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24
Hours, by Greg Iles
24 HOURS-that's how long it takes a madman to pull off the perfect
crime. He's done it before. He'll do it again. And no one can stop
him-until he picks the wrong family to terrorize.
The
Agüero Sisters, by Cristina Garcia
An elegantly written novel that investigates the several natures of
identity—personal, familial, and even national—tells the story of
two sisters who grew up in Cuba and then were separated for 30 years
when one emigrated to the United States.
All
the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
The tragic tale of John Grady Cole’s coming of age in Texas and Mexico
fifty years ago, this title won the National Book Award in 1992.
All
is Vanity, by Christina Schwarz
At once darkly comedic and moving, this witty exploration of female
friendship, envy, and misguided ambition by the author of the number-one
bestseller Drowning Ruth, deliciously satirizes the desire to shine in
the world. In All is Vanity, Margaret and Letty, best friends since
childhood and now living on opposite coasts, reach their mid-thirties
and begin to chafe at their sense that they are not where they ought to
be in life. Margaret, driven and overconfident, decides the best way to
rectify this is to quit her job and whip out a literary tour de force.
Frustrated almost immediately and humiliated at every turn, Margaret
turns to Letty for support. But as Letty, a stay-at-home mother of four,
begins to feel pressured to make a good showing in the
upper-middle-class Los Angeles society into which her husband's new job
has thrust her, Margaret sees a plot unfolding that's better than
anything she could make up. Desperate to finish her book and against her
better nature, she pushes Letty to take greater and greater risks, and
secretly steals her friend's stories as fast as she can live them.
Hungry for the world's regard, Margaret rashly sacrifices one of the
things most precious to her, until the novel's suspenseful conclusion
shows her the terrible consequences of her betrayal.
The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon
It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also
been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his
greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague.
His cousin, Brooklyn's own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to
create the heroes, stories, and art for the latest novelty to hit the
American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears, and
dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion
the Escapist. As the shadow of Hitler falls across Europe and the world,
the Golden Age of comic books has begun.
Amy
and Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout
Exploring the complex relationship of a mother and her teenage daughter,
the novel places the characters in the larger context of their New
England community in the 1960s.
Andrew
Bierce and the Queen of Spades,
by Oakley Hall
Tom Redmond, printer's assistant and would-be journalist for a satirical
weekly, joins editor Ambrose Bierce in investigating a series of brutal
prostitute murders in 1880s San Francisco.
Angry
Housewives Eating Bon Bons, by
Lorna Landvik
The Freesia Court Book Club, renamed Angry Housewives Eating
Bon-Bons is the story of a group of women and their acceptance of
one another just as they are, faults and all. Landvik has crafted a
beautiful portrait of female friendship through the years.
Animal
Dreams by
Barbara Kingsolver.
Codi Nodine goes back to Grace, Arizona to confront her past and face
her ailing, distant father. What the finds is a town threatened by a
silent environmental catastrophe, some startling clues to her own
identity, and a man whose view of the world could change the course of
her life. Blending flashbacks, dreams, and Native American legends,
Animal Dreams is a suspenseful love story and a moving exploration of
life's largest commitments.
At
Home in Mitford, by Jan
Karon
The first in a series of novels, this heartwarming book introduces
readers to a small charming North Carolina town and its equally charming
inhabitants. This book is filled with the mysteries and miracles of
everyday life and rich, provincial humor.
The
Architect, by
Keith Ablow
West Crosse, educated at Yale, member of the ultra-elite Order of Skull
and Bones, is a stunningly brilliant, strikingly handsome architect with
a love of ideal beauty and commitment to achieving it at any cost. But
his clients don't know his dark side: Crosse can't stop at designing
their dwellings. He needs to make their lives more perfect too, even if
it means reshaping the structure of their families, even if the final
design takes years to achieve - murdering an abusive spouse, a toxic
lover, a predatory business partner, or an unwanted child. As
Crosse is about to embark on the masterwork of his creative life, the
FBI puts forensic psychiatrist Dr. Frank Clevenger on the case, and the
ultimate cat-and-mouse game begins. Clevenger's investigation will lead
him toward still-open murder cases around the nation, into the darkest
corners of a madman's soul, and face-to-face with his own demons.
Atonement,
by Ian McEwan
In this rich novel by the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel
"Amsterdam, " a young girl unwittingly tells a tale that turns
her family upside down. Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its
depiction of childhood, love and war, England and class,
"Atonement" is at its center a profound--and profoundly
moving--exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and the
difficulty of absolution.
Balzac
and the Little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie,
translated by Ina Rilke
An enchanting literary debut-already an international best-seller. At
the height of Mao's infamous Cultural Revolution, two boys are among
hundreds of thousands exiled to the countryside for
"re-education." The narrator and his best friend, Luo, guilty
of being the sons of doctors, find themselves in a remote village where,
among the peasants of Phoenix mountain, they are made to cart buckets of
excrement up and down precipitous winding paths. Their meager
distractions include a violin-as well as, before long, the beautiful
daughter of the local tailor. But it is when the two discover a hidden
stash of Western classics in Chinese translation that their re-education
takes its most surprising turn. While ingeniously concealing their
forbidden treasure, the boys find transit to worlds they had thought
lost forever. And after listening to their dangerously seductive
retellings of Balzac, even the Little Seamstress will be forever
transformed.
Bangkok
8, by
John Burdett
Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake
- a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a
methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras. Two cops -
the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes
later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist,
equally versed in the sacred and the profane - son of a long-gone
Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international
clientele contributed richly to Sonchai's sophistication. Now, his
partner dead, Sonchai is doubly compelled to find the murderer, to
maneuver through the world he knows all to well - illicit drugs,
prostitution, infinite corruption - and into a realm he has never before
encountered: the moneyed underbelly of the city, where desire rules and
the human body is no less custom-designable than a raw hunk of jade. And
where Sonchai tracks the killer - and a predator of an even more
sinister variety.
Beach
Music by Pat Conroy
An American expatriate in Rome finds the past continues to haunt him as
he attempts to flee the memories of his wife's suicide, only to find
himself searching out a family secret which holds a clue to solace.
Before
You Know Kindness, by
Christopher Bohjalian
For ten summers, the Seton family - ”all three generations” - met at
their country home in New England to spend a week together playing
tennis, badminton, and golf, and savoring gin and tonics on the
wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season. In the eleventh
summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left
in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong
time, and led to a nightmarish accident that put to the test the values
that unite the family and the convictions that just may pull it apart.
Before You Know Kindness is a family saga that is timely in its
examination of some of the most important issues of our era, and
timeless in its exploration of the strange and unexpected places where
we find love.
Bel
Canto by Ann Patchett
From the bestselling author of "The Magician's Assistant"
comes a marvelous novel of love, opera, and terrorism set in South
America. Two couples, complete opposites, fall in love; sexual
identities become confused; and a horrific imprisonment is transformed
into an unexpected heaven on earth.
Beyond
Recognition, by Ridley
Pearson
Seattle Police Sergeant Lou Boldt battles a scholar-arsonist who
vaporizes his victims in hotter-than-hot house fires. Equally dangerous
is the smoldering romance between Boldt, who's drifting away from his
wife, and a police department psychologist.
Big
Stone Gap, Adriana
Trigiani
A thirty-five year old self-proclaimed spinster pharmacist learns after
her mother dies that the circumstances surrounding her birth were hidden
from her. Amid two marriage proposals, a mine accident, a visit by
Elizabeth Taylor to the town, town gossips, mean elderly relatives, and
cruel cheerleaders’ tricks, she handles the trauma with surprising
grace.
