Staff Recommends

In the Image

2009-11-14T10:51:00.008-05:00

Dara Horn, 2002

An elderly Jewish refugee crosses paths with his deceased granddaughter's best friend. The novel moves backward through his life and forward in hers, with unexpected links between the two. The family tree at the back of the book is very helpful to distinguish characters.

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MC

The Matisse Stories

2009-10-28T10:29:00.006-04:00

A. S. Byatt, 1995

These three beautifully written stories, each inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, celebrate the intimate connection between seeing and feeling. The ordinary events of everyday life are stripped away to reveal the extraordinary pain, desire, joy and creativity of human existence.

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RR

The Embers

2009-10-13T10:30:00.010-04:00

Hyatt Bass, 2009

Alternating between present day and the past, a daughter recounts her life as well as the lives of her divorced parents. This is a skillfully structured debut novel of buried secrets and deep regrets that crush a family while bonding its members together.

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MC

The Lost Child: A Mother's Story

2009-10-12T11:10:00.014-04:00

Julie Myerson, 2009

A poetic, insightful and profoundly moving account of a mother's love and the loss of a child. Honest and warm, this is the story of two young lives -- one cut short, one derailed.

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What I Loved

2009-10-08T10:49:00.006-04:00

Siri Hustvedt, 2003

A retired art history professor looks back at his life and tells the story of a 25 year long friendship. This memorable novel about friendship, love, family and property is set against a backdrop of the New York art scene.

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MM

Benny & Shrimp

2009-10-06T14:35:00.006-04:00

Katarina Mazetti, 2009

Shrimp, a librarian and young widow, meets Benny, an overworked milk farmer. In spite of their differences, they can't escape the powerful attraction between them. This humorous and very readable book, was translated from the Swedish.

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LM

The Art of Racing in the Rain

2009-10-06T11:45:00.008-04:00

Garth Stein, 2008

Enzo, a dog, feels sure that his next life will be spent in a man's body. In preparation, he closely studies human behavior. It is from Enzo's observant point of view that Stein writes this moving novel. The book will appeal to fans of both dogs and car racing. It is also available as an audio book which is beautifully read by Christopher Evan Welch.

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LM

Sima's Undergarments for Women

2009-09-15T15:51:00.011-04:00

Stanger-Ross, Ilana 2009

Women of Boro Park, Brooklyn, frequent Sima's shop not only to buy lingerie, but to gossip, complain about their families and reminisce about their youth. This is a clever, insightful, bitter-sweet story about life, love, aging and eventual redemption.

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Amagansett

2009-09-15T12:24:00.006-04:00

Mark Mills, 2004

Set in the Long Island town of Amagansett in the 1940's, this first novel is a tense murder mystery set amongst two social classes, the working class fishermen and the summer socialites.

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MC

Commencement

2009-08-29T16:57:00.006-04:00

J. Courtney Sullivan, 2009

This is a coming-of-age tale of four young women who meet in their first year at Smith College in the late 1990's. Sullivan captures the intensity of college friendships and first loves while exploring the complicated and contradictory landscape facing young women today.

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MC

Alentejo Blue

2009-08-22T15:24:00.006-04:00

Monica Ali, 2006

Loosely connected by the same location, a small village in the Alentejo region of Portugal, the nine stories "weave a tapestry of human frailty". Masterfully told by the award winning author of Brick Lane.

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IZ

Witch of Portobello

2009-08-22T15:12:00.007-04:00

Paulo Coelho, 2007

This fable from Coelho, a sage, mystic and a masterful narrator, is told from multiple points of view. It's a story of Athena, a spiritually complex woman, whose "gifts"separate her from other human beings.

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IZ

The Cradle

2009-08-18T10:56:00.006-04:00

Patrick Somerville, 2009

This is a riveting, fast-moving story about the meaning of family and its power to heal. The book contains believable, likeable characters and interesting plot turns. This is a page turner!

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JS

Shanghai Girls

2009-08-10T19:09:00.007-04:00

Lisa See, 2009

This beautifully written historical novel traces the lives of two sisters from Shanghai as they fight their way to Los Angeles in the late 1930's encountering problems as immigrants and subjected to discrimination.

