The girl who fell from the sky : a novel

 by Heidi W. Durrow. Durrow's first novel, inspired by a real event, won the 2008 Bellwether Prize for best fiction manuscript addressing issues of social justice. The young protagonist, Rachel, is the only survivor after her mother apparently threw her and her two siblings from a roof and then jumped to her own death. Like a good mystery, this book builds to the startling revelation of what really happened and why a loving mother would kill her children. But there's much more, and if the novel has a weakness, it's that it oozes conflict. Rachel, who is biracial, is abandoned by her father; a boy who witnesses the rooftop incident has his own difficulties, including a neglectful mother who's also a prostitute. But one can't help but be drawn in by these characters and by the novel's exploration of race and identity. Verdict With similar themes to Zadie Smith's White Teeth and a tone of desolation and dislocation like Graham Swift's Waterland and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, this is also recommended for readers intrigued by the psychology behind shocking headlines. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

The death and life of American journalism : the media revolution that will begin the world again

 by Robert Waterman McChesney. McChesney (communications, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Rich Media, Poor Democracy) and Nation Washington correspondent Nichols (Dick: The Man Who Is President) join the current conversations on the crisis in journalism with a provocative proposal for a public intervention to rescue the press. First, they cover familiar ground in their analysis of the current crisis and the history of government-press relations. In the book's last third, they break new ground by advocating that the government intervene with a four-part plan to sustain journalism as a transition is planned, convert newspapers into "post-corporate" digital formats, transform public broadcasting into "world-class" democratic media, and spawn competitive news-media on the Internet. Strategies to accomplish this include subsidizing postage, creating a journalism division of AmeriCorps, and funding both high school news media and independent Internet journalism. With a $35-billion price tag, these proposals are bound to be controversial, especially to those who value the idea of an adversarial relationship between the press and government. Verdict This well-written and thought-provoking book is sure to spark heated debate within the journalism community. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

The postmistress

 by Sarah Blake.  Frankie Bard is a young female reporter in London during the Blitz, working with the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Eric Severeid. Her broadcasts make an impression on the residents of Franklin, MA-Dr. Will Fitch and wife Emma, garage owner Harry Vale, and postmaster Iris James-who in 1940-41 don't know how or if the war will affect them. Harry is sure the Germans are about to land on their beach, while, hearing Frankie talk of an orphaned boy, Emma and Will don't feel the news goes far enough. Iris insists that "there is an order and a reason" to everything, and "every letter sent.proves it." First novelist Blake doesn't let her work fall prey to easy sentimentality; this story is harsh and desperate, as indeed is war, but her writing is incisive and lush: a house missing a piece of mortar, "as if it had been bitten"; a distracted Iris, with "sand.dribbling out of the bag of her attention." VERDICT Even readers who don't think they like historical novels will love this one and talk it up to their friends. Highly recommended for all fans of beautifully wrought fiction. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

The art of choosing

 by Sheena Lyengar. "Choice," perhaps the highest good in the American socioeconomic lexicon, is a very mixed blessing, according to this fascinating study of decision making and its discontents. Psychologist Iyengar cites evidence that a paucity of choice can damage the mental and physical health of dogs, rats, and British civil servants alike. But, she contends, choice can also mislead and burden us: advertising manipulates us through the illusion of choice; a surfeit of choices can paralyze decision making; and some choices, like the decision to withdraw life support from a loved one, are so terrible that we are happier if we delegate them to others. Iyengar draws on everything from the pensees of Albert Camus to The Matrix, but her focus is on the ingenious experiments that psychologists have concocted to explore the vagaries of choice. (In her own experiment, shoppers presented with an assortment of 24 jams were 1/10th as likely to buy some than those who were shown a mere six.) Iyengar writes in a lucid, catchy style, very much in the Malcolm Gladwell vein of pop psychology-cum-social commentary, but with more rigor. The result is a delightful, astonishing take on the pitfalls of making up one's mind. --Publisher's weekly. (Check catalog)

The wild zone : a novel

 by Joy Fielding. The Wild Zone, a South Beach (Miami Beach, Fla.) bar filled with lusty men-specifically, charismatic personal trainer Jeff Rydell; his cute visiting half-brother, Will, a Princeton graduate student; and Jeff's married best friend, Tom Whitman, a dishonorably discharged Afghanistan war veteran with some serious problems-provides the starting point for bestseller Fielding's nonstop thrill ride. A sexy bar patron, Suzy Bigelow, inspires the trio to make a wager on who can bed her first, and they even ask Jeff's live-in girlfriend, a Wild Zone bartender, for help. Suzy chooses Will for a platonic date, which has some distinctly unpleasant repercussions that involve not only wide-eyed Will but desperate, gun-loving Tom, whose wife takes their children and files for divorce. Fielding (Still Life) combines a fast-paced plot with top-notch character development to create an atmosphere of brooding unease that explodes in a wonderfully wild resolution. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Stones into schools : promoting peace with books, not bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

