RIP: E.L. Konigsburg

E.L. Konigsburg (Elaine Lobl), the children’s book author and illustrator passed away April 19th. She was one of only five authors to win two Newbery Medals. Her books From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth were published in 1967; the first won the Newbery Medal and the second took home a Newbery Honor, making Konigsburg the only author to win both in one year. 29 years later she won her second Newbery Medal with A View From Saturday.

“Many of Konigsburg’s stories feature childhood and adolescent struggles that are easy for school-age readers to understand. Often her characters are striving to find the answers to big questions that will help shape their identities. Many of them are based on her own experiences as a child, the observations she made of children while a teacher, and the experiences or observations of her children.” Eighth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators

Her books are timeless as the characters and situations resonate with every generation of children. They offer terrific opportunities to read with your child and discuss the happenings of their day.

May Blockbuster Books By Dan Brown & Khaled Hosseini + Great Debuts

Spring is a busy time for publishers…and readers. Not only are these months a prime time for memorable bestselling books to be released, this is also a time when debut authors take their plunge. May will see the sure-to-be-bestseller releases of Dan Brown’s Inferno and Khaled Hosseini’s And The Mountains Echoed as well as 2 highly-anticipated debut novels from award-winning authors.

(Click on the links to place your hold on the book at the Essex Library.)

Inferno by Dan Brown releases on May 14. You’ll likely remember Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code if you were born before 2003. Dr. Langdon returns for more adventure, this time centering on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces à Dante’s Inferno. Mysteries and riddles abound for the Harvard professor of symbology who battles a chilling adversary as he races to find the answers.

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini releases May 21. You may remember the author’s previous books: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. With his new book, Hosseini presents a story inspired by human love, how people take care of one another and how choices resonate through subsequent generations. He explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

In May we’ll also see A Constellation Of Vital Phenomena, the debut novel of Anthony Marra, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University with an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Marra’s stories have already wowed readers, in the process winning the 2012 Whiting Writers’ Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Atlantic’s Student Writing Contest. Ann Patchett called his debut novel “simply spectacular”.

Another May debut we’re looking forward to is You Are One Of Them by Elliott Holt. Holt has also won a Pushcart Prize. “Holt’s “prose crackles,” says Michael Cunningham, who runs the fiction section of Brooklyn College’s M.F.A. writing program, which she is graduating from this spring. (2010) “She understands that, in fiction, the sounds of words matter as much as their meanings.”

Overlooked Titles From 2012

We have posted on the Best Books of 2012; there are many lists that are produced each year by reputable editors and they make for very worthy reading. However, there are generally a few books that slip through the cracks and our conscience is nudging us to present at least a handful of those ‘overlooked’ books. To our astonishment, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, What Happened To Sophie Wilder by Christopher Beha and Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead all got overlooked by the Best Of’s list-makers.

The release of Semple’s book in August was a highly anticipated event within the library world and our copy has rarely sat on the shelf for more than a day since its arrival. It deserves a wider readership and perhaps will get one now that the film rights have been bought and the movie will be produced by Nina Jacobson (‘The Hunger Games’) and Megan Ellison (‘Zero Dark Thirty’). Though Beha’s and Shipstead’s books have received less fanfare, they should also merit readers’ attention.

The folks at Flavorwire have put together a list of 25 Notable Books Unfairly Overlooked by ‘The New York Times’ which they describe as “an alternative, or an addendum” to the Times’ list. Take a look and see which others will find their way to your to-be-read pile. Click on the book jacket to place a hold on the book.

Far From The Tree By Andrew Solomon

We’re big fans of Andrew Solomon here at the Library. He has written articulately on disparate subjects for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Artforum and Travel And Leisure. His book, The Noonday Demon, won the 2001 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It has provided solace and wisdom to many suffering from depression. Joyce Carol Oates in her review for The New York Times wrote: ”The Noonday Demon” is a considerable accomplishment. It is likely to provoke discussion and controversy, and its generous assortment of voices, from the pathological to the philosophical, makes for rich, variegated reading.” He is also an impassioned advocate of reading. His opinion in The New York Times, The Closing Of The American Book sets out some pretty good arguments for the benefits of reading for pleasure.

