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Staff Picks
Anne's Pick The Rest of Her Life
by Laura Moriarty
$14.95
In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty
delivers a luminous, compassionate, and
provocative look at how mothers and
daughters with the best intentions can be
blind to the harm they do to one
another.Leigh is the mother of high-
achieving, popular high school senior Kara.
Their relationship is already strained for
reasons Leigh does not fully understand
when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara
makes a mistake that ends in tragedy -- the
effects of which not only divide Leigh's
family, but polarize the entire community.
We see the story from Leigh's perspective,
as she grapples with the hard reality of
what her daughter has done and the
devastating consequences her actions have
on the family of another teenage girl in
town, all while struggling to protect Kara
in the face of rising public outcry.Like
the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi
Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty's
The Rest of Her Life is a novel of
complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced
characters and a page-turning plot that
makes readers ask themselves, "What would I
do?"
Elena's Pick North River
by Pete Hamill
$14.99
One snowy New Year's Day, in the midst of
the Great Depression, Dr. James Delaney--
haunted by the slaughters of the Great War,
and abandoned by his wife and daughter--
returns home to find his three-year-old
grandson on his doorstep, left by his
mother in Delaney's care. Coping with this
unexpected arrival, Delaney hires Rose, a
tough, decent Sicilian woman with a secret
in her past. Slowly, as Rose and the boy
begin to care for the good doctor, the
numbness in Delaney begins to melt.
Recreating 1930s New York with the vibrancy
and rich detail that are his trademarks,
Pete Hamill weaves a story of honor,
family, and one man's simple courage that
no reader will soon forget.
Laura's Pick Garden Spells
by Sarah Addison Allen
$12.99
In a garden surrounded by a tall fence,
tucked away behind a small, quiet house in
an even smaller town, is an apple tree that
is rumored to bear a very special sort of
fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah
Addison Allen tells the story of that
enchanted tree, and the extraordinary
people who tend it.…
The Waverleys have always been a curious
family, endowed with peculiar gifts that
make them outsiders even in their hometown
of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their
garden has a reputation, famous for its
feisty apple tree that bears prophetic
fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with
special powers. Generations of Waverleys
tended this garden. Their history was in
the soil. But so were their futures.
A successful caterer, Claire Waverley
prepares dishes made with her mystical
plants—from the nasturtiums that aid in
keeping secrets and the pansies that make
children thoughtful, to the snapdragons
intended to discourage the attentions of
her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her
elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for
distributing unexpected gifts whose uses
become uncannily clear. They are the last
of the Waverleys—except for Claire’s
rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom
the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as
their own mother had years before.
When Sydney suddenly returns home with a
young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet
life is turned upside down—along with the
protective boundary she has so carefully
constructed around her heart. Together
again in the house they grew up in, Sydney
takes stock of all she left behind, as
Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the
past. And soon the sisters realize they
must deal with their common legacy—if they
are ever to feel at home in Bascom—or with
each other.
Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating
novel is sure to cast a spell with a style
all its own….
Mary Jane's Pick Killer Weekend
by Ridley Pearson
$9.99
The New York Times Bestseller that
will leave its readers breathless.
Controversial New York State Attorney
General Liz Shaler is announcing her
candidacy for president at a high-profile
convergence of media heavy-hitters. Also in
attendance is an assassin with a brilliant
and foolproof plan.
Grace's Pick Austenland
by Shannon Hale
$12.99
A big success in hardcover, this novel by
New York Times bestselling author of
Princess Academy is sure to find a
new and substantial audience in paperback.
Jane is a young New York woman who can
never seem to find the right man—perhaps
because of her secret obsession with Mr.
Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC
adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a
trip to an English resort catering to
Austen-obsessed women, however, Jane’s
fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-
era gentleman suddenly become more real
than she ever could have imagined. Is this
total immersion in a fake Austenland enough
to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for
good, or could all her dreams actually
culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
Annie's Pick The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
by Daniel Mendelsohn
$15.95
In this rich and riveting narrative, a
writer's search for the truth behind his
family's tragic past in World War II
becomes a remarkably original epic—part
memoir, part reportage, part mystery, and
part scholarly detective work—that
brilliantly explores the nature of time and
memory, family and history.
Julie's Pick Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
$14.00
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious
conundrums of American history and culture
with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense
of humor. With Assassination
Vacation, she takes us on a road trip
like no other -- a journey to the pit stops
of American political murder and through
the myriad ways they have been used for fun
and profit, for political and cultural
advantage.
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the
Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations
immortalized and influenced by the spilling
of politically important blood, reporting
as she goes with her trademark blend of
wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and
thought-provoking criticism. We learn about
the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln
(present at the assassinations of
Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley)
and witness the politicking that went into
the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The
resulting narrative is much more than an
entertaining and informative travelogue --
it is the disturbing and fascinating story
of how American death has been manipulated
by popular culture, including literature,
architecture, sculpture, and -- the
author's favorite -- historical tourism.
Though the themes of loss and violence are
explored and we make detours to see how the
Republican Party became the Republican
Party, there are all kinds of lighter
diversions along the way into the lives of
the three presidents and their assassins,
including mummies, show tunes, mean-
spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth-
century biblical sex cult.
Allison's Pick The Long Walk Home
by Will North
$13.95
The Long Walk Home is a story about
grief and hope, about love and loss, and
about two people struggling with the
agonizing complexities of fidelity–to a
spouse, to a moral code, to each other, and
to a passion neither thought would ever
appear again. By turns lyrical and
gripping, set amid a landscape of
breathtaking beauty and unpredictable
danger, this is a story you will not soon
forget.
