American Creation

By Joseph J. Ellis
Recommended By: Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

"Pulitzer-winner Ellis tells six stories, each revealing the genius and the shortcomings of the Founders... Ellis focuses almost exclusively on Americans, highlighting select issues and events that shaped the young republic and continue to inform its character today... Sharply conceived and smoothly executed (Kirkus Reviews)."

Genre: Non-Fiction

Big Stone Gap Series

By Adriana Trigiani
Recommended By: Evelyn Hershkowitz, Library Assistant

"Ave Maria's life in Big Stone Gap, VA, is essentially the same as it's been for all 35 years of her life, but after her mother's will reveals that the man Ave thought was her father isn't, she begins to lose hold of her routine... In between panic attacks and shouting matches, Ave tries to figure out what all these changes mean in her life (Library Journal)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

The Boy Who Loved Windows

By Patricia Stacey
Recommended By: Jennifer Rottkamp, Library Clerk

"This enthralling memoir, at once heart wrenching and hopeful, takes the reader into the life of one remarkable family willing to do anything to give their son a rich and emotionally full life...compelling and inspiring reading for parents and professionals who care for children with autism and other special needs... a stunning literary debut ... (From the Publisher) ."

Genre: Biography / Memoir

Can You Keep a Secret?

By Sophie Kinsella
Recommended By: Susan Adams, Reference Librarian

"When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her... When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight...(Booklist)."

Genre: Humorous Fiction

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted

By Elizabeth Berg
Recommended By: Pam Martin, Head of Programming

"A jewel-like collection of short stories ... Berg is skilled at depicting the subtle interplay among women, their friends, spouses and families. This collection focuses on quiet, intensely personal discoveries ... Berg's writing is so gentle, her people so real, that even these sad stories generate warmth (Kirkus Reviews) ."

Genre: Fiction Short Stories

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

By Jean-Dominique Bauby
Recommended By: Rosemary Moran, Senior Library Clerk

"In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, the 43-year-old editor of French Elle, suffered a massive stroke that left him permanently paralyzed, a victim of "locked in syndrome." Once known for his gregariousness and wit, Bauby now finds himself imprisoned in an inert body, able to communicate only by blinking his left eye. The miracle is that in doing so he was able to compose this stunningly eloquent memoir (From the Publisher). "

Genre: Biography

Fight Club

By Chuck Palahniuk
Recommended By: Nizar Tejani, Library Page

"Chuck Palahniuk's darkly funny first novel tells the story of a godforsaken young man who discovers that his rage at living in a world filled with failure and lies cannot be pacified by an empty consumer culture. Relief for him and his disenfranchised peers comes in the form of secret after-hours boxing matches held in the basements of bars (From the Publisher)."

Genre: Psychological Fiction

For One More Day

By Mitch Albom
Recommended By:Kalpana Mehta, Reference Librarian

"... retired baseball player Charley "Chick" Benetto-facing the pain of unfulfilled ambitions, alcohol abuse, divorce, and estrangement from a grown daughter-returns to his abandoned childhood home and attempts suicide in a bungling fit of rage. He encounters the spirit of his deceased mother, Pauline "Posey" Benetto, who Chick thoughtlessly took for granted ... (Publisher's Weekly)."

Genre: Psychological Fiction

The Grapes of Wrath

By John Steinbeck
Recommended By: Lisa Caputo, Head of Adult Services

"It is the story of Exodus, of America 's great trek, as the hordes of dispossessed tenant farmers from the dust bowl turn their hopes to the promised land of California 's fertile valleys. The story of one family, with the "hangers-on" that the great heart of extreme poverty sometimes collects... (Kirkus Reviews)."

Genre: Historical Fiction

I Capture the Castle

By Dodie Smith
Recommended By:Jessikah Chautin, Children's Services Librarian

"The narrator, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain, describes her family all stuck in a castle that's falling down, with minimal food and no amenities. Imagine their excitement when a family of wealthy Americans move into the estate next door. From its opening line to its bittersweet ending, this novel about coming of age and first love has justifiably delighted readers for over 50 years (Library Journal)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

In Cold Blood

By Truman Capote
Recommended By: Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian

"On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb , Kansas , four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy (From the Publisher). "

Genre: Non-Fiction

The Law of Similars

By Chris Bohjalian
Recommended By: Betty Petreshock, Reference Librarian

"Bohjalian spins a morality tale spiced with a healthy dose of alternative healing ...t is a look at loneliness, personal ethics, and homeopathic healing in Bohjalian's small corner of Vermont . The novel revolves around deputy state's attorney Leland Fowler, a man doing his best to meet life's demands. Having lost his wife, Elizabeth, in a car accident, Fowler is a focused single parent, juggling work responsibilities with those of being a father to his young daughter (Boston Globe) ."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

Lone Survivor

By Marcus Luttrell
Recommended By: Mary Szollosi, Reference Librarian

"Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive (From the Publisher). "

Genre: Non-Fiction

A Long Way Gone

By Ishmael Beah
Recommended By: Jackie Ranaldo, Readers' Services Librarian Trainee

"This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone 's civil war goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare (Publisher's Weekly)."

Genre: Biography / Memoir

Looking For Salvation at the Dairy Queen

By Susan Gregg Gilmore
Recommended By: Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

"It's the early 1970s. The town of Ringgold , Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. The daughter of Ringgold's third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life... (From the Publisher)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

My Enemy's Cradle

By Sara Young
Recommended By: Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

"One of the lesser-known aspects of the Nazi regime was the Lebensborn program, which promoted the expansion of the "master race" by encouraging German women and those who were racially "pure" in its occupied countries to bear as many children as possible. Young explores the experiences of these women in her fictional story of Cyrla... Unbeknown to the officials, Cyrla is half Jewish and must walk a tightrope as she plots her escape (Library Journal)."

