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The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub Date: Dec 9 2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1552787354
ISBN-13: 978-1552787359
Romance / Historical
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Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's
classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts,
unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the
backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough
rescues Mary from her dreary fate with a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The
story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the
stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many
would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a
beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect
figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her
family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction.
Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired
with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she
resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging
from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer
to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance.
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The Only Son by Stephane Audeguy
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Publisher: Harcourt; Publication Date: Aug 26 2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0151013292
ISBN-13: 978-0151013296
Historical Fiction Check Availability
Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions his older brother François only two
times in his classic Confessions. In The Only Son, Stéphane Audeguy
resurrects Rousseau's forgotten brother in a picaresque tale that
brings to life the secret world of eighteenth-century Paris. Instructed
at an early age in the philosophy of libertinage by a decadent
aristocrat and later apprenticed to a clock maker, François is
ultimately disowned by his family and flees to Paris's underworld.
There he finds work in a brothel that caters to politicians and clergy
and begins his personal study of the varieties of sexual desire-to its
most arcane proclivities. Audeguy uses the libertine's progress to
explore the interplay between the individual and society, much in the
tradition of Jean-Jacques, but with a very different emphasis. Bold,
erotic, and historically fascinating, The Only Son is, in many ways,
the anti-Confessions-François' own, decidedly different, portrait of
human nature.
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Hounded to Death by Rita Mae Brown
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Publisher: Ballantine Books Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0345490266
ISBN-13: 978-0345490261
Mystery
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"Sister" Jane Arnold, esteemed master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, has
traveled to Kentucky for one of the biggest events of the season: the
Mid-South Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to
strut their champion bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when,
immediately after the competition, one of the contestants, Mo
Schneider, turns up dead-facedown, stripped to the waist, and peppered
with birdshot. Universally detested by his peers, Mo had no shortage of
enemies, making the list of suspects as long as the line for homemade
pecan pie at a church bake sale.
Two weeks later, back in
Virginia, Sister is rocked when her friend the popular veterinarian
Hope Rogers dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot
wound. Sister refuses to believe that Hope killed herself and vows to
sniff out the truth. But before she can make real headway, a wealthy
pet food manufacturer vanishes during the granddaddy of all canine
exhibitions, the Virginia Hound Show. Ever reliant on her
"horse sense," Sister can't help but connect the three incidents. And
what she uncovers will make her blood run colder than the bodies that
keep turning up in unexpected places.
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Too Close to Home by Linwood Barclay
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Publisher: Bantam Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0553805568
ISBN-13: 978-0553805567
Mystery / Thriller Check Availability
Promise Falls isn't the kind of community where a family is shot to
death in their own home. But that is exactly what happened to the
Langleys one sweltering summer night, and no one in this small upstate
New York town is more shocked than their next-door neighbors, Jim and
Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son,
Derek, was friends with the Langleys' boy, Adam; but how well did they
really know their neighbors?
That's the question Jim Cutter is
asking, and the answers he's getting aren't reassuring. Albert Langley
was a successful, well-respected criminal lawyer, but was he so good at
getting criminals off that he was the victim of revenge-a debt his
innocent family also paid in blood? From the town's criminally corrupt
mayor to the tragic suicide of a talented student a decade before,
Promise Falls has more than its share of secrets. And Jim Cutter,
failed artist turned landscaper, need look no further than his own home
and his wife Ellen's past to know that things aren't always what they
seem. But not even Jim and Ellen are ready to know that their son was
in the Langley house the night the family was murdered.
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All the Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson
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Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0771076118
ISBN-13: 978-0771076114 Mystery / ThrillerCheck AvailabilityIt's the May half-term school holiday, and the first warm day of the
year has drawn a few children to the River Swain for a swim. When one
boy chases another off the path that runs alongside Hindswell Woods, a
glimpse of orange through the trees tempts them into the shadows.
Moments later, their high spirits vanish in an instant, for there, to
their shock (and ghoulish fascination), they find a man in a brightly
coloured shirt hanging from a branch by a rope around his neck. Alan
Banks is in London with his new girlfriend when news of the kids'
ghastly discovery reaches the police in Eastvale, so the case falls to
Annie Cabbot. And she's mystified. Why would a successful set and
costume designer, with a well-reviewed production of Othello currently
playing, be in such despair that he would take his own life?
