Staff Reviews and New Releases

Adult Fiction

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
From Karen:   Alice Hoffman's books are always great reads, full of life and magic and this one is as well. It's not too heavy on the 'magical,' so that I'm sure it will appeal to many readers. It takes place in the early 1900s in bustling Manhattan and sparkly Coney Island. Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father's museum and is a veritable prisoner.  Dashing photographer Eddie Cohen is a Russian immigrant who believes he can make a living with his camera.  When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman's disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie. I really loved this novel. List price, $27.99  Our price, $22.39

Wake by Anna Hope

From Fran:  Wake, a debut novel by Anna Hope set in London during 1920, during the preparations to celebrate the two year anniversary of Armistice Day and the burial of the unknown soldier. The story follows the intertwined lives of three women and how the war has effected them and their loved ones. Hettie still lives at home with her mother and works evenings in a dance hall.  Evelyn works in the Pensions Exchange helping thousands claim benefits for their war disabilities. Ada, sees her lost son in all the returning faces of those soldiers lucky to have survived.  How their lives are connected becomes clearer as they witness the funeral for the unknown soldier and we are reminded that everyone deals with their grief in their own unique way and in their own time.  A well researched novel and charmingly written, I look forward to the author's next book!  $26.00 ($20.80)  

  Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fell in love. Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu--beautiful, self-assured--departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze--the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor--had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.  Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of a blog about race in America. When Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion for their homeland and for each other they face the toughest decisions of their lives.  Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, Americanah  is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's most powerful and astonishing novel yet.  $15.95  (Available March 4th.)

From Fran:  The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes
There seems to be a never ending bounty of novels set during WWII, each with its own story and twists.  I for one never get tired of this genre of historical fiction.  "The Secret of Raven Point" by Jennifer Vanderbes tells the haunting story of small town girl, Juliet who becomes a nurse as quick as possible after her high school graduation. She purposely gets herself stationed close to the Italian front to try and find her MIA older brother. Her tale will have you on the edge of your seat at times and I swear you can almost feel the war with all of your senses. A different perspective that will not disappoint. List price, $26.00  Our price, $20.80

Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler

From Kathy:  This is such a satisfyingly good read by a new author!  Set in a small town deep in Wisconsin farmland, it is about a group of friends, four men and a woman, who have been close since childhood.  One becomes a successful indie rock star (his big album is called "Shotgun Lovesongs"), one is a not so successful businessman, one is a rodeo rider, one is the woman at least two of them love.  We get to follow their lives and feel their strong connection to each other and the little town they love. There are four weddings, and some madcap adventures.  Like Larry McMurtry and RIchard Russo, Butler expresses men's thoughts and feelings in an insightful way.   List price $25.99, our price $20.79  (Available March 11.)

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler  

From Kathy:  It's worth the trouble to avoid spoilers, including the ones on the back cover, for Fowler's marvelous new novel.  Let her introduce the troubled Cooke family before she springs the jaw-dropping surprise at the heart of the story.  Newly released in paperback, this book is "can't put it down" good, and highly recommended!  It was one of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2013.  $16.00

 The Daring Ladies of Lowell by Kate AlcottFrom Elizabeth S. :  The Daring Ladies of Lowell is another great historical novel from the author of  The Dressmaker.  The main character Alice Barrow leaves the farm to join the wave of independent ladies working in the mills of Lowell in 1832.The details of the working conditions in the mills are described so well you almost hear the noise of the mills while you are reading.   Alice friendship with Lovey another mill worker takes a whole new twist when Lovey goes missing forcing Alice into a relationship with the mill owners dashing son....dashing and daring meet to make it a good romances well as historical novel.   A great book from start to finish.   List price, $25.95 Our price, $20.76

