The artist of disappearance : three novellas

 by Anita Desai. In three ensnaring novellas of consummate artistry and profoundly disquieting perceptions, master storyteller Desai (The Zigzag Way, 2004) reflects on the transforming power and devastating limitations of art. In The Museum of Final Journeys, an Anglo magistrate in a district deep in the impoverished flatlands of India accepts an elderly caretaker's beseeching invitation to visit the vast estate his employer has abandoned. In the dilapidated mansion, he finds a treasury of exquisite objects collected the world over, now forgotten artifacts in exile, their luster and stories lost. In Translator Translated, a tale of brilliantly refined suspense, Prema, an English teacher dulled by routine and loneliness, seizes the opportunity to translate the work of an author writing in her little-known mother tongue and is soon in way over her head. As Desai charts Prema's cruel exposure, she considers the plight of indigenous languages, the ethics of translation, and the heartbreak of those seeking affirmation in the creations of others. In The Artist of Disappearance, Ravi, the unloved adopted son of frivolous wealthy parents, finally returns to his beloved Himalayan home to live simply and creatively, immersed in the glory of nature, only to witness its destruction. Desai's provocative and mysterious tales of displacement trace the reverberations when the dream of art collides with crushing reality. --Booklist (Check catalog)

MWF seeking BFF : my yearlong search for a new best friend

 by Rachel Bertsche. Moving from New York City to take the long distance out of her relationship, journalist Bertsche found herself in a tough spot two years into her Chicago tenure a young, married professional past her hard-partying days, far from her BFFs (best friends forever), desiring meaningful friendships, and feeling utterly lost as to how to go about it. Challenging herself to 52 friend-dates in a calendar year and reading up on relationship research along the way, what Bertsche learns and relays anecdotally alongside rundowns of each friend-date could be classified as the science of friendship. Some dates are great; some just so-so; some hilariously terrible and readers can really feel that they're along for each one. In another's voice, the material could easily have become trite or annoying, but Bertsche is just so darn, well, friendly that readers might even find themselves questioning or conquering their own occasional antisocial tendencies. Bertsche deserves applause for the profundity of her research, and she exhausts her topic without tiring readers. Useful index of friend-dates and recommended reading included. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Sniper elite : the world of a top special forces marksman

 by Rob Maylor. Readers of Stephen Hunter's novels about sniper Bob Lee Swagger should be steered to this memoir written by Maylor, an Australian SAS sniper, with the assistance of veteran military writer Macklin. Maylor counts among his earliest and, apparently, fondest memories playing with toy soldiers and watching war movies. He was born to be a soldier, he tells us, and it sure seems that's true. But he became a sniper almost by accident. Looking for an escape from a rocky marriage, he intended to join the British Army's Parachute Regiment but wound up enlisting in the Royal Marines. After several years, he moved to the Australian SAS, seeing action in, among other places, Afghanstan and East Timor. The book is a treat for fans of sniper-related material, being full of information about surveillance techniques, makes and models of weaponry, and other technical matters. On the personal side, Maylor describes his experiences in quite a lot of detail, giving the reader a good sense of what it takes and feels like to be a professional soldier. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

V is for vengeance

 By Sue Grafton.  V may stand for vengeance, but think V for Vegas, too that's where the latest in Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series begins. It's there, in 1986, that 23-year-old Phillip Lanahan runs afoul of Santa Teresa Mob boss Lorenzo Dante and finds himself spinning off a multilevel parking structure to an unpleasant end. V is also for Vance, shoplifter Audrey Vance. To meet her, fast-forward two years. Eagle-eyed Millhone spots her lifting silk pj's in Nordstrom's and turns her in. Later, Kinsey is surprised when the woman is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, and even more suprised when the woman's fiance hires Kinsey to prove Audrey didn't commit suicide and wasn't, as Kinsey suspects, part of an organized ring of shoplifters, or pickers. Trust Kinsey to find the truth, and trust Grafton to bring together in crazy harmony a set of circumstances and an oddly assorted bunch of characters (old acquaintances and new) that, in a lesser writer's hands, would have produced narrative chaos. With only four alphabet mysteries to go, speculation on the final installment has already begun. In the meantime, Grafton's devoted fans should sit back and enjoy a terrific installment in the here and now. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Almost president : the men who lost the race but changed the nation

 by Scott Farris. Farris (former bureau chief, United Press International) bases this book on the premise that the losers of our country's presidential elections can be as influential-and as interesting to read about-as the winners. From Henry Clay, "the greatest legislator in American history," to Al Gore, who went on to devote his efforts to fighting global warming, to John Kerry to John McCain, Farris effectively demonstrates that many party nominees in presidential races were able to accomplish more in defeat than they ever could have achieved through victory. He profiles 12 losing candidates, e.g., Al Smith, who lost to Herbert Hoover in 1928, who fought bias and bigotry simply in being the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee and helped change the landscape for Catholics in politics. Ross Perot's surprisingly successful campaign challenged the political status quo and set the stage for future "outsider" candidates. Verdict Based on published sources, this book does a great job supporting the thesis that the profiled figures had greater ability to promote their agendas precisely because they did not win the presidency. A terrific resource for general presidential history buffs and high school and undergraduate libraries. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

To win her heart

 by Karen Witemeyer. Levi Grant emerges from prison with little more than renewed faith and a blacksmith's job in Spencer, Texas, but his first meeting with Eden fosters hope for a wife, family, and home as well. Tall, well muscled, and hesitant, he realizes that he comes across as taciturn and uncouth. But he perseveres in engaging Eden's attention, even though his lisp presents difficulties. Eden was raised as the indulged only child of a wealthy and influential Austin family, and moved to this small town five years ago after being jilted only days before her wedding. She has been content to do good works and maintain a low profile, until Levi challenges her to help Chloe, a 15-year-old raised in the local saloon by her prostitute mother, escape her would-be rapist and become respectable. Witemeyer's hard-hitting Christian historical romance skillfully incorporates Jesus' parables of the prodigal son and the adulteress' rock-toting accusers into her characters' struggles with redemption, worthiness, and new beginnings. A commendable addition to the genre. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Willpower : rediscovering the greatest human strength

