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  • I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
    by Nora Ephron
    ISBN 0786292520 (0-7862-9252-0)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    A #1 New York Times Bestseller, A Booksense Book of the Year -- With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares her ups and downs in a candid, hilarious look at getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself. Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age. Utterly courageous, uproariously funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a scrumptious, irresistible treat of a book, full of truths and laugh out loud moments that will appeal to readers of all ages. [via]

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  • I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away
    by Bill Bryson
    ISBN 0786220031 (0-7862-2003-1)
    Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    In the world of contemporary travel writing, Bill Bryson, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods, often emerges as a major contender for King of Crankiness. Granted, he complains well and humorously, but between every line of his travel books you can almost hear the tinny echo: "I wanna go home, I miss my wife."

    Happily, I'm a Stranger Here Myself unleashes a new Bryson, more contemplative and less likely to toss daggers. After two decades in England, he's relocated to Hanover, New Hampshire. In this collection (drawn from dispatches for London's Night & Day magazine), he's writing from home, in close proximity to wife and family. We find a happy marriage between humor and reflection as he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective of one who's stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson aptly holds the mirror up to U.S. culture, capturing its absurdities--such as hotlines for dental floss, the cult of the lawsuit, and strange American injuries such as those sustained from pillows and beds. "In the time it takes you to read this," he writes, "four of my fellow citizens will somehow manage to be wounded by their bedding."

    The book also reflects the sweet side of small-town USA, with columns about post-office parties, dining at diners, and Thanksgiving--when the only goal is to "get your stomach into the approximate shape of a beach ball" and be grateful. And grateful we are that the previously peripatetic Bryson has returned to the U.S., turning his eye to this land--while living at home and near his wife. Under her benevolent influence, he entertains through thoughtful insights, not sarcastic stabs. --Melissa Rossi [via]

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  • Interpreter of Maladies: Library Edition
    by Jhumpa Lahiri
    ISBN 0786264349 (0-7862-6434-9)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret.

    I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.
    Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family. --Alix Wilber [via]

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  • It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
    by Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins
    ISBN 0786229004 (0-7862-2900-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong--a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its grueling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he's just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: "she's a stud"), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There's serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife's in vitro fertilization, you won't be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about his training sessions--every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living color. It's Not About the Bike is the perfect title for this book about life, death, illness, family, setbacks, and triumphs, but not especially about the bike. --Jill Lightner [via]

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  • King, Stephen: Lisey's Story
    Lisey's Story
    by Stephen King
    ISBN 078628966X (0-7862-8966-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Mad Mouse: A John Ceepak Mystery
    by Chris Grabenstein
    ISBN 0786719362 (0-7867-1936-2)
    Softcover, Carroll & Graf Pub

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    Book summary:

    John Ceepak and Danny Boyle gets caught in a mad man's twisted scheme for revenge.
    [via]

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  • Collis, Rose: The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica
    The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica
    by Rose Collis
    ISBN 0786707267 (0-7867-0726-7)
    Softcover, Carroll & Graf Pub

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  • Ashley, Mike: Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction
    Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction
    by Mike Ashley
    ISBN 0786710063 (0-7867-1006-3)
    Softcover, Carroll & Graf Pub

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  • Delffs, Dudley J.: The Martyr's Chapel
    The Martyr's Chapel
    by Dudley J. Delffs
    ISBN 0786218088 (0-7862-1808-8)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Scottoline, Lisa: Mistaken Identity
    Mistaken Identity
    by Lisa Scottoline
    ISBN 0786219769 (0-7862-1976-9)
    Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • McCourt, Malachy: Monk Swimming
    Monk Swimming
    by Malachy McCourt
    ISBN 0786863986 (0-7868-6398-6)
    Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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  • Myst
    by David Wingrove, Rand Miller
    ISBN 0786861606 (0-7868-6160-6)
    Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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    Book summary:

