Allende, Isabel. DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE: A NOVEL. An orphan raised in Valparaiso, Chile, by a Victorian spinster and her rigid brother, young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. She enters a rough-and-tumble world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold with the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chien-California opens the door to a new life of freedom and independence for the young Chilean. Her search for the elusive lover gradually turns into another kind of journey, and by the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Anderson, Walter. MEANT TO BE. Anderson, longtime editor of Parade Magazine, grew up on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Mount Vernon, New York, the youngest child of an alcoholic, abusive father. He escaped his situation by quitting high school at sixteen to join the Marines. Four years later, while on leave to attend his father's funeral, he stuns his mother with a question that has inexplicably haunted him since he was a small boy: Was the man who had so tormented him in his childhood his real father? Her answer: Walter was born of a wartime love affair between his Protestant mother and the Jewish man she loved. His mother swears him to secrecy, and he honors their pact for nearly thirty-five years, and then one day he meets an unknown brother -- another son of his real father -- who has lived a similar, nearly parallel life. Their secret, in ways large and small, defines the course of his life. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Austin, Jane. EMMA. Emma, when first published in 1816, was written when Jane Austen was at the height of her powers. In it, we have her two greatest comic creations -- the eccentric Mr. Woodhouse and that quintissential bore, Miss Bates. In it, too, we have her most profound characterization: the witty, imaginative, self-deluded Emma, a heroine the author declared "no one but myself will much like," but who has been much loved by generations of readers. Delightfull funny, full of rich irony, Emma is regarded as one of Jane Austen's finest achievements. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Bajwa, Rupa. THE SARI SHOP: A NOVEL. Bajwa dramatically illustrates the class gap in contemporary India in her debut novel, focusing on the fortunes of Ramchand, a lowly, disaffected clerk in a popular sari shop. The novel opens with Ramchand happily going about his duties serving the shop's mostly upper-class clients. Opportunity for advancement comes from an unlikely source when he attracts the attention of the beautiful, literate Rina Kapoor, whose family hires the shop to provide saris for her upcoming wedding. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Baldachi, David. WINNER. Fiction. A cut above your average mystery or thriller. A series of weekly lotteries are being fixed. The mysterious mastermind of the plot personally chooses his dubious winner. The consequence of being chosen makes for a gripping page-turner. (NEO-RLS 2002)

Bohjalian, Chris. BEFORE YOU KNOW KINDNESS. On a balmy July night in New Hampshire a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough, the shot that hit him was fired–accidentally?–by his adolescent daughter Charlotte. With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page-turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Brenner, Joel. EMPERORS OF CHOCOLATE. Non-Fiction. Brenner, a former Washington Post financial reporter, tells the stories of how Forrest Mars, Sr. and Milton S. Hershey turned their two companies from small mom-and-pop operations into international forces over the last century. (NEO-RLS 2000)

Brooks, Geraldine. MARCH: A NOVEL. From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Brown, Dan. ANGELS AND DEMONS. Pitting scientific terrorists against the cardinals of Vatican City, this well-plotted if over-the-top thriller is crammed with Vatican intrigue and high-tech drama. Robert Langdon, a Harvard specialist on religious symbolism, is called in by a Swiss research lab when Dr. Vetra, the scientist who discovered antimatter, is found murdered with the cryptic word "Illuminati" branded on his chest. These Iluminati were a group of Renaissance scientists, including Galileo, who met secretly in Rome to discuss new ideas in safety from papal threat; what the long-defunct association has to do with Dr. Vetra's death is far from clear. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Bryson, Bill. A WALK IN THE WOODS: REDISCOVERING AMERICA. Non Fiction. 1998. "Accompanied only by his old college buddy, Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. The reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through." (NEO-RLS 1999)