Birds
of a Feather, by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy
grocery magnate's missing daughter. The case is complicated by the
violent deaths of three of the heiress' friends. Maisie discovers that
the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War.
Black
Jack Point, by Jeff Abbott
When the bodies of his missing friends are found buried at Black
Jack Point, Texas judge Whit Mosley sets out to find the killers,
plunging into a perilous world in which his only ally, police detective
Claudia Salazar, is kidnapped.
Blackberry
Winter: My Earliest Years, by Margaret Mead
The autobiography of a pioneer, this is Margaret Mead's story of her
life as a young adult and as an anthropologist. She came to represent
the new woman by combining motherhood and career.
Blind
Assassin by Margaret Atwood
A multi-layered love story and mystery involving two sisters, one who
perishes at the beginning of the story, while the other sister initially
seems unaffected by her death.
Blue
Bottle Club by Penelope
J. Stokes
Four girls, four dreams and four futures sealed in a cobalt blue bottle
in the wake of the depression in 1929. Sixty-five years later, local
news reporter Brendan Delaney stumbles upon the bottle, discovering the
most meaningful story of her career and possibly the meaning missing
from her own life.
Bound
Feet and Western Dress: A Memoir
by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang
"In China, a woman is nothing." Thus begins this harrowing
dual memoir that braids the story of Chinese-American Pang-Mei's own
search for identity with the dramatic tale of her great-aunt, Chang
Yuyi, born at the turn of the century in tradition-bound China. Pang-Mei
captivates the reader as she tells the story of Yuyi's battle with her
mother to stop the painful foot-binding process, the first in a series
of rebellions that marked her extraordinary life.
Cabinet
of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
In downtown Manhattan, a gruesome discovery has just been made--an
underground charnel house containing the bones of dozens of murder
victims. Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York's
notorious Five Points neighborhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his
lifespan by any means. When a newspaper story on the old murders appears
to ignite a new series of horrifyingly similar killings, panic overtakes
New York City. Now, FBI agent Pendergast, journalist Bill Smithback, and
archaeologist Nora Kelly join forces to protect themselves from a
vicious killer--before they become the next victims.
The
Captain's Wife
by Douglass Kelley
This epic historical novel follows the true story of one remarkable
heroine, Mary Patten, who found herself in one of the most dangerous
straits of sea in the Western Hemisphere, Cape Horn, with a ship of
mutinous sailors to command and a deathly sick husband, her captain, to
care for.
Chocolat,
by Joanne Harris
An enchanting novel about a small French town turned upside down by the
arrival of a bewitching chocolate confectioner, Vianne Rocher, and her
spirited young daughter, the book was described as "an amazement of
riches" by The New York Times.
Clay’s
Quilt, by Silas House
After his mother is killed, four-year-old Clay Sizemore finds himself
alone in a small Appalachian mining town. He slowly learns to lean on
its residents as family, and together, they help Clay fashion a quilt of
a life from what treasured pieces surround him.
The
Coffee Trader by David Liss
In 1659 Amsterdam fortunes are won and lost in an instant. Miguel Lienzo
knows this only too well. Once among the city's most envied merchants,
he has lost everything and must find a way to restore his wealth and
reputation.
Cold
Day in Paradise, by Steve
Hamilton
On a bitter cold night in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, ex-Detroit cop
Alex McKnight answers a cry for help from wealthy Edwin Fulton--only to
find the man--a compulsive gambler who had gone to meet with a
bookmaker--in his motel room with his throat cut.
Cold
Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann
Burns (plus set in YA Downtown)
A timeless, funny, splendid novel about romance and adolescence, and how
people lived and died in a small Southern town at the turn of the
century.
The
Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Wayne Johnston
Newfoundland is the setting for this story of how fate brings together a
witty school boy who pursues socialist dreams and a popular newspaper
columnist who writes about the history of the continent.
Confessions
of a Shopaholic by
Sophie Kinsella
In this all-too-true debut novel, Kinsella chronicles one woman's
hilarious efforts to overcome her expensive--if stylish--addiction to
shopping. The author has brilliantly tapped into our collective consumer
conscience to deliver a tale of our times and a heroine who grows
stronger every time she weakens.
Confessions
of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire, translated
by Bill Sanderson
Is this new land a place where magics really happen? From Gregory
Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated
second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless
Cinderella tale. In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into
coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn
that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats.... We all
have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to
slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair
exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate
befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied
Cinderella's exquisite looks? Extreme beauty is an affliction. Set
against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of
an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who
finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world
of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes
intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful
girl destined to become her sister. Clara was the prettiest child, but
was her life the prettiest tale? While Clara retreats to the cinders of
the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the
shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her
former life.
Cordelia
Underwood: On the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League,
by Van Reid
In the summer of 1896 in Portland, Maine, 23-year-old Cordelia Underwood
finds, in the newly discovered sea chest of her late uncle, the
mysterious deed to a large parcel of land. In a parallel plot line, the
large-hearted Mr. Walton, who never hears of an excursion he isn't eager
to join, finds he attracts a trio of hapless friends, the exuberant
founders of the Moosepath League
Corelli's
Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
This novel, set on the idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia, follows the
lives of its inhabitants from the peaceful days before World War II
through the Italian occupation of the island into the present.
The
Corpse Had a Familiar Face,
by Edna Buchanan
Buchanan, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, has been the police reporter
for the Miami Herald for 16 years and has covered some 5000 murder
cases. This is her classic
collection of true stories, as witnessed and reported by Buchanan
herself, from cold-blooded murder, to violence in the heat of passion,
to the everyday insanity of the city streets.
Crazy
Ladies by Michael Lee
West
From Tennessee to New Orleans, from San Francisco to a remote
Southwestern desert ranch, this poignant story is told in the women's
voices of four generations of one special family. The characters
resonate love and laughter, pain and redemption. Living large and
hanging tough, they teach us to be wise.
The
Dante Club: A Novel, by Matthew Pearl
A New York Times Bestseller. Words can bleed. In 1865 Boston, the
literary geniuses of the Dante Club-poets and Harvard professors Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell
Lowell, along with publisher J. T. Fields-are finishing America's first
translation of The Divine Comedy and preparing to unveil Dante's
remarkable visions to the New World. The powerful Boston Brahmins at
Harvard College are fighting to keep Dante in obscurity, believing that
the infiltration of foreign superstitions into American minds will prove
as corrupting as the immigrants arriving at Boston Harbor. The members
of the Dante Club fight to keep a sacred literary cause alive, but their
plans fall apart when a series of murders erupts through Boston and
Cambridge. Only this small group of scholars realizes that the gruesome
killings are modeled on the descriptions of Hell's punishments from
Dante's Inferno. With the lives of the Boston elite and Dante's literary
future in America at stake, the Dante Club members must find the killer
before the authorities discover their secret. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes
and an outcast police officer named Nicholas Rey, the first black member
of the Boston police department, must place their careers on the line to
end the terror. Together, they discover that the source of the murders
lies closer to home than they ever could have imagined.
Dark-Adapted
Eye, by Barbara Vine
When Faith Severn's aunt was hanged for murder, the reason behind her
dark deed died with her. For 30 years, the family hid the truth--until a
journalist prompts Faith to peer back to the day when her aunt took
knife in hand and entered a child's nursery.
Dead
Man’s Island, by
Carolyn Hart
Sleuth Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, known affectionately as Henrie O,
writes novels after working 50 years as a journalist. Longtime friend
Chase Prescott, multimillionaire media magnate, begs her to visit his
private island near Charleston so that she can deduce which of the
people there wants him dead.