    Published to coincide with the release of the new Myst CD-ROM, an atmospheric fantasy tale chronicles the desperate struggle of Ti'Ana, the grandmother of Atrus, against the evil schemes of Veovis, the architect of the destruction of the D'Ni. [via]

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  • The Mysterious Death of Tutankhamun
    by P. C. Doherty
    ISBN 0786712457 (0-7867-1245-7)
    Softcover, Carroll & Graf Pub

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    Book summary:

    Egypt's most famous king died at the age of eighteen, and in the three thousand years since his death, the fabulous treasure buried with the young ruler has become as famous as his name. It has long been assumed that Tutankhamun died of natural causes, yet his hurried burial, first in a virtually unmarked grave, suggests there may have been an attempt, or plot, to conceal the evidence of fatal head wounds. Behind King Tut's calm death mask, Doherty uncovers a turbulent tale of bloody intrigues at the Egyptian court, most of them pointing to the possibility of murder. The powerful cabal that ran the court and governed the country might have had young Tutankhamun assassinated; or he might have been killed at the instruction of the imperious first minister, Ay, who sought to seize the pharaonic crown for himself. And what role did the beautiful Ankhesenamun, Ay's granddaughter and Tutankhamun's queen, play in the labyrinthine courtly scheming? Coupling modern research with the original testimony of Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, Doherty reconstructs a scenario of the king's short reign as illuminating as the revelations regarding his sudden, mysterious death are fascinating. Color photographs are included.
    [via]

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  • Carlin, George: Napalm and Silly Putty
    Napalm and Silly Putty
    by George Carlin
    ISBN 0786864133 (0-7868-6413-3)
    Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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  • Never Let Me Go
    by Kazuo Ishiguro
    ISBN 0786278374 (0-7862-7837-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, an elite school in the English countryside, are so special that visitors shun them, and only by rumor and the occasional fleeting remark by a teacher do they discover their unconventional origins and strange destiny. Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel, Never Let Me Go, is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own.

    Offsetting the bizarreness of these revelations is the placid, measured voice of the narrator, Kathy H., a 31-year-old Hailsham alumna who, at the close of the 1990s, is consciously ending one phase of her life and beginning another. She is in a reflective mood, and recounts not only her childhood memories, but her quest in adulthood to find out more about Hailsham and the idealistic women who ran it. Although often poignant, Kathy's matter-of-fact narration blunts the sharper emotional effects you might expect in a novel that deals with illness, self-sacrifice, and the severe restriction of personal freedoms. As in Ishiguro's best-known work, The Remains of the Day, only after closing the book do you absorb the magnitude of what his characters endure. --Regina Marler [via]

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  • The Night Gardener
    by George P. Pelecanos
    ISBN 078629065X (0-7862-9065-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    They never found the killer. All they knew, back in the winter of 1985, was that someone was taking teenagers, killing them and leaving their abused bodies in public parks. Three victims in all, with no link between them except a oddity of their names. They read the same back-to-front - Otto, Ava and lastly Eve. A lot has happened in the twenty years since. Detectives Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday - two of the leads on the case - have pursued very different paths. Gus has climbed to the heights of Detective Sergeant and built himself a reputation as a very good cop, whilst Dan has been drummed out of the force - his sleaze finally getting too much for his superiors. However, their paths are about to cross again. A boy named Asa - a close friend of Gus's teenage son - has been found in the public park, his skull shattered by gunfire. Now it seems that both men are once again in the path of this disturbed serial killer. THE NIGHT GARDENER is George Pelecanos's stunning new crime thriller - the story of two very different men united by the maliciousness of a deadly attacker. [via]

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  • Binchy, Maeve: Nights Of Rain And Stars
    Nights Of Rain And Stars
    by Maeve Binchy
    ISBN 0786268611 (0-7862-6861-1)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Bryson, Bill: Notes from a Small Island
    Notes from a Small Island
    by Bill Bryson
    ISBN 0786207000 (0-7862-0700-0)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination
    by Helen Fielding
    ISBN 0786267569 (0-7862-6756-9)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
    by Michael Pollan
    ISBN 078628952X (0-7862-8952-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year

