Amy Jo Burns

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Texas

A Novel

A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town—from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel Shiner It’s 1990 and 17-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town are three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun. The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known—or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.

Mercury

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Lisa Bird-Wilson

An Indigenous woman adopted by white parents goes in search of her identity in this unforgettable debut novel about family, race, and history.

"A passionate exploration of identity and belonging and a celebration of our universal desire to love and be loved."--Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022--The Millions, Electric Lit

This is the story of a woman in search of herself, in every sense. When we first meet Ruby, a Métis woman in her thirties, her life is spinning out of control. She's angling to sleep with her counselor while also rekindling an old relationship she knows will only bring more heartache. But as we soon learn, Ruby's story is far more complex than even she can imagine.

Given up for adoption as an infant, Ruby is raised by a white couple who understand little of her Indigenous heritage. This is the great mystery that hovers over Ruby's life--who her people are and how to reconcile what is missing. As the novel spans time and multiple points of view, we meet the people connected to Ruby: her birth parents and grandparents; her adoptive parents; the men and women Ruby has been romantically involved with; a beloved uncle; and Ruby's children. Taken together, these characters form a kaleidoscope of stories, giving Ruby's life dignity and meaning.

Probably Ruby is a dazzling novel about a bold, unapologetic woman taking control of her life and story, and marks the debut of a major new voice in Indigenous fiction.

Probably Ruby

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Scott Burnside

Alan Cairns

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Karla and Paul seemed like the picture-perfect newlyweds, but were really a pair of vicious killers who abducted, sexually tortured and murdered innocent schoolgirls, videotaping their evil acts in suburban Niagara Falls. Billed as the crime of the century in Canada, this case has received a great deal of media coverage on both sides of the border. Includes eight pages of photos.

Deadly Innocence

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Truman Capote

Good condition. The back cover has been folded but the no ripped or damaged pages. 

An account of the senseless murder of a Kansas farm family and the search for the killers

In Cold Blood

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Michael Hingson

Susy Flory

The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust





An instant New York Times bestseller, Thunder Dog tells the true story of a blind man, his guide dog, and the life-changing power of faith and trust in the face of terror.

When one of four hijacked planes flew into the World Trade Center's North Tower on September 11, 2001, Michael Hingson, a district sales manager for a data protection and network security systems company, was sitting down for a meeting. His guide dog, Roselle, was at his feet.

Blind from birth, Michael could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding all around him. But Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They were a team.

As you relive that fateful day in September 2001 alongside Michael and Roselle, you'll learn:

 * The ways that grief and loss can lead the way for change
 * How the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire your own unshakeable faith
 * The healing power of telling your own story

Praise for Thunder Dog:

"Chapter by chapter of this intriguing work will keep you spellbound. Thunder Dog celebrates the power of the human and animal bond. We all can learn life lessons from this incredible story."

--Larry King, Emmy award-winning broadcaster and longtime host of Larry King Live

Thunder Dog

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Amor Towles

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick “Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review “A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club “A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” – NPR The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

The Lincoln Highway

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A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK * This beautiful, page-turning and redemptive story of a mother's gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery is a "celebration of motherhood and female resilience" (The Observer).

"A powerful novel that explores how freedom and family are truly defined"--Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Personal Librarian

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Real Simple, Goodreads, AARP, Boston.com, BookBub and BookRiot
 
Her search begins with an ending....

The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.
 
Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children--the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children...and her freedom.

River Sing Me Home

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For fans of Jonathan Tropper, KJ Dell'Antonia, and Kevin Kwan, this "sharp, smart, and gloriously extra" (Nancy Jooyoun Kim, The Last Story of Mina Lee) debut follows a family of estranged Vietnamese women--cursed to never know love or happiness--as they reunite when a psychic makes a startling prediction.

Everyone in Orange County's Little Saigon knew that the Duong sisters were cursed.

It started with their ancestor, Oanh, who dared to leave her marriage for true love--so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons.

Oanh's current descendant Mai Nguyen knows this curse well. She's divorced, and after an explosive disagreement a decade ago, she's estranged from her younger sisters, Minh Pham (the middle and the mediator) and Khuyen Lam (the youngest who swears she just runs humble coffee shops and nail salons, not Little Saigon's underground). Though Mai's three adult daughters, Priscilla, Thuy, and Thao, are successful in their careers (one of them is John Cho's dermatologist!), the same can't be said for their love lives. Mai is convinced they might drive her to an early grave.

