The Union quilters

 by Jennifer Chiaverini. In her true-to-form latest, Chiaverini (The Aloha Quilt; etc.) goes back to the Civil War era as the men go off to fight and the women of Elm Creek Valley support the Union troops. While the women struggle with their own problems, updates from the front amplify tensions as the war comes closer to home, leading some to tragedy and others to heartbreaking revelations. Among the many developments, Dorothea sends husband Thomas off to war with her favorite quilt; Constance's husband, Abel, seeks a way to serve a Union that won't enlist him because he's black; Gerda pines for Jonathan, who brings his medical skills to the front; and Gerda's brother, Hans, refuses to fight because he is a pacifist. Chiaverini does a good job balancing the experiences of the women at home and the men on the front, though, oddly, the quilting is all but absent. There's enough exposition to welcome new readers without bogging down the tale, resulting in a reliably heartwarming and accessible story. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

The sublime engine : a biography of the human heart

 by Stephen Amidon. As the body's main power source and traditionally presumed seat of emotions, the human heart has inspired more natural philosophy and literature than any other organ. The brothers and coauthors Amidon, one a novelist, the other a cardiologist, call their unusual collaboration a biography because it presents a multifaceted picture of the heart's influences on mythology, science, and popular culture through the ages. In six lyrically written chapters, they trace humanity's perennial fascination with the heart through the eyes of history's greatest artists and medical explorers, beginning with the Greeks and fancifully ending with a peek into the future of cardiological innovation. Particularly attention-grabbing are the stories of groundbreaking researchers, such as Sir William Harvey, who discovered the circulatory system, and German internist Werner Forssmann, who proved the value of catheterization by inserting a tube in his own heart. The only shortcoming of this fascinating and engaging survey is the Amidons' admitted neglect of the Asian perspective, but the end result should appeal to both poets and physicians. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Revenge of the radioactive lady : a novel

 by Elizabeth Stuckey-French. Revenge is a dish best served cold-and after 50 years, Marylou Ahearn's dish is just about properly chilled. Once the unwitting subject of an experiment in radio-activity, brokenhearted and bitter Marylou sets out to avenge the dire consequences of that same study. Her target? Dr. Wilson Spriggs, the man who engineered and oversaw the experiment that eventually ruined Marylou's life. Dr. Spriggs now lives in a cheerful, innocuous Florida suburb with his daughter and her family and has what appears to be an idyllic life. With vengeance in her heart, Marylou adopts a fake persona and moves in on the doctor's life, offering friendship, with an actual intent to kill. But she soon discovers that the lives of Dr. Spriggs and his family are far from perfect, and, what's more, she rather likes them, in all their dysfunctional glory, making her task difficult to carry out. VERDICT Mixing the suburban angst of Tom Perrotta (The Abstinence Teacher) with the snarky humor of Carl Hiaasen (Stormy Weather), Stuckey-French (Mermaids on the Moon) has written a page-turner that is thoughtful, amusing, and nearly impossible to put down. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Pictures of you : a novel

 by Caroline Leavitt. In Leavitt's (Girls in Trouble, 2005) compelling new novel, a car crash provides the catalyst for an examination of how well we know the people we love. April and Isabelle, both fleeing their marriages, collide on a foggy, deserted stretch of road. Only Isabelle survives, and though blameless, she is haunted by guilt. In search of healing, she finds herself drawn to Charlie and Sam, April's grief-stricken husband and son. Complicated relationships develop, and Leavitt thoughtfully handles friendship and romance in scenes of emotional resonance. She understands the ache of loss, the elusiveness of forgiveness, and the triteness of words like closure. An expert storyteller, Leavitt alternates perspective among her three leading characters, providing insight into the thoughts, secrets, and dreams that they withhold from each other. Whether these individuals will arrive at happiness separately or together is the question that drives the narrative, and the reader, forward as Leavitt teases suspense out of the greatest mystery of all the workings of the human heart. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The net delusion : the dark side of internet freedom

 Evgeny Morozov (contributing editor, Foreign Policy), currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University, here examines the evolving role of the Internet in activism, dissent, and authoritarian regimes. He investigates the impact of a range of media on social revolution and activism from television in East Germany to Twitter during Iran's Green Revolution, intertwining that analysis with discussion of the ways governments are able to use the Internet for surveillance of political activity, propaganda dissemination, and censorship. In his complex examination, he analyzes the effect of the proliferation of available entertainment and access to consumer goods on the potential for political activity, arguing that opening societies to further consumerism and to Western cultural media has in some ways deterred political activism. Morozov's argument that the West conflates democratization with consumerism uncovers a critique of the West here for its complacent belief that the Internet and supposed freedom of information is a certain pathway to democratization. VERDICT Highly recommended and likely to be popular with political observers, policy wonks, activists, information junkies, and academics. [See also The Offensive Internet, reviewed on page opposite. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

