The Dilemma by Penny Vincenzi


"Francesca had a successful career and a satisfactory marriage, but she gave it all up to become the third Mrs. Isambard Channing. Now she finds life as the trophy wife of a highly successful property magnate fraught with family turmoil created by the adult children of her husband's first two marriages. When Francesca and Bard's second child falls ill and the business empire Bard has built starts to falter, his uncommunicative and condescending nature begins to strain their relationship severely. Francesca's vulnerable and trusting nature makes her the prime candidate for use by Bard's eldest son as a means of exacting revenge upon his father. Then, when he is under direct fire from government authorities for fraud, Bard asks Francesca to provide a false alibi, leaving her on an emotional precipice."


~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Extracurricular Activities by Maggie Barbieri

"Barbieri's in top form as she delivers a smooth sequel to her witty debut (Murder 101). English professor Alison Bergeron wishes she'd stop getting uninvited visits from her ex-husband, Raymond Stark, fornicator extraordinaire and fellow professor at St. Thomas, a small Catholic university north of New York City. Ray's past conquests include Alison's slutty neighbor, Terri, and St. Thomas student Kathy Miceli, whose recent murder shocked the campus. Then Alison comes home one night to find Ray's body in her kitchen, hands and feet chopped off: the slaying signature of chubby mobster Peter Miceli, Kathy's father. Peter begins stalking Alison, showing up uninvited in her house to proclaim his innocence. Alison reluctantly turns to her soon-to-be-divorced former boyfriend, Bobby Crawford, an NYPD homicide detective, for help and comfort. The plot thickens when Terri disappears, leaving Alison in charge of Trixie, a scene-stealing golden retriever who makes a gruesome discovery. Barbieri juggles romance, murder and mayhem with stark realism and disarming charm."

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reservation Nation: A Novel by David Fuller Cook

"The Uwharrie of North Carolina came up against the controversial Indian termination policy of the 1950s and '60s, which sought to mainstream Native Americans. Warren Eubanks, whose Uwharrie name means the Seed, grew up under the care of his grandparents in the 1950s, and narrates troubled reservation life as an older man looking back at his childhood and Vietnam-era younger adulthood, witness to a besieged community that has had to figure out how to continu[e] to be Indian. Warren moves back and forth between different periods in the past, telling of conflict between the old ways, as followed by elders such as great Aunt Ida, who could read minds, and Grandmother, a weaver and singer, and the ruinous ways of the Kowache, or white people, to which Chief Billy Farmer is drawn. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the American Indian Movement and various corporations all play in as Warren slowly narrates how the reservation lands are handled, all the while staying close to people like the motorcycle riding Joe Bad Crow and Sun Susie, a horse trainer daughter whose mysterious death haunts these pages. In channeling Warren, Cook's beautifully modulated, speechlike cadences give his debut novel a quiet power."

~Publisher Weekly Review, Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Someone Knows My Name: A Novel by Lawrence Hill

"Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. The novel opens in 1802, as Aminata is wooed in London to the cause of British abolitionists, and begins reflecting on her life. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners: nasty indigo producer Robinson Appleby and, later, Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. During her long life of struggle, she does what she can to free herself and others from slavery, including learning to read and teaching others to, and befriending anyone who can help her, black or white. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully, particularly during the beginnings of the American revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks who fight for the British: Aminata's related, eventful travels to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone follow. In depicting a woman who survives history's most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill's book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force."

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Away: A Novel by Amy Bloom

"Imagine Homer's Odyssey set in 1924 New York City, with Odysseus a 22-year-old woman who escaped the Russian pogroms only to try to make her way back in search of the daughter she left behind. Lillian Leyb arrives at the home of her cousin Frieda to begin her new life in America. She meets Yiddish theater impresario Reuben Burstein, his actor son, Meyer, and Reuben's friend, Yaakov Shimmelman, and the three men are instrumental to her education. Lillian becomes romantically involved with both Burstein men, but when she learns that her daughter, Sophie, was spared the fate of her husband and parents, the fate that causes her constant nightmares, Lillian begins a trek west, across the United States to Canada and Alaska and finally to Siberia. Her encounters broaden to include other men, a Seattle prostitute and her pimp, and prospectors and line operators along the Telegraph Trail. In earthy, less-than-genteel language, Bloom (Normal) draws a picture of a no-longer-innocent abroad whose mother-love never diminishes despite the hardships she endures. Bloom reveals the fates of all those Lillian leaves behind, and this knowledge is satisfying, even as Lillian trudges onward."

~Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Author Event Tonight: Tuesday, November 27 @ 7 p.m. in The Brookfield Library Community Room

Come meet Kevin Gianni and Annmarie Colameo, authors of The Busy Person's Fitness Solution, a home workout program that gives you the tools to radically change your views on health and fitness and live an energetic and energized life.

Kevin Gianni is a holistic fitness expert, speaker, personal trainer and goal setting coach. His expertise includes exercise, energy techniques, nutrition, and stress relief. Kevin has helped hundreds of people reach their health and weight loss goals using this simple and effective approach to losing weight. He's been quoted in many national publications including WebMD, eDiets, Today's Diet and Nutrition and more.

Annmarie is a Certified Athletic Trainer and has spent the last 4 years as an ATC working with Division 1 athletes, High School Athletes, and physical therapy rehabilitation patients. Her expertise is athletics, teenagers, rehabilitation and sports specific training. She has a degree in athletic training from East Carolina University. She is also a certified massage therapist.