 by Roy F. Baumeister. The Victorians came up with the term willpower to describe resisting temptation. Most psychologists never bought it, especially the related notion that willpower was a manifestation of energy within the body. Thanks largely to research conducted by Baumeister, however, it looks like the Victorians were right. In one of many startling revelations, Baumeister and science-writer Tierney show how willpower, aka self-control, is linked to glucose, which explains, for example, why PMS is commonly associated with an inability to control food cravings (glucose is diverted to the reproductive system, leaving less for the rest of the body). Willpower, the authors persuasively argue, isn't merely a quaint notion; it's real. Each of us has a finite amount of it, and the sooner one understands how it works, the sooner one will learn how to avoid depleting one's personal supply. If the book weren't so lucid, it would be tempting to dismiss it as hokum. But it's hard to ignore or ridicule the ideas here. In fact, they seem not just plausible but blindingly obvious. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Legacy : an Event Group thriller

 by David Lynn Goleman. Nothing less than the fate of the earth is at stake in bestseller Goleman's sweeping sixth Event Group thriller (after Primeval). A small alien named Mahjtic, a secret our government has kept for years, warns that the Grays, a branch of evil aliens, are headed toward our planet bent on domination. Earth's only salvation is to acquire advanced weaponry left on the surface of the moon and in an Ecuadorian mine by the remnants of another alien society 700 million years ago. Tasked with the weapons acquisition assignment is the Event Group, a secret government unit headed by Col. Jack Collins that takes on scientific and military missions that fall far beyond the bounds of normality. A subplot involving a wealthy televangelist slows the action somewhat, but as soon as he has been dealt with, the book hits its massive stride and seldom slows. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Veterinary guide for animal owners : caring for cats, dogs, chickens, sheep, cattle, rabbits, and more

 by C. E. Spaulding. The ten chapters in this animal care guide explain the housing, feeding, breeding, and basic medical treatment of cattle, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, dogs, and cats. The practical approach provides simple solutions to common problems and recommends when to hire a veterinarian for more difficult conditions. Originally published in 1976 by Rodale Press. Spaulding is a retired veterinarian and Clay works as a veterinary field technician. --Summary (Check Catalog)

1Q84

 by Haruki Murakami. *Starred Review* Murakami writes two kinds of novels: short, intimate, crystalline portraits of lovers, often trapped in alternate worlds or struggling between secret selves (After Dark, 2007), and much longer, broad-canvas epics (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1997) that submerge the reader in a tidal wave of story. His latest definitely falls into the latter camp, and, yet, it clings resolutely to the intimacy of the shorter works. This foray into what is unquestionably Murakami's most vividly imagined parallel world begins simply, with two seemingly ordinary events: two lonely 10-year-olds, a boy and a girl, Tengo and Aomame, hold hands in an empty classroom, and for the next 20 years, while never seeing one another, they dream of meeting but are strangely paralyzed to make it happen. Then Aomame, a 30-year-old woman in 1984 and an assassin who kills men who abuse women walks down an emergency exit from a Tokyo expressway and finds herself in another world, which she calls 1Q84, a world overseen by two moons and ruled, apparently, by the quixotic little people. Meanwhile, Tengo has rewritten a novel by an enigmatic 17-year-old girl that accurately describes the world of 1Q84. As the lives of Tengo, Aomame, and a Dostoyevskian private investigator, who works for a religious cult that worships the little people, swirl closer and closer together, Murakami draws the reader deeper and deeper into this utterly baffling universe, switching narration between the three principal characters, each of whom grasps only a small part of their two-mooned world. Gradually but inexorably, the tension builds, as we root passionately for Tengo and Aomame to find one another and hold hands again, so simple a human connection offering a kind of oasis in the midst of the unexplainable and the terrifying. When Murakami melds fantasy and realism, mystery and epic, it is no simple genre-bending exercise; rather, it is literary alchemy of the highest order. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Murakami, whose work has been translated into 40 languages, is one of our most-honored international fiction writers. His latest will attract great interest in literary circles. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Out of Oz : the final volume in the Wicked years

 by Gregory Mcguire. After the slightly disappointing Son of a Witch (2005) and A Lion among Men (2008), Maguire recaptures his mystical mojo in the fourth and final installment of the Wicked Years series. Although it still falls a bit short of the startling dark artistry that defined Wicked, rapidly catapulting it to the top of the best-seller list and spawning a major Broadway musical, this twisted fairy tale is a worthy conclusion to an imaginative and emotionally searing cultural phenomenon. With the fate of Oz hanging in the balance, the Emerald City is preparing to invade Munchkinland. Although th. Matter of Doroth. seemed settled some time ago, Miss Gale is caught in the epicenter of another natural disaster, hurling her straight back into the heart of Oz. As an incarcerated Glinda whiles away the days waiting for the long-overdue arrival of an old friend, Elphaba's granddaughter, Rain, unable to escape heredity and fate, takes center stage. Everyone who has ever known, loved, or even been a bit frustrated by Maguire's creative, myth-bending reworking of the Oz saga will eagerly hop onboard to find out exactly how the journey ends, because nobody does fractured fairy tales better than Maguire. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The hospital by the river : a story of hope

 by Catherine Hamlin.  Hamlin and her late husband, Reg, devoted most of their adult lives to practicing obstetrics among Ethiopia's rural poor, where inadequate medical care and bad road conditions made childbirth a risky endeavor. Obstructed labor-frequently lasting five days or longer-resulted in the death of a vast number of babies and caused incontinence in the mothers, who then became outcasts and beggars. In this chronicle of her work in Ethiopia, Hamlin tells of how she and Reg perfected the technique of surgically repairing this damage, operating on more than 25,000 women, most of whom were then able to lead normal lives. Several specialized themes create odd juxtapositions: explicit descriptions of obstructed childbirth, incontinence, and desperate poverty are interspersed with genteel accounts of visits with kings and queens, assorted denizens of high society, Ethiopian brigadiers, and the like. Hamlin sees her service as part of the missionary tradition that her grandparents began, and at the age of 77, she continues to practice by performing surgery, training Ethiopian doctors and midwives, raising money for the hospital she founded, and beginning each morning with prayers and Bible study in her house of mud and sticks. This moving account is recommended for public libraries and specialized collections on women's studies and obstetrics/midwifery. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

