Mary Kay Andrews ...

is going to be at Emmet O'Neal Library tomorrow night from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
We'll begin with a reception and book signing followed by a talk from Ms. Andrews.
Tickets are available at the Reference Desk - we hope to see you there!

Documentaries After Dark Tomorrow Night!

Drop by the library at 6:30pm tomorrow night for a very timely documentary about some extreme farmers competing to grow the largest pumpkins in the world! Call 205/445-1117 for more information!

Top 10 First Novels of 2009

I never hesitate to tell anyone that debut novels are some of my favorite books! The Booklist article I have quotes below says it best so I'll only add that I love to try the books just for that oftentimes rough hewn feel. Rarely does an author come right out the gate with something approaching perfection; the exception that immediately comes to mind is Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner. Do you remember the first time you read that book?

I don't require perfection. In fact, too much perfection puts you in danger of running into flat, one-dimensional characters. Your imagination needs some rough edges to catch itself on.

Make your next choice a debut novel and see where it takes you!

From the Booklist website:

Readers pick up a first novel with both excitement and trepidation. An untried author is always a reader’s gamble. But pick up the following first novels, all reviewed in Booklist over the past year, with no trepidation, only excitement.

Dream House by Valerie Laken

Laken is masterful at character construction as she explores issues of race and class.

A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff

This novel provides a pitch-perfect portrait of the generation that came of age in the 1990's.

Grace Hammer by Sara Stockbridge

Stockbridge deftly captures the mood of Dickensian London in this gripping debut.

The Invisible Mountain by Carolina De Robertis

Words, so beautifully employed by this author, seem inadequate to convey the essence of this twentieth-century Uruguayan woman-center family saga.

Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange by Amanda Smyth

In lithe, lyracal prose, the author evokes the lush language of the West Indies and the modest lives lived at the mercy of fate.

Mathilda Savitch by Victor Lodato

Lodato indelibly captures the fragile vulnerability and fearless bravado of adolescence.

Miles From Nowhere by Anmi Mun

There is nothing simplistic or sensationalized here as Mun, a writer of gravitas, portrays the dispossessed and the cast out.

The Moon Opera by Be Feiyu

At once a sad and lovely story, this slender novel on a rather narrow topic - the Peking Opera - nevertheless resonates with a clear, crystalline tone.

Precious by Sandra Novack

Trouble simmers beneath the surface of a bucolic Pennsylvania town in Novack's dramatic, elegantly rendered debut.

Under This Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell

The author's screenwriting skills serve her well in this remarkable portrait of a Ukrainian farming family in Alberta during the late 1930's.

To this list I'll add a couple of my favorites of the last few years:

Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him by Danielle Ganek

Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Poison Study by Maria Snyder

Black Ships by Jo Graham

Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett

Alabama Moon by Watt Key

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

I'd better stop there or I'll be here all night.

:-D

*Have you read any of these yet? Do you have a favorite debut novel?*

Happy reading!

Holley

National Book Award Finalists Announced:

Fiction

American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips

Far North by Marcel Theroux

Nonfiction

Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook by David M. Carroll

Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species by Sean B. Carroll

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy by Adrienne Mayor

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles

Poetry

Versed by Rae Armantrout

Or to Begin Again by Ann Lauterbach

Speak Low by Carl Phillips

Open Interval by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy by Keith Waldrop

Young People’s Literature

Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Stitches by David Small

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Winners will be announced on November 18.

Interested in reading one (or all)? Let us know, we'll place a hold for you, or show you how to do it yourself!

katie m.

The Bookies Non Fiction Salon & Dewey!

This week The Bookies (Emmet O'Neal's GrEaT book group) met to discuss our county-wide read Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron.

Myron was the director of a small town library in Spencer, Iowa (population 10,000) when one freezing January morning she and a co-worker opened the library's metal encased book drop to find one small shivering tabby cat with frostbitten paws. Dewey Readmore Books as he came to be known soon won over the hearts of the library staff and the entire town. Dewey became the library cat, and lived happily at the Spencer Public Library for many years.