Kevin and Annmarie are co-owners of Lifestyle Fitness and In-Home Training in Danbury, CT.

Fit and Sexy for Life by Kathy Kaehler

"Since the mid-1990s, Today Show fitness expert Kaehler has authored fitness lifestyle books, which have predominantly focused on the wellness needs of women. In her latest, she continues to offer practical, down-to-earth advice with her Fit and Sexy for Life Solution, which advocates a hormone therapy-free program for coping with menopausal changes in the body and emotions. The Six Day Body Blast is made up of three days of strength training alternated with three days of cardiovascular and abdominal workouts, with one day off each week. The exercises are demonstrated with photographs and written directions. Kaehler advises making five diet modifications that will increase energy levels, control weight, and thwart health problems that menopause can aggravate. A small recipe section is included. Tips for increasing contentment wrap up the book, and an appendix lists Kaehler's favorite web sites and resources. While there are many other books that more deeply cover the facets of the menopausal experience, this book brings the issues of greatest concern together in one believable and personable source."

~ Beth Hill, Univ. of Idaho Lib., Moscow Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo

"With the same humor and pathos that turned Empire Falls and Straight Man into best sellers, Russo's latest tale unravels the tangled skein of love, regret, hope, and longing that wraps itself around friends and family in a small upstate New York town. Russo's multigenerational tale follows the fortunes of two families, especially the careers of the respective sons. Although Louis Charles Lynch and Bobby Marconi come from very different backgrounds, they bond over Bobby's defense of Lou in elementary school. As they grow older, they drift apart, with Bobby changing his name to Robert Noonan and moving to Venice, where he becomes a world-famous artist. Louis stays in Thomaston, marries high school sweetheart Sarah (also an artist), and helps out his family in their grocery store. Although Louis reluctantly agrees to visit Venice with Sarah, several events converge to alter their plans (including Sarah and Bobby's possible love for each other), and their lives change in ways that neither could have anticipated. While Russo's tale gets off to a slow start and the attempt to tell the parallel stories of Louis and Bobby is not always successful, Russo's novel is nevertheless a winning story of the strange ways that parents and children, lovers and friends connect and thrive."

~Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Evanston, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan

"A deeply moving novel about how we work, how we live, and how we get to the next day with our spirits intact. If there was ever a book that embodies what's best in us, it's Stewart O'Nan's LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER." ~ Stephen King

"O'Nan's tenth novel (after The Good Wife) demonstrates once again why the author is known as the "bard of the working class." It's December 20, closing day for the New Britain, CT, Red Lobster restaurant, abandoned by headquarters owing to mediocre sales. Manager Manny De Leo had to let most of his employees go—only five can transfer with him to the Olive Garden—and is counting on the good will of a few to run the place. As he opens, we hear in intimate detail about routine tasks (changing the oil in the Frialator) and tacky decorations (the shellacked marlin on the wall). Manny will miss it; it's his shop, and he takes pride in it. He'll also miss Jacquie, the waitress with whom he had a brief, intense affair. As snow falls, Manny handles the regulars, Christmas parties, the mall crowd, and his small crew with aplomb, constantly aware of his losses. This slice-of-life novel is funny, poignant, and exquisitely rendered."

~ Nancy Fontaine, Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

City Lights: Stories About New York by Dan Barry


"A perpetual tourist in his New York City hometown, Barry wrote a weekly New York Times column from 2003 to 2006 humanizing the faceless hordes of a bustling metropolis. He gives a voice here to umbrella peddlers grumbling about bad business in a downpour, a Buddhist monk robbed of his bag of humble possessions at Trump Tower and a Bronx poker champ whose winnings bought 10 heart surgeries in his native Guyana. In a city of transition, Fulton Fish Market hawkers bid adieu to their old stinky open-air digs; Plaza Hotel doormen lament the famed hotel's conversion into luxury condos and the probable loss of their jobs. Remarkable yet ordinary New Yorkers include a Methodist office worker who donated a kidney to a Muslim woman, a Harlem window washer who plummeted to his death in a Silk Stocking neighborhood and a potato chip salesman who was unmasked as a brutal Nazi. September 11 casts a long shadow as a Staten Island retired firefighter learns for the fifth time in two years that parts of his son, a commodities trader, have been recovered at ground zero. Pulitzer Prize–winner Barry delivers highly evocative pieces, but they'll be yesterday's news to Times readers."


~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik

"Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values."

~Publisher Weekly Review, Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

BurningMan: Art in the Desert. Photographs and text by A. Leo Nash and Introduction by Daniel Pinchbeck.

"Every August people gather for one week in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create and view curious, often fascinating artworks at the Burning Man Festival. For more than ten years, Californian photographer Nash (2010: The Return of Quetzalcoatl) has participated as an artist in this highly original event held in an otherwise bleak landscape and has documented its varied creations. His black-and-white images, especially the panoramic views against a backdrop of parched sand, capture the whimsy and imagination both of the artwork and the artists themselves. Daniel Pinchbeck (Breaking Open the Head) contributes an introduction that vividly sets the scene and explains the nature of the Burning Man. The photographs are then loosely organized into chapters that include "The Beginning," "Inspiration," "Road Trip," "Desert Rhythms," and "Exodus." Through each of these chapters, Nash provides a running commentary that helps to capture the spirit of the festival. At the very least, this is a fun book; at its best, it is a tribute to the liberating spirit of American art."

