This summer our 12-year-old son is crazy about The Five Ancestors series by martial artist Jeff Stone. The books are named for the animal Kung Fu styles of a wild gang of young, Chinese orphaned warrior monks including Tiger (Fu), Monkey (Malao), Snake (She), and Crane (Hok). Wikipedia has more about this series, which moves very fast and offers frighteningly high levels of fighting, action, and adventure. On BOCD Kiki Barrera is a wonderful reader. I told a youth librarian with expertise in 'tweens of our son’s enthusiasm, and she also recommends Archer’s Quest.

This week and next week you will hear many speeches (including tonight, Barack Obama's acceptance speech as the Democratic nominee), but 45 years ago today, in a 15-minute speech captured here on YouTube, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the greatest orations of the 20th century, a hopeful vision during one of the most fractious periods of American social history that has since served as a rallying point for our country's better nature.

Comics just don't get more fun than this. Join cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and his pal Superman in some utterly irreverent and outright zany adventures as only Jack "King" Kirby could create. When Kirby came to work for DC Comics he was given the opportunity to write and draw any book he wished. Not wanting to put a fellow comics creator out of work, Kirby instead asked to be assigned to the lowest-selling book in the lineup. Kirby's iconic designs and intense action propelled the series to become one of DC's top sellers. Check out the collected Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby to find out why. If you enjoy films like Indiana Jones or Remo Williams, there's no way you won't get a kick out of this book.

Donna Tartt's second novel is brimming with keen descriptions of human behavior, multiple struggles for revenge, and the ripple effect of addiction. The Little Friend is a study of how the past blends into the present, and how unresolved prior events echo into the future. Tartt pulled from her experience growing up in Mississippi to make the south come to life in this novel.

Enzo is an aging labrador terrier mix who is obsessed with racing and with opposable thumbs. He is also the narrator of Garth Stein's novel, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Denny, the dog's owner, is an amateur Formula One driver who maneuvers through a pileup of challenges in order to become a professional driver and keep his family together. If you are willing to suspend your anthropomorphic disbelief and step into the mind of a reflective, emotionally perceptive canine (read: you're a dog lover), then you'll enjoy this fast-paced drama. One highlight of the book is Enzo's ability to draw parallels between his owner's prescient decisions and the skills a driver uses to win a race. Curl up with the book, or listen to the audiobook, both available at the AADL.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and DNR confirmed the first known case of chronic wasting in deer in Michigan at a private deer facility. There is no evidence that it has spread to the wild population yet but DNR is asking hunters this fall to take their deer to check stations for sampling so the wild population can be better studied.

Chronic Wasting Disease affects deer, elk and moose and is believed to be caused by prions. You may have heard of prions before as the cause of Mad Cow Disease. Unlike Mad Cow Disease which has been shown to carry over into humans, there are no known human infections of chronic wasting. For more information about prion diseases you may be interested in the book The pathological protein : Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and other deadly prion diseases

For those interested in the Michigan side of things, the Michigan government has a site devoted to chronic wasting disease in Michigan along with information on other emerging diseases such as Bovine TB.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of American icon Truman Capote whose short stories, novels, plays and non-fiction are recognized literary classics. The AADL is bursting at the seams with Capote reading materials including his first novel Summer Crossing (1943), his bestseller/semi-autobiographical novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948), possibly his best-known novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel". In our DVD department, try Humphrey Bogart in Beat the Devil (1953 screenplay), yummy Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and In Cold Blood (the original 1967 version, filmed at the actual home of the murdered family).
For those of you not familiar with Capote's jet-set, controversial, and often reckless celebrity lifestyle (think "southern gothic homosexual meets Andy Warhol's Studio 54"), check out George Plimpton's Truman Capote : in which various friends, enemies, acquaintances, and detractors recall his turbulent career or Infamous, the film adaptation of the book. True Capote fans will also appreciate his uncredited cameo in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (listen for Allen's character to say something like "Oh, there goes the winner of the Truman Capote Look-Alike Contest" and watch for Capote himself to walk by).

Did you enjoy the creativity, quirkiness, and sympathetic situations of people in Juno,
even though you hope teen pregnancy doesn't happen in your family?
The TEEN book Weetzie Bat, tells a similarly flavored story that is every bit as quirky, poignant, humanly resolved and wonderful.
It's a tasty "snack" of a read that still offers hope and satisfaction after ten years in publication.

While vacationing in New Hampshire and not feeling "quietly desperate," I read Olive Kittridge by Elizabeth Strout which takes place in the neighboring state of Maine. In a series of interlocking stories, Strout portrays the lives of both the title character, a sharp-tongued but deeply caring schoolteacher and people she knows who live in the small coastal town. Strout touches on many themes: depression, suicide, resentment and grief, all with penetrating insight and humor. I grew to care about these hard-edged, private and passionate people as much as Strout must have in writing about them.

Set in St. Louis, MO., Assistant District Attorney Jack Hilliard appears to have it all: intelligence, good looks, a great job, and a solid marriage with his wife, Claire. While he subscribes to the ideal of TELL NO LIES*, when he finds himself simultaneously seduced by a dream job and a sexy colleague, his moral compass starts to falter and he soon learns that bad decisions have even worse consequences. . .

"Compton's debut is a taut, tense cautionary tale complete with courtroom drama and a surprise ending" ~Kirkus Reviews. For fans of legal thrillers and the likes of the 2 Johns - ( Grisham and Hart ).

St. Louis native Julie Compton earned degrees in law and English literature. She worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Wilmington, Delaware. This is her first novel.

* = Starred Reviews.

Spoiler Alert!!! - If you don't like a cliffhanger of an ending - skip this one.