STONES INTO SCHOOLS, BY GREG MORTENSON
From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian’s efforts to promote peace through education
In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding Afghan warlords and surviving an eight-day armed abduction by the Taliban. He shares for the first time his broader vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women-all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this remarkable two-decade humanitarian effort.
Since the 2006 publication of Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson has traveled across the U.S. and the world to share his vision with hundreds of thousands of people. He has met with heads of state, top military officials, and leading politicians who all seek his advice and insight. The continued phenomenal success of Three Cups of Tea proves that there is an eager and committed audience for Mortenson’s work and message.
Greg Mortenson is the recipient of Pakistan’s highest civil award (The Star of Pakistan) for his sixteen years work to promote education and peace. The cofounder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies For Peace, he lives in Montana with his family.
THE LACUNA, BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER
Harrison William Shepherd, a highly observant writer, is caught between two worlds–in Mexico, working for communists Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, and later in America, where he his caught up in the patriotism of World War II–in a gripping story about identity and the power of words by the best-selling author of The Poisonwood Bible.
IMPACT, BY DOUGLAS PRESTON
Wyman Ford, hero of Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy, returns in Preston’s latest thriller, where the stakes involve not only the salvation of the world but also the solar system. A young woman in Maine sees a meteorite streak through the sky and decides to find the crater. A scientist working on Mars data finds something so startling that he is murdered to keep the information secret. And Ford heads to Cambodia to investigate the source of a new gemstone on the market that has radioactive properties. When he arrives, he realizes that the mine is an exit hole. How can a meteorite travel through the earth? VERDICT Preston has done it again. The thriller elements mix well with the science aspects of the story, and the author makes even the hard-to-grasp concepts easy to understand. Most readers will consume this in one sitting; not to be missed. LJ Review
HALF BROKE HORSES, BY JEANNETTE WALLS
The author offers a novel based on the life of her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, who learned to break horses in childhood, journeyed 500 miles on a pony as a teen to become a teacher, and ran a vast ranch in Arizona with her husband while raising two children, including Rosemary Smith Walls, portrayed in the author’s acclaimed The Glass Castle.
COMMITTED, BY ELIZABETH GILBERT
The author of the best-selling Eat, Pray, Love chronicles how the U.S. government gave her and her Brazilian-born lover, Felipe, an ultimatum–marry or Felipe cannot enter the country again–and how she tackled her fears of marriage by trying to discover through historical research, interviews and personal reflection what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.
REMARKABLE CREATURES, BY TRACY CHEVALIER
Marked for greatness after being struck by lightning in infancy, Mary Anning discovers a fossilized skeleton near her 19th-century home that triggers attacks on her character and upheavals throughout the religious, scientific and academic communities. By the best-selling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.
A voyage of discoveries, a meeting of two remarkable women, and extraordinary time and place enrich bestselling author Tracy Chevalier’s enthralling new novel.
THE UNNAMED, BY JOSHUA FERRIS
In Ferris’s remarkable second novel (after Then We Came to the End), a life of privilege comes to ruin as a result of a strange and mysterious illness. Attorney Tim Farnsworth thought he had recovered from a disorder that compels him to walk to the point of exhaustion. But now his walking disease has returned and shows no sign of going into remission. His wife, Jane, supportive beyond measure, does everything she can to keep Tim safe during his walks, including making routine midnight trips to pick him up. As the disorder takes increasing control over their lives, however, the sacrifices they make for each other drive them further apart. Ferris manages to inject a bizarre whimsy into a devastatingly sad story, with each of Tim’s outings revealing a new aspect of his marriage. The novel’s circular aspects, with would-be happy endings spiraling back into chaos and then descending further, integrate Ferris’s themes of family, sickness, and the uncertain division between body and mind into a vastly satisfying and original book. PW Review
THEN CAME THE EVENING, BY BRIAN HART
Eighteen years after being sent to prison for a violent crime, Vietnam veteran Bandy Dorner is finally released and is soon visited by the wife who cheated on him and his teenage son, prompting the three of them to explore whether they belong together as a family.
A riveting, psychologically rich family drama set in the American West, from a writer who has been compared to Cormac McCarthy.