    Winner of the James Beard Award

    Author of #1 New York Times Bestsellers In Defense of Food and Food Rules

    Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. Will it be fast food tonight, or something organic? Or perhaps something we grew ourselves? The question of what to have for dinner has confronted us since man discovered fire. But as Michael Pollan explains in this revolutionary book, how we answer it now, as the dawn of the twenty-first century, may determine our survival as a species. Packed with profound surprises, The Omnivore's Dilemma is changing the way Americans thing about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.

    Coming from The Penguin Press in 2013, Michael Pollans newest book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation--the story of our most trusted food experts culinary education 

    "Thoughtful, engrossing ... You're not likely to get a better explanation of exactly where your food comes from."
    -The New York Times Book Review

    "An eater's manifesto ... [Pollan's] cause is just, his thinking is clear, and his writing is compelling. Be careful of your dinner!"
    -The Washington Post

    "Outstanding... a wide-ranging invitation to think through the moral ramifications of our eating habits."
    --The New Yorker

    "If you ever thought 'what's for dinner' was a simple question, you'll change your mind after reading Pollan's searing indictment of today's food industry-and his glimpse of some inspiring alternatives.... I just loved this book so much I didn't want it to end."
    -The Seattle Times

     
    [via]

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  • Smith, Zadie: On Beauty
    On Beauty
    by Zadie Smith
    ISBN 078628319X (0-7862-8319-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Suskind, Ron: The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of It's Enemies Since 9/11
    The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of It's Enemies Since 9/11
    by Ron Suskind
    ISBN 0786290935 (0-7862-9093-5)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Gardner, Lisa: The Other Daughter
    The Other Daughter
    by Lisa Gardner
    ISBN 0786222905 (0-7862-2290-5)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Ray, Satyajit: Our Films Their Films
    Our Films Their Films
    by Satyajit Ray
    ISBN 0786861223 (0-7868-6122-3)
    Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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  • Zacks, Richard: The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd
    The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd
    by Richard Zacks
    ISBN 0786865334 (0-7868-6533-4)
    Hardcover, Hyperion Books

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  • Predator
    by Patricia Cornwell
    ISBN 0786281634 (0-7862-8163-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    A New York Times Bestselling Author

    Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing with the National Forensic Academy in Florida, takes charge of a case that stretches from steamy Florida to snow-bound Boston. The psychological clues lead Scarpetta and her team to suspect that they are hunting someone with a cunning and malevolent mind whose secrets have kept them in the shadows, until now.

    Simultaneous Publication with G. P. Putnam's Standard Print edition. [via]

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  • Ptolemy's Gate
    by Jonathan Stroud
    ISBN 078683868X (0-7868-3868-X)
    Softcover, Disney Pr

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    Three years after the events of The Golem`s Eye, the young magician Nathaniel is an established member of the British Government. But he faces unprecedented problems: foreign wars are going badly and Britain`s enemies are mounting attacks close to London. Increasingly distracted, he is treating Bartimaeus worse than ever: the long-suffering djinni is growing weak from too much time in this world, and his patience is at an end. Meanwhile, undercover in London, Kitty has been stealthily completing her research into magic and Bartimaeus` past. She hopes to break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans - but will she be able to get anyone to listen? Before any of these problems can be resolved, disaster strikes London from an unexpected source and the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty are thrown together once more. They have to face treacherous magicians, a long-fermented conspiracy, and an enemy from `The Other Place` that threatens London and the world. Worst of all, they must somehow cope with each other.... Bartimaeus fans will be entranced by Stroud`s brilliantly conceived finale to the series - sure to be a major best seller.

