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June 2009
In This Issue
Knit Two
Map of the Invisible World
In a Gilded Cage
Road Dogs
BoneMan's Daughters
The Children's Book
Cutting for Stone
Home Safe
The Immortality Factor
Life Without Summer
Loitering with Intent
Look Again
Sag Harbor
Execution Dock
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built
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Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
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Publisher: GP Putnam & Sons Pub Date: Nov 25 2008
ISBN-10: 039915583X
ISBN-13: 978-0399155833
Chick Lit / Literary Fiction
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A sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two returns to the Manhattan knitting store Walker & Daughter five years after the death of the store's owner, Georgia Walker. Georgia's daughter Dakota is now an 18 year old freshman at NYU, running the knitting store part-time with the help of the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club.

Drawn together by their love for Dakota and the sense of family the club provides, each knitter is struggling with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce, for Darwin, newborn twins, for Lucie, being both a single mom and caregiver for her elderly mother, and for seventysomething Anita, marriage to her sweetheart Marty over the objections of her grown children.

As Kate Jacobs returns to the world of Walker & Daughter, she's once again keyed into many of the stresses and joys of being a mother, wife, daughter and friend. Every woman who picks up this book will see themselves in its characters--the very thing that made The Friday Night Knitting Club such a huge word-of-mouth success. A true love letter to the power of women's friendships, and, of course, knitting, Knit Two is entertainment with a heart.
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
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Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Publication Date: May 19 2009
ISBN-10: 0771009011
ISBN-13: 978-0771009013
Literary Fiction
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Set during the tumultuous "Year of Living Dangerously" in post-colonial Indonesia, a stunning follow-up to the international debut literary sensation The Harmony Silk Factory.

Sixteen-year-old Adam is an orphan three times over. He and his older brother, Johan, were abandoned by their mother as children; then Adam watched as Johan was taken away by a wealthy couple; and now Karl, the artist who raised Adam, has been arrested by soldiers during Sukarno's drive to purge 1960s Indonesia of its colonial past.

All Adam has to guide him in his quest to find Karl are some old photos and letters - one of which sends him to the colourful, dangerous capital, Jakarta, and to Margaret, an American whose own past is bound up with Karl's. Soon, both have embarked on journeys of discovery that seem destined to turn tragic.

Woven hauntingly into this page-turning story is the voice of Johan, who is living a seemingly carefree, privileged life in Malaysia, but who is careening out of control as he cannot forget his long-ago betrayal of his helpless, trusting brother.
In a Gilded Cage  by Rhys Bowen
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Publisher: St. Martins Press
Publication Date: Mar 17 2009
ISBN-10: 031238534X
ISBN-13: 978-0312385347
Mystery / Detective
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Irish immigrant Molly Murphy and her New York City P.I. Business are in the midst of a sweeping influenza epidemic and a fight for women's suffrage that lands her in jail. Her betrothed, Police Captain Daniel Sullivan, finds her, but he hardly has time to bail her out, what with Chinese gangs battling for control of a thriving opium trade. The only consolation Molly can take from her vexing afternoon in the clink is that it made her some new friends among the Vassar suffragists---and brought her a pair of new cases.

For the first, Emily Boswell is convinced her miserly uncle stole her inheritance and wants Molly to uncover the truth behind her parents' lives and deaths. Second, Emily's college roommate Fanny Poindexter wants Molly to find proof of her husband's philandering so that she can leave him without one red cent. But when Fanny dies and her husband claims she's a victim of the epidemic, it's more than Molly's conscience can take. Rhys Bowen's Agatha and Anthony Award--winning historical series continues to breathe life into the past with its wit and charm and its complete sense of early-twentieth-century New York, which makes In a Gilded Cage her most accomplished mystery yet.
Road Dogs by Elmore Leonard
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Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: May 12 2009
ISBN-10: 0061733148
ISBN-13: 978-0061733147
Mystery / Suspense
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Legendary New York Times bestselling author Elmore Leonard returns with three of his favorite characters: Jack Foley from Out of Sight, Cundo Rey from LaBrava, and Dawn Navarro from Riding the Rap.

Jack Foley, the charming bank robber from Out of Sight, is serving a thirty-year sentence in a Miami penitentiary, but he's made an unlikely friend on the inside who just might be able to do something about that. Fellow inmate Cundo Rey, an extremely wealthy Cuban criminal, arranges for Foley's sentence to be reduced from thirty years to three months, and when Jack is released just two weeks ahead of Cundo, he agrees to wait for him in Venice Beach, California.

Also waiting for Cundo is his common-law wife, Dawn Navarro, a professional psychic with a slightly ulterior motive for staying with Cundo: namely, she wants his money. And with the arrival of Jack, she sees the perfect partner in a plan to relieve Cundo of his fortune. Cundo may be Jack's friend, but does that mean he can trust him? And can either of them trust Dawn?