A far better rest

 by Susanne Alleyn. Sydney Carton, the brooding hero of A Tale of Two Cities, is one of Dickens' best creations. In her first novel, Alleyn has taken Sydney as her central character and imagined his entire life. As in Tale, fate links Carton's path with those of Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette but also with that of many historical figures, such as Desmoulins and Robespierre. After the marriage of Darnay and Lucie, Carton goes off to France, expecting to live an idle life there as well but instead gets caught up in the French Revolution, first by writing for a revolutionary journal and later by being elected to the French National Convention. He even finds love again with a cousin of Darnay named Eleonore. There are some discrepancies between this novel and Tale, and Alleyn takes some liberties with Dickens' characters, but she tells a very good story. Best read alongside Tale, Alleyn's novel gives a vivid picture of the development of the French Revolution through the eyes of that wonderful hero despite himself, Sydney Carton. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Feminism, Inc. : coming of age in girl power media culture

 by Emilie Zaslow. Zaslow (communication, Pace Univ.) provides an excellent introduction to the nascent field of girl studies. In addition to serving as a solid resource on much of the scholarship already published, the book gives voice to a range of girls from New York City, who speak about how they experience feminism and femininity in their everyday lives and about the tensions between messages concerning feminism and femininity often found in today's girl power media culture. Through focus groups and interviews with 30 participants, Zaslow found that girls understand the contradictions inherent in mediated commodification of feminism but yet lack information on how to collectively resolve unfair social structures. Messages about sexuality as empowerment and subjugation feature prominently in these girls' analyses of contemporary mainstream media. Ultimately the role models to which girls have access reinforce the message that girls have to rely on themselves. Neither celebratory nor dystopian, this study provides insights into the intelligence of contemporary girls and their awareness of the pitfalls of popular culture representation, especially in relation to their complicated lives in a cosmopolitan, difficult urban environment. Zaslow's message: though they are neither anti-feminist nor anti-feminine, these girls cannot reconcile conflicting messages. --Choice (Check catalog)

The Prague cemetery

 By Umberto Eco. An amnesiac tries to figure out who he is by writing his thoughts in a diary and explaining who he hates. It is 1897 and he is Captain Simonini, an accomplished forger with a talent for espionage, and he hates nearly everyone: Germans, Italians, Freemasons, Jesuits, women, but especially Jews. But what has caused him to lose his memory? And who is Abbe Dalla Piccola, the clergyman (or false clergyman) who shares his living quarters and seems to know more about our Simonini than Simonini himself? Thus opens Eco's much-anticipated sixth novel, a whirlwind tour of conspiracy and political intrigue that places one cunning and deeply cynical man at the center of a century's worth of diabolical deeds the most terrible of which being the forgery of one of the foundational documents of modern anti-Semitism. In another novelist's hands, the intrigue, mystery, and historical detail might be enough, but this is Eco, after all. Readers able to navigate the author's tricks and traps will find that this dark tale is delightfully embellished with sophisticated and playful commentary on, among other things, Freud, metafiction, and the challenges of historiography. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: If sales of the original Italian edition are any indication, librarians should expect considerable reader interest here. --Booklist (Check catalog)

The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration

 by Isabel Wilkerson. From the early twentieth century through its midpoint, some six million black southerners relocated themselves, their labor, and their lives, to the North, changing the course of civil, social, and economic life in the U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wilkerson offers a broad and penetrating look at the Great Migration, a movement without leaders or precedent. Drawing on interviews and archival research, Wilkerson focuses on three individuals with varying reasons for leaving the South the relentless poverty of sharecropping with few other opportunities, escalating racial violence, and greater social and economic prospects in the North. She traces their particular life stories, the sometimes furtive leave-takings; the uncertainties they faced in Chicago, New York, and L.A.; and the excitement and longing for freer, more prosperous lives. She contrasts their hopes and aspirations with the realities of life in northern cities when the jobs eventually evaporated from the inner cities and new challenges arose. Wilkerson intersperses historical detail of the broader movement and the sparks that set off the civil rights era; challenging racial restrictions in the North and South; and the changing dynamics of race, class, geography, politics, and economics. A sweeping and stunning look at a watershed event in U.S. history. --Booklist (Check catalog)

River of smoke

 by Amitav Gosh. Spellbinding and astute, Ghosh continues the nineteenth-century historical saga about the opium trade that he launched with Sea of Poppies (2008). This is an even more fluid and pleasurable tale, however dire its conflicts, and stands firmly on its own, though readers shouldn't miss the first installment. After escaping misery and danger in India, Ghosh's seductive, motley crew of struggling characters has found some semblance of sanctuary in China. Paulette is discovered living in the ruins of a botanical garden by the famous plant-hunter, Fitcher Penrose. They join forces to search for a rare camellia with help from Robin, who finally finds happiness as a gay man in Canton's industrious art world. Neel, the disgraced intellectual raja, is working for Bahram, a well-meaning, wealthy, now-imperiled Indian merchant with an illegitimate Chinese son and a doomed opium business. Ghosh's fascination with the multicultural ferment of Canton inspires thrilling descriptions of everything from local cuisine to the geopolitics of the opium wars. And his delight in language, especially the inventiveness of pidgin, further vitalizes his canny and dazzling tale, which, for all its historical exactitude, subtly reflects the hypocrisy and horrors of today's drug trafficking. With one more novel to go, Ghosh's epic trilogy is on its way to making literary history. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

An invisible thread : the true story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny

 by Laura Schroff. According to an old Chinese proverb, there's an invisible thread that connects two people who are destined to meet and influence each other's lives. With Tresniowski (The Vendetta), Schroff tells how, as a busy advertising sales executive in New York, she easily passed panhandlers every day. One day, 11-year-old Maurice's plea for spare change caused Schroff to turn around and offer to buy him lunch. Thereafter, Schroff and Maurice met for dinner each week and slowly shared their life stories. Maurice's tales about his crack addict mother, absent father, and array of drug-dealing uncles were only part of his desperate longing for a life in a safe neighborhood in an apartment with more than one room. As they grow to depend on each other, Maurice asks Schroff to attend his school's parents' night, where his teacher asks Schroff not to abandon the boy. In some weeks, the meals they share become some of the few he has, because any money his mother might "earn" goes to her habit. As Schroff relates Maurice's story, she tells of her own father's alcoholism and abuse, and readers see how desperately these two need each other in this feel-good story about the far-reaching benefits of kindness. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