Burroughs, Augusten. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS: A MEMOIR. Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. So at the age of twelve, Burroughs found himself amidst Victorian squalor living with the doctor’s bizarre family, and befriending a pedophile who resided in the backyard shed. The story of an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, and the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull an electroshock- therapy machine could provide entertainment. The funny, harrowing and bestselling account of an ordinary boy’s survival under the most extraordinary circumstances. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Butler, Robert Olen. HAD A GOOD TIME: STORIES FROM AMERICAN POSTCARDS. In Robert Olen Butler's dazzling new book of stories, Had a Good Time, he explores America by finding artistic inspiration in an unlikely and fascinating place-the backs of postcards from a bygone era. For many years Butler has collected picture postcards from the early twentieth century-not so much for the pictures on the front but for the messages written on the backs, little bits of the captured souls of people long since passed away. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Day, Cathy. THE CIRCUS IN WINTER. The secret lives and loves of circus people and their descendants are revealed in these 11 linked short stories. From 1884 to 1939, the small town of Lima, Indiana, hosts the Great Porter Circus during the winter months. Wallace Porter buys the circus on the eve of his beloved wife's death, claiming he has "seen the elephant." (NEO-RLS 2005)

Edgerton, Clyde. WALKING ACROSS EGYPT. A quietly humorous story set in a small town in North Carolina. Seventy-eight year old Mattie Riggsbee, spunky and determined, has one regret: she has no grandchildren, as her son and daughter inconveniently remain unmarried. The story gathers momentum after a slightly sluggish start, when Wesley Benfield, wayward teenager and orphan, comes into Mattie's life. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Ephron, Amy. A CUP OF TEA. Fiction. Rosemary Fell's life of privilege changes forever when she invites a penniless young woman home for a cup of tea. Ephron spins a delightful tale of a triangular romance set against the back drop of New York society during World War I. Based on a short story by Katherine Mansfield. (NEO-RLS 1998)

Erdrich, Louise. THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB: A NOVEL. Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America. In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family -- which includes Eva and four sons -- and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New -- in the person of Delphine Watzka -- the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles. These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Fleischner, Jennifer. MRS. LINCOLN AND MRS. KECKLY: THE REMARKABLE STORY. This book is an in-depth look at the relationship between two very different women, Mary Todd Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly. The former slave bought her freedom, became a celebrated dressmaker, lost a son in the war, and went on to write a detailed biography about Mrs. Lincoln. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Fowler, Karen Joy. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. In California’s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen’s novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behavior and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Frizier, Charles. COLD MOUNTAIN. Fiction. 1997. A wounded Confederate soldier, tired of the pointless slaughter of war, leaves his hospital bed and begins the long walk back to the hills of North Carolina and the woman he left behind. This book parallels his walk and her psychological journey as she comes to terms with her existence. As their lives converge once again, a new world is born from the ruins of the old. (NEO-RLS 1999)

Giardina, Denise. STORMING HEAVEN. Annadel, West Virginia, was a small town rich in coal, farms, and close-knit families, all destroyed when the coal company came in. It stole everything it hadn't bothered to buy -- land deeds, private homes, and ultimately, the souls of its men and women. Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C.J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rose Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines. They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain -- when the United States Army greeted 10,000 unemployed pro-union miners with airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Glass, Julia. THREE JUNES. This three-part novel draws the reader into the lives of several central characters during three Junes spanning ten years. It explores modern relationships (including a gay one) and the families that people inherit or create for themselves. Well paced and carefully layered. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Goodman, Allegra. KAATERSKILL FALLS. In the summer of '76, the Shulmans and the Melishes migrate to Kaaterskill, the tiny town in upstate New York where Orthodox Jews and Yankee year-rounders live side by side from June through August. Elizabeth Shulman, a devout follower of Rav Elijah Kirshner and the mother of five daughters, is restless. She needs a project of her own, outside her family and her cloistered community. Across the street, Andras Melish is drawn to Kaaterskill by his adoring older sisters, bound to him by their loss and wrenching escape from the Holocaust. Both comforted and crippled by his sisters' love, Andras cannot overcome the ambivalence he feels toward his children and his own beautiful wife. At the top of the hill, Rav Kirshner is coming to the end of his life, and he struggles to decide which of his sons should succeed him: the pious but stolid Isaiah, or the brilliant but worldly Jeremy. Behind the scenes, alarmed as his beloved Kaaterskill is overdeveloped by Michael King, the local real estate broker, Judge Miles Taylor keeps an old secret in check, biding his time.. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Greenlaw, Linda. LOBSTER CHRONICLES. Non-Fiction 2003. After 17 years at sea, Linda Greenlaw decided it was time to take a break from being a swordboat captain, the career that would earn her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. Greenlaw decided to move back home, to a tiny island seven miles off the Maine coast. There, she would pursue a simpler life as a lobsterman, find a husband, and settle down. But all doesn't go as planned. The lobsters refuse to crawl out from under their rocks and into the traps she and her father have painstakingly set. Fellow islanders draw her into bizarre intrigues, and the eligible bachelors prove even more elusive than the lobsters. But just when she thinks things can't get worse, something happens that forces her to reevaluate everything she thought she knew about life, luck, and lobsters. (NEO-RLS 2003)

