Tracy Memorial Library

Fiction

Benjamin, Melanie, ALICE I HAVE BEEN: This beguiling novel fictionalizes the life Alice Liddell, the adventuresome girl who inspired Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Bloom, Amy, WHERE THE GOD OF LOVE HANGS OUT: The characters in Bloom’s new collection of stories vary widely, from the gout-ridden, aging Englishman, to the mixed-race teenage girl, the gay neighbor, and the adulterous earth-mother.

Bohjalian, Chris, SECRETS OF EDEN: From the Vermont author, a tale of battered wives, murderous husbands, and the consequences for their traumatized daughters.

Boyd, Noah, THE BRICKLAYER: The titular bricklayer is an ex-FBI agent, fired for insubordination but now lured back to work on a case that has become unsolvable and more deadly by the hour.

Boyle, T. Coraghessan, WILD CHILD: Stories: With each book, Boyle becomes a more interesting and adventurous writer; these 13 short stories include the usual dark, comic cautionary tales but also some with a bracing and impressively new approach.

Brown, Dale, ROGUE FORCES: This solid techno-thriller focuses on Scion Aviation International, a private security contractor supplying mission support to the dwindling U.S. military presence in Iraq and operated by a maverick former air force general and a former U.S. president.

Brown, Sandra, RAINWATER: Bestseller Brown brings Depression-era Texas to vivid life in this poignant short novel charting the progress of a quiet romance.

Chevalier, Tracy, REMARKABLE CREATURES: The “remarkable creatures” of this many-faceted novel are both the fossils, found on the rocky beaches of Lyme Regis during the 1880s, and the fossil hunters, working-class Mary Anning and middle-class spinster Elizabeth Philpot, a London exile.

Cornwell, Bernard, THE BURNING LAND: A Novel: In the 5^th installment of the Saxon Tales, warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg hacks his bloody way through the 9^th-century.

Crais, Robert, THE FIRST RULE: A Joe Pike Novel: At the start of this adrenaline-fueled thriller featuring Joe Pike, a garment importer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home.

Dee, Jonathan, THE PRIVILEGES: A Novel: The story of a fabulously rich, self-made couple and their children, who seem to live only inside their own self-satisfied lives.

DeLillo, Dan, POINT OMEGA: A masterful study of guilt, loss and regret told through the experiences of an advisor during the Iraq War who is only too aware that he was exploited to give credence to questionable strategic decisions.

Delinsky, Barbara, NOT MY DAUGHTER: Three academically smart schoolgirls form a pact to become pregnant and the effects reverberate through their families.

Deveraux, Jude, DAYS OF GOLD: A Novel: A mid-18^th-century historical romance, set in Scotland and America, with likeable characters and, ultimately, a satisfying ending.

Dunne, Dominick, TOO MUCH MONEY: By the recently-deceased author, this final good read is a shrewd comedy of Manhattan’s elite in the time of Bernie Madoff.

Ferris, Joshua, THE UNNAMED: A successful lawyer is blindsided by an intermittent, unnamed condition that makes him feel compelled to walk to exhaustion, with no destination in mind, abandoning all responsibilities.

Fforde, Jasper, SHADES OF GREY: The world of the near future is anything but an ashen wasteland in this impish British author’s refreshingly daft first volume of a new fantasy series.

Flanagan, Richard, WANTING: A novel inspired by a single painting in a Tasmanian museum, that of a small shoeless aboriginal girl who was adopted by the explorer Sir. John Franklin and his wife.

Godwin, Gail, UNFINISHED DESIRES: This novel hops between two time frames: in 1951, we follow the lives of classmates Tildy, wild Maud, and Chloe, a budding artist mourning her mother, while, in 2001, 85-year-old Mother Ravenel is recording her memories of Mount St. Gabriel’s school.

Griffin, W. E. B.; Butterworth, William E., HONOR OF SPIES: In this installment of the WWII Honor Bound series, OSS officer Cletus Frade is assigned to help a German lieutenant escape from a Mississippi POW camp so that Frade can use him to make sure a plot to assassinate Hitler succeeds.

Hannah, Kristin, WINTER GARDEN: After their father’s death, two grown daughters persuade their Russian mother Anya to re-tell the elaborate fairy tales she used to share with them and they gradually realize that they are real and tell the story of her life in Stalinist Leningrad.

Hosp, David, AMONG THIEVES: Hosp’s latest Scott Finn legal thriller was inspired by the true story of a daring art heist that took place in Boston in 1990.

Hunter, Stephen, I, SNIPER: In his guns-a-poppin’ latest, Hunter pits his series hero, Carl Hitchcock against a nest of sharp-shooting vipers.

King, Stephen, NIGHT SHIFT: A collection of eerie tales first published in the 1970s.

Kohler, Sheila, BECOMING JANE EYRE: This novel gives a fascinating look at Charlotte Bronte’s world and her creative process.

Lescroat, John, TREASURE HUNT: Wyatt Hunt (Hunt Club, 2005) returns in a new thriller set in San Francisco, where he is helping the police by setting up a hot-line number seeking tips that could lead to the arrest of the killer of a man who sat on the boards of a number of charities.