Angel of darkness

  by Cynthia Eden.  Nicole St. James hadn't figured on falling prey to a vampire. Fighting to stay alive, she catches sight of another man and begs his help, not recognizing he's an angel of death awaiting the inevitable. Keenan has been stalking Nicole for weeks, and his unwilling yearning for her compels him to kill the vampire instead. Retribution for disobedience is swift. Six months later, Keenan, now one of the Fallen, is drowning his sorrows when Nicole struts into the bar, manifestly no longer human. Keenan doesn't know that Nicole is wanted for the murders she committed as a neophyte vampire, while Nicole is unaware that Keenan can regain his angelic status if he kills her. Motorcycle chases, bar fights, and Keenan's discovery of lust drive this crisp, heart-pounding, smart thriller. Eden doesn't bring much that's new, but she puts it together far better than most. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Republic, lost : how money corrupts Congress--and a plan to stop it

 by Lawrence Lessig. You may call it "dependence corruption," but it's still corruption-the dependence of Congress on campaign contributors to get their message out and the dependence on the voters to elect them on that message. Lessig (Remix) distinguishes between a commercial economy (or quid pro quo), and a gift economy that cements a relationship of obligation. He argues that campaign finance reform will never work as long as politicians know who is donating to their cause, and sometimes even if they know someone is donating, or even threatening to donate, to their opponent's cause. In Washington's vicious circle, a lobbyist has a fundraiser for a candidate because (s)he serves on a certain committee and a Congressional representative knows which lobbyist and which corporation to ask for contributions because (s)he knows they share interests. Lessig proffers interesting solutions, but grants only a 10% chance that one or all of them might help. Though parts of the book are bogged down in lawyerly rhetoric, it will reward readers with insight into the morass that is Washington, though not necessarily hope. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

The Christmas shoppe

 by Melody Carlson. The residents of a small town learn that things are not always as they appear in this latest Christmas novella (after Christmas at Harrington's) by Romantic Times award winner Carlson. Matilda Honeycutt moves to Parish Springs, but the townsfolk are put off by her unkempt looks and even more so by the junk shop she has opened. Their opinions of both change, however, when folks begin visiting the store and find peace and grace in old memories. VERDICT This heartwarming story should appeal to fans of Richard Paul Evans and Jan Karon. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Murder in the first-class carriage : the first Victorian railway killing

 by Kate Colkuhoun.  Colquhoun recounts the investigation and solution of the Victorian era's ultimate locked-room mystery. On July 9, 1864, a man's black hat, a cane, a black leather bag, a link from a watch chain, and copious amounts of blood were found in a private compartment of the North London Railway train. The compartments were separated, isolated, and locked. Side windows were barred with heavy brass rods. At some point, investigators concluded, a man had been bludgeoned to death in this compartment between Hackney and North London, but no screams had been heard at any point. The body of the elderly banker who had booked the compartment had been disposed of on the tracks. Journalist Colquhoun has crafted a marvelously suspenseful account of the investigation, a trans-Atlantic manhunt, and the ensuing trial. This is an intriguing story about emerging forensics and also an engaging social history, focusing on how a spectacular crime, the first on a British railroad, riveted public attention. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Birds of Paradise : a novel

 by Diana Abu-Jaber. Versatile Abu-Jaber follows her imaginative foray into crime fiction in Origin (2007) with an exploration into the effects a teen's desertion has on her Miami family. At 13, Avis and Brian Muir's daughter, Felice, inexplicably started running away from home. Finally forced to accept their daughter's refusal to return home, Avis, a pastry chef, anxiously awaits her daughter's infrequent calls while Brian, a real-estate attorney, refuses to have anything to do with Felice. The couple's older child, Stanley, shares his mother's passion for food, but his interests don't especially please either parent, and his teen years were largely overshadowed by his sister's rebellion. Abu-Jaber drops the reader in on the Muir family just as Felice is about to turn 18, gradually revealing why Felice felt compelled to run away and how the reverberations of her actions are still affecting the rest of her family. Felice's contemplation of her future coincides with a big announcement of Stanley's regarding his own, sending yet another ripple through the family. Abu-Jaber's new novel is nuanced and deftly drawn. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Conquered into liberty : two centuries of battles along the great warpath that made the American way of war

 by Eliot A. Cohen. Cohen, among America's leading defense analysts and military historians (Citizens and Soldiers: Dilemmas of Military Service), combines his skills in this comprehensively researched, well-written analysis of the international conflict that more than any other shaped the U.S. way of war. That conflict was between the colonies that eventually formed the U.S. and French, then British Canada. For a century and a half, through six global conflicts, the north-south axis between Albany, N.Y., and Montreal was the "great warpath": "[I]ts battles [were] fought with tomahawks and flintlock muskets, its supplies laboriously hauled by bateau and oxcart." Focusing on specific engagements, from the 1690 raid on Schenectady, N.Y., to the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814, Cohen describes lessons that endured. The warpath schooled Americans in a spectrum of combat, from skirmishes fought by irregulars to operations conducted along state-of-the-art European lines. The warpath taught pragmatism and flexibility. It demanded enterprise and ingenuity. It required concern for both logistics and operations. Even issues of contemporary concern, the problems of conventional forces facing irregular opponents and the belief that an adversary can be "conquered into liberty," were first confronted in these battles, as Cohen demonstrates in this original and illuminating study. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

The sisters

 by Nancy Jensen. All families have secrets, and those kept by the Fischer family are particularly shameful and life changing. In 1927, sisters Mabel and Bertie are separated for life when their stepfather commits suicide and Mabel runs off with Bertie's boyfriend. Following each sister, this multigenerational novel introduces readers to two strong matriarchal families. While the women in each generation fight with their mothers to follow their individual dreams, one granddaughter, aptly named Grace, finally learns most of the family history and creates a necklace that reunites the two clans in a work of beauty. VERDICT Set against the dramatic backdrop of American history from the Great Depression into the 21st century, this beautiful but disturbing debut novel, inspired partly by the author's own family history, will engage readers of well-written, thought-provoking women's fiction. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

