Complete guide to puppy care : everything you need to know to have a happy, healthy, well-trained puppy

by Stacy Kennedy
This book will help prepare you for all of the joys and the responsibilities of bringing a new best friend into your home. This manual is indispensible to novice and experienced owners alike, with clear, easy-to-find information on the essential aspects of finding and raising a puppy.  A photo gallery of the top American Kennel Club (AKC)-registered breeds provides insight into today's most popular breeds. Learn where to purchase your puppy and how to feed, groom, socialize, housetrain, crate train, prevent common problem behaviors, travel, and have lots of fun with your puppy.

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The lifeboat : a novel

by Charlotte Rogan     (Get the Book)
A young woman's first-person story of survival against seemingly insurmountable odds reveals truths about human nature and, particularly, about herself. Married just four weeks earlier, Grace and Henry Winter cut short their visit to London in 1914 after Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated. Wealthy Henry is able to book their passage back to New York on the Empress Alexandra and then to wangle space on a lifeboat for Grace as the ship is sinking. Grace's survival is never in question in the opening pages, she's one of three women from her lifeboat being tried for murder but her story is no less harrowing for that, since she reveals more of herself throughout her ordeal. Early on, ship's crewman Mr. Hardie is a hero on the boat, providing invaluable if harsh leadership, whether deeming that some must be sacrificed for the sake of all or strictly doling out limited rations. But things change as conditions worsen. This is an accomplished first novel, noteworthy for its moral complexity and the sheer power of its story. --Booklist

The John Lennon letters

by John Lennon   (Get the Book)
A lifetime of letters, collected for the first time, from the legendary musician and songwriter. John Lennon was one of the greatest songwriters the world has ever known, creator of "Help!", "Come Together", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Imagine", and dozens more. But it was in his correspondences that he let his personality and poetry flow unguarded. Now, gathered for the first time in book form, are his letters to family, friends, strangers, and lovers from every point in his life. Funny, informative, wise, poetic, and sometimes heartbreaking, his letters illuminate a never-before-seen intimate side of the private genius. This groundbreaking collection of almost 300 letters and postcards has been edited and annotated by Hunter Davies, whose authorized biography The Beatles (1968) was published to great acclaim. With unparalleled knowledge of Lennon and his contemporaries, Davies reads between the lines of the artist's words, contextualizing them in Lennon's life and using them to reveal the man himself. (Publisher)

The secret keeper : a novel

by Kate Morton     (Get the Book)
Australian Morton's (The Distant Hours, 2010) latest will appeal to fans of Daphne du Maurier, Susanna Kearsley, and Audrey Niffenegger with its immensely relatable characters, passion, mystery, and twist ending. Laurel Nicholson is a teenager when she witnesses a shocking crime: her gentle, kind mother, Dorothy, kills a man. It becomes a family secret that Laurel never divulges or tries to fathom until five decades later, when Dorothy is on her deathbed, and Laurel finds a photograph of her mother with an old friend, snapped back in 1941, when Dorothy was barely out of her teens. As Laurel begins to dig, her burning questions become, Who was Vivien Jenkins, and why was she once so important to Dorothy? With the narrative shifting between Laurel, Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy, a man who also profoundly affected Dorothy's life long ago, both reader and Laurel breathlessly hurtle into an astounding family secret that unfolds slowly and temptingly. Despite some loose threads and rather too leisurely pacing, this is likely to keep readers reading into the wee hours. --Booklist

Rise to greatness : Abraham Lincoln and America's most perilous year

by Dave Von Drehle    (Get the Book)
The year 1863 is often described as the decisive of the Civil War, given the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Von Drehle, editor at large at Time and author of the widely acclaimed Triangle (2003), the story of the infamous 1911 New York factory fire, asserts that 1862 was the transformative year that led directly to the ultimate Union triumph. It commenced with Union fortunes appearing bleak. Confederate forces threatened Washington, and Union general McClellan had a bad case of the slows, despite his command of a huge army. In the political realm, Lincoln was struggling to master the strong egos in his cabinet, and he seemed to lack the will or confidence to demand more aggressive action from McClellan. As the year advanced, von Drehle illustrates Lincoln's transformation into a great political and war leader, who learned to manage and effectively utilize the talents of his advisors and decisively assumed the role of commander in chief, dismissing McClellan and beginning the advancement of fighting officers, especially Grant. This is an excellently researched chronicle of the year that helped change the direction of the war. --Booklist

Christmas jars

by Jason F. Wright   (Get the Book)
Where had it come from? Whose money was it? Was I to spend it? Save it? Pass it on to someone more needy? Above all else, why was I chosen? Certainly there were others, countless others, more needy than me...   Her reporter's intuition insisted that a remarkable story was on the verge of the front page.  
Newspaper reporter Hope Jensen uncovers the remarkable secret behind the "Christmas Jars", glass jars filled with coins and bills anonymously left for people in need. But along the way, Hope discovers much more than the origin of the jars. When some unexpected news sets off a chain reaction of kindness, Hope's greatest Christmas Eve wish comes true. (Voted best Christmas book of all time on GoodReads)

In praise of messy lives : essays

by Katie Roiphe       (Get the Book)
In her latest essay collection, controversy-magnet Roiphe (Uncommon Arrangements, 2007) addresses a felicitous assortment of subjects, from travels in Asia to Jane Austen. The book's enticing title stems from her analysis of the enormous popularity of the television series Mad Men and its cigarette-smoke-laced, alcohol-fueled interpretation of the glamour of spectacularly messy, self-destructive behavior. What's most interesting is how Roiphe turns the camera, so to speak, on the socially correct, health-obsessed habits of today's new puritanism, and on her feminist writer mother, Anne Roiphe, whose memoir, Art and Madness (2011) records her experiences during the Mad Men era. Roiphe is equally bracing and hilarious in her dissection of the Fifty Shades of Grey craze. Roiphe writes with an archer's aim and a bullfighter's bravado. While it's true that the world she dissects is an elite one, it is also highly influential. And her cultural soundings do run deep, whether she's critiquing incest in literature; sex scenes in Roth, Mailer, and Updike versus Franzen, Chabon, and Wallace; or, from a more personal stance, entrenched attitudes toward divorce and single mothers. --Booklist

