[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Fiction A to Z February 2009
- From: "Amber Wallenstein" <amber.wallens@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:24:29 -0500
Many a true word is spoken in jest.
~ English proverb
New and Recently Released!
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - by Tiffany Baker
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/8/2009
ISBN: 9780446194204
ISBN-10: 0446194204
Growing up as the younger sister of the town beauty is never easy--but it's
especially difficult for Truly Plaice, whose enormous size (most likely due
to a glandular problem) marks her as an outsider and a misfit. When her father
dies, Truly is placed with a dirt-poor family on the outskirts of town;
her beautiful sister, Serena Jane, is taken in and coddled by the minister's
wife. But though Serena Jane seems to be living a charmed life, it is Truly
who ends up taking care of the cruel husband and sweet-natured son she
eventually leaves behind. With a touch of the mystical, this debut novel
shouldn't
be missed.
What Doesn't Kill You: A Novel - by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/6/2009
ISBN: 9781416564201
ISBN-10: 1416564209
You think you've got it bad? Thomasina "Tee" Hodges might just have you
beat--she's lost her lucrative job at the company she co-founded, she's still
got
to pay off her daughter's lavish wedding, and she's in the middle of a
relationship that's going nowhere. Even with dismal job prospects and creditors
at the door, the worst of it is that she feels like she can't go to her parents
(who are having relationship troubles) or her fair-weather friends for
help. But Tee is smart, spirited, and believes in herself, and she will
(eventually) get it all together, making What Doesn't Kill You another winner
from
a longtime writing partnership.
First Chapter
The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death: A Novel - by Charlie Huston
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/13/2009
ISBN: 9780345501110
ISBN-10: 034550111X
Those of you who like tales from the grittier side of life might enjoy this
sharp, witty, and often violent story starring the newest member of Team Clean,
a crime-scene clean-up crew. Web Goodhue was once a popular high school
teacher, but trauma turned him into a slacker until a friend's ultimatum got him
working again, albeit with disinfectant and buckets instead of chalk and
erasers. Beatings from rivals (hey, it's a lucrative and competitive industry)
aren't so great, but Web's getting his life together until he runs into sexy
Soledad, who needs help with a crime scene... The graphic mayhem might be
too much for some, but crime fiction aficionados and fans of Chuck Palahniuk's
novels will feel right at home.
First Chapter
Sing Them Home - by Stephanie Kallos
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/1/2009
ISBN: 9780871139634
ISBN-10: 0871139634
As children, Larken, Gaelen, and Bonnie Jones lost their mother in a tornado.
Twenty-five years later, they lose their father as well, and are forced to
come to terms with both deaths. All of the children, now adults, have buried
their sorrows under various guises (over-eating, casual sex, collecting relics
from the tornado), and are struggling with what they really want in their
lives. The three share narration, which, along with excerpts from their mother's
diary, creates a rich family saga that will appeal to readers of Anne Tyler's
novels.
Lark and Termite: A Novel - by Jayne Anne Phillips
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/6/2009
ISBN: 9780375401954
ISBN-10: 0375401954
Orphaned by the Korean War, Lark and her half-brother, Termite, have limited
options in their tiny West Virginia town. Lark, who wholeheartedly cares for
the disabled but bright Termite, doesn't know who her father is, and the two
live with their aunt, who works at a nearby diner. Set during two 6-day
periods--one
in 1959 and one nine years earlier--their story overlaps with that of Corporal
Bobby Leavitt, Termite's father, and focuses on family, the repercussions
of war, and the bonds that sustain personal relationships. The New York Times
warns that these characters are "so intimately drawn...they threaten to move
in and take up permanent residence in the reader's mind."
First Chapter
You Won't Know Who to Trust...
The Lace Reader - by Brunonia Barry
Publisher: William Morrow
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 8/1/2008
ISBN: 9780061624766
ISBN-10: 0061624764
"My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is
Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time. I am a crazy woman." With a
beginning like that, how can you resist the multitude of mysteries and
eccentricities that come together to form the story of Sophya "Towner" Whitney,
who fled Salem, Massachusetts, 15 years ago under painful circumstances? She's
finally returned to look into the suspicious disappearance of her great-aunt,
who, like Towner, can read the future in hand-crafted lace, and to finally face
up to the secrets that haunt her past. Littered with tidbits of Salem history
and modern-day witch hunts, this is a captivating story.