Hammett, Dashiell. THE THIN MAN. Nick and Nora Charles are Hammett's most enchanting creations, a rich, glamorous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Heimel, Paul. ELIOT NESS: THE REAL STORY. Eliot Ness, the man best-known from the book and TV series, The Untouchables, was largely a fictional character created by Ness and ghostwriter Oscar Fraley. The truth about Ness is more interesting. According to Heimel, he was a heavy drinker, a womanizer, and politically ambitious. He was a failure in business and died nearly penniless (NEO-RLS 2004).

Hoffman, Alice. BLACKBIRD HOUSE: A NOVEL. Prolific novelist Hoffman (The Probable Future; Blue Diary;etc.) offers 12 lush and lilting interconnected stories, all taking place in the same Cape Cod farmhouse over the course of generations. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Horwitz, Tony. CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC. When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart. Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Hosseini, Khaled. THE KITE RUNNER. The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Kelley, Douglas. THE CAPTAIN'S WIFE: A NOVEL. Based on the true story of Mary Patten, this maritime tale begins in July 1856 during the heyday of the great clipper ships. On a voyage from New York to San Francisco her husband becomes incapacitated due to illness, and 19-year-old Mary must take command of the ship, becoming somewhat of an icon of the early women’s rights movement. Based on historical accounts and little known facts about Mary Patten’s life, the author has created an entertaining, suspenseful and romantic adventure story. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Khadra, Yasmina. SWALLOWS OF KABUL. Set in Kabul under the rule of the Taliban, this extraordinary novel takes readers into the lives of two couples: Mohsen, who comes from a family of wealthy shopkeepers whom the Taliban has destroyed; Zunaira, his wife, exceedingly beautiful, who was once a brilliant teacher and is now no longer allowed to leave her home without an escort or covering her face. Intersecting their world is Atiq, a prison keeper, a man who has sincerely adopted the Taliban ideology and struggles to keep his faith, and his wife, Musarrat, who once rescued Atiq and is now dying of sickness and despair. Desperate, exhausted Mohsen wanders through Kabul when he is surrounded by a crowd about to stone an adulterous woman. Numbed by the hysterical atmosphere and drawn into their rage, he too throws stones at the face of the condemned woman buried up to her waist. With this gesture the lives of all four protagonists move toward their destinies. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Kidd, Sue Monk. SECRET LIFE OF BEES. Fiction. 2003. Lily Owens is a 14 year old white girl raised by an emotionally abusive peach farmer in South Carolina. Lily accidentally killed her mother when she was 7 years old. Rosaleen, a black woman, has been caring for Lily since this time. Rosaleen gets into trouble when she goes to town to register to vote. Rosaleen and Lily flee to Tiburon, South Carolina because Lily’s mom owned an image of a Black Madonna with the words “Tiburon, South Carolina” on the back. They are taken in by three black sisters who are beekeepers and Lily finds a connection to her mother. (NEO-RLS 2003)