Flight behavior : a novel

by Barbara Kingsolver    (Get the Book)
Drawing on both her Appalachian roots and her background in biology, Kingsolver delivers a passionate novel on the effects of global warming. Dellarobia Turnbow got pregnant in high school; now, some 11 years into her unhappy marriage, she's ready for a big change, and she thinks she's found it with a randy young telephone lineman. But on her way to a rendezvous, she is waylaid by the sight of a forest ablaze with millions of butterflies. Their usual migratory route has been disrupted, and what looks to be a stunningly beautiful view is really an ominous sign, for the Appalachian winter could prove to be the demise of the species. The phenomenon draws the whole world to Dellarobia's doorstep scientists, the media, hordes of tourists and gives her new and galvanizing insight into her poverty-stricken life on the sheep farm of her disapproving in-laws. Kingsolver, as always a fluent and eloquent writer, skillfully sets the hook of her fascinating story before launching into activist mode with more than a few pointed speeches delivered by an eminent scientist (and Kingsolver stand-in). By that time, though, readers will be well and truly smitten with feisty, funny, red-haired Dellarobia and her determined quest to widen the confines of her world. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: On the heels of the beloved author's best-selling The Lacuna (2009), which won the Orange Prize, her latest novel will receive a 500,000-copy first printing and be supported by an eight-city author tour. --Booklist

Railroads and the American people

by H. Roger Grant     (Get the Book)
Grant (history, Clemson Univ.) takes a topical approach in his social history of the Golden Age of American railroads, from 1830 to 1930. Chapters cover trains, stations, communities, and the railroad's legacies. Grant's use of numerous period quotes, some lengthy, enliven and contextualize his text, as do scores of richly captioned illustrations. He covers topics such as the controversy over operating trains on Sundays, railroad memorials, and the roles of railroads during wartime. The railroads were, he shows, integral to the birth, life, and even death of many towns. To confirm the enduring legacy of the railroads, he recounts the origins and growth of the rail hobbyist and railroad preservation movement. VERDICT Consisting of hundreds of -vignettes containing a wealth of detailed descriptions and remembrances, Grant's work is highly recommended to train buffs and others in love with early railroading. --Library Journal

A gift from Tiffany's

by Melissa Hill     (Get the Book)
A traffic accident in front of Tiffany's causes a holiday mixup of major proportions for two separate couples in New York from England and Ireland for the holidays when their little blue boxes are switched in the chaos and the wrong couple ends up "engaged." A lack of communication ensures that the chaos continues as the couples head home. While things are all sorted out in the end, it takes some major meddling on the part of a pragmatic, well-meaning friend. A smart, perceptive eight-year-old hooks readers from the start and keeps them engaged in this multilayered story that has a number of well-drawn characters (although not all are likable) and more than one unexpected twist. Verdict Nothing turns out quite as expected in this chick lit romp that has a whimsical charm and is rich with modern Irish ambiance. Hill (The Charm Bracelet) is a popular Irish author and lives in Dublin. --Library Journal

The everything couponing book : clip your way to incredible savings!

by Karen Wilmes     (Get the Book)
Want to save money on the items you buy every week? Want to learn how to find deals without spending hours looking for them? Want to leave a store with money in your pocket? Then it's time to start couponing! Saving the most cash isn't just about clipping those paper coupons from your weekly newspaper. Today, the couponing world is expanding, with endless options like rewards cards, online coupons, loyalty programs, and group deals. But what should you choose to make the most impact on your budget? That's where The Everything® Couponing Book comes in! This book--the most comprehensive of its kind--teaches you how to find incredible deals and stretch your purchasing power with a combination of coupons, rebates, rewards points, and in-store sales. And you'll learn how to create your own game plan, depending on how much time you have to devote to couponing. Inside, you'll find money-saving information on: How to read and interpret coupon fine print Organizing a couponing system and locating the best deals How to reduce the amount of time you spend looking for coupons and deals Saving big on entertainment, travel, and dining 100 budget-friendly recipes that maximize each grocery dollar With a focus on the rise of online and social media deals, The Everything® Couponing Book is the most comprehensive couponing resource available. You'll never pay retail again! (Summary)

Love Anthony : a novel

by Lisa Genova     (Get the Book)
After 14 years of marriage and three children, Beth Ellis discovers her husband is having an affair with a local waitress. Feeling heartbroken, rejected, and alone, Beth wants to recapture the independent, creative spirit she used to be and finds the inspiration to pick up pen and paper once again. What emerges is a startling new voice, one that will become a balm for her wounded soul. Newly separated Olivia Donatelli has just moved into her family's rental cottage. Struggling to understand the unraveling of her marriage, she is also desperate to make sense of her eight-year-old autistic son Anthony's short life and accidental death. A chance encounter between these two women develops into an unexpected and meaningful friendship, giving one writer the opportunity to find her voice and a grieving mother a chance to finally understand her son. In Love Anthony, readers will discover a unique portrayal of autism that is highly accessible and, at times, deeply profound. Writing with deep empathy and insight, Genova has created an engaging story that fearlessly asks the big questions. --Booklist

Secrets of great portrait photography : photographs of the famous and infamous

by Brian Smith     (Get the Book)
Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer whose Art & Soul: Stars Unite to Celebrate and Support the Arts features his photographs of celebrities. Whether photographing holy men of Nepal, Richard Branson suited up for Virgin Galactic space flights, or nudists playing golf, he stresses that "nothing is more important to portrait photography than connecting with the person you're photographing...." The guide includes tips, a list of the lighting gear used in the book, assignments, and an interview with the author. (Summary)

Shadow Creek : a novel

by Joy Fielding    (Get the Book)
In this chilling tale of serial killers on the loose from bestseller Fielding (Now You See Her), Valerie Rowe and two Manhattan friends decide at the last minute to head up to the Lodge at Shadow Creek in the Adirondacks to celebrate her 40th birthday. Accompanying them are Val's 16-year-old daughter, Brianne, by her soon-to-be-divorced philanderer of a husband, Evan, and Evan's fiancee, Jennifer. Evan, whom Val still sort of loves, is unable to join them because of business in the city. Val's ill feelings toward Jennifer and her constant verbal sparring with rebellious Brianne add tension, especially after Brianne goes missing, and the odd assortment of campers move from the lodge to tents. The suspense rises as a pair of serial killers, who gleefully dispatched an elderly couple at their isolated Adirondacks cabin in the prologue, seek more victims. The intricate, twisty plot builds to an explosive climax. --Publishers Weekly