Dead
Sleep,
by Greg Iles
Jordan Glass, a photojournalist on a well-earned vacation in Hong
Kong, stumbles upon a picture of her sister in repose--a painting which
depicts her not in sleep, but in death.
Dead
Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison
All
the creatures of the night gather in “the Hollows” in Cincinnati to
hide, to prowl, to party and to feed.
Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife
with dangers beyond imagining—and it’s Rachel Morgan’s job to keep
that world civilized.
Denial,
by Keith Ablow
In this terrifying journey into the mind of the criminally insane,
Forensic pathologist Frank Clevenger has been asked to rubber-stamp the
mental competence of a homeless schizophrenic who has confessed to a
grisly murder. Evidence of a series of murders begins to mount, forcing
Frank to confront his own demons.
Desert
Heat, by J.A. Jance
Joanna Brady finds her husband, Andy, shot in the Arizona desert on the
night of their tenth wedding anniversary. But this, and Andy's
subsequent suspicious death in the hospital, is only the beginning of
the destruction of the comfortable world of Joanna and her nine-year-old
daughter, Jenny. First in the Joanna series.
Desert
Shadows: Publishing Can Be Murder,
by Betty Webb
After Scottsdale publisher Gloriana Allerton is poisoned at the annual
Southwestern Publishers' Convention and a Pima Indian friend is accused
of the murder, Lena Jones begins to investigate the seldom talked about
side of the businessùracist publishing. To her horror, Lena finds
herself rubbing elbows with extremist politicians and members of local
fascist groups. Though she becomes a target for murder because of her
investigations, an attempt against Lena Jones' life pales in comparison
to what happens when she is granted a meeting with the Aryan Brotherhood
leader at the Arizona State Prison complex. On her way to the Death Row
visiting room, a Black trustee nicknamed Green because of his startling
green eyes, looks into Lena's face. And calls her by her mother's name.
Found shot in the head at the age of four, her memory gone, the
green-eyed Lena Jones had been raised in a series of abusive foster
homes which left her emotionally and physically scarred. For years, Lena
had searched for her biological parents with the same intensity with
which she searched for killers. But now, with a possible answer to her
identity right in front of her, Lena begins to realize that the truth
may come at a very high price... Her own life.
The
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That
Changed America, by
Erik Larson
Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied
an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward
the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the
fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the
country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in
New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H.
Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built
his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds-a
torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and
3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and
tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles
McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into
the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and
his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths.
What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived,
walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.
Devil’s
Hawk,
by Ray Sipherd
Visiting a friend's home in Arizona to learn the truth about the
death of the man's sister, ornithologist Jonathan Wilder teams up with
widowed border patrol agent Max Montoya to investigate local smuggling
operations.
Diamond
Dogs by Alan Watt
Seventeen year old Neil Garvin takes his aggressions out on the football
field, where he is the high school's first-string quarterback, and by
being a bully. Neil brutally assaults a couple of freshmen and, later,
driving without lights, he hits and kills one of the boys he had
bullied. Unasked, Neil's father covers up for him as the FBI closes in.
A potent story with a powerful conclusion.
Disgrace,
by J.M. Coetzee
At fifty-two, Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire, but
lacking in passion. An affair with one of his students leaves him
jobless, shunned by his friends, and ridiculed by his ex-wife. He
retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding, where a brief
visit becomes an extended stay as he tries to find meaning from this one
remaining relationship. David's attempts to relate to Lucy and to a
society with new racial complexities are disrupted by an afternoon of
violence that shakes all his beliefs and threatens to destroy his
daughter.
The
Dive from Clausen's Pier, by
Ann Packer
A riveting novel about loyalty and self-knowledge, and the conflict
between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves.
Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life. She's had the same best
friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend,
Mike, now her fiance, for as long as anyone can remember. It's with real
surprise she finds that, at age twenty-three, her life has begun to feel
suffocating. She longs for a change, an upheaval, for a chance to begin
again. That chance is granted to her, terribly, when Mike is injured in
an accident. Now Carrie has to question everything she thought she knew
about herself and the meaning of home.
Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
At thirty-nine, SiddaLee Walker has escaped her Louisiana hometown to
become a theatrical director, but as she gathers old letters, photos,
journals, and souvenirs from the Ya-Ya sisterhood to assist in writing a
play about women's friendships, she yearns to revisit her childhood.
The
Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst
A poignant and beautiful debut novel explores a man's quest to unravel
the mystery of his wife's death with the help of the only witness--their
Rhodesian ridgeback, Lorelei.
Douglass'
Women by Jewel Parker
Rhodes
Douglass' Women reimagines the lives of an American hero, Frederick
Douglass, and two women - his wife and his mistress - who loved him and
lived in his shadow.
A
Drink Before the War, by
Dennis Lehane
This highly acclaimed first novel introduces an intrepid pair of tough
Boston private investigators, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. The duo
is confronted by a cadre of powerful Boston politicos offering big money
to locate a missing cleaning woman.
Dukes
of Cleveland, by Les
Roberts
The sixth Jacovich adventure takes Milan into the world of young artists
and wannabe artists in the Coventry area of Cleveland Heights, as he
searches for a man named Jeff Feldman, a man almost no one likes, a
potter of mediocre talent, a con man. But it's a search that leads to
too many dead bodies and some personal peril for Milan.
End
of Faith: Religion, Terror, And the Future of Reason,
by Sam Harris
In the End of Faith, Sam Harris delivers a startling analysis of the
clash between reason and religion in the modern world. He offers a
vivid, historical tour of our willingness to suspend reason in favor of
religious beliefs -- even when these beliefs inspire the worst of human
atrocities.
Eureka,
by William Diehl
Two decades after a young Thomas Culhane escaped Eureka, California, to
fight in World War I, police detective Zeke Bannon investigates a
seemingly accidental death and uncovers dark secrets from the past that
could threaten Culhane's campaign for governor of California.
Evensong
by Gail Godwin
Raising profound issues of love and commitment, and examining the
ever-changing landscape of family, this novel is both graceful and
gripping in its story of a marriage struggling to sustain the best of
itself in a volatile world.
Extreme
Denial, by David Morrell
Former American intelligence operative and counterterrorism expert Steve
Decker struggles to find peace of mind and build a new life with Beth
Dwyer, a beautiful woman who hides horrifying secrets that will test
Steve's very being and lead him to a terrifying confrontation.
Fair
and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith
Returning to Appalachia, Lee Smith, author of Oral History, creates an
unforgettable heroine: Ivy Rowe. From girlhood to old age, Ivy nourishes
her family with her passion, imagination, and strength.
A
False Sense of Well Being, by
Jeanne Braselton
Braselton pens a funny, poignant debut about loneliness in marriage,
secrets and the power of confession, and the sometimes desperate things
women do to inject passion and meaning into their lives.
Family
Matters, by Rohinton Mistry
At once sweeping and intimate, comic and tragic, Family Matters--by
the author of A Fine Balance--is the story of a 1990s Bombay
family dealing with their elderly patriarch, who is suffering from
Parkinson's disease.
Farewell,
I'm Bound to Leave You by Fred Chappell
In styles ranging from ghost to detective to comic to love stories, the
author of this novel cleverly interweaves tales and reminiscences told
to a young man by his grandmother and mother creating an inheritance
lush in language, in music and imaginative teaching.
The
Feast Of Love, by Charles Baxter
The Feast of Love is an updated version of Midsummer Night's
Dream, men and women speak of and desire their ideal mates; parents
seek out their lost children; adult children try to come to terms with
their own parents and, in some cases, find new ones.