    [via]

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  • Red Rabbit
    by Tom Clancy
    ISBN 0786240644 (0-7862-4064-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    In "Red Rabbit" Tom Clancy gives Jack Ryan fans an insight into his greatest hero's first years fighting terrorism. Jack Ryan. The early CIA days...When young Jack Ryan joins the CIA as an analyst he is thrust into a world of political intrigue and conspiracy. Stationed in England, he quickly finds himself debriefing a Soviet defector with an extraordinary story to tell: senior Russian officials are plotting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The CIA novice must forget his inexperience and rely on all his wits to firstly discover the details of the plot - and then prevent its execution. For it is not just the Pope's life that is at stake, but also the stability of the Western World. "Red Rabbit" is the thrilling eighth novel featuring Jack Ryan, following "The Sum of All Fears" and "Debt of Honour". Published after "Executive Orders", the novel charts Jack Ryan's earliest mission for the CIA, and is the stunning prequel to "The Hunt For Red October". Praise for Tom Clancy: "Truly riveting, a dazzling read". ("Sunday Express"). "A brilliantly constructed thriller". ("Daily Mail"). Thirty years ago, Tom Clancy was a Maryland insurance broker with a passion for naval history. His first novel, "The Hunt for Red October', catapulted on to the "New York Times" bestseller list after President Reagan pronounced it 'the perfect yarn'. Since then Clancy has established himself as an undisputed master at blending exceptional realism and authenticity, intricate plotting and razor-sharp suspense. [via]

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  • Remember When
    by Nora Roberts, J. D. Robb
    ISBN 0786256958 (0-7862-5695-8)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    New York Times bestselling Author

    Laine Tavish, known to the folks in Angel's Gap, Maryland, as the proprietor of Remember When, an antique treasures and gift shop. They have no idea that she used to be Elaine O'Hara, daughter of the notorious con man Big Jack O'Hara . . . or that she grew up moving from place to place, one step ahead of the law. But Lanie's past has just caught up with her. Her long-lost uncle has visited her shop, leaving a cryptic warning before dying in the street, run down by a car. Now it's up to her, and an enigmatic stranger named Max Gannon, to find out who's chasing her, and why. The answer lies in a hidden fortune -- a fortune that will change Laine's life. [via]

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  • Banville, John: The Sea
    The Sea
    by John Banville
    ISBN 0786286768 (0-7862-8676-8)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey into Manhood And Back Again
    by Norah Vincent
    ISBN 0786286725 (0-7862-8672-5)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    A journalists provocative and spellbinding account of her eighteen months spent disguised as a man

    Norah Vincent became an instant media sensation with the publication of Self-Made Man, her take on just how hard it is to be a man, even in a mans world. Following in the tradition of John Howard Griffin (Black Like Me), Norah spent a year and a half disguised as her male alter ego, Ned, exploring what men are like when women arent around. As Ned, she joins a bowling team, takes a high-octane sales job, goes on dates with women (and men), visits strip clubs, and even manages to infiltrate a monastery and a mens therapy group. At once thought- provoking and pure fun to read, Self-Made Man is a sympathetic and thrilling tour de force of immersion journalism.

    [via]

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  • Cabot, Meg: She Went All the Way
    She Went All the Way
    by Meg Cabot
    ISBN 0786261234 (0-7862-6123-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Perry, Anne: The Shifting Tide
    The Shifting Tide
    by Anne Perry
    ISBN 0786265884 (0-7862-6588-4)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • State of War: The Secret History of the CIA And the Bush Administration
    by James Risen
    ISBN 0786286512 (0-7862-8651-2)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    The winter holidays are usually a quiet time for news, but the December 2005 revelations of the Bush administration's extensive, off-the-books domestic spying program by New York Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau made headline after headline, raising criticism from both sides of the aisle and an immediate, unapologetic response from President Bush himself. On the heels of those scoops comes Risen's State of War, which goes beyond his Times stories to provide a wide-ranging, if anecdotal, "secret history" of U.S. intelligence following 9/11.