Dream more : celebrate the dreamer in you

by Dolly Parton     (Get the Book)
Part memoir, part self-help, Parton's book shares her life philosophies and the guiding principles behind her Dollywood Foundation, which provides free books to children through the Imagination Library program. Her drive and propensity for "dreaming big" took her from a life of poverty in a small Ten-nessee mountain town, where she practiced singing to the chickens, to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and beyond. Parton's style is folksy and winsomely charming. Discussing how to handle the down times in life, she writes, "People always say, ‘But you always look so happy.' Well, that's Bo-tox! Nobody's happy all the time." Parton (Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business) remembers struggling through classes in a one-room schoolhouse as a child, only to later return to her hometown as a successful performer and provide students with scholarships. Parton goes on to outline the prac-tices that made her a successful businesswoman, notably taking commitment seriously and choosing the right people to commit to, and share her earnest sense of faith. Fans will particularly enjoy "The Wit & Wisdom of the Dolly-Mama," which contains Dolly-isms like "I'm just the girl next door, provided you live next door to an amusement park," and "Home is where I hang my hair." --Publishers Weekly

The time keeper

by Mitch Albom    (Get the Book)
Albom displays his usual flair for plumbing the emotional depths of the human spirit in this cleverly constructed fable. After Dor, the first man to measure time, becomes so obsessed with the philosophical concept and the practical mathematics of his discovery that he loses sight of what is truly important in life, he is banished to a cave and condemned to listen to the mind-numbing din of the time-centric pleas and prayers of the masses throughout the centuries. Granted a chance to redeem himself by rescuing two floundering contemporary souls, he brings together Victor, a dying business mogul determined to unlock the secret of immortality, and Sarah, a lonely and depressed teenager on the brink of suicide. Morphing into wise Father Time, Dor grants Victor and Sarah equally bleak views of the futures they are forging. Elements of the supernatural abound as invaluable life lessons are learned in this heartrending morality play reminiscent of both A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life. High Demand Backstory: Albom has proved time and again that tried-and-true formulas sell. In his latest morality play, he strikes a familiar emotional chord that will resonate with a wide cross-section of readers and translate into bestselling gold. --Booklist

Triumphs of experience : the men of the Harvard Grant Study

by George E. Vaillant   (Get the Book)
Human social and emotional development does not peak at age 30 but continues throughout one's life. A person's upbringing does not set them on an inescapable path toward a happy or unhappy life. These are two of the major findings of the Harvard Grant Study, which has surveyed the physical and mental health of an original cohort of 237 Harvard undergraduate men beginning in the late 1930s. Using case studies as illustrations, former director Vaillant (Aging Well) reviews the results of research investigating mental health, longevity, alcoholism, resilience, and spirituality over time. Especially interesting are his observations on the changing issues, methods, and priorities throughout the project's history. The Grant Study remains the longest ongoing longitudinal study of human development continuing to track survivors (68 of the original group were still living as of March 2012) as they approach 100 years. VERDICT Vaillant reminisces on his 40 years of work with the Grant Study, summarizes what the study reveals about subjects in their tenth decade, and discussions how the implications may affect future research. Recommended for those interested in human development. --Publishers Weekly

Cold days : a novel of the Dresden files

by Jim Butcher     (Get the Book)
Harry Dresden, the Chicago PI and professional wizard, has been having a pretty weird time of it lately. In 2012's Ghost Story, Harry is trapped between life and death but on the trail of his own killer all the same; after discovering that killer's shocking identity, he decides to let himself pass into death. But Queen Mab has other ideas, and that's where the latest episode in the Dresden Files novels picks up the story. Mab, who has wanted Harry to be her hatchet man for a long time, has a job for him several jobs, actually, a sort of shopping list of evil deeds, beginning with murder. Harry, basically a good man, doesn't take killing lightly, especially when his intended victim happens to be immortal. Harry thinks there must be a reason why Mab wants this particular immortal killed at this particular time, and when he hits up some sources back in Chicago, he figures out she's probably setting him up but why? By this point, more than a dozen novels into the series, Butcher is pretty much assuming that if you're reading the latest Dresden novel, you're familiar with the ones that came before it. Readers coming to the novel without any previous experience might feel like they've tuned into an epic, multicharacter TV miniseries about halfway through, but fans of the Dresden Files, who have a lot invested in Harry, will be lining up to see whether he escapes his death as slickly as he did last time. Butcher remains the gold standard for urban fantasy. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Dresden Files started slowly as a paperback original series but eventually built an audience and moved to hardcover. From there, it was a short jump to becoming the quintessential urban fantasy. --Booklist

American antislavery writings : colonial beginnings to emancipation

For the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, here is a collection of writings that charts our nation's long, heroic confrontation with its most poisonous evil. It's an inspiring moral and political struggle whose evolution parallels the story of America itself. To advance their cause, the opponents of slavery employed every available literary form: fiction and poetry, essay and autobiography, sermons, pamphlets, speeches, hymns, plays, even children's literature. This is the first anthology to take the full measure of a body of writing that spans nearly two centuries and, exceptionally for its time, embraced writers black and white, male and female. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Phillis Wheatley, and Olaudah Equiano offer original, even revolutionary, eighteenth century responses to slavery. With the nineteenth century, an already diverse movement becomes even more varied: the impassioned rhetoric of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison joins the fiction of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, and William Wells Brown; memoirs of former slaves stand alongside protest poems by John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Lydia Sigourney; anonymous editorials complement speeches by statesmen such as Charles Sumner and Abraham Lincoln. Features helpful notes, a chronology of the antislavery movement, and a16-page color insert of illustrations. (Get the Book)

'Twas the night after Christmas

by Sabrina Jeffries     (Get the Book)
Pierce Waverly, the rakehell Earl of Devonmont, is annoyed when he arrives at his country estate to learn that his estranged mother is not at death's door, as he'd been led to believe by a letter from his mother's new companion. Pierce has no intention of staying, especially not for the holidays. But vicar's widow Camilla Stuart is determined to bring Pierce and his mother together-even if it means giving in to his initially outrageous demands of nightly "entertainments." A caring heroine determined to do the right thing and an emotionally wounded hero unable to forgive struggle to learn the truth in this complex story that juxtaposes the warmth of the holiday season with a dark undercurrent of closely guarded secrets, impossible choices, and deep regret. VERDICT Sharply witty, deliciously sexy, and infinitely endearing, this holiday gem strikes an emotional chord that will resonate with fans long after the book has been closed. Jeffries's first hardcover release, it serves as a bridge between her recent "Hellions of Halstead Hall" quintet and a new series that is slated to begin next spring.