A
Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city in India. The government
has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four
strangers--a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic
hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their
native village--will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped
apartment and an uncertain future.
Five
Fortunes, by Beth Gutcheon
The importance of connections between women is highlighted in this story
of friendship and support among a group of five women who first meet on
a week-long retreat at a health spa in Arizona.
Flood,
by Andrew Vachss
In this thriller, Vachss's renegade private eye teams up with a lethally
gifted avenger to follow a child's murderer through the catacombs of New
York, where every alley is blind and the penthouses are as dangerous as
the basements.
Future
Homemakers of America, by Laurie Graham
Stationed at a U.S. Air Force Base in Norfolk, England in 1952, a group
of military wives are thrown together by husbands who patrol the skies
keeping the Soviets at Bay. Through marriage and divorce, separations
and reunions, the gang will try to hold fast to each other in a story
that takes us to the heart of female friendship.
Gardens
in the Dunes, by Leslie Marmon Silko
Set in the southwestern and northeastern US, England, and Europe near
the end of the 19th century, the book's theme is the contrasting
adaptation of a girl of the (Arizona) Sand Lizard Indian tribe and an
educated, independent white woman to their respective cultures.
Ghost
Walker, by Margaret Coel
The author’s second title in a series set on an Arapaho Indian
reservation in Wyoming, the novel features Father John O’Malley, a
priest who administers the Jesuit mission on the reservation. In the
middle of a blizzard, O’Malley’s ancient Toyota breaks down, and he
finds a snow-covered body in the ditch along the road. By the time he
makes it back with the police, the body has disappeared.
The
Giant's House,
by Elizabeth McCracken
The year is 1950, and in a small town on Cape Cod twenty-six-year-old
librarian Peggy Cort feels like love and life have stood her up. Until
the day James Carlson Sweatt--the "over tall" eleven-year-old
boy who's the talk of the town--walks into her library and changes her
life forever.
Girl
with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
Through the eyes of sixteen-year-old Griet, the world of 1660s Holland
comes alive in an imagined story of the young woman who inspired one of
Vermeer's most famous paintings.
Going
After Cacciato,
by Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien's now classic novel of Vietnam is the winner of the 1979
National Book Award. This story captures the peculiar blend of horror
and hallucinatory comedy that marked this the strangest of wars. Reality
and fantasy merge in this fictional account of one private's sudden
discussion to lay down his rifle and begin a quixotic journey from the
jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. Will Cacciato make it all
the way? Or will he be yet another casualty of a conflict that seems to
have no end? In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing and meeting
the demands of the battle, Going After Cacciato is ultimately
about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us
all.
Gone
For Good,
by Mark Childress
In his fifth novel, the author gives us the wild, comic, and ultimately
moving odyssey of a 1970s folk-rock star, Ben "Superman"
Willis. Superman has been riding a wave of success in the years since
the Beatles broke up and rock and roll wore itself out. But stardom is
not what he thought it would be.
The
Good Journey: A Novel, by Micaela Gilchrist
In the tradition of such memorable bestselling authors as Willa Cather
and Edna Ferber, or such more recent successes as Charles Frazier's Cold
Mountain and Philip Kimball's Liar's Moon, Micaela Gilchrist
has written a first-rate, romantic and deeply moving historical novel,
rich with the kind of detail that brings history to life and peopled
with the kind of larger-than-life characters that stand out against even
the brilliant, tumultuous, bloody backdrop of the struggle for the West.
Inspired by the real-life letters and diaries of Mary Bullitt, an
outspoken and strong-willed young Southern belle whose life on the
frontier is the stuff of legend and of epics, The Good Journey is
the sweeping and enthralling story of two extraordinary people, set
against a West that was still to be won.
Goodnight,
Irene, by Jan Burke
When a hard-nosed Southern Californian reporter is killed in an
explosion, his inquisitive protégé decides to make it her business to
track down his murderer. This debut mystery novel introduces amateur
sleuth Irene Kelly.
Grace
by Jane Roberts Wood
The ending of World War II becomes the catalyst that drives the
inhabitants of Cold Springs, Texas across boundaries that once divided
them, sending the residents to places both chaotic and astonishing.
A
Gracious Plenty: A Novel, by
Sheri Reynolds
In the lush and isolated cemetery of a small Southern town, Finch
Nobles, the narrator of this brilliantly inventive novel, tends to the
flowers and shrubs that surround the monuments of people who were not
known to her while they lived but who in death have become her lifeline.
Guns,
Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,
by Jared Diamond
In this "artful, informative, and delightful (book)" (New
York Review of Books), Diamond offers a convincing explanation of
the way the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially
based theories of human history.
The
Handyman, by Carolyn See
An aspiring artist trades in his palette for a minivan full of house
paints, hammers, and nails, and sets about earning a little cash as a
handyman. Although he turns out to be very bad at fixing the things he's
hired to fix, Bob demonstrates quite a knack for fixing the lives of the
people around him.
Hanna’s
Daughters, by Marianne
Fredriksson
Sweeping through one hundred years of Scandinavian history, this moving
novel follows three generations of Swedish women--a grandmother, a
mother, and a daughter--whose lives are linked through a century of
great love and great loss.
Hard
Bargain, by Barbara
D’Amato
When a domestic violence call turns into a murder, Chicago freelance
reporter Cat Marsala finds herself faced with her toughest case yet, one
that could put a friend's job--and life--on the line.
Headlong
by Michael Frayn
Invited to dinner by the boorish local landowner, Martin Clay, and his
art-historian wife are asked to assess three dusty paintings. Martin
believes that one of the paintings is a lost work by Bruegel. So begins
a hilarious trail of desperate schemes as Martin, betting all that he
owns, embarks on a quest to prove his hunch, win his wife over, and
separate the painting from its owner.
The
Hearse You Came In On, by
Tim Cockey
A clever and gripping first mystery novel features an unconventional
undertaker—who also happens to be one of Baltimore's most eligible and
charming bachelors
Honk
and Holler Opening Soon
by Billie Letts
Set in Oklahoma, this vibrant story captures a small town's prejudice
and tolerance, violence and big-heartedness. It convinces us that dark
clouds can really have silver linings.
Horse
Heaven,
by Jane Smiley
The universe of horse racing--passionate, cold-hearted, pure,
corrupt--is revealed in Smiley's new novel that combines the intense
feeling of her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres with the
wit, pace, and brightness of Moo.
House
of Blues, by Julie Smith
After a prominent New Orleans restauranteur is murdered in his beautiful
Garden District home, three family members suddenly vanish without a
trace. Homicide Detective Skip Langdon's search for the murderer and
missing heirs takes her into places where the city's dirty business is
transacted, and where life is mostly madness, sadness, and badness.
How
Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
First published in 1939. The author captures the song of his nation of
singers and made it into the story of the childhood and youth of Huw
Morgan, a miner's son, in a South Wales valley.
The
Ice Maiden, by Edna Buchanan
Ten years after a devastating unsolved crime, a young artist finds her
life once again disrupted by the same forces that sought to victimize
her a decade earlier, a situation that prompts her to team up with
reporter Britt Montero to solve the mystery.
The
Informant, by James
Grippando
FBI agent Victoria Santos and Miami reporter Mike Posten find their own
lives in danger as they hunt for two men, a particularly nasty serial
killer/mutilator and an anonymous telephone informant with a suspicious
ability to predict the killer's next move. They finally come face to
face on a cruise ship...
The
Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor
Lipman
In 1962 Vermont, 13-year-old Natalie's mother is told that a summer
resort does not accept Jews. When Natalie tries to enter the world that
has excluded her, she succeeds beyond her wildest dreams through the
sheerest of accidents.
