March into the new month with some excellent nonfiction and fiction for teens!
Bioterrorism, edited by Roman Espejo
My Second Campus: The Independent Almanac of Study Abroad Programs, 2012 Edition
Teen Issues in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, edited by David E. Nelson
Jane Austen’s novel Pride & Prejudice was published 200 years ago this year. Enjoy one of the many books or movies inspired by Austen’s life and work.
Jane Austen’s novel Pride & Prejudice was published 200 years ago this year. Enjoy one of the many books or movies inspired by Austen’s life and work.
NOVELS
An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan
Told from the perspective of Mr. Darcy, the first installment of a trilogy based on Pride & Prejudice.
Austenland by Shannon Hale (eBook)
Because her obsession with Mr. Darcy ruining her love life, Jane is delighted to take a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women.
Austensibly Ordinary by Alyssa Goodnight
When she discovers a journal that could be linked to Jane Austen, Cate invents an alter ego that gets her in hot water with a mystery man and her co-worker Ethan.
The Bad Miss Bennet by Jean Burnett
The recently widowed Lydia Bennet searches for a wealthy replacement for the deceased Wickham from Paris to Venice and even at her sister Elizabeth’s home at Pemberley.
Definitely Not Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos
Chloe, a divorced mother and lifelong member of the Jane Austen Society, auditions for a Jane Austen-inspired TV show that turns out to be a reality dating show set in 1812.
Jane Austen in Scarsdale: Or, Love, Death, & the SATs by Paula Marantz Cohen
In a tale inspired by Austen’s Persuasion, guidance counselor Anne Ehrlich helps her students through college admissions, and remembers a past love whose nephew requires her assistance.
Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford
Alive and well as a vampire in the modern world, Jane Austen anonymously runs a bookshop in a sleepy town. Suddenly in the spotlight, she must hide her real identity–and fend off a dark man from her past while juggling two modern suitors.
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James
The discovery of an old chest in the attic of the Austen family home reveals secrets about Jane’s private romantic life and the inspiration of her beloved works.
The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke
After discovering a letter to Jane Austen from Fitzwilliam Darcy, a supposedly fictional character, in the back of her antique vanity’s mirror, Eliza searches for the only man who knows the truth behind this mystery.
Pemberley Ranch by Jack Caldwell
Attraction develops between northern transplant Beth Bennett and former Confederate soldier Will Darcy in post-Civil War Texas, but Beth’s prejudice against the Confederate Army puts her livelihood in grave danger.
The Perfect Bride for Mr. Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen
Georgiana Darcy sees that Elizabeth Bennet is a perfect match for her brother and enlists the help of her cousin, Anne de Bourgh, to bring them together.
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Jane Mansfield, a gentleman’s daughter from Regency England, inexplicably awakens in present-day L.A. with memories that are not her own and a friend named Wes, who is as attractive and confusing as the man who broke Jane’s heart back home.
MYSTERIES
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (audio download, CD book, eBook)
Pemberley is thrown into chaos after Elizabeth’s disgraced sister Lydia arrives and announces that her husband Wickham has been murdered.
Jane & the Madness of Lord Byron by Stephanie Barron
While visiting the seaside, Jane is called upon to investigate the scandalous death of a young woman who was discovered in the bed of none other than George Gordon, otherwise known as Lord Byron.
Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd
A retelling of Austen’s Mansfield Park transforms Fanny Price into a spoiled and hateful heiress and Mary Crawford into a sweet-natured neighbor who comes into her own when Fanny is murdered.
Murder Most Austen by Tracy Kiely
Attending a Jane Austen festival in Bath, Elizabeth meets a self-proclaimed Austen expert who suggests that a darker story is hidden within each Austen novel and that he knows unsettling truths about the author’s death.
Suspense and Sensibility, or, First Impression, Revisited by Carrie Bebris
Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Darcy identify a seemingly ideal suitor for Elizabeth’s younger sister, a situation that turns bizarre when the young man’s personality undergoes a radical change.
NONFICTION
All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith
Details the author’s yearlong journey organizing book clubs devoted to Jane Austen novels in Central and South America, during which she discovered friendship and love, and learned about life and the power of Austen.
Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece edited by Jennifer Crusie with Glenn Yeffeth
Leading authors in the area of women’s literature and romance contributed to this fresh collection of essays.