Solomon’s latest book– Far From The Tree, released in November, is an exploration of families with children with “horizontal identities”; a term Solomon uses for children who are very different from their parents. Author Julie Myerson writes in her review of the book in The New York Times Book Review: “It contains a spark of real surprise, and it’s probably testament to the warmth and kindness with which he’s explored the stories of so many others that you find yourself catching your breath, suddenly apprehensive for him, as his life appears poised to come undone. To reveal more would spoil something, but suffice it to say that you end this journey through difference and diversity with an even stronger conviction that life is endlessly, heart-stoppingly, fragile and unknowable.” We believe this latest book will be at least as well-received as The Noonday Demon, if not more so.

Note: The editors of The New York Times Book Review have selected Far From The Tree as one of its 10 Best Books of 2012.

The New York Times Announces Their 100 Notable Books of 2012

Every year, editors at The New York Times Book Review select their choices for the year’s notable books in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. For many, this is what becomes the year’s reading list as it contains exceptional debuts, novels from tried-and-true authors and a reliable collection of intellectual curiosity-satisfying non-fiction. All of which are certain to be fodder for urbane cocktail party conversations in the years to come. What did they leave out, in your opinion?

100 Notable Books of 2012.

The National Book Award Finalists Are Announced

The National Book Award finalists for 2012 were announced recently. The winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 14th. “Established in 1950, the National Book Award is an American literary prize given to writers by writers and administered by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization.” For more information on how the Awards work, click here.  You can keep up with the on-goings of the Foundation on their Facebook page here. 

Fiction

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao presents a lyrical collection of stories that explores the heartbreak and radiance of love as it is shaped by passion, betrayal and the echoes of intimacy.

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers
A struggling American businessman travels to a rising Saudi Arabian city with the hopes of securing a contract that will earn him a commission large enough to stave off his economic woes and hold his family together.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
A satire set in Texas during America’s war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive “Victory Tour” at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
In the midst of a bloody battle in the Iraq War, two soldiers, bound together since basic training, do everything to protect each other from both outside enemies and the internal struggles that come from constant danger.

Nonfiction

Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum (releases on Oct. 30th)
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
A first book by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist profiles everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother of a prospective female college student and a young scrap metal thief, in an account that illuminates how their efforts to build better lives are challenged by regional religious, caste and economic tensions.

The Passage of Power by Robert A. Caro
A latest entry in the award-winning series that includes The Path to Power profiles the 36th President’s volatile relationships with John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, describes JFK’s assassination from Johnson’s viewpoint and recounts his accomplishments as president before the Vietnam War.

Boy Kings of Texas by Domingo Martinez
Presents a memoir of growing up in 1980s Brownsville, Texas, describing intense relationships in a family surrounded by violence and poverty and caught between the conflicting values of two cultures.

House of Stone by Anthony Shadid
A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who was one of the four New York Times to be captured and freed in Libya traces the story of his family’s effort to rebuild an ancestral home in Lebanon amid political strife and how the work enabled a greater understanding of the emotions behind Middle East turbulence. By the author of Night Draws Near.

Young People’s Literature

Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
Hoping to find his lost brother, Rownie escapes the home of the witch Graba and joins a troupe of goblins who perform in Zombay, a city where humans are forbidden to wear masks and act in plays.

Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos (releases Oct. 16th)
Accompanied by her brother’s friend, Tyler, sixteen-year-old Rachel ventures through San Diego and nearby areas seeking her brother, eighteen-year-old Micah, a methamphetamine addict who ran away from home.

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp when soldiers invade his home in Cambodia, young Arn volunteers to become a musician for the army and uses his wits to survive and steal food for other child prisoners before he is conscripted as a boy soldier.

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
When one girl has to follow her mother to her sancuary for bonobos, she’s not thrilled to be there. It’s her mother’s passion, and she’d rather have nothing to do with it. But when revolution breaks out and their sanctuary is attacked, she must rescue the bonobos and hide in the jungle. Together, they will fight to keep safe, to eat, and to survive.

Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
A dramatic introduction to the international competition to create the first atomic bomb recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos. By the award-winning author of The Notorious Benedict Arnold.

Shortlist For The Man Booker Prize Is Announced

Earlier today the Shortlist of the Man Booker Prize nominees was announced. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 16th.

