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<title><![CDATA[Cathy's Wish List]]></title>

<description><![CDATA[]]></description>

<link><![CDATA[http://www.indiebound.org/users/cathy/wishlist]]></link>

<language><![CDATA[en-us]]></language>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[In This Way I Was Saved]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781439103135</link>
<description><![CDATA[From a powerful new voice in literary fiction comes an intense psychological thriller in the tradition of Donna Tartt, Stewart O’Nan, and Patrick McGrath, about a boy’s struggle with his inner demons.  • Exciting new literary talent: At just twenty-eight years old, Brian DeLeeuw has worked in publishing in both London and New York City, where he is an editor at the literary magazine Tin House. In This Way I Was Saved was acquired in a heated auction.  • Haunting subject: A dark, compelling story that skirts the edges of the supernatural, In This Way I Was Saved evokes the best in edgy psychological horror with overtones of eerie cerebral pyrotechnics. With its dense web of family secrets, its undercurrent of violence, and its brilliant evocation of a troubled young person’s point of view, it has earned comparisons to Donna Tartt.  • Compelling story: Set in the wealthy environs of New York City’s Central Park West, the story begins in 1994, when Luke Nightingale is six and his parents are finalizing their divorce. Luke’s fragile, volatile mother Claire is the last daughter of a crumbling blueblood family; her mother died by her own hand.  The novel is narrated by Luke’s cynical, cruelly perceptive, and sometimes dangerously violent alter ego Daniel—who could be Luke’s imaginary friend, or something else entirely, something implacable, murderous, and evil. A novel about mothers and sons, the dangers of the imagination, the precariousness of sanity, the terrors of childhood, and the temptations of power—In This Way I Was Saved is a stunning debut by a writer of limitless promise.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In This Way I Was Saved]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brian DeLeeuw]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Simon & Schuster]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781439103135]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[From a powerful new voice in literary fiction comes an intense psychological thriller in the tradition of Donna Tartt, Stewart O’Nan, and Patrick McGrath, about a boy’s struggle with his inner demons.  • Exciting new literary talent: At just twenty-eight years old, Brian DeLeeuw has worked in publishing in both London and New York City, where he is an editor at the literary magazine Tin House. In This Way I Was Saved was acquired in a heated auction.  • Haunting subject: A dark, compelling story that skirts the edges of the supernatural, In This Way I Was Saved evokes the best in edgy psychological horror with overtones of eerie cerebral pyrotechnics. With its dense web of family secrets, its undercurrent of violence, and its brilliant evocation of a troubled young person’s point of view, it has earned comparisons to Donna Tartt.  • Compelling story: Set in the wealthy environs of New York City’s Central Park West, the story begins in 1994, when Luke Nightingale is six and his parents are finalizing their divorce. Luke’s fragile, volatile mother Claire is the last daughter of a crumbling blueblood family; her mother died by her own hand.  The novel is narrated by Luke’s cynical, cruelly perceptive, and sometimes dangerously violent alter ego Daniel—who could be Luke’s imaginary friend, or something else entirely, something implacable, murderous, and evil. A novel about mothers and sons, the dangers of the imagination, the precariousness of sanity, the terrors of childhood, and the temptations of power—In This Way I Was Saved is a stunning debut by a writer of limitless promise.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-08-04T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[What I Thought I Knew]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780670020959</link>
<description><![CDATA[A personal and medical odyssey beyond anything most women would believe possibleAt age forty-four, Alice Eve Cohen was happy for the first time in years. After a difficult divorce, she was engaged to an inspiring man, joyfully raising her adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Alice tells her fiancé that she's never been happier. And then the stomach pains begin.  In her unflinchingly honest and ruefully witty voice, Alice nimbly carries us through her metamorphosis from a woman who has come to terms with infertility to one who struggles to love a heartbeat found in her womb - six months into a high-risk pregnancy. What I Thought I Knew is a page-turner filled with vivid characters, humor, and many surprises and twists of fate. With the suspense of a thriller and the intimacy of a diary, Cohen describes her unexpected journey through doubt, a broken medical system, and the hotly contested terrain of motherhood and family in today's society. Timely and compelling, What I Thought I Knew will capture readers of memoirs such as Eat, Pray, Love; The Glass Castle; and A Three Dog Life.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[What I Thought I Knew]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alice Eve Cohen]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Viking Adult]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780670020959]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A personal and medical odyssey beyond anything most women would believe possibleAt age forty-four, Alice Eve Cohen was happy for the first time in years. After a difficult divorce, she was engaged to an inspiring man, joyfully raising her adopted daughter, and her career was blossoming. Alice tells her fiancé that she's never been happier. And then the stomach pains begin.  In her unflinchingly honest and ruefully witty voice, Alice nimbly carries us through her metamorphosis from a woman who has come to terms with infertility to one who struggles to love a heartbeat found in her womb - six months into a high-risk pregnancy. What I Thought I Knew is a page-turner filled with vivid characters, humor, and many surprises and twists of fate. With the suspense of a thriller and the intimacy of a diary, Cohen describes her unexpected journey through doubt, a broken medical system, and the hotly contested terrain of motherhood and family in today's society. Timely and compelling, What I Thought I Knew will capture readers of memoirs such as Eat, Pray, Love; The Glass Castle; and A Three Dog Life.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-07-09T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Wesley the Owl]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416551775</link>
<description><![CDATA[This New York Times bestselling "sweet, quirky memoir" (USA TODAY) tells the "heartwarming story" (Publishers Weekly) of a biologist and the owl she rescued and raised.  A book of unforgettable emotional resonance, Wesley the Owl took the book world by storm, with a 4-star review in People and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Stacey O’Brien’s pioneering work about the emotional lives of owls is nothing less than enthralling.  When adopted, Wesley could not have survived in the wild. O’Brien watches him turn into a voracious carnivore (eating up to six mice a day), an avid communicator with whom she develops a language all their own, and eventually, a robust adult who preens in the mirror and objects to visits by any other males to "his" house. She makes important discoveries along the way, and tells how the playful, reasoning, and loving creature she set out to save ended up saving her.  Charting a unique partnership, Wesley the Owl is for animal lovers everywhere.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wesley the Owl]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacey O'Brien]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Free Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416551775]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[This New York Times bestselling "sweet, quirky memoir" (USA TODAY) tells the "heartwarming story" (Publishers Weekly) of a biologist and the owl she rescued and raised.  A book of unforgettable emotional resonance, Wesley the Owl took the book world by storm, with a 4-star review in People and a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Stacey O’Brien’s pioneering work about the emotional lives of owls is nothing less than enthralling.  When adopted, Wesley could not have survived in the wild. O’Brien watches him turn into a voracious carnivore (eating up to six mice a day), an avid communicator with whom she develops a language all their own, and eventually, a robust adult who preens in the mirror and objects to visits by any other males to "his" house. She makes important discoveries along the way, and tells how the playful, reasoning, and loving creature she set out to save ended up saving her.  Charting a unique partnership, Wesley the Owl is for animal lovers everywhere.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-06-02T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Crazy for the Storm]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061766725</link>
<description><![CDATA[ Dad Said   Olestad, we can do i t all. . . .   Why do you make me do this?   Because it's beautiful when it all comes together.    I don't think it's ever beautiful.   One day.   Never.   We'll see, my father said. Vamanos.   From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. While his friends were riding bikes, playing ball, and going to birthday parties, young Norman was whisked away in pursuit of wild and demanding adventures. Yet it were these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared "Boy Wonder," as his father called him, to become a fearless champion—and ultimately saved his life.   Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father's girlfriend, and the pilot crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains and was suspended at 8,200 feet, engulfed in a blizzard. "Dad and I were a team, and he was Superman," Ollestad writes. But now Norman's father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.   Set amid the spontaneous, uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, this riveting memoir, written in crisp Hemingwayesque prose, recalls Ollestad's childhood and the magnetic man whose determination and love infuriated and inspired him—and also taught him to overcome the indomitable. As it illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, Ollestad's powerful and unforgettable true story offers remarkable insight for us all. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Crazy for the Storm]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Norman Ollestad]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Ecco]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061766725]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ Dad Said   Olestad, we can do i t all. . . .   Why do you make me do this?   Because it's beautiful when it all comes together.    I don't think it's ever beautiful.   One day.   Never.   We'll see, my father said. Vamanos.   From the age of three, Norman Ollestad was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing by the intense, charismatic father he both idolized and resented. While his friends were riding bikes, playing ball, and going to birthday parties, young Norman was whisked away in pursuit of wild and demanding adventures. Yet it were these exhilarating tests of skill that prepared "Boy Wonder," as his father called him, to become a fearless champion—and ultimately saved his life.   Flying to a ski championship ceremony in February 1979, the chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father's girlfriend, and the pilot crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains and was suspended at 8,200 feet, engulfed in a blizzard. "Dad and I were a team, and he was Superman," Ollestad writes. But now Norman's father was dead, and the devastated eleven-year-old had to descend the treacherous, icy mountain alone.   Set amid the spontaneous, uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, this riveting memoir, written in crisp Hemingwayesque prose, recalls Ollestad's childhood and the magnetic man whose determination and love infuriated and inspired him—and also taught him to overcome the indomitable. As it illuminates the complicated bond between an extraordinary father and his son, Ollestad's powerful and unforgettable true story offers remarkable insight for us all. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-06-02T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The City & The City]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345497512</link>
<description><![CDATA[New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The City & The City]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[China Mieville]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Del Rey]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780345497512]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives. What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-05-26T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Waiting for Columbus]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385529136</link>
<description><![CDATA[A man arrives at an insane asylum in contemporary Spain claiming to be the legendary navigator Christopher Columbus. Who he really is, and the events that led him to break with reality, lie at the center of this captivating, romantic, and stunningly written novel.Found in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar, the mysterious man who calls himself Columbus appears to be just another delirious mental patient, until he begins to tell the “true” story of how he famously obtained three ships from Spanish royalty.It's Nurse Consuela who listens to these fantastical tales of adventure and romance, and tries desperately to make sense of why this seemingly intelligent man has been locked up, and why no one has come to visit. As splintered fragments of the man beneath the façade reveal a charming yet guarded individual, Nurse Consuela can't avoid the inappropriate longings she begins to feel. Something terrible caused his break with reality and she can only listen and wait as Columbus spins his tale to the very end. In the tradition of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Dogs of Babel, this unforgettable novel mines the darkest recesses of loss and the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit.  It is an immensely satisfying novel that will introduce Thomas Trofimuk to readers who will want to hear his voice again and again.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Waiting for Columbus]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Thomas Trofimuk]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Doubleday]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780385529136]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A man arrives at an insane asylum in contemporary Spain claiming to be the legendary navigator Christopher Columbus. Who he really is, and the events that led him to break with reality, lie at the center of this captivating, romantic, and stunningly written novel.Found in the treacherous Strait of Gibraltar, the mysterious man who calls himself Columbus appears to be just another delirious mental patient, until he begins to tell the “true” story of how he famously obtained three ships from Spanish royalty.It's Nurse Consuela who listens to these fantastical tales of adventure and romance, and tries desperately to make sense of why this seemingly intelligent man has been locked up, and why no one has come to visit. As splintered fragments of the man beneath the façade reveal a charming yet guarded individual, Nurse Consuela can't avoid the inappropriate longings she begins to feel. Something terrible caused his break with reality and she can only listen and wait as Columbus spins his tale to the very end. In the tradition of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and The Dogs of Babel, this unforgettable novel mines the darkest recesses of loss and the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit.  It is an immensely satisfying novel that will introduce Thomas Trofimuk to readers who will want to hear his voice again and again.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-08-25T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Lieutenant]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780802119162</link>
<description><![CDATA[A stunning follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning book, The Secret River, Grenville’s The Lieutenant is a gripping story about friendship, self-discovery, and the power of language set along the unspoiled shores of 1788 New South Wales. As a boy, Daniel Rooke was an outsider. Ridiculed in school and misunderstood by his parents, Daniel could only hope that he would one day find his place in life. When he joins the marines and travels to Australia as a lieutenant on the First Fleet, Daniel finally sees his chance for a new beginning. As his countrymen struggle to control their cargo of convicts and communicate with nearby Aboriginal tribes, Daniel constructs an observatory to chart the stars and begin the work he prays will make him famous. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Daniel comes to intimately know the local Aborigines and forges a remarkable connection with one girl that will change the course of his life. The Lieutenant is a remarkable story about the poignancy of a friendship that defies linguistic and cultural barriers, and shows one man that he is capable of exceptional courage.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Lieutenant]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Grenville]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Atlantic Monthly Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780802119162]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A stunning follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning book, The Secret River, Grenville’s The Lieutenant is a gripping story about friendship, self-discovery, and the power of language set along the unspoiled shores of 1788 New South Wales. As a boy, Daniel Rooke was an outsider. Ridiculed in school and misunderstood by his parents, Daniel could only hope that he would one day find his place in life. When he joins the marines and travels to Australia as a lieutenant on the First Fleet, Daniel finally sees his chance for a new beginning. As his countrymen struggle to control their cargo of convicts and communicate with nearby Aboriginal tribes, Daniel constructs an observatory to chart the stars and begin the work he prays will make him famous. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Daniel comes to intimately know the local Aborigines and forges a remarkable connection with one girl that will change the course of his life. The Lieutenant is a remarkable story about the poignancy of a friendship that defies linguistic and cultural barriers, and shows one man that he is capable of exceptional courage.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Anthologist]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416572442</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder -- a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought.   What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of The New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredibly important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul barely manages to realize all of this himself, and the result is a tenderly romantic, hilarious, and inspired novel.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Anthologist]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Nicholson Baker]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Simon & Schuster]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416572442]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder -- a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought.   What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of The New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredibly important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul barely manages to realize all of this himself, and the result is a tenderly romantic, hilarious, and inspired novel.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-08T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Promised World]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416575382</link>
