Jennifer Parmelee Childs Recommends:

A Lady Awakened by Cecelia Grant

This historical romance had me at the first line of marketing copy: Newly widowed and desperate to protect her estate and beloved servants from her malevolent brother-in-law, Martha Russell conceives a daring plan. Or rather, a daring plan to conceive. Seriously, that's some good stuff there. It's got everything a romance reader could want: a sheltered country widow, a wicked London rake in exile, and a scandalous situation that throws them together. I'm a big fan of writers like Madeline Hunter, Eloisa James, and Mary Balogh and this debut romance fits nicely into my reading stack. And her follow up book, A Gentleman Undone is set to publish in June 2012, so her new fans will not have long to wait for the next offering.

978-0-553-59383-9 | $7.99/$9.99C | Bantam | MM | December

Erica Melnichok Recommends:

Ernest Cline
Ready Player One
Hop into your delorean, load your Ferris Bueller VHS, and join Wade in his virtual world as he embarks on an impossible quest for the biggest prize of all – a free society!

Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Language of Flowers
With a heartbreakingly flawed protagonist you long to both hug and shake in frustration, this beautiful debut is thought-provoking and I couldn’t put it down. And beware of sunflowers or hydrangeas for your wedding bouquet!

Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus
So creatively constructed a setting and such beautifully rendered prose combine to tell the story of star crossed lovers who must compete against one another in a dangerous game of magical skill. I’m in awe of the world Morgenstern created. You will be disappointed when the final pages are near.

Marcia Purcell Recommends:

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

The author of the classic When the Emperor Was Divine, has produced a second masterpiece: a dense, difficult, short work that follows a group of women brought from Japan to San Francisco in the early 1900s as mail-order brides. I say it is difficult because the style is first-person plural and the narrative voices travel from the boat, with hopes for good husbands and happy futures, to the arrival (and harsh realities), to toil as migrant workers and house cleaners, the overwhelming struggle to learn a new language and culture, giving birth and raising children who reject their parents and heritage, and finally...the arrival of war and the absolute heartbreak of the internment camps. There is so much here in this short work that book discussion groups will be able to use it for many sessions. One Reads programs will find a wealth of issues common to any ethnic minority living in their community. And for the casual reader – you will be drawn in, as I was, to a disturbing examination of identity and loyalty and what it means to be an American. All this in 144 pages.

978-0-307-70000-1 | $22.00/$25.00C | Knopf | HC | Available Now

Kelly Coyle-Crivelli Recommends:

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis

"In the suitcase was a boy...Not until she saw his lips part slightly did she realize he was alive..." Meet Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, trying to live a quiet life. The last thing her husband wants is for her to go running off on another dangerous mission to save or protect illegal refugees--but she can't seem to stay out of trouble.

978-1-56947-981-0 | $24.00/$27.00C | Soho Crime | HC | November

AND ALSO:

Off the Menu by Marissa Guggiana

Before every dinner service, at virtually every high-end restaurant in America, there is a staff meal. As someone who always worked in the restaurant business, I have a great fondness for these meals, within the pages of Marissa Guggiana's Off the Menu are 100 family-style recipes pulled from the pre-service rituals of 50 of the nation's top restaurants.

David Eicke Recommends:

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

I don’t know what made me pick this up. I’ve never read any of the Twilight series. I’ve never read any Anne Rice. Never even any George RR Martin or Tolkien or Gaiman. Only one Steven King, and that was for a class. Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Paranormal is a genre that I’ve always left unexplored. But a colleague kept pushing it on me, this werewolf book, and I’m glad she did. Glen Duncan is a whip-smart writer. He’s used lycanthropic conventions in an almost scientific way—to perfectly frame a very old story of world-weariness and rejuvenation. Jake, his main character, has been alive for over 200 years now, killing and eating people with each moonrise, having lots of meaningless sex in between, dodging WOCOP, and rolling in money. And he’s about had it. He may be the last one of his kind, but he is ready to die. Until, that is, he finds something to live for. It’s a miracle, and it’s very inconvenient.

978-0-307-59508-9 | $25.95/$29.00C | Knopf | HC | Available Now

 

Staff Picks Archive:

Summer 2011

Spring 2011

Fall 2010