Apathy and Other Small Victories By Neilan, Paul 2006-05 - St. Martin's Press 0312351747 Check Our Catalog Will discuss September 20, 2011 This gut-wrenchingly funny debut novel is about disillusionment, indifference, and one man's desperate fight to assign absolutely no meaning to modern life. …More

The Color of Water By McBride, James 1996-01 - Riverhead Books 1573220221 Check Our Catalog Will discuss October 18, 2011 James McBride grew up one of twelve siblings in the all-black housing projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn, the son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white. The object of McBride's constant embarrassment and continuous fear for her safety, his mother was an inspiring figure, who through sheer force of will saw her dozen children through college, and many through graduate school. McBride was an adult before he discovered the truth about his mother: The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi in rural Virginia, she had run away to Harlem, married a black man, and founded an all-black Baptist church in her living room in Red Hook. In her son's remarkable memoir, she tells in her own words the story of her past. Around her narrative, James McBride has written a powerful portrait of growing up, a meditation on race and identity, and a poignant, beautifully crafted hymn from a son to his mother. …More

Fly Away Home By Weiner, Jennifer 2010-07 - Atria Books 9780743294270 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Will discuss November 15, 2011 From the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author of "In Her Shoes" and "Good in Bed" comes a novel about a family of women who seek refuge in an old beach house. …More

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America By Dumas, Firoozeh 2003-06 - Villard Books 1400060400 Check Our Catalog Will discuss December 20, 2011 Cultural clashes and amusing relatives fill this laugh-out-loud memoir by an Iranian-American woman who recounts growing up in California. …More

Bird Cloud: A Memoir By Proulx, Annie 2011-01 - Scribner Book Company 9780743288804 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Will discuss January 17, 2012 In her first work of nonfiction in more than 20 years--part family history, part naturalist's journal--Proulx delivers a vivid chronicle of building a house on a spectacularly beautiful piece of land in Wyoming. …More

Into the Beautiful North By Urrea, Luis Alberto 2009-05 - Little Brown and Company 9780316025270 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Inspired by the film The Magnificent Seven, 19-year-old Nayeli leaves her tiny Mexican town to journey north, seeking both men to repopulate the village and her father who disappeared into the unknown land of Kankakee. …More

Water for Elephants By Gruen, Sara 2006-05 - Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 1565124995 Check Our Catalog Alex Award Winner - 2008 BookPage Notable Title Will discuss March 20, 2012 A veterinary student during the Great Depression who almost earned his degree, Jacob Jankowski is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. There he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her. …More

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption By Hillenbrand, Laura 2010-11 - Random House 1400064163 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Will discuss April 17, 2012 In her long-awaited new book, Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in "Seabiscuit." Telling an unforgettable story of a young lieutenant's journey into extremity, "Unbroken" is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit. …More

Mornings in Jenin By Abulhawa, Susan 2010-02 - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 9781608190461 Check Our Catalog Will discuss May 15, 2012 A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel, "Mornings in Jenin" tells of the Abulhega family, who is forced from the ancient village of Ein Hod into a refugee camp by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. …More

My Fathers' Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging By Pool, Hannah 2009-01 - Free Press 9781416593690 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Will discuss June 19, 2012 A smart young journalist returns to the country in which she was born, eventually reaching the tiny village in Eritrea. This work is the story of that journey--and the return to the family she didn't know she had. …More

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story By Berendt, John 1994-01 - Random House (NY) 0679429220 Check Our Catalog Will discuss July 17, 2012 Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. John Berendt's sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative reads like a thoroughly engrossing novel, and yet it is a work of nonfiction. Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproariously funny black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story is a sublime and seductive reading experience. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, this enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling southern city is certain to become a modern classic. …More

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game By Lewis, Michael 2004-03 - W. W. Norton & Company 0393324818 Check Our Catalog Will discuss August 21, 2012  Following the low-budget Oakland Athletics, their larger-than-life general manager, Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts, Lewis has written not only "the single most influential baseball book ever" (Rob Neyer, "Slate") but also what "may be the best book ever written on business" ("Weekly Standard"). …More