Interpreter
of Maladies, by Jhumpa
Lahiri
Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, these stories speak
with passion and wisdom to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner.
Like the interpreter of the title story, Lahiri translates between the
strict traditions of her ancestors and a baffling new world. Winner of
the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000.
Jane
and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being the First Jane Austen
Mystery, by Stephanie
Barron
With this series opener, Barron catches the Jane Austen popularity wave
with impeccable timing--but that may be the best that can be said of
this debut. Purportedly editing Austen manuscripts found in an old
Maryland estate, Barron recounts the suspicious death of the elderly
Frederick Payne, Earl of Scargrave. Anonymous notes accuse Isobel,
Austen's friend and Payne's young bride, and a "grey-hared
Lord" of murdering the earl. Intensifying Isobel's misery is Lord
Harold Trowbridge, who badgers the widow to sell him her estate in
Barbados. Concerned for her friend and for Fitzroy Payne, the new earl
who not-so-secretly loves Isobel, Austen undertakes snooping that leads
her to a second corpse and leads Isobel and Fitzroy to trial before the
House of Lords.
Jim
the Boy, by Tony Earley
A coming of age novel set in a small town in North Carolina during 1934,
which focuses on 10-year-old Jim Glass. A nostalgic look at childhood
during a tragic and uncertain era.
Jim
Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing In An Insane World,
by Jim Cramer
How do we find hot stocks without getting burned? How do we fatten our
portfolios and stay financially healthy? Former hedge-fund manager and
longtime Wall Street commentator Jim Cramer explains how to invest
wisely in chaotic times, and he does so in plain English in a style that
is as much fun as investing is-or should be, when it's done right.
Killing
Floor, by Lee Child
A former military cop hunts down his brother's killers in this searing
tale of revenge and honor. The sleepy, forgotten town of Margrave,
Georgia, hasn't seen a crime in decades, but within the span of three
days it witnesses crimes that leave everyone stunned.
Kit's
Law by Donna Morrissey
This beautiful debut novel, set in a remote Newfoundland village in the
1950?s, is told in the voice of Kit Pitman, a 12-year-old who lives with
her retarded mother, Josie, and Grandmother, Lizzy. When Lizzy suddenly
dies a powerfully wrenching story ensues.
The
Known World, by Edward
P. Jones
Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a
fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor - William Robbins,
perhaps the most powerful man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester
County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own
plantation - as well as of his own slaves.
Ladder
of Years, by Anne Tyler
Delia Grinstead simply walks away from her overgrown family one day. She
feels that her family doesn't really need her, and so one day while at
the beach she goes for a walk and just keeps going. As the story
unfolds, you feel sorry for the family somewhat, but you can't help but
hope that Delia will make it on her own. She has taken such a bold,
brave step, you want to see how far she can go.
The
Ladies of Covington Send Their Love,
by Joan Medlicott
Circumstance has brought three disparate women of "a certain
age" to a Pennsylvania boardinghouse where three square meals and a
sagging bed is the most any of them can look forward to. But friendship
will take them on a startling journey to a rundown North Carolina
farmhouse where the unexpected suddenly seems not only welcome, but
delightfully promising
Lamb
in Love, by Carrie Brown
Fifty-five year old Norris Lamb discovers love for the very first time
when he sees Vida Stephen one summer night.
The
Last Sin Eater, by Francine Rivers
Set in Appalachia in the 1850s, The Last Sin Eater is the story of a
community committed to its myth of a human "sin eater," who
absolves the dead of their sins, and the ten-year-old child who shows
them the truth of Jesus.
The
Law of Similars: A Novel,
by Christopher A. Bohjalian
From the best-selling author of Midwives comes a startlingly powerful
story of three people whose lives are irrevocably changed by illness,
healing, and love. Two years after his wife's sudden, accidental death,
a Vermont deputy state prosecutor, Leland Fowler, finds that the stress
of raising their small daughter alone has left him with a chronic sore
throat. Desperate to rid himself of a malady that has somehow managed to
elude conventional medicine, Leland turns to homeopath Carissa Lake--who
cures both his sore throat and the aching loneliness at the root of his
symptoms. Just days after Leland realizes he has fallen in love with the
first woman who has mattered to him since his wife, one of Carissa's
asthma patients falls into an allergy-induced coma. When Carissa comes
under investigation, straight-arrow Leland is faced with a moral and
ethical dilemma of enormous proportions.
Leap
of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life,
by Queen Noor
Sharing a personal perspective on the past three decades of world
history, Queen Noor talks frankly of the many challenges of her life as
wife and partner to the monarch, providing an intimate portrait of the
late King and a moving account of their public role.
Leaving
Cheyenne, by
Larry McMurtry
An unforgettable tale of a love triangle that spans a generation, of a
friendship that endures from dusty wagons to private planes, and of a
rancher's legacy that sprawls beyond memories and land.
Liars'
Club, by Mary Karr
Mary Karr looks back at her upbringing in a swampy East Texas refinery
town with a volatile, defiantly loving family. She recalls her painter
mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip into
psychosis; a fist swinging father who spun tales with his cronies -
dubbed the Liars' Club; and a neighborhood rape when she was
eight. An inheritance was squandered, endless bottles emptied, and guns
leveled at the deserving and undeserving.
Life
of Pi, by Yann Martel
Planning to move the family owned zoo from India to Canada, Pi's father
packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an
enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift
in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded
zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal
tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the
lifebuoy, with teeth").
Line
of Vision, by David Ellis
Investment banker Marty Kalish is in love with a married woman. When the
woman's husband is murdered, Marty is a suspect. He was at the scene of
the crime, he had a motive, and he manipulated the evidence to hide his
guilt. Marty has even confessed. Yet what is Marty really confessing to?
What really happened on the night of the murder?
The
Long Goodbye, by Raymond
Chandler
Why did Terry Lennox--drunken war hero, victim of Nazism, apparent wife
killer--commit suicide? Chandler's most ambitious blend of genre
sleuthing and serious fiction
Loose
Lips by Rita Mae Brown
In the picturesque town of Runnymede, everyone knows everyone else's
business, and the madcap antics of the battling Hunsenmeir sisters keep
the whole town agog.
The
Love Letter by Cathleen Schine
Helen who owns a tiny bookstore in an idyllic seaside town has a
fulfilling life. But then an anonymous love letter arrives in her mail.
Written by an unknown lover to a mysterious beloved, the letter becomes
Helen's obsession.
Love
Medicine, by Louise
Erdrich
The first book in Louise Erdrich's Native American series, which also
includes The Beet Queen, Tracks, and The Bingo Palace,
Love Medicine tells the story of two families--the Kashpaws and
the Lamartines.
The
Map of Love, by Ahdaf
Soueif
At either end of the 20th century, two women fall in love with men
outside their familiar worlds. In 1901, Anna Winterbourne finds herself
enraptured with Egypt and with Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi. Nearly 100 years
later, Isabel Parkman, Anna and Sharif's descendent, is in love with a
gifted and difficult Egyptian-American conductor with his own passionate
politics.
Merchant
of Menace, by Jill
Churchill
'Tis the season to be jolly, and Jane Jeffery is racing to finish her
holiday preparations before the arrival of her teenage kids and no less
than two moms - her late husband's and the disapproving mater of her
significant other, Det. Mel VanDyne. What Jane is not ready for is the
arrival of Santa Claus, who turns out to be a muckraking TV reporter who
meets an early demise.
