Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/03/2013
ISBN-13: 9780670024902
ISBN-10: 0670024902

When 21-year-old Regina Gottlieb begins graduate school, she's immediately captivated by literature professor Nicholas Brodeur, notorious for his "extracurricular activities," and by his equally bewitching wife. The affair that Regina embarks on is as passionate as it is obsessive, rocking her life when it eventually ends. This part of Regina's coming-of-age is told as it unfolds; several years later, as Regina is comfortably ensconced in near-middle-age, she looks back on this time with a considerably more mature perspective. Explicit sex scenes means this book isn't for everyone, but readers looking for a stylishly written and dramatic tale of a young woman caught up by forces she doesn't quite understand will be rewarded.

First Chapter  

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/09/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062224842
ISBN-10: 0062224840

Like Jemima Jones in Jane Green's Jemima J or Cannie Shapiro in Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed, Holly Brennan is a charming, funny, plus-sized woman. Having sought comfort in food since the death of her husband, Holly uses humor as a defense mechanism; squished into an airplane seat, she breaks the ice with her broad-shouldered seatmate, who turns out to be a personal trainer named Logan Montgomery. Though the two start a working relationship, it soon becomes clear that there's potential for more -- if only each of them can get past their personal hang-ups. Written by the niece of bestselling author Janet Evanovich, this debut is an entertaining take on the myth of Pygmalion.

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/09/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062221063
ISBN-10: 006222106X

Molecular biologist Kate Philo and her team are looking for marine creatures flash-frozen in Arctic ice when they come across the body of a man in an iceberg, and the team's experimental techniques ignite a media frenzy when they successfully reanimate him. He turns out to be Jeremiah Rice, a Massachusetts judge whose last memory is of falling overboard during a storm in 1906. Jeremiah's a keen observer of modern morals, but his resurrection is seen simply as a career-booster by Kate's boss, blasphemous by religious fundamentalists, and a complete fake by an unscrupulous reporter. Only Kate seems to consider him a human like any other, which adds an element of romance to a book already bursting with themes of ethics and mortality.

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/08/2013
ISBN-13: 9780393239317
ISBN-10: 0393239314

Disgraced medical resident Jacob Thacker is serving as the interim head of public relations at a small South Carolina medical school when old bones are uncovered on campus. It soon becomes clear that these are the bones of African-American slaves, stolen from their graves by "resurrectionists" paid by the school to obtain fresh corpses for training purposes and reburied after dissection. Alongside Jacob's attempts to placate both the dean and the understandably upset African-American community, debut author Matthew Guinn tells the story of Nemo Johnston, a slave put to work as a resurrectionist during the Civil War years. Historical fiction fans will especially enjoy these extended flashbacks, while others may prefer the meditations on race relations in American history.

Publisher: Harper
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/09/2013
ISBN-13: 9780062268549
ISBN-10: 0062268546

Lotería, a kind of Mexican bingo that uses images rather than numbers, is the only solace of 11-year-old Luz Castillo, a ward of the state after her father's arrest. Having retreated into silence, Luz finds that each shuffle of her deck sparks a memory, each of which bring into focus both the joy and the pain of her life, as well as the events that brought her into custody. Steadfastly refusing to speak, her only communication is with God, to whom she writes -- this debut novel is the result, and is illustrated with the lotería pictures that inspire her.

Publisher: Amistad
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780060529604
ISBN-10: 0060529601

This debut novel, an extended version of a prize-winning short story, is based on the 1981 murder of young Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama. The police do not want to admit that it was in fact a lynching, but the African-American community is shaken, young and old alike, by the sudden resurgence of racially motivated violence. Narrated by 17-year-old Roy Deacon, whose older brother, Paul, found Michael's body, and whose family runs a generations-old mortuary, this novel "offers a subtle and stirring look at the complexities of racial hatred and family obligations" (Booklist).

First Chapter  

Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/01/1998
ISBN-13: 9780060175795
ISBN-10: 0060175796

First published 15 years ago, The Bean Trees was Barbara Kingsolver's first novel. It tells the story of a poor Kentucky woman determined to make a better life for herself. While headed west, Taylor is approached by a Cherokee woman, who leaves a baby in the passenger seat of her car. Moved by the baby's fierce grip, Taylor names her "Turtle;" they begin a new life together in Tucson, where Taylor's car eventually breaks down. An "overwhelming delight" (Publishers Weekly) despite themes of child abuse and other social ills, this tale of creating a family out of nothing was followed by a sequel, Pigs in Heaven. 

Publisher: Broadway Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/06/2010
ISBN-13: 9780767931748
ISBN-10: 0767931742

A year and a half after the Stanley family relocates to Oregon, 15-year-old Shep Stanley is shot and killed in their home. A young man named Daniel Robbins is accused of the crime, found guilty, and sentenced to death, but the family itself finds small comfort in justice and is destroyed by their loss. Shep's mother, Irene, struggles daily with her grief and waits for the day Daniel will die, but she eventually comes to realize that Daniel's execution won't heal her pain. With well-developed characters and a story that focuses on loss, vengeance, and forgiveness, The Crying Tree will appeal to fans of Louise Doughty's equally nuanced Whatever You Love.

First Chapter  

Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/21/2012
ISBN-13: 9780062130518
ISBN-10: 006213051X

Five generations of first-born women in the Keller family live together among Northern California's olive groves. Matriarch Anna is 112 and wants to be the oldest person in the world; she's attracted the attention of a geneticist who wonders if the Keller genes contain the secret to slowing down the aging process. What he discovers in their DNA churns up old secrets, while the return of the now-pregnant youngest daughter, followed by her mother (recently released from prison after killing her husband many years previously), stir up more drama. With stunning descriptions of the olive orchards and plenty in the way of family relationships, this leisurely paced novel offers the perspective of each of the characters in turn.

Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/30/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307460646
ISBN-10: 0307460649

Raised by her aunt in Black Rock, Tobago, Celia D'Abadie grows up knowing nothing about her father except that he was a white man who long ago returned to England. When her lecherous uncle rapes her, Celia runs away to Trinidad, where a gardener helps her find work as a housekeeper. But Celia is torn by her feelings for two very different men who offer her two very different lifestyles. With its lush tropical setting and "lithe, lyrical prose" (Booklist), Celia's search for a place to call home "sings with life, texture, and verve" (The Daily Mail).

First Chapter