The antidote : happiness for people who can't stand positive thinking

by Oliver Burkeman      (Get the Book)
This is a self-help book for cynics. Guardian feature writer Burkeman (Help!) makes the compelling observation that even with the mass production of books on attaining happiness, the collective mood has failed to rise. It has, if anything, fallen. Burkeman's aim is to endorse a "negative" path to happiness, a route in which happiness is no longer the final destination because serenity is not a fixed state, and trying so hard to be happy is part of what makes us so miserable. Burkeman balances the ideas of the deepest thinkers, thoughts on mortality, and his own foray into Buddhist meditation with tremendously funny anecdotes about the antics of motivational convention attendees and his humiliating attempts at stoicism on the London subway. The version of "happiness" that emerges has no clear set of steps, rather a calm (yet admirably comical) shift from the happy human being to the human who is, simply, being. None of this is new, but Burkeman's ability to present sentiments in fresh, delightfully sarcastic packaging will appeal to the happy, the unhappy, and those who have already found a peaceful middle ground. --Publishers Weekly

Shiver

by Karen Robards     (Get the Book)
Set in St. Louis, this spellbinding novel of romantic suspense from bestseller Robards (The Last Victim) stars Samantha "Sam" Jones, a 23-year-old single mother, who struggles to make ends meet by working nights repossessing cars while taking classes for EMT certification during the day. Her mundane life goes terribly askew after she finds an injured man in the trunk of a BMW she's repossessing. Before she can decide what to do, she's assaulted and thrown into the trunk with the man. In a fight for survival, Sam and her trunk mate, who turns out to be an undercover FBI agent, Danny Panterro, must seek a way to outwit their captors, members of a drug cartel. Sam's fiery determination to stay alive and keep her four-year-old son safe is the perfect match for Danny's tenacity as an undercover agent. Sensual love scenes help propel the novel toward its explosive conclusion. --Publishers Weekly

My ideal bookshelf

This is a charming and whimsical look at the favorite books of a wide selection from today's creative community. Editor La Force contacted and interviewed notables from the worlds of food (Alice Waters, Mark Bittman), music (Patti Smith), books (Junot Diaz, Mary Karr, Malcolm Gladwell), movies (Judd Apatow, Mira Nair), and fashion (Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte), among others, and each sent a list of their favorite books along with their thoughts on what their shelves revealed. For some, their reading is often focused on their work, but for others, like Rosanne Cash, "I was one of those kids who asked my mom to drop me at the library on Saturdays. That was where I spent my weekends." These intimate glimpses are accompanied by Mount's painted representations of each contributor's bookshelves. VERDICT This book will be a pleasure for anyone who loves books, reading, and memoirs as it is both a quick peek into the reading lives of others and a source of new reading ideas. --Library Journal.    (Get the Book)

The other woman

by Hank Fillippi Ryan   (Get the Book)
Boston TV reporter Jane Ryland's refusal to give up her source for a story accusing supermarket mogul Arthur Vick of making promises to call-girl Sellica Darden results in her station losing a million-dollar defamation suit, and Jane losing her job. With a little help from her pal, Detective Jake Brogan, Jane now labeled Wrong Guy Ryland lands a spot on a newspaper, working for a former competitor, sharing a desk, and getting the soft assignment of interviewing the wife of U.S. senatorial candidate Owen Lassiter. But the biggest local news, which is being covered by Jane's deskmate, involves the recent deaths of two young women whose bodies are found in the river; when the third such victim is Darden, Vick becomes a viable suspect in what seem to be a string of serial murders. With the Senate race heating up, Jane is looking for the other woman in Lassiter's life, while Jake is after the Bridge Killer. Ryan, an investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate, knows her way around politics at high levels, and she uses that knowledge to fashion a revenge-fueled plot that twists and turns at breakneck speed. Political skulduggery and murder make a high-octane mix in this perfect thriller for an election season. --Booklist

Why have kids? : a new mom explores the truth about parenting and happiness

by Jessica Valenti     (Get the Book)
When her daughter was born at 28 weeks, leaving mother and child dangerously ill, Valenti felt enormous disappointment and a sense of failure. Not only had she missed a "good birth" resulting in a full-term healthy baby and happy family, her expectations surrounding the experience, the elation and bonding she had been societally conditioned to encounter, were unfulfilled. In this, her fourth book--a politicized, anti-What to Expect When You're Expecting--the high-profile, third-wave feminist takes an intense and scathing look at charged contemporary parenting issues, moving beyond "mommy wars" and breast-is-best militants to show just how much the current American ideal of parenting fails to match reality. With post-partum panic past, and her child thriving, Valenti probes accepted practices and questions the pervasive philosophy of modern mothering, with its many fallacies and assumptions including: alarming pre-conception and pregnancy advisories; whether women are naturally better parents; and if mothering is the hardest job in the world. Valenti pointedly reveals how trading a career for staying at home with the kids, the myth of the "perfect mother," and the death of the nuclear family damaged more women than society will acknowledge. Occasionally, a reader may be unsure whether Valenti is airing her own grievances or those of mommy-bloggers and the media; but that aside, this timely volume, which should generate much controversy, is a call for much-needed change and may unite a new generation of moms. --Publishers Weekly

The black box : a novel

by Michael Connelly    (Get the Book)
At his core, Harry Bosch is a cop with a mission to tip the scales of justice toward the side of murder victims and their survivors. The scales can never be righted, of course, even by solving the cases Bosch is assigned in the Open Unsolved Unit of the LAPD. That is especially true in the 20-year-old murder of Danish journalist Anneke Jesperson, who was killed during the L.A. riots of 1992. What was Jesperson, a white woman, doing in South Central L.A. in the aftermath of the riots? As usual, Bosch faces not only the seeming impossibility of reconstructing a crime that has been cold for two decades but also the roadblocks imposed by the bureaucrats at the top of the LAPD. But Bosch has never met a roadblock he wasn't compelled to either barge through or cannily avoid. Harry is such a compelling character largely due to his fundamentally antiestablishment personality, which leads to chaos as often as to triumph, but also because his unswerving work ethic reflects not simply duty but also respect for the task before him. Harry does it right, even or especially when his bosses want something else entirely. That's the case this time How would it look if a white cop made headlines by solving the riot-related murder of a white woman? Better to let it slide. In real life, we all let things slide, but in life according to Bosch, nothing slides. We like Harry, as we like many other fictional crime solvers, because he never stops, but we love him because he has the scars to prove that never sliding is no easy thing. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Connelly's twenty-fifth book appears in his twentieth year of publishing, an anniversary that his publisher has been celebrating throughout 2012 with various Year of Connelly promotions, all leading up to the publication of The Black Box. --Booklist

Fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm : a new English version

On the 200th anniversay of the first publication of Grimms' fairy tales (Kinder- und Hausmarchen), celebrated British author Pullman retells 50 of what he calls the cream of the brothers' 210 tales. Many of his selections are familiar ( Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.), while others ( Mount Simeli, The Three Snake-Leaves, Lady Heinz, etc.) are less so. However, what all have in common, in Pullman's retellings, are a salutary clarity and directness. His style is conversational, simple, and straightforward, without frills and furbelows; but less is more, as Pullman proves by providing a wonderfully rich reading experience. His book is not only stylish in its simplicity but also scholarly. In addition to his elegant introduction, he concludes each tale with his own always interesting commentary and provides, as well, the tale's type (based on The Types of International Folktales, by Antti Aarne), its source, and a short list of similar stories. There are, of course, any number of English-language versions and editions of Grimm, but few are as felicitous in their telling as Pullman's. His book surely belongs on the same shelf as the very best of those that appeal to general readers of all ages. --Booklist       (Get the Book)

Far from the tree : parents, children and the search for identity

by Andrew Solomon    (Get the Book)
Solomon, who won the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon (2001), tackles daunting questions involving nature versus nurture, illness versus identity, and how they all affect parenting in his exhaustive but not exhausting exploration of what happens when children bear little resemblance to their parents. He begins by challenging the very concept of human reproduction. We do not reproduce, he asserts, spawning clones. We produce originals. And if we're really lucky, our offspring will be enough like us or our immediate forebears that we can easily love, nurture, understand, and respect them. But it's a crapshoot. More often than not, little junior will be born with a long-dormant recessive gene, or she may emerge from the womb with her very own, brand-new identifier say, deafness, physical deformity, or homosexuality. Years of interviews with families and their unique children culminate in this compassionate compendium. Solomon focuses on the creative and often desperate ways in which families manage to tear down prejudices and preconceived fears and reassemble their lives around the life of a child who alters their view of the world. Most succeed. Some don't. But the truth Solomon writes about here is as poignant as it is implacable, and he leaves us with a reinvented notion of identity and individual value. --Booklist

Winter of the world

by Ken Follett    (Get the Book)
Follett follows the bestselling Fall of Giants (2010) with the eagerly anticipated second volume of his ambitious Century Trilogy. Picking up the disparate plot strands approximately 10 years later, he introduces the next generation of the five original families American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh, respectively as it stands poised on the brink of another international catastrophe. As fascism extends its grip on Europe, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, London is blitzed, the Soviet Union is invaded, and the lives of all the interrelated major characters are dramatically and permanently altered. Serving as participants in and witnesses to all the major events of the mid-twentieth century, their dovetailing stories provide a remarkably comprehensive overview of a rapidly evolving chain of events that will challenge and change the course of world history. In the hands of a less gifted writer, these 900-plus pages and the breadth of the subject matter might be daunting, but Follett never lets the action lag as he adeptly ties together all the sweeping economic, cultural, political, and social transformations of the entire era. High Demand Backstory: The first volume in Follett's epic Century Trilogy was a runaway bestseller. Expect immediate high demand as fans of Fall of Giants will be impatient to find out how the main characters and their extended families fare as another world war looms on the horizon. --Booklist

Churchill and seapower

by Christopher M. Bell    (Get the Book)
Historian Bell (The Royal Navy), of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, addresses a surprisingly neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career: his attitude to sea power. Churchill's relationship to the Royal Navy was closer and more comprehensive than that of any other modern British statesman. Bell combines archival and published material to make a convincing case for Churchill's reputation as a naval strategist and a "steward of the Royal Navy" despite the criticisms of politicians, sailors, and historians (and two disastrous naval campaigns while he served as Lord of the Admiralty early in both world wars). The author shows Churchill's approach to naval power to be unsentimental and pragmatic in his views on sea power. Early faith in the navy's offensive potential was shaken by its limited achievements in WWI. Thereafter Churchill came to regard the navy's mission as predominantly defensive. His frustrated efforts in WWII to find an offensive role against a German-controlled continent led him to conclude that the navy should be maintained at the lowest level necessary to fulfill its defensive mission while offensive resources were best funneled to air power. But Churchill also met the navy's most important needs and protected its long-term interests as well as possible in the context of changing strategic requirements, concludes Bell in this illuminating study. --Publishers Weekly

The panther

by Nelson DeMille     (get the Book)
Following closely on the heels of The Lion (2010), this gripping thriller (set early in 2004) finds antiterrorist agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, joining an investigative team in Yemen. Their stated mission: to continue looking into the suicide bombing of the USS Cole, the military vessel that was attacked by al-Qaeda in the port of Aden three-and-a-half years earlier. Their unstated mission: to bring to justice the mastermind of the Cole bombing, the man known as the Panther. As with previous Corey novels, the book balances suspense and action with humor: Corey relates the story in the first person, spicing his narrative with witty or sarcastic asides and other entertaining verbal meanderings, as though he's telling us the story at a far remove, when the tense and potentially deadly events of the mission have been tempered by time and distance. Packed as usual with memorable characters (including one who's starred in a couple of his own DeMille novels), political commentary, gritty atmosphere, and action, the book will be gobbled up by the author's many fans, but readers unfamiliar with DeMille's work (if there still are any) should be steered in its direction, too. It's a first-class thriller, regardless of whether John Corey is the reader's old friend or a new acquaintance. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: DeMille's latest will draw on both the author's sterling track record and an A-list promotion campaign to vault it onto best-seller lists. --Booklist 

Mindset : the new psychology of success

by Carol S. Dweck    (Get the Book)
In sharing her years of research on how people's beliefs influence their lives, Dweck (Columbia Univ.) hopes to help people have better lives. She focuses on what she calls "mindsets," the fixed mind-set (i.e., one's abilities are set) versus the growth mind-set (one's abilities are changeable through learning). An individual's mind-set, the author argues, coordinates with his or her beliefs about risk and effort and about the causes of success and failure. Dweck sees the fixed mind-set as typical of people who seek to validate, rather than develop, themselves; the opposite is true of the growth mind-set. In the last chapter, Dweck provides strategies to help the reader change to (and maintain) a growth mind-set. This book is at its core more self-help than scholarly. Drawing examples from education, sports, business, and relationships--and then making connections to the research--Dweck makes psychology accessible to the uninitiated. Those looking for extensive details of the research will not find them here. --Choice

