Welcome to the Monday Morning Book Buzz, a preview of notable books being released this week. Some of them will be added to the Academy Library collection; if you read about a title that you would like added to the collection, let me know by either commenting on this post or by contacting me directly at the Library.

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This week’s releases are listed by category: Young Adult Fiction, General Fiction and Nonfiction. On-sale dates are indicated in parentheses.

Notable New Releases for the week of February 27th:

Young Adult Fiction

• Pandemonium (Delirium Series #2) by Lauren Oliver (2/28/2012) — After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive “the cure”–an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love–but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters, and although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love. “Lena’s strength and the complexity of her internal struggles will keep readers up at night.” — Kirkus Reviews

• Fugitives: Escape from Furnace 4 by Alexander Gordon Smith (2/28/2012) — After achieving the impossible by escaping the laboratories and cells of Furnace Penitentiary, Alex, injected with superhuman abilities, must uncover the last of Furnace’s secrets–the truth about the man who built the prison.

• Allegiance by Cayla Kluver (2/28/2012) — An eighteen-year-old queen in love with the enemy as their countries pass the point of no return.… Bound to a man she cannot love, Queen Alera of Hytanica must forget Narian, the young man who holds her heart. “A teen romance that delivers a softer, more innocent love story than the publisher’s well-known adult tomes.” — Kirkus Reviews

• Perception: A Clarity Novel by Kim Harrington (3/1/2012) — Trying to decide between her old boyfriend, who betrayed her but wants her back, and the new boy with whom there are definite sparks, Cape Cod high school junior and psychic Clare is puzzled by a secret admirer even as she tries to solve the mystery of a classmate who has suddenly disappeared. “A smart, paranormal mystery ride.” — Kirkus Reviews

• The Traitor in the Tunnel (The Agency Series #3) by Y. S. Lee (2/28/2012) — When Mary Quinn is assigned to the Queen’s case and sets out to identify a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace, she finds herself fending off the advances of a feckless prince — but a larger scandal looms when the prince witnesses the murder of a friend in an opium den.

• Partials by Dan Wells (2/28/2012) — A war with Partials — engineered organic beings identical to humans — has devastated the human population due to a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune. Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, discovers that a connection between humans and Partials may be the key to saving both races. “Readers who enjoy SF-oriented postapocalyptic stories will relish this one.” — Publishers Weekly

• BZRK by Michael Grant (2/28/2012) — In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, but at risk of the host’s brain.

• When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen (2/28/2012) — Felicita fakes her own suicide to escape from the strict confines of her aristocratic family and an arranged marriage, only to be confronted with the harsh realities of living in the slums and the ultimate discovery that the boy she has fallen in love with is plotting a rebellion to destroy her family. “Hellisen’s captivating debut will haunt readers.” — School Library Journal

• A Touch Morbid by Leah Clifford (2/28/2012) — The sequel to A Touch Mortal. As angels and demons battle throughout New York City, Eden finds a boy — even an angel — is hardly the solution to her problems. She’s still caught between life and death, still cursed to spread poison with her touch. She’s lost one best friend and another is quickly unraveling. And now something is happening to the mortals. Something very, very bad.

• The Final Four by Paul Volponi (3/1/2012) — Four players at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament struggle with the pressures of tournament play and the expectations of society at large. “As with all clutch performances, Volponi nails it when it counts in this dynamic story.” — Booklist starred review

General Fiction

• Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (2/28/2012) — Luke Warren has spent his life researching wolves. He has written about them, studied their habits intensively, and even lived with them for extended periods of time. His son, Edward, twenty-four, fled six years ago, leaving behind a shattered relationship with his father. Then comes a frantic phone call: Luke has been gravely injured in a car accident with Edward’s younger sister, Cara. Edward must return home to face the father he walked out on, and he and Cara must decide their father’s fate together. “Readers find Picoult’s books impossible to put down. Her many fans won’t be disappointed.” — Library Journal

• Victims (Alex Delaware Series #27) by Jonathan Kellerman (2/28/2012) — Not since Jack the Ripper terrorized the London slums has there been such a gruesome crime scene. By all accounts, acid-tongued Vita Berlin hadn’t a friend in the world, but whom did she cross so badly as to end up arranged in such a grotesque tableau? One look at her apartment–turned–charnel house prompts hard-bitten LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to summon his go-to expert in hunting homicidal maniacs, Alex Delaware. “Fans of this long-running series will get exactly what they’ve come to expect: a thoughtful Alex, a mildly sarcastic Milo and a well-constructed plot.” — Kirkus Reviews

• Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen Series #15) by Joanne Fluke (2/28/2012) — With the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band heading toward Lake Eden for the Weekend Jazz Festival, Hannah Swensen is more than happy to bake up a generous supply of their namesake confections. But tragedy strikes when the band’s tour bus overturns on its way into town. At first, keyboard player Buddy Neiman’s injuries appear minor, until his condition suddenly takes a turn for the worse—as in dead. Hannah’s no doctor, but she suspects that the surgical scissors jutting out of Buddy’s chest may have something to do with it.

• Trail of the Spellmans (Spellman Files Series #5) by Lisa Lutz (2/28/2012) — For the first time in Spellman history, Isabel Spellman, PI, might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities, Dad has a secret, and Izzy’s brother and sister are at war—for no apparent reason. Things aren’t any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations. As the questions pile up, Izzy won’t stop hunting for the answers—even when they threaten to shatter both the business and the family.

Nonfiction

• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (2/28/2012) — Award-winning New York Times business reporter Duhigg explores scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.

• House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid (2/28/2012) — Last spring, when Anthony Shadid—one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya as the region erupted—was freed, he went home. Not to Boston, Beirut, or Oklahoma where he was raised by his Lebanese-American family, but to an ancient estate built by his great-grandfather, a place filled with memories of a lost era when the Middle East was a world of grace, grandeur, and unexpected departures.

• The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live–and How You Can Change Them by Richard J. Davidson (3/1/2012) — “An eye-opener, replete with breakthrough research that will change the way you see yourself and everyone you know. Richard Davidson and Sharon Begley make a star team: cutting edge findings formulated in a delightful, can’t-put-it-down read. I loved this book.” — Daniel Goleman, author Emotional Intelligence

• If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley (2/28/2012) — Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly, and truly intimate history of home life. Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove.

• Out of My League: A Rookie’s Survival in the Bigs by Dirk Hayhurst (3/1/2012) — Pitcher Dirk Hayhurst’s story of his travels through Double A, Triple A and finally the big leagues of major league baseball.

• Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the ’60s and Beyond by Jane Maas (2/28/2012) — What was it like to be an advertising woman on Madison Avenue in the 60s and 70s – that Mad Men era of casual sex and professional serfdom? A real-life Peggy Olson reveals it all in this immensely entertaining and bittersweet memoir. Mad Women is a tell-all account of life in the New York advertising world by Jane Maas, a copywriter who succeeded in the primarily male jungle depicted in the hit show Mad Men.