Novels
Black Cherry Blues, by James Lee Burke [Fic Burke] Burke's hero, Dave Robicheaux, is a Vietnam vet, widower, recovering alcoholic, and father to an adopted Salvadoran child. He is also a tough, compassionate man with a conscience. Burke is especially good at evoking the unique charm of Louisiana Cajun country. 1989

The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay [YA Paperback Courtenay] Set in South Africa just prior to and during World War II, this powerful novel follows a young white boy's struggle against his country's racist policies. 1990

Garden of Lies, by Eileen Goudge [Fic Goudge] Richly textured and sensual, this story of deception and passion will have you staying up late turning pages. 1987

Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy [Fic Conroy] Set in New York City and the low country of South Carolina, this is an engrossing story about Tom Wingo, his twin sister Savannah, and their family's disturbing past. 1986

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden [Fic Golden] This is a stunningly original novel told as the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Taking readers behind rice-paper screens to a world of beauty and cruelty - where men feud over the price of a girl's virginity-Memoirs of a Geisha is an epic on an intimate scale. 1997

Runaway Jury (1996) and Street Lawyer (1998), by John Grisham [Fic Grisham] Grisham is well-known for his taught legal thrillers. Runaway Jury takes you inside the politics and passion of a dynamic jury. Street Lawyer looks at a lawyer who has a crisis of conscience.

Haunting Rachel, by Kay Hooper [Fic Hooper] How could the stranger in town possibly be Rachel's fiance? He was killed in a plane crash ten years ago. The bestselling author of Amanda "knows how to serve up a latter-day Gothic that will hold readers in its brooding grip" - Publishers Weekly. 1998

The Eye of God, by C.L. Grace [Fic Grace] Physician and chemist Kathryn Swinbrooke of Canterbury, England, returns in her second medieval mystery, full of Chaucerian allusions, to investigate, with soldier Colum Murtagh, a series of murders connected with the disappearance of a royal relic, The Eye of God.

Palindrome, by Stuart Woods [Fic Woods] Moving from urban Los Angeles and Atlanta to untamed island hideaways, this novel tells the story of a beautiful photographer who becomes involved in a series of gruesome murders. 1991

Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi [Fic Hegi] A stunning novel about ordinary people living in extraordinary times - set in a small German town and spanning both World Wars. Through the voice of the town's unofficial historian and conscience, Hegi explores the secrets, the actions, and lack of action that shapes the residents' fates. 1994

Justice, by Faye Kellerman [Fic Kellerman] Fearing for his own daughter when the prom queen at her school is savagely murdered, LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker explores the violent side of the area's affluent youth. 1995

Death Comes as Epiphany, by Sharan Newman [Fic Newman] A medieval specialist weaves mystery and romance into a fascinating tapestry of everyday life in 12th-century France. Catherine, a scholar\detective, is asked to track down evil priests and solve the mystery of those ill-fated lovers, Abelard and Heloise. 1993

The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara [Fic Shaara] Penetrating portraits of Lee, Longstreet, and other Civil War leaders are interwoven with historical detail to provide a fictional recreation of the bloody battle at Gettysburg. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Home Fires, by Luanne Rice [Fic Rice] This touching, passionate novel is about a woman who returns to her childhood home on an island off the coast of New England to recover from the devastating loss of her four-year-old child and the break-up of her marriage. 1995

The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub [Fic King] Some of the suspense in this book is due to the fact that the hero is only 12 years old. He is faced with dangerous situations, both in this world and in a parallel universe where he is searching for the talisman, a cure for his mother's cancer. 1984

Enders Game, by Orson Scott Card [Fic Card] A stunning work of science fiction with a shocker of an ending. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys suspenseful, well-written science fiction.

Vanishing Act, by Thomas Perry [Fic Perry] Jane Whitefield is in the one-woman business of helping people disappear, teaching fugitives to live with new identities. But this time, Jane walks into a trap that will take all her cunning to escape. 1994

Death in Bloodhound Red, by Virginia Lanier [Fic Lanier] Feisty bloodhound trainer Jo Beth Sidden is suspected of murder. Unless she can prove her innocence, she will lose her thriving business and her hard won freedom and independence. 1996

The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie King. [Fic King] Long retired, Sherlock Holmes quietly pursues his study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs until he meets Miss Mary Russell, an audacious teenage girl with a penchant for detection. Sho becomes Holmes' pupil and quickly hones her talent for deduction, disguises and danger. 1994

