AUBURN – Some of the new Auburn Public Library new acquisitions for March are announced.

Fiction

“The Birth of Venus” by Sarah Dunant. Turning 15 in Renaissance Florence, Allesandra Cecchi becomes intoxicated with the works of a young painter whom her father has brought to the city to decorate the family’s Florentine palazzo.

“The Prisoner of Vandam Street” by Kinky Friedman. Stricken with malaria in his Vandam Street home, an unwitting Kinky Friedman is attended to by the faithful Irregulars. But when he witnesses a crime from his window, questions are raised about his feverish state of mind.

“Empress Orchid” by Anchee Min. The fictional portrait of the infamous last empress of China follows the life of Orchid, a beautiful teenager from an aristocratic but impoverished family, who uses her seductive talents and intelligence to rise to a position of power in the Chinese court.

“Bad Business” by Robert B. Parker. In a case that embroils him with corporate corruption and murder, Spencer is hired to conduct a surveillance job on an unfaithful husband, only to discover that a second investigator has been hired by the husband to look after his wife.

“Ransom” by Danielle Steel. A violent crime brings together four people, including a widow, a convicted murderer, an ex-con trying to rebuild his life and a detective, in a novel that explores the effects of violence on the lives of ordinary people.

Nonfiction

“The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich” by David Bach. Despite its sensational title, Bach’s latest is actually a sound, common-sense approach to becoming wealthy (or at least financially secure) by the time of retirement.

“Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War” by Douglas Brinkley. A popular historian serves up a rigorous examination of Kerry’s formative years: his birth into a Boston Brahmin family, education at Yale, enlistment for duty in Vietnam and subsequent antiwar activism.

“The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality” by Brian Greene. Is it possible to explain abstract mathematical concepts like String Theory and Inflationary Cosmology to the non-specialist? No science writer today does it better than Greene.

“The Buying of the President 2004: Who’s Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers – and What They Expect in Return” by Charles Lewis. It takes millions of dollars to run for the United States presidency today. For those who want to know where all that money comes from, this is a good place to start.

“Alnobak: A Story of Indigenous People in Androscoggin County” by Canyon Wolf. The illustrated book by L/A’s own Nancy Lecompte (aka Canyon Wolf) is well-suited to students and adults alike and will be a valuable resource.

Children’s

“The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” by Mordicai Gerstein. The 2004 Caldecott Award recipient features illustrations of Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers. For everyone, but especially children in grades kindergarten through six.

“There Once Was a Puffin” by Florence Page Jacques. A favorite old poem is given its own book. The moral? Teach a puffin to befriend the fish instead of eating them and she has friends for life. For children in preschool through kindergarten.

“Big Momma Makes the World” by Phyllis Root, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. The creation story features a single mom with a baby on her hip. Winner of the 2003 Boston Globe/Horn Book Picture Book Award. For children in preschool through grade two.

“Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey” by Maira Kalman. Heroism on 9/11 portrayed in stunning, brushy, painterly illustrations. Nonfiction Award Winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award 2003. For children ages 4 to 8.

“Milkweed” by Jerry Spinelli. It is a story of survival about a young orphan in Nazi-occupied Warsaw of 1939. Horrifying and tender. For readers ages 10 and up.

Audiobooks

“Something Rising (Light and Swift)” by Haven Kimmel. Cassie Claiborne lives in a problem-ridden world and learns to cope by working odd jobs and hustling pool while growing into a headstrong young woman and the family provider.

“The Anatomy of Hope” by Jerome Groopman. The illuminating and inspiring book examines how some people facing difficult circumstances in their lives manage to find and sustain the hope they need.

“Idyll Banter” by Chris Bohjalian. The collection of essays, written weekly for 12 years for the local newspaper, chronicles the ongoing transformation of America through the lens of the author’s life in the small town of Lincoln, Vt.

“The Statement” by Brian Moore. Sentenced to death in absentia for heinous war crimes, Pierre Brossard has been sheltered by the French government and Catholic Church for more than 40 years, but now they are demanding a reckoning. Based on a true story and now a major motion picture.

“Loving Che” by Ana Menendez. It is an intimate portrait of revolutionary Cuba as witnessed by an elderly woman, who recalls her secret love affair with the rebel, Ernesto “Che” Guevara.