    Risen's description of what he says was called "the Program"--the ongoing eavesdropping operation, done with almost no judicial or congressional oversight, on the phone calls and emails of hundreds of Americans (and potentially millions more)--is only a chapter in his larger tale of the recent missteps and oversteps of U.S. intelligence. His evidence ranges from insider White House accounts of Donald Rumsfeld, "the ultimate turf warrior," outmaneuvering his rivals to make the Defense Department the dominant voice in foreign policy, to on-the-ground reports of the administration's willful ignorance of crucial intelligence on the dormancy of Saddam's weapons programs, Saudi support for al Qaeda, and the startlingly rapid transformation of Afghanistan into a "narco-state" under American authority. Some of the episodes he recounts--Saudi security officials with Osama bin Laden screensavers, an Iraqi scientist who had told the CIA his country had no nuclear program watching Colin Powell testify to the UN that they did--would be comical were the stakes less high.

    Risen's loyalties are not with the opposition party--he's sharply critical of Clinton's disinterest in the CIA--but with the career field agents who are his best sources. Those agents and their expertise, he argues, have been cast aside, along with the long centrist tradition of U.S. foreign policy and the basic checks and balances of the American system of government, by the Bush administration's radical politicization and militarization of intelligence. He covers a lot of ground in a book of just over 200 pages, some of it familiar from other accounts, and at times his tradecraft anecdotes can be hard to assess without context. But his specific revelations and his well-sourced, angry overview of the way the battles against terror have been fought make for startling, newsmaking reading. --Tom Nissley [via]

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  • Suite Francaise
    by Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith
    ISBN 0786291559 (0-7862-9155-9)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Françaisethe first two parts of a planned five-part novelshe was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central Francewhere she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazisshed begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovskys literary masterpiece

    The first part, A Storm in June, opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survivalsome trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their livesbut soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, Dolce, we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagersfrom aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasantscope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

    Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocationat once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironicof life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art. [via]

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  • The Tenth Circle: A Novel
    by Jodi Picoult
    ISBN 0786288345 (0-7862-8834-5)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence. Woven throughout the novel are a series of dramatic illustrations that pay homage to the family's patriarch (comic book artist Daniel Stone), and add a unique twist to this gripping, yet somewhat rhetorical tale.

    Trixie Stone is an imaginative, perceptive 14 year old whose life begins to unravel when Jason Underhill, Bethel High's star hockey player, breaks up with her, leaving a void that can only be filled by the blood spilled during shameful self-mutilations in the girls' bathroom. While Trixie's dad Daniel notices his daughter's recent change in demeanor, he turns a blind eye, just as he does to the obvious affair his wife Laura, a college professor, is barely trying to conceal. When Trixie gets raped at a friend's party, Daniel and Laura are forced to deal not only with the consequences of their daughter's physical and emotional trauma, but with their own transgressions as well. For Daniel, that means reflecting on a childhood spent as the only white kid in a native Alaskan village, where isolation and loneliness turned him into a recluse, only to be born again after falling in love with his wife. Laura, who blames her family's unraveling on her selfish affair, must decide how to reconcile her personal desires with her loved ones' needs.

    The Tenth Circle is chock full of symbolism and allegory that at times can seem oppresive. Still, Picoult's fans will welcome this skillfully told story of betrayal and its many negative, and positive consequences. --Gisele Toueg [via]

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  • McPhee, John: Uncommon Carriers
    Uncommon Carriers
    by John McPhee
    ISBN 0786290927 (0-7862-9092-7)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Under Orders
    by Dick Francis
    ISBN 0786289988 (0-7862-8998-8)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    "Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than one eyebrow."

    It's the third death on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day that really troubles super-sleuth Sid Halley. Last seen in 1995's Come to Grief, former champion jockey Halley knows the perils of racing all too well-but in his day, jockeys didn't usually reach the finishing line with three .38 rounds in the chest. But this is precisely how he finds jockey Huw Walker-who, only a few hours earlier, had won the coveted Triumph Hurdle.