Road Dogs is Elmore Leonard at his best-with his trademark tight plotting and pitch-perfect dialogue-and readers will love seeing Cundo, Jack, and Dawn back in action and working together . . . or are they?
BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker
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Publisher: Center Street
Publication Date: April 14 2009
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599951959
ISBN-13: 978-1599951959
Mystery / Suspense
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They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die.

Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.

Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.

But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
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Publisher: Knopf Canada
Publication Date: April 21 2009
ISBN-10: 0307398072
ISBN-13: 978-0307398079
Literary Fiction
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From the renowned author of Possession, The Children's Book is the absorbing story of the close of what has been called the Edwardian summer: the deceptively languid, blissful period that ended with the cataclysmic destruction of World War I. In this compelling novel, A.S. Byatt summons up a whole era, revealing that beneath its golden surface lay tensions that would explode into war, revolution and unbelievable change - for the generation that came of age before 1914 and, most of all, for their children.

The novel centres around Olive Wellwood, a fairy tale writer, and her circle, which includes the brilliant, erratic craftsman Benedict Fludd and his apprentice Phillip Warren, a runaway from the poverty of the Potteries; Prosper Cain, the soldier who directs what will become the Victoria and Albert Museum; Olive's brother-in-law Basil Wellwood, an officer of the Bank of England; and many others from every layer of society. A.S. Byatt traces their lives in intimate detail and moves between generations, following the children who must choose whether to follow the roles expected of them or stand up to their parents' "porcelain socialism."

Olive's daughter Dorothy wishes to become a doctor, while her other daughter, Hedda, wants to fight for votes for women. Her son Tom, sent to an upper-class school, wants nothing more than to spend time in the woods, tracking birds and foxes. Her nephew Charles becomes embroiled with German-influenced revolutionaries. Their portraits connect the political issues at the heart of nascent feminism and socialismwith grave personal dilemmas, interlacing until The Children's Book becomes a perfect depiction of an entire world.

Olive is a fairy tale writer in the era of Peter Pan and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In the Willows, not long after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. At a time when children in England suffered deprivation by the millions, the concept of childhood was being refined and elaborated in ways that still influence us today. For each of her children, Olive writes a special, private book, bound in a different colour and placed on a shelf; when these same children are ferried off into the unremitting destruction of the Great War, the reader is left to wonder who the real children in this novel are.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
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Publisher: Random House Canada
Publication Date: Feb 3 2009
ISBN-10: 0307357775
ISBN-13: 978-0307357779
Literary Fiction
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A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel - an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and their father's disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics - their passion for the same woman - that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him - nearly destroying him - Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man's remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg
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Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: April 28 2009
ISBN-10: 1400065119
ISBN-13: 978-1400065110
Literary Fiction

In this new novel, beloved bestselling author Elizabeth Berg weaves a beautifully written and richly resonant story of a mother and daughter in emotional transit.

Helen Ames-recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her-is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen's problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life. The Ameses had painstakingly saved for a happy retirement, but that money disappeared in several large withdrawals made by Helen's husband before he died. In order to support herself and garner a measure of much needed independence, Helen takes an unusual job that ends up offering far more than she had anticipated. And then a phone call from a stranger sets Helen on a surprising path of discovery that causes both mother and daughter to reassess what they thought they knew about each other, themselves, and what really makes a home and a family.
The Immortality Factor by Ben Bova
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Publisher: Tor Books
Publication Date: April 14 2009
ISBN-10: 0765305259
ISBN-13: 978-0765305251
Medical Thriller / Suspense
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Provocative, gripping, startling: bestselling author Ben Bova delivers a knockout read with his trademark blend of cutting edge science and unrelenting suspense.

Some see stem-cell research as mankind's greatest scientific breakthrough. Others see a blasphemous attempt to play God. Suddenly, the possibility of immortality exists. Two brothers, both doctors, stand on opposite sides of the controversy. To Dr. Arthur Marshak, his work is a momentous gift to humanity. To Dr. Jessie Marshak, it is a curse. Between them stands a beautiful, remarkable woman both brothers will do anything to save. Somehow, before it's too late, Arthur and Jessie Marshak must bridge the gap that divides them...on an issue that could mean nothing less than life or death for millions.
Life Without Summer by Lynne Griffin
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Publisher: St. Martins Press
Publication Date: April 14 2009
ISBN-10: 0312383886
ISBN-13: 978-0312383886
Literary Fiction
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Life Without Summer tells the story of Tessa, a mother who has just lost her four-year-old daughter in a hit-and-run accident and the grief counselor, Celia, who tries to help her to put her life back together. When their lives begin to intersect in powerful and unexpected ways, they discover that the answers one needs might be the other's only chance for peace.

