Check it out: What's hot at the library

These are the top 10 most recently requested books at the Bay View Library.

FICTION

• THE GRAVEDIGGER'S DAUGHTER by Joyce Carol Oates - Ecco, 2007

Rebecca Schwarts begins an odyssey through America after her parents leave Germany in 1936 because of Nazi persecution in this haunting and tragic story of her search for identity and meaning in her life.

• THE MAYTREES by Annie Dillard - Harper Collins Publishers, 2007

Dillard's family story of love and loss in the Bohemian community of Provincetown, R.I., centers on the unconventional marriage of Toby and Lou Maytree. It is infused with a feeling for nature in her depiction of the lives of her characters.

• THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN: A DAVE ROBICHEAUX NOVEL by James Lee Burke - Simon & Schuster, 2007

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Robicheaux's department investigates the deaths of two looters in this, the 16th installment in the series featuring the New Orleans police detective.

• PEONY IN LOVE by Lisa See - Random House, 2007

Peony, the daughter of a wealthy family in 17th-century China, imperils her arranged betrothal when, unchaperoned, she meets with a visitor to her home in this fascinating look at Chinese culture.

• ON CHESIL BEACH by Ian McEwan - Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2007

McEwan's short novel of a young, newlywed couple's honeymoon is a meticulously detailed examination of love and sexuality at a critical point in their lives.

NON-FICTION

• THE WORLD WITHOUT US by Alan Weisman - Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2007

The author looks at what would happen if the human population of the Earth were wiped out overnight in this provocative description of our effect on the planet's ecosystem, and how that might revert to its natural state.

• LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA by Tim Weiner - Doubleday, 2007

New York Times reporter Weiner's detailed and well-researched history of the Central Intelligence Agency presents a look at an organization that, over the years, has been plagued by a failure to gather or interpret intelligence, leading to misadventures like the Bay of Pigs.

• BROTHERS: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE KENNEDY YEARS by David Talbot - Free Press, 2007

Talbot reveals how John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert struggled with elements of the national security community, including the CIA, as they tried to bring the Cold War to a peaceful end.

• MERLE'S DOOR: LESSONS FROM A FREETHINKING DOG by Ted Kerasote - Harcourt, 2007

The author chronicles his years with the Labrador mix dog, Merle, which he adopted as a stray, describing their relationship as something between friends, rather than as between master and pet.

• TRAVELS WITH HERODOTUS by Ryszard Kapuscinski - A.A. Knopf, 2007

Polish foreign correspondent Kapuscinski reminisces on his travels as a journalist in a poetic way that is partly memoir and partly current history, but always a tribute to Herodotus, whom he takes as a kind of mentor for his own career.

Check out these books and more at the Bay View Library, 2566 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.