<description><![CDATA[From the bestselling author of The Cure for Modern Life and Once Upon a Day comes a riveting novel of suspense about a literature professor whose carefully constructed life is shattered after the death of her twin brother and the unraveling of the secret world they shared.On a March afternoon, while Lila Cole is working in her quiet office, her twin brother Billy points an unloaded rifle out of a hotel window across from an elementary school, closing down a city block. “Suicide by police” was obviously Billy’s intended result, but the aftermath of his death brings shock after shock for Lila when she discovers that her twin— the person she thought she was closer to than anyone in the world—was not only estranged from his wife, but also charged with endangering the life of his middle child and namesake, eightyear- old William. Lila’s quest for answers puts her job, her marriage, and even her sanity at risk as she begins to learn the horrible truth about her family. When Billy’s children are in danger of repeating the twins’ tragic past, all of the characters will have to confront their own complicity and recognize the deep guilt that always tortured Billy even as he spun a beautiful dream of the future from the stories he loved—a classic American myth of redemption and second chances. Compulsively readable and empathetically written in Tucker’s artful prose, The Promised World is an epic tale of intimacy, betrayal, and lost innocence that will haunt readers long after they turn the final page.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Promised World]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lisa Tucker]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Atria Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416575382]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[From the bestselling author of The Cure for Modern Life and Once Upon a Day comes a riveting novel of suspense about a literature professor whose carefully constructed life is shattered after the death of her twin brother and the unraveling of the secret world they shared.On a March afternoon, while Lila Cole is working in her quiet office, her twin brother Billy points an unloaded rifle out of a hotel window across from an elementary school, closing down a city block. “Suicide by police” was obviously Billy’s intended result, but the aftermath of his death brings shock after shock for Lila when she discovers that her twin— the person she thought she was closer to than anyone in the world—was not only estranged from his wife, but also charged with endangering the life of his middle child and namesake, eightyear- old William. Lila’s quest for answers puts her job, her marriage, and even her sanity at risk as she begins to learn the horrible truth about her family. When Billy’s children are in danger of repeating the twins’ tragic past, all of the characters will have to confront their own complicity and recognize the deep guilt that always tortured Billy even as he spun a beautiful dream of the future from the stories he loved—a classic American myth of redemption and second chances. Compulsively readable and empathetically written in Tucker’s artful prose, The Promised World is an epic tale of intimacy, betrayal, and lost innocence that will haunt readers long after they turn the final page.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Island at the End of the World]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143116257</link>
<description><![CDATA[A chilling post-apocalyptic tale of how far a father will go to protect his children?from the author of The AmnesiacIn a world nearly destroyed by catastrophic floods, one family has been spared. Many years ago, as the waters rose, a father and his three children took to their ark and drifted to the safety of a small island. Life there is a quiet idyll of music and farming?and young Alice, Finn, and Daisy are grateful for their salvation?until the day a stranger swims ashore. A terrifyingly plausible adventure story, The Island at the End of the World is a mesmerizing novel from an exciting new writer.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Island at the End of the World]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sam Taylor]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Penguin Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780143116257]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A chilling post-apocalyptic tale of how far a father will go to protect his children?from the author of The AmnesiacIn a world nearly destroyed by catastrophic floods, one family has been spared. Many years ago, as the waters rose, a father and his three children took to their ark and drifted to the safety of a small island. Life there is a quiet idyll of music and farming?and young Alice, Finn, and Daisy are grateful for their salvation?until the day a stranger swims ashore. A terrifyingly plausible adventure story, The Island at the End of the World is a mesmerizing novel from an exciting new writer.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-08-25T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The God of War]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416563174</link>
<description><![CDATA[The year is 1978. Ares Ramirez, age 12, lives with his mother, Laurel, and his younger brother Malcolm in a trailer at the edge of the Salton Sea, an unintentionally man-made body of water in the middle of the Southern California desert. It is a desolate, forgotten place, whose inhabitants thrive amidst seemingly impossible circumstances.   Where birds fly by day across the desert sky, by night government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs using live ammunition, and an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea. These events inspire Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. His membership in a troubled family marks Ares as a casualty of a different kind of war. Malcolm, age 7, is mentally handicapped, and his mother chooses not to do anything about it.   Ares' struggle with the burden of responsibility -- to himself and to others -- draws him into a world of drugs, violence, and sex that he is not prepared for, launching him into a very personal battle for his own identity, one that has a lethal outcome.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The God of War]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Marisa Silver]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Simon & Schuster]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416563174]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[The year is 1978. Ares Ramirez, age 12, lives with his mother, Laurel, and his younger brother Malcolm in a trailer at the edge of the Salton Sea, an unintentionally man-made body of water in the middle of the Southern California desert. It is a desolate, forgotten place, whose inhabitants thrive amidst seemingly impossible circumstances.   Where birds fly by day across the desert sky, by night government fighter planes and helicopters make training runs using live ammunition, and an anonymous dead body floats in from the sea. These events inspire Ares, on the cusp of his adolescence, to enact elaborate fantasies of mortal combat. His membership in a troubled family marks Ares as a casualty of a different kind of war. Malcolm, age 7, is mentally handicapped, and his mother chooses not to do anything about it.   Ares' struggle with the burden of responsibility -- to himself and to others -- draws him into a world of drugs, violence, and sex that he is not prepared for, launching him into a very personal battle for his own identity, one that has a lethal outcome.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-04-14T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Wilderness Warrior]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780060565282</link>
<description><![CDATA[ In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt's most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest.   Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.   Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revere?like alarm about American wildlife in peril—including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk—Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Wilderness Warrior]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Douglas Brinkley]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Harper]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780060565282]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt's most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest.   Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.   Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revere?like alarm about American wildlife in peril—including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk—Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-08-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Housekeeper and the Professor]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780312427801</link>
<description><![CDATA[He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem—ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.  She is an astute young Housekeeper—with a ten-year-old son—who is hired to care for the Professor.  And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor's mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities—like the Housekeeper's shoe size—and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away. Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Housekeeper and the Professor]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Yoko Ogawa]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Picador]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780312427801]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem—ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.  She is an astute young Housekeeper—with a ten-year-old son—who is hired to care for the Professor.  And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor's mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities—like the Housekeeper's shoe size—and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away. Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-02-03T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Ash]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316040099</link>
<description><![CDATA[Cinderella retoldIn the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ash]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Malinda Lo]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Little, Brown Books for Young Readers]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780316040099]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Cinderella retoldIn the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The House at Riverton]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416550532</link>
<description><![CDATA[The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.  Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever. The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history. Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters -- and an ending -- the reader won't soon forget.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The House at Riverton]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Morton]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Washington Square Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416550532]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, it is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.  Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever. The novel is full of secrets -- some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history. Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters -- and an ending -- the reader won't soon forget.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-03-03T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Wordy Shipmates]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594484001</link>
<description><![CDATA[In this New York Times bestseller, the author of Assassination Vacation "brings the [Puritan] era wickedly to life" (Washington Post). To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Sarah Vowell investigates what that means-and what it should mean. What she discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoebuckles- and-corn reputation might suggest-a highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty people, whose story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Vowell takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where "righteousness" is rhymed with "wilderness," to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Wordy Shipmates]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sarah Vowell]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Riverhead Trade]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781594484001]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In this New York Times bestseller, the author of Assassination Vacation "brings the [Puritan] era wickedly to life" (Washington Post). To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Sarah Vowell investigates what that means-and what it should mean. What she discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoebuckles- and-corn reputation might suggest-a highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty people, whose story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Vowell takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where "righteousness" is rhymed with "wilderness," to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-06T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Widow Clicquot]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061288586</link>
<description><![CDATA[ Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour, style, and luxury. In The Widow Clicquot, Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life—for the first time—the fascinating woman behind the iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who, after her husband's death, defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women of her time.   As much a fascinating journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely tempered woman, The Widow Clicquot is the captivating true story of a legend and a visionary. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Widow Clicquot]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tilar J. Mazzeo]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[HarperBusiness]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061288586]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ Veuve Clicquot champagne epitomizes glamour, style, and luxury. In The Widow Clicquot, Tilar J. Mazzeo brings to life—for the first time—the fascinating woman behind the iconic yellow label: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who, after her husband's death, defied convention by assuming the reins of the fledgling wine business they had nurtured together. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women of her time.   As much a fascinating journey through the process of making this temperamental wine as a biography of a uniquely tempered woman, The Widow Clicquot is the captivating true story of a legend and a visionary. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Americans in Space]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780312372453</link>
<description><![CDATA[Life is a challenge for 36-year-old Kate Cavanaugh, high school guidance counselor to a motley group of at-risk students. Two years after finding her young husband dead in bed beside her, Kate’s storybook life has vanished, and she and her two children are still reeling. Her daughter Charlotte, once a sweet girl, has morphed into an angry, tattooed, tongue-studded teen; and Hunter, Kate’s four-year-old, keeps his feelings sealed tight inside and an empty ketchup bottle clasped to his heart. When a tragedy occurs at the Alan B. Shepard High School, it’s Kate who finds herself in need of counsel and guidance. What she does next catapults her and her family down an unfamiliar road, on a trajectory into space—toward understanding, forgiveness and healing. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Americans in Space]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mary E. Mitchell]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Thomas Dunne Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780312372453]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Life is a challenge for 36-year-old Kate Cavanaugh, high school guidance counselor to a motley group of at-risk students. Two years after finding her young husband dead in bed beside her, Kate’s storybook life has vanished, and she and her two children are still reeling. Her daughter Charlotte, once a sweet girl, has morphed into an angry, tattooed, tongue-studded teen; and Hunter, Kate’s four-year-old, keeps his feelings sealed tight inside and an empty ketchup bottle clasped to his heart. When a tragedy occurs at the Alan B. Shepard High School, it’s Kate who finds herself in need of counsel and guidance. What she does next catapults her and her family down an unfamiliar road, on a trajectory into space—toward understanding, forgiveness and healing. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-13T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Evolution of Shadows]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781932961843</link>
<description><![CDATA[In July of 1995, the news photographer Gray Banick disappeared into the Bosnian war zone and doing so took away pieces of the hearts of three people who loved him: Emil Todorovic, his interpreter and friend; Jack MacKenzie, his mentor who taught Gray to hold his camera steady between himself and the worst that war presents; and Lian Zhao, who didn’t have the strength to love him as he wanted her to. Now, almost five years later, they have gathered in Sarajevo to find out what happened to Gray, the man who had taught them all what love is.Each driven character in this novel believes fully that there is a love strong enough to sustain them, even in the extreme circumstances of war. But each time they have uncovered a glimpse of such a thing, they have failed tragically love itself.Or, to see it another way, this is a novel about how love fails us every time?or almost every time.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Evolution of Shadows]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jason Quinn Malott]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Unbridled Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781932961843]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In July of 1995, the news photographer Gray Banick disappeared into the Bosnian war zone and doing so took away pieces of the hearts of three people who loved him: Emil Todorovic, his interpreter and friend; Jack MacKenzie, his mentor who taught Gray to hold his camera steady between himself and the worst that war presents; and Lian Zhao, who didn’t have the strength to love him as he wanted her to. Now, almost five years later, they have gathered in Sarajevo to find out what happened to Gray, the man who had taught them all what love is.Each driven character in this novel believes fully that there is a love strong enough to sustain them, even in the extreme circumstances of war. But each time they have uncovered a glimpse of such a thing, they have failed tragically love itself.Or, to see it another way, this is a novel about how love fails us every time?or almost every time.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[MATCHLESS]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061913013</link>