The shortlisted books are:

The Garden Of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Set during the Japanese occupation, The Garden of Evening Mists follows young law graduate, Yun Ling Teoh, as she seeks solace among the plantations of the Cameron Highlands. Here she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the secretive Aritomo. Aritomo agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice “until the monsoon” so that she can design a garden in memorial to her sister. But over time the jungle starts to reveal secrets of its own…    By the author of The Gift of Rain.

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Swimming Home explores the devastating effect that depression can have on apparently stable, well-turned-out people. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the French Riviera come loose at the seams.
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The year is 1535 and Thomas Cromwell, chief Minister to Henry VIII, must work both to please the king and keep the nation safe. Anne Boleyn, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church, has failed to do what she promised: bear a son to secure the Tudor line. As Henry develops a dangerous attraction to Wolf Hall’s Jane Seymour, Thomas must negotiate a ‘truth’ that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days.

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
Futh, middle-aged and recently separated, stands on the outer deck of a North Sea ferry. He is heading to Germany for a restorative walking holiday, yet he cannot forget his mother’s abandonment of him as a boy and his first trip to Germany with his newly single father. It was on this first trip that he neglected to do something, and this omission threatens to have devastating repercussions the second time around.

Umbrella by Will Self  (to be released in the U.S. in Jan. 2013)
Umbrella sets out to understand the nature of the modern world by going back to the source – the industrial madness of World War One. Set across an entire century, Umbrella follows the complex story of Audrey Death, a feminist who falls victim to the encephalitis lethargica epidemic that rages across Europe, and Dr Zack Busner, who spends a summer waking the post-encephalitic patients under his care using a new and powerful drug.

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayll
Shuklaji Street, in late 1970s Old Bombay. In Rashid’s opium room the air is thick with voices and ghosts: Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Here, people say that you introduce only your worst enemy to opium…

Shortlist For The Flaherty Dunnan First Novel Prize Announced

The Center For Fiction, located in New York City, is the only nonprofit in the U.S. solely dedicated to celebrating fiction, working every day to connect readers and writers. The Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize is awarded to the best debut novel of the year. The author of the winning book receives $10,000 and the other shortlisted authors receive $1,000 each. The award is given annually at The Center for Fiction’s Benefit and Awards Dinner held in December.

Eligibility requirements for submissions for the 2012 Award include:

Authors must be first-time novelists who are American citizens or permanent residents;

Only full-length first novels written in English are eligible.  Novellas, collections of short stories, whether related or unrelated, and YA novels are NOT eligible.

Books must be published for the first time in the United States between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012 and cannot have been previously published elsewhere.

Self-published books and eBook only editions are NOT eligible.

The selection of the shortlist and winning novel is determined through a two-tiered process. Sixty-five members of the American Booksellers Association act as first-tier readers, along with a few members of the Center’s network of booklovers, which includes writers, librarians, staff, and members and friends of The Center for Fiction. The long list recommended by these readers is then forwarded to a committee of distinguished American writers. From those recommended novels, the panel of judges chooses the shortlist and the winner.

The shortlisted debut novels for 2012 are:

Absolution by Patrick Flanery
In modern-day South Africa, Clare Walde tells the story of her sister’s death and the disappearance of her daughter during apartheid twenty years earlier.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
A satire set in Texas during America’s war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive “Victory Tour” at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Surviving a pandemic disease that has killed everyone he knows, a pilot establishes a shelter in an abandoned airport hangar before hearing a random radio transmission that compels him to risk his life to seek out other survivors. A first novel by the author of The Whale Warriors

Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
Obsessively following the edicts of the Girl Scouts Handbook in spite of her lack of a troop, young Rory longs to escape the Reno trailer park where she lives with her bartender mother, an effort marked by her fastidious collection of diaries, social worker reports and other family records.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
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.

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
In the midst of a bloody battle in the Iraq War, two soldiers, bound together since basic training, do everything to protect each other from both outside enemies and the internal struggles that come from constant danger.

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Possessing a Harvard education and all of the accoutrements of a privileged life, Winn Van Meter attends the wedding of his eldest daughter, which is marked by the bride’s advancing pregnancy, her sister’s broken heart, and the seductive machinations of wedding party members.

Alif The Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Forced underground when his ex-lover’s new fiancGe breaches his computer, putting him and his clients in jeopardy, young Arab-Indian hacker Alif discovers the secret book of the jinn and uses its insights to enable life-threatening developments in information technology.