Our book group had a pretty unanimous consensus - we liked the book. It was a sweet story about the relationship between the cat and the townspeople. Also, Myron had some really interesting points about a small town hit by hard times. We didn't have a long discussion about it because we were ready to move on to our non-fiction discussion. I asked each member of the group to bring in a non fiction title she is currently reading and tell us about it. Here was our list (oh, and there are several fiction titles we let slide in as well). I have added links to the library's catalog, and have included Dewey ;)

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World by Vicki Myron

Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest To Free Victims of Human Trafficking by Aaaron Cohen - Cohen's story is an interesting one - he is the one time collaborator and friend of Jane's Addiction leader Perry Ferrell. Cohen has traveled the world in attempts to free women and children from the horrors of slavery.

The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour - Bennie M. told The Bookies that this was a really excellent history of the famous Berlin Airlift. It went into great detail about the mechanics of the airlift and how the operation was carried out. Sounds like a great read!

Run by Ann Patchett

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett - a popular choice for local book groups, in it Ms. Patchett discusses her relationship with another great writer, Lucy Grealy

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy - Ms. Grealy's story of her life and relationship with fellow writers including Ann Patchett.

North Across the River: a Civil War Trail of Tears by Ruth Beaumont Cook - the history of a little known story about a group of people forced to leave Roswell, Georgia for the Ohio River Valley - written by a local author too!

Home Tonight by Henri Nowen - contemplative writing about the parable of the prodigal son.

Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist’s Journey Into Seeing In Three Dimensions by Susan Barry - Mary D. told us this was about how people see and how our brains communicate with our eyes and vice versa.

Outside The Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr - a great book by and about an amazing woman. We have several copies of this one!

New Lights In The Valley: The Emergence of UAB by Tennant McWilliams - Emmet O'Neal Library has two copies of this book about the history of UAB and Birmingham.

Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause by Tom Gjelten - Connie W. said this was long, but very interesting if you want to learn more about Castro's Cuba and the Bacardi family.

And, as promised, a little fiction:

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout - won a Pulitzer Prize last year.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry - Betty P. tells me this is a GREAT book!

The Toss of A Lemon by Padma Viswanathan which Paula P’s friend testified was one of the best books she had ever read!

Next month The Bookies will meet on November 10th to discuss Steinbeck's classic East of Eden. Join us!

Katie M.

R.I.P. Challange

Some of you may remember that I mentioned I would be taking part in the R.I.P. Challenge this October. Well, I have recently finished two more books toward that challenge, and they were great! Here are my quick and dirty reviews:

R.I.P. Challange The Second Nail In The Coffin:

I read The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff this weekend and I was so creeped out - it was excellent! The premise: a woman with latent psychic powers discovers her fiancé is cheating on her. She ditches her life in California for a new one in North Carolina where she will be a professor of psychology at Duke University. Within her first few weeks in her new position, she discovers the archives of a now closed parapsychology lab. Once she delves into the boxes she finds clues to a tragedy which occurred thirty years before. Before she knows it, our protagonist finds herself at a house purported to be haunted. I won’t give away much more of the story – but it’s a good one! Part thriller, part mystery, part ghost story, The Unseen will leave you feeling spooked for sure!

R.I.P. Challange The Third Nail In The Coffin!

So I have been on a ROLL on the R.I.P. Challenge!
Last weekend I finished The House of Lost Souls by F.G. Cottam, which was ExCeLlEnT. I really enjoyed it. This book starts out with a bang - a strange funeral, madness, and a ghostly hearse - and that's just the first chapter. It's in the second chapter that we meet our novel's protagonist, Paul Seaton, who has his own tragic and eerie past. He is charged with the task of discovering what happened to a group of students who went on a college trip to a haunted house on the Isle of Wight. Why did the group of students go? Who led them there? What did they hope to find? Paul has an idea why these things happened, because he has been to the house and witnessed its horrors. Will Paul be able to discover what happened to these students? Will he be able to save the girl who lies in a near coma, possibly possessed by a demon? The tension and the scares build throughout the novel and do not let up. The House of Lost Souls is really a great horror novel, check it out for yourself!

katie m.