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Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden
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Publisher: Knopf Canada Publication Date: Aug 5 2008
ISBN-10: 0307396819
ISBN-13: 978-0307396815
Literary FictionCheck Availability
From the author of the acclaimed debut Pretty Little Dirty comes a complex, seductive novel about race and culture, set in New Orleans. Babylon Rolling
is a glittering, gritty, unflinching novel of five families living
along an Uptown block in the year before Hurricane Katrina. Told in
numerous voices, it explores what happens when forces collide in the
boozy, humid city that care forgot. At once an exploration of ethnicity
and a portrait of a city on the edge of annihilation, Babylon Rolling is a brave and masterful novel.
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Silks by Dick & Felix Francis
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Publisher: Putnam Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0718154576
ISBN-13: 978-0718154578
Literary FictionCheck Availability Soon after London barrister Geoffrey Mason, an amateur jockey by
avocation, starts receiving a series of threatening messages from a
former client, Julian Trent, whose conviction for assault was
overturned on appeal, Mason reluctantly accepts the defense of a
jockey, Steve Mitchell, accused of the pitch-fork murder of fellow
rider Scot Barlow at a steeplechase event. Mitchell and Barlow had
fallen out over Barlow's sister, a vet and Mitchell's former
girlfriend, who took her own life just a short while before. When
unknown parties order Mason to lose the case, he must balance his
professional ethics and his sense of self-preservation. The solid
writing and engaging lead will carry readers along at a brisk pace,
though some may find the dramatic courtroom revelation of the murderer
overly theatrical.
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A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre
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Publisher: Viking Canada Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0670069124
ISBN-13: 978-0670069125
A starved Russian Muslim boy is smuggled into Hamburg by night. He
says his name is Issa. He has mysterious links. Annabel, a German civil
rights lawyer desperate to save Issa from deportation, appeals to Tommy
Brue, owner of a failing British bank. A triangle of impossible loves
is born. Scenting a kill in the War on Terror, the spies of three
nations converge upon the innocents. Peopled with unforgettable
characters, A Most Wanted Man prickles with humour and tension
until the last heart-stopping page. It is also a work of deep humanity
and irresistible relevance to our times.
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The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
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Publisher: Little Brown and Company Publication Date: Oct 14 2008
ISBN-10: 0316166294
ISBN-13: 978-0316166294
Legal Thriller Check AvailabilityThings are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After
two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When
Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest
case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive
accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for
the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that
Vincent's killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch.
Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller
as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners
realize their only choice is to work together. Bringing together
Michael Connelly's two most popular characters, The Brass Verdict is
sure to be his biggest book yet.
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A Spoonful of Poison by M.C. Beaton
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Publisher: St. Martins Press Publication Date: Sep 30 2008
ISBN-10: 0312349122
ISBN-13: 978-0312349127
Mystery Check Availability
Cranky but lovable sleuth Agatha Raisin's detective agency
has become so successful that she wants nothing more than to take
quality time for rest and relaxation. But as soon as she begins closing
the agency on weekends, she remembers that when she has plenty of
quality time, she doesn't know what to do with it. So it doesn't take
much for the vicar of a nearby village to persuade her to help
publicize the church fete---especially when the fair's organizer,
George Selby, turns out to be a gorgeous widower.
Agatha brings
out the crowds for the fete, all right, but there's more going on than
innocent village fun. Several of the offerings in the jam-tasting booth
turn out to be poisoned, and the festive family event becomes the scene
of two murders. Along with her young and (much to her dismay)
pretty sidekick, Toni, Agatha must uncover the truth behind the jam
tampering, keep the church funds safe from theft, and expose the nasty
secrets lurking in the village---all while falling for handsome George,
who may have secrets of his own.