Best Summer Reading 2012, Part 2

Hopefully, you’ve had a chance to read through the first group of 2012 Best Summer Reading. This second group contains a lot of books that were released in July, many of which still have holds on them. Put a hold on what looks good and then come in and check out the display for great books to read while you wait for your copy of the hottest book of the summer: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

        If you like staying up late into the night turning pages…

The 500 by Matthew Quirk
Former con artist and Harvard Law student , Mike Ford, accepts a position with the DC-based The Davies Group whose specialty is navigating the web of power and corruption by pulling strings for the top 500 most powerful people inside the Beltway.

15 Seconds by Andrew Gross
When a random act of violence plunges him into a nightmarish world, Henry Steadman, a successful surgeon accused of murdering two people, must clear his name and discover who is trying to destroy him in order to save himself and his family.

Broken Harbor by Tana French
In the aftermath of a brutal attack that left a woman in intensive care and her husband and young children dead, brash cop Scorcher Kennedy and his rookie partner, Richie, struggle with perplexing clues and Scorcher’s haunting memories of a shattering incident from his childhood. By the Edgar Award-winning author of In the Woods.

Creole Belle by James Lee Burke
A continuation of the events in The Glass Rainbow finds Dave Robicheaux in a New Orleans recovery unit, where he is introduced to a country blues song by a Creole girl whose subsequent disappearance prompts his search for the girl’s sister against a backdrop of a bayou-threatening oil well rupture in the Gulf of Mexico.

Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva
When the body of a woman is found beneath Michelangelo’s dome, Gabriel Allon is summoned by Monsignor Luigi Donati to secretly investigate this mysterious death that has been ruled a suicide–a case that brings about an unthinkable act of sabotage that will plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions.

The Orphanmaster by Jean Zimmerman
In 17th-century New Amsterdam, today Manhattan, 22-year-old trader Blandine von Couvering and British spy Edward Drummond investigate the mysterious disappearance of orphan children.

Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann
Old secrets are revealed and lives become unraveled when the children of a well-heeled New England family discover the body of a murder victim near Tiger House, their estate on Martha’s Vineyard.

        If you like your fiction from days gone by…

The Absolutist by John Boyne
In September 1919, 21-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver some letters to the sister of a man he fought alongside of during World War I, but the letters are not the real reason for Tristan’s visit.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
A historical love story inspired by the author’s Armenian heritage finds early 20th-century nurse Elizabeth Endicott arriving in Syria to help deliver food and medical aid to genocide refugees, a volunteer service during which she exchanges letters with an Armenian engineer and widower. By the best-selling author of Midwives.

Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person who understood her, fourteen-year-old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle’s grieving friend, with whom June forges a poignant relationship.

        If you like your fiction right out of today’s headlines…

Gold by Chris Cleave
Sharing a close friendship and rivalry throughout their Elite training, world-class athletes Zoe and Kate find the limits of their physical and emotional realities tested on the eve of London 2012, where they consider difficult sacrifices and weigh their senses of mortality. By the author of the best-selling Little Bee.

A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggers
A struggling American businessman travels to a rising Saudi Arabian city with the hopes of securing a contract that will earn him a commission large enough to stave off his economic woes and hold his family together.

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman
Moving his young bride to an isolated lighthouse home on Australia’s Janus Rock where the couple suffers miscarriages and a stillbirth, Tom allows his wife to claim an infant that has washed up on the shore, a decision with devastating consequences.

         If you like to laugh a little, cry a little…

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner
Believing she is realizing her dreams when her sitcom is bought, television writer Ruth Saunders finds her happiness threatened by demanding actors and executives as well as an unrequited crush on her boss and her septuagenarian grandmother’s upcoming wedding.

Porch Lights by Dorothea Benton Frank
In the South Carolina Lowcountry, three generations of a family–a grandmother, a mother, and a son–discover the indelible power of love as they share a memorable summer on Sullivan’s Island.

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Possessing a Harvard education and all of the accoutrements of a privileged life, Winn Van Meter attends the wedding of his eldest daughter, which is scandalized by the bride’s advancing pregnancy, her sister’s broken heart and the seductive machinations of wedding party members.