Genre: Historical Fiction

Night Fall

By Nelson Demille
Recommended By: Linda Wahl, Library Page

"It's summer 2001, five years since TWA Flight 800 went down in the ocean under mysterious circumstances. The official explanation is mechanical failure, but John Corey and wife Kate Mayfield work for an antiterrorist task force made up of cops and CIA and FBI agents, there is resistance to their finding anything to contradict the official reports. As usual, DeMille spins a well-crafted, timely, and exciting tale (Library Journal)."

Genre: Suspense Fiction

Olive Kitteridge

By Elizabeth Strout
Recommended By: Judy Lockman, Library Director

"The abrasive, vulnerable title character sometimes stands center stage, sometimes plays a supporting role in these 13 sharply observed dramas of small-town life from Strout. Olive Kitteridge certainly makes a formidable contrast with her gentle, quietly cheerful husband Henry ... A perfectly balanced portrait of the human condition... (Kirkus Reviews)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

Prey

By Michael Crichton
Recommended By: Ali Tirmazi, Library Clerk

"An absorbing cautionary tale of science fact and fiction. Jack Forman has been laid off from his Silicon Valley job as a senior software programmer and has become a househusband, while his wife continues her career with a biotech firm involved in defense contracting. Jack is called in as a consultant to debug one of their products, and finds himself confronting a full-blown emergency ... (School Library Journal) ."

Genre: Suspense Fiction

Sharp Teeth

By Toby Barlow
Recommended By: Sonia Grgas, Librarian Trainee

"Down and out in Los Angeles , Anthony reluctantly takes a job as a dogcatcher ... When he falls in love with a woman he meets, apparently by accident, he becomes unwittingly drawn into her world-a dark supernatural world of werewolves-and into the lives and ambitions of the rival packs of shapeshifters who haunt the fringes of society (Library Journal)."

Genre: Supernatural Fiction

Shutterbabe

By Deborah Copaken Kogan
Recommended By: Christine Kingsley, Reference Librarian

"To pursue her dream to cover wars as a photojournalist, Kogan moved to Paris upon graduation from Harvard in 1988. Pretty and petite, with a sharp eye for good-looking, virile colleagues who, incidentally, could help her career, she embarked on a series of adventures that she breezily chronicles ... swiftly paced story easily holds the reader's interest (Publisher's Weekly)."

Genre: Biography / Memoir

Stone Cold

By David Baldacci
Recommended By: Arlene Silverman, Library Clerk

"Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are back in their most dangerous adventure yet, a war on two fronts. Casino king Jerry Bagger is hunting Annabelle Conroy who conned him out of millions. Stone and his colleagues marshal all their resources to protect Annabelle... As bodies and institutions topple, the story rockets toward a shattering ...(From the Publisher)."

Genre: Political Fiction

Suite Francaise

By Irene Nemirovsky
Recommended By: Jill Jacobson, Readers' Services Librarian

"A gifted novelist's account of a foreign occupation, written while it was taking place, with history and imagination jointly evoking a bitter time, correcting and enriching our memory (Washington Post)."

Genre: Holocaust Fiction

Summer Reading

By Hilma Wolitzer
Recommended By: Ann Competello, Library Clerk

"... a stirring tale about friendship, romance, inspiration, longing, and, especially, the love of good books. Summer Reading offers a seductive glimpse into the intersecting lives of three very different women... Stunningly evocative and richly imagined, Summer Reading explores the meaning and consequences of living an authentic life (From the Publisher)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction

A Thousand Days in Venice

By Marlena de Blasi
Recommended By: Sue Ann Reale, Head of Children's Services

"A journalist, restaurant critic, and food consultant, de Blasi left her home, her grown children, and her job as a chef in St. Louis to marry Fernando, a Venetian she barely knew. In defiance of the cynics who think true love in middle age is crazy, her marriage flourished, as these two strangers made a life together (Library Journal)."

Genre: Non-Fiction

Three Cups of Tea

By Greg Mortensen
Recommended By: Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

"Mortenson first came to Pakistan to climb K2 ... The attempt failed, and Mortenson, emaciated and exhausted, was taken in by villagers below and nursed back to health. He vowed to build a school in exchange for their kindness, a goal that would come to seem as insurmountable as the mountain, thanks to corrupt officials and hostility on the part of some locals... inspiring, adventure-filled book ... (Kirkus Reviews)."

Genre: Non-Fiction

Trial By Fire

By D.W. Buffa
Recommended By: Ed Goldberg, Reference Librarian

"In this intelligent, gripping legal thriller, San Francisco DA Joseph Antonelli agrees to join his law partner and longtime friend, Albert Craven, on a national talk show to discuss the media craze surrounding the case of a young married woman, Angela Morgan, allegedly murdered by her husband (Publisher's Weekly)."

Genre: Mystery Fiction

Unaccustomed Earth

By Jhumpa Lahiri
Recommended By: Karen Liebman, Assistant Library Director

"The fact that America is still a place where the rest of the world comes to reinvent itself--accepting with excitement and anxiety the necessity of leaving behind the constrictions and comforts of distant customs--is the underlying theme of Jhumpa Lahiri's sensitive new collection of stories... (New York Times Book Review)."

Genre: Multicultural Fiction

Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

By Maggie O'Farrell
Recommended By: Susan Santa, Readers' Services Librarian

"Iris Lockhart leads a solitary if spicy life, managing her clothing shop in Edinburgh and dallying with her married lover. But when Iris learns that she has a great-aunt Esme waiting to be released from Cauldstone Hospital, where she has been locked away for 60 years, it is as if a bomb has dropped...The secret of Esme's existence is only the first of many family secrets ... finely wrought family exposé ...(Library Journal)."

Genre: Domestic Fiction