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 by Erika Bauermeister. When Kate receives a clean bill of health after a double mastectomy, she invites the women in her life to a victory dinner. Motivated by her recent decision to join her college-age daughter on a whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, Kate takes the opportunity to assign each woman at the table her own challenge for the next year. Though some challenges seem deceptively simple on the surface (learn to bake bread, get a tattoo, tend your garden), Kate seems to know exactly how each task will force each woman to confront some of her deepest fears. Using individualized chapters to detail how each woman approaches her assigned challenge, Bauermeister displays an admirably adaptable and lyrical narrative voice. The chapters are short, yet Bauermeister paints remarkably detailed portraits of each and every woman. Examining those not afflicted with Kate's condition but undeniably affected by it, Joy for Beginners is an inspiring, tender, resonating, and rejuvenating read. --Booklist (Check C atalog)

Ali in Wonderland : and other tall tales

 by Alexandra Wentworth.  There is a moment in every woman's life in which she becomes completely unzipped, demented, whacked, non compos mentis begins actress and comedienne Wentworth's lively, laugh-out-loud memoir. Wentworth, perhaps best known for her role as Schmoopie in Seinfeld's infamous Soup Nazi episode, has spent her life surrounded by characters so over-the-top she couldn't possibly have made them up. Headlining the eccentric entourage is her drop-dead hilarious WASP mother, Muffie, who once served as President Reagan's White House social secretary. (No-nonsense and seemingly free of neuroses, Muffie deals with any stressful situation by booking a room at the Four Seasons.) Wentworth, who is married to esteemed journalist George Stephanopoulos, may have been born inside the Beltway, but there's no spinning in her candid commentary on psychotic roommates, persnickety bosses, and the well-fed family that hosted her during a summer in Spain. The clan's patriarch, she writes, looked like Javier Bardem if Javier Bardem had swallowed Penelope Cruz. Fans of Amy Sedaris and Merrill Markoe will enjoy Wentworth's warped weltanschauung and wicked wit. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Spring

 by David Szalay.  Set in London, Spring unfolds around the lives of James and Katherine. James is at a low point in his life. After the dot-com bust of 2006 and a failed business venture, he has sunk his last assets into a race horse with a marginal track record. He meets Katherine, a hotel manager, at the start of a blustery British spring and clings pathetically to her affection as his last hope for happiness. Katherine, however, is anything but happy to let down her guard. After dating a married man, she waffles in and out of love with James, creating a hot-and-cold romance with him that verges on the torturous. Szalay, who was listed as one of the Daily Telegraph's 20 best writers under 40, gets to the heart of what it means to encounter disappointment and heartache. His characters, particularly James, are skilled in picking up the pieces of their broken lives and moving on to something better, however elusive better may prove to be. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Towers of midnight

by Robert Jordan. Jordan's epic is coming to its long awaited conclusion in the next book, so this installment (Book 13) exquisitely ratchets up the suspense. The last battle is coming, and Rand must garner the armies of nations, unite disparate allies, and as the Dragon Reborn, prepare to face the Dark One in combat. Fans will find the preparations of the multitude of characters exciting and satisfying. Michael Kramer and Kate Reading have narrated all of the previous books, and continue to give peerless performances. Both boast a wide range of vocals and accents, and perform all characters convincingly. Their readings and characterizations are complementary and consistent in manner and style so that the sprawling series is kept coherent. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Quiet : the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking

 by Susan Cain.  It's hard to believe, in this world of social media and reality TV, that one-third to one-half of Americans are introverts. Yet being an introvert has become a social stigma. The rise of what the author dubs the Extrovert Ideal (in which the ideal self is gregarious, alpha, and comfortable in the spotlight) began with Dale Carnegie and his wildly popular self-help books. Simultaneously, we saw the rise of the movie star and of personality-driven ads and the appearance of the inferiority complex, developed by psychologist Alfred Adler. Today, pitchmen like Tony Robbins sell the idea of extroversion as the key to greatness. But and this is key to the author's thesis personal space and privacy are absolutely vital to creativity and invention, as is freedom from peer pressure. Cain also explores the fundamental differences in psychology and physiology between extroverts and introverts, showing how being an introvert or an extrovert is really a biological imperative. No slick self-help book, this is an intelligent and often surprising look at what makes us who we are. --Booklist (Check catalog)