Desperate for guidance, she consults Auntie Hua, her trusted psychic in Hawaii, who delivers an unexpected prediction: this year, her family will witness a marriage, a funeral, and the birth of a son. This prophecy will reunite estranged mothers, daughters, aunts, and cousins--for better or for worse.

A multi-narrative novel brimming with levity and candor, The Fortunes of Jaded Women is about mourning, meddling, celebrating, and healing together as a family. It shows how Vietnamese women emerge victorious, even if the world is against them.

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

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Book of Month October 2022 selection. This is actually quite good with its tie-in to The Scarlet Letter. I live the cover of this book. 
Like new condition. 

A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.

Who is the real Hester Prynne?

Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic--leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible.

When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows--while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?

In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country's complicated past, and learns that America's ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel's story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a "real" American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of "unusual" women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese's Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

Hester

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Book of the Month July 2022 selection. 
Like new condition

First Born

From before the internet was ubiquitous.  A 1990s guide to travel to Kenya. Mostly obsolete but could be an interesting reference for historical purposes. Some writing in the inside back cover —someone actually used this for a trip! 

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

The Rough Guide

This guide includes details on both package holidays and independent travel, from accommodation and eating to money and health, together with information for disabled travellers and advice on travelling with children. The wildlife section contains information on each species, and details of safaris, game-viewing, camping and lodges, with reviews of each establishment. There is also a commentary on the politics and culture of Kenya, plus the complete historical background.

Kenya

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It took me a long time to get around to reading this book published in 2005, but it is an excellent read. 
Fair condition, no major damage but someone wrote their name in the first page. 

A #1 New York Times bestseller by Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a brilliantly crafted novel of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love Kim Edwards’s stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964 in Lexington, Kentucky, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this beautifully told story that unfolds over a quarter of a century—in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that winter night long ago. A family drama, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter explores every mother's silent fear: What would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? It is also an astonishing tale of love and how the mysterious ties that hold a family together help us survive the heartache that occurs when long-buried secrets are finally uncovered.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

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Book of the Month selection for May 2022. I enjoyed this one. 
Gently read, no tears, marks, or folds. 

The Hacienda

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This book needs a **trigger warning** due to the sexual assault topic. Book of the month selection March 2022. 
Gently read, no tears, stains, folds, or markings. 

The Story of a Private Investigation

Part memoir and part literary true crime, the mesmerizing story of a landmark sexual assault investigation and the female private investigator who helped crack it open. Erika Krouse has one of those faces. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” people say, spilling confessions. In fall 2002, Erika accepts a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. The role seems perfect for her, but she quickly realizes she has no idea what she’s doing. Then a lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Erika knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own history with sexual violence makes it all too personal. But she takes the job anyway, inspired by Grayson’s conviction that he could help change things forever. And maybe she could, too. Over the next five years, Erika learns everything she can about P. I. technique, tracking down witnesses and investigating a culture of sexual assault and harassment ingrained in the university’s football program. But as the investigation grows into a national scandal and a historic civil rights case, Erika finds herself increasingly consumed. When the case and her life both implode at the same time, Erika must figure out how to help win the case without losing herself.

Tell Me Everything

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A Book of the Month Club selection, which was very good. Gently read, no tears, markings, or folds. 

A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina

A Phenomenal Book Club Pick * "Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky."--Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You

ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022--The Millions, Electric Lit, Lit Hub, Book Riot

There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.

Luz "Little Light" Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors' origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine's singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love--filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.

Woman of Light

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A series of short stories telling tales of unsolved mysteries and murder. 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Puzzling History of Murder, Mayhem & Mystery

Are inscriptions on lead crosses found on the banks of the Santa Cruz River remnants of Freemasons or a hoax? How did famous evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson arrive in Douglas weeks after she went missing in Los Angeles and was presumed dead? Did the Lost Dutchman's treasure spell the end for Adolph Ruth, whose skull was found nearly a mile away from his body in the Superstition Mountains? Author Jane Eppinga details thirteen stories of disappearances, murders and unsolved cases from the annals of Arizona history.

Unsolved Arizona

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This is a hard book to find, but when I did, I was happy to finally read it. 
Gently used, no tears, stains or folds. 

Reliving the Ancient Battle and Epic Run That Inspired the World's Greatest Footrace

The Road to Sparta is the story of the 153-mile run from Athens to Sparta that inspired the marathon and saved democracy, as told--and experienced--by ultramarathoner and New York Times bestselling author Dean Karnazes.

In 490 BCE, Pheidippides ran for 36 hours straight from Athens to Sparta to seek help in defending Athens from a Persian invasion in the Battle of Marathon. In doing so, he saved the development of Western civilization and inspired the birth of the marathon as we know it. Even now, some 2,500 years later, that run stands enduringly as one of greatest physical accomplishments in the history of mankind.