~Raymond Bial, First Light Photography, Urbana, IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Isabella Moon by Laura Benedict

"At the risk of raising suspicions about her mysterious past, Kate Russell arrives at the Carystown, KY, police station with information about the disappearance of nine-year-old Isabella Moon. Sheriff Bill Delaney is skeptical when Kate claims her information came from the missing girl's ghost. When the mother of Kate's best friend, Francie, is murdered and a local high school athlete drops dead a few days later, Sheriff Delaney finds Kate's involvement in another murder too coincidental. Kate's reasons for reinventing herself in this small town are revealed in flashbacks to her life with her abusive husband, and the tension mounts as the story reaches its rewarding conclusion. Benedict'a debut is a small-town thriller with a hint of the supernatural and compelling, well-drawn characters."

~ Karen Kleckner, Deerfield P.L., IL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

"The 1939 Nazi bombing of Warsaw left its beloved zoo in ruins with many of its animals killed or wounded. Worse was to come when Berlin zoo director Lutz Heck had surviving rare species shipped back to Germany as part of a Nazi breeding program and held a New Year's Eve hunting party for German officers to finish off the remaining animals. Witnessing this horror was the zookeeper's wife, who wondered, as she recalled later in her memoirs, how many humans would die in the same manner in the coming months. As Antonina Zabinski and her husband, Jan, soon learned, the Nazis had targeted Poland's large Jewish population for extermination, and the couple, who were already supplying food to friends in the Warsaw Ghetto, pledged to help more Jews. And help they did. Ackerman's (A Natural History of the Senses) moving and eloquent narrative reveals how the zookeepers, with the aid of the Polish underground, boldly smuggled some 300 Jews out of the Ghetto and hid them in their villa and the zoo's empty cages. Based on Antonina's own memoirs and newspaper interviews, as well as Ackerman's own research in Poland, the result is an exciting and unforgettable portrait of courage and grace under fire. While some critics might feel she glosses over Polish anti-Semitism, Ackerman has done an invaluable service in bringing a little-known story of heroism and compassion to light."

~Wilda Williams, Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

"Plot twists worthy of The Da Vinci Code dominate this agile first novel from Carrell (The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox), a thriller involving a lost Shakespeare play, The History of Cardenio. On a June day in 2004, at London's rebuilt Globe theater, Rosalind Howard, flamboyantly eccentric Harvard Professor of Shakespeare, gives her friend Katharine Stanley, who's directing a production of Hamlet at the Globe, a small gold-wrapped box. That evening, a fire damages the Globe, where Roz is found murdered in the same manner as Hamlet's father. Roz's mysterious gift, which contains a Victorian mourning brooch decorated with flowers associated with Ophelia, propels Kate on a wild and wide-ranging quest that takes her to Utah; Arizona; Washington, D.C.; and back to London. Every step of the way, as the bodies pile up, Kate narrowly escapes becoming the next murder victim. From Shakespeare conferences to desert mines, from the present to the past, this spirited and action-packed novel delivers constant excitement."

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Run by Ann Patchett

"Expect miracles when you read Ann Patchett's fiction." The New York Times Book Review

"Two families come together in a traffic accident during a snowstorm. Nothing terribly unusual there, except that a woman has purposely thrown herself under a car to protect a stranger. It quickly becomes clear that the families—a poor, single black mother with her 11-year-old daughter and a white, Irish Catholic, former Boston mayor with a biological son and two adopted black college-aged sons whose much-loved wife died over 20 years ago—have a connection. The award-winning Patchett (Bel Canto) here presents an engrossing and enjoyable novel. While there are a few unexpected turns, the reader very quickly figures out where the plot is headed, but that does not detract from the pleasure of reading. The somewhat unusual premise is presented very matter-of-factly; this is not a story about race but about family and the depths of parents' love of their children, whether biological, adopted, given away, or otherwise acquired, and of each other."

~Sarah Conrad Weisman, Corning Community Coll. Lib., NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes In All Fifty States by Pete Jordan


Thank you, Denise, for recommending this book!

"An aimless young adult, Jordan happened upon a compelling mission and became the itinerant and eventually rather famous "Dishwasher Pete." In his droll memoir, he describes busting suds in an Alaskan fish cannery, on an oil rig on the Gulf of Mexico, on an excursion train in Rhode Island, in two Missouri communes, at ski resorts in Vermont and Montana, and at dozens of less picturesque food-service establishments from sea to sea. Long hours, dirty work, low pay, and little respect are recurring themes, but so are invisibility and free leftovers. Best of all, because dishwashers are so difficult to retain, Jordan is consistently in demand and universally hirable even while exhibiting laziness, sullenness, and a penchant for walking off job after job without a minute's notice. While on his quest, Dishwasher Pete befriends countless kindred spirits, publishes 15 issues of a zine devoted to dishing, sort of appears on The David Letterman Show, and researches and celebrates historic events that include labor movements, the invention of dishwashing machines, and the dishing pasts of famous people from Gerald Ford to Malcolm X."

~ Library Journal Review, Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

BLOG ACTION DAY!