The Once and Future King, by T. H. White [Fic White] For lovers of King Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table. Both the Broadway musical Camelot and Disney's The Sword in the Stone were based on White's version of the Arthurian legend. 1958

Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver [Fic Kingsolver] "A magnificent fiction and a ferocious bill of indictment. What we have here, with this new, mature, angry, heartbroken, expansive out-of-Africa Kingsolver is at last our very own Lessing and our very own Gordimer." - The Nation 1998

Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh [Fic Waugh] Subtitled "A Novel of Many Manners," Decline and Fall is penetrating satire, full of irony, and as one of the characters puts it, has "the desperate jauntiness of an orchestra fiddling away for dear life on a sinking ship." 1928

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee [Fic Lee] Through the eyes of young Scout Finch, one of the most endearing and enduring characters of Southern literature, Harper Lee explores attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice. 1960

A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole [Fic Toole] This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has sold over three-quarters of a million copies and continues to earn critical acclaim. The story of one Ignatius J. Reilly, a "Don Quixote of the French Quarter," it is a masterpiece of human folly and tragedy. 1980

Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler [Fic Tyler] The story of a young man haunted by guilt over his brother's fate and of his struggle to atone for the wrong he feels he committed. 1991

"N" is for Noose, by Sue Grafton [Fic Grafton] "Sharp prose, keen plotting and Millhone's engaging first-person sensibility help make Ms. Grafton's books hugely popular. The closer this prolific author gets to the letter Z, the more impressive the high standard she sustains." (The Wall Street Journal) 1998

Evening, by Susan Minot [Fic Minot] "In spare and lovely language, Susan Minot has set forth a real life, in all its particularity and splendor and pain. This is the task of the novelist, and in "Evening" Minot has succeeded admirably." - The New York Times Book Review 1998

Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx [Fic Proulx] Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, by turns comic and tragic, Shipping News is a celebration of the American genius for storytelling. 1993

Miss Bishop, by Bess Steeter Aldrich [Fic Aldrich] This charming story about an English teacher in a Midwestern college begins in 1880 and ends in 1930. It is a sincere tribute to teachers. 1933

Fist of God, by Frederick Forsyth [Fic Forsyth] A fast-paced novel that tells a convincing story of what might have been going on behind the scenes during the Gulf War. 1994

Murder at the Watergate, by Margaret Truman [Fic Truman] The Watergate Hotel is synonymous with Washington wealth, power and plots. Add Mexican drug lords out to kill a future U.S. president and Murder at the Watergate makes for Margaret Truman's most potent, headline-topping novel yet. Colorful characters and a riveting plot combine to create a timely tale of political ploys, power plays and ambition. 1998

The Copper Beech, by Maeve Binchy [Fic Binchy] Traces the lives of the residents of a small Irish village, especially that of the unmarried mistress of the local schoolhouse, shaded by a beech tree in which all the names of the townsfolk are inscribed. 1992

The Shell Seekers, by Rosamund Pilcher [Fic Pilcher] The author of Coming Home recounts the passions, tragedies and secrets of Penelope Keeling as she tries to decide the fate of a valuable painting her father symbolically based on her unconventional life. 1989

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte [Fic Bronte] "Wuthering Heights", Emily Bronte's only novel, is one of the pinnacles of 19th-century English literature. It's the story of Heathcliff, an orphan who falls in love with a girl above his class, loses her, and devotes the rest of his life to wreaking revenge on her family. 1847

Message in a Bottle, by Nicholas Sparks [Fic Sparks] The author of the runaway New York Times bestseller The Notebook pens a tale of self-discovery, renewal and the courage it takes to love again. When a 36-year-old single mother finds a love letter in a half-buried bottle while jogging along the shores of Cape Cod, she decides to take a dramatic leap that will forever change her life. 1998

Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts [Fic Letts] Pregnant, overweight and convinced about her inherent bad luck, Novalee Nation hopes for a new life in a new state with her boyfriend. Although dumped along the way in Oklahoma, she finds her spirit renewed. A first novel. Winner of the Walker Percy Award. 1995

Nonfiction
Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean [B LaRoche] Orlean, a staff writer at The New Yorker has written a fascinating book about the theft of some rare orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Florida. 1998

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose. [917.8042 Ambrose] This definitive chronicle of the more than two-year journey of Lewis and Clark through western America describes their epic expedition, the hardships they faced, their remarkable discoveries, and the contributions of their guide, Sacajawea. 1996

Bitter Harvest, by Ann Rule [364.1523 Rule] Ann Rule probes the mind of Debora Green, a successful doctor and loving mother who seemed to epitomize the dreams of the American heartland--until a murderous rage brought death and destruction to her family. 1997

Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth [814 Gilbreth] What do you get when you put 12 lively kids together with a father who believes a family can be run like a factory, and a mother who is his partner in everything except discipline? You get a hilarious tale of growing up that has made generations of kids laugh along with the Gilbreths. 1948

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt [975.8724 Berendt] Berendt's popular book is nonfiction, but it reads like a murder mystery. Set in Savannah, it is the story of a society murder and all the characters involved. 1994

Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man and the Life's Greatest Lesson, by Mitch Albom [Biography Schwartz] A Detroit sportswriter conveys the wisdom and life lessons of his late mentor, professor Morrie Schwartz, whose appearances on ABC-TV's Nightline drew a flood of response. He recounts their weekly conversations as Schwartz lay dying. 1997

Wait Until Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin [B Goodwin]. In this nostalgic memoir, Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of No Ordinary Time, has written a personal and fond remembrance of her Brooklyn childhood. 1997

The Boys of My Youth, by Jo Ann Beard [Biography Beard] Beard writes with perfect pitch as she takes readers through one woman's life-from childhood to marriage and beyond - and memorably captures the collision of youthful longing and the hard realities of time and fate. 1998

The Road from Coorain (1990) and True North (1994), by Jill Kerr Conway [B Conway] A beautifully written narrative of Conway's journey from her youth on a sheep farm in the Australian grasslands to her departure for America Coorain and its sequel True North details her Harvard Grad School years and her presidency of Smith College.

Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield. [808.1 Hirshfield] "With the exactitude of a surgeon and the sensuous attention of a chef, Hirshfield addresses, essay by essay, the art, craft, and act of making poetry" - Village Voice 1997

To Begin Again: the Journey Toward Comfort, Strength and Faith in Difficult Times, by Naomi Levy. [296.74 Levy] Rabbi Naomi Levy tells us how to thrive, emotionally and spiritually, when we feel overwhelmed by pain, loss or life itself. Her book provides a safe harbor where we can begin to heal and grow. 1998

Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945, by Stephen E. Ambrose [940.5421 Ambrose] Drawing on hundreds of interviews and oral histories, Ambrose recreates life on the front lines during one of the bloodiest periods of World War II: from D-Day to the surrender of Germany. Joseph Heller calls it "the most gripping account of the second World War that I have ever read." 1997

Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall? : A Parent's Guide to the New Teenager, by Anthony E. Wolf. [306.874 Wolf] This is a survival guide for parents who find themselves marooned among volatile and incomprehensible aliens on "Planet Teen." There are chapters on school, sex, suicide, and more. 1991

It's Not Fair, Jeremy Spencer's Parents Let Him Stay Up All Night! : A Guide to the Tougher Parts of Parenting, by Anthony E., Ph.D. Wolf. [649.1 Wolf] Dr. Wolf's groundbreaking new book focuses on the most difficult challenges of parenting-setting limits and making demands. Positive, loving and effective, this new guide offers parents what they want most: more time to enjoy their children. 1995

Children's Books
Old Turtle, by Douglas Wood [Children's Room E Wood] An enchanting fable for children and adults, Old Turtle promotes a deeper understanding of the earth and our relationship with all the beings who inhabit it. It features lovely illustrations by Cheng-Khee Chee. 1992

Night Tree, by Eve Bunting [Children's Room E Bunting] The magic of Christmas is brought to life in Eve Bunting's story about a family that shares the spirit of giving with animals. Ted Rand's illustrations set a wonderful, quiet tone. 1991

Psalm Twenty-three, illustrated by Tim Ladwig. [Children's Room ] This is a beautifully illustrated version of the familiar 23rd Psalm ("The Lord is my shepherd. . . ") It is set in inner-city Newark and follows two young children as they negotiate their way through dangerous streets and are watched over by those who care for them. 1997

The Church Mouse (1972) illustrated and written by Graham Oakley. [Children's Room E Oakley] Oakley has written a whole series of books about church mice, a very tolerant church cat, and their improbable adventures. The humorous and highly-detailed illustrations make these books terrific to share with children. Other books in the series: The Church Cat Abroad, The Church Mice and the Moon, The Church Mice in Action, The Church Mice Spread Their Wings, and The Church Mice at Bay.

Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame, [Children's Room Fic J Grahame] This book was begun as a series of bedtime stories for Grahame's son and was published in 1908. The tales relate the adventures of four animal friends and neighbors in the English countryside - Mole, Rat, Toad (of Toad Hall), and Badger. This is wonderful to read aloud. 1908

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