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Reviews

Reviews

by Benjamin Percy - Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In Benjamin Percy's new thriller, a post-apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga, a super flu and nuclear fallout have made a husk of the world we know. A few humans carry on, living in outposts such as the Sanctuary --- the remains of St. Louis --- a shielded community that owes its survival to its militant defense and fear-mongering leaders. A small group led by Lewis Meriwether and Mina Clark hopes to expand their infant nation and reunite the States. But the Sanctuary will not allow them to escape without a fight.

by Elizabeth Berg - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Aurore Dupin leaves her estranged husband, a loveless marriage, and her family’s estate in the French countryside to start a new life in Paris. There, she gives herself a new name --- George Sand --- and pursues her dream of becoming a writer, embracing an unconventional and even scandalous lifestyle. Though considered the most gifted genius of her time, she works to reconcile the pain of her childhood, of disturbing relationships with her mother and daughter, and of her intimacies with women and men.

by Mary Norris - Nonfiction, Reference, Writing

Mary Norris has spent more than three decades in The New Yorker's copy department, maintaining its celebrated high standards. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in BETWEEN YOU & ME, which features her laugh-out-loud descriptions of some of the most common and vexing problems in spelling, punctuation and usage, and her clear explanations of how to handle them.

by Lisa Genova - Fiction, Women's Fiction

A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their 20s, and respected police officer, Joe O'Brien begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.

by Sarah Manguso - Nonfiction

Sarah Manguso confronts a meticulous diary that she has kept for 25 years. “I wanted to end each day with a record of everything that had ever happened,” she explains. Maintaining this diary, now 800,000 words, had become, until recently, a kind of spiritual practice. Then Manguso became pregnant and had a child, and these two Copernican events generated an amnesia that put her into a different relationship with the need to document herself amid ongoing time.

by David Almond - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult 14+

A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. On the one hand, he craves the freedom he feels when he steals away with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud --- his first and abiding love --- to balance above the earth on a makeshift tightrope. With Holly, Dom dreams of a life different in every way from his shipbuilder dad’s. On the other hand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the brutal charms of Vincent McAlinden, a complex bully who awakens something wild and reckless and killing in Dom.

by Jacqueline Winspear - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

On a ship bound for England to visit her aging father after her stepmother summons her home, Maisie Dobbs realizes she isn’t ready to return. Against the wishes of the captain, who warns her, “You will be alone in a most dangerous place,” she disembarks in Gibraltar. Days after her arrival, a photographer and member of Gibraltar’s Sephardic Jewish community is murdered, and Maisie becomes entangled in the case and renews an uneasy acquaintance in the process.

by Susan Crawford - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Dana Catrell is shocked when her neighbor, Celia, is brutally murdered. To Dana’s horror, she was the last person to see Celia alive. Suffering from mania, the result of her bipolar disorder, she has troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia’s death. The closer she comes to piecing together the shards of her broken memory, the more she falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside of Dana...or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again?

by Marcus Sedgwick - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In 1944, just days after the liberation of Paris, Charles Jackson sees something horrific: a man in a dark tunnel, apparently drinking the blood of a murdered woman. Terrified, he does nothing, telling himself afterward that worse tragedies happen during war. Seven years later, he returns to the city --- and sees the same man dining in the company of a fascinating, beautiful young woman. When they leave the restaurant, Charles decides to follow.

by Laurie R. King - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

In the spring of 1924, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes agreed to perform a dangerous job for the emperor of Japan. At the time, Russell encountered a young Japanese woman on board their ship who tutored the two foreigners about her country and guided them into a secret meeting with the Prince Regent himself. Now, when Russell heads for Oxford to resume her long-delayed studies, she comes face-to-face with that very same young Japanese woman --- and quickly realizes that Miss Sato Haruki is not all that she seems.