What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

"If a virulent virus—or even the Rapture—depopulated Earth overnight, how long before all trace of humankind vanished? That's the provocative, and occasionally puckish, question posed by Weisman (An Echo in My Blood) in this imaginative hybrid of solid science reporting and morbid speculation. Days after our disappearance, pumps keeping Manhattan's subways dry would fail, tunnels would flood, soil under streets would sluice away and the foundations of towering skyscrapers built to last for centuries would start to crumble. At the other end of the chronological spectrum, anything made of bronze might survive in recognizable form for millions of years—along with one billion pounds of degraded but almost indestructible plastics manufactured since the mid-20th century. Meanwhile, land freed from mankind's environmentally poisonous footprint would quickly reconstitute itself, as in Chernobyl, where animal life has returned after 1986's deadly radiation leak, and in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, a refuge since 1953 for the almost-extinct goral mountain goat and Amur leopard. From a patch of primeval forest in Poland to monumental underground villages in Turkey, Weisman's enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow explores what little will remain of ancient times while anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like."

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Peculiar Grace by Jeffrey Lent

"Family-fracturing secrets are at the heart of Lent's luminous third novel, a transcendent story about the healing power of love and art. Two decades after an intense romance curdles, hermetic Hewitt Pearce is living in his family's rural Vermont home, firing up his tractor for the occasional two-mile trip to the village, sometimes hiding in his hay barn, and producing prized custom ironwork when the spirit moves him. Upheaval arrives in the form of Jessica, a psychologically troubled waif with mysterious connections to Hewitt's late artist father. Then Hewitt learns that Emily, the girl he loved years earlier and whose life he has tracked from afar, is now a widow. Evocative flashbacks reveal his family's turbulent history, including Hewitt's days of sex, drugs, and rock and roll on a commune and his dark period of "death-by-whisky drinking" after breaking up with Emily. This sympathetic depiction of a decent man wrestling with his demons while deciding whether to revive an old love or open himself to a new lover is less visceral than Lent's astonishing debut, In the Fall, and less gritty than his second novel, Lost Nation, but it's no less magisterial and every bit as beautifully written."

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms: A Novel by Gail Tsukiyama

"It is Tokyo in 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms, two orphaned brothers are growing up with their loving grandparents, who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows unusual skill at the national obsession of sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating hand-carved masks for actors in the Noh theater." "Across town, a renowned sumo master, Sho Tanaka, lives with his wife and their two young daughters: the delicate, daydreaming Aki and her independent sister, Haru. Life seems full of promise as Kenji begins an informal apprenticeship with the most famous maskmaker in Japan and Hiroshi receives a coveted invitation to train with Tanaka. But then Pearl Harbor changes everything. As the ripples of war spread to both families' quiet neighborhoods, all of the generations must put their dreams on hold - and then find their way in a new Japan."--BOOK JACKET.

Bitch Creek by William E. Tapply


This book comes highly recommended by several Brookfield readers who've gotten hooked on this new series. So we've chosen it as our "Book "Em!" selection for our mystery discussion on Thursday, November 8, 2007 at noon. Books and sign up sheet are at the checkout desk. Join us!


"In this new series by the author of the Brady Coyne series (Shadow of Death), Stoney Calhoun works in Kate Balaban's bait/tackle shop in small-town Maine but has gaps in his memory after five years in an institution. When mutual friend and fishing guide Lyle goes missing, Stoney searches, finding the man's "secret" trout stream and the man himself—suspiciously drowned. Lyle's client, meanwhile, has disappeared. Aided by determination, logic, a psychic vision or two, and Kate's love, Stoney discovers that he was the intended target and that he's really an experienced investigator. Featuring Tapply's trademark prose, a sensational plot, and a well-grounded protagonist, this should appeal to his fans as well as readers who enjoy outdoor mysteries. Tapply lives in Hancock, NH."


~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

(Blog author's note: You'll have to wait in line as I'm currently enjoying this one!)

"Dexter loses his mojo in this third entry in a fantastic series (after Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter). Well, not really his mojo but the "Dark Passenger" that allows Dexter to do what he does—namely, to act as a killer of those who kill. There's nothing particularly grisly about the crime scene to which Dexter is called on a university campus, but something about it scares away Dexter's inner voice. He's then thrown quickly into the unfamiliar role of being the hunted instead of the hunter and must rely on his own resources not only to survive but to find his Dark Passenger again. All of this occurs while Dexter must also deal with humdrum daily bothers like working, planning a wedding, and raising his fiancée's children to be just like him. Lindsay gives Dexter a great voice and provides the reader with several laugh-out-loud scenes. It's easy to cheer for this nicest of serial killers, and the pages will turn quickly. This series is growing in popularity thanks to both the books and the Showtime television series they've spawned."

~Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., Alta. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Trespass by Valerie Martin


"An enrapturing and ruthless storyteller, Valerie Martin possesses a predator's ability to mesmerize her prey." ~ Chicago Tribune


"Chloe Dale's life is in good order. Her only child, Toby, has started his junior year at New York University; her husband, an academic on sabbatical, is working at home on his book about the Crusades; and Chloe is busy creating illustrations for a special edition of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Yet Chloe is disturbed - by the aggression of her government's foreign policy, by the poacher who roams the land behind her studio punctuating her solitude with rifle fire, and finally, by Toby's new girlfriend, a Croatian refugee named Salome Drago." "Raised in the Croatian expatriate community of New Orleans, Salome is a toxic mix of the old world and the new: intelligent, superstitious, sly, seductive, and confident. But Salome's past is a mine of dangerous secrets, and the violence that destroyed her homeland is far from over. Chloe distrusts her on sight, and as Toby's obsession with Salome grows, Chloe's mistrust deepens, alienating her from her tolerant husband and besotted son. Rich with menace, the novel unfolds in a world where darkness intrudes into bright and pleasant places, a world with betrayal at its heart."--BOOK JACKET.

