Council Bluffs Public Library
Book Discussion Kits
Contact the Reference Desk for availability. Check out Book Club Kits at the Reference Desk on the second floor.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain - 359 pages
(10 copies)
The mighty Mississippi River of the antebellum South gives the novel both its colorful backdrop and its narrative shape, as the runaways Huck and Jim—a young rebel against civilization allied with an escaped slave—drift down its length on a flimsy raft. Their journey, at times rollickingly funny but always deadly serious in its potential consequences, takes them ever deeper into the slave-holding South, and our appreciation of their shared humanity grows as we watch them travel physically farther from yet morally closer to the freedom they both passionately seek.
 
 
 
 
 
 
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr - 531 pages
(9 copies)
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. 
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. 
 
 
 
All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert - 400 pages (10 copies)
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.
 
What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie - 300 pages
(9 copies)
Ten houseguests, trapped on an isolated island, are the prey of a diabolical killer. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion: Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine ... When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Aviator's Wife: a Novel
by Melanie Benjamin - 448 pages
(10 copies)
A story inspired by the marriage between Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh traces the romance between a handsome young aviator and a shy ambassador's daughter whose relationship is marked by wild international acclaim, history-making flights and the world-shocking abduction of their child.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration
by Sara Dykman - 280 pages
(10 copies)
An outdoor educator and field researcher recounts her incredible journey following the annual migration of the threatened monarch butterfly by biking with them on a 10,000 mile, round-trip journey through three countries.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bottomland: a Novel
by Michelle Hoover - 336 pages
(10 copies)
A German family in the Iowa plains tries to fight the rising tide of Anti-German sentiment in the years following World War I while searching for their two youngest daughters who vanished suddenly in the middle of the night.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
by Daniel James Brown - 404 pages
(10 copies)
Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936. The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation In the Heartland
by Dan Barry - 340 pages
(10 copies)
A full-length account of the author's prize-winning New York Times story chronicles the exploitation and abuse case of a group of developmentally disabled workers, who for 25 years, were forced to work under harrowing conditions for virtually no wages until tenacious advocates helped them achieve their freedom.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Butterfly Effect
by Rachel Mans McKenney - 500 pages (10 copies)
An entomologist who uses empirical data to navigate relationships abandons her latest research assignment in the rainforest to attend her ailing brother, before her interpersonal difficulties lead to a rehabilitative job at a butterfly conservatory.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Clara's Wish
by S.M. Senden - 288 pages
(9 copies)
Silence hangs in the air; a valuable diamond ring, taken from the skeletonized hand of a corpse lays untouched on the desk. Bergin Halverson wrestles with the ghosts of his past, his fears that have kept him silent for decades and the truth he knows must eventually be told. He is taken back to 1923 when Clara Lindgren makes a wish that will come true, but not in the way she hoped. She meets a man, Bergin’s brother Erdman who seems to be the answer to her prayers, but instead he becomes her worst nightmare.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Counting By 7s
by Holly Goldberg Sloan - 400 pages
(10 copies)
Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Daisy Jones & the Six: a Novel
by Taylor Jenkins Reid - 400 pages
(10 copies)
When singer Daisy Jones meets Billy Dunne of the band The Six, the two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Dirt
by Sean Doolittle - 362 pages
(10 copies)
When eco-terrorists crash the funeral of one of his friends, L.A. loafer Quince Bishop finds himself drawn into their sub-culture and beset by ex-cons who are determined to land him back in the cemetery.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Double Bind: a Novel
by Chris Bohjalian - 416 pages
(10 copies)
Withdrawing into her photography and a job at a homeless shelter after being attacked while riding her bike, student Laurel Estabrook encounters Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box of secret photos, but when Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel is certain that the photos hide a dark family secret and embarks on an obsessive, potentially dangerous search for the truth.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng - 304 pages
(8 copies)
"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Far Country: a Novel
by Daniel Mason - 288 pages
(10 copies)
When drought and war threaten their land and her brother Isaias leaves their remote village on the edge of a sugarcane plantation to seek a better life in a southern city, fourteen-year-old Isabel, a young girl born with the gift of sight, follows him, only to find that he has vanished, and embarks on quest through the teeming and chaotic city to find him.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
First: Sandra Day O'Connor
by Evan Thomas - 496 pages
(10 copies)
Based on exclusive interviews and access to archives, an authoritative portrait of America's first female Supreme Court justice includes coverage of her convention-breaking achievements and role in shaping decades of American law.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Girl on the Train: a Novel
by Paula Hawkins - 336 pages
(10 copies)
Obsessively watching a breakfasting couple every day to escape the pain of her losses, Rachel witnesses a shocking event that inextricably entangles her in the lives of strangers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Good Omens: the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Neil Gaiman - 512 pages
(10 copies)
The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems--the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Great Alone
by Kristin Hannah - 440 pages
(10 copies)
When her volatile, former POW father impulsively moves the family to mid-1970s Alaska to live off the land, young Leni and her mother are forced to confront the dangers of their lack of preparedness in the wake of a dangerous winter season.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 184 pages
(10 copies)
The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism. The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth-century literature.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams - 215 pages
(10 copies)
Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Husband's Secret
by Liane Moriarty - 496 pages
(10 copies)
Discovering a letter from her husband meant to be opened only in the event of his death, Cecelia is unable to resist reading it, though he is still alive, and discovers a secret that shatters not only her life, but the lives of two other women.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong - 449 pages
(15 copies)
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, we encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth's magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson - 368 pages
(10 copies)
April 1914. The NYPD is still largely corrupt and low-tech. To the extent the police are stopping crime - as opposed to committing it - their role has been almost entirely defined by physical force: the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes is largely outside their purview.
 