Each woman's intensely personal journey reverberates with universal themes about the connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness that no reader will forget.
Loitering with Intent by Stuart Woods
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Publisher: GP Putnam And Sons
Publication Date: April 21 2009
ISBN-10: 0399155783
ISBN-13: 978-0399155789
Mystery / Thriller
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Dumped by his glamorous Russian girlfriend during dinner at Elaine's, and running low on cash, Stone Barrington is having a bad week. So his luck seems to be improving when he's hired to locate the missing son of a very wealthy man lucky because the job pays well, and because the son is hiding in the tropical paradise of Key West. But when Stone and his sometime running buddy Dino Bacchetti arrive in the sunny Keys, it appears that someone has been lying in wait. When Stone very nearly loses his life after being blindsided at a local bar, he realizes that the young man he's been hired to track may have good reason for not wanting to be found.

Suddenly, Key West is looking less like Margaritaville and more like the mean streets of New York.
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
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Publisher: St. Martins Press
Publication Date: April 14 2009
ISBN-10: 0312380720
ISBN-13: 978-0312380724
Mystery / Thriller
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When reporter Ellen Gleeson gets a "Have You Seen This Child?" flyer in the mail, she almost throws it away. But something about it makes her look again, and her heart stops-the child in the photo is identical to her adopted son, Will. Her every instinct tells her to deny the similarity between the boys, because she knows her adoption was lawful. But she's a journalist and won't be able to stop thinking about the photo until she figures out the truth. And she can't shake the question: if Will rightfully belongs to someone else, should she keep him or give him up?

She investigates, uncovering clues no one was meant to discover, and when she digs too deep, she risks losing her own life-and that of the son she loves. Lisa Scottoline breaks new ground in Look Again, a thriller that's both heart-stopping and heart-breaking.
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: April 28 2009
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385527659
ISBN-13: 978-0385527651
Literary Fiction
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Harris revisits characters from 1999's bestselling The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high school-when Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoria-his social doom is sealed for the next four years.

But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. And although he's just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates the rest of the year, he thinks that maybe this summer things will be different. If all goes according to plan, that is.

There will be trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through, and state-of-the-art profanity to master. He will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy of '85, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, with a little luck, things will turn out differently this summer.

In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whitehead-using the perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest for reinvention-lithely probes the elusive nature of identity, both personal and communal.
Execution Dock by Anne Perry
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      Publisher: Ballantine Books
      Publication Date: Mar 24 2009
      ISBN-10: 034546933X
      ISBN-13: 978-0345469335
      Mystery / Detective 
In Execution Dock, Perry's first Monk novel in three years, we find ourselves on the bustling docks along the River Thames. Here the empire's great merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucrative trade.

The dreaded kingpin of this dark realm is Jericho Phillips. On his floating brothel, sex slaves are forced to endure unspeakable acts. Now one such soul, thirteen-year-old Fig, is found with his throat cut, his tortured body tossed into the river.

Commander William Monk of the River Police swears that Phillips will hang for this abomination. But the miscreant is as wily as he is monstrous, and his wealthy clients seem far beyond the reach of the law. Monk's attempt to bring about justice becomes the first electrifying episode in a nightmare that will test his courage and integrity.

However, reinforcements are on the way. Monk's wife, Hester, who runs a free clinic for abused women, draws a highly unusual guerrilla force to her husband's cause-a canny ratcatcher, a retired brothel keeper, a fearless street urchin, and a rebellious society lady. To one as criminally minded as Phillips, these folks are mere mosquitoes, to be sure. But as he will soon discover, some mosquitoes can have a deadly sting.
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
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Publisher: Knopf Canada
Publication Date: April 21 2009
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0676979238
ISBN-13: 978-0676979237
Mystery / Detective
Mma Ramotswe's tiny white van has developed a disturbing noise. But having made numerous repairs to the van over the years, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni - her estimable husband and mechanic nonpareil - sells it without telling her and presents her with a new, characterless vehicle. So Mma Ramotswe sets out to recover the van.

In the meantime, the thoroughly unpleasant, yet glamorous, Violet Sephotho (who earned 50 percent, at most!, in the final examinations of the Botswana Secretarial College) gets herself a job at the Double Comfort Furniture Store. Why? The reason is obvious: to make a play for Mma Makutsi's fiancé, Mr Phuti Radiphuti.

And a proprietor of a local football team has enlisted the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to help explain their dreadful losing streak: surely someone is fixing the games - it can't just be a case of unskilled players. This is a job for Charlie, ever-apprentice at the Speedy Motors, to sniff out the competence of the players, as an assistant detective.

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