One Perfect Day by Rebecca Mead

"In its nascence in the American lexicon, the term "Bridezilla" has inspired articles, reality television and watercooler tales of brides gone mad. This phenomenon piqued New Yorker staff writer Mead's interest, sending her on a three-year investigation of the current American wedding and the $161-billion industry that spawned it. "Blaming the bride," she writes, "wasn't an adequate explanation for what seemed to be underlying the concept of the Bridezilla: that weddings themselves were out of control." Interviewing wedding industry professionals and attending weddings in Las Vegas, Disney World, Aruba and a wedding town in Tennessee, Mead ventures beyond the tulle curtain to reveal moneymaking ploys designed around our most profound fears as well as our headiest happily-ever-after fantasies. Goods and services providers alter marital traditions—and even invent new ones—to feed their bottom line. Stores vie for bridal registry business in hopes of gaining lifelong customers. Women swoon for what retailers call "the 'Oh, Mommy' moment" in boutique fitting rooms—an unsettling contrast to the Chinese bridal gown factory workers who make them possible, sleeping eight to a room and scraping by on 30 cents an hour. Part investigative journalism, part social commentary, Mead's wry, insightful work offers an illuminating glimpse at the ugly underbelly of our Bridezilla culture."

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clark

"A serious novel that is often very funny and will be a page-turning pleasure for anyone who loves literature." ~Kirkus Reviews

"When Sam Pulsifer's parents separated for three years during his childhood, his mother lied about his father's whereabouts and also told Sam ghost stories about the Emily Dickinson House in his hometown of Amherst, MA. At age 18, he broke into the house one night to verify these stories, got spooked by a noise, dropped a lit cigarette, burned down the house, and unwittingly killed its two occupants. After ten years in a minimum security prison, Sam moved to the nearby suburbs to live an anonymous life, attend college, marry, and raise children. All is well until the son of the couple who died in the fire shows up on his doorstep, and fires begin breaking out at the homes of other New England writers. While trying to unravel the mystery of the fires, Sam uncovers the deceptions that have molded his life. Clarke (Ordinary White Boy) has created a character feebly struggling against fate in a situation both sad and funny, believable and preposterous. It's a setting so bizarre that the clear moral lesson smacks of sarcasm. In the end, however, this quirky story is entertaining and readable."

~ Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Porvidence Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tales of Graceful Aging from the Planet Denial by Nicole Hollander

"For the last quarter century, Hollander's comic strip Sylvia has dared to say publicly what most women only smirk about with their favorite girlfriends. Now Hollander's taking on the ultimate female nightmare—getting old. While men think they still look swell when they're older, aging is hard on women. In a series of hilarious sketches, Hollander takes on everything from late-life sex with vibrators to peculiar herbal remedies for menopausal symptoms, rounding it all off with a most astonishing afterlife fantasy, where she's reborn as Rex Stout. There's practical advice, too. A lot of problems stem from things we think we should be doing, but aren't, like having a fantastic love life. Hollander was 50 when she realized she was holding onto love affairs way past their sell-by date, ruining decades of her life. Now she reminds herself that she's already been married, even if it was 40 years back and only lasted four years. Brimming with bad attitude, Hollander is a real gift to women of a certain age."

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy


"Welsh legends, ghosts, a Cherokee artifact, a valuable portrait—all combine in unexpected but ingenious ways in Shamus-finalist DePoy's fourth Fever Devilin mystery (after 2005's A Minister's Ghost), set in the Georgia Appalachians. In past adventures, the folklorist and failed academic has helped Sheriff Skid Skidmore investigate murders involving strangers, but this time trouble directly involves Fever's family and heritage, which makes it worse for him and better for the reader. A phone call about an unusual silver medallion purchased from someone in the town of Blue Mountain prompts Fever to invite the caller to visit. When the caller ends up dead in Fever's cabin, Fever has no choice but to untangle the twisted origins of the medallion even when it leads deep into his own family's somewhat sordid past. Adept at clever word play, DePoy has a comfortable command of his characters, their land and their history."



~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kilt Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett

"This promising first in a new series from the pseudonymous Dunnett, aka Kathy Lynn Emerson (Face Down Beside St. Anne's Well), introduces spunky Liss MacCrimmon, a 20-something dancer forced into early retirement by a knee injury. Adrift and depressed, Liss returns home to Moosetookalook, Maine, to help her aunt run a small store specializing in Scottish kitsch. Soon after she learns that the Scottish Emporium is in precarious financial shape, she discovers one of her former schoolteachers dead in the shop. Suspicions that Liss did the deed herself only grow when, much to Liss's shock, she turns out to be the woman's sole heir. Meanwhile, her first cousin is telling fibs about his job, neighbors gossip about sparks flying between Liss and her old buddy Dan, and a shady real estate developer may be using underhanded tricks to snap up local properties. Strong local color and a surprise ending will make this a hit with the cozy crowd.

