New Books for a New Year and a New Decade

A wealth of exciting and interesting new books have been published in these first few months of 2010. Read on to find out more about the latest in hardcover and paperback fiction. Then give us a call, or stop in and pick up, your new books for the new year!

Hardcover Fiction

The First Rule, by Robert Crais (Putnam, 2010, $26.95).  
Another intense thriller featuring vengeance, a reckless pace, a stratospheric body count and just enough surprises to keep you turning the pages (Kirkus, 11/15/2010).  This one features Joe Pike and Elvis Cole – Pike cuts a wide swath through LA’s Serbian mob in his quest to avenge an old member of a team he headed.


House Rules, by Jodi Picoult (Atria, 2010, $28).  
A whodunit that explores what its like to be not only a teenager with Aspergers syndrome, but also an Asperger Syndrome kid accused of murder.  Picoult’s many fans will love this, as will readers of savvy courtroom dramas.

Imperfect Birds, by Anne Lamott (Riverhead, April 6, 2010, $25.95).  
Rosie Ferguson, the young heroine of Rosie and Crooked Little Heart is a straight-A high school senior who almost succumbs to the drug culture in this unsparing look at today’s teenagers and a family in crisis.  An honest and heartrending novel that explores our human quest for connection and salvation.

The Infinities, by John Banville (Knopf, 2010, $25.95).  
In his first novel since the 2005 Mann Booker prize winning The Sea (and his wonderful crime fiction written under the name of Benjamin Black), “Banville reminds the world that he is one of the best prose stylists at work today.” (Library Journal, 1/05/10).  The book is narrated from the perspective of the god Hermes, and tells a day in the life of the Godley siblings, who have gathered at the bedside of their comatose father with their stepmother.  The tale goes back and forth between the Godley family on Earth and the lives of the immortal gods, and creates a bewitching world in which to ponder what it is to be human.


The Lost Books of the Odyssey, by Zachary Mason (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2010, $24).  
In his 70th year, Odysseus sets sail to revisit the lands of his past, not content to live out his golden years with the long-suffering Penelope, his son Telemachus, or his grandchildren.  This book will appeal to students of the original Homer, those interested in the depiction of power struggles between men and gods, and those looking for a powerful story. A surprisingly delightful work.


The Man From Beijing, by Henning Mankell (Random House, 2010, $25.95).  
The acclaimed Swedish author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries gives us a stand-alone thriller.  When 19 of the 22 residents of a Swedish hamlet are brutally murdered, Judge Brigitta Roslin discovers that the victims include her late mother’s foster parents, and begins to investigate the case. The only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene… This tale of corruption, injustice and revenge ranges over three continents and 140 years. 


The Mapping of Love and Death, by Jacqueline Winspear (Harper, April 2010, $25.99).  
In the latest installment of this beloved series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death – an investigation that leads her to a doomed affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse.  Library Journal calls it “the best Dobbs to date!"  Enjoy a cup of tea with Jacqueline Winspear on Saturday April 24, 2010.  Check out our website or call/email the store for details!

Noah’s Compass, by Anne Tyler (Knopf, 2010, $25.95).  
Tyler’s 18th novel is “one of Tyler’s more deceptively rich and enigmatically titled (there is no character named Noah, and the evocation of the Bible story lasts less than a page.)”  Kirkus Reviews, 7/09/10.    Set as usual in her native Baltimore, the novel concerns a fifth-grade, private-school teacher name Liam Pennywell, who has been “downsized” from his employment at the age of 60 and who subsequently suffers a traumatic injury that causes him to lose a bit of his memory. Tyler poignantly portrays one man’s search for wholeness and redemption as he picks up the shards of a life shattered by the waves of aging.  As the Kirkus reviewer said, “By the end of the novel, the particulars of Liam’s life really haven’t changed that much, but he has been utterly transformed.  And so will be the reader.”

Ordinary Thunderstorms, by William Boyd (Harper, 2010, $26.95).  
Another brilliant thriller from a master author.  Adam, recently returned to London from America, stumbles into a big corporation fraud and murder plot, and is suddenly on the run, using all his wits to figure out why he is being fingered as the killer. He thinks he can only solve this riddle if he is free to explore.  The characters he meets are well defined, from the CEO to the prostitute who helps him.  This is a roller coaster of a book – I loved it! (Connie’ pick). Boyd is a favorite author – each of his books is unique and wonderful!


Point Omega, by Don DeLillo (Scribner, 2010, $24).  
Not even sure how to describe this…. DeLillo is such a master.  This slim novel is rich with ideas about objectivity and complicity, time and transformation.  It’s the story of the moral compromise between two viewings of a piece of conceptual art, fashioned from the classic film, Psycho, displayed at a small museum in the southwestern United States.  The man who watches it, enthralled, is documentary filmmaker Jim  Finley, who has traveled west to interview his potential film subject, former academic Richard Elster, now retired from his employment as an advisor during the Iraq War, living in a half finished house in the California desert.  Compared to Camus’s scorching novella The Fall….