The new commissioner, Arthur Woods, is determined to change that, but he cannot anticipate the maelstrom of violence that will soon test him. Within weeks of his tenure, New York City is engulfed in the most concentrated terrorism campaign in the nation’s history: a five-year period of relentless bombings, many of them perpetrated by the anarchist movement led by legendary radicals Berkman and Goldman. Coming to Woods’s aide are Inspector Joseph Faurot, a science-first detective and Amadeo Polignani, the young undercover detective who infiltrates the notorious Bresci Circle.
The Invention of Wings: a Novel
by Sue Monk Kidd - 384 pages
(10 copies)
Traces more than three decades in the lives of a wealthy Charleston debutante who longs to break free from the strictures of her household and pursue a meaningful life; and the urban slave, Handful, who is placed in her charge as a child before finding courage and a sense of self.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Kitchen House: a Novel
by Kathleem Grissom - 368 pages
(9 copies)
Working as an indentured servant alongside slaves on a tobacco plantation, Lavinia, a 7-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, finds her light skin and situation placing her between two very different worlds that test her loyalties.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Life We Bury: a Novel
by Allen Eskens - 303 pages
(10 copies)
After Joe Talbert interviews a dying Vietnam veteran for a college writing assignment, he discovers that the veteran is a convicted murderer recently released from prison and, suspecting that the veteran was framed, he begins a dangerous investigation into the thirty-year-old murder.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lila: a Novel
by Marilynne Robinson - 272 pages
(10 copies)
Triggering a romance and debate by seeking shelter in a church and becoming a minister's wife, homeless Lila reflects on her hardscrabble life on the run with a canny young drifter and her efforts to reconcile her painful past with her husband's gentle Christian world view.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Little Faith: a Novel
by Nickolas Butler - 336 pages
(10 copies)
A Wisconsin family grapples with the power and limitations of faith when an adult daughter falls under the influence of a radical church that threatens a grandchild's safety.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Lonely Hearts Book Club
by Lucy Gilmore - 353 pages
(10 copies)
Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely... but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Loving Frank: a Novel
by Nancy Horan - 384 pages
(10 copies)
Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting in Oak Park, Illinois, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Man Called Ove: a Novel
by Fredrik Backman - 352 pages
(9 copies)
A curmudgeon hides beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior after a terrible personal loss, while clashing with new neighbors - a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Night Circus: a Novel
by Erin Morgenstern - 387 pages
(6 copies)
Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Nightingale: a Novel
by Kristin Hannah - 440 pages
(9 copies)
Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith - 256 pages
(10 copies)
Working in Gaborone, Botswana, Precious Ramotswe investigates several local mysteries, including a search for a missing boy and the case of the clinic doctor with different personalities for different days of the week.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
One More River
by Mary Glickman - 266 pages
(5 copies)
Bernard Levy, always a mystery to his community of Guilford, Mississippi, was even more of a mystery to his son Mickey Moe, who was just four years old when his father died in World War II. Now in 1962, Mickey Moe sets out into backwoods Mississippi and Tennessee to uncover his father's murky past during the Great Flood of 1927.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Orphan Train: a Novel
by Christina Baker Kline - 278 pages
(10 copies)
Close to aging out of the foster care system, Molly Ayer takes a position helping an elderly woman named Vivian and discovers that they are more alike than different as she helps Vivian solve a mystery from her past.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Overstory: a Novel
by Richard Powers - 512 pages
(9 copies)
An impassioned novel of activism is comprised of interlocking fables about nine strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger - 313 pages
(8 copies)
Eleven-year-old asthmatic Reuben Land chronicles the Land family's odyssey in search of Reuben's older brother, Davy, who has escaped from jail before he can stand trial for the killing of two marauders who came to their Minnesota farm to harm the family.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Persian Pickle Club: a Novel
by Sandra Dallas - 208 pages
(14 copies)
The author of the warmly received Buster Midnight's Cafe traces the lives of a group of women in a rural, Depression-era Kansas town, who meet to share gossip and their talent for quilting.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Prince of Nantucket: a Novel
by Jan Goldstein - 256 pages
(10 copies)
A candidate in a hotly contested Senate race, Los Angeles lawyer Teddy Mathison returns to Nantucket for a visit with his ailing estranged mother, a renowned artist afflicted with Alzheimer's, but despite his campaign manager's plans, Teddy finds himself forced to confront long-suppressed feelings and truths that bring unexpected changes in his life.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - 478 pages (10 copies)
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery - and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?
 