Toby's room

by Pat Barker    (Get the Book)
Barker is firmly established in the realm of historical fiction due to her much-celebrated Regeneration Trilogy about Britain during WWI (Regeneration, 1991; The Eye in the Door, 1994; The Ghost Road, 1995). Although her latest novel is not in a trilogy, it does share with her recent Life Class (2008) a London art-academy setting. Again, it's wartime. The carnage in Flanders fields is graphically brought to the home front in the ravaged literally faces of returned soldiers. Art student Elinor Brooke's relationship with her brother, Toby, goes beyond usually accepted norms. When Toby is killed in battle, Elinor is obsessed with learning the details of his death. This obsession leads her on a long physical and mental journey, with the reader following along in rapt attention. As always, Barker constructs easily consumed sentences, each contributing to the sturdy, compelling story line, and although Elinor's obsession could have easily grown wearying, Barker's sympathetic treatment prevents the reader from reaching that point. --Booklist

My life in politics

Jaques Chirac     (Get the Book)
France's president from 1995 to 2007 wrestles with intractable issues amid gridlocked politics in this tense memoir. Chirac's career in center-right Gaullist parties shows just how conflicted and dysfunctional France's dual-executive system was: he was prime minister to a president of his own party who hated and undermined him (Valery Giscard d'Estaing), then to Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, who opposed him politically; during his own presidency he endured a similarly contentious "cohabitation" with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Through it all, he wrestled with, but scarcely resolved, problems with budgets, pensions, France's immigrants, and European integration. Chirac epitomizes French consensus politics, with its Gallic mixture of grandiosity and realism; in the book he is forever proclaiming adamant principle on, say, pension reform or Bosnia, only to retreat into prudent expediency in the face of mass strikes or military risks. Although ill-served by the off-key translation-Americans say nuclear "deterrence," not "dissuasion"-he crafts tart, vivid critiques of people and policies, including extended attacks on Israeli policy toward the Palestinians and on Bush's rush into the Iraq War by way of "a dominating and Manichean logic that favored force over law." His is a revealing, though not quite inspiring, self-portrait of an archetypal figure in a Europe that's now all but collapsed. --Publishers Weekly

Flight behavior : a novel

By Barbara Kingsolver     (Get the Book)
Drawing on both her Appalachian roots and her background in biology, Kingsolver delivers a passionate novel on the effects of global warming. Dellarobia Turnbow got pregnant in high school; now, some 11 years into her unhappy marriage, she's ready for a big change, and she thinks she's found it with a randy young telephone lineman. But on her way to a rendezvous, she is waylaid by the sight of a forest ablaze with millions of butterflies. Their usual migratory route has been disrupted, and what looks to be a stunningly beautiful view is really an ominous sign, for the Appalachian winter could prove to be the demise of the species. The phenomenon draws the whole world to Dellarobia's doorstep scientists, the media, hordes of tourists and gives her new and galvanizing insight into her poverty-stricken life on the sheep farm of her disapproving in-laws. Kingsolver, as always a fluent and eloquent writer, skillfully sets the hook of her fascinating story before launching into activist mode with more than a few pointed speeches delivered by an eminent scientist (and Kingsolver stand-in). By that time, though, readers will be well and truly smitten with feisty, funny, red-haired Dellarobia and her determined quest to widen the confines of her world. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: On the heels of the beloved author's best-selling The Lacuna (2009), which won the Orange Prize, her latest novel will receive a 500,000-copy first printing and be supported by an eight-city author tour. --Booklist

Sharing : culture and the economy in the Internet age

by Philippe Aigrain    (Get the Book)
In this creative work, Aigrain (CEO, Sopinspace--Society for Public Information Spaces) and contributor Suzanne Aigrain (Oxford Univ.) have obviously spent a great deal of time imagining what the future holds for cultural interaction in the Internet age. They describe a new model of enhanced sharing of cultural resources, offering a tremendous array of ideas for readers to digest. One consistent point is that profit-centered, concentrated markets will limit access to and exposure of ideas, artifacts, and creative works. To prevent the predicted welfare losses, the authors imagine a commons where cultural riches can be shared absent the rent seeking of agents with undue control. The arguments include methods to compensate creative contributors adequately while keeping the cost to those accessing material low. Governments would collect fees to reward producers and encourage future developments. Apparently these would not be taxes, since the revenues would be directed to specific uses and not become part of the governments' general budgets. This "non-market" solution, with its lengthy discussion of payments by consumers and rewards to producers, with an impartial umpire determining the amounts after collecting a vast quantity of relevant data, sounds much like Oskar Lange's vision of a socialist marketplace. Provocative reading for sophisticated audiences. --Choice

Into the woods : tales from the Hollows and beyond

by Kim Harrison   (Get the Book)
For the first time, all of Harrison's shorter pieces are gathered together in one volume. Several have been previously published. Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel, an early story about teenage Rachel Morgan's first encounter with Pierce, originally appeared in the anthology Holidays Are Hell (2007), and Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil, written entirely from Ivy's point of view, appeared in Dates from Hell (2006). As only the most determined readers would have tracked down all these stories, this collection should be a treat for the majority of Harrison's teen and adult fans. Most highly anticipated will be the several completely new stories, notably the novella Million Dollar Baby, about Trent and Jenks' retrieval of baby Lucy, which was only briefly alluded to in the recent Pale Demon (2011). Readers concerned about the coming end of Harrison's Hollows series should be pleased with the last section, Beyond the Hollows, four stories that show that something completely new and equally good may be on the way. A must read for Harrison fans. --Booklist

Master class : living longer, stronger, and happier

by Peter Spiers     (Get the Book)
Retirement-aged baby boomers get schooled in achieving the "Master Way of Life" by balancing four key dimensions-socializing, moving, thinking, and creating. Posed as a "road map for the next phase of your life," this model curriculum offers a holistic approach to blending these four dimensions through 31 engaging-and realistic-activities (e.g., participating in a book club, dancing, educational travel). Senior v-p of the nonprofit Road Scholar organization, Spiers thoroughly explains how each activity embodies the four key elements and offers ways to get "extra credit" by making the most out of each activity, such as recording your travels through a diary, photos, or blog. Charts and exercises assist in advancing participants through four syllabi, culminating in eventual graduation to the "Master Class." The book's curriculum format, though gimmicky at times, is always constructive and instructive. But the highest grade goes to the commentary of numerous Masters, scattered throughout each section, which emphasize how certain activities have enriched their lives. According to Spiers, the goal of the program is to lead a life of "happiness, optimism, and physical and cognitive health." Or as one Master remarks in reference to writing: "The rewards are in the activity." --Publishers Weekly