These things hidden

 by Heather Gudenkauf. Gudenkauf's scintillating second suspense novel (after The Weight of Silence) opens with the release of 21-year-old Allison Glenn from prison, where she has served five years for an unspecified but particularly horrible crime. Allison is reluctant to enter a halfway house in her hometown of Linden Falls, Iowa, where "even a heroin-addicted prostitute arrested for armed robbery and murder would get more compassion than I ever will." Allison, her family's former golden girl, secures a job at a local bookstore, but her efforts to resume some sort of normal life are undermined by her well-to-do parents' indifference, her sister's hatred, and the stigma of her conviction. Meanwhile, one little boy holds the key to the tragedy that led to Allison's imprisonment. The author slowly and expertly reveals the truth in a tale so chillingly real, it could have come from the latest headlines. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

The hidden reality : parallel universes and the deep laws of the cosmos

  by B. (Brian) Greene. "There was a time when 'universe' meant 'all there is,' " writes Greene, but soon we may have to redefine that word, along with our own meager understanding of the cosmos. A theoretical physicist and celebrated author, Greene offers intrepid readers another in-depth yet marvelously accessible look inside the perplexing world of modern theoretical physics and cosmology. Greene's book The Elegant Universe explained late 20th-century efforts to find a unified theory of everything, culminating with string theory. But string theory opened up a new can of worms, hinting at the possible existence of multiple universes and other strange entities. The possibility of other universes existing alongside our own like holes in "a gigantic block of Swiss cheese" seems more likely every day. Beginning with relativity theory, the Big Bang, and our expanding universe, Greene introduces first the mind-blowing multiplicity of forms those parallel universes might take, from patchwork quilts or stretchy "branes" to landscapes and holograms riddled with black holes. With his inspired analogies starring everyone from South Park's Eric Cartman to Ms. Pac-Man and a can of Pringles, Greene presents a lucid, intriguing, and triumphantly understandable state-of-the-art look at the universe. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Home fires

 by Gene Wolfe. In a future North America not quite crumbling but somewhat less than utopian, Skip and Chelle meet and marry in college. But Chelle has to do her term of military service against aliens many light-years away. Twenty-five years later, thanks to the time-dilation effect, she is a still-young but convalescent combat veteran. Skip is a wealthy businessman. And they are still in love. Unfortunately, when they take a Caribbean cruise to celebrate, they run into pirates, politics, aliens, and Murphy's Law running wild. The ending may not please readers who have come to care for the couple, as over the years it has been easy to care for most of Wolfe's characters. But they will be pleased by this latest display of all the gifts of one of sf's authentic all-time masters, including original and balanced characterization, masterly world building, and an ethical sensibility of the highest degree. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Endgame : Bobby Fischer's remarkable rise and fall - from America's brightest prodigy to the edge of madness

 by Frank Brady. Brady's insightful biography of the legendary chess player focuses more on Fischer's life as a chess champion than on his much-publicized legal troubles and alleged psychological breakdowns. Brady first became friends with Fischer at a chess tournament when they were both children, and he combines a traditional biography with a personal memoir. Fischer began playing chess at age six and was soon playing games by himself, unable to find worthy competition. He seems to have had a lifelong battle with himself, and his biggest challenge may have been conquering not his competitors but his own intellect. Brady is uniquely qualified to write this book. Not only is he a seasoned biographer and someone who knew Fischer on a personal level; he's also an accomplished chess player himself, able to convey the game's intricacies to the reader in a clear, uncomplicated manner. The book should appeal to a broad audience, from hard-core chess fans to casual players to those who are simply interested in what is a compelling personal story. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