The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich
The Imperial Harem, Constantinople, 1578. Hannah and Isaac Levi, Venetians in exile, have overcome unfathomable obstacles to begin life anew in the Ottoman Empire. He works in the growing silk trade, and she, the best midwife in the capital, tends to the hundreds of women in Sultan Murat III's lively and infamous harem. One night, Hannah is unexpectedly summoned to the extravagant palace and confronted with Leah, a Jewish peasant girl who was violently abducted. The sultan favors Leah as his next conquest and wants her to produce his heir, but if the spirited girl fails an important test, she faces a terrible fate. Taken by Leah's tenacity, Hannah risks everything to help her. But as Hannah agonizes over her decision, an enchanting stranger arrives from afar to threaten her peaceful life with Isaac, and soon Leah too reveals a dark secret that could condemn them both. $16.00

Bark:  Stories by Lorrie Moore

From Kathy:  Lorrie Moore is back with her first collection of short stories in fifteen years.  If you were a fan of her earlier collection of stories, Birds of America, you know you're in for a treat.  The stories in Bark are chock full of flawed humans navigating their lives, with Lorrie Moore exhibiting them in her honest and quirky way. We have all moved on in life since Birds of America, and this book doesn't have the hopefulness of that earlier work; in fact her characters bear more of a resemblance to those in her novel, A Gate at the Stairs.  This is a dense, smart, satisfying book from one the best short story writers on the scene today.  List price, $24.95  Our price, $19.96 (Available March 4th.)


Adult Non-Fiction

 Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening:  How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall
$25.95 From Elizabeth M.: The subtitle of this memoir "How I Learned the Unexpected Joys of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart" gives the reader a clue of the subject matter.  It is the moving story of a friendship between two unlikely candidates.  The author is dealing with personal illness, aging parents and other changes in her life.  She meets Giles Owita, an immigrant from Kenyon who works at the local garden center.  He introduces her to the healing that can come from gardening.  Over time they share their stories with each other and when you finish this book you are going to want to share it with others.  Add this to your stack of seed catalogs that come in the mail this time of year and plan for the growing season that will come soon.  $25.95  (Available March 4th.)

The Girls of Atomic City:  The Untold Story of the Women Whop Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan

Created in the fall of 1942, Oak Ridge, Tenn. housed the factories where uranium for the first atomic bombs was enriched.  At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge was home to 75,000 residents, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map.  Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city with the promise of solid wages and war-ending work.  The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves.  $16.00  (Available March 11th.)

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark 

Astoria is a thrilling, true adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition to open Fort Astoria, the first American settlement on the Pacific Coast.

The effort began when entrepreneur John Jacob Astor proposed to Thomas Jefferson the establishment of a fur trading colony in what is now Oregon.  In a page-turning tale of ambition, greed, politics, survival, and loss, Stark chronicles Astor's mad dash to establish Astoria, capture the territory's wealth and allow Jefferson to inaugurate his vision of a democracy from sea to shining sea. This short 3 year effort resulted in death or madness for half of the 140 people who embarked upon it.  $27.99  (Available March 4th.)

Dear Abigail:  The Intimate Lives and Revolutionary Ideas of Abigail Adams and Her Two Remarkable Sisters by Diane Jacobs 

"Never sisters loved each other better than we."-Abigail Adams in a letter to her sister Mary, June 1776.  Much has been written about the marriage of President John Adams and his wife, Abigail. But few know of the equally strong bond Abigail shared with her sisters, Mary Cranch and Elizabeth Shaw Peabody, accomplished women in their own right. Abigail, Mary, and Elizabeth Smith grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the close-knit daughters of a minister and his wife. When the sisters moved away from one another, they relied on near-constant letters-from what John Adams called their "elegant pen"-to buoy them through pregnancies, illnesses, grief, political upheaval, and, for Abigail, life in the White House. This engaging narrative traces the sisters' lives from their childhood rivalries to their eyewitness roles during the American Revolution and their adulthood as outspoken wives and mothers. "Jacobs has crafted a riveting curl-up-by-the-fireside story." (Publisher's Weekly) $28.00 

Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Woman and the Radical Men They Married, by Nancy Rubin Stuart 
In Defiant Brides, the first dual biography of both Peggy Shippen Arnold and Lucy Flucker Knox, Sandwich author and historian Nancy Rubin Stuart has crafted a rich portrait of two rebellious women who defied expectations and struggled-publicly and privately-during the American revolution.  $19.00 (Available in paperback March 4)  

Who's on Worst?  The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddest Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History by Filip Bondy

Popular Sports Columnist Filip Bondy has written a highly entertaining look at ballplayers and their colorful stories.  A must read for fans of baseball and (other people's) misery  $15.95

A Seed is Sleepy/An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long

Exquisitely illustrated and jam-packed with interesting information, these two books have finally been printed in paperback!  A wonderful choice for nature loving children!  Each are $7.99.  