A FAIR MAIDEN, BY JOYCE CAROL OATES
Sixteen-year-old Katya Spivak is out for a walk on the gracious streets of Bayhead Harbor with her two summer babysitting charges when she’s approached by silver-haired, elegant Marcus Kidder. At first his interest in her seems harmless, even pleasant; like his name, a sort of gentle joke. His beautiful home, the children’s books he’s written, his classical music, the marvelous art in his study, his lavish presents to her — Mr. Kidder’s life couldn’t be more different from Katya’s drab working-class existence back home in South Jersey, or more enticing. But by degrees, almost imperceptibly, something changes, and posing for Mr. Kidder’s new painting isn’t the lighthearted endeavor it once was. What does he really want from her? And how far will he go to get it?
In the tradition of Oates’s classic story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” A Fair Maiden is an unsettling, ambiguous tale of desire and control.
NOAH’S COMPASS, BY ANNE TYLER
Preparing to retire early from an unfulfilling teaching job that supplanted his dream of becoming a philosopher, Liam Pennywell struggles to remember missing memories of the night before he awoke in the hospital with a head injury, an effort that leads to unexpected discoveries. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons.
From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.
THE PRODIGAL WIFE, BY MARCIA WILLETT
Having achieved success as a television presenter of gardening programs, Jolyon is visited by the recently widowed mother who abandoned him, Maria, but he finds it difficult to trust her and forgive the hurt she inflicted.
Deservedly compared to her countrywomen, Binchy and Pilcher, Willett is an equally gifted storyteller.
DEATH BY THE BOOK, BY LENNY BARTULIN
After crabby businessman Hammond Kasprowicz hires secondhand bookstore owner Jack Susko to find as many copies of an obscure poet’s works as possible, Jack is happy to make some extra cash, but is baffled when Hammond burns every copy he finds–and soon, other things begin to disappear.
THE RED DOOR, BY CHARLES TODD
Investigating the death of a Lancaster woman in the summer of 1920, Scotland Yard Detective Ian Rutledge links her demise to the disappearance of a man who was wrongly believed to have gone to serve in World War I, a case that is challenged by internal dogma. By the best-selling author of A Matter of Justice.
THE SWAN THIEVES, BY ELIZABETH KOSTOVA
His ordered life thrown into disarray when he begins treating an unstable genius artist who has recently attacked a canvas at the National Gallery of Art, psychiatrist and art hobbyist Andrew Marlowe struggles to understand the secret that torments the artist and discovers a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, BY ELIZABETH NOBLE
The tenants in a New York City co-op learn about friendship and the meaning of home through a multigenerational relationship, an extramarital infatuation, a love triangle and a lonely dream about belonging. By the author of The Reading Group.
ALICE I HAVE BEEN, BY MELANIE BENJAMIN
Octogenarian Alice, who as a child inspired Lewis Carroll’s famous Wonderland character, looks back on a life marked by an implacable mother, her halcyon days in Oxford, and the sons who went off to war.
Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.
THE GIRL WITH GLASS FEET, BY ALI SHAW
After a visit to a remote, snowbound archipelago where unusual winged creatures flit about, Ida Maclaird begins to turn into glass, and she must get help from Midas Crook, a young loner and native to the islands, if she is to stop the transformation.
An inventive and richly visual novel about young lovers on a quest to find a cure for a magical ailment, perfect for readers of Alice Hoffman.
AN IRISH COUNTRY GIRL, BY PATRICK TAYLOR
The author of An Irish Country Doctor offers a story of the early life of his beloved character Kinky Kincaid, who was once known as Maureen O’Hanlon, a farmer’s daughter growing up in the hills and glens of 1920s County Cork, Ireland, who had a gift for seeing fairies, spirits and the dreaded Banshee.
SUMMERTIME, BY J.M. COETZEE
Researching a late South African writer, a young English biographer interviews five people whose accounts describe a reserved and bookish young man who had trouble making connections. By the Nobel Prize-winning author of Waiting for the Barbarians.
Shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize
A brilliant new work of fiction from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace and Diary of a Bad Year
THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY, BY MARIAN KEYES
Marian Keyes’s inimitable blend of rollicking humor, effervescent prose, and stories that deal with real-life issues have captivated readers around the globe. She is one of the bestselling authors of women’s fiction in the English-speaking world. Her new novel will delight fans of Candace Bushnell’s darkly comic sensibility and Sophie Kinsella’s fast-paced action. The Brightest Star in the Sky follows seven neighbors whose lives become entangled when a sassy and prescient spirit pays a visit to their Dublin townhouse with the intent of changing at least one of their lives.
AFTER YOU’VE GONE, BY JEFFREY LENT
A widower, suddenly bereft, finds an unexpected future when he goes to Amsterdam looking for his past in Lent’s intricate and rewarding fourth novel. Henry Dorn is an upright college professor whose relatively tranquil existence is upended when his wife and son are killed in a car accident in the 1920s. As the novel follows Henry in flashbacks to before and after the crash, we get a closeup view of the loss of innocence of a person and a world. Henry’s relationship with his son, a morphine-addicted WWI veteran, had grown deeply fraught, while glimpses of Henry’s childhood in Nova Scotia reveal a hardscrabble fishing family torn apart. After the accident, Henry travels to Amsterdam to research his family history, and an unexpected affair kicks off a period of indulgence on a continent whose need for postwar recovery matches his own psychic wounds. At times, the dialogue can feel wooden, but the narrative’s course back and forth through time and across the Atlantic creates an aura of mystery and tension that’s amplified by Lent’s vivid depiction of the era. It’s a nice contrast to the aimless youngsters often associated with the lost generation canon.
THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD, BY MATT BONDURANT
Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. Forrest, the eldest brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; Howard, the middle brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father’s business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought.
THROUGH THE HEART, BY KATE MORGENROTH
From the bestselling author of They Did It with Love, a chance meeting ignites romance and results in murder
Nora and Timothy have lives that are worlds apart. Nora lives in a small Kansas town, living paycheck to paycheck, working in a coffee shop. Timothy lives in Manhattan, responsible to no one and nothing except managing his family’s millions. When these two meet, it seems like the beginning of a fairy tale. Except Nora is not your typical damsel in distress, Timothy does not quite fit the role of a gallant prince, and fairy tales don’t include a dead body.
As Nora and Timothy take turns telling their sides of the story, the reader is caught in the net of their love, and the chilling murder that results. With big questions of love, fidelity, filial responsibility and the role of fate, Through the Heart is a page-turning love story with a jaw dropping twist readers won’t soon forget.
EATING ANIMALS, BY JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
The award-winning author of Everything Is Illuminated exposes common misconceptions about how animals are slaughtered and processed for food, drawing on sources from popular culture to national tradition to reveal how the meat industry misrepresents its practices.
THE FULL PLATE DIET, BY STUART SEALE M.D.
A diet book supported by research and augmented by full-color photos centers its approach around such high-fiber foods as vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
ANGEL OF DEATH ROW, BY ANDREA D. LYON
Dubbed the “Angel of Death Row” by the Chicago Tribune, Lyon was the first woman to serve as lead attorney in a death penalty case. Throughout her career, she has defended those accused of heinous acts and argued that, no matter their guilt or innocence, they deserved a change at redemption.
Now, for the first time, Lyon shares her story, from her early work as a Legal Aid attorney to her founding of the Center for Justice in Capital Cases. Full of courtroom drama, tragedy, and redemption, Angel of Death Row is a remarkable inside look at what drives Lyon to defend those who seem indefensible—and to win.
HOW TO SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE, BY MICHAEL GATES GILL
The brain tumor survivor and author of How Starbucks Saved My Life shares lessons for surviving unanticipated life challenges, from taking leaps of faith and overcoming pride to treating others with respect and minimizing one’s reliance on technology.
YOU ON A DIET, BY MICHAEL ROIZEN M.D.
The former health expert for The Oprah Winfrey Show and star of The Dr. Oz Show joins his coauthor to present a revised edition of their popular diet book, updated with discussions of the latest fads and new tips and tricks for getting fit and healthy–and staying that way.