It's hard not to hate you

 by Valerie Frankel. Since childhood, Frankel (Thin Is the New Happy) suppressed her emotions, to the detriment of her emotional and physical health. After a health scare at age 44, her doctor tells her she must reduce stress: "The hate in me just had to come out." As the author reflects on a lifetime of being determinedly upbeat, she ponders dysfunctional friendships, asserts herself with a bitchy neighbor and selfish gym-goer, even visits a nearby Zen center. Family and friends are supportive, especially when she "outs" her jealousy of fellow authors-turns out, they're all jealous of somebody, too. It's refreshing to read along as Frankel realizes that anger can be cathartic, even entertaining, when expressed, and "feel[ing] all your emotions, all at once" makes for a fuller, more fun life. Fans of her recent memoir, her many novels, or her collaborations with Joan Rivers (Men Are Stupid... and They Like Big Boobs) and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi (A Shore Thing) will especially enjoy learning more about what makes the funny, warm Frankel tick. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Prince of Ravenscar : a Sherbrooke novel

 by Catherine Coulter. Julian, the second son of the Duke of Brabante, is an unmarried smuggler, and his mother wants to take him to London for the season. In fact, the Duchess has chosen a wife for him, Sophie Collette Wilkie, an unfashionably tall clergyman's daughter who, at 20, is considered too old for the marriage market. Julian comes with a good deal of emotional baggage. Wounded at the Battle of Waterloo, he still bears the scars of war. Even worse, his young wife, Lily, was found murdered, and people believe that he did it, especially her brother, Richard, who is obsessed with revenge. Once Sophie meets Julian, she knows he is innocent and becomes his greatest champion, and Julian finds himself falling in love with this allegedly unmarriageable spinster. The prolific Coulter balances this tale's serious themes and tone with humorous moments and a charming secondary romance between Devlin, Julian's half uncle and best friend, who is so pale it's rumored he is a vampire, and one of Sophie's relatives, Roxanne. Fans of Coulter's popular Sherbrooke series (The Scottish Bride, 2001; The Sherbrooke Twins, 2004) will be thrilled by this latest addition. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Blue nights

 by Joan Didion. Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), her chronicle of grief following the abrupt death of her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, evoked a powerful response from a widely diverse readership and won the National Book Award. Left untold was the story of the life and death of Dunne and Didion's daughter, Quintana Roo, the subject of this scalpel-sharp memoir of motherhood and loss. Didion looks to blue nights summer evenings whe. the twilights turn long and blu. only to heral. the dying of the brightnes. to define the dark limbo she's endured since August 2005, when Quintana Roo, 39, died after nearly two years of harrowing medical crises and complications. Didion looks back to her own peripatetic childhood, her and Dunne's life as world-traveling Hollywood screenwriters, and their spontaneously arranged private adoption of their newborn daughter. As Didion portrays Quintana Roo as a smart and stoic girl given t. quicksilve. mood changes, she parses the conundrums of adoption and chastises herself for maternal failings. Now coping with not only grief and regret but also illness and age, Didion is courageous in both her candor and artistry, ensuring that this infinitely sad yet beguiling book of distilled reflections and remembrance is graceful and illuminating in its blue musings. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The vault : an Inspector Wexford novel

 by Ruth Rendell. In Rendell's twenty-second Inspector Wexford novel, Wexford is now six months retired from the Brighton Police and living part of the year in a well-heeled carriage house in a posh part of London. Rendell is brilliant at showcasing London as seen through the eyes of Wexford on his long walks. She's also brilliant at showing how Wexford feels a bit pointless in retirement. Saving both Wexford and Wexford fans from withdrawal is an offer from a former colleague to serve as unpaid advisor to the police on an especially tricky case. In this latest Wexford, Rendell follows up on a famous cottage and some of the victims and villains of her suspenseful A Sight for Sore Eyes (2000). When the newest owner of the cottage made famous in a painting moves a heavy outdoor planting and opens a manhole beneath it, he discovers four entombed bodies. Forensics determines that three of the bodies (two men and a woman) have been there for 12 years. Another body, a woman, has been there only 2 years. Wexford, as usual, takes the lead in tying together the strands of the cold case with the more recent murder. A family crisis, in which his daughter suffers grievous bodily harm in a stabbing, adds to Wexford's struggles. Rendell, who has won a clutch of British Gold Daggers and American Edgars, is at the top of her form here. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Wexford remains one of the best-loved British coppers still on the beat (or almost on it, as he's now officially retired). Fans will take him any way they can get him. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Becoming Dickens : the invention of a novelist

 by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst A quiet shrewd-looking little fellow who seems to guess pretty much what he is. So wrote Carlyle about the young Charles Dickens. Douglas-Fairhurst, however, understands as Carlyle did not what an immense challenge Dickens faced in determining just what kind of creature he was. In the tangled events of Dickens' formative years refracted through his journalism, political polemics, correspondence, and early fiction readers discern the emerging identity of Victorian England's greatest novelist. The Pickwick Papers looms especially large in this narrative of self-discovery, as Dickens decisively reveals himself in the amusing, verbally inventive, protean, and remarkably autobiographical character, Sam Weller. Though enthusiastic public response to Weller bolsters Dickens' confidence, the writer struggles with the perils of notoriety, finally finding his authorial poise through the unlikely task of editing the memoirs of the great clown Joseph Grimaldi. Manifest in Dickens' decision to use his own name for the first time on the title page of Oliver Twist, that poise profoundly reshapes British literature. A convincing portrait of budding genius. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The cradle in the grave

 by Sophie Hannah. Hannah, author of masterfully crafted psychological thrillers, this time spins a complex tale centered on a controversial social issue. Imprisoned for killing her two sons and forced to give up her infant daughter, Helen Yardley was pardoned years later after expert testimony at her trial was challenged. Finally free, she is promptly murdered. Although filmmaker Fliss Benson wants nothing to do with the Yardley case, her boss assigns her to complete a documentary on wrongly-accused mothers, including Yardley. Her interest is piqued, however, after she receives an anonymous card with a grid of 16 numbers that is just like the one left on Yardley's body. Investigating officer DC Simon Waterhouse, chafing against his hated superior, who worked the original Yardley case, involves his fiancee, DS Charlie Zailer, and the two find themselves seeking not only the murderer but also the truth about the charges against Yardley and another mother accused of murder. The quirks of the Waterhouse-Zailer relationship add interest and even some comic relief from the pain portrayed in this compelling novel. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