Knauss, Sibylle. EVA'S COUSIN. Based on interviews with Gertrude Weisker, the cousin of Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun. Gertrude, called Marlene in the novel, tells the story of her days with Eva at the Bergof, Hiter's mansion in the Mavarian mountains, toward the end of World War II. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Krakauer, Jon. UNDER THE BANNER. On July 24, 1984, Dan and Ron Lafferty cut the throats of their brother Allan's wife, Brenda, and baby daughter, Erica, fulfilling part of a revelation Ron received from God. Ron is now on death row. Brother Dan, serving two life sentences for the murders, has never denied killing his sister-in-law and niece but has absolutely no remorse. "I was doing God's will," he says, "which is not a crime." Krakauer… tackles issues of faith in this true-crime/religious expose, which delves deep into the heart of Mormon fundamentalism, where revelations from God are commonplace and polygamy not only still exists but is "a matter of religious duty." Alternating between the bloodier aspects of the origins of the Mormon Church and some of the more extreme aspects of today's Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, Krakauer's account is gripping yet deeply disturbing. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Kurlansky, Mark. SALT: A WORLD HISTORY. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Kurson, Robert. SHADOW DIVERS: THE TRUE ADVENTURE OF TWO…. For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Landvik, Lorna. ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS. The women of Freesia Court are convinced that there is nothing good coffee, delectable desserts, and a strong shoulder can’t fix. Laughter is the glue that holds them together—the foundation of a book group they call AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), an unofficial “club” that becomes much more. It becomes a lifeline. Holding on through forty eventful years, there’s Faith, a lonely mother of twins who harbors a terrible secret that has condemned her to living a lie; big, beautiful Audrey, the resident sex queen who knows that with good posture and an attitude you can get away with anything; Merit, the shy doctor’s wife with the face of an angel and the private hell of an abusive husband; Kari, a wise woman with a wonderful laugh who knows the greatest gifts appear after life’s fiercest storms; and finally, Slip, a tiny spitfire of a woman who isn’t afraid to look trouble straight in the eye. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Larson, Erik. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY…. In a thrilling narrative showcasing his gifts as storyteller and researcher, Larson recounts the spellbinding tale of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and its devious creators. A blend of Ragtime and Silence of the Lambs, The Devil in the White City is Larson at his best. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Lax, Eric. THE MOLD IN DR. FLOREY'S COAT. The New York Times Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in his London laboratory in 1928 and its eventual development as the first antibiotic by a team at Oxford University headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1942 led to the introduction of the most important family of drugs of the twentieth century. Yet credit for penicillin is largely misplaced. Neither Fleming nor Florey and his associates ever made real money from their achievements; instead it was the American labs that won patents on penicillin's manufacture and drew royalties from its sale. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Lee, Harper. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Fiction. 1960. This novel is set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The narrator is a little girl, Scout Finch, whose father, a lawyer, defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. A compassionate, deeply moving novel and a most persuasive plea for racial justice. 265p. (NEO-RLS 1995)

Mantel, Hilary. FLUDD: A NOVEL. One dark and stormy night in 1956, a stranger named Fludd mysteriously turns up in the dismal village of Fetherhoughton. He is the curate sent by the bishop to assist Father Angwin-or is he? In the most unlikely of places, a superstitious town that understands little of romance or sentimentality, where bad blood between neighbors is ancient and impenetrable, miracles begin to bloom. No matter how copiously Father Angwin drinks while he confesses his broken faith, the level of the bottle does not drop. Although Fludd does not appear to be eating, the food on his plate disappears. Fludd becomes lover, gravedigger, and savior, transforming his dull office into a golden regency of decision, unashamed sensation, and unprecedented action. Knitting together the miraculous and the mundane, the dreadful and the ludicrous, Fludd is a tale of alchemy and transformation told with astonishing art, insight, humor, and wit. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Marton, Kati. HIDDEN POWER: PRESIDENTIAL MARRIAGES THAT SHAPED OUR HISTORY. Marton uncovers the behind-the-scenes dynamics of the ultimate power couples, showing how first ladies have used their privileged access to the president to influence staffing, promote causes, and engage directly in policy-making. Edith Wilson secretly ran the country after Woodrow’s debilitating stroke. Eleanor Roosevelt was FDR’s moral compass. And Laura Bush, initially shy of any public role, has proven to be the emotional ballast for her husband. Through extensive research and interviews, Marton reveals the substantial–yet often overlooked–legacy of presidential wives, providing insight into the evolution of women’s roles in the twentieth century and vividly depicting the synergy of these unique political partnerships. (NEO-RLS 2005)