How it all began : a novel

 by Penelope Lively.  The ruling vision of master British novelist Lively's latest delectably tart and agile novel is the Butterfly Effect, which stipulates that a very small perturbation can radically alter the course of events. The catalyst here is a London mugging that leaves Charlotte, a passionate reader and former English teacher become adult literacy tutor, with a broken hip. She moves in with her married daughter, Rose, to recuperate. Rose works for Henry, a lord and once-prominent historian, whose ego is as robust as ever but whose mind is faltering as he attempts to launch a BBC documentary to hilarious effect. With Rose out helping her mother, Henry prevails upon his daughter, Marion, an interior designer, to accompany him out of town, where she meets a too-good-to-be-true client. When she texts her lover, who deals in architectural salvage (tangible history), to postpone a rendezvous, his wife intercepts the message. Charlotte begins tutoring Anton, a smart and soulful East European, who affirms her ardor for language and story and awakens Rose out of her smothering stoicism. Throughout this brilliantly choreographed and surreptitiously poignant chain-reaction comedy of chance and change, Lively (Family Album, 2009) shrewdly elucidates the nature of history, the tunnel-visioning of pain and age, and the abiding illumination of reading, which so profoundly nourishes the mind and spirit. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

30 lessons for living : tried and true advice from the wisest Americans

 by Karl A. Pillemer. Who better to teach lessons on living, asks Pillemer (human ecology, Cornell Univ.; director, Cornell Inst. for Translational Research on Aging), than the thousands of Americans over the age of 65 who have successfully navigated the territories of marriage, career, money, and aging? By conducting innumerable interviews, Pillemer found that their advice upends contemporary wisdom: they suggest marrying a person like oneself, choosing a career for intrinsic rewards, and spending more time with one's children. The author skillfully weaves a prevailing theme (e.g., parenting, aging fearlessly) with self-disclosing statements from interviewees to create a compelling, inspirational book. One of the best of its kind. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Defending Jacob : a novel

 A 14-year-old boy is stabbed to death in the park near his middle school in an upper-class Boston suburb, and Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber takes the case, despite the fact that his son, Jacob, was a classmate of the victim. But when the bloody fingerprint on the victim's clothes turns out to be Jacob's, Barber is off the case and out of his office, devoting himself solely to defending his son. Even Barber's never-before-disclosed heritage as the son and grandson of violent men who killed becomes potential courtroom fodder, raising the question of a murder gene. Within the structure of a grand jury hearing a year after the murder, Landay gradually increases apprehension. As if peeling the layers of an onion, he raises personal and painful ethical issues pertaining to a parent's responsibilities to a child, to a family, and to society at large. Landay's two previous novels (Mission Flats, 2003; The Strangler, 2007) were award winners, but he reaches a new level of excellence in this riveting, knock-your-socks-off legal thriller. With its masterfully crafted characterizations and dialogue, emotional depth, and frightening implications, the novel rivals the best of Scott Turow and John Grisham. Don't miss it. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Unruly Americans and the origins of the Constitution

 by Woody Holton.  According to Holton (history, Univ. of Richmond), when most people articulate their favorite parts of the Constitution, they actually list things found in the Bill of Rights. However, the Constitution was ratified without these rights attached to it. Holton examines why the Constitution was ratified absent those rights. One explanation is that the Founders considered the states too democratic and the state legislatures too willing to appease the will of the majority. The author resurrects arguments by lesser-known political players who thought that the Union could be carried without abandoning legislative rule, and in the process he gives Charles Beard's economic interpretation a second look with surprising conclusions. State legislatures granted tax and debt relief in the years between the conclusion of the revolution and the ratification of the Constitution. Many citizens who demanded the legislature respond to their distress thought that their rebellion would bring about a democratic solution. State legislatures, absent pressure from the people, wrecked the economy. The motivation for the Constitution, therefore, is not merely based on the Founders' own self-interest--broadly felt domestic economic turmoil necessitated a more perfect Union.  --Choice (Check Catalog)