<description><![CDATA[Every year, NPR asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. In 2008, Gregory Maguire reinvented the Hans Christian Andersen classic "The Little Match Girl" for a new time and new audiences.  When it was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, audiences likely interpreted the Little Match Girl?s dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven as metaphors of religious salvation. Maguire?s new piece, entitled "Matchless," reilluminates Andersen?s classic, using his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen?s original intentions, and to suggest transcendence, the permanence of spirit, and the continuity that links the living and the dead.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MATCHLESS]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gregory Maguire]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[William Morrow]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061913013]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Every year, NPR asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. In 2008, Gregory Maguire reinvented the Hans Christian Andersen classic "The Little Match Girl" for a new time and new audiences.  When it was first translated from Danish and published in England in the mid-nineteenth century, audiences likely interpreted the Little Match Girl?s dying visions of lights and a grandmother in heaven as metaphors of religious salvation. Maguire?s new piece, entitled "Matchless," reilluminates Andersen?s classic, using his storytelling magic to rekindle Andersen?s original intentions, and to suggest transcendence, the permanence of spirit, and the continuity that links the living and the dead.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-11-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[La's Orchestra Saves the World]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307378385</link>
<description><![CDATA[From the best-selling author of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a delightful and moving story that celebrates the healing powers of friendship and music. It is 1939. Lavender—La to her friends—decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. The peace and solitude of the small town she settles in are therapeutic . . . at least at first. As the war drags on, La is in need of some diversion and wants to boost the town's morale, so she organizes an amateur orchestra, drawing musicians from the village and the local RAF base. Among the strays she corrals is Feliks, a shy, proper Polish refugee who becomes her prized recruit—and the object of feelings she thought she'd put away forever. Does La's orchestra save the world? The people who come to hear it think so. But what will become of it after the war is over? And what will become of La herself? And of La's heart? With his all-embracing empathy and his gentle sense of humor, Alexander McCall Smith makes of La's life—and love—a tale to enjoy and cherish.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[La's Orchestra Saves the World]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alexander Mccall Smith]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Pantheon]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307378385]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[From the best-selling author of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series comes a delightful and moving story that celebrates the healing powers of friendship and music. It is 1939. Lavender—La to her friends—decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. The peace and solitude of the small town she settles in are therapeutic . . . at least at first. As the war drags on, La is in need of some diversion and wants to boost the town's morale, so she organizes an amateur orchestra, drawing musicians from the village and the local RAF base. Among the strays she corrals is Feliks, a shy, proper Polish refugee who becomes her prized recruit—and the object of feelings she thought she'd put away forever. Does La's orchestra save the world? The people who come to hear it think so. But what will become of it after the war is over? And what will become of La herself? And of La's heart? With his all-embracing empathy and his gentle sense of humor, Alexander McCall Smith makes of La's life—and love—a tale to enjoy and cherish.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-12-08T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Lying With the Dead]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781590513187</link>
<description><![CDATA[In this novel, Greek tragedy meets a dysfunctional family from Maryland, revealing how time and place matter little when it comes to the implacable logic of the darkest human emotions.A family matriarch—half Medea, half Clytemnestra—calls home her three children, who take turns narrating the story. Quinn, the wonder boy who has become a successful actor in London, must fly in from England, putting a new love interest and a career-boosting role in a BBC production of the Oresteia on hold. Maury, whose life is defined by his Asperger's and a terrible crime committed when he was a teenager, rides in on a bus from his quiet, impoverished life out west. Candy, the eldest at fifty-five and the only one still a devout Catholic, is already in Maryland, where she takes care of her mother and dreams of retiring to North Carolina with her boyfriend. Once the family is reassembled in the childhood home, the pieces of a dark puzzle come together over brilliant and witty exchanges. Mewshaw invites us into the heart of a family dynamic, exploding prejudices about love, religion, and murder.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lying With the Dead]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Mewshaw]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Other Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781590513187]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In this novel, Greek tragedy meets a dysfunctional family from Maryland, revealing how time and place matter little when it comes to the implacable logic of the darkest human emotions.A family matriarch—half Medea, half Clytemnestra—calls home her three children, who take turns narrating the story. Quinn, the wonder boy who has become a successful actor in London, must fly in from England, putting a new love interest and a career-boosting role in a BBC production of the Oresteia on hold. Maury, whose life is defined by his Asperger's and a terrible crime committed when he was a teenager, rides in on a bus from his quiet, impoverished life out west. Candy, the eldest at fifty-five and the only one still a devout Catholic, is already in Maryland, where she takes care of her mother and dreams of retiring to North Carolina with her boyfriend. Once the family is reassembled in the childhood home, the pieces of a dark puzzle come together over brilliant and witty exchanges. Mewshaw invites us into the heart of a family dynamic, exploding prejudices about love, religion, and murder.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-06T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The War That Killed Achilles]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780670021123</link>
<description><![CDATA[A groundbreaking reading of the Iliad that restores Homer's vision of the tragedy of war, by the bestselling author of The Bounty Few warriors, in life or literature, have challenged their commanding officer and the rationale of the war they fought as fiercely as did Homer's hero Achilles. Today, the Iliad is celebrated as one of the greatest works in literature, the epic of all epics; many have forgotten that the subject of this ancient poem was war-not merely the poetical romance of the war at Troy, but war, in all its enduring devastation. Using the legend of the Trojan war, the Iliad addresses the central questions defining the war experience of every age: Is a warrior ever justified in standing up against his commander? Must he sacrifice his life for someone else's cause? Giving his life for his country, does a man betray his family? How is a catastrophic war ever allowed to start-and why, if all parties wish it over, can it not be ended? As she did with The Endurance and The Bounty, Caroline Alexander lets us see why a familiar story has had such an impact on us for centuries, revealing what Homer really meant. Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of our civilization.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The War That Killed Achilles]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Caroline Alexander]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Viking Adult]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780670021123]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A groundbreaking reading of the Iliad that restores Homer's vision of the tragedy of war, by the bestselling author of The Bounty Few warriors, in life or literature, have challenged their commanding officer and the rationale of the war they fought as fiercely as did Homer's hero Achilles. Today, the Iliad is celebrated as one of the greatest works in literature, the epic of all epics; many have forgotten that the subject of this ancient poem was war-not merely the poetical romance of the war at Troy, but war, in all its enduring devastation. Using the legend of the Trojan war, the Iliad addresses the central questions defining the war experience of every age: Is a warrior ever justified in standing up against his commander? Must he sacrifice his life for someone else's cause? Giving his life for his country, does a man betray his family? How is a catastrophic war ever allowed to start-and why, if all parties wish it over, can it not be ended? As she did with The Endurance and The Bounty, Caroline Alexander lets us see why a familiar story has had such an impact on us for centuries, revealing what Homer really meant. Written with the authority of a scholar and the vigor of a bestselling narrative historian, The War That Killed Achilles is a superb and utterly timely presentation of one of the timeless stories of our civilization.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-15T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385530842</link>
<description><![CDATA[When two nineteenth-century Oxford students—Victor  Frankenstein, a serious researcher, and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley—form an unlikely  friendship, the result is a tour de force that could only come from one of the world's  most accomplished and prolific authors.  This haunting and atmospheric novel opens  with a heated discussion, as Shelley challenges the conventionally religious Frankenstein  to consider his atheistic notions of creation and life. Afterward, these concepts  become an obsession for the young scientist. As Victor begins conducting anatomical  experiments to reanimate the dead, he at first uses corpses supplied by the coroner.  But these specimens prove imperfect for Victor's purposes. Moving his makeshift laboratory  to a deserted pottery factory in Limehouse, he makes contact with the Doomsday men—the  resurrectionists—whose grisly methods put Frankenstein in great danger as he works  feverishly to bring life to the terrifying creature that will bear his name for eternity.  Filled with literary lights of the day such as Bysshe Shelley, Godwin, Lord Byron,  and Mary Shelley herself, and penned in period-perfect prose, The Casebook of Victor  Frankenstein is sure to become a classic of the twenty-first century.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Peter Ackroyd]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Nan A. Talese]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780385530842]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[When two nineteenth-century Oxford students—Victor  Frankenstein, a serious researcher, and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley—form an unlikely  friendship, the result is a tour de force that could only come from one of the world's  most accomplished and prolific authors.  This haunting and atmospheric novel opens  with a heated discussion, as Shelley challenges the conventionally religious Frankenstein  to consider his atheistic notions of creation and life. Afterward, these concepts  become an obsession for the young scientist. As Victor begins conducting anatomical  experiments to reanimate the dead, he at first uses corpses supplied by the coroner.  But these specimens prove imperfect for Victor's purposes. Moving his makeshift laboratory  to a deserted pottery factory in Limehouse, he makes contact with the Doomsday men—the  resurrectionists—whose grisly methods put Frankenstein in great danger as he works  feverishly to bring life to the terrifying creature that will bear his name for eternity.  Filled with literary lights of the day such as Bysshe Shelley, Godwin, Lord Byron,  and Mary Shelley herself, and penned in period-perfect prose, The Casebook of Victor  Frankenstein is sure to become a classic of the twenty-first century.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-10-06T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Girl with Glass Feet]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780805091144</link>
<description><![CDATA[An inventive and richly visual novel about young lovers on a quest to find a cure for a magical ailment, perfect for readers of Alice HoffmanStrange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Unusual winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts, a mainlander who has visited the islands only once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure.Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart. Love must be paid in precious hours and, as the glass encroaches, time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?The Girl with Glass Feet is a dazzlingly imaginative and magical first novel, a love story to treasure.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Girl with Glass Feet]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ali Shaw]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Henry Holt and Co.]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780805091144]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[An inventive and richly visual novel about young lovers on a quest to find a cure for a magical ailment, perfect for readers of Alice HoffmanStrange things are happening on the remote and snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda’s Land. Unusual winged creatures flit around the icy bogland, albino animals hide themselves in the snow-glazed woods, and Ida Maclaird is slowly turning into glass. Ida is an outsider in these parts, a mainlander who has visited the islands only once before. Yet during that one fateful visit the glass transformation began to take hold, and now she has returned in search of a cure.Midas Crook is a young loner who has lived on the islands his entire life. When he meets Ida, something about her sad, defiant spirit pierces his emotional defenses. As Midas helps Ida come to terms with her affliction, she gradually unpicks the knots of his heart. Love must be paid in precious hours and, as the glass encroaches, time is slipping away fast. Will they find a way to stave off the spread of the glass?The Girl with Glass Feet is a dazzlingly imaginative and magical first novel, a love story to treasure.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-05T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Noah's Compass]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307272409</link>
<description><![CDATA[From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Noah's Compass]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Tyler]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Knopf]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307272409]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a wise, gently humorous, and deeply compassionate novel about a schoolteacher, who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.Liam Pennywell, who set out to be a philosopher and ended up teaching fifth grade, never much liked the job at that run-down private school, so early retirement doesn’t bother him. But he is troubled by his inability to remember anything about the first night that he moved into his new, spare, and efficient condominium on the outskirts of Baltimore. All he knows when he wakes up the next day in the hospital is that his head is sore and bandaged.His effort to recover the moments of his life that have been stolen from him leads him on an unexpected detour. What he needs is someone who can do the remembering for him. What he gets is—well, something quite different.We all know a Liam. In fact, there may be a little of Liam in each of us. Which is why Anne Tyler’s lovely novel resonates so deeply.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-05T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Summertime]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780670021383</link>
<description><![CDATA[Shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize  A brilliant new work of fiction from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace and Diary of a Bad Year  A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in his thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father-a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer. Never having met the man himself, the biographer interviews five people who knew Coetzee well, including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin Margot, and a Brazilian dancer whose daughter took English lessons with him. These accounts add up to an image of an awkward, reserved, and bookish young man who finds it hard to make meaningful connections with the people around him. Summertime is an inventive and inspired work of fiction that allows J.M. Coetzee to imagine his own life with a critical and unsparing eye, revealing painful moral struggles and attempts to come to grips with what it means to care for another human being. Incisive, elegant, and often surprisingly funny, Summertime is a compelling work by one of today's most esteemed writers.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Summertime]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[J. M. Coetzee]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Viking Adult]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780670021383]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize  A brilliant new work of fiction from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace and Diary of a Bad Year  A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in his thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father-a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer. Never having met the man himself, the biographer interviews five people who knew Coetzee well, including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin Margot, and a Brazilian dancer whose daughter took English lessons with him. These accounts add up to an image of an awkward, reserved, and bookish young man who finds it hard to make meaningful connections with the people around him. Summertime is an inventive and inspired work of fiction that allows J.M. Coetzee to imagine his own life with a critical and unsparing eye, revealing painful moral struggles and attempts to come to grips with what it means to care for another human being. Incisive, elegant, and often surprisingly funny, Summertime is a compelling work by one of today's most esteemed writers.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-12-24T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Taking the Leap]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781590306345</link>