An Evening with Mary Kay Andrews!

DATE: October 22, 2009

TIME: 6:30pm-8:00pm

TICKETS:

$20 for Friends member

$25 for the general public

$30 the night of the event

Mary Kay Andrews will meet readers at our October author event sponsored by Western Supermarkets and the Friends of the Emmet O'Neal Library. The event will begin at 6:30pm with a reception and booksigning after which Ms. Andrews will talk about her life and work as a New York Times best-selling author!

Ms. Andrews is the author of a number of novels including:

The Fixer Upper

Little Bitty Lies

Deep Dish

Hissy Fit

Savannah Blues

Savannah Breeze

Blue Christmas

From her website:

A former reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she wrote ten critically acclaimed mysteries, including the Callahan Garrity mystery series, under her "real" name, which is Kathy Hogan Trocheck.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida (and a diplomate of the Maas Bros. Department Store School of Charm), she started her professional journalism career in Savannah, Georgia, where she covered the real-life murder trials which were the basis of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL.

As a lifelong "junker" the author claims to know the location of every promising thrift store, flea market and junkpile in the Southeastern United States, plus many parts of Ohio.

She has a B.A. in newspaper journalism from The University of Georgia (go Dawgs!), and is a frequent lecturer and writing teacher at workshops including Emory University, The University of Georgia's Harriet Austin Writer's Workshop, the Tennessee Mountain Writer's Workshop and the Antioch Writer's Workshop. Her mysteries have been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Awards.

Married for more than 31 years to her high school sweetheart, Tom, she is the mother of 24-year-old Katie Abel and 20-year-old Andrew. After a three-year hiatus in Raleigh, NC, she and her husband recently moved back to their old neighborhood in Atlanta, where they live in a restored 1926 Craftsman bungalow.

The Callahan Garrity mystery series she writes as Kathy Hogan Trocheck:
Every Crooked Nanny

To Live and Die in Dixie

Homemade Sin

Happy Never After

Heart Trouble

Strange Brew

Midnight Clear

Irish Eyes

For more information, contact Katie Moellering at (205)445-1118 or kmoellering@bham.lib.al.us!

GRG Recap for Young Adult Fiction

The Genre Reading Group met this past Tuesday to discuss Young Adult Fiction and I thought it was one of our best discussions ever, but I do end up saying that every time! They just get better and better! Drop what you are doing and join the most fun book group in town, where YOU get to pick what you read!

October's topic is National Book Award winners, either fiction or nonfiction. I pulled all the winners from 2000 to present (that we had on the shelf) but if you'd rather browse, click through for a complete list of winners since the National Book Award's inception in 1950.

Here's the list of the books we read/talked about/referenced/remembered during our discussion:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Grade 5–8—Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe.

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang (author of another YA graphic novel, American Born Chinese) & Derek Kirk Kim

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Yang and Kim are expert storytellers and work well together here to present three tales with fablelike takeaways.

To Dance: A Memoir by Siena Cherson Siegel (graphic novel format)

Starred Review. Grade 4-7–Siegel was born to dance. At age six, she began to take lessons in Puerto Rico. When her family moved to Boston, she continued to study ballet and was totally inspired when she saw a performance by Maya Plisetskaya of the Bolshoi Ballet. When she was accepted at the American School of Ballet, her family moved to New York.

My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr

Grade 9 & Up--In this tightly constructed novel about love, family, and the ambiguities of sexual identity, Ellen, 14, idolizes her brother, Link, and his best friend, James, who are seniors. When she enters their private Manhattan high school, she is surprised when some girls assume that Link and James are "a couple." Things begin to unravel when she puts the question to them.