 by Greg Mortenson. Mortenson's best-seller, Three Cups of Tea (2009), introduced his commitment to peace through education and became a book-club phenomenon. He now continues the story of how the Central Asia Institute (CAI) built schools in northern Afghanistan. Descriptions of the harsh geography and more than one near-death experience impress readers as new faces join Mortenson's loyal Dirty Dozen as they carefully plot a course of school-building through the Badakshan province and Wakhan corridor. Mortenson also shares his friendships with U.S. military personnel, including Admiral Mike Mullen, and the warm reception his work has found among the officer corps. The careful line CAI threads between former mujahideen commanders, ex-Taliban and village elders, and the American soldiers stationed in their midst is poetic in its political complexity and compassionate consideration. Using schools not bombs to promote peace is a goal that even the most hard-hearted can admire, but to blandly call this book inspiring would be dismissive of all the hard work that has gone into the mission in Afghanistan as well as the efforts to fund it. Mortenson writes of nothing less than saving the future, and his adventure is light years beyond most attempts. Mortenson did not reach the summit of K2, but oh, the heights he has achieved. --Booklist. (Check Catalog)

Secrets of Eden : a novel

 by Christopher A. Bohjalian. Who killed Alice Hayward? Was it the charismatic pastor who baptized her hours before her death? Was it her abusive husband, George, who then took a gun to himself? Or was it Heather Laurent, a famous author of books about angels, who may have a demonic side? On the surface, the crime scene at the Hayward's comfortable Vermont village home appears to be a straightforward case of murder-suicide in which George Hayward strangled his wife and then blew his brains out. But to Deputy State's Attorney Catherine Benincasa, things are rarely as they seem, a view that is reinforced when Alice's diary is found with cryptic references to Reverend Stephen Drew. Suffering from his own crisis of faith, Drew is particularly susceptible to the not-unwelcome attention of Laurent, who believes she is a guardian angel sent to help Drew resolve these conflicts. Always a solid craftsman, Bohjalian brings his trademark brand of astute character development to these delightfully ambiguous portraits of suspects, victims, and accusers alike, as he drops bombshell clues through sly, innocuous asides and weaves subtle nuances of doubt and intrigue into a taut, read-in-one-sitting murder mystery. --Booklist. (Check catalog)

Making rounds with Oscar : the extraordinary gift of an ordinary cat

 by David Dosa. Dosa, a geriatrician with a strong aversion to cats, tells the endearing story of Oscar the cat, the aloof resident at a nursing home who only spends time with people who are about to die. Despite hearing numerous stories about Oscar's uncanny ability to predict when a patient's time is nearing, Dosa, ever the scientist, remains skeptical. Slowly, he starts to concede that there may be something special about Oscar. Dosa starts to pay more attention to the cat's decidedly odd behavior, noticing that Oscar seeks out the dying, snuggles with the patient and family members until the patient passes; with others, he smells the patient's feet, sits outside a closed door until admitted, or refuses to leave a dying patient's bed. Dosa discovers how powerfully Oscar's mere presence reassures frightened or grieving family. Ultimately, the good doctor realizes that it doesn't matter where Oscar's gift comes from; it's the comfort he brings that's important. This touching and engaging book is a must-read for more than just cat lovers; anyone who enjoys a well-written and compelling story will find much to admire in its unlikely hero. --Publishers Weekly. (Check Catalog)

The whiskey rebels : a novel

 by David Liss. Liss is at his best when buried deep in the bowels of eighteenth-century finance, as he was in his Edgar-winning debut, A Conspiracy of Paper (2000), which starred Benjamin Weaver, a British thief-taker (recoverer of stolen goods) in a thriller about London's notorious Exchange Market. This time he sticks with the period and the financial milieu but moves the action across the ocean to America in the years immediately following the revolution. It's a tumultuous time, with Hamiltonians sparring with Jeffersonians, and Hamilton himself hoping to secure his position with the establishment of the National Bank. Into the mix comes Ethan Saunders, a celebrated spy during the war but now living a dissolute life in Philadelphia as a drunkard and gambler. Attempting to come to the aid of his former lover, the wife of a stock trader and associate of Hamilton's, Saunders falls in with the whiskey rebels, backcountry moonshiners furious with Hamilton's whiskey tax and ready with the help of the wily Joan Maycott, wife of one of the whiskey boys to foment trouble in the financial markets, possibly causing the failure of Hamilton's bank. Like all of Liss' novels, this one has a remarkably complex plot, but it's so rich in fascinating detail about the early days of stock trading, about the Federalist movement, and about whiskey making that one hardly minds getting lost in the plot machinations now and again. But Liss brings it all together in the end, uniting multiple narrators and different time lines in a bravura finish. Yes, Saunders is an American version of Benjamin Weaver, but who's complaining? A raucous mix of historical fiction and action-adventure thriller. --Booklist. (Check catalog)