Lionel Asbo : state of England

by Martin Amis   (Get the Book)
Amis' phenomenal vim and versatility, anchoring roots in English literature, and gift for satire power this hilariously Dickensian, nerve-racking, crafty, bull's-eye tale of a monster and a mensch. Lionel, a volatile and brutal thug much feared in his destitute Liverpool neighborhood, proudly changed his last name to Asbo, the English acronym for anti-social behavior order. Loyal to blood, Lionel has taken in his orphaned teenage nephew, Desmond. Gentle, smart, bookish, and half-black, Des nimbly if fearfully navigates Lionel's wrath and psychopathic pit bulls while anxiously harboring a potentially fatal family secret. While Lionel is in and out of prison, Des goes to college, becomes a journalist, and marries. Then Lionel wins the lottery and becomes the tabloids' favorite target as he struggles to transform himself and burns through a huge sum of money with mad desperation. In a wicked twist on the rags-to-riches motif, Amis exults in mocking the cheap dreams of the lottery and the rapacious British press while affirming the toxic conflicts of class, race, and gender. Even more caustically diabolical is the way Amis toys with our trust in love. This deliciously shivery, sly, and taunting page-turner provokes a fresh assessment of the poverty of place, mind, and spirit and the wondrous blossoming of against-all-odds goodness. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With praise still in the air for Amis' last novel, The Pregnant Widow (2010), readers will flock to this rapidly devoured, fiendishly comedic, and telling fable. --Booklist

Barefoot Contessa foolproof : recipes you can trust

by Ina Garten     Get the Book
How many magazine, newspaper, and book recipes have resulted in major dining disasters, or at least less-than-optimum visual and tasty delights? Not content to rely on titles alone, nationally known cook and TV host Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, carefully counsels reader-chefs on turning out perfect dishes and menus every time. Each page, if not featuring a list of foolproof techniques and tips, includes all the right directions as well as photographs. Just a sampling of the ideas that make her 100 dishes work: freeze cookie dough but not already baked cookies; when a dish specifies fleur de sel, don't use kosher salt; avoid serving appetizers on Thanksgiving, but do cook in abundance, so that guests go home with leftovers. Her treats, as always are stomach pleasers: mustard and gruyere batons, lobster mac and cheese, salted caramel brownies, and cinnamon baked donuts, among others.

Mean girls at work :how to stay professional when things get personal

by Katherine Crowley Get The Book

*Starred Review* Years ago, it was called the Queen Bee Syndrome, denoting the propensity of female bosses to overdo their authority in the workplace. Now, psychotherapist-consultant team and multibook authors (including Working with You Is Killing Me, 2006) Crowley and Elster more precisely define the mean bee, segmenting bad female behaviors into seven categories: meanest of the mean, very mean, passively mean, doesn't mean to be mean, doesn't know she's mean, brings out your mean, and group mean. Not enough differentiation among these personalities, you fear? Relax; perhaps the most critical part of the book is when the authors first describe the specific variations of meanness, then detail not only particular actions but also your feelings and what to do (as well as what not to do). 

100 ways to motivate yourself : change your life forever /

by Steve Chandler  (Get The Book)

Steve Chandler helps you create an action plan for living your vision, in business and in life. It features 100 proven methods to positively change the way you think and act--methods based on feedback from the hundreds of thousands of corporate and public seminar attendees Chandler speaks to each year. The book now also includes techniques and breakthroughs he has created for individual coaching clients. 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself will help you break through the negative barriers and banish the pessimistic thoughts that are preventing you from fulfilling your lifelong goals and dreams. This edition also contains new mental and spiritual techniques that give readers more immediate access to action and results in their lives.If you're ready to finally make a change and reach your goals, Steve Chandler challenges you to turn your defeatist attitude into energetic, optimistic, enthusiastic accomplishments.

A fistful of collars : a Chet and Bernie mystery

by Spencer Quinn    (Get the Book)
In their fifth outing, Chet, the pooch narrator, and Bernie, the human PI, have a brush with fame after they agree to do babysitting duty for a notoriously difficult movie star, Thad Perry, and his cat, Brando, as a favor to the mayor, who's working hard to promote the Valley as a movie-filming destination. But both Chet and Bernie suspect something deeper is going on with Thad's cousin and personal bodyguard and the mayor's head of security (an old acquaintance from the police force), especially after the pair is found sniffing around a murder scene. Nor does Chet like the drugs he often smells on Thad (Chet did really well at the drug-sniffing part of K-9 school; well, until there was that incident with the cat . . .). Quinn's ability to get inside Chet's head continues to be what gives this series its spark. Between Chet's insightful and humorous takes on human events, the fast-paced plot, and the wealth of fascinating secondary characters, this is a fine entry in a not-to-be-missed series. --Booklist

The next always

by Nora Roberts         (Get the Book)
Beckett has no trouble whatsoever talking to women. It's just Claire who has him at a loss for words. It all began when Beckett fell hard and fast for Claire in high school, but Claire wound up marrying Beckett's best friend, Clint. Now, more than a decade later, Claire, a war widow, is back in Boonsboro, building a new life for herself and her sons as the owner of the town's bookstore. Even though renovating the local inn keeps Beckett busy, he still manages to bump into Claire at least once a day, and he still finds himself surprisingly tongue-tied. Finally, when Beckett offers Claire an early tour of the inn, it leads to an unexpected kiss. With the first impeccably written and richly emotional installment in her new contemporary romantic trilogy, Roberts delivers all the elements her readers enjoy, including a perfectly matched pair of protagonists and a plot spiced with danger, a touch of the paranormal, and deliciously tart humor. Readers will also relish the autobiographical dimension. The novel is set in Roberts' hometown, Boonsboro, Maryland, in which she owns a restored inn and is the proprietor of Turn the Page bookstore. --Booklist