The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake (Amy Einhorn Books, 2010, $25.95).  Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between small town America and war-torn Europe in 1940.  This work is rapidly gaining word of mouth praise, much as The Help did last year – don’t miss it! 

Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich (Harper, 2010, $25.99).
Gil and Irene live with their three children in a seemingly idyllic Minneapolis home.  Gil is a renowned painter (Irene is the subject of his graphically revealing portraits) and Irene is working on her dissertation about the painter George Catlin. When Irene discovers that her husband has been reading her diary, she begins writing entries to play with Gil’s mind, torturing him about an affair he imagines she is having.  A deeply personal novel about marriage, family and individual identity with remarkable insight into the inner lives of children, and broader questions about cause and effect in history.

The Sheen on the Silk, by Anne Perry (Ballantine, March 23, 2010, $27).  
The bestselling author of Victorian mysteries featuring either William Monk or Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, and a WWI series, takes a giant leap back in historical fiction time to Constantinople in the late-thirteenth century.  Anna, a young physician, comes to the city disguised as a eunuch to learn the truth behind the exile of her twin brother, who was implicated in a murder.  A captivating and intriguing story with a large cast of characters. 

The Three Weissmanns of Westport, by Cathleen Schine (FS&G, 2010, $25).  
Another homerun from the author of Village Books’ favorite The New Yorkers, and The Love Letter.  Drawing on Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, this witty update involves a late-life divorcee, Betty Weissmann, and her adult daughters, Annie & Miranda, who are exiled from a luxurious life in New York to a shabby beach cottage in Westport, CT.  A real crowd pleaser!

Where the God of Love Hangs Out, by Amy Bloom (Random, 2010, $25.00).  
The author of Away returns with a collection of stories showing the beautiful flaws of humanity… need I say more?

Wild Child: And Other Stories, by T. C. Boyle (Viking, 2010, $25.95).  
I so love Boyle (Tortilla Curtain, The Women, and so many great others…) and here he offers 13 diverse and wonderful short stories.  Booklist said it best: “This intelligence and style satisfy lovers of capital L – Literature, while his hooky, propulsive vignettes satisfy readers who just want a damn good story.  And there are some damn good stories here.” (12/15/10)

Paperback Fiction

The Angel’s Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Anchor Books, May 18, 2010, $15.95)
This is somewhat of a prequel to the beloved Shadow of the Wind.  Both books are an ode to the city of Barcelona, Spain (the new edition of the paperback Shadow of the Wind includes a walking tour of the city entitled "A Walk In The Footsteps of The Shadow of the Wind").  I fell crazily in love with Shadow when I first read it – how could I not love a book that opens with the widowed bookseller taking his young son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books!  Angel’s Game begins in 1917 and has many overlapping characters, including the bookseller’s son in this book, who is the widowed father in Shadow, and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books appears here too.  The reader will again enjoy Zafon’s sense of humor and multiple love stories.  This book has a more sinister tone – Andreas Correlli may in fact be the devil – and there are lengthy passages on the meaning of religion and faith – it’s again a wonderful read!

Best Love, Rosie, by Nula O’Faolain (GemmaMedia, 2010, $17.95).
This posthumous novel from a beloved Irish writer (Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman and My Dream of You) parallels the story of the author’s years of commuting between the melancholy of Ireland and the optimism of America.  Rosie has lived a life full of adventure and lovers.  Facing middle-age, she comes home to care for her elderly aunt in sleepy Dublin.  Published to rave reviews in France, and an instant bestseller in Ireland, we finally get one last look through those fierce eyes at aging, death, relationships, and, of course, love.

Big Machine, by Victor Lavalle (Spiegel & Grau, March 9, 2010, $15).  
Last summer I heard this author interviewed on NPR and was compelled to pull to the side of the rode and write down the title. It is described as “a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race, and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.”  The mostly honest ex-heroin addict protagonist, Ricky Rice, takes a chance on an anonymous note delivered to him at the upstate New York train station where he works as a porter.  He finds himself among the Unlikely Scholars, a secret society of ex-addicts and petty criminals, all black like him, living in remote Vermont and investigating life’s mysteries.  Lavalle’s writing has been compared to Murakami, John Kennedy Toole and Edgar Allan Poe.

Birthday Present, by Barbara Vine (Three Rivers Press, 2010, $15).  
A sexy thriller from Vine (the pen name for Ruth Rendell) that traces four years of unintended consequences following a Conservative MP’s ill-advised attempt to spice up his life by indulging in “adventure sex."

Brooklyn, by Colm Tobin (Scribner, 2010, $15).  
Tobin wrote The Master, a masterful account of Henry James, and here writes in the style of Henry James with suggestive understatement as he tells the story of Ellis Lacy, a quiet girl from the Irish town of Enniscorthy who goes to America and builds a new life in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.  Tobin brings both the quiet Irish village and bustling Brooklyn to life as we watch Ellis’ transformation and struggle to decide her future when she returns to Ireland after a family tragedy.

