawn Farm, a facility that assists addicts and alcoholics in achieving long term recovery, is hosting a Dawn Farm Jamboree on September 11 at their farm in Ypsilanti. It is a family event with activities for all ages.
If you wish to brush up on the topic before you go, here is a book you may be interested in: The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway To Optimal Health While Recovering From Alcoholism And Drug Addiction by John Newport.