Staff Picks

Adult Fiction

From Elizabeth: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh This is a beautifully written debut novel about a young woman who at 18 is about to leave the foster care system.  Victoria's story is told in alternating chapters between the time she was 10 and living in yet one more foster home and the present.  As a young woman the author discovered Kate Greenaway's book, Language of Flowers and became fascinated with the various meanings that flowers have.  In her tumultuous world Victoria found safety in the world of flowers and their predictable growing habits.  This changes when she discovers that flowers can have more than one meaning.  She decides to create a dictionary with photographs and definitions for each entry.  As she struggles to learn to love others when she has so rarely been loved herself there are often steps two or three steps ahead and then a step backward. ($25.00; our price: $20.00; ebook $12.99) 

From Karen: The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta Once again author Tom Perrotta mines the underbelly of American suburban life. In this ironically timely novel he explores the reactions of his characters whose loved ones have simply disappeared into thin air, all at once. Born-again Christians deny that what has occurred is "The Rapture" because, after all, they are still here on earth, left behind. Non-believers are left questioning their sense of reality, and most find it an open invitation to go off the rails.
 Marriages dissolve, children and adults run away to join cults, all in a vain attempt to come to terms with the unexplainable. A poignant and realistically portrayed look at American "family values" at risk. ($25.99; our price: $20.79; ebook $12.99)

From Shuchi: We the Animals: A Novel by Justin Torres This powerful, lyrical little book is unlike any I've recently read. Told from the point of view of the youngest of three brothers, this unique coming-of-age story takes an intimate look at a Brooklyn family bound together by a dangerous love and constantly on the brink of a furious unravel. The narrator's magical, childlike view of the world makes the tense scenes even more vivid, more real, and more unforgettable. We the Animals is an enchanting, haunting novel. ($18.00; our price: $14.40; ebook $9.99)     

From Vicky: Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington Alice Bliss is a pretty typical high schooler struggling through the many changes of the teen years - including a strained relationship with her mother. She has come to lean on the steadying embrace of her father and their shared interests, including gardening.  When his national guard unit is called up for duty in Iraq, however, her father leaves a void impossible to fill. Suddenly, Alice, her mother and younger sister must learn to depend each other just when they are at their weakest. This is a book I found impossible to put down, even through my tears. Beautifully written, it brings to life the very real sacrifice made by military families whose loved ones are in harm's way at home and abroad. Though this is an adult novel, I would highly recommend it for older teens as well. ($25.95; our price: $20.77; ebook $12.99)    

From Vicky: Next to Love by Ellen Feldman  Love stories set during World War II are so compelling! This is the story of the home front in a small Massachusetts town and what happens after the men return. Life is easier in many ways, but it is also so much more complex. Some men don't return. Others return scarred on the outside and on the inside. This is the story of how three women cope and adjust and go one with their lives, marriages and friendships through the years. At its core, this book takes a look at the wonderful complexity of people and relationships, making it a great read. ($25.00; our price: $20.00; ebook $12.99)   

From Vicky: The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall Golden Richards is a middle aged man who finds himself with 4 wives, 28 children, a dog, 3 houses and a struggling construction business, all of which cry for his time and attention.  Imagine a world where your 4 wives schedule a weekly meeting with you to air their grievances and present you with the list of this week's activities, household repairs, sleeping schedule and more! The overwhelming burden is far more than this basically good man can bear and the idea that he might be able to escape it all tempts him in ways that lead toward disaster. Brady Udall's writing is remarkable and his characters complex, fascinating and sympathetic. I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book and there were descriptions of sorrow that brought me to tears.  (now in paperback: $15.95; ebook $9.43) 

Adult Nonfiction

From Elizabeth: Seamless (or Nearly Seamless) Knits by Andra Knight-Bowman ($24.99)  A new book by an accomplished knitter and owner of a yarn shop which contains 19 projects from easy to more challenging. It is perfect for the person who loves to knit but doesn't like seaming and finishing. There are large photos and easy to read directions and schematics. Each project is designed to be knit all in one piece or in sections that can be added by picking up stitches. This novice knitter has found a project to her liking and is hoping to have it well under way by the time our knitting group gets together on Labor Day!    

Children's Fiction

From Vicky: Aliens on Vacation by Clete Barrett Smith ($16.99) Looking for something completely fun to read? Try this! Scrub is a young boy who  spends the summer at his grandmother's house in the state of Washington. His grandmother, he discovers, runs a secret intergalactic bed and breakfast inn for aliens seeking a vacation on Earth. There's lots of just plain silliness, but there's also some really great characters and you'll find yourself rooting for Scrub as he struggles make friends and help his grandmother. This would make a super read aloud, too! Ages 8-12.   

From Vicky: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick ($29.99; our price: $23.99) is a brilliant and touching story written and illustrated by Brian Selznick in much the same format as his Caldecott award winnning novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Selznick cleverly weaves the stories of Ben Wilson, a boy who has recently lost his hearing and goes to New York  in 1977 to search for his father, and Rose, a deaf girl in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1927, whose story is told almost entirely with drawings. Highly recommended for ages 9-13. (available September 13)   

Children's Picture Book

From Vicky: You Will Be My Friend! by Peter Brown ($16.99) Lucy is a little bear who wakes up one morning and decides to make a friend. She does everything she can in her own exuberant way to make friends with one animal after another, wrecking havoc and trying her best to fit in, unsuccessfully. This is a lovely picture book perfectly and humorously illustrated by the author.  Ages 3-6.     