Kate's Pick The Beautiful Things Heaven Bears
by Dinaw Mengestu
$14.00
Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled
the Ethiopian Revolution for a new start in
the United States. Now he finds himself
running a failing grocery store in a poor
African-American section of Washington,
D.C., his only companions two fellow
African immigrants who share his bitter
nostalgia and longing for his home
continent. Years ago and worlds away Sepha
could never have imagined a life of such
isolation. As his environment begins to
change, hope comes in the form of a
friendship with new neighbors Judith and
Naomi, a white woman and her biracial
daughter. But when a series of racial
incidents disturbs the community, Sepha may
lose everything all over again.
Wendy's Pick We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates
$16.00
This novel by Oates is a tragic, compelling
tale. She presents in sensuous prose the
saga of the fall of the House of Mulvaney.
The Mulvaneys, six of them, had been riding
high; they lived on a prosperous farm in
upstate New York and lived well. Now an
adult, Judd, the youngest Mulvaney,
recounts the events during
which "everything came apart for us and was
never again put together in quite the same
way." At the core of the family troubles
was one grievous incident, the rape of
Judd's sister. Consequently, Judd, his
father, and one of his brothers commit
criminal deeds, and the family eventually
loses the farm. Predictably for Oates, her
impeccable psychological understanding of
violence--its roots and ramifications--lies
at the heart of a troubling yet ultimately
inspiring story of how far down people can
go but, holding on together as a family,
rise to the surface again.
Stacy's Pick Away
by Amy Bloom
$14.00
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic
and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a
dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine.
When her family is destroyed in a Russian
pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone,
determined to make her way in a new land.
When word comes that her daughter, Sophie,
might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an
odyssey that takes her from the world of
the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower
East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and
up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph
Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities
readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor
and wit, her elegant and irreverent
language, her unflinching understanding of
passion and the human heart–come together
in the embrace of this brilliant novel,
which is at once heartbreaking, romantic,
and completely unforgettable.
Jess's Pick The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party (for teens)
by M.T. Anderson
$10.99
Young Octavian is being raised by a group
of rational philosophers known only by
numbers. After he opens a forbidden door he
learns the hideous nature of their
experiments and his own chilling role in
them. Set in Revolutionary Boston, M.T.
Anderson's mesmerizing novel takes place at
a time when Patriots battled to win liberty
while African slaves were entreated to risk
their own lives for a freedom they would
never claim. The first of two parts (volume
two will be published in fall 2008), this
deeply provocative novel reimagines the
past as an eerie place that has startling
resonance for readers today.
Darla's Pick The Boys of My Youth
by Jo Ann Beard
$13.99
Jo Ann Beard beautifully evokes her
childhood in the early '60s, a time in
which mothers continued to smoke right up
to labor, one's own scabs were deeply
interesting, and Barbie dolls seemed to get
naked of their own volition, knowing that
Ken would be the one to get in trouble if
they were caught. Beard's memories of the
next 30 years are no less sharp and wry,
powered by antic melancholy, perfect
juxtapositions, and "the push of love."
When she was little, "the words of grown-
ups rarely made sense," and even now, with
the exception of her best friend and a few
colleagues, not much seems to have changed.
In the title story, Beard and her best
friend, now 38, still spend forever on the
phone, an activity they perfected in junior
high and that is now possible thanks to an
office WATS line. Hindsight easily renders
their seventh-grade ex nihilo obsession
with a "ninth grader extraordinaire"
foolish, along with most encounters with
the boys of their youth. But their current
relations with men are really no less
absurd, as they realize while listening to
Beard's latest possibility leave an
answering-machine message: "I don't know
whether to faint or kill myself. Elizabeth
laughs unbecomingly. I put both hands
around my own neck. We are no longer bored.
The Boys of My Youth is filled with
family picnics, small celebrations, and
fragility. Beard knows that her teenage
efforts to "have a better personality" were
as futile as her later attempt
at "practicing being snotty, in
anticipation of being dumped by my
husband," but that doesn't make her any
less fond of her younger self. And she has
the same affection, and irritation, for her
family, who slowly emerge in story after
story.
Nancy's Pick Hattie Big Sky (for young adult readers)
by Kirby Larson
$8.99
Alone in the world, teen-aged Hattie is
driven to prove up on her uncle's
homesteading claim.
For years, sixteen-year-old Hattie's been
shuttled between relatives. Tired of being
Hattie Here-and-There, she courageously
leaves Iowa to prove up on her late uncle's
homestead claim near Vida, Montana. With a
stubborn stick-to-itiveness, Hattie faces
frost, drought and blizzards. Despite many
hardships, Hattie forges ahead, sharing her
adventures with her friends--especially
Charlie, fighting in France--through
letters and articles for her hometown
paper.
Her backbreaking quest for a home is
lightened by her neighbors, the Muellers.
But she feels threatened by pressure to be
a "Loyal" American, forbidding friendships
with folks of German descent. Despite
everything, Hattie's determined to stay
until a tragedy causes her to discover the
true meaning of home.
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Saturday, September 13th
2:00PM
JD Solomon
More info on this event...
Saturday, September 20th
2:00PM
Dave White
More info on this event...
Saturday, September 27th
2:00PM
Edwin Rausch
More info on this event...
Full listing of events
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