    Just moments before the gruesome discovery, Halley had been called upon by Lord Enstone to make discreet inquiries into why his horses appeared to be on a permanent losing streak. Are races being fixed? Are bookies taking a cut? And if so, are trainers and jockeys playing a dangerous game with stakes far higher than they are realistic?

    Halley's quest for answers draws him even deeper into the darker side of the race game, in a life-or-death power play that will push him to his very limits-both professionally and personally. [via]

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  • Roberts, Nora: Valley of Silence
    Valley of Silence
    by Nora Roberts
    ISBN 0786286806 (0-7862-8680-6)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Vinegar Hill
    by A. Manette Ansay
    ISBN 0786225122 (0-7862-2512-2)
    Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Oprah Book Club® Selection, November 1999: Vinegar Hill is an appropriate address for the characters who populate A. Manette Ansay's novel of the same name. After all, when Ellen Grier and her family return to the rural hamlet of Holly's Field, Wisconsin, it's not exactly a happy homecoming. Her husband, James, has been laid off from his job in Illinois. And for the moment, the family has moved in with Ellen's in-laws, Fritz and Mary-Margaret, an unhappy pair who dislike their daughter-in-law almost as much as they despise each other:

    The first time Ellen sat at this table she was twenty years old, bright-cheeked after a spring afternoon spent walking along the lakefront with James, planning their upcoming wedding. It was 1959 and she was eager to make a good impression. She didn't know then that Mary-Margaret disliked her, that she was considered Jimmy's mistake.
    Thirteen years later, in 1972, Ellen is back at the table with no escape in sight. Both she and her husband do find work. Yet James seems to settle a tad too easily into his old life, and shows no interest in finding a place of their own. Even worse, his job takes him away from home for weeks at a time, leaving Ellen to cope with her abusive in-laws.

    In Vinegar Hill Ansay paints a searing portrait of the Midwest's dark side, of a rural culture infected with despair and ruled over by an unforgiving God. Yet she does hold out a grain of hope, too. Just as Ellen seems permanently entangled in familial desperation, she makes a surprising discovery about James's long-dead grandmother--a woman whose rebellious spirit inspires Ellen to rescue herself and her loved ones from the impinging darkness. This late-breaking redemption doesn't cancel out the preceding unhappiness: Vinegar Hill remains a tough, uncompromising tale, one that requires some fortitude to read. But those with the heart for it will be rewarded with fine, spare prose and a hopeful ending. --Alix Wilber [via]

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  • The War of the Worlds
    by H. G. Wells, Leon E. Stover
    ISBN 0786407808 (0-7864-0780-8)
    Hardcover, McFarland & Co Inc Pub

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    Book summary:

    H.G. Wells' novel, a "scientific romance," attained perhaps its greatest fame in another form, the infamous realistic 1939 radio broadcast "Invasion from Mars" by the redoubtable Orson Welles. It was also notably made into an early fifties science fiction adventure movie (and there have been other adaptations as well). So indelible is the association that the novel, like the panic inducing broadcast and the Hollywood flick, now is taken as little more than a light fantasy of outerspace terror and human heroism. This is far from the author's original vision. Like the other scientific romances treated in the Annotated H.G. Wells series, The War of the Worlds is a philosophical tale and as such, is profoundly ideological. The world of the Martians represents the progressive future of humanity in a cultural war with our world of tradition and reaction-these are the two worlds in question. The Mars from which the invaders come is united by a planet-wide system of irrigation canals; for Wells this indicates a socialist world-state, as claimed by the American astronomer Percival Lowell. The red planet is red in more than one sense, pointing the direction of terrestrial progress. The Martians in the novel are octopoidal monsters, bodily anticipating the tentacular, all-controlling totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. To those familiar with Wells' works only through film, this acclaimed series annotated by the world's premier Wellsian scholar, Leon Stover, will be a real eye-opener. The historical, philosophical, and literary contexts of Wells' scientific romances are thoroughly examined. All editions are in library binding, with an introduction, appendices, bibliography and index. [via]