McCullough, Colleen, TOO MANY MURDERS: Besieged by corpses, a Connecticut police department mobilizes in search of the mastermind behind the one-day killing spree.

Meloy, Maile, BOTH WAYS IS THE ONLY WAY I WANT IT: The flawed characters in this collection of short fiction rarely act in their own best interests and often betray those closest to them.

Parker, T. Jefferson, IRON RIVER: Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood plumbs the deadly depths of the contraband weapons business into Mexico along the gun-trafficking the Iron River corridor.

Preston, Douglas, IMPACT: The government sends former CIA agent Wyman Ford (Blasphemy, 2008) on a seemingly straightforward mission to locate a secret Cambodian mine, the source of some unusual gemstones, but the assignment quickly gets more complicated.

Woods, Stuart, KISSER: After a rather harrowing sojourn in Key West, Stone Barrington intends to stay closer to home in New York, working on some simple divorce and custody cases, but the he crosses paths with a rather fetching actress and model.

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MYSTERY

Bain, Donald, FATAL FEAST: Murder She Wrote: At Thanksgiving, Jessica Fletcher and her visiting friend, Scotland Yard Inspector Sutherland, take a post-turkey stroll and stumble on the body of a man with a carving knife stuck in his chest.

Beaton, M. C., DEATH OF A VALENTINE: Police officer Hamish MacBeth, the Highlands’ most famous bachelor, is in danger, and not only from a cold-bloodied killer.

Burdett, John, THE GODFATHER OF KATHMANDU: Thai policeman Sonchai Jitpleecheep is back, this time in a tale of murder, police corruption and wholesale drug transport, with all of South Asia as a backdrop.

Hall, James W., SILENCER: Thorn, the Key Largo beach bum who recently inherited millions from a distant relative, still finds his life running awry when, after an investment to save ranching mogul Earl Hammond’s holding, Hammond is murdered and Thorn is kidnapped.

Kaminsky, Stuart M., WHISPER TO THE LIVING: The Soviet Union’s crooks are gone, but for Chief Inspector Rostnikov & Co., the felonies linger on; in this episode, he stakes himself out as bait for a long-sought serial killer.

May, Peter, SNAKEHEAD: American pathologist Margaret Campbell is back on home soil, only to find herself faced with a truck full of dead Chinese and an unavoidable confrontation with her past.

May, Peter, CHINESE WHISPERS: May’s 6^th entry in his contemporary China series offers some fresh variations on the catch-the-serial-killer theme within an autocratic society plot.

Nesbo, Jo; Bartlett, Don, NEMESIS: A bank teller is shot during a holdup at the start of Norwegian bestseller Nesbo’s beautifully executed heist drama and Oslo Inspector Harry Hole investigates.

Parker, Robert B., THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT: The very first Spenser novel, a fine beginning to a fine series.

Rankin, Ian, DOORS OPEN: In this intricately plotted heist thriller a software millionaire, a high-end banker, and a college art professor devise a plan to liberate forgotten works of art from a warehouse storing the overflow from Edinburgh’s museum collections.

Sansom, Ian, THE BAD BOOK AFFAIR: A Mobile Library Mystery: Ireland’s only English Jewish mobile librarian is suffering from a bout of melancholia when one of his clients, a 14-year-old girl, who borrowed a book deemed unsuitable for young eyes, runs away.

Thompson, James, SNOW ANGELS: If you like Scandinavian mysteries, this is for you: Sufia Elmi lies dead in the snow, and her Somali father demands Koranic justice, holding Finnish police inspector Kara Vaara personally responsible for meting out said punishment.

Todd, Charles, RED DOOR: Inspector Rutledge must deal with a war-weary family in 1922, when Walter Teller, with an unknown malady that has sent him to the Belvedere Clinic, disappears.

SCI-FI & FANTASY

GRAPHIC NOVEL

BIOGRAPHY

B BRAESTRUP, Braestrup, Kate, MARRIAGE AND OTHER ACTS OF CHARITY: A memoir: Following on from her earlier memoir, Here If You Need Me, Braestrup telling of her later-in-life romance and marriage and her work as a member of the clergy.

B GILBERT, Gilbert, Elizabeth, COMMITTED: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage: This is not only a memoir by a woman who, after an unpleasant divorce, swore never to marry again, it is also a history of marriage through the ages and a social commentary on the institution.

LARGE PRINT

Berenson, Laurien, UNLEASHED: A Melanie Travis Mystery

Crais, Robert, THE FIRST RULE

Krentz, Jayne Ann, FIRED UP

Lescroart, John T., TREASURE HUNT

Moriarty, Laura, WHILE I’M FALLING

Webb, Peggy, ELVIS AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD

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NON-FICTION

Belfiore, Michael, DEPARTMENT OF MAD SCIENTISTS: How DARPA is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs, 355.BEL: An inside look at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the secretive arm of the U.S. government that’s changing the way we use machines…and they use us.