<description><![CDATA[In this book Pema Chödrön shows us how to break free of destructive patterns in our lives and experience a new sense of freedom and happiness. Drawing on the Buddhist concept of shenpa, she helps us to see how certain habits of mind tend to “hook” us and get us stuck in states of anger, blame, self-hatred, and addiction. The good news is that once we start to see these patterns, we can begin to change our lives for the better.  The key is learning a new way of facing the inevitable difficulties and insecurities of our daily lives: we must learn how to stay present and open our hearts. “This path entails uncovering three basic human qualities,” explains Pema. “These qualities have always been with us but perhaps have gotten buried and almost forgotten. They are natural intelligence, natural warmth, and natural openness. Everyone, everywhere, all over the globe, has these qualities and can call on them to help themselves and others."  This book gives us the insights and practices we can immediately put to use in our lives to awaken these essential qualities. In her friendly and encouraging style, Pema Chödrön helps us to take a bold leap toward a new way of living—one that will bring about positive transformation for ourselves and for our troubled world.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Taking the Leap]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Pema Chodron]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Shambhala]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781590306345]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In this book Pema Chödrön shows us how to break free of destructive patterns in our lives and experience a new sense of freedom and happiness. Drawing on the Buddhist concept of shenpa, she helps us to see how certain habits of mind tend to “hook” us and get us stuck in states of anger, blame, self-hatred, and addiction. The good news is that once we start to see these patterns, we can begin to change our lives for the better.  The key is learning a new way of facing the inevitable difficulties and insecurities of our daily lives: we must learn how to stay present and open our hearts. “This path entails uncovering three basic human qualities,” explains Pema. “These qualities have always been with us but perhaps have gotten buried and almost forgotten. They are natural intelligence, natural warmth, and natural openness. Everyone, everywhere, all over the globe, has these qualities and can call on them to help themselves and others."  This book gives us the insights and practices we can immediately put to use in our lives to awaken these essential qualities. In her friendly and encouraging style, Pema Chödrön helps us to take a bold leap toward a new way of living—one that will bring about positive transformation for ourselves and for our troubled world.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-08T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Settled in the Wild]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781565126183</link>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Settled in the Wild]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Susan Hand Shetterly]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781565126183]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The River of Doubt]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780767913737</link>
<description><![CDATA[At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The River of Doubt]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Candice Millard]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Anchor]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780767913737]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2006-10-10T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Collector]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781570616136</link>
<description><![CDATA[Jack Nisbet first told the story of British explorer David Thompson, who mapped the Columbia River, in his acclaimed book Sources of the River, which set the standard for research and narrative biography for the region. Now Nisbet turns his attention to David Douglas, the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and throughout other areas of western North America. Douglas's discoveries include hundreds of western plants--most notably the Douglas Fir. The Collector tracks Douglas's fascinating history, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker, and details his adventures in North America discovering exotic new plants for the English and European market. The book takes readers along on Douglas's journeys into a literal brave new world of then-obscure realms from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. In telling Douglas's story, Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Collector]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jack Nisbet]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Sasquatch Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781570616136]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Jack Nisbet first told the story of British explorer David Thompson, who mapped the Columbia River, in his acclaimed book Sources of the River, which set the standard for research and narrative biography for the region. Now Nisbet turns his attention to David Douglas, the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and throughout other areas of western North America. Douglas's discoveries include hundreds of western plants--most notably the Douglas Fir. The Collector tracks Douglas's fascinating history, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker, and details his adventures in North America discovering exotic new plants for the English and European market. The book takes readers along on Douglas's journeys into a literal brave new world of then-obscure realms from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands. In telling Douglas's story, Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Harvard Psychedelic Club]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061655937</link>
<description><![CDATA[ This book is the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in the early sixties at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project, transforming their lives and American culture and launching the mind/body/spirit movement that inspired the explosion of yoga classes, organic produce, and alternative medicine.   The four men came together in a time of upheaval and experimentation, and their exploration of an expanded consciousness set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. Timothy Leary would be the rebellious trickster, the premier proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, advising a generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Richard Alpert would be the seeker, traveling to India and returning to America as Ram Dass, reborn as a spiritual leader with his "Be Here Now" mantra, inspiring a restless army of spiritual pilgrims. Huston Smith would be the teacher, practicing every world religion, introducing the Dalai Lama to the West, and educating generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude toward other cultures' beliefs. And young Andrew Weil would be the healer, becoming the undisputed leader of alternative medicine, devoting his life to the holistic reformation of the American health care system.   It was meant to be a time of joy, of peace, and of love, but behind the scenes lurked backstabbing, jealousy, and outright betrayal. In spite of their personal conflicts, the members of the Harvard Psychedelic Club would forever change the way Americans view religion and practice medicine, and the very way we look at body and soul. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Harvard Psychedelic Club]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Don Lattin]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[HarperOne]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061655937]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ This book is the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in the early sixties at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project, transforming their lives and American culture and launching the mind/body/spirit movement that inspired the explosion of yoga classes, organic produce, and alternative medicine.   The four men came together in a time of upheaval and experimentation, and their exploration of an expanded consciousness set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. Timothy Leary would be the rebellious trickster, the premier proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, advising a generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Richard Alpert would be the seeker, traveling to India and returning to America as Ram Dass, reborn as a spiritual leader with his "Be Here Now" mantra, inspiring a restless army of spiritual pilgrims. Huston Smith would be the teacher, practicing every world religion, introducing the Dalai Lama to the West, and educating generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude toward other cultures' beliefs. And young Andrew Weil would be the healer, becoming the undisputed leader of alternative medicine, devoting his life to the holistic reformation of the American health care system.   It was meant to be a time of joy, of peace, and of love, but behind the scenes lurked backstabbing, jealousy, and outright betrayal. In spite of their personal conflicts, the members of the Harvard Psychedelic Club would forever change the way Americans view religion and practice medicine, and the very way we look at body and soul. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Lost Books of the Odyssey]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374192150</link>
<description><![CDATA[A BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING REIMAGINING OF ONE OF OUR GREATEST MYTHS BY A GIFTED YOUNG WRITERZachary Mason’s brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer’s classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer’s original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Lost Books of the Odyssey]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Zachary Mason]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780374192150]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING REIMAGINING OF ONE OF OUR GREATEST MYTHS BY A GIFTED YOUNG WRITERZachary Mason’s brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer’s classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer’s original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-02-02T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Happiness Project]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061583254</link>
<description><![CDATA[Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love. With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Rubin didn't have the option to uproot herself, nor did she really want to; instead she focused on improving her life as it was. Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions: give proofs of love, ask for help, find more fun, keep a gratitude notebook, forget about results. She immersed herself in principles set forth by all manner of experts, from Epicurus to Thoreau to Oprah to Martin Seligman to the Dalai Lama to see what worked for her?and what didn't. Her conclusions are sometimes surprising?she finds that money can buy happiness, when spent wisely; that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that "treating" yourself can make you feel worse; that venting bad feelings doesn't relieve them; that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference?and they range from the practical to the profound. Written with charm and wit, The Happiness Project is illuminating yet entertaining, thought-provoking yet compulsively readable. Gretchen Rubin's passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Happiness Project]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gretchen Rubin]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Harper]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061583254]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project. In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love. With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Rubin didn't have the option to uproot herself, nor did she really want to; instead she focused on improving her life as it was. Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions: give proofs of love, ask for help, find more fun, keep a gratitude notebook, forget about results. She immersed herself in principles set forth by all manner of experts, from Epicurus to Thoreau to Oprah to Martin Seligman to the Dalai Lama to see what worked for her?and what didn't. Her conclusions are sometimes surprising?she finds that money can buy happiness, when spent wisely; that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that "treating" yourself can make you feel worse; that venting bad feelings doesn't relieve them; that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference?and they range from the practical to the profound. Written with charm and wit, The Happiness Project is illuminating yet entertaining, thought-provoking yet compulsively readable. Gretchen Rubin's passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Impatient with Desire]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781401341015</link>
<description><![CDATA[A great adventure.A haunting tragedy.An enduring love.In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed to California on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives out West. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.The Donner Party. We think we know their story--pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive--but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desire brings us answers to the unanswerable question: What really happened in the four months the Donners were trapped in the mountains And it brings to stunning life a woman--and a love story--behind the myth.Tamsen Eustis Donner, born in 1801, taught school, wrote poetry, painted, botanized, and was fluent in French. At twenty-three, she sailed alone from Massachusetts to North Carolina when respectable women didn't travel alone. Years after losing her first husband, Tully, she married again for love, this time to George Donner, a prosperous farmer, and in 1846, they set out for California with their five youngest children. Unlike many women who embarked reluctantly on the Oregon Trail, Tamsen was eager to go. Later, trapped in the mountains by early snows, she had plenty of time to contemplate the wisdom of her decision and the cost of her wanderlust.Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire, Burton draws on years of historical research to vividly imagine this lost journal--and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation. Tamsen's unforgettable journey takes us from the cornfields of Illinois to the dusty Oregon Trail to the freezing Sierra Nevada Mountains, where she was forced to confront an impossible choice.Impatient with Desire is a passionate, heart-wrenching story of courage, hope, and love in hardship, all told at a breathless pace. Intimate in tone and epic in scope, Impatient with Desire is absolutely hypnotic.Praise for Impatient with Desire"Gabrielle Burton brings us a moving story of human courage and frailty. Tamsen Donner's tale will stay with you long after you've read the last page."--Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank"Few figures in the westward movement of this country have the almost mythic presence of Tamsen Donner. With her strong creative gifts, an exceptional talent for clear and moving narrative, and careful research, Burton has most surely succeeded in her intention to capture Tamsen Donner's spirit and has given us a marvelous, moving story of a brave, loving--and real--woman."--Isabel Zuber, author of Salt"Told through fictional letters and diary entries written by Tamsen Donner, Impatient with Desire is a hauntingly lyrical story of the ill-fated Donner Party, one of the seminal events in America's westward movement. This bittersweet novel of love and sacrifice will tear at your heart."--Sandra Dallas, author of Prayers for Sale]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impatient with Desire]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Gabrielle Burton]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Voice]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781401341015]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A great adventure.A haunting tragedy.An enduring love.In the spring of 1846, Tamsen Donner, her husband, George, their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers headed to California on the California-Oregon Trail in eager anticipation of new lives out West. Everything that could go wrong did, and an American legend was born.The Donner Party. We think we know their story--pioneers trapped in the mountains performing an unspeakable act to survive--but we know only that one harrowing part of it. Impatient with Desire brings us answers to the unanswerable question: What really happened in the four months the Donners were trapped in the mountains And it brings to stunning life a woman--and a love story--behind the myth.Tamsen Eustis Donner, born in 1801, taught school, wrote poetry, painted, botanized, and was fluent in French. At twenty-three, she sailed alone from Massachusetts to North Carolina when respectable women didn't travel alone. Years after losing her first husband, Tully, she married again for love, this time to George Donner, a prosperous farmer, and in 1846, they set out for California with their five youngest children. Unlike many women who embarked reluctantly on the Oregon Trail, Tamsen was eager to go. Later, trapped in the mountains by early snows, she had plenty of time to contemplate the wisdom of her decision and the cost of her wanderlust.Historians have long known that Tamsen kept a journal, though it was never found. In Impatient with Desire, Burton draws on years of historical research to vividly imagine this lost journal--and paints a picture of a remarkable heroine in an extraordinary situation. Tamsen's unforgettable journey takes us from the cornfields of Illinois to the dusty Oregon Trail to the freezing Sierra Nevada Mountains, where she was forced to confront an impossible choice.Impatient with Desire is a passionate, heart-wrenching story of courage, hope, and love in hardship, all told at a breathless pace. Intimate in tone and epic in scope, Impatient with Desire is absolutely hypnotic.Praise for Impatient with Desire"Gabrielle Burton brings us a moving story of human courage and frailty. Tamsen Donner's tale will stay with you long after you've read the last page."--Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank"Few figures in the westward movement of this country have the almost mythic presence of Tamsen Donner. With her strong creative gifts, an exceptional talent for clear and moving narrative, and careful research, Burton has most surely succeeded in her intention to capture Tamsen Donner's spirit and has given us a marvelous, moving story of a brave, loving--and real--woman."--Isabel Zuber, author of Salt"Told through fictional letters and diary entries written by Tamsen Donner, Impatient with Desire is a hauntingly lyrical story of the ill-fated Donner Party, one of the seminal events in America's westward movement. This bittersweet novel of love and sacrifice will tear at your heart."--Sandra Dallas, author of Prayers for Sale]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-03-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[One Amazing Thing]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781401340995</link>
<description><![CDATA["Divakaruni is a brilliant storyteller; she illuminates the world with her artistry; and shakes the reader with her love." --Junot Diaz  Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair. When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival--and about the reasons to survive.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[One Amazing Thing]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Voice]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781401340995]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA["Divakaruni is a brilliant storyteller; she illuminates the world with her artistry; and shakes the reader with her love." --Junot Diaz  Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair. When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival--and about the reasons to survive.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-02-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Dream of Perpetual Motion]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780312558154</link>
<description><![CDATA[Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father, Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane. As Harold heads toward a last desperate confrontation with Prospero to save Miranda’s life, he finds himself an unwitting participant in the creation of the greatest invention of them all: the perpetual motion machine. Beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Dream of Perpetual Motion]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dexter Palmer]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Picador]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780312558154]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Imprisoned for life aboard a zeppelin that floats high above a fantastic metropolis, greeting-card writer Harold Winslow pens his memoirs. His only companions are the disembodied voice of Miranda Taligent, the only woman he has ever loved, and the cryogenically frozen body of her father, Prospero, the genius and industrial magnate who drove her insane. As Harold heads toward a last desperate confrontation with Prospero to save Miranda’s life, he finds himself an unwitting participant in the creation of the greatest invention of them all: the perpetual motion machine. Beautifully written, stunningly imagined, and wickedly funny, The Dream of Perpetual Motion is a heartfelt meditation on the place of love in a world dominated by technology.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-02-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Walking to Gatlinburg]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307450678</link>