Middle
Passage, by Charles
Richard Johnson
It is 1830. Rutherford Calhoun, a newly treed slave and irrepressible
rogue, is desperate to escape unscrupulous bill collectors and an
impending marriage to a priggish schoolteacher. He jumps aboard the
first boat leaving New Orleans, the Republic, a slave ship en route to
collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins
a daring voyage of horror and self-discovery. Peopled with vivid and
unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious
ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque
tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative, and philosophical
novel.
The
Miracle Life of Edgar Mint: a Novel,
by Brady Udall
With the inventive acuity of John Irving, this riveting picaresque novel
chronicles the hopes and heartbreaks of Edgar Presley Mint. The trials
of Edgar, half Apache and mostly orphaned, begin on an Arizona
reservation at the age of seven, when the mailman's jeep accidentally
runs over his head. Shunted from the hospital to a school for
delinquents to a Mormon foster family, comedy, pain, and trouble
accompany Edgar through a string of larger-than-life experiences.
Through it all, readers will root for this irresistible innocent who
never truly loses heart, and whose quest for the mailman leads him to an
unexpected home.
Miss
Julia Speaks Her Mind, by Ann B.
Ross
After the unexpected death of her husband of 44 years, Julia Springer is
more than just a grieving widow, she's a rich one. She's also a woman on
the verge of finding herself freed at last from her husband's
sheltering. But just when she thinks she's got her new life under
control, an unexpected visitor arrives with news that would send anyone,
let alone a proper Southern lady, into a tailspin.
Mitigating
Circumstances, by Nancy
Taylor Rosenberg
Lily Forrester, a district attorney in Southern California, is an
ambitious woman with a deteriorating marriage. Her life becomes a
nightmare when both she and her daughter are brutally attacked.
Motherkind:
a Novel,
by Jayne Anne Phillips
Kate--whose care for her terminally ill mother coincides with the birth
of her first child and the early months of a young marriage--must in a
single year come to terms with the pairing of radiant beginnings and
profound loss.
Motherless
Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem
Lionel Essrog has always respected Frank Minna, who helped him out when
he was young, and when Frank is found dead, Lionel and his friends, the
Minna Men, scour the streets of Brooklyn in search of the killer.
Motion
to Suppress, by Perri
O’Shaughnessy
Attorney Nina Reilly loses her job, her marriage and her pride all in
the same week. She leaves San Francisco for Lake Tahoe, taking a case
that changes everything Nina believes about the law--and herself.
Mr.
Wroe's Virgins, by Jane Roger
When God told Prophet John Wroe to comfort himself with seven virgins,
his congregation gave him its daughters. So begins this provocative and
immensely powerful novel, set in nineteenth-century England and based on
actual events. Jane Rogers chronicles the nine months these women spend
together until accusations of indecency and the trial that follows bring
Wroe's household to its dramatic end.
Murder,
With Peacocks, by Dana
Andrews
While trying to manage being the maid of honor in three weddings, Meg
Langslow finds herself in the midst of a mystery when her former
sister-in-law's soon-to-be stepfather is found dead.
My
Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Malcolm Durrell
Basking in the sunshine on the Greek Island of Corfu, Gerald Durrell
evocatively chronicles his five-year stint as an adventurous boy on the
island along with his "family and other animals.
Mystic
River, by Dennis Lehane
When Jimmy Marcus's daughter is found murdered, Sean Devine is assigned
the case. The investigation leads him on a collision course with the
girl's grieving father—a man with a dark past eager to solve the crime
with brutal justice. And then there is Dave Boyle, a man who hides
monstrous secrets beneath a bland façade, secrets his pregnant wife is
only beginning to suspect.
Nobody's
Fool by Richard Russo
An unlucky man in a deadbeat town in upstate New York, Sully must
overcome numerous obstacles--a bum knee, terminal underemployment, and a
not-too-helpful group of friends--as he copes with a new problem, his
long-estranged son.
Nowhere
Else on Earth, by Josephine Humphreys
Tensions in North Carolina at the end of the Civil War have reached a
fever pitch. In a uniquely hybrid community, Scots and Lumbee Indians
have lived together for generations, but with Union invasion imminent,
ancient resentments have resurfaced. The narrator of this historical
romance/morality tale is 16-year-old Rhoda Strong, who looks back 30
years later.
The
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall-Smith
Immediately upon opening her detective agency, Precious Ramotswe is
hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a
wayward daughter. But the case that lands her in trouble is that of a
missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch
doctors.
On
the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, by Kaye Gibbons
In the year 1900--on the afternoon she suspects might be the last in her
long, eventful life--Emma Garnet Tate Lowell sets down on paper her own
personal history. She recalls her life on the plantation, her marriage
to a Boston surgeon, her survival of the Civil War, and the terrible
secret that shaped her father's life.
One
False Move, by
Alex Kava
Mother-and-son-con-artists Melanie and Charlie team up with a fearless
ex-con who has recently gotten away with murder to pull off the ultimate
heist. But during the robbery, everything goes wrong, innocent people
die, and the threesome winds up on the run with nothing left to lose.
One
Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd, by Jim
Fergus
An American western with a most unusual twist, this is an imaginative
fictional account of the participation of May Dodd and others in the
controversial "Brides for Indians" program, a clandestine U.S.
government sponsored program intended to instruct "savages" in
the ways of civilization and to assimilate the Indians into white
culture through the offspring of these unions.
Open
and Shut, by David Rosenfelt
With the help of his lover, P.I. Laurie Collins, defense attorney Andy
Carpenter discovers a startling link between his father's death, a death
row inmate, and the three most powerful men in New Jersey, exposing a
deadly political conspiracy.
Out
to Pasture But Not Over the Hill
by Effie Leland Wilder
Anyone who thinks that retirement is rocking chair and Medicare is in
for a surprise when they meet the folks at Fair Acres Home. This
charming book whose author is an octogenerian, stars Hattie McNair, a
journal-keeper and eavesdropper extraordinaire. Hattie's humor and
indomitable spirit make this book an amusing and heartwarming look at
the often-avoided topic of aging.
Out
of Sight, by T.J. MacGregor
While on vacation in the Florida Everglades, the Townsend family
stumbles upon a strange deserted village, built entirely on stilts,
where they make a horrifying discovery that plunges them into a deadly
game of survival.
A
Patchwork Planet, by Anne Tyler
Barnaby Gaitlin, an appealing 30-year-old loser, is actually a
kind-hearted man struggling to find his place in the world. This gentle
comedy explores how people interact with their families, as they fall in
love and as they age.
Perfect
Husband, by Lisa Gardner
Jim Beckett was everything Tess had ever dreamed of... But two years
after Tess married him, she helped put him behind bars for savagely
murdering ten women. Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he
vowed to make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped. . .
The
Piano Tuner, by Daniel
Mason
In 1886 a shy, middle-aged piano tuner named Edgar Drake receives an
unusual commission from the British War Office: to travel to the remote
jungles of northeast Burma and there repair a rare piano belonging to an
eccentric army surgeon who has proven mysteriously indispensable to the
imperial design.
Places
Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation,
by John Phillip Santos
In this beautifully written memoir, an award-winning writer weaves
together dream fragments, family remembrances, and Chicano mythology,
reaching back into time and place to blend the soul of one Mexican
family with the history of an entire people.
Plainsong,
by Kent Haruf
This story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity is set on the
High Plains east of Denver. In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high
school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their
mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether.
The
Protector, by David
Morrell
Biochemist Daniel Prescott creates a drug that is supposed to help stop
addiction, but instead is rumored to provide an incredibly addictive
rush by stimulating the body producing adrenaline. Fearing that
undesirables will harm him to get at his creation, Daniel hires Global
Protective Services, a security firm not squeamish about crossing legal
barriers.