McCrumb, Sharon. THE ROSEWOOD CASKET. Another lyrical mystery in her "Ballad Series" by this Edgar award winning author. A dying man's sons return to say goodbye and decide the fate of the family farm. Woven into the story is the history and mystical aura of the Appalachian Mountain area. (NEO-RLS 1998)

McLaughlin, Emma & Nicola Kraus. THE NANNY DIARIES: A NOVEL. A sarcastic, witty and sad story of how the over-privileged raise their children. As a New York City college student looking for a job, Nanny takes a 9-month job with an upper crust New York Society family. The story centers on a typical hardworking father, snobby socialite mother, and a single, lonely child. (NEO-RLS 2004)

McMurtry, Larry. THE LATE CHILD: A NOVEL. Harmony is the optimistic, resilient Las Vegas ex-showgirl who returns home one day to the news that her beloved daughter has died, in New York, of AIDS. She manages to stay afloat, buoyed by her precocious five-year-old son, Eddie, and her two outspoken sisters as they set forth on a journey across the country, seeking answers about her daughter's death. From Nevada to New York to Oklahoma, the eccentrics Harmony and her entourage meet nudge them closer to an inner peace with life, and a way to find hope in the future. Alive with inventive storytelling and honest emotion, The Late Child is a warm, enriching experience that celebrates the unique relationship between mother and child. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Metalious, Grace. PEYTON PLACE. "Peyton Place" is part of our popular culture. But how many people have actually read the book? When the book was originally published, the activities therein were considered scandalous. Revisit this book 50 years later and see what caused all the excitement. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Mills, Mark. AMAGANSETT. In 1947, two fishermen find the body of a beautiful woman tangled in their net off Amagansett, Long Island. Both deny recognizing her, but Conrad Labarde is lying. The murder reveals the discord between the privileged who summer at beachfront houses and the men who live and work at the shore. Both Deputy Police Chief Tom Hollis and Conrad are determined to find the killer - Tom to salvage his reputation after a scandal drove him from the New York police force, and Conrad because he and Lillian had been having an affair. But since her family was one of the wealthiest of the "summer people," she could never marry him. Each man conducts his own investigation, but it is Conrad who links Lillian's death and the earlier death of a town girl by a hit-and-run driver. This is a gripping story, with characters powerfully drawn against a tapestry of time and place. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Moore, Tim. TRAVELS WITH MY DONKEY. A man, a donkey, and a very long walk: Moore's latest European adventure (after French Revolutions and others) finds him embarking on an ages-old physical and spiritual pilgrimage across Spain to the famed cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Moore entertains with his snappy one-liners and skewed views of the locals, his fellow pilgrims and his own reasons for undertaking the camino. Against advice to the contrary, he pursues his search for a donkey to accompany him, which "upgraded his camino from big walk to revelatory voyage of self-examination." (NEO-RLS 2006)

Niffenegger, Audrey. THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.(NEO-RLS 2006)