First Chapter
Engleby: A Novel - by Sebastian Faulks
Publisher: Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 9/4/2007
ISBN: 9780385524056
ISBN-10: 0385524056
Mike Engleby's intelligent, but he's really bad with people, partially because
he never had the chance to develop social skills normally. Through his eyes
we see his childhood (marked by abuse and bullying) and adolescence, followed
by university, where he falls for a classmate named Jennifer Arkland. Though
she may be the love of Engleby's life, she barely knows that he exists, a fact
that eventually becomes clear even to Engleby. Life goes on, but it's clear
that there's still something off about Engleby, who drinks far too much and is
plagued by bouts of memory loss. Off's not so bad--but when Jennifer's body
turns up more than 12 years after she disappeared as a student, even Engleby's
not sure of his innocence. If you're looking to be kept off-balance by an
unreliable narrator, give Engleby a try.
First Chapter
As Simple as Snow - by Gregory Galloway
Publisher: Putnam
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 3/3/2005
ISBN: 9780399152313
ISBN-10: 0399152318
The unnamed high school sophomore narrating As Simple as Snow fell in love with
Anna Cayne not long after the Goth girl approached him, winning him over
with quirky habits like a love of escape tactics and codes and a penchant for
writing obituaries for everyone else in town. But when she disappears, the
mysteries multiply, and he searches their past together for clues to determine
whether Anna is still alive, and if she's not, to figure out whether murder
or suicide took Anna away from him. Though you'll never learn his name, you'll
remember his story, full as it is with "teasing foreshadowings and forebodings"
(Booklist).
Gentlemen and Players - by Joanne Harris
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 1/1/2007
ISBN: 9780060559151
ISBN-10: 0060559152
Two differing perspectives form our view of the elite St. Oswald's Grammar
School for Boys as a new term gets under way. The first is that of veteran
teacher
Roy Straitley, who's a bit put out by the encroaching demands of new
technologies, and is finally considering retirement. The second viewpoint is
from
a fellow insider, who is new to the school but is planning on destroying it. As
small but unsettling disturbances lead to larger, more consequential problems,
it falls to the aging Straitley to figure who is behind the campaign of
terror--and why. "This is one hypnotic page-turner," enthuses Publishers Weekly.
First Chapter
The Exception: A Novel - by Christian Jungersen; translated from the Danish by
Anna Paterson
Publisher: Nan A. Talese, Doubleday
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 7/10/2007
ISBN: 9780385516297
ISBN-10: 0385516290
When two of the four women who work at the Danish Centre for Information on
Genocide begin receiving death threats, they and a third coworker first suspect
Serbian war criminal Mirko Zigic. Soon, however, their rising paranoia leads
them to fear that the Centre's ostracized librarian is out for revenge. As
the three women increase their bullying behavior and the librarian begins to
doubt her own sanity, the atmosphere in their too-small office becomes
unbearable.
"Victimizing is part of human nature," says one character, a fact that becomes
clear as the women's behavior begins to mimic that of the genocide they
document.
First Chapter
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - by Marisha Pessl
Publisher: Viking
Check Library Catalog
Pub Date: 8/3/2006
ISBN: 9780670037773
ISBN-10: 067003777X
This combination coming-of-age novel and cleverly plotted suspense tale is told
by the highly gifted Blue van Meer, the teenaged daughter of a well-read
professor who spends each term in a new locale. Blue's entire senior year of
high school, however, is spent at the St. Gallway School in Stockton, North
Carolina. There she falls in with a charismatic group of students and their
captivating teacher, Hannah Schneider. But Hannah's stories don't add up, and
as Blue puts hard-won clues together, she is left with more questions and only
her gimlet-eyed instincts and far-reaching education to guide--or misguide--her.
English majors and lovers of literature and intellectual mysteries should snap
this up immediately.
Table of Contents
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