Quilter's
Apprentice Jennifer Chiaverini
In this skillfully crafted book, the author weaves a heartwarming story
of wisdom involving family, friendship, and sisterhood. It shows how to
create a life as you would a quilt with time, love, and patience,
piercing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a beautiful whole.
The
Red Scream, by Mary Willis Walker
Texas reporter Molly Cates, whose book describes the horrifying career
of serial killer Louie Bronk, realizes, shortly before Louie's
execution, that he may be innocent and that her life is in danger.
The
Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief
and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of
Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in
Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoil of ancient
womanhood - the world of the red tent.
The
Saving Graces, by Patricia Gaffney
This poignant tale of friendship among four charming women who call
themselves the Saving Graces was such a hot seller it went back
to press ten times. Sometimes called the northern equivalent of Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
Seabiscuit,
by Laura Hillenbrand
Seabiscuit was an unlikely champion: a roughhewn, undersized horse with
a sad little tail and knees that wouldn't straighten all the way. But,
thanks to the efforts of three men, Seabiscuit became one of the most
spectacular performers in sports history.
The
Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
Lily Owen's life has been shaped by dark memories of her mother's death
years earlier. In 1964, fourteen year old Lily and her black
"stand-in mother" leave their home in Georgia and head to
Tiburon, South Carolina -- a town that holds the secret of her mother's
past.
The
Shell Seekers, by Rosamund Pilcher
This English family saga recounts the passions, tragedies, and secrets
of Penelope Keeling as she tries to decide the fate of a valuable
painting her father symbolically based on her unconventional life.
Shipping
News, by Annie Proulx
Set in a fishing town in Newfoundland, this is a tale about a third-rate
newspaperman and the women in his life — an elderly aunt and two young
daughters — who undergo striking changes when they decide to resettle
in their ancestral coastal home.
A
Short History of Nearly Everything,
by Bill Bryson
Popular writer Bryson turns from geographical to temporal realms to
summarize what has happened from the time of the Big Bang to now,
especially as it pertains to items of local interest, such as the solar
system, earth, life, and humans.
Silent
Joe, by T. Jefferson
Parker
With the horrible remnants of a childhood tragedy forever visible across
his otherwise handsome face, Joe Trona is scarred in more ways than one.
Rescued from an orphanage by Will Trona, a charismatic Orange County
politican who sensed his dark potential, Joe is swept into the maelstrom
of power and intimidation that surrounds his adoptive father's
illustrious career. Serving as Will's right-hand man, Joe is trained to
protect and defend his father's territory - but can't save the powerful
man from his enemies. Will Trona is murdered, and Joe will stop at
nothing to find out who did it. Looking for clues as he sifts through
the remains of his father's life - his girlfriends, acquaintances,
deals, and enemies - Joe comes to realize how many secrets Will Trona
possessed, and how many people he had the power to harm. But two leads
keep rising to the surface: a little girl who was kidnapped by her
mentally disturbed brother, and two rival gangs who seem to have joined
forces. As Joe deepens his investigation - and is forced to confront the
painful events of his troubled childhood - these two seemingly
disconnected threads will intersect.
Sister
of My Heart, by Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni
From the award-winning author of Mistress of Spices comes the
bestselling novel about the bond between two cousins born in India and
the family secrets and romantic jealousies that threaten to tear them
apart.
Smilla’s
Sense of Snow, by Peter Hoeg
Living in Copenhagen, childless, part-Eskimo Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen
has only one real friend--her six-year-old neighbor Isaiah. When he's
killed in a fall, Smilla doesn't believe it's an accident and decides to
investigate--even though the police warn against it.
Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa
See
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly relistic journey
back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is
sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a
Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one
of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendships.
The
Songcatcher by Sharyn McCrumb
A captivating story unfolds as a song is passed down through the
generations, carrying a family's descendents through the settling of the
American frontier, the Civil War, the coming of the railroads and into
modern times. The haunting melody provides both solace in the present
and a link to the past.
The
Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
This novel tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist,
Emilio Sandoz, who leads an ill-fated twenty-first-century scientific
mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture.
Special
Circumstances, by Sheldon
Siegel
Meet Mike Daley, an ex-priest, ex-public defender, and as of yesterday,
ex-partner in one of San Francisco's most prestigious law firms. Today,
he's setting up his own practice on the wrong side of town when his best
friend and former colleague is charged with a brutal double murder.
Daley is instantly catapulted into a high-profile investigation of the
prestigious law firm that just booted him.
Stone
Kiss, by Faye Kellerman
LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, rush to New
York when one of Peter's relatives is killed and another goes missing,
and they find themselves in the seedier areas of the city, where their
survival is placed in the hands of a vengeful lone wolf.
Storming
Heaven, by Kyle Mills
Exiled to the rural environs of the Arizona bureau office, maverick FBI
agent Mark Beamon is called off the golf course to investigate what
initially seems to be the murder of a couple by their disappeared
teenaged daughter.
Strong
Poison, by Dorothy Sayers
When her fiance is murdered, mystery novelist Harriet Vane becomes the
chief suspect due to her expert knowledge on poison, but Lord Peter
Wimsey, prompted by his love for Harriet, vows to clear her name.
A
Sudden Country, by Karen Fisher
Fisher builds a grand, mesmerizing novel on the bare chronicle left by
her ancestor Emma Ruth Ross Slavin, who was 11 when her family joined
the 1847 Oregon migration. Emma's mother, Lucy Mitchell, is a widow,
remarried despite her grief for her first husband and resenting the
decision of her second husband, Israel Mitchell, to emigrate. James
McLaren is a Scottish trapper for the Hudson Bay Company, uneasy both
with the emigrants and with the Native Americans, whose fate is bound up
with his own. When McLaren loses his children to smallpox and his Nez
Perce wife to another trapper, he tracks the trapper to Lucy Mitchell's
wagon train. Lucy and McLaren's charged encounter opens her up to the
land and him to his own need for roots as he signs on to guide her
little band on their trek from the Iowa banks of the Missouri to the
Columbia River in Oregon.
Tell
No One, by Harlan Coben
Every day for eight years, Dr. David Beck has relived the horror of what
happened to his wife. Now a message has appeared on his computer using a
phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the
idea that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.
Thale’s
Folly, by Dorothy Gilman
New York City novelist Andrew Thale tackles an odd assignment - to check
out an old family property in western Massachusetts, neglected since
Aunt Harriet Thale's death years ago. Much odder still is what he finds.
Far from being deserted, Thale's Folly is fully inhabited - by a
quartet of charming squatters
These
Is My Words, by Nancy Turner
A rip-roaring yarn--the diary as page-turner--is based on Tucson author
Turner's great-grandmother's diary. Covering 20 years in the life of a
woman in the Arizona Territories at the end of the last century, it’s
an all-time favorite of one of the library’s book groups.
Tishomingo
Blues, by Elmore Leonard
High-diving hipster Dennis Lenahan gets mixed up with the wrong people
when he witnesses the Dixie Mafia carry out a murder. Throw in a slick
con man from Detroit, a crooked sheriff and other oddballs to many plot
twists that climax at a Civil War reenactment in true Leonard style.
To
Darkness And to Death, by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Saturday, November 14, 5:00 A.M. In the small Adirondack town of
Millers Kill, an old lumberman sits in the dark with his gun across his
knees. Not far away, an unemployed logger sleeps off his bender from the
night before. The owner of the town's last paper mill tosses in his bed.