 
 
 
The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens - 320 pages (10 copies)
Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared.
Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head. Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana’s care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora—and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too.
 
The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant - 321 pages
(7 copies)
In a story based on the Book of Genesis, Jacob's only daughter, Dinah, shares her unique perspective on the origins of many of our modern religious practices and sexual politics, eager to impart the lessons in endurance and humanity she has learned from her father's wives.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Redbird Christmas: a Novel
by Fannie Flagg - 229 pages
(10 copies)
In a tiny and remote Alabama town, an unexpected, unusual, and life-transforming event that occurs on one Christmas morning changes a family and a town forever, in a heartwarming holiday novel by the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Remarkably Bright Creatures: a Novel
by Shelby Van Pelt - 360 pages
(10 copies)
After her husband dies, widow Tova Sullivan starts working at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, where she forms a special bond with a giant Pacific octopus who holds the key solving the mysterious disappearance of her 18-year-old son, Erik, over thirty years ago on the Puget Sound.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger - 448 pages
(10 copies)
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota, gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast.
Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who recently has returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also to put to rest the demons from his own past.
 
 
 
The Rope Walk: a Novel
by Carrie Brown - 336 pages
(10 copies)
On Memorial Day, during her tenth birthday party, Alice, a motherless young girl protected by her father and five older brothers, encounters two very different people who will change her life forever--Theo, a mixed-race New York City boy visiting his grandparents for the summer, and Kenneth, a cosmopolitan artist suffering from the ravages of AIDS.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Seed Keeper: a Novel
by Diane Wilson - 372 pages
(10 copies)
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Snow Child: a Novel
by Eowyn Ivey - 389 pages
(10 copies)
A childless couple working a farm in the brutal landscape of 1920 Alaska discover a little girl living in the wilderness, with a red fox as a companion, and begin to love the strange, almost-supernatural child as their own.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: a Novel
by Lisa See - 288 pages
(8 copies)
An evocative story of friendship set against the backdrop of a nineteenth-century China in which women suffered from foot binding, isolation, and illiteracy follows an elderly woman and her companion as they communicate their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies through a unique secret language.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Solito by Javier Zamora (SPANISH) - 400 pages (10 copies)
 