Anything at all by Laurie Halse Anderson:

Speak

Grade 8 Up-This powerful novel deals with a difficult yet important topic-rape. Melinda is just starting high school. It should be one of the greatest times in her life, but instead of enjoying herself, she is an outcast. She has been marked as the girl who called the police to break up the big end-of-the-summer party, and all the kids are angry at her. Even her closest friends have pulled away. No one knows why she made the call, and even Melinda can't really articulate what happened. As the school year goes on, her grades plummet and she withdraws into herself to the point that she's barely speaking. Her only refuge is her art class, where she learns to find ways to express some of her feelings.

Fever, 1793

Grade 6-10-The sights, sounds, and smells of Philadelphia when it was still the nation's capital are vividly re-created in this well-told tale of a girl's coming-of-age, hastened by the outbreak of yellow fever.

Catalyst

Chemistry honors student and cross-country runner Kate Malone is driven. Daughter of a father who is a reverend first and a parent second ("Rev. Dad [Version 4.7] is a faulty operating system, incompatible with my software.") and a dead mother she tries not to remember, Kate has one goal: To escape them both by gaining entrance to her own holy temple, MIT. Eschewing sleep, she runs endlessly every night waiting for the sacred college acceptance letter. Then two disasters occur: Sullen classmate Teri and her younger brother, Mikey, take over Kate's room when their own house burns down, and a too-thin letter comes from MIT, signifying denial. And so the experiment begins.

Prom

Grade 8 Up - Ashley is (in her own words) normal - a senior from a lower-middle-class family, dating a high school dropout, and gearing up for graduation but with no plans for college. But when the new math teacher steals the prom money, Ashley - who swears she doesn't care - finds herself sucked into turning nothing into the best prom ever because it means the world to her best friend, Nat.

Twisted

Grade 9 Up–Socially inept Tyler Miller thinks his senior year of high school is going to be a year like no other. After being sentenced to a summer of character building physical labor following a graffiti prank, his reputation at school receives a boost, as do his muscles. Enter super-popular Bethany Milbury, sister of his tormentor, Chip, and daughter of his father's boss. Tyler's newfound physique has attracted her interest and infuriated Chip, leading to ongoing conflicts at school. Likewise, Tyler's inability to meet his volatile father's demands to be an asset, not a liability adds increasing tension. All too quickly, Tyler's life spirals out of control.

Chains

Grade 6–10—Set in New York City at the beginning of the American Revolution, Chains addresses the price of freedom both for a nation and for individuals.

Wintergirls

Grade 8 Up*Starred Review* Problem-novel fodder becomes a devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception in this brutal and poetic deconstruction of how one girl stealthily vanishes into the depths of anorexia.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Grade 7 Up-In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place.

Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolfe (second in the trilogy is True Believer)

Grade 7-12-- "This word COLLEGE is in my house,/ and you have to walk around it in the rooms/ like furniture." So LaVaughn, an urban 14-year-old, tries to earn the money she needs to make college a reality. She and her mother are a solid two-person family. When LaVaughn takes a job babysitting for Jolly, an abused, 17-year-old single parent who lives with her two children in squalor, her mother is not sure it's a good idea. How the girl's steady support helps Jolly to bootstrap herself into better times and how Jolly, in turn, helps her young friend to clarify her own values are the subjects of this complex, powerful narrative.

Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine

Grade 6–9—This spirited, early-20th-century coming-of-age story presents a small-town cast of well-drawn characters, an unlikely friendship, engaging adventures, and poignant realizations. When a new postmaster arrives in Moundville, AL, 12-year-old Dit is surprised to discover that Mr. Walker is African American and that his refined daughter knows nothing about baseball, hunting, or fishing. With his best friend gone for the summer and in search of companionship other than his nine siblings he reluctantly hangs out with proper, opinionated Emma, who tags along with him asking questions and trying to keep up. Gradually, Dit begins to respect her independence, intelligence, compassion, and determination. But the harsh realities of segregation and racist attitudes threaten their friendship and open Dit's eyes to injustice.