And a young woman, one of three heirs to the 250,000-acre Great Camp,
wakes alone in darkness, bound and gagged. Chief of Police Russ
Van Alstyne wants nothing more than a quiet day of hunting in the
mountains on his fiftieth birthday. His wife needs to have the town's
new luxury resort ready for its gala opening night. The Reverend Clare
Fergusson expects to spend the day getting St. Alban's Church ready for
the bishop's annual visit. Her long-distance suitor from New York
expects some answers about their relationship during his weekend in
town. In Millers Kill, where everyone knows everyone and all are
part of an interconnected web of blood or acquaintance, one person's
troubles have a way of ensnaring others. What begins as a simple case of
a woman lost in the woods leads to a tangle of revenge, blackmail,
assault, kidnapping, and murder. As the hours tick by, Russ and Clare
struggle to make sense of their town's plunge into chaos - and their own
chaotic emotions. Something terrible waits in the ice-rimed
mountains cradling Millers Kill. Something that won't be content with
just one death - or two.
The
Tortilla Curtain, by T.
Coraghessan Boyle
The author of East Is East replays the tragicomic meeting
of representatives from two different cultures with nothing in common.
This book calmly grabs hold with an unexpected suspense.
Tracking
Time, by Leslie Glass
When a young doctor disappears while jogging in Central Park, the
traditional crime motives -- sex, money, and power -- do not seem to
apply. NYPD Detective Sergeant April April brings in the city's top
canine tracking unit, but instead of finding the doctor, the dogs turn
up the murdered body of the only known witness to the abduction --
further complicating the case.
Tulip
Fever, by Deborah Moggach
Young Sophia, married to elderly Cornelius Sandvoort, falls in love with
the painter commissioned to paint their portrait. In order to flee
Amsterdam together, the lovers gamble their limited resources on the
latest craze of tulip speculation.
Twilight
in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy,
by Matthew R. Simmons
Twilight in the Desert looks behind the curtain to reveal a Saudi oil
and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible
decline. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry
analyst Matthew Simmons draws on his own three-plus decades of insider
experience and more than 200 independently produced reports about Saudi
petroleum resources and production operations. What he uncovers is a
story about Saudi Arabia's troubled oil industry, not to mention its
political and societal instability, which differs sharply from the
globally accepted Saudi version.
The
Unbidden Truth, by Kate Wilhelm
From the author of Malice Prepense comes her newest thriller
featuring lawyer Barbara Holloway.
Under
the Color of Law, by Michael
McGarrity
Before newly installed police chief Kevin Kerney can discover who
murdered a U.S. ambassador's estranged wife, the FBI takes over the
investigation, and soon witnesses vanish and the case is neatly solved,
but Kerney is convinced that he is in the midst of an intelligence
cover-up riddled with devious government agents and must race against
time to uncover the truth.
Undertaker’s
Widow, by Phillip
Margolin
An obsessively ethical judge is assigned to the trial of a flamboyant
senator accused of conspiring to murder her husband. In spite of his
honorable intentions, the judge makes all the wrong moves, and ends up
mired in a maze of deadly deceit.
Until
Proven Guilty, by
J.A.Jance
The little girl was only five, much too young to die. She could have
been J.P. Beaumont's kid, and the determined Seattle homicide detective
won't rest until her killer pays dearly. But the hunt is leading
Beaumont into a murky world of religious fanaticism, and toward a
perilous obsession all his own.
Up
from Orchard Street, by
Eleanor Widmer
In the tradition of Like Water for Chocolate and A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn, this exhilarating novel centered around a memorable
immigrant family brings to vibrant life the soul and spirit of New
York’s legendary Lower East Side.
Voodoo
Season, byJewell Parker Rhodes
This is the story of Marie Levant, a great-great granddaughter of Marie
Laveau and a medical doctor compelled by unseen forces to relocate from
Chicago to her family's native home. This is New Orleans, where the
slave-holding past merges with the twenty-first century, a place where
women of color are still being abused, raped, and - even more horrifying
- rendered "un-dead," zombie-like Sleeping Beauties. The
Quadroon Balls of yesterday are a present reality and only Marie Levant
can untangle the medical mystery." "A smart modern-day
heroine, unafraid of her sexuality, Marie Levant extends the Laveau
legacy of spiritual empowerment, prophetic vision, and voodoo
possession.
Waiting,
by Ha Jin
Award-winning author Ha Jin draws on his intimate knowledge of
contemporary China to create a story about Lin Kong, a doctor living in
two worlds, struggling with the conflicting claims of two utterly
different women as he moves through the political minefields of a
society designed to regulate his every step.
Walking
Across Egypt, by Clyde
Edgerton
Mattie Rigsbee is an independent, strong-minded senior citizen who might
just be slowing a bit. When young delinquent Wesley Benfield drops into
her life, he is an even less likely companion than her stray dog. But
once Mattie starts taking in strays, there is no stopping her.
The
Weight of Water, Anita Shreve
A century after two women were murdered in a fit of passion on a small
island off the coast of New Hampshire, another woman goes to the island
to shoot a photo essay about the crime--and finds herself gripped by
uncontrollable passions of her own.
Welcome
to the World Baby Girl!,
by Fannie Flagg
This engaging story revolves around Dena Nordstrom, a rising network TV
anchorwoman in '70s Manhattan, who has a future full of promise, a
present rich with complications, and a past clouded by mystery.
Wicked:
The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,
by Gregory Maguire
Wicked is a richly woven tale that takes us to the other, darker
side of the rainbow as novelist Gregory Maguire chronicles the Wicked
Witch of the West's odyssey through the complex world of Oz -- where
people call you wicked if you tell the truth. Years before Dorothy and
her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz.
This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin -- no easy burden in
a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not
strong enough to explain or to overcome the natural disasters of flood
and famine. But Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters the
university in Shiz, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz' most
promising young citizens. Elphaba's Oz is no utopia. The Wizard's secret
police are everywhere. Animals -- those creatures with voices, souls and
minds -- are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and
misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals -- even it means
combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single
chance at romance. Even wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself
grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make
herself glad for that young girl from Kansas. In Wicked, Gregory
Maguire has taken the largely unknown world of Oz and populated it with
the power of his own imagination. Fast-paced, fantastically real and
supremely entertaining, this is a novel of vision and re-vision. Oz
never will be the same again.
Windy
City, by Hugh Holton
Margo and Neil DeWitt seem like any other fun-loving, superrich couple
until Chicago Police Commander Larry Cole sees through their fluent
charade. While investigating the death of a fellow officer, Cole
stumbles across a pattern of killings that leads him to discover the
DeWitts' gruesome hobby--murdering people using methods from their
favorite mystery novels.
Winter
& Night, by S.J.
Rozan
When his nephew Greg is arrested in New York City and then escapes, Bill
Smith, along with his partner Lydia Chin, sets out to find Greg and
arrives in a small New Jersey town, where he is confronted by dark
secrets, both the town's and his own.
Winter
of Our Discontent, by
John Steinbeck
Ethan Hawley, a descendant of proud New England sea captains, works as a
clerk in the grocery store owned by an Italian immigrant. His wife is
restless; his teenaged children are troubled and discontented, hungry
for the tantalizing material comforts he cannot provide. Then one day,
in a moment of moral crisis, Ethan decides to take a holiday from his
own scrupulous standards.
Wisdom
of the Bones,
by Christopher Hyde
Based
on real child mutilation murders and extensive historical research, this
grim procedural takes place over the course of five days in November
1963. A killer whose M.O. includes kidnapping, raping, flaying and
dissecting his young victims before piecing them back together like
puppets, has resurfaced, but his rampage threatens to go unchecked after
John Kennedy is assassinated. The only detective on the Dallas police
force who isn't preoccupied with the assassination is Ray Duval, who
happens to be dying from congestive heart failure.
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