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  • Perry, Anne: Weighed in the Balance
    Weighed in the Balance
    by Anne Perry
    ISBN 078620978X (0-7862-0978-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Holt, Anne: What Is Mine
    What Is Mine
    by Anne Holt
    ISBN 0786290692 (0-7862-9069-2)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • Cleage, Pearl: What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
    What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
    by Pearl Cleage
    ISBN 078621760X (0-7862-1760-X)
    Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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  • When the Sleeper Wakes
    by H. G. Wells, Leon E. Stover
    ISBN 0786406666 (0-7864-0666-6)
    Hardcover, McFarland & Co Inc Pub

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    Book summary:

    Critics rightly view When the Sleeper Wakes as a prototype of the anti-utopian novel, a genre developed by Zamyatin, Huxley, and Orwell into nightmare futures associated with the totalitarian age and the moral horrors of fascism and communism. Suppose, however, that Wells actually intended to present a more positive depiction of political authority misused for ideological ends, a dream rather than a nightmare. This is the possibility explored in the apparatus to the present edition. Annotated by the world's leading Wellsian scholar, in Sleeper is found a greater measure of artistry and characterization than is usually accorded to it. As a complex work combining technological with social speculation, Sleeper is unmatched for canniness in the history of futuristic literature. Indeed, its aeronautical details influenced the Wright Brothers in the design of their flyer, and the novel predicts the promotion of airplanes as a weapon, a prophecy dramatically fulfilled in the twentieth century. This exhaustive critical edition follows other influential titles in the series and features a lengthy introduction, appendices, bibliography and index, and a frontispiece taken from the original 1899 edition. [via]

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  • The Whistling Season
    by Ivan Doig
    ISBN 0786288558 (0-7862-8855-8)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Novelist Ivan Doig revisits the American west in the early twentieth century, bringing to life the eccentric individuals and idiosyncratic institutions that made it thrive.

     

    Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. That unforgettable season deposits the ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee along with a stampede of homesteaders drawn by the promise of the Big Ditcha gargantuan irrigation project intended to make the Montana prairie bloom. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher, Morris is pressed into service, setting the stage for the "several kinds of education"none of them of the textbook varietyMorris and Rose will bring to Oliver, his three sons, and the rambunctious students in the region's one-room schoolhouse. A paean to a way of life that has long since vanished, The Whistling Season is Ivan Doig at his evocative best. [via]

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  • The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
    by Thomas L. Friedman
    ISBN 078627722X (0-7862-7722-X)
    Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    A New York Times Bestseller

    The groundbreaking new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman is a timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. [via]

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  • A Wrinkle in Time: Library Edition
    by Madeleine L'Engle
    ISBN 0786273356 (0-7862-7335-6)
    Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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    Book summary:

    Everyone in town thinks Meg is volatile and dull-witted and that her younger brother Charles Wallace is dumb. People are also saying that their father has run off and left their brilliant scientist mother. Spurred on by these rumors, Meg and Charles Wallace, along with their new friend Calvin, embark on a perilous quest through space to find their father. In doing so they must travel behind the shadow of an evil power that is darkening the cosmos, one planet at a time.

    Young people who have trouble finding their place in the world will connect with the "misfit" characters in this provocative story. This is no superhero tale, nor is it science fiction, although it shares elements of both. The travelers must rely on their individual and collective strengths, delving deep into their characters to find answers.

    A classic since 1962, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is sophisticated in concept yet warm in tone, with mystery and love coursing through its pages. Meg's shattering yet ultimately freeing discovery that her father is not omnipotent provides a satisfying coming-of-age element. Readers will feel a sense of power as they travel with these three children, challenging concepts of time, space, and the power of good over evil. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]

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