FICTION |
The Black Country by Alex Grecian. Inspector
Walter Day from
Scotland Yard investigates
the disappearance
of three
members of a family
from a remote village
in the Midlands, home to many
superstitions, including tales about a
creature prowling the woods. Grecian
is a master at creating a palpable atmosphere
of suspense. ~ Alden Graves |
Americanah by
Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie. From
the author of the
critically acclaimed
Half a Yellow Sun, a
new, seductive very
different story of Ifemalu,
a young woman who moves
to the US for new opportunities; despite
some success she returns to her
true home in Lagos. Lush, sprawling,
modern, intelligent. ~ Liz Barnum |
Southern Cross the
Dog by Bill Cheng. Part homage
to bluesmen like
Robert Johnson and
Muddy Waters, reminiscent
of Flannery
O'Connor and Faulkner,
this debut is set against the great
flood of 1927 in Jim Crow-era Mississippi
and is an odyssey you won't
be able to put down. ~ Amy Palmer |
We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo. Darling,
a young girl growing
up in Zimbabwe,
eventually finds
herself in America,
struggling to get
comfortable in a new country. The
story is intense, the writing musical,
beautiful and simply wouldn't
let me go. A wonderful debut book;
I'm looking forward to more from
Bulawayo! ~ Liz Barnum |
Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith. A
gentle exploration
of love, through a
series of intertwined
romantic stories
exchanged by four
strangers traveling by rail between
Edinburgh and London. With compassion
and tenderness for the human
condition, McCall Smith is unwavering
in his belief in the goodness
of the human heart. ~ Amy Palmer |
All the Dead Yale
Men by Craig Nova. The sequel to
Nova's outstanding
The Good Son follows
the next generations
of Mackinnons into
the present. Nova
writes with sensitivity, humor and
subtlety as he delves into the complex
family ties that divide and unite.
Powerful, evocative of emotions and
place. ~ Louise Jones |
Sight Reading by
Daphne Kalotay. With an
eye for exquisite detail
and a supreme
sensitivity about the
musical mind, the
author of Russian
Winter creates a
compelling story around the talent,
creativity, family relationships and
general complexities of life affecting
members of the Boston art and
music community. ~ Karen Frank |
Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller.
A complex yet simple
story, suspenseful
but more intricate
than a genre
thriller, this original
debut follows an
elderly American living in Norway
as he tries to save a youngster from
his vicious father, who they both
saw murder his mother. Beautifully
written, thoughtful, tense, evocative.
~ Louise Jones |
The Morels by
Christopher Hacker. It's often
unclear whether this
debut novel is a
challenging examination
of the social
limits of creative expression
or a profile of the unusual
and ultimately troubling life of writer
Arthur Morel. The fact that it turns
out to be both is most impressive.
~ Jonathan Fine |
The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan. Do NOT
let the cover fool you! It's full of engaging characters who
weave one of the more unique stories I've read in a while: I
walked around one-handed for two days because I couldn't
put it down. Very highly recommended! ~ Jess Krawczyk
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. In a land in which a
flu epidemic has wiped out all but a few, Hig, his dog and his partner in survival,
Bangley, stake out an existence at a small airport near Denver. This amazing debut
is a post-apocalyptic novel that brims with hope. ~ Stan Hynds
|
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~ Jess Krawczyk |
 |
Gulp: Adventures
on the Alimentary
Canal by Mary
Roach.
A glorious romp
through the historic
and current
science of the digestive
tract. Roach
rivals Sedaris in her wit and humor,
informing you of things you didn't
know you wanted to know (you
do), while not leaving you (terribly)
disgusted. ~ Krysta Piccoli |
Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh,
and America's Fight Over
World War II, 1939-1941 by
Lynne Olson. Few histories of
the American "war before the war"
capture the passion, ferocity and
no-holds barred nature of the whitehot
debate between interventionists
vs. isolationists prior to December
1941. Olson does it in page-turning
style reminiscent of her remarkable
best seller Citizens of London.
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold
Story of the Women Who
Helped Win World War II by Denise
Kiernan. For tens of thousands
of women who came to a brand
new, utterly secret war production
plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the
experience was unlike anything they
could have imagined – because nothing
like it had ever been done before.
Rosie the Riveter to the nth degree!
Unputdownable.
The Guns at Last Light: The War
in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by
Rick Atkinson. The final volume
of Atkinson's magisterial history
of America's role in the liberation of
Western Europe is a triumph, primarily
because it never forgets that
this colossal undertaking was the
sum of countless individual experiences.
Military history at its best.
|
AUTHOR EVENTS June 14
To Eat:
A Country Life by Joe Eck and
Wayne Winterrowd. This
final celebration
of food and gardening
(Winterrowd
died in 2010 before the book
was completed) is a lovely and
moving tribute to companionable
lives well-lived by the partners who
founded the garden design firm
North Hill in southern Vermont and
created the spectacular gardens there.
~ Louise Jones |
Let's Explore Diabetes
with Owls by David Sedaris. Whether going
to his "happy
place" during a
colonoscopy, contemplating
a severed
forearm at his
neighborhood taxidermist's, sharing
drugs with a stranger in a men's room
or obsessively collecting rubbish
along the roadsides of rural England,
Sedaris continues to delight with his
witty commentary on life's absurdities.
~ Amy Palmer |
July 13
Bunker Hill: A City,
A Siege, a Revolution by
Nathaniel Philbrick. A riveting
examination of one
of the most decisive
events in American history. An intimate
look at pivotal figures and reverberant
events that led up to the
bloody confrontation on what was
actually Breed's Hill outside of Boston,
after the skirmishes at Lexington
and Concord. ~ Alden Graves |
Yes is the Answer:
(And Other Prog-
Rock Tales) edited by Marc
Weingarten.
Most people would
rather shoot themselves
than listen to
Tarkus. This book
could change all that. Funny, touching,
enlightening essays on that whitest
of music – prog rock. A trip to
a topographic ocean worth taking.
~ Charles Bottomley |
 |
The Complete Don
Quixote by Rob
Davis and Miguel de
Cervantes.
Beautifully drawn
and always hilarious,
this comic adaptation
of the Man
of La Mancha's misadventures
remains true to the anarchic
spirit of Cervantes' novel. A treat for
fans and a great intro for young readers.
~ Charles Bottomley |
Father's Day: A
Journey into the
Mind and Heart
of My Extraordinary
Son by Buzz
Bissinger.
Bissinger portrays
himself with brutal
honesty as he
plays second fiddle to his mentally challenged,
uncannily savant 24 year
old son. A father/son cross-country
road trip at times painful to read, but
ultimately a beautiful work of art.
~ Stan Hynds |