Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9781400069019
ISBN-10: 1400069017

Vernon, Audie, and Creed Proctor are brothers who, for most of their 60-odd years, have shared a home, a farm, and even the same bed. They're illiterate, uninterested in the world beyond their farm, and don't take regular baths, but they're also hard-working and gracious and have earned the respect of their neighbor, Preston. But when Vernon dies in his sleep, their admittedly odd and hardscrabble rural life is brought into question, and Creed is arrested for murder. Based (at least in part) on the real-life Ward brothers, this is a "quiet storm of a novel that will stun readers with its power" (Publishers Weekly).

Publisher: Dial Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9780385340854
ISBN-10: 0385340850

It's hard to imagine how successful tech CEO Emily and her sister Jessamine, a philosophy student/environmental activist/antiquarian-bookstore employee, could be any more different. But despite their differences in personality and values, both are struggling with romantic troubles that are tied to professional as well as moral questions. Set in the late 1990s through the early aughts, The Cookbook Collector walks readers through the dot-com era (building suspense as the crash we all know is coming gets ever closer) while Jess acquires a cookbook collection for her boss and cautiously approaches romance. Writing with wit and an eye for character, author Allegra Goodman is often compared to Jane Austen.

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Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/24/2010
ISBN-13: 9780670021666
ISBN-10: 0670021660

When their mother dies in childbirth, New Brunswick sisters Idella and Avis Hillock and their sibings are left to be raised by their father, a potato farmer who ships the girls to relatives in Maine when he can't deal with the responsibility. Born in the early 20th century, the girls make their way to the U.S. permanently as teenagers and remain close despite differences in their personalities and the challenges they face as adults. This series of connected stories, which continues into the 1980s, is based on the lives of the author's own mother and aunt; though Beverly Jensen died before any of her work was published, her stories have since been championed by Joyce Carol Oates and Stephen King.

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Publisher: Henry Holt
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9780805092301
ISBN-10: 0805092307

When his wife, special-effects expert Amy, dies in a freak accident while on the set, Arthur Rook is left on his own--until he discovers a pink shoebox full of keepsakes from her past. One, an unsent postcard, leads him to the town she grew up in, where he takes a room in the boarding house run by Amy's childhood friend Mona and her daughter, Oneida. Once there, Arthur begins to learn more about Amy's life before him, while Mona and Oneida are drawn out of their own self-imposed isolation by the grieving widower. Publishers Weekly calls this debut "both accessibly absurd and quite touching" as it deals with love, loss, and coming of age.

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Whether you call it urban fiction or street lit, this popular genre features easy money, explicit sex, and plenty of violence, as well as authentic details of a lifestyle fueled by the drug or prostitution trades, and a whole lot of attitude. Some books also feature the tragedies that result when those lured by the glamour of such a life make bad decisions, and while some readers might take issue with the lifestyles portrayed here, others will appreciate the realistic details--many urban lit authors come from the very streets they write so effectively about, and new authors are emerging all the time. Below are some suggestions for newcomers; established urban lit readers should already be familiar with these authors and can look forward to their next books.

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/05/2010
ISBN-13: 9780312555214
ISBN-10: 0312555210

Snapped is, at heart, a novel about four friends and their disastrous love lives--Dominique, who's a successful businesswoman and mother caught up with a man in jail; Latoya, a fashionable realtor with skeletons in her closet; Misa, mother to a neglected three-year-old and involved with the heir to the Noble crime syndicate; and Camille, who fears that her husband, Noble associate Frankie B., is being unfaithful. Lust, violence, and bad choices build up to a cliffhanger ending that will have you eagerly awaiting the sequel, called The Aftermath.

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Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/24/2007
ISBN-13: 9780743493635
ISBN-10: 074349363X

Eighteen-year-old Red is drop-dead gorgeous--but she's also got a mean, manipulative streak a mile wide. She's definitely not above using her looks (or a faked pregnancy) to get what she most desires, no matter who it hurts. And right now, she's in the middle of planning the biggest con ever. Featuring graphic sex and profanity as well as a close call near the end, Dirty Red is the 1st in what is, with the publication of Dirtier Than Ever earlier this year, a three-book series by a self-published author who wrote her first book in prison but went on to build her own successful publishing company.