Shine, Shine, Shine by Lydia Netzer
When fabricated aspects of their picture-perfect world are embarrassingly exposed by a car accident, Sunny Mann, an everyday woman longing for an ideal life; and Maxon, her savant astronaut husband, struggle through blame and fear before confronting realities about their deep bond.

Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand
Follows the lives of four high school students, their friends, and families after a fatal car accident on graduation night on Nantucket has lasting repercussions for everyone involved.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Jolted out of emotional numbness by a letter from an old friend who wants to say goodbye before she dies, Harold Fry embarks on a 600-mile hiking journey to his friend’s side without supplies, an endeavor that stirs up memories of his unhappy marital and parenting experiences.

You & Me by Padget Powell
This hilarious novel, from a master of American fiction, follows two garrulous men as they, sitting and talking on a porch, argue about love and sex, how best to live and die, false truisms, the meaning of nihilism and the merits of Miles Davis, Cadillacs and Hollywood starlets of yore.

        If you liked the first one then you’ll like the sequel even better…

The Shadow Of Night by Deborah Harkness
In Elizabethan London, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch Diana Bishop seeks a magical tutor, while vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont confronts elements from his past at the same time the mystery of the enchanted manuscript Ashmole 782 deepens.

2012 Best Summer Reading, Part 1

Any day is a good day for reading but many of us seem to have more time to read during vacations– which often happen during the summer, hence the proliferation of summer reading lists. If you’re looking for a good read, we’ve got plenty to offer in our stacks; let one of our librarians make some suggestions for your next favorite book.  Here is a partial list of our recommendations from June’s arrivals:

The Age Of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
A painstakingly researched debut imagines the coming-of-age story of young Julia, whose world is thrown into upheaval when it is discovered that the Earth’s rotation has suddenly begun to slow, posing a catastrophic threat to all life. A first novel.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The award-winning author of The Financial Lives of the Poets presents his most romantic and enjoyable novel yet that follows a young Italian innkeeper and his almost-love affair with a beautiful American starlet, which draws him into a glittering world filled with unforgettable characters.

Capital by John Lanchester
Residents of Pepys Road in London receive odd, anonymous postcards demanding “We Want What You Have” during the financial meltdown of 2008 in this new novel from the best-selling author of The Debt to Pleasure.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
When a beautiful woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary, her diary reveals hidden turmoil in her marriage and a mysterious illness; while her husband, desperate to clear himself of suspicion, realizes that something more disturbing than murder may have occurred. By the best-selling author of Dark Places

Heading Out To Wonderful by Robert Goolrick
In a small 1940s Virginia town, mysterious stranger Charlie Beale meets Sylvan Glass, the teen bride of the town’s richest man, and Sam Haislett, the 5-year-old son of owner of the butcher shop where Charlie gets a job, and soon the interaction between the three of them alters the town forever. By the #1 best-selling author of A Reliable Wife.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty
Pursuing what she hopes will be a positive relationship with new boyfriend Patrick, hypnotherapist Ellen learns that his ex-girlfriend is stalking him, a situation that Ellen finds professionally fascinating before discovering the woman’s identity. By the author of What Alice Forgot

Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
When her handsome new neighbor encourages her to confront her fears, Catherine Bailey, the victim of a violent attack at the hands of a man whose good looks hid a dark, violent nature, finally believes in the possibility of love and a normal life until one phone call changes everything.

The Lady Cyclists Guide To Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson
In 1923, Eva English and her devout sister Lizzie embark on a journey to be missionaries in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, while in modern-day London, a young woman’s act of kindness to a Yemeni refugee results in an unexpected journey.

Meander: East to West, Indirectly, Along a Turkish River by Jeremy Seal
A sumptuously detailed tour of the once-majestic river evaluates its role as a cultural venue between the Eastern and Western worlds, describing the author’s canoe trips along the river’s length to trace its history, the diverse groups that live near its edge and the role of industrialization in transforming Turkey. By the author of The Snakebite Survivors’ Club

Mission To Paris by Alan Furst
Arriving in Paris on the eve of the Munich Appeasement in 1938, Hollywood star Frederic Stahl is unwittingly entangled in the region’s shifting political currents when he discovers that his latest film is linked to the destinies of fascists, German Nazis and Hollywood publicists. By the author of Spies of the Balkans
Be sure to browse our new non-fiction shelves for the decorating, gardening and cook books that are certain to provide a summer’s worth of delicious ideas.