I'd listen to my parents if they'd just shut up : what to say and not say when parenting teens

 by Anthony E. Wolf. Adolescents today are more likely to challenge their parents' authority because parents are less punitive with their children than in generations past. While most parents wouldn't want a return to harsh punishment or the potential of teaching children by aggressive example, they can't tolerate the sassiness of their teens. Child psychologist Wolf (Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall?, 1991) offers a broad perspective on adolescence and parenting in the digital age. He begins with an overview of child development and human psychology as it applies to adults and children, and how we all challenge what we consider to be impositions. He captures the day-to-day tensions between parents and teens in amusing and infuriating vignettes and suggests how to respond to charges that It's not fair and declarations that I hate you. Parents may balk at the notion of scripted responses but will appreciate the insights into the stresses of modern adolescence, from coping with divorce to adapting to social media and technology. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Lost December

 by Richard Paul Evans. Evans offers up another heartwarming, feel-good tale in time for the holidays. Luke Crisp is the son of a successful business owner, a man who has built a copy-shop empire from scratch. Luke lost his mother at a young age, leaving his father, Carl, to raise Luke alone while running Crisp's Copy Centers. Luke starts working when he is in his teens, learning how the centers run and soaking in his father's strong work ethic. Carl hopes Luke will take over the company when he returns from Wharton Business School, but Luke soon falls in with a group of hard-partying students, led by the charismatic Sean. Rather than return to Arizona to work for his father upon graduation, Luke decides to travel to Europe with his girlfriend, Candace; Sean; and several of their friends. This proves to be a terrible mistake when Luke, with the help of Sean, runs through his trust fund and finds himself truly broke and disowned by his father. Based on the parable of the prodigal son, Evans' latest is a touching redemption story. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Why read Moby-Dick?

 by Nathaniel Philbrick. What a book Melville has written! Hawthorne exclaimed upon first reading Moby Dick. More than 150 years later, Philbrick echoes Hawthorne's enthusiasm. Although he repudiates the various interpretations of Melville's White Whale as a symbol of this or that human nemesis, Philbrick sees in Melville's story of the whale a mythically capacious emblem of the nation that incubated it pulsing with poetic imagination, threatened by grim contradictions, and doomed to a devastating catastrophe. Readers thus come to recognize, for instance, how Melville's portrayal of the Pequod's pious but hard-hearted owners mirrors the bifurcation separating the nation's high-spirited idealism from its real-world addiction to the profits of slavery. And in its harrowing denouement, this prescient novel anticipates the carnage of Cold Harbor and Antietam. To be sure, Philbrick sees in the novel more than a symbol of America's tragically flawed history; he marvels, in fact, at how deeply Melville plumbs mysteries that defy time and geography. By probing the circumstances surrounding Melville's writing of the novel, Philbrick illuminates the intense creative process through which the brooding author melded the darkest elements from the art of Hawthorne and Shakespeare in the crucible of his own fervent agnosticism. Sure to swell the readership of Melville's masterpiece. --Booklist (Check catalog)

The maid

 by Kimberly Cutter. Jehanne d'Arc, patron saint of France, is the central character in this historical novel about war, betrayal, and faith in God. Debut novelist Cutter depicts the heroine's life story from the first time the peasant girl hears voices from God until her death, motivated by jealousy and revenge. At the heart of the story is the girl's seemingly impossible mission and unwavering effort to lead thousands of men to liberate France from its English invaders. The power of faith triumphs as Jehanne and her army turn the tide in the Hundred Years' War. At times, the novel reads like a biography, and Cutter does adhere closely to fact, though she takes some creative liberties. VERDICT Historical fiction fans, particularly those interested in French history, will delight in Cutter's take on this legendary character. Readers of Christian fiction will also find it enticing. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

El Narco : inside Mexico's criminal insurgency

 by Loan Grillo. Freelance war and crime reporter Grillo writes that he became fascinated with the trade routes of narcotics when he was a teenager in Brighton, England, in the 1980s. After drugs started flooding into the seaside town, many of Grillo's friends started using; some died, and some still are wasted, propping up the bars of Brighton. Grillo set out first to learn how drugs made their way from exotic places to Brighton and then to do something to stem the tide. The investigation chronicled here is the result of 10 years of reporting on the ground in Mexico, where Grillo interviewed drug lords, drug addicts, drug survivors, gang members, smugglers, and agents from the ATF, DEA, and FBI. The division of his book into three parts History. Anatomy. and Destiny effectively organizes the analysis of how Mexico came to control drug trafficking, how it spreads, and what can be done about it, while also allowing Grillo free rein in presenting his hard-won findings. This excellent work packs the punch of Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah (2007), an exploration of the Italian Mafia, which also displays the fruits of direct reporting bolstered by intensive interviewing. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Zero day

 by David Baldacci. Decorated army veteran John Puller is a special agent in the military's Criminal Investigative Division. When a colonel and his family are brutally murdered in West Virginia, Puller partners with the local homicide detective, Sgt. Samantha Cole, to solve the crime. As their investigation deepens, the number of fatalities increases. How are these victims connected? Puller and Cole must discover the truth behind the conspiracy that sent these individuals to their deaths. The clock is winding down. Three. Two. One. Zero. Game over? Verdict Baldacci fans will embrace this new series hero as Puller doggedly pursues justice in spite of his personal problems: Puller's retired military hero father suffers from dementia, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason. High-octane suspense and conspiracy thriller buffs who enjoy John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and W.E.B. Griffin will also snatch up this title. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Battlefield angels : saving lives under enemy fire from Valley Forge to Afghanista

 by Scott Mcgaugh. Marketing and communications professional McGaugh (marketing director, USS Midway Museum; Midway Magic) presents a historical survey of American military medicine providing medical and U.S. military history buffs with a look at the personnel who have tended the wounded during and after battle over the last 235 years. Each of the 14 chapters starts with a brief vignette of the experiences of a medic at a certain conflict. The battle of Trenton in the Revolutionary War is followed by Civil War advances, then World War I, six chapters on World War II, then the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Verdict Although there are many more-focused books on military medicine available, this popular history will provide a layperson's introduction to the field. Its breadth requires somewhat superficial coverage, yet the book will appeal to general readers as a useful summary of battlefield medicine, highlighting particular personalities and the evolving role of military doctors and women in service. Suitable for both adult and YA collections. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