A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, & the Things That Really Matter by William Deresiewicz (eBook)
An Austen scholar reveals how the life lessons hidden within Austen’s novels, including her belief in the value of ordinary lives, transformed his own life.
Jane & Her Gentlemen by Audrey Hawkridge
A thoughtful study of the men who came into contact with Austen, as well as those she created.
Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman
A complete biography of both Jane Austen and her lasting cultural influence.
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
This revealing portrait of the beloved novelist presents a modern take on Austen and the world that shaped her.
DVDs
Becoming Jane (2007)
When the dashing Tom Lefroy enters Jane Austen’s life, he offends the emerging writer’s sense and sensibility. Soon their clashing egos set off sparks that ignite a passionate romance and fuel Jane’s dream of doing the unthinkable–marrying for love.
Bride & Prejudice (2004)
Based on Pride & Prejudice, with a Bollywood twist. In an Indian village, the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find marriage matches for her four daughters. Second sister Lalita meets American Will Darcy–is it love?
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Bridget, a single career woman, is torn between her disreputable boss and Mark Darcy, a disagreeable, but attractive acquaintance in this comedic homage to Pride & Prejudice.
Clueless (1995)
It’s not easy being the most popular and glamorous girl at Beverly Hills High, yet somehow 15-year-old Cher manages. Loosely based on Austen’s novel Emma.
Emma (1996)
Emma Woodhouse imagines that she dominates those around her in the small town of Highbury, but her inept matchmaking creates problems for herself and others.
The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)
Six members of a book club centered on books by Jane Austen realize that her works are similar to their modern relationships.
Persuasion (1995)
Anne Elliot is persuaded to break off an engagement to Captain Wentworth, but tensions are resumed when they meet again eight years later.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Pride & Prejudice (1995)
The story of lively and rebellious Elizabeth Bennet, one of five unmarried daughters living in the countryside of 19th century England, in a world where an advantageous marriage is a woman’s sole occupation.
Sense & Sensibility (1995)
Two sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, find their chances at marriage seem doomed by their family’s sudden loss of fortune.
And the Nominees are…
Did you know: You can place a reserve on a book even if it’s on order. You’ll be higher on the list when it arrives in our library!
Lincoln based on the book
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Dearks Goodwin
Argo based on the book
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most
Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio Mendez
and Matt Balglio
Les Misérables based on the book
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The Silver Linings Playbook based on the book
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
Life of Pi based on the book
Life of Pi by Victor Hugo
Beasts of the Southern Wild based on the book
Juicy and Delicious by Lucy Alibar
Amour
Plan a trip to take this year and check out the library’s collection of travel books, DVDs, and magazines, and learn the language before you go!
Plan a trip to take this year and check out the library’s collection of travel books, DVDs, and magazines, and learn the language before you go!
TRAVEL THE WORLD
Once in a Lifetime Trips: The World’s 50 Most Extraordinary & Memorable Travel Experiences
The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life
Frommer’s 500 Places to See Before They Disappear
1,000 Places to See Before You Die: Collection 1
1001 Historic Sites You Must See Before You Die
A Year of Festivals: How to Have the Time of Your Life
AFRICA
Fodor’s Complete African Safari Planner
The Rough Guide to Cape Town, the Winelands & the Garden Route
ASIA & THE PACIFIC
The Rough Guide to First-time Asia
Sri Lanka: The Bradt Travel Guide
The Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei
CANADA, LATIN AMERICA, & THE U.S.
Lonely Planet British Columbia & the Canadian Rockies
Frommer’s Montréal & Québec City
Frommer’s Cancún, Cozumel & the Yucatán
Granada, San Juan Del Sur & Southwest Nicaragua: A Great Destination
EUROPE
Eyewitness Travel: Czech & Slovak Republics
Frommer’s Budapest & the Best of Hungary
Forever Paris: 25 Walks in the Footsteps of Chanel, Hemingway, Picasso, & More
Go Slow Italy: Special Local Places to Eat, Stay & Savor
Let’s Go: Spain & Portugal with Morocco
The Rough Guide to Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania
Rick Steves’ Croatia & Slovenia
Want a book about a teen like you? Not feeling up for an intergalactic space adventure, or swashbuckling adventures on the high seas? Check out a relatively recent realistic fiction title today!