<description><![CDATA[A stunning and lyrical Civil War thriller, Walking to Gatlinburg is a spellbinding story of survival, wilderness adventure, mystery, and love in the time of war.Morgan Kinneson is both hunter and hunted.  The sharp-shooting 17-year-old from Kingdom County, Vermont, is determined to track down his brother Pilgrim, a doctor who has gone missing from the Union Army.  But first Morgan must elude a group of murderous escaped convicts in pursuit of a mysterious stone that has fallen into his possession.It’s 1864, and the country is in the grip of the bloodiest war in American history.  Meanwhile, the Kinneson family has been quietly conducting passengers on the Underground Railroad from Vermont to the Canadian border.  One snowy afternoon Morgan leaves an elderly fugitive named Jesse Moses in a mountainside cabin for a few hours so that he can track a moose to feed his family.  In his absence, Jesse is murdered, and thus begins Morgan’s unforgettable trek south through an apocalyptic landscape of war and mayhem.Along the way, Morgan encounters a fantastical array of characters, including a weeping elephant, a pacifist gunsmith, a woman who lives in a tree, a blind cobbler, and a beautiful and intriguing slave girl named Slidell who is the key to unlocking the mystery of the secret stone.  At the same time, he wrestles with the choices that will ultimately define him – how to reconcile the laws of nature with religious faith, how to temper justice with mercy.  Magical and wonderfully strange, Walking to Gatlinburg is both a thriller of the highest order and a heartbreaking odyssey into the heart of American darkness.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Walking to Gatlinburg]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard Frank Mosher]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Crown]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307450678]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A stunning and lyrical Civil War thriller, Walking to Gatlinburg is a spellbinding story of survival, wilderness adventure, mystery, and love in the time of war.Morgan Kinneson is both hunter and hunted.  The sharp-shooting 17-year-old from Kingdom County, Vermont, is determined to track down his brother Pilgrim, a doctor who has gone missing from the Union Army.  But first Morgan must elude a group of murderous escaped convicts in pursuit of a mysterious stone that has fallen into his possession.It’s 1864, and the country is in the grip of the bloodiest war in American history.  Meanwhile, the Kinneson family has been quietly conducting passengers on the Underground Railroad from Vermont to the Canadian border.  One snowy afternoon Morgan leaves an elderly fugitive named Jesse Moses in a mountainside cabin for a few hours so that he can track a moose to feed his family.  In his absence, Jesse is murdered, and thus begins Morgan’s unforgettable trek south through an apocalyptic landscape of war and mayhem.Along the way, Morgan encounters a fantastical array of characters, including a weeping elephant, a pacifist gunsmith, a woman who lives in a tree, a blind cobbler, and a beautiful and intriguing slave girl named Slidell who is the key to unlocking the mystery of the secret stone.  At the same time, he wrestles with the choices that will ultimately define him – how to reconcile the laws of nature with religious faith, how to temper justice with mercy.  Magical and wonderfully strange, Walking to Gatlinburg is both a thriller of the highest order and a heartbreaking odyssey into the heart of American darkness.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-03-02T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781101159194</link>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781101159194]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[]]></dc:format>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Surrendered]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594489761</link>
<description><![CDATA[Read an essay by Chang-rae Lee here.     The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime.  With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch. June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together. As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmeriz­ing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Surrendered]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chang-rae Lee]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Riverhead Hardcover]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781594489761]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Read an essay by Chang-rae Lee here.     The bestselling, award-winning writer of Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and Aloft returns with his biggest, most ambitious novel yet: a spellbinding story of how love and war echo through an entire lifetime.  With his three critically acclaimed novels, Chang-rae Lee has established himself as one of the most talented writers of contemporary literary fiction. Now, with The Surrendered, Lee has created a book that amplifies everything we've seen in his previous works, and reads like nothing else. It is a brilliant, haunting, heartbreaking story about how love and war inalterably change the lives of those they touch. June Han was only a girl when the Korean War left her orphaned; Hector Brennan was a young GI who fled the petty tragedies of his small town to serve his country. When the war ended, their lives collided at a Korean orphanage where they vied for the attentions of Sylvie Tanner, the beautiful yet deeply damaged missionary wife whose elusive love seemed to transform everything. Thirty years later and on the other side of the world, June and Hector are reunited in a plot that will force them to come to terms with the mysterious secrets of their past, and the shocking acts of love and violence that bind them together. As Lee unfurls the stunning story of June, Hector, and Sylvie, he weaves a profound meditation on the nature of heroism and sacrifice, the power of love, and the possibilities for mercy, salvation, and surrendering oneself to another. Combining the complex themes of identity and belonging of Native Speaker and A Gesture Life with the broad range, energy, and pure storytelling gifts of Aloft, Chang-rae Lee has delivered his most ambitious, exciting, and unforgettable work yet. It is a mesmeriz­ing novel, elegantly suspenseful and deeply affecting.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-03-09T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Mapping of Love and Death]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061727665</link>
<description><![CDATA[ In the latest mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death?an investigation that leads her to a long-hidden affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse.   August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael?the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman?puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.   April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael's parents, who have recently learned that their son's remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael's belongings?a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier's family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.   Following the critically acclaimed bestseller Among the Mad, The Mapping of Love and Death delivers the most gripping and satisfying chapter yet in the life of Maisie Dobbs. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Mapping of Love and Death]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jacqueline Winspear]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Harper]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061727665]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ In the latest mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death?an investigation that leads her to a long-hidden affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse.   August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael?the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman?puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.   April 1932. London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Michael's parents, who have recently learned that their son's remains have been unearthed in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among Michael's belongings?a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love. Her inquiries, and the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf the soldier's family and even Maisie herself. Over the course of her investigation, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she is once again falling in love.   Following the critically acclaimed bestseller Among the Mad, The Mapping of Love and Death delivers the most gripping and satisfying chapter yet in the life of Maisie Dobbs. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-04-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Possessed]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374532185</link>
<description><![CDATA[One of The Economist’s 2011 Books of the Year  THE TRUE BUT UNLIKELY STORIES OF LIVES DEVOTED—ABSURDLY! MELANCHOLICALLY! BEAUTIFULLY!—TO THE RUSSIAN CLASSICSNo one who read Elif Batuman’s first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. “Babel in California” told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University during a conference about the enigmatic writer Isaac Babel. Over the course of several pages, Batuman managed to misplace Babel’s last living relatives at the San Francisco airport, uncover Babel’s secret influence on the making of King Kong, and introduce her readers to a new voice that was unpredictable, comic, humane, ironic, charming, poignant, and completely, unpretentiously full of love for literature. Batuman’s subsequent pieces—for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and the London Review of Books— have made her one of the most sought-after and admired writers of her generation, and its best traveling companion. In The Possessed we watch her investigate a possible murder at Tolstoy’s ancestral estate. We go with her to Stanford, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg; retrace Pushkin’s wanderings in the Caucasus; learn why Old Uzbek has one hundred different words for crying; and see an eighteenth-century ice palace reconstructed on the Neva. Love and the novel, the individual in history, the existential plight of the graduate student: all find their place in The Possessed. Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite authors, Batuman searches for the answers to the big questions in the details of lived experience, combining fresh readings of the great Russians, from Pushkin to Platonov, with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence—including her own.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Possessed]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Elif Batuman]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780374532185]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[One of The Economist’s 2011 Books of the Year  THE TRUE BUT UNLIKELY STORIES OF LIVES DEVOTED—ABSURDLY! MELANCHOLICALLY! BEAUTIFULLY!—TO THE RUSSIAN CLASSICSNo one who read Elif Batuman’s first article (in the journal n+1) will ever forget it. “Babel in California” told the true story of various human destinies intersecting at Stanford University during a conference about the enigmatic writer Isaac Babel. Over the course of several pages, Batuman managed to misplace Babel’s last living relatives at the San Francisco airport, uncover Babel’s secret influence on the making of King Kong, and introduce her readers to a new voice that was unpredictable, comic, humane, ironic, charming, poignant, and completely, unpretentiously full of love for literature. Batuman’s subsequent pieces—for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and the London Review of Books— have made her one of the most sought-after and admired writers of her generation, and its best traveling companion. In The Possessed we watch her investigate a possible murder at Tolstoy’s ancestral estate. We go with her to Stanford, Switzerland, and St. Petersburg; retrace Pushkin’s wanderings in the Caucasus; learn why Old Uzbek has one hundred different words for crying; and see an eighteenth-century ice palace reconstructed on the Neva. Love and the novel, the individual in history, the existential plight of the graduate student: all find their place in The Possessed. Literally and metaphorically following the footsteps of her favorite authors, Batuman searches for the answers to the big questions in the details of lived experience, combining fresh readings of the great Russians, from Pushkin to Platonov, with the sad and funny stories of the lives they continue to influence—including her own.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-02-16T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Singer's Gun]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781936071647</link>
<description><![CDATA[Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt.  His parents deal in stolen goods and his first career is a partnership venture with his cousin Aria selling forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens. Anton longs for a less questionable way of living in the world and by his late twenties has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager.  Then a routine security check suggests that things are not quite what they appear. And Aria begins blackmailing him to do one last job for her. But the seemingly simple job proves to have profound and unexpected repercussions.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Singer's Gun]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Emily  St. John Mandel]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Unbridled Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781936071647]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt.  His parents deal in stolen goods and his first career is a partnership venture with his cousin Aria selling forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens. Anton longs for a less questionable way of living in the world and by his late twenties has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager.  Then a routine security check suggests that things are not quite what they appear. And Aria begins blackmailing him to do one last job for her. But the seemingly simple job proves to have profound and unexpected repercussions.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2009-04-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Ark]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781439181799</link>
<description><![CDATA[A MODERN-DAY INTERNATIONAL THRILLER HAILED BY JAMES ROLLINS AS “ONE OF THE BEST DEBUTS I’VE READ THIS YEAR . . . HERE IS A NOVEL THAT WILL HAVE YOU HOLDING YOUR BREATH UNTIL THE LAST PAGE IS TURNED.”When brilliant archaeologist Dilara Kenner is contacted by Sam Watson, an old family friend who says that he has crucial information about her missing father, Dilara abandons her Peruvian dig and rushes to Los Angeles to meet him. But at the airport, Sam speaks instead of Noah’s Ark—the artifact her father had long been searching for—and the possible death of billions. Before Sam can explain, he collapses. With his dying breath, he urges Dilara to find Tyler Locke—a man she’s never heard of.Two days later Dilara manages to track down former combat engineer Tyler Locke on an oil rig off Newfoundland. Her helicopter transport goes down well short of the oil rig’s landing pad and Dilara and those aboard nearly drown. No sooner is Dilara safely on the rig than she convinces Tyler the crash was no accident. Tyler agrees to help her uncover the secret behind Noah's Ark and, more important, her father's disappearance. As the picture begins to come into focus, they realize they have just seven days to find the Ark before its secret is used to wipe out civilization once again.With a chilling premise and a blistering pace, Boyd Morrison combines all the best elements of a blockbuster thriller with an intelligent and fascinating exploration of one of the Old Testament’s great mysteries.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Ark]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Boyd Morrison]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Touchstone]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781439181799]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A MODERN-DAY INTERNATIONAL THRILLER HAILED BY JAMES ROLLINS AS “ONE OF THE BEST DEBUTS I’VE READ THIS YEAR . . . HERE IS A NOVEL THAT WILL HAVE YOU HOLDING YOUR BREATH UNTIL THE LAST PAGE IS TURNED.”When brilliant archaeologist Dilara Kenner is contacted by Sam Watson, an old family friend who says that he has crucial information about her missing father, Dilara abandons her Peruvian dig and rushes to Los Angeles to meet him. But at the airport, Sam speaks instead of Noah’s Ark—the artifact her father had long been searching for—and the possible death of billions. Before Sam can explain, he collapses. With his dying breath, he urges Dilara to find Tyler Locke—a man she’s never heard of.Two days later Dilara manages to track down former combat engineer Tyler Locke on an oil rig off Newfoundland. Her helicopter transport goes down well short of the oil rig’s landing pad and Dilara and those aboard nearly drown. No sooner is Dilara safely on the rig than she convinces Tyler the crash was no accident. Tyler agrees to help her uncover the secret behind Noah's Ark and, more important, her father's disappearance. As the picture begins to come into focus, they realize they have just seven days to find the Ark before its secret is used to wipe out civilization once again.With a chilling premise and a blistering pace, Boyd Morrison combines all the best elements of a blockbuster thriller with an intelligent and fascinating exploration of one of the Old Testament’s great mysteries.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-05-11T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Manual of Detection]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143116516</link>
<description><![CDATA[ "This debut novel weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka." -  -The New Yorker  Reminiscent of imaginative fiction from Jorge Luis Borges to Jasper Fforde   yet dazzlingly original, The Manual of Detection marks the debut of a prodigious young talent. Charles Unwin   toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency located in an unnamed city always slick with rain. When Travis   Sivart, the agency's most illustrious detective, is murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted and must embark on an utterly   bizarre quest for the missing investigator that leads him into the darkest corners of his soaking, somnolent city. What   ensues is a noir fantasy of exquisite craftsmanship, as taut as it is mind- blowing, that draws readers into a dream   world that will change what they think about how they think.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Manual of Detection]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jedediah Berry]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Penguin Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780143116516]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ "This debut novel weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka." -  -The New Yorker  Reminiscent of imaginative fiction from Jorge Luis Borges to Jasper Fforde   yet dazzlingly original, The Manual of Detection marks the debut of a prodigious young talent. Charles Unwin   toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency located in an unnamed city always slick with rain. When Travis   Sivart, the agency's most illustrious detective, is murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted and must embark on an utterly   bizarre quest for the missing investigator that leads him into the darkest corners of his soaking, somnolent city. What   ensues is a noir fantasy of exquisite craftsmanship, as taut as it is mind- blowing, that draws readers into a dream   world that will change what they think about how they think.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-01-26T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Women Food and God]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416543077</link>