Niven, Jennifer. ADA BLACKJACK: A TRUE STORY OF SURVIVAL IN THE ARCTIC. In 1921, four men and one woman ventured deep into the Arctic. Two years later, only one returned. When 23-year-old Inuit Ada Blackjack signed on as a seamstress for a top-secret Arctic expedition, her goal was simple: earn money and find a husband. But her terrifying experiences -- both in the wild and back in civilization -- comprise one of the most amazing untold adventures of the 20th century. Based on a wealth of unpublished materials, including Ada's never-before-seen diaries, bestselling author Jennifer Niven narrates this true story of an unheralded woman who became an unlikely hero. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Otsuka, Julie. WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Paterniti, Michael. DRIVING MR. ALBERT: A TRIP ACROSS AMERICA…... Non-fiction. 2001. Albert Einstein's brain floats in a Tupperware bowl in a gray duffel bag in the trunk of a Buick Skylark barreling across America. Driving the car is journalist Michael Paterniti. Sitting next to him is an eighty-four-year-old pathologist named Thomas Harvey, who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955 -- then simply removed the brain and took it home. And kept it for over forty years. On a cold February day, the two men and the brain leave New Jersey and light out on I-70 for sunny California, where Einstein's perplexed granddaughter, Evelyn, awaits. And riding along as the imaginary fourth passenger is Einstein himself, an id-driven genius, the original galactic slacker with his head in the stars. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature. (NEO-RLS 2003)

Philbrick, Nathaniel. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA. The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the nineteenth century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the twentieth. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Picoult, Jodi. MY SISTER'S KEEPER. Kate Fitzgerald has a rare form of leukemia. Her sister, Anna, was conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly invasive. At 13, Anna hires a lawyer so that she can sue her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Riccio, Dolores Stewart. CIRCLE OF FIVE. Initially an ordinary study group meeting at the local branch library, this group of women quickly evolves into a full-blown coven. The narrator, Cassandra, owner of Earthlore Herbal Preparations and Cruelty-Free Cosmetics, has visions, the most disturbing of which takes place in a grocery story when she "sees" a fellow shopper as a serial killer of young boys. Knowing that the police put little stock in psychic phenomena, the circle decides to take matters into their own hands. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Rinaldi, Ann. COFFIN QUILT: THE FEUD BETWEEN THE HATFIELDS…... Fiction. 2001. Feuds among the mountain folks of West Virginia and Kentucky, particularly the bloody skirmishes between the Hatfield and McCoy families, are often celebrated in American legend and folksongs. In The Coffin Quilt, Ann Rinaldi mines this rich vein of Americana for a fascinating tale that closely follows the real events of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, but which also has implications for our own violent times. (NEO-RLS 2003)

Roberts, Cokie. FOUNDING MOTHERS: THE WOMEN WHO RAISED OUR NATION. Cokie Roberts brings to light the stories of the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, sometimes even defending their very doorsteps from British occupation. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their husbands' businesses, ran the farms, and raised their children. These women who sacrificed for the fledgling nation spent months or even years apart from their husbands, at a time when letters were their only form of contact. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Ruhlman, Michael. HOUSE: A MEMOIR. With the always-tedious home-buying process and expensive repairs soaring into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the American Dream can seem like the American Nightmare. Detailing the purchase and renovation of a single family home, House explores the importance of the place we live in, our yearning to establish it, and the importance of the actual structure, its impact on our intellectual and spiritual lives, and on the struggles of a family. Packed with useful information and stories written with a storyteller’s flair, House is a dramatic narrative by a gifted writer who eloquently concludes that be it ever so humble, a castle or a row house downtown, there’s truly no place like home. (NEO-RLS 2006)

See, Lisa. SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN. In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Shapiro, Michael. SENSE OF PLACE: GREAT TRAVEL WRITERS…. Great writers inspire readers to head out in search of foreign sunsets, but in this instance, they inspired travel writer Michael Shapiro to head out for the great writers themselves. A Sense of Place is one writer's journey to visit all the heroes who have motivated him - to pack a pen and toothbrush, to find out where they live, why they chose the place, and how it influences their writing. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Smith, McCall Alexander. THE NO. 1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY. Mma (Precious) Ramotswe is Botswana’s one and only lady detective. Through her eyes, one is not only entertained by her cases and the people she deals with, the reader learns a great deal about life and conditions in Botswana. (NEO-RLS 2004)