Karnazes personally honors Pheidippides and his own Greek heritage by recreating this ancient journey in modern times. Karnazes even abstains from contemporary endurance nutrition like sports drinks and energy gels and only eats what was available in 490 BCE, such as figs, olives, and cured meats. Through vivid details and internal dialogs, The Road to Sparta offers a rare glimpse into the mindset and motivation of an extreme athlete during his most difficult and personal challenge to date. This story is sure to captivate and inspire--whether you run great distances or not at all.

The Road to Sparta

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Gently used. No tears, writing, folds, or damage. 

A Murder and a Memoir

A young law student, an unspeakable crime, and a past that refuses to stay buried.

The Fact of a Body

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Copy sent to my book club from the author. Gently read, no tears, folds or markings. 

From the New York Timesbestselling author ofSold On A Monday--over a million copies sold!--comes a sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.

As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan's Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she's the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay.

Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn't foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. Fenna reluctantly joins the unconventional team as an inventor. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, she discovers no mission is more treacherous than escaping one's past. 

Inspired by stunning true accounts, The Ways We Hide is a gripping story of love and loss, the wars we fight--on the battlefields and within ourselves--and the courage found in unexpected places.

"The Queen's Gambitmeets The Alice Networkin this epic, action-packed novel of family, loss, and one woman's journey to save all she holds dear?including freedom itself." ?Kristin Harmel, New York Timesbestselling author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars

The Ways We Hide

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Another JCO dense read. Fair condition, no markings or tears. Spine has been over extended 

A darkly comic novel from the author of Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys

In Salthill-on-Hudson, a half-hour train ride from Manhattan, everyone is rich, beautiful, and -- though they look much younger -- middle-age. But when Adam Berendt, a charismatic, mysterious sculptor, dies suddenly in a brash act of heroism, shock waves rock the town.

But who was Adam Berendt? Was he in fact a hero, or someone more flawed and human? His loss and the rumor that surface of his possible lovers plunge his friends into grief, confusion, and self-reflection. The women who loved Adam find themselves engaging in life-altering romantic adventures. The men who were Adam's closest friends become utterly transformed in his absence. Adam's lawyer, Roger Cavenagh, who has broken the law for Adam's sake, becomes invlolve with an elusive and perhaps treacherous young woman. Marina Troy exiles herself to fullfill a wish Adam had made for her. Lionel Hoffman sets out, unwisely but with great hope, to recapture his lost youth after a lifetime of soulless financial success, even as his wife, Camille, discovers an unspeckable joy close to home. Augusta Cutler, a hitherto sensuous, unreflective woman defiantly endeavors to solve the mystery of Adam's origins, even if it means losing her marriage and family.

Middle Age: A Romance is an intimately drawn, richly sympathetic, yet unsparingly comic portrait of the affluent class at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Incisive, insightful, and never predictable, it's a uniquely American sage of self-determination and identity from one of our finest writers of contemporary fiction.

Middle Age: a Romance

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The acclaimed #1 New York Times and undisputed King of Horror Stephen King offers a frightening suspense novel about a young girl who becomes lost in the woods as night falls. On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror. As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio’s reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her—protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods…

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

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#ukraine
#ukraineculture
#quirky 
#mariamatios

A Tale of Two Villages

This is a chronicle of Soviet tyranny in Ukraine. Vasyl Kapkan, the Lithuanian translator of Sweet Darusya

Browse by categories

Amy Jo Burns

Mercury

Lisa Bird-Wilson

Probably Ruby

Scott Burnside; Alan Cairns

Deadly Innocence

Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

Michael Hingson; Susy Flory

Thunder Dog

Amor Towles

The Lincoln Highway

Eleanor Shearer

River Sing Me Home

Carolyn Huynh

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

Laurie Lico Albanese

Hester

Will Dean

First Born

Richard Trillo; Jens Finke; Emma Gregg; Doug Paterson; Tony Stones

Kenya

Kim Edwards

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Isabel Cañas

The Hacienda

Erika Krouse

Tell Me Everything

Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Woman of Light

Jane Eppinga

Unsolved Arizona

Dean Karnazes

The Road to Sparta

Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

The Fact of a Body

Kristina McMorris

The Ways We Hide

Joyce Carol Oates

Middle Age: a Romance

Stephen King

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Maria Matios; Michael Naydan (Translator); Olha Tytarenko (Translator)

Sweet Darusya

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