The marriage plot

 by Jeffrey Eugenides. In Eugenides' first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning Middlesex (2002), English major and devotee of classic literature Madeleine Hanna is a senior at Reagan-era Brown University. Only when curiosity gets the best of her does she belly up to Semiotics 211, a bastion of postmodern liberalism, and meet handsome, brilliant, mysterious Leonard Bankhead. Completing a triangle is Madeleine's friend Mitchell, a clear-eyed religious-studies student who believes himself her true intended. Eugenides' drama unfolds over the next year or so. His characteristically deliberate, researched realization of place and personality serve him well, and he strikes perfectly tuned chords by referring to works ranging from Barthes' Lovers' Discourse to Bemelmans' Madeline books for children. The remarkably a propos title refers to the subject of Madeleine's honors thesis, which is the Western novel's doing and undoing, in that, upon the demise, circa 1900, of the marriage plot, the novel didn't mean much anymore, according to Madeleine's professor and, perhaps, Eugenides. With this tightly, immaculately self-contained tale set upon pillars at once imposing and of dollhouse scale, namely, academia ( College wasn't like the real world, Madeleine notes) and the emotions of the youngest of twentysomethings, Eugenides realizes the novel whose dismantling his characters examine.. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher will be cashing in on the popularity of Middlesex, especially with public library users, by targeting much of their publicity campaign in that direction. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Thinking, fast and slow

 by Daniel Kahneman. Decision making tends to be intuitive rather than logical. Kahneman has dedicated his academic research to understanding why that is so. This work distills his and colleagues' findings about how we make up our minds and how much we can trust intuition. Clinical experiments on psychology's traditional guinea pigs college students abound and collectively batter confidence in System 1. as Kahneman calls intuition. All sorts of biases, sporting tags like the halo effect (i.e., unwarranted attribution of positive qualities to a thing or person one likes), bedevil accurate appraisal of reality. According to Kahneman, intuitive feelings often override System 2. or thinking that requires effort, such as simple arithmetic. Exemplifying his points in arenas as diverse as selecting military officers, speculating in stocks, hiring employees, and starting up businesses, Kahneman accords some reliability to intuitive choice, as long as the decision maker is aware of cognitive illusions (the study of which brought Kahneman the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics). Kahneman's insights will most benefit those in leadership positions yet they will also help the average reader to become a better car buyer. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Aleph

 by Paulo Cuelho. If you love mysticism Coelho-style, as many readers around the world do, chances are you will love his latest spiritually transformative odyssey. At the heart of the narrative, Paulo, profoundly disillusioned by contemporary reality, plagued by inner conflict, and losing faith in himself and the world he inhabits, sets off on a highly personal quest that defies time and space. Traveling around the world, he journeys back into his own reincarnations, understanding that his path is reflected in the eyes of others, and that if I want to find myself, I need that map. Although he encounters a diversity of significant friends along the way, his reconnection with a woman he loved and heartlessly betrayed over 500 years ago is the key to his reawakening and redemption. Another magical mystery tour full of spiritually challenging ideas and ideals from the always inspirational Coelho. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Love at first bark : how saving a dog can sometimes help you save yourself

 by Julie Klam. In You Had Me at Woof (2010), Klam cheerfully told how she transformed herself from a desperate young woman who had never had a pet into a happy dog-rescuer with a husband, a daughter, and a house full of Boston terriers. In her new book, she continues on the same path in three stories about her role in rescuing dogs assumed to be unadoptable. In each case, she takes us down to the street or into the woods to witness her first encounter with a dog that just needs food, health care, training, and loving attention to become someone's prized companion. In the process, she entertains us with details of her life, the wide network of dog rescuers with whom she texts, and the sweet dogs who have torn her home apart while fixing her heart. These lively stories set in New York City and the outskirts of New Orleans should be entertaining to read aloud, too. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Eyes wide open

 by Andrew Gross. When Jay Erlich's troubled nephew, Evan, leaps off a cliff in California, the successful surgeon flies to the aid of Charlie, his equally troubled half-brother and Evan's father. Erlich directs his ir. at a care system he believes failed Evan, until unsettling details cause him to wonder whether Evan's death was not suicide but murder. Urging the reluctant coroner's detective, Don Sherwood, to investigate further, Erlich soon finds himself obsessed with the case, believing the evidence points to a bizarre and long-running conspiracy. And as his involvement plays havoc with his personal life, he finds himself in danger, too. Gross is a workmanlike stylist, and occasionally the ensemble cast works against the story we're with Sherwood as he learns something, and with Erlich as Sherwood explains it but never mind. This is a well-plotted, swiftly moving story that forces us to keep turning pages. And the bad guy behind it all, a cult leader with a notorious real-life model, is downright chilling. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Dangerous instincts : how gut feelings betray us

 by Mary Ellen O'Toole. O'Toole, a recently retired FBI behavior analyst, is more than qualified to help people develop simple analytical tools that will help them better detect danger and recognize risky situations. In this absorbing read, she discusses why people trusted Bernie Madoff and Ted Bundy and dissects online dating responses and typical blind spots. The author helps readers analyze their decision-making patterns and provides a guide for helping them to assess and mitigate risk. O'Toole's book will provide insight to everyone, but it's particularly helpful for women living alone, parents concerned about their children's safety, or employers worried about perplexing employee behavior. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