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
 
At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving.
Someone Knows
by Lisa Scottoline - 400 pages
(10 copies)
Allie Garvey is heading home to the funeral of a childhood friend. Allie is not only grief-stricken, she's full of dread. Because going home means seeing the other two people with whom she shares an unbearable secret. Twenty years earlier, a horrific incident shattered the lives of five teenagers, including Allie. Drinking and partying in the woods, they played a dangerous prank that went tragically wrong, turning deadly. The teenagers kept what happened a secret, believing that getting caught would be the worst thing that could happen. But time has taught Allie otherwise. Not getting caught was far worse. Allie has been haunted for two decades by what she and the others did, and by the fact that she never told a soul. The dark secret has eaten away at her, distancing her from everyone she loves, including her husband. Because she wasn't punished by the law, Allie has punished herself, and it's a life sentence. Now, Allie stands on the precipice of losing everything. 
Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
by Jeffrey Kluger - 384 pages
(9 copies)
The story of the polio vaccine and its enterprising creator, discusses Salk's childhood during one of polio's worst epidemics and his education during the presidency of an afflicted FDR, describing how politics and a discrediting rival researcher nearly prevented the vaccine's development. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Sugar Camp Quilt: an Elm Creek Quilts Novel
by Jennifer Chiaverini - 336 pages
(10 copies)
Set in Creek's Crossing, Pennsylvania, in the years leading up to the Civil War, the novel follows Dorothea Granger's passage from innocence to wisdom against the harrowing backdrop of the American struggle over slavery. She discovers that a quilt she has stitched for her uncle Jacob with five unusual patterns of his own design contains hidden clues to guide runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad. The heroic journey she undertakes leads to revelations about her own courage and resourcefulness -- newfound qualities that may win her the heart of the best man she has ever known.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: a Novel
by Heather Morris - 288 pages
(10 copies)
A novel based on the true story of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor traces the experiences of a Jewish Slovakian who uses his position as a concentration-camp tattooist to secure food for his fellow prisoners.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee - 323 pages
(10 copies)
"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice - but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tress of the Emerald Sea
by Brandon Sanderson - 365 pages
(10 copies)
Stowing away on a ship to seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea to save her friend, Tress must decide if she's willing to leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tunnel People
by Teun Voeten - 320 pages
(9 copies)
Following the homeless Manhattanites who, in the mid-1990s, chose to start a new life in the tunnel systems of the city, this record tells the stories of a variety of tunnel dwellers from the perspective of an award-winning, European photojournalist who lived and worked with them for 5 months. Photographs and personal accounts detail the struggles and pleasures—including the government’s eviction of the tunnel people and Amtrak’s offering them alternative housing—of Vietnam veterans, macrobiotic hippies, crack addicts, Cuban refugees, convicted killers, computer programmers, philosophical recluses, and criminal runaways. Humorous and compassionate, it also describes what has happened to these individuals 13 years since they’ve left.
 
 
 
 
Under the Pendulum Sun: a Novel of the Fae
by Jeannette Ng - 416 pages
(10 copies)
When her brother disappears in Arcadia, the legendary land of the magical Fae, Catherine Helstone makes the dangerous journey to find him and becomes trapped in the sinister house of Gethsemane and the target of the Queen of the Fae and her insane court.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Verity
by Colleen Hoover - 320 pages
(10 copies)
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Victoria
by Daisy Goodwin - 416 pages
(10 copies)
Daisy Goodwin -- creator and writer of the new PBS Masterpiece drama Victoria and author of the bestselling novels The American Heiress and The Fortune Hunter -- brings the young nineteenth-century monarch, who would go on to reign for 63 years, richly to life in this magnificent novel. Early one morning, less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that her uncle William IV has died and she is now Queen of England.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
War Brides
by Helen Bryan - 492 pages
(10 copies)
Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline's arrival causes a stir in the village but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there's Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers.
 
 
 
 
The Way of the Hive: a Honey Bee's Story
by Jay Hosler - 160 pages
(10 copies)
A young honeybee discovers facts about her species metamorphosis, the activities of her hives queen, the way honey is made and her important role in helping support the planets ecosystem.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy - 298 pages
(10 copies)
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Woman in the Window
by A.J. Finn - 448 pages
(10 copies)
An agoraphobic recluse languishes in her New York City home, drinking wine and spying on her neighbors, before witnessing a terrible crime through her window that exposes her secrets and raises questions about her perceptions of reality.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Year We Left Home
by Jean Thompson - 352 pages
(10 copies)
It begins in 1973 when the Erickson family of Grenada, Iowa, gathers for the wedding of their eldest daughter, Anita. Even as they celebrate, the fault lines in the family emerge. The bride wants nothing more than to raise a family in her hometown, while her brother Ryan watches restlessly from the sidelines, planning his escape. He is joined by their cousin Chip, an unpredictable, war-damaged loner who will show Ryan both the appeal and the perils of freedom. Torrie, the Ericksons' youngest daughter, is another rebel intent on escape, but the choices she makes will bring about a tragedy that leaves the entire family changed forever.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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