The story of ain't : America, its language, and the most controversial dictionary ever published

by David Skinner     (Get the Book)
The editors of the New York Times breathed fire when they saw the word ain't in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961). However, Skinner brushes aside the Times' outrage to recover the story of how one brave editor, Philip Gove, dared to publish a dictionary documenting how language actually worked in twentieth-century America, not a carefully trimmed guide to linguistic etiquette. Chronicling the thinking that emboldened Gove, Skinner revisits early twentieth-century America to examine the tensions separating the genteel novelist Henry James, who deplored the slovenliness of American speech, from the populist Mark Twain, who relished the lawless energy of that speech. As a work championing Twain's perspective, H. L. Mencken's 1919 The American Language receives particular attention as an overdue recognition of the generative powers that informed the unvarnished rhetoric of Lincoln and the iconoclastic fiction of Theodore Dreiser. Skinner also limns the growing lexical impact of linguistics as an empirical science, not a set of regulatory grammar rules. Schooled in such science, Gove risked the publication of a revolutionary lexicon though Skinner allows readers to hear the howls of protest that the dictionary provoked before it finally won general acceptance. A compelling reminder of the cultural significance of words and word-making. --Booklist

The wisdom of psychopaths : what saints, spies, and serial killers can teach us about success

by Kevin Dutton     (Get the Book)
Many of us harbor an inner psychopath-and perhaps those who don't, should, says Dutton (Split-Second Persuasion), a Cambridge University research psychologist. Through a series of studies and anecdotes, he demonstrates how for every psychopathic stigma there is a comparably compelling virtue: psychopaths often have a greater capacity for focusing, creativity, and even empathy and altruism. All of this information challenges the idea that psychopaths dwell exclusively at society's outskirts; indeed, Dutton finds psychopathic tendencies in everyone from saints to Secret Service agents to the fictional hero James Bond. Dutton is admirably capable of rendering complicated research into readable and engaging prose. Yet there are times when his repeated use of studies-most conducted in a university or laboratory setting-detracts from his broader analysis of psychopaths within our society. And Dutton's definition of "psychopath" is a little too malleable, often used to refer to a collection of personality traits as opposed to a devastating disorder. We may all possess the potential for the pathology, but our psychopathic paths to success-however fascinating-are still unclear. --Publishers Weekly 

Girls in white dresses

by Jennifer Close    (Get the Book)
Isabella, Mary, and Lauren are quickly realizing that the postcollege years aren't a parade of guaranteed, life-altering changes. Invited to a dizzying array of bachelorette parties, weddings, and showers both baby and bridal, the three get the sense that the adult world only applies to their acquaintances. After seeing each other through disastrous blind dates, unfulfilling career choices, and tense family holidays, they comfort themselves with the small victories of singledom. Girls in White Dresses is genuinely empathic, and Close brings a tender sense of humor to each of the episodic chapters. With a voice similar to those of Melissa Banks and Cindy Guidry, Close's novel expresses the perfect blend of midtwenties angst, collegiate nostalgia, and plentiful laughter. With different chapters narrated by each protagonist and some of their close friends, the novel is richly satisfying. Anyone who has attended a bridal shower while incredibly hungover, rolled her eyes at another gift-wrapped Onesie, or heard the phrase It's MY day too often to count will love this touching portrait of female friendship. --Booklist

Thunder on the mountain : death at Massey and the dirty secrets behind big coal

by Peter A. Galuszja.     (Get the Book)
The 2010 tragedy at the Upper Big Branch Mine resonated nationwide and has resulted in a great deal of soul-searching among Americans over the price paid for our dependence on Big Coal. Galuszka, who grew up in coal country and has written extensively on the subject, peers deeply into the corporate culture at Massey Energy and the permissive local and national politics behind their flagrant safety-rule violations. While the in-depth profile of Massey and former CEO Don Blankenship are interesting enough, Galuszka strays far beyond the expected accident narrative and into the economics of those who call Central Appalachia home, noting that, contrary to popular belief, only 2 percent of direct employment there is related to mining. He discusses the targeted destruction of unions by Massey and the coal industry's successful century-long suppression of the area's middle class, which has relegated the region to devastating generational poverty. Beyond the mining catastrophe at its core, this is a book about working America and how one industry has conquered a landscape's body and soul. Bracing, powerful, and pertinent, this is a timely and clarion call for myth-busting change. --Booklist

The Middlesteins

by Jami Alternberg    (Get the Book)
The Middlesteins, a Jewish family of strong temperaments and large dysfunctions, living in the middle of the country in Chicago and its suburbs, revolve around Edie, a woman of gargantuan appetites. Attenberg (The Melting Season, 2010) marshals her gift for mordant yet compassionate comedy to chart Edie's rise and fall in sync with her ever-ballooning weight. Smart, generous, and voracious in every way, Edie is a lawyer who loves food and work more than her pharmacist husband. Her daughter, Robin, a private-school history teacher, is anxious and reclusive. Edie's even-keeled, pot-smoking son, Benny, is married to Edie's opposite, petite and disciplined Rachelle, an ambitious stay-at-home mother of twins. After Edie loses her job and rolls past the 300-pound mark, she becomes a medical crisis waiting to happen. Finally galvanized into action, her in-denial family is both helpful and destructive, each effort and failure revealing yet another dimension of inherited suffering. A flawless omnicient narrator, Attenberg even illuminates the life of the man who owns foodaholic Edie's favorite Chinese restaurant while executing perfect flashbacks and flash-forwards and subtly salting this irresistible family portrait with piquant social commentary. Kinetic with hilarity and anguish, romance and fury, Attenberg's rapidly consumed yet nourishing novel anatomizes our insatiable hunger for love, meaning, and hope. --Booklist

The lady and the peacock : the life of Aung San Suu Kyi

by Peter Popham    (Get the Book)
The history of Burma since World War II has been nothing but chaotic, with uprisings, endemic social unrest, economic disasters, rebellions among tribal groups, and iron-fisted military rule. The military junta, moreover, carefully controls access to information for both the domestic and the foreign press, and travel in and out of Burma is very limited. Repression is severe and civil rights for dissidents minimal. Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, the first of Burma's democratic leaders after the war, has for three decades been trying to change all that. Her story is one of heroic and purposeful resistance, strength of character, prudence in her statements, and care about the welfare of her followers and Burma's people. Popham (foreign correspondent, Independent; Tokyo: The City at the End of the World) has written a dense and highly detailed book, as much a history of modern Burma as it is a biography of Suu Kyi. VERDICT Although there is almost too much information to absorb and almost too many disparate political and social "players" to keep track of, readers interested in modern Asian history and current events will find this book well worth reading. --Library Journal