Mary, Patrick, Winter, and Dez are determined to win the unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt, but throughout the afternoon and evening, Mary encounters the demons she and her friends have faced as high school “also-rans.” 2012. YA ALT
Accepting the challenge to live like the earliest human ancestors for a class science project, smart and funny Cat’s lifestyle transforms when she gives up modern luxuries and snacks, causing surprising results. *a favorite title of Miss Kate. 2009. YA BRA
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or villain. *Read the spring 2011 review by a local teen here. 2009. YA BRO
Paired with the infamous “Hot Dog” Helen for a health class presentation on safe sex, tenth-grader Coop tries to regain his cool by entering his musically challenged rock group in the “Battle of the Bands” competition. 2010. YA CAL
His life of death-metal music and violent video games enhanced by his obsession with the popular and pretty Neilly, Declan is astonished when his father announces his engagement to Neilly’s mother, a situation that is complicated by setbacks in their social lives. 2011. YA COO
Meet Mara Waters, Eliza Thompson, and Jacqui Velasco – new au pairs for one of New York City’s wealthiest families – who will spend their summer in one of the most posh, exclusive spots for summering: the Hamptons. If the girls can manage au pair duties – all the while mastering the ins and outs of the Hamptons’ social scene – it just might turn out to be the most incredibly summer of their lives. But to do it they’ll have to stick together. And that’s where things definitely get sticky. 2004. YA DEL
Preparing for the Senior Showcase production during their final year at a performing arts school, Emme, Sophie, Ethan and Carter pursue their respective ambitions while struggling with varying career aspirations and unexpected romantic feelings. 2012. YA EUL
Adonis is smart, intellectually gifted, and born without legs; Autumn is strong, a great wrestler, and barely able to read in ninth grade. Autumn is attracted to Adonis, and is determined to make him part of her life – regardless of what he or her best friend thinks. 2012. YA FLA
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Make sure you have a box of tissues handy. *July 2012 Teen Book Discussion book. 2012. YA GRE.
Sixteen-year-old Miles’ first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by his search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. 2005. YA GRE.
Alex has it all – brains, beauty, popularity and a super-hot boyfriend. Her little sister Thea wants it all, and she’s stepped up her game to get it. Even if it means spinning the truth to win the attention she deserves. Even if it means uncovering a shocking secret her older sister never wanted to share. Even if it means crying wolf. Told in alternating voices, this novel is the story of sibling rivalry on speed. 2012. YA GRI
What if you kissed someone – and your kiss killed him? That’s what happens to Samantha. Trying to make another boy jealous, Samantha, who recently ate a peanut butter sandwich, kisses Alex, who has a fatal peanut allergy. 2012. YA GUR.
A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band. 2007. YA HUG
Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’ popular rock band, Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along. 2010. YA JOH
Astrid Jones, a teen from a small town torn by gossip and narrow-mindedness, struggles with her family’s dysfunction and hides her love for another girl. 2012. YA KIN
After his favorite uncle’s violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears that no one else is, either. 2011, 2010. YA MAR
Told in their separate voices, thirteen-year-old soccer star Kevin and police sergeant Brown, who knew Kevin’s dad, try to keep Kevin out of juvenile hall after he is arrested on very serious charges. 2011. YA MYE
Teenaged loner Jason struggles to hide his father’s declining mental condition after his mother’s death, but when his dad disappears, he must confide in the other members of a therapy group he has been forced to join at school. 2010. YA NOL
With his family still grieving over his sister’s death in a terrorist bombing seven years earlier, Jamie is far more interested in his cat, Roger, his birthday Spiderman T-shirt, and keeping his new friend, Sunya, a secret from his father. 2012, 2011. YA PIT
Falling in love with a girl who is struggling with mental illness, Conner, who is aware that Izzy can never love him the same way, becomes Izzy’s closest confidante in her frenetic, exhilarating world until her increasingly self-destructive behavior threatens her survival. 2012. YA REE
In England, a beautiful, manipulative teenaged girl affiliated with a group of political anarchists seduces both seventeen-year-old Jamie and his older brother, a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan. 2012. YA REE
New year, new books! We also have the 2012 volume of Grok available for circulation!
Notable nonfiction selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
Notable nonfiction selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen
The vanished world of midcentury upper-class lesbians is portrayed as beguiling, its inhabitants members of a stylish club.
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarns
A Times reporter’s deeply researched chronicle of several generations of Mrs. Obama’s family.
American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf by James Dodson
The author evokes an era when the game was more vivid and less corporate than it seems now.
Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel
Bechdel’s engaging, original graphic memoir explores her troubled relationship with her distant mother.
Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss
This huge and absorbing new biography, full of previously unexplored detail, shows that Obama’s saga is more surprising and gripping than the version we’re familiar with.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (audio download, eBook)
This extraordinary moral inquiry into life in an Indian slum shows the human costs exacted by a brutal social Darwinism.
Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate by Ivor Noël Hume
The fascinating tale of the 19th-century Italian monk, a “notorious tomb robber,” who gathered archaeological treasures in Egypt while crunching bones underfoot.
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss (eBook)
The first Alexandre Dumas, a mixed-race general of the French Revolution, is the subject of this imaginative biography.
Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams
Williams’s environmental call to arms deplores chemicals in breast milk and the vogue for silicone implants.
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010 by Charles Murray (audio download, eBook)
The author of “The Bell Curve” warns that the white working class has abandoned the “founding virtues.”
Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution by Rebecca Stott
Stott’s lively, original history of evolutionary ideas flows easily across continents and centuries.
A Disposition to Be Rich: How a Small-Town Preacher’s Son Ruined an American President, Brought on a Wall Street Crash, and Made Himself the Best-Hated Man in the United States by Geoffrey C. Ward
The author’s ancestor was the bane of Ulysses S. Grant.
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
This passionate and affecting work about what it means to be a parent is based on interviews with families of “exceptional” children.
Flagrant Conduct. The Story of Lawrence v. Texas: How a Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans by Dale Carpenter
Carpenter stirringly describes the 2003 Supreme Court decision that overturned the Texas sodomy law.
The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life by Robert Trivers
An intriguing argument that deceit is a beneficial evolutionary “deep feature” of life.
The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness by Kevin Young
A poet’s lively account of the central place of the trickster figure in black American culture could have been called “How Blacks Invented America.”
Haiti: The Aftershocks of History by Laurent Dubois
Foreign meddling, the lack of a democratic tradition, a humiliating American occupation and cold-war support of a brutal dictator all figure in a scholar’s well-written analysis.
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough (audio download)
Noncognitive skills like persistence and self-control are more crucial to success than sheer brainpower, Tough maintains.
How Music Works by David Byrne
This guidebook also explores the eccentric rock star’s personal and professional experience.
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum
An overwhelming and convincing account of the Soviet push to colonize Eastern Europe after World War II.
Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats by Roger Rosenblatt
This thoughtful meditation on the evolution of grief over time asks the big questions.
Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History by John Fabian Witt
A tension between humanitarianism and righteousness has shaped America’s rules of warfare.
Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
A beautifully written and deeply reported account of America’s troubled involvement in Afghanistan.
Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer by Susan Gubar
A feminist scholar recounts her experience and criticizes the medical treatment of a frightening disease in a voice that is straightforward and incredibly brave.
My Poets by Maureen N. McLane
Part memoir and part criticism, this friendly book includes essays on poets canonical and contemporary, as well as lineated poem-games.
The Obamas by Jodi Kantor
Michelle Obama sets the tone and tempo of the current White House, Kantor argues in this admiring account, full of colorful insider anecdotes.
Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms With His Sexuality by John Schwartz
A Times reporter’s deeply affecting account of his son’s coming out also reviews research on the experience of LGBT kids.
On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder (audio download, eBook)
An absorbing biography of the pioneering environmental writer on the 50th anniversary of “Silent Spring.”
On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — and Future by Karen Elliott House
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist unveils this inscrutable country, comparing its calcified regime to the Soviet Union in its final days.
The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith
Smith argues that Brown was the most significant modern American musician in terms of style, messaging, rhythm and originality.
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro (eBook)
The fourth volume of Caro’s magisterial work spans the five years that end shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, as Johnson prepares to push for a civil rights act.
The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
This riveting history captures the sweep of Kennedy’s life — as Wall Street speculator, moviemaker, ambassador and dynastic founder.
People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished From the Streets of Tokyo — and the Evil That Swallowed Her Up by Richard Lloyd Parry
An evenhanded investigation of a murder.
Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival by Christopher Benfey
Mixing memoir, family saga, travelogue and cultural history.
Rule and Ruin. The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party: From Eisenhower to the Tea Party by Geoffrey Kabaservice
Pragmatic Republicanism was hardier than we remember, Kabaservice argues.