The Stranger's Child

 by Allan Hollinghurst. On the eve of World War I, Cecil Valance, a wildly attractive and promising young poet, pays a visit to the home of his Cambridge boyfriend, the son of one of England's fine old families. He memorializes the visit with a poem that becomes famous after his wartime death. The poem, created as an autograph book keepsake for his lover's younger sister, Daphne, becomes the subject of speculation and debate for biographers and the generations that follow, as it contains hints about what might have happened during the visit and with whom. As the novel gallops ahead decade by decade, following the family fortunes of Daphne and her progeny, the events of that less tolerant era are viewed through an ever-cloudier lens. VERDICT With the prewar ambience of "Atonement", the manor-house mystique of "Gosford Park", and the palpable sexual tension of Hollinghurst's own "The Line of Beauty", this generously paced, thoroughly satisfying novel will gladden the hearts of Anglophile readers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The puppy diaries : raising a dog named Scout

 by Jill Abramson. After her West Highland white terrier Buddy died, heartbroken New York Times managing editor Abramson was reluctant to get another dog. Then she was hit by a truck. Suffering post-traumatic depression, she agreed with her husband to get a puppy, a British standard golden retriever named Scout. Determined that Scout would become a better-behaved dog than Buddy, she registered the puppy for obedience training based on the positive-reinforcement principles of dog expert Karen Pryor. Trained as an investigative reporter, Abramson interviewed many dog trainers, breeders, veterinarians, and owners, and read many manuals in her search for the best way to raise her puppy. She also sampled services for dogs and their owners in the upscale Tribeca neighborhood of New York and in rural Connecticut. This engaging report on Scout's first year belongs in most public libraries. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The art of fielding : a novel

 by Chad Harbach. *Starred Review* Sports fiction has a built-in plot problem. The drama usually rides on a team's success or failure as it moves through a season to the Big Game. The team either overcomes adversity and wins, following in the cliche-strewn tradition of everything from The Bad News Bears to Rocky, or it loses, a literarily more resonant route, to be sure, but inevitably unsatisfying if the reader has become a fan along the way. First-novelist Harbach finds an inventive and thoroughly satisfying solution to the Big Game problem, and it works because the reader doesn't live or die with what happens on the field. This sprawling multiple-story saga follows the coming-of-age and midlife crises of five characters at Westish College, a small liberal-arts school in Wisconsin. At the center of it all is Henry Skrimshander, a shortstop of phenomenal ability who has led the school's baseball team to unprecedented heights. Then a wildly errant throw from Henry's usually infallible arm provides the catalyst for game-changing events not only in Henry's life but also in those of his roommate, Owen Dunne; his best friend and mentor, the team's catcher, Mike Schwartz; the school's president, Guert Affenlight; and the president's daughter, Pella. In an immediately accessible narrative reminiscent of John Irving, Harbach (cofounder of the popular literary journal n+1) draws readers into the lives of his characters, plumbing their psyches with remarkable psychological acuity and exploring the transformative effect that love and friendship can have on troubled souls. And, yes, it's a hell of a baseball story, too, no matter who wins. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The quest : energy, security and the remaking of the modern world

 by Daniel Yergin. The quest for energy is quite simply the quest for power, argues energy expert Yergin. Unanticipated events manmade and natural, from the coup in Egypt whose ripples threaten to destabilize oil production in the Middle East to the earthquakes that destabilized Japan's nuclear energy plants can pivot the world's economy as more and more emerging nations demand more energy. Yergin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Prize (1991), begins by detailing how the energy system of oil, gas, and electrical power has fueled the economic growth of the modern world. He goes on to provide a close examination of the concerns about the environment, terrorism, geopolitics, and economics that will affect changes in energy sources. He offers context for growing scientific concern about climate change, China's huge stores of coal reserves that make it self-sufficient but threaten the environment, and new perspectives on energy, from Brazil's rising role as ethanol producer to growing investment across the world in renewable energy sources, including solar and wind power. A comprehensive, accessible look at energy. --Booklist (Check Catalog) 

Song of the Silk Road

 by Mingmei Ye. Yip's lively new novel manages to be at once modern and traditional. Struggling scribe Lily Lin is writing her Chinese-American family saga, stuck in a dead-end relationship with a married man, and employed as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant in midtown Manhattan. When she is contacted by a law firm representing a previously unknown but apparently wealthy Chinese aunt, she ignores her good fortune, thinking it fishy, "like a cliched plot in a cheap novel." But it's not, and if Lily follows her aunt's obsessive instructions to retrace her own Silk Road sojourn, Lily will receive three million dollars. She accepts the challenge, and thus begins an absorbing journey that only seems to make sense as a way of uniting the Chinese and Western halves of Lily's heritage. Surprising and often funny. Yip's (Peach Blossom Pavilion) modern heroine's quest is filled with unique companions, unforeseen dangers, unexpected joys, and bitter sorrows. Part epic, part coming-of-age story, part modern fairy tale, it only falters in an easy ending, which readers, by then in love with Lily Lin, will likely forgive. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Going home : finding peace when pets die

 by John Katz. Leave it to prolific author Katz (Soul of a Dog) to write this beautiful, heartrending book about saying good-bye to a loved pet. Katz draws from personal experience to discuss the difficulties of deciding to put a pet down, dealing with the guilt, and honoring that pet's legacy. He offers special prayers and rituals for helping children grieve the loss of a pet. Best, he speaks of the one-of-a-kind relationship people have with their pets and sees animals as free of the conflict, drama, and disappointment that seem to taint human relationships. Katz addresses a need, and he does it beautifully. Bring tissues. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Scenes from village life

 by Amos Oz. Loosely connected stories from renowned author Oz (A Tale of Love and Darkness, 2004) take place in the Israeli village of Tel Ilan, which is shifting from a tight-knit, rustic farming community to one of art galleries and boutique markets. This disquieting transformation and general unease underlie this thought-provoking collection, in which the mayor's wife suddenly leaves him, a stranger mysteriously arrives, and a real-estate agent becomes entranced by a dilapidated property. The memorable Digging finds the elderly Pesach living with his widowed daughter, Rachel. The cantankerous Pesach nags Rachel about unexplained digging noises at night, a complaint she disregards until the Arab student she is housing also mentions similar sounds. In Relations, a doctor anxiously awaits the arrival of her injured nephew as she reflects on their complicated relationship. With the haunting Singing, an evening of communal singing is punctuated with news of air raids, leaving one participant unable to shake an unexplained feeling of urgency. Filled with tension and allegory, Oz's perceptive tales explore the nuance and alienation of transitioning states. --Booklist (Check Catalog)