Cassandra King

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Michigan

Join a circle of friends that will never be broken -- Cassandra King's celebrated national bestseller, The Same Sweet Girls, is now in paperback None of the Same Sweet Girls are really girls anymore, and none of them have actually ever been that sweet. But the story of this spirited group of six southern women, who have been holding biannual reunions ever since they were together in college, is nothing short of compelling. On an island every summer and in the mountains every fall, the Same Sweet Girls come together to share their stories. When one of the group faces the most difficult challenge of her life, the novel builds to an almost unbearably powerful conclusion, one of the most memorable in current fiction. Without a touch of sentimentality, Cassandra King writes of the way close friends can help each other through even the most cataclysmic life events. Both heartbreaking and hilarious, The Same Sweet Girls will touch, move, and inspire readers to cherish their own lifelong friendships. Perfect for reading groups, The Same Sweet Girls is a story of friendship that readers will want to share with their special girlfriends.

The Same Sweet Girls

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Kris Radish

A Novel

Katherine Givens, a corporate attorney and divorced mother of one, finds her uneventful life turned upside down when she receives an unexpected bequest from her late friend, Annie G. Freeman, taking her and four other women on a wild and life-transforming road trip from the deserts of New Mexico to the shores of Lake Superior, as they celebrate the bonds of female friendship. Reader's Guide available. Original. 100,000 first printing.

Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral

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Jess Walter

From the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Beautiful Ruins

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P. D. Eastman

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Just in time for the holidays, enjoy this wintry classic about the joys of playing in the snow. the perfect read aloud for a snow day--or any day this winter!

This classic Beginner Book edited by Dr. Seuss is a delightful ode to winter. Brrrrr--it snowed! From snowball fights and skiing to fort building and snowman-making, P. D. Eastman and Roy McKie's Snow will have young readers eager for the kind of fun only a wintry-white day can bring. Perfect for enjoying with a cup of hot cocoa, it makes an ideal gift for the holidays, and happy occasions of all kinds!

Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.

"Joyful verse relates the many ways to enjoy snow. First graders will love it." --Chicago Tribune

Snow

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Carol Goodman

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Returning to the Heart Lake School for Girls as a Latin teacher to start a new life with her daughter, Jane is haunted by past tragedy and terrifying memories when she begins receiving menacing messages.

The Lake of Dead Languages

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Paul L. Maier

Reading level:  Grade 3
Interest level:  Ages 5-10

Offers a historically accurate description of the events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection.

The Very First Easter

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Joseph Bruchac

Legends of Native American Sacred Places

With grace and drama, Abenaki poet and author Joseph Bruchac retells ten Native American legends of awe-inspiring landscapes. These wise stories, together with Thomas Locker's luminous paintings, evoke the sacred places above, below, and within us all. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Between Earth and Sky

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Greg Nagan

Great Books for the Short Attention Span

Was Homer really blind, or was that just his shtick? Was Dante a righty or a lefty? Why aren't there any pictures of Jane Austen in a bikini? What made Oscar so Wilde? How much did Hemingway? These are just some of the many great questions of Western literature ignored in this book. From the author of A Prairie Home Companion's beloved "Five-Minute Classics" comes The Five-Minute Iliad and Other Instant Classics, a witty and profane lampoon of the Western literary canon -- the Spinal Tap of literature. "I will never write such wordy trash again," Leo Tolstoy said of War and Peace after reading Homer in the original Greek. Tolstoy's pledge inspired humorist Greg Nagan to whet his double-edged verbal sword and offer this gleefully twisted take on what contemporary readings of the Great Books say about our society today. From The Iliad to On the Road, these fifteen parodies provide a riotous romp through Western civilization (one version of it, anyway) from Homer to Kerouac, from Ancient Greece to Postwar America, from the Lyrical Epic to the Breathless Gush. Nagan's mirthful mayhem will delight those who've read the Great Books, and those who haven't read them will find these literary caricatures entertaining in their own right.