You know when the men are gone

 by Siobhan Fallon. Fallon's accomplished debut short story collection offers a glimpse into a world few civilians will ever experience: Fort Hood, TX. Fort Hood is a place where husbands and fathers pack their gear and leave for deployments of a year or longer. Left behind are the families, and each of the eight stories describes a different spouse or family coping with such a prolonged absence. The wife and mother with breast cancer, the teenage bride, the young mother, the Serbian wife who speaks little English-each deals with the stress and loneliness of her husband's deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan in her own way. Some isolate themselves, choosing to live off base or move back in with their families. Others embrace the company and support of other army wives and attend Family Readiness Group meetings. This might be a work of fiction, but Fallon's work is remarkably real, and each story's characters immediately grip the reader. Verdict Excellent; even readers who do not usually read short stories should seek out this book. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Battle hymn of the tiger mother

 by Amy Chua. Chua's stated intent is to present the differences between Western and Chinese parenting styles by sharing experiences with her own children (now teenagers). As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, she is poised to contrast the two disparate styles, even as she points out that being a Chinese Mother can cross ethnic lines: it is more a state of mind than a genetic trait. Yet this is a deeply personal story about her two daughters and how their lives are shaped by such demands as Chua's relentless insistence on straight A's and daily hours of mandatory music practice, even while vacationing with grandparents. Readers may be stunned by Chua's explanations of her hard-line style, and her meant-to-be humorous depictions of screaming matches intended to force greatness from her girls. She insists that Western children are no happier than Chinese ones, and that her daughters are the envy of neighbors and friends, because of their poise and musical, athletic, and academic accomplishments. Ironically, this may be read as a cautionary tale that asks just what price should be paid for achievement. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The red garden

 by Alice Hoffman. *Starred Review* The lush and haunted wildlands of Massachusetts provide fertile ground for Hoffman's endlessly flowering imagination. Like The Probable Future (2003) and Blackbird House (2004), The Red Garden, a sequence of beguiling, linked stories, is rooted in colonial times and reaches into the present. The first foolhardy white folks the Motts, Partridges, Starrs, and Bradys to settle in this land of blackflies, bears, eels, and harsh winters in 1750 only survive because Hallie Brady, the first of a line of determined and adept women in what becomes the small town of Blackwell in Berkshire County, goes out into the snowy wilderness to find sustenance. As spring allows the founding families to cultivate the strange red soil in the village's first garden, Johnny Appleseed stays for a spell, and, later, Emily Dickinson happens by. Generation by generation, humans and animals form profound bonds; women's lives change, somewhat; men go to war; people are poor and in despair; illness and violence rage; strangers find refuge; and love blossoms impossibly, extravagantly, inevitably. In gloriously sensuous, suspenseful, mystical, tragic, and redemptive episodes, Hoffman subtly alters her language, from an almost biblical voice to increasingly nuanced and intricate prose reflecting the burgeoning social and psychological complexities her passionate and searching characters face in an ever-changing world. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

American Heart Association no-fad diet : a personal plan for healthy weight loss

 Lasting weight loss doesn't come from following extreme diets or quick-fix fads. Being able to lose weight3/4and keep it off3/4comes from choosing the lifestyle habits that make sense for you in the long term. If, like millions of other Americans, you are struggling to lose weight, this second edition of the "American Heart Association No-Fad Diet" will show you how to find just the right combination of attitude, eating, and exercise to achieve your goals in an effective and healthy way. Updated with the latest information on nutrition science and weight management, "No-Fad Diet" leads you through an assessment of your current eating and exercise habits and then helps you create a personalized program to fit "your" weight-loss needs and "your "lifestyle, instead of you having to follow a one-size-fits-all approach to dieting. --Summary (Check catalog)

The bishop's man : a novel

 by Linden MacIntyre. Father Duncan MacAskill is the last person you want showing up on your doorstep if you are a priest. His job as the "Exorcist" is to clean up delicate situations (a pregnant housekeeper; allegations of child abuse) involving wayward priests. When his bishop sends him to a little town on Cape Breton Island to get him out of the way of an impending abuse scandal, Duncan discovers that he himself may be part of the reason a young man commits suicide. Of course, the attractive priest does garner much attention from the lonely village women. He grapples with his own past and his alcoholism while trying to decide whether to remain a man of the cloth. Winner of the 2009 Giller Prize, a prestigious Canadian literary award, this debut novel by a Canadian broadcast journalist is slow to start but picks up as the story moves along. It accurately describes the pastoral setting of the Canadian Maritimes and the sense of place and history the residents there possess. This story, however, is not geographically dependent and could have been placed anywhere and still be relevant. Verdict Although the author's too obvious attempt to humanize the clergy is a bit overdone, this drama about the priestly betrayal of Catholic faith in Canada is of good literary quality and will appeal to fans of literary fiction. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)