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A Cure for All Diseases by Reginald Hill
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Publisher: Doubleday Canada Publication Date: Oct 7 2008
ISBN-10: 038566642X
ISBN-13: 978-0385666428
Mystery Check Availability
Some say that Andy Dalziel wasn't ready for God, others that God wasn't
ready for Dalziel. Either way, despite his recent proximity to a
terrorist blast in Death Comes for the Fat Man, the
Superintendent remains firmly of this world. And, while Death may be
the cure for all diseases, Dalziel is happy to settle for a few weeks'
care under a tender nurse.
Convalescing in Sandytown, a quiet
seaside resort devoted to healing, Dalziel befriends Charlotte Heywood,
a fellow newcomer and psychologist, who is researching the benefits of
alternative therapy. With much in common, the two soon find themselves
in partnership when trouble comes to town.
Sandytown's
principal landowners have grandiose plans for the resort-none of which
they can agree on. One of them has to go, and when one of them does, in
spectacularly gruesome fashion, DCI Peter Pascoe is called in to
investigate-with Dalziel and Charlotte providing unwelcome support. But
Pascoe finds dark forces at work in a place where medicine and holistic
remedies are no match for the oldest cure of all.
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The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
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Publisher: Chatto & Windus Publication Date: Oct 7 2008
ISBN-10: 0701182954
ISBN-13: 978-0701182953
Literary FictionCheck Availability
"It was at Oxford that I first met Bysshe. We arrived at our college on
the same day; confusing to a mere foreigner, it is called University
College. I had seen him from my window and had been struck by his
auburn locks."The long-haired poet - "Mad Shelley" - and the
serious-minded student from Switzerland spark each other's interest in
the new philosophy of science which is overturning long-cherished
beliefs. Perhaps there is no God. In which case, where is the divine
spark, the soul? Can it be found in the human brain? The heart? The
eyes? Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a
barn near Oxford. The coroner's office provides corpses - but they have
often died of violence and drowning; they are damaged and putrifying.
Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted
pottery and from there, makes contact with the Doomesday Men - the
resurrectionists. Victor finds that perfect specimens are hard
to come by: until that Thames-side dawn when, wrapped in his
greatcoat, he hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light
the approaching boat where, slung into the stern, is the corpse of a
handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water.
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Cockroach by Rawi Hage
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Publisher: House of Anansi Press Publication Date: Jul 21 2008
ISBN-10: 0887842097
ISBN-13: 978-0887842092
Literary Fiction
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One of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, Cockroach is as
urgent, unsettling, and brilliant as Rawi Hage's bestselling and
critically acclaimed first book, De Niro's Game. The novel takes place
during one month of a bitterly cold winter in Montreal's restless
immigrant community, where a self-described "thief" has just tried but
failed to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a local
park. Rescued against his will, the narrator is obliged to attend
sessions with a well-intentioned but naïve therapist. This sets the
story in motion, leading us back to the narrator's violent childhood in
a war-torn country, forward into his current life in the smoky émigré
cafés where everyone has a tale, and out into the frozen night-time
streets of Montreal, where the thief survives on the edge, imagining
himself to be a cockroach invading the lives of the privileged, but
willfully blind, citizens who surround him. Like
De Niro's Game, Cockroach combines an uncompromising vision of humanity
with razor-sharp portraits of society's outsiders, and a startling,
poetic sensibility with bracing jolts of dark humour.
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The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike
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Publisher: Knopf Publication Date: Oct 21 2008
ISBN-10: 0307269604
ISBN-13: 978-0307269607
More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick.
The three divorcées - Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie - have left town,
remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude
as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada,
Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance. Why not, Sukie and Jane
ask Alexandra, go back to Eastwick for the summer? The old Rhode Island
seaside town, where they indulged in wicked mischief under the
influence of the diabolical Darryl Van Horne, is still magical for
them. Now Darryl is gone, and their lovers of the time have aged or
died, but enchantment remains in the familiar streets and scenery of
the village, where they enjoyed their lusty primes as free and
empowered women. And, among the local citizenry, there are still those
who remember them, and wish them ill. How they cope with the lingering
traces of their evil deeds, the shocks of a mysterious counterspell,
and the advancing inroads of old age, form the burden on Updike's
delightful, ominous sequel.
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