~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Guardians by Ana Castillo


"In her latest work, award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist Castillo (Peal My Love Like an Onion ) explores the gritty, grimy, and ultimately deadly world of the Mexico-U.S. border. Beautiful, middle-aged Regina, a public school aide, is raising her saintly nephew Gabo. Gabo's mother was murdered seven years ago by "coyotes," traffickers in humans and drugs. Now the boy's father, a frequent border crosser, has gone missing. As Regina begins her frantic search, she works with Miguel, a brilliant, charismatic, and disillusioned teacher whose estranged wife has also disappeared. The story of the anguished searches of these courageous, loving people is variously narrated by Regina, Gabriel, Miguel, and Miguel's grandfather. Castillo's voice is as much political as poetic: she writes of corrupt or powerless officials on both sides. That most of the victims are "legal" makes little difference to the tragic finale of this gripping novel."


~Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, OR Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lottery by Patricia Wood


"Perry Crandall has an IQ of 76, but is not retarded, as he'll have you know: his IQ would need to be less than 75 for that, and he knows the difference even if others may not. Perry, the 32-year-old narrator of Wood's warm-fuzzy debut, has worked at the same marine supply store for half his life and lives with his wisecracking grandmother Gram, whose gems of folk wisdom help him along. But when Gram dies, Perry's selfish, money-grubbing family members swoop in and swindle him out of the proceeds from the sale of her house—and then come a-knocking again when Perry wins $12 million in the Washington State Lottery. Suddenly everyone is paying attention to Perry, but who can he trust? Even his friends from the marine supply store behave differently, and on top of everything else, Perry finds himself falling for convenience store clerk Cherry, who has problems of her own. Despite his family's shenanigans and sinister maneuverings, Perry holds his own and discovers abilities he didn't know he had."



~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Led Zeppelin Crashed Here by Chris Epting



"Epting's latest guidebook to pop-culture landmarks (after The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The Locations of America's Pop Culture Artifacts) is dedicated to rock 'n' roll. Divided into themed sections, it covers, e.g., locations of famous performances, blues and jazz spots, and rock 'n' roll museums. Two somewhat macabre sections (whose entries are arranged alphabetically by artist) are dedicated to death and burial sites. This thematic organization is handy, unless you want to track down all the entries on a particular artist, in which case you'd have to look in every section. Even artists with entire chapters dedicated to them, like Elvis and the Beatles, have stray entries in the book's other parts. Organization aside, the entries are engaging and diverse. Epting manages to pay tribute to the major players without marginalizing the minor ones, choosing moments in musical history that cover a broad range of styles and generations."

-- John Helling, Aguilar Branch, NYPL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Hatred for Tulips by Richard Lourie


"Dark and fascinating.... Lourie's prose is spare and evocative, the plot compelling." - The Wall Street Journal


"According to Lourie's fictional account, the informant who turned Anne Frank and her family in to the Nazis was a mere adolescent, motivated more by a desire to feed his dying father, who was subsisting on tulip bulbs, than by an obsessive hatred for Jews or by an unalloyed greed. When the brother he hasn't seen for 60 years visits from America, self-pitying Joop confesses his terrible boyhood secret, which he claims prevented him from marrying, cultivating friendships or leading a normal life, and relives the war years. Events include Joop's brief play at sabotage (discovered by a Dutch Nazi uncle and reported to Joop's father, who savagely beats him); Joop surviving diphtheria (he's blamed when a similarly infected sibling dies); and Joop's parents' unhappy marriage and casual anti-Semitism, which cast shadows over his ordinary activities. Lourie's rendering of Anne Frank's fictional betrayer as a callous, misguided youth is stark and deftly written."


~Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Left for Dead: The Untold Story of the Greatest Disaster in Modern Sailing History by Nick Ward and Sinead O'Brien



"In this gripping account, Ward finally breaks his multiyear silence and shares his story of what happened to him on his boat Grimalkin during the storms that beset England's Fastnet sailing race in 1979. The race started off in near-perfect conditions on August 11 for the 303 yachts participating. The yachts left Cowes, England, to round Fastnet Rock off Ireland's southwest coast and sail back to Plymouth. Two days later, a storm of near-hurricane force left 15 dead, caused 24 crews to abandon ship, sank five yachts, and required the rescue of 136 sailors in the largest peacetime sea-and-air operation ever. Ward was on the 30-foot Grimalkin with five other men. After being repeatedly battered by blow-downs (waves that knock over a boat 90 to 180 degrees), most of the crew decided to abandon ship—a controversial decision because Ward and another sailor, Gerry Winks, were left on the Grimalkin, presumed dead. Both, in fact, were alive. Ward survived another 14 hours, resuscitating Winks (who eventually died) before being rescued."



~ Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Libs., IN Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

"A comic caper and a raucous romance....laugh-out-loud funny....a fun ride." - Kirkus Reviews

"Crusie and Mayer (Don't Look Down) reunite to pen this mostly successful romantic comedy with a hint of action-adventure. Agnes Crandall is a feisty food writer and cookbook author on her third fiancé, Taylor Beaufort. Though their future looks bright, their romance is curdling, partly due to their deal with widowed mob wife Brenda Fortunato (who is selling them her old house) to hold a Fortunato family wedding at their house in exchange for three months of payments. After an armed thug tries to kidnap Agnes's dog, who appeared in the local paper wearing a gaudy necklace that Agnes believes (incorrectly) to be junk, a Fortunato family friend (and mobster) asks hit man Shane to keep an eye on Agnes. (He does more, of course, than keep an eye on her.) Brenda, meanwhile, may be trying to screw Agnes out of the house, and then there's the matter of a body and $5 million possibly hidden in thebasement. Crusie and Mayer have crafted a bubbly novel with enough convenient coincidences, caricatured characters and ridiculous situations to make screenwriters of goofball date movies proud; amusing banter and surprising moments of poignancy keep the mushrooming plot barely in check."