Saul Steinberg: A Biography by Deirdre Bair
A gripping and revelatory biography of the eminent cartoonist.
Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy
An uninhibited and learned account of the attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, which only increased her popularity.
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan
A deft portrait of the man who made memorable photographs of American Indians.
The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
The evolutionary biologist explores the strange kinship between humans and some insects.
Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider by Zakes Mda
The South African novelist and playwright absorbingly illuminates his wide, worldly life.
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
Quammen’s meaty, sprawling book chronicles his globe-trotting scientific adventures and warns against animal microbes spilling over into people.
The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food by Lizzie Collingham
Collingham argues that food needs contributed to the war’s origins, strategy, outcome and aftermath.
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
This readable and well-researched life celebrates Jefferson’s skills as a practical politician, unafraid to wield power even when it conflicted with his small-government views.
Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution by Linda Hirshman
Written with knowing finesse, this expansive history of gay rights from the early 20th century to the present draws on archives and interviews.
When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God by T. M. Luhrmann
Evangelicals believe that God speaks to them personally because they hone the skill of prayer, this insightful study argues.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
Winterson’s unconventional and winning memoir wrings humor from adversity as it describes her upbringing by a wildly deranged mother.
Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt
An elegant and witty writer converses with philosophers and cosmologists who ponder why there is something rather than nothing.
That’s it for 2012, folks! See you in 2013!
Notable fiction & poetry selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
Notable fiction & poetry selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
A young hacker on the run in the Mideast is the protagonist of this imaginative first novel.
Almost Never by Daniel Sada
In this glorious satire of machismo, a Mexican agronomist simultaneously pursues a prostitute and an upright woman.
An American Spy by Olen Steinhauer
In a novel vividly evoking the multilayered world of espionage, Steinhauer’s hero fights back when his C.I.A. unit is nearly destroyed.
Arcadia by Lauren Groff (eBook)
Groff’s lush and visual second novel begins at a rural commune, and links that utopian past to a dystopian, post-global-warming future.
At Last by Edward St. Aubyn
The final and most meditative of St. Aubyn’s brilliant Patrick Melrose novels is full of precise observations and glistening turns of phrase.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (eBook)
Walter’s witty sixth novel, set largely in Hollywood, reveals an American landscape of vice, addiction, loss and disappointed hopes.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
The survivors of a fierce firefight in Iraq are whisked stateside for a brief victory tour in this satirical novel.
Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie
The best stories in Alexie’s collection of new and selected works are moving and funny, bringing together the embittered critic and the yearning dreamer.
The Book of Mischief: New and Selected Stories by Steve Stern
Jewish immigrant lives observed with effusive nostalgia.
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (audio download, CD book, large print book)
Mantel’s sequel to “Wolf Hall” traces the fall of Anne Boleyn, and makes the familiar story fascinating and suspenseful again.
Building Stories by Chris Ware
A big, sturdy box containing hard-bound volumes, pamphlets and a tabloid houses Ware’s demanding, melancholy and magnificent graphic novel about the inhabitants of a Chicago building.
By Blood by Ellen Ullman (audio download)
This smart, slippery novel is a narrative striptease, as a professor listens in on the sessions between the therapist next door and her patients.
Canada by Richard Ford (CD book, eBook, MP3 CD)
A boy whose parents rob a bank in Montana in 1960 takes refuge across the border in this mesmerizing novel, driven by fully realized characters and an accomplished prose style.
Carry the One by Carol Anshaw (large print book)
Anshaw pays close attention to the lives of a group of friends bound together by a fatal accident in this wry, humane novel, her fourth.
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
Somewhere in Ireland in 2053, people are haunted by a “lost time,” when something calamitous happened, and hope to reclaim the past. Barry’s extraordinary, exuberant first novel is full of inventive language.
Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert
In orderly free verse constructions, Gilbert deals plainly with grief, love, marriage, betrayal and lust.
Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
This volume offers further proof of Munro’s mastery, and shows her striking out in the direction of a new, late style that sums up her whole career.
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
LaValle’s culturally observant third novel is set in a shabby urban mental hospital.
Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison
Harrison’s splendid and surprising novel of late imperial Russia centers on Rasputin’s daughter Masha and the hemophiliac czarevitch Alyosha.
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (eBook, large print book)
An Appalachian woman becomes involved in an effort to save monarch butterflies in this brave and majestic novel.
