CHECK IT OUT:

This week marks the most American of celebrations, Thanksgiving Day. We give thanks for our blessings, our traditions, our family, friends, neighbors and the opportunity to pursue the right to happiness.

The library will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. So plan a trip to the library before or after Turkey Day and feed your intellect as well as your appetite.

Discover these new 2007 librarian picks that are mostly “off the radar” on bestseller lists.

“Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan’s Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe That Ended the Outlaws’ Bloody Reign” by Stephan Talty: Arrr and shiver me timbers. Pirates! And not the Disney kind! Thrill to the real-life exploits of the Welsh pirate Capt. Henry Morgan. It’s the English versus the Spanish in the true adventures about pirates of the Caribbean.

“The Death List” by Paul Johnston: Suspense and intrigue stalk every page when protagonist/novelist Matt Wells is incriminated in a series of murders. It’s enough to ruin a writer’s reputation with his family, friends and fans in a modern-day, suspicious London town.

“Thunderstruck” by Erik Larson: This is a real page-turner: Two true stories intertwine during the investigation of British wife-murderer Dr. Hawley Crippen and Italian radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi. How did 19th-century crime-stoppers use wireless communication to capture a killer? See the new-fangled telegraph in action. Hey, it’s the latest technology for the ’90s; the 1890s.

“House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest” by Craig Childs: Ever wonder what happened to the ancient, native Anasazi people? They faded into the proverbial historical mist sometime about 1200 AD from the Four Corners Region of New Mexico. Travel vicariously through detailed descriptions of the Chaco culture to find tantalizing clues from artifacts and landmarks.

“Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay: Dark family secrets, World War II, espionage in Paris, and German occupation all combine to make this fictional historical thriller a candidate for the 2007 librarians’ list. This title captures the paranoia and complicity that accompanied the French police’s round-up of French Jews.

“Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI” by Dana Kollmann: Want to read about true case studies from an actual crime scene investigator instead of the made-for-TV, well-scripted and entertaining “CSI” programs? A Maryland-native, forensic scientist reveals all about real crime scene searches, forensic evidence and the hunt for the truth. This is a fascinating biographical account incorporating the incredible, behind-the-scenes back stories.

“The First Wave: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery” by James R. Benn: What would have happened if Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had an Irish-American cop on his personal payroll? Follow the adventures of private investigator Billy Boyle in 1942 Algeria in this new mystery involving the murders of French and American soldiers.

CHECK IT OUT is written by Newport Beach Public Library reference librarian Mary Ellen Bowman. Use your Newport Beach Public Library card to reserve these titles at www.newportbeachlibrary.org or call (949) 717-3800 and press 2.