From Edye: King Jack and the Dragon by Peter Bently, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury ($17.99) "Jack, Zack, and Caspar were making a den--a mighty great fort for King Jack and his men..." Thus begins this captivating picture book all about being brave during the day "fighting dragons and beasts Raaahhh!"  And about trying so hard to be brave during the night despite trees that quiver and make Jack shiver, and a mouse that goes "skitter-scurry" but "is no reason to worry..."  Helen Oxenbury's warm illustrations, and the gentle rhyming text bring to mind Going on a Bear Hunt. A perfect read-aloud that will charm little ones,  their bigger braver siblings, and their even bigger (and braver?) parents.    

New and Recommended  

Adult Nonfiction

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation by Elizabeth Letts ($26.00; ebook $12.99) The Eighty-Dollar Champion tells the dramatic odyssey of a horse called Snowman, saved from the slaughterhouse by a young Dutch farmer named Harry. Together, Harry and Snowman went on to become America's show-jumping champions, winning first prize in Madison Square Garden. Set in the mid to late 1950s, this book captures the can-do spirit of a Cold War immigrant who believed--and triumphed. 

Hamlet's Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers (now in paperback: $14.99) A crisp, passionately argued polemic that challenges the sacred dogma of the digital age--the more we connect through technology, the happier we are--and offers a new, practical philosophy for life in a world of screens.  

Adult Fiction

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson ($25.99; our price: $20.79; ebook $12.99) Drawn to an older man, Eve embarks on a whirlwind romance that soon offers a new life and a new home--Les Genevriers, an old house in a charming hamlet amid the fragrant lavender fields of Provence. Their relationship becomes strained, however, as Dom grows quiet and distant and Eve feels a haunting presence. The more reluctant Dom is to tell her about his past, the more Eve is drawn to it--and to the mysterious disappearance of his beautiful ex-wife.  

The Magician King by Lev Grossman ($26.95; our price: $21.56; ebook $12.99) In this sequel The Magicians (which was was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature) Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges. The Magician King is a grand voyage into the dark, glittering heart of magic, an epic quest for the Harry Potter generation. It also introduces a powerful new voice, that of Julia, whose angry genius is thrilling. Once again Grossman proves that he is the modern heir to C.S. Lewis and on the cutting edge of literary fantasy. (autographed copies available!)

The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippman ($25.99; our price: $20.79; ebook $12.99) Once the best of friends until a terrible secret tore them apart, a group is suddenly brought back together under tragic circumstances and wonder if their long-ago lie is the reason for their troubles today and if someone is out to destroy them.     

The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart (now in paperback: $14.95; ebook $$9.99) Brimming with charm and whimsy, this exquisite novel set in the Tower of London is a magical, wholly original novel whose irresistible characters will stay with readers long after they turn the stunning last page. It has the transportive qualities and delightful magic of the contemporary classics Chocolat and Amelie.  

In the Company of Others by Jan Karon (now in paperback: $16.00; ebook $12.99) Father Tim and Cynthia arrive in the west of Ireland, intent on researching his Kavanagh ancestry from the comfort of a charming fishing lodge. The charm, however, is broken entirely when Cynthia startles a burglar and sprains her already-injured ankle.

Cape Cod

Trailside Treasures: Plants of Cape Cod by Nancy Wigley, photographs by Susan W. Carr ($17.95) Published by the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, this beautiful, handy little book features the plants along the trails adjacent to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and found elsewhere on the Cape. It has been written to appeal to all levels of interest, making it a must for Cape residents, visitors, naturalists, botanists, and plant enthusiasts. The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History has also published a fact book for children called Mudflat Mania! ($8.95) about the creatures that move in the mud.

Teen

The Power of Six (I Am Number Four, Book #2) by Pittacus Lore ($17.99; ebook $9.99) The follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller I Am Number Four. John Smith is Number Four. He has just met Number Six, and he knows the survival and the fate of Lorien--and Earth--now rest in their hands. I Am Number Four is now out in paperback ($9.99) 

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini ($17.99; ebook $9.99) Starcrossed is a wonderful story based on Greek mythology and set on Nantucket.  17 year old Helen of Nantucket knows only that she is different.  In truth, she is a demigod. When a new family moves to the island, she is attracted to one of the sons, a demigod who is fated to remain her starcrossed lover.  The two are determined to break the curse that keeps them apart.  Ages 13-17

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta (now out in paperback - $9.99) Finnikin was only a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered. A curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere's walls, and those who escape roam the surrounding lands as exiles, dying by the thousands in fever camps.  Finnikin, now on the cusp of manhood, is compelled to join forces with an arrogant and enigmatic young novice named Evanjalin, who claims that her dark dreams will lead the exiles to a surviving royal child and a way to pierce the cursed barrier and regain the land of Lumatere. But Evanjalin's unpredictable behavior suggests that she is not what she seems -- and the startling truth will test Finnikin's faith not only in her, but in all he knows to be true about himself and his destiny.  Ages 13 and up 

Children's Fiction

Big Nate on a Roll by Lincoln Pierce ($12.99) Big Nate is at it again and funnier than ever! There's a contest to win a skateboard and 6th grader Nate must beat out his archrival Artur to win the prize.  Told with a wonderful combination of text and comics, this is great for Wimpy Kid fans.  Ages 9-12

The Mistaken Masterpiece (Red Blazer Girls #03) by Michael D. Beil ($16.99)   Have you discovered the Red Blazer Girls yet? This new mystery series is smart and funny and clever - filled with puns and puzzles. The Red Blazer Girls are four good friends at St. Veronica's School in Manhattan. They solve mysteries and in this book they must find out if a painting is a masterpiece - or a fake!  Ages 9-13. (Earlier volumes available in paperback.)