Publisher: Pantheon Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/23/2013
ISBN-13: 9780307908056
ISBN-10: 0307908054

Narrated by Nathan Lochmueller, a recent college graduate who's found a job tracking songbirds in Southern Indiana, these linked stories track his rocky path to adulthood. Though he's pining for the free-spirited Lola, who refuses to settle down, she's hardly the only character in Nathan's life -- there's the friend who loses his thumb to a snapping turtle, the diner patrons who respond to letters to Santa, and his truck, the Gypsy Moth. Offbeat and quirky, this novel is character-oriented rather than plot-heavy, but its depiction of a young man's aimlessness rings true, and author Brian Kimberling, a former professional birdwatcher from Southern Indiana, "writes gracefully about absurdity" (Booklist).

First Chapter  

Publisher: Scribner
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/02/2013
ISBN-13: 9781439142004
ISBN-10: 1439142009

This complex tale, which weaves together themes of art, oppression, politics, and creativity, follows Reno, a young woman who loves making art and racing her motorcycle -- usually at the same time. More naive than she at first appears, Reno moves from Nevada to New York in 1975 to join the thriving avant garde art scene, where she gets involved with a successful older artist, Sandro Valera. The Valera family is responsible for the Moto Valera, a popular motorcycle, and Reno wins the chance to race with the company in Italy. It is there, with a reluctant Sandro, that Reno falls in with the radical movement. For a realistic depiction of the turbulent '70s, you won't go wrong with The Flamethrowers, which is the well-received second book by the author of the award-winning Telex from Cuba.

Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/26/2013
ISBN-13: 9781565122550
ISBN-10: 1565122550

Though perhaps easily confused with the recent novel of the same name by Kate Atkinson, this book does not deal with a single life lived over and over again. Rather, in this Life After Life, residents of Fulton, N.C. -- many at the Pine Haven retirement facility -- share the stories of their lives in turn; a minor character in one tale becomes the narrator of the next. Though death is a constant presence (hospice volunteer Joanna keeps a notebook of every passing she's a part of), it never overwhelms, nor becomes maudlin or depressing, and author Jill McCorkle has a deft hand with humor and her indelible characters.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/02/2013
ISBN-13: 9781250020567
ISBN-10: 1250020565

In this action-packed ocean-going adventure, disgraced primate behaviorist Sara Pollard joins a handful of anti-whaling activists to sail a racing yacht into Antarctic waters to expose the illegal activities of a Japanese whaling fleet. But their fortitude is tested by the desolate environs, brutal storms, hostile adversaries, and romantic conflicts -- and that's before encountering a sperm whale with a seemingly murderous agenda of its own. The vivid depictions of life at sea (author David Poyer is a retired naval officer) might have you grateful for dry land (and warm weather) while grimly anticipating the next disaster to befall the crew of the Black Anemone.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/16/2013
ISBN-13: 9780316220880
ISBN-10: 0316220884

Four days after fleeing from the fundamentalist polygamist Doomsday cult in which she raised her daughters, Amity and Sorrow, Amaranth totals her car in the Oklahoma panhandle. Terrified of her husband (she's the first of his 50 wives), she refuses to leave the land she crashed on, disrupting the life of the farmer who owns it. Meanwhile, true believer Sorrow wants nothing more than to return, while 12-year-old Amity just wants to learn how to read...and help her sister, who is dangerously unbalanced. Told in chapters that alternate between the past and present, the reasons behind Amaranth's fears and Sorrow's zeal slowly become clear. A more disturbing tale than others that share similar concepts (like David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife), this debut is at once wrenching and compelling.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Vintage Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/09/2007
ISBN-13: 9781400095957
ISBN-10: 1400095956

In "the city," the afterlife inhabited by the recently dead (they remain there only as long as they are remembered by someone still alive), the transient population undergoes rapid change as a deadly virus decimates the living. Soon, the city is nearly empty, and only a handful remain -- the parents, friends, acquaintances, and former lovers of a woman named Laura, stranded in an Antarctic research station. In chapters alternating between Laura, struggling for survival, and those in the city as they attempt to build new lives, Kevin Brockmeier reflects on human relationships in a "beautiful, delicate manner" (Publishers Weekly).

First Chapter  

Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 11/08/2012
ISBN-13: 9780399159695
ISBN-10: 039915969X

Successful lawyer, wife, and mother Brek Cutler has no memory of what happened when she appears on a deserted train platform, covered in blood. But she soon learns that she has died, is in Purgatory, and has been selected to join the elite team of lawyers who prosecute and defend other lost souls at the Final Judgment. A "heady combination of the movie What Dreams May Come, John Grisham's best work, and Dante's Divine Comedy" (Booklist), this metaphysical novel ties an intriguing theological question (what if the Final Judgment is real?) to the relatable story of one woman's life and afterlife.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/03/2012
ISBN-13: 9780307957276
ISBN-10: 0307957276

Partially disabled by an illness in childhood, 36-year-old Aaron is fiercely independent, but when his pragmatic, slightly older wife Dorothy is killed by a tree that falls on their house, he is devastated. The house destroyed, he moves in with his overbearing sister and hides out in his office at the family's publishing company (known for publishing a series of instructional books, advice from which is scattered throughout the novel). It's not until Dorothy's ghost begins appearing that Aaron starts moving through the process of grieving -- and starts truly understanding their marriage. Check out The Beginner's Goodbye for a sensitive portrayal of love and grief.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/14/2010
ISBN-13: 9781609800734
ISBN-10: 1609800737

In this experimental novel, author Kurt Vonnegut and Dr. Kevorkian pair up to facilitate the former's visits to Heaven, where he interviews several of its residents, including William Shakespeare (he and Vonnegut clash), Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, James Earl Ray (even murderers end up in Heaven), and Sir Isaac Newton, who takes over the interview in an effort to find out what the blue tunnel that leads to the afterlife is made of. (Vonnegut's fans will appreciate his interview with Kilgore Trout.) Originally read aloud on Manhattan's public radio station, these rewritten pieces veer between unsettling and humorous.