The Five Minute Iliad Other Instant Classics

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Chris Roberts

The Reason Behind the Rhyme

Was Little Jack Horner a squatter? “Baa Baa Black Sheep” a bleat about taxation? What did Jack and Jill reallydo on that hill? Chris Roberts reveals the seamy and quirky stories behind our favorite nursery rhymes.Nursery rhymes are rarely as innocent as they seem—there is a wealth of concealed meaning in our familiar childhood verse. More than a century after Queen Victoria decided that children were better off without the full story, London librarian Chris Roberts brings the truth to light. He traces the origins of the subtle phrases and antiquated references, revealing religious hatred, political subversion, and sexual innuendo.Roberts reveals that when Jack, nimble and quick, jumped over a candlestick, he was reenacting a popular sport that tested whether a person was lean and healthy. Humpty Dumpty was actually a cannon mounted on the walls of a church in Colchester, blown up during the English Civil War. Few know that the cockles in “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” actually refer to cuckolds in the promiscuous court of Mary Queen of Scots. Or that “Rub-a-dub-dub, three maids in a tub” was inspired by a fairground peepshow.A fascinating history lesson that makes astonishing connections to contemporary popular culture, Heavy Words Lightly Thrownis for Anglophiles, parents, history buffs, and anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of rhymes. The book features a glossary of slang and historical terms, and spooky silhouettes of nursery-rhyme characters to accompany the rhymes. Mother Goose will never look the same again. Praise: “Boisterous and fascinating.” --Daily Telegraph “Robert’s entertainingly mischievous readings of these traditional songs grab symbolic readings from any available sources and stir them in a big pot.” --Steven Poole, The Guardian “Roberts is a lucid and funny writer – his ability to provide a historical overview as he focuses on bygone detail makes fascinating reading” --Sainsbury’s Magazine “Very meticulous with his research and doesn’t try to fool you with waffle or overstatement. Fun and easily digestible wander through history. Though don’t be surprised if by the end, much like Jack after he’d broken his ‘ crown’, you feel like you’ve lost your innocence.” --Leeds Guide “An irreverent romp through the received wisdom of the nursery rhymes with which we all think we are so familiar.” --Sunday Herald “Entertaining exposé of the surprising stories behind well-known nursery rhymes revealing a seething subtext of sexual innuendo, religious hatred and political subversion.” --Bookseller

Heavy Words Lightly Thrown

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Jenny Lawson

A Funny Book about Horrible Things

#1 New York Times Bestseller In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest: "I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ‘normal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about." Jenny’s readings are standing room only, with fans lining up to have Jenny sign their bottles of Xanax or Prozac as often as they are to have her sign their books. Furiously Happy appeals to Jenny's core fan base but also transcends it. There are so many people out there struggling with depression and mental illness, either themselves or someone in their family—and in Furiously Happy they will find a member of their tribe offering up an uplifting message (via a taxidermied roadkill raccoon). Let's Pretend This Never Happened ostensibly was about embracing your own weirdness, but deep down it was about family. Furiously Happy is about depression and mental illness, but deep down it's about joy—and who doesn't want a bit more of that?

Furiously Happy

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Joe Weisberg

Jeremiah Reskin has big plans for tenth grade—he wants to make some friends and he wants to take a girl’s shirt off. It’s not going too well at first, but when he meets a group of semibohemian outcasts, things start to change. Soon he’s negotiating his way through group back rubs and trying to find the courage to make a move on Renee Shopmaker, the hottest girl in school. At the behest of his composition teacher, Jeremy’s also chronicling everything in his own novel—a disastrously ungrammatical but unflinching look at sophomore year.

10th Grade

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Muriel Barbery

Alison Anderson

The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

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Rick Riordan

Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane accidentally unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes the doctor to oblivion and forces his two children to embark on a dangerous journey, bringing them closer to the truth about their family and its links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharoahs.

Kane Chronicles, the, Book One the Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, the, Book One)

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Jay Asher

When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

Thirteen Reasons Why

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Tina Fey

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy. (Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

Bossypants

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Michael Moore

Notes George W. Bush's affiliations with Enron and big oil, presenting a tongue-in-cheek plan for ending his political career while charging political leaders with enabling a growing divide between American classes.

Dude, Where's My Country?

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Sarah Thomson

David Oliver Relin

Traces how the author, having been rescued and resuscitated by Himalayan villagers after a failed attempt to climb K2, worked to build schools that would particularly benefit the young girls who were forbidden an education by Taliban restrictions, an endeavor for which his life has been repeatedly threatened. 40,000 first printing.

Three Cups of Tea

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Greg Mortenson

Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

A follow-up to the best-selling Three Cups of Tea continues Mortenson's story of his humanitarian efforts to bring education into disadvantaged Middle East regions, describing such events as the 2005 earthquake and a tense eight-day abduction by the Taliban.

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