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder, by Rebecca Wells (Harper, April 2010,$13.99) .  A joy and delight to read, much like The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.  I laughed and I cried and enjoyed every moment of the story of Calla Lily, who is the main character in this wonderful and heartwarming Southern story, set in Louisiana in the small town of La Luna.  The reader feels like they are there, in the town, feeling the heat and the humidity and eating the crawfish and dancing at Calla Lily’s parents’ school and getting her hair done: what a lovely description of healing/loving hands on the head….magician/beautician.  This book teems with life and all the ups and down and joys and despairs and loves and hates and problems and solutions.  Pure pleasure!  (Connie’s pick)

Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese (Vintage, 2010, $15.95).  
A rich, epic family saga that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in NYC over decades and generations. Verghese is a doctor, as are many of the characters, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the medical scenes.  The story centers on twin brothers Shiva and Marion, their parents, the two wonderful characters who adopt them, their love lives, and the unbreakable bond between twins.  This novel succeeds on many levels and is a pure pleasure of an epic read.

Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton (Washington Square Press, 2010, $15).  
Another winner from the author of The House at Riverton. The story opens in 1913 when the portmaster of Maryborough, Australia,  discovers a child alone on a vessel newly arrived from England.  Shifting back and forth over a span of nearly 100 years, this is a sprawling, old fashioned novel, complete with a Victorian country house, family secrets, stories-within-stories, and even a maze!  Curl up and enjoy!

The Girl Who Played With Fire, by Stieg Larrson (Vintage, March 23, 2010, $15.95).  
The follow up-to the phenomenal Swedish thriller, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, once again features the most interesting literary character to appear in many years, Lisbeth Salander.  Mikael Blomkvist is also back, this time deciding to run a story in his magazine, Millenium, that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation.  When two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, the action begins!

Honolulu, by Alan Brennert (St. Martins, 2010, $14.99).  
The author of Molokai gives us the story of a young immigrant mail-order bride who arrives in a ramshackle town that becomes a great modern city.  The story opens at the turn of the 20th century and follows our heroine, Regret, from a farm-bound, repressed, immigrant girl to an outgoing, educated member of Hawaiian society.  Be sure to read this on your next trip to Hawaii!

Little Bee, by Chris Cleeve (S&S, 2010, $14.00).  
Little Bee, the title character, first meets Sarah and Andrew on a beach in Nigeria, where they are vacationing, and she and her sister are running away from their village where all the rest of the people have been massacred.  The pursuers catch up to them and what happens is horrific and awful.  Their next encounter is two years later, in England, where Little Bee has fled and where she has been in a refugee camp for all that time.  She arrives on the day of Andrew’s funeral, and the memory of what happened on the beach is overwhelming for each of the women, as they try to sort things out for the future.  They travel back to Nigeria, also attempting to write a book about survivors and immigrants and refugees and camps.  This novel is enthralling and witty and haunting and beautiful.  (Connie’s Pick)

The Northern Clemency, by Philip Hensher (Anchor Books, (2010), $16.95).  
Shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize, this saga opens in 1974 in the northern England mining town of Sheffield.  The Glover family is having a neighborhood party and they all bemoan the fact that the new family, the Sellers, who are about to move in across the street, have not yet arrived from London.  We then follow the two families over a 20+ year period. Hensher has an extraordinary ability to seamlessly weave the everyday lives of a large cast of characters into a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable read.  I was brought to tears at two different sections involving each of the main couple’s marriages.  It was also interesting to see how the children grow and mature.  In my own life, I am really intrigued by my nieces and nephews, who are in their late 20’s , and my daughter and her friends, who are in college.  Its really interesting to see who they are turning into, having known them since childhood with all their little personality traits, interests and talents. In the book we see the Glover and Sellers kids as children and then get to see who they are on their way to becoming adults. Like the real children we know, some turn out exactly as we expected, and others…..don’t!  I was a little disappointed at the end, partly because I wanted it to keep going  - I still want to know what happens to these people – but also a few of the storylines were tied up a little too quickly.  The historical backdrop to the story is also interesting – Sheffield is a mining town and the fate of the mines and the miners and Thatcher’s England becomes a character in the story.  A rich read.

A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin Books, 2010, $14.95).  
This gothic novel opens in 1907 with 54-year-old Ralph Truitt standing alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for a “reliable wife” (what they had to resort to in pre-"match.dot.com" days!).  But the woman who steps off the train is not the “simple, honest woman” Ralph is expecting….. Many authors have employed the mail order bride device, but his one is really complex and suspenseful.  Who is Catherine and what is her true intent?  What secrets is Ralph hiding?  Their stories are peeled away layer by layer and readers are rewarded by a big conclusion.  Also, the author does such a good job describing the cold and lonely mid-west, that my teeth chattered at times while reading this!!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (Bantam, 2010, $15).  
An 11-year-old solving a dastardly murder in the English countryside in 1950 wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but Flavia Sabina de Luce is no ordinary child – she is an accomplished chemist, forthright and fearless, and relentless in defending those she loves, in particular, her father.  A wonderful read for fans of Harriet the Spy, regardless of age!