Children's Books

White Stallion of Lipizza by Marguerite Henry
From Vicky:  I remember getting this classic horse story for Christmas when I was about 10 years old.  I read it more than a dozen times, loving the story and all the detailed information about the beautiful Lipizzaner stallions who perform with ballet-like grace in the historic Spanish Riding School in Vienna. The book tells the story of a Viennese baker's son who dreams of becoming a rider at the School. The story is warm and inspiring and filled with so much information about the horses and their history, as well as how horses and riders are trained to perform the intricate moves and amazing "airs above the ground."   Beautifully illustrated by Wesley Dennis.  $5.99 (Available March 11.) 

Tesla's Attic by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they've inherited. Nick discovers all sorts of junk in the attic and sells it at a yardsale.    Later, he learns that the genius Nikola Tesla placed these items-his last inventions-in the attic as part of a larger plan that he mathematically predicted. Nick and his new friends, Mitch, Vince and Caitlin, must retrieve everything that was sold at the garage sale and keep it safe. But the task is fraught with peril.  In addition to the dangers inherent in Tesla's mysterious and powerful creations, a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati, is determined to stop Nick and alter destiny to achieve its own devious ends.   $16.99

Sky Raiders by Brandon Mull

Mull, author of the Beyonders books, opens the Five Kingdoms series with this action-packed adventure in which a sixth-grader is stranded in a world where magic is real and dreams have power. After Cole and his friends are lured into a haunted house on Halloween, they are kidnapped by slavers and sold to a gang of aerial pirates in the mysterious "in-between place" known as the Outskirts.  Intent on saving his friends, Cole escapes with fellow slave Mira-who turns out to be more than she seems. She leads him through danger-filled adventures in a strange land to a face off with a monster made of stolen magic. This is a real page-turner, and the sequels will be eagerly awaited by the readers.   Ages 8-12.  $16.99  (Available March 11th.)


Children's Non-Fiction

Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden 

When Sarah Rector turned 18 in 1920, the young black woman had amassed a fortune estimated at $1 million.  Rector and her family were "Creek freedmen," black citizens of the Creek Indian nation. When the Creeks were forced to resettle west of the Mississippi in the 1800s, each one received a land allotment. Sarah's contained rich oil deposits, making her enormously wealthy. As a result, there was great media interest in her, although much of the reporting was highly inaccurate and speculative. Bolden gets to the truth of Sarah's story in this fascinating, well researched book about a little known piece of American History.Grades 6 - 8 $21.95 

One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin by Kathryn Lasky.   Illustrated by Matthew Trueman
From the time Charles Darwin was a boy, he was happiest when he was out alone collecting specimens (especially beetles). When the opportunity arose to sail around South America, the born naturalist jumped aboard. In clear, lively narration, Kathryn Lasky takes readers along on Darwin's journey, from his discovery of seashells on mountaintops that revealed geological changes to his observations of variations in plants and animals, suggesting that all living things are evolving over time. Matthew Trueman's striking mixed-media illustrations are stunning and include actual objects found in nature.  Ages 712 $6.99 (Available in paperback March 11.)              


Young Adult

Half Bad by Sally Green
Selected by independent bookstores as one of 10 top children's/YA books this season by first time authors.  In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and sixteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan's father is the world's most powerful and cruel black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his seventeenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch--or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust--not even family, not even the girl he loves? The first in a planned trilogy for readers 12 and older. $18.99   (Available March 4th.)    

Panic by Lauren Oliver
Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She'd never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.  Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he's sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he's not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.  For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them--and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.  $17.99 (Available March 4th.)