2010.3.27 NEW ARRIVALS

The Blind Side

(Movie Tie-in Edition)

AUTHOR: Michael Lewis

GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs

As he did so memorably for baseball in “Moneyball,” Lewis takes a statistical X-ray of the hidden substructure of football, outlining the invisible doings of unsung players that determine the outcome more than the showy exploits of those who score the most points. In his sketch of the gridiron arms race, first came the modern, meticulously choreographed passing offense, followed by the ferocious defensive pass rusher whose bone-crunching quarterback sacks demolished the best-laid passing game. Then, finally, came the rise of the left tackle - the offensive lineman tasked with protecting the quarterback from the pass rusher, whose presence is felt only through the game-deciding absence of said sacks. A rare creature combining 300 pounds of bulk with “the body control of a ballerina,” the anonymous left tackle, Lewis notes, is now often a team’s highest-paid player. Lewis fleshes this out with the colorful saga of left tackle prodigy Michael Oher. An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher’s preternatural size and agility soon had every college coach in the country courting him. Combining a tour de force of sports analysis with a piquant ethnography of the South’s pigskin mania, Lewis probes the fascinating question of whether football is a matter of brute force or subtle intellect.

Long for This World: A Novel

AUTHOR: Sonya Chung

GENRE: Fiction

When Han Hyun-ku appears on the doorstep of his younger brother’s home in Korea nearly 40 years after he immigrated to America, the far-flung members of the Han family find their lives unexpectedly intersecting in this elegant debut novel.

Han Hyun-ku’s adult daughter, Jane, a photojournalist who narrowly escaped death in Baghdad, follows her father to Korea, inwardly pleased that he has left behind her alcoholic, self-centered mother.

Meanwhile, Jane cannot shake memories of the harrowing experience that ended her longtime relationship with her ex and sent her to Baghdad.

In Korea, Han Jung-joo - Han Hyun-ku’s sister-in-law - accepts the arrival of these unexpected guests with her usual serenity. But as her worry for her pregnant, troubled daughter grows, the household begins to break apart.

Han Jung-joo’s younger brother, a divorced artist, then arrives, precipitating events that change everyone’s lives forever. Switching deftly between different characters’ points of view, Chung portrays with precision and grace each character’s struggle to find his or her place in the family and in the world.

Crazy Heart: A Novel

AUTHOR: Thomas Cobb

GENRE: Fiction

Singer and guitarist Bad Blake was once a first-rate country-and-western star, but now he’s a 57-year-old alcoholic who has failed in four marriages and plays in dingy clubs. The biggest gig he can get is opening for Tommy Sweet, the singer whose career he helped start. Bad meets pretty reporter Jean Craddock when she comes to interview him for an article, and they quickly fall in love. Her little boy, Buddy, inspires Bad to search for his own long-lost son, but there’s no happy ending there. And when Bad, hungry for a drink, loses Jean’s son, things take a downturn, despite Bad’s fling with Alcoholics Anonymous. Cobb’s first novel has the authentic patter and ambience of those seedy one-night-stands, with a lead character whose film portrayal led to an Academy Award.

Bro on the Go

AUTHOR: Barney Stinson

GENRE: Humor

From the mind of New York Times bestselling author Barney Stinson comes the ultimate companion to “The Bro Code” - a handy reference guide crafted for today’s active man. With new rules, inspirations and wisdom, coupled with classics staples from the original Code, “Bro on the Go” is designed to quickly aid a busy Bro in any situation he might face - at the beach, on the job, at the game, or with the ladies. Plus, it looks good stuffed in your pocket.