<description><![CDATA[Geneen Roth’s 1991 bestseller, When Food Is Love , spoke to a wide audience—including Oprah Winfrey, who embraced Roth’s empowering message. Since then, Roth has taken the sum total of her experience and combined it with spirituality, psychology, and self-awareness to explain women’s true hunger in Women, Food, and God . .Roth’s approach to eating is the same as any addiction—it is an activity to avoid feeling emotions. From the first page, readers will be struck by Roth’s intelligence, humor, and sensitivity, as she traces the path of overeating from its subtle beginning through its logical end. Whether the drug is booze or brownies, the problem is the same: opting out of life. Roth’s premier advice is eat anything you want . She powerfully argues for personal investigation and urges readers to pay attention to what they truly need—and it usually cannot be found in a supermarket. She provides seven basic guidelines for eating (the most important is to never diet) and shares reassuring, practical advice that has over the years helped thousands of women who have attended her highly successful seminars and workshops..Truly a thinking woman’s guide to eating—and an anti-diet book— women everywhere will find insights and revelations on every page. .]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Women Food and God]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Geneen Roth]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Scribner]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781416543077]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Geneen Roth’s 1991 bestseller, When Food Is Love , spoke to a wide audience—including Oprah Winfrey, who embraced Roth’s empowering message. Since then, Roth has taken the sum total of her experience and combined it with spirituality, psychology, and self-awareness to explain women’s true hunger in Women, Food, and God . .Roth’s approach to eating is the same as any addiction—it is an activity to avoid feeling emotions. From the first page, readers will be struck by Roth’s intelligence, humor, and sensitivity, as she traces the path of overeating from its subtle beginning through its logical end. Whether the drug is booze or brownies, the problem is the same: opting out of life. Roth’s premier advice is eat anything you want . She powerfully argues for personal investigation and urges readers to pay attention to what they truly need—and it usually cannot be found in a supermarket. She provides seven basic guidelines for eating (the most important is to never diet) and shares reassuring, practical advice that has over the years helped thousands of women who have attended her highly successful seminars and workshops..Truly a thinking woman’s guide to eating—and an anti-diet book— women everywhere will find insights and revelations on every page. .]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-03-02T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[First Contact]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061749773</link>
<description><![CDATA[ A satirical joyride in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, First Contact introduces us to the hyper-intelligent Rigelians, who admire Woody Allen movies and Bundt cake, and who urge the people of Earth to mend their ways to avoid destruction of their planet. But the president of the United States, a God-fearing, science-doubting fitness fanatic, is skeptical of the evidence presented to him and sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of his young attachÉ, an alien scam artist, several raccoons, and a scientist who has predicted the end of the universe. Parrot sketch excluded. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[First Contact]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Evan Mandery]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Harper Paperbacks]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061749773]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ A satirical joyride in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, First Contact introduces us to the hyper-intelligent Rigelians, who admire Woody Allen movies and Bundt cake, and who urge the people of Earth to mend their ways to avoid destruction of their planet. But the president of the United States, a God-fearing, science-doubting fitness fanatic, is skeptical of the evidence presented to him and sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of his young attachÉ, an alien scam artist, several raccoons, and a scientist who has predicted the end of the universe. Parrot sketch excluded. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-02-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781565125681</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Alaskan landscape so vast, dramatic, and unbelievable may be the reason the people in Haines, Alaska (population 2,400), so often discuss the meaning of life. Heather Lende thinks it helps make life mean more. Since her bestselling first book, "If You Lived Here, I d Know Your Name," a near-fatal bicycle accident has given Lende a few more reasons to consider matters both spiritual and temporal. Her idea of spirituality is rooted in community, and here she explores faith and forgiveness, loss and devotion as well as raising totem poles, canning salmon, and other distinctly Alaskan adventures. Lende s irrepressible spirit, her wry humor, and her commitment to living a life on the edge of the world resonate on every page. Like her own mother s last wish "take good care of the garden and dogs" Lende s writing, so honest and unadorned, deepens our understanding of what links all humanity.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Heather Lende]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781565125681]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[The Alaskan landscape so vast, dramatic, and unbelievable may be the reason the people in Haines, Alaska (population 2,400), so often discuss the meaning of life. Heather Lende thinks it helps make life mean more. Since her bestselling first book, "If You Lived Here, I d Know Your Name," a near-fatal bicycle accident has given Lende a few more reasons to consider matters both spiritual and temporal. Her idea of spirituality is rooted in community, and here she explores faith and forgiveness, loss and devotion as well as raising totem poles, canning salmon, and other distinctly Alaskan adventures. Lende s irrepressible spirit, her wry humor, and her commitment to living a life on the edge of the world resonate on every page. Like her own mother s last wish "take good care of the garden and dogs" Lende s writing, so honest and unadorned, deepens our understanding of what links all humanity.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-05-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Wildlives]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781553654094</link>
<description><![CDATA[Deep in the wilderness of the Laurentian mountain range lives a community of troubled souls. There's Lila, the landlady of the forest who shoulders a terrible guilt; the young, beautiful and carefree Violette, who bears deep childhood scars; and the boy Jeremie, who whispers his confessions to frogs and ants in the forest. There's Claire who writes murder scenes, and Simon, who cares for his brother's son while pining for various women. Each character has come to this forgiving Eden to escape some private trauma; forced to interact through loneliness and proximity, they learn each other's secrets, with stunning consequences. At once tender and uplifting, Wildlives is a beautiful novel about the nature of beauty and its infinite power to heal.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wildlives]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Monique Proulx; David Homel; Fred A. Reed]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Douglas & McIntyre]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781553654094]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Deep in the wilderness of the Laurentian mountain range lives a community of troubled souls. There's Lila, the landlady of the forest who shoulders a terrible guilt; the young, beautiful and carefree Violette, who bears deep childhood scars; and the boy Jeremie, who whispers his confessions to frogs and ants in the forest. There's Claire who writes murder scenes, and Simon, who cares for his brother's son while pining for various women. Each character has come to this forgiving Eden to escape some private trauma; forced to interact through loneliness and proximity, they learn each other's secrets, with stunning consequences. At once tender and uplifting, Wildlives is a beautiful novel about the nature of beauty and its infinite power to heal.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-05-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Juliet]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780345516107</link>
<description><![CDATA[ Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy.    This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.     But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions, ancient hostilities, and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud, she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”—is still at work, and that she is destined to be its next target. Only someone like Romeo, it seems, could save her from this dreaded fate, but his story ended long ago. Or did it?    From Anne Fortier comes a sweeping, beautifully written novel of intrigue and identity, of love and legacy, as a young woman discovers that her own fate is irrevocably tied—for better or worse—to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Juliet]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Anne Fortier]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Ballantine Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780345516107]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy.    This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy.     But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions, ancient hostilities, and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud, she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”—is still at work, and that she is destined to be its next target. Only someone like Romeo, it seems, could save her from this dreaded fate, but his story ended long ago. Or did it?    From Anne Fortier comes a sweeping, beautifully written novel of intrigue and identity, of love and legacy, as a young woman discovers that her own fate is irrevocably tied—for better or worse—to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2010-08-24T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Ghost Light]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374161873</link>
<description><![CDATA[1907 Edwardian Dublin, a city of whispers and rumors. At the Abbey Theatre W. B. Yeats is working with the talented John Synge, his resident playwright. It is here that Synge, the author of The Playboy of the Western World and The Tinker’s Wedding, will meet an actress still in her teens named Molly Allgood. Rebellious, irreverent, beautiful, flirtatious, Molly is a girl of the inner-city tenements, dreaming of stardom in America. Witty and watchful, she has dozens of admirers, but it is the damaged older playwright who is her secret passion despite the barriers of age, class, education, and religion.Synge is a troubled, reticent genius, the son of a once prosperous landowning family, a poet of fiery language and tempestuous passions. Yet his life is hampered by conventions and by the austere and God-fearing mother with whom he lives. Scarred by a childhood of immense loneliness and severity, he has long been ill, but he loves to walk the wild places of Ireland. The affair, sternly opposed by friends and family, is turbulent, sometimes cruel, and often tender. 1950s postwar London, an old woman walks across the city in the wake of a hurricane. As she wanders past bomb sites and through the forlorn beauty of wrecked terraces and wintry parks, her mind drifts in and out of the present as she remembers her life’s great love, her once dazzling career, and her travels in America. Vivid and beautifully written, Molly’s swirling, fractured narrative moves from Dublin to London via New York with luminous language and raw feeling. Ghost Light is a story of great sadness and joy—a tour de force from the widely acclaimed and bestselling author of Star of the Sea.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ghost Light]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Joseph O'Connor]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780374161873]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[1907 Edwardian Dublin, a city of whispers and rumors. At the Abbey Theatre W. B. Yeats is working with the talented John Synge, his resident playwright. It is here that Synge, the author of The Playboy of the Western World and The Tinker’s Wedding, will meet an actress still in her teens named Molly Allgood. Rebellious, irreverent, beautiful, flirtatious, Molly is a girl of the inner-city tenements, dreaming of stardom in America. Witty and watchful, she has dozens of admirers, but it is the damaged older playwright who is her secret passion despite the barriers of age, class, education, and religion.Synge is a troubled, reticent genius, the son of a once prosperous landowning family, a poet of fiery language and tempestuous passions. Yet his life is hampered by conventions and by the austere and God-fearing mother with whom he lives. Scarred by a childhood of immense loneliness and severity, he has long been ill, but he loves to walk the wild places of Ireland. The affair, sternly opposed by friends and family, is turbulent, sometimes cruel, and often tender. 1950s postwar London, an old woman walks across the city in the wake of a hurricane. As she wanders past bomb sites and through the forlorn beauty of wrecked terraces and wintry parks, her mind drifts in and out of the present as she remembers her life’s great love, her once dazzling career, and her travels in America. Vivid and beautifully written, Molly’s swirling, fractured narrative moves from Dublin to London via New York with luminous language and raw feeling. Ghost Light is a story of great sadness and joy—a tour de force from the widely acclaimed and bestselling author of Star of the Sea.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-02-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Mistress of Nothing]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781439193860</link>
<description><![CDATA[The American debut of an award-winning novel about a lady’s maid’s awakening as she journeys from the confines of Victorian England to the uncharted far reaches of Egypt’s Nile Valley When Lady Duff Gordon, paragon of London society, departs for the hot, dry climate of Egypt to seek relief from her debilitating tuberculosis, her lady’s maid, Sally, doesn’t hesitate to leave the only world she has known in order to remain at her mistress’s side. As Sally gets farther and farther from home, she experiences freedoms she has never known—forgoing corsets and wearing native dress, learning Arabic, and having her first taste of romance. But freedom is a luxury that a lady’s maid can ill afford, and when Sally’s newfound passion for life causes her to forget what she is entitled to, she is brutally reminded she is mistress of nothing. Ultimately she must choose her master and a way back home—or a way to an unknown future. Based on the real lives of Lady Duff Gordon and her maid, The Mistress of Nothing is a lush, erotic, and compelling story about the power of race, class, and love]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Mistress of Nothing]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kate Pullinger]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Touchstone]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781439193860]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[The American debut of an award-winning novel about a lady’s maid’s awakening as she journeys from the confines of Victorian England to the uncharted far reaches of Egypt’s Nile Valley When Lady Duff Gordon, paragon of London society, departs for the hot, dry climate of Egypt to seek relief from her debilitating tuberculosis, her lady’s maid, Sally, doesn’t hesitate to leave the only world she has known in order to remain at her mistress’s side. As Sally gets farther and farther from home, she experiences freedoms she has never known—forgoing corsets and wearing native dress, learning Arabic, and having her first taste of romance. But freedom is a luxury that a lady’s maid can ill afford, and when Sally’s newfound passion for life causes her to forget what she is entitled to, she is brutally reminded she is mistress of nothing. Ultimately she must choose her master and a way back home—or a way to an unknown future. Based on the real lives of Lady Duff Gordon and her maid, The Mistress of Nothing is a lush, erotic, and compelling story about the power of race, class, and love]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-01-04T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Reservoir]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781590514443</link>
<description><![CDATA[On an early spring morning in Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1885, a young pregnant woman is found floating in the city reservoir. It appears that she has committed suicide, but there are curious clues at the scene that suggest foul play. The case attracts local attention, and an eccentric group of men collaborate to solve the crime. Detective Jack Wren lurks in the shadows, weaseling his way into the investigation and intimidating witnesses. Policeman Daniel Cincinnatus Richardson, on the brink of retirement, catches the case and relentlessly pursues it to its sorrowful conclusion. As the identity of the girl, Lillie, is revealed, her dark family history comes to light, and the investigation focuses on her tumultuous affair with Tommie Cluverius.   Tommie, an ambitious young lawyer, is the pride and joy of his family and the polar opposite of his brother Willie, a quiet, humble farmer. Though both men loved Lillie, it’s Tommie’s reckless affair that thrusts his family into the spotlight. With Lillie dead, Willie must decide how far to trust Tommie, and whether he ever understood him at all. Told through accumulating revelations, Tommie’s story finally ends in a riveting courtroomclimax.   Based on a true story, The Reservoir centers on a guilty and passionate love triangle composed of two very different brothers and one young, naive girl hiding an unspeakable secret. A novel of lust, betrayal, justice, and revenge, The Reservoir ultimately probes the question of whether we can really know the hearts and minds of others, even of those closest to us.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Reservoir]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Milliken Thompson]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Other Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781590514443]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[On an early spring morning in Richmond, Virginia, in the year 1885, a young pregnant woman is found floating in the city reservoir. It appears that she has committed suicide, but there are curious clues at the scene that suggest foul play. The case attracts local attention, and an eccentric group of men collaborate to solve the crime. Detective Jack Wren lurks in the shadows, weaseling his way into the investigation and intimidating witnesses. Policeman Daniel Cincinnatus Richardson, on the brink of retirement, catches the case and relentlessly pursues it to its sorrowful conclusion. As the identity of the girl, Lillie, is revealed, her dark family history comes to light, and the investigation focuses on her tumultuous affair with Tommie Cluverius.   Tommie, an ambitious young lawyer, is the pride and joy of his family and the polar opposite of his brother Willie, a quiet, humble farmer. Though both men loved Lillie, it’s Tommie’s reckless affair that thrusts his family into the spotlight. With Lillie dead, Willie must decide how far to trust Tommie, and whether he ever understood him at all. Told through accumulating revelations, Tommie’s story finally ends in a riveting courtroomclimax.   Based on a true story, The Reservoir centers on a guilty and passionate love triangle composed of two very different brothers and one young, naive girl hiding an unspeakable secret. A novel of lust, betrayal, justice, and revenge, The Reservoir ultimately probes the question of whether we can really know the hearts and minds of others, even of those closest to us.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-06-21T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[So Much for That]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780061458590</link>