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Hello Goodbye

2009-08-07T14:24:00.004-04:00

Emily Chenoweth, 2009

This is a heartbreaking debut novel about friendship, loyalty and growing up. It traces a dying woman's final family summer vacation in New Hampshire's White Mountains after her daughter's first year of college. Also available in large type.

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JS

Sweeping Up Glass

2009-08-07T11:14:00.006-04:00

Carolyn Wall, 2008

With similarities to To Kill A Mockingbird as well as a fresh narrative voice, this debut novel is haunting and absorbing. Part literary character study and part thriller, it is the story of a lonely, proud and impoverished general store owner in rural Kentucky. Available also in large type.

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JS

Broken For You

2009-07-29T10:12:00.007-04:00

Stephanie Kallos, 2004

This powerful tale, set in present day Seattle, explores familial problems, secrets and redemption. It is peopled by lovably imperfect and eccentric characters. Two women with broken hearts, spirits and bodies connect and explore the risks and rewards of human connection. It is ultimately a work of repair and redemption.

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MC

The Spies of Warsaw

2009-07-15T16:23:00.007-04:00

Alan Furst, 2008

A French aristocrat working as a military attache at the French Embassy in Warsaw in 1937, tries to gather information for Poland and France regarding German moves. This compelling thriller, filled with historical details, is a behind-the-scenes look at French spies trying to convince French politicians to open their eyes. Furst is a master of historical spy fiction.

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LM

Shadow and Light

2009-07-06T14:28:00.005-04:00

Jonathan Rabb, 2009

A high profile suicide at one of the most prominent German film studios seems highly suspicious. In the course of the investigation conducted by the chief police inspector, Nikolai Hoffner, the reader gets glimpses of the shadowy world of drugs, prostitution and murder. The story developes against the background of rising Nazism.

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IZ

Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White

2009-06-20T15:04:00.008-04:00

Tim Reid and Tom Dreesan, 2008

This is a dual biography of the first and only interracial American comedy team. Reid and Dreesan overcame the stigmas of poverty and prejudice and dared to address the controversial, discriminatory realities of the 1960s.

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The Commoner

2009-06-20T10:13:00.011-04:00

John Burnham Schwartz, 2008

This first person fictional narrative is based on the life of the empress of Japan. Although her father was a successful businessman, her rank in society was as a commoner when she married the then crown prince. Schwartz's reconstruction of the life of this character reveals the reality of entering a sealed world of the Japanese imperial household and being forced to suppress and even surrender one's own identity.

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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

2009-06-18T15:31:00.014-04:00

Jamie Ford, 2009

Belongings left behind by deported Japanese families in Seattle during World War II, trigger a Chinese American's cherished memories of a Japanese girl he was in love with. Themes include the innocence of first love, the cruelty of racism, and the blindness of patriotism. Appropriate for adults and young adults.

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IZ

The Believers

2009-06-11T10:38:00.006-04:00

Zoe Heller, 2009

A dysfunctional New York family struggles to find its place in a quickly changing world. Joel Litvinoff, a famous civil rights lawyer, and his acerbic wife, Audrey, have spent their many years together as political protesters, raising their children with the same radical social consciousness. When Joel suffers a stroke, the family, never a peaceful unit to begin with, loses what little cohesion it had. Heller writes about the pain involved in testing one's beliefs and the possibility of growth in the process.

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MC

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

2009-05-20T14:26:00.008-04:00

Sijie Dai, 2001

Two young Chinese men are ordered to the countryside for re-education as a result of their parents' political designation as "class enemies." After discovering a wealth of forbidden Western books, life on the hillside takes a brighter turn. The book is enchanting, written with the rhythm of a fable. Dai Sijie is himself a survivor of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

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MC

Pictures at an Exhibition

2009-05-06T16:01:00.007-04:00

Sara Houghteling, 2009

Set in France during World War II, this is a debut novel about a young man trying to recover his father's art collection looted by the Nazis. "Written with tense drama and a historian's eye for detail, Houghteling's novel draws on the real-life stories of France's preeminent art-dealing families."

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