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Publisher: One World Trade Paperbacks/Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/20/2010
ISBN-13: 9780345511058
ISBN-10: 0345511050

Calling out the well-developed plot and characters as well as the author's ability to showcase the downside of street life, Library Journal says "THIS is what street fiction is about." Its star, Beijing Lee, is a celebrity VIP concierge for an exclusive hotel chain whose upbringing was a mix of middle-class comfort and gritty street life, and who wants more for herself as an adult. Though she's made a comfortable life for herself, she finds herself drawn back into dangerous waters after she falls for an ex-con-turned-rapper and a mysterious man from her past reappears.

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Publisher: Grand Central
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/06/2009
ISBN-13: 9780446581691
ISBN-10: 0446581690

In this street lit/crime thriller crossover, an attempted robbery goes so badly that three men are killed, and the shooter, Philadelphia drug-lord associate Nard Guess, finds himself in need of an alibi. Stripper Daisy offers one in exchange for an easy $2,000, but she'll soon find that the money doesn't come cheap--and doesn't buy much, either. Fast-paced and with a strong sense of place, Alibi shows that--at least in Daisy's case--crime doesn't pay, and it's hard to walk away unscathed from disastrous decisions.

Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/2007
ISBN-13: 9780060597719
ISBN-10: 0060597712

Thirty-one-year-old transient Brandy, who has no direction and no real roots anywhere, has followed her latest boyfriend to the Aleutian Islands, where he's at sea for weeks at a time. She picks up a job as a cocktail waitress but still has enormous amounts of time to fill--time that goes into cocaine, but also into introspection and reading about the history of the island's native people. Soon, she's reading about their near-extinction by the Russians in the 18th century and learning their mythology--and finding a purpose for herself. With a compelling setting and "smart prose, bawdy humor and '80s references" (Publishers Weekly), this debut will appeal to a range of readers.

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Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780316018609
ISBN-10: 0316018600

Artist Claire Danner Crispin is one of those women who seems to have--and do--it all. In addition to caring for four kids and a husband, she's been asked to create a piece of artwork for a huge summer fundraiser, which she's also helping to plan. With so much on her plate, the romantic attentions of a friend's husband actually offer her some respite from her responsibilities, and she soon finds herself carrying on a fully fledged affair. Eventually, Claire must decide for herself what she values more, but until then, her secret life offers "pure voyeuristic fun" (Kirkus Reviews). Like all of author Elin Hilderbrand's novels (including her most recent, The Island), this one is set on Nantucket Island.

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Publisher: Random House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/14/2005
ISBN-13: 9780385720625
ISBN-10: 0385720629

Osprey Island--just close enough to Manhattan to attract urban weekenders--is home to an old family-run hotel called the Lodge, run by Bud and Nancy Chizek and their frequently boozed-up staff. In the summer of 1988, headstrong Suzi Chizek has returned to the island for the summer, as has Vietnam vet (or draft dodger?) Roddy Jacobs. Between their tentative relationship, a fatal fire that leaves an already neglected eight-year-old at the mercy of his increasingly angry father, and the troubles of other year-rounders, the island sees more than its share of uncomfortable revelations, exposed family secrets, and alcohol-soaked scenes. Set in the weeks before the Lodge opens for the season, Osprey Island captures the claustrophobia inherent in long-term island living.

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Publisher: Dial Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/29/2008
ISBN-13: 9780385340991
ISBN-10: 0385340990

This delightful (and bestselling) debut, told entirely in letters, takes place in 1946, when writer Juliet Ashton finds the inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, a British island just off the coast of France. As their correspondence expands to include others on the island, Juliet decides to visit; while there, she strengthens her relationships with the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during the German occupation of World War II. The captivating stories she hears will charm your socks off and leave you wanting to visit Guernsey yourself.

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