<description><![CDATA[ Shep Knacker has long saved for "the Afterlife," an idyllic retreat in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Exasperated that his wife, Glynis, has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go, Shep finally announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her. Yet Glynis has some news of her own: she's deathly ill. Shep numbly puts his dream aside, while his nest egg is steadily devastated by staggering bills that their health insurance only partially covers. Astonishingly, illness not only strains their marriage but saves it.   From acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver comes a searing, ruthlessly honest novel. Brimming with unexpected tenderness and dry humor, it presses the question: How much is one life worth? ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[So Much for That]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Lionel Shriver]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Harper Perennial]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780061458590]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[ Shep Knacker has long saved for "the Afterlife," an idyllic retreat in the Third World where his nest egg can last forever. Exasperated that his wife, Glynis, has concocted endless excuses why it's never the right time to go, Shep finally announces he's leaving for a Tanzanian island, with or without her. Yet Glynis has some news of her own: she's deathly ill. Shep numbly puts his dream aside, while his nest egg is steadily devastated by staggering bills that their health insurance only partially covers. Astonishingly, illness not only strains their marriage but saves it.   From acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver comes a searing, ruthlessly honest novel. Brimming with unexpected tenderness and dry humor, it presses the question: How much is one life worth? ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Paperback]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-03-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Absolute Monarchs]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781400067152</link>
<description><![CDATA[Critical praise for ABSOLUTE MONARCHS“Absolute Monarchs sprawls across Europe and the Levant, over two  millenniums, and with an impossibly immense cast: 265 popes, feral hordes of  Vandals, Huns and Visigoths, expansionist emperors, Byzantine intriguers,  Borgias and Medicis, heretic zealots, conspiring clerics, bestial inquisitors  and more. Norwich manages to organize this crowded stage and produce a  rollicking narrative. He keeps things moving at nearly beach-read pace.”—Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review, Cover  review “Renowned historian Norwich offers a rollicking account of the men who held  the papal office, their shortcomings and their virtues, and the impact of the  papacy on world history. He conducts us masterfully on a tour of the lives of  the popes from Peter to Benedict XVI. . . . Entertaining and deeply researched,  Norwich’s history offers a wonderful introduction to papal lives.”—Publishers Weekly “Historian, travel writer, and television documentarian Norwich presents an  excellent, often surprising history of that 2,000-year-old institution….he  focuses on political history as he traces the evolution of the papacy as an  institution, while at the same time providing entertaining profiles of the most  historically significant popes….An outstanding historical survey.”—Booklist “When Norwich writes, I read; this member of the House of Lords is a  notable and engrossing historian, perhaps best known for his monumental study of  Byzantium. Here he offers a history of the nearly two-millennia-old papacy that  should be popular with many readers.”—Library Journal “A spirited, concise chronicle of the accomplishments of the most  noteworthy popes. . . . Norwich doesn’t skirt controversies, ancient and  present, in this broad, clear-eyed assessment.”—Kirkus Reviews  A SWEEPING CHRONICLE OF ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT—AND CONTROVERSIAL—INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY With the papacy embattled in recent years, it is essential to have the perspective of one of the world’s most accomplished historians. In Absolute Monarchs, John Julius Norwich captures nearly two thousand years of inspiration and devotion, intrigue and scandal. The men (and maybe one woman) who have held this position of infallible power over millions have ranged from heroes to rogues, admirably wise to utterly decadent. Norwich, who knew two popes and had private audiences with two others, recounts in riveting detail the histories of the most significant popes and what they meant politically, culturally, and socially to Rome and to the world.Norwich presents such brave popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat, and Leo I, who two decades later tamed (and perhaps paid off) Attila the Hun. Here, too, are the scandalous figures: Pope Joan, the mythic woman said (without any substantiation) to have been elected in 855, and the infamous “pornocracy,” the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Rome’s most powerful families.Absolute Monarchs brilliantly portrays reformers such as Pope Paul III, “the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century,” who reinterpreted the Church’s teaching and discipline, and John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 “opened up the church to the twentieth century,” instituting reforms that led to Vatican II. Norwich brings the story to the present day with Benedict XVI, who is coping with a global priest sex scandal.Epic and compelling, Absolute Monarchs is the astonishing story of some of history’s most revered and reviled figures, men who still cast light and shadows on the Vatican and the world today.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Absolute Monarchs]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[John Julius Norwich]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Random House]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781400067152]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Critical praise for ABSOLUTE MONARCHS“Absolute Monarchs sprawls across Europe and the Levant, over two  millenniums, and with an impossibly immense cast: 265 popes, feral hordes of  Vandals, Huns and Visigoths, expansionist emperors, Byzantine intriguers,  Borgias and Medicis, heretic zealots, conspiring clerics, bestial inquisitors  and more. Norwich manages to organize this crowded stage and produce a  rollicking narrative. He keeps things moving at nearly beach-read pace.”—Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review, Cover  review “Renowned historian Norwich offers a rollicking account of the men who held  the papal office, their shortcomings and their virtues, and the impact of the  papacy on world history. He conducts us masterfully on a tour of the lives of  the popes from Peter to Benedict XVI. . . . Entertaining and deeply researched,  Norwich’s history offers a wonderful introduction to papal lives.”—Publishers Weekly “Historian, travel writer, and television documentarian Norwich presents an  excellent, often surprising history of that 2,000-year-old institution….he  focuses on political history as he traces the evolution of the papacy as an  institution, while at the same time providing entertaining profiles of the most  historically significant popes….An outstanding historical survey.”—Booklist “When Norwich writes, I read; this member of the House of Lords is a  notable and engrossing historian, perhaps best known for his monumental study of  Byzantium. Here he offers a history of the nearly two-millennia-old papacy that  should be popular with many readers.”—Library Journal “A spirited, concise chronicle of the accomplishments of the most  noteworthy popes. . . . Norwich doesn’t skirt controversies, ancient and  present, in this broad, clear-eyed assessment.”—Kirkus Reviews  A SWEEPING CHRONICLE OF ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT—AND CONTROVERSIAL—INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY With the papacy embattled in recent years, it is essential to have the perspective of one of the world’s most accomplished historians. In Absolute Monarchs, John Julius Norwich captures nearly two thousand years of inspiration and devotion, intrigue and scandal. The men (and maybe one woman) who have held this position of infallible power over millions have ranged from heroes to rogues, admirably wise to utterly decadent. Norwich, who knew two popes and had private audiences with two others, recounts in riveting detail the histories of the most significant popes and what they meant politically, culturally, and socially to Rome and to the world.Norwich presents such brave popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat, and Leo I, who two decades later tamed (and perhaps paid off) Attila the Hun. Here, too, are the scandalous figures: Pope Joan, the mythic woman said (without any substantiation) to have been elected in 855, and the infamous “pornocracy,” the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Rome’s most powerful families.Absolute Monarchs brilliantly portrays reformers such as Pope Paul III, “the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century,” who reinterpreted the Church’s teaching and discipline, and John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 “opened up the church to the twentieth century,” instituting reforms that led to Vatican II. Norwich brings the story to the present day with Benedict XVI, who is coping with a global priest sex scandal.Epic and compelling, Absolute Monarchs is the astonishing story of some of history’s most revered and reviled figures, men who still cast light and shadows on the Vatican and the world today.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-07-12T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Among the Wonderful]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781586421847</link>
<description><![CDATA[In 1842 Phineas T. Barnum is a young man, freshly arrived in New York and still unknown to the world. With uncanny confidence and impeccable timing, he transforms a dusty natural history museum into a great ark for public imagination. Barnum's museum, with its human wonders and extraordinary live animal menagerie, rises to become not only the nation's most popular attraction, but also a catalyst that ushers America out of a culture of glassed-in exhibits and into the modern age of entertainment.In this kaleidoscopic setting, the stories of two compelling characters are brought to life. Emile Guillaudeu is the museum's grumpy taxidermist, who is horrified by the chaotic change Barnum brings to his beloved institution. Ana Swift is a professional giantess plagued by chronic pain and jaded by a world of gawkers. The differences between these two are many: one is isolated and spends his working hours making dead things look alive, while the other has people pushing against her, and reacting to her, every day. But they both move toward change, one against his will, propelled by a paradigm shift happening whether he likes it or not, and the other because she is struggling to survive. In many shapes and forms, metamorphosis is at the core of Among the Wonderful. Pursuing this theme, the book weaves a world where upper Manhattan is still untrammeled wilderness, the Five Points is at the height of its bloody glory, and within the walls of Barnum's museum, ancient tribal feuds play out in the midst of an unlikely community of marvels.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Among the Wonderful]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Stacy Carlson]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Steerforth]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781586421847]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In 1842 Phineas T. Barnum is a young man, freshly arrived in New York and still unknown to the world. With uncanny confidence and impeccable timing, he transforms a dusty natural history museum into a great ark for public imagination. Barnum's museum, with its human wonders and extraordinary live animal menagerie, rises to become not only the nation's most popular attraction, but also a catalyst that ushers America out of a culture of glassed-in exhibits and into the modern age of entertainment.In this kaleidoscopic setting, the stories of two compelling characters are brought to life. Emile Guillaudeu is the museum's grumpy taxidermist, who is horrified by the chaotic change Barnum brings to his beloved institution. Ana Swift is a professional giantess plagued by chronic pain and jaded by a world of gawkers. The differences between these two are many: one is isolated and spends his working hours making dead things look alive, while the other has people pushing against her, and reacting to her, every day. But they both move toward change, one against his will, propelled by a paradigm shift happening whether he likes it or not, and the other because she is struggling to survive. In many shapes and forms, metamorphosis is at the core of Among the Wonderful. Pursuing this theme, the book weaves a world where upper Manhattan is still untrammeled wilderness, the Five Points is at the height of its bloody glory, and within the walls of Barnum's museum, ancient tribal feuds play out in the midst of an unlikely community of marvels.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-08-02T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Arguably]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781455502776</link>
<description><![CDATA[@font-face {  font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }     "All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation.  "A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts.  Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.  Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice. ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Arguably]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Christopher Hitchens]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Twelve]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781455502776]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[@font-face {  font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }     "All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation.  "A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts.  Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.  Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice. ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-09-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Cat's Table]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307700117</link>
<description><![CDATA[In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator’s elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself “with a distant eye” for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat’s Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.    As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy’s adult years, it tells a spellbinding story—by turns poignant and electrifying—about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Cat's Table]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Michael Ondaatje]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Knopf]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307700117]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[In the early 1950s, an eleven-year-old boy in Colombo boards a ship bound for England. At mealtimes he is seated at the “cat’s table”—as far from the Captain’s Table as can be—with a ragtag group of “insignificant” adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin. As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys tumble from one adventure to another, bursting all over the place like freed mercury. But there are other diversions as well: one man talks with them about jazz and women, another opens the door to the world of literature. The narrator’s elusive, beautiful cousin Emily becomes his confidante, allowing him to see himself “with a distant eye” for the first time, and to feel the first stirring of desire. Another Cat’s Table denizen, the shadowy Miss Lasqueti, is perhaps more than what she seems. And very late every night, the boys spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and his fate a galvanizing mystery that will haunt them forever.    As the narrative moves between the decks and holds of the ship and the boy’s adult years, it tells a spellbinding story—by turns poignant and electrifying—about the magical, often forbidden, discoveries of childhood and a lifelong journey that begins unexpectedly with a spectacular sea voyage.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2011-10-04T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Orphan Master's Son]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780812992793</link>
<description><![CDATA[WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZENATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • LONGLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Financial Times • Newsweek/The Daily Beast • The Plain Dealer • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • Slate • Salon • BookPage • Shelf Awareness   “The single best work of fiction published in 2012 . . . The book’s cunning, flair and pathos are testaments to the still-formidable power of the written word.”—The Wall Street JournalAn epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master’s Son follows a young man’s journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world’s most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. A towering literary achievement, The Orphan Master’s Son ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today’s greatest writers.Praise for The Orphan Master’s Son“Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times   “Rich with a sense of discovery . . . The year is young, but The Orphan Master’s Son has an early lead on novel of 2012.”—The Daily Beast   “This is a novel worth getting excited about.”—The Washington Post   “[A] ripping piece of fiction that is also an astute commentary on the nature of freedom, sacrifice, and glory.”—Elle ]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Orphan Master's Son]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Adam Johnson]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Random House]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780812992793]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZENATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • LONGLISTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Wall Street Journal • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Financial Times • Newsweek/The Daily Beast • The Plain Dealer • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • Slate • Salon • BookPage • Shelf Awareness   “The single best work of fiction published in 2012 . . . The book’s cunning, flair and pathos are testaments to the still-formidable power of the written word.”—The Wall Street JournalAn epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master’s Son follows a young man’s journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world’s most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. A towering literary achievement, The Orphan Master’s Son ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today’s greatest writers.Praise for The Orphan Master’s Son“Mr. Johnson has written a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times   “Rich with a sense of discovery . . . The year is young, but The Orphan Master’s Son has an early lead on novel of 2012.”—The Daily Beast   “This is a novel worth getting excited about.”—The Washington Post   “[A] ripping piece of fiction that is also an astute commentary on the nature of freedom, sacrifice, and glory.”—Elle ]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-01-10T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Lost Saints of Tennessee]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780802120052</link>