Steinbach, Aline. WITHOUT RESERVATIONS: THE TRAVELS….. In many ways, I was an independent woman,” writes Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Alice Steinbach. “For years I’d made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow.” But somehow she had become dependent in quite another way. “I had fallen into the habit . . . of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me.” But who was she away from the people and things that defined her? In this exquisite book, Steinbach searches for the answer to this question in some of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world: Paris, where she finds a soul mate; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. Beautifully illustrated with postcards from her journeys, this revealing and witty book transports you into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Trollope, Joanna. THE RECTOR'S WIFE. Berkley, 2001 Fiction. For 20 years, Anna Bouverie has been an Anglican priest’s wife, an unpaid helper who also has to scrimp to provide for her family on her husband’s meager wages. She watches as he retreats more and more into his work and away from the family. In desperation, she takes a job at a supermarket, something that “isn’t done” by a rector’s wife. As Anna’s life changes dramatically, we watch what happens as public expectations collide with real life. This was a Library Journal word-of-mouth book and an offering on Masterpiece Theatre. (NEO-RLS 2001)

Turner, Nancy. THESE IS MY WORDS: THE DIARY OF SARAH AGNES. Inspired by the author's original family memoirs, this absorbing story introduces us to the questing, indomitable Sarah Prine, one of the most memorable women ever to survive and prevail in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s. As a child, a fiery young woman, and finally a caring mother, Sarah forges a life as full and as fascinating as our deepest needs, our most secret hopes and our grandest dreams. She rides Indian-style and shoots with deadly aim, greedily devours a treasure trove of leatherbound books, downs fire, flood, Comanche raids and other mortal perils with the unique courage that forged the character of the American West. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Twain, Mark. THE INNOCENTS ABROAD. A classic in Mark Twain sytle. This is a story of his first of many overseas trips. As he refers to his countrymen as pumpkins among the more civilized European world. The humor and style of writing make this a good book for those who enjoy a good easy read classic. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Udall, Brady. MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT. "If I could tell you only one thing about my life, it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head. As formative events go, nothing else comes close." With these words Edgar Mint, half-Apache and mostly orphaned, makes his unshakable claim on our attention. In the course of Brady Udall’s high-spirited, inexhaustibly inventive novel, Edgar survives not just this bizarre accident, but a hellish boarding school for Native American orphans, a well-meaning but wildly dysfunctional Mormon foster-family, and the loss of most of the illusions that are supposed to make life bearable. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Walls, Jeannette. GLASS CASTLE. The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Weller, Sam. THE BRADBURY CHRONICLES. In highly readable prose, Weller surveys Bradbury's ancestors and family, his boyhood move to Hollywood, his introduction to science fiction and fantasy and his early writing attempts, which reflect the themes that pervade his more mature work: "nostalgia, loneliness, lost love, and death." (NEO-RLS 2006)

Winchester, Simon. KRAKATOA: THE DAY THE WORLD EXPLODED: AUGUST 27, 1883. This is a compelling account of the destruction of Krakatoa by the eruption of its volcano in 1883. It examines the lasting and world-changing effects the disaster had. (NEO-RLS 2005)

Wisner, Franz. HONEYMOON WITH MY BROTHER. This is the true story of Franz Wisner, a man who thought he had it all- a high profile career and the fiancée of his dreams- when suddenly, his life turned upside down. Just days before they were to be married, his fiancée called off the wedding. Luckily, his large support network of family and friends wouldn't let him succumb to his misery. They decided Franz should have a wedding and a honeymoon anyway- there just wouldn't be a bride at the ceremony, and Franz' travel companion would be his brother, Kurt.During the "honeymoon," Franz reconnected with his brother and began to look at his life with newfound perspective. The brothers decided to leave their old lives behind them. They quit their jobs, sold all their possessions, and traveled around the world, visiting fifty-three countries for the next two years. (NEO-RLS 2006)

Yellin, Emily. OUR MOTHERS' WAR: AMERICAN WOMEN AT HOME AND…. After years of planting Victory gardens, volunteering at USOs and coping with increased home front responsibilities, in early 1945 Yellin's mother quit her desk job at Reader's Digest and shipped out to the Pacific Front to join the Red Cross. Wartime manpower shortages were bending gender rules, and many women seized the opportunity to try something different. (NEO-RLS 2005)