Alabama Moon by Watt Key

Grade 6-8–Moon, 10, has spent most of his life in a camouflaged shelter in the forest with his father, a Vietnam veteran who distrusts people and the government. Pap has educated him in both academics and survival skills. His life suddenly changes when the land is sold to a lawyer and his father dies. The lawyer discovers him and, believing what he is doing is best for the child, turns him over to Mr. Gene from the local boys home. When Moon escapes, Mr. Gene alerts the constable, an emotionally unstable bully who becomes obsessed with capturing him. Once at the home, though, Moon makes his first real friends and learns what friendship is all about.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands.

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Grade 9 Up - Nineteen-year-old cabbie Ed Kennedy has little in life to be proud of: his dad died of alcoholism, and he and his mom have few prospects for success. He has little to do except share a run-down apartment with his faithful yet smelly dog, drive his taxi, and play cards and drink with his amiable yet similarly washed-up friends. Then, after he stops a bank robbery, Ed begins receiving anonymous messages marked in code on playing cards in the mail, and almost immediately his life begins to swerve off its beaten-down path.

Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick

This spastically composed, frequently hilarious omnibus of meditations on favorite YA novels dwells mostly among the old-school titles from the late '60s to the early '80s much beloved by now grown-up ladies. This was the era, notes the bibliomaniacal Skurnick in her brief introduction, when books for young girls moved from being wholesome and entertaining (e.g., The Secret Garden and the Nancy Drew series) to dealing with real-life, painful issues affecting adolescence as depicted by Beverly Cleary, Lois Duncan, Judy Blume, Madeleine L'Engle and Norma Klein.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

If anyone tried to determine the most common rite of passage for preteen girls in North America, a girl's first reading of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret would rank near the top of the list. Judy Blume and her character Margaret Simon were the first to say out loud (and in a book even) that it is normal for girls to wonder when they are ever going to fill out their training bras. Adolescents are often so relieved to discover that someone understands their body-angst that they miss one of the book's deeper explorations: a young person's relationship with God.

There was some discussion of literary awards in general and I mentioned that one of the best books I've read lately is Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, which has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The Prize will be awarded on October 6th! I hope she wins!

Questions/concerns? Call or email!

Happy reading!

Holley

205/445-1117

hwesley@bham.lib.al.us

Evening Book Group tomorrow night!

Join the most fun book group in town tomorrow night at 6:30pm when we meet to discuss young adult fiction. What was your favorite book when you were a teenager? What is your teen reading right now? Which trends are hot and which are not in teen reading?

Genre Reading Group

Tuesday, September 29th @ 6;30pm

Bring a YA fiction book and tell us about it!

October's topic will be National Book Award winners, fiction and nonfiction. I have a selection pulled for your perusal or you can find a complete list here! Call or email me if you have any questions!

205/445-1117 or hwesley@bham.lib.al.us

Happy reading!

Holley

Fall/Winter Book Tour

If you missed the Brown Bag program last week, Katie and I shared a cornucopia's worth of books to be published soon about which we are very excited!

Never fear, here they are! Links to the library catalog are provided where available!

RECENTLY PUBLISHED

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Tassie Keltjin, 20, a smalltown girl weathering a clumsy college year in the Athens of the Midwest, is taken on as prospective nanny by brittle Sarah Brink, the proprietor of a pricey restaurant who is desperate to adopt a baby despite her dodgy past.

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellroy
In 1939, in the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, Georgia, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan learns of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will plague the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect the town from the evil in their midst and they form "The Guardians" to watch over the community. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Even when the killings cease, a shadow of fear follows Joseph for the rest of his life. The past won't stay buried and, fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life...

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.

True Compass: A Memoir by Edward Kennedy
In this landmark autobiography, five years in the making, Senator Edward M. Kennedy tells his extraordinary personal story--of his legendary family, politics, and fifty years at the center of national events.

Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve

Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband. A Change in Altitude illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas ofand into the core of our most intimate relationships.

Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods
CIA agent Holly Barker deals with corruption in a small town police department.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women survivors, Ren and Toby, seek to break out of the individual confines and seek other survivors.

Separate Country by Robert Hicks
Set in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, A Separate Country is based on the incredible life of John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army--and one of its most tragic figures.

SEPTEMBER 28TH

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King by James Patterson
James Patterson and Martin Dugard dig through stacks of evidence--X-rays, Carter's files, forensic clues, and stories told through the ages--to arrive at their own account of King Tut's life and death. The result is an exhilarating true crime tale of intrigue, passion, and betrayal that casts fresh light on the oldest mystery of all.

SEPTEMBER 29TH

Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom
Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere.

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dickey
The word skullduggery finds a new meaning in Dickey's well-vetted account of those obsessed with owning the skulls of the highly talented and famous. Fiction and nonfiction writer Dickey (co-editor of Failure! Experiments in Aesthetic and Social Practices) takes the reader back to the plucky grave robbers who stole the craniums of famed composers Haydn and Beethoven, Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, artist Francisco Goya, the English doctor and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne and others to sell, study or put on public display.

OCTOBER 1ST

The Wild Things by Dave Eggers
His new novel, based loosely on the storybook by Maurice Sendak and the screenplay cowritten with Spike Jonze, is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can’t control.

OCTOBER 6TH

Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as—simply because—it goes on being written every day.

OCTOBER 13TH

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

LAPD detective Harry Bosch battles a Hong Kong triad.

Pursuit of Honor by Vince Flynn
Mitch Rapp battles Al Qaeda terrorism on U.S. soil.

OCTOBER 19TH

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan
On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in an eyeblink. Equally dramatic, though, is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen.

OCTOBER 20TH

Blood Game by Iris Johansen
Eve tracks a serial killer who drains the blood of the victims.

The Scarpetta Factor by Patricia Cornwell
Kay Scarpetta is asked to launch a TV show celebrating her crime solving abilities and she quickly receives threatening packages and ominous callers.

OCTOBER 23RD

The Queen Mother: The Official Biography by William Shawcross
The official and definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: consort of King George VI, mother of Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother of Prince Charles—and the most beloved British monarch of the twentieth century. William Shawcross—given unrestricted access to the Queen Mother’s personal papers, letters, and diaries—gives us a portrait of unprecedented vividness and detail.

OCTOBER 27TH

True Blue by David Baldacci
A mysterious high-profile homicide in the nation's capital collides with the dark side of national security in David Baldacci's new, heart-stopping thriller.

NOVEMBER 2ND

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.

NOVEMBER 9TH

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

The tennis great tells all.

NOVEMBER 10TH

Under the Dome by Stephen King
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

NOVEMBER 16TH

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
The follow-up to Alex Cross's Trial

The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov
When Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977, he left instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that made up the rough draft of his final and unfinished novel, The Original of Laura. But Nabokov’s wife, Vera, could not bear to destroy her husband’s last work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son. Dmitri Nabokov, now seventy-five—the Russian novelist’s only surviving heir, and translator of many of his books—has wrestled for three decades with the decision of whether to honor his father’s wish or preserve for posterity the last piece of writing of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. His decision finally to allow publication of the fragmented narrative—dark yet playful, preoccupied with mortality—affords us one last experience of Nabokov’s magnificent creativity, the quintessence of his unparalleled body of work.

NOVEMBER 24TH

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission in search of exactly what transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul.

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Discovered as a complete manuscript in his files after his death in 2008.

Breathless by Dean Koontz
Grady Adams lives a simple, solitary life deep in the Colorado mountains. Here the thirty-five-year-old carpenter works out of a converted barn, crafting exquisite one-of-a-kind furniture. There’s little about this strong yet gentle man to suggest the experiences that have alienated him from the contemporary world. But that is about to change.

DECEMBER 1ST

U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

The next installment in the Kinsey Millhone series.

Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell

Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING. Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery.

JANUARY 12TH

Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Happy Reading!

Holley