Fobbit by David Abrams
Clerks, cooks and lawyers at a forward operating base in Iraq populate this first novel.
The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli
In Soli’s haunting second novel, a mysterious Caribbean woman cares for a cancer patient on an isolated California ranch.
Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden
Three generations of black women confront floods and murder in Mississippi.
Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru
Related stories, spanning centuries and continents, and all tethered to a desert rock formation, emphasize interconnectivity across time and space in Kunzru’s relentlessly modern fourth novel.
HHhH by Laurent Binet
This gripping novel examines both the killing of an SS general in Prague in 1942 and Binet’s experience in writing about it.
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (CD book, MP3 CD)
Eggers’s novel is a haunting and supremely readable parable of America in the global economy, a nostalgic lament for a time when life had stakes and people worked with their hands.
Home by Toni Morrison (audio download, eBook)
A black Korean War veteran, discharged from an integrated Army into a segregated homeland, makes a reluctant journey back to Georgia in a novel engaged with themes that have long haunted Morrison.
Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander
Hilarity alternates with pain in this novel about a Jewish man seeking peace in upstate New York who discovers Anne Frank in his attic.
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
The narrator (also named Sheila) and her friends try to answer the question in this novel’s title.
In One Person by John Irving
Irving’s funny, risky new novel about an aspiring writer struggling with his sexuality examines what happens when we face our desires honestly.
A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (audio download, eBook)
An evil pastor dominates Cash’s mesmerizing first novel.
Married Love: And Other Stories by Tessa Hadley
Hadley’s understatedly beautiful collection is filled with exquisitely calibrated gradations and expressions of class.
NW by Zadie Smith
The lives of two friends who grew up in a northwest London housing project diverge, illuminating questions of race, class, sexual identity and personal choice, in Smith’s energetic modernist novel.
On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths by Lucia Perillo
Taut, lucid poems filled with complex emotional reflection.
Pure by Julianna Baggott (audio download)
Children battle for the planet’s redemption in this precisely written postapocalyptic adventure story.
The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman
A dark, magisterial novel set on a Chesapeake Bay estate.
The Round House by Louise Erdrich (eBook)
In this novel, an American Indian family faces the ramifications of a vicious crime.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (eBook)
A pregnant 15-year-old and her family await Hurricane Katrina in this lushly written novel.
San Miguel by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Two utopians from different eras establish private idylls on California’s desolate Channel Islands; this novel preserves their tantalizing dreams.
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer
This thought-provoking debut novel presents a geeky astronaut and his pregnant wife.
Shout Her Lovely Name by Natalie Serber
The stories in Serber’s first collection are smart and nuanced.
Silent House by Orhan Pamuk
A family is a microcosm of a country on the verge of a coup in this intense, foreboding novel, first published in Turkey in 1983.
The Starboard Sea by Amber Dermont
Dermont’s captivating debut novel, whose narrator is a boarding school student and a sailor, takes pleasure in the sea and in the exhilarating freedom of being young.
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan (CD book, eBook, MP3 CD)
The true subject of this smart and tricky novel, set inside a cold war espionage operation, is the border between make-believe and reality.
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
In this spare, disturbing and frequently funny novel, a troubled young woman tests the marriages of two couples.
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon (eBook)
Chabon’s rich comic novel about fathers and sons in Berkeley and Oakland, Calif., juggles multiple plots and mounds of pop culture references in astonishing prose.
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
This beautiful work takes power from the surprises of its language and its almost shocking characterization of Mary, mother of Jesus.
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
The stories in this collection are about love, but they’re also about the undertow of family history and cultural mores, presented in Díaz’s exciting, irresistible and entertaining prose.
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
In loosely linked narratives, three women from Senegal struggle with fathers and husbands in France. This subtle, hypnotic novel won the Prix Goncourt in 2009.
Toby’s Room by Pat Barker
This novel, a sequel to “Life Class,” delves further into the lives of an English family torn apart by World War I.
Watergate by Thomas Mallon
This novelistic reimagining of the “third-rate burglary” proposes surprising motives for the break-in and the 18-minute gap, and has a sympathetic Nixon.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories by Nathan Englander (audio download, eBook)
Englander tackles large questions of morality and history in a masterly collection that manages to be both insightful and uproarious.
The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
A young private and his platoon struggle through the war in Iraq but find no peace at home in this powerful and moving first novel about the frailty of man and the brutality of war.