~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline

"Thirty-three-year-old New Yorker Angela Russo, dissatisfied with a career that amounts to gliding across a smooth plateau of predictability and fed up with abysmal blind dates, responds to an online personal ad written by Rich, a sailing instructor from Mount Desert Island, Maine. Angela begins to fall in love with the idea of Maine life just as much as she finds herself falling for Rich, and when her career suddenly goes up in flames, she moves to Mount Desert Island. Once she arrives, however, she learns that her vision of perfect New England life—and her perfect New England man—is far removed from reality. Rather than return to New York, Angela rents a rundown cottage and begins teaching an impromptu cooking class (based on recipes from her Italian grandmother). She befriends an eclectic handful of locals and carves out a new identity for herself. Initially, this tale of a lovelorn city girl out of her element feels like another foray into well-covered territory. But Kline (Desire Lines; Sweet Water) has a perfect sense of character and timing, and her vivid digressions on food (recipes are included) add sugar and spice to what could have been a stale premise."

~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Gatecrasher by Madeline Wickham

"Everything's corning up roses for Fleur Daxeny as she goes through more rich men than she does designer hats. Fleur is beautiful, charming, and utterly irresistible, and her success at crashing funerals to find wealthy men is remarkable." "Fleur wastes no time in seducing her latest conquest, the handsome and rich widower Richard Favour, and she swoops into his life like a designer-clad tornado. His children are caught up in a whirlwind as their father's new girlfriend descends on the family estate, leaving chaos and excitement in her perfume-scented wake. Soon, more than one family member is suspicious of Fleur's true intentions." "Fleur is not one to wear her heart on her Chanel sleeve, but she soon finds herself embracing Richard and his lovable family. But just as Fleur contemplates jumping off the gold-digger train for good and enjoying the ride of true love, a long-buried secret from her past threatens to destroy her new family. Can she trust her heart or will she cut ties and run away as fast as her Prada pumps can take her?"--BOOK JACKET.

Red Mutiny: Eleven Fateful Days on the Battleship Potemkin by Neal Bascomb

"The protagonist of New York Times best-selling author Bascomb's (The Perfect Mile) account of the 1905 mutiny that inspired the Russian Revolution did not seem to have revolutionary tendencies before being drafted into the Russian navy in 1900. Yet Afanasy Matyushenko learned early as a member of the peasantry to resent being treated as ignorant chattel. A weapons machinist in the Black Sea Fleet aboard the tsars' newest battleship, the Potemkin, he was treated poorly and forced to work under dangerous conditions. With the help of several comrades, he engineered the takeover of the Potemkin, which ended up crisscrossing the Black Sea for 11 days with the tsar's navy in pursuit. Eventually, the mutinous crew surrendered. Given asylum, Matyushenko traveled abroad but was in the end hanged in his homeland. His legacy, according to Bascomb, was his having been a major force in ending the war with Japan and weakening Tsar Nicholas II's hold on his empire."

~ Harry Willems, Park City P.L., KS Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Talk to a Widower: A Novel by Jonathan Tropper

"I had a wife. Her name was Hailey. Now she's gone. And so am I." That's the mantra of 29-year-old Doug Parker in this latest from Tropper (Everything Changes). Doug spends endless days immersed in drinking and generally doing nothing. Oh, that's not quite true. He sits on the front steps of the home he shared with Hailey and throws rocks at the rabbits that march across his lawn. He also writes a column called "How To Talk to a Widower" for M magazine. Who wouldn't feel sorry for Doug? But pity, he's learned, "is like a fart. You can tolerate your own, but you simply can't stand anyone else's." Women, like meatloaf-toting neighbor Laney Potter, want to heal him; his family, especially discontented twin Claire, want him to snap out of it; and Hailey's 16-year-old son wants Doug to become his legal guardian. Tropper has the twentysomething guy thing down to a science. His prose is funny and insightful, his characters quirky and just a bit off-balance but decent enough to take to our hearts. Ultimately, a series of perhaps unexpected events (including meeting Russ's very cool young guidance counselor) just might bring Doug back to the land of the living."

~Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

"In 1904, architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house for Edwin and Mamah Borthwick Cheney, respectable members of Oak Park, IL, society. Five years later, after a clandestine affair, Frank and Mamah scandalized that society by leaving their families to live together in Europe. Stunned by the furor, Mamah wanted to stay there, particularly after she met women's rights advocate Ellen Key, who rejected conventional ideas of marriage and divorce. Eventually, Frank convinced her to return to Wisconsin, where he was building Taliesin as a home and retreat. Horan's extensive research provides substantial underpinnings for this engrossing novel, and the focus on Mamah lets readers see her attraction to the creative, flamboyant architect but also her recognition of his arrogance. Mamah's own drive to achieve something important is tinged with guilt over abandoning her children. Tentative steps toward reconciliation end in a shocking, violent conclusion that would seem melodramatic if it weren't based on true events. The plot, characters, and ideas meld into a novel that will be a treat for fans of historical fiction but should not be pigeonholed in a genre section."

~Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

This may be a young adult book, but there are a lot of us older readers seriously hooked on this vampire/love story series that began with Twilight and was followed by New Moon. The third book in the series, Eclipse, has just been released.

"Readers captivated by Twilight and New Moon will eagerly devour Eclipse, the much anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga.

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob -- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?"

~ from the Publisher

Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison

"Arriving just in time for beach-read season, the effervescent hardcover fiction debut of cookbook author and romance novelist Harbison features four D.C.-area women who meet weekly to swap and chat about... shoes. Trying to get a handle on her massive consumer debt, Lorna Rafferty posts an Internet ad looking to trade footwear with women who have good taste and wear size seven-and-a-half. A senator's trophy wife, Helene Zaharis, is dreaming of escaping her loveless marriage when she stumbles upon Lorna's post. Overweight phone sex operator Sandra Vanderslice struggles to overcome her agoraphobia long enough to attend the shoe meetings. After a few funny missteps, the threesome finds a fourth member, Joss Bowen, the nanny of a shrewish socialite's hellion boys. Joss couldn't care less about shoes, but uses the group as a reason to get out of the house. Harbison does a fine job of showcasing how each woman is trapped—Lorna by her debt, Helene by her marriage, Sandra by her self-image, Joss by her employment contract—and how the fresh eyes of the group allow them to see themselves in a new light. Harbison creates vivid, convincing characters and handles them well. Reading this novel is like eating a slice of cake."

~ Publisher's Weekly. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Restitution by Lee Vance

"The plot setup of this debut thriller may sound familiar, if not trite: husband and wife in troubled marriage; wife found murdered; police focus on husband as prime suspect; husband must find wife's killer and clear his name. Fortunately, Vance does more than just embroider this theme. After the authorities accuse Peter Tyler, a kingpin at the Wall Street financial firm of Klein and Klein, of his wife's murder, Peter gets entangled in money scams, stolen art, a pharmaceutical giant and a brilliant, ruthless and byzantine act of vengeance. Peter's best friend, Russian business tycoon Andrei Zhilina, may hold the key, but not even Andrei's twin sister, Katya, has been able to contact Andrei in his Moscow office. Peter embarks on a strongly cinematic quest, which takes him from plush Manhattan offices and the Harvard Club to deserted warehouses and meetings with Moscow toughs. Vance's ambitious story line hangs together remarkably well, providing depth and surprises to what otherwise might have been just another fugitive action tale."


~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short Change by Patricia Smiley

"At the start of Smiley's diverting third Tucker Sinclair mystery (after 2005's Cover Your Assets), the self-employed Los Angeles business consultant is sorting out the financial problems of her friend PI Charley Tate when distraught and disheveled Eve Lawson walks into Tate's office with complaints of being followed. When Lawson disappears, her boyfriend is killed and Tate is run off the road, Tucker turns detective. She retraces Lawson's erratic recent history, interviewing family members and former boyfriends, but something doesn't add up. At the center of the mystery is a small piece of property, owned by Lawson, that stands in the way of a major luxury development. That the murder occurred in the jurisdiction of LAPD detective Joe Deegan, Tucker's boyfriend, creates a conflict of interest. Meanwhile, Tucker is fighting her aunt for ownership of the cozy beach house she inherited from her grandmother. Satisfied fans will enjoy the forays and foibles of this charming heroine."

~ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber


"When a series of seemingly innocent crib deaths come to the attention of fingerprint expert Lena Dawson, she somehow knows that these aren't the standard SIDS cases. The thought of a serial infant murderer is horrifying, yet Lena can't decide if she's just being oversensitive or if the evidence truly points to someone killing babies. Lena's own puzzling past may be influencing her interest in the case; she was adopted as a small child under mysterious circumstances, and the similarities between the babies' deaths and her own childhood begin to haunt her. Could they somehow be connected? Abu-Jaber (Crescent) has created a literary mystery that weaves an intriguing psychological character study with a tense and compelling plot that results in a rewarding finish. Lena is a flawed but appealing protagonist; let's hope she surfaces in sequels. "


~ Kellie Gillespie, City of Mesa Lib., AZ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Kinfolks: Falling off the Family Tree by Lisa Alther


"Most of us grow up thinking we know who are and where we come from. Lisa Alther's mother hailed from New York, her father from Virginia, and every day they reenacted the Civil War at home in East Tennessee. Then one night a grizzled babysitter with brown teeth told Lisa about the Melungeons: six-fingered child-snatchers who hid in cliff caves outside town. Forgetting about these creepy kidnappers until she had a daughter of her own, Lisa learned that the Melungeons were actually a group of dark-skinned people - some with extra thumbs - living in isolated pockets in the South. But who were they? Where did they come from? Were they the descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, or of shipwrecked Portuguese or Turkish sailors? Or were they the children of European frontiersmen, African slaves, and Native Americans? Theories abounded, but no one seemed to know for sure." "Learning that a cousin had had his extra thumbs removed, Lisa set out to discover who these mysterious Melungeons really were and why her grandmother wouldn't let her visit their Virginia relatives. Were there Melungeons in the family tree? Lisa assembled a hoard of clues over the years, but DNA testing finally offered answers."


--BOOK JACKET