<description><![CDATA[With enormous heart and dazzling agility, Amy Franklin-Willis expertly mines the fault lines in one Southern working-class family. Driven by the soulful voices of forty-two-year-old Ezekiel Cooper and his mother, Lillian, The Lost Saints of Tennessee journeys from the 1940s to 1980s as it follows Zeke’s evolution from anointed son, to honorable sibling, to unhinged middle-aged man.After Zeke loses his twin brother in a mysterious drowning and his wife to divorce, only ghosts remain in his hometown of Clayton, Tennessee. Zeke makes the decision to leave town in a final attempt to escape his pain, throwing his two treasured possessions?a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and his dead brother’s ancient dog?into his truck, and heads east. He leaves behind two young daughters and his estranged mother, who reveals her own conflicting view of the Cooper family story in a vulnerable but spirited voice stricken by guilt over old sins and clinging to the hope that her family isn’t beyond repair.When Zeke finds refuge with cousins in Virginia horse country, divine acts in the form of severe weather, illness, and a new romance collide, leading Zeke to a crossroads where he must decide the fate of his family.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Lost Saints of Tennessee]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Amy Franklin-Willis]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Atlantic Monthly Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780802120052]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[With enormous heart and dazzling agility, Amy Franklin-Willis expertly mines the fault lines in one Southern working-class family. Driven by the soulful voices of forty-two-year-old Ezekiel Cooper and his mother, Lillian, The Lost Saints of Tennessee journeys from the 1940s to 1980s as it follows Zeke’s evolution from anointed son, to honorable sibling, to unhinged middle-aged man.After Zeke loses his twin brother in a mysterious drowning and his wife to divorce, only ghosts remain in his hometown of Clayton, Tennessee. Zeke makes the decision to leave town in a final attempt to escape his pain, throwing his two treasured possessions?a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and his dead brother’s ancient dog?into his truck, and heads east. He leaves behind two young daughters and his estranged mother, who reveals her own conflicting view of the Cooper family story in a vulnerable but spirited voice stricken by guilt over old sins and clinging to the hope that her family isn’t beyond repair.When Zeke finds refuge with cousins in Virginia horse country, divine acts in the form of severe weather, illness, and a new romance collide, leading Zeke to a crossroads where he must decide the fate of his family.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-02-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Quiet]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307352149</link>
<description><![CDATA[At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quiet]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Susan Cain]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Crown]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307352149]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over brainstorming in teams. Although they are often labeled "quiet," it is to introverts that we owe many of the great contributions to society--from van Gogh’s sunflowers to the invention of the personal computer.Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts--from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvert-extrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a "pretend extrovert."This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-01-24T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Watchers]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780399158742</link>
<description><![CDATA[Beneath Lausanne Cathedral, in Switzerland, there is a secret buried before time began, something unknown to angels and men, until now... Marc Rochat watches over the city at night from the belfry of the cathedral. He lives in a world of shadows and "beforetimes" and imaginary beings. Katherine Taylor, call girl and daydreamer, is about to discover that her real-life fairy tale is too good to be true. Jay Harper, private detective, wakes up in a crummy hotel room with no memory. When the telephone rings and he's offered a job, he knows he has no choice but to accept. Three lives, one purpose: save what's left of paradise before all hell breaks loose.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Watchers]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jon Steele]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Blue Rider Press]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780399158742]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Beneath Lausanne Cathedral, in Switzerland, there is a secret buried before time began, something unknown to angels and men, until now... Marc Rochat watches over the city at night from the belfry of the cathedral. He lives in a world of shadows and "beforetimes" and imaginary beings. Katherine Taylor, call girl and daydreamer, is about to discover that her real-life fairy tale is too good to be true. Jay Harper, private detective, wakes up in a crummy hotel room with no memory. When the telephone rings and he's offered a job, he knows he has no choice but to accept. Three lives, one purpose: save what's left of paradise before all hell breaks loose.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-05-29T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Lower River]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780547746500</link>
<description><![CDATA[A taut, tense, darkly suspenseful novel about a man who flees to Africa after his marriage falls apart, only to be caught up in a precarious situation in a seemingly benign village.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Lower River]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Paul Theroux]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780547746500]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[A taut, tense, darkly suspenseful novel about a man who flees to Africa after his marriage falls apart, only to be caught up in a precarious situation in a seemingly benign village.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-05-22T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Albert of Adelaide]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781455509621</link>
<description><![CDATA[At once an old-fashioned-buddy-novel-shoot-'em-up and a work of deliciously imagined fantasy, Howard L. Anderson's dazzling debut presents the haunting story of a world where something has gone horribly awry . . .   Having escaped from Australia's Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of "Old Australia," a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.   Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways-Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past. Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way-a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil-our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed.   Told with equal parts wit and compassion, ALBERT OF ADELAIDE shows how it is often the unexpected route, and the most improbable companions, that lead us on the path to who we really are. Who you journey with, after all, is far more important than wherever it is you are going.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Albert of Adelaide]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Howard Anderson]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Twelve]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781455509621]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[At once an old-fashioned-buddy-novel-shoot-'em-up and a work of deliciously imagined fantasy, Howard L. Anderson's dazzling debut presents the haunting story of a world where something has gone horribly awry . . .   Having escaped from Australia's Adelaide Zoo, an orphaned platypus named Albert embarks on a journey through the outback in search of "Old Australia," a rumored land of liberty, promise, and peace. What he will find there, however, away from the safe confinement of his enclosure for the first time since his earliest memories, proves to be a good deal more than he anticipated.   Alone in the outback, with an empty soft drink bottle as his sole possession, Albert stumbles upon pyromaniacal wombat Jack, and together they spend a night drinking and gambling in Ponsby Station, a rough-and-tumble mining town. Accused of burning down the local mercantile, the duo flees into menacing dingo territory and quickly go their separate ways-Albert to pursue his destiny in the wastelands, Jack to reconcile his past. Encountering a motley assortment of characters along the way-a pair of invariably drunk bandicoots, a militia of kangaroos, hordes of the mercurial dingoes, and a former prize-fighting Tasmanian devil-our unlikely hero will discover a strength and skill for survival he never suspected he possessed.   Told with equal parts wit and compassion, ALBERT OF ADELAIDE shows how it is often the unexpected route, and the most improbable companions, that lead us on the path to who we really are. Who you journey with, after all, is far more important than wherever it is you are going.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-07-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Monkey Mind]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781439177303</link>
<description><![CDATA[Anxiety once paralyzed Daniel Smith over a roast beef sandwich, convincing him that a choice between ketchup and barbeque sauce was as dire as that between life and death. It has caused him to chew his cuticles until they bled, wear sweat pads in his armpits, and confess his sexual problems to his psychotherapist mother. It has dogged his days, threatened his sanity, and ruined his relationships. In Monkey Mind, Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. With honesty and wit, he exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him, and to the tens of millions of others who suffer from anxiety, a terrible affliction. Aaron Beck, the most influential doctor in modern psychotherapy, says that “Monkey Mind does for anxiety what William Styron’s Darkness Visible did for depression.” Neurologist and bestselling writer Oliver Sacks says, “I read Monkey Mind with admiration for its bravery and clarity. . . . I broke out into explosive laughter again and again.” Here, finally, comes relief and recognition to all those who want someone to put what they feel, or what their loved ones feel, into words.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Monkey Mind]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Daniel Smith]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Simon & Schuster]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781439177303]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[Anxiety once paralyzed Daniel Smith over a roast beef sandwich, convincing him that a choice between ketchup and barbeque sauce was as dire as that between life and death. It has caused him to chew his cuticles until they bled, wear sweat pads in his armpits, and confess his sexual problems to his psychotherapist mother. It has dogged his days, threatened his sanity, and ruined his relationships. In Monkey Mind, Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. With honesty and wit, he exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him, and to the tens of millions of others who suffer from anxiety, a terrible affliction. Aaron Beck, the most influential doctor in modern psychotherapy, says that “Monkey Mind does for anxiety what William Styron’s Darkness Visible did for depression.” Neurologist and bestselling writer Oliver Sacks says, “I read Monkey Mind with admiration for its bravery and clarity. . . . I broke out into explosive laughter again and again.” Here, finally, comes relief and recognition to all those who want someone to put what they feel, or what their loved ones feel, into words.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2012-07-03T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[Hikikomori and the Rental Sister]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781616201371</link>
<description><![CDATA[hikikomori, n. h kik mo ri; literally pulling inward; refers to those who withdraw from society. Inspired by the real-life Japanese social phenomenon called hikikomori and the professional rental sisters hired to help, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister is about an erotic relationship between Thomas, an American hikikomori, and Megumi, a young Japanese immigrant hiding from her own past. The strange, insular world they create together in a New York City bedroom and with the tacit acknowledgment of Thomas s wife reveals three human hearts in crisis, but leaves us with a profound faith in the human capacity to find beauty and meaning in life, even after great sorrow. Mirroring both East and West in its search for healing, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside. Named an Indie Next pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, one of Book Riot s 5 to Watch, and an iBookstore Editor s Choice, this acclaimed novel is now in paperback.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hikikomori and the Rental Sister]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jeff Backhaus]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781616201371]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[hikikomori, n. h kik mo ri; literally pulling inward; refers to those who withdraw from society. Inspired by the real-life Japanese social phenomenon called hikikomori and the professional rental sisters hired to help, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister is about an erotic relationship between Thomas, an American hikikomori, and Megumi, a young Japanese immigrant hiding from her own past. The strange, insular world they create together in a New York City bedroom and with the tacit acknowledgment of Thomas s wife reveals three human hearts in crisis, but leaves us with a profound faith in the human capacity to find beauty and meaning in life, even after great sorrow. Mirroring both East and West in its search for healing, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister pierces the emotional walls of grief and delves into the power of human connection to break through to the world waiting outside. Named an Indie Next pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, one of Book Riot s 5 to Watch, and an iBookstore Editor s Choice, this acclaimed novel is now in paperback.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2013-01-01T00:00:00-05:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Woman Upstairs]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780307596901</link>
<description><![CDATA[From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children, a masterly new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by a desire for a world beyond her own. Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.  When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.  Told with urgency, intimacy and piercing emotion, this brilliant novel of passion and artistic fulfillment explores the intensity, thrill—and the devastating cost—of embracing an authentic life.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Woman Upstairs]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Claire Messud]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Knopf]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9780307596901]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[From the New York Times best-selling author of The Emperor’s Children, a masterly new novel: the riveting confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by a desire for a world beyond her own. Nora Eldridge, an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, long ago compromised her dream to be a successful artist, mother and lover. She has instead become the “woman upstairs,” a reliable friend and neighbor always on the fringe of others’ achievements. Then into her life arrives the glamorous and cosmopolitan Shahids—her new student Reza Shahid, a child who enchants as if from a fairy tale, and his parents: Skandar, a dashing Lebanese professor who has come to Boston for a fellowship at Harvard, and Sirena, an effortlessly alluring Italian artist.  When Reza is attacked by schoolyard bullies, Nora is drawn deep into the complex world of the Shahid family; she finds herself falling in love with them, separately and together. Nora’s happiness explodes her boundaries, and she discovers in herself an unprecedented ferocity—one that puts her beliefs and her sense of self at stake.  Told with urgency, intimacy and piercing emotion, this brilliant novel of passion and artistic fulfillment explores the intensity, thrill—and the devastating cost—of embracing an authentic life.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2013-04-30T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

<item>
<title><![CDATA[River of Dust]]></title>
<link>http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781609530938</link>
<description><![CDATA[On the windswept plains of northwestern China, Mongol bandits swoop down upon an American missionary couple and steal their small child. The Reverend sets out in search of the boy and becomes lost in the rugged, corrupt countryside populated by opium dens, sly nomadic warlords and traveling circuses. This upright Midwestern minister develops a following among the Chinese peasants and is christened Ghost Man for what they perceive are his otherworldly powers. Grace, his young ingénue wife, pregnant with their second child, takes to her sick bed in the mission compound, where visions of her stolen child and lost husband begin to beckon to her from across the plains. The foreign couple’s savvy and dedicated Chinese servants, Ahcho and Mai Lin, accompany and eventually lead them through dangerous territory to find one another again. With their Christian beliefs sorely tested, their concept of fate expanded, and their physical health rapidly deteriorating, the Reverend and Grace may finally discover an understanding between them that is greater than the vast distance they have come.]]></description>
<dc:title><![CDATA[River of Dust]]></dc:title>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Virginia Pye]]></dc:creator>
<dc:publisher><![CDATA[Unbridled Books]]></dc:publisher>
<dc:identifier><![CDATA[9781609530938]]></dc:identifier>
<dc:description><![CDATA[On the windswept plains of northwestern China, Mongol bandits swoop down upon an American missionary couple and steal their small child. The Reverend sets out in search of the boy and becomes lost in the rugged, corrupt countryside populated by opium dens, sly nomadic warlords and traveling circuses. This upright Midwestern minister develops a following among the Chinese peasants and is christened Ghost Man for what they perceive are his otherworldly powers. Grace, his young ingénue wife, pregnant with their second child, takes to her sick bed in the mission compound, where visions of her stolen child and lost husband begin to beckon to her from across the plains. The foreign couple’s savvy and dedicated Chinese servants, Ahcho and Mai Lin, accompany and eventually lead them through dangerous territory to find one another again. With their Christian beliefs sorely tested, their concept of fate expanded, and their physical health rapidly deteriorating, the Reverend and Grace may finally discover an understanding between them that is greater than the vast distance they have come.]]></dc:description>
<dc:format><![CDATA[Hardcover]]></dc:format>
<dc:date>2013-05-01T00:00:00-04:00</dc:date>
</item>

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