Brown, Lester R., PLAN B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, 333.7 BRO: An ambitious alternative to Plan A’s “business as usual” has 4 components: cutting carbon emissions 80%, stabilizing population at 8 billion, eradicating poverty, and restoring the earth’s soils, aquifers, forests, grasslands and fisheries.

Cassidy, John, HOW MARKETS FAIL: The Logic of Economic Calamities, 381 CAS: The New Yorker writer hazards that no amount of explanation will keep people in the future from falling victim to the same boom-and-bust bubbles that led to the recent mess.

Darwin, Charles, ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, 575.0162 DAR: The Classic book putting forward the rationale for natural selection, a masterpiece of logical thought applied to data.

Demick, Barbara, NOTHING TO ENVY: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, 951.93 DEM: The power of a personal story is wielded to strong effect in this largely oral history based on 7 years of conversations with North Koreans.

Ellis, Richard, ON THIN ICE: The Changing World of the Polar Bear, 599.786 ELL: The dean of writers on the oceans and their denizens turns his thoughtful gaze to the magnificent carnivore that is both the largest land predator and a marine mammal.

Farrell, Charles, YOUR MONEY RATIOS: 8 Simple Tools for Financial Security, 332.024 FAR: A no-nonsense, comprehensive resource for those ready to grab the reins of personal finance.

Gore, Ariel, BLUEBIRD: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness, 305.42 GOR: Bold and whip-smart, this offers a strident, often defiant, take on how modern women find joy.

Heilemann, John; Halperin, Mark, GAME CHANGE: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, 973.932 HEI: This thoroughly researched inside story of the 2008 campaign shows how character flaws large and small caused Obama’s opponents to self-destruct.

Ingrassia, Paul, CRASH COURSE: The American Automobile Industry’s Road from Glory to Disaster, 338.4 ING: Employing superb story-telling skills, Ingrassia explains in head-shaking detail the elements of a wholly avoidable crash.

Lewis, Michael, THE BLIND SIDE: Evolution of a Game, 796.332 LEW: This is more than a treatise on football; it’s also an exploration of whether football is a matter of brute force or of subtle intellect.

Reeves, Richard, DARING YOUNG MEN: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift, 943.155 REE: A masterly account of the crucial 1948 mission that even American military officials considered nearly impossible.

Sibley, David Allen, SIBLEY GUIDE TO TREES, 582.16 SIB: The artist and author responsible for several excellent bird books now turns his attention to trees.

Tickle, Phyllis, THE GREAT EMERGENCE: How Christianity is Changing and Why, 270.8 TIC: According to Tickle, North American Christianity is presently undergoing a change every bit as radical as the Protestant Reformation, possibly even as monumental as its natal break with Judaism.

Wills, Gary, BOMB POWER: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, 355.033073 WIL: Pulitzer Prize winner Wills traces a vast distortion of the Constitution and the origins of the national-security state to the product and process of the WWII Manhattan Project.

Wiseman, Richard, 59 SECONDS: Think a Little, Change a Lot, 158 WIS: The author promotes the power of “rapid change” strategies to, for example, lose weight, lower your blood pressure, improve your mood and make other positive changes in your life.

REFERENCE

TRAVEL

FAMILY & HEALTH

Hurley, Dan, DIABETES RISING: How a Rare Disease Became a Modern Pandemic, and What to Do About It, 616.462 HUR: Thoroughly researched and fascinating history and revue of theories and therapies.

COOKING, ENTERTAINING, HOME DECORATION, CRAFTS & GARDENING

Beal, Susan, BEAD SIMPLE: 150 Designs for Earrings, Necklaces, Embellishments and More, 745.58 BEA: Essential techniques for making jewelry just the way you want it.

Gehring, Abigail R., BACK TO BASICS: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, 640 GEH: Buying and working land, generating your own electricity, raising livestock, enjoying you harvest, household skills and crafts, and more.

Gehring, Abigail R., HOMESTEADING: A Back to Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More, 640 GEH: Who doesn’t want to shrink their carbon footprint and save money?

Grumdahl, Dara Moskowitz, DRINK THIS: Wine Made Simple, 641.22 GRU: Straightforward and clearly organized, this makes reading about wine fundamentals interesting and helps you avoid being baffled before endless racks of wine in the liquor store.

Lovejoy, Sharon, TOAD COTTAGES AND SHOOTING STARS, 790.LOV: When Lovejoy says her gardening books are for all ages, she means all ages, including grandparents.

Martin, Judith, MISS MANNERS’® GUIDE TO A SURPRISINGLY DIGNIFIED WEDDING, 395.22 MAR: An antidote to the overblown, exploitative and utterly out-of-control wedding.

Michaels, Chris Franchetti, TEACH YOURSELF VISUALLY: Jewelry Making and Beading, 745.58 MIC: With hundreds of detailed photos, this book covers tools and supplies, bead stringing and weaving, wire wrapping, and more.

Rotondi, Rod, RAW FOOD FOR REAL PEOPLE, 641.5636 ROT: Fans of gluten-free and vegan-friendly foods will be especially happy with these wonderful recipes.