Hot Reads, a DVD at Hopkinton Library for Memorial Day

The Hopkinton Public Library's newest DVD is the last installment of Stieg Larsson's fictional adventures of Lisbeth Salander, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

If you're wondering what the fuss is about for Larsson's series, which was planned to be nine books but cut short at three by his death, check out the perplexing heroine as she lies severely wounded in the hospital, facing three murder charges.

Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress who plays Lisbeth, is superb - there is no other word.

In fiction, 10th Anniversary by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro follows Detective Lindsay Boxer as she postpones her long-awaited wedding celebration to investigate a horrendous crime.

Jodi Picoult's Sing You Home tells the tale of Zoe Baxter's years of miscarriages and infertility issues, whose dream of a child is about to come true until a terrible turn of events leads to a nightmare.

Michael Connelly fans can check out The Fifth Witness, a murder mystery from today's headlines. Criminalk defense attorney Mickey Haller goes into the business of defending people whose homes are being foreclosed until  Lisa Trammel is accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. (Also on CD.)

In non-fiction, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks, and Second Chances tells not opnly of his come-from-nowhere Senate victory but his awful childhood, but his salvation through basketball, an unstoppable work ethic and the coaches who mentored him and helped him turn his life around. (For those interested, Brown will be in Westborough at Tatnuck Booksellers on Lyman Street Saturday, May 28, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. signing copies of his book.)

Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life sheds new light in the most readable way on the queen who ruled Egypt for 20 years as an intelligent, able ruler who tried to protect her own and her country's interests in the face of Roman aggression.

From the ruler of Egypt to the ruler of rock and roll guitar, Keith Richards A Life tells his story from the inside out with trademark black humor and honesty. When Mick Jagger was knighted, Richards said of the House of Windsor, "I wouldn't let that family near me with a sharp stick, let alone a sword."

Finally, with the death of Osama bin Laden, check out The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Lawrence Wright won the the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his look at the people, ideas, terrorist plans and Western intelligence failures that culminated in 9/11. If you've ever seen Wright interviewed as an expert in print or electronic media, you know he's a clearheaded, well-versed reporter and thinker. The Looming Tower proves him to be a marvelous writer most capable of weaving his reporting into a sensible, understandable whole.

And don't forget, Thursday night, May 26 at 7, Reader's Choice: Not Your Average Book Group at the library. It's exactly what it says. Share your favorites with other readers. Show up or sign up with librarian Susan Marshall  508-497-9777 or smarshall@cwmars.org